"If there is an app for that"

Diablo Immortal review

June 18, 2022 by RSS Feed

In playing and then reading about reactions to Diablo Immortal all this past week, I've been feeling like everyone's talking about a different game. All of the pearl clutching about a free-to-play game having a high ceiling on just how much money you can put into it feels incredibly out of touch, even anachronistic, with regard to the current gaming landscape. What makes conversations about it even stranger is that there isn't even a good reason to even think about giving a cent to Blizzard for Diablo Immortal. This mobilized version of one of a gaming giant's beloved franchises is a finely tuned social space with Diablo stuff shoveled on top of it. It is very good at being exactly that save for some pacing issues that have absolutely nothing to do with it being a free-to-play experience.

Yep it's Diablo

To back up a second, the Diablo games are dark fantasy rpgs where you pick a character class (e.g. Barbarian, Wizard, etc.) and go on dungeon raids where you use all kinds of class-specific abilities to kill tons of hellish creatures while loot and gold fly out of them. You then use this loot and gold to make your character stronger while also leveling up, unlocking new skills, and the going out to fight even stronger creatures.

Diablo Immortal does all of this just fine. Perhaps the most notable departure from the series's core formula is the way it exports some of the most powerful and unique ways to customize your character from a system like a skill tree onto gear which you have to grind through repeatable dungeons to find and power up. It's hard not to view this change cynically as it clearly creates a situation where leveling up alone doesn't allow you to play your character the way you want, but in the grand scheme of what Diablo Immortal ultimately is (more on that later), it doesn't feel as nefarious as it sounds.

Follow the path

Another way in which Diablo Immortal somewhat departs from the Diablo mold (at least from the first two games, anyway) is that it isn't just a straightforward and linear story game. In fact, if you are curious about playing Diablo Immortal for its story, I recommend you steer clear. There is a campaign to play through, but it is mind-numbingly boring and has some experience-gating that forces you to do a bunch of other side activities to be able to keep working your way through it.

As for these other activites, there's an almost overwhelming number of things to do, but you don't really get a full taste of what they are, why they matter, and how they impact your character until you've dumped a lot of time into the game already. Until you get to around level 40, Diablo Immortal feels extremely aimless. There's not really a whole lot to do except follow the literal footstep paths drawn by your quest log to do a lot of the same repetitive actions over and over again without feeling like you're getting particularly stronger or facing challenges that ask you to play differently.

Talk about loot

As you start entering the late stages of character leveling, you are invited to prepare for a co-op raid, and this is one of two modes in Diablo Immortal that provides some significant challenge, provides a meaningful goal for players to work toward, and isn't a pay-to-win hellscape like the game's competitive multiplayer mode. Once this happens, leveling certain kinds of loot, equipping different kinds of abilities, and even working together with players in your party actually starts to feel like it matters.

Outside of that, there are still a ton of things to do that can grant rewards, and those rewards now suddendly feel like fuel to burn toward achieving raid readiness. Many of these activities are somewhat rote and repetitive combat trials, but there are also some interesting social events to take part in, like The Shadow Assembly, which is a player gathering of an in-game secret society you have a win a lottery to get into.

It wasn't until all of these kinds of options opened up alongside a clear goal to work toward that Diablo Immortal made sense, but even now as I plan to continue playing it, I'm definitely more drawn in by the ways in which Diablo Immortal smartly encourages social interaction and play more than the actual actual actions I'm performing at any given moment. The way Diablo Immortal auto-suggests grouping up with players close to one another working on the same quest, or allows queuing for certain game modes no matter where you are in the world, or even how you can so seamlessly add or drop yourself from a party are the kinds of innovations that excite me most about playing it. In this way, Diablo Immortal feels way more satisfying as a social space where play happens than the majority of the core Diablo tasks you're constantly incentivized and asked to perform.

The bottom line

Diablo Immortal is a fine social rpg with a pacing problem. It weaves together some the most intricate, fascinating, and innovative systems for interacting with other players I've ever seen (particularly on mobile), but buries a ton of it under what are somewhat flat but otherwise serviceable action rpg combat and progression systems. None of it feels meaningful until you are finally given a goal, and once you're there, it's a pretty fun upgrade treadmill with monetization that will only bother you if you want to try and compete with people who can happily afford spending an unreasonable amount of money to feel a sense of false superiority in a video game.

Source link:https://www.148apps.com/reviews/diablo-immortal-review/

Diablo Immortal review

June 18, 2022 by RSS Feed

In playing and then reading about reactions to Diablo Immortal all this past week, I've been feeling like everyone's talking about a different game. All of the pearl clutching about a free-to-play game having a high ceiling on just how much money you can put into it feels incredibly out of touch, even anachronistic, with regard to the current gaming landscape. What makes conversations about it even stranger is that there isn't even a good reason to even think about giving a cent to Blizzard for Diablo Immortal. This mobilized version of one of a gaming giant's beloved franchises is a finely tuned social space with Diablo stuff shoveled on top of it. It is very good at being exactly that save for some pacing issues that have absolutely nothing to do with it being a free-to-play experience.

Yep it's Diablo

To back up a second, the Diablo games are dark fantasy rpgs where you pick a character class (e.g. Barbarian, Wizard, etc.) and go on dungeon raids where you use all kinds of class-specific abilities to kill tons of hellish creatures while loot and gold fly out of them. You then use this loot and gold to make your character stronger while also leveling up, unlocking new skills, and the going out to fight even stronger creatures.

Diablo Immortal does all of this just fine. Perhaps the most notable departure from the series's core formula is the way it exports some of the most powerful and unique ways to customize your character from a system like a skill tree onto gear which you have to grind through repeatable dungeons to find and power up. It's hard not to view this change cynically as it clearly creates a situation where leveling up alone doesn't allow you to play your character the way you want, but in the grand scheme of what Diablo Immortal ultimately is (more on that later), it doesn't feel as nefarious as it sounds.

Follow the path

Another way in which Diablo Immortal somewhat departs from the Diablo mold (at least from the first two games, anyway) is that it isn't just a straightforward and linear story game. In fact, if you are curious about playing Diablo Immortal for its story, I recommend you steer clear. There is a campaign to play through, but it is mind-numbingly boring and has some experience-gating that forces you to do a bunch of other side activities to be able to keep working your way through it.

As for these other activites, there's an almost overwhelming number of things to do, but you don't really get a full taste of what they are, why they matter, and how they impact your character until you've dumped a lot of time into the game already. Until you get to around level 40, Diablo Immortal feels extremely aimless. There's not really a whole lot to do except follow the literal footstep paths drawn by your quest log to do a lot of the same repetitive actions over and over again without feeling like you're getting particularly stronger or facing challenges that ask you to play differently.

Talk about loot

As you start entering the late stages of character leveling, you are invited to prepare for a co-op raid, and this is one of two modes in Diablo Immortal that provides some significant challenge, provides a meaningful goal for players to work toward, and isn't a pay-to-win hellscape like the game's competitive multiplayer mode. Once this happens, leveling certain kinds of loot, equipping different kinds of abilities, and even working together with players in your party actually starts to feel like it matters.

Outside of that, there are still a ton of things to do that can grant rewards, and those rewards now suddendly feel like fuel to burn toward achieving raid readiness. Many of these activities are somewhat rote and repetitive combat trials, but there are also some interesting social events to take part in, like The Shadow Assembly, which is a player gathering of an in-game secret society you have a win a lottery to get into.

It wasn't until all of these kinds of options opened up alongside a clear goal to work toward that Diablo Immortal made sense, but even now as I plan to continue playing it, I'm definitely more drawn in by the ways in which Diablo Immortal smartly encourages social interaction and play more than the actual actual actions I'm performing at any given moment. The way Diablo Immortal auto-suggests grouping up with players close to one another working on the same quest, or allows queuing for certain game modes no matter where you are in the world, or even how you can so seamlessly add or drop yourself from a party are the kinds of innovations that excite me most about playing it. In this way, Diablo Immortal feels way more satisfying as a social space where play happens than the majority of the core Diablo tasks you're constantly incentivized and asked to perform.

The bottom line

Diablo Immortal is a fine social rpg with a pacing problem. It weaves together some the most intricate, fascinating, and innovative systems for interacting with other players I've ever seen (particularly on mobile), but buries a ton of it under what are somewhat flat but otherwise serviceable action rpg combat and progression systems. None of it feels meaningful until you are finally given a goal, and once you're there, it's a pretty fun upgrade treadmill with monetization that will only bother you if you want to try and compete with people who can happily afford spending an unreasonable amount of money to feel a sense of false superiority in a video game.

Source link:https://www.148apps.com/reviews/diablo-immortal-review/

Void-X review

June 18, 2022 by RSS Feed

Style isn't everything, but it can go a long way toward making a game much more enjoyable than it might otherwise be. This is certainly the case for Void-X, a very straightforward and simple horizontal shooter that has an unbelievably confident aesthetic identity that feels great to play around in as a result.

Stark shooter

Void-X presents a black and white, pixelated, rain-soaked cityscape backed by a gentle and dark drum and bass track. A plain text prompt blinks in the center of this view with instructions "Tap to start." Doing so launches a ship you control into the foreground where you tap and slide your finger around to auto-fire at enemy aircraft to try and take them down and maximize your score.

Shots coming from your ship are green, while enemy fire is red. If you dodge and shoot your way through a few waves of enemies successfully, you then encounter a boss fight which rewards you with additional health and a powerup for your ship before moving on to a more difficult stage. If you die at any point in Void-X, your score is totaled and you have the option to start the game over from the beginning again.

Soak it in

There's no checkpoints in Void-X, nor is there any currency or upgrades to carry between runs. In fact, there are virtually no additional options, modes, or things to do in the game besides adjusting your control sensitivity, turning the music on or off, and playing the one mode it has.

This barebones approach all feels purposeful, though. Void-X is all about setting a specific tone and having you do one specific thing within it. A sort of ominous cool envelops you while you slide and shoot and keeping the focus on exactly that frees you from distraction and makes this simple game a fun, no-frills challenge worth playing repeatedly.

Style over stability

I really respect Void-X for committing above all else to its specific look and feel, but there are some aspects of this game that are surprisingly rough considering the game's apparent attention-to-detail on the surface. Most of these problems crop up if you switch out of the app and return to it. Sometimes, Void-X may be unresponsive, or the music won't play. In some instances I've returned to the game on the pause screen but the action of the game is still moving and playing out underneath the menu.

To be fair, Void-X isn't the kind of game where you'll really want or need to be hopping in and out of it in the midst of a run. Even my longest individual sessions have only managed to be around 10 minutes. This doesn't excuse technical issues like this, though, so they are worth calling out here.

The bottom line

Void-X is a game where it's style is the substance. There's nothing special or unique about its side-scrolling shooter action besides the way it looks and makes you feel. This is 100% ok by me, though. The tone of Void-X is right up my alley to the point that it serves as a nice escape into another world where everything is simple, manageable, and cool. I don’t really need a game to do much more than that to leave me satisfied.

Source link:https://www.148apps.com/reviews/void-x-review/

Barnard's Star review

June 18, 2022 by RSS Feed

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Barnard's Star is a multiplayer focused arena tactics game where two players take turns positioning and attacking with a squad of four soldiers in an attempt to destroy their opponent's base and come out victorious. This game format is nothing new to the App Store, but developer Pollywog Games places its own unique mechanics and systems on top of this tired formula that are enjoyable when you aren't running up against some rough spots in the game's design.

Spaceship slayground

There are a lot of games like Barnard's Star that have come and gone over the years. The first one that came to mind for me was Super Senso, but this game's brand of multiplayer turn-based strategy is also reminiscent of the more recent Phobies, or--if you prefer some more well-known comparison points--it can also be situated somewhere in between the likes of games like Advance Wars and XCOM.

This is all to say that Barnard's Star has two players pick a faction to play as and four units unique to that faction to control in a match. From there, the units spawn into a designated zone and players take turns giving instructions to their teams that can include anything from moving into cover, using teleporters, activating overwatch abilities, grappling around the map, placing/destroying cover, and more. The ultimate goal behind all of these actions is an effort to control the map, which includes establishing a balance of offense and defense that your opponent has a hard time countering.

Asynchronous attacking

Due to its turn-based nature, Barnard's Star allows players to juggle multiple matches at the same time and pushes notifications whenever a new turn is available. In executing a turn, players can also make use of a handy undo button, allowing for true tacticians to experiment with the most optimal sets of moves before locking them in.

The more you play, Barnard's Star, the more the undo button will feel necessary as the game hangs its hat on boasting a unique set of units that all operate pretty differently, and their interactions can lead to some surprising and unanticipated results. There's robots that can spawn copies of themselves, bounty hunters that can grapple and pull other units around, monsters that spew poison all over the map, and more. On top of this Barnard's Star has some distinct mechanics that apply to all units that don't exist in other games, as well. Things like bonus turns for units that score kills, respawn timers that change depending on how many times a unit gets killed; heck, even familiar concepts like cover and firing operate in ways that they don't quite do in other games, making Barnard's Star something that takes quite a bit of time to get used to.

Rough and ready

While you can play Barnard's Star single player against AI, it is clear this is a game that is meant for multiplayer. Even playing single-player matches against the game's highest difficulty, your opponents make some questionable decisions, like firing their weapons at walls and ignoring cover. If that weren't enough, Barnard's Star has an unlock system for new units that challenges you to perform certain feats to get new ways to diversify your squads, but you can't get these unlocks through playing against AI.

It's also really clear that Barnard's Star wants you to take steps back from the game's action between turns and truly play it asynchronously, as evidenced by a relatively common bug that doesn't pass control of a round to you if you when it's your turn if you stay in a match to wait for it. This doesn't happen all the time, but there were numerous times, (even when playing against AI), where the game essentially would not proceed forward unless I backed out of a game and went back into it.

The bottom line

In comparison to other turn-based multiplayer strategy games, Barnard's Star feels pretty small. That said, of the variety it has there is a lot of depth to explore in terms of team composition and turn combos that can make it a really satisfying competitive experience. I just wish that whole package felt little more polished.

Source link:https://www.148apps.com/reviews/barnards-star-review/

Street of Rage 4 review

June 01, 2022 by RSS Feed

The question you have to ask yourself before you consider buying Streets of Rage 4 for iOS is whether or not you're ok dealing with the same issues that seem unavoidable for 2D brawlers. If the answer is yes, this game is likely the definitive beat 'em up experience you can get on the App Store. Just know that for all it gets right, the game still comes with all of the control challenges you can expect from trying to navigate and fight with 2D characters in 3D spaces.

Retro rage

If you're at all familiar with the lineage of the Streets of Rage series, then you know that Streets of Rage 4 is a long-awaited sequel to a beloved series of titles that last released on the Sega Genesis back in the 90s. A big part of these games' popularity had to do with their style and music on top of the way they played.

Fast-forward to now, and Streets of Rage 4 really tries to stay true the series lineage, offering fairly straightforward and competent gameplay wrapped in a really stylish and slick-looking package. I'm not sure the overall aesthetic feels as in-tune with any particular subcultures in the ways that the previous games were, but the distinct style it has avoids relying too much on nostalgia which helps it stand on its own merits.

Street fighter

As for the game itself, Streets of Rage 4 is perhaps the most complete and balanced brawler I have encountered. From the very start of picking your character and playing through the first stage, you encounter a level of variety and balance that puts most other beat 'em ups to shame. Although later levels definitely run a little dry on new enemies or situations to put you in, the mixing and matching of what you've previously encountered makes for satisfying combat challenges that still feel novel.

On iOS, mastering combos via touch can be challenging at first, though I found myself perfectly capable of completing the game on its default difficulty without having to use a controller or any of the game's built-in assists you can turn on to make the game easier. The port itself looks incredible and includes a bunch of fun and useful customization options, ranging between scaling and moving the touch UI to turning on video filters to make the game look like it might have back in the 90s.

Plain puncher

I can't think of an action brawler on iOS that really rivals the amount of depth and variety as Streets of Rage 4, but that doesn't mean the game is able to sidestep some of the genre's most irritating and endemic issues. As with seemingly all games of this ilk, it's difficult to tell when you are actually lined up with enemies and vice versa, which can lead to irritating defeats.

There's nothing worse than getting countered by a basic enemy because you thought you were about to tear into them only to find yourself punching air and leaving yourself exposed. Streets of Rage 4 somewhat exacerbates this issue by limiting the amount of lives you get to clear levels, as missing enemies due to perspective can very well be the cause of you having to retry an entire stage from the beginning. In fairness, this kind of perspective trouble just seems unavoidable for anyone making games in this style, but it's still worth pointing out that this continues to be an unsolved problem here.

The bottom line

Streets of Rage 4 is a stylish and satisfying brawler that does just about everything you can do with brawlers better than the competition. It is still very much one of those games though, so don't go in expecting something revelatory. The best news about Streets of Rage 4 is it hits iOS in a completely uncompromised form, allowing you to carry around an incredible beat 'em up and whip it out just about anywhere.

Source link:https://www.148apps.com/reviews/street-of-rage-4-review/