Category: Previews

10/7/13

Bionic Dues – PC Game Preview

Developer & Publisher: Arcen Games

The fact that Arcen Games is so efficient and fast at churning out new games suggests that they might have access to a maniacal AI robot army. But many gamers agree that the chance for that AI army to go rogue and dominate mankind is worth being able to plays games such as the excellent AI Wars series, A Valley without Wind I and II, Shattered Haven, Tidalis, and Skyward Collapse. Now Arcen Games is poised to make a new release tomorrow, October 8 – a Roguelike, turned-based, strategy and RPG game called Bionic Dues. Set in a universe similar to AI Wars, the player is tasked with leading a party of four customizable mechs against a nearly unending mob of nefarious robots.

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But Roguelikes are a bit hard to pin down, and I could spend paragraphs describing all of the nuances and options available at the player’s fingers (and there seems to be many, particularly considering the loot system that evokes Diablo ARPG-style loot modifiers and collection). Instead, why not simply SHOW you what the game is like!

So join me on a pictorial AAR as I direct steel melting laser directly into the heart of the AI swarm!

Upon loading up the game, you are greeted with an attractive cityscape. To the left side, the player’s HQ health, player representation, four-bot squad, and store button are show, all displaying extensive and highly descriptive tool-tips at the mere hover of the mouse. To the right is the list of the AI swarm that is inexorably making its way towards my HQ. I have 50 turns (at them point, actually only 46, I’ve done a few missions) to strengthen my forces and weaken theirs before the final battle.

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The city scape is also where you choose your missions. Here I am choosing to take on an AI firefight, but I could tear down some barricades impeding my path, strike at an AI-claimed factory, or rescue a capture dignitary.

Before entering the mission, I should probably look at my bots to customize their inventories.

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10/4/13

War of the Vikings – First Impressions

The brehon handed him a hilted weapon,
a rare and ancient sword named Hrunting.
The iron blade with its ill-boding patterns
had been tempered in blood. It had never failed
the hand of anyone who hefted it in battle,
anyone who had fought and faced the worst
in the gap of danger. This was not the first time
it had been called to perform heroic feats.

– Beowulf

Devleoper: Fat Shark

Publisher: Paradox Interactive

Author: Jim Zabek

Vikings. What more needs to be said? Traders, raiders, and explorers, for over 300 years they dominated Europe’s imagination, if not their lands. Vikings have always laid a small claim to wargamers’ hearts, and with the heart-pounding new series on the History Channel, Vikings have made a resurgence into mainstream pop culture. Developer Fatshark didn’t miss a beat. Their action game of medieval combat, War of the Roses, grabbed the attention of Grogheads and we stormed into their servers in search of a great game of swordplay. Undaunted, Fatshark considered their next move and (to them) it was obvious: Vikings.

A few weeks ago I interviewed Fatshark’s Gordon Van Dyke and asked him about how the game was developing. Now with early access to the game I’ve managed to get some time behind the keyboard and mouse and see how the game plays myself. I wasn’t disappointed.

For gamers not familiar with first-person medieval action games, their mechanics can be deceptively simple. The player moves his avatar using the standard WASD keys. Moving the mouse changes the view – akin to turning your head or body. Left mouse clicking and dragging in a direction creates a sword thrust. A right mouse click either parries or brings up a shield, depending on the equipment. Using a bow isn’t much more complicated. Right clicking draws the bowstring. Left mouse clicking releases the arrow. As in real life you won’t be able to hold the bowstring for long and after a few seconds if you don’t fire, your avatar will tire and relax his drawn bow to rest.

Yeah, that's me. Dead. Again.
Yeah, that’s me. Dead. Again.

As with War of the Roses, players have the opportunity to attempt to bandage themselves up and partially heal. They also have the opportunity to attempt to revive fallen comrades or finish off wounded rivals. I say “attempt” because in most cases the action doesn’t quit. You don’t get any “time outs” and while you’re trying to pull off one of these actions, opponents will find you easy prey.

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09/27/13

GARPA 28 – GrogHeads Advanced Research on Projects Advisory

GARPA #28, Grogheads Staff

Fall is the best time of year…this is not even debatable, primarily because the heat of summer has been broken and the weather is cooler. But there is so much more that fall has to offer! Like fear. Fear brought to you by darkening days, the harvest possibly coming up short and the impending onset of winter…even if we don’t farm, there’s a natural connection to autumn that brings both excitement and a niggling sense of unease. All of this culminates in Halloween, The World’s Best Holiday.

You probably think we are going to bring you a series of planned board and PC games that intend to scare the crap out players. But would we be the GARPA guys if we were so obvious? Maybe. But that’s not what we’re doing in this installment…plenty of time for scares in the next few weeks. For now, enjoy the seasonally appropriate impending doom evident in the following planned projects!

Board Games

BattleAxeBattleAxe by Nick Ryan

$3,135 pledged of $110,000 goal, funding ends Wednesday, October 23

HTML: http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/nickryan/battleaxe?ref=category

If you are 35 or older, you may remember an awesome game from the early 1980s called Crossbows & Catapults in which players literally hurled miniature projectiles at each other’s medieval strongholds in hopes of capturing their enemy’s keep. It was a violent but awesomely fun, basic game. BattleAxe appears to be in a similar vein, but hopes to be more advanced.

BattleAxe is set during the Dark Ages (I don’t care what people are calling it these days, they will always be the Dark Ages to me) and, like Crossbows & Catapults, players will assemble and command armies, build a keep, and attempt to kill the enemy king. Think chess but in three dimensions, using armored spearmen, axemen, swordsmen, and cavalry in your army and towers, walls, trenches, and fire for defense. An oversized battlefield map and custom dice are also included. The game takes a realistic angle and makes a point in not including fantasy elements of any kind…this is a game of Dark Age combat and tactics.

Nick Ryan, the developer of BattleAxe, assures potential players that the game itself is already 95% done and has been in play testing for two years, with “only funding” required at this point. That’s a big missing link, but if the game plays well tactically and strategically as promised, it will be worth investing in. Let’s hope BattleAxe can capture some of the magic that Crossbows & Catapults had for us older guys.

GARPA 28 - ReluctantPre-Order: Reluctant Enemies (MMP)

766 of 640 orders needed, Pre-order price of $39.00

Reluctant Enemies is designed as a ‘gateway’ game into the OCS series, but it also covers the rarely-gamed Middle Eastern ‘front’ in WWII, as the British sought to shore up their territories on the eastern edge of the Med.  The reluctant enemies in this fight are the Brits – with their Australian, Indian, and Free French allies – opposing the Vichy French seeking to make mischief in Lebanon and Iraq.  Once the Vichy French allowed German aircraft to overfly their airspace en route to an anti-British coup in Iraq, well… it was on!

The OCS series is known for its monster Case Blue-like games, but Reluctant Enemies is a one-map “son of OCS” specifically designed for players new to monster gaming’s premier system.

Get your pre-orders in before the price jumps.

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09/16/13

Eschalon Book 2 – PC Game Review

Developer: Basilisk Games

Author: Avery Abernethy

Eschalon Book 2 is a turn-based, single-player role playing game produced by Basilisk Games. I purchased my copy on a www.gog.com sale. There is a playable demo which can be found at: http://basiliskgames.com/downloads. I purchased a full copy without playing the demo because the price was low and I tend to like these sorts of games. This review is based on more than 30 hours of play. My fighter played the game to completion including exploring every map and completing every quest. My play style can be described as “overkill” and one should be able to complete the game in fifteen to twenty hours of play.

This was a fun game. There is a huge variety of skills, weapons, armors, spells, alchemy, and side skills that will warm the heart of any old-school RPGer. The combat is turn-based so there is no irritation at having twitched right instead of twitching left and thus causing the demise of a character. There are lots of enemies to smite and quests to complete.

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The world is open. There is nothing preventing the player from wandering anywhere on the huge maps in the game – except the deadly monsters infesting the various maps. Play balance in open world games can be a design challenge. Play balance was done quite well done for my fighter character. I occasionally wandered onto a map with monsters far more powerful than I. But prodigiously using my potions and running really fast enabled me to escape, become more powerful, and return to wreak my pixilated vengeance at a later time.

The player receives a mysterious note at the start of the game requesting a clandestine meeting. As many RPG meetings of this type go, the contact is assassinated while leaving clues which drive the story for the rest of the game. There are a couple of neat twists on this plot which I will not divulge. Overall, the background story is enough to drive the character’s actions without becoming an annoying deus ex machina holding the whip hand over the player.
In Eschalon Book 2 the player can use perfectly adequate prerolled characters or can roll the computer dice until they get a player of their liking. The characters can be dramatically shaped by skill point allocation as they gain levels. Still, the basic characters tend to be a fighter, an archer, or a magic user. A combat-avoiding thief can be designed but I doubt the utility of that play style given how experience points are awarded.

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09/13/13

GARPA 27 – GrogHeads Advanced Research on Projects Advisory

Starting the second year of GARPA – yes, this is episode 27 – we bring you an advance look as upcoming projects that have caught our wargaming eye, for both tabletop and computer.

 

Tabletop Gaming

Next Wave – Tide of Iron Starter Set & Stalingrad Expansion by 1A Games LLC
$6,183 pledged of a $30,000 goal funding ending October 17th

garpa27-toiTide of Iron, the successful squad based tactical World War II boardgame has come to Kickstarter.  Well, not the original but a quick start set and an expansion.  Now that Fantasy Flight has licensed 1A Games LLC to produce the Tide of Iron series we are seeing the first of their new editions that fall under the “Next Wave” moniker.  This crowd funding project has two main parts.  First is the Stalingrad expansion that you must own the TOI starter set in order to play.  If you don’t have the starter set the other half of the project is the TOI Starter Set “Next Wave” edition.  However, the Stalingrad expansion works best with the original TOI if you already own that.  This new “Next Wave” line of products is compatible with the original games and expansions.  They keep the same game system but provide quick start scenarios and present the rules in such a way that they are easy to learn and start playing.

The Stalingrad expansion contains the Soviet infantry and armor as well as the German armor needed to compliment the base game in order to recreate the brutal street fight of one of World War II most important battles.  In all it comes to “90 figures, bases and vehicles.”  In addition to the playing pieces this expansion comes with 12 double-sided urban terrain maps that include factories, streets, buildings and sewers that add another dimension to the game.  Eight new scenarios, introductory battles and four linked campaigns also ship with the game.

The “Next Wave” TOI starter set reprints the tokens, reference charts and core rules from the original game.  It also comes with double sided map boards, German and American infantry, tanks and half-tracks.  As we stated before all of this is compatible with all the previous editions and expansions of the TOI series.  This starter set reprint kicks off 1A Games plan for a full series of “Next Wave” expansions and games for TOI.

I highly recommend you head over and check out the projects Kickstarter page.  Not only are your standard reward levels included but as you go up the reward levels you unlock some very cool rewards that include limited edition game cards, 3d models of a German sIG 33 armored self-propelled howitzer, and laser cut wooden initiative cards.

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