Lasers (PC) Review

 

Lasers is a Platformer based Battle Royale Game. The special twist of the game is, as the name already suggests, to dodge all kinds of Lasers in the process. Every stage in the game is filled to the brim with extremely deadly red lasers, which will penetrate flesh and bones, like a knife through butter. This reminded me a lot of the Lasers in Resident Evil 4 or the first Resident Evil movie.

Every match consists of a couple of stages, which all have a strict time limit to complete. The amount of players reaching the next stage is therefore theoretically not limited, but the demanding time limits will ensure natural selection. The only exception is the final stage of a match, which will end with the first player passing the finishing line.

Lasers consists of 30 different levels, which offer a good challenge. A lot of people might even say too much off a challenge, since some of the levels are just crazy difficult to beat. It took me multiple hours to beat all stages in the game at least once. Some of the levels are probably too hard, if you experience them the first time in an online match, with the very tight time limits. The frustration also gets extended by slippery controls and occasionally inaccurate character hitboxes. Sometimes the hitboxes will help you, to dodge an otherwise lethal contact and sometimes they will kill you for no reason. For a game that requires this much precision in movement, it can definitely be rage inducing from time to time. Nonetheless, the gameplay remains mostly fun, in my opinion.

A nice aspect is, that all stages can outside of online matches (which are limited to 10 players) also be played in singleplayer mode. This helps keeping the game relevant despite a dwindling playerbase. A potential map editor would have been greatly appreciated, but it doesn't look like we will ever get one.

The 30 stages can certainly not be accused of feeling completely identical. There are some different elements in all of them. They however all share a similar style. A lot of other games would have probably tried to at least offer different environmental elements. Lasers however only offers one grey greenish level style. The visuals in general are just acceptable, but nothing more than that. The music is also okay, but not really memorable.

Lasers is a game from Straight Back Games, who have previously published the popular game 'Devour'. Lasers only released in January 2024 and has got its last content update in early March 2024. Till this point the game received regular updates, which increased the amount of stages and fixed smaller issues. Since march however there has only been radio silence.

A big point of controversy was the removal of F2P and switching to a buy-to-play model in late February. The price may be relatively low with 3 Euro/Dollars, but truth be told, I can't remember a single game ever successfully switching from a free-to-play to a buy-to-play model. The playerbase of Lasers was never massive, but it at least had a couple of hundred players in its first two months. After the pricing change however the playerbase collapsed and the daily player peak now varies between 10 and 20. It looks like the developers gave up on the game and put Lasers into a maintenance mode. 

 

Result:

Lasers is a fun, but frustrating experience. The different levels offer a good challenge and it can be quite satisfying to finally master a difficult stage after dozens of tries. The not always precise enough controls and the lack of updates however hold it back significantly. The buy-to-play switch on the other hand is really what ultimately killed the potential of the game. If they had released with an asking price, it would have still been a tough sale, but it at least might have been possible. It is a shame, since I think there would definitely be a market gap for a Platformer Battle Royale Game, especially with the fun Laser twist. Lasers can still be some good fun, even in single player mode, you should just prepare for plenty of frustrations along the way and not expect a large online community.

 

7/10

Adventure Capitalist (PS4) Review

 

Adventure Capitalist is an Idle-Game by Hyper Hippo Productions, which is all about making money. The game released in 2014 on PC and was ported to the Playstation 4 in 2016.

You invest into different business opportunities and let your investments work for you. At the beginning you manually initiate the money gathering activities, but soon you can invest into managers, that do the work for you. With the incoming money you can either purchase additional businesses or upgrade your current businesses, which increases your income. The Upgrades not only increase the income, but at certain stages also increase the speed of income. There are also additional time and money bonuses if you reach certain upgrade levels with all you businesses.

The catch of the game is that you can reset your progress, which allows you to start from scratch, but this time with the help of supportive Angel Investors. Those Angels permanently increase your income. It is therefore worth it from time to time to start over with additional Angel Investors, since you will quickly regain all you have lost and progress even faster. You can leave the game at any time and come back another time or day and your businesses will have earned lots of cash in the meantime. This is why they call it an Idle Game.

You will start of on Earth, but will soon also be able to start colonies and businesses on the Moon and Mars as well. Each of the planets has its own separate economy, which is independent of the others. If you reset one of your planets, it has no impact on the others.

The PC and Mobile versions actually have additional weekly Events with unique businesses, even though they are not identical on Steam and Mobile. They are all repeat versions of previous events and a big reason for longtime players to keep playing the game in order to reach the Event leaderboards. This is not the case on PS4. The Playstation version, according to the developers Hyper Hippo Productions, hasn't gotten any updates in years and they recommend switching to the Mobile version. Oh, I just love when developers neglect the superior console and PC versions to focus on the inferior mobile ports...

You theoretically can buy boosters to temporarily or permanently increase your income and speed for Gold in the shop. Some small amounts can be earned ingame or alternatively be purchased with real money. There is definitely some Pay-to-Progression potential here. On the other hand you don't really need these boosters. For one, all of the progression goals of the main game are more intrinsically motivated. Even if you reach the highest upgrades, there is no real end goal of the game except to eternally and infinitely earn money. Some might say that fits the name Adventure Capitalist well. You can also relatively easy cheat the game, since it's an offline game and you can just alternate the clock on your console or PC to gain massive amounts of Cash each time.

Something worth commending are to some extent also the visual style and soundtrack of the game. The characters reminded me a of the cartoon character of the Fallout games, which is obviously pretty appealing. That being said you are mostly looking at game menus, since this is an Idle game. The earth background, in my opinion however, looks a lot more generic than those of the Moon and the Mars. The PS4 version has also the slightly superior UI, shame that it is the least supported version... Each of the 3 colonies furthermore has its own background music and they fit quite well. The earth one in particular is quite catchy. They are obviously looping a lot, but I never found them to be distracting, which is probably an accomplishment.

 

Result:

I am not really a fan of Idle games, but Adventure Capitalist is a surprisingly entertaining game. On paper, it may not sound like much, but it is surprisingly enjoyable to watch your business income bars going up all the time and seeing your overall wealth increasing every second. The fact that you can't really mismanage and the only way to go is up, makes it also a rather relaxing activity. My point being is, that even if you are not interested in Idle games, Adventure Capitalist makes it a surprisingly strong case for itself. The presentation is strong for what it is and it's fun to try out. You can quit at any point without punishment and if you return later on, large amounts of cash will already be waiting for you. The only downside is, that it is an Idle Game, so there is far less going on gameplay wise than in most other games.

 

7/10

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