The Gamers Arms

March's selection.

April.

Say hello to May's indiegame selection.

There're a few in there I like the look of, but Bread & Fred is the one I'm most intrigued by. It could either be hilarious fun or incredibly frustrating depending on both players' relative skill level and the game's difficulty.

I wasn't that impressed by the demo of Darkest Dungeon 2, sadly. I get that they want to try something different, but imo they've taken it too far from what was good about the first game, and driving the carriage around between encounters is incredibly tedious.

Sly Boots wrote: ↑

Sat Apr 29, 2023 5:46 pm

I wasn't that impressed by the demo of Darkest Dungeon 2, sadly. I get that they want to try something different, but imo they've taken it too far from what was good about the first game, and driving the carriage around between encounters is incredibly tedious.

I've heard a few people raise that issue about the carriage.

So DD2 is out today, and a couple of interesting things.

First, an eye-catching price of £33.50, although if you own DD1 on Steam you can get a 25% discount. Still, apparently it's pissed a lot of people off because it's considerably higher than it was selling for on Epic for the past year.

Secondly, the 'proper' reviews I've seen for it so far are highly positive, but the player reviews are a mixed bag, with lots of people saying it's a huge step backwards from the first game.

I probably won't be getting it, definitely not at that price.

Sly Boots wrote: ↑

Mon May 08, 2023 7:40 pm

So DD2 is out today, and a couple of interesting things.

First, an eye-catching price of £33.50, although if you own DD1 on Steam you can get a 25% discount. Still, apparently it's pissed a lot of people off because it's considerably higher than it was selling for on Epic for the past year.

Secondly, the 'proper' reviews I've seen for it so far are highly positive, but the player reviews are a mixed bag, with lots of people saying it's a huge step backwards from the first game.

I probably won't be getting it, definitely not at that price.

I don't have an issue with the price being higher than it has been on Epic, people could have got it there if they wanted it that badly. The Epic price is weirdly £1.99 cheaper than the Steam price now though.

Feels strange for people to say it is a step back when it's a different genre now.

Personally I think the carriage travel mechanic kills my interest in it, it's just so bland and boring I can't really believe how it got past the initial design brainstorm. It's the number one complaint even from people who actually like the game (and main criticism of the positive reviews).

Another big criticism I'm seeing - both from negative and positive perspectives - is that the character roster operates really poorly compared to the first; mercs are completely disposable and you never get attached to them or get a feeling that you're developing them. Apparently they lose a bunch of stuff (relationship with other mercs etc) between an individual run's five regions, and then pretty much everything else between runs themselves.

Changing so much was always going to be a bold move, but to be honest I'm left wondering whether it wouldn't have been better for them to just have an all-new IP instead of alienating a significant chunk of the first game's fans.

Apparently they lose a bunch of stuff (relationship with other mercs etc) between an individual run's five regions

I was watching some last night and that didn't appear to be the case.

I think it is fine to make something in the same IP that is different, you want to be able to build on the brand you have, especially as an indie studio. I think perhaps where they went wrong in terms of perception with fans of the first game is the title. They might have been better off giving it a sub-title rather than calling it Darkest Dungeon 2.

DjchunKfunK wrote: ↑

Wed May 10, 2023 8:00 am

Apparently they lose a bunch of stuff (relationship with other mercs etc) between an individual run's five regions

I was watching some last night and that didn't appear to be the case.

RPS review (which is where I'd seen that criticism) suggests otherwise:

Likewise, the relationships that manifest between them only last for one region before being re-rolled. This means you can patch up a rocky relationship between two heroes, which is good, but the two who fall in love may simply forget all about each other between runs, even if they both survived, which kind of sucks.

Sly Boots wrote: ↑

Wed May 10, 2023 6:38 pm

DjchunKfunK wrote: ↑

Wed May 10, 2023 8:00 am

Apparently they lose a bunch of stuff (relationship with other mercs etc) between an individual run's five regions

I was watching some last night and that didn't appear to be the case.

RPS review (which is where I'd seen that criticism) suggests otherwise:

Likewise, the relationships that manifest between them only last for one region before being re-rolled. This means you can patch up a rocky relationship between two heroes, which is good, but the two who fall in love may simply forget all about each other between runs, even if they both survived, which kind of sucks.

It seems I was thinking of affinity rather than relationships. From the patch notes that they put out when they made the changes it seems that they wanted to make it more of a tactical thing.

From their patch notes at the time of the change.

This change essentially strips out the majority of random act-outs (ie. combat interruptions) and reintroduces them in a more tactically engaging way. You now have the ability to leverage a positive relationship to incredible effect, or mitigate a negative one.

I do think looking at how something was done in the first game and then marking a game down because that isn't how it is done in the second game is a bit weird. They are two different games and it seems from what they have said about the changes they made to the relationship system, that they made the change because the original system didn't translate well to the new genre.

Affinity still needs to be managed between party members and that persists across the run.

June's video. Some good looking games this month and Trepang2 is finally coming out!

August's indie selection. A fair few higher tier indie games out this month.

I nearly posted about Bomb Rush Cyberfunk last night, but I thought the latest trailer was quite underwhelming because of the backing track they've used. It doesn't convey any of the energy JSR and JSRF had, and it's not the only trailer they've released with this issue. The debut trailer was more indicative of what I've been hoping for. I'm probably aging myself terribly by attempting to describe the genre of JSR games' soundtracks, but the happy, scratchy hip-hop music was what made them.