However, Enshrouded’s demo at Steam Next Fest completely ruined that approach – it was a technically impressive demo that worked flawlessly from start to finish. A game boasting several intriguing and creative design choices around an often stagnating survival genre, I could not wait to jump in to Early Access.

Needless to say, I was not disappointed.

Enshrouded Early Access is Peak Survival Gaming

In the days – and weeks – building up to Enshrouded’s Early Access release, I spent over 100 hours in LEGO Fortnite and Palworld. This is primarily the reason for waiting so long to share my thoughts on Enshrouded; I needed to wash my sins away. While I made every effort to do just that, it’s impossible not to rejoice in the areas of Enshrouded that I felt more recent releases completely lacked.

It took seconds – and I mean seconds – for Enshrouded to impress. The game looks beautiful, and some of the sights on offer demand you stop absolutely everything to take them in, even if for a brief moment. With sprawling hills, dangerous mists that cover the lands below, and forgotten towns of an old world gracing the horizon, Enshrouded’s world feels huge. Every inch screams to be explored; we’ve played approximately 20 hours between our team and don’t feel we’ve even experienced 10%.

After a brief tutorial, one wasting no time demonstrating Enshrouded’s visual feats, I set off to do what I always do in these games – and something I’ve grown to hate – :building my first base. I say first base because that’s all it ever is. Hours, days, even weeks later, eventually, you know you’re going to be spending hours tracking back and forth, miles from the valuable resources you need. This usually means I’m building four walls, a door, and maybe slapping a roof on if I’m feeling creative, but Enshrouded sucked me right in.

I set up a small porch played around with a balcony, threw on a chimney, and utilized some scaffolding to fix the roof. Everything feels so intuitive, with everything slotting together effortlessly. It’s reminiscent of the modern survival greats like Conan Exiles and ARK Survival Evolved. One is able to build a beautiful small farm house in a flowery field, a small haven in a deep woodland, or even a massive and foreboding castle on the cliffside. It’s impossible for me to ignore the uninspiring construction mechanics of Palworld and LEGO Fortnite’s frustration design choices, but even still, Enshrouded’s building mechanics share the throne with some of the best the genre has to offer.

I could tell before long that my allies were getting irritated with my constant sharing of “oh my god this works” and “thank god they did this” when building the base, so we set out to rescue some allies. While not as cruel or Pokemon-like as Palworld, Enshrouded’s early tasks involves sending players out to rescue survivors of the old world. A blacksmith, a carpenter, a farmer, professions with abilities that will greatly aid in the rebuilding of civilization, each unlocking exciting new blueprints and building opportunities once discovered. This is where my love for Enshrouded stood at a crossroads.

If there’s one area of Enshrouded I still can’t quite settle on, it’s the objective-based nature of exploration and progression. The traditional survival approach of a tutorial walking you through the basics before unleashing you on a sprawling open-world has been replaced with, quite frankly, an often overwhelming number of objectives and map markers to chase down.

You are still completely free to explore, and Enshrouded rewards exploration like few others do, but following the main story objectives is often the best route to progress and unlock more meaningful blueprints. It’s a system implemented well; I never felt confused, lost, or unsure of what to tackle next. Nevertheless, I also missed the satisfaction of searching for particular resources or locations. Braving through the elements to find that one last material to make a new sword or set of armor. One of the many notes I discovered in the game world led to a quest to locate buried treasure, usually a favorite activity in games like this, but it was simply a matter of heading to the location marked on the map and picking up the chest.

While it’s an area of the game I’m not sure if I enjoy, I’m sure many players will be more than happy experiencing something where the core experience is different from other survival titles. It’s one of the many areas Enshrouded focuses on to distinguish itself in a sea of popular survival games, but it is one of the few that I wasn’t immediately in love with.

This is a stark contrast to other areas of the game, making me mumble to myself: “Why don’t more survival games do this?” The survival mechanics, primarily the requirement of eating and drinking, isn’t simply another case of unimaginative micromanaging small bars on the user interface. You are not punished for forgoing a meal or passing up a freshly filled bottle of water, making it one of the many elements of Enshrouded just screaming to be explored.

Different food types belong to different groups, and each individual food provides various buffs and bonuses once consumed. These bonuses can be stacked across the different food groups to compliment a character’s specific build. As the frontline fighter and tank of our group, I was combining meat buffs from some finely grilled Wolf Meat with some roasted Corn, buffing both my strength and constitution. It’s a very simple approach to the core survival aspect of the game. This, in turn, makes an otherwise dull and repetitive experience far more satisfying and exciting.

That same approach is felt across the game. Small changes, tiny sometimes, but refreshing and innovative enough that even seasoned survival fans will take a brief pause. I lost count of the times we shared an “Oh, that makes a lot of sense” whenever we came across one of these small changes. One that stands out the most, at least for someone that enjoys making a house a home in these sorts of games, was the Rested system.

Being Rested provides a character with a huge buff to stamina and regeneration, both crucial when exploring the more dangerous areas of the game. Sure, like most survival games, you can throw down a bed in a run-down shack and call it a day, but adding that extra touch is rewarded. Players can increase the potency of the buffs applied by extending the duration through the increasing of the comfort level in the area surrounding the bed. Tables, chairs, rugs, items that are typically mundane and useless, instead offer to both heighten the realism and immersion of the experience, while directly rewarding players for doing so. Again, something quite simple, but so effective and, really, a lot of fun.

I feel my recent foray into Fortnite LEGO, a well executed but bare-bones title, made me truly appreciate Enshrouded. While a single and vital biome could be a 40-minute walk from your base in LEGO Fortnite, I instantly fell in love with traveling in Enshrouded. It does somewhat lessen the peril of exploration, knowing you are usually only a minute or two from quickly returning home and restocking supplies. Despite that, this is vastly overshadowed by the pure pleasure of just being able to explore and have a good time, all without the fear of only being seconds away from losing everything and spending the next hour recovering. Wherever you are, whatever you’re doing, you can simply open the map, home in just a few seconds.

Most of these features are not unique to Enshrouded, but all of these elements together highlight the exact reasons fans truly love the genre. Put simply, it gives players the chance to focus on the fun aspects of the survival genre. Exploring, taking on challenging boss battles, finding exciting new resources that unlock new blueprints, using the fantastically designed building system to make works of art. Enshrouded is everything I love about the survival genre without all the filler.

Enshrouded’s fledgling adventure into Early Access is technically and mechanically impressive, and as feature rich as games 10 times its lifespan.

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The Invincible Preview

Kicking off shortly after the beginning of the title, our journey with the astrobiologist Yasna kicked things off with a dire situation. She’s stuck on an alien planet, lost her memory, and has no contact with the crew – what’s a girl to do?

Eventually coming across a camp, things get even stranger – their andronot is jammed, Dr. Krauta is in a stupor, and there are other things that don’t quite add up.

What follows is a journey to make things right. As players traverse its world, they’ll set out to find crewmates, extraction sites, and other clues that can help Yasna get to the bottom of things.

The Invincible does this by absolutely immersing players into this alien planet. This protagonist is tenacious and skilled; there are tracker signals, telemeters, journals, and other things that can be used by Yasna. Much like the Bioshock series of games, this interaction with the environment lets people discover the world on their own terms. No need for waypoints when there’s a mission log that people can reference.

There’s even graphical flourishes like the space suit fogging up when sprinting. This tried and true principle of showing as opposed to telling really makes things go far.

Although Yasna’s in a dire situation, we’re eager to fully immerse ourselves in the full release of The Invincible and lead her on her journey home.

The Invincible will come out for the PC via Steam in 2023. As part of LudoNarraCon (happening from May 4 to 8), a demo of the game will be available. Learn more on the official Steam page here.

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Infernax Preview

Things start to go a little wild once a book with great power is brought back. From there, the land is filled with countless skeletons, zombies, monsters, and other things that go bump in the night. With the odds stacked against you, it’s up to players as the heroic Alcedor to take a stand and fight like his life depends on it.

However, this hero starts things out with some humble roots. A lowly level one hero with a basic iron mace and rusted mail, it’s up to players to make use of what they’ve got in this MetroidVania. As players take down foes, they’ll be able to collect gold and gain experience. A number of shrines dot the landscape, allowing players to save, heal, and use their XP as currency to upgrade power, life, and magic. Enemies drop a healthy amount of XP and money, and those looking to grind can party like it’s 1989 and go back to certain enemies that respawn foes.

In true MetroidVania fashion, the world of Infernax is a sprawling one that features different ways to go. It’s not just the keys that will unlock certain areas; there were multiple unreachable areas with unbreakable blocks and platforms just outside our jumping height. We look forward to seeing how Alcedor will grow in the full release.

Combat is fairly straightforward, with a healthy emphasis on timing and pattern recognition. No need to worry about multi-button combos – rather, one’s main attack button and the odd use of magic will get the job done. The boss, miniboss, and even foes we encountered required a fair amount of finesse to overcome – getting into a DPS war will lead to an absolutely disastrous end. Those that grew up on titles like the original Castlevania or Ninja Gaiden trilogies on the Nintendo Entertainment System will take like a duck to water with Infernax’s system.

While it should be worth noting that the title is still in development, we encountered some bugs with our playthrough. We ended up dying to one of the later foes, which forced our game to crash and start things anew – quite the endeavor. This might be ironed out in the final release, but when considering how there’s a Hardcore Mode that kicks players to the last save point with all progress lost, it can sting worse than a spear to the face.

A nice blend of RPGs, platformers, and MetroidVanias, the current build of Infernax is hitting all the right notes for fans of these genres.

The game will come out in Q1 2022 – all those interested can add the game to their Steam wishlist here.

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King’s Bounty II Hands-On Preview

Having minimal experience with the original King’s Bounty games, I wasn’t entirely sure what to expect with King’s Bounty II. I often find myself wasting nights away, searching through Steam’s endless library for something to keep me occupied. Browsing through King’s Bounty II, the hex-style combat system immediately caught my attention, and its interesting combination of third-person style RPG exploration and tactical combat definitely piqued my interest.

We were fortunate enough to be given access to a pre-release look at King’s Bounty II before its full release on August 24. It wasn’t the full game, and we weren’t allowed to take any screenshots or capture any footage (the screenshots in this post were provided for us to use), but we did get chance to explore about 8-10 hours of content near the start of the game.

The story begin as you, the hero, are released from prison by order of the Prince. The local guards, a ruff and rugged bunch, quickly inform you that you have be summoned. They offer an escort to help you reach the city, and that’s it. It’s a quick introduction to the game but a welcomed one, waiting only a few minutes before letting you dive into the game and experience its wonders for yourself.

The third-person style is done well; it’s familiar, easy to navigate, and allows you to explore the large game world quickly and easily. You’re given a horse right at the beginning of the game and then your objective, what path you choose is down to you. Making my way to the main city, I quickly found myself exploring off the beaten path. Treasure chests, secret quests, miniature puzzles – I ran into a lot of exciting and rewarding content just exploring the first main area.

While much of this is very standard for a game in the RPG space, King’s Bounty II sets itself apart with its high fantasy setting and almost RTS style of combat and unit management. The main character doesn’t directly fight in combat. Instead, they command a number of different troops and sometimes cast powerful spells. Even with the limited time available during the preview, I discovered an impressive array of different units that I could add to my army.

Human Spearmen, Archers, and Healers served as the holy trinity of tank, support, and DPS. However, before long I was resting my bows and laying down my spears in favor of ghouls, skeletons, and other ghastly creatures. While the fantastical was definitely more exciting than the average fighting farmer, I quickly learned that not all folk play well together. Mixing my human styled units with those of the dark depths quickly created discourse among the ranks, causing some of my units to randomly skip turns due to their distrust of the walking dead. I mean, it makes sense, right?

I didn’t understand the mechanics behind managing my army until I had lost half of it, but it delivered a level of depth I wasn’t expecting. There is a huge talent tree, skills that the main character or general of your army can unlock that lessen some of these penalties, but I’m unsure how far the full release will go. There’s a lot of potential and the thought of combining the different unit types as you measure the strengths and weaknesses of each factions strongest units is an exciting one. Despite this, it’s not something I got to experience too much during the preview.

The turn-based strategy layer of combat is arguably King’s Bounty II’s most exciting attribute, but there’s a glorious world to explore outside of combat. I only played a single play through using Aivor the Warrior, but I immediately discovered various types of content I was not able to explore. Different characters have different alignments, with the decisions you make influencing your overall reputation and changing the options available ahead of you. This creates a constantly branching path of choice and consequence with actual impact and meaning, stretching far beyond a simple reply in the next line of dialogue.

The initial hours of King’s Bounty II have left me excited. If enough unit variety and spells are available in the full game alongside careful managing of difficulty and challenge, the strategic combat alone will be worth the experience – and that’s without an already impressive and expansive environment.

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We recently had the opportunity to sit down with Nacon’s Clement Nicolin and Hama Doucoure to discuss the upcoming release of Blood Bowl 3, before having some hands-on time with a limited content preview build. There was a lot to digest both on and off the pitch, but what does Blood Bowl 3 have in store for the next generation of coaches?

Blood Bowl 3 Hands-On Preview

Before we dive any further into the conversation, I feel I should stress at the quality level of the build we played. Blood Bowl 3’s release date has been pushed back to February 2022, so this game is nearly a year away from being in a state where Cyanide Studios and Nacon feel content putting it into the hands of paying players. The user interface clearly needs a lot more work. The actions and animations on the pitch are rough and some identical to Blood Bowl 2, sound effects are missing, it is lacking commentary, certain skills don’t work, and the AI is comical. It’s actually worse than Blood Bowl 2, which I wasn’t sure was possible. A lot of the bells and whistles of the final version are missing, but with nearly nine months still left until release, it’s unfair to be too critical of such issues.

The press preview build is very much the same as the upcoming beta build. It’s very limited in content, with only three teams available for play: Elven Union, Black Orcs, and Imperial Nobility. In fact, the latter two are the two teams sold with the most recent version of the tabletop game. There are currently no leagues, tournaments, or other modes of play; there’s simply local 1v1, 1v1 against the AI, and random matchmaking against anyone online.

Before diving into the brutality on the pitch, I spent some time exploring the new functions when creating and managing teams. There’s been some huge improvements, even with the limited content on offer. The user interface feels more sporty, more exciting, and more grand; even the font screams sport. Creating teams has everything on a single page, so you no longer have to work out how many players to buy before deciding how much can be spent on staff and re-rolls. It’s clear, precise, and makes the team creation process very smooth. You can also change the names of players at any point – ANY POINT. Hoorah.

There wasn’t much choice in terms of customization, as we were told this content would come at a later date. However, you can still explore the different options that will be available later down the line. Each team can select their own emblem, choose from different racial cheerleaders, select coaches from its most popular Star Players (which feels odd but it works), pick a different stadium, and create a motto. Marking your own stamp on your creations is a key component to the success of the tabletop games, so bringing as much of that as possible into Blood Bowl 3 can only mean good things.

Player customization is also looking to be hugely improved compared to Blood Bowl 2, a simple enough task as Blood Bowl 3’s predecessor did not feature any individual player customization options at all. Each player can have different bits of equipment changed and swapped. This includes heads or helmets, both shoulder pads, both arms, and body armor. It’s an area the video games have always struggled to compete with.

The potential customization options and ability to be creative on the tabletop version is one of the franchise’s most exciting assets. While a video game will never be able to match that level of creativity, Blood Bowl 3 is definitely stepping in the right direction. I can finally make my awesome 2+ Human Thrower unique to all other Human Throwers I encounter, even if he continues to roll Cloud Burster for his first random skill – for the fifth time.

While veteran Blood Bowl players will take a few seconds to create teams, a lot of effort has been made to make it less intimidating for newer coaches. When recruiting or customizing players, everything is clearly displayed and explained. Their current stats, the skills in their arsenal, and the different abilities available depending on whether or not they invest SPP into Primary, Secondary, or Characteristic choices. Commonly known information for the more experienced players, but a much more streamlined experience for those diving in for the first time.

Nearly every single aspect of Blood Bowl 3, outside of what happens on the pitch, is leaps and bounds ahead of Blood Bowl 2. It’s not perfect, as there are definitely areas that need some tweaking. However, it’s in a fantastic place in this current build. Anyway, enough of the fluff, what about what’s happening on the pitch?

Firstly, before a match even begins, there is a match settings option that currently includes only a single option (but that’s enough) that allows players to customize the timer. There are several options available, none of which are explained, but there’s huge improvements here that the community have been screaming about for a long time. Unlimited turn timers are an option, and there is now an option to support a bonus time clock. Default settings on “competitive” feature two minute turn timers but each player also has seven minutes of bonus time. Each time a players turn counter reaches 0:00, it begins to eat into the reserve time instead. This is a simple but incredibly important change that the competitive scene has been requesting for years.

The structure of games has also changed slightly. After matching has complete both coaches witness an introduction that showcases the home teams stadium and crowd, before panning to the managerial staff and both teams, facing off in the center of the pitch. It is a gorgeous introduction to the game, offering a much bigger spectacle. With more fans, more stands, and a more grandiose presentation, it really hypes up the initial moments of each match.

As your opponents examine the remains of your last opponents in the teeth of your big guys, both coaches dive into Inducements. Blood Bowl 2’s inducements system was sluggish and cumbersome, side scrolling through player after player, searching for a particular staff member or star player. Blood Bowl 3’s system is categorized into Inducements, Star Players, and Mercenaries.

Once you get into the meat and bones of the on-pitch play, the build we had really began to struggle. Certain actions, such as Passing or Throwing Team-Mate, didn’t work reliably and caused connection issues, resulting in a failed game even when playing offline. While the core aspects remain much in the same as Blood Bowl 2, the ordering and design differ enough for it to be off-putting.

Some dice aren’t visibly rolled at all, some are rolled after the fact, and the AI turns become a blur very quickly. I’d hardly noticed what player the AI had selected before an animation plays knocking my player to the ground. Other times one begins to move, then another knock down as I tried to figure out what the blitz target was. The UI is very busy with several radial menus, button menus, and options menus. It’s a little much, but it’s difficult to discern how much of that is Blood Bowl 3 and how much of it is my familiarity with Blood Bowl 2. These are all surface level problems that one would expect in a game so far from release. If the original release date was still planned, I would be concerned.

Blood Bowl 3 has the foundation to be the best entry in the franchise yet; it just needs a little more time on the training grounds. I should also point out that I threw a 1 in 9 on my first opening block in three of my six games, so Nuffle still sucks (don’t tell him I said so).

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Dive in; you won’t be disappointed.

Roguebook Preview – 2021’s Most Exciting Roguelike

While the concept of a roguelike is one of simplicity – challenging players to overcome increasingly difficult challenges with the ultimate punishment of starting anew – the genre has grown over the years to offer deeper, more complex designs and ideas. While Roguebook is definitely a game you can pick up and play for a few hours, the level of depth and customization on display (even with the limited content in the version we played) is incredibly impressive.

There are two main fundamental aspects of the game: the overworld and the combat. While both areas are unique in execution, the overworld is probably one of its most refreshing aspects. Your character begins each run in a procedurally-generated landscape. Key components like boss fights and item locations remain similar, but much of the map changes on each additional playthrough. What truly makes this aspect of the game unique is that there’s a roguelike element to simply exploring.

The map is not fully revealed; an almost fog-of-war like system is in place, restricting areas you can explore and see until you discover ink and paintbrushes. With these special items, you’re able to paint and reveal the routes ahead, creating paths to powerful items and alternative routes to bypass elite battle encounters. It’s a high risk, high reward system that encourages exploration and rewards careful planning with the allocation of valuable resources. On one attempt, you may uncover piles of gold, obtain plenty of powerful new cards, and even slay a fairy for some real riches. The next, you can find yourself struggling to make it past the first few battles.

Roguebook’s true standout elements of design come in the form of customizing your characters and cards. During each playthrough, you’re able to use two different characters. At this point, it is limited to the main character Sharra and the support character Sorocco; other characters will be available at release. Sharra primarily focuses on dealing damages to enemies, and also boasts a few agility cards. On the other hand, Sorocco serves as more of the meat of the operation, soaking up damage with high value block cards.

The combat system in Roguebook is clearly inspired by Slay the Spire, one of the best card-based roguelikes around. Its user interface, the summary windows providing information on buffs and debuffs, the way cards are played – if you’re familiar with Slay the Spire, you will immediately feel right at home. However, although the inspiration is proudly displayed for all to see, it’s not without interesting ideas of its own.

Both your party and the enemies you encounter have formations, much like Darkest Dungeon and similar games. Certain attacks will only hit the front line, while others reward you with bonuses depending on your positioning. Carefully choosing your cards, when to attack, when to defend, who to position to face the brunt of the bosses next strike – it’s tactically fantastic and really rewarding to play.

With each playthrough, your characters earn experience points by finding fragments of parchments scattered throughout its world. These experience points are carried between attempts, creating a constantly evolving progression system that is the very embodiment of the roguelike genre. However, the real beauty of the customization comes in a form that can be lost, amassing huge power with customized cards that can just as quickly disappear if you head into a battle unprepared.

Cards are the backbone of the combat. They represent every move you can play and every ability you can activate, but they come in many varieties. These vary from simple attacking and blocking cards to summoning additional allies and raining down area of effect damage. All of the cards are valuable and substantial in their own right, but it’s the customization that promises near endless variety and replay value.

Gems can be found, purchased, and discovered in its world. They can increase damage, add additional effects, and even make a card appear at certain times – there’s a ton of choice on show. Each card has at least a single Socket – a buff slot that houses gems to increase a card’s effects – but as you progress, additional sockets can become available. I purchased a card that gave my team an additional mana at no cost if used by the character at the rear of my formation. I later buffed that card with gems to ensure it was always in my hand at the start of each fight, and even summoned another ally at my side. It’s very early days for Roguebook, but from what we’ve seen so far, it’s very exciting.

Roguebook takes clear inspiration from the roguelike genre’s greatest achievements in recent years, and why not? With an intriguing premise, an engaging overworld, and a combat system that had me addicted from the minute I began, I can’t wait to see what’s in store.

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Century: Age of Ashes Preview

Century: Age of Ashes is a lobby-based, competitive multiplayer game that pits two teams of mounted dragons against each other in a battle to the death. While additional modes, maps, and classes are promised in the coming months, the current preview build features three playable classes, two maps, and two different modes of play.

Before diving into a match, players can work through the tutorial. This consists of a series of silent and brief videos introducing the various aspects of attacking, defending, managing stamina, and collecting pickups scattered around the map. While simple and lackluster, it’s enough to bring you into Rookie Mode.

Rookie Mode is played on an open map, with some mountains and rocky terrain to split the teams apart. Each round, only certain abilities are available, allowing players to learn with restrictions in place and giving them time to adapt to each new ability as it’s introduced. The other mode, Simple Match, is on a bigger, more extravagant map that features a huge castle on the shores of a large ocean. Both maps feature intricate tunnels and tough to navigate areas, alongside more open spaces for flat-out fighting.

The gameplay itself is familiar, but it does have a steep learning curve. Dragons aren’t able to stop completely, but the fact that you can speed up, boost, and are slow to turn makes the challenge of flying and controlling each dragon a real art. Whether you’re navigating through caves and tunnels or soaring above the ocean, being able to outwit and outmaneuver your opponents is the key to success.

There are currently three playable classes: Marauder, Windguard, and Phantom. Each class can use fireballs and fire breath – the two main avenues of attack – and has access to a number of class-specific abilities. The Windguard can rush toward a target ally and provide a quick shield boost, while the Phantom can turn itself invisible and lay down devastating mines in close-quarter spaces.

Defeating enemies, collecting power-ups, and winning matches all earn experience points and currency that can be spent on new equipment for both your dragon and class. All unlockables (both free and premium) are purely cosmetic; there is currently no progression system in place. There is a premium shop where you can buy dragon eggs, equipment, icons, and a variety of goodies, but it’s not cheap. A legendary dragon egg will set you back about $20, although currently the premium store doesn’t allow for purchasing items or currency. Each class can unlock and equip new dragons, dragon equipment, and character equipment – again, all purely cosmetic – but it nevertheless allows for a total of 11 different avenues of customization for each class.

So far, Century: Age of Ashes is a good start for an innovative concept. Impressive visuals and highly competitive gameplay stand at the forefront, but the lack of any meaningful progression and rewards will definitely not appeal to everyone. Without some level of skill or level-based matchmaking, new players may find the initial hours difficult and frustrating.

For those looking to check it out themselves, Century: Age of Ashes is scheduled to release under Steam Early Access in February 2021.

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King Arthur: Knight’s Tale Early Access Preview

King Arthur: Knight’s Tale begins with a fantastic opening cinematic, setting the tone for the adventure ahead. After an epic battle, Sir Modred has slain King Arthur. However, with his final breath, the King cut down his foe in response. Both are killed, but neither are truly dead as the Lady of the Lake brings Sir Mordred back to life and sets him on a path to confront his nemesis King Arthur once again. The game only features two main story mission at the moment, but there’s plenty of side content to make it worth exploring.

Aside from the two main story locations, the current version of Early Access includes seven optional missions, several characters from multiple classes, the ability for heroes to reach level five, and the basics of Camelot upgrades. While somewhat slim in content, there is plenty to get excited about. From the gorgeous environments and challenging tactical combat to the careful management of a kingdom, King Arthur: Knight’s Tale shows a hell of a lot of promise.

At its core, King Arthur: Knight’s Tale is an isometric-styled turn-based RPG with a heavy focus on character development and progression. It features many of the staple elements of the genre, from the thrilling battles to the constant desire to loot, loot, loot.

The current looting system is a bit hit and miss. You don’t loot enemies after combat, leaving the tail end of battles feeling lackluster and unrewarding. There are also a couple of challenging combat sequences that promise great treasures, but it’s difficult to understand what the actual reward is.

I’m unsure if I was rewarded a lot of my efforts, because the game doesn’t allow you to view or equip any new items until post-mission. So while I’m sure you get loot for many of these seemingly loot-less tasks, it’s unclear on whether or not they are worth doing. Some may prefer this approach, removing the need to constantly loot fallen foes, but without some notification or information on rewards, it does feel a little lackluster. Other areas of reward do feature at least some level of on-screen notification, so hopefully this spreads to all manner of loot gathering.

While the action of actually obtaining loot still needs some work, the actual physical loot you receive is exciting and rewarding, right from the start. You don’t loot weapons or armor, but runes instead. For all intents and purposes they all act identical, with weapon runes increasing your damaging stats, armor runes your defensive stats, and so forth. However, they do not change or alter the appearance of characters at all – at least not yet. While missing new visuals for new equipment is a bit of a downer, the potential for character builds benefits hugely, offering many different paths of each of the knights by your side. The perks of not having to provide new models for each and every item is variety. There’s already a ton of selection in-game, and while it may disappoint visually, I’m really excited to see what kind of knights I can build come release.

Arguably the most important aspect of the game, even at this early stage of development, is the combat. If this foundation isn’t solid, no amount of updates and patches will fix it. However, that is not a problem that King Arthur: Knight’s Tale has to face. The combat is fantastic; it’s turn-based, grid-style combat where you select your characters, spend Action Points to move and attack, and keep a careful eye on positioning to avoid flanking attacks – or landing that brutal killing blow from behind.

Both positioning and turn order are vital. Shielded characters can block heavy damage from the front, but if they are attacked from the rear, the heavy defense provided by a shielded front line becomes useless. Overwatch, an ability that lets your knights prepare for an attack should an enemy come in range, is incredibly satisfyingly and rewarding when executed properly. One can watch a squad of enemy infantry marching on your front line, each unsuspecting the ambush that lays ahead. With a couple of shots from your archer to weaken them down and heavy hits from your two-handed specialists as they approach, they are decimated. Even in its earliest stage, the combat in King Arthur: Knight’s Tale is tactical, strategic, and a hell of a lot of fun.

The mission-based content, recruiting of new characters, and character development would settle as enough of the game to make it worth the purchase, but there’s a lot additional depth outside of the core fundamentals. Camelot can be upgraded and improved, adding vital facilities for you and your knights. You can heal permanent wounds, train items, and recover your injured knights. The current Early Access build only features three buildings, but it’s already a very interesting feature, one that plays a vital role in your success.

Adding further depth is a Morality system, albeit one that doesn’t feature too heavily at the moment. From the very beginning, Sir Mordred is faced with certain choices. Does he take the throne of Camelot for himself, or defend it in the name of the Lady of the Lake? Does he recruit the surviving bandits after a raid, or send them into exile? Each choice contributes towards the Morality system. Will you bring Camelot back from the ashes as a righteous ruler, or command it under fist as a tyrannical leader?

There are a number of areas with King Arthur: Knight’s Tale that hit me in ways I never expected. During my first playthrough, I ran into several unexpected design decisions that really threw me off. I had conquered the first story mission, escaped the dungeon of Camelot, and claimed the throne. I’d liberated a nearby village from a horde of bandits and put the citizens to work on upgrading Camelot. Unfazed by the challenges I’d faced thus far, the knights and I took to our next conquest: a brigand-filled forest.

Long story short, things went a little south for the knights and I. By the end of the mission, I was left with just Sir Mordred and Lady Dindraine, a dangerously impressive archer. That was it. I had yet to build my Hospice in Camelot, so I was unable to heal my fallen comrades. You are unable to repeat missions or revisit past locations. And the next areas available to me were an impossible task with just two knights. So, on my next mission, failure was inevitable. I died. Game over. I was unable to reload, as there’s no manual saving. There was just the haunted presence of the save file in my load screen, unable to load.

Although I was not expecting this level of brutality, I thoroughly welcomed the almost roguelite-esque aspects of design. Whether these features exist by intention I’m unsure, but I am very interested to see what route the game takes as it continues to develop. I’m especially a fan of removing the save-scumming crutch that so many of us love to use – myself included.

For a game in its earliest infancy of Early Access, I was hugely impressed with King Arthur: Knight’s Tale. Technically, the game is near flawless. I was unable to loot items on one playthrough, a few of the skills didn’t functional correctly, and dialogue sometimes failed to play correctly. Despite this, reloading fixed most of these problems immediately and I suffered no other issues.

We’re not spoiled for choice when it comes to exploring stories of Arthurian legend, but King Arthur: Knight’s Tale is already preparing to be one of the most exciting games of the year.

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Everspace 2 Preview

To preface things, I thoroughly enjoyed my time with the original Everspace. I followed the Kickstarter and development of Everspace 2, but didn’t notice the lack of roguelite keywords being thrown about the place. Knowing the game has stepped away from its original in such a bold fashion may be off-putting for some, but I urge you to dive a little deeper. While it no longer embraces the core aspects of the roguelite experience, the game hasn’t suffered for it at all.

Rockfish Games opted for a more traditional approach with the execution of Everspace 2, providing a more streamlined single-player narrative-based experience that features everything that made the original so exciting. While the thrill of combat is somewhat lessened when the penalty for death is simply reloading a recent save, the game compensates with a far greater story and more interesting characters. The development team has made the universe feel more alive, one that is a stark contrast to the staged feeling often present with procedurally-generated roguelike experiences.

You take on the role of Adam, a hotshot pilot tasked with defending a mining operation alongside his friend Ben. After a routine mining stop gets ambushed by bandits, Adam and Ben are captured and Ben is severely injured. During a brief interrogation, you learn of Adam’s true origins – a military clone that is designed to be the ultimate fighter pilot. Adam escapes with Ben and a fellow prisoner Dex before fleeing to an abandoned based somewhere in the DMZ.

The current story offers only a portion of the final adventure, but still provides around 5-15 hours of content, depending on how much you venture from the beaten path. Even in its current infancy, the story is rewarding and really pushes to invest the player in Adam’s woes and the plights of the friends he makes along the way.

Although the core fundamentals of Everspace 2’s genre are worlds apart from its predecessor, the general mechanics and approach to gameplay remain the same. Combat is still its most thrilling activity; supported by controls that are immediately familiar yet offer room to improve, players will be able to pull off masterful dodges between asteroids and fly down narrow corridors while avoiding missile file. It never quite matches up to the fear of death set by the original, but skilled pilots are able to pull off incredibly satisfying maneuvers.

The depth of combat definitely has a lot of space to grow with far more weapons, ships, equipment, and different modules to build and improve – and that’s just based on the limited selection available in the pre-release of Early Access. There’s already a lot of potential for customizing your ship, experimenting with different classes of vessels, and different loadout combinations. It can be a challenge to hunt down all the individual pieces, but when you place the final puzzle piece of your build into place, it’s well worth the time.

While certain aspects of Everspace’s procedural generation are still firmly in place, there’s a lot of room for more detailed, hand-crafted environments. This is where the change in genre really steps up the game for Everspace 2. Massive space ports, huge derelict ships scattering ever corner of space – there’s a lot of character and depth to the world that I often felt was missing in the earlier versions of the original game.

As you travel between different systems through the main story, you’re often teased away with rogue signals or SOS calls from nearby fleets and locations. Exploring these optional areas can be as simple as grabbing some resources off an asteroid, but can also be as complicated as an intricate puzzle where you need to track down various power sources to open doors that lead to rare and powerful items. The side content is varied enough to make each encounter worthwhile while being familiar enough to not require hours of puzzle solving at each new location.

Outside of the new areas you will visit and explore, there’s companions to recruit, factions to work for, and side jobs to keep your Credits topped off. There’s a lot to do and even more to see – if you’re willing to go out there and track it down.

Everspace 2 is still in its infancy. The lack of roguelike elements many have come to love from the original may be a step in the wrong direction for many fans. However, in their absence is a bigger, more exciting universe, a passionate story, and a thrilling adventure. I can’t wait to see what’s on the horizon for Everspace 2.

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If the Back 4 Blood name doesn’t demonstrate a clear intent on building upon the success of the Left 4 Dead franchise, the game wastes no time whatsoever in throwing players into the chaotic, zombie-infested co-op shooting action iconic to the last two Left 4 Dead titles. Packed with zombies, co-op fun, all new characters and locations, and the return of the iconic versus mode, is Back 4 Blood the Left 4 Dead we all know and love?

Even with the limited content available – just a few short missions across a single campaign – playing Back 4 Blood with a buddy was an absolute blast. It’s everything that made Left 4 Dead such an incredible co-op experience, with some new ideas thrown into the mix. Before jumping into a match, players are able to select, build, and customize a deck. This card-based system serves as a way to provide additional perks and abilities for each character.

It’s unclear on whether more cards will be available at launch, how they are unlocked, or how effective they are in other areas of the game. However, the brief introduction to the system and its mechanics make for a very exciting feature that promises to add much higher levels of replay value and character customization. Each deck can consist of a total of 15 cards. A single primary card is available, allowing the player to choose a single, guaranteed card at the beginning of each match. From there, the remaining cards are shuffled and drawn between rounds to add further bonuses and buffs.

The primary card choice seemed a no-brainer at first, as beginning a level with an AK-47 is seldom a bad idea. Nevertheless, there are huge areas for unique and powerful custom builds far beyond that seemingly obvious choice. I initially focused on starting with my AK-47, taking additional cards that increased my teams ammo capacity and chances at finding ammo. I soon began to explore other potential combinations, choosing a melee-focused character in my next run. This character begins each mission with a baseball bat, and the cards I chose increased my melee damage, unlocked a melee charge attack, and even provided small heals on each successful swing. There are clear paths for specialist roles – melee, healer, support, demolitions, and so on – but just as many paths branching out into other areas of expertise.

Creating your own unique deck of cards is engaging and rewarding as it is. The system further excels when you begin combining builds and ideas with the builds of friends, doubling down on certain buffs for a stacking effect or having your friends choose abilities that make up for shortfalls of your team’s overall deck style. It shows a lot of promise, and is definitely something I’m incredibly excited to dive into at launch.

While the deck building aspects of Back 4 Blood are the biggest change to the Left 4 Dead formula, it’s not the only one. There’s a cast of brand-new special zombies that bring their own unique skills and abilities into battle. Although fresh, they take clear inspiration from the unsightly cast of the Left 4 Dead special infected. The Hocker bounces around the environment with cat-like agility, hurtling balls of gross phlegm at unsuspecting survivors – sticking them in place until freed by an allies’ melee attack. Bruisers charge heard-first into the fray, using a massive arm to smash and throw around survivors. Finally, Retches are disfigured combination of the Spitter and Boomer, hurtling green vomit from surprising distances to hinder survivors’ movement and vision. There’s a lot of key elements to the versus concept that we have yet to see, with only a single special zombie being able to actually constrict a survivor player. Despite this, it’s too early to make any real judgments in its limited pre-alpha build.

It’s easy to get wrapped up in the new and exciting aspects of Back 4 Blood, but Left 4 Dead’s core aspects – its fundamental design – are still very much present. A good cast of characters, the dark and gritty environments, the often funny and disturbing scribblings written on the wall of each safe house; if I was just thrown into the game without knowing what it was, my first guess would be Left 4 Dead 3.

The mission structure and environments work in much the same way. Each level begins with a brief respite in a safehouse, giving players the opportunity to discuss tactics and their combat approach. Alternatively, this can also grant enough time for one player to buy some gun upgrades, running gung-ho into the first horde they see before the other players have even finished loading in. This often results in said player getting ambushed by specials and wasting very valuable healing resources. Ah, some things never change.

Seemingly identical to Left 4 Dead’s play-by-play on each level, players follow linear paths towards the final objective: the next safe room. While the destination has remained much in the same, the journey has very much gone up a notch. There’s optional loot rooms that can be explored if you buy specific tools, special weapons to find, and gun upgrades to track down. Put simply, there’s a lot on offer for those searching off the beaten track. The director is brutal, unforgiving, and seems all too eager to plan the demise of players at every possible turn. Back 4 Blood feels more brutal, more chaotic, and more punishing than Left 4 Dead, and it’s beautiful.

It’s difficult to find much fault in the Back 4 Blood alpha. Technically, it was near flawless. I didn’t encounter any serious bugs, didn’t have any crashing issues, and the framerate was solid throughout. It was more stable in alpha than many games have been at launch recently (do I even need to mention specifics?).

Note that the AI definitely struggles, especially on AI survivors. They pick up key objective items but never use them, they take valuable supplies and waste them, and they dive head first into a massive horde of zombies with no fear of death or interest in survival. It’s even worse than the companion AI in Left 4 Dead, and that’s tough to match.

It’s very early days for Back 4 Blood; we only experienced four short levels, the versus mode wasn’t available, and we’re unsure of what’s still to come. Despite this, from what we’ve played so far, Back 4 Blood is everything Left 4 Dead fans have been waiting for – and then some.

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