Game #1347: The Callisto Protocol

 Welcome to Broken Space.

 I got late to the party, but I got into Dead Space and I finally understood what the hoopla was all about. Sadly, EA did an EA and closed down Visceral Studios. So, imagine this, you are part of the team that made Dead Space and you get the chance to show EA how wrong they were by making an spiritual successor to DS, namely, The Callisto Protocol. What's more, EA announces a DS remake, so now you get to show them what's good. Except that EA knocks it out of the park and you ruin your once chance. 

 Firstly, this is just a spiritual sequel to Dead Space, as the gameplay is quite different. The visceral feel to the combat is here, but now it focuses on Melee combat rather than trying to tear your enemies limb from limb. But hey! At least it looks the part, as this could've been very well a Dead Space Spin-off, something akin to 'Dead Space: Warrior Within" or somethin', as the futuristic/horror direction is pretty much identical. The monsters you fight here could've very well been on Dead Space.

 The combat is... while it looks and feels satisfying, it sure is odd. When an enemy approaches you with an attack, or if you approach them with your own, the camera will soft-lock into the enemy, and then tapping left or tight will make you dodge incoming attacks. I had heard that the game was supposed to be hard, but it was very easy... at least when it came to fighting baddies. Going unscathed is quite easy, as long as you remember to focus on upgrading your melee weapon and using your guns ONLY as melee-combo finishers.

 Early on you also get a Gravity Arm which you can use to pull enemies towards you and then push them, and the game offers a ton of insta-kill environmental hazards for you to push your enemies into. I used it every now and then, but the melee weapon and the basic pistol carried me throughout the entire game just fine. There aren't puzzles to waste your time either, just you, abandoned futuristic environments and lots of gruesome baddies waiting to have their skulls caved-in.

 The game is quite linear, and it will penalize you if you are not careful, for y'see, even though it's linear, sometimes there are forks in the road that may offer you goodies. And you want goodies, since you can then sell them and you money to upgrade your equipment.... but here's the rub, the game LOVES to lock doors behind you, and it's never quite clear if you went into the optional fork in the road or the 'right one'. And since the game runs on a checkpoint system.... you might have to reload every now and then once you realize you are on the right path and  the game decided to lock you into that road.

 So, it sounds like a decent, if unimpressive game, clearly deserving of the lukewarm reception it got, right? Well.... the game is absolutely busted. It's ridiculous, because I looked up "Callisto Protocol PS4 crashes" but all I got were results... about the PS5 version being just as bad. I also came across idiots claiming how "The game will receive day 1 patches!"...so? I'm playing what's printed on the disc, and what's printed on the disc should, at the bare minimum, be playable.

 But it's tough. The game crashed during one of the first cutscenes, clearly a sign of things to come, as the game will crash every 20-30 minutes. But, in a way, it helps, because I'm sure there's some sort of memory leak issue that makes the game run worse and worse the more you play it, until the unavoidable crash.

 It can get so bad that just swinging your weapon drops the framerate to the single digits. But it usually fixes when you restart the game. Usually. Sometimes some sections are borderline unplayable, if there are breakable glass nearby... do avoid accidentally breaking it during a fight, or your PS4 will struggle like it never has before. Remember when I said that the game is, combat-wise, easy? Well, sections that should be easy as pie become tough because you are swarmed by enemies as the framerate struggles to keep up. Chapter 4 has a section with a giant fan in the middle, and pushing enemies into it should be dead simple... except that the framerate makes it impossible to aim. And this one wouldn't get better even after restarting/crashing the game.

 And that's not even getting into how broken the subtitles are. Sometimes they just choose to disappear, so, yeah, they even screwed up the subtitles. Oh, and I fell through the ground twice. And this isn't a bug, but when Jacob, the main character, gets the cervical implant graved onto his spine... the character model barely emotes while the voice actor puts his all into selling how much pain Jacob is in. Utterly hilarious. And during cutscenes, when Jacob gets attacked, monsters usually come textureless, looking all glossy, which is also funny.

 If the PS4 couldn't run the game it shouldn't have released at all.... except that I accidentally installed the patch, because the PS4 is such a garbage console that you can't turn off patches. But I gave it a try, just for giggles.... and the game runs BEAUTIFULLY. It's like night and they, you can be fighting five enemies at the same time and the framerate won't drop. And this made me even angrier because this means that the PS4 could run this game perfectly, but they just rushed it.

 So... the game is fixed, and it runs well and I did enjoy the game when I wasn't suffering all the crashes and the such... but what I'm interested in is in what is on the disc I purchased, because the Servers won't be online forever, and what is on the disc is borderline unplayable. An absolutely disgusting release. Oh! And the ending? It's DLC.

 2.0

Game #1346: Dead Cells - Return to Castlevania

  It comes crashing down.

 Well.... this is the fourth time I've purchased Dead Cells, but Dead Cells: Return to Castlevania is the most complete version yet. I've already talked at length about Dead Cells, no, really, so I'll just focus on the new and the changed.

 So... last time I played the game I had spent over 70 hours in it, and gone through Rise of the Giant and Bad Seed... this one includes 3 more DLCs, Barrels of Fun, a new biome, The Dead Sea and the Queen, which adds two new bosses and two new biomes, as well as the Castlevania DLC, which adds 3 new biomes, I think, and a two phase-boss. Of course, there's also a ton of new weapons, as well as reworked weapons. And don't even let me get started on the costumes, as there's an obscene amount of costumes now.

 As per usual, all the new additions are fantastic, I was particularly fond of Death's Scythe, which turns fallen enemies into explosive souls that home-in to nearby enemies! The game is just as fun, and I had a blast going through the new areas... so much so that I sunk in another 30 hours into the game on a four-day period.

 They also added a new feature... Assist Mode. Now you can tweak the game to make it easier, going as far as decreasing the damage you take, as well as enemy health by 80%, so I was finally able to get all five Boss Stem Cells, get to the true boss and get the true ending. Not bad! Plus, playing like this makes you feel so powerful, and it's so satisfying having enemies explode all around you, it's glorious and makes the game more approachable for anyone and everyone.

 So, yeah, on of my favorite games of all time is still one of my favorite games of all time... but this rerelease is not perfect, as the game has now become prone to crashing. Every two runs, or run-and-a-half, the game will crash. Which can be quite painful when it happens after you find a blueprint for a new item and now you have to start the biome from the start, but hey, every time it happened I got the blue print again AND each stage is so short that it's not TOO unbearable... just a little.

 But yeah, crashes aside this is the best Dead Cells has EVER been. And mind you, the game was a blast from day one, but the amount of content this beast holds by now.... it's a thing of beauty.

10

Game #1345: The Great Ace Attorney Chronicles

  You've been served!

 Well, Phoenix Wright is back.... back to the past, as now we take control of Ryunosuke Naruohodo, Wright's ascendant, in a game I never thought we'd ever see officially translated: The Great Ace Attorney Chonicles. This is a two-in-one compilation of the duology, and if you know anything about Ace Attorney... it's that these are lengthy games, so boy, are you in for a ride...

 These games don't really break the mold, they are the same visual novel/graphic adventure mix that the original games are. Divided into chapters, each is compromised of two different gameplay segments: Investigation, in which you, in first person, travel from place to place, usually the crime scene, in order to talk to NPCs as well as gather clues from the environment to use on the other segment, the court case itself. The Court is when it gets interesting, as Witnesses will offer their testimony and it's your job to find contradictions by presenting the appropriate evidence. It's as great as it's ever been.

 This duology adds a new addition to the gameplay as well as a couple of new wrinkles to the court cases. Joined by Herlock Sholmes himself, during certain Investigation phases you'll have to 'help' Sholmes arrive to the correct deduction. This is done by observing the environment or presenting the right piece of evidence. One of the new tweaks to the formula is the Jury, sometimes, the Jury will decide that your client is guilty, so you must pit jury member against jury member, by getting them to say stuff that contradicts another member, in order to continue the trial. I wouldn't say I was particularly fond of either, but I didn't mind them. The other addition is that sometimes two witnesses will present a joint testimony, in which case, sometimes they might react to what the other one said, and you can 'pursue' them for more information. I wasn't particularly fond of these new additions, but I didn't mind them.

 The new cast of characters was quite endearing, and I think I ended up caring more about Ryunosuke than Phoenix, but it's been a while since I last played a proper Ace Attorney, so I might be downplaying Pheenie! Ryunosuke's assistant was irritating at first, with all her 'Susato takedowns', but she grew on me. This is also true about Sholmes, he was infuriating at first, but the more you realize he is not as stupid as he acts the more you'll like him. But, yeah, most of the characters ended up growing on me, while Ryunosuke I liked from the get-go. The story was fairly interesting too, although I felt that reusing so many characters from the first game was a bit... lazy.

 The first game breaks a lot of series' conventions, which felt a bit off to me. The Investigation and Trial sections were clearly divided, meaning, while in the original games a single chapter would swing you from the court to the investigation to the court again to more investigating.... in this one you don't go back and forth, first you investigate and then you go to court until the chapter ends. Heck, one of the cases didn't even have an investigation phase, and another one is just an investigation phase!

 It also felt a bit cheap. In a few Correction sections I instantly realized what I had to point out, but the game wouldn't accept it until I inspected it before. Like, dude, I already figured it out, just move on! And, thankfully, this game comes bundled with its sequel.... because this one leaves a TON of stuff unanswered, it's egregious.

 The sequel plays it closer to home, so now you do go back and forth between investigations and trials, which I enjoyed a fair bit. You can also equip alternate costumes on Ryunosuke, Susanto and Sholmes! My one gripe, is that I hated the second case's setup, because, naturally, you want the plot to move forward, but this case is set during the first game.... why? It was so annoying, I wanted the plot to keep on pushing, but this feels like such a pace-killer. I realize they were using it to set-up somo of the big reveals for the finale, but it was still annoying. They also brought back the most annoying character of the original game.

 That said, if the Ace Attorney developers know something.... it's how to deliver an emotional finale, and this is no exception. It was very fulfilling and exciting. Overall, I'd say that despite the second case... the sequel is a much superior game, but there's no point to playing it without playing the first game, as you are missing out if you don't play the sequel, and a lot of stuff won't make sense unless you played the first. Two halves of a whole.

 I loved coming back to the Ace Attorney series, and this game is yet another banger. Court dismissed!

9.0

Game #1344: Oceanhorn - Monster of Uncharted Seas

 Not all Zeldas have pointy ears.

  I first learned of Oceanhorn: Monster of the Uncharted Seas back when I was in love with the PS Vita, and always felt kinda bummed I missed out on the physical release. And then I missed out on the Switch release.... but, praise the seas, it rereleased alongside Oceanhorn 2, so I finally get to play this little game that eluded me for about 6 years.

 Oceanhorn is a Zelda clone, Wind Waker in particular, through and through. You, as a little guy in a blue tunic, long before Link wore his in Breath of the Wild, get to travel through various Islands, going through dungeons, bombing walls, collecting pieces of heart, the works.

 Every Island has its own set of goals, which grant you Adventurer XP, and when you raise your Adventurer rank you get tiny perks, such as carrying more bombs or arrow, nothing game-changing, but enough to entice you to defeat enemies and try to clear subgoals. Much like Zelda, the main quest is about getting new tools, of which there aren't all that many, and then using them to find treasure and solve puzzles.

 Sailing is fairly on-rails, unlike Wind Waker, so you just pick an Island and you automatically sail to your destination. Exploring and talking with NPCs will slowly reveal the location of more Islands for you to explore.

 The game is a bundle of charm, travelling around felt so much fun despite how admittedly clunky the game is at times. Y'know, movement is a bit off, sometimes the collision boxes are suspicious, etc... but the game, as a whole, works well. The sense of adventure is ever-present, as the smaller size of every island, when compared to "triple A games", makes the whole thing feel cozy, which works in its favor. Oceanhorn is good, y'know?

 8.0

Game #1343: Steel Assault

 Try not to get hooked.

 I've been interested in Steel Assault pretty much since the game was announced, and it's been a long wait, but finally it got a physical release. This is a 16-bit-esque 2-D sidescrolling action game that feels like a cross between Ninja Gaiden and Contra with a dash of Bionic Commando.

 As Taro you get three actions: Whip, Jump and Hook. Your whip doesn't have a lot of range but it can destroy most bullets coming your way. The jump is self explanatory, but you can also use it to slide while crouching in order to perform a slide with invincibility frames. The hook is not as fun to use as it looks, but it doesn't work as you'd expect it to. When you shoot it, it shoots both in front and behind you, and it needs to connect both ends onto something in order for it to stick. If only one end touches a surface then it will break and do you no good. You can aim it in diagonal angles too, and some obstacles require inventive use of this mechanic.

 The game itself is quite fun, and I enjoyed the fast pace.... but even in the normal difficulty it's quite hard. Thankfully it has a Journalist mode so that you can finish the game no matter how bad you are at it. That said.... it's probably so tough because it's very brief. The game itself can be beaten in under an hour and once you are done that's it. No secret character, no unlockable anything, no nothing, which is kind of a shame. A game like this could've benefited so much from, say, an unlockable character with similar but different properties than the main character.

 Steel Assault is a pretty good game, but a bit unremarkable. The 16-bit sprite work is gorgeous, but the game is over before you know it and I didn't feel as if it was very replayable. But hey, it's really good... while it lasts.

 6.5

Game #1342: Powerslave Exhumed

 Mummies, guns and a whole lot of flying.

 I've been meaning to buy Powerslave for a while now, but I was unable to find the PS1 port/remake at the right price and complete in box... well, I'm in luck, since Powerslave Exhumed is a hybrid release that aims to mix together the best elements of the PS1 version alongside the best elements of the Saturn version.

 This is a very interesting beast, as the game looks on the outset as a classic Doom clone set in Egypt, with the 3D environments and sprites for your guns and enemies.... but it's actually more akin to a Metroidvania. Sure, you are finding keys on every level to open up door while you defeat enemies by circle-strafing around them.... but you'll also be unable to reach certain exits until you find the proper power up, be it resistance to lava and poison, gliding or even flying.

 The game has a very fast pace, enemies regularly drop red and blue orbs, the former restoring health and the latter restoring ammo. Ammo in the game is called "weapon power" and every weapon has their own power gauge, and you pick which weapon to restore power to by picking up the blue orbs while having said weapon equipped. It's not a bad take, and while you'll probably run out of ammo at some point you probably will have enough on another gun. Plus, there are plenty of items that fully restore your ammo... if you find them.

 The map is not very good, it shows you which levels have exits you haven't found, but that's about it. Missing health upgrades, abilities or transmitter pieces, the latter which only affect the ending you get.... well, you are out of luck. A few times I had to consult a guide to figure out where to go next or how to get a power up, turns out the "bomb-jump" mechanic is not just a bug, but something you must use in order to reach some upgrades, which was a bit annoying since nothing in the game tells you about this technique. And near the end of the game, there's a "puzzle" in which you must walk through a differently colored floor to deactivate some lasers. You've never needed to do something like this before, or after, which makes it come out of left field. That said, for the most part, the game is fine, and if you remember landmarks and obstacles better than me, you can probably make your game through the game without reaching for a FAQ.

 Powerslave was probably something very unique back in the day, not that I'm saying that it has aged badly, but rather I think the ideas the game has are a bit ahead of its day. And it is a fun time, I liked the Egyptian setting, and the shooting was pretty decent, if a bit rudimentary. It's a good game.

 7.0

Game #1341: Prodeus

 I might be needing glasses, 'cause everything looks blurry.

 Well, the rise of the boomershooter is here, and here is Prodeus. The latest following the trend, it's a fast-paced FPS that borrows plenty from Doom, albeit classic Doom.

 The first thing that you'll notice is that the game looks very blurry. I think it attempts to emulate sprites, but I didn't think the overall look was very... good, at least on Switch. It was done on purpose, quite clearly, but I didn't quite like it. I think you can turn the sprites into 3-D models, but I went for the look that the developers actually intended.

 The game is very lengthy, it has a ton of levels.... for good or o bad. In my case.... I felt it dragged on for too long. There isn't a whole lot of enemy variety, and the weapon system is gimped due to how many weapons share ammo. There are three guns that use bullets, and I never, ever, went back to the first pistol. I switched between the Uzis and the Minigun just for variety's sake. There are also three different shotguns... and why? I always hate it when FPS games have guns that share ammo pools, because you'll always fall back on the ones you like the best. Rockets are shared between the Rocket Launcher and the Grenade Launcher, and I never felt the need to use the GL when the RL got the job done. Yeah, not a good choice. Plus, the weapon-select screen makes it look as if there were more weapons than there actually are, as some slots will never be filled.

 Every level has a bunch of Ore hidden away which can be used to buy new weapons or new perks, such as a double jump or extra ammo capacity. It was pretty neat, but there's a lot of Ore you simply can't get to without the double jump or the dash jump, so making me replay levels wasn't a very appealing idea considering how lengthy the game is already.

 Prodeus is fine, it's an alright game, but I felt it dragged every now and then, so taking breaks every now and then helped. Honestly, if I wanted my modern retro boomershooter fix, I'd stick to Doom or Dusk.

 6.0