Review: Alien Breed - Impact

Alien Breed is a rather simple but fun isometric view shooter. The game is set aboard a spaceship and the single player campaign lasts around 8-9 hours. Although the game mainly involves walking through dark corridors and shooting at giant alien bugs, it manages to maintain a good sense of atmosphere and delivers well on the fun aspect.

The player gets to use 5 different weapons, several items, and faces a healthy variety of enemies, which does well at minimizing what could potentially have been a repetitive game. The situations vary greatly. At times you might face one or two bugs at a time, and then at other times a whole wave would just burst out from all around you and force you to battle for your own survival. The fact that enemies could come from anywhere – doorways, vents, floor – creates a sense of tension and keeps the player ready for anything.

Although it seems like the game is building towards some kind of plot, usually in the comic-book-style cutscenes, most of the things you do don’t seem to have much relevance. For most of the time when outside battles you just go around the huge ship and activate various computer systems in order to gain access to the next area. It could feel repetitive at times, but the main focus of the game is mostly on tension and battles with the aliens, so I suppose it’s not much of an issue really.

There is also a chance to upgrade your weapons so to give yourself a bit of an edge in combat. Each weapon has 3 different upgrade options: rate of fire, reload time, and damage per shot. Now the interesting thing is that you can only ever have 1 upgrade active at a time, so the player will have to do some decision making and choose an upgrade that they feel is most suitable for each gun. This also opens a slight possibility for replay value.

Without giving spoilers, I also want to mention that I was a bit disappointed with the final boss of the game. Its attacks kept repeating themselves over and over in a very repetitive pattern, and also for some strange reason at times when the boss is supposed to go under the floor it kept getting stuck upside down. However, this is only a mere 10-15 minutes of an otherwise very engaging and well-polished game. It’s quite simple at its core, but the quality of the presentation that it delivers is very respectable.

Now after having completed the game, there are two more parts that await me and it seems the plot is still building towards something. This is not really a stand alone game, but more like a chapter of a book or an episode of a TV show. So I am quite eager to try out second and third instalments in the series and see where this goes. I might make a combined review of both of them. Lastly to mention, the game also offers a co-op mode, but I am yet to try that out.

My score: 9/10

Top 10 Worst Game Design Offences

In this list I’ve decided to put together some of the worst design decisions when it comes to video games. I could’ve called this list ‘Top 10 worst game design mistakes’, but then after carefully thinking about it, ‘mistakes’ implies that they are unintentional, which might be the case for some entries on this list, but definitely not for others. Also worth mentioning that although I have started making some small games myself, I am not an experienced developer yet, and hence for the most part I’ve tackled everything on this list as a consumer – as someone who loves playing good games on a regular basis and knows what is considered as fun and what isn’t.

10) RPGs that won’t let you role play

And so I shall begin the list with this entry. We all know that role-playing games are about giving the player control of how to develop the character and to make certain choices in regard to the story and the gameplay style. However, at times some RPGs give you the illusion of this control, but in reality it’s not actually there. Either the choices lead to one and the same outcome, or the game makes choices for you at crucial times, or at times you are forced to adopt a certain direction simply because the alternatives are highly undesirable and can leave you disadvantaged.

All the above situations gimp the experience of role-playing and in my opinion should be avoided at all costs. The RPG has to make it clear from the outset about the level of choice and customization the player can do and it needs to stick to it throughout. For example there has to be a similar level of difficulty for going as either a fighter or a mage, or for example picking to ally with faction A over faction B. If siding with faction A makes the game much easier than with faction B, then the player is sort of forced to pick faction A most of the time, unless B has other advantages, which need to be clear.

Likewise, it can be annoying at times when the game leads the main character in a certain direction without the player’s consent. For example when having a dialogue with an NPC, if the character suddenly started to act like a jerk to this NPC without the player’s input, then the game failed to give the player a choice, in this case changing the pitch of the conversation against the player’s desires. These sort of situations can greatly ruin the immersion and detach the player from their character, and this goes against the main goal of RPG experience.

9) Single player online

I’ll probably strike a chord with this one and I bet many gamers out there will be able to relate to it. This is something that’s become popular fairly recently and in the eyes of many it’s one of the most annoying things a game can adopt. All right, so we all need to be connected to the internet in order to play a multiplayer game. That’s a given. However, some developers take it unnecessarily further and make even single player campaigns require an internet connection.

This is when many would pose a question “Why?” Why should we be connected when we’re not playing with anyone else? It’s pointless and frustrating. Minor drops in the connection could cause you to be booted out of the game and any overload in the servers would make the game impossible to access.

Of course it’s most likely done to prevent piracy and all, but in the long run it seems to frustrate legitimate players a lot more than it helps to combat piracy of the game. If any online access is needed to confirm the legitimacy of the game copy, then at most it should only require an internet connection during the game’s installation and never a second more.

8) Bland combat mechanics

This one probably goes without saying, but since it does occur more frequently than it should, I figured it deserves a place on this list. What do I mean by bland combat mechanics? It’s the handling of the game’s action that does not provide the necessary enjoyment. This is especially true for those games where combat is the central aspect of the gameplay.

Having to fight the enemies with one and the same attack could quickly become boring. And when you do smack or shoot the enemies, they need to be responsive to it. The sound of the impact and the resulting animation have to deliver enough satisfaction to keep the person playing. Additionally, glitchy animations, enemies clipping into walls or each other, and badly placed hitboxes are all factors that negatively affect combat as well. All these things need to be polished so that the combat can be fun and engaging.

7) Convoluted controls

One of the more obvious entries on this list, or so I think. Since controls impact every action the player does in the game, they have to be intuitive and easy to follow. However, this is not always the case and in some games they become a chore. There might either be way too many key bindings to remember, or simply the key bindings are un-intuitive and difficult to use in-game.

Of course the more complex the game is, the more functions it’s likely to have, and hence more key bindings might be needed. But they have to be easily accessible, either all part of the same menu, or perhaps used as hotkeys. Any game which is very fast-paced, like most FPS games are, especially needs to take this into account. This is a good example of keeping things simple. Because when in a middle of fast-paced action, the player doesn’t have time to think on what button to press to activate a certain function. Therefore in these cases I think there need to be as few key bindings as possible.

Sometimes a game might even require the press of two or more buttons for certain functions, and this in my opinion needs to be avoided in regard to simple actions. I noticed it is often the case with bad console ports. Whatever’s the case, clumsy controls are certainly an easy way to annoy a player.

6) Unbalanced difficulty

A fairly straight-forward one. Difficulty is an important aspect of the game. Minor fluctuations at the wrong time can really ruin it, or quite the opposite, a well-placed crescendo might enhance the experience. It’s something that has to be fine-tuned to near perfection.

Now the difficulty of the game can take a variety of patterns, and this is perhaps something I’ll discuss in more depth in another post. In my opinion the difficulty has to be at the right level for the target audience and its increases and decreases have to be consistent with the game’s progression. They should be smooth as well. Having to fluctuate between too easy and too hard in a matter of minutes can be extremely annoying.

It is also common for many games to have multiple difficulties, and this is good, because it allows the player to choose whether they want a more casual experience or something more intense. However, the step up from one difficulty level to the next has to be reasonable. It can be very offputting if the Easy difficulty is too easy and Normal (or whichever is the next one up) is already too challenging.

5) Painfully long loading times

I think this one is something many of us can certainly complain about. First of, we have to keep in mind that the larger and more technologically advanced the game is, the longer its loading times are likely to be. However, what I am getting at here is knowing when to put these loading screens and how long to make them last. Is it worth for example loading an entire world map when we are unlikely to visit most of it during a single game session? On the other hand, do we want to stick a loading screen, however small it is, every time we open a door in order to go to the next room? That’s why it is important to separate the game into reasonably sized chunks, so that the loading doesn’t happen too frequently to break the immersion, and when it does happen it doesn’t take forever.

 Sometimes it might even be worth to simply cut down a bit on the content per chunk/map so that the loading time can be within reasonable length. For example, is it really worth sometimes to include so many special effects and other flashy stuff in a single room that it requires a lengthy loading screen every time we enter it?

 And lastly, it is good to consider how long it takes for someone to start up the game and jump right into it. I’ll be honest, but sometimes when I really want to play something on a spur of a moment, I tend to often avoid those games where it takes a while to start it up. Basically, if a game bores you already before you even got a chance to start playing it, then we’ve got a bit of a problem that needs to be fixed.

4) Incredibly slow pace

This is what I meant concerning the mistakes vs offences debate. I am pretty sure slow pacing of a game isn’t exactly a design error. It’s a design decision, and in my opinion a very bad one. Of course not every game is expected to be rushing many miles an hour and throwing you into combat situations every 5 seconds. In fact that would get boring pretty fast. The trick is to simply balance out the fast-paced parts with the slow-paced ones, so that there is some variation that keeps the gameplay fresh.

To elaborate on what I mean by incredibly slow pacing, good examples would be: having to level grind for hours just because the difficulty scales too steeply with each area, or looking for something in a huge area without any pointers, or simply having to engage in long chatter with too many NPCs and without getting a chance to do anything else.

RPG genre is particularly guilty of this. It’s understandable that RPGs generally require a gradual introduction of their world to the player, as well as character development, and also exploration. However, being an RPG is not an excuse and if the game drags on for too long, especially in the early stages, then it might find itself losing player’s attention and eventually interest.

3) Unwelcoming interface

Perhaps one of the most important aspects of gaming is the interface. This is basically how the player interacts with the game and is aware of what’s going on. Menu screens, inventory screens, HUD – all these are examples of what I am talking about. So, because all these are crucial ways to relay game information to the player, they need to be presented clearly and crisply.

At times, however, games fail to do that. Putting too much text, for example, is one of the common ways the interface can be unwelcoming to the player, especially if this text is small and causes eye strain. Filling the screen with too many small icons is another way, especially if many of these icons look alike and are indistinguishable to the naked eye.

No matter how good the game’s story is or how amazing the combat mechanics are, if the interface consistently confuses the player, it can in fact put them off the game, or at the very least severely impair the enjoyment. And hence presenting in-game information in a simple and clear manner is highly important.

2) Over the top repetition

The reason this one is so high on the list is due to how common it tends to be. Now, as with most other entries, amount of repetition is relative and where we put a threshold of ‘too much’ is subjective. Therefore we should look at what would be considered as too much repetition in the eyes of an average gamer (because this view is likely to follow a normal, bell-shape distribution).

Repetition can’t be avoided altogether, because the alternative is having to include too much content that will be used only once, and hence can be a waste of time, energy, and money. Due to this, each and every game will have repetitive aspects to some degree, whether it’s the level design, enemy variation, player skills, and so on. A little bit of repetition shouldn’t really bother players, but beyond that, the more repetition the game has, the more likely it is to bore the players and turn them away from the game. This is why it is important to balance it carefully and not to stretch the game for more than it needs to be. For example, I’d rather play a fresh and engaging 5 hour game that can keep my attention, than an unnecessarily prolonged 30 hour game where levels are copy-pasted or one and the same action is required on behalf of the player throughout.

1) Bugs, glitches, and crashes

Did you expect anything else? There shouldn’t be much surprise as to why this is on the top spot, as this feature is probably the only one on the list that can single-handedly make the game unplayable. With all the other entries, it’s possible to look past them, but serious bugs and crashes are the kind of things that can easily beat the game enjoyment to a bloody pulp and rip its heart out.

Of course nearly every game has bugs of some kind. The larger and more complex the game is, the more likely it is to have bugs. Minor bugs can often be forgiven, especially if the game excels at all the other things that it does. They might only break the immersion slightly or in fact even provide unintended fun for the player. However, anything too serious is bound to be a hideous stain on the experience of playing the game in question, such as the game crashing to desktop or giving an error message every time the player accesses a certain area or talks to a certain NPC.

High frequency of smaller bugs can also be a great hindrance, in particular if they impact important game features, such as the use of certain skills or the main combat mechanics. It becomes harder and harder to take the game seriously, until eventually the player will get no more enjoyment out of it. Rigorous playtesting is pretty much the only way to expose the bugs that might otherwise be hiding in the dark corners of the game.

Top 10 Bosses from Dark Souls

As I stated in my review of Dark Souls, the boss fights was the thing that I enjoyed the most about the game, and hence for that reason I’ve decided to make a list of those I liked the best. Usually the more difficult boss fights were the more outstanding ones, and most bosses to appear on this list are among the meanest in the game, but difficulty is not the only factor I’ve decided to go by. Everything else about the boss also counts, whether it’s how they look, what they represent, the flow and execution of the battle, and of course the background music that assists the fight. Basically it’s my list of the most memorable boss fights in the game, even though nearly every boss was amazing and memorable in some way.

I’ve also decided to include some tips and strategies on beating these bosses. Admittedly I’m currently still on my second playthrough, and hence I do not possess extensive knowledge of these bosses, but I thought I’d mention what strategies worked for me.

10) Great Grey Wolf Sif

Had a bit of a toss up between Sif and Sanctuary Guardian for the 10^th place on this list, but eventually decided to choose Sif. He isn’t among the hardest bosses in the game, but he plays a part in the backstory and hence is quite an important character in the game. Sif can be found deep in the forest, guarding knight Artorias’ grave, and he certainly lives up to his name. Now one of the things I liked about this boss is that it’s not just you facing a huge, ferocious wolf, but it’s a huge, ferocious wolf with a bit of a twist – he has a massive blade in his jaws, and he can swing that blade pretty fast.

 Another noticeable feature about this boss is that once his health gets really low, he will start tripping up, losing his balance, and falling down, which makes it slightly easier to finish him off. Usually in games bosses get stronger as their health gets lower, but in this case the challenge was sacrificed slightly to favour realism and to even make the player feel sorry for Sif. The whole fight is assisted with a brilliant music track, which greatly adds to the atmosphere and the character of this boss.

Basic tips and strategies:

-          Since Sif’s attacks have a big range, it might help to have a long-ranged weapon too.

-          It’s a good idea to learn his attack animations and to try to attack when he has breaks in the combos or leaves himself open.

-          His most dangerous attack is the double spin with the sword. The first hit would usually drain your stamina if blocked, whilst the second one will deal damage.

-          He will often jump back and create some distance between the two of you. These might be good opportunities to quickly heal up should you need to.

9) Belfry Gargoyles

This is one of the earlier boss fights in the game, taking place on the roof of a church, and can be hard if the player is unaware that the second Gargoyle joins the fight as soon as the first one’s health falls below half. This means that as soon as that happens, there is an instant pressure to quickly finish off the first Gargoyle before the second one has the chance of reaching the player’s position and engulfing him/her in flames. And if the player misses this opportunity, it can be very difficult to keep an eye on two enemies at once, especially that both of them now will have a long-ranged fire attack. Each Gargoyle by itself is not too tricky and can be defeated without much of a problem, the second one in particular, but the midpoint of the fight where the presence of two Gargoyles overlap is the point to watch out for.

Basic tips and strategies:

-          Most of their attacks can be blocked. Fire breath can be dodged with a simple roll or two to the side

-          Once first Gargoyle’s health drops to below 50%, the second one is going to join the battle very shortly, so try to finish off the first one as fast as possible, but don’t get too caught up in it or you might get attacked from behind by the second one. You can often tell the second one has joined the fight once his health bar appears.

-          Use the slanted shape of the roof to your advantage. For example, if a Gargoyle is standing on a high part and swinging horizontally, you can stay unharmed if you’re on part of the roof somewhat below him.

8) Gaping Dragon

All right, so compared to most other bosses on this list, this boss is actually pretty easy. It will probably only kill you a couple or so times, until you realise that it’s actually very predictable and doesn’t seem to be able to see you properly. However, the reason I decided to include this boss on this list is because of how weird and creepy it looks. The first time you’ll see it, you’ll probably say “WTF is this thing?” out loud. It truly is a twisted-looking creature, and merely because of that this boss managed to stand out. This boss fight is more about intimidating the player. Sure, it’s probably one of the weaker dragons in the game, but despite that, I bet all the other dragons tell each other horror stories about it.

Basic tips and strategies:

-          I noticed that being speedy is better here than using heavy armor.

-          It’s not safe to attack it whilst it’s upright and never ever attack from the front or it will grab you. The safest time to attack is right after the creature charged and missed you. It will have some recovery time, allowing you to attack its side or back. Make sure to retreat in time or else it will hit you with its tail. If you’re attacking its back, you can try to cut off the tail. Attacking can be done in any way – melee, arrows/bolts, or magic spells.

-          If you use the above technique, you won’t even need to use your shield, so grab your weapon with both hands to deal more damage to the creature.

-          If it uses its acidic vomit attack, run away from it as far and as fast as you can or it may greatly damage your equipment.

7) Iron Golem

Well, this boss is exactly as it sounds. You’re facing an enormous iron construct that is trying to use its sheer strength to crush you. As you might expect, being so huge and strong, this boss is also quite slow. However, don’t get too comfortable, because the battle arena is not overly big, and even if the boss is slow, one lucky hit from him could in fact send you off the edge and into your death. I remember of all the times I died on this fight, most were by falling off.

 What’s really great about this boss fight is that it forces you to keep moving and stay on your toes the entire fight. You need to be thinking quickly all the time, because dodging in the wrong direction by accident could mean you’re putting yourself in a very dangerous position, either right into the boss’ axe swings or closer to the edge of the arena where you don’t want to be.

Basic tips and strategies:

-          As far as I recall, there weren’t really any attacks by this boss which could be successfully blocked, so dodging by rolling is a lot more recommended, and hence once again a speedy character might do better here than a heavily-armoured one.

-          Because of that, it’s probably best to hold your weapon with both hands so to deal more damage per hit.

-          Boss’ swings are usually quite wide and fairly low, so rolling sideways doesn’t always work. The safest place to dodge his swings is right between his legs. This quickly puts you behind him and lets you deliver a handful of hits to his ankles.

-          Beware of his grab attack. He can grab you even if you’re behind him, so make sure to back away as soon as you’ve dealt a couple of hits.

-          Always keep a note of your position on the battlefield. You don’t want to get cornered too close to the edge of the arena. Try to stay as close to the centre as possible.

-          This is one of few boss fights where locking on to the boss is not advised. This is because the boss is very huge and hence locking onto him will cause the camera to look up as well, meaning you’ll be struggling to see where in the arena you are.

6) The Four Kings

Another really tricky boss fight and is generally considered as one of the hardest in the game by many players. It is quite unlike most other boss fights, because the main goal in this fight is to deal as much damage as possible within a certain period of time or risk getting disadvantaged. It starts with just one of the kings attacking, and with time the others spawn one by one, so if the first one hasn’t been defeated yet, then the player will be facing two of them and then eventually up to four, which can be disastrous. The kings keep respawning repeatedly until all the shared health they have has been depleted. This means that even if the player defeated say two of them and then stalled up on the 3^rd one, then the 1^st and the 2^nd will re-enter the fight and once again there will be all four of them ganging up on the player.

The kings themselves can deal plenty of damage, both physical and magical, and so part of the pressure is for the player to stay alive too and not just to be able to dish out a lot of damage. In addition, this fight happens in the total emptiness of the abyss with no objects or structural designs to take advantage of. Just an upfront fight.

Basic tips and strategies:

-          The one foolproof method that completely turned this fight around for me was to equip a really heavy armor (such as Havel’s) and to just take the hits whilst attacking recklessly. With heavy armor their melee attacks will deal very little damage which you can quickly heal up when you need to. This made the fight from incredibly hard to surprisingly easy.

-          If it helps, then whilst utilising the above method, you can also wield your weapon with both hands. This will deal even more damage and will finish each king before the next one can spawn.

-          If you start to get swarmed, it might be a good idea to try and separate the kings.

5) Black Dragon Kalameet

This boss is from the DLC and is completely optional. It is also in my opinion one of the hardest boss fights in the game. Shouldn’t be a surprise really since he is a dragon. He’s got a big variety of different moves, each of which can catch you out if you’re not careful. For example, he doesn’t just breathe fire at you. He has multiple ways of utilising his fire breath, whether it’s a straight-line blast of fire, a fire sweep, or even at times he flies up into the air slightly and shoots fire at the ground, affecting a fairly large area, which the player has to quickly get away from or else risk of being set ablaze.

 And he is not exactly incompetent at close range either. He will headbutt, he will stomp, and he will use his tail – basically he’ll use all his body parts to try and get you. Oh and did I mention that he actually gets crippled before you can even get to fight him, so essentially you aren’t even fighting him at his best. I remember reading in a few places online of people comparing this boss fight to fighting dragons in Skyrim, and I think just about everyone can agree that if Kalameet was one of the dragons to invade Skyrim, then the entire Skyrim would be ravaged and burned to a crisp in a matter of days, so all those Dragonborns out there should really count their blessings.

Basic tips and strategies:

-          As with many bosses with a huge variety of attacks, it is a good idea to learn his attack animations, so that you know to react accordingly before the attack can land on you.

-          Best time I found to heal up is when he does his fire sweep attack. As soon as you roll out of range, you have a good few seconds to drink an Estus flask whilst he is breathing fire. Another good time is when he does a straight line blast. After dodging that you have a couple of seconds to drink a flask before he stops his fire breath and initiates a new attack.

-          I found it better to be a speedy character in this fight than one with heavy armor. A lot of the time you need to move away from the arc or area of his fire breath attacks really quickly

4) Chaos Witch Quelaag

One of the surviving daughters of the Witch of Izalith. Top half of her is a human female torso and bottom half is a body of a huge lava-spitting spider. She has lots of attacks, most of which involve the spider half of her spurting lava in various directions and covering much of the arena in lava which the player has to avoid.

At times Quelaag would stop spewing lava and will approach for an upfront melee fight, where she swings her flaming sword in diagonal swings and also often produces very powerful stabs. In addition, if the player manages to avoid these swings, she will respond by stomping with the spider legs, and during other times she will charge up a very powerful area attack, which can do a lot of damage and fling the player aside.

What I really liked about this boss fight is that a lot is dependent on the player’s skill and quick wit. This boss fight happens around 1/3^rd into the game, and every other boss prior to this one was quite predictable and had an obvious attack pattern. With Quelaag, it’s a bit more unpredictable and the player might not exactly know what to expect until she starts to actually execute each attack. On top of that, the player also has to be aware at all times of the surrounding area and to make sure they don’t stumble into a part covered by lava.

Basic tips and strategies:

-          It’s dangerous to be fighting in the area covered by lava, and hence it’s a good idea to try and lure her out to fight on clear ground.

-          Being fast is an advantage in this fight, and it’s good to always move and walk around her, attacking her sides and back. Most of her melee attacks can be easily avoided by rolling.

-          Best time to attack is when she stops to spew a very long spray of lava. It is also a good time to heal up or reapply enchantments, if you need to.

-          Since pretty much every attack of hers can be avoided by rolling, shield is not very necessary, and hence if one needs to do more damage, holding the weapon with both hands can help.

-          Since she is a fire-based monster, it’s good to have fire-resistant gear, and likewise it’s pointless to attack her with attacks of fire element. She is, however, vulnerable to magical and lightning elements.

3) Knight Artorias

 Another DLC boss. Artorias is the legendary knight we’ve all heard about in the original game and here we get to fight him as he’s been corrupted by the abyss. This is one of those incredible fights where we face someone seemingly similar to us. He is not some oversized monster, he doesn’t have any long-ranged attacks, he doesn’t have any minions or tag-team allies, and there are no ring outs or structures to make use of. This is a pure one-on-one fight in an average-sized, completely enclosed arena.

Artorias uses a big blade and can swing it rather fast, often attacking rather aggressively and overwhelming the player. He has a variety of moves, some of which are swings and stabs, and others are lunges and dives through the air. The player is expected to be both very defensive and very offensive, knowing exactly when to be which. Just as when you start to get used to fighting him, he jumps back and starts to buff up. If the player does not interrupt this from happening, then Artorias becomes a lot stronger, dealing a lot more damage with his attacks and can easily kill the player.

Basic tips and strategies:

-          I found it that this fight demands a good, healthy combination of speed, good shield, and heavy armor. Most of his attacks can be dodged, but at times you would need to block, and there would also be times when you’d run out of stamina and a handful of his hits would get through your defences.

-          It is highly recommended not to let him buff up, because he becomes way too powerful if he does so. When he starts doing it, quickly get in there and attack him as much as possible to interrupt his buffing. If necessary, grab your weapon with both hands to do more damage.

-          In order to be able to do the above in good time, I noticed I had to do something rather counter-intuitive, and that is to try and stay close to the boss at all times. Doing so can make it harder to fight him and to find good opportunities to drink an Estus flask, but some of his attacks do have recovery times, which is when you can heal up and restore your stamina.

2) Manus, Father of the Abyss

The final boss in the DLC and one of the hardest bosses in the game. In my opinion, together with Kalameet, he’d be second hardest boss overall. This is another example of a boss who looks so weird that the player is likely to be surprised on this boss’ first entry. Manus resides in the depth of the abyss. What? You thought the Four Kings were the worst abominations of the abyss? This guy eats the Four Kings for breakfast and probably on a daily basis.

His most basic form of attack is to use his stronger arm to swipe at or smash the player. That arm seems to be extendable too so has quite a range. And if the player gets too close, then he can unleash his killer 6-hit combo that is likely to leave the player breathless on the ground afterwards. That’s not all, however. Partway through the fight he starts to also use sorcery attacks – there is one where he sprays the projectiles directly in front of himself, there is one where he makes them rain from above, and there is one where he creates them all around the arena, at which point they quickly converge on the player and hit all at once.

Basic tips and strategies:

-          With this guy it really helps to learn all of his attack animations, especially the key ones such as him roaring just as he is about to perform a 6-hit combo, or lifting his sceptre up just as he is about to cast a sorcery.

-          I noticed that one of the main tactics in this fight is staying the right distance from him. Too far and he will keep spamming his long-ranged arm swipe attack and not letting you get near to attack him. Too close and he will pull out his 6-hit combo without you having enough time to get out of range.

-          When he does his 6-hit combo, it is good to double roll backwards quickly if you’re far enough. If not, you might still get caught and hence blocking is better. You will be able to block first 2-3 hits most likely, but the others will hit you. Therefore blocking and walking backwards is good to do in this case. In many cases after you’ve blocked first 2-3 hits, you will get out of range and the rest will miss you, but if you’re not lucky enough and the remaining hits get you, at least it’s only half the combo that gets you.

-          If you don’t have the Silver Pendant, his sorcery attacks can be avoided by other means. Firstly, stay back when you see him starting to cast. That way if he sprays the projectiles forwards, you might be able to roll backwards out of range, and if not, you can block out the worst of it. This attack will still hurt you when blocking, but if you’re further away, a lot less projectiles will hit you. When projectiles rain from above, simply keep moving until they stop. And when he creates them in a circle all around you, I’ve read it’s possible to roll-dodge it, but that requires precise timing, so a safer option is to simply turn around and block (the worst of it seems to come from behind you). With this you will still lose some health, but it won’t be anywhere near as bad as the full power of the attack.

1) Ornstein and Smough

I think it’s not much of a surprise for me to put this duo at the top of the list. To me this was the hardest boss fight in the game, or at the very least it’s one where most players are likely to be stuck on the longest. It is also a really well-executed fight, managing to stand out from the rest, and makes up for a fantastic mid-game climax point. Why is it the hardest? Well, let’s take a closer look.

 For one, we’re facing two opponents instead of one. Each one is not so bad by himself, since we can easily block or dodge most of their moves. However, together they pose an incredible threat, simply because of how well they complement each other. Ornstein is very fast, agile, and also has a ranged attack to shoot small lightning bolts out of his spear. Smough is the exact opposite. He is a slow powerhouse wielding a massive hammer. The tricky thing is having to always keep an eye on both of them, even the one you’re not going for yet, and to never let them surround or corner you.

 It’s possible to go for either one of them first – it is purely up to player’s preference. Now if this was any other game, killing one of them would suddenly make things easier as the second one would instantly be left all alone without a teammate and let the player mercilessly finish them off. But not in Dark Souls. In here, as soon as one of them dies, the other absorbs his friend’s soul, becomes a lot more powerful, and regains all the health back, so the second stage of this boss fight is having to face a single but more powerful opponent. And the worst thing about all this, if you lose on the second part of the fight and then come back, you have to face both of them once again from the beginning.

Basic tips and strategies:

-          It is important to be defensive in this fight and to take your time. Most of all this fight is about your positioning on the battlefield. Do not risk attacking if that can result in you being exposed, surrounded, or cornered, because if you do, you might find yourself experiencing a quick and painful death.

-          From my experience it seems better to be speedy and agile in this fight than to have heavy armor and try to withstand all the punishment.

-          Use pillars if you need to drink an Estus flask. Don’t stand directly right up to it though as the duo can still hit you through the pillar. Stand at least two steps away from it whilst making sure it is still between you and them.

-          Try not to let either of them out of your sight for too long. It is easy to lose track of the guy you’re not going for, only to have them give you a cheap hit from the back.

-          They both are vulnerable to fire. Smough is also vulnerable to lightning (not in super form though), but Ornstein is resistant to it, so don’t go using that Lightning Spear on him.

-          With super versions of either one of them, learn their attack animations and time your approach when you know they require some recovery time after performing an attack, such as the lightning butt slam that they both seem to love doing. Most of all, take your time and retreat behind a pillar when you’re low on health or need to rethink on strategy.

Review: Dark Souls (Prepare to Die edition)

Dark Souls is a great, dark fantasy RPG. It is set in a post-apocalyptic fantasy world, where vile creatures are everywhere and nowhere is safe. The game's atmosphere is very intense and immersive, thanks to beautifully-crafted locations and dramatic music that usually plays during boss fights. The flow of the game is sort of semi-linear, meaning that more often than not there is a choice of several locations to do in your own order of preference and in many of those locations there are branching paths, often leading to shortcuts to the previous locations, hence saving you the time in case you wanted to go back.

The game starts with a mindblowing intro which gives us a little backstory of the setting and shows some of the characters that appear later in the game. It is easily one of the most captivating intros out there.

Now of course one of the most defining features of Dark Souls is its high difficulty. However, it is quite unlike most other challenging games out there. The way it is designed, dying is an important part of the game, and hence the words 'Prepare to Die' have to be taken seriously. The players should expect to die frequently, at which point the game simply continues and returns them back to the last bonfire (checkpoint) rested at with all enemies respawned. The trick is not about trying to avoid death altogether, but about picking yourself up and learning from your mistakes. It's a tactical game in that regard, because every enemy and every boss requires the right approach, and until you approach them with the correct mindset, they will keep beating you again and again. Admittedly sometimes it can be annoying having to walk big portions of the area and fighting the same enemies to get back to the boss fight, but it is almost always well worth it.

 Dark Souls is not a button masher. It's not about how fast you can hit the attack button, but more about your timing, patience, concentration, and battle strategy. Its premise is quite simple really - persistence and determination pay off. Initially a lot of the game seems overwhelming and many areas and bosses seem impossible, but eventually any challenge can be beaten. There have been times I thought to myself “There is no way I can pull this off”, but after trying numerous times and adjusting my strategy accordingly, I found myself magically overcoming everything. As a result you get an overwhelming sense of reward and accomplishment after having beaten any challenge in the game.

As far as I noticed, the game has two major learning curves, and that’s when most people are likely to give up on the game. The first learning curve happens in the first post-tutorial level, the Undead Burg. That’s when the player learns the basic tactics of combat and gets into the mindset of finding ways to make their own rules in combat as opposed to what the game tricks them into doing. For example: luring the enemies out into safer battle ground, fighting one on one as opposed to a group, and so on. The second learning curve happens at around halfway point in the game, the area called Anor Londo. This is because at this point perhaps the sharpest rise in difficulty is felt as every enemy there is tough. This area is the one where players are turned from marginally competent into expert combatants.

One of the interesting aspects also is how players can leave messages on the ground, hence allowing other players to see them and this way indirectly interact with each other. Many of those messages are helpful warning signs, giving tips on how to handle a tough enemy ahead or notices about a treasure hidden nearby, but at times there'd be some which are meant to mislead you, so player discretion is required at all times.

The game excels at many things, but if I had to pick the one thing it does best, then I’d go with the boss fights. These are some of the most engaging, most punishing, and ultimately most rewarding boss fights I have ever experienced in gaming. There are plenty of them scattered throughout the game, some are compulsory to progress further, whilst others are completely optional. The boss fights is also when most of the game’s fantastic music scores tend to play in order to set the scene and give a sense of dread and doom.

Also want to quickly cover the Artorias of the Abyss DLC, which is already included in the Prepare to Die edition. It’s pretty all right for a DLC. It gives a few new areas for the players to explore and also pits us against some really challenging bosses, even more challenging than most bosses in the original game, but once again - very much worth it.

Now I want to also mention some criticisms. Although I absolutely loved the game, it does have some drawbacks too. Well, first of all it’s important of a mention that the PC version is a pretty bad console port. Not only using mouse and keyboard feels awkward, but also most of the in-game instructions tend to refer to the buttons on an Xbox controller. However, simply acquiring a gamepad solves the whole problem. Therefore I would highly advise the use of a gamepad/controller to play this game on PC.

Now for another small criticism - one of the game’s features is that players can invade each other’s worlds and have a PvP. However, what I noticed is that this feature is a bit out of control and in some areas you get invaded every few minutes and more often than not the invaders have better gear and higher level than you, which can be only irritating when playing an already difficult game. It just feels that the PvP aspect is forced upon all players, even though some might not be wishing to engage in it. The only way around that is to play most of the game on hollow mode. It has some drawbacks, like not being able to summon NPCs to help you in boss fights, but the game can still be played in its entirety like this, with only maybe occasional reverting back to human form to kindle bonfires and that’s it.

Gotta love Frampt's cheesy grin

Dark Souls is certainly not for everyone. From what I’ve seen so far, people either love it or hate it, but you never know until you first try it, which is why I am very glad I’ve decided to do so after a recommendation by a friend. If you're looking for a casual and relaxing game, Dark Souls will not fill that niche, but it is definitely worth looking into if you’ve ever for at least a minute wanted something challenging and intense. It’s one of a kind game, delivering an incredibly immersive experience and making you shed blood and sweat in order to gain victory.

My score: 9.5/10

Review: Darksiders II

So, after enjoying the first game I went straight for the second one. In Darksiders II we play as the Death horseman, who sets out to clear his brother’s name. It straight away becomes obvious that the events of this game happen right before the first game, but after the apocalypse, whilst War horseman is still held captive by the Council. During this journey, Death visits a lot of different locations across the realms, ranging from the Forge lands, then to the Kingdom of the Dead, then to Lost Light (Angel land), with a chance to visit Earth, and finally to the Shadow’s Edge (Demon land).

 There are some very noticeable differences between the two games. Firstly, Darksiders II plays more like an RPG than the first game, allowing the player to level up, learn new skills along skill trees, and change equipment. I thought all these were great additions and certainly a step in the right direction. It also has a noticeable drop in difficulty. Normal mode in this game felt easier than Easy mode in the first game, but that is not necessarily a bad thing as the game can appeal to a lot of casual gamers out there.

 There were things I really enjoyed about Darksiders II and there were plenty of improvements over the first game, but there were also some really bad design flaws which brought the overall quality of the game down a notch.

 Straight away the first impressions of the Prologue level and the first land are really high. Very beautiful environments, fantastic music, and very easy and enjoyable combat mechanics. I liked it that with Death we could really pull off some cool fights and manoeuvres as he is a lot more agile than War. And although there weren’t too many different combos with the primary weapons, the combat was still very engaging and every battle felt like it was straight out of an action movie. The platforming and climbing features were done pretty well too, with a variety of diverse techniques given to traverse different obstacles, even though at times it felt a tad rigid and slow, usually when attempting to quickly move from one ledge to another.

 Now after a few hours in, that’s when the player is likely to notice that the game is really repetitive. A lot of dungeons are very much alike, a lot of puzzles recur again and again, and even most boss fights are just simple hack and slash. Like for example, one of the things that disappointed me was that nearly every boss in the first land was a golem or a construct of some kind. I don’t see why there couldn’t have been a little more variation in the boss designs. And the second land (Kingdom of the Dead) was even more repetitive. Every dungeon there looked the same and went on for ages. At one point you had to go and locate 3 different undead Lords in 3 identical dungeons with the same enemies and the same puzzles over and over. Many of the dungeons throughout the game also tended to be too long and overdrawn. I kept frequently asking myself “When is this level going to end?”

 In latter stages of the game there were some nice locations. I personally really enjoyed the part when you had to visit the ravaged Earth. The tone and the atmosphere in that level were really moody and depressing. Thunderstorm, broken buildings, lovely ambient tune, and of course a slightly new addition to the gameplay – the projectile weapons. And shortly after that level the Shadow’s Edge (Demon land) was pretty nice too, with its golden-red colour tones and a sense of chaos and destruction that had occurred there not long ago. Being able to travel backwards and forwards in time was a pretty cool addition during that level too.

 Unfortunately, unlike the first game, the story was really taken to the background and not given enough chance to enhance the game’s progression. The whole game just felt like it was a dungeon-fest. Go to one dungeon, acquire some item or find some character, then exit and go to another dungeon, rinse and repeat. It just seems to me a lot of the game was copy-pasted just for the sake of making it longer. I’d rather that it was only half the length but fresh, rather than long and diluted. And to top it off, the final boss fight was pretty unfulfilling simply because it was just too easy for a final boss.

 Now there were also some side-quests to do, plenty of collectibles to get, and also the Crucible, which is an arena where you fight waves of enemies and progress further so that you can receive rewards. However, most of the optional content didn’t seem too thrilling to me and there was not much incentive for me to do it.

 Finally I was also a little disappointed that I came across quite a number of annoying bugs and glitches during merely a single playthrough.

 - There was one where after having paused the game and then unpaused, my character was stuck and unable to move. Quitting to main menu and then resuming seemed to solve the problem, but pausing again in that area made the character immobile once more.

 - The second glitch was in the Ivory Citadel part of Lost Light, when I had to solve a puzzle by shooting one portal THROUGH the other. For some reason it was impossible to do so and only after many dozens of attempts it actually worked. 

 - And the third glitch was during a boss fight with Samael. That was the one boss fight I was most looking forward to, but it was sort of ruined a bit as he was stuck on the edge of the arena. Gladly, after I restarted the fight, the glitch did not happen anymore, so I could forgive it there.

Overall Darksiders II is a pretty smooth ride, with very well done combat mechanics, a good variety in equipment and customization, a truly epic soundtrack, and some stunning locations. However, it fell down due to way too much repetition, especially when it came to dungeon design and the puzzles. This repetition really dilutes down the enjoyment and makes the game feel like a bit of a drag.

My score: 8.5/10

Review: E.Y.E. Divine Cybermancy

 Where to begin? First of, I decided to give E.Y.E. a try despite an overwhelming amount of negative critic and user reviews, but it seems in the end I might have to agree with a lot of them. Although it's not a terrible game, a lot of its flaws are still way too prominent, like ugly scars. The game has some really interesting ideas and a lot of promise and potential, but most of it is severely under-delivered. I have respect for the developers for doing a lot of things differently to conventional methods, but this also means they delved too far into the uncharted, experimental territory, and hence some areas turned out fine and other areas were a complete mess. In addition the game feels as though it was rushed, untested, and released in the alpha/beta stage. I'm going to break it down into several aspects now.

 First of, it's a mix of FPS gameplay with Role-playing aspects. The FPS mechanics actually work really well. The guns are incredibly fun to use and the enemies are very responsive to being hit. Just as a simple FPS game it could've turned out quite well. The only drawback on this side perhaps would be that for some unknown reason the character never automatically reloads the gun once the clip is empty, which at times can be frustrating to the player (for example, try using a double-barrelled shotgun and having to manually reload after firing every 2 shots).

 Now as an RPG this game was a complete disaster. Although I really enjoyed the setting and some of the locations were really beautiful and had a nice cyberpunk theme, the game really failed to immerse the player. Bad translation and very bad dialogue are some of the things that made the setting less believable (e.g. does anyone know what an "embarrassing turret" is? Because I don't).

 The story manages to lose your attention pretty much after the first level. I think one of the problems also is the lack of voice acting. I think for a game like this, voice acting is an absolute must. One of the fundamental problems about this game is too much text, both when speaking to NPCs and when browsing through your character skills and stats. The fact that the text is small too makes it all the more annoying.

 The game also plays strangely. A single player campaign plays like a multiplayer map, with both you and enemies being able to respawn multiple times. This is one of the things that really breaks the immersion as you see the same enemies keep repeatedly respawning at a spawn point as soon as you turn around and just rushing at you recklessly without any tactics. In addition the levels are way too big, often requiring tonnes of pointless walking and backtracking. I literally had to use my sprint power in order to get about, or else the game was a drag. And to make it worse, the game doesn't ever let you save. It only has a few auto-saves spaced far apart, usually at the end of each mission, which could go on for more than an hour or so.

 I think when playing this game, most RPG elements can be easily ignored. Just a run and gun tactic the entire game will get you far. The only RPG-related mechanic you need to know is how to get weapons from the armoury and into your inventory. The weapon inventory management was pretty cool, I admit. The hacking mini-game was also an interesting and refreshing addition, although at times it felt way too random and poorly tested.

 Also something I've really got to mention is the fact that to resume your campaign after having quit the game is a trouble in itself. First the game loads and takes you to a portal area, and then you've got to walk to the portal and it loads again before you finally get back to where you left the campaign. Now I don't see a point of having to bring the player to the portal area and make us wait through TWO loading screens instead of ONE. That is just poor game design.

 Overall to summarize, E.Y.E. has a lot of potential and interesting ideas, both relating to the setting and the game mechanics, but a lot of it is still in a very rough and unpolished state. It plays well as an FPS, but terribly as an RPG. Therefore if to go round and shoot at waves of enemies is what you're after, then you might in fact enjoy this game, but if you're expecting an immersive first-person RPG, akin to Deus Ex, then you're in for a nasty disappointment.

My score: 6.5/10

Review: Hard Reset

Hard Reset is a fast-paced indie shooter with beautiful visuals and an interesting cyberpunk setting. Perhaps what was most impressive about the game was the fact that the presentation was so top-notch and attention to detail so good that it didn't even feel like an indie game. As many would admit, the visual aesthetics are really stunning (even on low graphics settings) and the environments are atmospheric.

The gameplay itself is quite straight-forward. You go round from area to area, fighting off groups of robots, and then upgrading to new weapons and facing a bigger challenge. Although this may seem repetitive, I personally have had a lot of fun, because there was a very decent variety between the different weapons. You have two types: the ballistics type (rifles, rocket launchers, etc) and the energy type (plasma guns, electric blasters, etc). Each type had 5 different weapons you could acquire through upgrading, so that's 10 weapons in total really, plus each weapon had two different firing modes, so in a way you have up to 20 different ways to kill the enemies. And it's not like all the weapons are similar. Each and every weapon could be useful in specific situations, for example electric blaster could make a short work of hoardes of smaller enemies, smartgun was great for small gunships which could move in the air quickly and dodge regular projectiles, whereas bigger enemies like bosses would require you to use charging plasma projectiles or maybe even the rocket launcher. I personally found myself using every single weapon at some point.

The combat in general was a little more engaging than what you might expect. There were a lot of destructible and explosive objects in the environment, so using environmental kills was highly encouraged throughout pretty much the entire game, which was a really nice touch, because many games of this style tend to suffer from the lack of this feature. There were some interesting boss fights which were pretty challenging. In fact the whole game was challenging, but it has 4 difficulty modes, and Easy difficulty is really suitable for someone who wishes a more casual approach to the game.

 As for story, many would say it's nothing too special, but it did add some spice to the game, and the comic-book style cutscenes in between the missions were a really nice addition in my opinion. Admittedly the game isn't very long. It took me about 7 hours to complete the original game plus the Exile DLC, but this is pretty standard for single player FPS games, plus the game was fun enough and I am sure I will be back to it again in the future, especially that there are plenty of Steam achievements to get. And speaking of DLC, I thought it was really decent that the DLC was actually free and comes together with the original game at no extra charge. Now this shows that the developers are really passionate about delivering a good, satisfying game to the fans and not for dishing out extra cash.

My score: 9/10