Recent reviews by Mexlin

Needs a bit more work but it's got class.

Coop doesn't work after 3 years since release. If you were planning to play with a friend don't even bother.

I wrote a full review, but it turned out to be too long for Steam and I can't be bothered editing it, so I'll sum it up in a sentence:

This game was made with the goal of reaching out to the biggest audience possible, especially, it turns out, spoiled impatient 12-year-old boys who can neither be limited in their actions by difficulty or consequences of their decisions, nor can follow a story line with well thought-out characters.

A tactically sound XCOM

Xenonauts is a great squad-based strategy game. I found out about it around the time XCOM was really hyped and it had great potential while in Beta. It is also closer to what the original games were from what I have seen and been told. The game became a basis for a lot well-made mods that got the game to the level of quality that I could recommend the game without any doubts.

One of the great aspects of the game is that while the progression of the invasion will develop in a straightforward manner, the success and ways you will be able to resist it can be very different depending on the decisions you have made of how to spread your limited resources and how successful you have been with downing UFOs and killing aliens on the ground.

The element of randomness and unexpected development in the invasion is what really makes this game addictive and repayable. You constantly have to adjust and prepare in advance for new threats and improve the defence of the planet. The game does not lead the player as a child and you are often forced to adapt the best way you find possible which is often not very effective. This fits well into the setting as no one has ever experienced an alien invasion, so you can’t expect someone to tell you how to deal with it. However, this can result in the need to start a new play through when you realise that you have fallen too far behind, but I didn’t mind it as I enjoyed the game greatly and had to abandon only my first play through because I was playing it as if I was playing XCOM: EU

The gameplay is divided in three parts: the world map, where you track UFOs and manage your bases, soldiers and interceptors; the air fights where you actually control the interceptors and fight the UFOs; and the missions on the ground where most of the time you fight what’s left of the UFO’s crew. The world map is well-made and has all the necessary functionality like patrolling the skies and setting a course for the interceptors. The air battles can be tedious and annoying when you do not know how to deal with the UFOs yet. Finally, the ground battles are what really make the game great and are the essence of it. They take place on a random map (randomly generated with some mods) and they can have different objectives. Unlike the simplified battle in XCOM, here every action takes Action Points, from shooting to looking around. Reaction fire is based on how many APs your squad member has and everything fits really well and the flow of the battle feels really ‘organic’ while in XCOM you have to select it as a separate action, your inventory is limited to slots and squads are based on specialisation. In Xenonauts inventories are only limited by a RPG-style grid and the strength of the character. Also, you decide the class depending on the stats. If the character has enough strength you can give him an RPG as well as a machine gun and a sniper rifle. The feasibility of that is limited but you can play around with different loadouts. This shows that the approach taken in creating this game relies on giving the player the freedom to make decisions and learn for himself what the best approach is.

The graphics are satisfactory, however the 2-d engine can lead to some unlikely shot trajectory and unbelievable deaths which can be frustrating. I am glad the next game is coming on a 3-d engine.

Lastly, I will give a few hints for new players. Get the community version straight away. The instructions are on the official forum. It makes the game what it was supposed to be in the first place. Start the game on normal and learn how to play there. You will end up having to start a new game eventually so used that to see the pace at which the game becomes harder. Once you lose hope during that play through start a new one on Veteran because there the aliens are not nerfed and will have 100% stats which to me it seems is how the game is supposed to be played. I can’t suggest switching Iron Man mode on but you should play the game as if you have it on and suffer the consequences because that is what makes the game interesting. Only replay things if you believe the game has been very unjust to you, as these moments will take place. If you are not used to the air battles check youtube for a guide as this is of crucial importance for your success.

Happy alien hunting!

Kung Fury - the duck edition.

The game reacks with 80' insipred themes. The soundtack is thrilling and sets you up for action. The battles are really fast and action-packed with lots of ways of killing your opponents.

The controls are really responsive and allow you to perform great feats of acrobatics in order to avoid getting shot. You can duck, slide and jump and these actions are often combined in order to break windows or get into a tight area.

You are able to throw your weapon and pick most objects in the level. I find necessary to describe the grenade throw: you take out the pin with the shooting button and throw it with the throw button. Details such as this make the game really fun to play as mistakes in the fast-paced battles often make you throw the grenade without pulling the pin or you remember to wthrow the grenade too late.

There is also a quack button which is another touch which makes the game stand out,

There are a lot of community-made maps and a single-player missions, which resemble challenges and are a good way to master the tools that the game presents to you.

The absence of CPU controlled enemies is a let-down. The missions have cardboard like enemies which sometimes shoot but don't even turn around which is ok for mastering a challenge mission, but do not allow for replayability and is something you would expect in a game of this kind and for the price.

This fact together with the absence of online players at this stage makes it impossible to enjoy the main part of the game unless you recruit your friends to play often wth you.

Overall a great game with one unexplainable flaw.

Castle Crahers is a great game to play with friends on a shared screen. It is based in a silly medieval fantasy world where your goal is to save princesses from an evil magician. All that was done way before Aventure Time became popular.

It has an original style, with the vibe of older games made by the same developers, and a good sense of humour.

The fighting system is quite complex for a game of this genre and presents the players with a good variety of combos which increase in numbers with level progression. Friends of mine who were not used to games of this type usualy feel overwhelmed after a few levels.

The level progression adds an element that enhances the experience as an element of competion between the players. It allows players to upgrade different stats which unlock combos and abilities which gives options 'builds' for different playthroughs, although magic and melee weapon attack are always the best options to choose from. It is also fun to have different players focusing on a certain stat more than the others.

There is a choice of characters to play with which except for the visual style differ only in the types of spells they cast which can be very different from each other in terms of damage, area of effect and the effect itself. I found this more than enough to make want to play the game again as other characters.

A variety of weapons and consumables are also present, but they do not change the gameplay to a great extent. The absence of different bows other than the starting one is also disappointing,

There are a lot of different enemy types, some of which can be unlocked as player-controled characters which adds to the game's replayability.

The levels are numerous and with a different feel to most of them. One of the most pleasant surprises was how long the game was.

Definetely the best co-op side-scroller I have played and I have played a decent number of them.