Mutant Year Zero: Road To Eden Preview

For this preview, I played as two mutants searching for scrap to bring back to the Ark: Bormin (the pig Mutant) and Dux (the duck Mutant). The game takes place in a post-apocalyptic setting, one where the glaciers melted, disease spread, and finally, the nukes went off. The last bastion of this wasteland is the Ark, and your job is to bring back supplies from the outside world back home. Not many dare to adventure outside of the safety of the Ark, but someone has to do it. After exploring around for a little bit, you run into two Mutant hunters, and your first combat begins.

Combat plays very similar to X-COM. It is turn-based and after one team finishes, the second team starts. Your characters get two actions, which are typically moving and attacking. However, if you want to get closer, you can use both actions to dash into cover and wait to attack until next turn. Overwatch is another action you can take so when the enemies move you gun them down. Items such as grenades and molotovs can be equipped to take out multiple enemies at once or cause chaos on the battlefield. When you defeat the enemies, you get EXP and whatever loot they are carrying.

Unlike X-COM, however, you explore the world freely. I wouldn’t call it open world; it’s more of instanced zones you can explore. You can find scrap, weapon mods, old technology, and enemies by searching around. With Dux and his crossbow, you can pick off stragglers one by one to even the odds during a battle. Bormin uses a shotgun, so if he fires, all the enemies will be alerted. The other thing you have to watch out for is enemy levels. I ran across a couple of level 50 enemies protecting some sweet looking loot. As tempted as I was to try and grab it, it would have meant death to the team, so I snuck past and kept going.

When you gain enough experience, you level up. As you level, you will gain mutation points that can evolve your mutant abilities and give you new perks. Dux, for instance, can gain moth wings that will allow him to fly. While in the air, he has an advantage over enemies because of his height it only lasts for his turn. After you use a mutation, you will have to recharge it and you do that by killing bad guys. There are also passive buffs you can get with mutations points like more HP and more movement.

When you finally arrive at the Ark, you can use scrap and weapon parts to upgrade gear and buy new weapons. None of these items come cheap, so finding as much scrap as possible is a must. There is no hospital to heal at either, meaning that the only way to recover is via medpacks or some mutations. The elder of the Ark gives you another mission: a stalker named Hammon has been missing for a few days. He is the one who keeps all the machines running in the Ark, so you need to get him back. On the way to find him, you get your third team member, Salma. She looks mostly human, but has horns and can control certain aspects of plants.

As soon as she joins your team, the battles get way more intense. When it was just two Mutants, the fights were much more low key. Now you will be faced upwards of 10 enemies with only three team members. You can even the odds with stealth kills, but even the stealth kills get more difficult as enemies gain more HP. That is my biggest worry with the game currently. The stealth kill mechanic is fantastic when it works. With the amount of HP enemies had at the end of the demo you needed to get a critical hit to get the stealth kill. If you have to rely on critical hits for anything in games, it can burn you very quickly. That, and having to get stealth kills every battle will get tedious.

Even with these drawbacks, I still had a good time playing the game. Those looking for something similar to X-COM will find that Mutant Year Zero: Road To Eden is worth their time.

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Dead Cells Preview

My personal experience with MetroidVania games was very limited until recently. Last year, I picked up Hollow Knight, and that helped me get into them. Fast forward to last night when Dead Cells released – a roguelike MetroidVania that has glowing reviews in Early Access and had been recommended to me more than once. I decided to give it a go to see what all the hype was about, and boy, was the hype real. Almost immediately, I could tell this would be one of those “one more run” games, and that had me excited.

The core of Dead Cells is an action platformer with some RPG mechanics mixed in with a permadeath mechanic. You come into the world as a ball of slime and enter a corpse to become a humanoid that can fight. At first, you have a limited amount of weapons and items that you can find. As you progress, you find blueprints that will unlock new weapons and items for you. The trick is getting these blueprints and what are known as Cells back to base. The Cells are used to unlock new weapons, items, mutations and other perks you will use during your time in Dead Cells.

Cells, stat points, and blueprints are where the roguelike elements come in. If you die with cells or a blueprint, that’s it; they are gone. When you respawn you lose all your stat points. Blueprints and stat points can be found again later in the game, but the cells will go bye-bye. I’m always wary of a mechanic like this, because you could potentially lose hours of time. Dead Cells balances the challenge of a level and the length back to the home base very well. If you die during a level, it is often because you got greedy and pushed too hard. That’s not to say the game isn’t challenging, it is, but it is also fair.

As far as combat goes, it can be hectic at times. You have two primary attacks, two item slots, and a dodge roll. Mastering the dodge roll is the key to beating the game. There are shields, but they don’t block 100% of the damage, and they take up one of your weapon slots. Like any game with multiple weapons, there are some you will like and others you won’t. I prefer the faster swords and kunai, but there are slow, powerful weapons for stunning enemies as well. Weapons also have rarity, so if you are lucky, you might find a legendary which makes any run a lot easier.

So far I’ve spent about six hours with the games, and I have been through a few levels. You are in a dungeon of a castle, and the idea is to work your way up to the top. On your way up, new areas with new challenges will become available. If you make it up far enough, you face a boss, and you better be ready for a battle. It’s not just a straight path though; explorers are often rewarded with Cells, items, weapons or stat points, assuming they can make it back in one piece. It’s a judgment call on if you want to risk all your cells to get one last upgrade before the boss.

I have enjoyed what I’ve played of Dead Cells so far. The further I get, the more I want to see the end. Check back soon for our full Dead Cells review.

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Let Me Tell You About the Far Cry 5 Lost on Mars DLC

The story for this DLC is straightforward. There is a potential alien invasion coming to earth, and you have to stop it. This isn’t an exaggeration – when you warp to Mars, the game tells you that sometimes you need to save the world without a huge backstory. If we’re being honest here, you shouldn’t really be playing Far Cry for its great story to begin with. When you arrive on Mars, you find your buddy Hurk in a precarious situation. It turns out he has lost his body, and he needs help finding his pieces. He isn’t the only one who needs help though. An AI on Mars needs help restoring its power to prevent the invasion of earth. It’s a simple story for a simple DLC.

Just because the story is simple doesn’t mean the game can’t be fun though. That’s precisely what Far Cry 5 Lost on Mars is: mindless fun. Its a Ubisoft by the numbers game with some Far Cry: Blood Dragon mixed in. The aliens on Mars are straight up a mix of Tremors and Starship Troopers. When you step on the light sand, they pop out of the ground and attack. If you stay on the hard rock, you can avoid them for the most part. There’s not a huge variety, but they are still fun to kill, and you can do it in co-op. The guns are all new and space themed, and one of them even turns enemies into cows and chickens.

Outside of killing aliens, you have the normal Ubisoft collect-a-thon. For Lost on Mars, you have Queens to kill, body parts to collect, geothermal anomalies to find, and the famous Clutch Nixon makes a return. There are no vehicles in Lost on Mars, but you get the wingsuit, and there is less gravity on Mars so that you can jump higher. There is also a jetpack to help you climb towers quicker. Yup, that’s right, towers make a return in true Ubisoft fashion. They happen to be one of the primary objectives of this game, so if you want to beat the DLC, you have to conquer them all. Taking towers and retaking old research stations will get you to the end game, which is very easy to predict.

Now I did have some beef with the DLC. They introduced flying enemies for whatever reason, and they are annoying. Here’s a tip: if you are making a shooting game and are putting flying enemies in, stop. Delete them and forget the idea ever entered in your head because no player, in the history of forever, ever said: “Oh man, I like those flying enemies.” All they do is spit crap at you while you are looking at the map or spit and run; they are seriously the most annoying part of the game. That and there is a section where you can’t use your jetpack – it was easily the worst part of the DLC.

Is Lost on Mars worth it? The Hours Of Darkness DLC was more about stealth and had a serious tone to it. History buffs will enjoy that one more. People who want to have a good time with a bud or solo will enjoy Lost on Mars more. The combination is worth the season pass to me, the more Clutch Nixon, the better – he’s a real American hero. Now we just wait for the Dead Living Zombies DLC and see how that does. You can expect another Let Me Tell You About when that hits.

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The Crew 2 Preview

I played a bit of the original release, but only the base version (no DLC or updates). The Crew 2 starts off differently than the first game, in that you get to pick your character from a few different randomized characters. You can’t make your own, but there are a number of choices. The story is simple: you’re a racer, and you need to race well to get more fans. Getting more fans leads to access to new races and new types of races. Everything about the game has been simplified, and that is for the better.

The most significant difference in The Crew 2 comes in its different vehicles. You now switch between ground, air, and sea, with a variety of cars, boats, bikes, and planes. When I first played The Crew 2, I thought this would be annoying. As I kept playing, however, I was more than happy to switch things up. I’m not a great street racer, but I do well in the boats and the backcountry. Not being forced into something I didn’t want to do was a huge bonus for me. There are individual races where you switch and don’t have a choice, but those are few and far between.

When you aren’t racing, there is a ton to explore and see in its world. Of course, if you have played the first game, this might not be true. There are photo ops and treasure boxes to be found all over the U.S. Photos give you extra money and fans, while treasure offers car upgrade parts. The Photo mode takes a little too long to load, but it is optional. The treasure chests are randomly placed on the map. When you are close, your radar beeps and you know that you should start looking. When it stops beeping, you are going the wrong way, and when it beeps faster, you are getting closer. It is just another thing to keep you busy in its world.

I’m not a car buff, but I can tell you there are a lot of cars to choose from. All the big guys are in, and some of the smaller guys as well. Boats and planes have a more limited selection, since not all these companies make ships or aircraft. They all have their own stats as well. You can easily see their top speed and how well they handle before buying them. You can also test drive anything before you purchase it as well. Money comes in at a steady pace, and so far, I’ve been able to afford a car whenever I wanted one.

The Crew 2 is a significant improvement from the original game. Check back soon for our full review of this title.

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Octopath Traveler Preview

At the start of Octopath Traveler, you will get to choose from eight different characters. You will ultimately get to recruit all of them to your party, but at the start, you can only pick one. There is a knight, a thief, a hunter, a merchant, an apothecary, a professor, a dancer, and a cleric. For the Prologue Demo, we ended up picking Alfyn the Apothecary. As a young boy, Alfyn got sick and was healed by a traveling doctor. Due to this, he has been training to become an Apothecary to create healing elixirs. When a snake poisons one of the villagers, it is up to you to heal her. The only way to craft the antivenom is to get the venom from the snake.

Alfyn may be a healer, but he is also versed in ice magic and axes. Gathering herbs is dangerous work, and he needed a way to defend himself. When you leave town, you will be in the wilds and run into enemies. Octopath has a turn-based combat system, meaning you take turns. The key to winning combat is finding enemy weaknesses, and exploiti them. If you break through an enemies armor with their weakness, they will be stunned. When they are stunned, they cannot act, and you get a free action. To break through some of the tougher enemies, you will need to use your boost attacks.

Boost attacks are just what they sound like: boosted attacks. Each turn, you will earn a boost that you can use to power up your actions. You can use up to three boosts in one turn. They can be used on weapon attacks, magic attacks, skills, or when defending. If you can use your boost abilities correctly, you can get out of fights without being hit. If you use them wrong though, it can make for a quick end to your journey. Even with the limited time in the demo, I could tell that the boost will be the key to combat.

Being that Octopath Traveler is an RPG, there are plenty of side activities to do as well. Each character has a unique Path Action that they can use on NPCs. Alfyn can Inquire with NPCs. Inquire will get him info on some hidden treasure, side quests, or even discounts at shops. There are others as well, such as thieving and dueling, depending on your character at the time. Side quests get you extra cash and loot, and you can complete them in different ways. With Inquire, you can use the info you get to complete quests without fighting sometimes. Other characters might have to defeat enemies to get the same result. The Path Actions give you extra options to let you play the way you want to play.

Octopath has a unique look to it as well. It is classified as HD-2D. The art is 16 bit, super Nintendo era style, but the environments and effects are more high definition. It might sound bizarre, but it works well, especially in handheld mode. No crashes, no glitches, and no frame drops were experienced during both docked and handheld play. The soundtrack is also very strong from what I got to hear. It gets stuck in your head, and each new zone or town is brought to life with the background music.

While the demo only gave us a small slice of Octopath Traveler, we like what we’ve played so far. Octopath Traveler releases July 13 for the Nintendo Switch.

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The Elder Scrolls Online Summerset Preview

It should be worth noting that I haven’t been back to ESO since it first launched. I played the game until the end, and reached level 50 with my Dragon Knight, but I didn’t have the time to commit to an MMO. Basically, this is from the perspective of a new player because of all they have added since then. This preview will focus on Summerset though, and not the other things that were new to me. Thankfully, if you are new, there is an excellent tutorial at the start to help you out.

There are five classes to choose from in ESO: Templar, Dragon Knight, Sorcerer, Nightblade, and the Warden. The Warden was new to me, so I stuck to my Dragon Knight for melee combat. Much like other Elder Scrolls games, you can play in a first or third person perspective. The big difference is that you can group up with other players. When it came to grouping for quests, I didn’t run into much trouble. I was quickly invited to a guild of friendly players, and we ran through a lot of the quests together. They guided me on the right path through most of the content, which significantly improved my playing experience. If you are new, get with a guild – they will help you out.

The Summerset isles themselves are bright and colorful. Those of you who prefer a more and dark and dreary setting might not enjoy this environment as much. You are free to search each zone at your own pace, but there is a story path to follow as well. Following the story path will lead to side content and put you in new areas at a robust pace. Adding to this is the new Psijic Order. The Order is a group of mages who will task you with closing breaches scattered throughout Summerset. There is also a skill tree related to the Order, allowing you to access more skills. If you raise your reputation with the Order high enough, you will gain access to powerful buffs for yourself.

Crafting has also received an update in Summerset, though I didn’t get too deep into it. In Summerset, you can craft jewelry for yourself or your allies. You can also sell it to other players to make some extra gold. Some of the jewelry can be added to armor sets for additional bonuses and buffs. These bonuses are a great help when you are doing the dungeons in Summerset. These are difficult instances where healers and tanks are needed, or else you will lose. Dungeons are also where new players will come across the most flak.

Even though the dungeons are new, it is generally expected to know how your class works. If you don’t, players won’t hesitate to let you know how you are messing up. It happens if you queue in with a random group, but again, with a good guild they will help you learn. Nevertheless, it can be frustrating as a player trying to keep up with people who have been playing for a while. That’s just how it goes though; some people play ESO monthly. There is also a new raid, but I didn’t get to try that since I wasn’t powerful enough.

Summerset provides plenty of new content for new players and veterans alike. If you are new to ESO, however, I strongly recommend going in with at least one other player to help with the learning curve.

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During our recent trip to E3, we got the chance to check out Overkill’s The Walking Dead. Sit back, relax and let me tell you about Overkill’s new game.

Overkill’s The Walking Dead Preview

Overkill’s The Walking Dead is a first-person shooter that plays very similar to Left 4 Dead or Payday. The levels are session based, and each one has an objective for you to complete. We got to try one of these levels out for about 20 minutes, where we had to find a water purifier to bring back to our camp. Of course, it wouldn’t be fun if it was as simple as walking into a grocery store and finding one. Zombies and survivors alike are trying to stop you from getting to your objective.

You can go in guns blazing if you want, but ammo is limited – severely limited. When you loot something for ammo, you typically get less than five bullets. To make up for this, you can bring a variety of melee weapons. I used a machete, but there were bats, hammers and even a bo staff in the demo we played. On top of that, each character has a special move and stats, so you can find someone who suits your play style. There was a medic, a brawler, a sniper, and a stealth-based character to choose from. Just because they have specific strengths though, doesn’t mean you can’t play them how you see fit. There is an armory where you can change their weapons and gear before a mission.

Another interesting thing they added was the ability to bring tools. Our team had three lockpicks and one set of wire cutters. In the zombie apocalypse, a lot of people lock their stuff up, so having lock picks is a good idea. There were other tools you could bring as well, and they seemed to let you loot certain spots on the map. We didn’t bring those so I couldn’t test them, unfortunately. With the limited ammo and other supplies, having these tools can be the difference between escaping and dying. The wire cutters gave us access to new paths and the lock picks opened lock boxes. With how rare supplies are, these can be very helpful. Now I’ll tell you how the demo went for us since it was a good time.

At the start, we all moved quietly with our melee weapons taking out walkers as we came across them. We looted a few houses, got some ammo and meds, and began moving to the objective. It was around this time we found a bear trap by stepping into it. Traps are in the game, and there are more than bear traps to deal with. As we progressed, we watched our steps and ran into some enemy humans. Up to this point, we had a clean run – no sound, no nothing. One misclick later and a flashbang goes off, and all hell breaks loose. The enemy humans are shooting the zombies are attacking them and us, and everyone is making way to much noise. With limited ammo and a horde of zombies and gun-wielding humans, we fought hard but ultimately died before reaching the end.

Of all the E3 demos we played this year, this one left the biggest impression on us. It was a good laugh and after all was said and done, and we were rewarded with flashbang pins for the effort. Check back on November 6 for our full impression of Overkill’s The Walking Dead.

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Metro: Exodus Preview

The area we got to explore was very early in the game. Before we played, they mentioned the game was still in beta and some things were still not entirely added. You play as Artyom, the hero of the previous titles Metro 2033 and Metro: Last Light. You and a few other rangers are on a train known as the Aurora, which is heading east. In the demo we played, the train has mechanical problems and you need to find a mechanic to help out with repairs, assuming there is one around. On top of the mechanical issues of the train, there is a bridge that needs to be lowered for you to proceed. After the situation is explained, you head to an outpost not far from the train looking for help.

For those who haven’t played the previous Metro games, it is a first-person shooter with survival and crafting elements mixed in. The Metro series takes place after a nuclear war, and most of the world is still caught in a nuclear winter. You can survive on the surface, but certain spots require a breathing mask for survival. To top it all off, there are bandits, raiders, and mutants to deal with. Finding trustworthy people is a rarity outside of the train. Still, it is a desperate time, and you will have to get all the help you can find.

I had roughly 20 minutes with the demo, so I couldn’t explore the entire area in that amount of time. For those of you who disliked the more linear path of the old Metro games, worry not, as this one is a much more open world. I was told that this area alone would take around six to seven hours if you focused solely on the story, and between 10-12 if you did all the side content. This area was one of the multiple places you would be stopping at in the game. Assuming the other regions of the game are as large, or larger, than the one we played, there will be plenty to explore and find. Players will want to explore these places thoroughly, as ammo, medkits, and weapons are hidden in all sorts of odd places.

As for the gameplay itself, there were a couple of rough animations, but the gunplay and movement felt good. In Exodus, you can craft right from your backpack, which is a welcome addition to the series. You can’t make bullets unless you are at actual workbench still, but modding weapons, crafting meds, and specific throwable items can be done right from your inventory. Since you can craft from your bag, you can also take mods off guns without picking them up. The demo had you spending quite a bit of time on a boat, and it was slower than I would have liked so hopefully, it is just this area.

When the demo of Metro: Exodus was done, I was left wanting more. Be sure to check back on February 22 for our full review.

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Fist Of the North Star: Lost Paradise Preview

In Fist of the North Star: Lost Paradise, you play as Kenshiro, one of the strongest fighters in the world. The world is overrun by gangs and thugs, and has sort of a Mad Max-like vibe to it. I had a limited amount of time with the demo, so I am not sure what the story is of the game or if Kenshiro is a hero or not, but I do know he is brutal.

The demo I played on the floor had a few fights to choose from: Easy, Normal, and Hard. After watching the guy in front of my play the Easy battle, I went for the Normal one. The combat plays a lot like a Yakuza game, and if you have played one of those, the fighting mechanics in this game will fit like a glove. For those who haven’t played one of them, it is an action-packed beat em up. Hard punches, heavy kicks, and gruesome finishers make up most of the combat. Seriously though, if you don’t know what Fist of the North Star is, this game is brutal when it comes to finishing blows.

Unlike Yakuza though, there is no grapple button, so throwing enemies has come from a finishing move. Something different from the Yakuza series is the summons. You can call in allies to briefly help you out during combat. They do things like stun enemies so you can use your finisher, build up your rage meter, or (my favorite) bring you a flamethrower. Those were the three in the demo, but I assume there will be more. When you use your rage meter, you go glow blue and do more damage and have extra attacks. Your finishing moves will come up quicker while in rage mode as well. The only downside I had with the demo is the number of finishers; I only saw a few.

The fighting in the game feels good; the combat has weight to it, which is essential in an action game. Punches feel good to land, and putting your thumb into a thugs neck is very satisfying. There is at least one city you can explore, but I was told that part of the demo is very text heavy and only has a couple of fights. You can bartend here and talk to the customers as a mini-game when you have some downtime. I didn’t stick around for the city demo because the combat had me sold on the game, so I would rather wait for the full release and enjoy it then.

What I played of the game has me excited for more. Look forward to our full review when Fist of the North Star: Lost Paradise hits stores on October 2, 2018.

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Shadow Of The Tomb Raider Preview

Our demo ran through one of the earlier areas of the game, which included the first tomb and a section right outside of the tomb. If you have played any of the other Tomb Raider games, you will be comfortable with this one. If you are new to the series, it plays well and is easy to get into. I am generally a console gamer, and we played on high-end PCs with no control issues or anything like that. We also had no crashes, no hiccups, and no frame drops.

When you enter the tomb, you are searching for a lost ancient treasure – surprise surprise. Along the way, you can loot smaller objects for crafting materials and find murals help you figure out this lost language. When you find enough of the murals, you learn the language. It isn’t all reading old scripts and finding loot though; this is a tomb, and it is protected. There are no enemies in the tomb, but that doesn’t mean the area is safe. We died very early to a hidden rope trap we didn’t even see coming. Traps and deadly platforming can result in a couple of deaths in the area.

Before you leave the area, you cross a couple of minor puzzles and collect your treasure. Right about the time you get your loot, real enemies appear outside of the temple. Now it is time for some real action. First and foremost the game is gruesome; the traps alone have some brutal death animations. When you face enemies, you can make savage stealth kills that involve your picks, because Lara wants to make sure they are dead. Tall grass returns for stealth mechanics, but now you can use bushes and shrubs on walls to hide in as well. You can use that to sneak by enemies or catch them as they walk by. It is a minor addition, but a welcome one.

The biggest problem we had with the demo was the enemy AI. When you get caught, they work together to flush you out of cover and flank you. It really comes down the how the NPCs react. NPCs will sound an alarm if they find a dead body, but they act like they weren’t interacting with each other. This is a minor gripe to some, but it really takes you out of the game world when something like that happens. The gun combat itself felt fine though; I had no trouble landing shots. For those who prefer the more quiet approach, the bow is deadly, and you can really feel the shots as they hit your enemies. When the enemies are finally dealt with, things go terribly wrong for Lara in a way I’m not going to spoil.

As I said before, I am generally a console gamer, but the rig they had us on really made me want to get a high-end PC. The lighting, textures, and weather effects looked great. It wasn’t just the rain either; the mud was excellent as well. There was a point where we slid through it, and it stuck to us as you would expect, and the detail was phenomenal. I am really hoping we get a predator scene where we cover ourselves in mud to avoid heat detection or something.

Check back for our full review when Shadow of the Tomb Raider launches on September 14.

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