Tag: single player

Tetris Effect: Connected. Fantastic Game!

Posted on by X35 Earthwalker

Tetris Effect: Connected is described as a tile matching puzzle game. Simply put… it’s Tetris. You know what it is. This game is fantastic! Sure it’s Tetris, but it’e not Tetris and we will get into that later. We are so glad we played this game and it surprised us severely. Don’t let the fact that it’s a tetris game throw you off. Let’s take a look.

Let’s get this out of the way. We don’t like Tetris. We don’t care about Tetris. We never cared about Tetris. Never owned a Tetris game. We care about Tetris Effect: Connected though. Like for real, Tetris is boring… but Tetris Effect: Connected isn’t. We have spent lots of time in Tetris Effect: Connected and had lots of fun in this game. It’s the best Tetris game by far. Do not underestimate this game. We have seen gamers who never cared about Tetris now enjoying Tetris Effect: Connected. That speaks for itself. By the way Tetris Effect: Connected is currently an Xbox exclusive. Best experienced on Xbox Series X though. 

The main mode which is the campaign called ‘Journey Mode’. Here you go through a series of levels where you play Tetris but the main goal is to clear lines. There are three difficulties really as the fourth is practice mode which doesn’t even include all the levels, has no game over and is the slowest speed. In Normal difficulty you must clear 36 lines, beginner is 30 while hard is 48. Also the higher difficulties are overall have faster Tetriminos (the falling blocks) falling speed. For example the first level ‘The Deep’ ca rise up to a fall speed of 3 while in Hard it goes up to 8. The problem we have with Tetris Effect: Connected is that the jump from normal to hard is too big but if you reach the later levels in normal difficulty you would be use to higher speeds than the early hard mode levels anyway but still…. too big of a gap.

The levels in the journey mode are beautiful and vary heavily from each other. You have sea level types but they vary for example ‘The Deep’ has manta rays but concludes with a massive whale. This level is one of the best ways to start of the game. It’s a beautiful display and you see the movement around as you progress through the Level. Mermaid cove has mermaids. Turtle dreams has turtles. There’s also Jelly fish Cgorus and Dolphin Surf which has a immensely bright moment in the level where you come to the surface with the dolphins. Epic stuff. Some levels come with a song with lyrics while others is just music but for the most part the music is very good and we like the songs. The song in balloon high is the best though. It’s relaxing or gets you hyped with the action, making things intense. The big boss level is metamorphosis which has 90 lines to clear on Normal difficulty. It’s a huge battle where the Tetriminos will fall at high speeds which are impossible to work with if you are new to the game. More on that later. Journey mode is awesome, very challenging and you’ll spend good time here training.

The next big mode is off course Multiplayer which what makes Tetris Effect: Connected a different game from Tetris Effect. Some idiot online wanted to spend his day arguing with X35 Earthwalker about that. What a loser. Hopefully he gets a life. Multiplayer is where the action is at after training through Journey mode. Here you can find all the true new stuff. We do recommend players go through the tutorial for helpful tips as there are tricks and certain aspects of the modes you need to be aware of in order to do good. Once you enter multiplayer you see a massive pyramid but at it’s base is the top reflected to make a full shape. Just imagine a pyramid on top of a pyramid but connected at the base. It’s in the center of this galaxy and players names are floating around this massive structure and in the Milky Way looking galaxy. You can select your guardian avatar which is the different images and shapes you unlock through playing all through Tetris Effect Connected. For example if you level up you can unlock the Moon, Nabla and Sun through playing online matches and you get a bonus if you win off course. You can unlock others through playing specific modes or a certain number of matches etc. They are cool and the one you select becomes like your symbol. Cosmetic stuff. There’s 84 in total. There’s orbit mode which allows the player to fly around the galaxy and view players avatars, their names and see the pyramid from different angles. There are three types of multiplayer: Ranked, Friend and Local. Ranked is for points and against random Tetris Effect: Connected players around the world. Friend is a private match where you can invite friends. Local is local couch play. Bring a friend over, family or beat your spouse at Tetris and damage your marriage. 

The multiplayer modes are: Connected, zone battle, Score attack and Classic score attack. Classic score attack is where you face an opponent 1v1 to see who gets the highest score. Old school classic Tetris. Score attack is the same but it’s all modern Tetris though. Now here’s the good stuff. zone battle is about crushing your foe. Not score. It’s whoever loses first. First to two. Cause your opponent’s side to fill up to the top. As you clear lines in fancy ways you send trash to your opponents side which builds up forcing them higher to the top of their screen. So clearing doubles, triples, quads, clearing in combos, T-spin or whatever it is called all contributes. Single line clears don’t contribute at all. Your best tool is the zone mechanic. This mechanic is new to Tetris Effect: Connected (It was also in the inferior Tetris Effect). Basically you stop time and have limited time to clear lines and each cleared line goes straight to the bottom of your screen. Can save your life but the best way to score points. This zone if done right can completely destroy your opponents one shot. There’s ways to win but you need to know what you should and shouldn’t be doing. More experienced players than X35 Earthwalker has lost to him because X35 knew what to do while they didn’t.

The last mode is Connected and this is truly awesome. You and two others face actual bosses who are playing Tetris just like you. It’s 3v1. The bosses are the stupid zodiac signs. They are in groups of three and you face each one one right after the other. For example on normal difficulty you face: cancer, libra and scorpio. Each boss has their own abilities which are designed to mess up the players. For example they might make your next two falling blocks super large taking up so much space. Cause your Tetriminos to fall extremely fast. Rise up your screen, drop in explosive blocks, rotate your field etc. Some abilities are more dangerous than others clearly. The three need to keep clearing lines like in zone battle to contribute to the meter. When it’s filled all three of your fields combine into one big one and you need to create as many lines as possible. The more you do the stronger your combined attack against the boss to force them to the top of the screen. Once defeated the next comes after a quick statistics break. There’s more after hard difficulty. They won’t go down easy.

Lastly is Effect mode where you can try out what looks like community made challenges. They are set though and mx things up. Some have conditions, others are about scoring in a time limit. It’s different from journey and multiplayer and brings in some adventurous stuff. There’s even one where you have to clear 40 lines as fast as possible. Simply put there’s lots to do here. Another thing we wanted to talk about tis that Tetris Effect: Connected trains you. It actually forces you to think faster and be faster. When you first start playing Journey mode you really struggle when the speed reaches 4. Higher speeds like 6 becomes too much and you complain at how fast it is.As you play a bit more and get use to the shapes you find yourself naturally able to handle speed 6 and up to 8. When you first encounter a level with a ruthless speed of 10 you get shocked and fail, again complaining that it’s too fast, which it is. Then over time you find yourself easily handling speed 10. We can now do speed 14 and 16 if we have enough space and actually plan and decide where that piece should go within the practically ‘no time’ that we have to think. This game forces you to be fast. You stop complaining ad say bring it on. You take on those speeds and find yourself handling it. We got faster and better. Since X35 Earthwalker is the best, smartest and wisest gamer of all time he grew in skill way faster than other players and these speeds are very doable for him. Off course we aren’t dedicating our lives to be the Tetris pro players as we have a bigger life and much more going on but for how much we do p[lay it, we are easily masters who are getting better. 

There isn’t really a negative to Tetris Effect: Connected except for the big gap in difficulty between Normal and hard. Other from that, there’s no problems. It’s Tetris and stays as Tetris. Thus game has lots to do. If you want to get serious you can with effect mode. If you want a challenge you can do journey mode on normal difficulty and higher. If you want to get competitive with others you can with multiplayer like zone battle. If you want to relax there’s relaxed modes in effect mode and there’s theatre mode where you can just watch the stages you play in journey mode, control the transition and listen to the music. Literally use Tetris Effect: Connected as your music player. Talk about a versatile game. Unpopular opinion and PlayStation fanboys get mad when wee say this but Tetris Effect: Connected is a better game than Demon’s souls remastered and spider man: Miles Morales. We aren’t joking. If you judged them for what they are, Tetris Effect: Connected is a better game. Don’t make the mistakes simple minded people make by assuming that this games boring because it’s Tetris and there’s no guns, giant axes, huge monsters and death. This game is fantastic. Very hard and unforgiving but fantastic.

Overall Tetris Effect: Connected is an awesome game. One of the best games of 2020 easily and worth playing even now. The graphics are amazing, the particle effects are the second best we have ever seen so far. It would all look better on an Xbox Series X (we currently don’t have the next gen console). So many colours, great music with variety, excellent effects, multiple game modes, boss battles which ascends Tetris as something complete new. There’s local play up to three players. Tetris Effect: Connected is a multiplayer game with many things available. We are glad we gave this game a chance. We would give Tetris Effect: Connected a 10/10. A perfect game. There’s isn’t really anything bad about it except one level where the fireworks effect you get as you do a big move, it causes a lag that does mess you up but that’s the only real negative. Everything else is great. It’s available on the Xbox game pass so you can even get this game for free and play the whole thing. There isn’t much to say as it’s Tetris at the end of the day. It’s kind of hard to mess up Tetris. Now Tetris Effect: Connected may be considered a perfect game but it’s filled with flaws when compared too… the ‘Earth Walk!’

For more information check out the link below:

More information

Spirit of the North. An Iceland adventure

Posted on by X35 Earthwalker

Spirit of the North is an adventure game developed by ‘Infused Studio‘ and published by ‘Merge Games‘. Spirit of the North is said to be coming out in the year 2021 on the Xbox Series X. It’s already out on Nintendo Switch, PS5, PS4 and PC. The action is this game takes place in Iceland. Already you know this isn’t going to be a normal game.

Spirit of the North is set in a winter cold, mountainous land that they said was inspired by Iceland. Quite a lot of what you see are based on nordic folklore. So that’s interesting and brings something different to the action. Games that have stories or in game elements based on certain folklore and mythology bring something new and unusual. Very different from the norm. You basically control a red fox. Very normal. You then encounter a female spirit fox who’s called the guardian of the northern lights. These two foxes are working together. Their stories become one. So we just join them.

One of the things that has been said about Spirit of the North that’s unique is that there’s no narrative or dialogue. This was done on purpose. Its up to players to figure out what to do, explore around on this journey and be aware of your surroundings. This land is ruined and a civilisation is lost. So look around, explore your surroundings and solve puzzles. That’s right. Puzzles. Players need to use their heads solve some situations or what’s set before you.

The setting and style of Spirit of the North reminds us of another cold winter game that was also about a journey and based on folklore. That game is ‘Never Alone’. Obviously Spirit of the North is third person and you control a fox but Never alone also has a spirit fox partner but yeah. In Spirit of the North, players get to explore places with practically no variety. It’s a cold Iceland like area so we aren’t surprised. Expect mountains, tundras and glaciers. 

We checked out some Spirit of the North gameplay and it’s good. You’re just a fox but it’s the spirit fox that helps you do the impossible stuff. Slide down ice trails, launch through rings, get empowered, follow the red trail in the sky, activate ancient mechanisms and off course solve puzzles.   It’s exploration yes but there’s a clear direction and you can go at your pace. No enemies, no real danger and no rush. So be a fox and relax.

Overall Spirit of the North looks like a very good game. It’s definitely an adventure and a unique one. Two foxes out there making things happen and traversing their world. It’s not our type pot game but we can tell it’s a good adventure. It would also look it’s best on the Xbox Series X. The developers ‘Infused Studio’ have done a very good job. We at X35 Earthwalker haven’t got any problems with foxes so hopefully these two don’t change our mind. Now Spirit of the North may have nordic folklore and two foxes but those aren’t as interesting as… the ‘Earth Walk!’

For more information check out the link below:

More information

The Dark Pictures Anthology: House of Ashes

Posted on by X35 Earthwalker

The Dark Pictures Anthology: House of Ashes is a new interactive drama, survival horror game developed by ‘Supermassive Games‘ and published by ‘Bandai Namco‘. The Dark Pictures Anthology: House of Ashes is said to be coming out in the year 2021 on the Xbox Series X, Xbox One, PS5, PS4 and PC. This is the third game and the one we have the highest hopes for. Let’s take a look.

The Dark Pictures Anthology: House of Ashes is set in Iraq in the year 2003. A war or should we say conflict is coming right to it’s end. Rachel King is a CIA operative and she’s been ordered to work with a military squad. Their orders is to check out, what they have been told is, an underground chemical weapons facility. Already we know this is a whole lot of bull crap. As if the Iraqi would have an underground chemical weapons facility. The location is the Zagros Mountains.

Once they reach the coordinates, Rachel and the squad are attacked by a local patrol being led by Sergeant Salim othman. Already we know this is an important character as he has a name and significance. In the middle of this battle between squads, sinkholes open up caused by earth tremors. Both squads fall in. Turns out underground is a buried Sumerian temple. Something bad, very bad, evil has awakened down there and these two squads are in danger. It’s a labyrinth down here to make things worse. So now the two squads have to make a decision: Either put aside their differences and work together to survive or will they instead go alone and prioritise their own survival? 

Now let’s go over a few things. It’s the The Dark Pictures Anthology so we know what to expect but we want some significant changes to make this game better. The last two games were fake threats as in their was no real monsters, demons or supernatural aspects at all. First game had gas that caused hallucinations while the second was demons that was all in someone head. None of it was real. House of sand needs to have actual supernatural threats and aspects otherwise we will straight away write off the game as trash. We don’t want the same thing or factors. Mix it up for the big finale.

Next they need to make The Dark Pictures Anthology: House of Ashes real good is to make the game brutally hard. The other games were too easy. The heartbeat time your button press segments were too easy and not intense at all. They should make the room for success smaller to increase difficulty. The time you have to press a button needs to be shorter. Creation riskier decisions need to have multiple swapping button presses to increase a greater chance of fail. The moments where you have two decisions to choose from and a bar appears to show you that your time to choose is running out needs to have pausing the game disabled. If you can pause it defeats the whole point of the timed decisions. Lastly create a form of punishment or negative for players who because of one bad decision start the game from the beginning. Either give them different paths or a harder play through or something as it’s pathetic for gamers to back out because they failed. 

Overall The Dark Pictures Anthology: House of Ashes looks like it’s going to be the real deal and hopefully what we want. If the developers make changes to please big babies like markiplier and 8-bit Ryan then we are ready to be disappointed. If they listen to us who has real wisdom they would make their best game in the series by far but let’s see. Big developers tend to not be very smart. We don’t know how well the developers ‘Supermassive Games’ have done so far. We at X35 Earthwalker are looking forward to this game. Now The Dark Pictures Anthology: House of Ashes may have some hype but that’s not enough alone to move… the ‘Earth Walk!’

For more information check out the link below:

More information

Metal: Hellsinger. Kill to the beat

Posted on by X35 Earthwalker
 

Metal: Hellsinger is a new rhythm first person shooter game developed by ‘The Outsiders‘ and published by ‘Funcom‘. Metal: Hellsinger is said to be coming out in the year 2021 on the Xbox Series X, Xbox One, PS5, PS4 and PC. Some games have good music while others are all about the music. Kill to the beat. Let’s take a look. 

Metal: Hellsinger keeps things simple when it comes to what the game is about. Players control what’s called the unknown who is part human and demon. This unknown is all about vengeance. So another angry character. You are in hell (rightfully so) and here blasting and fighting through hell and the many demons in your way. Destroy the demons and their leaders… all to the music.

The music mechanic is the best standing out point of Metal: Hellsinger. Do everything to the music. Metal music though. So expect things to be different and quite serious. We hope the music is actually good though. Not a fan of metal. The more in sync you are, the more damage you do to your enemies and the more intense the music gets. So listen to the music, get the rhythm and fire your weapons to the beat. Nice and simple. We don’t know how merciful the game is when it comes to the timing though.

The target of your revenge is referred to as the “red judge”. She is the main bad guy and you have to take her out. Now remember that you are fighting in hell apparently but there is a completely different design for it. Hell’s true name here is the infernal planes which is made up of thousands of hells. All bad. Each location is different have their own stuff going on and maybe own specific enemies. We like the different designs on hell. There’s a frozen world too so that’s cool. The developers must keep the variety going.                                                                                        

We checked out some Metal: Hellsinger gameplay and it’s not what we expected. It has a more DOOM feel. It’s about slaughtering all your enemies mercilessly. It is about revenge after all. Theres many weapons, enemies and  around in this game. We know that there are bosses and killing them will discourage the hordes. There’s a wide range of weapon too. They each have their own ‘ultimate ability’ which are game changers. We definitely would like to see more gameplay and information concerning the enemies in the future. There’s also executions where you finish of a wounded enemy with some style. It really is about the music as killing and attacking to the beat gives you the most damage bonus a and gets the music to be real crazy. 

Overall Metal: Hellsinger looks like a good game. It does what it says on the box. You move around, blast demon, maybe dance but timing your shots and attacks. The graphics aren’t excellent but still great and need to be improved. The sounds are alright but this game is still in development. So we expect it to get better. So run, gun, dance a little and have fun. The developers ‘The Outsiders’ have done a great job with this game. Now Metal: Hellsinger may have weapons and revenge but those certainly do not move… the ‘Earth Walk!’

 

More information

Ori and the Will of the Wisps. One of the best games ever!

Posted on by X35 Earthwalker

Ori and the Will of the Wisps is an action, adventure platformer game developed by ‘Moon Studios‘ and published by ‘Xbox Game Studios‘. Ori and the Will of the Wisps came out in 2020 so it is new. It is an Xbox launch exclusive but later came unto the Nintendo Switch. By the way Ori and the Will of the Wisps is perfect for Nintendo Switch. We wanted to write about this game and give our views on it since we are the best after all. Let’s take a look.

Now straight away let’s just say that Ori and the Will of the Wisps is one of the best games ever made and we aren’t crazy for saying this. So many critics and reviewers have overwhelmingly rated Ori and the Will of the Wisps incredibly high. Here’s some examples: Games Beat – 98/100, The Games Machine – 9.8/10 and two gave perfect scores: Daily Star – 5/5 and Hardcore Gamer – 5/5. The lowest is 9/10 and the average is like 9.5/10. There was one reviewer which was clearly biased in favour of the PlayStation gave it a 8.5 so we don’t count or care about that reviewer. So overall everyone believes Ori and the Will is an excellent game with some saying it’s a perfect game. 

Let’s keep this simple. The first thing about Ori and the Will of the Wisps is most likely the best looking game ever made. It’s graphics and visuals are completely fantastic. It really looks that darn good. No exaggeration. Everyone we know who has seen this game is instantly impressed and calls everything beautiful. Especially in the Luma Pools area where the true beauty really shines. We dare you to look at the Luma Pools and say you wouldn’t want to go there (except for the dangers in that area). There are very amazing looking games like Tetris Effect: Connected, Final Fantasy XV, Outland, indivisible etc but Ori and the Will of the Wisps beats them all. Just look at the particle effects. Ori and the Will of the Wisps has the best looking particle effects too. The Tower knight in the new demon’s souls remake has amazing particle effects on his magic blue projectile attack but Ori and the Will of the Wisps looks better than that easily. When it comes to graphics, visuals, particle effects, fanciness and even frame rates, Ori and the Will of the Wisps scores perfectly. Take into account that X35 Earthwalker played Ori and the Will of the Wisps on the Xbox One only. Ori and the Will of the Wisps has an improved next gen version for the Xbox Series X where frame rates and graphics and performance is even better.

The next things is the locations in the game. Ori and the Will of the Wisps has been described as an indie game as it isn’t large at all but there’s big areas in this game. There’s a good variety here. You have: Willow’s end, Windswept wastes (which contains Windtorn ruins), Silent woods (not to be confused with David Wood), Kwolok’s hollow, Inkwater marsh, Wellspring glades, Luma pools, The Wellspring, Baur’s reach and Midnight burrows and Mouldwood depths. That’s 12 areas. Each area is very different from each other and some have their own environmental themes that effect things. For example in mould wood depths there is darkness which will straight up kill you if you stay in it for at least 4 seconds. Baur’s reach being the far north and cold some enemies and objects are frozen solid and need to be thawed out. Luma pools obviously since it’s in the name has loads of water, so managing your air meter getting air is crucial.  

Let’s talk about the controls and combat since they go hand in hand in Ori and the Will of the Wisps. The controls are very smooth. Not once have we had control issues. Everything is very responsive and works well. Every command comes out and works. The only time a jump doesn’t come out or a certain ability is because the player doesn’t understand the mechanics and how many times you can perform an action in a row. Now this matters because it makes a difference in combat. Ori and the Will of the Wisps has superb combat. Some enemies require footsies to beat and avoid damage. Not joking, footsies sort of like a fighting game as some bigger enemies like Gorleks will try to do a big hit against you even while you are hitting them and so you have to dodge in time. You will find the dash ability which is so strong as it’s excellent for mobility and travelling quickly and better for dodging attacks almost instantly. The dash is just that good. You will unlock the double jump and maybe get the triple jump. There’s a grapple ability which when upgraded can be used to grapple to enemies and not just grapple points, there’s also a bash ability where you can do a bash of an enemy to knock them away or just propel yourself. When you combine, double, triple jump, dash, grapple and bash, with your attacks you can end up doing many combinations and string moves together to keep attacking, dodging and wiping out enemies even without touching the floor. The responsive controls makes all the difference here. 

Next let’s talk about the abilities and upgrades here in Ori and the Will of the Wisps. There’s so many of them and they are mostly useful and powerful. Some abilities are found through the story of the game and you have no choice but to find them like ‘Light burst’ while others like ‘Sentry’ can be learned from a specific character for a price. Let’s quickly go through the abilities: Spirit edge which is basically a light sword for melee damage. Regenerate which is where you can use your energy to recover health. Spirit arc is basically your bow for shooting light arrows. Blaze is an area of effect flame burst from the center of Ori’s body to set enemies on fire but when fully charged it’s full screen. Sentry is an automated 360 degrees turret. Spike is basically a big spear headed projectile that hits the hardest of all your weapons and when upgraded explodes. Spirit smash is basically a powerful spirit hammer attack with high knockback. Flash is basically an aura sphere of light that is damaging to enemies and ‘lightens’ things up. Light burst is an arc throwable fireball that sets enemies alight and can be used to melt stuff. Those are the offensive abilities. 

Next is the shards. These are just things you can find or earn and they grant even more abilities, either passive, active or change the way Ori or an ability works. There’s a shard that allows you to rapid fire your spirit arc bow. There’s another that increases the amount of damage you do while also increasing the amount of damage you take. Risk reward thing. There’s shards that improve your bash and grapple. There’s a shard that increases your damage against flying enemies. As you can see in the image below, you can find lots of shards and they are worth finding. Combine the abilities you set with the shards you choose and you can change how your combat works, survivability and even energy acquiring and consumption. These things actually make a difference.

Finding these things aren’t that difficult. There’s an excellent map. The map is clear, there are keys for the map that clearly identify what is what. You can zoom in and navigate it easily. It also helps show you where certain things are if you got near them. If you’re smart enough you can use the map to figure out where secret areas are and where secret paths are. There’s a a certain character, for got his name but it’s the bug who loves making maps and you can purchase maps for him to add to your map allowing you to see everything except hidden items. There’s many collectibles and items to find; and so you will need the map. 

There are many collectibles and items to find but there’s also side quests. These side quests aren’t boring, repetitive or lame rewards. For example you can help tuley (hope we got the right name) find and plant seeds which are around the world. There is 6 in total we believe. Finding and growing each one creates a plant that helps you access different parts of the Wellspring glades where all the friendly people are, to find spirit light or meet new characters or get new missions. The ‘hand to hand’ side mission is where you acquire an mission item but you must find who needs that item, give it to them, and they will give you a different item, which you then need to find who needs it. Keep it king until completion and you get a so worth it item. A map stone which when placed in a ancient tablet allows you to see EVERYTHING on the map. Every collectible: Gorlek stones, life cell and energy fragments, spirit light etc. So it’s well worth it if you want to get 100% completion or to just find the stuff to get stronger. Completing spirit trials grants you an additional shard slot so you can equip more. If you do all you can have a maximum of 8 shard slots which helps makes you so powerful. Simply put, doing the side quests rewards you well most the time and is fun.

The story is very good and does keep you paying attention and getting sucked into it. There’s others who said it made them cry or close to tears. There’s funny moments, shocking moments, sad moments and even parts that brought about possibly anger or hatred. You knew why the wisps were important, where they came from and what you need them. You learn about Shriek, her past and why she’s got a heart of stone and so murderous and hateful. You learn about the voice narrating the story but if you pay close attention to details you could figure out who the voice is from the beginning of the game. Seeing Shriek attack Ku and seeing the result be a funeral brought rage and made you want to destroy Shriek but you knew she was too powerful and would stomp you harder than how superman would stomp goku (get triggered). This works well with this Metroid style game where you start of trash but gain powers to get stronger and in the end you have numerous abilities, regeneration, powerful attacks with loads of health and energy AND only then you feel you can square up with Shriek… but not until then. We still wanted to help Shriek as we are merciful people but Shriek didn’t want it and it made us feel bad. You understand Shriek in the end. She reminds us of real people. What happened to Kwolok upset us and we respect that giant toad and glad to see the stink spirit die. There’s so much. In the end after a major league epic battle you feel hyped but then sad after seeing Ori make a life changing decision which saves everyone. You are proud, sad but also understand why Ori did it and why it made sense. The story was great from start to finish. We aren’t giving big details as Ori and the Will of the Wisps came out in the year 2020 so not everyone has played or knows how the story goes. Simply put, an excellent story that we cared about.

The music is excellent. It’s perfect in some cases to set the mood or match what it going on. The major boss battle music helps get you hyped and in the mood for an epic battle. The music for when you are getting chased by something big and powerful is also very good and gets you to focus. The music when Shriek shows up and there’s clear danger and you should run, it makes you understand the magnitude of the situation. We love the music and it adds to the game. Never got annoying. We wanted to quickly bring up something. We saw a review done by Angry Joe and they did another disappointing review. They claimed some stuff was bad or not polished about the game but it was due to them not being good at that those things in the game. Now the gap in skill between X35 Earthwalker and angry Joe and his friends is massive. They died over 500 times! In X35 Earthwalker’s first play though we died less than a quarter of their deaths. They even said combat wasn’t polished but the gameplay they showed of them in combat was terrible. They were fighting the gorleks without dodging even when a telegraphed attack was coming their way yet they say the combat isn’t polished. They said abilities were in the background and didn’t pay attention to it even though they are a big part of there game. They even said that all you have to do to beat the bosses was just grab and redirect their attacks back at them which is so false. Use your abilities. Use Spike, sentry, blaze and more. That’s what they are for… combat. Sadly not everyone is at our level of gaming skill and intelligence. Once again if you want accurate reviews and good points then come to us. 

There’s more to say but we have to leave it here for now as we are running out of time. We will have to update this post later. Let’s summarise. The boss battles are excellent and exciting. Facing bosses like stink spirit, howl, mora, the armoured bug beetle and even Shriek isn’t easy. They are complete monsters on hard difficulty though. On easy they are too easy. So bosses, music, graphics, side quests, story, combat, controls, sense of getting stronger, collectibles, fast travel, methods to find collectibles, ending, variety of enemies, variety of weapons, variety of shards and builds are all very good and lead to a fantastic experience. We like how the last section Willows End basically has platforming that requires you to use everything you have learned to survive. Ori and the Will of the Wisps is the new standard for games when it comes to animations and graphics. It’s called an indie game but clearly triple A standard and better than majority of them. We love this game.

Overall Ori and the Will of the Wisps is the only game right now we can call a perfect game. 10/10 easily. Last of all Ori and the Will of the Wisps is available on Xbox through gamepads which means it is free. Go and play it. We would happily spend £40 on it. It’s just that darn good. It isn’t a big game and can be beaten under 10 hours easily and even 4 hours if you know what to do and sprint through it but it’s called an indie game for a reason. There’s also a improved Xbox Series X version of this game. So there’s not a better time to play this game. Ori and the Will of the Wisps is better than demon’s souls remake, better than spider man: miles morales, the latest god of war and many more. This game is so underrated and not enough people were talking about this. Ori and the Will of the Wisps is 10/10 but what’s better than Ori is… the ‘Earth Walk!’

For more information check out the link below:

More information

Spider-Man: Miles morales. Not as good as they say

Posted on by X35 Earthwalker

Spider-Man: Miles Morales is an action adventure game that many have played and talked about. Spider-Man: Miles Morales is an PS5 exclusive. Now this game got loads of reviews and pretty much all of it was good stuff. No one really said much negatives. We don’t like most video game critics and reviewers because they overall aren’t good at what they do. We have seen negatives with Spider-Man: Miles Morales and going to give our quick review on those negatives. Let’s take a look.

Now lets get this out of the way. Spider-Man: Miles Morales is a good game overall but we can no longer call it excellent since we’ve seen so much more of this game. Now first things first is the enemies you face. You only really face three groups of enemies. Roxxon troopers, the underground and escaped prisoners. Roxxon and underground are basically the same troops when it comes to standard units like sword wielders and rifle users. They are just as easy to beat as each other. Also the Roxxon troops look like a reskin of the sable troopers from the original Spider-Man game which is lazy. There’s no variety of enemies here. There is room for different types of enemies in this game but they didn’t take advantage of that. Why couldn’t roxxon with all their technology, have machines, enhanced exosuit troopers etc. The underground could have had high mobility troops who actually use that mobility in combat. They all get beat the same way and none of them forces a change of strategy. The venom punch and techniques makes them all pointless and easy.   

Spider-Man: Miles Morales is inferior to Spider-Man. Spider-Man is an excellent game while Spider-Man: Miles Morales is just good. Straight up the best part of Spider-Man: Miles Morales is the very beginning of the game. The part that had both Spider men working together. That whole scene with Miles chasing Rhino through the city while Peter Parker rides rhino, then Miles riding Rhino while Peter Parker is moving people out of the way and removing obstacles from the destruction path. That was literally the best part. Anything thing else after the rhino battle is inferior. Nothing is as awesome or exciting and that’s sad. Speaking of rhino… they made him trash because of how overpowered they made the venom powers which is something we will get into later. You only faced three (3) bosses. Rhino twice, prowler and the tinkerer. If we forgot one then sorry, please remind us and that also shows how unmemorable that missing boss was. Original spider man had you face shocker, vulture, rhino, scorpion, mr negative, doc oct and electro. Big difference. There was a lack of big guys and when the bosses did come, the venom power really shuts them down. It would be better if the bosses would have a second mode when their health drop by half they gain a technique that forces you to use your venom abilities more strategically or wiser. Like you have to time it. If you just venom punch, they have a counter or get off me move or they dodge it clean depending on the type of boss.

The venom power being overpowered, the rhino battles being ruined is all under the umbrella of “the game is too easy”. This is a problem for original Spider-man too. The game is too darn easy. Even in spectacular mode which is the hardest difficulty (yes there is ultimate but it’s not initially available). It’s so easy to the point where if you get hit in combat then you are not that good or weren’t paying attention. In Batman Arkham asylum and arkham city it was harder because Batman has way less mobility and powers than spider man. Batman can get countered and some moves are forbidden to use because a stun baton carrying thug and they are immune to certain attacks. Spider is a much more powerful character and truthfully that’s how spider man would be in a fight. He would never get hit by these thugs. Never. Those attacks and swords?… He dodges those, clean. So the game is accurate but it should be like that for normal and easy difficulty where you literally become spider man and he’s near impossible to kill. While spectacular mode should have you nerfed and buff the enemies. They should be more aggressive and relentless, deal punishing amounts of damage and make beating the game an actual challenge. The venom recharge rate made rhino a joke. It Ade dealing with the enemies a joke and too easy. The venom abilities are excellent and cool though but needs to be nerfed for the higher difficulties. The hardest part of the game was the final battle with the tinkerer as she has a useful counter ‘get off me move’ which deals good damage. Nothing else in the game was hard.

The length of the game was too short and it proved the xbox fans right, that Spider-Man: Miles Morales is a DLC that costs $50 (in America). It’s over priced. Now we saw this coming as the official name is Spider-Man: Miles Morales. It’s a smaller adventure within the Spider-Man world. If you just go for the main story, you can blow through it very fast. Yes there are side quests and collectibles but they weren’t made interesting enough. Even CoryxKenshin, the ankle breaker himself (got his ankles broke by X35 Earthwalker though) made it clear he is not doing that mix tape side quest where you collect the sounds to learn the truth concerning the dad and prowler. Even CoryxKenshin who was hyped as freak for that game couldn’t be bothered and didn’t want to do it. So the game is really short. Coryxkenshin was shocked that he was at the last part of the game already. So let’s quickly sum up. Spider-Man: Miles Morales had a lack of bosses, the rhino boss fights were lame, lack of variety of enemies, the game is too easy even on the hardest initial difficulty and the game is too short. This is just us without going in depth and keeping it simple. We don’t believe the game is worth $50. It’s a dlc and should have been marketed that way. But seriously though, look at the gameplay of the beginning of the game below and tell us it’s not awesome. Shame that’s the best part of the game and nothing else is on it’s level.

Now overall Spider-Man: Miles Morales is a very good game. The animations are very good, the cinematic scenes are excellent, the story was good and made sense, the combat and powers while too easy was fun to play as a powerful super hero called Spider-man, graphics are excellent, the web slinging was good but you have heard many people already say all this and we are mainly focusing on the negatives here. So yeah, easily Ori and the Will of the Wisps, Indivisible, Gears tactics and Tetris Effect: Connected are all better games for what they are but players will still enjoy Spider-Man: Miles Morales. We would give it 6/10. Sounds harsh but nowadays with next gen consoles and technology almost all the serious games have great graphics, music and animations. It’s become the standard and not some big point winning factors anymore. Spider-Man: Miles Morales is a very good game button as good as people say it is. Now Spider-Man: Miles Morales may be at it’s best at the beginning of the game but one thing that’s always at it’s best all the time is… the ‘Earth Walk!’

For more information check out the link below:

More information

Morkredd. It’s all about the orb

Posted on by X35 Earthwalker

Morkredd is a new action adventure puzzle game developed by ‘Hyper Games‘ and published by ‘Aspyr‘. Morkredd is said to be coming out in December 2020 on the Xbox Series X, Xbox One and PC. Morkredd has a heavy concept as in the whole game is centred around it. It’s about an orb. Fine, there’s more to it though. Let’s take a look.

Morkredd is all about an Orb. This is what’s being said: “The orb is your fate”, “The orb calls for two”, “Gaze into the orb”, “Your path is the orb”, “The orb is your only friend”, “you are the orb’s protector” and “the orb’s light is your”. This is all very weird. This even sounds creepy. They really want to drive home that this orb is something pretty special. So what is the orb? Most don’t know. Do we know? Maybe…

Now Morkredd is primarily a co-op game. Remember that the orb always calls for two. Morkredd I best played with a friend but if you want to go solo then you will have to control both characters with dual character controls. Players will need to solve puzzles using the orb and keep the orb with you. After all, you are it’s protector. The main threat is darkness and this includes shadows. This includes shadows caused by your partner. This is really cool. this means you need to communicate with each other to prevent either of you from ruining the other. 

The darkness is a real problem here. You are surrounded by huge amount of darkness. It’s described as “an endless abyss of deadly shadows”. There are dangers in the dark. It can be pits, traps but we don’t know if there are any enemies in the darkness though. It doesn’t look like that kind of game but that would be really good. So stay near the orb if you want to live. There’s over 60 puzzles in Morkredd so that’s something to look forward to. Remember that this game is an Xbox exclusive. It will be available on   PC (not a console) but not PS5.  

We checked out some Morkredd gameplay and it wasn’t what we expected. We didn’t really know what to expect. You roll around the orb like it’s a giant hamster ball. You stand on buttons, trigger mechanisms, open gates, light the way, use a boat and more. It’s simple gameplay and concept but a funky twist. This looks like a good game. We would want it to be more dynamic but it seems more casual right now. Rightfully so, players can discover the ancient secrets of the orb and know what it’s about.

Overall Morkredd looks like a good game so far. Bit of trivia. Morkredd is Norwegian. It means “fear of the dark”. How fitting for a title of this game. This game was also inspired by nordic culture obviously and ‘long winters’. There’s quite bit going on. The developers ‘Hyper Games’ have done a good job so far. Now Morkredd may have darkness and a fear of darkness but one thing that’s not scared of the dark is… the ‘Earth Walk!’

For more information check out the link below:

More information

Hyperdot. Simple but perfect

Posted on by X35 Earthwalker

Hyperdot is a simple action arcade game developed by ‘Tribe Games‘ and published by ‘Glitch games‘. Due to an amazing change in circumstances, G-blogs will be shorter as we have less time. Hyperdot is a game we started playing quite a bit and we had lots of fun with it and some annoying times. So here’s a quick review. Let’s take a look.

Hyperdot is as simple as it gets in terms of controls, which is move with the control stick, and even concept, which is don’t touch anything. We aren’t joking. Just love around and do not touch anything. That’s Hyperdot at it’s base level. You control a circle and you move around within another large circle stage where enemies which are shapes are spawned in and are moving. Avoid them all and survive long enough to pass the level. Now in the campaign of Hyperdot this is what you will face and some variations. Time to dive in the details more.

Now the primary levels in Hyperdot are just survive but you’ll encounter other levels like collect tokens or staying in a designated zone for a period of time. Now this all sounds simple but remember the enemies. There’s multiple. The most common and simple are squares which just travel in a straight line from where it’s released. The pentagons are just like squares except where they are released they will travel in a straight line in YOUR direction. So they are aimed at you. Triangles are annoying as they just aim for you and follow you around for a period of time. Stars also come after you but instead of continuous movement they move in a straight line then stop, then move, then stop, then move and then stop until they decide to leave the stage. Last is a cross or plus sign which comes in then stops, spins and then breaks to release 4 small pieces in the direction where the ends of the cross is pointing. Simple enemies.

Simple, controls, simple enemies and simple concept and level rules. So what’s difficult about Hyperdot? It’s how they work together. You could have a level in a large circle and the objective is collecting tokens but squares are coming in ripe fire where you can’t pass until an opening is available but then pentagons are being launched at you while triangles are then sent after you and you have to dodge them all while in a confined space. Each of the levels in the campaign are different. Some an be beat in ma y different ways. A few have a straight pattern for you to master. Hyperdot does get really difficult at times. The much later levels of the campaign get ridiculous. A very few felt like chance was a factor alongside skill. It can get merciless. Playing Among Us is for babies as anyone can do that… but Hyperdot is for those gamers with some IQ, some intelligence some, real skill. Most can’t beat the campaign. challenge the streamers you watch to that. By the way, come watch the best gaming action on our channel. 

Even more, Hyperdot has got some extra stuff. For starters there’s level editor mode where you can create your ow levels. They can be played by others or yourself for fun. You can edit how much enemies spawn in, how fast they are, what objective for the level, if survival then how long to survive for, the background, colours: primary, secondary and tertiary etc. There’s lots to work with for how small and simple this game is. On top of that, Hyperdot has the best hit detection we have sen in gaming from our experience. It’s sooooooooooo precise. When you touch something, you are annoyed by it but you accept it as you now you got touched. Only once did we lose but we didn’t think it touched us. That only happened once though. If w got a reply then maybe we will be convinced. 

There’s multiplayer so you can try to out survive your friends. Build levels for each other. Work together collecting tokens etc. There’s even bonus levels and even if you have done the campaign (you most likely cheated you scrub) then you can face the impossible levels. There’s going to be lots of stuff to do. You can even select which theme colour you want and if you beat multiple levels of the campaign you can unlock even the enemy colours; which is the colour of the enemies like squares and stars.  

Overall, Hyperdot is awesome. It has everything for what it is. There’s lots of modes, end game content, build your own levels, multiplayer, great graphics, great music, excellent hit detection, very challenging, customisation, variety of enemies, basically everything. It’s also totally fun. Some frustrating moments for sure but still fun. Some levels aren’t truly hard, just had to execute what they wanted you to do, perfectly and vice versa where execution isn’t as important but felt more like chance due to the high difficulty. Hyperdot is available on the Xbox game pass so why not get it and see how far you get. We at X35 Earthwalker would rate Hyperdot 10/10 for what it is. A simple game that does everything right. Now Hyperdot may have done everything right but it’s still wrong when compared to the standards of… the ‘Earth Walk!’

For more information check out the link below:

More information

GRAVEN. Get the truth out

Posted on by X35 Earthwalker

GRAVEN is a new action adventure role playing game developed by ‘Slipgate Ironworks‘ and published by ‘3D Realms‘ and ‘1C Entertainment‘. GRAVEN is said to be coming out on Xbox One, Xbox Series X, Nintendo Switch, PS4, PS5 and PC. This game is out here trying to do it’s own thing. Let’s take a look. 

In the world of GRAVEN, players control a “wrongly convicted man of faith” in a dark fantasy world. This means magic, castles, evil beings, monsters etc. What are you wrongly convicted of? We don’t know. We do know that players can expect an adventure. 

Now take into account that GRAVEN is far from it’s release date and clearly still in serious development. Right now it doesn’t look good at all for 2020 standards. Now we can se the graphical style that they are aiming for though. We hope to see more of it’s development. We do like the environments though. There’s what looks like a swamp, castle walls, dungeons, villages and towns. We’ve got variety here. There’s clearly what looks like friendly people in the game who may even help you out.

As GRAVEN is a dark fantasy RPG we expected magic and spells. We were right. There are books which have certain spells. You can hurl fire like a flamethrower, zap enemies with lightning from your hands and cause explosions. There are weapons like a magic staff and even a hand mounted crossbow and off course a kick straight from Duke Nukem. So there is some combat options here. So there’s loads of stuff going on right here in GRAVEN but off course sin heavy development.  

We checked out some gameplay and it currently looks unimpressive and not very good BUT again… it’s in heavy development and a good distance away from release date. We are judging from the current displayed stuff. The running around and kicking is very similar to Duke Nukem which is funny since one of the publishers is 3D Realms who are known for Duke Nukem games like ‘Duke Nukem 3D‘. The foundations seem sound right now with lots of room to put stuff in. So maybe keep an eye on GRAVEN. 

Overall GRAVEN looks like it has potential. It needs time and that’s what people should do… be patient. We hope to see great animations, good graphics and visuals and more options concerning spells and bigger variety of enemies. The developers have got a lot of work to do. We at X35 Earthwalker will have to hear more about GRAVEN in the future. Now GRAVEN may have a dark fantasy world but even it’s world is too boring compared too… the ‘Earth Walk!’

For more information check out the link below:

More information

BADA Space Station. Sponsors are watching

Posted on by X35 Earthwalker

BADA Space Station is a new action game developed and published by ‘Terahard’. BADA Space Station is coming to Xbox Series X, PS5, Nintendo Switch and PC. BADA Space Station has a very funny concept and story going on here. Let’s take a look.

Let’s get right into this. The concept of the game and story itself is funny and simple. You are entering into these arenas to fight numerous enemies. Big arenas. Expect giant orc like beings with massive clubs and helmets. Expect what looks like demons, cyclops and even alien threats in abundance chasing you down to destroy you. Your aim is to fight and survive. Make you’re way through the top, build a massive following gain promotions and get paid… very well. There’s something more though.

In BADA Space Station there are companies and businesses out there that want to make money and sell their products. They are going to do it through you. You will get to use their products. This means their weapons, equipment, items etc. After all a product looks so much better in the hands of a winner, a big guy… a champion. Yep, it’s a arena career. The better you do and prevail, the more publicity you get and sponsors notice you. You get more deals and get to slay with their products. Oh and by the way, all this takes place in the BADA Space Station. 

We checked out some BADA Space Station gameplay. That’s all there is. BADA Space Station is literally a career. Get some cool stuff and improve your character. There is a choice of what character you can control from a half or half aquatic creature but clearly humanoid and then there’s this weird purple alien creature with a long head tail like majin bu from dragon ball. Strangest of all… this purple alien thing has some cheeks on it. Seriously, look at the butt. Exactly, we weren’t lying. 

Overall BADA Space Station is a simple game with a relatable progression story. It’s a career. We like that there is some big boss monsters. We didn’t see much variety in the enemies though and we hope to see more types. The difficulty of the game is unclear. it needs to be challenging though and hopefully by tactics and combinations of sponsor products can you match their strength and surpass them. The developers ‘Terahard’ have done an alright job so far. We at X35 Earthwalker will have to see what more BADA Space Station will bring. Now BADA Space Station may have sponsors and aliens with a booty but none of those matter when it comes to… the ‘Earth Walk!’

For more information check out the link below:

More information