As per the agreement I made with the publisher, I have made a short review and gameplay video for the game.
Video Review: 60 Parsecs!
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Game Review: 60 Parsecs! [Review Code]
I got this game as a review code. While I am grateful for the opportunity, I will not let that influence my opinion. These are my honest opinions about the game.
60 Parsecs! is a space-themed taxed based survival game. You and your crewmates must survive the cold vacuum of space with your limited resources and some ingenuity. The gameplay is pretty simple. You get two optional actions and one mandatory. Each turn you can use the crafter to create, repair, upgrade, or recycle items you need for space travel. You can also feed, entertain, or heal your crew to make sure they survive the voyage. You don’t have to feed or craft every turn, but eventually, it becomes a necessity. Each turn you are given a random scenario that offers some sort of skill check. These checks can offer rewards or grant depuffs that will make space travel more difficult. The more time you spend in space, the more complicated the situation gets. You run out of supplies, people get sick, or you go crazy. I suggest looking up guides because while the game looks simple, it gets really hard. The choices you make matter.
The game has three game modes Survival, Voyager, and missions. The core concept of remains the same for all three, you must survive. Survival is a random mode where you are assigned random materials and crewmates. Voyager is sort of the game’s story mode. You are given 60 seconds to gather crew and materials and shot into space to survive with whatever you gather. Choose wisely. Mission mode offers different scenarios that add another layer of difficulty to your survival.
I enjoyed this game a lot. The art is fun and whimsical despite how grim it gets. The game offers a decent challenge, and every game offered enough variety to keep things interesting. I liked that my choices made an impact. People would die, I would run out of food, or I would get people hurt if I wasn’t careful with my choices. I enjoyed the anxiety I got from having to make choices even if there is no time limit to make them. This game has a lot of replayability and is definitely worth the price. If you like survival games like Don’t Starve, this is a good one to try out. This game is available on Steam, IOS, and Android.
Game Preview: Project F4E Beta
I got to play the beta for Project F4E this weekend, and I thought I’d share my experience. While it is too early to form a proper critique of the game, the beta offered a taste of what the full game has in store. Because the game is still in an early alpha build, I will not speak on the crashes and bugs I encountered.
Project F4E is a MOBA with some RPG elements to it. The objective is simple, kill the world bosses before the timer runs out. You are one of three players who roam a large open map, searching for bosses to kill. You can build some towers, or animate and power up large statues that will help you with the mobs and bosses. Although there is a direct path to take to the bosses, the world is pretty open. You can clear the mobs in any order, but be mindful of the ever-ticking timer.
The beta had four different champions to choose from: a tank, support, a ranger, and a healer. You start with a basic ability, and game stats and abilities as you level. At each level, you get a choice from the cards you draw from this deck. Each level offers you two cards to choose from. This mechanic offers some variety in the gameplay because it is unlikely you will pull the same set of cards twice. I enjoyed the randomness this brings to the game, but I can see it becoming unfairly broken. I can only hope that they can make the champions balanced.
You get rewarded for completing matches and quests, and bonuses for winning. The in-game currency is used to power up your abilities. Leveling up your abilities gives them permanent buffs. As you level your champion, you gain new abilities and boosts that you can use to change up your deck. As is the tradition in MMOs, there is also loot to be had. Matches and quests drop items that boost your character’s stats.
So what did I think of Project F4e? It was fun once I got the hang of it, but the gameplay got stale pretty quickly. Although I always had a different deck, the game felt the same each time. Matches were either a slow-moving escort mission to the world bosses, or they were an aimless and frustrating walk about.
The combat was ok, but it was stiff and slow. Most of the time I spent waiting for cooldowns or dying because the level-up menu would pop up at the worst times. The mobs in this game all felt the same regardless of what biome we ended up in. It got stale and repetitive pretty quickly despite having a random element.
This is a Moba, and strong communication and coordination are important. I lost a lot of games because we couldn’t coordinate correctly or someone wanted to solo everything. F4E at the very least offers a true MOBA experience. The gameplay is a bit repetitive, but it is too early for it to be absolute.
If you like MOBA’s but need a break from the toxic ones, you should at least keep F4E on your radar. You can find out more about the game on their official website. Don’t forget to sign up for their future betas.
Game Review: Tower of Fantasy
The new Gotcha MMO Tower of Fantasy has just been released and if you are thinking of trying it out, now is a good time because of how many rewards they are throwing at their players.
For those not familiar, this is a Genshin Impact clone that is trying to make its place in the genre. For the most part, I think it’s succeeding. Full disclosure, I am not an expert on the game and will be speaking about this game from a casual perspective. If you are someone looking for the best strategies to optimize your gaming experience, there are tons of YouTube channels dedicated to the subject.
Tower of Fantasy is playable on Android, IOS and PC. It is cross-platform, and I was able to play it on both PC and mobile. As far as the art goes, it is fine. It isn’t too busy, but I do prefer the dreamlike art style of Genshin Impact slightly better. There is character creation to this, but I can’t speak on how detailed it can get. I tend to randomize my appearance, but I liked my character. Not that character creation matters because you can roll for playable characters later on through the game’s Gotcha mechanic.
As far as Gotcha games go, Tower of Fantasy doesn’t feel very predatory. I got a healthy amount of in-game currency and was able to pull a couple of the chased characters. Most importantly, I found a character I love playing without spending any money on the game.
The game has a story, but it isn’t very good. You go from town to town completing chores and learning about the world’s lore. There is voice acting in this game, but it is very inconsistent. Some voice actors are great, but there are some bad recordings. I guess we can be grateful that there is voice acting, but some of the cut scenes are a chore to get through. The NPCs aren’t very memorable unless you want to play as them. I didn’t care enough about the story to care about many of the characters.
The gameplay is like any open-world MMO. There is a map you are encouraged to explore, tons of enemies to fight, and real people you can play with. Exploration is fun. You get a mount early on and other movement abilities that make traveling across the map interesting. Sometimes the movement abilities feel clunky and don’t work as intended, but the game just came so I can forgive it for now. The game encourages exploration by hiding treasures and secrets across the map that offer in-game currencies or items.
Combat is my favorite part of this game. You carry three weapons that you must switch between to maximize your damage. You work towards combos and ultimate attacks by fighting, switching weapons, and dodging properly. I never felt like the combat got stale because there is always a different combo to pull off. You have to level up your gear to keep up with the mob levels by feeding your equipment materials you find in the world. I got a steady amount of supplies to keep up with the content by only playing casually.
I’ve played this game on PC, iPhone, and the iPad. While I much prefer the PC experience because it runs smoother and my big fingers don’t get in the way, it runs fine enough on mobile. I will say that it felt especially clunky, and I encountered the most crashes on my iPad 8.
Tower of Fate has had a solid launch. I’ve encountered a few bugs and crashes, but nothing that would ruin the experience. It honestly comes down to taste. If you like the art style, go for it. If you are on the fence, try it out, it’s free. This is a very casual friendly game, especially if you only have an hour a day to play your games.
You can find out more information on the game’s official website.
Game Preview: Sovereign Syndicate (Review Code)
I got the Sovereign Syndicate demo as a review code. While I am very grateful, I will not let this sway my opinion. These will be my honest thoughts and opinions about the demo.
This demo is too short for me to form a meaningful opinion about the game, but it is long enough to at least get a taste of the gameplay. Sovereign Syndicate is a top-down cRRP that takes place in a steampunk fantasy version of London. The full game gives you the choice of three characters, but the demo had me playing as the minotaur Atticus Daley. At the start of the game, you are given the option of four classes that provide boosts to certain attributes. I played as each one, but I never felt like the choice made much of a difference gameplay-wise.
This game ran real smooth. The top-down view was interesting, and the city was nice, but there wasn’t much room for exploration. If the demo is any indication of what the game will be like, the setting is going to be dank, dark, and dirty. Most of the gameplay was in the form of dialogue. I got to speak with a couple of NPCs, each providing you with a choice of responses and the occasional skill challenge. Skill challenges are neat in that they are determined by picking from a set of tarot cards. Your skill points affect the kinds of cards you can pull, but the game was too short for choices to matter. The choices you make can provide buffs and debuffs, but mostly they affect the types of responses you get from the NPCs.
My biggest complaint about this game is the font. Some of the dialogue is written in an italicized font which was hard on my dyslexia. The writing itself is inconsistently flowery. Some descriptions are fine, but others are long and awkwardly worded. It wasn’t so bad that I stopped playing, but it is something that gave me trouble. It is also written in an English dialect I am not familiar with, but it offers definitions for certain slang words and phrases. Unfortunately, there isn’t enough gameplay in the demo to judge this game on its character and world-building.
I am very much interested in learning more about this game and possibly getting a longer demo. I liked the text-based choose your own adventure aspect of this game. I can only hope the full game will include meaningful choices that affect the story. I also enjoyed that the skill points are personified. Wit, for example, is an old woman who will give you advice on how to respond to an NPC. Each skill point will offer its suggestion, but the choice is always in the hands of the players. This is a neat little feature for people like me who can’t make a single decision. I will certainly be keeping an eye on this game.
The game is planned to release during the 4th quarter of 2023 for Xbox, PC, and Playstation. If you want more information, check out and wish list it on steam.
Game Review: Noel the Mortal One (2022)
I received Noel the Mortal Fate as a review code. I want to thank Playism for the opportunity to review this title. That said, I will not let this sway my opinion of the game. This will be an honest review of the game.
Noel the Mortal Fate is a visual novel with some minor gaming elements to it. This is a book, and any gameplay, whether it be puzzles or boss fights, is a railroad you to a certain ending. The choices you make and any exploration available don’t matter. The puzzles and boss fights are simple, as the focus of this title is to tell a story. If you like manga or anime, this is a solid revenge plot with a lot of the anime tropes you are familiar with. I had a lot of fun with this title, but I understand that it isn’t for everyone.
Noel is a young prodigy pianist who has lost the most important piano competitions in her town. Angered by the loss, she is tricked into making a deal with the devil. Unbeknownst to her, the deal will restore her honor at the cost of her limbs. Caren, the devil she summons, takes pity on Noel and promises to help her get her revenge on the person who tricked her into making the deal. The game then follows Noel’s journey toward vengeance. This is a game full of interesting characters, epic fights, and devil pacts. Will Noel be able to exact her revenge? You will need to play to find out.
Gameplay-wise, this is a book. There is a lot of reading and no voice acting. The reading is occasionally broken up by puzzles, fights, and light exploration. I enjoyed the story, but I am speaking as an anime fan. The characters are unique and interesting, although some of them are anime archetypes. I loved the style of storytelling. Most of the story exists in 2D animated sprites, but they make it work. The use of flashbacks, fight scenes, music, and comic strips all come together to tell an engaging narrative. Boss encounters felt epic, character growth was exciting, and the flashbacks were woven in nicely. My only complaint would be with the translation. I noticed some grammatical errors and awkward phrasing, but none of it was unplayable.
I played this game on the Nintendo Switch and loved it. Undocked, the game runs great. The letters are easy to read, and the maps were very visible. When docked I used a controller. It was nice to have a bigger screen, but it isn’t necessary. In both modes, I preferred the d-pad for movement because it allowed for more control. Movement in this game is awkward, and I often overshot targets. The d-pad offers more control over the movement, but it isn’t perfect. The awkward movement added unnecessary difficulty to the puzzles and boss fights.
Overall, I enjoyed this game a lot. I liked the story and loved the music, but I wish the game offered meaningful choices to give it replayability. It would be nice to have multiple endings instead of being railroaded into one. Some of the gameplay feels like padding, like when you control a character to walk through a hallway. That said, I still enjoyed it. There was enough world-building where I wasn’t lost or overwhelmed. The characters were interesting and memorable. I ended up becoming very invested in the narrative, often rooting for the heroin’s success.
This is a niche game. If you like anime and visual novels, this is a solid one. If you are curious about the genre, Noel the Mortal Fate is a nice starting point. The story is interesting but easy to follow, the characters are unique and well developed, and it isn’t overly sexualized. Just know that you aren’t buying a game, but a novel with gaming elements.
It is available for the Nintendo Switch, Sony Playstation 4, Xbox One, and PC. Links lead to respective store page.
Game Review: Blackguards 2 (Nintendo Switch)
I received this Blackguards 2 as a review code for the Nintendo Switch. I would like to take this moment to thank Daedalic Entertainment for the opportunity, and I hope I can continue to do more reviews for the company in the future. That said, I will not let this affect my review. This will be my honest opinion of the game.
Blackguards 2 is an action turn based-strategy RPG where you control a team of heroes and mercenaries through a series of combat scenarios and puzzles. The game focuses on Cassia, a wronged woman who seeks revenge by taking her ex-husband’s kingdom from him. Her husband locked her up and left her to die. Will she be able to lead her army and achieve her revenge, or will she succumb to her ever-creeping madness?
I had a lot of fun with this game when it worked properly. You can set traps, ambush enemies, and use the environment to earn your victory. Unfortunately, the enemy AI is inconsistent, and some levels will not work as intended. Sometimes I was greeted by tactical enemies who forced me to earn my victory. Other times the enemy would stand still while I slaughtered them relentlessly. If you are smarter than me (and you probably are) you can find ways to break the Ai and breeze through combat easily. There is also a light puzzle element that is heavily impacted by how the enemy AI chooses to act. I failed a few puzzles because the AI became ungodly.
My biggest issue with the combat was the pathing. There are levels where you will have to choose your pathing hex by hex; this will prove tedious. If you allow the pathing to be chosen for you, your heroes will run into fire or traps that will kill them instantly. Each level can also have invisible traps that require special skills to see. These will create incredibly frustrating moments as you watch your heroes die instatly for stepping on random particles. This game can become incredibly frustrating and impossible to beat if you are not careful or paying attention.
The graphics for the game are fine, but nothing special. On some levels, the bloom and high contrast make it hard to see enemies and traps. I felt this to be especially true in handheld mode where it would be hard to see even the pathing. It doesn’t help that the camera controls don’t let you rotate the camera horizontally, making it hard to select some units or objectives. If you are going to play this game, I suggest you play this on a bigger screen.
Customization can be overwhelming if you are new to the genre. You can buy and earn gear to customize your units to fit your play style. You can also buy skills, spells, and feats to make your heroes more heroic. I found customizing my units to be a hassle as the UI felt clunky most of the time. Unfortunately, skills and feats you buy impact combat, making dealing with the UI a necessary evil.
I enjoyed the story for the most part. I adored the voice acting, although the sound mixing isn’t consistent. I thought the characters were fine although they do fall into the same tropes you are probably used to. The world-building in this game comes from conversations you have with NPCs in the hubs, but it stops the information you gather stops being interesting halfway through. The game does offer you choices to make, but I didn’t feel like they impacted gameplay.
I didn’t hate this game, but I can’t ignore its issues. When this game worked, I had a blast! Unfortunately, the bugs make victories anticlimactic, losses frustrating, and on some levels unnecessarily difficult. This game fills a specific niche, so if you don’t like strategy games, I wouldn’t bother. If you do like the genre, I would wait for it to go on sale. It isn’t worth the $10. You can play this on Mac, PC, Xbox, Playstation, and on the Nintendo Switch.
This game is currently on sale on steam for $.99. It is definitely worth that much.
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