Friday Night Survival

Has it really been a whole year since I posted about our Friday night game sessions? It's a case of out with the old and in with the new: we finished 40K: Martyr, got tired of the long loads of 40K: Space Marine 2 and got a bit tired out with Helldivers 2, which has a pretty good run!

We did try Elden Ring: Nightreign where and beat the first tri-wolf boss (and I soloed the sleepy flying ooze) but it runs too poorly on DL's machine so that's been put on the back burner for now. 

Mechwarrior 5: Clans has pulled majority of the time for us with good gameplay and an interesting story on top of the usual optional customization of everyone's mechs. We've won it now, including the Ghost Bear and Tukayid DLC expansions because it was that much fun! Definitely recommended for co-op sessions, but solo might feel a bit grindy and long.

We've also sailed on Void Crew which is a pretty neat "fly your customized spaceship through an array of roguelike challenges that include enemy ships and multiple space walks into space ruins for salvage". It's also a bit repetitive and I think there are only three bosses currently but we might go back into that in a bit. It's lack of story lets it down.

Green Hell is what we're hitting hard at the moment. Nice graphics, easy enough controls, and a story to boot have sucked us into this jungle survival game that includes hostile natives, deadly jaguars, and cool lessons on why not to drink untreated river water. It's not a style in our usual wheelhouse, but its very fun so far. Again though, seems it would be a drag in single player but three person co-op is just fun. For a tiny sized game it's got a pretty big map, so lets see how long it keeps us lost in the jungle!

Update: Green Hell's Spirit of Amazonia gives more of the same... just way too much more because the grind added to it is insane and not something I recommend at all. 

Helldivers 2: Ten Super Credit Farming Tips

If you're like me and just want to unlock all those warbonds in Helldivers 2 without opening your wallet then here are some quick tips to farm super credits! Note: While the tips are quick, the farming is going to be a bit of a grind... :P

1 - Desert planets yield more opportunities. More land space = more chance for points of interest on the map. My regular ones are Choohe and Vernen Wells against the automatons and Grand Errant against the terminids. 

Stars in the red circles give an approximate location of these three worlds.

2 - For the same reason above - illegal broadcast and drop pod data missions are the best ones to do as space isn't "wasted" with enemy bases or other facilities. If those aren't available, do one of the others types on the same planet to let them show up again - ideally an eliminate [single target] one as those are faster than flag raising, activating fuel pumps and sabotaging supply bases.

3 - Difficulty wise level 1 trivial missions are the best for super credits as you don't get "samples" in the pool of RNG treasures when you open up a POI. 

4 - If you have friends or allies, try do some farming with them as the locked bunkers that need two people to open have lots of chances for super credits. Anyone picks up super credits or medals, everyone (regardless of where they are on the map) gets the full amount.

5 - Regardless if you have friends the first warbond you unlock should be the "Control Group" to get the warp pack. Having this lets you teleport into those two button bunkers by yourself, improving your solo grinding immensely! If you find its "bouncing" you out instead of teleporting you in, stand back a little and/or crouch before warping. When warping out, always aim angled left to avoid exploding the potential fork lift outside which might kill you.

6 - Pick a load out for speed: Light armor, sprinting bonuses, the warp pack when you have it. Explosive grenade or weapon to open containers. You might even find such a weapon on planet. Treat it as your "lockpick" with a preference on fast fire / open rate.

7 - Even if my "green" common samples are full, I still pick them up at each POI so that the map marker changes from a white diamond to a regular gray pointer. It takes a little more time, but it lets me not worry about remembering where I've been. The sample count also gives me an idea of how many more spots there might be.

8 - I still do the mission and extraction because I'm interested in leveling up my weapons for customization, but if you have no interest in that and don't care about your win record feel free to just quit the mission as soon as you've hit all the POI's as any super credits and medals picked up are immediately "safe". 

9 - In every warbond, except the premium HALO one currently, there are 300 super credits to unlock which is great. 

10 - To retain your skills and sanity, after every unlocked warbond or two go into a few random super helldive missions (at least one against each faction) and spread democracy!

Fridays IN SPACE!

It's been a minute since I've talked about our Friday night game sessions and they all seem to be taking place in space at the moment! The early night staple is Helldivers 2 continues to be fun and crazy with all the updates in both terms of gear and story. The Illuminates are back on the map now and there's a black hole eating planets as it slowly makes its way to Super Earth. Lol.

We've also recently finished Warhammer 40,000: Inquisitor - Martyr that plays a little bit like Diablo, just in the Warhammer 40k universe with DL going full sword marine, Jim running a psyker, and myself the stock standard Space Marine specializing in bolt guns. It's quite funny that the warp gets angry if Jim uses too much power though, as it starts sending tornadoes and demons after him! Lol. The story is not bad, and there are loads of enemy types "add on" mechanics and game modes that could potentially keep you playing this for a long time after finishing the campaign but alas the game play is very repetitive and dull.

Now we've just started Space Marine 2 which is set in the same play space but this one has higher graphic demands with the over the shoulder camera while fighting swarms of tyranids. We definitely need to be more on our toes here for timed button presses mid combat and so far it's been really great - apart from that I can't see the cut scenes since it doesn't like my graphics card and the exorbitantly long loadings times. Not that it matters, the missions play well enough and give enough info as to what's going on. So far it's a very entertaining game.

Helldivers 2

The battle to spread managed democracy continues in this four player co-op that has stayed true to the old original while making the game better! You still have grenade-like stratagems to call down to deal with aliens, still have to find resources planet side and still have your super destroyer double as a game lobby to spend research and unlock gear. And there is also still some really epic music backing everything up!

The biggest improvement is the change of view in mission. Where previously it was a top-down affair where you were limited by the screen where your squad was and couldn't wander off on your own, now it is an over the shoulder camera with optional first person view when you aim down the sights of some weapons. This means you can definitely split up to tackle more objectives but death still comes as hard, fast, and usually with a mix of hilarity and annoyance. It's easily taken over our Friday game night sessions and is a real blast to play especially if you have a dedicated squad to play with. You can join other random Helldivers but your milage may vary - that's not something I've tried. Highly, highly recommended, even if Sony is doing BS things to try ruin it for everyone. Greed much?

Whatever Sony ass-hat tried to get that decision through needs to be fired, captured, and fed to aliens. FOR LIBERTY!

Dawn of War II

In the grim darkness of the far future, there is only war.

Now here's a fantastic squad based tactics game I replayed (despite saying I wouldn't), set in the Warhammer 40K universe and one that is very user-friendly as you lead the Space Marines into battle against a multitude of alien scum.

It is simplified to controlling the squad commanders, leveling and gearing them up, and making use of cover and special abilities. The extra nameless squad mates do help out but are just "tied" to their captain, vastly removing micro management.

Look out behind you!

There are also no structures to build, and though there are optional sites you can capture per mission that will give you boons moving forward in the campaign. The graphics, voice acting, music and story are all great too. Indeed the only fault I can give this is its penchant to reuse maps.

This one is an absolute blast to play, and for me superior to all the Command and Conquer titles I've previously reviewed. Highly recommended, even for non RTS folk. I give this 4.5 melta bombs out of 5.

Skyrim: Blood Lust

Adventures in Skyrim - spoilers ahead! You can follow the rest of the story here!

Jarl "bloody" Agnar's idea of a rescue mission.

Upon reporting of Kolgrim's death, Agnar orders we seize the advantage and basically kill everyone. This is a little hectic as there are a LOT more soldiers once we get out of the building but with much use of slow time and my speed bonus, I keep everyone alive up to the main gates. That's when we run into problems - Yngvarr rides up with a group of his elite warriors and demands Agnar to hand over the keys in exchange for everyone's lives. Being a moron, Agnar agrees.

Guess he's still upset about the last time we met.

Yngvarr rides off at the start of the melee and his elite warriors turn out to be pretty decent, especially since I hadn't yet recovered from the initial "escape". While my people survive the battle, the only other survivors are Agnar and his son. In a rage Agnar rallies his small army when we get back to Amber Creek, so that we may wage war directly on Yngvarr's fortress. Why he didn't do that at the start is a mystery, but just from the above it's clear he's not the smartest person around.

I'm tasked with clearing the gates for the main force.

In what feels more like a small skirmish, Agnar's forces quickly penetrate Yngvarr's defenses but once again the coward flees while his elites cover his escape. To be fair, if he gets the Heart of the Gods he becomes immortal so, it's a pretty good excuse. Agnar orders my team to go after him.

Probably because I've got the first ever space marine with me.

Helldivers

Spreading our way of life throughout the universe!

While this plays like a futuristic Gauntlet, it is hilarious and very fun. Up to four players cooperatively perform missions on planets against three very different types of aliens. Which planet and what mission you can decide yourself by flying your spaceship there, which also doubles as the lobby where you can spend research points to upgrade skills and gear.

The missions themselves are very fast and usually straightforward. You can complete runs in 5 - 6 minutes (depending on the difficulty) so those who are time-constrained can still get a jump or two in. For those with more time to spare, hanging around the planet surface for research materials is standard procedure. Dying is a common occurrence too, and usually comes not from the enemy (on lower levels) but from player stupidity or accidents which again is funny. There is no switching the "friendly fire" mode here! :P

For the EMPEROR! Oh wait... that's Warhammer 40k... :P

Missions only fail if all players are dead, otherwise surviving players can easily call for reinforcements to respawn their dead allies. If running solo, this happens automatically a set number of times. While the ground game play is pretty fun, its the universal map that really gives that sense of purpose to this game. As more quadrants are taken (by everyone playing Helldivers globally), the forces of Earth advance and eventually reach enemy home planets where the really crazy missions await. And yes, the enemy also pushes back!

There are ridable vehicles, pilotable mecha, air strikes, ahhhh so many shinies! If you like crazy, fast paced co-op that gives you quick satisfaction then this game is for you. I give it four stratagems out of five!

Space Hulk (2013)

The Emperor has dictated your weaponry.

The third video game based off the two player board game (as in - an exact copy), this once again sees space marine terminators boarding derelict space ships (aka "Space Hulks") to eradicate them of dangerous DNA eating aliens called genestealers within the dark and claustrophobic passages in turn based combat. It's almost impossible to have everyone survive every mission.

Certain doom.

Having played the very first video game (1993) I can safely say this one is better in all respects except perhaps for the intro. The easiest way to describe the gameplay would be XCOM light. You (and your opponent if you are doing a two player game) get action points each round to do various things. For terminators they get 4 AP to spend on walking, shooting, turning, etc. For genestealers all actions are just 1 point and with 6 AP each they can move a lot faster than the humans. You do not get to name, arm, or dress up your squad - just have to live with what is given to you.

Each round the marine player does get to roll for "bonus" AP though, earning 1-6 more points for the entire squad so there is that element of dice rolling randomness to take into account. I've had peoples guns jam three times in a row (within a single turn) as well as had one terminator bash up over 10 genestealers in close quarters so it goes both ways.

Unfortunately there are only 15 missions and not much of a finale, but it is a pretty solid game regardless and I recommend it to people that either like the Warhammer 40k universe or like XCOM like turn based action. I give this iteration of Space Hulk three storm bolters out of five. If you have played the board game though, there's probably nothing new for you here apart from tweak-able difficulties so you can probably skip it.

The Red Solstice (Early Access)

On Mars, everyone can hear you scream - regardless of distance. When you die anyway.

And you will die a LOT in this cooperative, top down shooter. There are currently only three maps, but they are huge and the missions (and secondary missions if you choose to activate them) pop up in semi-random spots for your team of space marines to hunt down. There are different suits you can use as you level up, and again proficiency in each suit lets you use more abilities from it.

There's a long list of abilities but you can only bring four with you each time. Fortunately you can assign and unassign points to each of those "components" as you like during the game. For example I like the Assault suits "knife" ability but if I need to be shooting stuff I can remove points from there and put it into something gun related. It's a bit messy but useful. Also messy but useful is the inventory. While you can only bring two weapons each player can carry up to six items that you find while scavenging on the field.

There's quite a large variation of "stuff" out there from medkits, bandages, and ammo to flares and a variety of explosives which all behave differently. There's also no tool tips on how any of those work in game so it comes down to trial and error and the occasional friendly fire incident.

Oops. Didn't mean to nuke the team. Soz guys.

That aside, while running the missions (which are easy enough on their own) the main enemy comes in the form of monsters originating from somewhere beneath the surface. They come in ever increasing waves from clearly marked spawn points but there are some that just can spawn out of the ground any where, much to the ire of people that like to establish strong defensible spots. Kinda pointless if enemy units can freely skip all your turrets, sandbags and mines.

I quite like that "darkness" is a thing in this game. Shooting enemies in the dark makes half your shots from already hard to find ammo miss, making lighted areas and flares of great importance. This is on top of the huge monsters later on that you simply will not have enough fire power to deal with (unless you brought 7 allies with you).

What I don't like is the player respawn system. If you die, you have to wait 2 minutes before re-appearing. There's currently a bug where sometimes you instantly die when you try to respawn making you wait another 2 minutes. Oh, and you can only respawn twice. Die a third time and you might be spending up to an hour just watching your team mates instead of playing with them. That is bad design in my book.  Currently I give this game two out of five bullets.

Shadow Warrior (2013)

There is a demon apocalypse and only one man can stop it! Erm... and the Space Marine from Doom is not available... *cough*

This remake of the original Shadow Warrior game is, in a word - fantastic. The graphics are beautiful (which is weird for a FPS), the action is fast paced, the controls easily mastered, the plot better than decent and the comedy top notch. Well, for low brow comedy that is. I mean the hero is named Lo Wang after all. Throughout the game you can power him and his many weapons up however you like - I played on Insane and didn't get enough to unlock everything so that means it all comes down to your preferred style of play.

There are two features that really sucked me in this game, the first of which is the sword. I -LOVE- melee, and the way they have done it here is awesome as the katana can become uber powerful if you put your skill points in that area. There is less, hide behind cover and shoot, and more crazy hectic evading that keeps your heart rate up. The second one is that your left hand can be controlled independently of your right. Using a rocket launcher? That's cool, you can still swing your sword with your other hand. Or you can akimbo some uzis. Or you can be using a healing spell while hacking stuff with your sword (that was me, most of the game).

Blood and Gore is a plus!

As expected the game play is quite linear but there is ample opportunity to explore to find secret areas but the main problems come from two spots which turns the game into a chore instead of an exciting experience. The first is ALL THE BOSS FIGHTS. They are damage sponges, who face you in spots where ammo spawns freely because the creators knew this and thought it was a good idea. End result is repetitive dullness. People need to learn that bosses need not be damage sponges. A fast fight where you die or they die in a few hits is WAY more effective (like the final zone in Mission 16, where you fight waves of demons - that is challenging but fun).

The other spot I didn't like is Mission 13. In previous levels I was averaging around 30 minutes to clear but slowly this timer kept increasing after every stage. Mission 13 is the culmination of "lets make a long level for no reason other than making it long". 2 hours to clear for me. It's not even because there are hard fights, it was simply because the level design is so expansive, like someone didn't get the memo of keeping things short and to the point. The fights themselves didn't help since it was the same configuration of bad guys just in different rooms - Them in a circle room. Them in a hall way. Them in a lobby with stair well. Really? In MMOs the term for that is GRINDY.

Lo Wang, you are an improvement over your predecessor but failed to reach total enlightenment - I give you 4 out of 5 demon hearts.

Warframe: Mad Cephalon

[My seventh post of the Blaugust Challenge!]

And now to another game with ninjas and guns, Warframe has had some major updates while I wasn't looking. Honestly I don't know what the "Mad Cephalon" is, but boy did a lot of work go into this game while I wasn't looking. There is a new tutorial for starters (optional for existing players) and everyone gets their own little spaceship which they can upgrade. The melee side of things have also gotten an upgrade with players now able to block incoming weapons fire and use various stances to better kill all your enemies with.

A bunch of baddies have also gotten upgrades and some are just totally new, just to make things even. This is on top of the new weapons, maps, and missions that are regularly added anyway. You can certainly get your Spacehulk fix by doing Invasion missions where you assist the Grineer or Corpus against Infested forces.

Furthermore there is a quest system now, and while there's not yet a lot in there I can see how it can grow easily. The one I'm currently working on is to create an incubator to hatch my own pet Kubrow (dog thing) - which again is a new addition to the companion section. Whatever they're doing, the makers of Warframe are certainly going well and they've made it better than ever to try out being a ninja in space! Not bad for a free to play game.

Now with ninja dogs!

Blaugust Bonus: I used to play Warhammer 40k and Necromunda with a bunch of school friends. Since the Space Marines, Orks, Imperials and Tyranids were already taken I decided to make my own army, complete with their own codex and lore. I made sure obviously made sure that everyone else was happy with them though before playing. Became a pretty balanced force in the end I think, and much like everyone else I was winning as much as I was losing. Those were good times. Expensive, but good.