MARS ATTACKS – THE MINIATURES GAME

GAME REVIEW: MARS ATTACKS – THE MINIATURES GAME / DESIGNER: JAKE THORNTON / PUBLISHER: MANTIC / RELEASE DATE: OUT NOW

Mantic are very savvy games company who have their sights set on being a household name. Their previous games have all been very successfully crowd-funded and they have mostly targeted gamers who have become disillusioned with the miniatures and related products produced by industry giant Games Workshop. Mantic’s latest product, Mar Attacks – The Miniatures Game not only sees a sharp departure from that, but also has a broad appeal.

Based on the trading cards and comic books of the same name, Mars Attacks – The Miniatures Game pits the iconic green men from Mars against humanity. Those who have read the comics (or indeed, have seen the movie) will recognise the scenario straight away; sneaky aliens have come to take the planet Earth, and only an unlikely band of heroes and horde of soldiers can stop them.

The production values on this game are very good indeed. Not only does it come in a sensibly sized box that sits neatly on the shelf, the box is also filled with goodies. For your money you get 20 Martian grunts; all produced in nifty green plastic. The models are very well detailed and come with transparent domed helmets that need to be glued on. They look a little fiddly for those who like to paint models, but I’m sure those sort of geeks would welcome the challenge. You also get ten soldiers who are in a pleasing tan colour – they look a lot like a superior version of those plastic toy soldiers we all got to play with as children. We also get ten civilian heroes and a Martian hero called Commander Tor. The various counters come on a thick stock card and the rulebook is designed in a nifty looking comic book shape. The board itself is an 8×8 paper map, and though this looks a little flimsy, it’s more than made up for with the addition of 3D scenery – mostly burnt-out buildings.

Anyone who’s played Mantic’s other skirmish game, Deadzone, will be familiar with games set up. Line of sight affects how easy it is to shoot your opponent and the whole thing is scenario based. Players win not by beating the snot out of each other, but by achieving goals set-out in the scenario.  Players take turns activating; either two models or one model or one card. Cards have effects for both factions and can really turn the tide of battle. The cards provide the game’s atmosphere and narrative, featuring everything from massive death-rays to secret military weapons.

Game play is fast and furious, and unlike other miniature games on the market, easy to pick up and quite short; an average game takes about forty minutes to play. Mars Attacks – The Miniatures Game has real potential as an entry level game for those who don’t play board games, and a big sense of anarchic fun. Recommended.

HYRULE WARRIORS

GAME REVIEW: HYRULE WARRIORS / DEVELOPER: OMEGA FORCE, TEAM NINJA / PUBLISHER: KOEI TECMO, NINTENDO / PLATFORMS: WII U / RELEASE DATE: OUT NOW

Playing out as the Crisis on Infinite Earths of the Zelda franchise, Hyrule Warriors sees a new threat arising in Hyrule. Falling to the dark influences of Ganondorf, the sorceress Cia opens the Gate of Souls, a portal to various points throughout the timeline. Now the heroes of Ocarina of Time, Twilight Princess and Skyward Sword must ally to prevent the Triforce from falling into Ganondorf’s hands.

As you might have guessed from that description, what’s here is little more than an excuse for gratuitous fan-service but it’s hard not to grin as the nostalgia kicks in. From the classic themes to remade locations, what’s here is everything a Zelda fan would want despite the shift to a far more combat focused experience of fighting vast armies.

While the core gameplay itself ultimately boils down to Warriors-style button mashing through waves of mooks, the developers took steps to make battles far more visually rewarding. Rather than just slashes, hacks and the odd air-juggling from combos, each character offers their own set of gratuitously explosive abilities, from summoning machine-gunning deku sprouts to giant pillars of ice.

Delivering these is less about simply whaling on an especially heavily armoured foe until they fall and instead exploiting openings in their defences. Dashing past a darknut or lizalfos after it’s overreached itself opens up a summoning gauge which must be rapidly depleted before a special attack can be made. It gives the title more substance than some of the other Warriors titles out there, requiring a little more strategy and timing than the average release. This is enhanced by the odd classic boss fight which calls back to the same strategies originally used to defeat them, with all the expected secondary weapons putting in an appearance.

This said, this is still a Dynasty Warriors game and anyone lacking interest in that series will find little to really offer them here. If you’ve yet to enjoy a release from Omega Force’s past efforts, this one is not going to sell you on their big franchises. While picking it up might seem appealing, the experience will likely wear thin long before the end. Furthermore, even without comparing it to the modern generation there are definite points throughout the title where the Wii U’s dated hardware shows through. While beautifully animated, odd issues such as the strings on Zelda’s harp not moving during the opening cutscene can immediately take you out of the experience.

This is very much a love it or hate it title with little middle ground, but any lifelong Nintendo fan should give this one a look before delivering their verdict.

DESTINY

GAME REVIEW: DESTINY / DEVELOPER: BUNGIE / PUBLISHER: ACTIVISION / PLATFORM: PLAYSTATION 3, PLAYSTATION 4, XBOX 360, XBOX ONE / RELEASE DATE: OUT NOW

Love them or hate them, few can deny the impact Bungie has had on the modern gaming scene over the past three generations with the Halo franchise. Having contributed to the success of the Xbox repeatedly, understandably, Destiny was hyped for the new generation. The result is a solid combination of Action-RPG and first-person shooter ideas, but don’t buy too much into the hype.

The story is certainly nothing to write home about. Some dark nebulous force almost drove humanity to extinction years ago, there’s a giant alien orb in the sky, and you’re one of a few heroes who can hunt down aliens. Peter Dinklage voices both a floating robot companion and the narrator.

The real meat of the title comes down to the mechanics. While the various classes offer little in terms of real diversity; the arsenal of weapons and items you can find are excellently balanced, and make every approach viable. Getting up close and personal with sub-machineguns is just as viable as the often all-powerful sniper rifle, with certain classes appealing more to one approach and another. If this sounds remarkably like Borderlands, you’re not far off from the truth, and it plays like a cross between Gearbox’s hit and a perfected Hellgate: London.

Better yet, is the occasional surprise that Destiny can throw your way, with certain environments suddenly mixing up combat or featuring a dramatic new gimmick. The Sword of Crota in particular is noteworthy for shifting gears and briefly turning Destiny into a competent Warframe clone.

The environments are stunning from beginning to end, and they do tap into that old feeling of first stepping into an MMO. Between the aesthetic, sprawling locations and enemy types, there is a real sense of exploration despite how much the title owes to tried and true methods. It’s just a shame that this is marred by a low frame rate which makes shooting seem infuriatingly sluggish; it’s a problem which has plagued this new generation and is inexcusable in this day and age.

A further aggravation stems from the combat’s repetitious nature, which can easily become bland and boring during long stretches. Even Bungie themselves have openly admitted it doesn’t truly get going until twenty hours in. This results in grinding out stats and trudging through the drawn-out middle of the campaign after the magic of entering a new world has worn off.

Destiny will not single-handedly change all of gaming in one fell swoop, but it does offer a standout experience. There’s plenty here to like and with Bungie still working to add new features, this is one which is well worth a look.

DUNGEONS & DRAGONS PLAYER’S HANDBOOK: FIFTH EDITION

BOOK REVIEW: DUNGEONS & DRAGONS PLAYER’S HANDBOOK – FIFTH EDITION / DESIGNER: WIZARDS OF THE COAST / PUBLISHER: WIZARDS OF THE COAST / RELEASE DATE: OUT NOW

 

Any edition of Dungeons & Dragons relies on the quality of the Player’s Handbook to survive. Experienced gamers will tell you that it forms the core component of the game; after all, it is where the bulk of the rules can be found. A solid handbook can make all the difference between a stellar and a so-so edition of the game. The last universally applauded version was edition 3.5 and we’re rather happy to say that the Fifth Edition far outstrips that book in terms of content, usability and art.

It’s a hefty tome and is unashamedly intimidating with it. New players are firmly encouraged to pick up the excellent Starter Set instead; the manual is for those willing to delve deeper into the world of D&D. It’s also very pretty. Not only is it packed with inspiring art, it’s also clearly laid out and very easy to navigate. Frantic flipping of pages is part of the D&D experience but after a while it’s going to be pretty easy to know where all the rules you need from game to game are. It’s quite comprehensive, filled to the brim with ideas; enough to fuel a lifetime’s worth of gaming.

Rules-wise, the Fifth Edition has distilled decades of gameplay into one volume. Combat is slicker and easier, skills are more relevant. Character creation options cover many possible fantasy campaign types whilst mostly sticking to the old favourites. The new edition is also highly flexible, allowing for many types of story to be told.

Magic has always been a difficult thing to balance, and it was the bane of high-level third edition campaigns and a major element that led to the fourth edition being so reviled. The dedicated magic-using character classes are still the masters of their art, but characters from other classes can be built in such a way that they can also access ritual magic and the like. This makes magic a bit more common but also keeps the classic sword and sorcery feel of the game. The spell slot system is still present, but spells now scale; for example, the Bigby magic hand set now becomes more flexible the higher you go up in level. The same applies to the likes of healing spells. Magical items have also been revised; no longer can players rock up to their nearest mystical vendor and get their hands on all sorts of cool equipment; the days of the DM being miserly with the goods has returned and that should improve not only the game balance but encourage a better narrative.

The Fifth Edition is a lush and dense tome, finely balancing the complexity of D&D with the need to be accessible to everyone. It honours the versions of the past whilst at the same time being something new and fresh, and there is plenty of room for tinkering with the game mechanics. Over all, it is a bold contender to the current market leader and the edition most likely to become legendary.

 

DUNGEONS & DRAGONS STARTER SET FIFTH EDITION

D&D STARTER SET FIFTH EDITION / DESIGNER: MIKE MEARLS / PUBLISHER: WIZARDS OF THE COAST / RELEASE DATE: OUT NOW

The Fifth Edition of Dungeons and Dragons has a lot to prove. For the first time in gaming history, D&D is not the best-selling RPG, and this is (in part) due to various design choices that hampered the popularity of the Fourth Edition.

The Fifth Edition D&D Starter Set proves that Wizards of the Coast have learned from the mistakes of the past and are determined to dominate the hobby yet again. Old school fans may be pleased to learn that this introductory game does not come in a vintage style red box, a very good sign as it means that the designers are relying on the contents within the box to sell the game, rather than people’s nostalgia.

Inside the box, you get 32-page rulebook, an adventure book that is twice as thick, all the dice you need to play the game and some pre-generated characters.  The rulebook covers the basics of roleplaying games and how you play them skilfully and clearly; anyone at all interested (but inexperienced) in the table top gaming world will be able to work it out quite quickly. The rest of the book covers the basic rules, combat and magic elements of the game. It’s enough to get started and certainly more than enough to get hooked.

Next up is the adventure, which is worth the cost of the entire thing. Though designed to work with the pre-generated characters, it seems flexible enough to workout them. The Starter Set doesn’t include character creation rules (you have to wait for the Player’s Handbook for that), but the provided adventurers seem good enough for beginners and experienced types alike. The adventure is a nice mix of classic styling and modern design. It has plenty of villagers to meet, monsters to fight, wild animals to deal with and horrors to run away from. However, this is set up in a pretty freeform way, allowing the players to get into the game at their own pace. They are weeks of fun to be had with this adventure and certainly enough to let new players discover the joy of D&D.

If the D&D range carries on the same path, it’s going to do very well indeed.

 

MAGIC: THE GATHERING 2015 CORE SET: DECK BUILDER’S TOOLKIT

MAGIC: THE GATHERING 2015 CORE SET: DECK BUILDER’S TOOLKIT / DESIGNER: RICHARD GARFIELD / PUBLISHER: HASBRO / RELEASE DATE: OUT NOW

Magic: the Gathering is a remarkable game. The enduring collectable cards of duelling wizards are famous across the world, and that is partially due to its flexibility and size, which allows for multiple play styles.  Like most things with a huge fan following, it can seem a little impenetrable to outsiders, but the game’s producers, Wizards of The Coast, provide numerous ways in, from introductory packs to more hardcore collections like The Deck Builder’s Toolkit. This pretty much contains everything you need to get acquainted with the game. It does this by giving you enough cards to design your own decks and get stuck in.

The Deck Builder’s Toolkit is 285-card boxed set that includes recent booster packs from all the major releases. It’s clearly designed as both a way in for new players and as a refresher for those looking to get back into the hobby; though tournament-level gamers looking for more cards to form a solid backbone to their deck design will find enough here to be of use.

Though you’ll be lucky to get more than a handful of rare cards from this selection, The Deck Builder’s Toolkit isn’t really about that. (Rare cards are easier to find in boosters and the like).  What you get is 100 land cards (the basic component in any Magic deck) and enough uncommon cards of all the different colour types to get used to the game itself.  What it doesn’t contain is huge game-winning cards; instead we have useful and practical cards designed to encourage tactical play and good practice.  Example cards include Cancel, Negate and Nullify (which are fairly self-explanatory), and these suit one style of play. Those who prefer a different sort of game style are also catered for and the set has been calculated to allow gamers to explore multiple tactics in order to develop and invent their own approach.

Over all, it’s a very strong set and excellent way to get back into the Magic hobby.

MAGIC: THE GATHERING DUEL DECKS: SPEED VERSUS CUNNING

GAME REVIEW: MAGIC: THE GATHERING DUEL DECKS – SPEED VERSUS CUNNING / DESIGNER: RICHARD GARFIELD / PUBLISHER: HASBRO / RELEASE DATE: SEPTEMBER 2ND

Part of the appeal of Magic: the Gathering is its flexibility. The original set had a great many possible play styles and these have grown over the game’s long history, so much so that experienced players can be forgiven for sticking to a limited range. The new Duel Decks: Speed Versus Cunning set is clearly designed to be a fun way to encourage players to work past their comfort zone and into new play styles. It’s also a fast and furious introduction to the game for new players.

The set includes two decks of cards, one for speed, the other for cunning. The speed deck is a red/black/white deck that mostly focuses on pumping out lots of low level monsters that will whittle down your opponent – lots of goblins, some explosions and not much in the way of defence. It also features a big bad boss guy in the form of Zurgo Helmsmasher, who is hard to get rid of once in play. The cunning deck also lives up to its name. It is a blue/red/white deck that is all about frustrating your opponent and whittling away at their defences. Though you have less ‘punch’ than with the speed deck, you’re also much more flexible. The result is a fast-paced game that is easy for both new and experienced gamers to get into.

Because these are well-balanced, pre-built decks it means that games played with them come down to a combination of skill and luck, rather than careful deck-building and a large investment. The set also comes with two nifty card boxes that are the size and shape of classic playing card boxes, but with better art. This means you can slip both boxes into your jacket pocket and pull them out when needed. As the decks are designed to be played against each other (provided you can find another person to play against) both players are going to have fun and feel like they can win throughout the game. The fact that Speed Versus Cunning is a highly portable set of cards encourages social play, and it is quick enough that it can be used as a pleasing distraction on a long journey or a nice start to an evening’s worth of gaming.

FIVE NIGHTS AT FREDDY’S

GAME REVIEW: FIVE NIGHTS AT FREDDY’S / DEVELOPER: SCOTT GAMES / PLATFORM: PC / RELEASE DATE: OUT NOW

Proving that there is no such thing as a truly unworkable idea, Five Nights At Freddy’s approaches horror from a bafflingly weird angle by setting it in a family pizzeria filled with murderous anthropomorphic mascots. Tasked with keeping an eye on the place at night, the player is forced to ensure that the shambling monstrosities do not break into the security office and murder them.

Despite the daft premise, the game manages to be truly unnerving, with the environment becoming creepier with each passing night. Ever more hints are dropped that nothing is right with the restaurant, with grisly murders plaguing its history. However, all this is presented in such a satirically cheerful style, you’re continuously wrong-footed by the scares and never truly adjust to the bizarre nature of the world.

The mechanics are bare-bones basic, but that’s part of the game’s charm. With limited power, the player is tasked with keeping an eye on each of the colourful mascots through the CCTV system. So long as the player is looking at them they cannot advance towards the office and can be held back, but the problem is that the mascots quickly learn and adapt. They will soon begin exploiting blind spots in the camera network and even the cameras themselves will begin to fail, running out of juice at the worst possible moment.

With nowhere to run and no way to fight back against these creatures, the player is left relying upon reflexes and careful planning to survive each night, and it’s the fascination of managing the resources at hand and learning to adapt your tactics that gives the title its edge.

This said, the game is not without issues. With its relatively short length and narrow focus, there is very little replay value to be found here, and the main gimmick does begin to wear thin in the final couple of hours. Furthermore, despite shifting tactics to keep players surprised, there are certain locations the mascots will almost always pass through. This means the player can learn to just keep an eye on certain cameras without bothering with others.

Five Nights At Freddy’s offers a fresh angle on the horror genre such as we have not seen in a long time, and despite its shortcomings it’s well worth the low price. If you’re after new scares before Alien: Isolation hits shelves, check this one out.

LETHAL LEAGUE

GAME REVIEW: LETHAL LEAGUE / DEVELOPER: TEAM REPTILE / PUBLISHER: TEAM REPTILE / PLATFORM: PC / RELEASE DATE: OUT NOW

Lethal League could only have been born from the insanity of the indie developer world. It almost immediately ditches all traditional genre conventions surrounding fighting titles and goes for something entirely different, effectively combining Street Fighter II with Pong.

Players are each armed with a single batting instrument with which to hurl a small baseball around the screen. Striking the ball or successfully deflecting it will speed up its velocity and turn it into an attack for that specific player, allowing them to knock out those around them. With one strike being all that’s required to out a player but offering multiple lives for various rounds, Lethal League revolves around extremely fast-paced matches; ones which nevertheless build into tense, rapid melées.

While the basic gameplay is simple but extremely effective in its own right, Team Reptile wisely built upon it with elements that offer a great deal of longevity. Every character has their own unique moves which differ widely one from another, from Candyman’s portal abilities to Switch being able to ride around an arena’s walls and ceiling. This allows for some very surprising curveballs (pun intended), which can easily twist the game in a new direction and cause the flow of matches to completely turn against a leading player. Despite this, no one character has a skill which allows them to remain dominant over all others.

The graphics run at an extremely smooth sixty frames per second, but more importantly the game features an excellent netcode and fantastic multiplayer online support. It’s enough to put the support shown for many bigger budget titles of its genre to shame and, combined with the classic, arcadey aesthetic and an option for local multiplayer, Lethal League is a winning mix of the best elements of classic and modern fighting gaming. At its core it is pure, raw fun, just as open to casual fans as it is pro players thanks to its ingenious simplicity.

If it’s not been made clear by this point, Lethal League is one of the single most addictive fighting games since Super Smash Bros. The game’s very few shortcomings stem from a somewhat limited roster of fighters or from not pushing quite far enough in some regards, but there are no glaring failings in any area. Unless you have some severe allergic reaction to hip-hop soundtracks, this is a title you should definitely grab at the first possible opportunity.

APPOINTMENT WITH FEAR


GAME REVIEW: APPOINTMENT WITH F.E.A.R. / AUTHOR: STEVE JACKSON / PUBLISHER: TIN MAN GAMES / RELEASE DATE: AUGUST 27TH


Tin Man Games have been delighting us so far with their high-tech renditions of an old school idea. The app developer specialises in turning old adventure game books into the sort of thing you can read (and play) on your iPhone, as well as in creating brand new adventure game books for the smartphone market.


So far so good, but for the adaptation of the 1985 classic Fighting Fantasy book Appointment With F.E.A.R. they’ve changed direction. Tin Man have done away with all the little reminders that this game was originally a book; the page-turning animation is gone, as are the dice that roll and rattle whenever there is a fight. This makes perfect sense: Appointment With F.E.A.R. is the only Fighting Fantasy novel that is set in a superhero world, and the book feel has been replaced with comic book action. The game is filled with the zap and kapow familiar to fans of such things. Game book text appears in comic book-style captions and all of this is helped along with a cheesy soundtrack.


The plot has you attempting to foil the nefarious Titanium Cyborg and his cabal of villains who comprise the evil organisation known as F.E.A.R. Your hero is aware that a big meeting of bad guys is going down soon and has to run around Titan City picking up clues and foiling crimes. Character creation is pretty simple; select a set of super powers, a costume and then a name. Names are seemingly randomly generated and they’re all ridiculous in one way or another, which adds to the fun.


Appointment With F.E.A.R. is filled with comic book camp and does not take itself at all seriously. Though it sticks to the original book pretty closely, nice touches such as the combat being filled with amusing commentary and little details such as your hero’s civilian disguise really stand out.


It’s very, very replayable; you’ll get through your first game quickly and then find yourself diving in again straight away. To maximise this, Tin Man have added features like a collectible card system. It’s there to encourage players to talk to each other (you can swap cards between players) and also functions as a way of keeping score. It’s relatively superfluous and yet, like much of the game, quite addictive.


Over all, this is a great little bit of retro fun and we can’t wait to see if Tin Man will continue to use this fun new format in their future games.