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!

Kingdom Come: Update 0.4 Preview

It’s finally here!  Kingdom Come: Deliverance update 0.4 is here and with it comes our first taste of sword combat.  I have been really excited to see this update based off of all the talk about how much detail was planned for the sword combat system.  Let’s be honest, shooting a few arrows off at still targets was not nearly enough for me or any of you adventurers.

The new pretty map!

Let’s jump right into the nitty gritty.  This update allows you to partake in a one on one duel in a newly added mercenary camp.  A small wager gives you an opponent in 3 different skills levels to attempt to overcome.  You can also choose to go in your street clothes or gather some armour for more protection.  It also doesn’t hurt to put a small wager on the outcome for some additional funds.

Check out more video on Warhorse Studio’s YouTube page

Combat is controlled from the mouse and movement keys as expected.  You are given a target lock and are able to strafe around your opponent freely, moving in and out as needed.  You can control the angle of your attack with the mouse.  Rotating the mouse around will change your positioning as indicated by a star on your target.  Each time you do so, you get a sense of your balance shifting, and the weight of the sword in your hands.  Holding your sword drains your stamina, lifting and holding it above your head quickens this loss.  Each strike you take feels weighted and heavy.

Just give me the sword already!!!

Strikes can be parried by swinging your sword in the right direction in time with your opponent’s blows.  You can also use a blocking mechanic to avoid the hit altogether and try for a counter attack when your foe falls off balance.  Though it is difficult to master the timing, the movements and reactions feel very realistic. There is definitely a learning curve here over traditional games in the genre, which is exactly what Warhorse studios has been aiming for with Kingdom Come: Deliverance.  You’ll also notice the striking animations were are incredibly smooth and add even more realism to the combat.

Stay on target… Stay on target!

This update has also added more quests to try out, each with multiple ways to solve, and different outcomes.  We are also welcomed to a much larger space to explore and a new town with more people and dialogue to find as well.  Though in my opinion the towns still feel a bit empty besides all the chickens and sheep.  Warhorse has been able to add many more layers here, but the world still doesn’t feel quite as lively as it should.  Now that I have gotten a taste of combat however, I am dying to see more, especially in the form of larger scale battles, or potentially even sieges, though it is yet unclear if these will be included in a later version of the game.

As always, make sure to comment, like and let me know if you have tried the latest version of Kingdom Come!

Make sure to follow development on Twitter with the guys at WarHorse Studios

Make sure to check out my last preview for update 0.3 here.

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!

 

Little Briar Rose: Preview

The adventure begins

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.

Oops, I think I broke it.

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 may have chosen poorly here.

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!

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.

The Universim: Game Preview

The Universe is yours

I recently checked out the early visual prototype for The Universim. Universim is a god-like civilization builder in the mold of the Populous games. Brought to us by indie developer Crytivo Games, Universim is still in pre-alpha. Though the prototype is a visual format only, and doesn’t give us any real functionality yet, it does give us a good idea of the scale and overall look the developers are going for.

The starter “Mother Earth” planet you begin on shows off several biomes. These basic environments range from grassy fields, to massive rocky mountains, vast oceans and forested areas. It also gives you a rough idea of the range of tech you will have at your disposal. From small tribes, to farms, to giant skyscraper filled cities, the plan to allow you to build a society up to the advanced stages of space flight is also evident.

Like most god-like games, the planned gameplay revolves around your interaction with the native people of each planet you may visit. The Universim plans to add more dynamic abilities by leaving these societies growth completely to the AI, and although you will be able to affect environments and events, you will not be able to control people directly. This should add a level of unknown to the game, as actions you take may often not have the results you intend. This will be balanced with a “Wrath” meter, which will fill up as you take actions, and allow you to reign down destruction on your people when they decide to take actions you disagree with.

The developers at Crytivo games have bold plans for The Universim. Colonization will be a key factor with The Universim. You will be able to send ships to other planets in the universe and build new habitats for your people. With random generated planets a lot of care and planning will have to go into each colony, as varying weather and environment effects will give your people new challenges with each planet you encounter.

With the crowdfunding effort for The Universim still on going, I am looking forward to seeing how far the devs are able to go in their quest for rejuvenating the god-like genre with their new concepts.

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.

9 Minutes of Adr1ft

Via IGN.com, check out 9 minutes of Adr1ft, a beautiful looking solo first person space adventure where you struggle to survive, after the space station your are posted to is mysteriously destroyed. Find resources amongst the wreckage that may help you escape and journey back home.

http://widgets.ign.com/video/embed/content.html?url=http://www.ign.com/videos/2015/03/09/9-minutes-of-adr1ft-ign-first