I recently bought all the DLC for a fantastic(-ally successful) indie game called Magicka.
The story of the game is narrated by Vlad (Who is definitely NOT a vampire...) and the player character is lead through the world by him. You travel through all kinds are environments and encounter a huge variety of enemies (even a vampire!) in order to stop an ancient wizard from destroying the world.
You use a selection of elements, rather than a mana bar or spellbook, and these can be combined to produce a huge range of effects. You can collect books in the game that provide you with "Magicks" which are specific element combinations that have certain catastrophic effects.
You can have up to four players working co-operatively (Or more accurately TRY to work together) and there are also a few PVP maps where you can work out your frustration on each other. Friendly fire is always active throughout the game so it is quite easy to injure/kill your friends, or even yourself! Sometimes this is the best part of the game...
The game itself has a lot of references to other games, movies and general memes and the humour is fairly funny throughout. If you haven't played this game yet there is a demo available and I would advise playing that if nothing else. I feel that this game is worth the purchase but you will get the most enjoyment out of it if you have a few friends to play with.
Showing posts with label Action-Adventure. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Action-Adventure. Show all posts
Wednesday, February 8, 2012
Wednesday, January 25, 2012
Building Worlds Is Easy! Or not...
A long while ago (pretty much straight after it came out) I bought and played Terraria, At the time however other games piqued my interest more so it didn't get much playtime. After getting a chance to play the game (1.1 release) for a long period of time I have a better idea of how the game works.
Terraria is a 2D side scroller sandbox game, that features RPG elements and a lot of exploration. You start off with very basic tools and need to find materials to build a house and upgrade your items. All the while defending yourself from enemies that spawn. Simple, weak slimes during the day and harder skeletons and zombies at night. Once you have set up your own house the next challenge is to build houses so that NPCs can move in.
NPCs are used as shops that you can sell items to and some of them can sell some really useful items such as a mining helmet that provides a constant light.
Once you have constructed a base of sorts you must then adventure to find items enabling you to enter the Dungeon, the first challenge area of Terraria. You have to defeat a boss in order to enter the Dungeon which will grant you loot to upgrade your items. The next two areas in the game are The Corruption and Jungle (which can be found anywhere on the surface or underground), followed later on by The Hallow and The Underworld (the deepest layer of the game). The rule of thumb is "The deeper you go the harder it gets".
There was a boss added called "The wall of flesh" which unlocks "hard mode" for the game, all enemies are made harder while new enemies start appearing. This helps to add longevity and an extra layer of difficulty once you feel you've "beaten" the game.
I still haven't gotten so far into the game that I can beat the wall of flesh but as far as I am now I am really enjoying the game. Unlike Minecraft it is not purely creative, and has more of a purpose and unlike RPGs you can actually add to the world in your own way.
As an indie game it is fairly cheap and if it is the style of game you enjoy you would get quite a bit of time from it.
Terraria is a 2D side scroller sandbox game, that features RPG elements and a lot of exploration. You start off with very basic tools and need to find materials to build a house and upgrade your items. All the while defending yourself from enemies that spawn. Simple, weak slimes during the day and harder skeletons and zombies at night. Once you have set up your own house the next challenge is to build houses so that NPCs can move in.
NPCs are used as shops that you can sell items to and some of them can sell some really useful items such as a mining helmet that provides a constant light.
Once you have constructed a base of sorts you must then adventure to find items enabling you to enter the Dungeon, the first challenge area of Terraria. You have to defeat a boss in order to enter the Dungeon which will grant you loot to upgrade your items. The next two areas in the game are The Corruption and Jungle (which can be found anywhere on the surface or underground), followed later on by The Hallow and The Underworld (the deepest layer of the game). The rule of thumb is "The deeper you go the harder it gets".
There was a boss added called "The wall of flesh" which unlocks "hard mode" for the game, all enemies are made harder while new enemies start appearing. This helps to add longevity and an extra layer of difficulty once you feel you've "beaten" the game.
I still haven't gotten so far into the game that I can beat the wall of flesh but as far as I am now I am really enjoying the game. Unlike Minecraft it is not purely creative, and has more of a purpose and unlike RPGs you can actually add to the world in your own way.
As an indie game it is fairly cheap and if it is the style of game you enjoy you would get quite a bit of time from it.
Monday, March 14, 2011
Im the God Damn Batman!!
Batman. Where to begin? Batman is badass. He has the perfect mix of self-righteousness, pompousness, wimpy back story and kick-assery to just be the perfect badass good guy.
However having said that i prefer a bunch of the bad guys to him (as i tend to do).
Now onto the game. Arkham Asylum is the perfect setting for the game, it provides plenty of opportunities for Batman's main enemies to be around.
The gameplay is great, despite having a massive amount of backtracking, it works this in quite well. The combat isnt clunky or boring, the stealth isnt black and white and if you mess it up it immediately moves into the combat, a perfect combination.
The gadgets are great fun and more useful than you first think (i spent the majority of the game not upgrading to certain ones and then once i did regretted not having done so earlier) but unfortunately it takes forever to get them all, which creates even more backtracking if your trying to 100% it.
Theres not really much about this game that annoyed or disappointed me. I found the odd time the controls were bothersome (but that may be more down to me than the game) and some events repeated that probably shouldnt have repeated but all in all the game felt balanced, entertaining and changed enough between sequences that it all was very enjoyable.
I would definately recommend this game to Everyone! I will end this by saying this is the only game (other than the Baldur's Gate *EDIT and Deus Ex* series) that i have fully completed and played the life out of.
Im the God Damn Batman!
However having said that i prefer a bunch of the bad guys to him (as i tend to do).
Now onto the game. Arkham Asylum is the perfect setting for the game, it provides plenty of opportunities for Batman's main enemies to be around.
The gameplay is great, despite having a massive amount of backtracking, it works this in quite well. The combat isnt clunky or boring, the stealth isnt black and white and if you mess it up it immediately moves into the combat, a perfect combination.
The gadgets are great fun and more useful than you first think (i spent the majority of the game not upgrading to certain ones and then once i did regretted not having done so earlier) but unfortunately it takes forever to get them all, which creates even more backtracking if your trying to 100% it.
Theres not really much about this game that annoyed or disappointed me. I found the odd time the controls were bothersome (but that may be more down to me than the game) and some events repeated that probably shouldnt have repeated but all in all the game felt balanced, entertaining and changed enough between sequences that it all was very enjoyable.
I would definately recommend this game to Everyone! I will end this by saying this is the only game (other than the Baldur's Gate *EDIT and Deus Ex* series) that i have fully completed and played the life out of.
Im the God Damn Batman!
Thursday, February 10, 2011
I will cut you...
So I started playing Assassin's Creed today. I finished the first level and then began on the first leve- wait what? So it seems the game designers forgot to make anything after the first level so they just re-skinned everything instead. The main downside of the game is just the repetition and every now and again some very stupid AI.
I would say the story is fairly good, not amazing but good, but that is not why you would play the game. The story, to me at least, was just slowing down my actual enjoyment by taking me out of the fun world I got immersed in.
However once you get past the horrendous repetition and annoying cut-scenes, you step into a fantastic world of stealth kills, extortion, free-running and amazing scenery. When you stand atop the highest building you can find and just look out across the scenery you feel like you are actually there.
I found the combat system to be really enjoyable, you can strike and riposte and it flows quite nicely. However this is where the bad AI can sometimes kick in. You can find yourself up against five enemies, all of whom stand back politely while you kill them one at a time...
Other than this Assassin's Creed is a really enjoyable game, not one you would play for extended periods of time however but one that you can waste a couple of hours on and not feel cheated.
I would say the story is fairly good, not amazing but good, but that is not why you would play the game. The story, to me at least, was just slowing down my actual enjoyment by taking me out of the fun world I got immersed in.
However once you get past the horrendous repetition and annoying cut-scenes, you step into a fantastic world of stealth kills, extortion, free-running and amazing scenery. When you stand atop the highest building you can find and just look out across the scenery you feel like you are actually there.
I found the combat system to be really enjoyable, you can strike and riposte and it flows quite nicely. However this is where the bad AI can sometimes kick in. You can find yourself up against five enemies, all of whom stand back politely while you kill them one at a time...
Other than this Assassin's Creed is a really enjoyable game, not one you would play for extended periods of time however but one that you can waste a couple of hours on and not feel cheated.
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