What are you currently playing?

[nolegskitten]

Playing Old World a lot, having fun with OCC challenges and my first steps in MP these days.

Also playing Sunless skies which is a gorgeous writing centred RPG. bit of OTC on the side but I'm too scared to attempt MP.

[Gold Ergo Sum]

Dead Cells is currently 50% on Steam with the new Fatal Falls DLC. There are two paid DLCs, but the developers have done a great job of constant updates and free content too.

If you have any interest in rogue-lites or retro-gaming, this is probably the best retro action game out there IMO. The mechanics are incredibly tight. There are many different paths to reach the end boss, leading to high replayability. And the soundtrack is fantastic.

I've put about 25 hours into the game and still return to it pretty regularly for a quick playthrough.

[Gold Ergo Sum]

I picked up Skul last week, another retro action rouge-lite, which came out of early access in late January.  I think I have about 25 hours in at this point and did beat the game already.  The difficulty level is pretty high overall, though.

You are a skeleton trying to rescue the Demon King from the evil humans.  The game was designed by a Korean developer, and the translations seem somewhat questionable.  The story itself is either nonsense, poorly translated, or both.

The game itself is pretty fun.  The main mechanic revolves around changing skulls.  Essentially, you can take your head off and put on a series of other skulls to transform your character entirely.  The skulls are tiered common, rare, unique and legendary based on power level.  For the non-legendary skulls, you can "destroy" any other skulls you receive to obtain bone shards which can be used to upgrade skulls by one tier at a time.  In this method, you can transform a common skull all the way up to a super powerful legendary version of the same skull.  There is a massive variety of base skulls (8 common, 13 rare, 9 unique, and 5 legendary skulls), with 1-3 potential upgraded versions of the common, rare, and unique skulls.  The skulls range from basic stuff like sword, mage, spear, and bow skulls, to quite unique options like The Prisoner (main character of Dead Cells), The Rider (a rip-off of the comic book character Ghost Rider), Rock Star (attacks by playing a guitar and amp and can summon a damage dealing band if you rock hard enough), and The Gambler (summons a slot machine and throws cards which vary in damage based on RNG) etc.  You can carry two skulls at a time and much of the skill of the game is swapping back and forth between them, as their skill cooldowns recharge while using the other skull.  As you upgrade skulls, you can earn new and different skills.  Interestingly, many of the skulls have 3-4 potential unique skills, and since you only are randomly assigned up to two per run, even the same skull can play quite differently from one run to the next.

In any run, you can hold up to nine items which provide passive benefits, and a quintessence, which provides both a passive benefit and an active ability.  You can buy those with gold earned during the run which is lost at the end of the run.  Damage is split between attack damage and magic damage and what type of damage the skull does varies and needs to be considered when choosing your skulls based on your items and quintessence bonuses.

There is a meta-currency, Dark Quartz, which you earn to make various persistent stat upgrades.

Beating the first mini-boss and boss of the first level take some time, and the level two boss is still difficult even after 15-20 hours.  But I feel like once you can figure out how to get a character strong enough to beat the level two boss, levels 3-5 progress much more easily.  I got my first win with the rare Ghost Rider skull upgraded twice to a legendary version combo'd with a unique power skull, The Beserker, which you actively want to avoid upgrading IMO, because the legendary version has some significant drawbacks.

The game is fun, although I do not see it having the replayability of Rogue Legacy gameplay-wise, or Hades story-wise.  That said, I easily knocked out 25 hours of entertainment for $15.99, and will still make some more runs moving forward (and have not maxed out the persistent stat upgrades yet), so I don't have any complaints.

[MJW (ya that one)]

[Herman Gigglethorpe]

I wanted something different from RPGs, so I started playing Lumines Remastered.  It's a falling block puzzle game derived from Tetris.  All blocks are 2 X 2 squares with various combinations of 2 colors.  Each square of the same color you create in the "well" will disappear when a glowing vertical line sweeps from left to right.  The trick is that Lumines is partially a rhythm game, so the line's speed and the background graphics depend on which song ("skin") is playing.  Slow songs are great for building combos but bad for you if you have a high stack, for example.


Shuffle seems much easier than Basic.  On Basic, I can get into the upper 40s at best, while in a Shuffle run I got to 85 and the game ended because I ran out of songs.


Challenge Mode is mostly what you'll be playing, and consists of Basic, Shuffle, and Endless options.  Basic goes through the same songs in the same order up to Level 105.  Shuffle plays songs you've unlocked in a random order, even those from outside Challenge Mode.  Puzzle and Mission modes are about forming specific shapes and clearing all blocks within a certain time or amount of moves.


Time Attack has you clearing as many blocks as possible within the time limit.  VS CPU must be impossible without lucky block order or the AI being stupid.  There are no difficulty settings, and the opponents are merciless.  Instead of dumping garbage blocks like in Tetris Attack or Meteos, in Lumines you play tug of war over the well based on whoever makes the highest combo. Some tracks for Shuffle can only be unlocked by playing through VS CPU.  Too bad there isn't an "unlock all songs" cheat!


I'll probably try out more puzzle games next week.

[Gustaran]

I've been playing more Monster Train lately. If you are still on the fence about the game, there is a great 10 part series by Youtuber "Never Nathaniel", who features all 10 champions with each of the 3 skill trees on the highest Covenant rank 25.

There is also a brief ~10 minute strategy guide for each champion at the beginning of each vid, if you are looking for something shorter.

[Herman Gigglethorpe]

Besides Lumines, I'm playing Yooka-Laylee and the Impossible Lair.  I think the Switch Eshop version is still on sale if you want to try it.


Impossible Lair is a 2D platformer similar to Donkey Kong Country since it's made by former Rare developers.  You can spot influences from other platformers too.  If you take a hit while both characters are alive, Laylee flies around and gives you a chance to catch her Yoshi's Island style.  Five coins are hidden in every level, similar to those in the New Super Mario Bros series.


The Impossible Lair stage itself is inspired by Breath of the Wild's version of Hyrule Castle.  You can go there and finish the game at the beginning, but you're unlikely to win unless you find the bees at the end of each level.  These bees give you more health in the Impossible Lair.


Most levels in the game can be altered to form new versions with 5 more coins to collect.  An early example is freezing water fountains into pillars that let you reach new areas, and block areas visited in the standard version. 


Tonics that you collect can change the difficulty and have tradeoffs.  If you pick the one that lets you keep coins after you die, you'll earn less money when playing through a stage.  If you select the one that gives enemies more health, you'll make more money.  Some tonics are purely cosmetic.


There's a 3D overworld too.  The closest example I can give is Mario + Rabbids Kingdom Battle, which may explain why the overworld music sounds so similar in both games.


So far the game is fun!  Donkey Kong Country got me into gaming, so picking this up for about $8 was a good idea.

[Cheater Hater]

Impossible Lair is on Game Pass too, so that's another easy way to get it. It was free on EGS at the end of 2019 so that's how I played it; I played most of the game, but still didn't want to try the titular lair--I haven't tried it since it got the update to add checkpoints, so maybe it's doable now.

If you're interested in DKC-style games, watch for Kaze and the Wild Masks next month: I played the demo during a recent Steam Festival (unfortunately it's not available right now I believe), and while it's a lot closer to the classic games (as opposed to Impossible Lair which is closer to the Returns pair) it was shockingly good.

[Chevalier Mal Fet]

I've picked Grand Tactician: The Civil War back up after letting the game stew for a bit, and I'm having fun.

GT is an American Civil War-themed game, a sort of Paradox-style real time with pause game. The killer app is that you control armies from the highest level of grand strategy all the way down to cover on the battlefield (if you want) - the game will transition between a big real time campaign map directing your armies about, to tactical battles where you can give orders to everything from the whole army at once down to individual brigades (the smallest unit modelled). It's in Early Access still and that shows - lots of bugs to work out and regrettably the AI is abysmal. But I've been having fun:

The campaign:

Here's the campaign map, which is in a period style that I find gorgeous:



The roads, railroads, rivers, telegraph lines all have real game impacts and you should plan your campaign around them. The little flags are our armies. For example, let's zoom in on the Tennessee and Cumberland rivers:




Here, at its most zoomed in level, we can see the Army of the Tennessee, commanded by Ulysses S. Grant, encamped between Fts. Donelson and Heiman. To the northwest is the First Corps of the Confederate Army of Tennessee, and beyond at Cairo we can see our own Army of the Mississippi and a supporting gunboat squadron. 

For demonstration purposes, though, let's jump to the Eastern Theater:




Visible is the Confederate Army of Virginia, encamped at Manassas Junction. By hovering over, we can see that they field about 62,000 men. However, only half are present with the formation across the river. The other 30,000 are scattered around various other attached commands. For example, Jackson's corps is visible at the top of the map, up the Potomac, defending Harper's Ferry. He has about 10,000 men. We don't know where the rest are, but Union intelligence suggests another rebel corps in southwest Virginia.

Because Johnny Reb is scattered, we have an opportunity here. Armies in GT generally move in Corps, separate formations on the map. They can range in strength from a single brigade all the way up to multi-division formations. You want to spread them out ot cover the map, but also keep them close enough to support each other in battle. The rebels have too much ground to cover, and they have scattered their corps all to hell. That gives us a chance. 

Historically, McClellan trained the Army of the Potomac (visible up around Washington) for another month or so before departing on his Peninsular campaign, flanking the rebels out of their positions. We're not going to do that and just throw ourselves at the Army of Virginia before they can concentrate. 

Here's the order of battle of the AotP:




My most powerful army by far, it fields 4 powerful corps, although there is a limited amount of cavalry. This is also the screen that lets you recruit new units, organized however you like. With nearly 100,000 men, we could probably beat the fully assembled Army of Virginia, but we'll have a crushing advantage against the 30,000 or so we'll face...if all our corps come up on time.

First, I order V Corps, detached from the army, to keep Jackson busy. With 18,000 men against Jackson's 7700, he should have no trouble chasing the Confederates up the valley. 

The other 4 corps I order to advance on Manassas: 




Notice the time stamps above my corps. One thing GT does is order delays - it takes time (on the campaign map) for your orders to flash up and down the telegraph wires and your troops to start moving; on the battlefield it takes time for couriers to reach your troops. If they're on the far side of the entire enemy army, it'll take a long time to get them to respond. To get around this, you can order attacks and whatnot to start on specific times and dates. You just have to anticipate what you'll need in advance and predict your enemy's moves. 




SO anyway we get this screen, a battle preview which gives a rough estimate of numbers and compositions. We have a crushing superiority in numbers, BUT only if our corps arrive - which they won't for nearly 20 hours. I Corps will need to not be defeated before they arrive. My guys are super green, so it's entirely possible that the rebels will rout me before my numbers can take the field. Let's look at the tactical battle!

A sample battle:

Like the campaign, the tactical battle map simulates a table with a map and period commander's reports:




We get a report on objectives and estimated enemy strength, plus various tables of strength and morale and etc. 

Here's the map:




If you know your Civil War history, you'll recognize a historically accurate map of the Bull Run battlefield. These battlefields are exhaustively recreated and accurate, BUT they're the only maps in teh game - any random encounter battle will draw the map from the nearest historical battle. So you'll see Chancellorsville/Wilderness, Shiloh, Chickamauga, 7 Day's, pretty often. I haven't invaded the north yet but I bet Antietam and Gettysburg are also recreated. 

But I just want to emphasize the accuracy of the maps. I've been to several of these battlefields, including obscure ones like Wilson's Creek, and they match my observations precisely.

Here's my deployment:




I deploy I Corps, under Irvin McDowell, which has 9 brigades organized into 3 divisions, plus a heavy artillery battery. My intention is to march southwest to Warrenton turnpike, opposite the rebel defenses on the far side of Bull Run creek, and take a defensive stance until the rest of the army is up. That won't be for several hours, possibly even days (battles can last multiple days). 

You don't have to play from the map (although I do, because I love it) - you can zoom in real close:




With that, let's set off! I unpause the game and fast forward. As we near Warrenton, though, we find out that Joe Johnston isn't sitting behind his defenses for us to concentrate against him - instead he throws his army over Bull Run in an effort to crush I Corps while it's  isolated!




Now, I quickly order the army to adopt defensive positions short of my goal, but with order delay some of my troops will still blunder into the oncoming Rebel onslaught. Indeed, we find the entire Army of Virginia present on the battlefield hurtling towards us:




While I get an artillery battery chewed up, most of the corps manages to take strong defensive positions on either side of the turnpike. We will hunker down and attempt to hold out until reinforcements arrive. Soon enough, the assault begins:






A few hours later, though, trouble develops. Longstreet's division enters the battle and starts to hit my right flank:




I have almost no reserves at all, so nothing that can really stop him from flanking me. I'm being hit all along the line, too, so it's hard to pull troops out. I eventually squeeze a few brigades off the southern end of my line and reinforce my right, pulling back over the turnpike. Several brigades get badly mauled first:




Pretty soon I Corps finds itself in danger as my right flank gets punched in. I lose a couple of brigades routing, but manage to scatter the rebs on the left and assemble something of a defensive line south of the road. The sun sinks low in the sky as Johnston hammers away on me, but we manage to cling on by our fingernails until nightfall:




The men spend a wet, weary night under arms, the rebels camped nearby on the banks of the river. However, the Confederates have missed their chance - III Corps and part of IV Corps arrive overnight. III Corps is deployed to the north, in the rear of the rebs. IV Corps only has 1 division present, but they're north of I Corps and will be able to reinforce my imperilled right flank:




The plan is simple: I Corps holds its positions until it can link up with IV Corps, meanwhile, III Corps will advance and seize the rear of the rebel position along Bull Run. Then we crush Johnston between us. 

The AI isn't the most adept, though. Johnston again attacks and takes no notice of the threats to his flanks. Soon the rebels are surrounded in a ring of fire:




It actually takes a further two days, but there's little drama left as II Corps and the rest of IV Corps join the battle and our advantage grows overwhelming. Soon we've won a major victory:




Note that it's hard to actually wipe out an army. Johnston manages to extract about half his men, albeit at the cost of all their guns. Still, the Army of Virginia losing 1/4 of its strength in 3 days of vicious fighting, plus losing the Manassas defenses, is a serious defeat for the Confederacy. 

Sure enough, within 4 days of the battle, Johnston has fled to the Shenandoah Valley while the Army of the Potomac has reached Fredericksburg:




4 days after that, only 2 weeks after the start of the campaign:

There's a long way to go yet - the game is buggy as hell, the UI is often clunky and unintuitive, and the AI for now is abysmal, but I really think there's a seed of a great game here. I love the art design, the battles feel authentic, and the combination of grand strategy with the tactical level is better implemented than almost any other game I know, which often only gets you one (Paradox for Grand Strategy) or the other (Ultimate General for tactical battles), or the scale is all wrong if they try to do both (the Total War series). I hope it can be polished up and succeed, I'm enjoying the alpha build so far!

[Sullla]

That was an amazing read Chevalier, thanks so much for posting that. This isn't a game that I would play myself but I'd love reading more about it if you find the time.