Bless Unleashed. Good but not fun

Posted on by X35 Earthwalker

Bless Unleashed is an Xbox exclusive MMORPG developed by ‘NEOWIZ Round 8 Studios‘ and published by ‘Bandai Namco‘. We have played Bless Unleashed for a good while now and it’s definitely a good game and even has something that other games failed to do; however we have encountered some designs and features that have ruined things for us. Let’s take a look.

The first thing layers will notice about Bless Unleashed is the combat. It’s slow, sort of unresponsive and stiff. For example you swing at the enemy after knocking them down and sometimes you go over them or through them slightly. All you have to do is readjust but it can cost you a free strike on the downed enemy as the crusader class. Also you can’t use your shield fast enough after attacking, there’s such a delay that you have to wait a whole 2 second or slightly less until you can raise your shield. So you about to finish your combo, see the enemy about to hit you, you try to raise your shield as soon as the combo finishes (well in time) then get no shield, smacked across the head… and then your shield comes up which is too late. Also the Crusader class it punished as the full combo can never be finished before the boss attacks you. aYou aren’t really allowed to use your power, especially when fighting the dungeon enemies. You have to rely on others to do the damage while you hold block forever which isn’t fun. A delay with the shield isn’t fun either. Combat needs to be improved, smoother, faster reaction slowed also.

Now let’s mention some good stuff about Bless Unleashed. Bless Unleashed has shown that the developers really thought some elements out. For example we like that there are two in game currencies in the game that are very easy to get your hands on. You can even convert regular gold into star seeds.  With both gold and star seeds players can use the fast travel teleporters. Not only that, you can activate those teleporters even when you aren’t physically at one of them which is good design. Another great thing is that you get lots of upgrade and fortification stones. They are real easy to get and even some defeated enemies drop them. You need these stones to upgrade your weapons and equipment. So you don’t have a problem getting the chance to upgrade. Now this is a negative also but a bigger positive in some ways. Other players are always present in your world except for strict moments concerning the story where it has to be you alone. Now this is annoying as other players can kill the enemies you are hunting but the major benefit is that you get all the help you normally get all the help you need with powerful bosses found in the open world. For example you almost always find players waiting for a big boss to spawn so when he finally spawn there’s like 17 players all attacking it. So you will get help.

Next thing that makes Bless Unleashed not fun is the amount of bag space you have. To be fair, there is a way to upgrade the amount of bag space. You have to collect 4 bag pieces and take them to the bag specialist guy who increases bag space by 1. Yes, it’s that small. You always run out of space. Maybe they need to increase the stack numbers for the fortification and upgrade stones and the ingredients like leather, thin branches etc. That would certainly help. Increase the bag that you start with and increase the stack size. It’s absolutely annoying when you want to open up a chest award or get new items but you have to decide what to get rid of since every single item counts as a space except for stacks which off course count as one. Not fun at all.

Another thing that’s not fun about Bless Unleashed is the upgrade of weapons and equipment. We will focus on weapons as that’s our experience with this issue. So firstly you need the right amount of in game currency which is fine. You need enough fortification and upgrade stones which is fine. Now when you upgrade a weapon when it’s a rare there is a chance that your weapon upgrade can fail. This for starters is stupid. If we have the goods, and the materials then give us the upgrade. This isn’t Raid: shadow legend where you can fail the upgrade. Not only can you fail but your weapon can break too. When your weapon breaks during a fail, you can’t upgrade that weapon again until you repair it which requires a repair kit item which isn’t cheap by the way or easy to obtain. Not only that when your weapon breaks it goes down one level. So your level 4 sword you tried to upgrade, breaks and is now back to being a level 3! THAT’S STUPID! You can be severely punished for attempting to upgrade.  So let’s give a very accurate example. You have a level 3 rare sword and you got the right amount of stuff to attempt an upgrade. It fails. You sword is broken and it’s now. level 2 and you need a repair kit to repair which you get at the limited time store. Now that it’s repaired you have to repair again just to get back to your original level of level 3 just so you can attempt again which you could also fail again. That’s NOT fun at all. Also bad like Raid: Shadow legends you don’t get told your odds of success. You don’t know the risk when you want to upgrade.  So it’s unfair.

Now the one thing Bless Unleashed did that others didn’t do is the more realistic female model designs for NPCs. We have mentioned this before but in the first area in the festival. There was some women who had on high heels which off course effects the figure. We noticed that the calf muscles and Gastrocnemius looked exactly like how a real life women’s lower leg would look. This is a big deal to us because other games don’t do that. They all have very similar model designs. Some developers have lazy moments. We wish more games have diversity in their character designs, especially for NPCs.

Now another problem that Bless Unleashed have is the attack combos for the Crusaders. You have round about 4 actual combos but the problem is you will only really be using 1. The main one where you tap RB, RB, RB, RB, B does the most damage. So why would you use the other combos? Well you can use the RB, RB, RT, B combo which has an area effect so it’s good for a group but there’s no reason to use the others as it’s less damage. The shield one that knocks the enemy in the air isn’t needed as your strongest combo has big knock back so you get the distance anyway. So there’s no point in having them. They are pointless. If there’s a hidden actual purpose for those other combos then it’s not clear and we don’t know. Give the player combos that actually matter. Why can’t one have a poison effect maybe, while another combo may lower defence or boost your attack damage or whatever.  See? We are better at game design than all these designers. 

The last and biggest failure of Bless Unleashed and the single main reason why we don’t even feel like playing the game anymore… the levelling up. Simple put, it takes forever. There’s only two ways to really progress in this game. Level up, which grants more health and strength, and upgrading your weapon for more damage. We already discussed that many are too scared to upgrade and the fails prevent you from doing that, so all you are left with is levelling up. Never has levelling up felt so slow in a game. We have done all the side quests that we can find. We have fought and killed many enemies and that doesn’t even take you halfway to levelling up. We aren’t joking. Rewatch the clip above. We got 1659 experience points which is 0.134%. This is from an enemy which is 4 levees higher than us by the way. This would mean in order to get 100% so we can level up, we have kill that goat 746 times!!!!!! Nope! Sorry! Not doing that! It gets worse. The next story mission we need to complete to progress is to defeat a dungeon boss. We can’t fight it because you have to be level 19 to enter the dungeon. We just turned level 18 by finishing the last mission and as you can see in the clip above, we are nowhere near being level 19. We  did all the side quests we could find. No we aren’t going to ride around the whole big map in order to try and find more. They should be available from the map or whatever. We learnt that fighting stronger monsters only grant pathetic amounts of experience like 0.134% worth. We are stuck. No! We aren’t going to sit there and slay a goat 746 times! We have lives to live, we got a business to run, friends to socialise with, family to spend time with, online church services and more. WE’VE GOT A LIFE! We heard some player go back to find the global Map bosses that spawn into the world. One, those bosses spawn like every 20mins. They literally take forever to spawn in. Two, they don’t give as much exp as you would expect.  This is the biggest killer for us concerning Bless Unleashed. So no, we aren’t playing it. We rather go back to playing Tera and Skyforge.

We didn’t want to completely bash the game in as it’s a good game truly and well made. That’s why we threw in some positives about the game in this blog post. It’s just there are some stuff that makes the game not fun at all. Players shouldn’t be afraid to upgrade their weapons. Players always want upgrades. We have a purple epic upgrade stone but we don’t want to rick using it, then grind back the resources needed to upgrade again because your last upgrade failed. It is completely stupid to lock the story behind compulsory level u missions. Side quests, fine but not the main story. We literally can’t progress until we are level 19 which takes forever to get there.  The whole point of videos games is entertainment. You are suppose to have fun. Since we aren’t having fun, we can conclude that Bless Unleashed failed to complete its purpose. We will wait to see if there are any changes but until then, we will be playing other games. Bless Unleashed may be a good game but without the fun it’s not good enough for… the ‘Earth Walk!’

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Deliver Us the Moon. What’s wrong with the moon?

Posted on by X35 Earthwalker

‘Deliver Us the Moon’ is a sci-fi thriller game developed by ‘KeokeN Interactive‘ and published by ‘Wired Productions‘. Deliver us the moon is said to be coming out on the Xbox One and PlayStation 4 on the 24th of April 2020. It’s said to be coming to the Nintendo Switch also in 2020 but no exact date. It’s already on PC but we don’t count that. So for us, this game is new. So we are in space and there’s a moon that needs saving? What? Let’s take a look.

So Deliver us the moon is set in the future. Not too far but the “near future”. It’s an apocalyptic time. Earth’s natural resources are gone. They are depleted. So off course mankind decides to take their search to space to find the good stuff – we mean resources. They get to the moon. Things are going well. The “global powers” have worked together to make the ‘World Space Agency’. They also discovered and got their hands on a new energy source. Everything is literally going well… for once…. until (it never goes well forever) one day earth loses all contact and communication with the moon. Years later is when the player comes into play.

So, in Deliver us the moon, players take control of the so called Earth’s last astronaut. Your mission is simple, get up there and find out what happened. This kind of sounds like another regular person who gets called up into space to find out what happened and repair stuff… Isaac Clarke from Dead Space. Well it gets a bit different from here as you are not alone for this journey. In Deliver us the moon you have a small robot called ASE. So with ASE you will explore the moon, hopefully gathering information, get some clues as to what happened and off course solve the mystery of what happened here. 

So yes, it’s a space exploration game really. You along with your ASE robot will traverse the moon and even get to explore abandoned facilities. There is stuff, buildings and things left behind from previous “lunar missions”. This means you can hopefully learn from their mistakes and see what’s going on. Surely there is no danger out here on the moon… right? Rely on your robot to learn what took place in the lunar colonies. 

Off course being a sci-fi game, players will need to make full use of the technology available to them. There are useful tools like cutting lasers, robotic arms, some awesome space suits which come with their own effects. There’s even rockets! We know we will put those to good use. If we something we don’t like, we blow it up. Simple rule. We at X35 Earthwalker do not condone blowing things up in real life.

Now if you are a gamer that doesn’t like using their head for some reason then you’ll, have a tough time here as Deliver us the moon has a number of puzzles. It’s described as “intricate puzzles”. So make sure to use your head. There will be numerous obstacles and danger is confirmed. We don’t know if there’s an actual enemy around or whether it’s environmental danger etc. Judging from the overall design of the game, we believe it’s definitely environmental. 

We checked out some Deliver us the Moon gameplay and it’s what we expected except for the additional stuff. We liked that you get launch a rocket from space that you get to experience that. We like the level of freedom for exploration and that there is multiple means of exploration. You can drift through space with zero gravity and just chill really. You can explore the WSA space station on foot,

zoom across the surface of the moon in a rover. There’s even a monorail for you to get to the real far distance places much easier and faster. 

Overall Deliver us the Moon seems like a cool game. It’s definitely has emphasis on the atmosphere. We wonder if this game will have actual enemies as it’s not clear. The graphics are excellent and what you can see is very well done. The environment is definitely what you would expect and it looks great. It’s the moon, what else do you expect besides the same colour and rocks. The developers KeokeN Interactive’ have done a very good job from what we see so far. We at X35 Earthwalker are quite glad to see another space game. Now Deliver us the Moon may have an adventure and mystery in space but it’s very bland and obvious when compared to… the ‘Earth Walk!’

For more information check out the link below:

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Project Witchstone. What is this?

Posted on by X35 Earthwalker

Project Witchstone is a new adventure role playing game developed and published by ‘Spearhead Games‘. Project Witchstone is said to be coming out in the second quarter of 2020 on the Xbox One, PlayStation 4 and PC. We never heard about this game to anyone talk about this so we are interested. Let’s take a look.

In the world of Project Witchstone everything is defined and effected by your “every action”. We actually don’t know anything about the story. We have to actually say this but the official website for Project Witcher isn’t good. It’s so hard to actually get the information they are presenting. Yes we know the game is in Kickstarter 2020 so it’s limited on information. 

Project Witcher is literally all centred around your decisions and how you do things. For example you can choose whether to be truthful and straight up or deceitful. You can even plant evidence on others to incriminate them which is bad off course. You could be the good guy and instead free people by killing their oppressors. So yeah, what you do matters. We have heard many games try the whole your actions have consequences thing but most don’t do it well at all. 

Now when it comes to combat it’s all turn based. So we got strategy up in this game and we like strategy games. There isn’t much information on it. What we do know is that it has the general RPG style. So expect combat, spells. There also isn’t much of a story either as the whole game is supposed to be centred around you and that you can shape the worlds you see fit. Get entire factions mad, causing others to get into fights with each other. So basically in Project Witchstone you can do whatever you want.

Project Witchstone also wants their world to be alive. As in the inhabitants are doing stuff and things are happening around you. For example, some inhabitants have their own likes and dislikes, you can become friends with them, make them enemies and they can even own properties. 

We checked out some Project Witchstone and it’s better than we thought. Our advice, look at the gameplay first before you read about it or go to the official website. It has great graphics and great attention to details. It definitely looks great. Animations need to be better though and a better flow of action. There is stealth elements to the game as in you can assassinate enemies to take them out instantly. So there is a good number of stuff going on in the game. 

Overall, Project Witchstone seems like another game with loads of ambitions and trying risking difficult but unique stuff to stand out from other games. We respect that and hope that Project Witchstone does well at what it wants. We hope the decision and consequences have actual effect and mean something. The developers ‘Spearhead Games’ are doing something interesting here. We at X35 Earthwalker just have to see what becomes of this. Now Project Witchstone may have consequences from decision but those are irrelevant when it comes to… the ‘Earth Walk!’

For more information check out the link below:

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DOOM Eternal. How good is it really?

Posted on by X35 Earthwalker

DOOM Eternal  is the new DOOM game and developed by ‘Id Software‘ and published by ‘Bethesd‘. This game has already gotten the attention of many gamers and critics already. with different things being said. None of what they say matters though because after all… A game isn’t reviewed until X35 Earthwalker reviews it. That’s why you are here. You’re welcome. Time for what we think about DOOM Eternal. How good is it really? Let’s take a look.

DOOM Eternal continues from where we remember… killing demons. You start off on the Fortress of Doom… not the fortress of solitude, you’re thinking of Superman. Can you focus please?! This fortress is basically Doom guy’s head quarters. Through his computer system ally, Vega, he can have portals set up for him to travel to where he needs to go. It’s a big upgrade over the last game. We don’t know how he got to this fortress of Doom and we never learn. Last we remember he was sent away by Dr Samuel Hayden. Somehow he has a base now. This needs to be answered and maybe updates and DLC will explain this. After this though the story is basically straight forward, which is a step over the last DOOM game which wasn’t so straight forward. You quickly kill a hell priest by cutting off his head and nicely straightening his crown.

After slaying many demons, you set out to kill the remaining two hell priests. Doom guy let’s them run away, for some reason. You meet the main problem, who is the Khan Makyr. She’s a higher being who basically rules a messed up, discount, wannabe, technology made heaven. If you want to know more… then buy and play the game yourself (you cheapskate). Doom guy heads of for the next hell priest. Finds him, kills him, then goes to get Samuel Hayden because he needs his help to find the last hell priest because the Khan makyr moved him and hid him. With Samuel’s help, you find him, kill him and then set your eyes on stopping the khan makyr herself. So you go to hell, and find a means to get to her domain, prevent her from controlling the icon of sin, beat her and then set off to destroy the icon  of sin. That’s the story basically. 

Now straight away we can say it’s an improvement over the last DOOM game. Combat is more fast paced. It’s more ruthless, there’s more demons and they definitely swarm you a whole lot more.They do feel way easier to beat though because some demons like the cacodemon have weaknesses that players can exploit. If you fire a grenade or sticky bomb into the mouth of the cacodemon, then it get staggered instantly which makes them really easy but adds to the strategy of the game. We definitely enjoyed playing the game and it was a blast for sure. We weren’t over the moon like some others were but definitely had fun. You certainly felt like a powerful character and DOOM Eternal succeeds in demonstrating what the Doom slayer is all about. He’s direct, got fire power, violent and relentless.

Now let’s get into the main part. What’s good about DOOM Eternal. You have a new weapon called the ballista which is a powerful and very useful. Great for defeating flying enemies. Some of the weapon mods are very useful like the one where you can detonate the rockets you fire when you want. You have powerful weapons and they make a difference when facing a horde of demons. All of these new abilities that Doom guy has makes you feel powerful. The flame belch, shoulder grenade launcher, dash ability, frost grenade, blood punch and more makes you feel ready for everything. There’s lots of lore that you can find and then read. The lore are collectibles but when you have a lot of them you get a lot of information. Which is better than the previous DOOM game as now we can know a lot about the game, the past, characters and more. There are new enemies too which off course shakes things up. For example the Carcass is an annoying monster who likes to set up barriers which block your movement and fire. Can be busted by plasma rounds though resulting in an explosion. There’s even a Dread knight which like the hell knight, chases you down and plans to beat you up. There’s loads of collectibles and they are definitely worth finding as they actually do something. Also majority of them aren’t cryptic  so getting all of them isn’t impossible at all. The Marauder is a cool new enemy that brings a sense of rivalry. They use to be the sentinels who doom guy joined and fought alongside in the past. They have similar skills in terms of the ability to dash, a super shotgun, good speed and even argent based equipment. Every time  a marauder shows up, it becomes a duel. The journey through the campaign isn’t confusing. The levels have good design. There’s an artic level, hell level, destroyed earth level, ancient ruins level and more. More variety than the previous DOOM. We definitely liked how the game shows you the weaknesses of certain enemies and how you ca exploit them. They do this quickly with a video showing exactly what to do and with what weapon. That’s excellent and really came in handy. Excellent graphics, sounds are great, not a big fan of the music much but it suited the game though. The environments and the details in them are excellent and can at times tell a story. The level design for most of the levels are great and we enjoyed making our way through them and seeing what’s going on. Good variety in the levels. Lastly it’s been made sure that you always have a chance to get ammo and armour as during big combat, weak fodder enemies always spawn so you can chainsaw, glory kill or flame belch them, which is good game design. 

Time for the negatives about DOOM Eternal. Yes there are negatives. First things first is that there is a lack of multiplayer. We really enjoyed the game modes of the last doom game and they were chaotic. They could have kept those with this new game mode. The multiplayer in DOOM Eternal is very intense but too hard for the player who is the slayer. We have seen people including Ohmwrecker play as the slayer and not win any matches, even after getting some experienced and knowing what to do. X35 Earthwalker played as the slayer and lost his first three matches and hated it because of how unfair it was but then practiced some more and now has won four in a row as the slayer against different skilled demon p[layers. Bottom line… winning as the slayer takes 100% of you and your focus to at times just barely win. We will talk more on the multiplayer later. Another negative about DOOM Eternal is that there’s one level called Nekravol part 2 which has an annoying challenge which you only have one chance to compete. It’s the one where you have to glory kill a tyrant demon from behind. This is simple but there is only one tyrant demon in the whole level and it’s at the very end of the level. If you accidentally did too much damage or miss the first stagger then you can easily miss your chance, which means you need to do the whole level over again (yes we know you can restart checkpoint). It’s annoying. Another thing that was annoying and could get you killed is that enemies who are touching you just slightly, even if they don’t look like they are touching you will completely block your dash which is stupid. It doesn’t make sense. Also some of the weapon masteries are unnecessary. Some like the microwave beam require too much of a set up to complete. You need to microwave beam blow up a master and need another monster to be near enough die from the explosion… 15 times. Not as simple as it sounds. Another problem is that cacodemons do too much damage with their shots especially. On Nightmare difficulty their burst can actually kill you straight out. Also Doom guys character doesn’t make sense here. Doom guy is impatient and will destroy demons on sight like with the first hell priest. Yet when the second and third hell priest is right there and didn’t even know he was there at the time, he walked around them, let them talk and  even let them teleport away. This is a contradiction. He should have just killed them straight away. So not true to the character.

Another negative is that the ending of the game was honestly lame. We wanted to see some sort of result of what has now taken place after your victory. Does Doom guy go back into isolation, or stay under the radar while the arc broad cast continue to see if they can find doom guy and conspiracy theory over his action etc. Does humanity rebuild or what? What happens to Samuel Hayden? Also the enemies track you too well. Even if you continue moving they can hit you very well with good accuracy. You have to keep jumping and dashing all the time as well. Their accuracy and tracking makes fights not hard but plain annoying. The buff totems make the enemies too fast in our opinion, they should be shown down just a little. What we seriously hated and know is complete bullcrap is that one moment where you are introduced to the Arch-Vile demon. You see red glowing enemies and you think, because it’s always been the case in the past, that there’s a buff item powering these enemies up as they are faster and respawn. So you run around the place searching for a long time looking for this totem while they chase and bombard you. We saw the Arch-Vile and shot him nicely but being chased and knowing that if we kill him, he will revive, we moved on to look for the totem. We couldn’t find it. We even found a secret by accident while looking for the totem. We then learnt that there is no Totem! For some reason the Arch-Vile is the tome now. Wow! Thanks game, thanks for telling us. Yes we know the prompt that says there’s a buff them didn’t show up but we didn’t notice that but went by what the game trained us to think. They suddenly changed the rules and that wasted our time and annoyed us. The game normally explains new things like with the demons weaknesses. We hated that. Lastly is that the unmakyr was a huge disappointment. After all we went through to get it, we expected way more destruction and firepower. We ended up never using it because it shared the same ammo as the BFG 9000 and is weaker than it. The BFG 9000 is the better choice.

Now let’s talk more about the multiplayer. We mentioned that it’s very hard to win as the slayer and how the matches are always intense. Most likely the most intense multiplayer we have ever played, when as the slayer. For example, as the slayer you to keep track and think about at least 10 things at the same time. You have to keep track of your ammo, health and armour, decide when to go for each one of them. Keep an eye on your equipment cool down, know the locations of the enemy demons, be prepared for the loot block, avoid being trapped by summoned enemies, remember all your controls, know and use the environment lifts, teleports and poles, while remembering to dash and keep moving, while aiming at your enemies while moving. Now that messes up your head, especially since you have the added problem of the pressure you feel knowing two of your enemies are human controlled and therefore have intelligence. That’s all going on in the mind of the slayer. Also don’t listen to those so called no it all who say dumb things like “it’s just like the campaign”. It isn’t. It’s different. The campaign will prepare you but it’s not the same.

Things are different for the demons. The demons work together as it’s 2 demons against 1 slayer. The player demons can summon demons to fight alongside them. They can also create a damaging green field zone which is overpowered by the way, it does so much damage real fast. Worst of all is that they can loot block which means everything that the slayer gets from glory killing, flame belching and chainsawing disappears. It prevents the slayer from getting resources. Both demons get one so they can easily deny loot if they pay attention and activate at the right time. Also, the demons can come back after they die if their partner is still alive, within 20 seconds (we think… It could be 15). Plus with the demons having their own skills and attacks too. When X35 Earthwalker did play as the demon, it was easy. He won his first ever match as a demon even when he didn’t know how to summon anything. It was funny, he literally tried to figure out how to summon through the whole match and still won. That says it all. So multiplayer is fun but unreasonably hard for the slayer.

We enjoyed finding all the collectibles like the toys in DOOM Eternal. Each one rewarded you by having an impact in same shape or form. For example the toys look cute but when you head back to the fortress of doom, when selected they become the 3D model feature so you can see the demon or slayer as they are in the game. The records become music you can play while on in the fortress of doom. You see the record cover hanging up on the walls. The cheat codes are there for you to use and completely change how you play (like the skulls from Halo, including the confetti effect). The lore pages gives you… lore. The sentinel batteries grant access to other power ups, weapon mods and more. They were all fun to find and they weren’t cryptic level difficult to find. With some effort and using your head you can easily get them all. So they made collecting fun. Nice one. Our favourite toy has to be Arachnotron toy. So cool.

Quickly let’s just saw something we have noticed and was obvious to us. Have you noticed how the doom guy’s upgrades in DOOM Eternal  over the last game makes him more like and closer to a certain more famous armoured super soldier? The Master Chief. We think the developers of DOOM Eternal saw that old episode of Death Battle and decided that they wanted to gear Doom guy up, ready for a future rematch. What? You don’t believe us huh? Alright hear us out.

Think about this:

Master chief from Halo 5 could spartan dash, now Doom guy can dash too. 

Master chief is incredibly athletic, now doom guy is swinging of poles

Master chief had spartan charge which he used to get through cracked walls. Doom guy dashes through cracked walls now

Master chief survives a fall from orbit to a planet, doom guy now got shot out of a big weapon and smashes through a wall at high speed and survives

Master chief is a legend and leader amongst spartans, now doom guy is a legend and leader amongst the sentinels

Master chief has cortana who stays in his head in a chip like form, doom guy near the end of the game has Vega (an A.I) go into a capsule button like form and attaches it to him

Master Chief has the energy beam sword, doom guy now has the argent energy sword

Do we need to say more! Like come on. The developers are making him more like master chief and ready for a fight. We saw some you tubers talking about who would win in a fight and they were good at getting the feats and information but terrible at applying them to a fight. By the way we do believe that if they both fought that Master Chief would win quite comfortably but that’s a blog post for another time.  

Overall DOOM Eternal is an excellent game with loads of strength and small weaknesses. It’s worth playing and worth buying. Excellent graphics, environments and liked the level design. There’s more we can say but let’s leave it here. We would say a high 9/10! The developers Id Software have done an excellent job with this game. Now DOOM Eternal may have a relentless deadly Doom slayer but he’s a complete wuss and joke if he faces… the ‘Earth Walk!’

For more information check out the link below:

DOOM Eternal action

Brutal Rage. Rage included

Posted on by X35 Earthwalker

Brutal Rage is a new scrolling beat em up game developed and published by ‘2BAD GAMES‘. Brutal Rage is said to be coming out the 22nd of April 2020 on the Xbox One. This game gets straight to the point. Use all that rage bottled up inside you and fight through the streets. Let’s take a look.

Brutal Rage is another game that gets straight to the point. It’s a side scrolling beast em up game. In the world of Brutal Rage you follow the “brutal path of blood for retribution”. It’s about police officers who were wrongly accused for a crime they DIDN’T do. So instead of sitting there and serving your sentence, you instead escape from prison, going to find out who did this to you and  prove your innocence.

So expect moving around and fighting  everything that comes your way. Just watch some gameplay of Brutal Rage and already a certain game will pop into your head. Say it with us… Streets of Rage. Even the name reminds you of it. Streets of Rage and Brutal Rage. This means if Brutal Rage has a similar style then we can expect a good style. You one up  and down the screen, line up with enemies, do simple combos and use weapons to beat up your enemies as you make your way through the level. There is a rage mechanic where as you are playing and fighting you build up rage. There’s a rage meter

Best of all, Brutal Rage has co-op. This means you can face the enemies, the streets and all danger with a friend. You can expect some new things though that weren’t in Streets of Rage though (well originally). There is even a level where you can ride motorcycles. So the creativity is definitely there. Straight up we have to say that this game doesn’t look good. We have yet to see something that makes it stand out. The good stuff is that it’s simple, does what it says on the box, it’s co-op and has a mechanic which is the rage. The bad stuff is that there’s better games of this style, the graphics aren’t great, the animations aren’t good and it lacks something to make it stand out. From what we have seen, it isn’t a bad game, just not an interesting one for us.

We checked out some brutal Rage gameplay and it’s what we thought it would be. It does look fun though. Just grab a friend and have some fun together as that’s the most you will get out of this.. For starters there is a lot of variety when it comes to levels as there are more than 18 different locations in 6 episodes. There are three playable characters and each one has they own fighting style. Weapons are available. So expect knives, bats and even guns!  There are three game modes too: Story (off course), brutal club and training. All three of these modes are playable in co-op mode. Now that’s a good thing.

Overall. Brutal Rage is a simple side scrolling beat em up game. It does what it says. You move through the level, beat up the enemies, hit someone with a bat and have a good time doing it. Call over a friend and do it all together. It has it’s clear weaknesses but you see what it brings to the table. Definitely not our thing but we will have to see what it’s got for gamers. The developers ‘2BAD GAMES’ have done their best. We will have to see what happens. Now Brutal Rage may have rage in them but their rage fails again… the ‘Earth Walk!’

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Final Fantasy XV. The greatest game?

Posted on by X35 Earthwalker

Final Fantasy XV is the latest (we are not counting the remake) and biggest Final Fantasy game. It’s developed and published by Square Enix. Now straight up, we at X35 Earthwalker definitely like this game. We had a great time for sure. There’s a lot going on in this game so we will cover all the important stuff (yes there are spoilers but is it really a spoiler at this point as the game has been out for like 4 years now). So check this out.

First things first. The story. We enjoyed the story. It’s one of those stories where if you don’t pay attention you won’t understand the crucial parts. The main parts are obvious though. You control Prince Noctis Lucis Caelum. Son of king Regis Lucis Caelum. The king sends his son and his friends: Ignis, Gladiolus and Prompto of a missions. Basically Noctis is off to go get married to his fiancé Lady Lunafreya. The wedding is also a political move too but whatever. As you are in Galdin Quay you learn that your home town got attacked by the empire during a peace treaty signing. Your hometown, Insomnia, got destroyed, many people died, including Gladiolus and your Father are dead. You can’t reach home, nor do you have the power to take back the city. You continue to Altissia to find your fiancé and encounter the ‘Six’.  Who are the Six? It’s a prophecy concerning the chosen king and how the Six, who are gods, the give Noctis power. It’s basically about getting lots of power destined for the king. There’s the ring of Lucis, the crystal, which the Lucis monarchy have guarded for numerous years, power from the six and the royal arms. We won’t explain everything. Just get the power and get to Altissia. 

It’s a big journey. You even need to get and repair a boat to travel the sea and reach the island.The story does make sense and it’s easy to understand except for the ending which is sort of cryptic. Unless there’s content that explains what happens or a sequel is coming, games should let the players know what’s happening. Did Noctis really die, if so, him marrying Lunafreya was that in heaven, another realm, his wish granted as the chosen king to be with his fiancé or what? The dossier doesn’t explain and neither is there additional information. It’s not good to leave your players who are paying attention with giant question marks, especially when we worked hard to beat the game and more. This is a small negative though. 

Concerning the  Final Fantasy XV characters, we like them. Especially the four main characters who we follow around. Seeing how the four interact with each other was excellent. Noctis is the prince who everyone must protect and care for but he isn’t the most mature guy around and clearly has an attitude problem. Ignis is the greatest of all time and our favourite. He is the cook, the driver, the advisor and has the most wisdom. He is also the most educated and has an amazing accent and way of talking. Gladiolus is the big strong guy, focused and super stern and militant in some ways. He’s the big brother of the group. Prompto is the joker, the best friend of Noctis and most cheerful member, bringing the laughs and keeping spirits high. They joke with each other, pick on each other, make fun of each other like Ignis’s hair in the wild wind, or Noctis having a scrawny body and no muscle according to Gladiolus. They act like actual best friends and like best friends they even have arguments which we will get into later.  You will end up caring about the four and their safety. There was a hint in the game where Ignis got hurt and he lost his sight. This actually hit X35 Earthwalker personally as he cared for Ignis. That’s what this game does to you. You care and possible relate to this characters based on their traits. 

The Final Fantasy XV world is huge and definitely beautiful and amazing. There is firstly the cinematic scenes which are beautifully done and the details are top level. The desert area is dusty, mountains in the distance, the sand stormy areas do effect vision to some extent, there is a deep pit of water and the whole area literally looks like a good wild wilderness area. The next area is a very green, water pit area with literally large lakes, giant fossilised bones , bushes, lakes for fishing and more. Expect rain too. There’s even a simp like area and a mountainous place where rough wyvern enemies dwell. Multiple cities and towns for you to visit as well. All looks good. The roads, the world, as you travel, the graphics, character design is all very good. From time to time and especially when we entered a new area, we would stop and look around at the environment and area to see the design and the hard work that went into it.

Now a large game and world like Final Fantasy XV needs ways to traverse it right. There are cities, a coast, forests, sandy desert areas and more with numerous side quests all around. Well Final Fantasy XV has provided such means.  Off course you can just hoof it and walk and sprint to where you need to go.Better though is that you can get access to Chocobos, which are the famous loveable giant chicken birds that you can ride. Chocobos can even do sprints which under the right conditions can bring some real speed. Next is the Regalia, which is the royal car. So actual horsepower right here. The regalia also has some options. For example, you can have Ignis drive you, drive yourself or even use fast travel. Now this is good game design. You have on foot, chocobos, car and a fast travel. Also when you turn the Regalia into the type D which becomes a serious off road monster truck like vehicle that can even jump. Yes… a jumping car. Final Fantasy XV has multiple options and ways for you to travel and get around. You can literally set a route for Ignis to drive and he will automatically drive the car there while the player can put down the control and quickly go do something else. Does come in handy.

Final Fantasy XV rewards players who like to explore. As you travel by car, chocobo or foot you will come across treasure, items, ingredients and more. You may even discover a dungeon containing a mighty beast to face. You can come across fishing spots too. Now the fishing is whole new game in itself. You need to put together your fishing rod and even decide what bait to use. Some bait will only attract certain fish, few have special effects etc. You throw in your bait and see what is paying attention to it. Then you need to reel in your bait at different speeds to attract the fish to it as some prefer fast moving bait while others prefer slow moving bait. Then when they catch, you see what fish it is allowing you to decide if you want to try and catch it or not. You have a brief moment to decide though. Then when you actually try to catch it, it’s a battle. The fish will move right and then left, back and forth to try and make things hard for you. You must tilt the control stick in the same direction it is moving to prevent your fishing line from taking damage. You must wait for the right moments to start reeling in the fish which reduces it’s stamina. Once their stamina reduces to nothing, you win. Fishing isn’t simple and it can actually be real hard to get the biggest strongest fish which also requite Noctis to have a higher fishing level, which increases as you fish. We have caught the Vesper Gar (we hate that thing) and something bigger. 

Probably our favourite thing at the end of each in game day is the camping. Final Fantasy XV does have a day night cycle. It gets real dark so you make your way to a camp site. Gladiolus puts up the tent, prompto helps set up and keeps the chatter going. Ignis, the main man, stands by the grill and thinks about what meal to cook. You select the meal and Ignis with the click of his fingers gets straight to work. The way he does it is art. Then you see the meal made and presented in a bowl, plate or whatever is appropriate. Then you see all four characters actually eating the meal you selected and having a good chat. The developers went and did all this work. For example if you choose a meal that’s skewers then you see them holding the skewers and taking bites. If cup noodles then you see them with the cup and getting those noodles down them. Also the details on the food is very good too. Some meals makes us want to eat it too. We also liked the idea that you get buffs from your meals. Some meals increase your max health, attack, magic, spirit or a combination temporarily. Some meals increase the amount experience points you get, others make your tech meter fill up faster. So get tactical and decide what  you need… when it comes to food.

The combat in Final Fantasy XV is simple on one side but also deep on the other side. Let us explain. Sure al you have to do it hold down attack and everything is automated, then hold down block to dodge and survive. At it’s core… that’s it… but there’s more. While attacking, use the control stick to adjust where Noctis attacks and shift around to the back of the enemy. Why? Because striking the back does trigger a blindside which if an ally is near you both do a fancy powerful tag team move that does lots of damage. o always aim for the back. If you successfully block an attack that alerts the player by telling you to block, you can parry right afterwards which if an ally is nearby leads to a tag team strike which again does lots of damage. So fight near your allies. Next jumping and then attacking in the air triggers different kinds of moves, especially with certain javelins. Once unlocked through the ascension with AP points you can even air step, dodge and block in the air while striking from above. You can warp strike into enemies which while warping you are invincible so time your warps and you can avoid lethal attacks while dishing out some damage. Best of all though is that you can  perform link strikes if you have filled up your link gauge (which fills as you attack and defend). You can unlock and then set what link strike you want each ally to have. For example, Prompto can have piercer, Gladiolos can have dawn hammer, and Ignis has enhancement. You choose which you want and they will do it. You are invincible while they are doing the move. If you wait for the prompt at the end of their move you can perform your tag team strike right afterwards for additional damage. It doesn’t end there. You can use the armiger which fills as you fight, then unleash to increase your attack strength and greatly boost speed and mobility. You literally end up dashing around, and striking with great power (this isn’t even your final form). Then you can do a armiger chain where you use your remaining armiger “fuel” and deliver a strong attack with your allies. You can also do a cross chain with your allies where you warp strike into a vulnerable enemy and you all then take turns striking the enemy, increasing the damage with each successful pushed attack button when prompted to, leading up to a final flashy finishing strike, normally kills the enemy. 

Final Fantasy XV also has summons. After you gain the support and help of the gods you can then summon them in combat to help you. They each have conditions though on how to be summoned. This sadly wasn’t explained in the game and we didn’t even know until recently. For example when you get Ramuh’s mark, he can only be summoned when a fight you are in drags on for a long time then you will see the prompt to summon and he will show up. Titan can be summoned when your allies are down or in danger and only in certain places of the world like a bog open place. Leviathan can only be summoned when your allies are in danger and when you are near a good amount of water. We aren’t entirely sure about any of this. This is a big fail of Final Fantasy XV. They didn’t;t make the summons clear or how to do it. We get shown Ramuh’s summon because it’s part of the story only. While playing we saw Ramuh once and that’s it. We then kept seeing a bird goddess thing because we  unlocked her through completing a cool special event story. We never saw any other summon. 

Last of all Final Fantasy XV has the greatest battle scene of all video gaming time. When we first saw the Leviathan show up and take us on, we were amazed. We knew we can’t beat that thing. It’s too big and has the advantage of going in the water. When we the got our kingly powers unlocked and could fly, launch powerful explosive attacks, dash and practically teleport and strike with immense force we knew it was a serious battle. Combine this battle and the weather, the environment and the epic music. It was a battle that you will never forget. literally no other game gave us an exciting moment like this. Final Fantasy XV has the greatest not just combat but gaming scene in video game history. We were amazed the whole way through. More games need epic moments like this. Sadly there wasn’t anything else like this in the rest of the game even though this game has the room and potential for it.

Final Fantasy XV is also relatable and one of the few games that really brings the emotions at least for us. We will give two examples. When Gladiolus and Noctis had a major disagreement and they almost fought on the train after some exchange of words you understood both sides. Noctis lost his fiancé and was really down about it as anyone would be but the events on the train took place several weeks after that though. In that time he was so focused on that, that he ignored and forgot about his friends, mainly Ignis who lost his sight and was badly wounded while trying to help Noctis. Ignis was blind and it seems like Noctis almost paid no mind. So we understand why Gladiolus was mad and frustrated with Noctis. He was basically being the harsh big brother getting his little brother to get his head straight and be more considerate of others. When we saw Ignis blind, walking slowly and even falling over… it actually hit us sort of hard. We didn’t dear run ahead, we made sure to keep him close by. We cared about Ignis… all of them and you can clearly see how this is a brothers moment. Gladiolus was harsh, heart in the right place and was right but was too harsh and needed to handle things with more gentleness. Noctis had every right to mourn and be sad but that’s no excuse to forget about and show no compassion and concern for others, especially those who will lay down their lives for him like Ignis did. The second example was the camping you had to do before entering the home city of Insomnia. It’s the last camp the four will do together. It, as usual, gives you the choice of what to eat. You then realise that this is literally the last meal the four friends were going to have together. They won’t get this again. No more laughter around the camp fire. All of a sudden you had to think carefully about what you would eat. It was an emotional moment.    

Let’s sum up. Final Fantasy XV failed to explain summons properly and the conditions of the summons concerning the ‘the six’. There also wasn’t enough summons. The camera when you was driving the car (the Regalia) was too close to the car and when you went up steep hills, you couldn’t see anything as the camera was in the car. Your line still taking damage even though you stopped reeling and turning the rod in the direction is stupid. Either make us turn faster or reduce or give a heads up of when the fish turns as some turn to quickly without any warning and showing no time to reel in. Also when the fish jumps up and you get a prompt to press a button, it does little to no effect on the fish’s stamina. The ending needs to be cleared up as after spending lots of hours into the game, you deserve to know exactly what happened and understand it. A bit of cryptic for details is fine but the end result should be clear. AP points needed to come more frequently as we finally got the two link strike abilities which cost 333 and 999 AP points but by that time we were basically near the very end of the game. Took too long to get there and have much more to unlock. Also we hate that the empire’s forces can drop in while you are fighting a bounty creature. Regular travels and enemies are fin but not when you are facing tough monsters as bounty. That was super annoying. We hated that. Enemy targeting in combat wasn’t perfect and was annoying when your character starts shining at an enemy far away instead of the vulnerable enemy on the ground right next to you… but when you fully understand how the targeting works, that happens way less.

What they did well was: excellent top level graphics and wonderful looking cutscenes. Great details on the food which makes you want to eat it too. Good options in traverse the game like the Regalia and chocobos. Epic boss battles including the greatest boss battle and game moment in all of history. Characters are relatable, stand out, unique, got own stories and history and you actually care about them. Lots of relatable lessons and moments in the game like friendship, bonds, trust, loss, betrayal, mystery, laughter, victory, love, pain, depression and more.We loved the camping and it’s mechanics. Final Fantasy XV rewards you for exploring. Lots of customisation for car and characters. Can change gear and abilities even during combat. Has epic summons. Combat is smooth, simple but can get real deep. There’s fun activities too like chocobo racing, fishing (can be challenging though). Loads of side quests with most not be same or simple fetch quests, except Dave and his dog tags which makes sense though as being a hunter is a tough job and many will die. Nice interesting story with some mystery. Even something unusual like a proper political meeting between the king of Lucis and the first secretary of Accordo, Camelia Claustra which requires a different approach. Final Fantasy XV has pictures that Prompto takes which you can decide which ones to save and they can bring back memories or reminders of the journey.You can save anywhere and there is a new game plus with more stuff to do end game so it isn’t ver. The game has the right difficulty. Some moments and enemies are real easy but do side quests and level up and you can fairly face the strong monsters. Cool enemies with variety… we got to fight a flaming griffon bird thing. Now that’s cool. An abundance of items granting powerful effects. There’s even a monster arena where you can place your bets and watch creatures you’ve met and thought on your journey battle each other to the death. Bet on the winning monster and you make a lot. There’s even items you can buy to help your chances of winning in the monster arena. There’s more to say but that covers the basics.

Overall Final Fantasy XV has basically everything. It’s positive way way way way overcomes the few negatives which aren’t even that serious. We truly enjoyed playing the game, taking our time and exploring. We like facing cool monsters and enemies. We will never forget facing Leviathan the Hydraean. When it comes to design, details, variety, hard work put in and share fun… we crown Final Fantasy XV so far as the greatest game we have ever played. We know, that’s a most serious statement to make. Is it our favourite game… no. Is it best game ever made, possibly no because it has way more than Halo 5 because of the type of game that it is. Final Fantasy XV being an open world RPG has room for anything and everything. You can have racing, exploration, underwater levels, huge stories and more because open world RPG are built like that and always require the most time spent in them with numerous side quests and levelling up to do. It’s a true adventure. Halo 5 is a set first person shooter game. You complete each of the levels, shoot some aliens and you end the game. It’s linear and set. Open world RPG like Final Fantasy can have multiple stories within one game and has room for DLC and expansions like it already has. It’s just way bigger and allows for so much more. So it’s the greatest game we have ever played wee have yet to decide if it’s the best game ever made but it’s definitely a strong contender. We had so much fun and would recommend it to anyone. Literally anyone. There is a few puzzle elements, racing, explorations, beautiful moneys and environments and action. It has everything. The developers ‘Square Enix‘ have done an awesome job with this game. Final Fantasy XV deserved way more credit from reviewers and way more attention. We didn’t cover everything but this is good enough. Now Final Fantasy XV may be the greatest game ever made but it’s still worthless when compared to… the ‘Earth Walk!’

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Bears Can’t Drift!? Say who!?

Posted on by X35 Earthwalker

Bears Can’t Drift!? is a fast paced kart racing game developed and published by ‘Strangely Named Studio‘. Bears Can’t Drift!? did come out on PS4 and PC but we don’t know anyone who knows about this game nor have we seen anyone play this game. Now that it is coming out on Xbox One on the 27th of March 2020, we actually heard about this game. Let’s take a look.

Bears Can’t Drift!? is literally a kart racing game. It’s what it says on the box. You are bears that race, drift and go fast in karts. Think of Crash Team Racing but replace all the characters with bears. That’s it. That explains the game. So already this is what many gamers want. So lets give some details. 

There is a hub world in Bears Can’t Drift!? where all the action begins. In the hub world you can change your bear, add players (we will get to that. bit later), select game mode, difficulty and settings concerning the race. If you just searched online ‘Bears Can’t Drift!?’ then you would notice that it’s multiplayer too. You can have four player split screen, which is awesome. This means you can add your friends and get competitive. 

In Bears Can’t Drift!? there’s straight up races, single races and time trial because all racing games seem to have one. What’s funny though is picnic mode. In Picnic, players drive around between picnic baskets and it’s a big fight for food. You must steal your opponents food by hitting them with pick ups. Sounds simple sounds fun.

Now racing games need to have cool and interesting pick ups. Pick ups and items make a big difference in racing games. There is 8 different weapons to choose from. For example there’s a bird that gives you a speed boost, a bee which you can use to attack behind you. There’s a hedgehog that provides a shield. There’s even a salmon (fish) that acts as your frontal attack. So aim well. Just look at them… oh and by the way, you can combine pick ups to make a powerful effect.

We check out some Bears Can’t Drift!? and it’s what we thought it would be. Doesn’t seem as smooth as Crash team racing Nitro-fueled but the drifting and turning style reminds us more of the older Mario kart games. You drift, drive fast, computer, grab pick ups and hit your opponents hard. Then off course get over the finish line first. Literally just check out some gameplay for yourself and you will see what we mean. t doesn’t require in-depth explanations. 

Overall Bears can’t drift!? just seems like a simple kart racing game. All about the colours and fun. It’s bears, fishes and animals are weapons and there’s split screen multiplayer, meaning you can play with your friends like with Mario Kart. It looks nice, very nice. It’s beginner friendly from what we can see. It’s nothing special but definitely good. The developers ‘Strangely named Studio’ have done a good. We at X35 Earthwalker will just have to hear how well this game does. Now Bears can’t drift!? maybe have fast bears but even they are too slow for… the ‘Earth Walk!’

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Deep Sky Derelicts: Definitive Edition

Posted on by X35 Earthwalker

Deep Sky Derelicts: Definitive Edition is a turn-based strategy RPG developed by ‘Snowhound Games‘ and published by ‘1C Entertainment‘. Deep Sky Derelicts: Definitive Edition is said to be coming out the 24th of March 2020 on Xbox One, Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4 and PC. We have never heard of this game. We hope it’s good. Let’s take a look.

Deep Sky Derelicts: Definitive Edition is set in a dystopian future. Mankind has been scattered through the galaxy. Human society is also changed. There are two classes, basically the poor and those who are well off and cozy. Well players control someone who’s poor and a stateless outcast. So you live off scraps wherever you can find it. Now rumour has it, there is an alien derelict ship rumoured to be somewhere in the deep sky sector. Why do you care? It’s what’s going to help you get citizenship and a better life on a decent planet. Yep, simple story.

Simply put, Deep Sky Derelicts: Definitive Edition is all about recruiting others to join your team. You must build them up, train, get stronger and gather items, materials, weapons and more. Scavenging is the main thing here and you must travel from room to room, which is procedural generated by the way, to find stuff and fight of attackers. You can return to home base and that’s where you can upgrade your gear.

 We aren’t going to say much about this game as it’s really clear what to expect from this. What also stands out is the art style. It’s comic book art style and it’s good to see something different from time to time. The most interesting thing for us about Deep, Sky Derelicts: Definitive Edition has to be the monsters you can fight to get loot. How a game presents and design their monsters makes a big difference. Players can also explore alien ships, space stations and also planets which aren’t very safe. 

We checked out some Deep Sky Derelicts: Definitive Edition and it’s what we expected from a game like this. This definitive edition is the base game plus two downloadable content: “New Prospects” and “Station Life.” These off course add new gameplay features, enemies, character upgrades, missions other stuff. We just need to something bigger or more interesting to get us to want to play it. It has a very different style but art style isn’t enough. 

Overall, Deep Sky Derelicts: Definitive Edition does seem like a good game, not our kind of game but still good. It’s got some deep mechanics but we need more for us to get into it. The art style is done well and looks good. There are two modes, story and arena players will play it more than once because of the procedural generated rooms thing. The developers, ‘Snowhound Games’ have done a good job with this game. Now Deep Sky Derelicts: Definitive Edition may have comic style graphics but what will always look better is… the ‘Earth Walk!’

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Ritual: Crown of Horns. Hmmmm

Posted on by X35 Earthwalker

Ritual: Crown of Horns is a fast paced action game developed by ‘Draw Distance‘ and published by ‘Feardemic‘. Ritual: Crown of Horns has already come out and is on the Xbox One, Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4 and PC. This game straight away let’s players know what to expect. Let’s take a look.

Ritual: Crown of Horns has been described as a slaughterhouse game. Basically Ritual: Crown of Horns is set in the Wild West type world but instead there are lots of monsters, demons, threats everywhere. Players control a bounty hunter who has come back from the grave thanks to the witch. He’s got a bone to pick as he’s out for revenge against those who got him killed. He’s working with a witch (that always ends well… are we right or what?) who supports him with rituals. Off course she has her own motives and reasons for helping him. 

Here’s how Ritual: Crown of Horns goes. You must fight and fend off the hordes of enemies coming primarily for the witch but also to kill you if you get in there way. Use your many weapons to blast, shoot down, rip and destroy your foes while the witch does her thing. Simple right, well it is. Run around, think fast and shoot… oh and don’t forget to aim. 

 

So there are weapons like rifles, shotguns crossbows, six shooters and some other stuff that definitely weren’t around in the Wild West at those times. There is an auto aiming system in place. You also have spells. So switch between them and use when best. You can unlock new powerful items and tools that off course make your character more powerful. This game is a journey as you must travel through the whole of America. 

We checked out some Ritual: Crown of Horns gameplay and it’s what we expected. It’s simple you know. Run around, move away from enemies, keep firing, protect the witch, get stronger, know what to prioritise in each situation and survive. We saw there are some traps you got to avoid and watch out for. We saw supernatural classed enemies too. There is character customisation so make sure you pick the hat you want. 

Overall, Ritual: Crown of Horns seems like a simple good game. It does what it says on the box. You run and around and blast numerous enemies with off course some thought and strategy to it. The graphics are good for what it is and the sounds are good too. It’s just a fun time that will have some difficulty and require thinking. The developers ‘Draw Distance’ did a very good job with this game. We at X35 Earthwalker will just have to hear what this game has really brought. Now Ritual: Crown of Horns may have numerous monsters but even they are nothing against… the ‘Earth Walk!’

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Element Space. A battle in the future

Posted on by X35 Earthwalker

Element Space is a turn based strategy role playing game (RPG) developed by ‘Sixth Vowel‘ and produced by ‘Inca Games‘. Element Space is said to be coming out the 24th of March 2020 on the Xbox One and PlayStation 4. It’s already out on PC. This game is suppose to be a futuristic battle, so let’s see what it’s got. Let’s take a look.

In the universe of Element Space, the year is 2199. That’s not as far future as Halo but still far. So basically earth somehow was close to being destroyed, so humanity had to expand into space. An organisation called the sixth vowel, the movement of light, made space travel and their missions possible. Suddenly though this same organisation turned on humanity. There was a big war which lasted years. Now the factions that worked together are now having tension amongst each other. There will be another war. The players job, is to bring the starship inspiration which is the symbol of the galactic war to the city of Truce so that the first galactic congress can be held to unite all the factions. 

Element Space all turn based combat so players need to take their time and think about what to do next with what options they have. An excellent example of turn based combat is XCOM 2: War of the Chosen. Information tells us that there is a variety of strategies and approaches because there are 32 ranged and melee weapons and character skills that can help mx things up. Games like this need vary and options in abundance. 

Another factor that’s important is the enemies. Element Space is said to have a range of enemies. Some have blasters, others have rifles, some have a great sword, others have two short blades, some have multi hits and fast, basically there’s stuff to be concerned about in this game. The factions have different uniforms and we hope that there co meat style and strategies are different and distinguishable too. So expect to see these guys across 24 different levels.

For more variety and flavour you can unlock and acquire new weapons and perks as you make a name for yourself with the galaxy’s factions. Get the best equipment for your squad. Speaking of squad, throughout the world of Element Space you will encounter and recruit new allies who will aid you in your mission and off course combat. Each companion has their own unique skills. The developers have also given them their own story and past so you can know it if you want.

This is tough but Element Space is trying the whole, your choices and actions effect the story or characters mechanic. Most games don’t pull this off well and fail at it. We hope this isn’t the case. Aid factions will make their leaders support you and unlock you those perks and weapons we talked about but if you fail them, they may turn against you when you need help.

Your companions have upgrade trees where you will decide what they would be best at. Also decide what roles to take with you into combat like: Duelist, flanker, tank, support, gunslinger or assault. The cover system is here too in Element Space. Full and half cover. Full is obviously better better but both are destructible. All cover is destructible so keep this in mind when on both the offence and defence.

We checked out some Element Space gameplay and it’s not exactly what we expected. It’s definitely more action packed than we thought. There’s some awesome hand to hand combat animations for moves, we mean proper fighting. It looks good. You can use grenades, rockets and abilities to really do damage and we like that. The bullet trajectory and hit detection is better than XCOM 2’s but the overall flow and quality isn’t on the same level but it’s still very good. We are only comparing it to XCOM as it’s the best and Element Space is doing very well. We hope it’s even better for the console releases.

Overall Element Space looks like a really good game. We actually like what we see. The graphics are good, the sounds are nice we wanted more but it’s nice. The environments make sense and a good amount of cover for options. We hope there are even more dramatic enemy designs so it isn’t just all people in armour. The developers Sixth Vowel have done a good job with this game. We at X35 Earthwalker will keep an ear open for this game. Now Element Space may be a battle in the future but it’s still miles behind… the ‘Earth Walk!’

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