Originally released in Early Access on Steam, October 26, 2022, then officially released out of early access June 28th, 2023 by developer and publisher Mint Rocket. Dave the Diver's official release on Steam has 60% more gameplay, which gives players approximately 25 hours of game time. This truly unique indie game feels like a restaurant management, underwater fishing sim, casual adventure game mash up, and it has received over 11,000 reviews, with an overwhelmingly positive score so far on Steam. Thanks to the publisher for the review key. It's time to find out what all the hoopla's about.
I'm not certain how the developers did it, but every aspect of Dave the Diver feels like a well thought out blend of passion, hard and smart work, coupled with determination and commitment.
Let's start with the story. Dave the Diver gripped me from the opening cut scene and never let go. You're Dave and some guy named Cobra has offered you an opportunity to help him with his Sushi Bar. He first lets you know he wants you for your diving expertise, but this quickly expands into a whole host of other job titles. And that's basically what you can expect a lot of during your play through of Dave the Diver, expansion. Once you arrive at Bancho's Sushi, you quickly get the feeling there's a lot more going on. Although managing this Sushi restaurant is the main part of this experience, there's a whole lot more happening in the Giant Blue Hole.
The visuals here prove that pixel art has a long and healthy life span ahead. These retro style visuals are amazing, filled with detail. The character models look great and the environments, from the Giant Blue Hole to Bancho's Sushi Restaurant look amazing, the cut scenes are quite a treat as well. There were times when I felt this 2D retro art style was being overused, and maybe to this day, it is. But when experiences like this come along, I'm reminds me, it's not about the quantity, it's not about the cheap clones and crash grabs, it's about quality presentations. And that's what we have here in Dave the Diver. A meticulously crafted, 2D, pixel art adventure. Well done, guys.
The sound also gets my stamp of approval, with the exception of the gibberish. Yeah, much like The Sims and many other games, Dave the Diver has no real voice acting, only some made up gibberish. I never liked it in the Sims, which is called Simlish, and I don't care for it here either. So basically, communication is text only. Other than that though, the sound design is impressive. The atmospheric sounds, the sound effects, and yes, the soundtrack. The soundtrack got me. I'm not a music lover by any stretch, but especially while in the restaurant, I found my head bobbing and feet tapping while I worked.
The gameplay loop, this is what will keep you playing for those 25 hours I mentioned earlier. In theory, the gameplay loop is simple, but hands on? Well, let me issue fair warning, you may never want to take your hands off. And the thing is, watching gameplay videos, reading reviews, that will not be enough to pull you in. These reviews can only stimulate your curiosity at best, you need to experience this for yourself. On startup, we've got a handful of options to get you going. There's sound volume, Language, a few graphics settings and vibration on or off.
You're given a pretty easy to follow and understand tutorial to get you on your way, and as with most games, the tutorial expands with the game, as there will be a bunch more things you'll need to learn as the experience opens up. The gameplay loop is like this. You dive for ingredients and menu items during the day, then bring what you caught to the restaurant, add them to the menu, and serve them by night. Lock up shop, rinse and repeat. But like I said, you've got to feel it to truly understand why it's so addictive. You will be given other things to do regarding your fishing expeditions and restaurant duties as well. Persons will pop up and give you tasks. Some are clearly a part of the main story progression, while others seem like side quests. But where these side quests are concerned, I don't think they're really side quests. As in gaming, side quest implies optional, I don't think these are optional, I believe they are also a part of the story's progression, they're just presented like they may be optional. Someone my ask you to find something in the Giant Blue Hole, and when you do, they will give you a reward and info regarding an app that you will need for progression. You may need to save a pink dolphin a couple of times, and then there will be missions given which will directly open up the main story and the mysteries of this Giant Blue Hole. All implemented seamlessly. On the diving and fishing side of things, you start off pretty bare bones, with a harpoon and a knife, then you get a gun. At first, you'll only be able to catch small fish, but as your skills and arsenal grows, so do your capabilities. You can forge weapons from blueprints received from finding guns multiple times, then communicating with the weaponsmith through an app on your phone. You can upgrade your swimming gear as well. You will have better firepower, better harpoons and other devices like underwater drones to keep up with the growing challenges you face. When diving, you'll need to watch your air supply. This runs out on its own, but also if you swim faster or get attacked. In the event your air depleting too much, you can either head back up top, find air supplies underwater or use an escape pod, if you can find one in time. If you're unable to do any of these, you will be rescued by Cobra, but you will only be able to retain one item you found while down there. Where the restaurant management side of things are concerned, much like your diving experience, you can also upgrade. You can upgrade the look of your restaurant, you can hire staff, which helps a whole lot, in the kitchen to help Bancho out, or in the dining area to help you out. At first, it's just you and Bancho, the sushi chef with an ego, but you're able to hire and upgrade staff through an app introduced to you by this irate lady named Ms. Yoshie. Who after being served a special Shark head dish, decides to help you out. You are able to, through recipe research, create more items for your menu as well. At times, there will be special events, where special customers will request particular dishes, like Jellyfish or Shark, and you can locate these while diving, serve them to these special guests and earn even more. The more you dive and catch, the more you earn, the more your Sushi establishment will grow. Also through an app called Cooksta, you can increase the ratings of Bancho's Sushi, this will also lend to expansion. They're apps for quite a few things in this experience, and through various persons you meet, these apps will be introduce to you, and will aid your overall growth. Then where the main story is concerned, a pretty creepy story actually, I realized this early in. You will be given various missions to complete, various tasks which will allow the story to open up as you proceed. Dave the Diver is just one really satisfying experience, which adds even small touches like information on various fish you stumble across on this unique adventure. There's so much more I could go on about, but let me wrap up here. Give this incredible creation a shot for yourself. It has a 10% discount now, which will remain throughout the duration of the 2023 Steam Summer Sale, but Dave the Diver is also worth every dollar at full price.
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Propagation: Paradise Hotel
TLVGTV Review – Propagation: Paradise Hotel
Released May 4th, 2023 on PCVR and Quest 2 by developer and publisher, Wanadev Studio. Propagation Paradise hotel is, I don't know if I can call it a follow up, but it's the next game in line, following the original, Propagation, which is a free to play, wave shooter of sorts, and while I can't accurately call Paradise Hotel a follow up, I do trust Propagation will become a franchise. Because the original Propagation, a partly free to play title, is pretty good for what it is, and this here, Paradise Hotel serves as one hell of an evolution. So I don't know if Propagation was simply a tech demo or proof of concept, but what I do know is, Paradise Hotel is an impressive step up. So I can only imagine what next Wanadev would come up with, should this become a series or franchise. Thanks to Wanadev Studio for the review key.
The story here is quite interesting, and it's a part of a much bigger brighter picture, generally, for zombie, survival horror games. After playing through, Surv1v3 and even Dead Island 2, I see where devs are putting in the effort to ensure their titles aren't simply tossed one side as, "oh, another one". We've had a lot of zombie games, they've been coming out for decades, and while some genres severely lack evolution, I can safely say, developers are pulling out the stops to keep the zombie survival genre far from stagnation.
You're Emily Diaz, and you and a few other staff members are trapped inside Paradise Hotel, the place you work. Your twin sister is also in this hotel, but you both got separated. After being holed up in a kitchen with now just the security guard, as the others before made a break for it, but things apparently didn't work out too well for them. Now it's your turn. You both decide to make a break for it, find your sister and make it out alive.
I like this story, because although, yes, it is another infected, undead story, where the world has been plunged into a zombie apocalypse, this story, much like surv1v3 is isolated, even more isolated than Surv1v3. The rest of the city, town, country or world isn't the focus here, just this one lady, doing her best to reach her sister, get out of this claustrophobic situation she's been stuck in for weeks, and find out what's going on with the rest of the world, I like it. And I go back to the original propagation. That's a more contained experience, in a subway, a wave shooter, now things have expanded to a Hotel, what next will Wanadev come up with? That's what I'm talking about.
The visuals are beautiful. I mean, looking at this game, beautiful may be the furthest thing from one's mind, but technically speaking, these visuals are great. This entire experience has a refined, triple A feel to it, and the visuals are no exception. The character designs are great, with perhaps the exception of some of the clothes. This one guy here, it's kinda hard to tell watching a flat version of Paradise Hotel, but the security guard's shirt looks like it was painted on him. Other than little nitpicks like that though, the visuals are really good. They really help pull you into this already immersive experience. This entire game is an atmospheric masterpiece, and the design of the hotel, the lighting, the dilapidated state of each floor, each room, yeah. Well done, Wanadev. The zombies also look really convincing. Their features, animations, superb.
The sound design goes hand in hand with the visuals. Again, really atmospheric. From the opening score, the atmospheric sounds, the creeks you hear around you, the groans of nearby threats, the sound of your gun when fired. I can tell the Wanadev team spent many late nights, sleepless nights, perfecting the overall feel of this experience. The voice acting, good, but only in a good B-Movie kinda way. No awards will be handed out to any of the actors, but what's here will suffice.
Let's talk gameplay, the adhesive that keeps this entire package together. On startup, we've got more than enough settings to satisfy the pickiest player. There's gameplay options, which gives you much to choose from. You VR comfort level, snap or smooth turning, locomotion style, all the usual suspects. Audio, controls and graphics settings. Now, this here is true survival horror, and if this is your genre of choice, you'll know what to expect. Limited ammo leaves you always scavenging through cabinets, rooms, drawers for boxes of ammo. Limited health, yeah, you'll always be looking for antiseptic to refill your spray can, and it runs out fast. You've got your map and journal, two things you'll always be checking in with. You'll need keycards to access restricted areas and floors, and of course, your protagonist is exactly special ops. Now I know they're many survival horror games where you're a bad ass, but this ain't one of them, so you have that handicap to contend with as well. One major issue I had with Paradise Hotel was my character's inability to do some simple things in the name of self-preservation. One being, using melee weapons. Anything really, especially since your ammo was so scarce. Now, when I asked Wanadev if this would be a feature implemented in the future, they responded by saying, it would be very complex to add that in, and it would also go against the vision of the dev's. I totally get this, and I figured as much before even asking. But here's the thing, Wanadev have been updating Paradise Hotel quite a bit, listening to feed back. They went as far as to implement more immersion, by allowing you to interact with other items in the environment. So although I knew it would be a stretch, I had to ask. The thing with VR is, it plays with your mind. The ability to look around, reach out and sometimes touch things in the environment gets the imagination running wild. So while not being able to grab anything and use it as a weapon in a flat game may be more acceptable, in VR, it just seems like it should be a given. So you character is no fighter, she can shove Zombies, shoot them, but that's about it. And these zombies aren't like the ones we're accustomed to in the movies and many other games. A head shot does not cut the butter. These cats just keep coming back, they always come back.
I've heard it said many times, "I'm sick of jump scares". Similar to quick time events, lots of people have lost their interest in jump scares, not me. I love a good jump scare, and QTE. Now this is not about QTEs, but Jump scares are done so well here in Paradise Hotel, so well. I was on pins and needles my entire play through. I said it earlier, Wanadev burnt the midnight oil, many nights, making sure this game was on point, and on point it was. This has to be the scariest game I've ever played, and I've played a lot. Another thing about this game, similar to Surv1v3, the boss fights. Now while there was this one that is an exception, and is probably the most irritating boss encounter I've had since the final boss of Resident Evil Revelations part 1, other boss encounters were questionable. And by that I mean, and this goes back to my Surv1v3 reference, I wasn't even sure if I fought a boss character, it was just a seamless implementation. Nothing too over the top and farfetched. The entire game, again, much like Surv1v3 had a relatable element to it. Like, suppose there really was a zombie apocalypse, what would be more believable, that people got somehow infected with some disease like human rabies or biological weapon, or that the dead started rising out of the earth. Yeah, the latter is harder to believe. So yes, the game kept this "what if this really happened" vibe going all the way through. And I liked that. Liked it very much. Look, I could talk about Propagation Paradise Hotel for days, and I mean that literally. It's just that good. I streamed this game like six times, that's a record for me for the same game. I'll be making a top VR games list at the end of this year or the beginning of 2024, and spoiler, this may very well be number 1. We still got some months to go, a better game could be released. Now some criticize this one for its short runtime, but I had no problem with the duration. I like my games reasonably short, you know, so I can move on to the next. Besides, most games over stay their welcome anyway. Propagation paradise Hotel didn't. Thank you Wanadev Studio for the opportunity to review this amazing creation, I do so look forward to your next development.
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Mindset VR
TLVGTV Review – Mindset Released June 29th 2023 by Carbon Studio, for the Quest 2. Mindset is a departure from what I'm accustomed to from my friends over at Carbon. I'm used to some VR action, adventure, mixed in with a lot of climbing and projectile magic attacks for good measure. But here, what we have is one very unique puzzle game, presented in an extremely creative way. Using the Quest 2's hand tracking feature, much like another VR game I reviewed this year, by the folks over at Games by Stitch, Broken Spectre. Mindset turned out to be a bit more than I expected. Thanks, Carbon Studio for the review key.
Let me start this review by saying, I'm not into puzzle games. Not because I don't like them, but because they intimidate me, always have. But a part of my life path and purpose dictates that I should say yes to the things that scare me, face my fears head on so to speak. And I did.
I have quite a bit to say about the unique puzzle game, and the first thing is, it reminds me of two other games I reviewed a while back. One called Into A Dream, an indie game about a man, through the use of science, entering his own subconscious to battle his inner, darkest demons. And the other, Arc Smith.
The story, yes, Mindset has an actual, fully narrated story, and this helps a lot. Particularly for persons like myself who needs to be nudged, incentivized to sit with a puzzle game. This isn't like Tetris, where you just shift blocks around with no rhyme or reason, there's an actual method to Mindset's madness, and with this story, I get a deeper meaning behind this experience. There's more to it than meets the eye, if you're willing to pay attention to what's being presented. And the inclusion of a story, a pretty good one, for a puzzle game, is the aspect which reminds me of Arc Smith. Entering your own subconscious to unearth, unravel, piece together fragments of thoughts, memories, purpose and so on, is the part which reminds me of Into A Dream by dev Filipe F. Thomaz. This story created purpose and kept me engaged.
The more you play, the more puzzles you solve, is the deeper you go into your own mind, the more the story unfolds. From a simple, yet not so simple rescue mission, of a man lost in a coma after a plane crash, to a more ominous, deeper purpose. I liked it.
The visuals here are along the lines of a minimalist, voxel art style. It does not push the Quest 2 hard at all, and while simple in its design, serves its purpose well. While the backgrounds look incredibly simplistic, the box which you interact with is a bit more detailed. In the sound department, Carbon Studio did well here. Much like the visuals, there isn't much here. As there are really only a handful of characters speaking, and very little in the way of a score or sound effects. But what's here is suitable.
The voice acting is another thing which strangely reminds me of Into A Dream. There are odd similarities. I say odd because, while all the characters have that homemade, B-movie sound to them, not in a bad way, but I can tell there were no A Listers used here, but while they all have that sound to them, they also sound, particularly the actor who plays the role of the boss, he almost sounds identical to one of the actors in, Into A Dream. In that game, Into A Dream, I know the dev basically got family and friends to do the voice work, and it was evident in the performances, but what I'm saying is, I highly doubt the Into A Dream team had anything to do with this game, and it just feels kinda ironic, that the game's premise is very similar to Into A Dream, and the voice acting is also similar. Just felt the need to put that out there. It's really neither here nor there.
The gameplay, this is where it gets even more interesting. Mindset, much like Broken Spectre uses hand tracking only. And while there were quite a bit of janky moments when I just began my play through, I became acclimated with the controls, and things seemed to have worked themselves out the more I played. There were still moments, when I'd be turning the box or grabbing cogs, and things wouldn't work as intended, but the experience did get better with time. I feel the need to make this disclaimer for every hand tracking game I review. When interacting with these experiences, I can't cast too much blame on the devs, as I believe the Quest 2's hand tracking tech, while impressive as is, still isn't anywhere near perfect. So when I experience jank, I'm really forgiving, let me put it that way. On startup, there really are no game options. There is the story mode and a challenge mode. You are advised by the devs to play through the story mode before entering the challenge mode though, and I must concur with the devs on this recommendation. Your objective during the story, as I briefly explained earlier, is to use this mysterious box, attaching gears to it, in order to power it up to advance to the next area of your subconscious mind. As you progress, the puzzles do become harder, but not all the time. There will be moments where you just got through a pretty tough one, you'll be feeling fatigued, like you'd rather take a break, but you'd be greeted with a pleasant surprise should you push on, as the next box may be figured out in under a minute. I love this balance, it incentivizes the push to completion. All these puzzles are logic and physics based, and none of them are really that hard, once you keep a clear mind and exercise some patience. If you're intimidated by puzzles like I am, my best advice to you is, similar to what I'd tell a kid being bullied. The big bad wolf isn't really that tough after all, just seems that way on the surface. If however, you're not like me, you actually love puzzle games, especially VR puzzle games, then this is a must play. If you're interested in, or curious about hand tracking games, then much like me, your curiosity will be rewarded. While hand tracking still got a ways to go, this is pretty impressive as is. This is the kind of tech persons in my age group fantasized about as kids. The future's here guys, and it's only going to get better. Well until that whole AI apocalypse hits of course, but until then, have a great time interacting with games like Mindset. It's definitely worth the time.
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Dead Island 2
TLVGTV Review – Dead Island 2
Released April 21st, 2023 by developer Dambuster Studios and Publisher Deep Silver, on PC, Xbox Series, PS5, Xbox One and PS4, Dead Island 2 is the highly anticipated sequel to 2011s Dead Island, a sequel most thought would have been stuck in development purgatory indefinitely. I can’t honestly say I was one of those waiting with bated breath for this to come out though, as I wasn’t a fan of the first, so I didn’t care much for the announced sequel. But if I were a fan, I would have to say, here in 2023, over a decade later, Dead Island 2 was worth the wait. With a feel of let’s say a Dead Rising 3 and Dying Light fusion, Dead Island 2 is one really solid entry into the oversaturated zombie, undead, infected genre. As reviewers and consumers, we tend to throw around this term, “oh another this, another that”, but what Dead Island 2 is, to be accurate, is another zombie game done right, so right. Thanks a bunch, Deep Silver, for the review key!
Let’s start with the story. There’s nothing particularly interesting about this story, as much like the characters here, it is your stereotypical zombie apocalypse story, and is only mildly interesting because of the triple A way in which it was delivered, which doesn’t really say much. As with most if not all triple A stories, they follow a done to death, safe zone template. Let me put it this way, most persons who would not watch a zombie movie would more than likely be the kind of person who would say, horror movies are silly, unrealistic or perhaps too gory, or scary. This is usually because said persons think that’s all there is to these types of films, but these same persons, were they to give it a shot and watch, let’s say, 28 Days Later. A film which added substance, a more human, relatable element. Elements that most persons could relate to, characters that one could empathize with, regardless of the fiction. I could say the same about the Walking Dead before season 3, before it all went to hell and beyond. I’ve seen persons who scoffed at zombie films, binge watch that series. And I believe that is the main reason the producers and writers of that series never used the word zombie. They wanted to separate it from the juvenile cliches associate with the genre. So as long winded as this tangent I seem to have gone off on appears, it is not without valid reason. The story and characters in Dead Island 2 were not to my liking, but it’s not because it’s a game with zombies or infected humans. A better story could have been told, had they not gone the Sean of The Dead, Zombieland route, and more a 28 Days Later, The Last of Us route. My point is, although I was able to bear the story and cliché characters, I did see where better could have been done. But this is all relative, much like everything else. Lots of folks just wish to keep it light, and that’s what Deep Silver and Dambusters did, kept it light hearted and easy on the brain and emotions. The story did however pick up a more serious tone as the game progressed, but that comical approach remained, regardless. My take on the story and characters is more a, “to each their own” kinda thing though. Highly subjective.
The visuals, absolutely beautiful. The environments were lovely, bright, lush, bursting with color, which helped compliment that lighthearted approach the devs went for. Even the night stages looked great. The characters were well designed, with incredible detail paid to facial expressions and lip-syncing. The particle effects, especially in the dark, just kept my vibrations high and my senses constantly stimulated and engaged. The overall art design gets two thumbs up. Only thing, and not a big enough deal to subtract points, were the lack of reflections. I’m not certain why, but apparently reflections are a big deal in game development. We’ve seen it done in this and past generations, flat and VR, but for some reason, even in triple A games, devs seem to shy away from it. Not sure what that’s about.
Sound, the music was fitting for the vibe. Not my taste, but hey, truth be told, I don’t really have much of a taste for music, generally. Well pop music that is. The score was superb though and the voice acting was clearly done by talented actors. There is a caveat. Although the actors are talented, the material goes back to what I’ve been saying. I just don’t like the characters. So, it’s kinda like watching Jim Carey doing his version of what the masses consider funny. To me, he’s just being a complete dumb ass, unentertaining. But that does not mean the man can’t act, as he has proven to me in more serious works he’s done. It’s just a good actor doing bad material. Same here for the voice talent in Dead Island 2. I can’t overstate how much I disliked these characters, all of them. There is an option to use voice command in game. Here’s the thing, I’m one of the few people who liked gimmicky devices like the Kinect. Perhaps explains why I’m so into VR. But my point is, I like to experiment with things like motion controls, body tracking and voice commands. So, I was willing to give this a shot, for science. But it was more a hinderance than anything else. Sometimes it didn’t register, and sometimes attempting to balance the audio levels were just a pain. It’s like, you’d have to be playing in a quiet room, alone, with your mouth shut, and only speak when addressing Alexa. Not worth the effort, but thanks for the quirky option anyway, guys. Let’s talk gameplay. Let me just come right out and say it, this game was designed for players. It just feels so good. On start up, we’ve got more options than I could shake a stick at. Controls, Online, Coop or single player, Display options, UI settings, Audio, Language and the Alexa Game Controls. You can choose from six different slayers. Yeah, slayers. The fact that the devs decided to call your characters, slayers was my first red flag, I knew this was going to be some, “made for the younger generation” type game. But yeah, you can choose from six different characters, I quickly grabbed the one I thought was the most attractive, as after looking at all of them, they basically had, “Hard Pass” stamped on their foreheads. Thing is, when selecting a character in a game, I do my best to pick one that closer matches my vibe, whether male of female. And by vibe, I don’t mean a character that necessarily looks like me, with characteristics that match my own, but by vibe, I mean vibrations. But let me not get too deep with that. So, whether male or female, I have to like the character. I didn’t like any of them, so I went full, shallow Hal, 100% superficial, I just went for physical eAttraction, yeah, let me go copyright that real quick. Each slayer has their attributes. Toughness, stamina, Health recovery, Critical Damage, Agility, Peak Health and resilience. But none of that mattered to me. Call me naive, but I simply put my faith in the devs to not make a game where some characters would be complete duds. To make a game, that regardless of who I picked, I could still beat this game with proper application of skills and gameplay technique. In the beginning, things felt a bit rough. Even with a pretty good and intuitive on the go tutorial, I felt frustrated, as my character was getting her backside handed to her over and over, by the lowliest of opposition. With weak moves and melee weapons that broke way too easy. At one point I was beginning to lose interest, but I knew better than to judge this game based on its early offerings. Once you keep at it, through Dead Island 2’s easy to learn, easy to master, super intuitive upgrade features and gameplay elements, very soon, you’ll begin to feel almost overpowered, an unstoppable force. Just spend a little time mastering the fight mechanics. Know when to block, when to strike, when to back off, when to heal, when to use your projectile weapons and monitor their recharge. If you get the hang of this early on, then by the time you begin to upgrade your character with the skill cards, with the variety of perks and abilities, you will soon feel like a jedi. You have perks which allow you to regain health or set off a small explosion after a well-executed block or the use of a health pack. Perks that give you a temporary damage buff simply by using a jump kick or slide attack. The list goes on. Dead Island 2’s combat system was developed with entertainment at its core. So, if you have a rocky start like I did, trust and believe, the sun will come out tomorrow, just keep going. And although Dead Island 2 is primarily, at it’s core a melee focused game, by the time, later down the line, when you get guns, oh yeah. You need to feel it for yourself. The guns also feel really good, and serve a purpose. Not just coming off as a side or after thought. Dead Island 2 was created to keep us interested and highly engaged. It’s the kind of game I did not want to stop playing. As most who follow my work know, I’ve become a full VR advocate, and while playing most flat games, all I can find myself thinking is, this would be better in VR, or when will this end, so I can return to a VR headset? But not here, although Dead Island 2 would be great, properly ported to VR, this flat version, for now, was all I needed. You’re given a very generous and highly useful skill tree, well in this case, skill card upgrade system. You’re able to upgrade skills labeled, abilities, survivor, slayer and numen. Other than your wide range of melee weapons and eventual guns, you’ve got curveballs, these projectile styled weapons that recharge over time. Like Throwing Stars, grenades, chem bombs and so on, very useful in getting you out of a pinch. There’s also a workbench, where you can not only repair and upgrade your weapons, but you can also craft helpful items, like med kits. The upgrades and customizations of each weapon, which by the way, is where I got that Dead Rising vibe from, is seemingly limitless. The weapons you can craft, the combos you can make, while not necessarily as deep and customizable as games like Dead Rising, and even Requisition, really go a far way. You’ve got elemental damage, I mean, you can add electricity to a weapon, which not only shocks the enemy on impact, but It can be combined with the environment for some really cool environmental kills. You can pour water on zombies, then slash them with some wolverine type claws, put your electrified machete in a pool of zombies and so on. Really has that, “the limit is the sky” feel to it. Let your imagination be your guide. There is a hub or safe area of sorts, where you can buy things from a trader along with the workbench, but the workbenches are also all over the map, along with storage crates, in case your inventory becomes too full. You don’t have to worry about finding your way back to said safe area. There’s also fast travel, which helps a lot. Especially since I couldn’t drive any of the cars I stumbled on. Much like a comment I made when reviewing Dying Light 1. I saw all these cars and wished to drive some. Shortly afterwards, Dying Light devs released an update that allowed you to drive around, so who knows? Be careful going too close to these cars though, you may set off an alarm and alert the infected. While traversing, which is he part of the game that reminds me of Dying Light, without the parkour of course, you will be doing a whole lot of looting. Pick up what you can, when you can. You’ll need these items for crafting. There was never a point though, where it felt like a grind, and there was also never a point where any particular item was hard to find. Sometimes you’ll find rare items, sometimes you’ll pick up a lot of common parts. Maybe, since I was really content with my loadout and never required any specific weapons, is why I never felt that grindy pressure, who knows?
You’ve got your main quest objectives which never feel like a chore. Where to go is mostly very clear with objective markers and what to do is clearly spelled out. My character is always giving me hints. I like this, when I need that brain busting, adventure, I know where to go. Dead Island 2 is clearly working with that, high action, very little slow down, keep it moving vibe, and I like it. They are side quests, if you’re into that. But two things, regardless of how much I’m into a game, my time spent with each game has to be handled in a, “work smarter, not harder” way. I have to knock these games out as quickly, but efficiently as I can. So, I have no time or interest in side quests. Whether it be for recreation or this video game journalism hustle, I’m never into them. I just want o stick to the main path, till those end creds roll.
Where combat is concerned, this follows the aforementioned vibe. While not like Arkham games, technically, Dead Island 2 still has that feel. That feeling in a game, where combat feels so smooth, when you get knocked on your butt, it’s your own damn fault. There was never a time where I could have said with a shred of fairness, that the fighting mechanics were flawed. Yeah, not perfect, but nothing is, the melee combat was really smooth, real responsive and intuitive. It allowed you to keep going without ever feeling frustrated, at least not for long. I’m not saying I didn’t die, but failure in Dead Island 2 was always as it should be, a lesson, not a punishment. The boss fights followed suit. Not too easy, not too hard, just right on that sweet spot. Felt really good each time I took one out I’ve said it multiple times in this review, Dead Island 2 was designed to keep you going till the end. Never a rage quit moment. Other than my utter disdain for the dialogue and characters, the only real issue I found with Dead Island 2, were a few minor bugs. A bit of clipping, and this one area where when I died and the area reloaded, I had to exit the game and start again in order for it to work as it should. There was this fuse box. Yeah, by the way, this game is filled with those cliché tasks and fetch quests. Something always needs a fuse. So yeah, I had to put a fuse in a junction box. Every time I died and had to do it again, the junction box would be closed. It would still take the fuse, but then the rest of things required for stage progression would not work right. So, I had to restart the game, go back to the now open junction box, place the fuse, then proceed. If I died again, rinse and repeat. Other than those minor peeves and inconveniences, Dead Island 2 is a total win. I got more than I expected here, and fully recommend this game to just about any player, regardless of your preferred genre. Dead Island 2 has the potential to turn anyone into a believer.
Our game is never over.
Immortal Legacy: The Jade Cipher
TLVGTV Review – Immortal Legacy: The Jade Cipher
Released June 16, 2019 by developer and publisher Viva Games for PSVR and then on May 21, 2020 for PCVR, then a flat version which I have absolutely no interest in, was released for the Xbox One, September 30, 2021 by E-Home Entertainment. Immortal Legacy: The Jade Cipher was one of the earliest PSVR games I ever played. One of the earliest VR games I played period, since that’s where I started my VR journey, on the PSVR1. While it suffered from a lot of that fetal stage, experimental VR era jank, coupled with the PSVR 1’s Move controllers handicap, it still managed to interest me. It took me years to finally get to this review, but I have to say, Immortal Legacy: The Jade Cipher deserves a bit more love than it’s received so far.
The story of The Jade Cipher kinda reminds me of Bright Memory Infinite, it feels really thrown together, like there was very little thought put into it. It feels, very similar to the way Bright Memory’s story felt. Like I started watching a movie in the middle or close to the end, or I started watching a series or caught a franchise somewhere mid-season. Where the story already started and I just hopped in at a point that rendered it incoherent. I leave a generic spoiler warning at the beginning of all my reviews, but believe me when I say, I couldn’t spoil this story if I wanted to. It starts with a plane ride that goes to hell in a minute, with characters talking about things the developer seems to expect the viewers to already know about. Take this example. If you started playing any Batman game, and at the beginning you saw Bruce Wayne talking to Alfred about The Joker. You’d totally get that, because Bruce Wayne has been talking to Alfred about The Joker for decades! Even people who have no interest in comic books and super heroes may know about this. But I have no prior knowledge of any of what is being discussed or unfolding in The Jade Cipher, but it’s thrown at me like this should all be common knowledge, just like in Bright Memory. Well, maybe the devs aren’t crazy, maybe they aren’t just terrible at storytelling, perhaps it’s just me missing out on some popular lore that everyone else knows about, who knows? Either way, I have little to no clue what was really going on here, and the little that I pieced together, or perhaps made up, I’ll keep it to myself for two reasons. One, I don’t want to spoil it for anyone out there who’s never played this, as this is a decent game and deserves more love. And two, well, me trying to explain the little I think I figured out from this story may only serve to make me look like an ass putting his foot in his own mouth.
The visuals here, for an early PSVR title are pretty impressive. And like I said, this review took me literal years to put together, as I stopped playing it a lot out of frustration and intimidation with the Move Controllers. So I only completed this game last month, March 2023. My point is, between 2019 to present day, for a PSVR 1 game, The Jade Cipher looks really good! Like surprisingly good, even in the headset. Now I played it on a PS4 Pro, but the textures are sharp, the character models are pretty good, even with some janky animations at times. The gun models look good, draw distances are handled well, the cut scenes are in actual VR, not just some flat images. And most notably, this game looks better than any native Quest 2 title I’ve ever played, and at this stage in the VR game, that speaks volumes for a 2019 PSVR game. Main issue I found with the visuals though, was my character’s arms. Not only did they feel, just like in Surv1v3, like they were coming out my neck, but the animations would get real janky a lot of times. Over in sound, the score is good, fitting for what this is. The atmospheric sounds, the sound effects, no complaints here. The 3D sounds when using the earbuds all seem accurate as well. However, the voice acting is pretty bad. This is ranked in the bad B-Movie voice acting category. Like I often say, there is good B-Movie acting, and then there’s this. Listening to that girl, Cookie Pie or whatever she’s called, makes me want to schedule an appointment for an ear exam to check for inner bleeding.
Gameplay, this is a mixed bag, but other than the visuals and sound, this is what kept me coming back over the years, and also what left me with a great feeling of accomplishment after seeing the credits roll. On startup we got a decent selection of options. For audio, we got sound output, language, subtitles on or off. Then for controller options we have three schemes to choose from. The controls like I alluded to earlier, were my main gripe with The Jade Cipher. It started out ridiculously bad, really bad. In the early days, was when the devs added the three control options, and that did help, but not enough to make this experience anything near optimal or even intuitive. It took a lot of getting used to, moving with buttons instead of sticks, and in those early days, for whatever reason, these devs were unable to come up with the best versions of control options we have today for PSVR 1 titles, like you see in Surv1v3, Blair Witch VR and The Tale of Onogoro. So we had to be fumbling about with what we were given here in Immortal Legacy: The Jade Cipher. It does seem however, though the controls were awkward and counterintuitive, the devs were well aware of this handicap. There was never a point where I felt like I was thrown off in the deepest end possible. Although the controls felt bad, I was always able to make my way eventually. The controls are not game breaking, is what I am saying. Even in the boss fights, particularly the final boss, this boss seems to have been designed with this handicap in mind. So although it took me several attempt to take it down, it was still doable, and this obviously goes for all boss encounters, and the entire game. Walking was real slow though, and even when sprinting, it never felt like much of a sprint. Many times I wished I could have picked up the pace a bit more. The inventory system also felt cumbersome and again, counter intuitive, with very limited space. There were also times when I picked up an item I couldn’t put down, so if I wanted to make space, my options in this already limited inventory was even more scarce. The Jade Cipher also had a somewhat jarring change of pace. It started out feeling like an action adventure, Uncharted like game, then soon after turned into a more survival horror feeling game once you went underground. Coming back to the bosses, really creative designs. I like the direction the developer went with this. Like I said before, they were never too much for the clunky controls, and they certainly were not a copy and paste job of each other either. So well balanced, well designed. The overall difficulty here was also well balanced. My greatest challenge was becoming acclimated with the controls. Even the handful of puzzles were tolerable, I only got stuck on one, which after many attempts, good old trial and error prevailed. After years of picking this game up, parking it, then resuming, I’m going to have to say it was all worth it. The ending leaves room for a sequel, and if there is one, as convoluted as the plot is, I’d hop onboard, especially with better controls and the overall growth of VR since inception. I can only imagine what the devs would come up with after seeing what an interesting job they did on this so early out in VR’s life. Good job, Viva Games.
Our game is never over.
Crimen: Mercenary Tales
The Lab Video Game TV Review - Crimen: Mercenary Tales Released May 25, 2023 for the Quest 2, by developer and publisher Carbon Studio. Crimen: mercenary Tales is an easy going, for most part, arcade styled hack and slash set in a beautiful, cell shaded swashbuckling world, where you step foot in the shoes of various characters, more than willing to share their unbelievable tales of adventure with you. Thanks to the publisher for the review key.
Crimen: Mercenary Tales by all indications is a game the devs do not expect or want you to take too seriously. This is evident in all factors of this game, but shines particularly bright where the story is concerned. The story of Crimen is broken up into eight parts, between eight characters, and these stories do not intersect, they have no relation to each other. Again, this is a highly satirical approach to the pirate era. Expect nothing serious as you'd find in games such as Assassin Creed or the like. There is a new VR game coming out, executive produced by Lucy Lui called The Pirate Queen. So if you're looking for something a tad more on the serious side, in VR, you may want to focus your attention there.
But for what this is, Crimen delivers this PG styled adventure quite well. Once you take heed to my disclaimer, not to take this seriously, you may have a good time with this. There are these eight characters in a tavern whose stories you play out as each of them. These stories range from saving a gold digging damsel in distress, to fighting skeletons on a wrecked ship, to fighting your house after a mishap in the kitchen. Yeah, you heard me right.
Over in sound, Carbon Studio did well here. The music is quite fitting, the sound effects are in place and the voice acting, though not great, as I get this feeling that if I spoke the languages these accents represent, I'd feel the same way here as I felt when I watched Taye Diggs in How Stella Got Her Groove Back. Yeah, for those of you who may not know this, Jamaicans do not sound like that. A cringe inducing, humiliating representation at best, Mr. Diggs. Anyway, my point is, I suspect those accents were not voiced by authentic persons. I may very well be wrong, but something seemed forced and overdone in the dialogue. Still, I deduct no points, good job on the B-Movie acting, Carbon Studio. The only issues I have with the audio, were these glitches, where I'd hear for example, the sound of a boomerang flying, when there was none, and a couple other audio oddities.
The visuals here are real nice. When I see devs make the best use of The Quest's limited power, I always applaud and commend. Carbon Studio went with a cell shaded cartoon aesthetic. And not just a cell shaded art style, as this isn't always done well. The characters are incredibly detailed for this style, both in art design and animations. The environment also looks really good in most places. At times, I noticed some bland textures, but for most part, absolutely beautiful visuals.
Over in gameplay. This is where Crimen begins a game of hit and miss. I was really looking forward to this game before release, it just looked great. Usually when I become interested in a game purely based on aesthetics, I keep fingers crossed that the gameplay matches up. Carbon studio however, are responsible for Warhammer: Age of Sigmar Tempestfall. And while I had a few issues with that release, some of which seems to be a bit of a signature for Carbon Studio at this point, as a couple of them rear their ugly heads here as well. Tempestfall is the game that got me into Warhammer, and is a game I hold in high regard to this day. So I wasn't worried entering the world of Crimen. On start up, we have a decent amount of options, the usual suspects really. General, Movement, Audio and Credits. Enough to get you on your way, selecting between click or smooth turning, locomotion style, sound preferences, etc. You've got the usual on the job styled tutorial, where you whistle while you work, learn as you go along. The first story adventure you embark on, serves as the official tutorial, but the tutorial basically continues throughout the game as you come up on different scenarios on your adventures, that may or may not require explanations. This being a beat em up, a hack and slash, combat is the most important element at play. This however is where my issues with Crimen begin. This got infuriating at certain points. Crimen is primarily a melee combat focused game, where as you go along, you may collect these temporary power up items that break after just a few hits. You can grab muskets, bows, hand cannons, some interesting looking made up guns, bombs, and even pots and pans in the environment. You can throw items at your enemy, but once again, throwing is a pain here. I'm not certain what it is about throwing in VR that's so hard to get right, but other than a few games, Battle Sister comes to mind, throwing is like the bane of my VR gaming existence. You are also able to use other items in the environment, like this here, shit on a stick, which distracts, for lack of a better word, your foes. These items are quite entertaining, and ads to Crimen's comical, cartoon like nature. My only wish is, there should be some kind of sound effect maybe, each time a special item appears and disappears. I found this to be an issue, as sometimes things would get real heated, and I either would not know when a much need item like a musket was available, or when one expired. So I'd either be swinging an empty hand because the club I just got expired or getting my but handed to me, when there was a canon floating about that could have helped me out a great deal, but was too busy to notice. The thing is though, combat got some major issues, issues I trust Carbon will be able to iron out with a few more patches. The main problem here is collision detection, this is pretty bad. Combat in Crimen, after the first few encounters will seem like nothing more than "try your luck" flailing. Combat is supposed to be like this, the enemy telegraphs all their strikes. At first, it's real easy to read them and tell where they are coming from, but later, although this game remains relatively easy throughout its entire duration, the enemy will start to come at you in greater numbers and with a bit more attack variety. But still, the mechanics remain the same, watch for their telegraphed motion, block or dodge accordingly. There are also some heavies, you have to do some QTE combat here to physically dodge then enter into another QTE styled section, where you strike their shields in the right direction to topple their guard. These QTEs come up frequently, especially in the boss fights. I was never bothered by QTEs, so I had no issue here, I found them quire entertaining, and a decent fit to what this game actually is. But back to the collision detection, I'd be swinging at enemies, I'm not missing, they're not blocking, but nothing is happening, I just hear that swishing sound, and nothing. This is bad, real bad. This is a hack and slash game, most fights I felt like I was hacking and slashing at midair. And this feel was present in Tempestfall, but it's not that, striking at air feel, that weightless combat feeling I'm talking about here. It's striking at the enemy and absolutely nothing happens, they just keep coming. When you find yourself outmanned, outnumbered, overwhelmed by a group of attackers, and you're swinging for dear life, but hardly any of your strikes are registering, then you see the insulting, cynical game over screen pop up, it may have you rage quitting. Then there is the mobility issue. Your character is not nimble at all. There were many times I'd love to have been able to use some kind of dodge or dash mechanic, but there was none. There is teleportation, but this never seemed to work well as a dash substitute. I was never able to get enough room between myself and the enemy at any time. I can't sprint, dash, nothing. And there were many times I really needed to. Sometimes the enemy would get real close to you in numbers, and you really need some room to maneuver, but your maneuvering skills are pretty much nonexistent. Then there were these times, when you got crowded, and the screen would go black, infuriating. This screen going black thing also happened outside of that. There was one point where I was supposed to be climbing, and the screen kept flickering. The combat has it up moments, but many times I saw an up, it found a way to trip over itself. Like this cool mechanic where you can deflect arrows back at the enemy. One, sometimes the arrow would get stuck in midair, then two, once these arrows are fired at you, it's like they're heat seeking arrows, if you don't do the whole hit them with your weapon thing, they seem to follow you until they make contact. There's a lot of climbing in Crimen as well, but this was also hit or miss. Sometimes I'd be climbing and I couldn't grab the ledge I was supposed to grab. This goes back to collision detection. Crimen feels a bit undercooked, guys. Like it needed a few more months of development. I see where Carbon got a lot right, but I also see where several elements seems half baked. And I know Carbon Studio is better than this. I do like the way the boss fights were handled though. This coming from someone who abhors boss fights. Much like the rest of Crimen, which feels like it could be finished in a day, the boss fights were easy, and not every stage has a boss at the end. The boss fights keep you stuck for one reason or the other in one place, and consists of real time strikes, dealt by Quick Time Events, which include directional strikes. The bosses had this three strikes and you're out style, similar to Mario games, and none were a problem to beat. Based on the over all, arcade, casual style of Crimen, I can tell the devs wanted this to be a stress free experience. As like I said, this is a relatively easy and short game. The only stress came from the collision detection issues and your character's lack of mobility during fights. It's a linear experience, with only one real puzzle that I can recall, which I solved by trial and error. Other moments will pop up, which may seem lightly puzzling, but don't let the look of the stages fool you, this is no Tomb raider. The puzzles were barely that, barely puzzling. So at the end of it all, after playing through Crimen: Mercenary Tales to the end credits, I'm going to have to say, it's an ok game. But its potential outweighs what it currently delivers. Good news is, this isn't back in the 80s and 90s, where you buy a shitty or mediocre game, and you're stuck with whatever you got. I'm certain, if Carbon Studio agrees with me on the flaws I found, they could iron them all out with an update of two. There's nothing game breaking or irreparable here. Thanks for watching.