Top 10 Reviewed Games for 2016

Traditionally it is time for the Top 10 Reviewed Games for this year. This is the way I do Top 10 Games here on the blog. As you are aware now is the time everybody makes Top Tens and because I like watching such lists I decided to make one myself. Last year was the first time and after its big success, one of the most read articles on the blog for long time after posting it I am here to show the Top 10 for this year. A bit busier year a lot of things happened which got in the way of writing for the blog. The biggest and most important(aside from personal things) my friend Tyr from the NerdsBaloney channel invited me to be his co-host for the nerdy Something Podcast and in general to help him make content for the channel(You can check it here. The channel is only in Bulgarian, sorry). You will not believe how time consuming is this =D Because of it and other reasons this year I managed to write only 28 reviews for you guys, which is 5 less from last year, but hey it is still a good number for a blog ran by one guy, right?.

Several important clarifications before going to the list. This is Top 10 REVIEWED games here on this blog for 2016. Thought that making Top 10 of games I played is pointless as not all are presented here on the blog and you will not be able to check all the games I talk about. Not seeing a title here does not mean I have not liked it or I thing it is worse than those in the list, it means I have not reviewed it. That cleared, onward to the number 10!

Number 10

Surprisingly for many people number 10 is OwlBoy. No, hey, drop that stone! Don't...hey! That was rude, throwing stones at people!

Seriously though, the game had great success and I am glad for it as it was clearly made with a lot of effort, clear idea what they wanted to make and how. For those of you which somehow missed the game this is a platformer where you play with the mute owl Otus who together with his friends has no idea about the great adventure they got themselves into. Two things impressed me most in this game - the characters and the visuals. OwlBoy has one of the best characters I have seen in a game from this genre. Each one is unique and you see how they develop together with the story. Visually the game is stunning, I have never seen such detailed pixel art! Must try of you like platformers. Why only number 10? The game felt too long for me and had certain annoying long segments which almost stopped me from finishing it.

Full review you can find here

Number 9 

Number 9 is another game which blew a lot of people away, including me. I am talking about Inside. This is an adventure game which will tell you amazing and terribly dark story without uttering a word. As a gameplay it will remind you of Limbo and that is understandable as it is made by the same people. Inside is an upgrade of Limbo in every way you can think of. If you liked Limbo Inside is for you. If you have not played Limbo but like good adventure games, grim stories and dark atmosphere Inside has something for you. Why number 9? Not sure actually I just felt deep inside(he!) that I enjoyed the other games on the list more.

You can find my Quick Opinion on it here

Number 8

I count number 8 as a small personal win as I not only made someone who dislike turn based games to play it, but he also liked it so much that he finished it before me! If you watch the podcast I mentioned at the beginning you might have guessed it already. Yes, this is Steamworld: Heist.  The best and easiest explanation what Steamworld is to say it is a 2D X-Com in a Wild West themed sci-fi setting. Does that make sense? I do not know, but it is true. You are the robot captain of a pirate ship doing your thing and all, but suddenly new player appears and he quickly starts to take over your territory which can not be allowed, so you take out to remove this bad guy. Then the plot thickens and everything turns out to be a lot more complicated then it looks. Gameplay wise the game is excellent, Image&Form Games has converted the formula of such games as X-Com and Massive Chalice perfectly in 2D adding to them what is needed so the game is not crippled by its 2D nature. The fights will happen mainly in multi-leveled space ships where with careful decisions, smart usage of cover and careful calculation of bullet trajectory you will have to defeat your enemies and complete your objectives. The skill shots feel great and seeing your enemies crumble into pieces only makes it better. The game also comes with character skills system, classes, a bunch of items to equip your pirates with and a lot of booty ready for the taking.

Full review you can find here

Number 7

Number 7 is a game which took me by surprise. I had no expectations for it and tried it out of pure curiosity. It blew me away! The game I am talking about is Epistory Typing Chronicles. For shock of everybody this is exactly what you think it is - a typing game. An RPG typing game. Yes. Epistory is a game about a fox riding muse which has to do her job and inspire a writer. Thematic enough you start on a blank page and as it happens often with books whole new world opens little by little before you. While you explore you will see different objects which will have words above them and you will have to type those words if you want to interact with these objects. Objects will vary from wood trunks to treasure chests and even enemies. Oh yes you will fight here and those fights will be hard if you are not good at typing strange words quickly. But what captured me mostly in the game is the genuine fairy-tale feeling of the game and how elegantly it leads you through the story. It is truly a game for book lovers.

Full review you can find here

Number 6

Almost in the middle of the list is number 6 - The Warlock of Firetop Mountain. That is right, the classic choose your own adventure got its own digital version, which is amazing! From a fighting fantasy book it is turned into full tabletop game from the caliber of Decent or even DnD. Your character has a figurine, your enemies has too. The whole mountain is built and you wander in its endless corridors looking for a way to get to the top where you will meet the mysterious but dangerous master of the Mountain. The game offer several characters each with its own background story which will have impact on the options you get in the game and the way characters will react to you. Speaking about options - as in every choose your own adventure, here too you will have to be careful what you do as careless words or actions can quickly lead to your death. TWoFM also has interesting battle system and even the ability to save at checkpoints so you will not have to restart the whole thing when you die...and you will die. Especially when  you play for the first time.

In short great addition to the digital choose your own adventures and if you like me love them you should try the game.

Full review you can find here

We are half way there, from here on we start the top of the top!

Number 5

Right in the middle of the list is a game which if does not make you feel badass, then nothing will. I am talking about SuperHot, the "turn-based" shooter, although this term is not entirely correct for the game. SuperHot works in very interesting and simple way - when you move, everything else moves, when you are still, time stops. Why does it feel badass? Because this will allow you to dodge bullets, catch swords in the air and cut enemies down before they react and every other badass move you can think of. Aside from making you feel like an action hero SuperHot also has interesting, a bit grim story, told in original way, unique aesthetic and will make you use your head if you want to succeed in these later levels. Great, unique game which you should try if you seek something new to play.

Full review you can find here

Number 4

This Number 4 took me by total surprise and left me without words at the end. I am talking about Oxenfree. Oxenfree is a teenage horror movie game(huh?) about a group of teenagers on a deserted island, ghosts, struggling with time loops and a great mystery. Oxenfree is one messed up game. Seriously, this innocently looking indie title will scare the...brain out of your skull. I was amazed how this game which does not have any mechanics basically, other than walking and talking can first capture me so much and second scare me and at the same time make me want to continue and see what will happen. The game in it is nature is an adventure game which is moved by what you say to the other characters. Only words is the difference between life and death, although in Oxenfree you will never be sure when someone is death or not...play iiiiit.

Full review you can find here

Number 3

Okay, this is kind of cheating as the game is still in beta phase, but come on now, you know how betas go these days, it may remain in beta for years. Yes, I am talking about Gwent, the CCG game from The Witcher III which CD Projekt RED made into stand alone game and which took the hearts of fans immediately. In Gwent unlike in other games inspired by Magic: The Gathering(or Hearthstone if you prefer, although Hearthstone does not offer anything really new) you will play for points. Each card you play give you points and might have an ability which will, in most cases, allow you to manipulate your score or the score of your opponent. The game is played in best of three and each round ends when both players pass. What makes Gwent interesting is how strategic is because of the reduced amount of card draw and the fact that it is played across multiple rounds. Really, really fresh breeze in the genre, I enjoy it immensely and am really interested in what way the game will go.

Full review you can find here.

Number 2 

Number 2 is Tyranny! Yes, shocking, I know, a lot of people expected it to be number one, but I must say the difference between this number 2 and number one which you will see in a minute is veeeery little. This one is not number one may be only because I was more invested in number one. May be if Tyranny was continuation of Pillars of Eternity it would have been number one.
What can I say about Tyranny? Great game, amazing world, interesting story, great mechanics, meaningful choices. Whatever I say it will not be enough, it is a game which is ten times better when played. It has everything you will expect from a good RPG, not to mention one made by Obsidian which brought to us Pillars of Eternity. Just go and read the full review here or even better go and play the game, its like 20 hours long.

Full review you can find here.

And now

After all these amazing games

Which is number one?

Which is the top of the top?

It iiiis...

Banner Saga 2

If you remember, Banner Saga was not in the list last year and the reason is very simple - it is not from 2015, it actually came in 2014.
Now we can discuss eternally which game is better. We can nitpick at Number 1 and 2 for a whole day and still not decide which is better objectively. But as I said above Tyranny and Banner Saga are practically equal here and very little stopped Tyranny from being my Number 1 for 2016. But enough of this. Let's talk about the winner.
Banner Saga 2 is the continuation of the Norse inspired saga which started with the first game and here we continue to follow the struggle of the main characters who try to save the world, their loved ones and in the end themselves. Banner Saga has a choose your own adventure like structured story where your decisions decide everything related to the course of the game. You will have to decide things varying from simple clashes between desperate villagers through distributing food supply to making tactical decisions how to position your armies. But be careful as often the smaller decisions which seem like concerning 2-3 people will have huge impact so you will have to always be on guard and think will doing something looking like a good deed be seen as a good deed from your peers.
In this second part you will also find everything you loved from the first - the great palette of characters, the amazing hand drawn pictures, story filled with twists and surprises, the plot truly thickens in this second part of the Saga. Of course here are also the challenging turn-based battles which also have stepped up in this part and will offer you new challenges including a whole new race to play with and against - the Horse born.
Truly Banner Saga 2 is mainly more of the same, but I loved the first part so much that this second one was really hard to be beaten for the first place in this Top 10. Playing the first part is almost a must as this one does not explain in details what has happened in the first game.

Full review you can find here 



But wait..do not go yet! I have honorable mentions for you and some games which look interesting but I still have not tried or have not played enough.

ICEY, Silence: Whispered World 2 and Shantae are games which grabed my interest, but I almost have not played and is hard to say would have they found place in the list. So...try them if you want.

Honorable mentions for this year are Sunless Sea: Zubmariner, Shadow Tactics and Salt & Sanctuary.
Zubmariner is not in the list not only because is not reviewed but mainly because it is an expansion of last's year Number 5 - Sunless Sea. It adds a ton of content to the game and I played a good amount of it. A must play if you enjoy the dark underzee.
Shadow Tactics is here and Number X only because its not reviewed, I just did not manage to play enough of it. Great game in the style of Commandos, but in feudal Japan instead. Have great time with the game so far. Expect the review next year.
Ah...Salt & Sanctuary...I have the same mixed feeling toward this game as I have for Dark Souls. For those of you who are unaware S&S is basically 2D Dark Souls with few mechanics changed here and there, but the idea is the same. The game is great with its own unique atmosphere and challenges, if you have the nerve to play Dark Souls but have already beaten all three and BloodBorne you can try this. Here is the full review.

And that is. Thank you all for reading the blog, I am very happy you enjoy it. It would not have been what it is without you. We are also going steady upwards for which I am even happier and hope to continue this way. Here one day before New Year I wish you all the best and will see you next year for more reviews.  Thank you!

Last year's Top 10 Reviewed games

Dungeon Rats - The decadence goes deeper

A little more than a year ago a game came out. Role-Playing Game which caused a bit of controversy among followers of the genre. I am talking about Age of Decadence, the game which provoked you to speak with people instead of fighting them. That was the juice of the game - its deep dialogue system and how every step you took in the dark world of the game made impact on what people thought of you and how they react to you. But that was also a dangerous world and Iron Tower have created a battle system at least as complicated as their world interaction. But because of the character of AoD their otherwise great battle system did not shine enough and they apparently have decided to make a game based solely on this system. Is it any good? Read on.

They dug too deep...may be

You are a miner but for misbehaving you are sent to the lowest levels of the mine. There your job is changed and now you will solve problems for the warden in this part of the mine. You will beat stuff for him. People, giant ants, other nasty things. Anything if you want to live. Anything if you want to escape.

And sadly with this anything you need to read in this game ends. There few more lines, but if you pass them you will miss nothing. I will state it here and half of you will stop reading, but Dungeon Rats is nothing like its bigger sister - Age of Decadence. It is just a dungeon-crawl. And not a very good one at that. I am sorry, but that game was huge disappointment for me. Not because it is just a crawl game, incomparable to the massive role-play experience AoD was, but because even as dungeon crawl it is not good. Why? Here is why.

From battle to the next, nothing to do otherwise

As I mentioned here your task is to beat monsters and people so they do not get in the way of the miners. At first this sounds ok, AoD had great battle system, DR is built around this system, so it should be fine right? Well, the fights are alright, they are even very good. If you, like me, enjoy turn based fights you will enjoy those. They are like small puzzles, because often you will be outnumbered and will have to outwit your opponent more than beat them with raw power. But I am dull. I talk about the battle system presuming all of you know what I am talking about, but that is not necessarily true. So let me explain in few words what it is so cool about how battles happen in Dungeon Rats.

All battles are scripted in certain places and because of the linearity of the game you cannot avoid them. When engaged you will have positioning phase (can be decisive for the battle outcome) and then the fight starts. Everything happens in turns and all characters have Action Points which they can spend for all kind of actions - strikes, movement, reloading, re-equipping items etc. Learning to effectively manage those is another key skill you will need. Nothing so "wow" so far, right? Well what made me like the system so much is the precise control you have over the attacks of your characters. You are not just hitting and hoping to hit and if you hit to score critical, you can decide where to hit your opponent. To the head, arm, legs, torso and each of these attacks have effects if successful. You might cripple, disarm, make him bleed or outright kill him when you hit in different parts of the body. Different weapons also have different types of attacks. Sharp things can make bleed you or two handed hammers can attack in AoE. Mentioning AoE there is friendly fire in the game so be careful when you shoot or swing those big weapons around. 
Pretty awesome don't you think? So what makes me say that the game is bad even when built around such deep system? Its only fighting. That's it. The story is poor, there is no exploration, almost no NPCs to talk with, there is crafting system and you will find treasure chests here and there but the level design is so linear that you will be foolish not to open them and should check your eyes if you do not see them. In other words the game is lacking and becomes repetitive rather quickly. To the repetitiveness of  the game adds also the fact that there is almost no enemy variety. Humans and Monsters. And monsters are really boring, they will always rush towards you and lash out eventually poisoning or making you bleed. Humans on the other hand are a bit better, because you never know what they hide. Some of them may draw a bow, or trow a net at you or even some sort of nasty alchemical concoction(you can do that too). So they hold some uncertainty when you face them which keeps the fight on the edge usually and makes it interesting.

In defense of the game I must say that it is really short, around 10 hours and it is cheap. Also the system around which Dungeon Rats is built is really deep, polished and brings good amount of enjoyment while playing with it. But even these things does not make it look better in my eyes. I can not shake off the feeling that Iron Tower created Dungeon Rats and from there came the idea for Age of Decadence and after its success they decided to release this game too. Which is not necessarily bad, but if this is the case they should have worked on it so it can be the dungeon crawl game it could have been.

Conclusion

As always for those of you who do not have time or are too laze, here is the conclusion. 

Dungeon Rats is a turn-based dungeon crawl game built around the great, deep, polished battle system of Age of Decadence. This is a game about battle fanatics though, because there is not much else to do if you are not fighting. This is also the biggest downside of the game as it makes DR repetitive really quickly. To me it felt rushed and unfinished missing on potentially good idea and opportunity to make another interesting game in the interesting setting of their first game.

Where to find:

Official site

Steam

GoG

    On a side note this is the next to the last post for this year. Expect my Top 10 Reviewed games for this year next week, which will be the last post on the blog for 2016. 

Quick Opinion - Death's Life, Citalis, BitMaster

Hello, its me...and it is time for another Quick Opinion post. This time I have gathered some small, under the radar fliers here and I wish to tell you more about them. This will be a relatively short post as the games are all small ones, but each has something to offer...hopefully.

DISCLAIMER: For all three games we received free keys from the developers.

Death's Life

The first one is Death's Life by Umbu Games. In this title you are Death's deciple and in each level you have to do your job - kill someone. This is where the interesting part starts(it sounds a bit morbid, but let me finish) - you have to take the life of your victims by solving chain reaction puzzles, because it has to look like an accident. The idea sounds great, I was immediately on board and the guys at Umba were good enough to send me a key so I jumped into the game with a lot of excitment. 

The first thing which you will notice is that the game has the atmosphere you will expect from something called Death's Life. It is grim and killing someone by dropping a car on him while he is fixing it will make you feel uneasy. I kind of felt bad for those people and felt bad from the simple act of taking their life despite them being just animated figures on a computer. I imagine even some people might be pushed away because of this. But then again it is called Death's Life I do not know what you expected. 

The biggest issue I had with the game and probably the only one is that all puzzles have only one solution and you can literally just randomly push things around until you succeed. This kind of defeats the point of the game which is to put your brain to the test. You have to figure how to kill those people in the most "looking like accident" way, but there is only one way so... But to keep things objective there is also the fact that this a 6€ game made by only two people in 10 months. 

Try it if you have the chance, it has some really flashy inventive ways to kill people and it will make your brain do more work than your fingers.

Trailer
Official site
Steam

BitMaster

 BitMaster is the first of two games published by Sometimes You but developed by different people(this one is by Vladimir Shlapak). The game opens with very interesting story but if you, like me, go blind into the game your expectations might not be met. Bit Master is like...a demo, something unfinished, a concept. The game itself is twin-stick shooter in which you will pick different weapons and power ups while trying to survive waves of enemies and bosses which will get tougher and tougher with each wave. If you beat them all you escape the arena, which is story related. The way of moving is nice touch and it feels smooth while at the same time adding to the dynamic feeling of the game.
Sadly the enemies and fighting in general are flat and the action quickly becomes repetetive with no tactile response from the weapons or when you hit enemies.
I expected more from the game and may be that was a mistake, but it is advertised as powered by Unreal 4...

Despite all if you want to try it, links below:

Official site
Steam

Citalis

Citalis is the other game from Sometimes You and developed by Matt Hooper. Here the developer has done something interesting. Citalis is an experiment about making a very dynamic city builder which you can not leave alone for long as different things will need your attention all the time. For example buildings accumulate corruption which when reaches certain levels the building will be closed by the police which will stop its production until you pay the fine(which is kind of realistic I guess). Another thing which you will have to watch out for from the start is your water reservoirs. If left unintended they will overflow and flood the whole area around them ruining many tiles and eventually cutting off roads. But without reservoirs you will be faced with droughts. To make the game more hectic your city is separated into different regions which are different small "islands" and you will have to scroll between them, fixing problems and continuing to the next, entering almost infinite circle of clicking buildings and fixing problems while at the same time trying to expand. This creates great dynamic, although a bit hectic atmosphere and you will not have a single peaceful moment until you don't fail or reach your objective.
Which bring us to...Citalis also has several game modes with different objectives and varying starting conditions.
The main problem I had with Citalis is that it was hard to click the buildings which made the otherwise interesting idea a bit frustrating, but Sometimes You is updating the game constantly fixing many issues and adding new features. Citalis also suffers from the fact that it is still unfinished and lacks some features, but it seems the develop favors it for now and is trying to bring out its full glory.

Official site

Steam

BONUS: Here is a link to another game published by Sometimes You which also looks promising if they decide to work more on it.

Tyranny - The Evil has won...or has it?

In recent times we have seen attempts many gaming genres to be revived. Some successful, some not so much, but few of those attempts stand off as much as Obsidian's last year success Pillars of Eternity. Luckily for us, the fans, seeing their success Obsidian did not stop, but instead they pushed further and this year we have the pleasure to enjoy second isometric RPG from them - Tyranny. What new it brings to the table, is it as good as the Pillars, is it just another game with the same mechanics? Read on.

Tyranny. The word probably give you bad vibes. It should, it is usually related to bad things and people. In this game you are one of those bad people. That is right, you are with the bad guys this time. And as such you will be able to kill, judge, mass murder, execute and assassinate on your own discretion. The tools does not matter, only the final result. Kyros shall rule them all, you will do what is necessary for this to happen. You are, after all, a Fatebinder.

If you have played Pillars in Tyranny you will feel at home here. Obsidian has changed few mechanics, has polished a few others and have changed few general ways the game works, but as a whole it has the same feeling as Pillars of Eternity. Therefore if you did not like PoE you can stop reading here. What follows will not change your opinion or make you try these games.

So let us begin, shall we?

You are a Fatebinder, servant of the Archon of Justice, one of the several Archons under the Warlord Kyros who has taken over most of the continent except for one small Gallic...I mean one small region where the stubborn defenders still resist. You are sent to help the two Archons there to finish their conquest faster. I can delve quite deep in the story without spoiling much, but I will stop here and leave you to discover the rest. The story is deep, complicated with a lot of characters, twists, backstory, intrigue, betrayal and everything else you can want into a good game story. My advice is to follow it closely and get invested into it, this will increase your enjoyment from the game a lot more. This is an RPG you are supposed to roleplay!
Speaking about story bring us to the character creation. In Tyranny it is separated in two parts. The first is your standard pick your stats, race, how you look thing. The second one is the interesting part. After you built your character you will have to in a choose-your-own-adventure style to bring down few defiant cities. The decisions you make at that time will have a rather big impact on how pretty much all factions in the game will treat you. What you do here will lock some choices permanently until you do not redo it, but it will also give you some unique choices for your future dialogues.
I liked this idea a lot, it is kind of similar to the Q&A some RPGs make when you build your character, but here you have more freedom and at the same time it is more impactful throughout the game.

When you are done with the character creation it is time for the real deal. That's right! You will have to beat some people personally while trying to reach the Archons and bring them the news that everyone in the valley including them, you and their soldiers, will die if they do not take a certain castle in the next several days. The battle system is pretty much the same as in Pillars (or Dragon Age if you need another comparison). You engage the enemy, pause, issue orders, resume and repeat until you win or fall. I always thought that this kind of battles really combine the best of both worlds. At one hand you have the tactic elements of a turn based game. On other you have the dynamic, flashy and action packed battles of action RPGs. The new here is that now you have combo skills with other characters. They are quite powerful and differ from character to character, also as I have found out their correct usage can be more than helpful in the tougher engagements.

Speaking about other characters, here is probably the place to say more about the companions you meet and can recruit. In Pillars of Eternity you had a good rooster of characters to choose from and even few secret companions. In Tyranny you can recruit only six, each with two skill threes and unique combo abilities. It is not necessary to recruit all of them and you can even kill some of them instead. If you recruit them, much like with the the factions you will gather loyalty and fear with your companions. Reaching certain levels in those two will unlock combo skills for you and the companion. Being liked or disliked from a Faction has a similar effect, but also locks or unlocks different dialogue options and affect how factions will act towards you.

Before going to the conclusion which is probably obvious for most of you, but I know some people read only those so...but anyway before that I need to say something very important about the game which explains many design decisions. Unlike Pillars of Eternity which is rather lengthy game, around 40 to 60 hours, Tyranny is made to be replayed. With its 20-25 hours you can easily finish it in a week which cannot be said for many RPGs from this class. There are so many different approaches I want to test, builds, characters, companions and here I can try those, because the game is short enough. At the same time it has the depth and polish of a finished product and it is satisfying even after a single playthrough.

Conclusions

Tyranny is a game about the bad guys and you are one of them. As such you will be able to do rather evil things, but at the same time you can also act as reasonable and good in nature character. As always it depends on you and what you want to be. The game is a continuation of Obsidian's attempt to revive the isometric RPGs which so far goes rather well for them.

Mechanically the game borrows a lot from Pillars of Eternity, but at the same time it improves a good amount of mechanics while also adding new ones. The two biggest changes are may be the length of the game and that it is not open world. The first cures one of the biggest problems of Pillars - it was impossible to try all the things the game offered you. I mean not only different builds for your characters but also altitude toward factions, story branches etc. From the second I have seen no harm but I am unsure why they have made such design decision. Speaking about decisions this is something you will have to be careful with as you never know when something you have done in the past will come back to bite you. Obsidian have done great job again in making a game which values your choices, but it also makes it hard for you to make them.

To summarize - Tyranny is a great addition to the genre and worthy successor of Pillars. Therefore if you have enjoyed Pillars of Eternity there is no reason for you not to play Tyranny.

Where to find:

Official site

Steam

Owlboy - Nine years of passion

Nine years ago a small team of people decide to show the advantage of 2D over 3D so they decide to make this game which is about a boy which is an owl and he is mute... Have they succeeded is a topic for a long and slightly meaningless discussion so I will not delve into this, but I will tell you that they have succeeded in crafting a stunningly beautiful game.

In the game you take the role of Otus mute owlboy(shocking I know) who is a student of a very strict teacher with low opinion for his student. As an owl your task is to scout the area and keep an eye out for pirates. At the time of the story though there is a troublemaker in town and with your best friend, who is something between raging monster and a coward, Geddy you go after the troublemaker. This leads to pirates managing to descend(Did I not tell you? You live in sky cities! The pirates have airships.) upon your home for which you are blamed. The story continue how you try to stop the pirates, find new friends, solve ancient mysteries and travel to different beautiful places ridden with nasty enemies. The story has at least one decent plot twist if not even two, so it is not there only to fill space, the guys from D-Pad Studio has put genuine effort in it. It has mystery, it has great characters it has twists, it has feelings. What more you need in a story?

The game itself is a metroidvania platformer, but you will rarely touch the ground and most of the time will fly around(at least I did it this way, it is possible in many places to run and jump around). The other core mechanic is your ability to grab and throw things. Most of the time you will carry one of your friends and use their abilities to fend off nasty critters, but you will also pull out of the ground or pluck from threes fruits to heal yourself. Often you will also carry different objects in order to solve puzzles. You are a "bird" of prey after all.
Here is probably the place to say a bit more about the levels of the game. Owlboy is a short game, around 8 hours, but despite that the levels are original, different and each with its own charm and atmosphere. And while its beautiful the rose has thorns. With each level the game will throw at you nastier and nastier things. From almost immortal enemies to birds which will track every movement you make and charge you, to giant earth worms and horrific bosses. Not to mention the environmental obstacles varying from simple things like spikes on the floor and walls trying to smash you and get to things like pitch black tunnels ridden with spikes, traps, enemies and hidden treasures.

Before going to the conclusion I want to mention few highly subjective problems I had with the game which made my experience not so enjoyable at times.
First thing  OwlBoy starts very dynamically, quickly kicking you out of the starting area and giving you a chance to show what you have learned. This sadly changes and soon the game becomes a lot slower with a lot more wandering in tunnels and looking for treasures and the right way than shooting at enemies. Its true that when you meet any bad guys they will give you a lot of action but they come in groups and rarely.
Second - I hate those dark tunnels. They are horrible and there is way too many of them. Someone has been too proud of his evil invention.
And third I have died in this game because of  "stupidity" way too many times. By stupidity I mean that it seems I and the designers of the game have too different ways of thinking and many things in the game were counter intuitive to me... I will give you two examples. MILD SPOILERS: There is a level in the game where you will have to mainly sneak around which is ok, nice break from the fighting and endless wandering. The problem was that the boxes which you should have used to hide looked like part of the background image and not something which you can use...
The second example is a bolder which was held by some spiderwebs which you need to shoot, releasing the boulder and opening your way. Again the webs did not really looked like something which you can affect. END OF SPOILERS. I understand that they have made this to make the game more challenging, but dying or wasting time, because of these things, was not pleasant for me.

And now onward to the Conclusions!

Conclusion

OwlBoy is beautiful, charming game about the little owl Otus and his adventure in the outer world. There he will meet many interesting characters and will have to stop pirates, solve ancient mystery and in the end save the day, despite the mistrust of his tutor. Owlboy is gorgeous and many people compare it to Shovel Knight in matter of graphics and I find this comparison accurate. Both games are excellent examples how pixel art should be done. I had few problems with the game like counter intuitive puzzles and sudden drops in the tempo, but despite those issues I am not hesitant to recommend it to you. It is beautiful, it has good story, interesting mechanics, charming characters and a mute main character with ridiculously expressive face. It is a platformer which allows you to fly, but because this will make it easy for you it throws at you challenge after challenge in the form of both puzzles, enemies and bosses.  

But whatever I say it will not prepare you for the twists and feelings the game will put you through...

Where to find:

Official site

GoG Store

Humble Bundle Store

Indiebox

Steam

Gwent Beta Preview - Lose today to win tommorow

THIS ARTICLE IS OUT OF DATE! AND WHILE IT CAN STILL SERVE AS INTRODUCTION MATERIAL FOR GWENT, MANY THINGS IN THE GAME HAVE CHANGED!

In 2015 under the skillful hands of the guys from CD Projekt RED came out the third installment of The Witcher. Among the many interesting things the game added both as mechanics and story, it also added a new mini-game - Gwent. The game became so popular among the fans that they demanded it to be made into standalone game. Strange enough CD Projekt listened and now you can enjoy Gwent on its own. 

Before I start this preview I must say that Gwent is in closed beta test and the only way to play it is to sign up for the beta and receive a key. There are a lot of things which are work in progress, but the base of the game is set and the main mechanics are there so I think I have a pretty clear opinion on Gwent as it is now. 

The base idea of Gwent is really simple. You have a deck of cards, in it there is a leading mechanic depending on the faction to which your deck belongs. There is no mana or any other resource necessary to play cards. Each card you play affect your or your opponents score. To win you must win two out of three rounds. You win a round when both players pass and you have more points. You will be surprised how many ways are there to achieve that. 
At the start of the next round you draw cards, the board is cleared, all cards from it discarded and you start from zero points again. 

Does not sound that hard, right? It does not, BUT in Gwent you draw cards only at the start of each round. Two at the start of second round and one at the start of the third. There are characters and other cards which let you draw too but they are not that many. 
In other words you need to know your deck perfectly and carefully plan how and when you will try to overcome your opponent. You can try to push the first two rounds or you can let him win one and take the other two etc. Often in the middle of the second round you will know can you make it or not. Sometimes even in the middle of the first you will realize that you have over committed and you do not have the cards to take second round. But most of the times you will be in situation where both players will try to trick each other in over committing so they then can trigger their decks and safely push to the victory.

  

May be here is the place to say that although taken from The Witcher there is no need for you to have played the RPGs if you want to enjoy the card game(I recommend you to do it though, the games are one of the best in the genre). If you have not played The Witcher you will miss the "A-ha" moments when you see familiar monsters or favorite characters, but that does not affect your gameplay or your enjoyment from the game in any way.

Of course as original as Gwent is, it cannot go without some things which all digital CCG games have. Here also you will find boosters to buy, PvP and friendly matches. There is no ladder mode for now, but I expect this soon also. Interesting mechanic which you do not see that often is essentially tipping the opponent at the end of the match. If you say GG ( Good Game) to him/her(or he/she to you) he(you) will receive small amount of bonus materials for crafting cards. I am still not positive is this a good mechanic as right now everyone are saying to everyone GG thinking that this increase their chance they themselves to get a GG. But this lead to very deep and dangerous waters so let us just say that it is an interesting mechanic.

Conclusion

Gwent for sure offers a fresh breeze to the genre. CD Projekt has come up with simple at first look, but actually original and highly strategic card game which despite its habit to throw you into thinking rounds ahead, does not continue for hours, it is actually no more than 20-30 minutes per game. I try to limit myself and not recommend every game which I like, but this one I am positive have something to offer to everyone who are fans but a bit tired of the genre.

For now the only way to play is to sign up for the closed beta test. CD Projekt are fairly generous and there will be few give away waves so you have a good chance to get into the game.

Where to find:

 Official site

Aragami - Lurking in the shadows is fun

Aragami is a stealth-action game by Lince Works which came out this year and quickly gained considerable fame and acceptance by the gaming community.  

The game takes place in feudal Japan-like world. The game starts misteriously with strange visions, flashes of the past, voice calling you...you awake only to find out that you are a vengeful spirit with no memory of his past. Now summoned by a mysterious, but beautiful girl you agree to avenge her slaughtered clan. You are an Aragami, spirit of shadows.

What attracted me to Aragami was that it reminded me of the old Thief games, where stealth was everything and you stood no chance in open fight. Things are not exactly like that, still the game has a lot to offer. But I am getting ahead of myself.

The game is separated in distinctive levels and on each you have an objective. The tutorial is clear and the first missions are no sweat with more than one way to complete them and rewards if you do not kill anyone or if you kill everyone, if you are not detected, do not rise an alarm etc. The real game starts when you have to rescue a magical bird which will help you in your mission to avenge the victims of the Light clan. As I mentioned Aragami is not like old Thief, but you are not a killing machine like in Assassin's Creed neither. You will be able to easily take out two or even three enemies if you are quick enough, use your skills correctly and manage to stay hidden between the kills. But you will be quickly slaughtered if the guards are alarmed and find you. Nice touch is that if you alarm the Guards once, even if they do not find you they will be more observant from now on. But let me explain how the game works so its clearer to you what I am talking about.

"Hello darkness, my old friend..."

You are an aragami, a vengeful spirit. As such you have low tolerance to light and quickly lose your powers when exposed to it for long. Not to mention the obvious - it is dead easy for the Guards to see you. Because of this you will need to dart from shadow to shadow, teleporting when distances are longer or ridden with guards. While in shadows, crouched and not moving the chance for the Guards to see you is smaller but still possible(This is one of the issues I had with the game. The range of the Guards is unclear, sometimes they see you and sometimes they do not while you are at the same place.). When seen you have around a second to jump at the Guard and eliminate him. A lone Guard will not rise the alarm when sees you but will alarm the others if he finds a dead body. When you jump at an enemy if you have been too slow or jump directly at him from the front he will probably block you and you will not have a second chance to attack for he will have drawn his sword and stricken you with ray of light which will dissolve you immediately. Yes, you die from only one hit in Aragami. If you do not want to get turned into shadow dust you will have to choose carefully your path and sneak behind Guards. The sneaking system if I even can called it that, is really simple. When you run you make a lot of noise, when you walk you make less and when you sneak you are absolutely silent, but you move slowly. Get behind a Guard and stab him and he is dead. You are not the only one who dies from a single strike.  

Your main power is the ability to manipulate shadows and interact with them. After the tutorial you will be able to teleport from shadow to shadow and create temporary shadow. Further in the game you will find skill scrolls which will give you skill point which you will be able then to invest in skills. Speaking about skills...

Fancy cape, what does it do?

The skill you will be able to learn include all kinds of powers over the shadows. From trowing shurikens to conjuring shadow serpent to eat your enemies. With time you will become strong enough to be able, as I mentioned in the beginning, to take out few Guards one after another. There is catch though..two actually. First you do not have unlimited amount of shadow essence(mana) and it decrease when you use your skills. The mana you have is shown by the lines on your cape(which is really cool idea), it also shows you how many times you can use certain skills. Yes, this is the second catch - for one level you can use your more powerful skill only certain amount of times. This is clean and elegant way to balance your otherwise quite powerful skills which gives the sense of progress, but at the same time does not turn you into killing machine. In other words your skills will lead to more than one badass moment for you, but only when used correctly. 

Something which I need to mention and which partially fits in the talk about skills and partially does not fit anywhere is that Aragami offers co-op mode where you together with a friend can sneak and kill Guards together. For me this was the first time I see a stealth game to offer co-op and after I tried it I can say that it is a lot of fun, but the game does not adapt adequately to the fact that there are two deadly shadows now and we were able to run around and kill Guards rather easily when together. Good coordination and teamwork led to more than few cool moments where we in perfect sync jumped at groups of Guards dispatching them before they manage to react. 

Conclusion

Aragami can not be compared to only one game. In it you can be both aggressive and stealthy and both bring you benefit. But it is not as aggressive as Dishonored at the same time you do not need to be as stealthy as in Thief from old times. Its a pretty good mix from both worlds. The biggest problem the game has is that in co-op it does not scale at all and can be too easy at times. Despite that it is great addition to the genre and its creators work hard to polish it even further. Give it a go.

Where to find:

Official site

Steam

"Hello Darkness, my old friend..." is a quote from Simon and Garfunkel's song "Sound of Silence"

Bug Butcher - When you cannot squash them you shoot them

Before I start this review I want to say that Triangle Studios were so nice to give me a key for Bug Butcher after I approached them. I did my best to stay objective but I believe it is good practice to state if you gotten a game from the developer/publisher for free.

Bug Butcher is 2D scrolling shoot em up with enemies coming(mostly) from above. In the game you get in the role of Harry, your friendly (badass) neighbourhood bug exterminator. You are hired by a group of desperate scientists who are almost over run by giants insects. The game is composed of 30 levels with 5 bossfights each of which will test your ability to adapt, kill and survive to the maximum in the dangers which Bug Butcher has prepared for you. 

The Beauty of the small things

The sentence above pretty much sums up the whole Bug Butcher, but here I want to mention few things beside game mechanics and gameplay. First of all the look of the game. I have never imagined that something so cartoony can be so horrifying. Graphically Awfully Nice have achieved great combination between funny and cartoony and bizarre and gruesome.
And only one more thing between continuing with the fun stuff. Bug Butcher is action/chaos packed game in which you will run left and right non-stop and in such games controls are really important. Thankfully they are not overlooked and are tight and responsive. The game supports game pads and while I am not fan of them most of the time here I will suggest you to use one as it is simply more comfortable than the keyboard.  

"I am defenseless, you must protect me..."

On each level you are accompanied by a scientist from the base and while he is not involved directly in combat, he will spawn power ups for you and in co-op he is even more important as you will be able to buy powers up from him. The problem is that there is this one kind of spiders who reaaally likes smart brains and will go always after the scientist. And if he dies you will soon follow. Managing to keep him save is the smaller problem though, the bigger one is that...

They bounce in from all sides!

Usually in shoot em up enemies come always from one side and do not have complicated movement patterns(there are some exceptions). This is not true with the case of Bug Butcher. At the start the insects will always drop from the ceiling but with levels passing they will start appearing from the floor and walls. And they will not only fly in, they will start to bounce all around the place! This will force you to be on the move constantly calculating where they will drop if you do not want to be the one who is squashed. The problem won't be the huge amount of enemy projectiles, but the amount of enemies on the screen. Speaking about the enemies Bug Butcher offers ridiculous amount of different all horrible bugs which try to kill you. They split in smaller ones, puke smaller bugs, shoot lasers, follow you around, stomp you, burn you and many more horrible things. Each new bug has its own unique design and model. I personally quickly started to give them names and hate most of them for in different combinations they are absurdly deadly and unleash unspeakable chaos on the screen. This combined with the ever becoming more hazardous levels will test your skills to the maximum.

Oh yeah!

Now that you know how horrible are the enemies it is time to see how awesome are the weapons. Harry(you) like two things the most - killing bugs and killing bugs with devastating guns! After every few levels you will unlock new power ups for the scientist to spawn for you including mini guns, rocket launchers, devastating, zapping guns and more. Aside from those the bugs will occasionally drop life, bonus damage or movement speed buffs which will often give the little you need to survive the last two or three nasty hoppers.

Conclusion

Behind Awfully Nice Studios and Bug Butcher stand two veterans from the industry and this is obvious from the start. Bug Butcher stinks of finished and polished product. The developers did not only had great idea what they want to make but they also executed it perfectly! If you are into shoot em ups then Bug Butcher is a 100% for you. It has everything you might be looking for from the nasty enemies through the chaos caused by huge amounts of enemies and hazards to the badass, over the top weapons and cheeky humour. And if you think its not chaotic and crazy enough when you play alone you can jump in the co-op and enjoy double the amount of bugs!

Where to find:

Awfully Nice Studios 

Steam

Triangle Studios