Game Review: The Incredible Adventures of Van Helsing

          Hello again all and welcome to the Gaming Lair; today I shall be reviewing a little indie gem known as TIAoVH. While being one hell of an acronym, TIAoVH is also one damn good Diablo clone that brings loads of content to the table whilst only being a fraction of the cost of Diablo 3. I'm going to come right out and say this game was addictive once I got into it, just staring at the screen and clicking away on enemies and loot that exploded from their corpses like pinatas designed for wealthy kid's birthday party. The main driving focus in dungeon crawlers is finding better loot and equipment, something this game takes to heart as it showers you every few moments with expensive goodies and shiny objects. Based on the deep lore surrounding the mythological Van Helsing, this game has a lot to prove to interested gamers. Now with all that being said, how about we crack open this resplendent chest?

You do have to wade through a fair amount of enemies to get to that chest however.

 Story

          TIAoVH's story actually takes place from the point of view of Van Helsing's son Abraham, an energetic and determined successor to his world-renowned father. Abraham is a fledgling monster hunter, trying to live up to his father's insurmountable legacy, a monumental task considering Van Helsing brought peace between the humans and vampires of Borgova. Along this journey Abraham is accompanied by Lady Katarina, a buxom spirit and servant of the Van Helsing family who takes an endless amount of pleasure in nagging him. The two begin their journey in the haunted hillsides of Borgova but soon find themselves in places such as mountainous caverns filled with werewolves, boggy swamps brimming with semi-intelligent toad people, and an impressive mechanical city teeming with science-spawned abominations of flesh and metal. The ultimate goal here is to bring peace once again to Borgova whilst foiling the sinister plans of whatever mad scientists still reside in the area, twisting beast and nature to their whims with nonsensical pseudo-science that would make even George Lucas giggle. While being admittedly a little too-lighthearted through the first part, the game's second act presents a clear idea of what is at stake if Abraham fails in his task to bring down the mad scientists. The game loves throwing out references to other movies and games that preceded it, even filling the mandatory quota of at least one Portal shout out in the latter part of the story. Make no mistake, this is not an ultra-serious adaptation of the various books based on Van Helsing's adventures, but rather a deliberately silly romp through various locals wiping out hordes of monsters and aberrations while waiting for that next legendary item to drop. While the story started off a little weaker than I expected, I quickly became entranced by the witty dialogue exchanged between Van Helsing and his spectral lady friend. Katarina is an absolutely fantastic support character and frequent comic-relief for those who didn't think the game was already humorous enough. RPG enthusiasts will also be pleased to know that she is fully customizable, but more on that in the Gameplay section. Overall this is a very good start for this series, providing an interesting backdrop and locations while giving you a clear reason as to why you are pursuing the next objective. Think of it as a more self-aware Diablo 3 in terms of the story, always expanding as you progress while avoiding the common irk of flying off into ridiculousness that most RPGs seem to suffer in their final acts.

Abraham and Katarina as seen here, looking mighty serious about something.

Graphics

          It really says something about the industry when an indie developer manages to develop a game that looks arguably better than several other AAA games that cost at least $60 to buy. TAoVH is an absolutely gorgeous ARPG that never ceases to wow with its enormous environments, impressive spell effects, and detailed character models. A lot of love has been poured into the game world by the developers and it really shows in the layout of each sprawling area you traverse, admiring the scenery as you savagely gib fearsome swarms of beasts of various size and type. Some of the higher tier spells you unlock create some truly awing battles, as protective flames engulf Van Helsing or bursts of freezing particles snap-freeze enemies solid. It is also unsettlingly satisfying to slice and maim your way through swathes of beasts, leaving behind hunks of meat and pools of blood in your wake. At first I was skeptical with Abraham's look, though it quickly grew on me as I went about my journey, outfitting him with an ever growing wardrobe of strange hats and coats.. I never thought I would actually enjoy a humorous rendition of the Van Helsing legends, but the realistically rendered worlds really helped immerse me wherever I ventured. The game shares many visual assets with the Diablo series, most notably the HUD which struck me as being directly from Diablo 3 save for a few changes. It even seems to give a few nods to the relatively new free-to-play Path of Exile, another excellent ARPG Diablo-clone. Another interesting touch here is Abraham's arsenal of death-dealing weapons, namely how over-sized they seem. From dual-wielding pistols and swords to hefting around huge rifles and blades, TIAoVH never ceases to amaze me with the ludicrous amount of weighty weapons it throws at you with seemingly every turn. How can any monster hope to best a man wielding a blade that is at least 2-3 times his own body length? Apparently someone gave the creatures an uplifting speech because they sure throw themselves at you with wanton abandon, with the ranged types generally staying rather unusually close to you as well even when approached directly. I really must hand it to TIAoVH, this game is a real visual treat to behold if you have the rig that can handle everything maxed out.

Behold a pissed off Lady Katarina!

Gameplay

          If you've played more than a few dungeon crawlers then you are going to be pretty familiar with how TIAoVH works, feeling like a mishmash of Diablo, Torchlight, and Path of Exile. This is a top down perspective type of game, with the camera able to be zoomed in and out depending on how close or far away the player prefers it. Honestly though the bigger fights kind of force you to zoom out a bit as roving packs of monsters seem to randomly jump into the fray of a heated battle. I fondly recall a huge battle near the end-game where I had somehow attracted the attention of dozens of bloodthirsty beasties, the ocean of blood and body parts coating the ground proof of my triumphant success. Most of the combat and movement is done by using the mouse, whilst special abilities, spells, and potions are mapped to the keyboard. The set-up is very similar to the control scheme of Diablo 3 and never feels cumbersome or clunky. Everything is ultra-responsive and works perfectly well, though the huge skirmishes do make it a pain to see where your character is located amidst the sea of writhing monsters. Just point, click, and watch with grim interest as Van Helsing and his companion reduce ravening beasts into barely recognizable piles of sliced meat and gore. Upgrading your character's a abilities is a necessity if you are going to survive, especially late into the game when humongous abominations shamble towards you. Luckily you are awarded lots of skill points for completing quests and leveling up, giving you the ability to customize Abraham to your heart's content. The game has no classes, rather relying heavily on active and passive abilities to really define your character's role on the battlefield. I completed my first playthrough while only investing points in the melee tree, becoming a nigh-unstoppable death machine whenever I brought my sword into play. All major abilities come with power-ups that you can activate by attaining rage in battles, boosting your abilities in a variety of ways. Rage is a vital resource that is both plentiful and scarce, only able to attained through striking foes or wearing certain items and able to be depleted by taking damage. Over the course of the story you will learn to become extremely efficient at managing your Rage, or you'll never even notice it and keep playing exactly how you started. I completely forgot about the stuff for half my playthrough and just assumed the power-ups were passive, not realizing my grievous error till later when more demanding foes began flooding me. Lady Katarina can also be fully customized with gear and her base behavior modified to however the player wants to use her best, able to take the role of ranged or melee on the fly with but a click of a button. If she loses all of her health she will become fully incorporeal until she regenerates, providing a passive defense boon to her master, making her an effective ally even outside of combat. Like Abraham, Katarina can invest points into solely passive skills that provide many kinds of boosts to Van Helsing's stats, keeping him combat effective at all times depending on what passives are employed. And as if all these stats weren't enough the game contains a Fame system that levels dependent on how many monsters and champions you slay. Each increase in level allows you to pick from a list of perks which expand as the story progresses, suiting any style of play while adding another layer of depth and providing incentive to hunt down every last enemy. Now we get to the loot. Oh the glorious loot. TIAoVH lacks some of the item variety seen in the Diablo and Torchlight series, as the game contains no pre-made classes. This still does not deter slain enemies and smashed objects from spilling tons of gold and enchanted trinkets forth, providing a steady supply of even more gold to the player as he sends Katarina back to town with a full inventory. I will say that some of the Epic-level loot is extremely unbalanced, staying effective even through the final act. I found a two-handed sword so powerful and loaded with passive boosts that it was the only melee weapon I needed in my playthrough, and this was acquired near the start of the game. Don't let this dishearten you from hunting down as many items as you can though, the game has plenty of different types of armor and weapons it can randomly generate on the fly, much like Diablo. Connecting most of the areas together are HUB locations such as towns or lairs which can be utilized to upgrade auras, forge items, enchant items, sell unwanted loot, and attain side-quests. Chatting with towns-folk always provided a welcome reprieve from the near-constant engagements I kept stumbling upon, however I wished there were more side-quests on display here. There is also a very well-implemented tower defense mechanic that is utilized later in the story, though I will not spoil it as it is tied to events in the storyline. If you are a hardcore Diablo or Torchlight fan then you should feel right at home in TIAoVH, as it feels like a welcome combination of the best elements of those games.

Rats, it had to be rats!

Sound

          Perhaps even more of an achievement than the beautiful graphics engine is the soundtrack, the music is absolutely beautiful. I was dumbstruck by how hauntingly serene the ambient tunes were, filled with sweeping orchestral scores and instrumental chimes which puts the player into a breathtaking world filled with horror and mystery. I could just imagine myself sitting on a hillside in Borgova, watching the grass sway in the wind. It really is that captivating and the composer really deserves some kind of award for producing music that can rival nearly any triple A title in the industry. It must also be mentioned that the voice acting is right on spot for most of the characters, with Van Helsing and Katarina standing out clearly above the others in the delivery of their lines. The rest of the sound department is rather average, with your typical weapon and monster sound effects. Perfectly serviceable with nothing drawing the attention away from the combat. Besides the music. Man, that was some damn good music.

The music deserves it's own award, so here you go.

Conclusion

          Developed by Neocore Games, TIAoVH is a fantastic addition to any ARPG lover's collection and a worthy dungeon crawler at that! Going in, its easy to see that the developers had much love for the legendary Van Helsing, paying homage whilst crafting their own zany tale about the adventures of a monster hunter and his sassy ghost servant. For $15 you are getting an excellent deal, a decent length campaign with enough incentive to warrant a couple more playthroughs and also offering up extra challenges for max level players. A sequel is already in development and I can't wait to see what new places Abraham Van Helsing and Lady Katarina embark to. A truly underrated gem and excellent start for the series. 8/10 (PC version reviewed)

Upcoming Review: The Incredible Adventures of Van Helsing

          Tomorrow I shall be reviewing a game which pleasantly surprised me this week with its astounding quality. The Incredible Adventures of Van Helsing is an indie dungeon crawler in the likes of the Diablo series and various other ARPGs. Based on the lore of Van Helsing, this dungeon crawler is filled with loads of content and hilarious dialogue exchanged between Abraham Van Helsing and his ghostly mistress Lady Katarina as they make their way through the haunted hillsides of Borgova to solve a terrifying mystery of what horror plagues these lands. Join me tomorrow in fleshing out this exhilarating adventure!

Game Review: Rogue Legacy

          Well fellow gamers once again I welcome you back with one of my weekly reviews; this week we shall take an in-depth look at a new indie Rogue-like known as Rogue Legacy. RL is a side-scrolling 2D platformer where you raid dungeons, haunted forests, looming towers, and stygian depths for gold, blueprints, and glory. This game is very reminiscent of games from a bygone era where skill and determination were needed over an itchy trigger finger. Simple to play, yet infuriatingly complex to master, Rogue Legacy is a deceptively addicting game that can quickly suck hours upon hours away from your life as you keep on telling yourself that this will be your last gold run before sleep mercifully whisks you away. I think it's impossible to not sink at least upwards of ten hours into this beast, it really is that much fun. With that being said, let us jump into what I consider one of the best indie games to release this year.

Hope you like this blacksmith, you'll be seeing him a lot.

   Story

          In my last review I said that some games benefit from having a simple story, and this is exactly one of those games again. The beauty of Rogue Legacy lies in the presentation of its story, starting the game off in a sepia tone filter as if you are living an ancestral memory. The game gives you full control of the starting "cutscene" and lets you traverse the environment and slay enemies as you move from room to room. Finally you arrive in a throne room, with the King's back turned away from you. Why doesn't he turn and look at the intruder he surely heard coming? Your character is literally covered from head to toe in gleaming steel, there is no way he could possibly sneak around in that. Then it dawned on me that this character is trusted by the King, and he is about to assassinate his lord. Seeing no other options, I am forced to sprint towards the King and attack. As soon as my blade connects with the unaware lord the title screen pops up. Sudden and effective I must admit, so already we've barely started the game and we've glimpsed a brutal backstabbing. From there we are given a single character and enter a mysterious castle. Along the way you find various journals written by the King's assailant, painting him in different shades as his mind deteriorates from journal to journal. What seemed to be scum of the worst kind becomes a somewhat sympathetic figure the further you go, unraveling his descent into madness and eventual assassination of the King. As for the player, you take the role of many different warriors who enter and die inside the shifting castle, each death awarding you with three heirs to choose from. This pretty much sums up the story of Rogue Legacy, a tale of revenge and bravado, stretching through the ages as each heir becomes more powerful than the last. This effective method of storytelling suits this game to a tee, as you can continue raiding dungeons and cutting down monsters without fear of any extended cutscenes popping up and taking the reins away from you. The pace is consistent throughout and the story is challenging to fully unravel, providing hours of entertainment just figuring out what the hell is going on in this sinister castle.

There is something out of place in this picture...

Graphics 

          The 2D visuals of this game are vibrant and crisp, like an SNES game running in 1080p. It doesn't hold a candle to AAA games when it comes to realism, but Rogue Legacy is anything but realistic. You don't need 16x anisotropic filtering and TXAA to make an aesthetically pleasing game, you just need a little heart and a lot of creativity. I must say though that I really love the level of detail given to the sprites and objects throughout the different floors, with almost everything able to be broken into or smashed apart in some way. Animations are surprisingly fluid and it is always satisfying to watch an enemy fly back after bringing down your hefty blade, or to watch as circling flames immolate everything that dares approach you. The floors and areas themselves consist of mostly a static background with the one notable exception being the forested areas, though this is likely a smart gameplay decision to keep the character focused on the task at hand rather than fancy effects twirling around out of reach. Rogue Legacy truly has an old-school vibe to it that I found utterly nostalgic in all the right ways, with a varied color palette that kept the enemies and environments from growing stale.

You are probably going to die here.

Gameplay

          Before I really flesh out the gameplay elements I cannot stress highly enough how important it is to play this game with a controller of some sort. The PC controls just do not suit this type of game, which does not rely on a mouse at all. I played first using the keyboard and found myself dying a ridiculous amount, so I switched to an Xbox 360 gamepad and found the experience was improved by leaps and bounds over my trusty keyboard. Once I had memorized the controls and gone on a few arguably successful runs I really started to feel at home in the game world. Jumping and slashing became second nature as I cut down hordes of monsters and hostile knights. Then after one run I upgraded my castle and unlocked a couple of new classes with interesting stats. Each class you unlock is built for a very specific play-style, such as the Paladin who can take loads of punishment or the Assassin who can score critical hits with frightening frequency. Each heir is given a random class from a selection of all the ones you have unlocked, whilst receiving one, two, or zero random traits. Traits can either make or break your character depending on how helpful or debilitating they are. A few examples include Peripheral Arterial Disease, which lets you walk on retractable floor spikes without activating them, Irritable Bowel Syndrome, which gives your character a chance of farting if they dash or jump, or even the supremely irritating Ectomorph, which makes you fly back whenever struck by an enemy or trap. There are many types of traits, though you can only hope or pray that your three heirs are not too badly crippled by the procedural generation system. Rogue Legacy contains a hub area that you always go to before re-entering the castle with your new heir and contains a blacksmith, enchanter, and architect once you have purchased them. The blacksmith can forge new weapons and armor from blueprints you find on your journey whilst the enchantress can insert various runes into your equipment that can make the game a little easier or harder depending on how masochistic you are. The architect can lock down the interior of the castle, preventing it from randomly generating floors from scratch. This is useful if your previous playthrough was incredibly lucrative and rewarding, though I preferred to just let the castle reset itself each time I died within it gloomy depths. Each time you die in the castle all of your previous gold is transferred over to one of your three heirs, allowing you to drop as much cash as you want on upgrading them from the rather extensive upgrade paths in your private manor. Many of these upgrades run the gamut of the usual, such as higher health and more mana, however some of them can be a bit more unusual. How would you like to purchase a tiny percentage chance that on death you will be revived? While not frequent, it is essentially a dice roll for a new life that is really worth investing several thousand gold in. Before you enter the castle you must forfeit all of your leftover earnings to the gatekeeper Charon, though there is an upgrade that lets you keep a certain amount of your earnings when you re-enter the castle. This forces the player to either continually improve their heirs or keep the game as difficult as they want it, which stresses the importance of player-choice in the game's design. Each class has an upgraded form which grants you a special ability, such as the Paladin's damage blocking shield or the Archmage's spell cycling ability. This, coupled with the random magical spell given to your appointed heir, turns your character into a formidable adversary whom will still no doubt be torn apart in the lower reaches of the castle's dungeons. Did I mention the difficulty? Yeah, this game loves to lure you into a state of self-confidence before shattering it with a room filled with absurdly high-level enemies. Traps will impale you, flying skulls will chew on you, and blob's of slime will consume you. Yet each time you will come back for more, confident that you can overcome any challenges in this run before being inevitably stomped down again. I've lost count of the number of times I've died in this game, but what I do know is that I'm looking at a level 114 hero brimming with powerful armor and weapons. Equipment that I earned through sweat and blood, rather than purchasable DLC from an in-game store. You earn everything yourself in this game, coming back a little stronger and a little better equipped each time. There is a massive sense of accomplishment in finally felling a grueling boss encounter after grinding through uncountable numbers of foes. It is essentially Dark Souls without the migraines or self-loathing afterwards. Difficult but not overly so, Rogue Legacy manages to balance challenge with reward quite admirably as it dangles new upgrades and loot in front of you, urging you to leap back into the depths of that well-traversed castle again for the 700th time. Learn from your deaths, study your foes, and plan your boss battles accordingly. A well-equipped warrior is a long-lasting warrior. Until you fall into a spike pit that is.

Prepare to sink a lot of gold into improving your manor.

  Sound

          Fantastically catchy musical tracks abound in this game, each seemingly more well-crafted than the last. As you move into different areas of the castle the music changes theme to suit the environment, an immersive touch that really helps capture the feel of some of the more oppressively bleak sections in the castle. Weapon slashes and spells sound exactly how you'd imagine they would, with spiked balls clanging off surfaces and your character groaning in pain after they take damage. For all the praise I've given this game so far I feel that the sound department is lacking the most polish, with virtually no voice-acting or sound effects given to the enemies. They just die silently as you hack your way through them, yet every time you die you hear an exasperated gasp from your character's lips before they drop dead. The music, while fun to listen to, only highlights the overall silence that permeates the game's different environments. I just usually put on music or a show in the background while I play, though I wouldn't say the music is forgettable. This game sounds distinctly old school through and through, which can be a positive or negative aspect depending on what the player is expecting to hear. 

You'll come to hate these guys early on, but love them for all the gold they drop later.

   Conclusion

          Cellar Door Games have managed to craft an amazingly fun experience in Rogue Legacy, a game that truly rewards a player's skill and patience. Like me, you will spend a good chunk of time dying and improving your heirs repeatedly. But you simply won't care, you'll just lose track of all the times you've fallen as the thrill of entering a newly generated castle layout each time you die only adds to the immense amount of replay value. I've already invested about 24 hours into this game, and I plan on going right back into it after this review. It challenges you to improve yourself, altering its difficulty as you begin to feel overpowered and unstoppable. I would love to see the developers keep adding to this game, as more content would only further justify the meager asking price of $15. In a market becoming increasingly saturated with indie titles, Rogue Legacy manages to hold itself above the competition with its charming style and challenging gameplay. Just make sure you have a gamepad if you are going to play this on PC, unless you truly want this to be a 2D Dark Souls. 9/10 (PC version reviewed)

Upcoming Review: Rogue Legacy

          This week I shall share my thoughts and opinions on the new indie game Rogue Legacy. Rogue Legacy is a side-scrolling 2D platformer based on the concept of slowly improving your heir as each previous character succumbs to the perils that await them. Look for the new review this Thursday!

Beta Review: Paranautical Activity

          Indie games have become an increasingly common morsel in my gaming diet; almost always different from their AAA counterparts with but a glance. The indie movement has become rather huge lately, with Steam Greenlight encouraging it's users to vote on upcoming indie games to be added to Steam for purchase. One particular game caught my eye last week, a twitch shooter with voxel graphics in the likes of Doom, Quake, and The Binding of Isaac. Though this game is still currently in beta it captivated me with its sheer addictive gameplay and wickedly precise controls. Prepare yourselves, for this week I am bringing Paranautical Activity to light!

John Carpenter would be proud.

Story

          To be perfectly honest I have no idea what this game is about. From what I can tell from three playthroughs it seems to be centered around one particularly unlucky person who has ended up in hell. Or something like that. I don't know if they have rocket launchers in hell, or monsters that are blatant homages to older movies. What I do know is that you better pray to whatever deity you believe in, because you'll need all the luck you can get in the randomly generated levels. Its safe to say that the storyline is not important to this game, its solely about blazing through rooms chock full of blocky monstrosities and horrible, horrible monkeys. I cannot stress how awful these monkeys are, just know that you will need hammer that Space key until it is firmly stuck within the keyboard. Perhaps once this game is out of beta there will be some sort of coherent story. Would it make the game less enjoyable if they neglected to explain the situation which your character is in? Not one little bit. This is in fact one of those rare games in which having a complicated story would detract from the entertainment value. Its just explosive, stupid, circle-strafing fun. Go with it!

Demons just love a rocket to the face.

Graphics

          Paranautical Activity is a voxel based game. Voxels are essentially the next step-up from pixels, requiring powerful hardware to effectively harness its full potential. Fortunately this game is a simplistic retro-FPS in which you fight enemies of varying blockiness. Textures are extremely low res and there are scant few surface details on anything in the game. Monster details are also absent, with the only differentiating factors being color, size, and shape. All of this is fine. The game is not trying to be Crysis 3, it is trying to deliver a blazing fast experience at a persistently smooth 60 frames per second. Where the textures fail the lighting makes up for, with bright, vibrant colors cast across the rooms from explosions and various laser projectiles. Another interesting touch is how all the particles are rendered as voxels, casting their own shadows and being affected by gravity. The game uses sharp shadow rendering, which brings back fond memories of Doom 3 for me and makes battles all the more hectic when the shadow of a monster dances across the walls as it pursues you. I am very interested in seeing how the game continues to evolve visually throughout its development cycle, though I wouldn't complain if the graphics stayed the same. The focus is on the combat, not how pretty that 4K wall texture over there is.

DO NOT PET THEM!

Gameplay

          The beauty of this game lies in its simplicity. You start the game by picking one of several different weapons, then you progress through a floor filled with randomly generated rooms, some of which contain a gift shop or optional mini-boss encounter. The ultimate goal is to kill the floor's designated boss, collect their loot, and descend to the next floor via elevator. Along the way you collect gold from dead monsters which you can use to purchase up to three randomly selected weapons or items in the gift shops. I suggest saving up your gold for the M4 carbine or rocket launcher and loading up on speed boosting powerups, they will be essential when the more powerful bosses are spawned. Your class choice heavily determines whether or not you can beat the game. A fast, low-health build means nothing if you can't avoid the nimble melee enemies. I personally went with the Tank class, which comes equipped with a powerful shotgun and lots of health at the expense of relatively ponderous movement speed. This weakness was quickly abated as I came across several speed powerups, transforming my slow character into a monstrous lightning bolt of unmatched fury. And then I came across the rate of fire and jump height powerups. Much fun was had as I assaulted my enemies from the sky like some sort of horrifying shot-gun wielding hawk person. This effectively broke the game for me as I was able to cruise right to the final floor's boss with virtually little effort. Astonishingly the game was still a blast even though I was majorly OP due to random drops. But that only adds to the game when there is the chance to be crushed by the difficulty or soaring on the wings of luck. I died plenty of times, and I never felt the game world was too hard or rigged against me. My own skill and plenty of good luck is what saw me through the game multiple times. Lightning fast reflexes and a keen sense of direction are paramount skills needed in overcoming the many strange obstacles thrown at you over the course of a run-through. As you progress into the final floors the game takes on a more unsettling nature. Swastika-painted walls and unusually agile nazis populate these lower regions along with everything else you have encountered thus far. It feels extremely awkward running through these final sections, as if the developers just decided to randomly plop down some nazis amid the demons and humongous moths.  If I might bring up a point of criticism: I feel that most of the weapons are completely useless aside from the shotgun, laser gatling-gun, assault rifle, and rocket launcher. Every other armament feels archaic and hilariously out of place. But maybe that is the point, to tempt players into taking the hardest route possible to feel a greater sense of accomplishment. I still would not fight Poseidon with a crossbow.

This guy either.

 Sound

          I must really give the developers credit for crafting such an awesome soundtrack. Heavy techno and dubstep await you upon entering a new floor and really not much else. The monsters are reserved about growling but not about killing you apparently. Aside from the weapon sound effects there is little else to offer in this department, though as I've stated earlier this game is still in beta form. Did I mention the excellent techno soundtrack?

Even the whales hate you.

Conclusion

          Paranautical Activity is one hell of a good time. Having grown up on the Quake and Doom series has honed my skills with a mouse and keyboard to the point where twitch-shooters just feel second nature to me. This game is all about the luck of random generation and the player's ability to adapt to new, sudden threats. Though currently not a very long game, I am greatly anticipating the addition of new floors and challenges. In its current form I must say this is one of the more impressive betas I have played, with very few bugs encountered in my three playthroughs barring one game breaking bug that forced me to restart. You feel a sense of accomplishment when you clear a room full of monsters, knowing full well that it was due to your precise aim and sporadic movement rather than your eagle-eyed A.I. partners present in bigger budget titles. I highly encourage my readers to try out this little gem and support the developers, as this game is only going to improve with time. Though currently only available through the download service Desura for $6, Paranautical Activity is currently involved in Steam's Greenlight project and should be available shortly. 8/10 (Only PC version available)

Upcoming Beta Review: Paranautical Activity

My apologies for the absence of a review this week, but I was in New York for nine days. While there I had the pleasure of playing the beta of an indie game known as Paranautical Activity, an FPS game in the likes of The Binding of Isaac and the Rogue-like genre. The review will be up Thursday, good day to you all!

DLC Review: Tiny Tina's Assault On Dragon Keep

          Well everyone it's time for me to once again share my opinion and views on the latest game I've played. This week in the spotlight is a rather expansive add-on for the stellar FPSRPG known as Borderlands 2. Tiny Tina's Assault On Dragon Keep, from this point on known as TTAODK, is the fourth and largest DLC campaign created post-launch for BL2 and as such shall be reviewed a bit more leniently as it only costs $10 and adds loads of fresh content to keep you looting for hours on end. So with all that being said, let's roll for initiative!

This is metal as hell.

Story

          I'm going to start by saying that before you play this DLC it is not imperative to complete the main story for BL2, however it is important that you play up to a certain point in the story of the main game unless you don't mind being confused about the missing whereabouts of a certain integral character who just so happens to show up in this expansion. The story in this is almost completely disconnected from BL2, so you can still have a damn good time and emerge non-too confused. So apparently once upon a time the original Vault Hunters decided to play a little board game of Bunkers and Badasses(clever is you Gearbox), with their Bunker Master being none other than the explodetastic misanthrope Tiny Tina. Brick, Mordecai, and Lilith select their characters and immerse themselves in a world of fantasy and magic. Also guns. Lots of guns. A new location is added to your list after you purchase the DLC, the confusingly named Unassuming Docks. Quick travel here and an opening cinematic will reveal the story thus far. It is your typical fantasy fare with plenty of dark humor thrown in, along with several go-here-and-kill-this-thing quests that award some great loot. A villain known as the Handsome Sorcerer has cursed the land and kidnapped the insanely wealthy queen, whom has left a trail of glittering diamonds to indicate her whereabouts. Simple and effective premise, with plenty of completely unexpected surprises and cameos of returning characters thrown in for good measure. There is a huge focus on grind in this DLC, which may turn off some players who wish to experience the story without putting in too much work. To put it bluntly: This campaign can be downright unforgiving unless you have some extremely high-level gear and abilities. I started this as my level 50 Commando and had my ass torn apart by several of the new enemy types. This is best enjoyed with a group, as some enemy encounters are hilariously unbalanced without the aid of some powerful weapons to even the odds. As the story unfolds it becomes ever more silly, never letting you forget that the game is perpetually aware that you are essentially playing in a fantasy dreamed up by an unstable little girl who is a little too obsessed with crumpets. One thing I learned is that Brick should never, under any circumstances be allowed to talk to a king or diplomat of any race, as his fists are not well-versed in the ways of spoken words. Ultimately this is a tale with a focus on humor and actual gameplay, rather than taking the reigns from you with a plethora of cut-scenes like many other RPGs do. For BL2 this worked well in establishing the badass that is your character, and it works well for each of the four DLC campaigns. In my opinion TTAODK has the best story of all the other DLCs released thus far, the fantasy setting providing a fresh take on the series other, less-mystical environments.

These are but a taste of the baddies that await you.

Graphics

          The fantasy elements on display here look fantastic, with crisp textures blending in seamlessly with the black outlines around everything in the game world. Almost every possible medieval fantasy location you can imagine has been given life in this DLC, complete with frightening forests, towering citadels, and even Dwarven mines akin to those found in Dragon Age. The building architecture is impeccably detailed, with the aforementioned mines being particularly impressive with their ornately decorated buttresses, vast lakes of molten metal, daunting caverns, and barracks filled with Dwarves eager to enact vengeance. The enemy designs in particular are excellent; with plenty of skeletons, spiders, orcs, golems, and even dragons being tossed into the violent lot. Each enemy class has its own unique appearance and abilities, with the orcs being by far the most frustrating and diverse new opponents. (More on them later.) It really is something to travel to the Forest of Being Eaten Alive by Trees(yes it is really called that) and seeing Ancient Treents uprooting themselves and lumbering towards you with their stumpy offspring in tow. The environments are not always static in this game, as several seemingly empty areas can suddenly give birth to extremely tough Badass level enemies. Even the loot chests themselves have a chance of coming alive and chasing you down, a fact I found most disturbing whenever happening upon a new, pristine chest. The skyboxes are extremely detailed, especially the one above the Handsome Sorcerer's citadel, with it's orange clouds swirling ominously overhead. In truth BL2 has never looked better than what is on display here. The artistic direction is nothing short of fantastic and I commend Gearbox on the hard work they put into this. It looks remarkably different from anything else shown in BL2 and its other campaigns, but still retains that cell-shaded aesthetic that separated the series visually from the other shooters and RPGs it competed with or parodied. PC gamers with high-end rigs may be disappointed to know that the new campaign does not make a noticeable use of Physx implementation, though I hardly noticed with the amount of action occurring on-screen.

A most magnificent view.

Gameplay

          If you've played BL2 then not much has changed here in the gameplay department. Its still the whacky, ultra-violent, loot fest we've come to love. The fantasy setting comes with some interesting additions though, not the least of which are the awesome new guns to collect such as a shotgun that shoots a giant sword, which then has a chance of exploding into smaller swords which also explode. The game gets wickedly creative with the various malevolent entities and monsters you face, such as tons of types of skeletons and different elemental dragons. Oddly enough I did not find the dragons to be the most difficult enemy to face, that award goes to a particular bastard named The Duke of Orc. Though thankfully rare, these hulking foes start off as a slightly above average orc melee fighter, which is the best time to kill them off lest they emit a thunderous war cry which causes themselves and all fellow orcs around them to level up simultaneously. The Duke of Orc is the highest level this enemy can attain, and once reached they poise a near unstoppable threat to any solo player who is not packing some serious hardware. I literally spent about 20 minutes fighting one, though a lot of that time was spent running away terrified as this orc badass has a leap attack which nearly drains all of your health and shields. I know that this monster is supposed to be tough, but this is a level of toughness that is better implemented when there is a four player party roaming around, as opposed to one sole Vault Hunter. Aside from a few teeth-gnashingly difficult enemies, the game itself is not overly difficult and not embarrassingly easy. To it's credit it manages to balance playability and challenge without compromising the feel that makes it a Borderlands game. Another neat feature is the world around you changing to the fickle whims of the Bunker Master: A serene, tranquil forest can suddenly become a maze of malformed trees with bodies hung from their branches, and even NPCs can be swapped out without provocation. What this crafts is an extra random experience that was already random to begin with, adding upon the heaps of variety that already exist within the virtual walls of Tiny Tina's campaign. Areas are generally decently sized with plenty of opportunity to explore and uncover those much sought-after loot chests that may or may not decide to eat you, with plenty of enemies populating virtually every area you can see. Aside from the main quest you can accept a large number of side-quests given to you by various NPCs, which generally involve you either fetching items or killing certain monsters. While this may get repetitive at times, the humor always swoops in to lighten the mood, with the promise of new stash driving you to continue plowing through the wealth of content here. One quest in particular has you searching for an extremely powerful gun, whereupon finding it you must roll dice to either pick it up or have it fly off into the distance. The boss battles are appropriately tough and grind-tastic, though usually silly in one way or another. Even the series star robot Claptrap makes an appearance as a completely inept wizard who ends up sabotaging his own spells in an attempt to impress the player. This is a BL2 add-on at it's finest, and it just doesn't get any better than this.

The space ninja always wins. Always.

Sound

          Much like the visuals, the sound in this game is extremely well done. Every area has its own auditory theme, such as the awing orchestral score in the Mines of Avarice, or the sounds of creaking wood and howling beasties in the forest sections. The item descriptions and lines of dialogue spoken between the four characters playing the game of B&B are notably hilarious, with some conversations  affecting the world around the player and even the appearance of certain enemies. Mr. Torgue's antics are also an absolute joy to listen to, as in one exchange he demanded that I blow up the ocean just to please him, much to the chagrin of the Vault Hunter's just trying to enjoy their game. The various weapon types you come across all sound appropriate, with some notable exceptions having ridiculous sound effects that add to the comedic themes that abound through this campaign. You will want to listen to the world as you venture through it, as the musical score and sound effects are top notch and not lacking even in the slightest.

Gah!

Conclusion

          TTAODK is perhaps the finest bit of DLC I've ever played, as the new setting and dialogue helps better flesh out the personalities of the original Vault Hunters from the first Borderlands while giving you a chance to explore every major medieval fantasy setting you could hope for. The meager $10 cost should encourage new players to jump in, as this new addition is anything but brief. Your first playthrough should take around 15 hours if you seek out all additional quests, with new missions becoming available after the main quest is completed. The amount of content being offered here is staggering when you think about many full-priced games out there today which actually offer less than this DLC. This inexpensive add-on is a great buy for anyone looking to have a blast with a few friends or even for solo players looking to tackle some of the tougher monsters on their own. Tiny Tina's campaign is an excellent addition to BL2, one that truly does not seem to be an obvious cash grab. Gearbox loves this franchise, and it shows. 9/10 (PC version reviewed)