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.

I’ve seen some things, man, things you wouldn’t believe. Things that would make you run home crying to your mama. Fortunately, Red Hook Studios’ Darkest Dungeon isn’t one of those things.

Shot in the same vein as most dungeon crawlers, Darkest Dungeon is portrayed as a satisfying blend of strategy and micromanagement, sporting the ever-popular “I’m going to kick your ass” difficulty level made famous by games like Dark Souls.

So what’s the hook? Well your party members are portrayed as real people who feel real consequences, not just wooden mannequins wearing armour and weapons. What they experience down in the depths will cause both positive and negative mental shifts in their psyche, which will have an adverse effect on how they react in certain situations. Fear, mistrust, stress and anxiety can all become very real conditions for your roster of heroes, and managing this psychological battlefield in tandem with the actual fighting sounds like a clever evolution of the genre.

The psychologically disturbed Avengers assemble!

A great example of this evolution is when your Man-at-Arms becomes an alcoholic. Sure, everyone likes a pleasant drunk, especially if he becomes stronger in his drunken rage. However, his inebriation is a double-edged sword, as he becomes unpredictable and can sometimes endanger the party with his drunken whims. Do you choose to leave him behind when you set off on your next trip? Or do you simply hope this time won’t end in bloodshed for your team? It’s these decisions that are shaping up to be the bread and butter for Darkest Dungeon.

It’s important to note that while we know the premise and general idea of the gameplay, it’s still unclear as to how the player will interact with the game world, or what kind of art style we can expect to see from the finished product. My best guess at the moment is leaning towards a Legend of Grimrock-style labyrinth crawling perspective, where ghouls spring forward and are dealt with from a viewport/battle screen.

The game is still in a very early stage of development, with plans to launch a Kickstarter campaign in the future to help support development. This means the game will likely be launching sometime next year, with confirmed releases for PC, Mac and Linux already announced. For more information on the games progress, head on over to the official site.

© 2013, The Indie Mine. All rights reserved.

It’s a big world and only you can save it.

Kingdoms Fall tells the classic hero’s story of a young man as the lone warrior who can save his kingdom from an advancing evil. In a twist, our hero isn’t a nameless farmer or peasant, but the son of the king and destined to save the land. As in Zelda, the player guides the hero through on overworld map littered with monsters with the occasional village or encampment interspersed. NPCs give the towns a little more character by providing more information about whatever calamity they’re suffering, whether it be a personal or more global plight. The world itself is largely forgettable, but the suffering of the people is oftentimes portrayed quite well. I would like to have seen even more of that to instill a greater connection to the people and places in need of saving.

To solve those villagers’ problems or avenge their losses, our hero heads into dungeons, each of which is lorded over by an evil general of the invading Necromancer King of the North. Defeating these generals weakens the evil conqueror, but players will unsurprisingly have to earn their way to each boss battle. As with the overworld map, each dungeon room is infested with monsters, and often they’ll all have to be defeated in order to exit the room or gain a key to a locked door located elsewhere. The occasional puzzle is mixed in usually involving switches or pressure plates, but they’re rather simplistic in nature, at least early on. In true Zelda fashion, a special item is acquired in each dungeon that will help our hero either defeat the boss, or at least open up the path to get there. Kingdoms Fall actually does a pretty good job of ensuring that each item remains useful over the course of the game, including in the overworld. In fact, the latter dungeons require many of those special abilities, sometimes used in quick succession.

Deadly traps and monsters are made tougher by the game’s controls.

Unfortunately, the controls are without a doubt the most frustrating part of the game. Movement of the player is performed by dragging a finger in the desired direction. The same is true for changing the character’s orientation. It’s not as simple as it sounds though. One problematic requirement is that attacks must be lined up in the exact direction of the enemy. Despite an on-screen indicator, in the heat of the action it’s not always readily apparent when a player is facing diagonally. Trying to change the direction can be slow and prone to moving the character. The player must constantly move and shift when attacking or defending against a moving enemy. The controls are simply not built for such frenetic and minute adjustments. Even trying to enter doorways, line up to talk to NPCs, and move from screen to screen can prove troublesome. At times it felt more like I was battling the controls than the enemies themselves, and the game screams for a directional pad.

I often found myself missing the correct button when tapping the action abilities on the right side of the screen. A recent update made those buttons larger which somewhat helped with the problem, but it’s simply no replacement for a controller’s standard button layout for ease of use and tactile feedback. Long story short, an adventure game of this design requires precision and timing with the controls and unfortunately, that’s not present here. There are simply some technological limitations with today’s touchscreen gaming devices that are difficult, if not impossible to overcome.

Overall Rating: ★★★☆☆ 

What does this score mean?

A copy of this game was provided by the developer for that purpose. This game was reviewed on the iPad using version 1.0.4. Kingdoms Fall is available through the App Store.

© 2013, The Indie Mine. All rights reserved.

Lately I have been on a space-faring kick and had the urge to pilot a ship and explore the far reaches of the galaxy. As a result I have come upon Drox Operative, an action-based RPG created by Soldak Entertainment, Inc. The game is set in a randomly created galaxy full of dangerous enemies, unique civilizations, uncharted worlds, and the thirst for adventure. In the universe of Drox Operative you are a member of the titular Drox Operatives, a mercenary group who operate in the galaxy as a neutral entity and work to further their own gains. The Drox Operatives have no qualms over how they achieve their goals so you, as their newest member, have total free reign on how to expand.

You are thrown into the game world piloting your own Drox ship and what happens next is completely up to the player. You can scour the randomly-created galaxy wiping out dangerous monsters strewn throughout the area, gain favor with the local civilizations by aiding them with quests, or simply explore and discover strange anomalies and treasures. My career as a Drox Operative began with the christening of my own ship aptly named the “Space Weasel”. From there on I was plunked into a random jumpgate and thus began my journey into the unknown.

The Space Weasel in all her glory

Much like the abyss of space, the beginning of Drox Operative is very daunting. There is a lot of information you must take in right from the get go. The first time you play, a tutorial help-screen begins and I highly advise that you take a thorough examination of the help screens otherwise you will become easily lost. This game can be a bit unforgiving and simply going in blind will cut your adventures very short, very quickly. After mastering the basics, though, will get you into familiar and comfortable territory, as an RPG the mainstay of the game is loot and there are plenty of loot to be had. The items use a color-code system for rarity and grading much like other dungeon crawlers. You can venture out and acquire better equipment for your ship and with experience comes even bigger and better ships, meaning even more quality loot. Be sure not to dawdle too long, though. Unlike most ARPG’s things happen and progress whether you intervene or not. Monsters will patrol the galaxy and feuds between rival civilizations will ensue. Entire worlds may rise and fall without you even being aware of it. You are simply a pawn in the vast universe of Drox Operative.

Anomalies, monsters, incoming missile, just another day for a Drox Operative

You have an end-goal, multiple ones in fact, that you must reach in order to “win” that current galaxy and progress to the next one. Each time you must ensure that the Drox come up on top via whichever method you choose, be it a decisive military win and destroying all those who appose you and your ally, trading goods and becoming rich with an economic win, using brute force and striking fear into the other surviving races so they will not dare oppose you, or simply become a legend and do legendary deeds by vanquishing vile monsters. The choice is yours to make, as a Drox Operative you call the shots and you win how you want to.

Galactic diplomacy, how hard can it be?

The game has a very distinct feel about its gameplay, it plays a lot like a traditional dungeon crawler and yet has a bit of Civilization or RTS mashed into it. An odd mix, but it certainly does work and has its own unique allure. If you have an itching to pilot your own starship and explore, plunder, destroy, or what have you, Drox Operative will certainly not disappoint. My space-faring career may have just started, but the Space Weasel and her crew will soon be feared by all as we aim to be the top Drox Operative.

Great Game!

Overall Rating: ★★★★☆ 

What does this score mean?

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

Visit the developer’s page
Demo or buy the game

© 2013, The Indie Mine. All rights reserved.