SpaceChem

So you want to know about SpaceChem? Well, the first thing you need to do is survive this next sentence. SpaceChem is a game about chemistry. Still here? Okay, good, because there is much more to SpaceChem than just the chemistry part, though I'm sure that might be too much for people with a very bad experience in that subject.

To be fair, SpaceChem is really a puzzle game wherein the challenge is a to create what is essentially a program to produce some chemical compound. For example, one of the earlier levels lets you spawn in either H₂ or O₂, but to complete the level you must come up with a means of combining the two elements into a H₂O₂ molecule, which is complicated by the rules of chemistry where the Hs can only attach to one molecule at a time, and the Os only two, so you need to break the bond holding the H₂ together, as well as weaken the bond holding the O₂ together so you have room to attach those Hs. So yes, having some knowledge of chemistry helps, but by no means do you have to know that the reason you can only have two bonds on an oxygen is because it has 6 electrons in it's outer shell, and thus has room for two more. That deeper level of information is provided in a much more convenient form via an included periodic table with a simple 2 next to the oxygen, which is more than enough information to play this game.

My solution to break about the H₂ from the top left, weaken the O₂ from the bottom left, and recombine the two into the final product, where it is shipped off on the top right.

If you're not convinced that the chemistry portion of the game isn't important yet, I can't blame you. That's because I haven't covered the mechanics of how you go about altering those molecules, and that's where the puzzle portion of the game comes it.

There are rules that govern what you can do in your workspace, which is inside a reactor. You get two little tools, called waldos, to move things around, and you determine exactly what they will do, creating a path and adding instructions like picking up a molecule, dropping it, calling in more or sending a completed one out. The trick is that you need to coordinate your actions so that the whole thing doesn't blow up in your face, which can happen when you hit the walls, or two molecules collide because you thought you picked something up but didn't, or you try and send the wrong molecule to the output, and so on. Furthermore, you're limited to one instruction per waldo per square, but you can route them over the same spot multiple times through clever pathing or by the use of some of the advanced instructions that add more logic to the game, such as going left the first time a waldo passes over it, but right the next time. By the time you unlock everything, and come to have a good grasp of the tools at your disposal, you'll be surprised what you can make.

This one just repeats a loop until a sensor at the bottom is triggered. The result is far more impressive than the puzzle that produces it.

To make things more interesting, there are a variety of reactors, and while all are physically the same size for the internals, you'll find that some only let you bond molecules, or others only let you break them apart. Others let you fuse two molecules together, such as combing several oxygen until you get some uranium. These are all revealed over time, but come into play most importantly during production missions, levels in which you are allowed to use several different reactors, routing the results of one into the next, until you can ultimately take the raw resources from the left and combine them through whatever processes you deem necessary to get the required product. You may need to place a bonding reactor first so you can break a molecule down into it's base components, and then send some of those off to be fused into something else, which eventually meets back up with everything else in a supper bonder to create some bizarre combination of elements.
 

Production missions also require you to properly lay out your reactors, giving them an extra layer of difficulty. Space is always at a premium in this game.

There is in fact a story to SpaceChem, which is revealed in parts as you progress through the various missions. It starts with you departing to work at for one of the large chemistry corporations, which harvest materials from foreign worlds and stars. Things get interesting when equipment starts behaving strangely, something possesses your boss, and then you ultimately find the facility you're working at comes under attack by a bizarre presence. Though you only gain brief bits of story throughout the campaign, a few pages per world, it does make for an interesting distraction from the otherwise all consuming puzzle portion of the game, and is genuinely enjoyable.

The story also helps justify the boss fights in the game. Yes, boss fights in a puzzle game.

What I like about SpaceChem, from a puzzle point of view, is the simultaneous simplicity and complexity of the whole thing. Besides a few specifics, like those production missions or special reactors, each level is the same in that you always start with the same empty reactor no matter how complex the molecule you need to create is, and it is up to you to come up with a solution, any solution, that works for the task at hand. Rather than many other puzzle games where there is only one, narrowly prescribed solution, SpaceChem gives you the freedom to do whatever you want in that little space, where you can try a multitude of ideas, good and bad, until you finally come up with something that gives you what you want, and where your solution can be drastically different than anyone else. While other puzzle games are hard because it is difficult to come to the single solution, thinking of something like Portal 2, SpaceChem is hard because you have too much freedom, and must work through all those ideas that don't work until you find something that does. Personally, SpaceChem has raised the bar by which I now judge all puzzle games, which pretty much sucks for anything else out there.

A particularly bad solution, as noted compared to others. But the thing is, it works.

It should be noted that I played SpaceChem over quite a long period of time. The game is very challenging, and after a while I would just hit a wall, coming up short of any solutions that would work, so it did take a bit of playing here and there over the course of a few months before I was finally able to beat the game, though my play time only clocks in at 34 hours. There are many who could do much better than that, and I have seen some brilliant solutions, such as one that accomplished what I did in 5 reactors in 1, so ultimately your time to completion in this game will depend on just how good you are with logic puzzles, and if you enjoy it enough, you can always head over to the portion that is full of user generated content for even more to do. The game is normally $10, and I wouldn't recommend paying below $5 for it - to help you decide, there is a demo out there, because maybe you're good enough you can pay more for it. Overall SpaceChem is a brilliant game that will leave you in awe, either in what you create or when you see what other people can do - 10 out of 10.

So, the final breakdown:

Score: 10/10

Suggested Price: $5+

AaaaaAAaaaAAAaaAAAAaAAAAA!!! for the Awesome

**Be sure to check out the video review!**

AaaaaAAaaaAAAaaAAAAaAAAAA!!! for the Awesome is the semi sequel to AaAaAA!!! - A Reckless Disregard for Gravity. I say semi sequel because Awesome contains all 82 original levels from Reckless in a remastered form, in addition to the 43 new levels that come with Awesome. Also, I will be saying "awesome" far too much in the remainder of this review.

Awesome is classified as Action/Indie/Sport, but it's probably best to look at it like it's a twitch BASE jumping game, in which you leap from great heights and must successfully navigate through floating buildings, down the side of a mountain, or around asteroids to reach the bottom with the highest score possible. It requires dedication, good reflexes, and a resistance to seizures. If you've got all that, Awesome can make for a really fun, as well as really frustrating, time.

Sometimes subtle moves are more effective than grand sweeps. That doesn't mean they're any easier to pull off when you've got the wind at your back and you're moving a double speed though.

Each level, upon completion, gives you a rating from 0 to 5 depending on your score. You increase your score by doing a number of things, though predominately it's from hugs and kisses. Kisses are what you get when you get close enough to a structure, such as a building, railing, platform, etc. Kisses are worth 10 hugs, and are a great way to rack up a lot of points when your zooming past a series of rails that you can't hug. Hugs are far more important when there are few objects in a level, or on the few where there aren't any buildings, but rather a mountain. Hugs are rewarded for maintaining a close proximity to an object, but are risky because you might hit something, or get bounced off of it and back out into space, losing big points.

In addition to hugs and kisses, there are a few special items you can unlock, and some tricks you can pull off, to increase your score. Once you obtain the glove you can either flip a thumbs up or obscene gesture at groups of fans/protesters, which you will see around certain levels on walkways that are color coded as to what they are. The other item is they spray can, which you can use to graffiti special buildings if you are close enough to them. Both sets of actions give you plenty of points, but they also make the game harder because you are now trying to focus on steering around objects rushing up at your face, while also hitting the correct button (by default, Mouse 1, 2, and 3) for the given circumstance.

Just make sure to flip the right gesture, which is hard when you're flying by a group every few seconds.

The final ways you'll get points are as follows: hit the colored score plates stashed around a level, which generally guide you on one of several routes to the bottom, with the hardest worth the most points; pull off stunts, such as threading the needle, which requires you to squeeze through a rather tight spot; and, ultimately, make a perfect landing within one of the two colored circles, which requires timing what is essentially your parachute deployment, considering your momentum and the wind. In short, if you want a high score, you'll have to do a number of things right, which is part of what makes the game so frustrating at times.

The reward for getting a high score, in addition to bragging rights if you make it into the top 5, which are broadcast for all to see, is that you get more currency to unlock more levels. One of the interesting things about Awesome/Reckless, is that all the levels are essentially available from the beginning. To unlock a level, you must buy the cube it resides in, but you can only do this from an adjacent cube, so you basically navigate your way around the level selection screen, picking up the ones you want, and skipping the ones you don't. This is more important when you want to get some of the items, like the glove, or the caffeine that you can use to slow down time for a short period, because they are available as cubes on the level screen as well, and they function the same way. It is, however, not that important once you really get going.

Here is where you unlock the levels and items, since my words don't paint the proper picture.

While Reckless incorporates features like wind, bounce pads for a second try in an area you just cleared, and teleportation pads in a few levels, Awesome takes things to a whole new level. Some levels take place in space, where you fall much slower, and so you can make these big sweeping turns to try and grab several kisses at once. Other levels double your fall speed, pushing your reactions to the limit. Still other levels, perhaps as a show of pity, have checkpoints, such that if you die in that level from hitting an object, you respawn at that point, though you will be penalized when the score is calculated. Overall, the core gameplay is the same - Awesome just makes things a bit more challenging.

While this is a short review, Awesome is anything but, at least if you set a goal. I wanted to achieve 4 out of 5 on every level, both old and new. In the 12 hours I put into the game, I almost reached my goal, as I absolutely could not do better than a 3 in two different levels, while I achieved a position in the top 5 on a handful of others. I did enjoy the game, but it can be more than just a little frustrating at times, particularly when you come in too hot for a landing and make a splat rather than a score of 5. There is definitely a level of skill, and perhaps madness, needed to do well in this game, and it can be a bit intimidating if you're not prepared for it. Look for it around $5 if you can, because it really is a very good game - 8 out of 10.

So, the final breakdown:

Score: 8/10

Suggested Price: $5

Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine

  **Be sure to check out the video review!**  

I was first introduced to the Warhammer 40k universe when I was looking for a new game to play and thought I might as well try this Dawn of War II game that was included in some THQ pack I had purchased. I had already tried another Relic game, Company of Heroes, and I liked their take on the RTS genre, particularly in the campaign, so I figured this Warhammer game would probably be well done. It of course was, and I particularly enjoyed the RPG/RTS hybrid they had come up with. More importantly, Dawn of War II generated an interest in me to keep any eye out for further games from the same universe, which brings me to today's game - Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine.

In Space Marine you take on the roll of Captain Titus, a member of the Ultramarine chapter of space marines, who is dispatched to Forge World Graia - a planet that manufactures critical war materiel - which has fallen under siege by a group of Orks. This forge world is of "Absolute" strategic importance, to the point that those on Graia aren't even allowed to deploy their capital weaponry because of how it would negatively impact the planet's output. Unfortunately, a sizable human force cannot make it to the planet quickly, so Captain Titus and his fellow Ultramarines are dispatched to stem the tide until the main force can arrive, estimated at some time between 5 and 37 days after the invasion commenced. And so, in a series of events that are really, really cool, such as making your in game entrance by strapping on a jetpack and rocketing out of a drop ship, past several other aircraft, until you land on an Ork barge where you begin slaughtering those vile greenskins, you get to soften up the enemy by securing strategically important targets and generally killing anything that's not human.

I prefer the whole jumping out of a crashing dropship and rolling right into combat, but rocketing downward past broken ships is cool too.

Unfortunately you arrive nine days after the invasion started, and the Orks have already secured a sizable portion of the planet, including it's defensive battery. Therefore, that becomes your first goal, so you and your two other "battle brothers" - the hard nosed, taking-everything-in-stride-because-I've-done-that-already Sidonus and the still wet behind the ears Leandros, head in that direction. Along the way you uncover information about a member of the Inquisition who has an experimental device the Orks must not get. Apparently humans in the future have a tendency to put all their important stuff in one place, making a nice target for loot crazed Ork Warbosses.

The story progresses from there, with one very big twist in it. Eventually things get much more interesting when a third force shows up - Chaos. From that point on the game has a bit more variety, since you're no longer exclusively fighting Orks, and the Chaos forces do tend to provide a bit more of a challenge, particularly the Chaos Marines, which are, if I understand this correctly, Space Marines corrupted by the dark chaos gods.

Apparently the Chaos forces are related to Half-Life 2's combine.

The combat in Space Marine is pretty simple. You are allowed up to five weapons at any one time - a melee weapon, a pistol, a machine gun, and two more of your choice. You will always have the first three, and cannot switch your pistol for say, a sniper rifle. The only thing you can do is upgrade your weapon, as scattered throughout the game there are booths that allow you access to a new weapon or an upgrade for an existing one. With this you change in your combat knife for the iconic chainsword, and later can grab a power axe or thunder hammer, as well as upgrading your two base guns from bolters that fire ammunition to plasma weapons that tend to overheat, particularly the pistol when you charge it up. Other weapons include the Lascannon and Stalker bolter, which are two different sniper rifles, the extremely powerful shotgun like Melta gun, and the grenade launcher like Vengeance Launcher. This makes for some variety, as there are about a dozen weapons, including upgraded versions that replace base weapons, in total, but since you are limited to maintaining your pistol, which does have the perk of always having infinite ammo, and machine gun for two of your four slots, you don't have the options that you really could. Furthermore, some weapons and items actually limit you to only your pistol and machine gun, such as when you equip the extremely powerful Thunder Hammer.

While the firearms are nice, and you can occasionally do something really cool like rip a turret off it's base and use it as your own heavy weapon, I found that the majority of the time I was engaged in close quarter's combat. The reason for this is the way health functions in this game. You see, there are no health packs to heal you, and at best you have a shield that will regenerate over time, so there isn't much point in hiding behind some boxes and waiting it out. Instead, if you want to fill your health bar back up, you need to pull off a few executions. You do this by stunning an enemy, and then hitting the appropriate key to finish them off, always in the most graphic fashion possible. Bigger enemies are harder to stun, and may require larger weapons to whittle them down or the use of a grenade or combo, such as chaining together several hacks with your melee weapon followed by a large AoE stun to disorient several enemies at once. Unfortunately, this game's idea of a combo is to attack 1-3 times and then hit stun, so it's not exactly the most difficult thing to pull off. What is more of a concern is that you take damage until the execution is completed, so while you are locked in the animation of choke slamming an Ork and then smashing a hammer through his skull, you will still be taking damage, all the while leaving yourself vulnerable, and if you don't pay attention to how quickly your health is dropping or begin an execution in time, you will die.

The funny thing is you're encouraged to do this, but I would have done it anyways.

There are a few items in the game as well, such as those that unlock and upgrade your fury ability, increase the durability of your shield, and the occasional jetpack. Fury builds up as you kill and damage enemies, and once it is full, you can unleash to do a variety of things, such as drastically increase you melee damage, restore your health, or be used to augment your ranged attack. Fury is important when you are faced with several enemies at once, and can easily turn a dire situation into an assured victory.

What is far more enjoyable though are the jetpack levels. Here you are able to fly up into the air for a short period of time, reaching new heights, and then, if you choose, rocket back down to earth and stunning every nearby enemy. In many cases the jetpack is paired with the Thunder Hammer, the most powerful melee weapon in the game. When the two are combined you can quickly fly around the map, targeting groups or the largest threat with your jetpack impact, and then finishing off even the largest enemy with a good melee combo. This is probably my favorite portion of the game.

Yeah, this is just plain awesome.

My biggest complaint about this game is that it, quite frankly, gets old after a while. Slaughtering Orks is fun, especially at first, and the game mechanics that force you into combat rather than simply retreating to cover and waiting while your shield recharges are a breath of fresh air, but given enough time I couldn't help but feel that much of the game was the same: enter a small area where you are swarmed by a smaller group of Orks; defeat them and then take on the next wave, which is larger and will contain some of the next tier of Ork, such as those armed with guns; continue this process until you ultimately face a very large group with many normal Orks and 1-4 very, very big Orks. That formula describes a large portion of the game, and within each fight the strategy is pretty much the same, where you are pulling off the game's simple combos to stun an area of enemies followed by grabbing a few to execute for health, occasionally using your special fury ability when it is up to deal massive damage, generally focusing on the larger Orks, and regenerating some health that way. The number of enemies does add a level of difficulty not normally seen in most games, and I spent plenty of time dead because I underestimated the threat a couple dozen Orks could pose to me with a Thunder Hammer. I will grant that point, that it really did feel like I was taking on an Ork horde, watching as their Roks rained down from the sky and then they came pouring over the cliff or out of the rubble. It's just after a while the coolness factor wears off. Thankfully the story progresses and the Chaos forces get involved, and the diversity that results is a breath of fresh air that makes the game much more enjoyable.

Maybe for the sequel add more ammo? I love the power of the Melta Gun, but 10 rounds isn't remotely close to enough in most fights, and that might mean a bit less time in melee mode.

One other, albeit minor, issue. You would think that after the intro I wrote for this review, I would have invested heavily into other Warhammer 40k games, coming to know the universe like the back of my hand. It is true that I do own many of them - pretty much everything Relic has made, I do believe - but I haven't had the time to delve into too much yet, so I'm not really familiar with the universe outside of what is covered in Dawn of War. I know Warhammer is huge, with plenty of different races contending for power, each with their own idiosyncrasies, such as the Orks which are pretty much the scourge of the universe when they get on a roll, or the humans that worship a machine god emperor of some sort, but I couldn't go into much detail beyond that. Due to that, I believe I am missing out on some great part of the story in Space Marine, which would explain the struggle between the various races, how the Chaos forces come into play, or things like the human's obsession with skulls, the true importance of the Titan war machines, or the grandiose architecture present on the planet, which I can at least appreciate for artistic reasons but do not understand the logic behind it. It's also possible that I didn't spend enough time exploring to find all of the hidden collectibles, which provide you with recordings of various people on the planet, and subsequently more background for what's going on, specifically when you find Inquisitor Drogan's messages. While I ultimately did enjoy the story, it just feels like there is a whole other layer I am not privy to.

In closing, I would say Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine is a good game, one that is enjoyable enough in it's own right, though with a few things that bothered me. After putting 8 hours into it, I eagerly await the inevitable sequel, because the story does leave a bit of a cliffhanger, and I really, really, want to know where they're going to take this next. I managed to pick Space Marine up for $12.50 off of greenmangaming.com back at a time when the lowest price elsewhere was around $20. I have since seen multiple locations where it's more like $10, but I would be content finding it around the $15 mark, because it is a solid gaming experience - 7 out of 10.

So, the final breakdown:

Score: 7/10

Suggested Price: $15

Sequence Video Review

The video review for Sequence is now available.

Anomaly Warzone Earth

Up for review today is another tower defense game, Anomaly Warzone Earth - except that it's not just another tower defense game. Sure, all the basic TD components are there: a variety of units that head towards the end of the level along one of several paths, towers that try and stop those units, including ones that cover all the basics such as heavy hitter but slower, strong but fast, and middle of the road towers, resulting in a bit of flavor there. The problem is, in Anomaly Warzone Earth, you're not controlling the towers - you're controlling the attackers.

That's what makes Anomaly stand out as a pretty unique game. You're in charge of selecting which units you'd like in your convoy, up to 6, which is also the number of different units in the game. You're choices are between the APC, Crawler (heavy hitter, light armor), Shield, Tank, Dragon (short range, but bidrectional firing ability), and Supply. Each unit has it's advantages and disadvantages, though you don't have access to each one immediately, rather unlocking them as you progress through the story. Additionally, each unit has a different cost, and while each unit can be upgraded, the cost for that increase to attack and armor varies depending on the unit, making a Tank much more expensive to purchase and upgrade compared to, say, the APC, and since currency is limited to a few pickup points around a level and successfully defeating towers, it really makes a difference. Ultimately, understanding the differences between the units, and the costs associated with different make ups, while weighing you're play style, will dictate how you proceed. Personally, I prefer Tanks fore and aft, with two Crawlers dead center, and two shields in the number 2 and 4 slots, since they only shield the two units they are adjacent to.

With the ability to pause the game and shift my units around on the fly, I can take the Tanks and swap them, which is useful when the on in the front has taken a beating.

Now most of the units seem pretty self explanatory, as they deal damage or prevent it in some way or another. But what about Supply - what's that all about? Supply is a unit that, depending on how it's been upgraded, resupplies you're four special abilities, which you can also obtain occasionally after defeating enemy towers. These are repair, smoke, decoy, and airstrike, which provide you with a means to mitigate incoming damage or deal a bit of your own, and all of which deploy around the commander, the character you take on the roll of, since the folks over at 11 bit studios couldn't settle for just making a reverse tower defense game and instead had to add a playable character.

There have been several TD games where you take a much more active roll in the gameplay, such as Orcs Must Die!, Dungeon Defenders, and Sanctum, all of which have you standing toe to toe with the enemies you must defeat. Anomaly is nothing like that. Instead the commander is a very passive roll, delegated to maintain your units, the key use of your ability to repair allies or protect them is a critical part of the game. This is why it is important not to wander off or get so far ahead of your units that you start to take damage yourself, because if you do die, while you will respawn, you will lose a good chunk of time waiting to do so and then running to catch up with your units - which is all time during which they could be taking damage and dying.

 

You can also alter your units path on the fly, which is useful for avoiding some of the larger enemies in the game.

There are a total of 6 enemy towers in the game, and while most of them are fairly typical of this genre, except for the whole part where they're shooting at you, there are two that reflect the uniqueness of this game. Those would be the Hacker and Energizer, which interfere with your units and make them target you rather than the towers, generally killing you quickly, which I've already covered why you would want to avoid that, or absorb the energy from your special abilities, and, when fully charged, creates a wave that repairs and rebuilds all towers within a certain range, respectively. So both of those are bad.

The other enemies, as I said, are typical fare, consisting of an extremely common turret, a fixed heavy hitter that will obliterate anything in it's firing path, which is limited to the lane directly in front of it, a slow moving but AoE damage causing turret, and a light damage tower the impacts multiple enemies and has the nasty habit of burning through you're shields in short order. Your angle of approach, the density of enemy towers, and availability of alternate paths are all things to consider when mapping out your route through each level.

Scorcher + frontal assault = bad.

There are a total of 14 missions in the game, and most of them are pretty straight forward, requiring you to get from one end to the other of a map. There is an escort missions where you must time your route so that you can provide cover for a damaged aircraft the flies directly from point A to B, which happens to make a nice diagonal line across the grid pattern you can move on. There is also a mission in which you have to constantly change your route to avoid incoming heavy artillery strikes that are capable of wiping out your units in sort order., and is an excellent example of the kind of focus and strategy required in this game.

Anomaly Warzone Earth is a refreshing entry into the tower defense genre. It is surprising how enjoyable it is to take an established idea and flip it on it's head, and it very much works in this game. Look for it around $5 or so, though it was a bit less when I jumped on it. For your money you'll get about 6 hours of play time, and a refreshing experience - 7 out of 10.

So, the final breakdown:

Score: 7/10

Suggested Price: $5

Bastion

**Be sure to check out the video review!**

Bastion is an Action/RPG/Indie game that is pretty unique in my gaming history, and one which I think you'll most likely enjoy. Here's why:

You take on the role of the kid, who wakes up after the world has literally fallen to pieces in an event known as the Calamity. Fighting your way through wind bags, defense turrets, and plenty of other enemies, you eventually make it to the Bastion, the place where all of your people are supposed to gather in an event like this - except there is only one other person there. Luckily, this Stranger happens to know the Bastion's purpose, and that if you hunt down crystals, found out in the scattered remnants of the world, you can put everything back like it was.

And so you journey forth, into a world driven mad by the Calamity, in search of the means by which to put things right.

When they say the world in Bastion has fallen apart, they mean that literally.

Before jumping into the combat of Bastion, I need to cover the level design, particularly how the levels appear on screen. You see, you're fighting your way across the slivers of world that still exist - tiny expanses of what where once the wilds or the lands of your people. So generally there isn't much room at any one time. This is further emphasized by the way the level falls into place as you explore it, meaning that at many times you're not actually sure what the boundaries of the level are, until you head in that direction. The result is a sense of dynamic exploration, and indeed you can find hidden pathways or items if you're will to spending time testing the limits of each level, which includes destroying rubble or other items that might be blocking those pathways.

How does that all fit into combat you ask? Well, it's quite simple, because enemies work the same way. They may not pop up on screen, or drop down onto the level as it were, until you get close enough. More importantly, the level design matters when you are fighting several enemies in the same area, usually in a series of waves, because some of them are large enough to actually destroy parts of the level. All these things factor into how you'll proceed with fighting your enemies, because while falling isn't automatically fatal, the amount of health lost can make all the difference.

Making close quarters even closer.

When you are actually fighting, rather than just dodging the dangers of the level itself, you'll find that there are plenty of choices in how you approach the situation. At first you start with the Cael Hammer, Fang Repeater, and Breaker's Bow, though you are limited to only two weapons at any one time. Soon the choice gets harder, because there are plenty of other weapons in the game too. If you want to use a firearm, you can stick with the repeater, switch to the Dueling Pistols, or try the Scrap Musket. If melee is more of your thing, beyond the hammer, you could use the War Machete or Brusher's Pike. For something a little more exotic, there is the Calamity Canon, which is a rocket launcher, or the Galleon Mortar. Beyond just weapons, you've got your trusty Bullhead Shield, which can be used to avoid attacks, or, if you can time it properly, trigger a counter attack. Or, because you don't have enough options yet, you can always do a dodge/roll, which not only gets you out of harm's way, but it can also be used as an attack in and of itself.

Of course, we're far from done. You see, there are several structures available back in the Bastion, and at the end of each level you get the chance to unlock or upgrade one more, depending on what portion of the game you're in. There are a total of six buildings, two of which focus on your weapons, with those being the forge and arsenal. At the arsenal you can change which weapons you have equipped, as well as what your special ability is - an action which grants some kind of special effect such as launching a grenade to deal massive damage, but which in many cases requires a certain weapon to be equipped to actually use. Furthermore, you cannot use your special ability unless you have a black tonic, which you collect periodically throughout the levels.

The forge lets you upgrade a weapon, which requires a special item you'll either find out in the wild or buy in the store, as well as a sizable chunk of this game's currency. The rewards for it are well worth the cost though, as there are, eventually, five upgrade levels for each weapon, where at each level you are faced with a choice about what you would like your weapon to do, such as picking between faster reload or more damage, though you can alter your choice any time you return to the forge. So when you start customizing your weapons, you can come up with some interesting play styles. Personally, I'm a fan of the Brusher's Pike and the Galleon Mortar, because I've upgraded the Pike to ignore armor, and in addition to using it as a melee weapon, I can charge it up and throw it for those pesky flying enemies out in space. For everything else, well, there isn't much a well timed shot from the mortar can't handle, particularly since one of it's special abilities launches in a friendly turret to fight for you, just in case things ever get a bit sketchy.

 

For when a regular mortar isn't enough, just add Inferno Propellant.

The next building you should know about is the distillery, which allows the use of tonics. You'll buy these out of the store, one of the other buildings in the Bastion, and they grant special abilities or augmentations to your character. Each time you level up, because Bastion incorporates the familiar XP mechanic that is pretty much standard to all RPGs, you'll unlock a slot for another tonic. Some do slightly useful things like absorbing stray fragments, the game currency, which saves you the time involved in running around and otherwise collecting them manually. More useful ones make you retaliate whenever you take damage, or offer a chance to become enraged and do significantly more damage whenever you defeat a foe. Still others provide a benefit, but also maintain a cost, such as allowing you to leech some health out of enemies, but making your health tonics far less potent.

Of the last two buildings in the Bastion, which would be the memorial and the shrine, the shrine is by far the more interesting one. Sure, the memorial is nice as it contains in game achievements that reward you with lots of fragments if you complete them, but the shrine can make the game much harder, and the rewards much greater, if you choose to be so brave. You see, the shrine contains idols to the gods, 10 in all, and these idols, when they are activated, change the game. One increases your enemies' resistance to damage, while another makes them retaliate on death via a grenade. Still another makes them stronger, while another allows them to regenerate health. And these aren't even the worst of them, just to give you an idea of how they impact gameplay. The reason why you might want to give this a try is because for each idol you activate you gain an increase to the amount of fragments and experience you'll gain. When you add that in with the ability to customize your weapons through the forge and arsenal, and change your character at the distillery, you'll realize there are plenty of options that can drastically change the way you play through this game.

The question you'll have to ask yourself is, is the reward worth the risk?

I do realize after all that talk of story, level design, customization of the weapon, character, and difficulty varieties, I have yet to actually talk about the enemies you'll face. Bastion does maintain an interesting mix of baddies, from the different types of wind bags and defense turrets you'll face early on, to the wild peckers and anklegators during the middle of the game, to the deadly Ura fighters later on, there are plenty of things out there looking to kill you. Some enemies simply try and smash you, including the very large wind bags that are capable of destroying parts of the world. Other enemies stick with ranged attacks, such as certain peckers, which are birds, or Ura armed with rifles. Then there are plenty of plants which fire out mortar like objects or just seem content to fill you full of spines or bathe an area is poison gas, and some of which are heavily armored until they open up and expose their weak inner core, which would be the reason I use the Brusher's Pike with it's armor ignore upgrade. You'll have to come up with some strategy for dealing with the multitude of enemies in this game, taking the time to understand the weak points and what are the best methods for exploiting them. Just try not to die too much as you're dodging giant scum bags or charging lunkheads.

The final thing I'd like to touch on is probably what Bastion is best known for - the narration. Not only does Logan Cunningham pull of a voice that should put Morgan Freeman out of work, but much of the narration is dynamic. Run through the first level without taking time to explore, and the narrator comments that you don't even slow down. Start destroying things, and he might say that all of a sudden you're raging. Discover some of the people the calamity has turned to stone/ash, then destroy them, and he'll make a comment about how that guy always wanted his ashes scattered. Further more, and I know this from trying to capture certain lines for a potential video review, just because you do things the same way twice doesn't mean you'll get the same result. Even starting a level over and over again, outside of the several survival mode experiences, and you may not get the same intro for quite a while. It all goes to give Bastion a feeling of depth and humanity that goes far beyond almost anything another game has done, and I for one approve.

Until I find a way to take a picture of a voice, this image of Rucks will just have to do.

Bastion is one of those rare gems in gaming that really stands out. It does have a lot going for it, from the art, to the solidness of the gameplay, to the story, to the extent to which you can customize your experience, and of course, the narration. I put just over 10 hours into the game, unlocking almost all the weapon's upgrades and doing all the extra challenges. There is a New Game + option once you beat it the first time through, and it's there that you'll uncover some bonus content that was added after release, such as the Stranger's Dream, a new survival experience that gives you some of the backstory on Rucks and the world Bastion is set in. While it has been on sale for less, I advocate for paying no less than $10, and would try and encourage you to go for the full price at $15. Bastion is just one of those games that is an excellent experience, and worth every penny - 10 out of 10.

So, the final breakdown:

Score: 10/10

Suggested Price: $10+

The Tiny Bang Story

The Tiny Bang Story is the kind of game you pick up because it's a daily deal for $2.50, it has a demo, and you have 30 minutes to kill before you need to get to work, so you decide you might as well give it a try, and then, 30 minutes later, you realize you still really want to complete the puzzle you were in the middle of, so you buy it. At least that's what I did.

This is not a fancy AAA game. Rather it is a simple, relaxing game. You explore several beautiful levels, interacting with items, people, and puzzles, to unlock new zones within your current level, and ultimately, new levels themselves.

There are four puzzle pieces, two different quest items (packages + the dial in the bookcase), and a security camera that reveals more items behind the desk.

Searching for items is what you'll probably spend most of your time in this game doing. You see, as you're exploring, you find that you can only move a frame or two in any direction, such as being limited to the base of a tower in the very first level because the ladder that goes higher is missing several rungs, or that someone indicates the are looking for an item such as a painting. This then activates a quest to uncover the item or items needed. In the event that you're looking for items like the aforementioned rungs to a ladder, you'll end up scouring through what part of the level you've unlocked, taking time to look at every little item around, because generally what you need is hidden as a detail on a structure, or is disguised against something else, such as the handle on the backside of a hatch. When you finally find all the pieces you need, you can complete the quest and access more of the level.

Finding items in this game is akin to searching through the pictures in the Highlights magazine at the doctor's office. You know, the one where the crayon is disguised as a tree trunk.

Other times, such as when you need to find that painting to progress, you actually need to complete a puzzle. There are a number of these throughout the game, and most are reminiscent of the kind of fun little puzzles you'd do as a kid, or that you could pick up for a few dollars inside a museum, such as trying to figure out how to fit a collection of Tetris like blocks nicely inside a rectangular area, or decoding secret messages from the inside of a cereal box. You'll find yourself building a locomotive, twisting two Venn diagram like circles in such a way as to split up three different colors, or piecing back together the tattered remnants of a family painting. These ultimately unlock some kind of reward that is required elsewhere, or is the final step before completing the level.

The left circle rotates 180 degrees, and the right 90. Probably one of the harder puzzles in the game.

To complete The Tiny Bang Story you'll have to search high and low for all of the items you'll need throughout the level. To further complicate things, there is far more than just what you see on screen at any one time, because you'll soon realize that many different objects can be interacted with, such as clicking on a closet to open it up, where you'll ultimately find that last valve you need to progress. Combine that with the fact that you'll generally have several quests that are active concurrently, and that many of them are interdependent, such that the very last light bulb and that one wrench you need are both locked away in the same trunk, and you'll soon realize that you cannot leave any stone unturned. So you must be thorough, and remember that what looks like a fancy lock on a chest or a unimportant security camera are actually keys to progressing.

As I stated, this is a pretty simple game. The attractive art and calming music make it the sort of thing you'll do for a little while when you probably should be doing something more productive. With about 20 puzzles and several levels to search through, you'll buy yourself about 3 hours worth of distraction. The Tiny Bang Story is ultimately an average game, one that feels about the same as playing a few rounds of solitaire or FreeCell instead of writing a paper or paying the bills, and with such a short play time, the $2.50 I paid seems about right - 5 out of 10.

So, the final breakdown:

Score: 5/10

Suggested Price: $2.50

Hard Reset

I am not sure where I first heard about Hard Reset, but I immediately tried the demo, and decided it was a game to keep an eye out for. Eventually it rolled around on sale, and I snatched it up right away, which was good, because I was looking for a new shooter to get into, and Hard Reset most certainly satisfied that itch.

Hard Reset is a fast paced shooter wherein you take on a veritable horde of killer robots, which range in size and variety from small ones with various means of dismembering your body, to large "gorillas" that seem to be in a competition to see which one can punt you the furthest. It is not an endless slaughterfest, and there are a few puzzles in the game, which largely take the form of requiring your to open up doors or passage ways to progress, though in reality those are brief respites between the larger waves of enemies you'll encounter.

These guys + tight spaces = death.

The weapons in the game are a little funny. Rather than having a wide variety of firearms to choose from, you have two - an impact round gun, which is to say it shoots bullets, and an electrical type weapon. However, as you kill enemies or explore levels, you'll gather points that you can use to purchase upgrades at the correct booths. Many of these upgrades are for your weapons, though there are some for your character as well. Those focused on weapons offer different modes of action, such as taking your traditional gun, which functions as a machine gun, and giving you the ability to use it as a shotgun or RPG. Similarly, the electricity gun can also function as a mortar, railgun, or smartgun that fires a homing projectile that can go through walls. All in all, you can use upgrades to turn your two base weapons into a total of 10, each with it's own secondary function and a bonus modifier that does things like increase the effective radius of your mortar weapon, which is one of my favorites because the secondary function on that weapon temporarily freezes enemies within it. The one downside is that each weapon still requires the same ammo as it's respective base, so it doesn't matter if you're using it as an assault rifle or shotgun, when it hits 0, you're out either way.

Just as critical as your weapons, are upgrades to your character, which cover things like unlocking, and then upgrading, a HUD, or changing the amount of damage you take. Others increase the health or ammo you gain when you find resupply packs. Just as with your weapons, some of the upgrades require others to unlock, so to get, say, the RPG, you'll find you need to first unlock the shotgun. The end result is that you'll need to find plenty of upgrade points to get the items you're looking for, and I'm not actually sure if you can get everything, considering that I only managed to acquire a handful of upgrades myself. Who knows, maybe I'm just bad about exploring and did not find all those secret nooks where the useful stuff is hidden.

There are, in a way, far too many upgrades for my taste. Great options, but I fail at finding enough upgrade points to get them all.

I do normally like to talk about the story involved in a game, since it is an important aspect of many games. With Hard Reset however, I am really at a loss for words. There's all this talk of A.I.s: internal AI vs. external AIs, and important AI matrices. Other seemingly important story points include someone letting in killer robots into this safe area, a disease, and the ability to absorb people's minds. Really, I had no idea what was going on here, and I'm generally a hard one to trip up, at least when compared to those I know (I'm still baffled people don't understand Inception, which I've been told is "hard"). The conclusion I finally came to about the story was this: "what the heck do I care, I get to shoot homicidal robots!"

Unfortunately, those homicidal robots shoot back.

Instead, the drive to beat this games comes from how challenging it is, and it is challenging, even on the lower difficulties. This comes from a variety of sources, such as the surprising number of little enemies, which are all very fast, those huge enemies which are also very fast and much more powerful, the damage that everything deals, the accuracy of those that have turrets or some other form of gun, and so on. Moral of the story is you take a lot of damage, and very quickly, if you aren't careful. Sometimes that's as easy as avoiding explosive barrels that will most likely cause your doom when they invariably explode due to enemy fire. At other points, you just have to be aware of enemies that appear under boxes, or fall from crates, and essentially never let you guard down.

The level of difficulty in this game is further amplified by the checkpoint save system, something for which the game was heavily criticized upon release, and which was eventually altered to add many more checkpoints throughout the game. I can not speak to what the game was originally like, but there were a few times I found myself frustrated by the system, since I would seem to die on the last wave of a particularly tough area, and thus be forced to replay the last few minutes, all of which were challenging. However, rather than just complain about the fact, I viewed it as yet another challenge that had to be overcome, essentially limiting the margin of error you can experience before failing, rather than if the game had a quicksave system, letting you save immediately between waves, and thus requiring you to only perform well in bursts, rather than over a sustained period. In short, this game is challenging, and it does not coddle you like so many recent games (I'm looking at you Infinity Ward), since you actually have to be pretty good to make progress. And that...is a good thing.

For the competition oriented, there is even a score given out at the end of each level.

 Altogether Hard Reset its a very good game. I applaud the challenge presented within it, though when I look at my score, it is atrocious. The weapons were fun, particularly those on the electrical gun that can see through walls, such as the rail gun when zoomed in or the smart gun all the time, and the variety made it possible to develop various strategies for dealing with the different types of enemies. One I found myself using often was, when fighting the large gorillas, to pull out my mortar gun, and fire one time stopping shot, followed by one regular shot that would spit out electricity from the point it landed at for a few seconds. I would follow that up by quick swapping to the bullet powered gun, and pull out a grenade launcher. A few direct hits can make a world of difference when you're trying to dodge an incredibly fast enemy that likes to charge at you in a tight tunnel environment.

The art style was beautiful, even when I was trying to blow everything up and turn the environment itself into a tool against my enemies even though it was more often used against me, and the deserted cityscape, all scifi of course, was a bit eerie, though given enough time, I found myself longing for something different. I also can't help but feel I'm missing something major in the story, and that is a bit depressing. Still, Hard Reset makes for a good way to spend a couple of hours on the base game, 5 in my case, especially if you can find it under the $10 mark, since there is now a free DLC that adds in a few extra levels. That's good, because this game is surprisingly short, containing only 7 levels. If you're looking for something a bit different than the AAA shooters we've been getting lately, pick up Hard Reset soon, because while you'll be frustrated, you won't be disappointed - 8 out of 10.

So, the final breakdown:

Score: 8/10

Suggested Price: $10

Renegade Ops

So what do you do when a madman threatens to burn down the world, and the world seems content to do nothing? Well, if you're General Bryant, the top military official for an organization that would appear to be the U.N., you abandon your post and lead a collection of renegades to go out and do the job the world's governments won't do.

In Renegade Ops, you take on the role of one of Bryant's renegades, an individual with more than a few screws lose, as your goal is to save the world from the terrorist known as Inferno by, get this, driving a single car with a machine gun strapped to it. Yes, that should be completely effective against armies of infantry, attack helicopters, and tanks.

Realistic? No. Fun? Heck yes.

There are four regular characters available in the base game, one special tribute for the Steam edition in the form of Gordon Freeman, and two additional characters if you purchase the correct DLC. Each character, in addition to driving a unique vehicle, also has a special ability. My favorite character, Roxy, can summon an air strike, which really comes in handy when you're getting swarmed by enemies. Other special abilities include turning your car into what is essentially an artillery turret, a temporary shield you can use to avoid extremely damaging attacks like enemy rockets, or summon a swarm of antlions to attack those pesky tanks.

Each character can be further differentiated through the use of their skill trees. Yes, this is a driving game where you shoot things with machine guns, rocket launchers, flame throwers, or just run over generic henchmen, and it has skill trees. As you play through the game, you'll get points for any damage you cause. You can string together damage streaks for even more points. All of those get added up, and you will eventually level up your current driver. When you level up, you get a few points to spend on talents, which are broken down into three categories - offensive, defensive, and tactical, which is the proper name for the special ability. Offensive lets you start with a secondary weapon, or increase the clip size of those weapons, while defense focuses on things like slowly regenerating your health when you're low, or having the chance to drop health packs from your own vehicle when you take damage. Tactical is specific to your character - in the case of Roxy, you can unlock larger air strikes, or ones that launch without delay. There are a total of 6 skills in each tree, and you have to unlock one to get the one above it. Furthermore, you can only have 4 skills active per level, though you only start with 2 open slots. By the time you reach level 45, the cap, you should have everything covered.

Skill trees? Let the theorycrafting begin!

Of course, those skill trees only enhance the fundamental gameplay, but do not drastically change it. While it is nice to have extremely powerful special abilities, or more ammo for your secondary weapon, most of the time you'll be killing things with your machine gun. This too is upgradeable, since, as you're slaughtering enemies, you'll encounter a variety of crates, which offer health, one of the game's three secondary weapons which you can switch out if you already have one equipped, ammo for your secondary, or add extra machine guns to your car. These are also the sort of thing you tend to lose if you die, so it's in your best interest to stay alive as long as possible, dodging in and out of the line of fire or using your special ability to deal with particularly tough enemies, since it does really suck to lose your level four machine gun, rail gun secondary with full ammo, and that nice kill streak you had going just because you took a turn too fast and ended up flipping over...right in front of a tank.

The story in this game is told in comic book style, with frames popping up on screen during the mission or just cut scenes before and after levels. It all fits in very well, though some times it is a little...over the top. For example, the antagonist, Inferno, always seems to be broadcasting from the pits of hell, judging by the flames behind him. Or the few times during the game when you must mash your A button - and yes, that's button, not key, because the game advises you to use a gamepad - to defeat enemies guarding a bridge or door control off screen, which causes another comic book like window to pop up showing your character beating the heck out of World War I German doppelgangers. My personal favorite though, is one cut scene in which General Bryant punches someone, and then follows it up with "How's that for a punch-line?"

If they ever made a movie out of this, that line could only be delivered by Samuel L. Jackson.

The missions themselves are pretty straight forward. You'll have a variety of objectives that evolve throughout the level, such as rescuing prisoners, destroying specific targets, or out racing a bomb blast. Some levels also have additional secondary objectives, which are a great way to increase your points total. However, you shouldn't dillydally too much, because the mission is actually timed, though you'll only find that out if you aren't prompt about completing your main objective, because after a time things will suddenly slow down, the music will dull, the screen goes black and white, and then a clock appears, letting you know to get a move on it. Thankfully, you can pull up a map overlay on the center of your screen, so you know just where to head to, which is good for you, but not so good for the prisoners who suddenly won't be getting rescued.

The game plays well enough, particularly if you fallow the recommendation and use a gamepad, in my case an Xbox controller, because those double joysticks are nice for driving in one direction and firing in another. You'll quickly learn what tactics work best with various enemies, such as dodging mortar strikes, or taking off the armor plating on the back of a tank to expose it's weak point. At that point it becomes a matter of just how good of a driver you are, and how accurate you are with your various weapons and special abilities, all of which you'll need to utilize if you want to get those really high scores.

Unfortunately, Bam, Pow, and Wham, are not included.

There are a total of nine levels in Renegade Ops, and if you're into that short of thing, you can go back and play them again and again to grind up your character's level, or just try and set the highest score you can. The three levels of difficulty can assist with this, since you can earn more points, but at the cost of extra lives on higher difficulty settings. It took me about 5 hours to play through the whole game on normal, and I generally had a positive experience, except for those times when I did in fact roll my car over in front of a tank. Still, the explosions, the feeling of destroying buildings by crashing through them, and the experience of successfully taking out a tank that is surrounded by several rocket turrets was pretty satisfying.

I had really only picked this up because it was associated with a Steam achievement contest, but am happy with my purchase, particularly since the version I got came with both DLCs for one low price. While I haven't gotten around to the Coldstrike DLC yet, I would still recommend looking for the game around the $5 mark. This game is above average, and something I would recommend, but not something that is so good I am likely to come back to it and grind up, or test out the multiplayer mode, rather holding off until there is a new campaign or something much more substantial to delve into - 6 out of 10.

So, the final breakdown:

Score: 6/10

Suggested Price: $5