Effort definitely went into this game, but it just didn't click with me. Combat is really bad, you just have dynamite, so you have to spend most of your time trying to just avoid enemies, which takes a lot of trial and error. If you use your dynamite, you spend way too long waiting for it to recharge. The game is also way too dark, making it annoying to travel sometimes. The game has voice acting, which is rare for XBLIG, but the action stops way too often for the voice acting stuff.
It has some good parts, like upgrading your character, and some actual set piece moments that are fun, but for the most part, I tired of this one quickly. --------- Dungeons of Dredmor (Steam)
My main problem, the menu system is atrocious, and I'm forced to spend way too much time in it. The tutorial is kind of funny, but the sense of humor is mostly gone after that. Combat just gets really repetitive and slow paced, and in the end, just wasn't my thing. But seriously, THE MENUS. OMFG. --------- Terraria (Steam)
I never had any interest in Minecraft, so I was probably doomed to not like this at all. My main problem is how boring combat is, it's really repetitive. Apparently you get some cool gear later on, but it takes a while, and I didn't have the patience to get to that point (that trailer does show some combat that looks a lot better with cool weapons). I will say finding random loot can be pretty satisfying (though dealing with the menus constantly can be annoying).
Building houses and stuff was just annoying for me. It looks like if you are super devoted you can build some kinda neat buildings, but nothing minecraft type cool.
So I guess in the end, if you have the patience, you'll probably end up really liking terraria, but it you don't, you'll get bored before it gets good.
(TO BE CONTINUED)
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People who whine about XBLIG are kind of annoying, I have no idea how some people expect to make a living off a platform that is so cheap and open that there will be tons of shovelware. But at least some of their complaints are valid. People who are really annoying though are people who whine about XBLA (especially people who have made so much $$$ off it like Team Meat). The shuggy guy is one of these people. He blames the system for his game not selling well, but in reality, the game just wasn't anything special. I played the demo and found the game "OK" but not really worth the $10 price tag, maybe 5. However, over time, I saw a lot of positive reviews, so I decided to go ahead and give it a chance.
My main problem with the game first off is the false advertising. It claims every room has a UNIQUE TWIST. The opening rooms in the demo were OK, but none of the gimmicks were anything I wanted to replay, they were all fun for their 1-2 minute stretches. Unfortunately, despite the game's claim, many gimmicks are re-used constantly throughout the game, and get old quick.
The platforming also pretty much sucks. Theres a few rooms with next to no gimmick, and just pure platforming, and they suck. No cool stuff like wall jumping, but you also can't attack in any way shape or form. So most of the time you have to wait and memorize some patterns, and then you can platform. These levels are really slow and annoying.
Kind of like Half Minute Hero, leaderboard chasing might be fun since the levels are short. Unlike HMH though, odds are you have no one on your friends list who played this (except me!) so OH WELL. After I played it and didn't like it, I read the interviews of the developer whining, and got even more annoyed. ARGH. ------- Serious Sam: The Random Encounter
Serious Sam has a few cool ideas, like a turn based RPG system mixed with action elements, and the idea to put serious sam in a turn based RPG. But the execution just isn't good enough.
Like I said, it's a cool idea. You pick a weapon, it fires in the direction you choose for 5 seconds, and you can dodge enemy bullets by going up and down. Even cooler, you get to fight like 50+ enemies in some fights, which is neat.
problems arise though. First off, 5 seconds is too short for these action segments. It's a total cocktease. You start getting into the fight, then theres a stop, and you are back to menus for another 20-30 seconds (it takes some time to set up your weapons and shot direction). So the pacing is a problem. Also, you don't level up. After battles you get random items and you get body armor and healing. So you end up grinding for items, which isn't very satisfying, and sometimes you have to fight again just to increase your armor for a tough fight. It's pretty annoying.
Also, the difficulty curve is terrible. The game isn't too hard early on, then randomly, bosses show up that are so hard, I literally thought I was supposed to die because I was suddenly doing no damage. But no, the key is to grind a lot for good items, which sucks. I like the idea, I wouldn't mind a sequel with some of these mechanics enhanced, but for this game, I just wasn't a fan.
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you can hotkey pretty much everything in dredmor...
i didn't care for it myself, though. it's an insult to roguelikes with how dumbed down it is, and the individual floors are way too bloated (since the challenge level on each floor is static - most of the time you're just cleaning up loot with no real sense of danger). like i beat hard mode on my first run which is just wtf.
humor was nice, at least. the monster quotes were a very nice touch. ---
(didn't totally dislike, but still wish I didnt spend my $$$)
Revenge of the Titans (Steam)
This is a surprisingly deep tower defense game with some real visual flair. It's kind of fun, but in the end, I just kinda regretted getting it.
First off, it might be a little too deep. A common thing for people to do is completely start the game over to get the upgrades right, since there are so many, and it's easy to mess them up and end up with something less than optimal at the end. I really didn't like how short most of the levels are too. It kind of kills some of the intensity with these super small levels that end so quickly, I guess in the end, with so many free tower defense games out there, and so many tower defense games now doing the action + tower defense stuff, you need to be near perfect like say, Defense Grid, for me to really feel like it was worth my money, and I didn't think Titans did that for me. Some may like it more, but I couldn't really get into it.
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Section 8 has some pretty cool stuff, just running and jetpacking can be pretty fun. Also, you can buy towers mid battle which is pretty cool and can lead to some good strategy.
The way matches work is also kind of cool. You are basically in a giant team deathmatch game, but then random objectives constantly pop up which keeps you on your toes. Unfortunately, like most games that require teamwork, this can be more annoying than fun if you don't have a group of friends... OH WAIT IT DOESN'T MATTER IF YOU HAVE A GROUP OF FRIENDS BECAUSE THERE IS NO PARTYING UP IN THIS GAME WTF. I tried playing with dr football I believe, and we kept ending up on different teams, really friggin annoying.
The most important part of the game, the shooting, is the main thing that falls flat though. It takes a long time to kill people, and melee is awful, so you end up with a lot of awkward looking firefights. vehicles kinda suck too and aren't as fun as they should be too use.
I guess the cool thing about the game is you can pick your niche. If you suck at killing people, do objectives, if you suck at objectives, kill people. Or maybe you can go around killing peoples towers and stuff.
But in the end, the main thing they used to market the game is that its a full blown shooter for only $15 (theres single player and co-op too, so its supposed to be a lot of value for the package, 1P kinda sucks, co-op is actually decent). As I played section 8: prejudice, the main thing I thought is "this feels about like a $15 shooter. Nothing more, nothing less. might not be the worst pick up in a big sale, but thats the best I can say.
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I really liked this game for the first hour or so. The concept drew me in and seemed really well executed. Poker with Puzzle Quest, simple but effective. Unfortunately, the Poker mechanics really wear thin after a while. In Puzzle Quest, you are constantly putting gems together to build up mana, health, do damage. In this, you spend a lot of time just kind of waiting for the right cards to appear. Several turns there wasn't much to do. It's not as ACTION PACKED as puzzle quest (lawl).
Also, the magic system really annoyed me. You don't have MP in this game. Not in the traditional sense anyway. You build it up over time by doing damage and getting hit, then you can use it. The catch is, rather than just spending the amount and thats it, you also only have so many "uses" for magic. Whenever you use magic, it's gone, unless you go and buy another "use". Since you don't level up from battles, you basically fight, get a little gold, spend that gold on more magic to use for the fight. It's not a very rewarding system.
Puzzle Quest always excelled outside of battle too, with a cool little map, storngholds to take, etc. Runespell doesn't even let you move your world map around, much less do other cool stuff on it. It's very bare bones.
Basically, it's a cool concept, and while the poker stuff gets old, I might have been able to stick with the game though if it wasn't for the lack of rewards for battling, and the lack of anything fun to do on the world map.
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I was so hyped for Stacking. I love the concept of adventure games, but I always find the puzzles to be really obnoxious. Loved the story and characters in Grim Fandango, hated the puzzles. Stacking seemed to solve that problem with multiple solutions to problems, a cool hint system, and you used dolls as your items, so no exploring to find the most random of items.
And for the most part, Stacking delivers on what it promises, it has all those things, and an awesome art style. But it forgot something, the story and the characters! I don't think anyone really loved Monkey Island or Grim Fandango for the puzzles, they loved the story, humor, and characters. Stacking is silent movie style, so the characters are pretty much non-existent, as is the story. The puzzles are OK, but nothing that really hooked me in
The puzzles start getting more annoying later on. For the most part, in the first few areas, the dolls needed to solve puzzles are relatively close by. As time goes on, they end up a lot farther away. Also, you move really slow. So yeah, the last world can be really unbearable. If you just do one puzzle solution and move on, that might help solve that problem a bit, but then you'd also end up with about 3 hours of gameplay.
And thats the final problem with stacking. I don't necessarily expect long games from downloadable games, but damn, this one is short as hell. If you charge $10 or less, then it is not too big of a deal, but for $15, I'd like to feel like there was a little more value there. This has been an awesome year for me, in terms of nearly every game I was super hyped for ended up being good or great, or even A CLASSIC, but this is the one that let me down.
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Crimson Alliance can be fun, the problem is you need really specific conditions. You NEED a co-op partner. Playing this game alone just isn't good. Once you have co-op you can use some strategy and work together, and it just makes the game better.
Also, you can't play as one of the classes, the knight, because melee and blocking are dreadful, and a pain to do.
So yeah, if you have a bud, and you are using the right classes, Crimson Alliance can be a pretty decent time, but it does get a little repetitive too at times, you mostly use the same strategies over and over. Some special missions throw a lot more enemies at you than the main missions, and I found myself wishing every mission just swamped you with enemies, as the challenge makes the game a lot more fun.
So yeah, thats the last game I found below average omg!
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This is just a simple, relaxing puzzle game. I only put a few hours into it, but I enjoyed it. It has a simple concept, but the presentation is cool, theres a few different game modes, and it just is what it is.
I wish the game wasn't quite so random. When you make a fractal, the blocks that appear in its place dont appear to have any rhyme or reason behind them.
But as I said, it is what it is, a decent little cheap puzzle game that I mostly enjoyed my time with.
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DLC Quest is barely a game, it's more of a social commentary on video games. YEP. It's a platforming game heavy on exploration, but none of that is very exceptional.
What IS exceptional about DLC Quest is the sense of humor. The gimmick of the game is you start out only being able to move right. you collect coins and unlock abilities like moving left, jumping, etc. Even the true ending is DLC. The descriptions for the DLC are always hilarious, and this is easily one of the funnier games of the year.
it's only about 45 minutes, but it's also a buck. If you have an hour to kill, you could do a lot worse!
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Oozi is probably the most polished XBLIG I have played. This is a big deal, because probably the main problem with most of these games is just a feeling of the extra work not being done.
As a game, it's just really solid. It doesn't innovate in any way shape or form, you have probably seen all the elements of the game somewhere before, but it does everything competently, and the couple hour journey is always relatively satisfying. Even more so than DLC Quest, if you want a nice $1 game, this is a good option.
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Might and Magic: Clash of Heroes (XBLA/PSN/Handheld)
Might and Magic: CoH has a really clever battle system. It's kind of like puzzle quest, but at lot more strategic. Despite this emphasis on strategy, the game can still be way too luck based though. Just like puzzle quest, the right things coming down makes or breaks many battles. In fact, I found myself just hoping for a certain troop to drop way more often in this game. I wish they came up with a way to get rid of the serious element of luck, because it can be annoying, and the game's battle system is so well designed otherwise.
The game looks good, the story is surprisingly good for a light hearted strategy rpg. Frankly, it does a lot of things well, it's just these small things that bring the game down a lot.
Outside of the luck, the other thing is the leveling system. As you play through the campaign, you level up, and your opponents are certain levels. Thats fine, but in order to get to the right level, you'll find you need to do some side quests and fight those few extra levels. However, if you go overboard and level up an extra level or so, battles can suddenly become too easy. I wish all the fights were just balanced to be a fair challenge, rather than levels dictating the outcome most of the time.
I'd love to see a 2nd one because I really liked some of the elements here, but some small design decisions brought it down a bit for me.
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It's always strange to harp on a game for being repetitive, in many ways, most games are repetitive, but I guess if the core elements aren't quite compelling or deep enough, thats when the problem sets in. Half Minute hero is a fun, shallow little game, but wears out its welcome eventually thanks to a complete lack of variety (variety that the original game apparently had, so I'm not sure why this stuff was cut out).
Half Minute Hero is a fun little game that I paid a mere $10 for, and logged probably 4-5 hours, and enjoyed that time I spent with it, but after about that point, I found myself unable to play for more than a mission at a time, it would just get kind of boring. As I believe transience said, this is more of a puzzle game than an RPG. Beating levels themselves isn't even very hard, what IS hard is beating your friends times on the leaderboards. I found myself totally motivated to replay levels I otherwise would have had no interest in, in order to pass up at least one or 2 more of my friends on the leaderboards. With gameplay that is mostly mind numbingly simple (though the goofy battle scenes and instant gratification level ups never do get old), this is the main thing I was playing for. The "puzzle" aren't hard, you don't really do anything except use an item or decide to sprint in battles, which are automatic (which makes them go faster but also makes you lose health, this is probably the #1 element of the game that will make you think, the sprinting).
From there, the game has lots of little things it does right (the humor, the 8 bit art style) and wrong (movement is poor, though apparently patched at a later date), which all kind of even out. In the end, I'd mostly just say check to see if you have at least 3 or 4 friends on your leaderboard who own this game, if thats the case, I think you should give it a go, if not, pass on it. I was fortunate enough to have 6 or 7 people with the game, which added a lot to me having fun with it.
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I absolutely cannot imagine someone playing the Tic Part 1 demo and deciding not to buy the game. Not only is it $1, but it will seriously just blow you away, XBLIG or not, when you play the demo. First off, it's just beautiful, this is a really great looking game, and it has a kind of unique look to boot. Also, the gameplay mechanic of this flying unicycle is different, and it controls in a fun and unique way.
Basically, I'm playing this demo, and I'm thinking that this is potentially a top 10 game of the year, and I'm about to get it for a mere $1.
While Tic part 1 remains pretty fun for its whole hour duration, I did come away a bit disappointed at the end. The game contains 3 levels, you should able to get through most of the first one in your demo. So after you buy the game and continue on to the next level, you will be disappointed to see that literally everything, from the art, to the gameplay challenges, are completely re-used in levels 2 and 3. They add in small twists to make things a little more challenging, but for the most part, I felt like I replayed the same 15 minute game 3 times. In some ways, I shouldn't complain too much, because it was only $1, no doubt their budget was small, but man, the game just blows you away at first, it's a shame they don't do more with it.
As I understand though, these guys were one of the winners of the XBLIG competition or something, so I think that means more development money. Hopefully for their next game, where they can make it into XBLA or if its just another XBLIG game, they are able to expand on some awesome starting points they have here. As it is, it's still a game I recommend you try out.
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Let's get this out of the way, ITSP is beautiful. I listed it as one of my top games of the year for both visuals and atmosphere, because I really think that despite being a XBLA game, it is easily one of the best of the year at just taking you to a completely different place. The hand drawn visuals are just awesome. They also do tons of work to make sure the game has no HUD, which also does wonders for pulling you into the experience.
The puzzles throughout the game also do a good job of grabbing you and bringing you into this new world. They are strange, at times clever, but they just generally fit this alien world, which of course makes you feel like you are on an alien world. The boss fights are also pretty decent, a lot of the time they are more like a big puzzle than anything else.
From there, things get a little shakier. The combat mechanics are really solid, but as time goes on, combat becomes a serious nuisance. There is no reward for fighting. Enemies rarely even drop health for you. All combat ends up doing is holding you back from your objective, the risk of getting damaged with no reward in return. As the game went on, I found myself getting annoyed every time an enemy was in my path.
The exploration aspects of ITSP are really disappointing, Theres no real secret paths or shortcuts to find by exploring, in fact, exploring is mostly useless. Each area has a pretty linear path to make it through, then, you can do a looooong backtrack later once you pick up more abilities to use those other paths and pick up upgrades, but it feels like this stuff was more thrown in to give the game metroidvania elements rather than truly implemented into the game. I would have preferred a game with a linear level by level map with side paths that contain the upgrades, rather than the annoying backtracking.
The game is also unfortunately short, like 4 hours or so, with little replayability. For the $15 price tag I like a little more value ideally, but oh well. There is a lantern run co-op mode which is supposedly pretty decent, but not tons of people own the game, so you might have problems finding a partner.
ITSP is a pretty good game, but man, I just feel like it could have been way more.
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--GAMES I FOUND SLIGHTLY ABOVE AVERAGE (FORGOT ABOUT ONE LOL)--
Trine 2 (XBLA, Steam, PSN)
Sheesh, what a pretty game. They absolutely nail the visuals. Also, the concept remains pretty cool, 3 unique characters, with freedom to use their skills as you wish to solve puzzles.
But then, the execution, it's fine, but doesn't really excite me ever. Most of the puzzles seem a bit too much like just finding the right object to move or interact with over actual thinking. Some of the games puzzles can be legitimately well done, but too many just feel like hide and go seek.
Combat is an even weaker element to the game. You mostly just use the knight, button mash, and get through it. I think the game would have been better off with pure puzzles, or if they implemented ways to use your thief and wizard more often in battle, rather than just using the pretty plain knight.
A lot of people really like this game, it's probably a bit better with co-op, but personally, just couldn't get into it more than a little bit.
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Toy Soldiers is technically another one of the "tower defense/action" games that exist these days, games which are generally pretty good.
Toy Soldiers: Cold War actually has better shooting elements than most of these kind of games, there are varied tower types, all with very solid shooting mechanics, and a wide variety and fun to use vehicles as well.
Unfortunately though, the tower defense type stuff is really weak in return for the stronger action elements. Most of the time you can't even place more than 7 or so "towers". Also, your towers are incredibly weak compared to the vehicles, you will probably spend a good chunk of the game driving in the vehicles and shooting stuff in those. They have a limited use time, but they recharge quickly, so yeah, thats what you will mostly be doing.
In some ways its fine, because like I said, the game has solid action elements, but I think the game would be way better with equally well done strategy elements.
This is a game I really rec you play co-op if possible. I played this one with my brother split screen, and we had a pretty good time with it, it definitely makes the game a bit better, though I still think its worth a try if you have no one to play with.
Also props to Cold War for giving you lots of reasons to keep playing. Multiple difficulties, a mode where towers don't shoot without you, a mode that IS pure tower defense (though like I said, can't imagine this being all that great). Mini games, they definitely try and pack value into it.
In the end, if you are way more interested in the action stuff over the tower defense stuff, I think you will really like Cold War. If you are more interested in the tower defense stuff, Cold War is still pretty fun, but doesn't do as good of a job as other games in the same genre this year.
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#36: Breath of Death VII/Cthulu Saves the World (Steam, XBLIG)
Technically released last year, but they did make it to Steam this year, and I wanted to talk about them so THERE.
These are 2 games made by Zeboyd Games. Basically, they are classic JRPGs. But first off, they are very polished, secondly, they have some cool little twists on the formula. Enemies get stronger as battles go on, forcing you to put your all into winning ASAP rather than mashing attack. After so many battles in areas, random encounters stop, so if you really like to explore but dont want to constantly battle, that is a great feature.
And most importantly for these games, they have quite a bit of humor, and can be genuinely funny (so much so, they were hired for the next Penny Arcade RPG). Breath of Death not quite so much, but Cthulu saves the World is actually pretty darn funny, and easily the better game of the 2. If you like JRPGs, you can buy both for like $3 combined, so give it a go. They are classic JRPGs, so you might get a little tired of the battles by the end, like me, but they are good at what they do.
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I'm not usually a fan of most of the PSN exclusive games I play. I feel like a lot of them are unique, and have interesting concepts, but then the gameplay doesn't hold up. It's kind of an odd trend. Anyway, Tales From Space is one of those PSN games that I found to have a cool look and idea, AND that pulled off the execution.
This is basically part Katamari (you suck up stuff in the environment to get bigger so you can continue on) plus a physics based puzzle of sorts. The game even has some action elements, as you can shoot out anything you suck up to make yourself bigger. It all blends together to be pretty good.
First off, in terms of visuals, About a Blob has one of the coolest indicators of progress in a level I've seen. As you go along, your blob gets bigger. So early on, in the background you can see humans in the background that seem like absolute giants. Later on in the game, you are sucking up entire humans and even buildings. Pretty neat.
The puzzles aren't necessarily brilliant, but they are consistently solid. You have a magnet power, you push stuff around once you get big enough, it just works.
The action is the only element of About a Blob that is a little "meh" but even then its passable. It's kind of funny to suck up say, a cow, then end up shooting that cow at an enemy. Some action segments are a little annoying though, you don't have any real cover and shooting is slow, so sometimes you get torn up.
The game takes about 4-5 hours, but it is slightly replayable to find collectibles.
Overall, pretty decent game, totally overlooked, I think it's a full $15, I paid half that during a sale, if you can find it on sale, then it's definitely worth snatching up.
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I thought Breath of Death was pretty terrible. Like, I get that it's an indie game and everything, but there's really nothing good about it. The humor especially was way off the mark. Sounds like Cthulhu is better, but I really have no desire to give that a shot after the first one.
-- I'm no longer a Nadal supporter. Andy Murray is my new favorite player/person. -Princess Anri
breath of death I found OK just for the decent JRPG elements, but yeah, Cthulu is on another level. It's worth a try for the small amount of cash it costs IMO
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The trailers shown made Chester look like a decent little game, but I ended up being surprised at how much fun it was.
Chester is a platformer, with the twists of being able to use different characters, PLUS a sort of ratchet and clank system, except with characters instead of levels. Each character can be leveled up, giving them more ammo for special attacks and boosts in other ways. it's a really addictive system that, much in the way R & C games get me to play with every weapon to level them all up, I was doing the same here.
My problems with the game were mainly polish. Wall jumping felt awkward, it was too easy to drop below platforms, the way you unlock stuff was weird, level up stuff wasn't always clearly explained. Eventually Chester 1.1 came out and fixed all these problems, and it is quite polished now. If you still havent played Chester, it's a great time as the game is certainly "complete" now.
I still have some little problems with it here and there, I still think the difficulty curve can be uneven, I still hate playing with any of the styles besides the main one (the other ones just always have problems in terms of it being hard to see stuff). Also I wish all the characters were at least decent. a good chunk of the characters are fun to play, but some are kind of a burden to try and level up >_>. But these are mostly small flaws. For $3 you could do a lot worse than Chester! In fact, only 2 other XBLIG ended up above it on these rankings, you'll see which ones later!
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