Blackwind is a hack n slash shooter platformer game developed by ‘Drakkar Dev’ and published by ‘Blowfish studios’ and ‘Gamera Game’. Blackwind is said to be coming out January the 20th 2022 on the Xbox Series X, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch, PS5, PS4, Mac and PC. We enjoy a good mech game. Let’s take a look.
Now just the genres alone should give experienced players a good idea of what to expect. In the world of Blackwind, humanity is off course advanced in technology and ideas. Humans have a mining colony on a planet called Medusa-42. Aliens known as Raknos have invaded. Now off course you realise, this means war. Take control of James Hawkins (lame name) who is the definition of a rookie. “No formal training” and “finds himself in a Battle Frame”. It’s a start at the bottom and make your way up. Become powerful and feared.
Hack and slash which means it’s safe for players to dive head first into Blackwing and have fun. Start smashing everything you come across. It doesn’t matter. There could be a mother pushing a baby buggy. It’s her fault for being in a battlefield. Blast em all. Blackwind has melee attacks and moves. There’s off course ranged attacks for blasting foes. There’s also “special attacks” too for those more fancy kills and maneuver-ish like stuff. So don’t worry. Just fight and fight.
You can upgrade your Battle Frame in Blackwind across three branching paths. So really decide how you want to play. Either upgrade and become the mech with energy blades for ripping and tearing close range combat but you can then get tactical by backing up real fast and launch missiles to blow stuff up from the comfort of safety. Then you can combine these tactics with your more special abilities.
We do like the platforming parts of the adventure in Blackwind. It feels like exploration. Parts like this in games have room for secrets and collectibles and stuff to find that are off use. We know that there is a drone you can send out. It’s much smaller than you are so it can go into and search places that your oversized self con’s get into. Lose some weight. So players would be wise to not ignorer and rush the platforming and travelling parts of Blackwind. You could end up missing some good stuff.
We checked out some Blackwind gameplay and it’s what we expected. We like the movement of the mech. We like the versatility of the weapons and definitely like how the energy blades look on the mech, especially when slashing. Definitely liking the graphics and visuals. The environments and levels look good. The animations and frames seem very good as well. The gameplay seems simple but good and fun. We do hope too gain more information concerning the upgrade tree branches and the weapons. Not enough info right now provided.
Overall Blackwind just seems like a good game so far. Nothing special though. We have to see and know more. Jump in, fight, slash, shoot, blast, dash and explore your way from being trash to becoming a powerful known fighter and defeat the invading aliens. We hope there will be co-op features. A game like this should have co-op action. The developers ‘Drakkar Dev’ have a done a good job so far. We at X35 Earthwalker will keep an ear open for this game. Now blackwind may have mech blasting action but this whole invasion would have been stopped before it started by… the ‘Earth Walk!’
The Ascent is an excellent game. Straight out the gate let’s just say this. We at X35 Earthwalker enjoyed The Ascent. This game was a lot of fun. We recommend this game to multiple people but that doesn’t mean it doesn’t have any flaws. It does. Let’s jump in this quick review by X35 Earthwalker.
The Ascent is an action role playing game where you control an indent. What’s an indent? Basically a slave. Indents are owned by either a person or company or organisation. If you want to know more, then read our first gaming blog post about The Ascent. Simply put you are at the bottom in this world with many others but aim to make it to the top. Players should be prepared for a lot of fire fights, explosives and chaos wherever you go.
As you can see from our first The Ascent gameplay video you get a good idea of what’s going on. Very futuristic, very sad and dark though in terms of the universe you are in. There’s machines, robotic enemies and beings, human enemies and even what looks like wild creatures. We like the different enemy types but are disappointed by the lack of variety amongst the enemies. For example when it comes to the wild creatures like the feral, that’s all we have. Just the ferals and maybe the papa ferals who are just bigger ferals who have additional abilities. There’s no other wild creatures. When it comes to the human enemies they are basically all the same but with different weapons and act differently based on those weapons. The humanoid beings have some sort of variety. Even the robotic enemies are basically the same. That was lame. We needed more variety. This game had the room and environment for such a thing.
What The Ascent did very well though was that the enemies put up a fight. Some enemies will always run to cover to fight. They fire over the top and can’t be hit unless you flank them. There’s melee equipped enemies who rush you and try to get some swings in. There’s a bigger dude who fires semi homing missiles but that’s it though. The most variety goes to the humanoid, the aliens of different races. There’s a massive creature with a hammer reminding us of brutes from with gravity hammers from Halo. Their heavy big swing doesn’t make sense because you could be far away and you still get hurt. Seems a bit glitchy to us. There’s a small annoying enemy that acts like the support. Will run in and set p either a stationary artillery or healing zone. Another one acts is a serious hacker that can mess with your systems, disable you, send a drone after you and even shield its allies (your enemies) from all forms of harm and more. You have to disable them with your hacking ICE abilities. The robotic enemies behave exactly like the human enemies, either ranged or melee but they tend to have more energy weapons. So yeah, throw more exciting enemy variety in.
There are quite a number of characters here is some good flavour. Noghead is a cool dude. He is basically one off those super hackers who can listen in on conversations, extract information from basically anything, bug and plant anything, hack through things and more. He got a hideout, secret set up defence turrets. He got jokes too. Very good character. Then there’s the trash the game… kira. We hate her so much. She thinks she superior to everyone because of the species that she is. she talks heavily down to humans and makes it clear she believes humans are stupid. What’s worse is that we end up having no choice but to work for her. She is so obnoxious, annoying and ugly that we couldn’t wait to kill her. She isn’t a good person either. She steals property, killed a lot, caused destruction and all for her personal goals. Bit more on this later. Characters like Poon make sense, we get his motivation and why he is the way that he is. Simply put, most characters are cool and fit in this world well and make sense. There’s only like two characters that suck… one of them being kira.
The best and coolest thing about The Ascent is definitely the weapons. This is the best part about the game easily. There’s so many weapons. There’s sooooo many weapons. Not as much as Earth Defence Force 2025… nothing has that much! There’s rifles, automatic weapons, heavy and light pistols, sub machine guns, rocket launchers, sniper rifles, shotguns and more, including special weapons like a flamethrower, a buzzsaw launcher, constant energy beam and other crazy stuff. The weapons are serious. They aren’t trash either. X35 Earthwalker has multiple times, no actually constantly been switching weapons to fight enemies. Mainly not because it was more effective against enemy types but because it was fun. Again the weapons aren’t trash. All of them are useable. Some off course are better than others… much better, but all especially when upgraded become effective. WE literally swapped for fun and variety. Many games need to learn from The Ascent when it comes to weapons. Make a bunch of weapons, multiple of each type but make them all good with clear advantages to some over others. It can be done. There was a strong hitting rifle that had explosive rounds. There was even Diamondz L45’s dream weapon, a mini shotgun. No, not a small shotgun. A mini gun + a shotgun. It has a very low rate of fire at first but then fires fast like a minigun but each shot is a shotgun with very tight spread though. The Ascent went all out with weapons and we love that.
The augmentations shake things up a lot in The Ascent. They are basically abilities you install in yourself. You could do an energy punch which has some area of effect. You can summon a bunch of mechanical spiders that chase down, pounce on enemies to explode. You can create a life link with enemies and when you damage them, you heal. Call in razor bat like mechs that surround you damaging any who get near you. Do a stomp that freezes and launches enemies in the air with stasis. Jump at enemies with an explosive fiery landing. Even summon mechs who follow you around and fire at enemies, or if it’s the melee mechs then get they get physical with enemies. You can even summon a huge mech armour that you get into. It has a huge mini gun and tons of armour. It’s better than the power armour in Fallout. X35 Earthwalker obtained every augmentation in the game and most except two are good. Some like the one that resets your health to the point of activation are clearly the best. You can truly mix things up and when combined with passive boosters and certain weapons. We created our own combos to handle whatever the game throws at us. For example if robotic enemies show up, we have a build for them since ballistic rounds do way less damage to them so you need energy weapons. We use the augmentation that converts all damage into data damage which robotic enemies are vulnerable too. We won’t give away our whole combos.
Now for the worst part of the game. The ending. It sucked. We don’t believe the good guys should always win and there’s peace in the land. Spoilers in case you haven’t beaten the game yet. The character we hate the most wins in the end. Yeah Kira gets what she wanted, all that power, money and control. All the time while we were under her command we wanted and desired to kill her. She is evil and we hate her, yet she lives and wins. We know she’s powerful as we saw her one shot that large mechanical spider enemy, so she isn’t a wuss and got powerful technology but we were ready to face her. We got powerful augmentations, crazy weapons and maxed out stats, ready to fight her but that never happens. Noghead came in clutch which was perfect as it make sense for a master hacking technology guy like him to do what he did but other from that, the ending sucks. We weren’t happen. We need to kill kira but the game said no. It feels like we got no where in The Ascent which was seriously disappointing.
Overall The Ascent is an excellent game with a few problems. Facing tons of enemies and multiple encounters while travelling is annoying but killing enemies helps you level up, so it’s needed. The trains allow for fast travel and they do their job well and heal you as a bonus. We wish the maps where easier to read when it comes to upper and lower areas as it’s not clear, especially in the Corp zone. The locations and environments work well for a sad depressing futuristic place. We like how the pinnacle isa above the clouds, natural light and beautiful while the deep stink is all death, grime, stink and death. Almost a whole heaven and hell thing going on. Truly shows the difference class makes in the world. It’s free on xbox game pass and it’s worth playing for sure. This is a more quick review so don’t expect us to dive into all the details as there is more to say. Now The Ascent may have numerous crazy weapons but those weapons are nothing compared to… the ‘Earth Walk!’
Second Extinction is, in case you didn’t know, a co-op action first person shooter where players face off against dangerous mutated dinosaurs. Currently we are really enjoying the game. Haven’t played for long though. X35 Earthwalker has made a gameplay video and done one livestream on Second Extinction. Even so we have some good feedback already for the developers Systemic Reaction. So listen up. Let’s take a look.
We will say it again Second Extinction is an awesome game and we are having lots of fun. We won’t talk about any bugs and performance issues since Second Extinction is in a preview state and not a fully polished built state. They give you a clear warning as you start up the game. They even warned the game might crash. It did. Twice. The first crash happened right when we were about to complete a mission. At the extraction and the ship arrived but it crashed. Worst place to crash ever. The game did warn us that could happen so yeah, we weren’t mad but not happy at all. So on to actual feedback.
The Black box optionals missions are bad, especially since you don’t know what to do. Our first two attempts at a black box mission were fails. We called in the scanner and it pointed in a direction for us to explore but we weren’t sure were though. We went in the pointed direction and found nothing. We tried to call in another scanner but you can’t outside the range of the crash site. We thought maybe the black box it’s in range of the crash site. It’s not there. Only during the livestream where we didn’t care about the black box we found it by accident. The laser points in a direction and it’s somewhere far in that direction but what we didn’t know is that what we need to look for is another broken part of the ship like an engine. It’s right there. We found it by accident but now we know what we are looking for. Maybe an extra clue would help first timers.
We advise that the mini gun gets renamed to chain gun instead as it’s just not powerful enough to be a mini gun. Mini guns lay to waste everything in front of it. Mini guns are over the top powerful. This so called mini gun feels far weaker. It’s rated as less damage than an assault rifle. No assault rifle is stronger than a mini gun. So change the name please and don’t insult mini guns. The most annoying enemy in second Extinction, those ankylosaurus (flat backs) can all go straight to… a unpleasant place. When they do their rolling spinning attack, it’s level of tracking is not consistent. At times it’s pretty much undodgable while a few times it’s like it doesn’t track at all-ish. For the most time it can be dodged well but try to make it more consistent if possible.
Rosy is currently our favourite character both in terms of design and ability. Her electric fence ability is great. Issues with it are that it’s range is a bit too small. Fences should be able to be set a bit farther apart. Also dinosaurs that jump through it should still be effected. Those annoying electric ones love to jumping lunge attack which lets them go through the fence for free. Maybe they still take damage but we want more of an effect. Also those electric raptors love to dodge your shots. The problem is that they are even dodging ‘mini gun’ fire. There’s too many bullets. We are seeing them take no damage at times even though shots clearly go through it’s body. You can’t dodge ‘mini gun’ bullets.
The very last thing we want to bring up for now would be the lack of split screen co-op. Second Extinction is a co-op game but don’t have full co-op options. Sure we can invite other players and even search for random players but you can’t play with friends and family from home. There’s no split screen local co-op. This instantly eliminates some people we want to play with. Getting a local split screen would make this game more accessible and bring more players for sure. So these are just some feedback we have already. We hope the Second Extinction developers ‘systemic reaction’ listen and make their game even better. There’s work to be done. Now Second Extinction may be great already but it’s far from being perfect as… the ‘Earth Walk!’
Foreclosed is a new action shooter game developed by ‘Antab Studio‘ and published by ‘Merge Games‘. Foreclosed is said to he coming out in the second quarter in 2021 on the Xbox Series X, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch, PS5, PS4 and PC. Forclosed definitely looks different from your average game. Let’s take a look.
Foreclosed is all about Evan Kapnos. His identify has been recently foreclosed (get it?). His job was taken from him. His brain implants gone too which is bad in this technological advanced place. His access to the city block chain is gone too. The plan of action right now is to “escape before his identity and implants are auctioned off.” This isn’t too clear though. Is he trying to get his implants and identity back or is he trying to escape before someone else gets it? Just saying, things need to be clearer.
Now the biggest thing about Foreclosed is it’s style. It’s a shooter but with a comic book style. There’s slices and pages in the style of a comic book. It does look cool for sure. Here’s how they described it “Everything from game-play to cinematics are experienced within the stylistic framework of a graphic novel. Full screen and comic panel perspectives are seamlessly blended as you move throughout FORECLOSED’s Cyberpunk city.” The whole comic design things is cool.
We checked out some Foreclosed gameplay and it’s what we thought it would be for the most part. Foreclosed’s only real strength right now is the comic style. We keep saying that. We like that the cutscenes are interactive. Players don’t just watch but do. The cutscenes also transition smoothly between alternative game-play styles. So there’s some stuff going on here for sure. Run, move around, shoot, survive, sneak and do what you got to do.
Overall Foreclosed doesn’t look good to us. It’s doing something very different which we like. The comic style is good. It’s too simple though. The gun fight didn’t look on point, more off. If you just want a shooter with a different experience then Foreclosed does that. We want to see more and know more concerning the story and what’s going on. The developers have nice ideas but got to deliver it good. We at X35 Earthwalker will have to hear if something changes concerning this game. Now Foreclosed may have a cool comic style but what breaks the pages is… the ‘Earth Walk!’
Aliens: Fireteam is a new cooperative third-person survival shooter game developed and published by ‘Cold Iron Studios‘. Aliens: Fireteam is said to be coming out in the third quarter of 2021 on the Xbox Series X, Xbox One, PS5, PS4 and PC. The aliens are back and this time, it’s serious. Let’s take a look.
Aliens: Fireteam has a very simple story. A fire team of marines, hardened marines jump in, head first into a major league xenomorph threat. Why? Well a “mysterious distress call” went out and off course we just got to respond right. The marine assault unit make their way to LV-895 which is in the outer colonies. It wouldn’t be an shooter alien game if this place didn’t have xenomorphs and some sort of ancient alien civilisation links. Also it wouldn’t be aliens if there wasn’t any hidden corporate secrets going on. So yeah, Aliens: Fireteam has the typical package.
So let’s give it to you straight. Aliens: Fireteam is a cooperative third person shooter game. You get to create your own fire team and customise them. You can decide their class, perks, weapons (off course) and gear. Then dive straight into the action and start shooting. Expect loads of danger and enemies. There’s 30+ weapons from what we have heard. About times the marines get new weapons. Got to adapt and improve. There’s also 70+ weapon attachments/mods. Let’s get into a bit more details.
There are five unique classes: Doc (Doctor), Gunner, Technician, Recon and Demolisher. We can figure out what each class does. Doc would be focused on healing and health. Gunner is the big gun and should do the most direct damage. Technician has the technology to grant advantages, basically the support class. Recon should be the one to bring awareness, expose enemies, navigate, lead the charge sort off. Demolisher just blows stuff up and maybe destroy fake walls for secrets etc. Each class has their own character perks and special abilities. Aliens: Fireteam has variety.
There are four different campaigns in Aliens: Fireteam that are said to introduce new storylines to the alien universe. We are expecting a variety in the level designs because of the different campaigns. Some locations are clearly xenomorph hives or heavily taken over areas. So the developers need to capitalise on this. There’s also a challenge card system to make your playthroughs different and add deployability to the game. The card challenge seems to be where you can accept added difficulties, twists to shake things up.
The enemies you face are interesting for the most part in Alien: Fireteam. There are two groups: Xenomorphs and “Weyland-Yutani synthetic foes”. Not only that but we hear there are over 20 enemy types. This is exciting. We expected more enemies and variety of xenomorphs and they have done that. There’s 11 different types of xenomorphs which includes facehuggers and praetorians. So expect even new xenomorphs. Those synthetic enemies can harm you up close while some wield weapons as in guns. They take cover and fire at you.
We checked out some Aliens: Fireteam gameplay and it’s what we expected. We are glad they are doing it this way. It’s a serious fire fight out here. The aliens, each type have their own intelligence concerning how they attack and function. For example some types are all about ambushing you. Some try to outsmart you. Maybe while the main xenomorphs rush you, the smarter different type might try to go around. We know that players must watch out for vents, doors and off course keep an eye on the ceilings and walls too as threats can come from every angle possible. This means players need to work together and use cover well and hold good positions to prevent getting caught off guard.
Overall Aliens: Firebase looks like an awesome game. We are saying this with confidence. We like that you can play with both human players or A.I teammates. Not every has friends available or friends online at all. Aliens: Firebase plans to bring intense action. Facing literal hordes of enemies in some cases and feeling overwhelmed. We hope there is a high difficulty for this game. It needs to be difficult. Also the game looks very good. The graphics and visuals are very good. The level designs from what we have seen look very good too. Facilities and hive like areas. The developers ‘Cold Iron Studios’ have done an excellent job with this game. We at X35 Earthwalker look forward to seeing this game. This is an aliens game we are excited to see. We hope the devs do well with it. Now Aliens: Fireteam may have what fans have been waiting for but it’s still not as good as it would be if it was made by… the ‘Earth Walk!’
R-Type Final 2 is a new side scrolling shooter game developed by ‘Granzella‘. R-Type Final 2 is said to be coming out in 2021 on the Xbox Series X, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch, PS4 and PC. R-Type Final 2 definitely has something going for it. Side scrolling shooter games have a tough time standing out and a number of them are just too similar. Let’s take a look.
Now we didn’t know anything about R-Type Final 2. We never heard of it. Even the story we aren’t sure of what’s going on. We do know that the main enemies in the R-Type are the Bydo. Humans are in a serious battle with the Bydo… for years. Simply put it’s man vs aliens with space battles and machines. Now that’s not the focus here. The focus is that you control big ships with mad firepower to destroy pretty much everything. So focus on that.
One of the main focuses on the R-Type Final 2 gameplay is to make players feel real good about destroying the enemies. There’s multiple weapons for clearly different purposes. There’s a charged up weapon that has piercing effect that flies through multiple enemies. Good for a line up. There are bombs for when extra damage is needed or just to clear out a group of them. Laser beams which have obvious purposes. There’s spiral based flaming attacks. There’s loads of weapons in R-Type Final 2 from what we have seen.
Your weapons can be frontal or backwards which is a good feature. Games like this need loads of weapons, there needs to be a form of upgrade system. Some games do have this but something more is needed. R-Type Final 2 does try something that’s actually different. It seems like some levels have special conditions. There’s one stage that has decaying organisms. So new enemies are formed from the destroyed remains of other enemies. So basically as you play R-Type Final 2 you will face new and stronger enemies. Stage factors like this a good spin.
Now the stages evolve as well. Off course players will be making changes to their fighters over time with different weapons and features. So the stage, enemies and fighters will be going through changes over time. What stands out to us more than any of that stuff in R-Type Final 2 is the ship designs. Like seriously look at them. There’s all sorts and types with some looking like living creatures. Technology has come a long way hasn’t it.
We checked out some R-Type Final 2 gameplay and it’s what we expected for the most part. R-Type Final 2 brings a sense of progression as players will unlocked and develop new fighters of different types as they go through the game. Some ships (fighters) are clearly better for some levels than others because of their features. So it’s up to players to know what’s the best options for the situations ahead. We like the level of flashiness and explosives and special effects. Thos look amazing and the design of the aliens. We always respect creativity and we hope to see more unique and cool looking alien enemies.
Overall R-Type Final 2 looks like a real good game for sure. There’s loads of action, unique and cool looking enemies, customisation, multiplayer is going to make R-Type Final 2 a serious game. Just being able to play with others is a big deal. The graphics of the ships, enemies and the visuals of the firing and attacks are very good. The developers have done a very good job with this game. We at X35 Earthwalker look forward to seeing what R-Type Final 2 will do. R-Type Final 2 may have loads of action but that action is real boring when compared to… the ‘Earth Walk!’
Outriders is a new third person shooter role playing game developed by ‘People Can Fly‘ and published by ‘Square Enix‘. Outriders is said to be coming out in the fourth quarter of 2020 on the Xbox One, Xbox Series X, PS4, PS5 and PC. Outriders is one of those games that wants to come in hot with big stuff. Let’s take a look.
Outriders in set in a sci-fi universe. Definitely the future and it’s a dark and desperate times. This place is called Enoch (another inspiration from the Bible but no mention). Things are harsh, death seems to get around a lot. So don\’t expect any rainbows and sunshine (Escanor or not). Simply put humanity is in trouble. They have been described as “bleeding out”. The only lead players have is this weird signal. You need to know where it’s coming from, it’s source. So that’s the whole adventure. In outriders you are travelling across this dangerous world to find the source of that signal. So get walking.
Now yes the trailers and story show three Outriders but it’s confirmed that you can create your own Outrider. So character customisation is confirmed. How in depth is the customisation, we don’t know but it must be facial at least and probably like with most recent modern games, there could be skins and outfits. Now players get to choose from four classes for their Outrider. Each class off course has their own abilities and skill tree.
Now Outriders is a shooter game so expect the guns. There are some standard guns as in machine gun fire and heavy rounds but there also a twist to some… after all it is the future. There’s even what looks like a chain gun so keep your head down… maybe. The more emphasis is on the powers. There’s many abilities out here. From straight up shooting flames from your hands, causing earth shockwaves, phasing, sort of teleport (become electricity dash forward and reform), blasts, ice freezing and more. Now when you think about Outriders altogether it should remind you of another futuristic game where humanity are also having a tough time but some specific people have powers… Destiny.
Let’s address some smaller stuff. It’s been quoted “OUTRIDERS offers countless hours of gameplay from one of the finest shooter developers in the industry – People Can Fly.” First of all countless is a real big word and we at X35 Earthwalker take it seriously. They better deliver with countless hours worth of gameplay. Second ‘People can fly’ are good developers but not one of the finest. They made Gears of War Judgement which we really enjoyed and had the best weapons balancing of all the Gears of War games for multiplayer but made some big mistakes that are obvious even to a casual gamer. For example no locust in multiplayer and no ‘Down but not out’ which means no executions. So good yes but definitely not finest unless they have seriously improved over time.
Outriders is suppose to have a whole lot of stuff and places for players to see. You will come across, broken down places, slums, cities, deserts, some shanty towns and more. In big games like this, the environments make a big difference. Now best of all, it’s confirmed that Outriders is co-op. It’s drop in, drop out co-op so your friends can join and leave whenever they want. This is the most convenient and best way of doing co-op for the most part. Matter of fact co-op has been pushed and emphasised all over this game. We like this feature for sure. The game industry needs more awesome big co-op made games.
We checked out some Outriders gameplay and it’s what we thought it would be. It does remind us of Destiny. Got a mission, get there and complete it while gunning down enemies of a variety sort. While using your powers and abilities that literally shake things up. You can roam as a team of three or with just one friend and dominate the enemies. Using cover effectively and probably melt enemies with your steady stream of melting flames. Also there are whole lots of gear and guns that can be modded for that extra kick, effects and boosts. So there are some layers to this game. Remember that Outriders all be one of those new games that will come out also on the Xbox Series X and Playstation 5. So already gamers have got expectations.
Overall, Outriders has got a lot going on and looks like a very good game so far. The theme of ascension is heavy when it comes to the story. Leaving humanity behind and becoming something more. We know how these go. The graphics look very good too. The developers ‘People Can Fly’ have done a very good job with this game. We at X35 Earthwalker will have to see what Outriders truly brings to the gaming table. Now Outriders may have powers and guns in a dark universe but it’s still all children stuff when compared to… the ‘Earth Walk!’
Crucible has been around for a bit now so we decide to take another look at it. Crucible is a team based action shooter game developed by ‘Amazon Games’. So check out our first G-blog post on Crucible right here. So we just wanted to give our thoughts on the action.
The first things that really jumps out and what we like is the environments. These maps are big, got space and obstacles allowing for moving around and making cover out of a big hill or rock for example. There’s colours everywhere and it meets your idea of a futuristic alien planet. You expect colourful flora and fauna, you expect crystalline rocks sticking out of the ground. If there is intelligent life, you expect some strange infrastructure. The maps look good.
Ajonah, the Orisi, character is clearly more of a long ranged fighter and her abilities show that. Her squid mine doesn’t seem that effective from what we have seen so far. Yes, the mines along with her other equipment are meant to help her stay away and keep foes away. Her grappling hook is really good though. The hook has a big range, bigger than you would think. You can grab a rock or whatever and swing through the air like spider man. The animation she has as she swings is excellent and acrobatic.
Sazan is a straightforward character and is all about cycling through her weapons for the best situation. The Electroknife is good for that in between attack as it recharges weapon energy getting your equipment ready and if you land that knife throw it does damage over time for a good while. Her shotgun doesn’t seem good though. The damage seems too low and seems very in accurate. Overall she does what it says on the box.
Crucible does get tactical and will force players to work together as some characters are far weaker than others in terms of their health. For example Bugg is clearly a support type and not to be upfront as other characters destroy him quick. He is strong by shielding allies and even setting up turrets. So players need to take into account what they are suppose to do with that character. Like what were they made for. If you want to rush in then get an actual rush character.
The equipment make a difference. Like the medkit which off course restores health and can get you back in the fight faster. The characters equipment customisation is simple and straightforward.
The map of the battlefield is very good. It’s a full map, detailed and has multiple symbols to show everything. This gives a goo amount of information for players to use. You can see your team and move while viewing the map.
There’s an in game during match upgrade system where as you gather essence you upgrade your character. For example on upgrade on Sazan means a more accurate shotgun and even dashing more frequently. The dash ability does make a difference.
We like what we see in terms of gameplay. We just hope the balancing of the characters improve. Yes we know the games new but it’s just our thoughts. In more time players will figure out the upgrade paths for all characters and we hope those are balanced too which is hard to do in games like this.
Crucible just looks like a fun game right now. Definitely different from other games right now but obviously a similar concept. The A.I enemies which makes Crucible stand out need more variety. We need more than just that big alien cow thing. We need fierce monsters the are risky too. Now Crucible may have some good stuff going on but it’s not nearly as good as… the ‘Earth Walk!’
Chorus is a new space combat shooter game developed and published by ‘Deep Silver Fishlabs‘. Chorus is said to be coming out in 2021 on the Xbox One, Xbox Series X, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Google Stadia and Windows PC. From what we are seeing, this is suppose to be a big deal. Let’s take a look.
In the world of Chorus players take control of basically two characters: Nara who is quite a complex character. She is an ace pilot who was Circle’s deadliest fighter. She is now their number 1 target. Circle is a cult, a bad one and the one that created Nara and made her who she is. Nara isn’t alone. She works with her starfighter, Forsaken, which is sentient by the way and has it’s own past and history. That’s like the Master chief from Halo being able to talk and communicate with his signature sniper rifle. Nara and Forsaken are out here trying to bring all resistance groups together to go against Circle and off course their leader… the ‘Great Prophet’.
Chorus is a space game so expect a whole new universe and a dark one at that. Nothing is really straight forward here. Chorus is focusing on having mystery as a strong factor in this story. There’s also tons of conflict.This can only mean one thing… combat. Spaceship combat, dogfights from “epic cosmic vistas to tight crystalline corridors.” So think about it. A whole universe where you traverse by ship and hostile beings makes Chorus a big space exploration game with serious combat. Expect to come across and search out places like space stations, distant planets, enemy fighters and according to the developers strange planes pf existence. We hope they can pull it off well.
Chorus is not just space fighting as Nara will have powers of her own. She can use telekinesis (yes please), mind bending, extra sensory perception and even teleportation. Remember the ship isn’t just a ship. Your ship can drift for that extra mobility and evasion and there are combat upgrades to get and even powerful weapons that will allow you and your ship to face superior forces in terms of size like huge battleships and even armies of enemies. The skill then comes down to knowing all your abilities and upgrades, know when to use each one and the synergy of them for the best results.
We checked out some Chorus content and from what we have seen it definitely looks split into two. A clear difference between the exploration, mystery and the fast paced action. Players will have to master the maneuverability of the ship to dodge debris or structures in space. This will have to be done also during combat too. The environment is looking cool and as strange as this is… space looks cool too. Red is quite a popular colour in Chorus and it can work. The mystery of the so called great prophet is good too but will he be a stereotypical cult leader or something special? We will have to see.
Overall Chorus looks like it’s going to be a big deal. We like the setting, the visuals and even the typical story. Not much is known about this game but it’s obvious that Xbox is proud and excited about this one. The developers ‘Deep Silver Fishlabs’ have done a good job so far. We at X35 Earthwalker want to see a space combat game like this do well. Space games are not hard to get right but many fail at it. We hope Chorus is different. Now Chorus may have mystery, powers, and starfighters but even with those it isn’t as cool as… the ‘Earth Walk!’
Hovership Havoc is a sci-fi twin stick shooter game developed and published by ‘Snow Day Software‘. Hovership Havoc is said to be coming out on Xbox One the 17th of January 2020. It’s also out on PC. Now Hovership Havoc aim to be different from other twin stick shooters. Let’s just say it has something to do with a different perspective. Let’s take a look.
Now lets say what makes Hovership Havoc stand out from the others or should we say what they hope will make them stand out. There’s a top down view as you are playing through the levels but when you face a boss, you then have a third person view. That’s right. It becomes a third person shooter when you face a boss. Now that’s cool.
Now Hovership Havoc has randomly generated levels. This includes everything concerning the level like the rooms in the levels, the enemies you will encounter and even the pickups you can get. So like spelunky, expect everything to be different all the time.
There’s four different hoverships for you to select from in Hovership Havoc. Each one has their own weapons and their own stats. There are some abilities that you can get as you play like shields, drones, shockwave pulse, rockets and even shockwave pulse. There’s suppose to be more than 30.
There’s more than 15 types of enemies who all have no problem destroying you. In Hovership Havoc you will face them across 3 different environments which we hope stands out from each other nicely. Also don’t for get to collect orbs as you go because they are what will make your ship more powerful.
We checked out some gameplay and it’s what we thought it would be. The enemies do look pathetic tough, like they can’t d anything while the bosses look like a big threat. Seriously the enemies look like discount aliens from space invaders. Other from that it all looks smooth and good. The levels seem alright for now, reminding us of Assault Android Cactus.
Overall, Hovership Havoc just seems like another twin stick shooter game but with their own secret weapon which is the third person shooter boss fights. Graphics and sounds are very good and we like the abilities. The developers ‘Snow Day Software’ have done a good job with this game. We at X35 Earthwalker will keep an ear open for this game. Now Hovership Havoc may have third person boss fights but no matter what perspective you have, you won’t beat… the ‘Earth Walk!’
