Review #647: Bendy and the Ink Machine

 Keep circulating the tapes!

 If the last generation of videogames is gonna be remembered for something it's gonna be for the rise of the horror walking simulators, horror games focused on exploration and simple puzzles as opposed to the nonsensical collectathon-puzzles from Resident Evil or Silent Hills. Bendy and the Ink Machine comes swinging with its own take on the formula: The entire game is seen through a sepia-color filter... well, except curtains(more on this later) as you explore the studio of a fictional '60s classic: Little Devil Darlin' Bendy.

 You play as Henry, one of Bendy's co-creators, who left the company to become a family fan. Fast forward to the present day and he is told by Joey, the other co-creator, to swing by the studio 'cause he's got something to show Henry. As soon as you set foot inside the old, abandoned studio all bets are off, as the macabre quickly rears its head. Locked and lost inside the studio, Henry must survive the living ink creatures and try to escape with his life. The entire game lasts 5 hours, divided into 5 chapters. The story itself is alright, although I wasn't too fond of getting 'allies' on the last chapter, by then a lot of the horror and tension was gone. I think they got a bit too ambitious for its own sake, the charm of the setting was gone. 'Cause you see, Bendy's studio is quite a treat, you'll come across various Disney-inspired posters and even short animations featuring Bendy and his pals, really selling you on the whole setting. But a bit of the charm is lost on Chapter 5 when you get partners to come with you. It's hard to delve deeper into this without entering spoiler territory, so let's just say that Chapter 5 didn't meet my expectations.

 Moving around the environments is simple enough, but the developers saw fit to add combat into the game and it's kinda crappy. It's very crappy. Hitboxes seem rather wonky, so you have to be extra precise with your swings, while enemies seem to have a ridiculously large range on their attacks. I swear, at times it feels like it's impossible to avoid taking damage, god bless regenerative health. There's a segment in Chapter 3 in which you have to fight against the three butcher brothers, and it almost felt like a luck-based mission. Eventually I figured that if I got up on some stairs their swings wouldn't register as well, which helped me take them out without much of a hassle. Not to worry, as death is but a slap on the wrist, you'll respawn close to where you were before you died, and often times whatever you killed will remain dead. Sometimes it'll take you a bit further behind, but it's pretty rare. Chapter 5 has this nasty all-out brawl against Ink Monsters that wears out its welcome after the third or fourth wave, but it goes on and on and on, and depending on when you die, you'll have to start from scratch if you die. If the glitches don't get you first, that is.

 Luckily combat is not too frequent, most of the time you'll be wandering around, searching for items needed in order to proceed. Something that bothered me was that a LOT of times you'll walk right past key-items, but you aren't allowed to interact with them until Henry himself knows that he needs them. It makes sense and it's more realistic this way, but it's also more annoying, since once I reach a door I'll have to either rattle my brain as I try to remember just where I thought I saw the key item or spend time backtracking for the required items. Neither choice is very fun. Sadly, most of the game feels like a giant fetch quest. You explore the environment until you reach a closed door and discover that you need certain items, so now you backtrack in order to find the items and go through the door. Once through the door you'll explore the new environment until the next fetch-quest list pop ups. Chapter 3 is particularly egregious, as an NPC will task you with about 3 or 4 different collectathon missions that have you going through 4 different floors. It was boring the first time around, now imagine a fourth.... Chapter 5 also has a doozy, there's a part in which you have to traverse a labyrinthine hall of offices trying to find a blob of Ink to produce pipes(it makes sense in-context) to fix a machine. Problem? You are unarmed and the offices are being patrolled by the three butcher brothers who can kill you in two hits at most. Three times. You have to enter the labyrinth three times, follow the same exact route(Unless a Butcher brother forces a detour) three times to collect the SAME item in the SAME place three times. THREE TIMES. And you'll probably die a dozen times or so on your first attempt as you explore the labyrinth figuring out what doors and which halls take you where. It was easily one of the worst parts about the game, and chapter 5 is already the weakest one.

 Oh, Chapter 5, I've already let a few glimpses slip into how terrible it gets. Firstly, the entire game is full of bugs and glitches. If you start an audio-log and get away from it, you'll never hear its audio again until you reload. Sometimes the subtitles won't load correctly. Chapter 5 has unsynched subtitles at the start. Curtains flash red for who knows what reason, and near the end of the game, some ink-tubes would have red ink flowing through them, which actually made it creepier. In Chapter 5 there's a humanoid boss, if you hurry into its starting spot and kill him before he gets out the game will soft-lock since he won't be able to get out and trigger the next event. And I found about that one because I wanted to get through that boss fight quickly since right after that fight your two allies will come to help you fend off and ridiculously long brawl against ink-creatures. But, more often than not, ink-creatures will get stuck walking against your allies, rendering them invincible and thus preventing you from advancing through the game. The cherry on top is the spotty framerate.

 So, Bendy and the Ink-Machine is a bit dull. The presentation is absolutely top-notch, and the setting is brilliant, but when the game can be reduced to a collection of dull fetch quest then you know you've got a problem. Combat could've added much needed variety, but it's so bad that the game would've been better without it. But even if the game itself was better, the Switch port is so poor that it's kind of a bummer. That said, I think they pulled off so well the aesthetics and world of Bendy that the game is worth a look just because of that.
 4.0 out of 10

Review #646: Oxenfree

 Ollie ollie, oxen free!

 Hope you like dialogue, because Oxenfree is an adventure game all about it. This is what you'd call a laid back game, there's no action, no explosions, just a few puzzles and a whole lotta conversations

 You play as Alex, a teenage girl out on a trip to Edwards Island with her step-brother, Jonas, her friends, Ren and Nona, as well as her not-so-friend Clarissa . Things quickly go amiss when Alex and Jonas mess with a radio while inside a cavern, and now ghost-like beings are out to get them. The rest of the game is about the group of friends trying to regroup and find a way out of the Island before their new incorporeal playmates use their bodies to get out of their prison. The game lasts about 5 hours, give or take, although quite a bit of time is taken up by numerous, lengthy loading screens. The progressions is pretty linear, you always know where you have to go, but there are a few decisions Alex can make that'll change how a few things pan out, there are also hidden messages you can find hidden throughout the Island to further your understanding of what's going on as well as unlocking the best ending.

 The game will have you running around the Island as Alex, while solving simple puzzles or using your Radio to clear even simpler puzzles by tuning into the right channels. Alex is always joined by another character, Jonas most of the time, and these secondary characters will talk. A lot. You'll have a ton of different opportunities to interject with dialogue of your own, by pressing any of three different buttons on the joycon(The other one reserved for context-sensitive actions), signifying different responses. You can also opt not to speak and watch characters interact with each other or see how they take your silence. A few dialogue choices will change a few events, but most often than not they'll change how characters perceive you, which, in turn, will affect the ending.

 A simple game like this shouldn't have any control issues, but this one kinda does. Moving around the environments can be kinda tough at times, since roads throughout the island are pretty rigid, so, for example, if you want to take a curve you have to follow the exact perfect line the game considers as the 'road', otherwise Alex will turn on her tracks. A couple of pathways can be a bit finicky with how they'll let Alex go through, but, luckily, the Switch version allows for touchscreen control, so if you get annoyed you can simply touch where you want Alex to go and she'll figure out the way herself.

 This is a fairly simple game as far as looks go, featuring simple 3-D models walking on beautiful hand-drawn environments... which begs the question: Why does it run so poorly on Switch? Besides the previously mentioned excessively long loading screens, the game will sometimes freeze for a frame as you move around. The framerate leaves something to be desired as well. Needless to say, this is a poorly optimized game, which kinda blows since it sucks a bit of fun from the game.

 Oxenfree is a fairly decent game, even if I feel like it's nothing to special. That said, the Switch port leaves a lot to be desired, issues like the long loading screens completely turned me off from exploring the Island in order to collect the hidden messages. Issues like this prevent it from being as good as it could be.
6.0 out of 10

The DLC Report: Dead Cells - Rise of the Giant

 Dead fashionista.

 Dead Cells is one of the best games I've played this generation. Easily. Rise of the Giant is its first real piece of DLC, free of charge, and it's quite a doozy. Enemies, bosses, areas, weapons and even costumes, this DLC has a little bit of everything.

 The new are is the Cavern, reached by going through the Graveyard after defeating Conjonctivictus. It features a slew of new monsters as well as a vertical design not unlike the Clock Tower. I'm not particularly fond of this new area, but it's not bad by any means. Once cleared you can fight the new Boss, the giant. He's a fun new fight, although, unlike other bosses, he drops no Cells, making him a bit of a bummer to defeat. Beating the game on the hardest difficulty setting while possessing the final boss unlocks a second new boss as well as a new ending. There's also an entirely new set of common enemies that are only found on the higher difficulty setting.

 With new enemies also come new weapons, powers and mutations. There's quite a few fun ones, but the magic projectile was easily my favorite. The giant-slayer isn't bad either. But that's not the only reason you're back here, oh no, now we've also got costumes. While most costumes can only be found as loot from fallen enemies on harder difficulty settings, a few costumes can be collected on the basic difficulty, so no one gets left out. Custom Run has been tweaked a bit so that now you can even turn on Health Fountains on the harder difficulty settings, in case you've been having trouble.

 I've been longing to play Dead Cells again and Rise of the Giant was the perfect excuse to do so, I've been having a blast unlocking new costumes and weapons. This DLC is the complete package and makes an already fantastic game EVEN better. This is pretty much the gold standard of what DLC could be, and the fact that it's entirely free makes it all the better.
 10 out if 10

Review #645: Asterix & Obelix XXL 2

 With an extra large serving of bugs and glitches.

 As average as it was, I've always held a soft spot for Asterix & Obelix Kick Buttix(AKA XXL1), a simple but fun action-platform game on the PS2, and always lamented how its sequel never made it outside Europe. Well, the gods have smiled upon us, because for whatever reason the developers saw fit to port the sequel, but not the original for whatever reason, to all modern consoles. I finally get to experience what I've been missing for all these years. But maybe, that's the way it should've stayed.

  As per usual, the story follows the endless conflict between the Gauls and the Romans. This time around, Getafix, the Gaulish druid, seems to have betrayed every Gaul village, so Asterix and Obelix set out to rescue the captured druids and figure out the mystery behind Getafix's betrayal. The story has a few attempts at humor, but it's pretty, so unless you are a kid you'll probably find it falls flat upon its face. With Asterix & Obelix XXL 2 the developers went for a full videogame parody/tribute theme, so you'll be fighting Raymanesque Romans, superSonic Romans and even a mustachoed Roman called Pablo, equipped with a water-pumping machine. Heck, Caesar's new right-hand man is a Tomb Raider parody called Larry Croft. I'll admit that seeing all the tributes did bring a smile to my face a couple of times, and it was always fun discovering murals or other less explicit references.

  As far as gameplay goes, not much has changed from the first game. You play as Asterix with Obelix in tow, while there's no multi-player you can swap characters at will, even though both play exactly the same. They can slap enemies around, double jump, ground pound or even grab dizzy enemies to use as whips. Hitting enemies continuously will eventually activate 'Rage' which makes you attacks faster, and after a few upgrades, stronger. Regardless, the game falls into the SAME EXACT pitfall as the first game did: The combat isn't good, but dang it, if they aren't gonna force it on you. Combat is way too frequent, and too often does the game force you to defeat X amount of enemies before you can continue. Sometimes it tries to be different by endlessly spawning enemies until you throw a certain amount of them into a target or a Roman toilet. The combat isn't even hard, it's just tedious, something that you just want to get done with but rarely is there a way to do so. Every now and then a 'bonus' will trigger, in which an enemy designated by a 'Gift' label will require a specific combo to be hit with, upon which you'll get rewarded by health, currency multipliers or, if you are lucky, the druid's potion, which will make combat end faster, particularly once you purchase the mighty potion-moves. Sadly, it seems like the potion power-up bonus only appears on the very last few levels.

 When you aren't fighting you might have to do a bit of light platforming or simple puzzles, like figuring out how to get a bomb to a Tetris wall. Sometimes you'll have to make use of Asterix size, to get through tight walls or Obelix's strength to punch down metal walls(Although I think this only happened a single time in the entire game, during the last level). These moments are a more palatable, and while simple, they don't wear out their welcome. However, I must admit that I felt like the environments weren't as varied or as fun as the ones from the previous game. The developers also removed costumes, one of the best and most rewarding parts about the first game. As a matter of fact, collectibles in this game have absolutely no purpose besides bragging rights. Postcards, 4 per level, offer nothing more than non-funny gags while diamond helmets, 5 per level, do absolutely nothing....

 ...although, maybe, that wasn't always the case. Y'see, I did some digging, and, apparently, Diamond Helmets used to be worth 1000 helmets(The in-game currency). But in this game they are worth nothing. That's not the only thing they changed, the new graphics are a bit of a mixed bag. While most of character models look like their PS2 originals, they changed the lighting effects to be more realistic, which is fine, but a lot of color was lost in the port. Things like collectible helmets used to have this vividly colorful glow, which is gone, and even the druid's potion had better effects. A lot of various special effects were either completely removed or changed into something more boring. While this game might look sharper, it's decidedly less colorful, which for a game based on a cartoon is a terrible change. To top it all off, the Switch version runs at 30 FPS or less, which is completely baffling as this is little more than a dolled up PS2 game. Plus, the camera loves to get stuck on walls and/or corners, I don't know if it was a problem in the original, but it's a problem now. I never died or lost health due to the camera getting stuck(Not that it matters, since you have infinite continues), but it was quite annoying since it was so frequent, even if it wasn't all that hard to get it behind Asterix again.

 And then we have the glitches. A ton of them. It happened to me first when I first entered a level, either the third or the fourth one, that during the 'LOADING' screen the game crashed into the dashboard. Then, the game didn't crash again during my initial playthrough, but I noticed that a lot of areas in the WCW level were missing music. Was it like that in the original? I dunno, but it feels weird. The last level was missing music in a few parts as well. Sometimes you have to light torches to progress, well, the WCW has a lot of torches that never turn on, even though it seems like the camera pans towards them as if trying to tell you that they caught fire? It didn't stop my progression, but it looked quite weird. The Pirate Shore level is absolutely bugged, every time you enter the level, or even when you try to exit it, it will play the level introduction cutscene in which it pans out through the entire are. It's the only level with this problem, but it's quite dumb. But, whatever, I finished the game, but I was missing a few collectible items that you can buy with helmets, so I traveled back to the second stage and... the game crashed. Once I loaded up my file again and try to get there again it worked, but it seems like the game is prone to crashing. Lastly, traveling to the first city, and its first checkpoint, will make an awful 'opening door' sound repeat endlessly until you get far, far away from a nearby door. Did anyone test this thing?

 I'm gonna be entirely honest here, Asterix & Obelix XXL2 is as average as the first one, having the same problems that one did, but lacking a few of its more positive qualities, like costumes and more variety in its levels. But I could've dealt with that. I was having fun with this simple game thanks to its nostalgic retro charm. But the bugs, man.... they really didn't care at all, did they? Bugs and glitches aside, there's no reason as to why they had to sap away all the color and life from the graphics, this is a game based on a comic-book, it has to be colorful!
 3.5 out of 10

Review #644: Dragon - Marked for Death

 Japanese devs have this knack for weird English titles....

 I like Inti Creates a lot, it seems like they never got out of the 16-bit era preferring to develop 2-D side-scrolling action games. You might know them as the Megaman 8-bit revival(9 and 11) guys, as the Megaman Zero guys, the Gunvolt guys or, even... the Mighty No. 9 guys. If it's 2-D, they know what they are doing, Mighty No. 9 aside, but for Dragon Marked for Death they tried something different: A 2-D action-platform game that looks just like another Megaman Zero entry... but with RPG mechanics. It was a decent experiment, but....

 The game has you playing as the last survivor of the Dragonblood village, after the Celestial King orders its purge. Aided by a Dragon who lends your character, any of four different classes, his powers to enact their revenge. After the opening tutorial, which gives you a simple overview of your playable character, you are thrust into town, in which you can buy supplies or crappy weapons before going into the Tavern and partaking on a Quest. The base game has about 29 different Quests, if you got the physical edition, which contains the season pass, it adds 9 more quests and through patches they added one more, so there is quite a bit of content in here. The four different characters are very different from each other, and who you pick will probably play a major role in how much you like the game.

 In my case, well, I screwed up. Since this was an RPG, I wanted to play as something I had an easier time identifying with, so the Empress and the Witch were out of the question, that left me with the Shinobi or the Warrior. Well, the Shinobi was a lithe, anime-haired lanky thing, so he wasn't even an option, which left me with The Warrior. He sucks. I mean, he's got the ability to heal and an almost impervious barrier, which is pretty nice, but his playstyle sucks. I thought that by pumping points into AGI I'd get more attacks, since the stat description said so, plus, the suggested Warrior build is to pump everything into AGI. He never got more than a single ax slash, although you could create pseudo-combos by doing a jump-slash just before you touch the ground to cancel it into a normal slash. Regardless, this is how the ENTIRE game played for me: Charge my attack, wait for opening, attack, charge slash again, wait for opening, attack again. Using the barrier every now and then to block incoming damage. Needless to say, it was incredibly boring. I gave the Empress a try afterwards, and she was WAY more fun to play with, she had a three hit combo as well as the ability to use her Dragon Arm as either a giant-sword or as a flamethrower. She was fun to play with. But by the time I tried her out I had already invested way too much time into the Warrior, and I was already about done with this tedious, tedious game.


 In the game's defense, it's meant to be played in multiplayer, then the Warrior's playstyle gains sense: Use his barrier to defend and heal allies, while using the charged slash to recover Dragon Power to use the barrier again, meanwhile, your allies do all the damage as not to make boss fights drag-on(Heh!) for so long. That said, there's no couch co-op on a single cart, which is absolutely ridiculous for a game that's only fun in multiplayer(Or with the right character class). And it's true, sometimes characters have to take different routes, but I'm sure that they could've worked something out with a splitscreen or something.

 There's a bunch of other problems beyond just my poor choice of character class. Let's start with mission progression. The only way to unlock more quests and actually get the true, final quest is by getting all flags. Y'see, when you enter the tavern you can display a list with every available mission, and next to each mission title is a slot for a flag. You have to get every flag. Sounds simple, but only 8 quests out of them(almost 30) have an available flag, and you aren't told which ones. Cute. But HOW do you get these flags? By completing optional, hidden sidequests which could be ANYTHING. For instance, the first flag is on the first level and it's pretty much impossible to miss, since you need to talk to an NPC, walk to the right, kill some goblins and talk to her again. Easy. But there's another one in which you have to find a secret boss, which I did, defeat him, which I did, and read the table behind him... which I didn't even know you could until I read online how to get these goddamn flags. Completely idiotic, there should be at least hints on where and how to get these flags. Like, at least have the flag slot ONLY on levels that actually have flags in them.

 Level progression aside, the RPG elements are also kinda half-baked. Let's start with the gameplay itself: While there are RPG staples such as numbers, stats and the whole 9 yards... it also plays like a 2-D Sidescrolling action-platform game, like Megaman X but without the guns... so why the **** is there a miss chance? I landed my attack, that's it--or should be it, if I dodged an annoying enemy pattern and my sprite made contact with the enemy sprite then it should register like a hit, no ifs or buts about it. But nope, there's a chance your attack might miss and only deal 1 damage. To be fair it also works on you, and enemies might 'miss' their attacks even though they hit you. This mechanic has NO place on a game like this. Luckily I spent a lot of points in my AGI, but dammit if it wasn't annoying when my slow charged slashed missed. It's also annoying how grindy the game can be. Leveling up is simple enough, but when I got to the final boss I simply wasn't properly equipped for it. There are two different weapon shops in town, but they only sell garbage, if you want proper weapons you have to redo missions hoping that a good weapon drops. I essentially hit a road block, so I had to go back and grind previous missions(At least you can 'increase' the level of quests so that they have chance of better loot and more experience points) until I got a weapon that could do more than just nick the boss' health bar.

 Another misstep is that the game borrows a bit too much from Monster Hunter, for instance, before going out for a quest, you have to prepare in town, this means equipping items in your very limited inventory space. But you don't even know what you're up against, so you might not even know that the upcoming boss can confuse you until you fight him. Stuff you find during a quest, like weapons, can't be equipped until you reach town, and even then you can't just go into the pause menu, you have to get inside a store, the inn or the tavern, otherwise the game won't let you change your equipment. A minor inconvenience, yes, but why? And just like Monster Hunter, you only get 4 lives between all players before losing the Quest. Experience points don't count until you finish(either die or win) the Quest, and only then can you upgrade your stats, if you leveled up.

 Since I'd rather not end on such a low note, the game looks absolutely gorgeous, this is THE best spritework Inti Creates has EVER done, and that's saying a lot considering they made Megaman Zero. As far as graphics go they brought their A game, featuring huge, colorful sprites that look nothing short of amazing, and they almost look like Megaman Zero on crack, as far as style goes. The game is an absolute pleasure to look at.

 ...it's just a shame the game isn't that much fun to play. I'm willing to accept that the game might be a tad more fun with a different character class, or in Multiplayer. But you still have to account for the fact that I'm probably not the only one that will select the Warrior for Single Player, so I'm not the only one that will have such a miserable time play charge-avoid-hit-and-escape all the time. It was also a terrible idea not to figure out a way to have multiplayer with a single system, if your game is gonna be so reliant on multiplayer then you should make it a priority to make sure the game can be played in that way in as many forms possible. And I'm sure that multiplayer would probably fix some of my bigger issues, for instance, if I wasn't the only source of damage then, probably, I wouldn't mind missing my attacks every now and then. Not that it would fix how dumb the Flag system is though. Or how grindy it can get if you want to have decent equipment and not get one-shotted by bosses.

 If anything, I can praise Inti Creates for trying something a bit different from what they usually make. I'm sure their heart was in the right place, but they should've made the game more palatable for single player, just like Monster Hunter does with two different campaigns, one strictly for single player and another one tailored for multiplayer BUT the ability to play it solo anyways, if you so wish it. Also, it's the Switch, couch co-op for a game so reliant on Multiplayer SHOULD have been one of their top priorities.
 4.5 out of 10

Review #643: Dead Cells

 A headless hero ahead of the curve.

 Even before the game found itself mired in an unjust controversy surrounding a plagiarist reviewer I had set my sights on this game. It looked absolutely brilliant, and I'm actually a bit disappointed it took me this long to get to it, since this one is one for the history books. Dead Cells is an indie 2-D metroidvania-ish roguelike dungeon crawler that wears its inspirations on its sleeves but manages to be its own fantastic thing.

 There's not much story to talk about, you are a gooey, wispy like thingie that finds a headless body and does the only thing it can do: Possess it. And thus starts our hero's journey from the sewers into the the King's throne room. There are a bit of story pieces here and there, sometimes, since dungeons are pseudo-randomly regenerated, but it's nothing too deep or interesting. The gameplays is fairly simple: Try to go as deep as you can, collecting Cells from fallen enemies so that you can spend them on permanent upgrades or weapon unlocks to make your time easier on your next attempt, because you'll be dying a lot. And upon dying you'll lose all your Scrolls('levels'), collected Cells(ouch) and whatever equipment you were carrying. Dungeons are pseudo-randomly generated in the sense that the game's engine creates them by joining various different hand-crafted rooms, but each dungeon always has the same exits, for example, the first level will always branch into either the Promenade or the Toxic Sewers, but where the exits are, which weapons you'll find or even the enemy disposition will change on every run. The game is also a bit Metroidvania-ish since specific bosses will drop Runes that will extend your exploration abilities, such as allowing the Headless to run on walls or activate vines. Runes are permanent upgrades, so you don't lose them when you die. On another note, the game is an absolute beauty, while sprites are very simple and lack detail, they are very well animated, and enemies explode in a gorgeous cascade of blood, gibs and gold. It feels fantastic. Not to mention the huge amount of weapon variety which results in a lot of different animations of our headless hero.

 Enemies will randomly drop cells upon defeat, although 'Elites' will always drop a fair amount of cells and bosses and even fairer amount of them. If you can get to any of the exits on any given dungeon you'll be able to spend these cells on Blueprints or, only available after bosses, on the Forge. Blueprints can be found hidden in dungeons or as extremely rare drops from various enemies or bosses, these blueprints, if you manage to get them to the collector in-between dungeons, can then be used to permanently unlock various weapons into the pool of available loot you can find by opening chests or defeating enemies. There are also blueprints for 'Mutations', buffs that you can wear to ease your time, although you can only take up to three of them at the same time, and you can only pick one-by-one after exiting a dungeon. Beyond Blueprints, the Collector will also charge you cells in order to give you perks, such as keeping money every time you die or allowing you to start with random weapons as opposed to the same weak sword and bow every time. That said, there are a ton of different weapons, some being quite useless or situational, and paying the cost of their blueprint means allowing them the chance to appear on your run, much to your chagrin, but, in my opinion, it's all part of the random fun.

 Meanwhile, if you opt to risk carrying your souls into the Forge that comes after the first two bosses, you can invest them into increasing the chance of rarer weapon drops, meaning better buffs or side-effects, such as making enemies explode upon death. Cells aside, there's another important item you should seek: Scrolls. There are various types of scrolls, which will let you increase one stat between either 2 or even the 3 of them: Brutality, Tactics or Survivality. Whichever stat you pick will increaser your health, but it will also increase the strength of the weapons and mutations of that particular stat(Red weapons and mutations increase with Brutality, usually melee weapons, Purple weapons and mutations increase with Tactics, usually bows and traps, while Green weapons and mutations increase with brutality, mostly has to do with mutations but a few weapons share their scaling with Survivality). Dying resets your scrolls back to 1 on each stat. While you'd think of using every scroll you find, it's better if you try to invest everything on a single stat, while giving 2 or 3 points to the other two stats for the initial health bonuses.

 The Headless can equip five pieces of equipment at the same time: Two weapons(Can be both melee, both ranged, one of each or even carry a shield... or two, if you so please) mapped to two face buttons on the controller. You can also equip two grenades/traps on the shoulder buttons. The A button is an evasive roll, B jumps, L uses a flask of healing potion(If you unlocked it with the Collector, ideally your first unlock to be honest) while R is used to pick up equipment or interact with objects. Your two main weapons can be use pretty much freely, although a few ranged weapons have a short cooldown on their ammo, on the other hand grenades and traps have a much longer cooldown, at least most of them. It's not too bad though, you'll have them ready again before you know it. The Headless has one final technique, which is one of the most satisfying things I've ever had in a videogame: The STOMP. pressing down+jump while on air will allow the Headless to stomp into the ground, it deals damage upon impact, how much damage depending on how high was the fall. Nothing, absolutely nothing feels better than stomping enemies and having them explode beneath you. It's glorious.

 One of the best things about the game, besides how addictive it can become, is how good everything feels. Controls are incredibly tight and they are tied to some silky smooth animations, making it a treat to play. There were a very few instances in which the Headless did something I didn't want it to, for example, I was trying to fall below while rolling, but the game would make the Headless cling onto the ledge I just dropped from instead of letting me fall. In all fairness, this happens because the developers included a ton of little mechanics to make platforming as lenient as possible so that combat is always the main focus and what you should be worrying about. And it works pretty well, but sometimes it can prevent you from being the most stylish you could be. That aside, everything in relating to movement and controls is just perfect. It's so good that I always found myself trying new weapons, because they'd have different animations and speeds I'd have to get used to, but it was also fun trying out new things.

 The game is very fun, very short, but very replayable. It will probably take you a few attempts before you reach the final boss, but even then you'll probably have missed a few alternate areas you could've gone through. As a matter of fact, there are two different possible first bosses depending on which route you take, and if you are a bad dude enough you can tackle a few alternate areas right off the bat that have you fighting enemies from the very last dungeon, albeit scaled down in stats. A full run of the game will take you about an hour, but keep in mind I'm the kind of guy that took his time to exterminate every single monster and explore every single nook and cranny every time I played, so if you're going for speed you can probably do it even faster. But whether you slay the final boss or die trying, you'll always feel like you want just one more run, it's incredibly addictive and very rewarding. I absolutely adored this game. After beating the final boss you unlock the ability to increase the difficulty, which makes more Cells drop, may open up new exits(although every single area can be found in Normal mode) and even find a few exclusive blueprints... although enemies become deadlier and there are less health fountains on which to restore your health potions. The difficulty can be increased up to four times, if you are tough enough.

 On another note, the basic game is an absolute blast, but a patch was released that reworked the entire game. I'll admit that I wasn't able to beat the final boss on various tries, but after the patch I've been doing short work of him regularly. A lot of the game got reworked, bosses became more resistant against Ice(A huge exploitable weakness pre-patch) and a lot of nifty cooldown mutations were completely removed(Rather, changed to make them less useful) but bosses were made easier, I think. A new mode was added, 'Pimp my Run' in which you can tweak variables, such as your starting money, starting weapons, which weapons you want to allow to be found during the run, how many health potions you can carry, the rarity of weapons)... but only up to whatever you have unlocked, so you can't just break the game. There's also an upcoming free patch that will add new areas, new weapons and new mechanics, such as alternate costumes(Most of them being alternate colors, but some change the Headless' pauldrons!). This game's future's so bright I need glasses.

 Dead Cells is easily one of the best games I have played on this generation. What developer Twin Motion produced is nothing short of incredible, being able to stand alongside the big boys while having a fraction of their budget, which only goes to show that no amount of pretty graphics can match what good, tight gameplay can accomplish.
10 out of 10

Review #642: Lost Planet - Extreme Condition

 Starship Troopers on ice.

 A few, many few, years ago I fell in love with Capcom's Monster Hunter Tri on the Wii. I had arrived at the HD-generation of consoles a bit late, so Lost Planet was quite behind me, however, I caught an Interview or promotion of sorts in which a Capcom representative, Seth Killian maybe?, promoted Lost Planet 2 as the 'Monster Hunter' of shooters, with slower, more deliberate movements as well as invincibility during rolls. It sounded right up my alley, and Lost Planet 2 delivered exactly what I wanted. But for whatever reason, probably because I heard it was quite different, I never cared about the first game. Well, things have changed, so it was high time I gave Capcom's first HD third-person shooter a try. It's pretty good.

 The story is set in the futuristic planet of E.D.N III, a planet that's completely covered in ice and snow, inhabited by monstruous creatures call the Akrids. Humans are attempting to colonize this world, you taking the role of Wayne, the lone survivor of a team of colonizers who get ambushed and crushed by the Green-eyed Akrid. Discovered by a group of Snow Pirates, and with no recollection of what happened to him before he froze, he'll do battle against Akrids and no-good humans in an effort to make discover his past and make E.D.N III great again. Or, y'know, habitable. The story is generic action-game nonsense, for good or bad. In a lot of ways, it feels like a PS2 game, and I that's a good thing, it's fun, it's dumb, it gets the job done.

 Lost Planet is, in a lot of ways, a fairly rudimentary third-person shooter. There's no cover-mechanic, rolling is incredibly counter intuitive(L3+Jump at the same time), no sprinting and Wayne himself is about as agile as a sack of rocks. He is so mobility-impaired that R1 and L1 are used to turn in 90 degree angles. It's clunky, it really is, but it sorta works. Movement is fairly slow-paced, but it feels kinda good having such weight behind your movement. Plus, you get a hookshot that can be used to scale buildings or barriers, as well as hooking onto larger monsters for more direct confrontations. Not that it's in your best interest, since Akrids have glowing orange body parts on which they receive extra damage. That said, even the hookshot is kinda clunky, with a relatively short range and the fact that you can't use it while jumping, so no crazy acrobatics here. Armaments are fairly basic too, an assault rifle, a shotgun, a rocket-launcher as well as a couple of Thermal energy-based weapons, Wayne only being able to carry two at a time. There are also two-handed versions of this weapons, which make Wayne fairly slow... but that's alright, since they are meant to be outfitted on a VS.

 VSs are giant robots Wayne and his human enemies can pilot. Once again, clunky is the word of choice when it comes to describing how they operate, that said, they are way faster than Wayne could ever hope to be, so they are pretty much always advantageous to ride. Plus, the extra fire power. There's a decent variety of VS, and there's always at least one per mission, they do break, so be careful. Regardless, the VSs are fun to ride, unless I had to, I'd always look for one, and it does add a bit of flavor to the game.

 There's one final mechanic I've neglected to mention since I've no particularly strong feelings about it: Thermal Energy. Being set in a frozen planet, you have to maintain your heat, which you do by amassing Thermal Energy, either by defeating Akrids(They drop more if you hit their shiny parts) or by activating T-Spots spread throughout each mission. T-Energy is spent by just breathing, and it's also your source of healing when you take damage, but certain actions, such as using Energy weapons, riding VSs or using their abilities(Jumping or boosting) consumes larger quantities of the energy source. If you run out of T-Energy you'll slowly start losing health until you die. I only died a couple of times because I ran out of T-Energy, but most of the time it's not really a problem. And while it sounds annoying, harvesting T-Energy wasn't too bad.

 The game itself is rather short, about 6 hours or so on the normal difficulty setting. There are no unlockables, although there are a few coins you can find for bragging rights only. While basic, the weighty feel the game has feels rather neat to play, and the VSs are a fun addition. That said, a few missions feel a bit half-baked, with huge open areas of which you only need to explore little of it, since your goals are always pretty clearly defined. At most you'll try to find Thermal Points, since activating them lets you see enemies on your radar as well as pointing you towards your objective. And, as large as some areas can appear, there's absolutely no reason to explore them since there are no real rewards for doing so. Once upon a time it also had an online multiplayer mode. Not anymore.

 I quite liked Lost Planet - Extreme Condition, but there's very little mass appeal in here. It has a few fun ideas, yes, but nothing you haven't seen before or done better elsewhere. It is a fun time, it really is, despite how simple the gameplay is, it carves its own identity by making everything feel heavy, yet the audiovisual feedback, the sounds of your steps, the sounds of your bullets digging into an Akrid's weakpoints makes it very gratifying. Y'know, it's quirky, it's janky and it fits right into my niche.
7.5 out of 10