With Ironstrike VR, What’s Your Favourite Weapon to Fight With?

The ability to really immerse players in a proper fantasy world of fighting hordes of invaders in Ironstrike VR can be fun.

Ironstrike VR Title CardIronstrike VR certainly delivers a fun mediaeval combat experience as a four player co-op roguelike adventure on the Meta Quest. It’s about what groups can do as they face off against AI opponents in a simply rendered open world environment where the elements meet. While photo-realism isn’t the goal in the design of these realms, what’s presented so far hints at the possibilities should developer E McNeill want to re-skin this game in a dungeon crawl environment.

For now, it’s limited to some stunning dawn and dusk renders, and as for the swing and parry system, I feel more work is needed. One should be able to move the body instead of shaking a joystick to dodge blows. I found that standing still to smack down enemies is an issue. I should be able to move the body around, and on the Quest 2, some of it tracked. While the authentic combat experience isn’t always there, I love the concept, and was fighting my foes in waves. The number of opponents faced steadily grows as you progress through the game. At the time of writing, I’ve encountered as many as three at one time. There may be more, but I haven’t gotten there yet!

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When Racing Through the Worlds of Wizordum Gets Fast, Is There An End in Sight?

You gotta be fast and quick to respond in all the danger coming at you in Emberheart Games’s Wizordrum!

Wizordum Title CardEmberheart Games

Gamers who love to post speed runs on Twitch will find Wizordum to be the type of perfect shoot ’em up style game to parley with. While I prefer a dungeon crawl at a slow pace, this fantasy shooter is designed to be played fast and furious! That’s how most adventure games should be played. Sometimes, players spend too much time being methodical or are pouring through the books to insure encounters follow the rules, and while that’s okay in a pen and paper game, that’s not how it works in real life!

The fact players have to be on the ball in this videogame, that means being able to solve puzzles on the fly! There’s also being like Indiana Jones and escaping a room with the treasure without missing the beat of those arrows shooting at him! In this game, players better have that itchy trigger finger and nimble reflexes when blasting through a dungeon!

When there were times I wished I could pause the game to quickly sketch out a dungeon map, I suspect that would slow the game down. Thankfully, there is one provided in the game to show where the secrets lay, but it’s not as detailed as one I would make.

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The Phantoms are Everywhere in Ghostware: Arena of the Dead, Early Access Impressions

A few weeks into playing Ghostware: Arena of the Dead shows there’s still bugs to iron out and features to be added, but once when the adventure elements are put in, this game looks promising!

Ghostware Arena of the Dead ArtworkOnly skilled gamers who love first person shooters and platform style games can get requisitioned to play Ghostware: Arena of the Dead. This retro style game by Daev Team and published by HyperStrange has a great story to like, but if you can’t make it past the trainer mode and the first challenge, then this game is frustrating. That’s because where you respawn after dying again matters!

Here, you’re playing a videogame character and like in the movie TRON, where you’re transported to a dead world in the digital matrix. Here, you meet The Wizard and are forced to fight in old style games–like Capture the Flag and Deathmatch–to find the truth to what’s going on. Although I didn’t make it far in the early access release, I’ll keep trying again. Not many games will hook you into its concept, but here, I’m itching to get to the slower parts where what’s offered is marketed as an adventure game.

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With Spiders, Kill It With Fire VR Satisfies That Primal Urge

Perhaps it’s best not to listen to The Who’s “Boris the Spider” while playing Casey Donnellan Games’ Kill It With Fire VR.

Kill It With Fire VR TItle CardThe only thing I like to see changed with Casey Donnellan Games and tinyBuild‘s Kill It With Fire VR is that it should’ve been customised to include proper room scale tracking. On the Meta Quest 2, it’s included, but is very limited. The PSVR version handles it differently. The option to move around the limited space by either pushing the navigation stick or pointing to where you want to go isn’t perfect, but it at least gets people standing–the best way to play this game. The game deals with the rest. Using the controller to move might induce motion sickness. But if you can handle the nausea, the thrill of the hunt is on!

The older version is still fun to play, but to have that virtual world sensation delivers a unique experience. It’s like when I’m hunting them for real; whenever I spot a spider, I chase after these critters with a slip of cardboard and a cup to catch for release outside. I’m not that cruel in real life. Although, the more of them you can flatten in-game, the more satisfying the experience is. And the virtual apartment you live in opens up! But the game doesn’t end there. It’ll take you outdoors too and into other environments.

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Reigniting Gunscape for a New Generation

As for keeping Gunscape in the library, I feel a large enough fanbase has to exist before it gets too quickly sunsetted.

Gunscape PosterBlowfish Studios

Gunscape is a retro first-person shooter and Minecraft builder which could use a lot more polish to play on the go. It plays better on a proper computer screen because constructing maps is easier with a mouse and keyboard than what’s pre-defined on the Nintendo Switch. As a result, the controls don’t feel as intuitive when building, but perfect when fighting.

Otherwise, if you’re playing in another person’s sandbox with their construct, there’s a bit of fun to be had, assuming they added a story to go along with the map. The default scenario isn’t all that compelling, and I struggled to wonder why I’m roaming through this zombie laden lab at all.

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Krut: The Mythic Wings Puts the Legends and Lore of Southeast Asia on the Spotlight

Krut The Mythic Wings

Krut: The Mythic Wings is coming soon for gamers to take delight in! Not only is the artwork fantastic but also it takes inspiration from the legends and lore of Southeast Asia. To see the fusion of Indonesian, Cambodian and Thai beliefs (to name a few) makes up what I’m finding in this recently released trailer (see below).

There’s a lot to like if the trailer is any sign. Trying to identify the menagerie of creatures won’t be easy unless you know the legends, but they certainly demonstrate their ruthlessness in this hack-and-slash! Personally, I’m hoping the success will mean toys or a digital product line so I can have it grace my computer screen or wall. 

This a side-scrolling platformer from publisher Blowfish Studios, developers GoodJob Multimedia and Pixel Perfex, and producer RSU Horizon. A century-long battle will be rekindled on PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S, PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch, as well as PC and Mac via Steam, on Tuesday, July 12, 2022, as revealed in Indie Live Expo.

 

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