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Grind for resources, manage your own fantasy village, create and equip your heroes and send them to collect swag in Swag and Sorcery – a new streamlined RPG from the creators of Punch Club and Graveyard Keeper.
Swag and Sorcery is touted as a streamlined RPG developed by Lazy Bear Games and Uroboros Games, and published by tinyBuild. The latest game from the creators of Punch Club and Graveyard Keeper has received mixed reviews on STEAM, which seems to be a fair reflection based on my experience.
Your skills are required to track down the Emperor’s stolen suit which will fix all the Kingdom’s problems. (Damn, that must be a nice suit.) You hire adventurers and send them on dangerous quests. The intrepid travellers will complete the quest on their own, but this is far from an idle game. If their health runs out, the quest is failed and you lose any precious loot you picked up along the way. You can call them home alive and “supervise” by casting spells you research as the game develops.
Your hired heroes are far from just monster snacks, they are needed to craft items in the village, helping to unlock and improve more crafting buildings which in turn, allows you to craft bigger and better armour and weapons. You keep your workers healthy and happy by paying for time at the Church and Spa. Although I found the Church to be less essential as I discovered more craftable items, because your heroes regenerate health over time whilst in the village.
There is plenty to keep you busy in the game; between levelling up at the training camp, collecting loot on adventures, upgrading the village and competing in fashion competitions. Yes, you read that correctly. Periodically, fashion competitions crop up which you can enter for a fee. Judges have different preferences for colours and styles, and can be bribed with items. Bribing is a bit of a gamble though, as a liked item will help your cause, but a disliked item could ruin you. I think I found a bug in this part of the game though. The list of unlocked ‘Likes’ and ‘Dislikes’ for each judge seemed to reset before every competition, so unless I kept track it was a guessing game each time.
Gold is the main currency in the game, but recipes for more outfits and accessories are acquired with raw and crafted materials, so you can soon find yourself running low on essentials. While Reputation with the kingdom is earned by winning fashion competitions and working on improving the village.
As well as set goals to complete for rewards and advance the game, random encounters can occur at any time. This can be a travelling merchant offering an unknown item for payment up front, or a suspected thief captured by villagers who require you to pass judgement. These encounters are a gamble. The merchant could be offering a bargain or be ripping you off. Your reputation could suffer by releasing the thief, or you could be sued for wrongful execution. Either way, the random outcome definitely makes the game more interesting.
The game can be grindy and due to lack of information on some screens, you can end up screen-hopping and mumbling stats to yourself as you try to equip your heroes correctly for the upcoming adventure, or to remember who is the most efficient crafter for a certain building. Having loved Graveyard Keeper, I have no doubt that quality of life fixes will be plentiful from the developers, and at the time of writing this article, have already begun.
The story dialogue is witty, but forgettable and the gameplay can become frustrating. For example, you have to complete a quest level several times to even get a chance to face the boss. If you forget to equip a health potion on the boss quest, and fail horribly, you have to keep replaying the same quest over again to be able to fill the boss battle opportunity bar. That said, the game is saved by it’s cute cartoon styling and massive range of activities. You will not be lost for something to do in this game.
I am definitely looking forward to more updates and bug fixes, and this is not a game I will be giving up on just yet. I can’t wait to see Swag and Sorcery reach its full potential.
Swag and Sorcery is available now on STEAM. and at only £9.99, not a bad investment
As it stands at review, a solid 6 out of 10 from me and at only £9.99, not a bad investment with regular updates still coming.
Vaporum is a grid-based dungeon crawler RPG in an original steampunk setting, inspired by old-school classics of the genre. Stranded in the middle of an ocean, in front of a gigantic tower, the hero has to find out what the place is, what happened there, and most importantly, who he is.
Vaporum is developed by Fatbot Games and originally released on PC in 2017. Key Features of the game include: First person real-time combat, Puzzles and level-wide objectives, Gadget-based RPG system, Lots of exploration, loot, plenty of character customization, a mysterious storyline filled with secrets, fully voiced main characters, and an Immersive steampunk setting.
Combat in Vaporum takes place in real time. Each enemy type has a distinctive set of strengths and weaknesses, and various kinds of attacks and defense mechanisms, so you have to employ different tactics to beat each one. A Lot of time is spent fighting progressively more difficult enemies on a grid based movement system which limits you to simple left, right, forward, and backwards movement and 90 degree turns. This leads to you being able to hit an enemy, step backwards and force a melee-only enemy to step forwards so you can hit it again and move before it can hit you, effectively killing it. This is simple versus a single enemy, but much more daunting versus multiple enemies and mastery of the tile based grid movement system is a must as jarring as it is. Combat is quick and lethal with little opportunity for healing. If you get backed into a corner, it easily becomes a situation of standing there taking turns hitting each other until one of you are dead. The gadget based system is more accurately a steampunk version of spells and is very fun and satisfying to use to defeat enemies.
The movement system is jarring at times and clunky. It did give me motion sickness due to the way the character moves. The character’s head bobs down and then looks back up after each move, and turning is a sudden start then stop that can disorient you. It must be stated this is one of only two titles to ever give me motion sickness, and even with developer help I was not able to prevent it; only limit it by turning off the options for headbob, screen shake effects, and idle camera animation. The head bob while moving was still there as was the up-down motion of the character breathing, but this did help to somewhat mitigate the motion sickness.
Most mechanics in Vaporum are very simple. However, combining these mechanics creates intriguing puzzles and level-wide objectives where you have to use both your wits and reflexes. While most puzzles and riddles are contained in a single room, progression objectives can span an entire level or even multiple levels. The puzzles themselves can consist of finding the button, moving crates in set patterns and triggering pressure plates in a specific order, with later levels adding lethal traps and teleporters. While solving the puzzles feels rewarding, it is a double edged sword as completing the puzzles are required for progression, but it is very frustrating when you get stuck on one, and they quickly become monotonous and boring at that point.
The games graphics and Audio are top-notch and perfect for a steampunk title and really help to immerse you into the game world. The voice acting is pretty good for the most part with only a couple lines of dialogue that felt off. The story is good even though it is set up with the stereotypical woke up with amnesia trope. The controls on the other hand make it clear this was a title ported over from the pc, and while clumsy and clunky and frustratingly annoying at first, once you learn and memorize them they no longer present as much of an issue.
Check out the video version of this review here –
Or check out Lone’s stream of the XBox One version –
For more info on the game, head over to the Vaporum website.
I give the game a solid 5 out of 10, it stands good on its own merits, but as a port it feels lacking in the quality of life department.
~Darsch
[Here Darsch reviews the PlayStation 4 Port of Vaporum, released early April 2019, also on XBox One and Nintendo Switch. ~Lone]
Game of the Year 2018 – Awarded to the best of our Game of the Month winners of 2018.
Legrand Legacy – SemiSoft Studios
Our first Game of the Month title in the new scene and a worthy community choice for our first proper Game of the Year award aswell, massive congrats to Uwil and the team at SemiSoft Studios!
For a reminder of our Game of the Month choices in 2018, here you go –
01-2018 Legrand Legacy – Semisoft Studios
02-2018 Fe – Zoink Games
03-2018 Surviving Mars – Haemimont Games
04-2018 Battletech – Harebrained Schemes
05-2018 State of Decay 2 – UndeadLabs
06-2018 Jurassic World Evolution – Frontier Developments
08-2018 World of Warcraft Battle For Azeroth – Blizzard Entertainment
09-2018 Shadow of the Tomb Raider – Square Enix
10-2018 Red Dead Redemption 2 – Rockstar
11-2018 Fallout 76 – Bethesda Studios
12-2018 Just Cause 4 – Square Enix
Team Choice 2018 – Awarded by the station team.
Marvel’s Spider-Man – Insomniac Games
The station team thought long and hard over the new year break what they loved the most in 2018 and Marvel’s Spider-Man was the stand out winner from the team. Insomniac Gaes bought us a blinder of an open world adventure for the web slinger that all the other great games this year just couldn’t quite top!
And for those interested, here’s the full list of the teams choices –
Crimsonshade – Super Smash Bros. Ultimate – BANDAI NAMCO Studios Inc.
Ca1t – Marvel’s Spider-Man – Insomniac Games
Isnotavampire – Marvel’s Spider-Man – Insomniac Games
Phasechan – Spyro Reignited Trilogy – Toys for Bob
TGB-Sirhc&Ar0n – Marvel’s Spider-Man – Insomniac Games
Darsch – Monster Hunter World – Capcom
Katoe – Marvel’s Spider-Man – Insomniac Games
Best Sony Playstation 4 Exclusive Game – Our choice for the best PS4 title in 2018
Marvel’s Spider-Man – Insomniac Games
As mentioned in the Team Choice section, Insomniac played a blinder with the new iteration of Marvel’s Spider-Man, bringing qualities we loves from way back in Spider-Man 2 to make a perfect free roaming open world.
Best Nintendo Switch Exclusive Game – Our choice for the best Switch title in 2018
Super Smash Bros. Ultimate – BANDAI NAMCO Studios Inc.
The latest Smash Bros. dominated the Switch owning members of the community and team in 2018, with challenges flying over in discord (we should have done a tournament), with a fantastic roster of fighters and clean, precise controls, it was one of the best fighting games of not only 2018, but also all time!
Best Microsoft XBox One Exclusive Game – Our choice for the best XB1 title in 2018
Forza Horizon 4 – Playground Games
Bringing us a good chunk of the north of England and the Scottish border, Forza Horizon 4 turned into the best racing game of 2018, but more on that later. It was also the first in the Forza series also on XBox Play Anywhere that ran brilliantly on mediocre PC specs aswell, after the horrible showing by Forza 7 in 2017!
Best Action Game – For the best game in the action genre focused on combat.
Monster Hunter World – Capcom
The first Monster Hunter to make it to PC, albeit a few months after the console versions, didn’t arrive with fanfare’s, but it should have. A great action game, even if a little shallow compared to other RPG’s, but still amazingly fun if you like chopping up huge monsters and using the parts to make new armour and weapons!
Best Independent Game – For outstanding creative and technical achievement in a game made outside the traditional publisher system.
Celeste – Matt Makes Games
An indie title we shockingly missed when it came out in January of 2018 on STEAM and other platforms, and then a free title on XBox Live (you can grab it now if you haven’t already) Matt Makes Games made a classic platformer that left us in awe of what Indies can do.
Best Multiplayer Game – For outstanding online multiplayer gameplay and design, including co-op and massively multiplayer experiences, irrespective of game genre.
World of Warcraft: Battle for Azeroth – Blizzard Entertainment
Blizzard may have had some issues at the end of 2018 and into the new year, but WoW had a great launch to it’s 6th expansion, Battle for Azeroth. Learning from Legions up’s and down’s, it was a solid expansion, but felt a little lacking in places until patch 8.1 dropped.
Best Ongoing Game – Awarded to a game for outstanding development of ongoing content that evolves the player experience over time.
World of Warcraft Battle for Azeroth – Blizzard Entertainment
As mentioned above, WoW’s 6th expansion dropped continuing WoW’s dominance at the top of the MMO tree for another year!
Best Racing Game – For the best racing experience in 2018.
Forza Horizon 4 – Playground Games
As mentioned above, Forza Horizon 4 was a massive step up for the series, especially being cross platform, but as a really good racing game.
Best Role Playing Game – For the best game designed with rich player character customization and progression, including massively multiplayer experiences.
Monster Hunter: World – Capcom
Again, as mentioned above, Monster Hunter has been successful for years on Nintendo systems, but finally branching out to the other consoles and even PC made it one of the best RPG’s of 2018!
Best Strategy Game – Best game focused on real time or turn-based strategy gameplay, irrespective of platform.
Battletech – Harebrained Schemes
One of our Game of the Month winners in 2018, Harebrained Schemes bought us a turn based Mechwarrior title that not only reminded us of the good old days of XCom, but has us excited for Mechwarrior 5 in 2019. The Flashpoint DLC near the end of the year added a well needed Iron Man mode for those that wanted more of a challenge too!
Stinker of the Year! – The most disappointing game of 2018, not the worst, just disappointing
Fallout 76 – Bethesda Studios
We were unsure when Bethesda first announced Fallout 76 last year, but we wanted to give it benefit of the doubt. Unfortunately, although not bad, it wasn’t great either. With a bad, buggy start for most people and issues like duping and cheating carrying on into the new year and beyond, although it was good and even fun to play sometimes, it left a sour note on the franchise.
For the first time in history, the long-closed borders of Summerset are open to foreigners by decree of Queen Ayrenn. But darkness looms over the ancestral home of the High Elves, and whispers stir of Daedric followers organizing in the shadows. Rally your allies, brave champions. Summerset awaits.
Explore an all-new zone packed with adventure. Join the mysterious Psijic Order and gain powerful new abilities. Reunite with old friends, forge new alliances, and work together to unravel a conspiracy that threatens Tamriel’s very existence.
Summerset is the newest chapter to the The Elder Scrolls Online, and while it adds much new content, a new crafting skill line and a new skill line focusing on time manipulation from the Psijic order, new mobs, two beautiful zones to explore and an amazing continuation to the main overarching story, it does not do much else, which is a good thing. ZOS stuck with what makes ESO great and avoided trying to reinvent the wheel.
When I do a review I have one main question I always ask myself and set out to answer. Is this fun? And the answer is a resounding OH HELL YEAH. I have long loved the elder scrolls franchise and I love ESO, but the game is not without its flaws, which is true of all games, but I have to say that Summerset is some of the most fun I have had in a long while in an mmo, from new trash mobs with interesting combat mechanics in the open world too the amazing new coral crab mob designs and the quest stories and writing has gone a long way to making this one of the best expansions yet for ESO.
Underneath the beauty of the High Elven island lies a darker side, The high elves prejudice against the “lesser races” is on full display, their political intrigues show up in force in Summerset’s main story as it is both a continuation of the Morrowwind Clock Work City story picking up right where it left off with more daedric cults and daedric princes up to no good and a continuation of the Aldmeri dominion’s story lines surrounding queen Ayrenn’s ascension to the throne. The quests diving deeper into the motivations of the characters around you and not simply praising your prowess as a world-class savior brings a human quality to the game that helps you feel more connected and immersed in the game. One example of this is Razum-dar, a long time fan favorite, he is not just another NPC but a friend to the player. As a result, Summerset is both familiar and foreign. The new Public dungeons are a breath of fresh air in how they are designed and some of the new bosses look amazing. The new trial, Cloud rest, has you taking on one to the ancient long thought extinct sloads, a slug devil toad abomination that just wants to smash your face with the help of mind controlled minions and crazy daedric magic.
Summerset brings a host of new additions to the game, The main story as mentioned previously, 6 new delves, 6 new Fun world bosses, 6 abyssal geysers which function like dolmens. 2 new public dungeons which have farm-able collections that net you prizes such as the new ginger kitten vanity pet. A new trial that can be completed multiple ways. The new psijic order skill line which adds 5 active abilities, a new ultimate, and new passives. It also adds Jewelry crafting which allows you to craft your own jewelry and make set piece jewelry. Both of these new skill lines drastically open up build diversity. The champion point cap was also increased to 750 and the game adds several new interesting gear sets to the game.
If I had to rate Summerset on a scale of 1 to 10 I would rate it a solid 8, it just does so much right in terms of what an expansion should add to the game but it still has old flaws that still need to be addressed from older versions of the game and class balance & build balance issues that continue to still plague the game.
~Darsch
The Elder Scrolls Online: Summerset is available now on –
Claeya is one of our regulars here at Sanitarium.FM and in September, won our monthly chat giveaway. After asking for a copy of the DLC instead of the usual prizes, she kindly wrote up a quick DLC review, because she’s awesome!
~Lone
It’s been almost 8 months since Horizon Zero Dawn graced our tv screens on the ps4, and it’s been just over 7 since I completed it.
It took me a little while to get back into the play style which wasn’t a big deal at all, what did grate me slightly was that I had finished the game’s main campaign and the first thing you hear when you start the Frozen Wilds DLC is Sylens complaining that you’re not focused and off track from the “mission”. I did that mission; and like some other games before it Horizon Zero Dawn opted to push you back to just before the last chapter afterwards.
This all correlates to having forgotten some intricate details which get fleshed out and the small feeling that this story would have fit nicely in the game without the need to buy and add it on top of what’s already happened.
Aside from these things however the Frozen Wilds is just as engaging as Horizon has always been. Beautiful scenery and captivating gameplay continuing to move you forward and keeping you exploring every area. In this Aloy finally has full contact with the Banuk, a socially outcast tribe made up of many smaller tribes who would rather live in the almost uninhabitable snow tops of Yellowstone than anywhere else.
You have to help them sort their troubles out and stop Hephaestus, a program that was part of the GAIA project originally that we heard of during the main campaign, whose been working tirelessly to create these strong machines called Daemons that really want you dead. If you thought going up against a Thunderjaw sucked just wait until you have to fight a Daemonic Fireclaw! Boy oh boy.
It didn’t take long to finish and they threw the usual find valuables quest’s in to bulk it out along with a few side quests. I’m most certainly hoping that this isn’t the last we’ll see of Horizon Zero Dawn even if there’s no more to add here, in this game.
A solid 8.8/10 for me with this DLC.
Again, a HUGE thank you to Claeya for writing this guest review, if you’d like to review or even join us as a DJ or video editor, join us on Discord!
~Lone
Horizon Zero Dawn – Frozen Wilds DLC is available to buy for Playstation 4 here
