Turbo Overkill(Playstation 5) Review

Out of all the "boomer" shooters that have been made, none of even managed to capture the sheer ambition of Turbo Overkill. If you ever wanted to see the feel of Doom Eternal replicated but through a much smaller dev team then you can't go wrong with this game. It's the most ambitious boomer shooter ever created but at the same time it can also come back to haunt it in a lot of ways.

As far as boomer shooters or even just shooters in general, Turbo Overkill is one of the most challenging I ever played. It's not just combat that is a hard time but also the sheer amount of platforming the game has too.

What makes combat so challenging where Doom Eternal has glory kill to replenish health back and chainsaw for ammo. Turbo Overkill at best gives you an upgrade you could by where killing fodder enemy with a chainsaw leg can get you back 1 hp. With ammo you have to find pick ups all over the map.

It does keep Doom Eternal's combat model of being having high HP one minute and then being down to critical the next.

Due to the lack of glory kills and chainsaw, the horde battle are even more intense than before. Every battle is an intense battle for survival. I'll be going through an enemy wave and then mech enemies pop up and I'm like, "damn it" after it kills me.

This is one thing Turbo Overkill does really well. The enemy variety is top notch one you'll be killing mooks with the chainsaw leg one minute, then switch to shotgun or assault rifle to kill the shield enemies, then use rockets to kill the drones, then running and shooting for your life when the mech enemies show up.

The weapon line up while standard like pistols, shotguns, assault rifles, sniper rifles, rocket launchers and so on. There are some insane alt fires you can have like the sniper having a telefraggins ability, shotgun having shock blasts that can be lined up, the pistol having a charge ability that can level most enemies if line up well. You even get a variation of the Hammer of Dawn from Gears of War here which is always interesting to see in the context of this kind of game.

Level design and platforming also returns from Doom Eternal and they can be quite expansive to how big the space can be. The levels can take so long to complete that it felt like I complete an entire episode of many boomer shooters even though I only did one level. There's levels that take place in wide open cities, traffic, destroyed cities, toxin refinery, factories, a scrapyard and so on. Each one of these levels can take a 30 minutes or an hour to complete. They have lots of platforming then lots of intense horde shootouts, then hunting keys and so on.

It doesn't end there either, there will be levels will you will be riding your car then the maps get bigger and then infiltrate structures while riding the said car, then getting out to progress the level. You'll in a motorcycle chase and then a mech late game. A late game set piece will also happen where an entire army gets wiped out as you are barely trying to survive while platfroming through the level.

In terms of sheer and utter ambition Turbo Overkill almost has no rival.

The sheer scope does come back to haunt the game. For one the upgrade system while interesting, it gives you a tons of perks and options but once you find the one that you are most comfortable with, you never want to try anything new.

Platforming and this might be me playing on a controller can so hard even analog stick can't even keep up like with the grapple hook mechanic, half the time I get past these sections by luck.

By far the biggest issue with the game is how long it is. Remember how I said that one level in TO can be as long as a single episode in many boomer shooters? This is what I'm talking about. The game can especially around Episode 3 can drag on for so long that by the time Maw was defeated I just wanted the game to end already.

It leads to the actual final showdown against Syn and to say this last level was hard would be an understatement. It's so hard that it dampers my experience on a game I really enjoyed. You not only have to defeat multiple challenging waves of enemies but you have to do in a time limit too. You already have to not die but also kill the enemies fast enough too. Then there is a late part where you have to use a sniper where you stand in one place since not all enemies can be telefragged and you could get hit and die here too. Doom Eternal never had this. Then you get to the actual final boss against Syn and it can take a lot of damage before it dies too.

By the time I got to the sniping, I lowered the game to easy and finished the game. I was just getting so worn out by everything that I wanted everything to wrap up. If the game ended with you killing Maw, I would've been fine with that.

Overall, while Turbo Overkill might just be the most ambitious and insane boomer shooter ever, I really just wished the game end earlier so it could be my favorite boomer shooter of all time.

Evil Dead: Regeneration Review

Played Evil Dead Fistful of Boomstick prior to this and didn't get very far since it tried to be a combination of a third person shooter and a survival horror game and didn't commit to either. Evil Dead Regeneration on the hand is Devil May Cry meets Ico. This game was borrowing from the latter before it really started to take off later on with games like The Last of Us and Bioshock Infinite and so on.

As far as Devil May Cry clones are concerned, Evil Dead Regeneration is easily on of the better ones up there with games like the Van Helsing video game all though the former has ideas that separate from DMC like aforementioned comparison to Ico.

One of the most interesting thing about the game is character of Sam. Where with many games that are escort quests like with Ico or TLOU, you have a case of consantly watching over Yorda and making sure she won't get kidnapped by the shadow monsters. It doesn't help the game has many combat encounters where you are meant to control a character who can't fight. TLOU has a case where the game world won't acknowledge friendly npcs unless if Joel is seen.

Evil Dead Regeneration solves both these issues where Ash controls much like Dante from DMC so the frequent combat encounters are more enjoyable and Sam is immortal so you won't have to worry about getting a game over when dying as him. Sam can also be useful in combat by distracting enemies and you being able to kick him into them as well.

One of the most fun part of Regeneration is when you play as Sam and seeing how many over the top and hilarious death animations Sam has after solving a puzzle as him before controlling Ash again.

There's also a surprising amount of conversations Ash and Sam have during gameplay too which keeps things lively rather than empty.

Combat itself is very similar to DMC. Ash has projectiles with unlimited ammo and one of the most fun things about the game is shotgun juggling with the ragdoll physics the game has. Enemies also can't die from just hitting them so you need to scripted finishing moves to actually kill them and they are a lot of fun to watch. Similar to the melee takedowns from God of War minus the QTEs. An aspect neither in DMC or GOW like being able to hit enemies while they are down.

There's even a rage mode Ash gets which is similar to Rage of the Gods but is obvious riff on Devil Trigger and it's just fun to watch Ash tear things up in this form. Bosses can beaten in short work depending on how efficiently you use this mechanic.

A big critcism is that I didn't even know Ash had a move list until you get to The Woods level. Trying to do the guard break on enemies can feel very awkward to pull off too. You also don't get many of the weapons until good while into the game. It starts to open up more and more when you get the harpoon gun when you are in the Mines level. Unfortunately you don't get all of your weapons until Port Turnham Shipyard level and by that point there's only two major levels in the game left.

Two of the biggest problems are how many times the game reuses the "escort Sam 3 times to open a door to the boss level" objective throughout the whole game. It can be very annoying since while Sam is immortal, but if he "dies" while getting charged up a by spirit, you have to do it again which can be very tedious and the game does become the babysitting escort quest that games like this or feature it can become. Save points are plentiful but most of the challenge comes from these sections. 

The biggest issue however is the story or should I say, it's a pilot episode of a TV show. The entire game is Ash breaking out of the Asylum, trying to rescue Sally and stop Dr. Reinhard. The game is well acted and entertaining enough that it's not completely insufferable but at the same time, barely much of anything happens in this whole story. Almost to the point where it feels like a side story. No big twists, no moments of character development, it's just Ash and Sam getting to Dr. Reinhard, they stop him, save Sally game ends. That's it.

This is where unfortunately where the game gets let down. Outside of being an Evil Dead fan, there isn't much of anything here that you want to come to game to. In 2005, there were your obvious heavy hitters like Devil May Cry 3 and God of War but there was also Prince of Persia the Two Thrones, Hulk Ultimate Destruction and Genji Dawn of the Samurai as well.

Overall, while Evil Dead Regeneration is a solid licensed game, I just wished there was meat to it's bones like a story with more going on and a more evenly paced campaign. Still it's worth checking out if you are mildly curious.

Ereban: Shadow Legacy Review(Playstation 5)

This was an interesting effort especially for a genre that has seen fewer and fewer releases as the decade has gone by and not even by a big budget studio at that. It is easy to rag on how underdeveloped the game can feel but at the same time due to the above mentioned reasons I'm a lot softer on it. After dropping Styx Blades of Greed a day prior to the game's port to PS5, it just gives me even more reasons to be softer on Ereban. Just for the fact that it's just a "linear" stealth affair and no bizarre and awkward attempts at an open world.

It's easy to draw comparisons between this game and the Aragami series. The visuals, the looks of the player character, the shadows motif, the various upgrades, and the fact that there is no combat option. Getting caught once means that it could lead to a game over.

What really surprised that it had much more in common with the Splatoon games than I thought it would. Shadows in Ereban is like the Inkling's ability to travel through ink in that series. You can even attach yourself to walls and surfaces that have shadows on them much like the aforementioned character with ink. The main differences are is that you can't plaster ink to create more surfaces to travel only the shadows is already cast on the level geometry and you can hide under shadows for a certain amount of time.

With that said, as novel as a concept this might be. It can feel more so like a underdeveloped gimmick much of the time. It's often easy to bypass many of the enemies due to how slow they can move and how fast you are when travelling under the shadows.

It's often easy to just knock out a robot, have another robot spot the unconcious body, hide and travel under the shadows and then knock out the suspecting guard.

There are human enemies too and the game does try to incoportate a morality system by having you avoid killing them but they don't behave that differently from the robots.

Different attempts at gadgets are also in here but I didn't really use them that much or as much as the game would want me to due to how OP the base shadow travel ability is. I did you the decoy ability from time to time with that said.

Platforming can also feel stiff and awkward here too especially the base movement ability since your character can't mantle up waist high obstructions as gracefully as I would like. It can also feel unresponsive and awkward trying to from one shadowy surface to another during occasional mandatory platforming section with it. There's also a puzzle section late game that can feel out of place considering there weren't any puzzles before that.

The hardest parts of the game is when you have to deal with key or level progressing item that can't be phased along with you so you have to find a way to travel through the level where you can physically bring the item to the terminal to progress the next level. I did wish the game had more shake ups like this. That or have more enemy can directly influence the environment.

After all that criticism, it should sound like I shouldn't really like it that much, I can say I do at least like it. The level design is at least designed in the "get from point A to B" sqaure and rectectangle design. It's hard to get lost meaning the levels move at a fast and steady pace. The game also checkpoints quite often too so it's never too much progress lost upon death. There's also a really cool and interesting open level at around Chapter 3 that encourages you to explore. The whole game isn't like this and it's a decent way at shaking up the level design. Chaining multiple kills while hiding and travelling in the shadows does feel satisfying to pull off in the moment.

The story while nothing special never gets in the way. Main character can get a little chatty but nothing that gets in the way.

Overall, while the game can feel underdeveloped, I can say as a stealth game it does get the basics right and while I wish there were more higher quality new releases in the genre, I'm happy to say I atleast enjoyed this one.

Starship Troopers: Ultimate Bug War! Review

All I knew about this title going in that it was made by the developers of Warhammer 40K Boltgun which is a game I enjoyed for the most. It did however turn out to be a complete surprise in more ways than one.

Ultimate Bug War isn't really a traditional "boomer" shooter but it also has elements of games like Halo with the two weapon limit, vehicles(mainly just mechs but still) and the the supply drops from Helldivers 2. There's even having other soldier NPCs help you like in a Halo and especially a CoD campaign which adds to the immersive feeling that you are in a large scale battle. It's impressive that this is all done in an indie pixel art game. It gives it's own unique feeling. You got the powerful feeling guns and bugs have satisfying gore effects when you kill them.

There's different kinds of guns like of course your assault rifles and shotguns but there is also energy weapons and my personal a carbine that is hits hard but can't be reloaded like an M1 Garande.

The different bug types do a decent job at changing things. There's your fodder but there also flying ones, armoured enemies and bugs that can shoot fire.

What really puts everything together is the bizarre framing that the campaign cutscenes uses. It's used in the satire videos that were in the initial Paul Verhovan movie but the video game that you bought is now being used as a propaganda simulator to help recruit new members into the Federation. These live action satire cutscenes are hilarious and it's good way to frame why a single soldier is able to feel so powerful while being a single soldier in the military and how the player is able to be so proficient at killing so enemies, the game you bought is a satire military recruitment advertisement after all.

I was already enjoying the game but this whole framing device tied everything in a nice bow.

You could argue that the only big gripe is that the game is too short and can be beaten very quickly on normal difficulty but I argue it would start to get monotonous and mind numbing if it were longer.

If you are unsure on the price, the game is certainly worth getting on a discount.

Overall, now with this and Robocop Rogue City, all it is needed is a solid Total Recall modern licensed game to close out the package. 

Crisol: Theater of Idols Review

For a is a cheap game that was shadow dropped out of nowhere, made by a newly formed dev team that seems to have the very least double AA production values, Crisol is rather impressive for what it is. There are some major issues that prevent from being a I would highly recommend instead of midly but for what's on offer here, it's impressive.

To sum up Crisol simpily, it's a horror game leaning towards the action side where you use your health as ammo for your guns. It's like if Resident Evil 4 and Village combined together. It's an interesting concept but due to the early game hell that is at the start, this is more of a hinderance rather than something you can use reliably or strategically. This could be due to me playing on controller but enemies on normal take way too many shots to die. Your shots in the early game do little damage and I was in many situations where I was either out of ammo or was too low on it due to enemies taking away a large chunk of health when hitting you. Syringes were also very scarce and the knife also inflicts very little stun on top of the parry being unreliable. The final nail in the coffin is that enemies can do a scripted attack when you are at critical health but it's hard to tell how low does your hp have to be for the scripted attack to happen.

Add to how slow paced combat feels and because of how infrequent checkpointing can feel because of this, I lowered to easy. It is still strange how you can't lower the difficulty once you start the game even though the game also allows for custom difficulty but how I can use it effectively if I can't do it while playing the game?

Once I got to easy combat started to get more enjoyable, enemies took much less shots to die, the knife felt more reliable to use and I had more HP to draw blood for ammo for the firearms. Guns also feel very nice and punchy and enemies also have location based damage like both various of Resident Evil. I started to get into the groove of combat more.

There are some annoying parts like traversing parts of levels with a stalker monster coming after you. Reaching it's lowest point in Chapter 2 where you need to sneak past her, kill flying enemies and archers WHILE she can hit you while also being blindsighted by mines when running away.

It also doesn't help that audio cues for mines and cameras are minimal leading to plenty of surprise out of nowhere attacks. Dead Space 2 did it far better when it's explosive alien husks.

After all that, the game gets noticeably easier with so many syringes, healing and ammo that it hard to feel geniunely threatened by anything. The final level can feel long and tedious due to how many puzzles and combat encounters you have to get to before fighting the final boss.

There is also too much of that infamous yellow paint. I try not to complain about it but Crisol has a bad habbit in putting them in obvious spots where by the time you interact with the level, you'll already know that's the only places you can go. The levels are not super open nor is there any platforming to warrant this.

To give some praise, the story is rather decent. Not amazing but the main character has a decent amount of personality and he does slowly change and learn humlity throughout the game despite being hostile towards everyone at first. Not amazing but it's solid. The story doesn't rely on notes as much as other horror games do.

Overall, decent game considering the price and the devs who made it even if I had a lot of issues with it.

Metroid Prime 4(Nintendo Switch) Review

Back when this game was announced in E3 of 2017 when the Switch was still a freshly released console who would've thought it would've taken almost 10 years for the game to come out and it would be 18 years after Prime 3's release, 15 years since the last "mainline" 3D Metroid and multiple 2D games in the series would be released. This also isn't including the massive boom with Metroidvanias in recent times. A lot has happened during the time it took for Metroid Prime 4 to release. After playing this game and while there are some notable flaws, it's rather impressive how much Retro Studios was able to salvage what was already a messy skeleton that Namco Studios made.

This is what caught me by surprise when booting up Prime 4. In spite of the fact it has been 18 years and 2-3 console gens later after the Wii, Retro working on two Donkey Kong Country games and not working on the series in so long, Prime 4 felt like it could've came out a few years after 3. The musical motifs, the look and asethethics of the series, the immersive touches like seeing Samus' reflections on her visor, the game feel all the way down to the auto locking and morph ball physics, it all feels in line with the series. It feels like a Retro Studios developed Prime game in spite of the very long time gap.

The visuals on Switch 1 are also impressive even now and the fidelity felt like an evolution over Prime 3. The only big downer is the super long load times.

With all that said, if you wanted a Super Metroid styled game in 3D like Prime 1, this game won't scratch that itch. In fact, it scratches a different kind of one. Prime 4 is more Zelda than Metroid both older and elements of the open world games.

This leads to the first negative. The shrines are completely pointless since progression in the story locks off your ability to complete them. New Zelda lets' you complete it's shrines in a varieity of different ways where Prime 4 has you do them in one way where you need a certain ablity to do them. Also doesn't help that the map never marks which shrines as not completed.

I'm not the biggest Zelda and I don't care for the overworld Prime 4 has much like older Zelda. If one good thing I can say about this is that if you know to constantly collect the green crystals while travelling around throughout the gme, it will be the shortest late game fetch quest in Metroid Prime history. It could be the longest if you don't know. I did wish the game did a better job at making this clear.

Story also is just there and isn't that great. Not the worst but it just exposes how Samus just feels like an overly expensive moving action figure when interacting with characters since she never even says anything nor do we know her inner thoughts like in Metroid Fusion. It made sense in Prime 1 and 2 since she never has to interact with anyone in those games but it exposes the problems in Prime 3 and 4. The npcs are moderately entertaining if nothing special. Them scarificing themselves the first time being a fake out but then dying for real against Sylux just made their actual deaths diminish the emotional impact. Sylux doesn't have much of a prescene in the story than fighting Samus a few times and then having some weird backstory.

Positives are that once you get past the tedious parts of trying to get to the dungeons like in older Zeldas, the dungeons themselves are pretty interesting like going to the Volt Forge to get the power on. Trudging your way through the Ice Belt with how windy certain parts of the level was. Fighting your way while escourting the characters in Flare Pool and having that really weird fake out countdown sequence or slowly going though the Great Mines and fighting off the Greivers while going through it.

The bosses are mostly solid with the worst being Sylux Phase 1 due to the reviving of teammates you got to do. I did enjoy the boss fight with Phenoros where there is decent specticle and good amount of challenge in dodging it's attacks while you are on the offensive. It was also nice to see the motorcycle get use outside of just only open world traversal. The only awkward part is remembering to use the control beam to finish off the boss. It pops up so infrequently that I always forgot I even have it. Same goes for the psychic glove.

I also enjoyed fighting the Omega Griever since it follows the formula of Metroid Prime bosses of finding out on how to damage it then dodging it's attacks and finally doing enough damage to finish it off. It hits the right spot at being a puzzle and having a good amount of action. My only big issue this time around is mashing A to get out of a boss' grab attacks since I hate doing mashing sequences in any game.

Final issue is that it did feel very grating that some switches had to be scanned while other could be interacted with by just pressing the button.

Overall, MP4 was an enjoyable game in spite of major issues. Games that take almost a decade to release could be worse than this.

Doom(1993)(Playstation 5) Review

There's so much that can be said about the original Doom. It was an early example of gaming going into the 3rd dimension, it helped popularize a genre that is still around now, it's been ported to many different systems and formed a popular franchise much like Resident Evil and Metroid managed to reinvent many times throughout it's long history. In spite of the original game being relatively short especially if it's the first 3 episodes, lacking in features like looking up and down and the lack of a jump. It's still endearing even now. The original Doom is a simple game but what it does is give solid moment to moment decision making and always adding different variations on already existing ideas. It's fine to be repetitive but it's not good to be monotonous which Doom avoids. It's just one of those games where I supposed to play a few levels than stop but I ended up beating all 3 episodes in one sitting since I found it that fun.

The first pillar Doom does well is it's weapons. Sure a little tame by today's standards but every weapon outside of the pistol has a clear and distinct role during gameplay. Shotgun is good for close and long range but can take a quite a number of shots to kill an enemy depending on the range. Doom's shotgun has novelties of it's own that other video game shotguns don't have like being effective at longer ranges too. Chaingun is good for keeping enemies in one place and prevents them from getting closer or firing projectiles. Rocket launcher fires projectiles and is slow moving but can do a lot of damage you might need to guide it's shots to be effective with it. Splash damage can also hurt you and do a lot of damage so it's a no no at close range. Plasma rifle runs out of ammo fast but can kill multiple horde in one burst. The BFG of course is a weapon that do massive damage but it's better to be saved during a huge swarm.

The second pillar is the level design and variation. Doom has it's mazes of course but there is always variations to it's level design. There will be close quarters battles with enemies waiting to ambush you from behind corners. There could be an imp from afar firing a projectile or they could above or below you. There might be a shotgunner hiding from behind a pillar waiting to shoot you. You could pick up a key and enemies will spawn in from and cover your entire flank. The lighting could be a lot darker having you be careful on when is a good time to aim your shot on an enemy. There could be a wide open circular arena with lots of enemies for you to shoot. Teleporters can put you into different parts of the maps. The floors could have lava or be acidic so be careful that your health doesn't drain when on them. Elevators add verticality. Switches can open up new parts of the map or have enemies spawn in. Imps could be behind walls and shoot fireballs when behind them. You can also get crushed by moving ceilings too. There's also secrets to find rewarding people who throughly explore.

The only geniunely bad level out of the original 3 episodes is limbo due to how many lava floors that drain your health there is and over reliance on teleporters. It does say a lot when it's the only geniunely bad level.

The 3rd pillar are the enemies. You got the imps who are weak but can throw a projectile a fast moving projectile. There is a possesed human and his deadlier shotgun wielding variant who are hitscan but can die quickly. The pinky demon and his invisible counterpart where they are deadly upclose but can rush you if you aren't careful. Lost souls that can quickly zone in and hit you but can be taken out with a shotgun blast. The Cacodemon who float take more damage than the imp and can do more damage when firing projectiles. Then the strongest of the enemy line up being the Baron of Hell, they take a lot of damage and their projectiles can do a lot of damage if you aren't constantly strafing out of the way.

When you combine all these pillars together while you get game that while simple on paper can have plenty of variations and permutations on what kind of encounters and levels that can be created. There's a reason why it often gets cited so much when it comes to game design. Combine all this with a great soundtrack that does a great job adding to the upbeat power fantasy and I can see why I beat the game in one sitting rather than take my time.

The only real weak link are the bosses like the Cyberdemon and Mastermind. They are mainly just threatning due to how much damage they can do to you while you widdle away at their health using your stronger weapons. In Mastermind's case it mainly just had a super annoying hitscan chaingun. These levels are short and are over before you know it so you aren't even dwellling on this very long. In Mastermind's case, Limbo is such a long and confusing level that beating him quick with a good amount of health remaining can almost feel like the true reward.

Overall, my love for the original Doom has grown even more.