Lotheneil vs. The Backlog Hydra, Ep. #36
Roguelike with card based combat. As a monster slayer wannabe we try to impress the brass of the local guild, in order to gain membership. To achieve that, we delve into some monster-infested areas, killing whatever does not manage to run fast enough and gathering whatever is not nailed down.
Combat is turn based, with attacks and skills represented by cards, that can be gained, removed from deck or upgraded during some events in dungeon. As a roguelike, it implements permadeath, though after our character gets killed (or manages to complete a dungeon) we gain fame, that can be used to buy some bonuses for further characters.
Interesting and entertaining title, though it can get repetitive after a while, so shorter sessions are recommended.
The game title alone is more or less enough to know what the title is about - another instance of the long LEGO series, inspired by The Avengers and The Avengers: Age of Ultron Movies.
The title is pretty average - neither particularly bad, nor exceptionally good. One thing worth mentioning is that cutscenes are fully voiced, rather than in the usual pantomime style.
Nothing special, unless someone really likes LEGO series and/or the Avengers universe.
If I was to compare this title to something, it would be XCOM series mixed with Master of Orion in retro-style graphics.
As a leader of fairly small group of human Federation military, occupying an ancient space station, we fight an invasion of zerg-like aliens. We need to gather resources by building mines on and around planets within our borders, research and build new space ships and facilities on the station, maintain diplomatic relations with neighbouring nations, train officers and fight enemy fleets.
Combat takes place on separate screen and resembles 16bit jRPGs. Officers gain experience, that allows them to gain new abilities that can be used in battle, pilot better ships (if built on the station) and perform various tasks (including leading research progress) faster.
For an indie game the title is well polished and entertaining. Moreover, while retro graphics is, to put it mildly, not my favourite, I really like the art style used here. At last some devs realised, that they can offer retro visuals without making the font and GUI in general pixelated and unreadable. Definitely worth playing.
Status: I've marked the game as completed despite earning only a bit over a half of achievements - why? Those that are left either belong to a DLC I don't have, reflect some alternate diplomacy choices that do not influence the gameplay much, require playing higher difficulty levels or represent counters for actions not performed in typical (or at least my) playthrough and would have to be specifically farmed. I couldn't care less about any of them. The game is finished, all sidequests done, I've seen everything that can be seen - that marks the game complete in my book.
Some people may realise, that the last title in this week’s report belongs to an odd “Rule of sevens” list. What is it, you ask? Just a new little project of mine, similar to ABC Challenge. As I’ve realised during the previous one, my backlog did not contain games with titles starting with each letter of the alphabet - which is even more the case now. So I’ve done something a bit different: divided my backlog into chunks of seven games each (alphabetically), then chose one game of each chunk I want to play the most. Together, they formed the “Rule of sevens” list. Coincidently, it consists mostly of (j)RPGs - which means that hours upon hours of fun (hopefully) is waiting for me. Rules - none. No order, no exclusiveness - I’ll tackle one of them when fancy strikes me :)
Thanks for the Halcyon 6 review. The game looks very promising and your review only makes me more curious about Halcyon 6. I was never sure about the difficulty though. Was it hard getting into it? Did you die a lot?
The Rule of sevens sounds interesting, I like it. Since it’s sunday (which means I have some free time on my hands) I’ll maybe try it for my own backlog and see what it produces…just out of curiosity. And because I like playing around with different backlog beating strategies (instead of actually beating anything :D)
Oh, and I’d like to add, I just saw that Dungeon Siege 2 is on your list. Funnily enough, I’m just about to start this game as well!
Yeah, making lists as a way to procrastinate? Yup, been there, did that.. repeatedly :)
As for difficulty of Halcyon 6 - it offers like seven? different difficulty levels. I’ve played on the lowest one (I prefer smooth gameplay and story absorbing to frustrating challenges) I had no problem with most of the game. I might have lost two or three battles, but it was nothing I couldn’t recover from fast. So you can get as much or as little challenge as you wish.
That sounds good, thanks for the info!