The Gardens Between was neither an adventure game nor a visual novel, so I’m not entirely sure how this got into my recommendations after buying Tangled Tower. It’s a puzzle game, albeit a simple one. After playing a few levels, I was ready to give up for being boring, but something made me stick with it to the end. After reaching the ending cut scene, I am so glad I did.

It’s About Time

No literally, it is about time. The only controls the player really has is to move this pair of friends forward and backward through time as they walk through the level to the end. However, each character has their own unique abilities. The girl character is able to pick up, hold, and place down a lantern. The only way to clear the level is for the girl to have a lit lantern for the two of them to place on a pedestal. The boy character can flip switches, which sometimes open flower blossoms of light or darkness (takes away the light from the lantern) and sometimes alters where the environment is in time without the characters moving.

Like any good puzzle game, the first levels are simple to show how the time elements work. Gradually, the puzzles become more and more complex, which, with how few controls you actually have, is rather impressive.

On the flip side, since there are so few controls, solving the puzzles never feels impossible. They’re akin to same “ah ha!” moments I had when playing The Turing Test or even Portal. The Witness this is not. I probably really would have quit if it was.

Is There a Story, Though?

If you know me or are familiar with my work in gaming over the last 16 years, then you know I’m a story gamer. The apparent lack of a story is why I nearly called it quits early on. The game begins with these two characters in a tree house in the rain. Suddenly lightning strikes, and they’re both in this strange world of islands that appear to be made up of their memories. In the level, you don’t play through the memory itself, but when you place the lantern on the pedestal, a piece of the memory forms in the sky. The memory then forms and plays out after all of its pieces are collected. Each memory typically has two or three pieces aka levels to solve.

The memories are cute, the visuals are stunning, and the sound design is superb, but is there a point to all of this? All I can say is sort of, but the ending resolves in a way that I can guarantee you will not see coming. As such, I’m on a little crusade to tout this game to puzzle-loving friends and family.

It’s not expensive, it doesn’t take long to play, and hey, it’s a great way to pass the time (ha! I’m funny) while we’re in this quarantine. It’s not Portal mind-blowing levels, but it’s still something short and sweet that puzzle fans should check out.

The Gardens Between review copy was purchased by me.

The post The Gardens Between Review – Not All Is as it Seems (Switch) appeared first on CrunchyChocobo.

With the coronoavirus putting us all on lock-down, I figured it was a good time to play some of the Switch games I randomly bought and never tried. I love using the Switch for puzzle games, visual novels, point-and-click adventures, etc. This is where most of my collection now resides. One such game I never heard of until a random store search was The Turing Test, and the brief description hinted it was right up my alley. As I searched for a game to kick off the coronacation, The Turing Test caught my eye. It was the perfect start to cleaning out my Switch digital backlog.

I love puzzle games, but I’m picky about them. I loved Portal, but I will not try The Witness. If you center the puzzle around a mystery, then I’m all in. That’s the only reason why I suffered through so many bad Professor Layton games. The last game I played that comes to my mind that was both a puzzle game and a mystery was The Station, which I loved. The Turing Test appeared to run in the same vein and check all the same boxes.

If you take The Station…

With The Station, the player character is sent to a space station to learn why the crew has gone silent. It’s mostly a “walking simulator” where you uncover clues about where the crew might be and solve puzzles to unlock audio and video logs. It’s a thrilling mystery that stunned me at the very end. Similarly, The Turing Test also features the player character trying to figure out why the ground crew on a space exploration mission has gone silent.

The difference here is that it’s not a true walking simulator. There are puzzles to solve, but the puzzles aren’t there for the player to solve to uncover more of the mystery. With The Station, the entire space station was open to the player. The player solved puzzles to get into locked areas and to find more clues as to what happened to the crew. The Turing Test requires puzzles to leave the room you enter. This is where the other half of the mashup comes in.

…and mix it up with Portal…

The player controls Ava Turing, an engineer that that the onboard AI, TOM, woke up to find the ground crew. They’re all on a base on Europa, one of Jupiter’s moons, which happens to also be the moon that developed life in Space Odyssey 2010. I don’t want to believe that’s a coincidence. I’m not sure why Ava was still in cryostasis, but without her, there would be no mystery to solve. TOM appears to be panicked about the welfare of the crew, especially since he can’t locate them anywhere. He isn’t sure if they’re alive or dead, which feeds into the panic of Ava to find them as soon as possible.

The base extends deep underground with various rooms and levels. The crew has locked up the rooms so that the only way to get through them is to solve puzzles that build upon difficulty. Basically, Ava has to find a way to power the exit doors. To do so, she has to move energy balls to power different doors, contraptions, etc. And naturally, the only way to do so is with a device that looks like a gun, but totally is NOT a portal gun.

At least there aren’t any turrets or really anything to kill you. Your only fear in getting through it is frustration at finding the solution and the occasional timed run. Those levels nearly broke me, but there was really only one that gave me great difficulty in getting the timing down pat.

A Mystery Worth Uncovering

As Ava tests with TOM by her side, she gets the feeling that not everything is how TOM portrays it to be. If the player solves the optional room puzzles—which I highly recommend—you will learn a little more as to what is going on with the crew and why they are hiding from TOM.

I have to say that I had so many guesses as to what happened to the crew, and none of them were correct. The game doesn’t reveal all at the very end; instead the big truth comes out during the final level below Europa’s surface. While you’d think there wouldn’t be many reasons to play after you learn the truth, The Turing Test keeps one last shocking surprise at the very end. I’m still haunted by the final choice I had to make. I think I made the right choice, but it doesn’t mean that I’m cool with the result.

In addition to the story being so great, the puzzles were incredibly addictive. I stayed up way too late most nights swearing that I could not sleep without solving this one last puzzle. I think we all know how these puzzle games go. There’s never one last puzzle.

Most likely by now, you’ve heard of The Turing Test, as it released on Steam in 2016 and PS4 and Xbox One in 2017. I didn’t hear about it until it released on Switch in February 2020. If you’re like me and you haven’t heard about this game and how great it is, I cannot recommend it enough.

The Turing Test review code for Switch was purchased, not provided by developer or publisher.

The post The Turing Test Review – If Portal and The Station Had a Baby… (Switch) appeared first on CrunchyChocobo.

Hey Happy 2020 a month late! Would it mean anything if I said I had been meaning to write? Yeah, probably not. Just like it probably doesn’t mean anything that I plan to write a bit more in 2020. I say that nearly every year.

That said though, I believe that with my New Year’s resolutions it will actually happen. Why is it different this time? This time I’m focusing on self-care in 2020.

Shawn has been deployed to Virginia for the last four, almost five months. He has another two months to go. My focus has been on pretty much everyone else except for me because of it. My clients. The kids. My family. My yoga classes/students. The kids’ schools. I’m the kindergarten grade coordinator (I thought it was for class coordinator only), and I’m helping coach Z’s basketball team. Between the kids’ basketball practices, Z’s swim lessons, G’s therapy, and my yoga classes, I’m beyond busy. And tired.

And then January happened. Remember how last January, I learned of my Dad’s heart surgery, got fired from PSLS, and dealt with Z’s school suggesting he not come back for kindergarten on the same day? Well a similar January happened this year, but it was in the same week instead of the same day. So I guess that’s progress? I don’t want to go into all of the details of what’s been going on, but the big three from the week were:

• I got the flu.
• G was diagnosed as clinically depressed.
• Z’s school once again suggested he find another school.

The following week, my side gig announced that the site is closing in March, so there’s that. At least that isn’t my primary source of income like PSLS was. While that’s a blow, it’s not tragic.

So as a result of that week, I’ve been running around trying to take care of G and find him a new therapist as well as hunting down a new school for Z. I am not fighting St. John’s this year, because I’m just tired of fighting them. I dug my heels in last year, but at this point, it’s just obvious they won’t deal with his dyslexia at all, even with tutoring. So, I’m done. We may be permanently done, depending upon which school Z goes to next year.

I’ve also been unbelievably depressed. I’m already on medication, and it is helping, but this is a lot for anyone to handle on their own, even without a tendency for depression. This is what has spun me into dedicating 2020 to self-care. I already had a couple of resolutions in mind before all this happened, and I’m keeping those, because those are also a bit of self-care.

Self-Care Resolutions for 2020

Read one non-WH40k book a month.
I love my WH40k Book Club I run with Jen. But, as I look at what books I read in 2019, only one book was not WH40k, and it was a book I received for review. As much as I love WH40k, I need to branch out and read some of my other unread books. I failed this resolution for January, but I did start a non-WH40k book at the end of January for February.

Play/Finish one video game a month.
I know this one sounds pathetic, especially considering that I used to review games for a living. However, with the book club and with single-parenting, it’s been hard to find time to play video games. The Switch has made this infinitely easier since I don’t have to be holed up in my office to play games on it. This one I did fulfill in January, which was Pokemon Sword. I have a game I’m supposed to be reviewing but haven’t because I’m a bad person, and that’s next. I’m debating whether that counts, though.

Go to yoga at least three times a week.
For a yoga teacher, it’s been hard for me to make time to practice yoga on my own. And it shouldn’t be, since I used to do yoga 4-5 times a week. But it is, and the busier I get with work, the easier it is to find excuses to not go. I need to make this a priority for several reasons. For one, I need to practice to keep my own classes fresh. Secondly, I need to practice to stay in shape. Whenever I’m steady with yoga practice, my craving for crap food practically dissipates. Yoga is flat out healthy for me. Third, practicing yoga is important for my mind. My mind is always so clear after practice. With everything going on right now, I need this more than anything and yet I’m having trouble going. I need to kick my own ass.

Write for me more often.
I’ve heard that the main reason why New Year’s resolutions fail is because the maker doesn’t set a plan. Saying “often” is not a plan. However, writing what I want to write can’t be planned. If I tell myself to write for me once a week, I know I’ll fail, because I know such a stipulation stints all creativity. It’s honestly amazing I’m able to come up with two daily dispatches a week for Cheat Code Central. That said, I need to get back into writing non-reviews on the Book Club site and writing, well, anything here.

So those are my goals, and they’re all attainable. I just need to stick to an exercise plan like I used to.

The post Heyyyyy A New Year’s Post in February… appeared first on CrunchyChocobo.

Around Halloween, two mystery games released on the Switch: Tangle Tower and Obra Dinn. I wanted both, but could only justify buying one. I picked the cheaper option, and hooo boy, it was worth every penny.

This isn’t a review, per se, about Tangle Tower, simply because it’s a few weeks late. Also, it’s hard to review a game such as this one, which is half adventure game and half puzzle game surrounding a murder mystery. I could talk about the puzzles and/or talk about the story. It’s hard to do both without spoiling too much. That said though, I will say this about the story: once I started the game it was hard to put down, like a riveting mystery thriller. I’m talking ignoring kids even while they’re fighting and making a mess riveting (based on a true story).

The player controls two private detectives, Grimoire and Sally, as they investigate probably one of the strangest murders known to man. It appears that a painting has murdered the painter. Surely that can’t be possible, right? Of course it’s not possible, otherwise this would be one hell of a ghost story, albeit a boring murder mystery. No one who lives in Tangle Tower is that forthcoming with the details. For example, the subject of the painting, Flora, doesn’t speak. Others weren’t present and didn’t witness the murder, yet only a few people seem broken up at all that a young girl was murdered. Grimoire and Sally have to do a lot of snooping and plenty of sleuthing to coax Tower inhabitants to talk.

That’s where the adventure comes in. G&S will have to explore the various rooms of the Tower, find any and all clues, and press every dweller for a statement. Hilariously, you have to get a statement from everyone in order to move on, and that includes the silent Flora. At least questioning her doesn’t take very long.

Tangle Tower is one of those games where the journey is ten times more enjoyable than the destination. Every moment I spent working out puzzles to unlock new areas, using clues to pry the truth out of people, and learning how everyone in the Tower is somewhat related was an absolute delight. The actual reveal for the murderer was a bit of a let down. It wasn’t someone who I expected, which is always a plus. But the resolution was far from satisfactory. It’s almost an afterthought.

You’re so busy learning all of the secrets of Tangle Tower and its residents, all of those discoveries are far more fascinating than solving the whodunnit. Perhaps it’s because you never really do solve it yourself. You’re robbed of an “ah ha!” moment. Instead, the murderer pretty much falls in your lap, and you can get the grisly truth from them with no effort. In addition, I felt like I had more questions than answers. Maybe a replay will fill in the blanks? Now that I know the answers to the puzzles, it shouldn’t take me as long a second time, that’s for sure.

I may have to give it a go.

All of that said, though, I do highly recommend this game. The journey to get to the end is well worth every second of your time. Not to mention, the voice acting is top notch, and I can’t wait to see more Switch titles from this team.

The post Tangled Thoughts About Tangle Tower appeared first on CrunchyChocobo.

I’ve been out of the PC-indie scene for a long time now, so I miss hearing of some sleeper hits on Steam, such as Pig Eat Ball. The press release I received about it mentioned arcade action and getting fat from eating balls. It sounded too wacky and Pac-Man-esque for me not to give this one a try. Oh it’s crazy wacky, which is amazing, but it’s crazy fun too. Even when I get overly frustrated with a level, I never feel like a level is impossible. I just haven’t figured out its secrets yet.

There Is a Point With the Puzzles But…

Have you seen Disney’s Brave? If you have, then the “story” won’t be too surprising or original for you. If you haven’t, well, players play as a princess flying pig thing who wants to leave the space station to go exploring and see the world. Her father, King Cake, has decreed that it’s time for her to marry. He has no idea who could be a potential suitor, so why not weed out the chaff with a contest? Each sub-realm of King Cake’s space station has a bevy of challenges for a suitor to complete. If the suitor completes all of the challenges in a sector, then he gets a pearl. The one who collects all of the pearls will win Princess Bow’s hand in marriage.

Unsurprisingly, the princess does not want to get married, so she vows to entire the competition herself to win her own freedom. But how do the Cake Guards and her father not recognize her? She puts on glasses, of course! It worked for Clark Kent, it can work for a princess pig thing trying to avoid marriage.

In reality, the story doesn’t mean much. Not even the sub-plot you uncover after clearing stations matters in the end. It’s there as a reason for players to pilot a piggie through these puzzles to meet the challenges. While each substation has its own quirks and tricks, all of the puzzles boil down to one simple thing: Princess Bow has to suck up objects to win. And I mean literally suck up.

Ninety percent of the time, Princess Bow has to suck up a number of tennis balls. As she sucks up the balls, she gets fatter. If she can’t squeeze through a doorway, she has to barf up the balls to lose the weight. That’s right kids, this is one time when bulimia is acceptable: when you’re solving weird puzzles to get out of marriage.

Naturally, it’s not that straight forward or simple. Spiky balls float around too, and if she sucks one of them up, it will make her sick and barf. Whenever she gets hurt at all, from enemies or spikes or a dozen other random obstacles, she will get sick and barf. If you suck up the barf balls before they bounce themselves clean, she will get sick and barf. When you’re under a time limit to collect all of the balls, you DO NOT want to get hurt at all.

In addition, if you need to get enemies to stop doing their thing, barfing on them does the trick. I would think that would work on anyone, even in reality.

Barfing Good Fun

As is typical with these puzzle games, the puzzles start off relatively simple and then progressively compound the difficulty as you continue. The puzzles sometimes seem impossible, but there’s always a trick to getting through it. Sometimes that trick is particular path or order to follow, and other times it all comes down to the disguise Princess Bow wears.

She starts off with glasses, but by exploring the substation and fulfilling random sidequests, the princess can acquire new disguises. All of the disguises have a benefit and a detriment. One disguise will pump up the speed, but it greatly reduces the suction distance. Another strengthens and lengthens the suction, but Princess Bow will get sick more easily. Most of the time, if a puzzle is too challenging and frustrating, all it takes is picking the right disguise.

Sometimes kicking off the level with a power-up helps as well. Some levels have power-ups within, briefly granting abilities of slowing down time, attracting all of the balls, or health shields. Some power-ups can be found exploring the substations and storing them for later. When you start a challenge, that is an opportunity to change Bow’s disguise as well as starting with a power-up. Some of these power-ups have really gotten me out of a tight pinch, especially for the timed challenges. You all know how much I love timed challenges.

It’s because all of the challenges never feel impossible that I easily fell under the sway of, “Going to try one more time,” for hours on end. Once I did try and succeed, then it became “Just one more level,” hence the hours on end.

It’s not the deepest game as far as story goes, but you’ll be having so much fun solving the puzzles, it won’t matter. It’s a great pick-up-and-play game for the Switch that has gotten me to put down my iPhone for gaming. The portability of the Switch just makes it even easier.

Pig Eat Ball review code for Switch received via developer.

The post Pig Eat Ball Review – Acceptable Bulimia (Switch) appeared first on CrunchyChocobo.

Those who know gaming me pretty well know I loathe platformers. As you can imagine, it means eschewing a lot of old school games and Nintendo titles. The last Super Mario game I’ve played was Super Mario World for the SNES, and that console belonged to a friend. I sometimes enjoyed playing Super Mario 2 and Super Mario 3 on the NES back in the day, but I was never any good at them. Never got close to finishing them ever, even with the warps.

When I saw the E3 announcement for Super Mario Odyssey, I felt like this was a Mario game I could get back into. I’ve watched too much of Super Mario Sunshine and Super Mario Galaxy from friends to ever attempt to dabble in that. But for some reason, this one made me feel like I could handle it. Then I didn’t buy it until last week, because that’s me being me.

I am having so much fun so far!

I’m not super far into the game or anything, but I love the setup of it. You don’t like the tricky hardcore platforming parts? It’s cool; you don’t have to do all of them get the minimum number of Power Moons. Do you prefer the puzzles instead? Good news! You can do those. Do you like timed challenges? Here you go (you monster)!

This is the first Super Mario title I’ve played/seen where I feel like it’s made for everyone. It’s for the hardcore platformer fans and the newbies alike.Even my kids want to play, but if they think they’re getting their grubby hands on my Switch, they are SORELY mistaken.

Although, speaking of the kids, they like to watch me over my shoulder and backseat drive since they’ve seen so many streams of the title. Look, it’s my Mario party and I’ll screw it all up if I want to. So far, my favorite piece of advice has been, “Mom, don’t die there! You’re not supposed to!”

I guess there’s somewhere else I’m supposed to die? I’ve never come across that in a Mario game, but it has been a couple of decades since my last one. Perhaps that’s a new feature.

Those Damn Launch Games Tho

So far, I have one big complaint about it, and it’s the motion controls. Yes Mr. Switch, you still have motion controls like your predecessors. But did you have to shoehorn them in?

This is always my biggest issue with launch titles (including launch window titles): the need to force in every feature of the new console into one game. Nothing will ever be as egregious as Uncharted: Golden Abyss, and I better not hear some first-party developer saying, “Challenge accepted.”

I do not want to shake my Switch to throw Cappy 360 degrees. Or to throw him upwards. Or downwards. I’d go as far as to say the gameplay would be damn near perfect without the motion controls.

That aside, more games like this could get me back into Mario games again. Could. Now I need to stop being so chicken of playing Breath of the Wild.

The post I’m Playing a Mario Game and I Like It appeared first on CrunchyChocobo.

I played the Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney Trilogy on 3DS about a year ago, and I could not get enough. In my 3DS log, I’m not sure another title will ever top its hours played category. Even though, as a former litigation paralegal, I had tons of issues with the courtroom scenes, I still ate it up. When I finished, I almost immediately bought the next two games in the series. Later I picked up the Miles Edgeworth Investigations, and I’m still irked the sequel never crossed the ocean.

So yes, when it re-released on the PlayStation 4, I couldn’t yell SHUT UP AND TAKE MY MONEY quickly enough. I get to play these games again and get PlayStation trophies? It would be ridiculous for me NOT to buy it again.

I started it almost immediately after finishing Horizon Zero Dawn. Like before, I couldn’t put it down. I foolishly thought that since I played these games before, I’d remember all the proper responses for all three games. Not only did I not remember all of the correct answers, I forgot some of the cases entirely. With one case, I could not remember whodunnit, even though I knew the culprit was right in front of me.

Thank God this version of the trilogy allows you to save at any point in time. I practically saved at every response I could to avoid getting a Game Over. It totally happened, however, because like Luke Skywalker, I got cocky.

A few of the trophies were a giant PITA, fellow trophy hunters. I didn’t even bother replaying the episode to get all of Angel’s lunchboxes without assistance. It’s the longest episode of all three games, for one, and for two, I didn’t want to. The others took a couple of replays, but not any of them required a full replay of an episode. At least they didn’t for me. The bad ending trophy might have forced a full replay if I didn’t have the list of trophies for each episode on hand while playing.

Yes I keep lists of trophies for these visual novel-esque games. Don’t you? You should. Just saying.

Truth be told, I would have bought the Phoenix Wright Trilogy to play on any console. I love this series that much, probably more than Diablo III, and I bought that game THREE TIMES (PlayStation 3, PlayStation 4, and Switch). The PlayStation trophies were the cherry toppings. Or, they are the sprinkles, and the Platinum trophy is that cherry on top. And now I want ice cream.

Oh look at that, the trilogy is on Switch as well. Looks like I’ll be playing again and putting off that Backlog Challenge a little bit more.

I apologize for nothing.

The post Platinum Pursuits: Phoenix Wright Trilogy appeared first on CrunchyChocobo.

Is this thing on? Hi. My name is Keri, and I’m a addicted to a mobile game.

I’m not addicted to mobile games as a whole, I swear. It’s just this one mobile game. And no, I can’t quit any time I want to. Not that it matters, because I don’t want to.

It’s called Angry Birds Blast!, and it’s the most delightful puzzle game I’ve played in a while.

For whatever reason, all of the angry birds are now trapped in balloons. It’s up to the player to free them by popping balloons when two or more of the same color match. By popping balloons, you defeat the pigs, rescue hatchlings, rescue eggs, etc. Different weapons appear depending upon the number of matching balloons. As you progress, the game hurls more obstacles your way, such as bread that must be eaten first, cages, cloud coverage, and wizard pigs. Yes, I said wizard pigs.

Like most Angry Birds games, it starts off rather simple to hook you in. The next thing you know, you’re up until midnight on your couch, determined to solve this level with the half-hour of infinite lives you earned, no matter how many times it takes. And believe me, when you score any duration of infinite lives, you use every minute you can.

As you’ve probably guessed, it is a free-to-play game. There are ample opportunities to purchase extra lives, gold coins to buy boosters, the list goes on. That said, I’ve yet to purchase anything. There are chances to win gold coins and other boosters without paying a penny. I’ve been sorely tempted to purchase gold coins a few times, especially when I want to buy a few extra moves because one more pop will finish the puzzle. But so far, I’ve remained strong, and I’m in level 200+.

One reason I quit Candy Crush years ago was because it was readily apparent within 50 levels that you had to pay to have a chance at winning. I haven’t had that feeling once with Angry Birds Blast. The luck of the balloon colors often has a lot to do with your capability to win. The motto of “If at first you don’t succeed, try, try again” is quite apropos here.

So yes, instead of cooking dinner, reading books for WH40k Book Club, playing console video games, or paying attention to my kids, I’m playing on my damn phone. It’s becoming a slight problem at times, but I’m having too much fun to care too much.

Besides, it’s a puzzle game, which means it’s keeping my brain active and happy, right? Right. That’s what I thought.

Now if you’ll excuse me, I’m going to take a lunch break and try to beat this damn level once and for all.

The post Gaming Confession: I’m Addicted to a Mobile Game appeared first on CrunchyChocobo.

I wrote a professional Chaosbane review for PlayStation Lifestyle, but it doesn’t mean I can’t write something here. I think the way plagiarism works is that I can’t copy and paste directly (please detect sarcasm here), and I don’t need to copy and paste directly. Warhammer: Chaosbane is pretty fresh in my mind, and that’s because I’m busy warning all of my friends to wait for a massive price drop.

On paper, Chaosbane appeared to have everything we’d want from a Diablo-esque WH game. I will be comparing this game to Diablo a lot for two reasons:

• it is a Diablo-lite, and
• it’s impossible not to.

So buckle in and prepare for the Diablo wannabe comparisons. It’s not pretty.

When a Game Makes Diablo‘s Gameplay Seem Complex…

Look, I absolutely adore Diablo and Diablo-like games. However, for a Diablo-like game to work and stand out on its own, it needs its own hook. Its own gimmick. Something that makes it unique. Unfortunately, Chaosbane has none of these things.

It does have a deeper skill system than Diablo, I will give it that. Players have a wheel of skills for both active and passive skills that unlock once the character reaches particular levels. However, your character needs a certain number of skill points to activate the skills in his skillset. You don’t always earn new skill points each time you level up, so the skill wheel becomes a land of bargaining. You may really need the fully upgraded version of this one skill, but then you may have to give up another high-level skill in return.

On top of this, there’s a completely additional skill tree for God skills. These need favour points (1 per level gained), gold crowns, and stone fragments to purchase. Once you purchase a God skill, you have another set of skill points to juggle with your skill wheel.

And that’s all the complexity you’re going to get in this game.

Chaosbane only offers four character classes, and no, you can’t change the gender of any of them. You want to play as a girl, you’re stuck with the Scout class. It’s fitting, actually, because I think the whole game has only four maps as well. If you thought Diablo III was tedious with its maps, at least you didn’t go back to the same exact map four or five times in one Act. No, I’m not exaggerating. Each area your character visits has up to two different maps they can visit to complete the main story. Be prepared to do one map 75% of the time you’re there. By the third Act, I was just going through the motions, wondering when it would be over. I can only do so many fetch quests through the same damn map to pad out this story.

At least in Diablo III, the maps were procedurally generated with the varieties of enemies (Who doesn’t love plague jailer arcane demons? The answer is everyone.), not to mention various events or caves would open up for exploration at different times. Chaosbane has NONE of that. If you want side quests, just wait until you finish the area, because then the Expeditions and Boss Rush modes unlock. Boss Rush is what it sounds, and the Expeditions are, get this, opportunities to explore that same damn map you’ve already done ten times before! This time, it will have various event challenges, like kill all the daemons before time runs out. Yes, my excitement went straight through the roof, too.

Zero Reason to Replay

I’ve replayed Diablo III so many times, I have that incredibly tedious Platinum Trophy for the version on the PlayStation 3. So yes, I am not opposed to replaying games. This style of game demands a high replayability factor, and Chaosbane just doesn’t have it. Sure, the trophies may be a reason in of themselves, but the overall game isn’t entertaining enough for multiple playthroughs, even when using different characters.

Plus, after you finish the game, there is nothing for your character to do other than Expeditions, Boss Rushes, and the Relic Hunts that unlock upon game completion. It feels like an absolute waste. Perhaps the DLC will add more incentives to replay it, but that just makes Chaosbane an incomplete game.

How this game sits now, Chaosbane is nowhere near worth the $59.99 price tag. If you’re wanting a Diablo-esque Warhammer Fantasy game to possibly play with friends, wait until this title goes on sale. I’d wait until the price drops to $25-$30.

I really wanted to like this game, but it’s too boring and tedious for even me.

The post A Candid Chaosbane Review – More Like Varietybane (PS4) appeared first on CrunchyChocobo.

There once was a Chaplain named Erebus,

Who was an incredible dingus.

A Rube-Goldberg machine he did make,

For the Warmaster’s soul to take,

And somehow it all works to screw us.

False Gods Book Review

I can sum up this whole book in one line from Devil’s Advocate: “Vanity, definitely my favorite sin.”

Want your own copy?

The post One-Line Book Review: False Gods by Graham McNeill appeared first on CrunchyChocobo.