A few of the things that have us hooked this week.
13th June
Hello and welcome back to our regular feature where we write a little about the games we’ve been playing. This week, Bertie fixates on a fiendish roguelike with an outrageous mash of ideas; Matt believes he’s found the best video game tutorial ever; Victoria rankles at her children back-seat gaming her; and Sherif can’t refuse another Soulslike.
What have you been playing this week?
Here’s another question: do you remember what you were playing last week? You don’t have to! The What We’ve Been Playing archive has you covered.
Chivalware, PC
This was one of my favourite demos at a recent Dotemu press event. Chivalware is a solo dev roguelike that’s a mash of match-three ideas with Mega Man and active grid-based battling. If that sounds bizarre it’s because it feels bizarre; I suppose another way of looking at it is that it’s fresh, and it is – it’s unlike anything else I’ve played.
You’re a disk knight in the game – inspired by floppy disks – and in battle you power your abilities by standing on, and activating, tiles of the same colour. Activate a large clump of tiles for a large dose of power, but avoid smaller clumps because they’ll interrupt your power-gaining flow.
At the same time, avoid enemies coming at you with their own attack patterns, which often cover the areas you want to go, all while lining up your own attacks. So you see: lots to do, and there’s some brightly energetic electronic music to do it to. It’s a musical game; the action feels like a kind of dance.
In between battles, you’re offered a choice of route and can visit shops and make upgrades to your powers, and you’ll want complementary builds because some powers don’t work against some enemies. So: even more to think about.
What I liked most about Chivalware was how immediate it was. It’s a punch to the face – a fiendish little thing. Irresistible in its own stubborn way. Exactly the kind of game I can’t put down. And there’s a demo out now on Steam so you can try it. (Also, bonus points for the name.)
-Bertie
007: First Light, PC
Possibly due to trauma related to watching the very spooky Live and Let Die and at a far-too-young age, I’m not what you’d call much of a James Bond fan. So my anticipation level for 007: First Light was pretty much zero. But then the reviews came in, my curiosity was piqued, and – well – blimmin’ ‘eck IOI.
Firstly, there’s Patrick Gibson, who’s almost criminally charismatic in the lead role. Skepticism there: vanquished! But I’ll tell you what really sold me on this whole deal: what might well be the best video game tutorial ever. Bond and company’s early escapades in Malta, as the team trains to be the new generation of double-ohs, is a blast; an honest-to-goodness – and wonderfully stylish – classic training montage that bounds furiously between punching and sneaking and driving and stuff, hard-cutting from one to the other and back again, with giddying relentlessness.
It really shouldn’t work – you’re barely getting more than a few moments with any of these mechanics before it’s onto something new – but the sequence’s clever chronological repetition keeps things coherent (and actually informative!) as it dashes through the basics with cinematic panache. It was the moment any doubts I had about committing to this whole Bond thing evaporated completely. And then wandering around MI6! The trip to Q’s lab! The slapstick fisticuffs as you literally bring the house down while fighting your nemesis-turned-pal. It’s cracking stuff.
-Matt
Split Fiction, Xbox Series X
My husband and I are still journeying through Split Fiction, but have unintentionally picked up two additional passengers on the way: our children. The problem is, they are the definition of backseat gamers. “You need to roll, Mummy.” “Aim that way, Daddy.” “You both need to go over there.” Yes, we know!
There’s nothing else for it but to move their bedtimes earlier to immediately after dinner. I love my children more than anything, and would take a bullet for them, but I absolutely draw the line at them telling me how to play games.
-Victoria
Mortal Shell 2 beta, PC
I’m a sucker for a good Soulslike. I play so many of them, though, the spell has been broken a bit for me. But I can’t stop: I keep playing more and fixating on every tiny detail in the desperate hope of recreating that first-time rush I had; re-living the moment I fell in love with the genre. Now that you’ve read that, it won’t surprise you to learn that as soon as the Mortal Shell 2 beta was announced, and shadow-dropped during Summer Game Fest, I immediately turned on my PC to download it.
The beta was pitched as a work-in-progress build offering only the opening three hours of the game. I went in expecting that hour-count to be inflated and that it’ll probably take me an hour or so to see everything, but six hours later, I’d only just managed to see everything. I am still missing one bonfire, annoyingly.
The Mortal Shell 2 beta makes a killer first impression. Practically everything I loved about the original is improved upon. Even in this early state, I can feel how deliberate and rewarding combat remains; how open – but not meandering – the world is; and how exciting it is to find a new Shell – the game’s name for a class – or weapon. The Seal mechanic changes Soulslike combat fundamentals to such a degree I’m surprised no one tried it before.
If I don’t get tempted by any other game this weekend, I may just dive back in to find that last damn bonfire.
-Sherif
