Adventure Games – Page 2

July 8, 2015 MicBeMac Adventure Games, Game previews, Survival games

Ark: Survival Evolved: Early Access Preview #2

Welcome back to the next dive into Ark: Survival Evolved. In this episode we will dive right into the core gameplay of Ark. Though still only in early release, there is a lot of game here.

At it’s core, Ark is has the pretty familiar basics of any survival game. Land on a seemingly deserted island and quickly find food and shelter to survive. Early gameplay is fairly cookie cutter in it’s mannerisms, though Ark does add a few new ideas here. Your first day however will still involve punching the heck out of a load of trees to collect wood and thatch. You’ll also find other resources scattered around like stone and berries. Stone acts like any other game’s stone, but berries add a somewhat unique add as many of them have special affects and become extremely useful in later gameplay. Narco berries for instance can help keep fallen enemies asleep, or yourself if you accidentally eat them.

You’ll have to juggle a variety of deadly statuses early on in the game. The usual things like hunger, and dehydration are here, as well as managing the heat and cold temperatures. All of these affects can lead to your untimely death, and that’s not to mention the very aggressive enemy A.I. Death can come from any angle when you step across the path of both small and large carnivorous dinosaurs. Though you can try to fight them, early on it’s always better to run. Even the small Dilo’s can quickly take you down with their blinding poison attack. Luckily the one way you can’t die is by getting stepped on by a Brontosaurus. With the world’s full day night cycle, and weather dynamics, death can be around any corner and you won’t see it coming.

To avoid early death it’s important to take advantage of the robust crafting system and also level up your character. Experience is handled uniquely as it is dolled out in small amounts as you survive. You can also gain experience by performing any actions in the world. Gathering materials, crafting items, or of course defeating creatures all help you advance your level.

As your level advances it opens up points to be spent on both your personal stats as well as crafting engrams for which a new variety open up with every major advancement in level. You can of course build shelters, equipment, clothing, as well as weapons and consumables to help you in your quest to survive.

Crafting opens up the next big phase of the game, capturing and taming your own dinosaurs and animals. Every creature in the game can be tamed to be your personal conveyer of goods, extra combatant and most can be ridden if you have the right materials to build their saddle. This is where the pace of the game stiffens right up though. Capturing dinosaurs can be a massive endeavor, no pun intended. Though the smaller animals and dinosaurs tame fairly quickly, larger beasts can take hours to tame. After carefully knocking the creature out, you must keep them under with narcotics and the before mentioned narco berries, all the while managing their health and keeping them well fed. Larger creatures like mammoths and stegosaurus can take days of in-game time to tame. Though this makes each tame animal rewarding, the balance for more casual gamers is lost unless they can find a group that is willing to help in taming creatures for them.

Crafting also becomes tedious at higher levels. Rather than adding more complex, or higher level materials to combine to create more powerful items, the game instead chooses to have you collect hundreds, upon hundreds of basic materials instead. though this again adds accomplishment to each task, finding 240 hide to make a mammoth saddle felt very unrealistic, and entirely redundant.

After you are done collecting trophies. You can also start collecting tributes, to summon creatures to be defeated for unique items at Ark locations throughout the island landscape. So far this seems to be the available end game for you to build up for and start farming high end equipment and weapons.

With this game still in early access, I am impressed by the amount of content here. Though the most fun parts of the game lack some balancing, if you can find a good team of players to play along this is lessened. Low level players can still be useful by gathering mats and help building bases, regardless of whether they have the time to invest in taming high level creatures to their sides. Hopefully as the game develops this balance will improve and offer more for each type of player to enjoy in game. Till then I’m going to keep crafting hide pants.

Thanks for reading, and as always, make sure to comment and like below. Let me know what you think of Ark: Survival Evolved.

Check out part #1 of this two part review here!

July 5, 2015 MicBeMac Adventure Games, multiplayer, Survival games

Ark: Survival Evolved: Early Access Preview #1

Want to go epic? Go Ark: Survival Evolved. One of the more recent entries into the survival genre, Ark: Survival Evolved brings one of the more polished early release titles to the fray. This game of “large” adventure was developed by Wildcard, and is currently available on Steam in Early Access form.

Like most games of the it’s like, Ark drops you into the thick of things, naked and alone, with only your fists to serve you along the way. At first though, you’ll notice the incredible visuals. Assuming of course your system can handle them.

On Epic graphics, Ark is beautiful. The land is detailed and full of texture. Water ripples against the wind, and the various weather affects set in quite realistically. The sky ranges from clear, to overcast, to raining. Fog rolls in amongst the valleys and hills. In turn these effects also hinder your character in adverse ways. Sunny days raise the temperature and cause you to over heat, where adversely the rain cools you off. This is not to say of course that the visuals are perfect, this work in progress game is full of visual bugs and faults. There are various clipping issues resulting in hilarious finds with creatures sticking out of walls or hills, or looking kind of obscene as they press up against each other in all the wrong ways. There are also the whacky fun time trees that turn 2 dimensional and start waving frantically across your screen.

Though these small faults are funny and sometimes a nuisance they don’t break the game in anyway, and allow you to enjoy the unique survival aspects. When you spawn you are treated immediately to the various prehistoric lifeforms. There’s a fairly good amount of variety here with various types of dinosaurs wandering around. For the most part these creatures are scaled fairly realistically and add to the Jurassic Park awe of seeing all these long extinct creatures go about their daily routines.

The world is fully alive, and interacts not only with the player, but with itself. Raptors roam the jungle, taking down prey in packs. Sabertooths fight mammoths on the frozen hill sides. The occasional Tyrannosaurus Rex might pop up and try to take out a Brontosaurus. All of these NPC creatures act more or less as they should, and will react to the player’s presense around them. Though the various herbivores will generally ignore you, don’t get too crazy and steal a stegosaurus egg and expect not to get chased down by angry parents.

The character creator is also fully purposed and allows you to create a wide variety of character looks. From the normal, to the sublime to the outright weird. You have a lot of control over how your character is going to look. This means there are a lot of ugly characters out there unfortunately.

Optimization on all these graphics is still a work in process, and can vary from server to server once you add in lag and latency issues on top. This can be a major detractor on the very full official servers, but can be avoided by finding a smaller unofficial server where the lag can be avoided.

That covers the look and feel of Ark: Survival Evolved, stay tuned in a couple of days when I dive into the gameplay and more detailed features of the game.

As always, don’t forget to comment, and like below, and let me know how your experience with Ark:Survival Evolved has been.

For amazing gameplay videos of Ark, check out The Neo Nerd, and The Flying Squirrel Girl on Youtube now!

July 2, 2015 MicBeMac Adventure Games, retro gaming, Rewind Review

Ghouls and Ghosts: Rewind Review

Welcome to Rewind Review, this week we are going 8-bit! Let’s adventure into one of the best ports of the 16-bit era, Ghouls and Ghosts for the Sega Genesis. Originally released in 1988 in arcade’s, the grueling hard platformer made it’s way to the SMS in 1989. The sequel to Ghosts ‘n Goblins continues the saga of Knight Arthur as he fights off the undead in side scrolling fashion.

Knight Arthur’s quest takes him through various eerie and quirky levels as he fights to release the soul of his love, Princess Prin Prin, captured by Loki among many other souls. The usual left to right jumping and platforming from this point on are familiar traits, though there are several twists added in.

Starting off in a full suit of armor Arthur can fire various weapons in four directions to fight off skeletons, undead and yes of course, ghouls and ghosts. As he takes damage pieces of his armour fly off, till you’re reduced to fighting in your tighty whities! As you proceed through each level, you’ll find enemies throughout, as well as obstacles that need to be avoided through jumping, scaling ladders or the like. Though the difficulty for the 16-bit version is also scaled down from the arcade original, there is still a lot of though areas, and precise jumping skills required to get through each level. Not to mention of course giant boss battles at each level end. These generally demand you hit a boss 4-6 times in a particular hit box while avoiding fireballs as usual.

You’ll find more layers to Ghouls and Ghosts in the form of various weapons and armour that can be collected, or bought in each level. These items are hidden in chests, or secret doors that you activate by jumping in certain locations. As an added bonus, some of these chests hold an evil magician who will fire a magic bolt at you once the chest is open. get hit and look forward to spending several seconds as a helpless duck, or an old man with a cane. These affects make you killable in one hit, but they don’t last long.

You can also call upon limited magical abilities to help you clear the screen of enemies. These vary depending on the armor you are wearing. Silver arm throws a blue wave in front of you, red armor summons fire to your side, and the ultimate gold armor gives you control over lighting itself. These abilities are limited, and you need to bide your time before using them to avoid wasting them on only a few enemies on the screen.

Ghouls and Ghosts consists of five levels with a sixth boss level, but just to add to the charm and difficulty, you’ll have to play through the first 5 levels twice before getting to the real ending. You’ll also be tasked with finding the gold armor, and the only weapon that can kill Loki along the way before you can proceed to the final phase. This is a good one to remind us just how hard games used to be. Though the levels are not actually that long, the difficulty means you will spend hours trying to complete the full game, and get the true ending.

A very awesome full playthrough to enjoy, via SaikyoMog

This game became a great early example of how hardcore games could be ported and dumbed down in a sense for a broader audience. The core of the game was still maintained very well, but Ghouls and Ghosts became open to a much broader audience after it’s arcade port. It’s a situation that often vexes modern publishers that port, or re-release games to more modern technology, or to a bigger selection of consoles. Ghouls and Ghosts still stands as one of the better conversions to date, and remains very playable. It’s unique setting, simple but challenging gameplay and quirky humour stands the test of time extremely well.

As always, thanks for reading, and don’t forget to comment and like below, and let me know if you have tried Ghouls and Ghosts!

And while you are at it, check out last week’s Rewind Review

June 27, 2015 MicBeMac Adventure Games, Game reviews, procedurally generated, Survival games

Subnautica: Early Access Review

Tired of punching trees and looking for rocks to build a campfire? Then Subnautica is the survival game for you. Subnautica throws you into a vast ocean full of dangers and mystery and tasks you with not only surviving, but finding out what went wrong to get you stranded there.

As seemingly the sole survivor of your terraforming mission after an explosion sends your craft on a collision course into a planet with an endless ocean, Subnautica’s first objective is survival. Like most survival games, you must quickly find resources to help you stay alive in the game’s varied environments. The trick with Subnautica is that all of these environments are submerged which adds a unique twist to the genre. Not only are you managing the usual things like thirst and hunger, you are also limited at first by your capability to carry an air supply below the surface. This adds an extra layer of danger to your chances as each dive could be your last if you don’t time everything right.

Subnautica does a good job early on with making things seem both familiar but very alien all at once. Set in the far future with advanced technology that can craft items in seconds with a fabricator, you are still made quite familiar with the basic components needed to craft these high tech items. Throughout the ocean environments you will find various of these resources strewn about on the ocean floor, lime deposits holding various metals and minerals, salt deposits, corral, and other useful flora, and of course fish.

The animals of the ocean are where the alien concept of the planet first shows it’s colours. The fauna of the planet are incredibly diverse and alien like. They vary from small and fast fish, and uniquely useful Airsacks, which are very useful early on, and quite harmless, to large predators you need to avoid, to small exploding fish, to massive whale like creatures so big and slow corral has formed on their backs. The fauna AI ranges from passive, to very aggressive, and the day and night cycle affects this nature as well. Fishing for small fish at night for example may have you find several sleeping and easy to catch.

Once basic survival is covered, advanced resources like titanium and silicone will allow you to build both structures and vehicles. As most materials can be very rare, with enough patience you can build underwater craft, and even submarines to help you search the ocean bottom. Surviving long term means manufacturing parts to build your own underwater base via a network of tube parts that you can connect together, and even draw oxygen to from the surface. Later equipment even allows you to terraform the environment to you liking, or dig holes through ocean floor.

All the while in the distance stands the ship you arrived in, the Aurora, where the yet to be completed end game seemingly will exist. Surrounded by radiation, and protected by massive mutated squid like creatures, the Aurora plays an integral part in the gameplay. Not only is the ship filled with various high tech components to be grabbed once you have the right tools to do so, but it also affects the nearby environment. The various radiation leaks in the craft result in regular explosions, which litter the ocean with components and larger explorable pieces of the Aurora where various components can be found. It also seems like a bad idea to be too close to the Aurora when one of these explosions occurs.

It looks like we still have a bit of a wait to see what mysterious affect brought down the Aurora, but there is still enough here in Subnautica to keep most people busy for several hours. The potential for some type of end game in the survival genre is always a welcome feature as it sets goals for the player to reach, rather than have them simply build bigger and better structures to ease their survival. Thought the environments are well built and colorful, they do sometimes still lack some life, as several areas are not well filled with lifeforms. Generally each area has but a handful of fish floating around at any time, and I have yet to encounter huge school of fish, or any bottom dwelling creatures crawling around to add variety. These will all hopefully be things we see added in upcoming updates.

Available now in Early Access, Subnautica adds a fresher flavour to the somewhat overfull survival genre. With colorful graphics and environments, and a unique survival protocol taking place almost entirely underwater, this game is a lot of fun. Though the game still lacks some content, regular features are added, and with a potential end game in store there is a lot to explore here.

Want more? Check out Stranded Deep! Don’t forget to comment and like below, let me know what you thought of Subnautica.

June 2, 2015 MicBeMac Adventure Games, Game reviews

Game of Thrones: Episode 4

The Forrester story keeps getting more interesting, and more dangerous with each episode of Game of Thrones, a TellTale game. I am impressed by how well the story here is structured, and intertwined into the storyline of the TV show.

Each character’s story here has become it’s own entity. Gared’s story has become one of mystery and risk, as he ventures north from Castle Black to find the North Grove. Though his small band of brothers have only been together for a very short time, this episode does a good job of bonding them and adding intrigue to the side character’s backstory as well. This is especially true for Cotter. As you venture farther north, his story is slowly revealed and it’s interesting to see this detail added to one of the side characters.

Where Gared’s story is full of mystery, the slower pace of Mira Forrester’s story is filled with political intrigue. With her story continued centered in King’s Landing after the death of the young king, TellTale does a good job here on focusing on a very important piece of the Game of Thrones world. Secrets and lies, and leverage. Mira’s character really gets a chance to show some grit here as you get to manipulate both friends and enemies in an almost Littlefinger style to get what you want. With more episodes to come here, i’m quite interested in how my choices will shape Mira’s story later on. Even my friends are potential for betrayal later on depending on what choices I made in Game of Thrones: Episode 4.

Asher’s story continues to be where the bulk of the action remains. Tasked with helping Daenerys Targaryen’s invasion of Meereen. These scenes are fun to play through, with stealth and lots of kills to make. Choices here don’t always end up the way you think they might. I was surprised a couple of times with the results of my various path choices.

The real heart of the story however stays in the Forrester family home of Ironrath. With their people oppressed by the Whitehills, this definitely feels like the most tense situation. There is a lot of callback to episode 1 here, and the similarities are not lost in the shuffle. You’ll be making choices of life and death in almost every scene with Rodrik involved.

The other bright spot in these scenes are the Whitehills themselves. Being the easy to dislike main enemies of the series to this point, they are given more depth here, as we get a chance to visit Highpoint. Here, the people we like to hate the most, are given much more depth, and even some vulnerability. This, along with the mirrored events in episode one, make every choice very hard to make. The assumption being that the worse outcome is the likely one, regardless of your choice.

With only two episodes to go I am really curious to see how these now very diseperate feeling stories are going to come together in the end. With the different emotional tones, and pace to each character it sometimes becomes easy to feel like these are all separate stories, and forget that these characters are all closely related and only want the same results. Each story has taken on it’s own life, and it may be a challenge for the the people at TellTale games to bring them all back together successfully with limited play time left. We will have to wait and see if they can accomplish this feat as well as they have the overall game so far.

While you are here, don’t forget to check out the previous episodes

Episode 1: Iron From Ice

Episode 2: The Lost Lords

Episode 3: The Sword in the Darkness

Have you finished episode 4? What choices did you make? Share them in the comments below!

And if you like what you read, and want to see more reviews, check out my Patreon site where you can help support this review blog!

May 29, 2015 MicBeMac Adventure Games, Game reviews

Life is Strange Episode 3: Review

Adventure, consequences, a change of clothes and new powers! Welcome to Life is Strange Episode 3: Chaos Theory. The continuing story of Max Caulfield as she begins to investigate the strange going ons in and around Blackwell Academy as well as her own strange time reversing powers.

This is certainly the best episode so far. Starting off right where the player left off, with the dramatic conclusion to episode 2, regardless of which choices you made, Max and Chloe are now knee deep in investigating the odd behaviours of the students at Blackwell Academy along with the disappearance of Chloe’s close friend Rachel. This episode definitely keeps away from the empty filler portions from previous episodes. Though there are still item hunts and minor puzzles to solve, these are all in context with the main plot, and no longer just busy work to add more gameplay.

Though they were never that difficult before, these puzzles and find it quests are much more straightforward than before, and no longer baby you along the way. There is actually a bit of tongue in cheek humour here as the game reflects back on some of the silly things we’ve had to use our rewind powers for in past episodes. This is particularly shown in one quest where an item you need is high up on a cabinet. Rather than have you use your rewind powers to figure out how to get up there, Max simply pulls up a chair and gets it down, with her inner monologue making light of the situation.

Speaking of monologues and dialogues, this is one area that feels like it was trimmed a bit. This episode is mostly spent with Max on her own, or just with Chloe, and several scenes are at night. This give us much less to interact with as there are fewer characters roaming the streets and halls. However the return environments feel more refreshed in this episode. I found in episode 2 that many of the interaction points were rehashed from episode 1, this is no longer the case in Life is Strange: Chaos Theory. Depending on your choices towards the end of the previous episode, and the potentially tragic ending, everything in around Blackwell Academy has changed.

Even Max gets a wardrobe change here, another subtle poke at a very common fault in games like this, where day after day, after week your characters wear the same clothes. These subtle changes along with the amount of plot that moves forward here is a welcome change.

Life is Strange: Chaos Theory, also presents us with new gameplay and rewind mechanics. The original rewind mechanic stays in play, but each time it is used feels more like a struggle for Max as it feels there will be a severe physical toll taken on poor Max at some later point in the story. We are also introduced to a new mechanic where Max discovers the ability to time jump back years in time with the use of one of her many photographs. We only get to use this mechanic once, though the consequences are severe, and yes, it does ring back to the 2004 Ashton Kutcher movie The ButterFly Effect quite a bit!

With the main plot moving forward briskly, and the consequences of even our minor actions finally coming into play in more obvious ways here, Life is Strange: Chaos Theory has really elevated it’s game. Here we get what episode 2 should have been. A well structured, dramatic story, where choice and consequence affect us directly, and where the world around us changes as we make changes to it. I really can’t wait for the release of episode 4!

If you haven’t already, check out my reviews for the rest of Life is Strange

Episode 1: Chrysalis

Episode 2: Out of Time

Have you played episode 3 already? Don’t forget to share your thoughts an comments below, and be sure to follow me on Twitter for more updates and reviews!

May 23, 2015 MicBeMac Adventure Games, Game reviews, multiplayer, procedurally generated, Survival games, Youtube

Don’t Starve Together: Beta Review

What makes a great game like Don’t Starve better? Why playing with friends of course. Journey into the world of Don’t Starve with up to 5 friends in Don’t Starve Together. This standalone expansion brings with it a whole new style of play to explore the strange and wonderful world of Don’t starve.

If you are not familiar with the gameplay of Don’t Starve, the concept is simple. Your character is dropped in the middle of a strange wilderness and you must use your wits and whatever else you may have brought with you to survive. Don’t starve Together removes some of the story of the original, but the basic concept remains the same. You, and your friends, are dropped through a portal into a random area of the procedurally generated map. You are immediately tasked with finding the basic resources to survive. With the day and night clock running, you need to do so quickly before the darkness sets in, and you are relatively helpless.

Don't Starve Together — A very eclectic bunch of people

This is where the sense of balance from the original game can sometimes feel off. The original game has enough resources scattered around the spawn areas for you to usually be okay the first night or two so long as you are careful. You have only one mouth to feed, and a small pool of skills to use depending on which character you have unlocked, and in play. With Don’t Starve Together, you are open to choosing from among the entire cast of eclectic characters from the original game, and the DLC, Reign of Giants. This early access to all the characters gives an interesting chance to mix and match various skills together to see if they can coexist. This process however is often hit and miss, as the resources available early on, are much different than what you would find in the single player game. This often means that you spend a lot more time harvesting basic items like food, as you need to travel farther to collect enough for two or more mouths to feed.

When you do find a good balance of skills between your characters the game shines. For instance mixing Wigfrid’s combat skills and good starting armour with Wickerbottom’s smarts allows you to quickly build an advance base and defend if you work together well. And yes, all the playable character’s names start with ‘W’. Pick the wrong combination however, and even good teamwork can lead to frustrating death, upon death.

Really though, this game is meant to be played with friends. The game worlds available to drop into are varied, and many run with different settings and mods and figuring out how to survive with strangers, or just avoid them and make your own spot in the world has it’s moments. When it comes down to it however, the best aspect of Don’t Starve Together is going in with a group of friends and experiencing the weird and wonderful world. With a good set of friends, the general wit and humour of Don’t Starve, it’s impossible not to have fun, even when one of your friends accidentally dies after running directly into a wolves den, or opening a mysterious chest that suddenly begins winter.

Graphically there is no difference between either version of Don’t Starve. Don’t Starve together however includes the full content of the original game’s DLC as well as some new items, creatures and biomes to explore. The game runs relatively smooth, with only a minor amount of lag up to the 6 player limit. Though it is possible to allow more players onto a server, the game becomes unplayable due to lag, and latency issues.

The Dev team at Klei Entertainment are quite active, and as this game is still officially in beta I am sure they will iron out the balance wrinkles. They may even be able to expand past the 6 player maximum. If you enjoyed Don’t Starve, there is absolutely no reason why you won’t enjoy Don’t Starve Together. For new players to the game, it gives a unique opportunity to work with others to learn the mechanics, or have a friend help you start off. Overall this is a great addition to this game’s universe and I can’t wait to jump in with my friends and play some more.

Thanks for reading as usual, and be sure to comment and share below, and let me know what you thought about Don’t Starve Together.

Don’t forget to follow @TheNeoNerdBlog on Twitter, and Subscribe to his channel for more funny videos like this one.

And while you are here, check out my preview of World Of Warships, a great looking upcoming multiplayer battle sim.

May 18, 2015 MicBeMac Adventure Games, Game reviews

Valiant Hearts: The Great War – Review

War is a terrible thing. It affects the lives of millions both directly and indirectly. It tears families apart, destroys homes, and people. It also brings people together for a single purpose. It creates life long friendships from those who have toiled to survive. Valiant Hearts: The Great War is a story about all of these aspects of war.

Taking place between 1914 and 1918 of the first world war, on the surface Valiant Hearts is a simple puzzle platformer. Taking control of a variety of characters, you interact with objects and other characters on a 2D plane. Solving puzzles, taking part in quick time events, while dodging incoming attacks and finding hidden items. All of these will lead you not only through the story the characters, but also through some of the major events of the war itself.

Valiant Hearts is as much a fictional story as it is a documentary. As you enter into new areas, or complete certain tasks the historical events of relevance to your location are slowly revealed. These are brought to you with actual photos of the various scenes, and historical facts about the impact of the war on each one. Throughout the story you will also find various hidden relics of the war, all with a story of their own.

The rest of the story is brought to you through a comic like perspective. Beautiful hand drawn art brings the characters and each environment to life. Character models are incredibly detailed and alive. The backgrounds share the same detail, with particular backdrops of some of the war torn environments bringing a weight to each task. Crumbled buildings, distant explosions or bodies strewn about demonstrate the impact of the war you are living. Colour is made good use of here. Happier moments in the story are filled with vibrant colours, which quickly turn to gray tones as the serious nature of the war emerge. One scene early on in the story particularly shows this as you carry the flag into battle, watching your allies fall all around you, and the landscapes subtly change from green fields to gray, barren no man’s land.

The art style and colour also take part in the gameplay. Colour is used well here to create depth in the 2D environment and highlight objects you can interact with. Mixed in with the wonderful score filled with era music you can really get the sense that you are in France during the war. The terrific orchestral score highlights each environment, and the various puzzles and adventures you face. The sound effects are just as suitable as explosions are crisp and clear, and background noises make the environments bristle with even more life.

Though there is no real dialogue in Valiant Hearts, a narrator reviews each scene and chapter you begin. The characters in the game speak to each other in gibberish forms of French, or German, or whatever other language accordingly. These little snipets of language are clever and funny, and just enough to know what each character is trying to say, without actually ever hearing a full sentence.

The puzzle style gameplay is often broken up by different activities. Quick time events, mini bosses, and even towards the camera races where you have to avoid incoming obstacles from off-screen are thrown in. This change of pace keeps the game interesting throughout. The puzzles are all relatively simple, but often require a bit of try and fail before you can succeed. Though death comes occasionally, I never felt frustrated by it. Except the times of course where the obvious answer to a puzzle eluded me.

With multiple characters to use throughout your adventure, Valiant Hearts does a good job of building both puzzles to be solved by one member, or larger puzzles that the entire cast of characters are required to help solve. Each character receives a short intro which helps connect them all together. Though from different countries or even on different sides of the war, the story interconnects well on the principle of them all just trying to make it home to their loved ones safely.

Valiant Hearts tells a story of family and friendship. With it’s great artstyle and easy to understand characters who just want to be with those friends and families, it does a great job having us connect with, and understand the story. The back drop of war helps set the tone as we witness the many deaths that these characters face to simply survive from one area to the next. Even with the sometimes bright and cartoonish look of the game, this tone remains apparent throughout. Valiant Hearts is a story worth experiencing in it’s entirety.

Valiant Hearts is currently available on Steam for $14.99, as well as on PS4, PS3, Xbox 360, and Xbox One.

Don’t forget to share and comment below and let me know what you think about Valiant Hearts: The Great War

Also, check out my review of Never Alone

May 6, 2015 MicBeMac Adventure Games, Game previews

Little Briar Rose: Preview

I recently came across this gem from Elf Games. Little Briar Rose is a classic point and click adventure with an entirely unique look. Set amongst the basic story of Sleeping Beauty. Little Briar Rose takes us on a beautifully designed adventure.

The art of Little Briar Rose is what sets it apart from any other point and click adventure you may have enjoyed recently. Each area you explore is artfully crafted to appear as living stained glass. This unique approach adds an incredible vibrancy to each scene. Every new area you enter is incredibly detailed and colorful. Characters and interaction points pop to the foreground, even though the entire game is two dimensional. The nature of this art makes it fun to explore each scene for hidden details that you can play with. Even game overs are handled with a unique crack of the glass, that quickly sends you back to your last save point.

Game play in this adventure is handled through these picturesque scenes. Each area is filled with characters and items to interact with. It’s up to you to figure out how to use each character or item to win wishes which will unlock new scenes to explore. The puzzles in each scene are complex enough to have you fail from time to time, but never to frustration. The more complicated puzzles have you moving back and forth between unlocked scenes and triggering events in the right order or finding the right set of items.

Though the current playable build of Little Briar Rose is a very early demo, you can see that the developer has really taken their time complete each scene. Though the story is not a new one, it is still a lot of fun just to witness the various detailed stained glass environments. The dialogue ranges from comical to downright not so good, but it doesn’t really put a hamper on proceedings.

I am really looking forward to seeing the full game develop. The bright and colorful environments astound. The quiet orchestral music flows nicely in the background. And the overall optimistic nature of the characters and story is a nice change from the generally dark and gritty games we often play now.

For more on Little Briar Rose, visit their developer blog

Follow them on Twitter @BriarRoseGame

For another great preview check out this one for Son of Nor, and don’t forget to comment below!

May 4, 2015 MicBeMac Adventure Games, Horror, procedurally generated, Survival games

Grave: Preview

Doesn't' look that grave — Doesn’t’ look that grave

Grave. Grave is spooky as hell. Grave is currently available as a very early demo awaiting Steam greenlight for early release. An atmospheric horror game, Grave will lull you into rest, then throw you for a loop. The game is developed independently by Broken Window Studios. This is their first venture into full development, and went the crowdfunding way to get Grave started.

Set near a seemingly abandoned mining town, Grave will challenge you to keep your wits. With a solid visual style, you will slowly traverse through the desert and mines to explore your surroundings. Though it starts out bright and hazy, things quickly change for the worse. While exploring an abandoned house, I found my first set of matches, leaving the mostly empty desert behind as I entered. As I came back to door of the house, the environment around me had shifted and there were giant half destroyed structures everywhere. These images quickly dissipated like a mirage. These visual cues are sometimes the scariest part of Grave.

The sound here is on equal footing with the visuals. The music and environmental effects have you spinning around often to make sure there isn’t something behind you. When the first real monster arrives, the horrible shriek had me nearly toss my headphones. The combination of sound and visual effects make for a very harrowing journey through the dilapidated buildings.

This being a very early demo, there isn’t too much to see and do yet. You are given a few tools to help fend off the horrors. A flashlight is probably your most useful tool. There is no combat in Grave, but light is used to fend off the enemies that appear in the town. Trying to stay in the light as monsters randomly spawn around you is quite frightening. The initial visual queue of all the light suddenly shrinking away outside generally has you scrambling for your matches, or flashlight.

As someone who doesn’t generally play horror games. Though this short demo lacks any real guidance, I found it was pretty easy to figure out what I needed to do. Not that it made it any easier to get done mind you. The procedurally generated maps ensure a different play through each time. I Am almost looking forward to the full release giving me plenty of both subtle and extreme jump scares.

Grave is currently scheduled for release in Q4 of 2015, for PC, Xbox One and PS4.

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For more previews, check out Kingdom Come: Deliverance