I’ll say it now and get it out of the way…the dragon is a jerkface. There’s no ifs, ands, or buts about it. Regardless, I find myself coming back for more punishment…a testiment to this game’s addictive qualities. “Fight The Dragon” has been on Steam’s Early Access for a while and will be officially launching today (as of 12/4/14). As best as I can describe it, “Fight The Dragon” is a hack and slash action-RPG, but with both premade and user-generated levels. Your ultimate goal will be to slay the dragon, but it’ll be a while before you become strong enough to do so. Before I go any further, I’d like to thank Seon Rozenblum from 3 Sprockets (the same folks who developed the recent “Cubemen 2“) for providing me with a free review copy.
Video Games
DISCLAIMER: The title “Early Access” means that the product/game is still under development. As such, the content featured below is subject to change. This includes any opinions I may have at the time of writing, as Alpha and Beta builds sometimes change their core mechanics on a whim. It’s important to stress the word opinions, as I find it unethical to review something not yet released in its final form. In other words, don’t take anything you see here too seriously. You can view all of the articles of this series by clicking the “Video Games” tab, located on the top of this page.
“Never Alone (Kisima Ingitchuna)” could be described as a puzzle platformer, but that would be doing the game a huge injustice. It is “the first game developed in collaboration with the Iñupiat, an Alaska Native people” and “nearly 40 Alaska Native elders, storytellers and community members contributed to the development of the game.” Going to such lengths to preserve the culture and get the details right in a video game is pretty impressive, if you ask me. In this little gem, you’ll take on the role of a young Iñupiat girl named Nuna and her trustworthy companion (an arctic fox) with the intent on finding the source of the “eternal blizzard” that threatens everything she’s ever known. Before I go any further, I’d like to quickly thank Laurie Thornton, the co-founder of Radiate (a PR firm), for providing me with a free press copy.
There’s nothing like a good word game to get the ol’ synapses going. “Letter Quest: Grimm’s Journey” is like “Scrabble” mixed with an RPG in the sense that your profile can “level up”, allowing you to equip new items and improve your character’s base stats in order to survive tougher fights. Now I know what you’re thinking…”didn’t PopCap Games already do something similar with ‘Bookworm Adventures’?” Honestly, yes…though not to this extent. The RPG elements are a bit more detailed and involved, but not so much as to bog down the casual player to the point where they’d resent playing it. Before I go any further, I’d like to thank Mark Smith, the CTO & Co-founder of Bacon Bandit Games, for providing me with a free press copy.
“Khet” (released in 2005) is a bit special to me in the sense that it was one of the first board games I purchased while DGA was still in its infancy. I can’t be sure, but I’m fairly certain that it had something to do with the fact that you could reflect lasers off your own pieces to figuratively blow up your opponent’s pieces…after all, you can’t do THAT in “Chess”. “Khet 2.0” (released in 2011), is for all intents and purposes the same game with a few distinct differences. We’re here today to quickly take a look at the video game adaptation of “Khet 2.0”, which released October 2014. Before we do, I’d like to quickly thank the folks at BlueLine Game Studios for providing me with a free press copy. If their name sounds familiar, it’s because they are the same developers who created and released the video game adaptation of the ever-popular, “Hive“.
DISCLAIMER: The title “Early Access” means that the product/game is still under development. As such, the content featured below is subject to change. This includes any opinions I may have at the time of writing, as Alpha and Beta builds sometimes change their core mechanics on a whim. It’s important to stress the word opinions, as I find it unethical to review something not yet released in its final form. In other words, don’t take anything you see here too seriously. You can view all of the articles of this series by clicking the “Video Games” tab, located on the top of this page.
DISCLAIMER: The title “Early Access” means that the product/game is still under development. As such, the content featured below is subject to change. This includes any opinions I may have at the time of writing, as Alpha and Beta builds sometimes change their core mechanics on a whim. It’s important to stress the word opinions, as I find it unethical to review something not yet released in its final form. In other words, don’t take anything you see here too seriously. You can view all of the articles of this series by clicking the “Video Games” tab, located on the top of this page.
Okay…I’m out of clever lead-ins and I’m too tired to come up with new ones. I think from here on out, I’ll simply make the opening paragraph to articles in this series a simple/standard disclaimer. It’ll go something like this:
DISCLAIMER: The title “Early Access” means that the product/game is still under development. As such, the content featured below is subject to change. This includes any opinions I may have at the time of writing, as Alpha and Beta builds sometimes change their core mechanics on a whim. It’s important to stress the word opinions, as I find it unethical to review something not yet released in its final form. In other words, don’t take anything you see here too seriously. You can view all of the articles of this series by clicking the “Video Games” tab, located on the top of this page.
Blah Blah Blah Early Access. Blah Blah Blah not representative of the final product. Blah Blah Blah these aren’t reviews. I’ve published so many of these articles that you should get the idea by now. For those of you tuning in for the first time, go check out my other articles in this series via the “Video Games” tab above.
There’s no doubt in my mind that “Legend of Grimrock“, released in 2012, was a breath of fresh air. After all, there haven’t been a lot of tile-based dungeon crawlers to hit the virtual shelves as of late. The last one I remember playing before “Legend of Grimrock” was “Eye of the Beholder”, which was released in 1991 for MS-DOS. That’s quite a gap, though I’m not all that surprised. Action RPGs give the player the freedom to move about the environment without being confined to preset spaces and have been around since the early 1980s. Still, there’s something to be said for tile-based dungeon crawlers and the way they’ve captivated and charmed us retro-gamers. I’ll be honest, I didn’t expect to see the likes of “Legend of Grimrock II” so quickly, though I’m pleased to have been proven wrong. Before we jump into the review, I’d like to quickly thank Juho Salila from Almost Human Ltd. for providing me with a free press copy.
There’s no shortage of Early Access games these days and I’m not going to complain…well, my elbows and fingers might. I’ve got three more games for you to feast your eyes upon, though keep in mind that they are not yet finished. As such, the following is just a quick look at the games as they stand and not any sort of review…after all, it wouldn’t be fair to review something not yet done yet, right? At any rate, if you missed all of the other articles I’ve done, you can find the full list on my “Video Games” page via the tab above.
“Train Fever” and I have a love/hate relationship. I played it almost religiously during the Beta, something I usually never get to do because of how many games I’m asked to review. Yeah I know…”boo freakin hoo”. Workload aside, I found “Train Fever” to be pretty compelling when I first started playing it. The more I played however, the more things that began to rub me the wrong way. Before I get into that, I’d like to quickly thank Basil Weber, the CEO of Urban Games, for providing me with a free press copy.
In the words of the late John Pinette (and I’m paraphrasing), “I’m not fan of the ocean. Shit bites you in the ocean.” I personally couldn’t agree more. “FarSky” was one of the unfortunate games to fall under my radar when it released earlier this year and despite the name, features plenty of ocean and things in it willing to bite your face off. As hesitant as I was to face my personal fears of being trapped in an underwater environment, I think that “FarSky” is one of the better survival games to have hit the virtual shelves. Here’s why…
Sul Sul! Harva sol labaga along with hava so lawnumg. Ooo shanga day. Benzi chibna looble bazebni gweb. Ribby wibbs ahhhh molombia veena fredishay. Shoo flee ooh be gah. Wing zing dog plerg majah bliff. Gerb woof em blark balahonc zierex nicloske ga gloope. Boobasnot! Uhh shamoo ralla poo! Litzergram flart arriba chandler nuber menukonya. Deepla blah meshaloob shoandish. My Shuno!
One of these days I’m going to have to come up for air. As you may have already guessed, that day is not today as I have four more Early Access games for you to check out. Like all the other articles in this series, this is simply a quick look at the games in their current state and NOT a review. Reviewing a game not yet done wouldn’t be all that fair, now would it? Nevertheless, feel free to enjoy the short list I’ve compiled in today’s posting.
I think you all know the drill by now, so I’ll save you the clever lead-in. The following is a quick list of the Early Access games I’ve played as of late and my initial impressions. It’s important to stress that these games are still under development, meaning that the content and opinions featured below are subject to change.