Steam Summer Sale: Damage Report

I probably would have picked up a couple more things in this sale if time wasn’t such an issue – but I know by the time I work my way through these, another sale will probably roll around.

First up is The Alters which I played a demo of during the Steam Next Fest last year and I didn’t actually finish it because I was sold on the game pretty quickly and didn’t want to spoil anything.

South Of Midnight was a game I thought I might pick up at release but I just didn’t have the time for it. It looks stunning in terms of visuals but I’ve heard more mixed opinions when it comes to gameplay.

And finally we have Clair Obscur: Expedition 33. I’ve said before that I’m not a massive fan of turn-based combat systems, not unless they offer a unique twist or are a top tier example of the genre. Everything I’ve seen about Expedition 33 suggests it may be both. I figured I’d better get stuck into this one soon before the internet spoils it for me.

Now Playing: Stellar Blade

I recently wrote a post about the demo for Stellar Blade in which I shared my first impressions of the game – most notably, the combat. But having now played the entire game, I’d say my initial description of the combat wasn’t entirely accurate. It was accurate for the demo, perhaps, but not for the way the combat of Stellar Blade evolves as you progress.

I said that Stellar Blade features a more slow, ‘reactive’ combat system than a fast, ‘proactive’ one. And whilst that is true during the early stages of the game when your available abilities are limited, once you complete the opening area and unlock several new skills, Stellar Blade’s combat does come to offer a more fast, proactive experience – one in which you can dictate the pace and be far more aggressive with your approach.

Nevertheless, Stellar Blade is certainly not a Devil May Cry or Bayonetta style action game and approaching it as if it were will only be detrimental to your experience. It touches lightly upon the mechanics of those games but it is, like I said in my previous post, a more potent mix of Dark Souls and Sekiro.

You have ‘camps’ (bonfires) at which you can rest, restore your health and your healing ‘flasks’, spend skill points and upgrade your gear – but which also re-spawn all enemies within the world. Like Dark Souls, the combat is far less mobile than DmC or Bayonetta, even when you’ve unlocked all of your skills. You may be able to blast your way through lesser enemies with ease later in the game but careful, deliberate timing (and energy management) is still key for tougher enemies and for the boss fights in particular – which I’ll touch upon in a moment.

From Sekiro, Stellar Blade borrows the ‘poise’ system and transforms it into enemy ‘balance’. Break an enemy’s balance by performing enough perfect parries and you’ll be able to perform a powerful ‘retribution’ counter-attack – essentially the ‘deathblow’ from Sekiro. But Stellar Blade is certainly more forgiving in terms of timing than Sekiro (and can be made even easier thanks to certain skills / gear upgrades), and more forgiving in terms of defeat than Dark Souls – you don’t lose anything upon death.

Whilst Stellar Blade may borrow various aspects from other games (and not just in terms of combat), it combines these aspects in a way that doesn’t feel as derivative as you might expect. The combat experience it offers is a unique beast all its own – a beautiful chimera, if you will – one I came to enjoy and appreciate quite a lot by the end . . . although it’s certainly not without its problems or potential improvements.

The game demands that you play a particular way to be effective – mastering timing is key. Perfect parries and dodges are the basis not only of your defence, but for creating openings you can then exploit. There’s a satisfying flow to combat but it does, I must admit, grow a tad repetitive before the end. Whilst the game does a great job of pacing out various new skills and abilities as you progress, there’s not quite the creative selection of combat options I’d want in a game like this. Using the drone as a ranged weapon within combat is fun, for example, but somewhat limited in terms of actual effectiveness.

You also get access to a couple of sets of energy limited ‘special’ attacks and these are also fun, but they don’t fundamentally change the way you fight. There’s also an ‘ultimate’ style time-limited ability that looks super cool visually but is surprisingly weak in terms of damage output meaning it’s not half as much fun to trigger as it should be.

What I feel Stellar Blade really needed (and I hope the sequel leans into) is a selection of new weapon types, each with their own move-sets and special attacks – heavy weapons with slow attack speeds but high damage, spear-like weapons with extended reach, or simply fast paced, dual wield sword sets. Not exactly original, no, but that’s the direction I’d like to see Stellar Blade take in a sequel – a variety of weapon types with their own strengths and weaknesses and ideal use scenarios to really mix things up and keep combat fresh from start to finish.

That said, whilst the combat doesn’t offer the variety or the creative options for the player I’d like, it does offset its somewhat limited scope by providing a fantastic and varied range of enemy types to fight. You’ll encounter new enemy types all throughout the game, each with their own attack timing and patterns. So whilst the way you fight doesn’t really evolve in the way that I’d like, the game finds other ways to keep you on your toes.

And that’s where the great boss fights come in – there’s so many satisfying and fun boss fights in Stellar Blade that it’s kind of ridiculous. They’re easily the real highlight of the game and where the combat system really shines as you’re forced to utilise all of your skills to succeed – well, you can spam some moves and cheese your way through to a degree, but it’s more fun when you really lean into the system and find your groove.

And the enemies look great. I love the designs. In fact, I love the look and design of the world and characters as a whole. There’s a few oddities here and there – certain looks or designs that don’t quite feel like they belong. But overall, Stellar Blade is a fantastic looking game with great environments and character models.

The game’s structure is split between more focused, linear levels and a couple of open world maps you can explore – and these are the two areas you’ll spend the most time within if you’re interested in completing the numerous side quests available. Most of these are very basic quests along the lines of ‘go to X, find Y’ but they do push you to explore very nook and cranny of the map.

And there are a handful of pretty good narrative driven side quests, and some even lead to fun optional boss fights. I had a great time working my way through them all and finding all the collectibles I could – especially the extra outfits for Eve and the cans. I also liked the odd platform section or simple puzzle to solve – it helped break up the combat. The side content even introduces the best character in the game – Clyde – who teaches you about fishing. No, I’m not joking, Clyde is easily the best character and must feature in the sequel.

Whilst the structure of the game does work quite well, the ‘point of no return’ (which the game does thankfully warn you about) seems to come very quickly and if – like me – you want to catch all those fish and finish all those side quests, you might find yourself putting the main story on hold for several hours before you get back to it. That’s something that really could have been paced out better.

Okay, so let’s move onto the weakest aspect of Stellar Blade and you’ve probably already guessed what it is given that I’ve described a fishing mini-game side character as the best character in the game. Yes, Stellar Blade has some bloody terrible characters.

The story of Stellar Blade, though clearly evocative of NieR Automata, is . . . fine. It tells its own story – it just doesn’t tell it very well. Describing it as ‘messy’ would probably be the nicest way to say it. But it does have some cool ideas and it’s really not the problem with the game because to me, the story isn’t the most important thing – the characters are.

Great characters can elevate a weak story but Stellar Blade is sorely lacking. Now, you might think I’m primarily talking about Eve because Eve isn’t a very good character. As I said in my demo post, she starts the game with the personality of a brick. But here’s the thing – I get what they were going for with Eve. She’s meant to be serious, matter-of-fact and somewhat naive – although her naivety too often comes across as her being incredibly thick.

But I at least see the intent with her character and she does, to a degree, begin to show some semblance of a personality towards the end of the game and in a handful of the side missions. It’s a shame because, as I also said in my demo post, a game like this really benefits from a strong character at its core.

But no, Eve’s not the worst character in Stellar Blade – that honour goes to Adam. Adam, the man with no soul. Adam, the personality black hole. I have no idea what their intent was with Adam. He’s as important to the plot as Eve is – arguably even more so for reasons I won’t spoil here. But he’s so damn boring. There’s just nothing to latch onto with Adam. No charm, wit or humour – he’s about as exciting as a bar of soap.

He needed to be more of a rascal – more of a Han Solo type. A thief with a heart of gold. Cliche? Sure! But he would at least act as an appropriate foil to the more serious Eve. Their partnership and what should be a developing friendship (if not romance?) throughout the game should be key, especially given what the game builds to at the end.

But there’s nothing. There’s no real relationship. It’s all so flat. Unlike Eve’s butt – and we can’t review Stellar Blade without talking about her butt because her butt has more character to it than Adam. It’s a shame her butt seems to be the main talking point about this game because there’s so many great aspects to it that deserve more attention.

I really like the outfits. Do they all fit within the world? Hell no, but who cares? It’s a video game! There’s plenty to unlock, some very skimpy, and others not at all. Some are just silly – in fact, I kind of wish there were more silly outfits like the Fluffy Bear suit. I guess the problem is, because Eve lacks a strong personality, she ends up feeling more like a plastic doll you’re just dressing up.

This isn’t helped by the game’s dialogue, a lot of which is absolutely f**king atrocious. It’s so bad it’s at least unintentionally funny at times. I can’t really blame the VA – they had to work with what they got and what they got was f**king terrible.

Overall, Stellar Blade is an excellent action game that may borrow generously from other titles in terms of combat and narrative, but it successfully forges its own path and builds its own unique identity. It is – as I said – a beautiful chimera, which is somewhat appropriate given one way the game can end. It has great visuals, animations and music. But it’s not a game without its flaws and I hope to see those flaws addressed in a sequel.

More weapon types and move-sets. A more considered and structured narrative. BETTER DIALOGUE. FOR THE LOVE OF GOD BETTER DIALOGUE. Give Eve an actual personality. More environment types. Improve the pacing of side and main content. I can see so many ways the sequel to Stellar Blade could take this foundation and build something truly spectacular upon it. Or maybe they just give us more butt. That will probably work too, but this series (if it becomes one) deserves to be known for far more than that.

8/10

Steam Summer Next Fest

Dispatch is a Telltale style narrative adventure game in which you manage a team of superheroes by assigning them to tasks that best fit their skills. The demo was very short, but it won me over with a fun premise, quirky characters and some very funny dialogue.

You get Telltale style dialogue choices to make and the ‘choices matter’ promise (don’t get your hopes up) as you play as an ex-superhero who must dispatch a team of dysfunctional ‘superheroes’ to tackle various emergencies across the city. The game is split between the animated dialogue scenes and the switchboard part of the job.

Each hero has their own strengths and weaknesses, so it’s important to pick the best hero for the task. I’m not quite sure there’s any real way to ‘fail’ at this because the demo doesn’t make it clear what the benefits or consequences are for success or failure, but we’ll see how it plays out in the full release.

Whilst I may have my doubts about the ‘gameplay’ aspect of this adventure, everything else I’ve seen has me interested, so I’ll certainly think about picking this up at release.

No, I’m not a Human is more interesting in terms of concept than execution – at least based on this limited demo. You’re stuck in a house because it’s too dangerous to venture outside during the day due to something going ‘wrong’ with the sun. And at night, the mysterious ‘Visitors’ roam the streets.

The idea is that every night people will knock on your door. You need to decide if you’ll let them in or not and if you do, question them and try to determine if they’re Visitors or not. If you suspect someone is a Visitor, you get the option to shoot them – but you won’t know for sure if you’re right or not until you pull the trigger.

 

There are different ‘tests’ you can try to use to figure out who’s human and who’s not. It’s all very simple but, as I said, more interesting in terms of concept than execution. It’s really a game about paranoia but it all feels a little undercooked. I’m curious to see if the full game can expand on the idea in a more meaningful way.

ERA ONE is a space RTS game that’s clearly inspired by the Homeworld series. Actually, to say it’s simply ‘inspired’ by Homeworld would be generous. Just like Tempest Rising was ‘inspired’ by C&C, ERA ONE is a shameless Homeworld clone and just like TR, I’m totally okay with that.

If you’ve played Homeworld then much of ERA ONE will be instantly familiar which is good, because the demo has no real tutorial to ease you into things. Ship movement controls, tactical view, research types, building modules, resource collection – it’s all here and exactly as you expect, and the ship designs are lifted straight out of Homeworld.

That’s not to say ERA ONE has no new ideas of its own – I really like the ship customisation and the modular mothership aspect. But this demo certainly wasn’t perfect – the UI is an absolute mess to navigate and needs some serious streamlining. The combat / movement speed is way to slow, and ship / turret health balancing needs a lot of work.

Slow really is the key word and the reason I didn’t ‘finish’ the demo – at one point I watched two opposing fighter wings going at it for nearly 8 minutes. I’m glad the basic fighters aren’t made of paper, but this shit just got tedious.

And, of course, Homeworld wasn’t just loved for its gameplay but its strong narrative and setting. It remains to be seen if ERA ONE can provide a story and setting that’s not just a shameless copy, but something original that stands strong on its own merits. I’ll be keeping a close eye on this one.

Now Playing: State of Decay 2

I reviewed the original State of Decay back in 2013 in which I described the game as ‘an ambitious title with a lot of cool ideas packed into it. Unfortunately, the execution of a lot of those ideas is slightly flawed in one way or another, which sullies the overall experience.’ It was a game I felt was deserving of a more refined and expanded sequel.

So here we, over a decade later and I’ve finally got stuck into State of Decay 2 which I’m pleased to say is a refined and expanded sequel . . . but also not quite the step up I was hoping for – and in some ways, something of a step back.

I could probably copy and paste a lot of my review of the original game here because so much of it still applies to this sequel – the good and the bad. Like the original, State of Decay 2 is a third person, open world zombie survival game with an emphasis on scavenging, base building and community management.

If you’ve played the original you’ll be right at home in State of Decay 2 because it plays largely the same. You have a team of survivors with their own unique skills, each of which can be improved by controlling them directly and taking them out into the field, or by training them at your base.

Your base serves as your primary safe zone in which you have a limited number of building slots to construct various upgrades to keep your survivors fed, rested and happy. There are multiple base locations on each of the available maps – some large, some small. But the larger you go, the more people you need, and more people means more resources consumed, and more resources required to survive.

You’ll find these resources out in the world, split between items you can use immediately, or ‘backpacks’ of a specific supply type – ammunition, medicine, building materials, food & fuel – that you can return to your base and add to your supply pile which is needed to keep your base operational.

Scavenging for supplies in a world full of zombies is obviously dangerous, but you can take a companion survivor with you for support, and you have plenty of weapons and tools at your disposal to even the odds. Scouting locations is key to know what resources may be available, but also if any zombie hordes are wandering nearby, or if a plague heart is active in the area.

The ‘plague hearts’ are a new addition to State of Decay 2. How many there are and how active they are will depend upon your chosen difficulty. They spawn zombie hordes that travel across the map and ‘infect’ locations. Over time, these infections grow and spread so if you don’t deal with them – and destroy the plague heart releasing them – you’re going to be in for a rough time.

Although I like the plague hearts, I’m not so fond of the ‘blood plague’ mechanic in which your survivors can get infected by zombies and die if they’re not treated. It’s not hard to treat the plague, but it is hard to avoid it – it becomes a little tedious having to treat infected survivors every time they tangle with a single zombie.

The main game mode in State of Decay 2 is ‘Campaign’ which acts as a sandbox mode in which you pick your survivors, pick your map, choose your difficulty and get to work. The goal of the campaign is to clear out every plague heart upon the map and complete a survivor’s ‘leader goals’ which vary depending upon which character type they are. It adds a fairly basic story aspect to the sandbox, but it’s nothing to get too excited about. Once you’ve completed the goals you’re free to depart the map and pick the next carrying all your survivors, gear and skills with you and start again.

It certainly adds more replay value to State of Decay 2 than the original, but it can get a tad repetitive regardless of map – even on higher difficulties, clearing out the plague hearts becomes a matter of routine. It also, sadly, suffers from the same ‘mission spam’ as the original, as other communities on the map come to you far too frequently with their requests.

Whilst you can choose to ignore them, these smaller communities do become beneficial over time once allied with your camp. I just wish they’d be a little more patient – I had a mission from one community who I’d helped on several occasions time out because I was busy with something else, so they contacted me on the radio, told me to ‘go f**k myself’ and disappeared off the map. Rude!

It wouldn’t be so bad if you could send your survivors out to help you deal with all these annoying little errands, but you can’t. In fact, your fellow survivors are kind of useless when you’re not directly controlling them. This is why I feel a little disappointed with State of Decay 2 and why it feels like a bit of a step back.

In the original game you could, at the very least, ask your survivors to collect backpacks you’d dropped if you ran out of space – but you can’t in the sequel. I was really hoping to see an expansion on the kinds of commands you can issue to your survivors, not a reduction. It would be nice if I could could tell them not to just collect a backpack, but to loot a specific location, or clear out an infection.

It would be nice if I could take more than one survivor with me on a run, or order my companion to search and loot a specific object. It would be nice if I could send them to deliver supplies to other communities. It would be nice if they could actually drive and I could direct them where to go so I could take a break.

It would also be nice if, when a zombie horde attacks your base, they didn’t rush out through the front door, leaving it wide open and try to fight every zombie in melee when I’d built perfectly good defensive towers for them to shoot from. I’m really hoping State of Decay 3 improves drastically on survivor AI and functionality because they’re kind of f**king useless here. Oh, and you know what else would be really nice? A proper co-op campaign mode!

Beyond the Campaign mode you also have ‘Heartland’ which offers a smaller, more story focused experience. It’s pretty fun and I enjoyed playing through it at least until the end in which you have to fight your way through these very annoying and repetitive ‘plague walls’. It is, at least for me, a ‘one and done’ kind of experience. There’s no reason to go back to it unless you’re desperate for every achievement.

And then you have ‘Daybreak’ which is a simple siege mode in which you have to defend an NPC against several waves of zombie attacks. It’s intended to be played in co-op but you can try it solo – just don’t expect to have much fun as the AI companions it gives you can’t shoot for shit.

Overall, State of Decay 2 is a solid, refined and expanded sequel, but it doesn’t really innovate or dramatically improve upon the first game in the way that I’d hoped. It fixes some issues I had with the original, but it also still suffers from some of the same problems, and it also introduces some new ones of its own. Like the original, it’s frustratingly close to being great. Maybe in the next one, eh?

7/10