Preview: Multiverse: Cosmic Conquest - Not Magic in Space

This is such well known fact on the blog that I do not know why I even bother to mention it, but I am big big CCG fan. When I hear CCG and I already want to try it. So imagine how I felt when from TokArts contacted me and asked if I am interested in checking their upcoming game Multiverse: Cosmic Conquest.


Multiverse is innovative card game where you and up to 5 more players will try to conquer the Galaxy or to take the home worlds of their opponents. The game heavily reminds me of Magic: The Gathering, but at the same time is so different that I am not sure how appropriate is this comparison.  But let me tell you more about the game and you will decide for yourself.

Factions  

In Multiverse you will be able to play with one of the six factions which are color based, each color with its own playstyle. This is one of the things which reminded me of MtG, some colors are even similar to the same colors in Magic. For example Red is aggressive, Green can swarm you, Blue is heavy control oriented etc. On the other hand the gameplay and the idea of the game is different enough to make it unique and worth it. Each faction produce resources from different types of planets(similar to Lands, again...). Unlike other CCG games in Multiverse the resource cards(Planets) are not part of your deck, instead the planets of all players are part of the board - the Galaxy. 

A Galaxy to Conquer

I keep saying that the game differs greatly from Magic, but let me prove it and tell you about the core gameplay of Multiverse. In this game there is a board and your units via ships move on the map, take new planets, build structures, fight, board enemy ships. This is already a whole new game.  On top of that you can build only on places where the necessary resources are present on the space itself, but you have cargo ships to make this easier. As you can see the game is a galaxy of possibilities on its own. Now that you know what you can do you can start working on a strategy how to win. I did not tell you how you win, did I? May bad. To win you should either conquer all your opponents home planets or conquer half the Galaxy. 

Conclusion

Multiverse: Cosmic Conquest mixes CCG with strategy 4X game, trying to make something very unique and truly interesting. In the game you will do everything you have ever dreamed for in a space strategy game. You will have battles between space armadas, you will board enemy ships, colonize planets and transport goods with cargo ships in order to expand your empire. 

The game is still under development and a lot is work in progress, but you can try it in OCTGN. You will have the stunning 225 cards to experiment with and over at TokArts you can see when testing sessions are happening and play with other people too. 

In case you have no experience with OCTGN you can find full tutorial here. 

When Multiverse is complete it will run on its own engine like every other digital CCG, so if you do not like it now, give it time, this game has huge potential and for I will follow it closely.

Where to find: 

Official site

Pressure Overdrive - Step up a gear!

Count Soap is stealing all the water in the world in order to open his Uber-Spa, but nothing is lost yet as La Resistance is here to stop him! You are a member of La Resistance and alone or together with a friend you are about to blast some bad guys.

Only one thing, before going into the game - I was provided a key from the developer Chasing Carrots and the is expected to be out in Q2 this year. 

Or should I say this version of the game as Pressure Overdrive is actually remake of 2013's original title - Pressure which sadly did not take off well, but luckily Chasing Carrots took the criticism to hearth and went back to fix their game. And because this is how I roll I will be honest and here and now will say that I have not played Pressure, but I can tell you about this one.

Race, ram & blast! 

The title says it pretty clearly. This is what you gonna do when you are not in Le Bistro, tinkering your buggy. More details, you say, I am glad you asked! 

Pressure Overdrive is steam-punk arcade race shoot em up game where the goal is not to reach the finish, but to survive until you get there as the track is packed full of enemies of all kinds. Small tanks, punks on bikes, giant trucks spilling acid, motor boats and even bosses at the end of each world. The game reminds me of Tank Racer(and this is quite the inaccurate comparison I know...)  but a lot more dynamic and frantic with packs of enemies all around you, smashing fences, gun towers, flying above bottomless pits and crashing through explosive barrels. BANG!BOOM!KABAW!  

The game is action in its purest form and it involves a good amount of skill too as you will have to drive, shoot accurately and dodge bullets all at the same time. 

But come on, who cannot do that pf! To make things harder and more thematic, you have two resources(so to say) - pressure and health. The second is obvious, if it reaches zero you are busted and you should restart the race. Pressure is necessary to shoot your guns. The longer you shoot the more pressure you spend. Lower the pressure slower you move and shoot. You can stop shooting or moving at all to recover, but you are not a coward, right? Then you need to be accurate as each destroyed enemy gives you pressure( There is also very annoying type of enemy which steals your pressure...). If you do not manage to finish you can restart or you can call a buddy for filled with action and fun coach co-op action. If you finish the race you move on to the next, but before that...

Welcome to Le Bistro 

Le Bistro is your garage where you can make your buggy a real mean machine with spikes at the sides and swirling blades at the front, all this finished with a shotgun to rain fire on those who does not dare to get close to you. Or you can put a big mortar and just blast everyone away from afar. There is good amount of upgrades and styles of play depending on what you put on your machine, so you will never be bored with your car while you make it into real weapon for mass destruction.  

Conclusion 

Pressure Overdrive is great combination of race and arcade shoot em up game. It is frantic, colorful, full of action, fun, full of different, wacky, but nasty enemies. It has 3 worlds with more than 30 levels for you and a trusty friend, to test your skills in a bullet filled race or hair standing bossfight. And when you beat those there is the endless mode, only for the best of the best.

It is a kind of game which I have not seen for long time and while is not exactly my cup of tea, I had great fun with it and hard time putting it down. It is clear that Chasing Carrot has put some serious work in it and I hope it will be the success it deserves to be. The game is expected to come out in Q2 this year for PC, PS4, Linux and Apple OS. 

Where to find:

Official site

Quick Opinion: Pixel Privateers, Night in the Woods

This is one of a kind Quick Opinion! There has never been another like it! It's about only two games... I was planning of making two separate posts about Pixel Privateers and Night in the Woods, but when I started writing them I realized the games are two simple or short for the format so I bundled them into a Quick Opinion. Here they are!

Pixel Privateers

I would have never heard of this if I was not following closely Re-Logic, the creators of Terraria. The game is not theirs, but they are publishing it and that is what grabbed my interest. Made by Quadro Delta(Yes, the guys behind Pixel Piracy) Pixel Privateers is squad based tactical RPG where you will explore the galaxy following mysterious quest to recover alien technology. 

In its core the game is really simple. You choose your team, pick a planet and beam your guys down to kill things and loot dead bodies until they complete the objective for the mission, then you bring them back and put on them new shiny items and then repeat. Surprisingly the action part while always the same is fun, flashy and entertaining. There is great amount of different weapons, including swords, several classes and what surprised quite good amount of different enemies. 

After each planet you will also get a lot of items with which to fiddle trying to make your characters the best you can. Also you can hardly hit a too hard planet or too easy without wanting to as you can change difficulty for each planet before you raid it.

 The biggest problem I saw with the game is that you will get so much loot that the amount of inventory management you will have to do is overwhelming and honestly annoying. This aside Pixel Privateers is great light, pretty much mindless fun where you kill things and they explode like pinatas dropping items everywhere. If this sounds like your thing find the game on the links below. 

Where to find:

Steam

Official site

Night in the Woods

"I stayed here and got older. You went to college and stayed the same."

 Bea

This line sums up what Night in the woods is and if you have played it you will agree I am sure. If you have not, read on.
You play as Mae, she has dropped out of college and now is back to her small town where everything is the same at first glance, but actually so much has changed. Night in the Woods explore the problems of growing up, failing, parents expectations, clash of past and present and many more, it is a game which will have biggest impact on players which are around Mae's age and they themselves are having the same or similar problems. Other audience to which I recommend the game are people who have gone through this in the past. Another side of the game is the mystery and Mae's weird dreams, but most value from the game you will get if you play it because of the things I mentioned above as this is the main purpose of the game in my opinion. To touch these sensitive topics which few if any games does. 
Some more game-y things about Night in the Woods. The whole game is moved in the same way games like Oxenfree are. You go around, talk to people, interact with objects and see what happens. The game has interesting geometrical art style, simple controls and it is around eight hours with two main different endings which can be slightly altered depending on your actions. 
As you can see Night in the Woods is hard to review material, as if I go in details I will spoils many things and this game is mostly about the experience it gives. And the best experience is when you do not know what is coming. I recommend this game even if only for the example how to make such games.  

Where to find:

Steam
Official site