Recent reviews by Melos

It's one of those few games which changes completely depending on how skilled you are at it.

From it being an accessible first person action platformer, with adjustments for slower gameplay, extra lives, amongst other accessibility options, it turns into a blood-pumping and epic experience that you'd want to replay over and over again as your skill improves over time. The developers have designed a game which at first sight might seem as if there's only one path to your end goal, but the more you learn the mechanics, and their quirks, the more routes suddenly become available to you throughout a level.

The challenge the game poses has always been fair in my opinion. Ever since the first time I started the game, I never thought to myself that a lack of transparency, or clarity was the reason I died. I knew that the reason I died was because I simply (at first) didn't understand the mechanics of both the game, and the enemies.

Once I learned how they worked, I was not only able to avoid enemy fire, I was able to essentially dance around a flurry of bullets, swords, and big-boi fists, without it being accidental.

And no, this is not a "brag" of skill, but rather a way of expressing the games way of being able to convey its' mechanics to you as a player, letting you essentially to subconsciously become great at the game, and finally feeling as if you truly are the Ghostrunner you're playing.

the story puts you into an existential crisis, but aside from that, it gives you a lot to think about and just generally gives you a good experience for theories etc.

my favourite theory is the mad scientist who thinks theres a way to transfer your current consciousness, a sort of "spark" or something that causes it.

truth is - you cant... well, simon or the world cant.

you the player however seem to be able to experience both parts :-)

Fun game, lets you choose if you want voice to be mandatory or not. Helpful for other players who feel the same.

It's ironic that Arena has been abandoned for this.

This is a husk of arena. The gameplay present makes you want nothing else but play arena.

To get an even match against a different player, you'd have to pray to RNGesus that he not only gives you a good moveset (itemset? items.) but your opponent as well.

Otherwise it's just a pubstomp, one way or the other.

The only good part is the pvp (when it's even), and even that part is so scarce and lacking that you'll beg for something to happen.

I can go in-depth as to why I feel as I do, but honestly SLS really doesn't deserve that attention and neither should you, the player, even bother to give it to them, so I'll just quickly summarize it.

The game lacks in tension. If someone has a higher power-level than you do (via items etc) then you are simply screwed if you are caught by that player. Other Battleroyale games have headshots and other things that can still even out the playing field for players, even if they're geared differently.

But not in Battlerite.

I once had a match where all the gear I was looking for had already been taken - and the end match was me (level 20) vs a level 50.

For some reason I got second spot, and usually in Battleroyales that's something to celebrate and get excited over. But in Battlerite Royale? It was nothing but complete emptiness and me just somehow accidentally missing players all the damn time and them leaving me alone. No action, no nothing. No man-on-a-mission kind of thing where you get by the whole round by sheer dumb luck. No. Just lack of action, that's all.

SLS has been criticized for not daring to take leaps to make their game stand out. Once they do, the other side of the coin that was silent and content finally speaks up because there were several issues with the game that were properly addressed which the current review-wave is having issues dealing with.

The game is lots of fun, but I will admit that it can get repetitive. There are ways the developers are going to make it less so by introducing a Tournament system which will come in the future, but until then it's definitely worth to play. (Moreso now than before)

Battleborn has been one of the few games that has made me swap my daily list of games. All this due to the fact that the characters in the game are one of the most unique characters you'll ever encounter in a MOBA. They all have awesome abilities which vary your gameplay during the PVP and in addition to those - those abilities also have these so-called Helix Upgrades.

The Helix upgrades are acquired through character rank. At a certain rank you unlock a new helix upgrade which alters your abilities in one way or another.

This makes the character you currently love to play even more interesting. Then there's also the epic gear which you unlock by doing challenges (Achievements basically) which also have their ways of altering your abilities.

The gameplay naturally doesn't boil down to only what the characters can do. There are three different pvp modes, each with 2 maps, then there's the campaign which is 9 maps if you include the intro.

The PVP in this game at first appears hectic, chaotic and hard to decipher. But the moment you start to get the hang of it, the moment it all becomes clear (and trust me it will) the pvp can be one of the most intense fights you've had in a game in a long while. The clutch gameplay you do with your teammates as you combine your efforts to push through the enemy lines gives you a feeling of satisfaction that closely resembles other MOBAS. Then there's also the fact that everything you do, every ability you use - you have to aim it, resulting in it being even more satisfactory once you do.

But to speak more of the PVP maps themselves.

In PVP you have three gamemodes, all which have 2 maps each. The gamemodes are

Capture - Capture the point sort of gameplay. Example, Battlefield Conquest but on a smaller scale.

Incursion - The "Moba" Mode so to say. But this work a tad different. In this gamemode there are two sentries that in represents towers in a moba. The only thing is that on a MOBA there are 3 lanes, in incursion there can be less than that. The sentry is a huge robot unit with an overshield which you must destroy before you can damage the sentry itself. The sentry also attacks back, giving you a more difficult time to down it. In order to be able to remove the shield quickly (It has protection against backdooring you see) you must escort your minions to it, who will in turn disable the shield for you. In order to do this you cannot only rely on your small minions, but have to either kill neutral minions (Which are at the outskirts) to "hire" them, or buy a bigger minion. You can buy minions with shards which you collect on the battlefield.

Meltdown - Meltdown is a gamemode in which you must escort your minions into a grinder which the enemy has. THe minions follow a designated pathway which leads into the grinder. After 250 minions the grinders move further up, making it more difficult for the attackers to press on, but easier for the defenders to defend, and once they reach their 250th mark, they get the same odds, giving you a good way for a comeback if neccessary.

These three gamemodes have been an incredible joy for me. Due to fact that every character feels like playing a new game (Due to the skilltree being vast and having a possibility to get upgraded), as well as the gamemodes themselves have been very fun to play.

Then there's the Campaign.

Throughout this review my thought proccess was that I had nothing but positive remarks about this game, but that was until I started thinking about the campaign. The game has two missions which are an incredible joy to play. They feel so well executed, so well made and feel like they're packed with action. These two missions are the Algorithm and the Voids Edge. They both start of with you mowing your way to the boss, with an epic midboss (or it is epic om the Algorithm), followed by an endgame boss which is beautifully presented and really fun to play.

These two set the standard for me for when I wanted to play further on... But oh boy was I ready to get disappointed. After this you got to play the Renegade, which was nothing sort of ... Hordemode upon hordemode. I will say this. I hate. Hordemode.

Then you've got The Archive. Much like the Void's Edge you have to escort a sentry. Only difference is that on the Voids Edge, that sentry could fight, protect and heal itself. This one however cannot! And it moves INCREDIBLY slow, resulting in some moments being nothing but complete silence due to that the sentry has not yet reached the designated scripted area for the enemies to spawn.

Then there's the Sentinel. This is one of the better levels with an awesome level desing, but the bosses and dungeon creeps in it are SO DAMN BORING! You get to this new area and fight the usual thrall, varelsi and stuff. But then you get introduced to a new sort of enemy. A rocky-thing! Awesome! And the boss? ... The same rocky thing except bigger. The final boss, i.e the sentinel? The same rocky thing except even slightly bigger. And the worst part? All of these bosses have the same tactic as the smaller minions. So... yeah, a mission that had the same potential as the Algorithm to be epic, but simply didn't utilize that possibility.

The Experiment. Hordemode the map.

The Saboteur. Hordemode the freaking map.

The Heliophage. It's just... yeah, Hordemode the map. Except slightly changed. You go to this crystal which you have to defend against hordes of enemies.

Honestly, I have to admit that I got a sour taste in my mouth after having to get to play epic levels such as the Algorithm and The Voids edge on the beta. They were one of the bigger benefactors to my choice of pre-purchasing battleborn. I wanted more epic levels like that, but I sure as heck didn't get them.

But, final verdict is still to purchase this game.

The PVP makes up a huge deal for it and makes the game worthwhile. While the campaign is definitely lackluster, and honestly SHOULDN'T BE... GEARBOX... It's still entertaining enough to chop off a few hours in your gametime. The PVP and characters is where this game shines. The pvp is packed with tactics and twich-reflexed gameplay (seeing as everything has to be aimed), while the character progression system makes you feel as if you're properly investing yourself into a character, which of course is boosted by the fact that you're unlocking helixes and lore for the character.

----***NOTE***---
THIS REVIEW IS BASED ON FIRST IMPRESSIONS, AS I'VE NOT FINISHED IT YET. IT MERELY SERVES AS FEEDBACK FOR THE DEVELOPER RATHER THAN THE USER. THE USER MAY READ THROUGH THIS TO DETERMINE IF THEY FEEL THAT WHAT IS SAID WITHIN IT SEEMS REASONABLE.




So I tried out the game as it seemed somewhat intriguing and new, but as I continued on playing it I had noticed several illogical gameplay moments.

For example, the game relies far too much on trial and error.

Now Trial and Error games don't neccessarily have to be bad - like Abe's Oddworld has a way of making fun of the player, thus adding humor to your failures. But the Red Hood game has an odd way of punishing the player for simply being too stupid to understand what they meant as hazardous.

Let us start with the tin soldiers at the start.

You have to sneak. That makes sense, seeing as you lack a weapon. No need for instructions here - it simply is logical.

Then you get a weapon. Alright, now I can kill those tin bastards! Which I do without an issue. (It is also now I realize how dull the combat really is. Apart from the animation being stiff, the combat consists of nothing but either buttonmashing or dodging followed by a little more mashing until the enemies are dead. Honestly, combat in other games is fun, but in this one, you'd much rather avoid the tin-men than fighting them. Not because they're scary, but because it's such a chore.)

That is until you meet a shock tinman. Alright, call me blind for not noticing that these have a small mace with an electric bolt within them, but the only way I found out that you have to sneak around these fellows was by dying first. An unneccessary death, but I simply accepted my fate.

Then come the yellow-feathered tins. You toss the axe to clear the red-feathered tinmen quickly, and then simply mash the attack button until the yellow feathered one dies. One enemy, requires several hits because apparently he's supposed to be more difficult... Which he's not, he's simply more tedious. Oh, you can also toss the axe a few times extra to kill him.

Then comes the Flute boss. It preys on your learnability which you had when you faced him once - LB+Y to do an aerial smash and kill the rats. What it fails to tell you however is that this boss will do an INSTANT DEATH attack in the middle of the whole arena. Great, trial and error on a boss. I mean don't get me wrong, it's probably a short boss but holy crap was it frustrating. Like I said, I've not finished the game and I only tried the boss twice. Might finish it some time later.

What's even more frustrating about this boss is that the odd electrical fizzes in the middle blend with your blue effects, resulting in you getting your ass kicked because the effects lie to your eyes.

The platforming is great fun. A bit deceitful at times however, as some ledges appear grabbable, whereas others do not. They try to show this by sliding a faded white shine over the climbable objects, whereas the others that are not climbable do not shine. This was a huge issue for me who tends to like to play a game in fast-paced mode.

Don't get me wrong, I never rush a game - when I play games I take my sweet old time - however I will never rob myself of the experience of pumping my own blood a little with a bit of "skillful" platforming (It's not skillful, but rather me nearly sacrificing myself to make a few jumps. Still though, great fun.)

What cripples the platforming in this game is the plethora amount of invisible walls that are meant to guide the player. They only result in limiting you so that you do not speed ahead - possibly to prolong the game.

Which also reminds me - there are FAR too many moments in this game where I feel as if the developer attempted to prolong the game. For example, there are these rafts that float across the water. Alright, great. Red Hood can't swim so she needs these. A shame that THEY'RE SO GOSH DARN SLOW. Honestly, the slowness ONLY BENEFITS YOU LATER ON when you have to jump over a few obstacles. But before that - you have to ride two rafts to cross the level and then a third one where a few obstacle appear.

I mean I guess it was the developers way of saying "These are slow. Have patience. Also, further on you will not have any issues jumping over these obstacles that appear."

And again, I am all for learnability instead of awkward boxes slapping you in the face showing you what you need to do, but this moment merely seemed like an attempt of prolonging the game further than it had to.

There's also a moment like this in the sewers where you turn a wheel to make some oil stop, but this makes the steam on some pipes go faster. Alright, no problem - I get to probably disable it later. I go forth and there's a lever to open the door to the end of the level. However there's an issue. The door is currently blocked by the steamy pipes. Alright, I'll just go to the wheel and turn them off. Done. An unneccessary element to add to the game in my opinion as it serves to do nothing but prolong the game unneccessarily. At first I thought the stuff that ran from the grate was oil, which would explain the steamy pipes, but turns out it's not! As Red Hood says herself, it's the "Cities bowel movements", thus giving no reason for those pipes to steam really.

What also messes you up is the lack of drop shadow when you do platforming. This has unneccessarly killed me several times because I miscalculated the jump because I could not tell the distance between the ... What is it, X axel of the depth?

What's even worse is when the game decides to change FOV in mid platforming. This means that the speed and distance between objects change as well, as FOV usually determines how far away an object may look like it is.

This was ESPECIALLY A PROBLEM during the pursuit moment.

Apart from the controls just RANDOMLY CHANGING in the middle of it all, the game decided to throw in a bit of platforming. I took a leap of faith and it appeared as if I would land neatly upon the platform. Nope. Red Hood sunk like a rock.

Alright, alive again - this time I took my sweet time and simply worked on memory. Previously it was too far, and as it was too far, Red Hood had a specific distance from the raft. This time I will lower my distance. Nope, still sunk like a rock.

During the third time I succeeded. I landed directly upon the raft, but I felt as if all of this could've been avoided frustration if the game was decent enough to provide some feedback as to where you were while you were airborne.

One of the most intense games I have ever played in my life.

During moments of your gaming in life you experience tonnes of breath-taking, heartstopping and adrenalinic moments which are temporary. These can be from when you sit together with three other friends, taking over B spot on Battlefield 4 while you get surrounded by 2-3 Squads, leaving you to face them 20/3. Moments like these you can feel your heart pumping, your sweat chilling and your eyes focus like they were on freaking crack.

Or take for example if you played Smite, or any other moba - You spend ages to level up and then to gear your character just so that you can join your teammates in team-fights. The fights in these games can vary heavily - some can be instant pubstomps ending up with you killing your enemy rather quickly, whereas others can take some time and some planning. But then there's also those twitch-moments you have in mobas - you know, those rare moments where everything stands still. You are inches away from dying, your mind is blank and you simply are not sure what to do. The enemy is weak, all at low health but plently of mana.

You are the only one alive in your team and you've got plenty of both mana and health - so you choose to do the greedy thing of charging in - ending up with you being put in one of the stickiest situations that you can be in. Enemy after enemy pounces you and you can feel your heart race as well as you see the impending doom that has fallen upon you. Should you escape to base with barely any health left? Or should you press on and get several kills and turn the tide of the battle? Before you even make a decision you see several ulties, abilities and auto-attacks headed your way - you're simply ♥♥♥♥♥♥... or that's how the situation would be. There's that odd rare moment when during panic and stressful situations your brain enters a complete clear mode. Call it Zen, call it ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ super-saiyan, call it binge-eating ben and jerries and get a crack-like sugar-rush on a Sunday evening, your whole body gets heated but - your mind is clear - you quickly devise a tactic in your head and avoid the first ultimate, then you dive in for the kill just to be interrupted by the second ultimate - which you avoid as well. You enter a focused bloodlust where you will kill the enemy team - not plan to, but will.

We have all felt something like this... however these moments rarely come during these games. It's always one or the other. You either pubstomp or get pubstomped.

That is ... unless you're playing Bloodline Champions.

Every moment, every action, every movement, counts to the thrill in BLC. The moments where time freezes and your blood rushes is every second in Bloodline Champions 2 minute games. With instant-tactics and synergetic gameplay, as a Bloodline Champion you must make sure to know what your teammate thinks as well as they know what you think, because there's rarely any room for vocal tactics. The game is fast-paced and if you're damaged - there's nowhere to run. You were put in the ring to fight to death, not to cower back at your base. When you lose a game in Bloodline Champions then it's not as merciful as the other games, where if you respawn you cozy up in your little Base, you get to live to see the cheers. No, here the winner is the one who isn't lying in a pool of his own blood. The winner is the one who survived - For even when the timer runs out, sudden death approaches, allowing no peace - only victory.

cray-review aside - let's discuss this on a more serious note.

The game is a little relentless against beginners mostly due to the fact that it has a low playerbase. When a new player wishes to play a game then they're usually pinned against players who know how to play already. As for the pubstomping, it can occur in Bloodline Champions as well - Just that when you get a proper fight, it's awesome and it happens quite often. Especially once you get the gist of the game - then it happens almost all the time. You know those blood-rush fights that I wrote of a bit higher up on the review? Yeah they happen really frequently.. you just have to have the patience to learn the game. This could mean to learn every character, which there are 21 of I believe, but once you learn a few you begin to notice a familiar pattern within a lot of the characters. Some of them have similiar abilities - but that have different effects basically.

TL;DR - good game. Play it.