M0B1US Review - Mental Universe - iOS (2014)

From a world filled with Flappy Bird and Temple Run comes M0B1US from Glaswegian developer Mental Ultimate. It's an endless running released for iOS. It has a bit of a unique spin, where the screen will not move at all during the game, instead, the player will run along the ground, then onto the other three walls in a lap around the screen. It’s a bit disorientating at first but after a while it becomes natural.

It makes good use of the mechanics of iOS titles with a simple tap gesture allowing the runner to jump over boxes and a swipe of the finger will slide you under any oncoming obstacles. It's responsive, which is just as well as the window of opportunity to make your action is very small. The obstacles themselves aren't very varied. You either have the box to jump over or the box to slide under. I can't really argue that other games of the genre have hugely varied obstacle sets. Temple Run has its holes and trees, Flappy Bird just has tubes. It just feels pretty repetitive. There's no real reason for running, again looking at other games: Temple Run has you escaping dark creatures of a tomb, Jetpack Joyride has you blasting at high speed through a science lab with goodness knows how much horsepower on your back. M0B1US feels like a cyber-gym, I don't know why this guy is running and jumping around the corners of the room, I don't think he knows either, ignorance is bliss I suppose.

Not only that, most running games will give you the sense of progression. Collecting coins or rings or shiny stones to unlock customisation options for your experience. None of these games would be as entertaining without the customisation, the genre runs thin without it and M0B1US is lacking in this regard. Likewise with its gameplay. Being given set tasks and goals help extend these experiences. It gives you a goal within a main goal and can sometimes alter the way you play the same game. It keeps it fresh and interesting. Again, M0B1US doesn't have any of this, it's just running with no real structured reason or set goal.

What it does do well though is its theme. A lot of these endless runner games make use of a varied and bright colour pallet whereas M0B1US’s charm lies with its futuristic blue hues and glowing orange obstacles. It's a change of pace for a genre that is mainly aimed at kids and the music keeps the whole game tied together nicely.

For 69p you can't really argue. It's entertaining enough to keep you busy on travelling to work or waiting on a train, but you won't go back to it over and over again, which is what these types of games rely on. I'm usually a non-believer of free to play models, but when you look at running games, their strength is in the customisation. M0B1US has none which is unfortunate as may have kept me playing a little longer. It's built well and has been bold enough to go for its own theme, disappointingly, it's not enough to stand out in an already saturated genre. 

Written and Published for CalmDownTom

Mobile Blizzard Gaming: Hearthstone for iPad

Hearthstone has been released from the PC and has finally come to iPad but how does this mobile version stack up to the PC counterpart? Firstly you will not notice much of a difference, some minor UI changes to deal with touch screen instead of mouse. Graphically the game is the same, although you will notice a difference if you have been playing on a high end PC until now. Your account transfers so you need not worry. You can take your full deck with you on the move as well. So you’ll be able to continue beating your friends while on a bus or train, making their humiliation that much worse.

The upsides are the game is the exact same. Board modes look exactly as you would expect from Hearthstone and its extremely polished, as is expected of Blizzard. With that being said, on my iPad Mini Retina, it does crash and bug out a fair bit. Up to the point of me losing matches and therefore rank stars due to the game crashing. You also feel a little bit of slowdown, if you try and play the game as fast as you normally would on PC version. With it feeling like its trying to catch up to your actions as you do them. This is especially true with games involving Nozdormu or a lot of play on the field. For example, if you intend on comboing maybe 3 or 4 cards together it’s going to have a hard time keeping up.

I’m not the only one seeing this. If you look on blizzard’s forums, or on your favourite social media outlet, you see lots of the same complaints. I would suspect this will be patched and fixed soon before the new single player expansion / update Curse of Naxxramas. Which is coming later this year.

Adding 30 new cards and 5 dungeons to battle though. The first being free and the other 4 at a cost. The new cards are guaranteed to add more to the already deep meta and card building of the game. This is what may take Blizzard longer, as they try to bleed new cards into the game. Personally, I love the way they are doing this. They’re not just throwing cards in and saying “buy these”, there’s an additional layer of content. Hopefully, this will be playable offline when you’re on the tube with your iPad.

There’s no denying Hearthstone is the latest big thing, everyone you talk to knows what it is and more and more people are trying it out. The iPad version just made it far more accessible to a bigger audience and despite the small bugs, that we know will be fixed in time, it shot to the number one app on iPad within a day. It’s made a game that already had the gamer population addicted far less easy to put down. I have found my hour long commute to be far too small, and when you add toilet breaks into the equation, you’re more than occupied!.

Blizzard are also doing meetups for the game, now called fireside gatherings, encouraging groups of 5 to 100+ to get together in book stores, coffee shops or conventions to play together. Even giving a new card back to those who do this. Actively making players seek out face to face games and combat in the style of a non digital card game is a master stroke. Will we see Hearthstone groups start to meet in the way, magic or table top ones do? Only time will tell. It certainly has the scope for huge tournaments without the hassle of bringing your whole collection to the event!

Coupled with android and windows phone versions, which have already been confirmed, Hearthstone is undoubtedly in the running to become one of the most popular free to play games worldwide. It’s a beautiful equation that Blizzard have compiled. Take one pinch of gaming heritage, add mechanics that are easy to learn but deep enough to keep pros busy, a very reasonable business model, simple yet informative UI and enough polish to see your face shine and they’ll be taking the world by storm.

A lot of fans groaned when Hearthstone was first announced and it goes a long way to show that Blizzard know games. They know when’s best to enter a market, they know how to bleed it dry and they know how to make solid titles.

If you can’t get enough Hearthstone then why not check CalmDownTom's League

Written and Published for CalmDownTom with Paul Russell

Tower of Guns - Terrible Posture Games - PC (2014)

In what could be the most straight-to-the-point descriptive titles of all time, Terrible Posture Games have come up with something a little bit special! Tower of Guns, is a tower filled with guns! It’s a 3D FPS Roguelike. Roguelikes are games that have a combination of permanent death of your character, procedurally generated levels and are usually turn based. Randomisation comes in to play with power-ups and abilities becoming either fantastic or awful and normally will lead to a great run or a poor run, before your untimely demise. Tower of Guns fills its Roguelike requirements well, each of the maps are randomised to a certain extent with varying amounts and different enemies on each run, it has permanent death for each and every one of your runs and the power ups and abilities are pretty much completely randomised. There’s plenty of Roguelike games on the market and what sets Tower of Guns apart from its competitors is its 3D nature and 1^st person perspective.

Roguelikes are traditionally turn-based 2D strategy games, there’s been a few more recent advances into the action RPG genre. For example, Rogue Legacy and Binding of Isaac. Both very good titles, both 2D. Terrible Posture Games have taken a chance on procedurally generated 3D maps for an FPS and they have worked out a treat. Although some rooms will be similar in layout and design, it’s still impressive that they are able to link together with ease. They aren’t completely procedural, I’ve had a few rooms appear twice but the enemies are always randomised. Roguelikes have been around for a while, but they seem to have become more popular in the last few years, as such, it’s nice that it has the feel of an old school FPS. Developed on the Unreal Engine which obviously helps, but the texture work and the colour palette are what brings back the nostalgia graphically. Speaking of graphics the options for the game are solid. An FOV slider on a game developed by one person is superb and the graphics options on a whole are pretty in depth.

For each run you are given a choice of guns that can be unlocked by completing various feats within the game. For example, destroying 250 cannons over the course of several runs will unlock a new weapon. Dying horribly a couple of times will also unlock a new gun. It’s a trait of the genre. Although each run cannot be replayed, you still contribute to the progression system through the game, unlocking more powerful weapons and traits as you become better at the game. The trait system is also a nice addition to your loadout. Selections vary from triple jumping to reduced difficulty to immunity from environment effects and each has their own benefits during the game. Having reduced difficulty will help you ease into the game slowly but being able to triple jump might let you get up to that ledge that’s just out of reach. Somewhat frustrating considering that ledge is highly unlikely to be there when you come back on your next game!

The gunplay is where the real nostalgia kicks in. This game is fast, really fast. To the point where if I stopped to pop a quick screenshot I was risking death. Every. Single. Time. Jumping from platform to platform whilst annihilating your enemies and collecting health in the form of pick-ups has a certain Unreal or Quake feeling. A blast back to my early teens and when I should have been working harder at Uni. Every part of this game adds to that feeling of nostalgic comfort. From the loot drops, to the sound effects, to the music and right down to the unlimited ammo! If you even slightly enjoyed old school FPS, you know, before Modern Warfare ruined the genre then get this! Apart from being scared of being blown back to the Stone Age at every corner, you can level your weapon as you kill enemies. Blue energy will push your level up, giving you more power to your punch, but taking damage can drop the weapon level. Do you risk killing all the enemies in the zone or try to run past? It’s a lovely little risk/reward function that isn’t often present in Roguelikes and adds an additional thought to your playstyle for each and every run.

Tower of Guns wasn’t a game I enjoyed to begin with, but after a few runs and becoming a bit more familiar I started to become immersed in the title. It’s a game that I’ve kept coming back to over the last week or so and will probably continue to play over the next few weeks! It’s incredibly difficult but rewarding title and will have you yearning for simpler times when Team Deathmatch with Insta-Gib was enough for a full night’s entertainment!

Written and published for Universal Gaming

My mate goes to Starbucks! #1

New Feature time! For a while now, and because I’m an uncultured swine, a good friend of mines has been bringing me Starbucks™ “Pick of the Week” cards. These give you a freebie from iTunes and can be either a book, game, app, TV episode or song.  They can vary wildly. “Combo Crew” a ridiculous clone of Street Fighter using touch controls…Yuck. Broken Sword, one of the best games of all time! Full spectrum, believe me!

I won’t be writing this every week due to time constraints, but, I will be trying to do as many as possible. To start things off with a bang, it’s Bear (mutherfucking) Grylls!

Card # 1: Bear Grylls - Escape from Hell. Series 1, Episode 1 - Jungle

For those of you that don’t know! Bear Grylls is a British writer, TV presenter, and most importantly an Adventurer. He has completed dozens of events for charities and once, and climbed Everest at 23. Having such a ridiculous first name he obviously decided his children should be known as Marmaduke, Huckleberry (and the somewhat normal) Jesse. He’s a bit like a British Steve Irwin, in my opinion, and has starred in several TV series over the years. 

Escape from Hell has Grylls placed in real-life situations faced by survivors of events that pushed them to the limit. Grylls serves the role of narrator, describing the scenes and circumstances in which these incidents took place. He does this extremely well in all honesty. He has a certain presence on screen and given his past when he mentions that these are extraordinary scenarios, you believe him completely.

“Jungle” tells 3 unique stories of people being trapped in the Rainforest under 3 separate sets of circumstances. There are touch points with the survivors themselves, giving a deeply personal touch to the stories, you can see it in the survivor’s faces that it’s pretty tough for them to talk about. The narrative is split comfortably as the episode goes on, jumping equally between the three stories with Bear demonstrating some of the feats the survivors had to achieve to avoid capture or death. Personally, I found the accounts from the survivors to be more interesting and up-front, however, Bear does keep you engrossed in the risk aspect of the stories. You know that they have all survived but he does such a good job of keeping you interested that I found it hard to stop watching.

There’s a couple of cheesy sections to be fair. Bear showing you how to pin the head of a rattlesnake with a long twig so he can jump over it, why not just walk around it man, stop making it complicated! Bear eating a tarantula, frog, bamboo shoot and some leaves. Does that really have to be in there? It felt like more of a time filler and my personal favourite - Bear leaving a picture of his family for fear of losing it, only to return and collect “his most prized possession”. It does well to demonstrate the story of one survivor returning to help his fellow, and also poisoned traveller, but was a bit of a soft touch! He’s Bear Grylls, he should have left a machete that he once used to behead a 20ft crocodile with and later in the episode come back and reclaim “Beatrix” but I digress.

Ultimately it was a fun 45 minutes, and the other episodes of the series have Bear adventuring to other perilous areas of the world such as the artic and the desert and I believe that the series has some legs. I can’t help but think that this could be an interesting documentary series without Bear, but ultimately he’s what separates this from a run of the mill survivor stories show and it’s pretty good fun! It fully aired back in 2013 and that’s one of the beauties for the Starbucks™ system as it can allow extra generation of cash for a once forgotten piece of content. But, if you’re like me and in it for the freebies. This was one of the better ones!

Teslagrad Review - Rain Games - PC (2013)

Teslagrad, developed by Rain Games, is a 2D puzzle platformer with no dialogue or text but somehow still manages to tell a very interesting story. It’s a game that pretty much does everything well. Its mechanics stand up extremely well in a modern environment, its art direction is gorgeous and the music subtle, but gives an extra dimension of realism to the title. It’s a game that I would recommend to seasoned gamers only however, as it does have its own flaws.

Teslagrad is set in a steampunk-inspired universe with an overall feeling of old Mother Russia. You control a nameless young boy who must escape the grasp of villains who are out to capture him. Your escape brings you to Tesla Tower, a mysterious structure with even more mysterious goings on. As you delve further and further into the game you will unravel a story of an ancient king and his reign and discover the true power of the tower you are ascending.

Teslagrad’s mechanics are where the real meat of the game is. Borrowing influences from Nikola Tesla, as the name of the game would suggest, Teslagrad provides a unique skill set for your character. You’ll be given a short dash ability along with a magnetic switch that can make certain blocks fill with positive or negative energy, unusual mechanics, but handled very well in this environment. Its learning curve is smooth due to the steady nature of unlocking of new abilities. Eventually, you’ll be handling puzzles with no obvious route to victory except by embracing and using all the abilities you’ll be handed. Its flow through the world is structured enough without feeling linear and you always feel that there is a solution to the puzzle you are presented with. It doesn’t cheat you into thinking something is right when it is not, however, it will not hold your hand either, expecting you to think and calculate a solution before putting it into action. One wrong jump or button press though and you could die very easily. Teslagrad does not implement a health system, so you're once and done. Granted it will place you back at the beginning of the room and you have infinite lives! This mechanic doesn't help in the slightest when facing the games bosses.

The bosses in Teslagrad will show no mercy! Mechanically they are almost perfectly tuned. Each boss is almost a skill test to ensure you have fully understood your most recently acquired ability, each boss is completely unforgiving. Teslagrad does not work on any sort of health system. Its one hit kills, an almost sadistic facet of your character. You will die to the bosses, a lot. Even if it is just to figure out their mechanics and weaknesses. They are beautifully crafted and fit into their own unique environment, a highlight of the game, but sometimes almost too overtuned. This is my main concern with the game, these bosses can almost wall off the experience to lesser competent gamers. I almost got to the point of sheer frustration, I was close on several occasions but being a Super Meat Boy lover I tapped into that pool of perseverance and pushed on. I'd be concerned that players will miss out on this game based on the boss fights. When vanquished, you will earn a sense of accomplishment. To be fair, also, when you take a look at the main protagonist you’d expect him to struggle in fights to the death!

Aesthetically it is beautiful, it has that “indie” feel to the art style but still manages to feel its identity and the animations are perfectly smooth and enjoyable. The character designs are perfect for the setting, they complement the backdrops and surrounding world beautifully and on the topic of the hand drawn backgrounds these are equally impressive. The characters give it a nostalgic feel yet you not to the point where the developer has felt the need to bring it right back to 16bit. The steampunk theme is also adapted well, nothing feels out of place and any NPCs, with the exclusion of bosses, are charming and not threatening. I can’t levy any criticism on the art team, they've done a wonderful job, and keep those cogs turning!

Likewise with the music of the title, Teslagrad has a wide range of styles, from orchestral vibes mixed with Russian folk influences to the almost dubstep-like end boss theme, Teslagrad has the lot. It doesn't scream out for attention, it's pretty happy to sit back and let you play the game and I didn't stop and think “what is going on with this music!?” It feels like it belongs, regardless of the context but a perfect example of why music for games should be wrote for the content that it is being delivered in!

All things considered, Teslagrad is a lovely little gem of a game, it will keep you entertained for numerous hours, the difficulty and uniqueness will keep veterans entertained and if you don't fall into this category but can find the patience to work with the game you will be rewarded in kind. Without spoilers, take it from me that it has replayability and the story does leave some open ended questions which add an additional layer to the onion that is this game! You will enjoy this, go and get it!

Written and published for Universal Gaming

Diablo 3: Reaper of Souls - Blizzard - PC (2014)

“HOLY ONSLAUGHT” It’s back again, meaner, darker and more loot filled than ever. Reaper of Souls is the expansion pack for the well received, yet flawed Diablo 3. The real question is this, has it brought Diablo back to its roots of monster slaying with monster rewards or does it fall short of the mark?

Reaper of Souls’ returns to the world of Sanctuary and adds Act 5 to Diablo 3’s story arc, it melts into the lore well and follows a different style to Diablo 3’s ways of storytelling. There’s a bit more of a focus on side missions as opposed to blasting your way through the main line, I do feel though that Blizzard could have focused on more heavily than they have, granted multiplayer focused RPGs stretch with several side missions. Other than that, it’s what you would expect if you’ve played the previous titles. Few mini-bosses, randomly generated dungeons and an end boss. It’s a tried and tested formula from the last games and in all honesty, did not need messing with.

At max level (70), the Paragon system takes over this will give you points to customise your character and helps with the customisation of builds. Points can be allocated to Critical hit %, standard stats and area damage. There’s no level max to the Paragon system now, it was previously 100, and this level is now shared between all your level 70 characters. It might not feel as powerful as levelling to 70 does, but the Paragon system gives the feeling of constant improvement, somewhat missing from its vanilla form.

The majority of the changes to Diablo were implemented in patch 2.0 released prior to the launch of Reaper of Souls. A smarter loot system was brought in and means that playing the game at max level can finally give you the feeling of your own personal development. Prior to this patch, I felt that when I was playing the end game I’d be grinding for gold to buy items on the Auction House from players who had progressed through the difficulty of “Monster Power Levels” Diablo’s old endgame. For those who are not familiar with Diablo, Monster Power was the end game difficulty slider. MP1 was the easiest, MP10 the most difficult. In my own experience, MP5 would say drop MP3 level gear and as such, your progression was halted by being starved of decent loot. Not anymore!

I’ve had numerous upgrades drop for my main character since the launch of patch 2.0 and it finally feels like a game that will let you increase your power through items you find. There’s a plethora of legendary, unique items and the addition of craftable legendary gear is a treat.  

Loot system aside, there’s 3 brand new additions added with the expansion: The Mystic Artisan, Bounties and the Crusader Class.

The Mystic joins the Blacksmith and Jeweller to provide an enchanting and transmogrification service for players. Enchanting differs from Warcraft in that you select a property that you wish to change on an item, you will see what variations that this might roll for you. For example, Enchanting over Vitality may give you Strength or Dexterity. This isn’t your choice, it’s down to chance, like most things in Diablo. I haven’t been frustrated with the Enchanting system, ultimately its pretty exciting hoping that the armour stat turns into more intelligence for my wizard. At the end of the day who doesn’t want more power! You will only be able to change one stat on any item, which I feel is a nice little limitation of the system, it would be easy to perfectly enchant an item and not need another drop for months! Transmogrification works in the same way WoWs does. You find the item, pay a fee and it you can customise its look to another item from the world. For any legendary that is visible on your character you’ll receive the look of this item to use for Transmogrification forever, even if you sell or destroy it, a nice touch for Diablo’s huge arrangement of items. Please do this for Wow! I digress.

Bounties are a different way to experience the content in a less linear fashion. On the commencement of a Bounty you will be given several objectives. These can range from clearing an area of enemies, fighting an elite monster or killing a boss. If you’re sick to the teeth after countless hours of running the same content in the same order then this mode is for you! They provide a good few hours solid gameplay and come with their own rewards. For example, on completion of 5 bounties you’ll be given a chest containing items, gold and gems. On top of that, for every objective completed you gain Blood Shards. The Shards can be used to purchase randomised items for your character, and at the end of a Bounty run you can have a decent amount. Need a new ring? Might as well roll your luck. Completion of bounties can also open Nephalim Rifts, wide areas filled with challenging and unusual encounters. For example, you may find the Skeletons from Act 1 tag teaming with the demons of Act 4. It’s a mode that will extend the amount of content able to be experienced and it’s a hell of a lot of fun to play co-operatively. It’s all I’ve been playing since completing the main story line. The appeal of finding items whilst killing enemies and knowing that there’s more gear to come is strong and keeps the content as fresh as it can be.

The Crusader is Diablo’s newest class and plays like a Paladin on steroids. Blizzard have described the Crusader as a Tank, not like a tank in conventional RPG sense – which his usually a character who will take a hefty beating for the good of the group without inflicting much pain himself. No, Blizzard described the Crusader as a Sherman. Strong and powerful, and I agree wholeheartedly. The Crusader feels pretty much unstoppable, he has the utility to be a group player and be that tank but when played solo he is a wrecking machine. The Crusader is a mainly melee fighter but has some mid-range abilities and is able to close gaps on the faster ranged enemies inhabiting Diablo 3.

It’s a great gameplay experience that you’d come to expect from the behemoth that is Blizzard but it has its flaws. The story. Blink and you’ll miss it, it’s short. Depending on your playstyle, level of difficulty and experience this can be done in maybe 5 hours for a first playthrough. That’s being generous. Diablo’s strength is in its recurrence of content as you strive for better items, but for a full priced expansion, this is disappointing. The new additions work well in the game and they really do add value to the title, coupled with the revamped loot system, Diablo is a much improved game now. I have been hooked for several hours and really enjoyed the experience, but I can’t help but think that “Reaper of Souls” should have more content than it does for a full priced expansion. It feels like an expansion release to hide a game overhaul, it’s worked, but I think if they got it right in the first place then “Reaper of Souls” would have a larger impact than it does in this form.

“I feel thin, sort of stretched, like butter scraped over too much bread”

Review written and published on CalmDownTom