Deck of Souls is an early-access deck-building roguelite. It’s a tried and tested formula, and while Deck of Souls doesn’t do anything particularly innovative, it does what it does well. The art style is simple but consistent, the sound effects and music are excellent and unobtrusive, and the gameplay has enough variety and replayability to immerse you. Let’s get into it!

What’s the skinny? How does Deck of Souls work?

In a series of turn-based combats, you draw and play cards against a variety of well-drawn enemies. You get to play one card per enemy, so combats feel pretty fair and balanced. Like many games in the genre, success in Deck of Souls relies on building a repertoire of cards that synergise with one another.

For example, on one of my more successful runs, I managed to make a build that relied on piling on armour and block to take enemies down. Of course, it’s all luck of the draw – but isn’t that what makes roguelites fun?

Combats and encounters are linked together on an FTL-style map. You can see what flavour of encounter is ahead – be that a fight, a random encounter, a chance to level up etc. – and choose your optimal path.

Defeating enemies grants you souls of various flavours, which you can use to level up your character’s stats or equipment. Bit grim. But we love it.

Story & Art

I’m a big fan of the art style in Deck of Souls. It’s pixelated, but more than detailed enough to know what you’re looking at. It’s colourful without being overwhelming and super consistent.

My one qualm with the art, however, is the UI. It feels a bit programmer-art, a bit placeholder. I can’t be sure if that’s a stylistic choice or if it’s due to be revisited, though. For now, it’s a bit lacking.

The music is great, really helps to set the grim fantasy vibe.

The story is hidden in dialogue with NPCs you encounter and beat the crap out of. There’s a tale of divinity, rebelling agents of higher powers, and redemption. The joy for me in Deck of Souls was discovering the story as I went and figuring out my own character’s motivations, so I won’t be spoiling it here. Suffice it to say, I really like the writing in this game!

Final verdict: Is it worth a go?

I would say if any of the above appeals to you at all, give Deck of Souls a chance. In places, it still feels a bit unpolished, but overall, it has promise. If roguelites or deck builders are in your wheelhouse, this will be a good entry. It fills a Slay the Spire-shaped hole. At less than a tenner, the price is great too.

As the developers move through early access, they have a roadmap of features that, refreshingly for an early-access game, seem realistic and achievable. I’ll certainly be sticking with the development of this one and returning for future updates.

Stay tuned to GamEir. Come talk with us on Twitter (@gam_eir), Facebook (@GamEir), and Instagram (@GamEir).

I promise we’re nice! Keep up with our streams over on Twitch (GamEir) and our videos on YouTube (GamEir) and we’ll give you all the latest content.

The post Deck of Souls Early Access in Review appeared first on GamEir.

On seeing Ashina: The Red Witch for the first time I was excited about what it had to offer. It looked like an old Pokémon game with all the Studio Ghibli charm. Let’s see if you can tell a book by its cover.

The afterlife I have been dreading

You take the role of Ashina, who travels to the Afterlife to get her mother’s pendant back from a spirit called Tanto. This pendant is the most important thing in her life (other than her sister Tena) after her mother died a few days prior. Tanto by the way looks just like Vivi from Final Fantasy IX but with a terrible attitude. Little does Ashina (or Ash to her friends) know that where she is going is the realm of the afterlife.

She is also told she has only 24 hours to get the pendant as the path home is disappearing. Queue the monotonous fetch quests that you need to do. Ashina: The Red Witch had so much to offer but fell flat. There is no combat, no real puzzles, it has no exploration and takes place in small towns and buildings. They should have made it a point-and-click adventure and a story-driven game. It would have made you actually care about the story.

The beauty in the Pixel

Ashina: The Red Witch itself looks great. The old-school 3D pixel art tugs at your nostalgic heartstrings. The bit of animation we get is very well done as well, I just wish they would have added more.

The soundtrack is everything you could want in a game like this. It sets the tone nicely in parts. There is an issue sometimes where everything is silent and I wondered if it was a glitch or intentional. When this happened I found myself flying through the dialogue just to get some music back.

The controls are really simple. You can use the directional buttons or analogue sticks to move. You will use L1 to sprint a lot as you will be zipping from one end of the screen to the next just to finish quests.

The saving grace for Ashina: The Red Witch is that it’s a short game. It does have multiple endings for those completionists. The game itself wasn’t my cup of tea but I can see the charm. The graphics and music were lovingly crafted. If you have played the other games in this series then go for it. If not like me then I would give it a miss sadly.

Stay tuned to GamEir. Come talk with us on Twitter (@gam_eir), Facebook (@GamEir), and Instagram (@GamEir).
I promise we’re nice! Keep up with our streams over on Twitch (GamEir) and our videos on YouTube (GamEir) and we’ll give you all the latest content.

The post Ashina: The Red Witch – Where’s the magic? appeared first on GamEir.

The free demo features three playable missions while utilizing three plucky heroes along the way. Each character has their own unique skillset and weapons. Successfully complete missions, and you’ll earn XP, which can then level up your heroes. The full game will feature a narrative told over 6 independent chapters. At this time, the Flamberge Early Access build has 3 of those 6 completed, with a multiplayer mode in Beta.

Hyde and Zeke

FLAMBERGE is a tactics role-playing game featuring simultaneous turns. The player must plan out movements and attacks for each of their heroes, and then execute the turn. When the turn is executed, both heroes and enemies will move and attack at once. The player must anticipate enemy actions in order to win.

There are 20 missions available currently, promising up to 3-4 hours of game-play. Missions play out over a single map, viewed from above in glorious hard-to-discern pixel art. All the moves in Flamberge are turn-based. Each character, friend or foe, has a certain amount of time available to them. During the planning phase, you will decide how your team will move, and what actions to take.

The execution phase will follow and here your plans will play out, simultaneous to the enemy moves. There are visual cues to indicate enemy moves, allowing you to further plot and plan their demise. I was impressed with how quickly Flamberge drew me in. The soundtrack has some notable bangers, and the afore-mentioned art style is quite nice. Compounded to that the missions are genuine tactical puzzles, and the story features a nice touch of humour.

Flamberge is definitely one to check out for any turn-based strategy fans out there, or even pixel art enthusiasts (I’m sure that’s a thing). Anyway, take a peek at our preview video below, see what you think, and let us know.

Stay tuned to GamEir. Also, be sure and converse with us on Twitter (@gam_eir), Facebook (@GamEir), and Instagram (@GamEir). Check out our videos on Twitch (GamEir) and YouTube (GamEir) and we’ll give you all the latest content.

The post Simultaneous Strategy RPG Flamberge Preview appeared first on GamEir.

2019-10-23

Killer Queen Black is the latest pixel art game that expands the growing roster. This 4v4 battle game has some quirky ideas. But is that enough to get your Nintendo Switch our for a multiplayer night? I have been a worker and a killer queen, sadly not with a laser beam.

In Killer Queen Black, or KQB, you are split into 2 teams of 4. In the original game it was 5v5. 3 players get to be “workers” and one player gets to be the queen. This is switched every round. The queen is able to fly from the get go and attack straight ahead and down. The “workers” can be upgraded by visiting machines which need to be activate by the queen. That way a type of class system is introduced.

Hive Jive Queen

The levels of Killer Queen Black change each round and are mad up of platforms, berries and change stations. Depending on what level is played, it may suit one or more winning conditions better. There are 3 ways to win a round. You can kill the opponents queen 3 times. The workers can bring back the required berry amount. Last, but not least, one “worker” can ride a snail over a goal line. This is my favourite way to win, because I love capture the flag or base modes. The biggest difference to the original, other than one less player each side, is that this version has new levels, abilities and weapons.

Pro Strat Killer Queen

It may not look like it, but this game allows for highly tactical gameplay styles. Soon you will learn the pros and cons of each level and which ability/weapon works best for it and your play style. What can be a bit annoying is that one of the earliest strategies is spawn camping. If the other team has that locked down, the match is basically over. The most interesting way to win is to distract the other team, especially the queen, and quietly ride the snail to victory. Due to the chaos, you would be surprised at how “fast” that little thing moves.

Queen killing it

Overall I had a great time with Killer Queen Black. Even playing with randoms worked well enough. I would recommend being the same room though, to be able to speak to your mates during a match. The art style is well suited to the game. Which plays a huge part in visualising the chosen abilities and weapons. If you have a few friends, then I can highly recommend playing KQB for some chaotic fun.

Stay tuned to GamEir, and if you’re interested, converse with us on Twitter (@gam_eir), Facebook (@GamEir), and Instagram (@GamEir). Check out our videos on Twitch (GamEir) and YouTube (GamEir) and we’ll give you all the latest content.

The post A Review in Progress: Killer Queen Black appeared first on GamEir.

2019-02-07

A hardcore, precision platformer where you can’t jump, what could go wrong? Necrosphere Deluxe is a 2D puzzle-platform game with some Metroidvania level progression and a pixel art aesthetic. Oh, and you can’t jump and the only controls are movement left and right, an admirable design choice that doesn’t quite pay off in the long run.

You play as Agent Terry Cooper, a detective shot down in action, who finds himself transported to the afterlife or the Necrosphere. His partners in the living world (the Normalsphere) contact him and tell him about special portals that will be able to get him home and also provide him some useful items to help him traverse the Necrosphere and avoid its many dangers.

Necrosphere Deluxe, in both gameplay and graphics, could not be simpler. The game controls with just two buttons, one to go left, one to go right. There is no jump or action command. The main items to help you progress are bubbles strategically placed throughout the levels. Run into them and Terry will bounce in the air. This acts as the games “jump” mechanic. As you progress you will need to chain jumps together between bubbles, an act made more difficult when you discover some pop on contact, so you have to time those jumps very carefully. There are also anti-gravity walls and rising and lowering platforms to help with your vertical needs.

Necrosphere Deluxe also introduces some light Metroidvania elements too. As you delve deeper into the bowls of the afterlife you will acquire some permanent upgrades. There’s a pink tutu that lets you bound over gaps, a pair of gloves that smash through rocks and kill the zombies that you previously had to run from and a rocket pack that gives you vertical lift. These are usually followed by a fake portal that teleports you back to the start of the game so you can use your new items to open previously inaccessible paths and progress further into the Necrosphere.

The introduction of the upgrade items is a double-edged sword however creating new gameplay elements but also exposing the flaw of the games simple control scheme. Despite these item doing very different actions, they are all still activated with the same two basic buttons, double tapping left or right for the horizontal jump and punch and holding both buttons to activate the jetpack. Doesn’t sound too hard but when you are trying to string all these actions together it’s frustratingly easy to do the wrong move. The number of times I just walked into a pit of spikes when I meant to jump over the pit was many. One more button input would have fixed this and made the game significantly more enjoyable. I know games like this are suppose to be hard but there’s a big difference between an error caused by your inexperience and one caused by a poor control scheme.

Click to view slideshow.

Speaking of the difficulty, the game does spike quite quickly and despite its simple appearance is not for the easily frustrated. Necrosphere Deluxe is much more Super Meat Boy than Super Mario Bros. and luckily, much like Team Meats classic, Necrosphere Deluxe does include a lot of generous save points that you pop back to immediately after death. Most of these will put you back to the last platform you were on but some drop you back to the start of a very complicated jump combination, the latter of which can be a problem at times as the level design is not always as tight as it needs to be for this kind of platformer. There were a couple of times I was convinced I needed to find a power up to proceed as the jump combination was laid out in such a way that it seemed impossible to proceed, even with numerous attempts.

In the graphics and music department, Necrosphere Deluxe does a great job of emulation the 8-bit era of gaming, with the simple graphics allowing the game to move at a fast pace and adding some needed humour to complicate the games bleak setting and sadistic gameplay. One thing I wish we saw more of was the lovely opening cutscene pixel art used to set up the story. The music is also a nostalgic treat with its chiptune soundtrack doing a great job of setting atmosphere throughout the game.

This being the deluxe version of Necrosphere you also get some extras. Scattered throughout the are hidden DVD’s and once five are discovered you will unlock the ultra hard bonus mission. This ramps up the difficulty and removes the checkpoints, just in case you still have some hairs left that the main game hasn’t made you pull out.

Necrosphere Deluxe, despite making me want to smash my Switch on the floor, is a game that’s hard not to like. Its charming graphics and humour and simple controls are a great hook, it just needs some tinkering with the level design and maybe a revamped control scheme to deal with the extra elements later in the game. Maybe a sequel could give us that. However, it’s hard not to recommend it to fans of hardcore platform action, especially at the low price it’s at. If nothing else it’s made appreciate a good pink tutu.

The post A Review In Progress: Necrosphere Deluxe appeared first on GamEir.

Nolla Games have this week been showing off progress to date on their latest title. Noita, a pixel art rogue-lite is in development by the guys who brought us The Swapper, Environmental Station Alpha, as well as a host of other indie titles.

The Game

Noita is set in a pixel art world where anything or everything can be affected by the player’s actions. Navigating 2D caves, the player can use wands of varying description to burn, freeze, and melt their way through puzzles and enemies alike. Wands can be customized and spells crafted to enhance your powers. Environments and the elements will play a vital role in how an area can be approached. The player must think their way through each area anew, as each playthrough will differ from the last. Death will be permanent, but according to the dev team will also always provide lessons going forward.

Click to view slideshow.

The Developer

Nolla Games are an interesting bunch. Comprising 3 self-claimed nerds based in Helsinki, they are:

• Petri Purho, creator of Crayon Physics Deluxe
• Olli Harjola, creator of the Swapper
• Arvi Teikari, creator of Environment Station Alpha

Separately they have created and released over 150 indie games. Their most successful titles I’ve already mentioned, along with some less than stellar games such as “You have to knock the Penis”. Granted I haven’t played that one, I’m happy to judge it by its title!

Interestingly as well the team has created their own graphics engine. Known as the “Falling Everything Engine”, it is best described in the teams own words:

Falling Everything Engine is an in-house labor of love. A true love child. Handcrafted in the finest C++ without exceptions, using only hand picked, organic, free license libraries. The engine allows large-scale, physics-based worlds, where everything consists of interactive, simulated pixels with varying chemical and physical properties: some are liquid, some are gas-like, some are sand, some form larger rigid bodies.

The Trailer

It’s fairly obvious from browsing the material on these guys they have a unique sense of humor to match their games style. We can expect that to translate into an interesting mix of game-play in Noita. Think elemental based action puzzler with a cool dry wit, and beautifully colored pixel art. No release date as yet, but given the recent press access expect early access on PC, probably Steam, in the coming months. For the games reveal trailer check below, and for all else gaming stay right here.

The post Noita devs show off their new magic rogue-lite appeared first on GamEir.