SuperHot! - An innovative look at FPS

First Person Shooters were something big for me when I was like between 9-12 years old. We played a ton in internet clubs...yeah it was that long ago. Anyway, back then I really liked the genre but with time things somehow changed and I stopped playing those games. I think the last fps I played was Halo CE in 2006. That continued until this year when SuperHot came out. You will ask what this is?! Doesn't sound like anything shooting related! But to this I will say - does Hotline Miami sounds like one? It doesn't but look at it.

Anyway, we are here to talk about SuperHot by...SUPERHOT Team. The game started as game jam in 2013 I think, it drew a lot of attention and this year from a demo it became a full game on the market. There is a story in the game and its idea is interesting, but very short, so I will not talk about it at all. Skipping the story part let’s take a look at the gameplay - what is SuperHot and why so many people are interested in it?

When you launch the game the first thing that will get your attention is the DOS styled menus, this is theme and story related so I will not go into details but it is interesting touch to the game. After you finish the story mode which is a bit more than two hours (it depends how much you die :D ) you will unlock all sort of challenges and unlimited mode to test your newly acquired skills. Are you impatient enough already? Ok, ok...sorry.

What made so many people interested in SuperHot is its core mechanic - the game moves only when you move. My first though when I heard about it was " Oh, so it’s a turn-based kind of FPS?". Well, it’s not it’s more like infinite bullet-time FPS. Often the game will put you against multiple enemies with better weapons, coming from different directions, coming out of cars which try to hit you and so on.  You will have to plan your moves carefully as there are no hit points in this game while at the same time you will also have to be quick and able to adapt as here enemies will shamelessly spawn behind you and in places where you have already checked. 

The game doesn't grab with its look. The menus are DOS like and the other parts of the game have strange rectangular art style with enemies seemingly made of red glass which shatters when they are hit. But it grabs with its gameplay. It really does! It’s a great feeling when you complete a level, when you run by your enemies slashing them with a katana while dodging swarms of bullets. You feel badass! Powerful! Good! Like the main character in an action movie. And then you die, because as we know "Overconfidence is a slow and insidious killer". It is an interesting and unique, from what I have seen, mix of a puzzle and FPS in almost equal measure.

Easy to grasp, hard to master, satisfying, clean gameplay.  A ton of replayability. I loved it!  If you are too looking for adrenalin filled title which at the same time offers something new SuperHot is your game!

Where to find it:

Official site

Steam

"Overconfidence is a slow and insidious killer" is quote from Red Hook's game Darkest Dungeon

Crashlands - Return of the survival

I think I have never mentioned it before but I used to be into Minecraft a lot! I loved it! Later Terraria came by and liked this one even more, I even still play it from time to time. Since then I have tried a few games of this type more famous of which are Don't Starve by Klei and Starbound by Chucklefish. But why I'm telling you this? Isn't this whole genre thing of the past with the market being overflown with such games? Well, I don't know honestly, but I'm mentioning these games because today I'm about to tell you more about one new game which fits perfectly among the mentioned above. This is Crashlands by Butterscotch Shenanigans. I still have not beaten it, so this is just first impressions after around ten hours of gameplay.

Fluxed with Hewgodooko and Juice

In Crashlands you take on the role of Flux who together with his robot friend Juicebox are working for intergalactic delivery company and are in the middle of important delivery when their ship is destroyed by the alien Hewgodooko. Flux and Juicebox manage to save the cargo before crashing on unexplored planet but now they are stuck there and their boss won't be happy if they are late with the delivery.

From here the story continues with you helping a lot of locals who have different problems some related and some not with your quest which is only to get the parts needed for you to build a device with which to call for help.

Roaming Woanope

From all of the mentioned in the beginning games Crashlands reminds me mostly of  Don't Starve, but with the strong equipment crafting element of Terraria. Similar to those two you will go into the wild to gather materials, craft tools and weapons also you will learn more and more about the strange world in which you have dropped. Butterscotch have managed to create vast, colorful world for you to explore. World filled with bizarre but unfriendly wild animals as well as strange nature worshiping locals. The art style of Crashlands is one thing that sets it aside from Don't Starve and Terraria. I mean both of those games look very well in their respective art styles, but neither is so bright and in both there is feeling of loneliness, even in Terraria where NPCs will come join you through the game. Here you're accompanied by Juicebox everywhere, talking with him all the time exchanging jokes, receiving advises. Also the locals will speak with you and give you quests. The game sets a totally different mood while you play it. Its more...lively! Mentioning the quests...

The biggest thing that separates Crashlands from the others are the quests. In the game as I already mentioned you will get quests and they are from what I have seen so far(around 10 hours into the game) the main progress mechanism of the game. You are free to explore the world without doing your quests but there are recipes which you won't be able to find. Interesting thing is the elaborate fighting system. Here unlike Don't Starve and Terraria or even Minecraft you won't be able to kill anything if you just stand there and mash the attack button. Every enemy that you meet will telegraph his attack in a way similar to the monsters in Wild Star for example and if you don't dodge you will be quickly stomped, bitten, electrocuted or poisoned to death. The fun starts when you aggro more than one enemy and your whole screen becomes ridden with attack patterns...

The crafting system is the same as the one in the two others - you gather materials, use the appropriate crafting station and voila you have a new item. Here you will also find the same random chance to craft different rarity of items as in Terraria. But unlike there here you get better and better when you craft one and the same item again and again.

I have not finished the game, but from what I heard it is pretty long so be prepared for some serious roaming, crafting and fighting - a charmingly bizarre world is waiting for you. But don't worry Juicebox will be there with you, not to mention that you can even tame pets who will fight for you. 

Conclusion

Crashlands is great addition to the genre even if you think that there are too many games like it. The game is colorful, lively and challenging, introducing some new and clever mechanics. With one of these it solves the biggest problem people usually have with the genre - they cannot find what to do. In Crashlands there are quests...and humor, a lot of it, not always good quality but in big quantities. Crashlands is great for those who enjoy the genre and are not tired of it and it is also great intro game with quests to help you progress when you are tired of farming ores or slaughtering nasty bugs. Crashlands - definitely charming.

Where to find it:

Official site

On Steam

iTunes Store

Google Store

Butterscotch shenanigans

Tharsis - Rolling dice and eating people on the road to Mars

Tharsis is a small game made by Choice Provisions and it's about the first manned mission to Mars. From the Tharsis region on Mars is received a mysterious signal. Quickly a crew is gathered and sent to investigate. On millions miles away from home their ship is struck by a meteor storm and it is severely damaged and two crewmates are dead. Now it’s all in your hands.

Or at least this is what the game wants you to believe. Actually you control very little in the game. Tharsis on its own is very simple. You have four crewmen each with its own special ability and number of dice. That's right you are rolling dice in this game, but let me continue. Tharsis is turn based game in which every turn your ship is struck by different misfortunes (events), to fix those you will have to complete their dice threshold. If you don't manage to do this there will be negative effects which can vary from minus dice for your crew to minus food, more stress, direct damage to the ship or to your people. 

Other important thing to know is that every section of the ship is different and important. There is a medical bay; there is a garden which produces food, flight control, and life support and operations room. Each of those sections can give you some bonuses if you send someone there to roll. This will force you to choose do you want to repair something or do you want to get something. And this I like, its a strong strategy element which can really change your game. 

Let me go back to the damage and fixing it. When a section of the ship is damaged, there, depending on the section will be some negative effect which will affect your dice and make them...malfunction. For example they may get in stasis and you will not be able to re-roll them or even be directly voided and disapear, other effects include things like wounds which equal the rolled number. When all of your astronouts have spent their dice and all unsloved events are resolved you will be given choices regarding the dispensation of resources like food, dice, stress and hull integrity.

It’s a lot like a boardgame honestly. And it really well manages to create the feeling of desperation and doom with things getting harder and harder, more crew dying and in the end...even eating some of them if things get extreme. There is also a solid dose of mystery with the signal from Mars and with advancing in the game you will receive more messages from the Red Planet. Definitely creates its own atmosphere. 

But..

Tharsis doesn't really know what it wants to be. It gives you hard strategic options and in the end the only thing you can do is rolling dice, which you cannot really manipulate. True when you see the dice almost getting the number you need but in the end failing its really frustrating and it creates the feeling of desperation that I mentioned but relaying only on luck to get you through this voyage is...optimistic at best. 

If you like space games and the travel to Mars interests you Tharsis definitely have something to offer, but only if you can endure the sheer randomness of the game.

Where to find it:

Official site

Steam Store

Humble Store

Mordheim: City of the Damned

Games Workshop are probably best known for their Warhammer 40K Universe. The fact is though that through the years they have made many more board games among which titles like Blood Bowl, Warhammer Quest, Necromunda, Warhammer 40k, Mordheim and more. Today I plan to tell you more exactly about Mordheim and specifically about its recent transfer from board to digital - City of the Damned. The game was Honourable mention in my Top 10 reviewed games.

Games Workshop have two main universes both being Warhammer but set in different time. The first is Warhammer Fantasy which is the dark fantasy setting and the second is 40K which is the dark sci-fi setting. Mordheim is taking part in the first one.

The City of the Damned

The once striving city of Mordheim has fallen into darknes and is punished by the gods - a comet destroys it and scatters the precious pieces of wyrd across the city. Now mercenary bands will do all they can to gather as much wyrd as possible and sell it. You are leader of one such band, sponsored by a nobleman who demands what he pays for. 

Warbands

In the game you will have the choice between Skirmish and Campaign. In both modes you will be able to choose between four factions - Human Mercenaries, Skaven Clan Eshin, Sisters of Sigmar and Cult of the Possessed. The humans are the most balanced warband and are great for beginers. Clan Eshin are masters of stealth and poison. Their warriors might not be the sturdiest but you will have hard time finding them if they don't want you to. Also when you are against the Skaven don't forget to watch your back. Sisters of Sigmar are the holy maidens who seek to cleanse both the city and their name. The exactly opposite of them is the Cult of the possessed - all kinds of mutants and nonhumans gather under the banner of Chaos.

After you have made your choice of Warband, you will be able to tweak it further with the selection of the classes that compose it. Balanced, heavy melee, range specialists only, whatever floats your boat. Mordheim is not picky he will kill anyone. With your progression in the game you will be able to hire more mercenaries, equip them with items and improve their skills.

A twist in the turn-based action

City of the damned is a skirmish game very similar to Necromunda but set in different world. Every time you lead your warband out in the city you will have certain sub-objectives and one main which is usually kill all enemies or turn them into rout. I will not go in depth in explaining the game mechanics as they are rather complicated but I will try to cover the main ones which make the game stand out.  Mordheim is a turn-based game and during your turn you will be able to act with only one character. Your characters will have two types of action points - movement and battle ones. Different actions will require one of those or even combination of both. What is interesting is the movement mechanic of the game. When you take control over one of your characters you will see wide blue circle around him. This is the range in which you can move for one movement point. If you cross the circle you will need another point to continue move. This system lets you even backtrack and take a different road, this way giving you a lot of freedom when exploring the city and at the same time keeping the tactical element of turn-based game. All characters have a variety of actions and skills which they can use during skirmish for a cost of action points. The actions and skills will be different for all characters depending on their classes and skills but the most classes will have a Perception check, Ambush, Parry, Dodge stance and few different kinds of attacks. The stances are amazing so master them quickly. And because this does not make the game complicated enough there are also a ton of status effects most negative as well as a bunch of skill checks when you perform actions like jumping and climbing. Those can have a lot worse consequences than just taking some damage when failed. 

When the hunt is over and you engage with the enemy there will be only two options you will either die or win. Not much to explain either - you attack he tries to block/dodge, gets hit or not. It’s that simple actually. The strategic element is not so much when you engage but more when to engage. Catching lone enemies off guard is extremely beneficial, but be careful because running into ambushes is really easy and can turn a 2v1 quickly into a 1v1. Also end small encounters quickly as the enemy won't leave his mercenaries to die if he can bring reinforcements. 

Back to base

Once when a skirmish is over is time for summary of the mission. What objectives you have completed, what items you have looted and what injuries your men and women have suffered. If you are lucky your guys will miraculously recover from their fight wounds and will be ready for the next fight. But don't put your hopes on this as it will not happen often, especially if you have lost. More often than not the injuries of your soldiers will at best put into recovery for some time during which you will not be able to use them( kind of like in Darkest Dungeon, but here they don't run off to have drunken orgies). Sometimes their injuries may even cost them parts of their bodies which will change their stats and abilities. For example losing an eye will cause a character to be less accurate while losing an arm will make him unable to dual wield while at the same time will make him harder to be hit. And in the worst case scenario your precious mercenaries will die...forever, there is only permanent death in Mordheim. 

To make it even harder you will have to also fill quotas of wyrd for your sponsor and will have to pay your mercenaries their treatment and wages. If not payed they won’t go in fight and will leave at some point. Acquiring the requested wyrd is also very important and it will have band consequences for you if you fail to do so. 

Conclusion

Mordheim: City of the Damned is a hard skirmish tactical turn-based game where you will lead bands of mercenaries in search for the precious wyrd. But your band is not the only one which is looking for the magical stone. The game is set in Warhammer Fantasy and is as dark and gritty as a Warhammer game can be. Mordheim will challenge you not only on the battlefield but also out of it where you will have to manage the payment of your warband, requested quotas of wyrd and treatment of injured mercenaries. Despite its hard learning curve (for which the greatly detailed tutorials help a lot) the game is excellent title for everybody who is looking for a challenging tactical game. I guarantee you that if you are into dying a lot and losing many times you will enjoy Mordheim even if you are not fan of Warhammer. 

Where to find it:

Official site

Steam Store