Blade Strangers (PS4)

I have decided to approach this review differently than past reviews. I'm gonna ditch the artistic word play, and get to the point section by section. Those sections will include a story, characters, mechanics, modes, and visual/audio breakdown. By doing this I hope it will make digesting the information easier, and help you to find what you want to know about the game easier. Without further adieu here is my review of "Blade Strangers" for the PlayStation 4 ...

Shikhondo: Soul Eater (PS4)

I am in love!!! ... maybe lust!!! There's finally a shmup with a mature Asian folklore theme that I can get behind!!! This shmup I speak of is none other than Deer Farm's original shoot'em up creation, "Shikhondo: Soul Eater". A shmup brought to us by Nephilim Game Studios via conversion, and published by Digerati Distribution. The game itself is a five stage fright fight featuring a female Grim Reaper protagonist, and some sword wielding girl with equally soul sapping powers. They face off alone or in co-op against some of ancient Asia's/Korea's most frightful haunts. Ultimately battling through bullet hell, and facing off against truly hellish forms of yokai bosses after having bested their slightly lesser than hellish forms. It's a shoot'em up with expertly choreographed bullet hell patterns fitting of the bosses, and 6 modes of play that cater to all the challenges, and desires a shmup enthusiast might like. The experience itself is complimented by an electronic soundtrack filled with haunting melodic tunes, laughter, screams, and heavy hitting synthesized sounds when the action is at it's most intense. Combined with the traditional, and layered style of Asian scroll-like artwork everything comes to life in a way befitting of the theme it encompasses.

Warhammer 40K: Inquisitor Martyr - Post Review Post

My initial impressions of NeoCore Game's new ARPG addition to the Warhammer 40K video game franchise may have been a bit misleading, or overly zealous. The more I've played the game, and the more it has opened up the more flaws and new features have come into light. One of my few complaints regarding the flaws lies with how complicated the control scheme is in comparison to the game's obvious Diablo inspiration. The way the developer has the evasive roll for the Assassins mapped everywhere but the tilting of the 'Right Thumbstick' only serves to complicate things. Additionally autoguns which feature auto-tracking/auto-aim will often times target distant enemies or objects instead of what is directly in front of you. From what I can tell the options menu gives you no option to turn off auto-aim. I think the developer needs to either ditch auto-aim altogether, or fix the auto-aim targeting, especially in regards to mob situations.

Warhammer 40K: Inquisitor Martyr (PS4)

Going into this review I had preconceptions, and expectations. Knowing of GamesWorkshop's Warhammer table-top RPGs, and the legacy thereof I had initial concerns as to how lore inclusive the game would be. I also assumed it would be an action-RPG akin to the Diablo series. Both guesses weren't too far off the mark when it came to the reality of what the game presented. In regards to the lore it felt, as I feared, like a game that would be more appreciated by diehard Warhammer fans in that the lore wasn't origin oriented so much, and at the same time like a game that Diablo fans could appreciate without prior knowledge of the expansive series/universe. I greatly enjoyed my time with the game despite being lost in some of the lore references at times. It is a beautifully rendered masterpiece filled with some of the most impressive cutscenes you'll ever see, and overall visual design elements that impress in their own right as well as a voice actor cast that truly compliments the characters that are being portrayed. The gameplay itself isn't hard to pick up on, and with the touchpad tutorials shown in the initial singleplayer playthrough players will grow easily accustom to mechanics that feature a unique cover system, weapon swapping, weapon based skills, and combat that is more fluid than you could imagine.