After short content break we are back with a quick opinion about
few interesting games. Some of which are older some of which are new. Here we
go!
Old Man's Journey
I had really hard time with telling what this game is, so I
decided to call it...a journey. And the more I think about it, the more I like
this definition. You play an old man who receives a letter contents of which
you don't know, bit this letter pushes you to go on a journey not only through
the country, but also through your memories. Because of this I feel like this
game is a personal experience something which you want to experience alone and
see for yourself. The Old Man journeys alone and one's memories are something
also personal and something you want to sometimes review alone.
First I want to say something here just so I do not forget it. Old
Man's Journey is fabulously looking game. So colorful with rich pallets fitting
to every mood and moment of the game. The game is visual feast. That said let
me tell you how the game works as there are also some interesting mechanics in
this small two hours game.
Old Man's Journey is separated in chapters and in each chapter you
need to "find" a memory. To achieve this you need to traverse the
area by solving puzzles. All puzzles are connected to the main mechanic of the
game - you have the ability to change the landscape of the area by moving hills
around and making them lower or higher. There is even slight color coding
indicating that you can move the different parts of the hill to different
altitudes. For example you can move one part of a hill (color x) higher and
another lower (color z) which is impossible to do with single color hills.
Using this and by aligning hill's altitude you will need to find ways around
fences, herds of sheep, waterfalls and even scale cliffs or make way for a
train.
Old Man's Journey is amazing, charming, filled with bittersweet
feelings small game which might make you think about life in different light.
Give it a chance it is barely a two hours journey each minute of which is worth
it.
Has-been Heroes
By the creators (Frozenbyte) of one of my favorite platformers -
Trine comes Has-been Heroes. Has-been heroes is a party based real time
RPG with tactical pause and roguelike elements. But this is not accurate
description so do not quote me on it. "What is it then?" you ask
well... Here comes the hard part, but let me try. You are three heroes which
are trying to escort two princesses to school (mhm, exactly...). You do that by
moving between points on the map and on each point you can find different
things - shops, treasure, special items like keys or candles or rest camps etc.
You cannot backtrack! You cannot visit a place where you have been already so
you will have to plan from where you want to go. On the maps you will also find
fights. Which are what the game shines with.
When you engage into battle you will have to either survive for
certain time or defeat all enemies. Here comes the interesting part of the
game. Your opponents have stamina and if you want to damage them you need to
drain their stamina by hitting them. The thing is when you manage to damage the
health of an opponent he is knocked back and his stamina RESETS. It does not
matter how damage you deal when you hit stamina. One hit will remove one
stamina. The interesting part and the one thing you will need to learn and get
used to it is the tactical lane based aspect of the game. Each hero has a lane
and enemies coming at him/her. When one hero attacks and strikes he is not on
his position and while it is empty you can swap him with another character
which now can attack the same opponent combo-ing the two. Basically you want to
drain the enemy stamina and then hit them as hard as you can to deal as much
damage as you can.
At the end of each map there is a nasty, nasty boss. You lose the
game when ONE of your heroes die. How they die? Heroes also has stamina and
when something reaches them it hits them reducing their stamina. Heroes’
stamina is not recovered between battles.
There is a lot to get used to and learn in the game as it has quite
unique approach. But there is also possible to not like the battle system and
therefore hate the game. Another downside is how hard the boss is and if you do
not manage to beat him in few runs you will feel like the game is not
progressing at all. But if you manage to beat him and get his 80+ unlocks well
that is a different story.
Has-been heroes has intriguing battle system, but sadly I did not
saw anything else in the game which to keep me playing it. Also go and watch a
video of it, it is impossible to explain how the game works with words alone.
Outland
Now I know that Outland is a bit older than the other two, but I
always wanted to cover or remind you of old but good games so here it is -
Outland. In Outland you are a simple boy which escapes from the hut of his
teacher and goes on an adventure led by mystical light. On this adventure he
will need to rediscover the powers of hero of old, because a horror is upon
this world. The game sports very interesting art style, but what is really interesting
about the game is its core mechanic which is color switching. Outland is puzzle
platformer with bullethell moments, but all this is mixed up with your ability to change your affinity
between blue and red. Everything in the game is related to those two colors.
For example red projectiles can be absorbed if you are red, but blue enemies
can be damaged only by red. Also there are color coded platforms - you will be
able to stand on blue while you are blue and you will fall through them if you are red. Now
this does not sound that cool but the game will force you to dynamically change
colors while jumping, fighting or dodging obstacles which creates amazing dynamic
gameplay keeping you on the edge all the time.
While not impressive with its story or visuals Outland is great
action platformer and while might be a bit too hard for people not experienced
in the genre it can offer some really good fun to fans of platformers.
Oh...and it has co-op.
