Darkest Dungeon

Release date: January 19th, 2016
Developed by: Red Hook Studios
Published by: Red Hook Studios
Reviewed on: PC
Available on: PC, iOS, PlayStation 4, PlayStation Vita

Reviewed by: TheyKeepOnRising
Estimated play time: 50-60 hours
Completion: Defeated 5 bosses

"There can be no hope in this hell... no hope at all."

Lovecraftian horror is a genre that requires a deep understanding and delicate presentation to accomplish. While traditional horror tends to promote fear and quick scares, Lovecraftian horror uses nuances in storytelling and world-building to convey a lingering and more powerful emotion: dread. In the world of videogames, we have seen the rise of a handful of titles that deliver a faithful homage to the genre, such as Bloodborne, Amnesia: the Dark Descent, and Eternal Darkness. These games typically focus on a handful of the many themes presented in Lovecratian stories, but Darkest Dungeon takes the plunge and attempts to incorporate dozens of genre elements into a single gameplay experience.

Our story begins when you (the player) receive a letter from your ancestor, urging you to defend your heritage. Your family's ancient estate and nearby lands have fallen victim to a horrible curse, and are being consumed by an ever-growing darkness. The ancenstor states that his quest for knowledge led him to accidentally unleash a great evil, and begs you to correct his mistakes. Unable to cope with what he has done, the ancestor ends his life, shortly after sending the letter. More details about the areas and bosses are provided as you progress through the game, but in terms of story, this is the extent of it.

"The cost of preparedness - measured now in gold, later in blood."

Darkest Dungeon, in essence, is a dungeon-crawling, roleplaying game that aims to be combination unpredictable and unforgiving towards the player. The themes of hostility and madness are persistent in the story, in every gameplay mechanic, and in the various settings your heroes will drudge through. There is also a small town-management portion of the game, which exists as the permanence of the player's progress. The goal of the game is to grow a team of heroes strong enough to traverse where the source of all the evil lies: the Darkest Dungeon. At the heart of most of the gameplay mechanics is a system of randomness, meant to simulate the chaos and the uncertainty of the world.

After a couple brief introductory levels, you are free to assemble your own assortment of would-be heroes. You will always start with a full party of more traditional heroes, and will quickly expand your team for additional compositions. At the stage coach in town, you can recruit two additional heroes (before upgrades) per day to bolster your selection. The heroes provided by the stage coach are randomly assigned a character class, four class-specific abilities, and at least two quirks. Since there are fifteen total different character classes (each with several different abilities) there is a large variance from what type of party you will have early on. The personality quirks come in both good and bad flavors, and can range from powerful bonuses, to crippling weaknesses.

"Those who covet injury find it in no short supply."

Once your party is assembled, you will select a quest from one of four different areas: the ruins, the weald, the warrens, or the cove. Each area consists of a different assortment of enemies, traps, and rewards, and some heroes will have an advantage or disadvantage based on this. For example, a hero with a bleed attack will struggle against the skeleton soldiers of the ruins, but will deal high damage against the pig beasts infesting the warrens. These strategies are formed over time as the player completes several quests and gains a better understanding of each area. Unfortunately, the quests themselves offer very little variety, and most of them will be accomplished in the same manner: going room to room, fighting all monsters in your way.

Combat is turn-based and straight forward, but there are two mechanics that stand out when compared to similar games: positioning and stress. Stress is essentially a second health bar for your heroes that starts at zero and goes up when anything remotely negative happens. It goes up when your party steps on traps, when enemies cast an evil spell, if a party member says something that makes everyone uncomfortable, and many other triggers. Since it has so many triggers, stress can climb surprisingly quick, and can often be more difficult to manage than your party's health.

If a hero's stress reaches 100, they have a high chance of gaining an affliction, which causes them to act erractically, and stress out other heroes. When afflicted, a hero may intentionally hurt themselves, refuse healing, attack allies, or waste items. It's a very slippery slope, and once you have one afflicted hero, the others will follow suit shortly. If a hero's stress reaches 200, they will have a heart attack and possibly die. Basically this serves as a ticking clock to get out of the dungeon as fast as possible, because aside from a few brief remedies, stress can only be relieved back in the safety of town.

Your party is arranged into four positions your heroes can stand in: the front, the back, the front-middle, and the back-middle. The enemies also mirror this positioning as well, although some larger enemies can be in two positions at once. Each ability your heroes can use requires them to be in a specific position, and can only target specific positions on the opponents side. As an example, for the Crusader to use his melee attack, he needs to be in the front position, and can only target an enemy in the front or front-middle space. At first this mechanic seems reasonable, but enemies can use abilities to shuffle your team around, making some heroes unusable until they can be correctly arranged again. This same restriction is rarely useable against opponents, causing a one-sided and frustrating hindrance in combat.

"Suffer not the lame horse... nor the broken man."

As mentioned before, Lovecraftian horror requires a delicate presentation, and Darkest Dungeon succeeds in many ways to encapsulate the genre. The game features a narrator, the voice of your deceased ancestor from the introduction, who shares depressing but expertly crafted remarks throughout the entire game. The voice actor, Wayne June, speaks his lines with such powerful delivery that it raises Darkest Dungeon's level of quality as a whole. Fans of the narrator will notice that I used quotes from the game as my subtitles for this review.

Visually, the games 2D art style was the perfect choice for the depressing nature of its setting. Characters have no visible eyes, only dark shadows where eyes should be, which is a nod to the Lovecraftian theme of blindness to the horrible truth of existence. The environments are detailed and succumbing to entropy, while the monsters are grotesque abominations of many shapes and sizes. The distinct style of each area feels fresh when you alternate between areas, but individual rooms begin to repeat too much the more you progress. The musical score ranges from tense and dramatic in combat, to dreary and depressing in the village. Overall, the most successful feature of Darkest Dungeon is in its carefully constructed setting, and only gripes found here are minor.

Perhaps the largest reason I chose to stop playing Darkest Dungeon is how the game randomly and harshly punishes you. I am a huge fan of both Firaxis XCOM games, which similarly punish players for mistakes. In both those games I know my move was a mistake with a better alternative, and therefore I learn and grow as a player. In Darkest Dungeon, I have frequently had heroes killed or my party wiped becaused the enemies scored five critical hits in a row, causing my heroes to become afflicted from stress, and begin killing each other or themselves. There was no better way to approach the fight or compose my team, the only mistake I learned from was trusting the game to treat its player with respect.

Pros
- Excellent art style
- Great soundtrack and sound effects
- Fantastic narrator
- Challenging gameplay
- Many unique character classes
- Interesting stress mechanic

Cons
- Overabundance of mechanics
- Extreme difficulty spikes
- Many unfair deaths
- Random unpreventable punishment
- Tons of grinding required
- Repetitive gameplay

Verdict: Buy with Caution

Crash Bandicoot N. Sane Trilogy

Release date: June 30th, 2017
Developed by: Vicarious Visions (orig. Naughty Dog)
Published by: Activision
Reviewed on: PlayStation 4
Available on: PlayStation 4

Reviewed by: TheyKeepOnRising
Estimated play time: 30-35 hours
Completion: Platinum Trophy (Crash Bandicoot 1)

An overdue remaster to the classic platforming trilogy.

Many will remember Crash Bandicoot as the mascot of the original PlayStation back in the 1990s, much like Mario for Nintendo, or Sonic for Sega (back when Sega made consoles). It was a strange time when most videogames were intentionally difficult to pad their length, and platforming was the most popular genre by far for all the console systems. Crash Bandicoot, developed by Naughty Dog and published by Activision, set itself apart from the competition by featuring 3D environments, immersive camera angles, and characters full of colorful expressions. Soon, Crash would star in two more main games in the series, and his popularity soared in the United States to the point where he was even a mascot at some amusement parks.

Eventually Naughty Dog would end their relationship with Activision to pursue their own path, creating many more successful titles such as the Jak and Daxter series, the Uncharted series, and the universally acclaimed The Last of Us. While we know this turned out to be a great move for Naughty Dog as a company, this effectively put an end to the Crash Bandicoot franchise, as Activision retained ownership over the property. In the end, Mario would go on to star in countless more Nintendo games, Sonic would find himself in a downward spiral, and Crash Bandicoot simply vanished from existence... until now!

Crash has never looked this good.

The Crash Bandicoot N. Sane Trilogy consists of the three main Crash games: Crash Bandicoot, Crash Bandicoot 2: Cortex Strikes Back, and Crash Bandicoot 3: Warped. All titles have been remastered and packaged into a single product for $39.99 USD at launch. Crash Team Racing, the battle racing spin-off game, was sadly not included. The remastered trilogy was developed by the studio Vicarious Visions, a game developer whose catalog consists primarily of titles such as the Bee Movie game for the Nintendo DS. All jokes aside, Vicarious has nailed the remaster, updating all the visuals and audio to high-quality modern standards, and leaving the stage design and mechanics mostly in their original form.

Visually, the games look just like how you remember Crash Bandicoot, but in reality, Crash has never looked this good. The enivornments are lush, the enemies are cartoony and stylized, and even the crates have enough detail to see through their cracks to the other side. Crash himself now has fur you can see, something I wouldn't even think to address. The lighting and fog effects look fantastic, especially on interior levels where glowing green slime and electrical traps litter the stages. In my entire time playing the trilogy so far, I have not found even a minor gripe with any of the visuals, and that's impressive.

Was Crash always this hard?

The stages themselves are largely unchanged in terms of layout or enemies, so for new players who haven't experienced Crash yet, be prepared for some fast-paced and often frustrating platforming. Some of these stages, particularly in the first Crash Bandicoot, are downright despicable creations from hell (you know the ones). The difficulty only intensifies as you attempt to complete the bonus challenges for each stage: collect all boxes, collect all boxes without dying, or complete the level without dying in a ridiculous fast time. As a veteran of Crash, I found myself asking "was Crash always this hard?" since I remember doing quite well back in the day, but turns out there was a seemingly minor change that has caused this interation of Crash to be more challenging than ever before.

Behind the scenes, Crash himself has had more than a visual update. With his sleek new look comes a new rounded collision box, which is a standard feature in modern videogames, but a pretty dramatic change from the squared box of the original games. Jargon aside, this means that players will now need pinpoint accuracy for the platforming sections, because Crash can now slide off edges and needs to be closer to attack or jump on enemies. In most stages, this can be barely noticeable, while a few stages will see a pretty significant spike in difficulty. There were several times when I needed to jump on a turtle enemy and missed by hair, resulting in Crash dying and losing my progress. Despite all this, the stages are still possible to complete, just be prepared for dozens of deaths that may feel unfair.

In addition to the increased difficulty, there are also noticeably long loading times, paired with constant loading screens. Simply getting to the title screen of the game from starting the game can take a solid minute of loading, then the game loads again after you select which game to play, and then the game loads again after you select a level from the hub. The result is a significant amount of downtime, which is completely unacceptable for a remaster of a classic PlayStation title. The long loading times serve as a one-two punch with the difficulty, because there is no quick restart option (outside of time trial mode), so you would need to quit the stage and re-enter it from the hub, with long load times from both quitting and entering the stage. For some challenges, you may need to retry a stage several times, and the frustration from the failure and waiting builds fast.

Make no mistake, the game is an absolute blast.

With everything I've mentioned so far, the game may sound more like a headache than entertaining. But make no mistake, when Crash Bandicoot is firing on all cylinders, the game is an absolute blast. There is so much satisfaction from navigating the twists and turns of an underground labyrinth, narrowly avoiding death by collapsing platform, and hitting that checkpoint box to seal the deal after a difficult section. Completing a bonus challenge and receiving a gem or relic feels like a badge of honor due to the concentrated effort required by the player. The game is a rewarding experience in short burst, and the stages are varied enough and of perfect length to compliment this.

The last thing worth mentioning is the sound and music, both of which have been completely redone for the remaster. I've played many remastered games, and more often than not, it's the music that tends to overstep its bounds in terms of creative liberty. Fans of Final Fantasy X will remember the PS Vita remaster changed the music so much, fans complained until the original unchanged soundtrack was brought back in the eventual PS4 release. I'm happy to report that the soundtrack in the N. Sane Trilogy is neither understated nor overstated - but comfortably where it should be. Whether it is the hissing and whirling of mechanical traps, or the upbeat xylophone tune of N. Sanity Beach, the audio of the game has been lovingly composed to remain as faithful to the original as possible.

Pros
- Excellent visuals
- Great soundtrack and sound effects
- Original gameplay mostly unaltered
- Challenging optional content
- Fun in short bursts
- Three games in a single package

Cons
- Occasional unfair deaths
- Uneven difficulty spikes
- Unacceptable long loading times
- Needs "quality of life" improvements

Verdict: Buy

FTL: Faster than Light (PC)

Reviewed on PC, available on PC, Mac, and Linux

FTL: Faster than Light is a wonderful but difficult adventure.

It's hard to be a member of the PC gaming community without hearing of the indie upstart game, FTL: Faster than Light. As someone who is highly skeptical of both AAA titles and indie titles alike, I put off purchasing FTL for quite some time. Eventually, a Humble Bundle came along which included FTL, and being the sucker I am for Humble Bundles, I bought the bundle and installed FTL shortly after. After all, the worst that could happen is I end up wasting a few bucks.

FTL takes place in a sci-fi future deep in space. The most dominant faction is called the Federation; a space military faction that consists of multiple different races and attempts to bring order to the galaxy. Opposite of the Federation is the Rebellion; a largely human faction that believes the Federation is evil, and is attempting to overthrow it via war. You play the role of a Federation scout ship that has just discovered the Rebellion is launching a massive sneak attack, large enough to win the war, and are rushing to warn the Federation fleet. As an interesting story element, it is never stated which faction is the "good" or "bad" guys, which comes into play when the player makes moral decisions throughout the game.

Each ship comes with a unique crew, weapon loadout, and installed systems.

Before starting the game, you are given the option to choose which ship you will control. Initially, you start with a single ship with a very basic and balanced loadout. As you complete special missions or achievements during the game, you will unlock new ships to play with during your next play-through. And there will be a next play-through because this game is hard, and even on the easy difficulty setting, you will likely lose and restart several times before defeating the boss at the end. For some games this can be a negative remark, but for FTL the difficulty adds to the weight of every decision made in the game.

Once a ship has been selected, you are set onto your path with a very Oregon Trail feeling event system. You are given the option to select a planet to fly to, but with very limited information, it is impossible to determine what awaits you at each destination. And since each playthrough is randomized, there is no way to intentionally set your path to the best possible outcome. Will that homing beacon lead to stranded civilians, or a trap set by raiders?

Battle against a foe requires great attention to both side's strengths, and the amount of risk vs. reward.

When you do find yourself in a combat situation, the fights require full attention and careful planning. Depending on your ship`s strengths and your opponent`s weakness, battles can be over very quickly or drag on for several minutes. You can target the enemy`s oxygen supply and attempt to sufficate their crew, or send over a boarding party to fight them directly without damaging their ship. Regardless of the action taken, the player must be careful with his crew, as their deaths are permanent, and replacements are found mostly with luck.

Which leads me to my only gripe with the game: there is too much reliance on the randomness of the game to truly master it. It is possible to make all the right moves throughout the game and still lose. On one hand, it makes for a more realistic and stressful game, but on the other, it creates mass frustration when trying to achieve a specific goal during the game. Some ships can only be unlocked with very specific triggers that happen entirely at random (and may not happen at all) during each playthrough. 

No matter how well equipped you are, defeat can be just around the corner.

Gameplay - 9/10
There is a lot of challenge and frustration to be had playing FTL, but it all adds to the satisfaction once you finally achieve your goal. The simplicity and fair learning curve encourages players to keep trying different layouts and approaches. Too much reliance on the randomness of the events can cause this game to be overly unfair and frustrating at times.

Design - 8/10
Visually there is much improvement to be had. The 2D sprites will turn off many gamers who would otherwise enjoy the game. Sound effects and music are top notch, however, and really draw the player in. The interface needs a bit of work, but is capable of getting the job done.

Replay - 10/10
You will die and start over, many times, but each time learning more and becoming a better captain. There are tons of ships to unlock, with different layouts that can offer vastly different playthroughs. If cooperative multiplayer of some sort was added, this rating would go through the roof.

Final - 27/30 Amazing
FTL was made by persons with a great idea that chose not to take the easy route and make an easy game. They made a game that will continue to challenge beginners and experts alike, with new stories being built each play. This is a game that is a stone throw away from becoming legendary, and if an FTL2 is ever made with better graphics, fewer no-win situations, and cooperative multiplayer, it will be game of the year without contest.

Recommended Buying Price: Even at the full 10$ price, this game is a steal.

Starbound (Beta, PC)

Reviewed on PC, available on PC, possibly consoles in the future.

A space-themed builder-adventure game with high expectations.

Get your pitchforks ready, because I'm about to admit something that is sure to anger a lot of PC gamers. I don't like Terraria. Not even a little bit. I bought the game and on four different occasions, I tried to play it, and quit due to boredom and severe lack of interest. Despite the constant praise it was given, the game was never up to par with builder-competitor, Minecraft. With this in mind, Starbound shares a lot similarities with Terraria, and you can see why I was hesitant to buy into the hype. But after much debate, I caved and purchased Starbound, and was surprisingly happy with my decision.

Starbound is an open-world miner-builder RPG of the 2D family. Unlike Minecraft and Terraria, Starbound allows players to create a detailed custom character, and provides a background as to why your character started their journey. Although you start on your very own spaceship, your supplies are limited and require you to beam down to the planet. From the surface, you gather food and materials to craft medieval-era tools, weapons, armor, and even structures. As the game progresses, your tech level steadily increases, allowing you to fly around to other planets, craft more advanced items, and so on.

The game currently includes 6 races, with a 7th on the way.

On a visual scale, the game looks good for a 2D game. Planets with different biomes are vastly different in color palettes, ranging from lush alien forests, to deserts of sand and bones. The large number of visually different monsters, items, and blocks allow for some very creative and unique experiences. Lighting and water effects are more impressive than any game in the genre. Unfortunately, character animations are few, and monster animations are practically non-existent, so the world ends up feeling a bit stiff after a while.

Creatures spawn just out of visual sight, often times in large and aggressive groups. Many occasions I've stepped away from my house for a few moments and came back to a wall of angry enemies. In one instance while mining, I found and mined a small patch of iron, only minutes later to have it spawn 6 enemies that swarmed and killed me. This combined with the death penalty of losing pixels (the game's currency needed to make almost everything) can make for a very frustrating experience at times.

The alien environment are pleasantly reminiscent of Spore.

Combat is simple and straight-forward in most cases. Swing your sword, shoot your bow, don't let the enemy hit you. Most enemies will charge directly at you over and over until they are killed. Every now and then, you will encounter an enemy with abilities, and combat becomes much funner. The first boss fight is an excellent example of this, and while he is strong and will take several attempts to defeat, the victory is both satisfactory and rewarding. Lastly, your character can unlock abilities, called Techs, to spice up your character's capabilities.

The inventory system is bare-bones, but the crafting system is plentiful and well designed. There are dozens of tools, weapons, armors, decorations, etc of multiple tiers and play-styles. Items and crafting recipes are found inside dungeons, or buried deep within the planet. There are hand-held shields in the game, but after a few trials using the lowest-level shield, it seemed to be broken and did nothing but make me a target. As I mentioned before, almost everything requires pixels to make, and it becomes a grinding process to gather hundreds or thousands of them in order to make even the slightest upgrades.

Dungeons, villages, and other interesting structures can be found at random.

Gameplay - 9/10
Despite its many flaws, the game is addicting and rewarding to play. Building your character from a desperate existence to a badass space commando is a damn good feeling. The tools to build your own and (mostly) functional environments are plentiful. Multiplayer is double the fun and functions well. Patches and updates are regular, adding content and fixing bugs, and giving me confidence that this game will be one of the heaviest hitters on the market in little time.

Design - 9/10
Although I'm not a fan of the 2D style, I will admit it has grown on me. The vastly different biomes and underground areas paired with the large variety of npcs, enemies, and items gives for a very unique and charming visual appeal. Lightning and water effects are high quality and add a lot of neat experiences.

Replay - 9/10
There is a lot to do, and even more to do if with a friend or multiplayer. With new content and features being added fairly regularly, there are a lot of reasons to keep coming back to Starbound (or in my case, don't stop playing). 

Final - 27/30 Amazing
Starbound is a game with exactly that - sky high expectations. The game is may not be for everyone, but if you enjoy creative building games, or adventure loot games, then Starbound is worth looking into. There is only one thing I have to request from developers reading this review: More!

Dynasty Warriors 7 Empires (PS3)

Reviewed on PS3, available on PS3 (PSN Exclusive)

The Dynasty Warriors series is famous (or perhaps infamous) for it's grinding hack-and-slash gameplay that has changed little over the generations. Traditionally, the games take place during the "Romance of the Three Kingdoms" era in Chinese history. From here, players select their character from a massive roster, and jump into the battlefield to clash against their foes. The "Empires" series takes this familiar and 1-dimensional game and adds a new element of strategic management into the mix.

In Dynasty Warriors 7 Empires, the game introduces managing territories and resources, in addition to the standard battlefield gameplay. During setup, players may choose from pre-built scenarios which dictate the starting forces and resources, or they may choose a clean slate to manually (or randomly) populate the map. Even further still, players can then choose to play as a leader, officer, or roaming mercenary with no allegiance yet. Once the starting conditions are set, the player is free to begin their conquest.

A leader discussing with his officers their next course of action.

From the strategic map, players will manage four different types of resource: Food, info, gold, and a new resource called "fame". Food is used to heal and train your soldiers, info is used to invest and for diplomacy, and gold is for purchasing equipment. Fame is broken down further into six categories: Brave, Wise, Kind, Orderly, Affluent, and Evil. The higher your fame is in a particular category, the more abilities you unlock of that type. For example, a player with high orderly fame can summon elite cavalry, while a player with high evil fame can pillage enemy bases. Any abilities you earn can be selected and used anytime in the battlefield, and add a very interesting and fun aspect to the game. The game is interrupted with a cut scene every time you use an ability; which is highly annoying in multiplayer or even after an extended play.

Despite having all these different resources to acquire, the strategy portion falls flat very quickly due to no significant depth. Unlocking new abilities can be fun, but the usefulness of the early abilities compared to later ones ruins the incentive. Improving your army is borderline meaningless, and the only worthwhile investment is buying items to buff the player himself. Diplomacy is also painfully shallow, as it is impossible to have long-term friendly relations with another faction. You can make a temporary alliance, but the moment it expires, former friends will be marching on your lands without hesitation.

Defeating thousands of enemies takes little effort.

Once the player has reached the battlefield, they must navigate capturing (and defending) bases to create a path to the enemy's main camp. Enemy soldiers and officers will engage you, but serve no purpose other than to stand in your way, and are quickly dispatched after a few well-placed combos or musou attack. Friendly officers have improved A.I. over previous games, and are capable of pushing and even capturing the main base. Fame abilities (called strategems) are by far the most interesting part of the battle, allowing you or any officer to place ambushes or set bases on fire. Unfortunately, strategems are far from critical, and rarely change anything significant.

Perhaps the most redeeming feature Dynasty Warriors 7 Empires has to offer is it's detailed custom character creation. Complete with sliders, tons of outfits, and ridiculously large weapon selection, it's very easy to make tons of unique and interesting characters. Even further still, you can choose to have your custom character replace a particular officer in game, allowing the player to replace all the generic officers with characters they have made. Players can also download custom characters from PSN, or choose to have PSN automatically push random custom characters seamlessly into the game instead of generic officers.

The custom character screen will entice you for hours.

Gameplay - 4/10
There is nothing new to be had here in terms of gameplay, aside from a strategy mode that adds little to nothing (even compared to previous Empires titles). Combat is fun at first, but dries out quickly once you figure out the formula to win even against powerful enemies. The strategems are a step in the right direction, but need a lot of work to become worthwhile.

Design - 6/10
The visuals are high quality on characters, but the environments are plain and barren. Strategy map interface is pretty bland and generally uninteresting. Occasionally, there's a cool cut scene where your character interacts with another character during the battle, which adds a lot to the feel. Most points are given here for the excellent custom character creation.

Replay - 8/10
Playing with different fame types and custom characters greatly improved the replay value of this game. This game gets excellent replay points for the return of split screen, which is becoming a rarity these days. Different scenarios and a few unlockable features after beating the game. There's also the ability to jump into another player's game via PSN, but its only for a single battle and takes a long time to match.

Final - 18/30 Poor
With this many games in the Dynasty Warriors series (as well as the Empires series) you would expect to see some ground-breaking improvements of some sort. Unfortunately there is little satisfaction to be had, aside from the custom character creation. If you are a die-hard fan who lives for this franchise, then grab a friend and create custom characters to greatly improve the experience.

Recommended Buying Price: No more than 30$

XCOM: Enemy Unknown (PC)

Reviewed on PC, available on Xbox 360, PS3, and PC

XCOM: Enemy Unknown is a turn-based strategy game, based off of the classic XCOM: UFO Defense, and developed by Firaxis (popular for its addicting Civilizations series). In this game, the player leads a small force of specialized soldiers against the alien threat attacking various countries. The enemies are stronger, smarter, and in greater number, but can XCOM rise to the challenge? It should be noted, this game is fairly violent, despite it's appearance.

The goal of XCOM: Enemy Unknown is to defeat the alien menace while defending various countries in the world. The combined countries make up a mysterious group, known as "The Council", who funds the player and provides objectives. If a country is frequently attacked and XCOM fails to defend it, the country will drop out of the XCOM project, and cease to fund the player. If too many countries drop out, the game is over. The catch here is that multiple countries are always invaded at the same time, and its only possible to defend one, so managing defense can be frustrating and require significant planning.

Soldiers are highly customize-able, and level up by killing enemies.

At your disposal initially are basic soldiers, equipped with your standard body armor and assault rifle. After a mission or so, they will choose a specialization and become either a Sniper, Heavy, Assault, or Support class. Their stats will gradually increase, and players can choose which talents to unlock with each soldier's individual talent tree. This is all possible only if your soldiers survive, since death is permanent and frequent on harder difficulties. Your enemies will have stronger weapons from the start, and it becomes apparent when your favorite troop's face is melted by a plasma rifle.

Enemies are various and very, very powerful on the game's intended difficulties. One true aspect of the game is how desperate the fights will feel, and how conflicted players will be gambling on the lives of soldiers they have invested in. Your soldiers will feel the pressure too, and if things start to go badly, they will panic and attempt to flee or open fire without orders. No matter how perfect you play, some losses will be unavoidable, which is a very praise-worthy piece of the game. This is war, after all.

Enemies are wide in variety, with different strengths and weaknesses.

In order to improve your chances against the alien threat, the player must choose to research gathered materials from the enemy. In time, the player can unlock some impressive technology, including new weapons, armor, robots, and even aircraft. The catch is that research is painfully slow, and only one research project can be done at a time. Would you rather improve your soldier's weapons and ability to fight, or your soldier's armor and ability to survive?

Visually, the game looks fantastic with an excellent color palette. Structures and forests are detailed, inside and out. Alien ships are well designed, and feel mysterious and threatening from the inside. Walls will crumble under fire and cars will explode, as nearly everything is destructible in this game. Finishing shots will bring the player's camera into a kill-cam view, bringing great satisfaction (or great disappointment depending). The sound effects are top notch all around, with the exception of some absolutely terrible voice acting during randomized escort missions.

Foes will maneuver to get the best shot on you, while keeping themselves protected.

Gameplay - 8/10
The combat is highly entertaining, while also being highly frustrating. Research and development is exciting, and customizing your troops is satisfying. Enemies are smart and challenging, with excellent AI. The global and base management elements of the game are great, but felt like there could have been a lot more to do. Mission variety is a little stale after a while.

Design - 7/10
Visually, the game is high quality, but stages are recycled too frequently. In a full game, a player may play the same stage 3-4 times. Missions in different countries do not differ from each other, and always resemble an English-speaking city. Similarly, troops from different countries speak perfect English with no accents whatsoever, which hurts the immersion. Voice acting is notably bad by escorted NPCs, and they honestly sound like they were done by random people with no acting experience.

Replay - 8/10
With the popular Second Wave features unlocked (various select-able changes) this game has greatly improved replay value. Harder difficulties will challenge the player significantly, but only add so much. An additional point is granted for the optional "Iron Man" mode, which auto saves the game and prevents the player from reloading to provide them a better outcome. Multiplayer is 1v1 versus only, which is a significant oversight. Mod support is surprisingly poor as well.

Final - 23/30 Good
There is a great experience to be had playing XCOM: Enemy Unknown; especially now that the price has dropped a bit. The gameplay is smooth and satisfying for strategy fans, but may leave players wanting at the end of the day. If you are on the ropes about this game, try the demo and see how it feels. Although I personally enjoyed it, this game is not for everyone.

Recommended Buying Price: No more than 40$

Cube World (PC, Alpha)

Reviewed on PC, available on PC, possibly consoles in the future.

Before I get into any depth with this review, allow me start by saying Cube World is NOT a Minecraft clone. It's a common mistake to associate this game with Minecraft, simply because it also shares the block world style. While Minecraft has large focus on building, Cube World has its own flavor with roots strongly in the RPG genre, and is a great experience even currently in its alpha stage.

Cube World is an open adventure RPG that generates the world based on a user-input seed (similar to Minecraft here as well). Fans of Minecraft will notice vast improvements in terms of the in-depth character customization and classes. Currently there are 8 different races (which only change the character aesthetically) and 4 different classes. After choosing your character, you can play either locally or connect to a server for multiplayer.

There are some interesting races to choose from, in addition to the casuals.

Visually, the game is impressive for an alpha stage. Within the dense forests, open lakes, or undead-infested dungeons, there is immense effort put into making the world. Although the land is randomly generated, it doesn't feel oddly pieced together. Cities full of NPCs, shops, and class trainers also spawn randomly.

Mobs and NPCs appear in the wilderness in a realistic manner, instead of spawning in plain sight like in Minecraft. Players will frequently run into groups of adventurers, both friendly and hostile, wandering the country side. The variety of creatures is also a high mark, and although I am uncertain of the exact number, there seems to be at least 40 different types of creatures. There are also boss enemies that appear throughout the land.

Places of interest show up on the map, with color coded names for difficulty.

Combat is fun and surprisingly intense for a game of this genre. The character classes are designed to keep the player alternating between abilities, and use items quite frequently. Warriors, rogues, and rangers build up MP through combat to unleash their stronger abilities. Mages start with full MP and it gradually decreases through spell casting. All classes also have a stamina bar, which is used for dodge rolling, climbing, and hang gliding.

The inventory and crafting system are effective, although still in their early stages. Players can craft equipment from materials gathered; provided they have the required stats to wear them. There are very few crafting choices initially, but more recipes are found dropped by enemies or purchased from shops. There are plans to implement the ability to build, but at this time, players cannot build structures of their own.

NPCs offer minor dialogue, but can show the location of places and reveal how to tame certain pets.

Gameplay - 9/10
Cube World is a great game that's fun to play, and even more fun to play with friends. This game takes the formulas from many successful games and merges them into an addicting product with a bright future ahead of it. There is still more to come, and in future reviews, this score may change based on the added content.

Design - 8/10
The design choice is a brilliant take on the block art style. Despite looking similar to Minecraft, players will immediately notice that everything is much more fluid and natural. Points are lost for an incomplete user interface, and some incomplete aspects of the environment. Again, there is more to come in the future, and this score will likely change.

Replay - 10/10
There is no level limit, so players can continually play and reach higher levels. Four different classes, with different move sets for the weapons equipped. Tons of items to craft, dungeons to explore, and bosses to defeat. With more additions on the horizon, there will be tons and tons of reasons to play this game regularly.

Final - 27/30 Amazing
If you can manage to buy and download a copy of Cube World, you are in for a treat. There's a bit of a learning curve, and still lots of incomplete parts of the game, but still easily worth the $20 price tag. This game is best with some friends, so convince a few to join you, and support this awesome indie upstart.