Game Previews

Hands-On-Impressions: Fate/Extella: Umbral Star (Japanese Version)

/ Dustin Murphy / Leave a comment

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When Fate/Extella was first announced back in March 2016, I was ecstatic. I’m arguably the biggest Fate fan on the Blast Away the Game Review team and pretty much called dibs on a review once I learned that XSEED was actually going to bring it stateside. Meanwhile, I’ve been hammering out the Japanese version that came with my Japanese PlayStation 4 Slim.

As any Type-Moon fan will tell you, story is a major selling point and Extella is no exception. As such, I wanted to give the narrative as much focus as I could and decided that splitting the hands-on-impression in two, which I felt would be best. This first, hands-on impression will be of the imported PS4 release and any noteworthy differences between the English and Japanese versions will mentioned later.

Getting into the Games Core Mechanics

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At Extella’s core, Fate/Extella: Umbral Star is a standard musou hack n’ slash, so expect your usual controls of light and heavy attacks, jump, dash, and block. Those familiar with games such as Dynasty Warriors or even Samurai Warriors, you’ll be moderately familiar with the game. To help the game stand out, servants have a couple of special attacks they can deploy: EM attacks, which are built up during combat (blue bars under the health bar) and Moon Crunch/Drive attacks that are built up through stringing together high combo counts.

EM attacks are fairly easy to obtain through normal combat and executing them in large groups can really raise the combo count while dealing decent damage, but it’s the Moon Crunch/Drive attacks that are ridiculously over powered. These attacks primarily boots all stats making your character near invincible for short periods of time and it’s during these moments where boss fights can easily swing in your favor. Finally, each character can use their trademarked Noble Phantasm by obtaining Phantasm Circuits, either as items in the stage or while interrupting a boss’ during their Noble Phantasm. Depending on your servants level and the difficulty you’ve chosen, these attacks will drop a boss or severely hurt them.

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Outside of just brute forcing your way through the game, you can also augment your servants with install skills, power-ups that can add extra strength, increase elemental resistance, increase EXP gained, etc. Masters are also able to equip code casts which allow you to heal your servant during combat, switch out servants (certain servants only), and deploy elemental shields which is something you’ll need to protect against sector traps. Depending on how well you match install skills and code casts – breaking the game is not outside the realm of possibility.

Even the Music Manages to Stand-Out

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For fans of the fate series, the music selection is a pure treat with each character sporting their signature theme remixed and playing during their noble phantasm, which makes the special attacks even more of a pleasure to pull off. But when you’re not blasting everything on screen, the original sound track is competent enough to stand on its own and the Gallery provides a music player so you can listen to EMIYA ad nauseam.

Personally, though, the voice acting it what really drives the characters home with most, if not all, of the original cast reprising their appropriate roles for the game. If there’s one thing I can say about Japanese voice acting, it’s consistent. Hearing the appropriate voice coming from a character just really makes the experience that much better and is something I must say I wish for is that it is followed with dubbing in the US (I’m looking at you Sentai).

Visuals? They Definitely Stand Out Among the Rest

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Extella’s visuals are impressive, especially while playing on the PS4 at a smooth frame rate, but let me be very clear, the inclusion of a Vita version likely hindered character models. Models have a simple enough geometry and suffer from outfits clipping through capes/hair/weapons. The PS4 version of the game was just under 3GB, so outside of better textures and frame rate, the game will be mostly identical to its Vita counter-part. This is in no way meant to imply that the models look bad, in fact, far from it. The servants really portray Fate/Extra’s unique art style and servant animation does a good job of conveying some of the over-the-top / larger-than-life personalities, like that of Nero and Tomamo. But on the flip side, some characters just look off, such as bro-rider. Levels are uniquely themed after familiar scenes from Fate lore but suffer from the same problems as every other musou clone where sectors are copy and pasted.

And So Our Thoughts Conclude

Thus far, the game has been a treat to play through, even if I have no idea what the story is. Granted, I’m a huge fan of Fate and much of this is familiar territory, but the point of entry may be high for non-fans as there is a lot of lore involved not to mention the fact that Extella is part three of the Extra series, and there isn’t an official release/translation for Fate/Extra CCC. While there is an encyclopedia in the options menu, chances are most of the story will just fly over the head of anyone but fans.

Fate/Extella is available in Japan and will be released in North America on January 17th and Europe on January 20th. Please look forward to our review of the story soon and another unboxing of the Noble Phantasm Edition. Umu!

About the Writer:

Greg_F_Heisenberg

Greg F. is an RPG enthusiast whom absolutely enjoys the niche titles that come across from the East. When it comes to beat-’em-up brawlers such as Senran Kagura, Greg knows the titles just about as good as anyone else, but his passion not-so-secretly sits with his love for retro games from the NES and Sega period. In his free time Greg contributes to B.A.T.G.R. with his knowledge of such feedback.

Shadow Warrior 2 at QuakeCon 2016 Came in Guns Blazing and Swords-a-Slashing

/ Dustin Murphy / Leave a comment

Dallas, TX, wasn’t the place you’d want to be if you were wanting to hang outside. Sure the Hilton Anatole had a water park to enjoy, but the real fun was inside; hiding behind air conditioned walls that barely kept the exhibit hall of QuakeCon 2016 below a rough 83 degrees. Among the crowds, fans were going hands-on with titles such as The Elder Scrolls: Legends, DOOM VR, Fallout 4 VR, Dusk, Strafe, Dropzone (Want a beta key? Stay tuned), and even the upcoming Shadow Warrior 2.

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In this new demo, Lo Wang, our protagonist of choice – goes swirling into a storm of viscera at QuakeCon 2016. His prowess with a sword is unmatched as he sends Oni and ancient spirits back to where they came from. In 2016, Devolver Digital published one of the biggest sleeper hits of 2014 under the title Shadow Warrior. For those unfamiliar with the title, Shadow Warrior was a 1997 release title that was originally developed by 3D Realms (Duke Nukem, Bombshell), which told the story of protagonist Lo Wang. Our heroe of choice isn’t shy about his job as a “gun for hire” by Zilla Industries.

In his first part of the story, he took on a demonic invasion, wiping every entity he had to out to continue on, and in doing so he took out the demonic Zilla, whom had been possessed by the swords he wielded. Left for dead by those whom he knew, Lo Wang went on a hellbent path to make everyone involved, and he did so with all the Wang puns he could make in the process. Expanding upon the title it derived from, the 1997 Duke Nukem style shooter grew up quickly thanks to Flying Wild Hog; it grew in areas of vulgar and often quirky one-liners while pushing forth with its rather unique take on precision-based sword action.

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Picking up roughly five years later, Shadow Warrior 2 picks up right where one would expect it to do so. Due to the happenings within Shadow Warrior this rather beautiful sequel picks up where humans have somehow come to coexist with the savage and deadly demons. This was shown off quite a bit at QuakeCon 2016 in a massive way. It wasn’t just shown off at the Devolver Digital booth. It was also making appearances at the Alienware truck/booth as well as Nvidia’s booth where it was being demonstrated on a rather nice Samsung Curve T.V. on the exhibitor floor.

It was there I was finding myself at home playing the game for several hours over the course of three days. The demo features a few new changes to the game. The environments and even the enemies within the game play a rather large role into Lo Wang’s life. Here he has a new spiritual partner to replace the new laid-to-rest Hoji. She doesn’t just assist Lo Wang in his adventure, but she is a part of him that shares his body, grants him magical powers – she also is tasked with keeping our penis punning jokester on the right track. In the demo, I found myself exploring an area that could have been taken straight from a garden from the Orient. Here I found an area sprawling with demons, some of which minded their own business – wait, no they didn’t, they were hacked to pieces – Lo Wang loved every second of it too.

The area was alive with a rather out-of-place winter themed area, one that was themed around the game’s inter-dimensional tearing. Doing so helped drive the games theme even further drive the current state of the world around Lo Wang as well as humanity. One of the largest changes is the game has managed to garnish some RPG elements such as conversations, quests, and even returning to the quest giver in order to proceed further within the games rich story and environment.

One of the largest changes our protagonist saw is the fact he can now heal without having his sword out, but he’s also gotten a much larger array of melee weapons to wield. Weapons varied from swords to a chainsaw that allowed me to dismember each of my enemies in a fashion that fit however I pleased. While the new mechanics were a big portion of the game, one of the biggest is the truly overhauled graphics engine.

Let alone did the game get a more diverse casting of weapons, it also got a loving touch with an all new graphical appeal, which puts it right up there with titles like DOOM (2016) as well as Assassin’s Creed Syndicate. While there is plenty to be said about the games overhaul graphically, it leaves only a inkling of what the full game will entail when it launches this year on PC, Xbox One and PlayStation 4.

About the Writer:

dustin_batgr_prof

Dustin is our native console gamer, PlayStation and Nintendo reviewer who has an appetite for anything that crosses the boarders from across the big pond. His interest in JRPG’s, Anime, Handheld Gaming, and Pizza is insatiable. His elitist attitude gives him direction, want, and a need for the hardest difficulties in games, which is fun to watch, and hilarity at its finest. You can find him over on Twitter, Google+, and or you can find him on PSN with RaivynLyken.

Dusk is the Hidden Jewel of QuakeCon 2016

/ Dustin Murphy / Leave a comment

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When we think of QuakeCon, we think of a set number of things ranging from games to PC mods. What we don’t think about often? The hidden gems that manage to hit the showroom floor. These can be things as small as titles such as Strafe, which reflects upon its roots as a shooter only to visit titles like Shadow Warrior 2, which are much bigger in name. Among these games, however, was a game hidden in a corner with a single demo station – Dusk.

Published by New Blood Interactive, Dusk is developed by a single creator by the name of David Syzmanski. His upcoming indie project is one that doesn’t stand heavily within the shadows of the other games there, rather Dusk propels itself forth as it follows in the bullet-hell style game we’ve come to know from Quake and DOOM. That’s if they had an obscenely blood hungry child that crept behind the corn rows in some farmers field(Children of the Corn meets DOOM or Quake anyone?).

The game stays true to those aesthetics, but where it truly shined? Was the games endless horde mode, which was presented to us on the QuakeCon showroom floor. The title’s mode provided players with an ever-growing challenge as hordes grew stronger, more volatile, and weapon resources would grow slim. At one point? I even stood by while watching a Cody run through the game in 40 waves, which set him apart from everyone there, but what came out pleasing about the game? It stood true to what I knew. Having once more met up with my distant pal Dave Oshry, I gave the title a whirl. There I sat down in the rather comfy black and red DXRacer, which matched the games shirts that were handed out, and even the games musical number (Classic heavy metal anyone? Thank Andrew Hulshut for the badass riffs that played if you were there to experience it).

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While sitting in the chair, it was time to crack my fingers, tune everyone out, and get my blood bath going. My opening seconds started out as expected – pistol, shotgun, a few enemies, and a lot of item grabbing to do before all Hell broke lose. Within those minutes I found myself quickly grabbing up an assault rifle, hunting rifle, a rocket launcher of sorts, and some armor known as “Mercy”. With these items? I began to pound my way through enemies – dispatching them one by one. As I did? The difficulty began to ramp up while moving through the waves. The amazing part? I couldn’t put the game down as all of this became familiar. WASD to move, weapon will to change weapons, and “J” to jump.

While the floor was empty, there was a brief moment where I pulled myself from the immersion I found with this highly addictive title. The single player mission was much to my expectation. Use the weakest weapons in the game, kill a few enemies, and move on towards my final goal. This meant exploring a rather creepy as Hell farmhouse, which creaked with each passing second. Enemies would lie in wait for me to open doors, take a few cheap shots, and almost kill me every time. Other moments it was calmer, allowing for a brief sigh of relief while restocking ammo, health, armor, and once more moving on.

The thing to take away? The game was fresh, it was original, and it followed perfectly in the steps of the first-person shooters we grew up to. This is where Mr. Szymanski should be able to rejoice as his independently developed title could quite easily join the tyrants of the FPS legacy and become a mainstream title for PC gamers to enjoy. As of now? The title sat in a few early pre-pre-pre-alpha build. For now? We’ll just have to wait and see what New Blood Interactive has to say about the upcoming title.

About the Writer:

dustin_batgr_prof

Dustin is our native console gamer, PlayStation and Nintendo reviewer who has an appetite for anything that crosses the boarders from across the big pond. His interest in JRPG’s, Anime, Handheld Gaming, and Pizza is insatiable. His elitist attitude gives him direction, want, and a need for the hardest difficulties in games, which is fun to watch, and hilarity at its finest. You can find him over on Twitter, Google+, and or you can find him on PSN with RaivynLyken.

E.O.D Tech Site: DOOM – Multiplayer Hands-On Impressions

/ Dustin Murphy / Leave a comment

I want to start out by stating that this is my first time experiencing a DOOM game. There are several things that are great about the game and as to be expected – items that need improvement. Playing this in beta did have the content for a limited time play during its beta weekends. Out of the maps and game modes that have been confirmed for DOOM, the beta received two of each in the competitive modes. Three if you count Random, which combined both Team Death Match and Warpath into one and it varied which was played between matches. DOOM Multiplayer is fast paced no matter what mode you play. Never having experienced DOOM before, but having played quite a few FPS (First Person Shooter) titles; I was surprised at how much I enjoyed the fast pace play this provides.

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The maps released for beta were Infernal and Heatwave. Both seem to be mid-size and well laid out allowing for various approaches to combat. Infernal, as implied by the name, is a Hell based map with both open areas and enclosed ones consisting of rooms and hallways. The biggest thing to keep in mind with this map is even if in an open area watch your footing. Otherwise, you will find yourself failing to swim in lava. As for heatwave you will enjoy running around a facility filled with twists, turns and many opportunities to ambush or be ambushed. Both maps have aesthetics that are murky yet beautiful and are in tune with the darker nature of Doom.

The two games modes that beta had available were TDM (TeamDeath Match) and Warpath, as stated before. If you haven’t played or don’t know what TDM is, it is a team of x amount of players vs the same size team in a kill or be killed mode. Winning is as simple as being the first team reaching kill limit. The other mode, Warpath, is simple yet strategic. The point of Warpath is to capture and hold the objective. As simple as that sounds, you have to defend the objective as it follows a predetermined path around the map. After capturing the zone you only have to maintain a presence in the zone while it is contested. Otherwise you do not have to stay in the zone to keep it captured. Since this is the case strategy comes into play on whether to ambush or guard the objective.

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The major thing that needs to be balanced would be weapons, not equipment but the guns. All the guns in doom have a primary and secondary fire. Out of the seven that were released four (Heavy AR, Super Shotgun, Vortex Rifle, and Static Rifle) have a secondary fire that is a zoom or slight adjustment to primary fire only. Two of the remaining three (Plasma Rifle and the Lightning Gun) are the only ones to give an additional ability for the secondary fire. The final weapon, the Rocket launcher, has a secondary fire in which you can use to trigger the rocket explosion before impact while in flight. The guns in DOOM need some re-balancing due to either being to OP (Overpowered), and or for being to weak. During the beta due to being overpowered the Super Shotgun and Rocket launcher were most commonly used.

Probably one of the most appealing things about DOOM is the customization for characters. Not only can you customize the color and pattern for guns, you can do so with you character as well. Along with being able to change color and pattern on the armor you can change the armor itself. The best thing about this is you don’t change a whole armor set but can change a single piece at a time like a leg or chest piece. Similarly to that of the Halo multiplayer. Like a lot of multiplayer games you get to use taunts. As you level up you get more taunts and can customize them in your character screen. As a personal favorite out of the taunts available in beta mine would have to be the Carlton. The last thing that can be tweaked for your character is the implementation of hack modules. Hack modules provide temporary boosts to different aspects of game play during a match. Anything from bonus starting armor to exta experience per kill. You are able to equip up to four of these hack mods prior to starting a match. Everytime you cpawn in the match you can swicth which one is active. However, keep in mind that each mod has a limited time on how long you can use it, but the timer only depletes when you are alive.

Over all whether you are new to DOOM or a die hard fan, Doom Multiplayer is definitely something to look forward to.

About the Writer:

chris_adeeChris Adee is one of B.A.T.G.R.’s newest writers who seems to love three things. Sleep, games, and MOBA’s when he’s not goofing around on Warframe and SMITE. He also likes games. A lot. Oh and anime. Did we mention anime?

Our First Impressions for DOOM is Now Up on YouTube

/ Dustin Murphy / Leave a comment

As you can imagine I’ve spent plenty of time slaying demon players and even kicking peoples faces in. We’ve also had the enjoyment of allowing ourselves to be immersed to what happens in DOOM and no longer being required to stick to the NDA of “What Happens in DOOM, must stay in DOOM” thanks to the lift of the NDA’s. So guess what? Due to that you can drop onto YouTube and visit our channel for first impressions of DOOM’s Multiplayer.

For those of you who do, it does require a YouTube account that is eighteen years of age or older depending on your region due to mature content. To visit the video just head on over  here and enjoy.

E.O.D. Tech Site – Rust Settles in Years for PC

/ Dustin Murphy / Leave a comment

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Rust is a wonderful PVP sandbox game that was original released in December 2013. As of now the game is still in alpha, early access through Steam. That being said there are several wonderful things about this game, some of which can be a downside. After hands on play for over 200 hours there is plenty to say about Rust. One on the biggest things to mention about Rust is that even after 2 years post launch the developers are still continuing to do weekly updates to the game. On top of that they are good about keep us in the community up to date with new concepts they are working on. Along with the game having strong developer support it also has a large community that supports it.

The community includes both server hosting and mods. I myself have a server that has several mods that run on it. Servers can be hosted personally or rented from server hosting websites. If rented – depending on the hosting site and the size of the server that you want – price on average can vary from $9 to as much as $20. Whether hosting a server oneself or just joining an active server Rust has an easy to navigate server browser. Servers can be found in one of there major categories, which are as follows Official, Community, and Modded. Along with this you can see the servers you have previously visited, ones in which your friends are on and all the ones you have tagged as favorite.

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Another nice feature is the ability to be able to search for servers by name. Just like Rust there are several games out there that have modding support. All games that do have mods have ones that fall into categories ranging from cosmetic to changing the game play. As of now most mods for rust fall into one of two categories, User Interface or game­play Out of these mods many of the top ones are UI. To note a few: InfoPanel, StackSize Controller and Death Notes. Some of the top game­play mods are teleportation System, Kits abd Levels Remastered. One mod that is neither game­play or UI is the one named Weather Controller. This one is great if for no other reason than it can help make the game run smoother for those who cant handle the weather effects.

The graphics included in this game are beautiful, from the bright sunny days to the dense fog that rolls over the land. That being said the graphics that make is so beautiful is also a problem. When you start up rust you choose your resolution and one of five graphic settings. However, once you are in game there are more in-­depth graphic adjustments available. This means whether you have a top of the line graphics card or one that is not the graphic settings can be modify. Hopefully enough so one can not just run Rust, but also allow you to play. Even if graphics have to be turned down to the lowest settings it is still a great game to play. If you have to turn the graphics down to a lower setting this can still result in lag and death of player in PvP situations.

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Rust – PC
Developer: Facepunch Studios
Publisher: Facepunch Studios
Cost: 19.99 USD
Release Date: Now Available – Early Access

Rust being a PvP (Player vs Player) sandbox game it is both exhilarating and annoying at the same time. This is due to the fact that while you are harvesting or build a base it is not uncommon to be targeted, killed and/or raided. This PvP aspect is one of the appeal facets of Rust. Even with that being the case there are players who don’t enjoy the PvP form of play. Keeping this in mind several servers are run as PvE (Player vs Environment) servers but still have PvP turned on. Playing PvE is not without it own types of dangers from radiation zones, fall damage and even wild animal attacks.

As a whole Rust is a entertaining and pleasant take on the sandbox genre. With being an alpha early access title expect more changes and/or additions to the game. Even if you do not enjoy the PvP aspect of this game but are a fan of the sandbox genre you should give Rust a play. If you do whether you play on a PvP or PvE server, that does or doesn’t use mods Rust is a wonderful game.

 

About the Writer:

chris_adeeChris Adee is one of B.A.T.G.R.’s newest writers who seems to love three things. Sleep, games, and MOBA’s when he’s not goofing around on Warframe and SMITE. He also likes games. A lot. Oh and anime. Did we mention anime?

E.O.D. Test Site – Smiting the gods with Smite on PlayStation 4

/ Dustin Murphy / Leave a comment

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Smite is a game worth mentioning to many. As one of the highest appraised MOBA’s on the market next to Vainglory, DOTA, and League of Legends; the title has earned a lot of credibility and respect from gamers from around the world since its launch just a few years ago. With fans ranging from PC to Xbox One and now PlayStation 4, we’ve decided to let our E.O.D. members get their hands on the game. What they thought of it? Takes a few notes from both the P.C. and the Xbox One version and compares the three together for a bit of fun.

Smite on PlayStation 4 has been a long awaited dream for PlayStation 4 owners as many of them opted out of Microsoft’s Xbox One. This meant missing out on early 3v3 maps, god skins, and even other items within the game. But this latest version offers a few things that the Xbox One version offers up also. So what are the key differences outside of the games third person action? Lets take a look at the console variants versus PC before we really get into the fun stuff.

First of all, PC by default does see a lot more game modes, meaning players will take on modes such Assault and Siege. Both of which are already experienced by PC players and Xbox One players. Unlike other game modes, Siege offers a unique twist to the game as both teams primarily do not focus on gathering gold or resources, but instead players will focus on minion kills for one point each or players for five poins each, and finally neutral camps for nine points each. First team to spawn the Siege Juggernaut will find it constantly moving forward, and attacking any enemy units that are in its path. Structures taking priority.  In this mode there is also a creature titled Wild Juggernaut. If slain this enemy will spawn next to a friendly Siege Juggernaut, separate from the encounter, and will allow them to coexist while taking down enemy objectives. The mode is focused on a 4v4 team build so that the team will be a bit more of a valued statement.

For those who recently played Grab Bag the mode Assault may seem rather familiar.Assault is known as an ARAM, which means All Random All Mid. This mode is a custom mode from other MOBA titles, one that others don’t have, and is unique to itself. The mode finds players selected to a random God they want, however players can use their favor to re-roll their chosen deity or even use premium currency. During this mode players will find themselves fighting for a single lane while being unable to recall back to base or even buy items. That option? To die. However, this does affect your teams overall standing and even affects the teams ability to obtain items and level up. Like Conquest the game offers the ability to destroy the enemy teams two towers, phoenix, and even their titan. However, PlayStation 4 users have not heard of when or if they are getting this mode in the near future.

While those few differences are subtle between the other versions, there are a few things that the PlayStation 4 has going for it such as unique skins for characters, and even a chance to obtain a few of the chests that weren’t available to PlayStation 4 players when the game initially launched during this Closed Beta period. The skins, however are promotional, which does mean they’ll be exclusive and possibly up for grabs for a limited time. This version does also see a bit of need for ranked play and clans as they are still unavailable for play and have not been stated when they will be implemented into the open beta version.

At this time, however, Smite stands as a solid MOBA on the PlayStation, PC, and Xbox families and bring players from around the world to enjoy a contest of the pantheons. we’ll see you around, gamers when our finalized review comes out once Beta ends for PS4.

 

About the Writer:

chris_adeeChris Adee is one of B.A.T.G.R.’s newest writers who seems to love three things. Sleep, games, and MOBA’s when he’s not goofing around on Warframe and SMITE. He also likes games. A lot. Oh and anime. Did we mention anime?

Hands-On Impressions – Ghost in the Shell Stand Alone Complex: First Assault – Assaulting PC’s in a FPS Manner

/ Dustin Murphy / Leave a comment

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When looking at anime’s we’ve seen plenty of interpretations of franchises. We’ve seen Full Metal Alchemist get its own games on PlayStation 2, we even saw Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex get a full blown game, and we’ve seen plenty of Shonen Jump titles get their own fighting games. Over the past decade that hasn’t changed, but what has changed is the fact that Neoplay from Korea has taken the concept of the franchises high action moments, and put players into the roles of Section 9. But how does this work for a very Deus Ex like series?

For 29.99 (4.99 USD for the base game) I was able to quickly able to enjoy a title that former colleague and good friend Josh Turner of Beyond the Pixels recommended to me. As friends we both have a mutual taste in games for the most part, but as journalists, we tend to like to spread the word about small niche titles that deserve the recognition when they need it. The result? A game that I find myself lost in while hearing Uzumaki, Tachikoma, and even the entire team of Section 9 echoing through my headset while finding myself grossly immersed into the game. Why did I have to pay for a game that would eventually go free-to-play? To help show there is interest there, but to also get a taste of some of the “premium” content that us Early Access users get through Steam.

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The beginning result of Neople’s risk is a rather enjoyable experience, as stated, it is an experience that will make you feel as if you’re apart of the Section 9 squad, and as if you are linked to them in real time while fighting like them in the series using the cyber-brains that are linked, but also by using the Skill Sync System. This system encourages that squads stick together so that they may sync to your abilities so they can have abilities such as Thermal Radar so that they can detect enemies through walls, thermoptic camouflage so that enemies can’t see you while you are moving, or even the ability to turn your arm into a missile launcher in order to dispatch enemies that seem to like to hide clustered together. To do this? Simply hit the “E” key when near a friendly that has their ability active and prepare to devastate or sneak through the battlefield. The idea itself is a great one as I did find myself constantly moving through each map with my own team so that I could snack on their cyber powers and find my k/d sky rocketing little by little.

The down side? I often did find myself getting picked off as I was constantly the first man to enter the room and constantly popping my Bio-Gel Armor in order to heal myself and the team. While I found myself constantly bouncing between both Kusanagi and Borma so as to provide my team with tactical advances through the map. What makes these experiences even more authentic is the fact the cast from the anime have assisted with voicing in the game, and even that brings the game to life. IF you hear Bato on screen telling you to capture an item or attack an enemy? You’re truly hearing his voice actor just as you do with the rest of the cast. However, to use other characters? It’ll take some leveling for players to earn their licenses to earn more of the characters over time. For me? I bought a founders pack, got Borma and even a few other characters, but stuck with Borma for the most part so as to provide my team with healing capabilities. This means matches are both completed for GP and XP, which brings forth weapon unlocks and even character unlocks when not earning parts for your characters cyber body and brain.

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When looking away from what makes the game feel more like the anime, it’s time to look at First Assault Online for what it is. The game when broken down is a rather basic FPS title with a few adjusted mechanics, small maps, and influences to the breakneck pacing of classic titles like Unreal and Call of Duty. Just minus the skiing across maps with pick-ups. While I would like to say combat is smooth, it’s not always smooth as I did find my game giving a few small hiccups in latency, and being picked off by someone with a 5ms latency difference only to find myself dead and respawning. With only a few maps there are, matches are fast-paced, and don’t last more than 5-10 minutes depending on the game modes there. While this seems problematic, Neople is rather busy at work with new maps, modes, characters, and weapons, which will be applied through future updates. With the success of Early Access seemingly been rather well, it’ll make wonder if the F2P portion of it will succeed as it will depend heavily upon the developers to keep the game alive and how many unlocks as well as paid options they’ll toss into their title. While I would like to predict if the game will be good or even determine the life-span of this title. Lets just hope the grind doesn’t get bigger than it is.

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Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex: First Assault  – PC
Developer: Neople
Publisher: Nexon
Cost: 4.99 USD for Early Access/Closed Alpha Access
Release Date: Now Available via Early Access

While I will be the first to admit that I would have loved to have seen a Deus Ex style game come out of Ghost in the Shell, I can’t say that I’m displeased with my experiences or even begrudgingly looking upon it. In truth I enjoy the uniqueness the game offers compliments the FPS, but also the genre as a whole quite nicely, and even brings the spirit of Ghost in the Shell to life. For now? This will be the game we will have to settle for and enjoy within the long run of things. If this game shows promise, we can only hope that the console crowd will get a chance to play the game, but only if Neople can truly show that the game will succeed, and offer a bigger fan base, which I’m sure it will among anime fans.

Once the game exit’s Early Access we will be tossing a review out at a later date.

 

About the Writer:

dustin_batgr_prof

Dustin is our native console gamer, PlayStation and Nintendo reviewer who has an appetite for anything that crosses the boarders from across the big pond. His interest in JRPG’s, Anime, Handheld Gaming, and Pizza is insatiable. His elitist attitude gives him direction, want, and a need for the hardest difficulties in games, which is fun to watch, and hilarity at its finest. You can find him over on Twitter, Google+, and or you can find him on PSN with RaivynLyken.

Tom Clancy’s The Division Open Beta Starts Now

/ Dustin Murphy / Leave a comment

Interested in some Tom Clancy’s The Division? Check out our video for some information!

The Division launches March 8th, 2016 on Xbox One, PC, and PlayStation 4.

 

About the Writer:

dustin_batgr_prof

Dustin is our native console gamer, PlayStation and Nintendo reviewer who has an appetite for anything that crosses the boarders from across the big pond. His interest in JRPG’s, Anime, Handheld Gaming, and Pizza is insatiable. His elitist attitude gives him direction, want, and a need for the hardest difficulties in games, which is fun to watch, and hilarity at its finest. You can find him over on Twitter, Google+, and or you can find him on PSN with RaivynLyken.

Hands-On Impressions: Hitman Beta – It’s Good to be 47

/ Dustin Murphy / Leave a comment

hitman_beta_1

Anyone that knows me knows that I’m always up for a good challenge. Hell, between me returning to Bloodborne and working on a review for the DLC titled “The Old Hunters” I decided to check the B.A.T.G.R. inbox. From there was a nifty little email from Square Enix that entitled us to playing the new Hitman Beta for PlayStation 4. With a grin on my face, I was eager to download the new entries beta to see just how IO Interactive would handle this new title. As someone who has never touched a Hitman title, I was quite interested in seeing just how well this remake could be, especially after watching plenty of YouTube Let’s Plays of the original titles. With my little bit of research done, I was on my way to downloading the 4GB beta.

Knowing full well how the series now played, I began the first mission with an eager mind. Being introduced to the control scheme was the first piece of the puzzle to tackle. After getting that out of the way, I was on my way to my first target. The most major change that I noticed was the ways for players to go about their missions. This included new approaches, but also the wide array of options that players can use as disguises. This isn’t to understate the fact that the A.I. and level designs aren’t superb. With a newly structured A.I. the difficulty from what videos I had seen was entirely a new beast. Guards would attempt to interrogate 47 if they thought him an impostor. One close enough and your disguise blown? It was time to fake an arrest and knock them out if it was only one guy. If multiple? Good luck, Chuck.

hitman_beta_2

Unlike what I would expect out of some games, I didn’t expect our handler, the famed Diane Burnwood to put her career on the line to bring Agent 47 into the mix of things. Our first mission was quite simple as she would outline it for us. We have a shady art dealer who needs taken out for specific reasons, the mission a simulation of one that could happen, and 47 is tasked with making sure this dealer doesn’t get out a live. Much like any Hitman game, there are multiple entry points, and for me going through the back seemed like the best option. Here I was able to take on a mechanics uniform, hide his body, and sneak into the underbelly of this makeshift boat. As the party went underway, it was time for us to locate our mark. With him found, it was also time for me to find a new disguise. With guards everywhere and guests busy, why not look for the cook? Well finding him and taking his disguise, hiding his body, and moving in on our target was quite easy. Thanks to a blend-in option like Assassin’s Creed, I was capable of having 47 act as if he were a bar tender. From there it was time to tail our target to his point, assassinate him and move to extraction.

After completing the mission it was time to move onto the next one. This one would truly put Agent 47’s skills to the test, most-of-all? Mine. As the mission began to go underway, I learned that I would take 47 on his path to assassinating a defector who would leave to team up with the Soviet Union at the height of the Cold War. The mission was simple. Infiltrate in any means necessary to kill the target. Along the way I would be informed that there were multiple entry points as well as ways to assassinate him. Some would include poisoning him, dressing up as a KGB Captain in order to get close to him and shoot him, choke him, or even use the poison while he wasn’t looking. Another included using a ejection seat against him. My option? Plan F. All the above. My plan was simple. Prep the ejection seat for him to explode because of, become the KGB agent, infiltrate his room, and plant the poison in his consumables. I did all thee above, but the one that worked best was the looniest of them all. As you’ll see in the gameplay video, which was knock everyone that came around out, and then choke the target into submission only to drag him into the room, snap his neck, and head for extraction without ever being noticed.

While this is my first Hitman game, Hitman’s reboot will surely be getting my attention for hours thanks to its notorious way of sucking players in. I’m sure I’ll go back and give the others a try while I’m at it. Stay tuned for our upcoming review when the first portion releases on March 11th, 2016. Head on over to Hitman.com for more information.

 

About the Writer:

dustin_batgr_prof

Dustin is our native console gamer, PlayStation and Nintendo reviewer who has an appetite for anything that crosses the boarders from across the big pond. His interest in JRPG’s, Anime, Handheld Gaming, and Pizza is insatiable. His elitist attitude gives him direction, want, and a need for the hardest difficulties in games, which is fun to watch, and hilarity at its finest. You can find him over on Twitter, Google+, and or you can find him on PSN with RaivynLyken.