Invisible Inc. (PC)

I've decided to give Diablo 3 a little break, at least demote it to playing only once a week so that I can sink my teeth into Invisible Inc. It's one of the PC games I have bought so far this month (along with DeadCore, The Fall, Pac Man DX (which I already owned on my 360 and Spirits of Xanadu).

It's a turn based stealth game by Klei, the guys who brought us N+. Eets, Shank and the instant classics : Don't Starve and, my personal favourite stealth game, Mark of the Ninja. Just like in X-Com there are quite a few ways to adjust the difficulty level, but it's pretty clear from the get-go that this is something you aren't going to get through on your first attempt.

You use action points to get through the levels, hack terminals, steal information, eliminate the guards; pretty straight forward stuff. The world is a mix of retro-futuristic design and film noir and spy movies. 

There are different ways to view the map: the normal way, the tactical way and the super cyber punk way (though your uber-hacking computer named Incognita).

Throughout the level you will gain Power points which are used for Incognita's different abilities - such as to hack terminals, power systems and video cameras. The security level (in the top right hand corner) constantly progresses so that the longer you stay in a level the more difficult it becomes.

A cool touch was also the Access to Warez exchange, where you can buy new abilities for your AI. You need to use credits which you will find by taking the time to hack terminals and of course as a reward for beating a level.

Remember how I said 'Get ready to fail' ? I didn't quite word it like that but, yeah, get ready. Yet failure is apart of learning and so, as you fail, you will also unlock new agents and (I'm guessing now) maybe new abilities. You can't make your own characters in this one, like in X-Com, but you can take a few different characters and they all have back stories - pretty cool.

Beat a level - get a report card, and some credits to spend, nothing out of the ordinary here.

You'll need to choose, use your credits to upgrade one character or another, or your AI, it doesn't seem like there is going to be enough to go around - at least not at the beginning.

I bought Invisible Inc. just based on how much I loved Mark of the Ninja, so far I have not been disappointed : the quality of the music, the graphics, the style not to mention the overall quality of the game has already got me wanting more. All that I really want is a good experience, some memories worth the 16€ I spent on it.

AltecApollyon : This Week's Gaming (Week 21 - 2015)

Lately I haven't really had a chance to get a good gaming session in. The last real binge I had was Diablo 3 two weeks ago. I have been playing a few things on my phone, as always : Carcassonne, Agricola, Boom Dots & Shredd. We went away for the long weekend and on the train and in the evenings I played some more Magic 2015 on the iPad. I finally cracked and bought the IAP for the cards that you can normally only unlock when you defeat an opponent online - simply because the game crashes on me sometimes and I can barely find anyone to play online with - I just want to play around with the cards and understand the combos, so I guess they got me there. Hey, it's still cheaper than experimenting with real MTG cards.

Funny, I've been quite stressed out lately and then today I - without thinking - turned on Geometry Wars 3. Looks like my gaming is also my comfort food. There was a new update for Geometry Wars, so its now called "Evolved" and has a bunch of new stuff to check out. I contained my gaming time to about a hour so I could checkout Diablo 3 again.

Last time I played Diablo 3 was a quick little session after an all night binge with a friend who knows the game inside and out (according to his account he's played over 4000 hours....yes, that is insane!) And today I thought I would just play for about an hour, it turned into two and I defeated the boss in the expansion and "beat the game." This means that I can now go try my hand at these bounties and rifts everyone keeps going on about.....oh, and I found the cow level today. That was pretty funny, unfortunately pretty unfruitful as well.

I also found myself booting up Minecraft lately, just to check if our Realm was still up (it wasn't and that made me sad) and reset my Neptune's Pride 2 password; just because I wanted to keep the hope alive that one day my group of 16 people might want to play again. Wonder what it all means?

I know that I haven't posted another "Games I am looking forward to in 2015" and it's almost already half over - seems that I am pretty terrible with this whole blogging thing - but some of the games I am looking forward to haven't been released, so maybe I still have a chance to get a post up before they are.... for now, I am going to bed to play Magic 2015: last boss.

Krautscape (PC), Warlocks vs. Shadows (PC) & REVOLVER360 RE:ACTOR (PC)

Tonight I took some time to checkout three games that I have been really looking forward to and have been sitting in my Steam library unplayed for too long. That ends now.

I present games from Switzerland, Poland and Japan..... (what an international smorgasbord of games)

Krautscape (PC)

Krautscape was something I had been looking forward to for a while. I think I became aware of this little gem from Mario Von Rickenbach of Switzerland while reading about another oddity "Mirage."

It's a kart racing game where the track is unfinished and the car in first place gets to choose what piece comes next. I thought this would be done over a simple Tetris piece-choosing system but it's actually done by driving on one of the three colours on the track while going though a gate, this chooses the next track piece automatically. There are also times when you are going to have to fold out your wings and fly over a missing track piece or maybe strategically try to skip a corner....

Unfortunately I can't comment too much on the gameplay since I only could play the tutorial and then couldn't find any players online to play with (*sob*) but I will definately dig this one out when I have some friends over for some split-screen action.

It's a good looking game but I haven't seen the great shading like in some of the promo screenshots or loops like in the promos - I guess I will have to wait and see. The physics did feel a little slippery but again, without having other racers to test it with I can't comment too much.

Warlocks vs. Shadows (PC)

Warlocks vs. Shadows, I am proud to say, is one of the only games that I have supported over Kickstarter. I think it's great and I only played about an hour. Choose your Warlock, use his abilities that are mapped to the four thumb buttons on your controller and stack up combos and eliminated waves of enemies - find loot, level up, go deeper. 

Another game made by an extremely small team; One More Level from Poland.

This should be a blast with 3 more people and I can't wait to give it a try with some friends on a couch. 

REVOLVER360 RE:ACTOR (PC)

Revolver360 Re:Actor is a bullet hell shooter from Japan. It's hard as nails and filled with seizure inducing graphics and throbbing techno - as you would expect. The added twist here is that you can turn your perspective 360 to see different angles of enemies and bullets, line up enemies to create bigger combos or simply dodge that every growing umbrella of bullets by turning the screen sideways and making it only a line of bullets. Hard to explain....watch the trailer.

Diablo 3: Reaper of Souls (PC)

The original release of Diablo 3 put me in such a rage that I swore never to play it again and that was pretty easy seeing as there are true alternatives now - especially Torchlight 2, which I love.

A friend though has been constantly nagging me to get back on and telling me how good everything has gotten since the expansion. I wouldn't believe it - didn't want to believe it; especially since I think that if you have broken your game and want to fix it that that fix should be FREE and not cost another 40€.

Since then the price has dropped and the more we've been talking about it the more I was willing to give it a try - I try other games by paying for them so maybe I should give Diablo 3 one more chance and sink an earnest 40 hours into it and see how it is.

The download and installation was once again excruciating - long and tedious and the first choices of how to play were confusing (adventure modes, rifts, story, season....). I started in Season 3 on my friend's recommendation and the beginning of the game was so mindless and boring (I couldn't have known which difficultly setting to take at the beginning) but that was somehow alright with me because it meant that I didn't have to concentrate in the evening since I was playing between 10pm and 1am after a day of work and putting the kids to bed. It was a good change of pace because I had been playing the Talos Principle and it was sometimes difficult to concentrate on late at night.

Immediately the nostalgia sunk in: the first and second acts seemed specifically designed to do so. For a long time I struggled as I did before with the strangeness of their abilities and the lack of a skill tree and point system, the automatic level ups with the points added into your stats automatically. It's confusing if you're used to Diablo 2 and Torchlight.

There are so many similarities to Torchlight 2 that I wonder if the guys had to leave some of their work and notes behind when they left Blizzard. There are some environment designs and inner game workings that seem simply too close to be a coincidence. 

My friend popped in once and a while with a high level character and busted ahead of the action killing everything in sight and that made me a little frustrated because I am enjoying playing slow and taking in the atmosphere and story.

That's what Diablo 3 brings in spades: atmosphere. The music and environment, the lighting and naturally the amazing cinematic cutscenes which we've all come to expect from Blizzard. Some times the music is so good I find myself just standing around listening to it - and the colouring of their creepy nightmarish environments are so exquisite that I am taking hundreds of screenshots. 

Things do get a little mad in the game at times and it's difficult to tell what's going on, you can't rely on potion guzzling to get you through these times and need to build your character accordingly - though equipment (which is the true way to adjust and customize your character).

Yes, it is a better game without the auction house and it seems to be rebalanced - although I still think we are a little over powered and it's just about running through the levels gathering loot but there are a few things that Diablo 3 is still sorely missing: trades would be the first.

Trading between characters doesn't seem to play such a big role anymore, everyone gets their own loot and much of it is "account bound" and therefore cannot be traded anyhow. I think this is strange in a time of social gaming because it really cuts down on the interactions between players. Shame.

The second thing is still (in my opinion) viable character customization. There are enough combinations of skills and runes (that adapt the skill in someway) and it's fun to experiment and try to boost certain ones based on the equipment you have but you cannot switch those skills in battle (which is almost all the time) and you cannot switch equipment. You don't even have a way to switch between two weapons as in Diablo 2 or Torchlight. This would be great in Diablo 3 and I really don't get why it isn't there; it would help you deal with bosses and crowds and would make the characters much more flexible.  

I still have issues with Diablo 3 and especially the business model of Blizzard charging for a 'fix' of a completely broken game gambling simulator. Things are better though and I've already got my money's worth out of the expansion - now if I keep playing I might be able to get enough fun out of the whole experience to justify what I spent on the original game.

Never Alone [Kisima Ingitchuna] (PC)

I started playing "Never Alone" with my kids watching. It's a touching little fairy tale (so far) of a girl, with the help of a magical arctic fox, determined to find the source of an unrelenting blizzard and subsequent destruction of her village. Also it has a polar bear in it and my son loves anything that growls.

I've had this one on my wishlist since before it's release interested in the concept of the game and drawn in by the art style.

Along the way there are spirits that will help Nuna on her journey. You can play it as a single player game or as a two player cooperative - one being the fox, the other Nuna.

As you play an owl brings you "insights" which are videos which are almost like bonus content but are embedded in the game; interviews about the lifestyle, culture and history of the indigenous people of northern Alaska.

So far it's been a relaxing and very easy journey, but with the added content and the beautiful scenery I'll definitely be back for more.

Fotonica, Dark Slash Hero & Orbitum (iOS)

Over Easter I downloaded a bunch of games most of which I deleted afterwards - but three made the cut and here they are : 

Fotonica - I already own this game twice; once on PC and once on the OUYA, but it really fits on the iPhone - the one button endless runner is so stylish and well designed - it's no surprise it's makers are Italian. I just find that there are too many numbers getting in the way of actually gaguing a high score and wish it was simplified in that area a little more so I could easily compare to friends and leaderboards and know if the run I am on is a good one or not.

Santa Ragona are also responsible for making the equally stylish and well designed (albeit confusing at times) MirrorMoon Ep and (and I just found this out while writing this) they are making their own card game: check it out.

Also just check out the webpage for Fotonica - it looks so good.

Dark Slash Hero - I played the original Dark Slash when it came out and thought that it was so good: simple controls, pixel graphics and sounds and colours directly from the world of Diablo. Slashing baddies like a Samurai gets you points and at some point there is a boss and on it goes - what is not to like?

But interest in the original dried up for me quicker than I expected - there just wasn't enough reason to keep playing. I left it on my phone as a reminder that this game was really good and that at some point there was going to be an update or maybe a some kind of reincarnation for the OUYA as a multiplayer game. Then suddenly out comes Dark Slash Hero.

Essentially it's the same game except with more of everything and this time around they've given us unlockables to upgrade our hero to survive longer and give him some special abilities. I found the IAP to be a little steep and was going to grind for a while before deleting it - maybe I wasn't alone because they dropped the price of their "coin doubler" upgrade by 50% making the game much more playable and grindable. Still there are some characters that can only be unlocked for €2 each (I think €1 would have been more reasonable) and you can't get them any in game currency (in this case : Souls). Still running in circles with your sword trailing behind you like a Ronin and then slashing up a 20 combo never gets old - that and the zombie moan that I am sure is from Diablo - I keep heading back for more.

Orbitum - is apparently a rhythm-based reflex game. I actually didn't play much with the sound on (playing mostly with one hand while I sat in my son's room humming looping melodies to make him sleep.) so for me it was simply a really clean swirling hypnotic high score game.

It's an intriguing concept that gives you charge of this little particle looping around a black hole that eventually will suck the orbit that you are on in, so you must jump to a higher orbit and avoid it. There are also evil red triangle particles that will destroy you riding on some orbits and green and blue particles which you can crash into for bonuses and special effects. At some point the game goes faster, the colours change to distract you and the red triangles form all kinds of formations.

The real dizzying doozy about this is that while everything is swirling you can only go "up" an orbit, so whatever you pass it passed for good - this calls for some careful planning. The thing I find most difficult is when the game "freezes" and everything stops orbiting (maybe the black hole even stops) and you are the only thing that continues to move. Kills me every time.

Funnily enough, this isn't the only game that I have played lately that uses an orbit as a game play mechanic - 0RBITALIS being another, and if you are counting games that rotate and are circular this might even be the 3rd of 4th game I have played this year. Spinning is the new thing I guess....

The game is made by Happy Magenta, who also made Laser Hell (a game I checked out while playing all kinds of Flappy Bird clones) that was one of my favourites and have made a few other (I hesitate to use the word....) 'clones' that are actually worth playing - but they are all very different from Orbitum, which you should check it out (Bonus : also playable with one finger thumb....!)

The Talos Principle (PC)

I don't need a new game. I don't need a new distraction at all. I am sitting in a new apartment surrounded by boxes and instead of unpacking them and setting up furniture I find myself eyeing this weekend's Steam sale : The Talos Principle.

(screenshot from the Demo)

I've had it on my Steam wishlist so long I can't even remember what it's about and the trailer wasn't really that much of a turn on, but after reading about it I knew why I had put it on my wishlist.

Without extensive reading I was already bumping into quotes like : "a game that is every bit as smart as it purports to be" - "thought provoking narrative that delves with class into profound philosophical questions" -  "a soul-searching experience" - "it changed me" .... apparently this is the real deal....

I wish I had more time to play games and really delve into their worlds and get lost. If I am going to spend my time on them then I would love if it was something entertaining and thought provoking and if it 'changes' me in the meantime....

(screenshot from the demo - where can i get this as a screensaver?!)

The point is that often I find myself frustrated chasing highscores and playing though the same RPG stories or climbing up and down some online competitive FPS ladders....sometime's I crave meat, not just potato chips.

So, I downloaded the demo - thanks guys by the way since my computer is failing to run Alien: Isolation properly I was glad to have a demo to test first before I bought the game to find out that it also doesn't work - it turns out the demo, the writing, the mystery got me hooked and I had to get it.

I downloaded it over my excruciatingly slow internet connection (thanks Deutsche Telekom!) and it only took 6 and a half hours! So I didn't get to take a look until tonight.

(screenshot from the full game)

The game is made by Croteam - from Zagreb, Croatia (you know, "the mecca of video games" *wink*) You might know them from the series Serious Sam, they've been around since 1993 yet somehow still managed to stay indie and not get bought by EA or crushed by Activision.

This game is published by Devolver Digital (as it seems that almost everything is that I am playing or want to play is these days) and the story was written by Tom Jubert of 'The Swapper' and 'FTL' and Jonas Kyratzes of 'The Sea Will Claim Everything.' Not too shabby. 

The story and the gameplay is unfolding slowly but leading to some interesting comparisons to games like Portal, the Stanley Parable and even Myst. I have even read mention of a Animus comparison from the Assassins Creed games. If you like any one of those then you should take a look at The Talos Principle.