Allsorts 3 - Fallout Shelter, Pac-Man 256, GBFV, Knowledge is Power

llsorts 3

Fallout Shelter

This is a surprisingly amazing mobile game. It stands among examples such as Gwent and Hearthstone that prove if you leave a small team alone with some AAA resources to play with, they can still dish out something great and fun. It even had me questioning that; for the game its trying to be is it a better game than Fallout 4? There are two major reasons I love this game. As a Fallout fan the pip-boy art-deco cartoon style come to life is amazing. You could totally envision these characters as a Vault Tec cartoon in this world. But it also stands up on its own as a great game. The X-com style base management, managing your resources so the vault can expand and survive. Training them to get better at their trade, get an education, mate and create new dwellers and of course venture out into the wasteland to scavenge and explore; completing quests along the way. The quest system was a game changer. I enjoyed sending a dweller into the wasteland and watching the adventure style scrolling  text to see what they encounter in their travels. But sending a veteran crew of survivors to explore a building or vault which may contain various enemies, minigames or characters to negotiate with is what kept the game fresh and playable for much longer. Speaking of survivors you can name your characters in typical XCOM fashion, making their loss that more devastating. My only wish is that it had a hardcore mode. When a character dies you can buy them back if you have the caps (and not all that much). So, death has little impact and instead becomes an economic decision. Giving it much more of a meta micro-management feeling rather than immersing you in the survival of the wasteland. Beyond that it’s a great game to expand your Vault, dress up your Dwellers and find and craft awesome weapons so they can defend and brave the wastes for all the mutants and treasures they hold.

Pac-Man 256

Wasn’t sure to think about this at first. On one hand it’s an interesting take with the endless runner style pac-man with power ups. On the other hand the mobile mechanics are clearly felt here in the gameplay and art style – and the purist in me didn’t know how to feel about that. There were two things that swayed me. The first and most obvious was I unlocked and changed the art style back to the original. Crazy how much an art style can influence the brand of a game, especially when nostalgia is involved. The second is the multiplayer; playing 2 player co-op especially on a keyboard was a joy and set it apart from what felt like a direct mobile port. However I do feel the mobile format holds it back a little. With 2-players it was feeling a little cramped and they could have expanded the map horizontally to suit. Classic Pac has two primary lanes, if this was expanded by 1-2 lanes per player not only would it be more optimized and balanced, it would be incredibly hectic and repayable with more power-ups. Allow players to choose their own power-ups to make it even more hectic. Speaking of, the power ups are a nice touch. Laser down ghosts, set a fire trail, freeze, bomb, go big chompy and more. Overall it’s a refreshing take, but I still think DX is a better evolution of that classic Pac-Man experience. It kept the same template but threw in same snake like combo mechanics. The arcadey injection felt at home, where here the endless runner and power-ups still feel “mobile”. My only other gripe is the house always wins. Sometimes RNG just screws you with nowhere to go.

All this got me thinking; what would the perfect Pac-Man game look like? Personally I loved Pac-Man World and think it is one of the great 3D platformers and highly underrated. So something that combines 2D and 3D and transitions between them seamlessly would be nothing short of amazing. Hell, perhaps make it a mechanic or power-up. Give the player the control to switch between and make it an integral mechanic in solving Metroid-style puzzles. Perhaps the player unlocks and equips power-ups along the way similar to 256 and you could have endless runner boulder chase scenes similar to 256. Who knows, perhaps I could make the ultimate Pac-Man game and pitch it to Namco as a flagship re-entry? Back to the top at hand: While 256 isn’t particularly a game I want to play on PC, it’d be perfect on Steam deck (or sweet sweet prince how I want my ultimate indie machine) or my big TV. So sure enough I’ve filed the game away in the Steam-Deck pile on Seam and wishlisted the Pac-Man Museum+ on PSN. Can't wait for that to go on special…

Granblue Fantasy: Versus

Now this was a surprise. By going off looks alone it looks like a generic anime fighter; but to my astonishment it’s actually a good technical fighter. Straight off the bat it’s annoying half the characters are locked; requiring me to play a campaign I have no interest in to unlock them (or even worse, if they're all DLC characters). At the risk of a diatribe; why haven’t the eastern studios stopped this in their fighting games yet? One or two is fine like Mortal Kombat locking the final boss/es behind the story; but half the roster is ridiculous. It highlights are grander topic of the East being behind in a lot of their game design. Even now you recognise some of their design is no different to games of the 90s. Blurring the lines between what is Japanese game design and what is outdated tradition. Menus being the prime example; sure they’re functional but that classic Capcom menu could really do with an Eastern makeover. Main menu’s that trainsition right into the story; especially on console focused games like Resident Evil 2 or Final Fantasy would be amazing. Imagine: press Start and you’re smashed in the face with a beautiful cutscene that leads into the story. Want to change the options? That’s okay just do it after the cutscene and in the game where you can actually test it. The only absolutely necessary setting is gamma/lighting, and if you’re in the 1% of PC master race donkeys who want to spend an hour playing with settings before you can into the game, that’s fine, back out and do that after the opening cutscene. Anyway, back to the game. The game reminds me of Dragonball FighterZ, a game that was smooth with great move sets, flow and hitboxes which makes Street Fighter 5 look embarrassing. Some favourites include Katalina with her fencing parry skills, Ferry with her spirit wolves and whips and Lowain with his dual daggers and cat ears, because of course…. The boys gravitated towards Ladiva, the muscle bound JoJo character spitting round house kicks, love hearts and cat ears for the ultimate troll. Now remember, before you start you must Believe in the fight!

Knowledge is Power

I’ve been meaning to cancel my PS Plus for a while now. Usually I resub when a banger comes out that I want; or the gang gets together for some co-op games. The offside to that however is every so often it forces me to try a game that at first glance doesn’t interest me but once I give it a go it sends shockwaves throughout my couch co-op group and becomes a staple for us. Laser League is probably the biggest example of that; but Knowledge is Power is shaping up to be another. The premise is simple, yet satisfying. Four doors, pick a topic. Each topic you choose then goes down a path of sub-topics to choose from. For example a generic ‘History’ question about Stalin might then give sub-topics of European figures, Political Studies or Russian history. This is marked by resets every few rounds. The first to guess gets the most points (if they get it right) with 300, 200 and 100 to all those that answered third to last. Each round you can use powers to disable other players; goop that covers questions, ice to break through, nibblers that hide letters; and they all stack. It’s a simple mechanic that turns what would be basic trivia into a combination of Mario Kart and Trivial Pursuit. Throw in some charm with a cute art style and the ability to take goofy photos as your avatar and you have quite the endearing game. The final round has a rapid fire pyramid where you can race to the top. Depending on your performance you have a headstart; but I’ve seen some major comebacks here and it turns the game on its head. Throw in the sabotage mechanics and you have a winning formula that prevents snowballing by the most knowledgeable trivia vertans; which is a common issue in trivia that kills mid-late game enthusiasm for most players in my experience. All these sum up to a whole that leverages game mechanics in a way that general trivia cannot. In the same way that Hearthstone leveraged game mechanics to make an exceptionally unique card game that could only be done as a video game. Moving forward its likely that games and wings night will now be trivia, games and wings nights.

 

Game 76 - Necromunda: Hired Gun - Week 144 - Oct 22

 

ecromunda: Hired Gun

After watching the review by Mandalore Gaming this is one I decided to pass on. But after seeing it in the bargain bin I decided to give it a go. I’m glad I did because I was pleasantly surprised. The gameplay is an interesting mix between DOOM remakes and Titanfall. It’s a run and gunner with unique wave enemies, with the addition of wall running. The mobility is a double edged sword. On one hand once things get pumping and you fly around the map, while the fantastic metal sound track is blaring to the sump sinks factories in the background and your plasma gun is obliterating scum into meaty chunks in slow motion has you feel the adrenaline high. It adds a sense of verticality and true scale to a hive city, with many maps having dozens of stories, cathedrals and statues towering above you, and dark depths below you, all compounded by the ability to move around it with ease via your bionic legs and grappling hook. But there in lies the other sword edge; you don’t feel grounded. With your high mobility you can master the scale of the hive city. To me that doesn’t feel 40k. I’m not some hive scummer rooted to the ground desperately scavenging for his last shell. Now while I’m capable of suppressing my disbelief and lore purist in me; accepting that some concessions should be made to make a fun game (a fact no more true than it is on the tabletop) – I can’t help but feel a Metro style scavenging survival game would have been better suited.

 The art is amazing. For three games now Streum On Studio have proven they can nail the visuals of the 41^st millennium (yes, that includes EYE: Divine Cybermancy); the grandeur that is the exaggerated Imperium of Man. So it’s too bad you fly past most of it in a game that feels designed for speed runners. I really don’t feel like a scum ganger bounty hunter and I’m clueless as to why they started you with all your bionics. It’s cool that you find a dark tech cerebral implant that lets you slow down time and use various other abilities others don’t. It’s cooler so that it makes you a target for scavengers who want the chip in your head. I just wish you didn’t start with your legs and got something similar for that; if its so common why isn’t everyone wall running around hive cities? I’ll tell you why – because it’s not in the lore. I wonder if it would have been cooler if you were Jericho’s little pet Skitarri; scavenged and rebuild; a growing legend of an infamous killer robot assassin. Combine the cyber mastiff and bounty hunter into one.

It's cool to see some 40k vehicles; even though you don't use them.

Beyond that the weapon system is freaking phenomenal. The degree to which you can modify your weapons is a welcome sight. Scopes, barrels, triggers, fire systems, ammo mods and more – tinkering your perfect kit before you embark on a bounty contributes immensely to the feeling of being a bounty hunter. The amount of weapons you have at your disposal is nice to and helps it add to the looter shooter gameplay. Each weapon feels distinctly 40k and they finally got the plasma gun right! My favourite next to the Bolter. Some of the standouts for me were the hot shot las, auto-pistol with a drum mag, bolter with minimal attachments (as it should be), plasma gun and pistol and the grav gun which is an absolute monster! I hope Darktide has something similar or better.

The campaign was surprisingly good. Short and refreshing, it’s quality over quantity here. It feels 40k, but more importantly it feels Necromunda. Getting revenge against various shadowy entities who have large bounties on their heads for attach the merchants guild; with many scum gang betrayals along the way. Kal Jericho is well voiced, as are many of the characters. Some less so and I wish I chose the male instead of the female with her terrible cockney accent. I get that that’s the Necromundan voice, but you could have done better. The biggest highlight of the main story was the set pieces. Running up a moving train; fighting Escher’s supped up on spook; fighting over a maze of junk cubes that has miniguns blasting anyone who rises above; finding yourself deep in ganger territory only to make your desperate escape as they blow apart a hab. I love that a battle or gang war that would destroy a city on modern Earth barely puts a dint on the hive city. The fact that it goes so unnoticed is a testament to the grand scale of these planet sized cities. 

It was freaking sick to see a corpse starch factory recreated.

The Gene Stealer Cultists are easily the most dissapoiinting. I could have looked past the lore issues and head cannoned it as a secluded cult; a fresh cell that you eradicate (making it lore compliant and have no effect). But the actual Gene Stealers are terrible to fight. While the gangers have jump pack enemies, teleporting spook users, ambot bruisers and various gun toting enemies, the gene stealers run at you in swarms and die. They’re a carbon copy from Deathwing but somehow worse. Secondary missions are also pretty terrible, rehashing pre-existing mission arenas. It adds some replayability but after the first few it gets old fast. The mission objectives don’t make sense too; why create a game about mobility and then have an objective where you need to stand in the same circle? This is ridiculous on harder difficulties and just has you spamming slow mo. Its purpose is to level you up if you need it or grind for thrones. It would have been interesting if they added some random effects or conditions like ambots constantly spawn or created some unique levels to mix them in with previous ones. It makes the hive city feel a little smaller tbh and while I’m it has its audience; I can’t help but feel the game would have been stronger without it as a tight 10-hour experience. Finally, the game is still riddled with bugs and glitches. It’s been a long time since I played a game where I’ve had 10+ crashes and been stuck in walls multiple times. The game is ambitious but comes of feeling budget, and you can feel it in the janky shooting and the bugs. Of course, they don’t have the resources of Respawn or id Software and the game is ambitious but clearly budget. You can feel it in the janky shooting and when a game introduces an auto-aim ability you can’t help but compare it to Fallout VATs instead of the smooth running and gunning in Titanfall. Overall, I thoroughly enjoyed it despite its issues.

The final bounty is fashionably badass looking.