BLACK BIRD
BLACK BIRD has easily been one of my biggest shmup related surprises of the year. I follow shmup releases as close as possible and as a result I feel that I’m aware of most upcoming STGs on Steam. The first time I heard about this game was around the time CAVE employees streamed it on their Twitch channel. I came across it again by chance in the 2018 Winter Sale and decided to purchase it.
This game is the debut of Japanese indie developer Onion Games on Steam. I’m not familiar with them but evidently they’re known for a few games including Million Onion Hotel. BLACK BIRD’s story is about a little girl that dies in the street. After dying she is reborn as a crow and starts to destroy everything. The story, graphics, music, and environments are all well designed. I’d call it almost a steam punk style opera type of aesthetic. When I originally saw the game on CAVE TV the style didn’t connect with me, but when I actually played the game I enjoyed it.
– Real player with 14.8 hrs in game
Read More: Best Dark Fantasy Score Attack Games.
Imagine a remake of Fantasy Zone with Tim Burton’s flavor of adorable bleakness, japanese attention to gameplay detail and quirkiness. The game starts with a young girl reborn from despair as a Black Bird to destroy the world. The more you kill, the bigger and more powerful you’ll grow. This dark premise is offset by cute spritework, silly animations and a very eccentric soundtrack. It’s just a delight to consume the cruel world, which left you to die. The gameplay and its scoring is well tuned. The player is constantly managing risk, reward and greed. Nuking a whole screen at max combo with a completely pumped up bird is the most satisfying climax very few shoot ‘em ups manage to pull off. The first play through is easy mode and completion unlocks the slightly harder true mode. Online leader board for global score chasing just adds to the replay value.
– Real player with 12.8 hrs in game
GetsuFumaDen: Undying Moon
So, my first thought about this game was: “Hold up, Konami’s making games again?!”
Second thought was: “….and it’s a niche title and NOT a more recognised name.”
Third thought was: “…. and sh!t, it’s quite good! Even for early access! You guys OK down there at Konami HQ? Just that you’re acting like…… well NOT Konami.”
…In all seriousness though, taking the rogue-like approach to a metroidvania title is an interesting spin, and fundamentally, it works well. Gameplay leans heavily towards being more tactical and methodical than it does being stylish and fast. And since you have limited ways of healing, you’re forced to consider how best to dispatch your enemies while taking as few hits as possible. It’s not quite dark souls, just enough to keep you thinking.
– Real player with 74.7 hrs in game
Read More: Best Dark Fantasy Hack and Slash Games.
Writing this review while playing the v0.4.10 update (Nov. 4th 2021), and the game is in Early Access so take the review with a grain of salt upon further updates. I like this game and can’t wait to see how it evolves but at this stage I do not recommend anyone buying it right now, wait until it is fleshed out and hopefully perfected.
PROS:
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Beautiful artstyle, boss intros are honestly to die for and sometimes have me rewatching em cause they are so pretty.
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Good music that is nice but doesn’t get stuck n your head in a grating way.
– Real player with 69.8 hrs in game
DARK SOULS™: REMASTERED
What Dark Souls is not:
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the hardest game of all time
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in any way polished (even in the remaster)
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remotely functional as a game
What Dark Souls is:
- one of the most interesting, inventive, atmospheric action RPGs ever created
This is my favourite game of all time, but it’s not for everyone. It’s less about tight, high-octane action and flashy spectacles and more about atmosphere, exploration and trying to make head or tail of a game that does a lot of things and refuses to explain any of them. That or just breaking the game’s mechanics until you ascend to godhood.
– Real player with 510.9 hrs in game
Read More: Best Dark Fantasy Difficult Games.
The first dark souls game. ‘Remastered’ Note, I don’t agree with them taking down the prepare to die edition.
Pretty good PVE and fun but imbalanced PVP.
PVP is a backstab fest and heavy armor/poise is meta. You’ll sometimes see Mask of the Mother, Havel/Giant armor and great club using tryhards who will kill you in one backstab. Backstabs are very latency and connection based. However the PVP is still a blast when fighting people with more normal builds. It’s flawed but good fun.
PVE is the more well done part of the game. Only complaint really is that you start off in New Game plus once you kill Gwyn, you don’t have the option to not go into new game plus like in Dark Souls 2.
– Real player with 223.7 hrs in game
Dark Fantasy Warriors
This game is extreamly good for its price. Level design, graphics, sound, everything is so good. Enemies are not dumb, they attack together and it is really hard to beat them. And the best for me in this game is satisfaction after killing extremly hard bosses. I really recomend you to buy this game if you like games like dark souls.
– Real player with 3.5 hrs in game
I have given this game its fair share of my time, in short, this game is a very barebones experience. In the entire game there are only two enemy types, knights with swords and knights with a bow and arrow. All of the minibosses are also just the soldiers with a reskin and a larger model. The only truly unique enemy is the final boss, which casts all sorts of magic, it is a really cool fight actually.
I’ll list of some glaring issues I had:
- Can’t interact with the chests scattered throught the map, which meant I didnt pick up a single new item on my entire playthrough
– Real player with 2.9 hrs in game
AMID EVIL
AMID EVIL at its core is a wonderfully rendered retro throwback FPS that beckons the nostalgic memories of games such as Heretic and Hexen and Quake with gorgeous environments, beautiful weapon feel and a majestic combat encounters.
However, I come to you today not focused on the weapons, the enemies or the aesthetics, but rather something truly gorgeous: the Difficulty Selection level.
Most games dare not be so bold with something so seemingly obtuse as a Difficulty Selection level where it is not as simple as clicking a rather comedic naming on a menu. AMID EVIL, in this regard, dares to be different. There have been other reviews left for this game with scathing remarks as to the “poor design” of the Difficulty Selection. I disagree wholeheartedly. For you see, the Difficulty Selection tutorializes the player of the movement mechanics and the weight of the Champion in such an elegant and silent way that most take for granted. To go for the Easy difficulty, it is straightforward and one could get by the challenge by only holding the “W” key on the Keyboard. This is Leon Zawada and Simon Rance’s brilliance coming into full display here. By having the Easy difficulty being so easy to access, it makes clear of the very nature of the room so as to not to cause further confusion with regards to the other options.
– Real player with 35.7 hrs in game
Amid Evil is strange, half of the game is some of the best level design, music, atmosphere, and art direction Ive seen in a game. The other half is a boring bland repetitive slog. Its a coin flip for which episode is which, but imo the best Amid Evil gets is worth the worst it can be.
– Real player with 16.1 hrs in game
Frog Demon
It’s a nice game but when i faced a glitch my enjoying is over
i just stuck in (bug) checkpoint
only way to carry on close the game and re-open it
– Real player with 0.9 hrs in game
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The Short of it: A “rager” of a tower climbing platformer. Unless you are highly sedated, you will rage. You will rage quit. And then you will double click that little icon and climb again. Don’t pay more than $1 IMO.
Reminds me of: If you liked Downwell, you’ll probably like Frog Demon, because then you can go Upwell buh-dum-tishh
– Real player with 0.9 hrs in game
Rated Mutant
Tori’s life is turned upside when her father is kidnapped. Rappelling deeper into what she once believed was an abandoned laboratory she begins to find herself fighting against hordes of monstrous creatures, fighting not only for her own life but her father’s as well. Discover the secrets of the lab and uncover the truth beyond the mysterious “V”.
Features
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Side-Scrolling Platformer Action - Rated Mutant is a high energy action-platformer, navigate around environmental hazards, run, dash and dodge enemy attacks. Return fire with a barrage of short and long range weapons. Hot swap your weapons and switch your techniques to gain an advantage over your foes, as enemies will adjust and adapt.
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Uncover Secrets - Travel down the road less traveled and reveal secret passageways and mutants, always something new to find.
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Epic Boss Battles - Experience battles as unorthodox as the creatures themselves, with tough but satisfying combat.
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Rogues Gallery - Discover over 30 unique monsters, defeat them to unlock new information and lore.
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Master Weapons - Unlock new weapons, and new ways to use them as you continue your descent.
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Custom Soundtrack - Rated Mutant features a modern soundtrack, designed to fit its action packed game play and chilling atmosphere.
The Last Campfire
The Last Campfire is an adventure game created by three people at Hello Games, primarily developed for mobile devices and later ported to PC and consoles. Compared to their first ambitious game (No Man’s Sky), The Last Campfire has a smaller scope, being more like a bedtime fairy tale filled with short puzzles. The story is told through a brilliant narrator who describes in a fable-like manner actions, thoughts and emotions of all characters, reminding me of Bastion’s marvelous storytelling. We play as a cute little Ember who is suddenly separated by his companions during a boat ride. Lost and confused, we must find our way back, while also trying to help those we encounter.
– Real player with 17.2 hrs in game
“How can you be a lighthouse for others, when your own light has gone out?”
This is such a beautiful game that I’m at a loss for words to describe it.
It’s a children’s game. Puzzles, beautiful graphics, and a lot of thought & care went into the diverse design of the characters, environments, and puzzles & themes of scale both great and small. It’s also possessive of a level of emotional depth and innocence that is simply totally absent in many childrens’ titles today. Contrast this with, say, any of the Lego Star Wars or Lords of the Rings or The Hobbit game (the latter of which I own) which rely on special effects and violence to tell a story. Its refreshing to find a game that doesn’t find lazy ways to tell a story, but gently tugs you along as you yearn to see more. A guiding light for you to follow, if you will.
– Real player with 13.5 hrs in game
Undergrave
About Undergrave
After losting your loved one, you decide to bring her back by going to the depths of the Void Realm and completing the Trial of Ressurection. From the creators of Red Ronin, every try will challenge the player with a new adventure.
KEY FEATURES
Your character has 3 distinct abilities, each one being necessary for a successful run, however every one of them consumes your stamina that recovers with turns so use them wisely.
– DASH –
Cut through the enemies in a straight line dealing damage on them if you have your sword or dodging through them if you have no sword
– JUMP –
Jump from a square to another, dealing stun effect on the enemies around if you have your sword or only pushing them if you have no sword.
– THROW –
Throw your sword on an enemy dealing damage. The movements cost less Stamina when you are unarmed. You can catch your sword back mid dash or on a jump killing some enemies using less Stamina.
– PERFECT YOUR STRATEGY –
Combine your abilities to oversmart the enemies and find the best move for every turn.
The Great C
This short adventure cinematic is well-made, though it has some of that “indie” charm to remind that it has been made by a small team of enthusiasts, rather than a heavy-hitter like ILMxLab. Most of the characters' animations are motion-captured performances, though there are plenty of character movements that are stilted and robotic, which were obviously manually-animated. The characters are cartoony, but expressive. And don’t let the character designs fool you… this story is not for young children.
– Real player with 0.8 hrs in game
Not quite long enough to be called a movie and not quite short enough as the Google spotlight shorts. At 38 minutes long it’s almost as long as an episode of most series.
The story is good and the actors are quite believable. Graphically it looks a lot like Telltale (rip) games. Which kinda makes me sad that I’ll never see that studio dive into VR.
VR cinematic experiences are quite new and there is a lot of experimentation involved. Some of it really works, like the building case scene, where trying to follow both characters creates tension, or the final confrontation, where the scale of C really can be appreciated. Some of it doesn’t, like suddenly you feel like an ant watching giants and the next moment a giant watching ants. But that cam be expected in such a new medium.
– Real player with 0.8 hrs in game