Wednesday, October 21, 2015

Indivisible

Lab Zero Games, creators of the awesome MVC2-style fighting game Skullgirls, are running an Indiegogo campaign for their next game idea: Indivisible.


Indivisible is a different direction for Lab Zero - instead of being another fighting game or something similar, Indivisible is an RPG with action stylings. More accurately: it meshes the RPG style combat and party management of Valkyrie Profile with exploration and ability-based progression from Super Metroid. The result is a RPG with a very active, responsive combat system and surprisingly fun and engaging exploration.

Indivisible has a playable prototype available for free (regardless of whether you have backed the project or not) that will run on Windows and Linux, with a Mac version coming soon. You can find the link to download it at the Indiegogo page, or use this link to access the download page directly.

If you have any interest in the game at all, or even just want something fun to play for a few hours, I highly recommend trying out the prototype. It has a much higher production quality than most alpha/beta materials you've seen elsewhere. Hell, I think its better than some finished games that I've played. It does an excellent job of conveying the gameplay you can expect from the final product, as well as demonstrating how impressive the art and animation is (even at this early stage).

Indivisible represents a very unique project: it is a crowdfunding effort that isn't trying to seduce you with stretch goal bloat or shiny rewards, and unlike a lot of crowdfunded video games they are being extremely transparent and honest about what it really costs for an independent studio to make a game. Their goal may seem ambitious (and in some ways, it is) but it is also a very realistic view of the real cost of bringing your ideas to life in video game form. And, unlike a lot of other crowdfunding efforts, Lab Zero has given us an extremely promising prototype to experience, along with a track record of being able to deliver on their promises.

If you're a fan of RPGs, Valkyrie Profile, Super Metroid, independent game creation, unique art and settings, or awesome action, I highly, highly encourage you to check out this project and consider throwing some money their way. Indivisible is one of the most refreshing, interesting, and exciting video games I have seen in a very, very long time, and it will be a goddamn crying shame if it never sees the light of day.

Thursday, October 15, 2015

Kingdom Death: Monster - Gameplay Review

I mentioned during my review of the game box contents of Kingdom Death: Monster (KD:M) that I wasn't comfortable making any strong statements about how the game plays until I had actually sat down and experienced it myself.

Thankfully, it didn't take very long to get a chance to play the game. I was able to sit down with a friend of mine recently and take the game for a test spin (each of us controlling 2 survivors). 

The short review is: KD:M plays as good as it looks. Its a very fun, engaging co-operative game that has surprising depth, excellent design, and seems to have plenty of replay value just with the core game set (with plenty of expansions coming as a result of the success of the Kickstarter). The total package of the game and the supplemental materials makes KD:M one of the absolute best products I've encountered in all of my nerd gaming years.

Long review after the break.

Thursday, October 8, 2015

Kingdom Death: Monster - Boxed Game Review

Let me tell you a bit about Kingdom Death: Monster and why it is worth every penny of the asking price (especially if you can nab it at the pre-order values).

Tuesday, October 6, 2015

Hordes: Domination Spoilers

Late last week, spoilers for the rest of the models in Hordes: Devastation started popping up on the web (mostly via Twitter, initially). For reference, this is the best collection of those spoilers I've found:

http://fivefingers.boards.net/post/26095

I've put together collected write ups of spoilers in the past, but I think that may be a thing of the past. Years ago, book spoilers used to come out a week or two in advance of the book, and (most importantly) they were the only way to reference anything in the book before or after it's release.

Nowadays, between War Room, electronic distribution of anthology books, and a general tightening of when spoilers start to sneak out, there isn't much of a gap between when the spoilers come out and when the rules are openly available to everyone. That makes pre-release spoilers much less valuable than they used to be, though they are certainly very fun to experience in the twilight between when they come out and when the full rules are available.

Word on the street is that Hordes: Devastation is supposed to come out on or around October 7th. Once that happens, we should see the full rules uploaded to War Room (give or take any Haley3 level glitches) and of course anyone really interested in the book will be able to buy it digitally. That leaves a *very* small window in which the spoilers are actually useful.  Which in turn makes it that much less worthwhile to type them all up in the long form I usually use.

So, enjoy the text-as-images spoilers! We all should have access to the full rules for these models soon, and whenever that happens (definitely sometime this month, if not this week) I'll be doing my usual full book review. If these spoilers are accurate this is a relatively light book in terms of releases (4 each for the main factions, more for Minions but they're even more odd this time around) so this review should come together pretty quickly.

Thursday, October 1, 2015

Kingdom Death: Monster - The Early Models

Of all of the Kickstarters I've backed, there are two that I have almost totally positive feelings about.

(Thoughts about Kingdom Death: Monster and pics of early models from the Kickstarter after the break)