Harvest Hunt Review - A highly intense, albeit disappointingly short-lived Horror Roguelike
- By Ash
- in Reviews
Harvest Hunt, as a concept, is amazing. You and an eldritch fiend are stuck playing a game of cat and mouse in a world where the rules constantly change. Sometimes lady luck will favor you and you'll be chasing it with an axe while laughing maniacally, and other times you'll be forced to trudge through a poisonous swamp of sadness and suffering. Usually you'll find yourself somewhere in the middle, but the extremes are definitely where the concept truly shines.
Unfortunately, a concept is all that Harvest Hunt really is. With only one monster, one location and one objective, it takes only a couple of hours to thoroughly explore everything it has to offer. The various roguelike elements do their best to keep things fresh, but there's only so many ways you can remix the duel against Blobbimus Bloo, the Amorphous Blob of Evil before the tension goes away and you start thinking up stupid names for the thing you're supposed to be running away from.
So if you're curious about where Harvest Hunt succeeds, as well as where it stumbles and falls flat on its face, allow me to share with you my thoughts after spending so much time running through an accursed swamp that I now consider Blighttown a vacation destination.
Harvest Hunt is an upcoming and rather intriguing combination of roguelike and survival horror
- By Ash
- in Indie Games
[Update]: My review for Harvest Hunt is now live, so if you're curious how well a survival-horror and a roguelike mesh together, I welcome you to give it a look.
In a bit of an interesting twist on the usual survival horror formula, the upcoming Harvest Hunt has decided to mix in a bunch of different roguelike elements in order to hopefully keep things tense and interesting for a long time to come. As such, not only will you have to contend with an eldritch horror stalking you through a fetid swamp, but also a variety of random modifiers that can drastically shift the balance in either direction and prevent you from getting too comfortable.
Personally, I really like this idea. Fear of the unknown can be a remarkably strong factor in horror games, and what better way to make the monster unknowable than by constantly changing the rules!
Darktide's Path of Redemption update has added a free Battle Pass, numerous cosmetics and the Tox Bomber enemy
- By Ash
- in News
[Update]: Darktide's Grim Protocols update has added an ultra-challenging new game mode - Havoc!
While originally scheduled to launch in late April, Darktide studio Fatshark has now decided to surprise everyone by suddenly releasing the Path of Redemption update! The new content patch brings with it a free Battle Pass filled with all sorts of new cosmetics, the Dreg Tox Bomber as a brand new enemy, as well as a variety of new puzzles and challenges to seek out in missions.
First things first, the Battle Pass, which I'm happy to say is a pretty good one! There is no paid version, the objectives are all relatively simple, and given how fast I've managed to push through the tiers just off previous achievements alone, I have a feeling it's going to be an easy one to complete. [Update]: I may have spoken too soon on that one. While the early levels go by quick, maxing it out is going to take quite a while!
Songs of Conquest, a Heroes of Might and Magic inspired strategy game, is launching on May 20th
- By Ash
- in News
After two years of Early Access and a plethora of updates, the Heroes of Might and Magic inspired strategy Songs of Conquest is now finally getting ready to launch in full. Best of all, we don't even have to wait all that long as Songs of Conquest's Version 1.0 will be arriving in a mere month, on May 20th!
As you would expect, Version 1.0 will launch alongside a sizable update that will bring with it a variety of new features and improvements, including a brand new singleplayer campaign exploring the mercantile nation of Barya. While not explicitly mentioned, I'm also expecting a sizable balance patch to shake everything up as right now balance seems to be Songs of Conquest's weakest aspect.
MTG Arena's next mini-expansion, Alchemy: Thunder Junction, will be launching on May 7th
- By Ash
- in News
Continuing with the usual tradition, MTG Arena will getting the Alchemy: Thunder Junction mini-expansion this May 7th with 30 new cards to toy around with in Alchemy, Historic, Timeless and Brawl formats. However, this release will be a bit different than usual as the new cards won't just be focused around beefing up the themes and concepts found in Thunder Junction, but also the ones found in previous sets.
Whether this is a one-and-done sort of thing or if we can look forward to more cross-pollination from future Alchemy sets, nobody outside of Wizards of the Coast currently knows, but I do like the idea. There's plenty of interesting mechanics released each year that just don't get the support they need to truly shine, so adding a couple of new cards here and there can do a great deal of good.
The Helldivers 2 playerbase, in a dazzling display of democracy, is rallying against the new requirements
- By Ash
- in News
I an announcement that has garnered them a massive amount of criticism, Sony and Arrowhead have revealed that Helldivers 2 will soon require a PlayStation Network account regardless of platform or crossplay options. In other words, all PC players will be required to link their Steam and PSN accounts by June 4th in order to continue playing the game.
Usually these sort of account requirements are annoying and there's a fair bit of grumbling about them, but they're innocuous enough that most people just go through with it and move on with their day. This time it's a bit special, however, as not only is Helldivers 2 bringing this up many months after launch, but PSN also has two major issues that are unique to it.
Helldivers 2's Update 1.000.3 has rebalanced dozens of weapons, including the Railgun, Quasar and Counter Sniper
- By Ash
- in News
[Update]: The Helldivers 2 playerbase, in a dazzling display of democracy, is rallying against the new requirements.
Unlike some of the previous patches that added either new toys for the players or enemies to clobber, the freshly released Update 1.000.3 is entirely about tweaking what we already have. As such, you can look forward to an avalanche of balance changes, both positive and negative, as well as some much-needed bug fixes.
In terms of nerfs, the LAS-99 Quasar Cannon now recharges 5 seconds slower, the LAS-98 Laser Cannon has lost some of its anti-armor damage in exchange for being better against weaker enemies, the laser guard dog AX/AR-23 has lost a solid 30% of its damage, and most puzzling of all, the already mediocre CB-9 Exploding Crossbow has lost a good chunk of its splash damage in exchange for faster projectile velocity. Everything else I can understand, but the crossbow nerf just feels like kicking someone when they're already face-first in the mud. Not a fan.