Tales from the Borderlands (Android, iOS, PC, Mac, PS3, PS4, XBox 360, XBox 1, and your toaster.)

It’s come to my attention that this game is pretty graphic and pretty violent. If you don’t dig graphic violence or buckets of gore you might wanna skip this one.

So far in the Borderlands series we’ve opened one vault per game, the vaults of the Destroyer, the Warrior, and the Watcher. Each of which contained a giant alien monster that earned its title. In each game we’ve played the badasses who’ve shot and blasted their way to open them up. This time around things are a little different. Done are the days of gun toting, level-upping, loot-based vault hunters. Now is the era of speaking, decision making, and high silliness — I mean, you’re playing a con-woman and a pencil-pusher, what did you want from them? You play as both Pandoran native Fiona and Hyperion corporation lap-dog Rhys– con-woman and pencil-pusher respectively– when a struggle to survive turns into a plot to open a vault — you know, because loot. Make choices in this point and click adventure on everyone’s favorite toilet of a planet, Pandora.

History

Talk of a Telltale Borderlands game began after Gearbox and Telltale worked together on Claptrap’s inclusion in Poker Night at the Inventory 2 (Here’s my post for Poker Night 1 if you’re curious). Discussions began as Gearbox designers admitted that the FPS roots of Borderlands prevented them from including elements that wouldn’t mesh with mechanics. These were things that Telltale could capitalize on as well as all of the Borderlands characters who don’t get a spotlight in an FPS game.

Not to say that this game doesn’t have its share of bloodshed.

Tales From the Borderlands was plagued by release delays. The first episode was released on November 24th 2014, the second episode was released on March 17th of 2015, and the final episode wasn’t released until October 20th 2015 (For reference The Wolf Among Us’ first episode was released on October 11th 2013 and it’s final episode was released on November 4th of 2014). It’s competition on its initial release Middle Earth: Shadow of Mordor (PS3 and Xbox 360), Assassin’s Creed: Unity (PC, XBox One, PS4), and Thomas Was Alone (PS4, WiiU, and Xbox One).

Experiences

As another Telltale adventure game you’re sure to feel a pit of indecision grow in your stomach. Playing to character might lead to dire consequences and even the most innocuous of decisions will leave you in tears. The emotional tension reaches a fever pitch with the introduction of Loader Bot — one of the mooks from Borderlands 2 but this one’s got a personality. I’ve never cared about robots more in any game ever. Never have I felt so connected with a being of synthetic thoughts, wires, and circuitry. Made all the more impactful considering the terrible things you can do to him.

Treat your loader bot well, he’s sworn to protect.

Gameplay

Tales from the Borderlands is like your average Telltale adventure game. You’ll enter into conversations with people, choose your responses — and remember that silence is always an option (unless someone demands information under penalty of death, you should probably answer that person)– walk around areas, and poke things with proverbial sticks. Tales from the Borderlands is unique insofar that you play as…

…and…

That’s right, you’re playing as two different characters. Certain chapters and sections are played as certain characters so there’s no switching at will. This can make things complicated because sometimes they don’t have each others’ best interests in mind. They’re both in it for the money, they both want all the rewards, and they’re not exactly on good terms — this game takes place after Borderlands 2, you know, when Hyperion tried to conquer the planet and kill the local populace. You can split them apart, and take sides, as they squabble for what they want or you can unite them and they’ll work together more smoothly.

And remember, the other characters will remember and react to what you say and do.

The Gush

Fiona and Rhys’ unique mechanics are just plain fun and characters having mechanics is yet to be in a Telltale game. Rhys’ cyber eye allows him to look things up in the Hyperion database for fun jokes and additional information whereas Fiona has the ability to collect and spend money. Although, I will say, Fiona’s cash was a more useful even though I’m not sure how it impacted things — but that’s the nature of Telltale games, you’ll never know what matters.

Although, I will admit, the scanning function is very entertaining.

The characters in this game are fantastic, as is befitting a Telltale game. One of the NPCs was so deceptive that they legitimately fooled me. Hell, I got fooled a couple of times. Even when the evidence was piling up against people I defended them until they sprung their traps.

Even though it’s an adventure game it feels undeniably like a Borderlands game. Pandora oozes through the content and becomes a character unto itself. Even if you’re not familiar with the setting the game does a great job at getting you familiar with things thanks to Rhys’ fish out-of-water character.

Expect to see new characters and old favorites.

This game will give you an attack of the feels. Some tragedies and events are unavoidable, others will be all your fault — not that you’ll ever know. So just be ready for a few cheers and more than a few tears.

The Music in this game is on point. Between recycling old tracks, licensing music, and creating their own it invigorates Tales to have its own unique style. It’s definitely Pandora, but it’s no longer the Borderlands you knew.

The Kvetch

This game has a lot of graphical glitches. I can’t tell you how many time characters clip through objects and bizarre, immersion-breaking, events take place. It’s really easy for me to ignore because at no point does it compromise understanding of events but it was a little annoying.

I’m not sure why the characters had such a large inventory. I went through the game without using, and without the opportunity, to use most of my items. I was constantly paranoid about a series of grenades I had picked up 3 episodes ago and they never came into play.

The Verdict

Tales from the Borderlands is available for $25 on its various platforms and I’ve got an interesting relationship with this pricing. When I think of it as the full game for $25 I think, “Well, it’s just a choose your own adventure. I’d say it’s really worth 20 .” But when I think about it as $5 per chapter I think, “I would totally spend $5 per chapter on this silly and fun game,” so… that’s odd. In any event, however you have to justify the value of the purchase I’d say go for it. It’s a super fun game that I had a great time. It’s got replay value out the wazoo if you’re the type to investigate how each decision effects play.

Next Week: Kingdom of Loathing

Undertale (PC)

A long time ago monsters and humans lived in harmony. As you would expect, the harmony didn’t last. There was a giant war, lotsa people died, shit got fucked. Some of the monsters were able to survive by fleeing to a series of underground caves. A great barrier was erected between the surface and these caverns. But there is a secret entrance from a chasm in Mount Ebbot. Naturally, you –as an ungendered child– climb the mountain and fall into the underground while you were picking flowers. Now you’ve got to get out or remain trapped inside forever. Fight, act, dodge enemy attacks, make moral decisions, maybe show a little mercy, and have a grand time in this turn based RPG with bullet hell elements.

And when I say ungendered, I mean it. The character could be a girl or a shaggy-haired boy.

History

Undertale was made by Toby Fox, with help on art and story from Temmie Chang, and a little more help from some other people as well. The earliest game I’ve seen Fox make was for a Starmen.net halloween rom-hack called simply Radiation’s Halloween Hack. In which he turned Earthbound into a more horror based game. A demo for Undertale was ready in May of 2013 and a Kickstarter campaign started in June of the same year. The Kickstarter asked for $5,000 for additional art –and raised that within the first day– but raised $50,000 by the end of the campaign. Undertale was released on September 15th 2015. It’s competition was Armikrog (PC, Mac, Linux), Grow Home (PS4), and Bloodbowl (PS4, PC, XBox Online).

Experiences

This game will make you feel things. These things might be called emotions and they might be described as completely overpowering. Unfortunately the game is spoil-tastic so I can’t say anything and I urge anyone who plays it not to look anything up unless they’re absolutely totally stuck. I had to do just that and it really bruised my experience. So just… play the game however you want to play it. There’s no right or wrong way to go through. And if you do get stuck, try listening to the game, it’s rare that the game purposefully deceives the player — and when it does the effect is absolutely deliberate.

Is weeping openly through bouts of laughter considered a bad time?

Gameplay

Undertale is an RPG with turn-based combat, lots of puzzles –both simple and difficult– and bullet hell elements. The player has four options in combat, fight, act, item, and mercy. Fight is exactly what it sounds like. Act allows the player to check enemy stats or interact with the enemy– possibly effecting combat in some way like making the bullets faster or slower. Items are almost always healing items or equipment so remember to stock up before you head out. And Mercy allows the player to spare monsters who no longer wish to fight or flee from battle. Now, here’s the trick, you only get EXP from killing monsters and you get gold from killing them or sparing them. So… how do you level up without killing monsters? You can’t. If you elect not to kill anything you’ll go through the whole game with a mere 20 hit points — but it’s totally possible to do so.

Nothing personal, man. I just need the HP.

Besides that the game is basically spent walking around, examining things, and speaking to people. Not that that’s boring. The game does a great job at making everything entertaining, from examining snow poffs to chatting with pet rocks, not a second will feel wasted.

The Gush

This game presents choice and the illusion of choice on a Chrono Trigger or Telltale game-esque proportion. You’ll never know which choices mattered and which were just for laughs. Big or small, your choices can have huge consequences.

Undertale has got the guts to ask the tough questions.

The story in this game is a top notch riveting tale that will make you think about what a game is, what a player is, and what your decisions tell about yourself.

Charm. Charm everywhere in this game.

Fox wanted to make a game where, “it’s important to make every monster feel like an individual.” As such the characters are all beautiful and full of flavor. From the fondest of friends to the most vile of enemies. I know exactly who they are and why they do what they do.

Speaking of great characters, they’re all hilarious and over the top. The game is filled with humor overall. I spent the game alternating between laughing and crying. It is an emotional roller-coaster.

Jokes. Jokes everywhere in this game.

Oh yeah. Pain, that too. Everywhere.

There are secrets galore both big and small. Search hard and if it makes sense in your head then Fox probably put something there for you to find.

The Kvetch

As much as there is to do and as much influence as the player has between doing all the little quests, choosing different options, and figuring out the whole story Undertale eventually ends. Yup, my biggest critique is how sad it makes me feel to let this one go. I mean, it’s not even really a critique. This section is the Kvetch because it’s where I do all my complaining. And that’s my complaint…

…Oh yeah, and it’s hard to capture screenshots from the game and post them on your Steam account. I guess that’s something.

The Verdict

Undertale is $10 US, American, cash dollars on Steam and that’s an absolute bargain. It boasts a 6 hour runtime but with new game + and a steady stream of secrets people are still uncovering a month after release — and that’s a while in internet time– this game has got replay value coming out of its pores. Even if it’s got to end someday, I urge everyone with the available disposable income to pick up Undertale.

Next Week: Shogun: Total War 1

Sid Meier’s Civilization V (PC)

There are two basic classifications in the telling and recording of history. The first says people who put their faith in leaders and those leaders become great people. The other says great people rise to power by the strength of their greatness and inspire the faith of their subjects. Civilization V puts you in control of a nation’s greatest person to lead them through 6050 years of rule. Build cities, manage their development, raise armies, wage war, exploit resources, and unite the world — by whatever means necessary– in this civilization simulator.

Development

Civilization V was developed by Firaxis games and distributed by Take-Two Interactive. Using the Gamebryo Engine and building a new graphics engine it took 56 people over three years to make. The design decision to limit each tile to be able to contain only one unit — forcing them to create a new AI no less– and loss of team members during the multiplayer forced the developers to trim down the systems as they were in Civilization IV. The Civilization I was made all the way back to 1991 and Civ V was released on September 14th, 2010 with it’s final expansion, Brave New World, being released on July 9th, 2013 — that’s more than 20 years of history. It’s competition was Amnesia: The Dark Descent (PC, Mac, and Linux), Space Invaders Infinity Gene (PS3 and XBox 360), and Plants VS. Zombies (XBox Live Indie Arcade).

Experiences

This game is one-more-turn syndrome incarnate. These one more turns have turned into hours of additional play. There’s always something going on or some project that needs to be finished, especially after you’ve discovered all the civs. Between politics, wars, wonder projects, and other micro-management I don’t want interrupted I end up carrying through with my designs instead of putting the game down.  There’s also something lovely about roleplaying a leader or anti-roleplaying a leader like Attila the Fun or Ghandi the Great and Terrible… but more on him later.

Gameplay

Here’s what you need to know about playing Civ V: Settlers build cities. Cities use food from nearby tiles to grow and production from nearby tiles to build things. Buildings up the stats on your cities and give you specialist slots which spawn Great people over time who do crazy, powerful, and cool stuff. Military units protect your stuff. Workers improve your land stuff. Science gives you new stuff. Culture improves your stuff in different specified areas. If you build too many cities your people will become unhappy and starting wrecking shit — more cities also increase the science and culture you need before you get the next upgrade. When your citizens aren’t wrecking shit then local barbarians are definitely gonna try.

Or you could just build cities everywhere… fuck planning.

There are five basic ways to win. Use your science to discover space travel and make a functioning space ship that will make it to a habitable planet. Being voted world leader in the World Congress. Have a bunch of art, wonders, and tourism buildings that make your culture dominant over all others — otherwise known as the accidental win. Destroying all of the other civilizations via capturing their capital. Or waiting until 2050 and hoping you have the highest score. Different civilizations have different abilities so play to their strengths or surprise your enemies with unique strategies.

Civ V is capable of internet multiplayer, hotseat multiplayer, and pit boss multiplayer. Pit boss allows players to sign in and take their turns whenever it’s their turn. The system is incredibly useful for long games where the players don’t have time to sync up their schedules to play — like a play by mail chess game.

The Gush

The music in this game is marvelous. Every civilization has a war and a peace track but sometimes during times of particular peace the game will use some neutral music or another civ’s music. It’s all very inspiring and related to the civilization. It’s no Baba Yetu (The award winning theme for Civilization IV https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IJiHDmyhE1A) but it’s trying.

The systems in this game are incredibly interesting, more balanced, and overall much improved from its predecessors. It’s not longer conquering everyone or going to space. There are more ways to win and therefore more things for the average player to worry about.

Then again there’s nothing wrong with Conquest victory unless you don’t like the narrator getting snide..

Whenever you discover a technology and when you create certain great works you get a little quote narrated by William Morgan Shepherd and his voice is sweet sweet ambrosia for my ears. I’ve got 275 hours on this game and it took 200 hours of his narration before it started to grate.

It’s a very minor element but all of the leaders speak their native tongue and I just think that’s a marvelous touch.

The Kvetch

Some Civs are just plain better than others. Russia is incredibly powerful with it’s ability to double strategic resources and get +1 production bonuses to them as well. Some maps also suit certain civs more than others. If the map is Pangea and you play a civ that has superior naval things then you’re gonna have a bad time.

There’s an achievement called, “I can has Nukes,” and… it just seems… insensitive.

The AI cheats. I’ve seen the AI run a 300 gold per turn deficit and it never needs to decommission its units or have to worry about low happiness or most of the things your empire has to worry about. I wish there was some way that the AI could be balanced without it being able to simply ignore the rules or get free resources.

Ghandi… just… Ghandi. Ghandi’s AI is a weird one insofar that it is literally passive aggressive. Ghandi is the kind of guy who “forgives” you taking over a few of his cities early game and then launches nuclear weapons at you in the late game. He might seem like he lets things go but he remembers and his retaliation is often without proper scale. Killed some of his guys? He will leave nothing of your Civ but dust. And I mean, you don’t want to wipe him out or be mean to him… he’s fucking Ghandi — it’d just be wrong, and I bet that’s what Meier was banking on.

gif by Qwazwalt

The Verdict

I love this game, I’m totally blind to most of its sins. But one sin I am not blind to is it’s DLC policy and that a 5 year old game is still $49.99 if you want all the DLC. and you do because without it the game doesn’t include a lot of interesting civs like Korea or Denmark, the diplomatic victory, advanced city-state quests, the trade system, and the religion system. It usually goes on sale for as low as 12 dollars and that’s a good deal but I can’t recommend it at it’s normal price.

Next Week: Undertale

Borderlands 2 (PC, Mac, Linux, Playstation 3, Playstation Vita, Xbox 360, Playstation 4, and XBox One)

They say that the more things change the more they stay the same and it’s certainly true for the planet of Pandora. There are new bandits, a new vault, new vault hunters, and a new corporation trying to strip and fuck the planet — Atlas was so last decade, everything’s about Hyperion now. The CEO of Hyperion, known only as Handsome Jack, is aggressively settling the planet. He promises the locals that if they move to his new cities they’ll find peace and prosperity only to massacre them wholesale. You are a Vault Hunter who’s been hired by Handsome Jack to find the new vault — PSYCHE, he’s just trying to kill y’all so you can’t challenge his power. You escape but are you gonna take that attempt on your life lying down? No sir. Also, I promise there are no krakens in this game and a 99.9% reduction in Claptraps.

Handsome Jack in the flesh, so named for his unearthly charisma and face shaped mask — which is to say that it’s a mask of his own face… stapled to his regular face.

History

Borderlands 2 was developed by Gearbox Software and published by 2K games. It runs on a more refined version of the old engine, a heavily modified Unreal Engine 3. They brought Anthony Burch from Hey Ash Whatcha Playin’ fame to write for the game and it paid off with genuinely hilarious moments and moments of weight.

The game’s development is characterized by two controversies. The first being John Hemingway’s blunder referring to the downloadable extra character Gaige and her Best Friends Forever skill tree as being “the girlfriend skill tree,” described as being for someone who, “suck(s) at first person shooters,” therefore implying that girlfriends are not good at first person shooters.

Pictured is Gaige and her mechanical monstrosity D347-TP or Deathtrap for short.

Speaking of downloadable content, the game offers a Season Pass which sounds like it offers all of the DLC for the game when it is, in fact, just a fancy named DLC package. The Season Pass includes the four additional game campaigns and a level cap increase but it does not include the extra characters, Gaige and Krieg, as well as not including the Headhunter mini-campaigns. A lot of customers bought the game and then bought the Season Pass, thinking they would get every DLC that came out but that wasn’t the case.

Fun Fact: Handsome Jack’s name was just a placeholder for what his actual name would be but Gearbox liked it so much they decided not to change it.

Borderlands 2 was released on September 18th, 2012. It’s competition was World of Warcraft: Mists of Pandaria (PC), FTL: Faster than Light (PC, Mac, and Linux), and Castle Crashers PC release.

Experiences

The last Borderlands game was a fun romp, tongue-in-cheek, running around and blowing up bandits. It never really challenged my morals or myself in any deep way. I was either killing monsters or people so morally bankrupt they were akin to monsters. Borderlands 2 however presented a moral conundrum that almost stopped me from continuing with the game. I would have to do something that I found so despicable, killing someone who was very young, in order to have a chance to save the world. This isn’t sacrificing a 14 year old to save cancer, it’s doing it just to have the opportunity. In the end I kept going forward because I couldn’t stop now. And that attitude frightened me a bit. I thought about Jack and how he himself might be doing what he was doing because well he can’t stop now… but I was doing it for a good cause, right?

Gameplay

These are the new Vault Hunters. From left to right we have Axton the soldier, Maya the siren, Salvador the gunzerker, Zer0 the assassin, Gaige the mechromancer, and my favorite Krieg the psycho.

Borderlands 2 is a loot based shooter. A vicious cycle — for your enemies in any event– of using your guns to kill dudes, to get better guns, to kill stronger dudes so on and so forth with a story in there so it doesn’t grow too monotanous. Each character also has an action skill like Krieg’s Buzz Axe Rampage which allows him to go mad chop people up or Zer0’s Decepti0n which renders him invisible and projecting a decoy that draws enemy fire. They lean toward different playstyles with their different skill trees so experiment until you find something that works for you or your equipment.

Splitting trees generally isn’t worth it but there’s usually something early on in another tree that’s just plain useful. AND LOOK! Your skills properly point out when your class mod gives them a bonus.

The enemies consist of the well-known bandits and Pandoran wild-life like the wolf-like skags, plentiful spider-ants, and the brand new betentacled Threshers. New among the hazards are Hyperion’s legion of assorted murder-robots so keep a corrosive weapon handy and watch out for the self-destructing ones that’ll chase you down.

You can play alone or with friends online. The console versions also have local multiplayer as well so long as you don’t mind split screens and screen squish. The game is definitely designed to be played with friends and is much easier with an ally. Between the addition of their action skills, team buffing abilities, and the simple power to pick you up if you get downed so long as their competent they’ll counteract the difficulty increase.

The Gush

Overall the game feels smoother in every way than its predecessor. You can crawl during Fight for you Life, the animations are better, everything seems to take less time. Enemy movement is also much more fluid. Psychos will roll, dodge, and react to getting hit instead of charging in a straight line.

The new characters do a great job of pushing their abilities to new extremes. Gunzerking takes Brick’s berserk to its logical conclusion and Maya’s Phaselock is useful and has marvelous utility. The turret has also been salvaged as it now has the ability to aim and look in all directions, no longer will skags and rakks get behind its field of fire.

Phaselocking doesn’t just hold people still it can also be upgraded to explode and revive allies.

The dialogue and overall story of the game is much improved from the original. With a story that elicited actual pathos and dialogue that elicited a lot of laughs it was something that intertwined with the gameplay and world into a greater experience. This game goes way over the top and at no point does it seem silly because it meshes very well with the art style.

Handsome Jack is an incredible villain. I love to hate him but sometimes he’s just left of decent. How he’s so close to doing the right thing but has been blinded by power, greed, and his smug sense of superiority. He grabs your attention, constantly jeers you, and makes you want to take him down.

The DLC in this game is a wonderful addition, Season Pass not-withstanding. The extra campaigns, characters, and mini-campaigns are all incredibly fun and filled with new characters, enemies, and loot. It’s reasonably priced and worth the cost.

It’s got a Dungeons and Dragonsesque campaign that’s just as fun and silly as it sounds. The ending of which made me weep like a small child.

The Kvetch

The quests are usually enjoyable and introduce interesting mechanics but some of them come in at bizarre times insofar that you’ll be grossly over-leveled for their enemies and loot related to when they’re given to you. They might be fun to play but won’t be worth your time in terms of mechanical benefit.

The Verdict

My 198 hours with this game are testament to how it fulfilled my desire for a better Borderlands. If you remotely enjoyed the first game but passed on the sequel then find some friends and go at it. If you haven’t played the first game and want to scratch the Diablo II itch then this game is a fine place to start, Borderlands 1 is not a requisite– you’ll be saving yourself a disappointment of Kraken proportions. The Game of the Year edition is still $40 but it’s often on sale on Steam so I’d recommend picking it up for 50% off.

Next Week: Medieval II: Total War

Space Funeral (PC)

Blood 1 starts a new game, Blood 2 continues a game, and Blood 3 quits.

I realize as I sit down to write this just how difficult it is to explain or describe Space Funeral. You play as Tim in the macabre and bizzare world known only as Space Funeral. Tim is sad — so sad that it’s his class in the game — and he yearns for the meaning of form and the nature of the world, for it was not always as it is now. Join Tim and his domineering companion, Leg Horse, as they search for the answers to this baffling world.

Tim is so sad he cries constantly, even during combat.

History

Space Funeral was developed by Stephen ‘thecatamites’ Murphy, who’s made over 50 short games. With such titles as The Astonishing Adventures of Captain Skull and Murder Dog IV, with art styles ranging from pen on paper to 3-D animation Murphy has been making games for almost a decade now. Most of his titles are short and almost all of them are free.

Space Funeral was completed and released on September 17th 2010. It’s competition was Plants Vs. Zombies (Xbox Live Indie Arcade), Cladun: This is an RPG (PSP), and Civilization V (PC).

Experiences

When I first heard about Space Funeral I heard about Leg Horse, a horse made entirely out of human legs. Hearing this, I almost wanted to dismiss the game out of hand as Youtube fodder that was meant to market to the “Lul, so random,” crowd but I couldn’t resist investigating further. Leg Horse is just the tip of the weirdness ice-berg and what impressed me more is that I came to care about everything. The world of Space Funeral uses its weirdness as an element to tell a story. It serves a very vital purpose without which would destroy the artistic meaning of the game.

Well, the Dracula part seems needlessly random. Maybe thecatamites just likes Dracula?

Gameplay

Space Funeral is a pretty stock role-playing game with turn based combat. Tim and Leg Horse can attack, defend, use items, or special techniques to thwart their enemies. There are towns and dungeons to explore and all sorts of colorful characters to meet like the Shopkeeper who desires ALL RUBLES — also, the currency of Space Funeral is rubles which has got to count for something. The game could quite easily not be a game at all. The quality of the experience wouldn’t really change if this wasn’t a game. But if it wasn’t a game, if there was no combat, then what would you do? What would it be then?

This dialogue deserves an award or a metal… quite possibly an honorary sash.

The Gush

The music in the games is really good and really creepy. It’s got moody electronica with spoken word lyrics and even some surf rock thrown in for good measure. The music always feels a little out of place and unnerving and I love it because of that.

The game borrows a lot from Earthbound. Enemies are on the field –so the battles aren’t random –, the game is pretty easy, they both have a hellish otherworld — the difference being that in Space Funeral you live in the hellish otherworld–, and Tim even has a mystery command. So if you like Earthbound then you’ll like this game. If you haven’t played Earthbound then you can listen to my long-winded diatribe about it. https://aproximatelytoomanygames.wordpress.com/2014/02/14/earthbound/

And when they say MYSTERIOUS THINGS they’re not kidding.

This game is wonderfully dark. People live in constant torment or emotional anguish. Beds are coffins with Tim’s body in them. It’s insane and I love it.

The Kvetch

This game is extremely easy, strategy is strictly optional here. The game never poses a real challenge at the player, you’ll probably go through the whole game without losing a fight. Despite it’s ease, it’s so weird that it probably wouldn’t be fitting for a newcomer to videogames or RPGs.

The Verdict

I heard the name Space Funeral and knew I should check this game out. The next words out of someone’s face were about something called a Leg Horse and then I knew I HAD to play this game. Throw in a solid thesis, a perfect length, and a kick ass sound track and you’ve got a remarkably balanced and yet compact experience. To top it all off, it’s free. If Space Funeral sounds even remotely appealing to you then I suggest you check it out.

You can find Space Funeral and thecatanites’ other games at: http://harmonyzone.org/Videogames.html

Next week: Tetris Attack (SNES)

The Wolf Among Us (PC, Xbox 360, and PS3)

The fables and characters within that we know and love weren’t actually born on the page. They lived in their own world, a place they referred to simply as the Homelands. But  were driven out by The Adversary and his empire which lead them to our world. They consolidated their survivors, forgave their past crimes against each other, and established a community in New York City. There’s another community upstate called The Farm for the inhuman characters — don’t worry about it, no one else does… You play as Bigby Wolf, the sheriff of Fabletown. Something’s stirring in the rotten underbelly of this city and Bigby’s going to get to the bottom of it — because detective things.

History

I can sum up the development of The Wolf Among Us in one word, delay. The game was announced in June of 2011 and announced again –for some reason–  in on October 2012. It got named in February of 2013 and was going to be released in January-March of 2013 and was postponed until June-August of 2013. The first episode was finally released in October of 2013.

Fun Fact: Adam Harrington is the voice of both Bigby and the Woodsman. As such, Harrington spends a lot of time talking to himself.

The Wolf Among Us was completed on November 4th 2014. It’s competition was Flashback (Playstation Network and PC), Batman: Arkham Origins (PC, WiiU, PS3, and XBox 360), and Deadly Premonition: Director’s Cut (PC).

Experiences

The Wolf Among Us offers an incredible experience as an investigator, the detective that CSI has taught us to think we are. Telltale gives us the choice to play our Bigby however we want and I chose to play him with one simple rule: Everyone gets one warning, no more, no less. And sometimes that bit me in the ass. So it’s your Bigby and your rules. The replay value of the game is seeing what happens under different circumstances cleverly disguised as offering the pleasure to make a different Bigby.

I mean, is it worth it to be the fairest? But being a tyrant is fun.

Gameplay

The Wolf Among us is a narrative and choice driven walk and click adventure with quick-time-event combat sprinkled in. You control Bigby, walking around, picking stuff up, looking at evidence, and talking to people. And you’ll do a lot of talking. Every dialogue section has 4 options — and silence is always an option. The other big part of the game is choice. Every so often the game will offer the player a mutually exclusive choice i.e. if Bigby goes somewhere he can’t be in the other location at the same time. Meanwhile, anything could happen in your absence. Telltale, as always, does a wonderful job of making your choices feel like they really matter even when they might not. Especially considering some of your choices can have huge impacts on the state of the game.

Sometimes it’s literally a matter of life…

… And death.

The Gush

The music in this game is wonderful. The menu music puts me in a contemplative mood and the chapter beginning music gets me all fired up to play. It creates this moody and sleazy atmosphere for this modern film noir setting.

The story is top notch. It reacts to your decisions marvelously and those decisions aren’t always cut and dry. The story also tackles big issues that people face today like the nature of government, law enforcement, and fear. You’ll learn something about yourself going through the story.

This is the only game where someone can experience the Fables setting and it’s a treat to see. Being a fan of the Fables comic enhanced my experience but it’s not a necessity, the game does a great job explaining the setting on its own. It’s also just wicked fun to be Bigby — such stronk, much wolf punch.

It’s also beautiful watching Bigby and Snow be awkward as hell.

This game looks great, it’s incredibly stylized. Everything just pops out even though it’s gritty and grimy. The setting design naturally draws the eye right to where it needs to go.

The voice acting is evocative and incredibly emotive. From Toad’s cheapskate complaining to Gren’s rebel without a cause attitude every voice actor is bringing their A-game.

The Kvetch

The combat is a little weak. It gives the player a sense of agency when it comes Bigby’s violent side but the failure scenario just takes the player back to the beginning of the fight. It’s a tough situation from a design perspective. They couldn’t just hold the player’s hand because that might seem insulting and taking it away from the player means they’d be lacking agency during the fights, like they were watching Bigby and not controlling him. It all just seems a little odd because Telltale games are about choice and in combat I get incredibly worried that I’m going to mess up, not make the wrong choice.

We get it, Bigby will beat ’em up.

The Verdict

The Wolf Among Us is a wonderful Telltale game and a wonderful narrative driven experience in general. That being said, the player doesn’t actually do much. They’ve got a lot of input, they’ve got a lot of options, but it’s a very passive game. If you want a game where you’re doing stuff all the time then this is not be for you. This game is much more thinking about the character you’ve got int your head and what they would do or say, then the game generally does it for you. If that sounds like the sort of experience you want then go for it. It’s going for $25 on Steam right now and I’d wait until it dropped to about $20.

Next Week: Space Funeral

No Time to Explain Remastered (PC, Mac, Linux, iOS, Xbox One)

You from the future bursts through the wall of your home with a giant laser cannon. You know it’s you from the future because the first words out of his mouth are, “I am you from the future. There’s no time to explain.” And before he can say another word he’s grabbed by a giant crab and drops his cannon. You take it upon yourself to travel through time… a lot and save yourself — I mean you from the future. And other yous from other futures or something. Just jump around and shoot your cannon all over the place in this puzzle platformer.

Everything you need to know right here.

History

No Time to Explain started out as a flash game on Newgrounds by Tom Brien. After it garnered a couple of thousands of plays Brien contacted Alex Nichiporchik and formed tinyBuild Games to make a larger full release. They started a Kickstarter to fund this full version and they raised $26,000 — $19,000 more than their $7,000 goal.

No Time to Explain was released on August 15th, 2011 and a Remastered version was released on July 17th, 2015. It’s 2011 competition was Bastion (PC), From Dust (PC), and Temple Run (iOS).

Experiences

This game is I Wanna Be the Guy lite. If you’re not familiar with the masochism simulator of a game I Wanna Be the Guy is then all you need to know is that it’s hard. Although No Time to Explain can be quite difficult it’s never unfair. As a platformer puzzle game with plenty of checkpoints it’s totally possible to brute force a solution and continue on. The game just keeps getting sillier and sillier, I keep playing just to see the crazy stuff that’s gonna happen next. the plot is incredibly difficult to follow because they game takes full advantage of the multiple universe and time travel heavy setting it takes place in.

Gameplay

You play as a dude using a laser cannon as a jetpack who uses it to travel through time. If that doesn’t grab your attention right there then this game has got nothing for you. Each level requires you to go through a bunch of obstacles that become increasingly difficult to navigate in order to reach a time portal that leads to the next level. These obstacles range from spikes, to water, jump pads, to walls that can only be destroyed by lighting them on fire with your own flaming body. Every world has got a boss and this game has got some crazy bosses.

This used to be strange, now it’s just Tuesday in the Multiverse.

The game’s challenge isn’t too punitive. Every time the character touches a stable section of floor it acts as a checkpoint in case they die. Falling into a bottomless pit or getting extremely dead — like immolating oneself — will restart the level however. The Remastered edition has sharpened the graphics and sound. It’s also added a lives counter to boss fights and lowered boss health. This is a mixed blessing as some boss attacks would kill the player and others would simply return them to the nearest stable platform in the classic version. Which would lead to situations where the player would dive toward attacks that wouldn’t kill them so it wouldn’t reset the boss’ health.

If you’re looking for an even greater platforming challenge then you can look for hats.

The Gush

This game has got variety. Just after the point I’m comfortable or bored with a certain playstyle the game throws something crazy at me.

Bullet Hell section while riding on a thief version of you shooting a dinosaur from the dinosaur universe? Very yes.

The movement mechanics change as often as the playstyle. One second you’re using the laser cannon and the next you’re playing a crazy psychic version of you that can move himself with his mind.

The plot is delightfully campy — fully equipped with an evil version of you with a goatee. It’s a little hard to follow with all the time travel shenanigans but even after I got lost I knew who the bad guy was and I knew enough about what was going on to keep playing.

It’s got Giant Enemy Crabs! What could possibly go wrong?

The Kvetch

You have to fire the cannon at the right time during a jump to get the maddest ups. Sometimes I can’t get the timing right when I’m almost damn sure that I am. Maybe I’m getting mad at video games but it’s really frustrating how small the sweet spot is.

The game can kinda drag a little bit. It’s great for short bursts but I’ve never been able to marathon this one — I know, I’m scraping the bottom of the barrel here.

The Verdict

This game is a tight package. It’s $15 on Steam and I love it to death but I’m not sure it’s worth the price tag. It’s almost there, almost. Catch it on Steam when it’s 20% or something. The controls are a little wonky sometimes but the plot is wonderful, the music is catchy, and the core platforming is to die for. I recommend No Time to Explain.

S.T.A.L.K.E.R. Call of Pripyat (PC)

We return to The Zone in the aftermath of shenanigans at its center. The zone is becoming more unstable — and yet safer in some ways. The military is stepping up their efforts to investigate the zone — although they’re shockingly ignorant of its workings. They begin operation Fairway, their bid to take over Pripyat and the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant and investigate the goings on there. They sent four helicopters into the center and they’ve lost all radio contact. You are Major Degtyarev being sent into Pripyat undercover as a Stalker to figure out what went wrong with the operation. You’re underequipped, underinformed, and otherwise unready to handle the rigors of the zone but it wouldn’t be a Stalker Game otherwise.

History

Sorry Stalkers in the making, I couldn’t find much of note about the development of the game. It was released by GSC Game World, like the other Stalker games and was distributed to the world by a cadre of different publishers. GSC was able to publish it in the CIS but Viva Media and Deep Silver released it in North America and Europe respectively.

It was released on October 2nd, 2009. It’s competition was Demon’s Souls (PS3), Saw: The Video Game (PS3 and XBox 360), and Brutal Legend (PS3 and XBox 360).

Experiences

If there was a feeling I felt the most in this game it would be confusion. I can think of no other FPS I’ve gotten lost in more. Between unmarked quest objectives, mysterious Zone stuff, and unclear instructions it’s difficult to figure where to go or what to do. It might seem like certain conversations are just they for flavor but many of them hint at tasks and most of those tasks offer no instruction whereas as some topics are just dead ends. ‘Find Barge and Joker’ translates into look it up or get lucky finding some dead bodies. It’s frustrating to have no clues whatsoever. If they mentioned something like, “Barge and Joker went west after the argument” or “They mentioned something about artifact hunting,” then I’d have some direction and feel like I wasn’t just wandering around and hoping for completion.

Gameplay

Like Stalker games before it Call of Pripyat is a horror based first person shooter. Unlike Clear Sky, however, there’s no longer a relationship between primary mechanics and story. There are no territory control mechanics or zone destroying threats this time around, the scales are much smaller and much more personal. The game is very much a sandbox that rewards the player based on how much they put into it. The reward for exploration is usually more powerful weapons or achievements that give the player additional benefits like free ammo or medical restocks in settlements. This game highlights the elements of survival in the zone much more, Degtyarev must keep himself fed and rested or his stamina, and eventually health, will suffer.

Even though it’s got fewer locations I’d say they’re better designed overall and they look great.

The game takes place in Zaton, a large swampy area, Yanov, a former train yard, and Pripyat, an small town. These areas form a sort of new frontier for the zone, these are areas that the player has not visited in either Clear Sky or Shadow of Chernobyl. Though the artifacts, mutants, and anomalies might be similar the politics and atmosphere have changed quite a bit. There’s no more Sidorovich, no more faction wars, and much fewer of the comforts they provided. Getting better gear will take a greater toll on the characters’ wallets or they’ll have to do some hunting. As such you’ll find fewer enemies in Exo-Suits or with incredible gear unlike Clear Sky which had a heavy soldier in nearly every squad.

You never know what you’ll run into in Call of Pripyat.

The Gush

Praise be to The Zone, the player can now shoot Bloodsuckers while they’re invisible. This might seem small but those bastards have been getting the better of me and wasting my ammunition for too long. They’re cloak is much less obvious to balance but I can throw a grenade and kill the damn things.

Not to say that they’re still not vicious as hell.

The world of Pripyat feels very alive. Squads of Stalkers go to anomalous areas to look for artifacts — and they can find them if the player doesn’t — while bandits will be on the look out for Stalkers to ambush and loot to steal. Mutants, zombies, and monolith leave their lairs and fortified areas looking for supple Stalkers to eat.

The quests in this game offer real choice as how to complete them. It’s no longer a matter of going here and doing this, it’s a matter of guys not knowing what to do and you fill in the blank. You go to pay someone’s debt and the assholes try to charge you interest, what do you do? You find a PDA holding information about someones secret weapons warehouse, who do you sell it to? The choice and consequences are yours.

Anomalous zones are now marked on your map so it’s much easier to find where to go artifact hunting. In addition you can now sleep in settlements so you can explore at night or during the day, whichever is your preference.

The Kvetch

Apparently the whole voice acting department died in a fruit punch anomaly between this game and the last and GSC got their replacements from people on the street. The voice quality has dropped off hard since Clear Sky. I think they’ve got 5 voice actors, all told, and 2 of them voice almost everyone and they’re really bad. I don’t know what happened but get ready for some grating voices and painful deliveries.

Back on that whole direction problem I was talking about in Experiences, it would be so much better if they told the player that certain quest objectives are just on certain maps. I needed to get some poison to eliminate a Bloodsucker lair and I found some locked tanks on a jeep holding the stuff. I figure there’s a master key in a military or industrial facility somewhere and I check every factory or barracks I can get my hands on. I ask everyone about the damn things. As it turns out the keys are on other parts of the motercade the tanks were on. There’s no hint or indication where the key is whatsoever.

And I’m not the only one with this problem. There’s a whole Gamefaqs post devoted to this quest.

I don’t know if it’s a glitch, I wouldn’t put it past a Stalker Game — this game’s the most stable of the three but still has issues –, but there’s a mutant called the Burer — remember Mr. Ugly face up there? That’s him — who can knock your gun out of your hands. It’s an interesting mechanic and a little annoying but I think it’s cool. The problem comes when I can’t find the gun afterward. I don’t know if it’s falling through the floor or flying to some part of the room where I just can’t find it. But it means my prized shooter is gone and I’ve gotta reload my last save even if the beast is dead. It’s unfun, unfair, frustrating, and happens to me at least once a playthrough.

The Verdict

The gameplay is much improved and everything feels more thematic overall. There’s a lot of unfair or non-existant signposting that leads to frustration. Quests are sometimes difficult to complete because you won’t know what to do next and there are just too many hidden objectives and goals in the game overall. This game is a guide game. You’ll play it with a strategy guide for WHEN you need it. It’s still fun and it’s still Stalker and it’s interesting to see the ecosystem of the Zone just go. But it still scratches that Stalker itch.

Darkest Dungeon (PC, Mac, Linux, PS4, and PS Vita)

A distant Uncle(?) has left you the family estate but, like Luigi’s Mansion or the estate from Eternal Darkness, all is not as it seems. As it turns out this Great Uncle(?)  dug too deep, performed dark experiments, communed with Outer Gods, and basically did every bad thing Lovecraft ever wrote about. As the sole beneficiary it lies to you to restore the homestead and the nearby hamlet. And defeat the evil your… Father(?) unleashed. Hire some eager adventurers and set them on the monsters of the dark — or have I gotten that the wrong way around?

This disclaimer shows up everytime you boot up the game reminding you that this isn’t a game you win, it’s a game you survive.

History

Darkest Dungeon started out as a conversation between Chris Bourassa and Tyler Sigman about how a real person might react to a crazy dungeon delving scenario filled with monsters, demons, cultists, undead, and giant vermin. Inspired by psychologically heroes, particularly Hudson from Alien, they formed Red Hook Studios in order to make this a reality. They funded the game through Kickstarter, raising $75,000 for the project. Darkest Dungeon is still in Early access and as of yet is incomplete.

Darkest Dungeon entered Early Access on February 3rd, 2015. It’s competition was Hand of Fate (Linux, PC, Mac, PS4, and XBox One), Oddworld New and Tasty (PC, Mac, Linux), and Evolve (PC, PS4, XBox One)

Experiences

It’s natural that the player connect with the party… and doing so will hurt you. Eventually the character you rely on will fail you. The best of them will go mad and jeopardize everything. The one you love the most, the one you named after yourself perhaps, will die. At this point, after 30 expeditions, I’ve grown cold to the lives of the adventurers in my employ. I send them with no supplies sound in the knowledge that if they die then I can replace them. If they survive they’ll soon join the higher ups who perform the really dangerous tasks. The whole while the cash keeps coming in and I keep getting ready for a huge expedition with my most powerful party members. But the bodies are piling and I almost feel a tinge of guilt that my best must stand on the corpses of so many others… almost.

So far, the dead number 22 and the game keeps track of their names and how they died.

Gameplay

You take control of a party of adventurers who are about to learn what horrors live below, and in, the estate — I love the eagerness they begin with and how it turns into jaded paranoia and fear of having to go back. They move forward in a formation of four ranks, with certain combat abilities only being usable in and of certain ranks — your opponents will try to fuck up your formation… but you can also mess up theirs. Every quest has a certain objective and when it’s complete your people can go on home. They can also leave prematurely but that’ll stress them out.

And too much stress is really dangerous.

Speaking of stress, when your characters reach 100 stress points they’ll reach a breaking point which will typically cause them to acquire an affliction which makes their behavior more unpredictable and stresses everyone else out — but rarely causes them to fight more powerfully against the darkness. When a character reaches 200 stress they suffer a massive heart attack and die. Characters don’t die when they run out of health, they instead enter a state called ‘Death’s Door’ at which point the next attack against them has a chance of killing them.

Being on Death’s Door stresses them out and it’ll stress you out.

Completing quests nets you Heirlooms, gold, and trinkets which you can take back to the Hamlet and spend. The Hamlet is equipped with buildings that relieve stress, train and upgrade your adventurers, buy trinkets, and remove negative traits from characters such as phobias or diseases. Buildings are upgraded with heirlooms– which can never be taken away– and adventurers are improved with gold — which can easily be spent on expeditions that end in disaster.

The game has got his marvelous pre-Victorianesque setting where crossbows and flintlock pistols cohabit.

The game’s still in early access and as such has no definite goal. Doing quests in areas unlocks bosses and conquering the challenge is a reward in itself but other than that there’s not great conclusion yet.

The Gush

The designs of all the characters is unique and expressive. The different color palettes of the heads alone allow me to differentiate between characters of the same class. After so many battles animations get a little old and sometimes they drag and make battles seem like they take forever. The characters convey a lot based on appearance alone.

There’s something immensely satisfying about my party having their back to the wall and someone reaching their breaking point and becomes virtuous. The pause between the initiation and the reveal builds so much tension. It’s a small victory and I usually pump my fist or launch my hands into the air shouting, “YES!” repeatedly whenever it happens

YOU GET ‘EM PLAGUEY!

The game has created this bizarre system where the town’s upgrades are really what push the difficulty down. Nothing can be done to harm it or undo the work you’ve done to it. You can dump comically large sacks of money into an adventurer, keeping their mind and weapons sharp, when they suddenly turn into a critical hit magnet and die.

If you put together a particular team of adventurers the game will sometimes give them a themed title. I don’t know why I like this so much but I will occasionally mix and match team members just to see if they’re ‘The Misbegotten’ or ‘The Merciless’ or something.

The Kvetch

This game relies a lot on luck. Between your crits, enemy crits, getting surprised, surprising other parties, where the goal is in the dungeon, whether you scout or not, what every interactible item in the game does, and what enemies you fight, it’s difficult to determine where your strategy ends and the Random Number Generator begins.

Sometimes you get the triple crits, and sometimes they get you.

The game has got this really weird difficulty curve. Instead of getting more difficult as the game goes on, the game kind of gets easier. It takes more time to keep your high level characters in ship shape but it’s easier now than it’s ever been to me to reduce the stress of my characters or upgrade their gear. The big reason my people keep dying is because I use them like cannon fodder and pinch my pennies a little too hard, not because the challenge has gone up. Then again, higher level enemies grow more powerful to match the skills of your higher leveled characters.

The Verdict

This game scratched an itch that I didn’t even know that I had. It’s wonderfully eldritch and addictive in the same way that the Binding of Isaac is but it gives me a little more control. I’m really curious about what they turn it into, what classes they make next, and what or if there will be a grand conclusion to this all. I’m not sure if it’s worth 20 dollars but it’s definitely worth 15 so I’d recommend catching it when Steam runs its next sale.

Dungeons of Dredmor (Windows, Mac, and Linux)

The evil lich Dredmor held the world hostage with his host of monsters and magical ability. The wizards of the age, a little drunk and completely tired of Dredmor’s shenanigans, locked him away magically and physically deep beneath the earth. Dredmor, tenacious as he was, wiggled his body and soul until he was able to slip the bonds. The King and his court are certain that he means to take over the world again. He’s sent you, an eager young adventurer, to “prove your worth” by slaying Dredmor. With skill sets like Tourist, Fungal Arts Student, and Tinkersmith uh…. good luck kiddo.

Hop to it, Eyebrows.

History

Dungeons of Dredmor was published and developed by Gaslamp Games and a small team of five people. The main developer, Nicholas Vining, had been working on the game since 2006 and when Gaslamp formed in 2010 things really got in gear. Vining is known in the game’s industry for making something so bad that it inspired Penny Arcade to create the Fruit Fucker 2000 apparently — whatever it was Vining has redeemed himself by making Dredmor. PC Gamer US awarded Dungeons of Dredmor the Indie Game of the Year for 2011.

Dungeons of Dredmor was released on July 13, 2011. It’s competition was Bastion (XBLA), Ms. Splosion Man (XBLA), and Catherine (PS3 and XBox 360).

Experiences.

I’ve been playing Dungeons of Dredmor for three years and I’ve seen Dredmor once — at which point he threw a spell at me that obliterated my face. I cannot think of another game in which I’ve had such trouble. My latest and most successful run was interrupted by a vacation to Diggle Hell in which I got bushwhacked by Vlad Digula. In short, this game is hard. I created skill combinations that made me unable to defeat the first enemy I ran into. And yet, I can’t stop playing. I can’t stop trying to kill Dredmor with weirder and weirder skills. I know I can probably beat him with a martial artist, shield master, archeologist but can I beat him with a perceptive, burgling, Tourist?

For reference, that’s a diggle on the left — look at the cute little guy. That’s Vlad Digula on the right. The jump in difficulty is equivalent to the jump in creepy.

 Gameplay

Dungeons of Dredmor is a dungeon crawling Roguelike. It’s got everything a growing dungeon needs, item-crafting, traps, levers, secrets, side-quests, magical anvils, vending machines, shops, and monsters — a fuckton of monsters. Every floor is randomly generated from randomly generated rooms with random items on the floor and bequeeth to you randomly generated artifacts — items that have additional random stat ups and downs with randomly generated names — oh yeah, and all the rooms have random names. You can even randomly select your skills but I wouldn’t recommend it. Your goal is to get to the bottom floor and kill Dredmor, leveling up along the way, and trying to find good loot. The game is turn based so when you move or act so will everything else, in turn — although it all looks instantaneous.

And you’ll die… a lot. But dying is fun too!

The Gush

I love this games sense of humor. Sometimes monsters taunt with bizarre and funny phrases — I’ve seen screenshots of Vlad Digula remarking that he’ll “be in his bunk.” You can destroy statues of Dredmor in the dungeon and are awarded experience points for engaging in heroic vandalism — or so the narrator booms. There are even skills like Totally Not Drizzt — for all you Forgotten Realms fans.

Seriously, there are a lot of skills.

I love how crafting tools have a bunch of incidental crafting recipes that aren’t related to their primary use. It’s super cool that I can use my ingot press to make grilled cheese sandwiches and omelets.

I really like the design of all the different dungeon levels. Each floor of the dungeon is like an entire dungeon from another series. There’s the fungus floor, the ship floor, the sewer floor, the space ship floor, IT’S GREAT!

The monster design is bizarre and interesting and they don’t pallet swap too many monsters. I mean, I’m totally comfortable fighting a mustache spirit on one floor and then a grandfather mustache 3 floors down because that’s hilarious. The funniest monsters are the ones they reuse.

And every floor has a new kind of diggle who wants to kill you.

The Kvetch

The game is meant to be played on a meticulous level that really breaks the flow. Don’t want to step on a trap? Then you’d best take your steps really slowly unless you’ve got skills that increase your trap spotting range. But this is all in line with it’s Rogue roots.

It’s really easy to get screwed really fast. Open up the wrong door, take the wrong path, or walk on the wrong satanic displacement glyph and your adventure will be over faster than you can say Diggle. This game is designed to kill your character and it’s difficult to get it not to.

They have entire rooms devoted to it — but but but… loot!

The music is this sort of 16 bit synth stuff and I kind of like it although I’d rather listen to my own music or a podcast in the background as I play.

The Verdict

This game is a heckuva deal. For 5 dollars, and three pieces of DLC — total cost being 11 dollars. This game is definitely worth a look if any of the above aspects seemed interesting to you. This game is a solid and difficult adventure that will test your skills and ingenuity. The systems have a lot of depth. Dungeons of Dredmor will have you laughing through the fury.