Gabz/mL

Neon Abyss

Neon Abyss is a frantic, roguelike action-platformer where you run ‘n’ gun your way into the Abyss as part of the Hades formed ‘Grim Squad’.

I don't know how many hours I got on this game but there must be quite a lot. I haven't put down this game since I bought it. At first I played it on the Xbox One, as it is free-to-play with GamePass and I immediately, I fell for it. The music is great, the pixel art it's beautiful, although, I am a sucker for pixel art so Im might be a little biased here. The story its very simple, you start having a drink with Hades and he request that you help destroy some Titan group while you seek revenge for the destruction of your family.There are other characters and there's not so much story about their background but no one cares, or at least I don't. The Switch version comes with 2 extra characters, unless there was something I was supposed to download on the Xbox version that I didn't. The reason I paid for it on the Switch is because these games, or almost every game rather, I prefer to play it on the Switch.

The game it's pretty straight forward, you go down a dungeon and you shoot at things. As you progress in the dungeon you collect items that will enhance your abilities, all these items do stack on top of each other pretty much unlimintles. Also you collect eggs, these eggs eventually hatch and become your pets. These pets also enhanced your abilities and you can end up with a long stack of them. After a while your character can look very Crazy-Town Banana-Pants with all the item you collect.

Since I am not looking for a challenge, I am playing on easy, and still some dungeons/areas and bosses can be a little difficult. Every run of one level or boss is never the same as everything randomly generated. Every time you die you lose all your abilities and enhancements, however you collect some crystals that will let you buy other skills before you get back at it. When you die you get "seed" a code which you can use to repeatedly play the same run or even share it. There is some disadvantage to use these, you can unlock achievements and get Faith Gems. I am guessing the Faith Gems. Again, I haven't tried to use any of my own "seeds" to see what happens but I do have a few saved. Reminds me of the old Mega Man X days.

Every time I die I just start all over, it sucks at the beginning, especially when you're used to be overpowered for a few levels. I think the game it's worth checking it out, its 19.99 USDs at the eShop with a downloadable demo or, again, free-to-play on the xbox one with GamePass.

Children of Morta

Last night, I finished Tom Clancy’s Splinter Cell Conviction vidjia game. What a fun ride. Not sure whether or not I’ll replay it, I think I might, like the way to re-read a good book.

Also last night I started Children of Morta for the Nintendo Switch, while me lady was watching her tv show. The pixel art in this game is beautiful, awesome narrative and also very different from any other game I have played before. Usually before I purchase a game, I do some research. For this one though, I didn’t. I purchased the game a while ago while it was on sale, purely because of how it looked and not knowing much about it at all. Never got around playing it until last night thought. It recently got some free additional content so that put it under my radar again.

This game plays like a rouge-like dungeon crawler. The stranger thing about this game (to me) is that every time you die in the dungeon, you re-spawn back to your house but you keep all the money you’ve gathered and you can buy upgrades before returning to the dungeon. Also, there’s more story told after every re-spawn. When you return to the dungeon, even thought is the same stage, it is different. You still keep advancing in the story but the dungeon changes.

This is what I understand so far about the game, the story is really good, the narration is awesome and the pixel art is amazing (I’m a sucker for pixels). Needless to say, I die very often in this game but the fact that I can still upgrade my equipment and skills and the little stories in between re-spawns, makes dying not so frustrating.

Mortal Kombat 11 for The Nintendo Switch

I am a huge fan of this franchise, have played many iterations of it, I love everything about it and I also really suck at them. I really do, Mortal Kombat has always been one those fighting games that I just don’t get the mechanics of it or the fighting style and yet, I love them. I love the overall story and the entire lore on this universe.

I haven’t played a MK game in many years and 11 looked cool. Enough to make me want to play it, even when I know I’d suck. This game goes on sale often on the Nintendo eShop, I happened to have some credit so I bought it.

Though I have been playing other games like Street of Rage 4 which it’s probably my favourite release of the year (so far) and Huntdown, which it also has been a lot of fun. I should probably write some of my impressions on it.

Anyway,a few days ago I started playing it and I gotta say, it’s been lots of fun so far. I really wasn’t expecting such an elaborate story with this game. Again I haven’t played an MK game in years so as far as I was concerned I was just gonna get a small story and just fighting. Little did I know that it actually has a very elaborate fluent story with conversations, cool cutscenes and all.

As far as the fighting, well obviously I am playing on the easiest settings available and yet I still suck. I mean, I don’t die often but you won’t see me doing all kinds of cool moves or combos or any of the sorts. I do just enough to survive, beat the other character so I can advance in the story. Of course I can figure out some character better than others like Scorpion or Sub-zero and maybe Liu Kang but that’s it.

Again, I am having fun and once I beat the story I doubt I’ll replay it but who knows. 😁

WARRIORS OROCHI 4 Ultimate for the Nintendo Switch.

Well, I have done it, after lots of debating with I-self I did it! Over the weekend, I have purchased Warriors Orochi. I had been hesitant to buy it for a couple of reasons. There are other games I would also like to play that are also cheaper than this game. Some other games are coming out soon. Also, the Musou gaming style formula, it is one that, once you have played a game like this, you have pretty much played them all. I have played a lot of these games.

I have probably mentioned before, I have played the Dynasty/Samurai Warriors games since back in the PlayStation 2 days, Dynasty Warriors 3 being the first one, up to 9th (which it was a huge disappointment). Then, in between the regular games, you had the Extreme Legends editions and the Empires and the Orochi series, etc. There is a whole genre or series of games with the same formula and I have played a few of them like, ARSLAN: THE WARRIORS OF LEGEND, WARRIORS ALL-STARS, Fate/EXTELLA: The Umbral Star, Fire Emblem Warriors and Hyrule Warriors: Definitive Edition. There is yet another game, kinda with the same formula that I belive it’s on the PS4 but I am waiting for the western release on the Switch which is Persona 5 Scramble: The Phantom Strikers – so excited.

Anyhow, Warriors Orochi 4, like I said I was afraid that since I have played many of this type of game, that I would be bored or just play a little bit and put it to the side. Well, I am happy to report that, that has not being the case. I have been playing non-stop since I got it, I am enjoying this game with the same smile on my face as I remember enjoying DW3. Of course, it has come a long way since DW3, combat it’s a lot more fluid, you have more enemies on the screen which makes the hack and slashing through the field so satisfying. I am feeling right at home with this game. The strength of this game doesn’t lay in the story, especially on this one.

Set in a world on the brink of chaos, heroes from across the Warring States period of Japan and the Three Kingdoms era of China successfully defeat the evil Orochi and end his reign. These two worlds, merged by an unknown entity, are again threatened. As they begin to uncover the mystery surrounding their arrival, their discoveries lead them to one deity: Zeus, the supreme god among gods.

The controls are pretty easy to master, the action is good. In the previous games, you would select one hero and fight your way through thousands in battle, now, you have a team of three characters all with their unique abilities. I am kind of a one-man army mindset still, so even though I have three on my team, I pretty much use the same character. It plays well on handheld mode but I find it a wee bit better docked since there’s quite a lot going on on the screen. The voices in the game are all in Japanese, that doesn’t bother me except when I’m in battling my way through. There is a lot of interaction between different characters in the game and it is hard to pay attention to the text while you’re having fun hacking and slashing. I don’t think you can change the language, not sure.

Either way, I am having a blast with this game, it doesn’t require a lot of focus or too much thinking, which is excellent. Sometimes we need a “dumb” game, I am very delighted with my purchase.

Astral Chain for the Nintendo Switch.

I got this game back in…Was it last summer? Maybe, whenever it came out and I played a little bit of it then I had stopped. I can’t remember the exact reason, maybe another game had also been released then and shifted my attention away from it.

The gist of this game is basically this futuristic mega city in which you and your sister (the two playable characters) are members of this special Police task force. Members of this task force are equipped with sentient armaments called Legions. With the Legions you are able you see and fight these otherworldly beings called chimeras.

So, a few days ago I picked it up again. Started right from the beginning just to refresh my memory. The game starts off with some action fallowed with some slow buildup. But now that I have pretty much done with all the semi-tutorial stuff, I am so sucked into this game. And the worse thing is that so far I haven’t had a “break” as in it is one thing after the other and you can’t stop playing because you’ve got to know what’s going to happen next! This last mission I played, I was thought for sure I was done and was gonna go back to HQ and “take a break”. NOPE!

I do like this though, games that keep me engaged and wanting to know what’s next. No chores! This game has a lot of cool fights and amazing cool looking finishing combos. Some amazing visuals and I love the art, it is very Anime-like. There’s also some puzzle elements to it but not Zelda like. As well of some investigative work, crime scenes and probably my least favorite part just because I much prefer the punchy-punchy, smashy-smashy - 😅.

The detective part reminds me a lot of the Arkham Asylum games, it’s pretty much the same deal. So if you’ve played those games then you’ll be pretty familiar with investigating crime scenes. With the difference that instead of looking fur a killer, most likely will be some nasty monster from another dimension.

Update: no wonder why i am loving this game, these are the same people who made Nier: Automata