The Ultimate Megadungeon

I feel like I fought long and hard for this review...

Battled my inner demons, smoked a peace-pipe with that old serpent until we were both baked into a fever-dream cake with black rainbow frosting, risked my stack by going all-in against a lavender mo-hawked skeever who I knew was bluffing, and so forth!

Endzeitgeist's Cha'alt review!

I knew it wouldn't be easy, that he'd make me pay dearly for every bit of laziness or self-indulgence, every decision carefully considered and weighed as if standing before an exotic gold idol with a pouch full of sand, every creative choice mercilessly judged.

And yet, I came out unscathed... relatively speaking.  I just re-read the damn thing and I'm exhausted.  I don't have the time, energy, or even the inclination to refute his claims, except to say that I really wanted an all-caps GONZO fun-house megadungeon.  If blasters and sleep spells were commonplace, then really weird stuff would have to be way over-the-top.

Also, for a 90 minute online game or 3-hour face-to-face one-shot of D&D, Crimson Dragon Slayer D20 is just about perfect.  It also plays better than it reads.  ;)

Those brave enough to see for themselves are welcome to play in one of my Roll20 games or on January 11th in Madison, WI.

VS

p.s. Yep, still pimping the Cha'alt: Fuchsia Malaise kickstarter - only 5 days left to go!

I'm That Guy!

I am replaying Suikoden 2 at the moment, a game I last played back in something like 2001. I'm now playing it on PSN, purchasing it for something like $5.

 Funnily enough though, I actually owned the game back in 2001! The actual CD! FFVII basically took over my life when I was 11 years old and after completing it, and becoming obsessed with it, I started looking through my back copies of the Official Playstation Magazine to try and find some games that were like it in some way, part of this genre called "RPG" which I had never even known to have existed previously (I'm not sure I can be blamed for this either, because in the UK we hardly received any RPGs for consoles).

I made it my mission to check out the used sections of Electronic Boutique and the other second hand games shops near me (which included a shop called a record shop called Bebop and another which I think was called Games Express in Sutton, surrey).

 On one fateful day, I found it, Suikoden II, as I flicked through the boxes in Games Express. From what I remember, I think I payed an insignificant amount for the game, I certain don't remember having the save and go back, I'm guessing it must have been about £10. I took it home, I played the game through and I had a great time with it, it isn't too tricky and I completed it, getting the 'bad ending' the only ending I knew of at the time. And then I took it in a second hand game shop and sold it.

 I'm that guy! I had Suikoden II, now worth £150 on EBAY, and at points in the past worth even more. I have almost no recollection of exactly what I traded it in for. Sometimes I like to tell people I traded it in part exchange for Chrono Cross.... but I don't know for certain if that is true. I know I definitely got CC pretty soon after Suikoden II, but I don't know... another memory says I traded it in for Ergheiz (now worth as much as Suikoden II on EBAY! A game which I also traded in!), or possibly it was Destrega or Street Fighter Alpha 3. The thing I do remember though is that I was surprised at how much the store gave me for Suikoden II, I think it was £15 or something, more than I paid for it to begin with.... I think they got the recommended price out of a book.

 Anyway, I'm that guy, the guy that traded a super rare and expensive game in for almost nothing. But in all things Praise be Jesus Christ now and forever. Games are there for fun and recreation, and if we are really lucky, we can find something good and true and beautiful in them which can lead us to praise Him and bless Him and love Him more. Games aren't my life, my life is hid with Christ in God.

 I played a lot of great games back in the day, I owned and played almost every PS1 RPG released in the UK, and now I own Suikoden II once again on PSN, in all honesty I have no regrets that I sold it, but it makes a fun story. I am going to write a review on Suikoden II soon. There is a lot in this beautiful game which is genuinely inspirational and supportive of the truths of our holy faith.

Darksiders 3 - Review

Darksiders 3 - Review

Darksiders has always felt like it belonged on the fringe. As we haven't seen many games like Darksiders III in the past decade or so. The Darksiders series has always been focus and has steady design omnipresent in all of its moving parts. It's a third-person action game that isn't afraid to stunt your progress to an end for an hour or more until the point that you figure out how to beat a seemingly-impossible boss. And of course, every game need not to be a giant open world where you have tons of never-ending supply of side quests. And that's exactly the kinda game where Darksiders 3 fits in. It isn't a giant open world game, it's all about the combat which is freaking satisfying. 

But sure, this game isn't flawless, there are padding issues and other nitpicks, however the strong locales and the more than serviceable action help concrete this series as an actual action contender.

The biggest flaw, I think is the sporadic nature in Darksiders 3. Rather than having dungeons themed around these overwhelming enemies, they're simply stuffed inside destroyed skyscrapers and abandoned museums like any other enemy.



Quick Facts:

• Release Date: 27 November 2018
• Platforms: PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Microsoft Windows
• Genres: Hack and slash, Action-adventure game
• Developer: Gunfire Games

After both War and Death had a fabulous time in Darksiders 3's predecessors, it's now the turn of the perpetually angry Fury, she is incredible, offering a powerful performance that takes each scene she possesses, lending your control of her an extra dose of power. She's sent out to hunt down the Seven Deadly Sins, and every one of them serves as one of Darksiders III's collection of varied major boss fights thus to re-establish the balance between Heaven and Hell torn apart in previous games.

Fury uses a bladed whip known as the 'Barbs of Scorn', which offers a satisfying combat feedback of meaty hits in some demonic entity's face, but you need to be close to the enemy.

Talking about the graphics, while there have been games this year that have really stunned me with their magnificent open world graphics, Darksiders 3 isn't one of them. The stylized, cartoonish characters are plopped into a quite generic-looking world that lacks detail. So, you can say that this game isn't for graphics lovers, but is for the combat lovers.

The act of combat is very easy, achieved with a single button to swing Fury's whip in all direction, striking down all enemies in her vicinity. Your heavy assault, so to speak, is given to a variety of secondary weapons you'll unlock as things progress. Fire, Thunder, and Gravity are only a couple of the things you'll come to adopt. 

Despite being the combat pretty easy, this is no mindless beat them up where you just run into a group of monsters mashing your attack buttons. All way of demons, skeletons, angels, giant creepy insects, and trolls should be chopped down, and you won't get much far without being observant of their behaviors. You need to be patient, wait for their attack, time your dodge at the right time, and boom! Dodging perfectly will slow down time for a spell, opening up enemies for a vicious counter-attack which feels really satisfying.

And as Darksiders 3 has taken some inspiration from Dark Souls, Fury's low survivability forces you to approach combat in a way that gives an exuberant combos. Enemies are quick and hit hard, and are mostly found in groups. With no stamina meter to talk about, there's an emphasis on dodging and keeping out of danger that deviates from Dark Souls' stringent use of energy management.

Fury's ever-expanding arsenal incorporates lots of fun toys, and it's up to you to choose which ones to power up and depend mostly on. Alongside her weapons, she gains new movement powers that give her access to new areas, and once you've unlocked them all it's amusing to switch between all her various forms to find the correct tools for the different combat and obstacle jobs.




Our ferocious fury is surprisingly vulnerable, as no matter how powerful she becomes, she still gets killed in a matter of seconds if you aren't careful. This is a bit of nuisance when Serpent Holes, what could be compared to Dark Souls' Bonfires, are spread so far apart. Trawling through bland corridors filled with boss's bitches glad to throw themselves at you is frustrating when you have someplace to be.

The bosses in Darksiders III are not messing around. While the first couple probably won't pose much of a threat, eventually you'll face one that doesn't appear to react to any trap or assault you've learned up to that point. Not to ruin any surprise, but don't be stunned if a boss doesn't go down as easily as it appears they will. It tends to disappoint abruptly having the tables turned on you, no doubt, however with persistence success eventually comes. In this way, Darksiders III feels like it's of some other time. So be ready to achieve something, not the easy way.


The Verdict

Gunfire Games has put forth a valiant effort, and at times, succeeds in making Darksiders 3 a worthwhile successor to the past two entries. Combat is fun and accessible while exploration is nuanced enough to stay engaging. Its throwback philosophy is comfort food for action gamers of a particular age. But because of so many technical issues with it, It feels like a package that is enjoyable yet ultimately underwhelming.