Runestone Keeper - How will you die?

There is something masochistic in roguelikes especially in the really hard ones. You die and then try again and then die again and again until no end. You don't play to win; you play to see how far you will get. Not to mention that they are neither fair nor friendly, they just try to kill you. In their era few subgenres emerged but probably one got a good portion of attention - the coffee roguelikes. Those were and still are quick short roguelikes in which you can complete a run in your coffee break. One of the more famous ones being probably Desktop Dungeons. Today I will tell you about another game from this subgenre - Runestone Keeper. Done by Blackfire Games and released on 3rd of March 2015 Runestone Keeper brings together some of the best characteristics of the genre.

How to die...as far as possible

You take in the role of adventurer who is seeking what force lies beneath the dungeon. To learn that you need to first reach its end. The problem? Well, there is whole army of monsters and traps ridden rooms between you and your target. The main mechanic of the game and the games look really remind me of Desktop Dungeon. In both games you have a room which is covered in darkness and you must find the entrance to the next level, killing any monster between you and it. Or all monsters if you are feeling extra strong today. The monsters are nothing more than a square with the three base stats on a tile in the room but are they terrifying when you find them?! I mean have you been in a room with three rare monsters all of them attacking on every turn? Then you don't know the despair that one feels in such moment.

As I mentioned the battles are turn-based. You hit them, they hit you and this continues until one of you dies. At your disposal you will have many different weapons with which to whack your enemies as well as skills, items and the occasional help of a god. The items are one time use and will allow you to manipulate the monsters in different ways. For example you will be able to freeze them, reduce their stats, turn them into stone, kill certain types instantly and so on. Occasionally you will also find altars of different gods. On them you will be able to prey for the gods help. Different gods will give you different kinds of powers. The god of war will give you bonus attack, the god of gold will make it easier for you to gather gold etc. This is always at prise, also the god you have worshiped will put you to tests which based on your actions may have various results. Oh...and don't try to worship multiple gods, they take this very personally and do not like it. Once you worship a god while in the dungeon his altar will be also build at the entrance so you will be able to prey before starting a run.

In the dungeon you will also encounter all sorts of devices which will help you most of the time. Those will vary from ballistas that you can shoot at revealed monsters to shrines that reveal monsters and/or traps near them. And because this might not be enough there are also random events that might happen to you. You may accidentally burst into a monster inn or find the notes of famous alchemic. The events will have different outcomes based on their type and your actions. Sometimes they will even be helpful.

What tries to put Runestone Keeper aside is its runes mechanic. You will start with certain number of runes, separated in three grades - bronze, silver and gold. The runes can be used for two things - to increase the stats of your character or to customize the run you are about to do by activating different effects which will make it harder, but give you more points. Points are useless though unless you are into score attacks or something like that. 

When not trying to die in murky corridors you will have the chance to upgrade your starting area by unlocking shops and buying skills and items. 

All this will of course lead to nothing else but your death...sooner or later, it matters not.

Slowly crawling...

This was about the fun part, now about the not so fun...the game has unlockable characters and this is always cool. Something new to look forward to, something new to try. All great, right? Well...not exactly. It is extremely hard to unlock new characters. They are almost like end game content that you may or may not get; it depends on how long the game will keep you interested. And it will not be long enough. Because while it’s not a bad game: it is well made, it looks good and has interesting mechanics, it does not offer enough for the players to play it until they reach the 10th floor on the third difficulty only to unlock a character about who they know nothing. 

Conclusion

If you are a fan of roguelikes Runekeeper will definetely remind you why you have loved this genre. It has nice pixel graphics, interesting mechanics and the most important for game in the genre - its actively trying to kill you.

The donwside of it is that it have hard time keeping you interested as it quickly spends the things you can do in the game and the unlockables are too hard(or I am not hardcore enough...).

Where to find it:

Steam

Official site

Age of Decadence - "You are about to die and we salute you!"

Usually I start my reviews telling you what the game I will talk about, reminds me of. This time I have nothing to say. Age of Decadence is post-apocalyptic, Ancient Rome inspired RPG in which you try to survive and if Fate allows, reveal the mystery that torments all. 

The game is made by Iron Tower Studio, it was released in October 2015 and as many previous games that offer something different quickly grabbed the interest of many people.

Here you probably ask "Ok, what is so different about it? “ When you begin a new game there is message which starts with "Welcome, dear adventurer! You are about to die and we salute you!" and then it explains how the game works. The fact that this message exists and the developers have decided that the players will need it says enough about how different this game is. But let me give you more details. And even if what I'm about to tell you doesn't sound really unique to you by itself, imagine it with the other characteristics of the game. 

The first thing is that you are not a demigod killing machine in fact unless you choose some of the more fighting oriented classes like the mercenary or the Pretorian you will even try not to get in fight, because you will simply die. And even if you are a mercenary or battle oriented Pretorian you will still try not to get in fights against more than two enemies. 

Second thing which sets Age of Decadence apart is its decision making. There are a lot of games that try to use decisions and make them really important but sadly many fail. In AoD every word you speak matters it can mean the favour of the ruling House or your throat slit. Interesting here is that NPCs not only remember what you said to them but they can (as well as you) to lie or even betray you and they will if they see fit to. In this game in general promises words of honour, betrayal, lies and oaths are something serious and  you may get in serious trouble if you are not careful. Here NPCs are not some weaklings who only give you quests, no, they actually hold a lot more power than you do. And they are not your friends. In other words it simulates dealing with people frightfully accurate. 

Third thing is that the game is not linear...at all! There is no wrong way to do quests and progress through the story. There are easier ways and harder ones, but they all work. The freedom that the vast dialogue trees give you is mesmerizing. You can make crafty plots, trick people, organize assassinations, lie, betray, be loyal, honourable, peaceful, intimidating, knowledgeable and many more. And all those are ways in which you can play Age of Decadence. I have not tried it, but I believe that the game can be beaten without unsheathing your weapon at all. 

These are the key features of the game which charmed me and actually made me write this review. All those are done really well and click together in great way. If those does not sound like your cup of tea you may stop reading here, because there is no real point to continue as from here I will talk about the world of AoD and some other game mechanics like skills and types of skill points.

Let's start with the world. I tend to start my reviews with some lore but this time I deranged a little.
There has been war between the Empire and some mysterious race. Pressed against the wall the Empire used arcane arts to call for help... and such came. And although in the end the enemy was defeated the Empire fell, engulfing the whole world in chaos and darkness. Now few Houses and few Guilds try to hold what is left of this civilization while at the same time they try to rule all the others. Your role is to help those who now have power to find the answers of all unanswered questions about the destruction of the world. Who? Why? How? All those questions lie before you. 

The world is really well fleshed out. There is definitely the feeling of decay and darkness in the atmosphere. Every city has its own character, every House its own way of acting. There are a lot of characters to talk with, good amount of places to explore and visit. Also a lot if items to choose from to equip your character. Starting from daggers to spears and from cloaks and tunics to heavy armors and shields. What you will use depends only on your choice and your skills which lead us to the next interesting part of the game - skills and experience.

The skill variety in Age of Decadence is also great. You will be able to learn everything from how to smack people with all kind of sharp tools to how to disguise and present yourself as someone else or craft a complicated alchemical concoction. The more advanced your skills are the more experience you will need to level them up. And while there are no levels in the game you will get experience while progressing through the story. Depending on your actions you will get combat skill points, civil skill points or general skill points. The first two you can use only for your combat or civil skills and the third type you can use for both. This way of character development rewards focused builds and at the same time allows some variety to increase your chance of survival in the harsh world of AoD.

Something else that really impressed me and I do not remember to have seen it in other games is that when you choose one character you  can and will meet the others as NPCs in the starting town. For example if your choice is assassin your first task will be to kill a merchant, but you will have to go through his bodyguard. At the same time you can choose to start as this very same merchant or bodyguard and then you will have to deal with the assassin that comes for you.

Mentioning assassins and bodyguards may be its time to tell you more about the battle mechanics of the game.  Battles in Age of Decadence are turn-based and use action points where more powerful attacks and heavier weapons need more AP.  That of course is not all. In the battles there is as much detail as in everything else. When you attack you will have choice of what attack to perform. Based on where you aim - in the leg, head or the arm you you will be able to choose between attacks that can deal more damage, but have less accuracy and weaker but easier ones as well as disarming, whirlwinds, flurries, decreasing your opponents’ accuracy, mobility action points etc. Still battles will be the hardest way of solving matters on top of that optional fights will be even harder so think twice before jumping at someone.

Conclusion

Age of Decadence is RPG like no other. I remember playing its early versions and it impressed me even back then, now when I had more time and the full game it easily left me speechless. The atmosphere of uncertainty, the betrayal and death waiting behind every corner. The genuine feeling of a decaying Empire, falling apart while everybody with power fight to rule all that is left. And on top of that the games perfect mechanics. Everything starting from the vast dialogue trees to the skills to the decisions just clicks together making one perfect whole.

But despite seeing it as something great I can easily see why people may not like it. Age of Decadence does not look good - it is isometric and lacks any eye candies. There is very little action in the game and by action I mean fighting. It’s just not a game about killing people; it’s a game about deceiving them. There is a lot of reading in it. It actually reminds me of Pillars of Eternity, because if you don't read you will miss half of the game, not to mention that you will not know what to do. But at the same time AoD is very different game, because of the freedom it gives you. See praising it again, even when I try I cannot speak badly about it. I think this says enough.

Where to find it:

Official site

Steam

Duelyst - Blending genres like noone else

This review is out of date as since it is written the game has changed. It still provides decent information about Duelyst but it misses some key features and some described here are changed. 

Have you seen Star Wars, the original, old movies? Do you remember the cool hologram chess that they had in one of them? I always had dreamed for one of those as it looked really cool. When I started playing CCGs especially digital ones this dream expanded and now I wanted the creatures that I summon to look more alive and not just cards on the table. Basically I wanted Yu-Gi-Oh the anime into a video game! It might sounds a bit lame to some of you, but think about it - your favorite creatures from Hearthstone moving, smacking each other before your eyes. Your massive green beasts in Magic charging at your opponent! Sounds cool, right? Now you can experience this in the new creation of Counterplay Games - Duelyst.

How original it could be?

Duelyst is online game which blends turn-based battles with CCG in a great way. Right now the game is in open beta, but even in this state it looks really close to complete and offers to the player good amount of features.

After a short tutorial you will have few game modes to freely choose from.

The first one is Training where you will be able to complete challenges type Beat guy X in one turn. This mode is great for learning different mechanics of the game and earning a good amount of cash to buy few boosters and improve your card collection. There are 45 challenges right now (v0.49) separated in 9 sets of five, every set harder than the previous.

To unlock harder challenges you will have to play certain number of PvP matches first, which bring us to the next mode. For now the PvP in the game is only 1v1 and there is only ranked. It is also season based with rewards for everybody in the leaderboard, based on their best rank in the season. From what I have seen there is good amount of players and you will not have to wait long for an opponent. The 1v1 PvP is also the only way to complete your daily quests which usually revolve around playing certain number of matches with certain faction.

The third game mode is Gauntlet where you will have to fight matches one after another and longer you survive, the better the reward. Great mode to test your skills and decks.

And the last fourth mode of playing is sandbox where you will be able to test your decks against each other playing for both sides.

After I mentioned decks and factions few times already, let me tell you more about them, before we get to the battles themselves. In Duelyst there are seven factions including a neutral one which is the only one that can be combined with others when you make custom decks. Every faction has its own different play style. For example the Songhai are crafty ninjas which will beat you with backstabs, range units and spells; Vetruvian rely on a lot of summoning; Abysal capitalize on sacrificing weaker units to boost stronger ones etc. 

When I was building my custom decks though I noticed a small problem in that the game does not tell you how many of each card you have put in your deck, making following what you have included and what not harder than it should be. It tells you if you add the maximum 3 cards, but it does not if you add less. But other than this small detail I have not seen any problems with the game. It runs smoothly, its stable, has not disconnected me and have not crashed so far.

Now that you know the basics of the game let's talk about the battles! Duelyst uses mana and muligan systems similar to those in Hearthstone. The different mechanic here is that once per turn you can discard one card from you hand and draw a new one. Also you can have maximum of 9 mana.

But what really set Duelyst aside from other similar games are the tactical turn-based battles. In battle every player has his General which is something like a hero or a Planeswalker if you want. Your opponent General is your target. If you kill him you win the game. All generals have the same base stats - two attack and 25 health. Which makes them pretty weak fighters at the beginning of the duel. To boost them you can use spells to equip them different artifacts. Also you will have to summon your first creatures next to your General. After that you can summon new creatures next to other units under your control. When you summon a new creature unless it does not have the Rush ability it will suffer from summoning sickness and it will be unable to act this turn. All creatures and Generals can move only two spaces. Something a little confusing at first, related to movement is that when you choose path for your units it will not show you that they can move diagonally, but they actually can, though one square diagonal movement counts for two spaces. Also all of your units can pass through your other units. Very important thing to remember, I lost few games because I didn't used that and circled around my own creatures. 

As a whole Counterplay Games have done great job in blending CCG with turn-based tactical game. The battles are not only interesting, but they are also fast paced and end quickly.

The way it looks, the way it is

When I heard about Duelyst at first I was really excited as it sounded right up my alley. Then I saw the game for the first time and its pixel graphics almost made me not touch it as I was quite tired of this style already. Thankfully I decided to give it a try and the pixel graphics not only didn't bother me, but I loved them, because they are done masterfully. Duelyst is the second game where I see such detailed and gorgeous sprites (The first is Serpent in the Staglands, for those of you who wandered). And it's not only the sprites. The animations are detailed, well timed, you feel the impact of the strikes; the spells are simply beautiful to watch spirals of fire cascading towards the skies and giant skulls  roaring before horrible curses befall your enemies. What I'm trying to tell you is to not judge it before trying it as it is a lot better than it looks.

Conclusion

When I saw the name of the game I wondered why they have decided to name it Duelyst with "Y", but I thing I know now. This game at first glance looks like something very familiar, but actually it has such great twist to it that it is something absolutely unique. Duelyst has made the greatest dream of countless CCGs players become a reality - to see your summons smash each other on the battlefield. But Counterplay has not just done that they have built upon it, turning the battles in fully fledged tactical ones which in difficulty can be compared to classics like Heroes of Might and Magic or King's Bounty.

If you like turn-based battles and CCG games there is absolutely no reason not to try Duelyst. This game is amazing!

Where to find it:

Official site

  

Warhammer 40 000: Deathwatch - Tyranid Invasion - Is it fit for the Emperor?

"Amongst a hundred men, there may be none fit for the Adeptus Astartes. Amongst a hundred Space Marines, there may be one fit for the Deathwatch."

— Watch Captain Brand

Warhammer 40K - Deathwatch is a turned based strategy game by Rodeo Games. It came out for PC on 16th of October and for iOS on 21st of August. In the game you will take control over the elite marine chapter Deathwatch who has the task to protect the Imperium of men against all alien races.

Here I will tell you about the PC version of the game.

The Hive is here!

The Deathwatch is an elite chapter of Space Marines composed of veterans from all other existent chapters. Their sole mission is to stay guard on the borders of Mankind and be the only obstacle between any invaders and the Imperium. In WH40K Deathwatch the dreaded Tyranids are back and your squads are the only ones who stand between the Swarm and the Imperium.

The game is separated in ten Chapters each with its own four missions. Each Chapter from the Campaign follows an attack from the Tyranids and the actions that the Kill Squad takes to repel the invaders. While the number of 40 missions is good and each can be replayed in three different difficulties, the missions themselves are a bit repetitive. Most of the time you will need to move from point A to point B and/or survive for X number of turns. Sadly these are not the only flaws of the battles. Probably the biggest problem that I had with the game is the slow speed at which everyone moves and that it cannot be changed. Also in battle everything is rather ugly and there is certain lack of basic for such kind of game mechanics. I mean at its base Deathwatch is X-COM with different theme and few twists. But unlike X-COM it is stripped from core mechanics such as covers or indication for line of sight. The only thing it has is overwatch and range indication. And while those mechanics are probably enough for the iOS version as there should be kept certain simplicity, but for PC are far from what is expected. 

And this lack of mechanics and polish on the look and gameplay is rather sad because I enjoyed it to certain degree and can only guess how awesome it would have been if some additional work has been put into the port.

Shiny metal and fancy guns

But let me tell you about the strange part of the game. The Spacemarines section looks awesome!!! Not kidding! All marines have great models, good level of details and beautiful backgrounds. But not in battle...no. Also there is good level of customisation for each marine. They will gain experience in battle and you can distribute it among their three base stats (health, accuracy and crit chance) or you can unlock perks and skills. The marines even have tiers and with higher tier come better stats and more skills and perks. After the end of each Chapter from the campaign you are rewarded with booster which will give you at random new weapons and/or marines. You can also buy boosters for in-game currency (only!). Both gear and marines can be sold for game currency.

The weapons in similar to the marines fashion also has tiers. The interesting idea here is that the highest tier items are restricted for use only by certain chapters. The weapons like their users have good models and are really faithful to the originals.

For the Emperor!

WH40K Deathwatch: Tyranid Invasion is a turn based game which recently got its port from iOS to PC. At its core gameplay it is a tactical shooter similar to games like X-COM and Massive Chalice, but unlike the two it lacks a lot of mechanics usually found in this type of games. Not to mention that the game is neither good looker nor offers much of variety in terms of mission objectives. It is just a direct port fom iOS to PC without any additional effort put in it. This is a bit confusing because sections of the game like the Spacemarines one and the weapons inventory look really good. The game also offers a good amount of character customisation with unlockable skills and different tiers of marines. Not to mention that Rodeo Games has already done similar game in the Warhammer Quest Universe and ti has a lot more in it! It is sad because it could have been a rather decent 40K game. Instead now it will have to rely only on its Universe and name for any success.

Where to find it:

Official site

Steam Store

Apple Store

Nova - 111 - Turn by turn it turned out to be great

During The Greatest Science Experiment which tried to unlock "real-time" something went wrong...the laboratory is destroyed, the scientists are scattered through the worlds. You have to find them!

In Nova - 111 you will fly your strange orange ship through quirky worlds where you will solve puzzles, defeat bizarre creatures and save scientists. The game is by Funktronic Labs and hit the market at 28.08.2015.

Nova - 111 was something that I barely remember hearing about from PAX-East 2014. The game actually has made a real buzz around it, impressing pretty much everybody who tried it. Now it is officially out and after I gave it a try, let us see what it is about.

I'm Dr. Science...

In the game you will pilot Nova, your orange ship and you will be moving around in a grid. Yes, Nova - 111 is a turn based adventure game with a twist. More about it little later. The main objective of the game is to save 111 scientists who took part in the Greatest Experiment and to find the exit for the next level. At the end of each level you will get points. Finish the level for as few turns as possible and you will get even more points. Getting the scientists to be honest is not necessary for your progress, but if you are into high score attacks you will want to find them all. Of course you can always go to level already beaten to try again. 

The first scientist you rescue is named Dr. Science and he will be the narrator for the rest of the game, will teach you the controls and tell you what has happened. Dr. Science's lines are the first indication of the game's pretty good sense of humor that will make you smirk more than several times while you warp your brain around the puzzles. I kind of was expecting more science jokes from this game and more dialogue from the rest of the saved scientists, but all they do is say something silly when you save them. This felt like a missed opportunity to me, I mean how often you will fly with Schrodinger's cat and Alan Turing?

Now that I mentioned the puzzles, let me say a bit more about the "action" part of the game. In your search for the scientists you will encounter two types of hazards - enemies and puzzles. The first are all kind of strange creatures who don't like you. And with them comes the twist in this turn-based game - some enemies act in real time. You will usually have few seconds to react but the first time you meet a new enemy you will never know how it will act. Will it charge at you, will it shoot or it might just start to multiply when you bump it with your ship. Against this onslaught of bizarre creatures you will have few tricks - protobombs, laser beam, phase ability and even the ability to manipulate time, not to mention that those will help you pass different puzzles too. Of course don't think you will get all this from the get go. Oh no, you will gradually find different modules and upgrades while progressing through the game.

The puzzles you encounter will usually implement time as their main element too. You will phase around, stop time at the right moment and dodge deadly lasers and falling stalactites. All this while evading and destroying real and turn-based enemies.Often keeping both concepts in mind might prove too much especially with the good amount of enemies. And because this might not be enough of a challenge there are even boss battles.

Quirky it looks, quirky it is

When you need to look at a game for a long time, it is good if its looks good and luckily Nova - 111 does! The game is colorful, with good amount of effects and things that explode. The levels are with good variety, the enemies are done with great amount of imagination and it sounds good. 

As a whole the game works and looks great, but there is one thing that heavily cripple it. The save system Funktronic has decided for their game is very strange. Almost as strange as the mash up of real time and turn-based mechanics. Sadly unlike its main mechanic its save system is horrible. Every area in Nova - 111 is made of three levels which you need to complete before moving to the next. The game saves your progress only at the start of each area. Which means you will need to replay the whole thing if you turn off the game before finishing the area. This way of saving also makes it really hard to return and replay certain levels which you remember you have not completed at 100%.

Conclusion

Nova - 111 is something truly unique as I have never seen other game blend turn-based and real time mechanics at this level. While solving the puzzles and fending off the enemies you will have the feeling that time is really warped around you as you will never know how the next enemy or trap will act. Beside its innovative mechanics the game also offers great look and pretty decent sense of humor. Sadly it has one big flow and that is its save system which almost remove the only reason why you might replay Nova -  to beat your score.

Where to find it:

Steam

Official site

Concrete Jungle - Decisions, decisions

City-building always has been a genre towards which I had mixed feelings. It's very interesting and it is very satisfying to watch my city prosper under my leadership. But because of its nature (imitating a city) when one thing go down everything follows. That infuriates me so much that I usually stop playing for some time. But I always return to the genre.

My come back this time is with a small game called Concrete Jungle. Work of the small indie studio ColePowered Games the game appeared on the market on 23th 2015 and while almost no one spoke about it, it turned out to be a hidden gem.

Welcome to the Jungle

Concrete Jungle is deck-builder. With a twist. In most deck-builders you have constant market from where you buy new cards for your deck. Here you don't have this, instead every time when you collect certain amount of "money" you are present with the option to choose one card or to take one "ability" which most of the time is also a new card. The difference is that the abilities give more control over what you get. Unlike the market where the cards are random.

The game has 8 characters with different abilities which give you plenty of room for experimentation and creation of different decks.

The idea of the game is to get certain amount of points by reaching block thresholds which is done by building different buildings. The trick is that only certain buildings collect points while others buff building squares and there are such that even debuff squares, but provide other things. You also gather points from blocks only if previous blocks are collected. You can force remove blocks, but it costs lifes and doesn't give you points.

Add to this the strong puzzle element that Concrete Jungle has with all the building fitting in the most harmless place and you get a game that will make your brain hurts.

The game features more than 200 cards which you will unlock gradually trough the campaign where you will try to save a city from its foolish mayor. And when you beat it there are other mods to try including competitive local and co-op play as well as versus AI mode.

Concrete Jungle is also a good looker and has a decent sound plus fully voice acted story mode. And mentioning the voice-acting most of them sounded really fake and forced to me and while it is probably done to add to the funny story that goes through the campaign, in the beginning they were rather annoying to me.

Conclusion

Concrete Jungle is interesting mix between a city-building and deck-building game, where you will have to carefully plan your moves or face the consequences. The main objective of the game is to reach certain thresholds and clear blocks by placing point collecting and manipulating buildings. At the start you will build simpler buildings but by advancing the campaign you will unlock fancier things like business towers, military bases and skyscrapers.

But while it is colorful and relaxing at first Concrete Jungle will make you use your brain in later levels where you will need every trick you have to complete your tasks.  

If you're into puzzles and city-building there is no reason not to try it. You will thank me later.

Links:

Official site

Itch-io

Humble Store

Steam

Jotun

Around the World Three Yggdrasil swirl all the worlds of Creation. In one of them called Midgard rages a horrible storm in the midst of it together with her men Thora tries to navigate her ship, but the storm proves to be stronger... Now the young warrior should prove to the Gods that she is not great only by name.

Jotun is a hand-drawn action-exploration game, created by Thunder Lotus Games and it is heavily inspired by Norse mythology. Jotun hit the market on 29th of September and became instant success. Let us see if this is deserved or was it just because of the great hype there was around this game.

From Ginnungagap to Valhalla...

As I already mentioned during vicious storm the young Thora together with her whole crew perishes, but because of her inglorious death now she should impress the Gods to be allowed in the Halls of Valhalla. Until then she will have to reside in the primordial abyss Ginnungagap. To win the favor of the Gods our young heroine will have to explore five realms and collect 10 key runes to open her path to the five monstrous Jotuns that guard each realm. But before talking about the Jotuns lets talk a bit more about the realms.

Every realm is drawn directly from the ancient Norse Sagas. You will visit places like the forge of the dwarf Brokkr who crafted Thor's hammer and the lake where the Thunder God fished for the World Serpent. And with each visit you will learn a little about each place. Most planes are also elementally themed, which give them even more character and variety.

Your task in each area is to locate a magical Rune...actually to find the way to the Rune which may not be that easy and usually involves solving some kind of puzzle. In each area you will also find one well with the head of the wise Mimir in it which will heal you, one three with the golden apples of Idun which will increase your life and one shrine of a God which will give you a certain power. All powers have two charges and you need to go back to Ginnungagap to recharge them.

Nothing of these things except the Runes is not necessary for you to reach the Jotun boss in each area. But they will be extremely useful if you want to stand a chance against the giants. Especially the apples and the gifts of the God Altars.

The fights with the Jotuns are one of the several things in the game which won my heart and reason is how epic they are. But to understand better what I'm talking about, I will tell you a bit more about the main character - Thora. This flame haired warrior is not like the most female chracters you have seen in video games. She is brave, strong leader and carries huge battle axe which she swings with such ferociety that whole bands of dwarves fly when struck and even the roots of the World Tree tremble and retreat under her attacks. But this woman that is equal to every man from her village and is named after the greatest warrior amongst the Gods is a mere gnome compared to the Jotuns that guard the way to Valhalla. 

The Giants that you will face will call thunders, posion clouds will cover the battlefield and the earth will tremble under their feet. They will literally squish you like a bug if you are not careful. At the same time you will have to dodge their attacks, pay attention to different henchmen they have and nick at their health bar with your now-its-not-so-big axe. Every Jotun have different weak spots, attack paterns and behaviour during the fight which guarantee unique experience in every fight. In other words there are some damn hard fights expecting you...but if they were easy, how will you impress them Gods?

Like a Saga came true...

The other thing with which Jotun won me over was its aesthetic and sound. Every move of Thora, every swing of her axe is so smooth that its almost like she is alive. In every area you visit its easy to see the hard work that is done while crafting them. They are simply gorgeous, more than once I have stoped just to admire the scenary that opens in the background. And sometimes what I saw was scary. The voice acting was another thing that added a lot to the immersion of the game. Because there is not single line spoken in English...

Conclusion

Let's Conclude! Jotun is a amazingly looking game where you take the role of the warrior Thora which after her inglorious death in sea now should immpres the Gods if she wants to ever get into Valhalla. For this she will have to collect ten magical Runes guarded by crafty puzzles. And slay five monstrous Jotuns, which can easily splat you on the ground, in epic fights to the death. And in the end stand and defeat Odin himself. The game is heavily inspired by Norse mythology and during your adventures you will visist many places described in old stories. You go as far as the roots of Yggrdasil and wander trough the blacksmith where Thor's hammer Mjolnir has been crafted.

If you're like me and like Norse mythology and epic boss fights then there is absolutly no reason not to try Jotun, where you will get plenty of both!


Links:

Official site

Steam