Immortal: Unchained is a new action RPG third person shooter game developed by ‘Toadman Interactive‘. It will be ‘unchained’ and released the 7th of September on the Xbox One, PS4 and PC. Apparently the world is running out of time. Let’s take a look.
The story in Immortal: Unchained is quite weird but basically players control a character who was unwillingly unchained and released by a being called the Warden. All you are told is that the world is running out of time and that your skills are needed. Wonder what those skills are… So the player must set off on their mission but with no memory of who you are or what you do. So the other task is that players must find information regarding who you etc through stuff in the game and other characters.
Immortal: Unchained is developed to be a serious, hardcore game, so expect lots and lots of action. Expect bullets to fly and enemies to resist with all their might. What we do know is that the character we control is a living weapon. You have be locked away for a millennia. Apparently by those who thought we were too much of a threat. This mission or should we say journey is filled with dangerous and murderous foes. There are some who aren’t trying to kill you but they will use you to fulfil their own goals. So keep that in mind.
It’s all about guns and melee combat in Immortal: Unchained. Get up close and smash some foes in or stay back and take them out with accurate shots. There is lots of options regarding weapon builds and choices. So having creativity helps out. Create your own play style and roll with it. There are different armours to acquire and choose from to use in your battles. If you are a fan of the story and style of The Witcher, Killzone:Shadow Fall and Battlefield 1 then you might like the story of Immortal: Unchained because the story has been written by a team that includes both Anne Toole and Adrian Vershinin.
We checked out some gameplay and this does seems cool but currently too slow paced. We know it’s also an RPG but it comes off as too slow. Especially if enemies come at you one at a time. There are loads of weapons, over 100 we were told, there are 6 different disciplines to pick from also. As we say, gamers like options. The undead who have been freed from the underworld seem annoying but not a major threat. We do know that there are legendary bosses that are suppose to bring epic massive clashes. we wonder how those are done though.
Overall Immortal: Unchained looks like a cool good game but definitely cones off as too slow. We hope there are difficulty settings too because we saw a developer playing it and he had some high-is difficulty as in he died quite a few times. At least we know the game isn’t easy. The graphics are very good indeed. Excellent we do say. We do hope they make the right adjustments to the gameplay. the developers ‘Toadman Interactive’ did a great job with this game. We at X35 Earthwalker will need toes more action though. Now Immortal Unchained may have a living weapon but it’s lame compared to the weapons of… the ‘Earth Walk!’
Shadows: Awakening is a new RPG adventure game developed by ‘Games Farm‘. It is coming out the 31st of August on the Xbox One, PS4 and PC. Shadows: Awakening requires that decisions be made. Who is actually in charge though? let’s take a look.
Shadows: Awakening is part of the heretics kingdom saga. The Penta Nera are secret council members. So big league dudes basically. They were assassinated. It gets worse. Devourers are demons that have the ability to consume souls. The Penta Nera’s souls were consumed by Devourers. Devourers also absorb the personalities and memories of the souls they snack on. Those consumed ones became the devourers puppets. Pretty interesting but absorbing their personalities is clearly a down side.
The devourers that well… devoured the Penta Nera’s souls are back in the mortal realm once again. The drive and goals of the Penta Nera are still there and strong. Continuing their quest for power and off course immortality. We wouldn’t want to be immortal as a demon though. This then begs the question. Who is really in control? The demon or the souls that it devoured?
Shadows: Awakening is isometric. Players must expect real-time tactical combat. Build and gather your party and then expect lots of challenges. From what it sounds like, players can expect nothing handed to them. It all comes down to the final decision though. Will players save the world or go for a complete messed up situation?
This game is single player and there isn’t that much information given on this game. We know that players can control different shaped heroes and beings. Switch between them to the one who is best for the situation to keep the advantage at all times. The combat is quite simple to understand. As in, if you get swarmed back off and use a being that has projectile attacks. When melee is needed get a bigger stronger form etc. Just adjustments.
We checked out some gameplay and it does look how we expected. The graphics are very good definitely and the sounds are nice too. The visuals and level designs are very good too. We enjoyed looking at the background and what’s happening. The different forms are very distinct and their advantages are very clear.
Overall Shadows: Awakening looks like a very good game for what it is. The story is suppose to be deep but we don’t have that much information on that. The developers ‘Games Farm’ did a great job with this game. We at X35 Earthwalker need to see more of this game before we can be looking forward to it. So far it isn’t enough to convince us. Now the devourer may be a major threat but it would easily be crushed by… the ‘Earth Walk!’
Hero Defense is a new action RPG strategy game developed by ‘Happy Tuesday‘. It is coming out the 15th of August on the Xbox One and the 16th of August for the PS4 but already out on PC. This game is meant to be quite the blender of genres. Let’s take a look.
In Hero Defense the story is quite traditional in a way. Basically a team of slayers have one mission and that’s to stop the most powerful vampire in the world, Count Necrosis. Count Necrosis has quite the army with him, a whole legion of undead. and their mission is world domination. Off course it is, what else would it be.
Players have 5 characters to choose from: Jack, Barrows, Sam, Jane and Wylde. Each are clearly different, even from how they look. Literally from how they look, you can pretty much figure out what their play style is. Each character also has their own skill tree and upgradable weapons. So there’s a strong present of RPG elements and layers here.
You can further modify your weapons by equipping runes that you can find and collect. Your rune builds can be customised to emphasise what you want to focus on concerning your characters and play style. If that’s not enough and you need more of a boost then players have the opportunity to build hero shrines which empowers your characters further. Lots of boosting in Hero Defense.
Like an RPG players will gain experience points to level up their character and level up skills in their skill tree. According to the story, your island also has been messed up because of this undead army. You must save your island and rebuild your town. New buildings can be unlocked. What kind of an action strategic RPG game does’t have loot that you can equip? Not Hero Defense as there are some spells that you can equip to do some serious damage like poisoning and burning.
We checked out some gameplay and it’s not impressive but simple enough for everyone to understand. You can see the attack range of your characters, see what effects they have, how Barrow can buff other hero characters. It’s quite clear. Plays like a tower defense, except the tower is your character. Sort of like World of Van Helsing Deathtrap. The interaction between these characters is very well done. The graphics are good but during combat it’s not that great. There are boost areas for certain characters to stand in to get a huge boost to power and ability. Lots to take into consideration for a simple presentation.
Overall Hero defense looks like a cool game. It’s fun, simple and funny at times. It’s quite deep but not complicated. The sounds are good and the level designs are good too. The developers ‘Happy tuesday’ did a good job with this game. Now Count Necrosis may be a big problem but he’s only small fry when compared too… The ‘Earth Walk!’
Midnight Club: Los Angeles is a racing game developed by Rockstar Games. One of our favourite and best ones we ever played. The story is simple, you are a incredibly confident driver who shows up wanting to make a name for himself. Challenging and being challenged by others. So win races, get races and be the best. Simple to understand and makes sense.
Midnight Club: Los Angeles starts of with a trick. They give you the choice from three different cars to make your own. Kind of like with Pokemon. The car that looks the nicest isn’t the fastest. It’s actually the sirocco that’s the fastest but doesn’t look nice in the slightest. As you win races you get both more ‘rep’ which is reputation and money. The higher your rep, the more races you unlock as people start talking about you and want to see if you can really drive for themselves. The story isn’t all that strong though. It’s just simply that you meet some characters as you win races, they hook you up with some races going on, you win some more, then you meet more people and then win some more until you become the king basically.
There is a bit of variety when it comes to the races. There are the simple ones where you go from start to finish driving through all the yellow marked spots on the map. There are lap races where you must complete the lap two times. There are some people who challenge you to multiple races and it’s the first to win 2 of them or 3. There are red light races where you start at a traffic light and race to a certain landmark, the racers start as soon as the light turns green. Then there’s the motor way races where everything stays on the motor way and lives on the motorway. Some races have multiple racers like 4 others while some are 1 on 1. Motor way is definitely X35 Earthwalker’s favourite. Just pure speed.
To unlock faster and better cars in Midnight Club: Los Angeles, players must continue winning races and completing the main objectives. Start with group 1 cars which have D and C class vehicles. Overtime players will unlock group 2 and then 3 for powerful cars. Group 4 is where the real racing cars are at. Monster vehicles. Each vehicle you buy can be upgraded. Players can buy nine upgrades, better quality tires, extra nitrous etc to improve top speed, acceleration and handling. The car stats were kept simple which is a very good thing.
Eventually players can get their hands on special abilities for their vehicle. That’s right Midnight Club: Los Angeles didn’t leave what was in Dub Edition. The abilities: Zone, Agro, Roar and EMP are here. You can only equip one at a time. Driving cleanly will charge them up and once full can be used. Repeatedly using these abilities will eventually lead to a level up meaning you can store more of that ability in your vehicle. Now different players say different things about these abilities. Some come off as more useful than others but they do have to some extent pros and cons.
Zone allows players to drive their vehicle but in slow motion temporarily. While everything is slowed down, players also have enhanced control over their vehicle and more grip meaning handling tight turns, dodging a vehicle or slipping in between two cars becomes too easy. Agro basically turns your car into the Juggernaut from Marvel comics. You become invincible for a short period of time, meaning you take zero damage from crashes or whatever. Also you inflict like times 100 more damage to anything that touches you, sending them flying. Roar allows players to send off a powerful shockwave in front of you that forces and moves all vehicles out of your way. It’s literally a repelling force. Get all the traffic out your way. Roar also effects enemy races so you can use roar to send them going straight when all were suppose to turn right. EMP is literally what it says on the box. It short circuits all vehicles around you for a few seconds. This means they cannot accelerate. This can be used to prevent others from passing you or to allow you to zoom past them.
Take this into account when playing Midnight Club: Los Angeles. Zone becomes much less useful as you get better at the game. Eventually, with enough skill, you can slip between cars while driving at high speeds and read the map well enough to know when to turn and handle those turns. So top level drivers won’t find a need for zone. is considered one of the better ones as it can be used both offensively and defensively but it’s offence is limited to you actually having to touch your opponent. They can still keep their distance from you. Also, even though you are smashing things aside, you can still get slowed down if you smash into too much in a row. Roar only effects those in front of you, also if you are about to smash into a vehicle roar may not work fast enough to get that vehicle out of the way in time, especially if you are travelling at high speeds. EMP doesn’t last long at all and doesn’t reduce the opponents speed. It just for a few seconds prevents them from increasing speed. So think about what serves you the best.
The pink slip races and wager races are the worst and make even the best and most confident racers sweat. In wagers you bet money while in pink slip… you bet your car. If you win, you get back what you betted and you get what the opponent betted too. You know how in games when you are about to lose, you just turn off the game or hit restart then you don’t lose anything… well that doesn’t work here. From the moment you accept the race the game takes away your money or car betted and saves the game. The only way you can your bet back is to win that race. So if you don’t cross that finish line first, your car or money is gone. No questions, no negotiation, no one cares. Even if you had a power cut in your area, you lose your car. Smart on the developers part but horrible for players.
What’s worse is that you race on the streets like normal anyway. This means anything can go wrong. A A.I car could suddenly turn into your path crashes into you, makes you spin out allowing your opponent to zoom cleanly ahead. Guess what?… it al counts. What matters if who crosses that line first. No restarts, no second tries. X35 Earthwalker once had a pink slip race where a random car didn’t to turn right and smashed into his vehicle, he then cleanly crashed into a wall. He just about won in the end though. Too close for comfort. Players are warned before agreeing to wager and pink slip races though so that’s fair. Doesn’t make it any less scary and intense.
The customisation in Midnight Club: Los Angeles is amazing. You can customise everything from the hood, to the front and back bumpers, to the lights, the doors, the sides of the vehicle, the license plate, the tires, brakes and rims, the car colour, the internal colour and gauge colour, neon lights both outside and inside glow, colour of the glow, the seats, the steering wheel you name it. Allowing you to practically make your own vehicle. It’s done very well. if only other racing games had this level of customisation. be warned the most expensive thing to customise is the rims and tyres. Cost more than engine upgrades. Ridiculous. You can have vinyl designs on your vehicle and symbols. It’s that good. See it for yourself.
Now Midnight Club: Los Angeles isn’t perfect at all. Let’s talk about some negatives. What’s really annoying is when you a target on your gps to know where to go but then a character pops up to talk to you. Their interaction screen replaces your gps, meaning you can’t see where you are going and have to wait until they finish or go back to the gps screen and then come back out again, wasting time. Next is the fact that the police at times are unpredictable. X35 Earthwalker once saw a police car coming and decided to slow real down. He reached the traffic lights and then when the lights turned green went of at a real slow speed around 15 miles per hour. The police got triggered and chased after him. Maybe X35 went too slow. Either way we still find it ridiculous.
Another problem is that some cars that are displayed as slower are somehow faster than cars displayed as faster. For example when you unlock the Camaro dub edition muscle car in a tournament it comes upgraded already. When you compare that to the lancer class B car when upgraded as well has lower stats. So the Lancer is shown as definitely faster but when you drive them both it’s obvious that the Camaro is actually faster which makes no sense. That is deceiving. If the stats show car A to be faster than car B then Car A should actually be faster, that’s common sense and a game as good as Midnight Club shouldn’t have this problem. This is linked to the next issue. There are two more stats to take note of with these cars. The torque and horse power. This must be the thing many players are missing. While the Lancer had higher speed stats shown by bar graph, it’s torque and horse power was lower than the Camaro’s according to the graph. We aren’t car people, so we don’t know about torque and horse power. The game should do something simple like explaining those two to us. Does having high horse power mean your car is faster? if so then why isn’t the speed bar higher to match it? too many questions. it’s confusing. Either make the stats accurate or explain everything concerning the cars. It’s simple developers, get it right! Oh it doesn’t help that you can’t see the torque and horse power graph until after you get or buy the car which means you may have spent good money for a vehicle that’s slower than what you already have which sucks.
Next complaint is that the A.I are too difficult in many cases. They also at times don’t make sense. For example the first time you race Karol, he’s speeding, over taking you and zooming around corners almost perfectly. When you beat him, get his vehicle and check it’s stats; you learn that he was using a very slow, weak stats vehicle. It’s a D class! How was he keeping up with my upgraded Shinka which can be considered a B class vehicle with the right upgrades. Midnight Club: Los Angeles should be realistic. If your opponent drives a slow car then they should be no match for you, don’t give them some supernatural boosts. That’s stupid. Also X35 Earthwalker had the fastest and best car you could get at that point of the game and entered a dub tournament. Two of the opponents had slower cars while the main opponent had an A class super fast car. When the race started all off the opponents were too fast. We can understand the A class guy being too fast but why all of them especially when X35 was using a B class vehicle and the other two had B and C class? Again it’s stupid and makes no sense.
Overall Midnight Club: Los Angeles is still one of our favourite racing games of all times. Lots of high speed races, some of which can get quite intense and some moments when you hate everything. Great graphics concerning the cars and locations, very different race tracks forcing players to rely on certain vehicles and skills. The abilities makes everything more exciting and cool. The many many races and characters show that’s lots of stuff is happening for you to be a part off. Many cars to choose from, even police vehicles and the customisation is the best we have seen for cars. So much positives concerning this game and it’s worth playing. You can see some Midnight Club action on the X35 Earthwalker Mixer livestream channel from time to time so make sure to follow to know when the streams happen. It’s confirmed that you can find some serious drives in Midnight Club: Los Angeles.
Genesis Alpha One is a new sci-fi first person shooter game developed by ‘Radiation Blue‘ but published by ‘Team17‘. Genesis Alpha One is coming out the 4th of September on Xbox One, PS4 and PC. Survival games can get real deep and we hope this one is done very well.
The story in Genesis Alpha One is basically, humanity is in a bad state thanks to many wars, very bad pollution and off course corrupt regimes. We all know it’s never complete without corruption. So 4 powerful or should we say influential corporations have started the Genesis program. Players control the captain of the Genesis starship. It is your duty to make sure everything goes smoothly and to make the right decisions.
So time for the survival stuff. In Genesis Alpha One, players will have to explore a really large universe. It’s never that simple. You will also need to collection and manage resources, build and manage a space vessel. If you can do all of this then completing the main mission is possible. What’s the mission? It’s simply finding new homes for humanities DNA and off course saving humanity from extinction.
Off course things aren’t that simple either. There are aliens around and boy are they hostile. some are even described as terrifying. Worse are alien infestations which off course have to be cleared out and handled, if that’s even possible. This means combat is a big part of the game as well. Genesis Alpha One is a first person shooter after all. Not much information is given about the aliens but some look like taller Juvies from Gears of war 4. There are some tentacle big mouth punching enemies and another that sort of look like a combination of head crabs with the main aliens from Star Ship Troopers. Scary right?
Not only that, technology is really advanced as you can clone things like creatures and even your own troops. There is permanent death in Genesis Alpha One which means every troop in your team matters. If they die, they stay dead. Every decision you make as captain matters. Sort of like with XCOM 2: War of the Chosen. Not only that, it gets worse. It’s all random generated. So every time you journey into Genesis Alpha One, you will get a different galaxy loaded with dangers and things to do. It won’t be the same.
We checked out some gameplay. There is a lot of decisions to be made in how you approach things, whether it’s to set up defences like turrets, is it safe to search the alien bodies for DNA samples? Stuff like that. You also have to keep an look out for infestations which look like small fungus growth. If left unattended then expect a whole lot of trouble. Manage and have enough plants in your green house to keep everyone alive. There is lots going on and we like it. There is customisation as well. For example if you build a quarters for your crew members you can change the colour of the sofa and other individual objects. Glad to see that you can see what resources can be found on each planet.
Overall Genesis Alpha One looks really cool. Seems like a deep game indeed. The graphics are very good. The sounds are great too. the planets are random generated so you never really know what you will come across out there. The combat is simple, point and shoot. There’s so much that can go wrong and knowing when to fall back is important. The developers ‘Radiation Blue’ did an excellent job. We at X35 Earthwalker are looking forward bro seeing what Genesis Alpha One has to offer gamers. Now the Genesis program has a big mission but that mission is so small when compared to… the ‘Earth walk!’
Madden NFL 19 is a new sports game developed by Tiburon. Madden NFL 19 is coming out the 10th of August on the Xbox One, PS4 and PC. American football is fast and rough. Let’s take a look.
Madden NFL 19 is a sports game which should give all gamers a very good idea of what it is about. There is no story. It’s just playing sports which is fine. Select and use your favourite NFL stars and dominate the entire sport.
Madden NFL 19 offers new levels of control and precision over your characters. There is also real player motion which is basically precise control over your characters movements. Now you can decide when you want to make a rounded turn or a sharp cut.
Let go of the buttons for Acceleration Burst and then move in the desired direction to cut sharply. Use the acceleration burst to dash past your opponents. The controls don’t seem that complicated which is a good thing.
So players must decide when they want to have fast speed but very limited turning or high dodging and quick cut turns but lower speed. So maybe if your opponents make a line then maybe zoom through them if there is an opening. Cut turns for 1v1.
Players can also chain together a bunch of movements smoothly to make some advanced dodging and manoeuvres to get past the enemy. This sort of reminds us of NBA Street Vol.2 when you could do tricks like the ‘slip and slide’. That was cool. So there is some technical stuff to Madden NFL 19.
We checked out some gameplay of Madden NFL 19 and it looks good. Very good. You can select the kind of strategies for your team to use. So an additional layer of strategy and tactics. The animations and how the players interact with each other are very good indeed. It’s quite deep for an American football game. It’s something interested players will have to view for themselves.
Overall Madden NFL 19 is a good game for what it is. We at X35 Earthwalker are not sport game fans and do not care for American football, let alone the game but this game is very good from what we have seen. The graphics and sounds and stadium designs are better than before. The developers Tiburon did a very good job with this game. Now Madden NFL 19 may have star players but even they are small when compared to… the ‘Earth Walk!’
Strange Brigade is a new cooperative third person shooter developed by ‘Rebellion‘. It is coming out the 28th of August on the Xbox One, PS4 and PC. There is quite a historical adventure going on here. Ruins, puzzles and treasure? Sounds familiar. Let’s take a look.
Strange Brigade, is set in Egypt 1930. Seteki was a major problem, and like the mummy that Brendan Fraser faced off against, it’s real bad if they come back from the dead. Well Seteki the witch queen is back. She was erased from ancient history and buried in a nameless tomb for 4,000 years. She has dangerous powers and a army of dangerous mummy monsters.
Strange Brigade is the name of the team that are going to face Seteki and want to stop her. Each of the four members of Strange Brigade are have been trained to face supernatural threats. Players take control of the Strange brigade who can use magical powers and have access to powerful prototype weapons. The official website describes these weapons like “brain-busting Blunderbuss”, “fire-spitting Krakatoa” and “ice cold Chill Burster”. Sounds strange but to deal with mummies it has to be something special.
So players should expect ruins, off course treasure and puzzles in Strange Brigade. Players must be on the look out for clues and objects that will help on your adventure. You don’t want to have to travel back to get something you missed. There are even secret entrances for you to find which will save you the trouble of running from rolling boulders and swinging across gaps with your whip.
There are many locations for the Strange brigade to hunt the witch queen through, such as unstable caves, dig sites, and even exotic places like some cool pyramids. It’s clear this game is going for a very archeological feel and look. Like you are searching these ancient places for exciting discoveries and facts.
Seteki like any supernatural mummy didn’t come back alone. She brought an army with her. This army consists of dangerous monsters like: assassins that can breathe fire, giant scorpions, mummies who won’t shut up and even minotaurs who wear armour. There is definitely much more threats out here in Strange Brigade. oh and yes, those monsters are loyal.
What archeological, ancient rune, temple, mummies, super natural threat world would be complete without a bunch of deadly traps everywhere. You know, the good ol fashion crushing ceiling trap, or poison dart traps or delay pits in the ground. So players of Strange Brigade should expect boulders, spinning blades and even fire traps.
We checked out some gameplay and it’s not exactly what we thought it would be. The movements are good. Things seem to work very well. The combat like the enemies attacks are fluent. There are relics to unlock to get more amulet powers. Look out for secret doors that we recommend you solve as there are some worth while stuff through there. Like with Tera, use power stones to upgrade and improve your weapons. The more powerful the weapon you get the more sots available. The fact that it’s four player co-op is the best. So grab your family or friends and face mummies together.
Overall Strange Brigade is a very cool looking game. Even excellent so far. The graphics are very good and colourful in many places. The sounds are great too. The level designs is actually deeper than most think and there are multiple paths and ways to handle stuff giving players the option. The developers ‘Rebellion’ did an excellent job with this game. We just hope that the main villain in Strange Brigade is actually a threat, puts up a fight and interesting. Now Strange Brigade may have armies of monstrosities but even they are nothing compared to… the ‘Earth Walk!’
Gene Rain is a new futuristic third person sci-fi shooter developed by ‘Deeli Network‘. Gene Rain is coming out on the Xbox One the 24th of July and some time later on the PC but it’s already out on the Play Station 4. Let’s take a look.
In Gene Rain, players take control of the death squad who’s job is to stop the gene rain. The gene rain is basically a spray agent that can mutate genes, which got released into the air. Yep you can guess that this is bad. The agent mixes into the rain. So mutating rain everywhere which causes some issues. The Death squad is made up of three members: Alex, Salman and LiYing.
Alex is the leader and is human but also part robot. Salman is known as the shield of the Death squad and is a mechanical human. LiYing is all human and called the soldier of the Death sqaud. Quite an interesting mixture of characters in Gene Rain. from all robot to half and full human. Even though they are different it has been made clear that they all have the same goal.
Gene Rain has quite a lot of lore, history and back story. Even on their steam page is quite a lot of information from 2049 to 2089. So it’s worth checking out for that extra information. There are three different forces who are clashing with each other. Unlike the Death squad these forces have their own agendas and goals. Let’s hope the death squad are ready for this.
There are 9 weapons confirmed in Gene Rain and the three main weapons can be upgraded. There are also a good amount of character attributes which can all be upgraded also. In terms of level design and environments there are four types of areas you can encounter. They are: A quiet town, a dark city, a destroyed city and a deep canyon. So basically three city like areas and one cave like place. Not much variety here but they are doing what they can with what they have. We respect that here at X35 Earthwalker.
In terms of the enemies as that’s very important, there is 12 in Gene Rain. Each one is different having it’s own behaviour and attributes. Some examples are the jumping spider which are fast moving can jump very far and like elevated areas to fire down at targets. The thunder has a strong defence and high amounts of fire power. The hunt fly is all about speeding towards you, latches on and then aims to explode. Inspectors are tough, can give commands, very tactical and have long range sight. There are more, some of which can be a real problem.
We checked out some Gene Rain gameplay and so far it’s good for what it is. It’s not a game you can compare to Gears of war or Halo and their super high quality. What the developers have made works well. The companion A.I seem too slow to react especially if an enemy gets past them to come for you. The enemies however do look very cool. This game looks like it will be a huge problem on high difficulties. Some weapons look very weak but there are some strong powerful ones. Good amount of guidance for campaign allowing players to know where to go.
Overall Gene Rain looks like a cool game. It’s a nice project and it’s looking good. The graphics look very good. The sounds are alright. The level design does need more variety. The developers ‘Deeli Network’ did an excellent job with this game. We at X35 Earthwalker say keep it up and go on to make better games. Now Gene Rain may have the Death Sqaud but they are no match for… the ‘Earth Walk!’
Paladins is a team based shooter game developed by ‘Hi-Rez Studios‘. Paladins, Champions of the realm is one of those games that X35 Earthwalker himself got into, sort of recently. So far we have had a fun time but there’s quite a lot going on. Take a look.
In Paladins, two teams of five champions go head to head to either out slay the other or generate and push a payload to their enemies side of the map. Sounds simple but there are many factors to this. There are a bucket load of characters to pick from and each one has a role and their own abilities. The roles are: Damage, flank, Support and Front line. Damage is well… all about dealing damage. Flank are all about getting around and hitting the enemy from the side of behind. Support do anything from buff and heal allies and nerf enemies. Front line are suppose to be tacky (take a lot of damage) and stay in the front grabbing attention.
So the main strategy in Paladins is that the front line goes for the payload and stands in the area for the objective. The support strengthens and heals the frontline to keep them alive. The flank splits the enemy teams’s attention by attacking them from their side while the damage dealer tries to finish destroy everything. Off course, the enemy team won’t let you do that. So you have to keep an eye on their flank, shut down their support and avoid taking damage dealers head on. There isn’t that much variety to the maps to play on but they have been carefully designed and each one off course presents different opportunities. Some maps are more suited for some champions more than others. Make sure to lay all and know what’s best for what champion. Experience is key in Paladins.
Each champion in Paladins has their own abilities. 4 fixed ones, one ultra and one you which is more like a perk that you must keep for the whole match. No characters in Paladins are really similar, despite what haters say. There are three Champions who use rifle like guns: Viktor, Tyra and Vivian but each of their guns have a different rate of fire, clip size and damage per bullet. There abilities and uses truly separate them. Viktor can throw grenades for additional area of effect damage and run very fast to chase down enemies or retreat quickly. Tyra has a grenade launcher which is area of effect damage and fire bombs which sets the area of fire for area denial. Vivian has a frontal shield that takes the damage for her and sensor drones which reveals the locations of enemies in a big radius.
Now just from what you heard about these Paladins characters, you can see where they shine most or come up with different play styles; however there is more. For example if you select the cardio perk ability Viktor heals for 250 health every second while using hustle. So players can chase down enemies knowing that they will have more health than them; or run away while healing making it harder for you to die. If you then use the right card in your load outs you can grant damage resistance during the hustle to make you much harder to kill while chasing or retreating. With Tyra you can use many cards in her load outs to make the fire bomb ability cool down much faster and then combine that with the ‘Burn monster’ ability and she can pretty much shut down a payload objective as no one will want to stand there at all. So come up with some combos.
So you can imagine the many different play styles and strategies that players can come up with the many different champions. Who knows you may even be able to stand up to X35 Earthwalker who has been called the greatest Jenos player in the world. What’s really good about Paladins is that players can see the statistics for the damage of their attacks, how much percentage does damage reduction grant and life steal etc. This makes Paladins quite mathematical. You can actually calculate who would win in a straight up fight through maths alone or know how much of what is needed to survive an attack or take someone down. So those who paid attention in school will have a definite advantage here. For example Buck’s shotgun does 700 damage per shot and rate of fire is one shot per second. So if you got level 3 damage reduction Buck’s shotgun will instead do 490 damage to you. Meaning if you are let’s say Tyra, it will now take you 5 seconds to die to buck instead of 4. That extra second sounds small but in Paladins makes a difference.
Off course a game as statistically and large like this will always have problems with character balancing. Some characters seem to outshine others while some are too powerful maybe. For example many have a problem with Maeve. Her daggers deal 400 damage each. You throw both at the same time which means 800 in total. This means she can kill Vivian within 3 seconds. Others take 4 seconds. Not only that, she has an ability called Artful dodger, where activating nine lives heals her for 400 but then combine her pounce, which nine lives can reset the cool down of by the way, she can deal and extra 800 quickly meaning she can kill someone like Skye in slightly under 3 seconds. Now that’s fast, too fast. Buck is another character that some have something against. He deals 700 damage as we already discussed but can also heal himself 1000 over 1.5 seconds but if you use the a bulk up ability you heal for an extra 600 and your maximum health increases by 300 for 3 seconds. There are also multiple loud out cards that grant damage reduction to using Recovery and Heroic leap meaning Buck becomes one of the most difficult things to kill while dishing out so much pain. Worst of all both Maeve and Buck are FLANKS! They aren’t damage types.
Which brings us to the next issue. Flanks shouldn’t be able to out damage, damage dealers. Damage champions should be the ones that you don’t one to 1v1 against as you should almost always lose. We have seen Maeve and Buck out damage and kill damage characters in 1v1 and not by catching them off guard which shouldn’t be the case. Flanks should either have low health and second highest damage or medium health but really high mobility to run away and come back later to harass the enemy. Oh well, we aren’t the developers. Lastly for now, we don’t like how long it takes to level up your character naturally. We know you can spend earned gold to level up faster but that’s not how we roll here at X35 Earthwalker.
After playing Paladins for a good while we can say this it’s an excellent game. Always a lot of fun and different things to try. Some characters are clearly harder to use than others. Terminus can be very difficult and match up is everything for him. If you are Terminus and your opponents are Viktor, Lian, Buck, Tyra, those with guns then you are going to have a good time as they get countered by Terminus so hard. We have learnt and discovered so many cool things that there is multiple reasons to keep playing this game this. The good certainly outweigh the bad here. We’ve never had any interest in Overwatch and Paladins but now it’s clear we prefer Paladins. That doesn’t mean that Overwatch isn’t a good game.
Now Paladins may have loads of characters to choose from and the mechanic to ride horses and mechanic cougars but those aren’t good enough to it to compare to… the ‘Earth Walk!’
Maze Time is a new 2D Action maze game developed by X35 Earthwalker, the legendary soldier Himself, the world’s greatest strategist. Maze Time is coming out real soon on PC for now. More platforms are coming in the future. This game is said to bring a simple but fun experience. Let’s take a look.
The story in Maze Time is very mysterious indeed. The player finds himself in the ‘World of maze’ or so it’s called. A voice greets you and gives advice and instructions. Is this voice friendly or not? Who knows? The rules are simple, just collect all the red gems in the maze and go through the exit. Simple right? It’s not… These mazes are filled with many traps and monsters. These traps are simple to understand and at times aren’t much of a threat but everything sort of works together to mess with the player. For example the arrow boxes launch arrows in a certain direction. Not all arrow boxes function the same way and not all are triggered the same way. There are more which range from very simple to sort of puzzle level. When combined together with other game elements, players will find themselves falling for the easiest things.
The enemies in Maze Time within the mazes are the main threat and they come in variety. some enemies have simple movement patterns like right and left only. Then there are those who can only move up and down. They sound simple and truly are simple but remember it’s when things combine, that’s where the mind gets tricked. There are enemies who change direction when they hit a solid object. There are others who can change their movement direction at any time. There are those who can pass through certain objects. Worst of all probably are the ones who can move in 360 degrees direction. When you combine all of these together players tend to forget about the simple ones who only move up, down, left, right. There are many enemies (who’s names won’t be revealed yet off course) and trust us when we say, each player will have that one monsters that makes you hate everything about everything and blame everything on, even though it’s probably your fault.
Each level has a very different design and may have more emphasis on a certain aspect of the game. Some levels are puzzle based as in the player needs to have a think first before acting. One level specifically is all about making the player think fast and stay focused even under pressure. it will catch you off guard whether you like it or not. Players will get some dialogue during the ‘Path’ levels which serve as a connector between two different areas. It’s the chance to take a quick break and calm down for a bit. The level called ‘Tough Times huh’ is very difficult as things can go wrong in so many ways. A certain monster might chase you down, or you fall into a hole in the ground, or get hit by an arrow, trapped in a corner or get jumped on. The possibilities are endless (not really). So one good advice for all gamers taking on Maze Time is this ‘Sometimes it’s best to just observe the maze first. Rushing may not be the answer.
Items are in abundance. Off course there are the red gems which must be collected to get to the next maze. There are keys which are needed to unlock doors. Rare gems which grant extra points. Bonus gate gems which unlock bonus areas in mazes. Even power ups like Nuclear power can be found which grants the ability to destroy whatever enemy comes into contact with you. Expect objects like detonators which must be hit to detonate explosives which can be used in two different ways. There are more but that’s for the players to discover for themselves in Maze Time.
Maze Time is for everyone. The controls are as simple as it gets. Just use the left, right, up and down keys to move your character. That’s all. Space bar is only for text boxes and the ‘R’ key is only to reset the maze in specific levels. So adults, children, youths, parents and even your grand parents can play this game. Playing Maze Time and beating Maze Time are two different things. Casual gamers will get fun out of dodging enemies passing levels and getting slightly frustrated from losing but getting a high score. Serious gamers (and those who need to calm down) will struggle and struggles as they try to beat the game. They will fail… again… and again. Make it real far only to lose your last life to that stupid ghost monster who just had to be there didn’t he. Just please don’t go throwing your controllers (as it costs money). Don’t rage quit, just get good. You can do it!
Off course the score is everything here. Beating the game means you are a champion but only the best go for that high score. There are many opportunities and ways to get points that no one will get the same score the same way. You get 40 points for just getting through a maze. Collecting a rare gem grants you 80 points. Even destroying an enemy with the power of the Nuclear power power up will grant extra points too. If getting that high score is truly what you desire then make sure to take on and practice the bonus levels. Some levels have bonus areas. They are a part of the maze but sealed away by a bonus maze door. Grab the bonus gate gem to unlock it and head on through. Be warned… bonus areas tend to to rage from medium to hard difficulty. not everyone has what it takes. The danger is high but the rewards are great. When you get that high score make sure to take a picture of it with your phone or print screen for bragging rights.
Yes, X35 Earthwalker himself has completed the game and it is possible to complete it. Also X35 Earthwalker himself has confirmed that there is much to come regarding Maze Time and players should be very expectant for the future.
Overall Maze Time has a lot to offer. Many enemies, different traps, many levels, variety of design, simple controls but difficult to beat. A mysterious story and more. The developer ‘X35 Earthwalker’ did a fantastic job with this game (probably the greatest ever. Not biased at all). We seriously hope that you are looking forward to this game. It is a lot of fun.
