Chasing Static is a horror adventure game developed by ‘Headware Games‘ and published by ‘Ratalaika Games‘. Chasing Static is said to be coming out the 12th of January 2023 on the Xbox Series X/S, Nintendo Switch, PS5 and PS4. It’s already out on the pc. X35 Earthwalker knows of many games and has taken notice of this one. Chasing Static has a usual setting. Let’s take a look.
Chasing Static is set in the “untouched wilderness of rural Wales.” Now this is unique. How many games can you name right now that is set in Wales? Exactly. So automatically we are interested a bit and listening. So basically what’s happening here in Chasing Static is that something mysterious and not good has happened to the villagers of Hearth. They are missing. There’s also a facility. You got no good information about this place. It’s clearly been abandoned… but like any “good” protagonist in a horror movie, who isn’t black, you’re going in to investigate.
Players will have to actually investigate what’s happening here. Use equipment and rely on your ears to understand what’s going on. Now take note that this is a short game. It’s been described as a bite sized terror. The average playtime is approximately 2 hours. You can tackle the story at your own pace as Chasing Static is suppose to be non-linear.
We checked out some Chasing Static gameplay and it’s what we expected. We do like that this game went for the whole PlayStation 1 (PS1) look. The graphics looks old but the sounds are suppose to be excellent. Think of it like the game Infernax… designed to look like an old school game but has modern mechanics, feel, sounds and design. So yeah, we can appreciate that from time to time.
Overall Chasing Static seems like an alright game. A quick horror experience for players. nothing deep but what should be a good experience. We do like the sound mechanics of it. There’s big scare opportunities for when player5s use the experimental Frequency Displacement Monitoring Device. Don’t waste it. The developers ‘Headware Games’ have done an alright job. This isn’t for X35 Earthwalker. Not our thing at all but others will be interested.
River City Girls 2 is a beat em up action game developed by ‘WayForward‘ and published by ‘Arc System Works‘. River City Girls 2 came out the 15th of December 2022 on the Xbox Series X/S, Nintendo Switch, PS5, PS4 and PC. X35 Earthwalker wrote about the first game. The second is here.These girls aren’t alone. Let’s take a look.
River City Girls 2 is here and off course being a sequel, it has to be bigger, more loaded and better. The story in River City Girls 2 takes place shortly after the first game. That old foe, who badly wants revenge, is back. This means the girls: Kyoko and Misako are back and kicking butt. So yeah, that’s the story. Fight!
River City Girls 2 is a sequel after all so that means there needs to be more. So Kyoko and Misako aren’t alone this time. They got some friends: Provie and Marian. These two ladies are bringing real firepower. Provie is literally bringing the groove with her dancing and heavy combo moves. Marian has transformed herself and is now all power with heavy moves. These two ladies make a difference. But wait!.. There’s more! Kunio and Riki is here to fight as well. We got some manpower on the team and we know that always comes in handy. So yeah, 6 fighters. Pick one.
We checked out some River City Girls 2 gameplay and it’s what we expected. It is bigger and more loaded. More locations and more abilities. “Lift-off combos”, elemental status effects and even guard-crush attacks, so deeper combat mechanics. There’s over 40 shops for players to buy accessories and items. Don’t forget to hire what’s called ‘heavies’ to support you. You can also recruit fallen foes. Best of all, River City Girls 2 is co-op both online and local. Games like this need co-op. Imagine Scott Pilgrim vs the world but no co-op. That would be terrible.
Overall River City Girls 2 looks like a good game. Definitely better than the last one. The big boss looks far more intimidating and powerful. Ken is an interesting character but we feel like he will made a complete joke in this game. There’s more options, more combat, more mechanics, more characters, more everything and it’s done in mostly the correct way. Animations are better too, especially the defeated ones. The developers ‘Wayforward’ have done a very good job. We at X35 Earthwalker will have to hear what this game accomplishes. Now River City Girls 2 may have reinforcements but it work work against… the ‘Earth Walk!’
Mech Armada is a tactical turn based game developed and published by ‘Lioncode games‘. Mech Armada is said to be coming out the 8th of December 2022 on the Xbox Series X, Xbox Series S, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch, PS5 and PS4. It’s already out on pc though. X35 Earthwalker is the best turn based strategy gamer in the world. Hopefully Mech Armada is good enough. Let’s take a look.
Mech Armada is all about putting players in control of mechs made for battle. These mechs are custom built and players are involved in them being built. There’s a whole roster of these mechs for you to build and off course upgrade. There’s said to be over 80 different parts. No mechs are the same as they have their own weaknesses and strengths.
Weapons? Let’s talk about it. The arsenal of weapons is what you’d expect from a variety of mechs. There’s guns, big guns, missile launchers, ray guns, flamethrowers and even fighter drones. Makes you wonder what else is available. Don’t forget that Mech Armada is turned based. So you know the function of these weapons will play around that. Costs, cool down, range, drawbacks etc. The campaign is described as rougelike. When you die, it’s final. You have to start again. It’s randomly generated. This means you’ll get new random encounters and mech parts. So yeah, make sure you have the ability to work with what you got.
There’s going to be battles for sure but your’re going up against the swarm. At the end of each area, you will face the major bosses of the swarm. They have been described as “massive, ugly and ridiculously tough.” Resource management is key in games like this. Either get good at this or fail every time. Now concerning the enemies we do wonder about a number of things. How difficult will the battles be. Will they be better balanced and controlled than Phoenix Point? We hope so. Here’s what the official website said “Understanding your enemy and anticipating their actions… observing the terrain ahead of you will determine your success.” Interesting.
We checked out some Mech Armada gameplay and it’s what we expected. We hear you can create thousands of unique combinations when it comes to the mechs. Every run will be different. They said “All the gameplay elements (monsters, maps, resources and rewards) are randomly combined and balanced ensuring no two battles are the same.” The areas will be different. The areas do look sort of after apocalypse type event. desert wastelands, busted up places and the areas just outside ruined cities. What’s also really nice is the auto save. Just makes things easier for gamers and puts our minds more at ease.
Overall Mech Armada looks like a nice game. We like the colours and the look of the game. The animations of the mechs are weak though. We also wanted more impact of the weapons when it hits enemies. There’s lots of options and the random generated factor adds to replayability and layers. We like to see it. We hope the enemies have certain behaviours but hope certain combinations raise the difficulty naturally. The developers ‘Lioncode games’ have done a nice job from what we can see. We at X35 Earthwalker will keep an ear open for this game. Now Mech Armada may have mechs vs swarms but that war is little league compare to… the ‘Earth Walk!’
The Awakening of Mummies is an action puzzle game developed and published by ‘Virtual Arts Studio‘. The Awakening of Mummies I said to be coming out the 16th of November 2022 on Xbox, 17th of November 2022 for Nintendo Switch. It’s already out on PC off course. Puzzles and mummies. X35 Earthwalker hasn’t got anything against mummies. Let’s take a look.
The Awakening of Mummies is very simple. There’s a pyramid. There’s many sleeping mummies. Cleo is an evil pharoah and she has imprisoned mummies. Strange right? Anywho… you have to wake them up and lead them out safely. There you go.
So this is where players puzzle solving skills are needed. The Awakening of Mummies keeps it simple. You will end up leading groups of mummies. There are dangers of course. There are wholes in the ground and even spikes which will kill your mummies. Avoid them. Make sure to collect the correct runes of each mummy and then get them all to their own totems… at the same time (we hear). Then just open the door and proceed to the next chamber in the pyramid.
We checked out some The Awakening of Mummies gameplay and it’s what we expected but simpler. The mummies are kind of cute. Got cartoony eyes and physics, like when they step over a hole. Keep them safe at all costs. Also Cleo is just there. She’s just chilling we guess. She can be seen and shoes just watching things happen. When you successfully get the mummies out she gets angry. So why won’t she do something? We see what this game is doing.
Overall The Awakening of Mummies seems like a good game for how simple it is. It’s nothing complicated. If you want a nice simple puzzle game with a classic style but cartoony then The Awakening of Mummies does that. It’s either you like games like this… or you don’t. That’s all. The developers ‘Virtual Arts Studio’ have done a good job with this game. We at X35 Earthwalker have conquered every puzzle he has faced. Now The Awakening of Mummies may have an evil Cleo but she ain’t a problem for… the ‘Earth Walk!’
The Darkest Tales is an action adventure platformer game developed by ‘Trinity Team‘ and published by ‘101xp‘. The Darkest Tales is said to be coming out the 13th October 2022 on the Xbox Series X/S, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch, PS5, PS4 and pc. The Darkest Tales is not about to have it easy. X35 Earthwalker will tell it as it is. Let’s take a look.
Let’s keep this simple. You are in the realm of dreams. This place is distorted childhood dreams as well. You are a teddy bear, a stuffed bear. No joke. You must save your owner, Alicia, from this place. This mission is not going to be sunshines and rainbows although you can expect some of that though. Dreams can be anything after all. Get ready for a fight.
Only the stuffed teddy can save Alicia in The Darkest Tales. Alicia is a grown up and only something from her past can do it. The Darkest Tales has aimed to be a deep and complex story. The games description said “you’ll have to come face-to-face with the difficult questions of life more than once.” Now this does get our attention a bit. Brace yourself.
The Darkest Tales is a game full of danger. So there’s going to be enemies. This nightmarish and distorted world. The fairy tail like place has recognisable locations and beings. Rubber duckies who are blood thirty, the little mermaid but she looks more like a sea witch than friendly, sleeping beauty is here too and she ain’t friendly or sweet either. Worse of all… there’s… there’s… violent gingerbread men! Not the gumdrop buttons!
Good thing this teddy bear ain’t no wuss. He built melee weapons and a bow. His arrows are needles. Even got a grappling hook too. Combat is a part of this game. You will need to time your attacks, get sort of tactical and deal with the obstacles. It does seem like there’s more than. one ending. We hope so. We don’t think The Darkest Tales has a deep combat system. Must be simple for what the game is and it’s style. We do lie the different types of enemies, including the big threats you have to avoid and run from. This game will need loads of surprises and some glimpses of dangers to come.
We checked out some The Darkest Tales gameplay and it’s almost what we expected. You are travelling from left to right, limbo and side scrolling style. The animations are very good though. This game has got good attention to details as well. The teddy bear can gain experience and get skills. Which suggests a skill tree. The combat is actually active and it isn’t the same but it reminds us of Ori and the Will of the Wisps. There’s got to be secrets in The Darkest Tales and maybe that’s what links to the multiple endings. There’s even a giants’ castle in the clouds… which needs exploring.
Overall The Darkest Tales seems like a cool and maybe freaky experience. A dream world that’s a nightmare. Traps, obstacles, enemies, evil forces and a way to fight back. The fairy tales will be distorted and ruined for you. How tough can one stuffed teddy bear be? The developers ‘Trinity Team’ have done a good job so far. We at X35 Earthwalker will have to keep an ear open for this game. The Darkest Tales may have a hero teddy bear but it’s not enough for… the ‘Earth Walk!’
Fuga: Melodies of Steel is a tactical role playing game that was developed by CyberConnect2. Fuga: Melodies of Steel was released on Xbox Series X/S, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch, PS5, PS4 and PC. This game is excellent. X35 Earthwalker is playing it now and it’s been a good treat so far. There’s a lot to say and talk about but we will try to keep it short. Let’s take a look.
Fuga: Melodies of Steel is all about a group of children, a dozen at most, who are controlling a tank. Why? Their village got raided by an invading military force and their families were taken captive. So They ended up finding a powerful tank called the Taranis. It’s massive and bigger than any other tank. It’s a super tank. They will use this to chase after the Berman army. Sounds like a plan. Right? It’s children after all.
We like the graphic style of Fuga: Melodies of Steel. It sort of reminds us of Astria Ascending. The game looks good. The characters look good and are distinct. The character designs alone give you a lot of information about the characters. That kind of designs top level and many people can’t do that. The story telling is effective. The voice of the lady communicating with the children sounds almost perfect. Sounds like a guardian… their guardian but who is this person? The illustrations + voice and the events work very well together. We already have characters we care about… a lot. X35 Earthwalker will not allow harm to come to these children.
The main thing about this game is the strategies. Fuga: Melodies of Steel has many mechanics that allow for deep strategies. It’s not just fire cannons at enemy tanks. Each tank has weaknesses that when exploited with a specific type of tank cannon, can cause the enemy vehicle to be delayed. Making them act later. The weapons have different damage and accuracy. Some enemies are harder to hit and so it’s wiser to use certain weapons against them. There’s status effects that can be inflicted like stun, burn and smoke (here’s more). Smoke reduces their accuracy and burn inflicts damage after each action. Special abilities and attacks require SP to use. Another resource to manage. Some enemies have armour which reduce the damage they take but there are special ammo and abilites that can get rid of the armour. There’s buffs you can give to individual characters or there whole team like increasing luck, speed or damage. We can explain more but lets’ keep it short.
The strategies don’t end on the battlefield. There’s more thinking required during the intermissions. During the intermission you have 20 AP (action points). Having the children talk to each other, to build their relationships, costs AP. Planting seeds to grow crops cost AP. So does, fishing for scrap and cooking a meal. Why are you doing any of this? They all yield great benefits. Building relationships allows for link attacks and stronger support effects. Growing crops produce ingredients for cooking. Cooking meals gives buffs to your characters. Scrap fishing creates a chance to obtain materials. Materials are needed to upgrade the Taranis. Upgrades include more health, damage and maximum SP. You never have enough AP to do everything you want or need. You have to decide what to do, prioritise and conclude what’s most important. You’ll understand easily when you play it. Bottom line, you’ll redoing heavy thinking both in and out of combat. Nothing must be wasted. Every decision and move counts. Even the paths you take on your journey, safe, normal and dangerous matters. Tactical gamers and players with some intelligence will thrive here. Off course no gamer is even close to X35’s intelligence.
Overall Fuga: Melodies of Steel is a fantastic game. Graphics, sounds, story, emotions, investment, decisions and deepness of strategies are all very good. The animations of the Taranis are weak though. There’s seriously more to the strategies. There’s the link attacks which are powerful and must be unlocked through a bond between characters and then charged up. Then there’s ‘Hero mode’. This is where things get real crazy. Maybe we will go over more of this stuff another time. Fuga: Melodies of Steel is available on the Xbox Game Pass right now. Fuga: Melodies of Steel isn’t normally our type of game but this game has been a real treat for sure. X35 Earthwalker is invested. There you go. We tried to keep this short. Fuga: Melodies of Steel is worth checking out if you have the brains for it.
Moonscars is an action adventure platformer game developed by Black Mermaid and published by ‘Humble Games‘. Moonscars is said to be coming out then 27th of September 2022 on the Xbox Series X, Xbox Series S, Nintendo Switch, PS5, PS4 and PC. Moonscars is brining in that dark tone for sure. X35 Earthwalker sees many games try to do it right. Let’s take a look.
Moonscars has a weird story going on here. Basically players control a weird dude named Grey Irma, who’s described as the ‘fierce clayborne warrior’. You strike under moonlight. Your purpose? “Finding the Sculptor, and unravel the mystery of her existence”. Yes. That’s it. That’s definitely lame and we aren’t impressed right now. Obviously when you play the game you will get more information. What’s not lame is how Moonscars looks. That’s more interesting. More on that later.
Moonscars is set in a 2D dark, sad world filled with shadows, evil and despair. The darkness here wants to destroy you. Like seriously. Nothing here wants to sit down and have tea with you. It’s one of those games where the difficulty is said to be high and so the player is expected to die… a lot. With each death, the player is expected to learn from it and become better. In Moonscars, death is an opportunity. To “mold yourself into a master warrior”. We will leave that there.
Moonscars does look good. Not very good but good for sure. The world looks depressing, sad and dark. You don’t want to be here. Even our character looks the opposite of positive. The background fits well with the game and the location. The animations are very good for the graphic style. The attacks look well defined and very clear. The running animation isn’t good though.
We checked out some Moonscars gameplay and it’s what we expected. Run around, explore, slash, jump and die. You can parry strikes and create openings for yourself. Time your dodges and be patient for some enemies. Moonscars will not be a merciful game. That’s the expectation but we wonder about the amount of hand holding in this game. We do want to see more though.
Overall Moonscars is a good game from what we can see so far. We do want more information. Beises your slashing players can also use special weapons. There’s also magic that you can use. A game like Moonscars definitely needs magic or some sort of mystical power. There is room for bosses of variety in this world. The developers ‘Black Mermaid’ have done an alright job so far. We at X35 Earthwalker will have to keep an ear open concerning this game. Now Moonscars may have darkness and death holding but it’s all weak stuff in the eyes of… the ‘Earth Walk!’
Immortals Fenyx Rising is an open world action adventure game that came out on the Xbox Series X, Xbox Series S, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch, PS5 and PS4. Immortals Fenyx Rising is another game that’s being slept on heavily and it’s sad to see it. X35 Earthwalker have been taking this game seriously so far. This game is fantastic and more gamers should have been talking about it. Immortals Fenyx Rising came out in 2020.
Immortals Fenyx Rising is set in greek mythology. So expect all the scum bag false gods to be here. Especially the worst of them all… zeus. We like how the game portrays zeus as an idiot and scum bag but in a humorous way. The humour is good and we get a lot of it through almost all the characters. Our character Fenyx has some good moments and a few times Fenyx is just annoying. Hermes is typical but more cowardly here… but it works. Prometheus and zeus having their dialogue and telling the story of your adventure. Immortals Fenyx Rising is a the main character is a nobody loser who grows to become great and powerful.
The combat is not complicated or difficult. It’s got enough room for strategy and variations in combat style but simple enough that pretty much anyone can get into. Making Immortals Fenyx Rising friendly for new gamers and veterans of combat. Open world games, well the good ones anyways will have a lot going on. There’s many missions from racing from one point to another within a time limit, doing a hunt to find a treasure chest, firing an arrow through obstacles and paths ‘wanted’ style and straight up combat to the death. Nothing complicated here.
Opening chests, completing objectives throughout the map brings rewards in the form of resources, new gear and armour variations. The map is very big and there’s different areas with their own style and theme. There’s 7 in total and all are loaded with stuff to do. Immortals Fenyx Rising has options for travelling. There’s sprint which works well, there’s mounts which if you get a high grade one has tons of stamina. There’s also fast travel which can be used on vaults and giant statues. So getting around isn’t a problem. What’s satisfying though is being up somewhere high and then jumping off to glide and boost all the way to another location. Makes you wan to try.
Gear makes all the difference in Immortals Fenyx Rising. Your helmet, armour, weapons and arrows can all be upgraded from defence, to number of arrows to straight up damage. Each of the armours and helmets have an effect like 40% damage increase after a parry or 10% damage increase. There’s armour sets too. What sucks is that most of the effects of the armour are bad or it’s a ‘why should I pick this when another armour gives something better’ situation. They need to improve that for sure.
There’s lots to say about Immortals Fenyx Rising. Lots more but we won’t. X35 Earthwalker is having a great time for sure. There’s such more to do, explore and see. Immortals Fenyx Rising is currently available in the Xbox Game Pass. Immortals Fenyx Rising may be a fantastic game but it’s whole world is too small for… the ‘Earth Walk!’
Little Orpheus is a side scrolling adventure game developed by ‘The Chinese Room‘ and published by ‘Secret Mode‘. Little Orpheus is said to be coming out the 13th of September 2022 on the Xbox Series X, Xbox Series S, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch, PS5, PS4 and pc. Little Orpheus trying to make something big happen. X35 Earthwalker like games that go big and not home. Let’s take a look.
Little Orpheus has an interesting story going on here. Players control a cosmonaut dude named Ivan Ivanovich. The year is 1962. The location is Soviet Siberia. Ivan is dropped into an extinct volcano in the Little Orpheus… which is his exploration capsule. The mission is to explore the centre of the Earth. He disappears… but three years later he’s back with claims that he saved the world. Also his capsule, the ‘Little Orpheus’ was powered by a nuclear bomb. He returns without that too. So yeah, the people in charge are mad. He has to explain what happened. So he recalls the events. These events is your gameplay. He is telling the story.
So according to Ivan a whole lot of stuff happened on his adventure. Forests, civilisations, water, facilities and more. There’s numerous places in this game which have very different looks and environments. We like the areas in Little Orpheus. It’s a side scrolling game, so like Infernax, Limbo and Greak: memories of azur, what you see is what you get. So be observant and take in everything on the screen. The details should be fantastic. Modern Side scrolling games tend too.
Now a game like this would be beautiful but get boring fast. Little Orpheus doesn’t have an empty world. There’s living creatures and sentient beings here. This includes giant creatures, monsters and other hostile beings. There’s dinosaurs who want a meal, giant bugs who want to get some nutrients (by eating you) and even larger threats. Players will need to use their wits (if they have any), quick thinking and observation skills to survive through this. Shouldn’t be too hard… right?
We checked out some Little Orpheus gameplay and it’s what we though it would be. Matter of fact it heavily reminds us of ‘Planet Alpha‘. Both games had imaginary and big beautiful worlds. Both games have life in them with creatures and cool environments. both main characters are space looking dudes like travellers. Both have dangers and giant creatures which will end you if you aren’t careful. Let’s hope that Little Orpheus isn’t a baby difficulty game and has some challenge with maybe some scares. Games like this need to make sure to be as memorable as possible.
Overall Little Orpheus has very good potential. We like the different environments and how good they look. We like that something may be following you in the background and we hope that only observant players can spot them before the counter. Not every main threat should have this though. We hope the survival and encounters are realistic. Graphics are good but we expected a bit better. The developers ‘Chinese Room’ have done a very good game so far. We at X35 Earthwalker will see if Little Orpheus ticks off the boxes.
White Day: A Labyrinth Named School is a survival horror game developed by ‘Sonnori‘ and published by ‘PQube‘. White Day: A Labyrinth Named School is said to be coming out September 8th 2022 on the Xbox Series X, Nintendo Switch, PS5 and PS4. It came out years ago on pc and many knew about this game. X35 Earthwalker knows this game very well. We hope some things have changed though. Let’s take a look.
White Day: A Labyrinth Named School was. A very popular game. Many people made gameplay video of this game. To simply explain the story of this game. You control a dude named Lee. He enters the school after it’s closed for the day. More like snuck in. He did this to return an item that a girl dropped and left behind. Problem;em is… this school has many problems. Some are supernatural. It ain’t safe up in here.
The big problem that White Day: A Labyrinth Named School will have is that it already went viral. It went big. Now it’s coming out just on the consoles? That isn’t enough. There needs to be more to this game. Well… we hear there is. Apparently there’s all new visuals, which was clearly needed. New audio effects too. There’s a brand new character! New scenario and best of all “reimagined ghosts”. Apparently there’s also special endings too. So there is some new stuff.
The reimagined ghost is what we are most interested in for White Day: A Labyrinth Named School. The ghosts and the strange supernatural stuff was the best things overall. Were hope the ghosts looks more threatening, sound more terrifying or creepy. We want new ghosts too. There isn’t much but there’s room for new things and action. They have to supe this game up.
We checked out some White Day: A Labyrinth Named School gameplay and it’s what we expected. We do want to see more from this game though. It still doesn’t feel like enough. We know that there’s the famous and loved, while hated, janitor. The janitor is back and he’s got his baseball club. Ready to beat students over the head just like old times.
Overall White Day: A Labyrinth Named School is a good game for sure. Characters, actions, hunters, ghosts, tons of secrets, multiple endings and an angry janitor. We also heard there is also 30+ additional costumes for all characters. So we are checking those out. The developers ‘Sonnori’ have done a good job so far. We at X35 Earthwalker will have to see what else this game pulls out. White Day: A Labyrinth Named School may have reimagined ghosts but those are spooky enough for… the ‘Earth Walk!’
