Now, I’m not as hardcore a Destiny 2 player as my younger brother. As a matter of fact, while I did catch the most recent “World’s First” raid, I wasn’t heavily active during the expansion launch. A large part of that had to do with crashes on PlayStation 4.

However, as far as Destiny 2 creators and keeping up with news, I follow to a degree. Even while playing, unless I’m playing with my brother, I tend to get in and find activities where I can just get in and slam such as Iron Banner, strikes that are on the shorter side, or just public events. I’m not particularly interested in jumping puzzles or figuring out mechanics, two important ingredients in the franchise’s gameplay.

Destiny: Rising Launches

I had come across Destiny: Rising on the Google Play Store when it was still in the pre-register phase. Mind you, I didn’t pre-register as I was looking for another game to play. Since it was a bigger mobile game—I don’t reckon Sony or Bungie would get on board with a trash mobile title—it would remain in the “For You” section until launch.

After my brother reminded me that it had launched, I logged on the day after launch and dove into the issues of Haven, the hub city of Destiny: Rising. As mentioned above, this is a sequel to the main Destiny games and I’d say that so far, it’s a good entry.

I’m still going through the story—in true Destiny fashion, character really chat. Everyone’s a yapper in the game and the urge to hit “Skip” was ever present. Fortunately, some cutscenes allow the player to double the speed as a soft skip. I feel this should be for all cutscenes and cinematics.

Move it along, already.

It should be noted that as a NetEase title, there’s the expected gacha element here. It’s actually an important element of the gameplay since the characters are all built to substitute for the more focused build and gear crafting of the main titles.

Characters and Build Crafting

That isn’t to say this game is pick-and-play. The Guardians (characters) all have a light element: solar (fire), void (gravity/space), and arc (lightning). Stasis (ice), strand (kind of like void and stasis) and prismatic (all abilities) aren’t featured yet. However, in true gacha fashion, expect more characters to drop and some to be loaded up with the best skills of those elements.

In Destiny 2, players are free to jump among elemental subclasses as desired and craft builds around certain abilities and aspects. Over on Destiny: Rising, the characters have pretty much settled into their most proficient subclass. The player just has to select the best Guardian for the activity.

Players will get to do some build crafting here but it’s streamlined for both mobile gameplay and how players tend to play mobile. For those who have explored Destiny 2, you will know it’s a bit of a time investment regardless of your skill level. Whether you’re mainly a PvP (player vs. player) or PvE (player vs. environment) gamer, you’re sinking time into the game because there’s so much to manage, improve, craft, and hunt for—never mind actually getting into the adventuring, raiding, and dungeon delving. It’s not necessarily a game where you can jump in for 10 minutes here and there for bite-sized, quick sessions.

In Rising, the approach is geared mainly towards shorter sessions or if you really want to just drain your battery. On the road to team level 61 at the time of writing this, I’ve hovered between both.

Back to the characters! They’re pretty much different subclasses with baked in builds—or abilities geared towards their intended combat and utility style. From there, you’re able to level up their relic abilities—the elemental powers Guardians can use in combat and improve your weapons.

If you haven’t gotten into Destiny: Rising, you might be wondering about armor sets and the like. Don’t worry about that, the focus is on weapons in DR—meaning the Guardians are just rocking with their established armor sets. No one’s running around with mismatched gear or anything.

All of that has been streamlined to cut down the micromanagement aspect of Destiny for mobile. There’s still micromanagement but the amount of stuff to manage is reduced.

Gameplay and Adventuring

I’m certain the build crafting and micromanagement are big draws of the franchise for some players but this game shines with the actual adventuring and in-the-field stuff. The activity and menu UI sets up everything in mainly one location while checking your ghost (your Light imbued companion who guides and revived you).

From the main story mission to PvE, PvP, PvPvE activities, players can find it here along with stuff like rankings, the map, season level, characters, and items. Just like the main games, selecting any kind of adventure or activity will get it started for matchmaking.

There are some adventures that require the player to travel to certain areas. The game will drop you in the region at the closest fast travel spot but there might be some hiking required to the objective. It occurs for some main story missions but for specific characters that aren’t Wolf, the game just drops you in the location their story takes place.

The gunplay in Destiny: Rising is really good. It’s not to the level of Destiny 2 but for a mobile adaptation, it’s really fun and easy to learn. The game allows the player to experience the game in third-person or first-person and I strongly remember going with first. When using super abilities, the perspective is snapped to third-person for the duration as it does in the main games.

I found it odd that third-person was even an option but NetEase Games tend to offer both.

Loot and Odds N’ Ends

Any combat activity or adventure rewards loot in the form of leveled engrams (which can have weapons, weapon mods, etc), one of the game’s various currencies, fragments that can make full engrams), weapon enhancement material, and miscellaneous loot that can be used for other activities.

For instance, you could get bait for fishing from doing strikes or whatever activity. Fishing itself rewards nothing but the fish and occasionally guns, but fish can be sold for fishing shop currency—which can then be used to purchase a variety of fishing and non-fishing goods.

Matchmaking for fire teams tends to be very quick. Very rarely have I left the matchmaking or mission screen because the matching was taking a while. Players are even warned that matchmaking could take a while because of a low participation pool (which I got twice).

Speaking of warnings, in a nice bit of a quality of life feature, Destiny: Rising warned me that a character mission would take at least 15 minutes. I greatly appreciated that.

Another warning: this is a gacha game as far as the meat and potatoes of its business. That means some characters can be purchased and getting the battle pass is recommended but not necessary. The extra bonuses are nice but the grind isn’t too bad in this game. Hell, I primarily grind strikes and other PvE activities…and fishing.

The first wave of characters can be gained via pulls using the associated currencies. Those can be purchased as well or gained as a potential reward. Expect Rising to push players more towards purchasing content when even better or more interesting characters are released.

As a matter of fact, two new characters have been announced as coming soon. All of that said, I say that Rising is a game worth playing.

Will you be play or pass on Destiny: Rising? If you’re already in, what are some of activities and characters you enjoy? Let’s us know in the comments and if you playing, feel free to add me: MetalSwift.

Staff Writer; M. Swift

This talented writer is also a podcast host, and comic book fan who loves all things old school. One may also find him on Twitter at; metalswift.

Meanwhile, a gamer could feel strongly about a title and want it modernized or to at least get a sequel—yes, decades after the previous release. Obviously, I’m not a game designer or associated with a developer, so you can guess which group I fall in with this list.

We’re going to look at five titles that could do with a comeback season whether it’s a sequel or a reboot.

Sleeping Dogs (2012, United Front/Square Enix)

Sleeping Dogs is considered the spiritual successor to the True Crime series, a PS2 GTA-clone where the police detective element was the focus. The True Crime series was supposed to have a third entry based again in New York—that later became Hong Kong with United Front’s work on the then unnamed title. However, that was axed by Activision. Mind you, the True Crime: New York City did have some big-name TV and film actors doing voice work for a game that…it flopped, folks.

We’re talking less than 80,000 units sold in its first two weeks. That lets you know that this wasn’t going to meet the budget put into the game at all.

Then United Front came along with what would become Sleeping Dogs after Activision passed on publishing it. The rest is history: it was received very well and presented enough that a sequel wasn’t out of the question. Performance-wise, it sold enough units to warrant exploring a sequel—yet here we are.

The game was supposed to see a sequel which followed the future cases and adventures of Shen and was to feature a mobile gaming aspect that impacted Sleeping Dogs 2’s gameplay. While there is no sequel on the horizon, the license was picked up and is being turned into a film.

Kengo (2000, Genki/Crave)

Let’s get into even older franchises that have seen no recent developments—such as Bushido Blade. Well, let’s go with the spiritual successor: Kengo. While Bushido Blade added a realistic element to the 3D fighting game genre with wounds and bleed outs resulting in victory or defeat, I enjoyed Kengo’s approach of putting the player in the shoes of a traveling swordsman.

This wasn’t going through different parts of a village and slaughtering the opps and their heavies. No, you went from established dojo to established dojo to practice, learn techniques, and apply those techniques in duels. Then you fought the masters of the dojos and eventually participated in the imperial tournament. Outside of the absence of some slice-of-life stuff, this was basically a swordsman simulator.

Now, the third entry was a bit of a bust because it was a garden variety fighting game with swords and we already had Bushido Blade 2 as well as Soulcalibur and Battle Arena Toshiden by that time.

Rival Schools (1997, Capcom)

On the one hand, it’s like—there are enough fighting games out there, do we really need to bring back one from almost 30 years ago? Especially if nothing new is done, it’s just a return of this game’s roster. Capcom even did something new with Street Fighter 6, so a Rival Schools return would have to be something fresh instead of an expensive investment in nostalgia.

I say add aged Rival Schools characters to the Street Fighter roster because Capcom had some great characters from the R.S and Street Fighter EX titles. Batsu? Skullomania? Yes, add them to the roster.

Inindo: Way of the Ninja (1991, Koei)

I can’t say enough good things about this Super Nintendo title. It was like playing as an officer in Romance of the Three Kingdoms in turn-based JRPG. For a game released in 1991, it had features that would make many RPGs worth playing multiple times. The main feature is the recruiting of allies actively forming a rapport with them.

However, some potential allies or teammates might not agree with your motivations, or they might believe that serving Nobunaga is the ultimate job—when you’re trying to take him out for razing your village.

The other major element is that each month, the landscape/map is updated with the battles that went down. The player can work for a daimyo and by doing mission for them successfully, they can participate in battles. Meaning, they can impact the power dynamic in feudal Japan and probably weaken Nobunaga’s influence.

With the advancements in development and writing over 30-plus years, I’d say Koei could make the ultimate ninja game if they decided to revisit this title.

Alpha Protocol (2010, Obsidian Entertainment/Sega)

Listen, Alpha Protocol wasn’t perfect at all and at times it could drag at points, but the game was one of the best espionage games made. The only franchises or games I would put over it are Metal Gear Solid and Deus Ex (under Square Enix). Having to travel to different locations around the world for missions, decisions that impacted future missions, a decent combat system that could’ve been more polished in a sequel—Alpha Protocol had the makings for a good, regular series for Sega.

It was a spy game that was purely about spycraft. This wasn’t a shooter based around a spy or spy fighting game, no—stealth was necessary here, folks. Negotiation was necessary as well. You could tell that Obsidian Entertainment had plans for the gameplay mechanics in place and that more could’ve been done with those mechanics.

My two gripes with AP are that the game felt a little short for what was going down—it’s the same feeling I had for Deus Ex: Human Revolution—and it ended on a something of a cliffhanger. The combat, camera, and all that didn’t bother me as much as it bothered others, but a cliffhanger will always burn my biscuit.

What are your five games that you’d love to see get a reboot or sequel? Let us know in the comments!

Staff Writer; M. Swift

This talented writer is also a podcast host, and comic book fan who loves all things old school. One may also find him on Twitter at; metalswift.

Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time’s Hyrule Was Pretty Bare

I first played Ocarina of Time in 1998, it was my Christmas game that year. The hype around in GamePro, Game Informer, and Nintendo Power was immense. Most of the gaming magazines at the time were into this game. The commercial for OoT sold me since I was heavily into fantasy stuff like Xena and Hercules at the time.

Now, for the power limitations at the time and this being Nintendo’s first attempt at something more involved—Link had an inventory and an armory all on his person—Hyrule Field was bare. Honestly, it should’ve been very safe to travel Hyrule Field.

Then again, when you see how spaced the major towns are, how they’re all set up on the border of the overworld map, and how dangerous it is just to get to Zora’s Domain, Goron City, and Kakariko Village…

Well, Kakariko Village isn’t a particularly dangerous trek but Goron City is within proximity of Death Mountain. Enough said. Considering that: who would bother leaving their towns? It’s just a trek from anywhere you’re coming from in Hyrule. There should be no issues traveling during the day. Decades later and I’m thinking “It would’ve been nice to have some bandits or orcs during the daytime.”

Link had a sword, Link had a shield: let Link slam! You could definitely slam if you headed into the different area maps en route to another town—day or night. Hyrule’s different chiefs/leaders didn’t have the best security in mind for their domains. I mean, I guess knights patrolled Hyrule Field but you never saw them.

Nintendo Has Done an Amazing Job with Hyrule Now

Nintendo would work on this over the decades to make Hyrule a world worth venturing through. In each Zelda title, you could see there was a goal to make the land of Hyrule more alive. Link should’ve had memorable interactions with the locals given he’s working to save the world.

The first step was in Ocarina of Time just by having a day-night cycle. In the late 1990s and early 2000s, you’d see more game exploring this mechanic. When paired with Zelda or Pokémon, it adds a sense of a passage of time for your adventure. This isn’t the longest day as it was in Pokémon Red or Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past.

The Wind Waker and The Skyward Sword opened the world up some more, there were more inhabitants of the world. Then we get to the Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom—the closest to the realization of a living Hyrule. I say “closest” because developers can always push an element of gameplay.

Just look at the open world in Fallout 3 compared to Fallout 4 where there are fewer settlements or towns that need a transition screen. There are more places that you merely walk into or open a door. Something as simple as that is big for a complete or perfect open world setting.

While it wasn’t a perfect open world and a lot of things that were promised just didn’t get done, Fable is a game where the open world managed to do some simplistic elements you’d expect. Such as: walking right into someone’s home without a brief loading or transition—a 2004 accomplishment.

On the note of Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom: the addition of the player using any weapon they can get and those weapons having durability? Amazing combat mechanic, compliments to the chef.

This Is the Way

It’s not unusual for developers to “Bring the game back to its roots” but I say keep going forward with The Legend of Zelda. Go back to the roots for an action-puzzle project but for these titles with cinematic cutscenes, improved mechanics, dialogue, and lore pushing stories—make the quest an adventure. Keep it open world and let Link and the player to explore the world.

Why not? Link either constantly misses whole swathes of time because they’re in mystical eternal rest or has been reincarnated and lives in the boonies. Let Link experience the world. Don’t just shotgun one of Nintendo and gaming’s greatest heroes through towns they’re never revisiting and puzzle-riddled dungeon after puzzle-riddled dungeon.

Staff Writer; M. Swift

This talented writer is also a podcast host, and comic book fan who loves all things old school. One may also find him on Twitter at; metalswift.

The Lack of People Made Me Wonder in Super Mario Games

The Mario games had that even on stages that had no actual backgrounds like the haunted houses in Super Mario World or castles and forts in the OG Super Mario Bros. There was something exciting happening on the screen.

Then you get older and a little critical. You’ve been exposed to better worlds, elaborate game design, and story—so much story that one of the most revolutionary features in gaming is the “Skip Scene” button.

So, the worlds of the Mario games seem super odd. Like sure, it’s a world of fantasy but even worlds of fantasy have some order, right? In SMB, I basically used imagination to figure out where all of the people were. I came to the conclusion that each stage in SMB, SMB3, and SMW are basically battlegrounds to face Bowser and his Koopa Troopas.

There’s no way I, as a villain, would kidnap a princess or the magic scepters of a bunch of kings ruling over barren lands. They would basically be bandit chiefs with ties to the Crown. No, these battles took place away from civilization with Mario and Luigi having to win each time.

I mean, it would at least make it seem like the Mushroom Kingdom and the other kingdoms are fighting back, right? There’s no way any of those castles would be standing in Super Mario Bros. 3 if there was no resisting army. Bowser’s Koopalings all had Flying Fortresses. Those things shots normal-sized and large Bullet Bills. They dropped bombs. If there was no military Mario and Luigi would’ve been running through parking lots.

The Mario RPGs Explained Things Much Better

As always, leave it up to RPGs and the social aspect to breathe life into these worlds. Even in Super Mario 64—a massive step into the late 90s and early 2000s for Nintendo—that world was sparse. It was just Mario, Peach, Bowser, and a bunch of enemies. Toad and someone else might have been there but it wasn’t a populated world.

It would also explain how the warp pipes dropped Mario and Luigi off just where they needed to go. The RPGs games—like the Megaman action RPGs on Game Boy Advance—featured towns and villages with inhabitants, shops, and side quests.

Mario and his party actually seemed like part of the Mushroom Kingdom and not an isekai savior. Because why would you summon a plumber with an unknown background to your world to save you? Mario could’ve had a violent criminal record or been a bloodthirsty maniac. The Mushroom Council or the Stars lucked up and got a kind-hearted, heroic plumber and his brother of questionable courage. Then again, they got a plumber of all people. Two! They got a buy-one-get-one-free on New York plumbers. What rotten RNG.

Of course, there are retellings of how Mario and Luigi were born in that world but even that begs questions. Apparently, there are or were humans wherever they are. What happened to them? All of the kings in SMB3 are human, Peach, Mario, Luigi, Daisy, Wario and so on. What’s up with the humans?

There are plenty of toadstools. We were even introduced to friendly koopas in Paper Mario and peaceful communities of Yoshis in Super Mario World. That question among others I’ve had over the years about one of my favorite franchises calls for an anime and perhaps a manga with continuity.

Staff Writer; M. Swift

This talented writer is also a podcast host, and comic book fan who loves all things old school. One may also find him on Twitter at; metalswift.

Like Destiny 2, WF is very much a live service game meaning it’s meant to stay active via constant seasonal content and updates as well as regular expansions. These games make their bread either by selling the expansion while the game itself is free, having stuff that can be purchased in the premium shop, seasonal passes—or all three. Oftentimes, all three are utilized since the seasonal pass and seasonal content keeps things alive.

Live Service is a Hard Road to Travel

Most of the time when a game is developed it’s either meant as a one-off story, a potential series-starter, or a sequel but it’s often a contained story that might get DLC before the studio moves on. They’re rarely meant to be live like the multiplayer modes of Call of Duty. Live service is more the realm of MOBAs and MMORPGs which come in as massively online experiences as soon as they’re installed.

As it would go, live services exist within MMO’s metropolitan area without having a residence in the city proper. But the studio has to be able to support it consistently. That means regular seasons every two to six months that have a theme and keep players involved and engage in the game world followed by an expansion.

The expansion serves as a mini-sequel or soft sequel without being a full-on sequel with a number and subtitle. Mind you, Bungie sells expansions for the price of a full game but those come around every year or two but they have the fanbase and the players tend to be enthusiastic even if there are elements they don’t care for much.

That’s ultimately what a developer takes this road wants: a dedicated fanbase for the title. You only get that with rewarding missions and gameplay and an engaging, constantly evolving story. The mix of this concoction varies from game to game and developer to developer but those who apparently hit that perfect mix for them tend to stick around for a long time. Sprinkle in free-to-play and boom!

Much like Warframe.

Warframe is Hanging in There

Again, released in 2013, WF is a sci-fi third-person shooter where you as a recently unfrozen Tenno—humanoid warriors who are one with their bio battle suits—to combat a variety of alien lifeforms. Tennos utilize different kinds of weaponry as they take on galaxy-spanning missions to deal damage and defeat these hostile lifeforms.

Typical sci-fi stuff, really. Like other live service games, a premium store where things and currency can purchased that can be used with any particular in-game mechanic. There’s always a special currency with these types of games—such as platinum in Diablo IV.

The story is just enough that a developer can keep going with the game while throwing in storyline stuff and pushing the main story along every few years. What keeps players engaging with WF is some fun gameplay, decent gameplay, cosmetics and better gear to snag, and a leveling system players can work on.

The goal is to make it challenging and rewarding for the dedicated players and accessible enough for new and returning players. It’s a real tightrope act because if you make things too easy, your diehards are going to be annoyed since their effort for years prior might come off as pointless. However, if things are too difficult or convoluted, that’s a good way to not see return players or retain them.

You simply end up with your diehards who—while loyal—you can never truly satisfy. There will be something they didn’t enjoy and those players are regulars and might be familiar to the team. The loudest and rowdiest tend to have a voice in the core community.

Of course, that all only matters if you’re really involved with the community. If you’re not in the official Discord or on their forums, it doesn’t matter. You’re here to play the game. With that said, Warframe has a dedicated community that keeps the game alive and keeps the devs busy.

There are a few games that should be watched to see how this is done. While WF doesn’t have the live population of Diablo IV or Destiny 2, it has stayed alive for over a decade with a population often in the lower five figures.

Do you play Warframe, Diablo IV, or Destiny 2? What keeps you playing and what would make you take a break from the grind and the loop? As always let us know!

Staff Writer; M. Swift

This talented writer is also a podcast host, and comic book fan who loves all things old school. One may also find him on Twitter at; metalswift.

Honestly, a lot of the titles Tripwire worked on didn’t catch my eye until I played Chivalry 2 and was caught up in this feudal version of the Battlefield games. Even that wasn’t enough to make me say “Let’s really look in their catalog and see if there’s any bangers.” So there Maneater sat for years until the summer of 2024.

Checking Out Maneater

Now, I enjoy nature and survival shows. My favorites were always Wild America, Meerkat Manor, and Survivorman. Listen, “Never Loud” Les Stroud could make a campfire with roughly anything you leave with him. One thing about that show: he’s going to make a fire and his first dwelling will always be poorly suited for the weather.

Anyway, those shows didn’t feature sharks and I was never the biggest fan of Discovery Channel’s Shark Week. My favorite sea animal? The narwhal and the octopus but I don’t believe either of those two have such bad press that a cable network made a week around them. I’m just saying, folks.

So, I dropped back onto the PSN looking for an RPG to pair with Destiny 2: The Final Shape when I see Maneater in the listings. That was a shocker because I never expected the game to be an RPG. Curious about what kind it was, I checked out the summary and peeped a few screenshots. Well, graphically it was on par with what you’d expect of a game of the period. I wouldn’t say it was outdated at all but it didn’t exactly wow me either.

Of course, I’ve never been a big “Games need good graphics to be a good game guy” more games have looked pretty and been trash to mid at best compared to games that didn’t look the greatest or was appeared dated only to have a good story and gameplay. You’d think that shouldn’t happen but studios put a lot of time and money into games that don’t live up to expectations.

In short, Maneater didn’’t look awful. The gameplay didn’t appear too interesting but two terms drew me in: “open world” and “skills”. If it had said “skill tree” my hesitation would’ve turn into a need to play this just to see how it was done. Instead, I simply installed it to play when I wasn’t on go time in Destiny 2.

Hands-On in the Bayou with a Bull Shark

I finally sat down to play what was supposed to be a bit of Maneater but turned into several hours. The game’s story unfolds via the eponymous Maneaters vs. Sharkhunters reality TV show, based on any number of blue-collar adventure reality TV shows the Discovery Channel and the History Channel got busy with. Your antagonist is a Cajun shark hunter Scaly Pete.

Part of Pete’s motivation to kill sharks is the feud his father had with one of the sea predators. The shark that kicks off your adventure is the mother of the protagonist which is caught by Scaly Pete and killed. Surviving after biting off the hunter’s hand, your shark’s adventure begins in the fictional Fawtick Bayou.

Your objective in the game is to grow the bull shark pup into a powerful hunter and terror in the open-world aquatic environment surrounding the bayou. I’ll say the map is a good size, the tutorial wasn’t too lengthy and actually got you into the man-eating part pretty early. Surprisingly, the combat mechanics were pretty damn good as far as attacking while defense required some practice.

The best thing is that the controls weren’t overly involved. They didn’t have you doing anything particularly complicated to do what should be simple actions. Leveling up the shark took some work but the process itself is simple. The game has a couple of systems to keep the player involved and tinkering with the shark’s trait which I find very interesting.

My fascination with Maneater comes from putting to the theme with this game style and coming up with something that works and is playable—and I love stumbling across games like this.

Have you played Maneater? If so what were your impressions of the game? Also, what a game that you weren’t interested in at first that got your attention when you gave it a try? Let us know in the comments!

Staff Writer; M. Swift

This talented writer is also a podcast host, and comic book fan who loves all things old school. One may also find him on Twitter at; metalswift.

These are elements that tend not to hit it off on a mainstream stage. I don’t want to say those are elements and a genre of gaming for your hardcore gamers but the hardcores tend to hold that corner of gaming down. It’s not a genre that casual gamers set up camp in regularly.

That means long-running series such as XCOM, Shadowrun, Final Fantasy Tactics, Ogre Battle, Fire Emblem, and the early Fallout games tend to be loved more by those very familiar with the gameplay and progression.

Hell, Fallout had to evolve and go 3D first-person to get over on a larger stage. Now look at the franchise: several award-winning entries, an MMORPG, a mobile offering, merchandise, and an Amazon series. I’m not saying XCOM should do the same but it’s going to be a crawl before it becomes a runaway phenomenon like Fallout while sticking to its roots.

Enter Marvel’s Midnight Suns

So, we’ve gathered that Firaxis Games is very good at a particular genre of games but they need that something extra to really pop beyond its loyal fanbase. One thing that will do that is work with Marvel. The entertainment powerhouse has enough IPs to work with for many gaming companies to do a variety of games—the same with DC Comics.

It was an interesting project to see what Firaxis would cook up with a Marvel property and they were given a low-risk one to work with in The Midnight Suns. Now, I’ll admit I was very excited about it because I like the gameplay of XCOM 2 although the loading at the time I played it on PS4 was egregious.

Also, in playing Marvel’s Midnight Suns, it was more mobile hero RPG like Star Wars Galaxies when Jr came to combat—and I was good with that. If anything it was basically Firaxis’ tactical RPG approach sped up, something I hope they utilize in another XCOM series. The battles in XCOM can be a grind for even the most seasoned player. Unless you’re marathoning or no-lifing the game, you’re not going to get a ton of battles in a couple of hours sitting.

In Midnight Suns, you could get a couple of battles in because of the smaller stages. Replacing the large stages of XCOM are waves of enemies. However, the core of running an organization or group of fighters and assigning missions are still there. I’d say it’s better done in Midnight Suns but that’s because there’s a focus on the characters with stories as opposed to just leveling up recruits.

One thing that did slow things down was needed to interact with characters regularly because there are bonuses tied to befriending them and giving gifts. Personally, I loved this part but I can see how it would turn off some players who just want to slam. I felt it added to the game a lot. Another thing I enjoyed but I could see being an issue is the whole exploration of the Abbey. Lots of mysteries to unlock but some of it is so lore-heavy that I found myself skipping some journal entries and the like frequently.

Hell, I found myself doing more of the hero-tied missions and collecting artifacts and the like than really getting into the main story missions. It’s just a well-designed experience.

This is the Formula and Firaxis Should Get Another Crack at It

Honestly, I felt this was a breath of fresh air for Marvel games. I love the open-world action games and the exploration that comes with the usually fluid battles and transversal of these well-crafted cities but we’ve been getting those for roughly 20 years via the Spider-Man games.

It’s for good reason because it’s a formula that sells. Unfortunately, Firaxis’ formula didn’t so it but I believe it would be great for a larger group like The Avengers or the X-Men. As a matter of fact, it wouldn’t be that much different from Marvel’s Midnight Suns: just larger names and more heroes to play with.

What were your thoughts and experiences with Midnight Suns? Let us know in the comments!

Staff Writer; M. Swift

This talented writer is also a podcast host, and comic book fan who loves all things old school. One may also find him on Twitter at; metalswift.

The thing about that is that combat plays a role in Stardew Valley but it isn’t the main thing. It can drive some stuff in the game but you can still enjoy your experiences without being super hardcore in the mines. Hell, the farm is your priority, honestly.

Started Valley Draws Inspiration from Other Great Unique Games

Stardew Valley is inspired by the Story of Seasons franchise—which pretty much came out of the Harvest Moon franchise. SDV takes the pixel approach of the early Harvest Moon games which were purely farming and slice-of-life and mixes it with Rune Factory and Story of Seasons’ mix of farming and adventure.

There is a very small pool of games in this vein. Throw in Graveyard Keeper and the mobile title Harvest Town. Some fans and veterans of this genre might include Animal Crossing in there but these games always had more depth to them. I know I’ve invested hours into Stardew Valley across PC, Android and PlayStation 4.

It’s a game that keeps you engaged when you make progress and can invest more in your farm or take the time to adventure and fish. There’s a little something for everyone without being intense or forcing the player into a grind.

I’ve always found this game and American Truck Simulator to be incredibly chill and a bit of a stress reliever from the more involved and intense games I play. Even in relation to other RPGs, the element of just farming and managing your resources is a break from say Dragon Quest or Diablo.

You’d think “Oh, I have to manage resources and money? Sounds involved.” It’s actually pretty simple. If you grow it, you can sell it. If you want more for something, you’ll have to invest what you made in stuff to improve the quality. The crafting aspect does add a little more involvement and resource management but I also found that to be direct.

Getting used to the farming, foraging and mining will see you with what you need for what you want to make soon enough. Building relationships adds some story and goals to your character’s life as well! Perhaps it’s that mix of simplicity, progress, goals, and freedom that results in me sinking so much time into the game.

Well that and having stats that can be followed, bonuses, and crafting. As you know, I love crafting. It’s also what saw me sink time into Harvest Moon games. If you play on a PC, you have the extra freedom of utilizing mods to really customize the game in different ways but playing on console is also a very enjoyable experience each time.

The Senses

Stardew Valley has a clean pixel art style that takes me back to playing Harvest Moon on a ZSNES emulator in the early 2000s. It’s very nostalgic if you started playing games in the early 1990s and I’m all for the retro stuff, obviously. I tend to play games with the music muted but even the music reminds me of the early Harvest Moon games.

It’s a great presentation and honestly, it’s my preferred look for this type of game. Story of Seasons, Rune Factory, and the post-Harvest Moon console games took the 3D route but I always enjoyed 2D HM more—even if HM64 and Rune Factory really blew me away on my first playthroughs.

At the moment, ConcernedApe is working on Haunted Chocolatier which seems like it will be in a similar vein but centered around a confectionary shop. However, something on the side in Stardew Valley such as the fishing or mining are worthy of their own titles. Hell, the Harvest Moon series kind of spanned the Legend of River King series and fishing was never so adventurous.

If you’ve played SDV, what was your experience with it? Let us know in the comments!

Staff Writer; M. Swift

This talented writer is also a podcast host, and comic book fan who loves all things old school. One may also find him on Twitter at; metalswift.

This title was an online martial arts-themed action RPG and that instantly had my attention. At the time of its release, online games were heavily run by shooters, MMORPGs, and MOBAs. I found an online title without guns and aircraft to be intriguing as f**k.

Also, I’ll play almost anything involving martial arts, so this was right up my alley. Before we get into what works and doesn’t work for me here, Absolver takes place in the open-world setting of Adal and the player takes control of their own Prospect. These Prospects are skilled martial artists in training to become Absolvers, basically lawgivers in a ruined kingdom.

What Did Absolver Get Right?

Off the bat, the art style set it apart. Nowadays, the art style is nothing special but at that time less than a decade ago, it was fresh and fit the odd setting of Absolver. Like is this feudal? Ancient? What’s cool is the game world itself and some of the areas you fight Prospects in. There are a lot of high areas and bridges which make some fights easier to win—with some help from gravity.

There’s some degree of magic but it’s more in the vein of using chi or stamina for primarily close-quarters fights. So, we’re not lobbing fireballs or freezing opponents.

I’d say the moves and how they’re linked into combos really worked for this game. Some moves break defenses and leave opponents open to a shellacking. Again, attacks drain stamina and in the combat deck or skill deck, you’re shown stamina damage and speed.

Alternative attacks will get the job done eventually but I tend to set the stamina drainers to that slot. You have special techniques such as Healing—always handy never heals much—and Shockwave which knocks surrounding enemies back.

Fights in Absolver are pretty strategic but this is more so when fighting other players. The AI can be tactical as well but when fighting multiple AI opponents, the more frenzied attacks can result in a player resorting to button mashing.

This game punishes button-mashing. You’re expected to time attacks and switch up stances to utilize attacks effectively. Distance can give breathing room and since fights are hand-to-hand, you can lure an opponent into slobber knocker.

You’re left to your own devices as far as where you go and what order you fight Lost Prospects in. Loot tends to drop and the best stuff is either near or in possession of the more powerful Lost Prospects. You don’t have merchants—just gear that you pick up, repair, dye, or scrap for fragments. These fragments are used to repair or dye. They can also be used in the Essence Shop but they don’t have the greatest amount of uses.

What Didn’t Work?

The sharp spike in difficulty is something that didn’t work for me. Initially, it seems simple enough to grasp the controls and the game does a good job at explaining stances, blocking, dodging, and so on but applying this just seems like that is when the game cranks the difficulty up. I mean, the more powerful Lost Prospects really slap. Prepare to lose often if you pick up Absolver.

The difficulty makes some of these fights extremely fun but you don’t want to run into a headbuster after you’ve just learned proper fighting technique.

A minor thing that didn’t work was the lack of merchants. I can expect that in a ruined kingdom, you probably wouldn’t have many merchants or smiths but a smattering would’ve been great. Then again, what merchant would want fragments unless that was Adal’s currency before the fall?

With those two points, I’d say that Absolver is the start to what could be a good series. It’s far from bad but it’s not exactly a great game. It doesn’t seem barebones but it’s a pretty sparse world you’re diving into. In a potential sequel, I would like to see…civilization in the world of Adal. Also, being able to name skill combos and establish martial arts technique manuals and formal schools would be great.

If you’ve played Absolver or still play it, what are some things about it you enjoyed or hated? What would you like to see in a sequel or spiritual successor? Let us know in the comments!

Staff Writer; M. Swift

This talented writer is also a podcast host, and comic book fan who loves all things old school. One may also find him on Twitter at; metalswift.

Experience Points

I’d say this is the greatest feature in gaming because it extends gameplay and gives another goal for players. It shows progress and gamers typically love progression in games. We love to actually see growth in characters in a game we’re investing a lot of time in. New powers being unlocked through effort and time, those powers and abilities being improved—it’s something of a testament to our improvement and mastery of this title’s gameplay.

There was a time when only RPGs and the Koei strategy games had experience points. In the 80s, 90s and into the early 2000s, action titles and sports titles largely didn’t have experience points. Hell, most didn’t have stats. Taking Madden for instance, there was a time when the only stats available was an unchanging offense and defense stat. Whatever it was when the game entered your console were the same stats it would have when you traded the game in at GameStop or the pawn shop.

To me, that always meant that the game didn’t have the replay value. You played the game, beat it, probably decided to beat it with other characters, and that was it. The game was donezo, there was no reason to play it again—unless you were like me and only got games on Christmas and during tax season—and it was eligible for trade-in or the E-Z Pawn.

Once experience points became a part of almost every genre, levels, skill points, attribute points, and so on followed. In sports games, the players had overall scores and a series of stats—all of which could be improved in different modes—along with skills and attributes. Experience points brought a lot of genres into the late 20^th and early 21^st century.

Crafting and Building

This is a feature that you’ll see more in RPGs but has a presence in some action games now. Before, when you got weapons or armor, they came with stats on them that really couldn’t be adjusted outside of something like adding materia to slots in the late 90s Final Fantasy games. Crafting—and later building—gives players a lot of freedom over their character(s) build and doesn’t have players just buying a bunch of gear that they’ll have to sell for far less.

Hell, they could sell this old, worn gear for more if they crafted it to be better than it was when they purchased it! The player becomes a part of the economy, basically. This is one or those features that keeps players involved in the game and extends gameplay—something developers are certain to like given the time between games and how players can no-life a title to completion and want more.

Having manage resources, gather them, make gear, and improve or enchant or infuse it is sure to keep players involved and invested beyond the 50 or 60+ hours of gameplay that might be advertised.

Open-World Approach

One of my favorite features in action and RPGs now is the open-world approach. I was never a fan of linear gameplay. Developers made these large, impressive worlds in games but with the linear approach, it didn’t exactly encourage exploration. “Oh, you gotta collect the Easter eggs and this well-hidden weapon!” If the game’s narrative just moves from one piece to the next, there’s no reason to really explore or revisit areas. Just bulldoze the game and let it float to the bottom of your recently played list.

With the open-world approach, exploration is encouraged because certain things come with it. Or rather, when done right—there have been open-world titles where the game world is just sparse or not that populated by other beings capable of intelligent speech.

You know the game: it’s really just you and a bunch of enemies in the game world and they’re all feral or something. When done well, you’re treated to villages, settlements, economy, evolving lore, conflict, farming resources, and so on—you’re dropped into a living world and you can become invested in finding out more about the world itself. There’s a reason to revisit locations and that’s always been a thing with me. I get invested in games like Fallout, Dragon’s Dogma, and Elder Scrolls and end up enjoying the side stories and making my own adventures more than the main storyline often.

Allowing that level of freedom for the player is the open-world approach’s main contribution to gaming—and that’s massive.

Skip Scene

The skip scene button was something I first noticed in Final Fantasy X-2 at a time when FF really needed them. From FFVII onwards, Square Enix really got more and more into its cut scene bag and those cut scenes became longer and longer as well as popping up more often. It could be frustrating when you’re really enjoying the action in the game and want to get back to building your character up and whatnot only to sit through three-or-four minute cut scene number three.

When the cut scene became a thing every game, it was a nod to players who were eager to get back into the game.

Staff Writer; M. Swift

This talented writer is also a podcast host, and comic book fan who loves all things old school. One may also find him on Twitter at; metalswift.