Halo (TV Series 2 Seasons)

Needed more battles and less intrigue.

In this future based off a popular game franchise, genetically engineered super soldiers are humanity's only hope against the evil alien races. No, it's not Warhammer 40k - this is Halo with protagonist "Master Chief" played by Pablo Schrieber.

Over the course of two seasons there are some cool fight scenes with a decent body count but, in a prime example of shooting themselves in the foot, the story also focuses on... random people who have nothing to do with the franchise? What?

Yeah, feels like the woke got to this one which is why it only lasted two seasons. That and/or they needed better writers. While I still enjoyed it, I can understand why it got canned.

Skyrim: Tartarus

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

Apparently I've been teleported here to stop some one named Tartarus from getting "The Index", and after entering his chamber was I in for a world of hurt! From atop his god shield platform he summoned exploding fire wolves and worse, insta-kill bombs that would drop from the ceiling! There was no evading the death blast, instead I needed to shoot all of them before they hit the floor - which still somehow ignited all the oil spills across the surface.

They happen to look like sea mines...

With enough damage done to the floor we both fell to the lower level where Tartarus summoned an easily beatable flame elemental. His meteor storm spell was quite annoying though, but thankfully nullified by turning off a submerged gas valve nearby. Annoyed at this Tartarus then decided I'd freeze instead of burn, coating the entire area with ice and summoning ice elementals who when killed shattered into smaller and smaller versions of themselves. It took me some time to realize that they would also "join" back together. While the combat wasn't difficult, ensuring that all the ice pieces from the defeated enemies stayed apart was quite tricky.

Electrifying a water skeleton makes it weaker?

A couple of moving platforms later and I was now in a chamber with elemental skeletons while Tartarus ran away. This was really annoying as the only way to damage them was to lure them to the corresponding opposite element, and since they were aware enough to stay away from said locations I was purely relying on knock backs to get the job done. Very tedious and frustrating. My reward for getting past that chamber were twin energy swords from Halo. Huh!?

Hrm, this feels very cross-overish!

Lost in the company of zombies

Usually when you play a first person shooter, you envision your character to be some sort of youthful to middle-aged, fit soldier or explorer type. Not so in Necrovision: Lost Company. This game puts you in the shoes of Jonas Zimmerman, a somewhat psychotic aged german scientist during WWI. This doesn't stop him from kicking ass though - not in the least! Being old doesn't mean you can't run around with 2 pistols, 3 rifles, 1 shotgun, 1 SMG, 1 BAR, 3 HMGs, 5 grenades, 5 bayonetts, a gasmask, and a club or shovel for starters. He can also literally "kick" on top of all that!

Yes. Apparently there was some wierd sh!t going on in WWI.

Also, not Jonas Zimmerman.

Partially due to a plague he created, zombies and possessed men now wander around and pose the bulk of your main opponents in the game, with more horrors further in. Their AI is not that great (they ARE zombies afterall) but they come at you in large waves. Despite being a "horror-shooter", there are few "BOO!" scares and most of the horror simply comes from being surrounded by scum most of the time. And that's what makes it fun!

The combat is fastpaced and enemies numerous, giving you ample opportunity to use all of the gear the good doctor can carry with him. There's also a fun dual wield system where you can mix and match which two one-handed items you will use simultaneously. You also have an adrenaline meter which fills as you kill foes and can be used to slow time (for a very brief period) and performing specific enemy-killing combos refills this meter faster.

On top of the main story you will be unlocking extra challenge maps as you progress, and they really all are quite difficult timed tasks with some very worthwhile rewards if you can beat them. Unfortunately multiplayer wise only has the standard set of PvP options with no coop at all. I also highly recommend a three button mouse (or one with a rollerbutton) if you don't have one as you will want the middle "melee" attack on the last stages of the game.

I went through single-player on the hardest difficulty which does not let you save the game (there are checkpoints though), and got through it in four nights. Players with experience from other shooters will probably want to do the same as I found it just challenging enough without being despairingly impossible in the tough parts.

While the graphics are not as crisp as they can be (compared to other shooters), they are detailed enough and I thought the sound and voice overs are well done. Control wise, the doc moves pretty smoothly around the large and well-designed maps. You get to drive around in a tank and pilot a plane too, though the plane handles very arcade-ly. All in all, despite being a far cry from Halo or Call of Duty it's a fun and decent game if you like the genre.