Rage 2 is a new action first person shooter developed by ‘Avalanche studios‘ and ‘Id Software‘. It is coming out the 15th May on the Xbox One, PS4 and PC. This game is suppose to be bigger, more action and more rage than before. Let’s take a look.
There is quite a bit of information on Rage 2. Rage 2 is set in the year 2165. So basically 30 years later from the first Rage game. There has been some positive changes to the world as humanity has found a way to change parts of the wasteland into tundras, jungles and even wetlands; however the ways and mindset of the people haven’t changed. Gangs now want control of these areas for their resources.
The authority is back in Rage 2. Just a reminder, they are the main enemy of the previous Rage game. They have a much higher level of technology than the other factions so they are more dominate than them and are a bigger threat. For example the Authority’s troops have personal energy shields and also recharging stations. The authority is fighting everyone and anyone who doesn’t agree with them or gets in their way.
The players take control of Walker, who is one of the last rangers. The rangers used nanotrite technology to enhance their abilities and weapons. The Rangers were destroyed by the authority. Off course Walker wants revenge. Players will face factions like bandits, mutants and even monsters who have no problems killing.
You won’t fight like a normal person as there is a nice variety of weapons that can be upgraded. Use nanotrites to trigger and use powerful abilities. There’s also the Overdrive which basically forces your weapons past their mechanical limits. These will be useful as the enemies vary in size too.
Vehicles are off course available in Rage 2. The official website claims that “If you see it, you can drive it.” So whatever wasteland looking vehicles you coke across is useable. We hope that’s true. Players can expect gyrocopters and off course monster trucks.
We must remember that Rage 2 is also an open world game. There is going to be a lot of areas, territories, battles, different environments and things to do. There is racing too. Not Crash Team Racing but explosive and dangerous. There are some crazy brutal events like Mutant bash TV. Explore cities where activities and life is happening.
We checked out some Rage 2 gameplay and things don’t look as crazy and rage filled as we expected. It’s definitely wild and running over mutants with a monster truck can be fun (from personal experience). The gameplay is definitely action packed but what is quite concerning is that the Rage 2 world looks like the typical open world game. The question is what makes Rage 2 different from other open world games.
Overall Rage 2 does look like a good game. They have lots of room to get creative and we hope to see more creativity. Will the enemy factions fight each other and if yes, will we see it? There’s a lot to say. The graphics are looking very good and the sounds go well. The area design is okay. We hope the tundra and jungles truly stand out. Now Avalanche studios and Id software did a good job with this game. We at X35 Earthwalker will just keep an ear out for Rage 2. It’s currently not our thing. Now Rage 2 may have faction wars but their wars are puny when compared to the size of… the ‘Earth Walk!’
The Division 2 is a new action shooter open world game developed by ‘Massive Entertainment‘ and published by ‘Ubisoft‘. The Division 2 is coming out the 15th of March 2019 on the Xbox One, PS4 and PC. The Division 2 is going to need something big in this game to have a stand amongst the other games coming out. Let’s take a look.
So what’s the story? Basically Washington D.C is in trouble (again). A whole lot of instability and that goes very well with lawlessness. This creates lots of chaos. So Washington D.C just might collapse. Even worse and adding to the chaos is that some say a coup will take place. A situation this big and serious requires every division agent on the scene. Time to save the capital.
In the Division 2, Players take the role of a Division member. The Division is a group of civil agents. They are an elite group and they are the last line of defence when everything else goes wrong or fails.
The Division 2 will be quite different from the previous release as this game’s Washington D.C is suppose to be the representation of the real city. The Division 2 aims to be as authentic as possible. So when moving around in the city, players can actually go see views of actual neighbourhoods, landmarks, natural landscapes and off course enemy hideouts. So be a tourist and go look around.
Also players need to watch out for Dark zones. Basically almost anything can happen here. What are dark zone? Go do the research yourself you lazy- what we meant to say is, Dark zones are areas that haven’t been touched for months. It’s a dangerous walled of section. If you go inside, expect enemies in the form of enemy players and even the environment itself. So are you sure you want to go in? Think about it.
Also within Washington are warring factions. There are three. The Hyenas, True sons and Outcasts. The Hyenas are basically scavenger scum. They steal whatever they can and destroy everything else. They target struggling civilian encampments and use violence and intimidation to have their way. Opportunists but of the worse kind. They have a council for leadership made up of the strongest leaders. One thing to note is that they aren’t that organised.
The True sons are a very militant group. They are a bunch paramilitary warlords, experienced fighters who rely heavily on their high amounts of firepower. They continue to expand and dominate. their leader is a former JTF officer who thanks to his combat expertise and ruthlessness have made the true sons a force to be feared and taken seriously. They are very organised and smart. Take note that since they are ruthless, they might be easier to bait.
The Outcasts are the bitter survivors of a forced quarantine. They hate you, your mother and everyone else. They are all about revenge against society who didn’t help them and those who imprisoned them in the first place. Their leader is all about blood shedding, very charismatic and pushes her followers to bring justice to the guilty ones. They also like to kill indiscriminately and spread sickness, so probably biochemical weapons.
So yeah, players will have to face these three factions. So you need to be prepared. Division 2 claims to offer fully customisable gear. There will be a variety of armour, cosmetics that can be found, exotic items that are only for high level players, just like in Destiny 2, more gear sets and lots of weapons. Further expansion of abilities and equipment basically at endgame.
You can customise the abilities and equipment that you bring on your missions. Think carefully about what you use and what you depend on in situations. You can use the Hive which can be used to release small drones that will attack enemies within an area. There’s also the assault drone which can be controlled remotely to target and bring destruction on enemies. Seeker mines are basically mobile mines that chases enemies down within a range. The chem launcher can fire different types of rounds from acid and explosive to repairing nano bots.
We did mention above that you can face enemy players in dark zones. There are also modes for PvP action like Skirmish which is basically death battle and Domination which is more objective based and capturing areas.
We checked out some gameplay and so far things look much better than the previous release. The animations are very good. The graphics look very good. The sounds seem good too. It does seem slower in pace than Call of Duty. A nice variety of weapons. The rewards you earn in multiplayer can be used in the main campaign. The health seems fair for now but when you play it, it may be a different story.
Overall The Division 2 so far seems like a very good game right now. The story is like that from a movie. Since it’s open world we can expect lots of quests which we hope aren’t mandatory. Open worlds aren’t easy to get right but we won’t say more. The developers ‘Massive Entertainment’ have so far done a good job. We at X35 Earthwalker aren’t looking forward to the Division 2 as it hasn’t got anything that attracts us. We will keep an eye on it though. Now the Division 2 may have stepped up their game but they are still nowhere near the level of… the ‘Earth Walk!’
Shovel Knight: King of Cards is a new action adventure platformer game developed by ‘Yacht Club Games‘. It is coming out the 9th of April 2019 on the Xbox One, Nintendo Switch, PS4, PS Vita, 3DS and PC. This is the final campaign in the Shovel Knight: treasure trove saga. Let’s take a look.
Some gamers should know what Shovel Knight is about by now. You run around, collect treasure and attack with shovels but there is some changes here. In Shovel Knight: King of Cards Players control King knight. Now king knight has a different fighting style so he isn’t a clone or skin character. Basically king knight is on a journey to take on and best the current three kings who rule over the land. This isn’t a simple walk up the road as king knight will need to make his way through 4 new worlds. There are more than 30 courses too. Players better be prepared.
King knight has a signature bash attack for destroying his enemies and a spinning strike. King knight is definitely a physical fighter. Shovel Knight: King of Cards has lots of in-game stuff. There are lots of abilities, weapons, followers and armours for players to find, collect and use to your advantage and become a powerful ruler. What else is new? Shovel Knight: King of Cards has card battles (big surprise) which are not physical battles but more mental ones. Players have to be strategic and clever to defeat their opponents and come our victorious. There are challenge stages, only for those who want to push themselves. There are challenges that let you take on the bosses again in a rematch. There are also platforming challenges too.
Shovel Knight: King of Cards is taking the retro approach. As you can see, the graphics are 8-bit style which we are sure older fans would definitely appreciate. Gamers aren’t done yet as there is a new game+ mode. This will give the players new challenges and there are more secrets in the world. So those who like to complete and get 100% will need to beat Shovel Knight: King of Cards twice. There isn’t really much we can say about Shovel Knight: King of Cards. It’s a shovel knights game, you are either a fan or not.
We checked out some Shovel Knight: King of Cards gameplay and it does look retro but definitely advanced. The music is very good and fits what’s happening on the screen. The graphics are definitely 8 bit styled and looks good. Controls seem simple and the action is simple too. Jump on enemies to destroy them. Spin and jump to destroy projectiles, bash through blocks, take on other knights and explore these worlds. There are hidden areas, hidden behind breakable walls. Some areas can only be reached by timing your jumps on projectiles to reach the higher area.
Overall Shovel Knight: King of Cards looks like a good game filled with action. There is some replay value and things look good. The developers ‘Yacht Club Games’ did a good job with this game. We at X35 Earthwalker are not looking forward to Shovel Knight: King of Cards simply because like the previous Shovel Knight games, it has shown or got anything that makes us want to play it. Just seems like another good action platformer but nothing special. This one is a good game though. Now Shovel Knight: King of Cards may have the king knight but that king is a peasant when compared too… the ‘Earthwalk!’
Terraria is a very good action adventure sandbox game. When you play the game you see how different and bigger it is compared to Minecraft. Terraria certainly stands out when it comes to the bosses. Many struggled and didn’t even know how to beat them. It took planning, resources and exploration in order to be ready to face them. So you’ve beaten everyone and feel like the ruler of Terraria. So you are finally finished right? Wrong! There is expert mode. Here’s where things get interesting.
To make things simple, expert mode is basically just like the normal mode. You find resources and things the same way and even craft the same way. The only real difference is the enemies. All the enemies are stronger as in they have increased health and deal more damage than ever before. This isn’t a joke. Pretty much every player was caught off guard with how much stronger they were. From when you start the game, a slime is very capable of killing you by itself. A slime! We aren’t joking. Oh and you better make sure you have some shelter before the night comes otherwise you will die guaranteed. The zombies cannot be held back for long with your short copper sword. The knock back isn’t enough and they will get through. Scary? Probably.
The main attraction is the bosses. You thought you handled them in normal mode. You thought you owned them and told them they were trash. How silly of you players. Did you really think you can beat them and be done with them? They are back and expert mode for most of them has not just given them increased health and damage (big increase) but also given them new attacks or abilities. This meant a number of players had to switch up their strategies.
For example King slime is considered the easiest boss in the game but not always the first boss you meet. King slime still hops around in expert difficulty but not comes with an army of slimes to fight alongside it. So expect purple, green, blue and even pinky slimes to keep raining down and getting in your way. King slime will summon blue slimes thats have spikes who are more dangerous than regular ones. King slime can also teleport in expert difficulty! So trapping it behind some walls and leaving a gap for easy arrow shots won’t work. It will appear on top of you dealing heavier damage. No where is safe. Eye of Cthulhu is perfectly the same except that it’s second form has taken some steroid because it now launches at lighting speed trying to ram the players. You will need speed to stay away. Just run in a straight line and it misses all the time. Just keep calm and don’t panic.
The brain of Cthulhu is a mean one, simply because it’s second form as it chases you it creates three other mirror images of the brain which become more visible as it loses health. Also expect more negative status effects. If you focus you can tell which brain is the real one and use long ranged weapons. High knock back weapons do help. The Eater of worlds is the same in expert difficulty except for the fact that it periodically shoots vile spit from it’s body. Those vile spits can give you the weak debuff. We suggest fighting this boss on it’s home turf as they are more narrow so chance of getting hit with a vile spit is so low. Use weapons that pierce through enemies. The Queen Bee, the real one, not some singer is much more different in expert difficulty than others. The Queen Bee’s fires stingers quite rapidly with near perfect aim, can summon bigger than normal bees to attack you and as she loses health, she performs all her attacks much faster. The ram attacks are deadly at this point. Use the honey at the bottom to regenerate health faster and remember that she can be poisoned.
The wall of flesh is basically the same, still moving towards you and allowing no escape. On expert difficulty the Hungry that you fight and shoot will respawn as long as the wall of flesh is alive and the leeches that it releases are more annoying and have a lower chance of dropping hearts. Be ware in expert mode the wall when below 500 hp can move at 50mph! This faster than the Hermes and lightning boots. So make sure you are far enough before getting it too low. Some say use a mine cart but we did it and others have without a mine cart. Piercing weapons work very well. The hell wing bow with jester arrows helped us out quite a lot. Also aim for the eye instead of the mouthing you can as the eye has less defence, so you’ll deal more damage.
Now for the dreadful part. The three mechanical bosses: The Destroyer, The Twins and Skeletron prime. These three rule the night and strike fear in the hearts of even the seasoned Terraria players. Like with the other bosses, they have increased health and really increased damage. Aim for the destroyer first. Functions the same way in expert difficulty. The only difference we noticed is that it’s head deals insane amounts of damage. If not prepared it can deal over 200 hp worth of damage in a single blow. Use your mini map to see where and when it’s coming for you to dodge. Have a camp fire, heart lantern and even a small pool of honey for maximum health regeneration (use a regeneration potion too). We beat the Destroyer in expert difficulty by fighting in a box that’s above the ground. The walls protected us from probe attacks until they come within our melee range.
The Twins are a problem indeed. Yes we know their names are: Spazmatism (fire one) and Retinazer (laser one). We will call them fire and laser. In expert difficulty both fire and laser got a tune up. Fire charges much faster and further than before. Seriously it will surprise you. Also the cursed inferno debuff lasts twice as long on players. Laser fires faster and also charges further. Aim and take out Fire first. It’s capable of the most damage. Stay at mid range minimum and never get close because it’s flame thrower attack can easily end the fight thanks to it’s crazy damage. Laser isn’t really a problem. We even ended up taking very little damage from it when you have good armour like hallowed or frost. We used our Sky minerail to have the speed advantage and keep the distance but don’t travel to fast as it may despawn. Ranged weapons are a must and use the golden shower of ichor flasks to inflict the ichor debuff which lowers their defence by 20. Matter of fact, the Twins are susceptible to all the debuts except confuse. So stack up the burning, cursed flames, shadow flames, frost burns and whatever you like.
Skeletron prime felt exactly the same. Off course in expert difficulty it gets increased health and damage but other from that, it felt the same. Fight on platforms as the bombs it launches explode on solid surfaces. With some practice and good observations you can jump and avoid the attacking limbs with medium difficulty. The laser is something we like to aim for and destroy first as thats the annoying limb. If you destroy the laser and the two melee limbs then the rest of the fight is a joke. Skeletron Prime is susceptible to frost burn so using the frost armour can really help. We again used our Sky minerail against this boss, hopping in our carts to dodge the melee limbs if possible. Yoyos are very good for sawing away at Skeletron prime’s head while spinning as it moves slowly making it a easy target. Make sure to apply the ichor debuff at all times.
Off course this isn’t all the bosses. We know all about the golem, plantera, duke fisheron and more. Plantera definitely got a new engine in expert difficulty but we will save those guys for another time. We’ve seen many struggle and get destroyed by these bosses so don’t listen to those foolish people who say everything is easy and that you need to get good. They are hard but definitely beatable. First focus on your battle ground and set it up to give you as many advantages as possible. Regenerative things, space to move around if serious evasion is needed and off course equip the right items and increase your defence as much as possible. Always have your potions ready. For expert difficulty have the iron skin, endurance, regeneration and thorn potions as they are a must. open some time fishing to get the ingredients to build more powerful potions like life force which increases your maximum health, summon which increases the amount of minions you can have fight with you, wrath and rage which respectively increases your damage and critical hit chance by 10%.
Expert mode is no joke but we are confident you can beat the bosses. If you want to see some epic Terraria gaming action then make sure to follow our YouTube channel and Livestream channel on Mixer. So to all the Terraria players, do your best and keep trying. Now Terraria may have large and powerful bosses that got even stronger in expert difficulty but even if all of them worked together, they are no match for… the ‘Earth Walk!’
Crash Team Racing Nitro-Feuled is the new remake of Crash Team Racing, developed by ‘Beenox‘ and published by ‘Activision‘. It is coming out the 21st of June 2019 on the Xbox One, Nintendo Switch, PS4 and PC. This is the game that many PlayStation 1 gamers loved back in the day. So you know that this remake has really high expectations. Let’s take a look.
Crash Team racing was according to X35 Earthwalker, the one true Earthwalker by the way, was the best racing game. We haven’t played a better racing game. It was fast, fun, colourful, great variety of tracks, useful and fair weapons and challenging. Be honest, most of you didn’t even beat Nitros Oxide in time trial on ever track but X35 Earthwalker did it. Crash Team Racing was game that even families played together. Players who were masters at the game would always be ahead of the other racers but less skilled players stood a chance thanks to the weapons. Nothing is worse than getting hit by three homing rockets in a row, bouncing for an eternity.
So remaking a game like this and claiming it will have the “authentic CTR experience” is a big order to fill. Fans like us remember everything about this game from the tracks and characters to how the power sliding felt. So we will be watching. So don’t mess up. Crash team racing wasn’t perfect though. We felt that the stats of car types didn’t matter. We could out speed high speed characters like Tiny Tiger with handling cars like Polar. We hope that Crash Team Racing Nitro-Feuled makes the stats matter. That faster cars actually feel faster but not too much faster to the point where everyone only picks the fast cars.
What we do know about Crash Team Racing Nitro-Feuled is that the developers claimed that it will have “the original game modes, characters, tracks, power-ups, weapons and controls.” This is good to hear. Let’s go through this one by one. Game modes: That means there will be a story mode filled with races, CTR challenges, boss races, time trials for relics and gem cups. Characters: So Polar, Crash (off course), Tiny and the others are here… but what about the unlockable characters like Papa Papu? We do know that you can play Ripper Too though so many it’s the same for the others. Tracks: Crash Team Racing had some memorable and awesome tracks. We especially liked the tracks in the Nitro cup, the more difficult ones.
Power ups: Well the only thing that really counts as a power up is getting 10 wumpa fruits which then increases your speed and upgrades the items you get. Weapons: They can save your life or ruin it. Players of different skill can all compete in this game thanks to these things. Potions and ant crates for those in the lead, while missiles and a lighting orb for those in the back. Don’t forget about Aku Aku and Uka Uka. We hope they still have their signature music. Controls: The controls had a specific feel. The power sliding was different depending on the kart type. You can feel a resistance as you try to pull around that corner. It’s something you have to feel.
Now what’s different? We we do know that there will be more karts than before. There will also be more tracks than before too which is sort of exciting. There will be online racing too, so if you are good enough then you can literally trash (or crash) the competition. There will also be leaderboards too which off course doesn’t prove anything but adds to the competition. What’s also different is that characters aren’t stuck to one kart. Players can select a character and then select the kart that they want. This is a good change. Also it looks like players who are left bouncing from a weapon like a missile have an opportunity to get a boost as soon as they finish bouncing which is excellent and we hope the timing for such a boost is a small gap giving an advantage to players who practice it.
We checked out some gameplay and we can say that we are happy with what we saw. The levels look the same but off course remastered. Papu Papu pyramid looks wonderful and more greener greenery (yes, we said that). There is still some stuff we are wondering about but as we get closer to the release date, those things should get answered We are happy to see that split screen is back too as that was how we could play with out family to settle who was the best. This means gather your friends, bring out the cola, juice, water and let the fun begin. Trash talk is encouraged!
Overall, Crash Team Racing Nitro-fueled looks real good so far. Graphics are very good and the sounds seem okay for now. The characters look good, more cartoony and Polar has gotten so much fluffier (probably used a hair dryer). The developers ‘Beenox’ have done a wonderfully good job so far. We at X35 Earthwalker are off course keeping an eye on this game. Now Crash Team Racing Nitro-fueled may have some hype but nothing is more hyped than… the ‘Earth Walk!’
Dauntless is a new action role playing game (RPG) developed by ‘Phoenix Labs‘. It is said to be coming out in April 2019 on the Xbox One, Nintendo Switch and PS4; however you can download and play now on PC. There are said to be some monsters who need to be hunted down. Let’s take a look.
The story in Dauntless isn’t really clear from what new can see on their official website but basically the world has be broken up in to islands by a cataclysm. These islands are floating. Many of these islands haven’t even been explored yet and are dangerous. Also the islands themselves are in danger. What could endanger an island though? The answer are large creatures called Behemoths. They will consume the islands. It’s up to the players to prevent this from happening.
In Dauntless the players control Slayers. Slayers as the name suggests do quite a bit of slaying but their targets this time are the Behemoths. Slayers are mankinds best defence against these creatures. The slayers won’t be easy to beat as they are armed with some serious weapons. Your slayer can wield Repeaters which is basically two and guns. It’s said to be difficult to use but you can hand out debuffs to enemies and fight at both close and long range. The sword is all about staying close and slicing everything up. Then with a full meter go crazy with pure speed. There’s more weapons.
Chain blade users have the highest speed of all relying on their mobility. Their weapons can off course extend for longer ranged combat and even pull yourself in to get close. Hammer wielding slayers can smash and deal heavy blows to enemies and also use blasts from the same hammer. Also you can use your blasts to dodge attacks. Slayers using the axe have immense damage potential. They can fill their meter to get a damage buff that can be stacked. The War pike is one of those that have great potential when used correctly. Keep attacking to fill your meter which is then used for your mortar attacks.
There are a number of places to explore. There’s ramsgate which is the frontier settlement. There is also the Maelstrom which has a completely different climate going on over there. There are some continually changing islands. Some islands have a flourishing habitats as in their are lots of plants, wildlife and as everyone says, “flora and fauna”. Dauntless has many islands and they all just want to be explored but there’s a catch…
The Behemoths in Dauntless are a real problem. Firstly they are endangering the floating islands because they just can’t get enough of the aether that they are consuming. This aether is what keeps the floating islands floating. Another thing that’s bad is that they are dangerous to face because well.. they are big. They are a serious threat. Some go about on all fours, others can roll like a ball, others can fly around, some look and move like dinosaurs while others are like angry bigger sloths. So taking these guys on alone is quite the problem.
We checked out some Dauntless gameplay and it’s a bit less than what we expected. The graphics aren’t impressive at all even for the graphic style used. The characters remind us of the ones in Fortnite. This doesn’t mean it’s a bad game though. Dauntless is a multiplayer game and encourages working together with other players. You can play with three friends or get teamed up with people online. We like that you can use the parts you collect from defeated Behemoths and use them to make armaments like transom stones, dyes and even cells. So get creative.
Overall Dauntless looks like an alright game. We haven’t been impressed yet. We like the multiplayer options and the using the parts from defeated monsters. We definitely like the visuals and the environments but that’s it really. The developers ‘Phoenix Labs’ did an alright job with this one. We at X35 Earthwalker aren’t looking forward to this but there are gamers who are. Now Dauntless may have floating islands but even those aren’t as epic as… the ‘Earth Walk!’
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.
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.
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!’
Dark Devotion is a new Action adventure RPG developed by ‘Hibernian Workshop‘ and published by ‘The Arcade Crew’ and ‘Maple Whispering’. It is coming out the first quarter of 2019 on the Xbox One, Nintendo Switch, PS4 and PC. Dark Devotion is suppose to have some serious fights. Let’s take a look.
It’s not fully explained bu the story in Dark Devotion is that a templar sets out on a religious calling. The story must be pieced together by the players. Every item you find and every chest opened contains another piece of the story. You can find clues, a letter and even weapons. All will help piece the story together. This should tell gamers that exploration is required.
The action takes place in a fallen temple. This temple should have been boarded up and sealed by the way. There are four worlds. Your character must prove himself and dedication to his god. This won’t be easy as this temple is full of danger, answers to your questions and off course secrets. Rumour has it that this temple sort of has a mind of it’s own in a way. So learn it’s ways or have a really hard time.
Now off course this isn’t going to be your Indiana Jones adventure movie. This temple is real bad. Everything in it wants you dead. Players have to make the right decisions. Knowing when to handle curses, knowing when to retreat, knowing when to heal and when to thrust your blade through the monsters face. Every world in Dark Devotion has multiple paths. Each path is its own but you can’t turn back once you go down it.
The developers have left lots of rumours and secrets in this game that makes exploring a must. What you find can either be real good or real bad. You might find a monster that kicks your butt in 5 different countries or you may find an altar where you can save the game. Or maybe you find Doctor Who (not really). Either way, players need the items and secrets so you have to take the risk.
Dark Devotion doesn’t leave you at a complete disadvantage as there are a good dozen of weapons, armors, and relics which will give your character the boost she needs. These relics, weapons and armours can be customized with mystical runes. Each of these different items and equipment off course has their own stats and attributes. A game having attributes means that strengths and weaknesses amongst enemies is a mechanic here.
Now off course let’s get to the main dish. The enemies. There are a bunch of them. There’s simple zombie acting ones that approach you and takes a swing at you. All you got to do is time it and dodge. Then there are some big enemies who are chained to a spot, but that doesn’t mean it won’t strike with a mighty slam of their weapon. There are bosses who will make you sweat (probably). Some can teleport and then strike from the other side, some use magic and mystical powers. Powerful swordsmen with flaming swords and more. Each fight can go so badly if you aren’t careful so don’t get to cocky now.
We checked out some gameplay and it’s sort of what we expected. It’s 2D off course, the level design is very nice, everything looks responsive. You can either block or dodge. A variety of enemies who are definitely dangerous, like the pirate looking one who can dash attack. Multiple little areas to explore and items to find for sure. Dark Devotion definitely looks like it’s going to be a difficult game. We so far like what we see.
Overall Dark Devotion looks like a very good game. The graphics are handmade pixel art. The sounds are done well. The temple has traps like swinging pendulums, spike pits and more. One boss enemy looked unreasonable but it’s good to have at least one ridiculous boss. The developers ‘Hibernian Workshop’ did a very good job with this game so far. We at X35 Earthwalker look forward to seeing this game come out. Now the templar in Dark Devotion may be very devoted to what they believe but there is way more devotion in… the ‘Earth Walk!’
Hell Warders is a new action strategy game with some RPG elements, developed by ‘Anti gravity game studios‘ and published by ‘PQubed‘. It is coming out the 17th of January 2019 on the Xbox One, Nintendo Switch, PS4 and PC. There has already been early access on PC. We at X35 Earthwalker like action strategy games and have been playing some recently so let’s see if they do this right. Let’s take a look.
In Hell Warders, players control… well… a Hell Warder. Hell Warders are a group of powerful heroes who have mighty powers and abilities and their job is to face and stop the hordes of demons. That’s pretty much it for the story from what we can see. So those demons are going forth as an army (conveniently in waves) and players are the only things standing in their way.
Now if you like tower defence, with the whole taking some time to plan, readjust and set up well, then you should be happy here. If you like controlling a character and running towards the enemy to back hand them yourself then you should be happy here too. Honestly this game right now reminds us off ‘World of Van Helsing: Deathtrap‘ and ‘Dungeon Defenders‘. When it comes to tower defence + action + RPG elements, these two games are excellent examples.
In Hell Warders, there are more than one type. For example you can control Dead Eye who is a longer ranged fighter using cannons. Samson III who has been described as an explosive specialist. Ash who specialises in melee combat and slicing everything with his sword. There are more. That’s right, you guessed it. These different Hell Warders have different abilities and powers to offer in your goal to destroy all the demons.
Those defences that you build are not cannons, ballistas and walls but instead your soldiers. Players can set up soldiers who are melee based and will run to attack any nearby enemies. There are archers who fire arrows quite accurately from a respectable distance. Catapults which brings in that heavy impact damage. Let’s say some big enemies will have problems with this weapon. There’s also mages that bring those effects and some magic to give you the advantage.
In terms of the enemies, we know that it’s demons. Demons come in all shapes and sizes. There’s the off course pawn small ties that just rush you, then there’s the bigger ones that require more special attention, then there are the massive towering enemies. There are some magic welding enemies like lychee. There is also Wurms who are very large and will anger some gamers.
We checked out some gameplay. It so far just looks alright. In terms of character animations it doesn’t seem on the same level as the other two games we mentioned earlier but this is all early access gameplay though, so expect everything to get better. We like that soldiers fight with you on the field but actual towers would be great to have as well and it’s something we prefer but it’s good to try something different. The variety of enemies so far looks interesting. We wonder what new abilities and powers the Hell warders will get as you play and progress.
Best of all about Hell Warders and if you been following us for even a short time you would know what that is. It is multiplayer. You can play with three more players to form a mighty team of four having explosives, melee, range and magic. You can just straight up invite and get your friends in the action but for those who want other options can use the match making to find more players. We need more multiplayer games with good options.
Overall Hell Warders looks okay right now. It’s early access but we are getting closer to the release date and we hope that Hell Warders becomes the next very good action strategy game. The developers ‘Anti gravity game studios’ have done good work right now. We at X35 Earthwalker will be looking forward to seeing this game game out. Now Hell warders may have heroes who face demons but these Hell Warders are a joke when compared to… the ‘Earth Walk!’
Deathgarden is a action first person shooter game developed by ‘Behaviour Digital‘. It is coming out in the first quarter of 2019 on the Xbox One, PS4 and PC. Sure there is early access for PC but we don’t really care about that. It’s the whole hunter vs hunted theme. We hope they do this one well. Let’s take a look.
Deathgarden is set in the so called near future. In the world of Deathgarden, the most popular sport in the world is actually a dangerous one where people can and do die. A powerful hunter must hunt down and kill a group of people called Runners. These people are willing participants in this. The Runners must hide, evade the hunter and escape the arena, the garden. Sounds fun right? We are sure normal (stupid) people would love to take part in this type of sport.
The rules are quite simple. The Runners must avoid and the Hunter and escape from the garden while the Hunter hunts them down and kills them. There are objectives for the runners to complete which will open an exit for the them to escape through. The hunter isn’t going to let that happen though. Does this sound familiar? Well it should. remember Dead by Daylight? Yeah, that’s right sucker.
There are three phases to every match so far. Phase one: the Runners are sent into the garden before the hunter. they can use this time to locate the objectives and mark them for the whole team to see and look for crates to upgrades their abilities. Then in some seconds, the Hunter comes in and things get real. Phase two is where the Runners must complete the objectives. There are two game modes: ‘Gather & Deliver’ and ‘Capture’. In Gather & Deliver the Runners must go to dispenser stations to gather keys which they must deliver to certain points in the garden. In Capture, Runners must stand in the designated areas for a period of time to capture it. All this is happening while the Hunter is chasing them down, shooting, shocking and trying to kill them. The last phase, if the Runners succeed in opening the exits by completing the objectives, is the blood mode. Now all runners are revealed and the Hunter can execute a downed Runner straight away. If the Hunter kills three runners, the runners lose. Sounds intense right? it is.
The Hunter is powerful and too much for the runners in straight up combat. He has powers, dangerous weapons, abilities and some perks too. The hunter plays in first person and cannot be killed. He must stop the runners from escaping the garden by straight up find and killing them.
Let’s go deeper though. The hunters have different weapons to choose from: shotguns, LMGs, sniper rifles and assault rifles. For example the “FR574 Devil’s breathe – Bolt action sniper” has a slow rate of fire but very long range and deals large amounts of damage. The Passam Hacksaw T24 LMG has 150 rounds per magazine and has an effective range of 30 meters. The two permanent abilities of a hunter costs stamina upon use. They are Super Charge which increase movement speed and jump distance and the other is Stun which (you guessed it) stuns and deals small amounts of damage within a short range. Hunters can do more.
There are four powers for Hunters to choose, only one, from. They are: I see you, Fade, Spawn Turret and Drop mine. I see you reveals all nearby runners for 11 seconds. Fade makes the Hunter invisible and he makes no sound, this also cure the hunter of all negative effects like slow for example. Spawn turret lets the hunter place up to two turrets which ca and will fire at any and all runners within the range of 40 meters. Drop mine allows the hunter to set up proximity mines, up to ten. The Deathgarden got a whole lot safer right. Finally the perks. Hunters can choose two always activated passive perks. For example you can have increased magazine size and have downed runners revealed to you for 6 seconds. There are more perks though.
The Runners are agile and off course fast. They can also climb any surface too which is a much needed skill. They cannot kill the hunter but have equipment and devices that can halt, distract and harass the hunter. They play in third person and rely heavily on communication and teamwork.
Let’s go deeper though. There are three runner classes: Torment are all about harassing the hunter, messing with him, debuffing and stopping him from messing with your team. Support who can heal and shield their allies from a safe distance. Control who are best at handling objectives and messing with the Hunters focus and actions. Each of their abilities have three tiers. For example the support has healing bolts that, at tier one, just heal allies, tier two has an increased radius, but at tier three can revive down allies. Another example is that the torment class has a blind ability which at tier 1 blinds the hunter, at tier two the radius is increased, at tier three the hunter’s weapon has maximum spread so basically blind and little accuracy.
Runners also have perks. More available perks than the hunter. Like with the Hunter Runners can pick two of them. For example you can have ‘revivalist’ which lets you revive with full health instead of the standard 1/3 and ‘Damage Dodger’ which reduces damage you take by 40% while evading. Or you can combine ‘Lucky Charm’ which gives a 25% chance to receive an additional weapon upgrade part from a crate and ‘Quick Rescue’ which increases rescuing speed by 50%.So get creative, communicate with your team and work out what will work smoothly together.
The gardens themselves are never the same. Like with Spelunky, Deathgarden has procedurally generated arenas. So you can’t really plan ahead as much as you want. This garden can simulate a whole forest. Some matches can have fog, others have rain, others be daytime while other matches can be at night. Let’s not forget the bloodpost. Basically the hunter can send a Runner to a bloodpost if he has enough bloodpost charges. Each time the Hunter downs a Runner, he gets a charge. Charges can be stacked. Once you have three then a bloodpost can be used in order to execute a Runner. Runners can save other runners from a bloodpost but they are revealed to the Hunter while they are rescuing. If a Runner is rescued, then the bloodpost loses three charges. So the game has some mercy for Runners.
We checked out some gameplay and it is looking good so far. The runners moved how we thought they could. They can jump, scale any surface and scatter like rats. The Hunter is real fast, powerful, jumps high, strong weapons and a real threat. You truly can’t kill the Hunter. The Runners need to look out for crates with provide ammo and also weapon upgrade parts. There are some discussions concerning the balance of the game. The Hunter does seem really strong right now.. we do like that Runners capturing an objective are revealed to the Hunter. It definitely looks better than Dead by Daylight right now. You can’t just run around that same block and the Hunter can never catch them. No! The Hunter will kill you if you try running around a big rock thinking you are safe. The Hunter is faster.
Overall, Deathgarden looks like a good game. We definitely preferred this over Dead by Daylight. We never liked that game. The executions are quite brutal. The graphics look good and the fog does give Runners an advantage most of the time. The sounds though, especially the sounds of the guns firing. The developers ‘Behaviour Digital’ did a very good job with this game. We at X35 Earthwalker look forward to seeing this game come on the consoles for some real gaming. Now Deathgarden may have a powerful Hunter who has powers but even the Hunter would get stomped against… the ‘Earth Walk!’
