Story

In this world, when living beings’ lives expire, a Crow reaper is assigned the job to go and reap the soul by the Reaping Commission. Some souls are greater than others and when your assigned Giant Soul gets stolen by another Crow reaper it sets you off on a journey riddled with conspiracy, forbidden knowledge, and lives corrupted by immortality.

The plot plays out fairly simply though. The exposition you get is mostly short sequences of NPC dialogue, items, logs and environmental storytelling.

Examples of which would be logs left by other Crow reapers and various ruins. The result is an easy to digest, humorous tale that keeps you curious and engaged. It encourages exploration of areas and thus rewards you with more secrets as well as items and upgrades.

Gameplay

Controls

Death’s Door recommends playing with a controller and I agree. The button mapping is fairly standard and comfortable.

Trigger buttons are mainly for attacks, arrow buttons are used for ability selection and face buttons for dodging, attacks and interaction. The left analog controls movement while right analog allows slight manipulation of the camera which can sometimes be handy for spotting hidden items and paths.

Death’s Door has a lot of standard mechanics you’d find in most third-person action-adventure games. Throughout the campaign you will unlock new weapons and spells, collect souls as currency and shards for upgrading health and magic. Spells you unlock are required to progress to new areas and act as world keys.

Using souls, you can choose to upgrade along 4 different paths: Strength, Dexterity, Haste and Magic. There are also collectible items you can find, some of which add a little story here and there.

Overall, the gameplay is solid and only the isometric angle of the camera caused me minor frustration. I sometimes misjudged distances or my crow got obscured by swathes of enemies.

Level Design

My major gameplay issue with Death’s Door is level design. Some levels were very confusing to navigate through as I couldn’t easily differentiate where I had been and where I had not.

Sections looked quite similar and the paths between them didn’t really fit well in my mental map. I found myself having to backtrack a lot, though in one case it was definitely my fault. Screen glare obscured a tunnel entrance and I also missed a visual queue. Definitely a facepalm moment. There are also very easy puzzles in certain levels that felt more like filler than actual puzzling or platforming.

On the other hand, each area has tons to explore or revisit once a new spell was acquired and each area has a unique theme along with its own unique enemies.

Enemy Design

The enemies in Death’s Door are funny, scary and unique. I really enjoyed the fresh designs which are absolutely adorable or downright terrifying. Some cannon fodder type enemies do end up being reused with different visual styles.

While usually this annoys me, I was happy to see that they added unique attacks for each variation making the following encounters more interesting. Not all enemies are made equal though and there are certain enemies that are a pain to deal with.

Boss designs in Death’s Door follow much the same with funny interactions, personalities and unique stages and attacks. They weren’t too difficult whereas the one mini boss I’ve faced was tough as nails.

Combat

Death’s Door’s combat consists of either enemies roaming a part of a level or ambush type attacks where enemies spawn through doors and you are trapped for awhile until the waves stop. I found myself adopting different strategies for certain enemies and prioritizing some over others.

You can also reflect some magic attacks which can add to the complexity of battles. Baiting enemies, learning their attack patterns and exploring how best to use your weapons and spells made fights enjoyable.

Only rarely did I think a fight was more of a pain than fun. Most of the time, my own hubris was my downfall and that’s what good game design is.

Sound Design

Death’s Door’s sound design is quite good. Sound effects are punchy and clear, telegraphing attacks or effects. There is pleasant ambient music for each of the areas. Each NPC has their dedicated interaction sounds. Overall, they add to the charm of the game. It just feels cozy!

Visual Design

The visuals of Death’s Door are rather charming. It’s simplistic, kind of cartoony and dark with colors that are easy on the eyes. I actually think Death’s Door would be a good game choice for older children (it is rated for 12 and up).

There are a lot of little effects and details that add to the overall look and feel of the game. I really enjoyed these effects when I noticed them for the first time. When you do a dodge roll little feathers fly off the crow. Or when some enemies are on low health fearing for their lives they cry.

Overall

Death’s Door is funny, cute and engaging. While it isn’t reinventing the wheel, it brought me back to simpler times when games were fairly straightforward with their story and mechanics.

I do think there are weak sections to it however, and perhaps a second pass on those levels would have been an improvement. There is also a slight amount of repetition, but not enough that I’d say it’s a downer. That’s mainly because there is always some upgrade, new path or collectible waiting around the corner.

Devolver Digital has been killing it with these new indie titles!

A copy of this game was provided by the publisher for review

Death’s Door
Release date: July 20th, 2021
Platform: PC (reviewed), Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S
Publisher: Devolver Digital
Developer: Acid Nerve
MSRP: $19.99 USD

The post Death’s Door (PC) Review appeared first on BrutalGamer.

Tokyo 42 is an isometric open world shooter taking place on the vibrant and colourful rooftops of “Micro Tokyo”, with people going about their days while gangs patrol their strongholds looking to take down any would be troublemakers.  Becoming an assassin, you pick up various contracts to take out a variety of targets or groups.  Sometimes it can be something like luring one gang into another gang’s territory and watching them take each other out in a hail of bullets.  Sometimes you have to snipe someone from a distance, or maybe you’ll have to fight your way way through a stronghold to get to the boss and take him down.

You have a variety of tools at your disposal in which to do your job, and completing various side missions will unlock even more things for you to make use of, some of which will make your life much easier.  Vendors all over the city sell a variety of weapons, and it’s up to you to choose what’s best to do the job, be it going in stealthy with a katana or using a sniper rifle, or just taking in a minigun and going crazy.  In spite of this choice, however, some methods tend to be much easier than others.  Usually, sneaking around and meleeing people is the best way to go.  You can even disguise yourself in order to sneak past enemies unnoticed, although there is an energy bar which depletes as you use the disguise, and you have to find a charge pad to refill the bar.  The default sniper rifle, in contrast to other games, is quite loud and your target often hears it coming, giving them enough chance to step out of the way and then quickly snipe you down.

Using guns in the game can often be kind of annoying.  The isometric viewpoint combined with the fact that there are multiple height levels in the game cause problems.  As you move your aiming reticule around, the game guesses where it thinks you want to aim, which is fine, but you’ll find instances where you’ve aimed at a target you feel like you should’ve hit, but ultimately end up just missing.  Once you are discovered in an area populated with bad guys, the AI goes crazy and throws everything at you, as you try to dodge a storm of bullets and grenades.  It feels awesome if you successfully manage to dodge the bullet hell and come out of the other side, but it can feel unfair when you hit the dirt and have to start again.

For all the trigger happy tendencies the AI shows, it can also show a remarkable amount of stupidity when you’re sneaking around.  If you’ve not already put an area in alert mode, enemies won’t react immediately if they spot you, instead taking a few seconds via a visual indicator on screen before opening fire.  This gives you a chance to escape, but also if you dodge out of the way, the enemy will just continue going around their patrol path unaffected.  On the plus side, you can exploit it and use it to avoid detection and carry on your way.

The isometric viewpoint of Tokyo 42 can be rotated in order to give you different views, and this is both an asset and a detriment.  Spinning the landscape around enables you to find shortcuts or escape routes, and even see secret items that you can collect.  Finding secrets is one of the best parts of the game, as you can unlock new suits and cat skins, and also find additional weapons to use, such as a silent sniper rifle which makes it a much more viable weapon option.  Unfortunately, the camera also tends to get in the way when you’re trying to get around, and you can often get killed by stray bullets as you try to get a better view of what’s going on.  There were a couple of missions in the game that required you to use a bike to either get around or race, and having to rotate the camera in these missions in particular was a pain.

An interesting feature of Tokyo 42 is the ‘Nemesis’, which sees an assassin deployed to try and kill you.  If you manage to discover them and take them down before they get you, you get some money to spend.  This can happen at literally any time in the game which includes, annoyingly, when you’re in the middle of a mission.  You can be stealthy making your way though a gang stronghold only for an assassin to start shooting at you, putting the stronghold into alert mode and causing you unnecessary problems.  There are frequent save points, which means they shouldn’t cause too much damage, but it’s still annoying and it would’ve been better if it didn’t happen while you were in the middle of a mission.

The single player mode contains 25 missions which will probably take you around 10-12 hours to complete in total.  There’s also a wealth of side missions and secrets to unlock, including badges for taking out all the enemies, completing the mission without being discovered, or both taking everyone out and not being seen.  There’s also a multiplayer mode, which contains a deathmatch mode, but I didn’t get a chance to have a good go at it.

FINAL THOUGHTS
Tokyo 42 is a visually and musically impressive game with an interesting cast of characters and some genuinely fun moments and missions.  The game is at it’s best when played as a stealth game, and while guns and grenades are a viable option, they’re much more frustrating.  The isometric viewpoint and camera rotation are both a help and a hindrance, and that combined with the inconsistent AI and troublesome targeting stop this from being a great game.  But it’s still a good game and worth checking out, especially of the idea of deploying cats and slicing people up with katanas is your idea of fun.

Tokyo 42 is available now for PC and Xbox One and is coming to PS4 in mid-July.

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Welcome To The Ninth World

The Ninth World is a place of magic and mystery. Throughout the land are magical machines called Numenera. The Changing God was able to harness this magic, and found a way to escape death. By transferring his consciousness from a dying vessel to a better vessel, he has been able to stay alive for a long time. Along the way these castoff vessels have not died off, instead the vessel have become sentient with a new consciousness.

At first, the Changing God welcomed these castoff vessels. He treated them as his own children. Time started to twist the Changing God and he became detached and callous. The Changing God started to use these vessels like tools instead of treating them as people. Left with little to challenge the Changing God, he has set out to take over the Ninth World. With this much power there must be balance. By unlocking the power of immortality, the Changing God has unleashed a greater evil upon himself and his vessels, the Sorrow. Players will play as the last vessel and must unravel the mystery of the Numunera while trying to stay alive.

Torment: Tides of Numunera will release on PC, PlayStation 4 and Xbox One on February 28, 2017.

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Back to basics

The game starts out as the player controlling a child. Either a boy or a girl in a color chosen by the player, and you are running into what appears to be a summer camp for video game design. After running all the way to the back of the building, you are sucked into one of the machines, and the game really begins.

The first thing to mention is that Lumo has an indescribable charm to it. The rooms are all pretty, no matter what is going on within them, and the main wizard character stands out among the many environments. I never had a problem telling where I was within a room while playing through Lumo.

Every visual aspect has its own unique charm. The main character looks like Vivi, or a black mage from earlier Final Fantasy games and all the aspects of the rooms fit together to create an alluring, yet clearly dangerous world for you to explore. Starting without even the ability to jump, the game has very slight, and I mean very slight, nods towards metroidvania type games.

Throughout the game, you will find the ability to jump, and later on, the ability to see invisible platforms thanks to a wand. At its core though, the isometric platforming inspirations come through wholesale.

The music in Lumo is understated, yet effective. It plays the part that great video game music should always: It is in the background, but you won’t really notice it unless you’re really looking for it. The music adds to the tension and emotion felt throughout the game, and I am happy that the developers took the understated route, instead of forcing the music to come through loud and clear no matter what was going on in the game at the time.

Simple controls, great gameplay

At its core, Lumo controls exactly how you would want an isometric platformer to control. The main character is very responsive to the player’s inputs. The rooms and puzzles are cleverly designed so that some puzzles are definitely head-scratchers. Nothing is too hard to work through with a little thought or practice though. There was no room in Lumo that had me totally stumped, but playing through I had a lot of “a-ha!” moments. When those happen, they’re great.

The biggest problem I had with Lumo is the manner in which the game deals with depth perception. I have two eyes, I can see fine. Many of the rooms, however, require precise jumps. This isn’t a problem until you can’t see how far exactly you need to jump, or the distance is just not clear.

There were a couple instances during my time with Lumo where I had to put the controller down because I continued to miss a jump over and over and over again. I haven’t disregarded the possibility that I just suck at games, but I can usually hold my own with platformers. In these instances, I didn’t feel as though the deaths were my fault. The deaths were annoying, tedious, and frustrating, especially when I am not sure how I could have done anything differently to make the jumps a success.

That said, the rooms with strong design vastly outweighed the frustrating rooms. For the majority of my play time, I was excited to have figured out a room and move on to the next puzzle.

The game has many different elements in terms of gameplay as well. The platforming never gets dull. There are a few segments to break up the platforming too, and these include a mine cart ride in the same vein as Donkey Kong Country. These were great moments and they really brought the game to another level.

Lumo offers a few different modes. The standard mode, adventure, allows the player infinite lives. Death only resets the room the player is in. In Old School mode, there is a limit on lost lives. This difference makes sure that players will find a way to play to suit them.

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