I've got some 30+ hours into Fall of the Dungeon Guardians on Steam and it's one of my favorite dungeon crawlers. It's really well made, the combat is unique for this type of game and the boss fights are consistently challenging as well as varied. Instead of spamming a button to swing your sword, fire an arrow or cast a spell, your four party members -- all controlled by you, Dragon Age style -- use abilities. They gain points as they level and spend them to obtain the abilities, giving you more choice and flexibility on your playstyle than any dungeon crawler I've played. You've got a tank, two DPS and a healer, and each class has three different specializations you can put points into. In that sense, yes, it's like WoW or other MMOs, but it's also got a tactical pause that's really necessary when fighting some of the more difficult bosses, especially since you're controlling an entire party. That part of the combat is like the Dragon Age series. The game also has a robust loot system with epic weapons and gear dropping from bosses. Instead of generic weapons with different numbers on them, like you'd find in most dungeon crawlers, these weapons are named, thoughtfully designed and have unique attributes. The result of all these unconventional -- for the genre -- features is a dungeon crawler in which the combat is a lot more difficult and fun than similar games, requiring you to think about how you're going to fight bosses and which abilities you'll choose. Likewise, the puzzle elements are intuitive, and hints reveal themselves if you really look at what's in front of you and pay attention to details. If you like dungeon crawlers and you like the combat of Dragon Age with the specialization fexibility of an MMO, you'll probably really enjoy this game.
Look, I'm going to be straightforward here and just admit that the reason I like these set-to-the-music rhythm and shooter games is because I like to play them when I'm stoned. It's a great way to listen to and appreciate your own music collection. The social aspect is fun, especially when you see how many people have played an obscure track you're into, or when you're trying to wrestle away the top score on one of your all-time favorite tracks. Audiosurf, Audiosurf 2, Riff Racer...I've got 'em all, and all of them have some solid gameplay options. But what I love about Symphony is that it can be relaxing and challenging at the same time. When you're chilling out you want relaxing over frenetic, and while Symphony has a lot going on visually, it very quickly helps you ease into a rhythm, a sort-of trance with the focus on your music. It's perfect. The game provides an optical feast designed to compliment the tracks you're banging, and it's easy-going -- at no point will the game stop your music to the sound of an ugly record scratch because you died or hit an obstacle. Likewise, you have the option of dropping the SFX by increments, or you can allow the game to weave the SFX lower in the mix, so it's never clashing with your songs. There's also a lot of depth here -- different weapons are apparently random drops, you can swap them out on four hardpoints on your ship, and you can upgrade each weapon through multiple tiers with currency you earn for completing tracks. There are lots of different playstyles possible, and lots of stuff to mess with. Overall, if you like fun music games that you can chill and have a good time with, this is a nice pick-up, especially on sale.
I didn't realize this game had any BSG influence when I bought it, but was pleasantly surprised -- it has lots of signature BSG elements, like the dramatic ethnic wailing that dominates the soundtrack, a fighter pilot instructor/wing woman who behaves and sounds a LOT like Katee Sackhoff's Starbuck, and a "You are the last hope for humanity" storyline that borrows some of BSG's theatrics. The fighter-jet-in-space element works hand-in-hand with the space mech mechanics -- you will have to master both formats because the former leads to the latter, and you can only make the transformation to the ultra-powerful space mech after feeding on the energy of your destroyed enemies. That said, the combat in both modes is satisfying, and the Strike Suit mode feels appropriately powerful, with an enormous amount of weaponry and a multi-targeting missile system that works a lot like Arkham Knight's missile barrage for the Batmobile. Overall a nice pick-up, especially if you can snag it on sale.
It's difficult to describe Nexus to people who haven't played it, because there really aren't other games like it. Nexus: The Jupiter Incident revolves around a story with a central mystery, like so many great science fiction novels and movies do, and combines it with solid voice acting and gameplay that is both difficult and rewarding. You really do feel as though you're in command of a formidable fleet, and every decision matters -- if you lose a ship you'll know it's because of something you failed to anticipate or react to. On the flip side, when you come through a battle mostly unscathed, you can be proud of a job well done because, in a game that forces you to think, you succeeded on the strategic and tactical levels. Don't let the 2004 release date fool you. This is a game that would have labored the high-end machines and GPUs of the time, with advanced graphics meant for the next generation of video cards. That means the graphics are more than serviceable 12 years later, but don't take my word for it -- go watch some gameplay footage of the Nexus Battlestar Galactica mod and see for yourself what the graphics engine is capable of. (And aside from the BSG mod, which is awesome, make sure you grab the mod that allows the game to play in 16:9 widescreen. A recent patch may have added that feature to the game anyway, but I have the mod installed so I'm not sure. Just know that if Nexus isn't playing in widescreen, a mod exists to fix that problem.) Overall, this is a game that was ahead of its time, with real appeal to gamers and science fiction fans alike. If you like a good space opera story and BSG-style combat with ships broadsiding each other, and you like the idea of commanding a real fleet with capital ships, you can't go wrong with Nexus.
