Recent reviews by Draconusx

Fun game but way more fun with a good group of friends.

Only a couple hours in at this point and picked it up on a Steam sale but thus far enjoying it. If you like Left 4 Dead or Back 4 Blood type games then you should enjoy this as well. Shooting and reloading mechanics (with pistols at least) are nice and quick and easy to get familiar with. Playing with others was nice as well and enjoyed the teamwork involved in that.

Absolutely loved this game and it is a great one for all ages.

Luna: The Shadow Dust is a point & click adventure puzzler that has been fully hand-drawn and animated. The art style appears heavily influenced by Studio Ghibli’s stuff and yet still manages to stand out on its own. The music is equally as beautiful as the visuals and the two combined craft a wonderful interactive artwork that is simple to use, challenging at times and fun to play through.

Feel like I can certainly recommend this game to folks that enjoy puzzle games.

Full review [bammsters.com]

Visuals on this are ok but not bad. Spidey suit looks awesome though. It is really amazing getting to swing through the city and does a pretty good job of giving you the feel of being Spider-man. Controls are pretty easy to learn and get used to.

TLDR: I gave this game a thumbs up as I think anyone who likes turn-based RPGs will find this title interesting so long as they don’t mind reading a lot while they play as there is no Voice Over for anything.

Grimshade is a party-based RPG with a turn-based combat system that takes place in a world at war. There are monsters and magic, in the form of a substance called Ether, and anthropomorphic creatures you’ll encounter, some that will fight alongside you throughout the story.


Overview
Grimshade begins just as war breaks out with another kingdom that has invaded the city you, a wannabe champion lives in, and the story unfolds from there following your party as you hope to save your city and find out what happened to the other missing champions. You’ll control a small group of adventurers as you walk around hand-painted environments and engage in turn-based combat when attacked.

I really enjoyed the art-style of the game and they do have 4K resolution support for any with such inclinations. The music and sound effects were a nice companion to the overall feel though I did find it slightly odd there didn’t seem to be any separate/special combat music to differentiate it from traveling. The story itself is mildly interesting though it never really grabbed me in a way that kept me engrossed and there is no voice over so you’ll be doing a lot of reading. There’s the odd spelling or grammatical mistake but nothing that I found particularly bothersome and considering this was made by a small dev team in Russia and then translated into English I’m not shocked to find a mistake from time to time and didn’t find it to be a big deal.


Mechanics
While traipsing around the environments you are free to move around without restriction though I did find pathing to be problematic from time to time. The character would often get stuck if there was an object directly blocking where I wished them to go and from time to time you’d have to “lead” them around the obstruction. You’ll find plenty of items to interact with or inspect as you search around, some will have things you can pick up and others provide background lore for the game world. Characters don’t acquire skills or level up in the typical fashion, in Grimshade your abilities are gained or limited by the equipment you carry so you’ll gain access to new abilities throughout the game based on the equipment you find along the way.

Once you land in combat you’ll get the opportunity to line up your group in any formation that you wish, and even though the devs boast complex tactical battles I often found myself just lining most of the characters up behind my champion (Alister), as he could shield anyone behind him from ranged attacks, and then doing my best to keep him alive while also taking out the enemy forces. A nice feature in combat was being able to move and zoom the camera, so you can rotate around and zoom in or out as you play. But one thing I didn’t care for with regards to combat was there seemed to be an invisible line across half the battlefield that the characters could not cross which effectively limits any melee character by only allowing them to use melee attacks against frontline enemies. Though Alister does have a secondary ranged attack, it’s weaker and thus takes longer to whittle down the enemies in the back. � This can also work in your favor as well from time to time so there is that. Another thing I was a little disappointed by is that there’s no in-combat healing mechanic, but you can at least counteract different status effects. When you need to heal, you’ll only be able to recover between battles, which consists of using up healing pouches that were rather expensive or taking a trip back to the starting tavern and then heading out again.


Final Thoughts/Rating:
Here we break down our ratings into five categories and rate the game on a 1 - 10 scale with 5 serving as “average” and then average those scores to a final overall rating.

Design: 7
I really enjoyed the look and feel of the game as well as how things were animated on screen. � The sounds and music were made well and contribute to the overall feel of the environments.

Challenge: 6
Grimshade can certainly be challenging in some of the encounters though overall I felt it was on the higher end of average for how hard it was.

Fun: 6
Whilst the game is and can be fun especially for folks that enjoy this genre it didn’t necessarily stand out in any particular way for me beyond the art-style. Aside from the pathing issue and once you have a feel for the different combat abilities it is enjoyable.

Longevity/Replay: 3
You can experiment some with the abilities you gain while finding new equipment but after you play through the story I wouldn’t see much reason to come back and play it again.

Price: 6
At $19.99 on Steam the price seems pretty fair for Grimshade.

Overall: 5.6

For this and more reviews as well as our weekly podcast check out https://www.bammsters.com

https://youtu.be/bEiTVymM1OU

For this and more reviews, check us out on the web https://www.bammsters.com

On a 1-10 scale we rated the game as the following:

Design: 9
The overall look and feel of the game is great and very well done. The mechanics are not overly complicated, are easy to understand and work pretty well.

Challenge: 4
It’s a pretty straightforward though not overly challenging game. With a slower pace, being turn-based, and the ability to spawn and upgrade plenty of minions you should be able to get through it without too much trouble.

Fun: 6
Between the quirky humor, getting to run around the levels as a matriarch spawning various other alien cronies to attack and gobble up the evil humans invading your home, this was fun to play around with.

Longevity/Replay: 3
Other than a mission on the 3rd level which I found a little annoying, playing the game was enjoyable but I’m not seeing much of a reason to replay this once completed - unless you’re hunting for specific achievements.

Price: 4
At $25 it is a little higher than I’d be looking to pay for a game like this especially with only around 10 hours of playtime.

Overall Rating: 5.2 (Middling)

Bacon Man, the man, the myth, the succulent pork. Due to our love of all things Bacon, there simply was no way we could not check this game out. In this 2D, side-scrolling platformer you play as Bacon Man (or one of his 3 friends), battling through the food groups to confront those who wrongly condemned you for killing your father. Clear his name by beating the Meat Kings into submission.


Mechanics
When they say Bacon Man: An Adventure is “tough as nails,” I felt that was a bit of an undersell. Not only will this game frustrate you and make you want to quit at times, it may also draw you back in, just to see if you can get past that point you were stuck at, or maybe clear the level just a little bit faster. Maybe It’s just been a while since I’ve played this kind of platformer as there were times I’d come back to it only to speed through an area I was unable to clear just the night before. That said, you’ll race, jump, and climb your way through level after level.

When encountering enemies you can melee them down, shoot them with your limited-but slowly regenerative ammo or avoid them all together if you’re speeding through. As you play you’ll pick up different items and outfits as well as gain points to improve your character’s power levels and health to help with your survivability. Bacon Man also features a split-screen Co-op option so you can play with a buddy who also shares your masochistic streak.

The true challenge of this game is navigating the jumping puzzles and various traps. There are several checkpoints scattered through each of the levels and you’ll be both thankful for them and at times curse there aren’t more of them after clearing a rather long or difficult series of jumps only to die to something silly right afterward.


Final Thoughts/Rating:
Here we break down our ratings into five categories and rate the game on a 1 – 10 scale with 5 serving as “average” and then average those scores to a final overall rating.

Design: 7
The character design and humor of the game quite entertaining, though here at Bammsters we MIGHT be biased in favour of baconated humour. The music by Braxton Burks and Kyle Landry was rather well done also. The controls seem to work pretty well though at times jumping across some of the puffer fish was frustrating as landing on one in just slightly different spot could send you catapulting in the wrong direction.

Challenge: 10
This game is very challenging, frustratingly so at times. While the enemies themselves aren’t much of a challenge for the most part, navigating the different traps and jumping puzzles will have you respawning over and over, with the likely inclusion of explicatives

Fun: 5
Bacon Man can be an enjoyable Adventure, the jumping puzzles can be especially frustrating which detracted from that enjoyment, unless that kind of frustration is your kind of thing in which case this score might be higher for someone like that. Getting your friend over, with some bacons to enjoy, will almost invariably increase the fun.

Longevity/Replay: 6
If you enjoy this kind of platformer then there is plenty of replay in it for you for speed running. There are also 4 different characters with their own playstyle so there is an opportunity to play the game at least 4 different times and get a different experience each time, though depending on your experience with the difficulty you may just be happy to have finished the game the first time around.

Price: 6
At $19.99, this game seems to be pretty fairly priced.

Overall Rating: 6.8

For this and more game reviews as well as our weekly podcast, check us out on the web: Bammsters [www.bammsters.com]

YouTube Version:
https://youtu.be/ffurD1M5v0M

Hexters is a “City-building strategy/action game” and the developers list their inspiration from games like Darwinia, Settlers, and Anno, as well as films like Tron, and between the visuals and playing it for a bit I can certainly see some of those influences. Now, it should be noted that the game itself is very Early Access, and at the time of writing it is only version 0.1.2, so bugs should be expected if you pick this up before full release, but the developers have been pretty good about interacting with the community, checking out livestreams and YouTube videos and seeing what they can learn from how folks are playing the game, and where they struggle with it. Though with only one or two exceptions, what I’ve seen thus far has been a pretty polished project.

https://youtu.be/Sg-M4lrxdx4

Overview
You play the game as the “user”, working in concert with some helpful programs that introduce themselves and teach you about the game mechanics along the way. As with other city-building and strategy games you will need to collect resources from the surrounding area and (after the first couple levels) protect your base from the scourge of virus-like programs that come at you from various Hives around the map.

Game mechanics
Initially you’re just focused on building a few buildings and gathering resources that are close by but soon enough you’ll find yourself under siege by these little red creatures intent on destroying your carefully placed infrastructure. All you can do to protect yourself in the beginning is place some turrets to keep them at bay, and they’re generally well suited to the task provided you place them properly to cover one another. Although after a while you’ll get an opportunity to build a bunker, which is a sort of barracks that allows you to train a limited number of Hexters as a sort of Squad of Marines, that can go out and decimate the Hives at your command.

As you acquire resources and refine them to Bits, you can build other stations to refine those Bits to Bytes, and the Bytes to Triangles. Each of these more advanced resources will be needed to craft more advanced structures. The only gripe I had with this was that if you are not careful and leave these refineries on, you can run low or even out of bits in some cases and there didn’t seem to be a way to break them back down. This could lead to a game ending situation where you’re unable to continue due to a lack of proper resources. Though on the third level this did seem to be addressed somewhat with the addition of a Mine that had what seemed an endless supply of bits that could be mined, but I’d still appreciate a way to break down resources.

Early on the camera is zoomed in, a little too close for my taste and you’re unable to zoom out very far in order to get a ‘bigger picture’ of what is going on and there is no mini-map feature. A few levels in you’ll gain a helpful ability to build an Uplink onto your Survey Station and that allows you to zoom much further out and get a better view of things. Once you’ve got your main infrastructure down and protected, a Scout Drone, and some Hexter Marines, it’s time to explore and branch out. Currently the game has only 3 levels available to play, though the Devs seem to be working tirelessly to add more content, refine what is available, and communicate with the community.

Other thoughts on gameplay, gripes and suggestions
I noticed when playing that sometimes the Hexters would seem to be confused or not know what to do and in a few cases it was difficult to get them to follow orders and mine a resource or repair an old building. Like one issue I ran into with the Scout Drone I wonder if it is a pathing issue that will need working on. At one point you can construct a vehicle called a Bit Loader that you can load up with lots of Bits and it will transport them and several other Hexters (who you can assign to it) around the map at a much faster speed, and you can then unload the Bits for construction. While this works really well and is a nice addition, it seemed a little strange when the truck wouldn’t unload on command. I later discovered that they only seem to unload if there is an active construction project in need of those resources, but thought they should also be able to unload to a Storage area. There is a feature that allows you to pause or speed up time and I can’t say enough nice things about that. I absolutely loved that feature as I can get fairly impatient when just waiting for them to mine/refine resources or construct buildings.

Lastly, though I believe very importantly, I would very much like to see an option for custom keyboard mappings added to the game as well as some kind of slider to increase the movement speed of the screen. You can use WASD or the arrow keys to move the map around but it is very, very slow when zoomed out. You can also click and drag the map and that is much faster, but at least for myself I like to move the map around with the keyboard while keeping my mouse free for other tasks.

Final Thoughts
I have to say that at first when looking at the game I thought the trailer was rather funny, the game looked simple enough and because of the types of games I usually play I expected this wouldn’t hold my attention for too long past the initial curiosity phase. I’m actually pleasantly surprised to say that I got sucked into the game and lost track of time. Not only did it hold my attention and keep me entertained but I found I kept wanting to explore and expand across the map.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CAVsAnyWzWI

The Void Rains Upon Her Heart is a bullet-hell, boss-battling, shoot-em-up with some dark themes and interesting game mechanics. The game is being made by one developer who notes the game contains subject matter based from anxiety, depression, and suicide as well as some light artistic nudity (which can be turned off in the settings if you choose). The game has a cool retro-game sound with darker tones in the music, which I rather enjoyed.


Overview
At first look, the game is much what I would expect from something in this genre. Constant fire, lots of projectiles to dodge, and large boss-creatures with different attack patterns. But instead of gaining power ups on screen throughout the levels, you unlock cards as you play, and then use something called ‘Tetrids’ to activate those cards to gain the power up. The story parts of the game are both dark and yet in some ways hopeful and it takes a kind of “Care Bear” stance at defeating the monsters and darkness that close in around the main character.


Gameplay
Flying a heart-shaped ship with a small circle at the center, your job is to defeat each of the nightmarish creatures you encounter by shooting them with heart-shaped ammo, while at the same time not allowing that center circle to be hit by any projectile. You have two secondary attacks, one of which is a more powerful shot you’ll need to charge up, the second, which acts as both a shield and a large circular attack, will take out any projectiles within it while simultaneously damaging your foe.

One thing I’m used to with this type of game is having to fly through entire levels to defeat hordes of enemies before finally reaching a boss. But Void Rains does away with all that and throws you straight at the boss the moment you start, and I quite liked that.

Activating power ups from the cards you earn can only be done by exiting the current playthrough and going back to the ‘Gifts’ section of the main menu. Each of the cards require different amounts and types of ‘Tetrids’ to activate them, so you may need to farm different boss encounters to get what you need. Each boss shows a different symbol on its card before you fight it and pay close attention to those because they can change from game to game, so if you’re trying to farm a specific type you’ll want to keep an eye out on that part of the card. Once you’ve unlocked a card and have enough of the proper ‘Tetrids’ you can then activate it, and gain the power up to be used during gameplay. Certain cards activate right away when you defeat the boss and unlock them, but most will need activated with the proper ‘Tetrids’.


Final thoughts
The game kind of lulls you into believing it is rather easy in the beginning and then at times, if you’re not being careful, it can catch you off guard. I found it fun and enjoyable to play and so far have liked how the difficulty has progressed as you play. I expect die-hard fans of the genre might find it too easy starting out, but from some of the videos I’ve seen of later levels the difficulty can jump up quite a bit.

As it’s in Early Access, you’ll currently only have access to 2 different characters or ships to fly and 14 boss-monsters to combat against, but the developer plans to more than double that and the other content in the game by final release. The developer is also looking for feedback on Steam, so if you play this and have suggestions, be sure to post them there.

For other reviews as well as our weekly podcast, check us out on the web![www.bammsters.com]