Tag: Platformer

Indivisible. Another awesome adventure

Posted on by X35 Earthwalker

Indivisible is a RPG platformer game that was developed by ‘Lab Zero Games‘. Indivisible came out on Xbox One, PS4 and PC. Right of the truck etc just say this is an awesome game. This is once again another awesome game that didn’t get enough attention. Silly games like Among us gets attention but not Indivisible. It’s the world we live in. We have beaten the whole game, written about it before, had a lot fun and so here’s our views. Let’s take a look.

Indivisible has many strong points but our favourite has to be the characters. From their design to most specifically their interactions with each other. As you go through the game you’ll meet a whole host of different characters with very different designs from each other. Very different. Our favourite characters are Thorani, Zebei and off course Dhar. The characters have made us laugh more than once. We have cared about some characters, one by far the most. Before all that though take some time to actually look how Zebei fires his bow with his up-based attack where he’s in the air. He got too much skill and swag.

Our favourite scene of character interaction has to be when Thorani, Zebei, Baozhai, Dhar and Ajna tried the strong alcohol during their escape from the slime at the iron kingdom. It had everything. Clear relationships between certain characters, age reveals, behaviour, humour and more. That moment when Kushi asked to try the drink and Zebei simply said “None for you child” then kushi got upset just made us laugh and reminds us of a father with a daughter or big brother little sister sort of relationship. It makes sense as Zebei is a full fledge protector while kushi is an apprentice. Zebei is responsible for her. We learnt that Dhar is 20 years old while Ajna is 16 (clearly). Thorani is the clear mother of the group and clearly mature and behaves wonderfully. An excellent example woman. We won’t cover everything as you should see for yourself but Dhar can’t handle his drinks and Baozhai is a fun strong person to have around.  

Next let’s talk about the adventure itself. It’s a big game. You won’t complete this in two hours. You seat in an Ashwat village, then get to a Flying Fortress, then reach Mt Sumeru, then a desert, then a lovely city at the end of the desert with a port, water, merchants, everything. Then the adventure becomes less linear and opens up for access to three more places: Iron kingdom, Tai Krung and Kaanul. We enjoyed the variety of environments and each place is very different from each other which is a good thing. Tai Krung is basically china town but for some reason has reggae music. Hey! Shut up! That background level music wasn’t chinese. It was reggae, off course a bit of a twist to it but reggae nonetheless. Iron kingdom is clearly the military power country with machinery and advanced technology. Kaanul is so nature based with trees, plants, temple styled buildings and more. It’s a jungle. These levels also have a Metroid feel to it in terms of you can’t go through here because you need a certain ability. So you go to another place to learn it and progress. Lots of travelling to and fro through the places.

Next let’s talk about the combat. It’s so different from other games. We like and respect uniqueness. You start with two characters and one button on your controller controls one character’s actions like ‘A’ button and the other button like ‘B’ controls the other. You use those buttons to attack AND to defend. To get a perfect defence you need to time it and press the button at the same time as the  attack comes in from enemies. So it can get confusing at first. An enemy will choose who to attack or both and you must control the right character for defending and attacking. Then you will have four characters fo A for one, B for 2, Y for three and X for four if on Xbox for example. This is where some peoples brains can get confused. Holding up or down while pressing the button does a different attack from default. There are advanced combat techniques too. So you have to remember and juggle all this information at the same time. Seeing new players trying to manage all this is funny. You get use to it quickly though. The combat has layers to it from juggling enemies to generate more iddhi, to combo-ing into an ultimate back into a juggle etc. 

Another great thing about Indivisible is that we could easily understand the characters. What they are about, their mentality and what their negatives or issues were. We understood Gingseng’s passion for botany and his goals. We knew he would be honoured to study under angwu at the tower of wisdom. Gingseng for the most part was normal. We liked him. Ajna right from the start we knew she was a typical troublesome teenager. She wakes up late, not very responsible person, backchats and argues with her dad over everything. Even a smack across the head doesn’t help (if she had a Jamaican dad her attitude would change). She claims she listens while interrupting people. You just knew she had to go on a journey or maturing, listening and being a better person. It was good to see her development. She cares though, values friendships greatly, loves to help others, determined to help the world and right her wrongs. Thorani is empathetic, sense others feelings like if they are sincere or not. She has a strong desire to want to help others and cares for others. Even calling Ajna and others her children (well she is old enough). We knew her problem would be that she would want to help others so badly that she is willing to over tax herself. Risk or harm herself in the process. She also doesn’t open up to others has much and keeps it in. Sure she’s over a thousand years old and can’t relate woman problems to 16 year old immature Ajna but there’s Zebei who’s an adult. Phoebe was married so she can understand. Baozhai is a no no as she might make some moves if you know what we mean. So not her.    

The game wasn’t cryptic at all. Most stuff was easy to figure out, a good amount of clues was given concerning what to do but the game didn’t hold your and. There were secrets to find, hidden characters to discover, ways to upgrade yourself through the ringsels. Each character had a personal mission of their own for you to discover and complete which results in… we aren’t entirely sure what the benefit is except sometimes getting a new costume. We think the characters gets stronger too as they get way more hearts which the game didn’t explain by the way. We believe they get stronger, the new customer is cool though. We didn’t even get an achievement for completing all of them. Their own personal quests were fun to pursue and complete though. It definitely relates with the character in some way and were for the most part interesting. The most unique character was Zahra. gamerant are terrible at analysis and overall not good gamers as they said she was a terrible character in combat and not worth a space. They are so wrong. So they lost any credibility they had with us. Zahra buffs your team one by one and you can stack the buffs which are speed, damage and defense. The buffs are gone if you get hit. You need to perfect block with her to keep the buffs. So if you are skilled you can stack speed, damage and defence boosts on all characters which makes them very powerful. Zebei with a speed boost makes him so fast it’s actually over powered. We have seen Zebei use all his attacks, run back, recharge and go back in before the other characters even get a chance. Zahra is amazing. 

Most characters have their own clear uses while there are some who are basically useless from a combat perspective. For example Yan just gets outclassed in damage, juggle and effects. Naga rider is a better version of her when it comes to juggling, ultimates and straight up damage (unless there’s something we don’t know). Zebei is faster than her. We don’t see a reason to use her. Kushi and Altun get outclassed by Tungar for area of effect damage. Her ability to fly isn’t as useful as you think, quite limited. The dog Lanshi hasn’t impressed us. The dog is for set ups and we definitely like how different the dog operates from the other characters though. Sadly Baozhai isn’t good either. Her default attack does no damage but powers up the cannons which aren’t impressive damage and can hurt our own teammates, so little to no combo potential. It would have been good if all characters had their own use or advantages. Even Phoebe eventually got replaced on our team and we liked her.

Another negative about Indivisible is that we started new game plus but there’s nothing so far that’s different about the game. We even saw someone claim there’s nothing different. Ajna has different colour hair, and has the same design as the new Ajna after her interaction with Kala but still no difference. We thought maybe what she says would be different or maybe the characters would recognise her and engage with her differently. Off course we haven’t finished new game plus but so far everything is the same which is very disappointing. We also noticed a very small map mistake where the ma shows you there’s an incarnation (blue flame symbol) on the map when there isn’t. 

Here’s two more negatives we had with Indivisible. First is a secret hidden boss called meownster. We found this secret boss and we are sorely disappointed. First of all it looked stupid. We just a huge disappointed sigh when we first found it. That’s not how a powerful super strong final boss should look. Kala looked cool but meownster was lame. Next it was badly designed. You take its life down and it then gets a bit bigger and gets full health back. You do this 5 more times and you wonder how many times do you have to beat it. It’s annoying when you have no idea. It then gets stronger moves with a few that can one shot your entire team. The entire boss fight was boring, it was long, we couldn’t be bothered and worst of all, you don’t get anything for doing it. No over powered move/ability, no epic custom, no cheat menu no nothing. Don’t waste your time on this boss. Not worth it.

The last thing that was a negative that we certainly hated was Ajna’s tribute to Dhar. Spoiler alert. We were mad that Dhar died. Made us not want to continue playing. He sacrificed himself for the Ajna, for the team. Ajna finds his sword and her tribute to him was that she didn’t like him, blames him, will never forgive him but thanks him for preventing her from becoming something she would hate. That’s it! What kind of bullcrap tribute it that for someone who went on a whole adventure to you, dedicated himself to help you save the world, the first person you encounter (not on good terms) and last of all gives his life to help you, for the mission. We disliked Ajna after that. We didn’t care about her anymore. We were done. We don’t care if Dhar killed her dad and that she’s 16. Childish or not. Let’s defend Dhar. Dhar killed her dad yes but they were on opposing sides of a battle and normally in battles and wars one side loses and people die. Dhar was raised in a lying dictatorship like country in an army that believes what they are doing is right. He was indoctrinated as he grew up. He knew no better. Ajna and the crew fought and most likely killed many beings and people on their journey like the soldiers of the iron kingdom. How many of them were dads, brothers, sons, husbands etc. She didn’t care… but when it’s her dad its bad. That’s called battle, war whatever. Dhar learnt the truth, admitted what he did was wrong and explained how he was indoctrinated and thought his leader would help bring world peace but Ajna still won’t forgive him after death. Lame. Pathetic. Forget Ajna and her stupid tribute, rather they didn’t have that scene. Dhar is our favourite character.   

Here’s another good thing about Indivisible. The final boss and main villain of the game is Kala. She looks cool, clearly powerful and has her own issues and story. Even Kala does through some development and learning too. Every encounter with Kala was a good one. At the start of the game we thought she was some particle thing ike energy. Then we see she has a body and solid form. She is huge and can step on you. The final battle is completely different from everything else we ever faced. The very end where we had no hope of beating her due to her power but by remembering the basics of solid defense you out last Kala’s assault. Kala was a great villain. She made sense, especially in terms of combat and power. Unlike other video games like god of war where kratus is able to kill zeus who is supposed to be the strongest of all the gods by far and way superior to kratus. In Indivisible it makes sense that Ajna is no match for Kala and can’t beat her. It’s realistic in that sense. So victory must be taken in another way. It was exciting to be right outside of Kala’a area about to head in to settle the fight. 

Overall Indivisible is an excellent game. We had lots of fun playing it. 100%-ing this game isn’t really hard. Just got to put in time. The bosses were cool to face with the serpent queen being the most cryptic. For a bit we didn’t know what we were suppose to do at one point. Off course we aren’t going to go over every little thing. Oh by the way. Everyone go get this game. It’s available on the Xbox game pass (greatest deal in video game history). We literally just surfed the game pass and saw this game and was like yes we get to play it. Downloaded it and had a great time. Indivisible is an adventure that you have to go on. We didn’t talk about the clear cultural inspiration for this game. Indivisible is a 9/10 for us. Try it for yourself. Truly an amazing game. Now Indivisible may be an amazing game but it’s nothing special if you compare it to… the ‘Earth Walk!’

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Inmost. Dark, atmospheric and action

Posted on by X35 Earthwalker

Inmost is a horror puzzle platformer game developed by ‘Hidden Layer Games‘ and published by ‘Chucklefish‘. Inmost came out on Nintendo Switch, iMac and PC. Inmost isn’t our type of game . It’s pixel styled and very simple controls. It did catch out attention at some point we can tell it is very good. Let’s take a look. 

Inmost is quite simple to understand. It’s a dark, sad world with danger. You play as three different characters: A knight, a stranger and a little girl but yet their stories are interconnected. The story isn’t suppose to be pleasant. There’s a warning on their website which says, “player discretion is advised. INMOST is an intimate story of loss and hope that some may find upsetting.” That should tell you quite a lot. You see. little girl get neglected, mistreated, afraid, bad dad, she cut herself and the mum didn’t care at all. Abuse, kidnapped children, a cursed knight, etc. This game is dark but the monsters are darker. This is a shorter game as it’s been described as something you are suppose to play and finish in one go on a dark stormy night. 3-5 hours long. 

When you play as the little girl it’s the heaviest with narrative and story driven. There’s no actual enemy or danger but just figuring out what needs t be done. You may need to move a table or chair. Carry certain things around the house. You even play hide and seek with a toy who thew girl has conversations with. You see her pain and what she goes through. With the stranger it’s the main part of the game. You platform, move around, evade hazards and dangerous creatures, you climb, collect items, cut away tall grass, break down weak walls, mine things, break down wooden structures and use your wits and to defat your enemies and survive. The knight is the action part of the game. You actually aren’t defenceless. You can slash and destroy your enemies easily, dash, grapple around etc. As the knight you are powerful and can take a hit before dying. Three different styles. 

The game is very silent for the most part which is a type of atmosphere still. Your footsteps and pulling stuff and interactions with environment are louder than anything else. So when something actually happens it acts as an alarm, alerting the player to take action. Some dangers are just like traps, a tentacle on the ceiling while others are small dark substances on the ground waiting for you to walk over it. Then there’s real threats like real monsters that pop up and chase you down. Dangerous and very hostile. You can beat them as the stranger and need to hide, out climb, duck and outsmart them. Players will need to think fast and do the right things to survive. It is a simple game at the end of the day with move, jump and action. It’s simple but very well done. Sounds, lighting, music and different play styles work well together. Not everything is consistent though like with the girl voice narrating the first section of the knight. You don’t hear her again until much later.

We checked out some Inmost gameplay and what it says on the box is what you are getting. It is dark as in there will be candles, fire, lights with some stuff you can’t see yet. Very atmospheric as most of the time things are quiet and your actions, movement are the loudest things in the game. Horror well the game itself isn’t scary but there are shadow and monsters of darkness that are real aggressive and jump out to get you. Thinking is needed to get through the area, and evade death and there is definitely platforming. Expecting climbing, jumping, moving stuff etc. The game is very simple to understand and it’s almost always clear what you have to do. The music or lack off does act to the atmopshere. The story was very predictable though even though they didn’t well to add emotions, sadness and disaster. The story connects up concerning the three characters you play in the game.  

Overall Inmost is a good game. It does what it said it would do, provides different styles of gameplay through the characters, a variety of enemies, dangers and even threats you will have to face later. Players have to be focused when playing and get strategic at times. Inmost’s graphics for a pixel style game is excellent. The music is very well done and adds to the experience. We didn’t get scared or emotional at all though so it failed there for us. The developers ‘Hidden Layer Games’ have done a very good job with this game. It something a number of gamers would get into. We at X35 Earthwalker  like this game and know it’s good even though it isn’t our style or our thing. Inmost may be telling a dark sad story but it has no effect on… the ‘Earth Walk!’

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Fury Unleashed. unleashed real soon

Posted on by X35 Earthwalker

Fury Unleashed is a new rough lite action platform game developed and published by ‘Awesome Games Studio‘. Fury Unleashed is said to be coming out the 8th of May 2020 on the Xbox One,  Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4 and PC. We never heard about this game but we know there’s a whole lot of shooting and battling to be done here. Let’s take a look.

What’s the story? We don’t know. What we do know is that there’s a number of things going on in the game mechanics. This is what their official site said, “each kill you score increases your combo. Hit certain thresholds and your damage resistance and healing powers will kick in!” Fury Unleashed promotes destroying your enemies fast and using your rage. It’s all action, action and action.  

Since they strongly encourage you to beat the game in one go, you can expect permadeath. Yes, Fury Unleashed has permadeath and the random generated levels means you will have your typical rouge lite game. So don’t die. The positive is that you get natural replayability. Whenever we think of permadeath and random generated levels, Spelunky comes into our heads.  

Fury Unleashed has differently difficulties. Hard mode is said to truly put the players to the test. Easy mode gives players the options to adjust things like the difficulty parameters to their liking.  We always say it but giving gamers options and variety are good things. 

Now there’s quite a lot to the customisation. There are design options in Fury Unleashed. Wear weird armour, funky helmets, change face, change hair and even “replace their face graphic with your own.” Not many games allow stuff like that but this allows payers to truly make their character their own. You can even set your characters skills. Like with set-able skills and abilities in all games, best to go for what suits your style first. 

Even though it is random generated, some levels are hand designed. This means there’s something significant about those levels so be on the lookout and pay attention to details in the levels themselves. There are some permanent  upgrades you can unlock. These upgrades stay with you even after you die. So there is a form of progression to increase your odds overtime.

The developers said this, “Fury Unleashed was created by combining inspiration from modern roguelite platformers, like Dead Cells and Rogue Legacy, with nostalgic memories of old-school platformer shooters, like Contra and Metal Slug. We have spent five years polishing our creation to make sure that your experience with the game will be as memorable as the aforementioned titles and we wholeheartedly believe that you won’t be disappointed.”

We checked out some Fury Unleashed gameplay and it’s what we expected bu the action is higher though. You are definitely fighting through a comic book which is a cool style. Each level comic book has their own enemies and environment design. Distinction is important and the level are distinct from each other. We’ve got jungles, buildings, bases etc. Worse of all is that there are 40 bosses! They are big and are definitely distinct from each other. Spelunky had one boss. We’ve seen a giant attack helicopter, organic plant monster, a viper warrior beast and more. They look cool… most of them.

Overall Fury Unleashed looks like a good game. Lots of time and work has gone into it’s development and you will understand when you research the development history of Fury Unleashed. We definitely love that there’s co-op. Playing with friends or family always makes a difference. We like the variety in the bosses and that they clearly stand out for this style. The developers ‘Awesome Games Studio’ have done a good job with this game. We at X35 Earthwalker will have to see what happens with Fury Unleashed. Now Fury Unleashed may have serious action but it’s all baby stuff compared to the adventures off… the ‘Earth Walk!’

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Ori and the Will of the Wisps. Cool

Posted on by X35 Earthwalker

Ori and the Will of the Wisps is an adventure platform sequel developed by ‘Moon studios‘ and published by ‘Xbox Game Studios‘. Ori and the Will of the Wisps is said to be coming out the 11th of March 2020 on the Xbox One and PC. May also come to Nintendo Switch (maybe). Ori is back and this time it’s a much bigger adventure. Let’s take look.

Now if you played the first game, Ori and the Blind Forest, then you should have a very good idea of what to expect from Ori and the Will of the Wisps. The style is the same which is a good thing as that style works and many players liked it. You once again control Ori that little spirit guardian but this time there’s an owl and this owl is a useful ally in your adventure. Speaking of adventure expect a bigger and more epic one this time around. It has also been made clear that in Ori and the Will of the Wisps that you’ll get to uncover Ori’s true destiny.

The Ori and the Will of the Wisps official website made it clear that it’s going for an emotional story as well. This should give experienced gamers an idea of what direction this game is going for. This world you will explore has far more sites and environments to be seen and from what we have seen so far, it looks wonderful. From the icy cave areas, to the wildlife and stuff going on in the background of forests, to the sun rays slipping through the trees u=in a forest and even the different colours. We like when developers throw creativity into their games and they have done that with the environments and world in Ori and the Will of the Wisps. 

There are a bunch of new characters in Ori and the Will of the Wisps. They will help you discover Ori’s true destiny. Remember that owl we mentioned? Well let’s just say another familiar looking character will be there to help too. Expect a whole new shard system. Ori’s abilities can be powered up turning Ori into something more dangerous than cute. Ori now has new attacks and weapons. This is always exciting to see in a sequel. There are new skills, combat mechanics, spirit weapons and spells for players to learn and put to good use.

Now this is what many have been waiting for and that’s the huge monsters and creatures that have no problem getting rid of Ori. Well in Ori and the Will of the Wisps, they are bigger and scarier than before. There’s also going to be some escape sequences too as at times it’s wiser to get away than to face it. Expect a giant bird monster, giant wolf, giant spider and more. So far, our favourite thing about Ori and the Will of the Wisps is the giant boss monsters. They fit in so well and look like a legitimate threat.   

There are additional things in Ori and the Will of the Wisps like the spirit trials. Basically it’s time trial. So go as fast as you can. Be an Ori and the Will of the Wisps speed runner with challenges. 

We checked out some Ori and the Will of the Wisps gameplay and it’s basically what we expected. It’s a lot of action. You will be running, jumping, dashing, fighting, thinking quick, solving and platforming. We need to see more to understand the mixture of combat and platforming. The environments again look wonderful and we truly like the design and threat of the big monsters. We also liking the flow of the combat and how smooth it is. Even better gamers can expect to experience Ori and the Will of the Wisps in 4K and HDR on the Xbox One X and Windows 10.

Overall, Ori and the Will of the Wisps looks like a very good game. We just hope that the developers are smart enough to not make similar mistakes when it comes to the story since it’s suppose to be emotional. We won’t give away the answers. We also hope that Ori’s interaction with the giant monsters is believable. These monsters have to be a real threat. The graphics are amazing, the environment designs are also amazing. The developers have done a very good job with this game. We at X35 Earthwalker will keep an eye on this game. Now Ori and the Will of the Wisps may be a big adventure but it’s still tiny when compared to… the ‘Earth Walk!’

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Stela. Dangerous world coming soon

Posted on by X35 Earthwalker

Stela is a new cinematic adventure platformer developed and published by ‘SkyBox Labs‘. Stela is said to be coming out the the 17th of October 2019 on the Xbox One. So far Stela can be called an Xbox exclusive. It’s said to be coming to PC in the first quarter of 2020. Stela is going to get a familiar reaction from some gamers. Let’s take a look.

In the world of Stela players control a girl who’s basically in a mysterious world at it’s last moments. She’s around to witness the final days of this place. Is the girls name Stela? We don’t know. Probably. This world id far from normal though. Sure there’s buildings are areas just like earth but it’s what’s happening here that’s different. There’s dangerous terrains and even creatures that are very hostile. In Stela you must use your head, think and navigate your way through this world.

Doesn’t Stela remind you off something? Perhaps another game. When we saw this we instantly thought of Limbo and Inside. It’s basically the same style. You have literally no defenses, so you must run, hide, jump, dodge to survive and progress through this world. Except Stela is taking a slightly different direction. Slightly. In Limbo and Inside, there wasn’t really any enemies. You were trying to survive and navigate mainly the environment and hazards. Stela actually has creatures and monsters that can and will kill you. This is something that Inside tried to slightly do by bringing in humans who try to get you but it’s not enough for gamers like us. 

Concerning the enemies we have seen some. There is a good variety for sure. We have seen a giant tentacle snake monster that looks hostile. There is even desert creatures that move and hunt through the sand. There’s even a long limbed tall creature that seems to be related to slender man. There’s crocodile creatures, giant beetles that all seem to have something against you. All this does more than just add threats to he game. It adds surprise, makes players wonder what else is out there and can add some fear. This was what Inside needed to have. We want to know what other creative threats are out there in the world of Stela.

Stela is not just an platformer but decsribed as cinematic which means get ready to take in the surroundings and everything that’s on the screen. Watch the action unfold. So the developers by having cinematic as a genre is telling us that there’s a deep story behind Stela. As in something is going on. After all it’s suppose to be world at it’s last moments. Most likely lore about what happened, why it’s dying and maybe how to stop it. A good story that you are trying to uncover always work well with games like this.

We checked out some Stela gameplay and it’s what we though it would be but a bit cooler. Since you know it’s like Limbo and Inside, gamers should know what to expect. We are liking the variety in the environment though. We know there are what look like lava caves, there’s haunting forests, towns and even large ruins but subterranean. Each environment has different environmental hazards and even enemies. Lots of action to look forward to. We like what we see.

Overall Stela looks like a really good game. The graphics are excellent. The sounds are very good. The level designs and environemnts are excellent too. The creativity is there. The developers of Limbo and Inside, Playdead have got some competition now. The developers ‘SkyBox Labs’ have done a veryg ood job with this game. We X35 Earthwalker look forward to seeing Stela come out and make an impact. Now Stela may take place in a mysterious world but one thing that takes place in the real world is… the ‘Earth Walk!’

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Ascendance – First Horizon. 3D platformer

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Ascendance – first horizon is a new first person platformer game developed and published by ‘Onevision‘. It came out the 10th of May 2019 on the Xbox One and. bit later on PC (steam). This game is suppose to giver players a different experience. Let’s take a look.

In Ascendance – first horizon, there isn’t that much of a story really. It’s just the players going on a journey. This whole Ascendance world is suppose to be magical to some extent and off course not realistic. Off course you are up in the sky which is why your platforming skills better be at least half decent. This game is suppose to be relaxing, so no tension, no stakes, nothing. Players just take their time through the whole thing.

Now Ascendance – first horizon should remind some gamers of other games with similar styles like Beyond Blue, Shape of the World and Abzu. They are similar because it’s all about the atmosphere, relaxing, calm and no danger at all. There are no enemies or threats lurking around. It’s just the player and the journey. Well one semi difference is that since it’s platforming players need to avoid falling down and failing. One bigger difference though is that players have “mysterious abilities” which are essential and are used to progress through the world.   

There is currently 3 levels in Ascendance – first horizon. Each one is very different in terms of looks and style. One looks more like over a sea while another looks like a desert and another looks like a neon city sort off. The variety in the design needs to be more unique as the levels still seem too similar. there is said to be hidden secrets too. So be an explorer while going through the levels and you may just find some secrets.

We checked out some Ascendance – first horizon gameplay and it’s what we thought it would be. You jump like the Master Chief from Halo and things are very smooth. If you fall of you are placed right back on the same platform. The music is definitely all about atmosphere and it’s calming for sure. The game does seem like easy mode though. There is no challenge at all. Objects to interact with that create more platforms and help shape the world. The world forms and changes around you. It has been said that more levels, mechanics and even a time mode is going later in an update.

Overall, Ascendance – first horizon looks like a good game for what it is. It’s suppose to be simple and something that most people should be able to play and get through without any difficulty. The music is good and so are the graphics but this game needs more levels and soon. The developers ‘ Onevision’ did a good job with this game. Now Ascendance – first horizon may have a unique world but it’s not even close to being as unique as… the ‘Earth Walk!’

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Celeste is a serious game

Posted on by X35 Earthwalker
Celeste fully completed

Celeste looks cute simple and quite quick but actually that changes quite quickly. Let’s explain. When you start Celeste you see the work put into the music and the details. You start the first area, the prologue and get use to running, jumping and climbing. Once you learn about the dash, experienced gamers just know it’s about to get more complicated.

The first actual level is not even easy. You must learn to control yourself while in the air, time your dashes and interactive with some mechanics that’s exclusive to this level. You learn that Celeste definitely requires precision and timing. Spikes in abundance to punish all mistakes and even a spring trap that launches you into death. You learn the hard way that there’s no mercy in Celeste. Each level has their own mechanic which players have to master. Trust us when we say, learn them now.

In every level players can initially aim for certain things. Off course beat the level, collect all the strawberries, find the blue crystal heart and find the B-side tape. The B side tape is medium difficulty in our opinion, a few are well hidden while most just requires you to look around. Collecting all the strawberries is hard as they are in places that tests the players skill and ability to use your available action in the right order, most of the time. The crystal hearts though are a different story. They are basically tricks. You either know the trick or you’ll never get them. The first one requires you to dash in certain directions in a specific order. You know what direction based on the direction the colour coded birds are moving and you get the order from the machine which keeps flashing the same colours in the same order. Cryptic right? We know!

Celeste Strawberry ending

The game tells you that the strawberries don’t do anything and that’s a lie. We at X35 Earthwalker hate lies! You have youtubers and big review companies agreeing and saying they don’t do anything too. Just shows how inexperienced and not good at paying attention they are. The strawberries actually only have an effect at the end of the game. When you complete it, your character will bake a strawberry cake for certain guests. How much strawberries you collect will effect the selfie that Theo takes and the dialogue. If you hardly collected any, then it will be a plain cake and the guests will look confused, disappointed and even skeptical of whether it still counts as a strawberry cake or not. If you collect all of them then the cake is loaded with strawberries everywhere and everyone looks like they are having the time of their life or completely amazed. They also give some serious compliments. So go get those strawberries.

Once you beat the game, your next challenge is to take on the B side of the levels which you unlock with the B side tapes. Let us warn you now. This is where the fun stops. You thought the reflection and summit levels were hard then you aren’t ready. B side is basically a much harder version of the level you played. More spikes, less mercy and more death. You will fail and die, again and again. Many players have given up because of the B side levels and they are crazy. They force players to get good or git gud. Every trick you have learnt and every combination will be used here. There’s no way around it. The levels are as long as the original but when you see what the game wants you to do to get through it, you just have to say “come on Celeste… This isn’t fair”. Once you figure out what the game wants you to do though, it’s only a matter of time before you execute it right and get it done. These levels aren’t impossible. You need all the crystal hearts and hearts you get for beating B side to challenge the B side of the chapter 8 ‘the core’. What we haven’t seen though is a video of the developers beating these B side levels. We bet they can’t. Now if you beat all the B side levels you can call yourself a Pro level Celeste player.

Congratulations you beat the B side levels. You can rest now… actually you can’t. What? You thought you was done? Nope! Beating all the B side levels and finding all the crystal hearts will allow you to challenge the C side levels. C side are the real deal. They are completely unfair, punishing levels that only the best can beat. They are harder than B side but much shorter than B side. The most is three rooms while there are some with almost only two rooms. Each room requires all the tricks and at times including the new trick you learnt from the B side level of Summit. That’s one thing we hate. Celeste teaches the players a new trick at the end of the game and they then expect you to master it and use it for the rest of the levels and challenges ahead, instantly. C levels are so tough that only 0.64% of all the Celeste players on the Xbox One have beaten them all! The last C side level is brutal but fair and that’s how all the challenges should have been but some felt very chance based especially with some mechanics like the clouds and getting the exact timing. The last level is the longest room in the game with all the mechanics from the previous levels and no check points. You can watch how X35 Earthwalker, the legendary soldier himself took on this level. 

As you complete the different challenges in Celeste, your ticket (your save file) gets different stamps on it. When you beat the game, you get a mountain top flag stamp. When you get all the strawberries you get the strawberry stamp, another thing the strawberries do (the strawberries don’t do anything… liars). When you beat all the B sides you get a heart stamp but when you beta all the C sides you get another heart stamp. Fill your cards up with stamps and feel proud of yourself. Also the last challenge in our opinion is to now get all the Celeste achievements which are reasonable. You can also collect the golden strawberries but after beating C side, you start to get fed up with the game. It’s fun to play from time to time but the difficulty and what you go through makes you want to finally put it down when you are done.

Celeste stamped tickets  

Overall Celeste is very difficult and requires a lot to master. There are unlockables and challenges that most gamers just can’t do. There’s a lot to like about this game. The characters stand out and are very different and weird in their own way. Theo keeps taking selfies. The music is very well done and the story is something that you have to pay attention too otherwise you won’t really get it. Now Celeste may have a special mountain that effects those who climb it but this mountain cannot stand before… the ‘Earth Walk!’ 

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Indivisible. Awakening to us in time

Posted on by X35 Earthwalker
Indivisible

Indivisible is a new RPG platformer developed by ‘Lab Zero Games‘ and published by ‘505 Games‘. It is said to be coming out in the 2nd quarter of 2019 on the Xbox One, Nintendo Switch, PS4 and PC. This game has impressed some people already. Some good things have been said already. Let’s take a look.

The story in Indivisible is quite simple really. Players control Ajna. A girl described as “a good-natured tomboy with a rebellious streak”. She was raised by her father in the outskirts of their rural. Things are normal. Things changed real fast though, as her village was attacked. The warlord Ravannavar and his army. Ruthless lot they are. Ajna also learns that she has a power. This power allows her to absorb certain individuals into her being. 

Off course these two events will make anyone want answers. So Ajna goes on a journey, a world wide journey to one, face Ravannavar and two, learn about this power and eventually her true nature. The beings she can absorb are called ‘Incarnations’. They have their own personalities and stories which players should take note off. Ajna not only absorbs beings but they can be manifested to fight alongside her. It gets a bit more strange. Ajna can also enter inside herself, a dimension that’s forming inside of her. This realm is where saving the game, quests and upgrades is found.

Indivisible

Games like Indivisible will always have things to find, abilities to collect and areas to explore. It’s a big world indeed. From the world map you will areas like the Iron Kingdom, the Almutah sands, tai Krung, Ashwat forest and more. Now off course Indivisible is 2D but when you look at the environments and worlds you will explore you will see all the 3D of this game, and that’s how players will truly see the wonderful visuals.

Hopefully you would notice by now but one of the main things that stands out about Indivisible is the graphics style and visuals. All the art here is hand drawn, just like with Cuphead. That’s right. Indivisible looks wonderful. If you while playing don’t stop to take a look at the backgrounds and what’s happening, then we, at X35 Earthwalker, automatically lost respect for you. The levels and world definitely looks alive. The levels are well designed and the attention to detail is very well done.

Indivisible

The characters are another standing out good things about Indivisible. Ajna definitely has that tough tomboy look and it suits her well. She looks like someone who would constantly clash with Natsu from the anime Fairy Tail in heated battles. She’s just the start. There’s Tungar who weilds a long ribbon like flexible blade which when not being used rests on his head as a turban. His body covered in scars from years of training. There’s Ginseng and Honey who are a duo. Honey is a plant creature while Ginseng is a youngster with great knowledge of herbology. They aren’t the combat types but their skills will come in handy. There is said to be more than 20 different incarnations.

We checked out some gameplay and Indivisible currently looks very good. We already mentioned the graphics which are very good. The gameplay is smooth, the actions are well animated. The enemies are weird looking and each area of the world has different types of enemies based on the environment which is good stuff. The combat is turn based from what we can see and it looks like you can have up to three incarnations fight with you during combat which also means that combinations, techniques and strategy will have a big impact in Indivisible.   

Overall Indivisible definitely looks like a very good game. The hard work with the art being hand drawn, the variety of locations with relevant enemies, unique different characters with their own stories, range of items and abilities to find and much more. The developers ‘Lab Zero Games’ have done a very good job with this game. We at X35 Earthwalker are looking forward to seeing Indivisible come out. Now Indivisible may have lovely visuals but it’s ugly when compared to the beauty of… the ‘Earth Walk!’

For more information check out the link below:

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Hive Jump. Jumping to us soon

Posted on by X35 Earthwalker
Hive Jump

Hive Jump is the new action platformer developed by ‘Graphite Lab‘. It is coming out the 11th of January on the Xbox One and Nintendo Switch but already out on the PC. It seems like it’s about running around and blowing up aliens. Sounds fun. Let’s take a look. 

The story in the world of Hive Jump is a typical one. Basically it’s set in the 24 century. Humanity is in a serious battle against a hostile alien race called Ordovicians. As usual, the aliens are in big numbers. Matter of fact, humanity is outnumbered, a million to one. It’s clearly a one sided battle and the aliens don’t want to share the galaxy with humanity (We wonder why). The J.U.M.P corps is here to fight back against the aliens and bring victory.

Players control the, Jumpers, who’s mission is straightforward. Beat the aliens, hive by hive and planet by planet. Now straight up Hive Jump makes it clear that it’s all about multiplayer. That’s right, you can play local multiplayer with your friends in Hive Jump. It’s four players. We love to see games do this. We need games like this that gives you the option to just play with family or who else is around (More fun than angry online players).

Hive Jump

Since the emphasis of the Hive Jump is on multiplayer know that if you do play with friends, one of you is the team leader and therefore carry the Transponder backpack. This pack is very important. Basically that backpack allows your command ship to send “soldiers and supplies” to your location. We assume it means that as long as you have the packsack, your team can respawn. If the leader dies then the backpack is just sitting there and can be destroyed. Don’t let that happen (and tell your leader to stop being a noob).

Your standard Jumper comes armed and ready Hive Jump. As we already made clear, the leader has the Transponder backpack. All soldiers have a multi-gun which has it’s standard fire but can be modified and switched up to be a rocket launcher and even a flamethrower. It does get crazier though. The Jumper alien infiltration suit offers some good protection as attacks get deflected but only for a while. The suit can be repaired but the means to be able to do that can be found deep in the Hives. Also your suit has a limited blast jetpack to give you a boost in the air. Lastly there are grenades (who doesn’t want grenades against aliens?). These grenades deal big damage to enemies but also have a special function like the explosives in Aliens Trilogy. They can destroy weaker walls which have treasures, goodies and hidden areas. Keep your eyes open.

Hive Jump

There is a wide range of location for players to be fighting in. The Hives are different and look different but there are also different biomes too. You say biomes, we say Terraria. There is the volcanic wasteland which is where the aliens use the temperature to quickly hatch their eggs from the cold storage. The mushroom forests is basically the giant food store as the Ordovicians eat fungus. The crystal caverns is where the aliens produce and get their power source for their interstellar travels. The frozen underground acts as the cold storage room for the unhatched alien eggs. It’s clear that the aliens here in Hive Jump are quite organised.

The aliens themselves, the Ordovicians, are numerous as they are dangerous. Clearly hostile and will stop at nothing to stop you from completing your mission. They will hunt you and your transponder backpack throughout the hives and they can get to you no matter where you are. The aliens have four classes. They are: minor, mini, major and elite. These aliens get stronger and more powerful as you progress. So players need to keep getting better and more prepared.  

Hive Jump

Lastly the planetary campaign is not so straight forward and more strategic. In order to win you must manage carefully the amount of jumpers you have and alien goo. The alien goo is the resource you use to build fortifications, request jumper reinforcements, get new weapons and off course upgrades. When you look at the map, m you will see three things, alien hives which are orange, human bases which are cyan (light blue) and grey which is a free space for either a human or alien base. If you destroy a hive then you “jump” there and start a human base which brings in more resources and a random one time use bonus ability. These abilities are strong and must be used wisely. After a successful jump (destroying a hive), the aliens then have their turn and they could expand, buff up their defences or even come attack you!  

We checked out some gameplay and the action looks good. Each Jumper in, Hive Jump, can equip only one utility at a time. So expect a utility to grant shields another to allow quick teleportation while another boosts fire power or even your mobility. The Hives are procedurally generated (random). The A.I has been classed as intelligent and challenging (we will be the judge of that). You can also get your hands on experimental weapons and explosive. So getting those resources and research is very important. There is permadeath simply because if you lose your bases then it’s all over and also if your Transponder backpack gets destroyed then you definitely lose as you can’t call in any more soldiers.

Overall, Hive Jump looks like a real cool game. It looks like it’s a difficult game as the aliens are many, the deaths are high and there are also traps for players to match out for. The big boss enemies look like big battles and requires a learning of patterns probably. The developers ‘Graphite lab’ have done a good job with this game. We at X35 Earthwalker look forward to seeing what others will think of this. It does look fun. Now the Jumpers may have technology and a big mission but those things are tiny when compared to… there ‘Earth Walk!’

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Super Meat Boy Forever. Coming soon

Posted on by X35 Earthwalker
Super Meat Boy Forever

Super Meat Boy Forever is the new action platformer game developed by ‘Team Meat‘. Super Meat Boy Forever is coming out April 2019 on the Xbox One, Nintendo Switch, PS4 and Epic Games store but April 2020 on Steam. The challenging and meaty action seems to be back. Let’s check it out.

Super Meat Boy Forever is a sequel so it’s basically Super Meat Boy 2. The story this time is that Meat Boy and Bandage Girl have a daughter. Her name is nugget. First of all how is the dad named Meat Boy and the Mum, Bandage girl but the baby is Nugget. Someone clearly hasn’t played Kindergarten. Anyway things look all normal but then Dr Fetus shows up and attacks both parents with a shovel and then kidnaps Nugget. So the villain knocks out his two enemies but instead of killing them when he had the advantage instead runs away leaving them alive (smart villains these days). So now Meat Boy and Bandage Girl set off to rescue their daughter.

Super Meat Boy Forever

Now if you liked the previous Super Meat Boy game then you should like this as it’s basically the same formula in many ways. You run, jump, avoid enemies and dangerous traps and spinning blades etc. There are some differences and new things though. For starters both Meat Boy and Bandage Girl can defend themselves. If an enemy is right next to you, why not punch them. They can punch, jump attack and even slide into enemies to take them out and keep up your mobility. Some would have figured this out from what we just said but Super Meat Boy Forever’s controls now have two buttons. So veterans of the game will need to make some adjustments.

Super Meat Boy Forever

The levels have been described officially as “dynamically constructed based on difficulty. Each time you beat a level, it reconstructs into a harder version of itself.” Off course they only get harder up to a certain point. More details? Okay. First of all Super Meat Boy Forever isn’t infinite. There’s an end to this. Each level is made up of 100 chunks. These chunks are little levels with difficulty ratings. It has been said that there are a total of 7200 chunks. That’s right. Don’t say you didn’t know what you got yourself into. This isn’t a game you can complete in 20mins. So have fun fighting through the 7200 Super Meat Boy Forever levels.

We checked out some gameplay and it’s exactly what we thought it would be. We knew infinite levels isn’t going to be the case this time. It’s good that we can play with both Meat Boy and Bandage Girl. The platforming is familiar. Being able to fight back is a good decision made. The enemies are simple but the boss fights are big and quite chaotic. Makes you wonder what the others will be like. It’s still Super Meat Boy but with some additional features and better looking.    

Overall, Super Meat Boy Forever looks like a good game. The graphics and visuals are improved. Let’s make this clear. We at X35 Earthwalker have never played Super Meat Boy games. They never interested us once but that doesn’t mean we can’t talk about it. The developers, Team Meat did a good job with this game. We at X35 Earthwalker are not interested in Super Meat Boy Forever. Now Super Meat Boy Forever may have odds of levels but it’s not as big as… the ‘Earth Walk!’    

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