Wordsmith's Anvil

  Image courtesy of Mixed Realms & Soft Swag Holdings Deckbuilders are those kinds of games that have a certain niche fan base that can be hard for some companies to break into. In an attempt to do so with Gordian Quest , Mixed Realms and Soft Swag decided to go for a jumble of different elements that might appeal to a larger fan base.      Think of it like the Wu-Tang strategy.      Before the Wu was formed, each one of the rappers had their own fans, but there weren't enough of them to really generate any kind of income for them as individuals. By joining forces to create a rap supergroup, fans of Inspectah Deck could be introduced to the likes of Method Man. Gordian Quest doesn't necessarily have its own RZA, but it does have an amalgam of elements from RPGs, dice-rolling dungeons and dragons themes, roguelike runs, and deckbuilding strategies that all combine to create its gaming experience.     The problem is that it can be a little ...

  Image courtesy of A44 Games Review bombing has become something of an unfortunate part of the gaming community in recent years. I feel like it never used to be a problem until the divide in this country started deciding to politicize any and everything that gets put out. If a character is gay or trans in a game, review bomb it. Protagonist a female? Okay, I guess... but! Is she not as cute as you like? Review bomb it. Those 1/10 bombs do more damage than you'd think, as the people who decide to just look at the overall user scores are less apt to purchase a game simply due to the crushing score a group of bitter people decided to give it.     Flintlock: The Siege of Dawn is one such game. On Metacritic, you can see the user score as a 4.7/10, but on IGN's Playlist app you can find it at a much closer to accuracy 6.7/10. That's a two-point differential that nearly had me skip this game over had I not looked into the possibility of review-bombing. Sure enough, just like w...

  Image courtesy of Deck Nine and Telltale Games If you know anything about the show The Expanse , then you probably remember Camina Drummer as the no-nonsense take-charge from the Belt. She spends a lot of the series in the #2 role amongst the likes of Belter leaders, those bosmangs, like Anderson Dawes or Fred Johnson, but Drummer consistently shows that her leadership style of cutting through the bullshit and doing the heavy lifting from the front will one day place her as top dog. The Expanse: A Telltale Series displays that penchant for solid leadership even more.     Cara Gee returns to voice Drummer without skipping a beat in style, voice, and attitude in this prequel taking place around three years before the events of The Expanse 's first season. Drummer is the Executive Officer, there's that #2 again, on a scavenger ship called The Artemis that is exploring the solar system in search of salvage. They're hoping to hit a score big enough to let the entire crew liv...

  Image courtesy of Gunfire Games Recently I reviewed Chronos: Before the Ashes and felt like it was good enough. It held its own in trying to pull a VR experience into a  more traditional hack n' slash. Remnant is the sequel to Chronos , and moves the series forward in every way.     In Remnant: From the Ashes  you play a nameless protagonist arriving at the same Ward 13 from Chronos with a mind to stopping the root that threaten Earth. The "root" is the name given to all the plantlike creatures that threaten every world in the series, and they have done so by eliminating certain guardians that were meant to look over these worlds. Your main goal in the game is to find Ford, the original commander of Ward 13 and a man who did more than simply witness the initial invasion of the root. You have to fight through an army of problems in order to get to him and solve the ultimate disaster across these worlds, destroying minions, mid-levels, and full-on bosses in the...

  Image courtesy of Fabled Games This is going to be a relatively short review, mainly because it's a relatively short game.     That's not to say that you can't pour hours upon hours into Pirates Outlaws , because you certainly can, but in terms of a storyline ushering you from a start to a finish... That's not really what's going on here.     Pirates Outlaws is a deck-building roguelike with a clear pirate theme. It is divided into multiple sections, or isles, that must be unlocked through playthroughs. Only one is ready at the offset, but it has varied choices as you sail the sea that make each run unique while you fight your way through thugs, drunks, and bosses to achieve treasures lying in wait. The Good There really is some good here for such a small little indie.     The art style is incredibly unique. The characters look like little paper cut-outs mishmashed together to create a character, and that works well for a game that isn't afraid to ke...

Image courtesy of Jessica Mastorakos & Michael Pritsos Wailing of newborns could be heard from down the hallway as the two officials strode quietly to the nursery. Each man carried a wax candle with a cupped hand to shield the flame. Upon entering the nursery, they broke apart and went to the infants. The room was still dim with four torches providing light from each corner. The younger official smiled as he looked down on the inquisitive faces of each boy and girl. “Jacob,” the older man called from the other side of the room. “Careful not to spill the wax.” “I know,” Jacob replied curtly. He rolled his eyes and felt a slight tension in the room as his superior trespassed into his mind. “ I know how to do my job,” Jacob thought flippantly. “I merely wished to remind you of the children’s fragility. Watch the flame,” Esau answered without looking at his young companion. Jacob guarded his thoughts and turned to the small girl before him. He held the candle above her cradle. The flam...

  Image Courtesy of Gunfire Games A few months ago I reviewed a game called Wayfinder . It was one of the first reviews that I've done, and I wanted to showcase it early on for a couple of reasons. For one, I had just finished it so as always I wanted to stay pertinent to what I am playing at the time. For two, it was made by Airship Syndicate, a company that I have grown fond of after playing Battle Chasers and Ruined King . There's a storied past here, but I'm not going to go into full detail for the sake of your time. Suffice to say that there was once a game studio called Vigil Games (the originators of the Darksiders series) that was established by a couple individuals named Joe Madureira (comic artist/developer Joe Mad) and David Adams. Vigil eventually went bankrupt and everyone had to go their separate ways, with some of company joining Airship Syndicate with Joe Mad and the others going with David Adams to start Gunfire Games.     Fast-forward into Gunfire's re...