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THIS ARTICLE IS OUT OF DATE!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

Pankapu - Jumping to you in episodes

After my disappointment from Seasons after Fall I went into Pankapu without any expectations. I just did not dare to have any. What attracted me was the interesting idea of episodic platformer and the colorful graphics. 

Pankapu is a 2D action platformer made by Too Kind Studio. The game revolves around the fairy tale told to the traumatized boy Djaha’rell. The story follows both the brave savior of the Dream world Pankapu and the boy Djaha’rell. The developers from Too Kind promise that the story will play big role in this attempt for episodic game, but so far I have not seen any heavy story telling or interesting dialogues. 

Oh there are a lot of them for sure and some are too long for a platformer game, but I cannot say that they have made the story of the game more interesting for me. We will see how this will develop as this is only the first episode and it is early to scratch the story from the picture. But do not expect atmospheric experience from the sort of Valiant Hearts for example.

Despite the story Pankapu pretty much excels in every other aspect. The game looks great with bright colors, thought out mechanics, responsive controls, well designed platforming action and secret areas to find. Yes, your guess is right you will have to replay levels after each gain of new powers. And new powers you will gain fairly quickly as this first episode is not very long and unfolds with satisfying tempo as the levels are usually short, but packed with action and you rarely run more than few meters without jumping, slashing or dodging something. 

But I mentioned new powers and did not said anything more about them. There are three powers which you will be able to switch between in real time if need be. Your default starting one - Bravery which will give you a sharp sword and a shield. Ardor which will make you nimble and dodgy to hit  while at the same time allowing you to strike from distance. And the Faith which will allow you to be a mighty wizard smashing your nightmarish opponents in mass. In your venturing through the world of Omnia you will also have the chance to upgrade different aspects of your character like his health and damage. 

Conclusion

Pankapu is great, short (because of its episodic nature) platformer done with great deal of understanding how a game in the genre should function, look and feel. At the same time Too Kind Studio have decided to make their game in episodes which I see no reason for. Platformers never been known or played for their deep story and great writing or dialogues. So far I have not seen Too Kind changing that. I am not saying that story is bad it is decent may be for a bit younger audience than me, but is nothing revolutionary. If you like platformers you will probably have fun with Pankapu - I did and my curiosity what they will manage to do with the whole episodic thing makes me keep an eye on them.

Where to find:

Official site

Steam

Quick Opinion: Samorost 3, The Curious expedition, Everspace, Seasons After Fall

I do not have an excuse anymore other than the ridiculous amount of games which catch my attention and the opposite in amount time I have. So this will be fairly regular format for smaller games.

Today we will take a look at Samorost 3 ( old favorite series of mine ) a crazy adventure game, The Curious Expedition which is similar to Renowned Explorers International Society, Everspace a FTL like game with a twist and last Seasons after Fall a cute platformer  for which I had certain hopes which it may or may not have fulfilled. First is...

Everspace

Everspace is a sci-fi roguelike, similar to FTL, created by ROCKFISH Games. But here you control a small fighter and try to reach the center of the Universe(mhmm, familiar I know) for unknown even to you reason, but pushed by the AI of your ship. The other big and may be the main difference is that Everpsace is not turn-based, instead is a dogfight/exploration game where you mine, fight, collect money, find equipment for your ship and run when needed(often at the beginning) from bigger ships. In similar to FTL way you will jump from system to system when you are done with each one.
After each try(read after each death) you can modify your ship with the collected money trying to make it better. Strange fact storywise - your pilot remembers his previous attempts which rise some questions like is this real, are you revived somewhere after each dead? 

With your progress you will learn form the AI more and more about not only your mission but also about the few factions and the story of the game in general. The AI will also occasionally mock you or urge you to do this and that which brings strange humorous note to the otherwise kind of grim and lonely space around you.
Sadly as most roguelikes Everspace have the specific for the genre slow start and steep learning curve which may easily put you off from this otherwise great looking space dogfight/roguelike game.

Oh, oh the game is in early access so you might want to wait a little.

Where to find:

Official site

Steam

GoG

Seasons after Fall

I have great amount of love for Ori and The Blind Forest, a game which is not only great in very aspect but also a title which rekindled my attraction to platformers. So when I saw the first shots from Seasons after Fall I was immediately reminded of Ori and got excited...may be too much. In Seasons after Fall you are small "seed" which by a mysterious voice is given the task to gather the powers of the Seasons by meeting their Guardians. Seasons after Fall is very beautiful game with charming characters and interesting idea - solving puzzles by controlling the weather. BUT it is repetitive, there is a ton of backtracking and not in the sense of metroidvania, no, there is only one way. So when you acquire new power and need to return back you can go only the way you came. Which is boring to say the least... This together with the fact that you do the same over and over again, which is going, getting the power from the Guardian and going back makes for one not very interesting or exciting game. Which is sad as it does has potential and it does look great.

...or may be I expected too much of it...

Where to find:

Official site

Steam

The Curious Expedition

Because I have started with the disappointing games and I want to end this post in good spirit I will tell you about another title which sadly did not meet my expectations. May be, again, because I compared it to something else and expected more. The game is The Curious Expedition by  Maschinen-Mensch where you will take the role of a famous person( like Lovecraft, Tesla, Alister Crowley, Charles Darwin etc.) who, for some reason, has decided to explore what seems like the jungles of South America. During your adventures you will collect loot which you can sell for honor or money. At the beginning of this post I have stated the game to be similar to Renowned Explorers International Society and while both games share some similar mechanics like the honor cost of items, choose your own adventure aspects and the whole expedition theme Curious Expedition is a lot lighter, simpler and sadly repetitive game where you will always look for the Golden Pyramid. Granted Renowned Explorers had its repetitive moments and you always tried to beat the most famous explorer but it had unique battle system, genuine feeling for exploration and adventure and a lot more interaction between the different characters which all together managed to make you feel invested in the game. While CE I have the feeling is targeted more to the people who like to jump in a game, make a short session or two and be on their way. Which for exploration game like this one it does not really work for me.

Where to find:

Official site

Steam

Samorost 3

And last but by no means least an old favorite of mine with its third installment - Samorost. For those of you aware of the series I can only say more of the same which we so much loved in the previous games. Interesting puzzles, quirky characters, beautiful and very detailed environments. For those of you who have not heard of Samorost ( and I will not be surprised if there are such among you ) this is an adventure exploration puzzle game where you will have to solve some really original puzzles if you manage to undestand what is wanted from you only from the gestures and pictures provided by other characters as there is no speech in the game. Samorost is work of Amanita Design the creators of Machinarium and will easily charm you with its amazing aesthetic, music and bizarre characters. And the story is pretty decent too...if you manage to figure it out.

Where to find:

Official site

Steam

GoG

    

The Warlock of Firetop Mountain - Some things never get old

I remember at some point in my childhood how I read choose your own adventure books and fail at them all the time. I was not able to finish even one. I mean successfully. At some point later I have forgotten about them ( As it happens with a lot of things.) until few years ago when mainly with the help of Sorcery by Steve Jackson(not to be mistaken with the designer of Munchkin) my interest in the genre was revived to such extends that I even tried to write two stories - one is still unfinished, the second was not liked by the publisher, but enough about me. Today I will tell you about my adventures in the Firetop Mountain which is also created by Steve Jackson (and Ian Livingstone). And no I am not starting to review books on the blog, Firetop has received its own digital port much in the spirit of Sorcery.

 In this adventure you will brave the Firetop Mountain at the top of which powerful Warlock resides. Based on the character you choose at the start your mission in the mountain will be different but it will involve some interaction with the Warlock for sure.

Once Upon a time there was a Warlock...

TWoFM tells the story in the same original way Sorcery did - by small snippets of text which chain together after each of your choices. This time you also have a figurine of your character which wanders around while exploring the vast dungeons of the mountain. Essentially it is a tabletop RPG now. 

After I finished both Sorcery books I have given it to Mr. Jackson that he is a good writer and for this story he have worked with Ian Livingstone. That said there a lot of ways to ruin a good story when you make it into a game, this is not an example of one thankfully as the visual style and mechanics only complement the feeling of a tabletop game.

When you start the game you will have to choose between several characters which not only have different stats and abilities but also have their own distinctive backstory which will affect many of the encounters you have in your adventure. For example you might recognize a famous adventurer who has been locked in the mountain for long time and he will give you useful information or you might even find fans of yours among the goblins and orcs guarding the dungeon. Or you might smack the old men and kill all the greenskins...it all depends on who you are. The character you choose will also determine the objective you have. Giving such unique choices based on the character choice gives the game great amount of replayability ( as it did not have enough by the lone fact that it is a choose your own adventure )

Swords and Grids

There are more than few series in the choose your adventure genre and The Warlock of Firetop Mountain is proud representative of Fighting Fantasy therefore as the name suggests, there is a good amount of fighting in the game and I was curious how it is done and was half expecting the same "powerbluff" system as in Sorcery and I was kind of correct on the bluffing part. This time fights take place on a grid and each turn you and your enemies choose one action when both are done actions resolve simultaneously. 

Tin Man Games have called it GridBluff system, but it is a lot like the action programming mechanic in board games. The name of the mechanic does not matter that much actually and what is important is that it makes the battles really strategic and often puts you in situations where you will think more than few minutes on what to do on your turn. Also with the ascension of the mountain you will encounter harder and harder enemies with intricate battle mechanics related to them. Giant statues will smash everything in front of them, stone palms will come to life and grab you from few squares distance and stone statues will push each other around making standing in front of them deadly. 

Conclusion

If you have gotten this far you are probably already downloading the game. I mean Fighting Fantasy, Steve Jackson, Ian Livingstone, choose your own adventure, Tin Man Games...there is hardly a better combination you can wish for if you are a fan of tabletop and/or adventure books? But even if you are (still) not a fan but have wondered will you like such books the digital version of The Warlock of Firetop Mountain is good place to start as it has all the charms of the books and at the same time it comes powered up by digital technology which only adds to the experience and immersion. But the game has something to offer even to the experienced gamers as this version adds new characters, enemies and areas to explore. Must try!

Where to find:

The Warlock of Firetop Mountain

Steam

Humble Bundle

Tin Man Games

Epistory Typing Chronicles - The keyboard is mightier than the sword

Through the long years of gaming I have tried various genres of games. Some I have played more, some less. Some have become my favourite and some I almost have not played. Typing games is one of the later. I have played few and while I can say that they have some educational value I saw little value in them as a gamer. This changed after I played Epistory Typing Chronicles.

Made by Fishing Cactus 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 need 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, but more about that later.

The game looks amazing with its "origami-like" art style, charming characters and interesting, open for interpretation story. And while this together with its "book" theme grabbed me as I am a proud bookw(y)orm what impressed me is how the guys from Fishing Cactus combined the charming look and theme with few things from other genres(this seems to be THE THING now) to attract broader public, but at the same time kept the focus of the game on the words.

The first of those things are the simple RPG mechanics. The first part is there - you are (role)playing a muse, the second part is character development. Through the game you will learn new skills which will allow you to type easier, to run faster, to sense objects of interest, to burn words(do not tell the dwarves, they will throw you in jail.) and more.

The second is the battle system. You will encounter many enemies in the depths of the writer's mind and you will have to defend yourself. Some will be simple, one word small fries which you will easily type out. But others will be huge never-heard-before three words monsters and you will have to use your whole typing skills acquired in the chats to beat them before they reach you. Because even single touch is enough to kill the muse of a writer. At the end of each zone you will have to survive few waves of enemies, which will come at you from all sides.

I mentioned that they focus on the words and you might wonder what exactly I meant. Let me explain. In Epistory you will type...a lot. This is a game about typing. But you will not have to type "trunk" every time you see a trunk. You will type something wood related. This goes for everything you interact with. This game will expand your vocabulary. Also in the game there will be barred areas and you will not be able to understand the language of the words for those barriers until you travel to certain other places where you will literally learn new "language" so you can read the words you need to progress.

Conclusion

Epistory Typing Chronicles is an interesting pick up on a genre in which we rarely see something new. But here instead of only typing you will explore interesting and mystical, beautiful world filled with treasures, monsters and puzzles. You will learn new "languages", learn new real words and explore one charming and beautiful world. As every typing game this one also will try to teach you something new, but at the same time borrows some mechanics from RPG games which makes it only more interesting. Great game! Niche and not for everybody, but a real hidden gem. 

Where to find:

Official site

Steam

Fishing Cactus