Wordsmith's Anvil

  Image credit: Jump Over the Age Ah. That refreshing Amos Roddy music again.     Some games can really nail down a feeling and a tone that you're looking for as a gamer. Not everything has to be shooting and carving people up . Not everything has to be incredibly crafted dramas fit for television . Some stuff can just be simply great writing with an atmospheric  tune ushering you along through the narrative.     Citizen Sleeper 2: Starward Vector puts us in the shoes of a sleeper again. For those not in the know, a sleeper is an individual who has leased out their consciousness to a megacorp in order to get their ticket off-world in some shape or fashion. The sleeper themselves might be actually in a bunker several lightyears away, but the body their consciousness is operating looks and functions in a nearly-human way on different space stations, ships, or even asteroids in the belt of the Helion System. They need to eat, walk, sleep, and endure the strugg...

Image credit: The Bearded Ladies The Bearded Ladies have a solid reputation in the gaming industry because of their efforts with Mutant Year Zero , a cartoonish-yet-violent take on the apocalypse that involves anthropomorphic animals and strategic combat. Miasma Chronicles came after this, expanding on the studio's proven formula in true XCOM fashion.     In Miasma Chronicles , you play as a young kid named Elvis who is desperate to find his mother. He knows that she is on the other side of a wall of hardened miasma, a kind of radioactive swirl of microplastics and who knows what else, but getting through that wall has proven to be more difficult than he could fathom. Luckily, Elvis has an older brother named Diggs to help him out. This brother is a robot, so you can already tell the family is a bit of a blend, but he provides Elvis with the support he needs in order to boost his natural talents at manipulating the miasma with the hopes of not only finding his mother... but f...

  Image credit: Firaxis Games Now I've never really been much of a Marvel fan. Hell, I'm not much of a superhero fan in general. So many of the movies end up being corny and ridiculous. And there are also just SO many of them in general. I know I might be in the minority, here, but I'm just trying to lay some groundwork on where I stand.     Stood, anyway.     Midnight Suns is a game that operates as a strategy-type, and that makes sense since it comes from the creators of XCOM. Instead of a bunch of crunchy grunts, however, you have your pick of over a dozen superheroes from Marvel's roster that go from the obscure like Nico Minoru or Magik to the world-famous and amazing like Spider-Man.     In typical Marvel fashion, the world is ending yet again. This time, it has to do with an age-old witch from a different race of elder gods trying to wreak havoc across the planet. Lilith is ready to release Chthon upon the populace, bringing about the Midnight S...

Image credit: Disney Making my way through The High Republic books has been an amazing side quest in recent months. Not only is it really cool to be reading Star Wars novels again, but the fact that they're canon makes it all the more satisfying. The stories are well-crafted, thought provoking, and provide substance that is truly lacking in anything Star Wars has released in film format since Rogue One . My main query as I began this venture was whether or not the Young Adult novels would be able to hold a candle to the nitty-gritty displayed in the likes of Convergence or Cataclysm .     The two books in question today are the novels Path of Deceit and Path of Vengeance. While these books are written by different authors, Tessa Gratton and Justina Ireland for Deceit and Cavan Scott for Vengeance , most of the characters are the same.     Path of Deceit has us following Jedi Knight Zallah Macri and her Padawan Kevmo Zink. This pair has been tasked with pathfinder-t...

Image credit: Penguin Publishing Group Celts, Pagan magick, warriors defending their homeland. What's not to like?     At first glance, Ravens of Avalon sounds like something that would be right up my alley. I have always had a fascination with the history behind Boudica. Hell, I've even thought of writing my own historical novel surrounding the warrior queen. Ancient Britons defending their land from the Roman Empire is always going to be something that sparks my fire. Call me an underdog kind of guy. I just love when people punch above their weight.     Ravens of Avalon tells the tale of Boudica from the very beginning of her life as a young adolescent through her death. For those who don't know their history too well, I will preface here by saying that there is not very much known about Boudica in general. As a matter of fact, it wasn't until some cultural renaissances hundreds upon hundreds of years after her death that she suddenly became a topic of interest. Bo...

  Image Credit: Ocean Drive Studio, Inc. Action. Check. Horror. Check. Scifi. Check. Fantasy. Well... sort of. Hell, might as well check that too.     Section 13 is a different breed of game from Ocean Drive Studio. They have definitely left a mark on me with Lost Eidolons and Veil of the Witch , and due to that I was more than willing to give this twinstick shooter a try.     This roguelite is a lot different from anything else Ocean Drive has done because of its setting and combat style, but that doesn't mean that Section 13 is anything to skip over. The company has shown their chops with medieval swordplay and tactical strategy, but you can tell that they had a lot of fun with this revamp of the Blackout Protocol title. By incorporating roguelite elements into the story,  Section 13 forces its employees to discover just how far they can push themselves when having to delve deeper and farther into the bowels of a science facility to find out exactly what...

  Image Credit: Night Shade Books As strength goes.     That's something that we hear a lot in Cook's Darkwar trilogy. From Doomstalker to Warlock, and Warlock to Ceremony, Marika's lesson from the Ponath sticks through. And it shows.     Marika is the main character and centerpiece of Cook's science-fantasy series. She is from a feline race called the Meth, and grows up in a sector of the planet that has been restricted technologically. If it sounds a bit like The Hunger Games , it is. In that respect only. The comparison stops there.     Being raised by a band of hunters who are averse to anything they don't understand, like mental powers in the form of a spirit-guided telepathy, Marika finds herself in a bit of a conundrum. Exploring these talents has the potential to save those she loves from her village, but also could result in further examination by those who are already concerned that she could be the "Doomstalker." This Doomstalker, or Jiana...