I finished Van Helsing a few days ago, it's about 20+ hours long and well worth the price. I actually prefer it to Diablo and Torchlight if only because those games had cartoonish art design, wheareas Van Helsing had more realistic looking environments and architecture. I would stick to one class type and focus on it because the end is ridiculously unbalanced and difficult, so the placement of skills and abilities points is crucial. Multiplayer was problematic at times, but I went solo anyway. I look forward to updates and DLC for this game. Really cool game.
I also look forward to new game releases from this game company in the future.
Awesome New Releases!
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 On 06/05/2013 at 04:19 AM by Blake Turner See More From This User » |
Hey guys! I've been playing some games, as I tend to do, and I thought I'd let you know of three that I four that were just released on Steam that you absolutely should pick up!
The Swapper
Ok, I don't mean to alarm anyone, but this may just be the best puzzle platformer I've played since... well, probably Braid. The game never reaches the difficulty of that game, although some of the puzzles really hurt your head, but in terms of game mechanics being central to the storytelling, raising morally ambiguous questions with no right answers, and oozing with atmosphere, these games are damn close to being on the same level.
The game's levels and characters were made out of clay using stop motion, and it runs at over 60 fps, which is kind of amazing. I mean seriously. The lighting effects are gorgeous, and the music and ambient noise is phenomenal. Seriously, whilst Braid was visually stunning, this beauty for your ears.
The central premise of this game revolves around cloning yourself and swapping to those clones. There are areas where you can't make clones, or where you can make a clone but can't swap to it, or where you can't do either, and getting around that is really what the puzzles boil down to. The story is pretty awesome, although the voice acting is a little bit muffled, so you might want to chuck subtitles on. Seriously, check this out.
The Incredible Adventures of Van Helsing
This is what the real Diablo 3 should have felt like in terms of atmosphere and storytelling. This is an Action RPG where the world actually feels alive, and you want to explore it. The 18th century gothic horror vibe is fantastic too, and there's a genuinely forboding atmosphere to the game.
The dialogue is quite well written as well. The story isn't great, but the interaction between characters is, especially the central two. You play as Van Helsing, and you have a ghostly follower who acts a lot like a pet from the Torchlight games. The dialogue between them can be touching and in some cases quite funny, and she can often cast light into the darker secrets of the world.
The combat feels good and is surprisingly complex. While you only play as one character, you can level up magic, melee, and sorcery. Mastering all three is pivotal, as this game can be quite challenging on the normal difficulty.
All this is $15, so if you're a fan of Diablo, Torchlight, or Titan's quest, you should definitely pick this up.
Gunpoint
I love this game. It's a stealthy hacking game where you can rewire elecrical circuits to get through levels and avoid guards. This opens up so many options for experimentation, especially when you unlock all of the gadgets. My favourite thing to do is rewire a guards gun to something and have him freak out before I tackle him and beat the living shit out of him. I once rewired a guards gun to an electrical socket he was standing next to, walked in front of him, he went to shoot me and ended up electricuting him. It was hilarious!
Another aspect of this game I like is the mission briefinf and debriefing. You get dialogue choices, can choose who you want to side with, who to lie to, and try and cover for yourself and/or others. For instance, the first few missions are about you erasing video tapes to hide the evidence of you being in the same building as a murder to buy yourself time to investigate the case. Once you do that, a woman is thrown into jail and comes to you trying to get evidence to clear her since all of the tapes have been erased. You can tell her it was you who erased the tapes, or you can lie to her, and send her back super encrypted files that she can't possibly access. I told her, and she ended up hating me. I got no more missions from her. Also, some of the dialogue options are downright hilarious, causing me to laugh out loud numerous times.
Oh, and this game was made by one of the writers of PC Gamer, a site I regularly visit for my news and reviews. I think that's pretty cool.
Anyway, those are the three games I've been playing that I think are truly worth playing. Hope you give them a shot some time in the future!
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