Back 4 Blood is a new cooperative first person shooter game developed by ‘Turtle Rock Studios‘ and published by ‘Warner Bros Games‘. Back 4 Blood is said to be coming out 22nd of June 2021 on the Xbox Series X, PS5 and PC. You can describe this as a zombie game. This game looks like it has potential. Let’s take a look.
The creators of Left 4 Dead are behind Back 4 Blood. Also Turtle Rock Studios are the guys who made the awesome game ‘Evolved‘. So Back 4 Blood has a lot of minds and behind this one and the expectations are high. So the story here is basically the typical that there’s a serious infected horde of creatures out here and humanity is near extinction but conveniently a small group of humans are fighting back and out here trying to save humanity. Yet whole armies lose and get folded but four people and a guy with a sloppy mid section (his belly) can win but whatever.
Let’s go over Back 4 Blood this quickly. For starters most of the characters look like they could survive. Some look like complete losers but it makes sense that it’s random survivors as in they would look different to each other. There’s 8 characters to choose from, referred to as ‘Cleaners’. They are immune to the virus (off course they are). The missions are overall a simple format in a sense that it’s all about fighting off against a horde of enemies. Does reminds us of world war z in this regards. You must work together, stick together and cover each others backs as there are some mechanics that will mix things up and even ruin an entire mission. Many of you by now have seen some gameplay and so you know what to expect.
Your primary weapons in Back 4 Blood are guns and something for melee like a baseball bat, knife etc. Expect the typical arsenal of weapons like pistols, assault rifles and off course shotguns. Head shots are the key and best way to take down regular infected called ‘Sprinters’. They just run at you and try to swing and beat you to death. That’s right, there’s some variety to these infected creatures. Retches are the fat ones who create acid pools on the ground so common sense says don’t step in them. Bruisers are the big tall ones with a clearly mutated arm which they use to smash you around and crush you. Keep your distance. The Ogre is the big bad boss one. It’s huge, towers over you and has wide range sweeping melee attacks and can even throw a large projectile at you. Hockers are the annoying ones who likes to trap you and your allies leaving you vulnerable.
Here’s where some of the problems show up in Back 4 Blood. The bruisers also come straight for you and they become top priorities as they will destroy you if you get too close. Like with other infected Bruisers have weak points of their bodies which you need to hit to take them down efficiently. So accuracy is needed and not mad man spraying of bullets. You can easily run out of ammo. The Hockers are the worst as they fire ensnaring web like stuff that incapacitates you. They see to hit you from nowhere at times but oh boy the infected can sure hit you while you are trapped. You need an ally to come along and free you by melee-ing you. So make your shots count, aim for weak points, keep an eye on your team mates, stay away from bruisers and don’t step in pools of acid. Our main probably is the lack of variety of infected though. We hope there’s more that they haven’t shown yet. Games like this could easily benefit from a large variety of infected like ones but let’s see how they pull this off with their current cast.
There is some competitive stuff to Back 4 Blood as you can go against players. Either be human or the ridden and off course both sides have their own abilities and weapons. So it’s like Overrun in Gears of War Judgement where one side is human while the other is the Locust. Off course modes like this have a tough time balancing everything but they will learn as they go along. Do your best developers. The other thing is that. There’s also a card system for your characters that definitely mix things up. Get different builds all the time and work with what you got. We definitely like this mechanic as it adds more layers of strategy, options and tactical approaches to the different situations. Card builds are game changers and when done right definitely adds to the game.
We checked out some back 4 Blood gameplay and it’s exactly what we thought it would be. It’s the Left 4 Dead formula which many gamers enjoyed. Group of four, working together, shooting and fighting through a horde of infected creatures who are all out here ready to destroy all humans. If someone in your squad dies, you can bring them back. They show up glued to a wall and cannot get out. You must approach them and save them. Reminds us of the bring back system in Gears 5 in Escape mode for a dead teammate. Being careful with your ammo, finding awesome weapons during the mission. There was a powerful machine gun that literally was like the answer to these infected creatures. It was rapid fire, heavy destroying rounds and left nothing alive. Oh and rightfully so, friendly fire is a thing so don’t go unloading shotgun shells in the backs of your friends. It hurts. X35 Earthwalker once took a shotgun shot and it had no effect whatsoever. He actually didn’t know he was shot until he turned around.
Overall Back 4 Blood looks like it’s going to be a fun game for sure. We really enjoy multiplayer games, especially cooperative games. This looks like a casual shooter and survival against a horde. The popular fictional survival scenario. Causal on the surface but on the harder difficulties we know this game gets really hard to beat. We had hoped this game is very difficult and glad to hear that it is. It’s been positive reports s far and that’s good. The developers ‘Turtle Rock Studios’ have a done a very good job so far. We at X35 Earthwalker will keep an eye out for this game. Now Back 4 Blood may have dangerous infected but they are all fodder against… the ‘Earth Walk!’
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!’
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!’
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!’
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!’
Curse of the Sea Rats is a new action adventure game developed by ‘Petoons Studio‘ and published by ‘PQube Limited‘. Curse of the Sea Rats is said to be coming out in the year 2021 on the Xbox Series X, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch, PS5, PS4 and PC. Curse of the Sea Rats has got an interesting twist going on here. Let’s take a look.
In Curse of the Sea Rats some weird stuff happened. A group of heroes, through magic, got transformed into rats. Flora Burn is the evil witch that did this. So now Douglas, Buffalo, Akane, and Bussa, as rats, must continue their mission to rescue the admirals son… but also to break the curse and go back to their original form. That’s important because who wants to be a rat? If you said yes, then close this page and unsubscribe (just joking).
Now Curse of the Sea Rats has also been described as a metroidvania game which means expect to use a map frequently, search for abilities and power ups to Be able to access new areas you couldn’t go before. Exploration will be key so don’t get lazy. metroidvania games require time and good observation skills. There has to be secrets. What game like this doesn’t have secrets? Just think about the collectibles you’ll have to find. The developers need to make it worth collecting them and feel good getting them.
There are off course boss battles but this is a rat game, expect enemies that are around your size. We have seen a fat rat guy called fatso who uses barrels for his mobility and projectile attacks. There was even a Dracula rat dude who uses bats to hopefully not drink your blood. We even saw a large crab that definitely wants to crush you. There’s definitely more and games like this need many Boses of variety for epic battles. Hopefully they have the right music to go with it.
We checked out some Curse of the Sea Rats gameplay and it’s sort of what we expected. This game has hand drawn animations and they look good. There’s also what looks like 4 characters to choose from who are: David Douglas, buffalo calf, bussa and akane yamakawa. We say “looks like” because sometimes games like this have means to unlock hidden characters. This might be the case here in Curse of the Sea Rats. We saw that you can grab ledges, there’s combos for your attacks and there’s even a dash ability which can also be used in the air like with Ori and the Will of the Wisps. The characters have different weapons and combat styles with Bussa seeming to prefer his fists and physical strength over weapons. There is also special moves that can even clear a whole screen.
Overall Curse of the Sea Rats looks like it’s going to be a good game. Since it’s rats, we don’t have high expectations or expect the craziest things t show up or happen. Seeing their original human form would be cool though. Play the game to find out. The graphics are good for the times The developers ‘Petoons Studio’ have done a good job on this game and it’c clear hard work went into it. We at X35 Earthwalker don’t like rats so we might get biased with these characters. Now Curse of the Sea Rats may have rats but even they would be exterminated by… the ‘Earth Walk!’
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!’
Quantum Error is a new horror first person shooter game developed by ‘Teamkill Media‘. Quantum Error is said to be coming out in 2021 on the Xbox Series X, PS5 and PC. Quantum Error is looking serious right now and it plans to come in big. It’s been a while since we got a game like this. Let’s take a look.
Quantum Error is said in the year 2109 on earth. So ahead of us but not as far as Halo. Simply put a research facility called Monad Quantum got attacked by something unknown and now the whole facility is on fire. The facility is on lock down and a distress call was sent to the Garboa Fire department. You are Captain Jacob Thomas and was sent in by your Fire chief. You aren’t alone and have a crew, including your partner Shane Costa (he’s not a coffee). All you are there to do is save as many people as you can. Off course… it’s not that simple and things take a ‘dark’ turn. Brace yourself.
As you can tell from the trailer below that Quantum Error isn’t your average game. It feels good to see another game like this. What do we mean? Think about it. What other first person shooter game you know, that’s based in the future, got monsters, in a facility and really dark… Doom 3! When we saw this, Doom 3 came to mind almost immediately. Both games are scientific games too in some ways. Except it was Doom 3 resurrection of evil where you went in with a team but you got separated and killed off. Quantum Error has a good thing going on here and it has our attention already. Expect gameplay to be slow since you don’t know what’s in the dark.
Remember that Quantum Error is also described as a cosmic horror first person shooter game. We are seeing loads of scientific things and machinery. This game is set in the future and this is taking place in a research facility after all. so expect to see quantum science level stuff, powerful advanced machinery and stuff that is clearly sci-fi. Bullets; however still work the same. You see something dangerous, then shoot it. We saw the DOOM 3 standard arsenal as in the pistol, shotgun and machine gun. There will be more weapons and they need to be cool and have their own purpose.
We checked out some Quantum Error gameplay and it’s what we expected it would be. It’s mechanics are looking good and it’s still being worked on. The graphics need to look better and more detailed so we are hoping for that. We really liked the darkness mechanics of DOOM 3 so Quantum Error has something good to work with. They just need to understand the balance of darkness and how to work that with combat. We did see a thermal camera and the player using that as a way to see through the dark and shoot the pistol at the same time. We also hope there is a wide range of enemies as tat keeps things interesting.
Overall Quantum Error is looking like a good game. This is the type of game we have been waiting for. Good genre combination. Games like this need a good combination of jump scares and straight up dread. Doom 3 didn’t have the best balance of that. The developers ‘Teamkill Media’ did a good job with this game so far. We at X35 Earthwalker are looking forward to this game. Now Quantum Error may have the right genre combo but that combo is no match for… the ‘Earth Walk!’
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!’
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!’
