Forcepath 最近的评测

Khazan: The First Berserker is an action-rpg souls-like by Korean developer Neople. The game is set in the Dungeon Fighter Online universe, of which the author knows very little, and is a cel-shaded anime style game, which may or may not appeal to you. Regardless of these facts, the game is quite well animated, and the environments are detailed and well thought out.

Khazan sits squarely between pure action rpg games with combo systems and souls-like games with rigid stamina and dodge/block management systems. The setting of the game features the main character seeking revenge, and you're given a few tools and a lot of enemies to kill. There are three distinct weapons to choose from, and then an array of skill trees and gear that allow you to further customize your playstyle. For my playthrough, I chose the spear due to the fast and aggressive (read: spammy) playstyle.

Khazan's level design is very reminiscent of both Lies of P and Dark Souls 2 level design. Unfortunately for the author, this means it's more of a hallway simulator with branches of extra items, as opposed to something where you feel like you can truly explore an area. While the environments themselves are well made, the level design feels very formulaic and predictable, both in enemy placement and bonfire placement. I rarely felt like I was surprised, and often felt more annoyed that things always felt like the designers were making levels that felt 'hard' as opposed to really interesting. As well, I felt the levels lacked any cohesion - because everything was very hallway-esque, I was unable to get the sense of a "lived in" world. Not that this is necessary for any game, but it does take away from the level design heavily in my mind when I can't connect with the environments at all. Overall, this to me felt like the weakest part of Khazan's design. It's very clear the levels are well crafted and well thought out, they just do not connect you to the overall story and by the end of the game, I found myself sprinting through the levels instead of exploring and enjoying my time in each one.

While the level design felt formulaic, I can confidently say that the combat of the game felt superb. The main character controls excellently, and has a well designed toolbox that gives the player many ways to react to situations. The parry system feels fantastic, and the dodge system also feels excellent. Both types of damage avoidance are satisfying and can significantly alter how you approach an encounter with an enemy. To add to this system, there is a counter system called "reflection" as well as a counter attack system. The counter-attack system gives you a prompt sound, and you must time your attack, which gives you a large opening on the enemy. The reflection system is significantly more abstract, but deals more damage and has other rewards (like stopping an attack chain). The biggest challenges to these systems are both timing and in the case of reflection, a real lack of clarity on what can and cannot be reflected. This leads to a pretty nasty trial and error system that can be fun if you enjoy it, but oftentimes I found myself frustrated because the risk/reward felt too high.

The combat also features a stamina system on enemies/bosses that you can whittle down which leaves them open for large damage chains. This system felt really well balanced, but on human enemies, they regenerate stamina, which oftentimes felt bordering on unfair. Still, I enjoyed the system overall, and it's obviously well balanced and thought out.

Bosses in Khazan are extremely hit-and-miss. More often than not, Khazan bosses are trial and error to an extreme degree, having 10 - 15 attacks/patterns that can be mixed and matched in punishing ways. While the author really quite enjoyed some bosses, others felt simply unfun due to regenerating stamina, extremely large health pools, and oftentimes, both. It was not uncommon for me on expert difficulty to spend upwards of 2 hours learning and mastering boss fights. At the end, I often did not feel a sense of victory, but one of downtrodden relief that I'd finally no longer have to go through 5+ minute fights. There are some bosses that felt like epic dances of death, and I cannot deny that I found enjoyment, but I really question if a little more balance could be had here, especially in boss HP. I can only imagine what NG+ is like...

The sound design of the game is extremely well done, the dodges, parries, counter attacks, boss queues, are all very well done and are definitely satisfying. The music of the game is also well-made, but due to the length of encounters, can sometimes feel both repetitive and unnecessarily intense when you're on your 20th attempt listening to rising strings and choruses.

The story of Khazan started off somewhat interesting, but fell into the well-trodden revenge story tropes where I was able to predict each story beat, and I did not find myself particularly invested in any of the characters. Characters are introduced and then immediately just seem to exist with nothing to add to the game other than some lore tidbits. I appreciate the writing, but this was definitely the other area of the game that did not meet my expectations.

Overall, Khazan is a great game that significantly overstayed it's welcome, which is rather unfortunate. I ended up with a playtime of about 40 hours, where I skipped about 10 or 15 sidequests, which would have added probably another 10+ hours. Less exhaustingly long levels, and trimming boss HP would have really done this game some serious favors. I am overall glad to have played this game, and look forward to the developers next release and hope to see some improvements in level design and story implementation.

I wish there was a mid button for games like this. Alas.

6.5/10

Listen, this isn't a perfect game, but it's certainly fun and addictive. I quite enjoy being able to play the game across several platforms (web, iOS, steam) when I'm at various places.

The dev really knows how to make a game systems feel good (and by that I mean, number goes up) and has good intuition about how power systems can feel addicting as they snowball.

I'd be remiss if I didn't mention the game does have IAP's and they can be quite strong, but I'm not sure I think they "break" the game, but if you do struggle with FOMO or IAP's, please play responsibly!

Overall, I recommend this game if you like a bunch of systems and idle features that get stronger over time.

Honestly? Far surpassed my expectations. Highly recommend giving this one a shot if you like a good JRPG with good combat, a good grind, and a good story.

Another Crab's Treasure (heretofor known as ACT) is a souls-like from developer Aggro Crab. Blending parrying mechanics from Sekiro, load mechanics from various souls games, and a little sprinkle of its own magic as well, it successfully mimics (and slightly iterates) on a successful formula that From Software has popularized in the past decade and a half.

The story is mosty filled with crab puns and touches briefly on (and mocks) capitalism, individualism, ecosystems, and some more personal discovery as well. I wouldn't suggest you play this game for the story itself, however, it's an above average mechanism for both progressing the game and getting quite a few smiles out of the player both from some clever puns, and callbacks to various video games. Kril (the main character) is likable enough, and I appreciated how the character was portrayed for the entire story.

The combat itself is very simple, and souls-veterans will likely have very few issues adjusting to the needs of the game. Still, you have a single weapon with a small combination of moves, and later on you can unlock an ability to slightly modify your weapon to a hammer. The combat is defintely tuned on the more difficult end at the beginning of the game, and it took me some time to get used to both the 'fork' moveset, as well as the defensive abilities you've been given.

Speaking of, you have two main defensive tactics, a shell (bound to your block button) and a dodge. Your dodge effectiveness is predicated by your shell weight, and heavier shells will make your dodge akin to fatrolling in Dark Souls. However, the real star of the show is your shell. Of course, one could likely dodge through the entire game, but since ACT really pushed the shell emphasis, I also suggest giving it a go! Your shell will block most forms of damage but will also deplete its durability when blocking. This is definitely the weirdest resource to manage, and I admit, I found it tough to want to block in the beginning, but the game litters areas with shells for you to block with, so after a few hours of practice, it certainly drove home that it was intended for these bad boys to be used, not protected. Somewhere in the early game, you will unlock the ability to 'parry' with your shell by *releasing* your block button as an attack connects. This will both increase an enemies' stun bar and also keep your shell from taking any block damage. It's a clever iteration on the parry mechanic and very addictive once you start mastering the timings on various bosses and general enemies.

Finally, there is a magic system that is connected to your shell as well. Various shells will have various abilities, like a ranged attack, increased defenses, and other things I won't spoil in this column. It's a passable system, but I did not find myself engaging as much with the offensive options as I did the defensive options that shells could provide. One particular shell would make blocking for 5(ish?) seconds not take durability damage, and this ability felt nigh-on overpowered for quite a few early game battles, but as my proficiency in the battle system grew, I found myself relying on this specific tactic less and less.

There is a small progression path as well to upgrade Kril's abilities, and the game truly opens up as you unlock abilities such as getting an extra shell on break, an execute (for massive damage!) as well as the ability for your shell to regenerate durability after having absorbed damage (akin to Bloodborne's system of rewarding aggressive play). Truly, these abilities really make the game feel quite fleshed out.

I do want to take a moment to pause here to comment on both the general floatiness of the game, and the developers desire for a decent amount of platforming. I found the platforming to be servicable, but often wondered if this was an attempt to add length to the game that may not have been completely necessary. There was only 1 optional platforming area that was truly a challenge, and the rest did not feel very meaningful or that they added to the design of the game in any way.

The level design of ACT was genuinely enjoyable, and for more than one moment evoked a smile or a reaction of how much bigger a zone was than I expected. It's a vibrant and beautifuly designed game, and I hope the developers continue to focus on their artstyle. I also look forward to them working a little more on hiding secrets in the game, and examining how they could further utilize verticality, which is generally where I feel FromSoft games shine above a typical souls-like. Still, there is no section in the game that I disliked, and I'd call that a compliment!

The sound design of the game is acceptable, I noticed a lot of inconsistencies both with the scoring (likely an intentional choice?) and the ambient sounds (such as walking, not intentional?) and I felt like the game did not help or hurt itself in the musical department. I will note one song near the end of the game was a delightful easter egg for crab fans, so hopefully you find a way to get to the end and pick up on it yourself.

The boss design of ACT is a mixed bag. Early on, you will find their relentless attacks oppressive, and very punishing, but as most souls-games go, there will be a pivot where you have gotten enough abilities and practice in their combat systems that bosses go from quite challenging to a very medium challenge. I certainly died more at the beginning of the game than the end (and in several cases, I killed a boss with 0 deaths, which I do not believe is a testament to my skill as much as it was to how powerful Kril had become through upgrades).

Still, as I look back on ACT, I can't help but feel a certain fondness for the puns, the combat's floaty precisenss, the different styles of bosses, and the overall vibe. I would give this game a solid 8.5 out of 10, and it comfortably rests on the same pedestal as Lies of P as a souls-like I would happily recommend to a FromSoft veteran who might want to try something a little different.

Crab Champions is really a distilled Third Person Roguelike in a way that I've yet to have played in the genre. Other games have come close to this, but, once you truly 'get' the loop and get comfortable with the movement and chaos, this game is just absolutely incredible. It offers a lot of different playstyles in the form of guns/perks/grenades/skills and yet it never feels incongruous to the experience.

It's hard to beat 10 bucks for a game, and one where I finish a run and think to myself "I could have gone further" or "Oh man I can't wait to try this idea out" is just plain awesome.

For an early access game, the other thing that really doesn't go unnoticed is how extremely polished the gameplay mechanics are. Movement, shooting, looting, exploring are all done so well that it's easy to see why this game continues to get rave reviews from its players.

Stop reading this review and buy the game.

I'm impressed. Is the game perfect? Absolutely not. Is the price point a little higher than others of the genre, yeah.

That said - you get an excellent twin-stick arena survival game with a ton of variety to skills, a nice meta progression loop (with more coming), a passable soundtrack and really good visuals.

A few things that may set this game apart compared to others in the genre:
-an absolute smorgasbord of skills, and a dash. Oh boy the dash. It just absolutely feels incredible to dash in this game. The cooldown is quick enough, but not so forgiving that you're spamming at every available opportunity.
-You can change your active skills on level up. I haven't experimented with this feature a lot, and if you've invested into a skill you're replacing, you don't get those skill points back, but it makes it feel much less punishing if you have a set of skills or synergies you want and you don't get them offered. Pretty neat.

A few things that others in the genre do at least as good as this game, if not better:
-weapon evolutions don't exist here. I know, it's not necessarily a 'staple' of the genre but just so we're clear, sometimes evolutions can be a lot of fun for build planning, so don't expect that at least at this part of the game
- character identity is a little weak, compared to others (it's essentially limiting your weapon pool and some early stats like movespeed)
- enemy variety is pretty meh here. You eventually get to the point where you're not even aware of enemy types or how they're changing. It can be a bit samey, but it's not much of a negative for me personally

Things that I hope are addressed:
-VISUAL CLUTTER: oh my god, by endless 5, you can't see a thing without nuking all your settings. It's rough. It's fun, hilariously fun, but rough.
-performance issues as you get deep into runs (i know it's EA, and I know the dev has already said they have some ideas, so it's kind of just a note for the current release of the game)
-more unique boss designs: as it stands, all the bosses are cool, but they all have essentially the same attack patterns. make me work a little harder for some of these kills.

Overall, I'd say the game is absolutely worth it for me at its current price, and definitely worth it whenever it hits a steam sale. Looking forward to many more hours of playing as my time allows.