Volgarr the Viking is a trip back to the old NES games like Castlevania 1, Megaman 1, Hudson's Adventure Island , Ninja Gaiden (1, 2, 3), Ghosts N' Goblins and Ghouls N' Ghosts. The game play is identical to those games being that you will need to play it repeatedly in order to learn the level and get past it. There are no saves and no extra lives, but you have only 2-hits to spare only if you acquire the shield and helmet. If you die, you will be sent back to the beginning of the level. The graphics and design are a nod to the old 1987 Taito game, Rastan. The first part of the first level is somewhat identical to Rastan's first level. And you can even find Rastan's dead old bones complete with gear and sword in the background...I guess Volgarr's game was too difficult for him :D The graphics are exactly what you'd expect from a 16-bit platform game. They have a nice realistic, but cartoon look which I like. The animations for the characters are stiff, but this is mimicking those old NES and SNES games which had the same animations. The levels are interestingly designed and each have a specific theme. The controls are also similar to the old NES games I mentioned above. They are tight and the double jumping lets you have some flexibility in controlling the jump. Only well skilled gamers will be able to be creative with Volgarr's type of jumping. The epic type music is really amazing. I wish the soundtrack was included with the game. It makes me feel like I'm watching a Conan the Barbarian movie. The only modern enhancements of the game that I noticed are some complex transparencies on Volgarr's fire sword and the ability to pan the screen out. Overall, it is fun game to try to master and when you do it is really satisfying. It took me a day to finish it with repeated tries. After you finish the game by going through the easy path it will hint to you about a hard path, the "Valkyrie Path". Thus the game has some replay value. This game is for elite gamers only.
BloodRayne: Betrayal is a short, but fun and challenging experience. It may not be deep, but it isn't trying to. It is focused on combat and platforming. The graphics, music and controls are great. The style of the graphics look like a comic book or anime. The music is limited, but very good in quality. The controls for combat are easy to do and the animations look great. Others who have owned it on PSN or Steam have complained about a lag time in the control response. Perhaps the GOG version is fixed because I felt no lag time with the controls at all. I can only complain that at times I back-flip when I don't mean to. There is a dedicated button for back-flipping, but you cannot shut off the default way to do it which is push back and the jump button. I recommend a controller rather than using a keyboard. On the down side the game lacks in story and depth. The game is short, so it is impossible to develop a story with deep characters and other deep elements to the game play. It is just a fun game to play for a day. Depending on the person it will take about 4 to 8 hours to finish. As for the difficulty, if you have played and finished hard as nails NES games like Ninja Gaiden, Ghosts and Goblins, Ghouls and Ghosts, Mega Man 1, Hudson's Adventure Island, etc. then you'll have no problem. If not, then you will be frustrated with some of the platform jumping especially in the later levels.
Steamworld Dig is fun, addictive and charming. The play controls and mechanics are perfect and fun. It is a MetroidVania game where you gain some abilities and have to back track to different levels to access new areas with those new abilities. While this game does that it is really a MetroidVania-lite. For example you will gain new abilities to access new areas, but they are small areas that are part of a level and not a whole new level. Also there are not a lot of areas to find. The digging for ore to sell at the store for money to buy new upgrades is fun and addicting. I really enjoyed digging for ore to discover what I would get. There are some secret places to find ore and orbs, too. The story, characters, graphics and music are charming and go together well. I never got tired of it at all. I wanted more, but the game is short to medium length depending how much of the game you want to complete. Also there aren't many type of enemies and the last boss is the only boss in the game. And that is why I took a star off the rating. I wish the game was longer with more new areas to discover with bosses and new enemies or have expansion packs to add those features. It seems that this may not happen since the developers are focused on their new game, Steamworld Heist. Overall it was a great and enjoyable experience to play. I recommend that fans of this genre should play this game if you don't mind the short length.
If you're a shooting fan of 2D games then you should try this. It reminds me of Elevator action, but much more violent and more gameplay mechanics. It's a run and gun-type gameplay. You can shoot, slide, take cover and execute opponents at point-blank. You need to shoot your way through maze-like buildings and try to at least complete the main objective of three. You start out with your normal gun, but in the building there are a variety of power-ups of special bullets and secondary bomb-type weapon(try the cat bomb). Along the way you will recruit different characters with different skills for each. The sound effects and music are great. The story line is humorous along with the quirky humorous dialog of your boss, Bunny Lord. It's not so mindless because if you want to complete all of the objectives you will have to choose the best person for the job, memorize the pathway and plan attacks. This is what will make you choose "Restart Level" again and again. The worst thing that I can say about it is that the level designs all take place in a building. I'd like to see a variety of themed areas. Also while the graphics are purposely made to be 2D pixel graphics, I would still like to see better graphics at least at the 16-bit level.
I received Torchlight free about two years ago, but never got around to play it. I was mainly a console gamer and was kind of turned off by using the mouse and keyboard, so I left it alone and hadn't come back to it until recently. Now that I have played it all the way through I can say it was one of the best action-RPGs I have ever played. It really is an arcade-action game with RPG elements, so people who have complained about the lack of RPG elements like Diablo have misunderstood it. This is really a hack and slash action game and it does it well. I think the action and the weapon collecting and upgrading is the main part of the game. Those are the two elements that made me come back for more and more. There are so many different weapons it is so exciting to see what you will find next. Then it is so satisfying to get that lucky find of a weapon and apply it in battle and turn the monsters into minced meat. The skills and magic are good, but not great compared to other games, but it does a satisfactory job. The XP system is easy and the weapon upgrading echoes Final Fantasy 7's materia system in some ways. The weakest part of the game are the side quests. You don't really need to do any thinking. Basically you talk to an NPC and they say something like "When you come across and find XX or kill XX, come back and see me". The items you need to find and return is just lying around somewhere in the dungeon and the monster you need to kill is just hanging around. It would have been better to have created some kind of puzzle or make you work for the side quest. The items you receive for accomplishing the side quest are useful at first, but after the game progresses more deeply the items are not impressive. People who are looking for a fun hack and slash game with RPG elements, weapon finding and upgrading will enjoy it. But, people who are looking for a more complex RPG with a complex XP system, a lot of NPC interactiveness and strong story may be a bit disappointed.
If you played the arcade versions then it will be pretty much what you expect. But the intros have been cut, the bugs have been tweaked and some minor improvements have been added. I really miss the intros and the non-playable gameplay demos. It would have brought back that "old arcade" feeling again. I noticed the slowdown has been fixed which is a great welcome for me. Also the "walking along the edge, hit enemies into the pit" bug in the first Double Dragon has been fixed in the last level, but at rare times an enemy will fall into the pit when you hit them. The default controls in DD2 have been fixed to punch and kick buttons rather than attack left and attack right buttons, but you can change them to the original style. DD3 should not even be played. It sucked in the arcade and it is the same with this version. I'm a big fan of Double Dragon and that is the reason I bought it. It brings back those memories when I would skip class with a friend in high school to go play it at the corner store. One the first arcade games I fell in love with and I'll play it when I want to revisit those cherished memories again.
PROS: Bastion has beautiful graphics, music and controls. The graphics look hand-painted and very colorful, maybe some of the best 2D graphics I've seen. The characters, enemies and background designs are great. The music is very natural sounding and goes well with the game. The control of the character and weapons are very good. You can find upgrades for many weapons and use spirits/liqueur customize your stats and receive them by doing a variety of trials. The narration is a nice change from reading dialog and is very good. So everything on top is just fine except... CONS: The weakest part of Bastion is its gameplay depth and variety. Once you have played one level, you practically have played them all. There is no real variety in level design. There is nothing that will really impress you and each level really doesn't have any real theme. The exploration is very, very linear and I got really bored sometimes. The levels take place on floating plains so there is no real feeling of non-linear exploration which you would get from a game like Zelda. There are no real challenging puzzles to make it interesting. The variety of enemies are limited and you'll often see the same ones again and again. The variety of weapons make little difference in the gameplay. You can practically go through the whole game with two weapons. Changing weapons won't make a real difference when fighting enemies or bosses. Overall, Bastion is like dating a super-model with little personality. You'll be thrilled at first, but after awhile you'll get bored because of its one-dimensional gameplay. It's a good game for amateur or casual gamers, but advance and hardcore gamers who are looking for a real challenge should look away. I was warned by Karkoff and now I warn you.
