Atlas Fallen Review

Players will step into the shoes of a refugee stuck in a camp that is hanging on by a thread. The camp’s soldiers abuse and use the inhabitants for their own means. However, when something is stolen from camp, players will set out to find the thief. From there, one is called by something known as “The Voice,” leading players to a magical Gauntlet. Using this Gauntlet, you can access newfound weapons and skills to fight back against the Wraiths surrounding your camp. After this, you eventually find the thief, and your camp is wiped out by what is known as a Watcher.

Escaping the Watcher, players will then enter a large desert filled with more Wraiths and Watchers. Coming across a small town of survivors trying to find their way out of the desert, they turn to the player and their Gauntlet to escape.

Before one can do that, however, players will need to power up and do some side missions.

Atlas Fallen’s open-world has plenty to see, but it’s also pretty generic. Most side quests involve finding someone, killing something, or powering yourself up. Some early quests feel more like additional tutorials than actual quests. Still, getting the power-ups is the only way to survive some of the harder enemies and boss fights. You grind the quests to get more essence, and from there can upgrade your armor and Gauntlet stones.

The stones are how you get new skills and passive buffs, including more damage, higher defense, and better counterattacks. Unlike most games, you don’t unlock these by leveling up. Instead, you must find blueprints and fuse them or find the skills in chests. You can equip up to three skills and eight buffs at a time, leaving plenty of room for experimentation. Once I found what worked for me, I rarely switched unless it was to do more damage to flying enemies (because screw flying enemies).

While exploring, other things to do include traversal puzzles, animal discovery, elite enemy fights, and Watcher Tower destruction. Animals lead you to chests and sometimes rare materials for upgrades. Elite enemies are like they sound: mini-bosses with more skill stones and upgrade stones. The puzzles are hit-and-miss, but most of them are following one line to another, then another, and another within a specific time limit. The Towers have you facing waves of enemies until a boss pops up, with beating it down clearing the region of the Watcher’s influence. Everything here is pretty typical open-world checklist stuff.

The combat itself is fast and hectic. At first, you can easily spam attacks and bust enemies into pieces. However, as you progress, enemies start having certain body parts that must be destroyed to kill them. This is fine on land since you can move around quickly and destroy pieces, but air enemies are different. You have multiple air dashes and double jumps, but maneuvering the air against enemies is never fun. It’d work great if you could just hit wherever you wanted and destroy enemies. I’m not sure why the “breaking parts” system was needed; it just drags the combat down.

One of the game’s best features can be found in its traversal mechanics. I already mentioned the sand surfing, but the vertical movement is also excellent. You start off with a double jump and one dash. As you upgrade, you can do multiple jumps and dashes in mid-air. It is fluid and precise, allowing for sudden direction changes if needed. There is one downside to this freedom, though. You will often run into invisible walls or slide down mountainsides that you think you can climb. It’s annoying, but you get used to it.

Tech-wise, I did have a few frame drops. I also had one crash, but thankfully the auto-save functionality only brought me back about a minute.

While Atlas Fallen is a perfectly fine game, fine doesn’t quite cut it in 2023. If you’re dying to hunt down Wraiths, wait for a discount first.

Posted Aug 16, 2023 by johnny-hurricane
in Game Reviews

Acceptance Review

Players will have to come to terms with suicide with the release of Rasul Mono and Ratalaika Games' Acceptance. Should players traverse this dark path in this story-driven thriller?

Posted Aug 16, 2023 by johnny-hurricane
in Game Reviews

Moving Out 2 Review

The residents of Packmore need players’ help once againi with the release of SMG Studio, Devm Games, and Team17's Moving Out 2. Promising to be even wackier than its predecessor, should players move out and get to work?

Posted Aug 13, 2023 by johnny-hurricane
in Game Reviews

Sclash Review

Quick kills are back on the menu with the release of Bevel bakery, Just For Games, and Abiding Bridge's Sclash. A game where timing is everything, does this 2D samurai fighter turn the traditional formula on its head?

Posted Aug 12, 2023 by johnny-hurricane
in Game Reviews

Atlas Fallen Review

Roughly a year after being first shown, Deck13 and Focus Entertainment's Atlas Fallen arrives between Baldur's Gate 3 and Starfield. Does the game do enough to stand out in what has proven to be a stellar year for gaming, or will it fall by the wayside?

The post Atlas Fallen Review appeared first on GamersHeroes.

Remnant 2 Review

The plot of Remnant 2 is pretty simple: The Root has taken over Earth, and you and a few other survivors must fight back. While searching for supplies, you and a fellow survivor stumbled into a settlement called Ward 13. It’s basically a shipping yard with containers and a few buildings. Here you meet up with Ford, who shows you the World Stone and how to use it. With this, you are able to set out to find your missing friend and clear out some Root.

From there, the story will vary from player to player due to how things are set up. My first area was a forest zone where an eternal struggle between something known as the Doe and the Ravager has been going on. Our other editor ended up on this dying planet where a giant creature wanted him to find some Star Seeds. You eventually see all the zones, but your story and how you get there is random. Most of the game is procedurally generated, which works for the most part. I did occasionally get lost using the map, due to the placement.

Remnant 2 is best described as Dark Souls with guns. The combat is brutal and quick, leaving you dead if you don’t react quickly enough. The dodge is generous, but you can still go down in a couple of hits. The shooting is on point, and unloading a clip into an enemy feels excellent. You also get abilities from the classes you take. For instance, I had a dog that could bring me back up if I went down or attack enemies. They took what made the original Remnant good and improved it, which is exactly what I wanted.

As for classes, those are new to the series. At the start, you can choose from four different archetypes that will give you certain buffs and skills. You start with the dog handler, the gunslinger, the medic, and the challenger (melee class for those crazy enough to want to play that). There are also other classes you can unlock as you play the game. Some of them are VERY hidden, which I respect. Do you think Final Fantasy VII Rebirth will let you miss Vincent or Yuffie? Not a chance. Players willing to explore are rewarded.

To encourage this exploration, you get what is called Adventure mode. So I told you the story splits depending on the planet you start on. Well, there are multiple different storylines on the planets as well. For instance, while I was in Losomn, I was asked to find evidence against a king. When I returned to Adventure mode, I was in a city instead of a palace like before. The king wasn’t even mentioned this time, and I found an insane asylum in the city instead. That is just one example of many; I’m still not sure I’ve seen them all.

Puzzles in Remnant 2 are both more difficult and less frequent. Alternate boss kills were a big thing in the original, and Remnant 2 still has them; just far less frequently. There is a new inspect mode for items that aren’t used much but is a cool new feature. Mostly you are putting together cryptic clues or looking for specific keys for puzzles. That’s not to say that they are bad; I just felt like there weren’t as many. Also, Ward 13 only has a couple of puzzles in this game, which is a bummer.

There are quite a few weapons in the game. You have the stand assault rifles, snipers and hunting rifles, shotguns, LMGs, and even some bows. I started as the Handler, and they started with an assault rifle. I never switched my gun until I beat the game. Everything else I came across fired too slow for my liking, or were the LMG which took forever to reload. I’m also not sure if I had bad luck or what, but nearly every weapon I found in the worlds was a bow or crossbow, and I had no interest in those. I eventually switched after some boss Alt Kills, but the AR is the way to go.

To go along with your weapons are your weapon mods. These are extra abilities on each of your guns; think fire bullets, grenade shots, summoning vine allies, or shields. You need to kill the bosses and return to Ward 13 to get them made. While there are a ton to choose from, I still stuck with fire bullets, just like I did the last game. Combo that with acid bullets on my sidearm, and I still melt enemies. If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it – that’s my motto.

There were some tech issues I ran into. I did have a few crashes (after reviewing this game, I am replacing my PlayStation 5, so I’m not 100% sure it was the game). I also encountered several frame drops, especially when bosses were doing big moves. We also ran into the bug where an enemy would be stuck somewhere, and we couldn’t use the world stone since we were still stuck in combat. There were some minor annoyances, but it didn’t stop me from enjoying the game.

I find myself thinking this about a lot of games this year, but in a weaker year Remnant 2 could be a GOTY contender. Don’t hesitate to check it out if you like these types of games.

Posted Aug 16, 2023 by johnny-hurricane
in Game Reviews

Acceptance Review

Players will have to come to terms with suicide with the release of Rasul Mono and Ratalaika Games' Acceptance. Should players traverse this dark path in this story-driven thriller?

Posted Aug 16, 2023 by johnny-hurricane
in Game Reviews

Moving Out 2 Review

The residents of Packmore need players’ help once againi with the release of SMG Studio, Devm Games, and Team17's Moving Out 2. Promising to be even wackier than its predecessor, should players move out and get to work?

Posted Aug 13, 2023 by johnny-hurricane
in Game Reviews

Sclash Review

Quick kills are back on the menu with the release of Bevel bakery, Just For Games, and Abiding Bridge's Sclash. A game where timing is everything, does this 2D samurai fighter turn the traditional formula on its head?

Posted Aug 12, 2023 by johnny-hurricane
in Game Reviews

Atlas Fallen Review

Roughly a year after being first shown, Deck13 and Focus Entertainment's Atlas Fallen arrives between Baldur's Gate 3 and Starfield. Does the game do enough to stand out in what has proven to be a stellar year for gaming, or will it fall by the wayside?

The post Remnant 2 Review appeared first on GamersHeroes.

Exoprimal Review

The story is Exoprimal is pretty wild: In the near future, portals start to appear on Earth that spew out dinosaurs. Instead of becoming extinct ourselves, humans fight back to push back the dinos. To do this, the human race made Exosuits (mechs) to even the odds. Thankfully you also have an AI that can detect the portals before the dinosaurs come out. Using that knowledge, you go from mission to mission to push back the scourge.

Exoprimal is a third-person shooter at its core, but you can also use melee. Each Exosuit you can use is basically a class and has different abilities and weapons you can use. The assault classes are meant for damage and typically have explosions, strong rifles, and evasion skills. Tanks are the tanks and get shields and crowd control. Supports heal you up and buff you while doing a little bit of damage. Each role works fine, but the game’s repetitive nature means you’ll likely only play a few of them.

The best feature of the game is the special abilities of the Exosuits. Each has a unique skill that you can get once or twice a match if you are lucky, dishing out damage and looking pretty in the process. One of them is just a barrage of endless bullets shredding dinos. One of the tanks can call in an air strike that will decimate everything it hits. For me? It’s all about the tornado spin. One of the tanks spins in place, gathering up dinosaurs around it in a vortex, and can then shoot the tornado out. It feels good to use every time.

I’m not sure how many maps the game has, but they all start to blend together after a few hours. I just played a match where I was about to load into a new area, only to load right back where I was and have new objectives spawn, making the load completely pointless. Speaking of loading, it takes far too long to get into a match. I’m unsure if it’s a lack of players or poor servers, but I shouldn’t have to wait over a minute to find a lobby.

Exoprimal is supposed to be a competitive game where teams race to complete objectives faster than the other team. If you fall behind, your team gets a dinosaur ally that one player can be. Being the dinosaur is the funnest part of the game. From my experience, the team who gets the dinosaur not only catches up, but also gets ahead and wins. It’s almost a better strategy to lose the first few rounds to get the dinosaur and wreck the enemy team with it. Alternatively, a noob takes the dino and dies in less than 30 seconds.

The upgrades and progression are also dull. You get new decals for your suit, new colors, emotes, some minor upgrades, and charms. There are no new guns or parts you can switch out on your Exosuit; it feels like they shouldn’t have even bothered including mechs if you can’t do that. Oh, but don’t worry; there is a paid battle pass that also unlocks avatars and exclusive skins. Killing dinosaurs can only carry a game so far.

Speaking of killing dinosaurs, they don’t spawn enough. Sometimes you have to kill 200 to move onto the objective. However, they don’t all spawn at once, instead dropping piecemeal with 20-30 at a time. The game feels like it’s caught between being something similar to Earth Defense Force and a horde-mode game. As is often the case with trying to do multiple things, it gets neither right. I actually think this game would have been better as a wave survival game. Tech-wise, I didn’t run into any frame drops, crashes, or bugs.

Exoprimal was clearly designed to be free-to-play, and much like Capcom’s other competitive multiplayer offerings, I kept trying to find a hook. It’s worth a go on Xbox Game Pass, but this dinosaur just can’t beat the kings of the genre.

Posted Aug 16, 2023 by johnny-hurricane
in Game Reviews

Acceptance Review

Players will have to come to terms with suicide with the release of Rasul Mono and Ratalaika Games' Acceptance. Should players traverse this dark path in this story-driven thriller?

Posted Aug 16, 2023 by johnny-hurricane
in Game Reviews

Moving Out 2 Review

The residents of Packmore need players’ help once againi with the release of SMG Studio, Devm Games, and Team17's Moving Out 2. Promising to be even wackier than its predecessor, should players move out and get to work?

Posted Aug 13, 2023 by johnny-hurricane
in Game Reviews

Sclash Review

Quick kills are back on the menu with the release of Bevel bakery, Just For Games, and Abiding Bridge's Sclash. A game where timing is everything, does this 2D samurai fighter turn the traditional formula on its head?

Posted Aug 12, 2023 by johnny-hurricane
in Game Reviews

Atlas Fallen Review

Roughly a year after being first shown, Deck13 and Focus Entertainment's Atlas Fallen arrives between Baldur's Gate 3 and Starfield. Does the game do enough to stand out in what has proven to be a stellar year for gaming, or will it fall by the wayside?

The post Exoprimal Review appeared first on GamersHeroes.

Diablo 4 Review

When Diablo 4 begins, you get to pick from five different classes. I mostly played the Druid, but got some Necromancer time during the beta. After creating your character, you get caught in a storm and need shelter. A local town nearby takes you in, but they need help with creatures at the temple. You deal with them, return, and the whole town tries to sacrifice you. Beating them, you soon learn about the Cult of Lilith.

Lilith has come to the lands of Sanctuary and is intent on taking over. A man named Lorath explains what is happening and that you two need to try to stop it. From there, you set off to the various settlements around Sanctuary to help out and kill demons. The main story is very long; I’d say roughly around 50 hours. However, the end game can easily last another 50.

As a druid, I mostly played melee as the werewolf and werebear. As the bear, I would rush in and tank enemies while doing crowd control. As the wolf, I’d focus on damage and building up my poison dot, ripping through certain bosses. I had access to tornadoes, lightning storms, rock slides, and other elemental attacks, but shape-shifting carried me to the end. The skill tree is vast, and you could have dozens of builds – even within the same class.

Combat starts off far too easy, but players will quickly hit a brick wall of challenge later. Controls are responsive, and moves feel impactful. My favorite bear move is a huge ground slam; when you spam it, you feel the earth shake. Even my normal swings felt good when I was hitting hordes of enemies. One downside is the enemy buffs early on. Sometimes they have more HP as a buff, and it’s not needed. You rarely lose to these creatures; they only serve to consume more time.

One good thing the development team took from Diablo Immortal was its shared world, not unlike an MMO. You don’t get matchmaking, but you can run into other players on the map and team up with them. Unlike most other games, people happily team up in this because you get more experience, and it means enemies go down quicker. There are also events in-game that players can team up for and get chests from. These spawn randomly, and it’s first come, first serve.

Other points of interest on the map include dungeons, hideouts, forts, Altars of Lilith, and waypoints. The waypoints are fast-travel, so you want those. Forts need to be taken and sometimes become another settlement with fast travel. Altars of Lilith give permanent boosts to stats and are shared between all characters on the accounts. Hideouts are basically mini dungeons with one room and a quick fight. Then the dungeons are huge sprawling instances with bosses, loot, enemies, and sometimes events.

It’s important to note that this the stuff you can do BEFORE you beat the game. Once you beat the story, you get Nightmare Dungeons, World Boss Events, Legion Events, Blood Tides, and the Whispering Tree. All of these help you unlock Legendary gear to keep you getting more powerful for the final difficulty tier. Honestly, this game will be a job for some of you. There is so much to do it can quickly become overwhelming; and I didn’t even try the PVP.

Then there is Diablo 4’s equipment. With item design, they knocked it out of the park, and transmog is free. With crafting, you can remove stats you don’t like and replace them with better ones—aspects altar your abilities, meaning that builds can get even more in-depth. Gem slotting and unique items return as well. One downside is that you can’t pull aspects off of the unique gear, which is often very good.

Diablo 4 is not without blemish, however. For one thing, it takes far too long to get the mount. You do get it on all characters when you unlock it, which is nice, but the game world is enormous. You need to run back and forth multiple times with no waypoint, and a horse would have made it that much better. In addition, playing on a console makes it very hard to see what buffs and debuffs you have going on you in combat. I know limited inventory slots are a staple of ARPGs, but bigger bags would have been nice. Also, the team desperately needed to put an overlay map in; it blew my mind that this wasn’t included.

I did have a couple of crashes and some server issues, but nothing that changed my impression of the title.

It’s been a long time coming, but Diablo 4 is the game fans deserve. Put simply, Diablo 4 will easily be many people’s Game of the Year.

Posted Aug 16, 2023 by johnny-hurricane
in Game Reviews

Acceptance Review

Players will have to come to terms with suicide with the release of Rasul Mono and Ratalaika Games' Acceptance. Should players traverse this dark path in this story-driven thriller?

Posted Aug 16, 2023 by johnny-hurricane
in Game Reviews

Moving Out 2 Review

The residents of Packmore need players’ help once againi with the release of SMG Studio, Devm Games, and Team17's Moving Out 2. Promising to be even wackier than its predecessor, should players move out and get to work?

Posted Aug 13, 2023 by johnny-hurricane
in Game Reviews

Sclash Review

Quick kills are back on the menu with the release of Bevel bakery, Just For Games, and Abiding Bridge's Sclash. A game where timing is everything, does this 2D samurai fighter turn the traditional formula on its head?

Posted Aug 12, 2023 by johnny-hurricane
in Game Reviews

Atlas Fallen Review

Roughly a year after being first shown, Deck13 and Focus Entertainment's Atlas Fallen arrives between Baldur's Gate 3 and Starfield. Does the game do enough to stand out in what has proven to be a stellar year for gaming, or will it fall by the wayside?

The post Diablo 4 Review appeared first on GamersHeroes.

The Lord of the Rings: Gollum Review

As the name would suggest, you play as Gollum in this title.

If you are asking yourself: Why would you want to do that? Well, the answer is: You do not want to do that.

The story begins with Gollum being captured by an elf king and Gandalf as he retells the story of his time in Mordor. As you might expect, it was rough. He worked in the mines with some other slaves and had to do the work others couldn’t due to his size. This mainly included dangerous tasks like finding dead miners deep in the cave or setting off explosive charges that didn’t go off. Eventually, he escapes with one goal in mind: finding his precious.

Another story feature are the choices made between Smeagol and Gollum’s internal decision-making. You seem to be choosing who is the more dominant personality. For example, you find a beetle that you can eat or let go of early on. Letting it go lets you watch it fly away, and Smeagol is happy. Eating it makes Gollum happy, but you get an upset stomach. Not that it matters because you are hunted right after. Also, you quickly realize your choices are pointless as The Lord of the Rings’ story has already been told, and your choices aren’t changing that.

The gameplay revolves around sneaking and platforming, along with some stealth kills. Unfortunately, the stealth kill takes so long that you might as well not bother unless it’s one target. Sneaking around works fine, but the AI can be dumb as bricks. If you get into a shadow, it is to the point that you are nearly invisible to them. However, getting caught can put you back some steps, and the checkpoints are a bit annoying. I didn’t have much issue with the platforming; that worked fine when the camera did what it was supposed to.

The mission structure of the game is also very odd. You feel like you are doing a bunch of busy work. Yes, I get it, you are a prisoner, but man does it drag on. Even the first few days in prison have a bunch of tasks that feel like they take too long. Then there is the bird hatching if you consider random guessing a puzzle, that will be right up your alley. I really don’t know how someone played any of this and thought: “This is fun.”

It isn’t really a game with side quests or big areas to explore, and it feels linear. There are collectibles to find and worms that can heal you, but there isn’t much reason to explore off the path anyways. And if you do go off the path, your stamina meter lasts approximately two seconds before running out. You do go very fast for those two seconds, but the bar takes forever to recharge.

For a game that looks this bad, it also doesn’t run great. It looks like an early PlayStation 3 or Xbox 360 game, with the gameplay to match. I had plenty of bugs and crashes. Creatures and objects are clipping, NPC’s walking circles, and floating heads, among others. My favorite was when my checkpoint put me near a guard who was already alerted. I’d spawn in and have to run around the corner or get caught again and again. I was also told to turn Gollum’s hair off to help with crashes, which is very funny to me.

It is good to know that we already know the worst game of the year in May. Do yourself a favor and forget about The Lord of the Rings: Gollum – it is anything but precious.

Posted Aug 16, 2023 by johnny-hurricane
in Game Reviews

Acceptance Review

Players will have to come to terms with suicide with the release of Rasul Mono and Ratalaika Games' Acceptance. Should players traverse this dark path in this story-driven thriller?

Posted Aug 16, 2023 by johnny-hurricane
in Game Reviews

Moving Out 2 Review

The residents of Packmore need players’ help once againi with the release of SMG Studio, Devm Games, and Team17's Moving Out 2. Promising to be even wackier than its predecessor, should players move out and get to work?

Posted Aug 13, 2023 by johnny-hurricane
in Game Reviews

Sclash Review

Quick kills are back on the menu with the release of Bevel bakery, Just For Games, and Abiding Bridge's Sclash. A game where timing is everything, does this 2D samurai fighter turn the traditional formula on its head?

Posted Aug 12, 2023 by johnny-hurricane
in Game Reviews

Atlas Fallen Review

Roughly a year after being first shown, Deck13 and Focus Entertainment's Atlas Fallen arrives between Baldur's Gate 3 and Starfield. Does the game do enough to stand out in what has proven to be a stellar year for gaming, or will it fall by the wayside?

The post The Lord of the Rings: Gollum Review appeared first on GamersHeroes.

Redfall Review

When you first boot up Redfall, you get a brief intro to what happened before you start playing. The town of Redfall has slowly been getting smaller and smaller without many noticing. By the time people figure out what is going on, it’s far too late. Vampires have been taking people, and now a full-blown vampire invasion is happening in town. You try to escape, only to have the sea cut you off with a massive tidal wave.

With escape no longer being an option, you can only do your best to survive in the town of Redfall. You play as one of four characters:

– Jacob is the stealthy sniper guy who can scan for nearby enemies
– Layla has kinetic abilities and can summon a vampire ally
– Devinder has anti-vampire moves like UV rays and lightning
– Finally, Remi gets a robot companion and C4

It’s a good selection, but the gameplay in Redfall is rough.

With Arkane Studios’ rich pedigree, I was expecting more stealth options. The lack of backstabs is a disappointment, though players can still melee from behind. The AI can be downright brain-dead when detecting you as well. On the other hand, sometimes a sniper will drop you from an insane distance and have you wondering where the shot came from. More times than not, though, the AI is lacking.

The bad AI translates into Redfall’s combat as well. You will mostly face off with various vampire types and cultists. The cultists do try to take cover, but then they will just sit there and get shot. The basic vampires rush you and eat bullets while they try to slash at you. Some of the different vampire types are fun, but those are few and far between. That and the gunplay doesn’t feel great. It feels like an Xbox 360 game – even if the flare gun is awesome to burn vamps with.

The town of Redfall is fantastic, but the gameplay is so bland. It’s mostly going here and killing vampires and other enemies, or going there and collecting something to bring back to the base. You can also open up various safe houses in town, and those have side quests with them as well. Vampire nests are another side activity you can do, but also proves to be not that interesting.

While I didn’t care too much for the combat, I did like each of Redfall’s unique weapons. I mentioned the flare gun earlier, which can set vampires and humans on fire. There is also a stake launcher, which is exactly what it sounds like. Finally, the UV gun shoots out a laser that turns vampires into stone – a thrilling feeling. These are all cool ideas, but they are held back by subpar combat.

After completing enough story missions, you will unlock the Rook. As you kill vampires and beat missions, the Rook meter will fill. Once it fills up, the Rook is summoned, and you must face this hulking vampire. However, you will get some powerful loot if you can bring him down.

For some reason, this game doesn’t have matchmaking with random people. If you want to play with others, you will need some friends who want to play. Also, even if you play co-op, the host is the only one who keeps the story progression. That means if both players want to beat the game, they must go through it twice.

While I didn’t run into any crashes, the game doesn’t always hit the target of 30 frames per second. On top of that, you get T-pose bugs and stretchy limbs on specific models. Nothing game-breaking, but still there. Oh and you have to sell your items one at a time, which is insane with the amount of loot you get.

Redfall is a fantastic idea that just doesn’t pan out. Clunky combat, horrible AI, and boring gameplay make this one an easy pass.

Posted Aug 16, 2023 by johnny-hurricane
in Game Reviews

Acceptance Review

Players will have to come to terms with suicide with the release of Rasul Mono and Ratalaika Games' Acceptance. Should players traverse this dark path in this story-driven thriller?

Posted Aug 16, 2023 by johnny-hurricane
in Game Reviews

Moving Out 2 Review

The residents of Packmore need players’ help once againi with the release of SMG Studio, Devm Games, and Team17's Moving Out 2. Promising to be even wackier than its predecessor, should players move out and get to work?

Posted Aug 13, 2023 by johnny-hurricane
in Game Reviews

Sclash Review

Quick kills are back on the menu with the release of Bevel bakery, Just For Games, and Abiding Bridge's Sclash. A game where timing is everything, does this 2D samurai fighter turn the traditional formula on its head?

Posted Aug 12, 2023 by johnny-hurricane
in Game Reviews

Atlas Fallen Review

Roughly a year after being first shown, Deck13 and Focus Entertainment's Atlas Fallen arrives between Baldur's Gate 3 and Starfield. Does the game do enough to stand out in what has proven to be a stellar year for gaming, or will it fall by the wayside?

The post Redfall Review appeared first on GamersHeroes.

Omega Strikers Review

When you first boot up Omega Strikers, you get a brief tutorial before being tossed into CPU matches (at least, I think they were bots). Think of Omega Strikers as an air hockey MOBA, with three-on-three matches against Strikers with different abilities and power-ups. The goal is to put the ball into the opposing team’s goal before they can score on you. Games go to five points, and typically are over between five to seven minutes.

An ideal team has one goalie and two attackers. The attackers need to try to score, but can also hit enemies with attacks. If you stun and then push someone out of bounds, they are out of play for a few seconds. While that is happening, the other attacker could be getting ready to score, so you need to pay attention. I mostly played goalie, simply because I don’t trust randoms to protect the goal.

Each character has different abilities and skills they can use during the match. One cool thing is the cooldowns don’t reset between rounds. For instance, if one uses their 15-second special right at the end of a point, they don’t get it back at the start of the next point. Most people are learning the ropes since the game is still new, but I felt some characters were overpowered – especially the cat girl.

Outside of the Strikers’ abilities, each map has different buffs for all characters. The different positions also get a free upgrade that they can pick before the match begins. I personally liked to use the increased skill length, but you can get speed boosts, damage boosts, and other buffs. The game also seems to have a character for every type of person – a definite plus

Like any game of this type, people rage quit mid-match. Unfortunately, I didn’t see a penalty for doing this, with matching continuing after it happened. It usually ends quicker because one team is missing a player. Sometimes though, the other team trolls and keeps it going for fun. Of the ten or so hours I played of the game, this only happened a handful of times.

You can buy new stuff between matches, customize your Strikers a bit, and check out the game’s battle pass. So yes, there are microtransactions, but nothing game-changing. If you buy it, you will get some extra in-game cash, new skins, new emotes, and new backgrounds. The Strikers each have their own type of battle pass, but again it’s more skins and other cosmetic rewards. It is primarily there to reward players for sticking with their mains.

I did have one or two crashes and bugs, but they were rare. I also have seen players lag, which really hurts mid-match. It either completely screws them or screws you. However, considering how crap other PC games have been lately, this one runs great.

Honestly, the worst thing I can say about the game is that it picked a terrible time to launch. Star Wars Jedi: Survivor just came out, The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom just leaked, and Diablo IV and Final Fantasy XVI are right around the corner.

Omega Strikers always has you thinking “just one more match” before sucking you in for countless more hours. At the low, low price of free-to-play, it is a minimal investment for potentially big fun.

Posted Aug 16, 2023 by johnny-hurricane
in Game Reviews

Acceptance Review

Players will have to come to terms with suicide with the release of Rasul Mono and Ratalaika Games' Acceptance. Should players traverse this dark path in this story-driven thriller?

Posted Aug 16, 2023 by johnny-hurricane
in Game Reviews

Moving Out 2 Review

The residents of Packmore need players’ help once againi with the release of SMG Studio, Devm Games, and Team17's Moving Out 2. Promising to be even wackier than its predecessor, should players move out and get to work?

Posted Aug 13, 2023 by johnny-hurricane
in Game Reviews

Sclash Review

Quick kills are back on the menu with the release of Bevel bakery, Just For Games, and Abiding Bridge's Sclash. A game where timing is everything, does this 2D samurai fighter turn the traditional formula on its head?

Posted Aug 12, 2023 by johnny-hurricane
in Game Reviews

Atlas Fallen Review

Roughly a year after being first shown, Deck13 and Focus Entertainment's Atlas Fallen arrives between Baldur's Gate 3 and Starfield. Does the game do enough to stand out in what has proven to be a stellar year for gaming, or will it fall by the wayside?

The post Omega Strikers Review appeared first on GamersHeroes.

Star Wars Jedi: Survivor Review

Taking place five years after the events of the original, Star Wars Jedi: Survivor has Cal and his crew mates splitting up and going their separate ways. However, Cal has been taken prisoner to Senator Sejan on Coruscant, who basically tells you to give up the location of the others for freedom. Just in the nick of time, BD jumps in and frees you, allowing you to pursue the Senator.

You are actually here to gather intel, and the Senator’s ship just so happens to have it. While going after the ship, the game introduces you to the new crew, who help out in a few places. Eventually, you catch up with the Senator, but your trap turns into a trap against you. You escape, but what you found needs to be discussed with your old crew. Finally, you crash land on a planet with Greez, and there your journey begins.

Star Wars Jedi: Survivor is much larger than the last game, with fewer planets that are larger in scope. Koboh is where you spend most of your time and all sorts of creatures – friendly and not – inhabit it. This is also home to the Bedlam Raiders and their repurposed old war droids; something else to watch out for on top of dealing with the Empire. It took me just over 35 hours, but I still had plenty of collectibles left on the map.

Unlike the last game, you start with basic Force powers like a push and pull, along with a double jump. On top of that, you still have the dual-sided lightsaber and the twin lightsaber stance. You get a few new Force powers like mind control, but it’s nothing crazy like lightning coming from your hands. The big new upgrades are the new lightsaber stances, the Crossguard stance, and Blast Saber combo.

You do have a lightsaber throw, but the range is minimal. With the blaster, you can hit enemies at range and get a charge shot. I used the stun shot, which worked great for big human enemies. You still have your lightsaber in this stance as well, so you can parry and do basic combos. The Crossguard stance is a powerful lightsaber that is similar to a greatsword in most action RPGs. It is slower and hits much harder. I’m more about speed, but it is a cool addition nonetheless.

The combat first and foremost favors a defensive style. The more you block, the more you break an enemy’s guard and open them up. Once open, Cal can do significant damage. That isn’t to say it is like Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice. You can get away with spam attacking most basic enemies. Rather, it’s just the bigger guys that you need to watch out for. One can also slice limbs off in this one – truly excellent.

Mixing in your force powers into combat opens up even more combos, while the skill tree lets you upgrade force powers to affect most non-boss enemies. You can even get a strong enough lift or pull to pick the huge enemies up. There are many options for skills; each stance has a tree, Cal has a tree, and your Force powers have a tree. Cal’s special is a time slow, where he can slow everyone around him down a bit and do some free damage. It’s cool, but you can still get countered while you are in it.

Exploration and parkour also play a big role in Star Wars Jedi: Survivor. If you were hoping for better exploration rewards, then you might want to wait for The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom. You now get haircuts, new clothes, BD colors, extra HP packs, stat upgrades, and occasionally lightsaber parts. Every once and a great while, you will find an upgrade for BB or map locations, but even then, it’s not worth it. It is cool that you can customize your Cal a bit more; I just don’t think it’s worth all the effort.

There is one element worth discovering: Perks and Perk Slots. Perks are upgrades to specific stats or abilities; you can only have so many equipped at once. For example, I like to toss the lightsaber, so I had a perk that upgraded that damage and one that broke through the enemy’s block quicker. So with my upgraded saber throw, I could simultaneously hit multiple enemies and break more guards. If they added some stats to hilts and clothes, I think it’d be worth finding.

There are a lot of new side activities to do. You have bounties, side missions, an auto battler mini-game, gardening, fish finding, and recruiting. You recruit people out in the wilds back to Rambler’s Reach, and they give you currency, new quests, or other rewards. The currency is spent in the game’s few stores, but again it’s mostly cosmetic stuff. Fish go into the aquarium in the saloon, which is fantastic, and I actually do think that’s a good exploration reward. Gardening looks pretty, but I couldn’t figure out if it did anything else.

With the game going more open, there are some drawbacks. For one, the title is very selective of which ledges players can grab. There are also many more invisible walls, which is never fun. This could all be resolved if they just give my boy Cal a jet pack next game. I know they got that Anthem code sitting around somewhere in EA. So get that flight mode, and let’s go. Also, I felt like the last bit dragged on far longer than it should have.

I did have a couple of minor bugs, but nothing game-breaking. I also ran into a few frame drops, mostly during huge fights with many enemies.

This entry proves yet again that letting Respawn handle the Star Wars IP is the right call. Star Wars Jedi: Survivor is a Game of the Year contender in a very stacked year.

Posted Aug 16, 2023 by johnny-hurricane
in Game Reviews

Acceptance Review

Players will have to come to terms with suicide with the release of Rasul Mono and Ratalaika Games' Acceptance. Should players traverse this dark path in this story-driven thriller?

Posted Aug 16, 2023 by johnny-hurricane
in Game Reviews

Moving Out 2 Review

The residents of Packmore need players’ help once againi with the release of SMG Studio, Devm Games, and Team17's Moving Out 2. Promising to be even wackier than its predecessor, should players move out and get to work?

Posted Aug 13, 2023 by johnny-hurricane
in Game Reviews

Sclash Review

Quick kills are back on the menu with the release of Bevel bakery, Just For Games, and Abiding Bridge's Sclash. A game where timing is everything, does this 2D samurai fighter turn the traditional formula on its head?

Posted Aug 12, 2023 by johnny-hurricane
in Game Reviews

Atlas Fallen Review

Roughly a year after being first shown, Deck13 and Focus Entertainment's Atlas Fallen arrives between Baldur's Gate 3 and Starfield. Does the game do enough to stand out in what has proven to be a stellar year for gaming, or will it fall by the wayside?

The post Star Wars Jedi: Survivor Review appeared first on GamersHeroes.

The Mageseeker: A League of Legends Story

The Mageseeker follows the story of the imprisoned rogue mage Sylas. After initiating a prison break, he escapes his chains and sets out to create a revolution so mages can live free. After finding some ruins, players will set up a camp with others who fled the city during the riot. Using the information from these people, you figure out where other mages are being held and set out to free them.

As you recruit more, the camp grows with new facilities and NPCs. You start with a small base littered with broken columns and debris and end up with what amounts to a fully functioning town. During downtime, players can chat with others, do upgrades, find treasure, and learn new spells. The camp area gives you just enough respite in-between levels to be satisfying.

The game is broken up into chapters; you will typically have a main mission and a few side ones. You can also send your extra Outlaws out for special missions for more supplies and recruits. The missions mostly play out the same, just set in different areas. You fight some enemies, gather some lore, fight a boss, then head back to camp. It’s a simple system, but it works because of the combat.

The Mageseeker combines fast-paced melee combat with various magical spells and effects. Sylas has these chains that allow him to steal magic from enemies. Once he steals a spell, he can learn it back at base camp. The chains also act as grapple hooks to pull you toward objects and enemies. Used in conjunction with combo attacks, players can fly around rooms and beat down enemies quickly. The chains have a small cooldown, but you get used to it.

As for spells, you have the elements of fire, water, wind, lightning, mystic, and nature. For every element of magic, there is also an Outlaw you can find with that same element. Admittedly not every spell was powerful or cool, but you can only equip four at a time, and it’s easy to find four useful ones. Lightning has always been my favorite type of attack, so I liked to call in Thunderstorm when I had the mana. Poison Spores is also good – if used correctly.

Side quests are presented as refreshing mini rogue-like missions. Players go in with all your equipment, but there is a simple upgrade on each floor that one cannot leave with – think more magic damage, quicker mana regen, or more HP. To get these upgrades, you have to swap out your spells with a random one they choose. Doing this made things more challenging, and gave me spells I couldn’t use yet.

Back at base, you can spend all the loot you find to upgrade both yourself and your spells. The skill trees are somewhat big, but it is mostly stat upgrades. The mana and HP upgrades are essential if you want to get to the end of the game.

New to League of Legends? No need to know the lore to enjoy The Mageseeker. We played a few seasons in the past, yet we still cannot tell you who this Sylas cat is. Still, it was cool to see Garen and Lux make an appearance.

The Mageseeker: A League of Legends Story is a fantastic action RPG and a worthy spin-off. If you like fast-paced top-down action, give this one a shot.

Posted Aug 16, 2023 by johnny-hurricane
in Game Reviews

Acceptance Review

Players will have to come to terms with suicide with the release of Rasul Mono and Ratalaika Games' Acceptance. Should players traverse this dark path in this story-driven thriller?

Posted Aug 16, 2023 by johnny-hurricane
in Game Reviews

Moving Out 2 Review

The residents of Packmore need players’ help once againi with the release of SMG Studio, Devm Games, and Team17's Moving Out 2. Promising to be even wackier than its predecessor, should players move out and get to work?

Posted Aug 13, 2023 by johnny-hurricane
in Game Reviews

Sclash Review

Quick kills are back on the menu with the release of Bevel bakery, Just For Games, and Abiding Bridge's Sclash. A game where timing is everything, does this 2D samurai fighter turn the traditional formula on its head?

Posted Aug 12, 2023 by johnny-hurricane
in Game Reviews

Atlas Fallen Review

Roughly a year after being first shown, Deck13 and Focus Entertainment's Atlas Fallen arrives between Baldur's Gate 3 and Starfield. Does the game do enough to stand out in what has proven to be a stellar year for gaming, or will it fall by the wayside?

The post The Mageseeker: A League of Legends Story Review appeared first on GamersHeroes.

Minecraft Legends Review

Minecraft Legends begins with an invasion by the Piglins. They quickly take over the land, leaving the villagers defenseless. However, the protectors of the land – Action, Knowledge, and Foresight – quickly set off to find you for aid. When you are located, you are mining away in a cavern as they explain why you are the perfect person to save the world. You then make your character, and the game gets underway.

After a brief tutorial, the game truly opens up. Piglins have set up various camps and portals to keep spawning and raiding, with players tasked with putting a stop to the portals while protecting villagers. To do this, you can build structures and summon golems to aid in combat, providing a surprisingly tactical slant.

One can only spawn 20 golems to start, but this can be upgraded later as one upgrades their base. This is then broken down between tank golems, ranged damage golems, golems that charge enemies, and healing golems. That’s not a bad conversion, but when you add Zombies, Skeletons, and Creepers, you will have to make some hard choices.

Each unit has its strengths and weaknesses, but there are other factors to consider. One can only command so many units at once solo; while great for pincer attacks or flanking, it would be nice to have our more than 40 units charge the portal. Solo, you have to run to the units and then command them to charge. In co-op, everyone can control their own contingent of golems. This review was mostly done in single-player, but things truly shine in co-op.

As for the building, there are many defenses, traps, towers, and weapons/ramps to help you get the edge on enemy camps. The villages are pre-built, but you can put down other buildings and walls to protect them. If you ignore a village, the enemy will take over and players will have to reclaim it. The reward for having a town comes in the form of free daily resources. Having enough archer towers and walls will keep most towns safe, but always check to be sure.

The Piglin portals that you need to destroy are all very well protected. You usually have a gate, multiple archer towers, massive walls, some sort of killzone or maze to die in numerous times, and plenty of Piglins. Sometimes the portals are protected by a shield, tasking players with destroying special buildings to weaken them. Other times there will be a boss, and defeating it automatically eliminates the portal. It can get a bit grindy, especially with bosses having so much HP.

Minecraft Legends also started making me build ramps to climb up to the portals – which wasn’t as fun. Your little golem units don’t path very well, meaning trying to cross bridges results in some falling off. To top it off, they always seem to have a large unit or something that can push your soldiers off the cliff. They know it’s a problem and use it to actively hinder you. Again, this might be a better thing in co-op, because one isn’t running around trying to gather all units.

I’m starting to see a new trend in crafting games, which I like. Sons of the Forest let you use Kelvin to gather resources for you, and Minecraft Legends lets you put down a box, which allows little fairies called Allays to gather everything for you. It is the smoothest, least intrusive gathering system I’ve used in a while, and I hope to see more of it in the industry.

There aren’t really many side quests outside of helping the Zombies, Skeletons, and Creepers. However, the overworld does have various towers and other points of interest that will reward you with rare resources. The main collectible for me was the “First” golems. These are unique giant golems that deal a ton of damage. Reviving them takes a lot of resources but prove to be well worth it.

I didn’t run into any tech problems, bugs, or frame drops while playing.

While the tactical options are more limited when playing solo, Minecraft Legends is a blast to play. Pick it up if you are a Minecraft fan or if you just want to have fun playing a chill game with a friend.

Posted Aug 16, 2023 by johnny-hurricane
in Game Reviews

Acceptance Review

Players will have to come to terms with suicide with the release of Rasul Mono and Ratalaika Games' Acceptance. Should players traverse this dark path in this story-driven thriller?

Posted Aug 16, 2023 by johnny-hurricane
in Game Reviews

Moving Out 2 Review

The residents of Packmore need players’ help once againi with the release of SMG Studio, Devm Games, and Team17's Moving Out 2. Promising to be even wackier than its predecessor, should players move out and get to work?

Posted Aug 13, 2023 by johnny-hurricane
in Game Reviews

Sclash Review

Quick kills are back on the menu with the release of Bevel bakery, Just For Games, and Abiding Bridge's Sclash. A game where timing is everything, does this 2D samurai fighter turn the traditional formula on its head?

Posted Aug 12, 2023 by johnny-hurricane
in Game Reviews

Atlas Fallen Review

Roughly a year after being first shown, Deck13 and Focus Entertainment's Atlas Fallen arrives between Baldur's Gate 3 and Starfield. Does the game do enough to stand out in what has proven to be a stellar year for gaming, or will it fall by the wayside?

The post Minecraft Legends Review appeared first on GamersHeroes.