Savior Gaming

Black Jacket is the newest roguelike card game from Skystone Games, and they were nice enough to pass me a copy. The game’s concept is quite simple. You are playing a version of blackjack, and the closest person to 21 wins. Now if it were actually that simple, every loser in Vegas would be a winner, and this game would be over before it even started.

See, in this game, every suit has special abilities. Some will burn your opponents’ cards and maybe even your own, which is more useful than it sounds. Another will allow you to force them to play cards on their side of the field that lowers their score or simply takes up valuable space. Worse, a certain person you will play can rotate cards completely. More than once, my perfect 21 turned into their 21. Getting to 21 sometimes isn’t the best way to win.

All of this strategy is meaningless if the story on which the game is built is bad. While gambling your way out of hell sounds mundane, the people you meet are what is important, and I won’t speak on them other than to say they are truly what kept me playing. Why is this woman, simply known as Better, so angry with me? Why was this literal child cast into hell in the first place? These questions are answered, but first, you will have to master the mechanics of the game. With hundreds of cards and artifacts to unlock, there are plenty of reasons to play one more round. This is a 9/10 title if I ever played one. Best wishes, and may the gaming gods bring you glory.

• Star Trek: Voyager – Across the Unknown | Patch 1.7 is live – the Delta Flyer is here
• Black Jacket PlayStation 5 Review
• Welcome, Dear Human announcement trailer
• Remothered: Red Nun’s Legacy
• Vultures – Scavengers of Death Steam Review

Vultures – Scavengers of Death was sent my way by Team Vultures and Firesquid Games, which I am always thankful for. Vultures- Scavengers of Death is basically what you would get if classic Resident Evil and X-Com had a baby. You will hear this a lot, but there is no way to avoid this comparison because it really wears this on its sleeve.

The story is quite simple: you go through missions investigating an area with characters Amber and Leopold. While doing this, you will fight assorted zombies, creatures, and cultists that have been affected by a biohazard. You can already see the Resident Evil vibe shining through, I am sure. The combat is very tactical, turn-based, and if you have played X-Com at all, you will feel right at home.

Scavenging for items such as ammo and Molotovs to use feels great. Coming from a Resident Evil background, this and the story made me feel right at home. Unfortunately, coming from a Bethesda background, the multitude of glitches and technical issues also made me feel right at home. Starting in the tutorial, I had to deal with multiple crashes, controls that randomly decided not to work at all, and once even a tutorial that just did its own thing and forced me to redue a section.

Now the game still sits at very positive reviews on Steam, and for less than $20, I can see why. The game is far from perfect, and the issues can be easily fixed with a patch, and may even be caused by system specs. It is still a 6/10 title that is worth checking out. Best wishes, and may the gaming gods bring you glory.

• Star Trek: Voyager – Across the Unknown | Patch 1.7 is live – the Delta Flyer is here
• Black Jacket PlayStation 5 Review
• Welcome, Dear Human announcement trailer
• Remothered: Red Nun’s Legacy
• Vultures – Scavengers of Death Steam Review

The Shore was sent my way by Iphi Games, and is one of those beautiful, atmospheric horror games that were on PC for a long time and finally made its way to console. You will start off on a beach searching for something and will quickly figure out what that something is. More importantly, that something is someone, and that someone is your daughter.

It doesn’t take long to discover that something on this island isn’t right. I mean that quite literally, the game only takes around 4 hours to finish. That 4 hours, however, are filled with some beautiful sights, some horrible monsters, and a pretty heart-wrenching story. Is it really worth the very odd price point of $21.49 tho?

Well, as I said, the game is truly beautiful. I also can’t deny that the sound is incredible; it gets pretty creepy from the music alone as you walk up and down the beach and see the occasional Lovecraftian horror out in the distance.

This does bring me to why I can’t recommend the game on PS5 unless you have no choice. The game is $12 on Steam, and they even have bundles for about 20. For a 4-hour game with so little replay val/ue to be such a price in one place and less in another, even when that game is an 8/10 title, I can’t recommend you buy it on console over Steam, unless you only own a console. That being said, the game is worth experiencing. Best wishes, and may the gaming gods bring you glory.

• Star Trek: Voyager – Across the Unknown | Patch 1.7 is live – the Delta Flyer is here
• Black Jacket PlayStation 5 Review
• Welcome, Dear Human announcement trailer
• Remothered: Red Nun’s Legacy
• Vultures – Scavengers of Death Steam Review

Factory Magnate was sent my way by Indie IO, which is always appreciated. To be honest, you are going to see some strong opinions about this from every direction, and I understand why. My first real factory building game of this sort was Factorio. ( You can see my Switch review here) If you are looking for something in-depth, you are very much looking in the wrong place. My original review did contain some misinformation about the ability to copy and paste entire sections. If you look at the comments, a Dev was kind enough to correct this, and as such, I have corrected it. This can be done quite simply by checking your keybindings and using those.

What the game does have is a very easy-to-learn flow to it, and no enemies. It is a very cozy factory builder at a low price point. Less than $10, so if you have always wanted to get into these games but were afraid of wasting your money, Factory Magnate is a fantastic entry point.

The game quite literally starts you out with simply mining copper and selling it. From there it will show you how to turn it into copper ingots and sell those. From there will show you how to make things like copper sheets and wires, and combine those with silicone and make other things to make money.

The only challenge in this game is setting up your factory in such a way as to avoid backing up your conveyor belts and locking up your money flow. This is a great introduction to the systems in all of these games. I have changed my score to reflect this new information, since the quality of life things aren’t missing like I originally thought. The game is an 8/10 title for everyone. It is a great title to learn the genre, or simply to relax with for veterans. Best wishes, and may the gaming gods bring you glory.

• Star Trek: Voyager – Across the Unknown | Patch 1.7 is live – the Delta Flyer is here
• Black Jacket PlayStation 5 Review
• Welcome, Dear Human announcement trailer
• Remothered: Red Nun’s Legacy
• Vultures – Scavengers of Death Steam Review

Bus Bound is the newest bus driving simulator sent my way by Saber Interactive, a company that if you love driving simulator you undoubtably have played one of their games. This time around they are tackling driving city busses. What you may not know about good ole Savior is I spent some time a a school bus driver at one point. So if this game is bad, or these buses don’t feel like busses, I will know quickly.

The first thing you do is get a tutorial, and they quickly explain you won’t be dealing with ticket fairs. Great move Saber, I hated this in other bus simulators. There is just no way to do this without greatly slowing down the flow of the game, and having rode many busses most people pay with exact change anyway and the few buttons I have seen drivers hit require next to no time. Saber chose to explain it as the company gets paid through grants or taxes or something.

Graphically the game is beautiful. A couple times I almost hit a few things because as you reach milestones the city will upgrade and I was taking in the sights and forgot to hit the breaks. This brings me to how you are rated, in real time, by passengers. If you drive well, slow down for speed bumps ( keep it under 10 MPH ladies and gents) and stop at stop signs and don’t speed they will make positive comments, give you a thumbs up, give you multipliers and stops will upgrade faster and even help you get new busses. Slamming on the breaks, speeding, hitting speed bumps hard and other assorted violations will do the opposite.

This was always going to be the big selling or killing point for me however. Does it feel like driving a bus, and how is traffic? Well I am going to let you in on a secret, when you are driving a bus other drivers always seem like idiots, because they don’t realize how big a bus actually is an how hard it is to see them sometimes. They also don’t realize those things don’t stop or really turn a fast as their smaller cars, so when they whip in front of you or cut you off, it gets stressful because if there is an accident, the other person will die, and you in the bus will be fine. And we will have to live with that knowledge. The traffic in this game basically acts like real traffic does, and I like that. As for how the bus controls, it isn’t perfect but damn is it close. Busses need wide turns, but they are modern so they don’t feel heavy and clunky, just like modern busses. They don’t stop fast, but they jolt a bit, just like modern busses. My only complaint every bus feels similar, and that isn’t realistic. Even two of the same model school bus feels a bit different. The game is still a 8/10 title. Best wishes, and may the gaming gods bring you glory.

• Star Trek: Voyager – Across the Unknown | Patch 1.7 is live – the Delta Flyer is here
• Black Jacket PlayStation 5 Review
• Welcome, Dear Human announcement trailer
• Remothered: Red Nun’s Legacy
• Vultures – Scavengers of Death Steam Review

Sudden Strike 5 was sent my way by Kalypso Media, a company I always enjoy working with. If you are unfamiliar with this series, Sudden Strike 5 is a real-time strategy game that will allow you to fight through various battles from different sides of World War 2.

For example, the first battle as the Nazi’s will see you sending paratroopers down in an attempt to take over certain spots on a map where you can resupply before taking over the cities on the map. This will require some strategy on your part, as you will be outnumbered and outgunned. You can take over some abandoned equipment and call in air support when needed, admittedly, only a limited number of times.

While moving your troops will march in formation if you tell them to, which is a very nice touch that even today many of these types of games are missing. I really only have one major complaint about the game, and it isn’t the sound, which is great. It also isn’t the visuals, which, while I feel the infantry characters could pop out a little better, so they would be easier to pick out, this isn’t a huge issue. No, the game is visually great.

My biggest issue is that what passes as a tutorial is just horrible. This takes what should be an enjoyable, difficult real-time strategy game and creates an unapproachable nightmare for many. Don’t get me wrong, the game is great if you are a veteran of these types of games because you will be able to work it out, but that shouldn’t be a prerequisite to playing it. No, I am not saying make the game easier; I am saying teach people how to play your game. This is a 7/10 title that probably should have been much better. Best wishes, and may the gaming gods bring you glory.

• Star Trek: Voyager – Across the Unknown | Patch 1.7 is live – the Delta Flyer is here
• Black Jacket PlayStation 5 Review
• Welcome, Dear Human announcement trailer
• Remothered: Red Nun’s Legacy
• Vultures – Scavengers of Death Steam Review