Bastion's soundtrack sets the atmosphere perfectly. It's so good that although supergiant games had no intentions of releasing the soundtrack, demand from fans resulted in it being released and some tracks having over a million plays on Spotify.
The RPG elements combined with the battle mechanics make the core gameplay fun and varied as the weapons/items/abilities/upgrades play out very differently from each other.
The game uses an interesting way of telling the story through a narrator, which has an exceptional effect. Has an odd universe, something like a post-apocalyptic "Alice In Wonderland" during the cowboy era.
Like a lot of hack and slash titles, the combat itself can be pretty repetitive and bastion is no different here. There is a lot of button mashing going on in this game, which can get boring pretty quick.
Like most hack and slash titles, Bastion's combat is very simple, having you mash buttons in every monster encounter. This probably won't bother you as much during short play sessions, but the longer you play in one sitting, the more tiresome it becomes, especially if you already have all the upgrades and don't have anything else to do between levels.
Much of leveling up is permanent, which not only gives a sense of connection to ones built characters but also means there is a large incentive to replay to make different builds.
Loot in Torchlight II is varied and dependent on a wide array of circumstances. There are so many variables that come into play as to what a player will find that makes searching out better and better items a game in and of itself.
Unlike the first title there are many areas to see in the game that all have different looks. Plus there are large open ares as well as close quarter caverns.
Torchlight II is a multi-platform game that works on OSX, Linux and Windows. Which is great for users who dual-boot as the game can be played no matter what OS is booted at the time.
Torchlight 2 has all the typical RPG mechanics such as classes, loot, skill trees etc. However all the little touches and details come together to make playing the game really fun and a great balance between depth/complexity and being able to get started killing hordes of monsters. Killing monsters is very satisfying and the loot system keeps things very interesting without feeling like you're just grinding for better items.
The characters are flat and the overall story is pretty boring/standard. While not unexpected for such a game it would have been nice to have something other than loot driving advancement in the game.
You can team up with up to 5 other plays to take on the hordes together. There is also a PvP mode if you'd rather kill your friends instead of team up with them.
Much like an old school dungeon crawler, there is little to no useful respec system here. You can respec the last three skill points used on a character, but that is it. This tends to lead towards plenty of skills in the skilltree that ended up going nowhere, which are just wasted points. Unless you know specifically where you will be putting each and every skill point for your build beforehand, no respec may have an impact on making a perfect build.
Much like older Zelda games, there are different paths that can be taken in each level, there are hidden areas as well. This allows for a good bit of exploration in the game, giving a sense that you are the one exploring and discovering this world.
The layout of each dungeon will change dynamically as you kill enemies contained within. So walls will move or disappear, making for a new path, depending on who you have killed. This makes for an enthralling experience that constantly asks the player to shift their strategy, making for gameplay that does not get stale.
The combat in the game is action based in real time. Each enemy has a different attack pattern that can be learned meaning that with time the player knows when and where to hit an enemy. While the combat can be tough at time when multiple enemies are on screen, the challenge can be worth it for the enjoyment of accomplishment.
With no dialog in the game (including text), the game is told through the use of pictures. When talking to an NPC, they will tell their story through a series of pictures. This goes for all interaction in the game. Which is an interesting way to go about telling a story and is pretty unique. Luckily the game tells its story successfully through this method, making for an enjoyable story overall.
The game actually has no dialog, meaning that the music and sound effects emote what the player should be feeling. Luckily they do their job and then some, the music is easy to listen to and works with the game well, same with the sound effects. Everything feels as though it belongs, which is quite an accomplishments due to how stylized the game is.
While pixel graphics have seen a revival of late being that they are cheap to make, which lends itself well to the indie scene, Hyper Light Drifter is a step above any of the best offered in this style before. Everything is hand drawn and beautifully detailed. The color pallets used stand out on just their own, as the backgrounds are all quite detailed, with different color choices being used in order to differentiate each area. All the animations in the game are pretty detailed too, even for pixel graphics. T
The game can get difficult, causing a good deal of frustration due to the difficulty of enemies in the game. While no impossible, many may feel it is too tough in the later portion of the game.
With no dialog it can be difficult to figure out what to do and where to go. There is no hand holding here, which is a bit of a throwback to games back in the 90s, but still can be frustrating when stuck and having no idea what to do next. This can be exacerbated by the fact that certain basses need you to be equipped with a certain upgrade in order to defeat them. Since there is no explanation of what this upgrade is, it can easily be missed leaving the player dying over and over again at the hands of certain bosses.
The plot, art-style & the soundtrack come together to make a very atmospheric game that does a great job at drawing you into the world. From the design each stage an its beautiful cyberpunk sprawl to the intricate look of the enemies it is difficult to no be enveloped by the atmosphere of the game.
This game features a hauntingly beautiful soundtrack. It fits right in to the world the player inhabits. It ties in very well with the gameplay and art-style to create a very immersive atmosphere.
Transistor is primarily a hack & slash style action RPG, but has an interesting twist in that you can pause time to plan out your next moves. This ability gives Transistor an element of strategy to the core battle mechanics as well as fluid gameplay.
Fantastic story line that is heavily cyberpunk themed. When beginning the game the player is dropped right into the action finding that their voice has been stolen to then slowly learn through gameplay and storytelling who exactly stole it.
Throughout the game, you get these abilities, called Functions(), that are modular in design.
They can be used in one of three ways:
Active(): The activated version, or the base version. You use the Slash function, you slash. You can have up to four of these.
Upgrade(): Use the current Function on an Active one. You can stack two upgrades on a single Active. Stacking the Slash() function on a Laser() will cause the Laser to now cut people in half. If you stack the Heal() function on it too, you now also get health back.
Passive(): These usually only effect the protagonist, Red, and are not activated manually (although some activate an effect upon receiving damage).
Put Get() with Bounce(), you now have an attack that will shoot a bullet that bounces to nearby enemies and pulls (gets) all the enemies hit to you. Add a stun upgrade, like Crash(), and you now have a pile of sleeping enemies in front of you. You can now hit them all with a massive explosion.
The game can be beat with simple combos that don't require much setup or strategy, but it definitely rewards you for good thinking.