Blood Alloy: Reborn Review

                   Blood Alloy: Reborn from Suppressive Fire Games is an arena-style platform shooter with a 16-bit aesthetic. It promises fast-paced gameplay, fully traversable terrain, swarms of enemies, and an awesome soundtrack. And, for what it's worth, it delivers on at least some of those things. But overall, the game is a weird, messy thing. It's an arena shooter that behaves like it's a platformer, a game that requires more precision than either the controls or the game type allows for. But even if this were all, it's flaws far outweigh it's strengths, and the game ultimately falters in spite of itself. But more, as always, below.

                Blood Alloy Reborn casts you as Nia Rhys, a cyborg warrior who uses the BLade Assisted Traversal System (or BLAST) to slide and whirl around arenas and carve up robots. As the combos grow, Nia will regain lost health, de-cloak "kidnap drones" that allow her to rescue soldiers at a bonus, and of course, face more difficult enemies. The BLAST system allows you to slide around the arena, traveling up surfaces and bouncing from point to point as you shoot down robots in your way, even giving you alternate combat options like homing missiles and devastating wave attacks. When it works correctly, it can be really cool as you slide through arenas carving up metal enemies and bouncing from surface to surface as you slide.

                   When it works properly. But the problem is, even with a controller and when played as recommended, the controls are slippery and weird. In spite of the range of weapons, I found myself using the same three or four over and over again, or mashing buttons as I flailed around the arena, the metal onslaught mainly dying out of embarrassment rather than anything I had direct agency over. Maybe it's that I'm spoiled from SUPERHOT last week, but nothing I did felt particularly awesome, or even like it had much impact on the game I was playing. It just seemed like I was sliding around the arena for who knows what ends. And you will slide quite a bit, as pretty much anything puts you into a slide. 

                   Even then, the dodgy hit detection meant that it wasn't all that much fun, either. It's difficult to tell if you've been hit, or sometimes what was even in the vicinity to hit you. More often than not, the ride comes to an end with a measly score, having no idea how or why to continue. If this weren't bad enough, the way you regenerate health is pretty much a nonstarter as well. The game tells you that once you reach a 10-combo or above, you'll start regenerating health. This...strangely did not happen too much. I actually took a moment in the action (the enemy patterns are...bizarre) to watch, and sure enough, no movement. 

                      The graphics are also a bit of an issue. There is not clear delineation between the environments, making some jumps more guesswork than solid. There were several times I leapt at what I thought was a traversible surface, only to find that it was set dressing. Similarly, I would try to rush through what looked like background, only to find out it was all too solid. While in a regular platformer, this is something easily overcome, in an arena setting this kind of thing tends to seriously bog the game down. And while the arenas are large, that combined with enemy behavior means it's a lot of running around, and the gunning is sporadic when it does come. I also didn't notice a ton of enemy variety.

                       In fact, just looking at the title screen, the whole thing feels very rough. With a few updates, I'm sure it'll become polished and play great, but as of right now, it just feels off, unsatisfying. 

                    So in the end, I have to say that this is, while a game with potential, not a game I'm interested in playing until the kinks are worked out. I hope it improves from the early issues into the game it wants to be, but right now, it's far too rough. A shame, because there really are some awesome moments when you're sliding around arenas laying waste to enemies. 

2/5

The reviewer received an early access copy of this game for review.

Age of Decadence Review

I just trashed a city's infrastructure for the mob.

I was totally justified in doing so. My character was serving the Commercium, the entirely unscrupulous merchant's guild who runs the trading quarters in every major city. They plot and conspire all over the place to topple the ruling houses in the cities where they work, and they're pretty much the closest thing this world has to the mob. So now, because of me, they control the city's military as it descends into lawlessness, and they could probably take over whenever they like. The scary part is, that's probably not even the nastiest thing I'll do this playthrough. 

This is Age of Decadence, and it's possibly one of the best games I've played this year.

The Age of Decadence is an isometric roleplaying game from Iron Tower Studios. I came across it early in its development after hearing it talked about on a gaming site, and in particular, after an interview with the dev team. From there, I followed the open development as much as I could, downloading each new release and dying frequently with each new character I made. This game has a history with me. 

The thing that makes me absolutely love the game and come back to it again and again no matter how many times I die or screw up, though, is that the game is that deep. The game begins with a message that combat is highly lethal, and it would be better to negotiate your way through each situation. You can get through the first act of the game by only killing one person, or if you really want to see how low you can get your body count, you don't have to kill anyone at all (this won't make anything any easier). The game is incredibly open-ended, and even failing a quest in one way will give you options to succeed at another. 

And it's beautiful. There's technically no "wrong" path, and while there are certain paths that will leave you without many good options, each choice follows on the back of other choices. Screw over a local lord? He's not going to want to put in a good word for you. Fail too many missions for someone? They're not going to trust you with the fate of their grand schemes. Fail to decipher that inscription? Then it's probably not best to operate that piece of machinery. The world is essentially yours to do with what you like.

There is just one problem, and it's sadly one worth mentioning. There is a lot of trial and error, and there's a high barrier of entry that comes with that. You'll find yourself not necessarily save-scumming, but testing out situation after situation to figure out what does what, and at which threshold. Even if you specialize enough, there's a chance the skill level thresholds are just too high, and it is that way by design, not by any cruel trick. I had to try several different combinations before I figured out the right way to approach situations. My advice: Pick up Streetwise and pump a lot of points into that. And Lore, too. 

But in the end, is it all worth it? Absolutely, yes it is. You will not find a more player-driven game this year, with the possible exception of Fallout 4, which hasn't come out yet. While the barrier of entry is ridiculous, it's also rewarding. Seriously, check this one out. Also-- the demo is the first town of the game. For you to explore. For free. There is no reason not to at least give this a look.

Final score: 5/5

Full disclosure: Reviewer received a press copy of this game

More Like War Crimes: Chariot Wars for PC

This game has broken me.

I've tried every possible angle of attack, from sarcastically framing it as the perfect game for the "offended set" to long pontifications on exactly why this game was made and managed to be released through Steam when it's clearly a quarter of a game. But in the end, I keep coming back to the person whose words have impacted my life far more than anyone's should have, especially his: Roger Ebert. 

All right! Boring menus, ads, and astronomical load times await!

Ebert always started out his critical viewings by asking himself who the movie was for. If you're a genre film freak but hate the French New Wave, for example, you're going to consider The Dead Matter to be superior to Breathless*. If you're the kind of person who only sees movies if they're limited release, in subtitles, in black and white, and about the disintegration of a marriage, you are not the target audience for The Avengers, and your review is going to carry less weight with the people who might be interested in seeing the movie. 

It's the same with games. While games are technically for everyone, intake is kind of specialized from person to person, and quality is kind of relative to what people enjoy.  So when someone critiques a game, it's important to figure out who the audience of the game is, to kind of put yourself in their place and critique it so they know it's the best game for them. Or not, as the case may be. 

Which brings us (finally) to Chariot Wars. As far as I can tell, this game is for people who hate themselves. I cannot fathom this game being for an actual audience other than the easily hoodwinked and gullible on Steam. The only way I can see this being bought by anyone is if they somehow accidentally clicked on it or got it for free from one of their enemies with no way to fob it off on some other poor bastard. 

Ahh, the opening cinematics. State of the art for 1996

The graphics are bland. Not in the sense that they're drab or anything, but in the sense that they have made something interesting incredibly uninteresting. Due to the racing logic being based almost entirely on luck, you will see a lot of samey scenery with really no variation whatsoever. From the back of the pack. It's pretty clear they're using fairly basic backgrounds with a skybox, and I'm glad they found something that worked, but when the sky does not move and the backgrounds are kind of boring and somehow the backgrounds look like walls against the sky, it creates something I wouldn't want to take a relaxed drive around, let alone see in a racing game. Even in games where the vehicle sections mostly suck, at least they try to present interesting scenery to drive around in. This is not the case with Chariot Wars. In fact, it's surprising how limited everything is, since the load times from one screen to another are absolutely astronomical.

Yes, that is me racing against myself. You'd think they wouldn't do that.

The character animations are similarly limited and boring. In fact, it looks like the characters are fresh out of a 3D modeling program and then barely animated-- they stand in the center of their chariots and flap their wrists in a lackluster manner. Combined with the slow movement of the chariots themselves and the bog-standard racing, it's ugly to look at, and not in the interesting way Pathologic is ugly to look at. It's plain, incredibly boring, and I'm actually a little insulted this was called a game.

Sure do love the variety here. 

Which brings me to the controls. Again, things are pretty standard. W makes you accelerate, S brakes, and A and D turn you left and right, respectively. As you roll around the track at a movement speed that would infuriate and offend most snails with its slowness, you can occasionally pick up boost coins that allow a small amount of speed. Of course, all of this is immediately lost when you hit another racer, as you don't just bounce off but go careening off into the side of the track and spin around backwards like collision detection forgot physics existed. While the game does warn against this, at the same time, you'd have thought that they'd at least made some attempt to fix this rather than claiming it as a feature. 

And then there's the way the game will spontaneously switch into "tablet mode" at even the slightest provocation, switching the window size and making the controls stickier. Since the luck-based racing already makes everything difficult, suddenly switching the controls on the player for seemingly no reason is especially frustrating. Oh, and then there's the luck based racing. While you can accelerate and take corners and do all the things required of you in racing games, none of it really matters, as you will quickly be left in the dust and have to make your way around the track in the hopes that perhaps, just perhaps, you will finally catch up with someone.

In the end, the presence of games like Chariot Wars makes me wonder why people are insisting gaming's moved on as a medium. It makes me seriously doubt the need for artistic criticism as long as crap like this is being put out. This game has made me doubt the entire art form of games criticism. Do not give this any attention. This isn't worth it. Find something better do do with your time.

Score: 0 out of 5

Full disclosure: The reviewer received a free copy of this game for review

*For the record, just about any film is objectively superior to Breathless.

Sym Review

Sometimes, a game doesn't need to be complicated or big to be interesting

Sometimes, a game can just be odd black and white scratch art and the way to bring its concept to fruition is by forcing everything in it's world to try and kill you. Sometimes being as simple or as basic as a flash game forces you to look at the game, try to see what it says, and apply those things outward. 

Sometimes, a game's just beautifully dark.

All these things are Sym.

Sym casts you as a teenager with social anxiety disorder. Not actually, since as someone with social anxiety disorder I can tell you that there is absolutely zero chance that you will be ripped apart by saws, eaten by carnivorous plants*, or any of the numerous other fatalities that the game will throw at you. Sym casts you as a kind of metaphorical representation, a long-armed, long-legged creature with the power to enter a "dark world." You must navigate through this hostile world, avoiding the numerous dangers and things that would like nothing more than to kill you, to the exit of the level, solving numerous puzzles along the way. 

The scratchy black and white art gives it an eerie feeling, as if something's always slightly off or something is about to leap out from around the corners. Combined with the creepy ambient music, the atmosphere reminded me a little of Limbo (another black and white game filled with traps and things trying to kill you) which isn't bad company to have. Sym is, however, its own game. 

For those familiar with puzzle-platformers, there isn't much new here. You run through the level flipping switches and pressing buttons and evading enemies to find the exit to the level and escape. The light world/dark world mechanic comes with different dangers: Plants won't eat you if you're in the Dark World, you can walk right over saws in the light world, and so on and so forth.

But what got to me as I was playing it was that this was more or less a metaphorical story. The main character (named in press materials as "Joshua" but nameless in the actual game itself) goes through his life trying to find a safe space, finds himself beset on all sides by things that want to kill him, gets treatment and is rehabilitated, and finally either decides he's better off alone or finds a way to rejoin the world. At this point, the level editor unlocks, leaving the game with the statement "Now you are free to create your own worlds". I wasn't directly dragged through the story by the nose a la Gone Home, nor was it dizzyingly abstract the same way, say, some Twine games are. It left me with just enough to figure out the plot. 

I feel bad about dinging the game for being incredibly frustrating at points (especially the "compactor" level in the "Rehabilitation" section and the entire ending sequence, which involves man-shaped figures running to and fro and who kill on contact regardless of dark or light world), but there were definitely points when I felt the game was a little too unforgiving for its own good, and thought about putting it down. However, this appears to be part of the point, more or less. I mean, it's portraying an unforgiving world, so maybe the sheer difficulty spikes in the middle of the levels are actually part of that?  But a game should never be so frustrating that the player actually stops playing it. That is not, and should not be, a thing that happens. If a player stops playing, then the message gets lost. People don't usually come back, and you've failed at conveying whatever point or story you're trying to get across.

But in the end, I fully recommend Sym. It's an interesting game with some very deep levels, and well worth the challenge. I especially enjoyed the exploration aspect to the level-select menu and the bizarre twists of the "Rehabilitation" section. I suggest you give it a try.

Score: 4 out of 5

Full Disclosure: The reviewer received a copy of Sym for this review

*I'm still afraid of this, though.