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Relentless rogue-like shooter/brawler coming soon to a host near you. SNATCH, ZAP and REPEAT your way through a dystopian 1980’s as a mysterious organism bent on world domination.
Troglobytes games’ HyperParasite is a top down twin stick shooter with a twist.
The first thing people will notice about HyperParasite is probably the obvious homage to the 80’s, the game looks like it was dunked in a tank of 80’s neon sheen, the soundtrack is full of awesome 80’s inspired dark synthwave, and the whole concept of the post apocalypse filled with various themed gangs (which isn’t exactly what the game is, but with character classes being very specific and appearing together a lot in waves it does have a slight Warriors vibe).
So gameplay wise, you play as the titular HyperParasite, a mass of shadowy smoke like tentacles, the Parasite has the ability to move around freely, dash (which can be used to avoid attacks and to smash various objects), and a tentacle swipe (and here is where the gameplay twist comes in) the tentacle swipe is used to infect your enemies and hijack their bodies, the effect of this is twofold, not only do you used them as a literal human shield to protect your fragile parasitic lack of a body, but you also get to use their strengths, each enemy has their own attack, special and stats, generally a melee character will be stronger and have a higher amount of hit points, while a ranged character will be weaker and survive fewer hits with the trade off of being able avoid more damage while on the run and still scoring hits.
Outside of the two main classes, each enemy character has their own playstyle, cops are ranged and can fire their pistol with moderate strength straight in the direction you are facing they also have a clip limit so they need to reload once their shots are spent, whereas the paper girl, while also a ranged unit throws two newspapers that do low damage and split out in a small V formation in the direction you are facing, they also have unlimited papers so no need to reload or watch your clip count, similarly melee characters will have different range and damage to their attacks that you will need to take into consideration when selecting a host for your parasite.
Now what if you are surrounded by units you don’t like? Should you stay as the parasite? Well no, it’s never really a good idea to stay as the parasite because it’s super squishy, and at any point if you see a better unit you can destroy your current host and snag them, assuming they don’t destroy you before you grab them, you also have the choice of throwing a potential host at your enemies instead of taking them if you grab the wrong one by mistake, using them as a decently strong ranged attack.
Each run you do is procedurally generated, and the waves of enemies are randomised as well, so it’s more about quick reactions and luck than planning things out, some areas will have things like barrels and cars strewn about as well, some of these contain nothing, others have pickups, mostly in the form of money which can be used to purchase upgrades if you find a store, and the rest of them blow up, prior to blowing up you will see a ring which indicated the area of effect the explosion will cover, so you can know how far to move to avoid it, and if you are lucky and skilful enough you can also lure enemies in to feel the effects of the blast.
Some certain enemies also allow you to take their DNA after you defeat them, this can be used to power up your parasite and make it more formidable, and with roguelike elements, you can gain power ups that will apply to future runs, making things easier for subsequent attempts, which would be helpful as I found the difficulty even in the first area very hard to overcome.
Overall the game is well made, with a winning art style, music and over all feel, the replayability is high, with some runs going well enough to think, I’m going to take another shot and see if I can push it further, and other runs ending so quickly that you think, that was a mulligan, one more try, the game is still also in pre-alpha at the time of this review so they have time to add more and balance the difficulty if it turns out I’m not alone in being absolutely destroyed.
Starring the world’s most iconic Super Hero, Spider-Man features the acrobatic abilities, improvisation and web-slinging that the wall-crawler is famous for, while also introducing elements never-before-seen in a Spider-Man game. From traversing with parkour and utilizing the environment, to new combat and blockbuster set pieces, it’s Spider-Man unlike any you’ve played before.
When I first heard about this game my Spidey senses were tingling in anticipation of something special, being a fan of both Spider-Man and Insomniac Games the illustrious studio tasked with this latest gaming adaption for the webslinging hero.
So let’s start off with the briefest of histories about this character, Spider-Man is one of the most famous superheroes ever created, I would have said top 3 most well known along with Superman and Batman but since Marvel have been cranking out box office shattering blockbusters for 10 years now superheroes are at an all time mainstream acceptance level.
Spidey, just like Supes and Bats has over the years been in countless comic book series, animated shows, live action movies and videogames, some of which have been terrible and some quite good, much like the Dark Knight, the Webslinger has been in some truly awful games, but after years of virtually unplayable throwaway garbage games Rocksteady Studios managed to make a character defining series with their Batman Arkham games, so the hope is that Insomniac can do the same for everyone’s friendly neighbourhood spider-man, after all they are working on a stronger base with some previous Spiderman games being quite fun, and with the character being done right on the big screen over the past few years (Cameo in Captain America Civil War, solo film Spider-Man Homecoming and ensemble film Avengers Infinity War all nailing the characters tone) the time is right for people to embrace the wall climbing vigilante.
And the company bringing this new game to us, none other than Incomniac games, the creators of the iconic Spyro the Dragon and Ratchet and Clank series’ as well as the Resistance series, Sunset Overdrive and Song of the Deep, among other smaller projects.
Let’s start off with the obvious, the game looks nice, like really nice, even moving at high speeds there is a lot of clarity in the digital streets of New York, and it feels like a living, breathing, digital world, I played on the standard PS4 but the PS4 Pro makes the game look even better.
Another thing that is apparent right away is the humour and pop culture, specifically Spider-Man pop culture references, humour has always been integral to the character, and the quips fly just as fast as the webs, as well as some cleverly placed references and Easter eggs, even just the difficulty selection, your choices are Friendly, Amazing and Spectacular, Friendly being one of his catchphrases “just your friendly neighbourhood spider-man”, and both Amazing and Spectacular being the titles of long running and well received Spider-Man comic book series (which makes me wonder if their will be an unshockable “Ultimate” difficulty), there also appears to be a stack of comic books in the opening scene that includes a classic Spider-Man cover.
Story wise the game is fairly basic, Peter has been Spider-Man for 8 years prior to the games events, wisely eschewing the typical Origin story and jumping straight out of a building and into the game proper, you start off helping out the police to take down William Fisk AKA Kingpin, swinging through the city and into one of his buildings and beating up a bunch of goons as you go, some of you might be wondering where this game falls in the tangled web of Spidey’s history (not sorry for that pun, not one bit), the short answer is, despite Peter Parker’s appearance looking quite similar to actor Tom Holland (who portrays the webslinger in the MCU), Spider-Man is a standalone story, however it is scheduled to tie-in with an upcoming comic series with a series titled “Spider-Geddon” written by Christos Gage who also worked on the game and has confirmed the series will take place after the events from the game.
The opening mission with Fisk also serves as a nice introduction to the game, as it is one of those rare “fun” tutorials, teaching you how to use Spidey’s abilities, mainly his webs and hand to hand combat, but he also gets a focus meter which allows for some extra tactical options, as it can be used to heal Spidey or take down a thug.
The combat in the game is fast, frenetic and super smooth, they really captured the agility of the wall climber being able to spring around while throwing punches, kicks and of course webs, Spidey also has his famous “Spider sense” which can be used to anticipate and avoid incoming attacks, this is a very handy feature and will need to be used frequently, as very early on you’ll find that just jamming on the buttons has its limits, you need to work out who is the biggest threat and which skills to use, and you have a lot of options, for instance you could approach a group of thugs, launch one into the air with an uppercut, follow them into the air with an air combo, and then use your web to grab them while in the air and slam them into another enemy, then as you land Spidey can dodge through the legs of another enemy, fire off some web blasters to wrap up a gunman and then use your web as a grappling hook on another, launching yourself over to punch that guy and then combo into the guy you wrapped up, sticking him to a wall, then dodging onto the wall and launching off to take down the last enemy.
And that’s all with just the skills you start off with, as you play you can level up and gain upgrades like improved swing speed and health increases, and you get skill points that you can use to spend on skill trees, increasing Spidey’s arsenal of attacks.
Along with fighting thugs and swinging around, you can also explore the city and find collectables, mini games and events, the mini games include things like match the frequencies and create a track to send electricity from one point to another (fans of the Ratchet and Clank series will recognise this one), and the events come in the form of crimes for Spidey to stop, which generally involve beating up thugs, but they can range from stopping an assault (which ends in beating up thugs), to locating a kidnapped person (which ends in beating up thugs) and even taking down a speeding car filled with thugs (which you beat up, but in more of a quicktime event instead of just brawling).
These minigames and collectables also have further incentives other than being fun diversions, as they will result in XP for levelling Spidey, and some give you “Tokens” which are used to upgrade Spidey’s costumes and gadgets, with some upgrades requiring tokens from multiple groups, so you might need 3 crime tokens from stopping crimes, 2 backpack tokens from locating Spidey’s old backpacks dotted around the city and a location token received from finding and photographing iconic locations.
There are also sections of the game where you will play as Peter Parker without the suit, and even sections where you control MJ (who in this universe is Peter’s ex-girlfriend and has started working as a journalist), but the bulk of the game will be played as the fully costumed hero, which is no bad thing considering how fun he is to control.
In summary, there is a lot to love about Spider-Man, the game has a lot of mechanics baked into its DNA from other series, at times it feels like Grand Theft Auto (but with webs), and at times Prototype (but with webs), other times like the Batman Arkham series (but with webs), and of course like some of the good previous spider-man games (but with…better everything), and it injects some new ideas into the mix, Insomniac are like chefs, they started off with nice stock (the Spider-Man character), and added the finest ingredients from from competing and former recipes, stirred in some special seasonings of their own, made sure it all blended together with no unexpected and unfitting flavours, and created one of the best game/meals I’ve had the pleasure to play/eat in quite a while.
Cheack out the video review below –
Spider-Man on PS4 swings in with a Heroic 10/10
~TGB_SirhcAndAr0n
In Trials of the Gauntlet, You wake up in the courtyard of a Steampunk mansion, your arm replaced with an electric grappling hook. You use your new arm to solve puzzles, traverse the mansion and fight your way to the top of the clock tower where you confront the mad scientist who did this to you.
Trials of the Gauntlet from Broken Dinosaur Studios, a studio formed by students of Full Sail University, is a midterm project for Game Development that has been released as a full game. The setting of the game is a Steampunk mansion, where your character awakens with a grappling hook where one of their arms should be and proceeds to enter the mansion to find the scientist that performed the mad experiment on you.
Gameplay consists of traversing the mansion in an upward fashion, largely using your grappling hook to do so. The grappling hook has another function: an electric hook which is used to activate some electronics and slow down enemies so you can bash them with your other arm.
The graphic style is decidedly retro with large pixels eschewing the need for a lot of detail. The art of the game isn’t bad – but it’s nothing amazing either – with fairly generic looking bad guys and environments. Due to the nature of the project (being a school project) it was developed in a limited time frame and so some of the animations feel a bit floaty at times, with the character and enemies feeling somewhat out of place when moving.
I found the controls of the game to be quite fiddly and using the grappling hook was more cumbersome than fun, which is not a particularly good trait for your main game mechanic, and like most aspects of the game it was largely forgettable.
Overall, the game feels very much like the school project that it is. The runtime of the game is estimated at 90 minutes, but glitches and bugs are frequent, which the developers are aware of – again, due to the limited timeframe for development, only critical game breaking bugs were worked on. Now that the project has been completed the devs can go back and try to neaten up the edges and expand the game, or move on to a new project, but in the current state the game is hard to recommend.
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 –
Today we are taking a look at Cultist Simulator by Alexis Kennedy and Weather Factory studio, Alexis being notable as the creator of Fallen London and Sunless Seas.
Now if you’re familiar with Fallen London or Sunless Seas then you’ll have a good idea of what is on offer with Cultist Simulator, essentially a narrative based game based heavily on making decisions, sometimes tough, sometimes easy, but always with purpose. Cultist Simulator however, unlike the other games is a card based strategy game as opposed to the adventure, exploration style of the others.
Set in the 1920’s Cultist Simulator puts you in charge of a regular person, one that has been beaten down by the world and lacks purpose, just spending their days working in a soul crushing job, although the open of the game places you on their final day of menial work so you can receive your last pay and start your journey proper.
Now, the plot of the game is quite difficult to sum up, as the game is basically the next evolution of the choose your own adventure story; so you can drastically shift what will happen based on your choices (even waiting too long to make a choice is in itself a choice that will shift the story and your subsequent choices).
The main point of the game is to select an old god (from literary icon H.P. Lovecraft’s work) to worship and base your cult around, and then bringing the old god to the current world to take their rightful place, but how you choose to do this is up to you.
In case you were wondering about the whole “aren’t Cults inherently evil” thing: yes they are. You are the bad guy in this game – but that’s not how you see it, following the will of a higher power and all.
As a card based strategy game you have a board and cards, sounds simple enough, however as a video game there are plenty of secrets and surprises in store, the more choices you make the more cards appear which means more choices become available to you, after a few minutes of playing you’ll find yourself with a dizzying amount of cards, how do you use the cards though?
Well you begin with an “option” slot and resource cards, as you make choices you will receive more option slots, more resource cards and modifier cards, so you can drag a resource card into an appropriate option slot which will create a timer countdown while it processes, during this time you can read other cards, make other plays or if available drag modifier cards into the option to change the outcome.
As you can have multiple timers counting down at once, you never really are stuck waiting for things – but if you do find yourself wanting to speed things up, there is a speed modifier you can select at the bottom of the screen.
One terrifyingly realistic aspect of the game is that in order to survive and continue playing, you must expend wealth cards, this also means that you need to find ways to bring in wealth consistently so you don’t burn through it all, again you have multiple options for this that expand as you play, but your first way is to have your character work, this negatively impacts their health (which is something I can relate to before joining Sanitarium FM of course) so there are always ramifications to your choices, if you work to hard you could deteriorate your health, but if you work too little you could run out of money, in the same fashion there are things you can do that will raise your fame which could make it easier to gain new followers, but it will also make you a target for detectives (however you will need to break laws for the detectives to get any evidence against you) so again you’ll need to find the balance that works for you.
These things coupled together make the game surprisingly fast paced and tense, with new cards appearing all the time, some of them also with expiration’s of their own, so you always need to be on top of things if you want your cult to prosper and your god to awaken.
What seems like a basic and even boring game at first look is one of the deepest and most manic experiences I have had in a while, if you like H.P Lovecraft, reading, strategy and using your imagination then Cultist Simulator could be just what you’re looking for, the game has also seen fairly frequent updates since release so it looks like you’ll have a lot more options soon too.
I’ll leave you with a quote from the developers summing up the game:
Become a scholar of the unseen arts. Search your dreams for sanity-twisting rituals. Craft tools and summon spirits. Indoctrinate innocents. Seize your place as the herald of a new age.
