Building a World: The Universim

The Universim continues it’s promising growth with an early access alpha showcasing some of the early game-play.  Moving beyond the previously released tech demo, this early build brings many of the promises of the developers, Crytivo Games, to life.

It’s a small world afterall.

Though this early release is quite limited, it’s full to the brim with potential.  After establishing your first early settlement, your people, or “nuggets” get set to work as assigned by you through the simple UI.  Whether they start gathering food, stone, or start building and expanding is up to you.  Each nugget can be assigned to these roles dynamically, and can be changed at any time depending on your current needs.

Your nuggets will go off to work, and require little attention from you.  Though you are to decide where and when to build certain advanced structures, your nuggets in Universim will decide where new houses are going to be built, and where they will go to gather resources.  This makes choosing your starting point very important so as to not have your nuggets wondering miles to collect wood or stone.

The dynamic planetary weather system is also key in your early decisions.  Each planet has it’s own unique environment and weather patterns.  A quick look at the available overlays will show you wind patterns, and temperature patterns to give you insight as to where to build.  Cloud and storm systems will travel across the landscape dropping rain, snow and occasional lightning across the land.  Placing your starting town in areas where storms are common, or where the temperatures drop greatly during the winter can be deadly early on.  Crytivo also promises random events will litter the surface with earthquakes, storms, volcanoes and the such throughout your game.

Them’s storm clouds a brewin’

Your nuggets are also dynamic, and each have their own thoughts and emotions.  In later game areas you’ll have to manage all of these aspects to keep a happy tribe together, and you can expect even more problematic issues coming up as you advance into the the modern age and expand across the planet surface.  People in The Universim will live thier lives, grow old and die.  As they age their stats will change to reflect this.  Young Nuggets are fast on their feet and able to carry more produce around, but as they age they slow down, and carry little to nothing.  Clicking on each one will show their stats and a quick biography of their family, and how many children they have.

Future depth to explore

A basic research tree is also available in this release, showcasing three trees of growth available to your society.  There is nothing really new here as most of the early technologies are fairly straightforward and lead to more abilities and buildings.  It will be interesting to see what direction The Universim goes with as you move into the modern and advanced ages.

Come, meet the family

This early build gives a great preview into the potential of The Universim.  The game runs smoothly with a limited amount of bugs, and the groundwork has been laid well for the basic functions of the game.  I’m really looking forward to the various additions forthcoming that will add more layers of challenge to the game.  We haven’t seen a really great ‘God” game in awhile and they have always been one of my favorite genres.  Crytivo games has their hands full with The Universim, but my early impression is that they are the right hands.

As always, thanks for reading, and be sure to share your comments below about The Universim.  Make sure to subscribe to me on YouTube for future updates!  Previous preview can be found here!

To get early access visit The Universim and opt in as an backer for immediate access to the Pre-Alpha build.

Follow @CrytivoGames, @TheUniversim

 

Pick-pocketing and shadows: Kingdom Come Update 0.5

Kingdom Come :Deliverance returns with it’s latest batch of updates.  Though not as exciting as 0.4’s combat update, update 0.5 layers in more details into the overall game experience.  The added items help build the immersion of the environment and start bringing the world to life.

Most of the additions this time around add to the environment and look of Kingdom Come.  New updates to CryEngine allowed Warhorse Studios to add even more dynamic lighting and shadows throughout.  As the sun moves through the sky, shadows shift and waver.  Jumping will let you see the silhouette of your character mimicked on the ground as he bounds into the air.

It’s so pretty!

The music is also more dynamic, and lends to the atmosphere as new events arise, or you enter into combat.  NPC’s now seem to react more to their surroundings as well as you move about the small hamlets currently available to explore.  The addition of an early crime system adds to these reactions, as you now have a chance to loot or pickpocket unsuspecting villagers as you pass.

Hey! Personal space dude!

The combat got some minor updates this time around.  Keyboard and mouse controls were slightly tightened for ease of use, and you can now fight more than one foe at a time.  With the realistic combat of Kingdom come however, it would be rare that you would want to fight more than one person at a time.

I wasn’t able to find any new quests as I explored the countryside, and I’m hoping to get a glimpse at some of the main story quests in the next update when it arrives.  If only to see what a longer, more multi-tiered quest would look like in Kingdom Come.

Now this is first person!

There is still a long way to go, and a long way to wait with Kingdom Come: Deliverance, but everythign so far is looking great.  The addition of more atmosphere is great for the feel of the game.  Adding multiple combatants to battle is the first step for the hopeful epic, larger scale battles to come in later versions.  We can only wait to see what’s in store in update 0.6.

As always thanks for reading and be sure to comment and like below.

Check out Kingdom Come’s backer page for your chance to gain access to the early alpha as well.

Subscribe to me on YouTube.

Check out Update 0.4 right here!

Preview: Overfall

Welcome to a gorgeous, stylistic adventure RPG for the explorer in you.  Brought to us by indie developers Pera Games, Overfall is staged to be an open world exploration RPG set on the high seas in a beautifully hand drawn environment.  They have recently completed their Kickstarter campaign and full development is under way.

I got a chance recently to play through the demo for Overfall.  You quickly set sale into the hand drawn environments with a couple of characters in tow.  A brave fighter is accompanied by a very useful cleric as the starting classes available in the demo.

The early beginnings of multiple classes and races?

Though the current available archetypes for each character are relatively straightforward, the fighter deals massive melee damage, and the cleric works on healing and buffs, there is still a lot of potential for unique characters within the fantasy setting.  The world is filled with interesting characters and creatures, from giant pig men, to goblins, to pirates and of course elves.  These characters are set aside from other games by the cartoonish, but extremely detailed artwork.

This artwork expands into the environment as the backgrounds are gorgeous, and filled with color and life.  The high seas are also filled with activity and dozens of islands to explore, though only a few were available in the demo.

So many places to explore, many on fire though…

The other thing that will grab you in this game is the witty dialogue.  It happened more than once through my play through that I would think something quite witty and funny to myself, just as my character on screen would almost read my mind and say something similar.  The developers obviously know how to make fun of both themselves and the general tropes of similar games and take advantage of that to instill a great deal of humor into the game.

Combat takes place in turned base format on a hexagonal map.  A unique twist added here is the use of various combat stages for each turn.  All characters can take multiple actions each turn this way, with a variety of different abilities available depending on what stage they are in.  Rather than using magic points or something similar, these skills are all on cool downs and can’t be used two turns in a row, meaning you will have to carefully plan how to use your skills each turn or be potentially stuck in a prickly position.

Combat! Comedic Characters! The letter “C”!

If they continue on this path, Pera Games should have a winner for themselves.   Though the Kickstarter is over with, you can certainly support the development by following the developers on Twitter where they have shown to be active and supportive of their community.

As always, thanks for reading and be sure to comment or like below.

Follow my social media madness on Twitter, or Facebook!

Early Access Review: The Bug Butcher

Do you like fast, addicting and extremely challenging arcade shooters like we had in the 80’s?  Then The Bug Butcher is definitely one to check out.  Currently available on Steam Early Access, The Bug Butcher is developed by the indie team at Awfully Nice Studios.

The Bug Butcher is a classic arcade style shoot up action game that challenges you to blow up bizarre alien bugs.  The developers have been putting a ton of work into the cartoon art style and terribly funny dialogue.

You first meet our hero as he arrives at a giant factory of sorts, where horrible alien space bugs have taken over the plant.  Running through the first few tutorial levels has you meet one of the factory workers, who appears to look a little like a talking Gameboy.  The dialogue and story are clever and funny, and the exposition provided by your guide is often scoffed about by the protagonist, due to it’s completely satirical nature.

These first few moments set you up for the initial extremely addicting gameplay.  Dropping you through one room at a time, you must fire your gun upwards as the alien bugs drop from the ceiling and other areas, and bounce around the screen.  Each bug has unique skills and properties and you have to adapt to each as they fall from above.  Killing them earns you coins, and a score multiplier to rack up the points after each kill.  Every level has three to four waves of creatures before you can proceed to the next level, and of course, there is a time limit applied that you must beat.  As you are only able to shoot straight up, and can’t jump, each shot has to be well timed as you avoid your bouncing enemies.

As the levels progress you’re given a variety of powerups to use, that either increase your speed, power of your gun or give you temporary new weapons that cause mass destruction across the screen. These weapons can range from homing rockets, to a powerful laser that disintegrates everything, a gatling gun that fires at a high rate but needs to be charged, or a electric gun that on a successful hit jumps to other foes.  After enough kills you’ll also gain a special attack with a variety of effects.  You can fire off more rockets, freeze everything on the screen, or even gain temporary invincibility and speed.  You’ll need to use them all if you’re going to survive the later levels.

Eww, slime. Gross.

Difficulty ramps up fast in The Bug Butcher.  Every level introduces new enemies.  Some are explained but others come out as a surprise and you’ll have to quickly react to their new abilities and patterns.  At some points there are so many different foes on the screen it becomes almost impossible to survive as you try to dodge and take out the most dangerous enemies first.  Gameplay is broken up even more with elevator levels that take away some of your weapon drops, or other levels with various moving platforms or force fields that redirect your enemies bouncing and can either be a boon or a burden depending on what  you are dealing with at each moment.

The soundtrack keeps up with the action throughout, and gets your blood flowing.  The up beat electronic music really brings me back to my retro roots, and hours spent at the arcade, or in similar games on late consoles.  The music really keeps you on pace and meshes well with the chaos on the screen.

And this is just the first zone.

Throughout all these busy levels, the gameplay doesn’t miss a beat.  I rarely saw my FPS drop below 60 regardless of how many enemies were on the screen.  It remained smooth and fast, aiding in the overly addictive nature of the game.  Frustrating death after frustrating death couldn’t keep me from giving it one more go, or trying out the next level.  Each successful level rewards you with a star rating, and comparison to your steam friends and the overal rankings.  You’ll also get new weapon drops as you go, as the game is really good at introducing something new with almost every level.

With competitive local multiplayer support planned, players are sure to have tense competitive battles with their friends shortly.  We can only hope that developer Awfully Nice Studios also has online multiplayer planned in a later update to really create a gem of fun gaming here.  The Bug Butcher is currently available on Steam for $10.99.

As always, thanks for reading, and be sure to comment below and let me know if you have had a chance to play The Bug Butcher yet.  Follow the developer @_AwfullyNice_ on Twitter for more updates.

Check out another great indie review: Subnautica.

 

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.

I’m so pretty!

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.

Hello little guy, wait why is the Theme to Jurassic Park playing?

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!

 

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.

Well it could be worse…

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 beautiful sunset…

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.

Oh, my bad, things can get worse

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.

Crafting in style

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. 

World Of Warships: Beta Preview

Time to engage!

World of Warships is an action packed tactical wargame. Emphasis on the action. Taking from their previous games, Wargames.net uses the same mold with World of Warships. The free to play model gives you instant access to one tier of small warships to start your campaign to collect them all. Like with Wargames.net previous entries, World of Warships has you earn experience points and cash that allow you to research and buy new ships and upgrades. From my early closed Beta test experience so far, they have done an adequate job of not making new equipment and ships seem inaccessible. You can generally find yourself able to afford a new ship after only a few battles, assuming you can hit the enemy on a fairly regular basis.

It’s a lot of fun watching enemies explode.

Early gameplay is pretty fast paced as early ships are small and maneuverable, and don’t carry much fire power, nor hit points. These first few battles are quick and allow you to get used to the basic controls, navigation and firing techniques. Though the actual combat is more action oriented, and not a true simulation, it still takes a fair amount of skill to judge distance and speed before firing your canons, or loosing torpedoes.

As you gain experience, higher ranked ships become available. These ships vary in class from cruisers, to destroyers, to massive battleships or aircraft carriers. World of Warships does a great job offering a varied amount of combat once these second and third tier options open up.

Cruisers, the first ship type you have access to, offer balance in performance and firepower. They are fairly maneuverable and the higher tiers carry both an assortment of guns, as well as torpedoes, and anti-aircraft flak guns. Destroyers are fast and highly maneuverable. They tend to favour those who enjoy the torpedo game and can move quickly into range to fire, and escape by dropping smoke screens to hide themselves and allies. Battleships are the heavy hitters, and tend to stay at range firing massive guns for similarly massive damage. The aircraft carriers offer the most unique play experience, as they mostly lack any direct fire weapons and must rely entirely on their loadout of planes. When choosing and aircraft carrier, you find yourself generally moving between an overhead tactical view of the entire battle, and to your various planes, either fighters, bombers, or torpedo bombers. This mix of styles is very welcome, and offers variety to each battle.

It’s almost as much fun watching yourself explode.

Visually, the details of each ship really stands out. You can zoom out and in, and see even tiny details like deck plates on each ship. Water effects are solid, and explosions are vibrant and effective. Throughout each battle you are given both visual and audio cues to let you know your status, and any potential threats. Incoming fire and torpedoes are clearly identified, and warnings flash on your screen if you are on a collision course with one of the many small islands.

The only current struggle so far in closed beta, is the sometimes clunky match making system. Wait times can be long, and sometimes teams are very unbalanced either in tiers or total players. Though many of these issues are derived from the current amount of players in the closed beta. Overall however, the game seems to run smoothly even at the highest graphic settings, with only occasional lag and hiccups.

In it’s early state, World of Warships is looking to match the addictive nature of it’s predecessors. It offers a solid variety of gameplay options, and many ships for you to unlock and collect. With the premium options limited to a small variety of ships, and faster xp and in-game cash accumulation this should turn out to be another success.

Medieval Engineers, Early Access Game Preview

Game Preview; Medieval Engineers

I recently got my hands on the early access release of Medieval Engineers, currently released by Keen Software House on Steam. Medieval Engineers is a voxel based, physics game, that allows you to build massive structures and mighty siege weapons using real to life engineering concepts.

Currently in early alpha, Medieval Engineers supports only a creative mode at the moment, but has a vast array of tools at your disposal for building mighty fortresses out of stone, or simple wooden homes. The game features realistic volume and physics. This means each block you place has weight and as you build higher that weight is transferred down through the layers to create load. You have to keep these factors in mind. You can’t simply build to the heavens without first thinking about structure and how you will support it as you go. By default these physics effects are live, so you have to consider each step in your build carefully, or see your walls crumble to the ground as you try to build a new level to your castle.

The real beauty in this game currently resides in this same destructibility. Poorly supported structures crumble in a fantastic effect as stones crumble to pieces, wood splinters and cracks and a cloud of dust arrises. It is sometimes just as fun destroying a beautiful castle as it was to meticulously build each step. Though at this stage of the alpha, the game engine is not yet optimized and this magnificent destruction sometimes leads to dropped frame rates and crashes. The developer team however is quick to update and fix, and is quite vocal in the community. With a quick submit option whenever there is a crash it really shows they want to get the game fully functional soon.

The engineering community so far has been able to create some amazing structures, though many of these take advantage of a few unintended effects currently in the game, the results are still beautiful with both historical as well as fantastical castles and cities rebuilt in scale precision. This creativity was best expressed as I climbed the many steps to the top of Minas Tirith from the Lord of The Rings trilogy.

Holy s*@#!

The developers are very active, so the potential for creativity grows weekly. With teased multiplayer experiences coming in the future, great fortress battles should follow. New tools available regularly allow you to control even more of your environment and structures, even the sun. I am truly looking forward to more with Medieval Engineers whenever it achieves a state ready for final release.

Besiege: Early Access Review

If destruction, fire, and the occasional crushed sheep is your thing, Besiege is the game for you. Currently released in early access on Steam, Besiege is a physics based building game that allows you to build powerful siege engines to lay waste to the massive fortresses, tiny hamlets, and yes, unsuspecting sheep.

Developed by Spiderling Games, Besiege is a tinkerer’s play box. It drops you on a map with a clear set of goals, and lets you create whatever your mind can come up with to meet those goals. Currently limited to a series of tutorial maps, these goals can range from simple destroy missions, where you must destroy a certain percentage of the environment or troops on the screen, to obstacle courses and resource collection courses.

Not unlike opening a box of your favourite Lego as a child, Besiege gives you a variety of tools and equipment to build your creations. You need to figure out the right combination of components and moving parts to get the job done, and there are always multiple possibilities for each encounter. One early level for instance tasks you with destroying a tower located on a mountain, you can do so by rigging together some springs and pulleys and ropes to create a catapult or trebuchet, or maybe create a legged monstrosity to climb the mountain side, or a flying bomber that can rain hell from above. Your choices are limited only by your imagination and ability to take advantage of the game’s sometimes finicky physics engine.

The game also currently includes a sand box mode, which acts as a test ground for various designs with a variety of obstacles and targets to test your machines on. The real fun however is in the mission play and trying to figure out new ways to destroy your targets.

The visuals for the game, are cartoonish, and comedic, with massive explosions throwing debris across the map, or throwing soldiers up past the camera. Sheep splatter into satisfying pools of blood as your siege engines crush tme with spikes, bombs, and fiery balls of death.

With a quickly growing community of siege designers, a variety of both monstrous, and incredibly well thought out creations are also available to be shared and used in your own game, and each design can still be altered or improved for your own tastes. Individual components can also be redesigned and their effects changed to serve varying purposes, like increasing the tension on a spring, or the rotation speed of a wheel.

Though the structured mission play is currently limited to only one zone, with all of the bits and pieces available in the steadily increasing inventory, it’s not hard to find new and more inventive ways to cause havoc on each map. Besiege has shown a good start to a very creative game that you can spend minutes on, or hours trying to create that perfect weapon of destruction, or a perfectly balance flying contraption.

Overall 6.5/10