Faris_V5 Reviews

What does killing Chaos actually entail anyway Stranger of Paradise is a bizarre little final fantasy spinoff. Taking heavily as I'm told from Nioh's gameplay in order to make an experience akin to Diablo or any other ARPG. With classes, skills, buffs, builds, scaling content and endless replayability. But... It never really markets itself as such until you hit the 2nd DLCs worth of content. It's a little hard to describe SoP's moment to moment gameplay. As much like any good loot em up the actual gameplay loop will vary based on your build. However, for the most part, it plays like a fast-paced Soulslike. With dodges, blocks, parries, heavy attacks, stagger, elemental effects and buffs and debuffs all bouncing around in the midst of relatively hectic combat encounters. However, as my friend Dagda would put it, the real meat and potatos of an ARPG isn't the gameplay. It's combining a specific subset of skills, gear, and buffs to create a pure unstoppable killing...

Thanks to denial, I'm immortal Peaks of Yore is a cosy little rock climbing simulator themed around the 1800s. With a super simple first person gameplay system of reaching out in the direction you're looking, grabbing rocks from any angle with the same strength every time, and stamina isn't an issue unless you're on a specific hold that includes it as a mechanic. You slowly but surely work your way up increasingly difficult cliffs and spires, eventually reaching amazing 2 kilometer tall mountains. All the while knowing one bad fall without a rope securing you means resetting from zero. It's simple, it's thrilling... And it managed to become an instant favourite of mine. This is going to be a short review, the simple thing I can say about the gameplay is that if you go look at the steam page, think "that looks neat, I'd try it." I highly recommend it. The game has a perfect difficulty curve and tutorializes you well along the way. Doing the Portal t...

Catapult my Beloved    I may be a touch late to the party, so I'm going to skip the usual pleasantries on this one. Mechwarrior 5 is big, stompy, tank controlled giant robot action after the series was dormant for an extended period. It had issues, DLC fixes some, mods fix others. I'm mainly writing this, cause I'm curious if anyone shares my opinion on a few core elements. Firstly, the core movement and shooting gameplay. I want to state outright that I think the actual mech piloting and action is a 10/10. Using every edge Unreal Engine offers to make these giant robots come alive when your lance touches down. From the whirring of a falling helicopter to the chunky loading of an AC/20. Each mech visibly showing your loadout and parts flying across the battlefield as limbs are torn to to shreds. Every mech feels different thanks to both a custom cockpit and varying engines and torso/arm aiming systems. When Mechwarrior Online came out over a decade ago, I thought it felt fa...

  Newest of the Fallen, take up your sword and fight From the creator of Spooky's Jumpscare Mansion, Lunacid is a dungeon crawler very deliberately evoking King's Field and Shadow Tower. With a close to identical combat system, PSX style graphics, a dark moody atmosphere reminiscent of Fromsoftware games and an experience focused around exploration and discovery. It's also one of my new favourite games of all time, but more on that in a moment. Just know that I recommend this game as enthusiastically as I could ever recommend a game. And if you wish to have the best possible experience untainted. Stop reading here, and play it yourself, I guarantee you won't regret it, no matter who you are. Since Lunacid is such an easy game to recommend, for that reason I will keep detailed analysis of it's systems and design light. It takes direct and visible influence from a multitude of games, not just King's Field but even La-Mulana or Morrowind. But the thing that makes i...

Now 80% 'guide dang it' free! An early entry from the legendary Looking Glass Studios team. Ultima Underworld is a classic dungeon crawler and landmark title in 3d first person gaming. Like many games I've reviewed before, it's influences are vast and mostly unknown to me. So we'll be narrowing down on "how well does this hold up?" Gameplay wise, if you've played any Immersive sim or dungeon crawl in the grander Legend of Grimrock, Deus Ex, or even Elder Scrolls vein, you'll have a decent idea what to expect. Combat has a grand total of 3 melee attacks shared between ever melee weapon. Some ranged options, and spells using a rune system that itself has been copied and/or iterated on by other RPGs since. I would call it simple, but that's to the games benefit. Like many Immersive sims, there are multiple solutions to any given problem. Many including clever use of spells or items to skip over the 'intended' routes. I don't know how s...

  Interesting is better than boring Perhaps a prime example of why remasters don't need to be limited to critical darlings or cult classics. Star Wars Bounty Hunter is a PS2 era action platformer in such a stereotypical mold that I'm going to cover much of the nuts and bolts of the gameplay by repeating the phrase "PS2 era action platformer" while nodding knowingly. If you don't get it, go play Ratchet & Clank. The core selling point of the game is, of course, playing as the titular bounty hunter Jango Fett. Crossing the galaxy seeking your next payday via the seedy underbelly and scum of the land. While the story is no epic nor any kind of true crime drama. I will say it does a good job with it's use of the star wars IP and setting to create a very convincing aesthetic. It says something that I encountered a few genuine mandalorian fans in my streams of the game. I would very easily recommend it to anyone with a fondness for the grander star wars setting....

  The closest thing to drugs that isn't drugs Trepang² insert joke about sea cucumbers here is a fast paced first person shooter brought to us from Trepang studio. I don't know what they did beforehand, but apparently they made a game jam version of Trepang, and like Mario chasing around mips the rest of the game is basically build around the core gameplay. In fact, lets get literally every single other detail out of the way first. The story is fun, the level design is solid, the graphics are the perfect combination of feeling like they're using all the existing unreal engine effects to their fullest, the weapon unlocking and upgrade system is barebones but a fun motivator and the horde mode and various secrets and sandboxes allow for tons of fiddling around and replay value. But none of that matters because at the core of this entire game is one of the best combat systems I've ever played in my life. Taking inspiration from too many sources to list and boiling it all d...