PREVIEW: Bramble: The Mountain King on PC (Steam)

Preview by Jon Donnis

I was asked by the nice people at Merge Games to check out a preview of two never before seen levels from Bramble: The Mountain King on PC, the imaginatively titled Nearby Forest and the slightly more impressive sounding Skogsra's Grove.

For those unaware, Bramble is a "grim adventure game inspired by horror and Nordic folklore."

You play as Olle as he goes on a quest to save his sister from the Mountain King (giant troll), he has to travel through a dangerous and unsettling world, and take on all manner of weird creatures.

Here is the blurb:

"Not everything in Bramble is exactly how it seems - in this strange land with creatures big and small, you must be careful when to approach and when to hide. Many hungry and spiteful beasts lurk in these forests and caves. Watch your step....

Call upon the Spark of Courage, an enchanted fragment granting the gifts you need to endure the pitfalls and trials in your path. Defeat the horrid creatures you encounter in different and unique ways. Be warned, courage without kindness can take you down a dark path."

You will read there about the Spark of Courage, this is basically a small light that you hold, that doubles as a weapon. Of the two levels available, the Nearby Forest has you traversing through a dark forest, with the ultimate aim to reach a clearing where you will meet a character who will give you the "Spark", and allow you to train to use it, this involves you firing it at objects thrown up by the character.

This level is pretty straight forward, the levels are linear, so you cant really get lost or explore too much, there are some collectables to look out for too. The camera angle is fixed although you can move it slightly to see more of an area.

Skogsra's Grove will have you eventually squaring off against who I assume is Skogsra, a large female witch like creature. As you fight her she will cast spells that will fire at you, think a wave like black shadow, direct hits and spikes coming out of the floor. At first I thought the way to beat her was to just fire at her, while avoiding her attacks, but you have to take out these witch like images from behind trees, when you have done all of that you can make a direct hit, but then she will power up and you will have another battle, this will be a different style of fight. After a few different fights you will eventually win. This is not an easy fight, and will take a while to first figure out what you are supposed to do, then to learn the attack patterns so you can avoid them.

The graphics are very good, everything looks great. Control is best with a gamepad, forget using keyboard and mouse as that is unplayable.

The game is quite gory in parts, so not for kids, despite the fact your character is a child.

The Good

Of the two levels available to me, everything looked great, and the fight against Skogsra was challenging but also fun.

The Bad

It didn't take me long to get through the two levels, hopefully the final game offers more of a challenge.

Overall

The game has a lot of potential, and I look forward to playing the final finished game.

Bramble: TMK will be launching to PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S, Nintendo Switch & Steam on 27th April.

Wishlist on Steam now at

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1623940/Bramble_The_Mountain_King/

There is also a short demo you can download now and play, which covers The Nacken's Pond level.

Watch Trailer Here

REVIEW: IXION on PC (Steam)

UPDATE: 20/12/22 - Development Studio Bulwark have responded to various clomplaints made in my review as well as complaints from users. I have added their notes at the bottom, so please do read.

Review by Jon Donnis

IXION is a space-based city building game from Bulwark Studios, you are the Administrator of the space station Tiqqun, and after a warp like jump, you seemingly cause the destruction of the Earth and are now charged with finding a new home for humanity.

Including city building mechanics, as well as survival elements and space exploration, the game is advertised as a thrilling space opera.

As the game starts, you have access to a sector of the space station, from here you will start to lay the foundations of what you hope will be the start of the survival for humanity.

To start with you will build storage units to store various things you will find, mine or grow. You need places for your workers to live, food for them to eat and so on.

Everything is pretty straight forward, however the way it is first laid out is terrible, you see the tutorial is awful. There is no real hand holding here. Basic instructions that miss a lot of the important things. 

Luckily you will eventually figure out basic things, for example a building needs to be attached to a road, but only from a certain direction, you are not really told this. So expect lots of screaming at the screen, when it tells you to do something and you think you have done it, but the building needs to be rotated 90 degrees, of course it is too late now as you built it, meaning you either destroy it, which wastes valuable resources, or you build endless roads to connect things, which then wastes space.

There are endless little issues like this, that are frustrating beyond belief, but eventually when you figure it out, you will just start the game over and get a bit further along, well until the next annoying thing.

The prologue (which is supposed to be the tutorial), is set before you destroy the earth, once you have build an air lock, various types of ships etc, you can then make the jump that causes everything to go wrong.

General gameplay has you sending your science ship to investigate planets, and other issues, a mining ship to erm.. mine, and a cargo ship which goes and collects things. You will eventually get to send out probes which will scan areas, and unlock new quests etc. And you can unlock new sectors on the space station that you can then use.

The game works from 3 viewpoints, inside the space station, immediately on the outside, where you will need to build solar powered units and constantly fix the ship (this is beyond annoying and dumb), and finally galaxy view, where you can see the planets, asteroids and stars etc. You can speed up and slow down "cycles".

You will need to maintain your crew's trust in the corporation that started this, and if you reach 0% trust, it is game over. As you play you will find other survivors in cryopods which you can rescue and reanimate. You have a tech tree so you can unlock new buildings, and in general expand and explore.

For what is the final release of the game, it plays much more like an easy access game, there are countless bugs and balancing issues, the tutorial is poorly written, and at £27, there will be a lot of disappointed players.

I even waited a few days after release to write this, because I knew there would be a lot of complaints, just to give the developers chance to release a few fixes, but this game is at least 6 months away from being the finished article.

It is disappointing as there is a good game here, it's just so badly made, with so many issues that it just stops being fun. You will find yourself frustrated more than anything.

The balance of what you do, to what you achieve is way off. The learning curve is way too steep. And there are pointless elements in the game that you need to keep an eye on, that just become tedious.

I understand that the developers wanted to make a serious game, but this game needed to be more fun. Even if they just added a dumb mode, for people, so they could just have fun building their little space station, explore the galaxy etc, without the constant threat of game over. Things get stressful way too quick, and I play games to have fun, not shout at the screen in frustration.

The Good

The graphics are good, and I like the detail used in telling a story.

The Bad

Terrible tutorial, poorly designed game mechanics, a way too steep learning curve, over complicated menus and lack of general fun.

Overall

A lot of time and effort has clearly been put in the game, and it is salvageable, but it needs the developers to humble themselves, admit they messed up on a few issues, and think seriously about a redesign of the game. Make it fun, make it simple, and listen to what people are telling you. Not everyone is a hardcore city building game fanatic. 

I score IXION on PC (Steam) a disappointing 5 out of 10. This game has potential, and if this was an early access game, 6 months ahead of release, I would give it a much higher score. If I was the developers I would move it back to beta testing, fix all the issues after reading the thousands of pissed off reviews on Steam. And then try a new release in the future.

Out now on Steam

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1113120/IXION/

UPDATE: 20/12/22 - Press Release from Development Studio Bulwark

Following early feedback from the tens of thousands of players that played IXION since release, we have addressed a number of issues in a new update. This wide-ranging update fixes the most common bug & balancing issues. Steam reviews have seen a dramatic up turn since the patch went live yesterday.

Difficulty

IXION is intended to be hard. Learning from your mistakes and replaying saves is part of the process. That being said, some players - especially newcomers to the genre – have struggled with the difficulty. While the balance updates will help to a degree, we will be looking to address this early in the new year to add difficulty sliders/options to allow for different playstyles. There will however still be a recommended setting to play how it was intended.

Next Steps

As Bulwark are a small dev studio, they will take a well-earned rest and return in 2023 where they will look at:

Continued Balancing - We feel passionately about continuing to refine and update IXION’s balancing to bring you the best experience possible.

UI improvements - There are some areas of the UI we would like to review and improve, to ensure player understanding and enjoyment.

Accessibility Options - We would like to add further accessibility options to support IXION’s players.

REVIEW: Never Alone: Arctic Collection - Nintendo Switch

Review by Jon Donnis

Never Alone is a platform/puzzle game, developed in full collaboration with the Iñupiat, an Alaska Native people. 40 members of the Iñupiat contributed to the game. And includes the Foxtales DLC that was originally released on PC.

You play as Nuna and a friendly Fox, you are in search of the source of the blizzard that threatens the very survival of everything they know. Set in the Arctic, the world around you is very harsh, and it will take smarts to survive and progress.

Switch between controlling Nuna or the Fox, to help you navigate through the landscape, solve puzzles, and evade various creatures. The further your make your way across the frozen landscapes, and underground passages, the more you will find out. At its base the game is a platforming game, but you will find yourself running from Polar Bears, swimming under ice cold water in underground caves, climbing, jumping and running. You can play with a friend controlling one character and you the other, but in single player mode, you can simply switch between Nuna or the Fox, depending on the challenge ahead. The fox for example can crawl through small gaps, run faster and jump higher. You might need the Fox to reach an area and then let down a rope for Nuna to use to climb up.

Nuna has their own benefits, they can move heavy objects, swim under water, and throw a "bola" at targets to help you solve puzzles, The bola is a kind of slingshot. Maybe use it to break some ice blocking the way, or to distract a polar bear.

You will also come across Helping Spirits, which in communication with the fox, can also help you navigate around a level and reach a higher platform.

One of the interesting parts of the game is that as you play you will unlock video clips. These clips feature the Alaskan Native people and historians as they share stories about their culture, beliefs, as well as the Arctic surroundings. With over 30 minutes of interviews and clips to unlock, this is a welcome addition to the game, that really allows you to learn about a culture as well as just play a game.

Although the game is relatively short, the fact you are learning as you play, it really gives you a fulfilling feeling, it's just more than a platform game.

The graphics are beautiful, the sound effects are spot on, and when you are involved in a moment of action, or tension, the music kicks in and really helps you feel part of the game.

With all this said, there are a few problems with the game itself. The platforming elements can be a bit hit and miss at times. There are a few moments where I found myself in something of a death loop. For example when you die you respawn, but because two characters are respawning instead of one, I found one point where every time I respawned, the fox would instantly die due to the location he was respawning, and it was only after countless attempts to quickly take control of the fox, and with a bit of luck was I able to escape the loop.

The Good

The graphics and storytelling aspects of the game are of the highest quality. And if you have any interest in Native peoples, then the Iñupiat are a fascinating group to learn about.

The Bad

Some of the platforming elements are lacking, and really should be better.

Overall

Despite the few problems, I enjoyed this game a lot, and really felt like I learned something while playing.

I score Never Alone on Nintendo Switch a solid 7/10

Out Now On Nintendo Switch

https://www.nintendo.co.uk/Games/Nintendo-Switch-download-software/Never-Alone-Arctic-Collection-2172916.html

NEWS & TRAILER: Witchcrafty on Xbox March 24th

 

Witchcrafty is a magical platformer that incorporates some metroidvania features and transports you into a world of sorcery. Within the Kingdom, odd occurrences are taking place: carnivorous flora now inhabits the forests, previously peaceful communities are now engaging in conflict, and goblins have been spotted in the depths of the mines. A young witch embarks on a quest for answers and uncovering the truth behind these peculiar happenings. Who is responsible for these events? Can she rely on strangers she encounters during her journey? And, most importantly, who has stolen the witch's mail?

Features:

- Dynamic action gameplay: combo attacks, dodge, dash and magic. Incinerate enemies with fire, pierce with lightning, or chill their ardor with ice magic. Even your wand is not just a magic accessory, but a melee weapon that will save you at a critical moment.

- Exploration of the world: magical forests, dark caves, icy mountains and abandoned castles - they are all full of secrets and treasures ... and dangers.

- Each new element that you master opens up new opportunities and paths. Deep water ceases to be dangerous in front of ice magic, and lightning can split even rocks in your path.

- Adorable pixel art graphics: pixels have never been so cute!

Witchcrafty will be released on Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S and Microsoft Store on March 24’th! Price is just 9.99 everywhere!

Also available on Nintendo and Playstation.

TRAILER: Alterity Experience - Coming to Xbox on 17th March

 

You are Anton Cornwell, a Californian farmer. Recently, your ranch house is prey to strange and unexplained phenomena. Invaded from all sides, you need to be reactive by using your mind to prevent any intrusions. Will you survive the eventful night ahead?

ALTERITY EXPERIENCE is a closed-door adventure game playable in first-person. The action takes place in present Lucy County, northern California, a region known for its unexplained phenomena. Many local farmers have found their farms covered in a mysterious purple substance.

In turn, you are confronted by the same phenomena. For some time, your neighbors claim to have seen them not far from your property. Your reactivity and a home automation application are the only weapons you have. An object of unknown origin might be the key to your survival; yet, it is hidden somewhere inside your home.

ALTERITY EXPERIENCE is above all:

An immersive world: Explore the Cornwell Family Ranch, immerse yourself in the scenes and sounds of the 1970s and 1980s science fiction films.

A test of survival: Prevent strange phenomena from entering the house. Move as fast as possible to block access directly or remotely through a home automation application.

An enigma from elsewhere: Discover the location of a mysterious object whose origin is unknown to you and try to understand how it works by manipulating it. What good is it?

A family story: Enter into the intimacy of the Cornwell family, review the numerous documents, and explore several rooms in the house for useful clues.