Magicians and Looters pays homage to old Metroid-esque side-scrollers and does it well. It has a beautiful 2D high-definition pixel artstyle, real time map system, items to discover, and skills to unlock. You play as three apprentice sorcerers aiming to save their mentor from the ominous castle Looter. In Magicians and Looters you switch between  Brent, Nyn and Vienna. Each character has access to the same magic abilities, but also have their own personal abilities. After the epilogue is finished you are able to switch between the three at any save point.

Brent using in-game map

Brent is a classic warrior type, toting a sword and shield. He is the slowest of the three, but can use his shield to block incoming melee and projectile attacks from any direction. He later gains the ability to wall jump, a useful skill for solving puzzles, gaining loot and reaching hidden areas. Brent’s personality is very straightforward. He has good intentions but is very oblivious at times.

Vienna is the sister of Brent, and she’s a headstrong fighter type who specializes in speed and hand-to-hand combat. She is by far the fastest of the three and her only weapons are her fists. She can also equip the most accessories and has more abilities at her disposal than the other two. Vienna is my personal favorite because she has an “in your face” attitude that matches her fighting style. She has abilities like a high jump, wall run and a falcon kick (a likely nod to the Blue Falcon). Nyn and Brent occasionally mention that Vienna may have a screw loose. The fact that she unlocks abilities from her talking cat isn’t helping her case.

Nyn is a hardened ex-child mercenary that doesn’t back down from a fight, and she would be considered the rogue of the group. She can equip two swords, is speedy and has an evasive roll. She later attains the ability to slide, furthering her usefulness in evasion and obstacle clearing. She was my least favorite to play as, but I loved any of the dialog involving her. She is sarcastic, quick-witted and doesn’t pull punches when it comes to her opinions.

While I did find the game’s dialog funny, the actual plot lacked a bit. The story played off the popular cliches of older successes. A majority of the game’s talking has a satirical undertone that I loved, often taking jabs at current games versus the older ones. In one instance, two sorcerers converse about how sorcerers nowadays always use tutorials and teleporting instead of backtracking. I found this hilarious and spot on as today’s games have a tendency to spoon feed players. On random occasions and at save points, the main characters might have a chat with one another. This would at times provide backstory to one or more of the characters in a witty fashion.

King of Looter

Exploration is encouraged and necessary. Rather than grinding to gain levels you must collect a certain number of orbs. These orbs are usually well hidden, and each time you level up the number of orbs required increases. This is a nice reward system for completionists and makes backtracking that much more worthwhile. Orbs aren’t the only things you will discover while exploring; weapons, accessories and even the occasional dungeon wall chicken are out there, ripe for the picking.

The gameplay is easy to get a feel for, and fans of older Castlevania games will feel at home here. For this review I played the PC version and used an Xbox 360 gamepad. The controls are pretty standard with jump, attack and ability buttons. The ability varies depending on the character selected; a block for Brent, back dash for Vienna, and roll/slide for Nyn. Activating the map is done in real time and fills in as you discover new areas. Holding down the right trigger gives you access to any magic abilities that you’ve unlocked including shooting fruit. Yep, in this game rapid fire fruit is a magic spell, attained from defeating the devious Fruit Magician.

I thoroughly enjoyed my time with Magicians and Looters, and I honestly hope that Morgopolis Studios puts out another one. With a $7.99 price tag it’s well worth the money. Magicians and Looters is available for PC and Xbox 360, and you can purchase your copy here.

Overall Rating: ★★★★☆ 

What does this score mean?

This game was reviewed using a copy provided by the developer for that purpose.

© 2014, The Indie Mine. All rights reserved.

Brimstone is a pleasurable gaming experience that combines action/adventure and dungeon crawling gameplay with distinct RPG features, played from a top down point of view. It molds all these varied aspects into one very enjoyable experience that provides very addictive gameplay and keeps players coming back for more.

The controls are simple to use. As just one example, traversing inventory contents and character statistics are pretty straightforward and feel standard.

The dungeons you’ll explore are dark and particularly eerie, which perfectly fits the tone of play. The background music in each level is the same uncanny mixture of cacophonous noises that leave you feeling on edge, never sure what’s going to happen next. At times it even goes silent, which further invokes a sense of dread. The music works extremely well with the game and leaves for nothing to be desired in the way of a soundtrack.

Brimstone uses randomly-generated dungeons. Each level has a different floor plan, and this system of random generation adds variety which ultimately increases replay value. In spite of this, if you are a gamer big on story, you will be replaying the same short tale repeatedly. Every time a player starts the game your character’s stats and attributes will remain the same but the “story” begins anew. However, the game has four different difficulty levels (including the recently-added “Heroes Might” content) which increases the level of the monsters you face throughout the dungeon-rummaging quest.

Brimstone battle

There are a considerable number of different foes for you to face and by no means will you take them on one at a time. Enemies in a room will swarm you immediately if that is their normal attack pattern. Trapping yourself in a corner and being easily overwhelmed is a sure fire way to die. Enemies vary in the manner in which they attack. There are short range attacking enemies and long range, with both physical and magical damage to deal out at your character. I took the Spartan approach and stood in the doorway when it was a mass of enemies I couldn’t run in and easily handle. They’ll come at you but cannot surround you, rendering their numbers useless. From there it’s all hack n’ slash satisfaction.

The game primarily consists of leveling up your character. This includes upgrading their stats and outfitting them with multiple armor pieces, weapons and charms. Therein is where the true addictive nature of the game resides. Punchbag Entertainment strategically formed the game where character development is completely your own. Each character is essentially a blank slate and you are free to upgrade them exactly how you see fit. You have the opportunity to upgrade Strength, Toughness, Dexterity and Magic. Each attribute has a different affect and your added and accumulated points in these attributes will dictate what weapons you can wield and the particular types of armor you can wear as well. So if being a mage is an uncontrollable fetish, you have total control of how many magic points you’ll bestow upon your character whenever you level up. The ability to mold your character into whatever you see fit creates a feel of intense immersion, which kept bringing me back to play.

Brimstone Inventory Screen

The weapon system seemed to be  randomized, with thousands of different weapons to choose from. This makes the process of looting incredibly fun. Continuously searching for that next weapon or piece of armor that may only be slightly improving upon what you currently wield is every RPG fan’s obsession and provides an additional sense of enthusiasm while playing. The attributes provided by weapons also help character development in that they may add extra points to your attributes on top of what the base points are set at.

In the end, Brimstone: Heroes’ Might is a hybrid game of welded pieces that mesh together pleasantly by providing hours of character developing addictive gameplay and a large amount of content to boot. Not only can you embark on your heroes tale solo, but you can also link up with others on Xbox Live or direct link. Although the gameplay can eventually get a bit repetitive, I believe Punchbag Entertainment ultimately reached their goal of producing a solid action RPG that can be hard to put down. You can download the trial version of the game or purchase the full version on the Xbox Live marketplace.

Overall Rating: ★★★★☆ 

This game was reviewed using a copy provided by the developer for that purpose.

© 2012 – 2013, The Indie Mine. All rights reserved.