Fire Emblem: Conquest

Rating: 8.0

Happy Price: 34.99 - Since that's the only price you'll find it at

Gameplay

Fire Emblem Fates has two versions of itself, Conquest and Birthright. Conquest deals with the bad guys, the imperialistic kingdom that has goals of taking over all the kingdoms of the world. It builds off of the success of each Fire Emblem iteration released in the past, but this one in particular is aimed at veterans of the series and it is definitely more difficult than any other Fire Emblem game. 

Tactics

Conquest will test your ability to strategize and push you to your limits in terms of frustration goes. Unlike previous versions of Fire Emblem, you can't purchase reek boxes to level up weaker members of your army. This means the only time your units will gain experience is during campaign missions or if you've unlocked prologue mission. Prologue missions are very rare because they occur when two units of opposite sex reach full bonding, because they have a child you have to rescue. Once a character has died, they are gone forever. This is how these games are traditionally played, but Conquest allows for this option to be turned off. I would not recommend this as it takes weight away from moment to moment decisions. At the same time, this penalty limits your freedom in risk taking, risk taking that is essential to developing the weaker members of your army.

The AI is terribly unforgiving. The AI's mentality is pretty much that of a suicide bomber and will sacrifice everything to kill one of your units, even if it means sure death. One example is leaving a healer unprotected, but surrounded by a bunch of allies. The enemy will rush in the middle of everyone just to kill a unit that can't defend itself. In return, your allies will demolish each unit that tried to take out one. To me, in a game that prides itself on good decisions it feels unfair that the AI has no regard for its own life, while you the player have to cherish each and every move. There are also units that will deal 7 damage after their turn, no matter how much damage they cause a player during their turn. For example, one of these AI units won't do any damage with their attack, but have an ability that causes 7 damage after the turn is over. Not only that, but it will affect adjacent units. When put in these situations, it is very frustrating because only your strongest units are eligible to fight at that point. 7 damage is a ton in Fire Emblem, which means you have to use someone from your party that will take no damage during the main turns.

Building Your Army

The best part about party based games building your party in the image you see fit. Conquest makes this very difficult to do since it offers no way to grind. The later an ally joins your party, the harder it is to develop them. I had about 6 units that were pretty much useless because I had no opportunity to develop them. Each campaign mission gets harder and harder, and more enemies get thrown your way as the game goes on. The combination of higher levels, volume, and devastating abilities creates situations where you're relying on about eight or so unites the entire game. In other Fire Emblem games, there are opportunities to recruit people during battle which is one of the most rewarding things that can happen. In Conquest, this is non existent. Recruiting party members is built into the story and requires no work from the player, except for a villager in the beginning of the game.

There are new items like Heart Seals and Friendship Seals. A Heart seal for example can turn any unit into a different type based on its personality. If their skill levels make sense, you can turn a paladin into a mage if you need balance in that area. Of course, that unit would then have to learn magic attacks and build up its skill. It's nice to have this option, but at the same time useless. The only time I used this item was on a villager very early in the game. That villager ended up turning into a Sniper, and would grow into the most powerful unit in my army. Friendship seals are similar, but they allow you to change someone into the same unit they have full companionship with. 

One of the better improvements is the PP of weapons is no longer existent. That means you can purchase a Silver Lance and it will never break. This takes an element of stress out of the game that was once there previous. You no longer have to equip three different lance types depending on how much hp the enemy has so you can preserver your gold stash which is nice and makes sense. You will also have the opportunity to spend money on more exotic weapons like Brave Bow's and Killer Lances. 

Narrative

The narrative structure is quite odd, up until Chapter 8 the story is the same for both Conquest and Birthright. Once you get to that fork in the road, you have to make a decision. However, you can only make one decision based on what game was purchased. If you decide, "hm I think I want to do that instead" you will get a message "you don't have the version of the game to support this choice, go to the Nintendo store and purchase for 39.99". Why even offer the choice to the player when I already made the choice when I bought the game? The reasons for going down the path you go down in conquest are really shallow and don't carry any real emotion to you as a player. So the whole game from that point on is set on a very weak emotional foundation since you made the wrong purchase. Every one of your family members is borderline insane, and your father is even worse. It would have been nice if your reasons for choosing the "bad" side had some actual substance you could empathize with, but there isn't of that. Your reasons for conquering a peaceful kingdom is based off of greed and power. 

Even though they are short, the cinematics are done really well. They are well done anime sequences that have tons of actions and really cool particle effects. The art style is 3D as well, so the 3D anime brings everything to life very well. I was actually pretty excited when I would cause them to happen, I would just sit back and relax while I watched a really cool anime sequence with party members from my army. This allows personality and depth to be added to characters inside the army you manage.

Summary

Even though I did not like the game, It does many things very well and it's still a deep RPG. I wouldn't recommend it over Birthright however.  I easily spent 40 hours playing this game, even though only 26 hours are included in my saves. I spent many hours dying therefore shutting the game off without saving so my characters wouldn't die off. You'll be tested from a strategic sense if you decide to pick this game up, and will have to invest a lot of time into it. 

Farcry 4

Happy Price: 39.99

Rating: 9.4

Gameplay

Farcry 4 expands on everything that was built in Farcry 3, but adds tons of polish and features that distinguish it as a separate title rather than a perceived DLC. Taking place in the Himalaya Mountains, verticality plays a role but doesn't define gameplay in any hindering fashion. The storyline has much improved writing which supplements the gameplay experience and takes it to another level that is generally unexpected. 

Combat Mechanics

Farcry is a FPS at it's core, and despite having tons of other gameplay elements, keeps to its core very well. There are a variety of weapons to choose from ranging from the compound bow to a light machine gun. Farcry allows the player to select a stealthy or guns blazing strategy whenever they may choose. This gives the player a ton of freedom and meaningful choice on a minute to minute basis since you're in constant conflict for most of the game. As you progress, better weapons become available such as the Silenced Sniper Rifle which is a very powerful weapon, but an unaccurate shooter will alert enemies at the sound of bullets ricocheting off the ground or buildings. Also, if you decide to shoot someone and another comrade sees a body drop dead, they know what is happening and your cover will be blown. These are the reasons I love Farcry 4. Even when you have such power, you still have to be smart. 

Vehicles

New vehicles are introduced that really change the gameplay of Farcry 4 compared to previous iterations in the series. The gyrocopter, which is a helicopter made of steel pipes and duct tape, enables you to fly around the mountains and traverse from one side to another much quicker than a car. A sidearm can be equipped while driving it, so there is great opportunity to blow up convoys when driving around with a grenade launcher (sidearm grenade launcher, yes). You can also use this vehicle if you plan to hunt, as you can wield a sawed of shotgun as a sidearm. Like a real hunter, you can just fly around and kill animals, all the while skinning them to upgrade your accessories like wallet or ammo bags. This may sound cowardly, but Rhino's do not go down without a fight, and if you don't prepare against one of those things they can make quick work out of you.

Elephants are the other notable new vehicle you can use. With the option to charge or ram, watch enemy camps run around scared as you ride around an Elephant and firing at enemies with your sidearm. It's one of the most fun things to do is run around with a 5 ton flesh shield of controllable fury. I found it humorous to ram my enemies and watch them fly what seemed to be 50 feet each time as they rag dolled across the terrain. Of course it's not easy to obtain an elephant, since they don't travel very fast it's much more convenient to find one near the encampment you will try to "liberate". 

Story

I can usually snooze through the narrative of a video game, but this one has a decent amount of depth and fantastic writing. You find yourself in this situation because your mother dies and request her ashes are spread in a certain place in Kyrat. Turns out, that area is occupied by an insane Dictator, and in order to spread the ashes you have to liberate the area. At first it seems dry and pointless, but as the story unfolds it begins to get much more interesting. The main villain is not pure evil as you'd expect, he believes he's on the right side of the war and is compassionate yet ruthless. He's unpredictable and it adds great flare to the story. Many of the side characters also shine, like the radio host that commentates on your arrival and your progression. One of the notable lines I remember is when he talks about how you "suddenly become good at killing with no prior training" then goes into a discussion on hidden talents, and that your character is likely a serial killer whom has harnessed their long suppressed talent of killing people. I thought it was brilliant since you the gamer are wondering the same thing.

Environment/Art

It feels very good as you navigate through the Himalayan mountainside because the environment is beautiful. There are annoying eagles that will attack if you decide to take in the scenery, which makes the moments you get so much more valuable. As you approach an unsuspecting enemy with your bow and are crouching in the tall grass, it rustles beautifully against your face. And then chaos ensues. You get spotted and have to switch to an explosive arrow, blow up a car that sets a shed on fire, and now you're running around an encampment full of fire, explosions, blood, and flying enemies who have just exploded because of your grenade that was frantically thrown. Everything is beautiful, and the frame rates stay consistent no matter what is happening. I played on an Xbox and didn't try to break it, but playing the game naturally allowed it to hold up. You'll be stunned when on the top of a mountain look around at the scenery. 

Summary

It's a must play. This review is nearly two years late so the game is only $20. It's worth more than that, and you'd be crazy not to play this game! 

     

Madden 17

Rating: 8.8

Happy Price: 59.99

Gameplay

Building off of the previous iterations of the franchise, it's the same football simulator that allows for dealing with the off field dynamics as well as executing everything on the field. With a variety of game modes, there is something for everyone. Franchise is for the RPG oriented user, Madden Ultimate Team for the fantasy football player, and online games for the social player. 

New Features

The focus this year was on ball carrier moves and giving the player more control over the outcomes of one on one situations with defenders. Offensive lineman A.I was also improved so the running attack has taken a front seat in this iteration, something that hasn't been done in years. I haven't had such an experience since Madden 2001. Many things went into bringing this feature set to the forefront. They tightened the controls quite a bit so moving around didn't feel so loose. The previous ten years of Maddens did not have very precise controls which made it difficult to hit a hole correctly, usually you'd see where you want to go and then run into your own lineman when trying to run the ball. If the option is turned on, the game will tell you what to do in order to elude a defender or break the tackle. Above the player a button will appear that must be pressed at the correct time. They've also added a precise mode, which allows you to break multiple tackles or juke multiple defenders with the penalty of increased fumble rates if you mistime it. 

Franchise Mode

The approach this year was to make things more simple and to broaden the audience to a mode that is deep and has a heavy menu set that can be overwhelming. It appeals to both new and old players because you can follow the prompts they provide you and get everything done, or dig into the sub menus if you're very detailed. Depending on if you pick a coach or owner, the experience will be different. The owner has all the same features as a coach, but you can also change the prices of hot dogs, rebuild a stadium, move a team, and sign players. You have far more control over a franchise this way, and it's the preferred way I like to do it. I was very proud that I was able to take the 2-14 Titans to the Super Bowl my third year after drafting and trading players that make my team an absolute powerhouse.

The Titans start with a young quarterback, formidable defense, and a behemoth of a Running back named Derrick Henry sitting on the bench. They lack a receiver corp, have aging linebackers, and a below average secondary. I knew right away after playing eight games I absolutely needed a wide receiver with size and a shutdown cornerback. The deep scouting and combine system allowed me to select the receiver I needed, and he ended up being an all pro which is very fulfilling since a lot of time goes into scouting players and getting ready for the draft. Without this WR, I would have never won the Super Bowl. I could get into a bunch of these scenarios but it would take forever, but when you've wheeled and dealed for players or drafted them and they make plays in the super bowl and playoffs that get you over the hump, it's very fulfilling.

AI

The first few times you fire the game up, its evident the AI has been improved on both the offense and defense. However there are still frustrating episodes where blockers will run right past the guy they were suppose to block, and you end up getting tackled since you followed the blocker and they didn't do their job. Also there is an issue on kick returns where blockers will be out of bounds looking for someone to block, so you can potentially lose two or more blockers during kick returns. The offensive AI is pretty smart though, they will adjust to your defensive looks if you repeatedly blitz, use man coverage, or use zone coverage. After about two seasons, I finally found a few defensive plays that turned me into the #1 defense in the league. I would run a nickel package where the two middle linebackers blitzed, while everyone else was in man coverage. This would handle both runs and passes since it was always a six man rush with five dbs covering everyone else. Screen plays and outside runs killed me though, and I found the AI would start calling those plays if I kept using the play over and over again. I thought it was very fun having to switch things up into zones, man zone combos, and blitzes to keep the offense at bay.

Presentation

Each year EA does a good job at improving the character models and animations. The tackling has however taken a huge leap as they have greatly improved the responsiveness of the physics when someone is getting tackled. It's difficult to tell how they are doing it, but it seems that the player being tackled will contort their body from whichever direction is generating the most force. This applies to double and triple tackles which creates really cool tackle animations where players can be spun into the air, or be lunging forward off balance and a hit stick will jar the ball loose. The couple of times I've taken advantage of a situation like that, it looked just like a NFL fumble where players try to do too much and get blown up and lose the ball.

The commentary is repetitive and annoying, there isn't anything like the Madden Summerall days. I actually heard one of the commentators use a line during a real NFL game where he says "You know what my tall tight end used to tell us? Put the ball up on the top shelf where the kids can't get it". When you've heard this 100 times in a video game then hear it in real life, it makes things seem unoriginal and lazy. The commentators make a billion references to the "old days" where things were done a certain way and how the approach to football is so new and finesse. It just sounds like two old guys talking how their NFL was different than today's, however this doesn't contribute to what is happening on the field at all.  

Summary

If you're a football fan, you've probably bought each Madden since you've owned a video game console. Madden 17 is the best iteration in years, probably since Madden 2001 that debuted on the PS2. If you decided to skip a year due to repetitive gameplay and feeling EA steals your money each year, it's not the case with this game. 

Enter The Gungeon

Rating: 8.2

Happy Price: 14.99

Gameplay

Enter the Gungeon combines skill and random events that create an unpredictable flow of events each time you play. The difficulty is high, but unlike Dark Souls that aren't any patterns you can rely on to adapt to. It plays more like FTL where enemies and environments are randomly generated with a set of minimum and maximum parameters. There is a lot of shooting, dodging, and rolling involved. Your main objective is to make it through a bunch of dungeons, saving ominous NPC's and defeating bosses.

Combat

The main focus is reacting to heavy gunfire and rushing enemies. There are many different enemy types that have different weapons coming at you simultaneously. This is balanced by a roll feature which makes you invincible for the amount of time you're rolling. There are four characters that can be picked from, each with their individual trait that makes them unique. Arguably, if you're good enough, you could beat the game with each characters starting weapon. However you'd have to be on some pro status to accomplish that.

Upgrades

There are two types of upgrades that exist, guns and passives. Upgrades are applied by unlocking chests that contain them. Upgrades come in forms of items, either a type of gun or strange item that has a unique property to it that influences the player's abilities. In order to unlock a chest, one must get keys for them. Keys can be purchased or found, however it's not obvious how to get enemies to drop keys. Depending on what upgrade you get can define how your gameplay run will go, getting an extremely powerful weapon combined with a great passive will significantly increase the odds of you winning. It can be very disappointing however, when you open a chest and the weapon inside is just slightly more powerful than your starting weapon. This is the risk you take each time you play the game, you just don't know or have control over how it's going to turn out.

There are so many gun types it is overwhelming, but adds an element of surprise each time you get something new.  Shown above is a Tommy Gun, but you can get laser weapons, attacking bees, grenade launchers, missile launchers, snowballs, and many other weapon types. It will take hours to uncover them, but there exists a dictionary where you can see all the weapons that exist in the game. There just isn't a clear path to unlocking them. After defeating bosses, there is a currency that is dropped that can be used to unlock weapons that "join" the game. These will get added to the array of weapons available each run. You can always purchase weapons, keys, and other needs at a shop. This adds some predictability to your run, but at the same time you'll have no idea what appears at the shop.

The same goes for the passive upgrades. These things do random stuff like make your bullets bounce off walls, divide into 3 bullets, freeze enemies, electrocute enemies if rolled into, etc. Getting a combination like a beam weapon that bounces off walls can be a huge upgrade since now you can play the game completely differently. Essentially destroying enemies while behind cover. Or when tackling a boss, you don't need to be super accurate all the time and can focus on dodging the onslaught of bullets. 

Boss Battles

Even boss battles will be unpredictable. The game is divided into five different dungeons. Each dungeon has an array of bosses that it hosts. You won't know which boss you face, and therefore won't really know which weapon to purchase if you're in the situation where your weapons are not sufficient. It's guesswork, but after enough time you'll learn the patterns of the bosses and it won't be an issue early game. There are some that argue to save your ammo for dungeon three, and just use the starting weapon against bosses which I thought was too difficult. The bosses are one of the high points of the game, each is a character in its own right and has a combat style that complements it. For example, Medusa is bat shit crazy and uses dual uzis with the ability to turn you to stone. She reminds you of crazy ex girlfriend.

Art

The 2d pixel art is top notch and totally encompasses games of the era it's trying to emulate. The fact that the environments are dynamically generated and the tilesets totally work without any issues is a huge technical feat. It's difficult to create tilesets that don't conflict with one another when they are as dynamic as they are in the game. With the huge variety of weapons and ammo types, there was a good attention to detail, no stone was left unturned. Guns have the appearance for what they do. A missile launcher is big, or if it's small, has a quirky name like the Little Cricket. I spent a lot of time looking for a flaw, but could not find one. Now my expectations are something funny or intelligent each time I get an upgrade. I expect it to look great and feel great, and haven't been disappointed.

Summary

Not a casual shooter by any means, however it appears it would be. There is a lot of depth that is difficult to cut into with purpose since there are many random events happening. It starts off great, but starts to lose its luster after about the 10 hour mark. However people that love shooters and games like FTL can likely play this game for hours on end. It's very difficult to beat.

Saints Row: Gat Outta Hell

Happy Price: 4.99

Rating: 7.0

Gameplay

As a standalone game, you feel a bit cheated because Gat Outta Hell feels very much like DLC to Saints Row IV. It is pretty much the same game with a different narrative and reskinned guns to make them more hell themed. As you fly and sprint through hell, your job is to create as much chaos as possible in order to piss off the devil and have him confront you. 

Narrative

The most unique and best feature of the game was the story. After playing with a Ouija board a hell portal opens up and steals the president. Johnny Gat goes into hell to rescue his buddy, because he's Johnny Gat and a complete badass. The devil is to marry his daughter to the president, so that the union can assist the devil in corrupting humanity. The president has great leadership skills and is ruthless, so he's the perfect candidate for a son in law. There are many surprises inside the story including musicals and many unique endings the player can select. The voice acting and animation are superb making the story immersive and worth your time.

You'll find prominent figures from history down in hell, both fictional and from the SR universe. These figures include Blackbeard, Shakespeare, the Twins, and Vlad the Impaler. These characters have found themselves new roles in hell, and each are favored by the devil in some way due to their work on Earth. Exploring these is fun and entertaining, as it makes you think how their talents would translate to modern society. For example, Shakespeare in hell is an EDM DJ, begging the question if his talents would have rose to the surface in the modern age or would've been diluted by the lures of modern technology.  

Combat

If you've ever played Saints Row IV, skip this section. It is the exact same. If not, keep reading. Johnny Gat has two main ways to navigate the area and avoid enemy gunfire. That is sprinting and flying. Upgrading these two movement mechanics will greatly enhance your experience defeating tons of demons and hellspawn. In order to conserve ammo and generally move around as fast as possible, I sprinted around and kicked people in the nuts as much as I could. The benefit of doing that is health would drop right next to me, and I'd get to see a sweet animation like a wrestling move. 

In terms of shooting, you get a small selection of weapons. There are the pistols, sub machine guns, machine guns, melee, special, and explosive. There are two to three variants of each of these weapon types, and each must be individually upgraded so choose carefully on which you'd like to build out, because you won't be able to build them all out. Don't think the hell version of a weapon is going to be superior than the Earth version, for example the rocket launcher and shotgun are superior than their hell version counterparts. Early game, I assumed since the hell versions looked cooler they'd be more powerful, so I wasted money upgrading them. When the opportunity arises, make sure you get the couch gun. It is by far the most powerful gun in the game, and eventually it can be upgraded to the point where there is unlimited ammo and no reloads. This made defeating the devil a cakewalk.

You do also get super powers, but pick one and upgrade that as much as possible. The currency to upgrade them is limited, and is annoying to obtain early game. Once you've upgraded flying enough it gets a little easier, but it's still a task. Each prominent figure you help out in hell will award you a different power. There are four that were stated above, each with something to offer you. These super powers assist in battles, but are far from the main thing that kills things. Those are still going to be your guns, but when in a tight situation the super powers help. I stuck to the stomp since it cleared out areas which would help when I had to stay and protect an area for long periods of time. A few mission types require this, and it suited me well. The three other options include spawning imps, an arcane blast, and an aura. 

Environments

Hell is a difficult thing to create because it's not real, but at the same time this makes it awesome because you can create it however you imagine it to be. The environment is very underwhelming and I feel like I'm in a hell skinned version of a city from Saints Row IV. No pun intended, but there is no soul to the environment. It feels like I'm in a test version of the game or something, and the details have not been fully fleshed out. There isn't any real soundtrack, so when you're getting place to place it feels dreadful. This clashes with the theme that Saints Row has created, where hell would likely be a fun place. I expected there to be music that got my energy up, but instead I got something that made me want to shut the game off. To me it seemed like there were a lot of assets from other games that were re-used, and just were re skinned. That was disappointing.

Summary

Probably not worth your time. The narrative was the most fun part, and you an youtube that online. This is miles from SR III which is one of my favorite games. SR IV took a step back, and this takes a step way back. It has it's moments of great polish, but It's still taking and building off of a highly polished franchise. 

Doom

Rating: 9.0

Happy Price: 39.99

Gameplay

Doom is one of the best shooters I've played in years, the single player experience was something I haven't experienced since Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare back in 2007. So it's the best shooter I've played in nine years. There are a variety of enemies, weapons to use against them, the action is non stop, and the story isn't half bad either. 

Run n' Gun

Doom is all about staying in motion and reacting quickly to enemies. Certain enemy types are weak against certain weapons and when a flood of them approach, you have to think quickly about how to go about the situation. Running around and singling out enemies worked best for me. Each weapon has two modifications that can be unlocked, which then can be upgraded. To add, certain weapons share the same ammo, so you have to be very careful about what you're doing. There are two energy weapons, two shotguns, and two machine guns. Deciding what you want to upgrade becomes very important and you have to compliment your own gameplay style if you're going to be successful.

Weapon Types

Each weapon has a strength and weakness, along with certain enemies that respond differently to weapons. There is the standard combat shotgun which has decent range and good damage up close. It can take out most minion type enemies in one shot or leave them ready for a glory kill. This is the most commonly used weapon to take out weaker enemies. Along with that is the double barrel shotgun which has very limited range but much more power than the combat shotgun. I found no use for this weapon. 

The heavy machine gun and chain gun both share ammo. The heavy machine gun is good for distant enemies since you can upgrade it with a scope. Headshots are very effective and when there isn't too many smaller minions chasing you, this weapon is used to take out more powerful enemies. The chain gun burns through ammo but can be used when situations get overwhelming. It will chop through weaker enemies all while damaging the larger ones that accompany them. It's a good way to weaken everything around you until you run out of ammo, and then switch to a more powerful weapon to finish everyone off. 

The pulse rifle and gauss rifle are the energy weapons. The pulse rifle holds a lot of ammo and shoots rapidly, but has low damage. The Gauss rifle is a long range high damage weapon that uses much more ammo per shot than the pulse rifle. I found the pulse rifle to be useless, and the Gauss rifle was much more superior along with it's upgrade tree. 

Last is the rocket launcher. Extremely good at taking out hordes of low level enemies and formidable against the more powerful ones, it's probably the most versatile weapon in the arsenal. With the nature of verticality and moving around a lot, you have to be careful when using this weapon since there is residual damage from your rockets. Blowing up an enemy too close will also damage you, and this is really the only downside to the weapon.

Artwork/Animations

The enemy AI and animations are some of the best I've ever seen in a video game. The levels are complex with platforming features that require precise timing and jumping. Just when you think you can get to a safe area, the enemy AI gracefully jumps towards you. Even enemies you would not anticipate could do that based on their normal pathing. Nothing looks bad while all of this chaos is going on. Enemies are chasing you all over the map no matter where you go, they also try to get to vantage points. When you witness this happening, you can only appreciate the time and effort that went into that. It's some of the smoothest gameplay I've ever experienced and it seems like each scenario has been thought through, or it was incredible level design to avoid issues. 

The character models are top notch and there is a ton of detail and variety with each enemy. Based on their powers, strengths, and weaknesses comes the design of the character. You can tell fat guy is build for being slow and shooting a powerful weapon. Smaller four legged creatures with a horn are probably going to charge. Once their dead and you've actually inspected them, it seems like every inch of the character was thought about. Everything ties back into the personality of the enemy, from the necklace they have or chips in an enemies horn.

The environments are highly detailed and stayed true to the theme. There are two settings, hell and a facility on Mars. This allowed for a great focus to be put on two environments that have a deep variety. Different spaces in hell created an immersive experience and really makes you envision what hell would be like, and even the politics of what go on there. It truly was like being put in another mythical world and getting some perspective on how it would be.

Summary

If you're looking for a very polished game, this is one definitely worth picking up. Be weary that it's a shooter, and if you're not into shooters and gore this might not be for you. Anyone that loves the genre must pick up this game as it sets a new standard of what a next gen shooter should be. 

Rebel Galaxy

Rating: 8.5

Happy Price: 19.99

Gameplay

Rebel Galaxy has many things going on, and many things are done well. You start the game as a guy with a spaceship, and from that point on build yourself as a pirate, mercenary, merchant, miner or space do gooder. Adopting many professions usually suits the player best.

Combat

Combat is done with a naval style setup where the player has to position themselves parallel to the opponent to use the main broadside turrets. Players can use the smaller turrets if they want, but it proves to be difficult to maneuver when doing so, so that method is seldom used. Essentially you outfit your spaceship with a bunch of turrets that automatically target enemies, while you the player control the broadside guns or cannons. This way you can aim and control the ship at the same time. There is good mix of enemies during most battles, usually consisting of many small fighters and a couple of large destroyer ships. It makes for fun battles as you strategically place yourself in position to take out the smaller ships and gradually working toward taking out the bigger ships.

There are many weapons to pick from, each excelling in different attributes. Some weapons excel at distance but have limited fire rate. Some have better shield penetration or hull penetration. Combining these weapons together to create balance is key to success at outfitting a great ship. Some of the more powerful weapons to pick from have an ammo count, so it requires the player to replenish their ordinance at outposts which cost resources. This effects players on long missions where they can possibly run out of ammo with one of their most reliable and go to weapons. Balancing these things is key, especially early on in the game.

Economy

The economy fluctuates allowing the player to buy low and sell high. Early on in the game, this can make quite the difference. Making 10,000 on a deal can be the difference when buying a weapon that costs 45,000. However, later in the game this goes away as weapons and ships cost millions of dollars, while margins on products remain the same. That aside, there are news boards that tell you if there is a surplus or deficit somewhere so you can capitalize on what items you have in your hull. The annoying part about that is, it becomes difficult to search for planets to actually execute your trades. By the time you travel across the galaxy or star system, you may get there and the economic status has changed. It can be a time waster, so most of the time I would stop at outposts when it was convenient and hope the odds were in my favor. I found this to be pretty efficient, but it's nice to have the option and information at your fingertips to take advantage of certain economies on different space stations.

I found a great way to make money was mining early to mid game, as you find valuables without having to pay anything. Mining lasers also serve as weapons against enemy craft, so using this saves money in more than one way. Late game, I found the best way was to take on large bounties and hope that the enemy was carrying a turret or defense modification that could be worth millions. Bounties would earn about 60k, while the weapon they dropped could be added to my ship or sold for a ton of money.

Story and Dialogue 

The story is straight forward but has some missing gaps in between, and some things remain unresolved. It doesn't detract much from the gameplay though, since you're focused on so many other things. I used my imagination to fill in the gaps of the story, and it made for a good one. With a fleshed out script the story has great potential and even though it wasn't realized, I don't think it mattered much. For every ship you hail, you do have the choices to either give up your goods or take the goods of an enemy. If you approach another pirate, your only option is to drop your cargo for a peaceful exit. For a trader, you have the option to buy/sell from them, or have them give up all their stuff. There is a penalty for this however, as you will lose faction points from citizens and the military. It is not wise to do this, since most side missions are given by citizens or the military, and siding with pirates yields high rewards but it's difficult to come across missions from them. Having the choice to be a crime seeking pirate or an up class space citizen is fun and encourages replayability.

Soundtrack 

The soundtrack fits the game very well. It's a country rock theme that bodes well with rebellious nature of the game. The songs loop over and over again, but they are not overpowering and are nice to listen to when on long hauls. I would imagine a mercenary from the 1700's on a horse hunting someone down would listen to this type of music, it's edgy but southern. I honestly could not tell you what the lyrics are saying, but the tone of them seems to serenade you with the struggles you face over and over again as you trek through space. It helps combat the loneliness of being on a ship traveling from star system to star system all by yourself in a delightful way. 

Summary

This game is a hidden gem. There are some technical issues with missions that require escorts, and the final mission which is very frustrating. Had those technical issues not been present, this game is an easy 9. I can't let those things slide though, as they took away from the experience and cost me a few hours of my life (or at least it felt that way). If you're looking for a fleshed out and ambitious indie game that was completed, you have to play this game.