Into the breach - Pacific Rim meets chess

Few days ago I realized that I have not written about Into the breach. So I am here to fix this mistake.

In 2012 a small studio called Subset Games created their debut game - Faster than Light - FTL. Despite the small team and niche genre FTL was a hit and turned into classic, becoming benchmark for many people in the industry. In February 2018 Subset returned and on the market appeared Into the Breach.

Small piece of perfection

I usually like to separate my reviews into sub-sections about the different aspects of the game, but Into the Breach is too small and too simple of a game for such thing, so here comes everything.

In the game you take command of a special time traveling squad which goes into the distant feature attempting to prevent the end of humanity. Similar to  FTL Into the Breach is also roguelike where when you die you teleport back to the past, re-assemble your team and can try again. During the game by completing objectives you will unlock new mechs for your squad. 

When you choose from your mechs and you are ready to start, the game transports you to the future. The world consists of islands which consist of regions. Each island have its own climate which can lead to thunderstorms, earthquakes, sandstorms and erupting volcanoes. Each region have also different objectives, some with buildings which if you succeed to keep whole to the end of the battle will provide you with bonuses and sometimes even units. 

If in a run you cleaned an island next time you will be able to start from it. 

Speaking of battles...

When you choose an island you will have a choice between few regions on this island. Each region with different advantages and disadvantages for you. What is important about the island's regions is that you will not be able to save all, some of them will fall to the insects, so you will need to choose carefully what you want and what you need. When you choose a region it is time to squash some bugs.

The battlefield is a small 8x8 square and on it the whole battle takes place. Before the battle you will have the chance to deploy your troops and this can be crucial for the battle to develop in your favor. What was surprising to me was how simple the game is and what big variety of units ( both mechs and bugs) there is in the game. The first make the game really easy to pick up and the second make it tactical masterpiece. The two together make it the gem it is. Among the bugs and the mechs you will see melee, charging units, tanks shooting in straight line, flying bugs and aircrafts, siege cannons, units creating  lightning and dust storms, bugs which bind targets stopping them from moving and more and more. The combinations and tactics are enormous amount. You will unlock thematic squads of mechs, but you can freely combine mechs from the pre-made squads into a custom squad. 
But how do you win? ( or lose at that matter) A good question. In each region you have buildings and you have power grid stat. If your power grid reaches zero you lose the run. When a building is destroyed you lose one grid and it is not restored after the battle. To win a battle you must survive X number of turns only, even in the bossfights, BUT in most battles you will also have side objectives which in some cases will give you grid, stars for unlocks or upgrade cores for your units. 

Conclusion

Into the Breach is simple game with simple mechanics. What make it so good is how well the mechanics are picked and how well they work together. It is not overburdened with complicated stats, skills or units, it is clean, only what is necessary and at the same time the game will make you bang your head against the wall and carefully plan every click you make. 

Where to find:

GoG
Steam
Humble

Kingsway - Is this the dream operating system?

Kingsway is a roguelike game, coming from Adult Swim and Andrew Morrish. The game did not look like that much to me, but it made some noise so I decided to try it and see what all the ruckus is about.

This Good old Roguelike is...

The game starts pretty standard - you choose a face for your character, class(warrior, rogue, wizard, beastman(the exact name escapes me) ), name and you are ready to go. Kingsway take place on the map of the world and you will move between nodes on it. Even if you enter a dungeon the movement system remains the same. While moving between nodes you will have the chance to have an encounter. Either with another wanderer which will give you some options to interact with him or you will encounter a monster. When the encounter is finished and you are not dead(which might happen with both types of encounters) you continue to your destination. Your goal lies to the East and while nothing stops you to rush to there, you will probably die if you try to. And while on the topic if you die you are death for good(for bad I guess, but...), but you can leave something for your next character who is brave enough to venture into Kingsway. 

Kingsway is so rouguelike-ish that even its graphics are in retro pixel style.

 ...not like the others?

If you want your game to be seen and people to talk about it(which Kingsway managed) you need to do something if not unique at least different enough. The different about Kingsway is that it is like an OS. Yes, you read that right. Everything is happening in windows on the desktop of a retro OS. Your Inventory is a folder, Start menu is the Main Menu of the game, your quests come as e-mails, progress while traveling and attacking is shown with loading bars, etc. And you can open all these helpful windows all at the same time and just put them around the map or order them in any way you want on your desktop effectively ordering the UI of the game in the most comfortable for you way. 

But the most interesting part is the battles. When you encounter an enemy he will pop up on your desktop into a separate window with a picture of the monster and your skills as buttons at the bottom. Here comes the tricky part - the monster window unlike any other windows will not stay stationary letting you choose skills and hit the monster. Oooh, no..it will move and bounce around making it really hard for you to click that skill button and because that is not enough some enemies and traps will throw projectiles at you which in their turn will pop up in little moving windows with "avoid" button on them and you will have to click it if you do not want to get hit. It is really, really chaotic and tough. It takes more than little to get good at this game.

Conclusion

While the fighting mechanic is unique indeed and there are huge amounts of nostalgia with its pixel graphic style and retro OS-like environment, Kingsway has nothing much else to offer.You make a character, make a run find cool items, reach fairly far, you die. Rinse and repeat. Now do not get me wrong all roguelikes are like that and I like the genre as I have said many times. It is just that the game did not seemed that different or original to me. It felt like any other(good) roguelike out there. That may be good thing or not, depending on what you are looking for. 

Where to find:

Official site
Steam Store
GoG
Humble Store

Dead Cells - Pixel jewel of hardship

Disclaimer: Dead Cells is still in Early Access.

Dead Cells is a rougelite game by Motion Twin. In it you are a headless prisoner who is trying to escape the prison? Or should I say you are a head using a body? Why are you escaping? How you got there? Those are question not explained by the game - the mysteries of Early Access. 

Despite being in early access Dead Cells offers quite the finished product gameplay-wise and lacks only more levels, story and real end. What it offers? Read on.

As in every roguelike/lite you have only one life. When you die, you start from the beginning and you lose money, stat upgrades and any items you have found or bought during the run. But Dead Cells also has a progression system to make the grind easier. When you kill monsters, you will get souls and between every two levels you will meet The Collector and be able to permanently upgrade items. After that you will be able to fully heal and fill your life flask (in case you have unlocked it) and then next level. As you can see almost classical roguelite formula. 

Unlike many games of the genre Dead Cells is not turn based. Instead it is metroidvania action-platformer combined with souls-like combat. So be ready to do some dodging! Honestly while I am huge turn-based fan the action platforming is done really well in the game and makes the grind not so tedious as you zap through the first levels and get to the interesting part quicker. Not to mention that the platformer gives freedom for a lot more interesting boss fights. 

Conclusions

It is impossible for Dead Cells to not remind you of the Souls series as it shares a lot of similarities to the evillest game ever (which is not a roguelike). In each fight, you should be careful. Boss or not everything can kill you easily because of this there is a lot of dodging. The boss fights are hard, but epic. And probably the best, bearing in mind you will see the same zones again and again, you can skip big chunks of the levels just by running, ignoring the enemies and mini bosses. In the spirit of the recently ended GDC I predict that we will see Dead Cells there as soon as it is out. 

Dead Cells has only one downside and that is its Early Access state, because of which you do not get enough for the price (Right now you can beat it for hour or two, the end is obviously work in progress and if you are not a completionist you will have nothing to do once you reach the end.). My advice is to wait until it is released and then enjoy the great game it will be. 

Where to find:

Official site
Steam

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

Preview: Tumbling Apart - It has huge potential

Disclaimer: I was contacted by the developer Goodnamehere_ to cover their title Tumbling Apart which is fighting for Greenlight right now. This may or may not have affected my opinion.


I always have adored games centered around their story. And no good story is empty of feelings.
Remember this...

You are playing Isaac who is riddled with guilt over the awful fate of his sister. In his sadness, guilt and anger he swears that he is ready to everything just to redeem himself and to save his sister. And as it happens often when strong feelings are involved mystical power grants Isaac's wish and he is given the power to re-experience his life and former tribulations. With this the game has the intention to touch on unusual subject as abusive relationships, alcoholism, drug use and abandonment. The developer compare it to titles like To The Moon and Life is Strange.

 The idea of Tumbling Apart is to suck you in relying more on your feelings and mystery, on the experience it will provide to the player than to any flashy graphics or complicated mechanics. It is set to show that good games can be made "without the need for flashy modern gaming systems" and stories can be told "through solid, simple gameplay, narration, dialogue and setting.". 
When the game is finished it will offer meaningful choices and challenging puzzles.  

This is what Goodnamehere_ promises the game to be. As I mentioned it is fighting for Greenlight right now and it has playable demo which you can try. The demo is also what I played and let me tell you my impressions from it.

From the very start the game is indeed touching heavily on sensitive topics like alcoholism and life hardship, not to mention with how much feelings it is filled. Also Tumbling Apart is probably one of the best looking(in every aspect) RPG-maker game I have seen with it's extra custom animations, backgrounds, intriguing story and effects. Those looks together with the great soundtrack definitely put you in the right mood to play heavy relying on experience game like this. Sadly the available demo does not offer any of the cool sounding aspects of the game, so I cannot really comment on them. The idea of the game is great, it would have been awesome to have my hands on version including some puzzles and future defining decisions. That said the short demo gives you enough for you to be able to decide is it a game for you or not. I am genuinely interested in the title despite the fact that I usually avoid RPG Maker games. Try it and if it is for you, you(like me) will feel strong need for more at the end of the demo.

Where to find:

Greenlight page
Official site
Download demo

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