Ghostrunner Review

 Ghostrunner
Developed by: One More Level/3DRealms
Published by: 505 Games
Date of Release: October 27, 2020
Price: $29.99

In this modern world of First Person gaming it seems like everything that has come out as of late (barring some exceptional standouts such as Doom Eternal) are just sameish examples of run and gun gameplay all seemingly cut from the same Call of Duty colored cloth. oversimplified linear gameplay that holds your hand every step of the way seems to be the new norm. However this is not the case with this latest game to come out of 3DRealms, Ghostrunner. Truly a magnum opus of high-speed parkour and swordplay, Ghostrunner brings a fresh feel to the world of First person gaming.

 

The first thing you might notice  about Ghostrunner is that it's not an FPS, it is in actuality a first person platformer/hack and slash game. The whole experience entails jumping from surface to wall, swinging from grapple points, slowing down time in midair to doge bullets, and carving your foes into meaty chunks. It's absolutely hard as balls, you WILL die over and over again, and then ask for another helping of carnage, and I wouldn't want it any other way. (Hell, I nominated it for the "Best Game You Suck At" category on the Steam Awards!) Every time you die it's as easy as pushing the restart button to continue from the last checkpoint, and try, try, try again. Please Sir, may I have another?

 

Honestly the time I spent with Ghostrunner is some of the best I've had in the last few months (besides the Doom Eternal DLC), and I can honestly see myself replaying it over and over. The gameplay has just the right hook to keep drawing you back in, and despite the slightly linear pathway through the game, it really is rather sandboxy and gives out a lot of options to deal with how you progress. The tight controls and superb graphics propel Ghostrunner to being a fantastic showpiece (especially if you have an RTX card), and I would seriously recommend it to anyone who wants a nice cyberpunk adventure before 2077 hits in December. Despite being unrelated, Ghostrunner would really fit into that universe. Definitely don't miss this one!

Prinny 1&2: Exploded and Reloaded

Prinny 1&2: Exploded and Reloaded

Developed By: NIS

Published By: NISA

Date of Release: October 13, 2020

Price: $19.99 per game

 

 

Back in good old 2008 there was a quaint little handheld known as the PlayStation Portable (PSP for short). It saw many amazing releases over the years, and was host to quite a few Disgaea titles, not the least of which were the games Prinny: Can I Really Be the Hero? as well as Prinny 2: Dawn of Operation Panties, Dood!. Both titles were sidescrolling beat-em-ups that saw a squad of Prinnies (basically damned souls trapped in explosive penguins) searching for their master's desserts and undergarments respectively. They were perfectly decent for the time, but do they hold up in this modern day and age? Unfortunately not so much.

 

Prinny 1&2: Exploded and Reloaded takes both of the original Prinny games and... really doesn't do a lot with them. The graphics are the same old somewhat blurry sprites that were on the PSP, though the backgrounds are at least in higher resolution this time around. This game really could have benefited from the option to use clean unfiltered sprites, they would have looked a lot nicer than the blurry bilinear filtering that is on offer in this collection. The sound and music are both fine, totally up to the standard of the Disgaea series in general. Even though the rest of the presentation is acceptable, that makes the real elephant in the room stand out even more: the outdated and downright unresponsive controls.

The fact of the matter is that the Prinnies control like bricks mired in jello, they have absolutely no aerial control once you jump either, instead relying on momentum to move you around. That makes the platforming entirely hit and miss and will lead to a lot of wasted lives. The combat isn't much better either, as both the platforming and combat controls suffer from a good amount of input lag even when playing in handheld mode. When it comes right down to it, if you want to play these games it might be better to seek out a PSP and the original versions, unless NISA decides to fix them with a patch. I just can't recommend these half-baked bare-bones ports at this price, maybe if they were $5 each it would be a different matter, but as it is they're just to expensive for what you get.

Strife: Veteran Edition Review (Nintendo Switch)

Strife: Veteran Edition (Nintendo Switch)
Developed By: Rogue Entertainment/Night Dive Studios
Published By: Night Dive Studios
Date of Release: October 25, 2020
Price: $9.99


Ahhh Strife! Back in 1996, Rogue Entertainment made it's debut with the most ambitious use of the Doom engine yet. Strife hit the scene as the first true story-driven FPS/RPG hybrid. Using a hub system quite similar to Hexen, Strife also added in NPCs, voiced dialog, and actual conversation choices that affect the outcome of the game. Compared to the mindless run and gun action of previous Doom-based games, this was quite a refreshing change. 18 years later in 2014 Night Dive Studios took the original Strife and reworked it into the masterful Strife: Veteran Edition for the PC. And now in 2020, Night Dive has taken Strife yet another step forward in it's history of badassery by bringing this classic masterpiece to the Nintendo Switch.

Right off the bat when you start up Strife: Veteran Edition you're greeted with a delicious crunchy pixelated interface, ripped straight out of the 90's. Night Dive has perfectly preserved the look and feel of the classic graphics presentation, avoiding the missteps that most studios make when remastering older titles. There are no cruddy out of place looking high-res fonts or interface assets here to clash with the pixelly goodness. On top of that the game runs smoothly in 720p both docked and in handheld (though a 1080p docked patch is coming!), and feels fluid in motion, thanks to the port running a customized version of Chocolate Strife. one of my favorite additions is the adjustable FOV, which can help greatly when playing handheld. FOV sliders are an addition that all Switch FPS titles (and console titles in general) could benefit from in my opinion.

Everything that was great about Strife's campaign is intact here from the decent writing, glorious sprawling levels (thank goodness for the automap!), mild RPG elements, an ass-kicking arsenal of weapons to shred your foes with, awesome voice acting, an atmospheric and pulse-pounding soundtrack, and on top of it all a pretty damn good story with meaningful choices and multiple endings to tie it all together. The only thing that didn't make the cut unfortunately is the multiplayer mode. Honestly though in my humble opinion the multiplayer was never that good, and felt tacked on to begin with. The Switch version more than makes up with it with some excellent gyro controls, something that always gives these retro classics a new feel. 

 

The Switch has really become a haven for retro classics lately with the likes of the original Dooms, Doom 64, Duke Nukem 3D and now Strife. Here's hoping that Night Dive gets a chance to work on more retro FPS ports, as it's nice to be able to play them anytime, anywhere. Maybe they could get the rights to do a Serpent Rider Trilogy remaster? Maybe a port of the original lovecraftian Quake, nothing like quad damage on the can! Anyway back on topic, Strife: Veteran Edition for the switch is IMO the best version of it yet. It’ll take on average 8 hours to see the story through, and there’s some decent hidden stuff to hunt for, which is a good meaty chunk of fun for the mere $9.99 asking price. If classic shooters are your thing then you should totally pick it up ASAP, as it's on sale for 25% off until November 8th!