Mad Adventures (PC) Review

 

Mad Adventures is a self declared 3D Combat Platformer with elements of Battle Royale and Roguelite. There is certainly some truth in that claim, even though I don't see too many BR elements in this game. Before its name change in November 2022 the game was known as Baka Adventures.

Every match consists of 4 rounds and a boss fight level at the end. The game can be played in Online lobbies as well as Solo Offline play. Players met up in a hub area, before a new match starts. There every player can invest some of the coins he gathered during the previous match into permanent power-ups for the entire lobby. Progress however doesn't carry over into other lobbies, it is based on each lobby and not the players.

Some of the power-ups allow you to jump multiple times in a row, to have more health, increase your movement speed, collect more coins in the stages, to knockback other opponents further or to do more damage to bosses. These power-ups can be upgraded infinitely for increasing cost. It is pretty funny to see the difference between a default lobby and one with tons of upgrades enabled. The hunt for coins to finance upgrades can also be a good replay motivation.

The variety of stages is really high in Mad Adventures. In the desert level for example you have to dodge giant sand worms. In Capture the Flag you have to complete an obstacle parkour to get the flagstick and bring it back to the base, while fighting off the other players. In the Disco level you have to step onto matching colour tiles. The snowboard level is a race stage. The Floor is Lava is a classic platforming stage, set in an oversized home environment filled with rivers of Lava. The Bomb tag stage is set in some ancient ruins and the last players to get tagged will explode. Ball Bash is the Rocket League level in Mad Adventures and Brain Wall is a dexterity based stage, set inside a movie theatre, where you have to adapt to different forms of a canvas, that wants to squish you. Parkour Island is a pirates inspired platforming level and than there are two different boss fight levels in the game. This diversity of gameplay ideas is probably the game's biggest strength and together with the constant combat against other players keeps it fresh throughout the game.

Movement and jumps feel pretty precise in Mad Adventures, which is important since platforming plays a big role in most stages. You can also hit other players during the matches to steal some of their coins, but since all players invest into collective updates, it doesn't make much of a difference. That being said, it is of course entertaining to tease other player or push them to their doom. The gameplay in general works pretty well in my opinion.

The last update for Mad Adventures was released in December 2022. Development seems to have ended at this point, which is a bit of a shame. There was definitely some potential in the game. The previous content updates always added some good stages to the game. After this the playerbase has been shrinking significantly. You still have a daily player peak between 5-20 every day, but this also means you won't find lobbies at all times. In my experience a lot of the lobbies in the last months have also been closed groups, which kick new players seconds after joining their lobby. Nonetheless, you can still occasionally find some enjoyable lobbies. The game is initially also fun in Solo play, but certainly better with Online matches.

 

Result:

Mad Adventures is a pretty fun game. I like how it matches different genres together and it has a really good variety of different levels. Apart from the two boss stages no two levels play alike and they are all actually pretty well done. The biggest downside are the lack of players and updates. Despite that I would still definitely recommend at least giving this a try, if you interested in varied gameplay activities or minigames. If you are playing with friends, than it's an even easier recommendation.

 

7/10

Heroic City (PC) Review

 

Heroic City is a Party-/Minigame MMO. It uses a Pixel visual design, which I am usually not the biggest fan of, but it does actually look quite nice here. That being said, the visuals are of course nothing really impressive either, but they do fit the game.

Heroic City has a hub world from which you can join different activities. There are 6 minigames in total, from which only 3 are proper minigames.

Whooshball is certainly my favourite activity in Heroic City. It is a football minigame, which reminded me of Rocket League, just without the cars. The gameplay is pretty fast, but the controls feel quite satisfying. There are a couple of different variations of Whooshball, which differ from each other by the form and amount of obstacles being placed on the football pitch. This brings a decent variety to the minigame.

The Bomber Game is like a 3D version of Bomberman, just without any power-up items. There are a couple of different bomb types, but no shrinking arena, like in the Bomberman games. Instead, you have to try not to fall of the map. Every player has 3 lives and the last man standing wins. Bomber Game is simple, but actually enjoyable.

Skeleton Survival is a wave-based Survival Game. You can pick up to 2 weapons and your character automatically shoots at the waves of skeletons, zombies and the like. You can only move your character around, trying to dodge the masses of enemies and occasionally pick up new weapons. Everything else is done automatically. Skeleton Survival isn't bad, but I can't say that I enjoyed it too much.

Then there are also 3 smaller minigames, which in contrast to the other minigames have no Bot support. The 'Dodgeball' arena is a bit hidden away. You pick up gigantic balls and throw them at the other players in a small arena. It is pretty basic. The other two minigames are located in the art museum. It is a relaxing place, in which you can look at paintings, which you can also buy for your player house. The first of the museum minigame is 'Deathmatch', which feels like a out of place Roblox FPS. The other is a Painting minigame, in which some players have to spoil paintings with a paintgun, while the other players have to prevent them from doing so with a shotgun. These 3 smaller minigames are really basic and not even really worth trying out. Having only 3 proper minigames is definitely one of the games biggest weaknesses.

There was a seventh Disco minigame planed, which was supposed to release once the game reaches one of its contribution goals, which they didn't even get close to. You can actually see a couple of areas in the hub world, which were supposed to later turn into unique places and where the devs invite the players to contribute ideas on their discord channel. It is actually a bit sad to see, that the game apparently never got a stable playerbase and was probably abandoned.

As already indicated Heroic City also has a housing system, where players can decorate their own homes and gardens with decor. Nothing spectacular, but nothing wrong with it either.

Pretty interesting is the Battle Pass system in Heroic City. There are multiple NPCs in Heroic City, which have Battle Passes you can activate by talking to them. You can only actively collect XP for one of those, to get free and premium rewards, but you can switch freely between them in the Hub World. The Heroic Battle Pass for example lets you earn Superhero costumes, while the art museum Battle Pass rewards you with paintings.

Another really interesting feature is the real life impact system of the game. You can purchase, or earn via the minigames and the Battle Passes, impact items. For each of these impact items for example a tree is being planted in Tanzania or animals, like sea turtles, being saved by the partner companies of the game. This is actually a real cool concept.  

Another aspect actually worth praising is the, in my eyes, surprisingly strong soundtrack in the game. I found the background music to mostly be relaxing and also always fitting to the different minigame activities.

The other really big issue with the game (apart from the lack of content) is the missing playerbase. The developers originally hoped to reach 100 Million players. The steam player peak however is 12 and that was more than a year ago. I have only ever met one other player. Usually you are unfortunately alone in this game.

 

Result:

Heroic City is not a bad game and I really like the idea of a Party-/Minigame MMO. The real life impact system is commendable and soundtrack as well as visuals are fitting. Unfortunately there is not nearly enough content in the game for an MMO and the lack of players hurts the experience a lot. If they had 15-20 more minigames like Whooshball and the Bomber Game and at least 100 regular players, than I would probably highly recommend the game. If you have a couple of friends to play Heroic City with, than it might still be worth spending an afternoon with. It's an okay experience with the Bots, but nothing that really stands out from the crowd.

 

5.5/10

Guns Up (PS4/PC) Review

 

Guns Up is kind of a military strategy game. I say kind of since I would usually associate military strategy games with either RTS or Shooter games. In Guns Up instead you are just the commander on the sidelines, who decides which units to send into battle.

This directly reminded me of a lot mobile games and I think you can see this in the simple UI and gameplay, which is passive in design. That being said, you not only decide before each battle which unit types to take into battle, but you can also send in reinforcements during the battles. Additionally you can also use from a limited set of items. You can for example order a bombing run or send in a decoy to confuse the enemy soldiers. The reinforcements and items are the active part of the game, in which the player can actually do something.

There are offensive and defensive battles in Guns Up. You can choose a classic PVP attack on one out of a select group of other players bases, or join a guild in the form of an alliance and attack a random opponent from another alliance. In Defense Battles you have to defend your own base against either AI or real players invading you. Even though you're in the Attack Battles actually invading the base of real player, it nearly always feels like a bot match, since the Computer is practically always taking over for the attacked player.

With the rewards from the battles you can improve your base and units. There is a good variety of different units, ranging from your normal assault units to Medics, Snipers, Grenade Throwers, Flamethrower troops, Rocketeers and so on.

Now let's talk about the biggest issue of Guns Up, the P2W features. There are Lootboxes in the game, which can give you better items and Valor. Valor is a currency in the game, which can be used to upgrade the perks of units to make them stronger. The abilities on the other hand can have an absolutely massive impact on the battles. I was for example trying to capture a base, which was rated around my level and horribly failed. In the next attempt I used OP items, which allowed me to use more units in the battle and to have much more resources for reinforcements, so I could practically spam them, if my other units died. There are also items, which can make your units deal more damage or increase their health for the battle. Needless to say with the OP items from free lootboxes I was even able to destroy bases, which were much higher rated than my own units. P2W Players could infinitely purchase lootboxes to never run out of the best items and to get the best perks ingame. I seriously doubt any none paying players will be found anywhere near the top of the leaderboards.

The PS4 version of Guns Up released in 2015, that of Steam in 2018. Both were initially scheduled to shutdown in April 2023, but due to new-found popularity were only shutdown in December 2023. The Mobile version of Guns Up released in 2022 and is still playable in 2024. The mobile version seems to also have additional units and an updated UI.

 

Result:

I was initially not thrilled by the passive form of gameplay, but got a little bit of appreciation for the unit selections and items after the first battle victories. The realization of the extent of P2W features in the game however destroyed my motivation to continue playing after 10-15 hours. If you miss Guns Up, you should consider checking out Guns Up mobile. Just be mindful of its weaknesses, which probably haven't improved with the mobile port.

 

5/10

Rumble Club (PC) Review

 

Rumble Club is an isometric Brawler Battle Royale Game, that just released on Steam/Epic Store and mobile devices. It is often being compared to Fall Guys and Stumble Guys. At least visually this comparison makes sense. Rumble Club looks like the Fight Club version of Stumble Guys, but gameplaywise those games don't have too much in common.

While Fall Guys and Stumble Guys can certainly not be accused of being overly complex, their gameplay is simple, but effective and overall quite varied with their multitude of stages. The gameplay of Rumble Club on the other hand is painfully simplistic. You can walk and punch players. That's pretty much it. You have to chose between a normal weak punch or a charged punch. Every player can take 3 punches before he goes to the ground. Downed players have to be picked up and thrown off the map. The picking up happens automatically if you stand close enough to a downed player. After 3 seconds however downed players already get back up. Rumble Club has different game modes by name only. Yes, there are Solo, Duo and Squad matches. In some you have to just be the last man standing, in others you have to play variants like King of the Hill. The gameplay however remains always the same and doesn't get anymore exciting, no matter which mode you pick. I can understand why people might find this amusing for a few minutes, but after this it gets stale. I think this would be a fine start early in development, but certainly not the full game.

Another big controversy is the monetization system of Rumble Club. The game not only has two different premium currencies, but also P2W aspects. There are so called gadgets, which are randomly generated items in every match, that players can pick up and throw at other players. Those gadgets can be leveled up and improved. Buying the Battle Pass gives you items to upgrade those gadgets and you can also get those gadget shards from the shop. One could argue that the items are not that relevant in comparison to the punches, but this system is just bad.

Asmongold is a publisher of this game and has also been heavily criticized by many players for promoting a game, that has many of the features, he heavily criticized himself in other games. Personally I think he probably was just brought in as an external investor and had no idea which game he actually invested in. Nonetheless, it is certainly a bad look for him.

 

Result:

It is very clear that Rumble Club was designed in every aspect as a mobile game only. The gameplay, the visuals, the P2W monetization system, they all send a clear message. As a foundation the gameplay would be okay, but I doubt they are going to add anything on top of it. Practically requiring only one button to play this game makes it a perfect mobile game, but as a PC game it is a flop (Honestly it is impressive how you can make the game use only one button outside of WASD and yet it controls badly with a keyboard. With a gamepad the controls are slightly better). The awful monetization also just leaves me to believe, that this is quick cash grab. The game tries to capitalize the popularity and reach of Asmongold, while fully knowing that the game's playerbase will collapse after only a few weeks (Steam playerpeak is already 90% down in less than a week). I honestly believe they put more effort in the fight club inspired trailer of Rumble Club, than they did in the actual game.

 

4/10