Darkest Dungeon Early Game Review

I have a long and frustrating history with "Rogue-like" games. I love them and I suck at them in equal measure as I mentioned in my iNethack2 review. That being the case, of course I was interested in Red Hook Studio's Steam early access game, Darkest Dungeon. The game started life as a Kickstarter campaign, getting fully funded and delivering.

Darkest Dungeon is a role-playing dungeon-crawler in which you try to reclaim your ancestral home and lands around it from the corruption and evil that has taken root. You do this by recruiting heroes and going off on weekly missions getting ever closer to the next hurdle in your path to your ultimate goal. Simple, right?

Where Darkest Dungeon shines is how it takes the simple dungeon-delving premise and twists it up and makes it brutally hard. Think Lovecraft madness/mental trauma mixed in with X-Com's permanent death along with the base management. Or maybe it is a bit like 10000000 where every run gets you some resources you can use to upgrade your home base (the Hamlet) before going out again. But I get ahead of myself.

Darkest Dungeon takes the usual risk-reward system found in most RPGs and ramps it up to 10. Every time your adventurers go out on a mission, they become stressed. That stress can be caused by their encounters, other party members or just the build up of being used multiple times and leads to them collecting phobias, maladies, diseases and any mess of issues that will make them less effective until they have a chance to rest. Resting and treatment can't take away all of the effects. One of my characters is paranoid, which affects some of her stats, while another became so despondent on a trip to the ruins that he started to make defeatist comments during every battle that stressed out the rest of the party. Based on this and the limited resources available to you, a balance has to be made between taking "fresh" party members out or bringing along a higher level one who is a little bit whacky.

That risk vs reward is built upon by choosing what materials you want to take with you on your mission, more food and torches might be good. What if your characters are hit by monsters and start bleeding? Better stock up on some bandages, etc. All of those items will take pack slots from potential treasures you find on the mission that you want to bring back with you. Then you have to make the choice between upgrading buildings that help relieve stress or those that upgrade your characters' weapons, skills or armor. It's all a set of trade-offs that you will get to work through as you play Darkest Dungeon.

The game-play itself can be managed with mouse or keyboard only and the combat is turn-based with your characters taking turns against the monsters you encounter based on an initiative-like system. You can't rely that you will always get to go first. To make matters more difficult, each being in a battle lines up X X X X vs Y Y Y Y with each position being important. Some of your attack skills will only work from certain positions and can only hit certain other ones on the other team. Have a ranged attack? You probably want to place that character far to the left of your line and they will be able to hit the middle to far right of the enemy's line. This gives you strategic options in how you compose your team so that you can best wipe out the enemies you face. I have found that having a healer, someone who can stun the front ranks of the enemy, someone who can stun the back ranks of the enemy and a tank out front is the best at early levels. What options you will have will depend on the characters that arrive via coach to the Hamlet for you to recruit.

All of this fun is presented in a moody hand-drawn-esque style that is great. The music adds to the macabre feel of the game - like you are playing a horror role-playing game. The only drawback I have seen so far is that the combat and missions do get a little repetitive. Though that is offset by the tactical management of your resources and the depth of options you have at your disposal as you take your characters off to their death, which as I mentioned is permanent.

If you like Rogue-like perma-death games with town upgrades, resource and character management where you have to min-max your way to success, which can fall from your grasp at any moment, then you should be playing Darkest Dungeon right now! I give Darkest Dungeon 4.5 horror-filled screaming adventurer Mick Happies. I wonder if there is any room at the bar for my tippler of a jester?

iOS Puzzle Games - Hoplite Review

I like iOS games for playing when I want to be distracted for a little while (except Hearthstone, which can keep me distracted for a long while), usually before bed or on a lunch break when not reading. That is why I love it when things go on sale and this is the best time of year for sales. I recommend, if you have an iOS device and like gaming, that you get a copy of the TouchArcade app and start "watching" all of the games you are interested in…that way you get notifications when they go on sale. Well this week two games I have been watching for a while went on sale for the massively low price of "free". The games, Hoplite (free thanks to Pocket Gamer UK) and The Nightmare Cooperative, are similar in that they are both turn-based puzzle games with RPG and definite Rogue-like elements. I thought for this week, I would review Hoplite.

Hoplite was created by Doug Cowley at Magma Fortress and it is a great game that was originally generated as part of the 2013 seven day Rogue-like challenge.. You are an adventurer on a quest to descend 16 levels into a dungeon to get the Golden Fleece and return safely. The game is played on a hexagonal grid and you try to make it safely to the stairs before being killed by the enemies on the board. You have to watch out as some will throw bombs or fire arrows or shoot fire at you. To help you, you have the ability to leap, bash, throw or stab your opponents. Unlike other games, you only have to move toward your enemy (ending your move next to them) in order to stab them to death. To also help you, there is a shrine on every level where you can heal or upgrade your skills (or get new ones).

Here I tapped on the enemy archer to see where he could attack next

The graphics are simple but effective. The touch interface is also simple, which means that a lot of effort was put into refining it to make it great. Touch where you want to move. Movement is one tile at a time when there are enemies on the board but then you can speed ahead once they are gone. Touch an enemy to determine where it can hit from its current location (they can only seem to attack if they don't move that turn). Touch to select or de-select a skill you might want to use. All working great and playing into the need to think through every move. The game gives you the feeling that with the right planning you might make it across every level uninjured and without killing an enemy.

Hoplite is also deep in its simplicity. While there isn't much in the way of an item system (it differs from the typical Rogue-like in not needing a lot of items to gather). There is an achievement system that helps you gain access to new and better skills that will then be available in game at the shrines. The strategy comes in when you have to choose between healing at the shrine or taking the upgrade to your throwing ability, allowing you to hit enemies from farther away (at a safer distance).

The typical game length (if you are as bad as me) will last you about 15 minutes at the most. I really like the simplicity and depth combination that the developer has come up with here. Looking through the achievement list, I know I will have a lot more to do in the game to get good enough to get all of them. Hoplite is a great addition to the grand old tradition of dungeon crawlers that didn't start with Rogue, but continues to drag people like me in with each new iteration. Hoplite gets 5 Mick Happies.

Nostalgia Tinged (Game) Reviews

Last weekend we re-watched Dragonslayer, the 1981 fantasy film that made Dragons seem real and awesome. It is still a fantastic movie (4+ Mick Happies) that didn't require massive special effects to be good. Dragonslayer had a plot and fairly good acting for the time. What doesn't hold up about it is the musical score. The Disney 1950s sweeping music just doesn't fit the tone of the rest of the film. Hollywood should just remaster the special effects a little and put in a score with a darker tone and put this film back in theaters, it would be awesome.

The next day I happened to catch a tweet from the Bundle of Holding folks (think Humble Bundle) but for tabletop RPGs. The have a Traveller bundle going until the end of February 2014 that will basically give you everything you can think of from the Traveller game for ~$20 with some of the money going to charity. The minute I saw the bundle, it took me right back to playing Traveller with my dad as we rolled our characters and envisioned them through their military careers and now trying to make it as intrepid merchant-adventurers through the reaches of space. It was only a small mental leap to have me thinking about playing the MegaTraveller PC games (1 and 2), which I really liked. This sparked off even more random flashbacks to other games I loved back in the day (see more about them below). It also made me wonder if they hold up as well as Dragonslayer.

I played so many games growing up that I have to wonder how my parents put up with my fickle playing habits. When I say I played them, I probably spent hours and hours, often never finishing a given game, before moving on to the next interesting (shiny) game that came along. This is probably why, unlike books that I remember fairly well, I tend to have only partial memories of a few aspects of certain games or don't remember them quite like they really were. I guess you really had to be there.

Some of my fondest games were from the early days before graphics really took hold. From the SSI Computer Baseball game that I got a Christmas IOU from my dad for that came out months later. I played and played that game. Entering stats from my Bill James Baseball Abstract for the 1984 season so that I could replay the season as the Padres, keeping the stats for my team. Today you can get that same stat feel on your iOS device ($1.99) or on PC ($19.99) in the form of Out of the Park Baseball, which I have done in the last 10 years or so - creating your own fictitious baseball universe and running it out for 25 years or more. This may have been the start of my love of stat-driven sports simulations that would later lead to me buying multiple versions of the Championship Manager and now Football Manager games (which are all fantastic Soccer management games, all 4 to 5 Mick Happies - go get one or see my iOS review here.)

Also back in the minimal graphics days, I loved fantasy games. Some while growing up and others when I hit college. Here are some of the best I remember (some of which are still playable today):

Wizardry: Legacy of Llylgamyn - one of the best isometric first-person dungeon romps around. Released in 1983, it (and the rest of the Wizardry games) have been remastered, remade and now even exist as a free online MMORPG from Sony (though I haven't tried that). Wizardry: LoL (see what I did there?) was great - take a party into a dungeon and die. Simple as that with nothing more than some lines drawn on screen to give you a sense of where you are going. You can probably find it or one of the other Wizardry games to try somewhere, check them out - it's not Diablo or Path of Exile, but fun in its own way.

I did try to relive the Wizardry experience through another similar game, Oubliette, an obscure dungeon crawler that if you search hard enough on abandonware sites (not that I recommend doing that) you may find it though you will need DOS to run it if I remember correctly. It is the same dungeon dive with a party of characters, but I really liked the character generation process and that your characters aged and had to be retired (though they often died before then). I think you also had to type in the spell names you wanted to cast - so cool back in the day.

I also took the love of RPGs into the Sci-Fi realm as well with Omnitrend's Universe and Universe II games. I remember the multiple floppy disks and the huge binder for Universe - it was kind of like a choose your own adventure game on the computer in space. Probably not great, but loads of fun at the time. Universe II was a more expansive and polished game and if you can play it, it is worth the time, a lot like playing Traveller on your computer. Though I remember the look being better than the screenshots on the link above - perhaps that is due to time and/or my monitor and graphics card at the time?

Of course the other RPG game growing up was Rogue. If you don't know what that is and like RPGs, then at least go play NetHack, which is free to play online at the link or available for free on iOS devices here. Any of these are 5 Mick Happy dungeon dives with lots of depth. Give it a try. These were some of the first games to introduce permadeath and they are HARD.

In college I discovered the world of MUDs (Mulit-User Dungeons) and got into the player killing mayhem that is Genocide. This is a text-based game in which you compete with other players online to win matches - hour long games of team or individual based battles. It is, of course free to play (here) and is where I learned how to touch type. Yay, video games! For time when I wanted to key bash some computer-controlled monsters, I played Valhalla (now defunct). It has been spiritually remade as the mud Asgard's Honor and you can still do pub bashes of monsters that follow you when you run. A pub bash being where you drag a monster to the pub (the place where you can buy healing drinks and food) and the rest of the players online help you kill it while you tank (take all the damage). Best way to kill a big mob (monster). You haven't lived until you lag out in a major fight while playing online with a 9600 baud modem. Eek!

Also in college I had the fun experience playing multiplayer Warlords - a turn-based strategy game that had elements of war games with heroes that you took on quests. A really fun game that probably inspired the Heroes of Might and Magic and other games of that type. Warlords has been remade for iOS and can be found here. Sitting in a computer lab playing multiplayer with friends trash-talking you was simply the best.

The last game I will mention in the walk down memory lane was the very first Battletech inspired video game I ever played, Battletech: The Crescent Hawk's Inception. An RPG where you were caught on a planet invaded by enemies. You had to steal a 'Mech and recruit support and get word out of the invasion. Fantastic game and ripe for conversion to our new touch interface devices. Though I remember the graphics being way better than the screenshots in the link. At the time, waging war in a massive robot on my computer was AWESOME.

Looking back at all of these games (some of which I am amazed are still playable after 20 - 30 years) I find that my memory is better than the reality of the game. Sometimes you can't go back and relive that same experience you had at that time and place. It also makes me think that there are so many opportunities waiting for someone to take these old classics and bring them into the 21st century and make them available to a new generation. Maybe the lack of graphics or arcade action would make them less interesting to gamers today. I like to think not. Certainly these games have shaped my tastes - I like simulations, RPGs and strategy games most of all. I hope one of these spark fond memories for you and if you haven't tried any of them, at the very least, try NetHack - its a classic and free and hard and fun. I still play it today.

Thanks for indulging my nostalgic look bad down memory lane.

FTL: Faster Than Light Review

FTL: Faster Than Light is a space simulator where you and your crew are piloting a ship trying to run from a Rebel fleet bent on stopping you from delivering key data to the Federation. FTL was developed by Subset Games (Matthew Davis and Justin Ma) and partially funded through a Kickstarter campaign. The game is available (Mac, PC, Linux) via the FTL website or through Steam.

I first heard about FTL from listing to the Major Nelson podcast where E mentioned that he was playing the game. From there I searched for the game and found the FTL website. There wasn’t much detail there, so I happened to come across this YouTube video of a play-through that gave a really good overview of the game:

FTL has minimalistic top-down graphics and real-time combat. You control all aspects of your ship from how much power you put into various ship systems to where you station your crew (they add bonuses as they become more proficient at a job – faster weapon power up, etc.) and how you upgrade your ship. The items you most have to manage are fuel, missiles, drone parts and scrap - the currency of the future. The controls are point and click and easy to learn and you can pause when necessary – which it is if your ship has been boarded, has a hull breach and is on fire – to help you think about where to move crew or what part of an enemy ship to target.

The basic elements of the game have you jumping (using FTL drives) to various spots in a given star sector. At each stop you may run into hostile ships, potential quests, black market stores or other challenges or dangers. At each you will have a series of choices to make that may help or hurt your overall goal to escape the Rebel fleet and reach the Federation. With each jump you make in a sector, it will (hopefully) take you closer to the exit point (where you can jump to the next sector) and away from the Rebel fleet (shown on the jump screen as a growing danger area you want to avoid – read you fight enemy ships every jump).

FTL doesn’t waste much energy on the graphics, but the sound is great and the game play is really engaging. It is similar to rogue-like games (Rogue, NetHack, etc.) in that death of your ship and crew is permanent. I found that it made me think fondly of NetTrek and similar minimal graphics starship games of the past. There are also Stats and Achievements to help you track how well you have done on each game. There are also multiple ship designs that can be unlocked by various achievements. I have played six games so far and unlocked one new ship design and haven’t come close to winning the game on normal, succumbing to a different death each time.

FTL is hard, fun and re-playable and at $10, you should go out and get it. If you wonder if FTL is right for you, watch the video above for a little while to get a feel for how it works and how quickly things can go from great to running at the edge of your seat. FTL gets 4 Mick Happies. Safe travels in the darkness of space.