The eternally cursed, the cries of the tortured, the infinite spiralling damnation of trapped souls gets a bit boring – there’s got to be more out there.

You are Zagreus, the son of Hades on a mission to escape the underworld in this dark humoured dungeon crawler rogue-like title from Supergiant Games.

A semi-cell shaded hack n slash pits you up against Hades finest demons and monsters as you cut your way to Mount Olympus.

Guided and aided by other Gods and underworld characters you will loot and slash through varying parts of Hade’s dark kingdom. But die (and you will) you’re placed back at the beginning.

Or use your ill-found treasures to, er, bribe your fortune towards your escape.

Likewise you can use your loot to up your skills and weaponry.

Like any good dungeon crawler there’s a lot of goodies to be discovered as well as secret areas.

Dying in the Underworld can be a painful experience on one’s progress for sure, however, it can also be beneficial.

The game is built, knowing that you’e likely to perish often in any given bout against hordes of nasties, so upon any revival another path, an additional area will open up. This may also see that the path you took prior to your untimely death is closed off.

This procedural life and death changing of the game also expands on the narrative of play as well as any help NPC’s can offer.

This keeps the gameplay refreshing, unique and certainly stopped me from placing the controller down in frustration.

Hades is a late comer to consoles.

Originally released on PC and Switch last year (2020) and is now a free to play title with Xbox Game Pass.

If you like your RPG’s, dark and unforgiving dungeons to smash your way through then Hades is a definite must play for you.

Hades is a hack n slash with a forever changing dark twist.

The post Hades (Xbox Series X) Review appeared first on Shane the Gamer.

Soon there will be even more ways to explore the Multiverse.

Today during the Epic Games Spring Showcase, Perfect World Entertainment and Cryptic Studios revealed that Magic: Legends will launch Open Beta on the Epic Games Store on March 23, 2021.

The free-to-play, persistent world, action RPG pays loving tribute to Wizards of the Coast’s celebrated strategy card game, Magic: The Gathering, and is scheduled to launch on PC and consoles in 2021.

When Magic: Legends enters Open Beta at the end of March, players can take on the role of a Planeswalker by downloading the game on the Epic Games Store (which will connect to the same PC server as Arc Games users).

Magic: Legends is a free-to-play, persistent world, hack’n’cast online Action RPG based on Wizards of the Coast’s iconic trading card game, Magic: The Gathering.

Ancient forces move in the darkness, requiring players to assume the role of a Planeswalker, powerful spellcasters who can travel between worlds.

While exploring different planes, players will collect mana-based spells and strategically build out the perfect deck of balanced attacks to control the chaos of the battlefield and save the Multiverse from its greatest threat yet.

Developed by Cryptic Studios and published by Perfect World Entertainment, Magic: Legends will release on PC, Xbox One, and PlayStation 4 in 2021.

Everyone that works on STG is a volunteer. If you like the site and its contents please think about donating. Even a small amount helps keep the servers running.

The post Magic: Legends Open Beta Announced for Epic Games appeared first on Shane the Gamer.

Dante is back. Again.

A re-release of one the most tongue-in-cheek humored bad-ass demon slaying games of 2019 sees Virgil, Dante and more do some serious demon slaying.

Now at the fifth game in the series, Devil May Cry is a third person Japanese styled hack ‘n’ slash where a Nephilim called Dante would take down legions of Demons, with a love hate relationship echoing throughout the the entire series with his brother Virgil.

When Devil May Cry 4 released I was enchanted by the then, next gen visuals and fluid gameplay and this solidified my commitment to the franchise, which I was afraid would tire itself out after an average Devil May Cry 2 and an ‘ok’ third instalment.

Then, 2013 saw the franchise reboot. While the Devil May Cry ‘DMC’ reinvigorated the franchise for an entirely new audience, die hard fans felt that it could be heading in the wrong direction.

So, Capcom have made Devil May Cry 5 a title that seems as though it’s a love letter to the fans. And now that we are in the new generation of gaming consoles, a Special Edition has released offering up 4K (8K up-scalable) version with all DLC.

Set with a broken timeline you will take on a series of Missions, (20 in total – excluding the prologue and 13 Secret Missions that you need to find), in which Dante’s for ‘hire service’ business, called Devil May Cry, is reinvigorated with a new job.

The client is a mysterious and dark chap only known as V.

Joined by Lady and Trish, Dante accepts this new job to take down Urizen… but of course there’s a lot more going on than what it seems.

Devil May Cry 5 delves very deeply in to the Devil May Cry lore and a few answers to long waited questions surface, which I will not reveal here.

At Level, or Mission specific areas, players will take on the roles of more than one character. Nero, V and Dante are all playable. Each character has their specific skill sets and weapons.

These skills and weapons too can be upgraded via collected Red Orbs throughout the game.

Play well, fight well, slay even better and your combat rank and overall playstyle increases via a A to D Rank. Then there’s ‘Savage’ and the almighty ‘Super Sexy Style’, this not only retains that Arcade feel of the originals, but also gives you more Orbs to squander on your upgrades.

Nero is the first playable and you’ll get to grips with him real easily. He has a special weapon that can interchange (I am not going to say here what that is – as it will be a spoiler to the reboot of DMC – 2013 for those that have not yet played it).

The interchangeable weapons can actually impede or improve Nero’s combat – and I think everyone that plays this new edition; Devil May Cry 5 is going to smirk at the Mega-Man inclusion.

V, a gothic dark brooding character with an overwhelming love for poetry only has a metal cane in his arsenal. It’s useless against anything. Luckily, V is a master of the dark arts and has two demon pets and a hulking ‘Nightmare’ that he can call upon to do the fighting for him. Again, the abilities and skills aswell as strength of these two demon pets is fully upgradeable.

Dante uses his many and varied demon powers, swords, ebony & ivory and one of the baddest weapons in a game yet, a possessed motorbike. And he also has one killer hat that sure gives him some ‘smooth criminal’ moves…

As the story runs through, Dante acquires a few more bits. These are also added to his ‘inventory’ and can also receive upgrades aswell.

To keep you on the alert, each playable character has a differing set up to not only wield their cache of armament but also for their combos and such the like. While Dante is by far the best character to play as, some of his combos and weapons can be a little tricky.

If you love a good hack ‘n’ slash with a slight Japanese flavor definitely don’t go past the Devil May Cry games.

While Devil May Cry 5 could easily be a standalone in it’s own right, I still recommend to get yourself up to speed on the series – there is only so much that the flashbacks and prologues can do.

Devil May Cry 5 – Special Edition has been made all that better with the added goodness and for me, a personal pleasure to replay all over again.

The post Devil May Cry 5 – Special Edition (Xbox Series X) Review appeared first on Shane the Gamer.

You are a Valorian knight. A warrior, a legend… and the last of your kind.

Injured, you must regain all of the Valorplates throughout expansive worlds in a game like no other. An RPG, looter, hack n slash, melee combat title from Epic Games.

You’re path to ascend through the 12 elemental realms to reach a God gone mad; Macros, will have you looting and bashing through foes with an insane amount of collectibles.

In all there are three planets that you will visit – but across these three there are a multitude of areas that you will visit.

Loot that you gain will be different every time as the stats are randomly generated – and the RPG aspect of Godfall is probably one of the easiest to manage your gear in that I have encountered so far in my years of RPG gaming.

There is some solid gameplay here, although the single player Campaign is relatively short at 10 hours. So I liken the Campaign mode to a practice run for online.

Gearbox have truly taken a gamble with Godfall as it is the first of it’s kind multi genre game, however it has paid off and for those that find it a bit repetitive and grindy, that’s expected in any RPG title reminiscent of Destiny, Warframe or even Monster Hunter.

Godfall is damn good. A satisfying play, made better though if you play across the PSN.

The post Godfall (PlayStation 5) Review appeared first on Shane the Gamer.

I like to keep my mind open to Japanese or Japanese inspired games.

Things like fanservice are fine if they are either the joke and land the humour, or if I can overlook it for what else a game or anime offers. Onee Chanbara Origin had me curious. Skimpily clad women fighting zombies should either be terrible or excellent, turns out it found a way to be meh.

First off I will tackle what I liked. The game is beautifully animated with a cell shaded style with bright and vibrant colours that pop on the screen. The eleaborat bosses look especially awesome with some truly creative designs that are creepily best in class. Well when you can see them on screen that is.

At its core Onee Chanbara Origin is a hack n slash game, and it is adequate at that. The hacking and the slashing is mechanically solid. You initially have a parry move which you have to use to stand a chance, before the game gives you the dodge which I wound up using more.  The problem is the hacking and slashing gets boring fast. Other games like Dynasty Warriors which have repetitive combat stay interesting because you have overarching objectives to focus on, whereas Onee Chanbara Origin has you having to hack and slash until the zombies are all dead.

This is the biggest problem the game has. It’s bloody boring. With a run time of under six hours, it still managed to overstay its welcome because I was bored in the first hour. Even the bosses which are cool to look at are still the same process, but with a bigger health bar. The game tries to shift things up with different enemy types, but it wasn’t interesting enough to make me care anymore.

That said, there are some cool ideas. Your sword becomes less efficient the more blood that is on it which is represented by a bar. You can reload at any time with a quick wipe of the blade which is a super clever idea. As you slash through enemies the screen starts to fill up with blood and then you go into a state which makes you more prone to damage but you deal heaps more to the zombies. Great ideas, but not enough to make the game fun.

Now for the story. The main protagonist is Aya who after losing her mother goes on a zombie hunting spree while trying to find her long lost sister Saki. Saki on the other hand decides to go down a different path in her bereavement by finding ancient arts to resurrect her mother and is the ultimate antagonist of the game. The problem is either the story is boring, or the game bored me so much I stopped caring, or a bit of both. Either way I can’t even remember how Rei came to be working with Aya and I don’t care. This is despite playing the game last night.

Onee Chanbara Origin is such a meh game. It does some cool things, and there are things to like about it. Ultimately though the game is repetitive and boring. If fanservice is your thing, then you may find it engaging enough to enjoy, but with that not being a hook for me I found myself not caring.

The post Onee Chanbara Origin (PlayStation 4) Review appeared first on Shane the Gamer.

Strife takes up arms bringing the force of War with him.

Darksiders Genesis is the fourth and most surprising in the saga of the Four Horsemen’s dramas with the Charred Council and underworld beings.

This time round to conclude the Quadilogy it is Lucifer’s turn to misbehave.

Darksiders Genesis takes us back to before the first game and reveals how all of the Apocalypse events began. Lucifer took it upon himself to upset the light and dark, good and evil balance by granting master demons superb power.

With power comes great responsibility – which demons don’t care too much about. They began to wreak havoc within the realm known as Earth… beginning end of days.

Both War and Strife are on mission to find Lucifer and discover what the ‘hell’ is going on.

The last three titles; Darksiders, Darksiders II and Darksiders III play out in single character third person action / adventure with a heavy dose of RPG elements.

Darksiders Genesis aka Darksiders IV breaks away from tradition and brings on some impressive online or local multiplayer hearkened to the likes of Diablo-esque titles with its dungeon crawling flavour and hack n slash.

While you kill and loot you will pick up items that can be used in-game or traded with Vulgrim (who has a thirst for souls), a demon merchant that also acts as a waypoint for getting to different realms or Levels. Vulgrim can also be a wealth of knowledge for your quests and will even assign you small tasks.

Your skillpoints are used on upgrades of vitalities or abilities and differing items aswell as acquired skills can be assigned to a hotkey.

If you go solo and play through the story, you can opt to play as Strife or War. Well, you are actually both and via a hot-key on your controlpad you will flick between the two characters that have their own unique weapons, skills and powers.

If you want to bring in other players, even in solo mode, you can. Find an obelisk in any given Level and summon other players in. Alternatively there is full online gaming and co-op.

A change of pace for the Darksiders series, and a potential risk with the dramatic change of genre – but it is a risk that totally pays off.

If you haven’t played any of the Darksiders titles before Genesis is easily a standalone title within it’s own right (however I do recommend going back through the series and playing all of them).

Submerssive gameplay, a narrative that follows keeps within the four games and if anything else Strife’s sarcastic humour makes Darksiders Genesis a game definitely marathon’ing from start to finish.

The post Darksiders Genesis (Xbox One) Review appeared first on Shane the Gamer.

Developer Owlcat Games is proud to announce Pathfinder: Wrath of the Righteous, a classic isometric CRPG game. Based on the adventure path of the same name, it follows in the footsteps of the previous digital adaptation of Paizo’s legendary tabletop RPG, Pathfinder. The first key art image of the game has been released as a teaser of things to come for the title.

While not a direct sequel to Pathfinder: Kingmaker, Pathfinder: Wrath of the Righteous will expand and elaborate on the core elements that made Owlcat’s previous installment successful. New features include the mythic progression system, a new corner of the award-winning Age of Lost Omens setting to explore, and more classes and character customizations drawn from Pathfinder’s extensive history. Owlcat will be releasing more details as development progresses so that fans can stay caught up on how the process evolves over time.

“We are tremendously excited to announce Pathfinder: Wrath of the Righteous today. With our new game, we are taking everything that made Kingmaker enjoyable and building on top of it. We laid a solid foundation and are going to push the boundaries of the CRPG genre with our next title,” says Oleg Shpilchevskiy, Head of Owlcat Games studio. “We especially want to thank the Kingmaker community for their support because we would not be making this game if it weren’t for them. When Wrath of the Righteous is ready, we cannot wait to see them answer the call again.”

Pathfinder: Wrath of the Righteous is based on the Wrath of the Righteous Adventure Path from the tabletop game but includes new characters, plots, and elements to entertain even players already familiar with the adventure. It tells the story of a large-scale conflict between mortals and demons where players are invited to immerse themselves in a world under siege from demonic forces. As a vicious invasion threatens the world, the consequences of one’s decisions will forge a unique narrative of their personal battle between good and evil.

Kingmaker’s Creative Director Alexander Mishulin and Lead Writer Alexander Komzolov return to their respective roles, and Owlcat is happy to confirm that Chris Avellone is back on board lending a hand and supporting the narrative team as he did with Pathfinder: Kingmaker.

To stand against the demonic invasion, the player character and their companions will receive additional powers from the player’s chosen mythic path. These paths vary widely in nature and profoundly impact the storyline of the game, permanently changing the characters and the world around them. Players may choose the path of the  immortal lich, wielding powerful spells and commanding an army of undead; the path of the trickster, causing mischief and finding fun even in the middle of the demon-filled abyss; the path of the angel, summoning celestial allies into battle and meting bolts of divine judgment upon foes; or something else entirely.

Some Pathfinder RPG character classes that didn’t make it into Kingmaker will make their CRPG debut in Wrath of the Righteous alongside the returning roster, including — but not limited to — the fan-favorite witch and oracle. More classes and character options will be revealed in the near future.

Boasting an improved visual style, Pathfinder: Wrath of the Righteous will offer a look and feel distinct from that of Pathfinder: Kingmaker. Set in locations including a demon-infested wasteland, besieged crusader cities, and the foul, twisted Abyss itself, Wrath of the Righteous’s art will capture the epic fight of the world’s defenders as they struggle to hold the line against the corrupting force of otherworldly entities.

Check out the gameplay trailer above!

The post Owlcat Games Reveals New Pathfinder Adventure appeared first on Shane the Gamer.

The rise of Occultists is wreaking havoc.

As their evil plans begin to spread throughout the land you are called upon by Teclis, a higher Elf as the hero to save all.

But is Teclis just using your goodwill for his own plans…?

Warhammer: Chaosbane is a top down RPG dungeon crawler.

You begin with the selection of three character sets; Dwarf, Elf and Soldier.

Each bears their own strengths and weaknesses and as you get in to play will have their own unique skill-sets which as you level up, will be able to upgrade and hone new abilities.

Skillpoints are awarded at the end of each Mission, which is given out by Teclis. You will generally chat to him at the end of every successful quest for your next objective.

Those that have played hack and slash dungeon crawlers before will be familiar with the play, as you loot, collect items from those that you kill and destroy objects in your environment to reap their hidden goodies.

This brings me to a point – the amount of destructible items in your environments is slim. A few barrels here and there and if you explore an entire area you will come across Chests.

Larger foes give items aswell, but for the most part you will collect a lot of Gold.

This is used as in-game currency, however to begin with any form of trade with merchants is locked – until your reputation reaches a certain level, or until you have made your way through a good portion of play.

So, if you want to relieve yourself of your unused items you can donate it to a merchant – which you do gain benefit from, such as an item here or there and a reputation increase.

The better your reputation the better items you get and how other in-game NPCs may or may not react to you.

The onscreen HUD details your currently button assigned skills, your health which upon a timed recharge can be topped up endlessly.

From around level 10 for your chosen hero you will gain Bloodlust. This enables you perform a super-move in combat. To refill your Bloodlust gauge you will need to work through many waves of enemies throughout the Levels and collects Blood Orbs as you kill them.

Die and your Gold, or Fragments (that you also collect from time to time) become super valuable to you. To revive it’s going to cost you a set amount of Gold or Fragments – if you have none of that, it’s back to the beginning of that Level.

Equipping armour of heavier more powerful weapons is simple enough from the Inventory menu which is basically an item wheel with each icon being a container for your currently collected and available goodies.

Skills are upgraded by way of spending Skillpoints and are character level specific.

Change your play difficulty at anytime and you’ll find that your items degrade.

Warhammer: Chaosbane is pure excellence though I do see some that play this may tire of the repetitiveness of the Levels.

While each area is a different location as far the narrative goes – they do look strikingly the same and even, breakable objects can be found in similar places. 

Combat is sourced from waves of enemies that tend to cluster in parts of each Level and while clearing through a horde of enemies of varying sizes, strengths and beasts the bestiary is not that vast, so expect a lot of the same combat and enemies to kill throughout.

On the face of it, Bigben Interactive and EKO Software have created a fantastic Warhammer RPG, and the first dungeon crawler in the Warhammer gaming space. Chaosbane naturally has a online component in ‘Find a Game’ aswell as differing modes for each Level which need to be unlocked.

I loved this game, a lot and fans of hack and slashers / dungeon crawlers are likely to agree that it is expansive enough with a engaging Warhammer based narrative that just keeps you playing. Many times I said, ‘okay – one more Level’ and before I knew it I had done three or four.

Asides from a couple of shortcuts with environmental assets, Warhammer: Chaosbane is an exceptional game and one that just keeps you going and replayability is endless with online.

The post Warhammer: Chaosbane (PlayStation 4) Review appeared first on Shane the Gamer.

Dante is back.

From the time that Mundus was first defeated by Sparda in August 2001’s first Devil May Cry on PS2, I have been hooked on the series.

The third person Japanese styled hack ‘n’ slash where a Nephilim called Dante would take down legions of Demons, with a love hate relationship echoing throughout the the entire series with his brother Virgil.

When Devil May Cry 4 released I was enchanted by the then, next gen visuals and fluid gameplay and this solidified my commitment to the series, which I was afraid would tire itself out after an average Devil May Cry 2 and an ‘ok’ third instalment.

Then, 2013 saw the franchise reboot. While the Devil May Cry ‘DMC’ reinvigorated the franchise for an entirely new audience, die hard fans felt that it could be heading in the wrong direction.

So, Capcom have made Devil May Cry 5 a title that seems as though it’s a love letter to the fans.

Set with a broken timeline you will take on a series of Missions, (20 in total – excluding the prologue and 13 Secret Missions that you need to find), in which Dante’s for ‘hire service’ business, called Devil May Cry, is reinvigorated with a new job.

The client is a mysterious and dark chap only known as V.

Joined by Lady and Trish, Dante accepts this new job to take down Urizen… but of course there’s a lot more going on than what it seems.

Devil May Cry 5 delves very deeply in to the Devil May Cry lore and a few answers to long waited questions surface, which I will not reveal here.

At Level, or Mission specific areas, players will take on the roles of more than one character. Nero, V and Dante are all playable. Each character has their specific skill sets and weapons.

These skills and weapons too can be upgraded via collected Red Orbs throughout the game.

Play well, fight well, slay even better and your combat rank and overall playstyle increases via a A to D Rank. Then there’s ‘Savage’ and the almighty ‘Super Sexy Style’, this not only retains that Arcade feel of the originals, but also gives you more Orbs to squander on your upgrades.

Nero is the first playable and you’ll get to grips with him real easily. He has a special weapon that can interchange (I am not going to say here what that is – as it will be a spoiler to the reboot of DMC – 2013 for those that have not yet played it).

The interchangeable weapons can actually impede or improve Nero’s combat – and I think everyone that plays this new edition; Devil May Cry 5 is going to smirk at the Mega-Man inclusion.

V, a gothic dark brooding character with an overwhelming love for poetry only has a metal cane in his arsenal. It’s useless against anything. Luckily, V is a master of the dark arts and has two demon pets and a hulking ‘Nightmare’ that he can call upon to do the fighting for him. Again, the abilities and skills aswell as strength of these two demon pets is fully upgradeable.

Dante uses his many and varied demon powers, swords, ebony & ivory and one of the baddest weapons in a game yet, a possessed motorbike. And he also has one killer hat that sure gives him some ‘smooth criminal’ moves…

As the story runs through, Dante acquires a few more bits. These are also added to his ‘inventory’ and can also receive upgrades aswell.

To keep you on the alert, each playable character has a differing set up to not only wield their cache of armament but also for their combos and such the like. While Dante is by far the best character to play as, some of his combos and weapons can be a little tricky.

Devil May Cry 5 has the notoriety of being the first original released Devil May Cry game on this current generation of consoles (2013’s DMC was remastered for the current gen).

If you love a good hack ‘n’ slash with a slight Japanese flavour definitely don’t go past the Devil May Cry games.

While Devil May Cry 5 could easily be a standalone in it’s own right, I still recommend to get yourself up to speed on the series – there is only so much that the flashbacks and prologues can do.

Devil May Cry 5 is the one we have all been waiting for and is super SSStylish. I just wished the gameplay was longer.

The post Devil May Cry 5 (Xbox One) Review appeared first on Shane the Gamer.

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