Iron Marines – Copper Bullets

Iron Marines is both a casual and a hardcore experience at the same time. Yes, I know, it sounds weird, but it really is. The presentation and everything around that screams welcome to casual Ville – stay a while for an easy time. However, if you play on “hard” (which I did) the experience is anything less. The developers behind the game are Ironhide Game Studio and are known for their awesome series of tower defense game series Kingdom Rush. This is their first venture into the RTS genre, and it’s not a bad first try, but it comes with some frustration. I had a good time in general, especially for only 5 bucks spent on it, but I think the last area of the campaign was a mistake. As it usually goes, later areas are harder and require more from you, and I got nothing against that. However, the devs made the game harder through frustration, that in my opinion ruins the fun of playing an RTS – to actually kill stuff. You see, instead of making the enemies harder, now each dead unit heals another, and it has the effect of being the worst case of HP bloat I have ever seen – particularly going from one campaign section to another… It was like night and day, and it drained all the fun I was having in one go.

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Star Trek: Hidden Evil – Set Phasers to Good

Here we are with a new year with new games to play, and why not start the year with the action/adventure title Star Trek: Hidden Evil, a game by Presto Studios, Inc. It’s an old one, and it’s very similar in style and control to the spy adventure In Cold Blood which I have reviewed here on the site. With that I mean: tank-controls in a world of pre-rendered static background shots. Hidden Evil is based on the not-so-great Star Trek: Insurrection movie. Thankfully, it’s more of a background drop than actually being the main frame of the story. Now, I wouldn’t say it’s a fantastic game, but for a lover of Star Trek, it’s an amusing addition.

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Dwarf Fortress Steam Edition – Quick Impressions

Been playing the new Dwarf Fortress version on Steam for about twenty hours now, and I think I got enough time under my belt to give some quick impressions. First off, I want to praise the new UI, in general at least, and the new graphics. It’s way more detailed than any visual pack I have used for the free version of the game. While I didn’t think the keyboard controls were that painful – just a bit archaic, I do appreciate the new mouse controls. It feels a bit more casual, and it requires less from you, which at least lets me focus on something else while playing – like listening to a good audiobook or watching a show on the second monitor.

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A Plague Tale: Requiem – Are we the baddies?

A Plague Tale: Requiem is a stealth-based third-person action/adventure, made by the developers Asobo Studio. It’s a sequel to A Plague Tale: Innocence and the story picks off where the first one left off. Now, I like the Last of Us and its gameplay loop as much as the next guy, and this game is almost a carbon copy of it, at least when it comes to how it is structured, in theory anyway. So, I don’t mind the occasional narrative-driven AAA game, but when the pacing constantly turns the game into a walking simulator, we are going to have a problem.

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In Cold Blood – Best Served English

The Chinese and American relations in one picture

In Cold Blood is an adventure/stealth-action/puzzle game made by Revolution Software. I think it can be most likened to Resident Evil of old, and similar titles, going by the tank controls, survival mechanics, and the light inventory management with environmental puzzles. Right up my alley, except I had to play the game with my keyboard, since I couldn’t get the gamepad to work correctly. Not the most pleasant experience, unfortunately, but doable. So, while I do enjoy these old games with archaic controls, In Cold Blood would benefit from a remake, preferably in the Metal Gear Solid 5 engine (Fox engine), if we are allowed to dream.

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