Satellite Reign Review

Syndicate was one of those games that defined a genre, one of shadowy corporations, corruption, intrigue and big brother conformity, Cyberpunk at its best. Satellite Reign has that potential realized in its rainy neon soaked streets. A beautiful massive city to explore at your convenience. It’s pretty well polished, has a few minor A.I issues, but nothing to ruin the atmosphere most of the time

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Gameplay
The main thing i like about this game is that you can go stealth or loud. If you fail at the escape part of stealth it doesn’t matter too much as long as you get your people moving out quickly. If you are spotted, it is not the end of the world (something i enjoy allot), kill all the witnesses and you won’t have a problem.
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Loud is a different story, it is harder than stealth and therefore not recommended but still fun to do. It is not a deathwish and i love that, firing a bullet wont send an army after you. As long as you stop them calling reinforcements (not too much of a problem if you are paying attention) you can survive the encounter without a sweat. Beware of nearby enemies though, if you shoot near a lot of bad guys you will pay for it. What you can do is create a bubble of silence, allowing you to kill in the area without a worry of other people noticing.
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A thing that needs to be added is an overwatch ability, sometimes when stealthing into a base I will leave my teammates, what I would like is that they don’t just stand there and die. AI is a large problem in the game, one of the things that really breaks the fun. That said I am not having much of a problem with it. If your troops aren’t positioned right and cant have a LOS on the target you want them to shoot they will sometimes just shoot at a wall, wasting their bullets. Ammo is not a real problem in this game, I have never had a time where my units are all out of bullets and you have a slot for secondaries that has an infinite pool.
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There is a way to slow time but it slows camera movement as well. Micromanagement is something you will have to learn if you want to play this game. Although the micro management is not particularly hard.
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Whilst death feels like a failure the game doesn’t punish you much for it, something I enjoy allot. There is a minor loss of xp or money (your choice) but it is not the end of the world if your badasses get shot to bits on the field
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This game is STUNNING, love the graphics, Nuff said.
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In conclusion, the AI and lack of quality of life improvements are the only thing that I have a problem with in this game. This will not be for everybody though, I had to give it time at the start, little options at the start make it a bad intro to the game, this changes dramatically later with your characters gaining an individual skill type and role. I would recommend this to anyone who likes RTS and cyberpunk.  If you can ignore the games sins you will find a fun and rewarding experience. A solid 4 out of 5 for me.

chicken rating 4

Darkest Dungeon Review

darkest_dungeon02What can I say about “Darkest Dungeon”? For one thing, it’s freaking Amazing!!! The artwork for this game are really what set it off and pull the whole thing together. The artwork and animation really make this game come to life and pop off your screen and into your head. The narrator voicing the story is also truly great. Red Hook although a small indie dev but the work they bring to the table is all AAA quality material.

darkest_dungeon04This game is kinda hardcore “side scrolling” RPG about dungeon adventuring, stress and heroic deeds. It’s really unlike anything you had recently chance to play, it’s dark experience exploiting flaws, venturing to deeps of human mental vulnerability. What’s the point of living through passage of blades when the paranoia and stress turns you mad or stop your heart?
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This are the list they nailed correctly in this game
+ XCOM elements of party management
+ Light/stress factor affecting outcomes
+ Beautiful graphic, animated movies
+ Narrator
+ Dark atmosphere
+Difficulty

Darkest Dungeon is Difficult in an Insane level!!! It’s a RPG Roguelike and RNG, and try to remembers to get those lucky charms like rabbit foot or 4 leaf clovers cause you’ll be needing them. It’s the perfect balance between difficulty and enjoyment. You WILL lose heroes and even complete games after making significant progress. You WILL get frustrated. Keep at it however and you WILL Win. When you get a good run through a dungeon you really feel the triumph and like you earned it. You feel like you accomplished something worthwhile that was challenging. If you’re used to playing roguelikes then you should know how this feels and know it was worth it.
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Roguelikes aren’t for everyone though. If you’re easily frustrated or have anger issues this might not be the game for you. I’ve yelled “WTF you Motherf*&%$er!!” more times in a bad dungeon than you can shake a really big stick at. So be ready for that, but don’t worry. It makes those good runs taste all the more sweeter when you pull them off.
So, do you think you’re ready? You think you know madness? You think you know insanity? Do you think you’ve seen the twisted horror that can break a man’s mind in the deepest reaches of his soul?
You don’t know Shit until you step into….The Darkest Dungeon.

It lives up to its namesake! This game has a darkness about it. It will take you time to master, but if you enjoy a challenge and enjoy single player rpg dungeon crawls, You. Will. Love. This. GAME!

Ori and The Blind Forest Review

If there is one thing to describe Ori and the Blind Forest, and that is a work of art. No, I don’t mean those stupid art you see in galleries nowadays where you just see paint splattered on a canvas.  This game is hands down considered as one of those game oozing with good aesthetics. Every level area you play on this game are show pieces. When was the last time you played a game where you stopped just to appreciate the design and art pieces as you explore the world? No doubt, making a video for promotional trailer on this game was a breeze as the game literally oozes with superb art.

I’m not that keen towards music and as such, but I can definitely say the soundtracks is on par with level of art they made the game.

On the game play side of things, it’s a puzzle platformer with some metroidvania/castlevania vibe to it. Combat wise, I can say is fairly simplistic but that’s ok. A cute and cuddly aesthetic doesn’t need Mortal Kombat gore fest. You progress depends on the skills you unlock as it will aid you to traverse the world, focusing more on level traversal and maneuvers. You might experience difficulty spikes throughout the game, but that’s just your thought as the area maybe cleared with the appropriate skill you unlocked. This game can be finished in a one day if you breeze through it, and I’m happy to say that this one of those games where I didn’t look at wiki’s or checked gameFaq.

I can say that the story at its best is simple. There is nothing surprising. I guess I’m too old for it,  If the game was made during my youth, then maybe it would have awed me. Don’t get me wrong, this doesn’t make it a bad game. Plot or story wise its simple, but they made the Ori world/universe really good. Maybe that answers the question as to why I plowed through levels after levels of this game, I wasn’t after story or plot but the world of Ori begs me to go explore its universe. It was a good field trip. If they had a another one, surely I’d give it a go.

Wrapping this up, the game overloads you with its graphic aesthetics, a balanced gameplay and competent puzzles and platform. This is graphics indulgence at its best.  To people who say that graphics come second to gameplay… take that MF.