Got a free key with my AMD processor last December. It's hard to believe the game was made by the same studio that made two of my favourite games, F:NV and PoE. It has almost none of the soul. Graphics and sound out of the way, they're both passable. Some interesting colour choices were made, but otherwise they're not particularly memorable either way. The engine is okayish, although the shooting needs some getting used to. Difficulty is determined through equipment and health numbers, not actual AI cleverness. My first gripe is the fact that it's not an RPG as much as it's a FPS with a story and some RPG elements. Think Fallout 4, give or take a few aspects. If that's all you want, the game's a 4/5. My main issue with the game is its ABYSMAL writing. No idea who hired that writing team, but they make their colleagues responsible for the yearly slop at Ubisoft look like little Shakespeares. The quest design starts off meh at first, and then devolves into typical fetch and bring quests around the halfway mark. The overarching theme of the main plot is KOTOR levels of good vs bad with basically zero middle ground or alternative paths. The characters are a travesty. Every single one has no real personality other than "holds up spork" levels of "qUiRkY"ness, because that's easy to write and there are people who still believe that to be comedy gold to this day. It works in Borderlands because it doesn't take itself seriously. TOW does, however, so it absolutely doesn't work. There are characters in free to play browsergames that have better writing. If you can look past the writing, this game is okay to play while in a slump. Crank up the difficulty and it's even challenging up until you get your first lasrifle about five hours in. In any case, do not buy at full price. Wait til mid to late 2022 when the complete edition drops to $30/30€.
I have no idea how this game completely flew under my radar until a week ago. The game is a decent retro brawl game, but the real meat of the game lies within the story of a group of friends and what they make of this autumn of their final year. The story itself is fairly grounded and will not sweep you off your feet with outlandishness, you don't save the world or become a crime lord. You're the leader of a school gang, but the focus on the story is on something much more existential and nerve-racking: Being a directionless high school senior who slowly realizes he won't be able to keep this carelessness up for long. For that reason it's more like a haiku, the strength and emotional depth of the scenes comes from resonating with you. While you most likely weren't a gang member or directionless in school, most of the events will ring familiar with you in some way. The gameplay is decent. Fights become quite fun once you get the hang of it. Otherwise it's a retro 2,5D action/adventure style game with some retro-esque lack of quality of life. There's no quick travel. There's not even a tutorial or manual explaining basic functions, and sadly the game didn't take off as much so there's little online help. This leads new players to feel overwhelmed and directionless for the first hour or two - weird, almost as if that were a recurring motif. Graphics are well done pixel art with lots of warm autumn colours. All characters look distinguishably different. Music is amazing. Lots of guitar tunes and sometimes some slight hip hop beats of the mid to late 80s, where the game is also set in. The tunes will ring in your ear for some time and do make you feel weirdly nostalgic. The only caveat is the abrupt conclusion of the story around what feels like the halfway mark and wrapping up of plot points into one ending. I get that this game was made by one guy and time/funds probably became an issue, so maybe this gets fixed in a definitive edition. Conclusion: Play this.
- Played on Vers. 1.0 - Story: The setting is the vampire society of 2019-ish NYC, which you get introduced to while you progress in the story. You are a fledgling vampire thrown into cold water by unorthodox means. You struggle to survive and come to terms with your new existence, while trying to find out about your unusual circumstances. To this end you are able to interact with several characters, and your choices will affect how they react to you and how the story will progress. This will have potentially fatal consequences down the line. Your time is limited, so you can't enlist help of (or even meet) all of them. Gameplay: It's an indie visual novel, not an actual game. If VNs just aren't for you, this one won't be either. Unfortunately this is partly due to the current absence of standard quality-of-life tools like an auto-mode or skip-function. The game itself is heavily choice-based, where your decisions matter. Not only can situations take vastly different turns, the game also autosaves after every choice, so you as the player can't savescum. The story itself is fairly short with 4-5 hours, but the meat and bones of this game come from the replayability. At the start you choose from three clans with different skillsets to use during choices, as well as meet several vampires you can add to your coterie. Each vampire has an own substory which you can influence into at least two different conclusions. In order to check out the different clans and every possible companion story, you're looking at 3-4 playthroughs. About double when you're an absolute completionist. Graphics/Sound: Fitting but unremarkable music and sound, the art style fits and the images are slightly animated, but nothing to write home about. No voiced lines. This is where you really notice that it's an indie game. Nothing outright screams bad though. Bottom line: If you like V:TM or story heavy games and don't mind VNs, you're definitely getting your money's worth.
