Hello folks! Harold here, coming to tell you about the new additions to the Xbox One backwards compatibility list. On February 23 we have a whopping 6 additions to our already large list of backwards compatible games, bringing the total to over 320 so far.
These additions include:
Borderlands 2(a free game in March with Games with Gold)
If you’ve already owned these games on the 360, you should have them in your “Ready to Download” cache. If not, you can click on each title to purchase them now. Happy Gaming!
Thirty-two of the world’s best Street Fighter V players will be facing off in Atlanta later this year. The inivitational, sponsored by ELeague, will boast a $250,000 prize pool and be featured live on TBS semi-regularly on Fridays. Some of the confirmed players include Gootecks, Filipino Champ, Marn, and the legendary Justin Wong.
Preliminaries will start on March 27th and continue until the 30th, cutting the number of players down from 32 to 24. The top 24 Players will be split into groups of 6 who will face off against each other on April 7th, April 21st, May 5th, and May 12. The competition will start at 10pm eastern time on each of the scheduled nights. In addition to being aired on TBS, viewers will also be able to watch it on Twitch. Along with the live match coverage, TBS will also be airing previews and recaps of the previous weeks results at 10pm on Fridays.
The playoff and championship matches are scheduled for for May 26th, with Twitch livestreaming the event for the entire day. TBS will simultaneously broadcast the championship match with Twitch at 10pm eastern time.
Street Fighter V will be Eleague’s first venture into the competive fighting game scene. They have already ran multiple seasons of other popular eSports games, such as Overwatch and Counter-Strike: Global offensive. ELeague stated in an email release that “The games exciting and accessible battle mechanics deliver endless fighting fun that both beginners and veterans can enjoy.” However ELeague promises in their effort to draw more casual fans, they won’t forget about the hardcore fans by promising to use the same genuine attention to detail that the hardcore fans want, while also giving casual viewers the opportunity to enjoy one of the most exciting titles in eSports today.
This article will be discussing For Honor, it may contain spoilers for some areas of the game.
Ubisoft comes swinging out the gate with this Action filled hack & slash title. Featuring 12 different classes based upon the roles of historical soldiers from 3 different factions, For Honor offers a different take medieval era fighting. With several different class types spread out among the Knights, Samurai, and Vikings, will the player be able to reclaim peace or further fuel the raging war set forth by Apollyon?
For Honor
Platform(s): Microsoft Windows, Playstation 4 & Xbox One
Developer: Ubisoft Montreal
Publisher: Ubisoft
Release Date: February 14, 2017
Price: 60 USD
The Gameplay:
This title not only sets the player in a third-person immersive medieval fantasy perspective, but it also allows them to adhere to their playstyles with multiple different customizable options. The 3 factions represent 3 different armies from the medieval time setting. The Legion, The Chosen, and The Warborn each have 4 different classes spread out amongst the knights, samurai, and vikings respectively.
Vanguards – Well balanced, offering a solid defense as well as offense.
Assassins – A combination of fast attacks and strong dueling capabilities, but has weaker attacks.
Heavies – The slowest of the classes, but ultimately the strongest. Yielding high damage resistance and slow movement, the Heavies also swing the hardest and are useful with tank-like tactics.
Hybrids – A combination of all three classes and offers its own uncommon skills/attacks.
Every hero will have his/her own special fighting skills, weapons, as well feat combinations to be utilized in or out of combat.
Ubisoft introduces a new feature within For Honor called “Art of Battle”. This feature adds a strategic approach to combat, enabling the player to perform various combinations and attacks upon encountering an opposing enemy Hero. When initiated, the player will enter a duel-like stance, with a main focal point with three different offensive/defensive position stances: from the left, from above and from the right. By utilizing on-screen hints and animations, the player will select a stance to block against attacks as well as a counter stance to inflict damage. Mastering this system and combining it with baiting, as well as guard breaks, will be essential to combat. Though the lower health enemies will be easily dispatched with light attacks, the Heros and other higher health enemies will take different combinations to succeed in battle. Each character will have different approaches to combat allowing for the player to experience different play styles and methods of offensive and defensive approaches.
The Single Player:
An all out war between the 3 factions, The Legion, The Chosen and The Warborn (knights, samurai, and vikings respectively), begins for resources and territories only to be further fueled by the antagonist, Apollyon. Apollyon is a warlord seeking full-blown war between the 3 factions. Within the campaign, you’ll see the manipulation that is encouraged, as well humanity’s last defense to stop this war. Unfolding from many different perspectives, spreading out across each faction, the player will witness the events leading up to the never ending conflict that has arisen.
The Multiplayer:
Following suit to the Single Player experience, the combat mechanisms will be identical, this time around it’s mixed with A.I. as well as other players. In addition to the “Art of Battle” combat system, the player will also unlock different feats and abilities that are varied among the different classes. The player can accidently damage their own teammate during combat, furthering the immersion of war as well as team up against other Heros.
Featuring an intensive customization system, the player will acquire different parts and armor, fully exploiting the options to build their character set-ups to better suit their experience. Customization for cosmetic and animations appearances are offered as well, ranging from different taunts, executions, and weapon & armor appearances. After each match, the player will scavenge the battlefield, often scoring different pieces of armor or weapons.
1v1 Duel – This game mode is the one that is mainly based on skill rather than character selection. Though upgrades throughout the game may change the way the player approaches combat, overall success will lie with the player’s ability to time their defensive and offensive interactions.
2v2 Brawl – Players team up in squads of two and face off in an even more brutal take on 1v1 Duel. By utilizing different tactics, the player can essentially keep reviving his fallen comrade until the opposing team is cut down. This game mode becomes especially more challenging when a teammate is slain and the player is left fighting the 2 enemies alone
Skirmish – A 4×4 deathmatch that pits the player against other opposing players and A.I. bots. Not only is the experience of the 2v2 Brawl is doubled, lower health enemies are also thrown in to offer a experience similar to Dominion, but with more focus on dispatching each other as opposed to controlling points.
4v4 Dominion – In this game mode 4 players (or a mixture of A.I.) will team up against a team of 4 players or bots in a race to earn the most points. Players earn points by capturing and holding various points while fighting and defeating the other players and team. Once the score cap is hit, the winning team is tasked with hunting down the remaining opposing members and killing them.
Depending on the player’s outcome during multiplayer matches, War Assets can be distributed and deployed to help their Faction turn the tides. The Faction War will determine which maps are played and their appearance, as well as offer better victory items to the players that secure the most Assets. The rounds for The Faction Wars last two weeks, with updates happening every 6 hours to distinguish controlled territories and losing fronts. Every victory and Asset deployment will attribute to the player’s success within their Faction.
Final Judgement:72%
For Honor delivered an intense competitive experience that offers historical fighting personalized to the player’s desire. Depending on the player’s overall progress, they can help their Faction win and reap even more benefits of the game. Maintaining a decent fun factor, the maps are well detailed and differ for each faction; though, there aren’t many choices, leaving the gameplay to almost become tedious after continuous play. With a title having such a strong focal point on multiplayer, I was expecting a bit more. The story within the campaign was lackluster and just incorporates the multiplayer experience with dialogue, in my opinion. The Realistic mode proved to be a great challenge, essentially eliminating the indicator bar of the enemy’s attack and forcing the player to learn the body animations. The overall experience with combat is fluid and invigorating but ultimately it grows repetitious once you start understanding the meta of the game.
Pros –
An invigorating combat system
Deep customization
Brutal executions as well as challenging combinations
Cons –
Few multiplayer modes and maps
Lackluster Campaign
Minimal Replayability
Graphics – 13/15
The overall graphics are well done and extremely detailed. Different attacks will result in various damages and wounds that will appear on the armor. Executions can be performed if the player is able to take down an opposing Hero with a heavy attack. This will often be a brutal animation in which the player dismembers or kills the Hero in a graphic manner. The historical art values maintained a sense of realism and encourage a more immersive experience in the medieval setting.
Sound – 11/15
The ambient sounds of combat provide an exhilarating experience and furthers the mood of battle. The voice acting had it’s moments, where it both shined as well as fell under par. The OST complimented the game well in terms of providing moments of distress and encouragement during battle.
Gameplay – 20/25
The gameplay offers simple controls in a complex atmosphere, allowing the player to virtual handle combat however they see fit. The progression of the story and multiplayer will allow for stronger feats and abilities as the player earns more experience and encourages victory with rewards.
Replayability – 4/15
After completing the Single Player story, you can go back through and comb through the 3 different Faction chapters as well as attempt the Realistic difficulty (if you didn’t beat it already on that setting). No new post-game content or any new modes of play added.
Fun Factor – 24/30
This title brings historical fighting with 3 different cultures of warriors. The multiplayer offers a competitive experience that has deep customizations. While somewhat showing a realistic approach, there is some fantasy intermixed with it to show different elements of combat during medieval times.
Here is the official For Honor trailer! Stay tuned for our take on the upcoming DLC, which is supposed to add more content and rumored to reveal new Heroes!
For anyone that missed Ubisoft’s Closed Beta Acess for Ghost Recon: Wildland, great news was just announced!
From February 23rd to the 27th, Ubisoft will open the Beta Access to the public! This Open World tactical shooter will encourage friends to team up to take down the Cartel in multiple ways. Featuring an Open World for the first time in the Ghost Recon series, this game is being described as being one of the largest Open World games Ubisoft has produced to date!
Ghost Recon: Wildlands is expected to release March 7th, 2017 for Microsoft Windows, Playstation 4 as well as Xbox One. Stay tuned for Super Game Reviews’ coverage on it!
Activision just announced some big news for Crash Bandicoot fans all around the World! The N. Sane Trilogy just got an HD upgrade for its upcoming remastered edition!
This collection will consist of some extremely nostalgic memories with a lot of the gamers from the mid 90’s, titles that will be included are: Crash Bandicoot, Cortex Strikes Back and Warped! New features will be added to gameplay such as updated pause menus, save systems, and time trials as well!
Players can expect to reunite with Aku-AKu masks and all the Wumpa Fruits you can eat June 30, 2017 on Playstation 4!!
For the full story as well as an interview about the release vist https://blog.activision.com/t5/More-Games/Crash-Bandicoot-N-Sane-Trilogy-Release-Date-Revealed/ba-p/10176280
Sometimes a gamer needs a break from the fast-paced action games that have been very popular in the past and still continue to be to this day. Usually after a long adventure game or a heavy RPG with a steep learning curve, I need something more casual to chill out while watching anime or martial arts movies. Kingdom: New Lands is an expanded and improved-upon version of the original indie hit: Kingdom. If you’re looking for an addictive time-killer with simple controls and surprising amount of challenge, look no further.
Kingdom: New Lands
Systems: PC, OS X, Linux
Developer: Noio
Publisher: Raw Fury
Release Date: August 9th, 2016
Price: $14.99 (on Steam)
The first thing you will definitely notice in Kingdom: New Lands are the absolutely beautiful pixel graphics. The artwork is absolutely gorgeous! Everything is so minimalistic, yet so atmospheric and alive. There are multiple foreground and background layers moving independently as the player character travels which gives the illusion of a 3D-type effect. Every bit of the game looks amazing. I was immediately immersed, although I’m still somewhat shocked at the game’s seemingly simplistic nature. Simplicity, however, is actually Kingdom: New Lands’ biggest strength.
Speaking of simple, controls don’t get much simpler than the controls in Kingdom. The only buttons used during gameplay are left, right, and down (or ASD on the keyboard). Left and right move the character left or right, respectively, and double tapping them will allow you to sprint for a short duration (tip: letting the horsey eat grass will recover it’s stamina faster!). After collecting a few coins, you can press the down button to drop those coins. “Why would drop your coins?!”, you might ask. Good question, allow me to explain.
In Kingdom: New Lands (as well as the base game) you don’t have access to any weapons, attacks, or magic. Not personally at least. You begin the game as a randomly generated king or queen riding a horse (tip: you can re-roll your characters appearance during the loading screen! The game never mentions this and I found out by accident). You are led to a campfire by a ghost of a former king or queen. Along the way you will collect a few coins. Once the campfire is lit, a base is built. Now it’s time to spend that cash money!
In order to spend the coins, you will need to look for vagrants. Vagrants are the homeless looking fellows who set up camps throughout the wilderness. These desperate men will willing join your cause for the price of a single coin. Once recruited, vagrants become commoners in your kingdom. In order to make use of these recruits you must first supply them with gear. To begin with, you can hire them as hunters or builders. Hunters hunt wild animals like bunnies and deer, while builders will craft fortifications, cut down trees, and repair your defenses. Later on, farmers and knights can be hired. Farmers tend to your land once you’ve built a farm and become a constant supply of money. Knights will be your stalwart defenders and can be assigned a team of archers as his or her guild to enter the fray of battle together.
The gameplay mainly revolves around walking back and forth to discover what lies in wait behind your walls, collecting coins (or taxes), and wisely investing in your kingdom as you expand it’s borders. Kingdom: New Lands adds a solid amount of new content to expand upon the base game. After building up your kingdom, you are now able to repair a wrecked ship. Repairing this ship and protecting it until it reaches the dock is how you will move to the next land. Each land offers increasing difficulty and challenges. Kingdom: New Lands also provides a handful of reworked mechanics and a generous serving of new unlockable mounts and other nifty bonus content.
If this is sounding much too simple, it’s because the trickiest and biggest challenge to your success hasn’t even been mentioned yet. Allow me to introduce your eternal nemesis: The Greed! The Greed are not to be trifled with. These ghoulish, mask-wearing fiends will do anything to get their hands on your crown. There are different ranks among the greed, generally distinguishable by the look of their masks. The most noticeable difference is the amount hits they can endure before dying. Every few nights, especially during a blood moon, these monster beings will charge in and attack your kingdom in attempt to steal the royal crown. To keep them at bay, you must construct and fortify your walls and defenses. Walls alone won’t save you, however. To survive, you must also recruit and arm enough hunters, knights, and catapult engineers who will fight tooth and nail to defend the kingdom as the waves of enemies increase over time. When defeated in battle, your recruits will either be turned back into commoners and vagrants. They can sometimes also be dragged off by The Greed, never to be seen again.
Final Judgment: 82%
I found Kingdom: New Lands to be quite addicting and very enjoyable. These are hands down some of the best looking pixel-graphics I’ve ever seen. The game is very simple and somewhat repetitive, yet still manages to be entertaining and require a decent amount of strategy to survive. The recruiting, base-building, tower-defense, and resource management all compliment each other very well and together create a very engaging and interesting gameplay experience. Kingdom: New Lands goes from casual to hardcore at a very well designed pace. The simplicity of the controls and style of the game might seem basic but once you’ve gotten the game of it, it can be extremely rewarding. I would recommend picking this game up. At such a great price you really cant’ go wrong. Prepare to build, explore, and expand!
Pros:
Beautiful pixel art
Simple controls
Unique gameplay
Unlockable bonus content
Challenging
Perma-death
Cons:
Cannot attack or defend yourself
Somewhat repetitive
Almost no direction or explanation of buildings/other objects
This article will be discussing Nioh. It may contain spoilers for some areas of the game.
Nioh is the story of William, the first ever “Western Samurai”, taking place in a fictitious version of the civil war within Japan during the early 1600s. Countless Yõkai (demonic spirits) begin to appear after high death tolls erupt across the land which combined with enemy forces provides for a daunting experience. We follow William and his Spirit Guardian on their journey to save Amrita from the clutches of evil and to cleanse the land of the nefarious Yõkai!
Nioh
Platform(s): PlayStation 4
Developer: Team Ninja
Publisher: Sony Interactive Entertainment JP: Koei Tecmo
Release Date: NA February 7th, 2017
Price: $60 USD
*This is a review in progress. The game was not beaten at the time of this review.
The Gameplay:
Focusing on the complex hack and slash aspects within an Action-RPG setting, Nioh delivers an “over the top” experience that is coupled with a steep learning curve. The player progresses through different missions, set in enclosed environments. You will be fighting not only human foes and Revenants (hostile ghosts based off fallen players,) but also supernatural entities called yokai. This title is a well-balanced mix of Bloodborne and Darksouls, tied together with a Japanese theme. The player is given options that will cater to their playstyle, but they are free to use any gear and weapon they choose (though those skills may not compliment a weapon outside of their initial choice.)
Combat:
Following a basic attack and guard system, the player is able to perform light and heavy attacks in a Top, Mid and Low stance that will provide different styles of attacks and combos. Guarding and rolling will prove to be essential, as will baiting enemies into attacks. The player can also utilize a bow and/or gun to snipe enemies from afar, and use different items (such as bombs, items that harm yokai and even items that add elemental forces to weapons) to aid in combat. Depending on the gear and weapon type, the player may move sluggishly or at a faster pace, which has a noticeable impact during battles. Though the experience may prove to be harder for some, the way this title is played is up to the player.
Different Regions will have alternate routes to the main objective as well as sub-missions and checkpoints called “Shrines” sprinkled throughout the level to provide brief sanctuary for the player. Shrines are not only the gathering place for the Kodama the player finds on their journey but also the area in which the player can do any of the following:
Level Up – The player will gain Amrita from combat, completing title requirements, offering equipment and more. Should the player die, they will be given one chance to collect their Guardian Spirit at their grave before it disappears forever. With every level the player gains, they will get points to increase different stats of their choice.
Call Back – Should the player die, they will be able to manually go collect their Guardian Spirit at the site of their grave as well as all the Amrita that was lost upon death. If the player chooses to avoid having to collect the Guardian Spirit themselves they can call it back but all the items and Amrita will be lost during this process.
Make Offering – The player can offer items at a Shrine to collect Amrita for unwanted items. Offering a select amount will grant gifts and even will unlock different Titles.
Ready Jutsu – The player can select different Jutsus and the proper equipment to aid in combat. Ninjutsu and Onmyo Magic are the two different categories the player can choose from.
Summon Visitor – By offering an Ochoko Cup, the player can summon another person for co-operative gameplay.
Receive Kodama Blessing – The player can select different blessings from the Kodama they find, depending on how many of the blessing they choose will decide on the multiplier in which it’s applied at. The Blessing available upon finding that Kodama are the following: Oracle (Amrita amount increase), Swordsman (increased weapon drops), Warrior (increase armor drops), Healer (increased elixir drops) and Hunter (increase material drops).
Change Guardian Spirit – This option will allow the player to change their Guardian Spirit which affects the living weapon the player will have when their Spirit bar is filled and used.
The Single Player:
In an effort to keep the story spoiler free I will keep this section light. The player assumes the role of a Western Samurai set during a civil war in Japan in the early 1600’s. The player is tasked with clearing the different regions of demonic forces called Yõkai that appear throughout the level. What started out as revenge against the main antagonist, Edward Kelley, becomes a journey of trial and tribulations.
The Multiplayer:
The Multiplayer, for now, is just pertaining to summoning companions. This mode will only allow for one player to join your game as well as offering two different types of summoning. To summon help from a stranger the player will need to go to a shrine, select the Summon Visitor option and how many ochoko cups they would like to offer. In order to play with a friend, the player will need to go to the main map, click on the base icon and then Torrii Gate. After that, simply choose Yokai Realm with A Companion and the two players will be able to play, presuming one person has beaten the level previously.
Final Thoughts: Since I wasn’t able to complete this game, I felt giving it a score would be unjust. With that said, I can still give my thoughts on the game’s atmosphere and the content that I have played.
Learning the various enemy battle animations was simple trial and error, and at most times I could easily bait them into any direction I chose. The Boss battles were entirely different, the difficulty spike was unforgiving ,and for many players proved to be a challenge that required summoning a friend to help. In most cases, the player is required to learn not only the Boss’ entire move set, but also the battle animations and pre-emptive body gestures in order to be successful. The way the leveling system is crafted and the seemingly endless amounts of armor/weapon combinations truly allows for an in-depth personal feeling while playing. Though different methods may be needed to overcome a challenge, ultimately the player will decide how the battle goes.
Pros –
Beautifully detailed environments
In-depth customizations
A challenging experience
Fluidity within weapon changing, even during battle.
Cons –
Huge difficulty spikes with little reward
Minor issues with combat such as lagged responses and combo inputs glitching
The Bats — seriously how frustrating can you make a single animal?
Do you like being nosey? Do you enjoy eavesdropping on unsuspecting neighbors? Perhaps snitching to the authorities gives you a rush? If you answered ‘yes’ to any of those questions, Beholder might just be the game you’ve been waiting for. In Beholder, you fill the shoes of a state-appointed landlord in an unforgiving totalitarian state. Will you have the skills to simultaneously take care of your family, please the tenants, and appease the State? Prepare to bribe, steal, and blackmail in order to make ends meet. Otherwise, you’ll be fired…or worse!
Beholder
Systems: PC, OS X, Linux
Developer: Warm Lamp Games
Publisher: Alawar Entertainment
Release Date: November 9, 2016
Price: $9.99 (on Steam)
The game begins with your family moving into the basement of a small apartment complex. As you arrive, the former landlord is being escorted out of the building by police officers, somewhat foreshadowing your potential fate if you cannot perform your job correctly. Aside from yourself, you are accompanied by your wife, teenage son, and young daughter. After having received an introduction from your new boss, a short tutorial sequence of sorts, you are tasked with installing a few security camera. After the brief intro, the game stops holding your hand and you are put to work.
The main ‘meat’ of the game is comprised of sneaking around, peeking through peep-holes, surveying unaware tenants for bad habits and secrets, and reporting crime to the proper authorities. Well, that’s what a good landlord in a totalitarian state would do, at least. You are also given the opportunity to bend the rules a bit if you choose in order to collect extra cash or to do someone a favor. Be very careful, however, because one false move and you will receive a one-way ticket straight to the gulag!
Everything is dark in Beholder; the theme, setting, character models, your job, and even the character’s personalities and motives. Each resident has a unique personality, personal relationships, vices, and motivations. Interacting with the tenants can lead to discovering basic information about their spouses or neighbors. You’re not going to be able to dig up the juiciest info through conversation alone. In order to find out more about your tenants’ private lives, you must become a stalker.
The easiest and least-evasive method to get dirt on a tenant is to spy on them through the peep-hole on their front door. A riskier way to gather more information is to sneak into your tenants’ rooms when they aren’t home and search their belongings. If that doesn’t cut it, you can purchase security cameras and secretly install them. With enough cameras, you can spy on all tenants at the same time from the safety of your living room. If a tenant catches you snooping, they will pissed off and kick you out. If you are caught more than once, they will likely call the authorities and you’ll be hauled off to the gulag.
Once you’ve uncovered information about any particular tenant, you may return home and report them to your superiors. You may profile a tenant by filling out a form and reporting on any new information you happened to uncover. Each new piece of information reported grants you a cash payout. Every form filled out incorrectly will result in fines, so make sure to double-check. If you’ve discovered a tenant taking part in an illegal activity or in possession of illegal goods, you may report them. Afterward, the police will show up to abuse and arrest them.
During the course of the game you will face family emergencies and other problems that will require a large amount of cash to complete. When your pockets get tight you may have to take more drastic measures. This mainly includes theft and blackmail. To steal, just wait until your tenants leave the house for work. Once they’ve left, you’re free to loot their belongings for anything of value. After looting, you’ll need a place to sell off your ill-gotten gains. Luckily for you, a merchant shows up at the apartment complex daily to buy and sell goods.
Sometimes the merchant will offer to sell you illegal goods. To blackmail someone, you must find incriminating evidence to threaten them with. If you can’t catch a tenant breaking the law, you have the option to purchase some illegal goods from the merchant and frame them by placing it in their house while they are away. Just be aware that tenants will sometimes ignore blackmail or report the theft to the authorities. If you are reported, be prepared to pay a bribe. Otherwise, it’ll be off to the gulag with you!
Aside from the snooping and blackmailing tenants, Beholder also offers a main quest and a good amount of side-quests. Most of the main quest involves serving your superiors and fulfilling any tasks they assign you. Main quests generally involve getting rid of a certain tenant or providing useful information. Side quests generally come from your family or tenants. These quests are generally optional but depending on your actions during these quests, you might effect future events or even change the ending. Be wary when taking the missions. Tenants can turn out to be just as deadly as the authorities.
Final Judgment: 78%
I seriously enjoyed and appreciate every bit of the artwork and style of Beholder. The character designs were very unique, soundtrack was fitting, and art style really set a tragic tone for this dark, totalitarian wonderland. The characters have interesting backstories and were very interesting. I’m excited to play through the game again to see the alternate endings. The biggest flaws for me were the repetitive gameplay and the outrageous money demands required to complete certain side-quests. Despite the flaws, I look forward to following any new projects by Warm Lamp Games!
As a huge fan of physics-based games, Human Fall Flat immediately caught my notice. I bought it, downloaded it, and then accidentally forgot about it. After hearing news about it coming to consoles in the near future, I figured I’d boot it up and give it a shot. Human Fall Flat is a challenging physics game in which you control a clumsy, boneless, blob human to navigate obstacles and solve puzzles.
Human Fall Flat
Systems: PC, OS X, Linux (Coming soon to consoles!)
Developer: No Brakes Games
Publisher: Curve Digital
Release Date: July 22, 2016
Price: $14.99 (on Steam)
Human Fall Flat is quirky. I’m not sure any other word more appropriately describes the gameplay. The main objective is basically just reaching the next stage. Sometimes you will press buttons to open nearby doors, other times you may be hauling wooden boxes on top of switches to open other doors. There are all kinds of other challenges such as destroying walls, swinging on ropes, and jumping from platform to platform, but despite the variety, there is very slow, clunky, and boring progression between levels. So boring, in fact, that I never managed to complete the entire game.
The controls on PC are very simple to use but difficult to master. Similar to Gang Beasts, Human Fall Flat gives you nearly full control of the character movement. It Left and right mouse buttons are used to control the left and right arms, respectively. When you press down on either button, the gooey little player-character will raise his arms and extend his sticky hands. By “sticky”, I mean that his hand WILL stick to anything they touch until the mouse button is released. Movement is controlled with WSAD and the camera is controlled via mouse movement. Sounds easy enough in theory, in practice it takes skill to maneuver your clumsy, seemingly drunken player character.
The biggest selling point in Human Fall Flat is the physics engine. The way the player-character reacts to the environment is neat and almost realistic. The environments also work well together. Round things should roll like the do in real life. You can push objects around and even lift smaller objects. If you encounter a rope, grab on and take a swing off a cliff like a true Tarzan. Toss a television out of the window. There are all sorts of things to play with. Each level is a sandbox and offers some sense of freedom.
Some goals can be accomplished in unusual ways (probably not even thought of by the developers), but for the most part, most objects are simply set pieces and add nothing to the game other than some extra stuff to break or toss around.
Final Judgment: 65%
Don’t get me wrong, Human fall flat IS neat. I just personally can’t say that it’s very much fun. I liked the way the physics engine made interacting with the environment so realistic. The controls were extremely clumsy. At first it was funny and a bit charming but after the first few levels, it was more annoying than anything else. Jumping felt shockingly awkward. Climbing was a very neat idea but was executed so poorly that I didn’t last long after the first climbing area of the game. The puzzles weren’t as challenging as much as they were frustratingly time-consuming. If you don’t have LOTS of patience, this game might not be for you. No Brakes Games has included a workshop add-on which adds countless hours of replay value. Unfortunately, I’d rather not replay at all.
Pros:
Realistic physics engine
Puzzles
Nice looking graphics
Funny at first
Workshop adds replay value
Cons:
Drunken movement controls
Annoying sticky hands
Boring af
Climbing and jumping are horrendous
No real goal other than getting from point A to point B
Participants from the Closed Beta, as well as the unfortunate few that were unable to play For Honor when it went live January 26-29, will have another shot! Open Beta access will be live on February 9th – 12th for Playstation 4, Xbox One & Windows with the full game launching on the 14th!
These are the time listings for the Beta starting February 9th and ending on February 12th.
Starts 2/9 – Ends 2/12
2PM – 1AM (2/13) GMT
3PM – 2AM (2/13) CET
9AM – 8PM EST
6AM – 5PM PST
For those who did play during the Closed Beta, simply keep it downloaded, and when booted up the player will be prompted to update it.Those who didn’t get a chance to play, or have deleted their save file, this link below will guide players to registration!
Twitch Prime members will also receive some benefits, ranging from a 10-day Champion Status, a special emblem and more! Beta Access participants will all receive some in-game redeemable prizes, but the champions of the 3-way war between the factions will win something special!
With the Beta going live in just a few hours it seems like some updates are happening as well as server maintenance! Perhaps we will get a chance to demo the 4th character class that was absent during the Closed Beta Access.
Stay tuned for Super Game Reviews’ coverage on For Honor, set to launch February 14th, 2017 on Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 4 & Xbox One!
For Honor
Kingdom: New Lands
Nioh
Since I wasn’t able to complete this game, I felt giving it a score would be unjust. With that said, I can still give my thoughts on the game’s atmosphere and the content that I have played.
Super Game Reviews 