Chroma Squad
by Chezni

Come on, do I need to even say anything? Haven’t you every wanted to build your very own Power Rangers team? Do you have a heart? Do you even breathe? It’s freakin’~~

 

 

Chroma Squad seems pretty darn interesting. The game starts at a pretty normal movie studio where 5 typical-colored Power Ranger stuntmen are doing the shoot for a new episode of ~CHROMA SQUAD!~ The movie studio and footage shooting serves as a clever tutorial, with the movie director shouting things at the actors that he wants you to do for the show, which teaches you how to play the game. As the pictures here will show you, we’re working with a grid-based tactical RPG, wherein you control your 5-member Chroma Squad team in combat. Each member of the team has a stat perk indicative of the role traditionally held by the first cast of Power Rangers; the Red Ranger holds the team together with a 50% HP bonus, the Blue Ranger is the techie with bonus skill-regen, The Black Ranger is the most offensive with an attack boost, The Yellow Ranger is the fastest with a +1 movement bonus and the Pink Ranger is set up for support with a bonus to game’s Teamwork mechanic.

 

 

By the end of the shoot, the Chroma Squad stuntmen have had it up to “here” with the director, and all agree that leaving the studio to open up their own studio would be much more fun. They inadvertently steal the Chroma Squad suits, encounter a (Mother Brain?) Zordon-esque prop to use as their mentor and enthusiastically set up shop to begin filming.

 

 

So, uh… I’m not gonna lie? This is where I stopped making progression within the game. I mean, I’m sure that Chroma Squad has some great combat mechanics and everything. I’m sure eventually I would encounter some cool villains. I don’t know, It’s probably good outside the tutorial. Ultimately though… I wouldn’t know. For the next hour and a half, I could not stop myself from doing anything but building an unnecessary number of Chroma Squad teams. As far as I’m concerned, if someone came up to me right now and said that Chroma Squad wasn’t finished, and that what I played was the extent of the game, I couldn’t even be mad. If I had anyone to blame, it would be myself for being so stupidly entertained by text-boxes and pallete swaps. I guess any game where it lets me choose pixelated mockeries of 80’s actors, name them whatever I want, change what color Ranger they are and then completely script all their catch phrases is just what does it for me. I don’t even think I need the rest of the game to be happy.

 

I mean, it all started out so innocently. I thought, “I’ll make a team based on some of my favorite fantasy characters,” so I went with Teddie, Greg Universe, Cyborg 009, Tifa Lockheart, and Cassidy Williams…


But then I went with video game characters only. Then Philosophers. Then different kinds of candy. For the sake of trying to move past this section of the game, I forcefully convinced myself that it would be amusing if I named them all the Rangers after friends in my D&D group, led (of course) by the great Chezni-bot 9000. I thought “Ah, this will be nice, I can finally start playing the game.” Oh how wrong I was.

 

There was a shop, some recording equipment I could purchase but then I stumbled upon the default team name and catch phrases. Well, no, this won’t do at all. It shouldn’t take that long to change these….

 

Well here, why don’t we go with this.

 

…but why limit our creativity?

 

Wait, what if I did this?

 

…err… wasn’t I playing a game or something?


… can’t remember… what I was doing here…

 

*mumble mumble* Tier 1 *mumble mumble*

Steam Link

Dungeons & Dragons: Daggerdale (Completed)
by Chezni

 

First Impression Review

Last I left off (just yesterday) I shared my feelings on D&D:D’s success as a Real-Time Fantasy Adaptation hack and slash game. A mere 5 hours into the game, I find myself at the ending, not particularly surprised by the short game but not necessarily left with a feeling of having my time wasted. The plot is simple, rushed and not important, so we’ll start with that first to get it out of the way.

 

–Spoiler Alert–

As the introduction would let you know, you play as a member of a group of adventurers summoned by Lorin Aria (presumably a cleric) who implores the party to destroy Rezlus’s tower. Rezlus, being a crazy wizard who worships the god Bane, is planning on destroying Daggerdale. The game kicks off underground with the Dwarves, where you run around doing various odd-quests largely involving goblins in order to gain their aid to allow you access to the tower. If you don’t like being underground in dark environments, you had better get used to it since you’ll be underground and in caves for for most of the game.

 

 

Eventually, after appeasing the side-quest gods, the Dwarves manage to sneak you into Rezlus’s tower, whereupon you are immediately captured by Tieflings and forced to fight in a gladiator pit alongside some “friendly” human brigands. Eventually the brigands team up with the heroes and after repelling multiple Tiefling attacks, they establish a base in the area. The third leg of the journey involves gaining the “trust” of a group of Zents (a race apparently even less trustworthy than the Drow) and they agree to open a portal that allows access to Rezlus at the top of his tower. Atop the tower, the four groups (Dwarves, Brigands, Zents and your party) engage Rezlus and his army, eventually forcing his hand to summon a red dragon.

 

 

Weakening the dragon and finishing off Rezlus, Rezlus commands the red dragon with his dying breath to burn Daggerdale to the ground. With no other choice, the party leaps off the tower and on to the back of the dragon, where you must climb up its back and eventually plunge your weapon into the dragon’s eye, ending its flight.

 

 

Teleported back to the top of the tower by Lorin Aria (the cleric from the beginning) she begins to thank the heroes, when Nezra, the leader of the Zents puts a blade in her back. Nezra thanks the heroes for dispatching Rezlus, but informs them that if their intent is to stop the destruction of Daggerdale, they will have to kill her and every last Zent, since it is her goal to take over the tower and the surrounding area. The game ends on a cliff-hanger, with the Zent army pouring into the tower from below, and the four party members preparing for another campaign of combat.

 

 

While the plot of D&D:D succeeds in moving the game along quickly, there are some big problems with it. First off, about 60% of the game is spent with the Dwarves doing their quests. If the game was about 20 hours long, 3 hours per section of the game would be perfect–long enough to get to know the area its problems, but not too long to make the quest-givers and their setting stale. In a 5-hour game though, it just makes the last two people groups you encounter feel rushed. The time spent with the brigands and Zents is so short that it makes me think that either the developer’s time was mismanaged, or funding was cut and they had to rush the game out unfinished.

 

 

Problem #2 with the plot is the cliffhanger ending–it’s lazy and stupid. We all know there’s not going to be a sequel to this game. We all know that the cliffhanger wasn’t used to be thought-provoking. It was used as a desperate last hurrah to create some kind of excitement or interest within the game before it finally petered out. This kind of cliffhanger use isn’t appreciated at all by any intelligent player and it only robs the player of their deserved victory. Ultimately, the adventure feels pointless.

 

 

Generally though, we play a hack & slash to mash a couple buttons, slay hordes of monsters and feel good about ourselves, and on this front D&D:D is pretty strong. When I wrote in my first impression there’s enough selection to create distinction” I may have been a tad optimistic. While there is a nice handful of skills that you’ll acquire along in your adventure, it’s more that the “choice” is in the one skill that you choose not to obtain when you level up, since there aren’t enough skills to really diversify class style. The level bar is pretty low as well. I ended the game at level 8 and from what I can tell, about level 10 is where most of the skill progression cuts out, making replayability (even in the new-game + mode) not that viable. That being said, I loved rolling around, bopping creatures with several flavors of arrow skills and managing my equipment to my tastes (movement speed and rolling cooldown to the max!).

 

 

In spite of any negatives, I feel that the game is still worth Tier 1. Why? Well because what little we get is still good. Would I prefer more skills? Yes. Would I like a longer game? Sure. But did I still have fun? Yes, and ultimately that is a large point of playing a game in the first place. In some ways it made me think back to days spent playing Golden Axe, especially Golden Axe: The Revenge of Death Adder, what with riding the back of a dragon at the end. Now that I think of it, Knights of the Round, a game similar to Golden Axe even had a shallow leveling up system that capped out somewhere in the mid-teens. If you look at D&D:D more along these lines, it’s length and shallow complexity is very reminiscent of the old adventure games–games that you would plug and play with your friends for a couple hours, beat, feel accomplished and depart from with a feeling of good times.

 

 

That’s probably where this game rests the strongest. It’s not a great game, it’s not a quality game and it’s not a long game, but if you have five hours where you want to go out, kill some monsters, grab some treasure–and you perhaps have 3 other friends with you to play local–then this could be a lot of fun. Just don’t invest yourself too strongly in it, as it’s not deep enough to warrant doing so. I still stand that I had a good time, and I definitely recommend it to anyone with time to waste on a decent hack & slash or even those wanting to break into the genre due to D&D:D’s simplicity.

Steam Link

Eversion
by LepcisMagna

Eversion is a game about hailing the dark lord collecting gems in a post-apocalyptic cthulhu-esque happy little meadow, somewhat reminiscent of another game.  This is both a first impression and a full review, since I finished the game in under an hour.  Well, technically, I got the “bad” ending, but I didn’t really feel like doing all the work to get the “good” ending.  Eversion is based on an interesting concept – the slow decay of the world around you as you traverse what I assume are different time periods in each area.  Unfortunately, it’s too short – and getting the good ending requires quite a bit of additional effort.  While that wouldn’t normally be so terrible, the main draw of the game is your first experience.  When you are forced to go back and get every collectible skull gem, it quickly becomes just a chore since the mechanics aren’t terribly new or remarkably executed.  If it were longer and had more branches, I think it would be a solid Tier One.  As it is, it must go into Tier Two.

Dungeons and Dragons: Daggerdale
by Chezni

 

Completed Review

Sometimes you just want to cut things. Sometimes you want to enter Faerun without strategizing your brains out. Sometimes you just want to play a game that is bold enough to use no less than one letter “D” in each word of its title. Sometimes you just want to play…

 

 

(PS: If you want to get straight to the review, just skip the next 3 paragraphs.)

So let me set something up before I get into D&D:D. Good hack & slash games are hard to find. Like, really hard to find. I’m no connoisseur of the genre, but I have played no small number of them over the last 25+ years and most them suck hard. It may not seem like it, but making a good hack & slash is a crisp art. The game needs to be refreshingly simple, yet contain enough complexity to warrant hours of progressional gameplay. It needs to look pretty and run smooth–but also needs to display its content so that the player can identify all the necessary pieces within a split-second glance. If there are RPG elements to it, it needs to allow the player complete freedom over the manner in which they build their character and fight while still maintaining a crisp distinction amongst all the classes’ skills (i.e. skills need to be more than damage, damage or damage) and also keeping the game somewhat balanced. Lastly, while the player ultimately knows that the game is a power trip, there needs to be just enough of a hint of story, a reason for conquest and world-building to mask the power-trip facade while not being so convoluted and gameplay-bogging that it slows the game down in any way. On their surface level, a hack & slash game may seem simple, but accomplishing these feats in tandem is almost akin to miracle-working.

 

 

There are generally 3 approaches to this kind of style.

Diabloesque: Initiated by the original Diablo, nowadays this genre generally means a fixed top-down view of a character chosen from a selection of preset classes. The gameplay of a Diabloesque involves hacking through hordes of monsters that spill items, gold and equipment out like piñata candy, grinding through (often randomly generated) maps to get better gear and upon appeasing the EXP gods, you can choose where to put your next skill point, among a set of tiered skills, or oftentimes a complicated skill tree. Path of Exile,  Grim Dawn, and the wonderful Torchlight II are examples of this subsection.

Real-Time Fantasy Adaptation: Sorry, I don’t have a fancy title to give this one. I’m tempted to call it the “Dark Alliance” category, but I feel there must have been a title released with similar gameplay that predated Dark Alliance that I’m just not aware of. Regardless, this category encompasses games that have taken an already-existing fantasy element and tried to transpose it into a real-time hack and slash with RPG elements. You can sort of look at it as falling between the two other categories listed here. Typically it focuses less on massive skill-trees and is oftentimes (although not always) less gear-grind/level-grind intensive. More structure is put into world-building in these games, and oftentimes you will have more camera control than a Diabloesque in order to make it feel more like an adventure game. Games like a The Bard’s Tale, X-Men Legends, and Lord of the Rings: War in the North are examples of this style.

Gauntletesque: Created by the success of the first Gauntlet, these games focus much less on the leveling-up aspects of RPGs and much more on the hacking and slashing of the hack & slash genre. Typically you’ll get to choose among 4+ classes, but class choice is not as impactful as the previous 2 genres and sometimes all classes will even play out the same. Equipment is often foregone, or it only exists in the form of time/use-limited powerups. A big tell if you’re playing a Gauntletesque is if enemies spawn continuously from “spawners” that must be destroyed to stop the flow of foes. Leveling up may or may not exist within the game, but typically it does nothing more than grant more health, damage, armor and/or speed–unlockable skills in this subsection is almost unheard of. A big appeal to these kinds of games is that they are 4-player. Magicka, Hammerwatch and of course the newest Gauntlet, Gauntlet Slayer Edition fall into this category.

 

 

So why did I explain all this and what of D&D:D? Well, to answer the first question, it’s because it tempers what our expectations for the series should be. It would be unfair to expect a Gauntletesque to provide heavy skill trees, just as it would be unfair to expect a Diabloesque to provide the feeling of an fantasy-adapted adventure game. As it happens and to answer the second question, D&D:D falls into our “Real-Time Fantasy Adaptation,” which means we can expect it to have the feel of a fantasy adventure game, with some of the leveling and grinding of a Diabloesque. So after all that ado, after setting the foundation of expectation that the majority of hack & slash games that I’ve played from any of the three previous subsections are crap, I’m elated to say that my first impression of D&D:D is extremely positive.

 

 

D&D:D start off at its weakest point in the character selection screen. My first impression was worrisome–only 4 classes? I can’t choose gender or race? ONLY ONE HUMAN!?! (I’ll admit, I’m a complete racist when it comes to the fantasy universe). Regardless, clicking past this screen will bring delight, as you’ll find enough talents, skills and exciting feats to temper your chosen character to your desired mold that it’s quickly forgiven. What’s even better is that it’s all D&D themed, which gives it a believable sensation from an immersion standpoint, but also a well-balanced feel at a glance. It sort of feels like I stepped back in time to the day so of 3rd edition as well–seeing as how through enough feat manipulation, you can get most any class to equip and be proficient in any armor or weapon that you want. Ultimately, there’s enough selection to create distinction with enough simplicity that I didn’t spend more than 15 minutes choosing and creating a character. Sighing in resignation, with no desire to play the slack-jawed fighter and even less inclination to play anything shorter than 5 feet tall, I went with our rogue-elf.

 

 

The first thing that struck me when I began playing was how good player and camera movement felt. The character is quick and responsive and the camera allows viewpoints from any reasonable angle. The HUD is clean and easily understood as well (a must for these kinds of games) and even before I ran into the brief tutorial, I had already figured out all the buttons. Fighting enemies was just as rewarding as I had hoped for a kiting-rogue; no need to manage the annoyance of consumable ammunition and you even start out with a fresh animation cancel in the form of the rogue’s class ability to roll–something that made the game feel much more dynamic and skill-based, which often lacks in the more stat-heavy hack & slashes.

 

 

Don’t get me wrong–the game is still linear, you still pick up quests that act like you have a choice whether to accept them or not (why on earth would I *not* accept free exp for killing everything in the dungeon that I’m going to be going into anyway?) and the story is very simple (Wizard bad, you good, go kill) but that’s exactly what you want in this kind of game. Even the destructables and loot are held up to a manageable level–just enough to give you something to do, not so much that you feel like a vandal swimming through heaps of garbage. Funnily enough, I was just thinking about the peculiarity of only being able to break barrels when I ran into this fellow. Poor guy.

 

 

The level designs are fun as well, liberating themselves from the stale blocked-out isometric dungeon view and instead being hand-crafted and (in spite of their general linearity) feeling open due to paths wrapping around and the ability to move in 3-Dimensions, such as “jumping off cliffs” (although one cannot truly jump, something that for whatever reason was driving me nuts).

 

 

 

Overall, the game just feels good and exciting and moves along at a great pace without feeling cheap or strictly mechanical. I’m very much looking forward to extending my power-fantasy trip into D&D:D and should the fun continue I may even swallow my pride enough to test out the Halfling wizard. (I know your race is akin to thieving, but did you have to steal my favorite class?). For now, this game rests in Tier 1 and I have hopes that it will maintain this position in the future.

Steam Link

Thief: The Dark Project and Thief III: Deadly Shadows
by LepcisMagna

These games combine much of what makes playing games fun.  In both (and the second one, The Metal Age – but I didn’t play that one), you play as a thief (shocking, I know).  You’re given a simple heist mission and the ability to accomplish it however you like.  From there, story grows in bits and pieces between the missions.  But then, the story isn’t really why you’re here.  The reason you’re here is to steal everything.  And steal everything of value you can.

One of my favorite features of these games is the adaptable objective system – more so in the first (but still present in the third), the difficulty level you choose doesn’t really change how the game plays – it changes what you need to accomplish.  Lower difficulties just have you surviving and accomplishing the goal.  Higher difficulties have you not killing civilians and stealing everything that isn’t tied down.  And I think that’s fantastic.  That’s how difficulty should feel.  Giving the player more health or the enemies less damage doesn’t mean anything but changing some numbers.  Giving you new challenges forces you to grow as a player, rather than just execute the same thing more and more perfectly.

I would be remiss if I didn’t also mention the fantastic level design and worldbuilding.  Each level has multiple approaches. The guards walk their shifts while humming to themselves (which is amusing even if it does make for some of the noisiest guards I’ve ever seen).  Everything feels like a guarded place you’re not supposed to be, but that you’re going to rob blind anyway.  Even so, it never feels cheap – when guards see you, you deserve it.  Even better, the game doesn’t automatically end if you’re spotted.  You have a chance to recover and stop the guard before he raises the alarm and kills you.  In other words, this is the kind of gameplay I would have hoped for from Assassin’s Creed.

The last thing I should mention is that these games still have a modding community.  For The Dark Project, there are fixes and resolution upgrades.  For Deadly Shadows, there’s a meta-mod of sorts that fixes everything from resolution to enemy difficulty to map backgrounds.  Both of these are practically essential with modern hardware, but come with the bonus that they also improve both games dramatically from a technical standpoint.  With these mods, both these games come in at a solid Tier One.

Steam link

DeadCore
by LepcisMagna

DeadCore has an interesting problem.  Or, rather, two problems.  The first is that cubes spawn randomly.  The second is that wall clipping is possible.  These may seem like very obscure or minor complaints, but they are significant.  You see, DeadCore is a speedrunning game.  It’s a fantastic platformer, with at least 20 different paths in each level.  There may only be five levels, but finding new paths or perfecting the ones you know can keep you playing for many hours.  Each level is a new height of difficulty – introducing new mechanics or asking you to perform previous tasks faster and more precisely (though sometimes with just a bit too few save points in between).

But this is also where wall clipping – and some other minor bugs – are a real problem.  Being a speedrunning game means executing actions extremely precisely – repeatedly.  Except where you expect there to be RNG (I really hate those cubes), the same actions should produce the same results.  But more often than should be, you’ll find yourself clipped into a wall or hitting a jumpad that doesn’t send you as high as it does 97% of the time.  And then the run is ruined though no fault of your own – and you have to start over.  DeadCore was made by a small team (six people, I believe) for an 7-day FPS challenge, so I’m willing to let these bits slide.  Even so, I do wish they had been able to spend another six months working out those last few bugs.

Other than that complaint, Deadcore is wonderful.  The controls are precise, the myriad paths are fun to discover and complete just a little bit faster each time.  It’s well worth the $10, and I highly recommend it as speedrunning at its purest.  The only thing more I could have wished for was a level editor.

Steam link

Star Wars: Dark Forces
by LepcisMagna

Dark Forces is the grandfather of the Jedi Knight series and a surprising combination of Doom and Ultima.  Well, just the music style from Ultima – which was a surprising choice for a Star Wars game (though probably just a limitation of the hardware).  The rest of the game is Doom clone all the way – until you get a lightsaber, but I never got that far.

I went back and forth on putting this in Tier Three or Tier Two.  I felt like putting it into Tier Three was unfair since many of my complaints are due to the game’s age and comparatively lackluster design.  At the same time, I feel that many of my complaints are legitimate: movement is floaty and you have the magical ability to bend your blaster bolts towards enemies as long as you are pointing your weapon in generally the right direction (and I miss vertical look, but I’ll let that slide).  The environments are complex, but provide little direction or visual cues.  In fact, due to the Star Wars aesthetic, enemies and switches often blend into the background.  One of those ten panels may be a switch, but there’s little to indicate it.

What clinched putting it into Tier Three is that it came out two years after Doom, a year after Marathon, and the same year as Marathon 2: Durandal.  Those three games are fantastic – from exquisite level and enemy design in Doom to the fantastic story of Marathon and Durandal, they are deserving of their places as classics of the shooter genre.  Dark Forces just feels like a reskinned Doom with little to recommend it as a first-person shooter – except that it’s Star Wars.  Which is almost enough.

Steam link

U.N. Squadron (SNES Legacy)
by Chezni

Sidescrolling? Infinite massive energy blasts as a main attack? Tons of powerups? It must be~~! Well, actually, that describes just about any side-scrolling ship-based shooter from the 90’s. But we’re talking about~~

 

Sidescrolling shooters were the *thing* throughout much of the 90’s, and the SNES was no exception. Heck, out of the 12 games already covered under SNES Legacay, two of them were already sidescrolling ship-based shooters. If that’s the case, then what sets this one apart?

 

 

Well, for starters, you get to select a character. While choosing a character is par for the course in many a side-scrolling beat’em up, we often don’t get to see it in the “shmup” counterpart. Heck, oftentimes we’re lucky if we get to see the pilot. In UNS, each character has a different skill (albeit I have no idea’s what Mickey’s actually is). I’d recommend picking up Greg if you’re a beginner since he recovers from damage quicker, and if you’re a pro you’ll probably go with Shin since he levels up his planes faster. This is useful since if you know how to beat the levels quickly you’ll get less EXP than someone who’s likely to die a few times before completing them.

 

 

Oh, right; did I mention? There’s EXP. It’s not as impactful to the gameplay as I would have liked it to be, but after picking up enough blue and red powerups you’ll notice your guns shooting larger blasts or maybe even shooting a shot in a second direction. I wish I could say that this was an appealing part of the game but… well, it sort of works like this. The first time you play the game, you’ll find yourself dying so often that you’ll be drowning in EXP and your ship will quickly become maxed out. At this point EXP might as well not even be a part of the game since you’re only a couple levels in. On the other hand, if you’re good enough at the game to make it through the first couple levels without dying, you’re probably good enough that it doesn’t really matter when you level up, since you don’t necessarily need the added firepower right away. I guess what I’m trying to say is that leveling up just kind of “happens,” and you just play the game without paying too much attention to it, or necessarily strategizing heavily around it.

 

 

Ship-purchasing is unfortunately in the same boat. There may be 6 ships to choose from (5 of them you have to buy) but they all play out fairly similarly enough to each other.  I came the conclusion that instead of trying to buy some of the cheaper ships early on, I should just skip them all in lieu of the “best” ship “Efreet”, saving up $1,000,000 right from the start to buy it. That being said, the powerups are where the real strategy and (in my opinion) fun from the game comes from. Assuming you have the money to do so (and the Efreet ship) you can load out your plane any way you want (with every single weapon if you really wanted). This made approaching each level a lot of fun, since you got to truly customize your loadout and approach each level with the best strategy you could come up with. Since you have to juggle all the powerups one at a time, it really isn’t to your advantage to take a bunch of guns with you that are no good for the level. Likewise, clever use of the weapons themselves at certain points makes the difference between a difficult level and a manageable one. To boot, none of the powerups made other ones obsolete–they all felt unique and useful in their own way. (Except for the Falcon missile, because that thing is a worthless piece of crap.)

 

 

The last unique mechanic that separates UNS from other shmups is the way ship destruction is handled. In quite a few shmups, damage of any kind means instant death, or a very near equivalent (loss of powerups). I can understand the sentiment for this implementation–it keeps the game challenging in light of your usually ridiculously powerful arsenal. The problem is that it can lead to frustration or even a sense of unfairness within the player (Gradius III I feel is a pretty good example of this). On the other hand, if you gave your player a health bar with say, 5 hits, they would take advantage of the health pool and purposefully face-tank their way through some obstacles. UNS has a perfect balance of both worlds. You have a health bar that allows you to take several (6?) shots of damage over the course of the level. The catch is, that the moment you are shot, you enter into a “DANGER” state, where for about 5 seconds if you get hit again you straight-up die. This truly is a beautiful mechanic that allows forgiveness of mistakes without letting the player off scot-free.

 

 

Missions are chosen in a pseudo-linear fashion with various portions where you get to choose which level you attend within a set. Don’t get too excited by the mission select screen either–it’s sort of neat that there are moving pieces on it that approach and (eventually) attack your base, but there’s not a lot of strategic element to it. Basically if any of the 3 special units (the two planes or the submarine) enter attacking range of the base, you are forced to complete their level before you gain the freedom to choose your levels again. Other than that and the RNG of the convoys that you can target (bonus mission for extra gold) it’s just your basic “select your mission” screen.

 

 

Overall, I’ve played far worse games and far worse shmups, as UNS is pretty solid. Its enemies and bosses may not be the most creative in the franchise, but the freshness of some of its mechanics that diverge from the norm, combined with the game’s forgiving learning curve give the game some genuine appeal. It’s not too long–my final run at beating the game only lasted an hour-and-a-half, with my overall playtime somewhere in the 5 hour range. With the grades in, I’m putting this in Tier 2–it’s guaranteed to at least be the delight of shmup fans and even a few who aren’t.

 

 

Musically imprinted felt with out throwing away a touch of Time
by Chezni

The reason you should harden WordPress.  Don’t be like me (LepcisMagna) and skip it.  Here for posterity:

 

The title looks as well irregular for you personally, correct? Thats mainly because appealing to Musically lovers while not manner of tech is certainly irregular these days. You can obtain a huge selection of sites by giving hacks for getting lovers, but then many of them can quickly call on on you to execute tech through the name of person inspections. Though this is not a solid practice, it needs in that these terms where a group of spamming bots are currently roaming approximately the online. So that, you ought to have to try and cooperate approximately all by downloading a free app to try and confirm that youre not just a robot! then we can provide for on you correct by the correct webpage for getting hacking lovers for a of your Musical. Ly webpages. Seeing the newest factual statements about Musical. Ly in 2017, actually the kids in 2nd grade are currently applying this policy. His / her parents is known to or might not be familiar with the age, but then it must be complete. That has been the majority mainly because Musical. Ly is certainly such even a app for getting time. Then a 14-years aged youngster described as Jacob Sartorius actually reviewed that app might be applied for getting accelerating someones dreams all by becoming a star in Musical. Ly. Yes, he might be the early user who all is known to become a renowned pop star with more than a few lovers uploading videos in Musically. That is probably the more than a few tales approximately human population appealing to warm with thousands of Musically lovers on their page. More importantly, with the exception of holding fun, you could utilize this policy to be renowned want celebrities. Have a get involved with, who all understands when you’re the subsequent pop star want Justin Bieber who all variables the potential pop realm. For your, youll want more than a few lovers with the use of any hack or cheat of Musically. You are unable to enjoy the same fame if ever that hack capabilities for your profile. Thankfully, i have found such then a hack that capabilities carefully. Your work is by using that hack carefully, while not committing any mistakes. Lets see how can you help make it away. Hack for getting lovers for getting Musically told me

Listed here, we’re going to clarify for you personally ways to get lovers for your Musically profile applying this hack. We want to read through the potential sentences and do not help make any error mainly because doing so hack. Many times, you might have to try and keep coming back listed here to put an unhealthy comment saying It doesnt work that allows all of us straight down. So that, lets set out to inform you after which actually that’ll be the potential no more than way to avoid insects. First of all by the facts; initial, on you take into account the above button. Basically the connect with the potential page where we have uploaded the potential hack policy. Generally there, we want to provide for two inputs; that you are your Musically username, after which and something is certainly the quantity of lovers you want. Dont be this in turn greedy, choose 10k lovers initial and discover the way it processes. If ever it processes broad, keep coming back after which choose one million that’ll be the big quantity we want to choose. Dont help make an equal error of environment @ before username there is a is already worked on all by more than a few human population. That you are brilliant if ever that error didnt take place for you personally. Now, follow all the other hack after which finish it such as a boss. Download a free app to try and confirm that you are then a person, after which youre worked on. No more than check out your page once the 15 minutes, after which youll see the updated band of lovers by yourself Musically page. Many times, the age will happen within five minutes, but then occasionally it can rise to try and 1 hour. Want on you realized the items. Post your opinions below through the opinions after which lets turn on referring to in that. I will minimize only if free musically followers you got more than a few lovers for your Musically page. Have a broad time.

911 Operator
by LepcisMagna

A few weeks ago, I looked at This is The Police – a game where you act as a police chief three months from retirement.  There was a lot of polish in that game, but it was all overshadowed by a lack of any real choice or any event randomization.  You are forced to work for the Mafia, and actually trying to help your town (instead of just working solely for yourself) is just going to lead to disappointment or death.  Still, there were a few interesting moral options (not that they mattered, which was the problem) and a bunch of interesting features (like being able to collect LPs and playing them while you dispatch).  I would have liked it they just hadn’t tried to have an “interactive” story1 – which, coincidentally enough, is exactly where 911 Operator comes in.

911 Operator is what happens if you took only the mechanical bits of This is The Police and made it into a game.  And it’s almost exactly what I was hoping for from This is The Police.  I’ll admit, it is a little disappointing to not have to try to deal with the outrageous demands from City Hall.  I also think This is The Police had better staff management mechanics and a bit better interface.  But overall, 911 Operator is the way to go for actually feeling the pressure of trying to help people with limited resources.  Similar to This is The Police, you manage the day-to-day happenings in your corner of a city – dispatching police, fire, and ambulances where necessary.  The primary distinction is that here, you actually answer 911 calls and determine if action needs to be taken for many events – which is pretty cool.  The calls are quasi-randomized – in just the right way – to keep them unique (at least for a few hours), with a few scripted events sprinkled in.  For example, when I got to the second city of Albuquerque, I was surprised by a call that sounded like suspiciously familiar story:

But this is where the trouble comes in as well.  Randomization is hard, and you need a massive pool to keep things fresh over long periods – otherwise these Easter eggs or scripted events will stick out too much.  911 Operator is quite good, but it could definitely stand to have about twice as many voice actors and randomizable lines – though I suppose that’s a complaint that can be leveled at any semi-random game.  Having a choice of Operator voice would have been nice as well, but the voice actor is good enough that it isn’t too much of an issue.  I do wish the 911 Operator developers had had twice the time or budget to expand on their concept, but the game that they made is still quite worth it, I think.  And hopefully, since it is on version 1.0, the developers may be able to do just that in updates or DLC (and quash a few bugs along the way).

My bottom line is this: This is The Police feels like the grimdark faux-noir that leeches into so many films and games due to its contrived and unavoidable plot.  911 Operator feels like Sim City 2000 or Sim Tower – games that were just plain fun mechanical toys: so, to Tier One it goes.

Addendum: I’ve also realized this is an educational game.  Being a 911 Operator means you have to talk people though bad situations – and making the wrong choices makes things worse.  You don’t throw water on oil or electrical fires, you prevent people from moving impaled people, and YOU ALWAYS SAY WHERE YOU ARE AND WHAT THE PROBLEM IS FIRST.  It’s fantastic.

Steam link

1Actually, if you’ll permit me a moment to complain about This is The Police: You know what is a moral choice?  Being forced by the Mafia to either work for them or let your best friend be killed.  You know what isn’t a moral choice (or even a choice at all)?  Being forced by the Mafia to either work for them or let your best be killed…and you still have to work for them.  If you aren’t giving me a choice, don’t act like you are – that will just anger me and make me hate your game.  Make my choices (moral or otherwise) alter my game experience.  That would have been good game design: working for the Mafia makes things easier and keeps your friend alive.  Not working for them makes your work a bunch harder and means your friend dies, but it gives you the chance at a “good” ending.