REVIEW: Sweet Transit (Early Access) on PC (Steam)

Review by Jon Donnis

Sweet Transit is an intricate city builder where the railway is the king and the solution to all your city problems.

We have had hundreds if not thousands of city builder games over the years, and quite a few of them have been based around railways, and this is exactly where Sweet Transit sits. Although the railway system is the centre point of the game, it is much more than just about laying tracks, you also have to build a city, you have to create production lines, turn small villages into thriving modern cities.

You start off with a simple warehouse, and as you grow your village you will also grow your railway network.

As I mentioned earlier this is an intricate city builder, if layman's terms that means this is a detailed simulation. Perhaps a little too detailed and intricate for some hoping for more of an arcade experience.

Instead of just jumping straight into the game, you really need to start off with the tutorials, so you can get an understanding of how to get going. If you jump straight into the game, you will quickly get stuck and have no idea what you are doing. The onscreen display is not the best and I hope improves massively as the game further develops.

The tutorials themselves are ok, but also need improvement, especially when it comes to placing signal signs so the trains know where to go, that is beyond confusing and the tutorial does nothing to really help you understand it. In fact, I only got through that part of the tutorial by chance, and just trying to click everywhere until something worked.

And this I feel is the biggest problem with the game. Instead of creating a simple game which they could then slowly add to, and make more detailed and complicated, they seemingly have started with a ridiculously complicated system, and are now trying to work backwards in helping people understand how it works.

If you are only interested in attracting hardcore city builder enthusiasts, then that is fine, but if you want the casual gamer, then this is the worst possible way to go.

The idea of the game is great, start with basic trains, move through the steam era to the coal era and beyond, create production lines, keep the people happy and busy. But perhaps what they have done so far with this game is just make it way too overwhelming for the casual gamer.

I would suggest a simplified mode to work alongside the full-on simulation mode. Something that a player can pretty much start to play without having to spend ages trying to understand the mechanics of the game. This is where Sim City hit perfection. You could start off with no real idea of what you were doing, but as you built your city you learnt from your mistakes, restarted and got better each time.

The Good

I like the idea of the game; the graphics are decent and I rather liked the music too.

The Bad

The controls are poor, the tutorial is not great, and the on-screen options are confusing and just get in the way.

Overall

You can excuse a lot in an early access game, the developers are still figuring things out, and I appreciate the fact they are honest in wanting to create an intricate city builder sim here, but one of the biggest problems I have noticed with developers is that they never take a step back and look at the game from a fresh viewpoint. You can spend years and years making the perfect super detailed sim, but then at the end of all that time and effort, if hardly anyone purchases it, was it worth it? Keep things simple, grab the attention of the casual gamer first, and then go as intricate and detailed as your heart's desire. Help people fall in love with the game, and then give them everything they ask for.

No score for Sweet Transit since it is only easy access, and I am interested to see where the game goes in the future. If the developers will keep on the track they are currently on and just iron out the issues, or if they will try to appeal to a casual gamer, and ultimately sell a whole lot more copies of the game. It is not impossible to do both either, it is not one or the other. Arcade mode and Simulation mode. Side by side. I know personally I would enjoy this game much more playing it in an arcade mode where I could just have fun building fancy cities and railway networks.

Time will tell.

Out now on Easy Access

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1612770

PREVIEW: Scathe on PC (Steam)

By Jon Donnis

I was lucky enough to be given some hands on time with Scathe, a bullet hell FPS from publisher Kwalee and developer Damage State.

Synopsis

"Scathe is an intense, classic FPS with big guns and even bigger demons. You are Scathe, Enforcer of the Legions of Hell, forged from the earth by the Divine Creator himself. And you, like your fallen kin before you, must prove your worth by navigating a deviously crafted maze, entangled with demonic evil at every twist and turn. So, grab your Hell Hammer and get ready to unleash your almighty fury!

Use Scathe's brute strength and extreme speed to purge your way through Hell's most grotesque abominations, as you search for the Hellstones and defeat the all-powerful Guardians that protect them."

Gameplay is simple here, you find yourself in a maze, you need to collect Hellstones, and try to fight your way through hordes of enemies and escape. The game itself has a very hectic feel, everything is coming at you at once, luckily "Scathe" has super powerful weapons with names like Hot Hatch (which sadly is not the new Ford Fiesta) and Bow Blade, (sounds much more like an actual weapon than a mid-range hatchback car). Mini bosses and boss fights are fun, tough but fun.

You can collect relics and harness black magic from fallen mages, you can charge up your own energy and create spells which you can use to heal yourself or attack others.

So how does the game play? Everything feels intuitive, killing enemies and so on is satisfying. There is a slight issue with finding yourself running round in circles at times as it can be quite disorientating, but look for dead bodies and you will realise you already been there.

This is a tough game, deliberately so, if you die, it is back to the start for you. There is no "easy" mode, so newbies to the genre will struggle, and perhaps give up when they realise how hard the game is. The lack of a quick save option is glaring. 

Everything looks great, a lot of work has gone into the graphics, gameplay is smooth etc. The music is god awful. And with that playing, and the poor sound effects, it is hard to hear what is going on, I found myself just turning it all off, and playing without sound. This is the major flaw with the game.

The Good

Huge speed running potential here. This is a solid FPS that looks and plays great.

The Bad

Awful music, terrible sound effects. Very hard for players new to the genre, or not experienced.

Overall

The game is being released the end of August, but I feel like it has a long way to go to be the finished article. I expect the eventual console releases will be the best versions to buy as they tend to be the finished article, but if you want to jump in early, you can do on Steam.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1154830/Scathe/

REVIEW: Loopmancer on PC (Steam)

Review by Jon Donnis

Loopmancer is the latest 2D/3D platformer out there. An action game with incredible graphics and set in a Cyberpunk world, (how sadly unoriginal, but let's give it a chance)

Synopsis

Year 2046 / Dragon City

Neuro-comp interfaces, bionic prosthetics and nano-biotechnology have all become commonplace. Society is highly developed, but the gap between the haves and the have nots has only grown larger.

Xiang Zixu, a brilliant private eye, is killed while investigating the disappearance of a famous female journalist. Immediately after his death, he wakes up with a start in his apartment bedroom. Before he can process what happened, his phone rings and his colleague at the agency tells him of a new case: the disappearance of a famous female journalist.

This game features 7 finely-crafted large stages, including: Dragon Town, which comes alive with holiday spirit in the evening; the bleak and gloomy Shuigou Village; the luxurious Tang Dynasty Hotel; the maritime Bionic Beings' Training Base; and the Biotech Company...

The word "Loop" in the title is the big giveaway here of what kind of game you are going to play. Every time you die, you reincarnate, you can then improve your skills, unlock countless numbers of weapons, upgrade your prosthetic limbs, and so on. The various enemies have unique behaviour patterns which you will learn in order to beat them.

As this is a roguelite game, despite you playing loops, the areas will change after each "loop", so no two playthroughs are ever the same. And as you make different decisions, you will find different outcomes. And luckily when you do Loop you get to keep all your upgrades. And this is the key to improving and getting further in the game. A death is sometimes welcome!

There is an interesting story to the game also, some years earlier Xiang Zixu was the target of a failed hit, which ended up with his daughter being killed and his wife paralysed, and now he is looping he can track down the culprits and take them out.

Gameplay is what you would expect, chaotic fights and exploration, fighting is both close contact as well as ranged, you unlock weapons after stealing money from enemies you kill, or things you break. Each time you restart you get a selection of weapons and abilities to choose from. You can also check your evidence board for leads and information you previously gathered. And as previously mentioned, death is not always a bad thing, in fact when you die, you know you will restart stronger than before. And with upgraded abilities you can take different routes, which in turn allow you to find more stuff. There are side missions to take on, or ignore, you have to make the choice. Save a loved one, or chase down a lead. 

Graphics in general are very good, but there are some framerate issues, and some enemies tend to blend into the background. The voice work is cheesy as hell, and there is a lot of swearing, but that can be disabled.

The Good

The gameplay saves the day, this is a fun game to play and that is the most important thing. The slight graphical issues, ridiculous dialog and grinding are all part of this games charm.

The Bad

Cyberpunk? Really? Just unoriginal, I wish developers would come up with new ideas, don't get me wrong, everything looks great, but we need innovative thinking in gaming.

Overall

Loopmancer is an interesting game, a nice narrative and fun gameplay pushes the score up a few points for me.

I score Loopmancer on PC (Steam) a fair 7/10

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1650810/Loopmancer/

REVIEW: Two Hundred Ways - Nintendo Switch

Review by Jon Donnis

Two Hundred Ways is the latest puzzle game that graces the screens of the Nintendo Switch, for this review I will be playing on the Switch Lite.

The sequel to One Hundred ways, (which I have not played), Two Hundred Ways has a simple concept, you start each level releasing a ball, the ball will then follow gravity and roll along, your job is to place objects that will affect the roll of that ball, and ultimately guide it to the end position.

Of course, things get trick fast and you will have obstacles to overcome, or even use to your advantage.

There are 200 levels as you might have guessed, and these are in blocks of 10 which sees the levels having a certain graphical theme.

Things start out nice and simple, place a spring, and the ball will jump a hole, place a speed up and the ball will whizz past a fan that might try to change its direction. But pretty quickly after getting a taste for the mechanics of the game, the levels start getting harder and more intricate, meaning you will need plenty of practice runs, and analysis of the level to find the best route to the finish.

Eventually you will unlock 40+ tools to help you guide the ball, and as the levels get harder you will have to keep an eye on up to 3 balls at once, and just when you think you have it mastered, the game throws added layers to a level.

The game in some ways reminds me of the Bridge Constructor games, in that you can start time, stop it, reset the level, more pieces around, and keep trying to your get it right, the controls can be a bit tricky at first, especially on the small screen, and the tutorial screens have a few grammatical mistakes, but you will get the hang of it, luckily you can zoom in and out of the levels, move the camera view around which will really help you map out where you need to go, and of course when you get massively stuck there are plenty of walkthroughs online.

The game will in my opinion slightly trick you with the learning curve, I say this as early on I was getting through the levels pretty quickly, and then suddenly I was faced with a really tricky looking level, so I tried using the various tools at my disposal, making ever more intricate routes for the ball to travel, but I just couldn't figure it out, so in the end I had to do the one thing I hate and that is look up a solution online. The solution itself showed that the answer was way more simplistic than what I had been trying, so the lesson here is to try and keep things simple, and not make things more complicated when it is not needed. The spring tool is the best one early on, and will be your friend for at least the first quarter of all levels, but don't ignore the other tools, they are there to help you.

The Good

This is a really good puzzle game, loads of levels, a fair learning curve, and a scoring system that works on how much money you spend to place tools, so the more tools you use, the more money you spend, the more money you spend, the lower your final ranking and score, so if you want that gold medal, you need to find the simplest way to complete the level and not the fanciest.

The Bad

A few typos here and there and grammatical errors, which I assume will be fixed in updates, and if not they dont really make much difference to the game. Plus I am sure I make plenty of typos in my reviews, so perhaps I should be quiet on this one.

Overall

I really enjoyed Two Hundred Ways, and I will probably now seek out the original game.

I score Two Hundred Ways on Nintendo Switch a really strong 8/10

Out Now at

https://www.nintendo.co.uk/Games/Nintendo-Switch-download-software/Two-Hundred-Ways-2176392.html

REVIEW: Avenging Spirit on Nintendo Switch

Review by Jon Donnis

The great Ratalaika Games are back once again with another classic title. This time it is 90s cabinet arcade game Avenging Spirit by Jaleco.

Originally released in 1991, Avenging Spirit tells the story of a man who was out with his girlfriend Gennifer on a romantic walk, a crime syndicate killed the man and kidnapped his girlfriend. The man rises as a ghost or spirit and joins forces with his girlfriends father who is a paranormal researcher, and he now not only wants to rescue his girlfriend, but also get revenge on those who killed him. Ironically the crime syndicate is researching ghostly energy and their aim is to force Gennifer's father to help them and give them the secrets of the ghostly energy.

For a simple arcade game, that is quite the backstory!

You start the game as the spirit, and you can possess one of four initial characters. As you play however if you do get killed, your spirit is released from the possessed character and you can simply go and possess another character, even if it was one your were just fighting. But be quick as you have limited energy as a spirit, and if it runs out, your will die forever. Since you can possess any enemy (except bosses), when you do, you also control their individual abilities, this usually manifests as different types of weapons or abilities. The levitating guru guy is good fun.

While playing you mainly have two buttons to worry about, one to jump and one to fire your weapon, weapons depend on the characters and can range from simple guns, ninja stars, grenades, a simple kick, snowballs, lasers, there really is quite a selection to see when you possess the different enemies, which include the likes of Gangsters, Commandos, Robots, Hitmen, Vampires, Spirits, Ninjas and so on.

There are 6 Stages in total, play is 2D side scrolling, navigate a level, find doors to pass through, eventually face a boss, beat them onto next stage, collectables include your health, as well as energy for your spirit self to survive longer outside of a body. You will also need to keep an eye out for keys to collect, for when you reach the end of the game, if you don't have the keys you cant rescue your girlfriend, and you need to do that, and then possess her before you can fight the final boss.

The Good

This is classic arcade platforming done right, the kind of arcade machine I would spend countless 10p coins on, back in the day. I played this on my Nintendo Switch Lite and it works really well on the small screen too. Also a great story with plenty of layers.

The Bad

Perhaps a little short, but if you don't collect all the keys you will have to start from scratch anyway.

Overall

Thoroughly enjoyable arcade game, that I think would attract both the older gamer like me for nostalgic purposes as well as the younger gamer who likes retro style games.

I score Avenging Spirit on Nintendo Switch a solid 8/10

Released on 29th July 2022

https://www.nintendo.co.uk/Games/Nintendo-Switch-download-software/Avenging-Spirit-2243958.html