Turn Me On Unturned

This week I’m back to talk to you about a game that encompasses not one but two of my most common topics—it’s an early access game about zombies called Unturned. At first glance Unturned looks like someone's attempt at making a flash rip off of Minecraft. But if you look past the blocky graphics the gameplay is actually quite good. The game itself is stable and relatively bug-free, which if you compare it to most of its counterparts in the early access genre that’s saying quite a bit.

The game can also be played in a few different ways. There is a single player mode where you are a lone survivor traveling across an island inhabited by the zombified remains of residents and military personnel. Your goal is simple: survive, explore and salvage as much as you can. The concept may be simple but the game has no lack of items to discover and a plethora of weapons and crafting options giving it a lot of depth and replayability. You’d be surprised how much there is to find and discover. Once you establish a settlement of sorts, Unturned allows you to go on what I like to call salvage runs—essentially gassing up a car and driving around from town to town looking for new gear and weapons, while continuing to fight off hordes of zombies. It really makes you feel like a survivor. Add in the experience and leveling aspect of the game (which is used to increase your different traits: be it offensively, defensively or just survival skills in general) you’re slowly but surely becoming more attuned to your environment, which is what a real survivor would over time. And that's all just the single player aspect.

In multiplayer there are a few differences, the most important of which being PVP. Now for the uninitiated that's player-versus-player and there's a certain change in feel when you start playing PVP which is the same in every zombie movie and game...other people are dicks. The game goes from you versus the world, to you versus the world and everyone else in it. That's a huge jump in difficulty because other players are better equipped and a lot smarter than your run of the mill zombie, then add in the fact that you drop whatever it is you're carrying on death puts a big target on your head, which leads to some shaky alliances and gangs of "pre-mades" running around tearing up the place.

The last game type is arena mode, which is kind of a survival multiplayer that's zombie free but just as dangerous. There's not much to say about it, it’s a kill or be killed world out there and it’s basically a mad grab for weapons and gear; it’s fun and can get pretty exciting but it speaks for itself.

As I said, Unturned is still in development but it’s fairly polished at this state and as you’ve seen, I’ve been enjoying it thoroughly and there's no reason you shouldn’t get this game because it won’t cost you a cent. If you feel like you absolutely need to pay money for this game or you just want to support the developers, you can pay five dollars for the gold edition of the game which gives you a bunch of in-game boosts and items including: better loot drops, exp boosts and access to gold servers which have better ping and are more stable than most. I’m not gonna tell you to go out and buy this game, because you don't need to buy it, just go download it and give it a try, it’s not gonna cost you a thing and you’ll probably end up liking it. I downloaded this game on a whim after watching some gameplay footage and it hasn’t disappointed me yet. So if you’ve got some free time, give it a try and hopefully you won’t shoot me in the head on some random server.

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Transformers Universe: Fun In The Cybertronian Sun

Ah, I've finally gotten the chance to cover a Transformersgame, a free one at that! Introducing Transformers Universe, a free-to-play action RPG developed by Jagexfor the PC. Incidentally, the term MMORPG has been given to the game, however there's a lack of roaming and instead the game provides quick multiplayer action. In other words, it's a multiplayer mode on steroids. Therefore, if you're looking for a story-line or single player option, your best bet is the two HighMoon Studiogames that I'll cover in a later review. The only sliver of a narrative here is "kill the opposing faction," works for me.

Firstly, I love Transformers and consequently, I have high expectations from any form of media that delves into the franchise, excluding Mr. Bay products which I go in with the lowest expectations possible. My initial reaction to the concept of Jagextaking over the reins of the Transformers universe was one of relief. I never played Runescape, but it was popular enough for me to hear of it, which means it's good right? Maybe not, but the company had a backing. They had a concept, developed it and by Charlie standards, they did a good job. Now, enough of this chit-chat, on to the game!

               

Transformers universe provides you the opportunity to take your preferred side in the legendary Cybertronian war. Shall you defend freedom on Optimus Prime's side or ride the waves of conquest under Megatron's regime. The game takes place loosely within the Transformers Prime universe. The aesthetics follow suit, a mismatch of the 1984 generation-1 cartoon and the bay-verse complexity. It's a decent look, though it took me a while to get used to the fact that they no longer had noses. Petty, I know, but noses are important. Do you even smell bro? Now I've made a "bro" joke and my reputation is now tarnished.

               

Furthermore, after you make your faction selection and pick out a name for your commander, you join the fray as one of three initial bots or cons. The three choices consist of a damage dealing sniper, a well rounded warrior and lastly, the medic. I personally picked Triage,the initial Autobot medic. I always found that in any multiplayer game, there was a lack of support and Triage seemed to hold his own very well. Once your choice is made, you load into your base of operations which allows you to either queue for Multiplayer matches or exit into the PvE area. At any given time, this will be the most crowded area in the game. The base definitely makes it easy to meet fellow players and form a team to meet your needs.

Let's begin with the cons, no pun intended. High Grand, which is the PvE area, is incredibly boring in my opinion. You are given a decently sized area to drive around in and complete missions that generate every fifteen or so seconds after your faction completes the last mission. Every time you decapitate easily agro-ed Terrorcons or unforgiving turrets, you're awarded energon cubes which were initially used to repair your 'bot after its demise. Due to a recent patch, the death mechanic has been changed as to no longer require repairs. This makes energon a little less desirable with its only use to create consumables. Secondly, you get relics at an incredibly slow pace. The relics are used to purchase new combatants to play as along with re-sprays for said characters.

Furthermore, the Autobots being the "good bots," it probably attracts a lot more players and I find myself constantly teamed up with beginners who have no idea what they are doing. Everyone starts somewhere and when I started off, I had no idea how the game was played either. However, it's been a few months now and I use a better 'bot than the newbies alongside a higher ranking and level and yet I still get teamed up with them. Healing three other guys who don't know what they're doing for six matches in a row gets to be frustrating. The last complaint I have is that I wish a bit more was going on in the base, if you happen to play at awkward times when no one is there.....it's surprisingly dull. That's it! On to the good stuff.

               

The character selection is wonderful. Hopping into the hangar, located in the base, allows you to see all the possible bots you can acquire and they're all beautifully designed. They all have a unique look and their own set of skills and weapons. There's just about anything for anyone at this point and with constant additions to the roster, anyone's play-style will be met. My character of choice is Meltdown who is a mechanist. This class sustains itself by healing itself when damaged, healing others, knocking back opponents and slowing 'em down. He packs a decent punch too and looks totally kickass.

The gameplay has come a long way as well. It's so seamless now, going from bot to truck feels great and vice-versa. The special effects are a treat to the eyes, what with the Decepticons getting wings and tentacles when they proc a skill. The world is colorful and believable despite using a lower graphical engine than what most people are playing with nowadays. The community and mods are all friendly and competitive. Saving up a ton of relics and getting a new 'bot is satisfying. Getting revenge kills are exhilarating. Nothing beats taking down that one 'Con who's dominated your team. Lastly, the game is in open-beta. They're constantly improving and adding more content and it's all free. There are micro-transaction options but it's hardly a pay-to-win game. You can become a "founder" which means you donated a ton of cash and they allow you to play as three exclusive characters, but they're not overpowered. As long as you're not playing the starter characters, you can take 'em on.

For my final thoughts, being a closed-Beta tester, the opportunity was given to me to see how the game has progressed and boy, did it ever. The open beta and the patches have drastically improved the game. Having a higher traffic and fixing all the oddities here and there have made this game easily recommendable. Transformers fan or not, it's an enjoyable experience. It's worth it to try out at the very least. Lots of fun, lots of action, what do you have to lose? It's free!

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The Dungeon Delver

This week I've been hacking away at another early access game that goes by the name of Delver. Delver is a first person dungeon crawler with randomized dungeons and retro style graphics; it is definitely worth your attention.

The goal of Delver is the definition of simple: get in, get the treasure and get the fuck out. The meat of the game however lies in the dungeons themselves—between the enemies, traps, twists and turns, and the randomly generated maps combined with the permadeath feature, the game is always pretty interesting and challenging. It also has a wide variety of weapons, potions and gear for you to horde and collect with a cornucopia of enemies to keep you interested and on your toes. The overall look and feel of the game reminds me of a medieval doom with cleaned up and wacky sprites and it really has that old school PC gaming feel that I'd put right up there with the original Wolfenstein.

One of the coolest draws to the game is the mod support, which is really awesome. It allows you to create your own items, textures and even enemies which allows for some really interesting and cool community mods that are definitely worth looking into. If you're the artistic type, you can look into creating your own too.

Delver has a lot of trial and error, which you'll end up taking full advantage of due to the permadeath. The fast paced nature of the gameplay is challenging but makes it fun and forces you to think out certain actions and situations to protect your progress and levels so far. The game itself is easily worth the 8 dollar price tag and with the randomly generated maps the game has a lot of replay value to hold your attention.

I will admit that the game could use more content but that is backed up with mod support and the community. That being said however, it’s no excuse for a lack of content that isn’t community created but like I said before the game is still in beta and it’s only an early access copy. Delver is definitely a game to throw on your wishlist and keep tabs on because the official release is certainly something to keep an eye on. In my opinion Delver isn’t game of the year material but it's definitely worth pumping a few hours into now and then and worth every penny.

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