Scorn is a new horror adventure game developed and published by ‘Ebb Software’. It is not clear when Scorn will be coming out. It is an xbox exclusive. It will come out on Xbox Series X and PC. The heavy themes here is horror and puzzles. Also, this is a weird game in case you couldn’t tell. Let’s take a look.
Scorn is set in a weird world. It’s been described as an open-ended world with different interconnected regions. That’s not the weird part but we will get to that. Each region is designed to be like a Maze. Various rooms and different paths. The weird part which you can tell just from looking is that this world is alive, literally and quite breathing. You see what looks like living organism entrails or whatever that grow along the walls like vines and plants. Some things bound to the wall are living things. Sort of like when the Gravemind from Halo with the flood takes over an area like the ship high charity. It becomes alive. Think of it like that.
There are no cutscenes Scorn. This means that everything concerning the story can be found and revealed in the game itself. So looking around and exploring is the responsibility of the player. Players have been given a warning though. The official website said, “the game won’t show you any sympathy if you miss something important on your uneasy travels”. This alone says quite a bit. This suggests that maybe Scorn can be beaten without doing everything but will result in a bad ending that doesn’t answer all your questions.
Now it’s clear that this game wants to gross players out. This whole design, the character, the beings are all creepy, gross, sticky looking, you see what we mean when you look at gameplay. The game wants players to be fully aware of their character’s body and movement whatever that means. The developers also want players to have a realistic experience. As in you need to use your hands to pick up things (instead of just floating), also machines and certain instruments require the player to grab the levers, controls etc.
Scorn isn’t some exploration game where you just walk and look around. There are threats in this world. Players will need to think things through and decide when to fight something and when to just hide. Not only that but we knew this game would also make your decisions have consequences as in effecting the world you’re in. You have an inventory to manage and it’s very limited space. So decide what you want and what you may need later etc.
We checked out some Scorn gameplay we can find and yep, there is definitely combat. We saw three different types of weapons which fire differently and all look alive-ish. They come apart and fleshy, with bits. They fire what looks like small pellets which through the organism gun makes deadly like a shotgun. Ammo must be very limited meaning players need to really decided whether to fight or not. The game looks icky and gross but very good. The visuals are very good and you know it’s improved from two years ago so must look better. The world is definitely alive, gross but very cool. It’s certainly atmospheric and we hope they pull of the horror well.Developers make sure not to forget terrifying enemies that you have to avoid.
Overall Scorn does look like a good game just a very weird one that not everyone will be into. They will look at the game and get turned off. Yet there will always be gamers who will want to play it. We like how different this game is from other games. We like the risk the developers took and the game visuals and style. The developers ‘Ebb Software’ have done a good job wit this game. We at X35 Earthwalker will keep an ear and eye open for Scorn and what they do. Now Scorn may be risky and different but what’s not risky and hasn’t changed is… the ‘Earth Walk!’
Bright Memory Infinite is a new First person shooter action game developed by ‘FYQD-Studio‘ and published by ‘Playism‘. Bright Memory: Infinite is said to be coming out in 2021, so yep, next year. It’s an Xbox exclusive that’s coming out on the Xbox Series X, Xbox One and PC. Bright Memory: Infinite is looking real serious. Let’s take a look.
Bright Memory: Infinite is set in the future. How far? The year 2036 in a “sprawling metropolis”. Things seemed normal until something unusual happened. Basically something wacky is happening in the skies over various regions. Some look like little black holes or spheres in the skies plus other stuff. The SRO (Supernatural science research organisation), wait that’s two S’s. Shouldn’t it be SSRO? Whatever we didn’t develop this game. Basically the SRO sent out their agents to go and see what’s up.
Now there isn’t much information on Bright Memory: Infinite but we did pick up some things. We are going to focus on the action s it stands out the most. So whoever we are controlling they are well equipped. Guns for traditional long ranged combat, machine guns, auto pistols but seeing the sword brought things to the next level. The sword can create shockwave blasts when you slam down to the ground, off course swings to slice them up and even break through the defense of certain defensive enemies.
Things get crazier as special abilities are also in play. There was what looked like a time stop ability or should we say stasis as the environment wasn’t effected by time or slow down so more like stasis. Stasis or time is always an amazing power. Also impressive is an energy or ionic tether whip which you can use to grab ip pull yourself to that location or even enemies and pull them to you “get over here” style. Seriously this character is shaping up to be a powerful contender. Think ab out it: Guns, sword, stasis and energy tether whip. We just hope Bright Memory: Infinite has worthy enemies.
We have to talk about the visuals right now. The graphics are excellent. Completely amazing. We checked out the developers twitter account and he showed comparison pictures of a rock and step showing the difference the engine he’s using makes on the details of the objects. It’s a step up. The grass, the rain effects, the wind, the trees, the wood all looks excellent. The graphics are excellent. When we enter this game we will take a moment to just look around and see what’s happening. In case you didn’t
We did notice some of the enemies and currently more on the disappointed side. There are off course human enemies with guns who are standard but there’s also what looks like centurion type enemies, shield sword, helmet etc. These guys are tougher, shield block bullets and actually have a projectile. When they swing their blade at you it released a ball of energy or whatever straight at you so evasion is needed. The sword is a good counter against these enemies but even tis enemy isn’t enough. We truly hope for a big variety of enemies, maybe some that can teleport to match your speed and fire power for example. The enemies are currently underwhelming but we will have to see.
We checked some Bright Memory: Infinite gameplay and it’s just pure action. Besides everything we already mentioned there is even more. Basically at the end of the trailer the character called in a vehicle in which she got in and was pursued by another vehicle. It became a car chase. We don’t know if there will be car chases in the game but this trailer is strongly suggesting that this is the case. It’s got to be the main method of traversing the game like with the hover bike like thing in Destiny. So we can look forward to a vehicle.
Overall Bright Memory: Infinite looks like a very good game. Not much is known from a story point of view but from what we have seen it looks very good. The graphics, environment and action are excellent. There’s some force type techniques too like a push punch. There’s definitely more to be seen. The developers ‘FYGD-studio’ have done a very good job with this game. We at X35 Earthwalker look forward to seeing what memories, Bright Memory: Infinite will create for gamers. Now Bright Memory: Infinite may have futuristic battles and abilities but those things are no where near advanced enough to match… the ‘Earth Walk!’
The Ascent is a new solo and co-op action RPG developed by ‘Neon Giant‘ and published by ‘Curve Digital‘. The Ascent is said to be coming out in 2020 but no specific date. The Ascent is an Xbox exclusive that’s coming out on the Xbox One, Xbox Series X and PC. We normally like games of this style so naturally we checked it out. Let’s take a look.
In the Ascent universe there is a corporation… well a mega corporation known as the ‘The Ascent group’. They are said to own every everyone, including the player. This mega corporation has collapsed… somehow. This effects everything including security and order. So off course with The Ascent group gone, there is chaos and violence as let’s just say… non peaceful corporations and gangs are taking advantage of the situation. So off course you got to get control of the situation and found out what happened.
Now we definitely got an interest in The Ascent simply because of style. We like the whole top down shooting games thing. It reminds us of Alien Breed for example. Now that game is very good and a lot of fun with co-op action. So far The Ascent has those elements in terms of co-op action (which is excellent and the straight up combat. Games like this are not hard to make good but it’s the job or developers to take it to the next level. Hopefully The Ascent does such a thing.
The Ascent has a number of areas for the player to explore. There are many districts and some are run down and not so great like the slums while other places will be high end luxury places spheres. So make sure to take pictures – we mean be on your guard. Don’t forget that you will have opportunities to make allies and enemies. So be careful, do you really need more enemies, but what do they want in return for being an ally. Some people you can’t trust. Especially if you meet a alien called pablo.
There are a variety of enemies and off course each have their own strengths and weaknesses. She enemies are sower with their attacks. Some are melee only, others just attack from afar. You get the point by now. Off course don’t forget that The Ascent is also an RPG. Enemies can drop loot. The most dangerous enemies are worth slaying as they can drop the best and rarest loot of all. Your characters can also be augmented and customised. How you build your character will pretty much effect how you should approach the enemies. Use cyberware to modify your body, and your equipment makes a difference.
We checked out some The Ascent gameplay and it’s what we thought it would be. Top down, move around, dodge attacks, keep distance, shoot them down and make your way. You explore the area (as you should) and open up chests for items. The shooting enemies don’t seem so aggressive. There’s also abilities like a ground pound attack so you can mix that in to destroy groups of enemies. There is a dome shield that moves with you and offers excellent protection. The Ascent is already setting a huge bar for games to follow with no loading, environment destruction stays and it’s incredibly detailed and this isn’t even the final build yet. As expected we say playstation fans just dumping all over it for no logical reason but hey if you like it, play it and have fun.
Overall, The Ascent looks amazing so far. It’s incredibly detailed. The graffiti, the environment and as mentioned before the environment damage stays. The graphics are excellent, the sounds are serious and the in game character animations are excellent too. If this is what the Xbox Series X is brining then we are looking forward to it. The developers ‘Neon Giant’ have done an amazing job so far. We at X35 Earthwalker definitely look forward to what The Ascent truly brings. Now The Ascent may ascend gameplay but nothing is as ascended as… the ‘Earth Walk!’
Call of the Sea is a first person adventure puzzle game developed by ‘Out of the Blue‘ and published by ‘Raw Fury‘. Call of the Sea is said to be coming out on the Xbox Series X, Xbox One and PC. The release date isn’t known yet (maybe we do know but won’t tell you). Now this game has got our attention. It can’t be that mysterious right? It’s just a wife looking for her husband… normal stuff… right? Let’s take a look.
In Call of the Sea players take control of a woman called Nora. She is looking for her husband. Basically on his last expedition, he disappeared. He’s missing. Being a caring spouse she goes to look for him. Her search leads to an island. Now off course this isn’t a regular island. It’s said that loads of secret and mysteries are on this island. So take a look around I guess.
Now when you see a game like this you think about exploration games like Beyond Blue,Shape of the Worldand Abzu. Except Call of the Sea isn’t just exploration. It’s a full on adventure with a story, objective and mystery. The fact that it’s classed as a puzzle game means that players will need to be very observant, pay attention to detail and mentally link things together to progress. After all, finding your husband isn’t an easy thing.
The previous expedition here has left traces and clues around… but what happened to them? One of the main objectives in Call of the Sea is to find out what happened here and to them. This means there will be ships to explore. If there’s a voyage then there’s a ship. Check their equipment, their records, their writings, what they found. Sort of feels like detective work too.
The graphic style and visuals is the main attractor for us concerning Call of the Sea. The whole game is very colourful and inviting. This whole island is very nice to look at with lovely design. There’s definitely lots to see here. There’s even ruins. Not all games have good ruin design. In case you couldn’t figure it out, Nora isn’t your average woman at all. Nora has got skills and will have to put them all to use on this South Pacific island. Some elements in this game is surreal. We already like Nora as a character but she does sound quite confused concerning her self discovery.
Remember that Call of the Sea is coming on Xbox Series X. Xbox stated on their website, “Games built using the Xbox Series X development kit are designed to take advantage of the unique capabilities of the Xbox Series X. They will showcase unparalleled load-times, visuals, responsiveness, and framerates up to 120FPS”.
We checked out some Call of the Sea gameplay and it’s what we thought. The game looks calm from a violence perspective as in we saw no enemies and don’t think there is really any. Not much action at all which was expected as Call of the Sea is focused around mystery, exploration and puzzles. We even saw what looked like a transformation on what looks like Nora. She had webbed hands like a reptile and was traversing the water easily. There’s definitely stuff going on here. Simple looking controls and how you move about play this game.
Overall Call of the Sea looks like a good game. Not something huge but definitely packed. There’s more going on than simply a wife searching for her husband. We hope they don’t take the self discovery part too far and focus on the island and what it contains. We liking the graphics right now and style. The developers ‘Out of the Blue’ have done a good job wit this game so far. We at X35 Earthwalker hope to see more concerning this game. Now Call of the Sea may have mystery but one thing more mysterious is clearly… the ‘Earth Walk!’
Goosebumps: Dead of Night is a new action adventure game developed and published by ‘Cosmic Forces‘. Goosebumps: Dead of Night is said to be coming out the 12th of June 2020 on the Xbox One and PC. We heard that it’s coming out also on Nintendo Switch and PlayStation 4. Slappy is back and he’s up to no good. Let’s take a look.
In Goosebumps: Dead of Night, Slappy is back. He escaped from the pages of goosebumps. Not only that but he has brought together his crew of monsters. The goal of the player is to trap Slappy back into the goosebumps book. Slappy has a plan and is up to no good. The player must solve puzzles and thwart Slappy’s plans. Off course his monster friend aren’t going to simply let you do that.
So as you are searching fir the missing pages of the book, the monsters will be about ready to mean you harm. Expect to encounter the Annihilator 3000, graveyard ghoul, werewolf of fever swamp, lawn gnomes and murder the clown are all here and ready to roll. They will stop the player and deliver a scare while they’re at it. We honestly hope these enemies are scary though because we feel like we can punch that clown in the face and it will be over with.
We checked out some Goosebumps: Dead of Night gameplay and it’s sort of what we expected but we we believe it needs more. We get that it’s Slappy but this doesn’t seem scary in the slightest. We like that the werewolf crawls after you. We like that there are areas, in the three chapters that you play, that are recognisable, described as classic Goosebump locations. So fans of the Goosebump series will like this. It seems that the monsters function differently. The lawn gnomes seem to be more of a annoyance and distraction, running away and causing trouble while the clown and werewolf seem to come straight for you as a clear threat. This will mix things up as it should do. Simple enemies aren’t fun.
Overall Goosebumps: Dead of Night just seems like another indie game. It will be fun for some gamers as it’s quite simple, run away from enemies and search for pages, reminding some of Slender man. Youtubers will like it as it’s more fuel for views by screaming and running away. We honestly don’t see enough for this game to be a big deal for us. It just seems like simple fun and facing off against Slappy. The developers ‘Cosmic Forces’ have worked hard on this game. We at X35 Earthwalker always recognise work and effort. Some gamers will enjoy this. Now Goosebumps: Dead of Night may have Slappy but he’s a complete joke when compared to… the ‘Earth Walk!’
A King’s Tale: Final Fantasy XV is a 2D side scrolling action game that was developed and published by ‘Square Enix‘. A King’s Tale was released on Xbox One, PlayStation 4 and PC. We didn’t know this game existed when it launched. We heard about it last month and decided to give it a try. It’s Final Fantasy XV after all. To put it shortly, it’s an awesome game. Let’s take a look.
The story in A King’s Tale is very simple. It’s set in Final Fantasy XV (off course) and it’s King Regis telling a bedtime story to his son prince Noctis. Off course this takes place years before Final Fantasy XV because Noctis is clearly a child and Regis is looking younger and ‘clean wid it’ (looking good). Noctis has heard all the stories in the book and wants something new. So king Regis gives him a story based on his past adventures with his friends. Noctis says it’s fin for his dad to add, exaggerate and make it up as he goes along. So ‘A King’s Tale: Final Fantasy XV’ is literally a tale from king Regis to his son… in the world of Final Fantasy. Plot twist!!!
First things first, the controls. A King’s Tale: Final Fantasy XV has simple controls… not as simple as the controls in another amazing game called Maze Time but simple still. Not only that, the game effectively explains everything and throughout the game gives you reasons why you should use them. Some games fail to do that. Everything is incredibly responsive and the invincibility frames on your roll dodge is very generous. Everything has a purpose. Now even though the controls are simple, the game mechanics are quite deep. For example there are combos you can perform which have different amounts of damage, effects and even counters. Use the first few levels to practice and try them all to see what feels good and works best. Now as an example strong slashes are great against master ronins, quick slashes work very well against goblins while shield bash is great coeurls. Use roll dodge to get out of any situation. Here’s your greatest piece of wisdom of 2020 for now from the great X35 Earthwalker… “When in doubt, just roll dodge.” You’re welcome.
So run from left to right, defeating all the enemies that come your way until you can move on. It’s like Streets of Rage as a side scrolling action game. Simple to understand. So let’s talk about the enemies. Almost all the enemies have a stronger variation of themselves that normally has an extra ability or effect. For samples you will encounter the skeletons which will always block the third attack of your combo but the master skeletons will block strong slashes and will counter quick slashes. So if you strike with a quick slash, it will parry it and then hit you back too quick to dodge. A ronin can be hit with anything but a master ronin will block quick slashes and shield bashes so strong attacks are needed. A literal upgrade of previous enemies. The Midgardsormr will pop up from underground to strike you but can be stunned with a specific strike. You have to do strong, strong then shield bash from behind it. The iron giants are big and strong but wait for them to strike, get behind them and start swinging. Even the behemoth is in A King’s Tale: Final Fantasy XV. These guys have a tail attack that can hit both sides if you are too close. Be careful. Goblins attack in swarms and will try to use their knives. They aren’t difficult at all as there’s many ways to deal with them. There are explosive enemies called bombs that will explode if you stand near them. If you attack them with a slash they get knocked back and grow bigger but won’t explode. If you shield bash them though, you can send them flying towards enemies so they can get blown up. Believe it or not, there are more enemies and they have their own tricks too. A King’s Tale: Final Fantasy XV has many enemies and variety is a good thing.
The game isn’t long at all. A skilled player can beat it within 2 hours. It was never meant to be a big game. There is some deployability though. First of all we heard there is an alternate ending to the story so players got to beat it again to get that different ending. Also there is Dream Battles. Basically Noctis dreams the story he heard but with a slight twist to it. You play each level of the game again but there is a specific mission condition you must fulfil. It could be like defeat an army of flan enemies but use no magic. It could be to beat a frenzy of enemies within a time limit. It could be to finish a whole mission without the aid of your companions. So there’s still stuff to do. Oh and speaking of companions…
Probably our favourite thing about A King’s Tale: Final Fantasy XV is working with your companions to defeat the enemies. There’s a whole system to it. If you get 8 hits on enemies without getting hit yourself you can call one of your companions to jump in and launch their attack. Each one is powerful and has their own use. The main man Weskham comes in with dual pistols firing at enemies in front and behind him dealing good damage. Cid jumps in and does a single powerful slash that travels across the ground with piercing effect. So line em up and ol Cid will knock them down. Clarus comes in and swings his dual blade three times damaging everything within his attacking circumference range. If you hit enemies a total of 24 times without getting hit you can use the Armiger. This ultimate attack allows Regis (the player) to use his Lucius family power of the king. He warps to an enemy, normally the one with the most health, levitates and uses four of his royal arms to smash an enemy dealing immense damage. Now listen up kids. If you use each of your companions attacks before using Armiger you, each on of them will come in and do a different more powerful focused attack on different enemies before you finish up with the royal arms. Very cool mechanic that promotes avoiding damage and playing flawlessly to get these abilities.
A King’s Tale: Final Fantasy XV is a deep game with it’s mechanics, enemies and the combat. We mentioned it but didn’t explain that there’s lots of combos and moves. Simply you can do 3 quick slashes, 3 strong slashes and 3 shield bashes. There’s also quick quick shield, strong strong shield and then there’s quick quick strong which launches enemies into the air where you can then launch repeated strong or quick slashes or defend with shield. You can do quick quick strong to bring your enemy down with a strong descending strike. . You can do dodge roll to jump of your enemy and them either dash straight into an enemy on the ground with a strike with a quick slash or with shield after jumping to do a descending shield ground pound attack to knock back, or use a strong slash to do a big area of effect descending smash move. There’s lots you can do. So try them all out.
Overall A King’s Tale: Final Fantasy XV is an awesome game. It’s short like it was suppose to be but definitely awesome. It has simple controls but the mechanics surrounding enemies and attacks are deep. The final boss battle is epic. You have lots of dangerous enemies constantly coming for you while you target and deal with the boss at the same time. It’s a hectic battle with lots of opportunities for your companion attacks and Armiger. This game is difficult though as more enemy types like the Tonberry and Cactuar come in, things can get real crazy. The developers, ‘Square Enix’ have done an awesome job with this game. We at X35 Earthwalker really enjoyed playing A King’s Tale: Final Fantasy XV. If you haven’t played this game before, we recommend it. Now A King’s Tale might be set in the awesome world of Final Fantasy XV but even that doesn’t put it on the same level as… the ‘Earth Walk!’
Little Misfortune is a interactive story game developed and published by “Killmonday Games”. Little Misfortune is said to come out today on consoles, the 29th of May 2020 on the Xbox One, Nintendo Switch, Playstation 4 and already out on PC. We have seen this game before but was never interested but it’s out now. Let’s take a look.
In the world of Little Misfortune, players control Misfortune Ramirez Hernandez. She is 8 years old (remember that as you play) and described as very imaginative (remember that also). Simply put Misfortune “seeks the prize of eternal happiness” as a gift for her mother. So she heads out to find it. She is joined by ‘Mr Voice’ who is basically the narrator and talks directly to Misfortune. Already we don’t trust this voice. She literally just met this voice.
Now straight from looking at Little Misfortune is suppose to be a cute game with a bit of darkness. Not everything is as nice and innocent as it seems. The decisions players make are said to have real consequences. This means players can mess up. Does this mean you can die in Little Misfortune? Also the official website says that after Misfortune Ramirez Hernandez enters the woods a “little bit of bad luck unfolds”. Not only that we heard there is a monster too. Yep mysterious things are happening here in Little Misfortune.
We checked out some Little Misfortune gameplay and it’s what we expected. There’s even a fox that we just don’t like the look off. Can you blame us? Dora the explorer had problems with a certain fox too after all. It’s a simple colourful story game. Misfortune moves alone, things happen, players make decisions and see what happens immediately and if anything happens later. It’s good to have games like this around. This game does get unpredictable-is at times and a bit dark like accidentally killing a puppy with a party hat. Players need to think carefully about decisions. It’s an adventure but since it’s an imaginative 8 year old girl, call it a story.
Overall Little Misfortune is a nice little game. The game does well to show that we are playing a 8 year old girl. She has a child’s way of talking, an obvious strong accent, doesn’t understand simple things like death, needs to be walked through most things etc. The graphic style is very good and it has lots of unpredictable stuff. We hope this game is really punishing. It’s not our kind of game but almost any type of gamer can get into this and give it a try. The developers ‘Killmonday Games’ has done a good job with this game. We at X35 Earthwalker will take a peek from time to time to see what it does.
Chorus is a new space combat shooter game developed and published by ‘Deep Silver Fishlabs‘. Chorus is said to be coming out in 2021 on the Xbox One, Xbox Series X, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Google Stadia and Windows PC. From what we are seeing, this is suppose to be a big deal. Let’s take a look.
In the world of Chorus players take control of basically two characters: Nara who is quite a complex character. She is an ace pilot who was Circle’s deadliest fighter. She is now their number 1 target. Circle is a cult, a bad one and the one that created Nara and made her who she is. Nara isn’t alone. She works with her starfighter, Forsaken, which is sentient by the way and has it’s own past and history. That’s like the Master chief from Halo being able to talk and communicate with his signature sniper rifle. Nara and Forsaken are out here trying to bring all resistance groups together to go against Circle and off course their leader… the ‘Great Prophet’.
Chorus is a space game so expect a whole new universe and a dark one at that. Nothing is really straight forward here. Chorus is focusing on having mystery as a strong factor in this story. There’s also tons of conflict.This can only mean one thing… combat. Spaceship combat, dogfights from “epic cosmic vistas to tight crystalline corridors.” So think about it. A whole universe where you traverse by ship and hostile beings makes Chorus a big space exploration game with serious combat. Expect to come across and search out places like space stations, distant planets, enemy fighters and according to the developers strange planes pf existence. We hope they can pull it off well.
Chorus is not just space fighting as Nara will have powers of her own. She can use telekinesis (yes please), mind bending, extra sensory perception and even teleportation. Remember the ship isn’t just a ship. Your ship can drift for that extra mobility and evasion and there are combat upgrades to get and even powerful weapons that will allow you and your ship to face superior forces in terms of size like huge battleships and even armies of enemies. The skill then comes down to knowing all your abilities and upgrades, know when to use each one and the synergy of them for the best results.
We checked out some Chorus content and from what we have seen it definitely looks split into two. A clear difference between the exploration, mystery and the fast paced action. Players will have to master the maneuverability of the ship to dodge debris or structures in space. This will have to be done also during combat too. The environment is looking cool and as strange as this is… space looks cool too. Red is quite a popular colour in Chorus and it can work. The mystery of the so called great prophet is good too but will he be a stereotypical cult leader or something special? We will have to see.
Overall Chorus looks like it’s going to be a big deal. We like the setting, the visuals and even the typical story. Not much is known about this game but it’s obvious that Xbox is proud and excited about this one. The developers ‘Deep Silver Fishlabs’ have done a good job so far. We at X35 Earthwalker want to see a space combat game like this do well. Space games are not hard to get right but many fail at it. We hope Chorus is different. Now Chorus may have mystery, powers, and starfighters but even with those it isn’t as cool as… the ‘Earth Walk!’
Streets of Rage 4 is an arcade beat em up game and off course the fourth game in the Streets of Rage series. Many have been waiting for this game. Many. X35 Earthwalker is one of them but off course the greatest and coolest of them. Things are different this time around in Streets of Rage, in multiple ways and for the better. Many have talked or reviews this game (they did alright) but remember… a game hasn’t been reviewed until X35 Earthwalker has reviewed it. Let’s take a look.
Streets of Rage stories have never been complicated. They are always straight forward and simple. In Streets of Rage 4. There’s crime in the city, an evil syndicate is behind it all and the vigilante heroes go in to stop it… beating the crap out of everyone and everything that gets in their way. Simple. This time though Mr X is not the one behind it. He’s dead. It’s his children… the Y twins! Mr and Ms Y. So this time Axel, blaze, Cherry? and Floyd? with rage in their hearts take on the streets of rage. Yep, we got new characters. Cherry hunter (if you couldn’t tell by the name) is the daughter of Adam Hunter. Floyd Iraia is the apprentice and assistant of Dr Gilbert Zan. So no Adam again?…
The rules are the same in Streets of Rage 4. Keep moving to the right and beat up all the bad guys. Reach the end of the level and face a boss. Get enough points and you earn an extra life. Each of the characters have their own stats which can be viewed in the extras menu but you must unlock it first. They each have special attacks with a few like Blaze having an additional. There’s the defensive and offensive special attack. The defensive is like a ‘get off me’ move which during you’re also invincible. Offensive is normally longer range, travels a little and does straight up damage. Each character also has an ultimate attack. These require stars to activate which don’t come easy. For example, Floyd’s ultimate is him firing huge laser like he’s Cyborg from Injustice. Cherry is the fastest of all the fighters and the only one who can sprint. Floyd is the biggest and strongest but slower than slow itself. Axel is a balanced fighter with a powerful offensive special move. Blaze is also balanced, bit weaker than axel but got an additional special attack.
Streets of Rage 4 isn’t a hard game but a fair challenge, unlike Streets of Rage 3. The difficulties are: Easy. normal, hard, hardest and Mania. Mania is as the descriptions says… unfair but it’s only for the masters of Streets of Rage 4. Familliar enemies like Galsia, donavon, yellow signal are all here and ready to fight. Matter of fact, enemies from different Streets of Rage games are all here. They come back as mini bosses, actual end of level boss or just strong enemies. Big Ben, the fat guy in red introduced in Streets of Rage 2, is back and he charges you spiting fire (somehow) just like the good ol days. Barbon who was a boss in streets of Rage 2 is back and also a boss. He still kicks hard. Garnet, the women who jump and kick you from Streets of Rage 3 are here too. The Muay Thai fighters are back too and they are worse in our opinion. There are new enemies too like Honey who we hate the most. Stupid enemies indeed. When there’s multiple of them, expect a rough time. Police officers including one with a futuristic shield called Murphy (robocop anyone?). Goro who really slows down how you play and is dangerous when more than one is present. There’s more.
The old techniques are there in Streets of Rage 4, like landing on your feet when launched or thrown. You can break grabs as well and even juggle enemies with multiple simple hits to lead up with a strong finisher. Let’s dive in a bit more concerning some enemies. Yes enemies have variations of them just like the older Streets of Rage games. Galsia is normally blue and the weakest but then you will come across a green, red and white version who have more health and more aggressive. Donavan has a green and red pants versions of them. We believe the green one is called altet, something like that. Anyways, the red ones can throw weapons at you and even catch weapons throw at them. The last version of them is called ‘z’ and they at times can have armour. Big Ben has variations. There’s Gourmand and Anry. Gourmand will always try to belly flop drop on you while Anry will roll for an attack like Sonic the hedgehog but only vertically. Watch out for these guys. These guys and others aren’t much of a problem really but it becomes a huge problem when you play in hardest difficulty. The character designs are excellent. Amazing. Majority of these characters were designed right. Their design says quite a lot about them. Our favourite enemy design is Diva, hands down. Her design from her clothes, to heels, to hair style all have character. Her movement animations is also excellent. Combine it all together and she’s tough, a boss, dangerous, sexy and got attitude. You need to beat her up first before she complies.
Our second favourite enemy design is Mr Y. This guy has evil crime lord written all over him, from the trendy stylish coat, to his hair and fighting style. He doesn’t back down, regardless and knows he’s powerful. He was meant to be a bad guy. What’s that? He wanted to be a chef, well too bad, crime is his life. He looks good for sure. Our favourite hero design probably has to be Blaze. We feel like this is the best look for her possible. She’s got her jacket back which is a good thing. They went for a beautiful, sexy design but also she would kick your butt in many ways if you even try it on her once. Now some have a problem with her design but we think those people just need to grow up. Yes her skirt is real short but for what she does it’s actually practical. Look at her fighting style over the Streets of Rage games. She kicks… a lot. She does flips and jumping kicks. Jumping was her best stat in the very first game. How are you going to jump kick effective in a long skirt, you can’t unless it has a slit going all the way up to your hip. She can kick high if she needs to and flip. Her shirt makes it possible. It rides up when she does which is very realistic. We get it, some of you dads out there thinking, “young lady, go back upstairs and change. You ain’t fighting crime dressed like that!” We understand but her outfit is good, realistic and practical. This is coming from a martial artists with over 12 years experience. We don’t like Axel’s design. He looks kind of chubby now, like his six pack formed on top of the fat. He was a martial artist so why would he let himself go. Being a wanderer and searching for direction or whatever he’s doing doesn’t mean you stop caring. Wish he was in shape like Adam. Adam looks great but we can think of better designs for him.
Next let’s talk about the music. Streets of Rage games have always been known for their music. The boss music in Streets of Rage 1 is the best. You can bop and jam to it while facing the bosses. Streets of Rage 2 had two levels that we really enjoyed the music off. Also Streets of Rage 2 also has the best character select screen music, hands down. Streets of Rage 3 was the least of all the games in our opinion. Streets of Rage 4 has real nice menu music for chilling. You can get the Streets of Rage 2 character select screen music in the settings. In Streets of Rage 4 the best stage music of them all hands down is part 1 of level 2 the Precinct. Easy. If you say no, we will give you a location, meet us there and we will fight you. We aren’t responsible for all wounds you WILL get. Back to topic. Level 1, 2, 3, 4 and part 2 of level 9 had good to very good music. The others music was alright or not impressive to us sadly. Music in Streets of Rage 4 has build up music as in the music starts with a simple or unimpressive beta but as you go through the level the music builds up and extra beats are added and then it becomes something real good. We like that style. Level three hasn’t got good music at the start but then becomes something you can jam too but if you switch retro music for that level, it’s the boat music level from Streets of Rage 2 which was excellent. Sadly the retro music is better than the modern. We wish the developers did more concerning the music. The variety is definitely there even giving a more oriental music for the china town level.
Let’s now go over what we didn’t like. We don’t like that you had to beat level 4 before you can play as Adam. Adam was missing from both Streets of Rage 2 and 3 in terms of being playable. Then now in Streets of Rage 4 we got to play a bit to get him. Speaking of characters we don’t like that you can’t play as modern Shiva. If you look at the title screen you see Estel, Diva and Shiva on the front screen like they are a part of the cast. They have good looking character designs with their own moves but not unlockable. Maybe they plan to bring them in as DLC but if they at the front then either they are significant or playable. Simple. You might say they are there because they are bosses. Good point but Barbon, Nora, commissioner, DJ K Washi etc aren’t on the front. So yeah it’s not consistent. What we don’t like is hw the biker girls like Honey and the Muay Thai fighters have almost instant reflex hitting moves that can even joggle making certain sections practically unfair. The biker girls slide attack still hits you diagonally and forces you to save yourself by using special moves which drain your health and leave you in a bad state. What’s also disappointing is that besides the first thing levels like 1,2,3,4 the rest of the music isn’t great and the retro audio options aren’t good either. We was expecting the greatest Streets of Rage music of all time. Didn’t happen. The striking window or time for enemies to hit you remains the same regardless of difficulty.
The trick to handling Barbon isn’t clear like the other bosses. When he does his repeated roundhouse 360 kicks you are suppose to jump but it doesn’t look like that’s possible so you don’t try that. Especially someone like mFloyd who can’t jump high at all (sucker has 10cm vertical leap) the kick visually goes through his body but doesn’t hit. Also having the biker girls come out to join Barbon because you smash the bikes isn’t good either as you want the items but when you smash the bikes they come out. If you aren’t careful you will end up fighting Barbon and 6 biker girls at the same time. Adam had practically no relevance in the story besides his reveal which again is just bad. For some reasons Streets of Rage 4 on Xbox One has a shorter combo window than others. We watched some people including CoryxKenshin play Streets of Rage 4 (video below, watch when he hits the car) and we noticed that when they finished fighting someone their combo number in the top left hand corner stays for much longer, flashes and then shrinks showing it’s going to reset soon. That doesn’t happen on our Xbox One version. It resets so fast. Also when you hit the car in stage 1 that counts as hits and raises your combo counter. It doesn’t do that for us. Also if you hit cones, bins, water machines, whatever destructible which normally hide food or whatever under it, it also counts as a hit and even eating the food prevents the combo from ending. This allows you too easily get crazy combos. Very unfair. Where’s the section that allows us to play music from the game? They should have had that.
Let’s finish with more good stuff. What’s cool is that the levels and dialogue make it clear that the Y twins respected their dad. Family love. We like how each characters special attacks are so different from each other. Floyd being technology and pure force, Axel having fire as usual, Cherry having abilities linked to her guitar and music, Blaze having what looks like energy and off course Adam looking like green flames with dragon shapes at least for the offensive special move. The effects look excellent. We like the additional information and stuff you unlock in the extras menu. Those are actually interesting stuff. The ultimates look fantastic and make you want to use them a lot but sadly you get punished for using them by getting a lower score as you get 500 points for each star you hold on to at the end of the level.The fact that you can play as one of the characters from the previous Streets of Rage games is a big brain move. You can literally go through the whole game a streets of rage 1 Axel. That’s big. Players off course loved that they did this. The story is simple and easy to go with including cinematic scenes. It makes sense and you just roll with it. We also truly enjoyed that there are hidden levels where you face old bosses from past Streets of Rage games like Jack and even Mr X. It’s like a blast from the past. See clip below for an example alone with X35 Earthwalker getting an out of this world combo.
Overall Streets of Rage 4 is an excellent game. It’s awesome. We are having so much fun playing it. We have beaten the game multiple times. Gotten the perfect and out of this world combo achievements. We still have quite a bit more stuff to do. Even mania difficulty can’t stop us. If you are a fan of Streets of Rage or new to the series you will most likely enjoy this game. We haven’t tried the multiplayer but it’s clear. Either play online and go through levels with others or battle against over players online in battle mode to see who has more rage in their heart. The developers have done an excellent job but there is room for more. We suggest you get Streets of Rage 4 besides it’s not even expensive like £21. Off course we don’t go over everything but the main stuff. Now Streets of Rage 4 may have great designs, music and animations but those would have been much better if they done… the ‘Earth Walk!’
Those who remain is a new adventure horror game developed by ‘Camel 101‘ and published ‘Wired productions‘ and ‘WhisperGames‘. Those who remain is said to be coming out May 28th 2020 on the Xbox One, PlayStation 4 and PC. We heard it’s also coming to Nintendo Switch in 2020 but no exact date. We got more developers trying to make a actually scary horror game. We hope they do good. Let’s take a look.
Those who remain has a simple story but off course should get deeper. Basically you control a man named Edward who is taking life for granted. It’s said his life is very good with a nice wife and daughter. Yet he still does stupid things like have an affair and over drinking. He’s heading through the town of Dormant to end the affair he’s having, to fix his mistakes. He reached the golden oak motel and that’s where everything takes a hard turn.
Those who remain wouldn’t be a horror game if it’s just a conversation and things were sorted and you went home. Nope! Turns out that this town Dormant isn’t a simple normal American town. This town has been infected with darkness. Reality has been warped here, it’s a combination of what the citizens have done and the darkness. This town has been cursed by a demon. The people of the town can’t escape. What you have to do is survive this night. Remember it’s a journey though.
There’s two dimensions that are interconnected. Players will have to work through a strange alternate reality and Dormont. This is needed to solve puzzles and off course to reveal what’s really happening around here. Like with these psychological horror games you know there’s going to be decisions and moral conflict. You get the choice to reprieve or condemn the lost souls of Dormont. Edwards fate is in the players hands. There are moral choices to make. How much does it effect the story? We do’t know. Mechanics suggest that there is more than one ending.
We checked out Those who remain gameplay and it’s what we expected. Those who remain hasn’t made the same mistake that other horror games made. They actually have some enemies. There are some creatures/monsters moving about in the darkness. They will kill anyone that comes near. Your best weapon and friend is the light. Stay in it. Now in some ways it does remind us of Outlast in terms of walking around, exploring buildings and stealth elements too. You have to hide from some enemies. The enemies don’t look scary so far though. There’s one that has a spotlight for a face practically and it will expose you, so stay out of it’s sight.
Overall Those who remain so far for us is just another horror game. Doing things slightly different but we need more. Horror games like these all try and they should, it’s just we have high expectations. The environment does look great though. We like the motel, the messed up reality and that there’s actually enemies now. The developers have done an good job from what we have seen so far. We at X35 Earthwalker will have to see what else Those who remain has to offer. Now Those who remain may have curses, demons and darkness but none of these things can do anything against… the ‘Earth Walk!’
