“A beautiful metroidvania adventure”

Name: Evil Genome
Developer & Publisher: Crystal Depths Studio
Platform: PC
Released: 7th of August 2017

Evil Genome is the first videogame from an all new chinese indie studio called Crystal Depths Studio. Does their metroidvania adventure platform game live up to the competition?

What is Evil Genome?

 

 

I feel like I have to explain first what metroidvania is, because Evil Genome falls under this category. Metroidvania is a 3D horizontal (or platformer as you might say) wasteland adventure game. This genre is an subgenre of the action-adventure games similar to Castlevania and Metroid.

 

So with that in mind, what is the story in Evil Genome?

 

We’re in the 23rd century and we’re under the order of TLS organization. Our mission; investigate and eliminate various enemies within the colonies which declared their independence.

I won’t go into a lot of detail or depth regarding the story, and the reason for that is quite simple; I didn’t understand much.

 

It might just be me that has a hard time to track and follow the narrative, maybe it might be easier to follow for someone who love asian anime series. (General problem for Anime noobs?) It is a big deal for me personally that I actually have to take a break from the game to look up the backstories etc to understands my protagonist’s motivation and so on.

Another funny thing that I always find funny with asian anime translated to english is the translation and the voice acting, Evil Genome is no different. Obviously there will be some mistakes on the translations, but some of it is hilariously bad. But then again, the dialogue between the two main characters Alfa and Lachesis is very entertaining. Even though some of the dialogue is meant to be funny, it also functions as a memory bank for our hero.

 

Graphics & Gameplay

It is pretty clear where Crystal Depth Studio have been focusing on Evil Genome, and that is in the game design and art style. Evil Genome looks pretty darn beautiful and polished. The character design has gone through a process with a special touch as well.

I will say they have succeeded in bringing you the sense of feeling of being in a post apocalyptic wasteland.

One thing that could be an issue for some people, while others might see it as a challenge (like Dark Souls). I found the normal difficulty a little hard, and there is also a “Nightmare” mode available that I didn’t touch at all unfortunately.

Besides that controls and the combat system is quite basic and easy to learn. The combat system is a mix up with hack and slash with the ability to use guns for long range combat as well. You also have access to a detailed skill tree which offers a lot of benefits for you as you go. But I think you should spend some time to learn the skill tree system, as it took me some time myself to get my head around on it.

It might take some time to get your head around this skill tree and character building, but when you do get the hang of it you might spend hours in here.

The Greek Maze Runner?

Name: Theseus
Developer: Forge Reply
Publisher: Forge Reply
Released: 26, July 2017
Platform: PlayStation VR

The tale of Theseus is well known to people who knows this greek mythology myth, and it should be a pretty good starting point for a video game. Forge Reply gave this a shot by creating a third person adventure game into the PlayStation VR. And that is a bold move, but did they do alright or did they fail?

 

What is Theseus?
Theseus along with Perseus, Heracles and a bunch more is regarded one of the greatest heroes in the entire Greek Mythology. If you are familiar with the God of War series that is based on Greek Mythology (until now that is) you’ll find that Theseus is given it’s own boss in of the these games. That itself should be a big deal, and surely be an epic story tell.

One of the most told stories of Theseus is his battle against a minotaur inside a huge and deadly labyrinth. So there is a lot of good aspects to begin with to kick of a good video game here.

 

Gameplay
Just do give you some hints and clues on how the camera works in Theseus, imagine playing God of War, Tomb Raider or other third person adventure game. And then try to imagine instead of moving the camera with the right joystick, you’ll turn the camera with your head instead. And that is what this is, we’re seeing our hero run around with us “locked” to one position every time. Sure we are switching camera position automatic time to time, it might sound a little clumsy but this actually really works perfectly. The whole “over the shoulder” viewpoints gives the game a real sense of scale. Forge Reply has proven that creating a third person game into VR can work and give you the feeling of “reality”.

 

But sadly the fun stops here, even though Forge Reply has done an incredible job with the visuals and given this game a sense of reality does the gameplay itself hold the game back alot.

You’ll pretty much run in very linear routes or even pretty much straight lines during your playthrough. There are some aspects where you’ll get the chance to climb and other aspects very similar to “Uncharted platforming”, but this is more annoying and clumsy to control than it should.


The combat isn’t any better, it might be one of the worst aspects of the game. You’ll get your hands on a torch in the beginning that you can use to scare of spiders, and further more into the game a sword. But sadly the combat doesn’t evolve beyond mashing a single button and dodging attacks, even that is a little clumsy to control as well. I was a little disappointed when I was finished with the game regarding the gameplay, it just felt like I finished the first act or something.

 

 

Graphics
The graphics is where Theseus shines at best. There was moments where I just had to stop and stare at design in the distance, and I must admit that the design and visuals of the minotaur is extremely good and it also gave the chills when I could “feel his presence”. Same goes with the sound design, the sounds combined with the visuals in this game truly gave me the right feelings depending on what was happening in the game. If the game wanted you to feel a afraid, curious or happy they surely could make you so.

Guilty pleasure?!

Name: The Idolm@ster Cinderella Girls: Viewing Revolution
Publisher: Bandai Namco Entertainment
Platform: PlayStation VR
Released: 19, July 2017

I have to say it, I got extremely little experience with Japanese / Asian anime, anime games, manga and so on. So when Bandai Namco sent me this opportunity try to out “The Idolm@ster Cinderella Girls: Viewing Revolution”  for the PlayStation VR, I took this chance to open my videogame horizon and to take a sneak peek inside this industry. But was this opportunity a good entrance to the anime, manga universe?

What is The Idolm@ster Cinderella Girls?
After I finished watching the different concerts in Viewing Revolution, I had to find out what this was. As I didn’t understand much of what was happening or if this was related or connected with something else. (I will come back to this later on) And after some research I found out that this PSVR version is just a small spin off video game from games called The Idolm@ster Cinderella Girls and The Idolm@ster Cinderella Girls: Starlight Stage.

From what I could understand, these games makes you an manager for girls who wants to become famous by doing singing and dancing on stage. There you have to schedule training, auditions and give them directions on stage, that means those games have narratives and some sort of simulation gameplay.

The Idolm@ster Cinderella Girls: Viewing Revolution
And then we come to the version I tried out on my PlayStation VR. The whole concept and experience in this small, and I mean small PS VR game, is to experience these girls concerts from the crowd. You are a typical person who attends to the concerts with flashing lightsticks in your disposal.

Launch Trailer

And I’m afraid that is it, you and your PlayStation Move controller that controls your “hand” ingame with lightsticks waving like a crazy man in the crowd with a lot of others NPC’s that’s enjoying the concert.  So let’s set the few options available straight, you have no interaction with either the crowd or the girls on stage, you do have the opportunity to change location to see the concert from different angles. You can change colours on your wristbands or lightsticks, and there is three different songs to watch. ( There was four extra songs available on the PlayStation Store, including more colourful wristbands and lightsticks as well, but at extra costs)
So my experience with this anime industry was brightly short as you can say.  

Graphics and sounds

Okay, so maybe the gameplay experience was a little short. But then again, the visuals, animations, lightning effects and more looks incredible inside the PlayStation VR headset. Even the crowd got a small touch of well done animations. A lot of it was flawless, so why the developers released this game with almost no interactions is a mystery, as this game have a lot of potential.  

But the main event here is the music, and for people like me that never have experienced this before might be a little disappointed. As said there is three different songs available in the game, Yes! Party Time, Star! and Onegai! Cinderella. Even though I don’t understand the language they are singing in the music itself is a little catchy. And the sound of the crowd shouting sometimes makes the emotion of you being in the concert more real.   

• Visuals and animations
• Soundtrack and environmental sounds

• Short experience

• No interaction what so over (excluding your virtual hands with lightsticks)

 

 

Name: Crash Bandicoot N.Sane Trilogy
Developer: Vicarious Vision
Publisher: Activision
Released: 30, June 2017
Platform: PlayStation 4

Remember the time when we all wondered and complained when Crash Bandicoot first was announced and what a rip off it would be from Super Mario? Well that surely wasn’t the case, and this orange, spinning and fruit loving creature jumped right into our hearts. He also became one of PlayStation’s biggest icons back in 1996. Naughty Dog truly have given us a fun and challenging platforming game. And now, a decade later, he’s back again in a remastered trilogy pack from Vicarious Vision and Activision. Naughty Dog was supposed to make only three games, but they finished up Crash Racing and that was the end of Naughty Dog’s Crash games.

The rights were given to Universal Interactive Studios, Konami, Activision, Vivendi, Sierra Entertainment and Sony Computer Entertainment. But let’s head back to 2017, in this N.Sane Trilogy pack from Vicarious Vision. What have they changed from the original? What have they added? Is it still good? Let’s find out:

Launch Trailer
 

Graphics and Sound
This trilogy is packed with HD upgrades, futuristic visuals, and much more “flashing dazzling” colours. I could really see that Vicarious Visions has done a great job polishing Crash. You might recognise the soundtrack in this trilogy, but it isn’t the original track. It\s not a bad thing and I might even try to find myself a soundtrack CD somewhere.

(You can play as Coco whenever you want in each game)

 
Gameplay

As we all know, or maybe it’s just me, the gameplay is the main thing I look at when I play a new game. And as I remember from my childhood, Crash Bandicoot was crazy challenging. It might make Dark Souls seem like a piece of cake sometimes, but was Crash Bandicoot this difficult before? I had to find out, so I took my house apart to locate my old PlayStation console and dusted off the original PS1 copy of Crash Bandicoot. The startup sound the PlayStation logo does in the beginning still gives me chills. Back to the main issue here; was Crash difficult to play earlier? Yes and No is my answer to this question. The first games was challenging before in it’s own way and today’s version might feel difficult because the gameplay is a little different. For example, when you jump the rules of gravity are not obeyed and Crash crashes into the ground in a bit of a premature and unnatural way. In spite of this, and the more challenging level design, the game runs smoother than earlier versions, something that we greatly appreciate.

• Great flow in the game
• Nostalgic feeling / preserved well

• Challenging

• Might feel a little odd regarding modern design on outdated design

 

      -/+ When finished you’ll ending up wanting more…

Farming on the go!

Name: Farming Simulator 18
Developed by: Giants Software
Published by: Focus Home Interactive
Released: 6, June 2017
Platforms: PlayStation Vita, Nintendo 3DS (PS4, Xbox One and PC releases earlier)
Reviewed on: PlayStation Vita

Ever dreamed of becoming the next big farmer without doing any hard work? Well, Giants Software and Focus Home Interactive brings you very close to that experience.

First time I touched a farming simulator game (besides Farmville on Facebook) was back when Farming Simulator 15 was released. I must honestly say that this game is fun and relaxing.

But how does the handheld version of the newest farming game compete with this experience? Let’s find out;

First off, what is Farming Simulator? Well it’s very basic; you control a farmer and that’s pretty much it, or so you think. You have to look after your crops and animals, and you have to keep the economy straight. Buying and selling equipment so you can expand your fields and upgrade to bigger and better gear. And that’s about it, even though it sounds easy it will challenge to at some points. But how does the handheld version go?

We have access to over 50 different vehicles and machines in the handheld version of FS 18. And brands such as Challenger, Fendt, Massey Ferguson and Valta is a few brands that is recreated for this series. Keep in mind that this is a portable version of FS 18, so the size and quality might be a little different on the Vita and 3DS, however they still manage to pack this version up quite a lot with content similar to the PC and console version.

One different thing with this version is that there is only one farm site to choose from when we start a new game. And the camera view is restricted to third person only, the first person mode that is available on the PC and console version isn’t present in the handheld version.

Besides that, playing it on the Vita makes it easier to play. Things go faster and you earn money a lot faster as well. This gives us the opportunity to buy new machines, gear and our crops grows a lot faster. One more ad-on to the game is a “man” who gives you quests to do while waiting on your crops. This works just fine as a tutorial or just gives you something more to do.

Distance between farms, shops and so on isn’t too far, so that gives you the feeling of not driving big distances the whole time and that’s a good thing.

+ PlayStation Aim Controller Review

 

Name: Farpoint
Developer: Impulse Gear
Publisher: Sony Interactive Entertainment
Platform: PlayStation VR
Released: 17, May 2017

Reviewed on: PlayStation VR + PlayStation Aim Controller

 

A friend of my came over to my place after I picked up a new game at the post office.
“Let’s play the game” he said. Well I thought, why not. Oh boy! It was the new video game for my PlayStation VR system, this is going to so much fun.(Connecting the PSVR and headset, setting up the controller and boosting up Farpoint) Spiders!. For the record I hate spiders in real life, I even hate them more after playing Farpoint in VR. Here is my review of Farpoint and the new PlayStation Aim Controller.

Story
There is a small story behind Farpoint. It all starts with us flying towards a space station that’s housing two scientist who studies the anomaly in space that can give limitless energy. But as always, things has to go wrong to bring up the excitement. A huge wormhole appears sucking both the scientist and us in and stranding us on a unknown planet, filled with monsters.

Story Trailer

 

To proceed in Farpoint we have to scan a few environments to see what has happened to us and the two scientist. We will learn the story of how the scientists survived and learned about this new planet and how to survive. I’m not sure which storyline was the main one in Farpoint, was it my story they wanted to tell? Or was the scientist’s story they wanted to tell?

 

Farpoint did an excellent job on telling us the story of what happened to the scientist, making us care for them. But our own story in another hand is a complete different story, let’s say that the scientist were given feelings, souls etc and a simple gun was given to us.

PlayStation Aim Controller

The new accessory for the PlayStation VR is the aim controller. You can either buy it as bundle with Farpoint or standalone. Farpoint is for now the only VR game that supports this aim controller, but games such as ROM: Extraction, Dick Wilde and The Brookhaven Experiment will support it in the future. The Design is kind of futuristic and weird looking if the design is supposed to look like a gun. But that is okay, because when you hold this controller in your hand, with the VR headset on it feels like a gun.

 

The aim controller features all the buttons of a DualShock controller. (Regular PlayStation controller) Every button feels like it’s placed correctly, easy to reach and use beside one button. The R1 button, a small “strip” button on the side of the controller above the trigger. This isn’t a big issue, but it demands more of you to reach the button.

 

I’ve tried a lot of different “aim controllers” from the era with PlayStation Move and beyond. But I must say that PlayStation and Impulse Gear has done an incredible job on this version. You do not have to put a PlayStation Move controller inside this controller, and the tracking is excellent even with the regular PlayStation camera. To this date, this is must have for every PlayStation VR owner.

 

 

 

Set up video + demo gameplay

Gameplay + Graphics

The gunplay in Farpoint is very specific on where enemies will approach against you, upfront and linear. This would be extremely bad for a normal first person shooter game, but playing this in VR makes it one of the best first person shooter games on this platform at this date.

 

I have a small issue that most people tend to have while playing in VR mode, motion sickness. Farpoint might be a little challenging to handle, but setting on a “smooth” setting might help a little.
Gameplay itself is simple but fun to play. Friends and family who don’t have a lot of VR experience quickly learned how to use the VR mechanics and the aim controller.

 

There isn’t much noticeable difference between the regular PlayStation 4 and PlayStation 4 Pro. Framerates, visuals and textures and much more is at basic level. But Farpoint does nail these points for an VR game.

 

The Verdict

With Farpoint being the first complete video game launch instead of given us the feeling of a tech demo, does Farpoint deliver at it’s best. If we ignore some of the bugs, bad script / story will Farpoint deliver on the gameplay, especially with the new PlayStation Aim controller. If I would recommend a first person shooter to PSVR owner, this would be it.

 

8/10
+Gameplay
+Excellent tracking with PlayStation Aim Controller
+Sleek design of the Aim Controller
+Easy to learn and use

– Story
– A few bugs that is hard not to notice

“Addictive and astonishing combat system”

 

Name: The Surge
Developer: Deck13 Interactive
Publisher: Focus Home Interactive
Released: 16, May 2017
Platforms: PlayStation 4, Xbox One, PC
Reviewed on: PlayStation 4 Pro

 

The Surge is an action-RPG video game, with a all new combat and loot system. Alongside with a fresh crafting system as well, for creating weapons, armors and more. I will try to explain this later on in this review. Will the developer company behind the discussed game “Lords of the Fallen” lift himself up with The Surge?

 

Story

The story itself in The Surge is set in a world ravaged by war and global warming. We begin our journey with Warren who sits in a wheelchair, and on the look for employment and the ability to walk again by using CREO’s exo suits.

 

Launch Trailer

 

 

CREO was a corporation with a mission to save the world, but instead encounter a total failure and ruined the world instead. Our hero, Warren enters this corporation in good hope of saving himself and maybe help the world a little. But during your “surgery” of receiving the exo suit a catastrophic event occurs. Warren wakes up beaten up, and in a new half finished exo rig in a world corrupted by machines and employees gone haywire.

What has happened and how can we survive? Well that is the question and our main mission to find out in The Surge.

 

It isn’t easy to come up with new type of storylines these days, as video games are more and more common. And that means a lot of story topics, settings etc might feel “used” or similar. The ground setting of the story in The Surge might be a little basic, but it is well written and told. If we look beside a few bad voice acting sometimes. Overall an intriguing story worth your time.   

 

Gameplay + Graphics
It is in the gameplay and the new combat system where The Surge shines at the best.

Exploration, looting, crafting and of course surviving is just a few topics of things we can and must do in this world of corrupt CREO employees and machines.

 

“Target, Loot and Equip”

The new combat system is quite unique, astonishing and surprisingly fun to play in long terms even though the system is kinda basic.

In almost every combat you can choose what kind of loot you want, by that I mean you can decide which part you want to take from your enemy and use that to upgrade your exo rig.

 

Target, Loot and Equip video

 

 

The Surge offers a action packed melee combat system, in a world of mysterious things to explore. Some people might not like this kind of combat, as it is melee only. You’ll do get a “drone companion” that you can upgrade later on, but that is about it. Gameplay felt unique in my opinion, it was challenging, frustrating and incredible fun to accomplish a few levels or even defeating a boss. Each encounter of a boss, or even smaller enemies enforces you to think differently and even makes you stop and think on strategy. You might have to suffer as the enemies are unforgiving a-holes if you just barsh right into the fight. But when you finally get the final blow and receiving the loot, the feeling I was stuck with afterwards was priceless.

 

UlvePlay – [The Surge] First Boss Fight

 

 

The Surge could remind us of one movie called “Edge of Tomorrow” with Tom Cruise. As the experience in The Surge is as they say “Live, Die and Repeat”. If you die in The Surge, and you will die a lot (like in Dark Souls or even the predecessor Lords of the Fallen)  you will respawn back at the latest checkpoint aka Medbay you check in to and then all the enemies are back in position again.

This gave me a small challenge to think of what I was doing in the game, how far was I willing to explore before I ran back to store all my scrap (xp, ingame currency). Because if you died, all the scrap you had looted would be lost. From each body part you loot from your enemies, you’ll get different blueprints and bodyparts. From this you can upgrade and craft your own armor and weapons to your combat rig, easy to learn and use.  

 

But what about the graphics you might wonder?
I’ve played on the PlayStation 4 Pro, and I must say I’m impressed. Deck13 truly does deliver astonishing visuals to this world and characters. A confusing level design some places, and some smaller drop in textures and animation, but not crucial for the gameplay experience.

 

The Verdict

 

Deck13 has done an amazing job with creating the world in The Surge. Minor visual drops in textures and animations, but not crucial. The new combat system is addictive, astonishing and unique in my opinion. And the most important topic, the gameplay is fun to play. I have already tons of hours into the game even though I die a lot, and I do die a lot (took me almost 20 attempts on the first boss fight) If you like a challenge and enjoy games such as Dark Souls and Lords of the Fallen I would recommend The Surge for you. If you are a newcomer to the genre, I would also recommend The Surge for you, this game is easy to learn and hard to master at the same time.

 

9/10

+ Combat system
+ Visuals / Graphics
+ Replay value
– Some confusing level design
– A few minor texture / visual drop
– Can be repetitive for some