Edelweiss was always known for its innovative imagination of the shooter genre. Ether Vapor showed how to make a simple shmup/shoot 'em up/STG more dynamic than most of the 3D TPS space games. It was never officially stated if AsteBreed is a sequel for Ether Vapor, a separate game set in the same universe, or just a completelly different game. The setting is quite similar: you have an awesome machine below you equiped with the most unique devices you just can find in the world. There are no power-ups, different weapon pick-ups, neither limited bombs to clean the mess you left behind. Instead you use a fully equiped, developed and configurated machine that have different weapons you can use/switch between anytime, as well an option to charge the attacks for unleashing a super attack. AsteBreed is a prototype alien mech created by the Filune features the "Lucis" which are the core of the gameplay. While having them around you it increase your firepower, but you can lock-on the mass of targets to send the Lucis away to attack them separately. This however decrease your own firepower. There is two way of locking on. The wide-spread fire lock on all around your mech at a limited distance with decreased lock-on speed. The focused fire lock on a much tighter line but all the way to the screen border. While the amount of Lucis on a single target is limited, there is no limit for the on-screen amount. Other than the basic fire and the advanced Lucis, you have a broadsword. It deal very high amount of damage and capable of destroying non-beam type projectiles. It has a basic combo and a dashing strike which grants you a very limited invulnerability. There is no bomb, but you have an EX attack. It recharges over time and once ready you can unleash it. It have three different way of use, so keep trying new things. AsteBreed is a beautiful game with equally quality BGM and dynamic prespective changing. No matter which genre you like, it worth a try.
This game evolved continuously. The basics you have seen in the early access, as well the mechanics of the full game changed when the new patch was released. I think the others already described the core gameplay and I found their review interesting, but for those who haven't read it: your ship can shot only its sides, you will gain talent point that you can spend on abilities as well item upgrades latter, and there is option for questing, trading, and fighting. The new stuff made the game have more variety to you ship. Now you can acquire elemental attacks as well elemental resistance. The different type of attacks affect different way the different targets. One may be more effective against buildings, other may affect more flying machines and the list goes on. It is easy to build resistance, but hard to find the attack type itself. The multiplayer part of the game now more strategic thanks to this. A good team now have to build themselves to counter anything. Being a perfect tank is more harder, and also more harder to make a high damage per second ship too. But thanks to the elemental stuff now the team can help out each other by specializing to different purposes. The others say it is wise to have different equipment set in your vault to be able to change it anytime as the circumstances changes. For myself I always try to keep balance with the best possible damage. For the last word this game is still evolving, but it is slow how GOG.com receive the updates. We should make something similar as the Steam did with its developer friendly options.
Battle Realms is a game that want to stand on its own legs rather than being a copy-paste title of the genre. I start with this because this single statement is the very core of the game. Why? Instead of spamming the soldiers you have to manage what you get and you can summon a single plus unit above that. Right after placing your building it will produce peasant over time depending on your population slower or faster. Your job is to train them to being able to fulfill different roles, as well upgrade their abilities in combat. While the resource is unlimited, the limit of available peasants enforce thinking over rashing. Be at the right place at the right time with the right units to counter your opponent's move. This includes the terrain based advantages like height, or the different armor and damage types which very much decide a fight's end. Training the peasants alone is the first thing you can do, but you can train them multiple times to make them more and more universal with better abilities. This is what makes Battle Realm unique, the ability to combine the specializations of the different roles. I said the peasants come over time and that is what you have, but actually there is an exception. Zen Masters, or as the RTS generally calls them, heroes/commanders can be produced at will, but for higher cost than the other units. These special units are much stronger than the normal ones, and comes with already learned abilities. Either as last resorts or frontline attention takers they can change the outcome. It is worth to mention, there is also a monk/ninja depending on the clan you play that also buyable. These units costs Yin-Yang points which is the third resource and only acquirable by fighting which limits their amount on the battlefield. Despite what the communities say or videos show about the game, this is a generally slow paced RTS with focus on setting up your army rather than spamming what you can the fastest, and I love it exactly because of that.
This game is a love letter for the randomness, chaos. Everything, including the story lines and happenings are generated at the moment when you start a new sector. When I say story, it isn't that deep and beautiful RPG story that you may know from the genre's great titles. The main goal is satisfying the Drox Guild's demands about anything they may ask. While it can be set to only minimal interaction during sector generation, it can't be disabled. Whenever these quest shows up there is no way back and you have to complete it in order to prevent a sector lose. However there are more times when the Drox Guild doesn't ask anything and you can move at your own pace, and the real fun starts here. You're absolutely free to do absolutely anything. Trade for gold, buy coordinates for new locations for better trade routes. Take diplomatic route to make peace in the universe. Even the brutal fighting can be done in different ways. Use that diplomatic connections to make factions attack each other, or support only the strongest. You may also fight the so called "Ancients", the super strong -better than boss- level NPCs to become living legend. There are countles way to achive the win, up to you which one will be the one true way. This freedom also applies to you character development. The different starting and sub-races have different attributes and special slots. However to start with your ship has nothing from its own, not even basic attack. You can equip components in 3 different slot-types: heavy, medium, light. Same equipments may be found for these, but of course the heavier is more effective at the cost of harder maintain. There are tons of different equipments ranging from lasers to crews, even hangar bays to spawn friendly NPCs. The only limit is the powerload and you have to increase the powersupply to make better items work in order. For more hardpoints you can increase your ship command capacity which however decrease the base efficiency.
A lot of users compare it to One Unit Whole Blood, saying it is worse and nowhere near as good. Do not let yourself fooled! Blood 2 is an ode to the '90s unique horror theme I just call "action-horror". It isn't about fearing in the dark but instead massacring in foggy moonlight. You're an action hero who went in a horror movie to kill everything moving. The moves are basic, but that isn't a surprise from this era of FPS. To make it fun however there are tons of weapons, some which can be carried in both hands, aka akimbo, but if not then it have primary and secondary fire mode. The firepower is brutal here, basically spamming hitscan bullets everywhere till everything explodes in blood. Of course the good old "magic weapons" are present with regenerating ammo. The stages always makes me think about Duke Nukem. Starting simple, and later like a labirinth of death, spending an hour just to find out your goal. Ammo can be found on the stages, and some enemies also drops it. The world is rather dark and sometimes hard to see what you're face and where, but nothing you couldn't get used to it. Stages sometimes have bosses that harder to kill than a NES final boss. There isn't advantage and disadvantage on the maps depending on your weapon loadout, you're free to use the one you want. The sounds are fitting. The voice acting is awesome just like in the old game, the musics are authentic, the SFX maybe not that perfect but good for feeling the action... or fear. There is a solid multiplayer for some matches where you can set your stats. Changing the speed of your character, the maximum healt, or the weight they can carry. There is also focus for the mental based weapons. As closure this game is definitelly a classic one. You just can't ignore it because the first game.
