Recent reviews by Cosmic Engine

Video here http://youtu.be/U_ArH5vJ2pY

Graphically the game is superb, the multiple environments look great even while some textures are not as detailed as I would like, the overall colour tone and detail is of a high standard. Even on Older graphics cards the game will run to a decent standard the footage here is on a Nvidia 660 with most of the settings on. The trick is to set the view distance to a minimum to stop the frame rate issues but even at minimum I actually don't think it effects the game in a negative way at all as you can still see pretty damn far. While the game in terms of stability is average there are quite a few bugs here and there, I myself randomly went from being on the top of a tower to suddenly being in the water under the earth. Not to mention the fact that the game has crashed several times but it does have an autosave system however whether your game crashes or you die you will be respawned at a safe zone which can end up being quite far away.

I think the biggest thing I was impressed by with Dying Light coming in after having played Techlands previous games was the improvement to the combat. Due to the combat being more melee focused than ranged it requires the combat to have the mix of mechanical, responsive, visual and audible feedback. Something that plagued the dead island series was that the combat did not have good feedback, hitting enemies in those games looked and felt weak, it seemed as if there was no real impact to hits. Dying lights combat is tight, hitting an walker around the head with a baseball bat looks and feels impact-full. Everything from the movement, hit detection and fluidity of the overall system is massively improved. Nothing feels more satisfying than completely decapitating a zombie with a electrified sword in one hit.

Dying light core mechanics work from day and night cycles. During the day while walkers are still a threat, mutated zombies known as volatiles are not in play but they can be found in dark areas. The day is when you want to get most of your travelling and quests done as its much safer to travel by light. At night however its a different story, Volatiles are out in force all over the city, they are quick and dangerous. Fighting anything other than walkers at night is a big no, volatiles will kill you at night in a couple of hits as they are damn strong. You are very much the prey at night and it pays to stick to the rooftops and not linger. While going out at night is much more deadly, there will be quests that involve going out at night, so if your thinking you can avoid it completely you can't. While the deaths you have at night and the subsequent loss of survivor points can be frustrating it is in my opinion a fantastic experience. The thrill of being chased, the tense survival moments of hiding are done superbly. You certainly get that tense panicked feel that I haven't felt since playing Left4Dead for the first time.

The story of Dying light is pretty unoriginal and clique. While there are some funny, interesting characters in there and most of the voice acting is not terrible, overall the writing is not that inspired. There are often cheesy, unessential moments of conversation and then suddenly complete jumps in the characters relationships to the point of a guy you barely know dying and then being refereed to as a close friend, I'm sorry but at what point did he become a close friend? We talked like four times. The way the story is told and indeed the quest system overall gives the game a very much far cry 4 with zombies feel, which I did not particularly enjoy. I found the plotline interesting enough to go through it but in my opinion it was the combination of good combat, survival and parkour that kept me playing, not the story. I certainly believe that had the mechanics of the game not been fun, I would not have stuck around for the story alone. I mean the bloody story had me climbing a radio tower at one point for goodness sake. I was having bad flashbacks for Kyrat, I was nearly waiting for Pagen Min to start yammering on at me over the radio, it almost had me thinking it was a Ubisoft game for a moment. Game developers need to learn that things like parkour are fun, the slow tedious process of climbing high towers is not.

The game features two multiplayer modes, one is co-op so you can play with a friend though the game doesn't knowledge that another person is playing in anyway which is quite annoying but it works fine and is fun killing zombies with a friend. The other is be a zombie where by you enter a friends game as a zombie and try and hunt them down to kill them. Its basic multiplayer and while fun for a time won't hold you for particularly long periods of time.

Overall I will say this about dying light, it held me. It has its problems like many games do, but it was fun enough that I kept coming back. The game is fun in fact I would go as far as to say that it's the best zombie game I have played in years. It's immersive, running from rooftop to rooftop is fun, combat is tight and while the narrative and indeed the mechanics are unoriginal, they are executed for the most part very well. It's what the original dead island should have been but wasn't and I certainly would recommend it, particularly if your a fan of the zombie apocalypse genre as it's probably is and will remain the best one out there for sometime. I am now however done with all these bloody zombie games, can we have something original please?

H1Z1 Early Access Examination: http://youtu.be/d_o_DMpBhLQ

The game does suffer from latency issues and input lag which can be extremely frustrating during combat both when your out of sync or your enemy is. Combat in itself is pretty weak at the moment, while they have tried to go for a more skill focused system, with all the input issues and latency issues fighting other players becomes a draw of luck. That being said some skill is required in terms of dodging and movement especially in fisticuffs, the more ranged battles are a pain in the ass. Seriously its incredibly hard to measure the distance of a player thus especially with bows, its hard to account for distance as the arrows are affected by gravity in flight. Ironically unless you have a gun with ammo to spare, the easiest way to kill someone is to beat them to death with your fists or a melee weapon. In fact thanks to the looting issues, killing other players seems to have become the preferred way for players to gain items, by taking them from your cold dead corpse.

In my opinion the biggest redeeming feature of the game is the crafting system. By opening up your inventory and then selecting the crafting tab you can craft the recipes you have learned. To learn new recipes you hit the discover tab where by you place in different materials to see if you can learn new things. The good thing about the discovery system is that it tells you how many recipes there are to learn with that item and if you also have any items that contribute to a recipe they will be illuminated on the side bar while everything else is greyed out. I have to say I enjoyed the crafting, there's a ton of stuff to craft from weapons to housing and its all done in a very simplistic but fun way.

Speaking of housing, I do enjoy the way the SOE have implemented the player housing. Housing is not instanced like in most MMO's this means that should you come across someone's shack and can get in, you can. You can destroy other peoples buildings though it does take effort and not usually worth it. You can also fortify pre build houses and buildings so should you take a shine to a nice suburban neighbourhood, just build barricades around the windows and doors and viola, nice new house.

Now lets talk about the Z word, yes Zombies after all this is a zombie survival game right? Well actually it's not, oh don't get me wrong, it is supposed but it isn't. The zombies in H1Z1 are pointless, utterly pointless. They currently have no discernible AI and just run after the path you took rather than your actual character. So if you suddenly change direction they stop for two seconds at the point you changed direction and start following you again, its hilarious. Zombies are easy to kill, which is fine, its expected that individually zombies are weak but like in other games and pop culture everywhere, ever they have strength in numbers. Problem is of course that in H1Z1 they don't have strength in numbers, you don't see hordes, even large groups. In fact currently the only thing Zombies are good for in the gamer is cloth so basically there H1Z1's equivalent to the starter zone mobs of world of warcraft.

All this means that your biggest threats in a zombie apocalypse is not the zombies but starvation and other players. In fact the combination of the currently gameplay mechanics and issues lead to a video game version of the hunger games with occasional harmless zombies. I really hope SOE address the current issues with the zombies quickly and make them into a bigger threat, there needs to be a hell of a lot more of them roaming the streets. It should be dangerous to openly walk the streets of a town instead its currently as safe as getting hit with a pillow case.

Now then lets talk about the launch problems, specifically the uproar caused by airdrops. Essentially in the in game cash shop you can buy air drops. These air drops will land in a couple hundred meter radius of you and contain food, supplies, ammo and weapons specifically guns. A great many people got upset about this due to several quotes many months ago by the developers saying you wouldn't be able to buy guns and ammo. Now that is true they did say that however they have also been stating since august 2014 that airdrops would contain the aforementioned items. So of course there where cries of pay to win and reddit turned into a big old slinging match. So here's my opinion on the matter, the developers did not lie as some have claimed they did cclearly change their stance or made a public relation foe par in their statements. Look developers when it comes to this kind of thing you need to be crystal clear in everything you say otherwise people will take away different things. That being said many players will not have regularly followed the developer updates since that remark was made so neither is it their fault.

In terms of, 'are air drops pay to win?' I have heard arguments claiming that they are not because its a server event and anyone could claim the items. While anyone can indeed claim the items in my opinion it doesn't change the fact its pay to win. Regardless of who gets the weapons, someone somewhere paid to have that equipment placed in the game. Therefore without that cash, that player wouldn't have had those items which undeniably gives them an advantage over others. The arguments over who receives the items in the end is irrelevant, a cash transaction took place for weapons that the majority don't have access to, by and by that's pay to win. Now that being said skill still comes into play for example there was once instance where I had just spawned and went to the nearest town to get gear, a guy who had much better armor and weapons thought it would be fun to try and shoot me. After avoiding his initial onslaught he began chasing me with an axe, I only had a branch for a weapon. After a good five minute chase I ran into a house and hid behind the door, he came in and I skillfully moved around him to avoid his axe while constantly bashing at his head with my stick. He died, I got his stuff, it was a satisfying experience.

Overall H1Z1 is not terrible, it certainly has a laundry list of bugs and flaws but is certainly better than some if not all of its counter parts in early access. But is it worth the price tag? For me, no and the sole reason is this. Why would you want to pay to play a incomplete version of a game that upon launch will be free. Seriously the game is a free to play MMO so when it launches it won't cost you money to play it. Unless your dead set on playing it now because your a fan or just love the genre. I would wait and save yourself the money and enjoy the good points of the game when it releases.

A instant classic to the rogue-like genre.

https://youtu.be/1torOBOagnY

PROS
- Deep combat system
- Rogue-like elements
- Variety of classes
- Quirk system
- Stress system
- Art style and sound are fantastic
- Difficulty

CONS
- Many Trickets are pointless especially in early game
- Corpse system is annoying and artifically extends battles
- Minor balance issues
- Heart atack system can get fustrating

Video Review - http://youtu.be/JGC78vWFIT8

The games controls are simplistic and both the keyboard and controller are supported. On the keyboard you use the WASD for movement and the spacebar to switch between light and dark. Controls are intuitive and responsive which is required in a puzzle platformer to make sure its you who didn't time that jump right and not the fault of the games controls.

At it's core, Disorder is a puzzle platformer that has one major unique design feature. The game is all about duality, in essence the duality of the mind. On one hand you have the more positive side of the mind, the stable side, the side that sees positivity, the proverbial silver lining. The other is the negative side, the side of you could say each person's personality that sees only despair and negativity. This translates into a core mechanic that allows you to switch between light and dark which changes the game world around you. Some platforms can only be access while in the dark state and vice versa, creatures who will kill you in the dark state become harmless objects in the light state. The game implements the use of this mechanic in all forms of its being including puzzles, platforming and narrative.

The main purpose of each level is to go through and collect marbles which are also used as checkpoints. While I am certain it is a reference to losing ones marbles, the story is the reason the marbles are used. Each marble has what appears to be a cerebral nerve, a brain nerve if you will at the centre. Each level seems to reflect either a memory or delusion from the main characters mind. At the end of each level you'll reach a giant marble and your character will seemingly fall in despair, clawing at his skin and the disintegrate, almost showing his progression into madness.

I always say that one of the most important things for a puzzle platformer to have by design is a progression of mechanics and thus difficulty. As you go through the game, making existing mechanics more challenging and the introduction of new mechanics is vital in this genre. Disorder has this in leaps and bounds, not only is there a progression of mechanics from floating platforms, traps and other traditional mechanics but there is also some mechanics that help reflect the theme of the game. After all your main character mind is fracturing, becoming more disturbed as he tries to internally resolve his issues. One of the interesting mechanics is when you come across a reflective surface on the ground, by then phase shifting you become that reflection, which makes you upside down. Its the little quirky mechanics like this with the addition of platforming, traps, enemies, timing, the increasing difficulty and complexity of levels added with the phase shifting that makes the game play fun, challenging and worth while.

One particular level I both loved and hated was the level which becomes black as night. The only way to gain light is by movement. Anything that has movement including objects will give off sound waves that light up the small area surrounding it. While I loved the concept of the new sound equals light mechanic, it did become frustrating when you got into a puzzle that require precision timing and you couldn't see a bloody thing. This coupled with the fact that the sound waves themselves were quite distracting and often led your eyes away from what you were actually doing was a nuisance.

Throughout levels there are secrets to find including items that can be equiped by returning to your apartment which you can do from the pause menu. These items have a vareity of effects and will change the game play in some way such as boots that let you jump three times as high, almost like anti gravity boots.

Graphically the game is great. The 2d pixel art looks good and the art style of the levels takes you to more abstract and surreal places as you delve further into the mind. The switch between light and dark is reflected tremendous well with the use of different colour pallets as well as a good use of lighting. The games musical score provides a great atmospheric tone that provide some really great moments. Both the music and sounds are very well produced and the music in particular does complement the game play and story to provide a unnerving immersive experience.

For me the star of the show is the narrative of the game. Like I mentioned the story is an ambigious one and everything that occurs can be interpreted in different ways. The story is told through the eyes of the main character and presented in text form while you play. As you move through the levels you'll see text appear like its being written in a diary. One thing I loved and I wish other developers would take a note from, its the fact the the story is integrated into the mechanics. Say your walking along and your in the light side of the duality mechanic, you'll see the text as the character talks about something, if you then phase shift and enter the dark side the text changes to the darker side of your character, the more negative thoughts on the subject. It's almost like getting two drastically different opinions, two opposing viewpoints on something from the same person. It's similar to reading the diary of someone with spilt personality, or someone who suffers from depression.

The game in both good writing and in its mechanics tells a narrative. Not only are you reading the thoughts of someone who is clearly going through a very rough time but your playing it. The duality mechanic helps you to feel the characters internal struggle when you shift by showing the change in sound, light, colours and overall tone. This is what good video game design is all about. Its about having mechanics that complement the story and vice versa, all aspects of the game should tell an overall narrative.

Overall what I really like about Disorder is that not only its narrative but its quality. You could get through the game without getting the secrets and such in around three to four hours. There is more than one ending so there is some re-playability in there too, though not much. Instead trying to overreach as many indie developers do they instead opted to go for quality over quantity. Whether you like puzzle platformers or not, the quality of the narrative alone is worth trying the game out. The mechanics are solid, the story is through provoking and ultimately its a fun and interesting puzzle platformer.

Video Review - http://youtu.be/mEll4CawU5g

Before we get into the mechanics of the game I want to express my annoyance at the pricing of the game. As is common these days with mobile ports the game is more expensive on Steam than it is on mobile devices. Warhammer Quest is $5 on mobile but $15 on steam, that is a crazy price jump for the same game. Not only this but they have carried the in game purchases over from the mobile version, which I personally think they should have included all content in the full price considering your charging an extra $10 just for the ability to play it on steam. But you can buy the game with all the optional content in the deluxe edition for $30 but seriously I don't need to be the one to tell you that this game is not worth $30 do I?

Oh and did I mention you can buy gold in the game for ridiculous prices, oh yes that's in there. Now I have yet to encounter a point where I could not progress in the game without purchasing gold however, the gold that drops organically seems low, not to mention the various reviews of the mobile version that claimed that purchasing gold at some point was required.

The pricing annoys me further when no real effort has been put in to optimize for the PC market. You control everything with the mouse which renders the keyboard useless which becomes particularly annoying when you want to scroll the map with WASD but can't and have to click and drag everywhere. The developers haven't even bothered with placing in higher resolution textures for any part of the game nor even upgraded the movie resolutions which makes the small CGI movies when entering a town look worse than awful.

The premise of the game is simple, take your group of adventurers through the dungeons of the Warhammer World in the search for wealth and glory. The standard edition of the game comes with four playable characters of a roster of eleven. The other characters are available to purchase, because of course they are.

This all being said the actual game mechanics are faithfully representative of the source material. Each dungeon you visit works from a grid system, by selecting your characters one by one you can see the available movement options. You will only be able to see the rooms you are either in or have been in, everything else will be shrouded in darkness until you step foot in it. This fog of war play means that you'll never know what enemies are waiting in the next room, it could be rats or it could be a giant blood hungry beast. While moving in the hallways room to room, you'll occasionally get attack by enemies that will spawn around you, which is fun towards the start but when your running low on health and out of potions, it becomes both frustrating and worrying.

Combat revolves around basic attacks, inventory items, spells and abilities. Attacking a target requires a simple click as does using items and spells once you've selected them from the bottom HUD menus. Everything has a hit chance or some kind of roll involved and example would be a healing spell for which a roll occurs to determine how much or how little the spell heals. One of the most famous combat mechanics from the original board game was 'deathblow' in which should a character kill an enemy with one hit then they could continue to carry that attack to any other enemies in range. In game this mechanic means that should your marauder be surrounded by enemies you essentially have a chance to kill them all from one attack, potentially. This mechanic has saved me many times from tight spaces.

While the combat mechanics in essence are fairly solid. The hit chance can cause you to have a run of bad luck and inconvenient times. It can make combat feel unfair, punishing and outright brutal when you need the hits to swing your way in an important fight. Once a character dies in battle you can use that character again once you complete the dungeon which on one hand is ok but in my opinion a permadeath state for characters would have been much for fun and meaningful. Mages and units that require things like mana or willpower for abilities will regenerate an amount at the start of each turn.

When your not in a dungeon, there's the world map and town screens. World map travel consists of travelling from town to town eventually visiting all three regions. To travel to a unvisited town you must first complete the dungeon on the way, after doing this you can move from that town to a previous town freely.

Once in a town you have a few options available to you. First if any of your warriors have gained enough experience to level up then you can go to the training ground to level them up which requires gold to do so, clearly a mechanic for draining your gold to get you to buy some more. Each town also has a market where you can buy equipment and potions as well as sell your unwanted items. Usually markets will have a few unique items that are specific to that town or relate to that towns quest in name only. The adventurers guild is where you can see all the characters that are available to use included ones that are DLC. In the towns temple you can pay gold to have one of your warriors pray for a chance to receive a unique buff that can be activated only once during the next dungeon.

Random events involving your warriors will also take place in towns that can end up having buffs and debuffs for the next dungeon. My witch hunter decided to get very drunk and ended up having a debuff for the entirety of the next dungeon. Finally Towns each have their own unique quests that have a short story attached to it. These quests are optional and incur some difficult dungeons but there's also the chance for some great loot too. These quests are presented in text form and are relatively well written with some interesting characters and humour stuffed in.

An big element that I feel is missing from the game is multiplayer. Having multiplayer in the game would have done wonders for re-playability. Its the perfect genre for multiplayer, I mean come on the source material is a board game for goodness sake. Multiplayer should have been a given for Warhammer Quest and yet sadly we have none.

The game overall is pretty solid yet I personally cannot recommend it. There is no reason why you would buy a mobile game from 2013 at an inflated price just to have it on steam. The fact that the game is riddled with micro-transactions plus no real effort has been made in both controls and aesthetics for the transition to PC leaves me thinking that it was an easy cash grab. Even if your a big Warhammer fan or a fan of turn based games and your dead set on playing this, there is no reason not to play it on your mobile device especially considering the price difference.

Early Access Examination - http://youtu.be/f8kVL34NjDo

The gameplay that is actual currently available is somewhat limited. First lets start off with combat, the combat is pretty straight forward once you have switched from incognito mode to weapons ready by pressing the space bar you simply right click an enemy to start firing. The game also employs a cover system for both combat and stealth. When you have you characters selected and hover the mouse over any object like a wall you'll get markers as to where your agents will take cover should you decide to move them there. The combat overall feels very similar to Dawn of War 2 where your taking a squad in combat cover to cover and using abilities. I think the combat still needs some work to make it more interesting, first the AI needs a lot of work to make it challenging. Second they pathing of both player controlled characters and AI needs work as pathing just doesn't work at the moment. Thirdly a progression of enemies is needed to keep the challenge, you need more than just a couple enemy types in different skins. Finally the abilities that are yet to be implemented should be something cool. You need abilities that can change the flow of battle or add new options to your strategies, the combat needs to be interesting.

The mission system in the current version is also limited and your progression in it is also limited due to many of the games features not being implemented. Ultimately I think the current missions are a showcase of the games core functionality rather than a view of what's to come. The reason I say that is that each mission has you doing the exact same thing which is infiltrating a facility. If that is all the missions are going to be in the final game, well, its going to be dull. That being said one thing I was happy to see was the emphasis on achieving the goal in your own way. Each objective has multiple paths, you can go in guns blazing or send in one agent and focus on stealth. There are a variety of tactics for you to use and I really hope the developers build upon this foundation.

Your agents portraits at the bottom display their health, energy for things like sprinting and experience bar. They also have a wanted level to the side similar to a GTA style wanted bar. This will so you when your in a restricted area and if you cause to much trouble by having firefights or killing people, the bar will increase causing more enforcement to arrive.

Agents each have loadouts and you can equip them with different weapons, armor and cybernetic upgrades that will affect stats. You will also come across designs such as weapon plans that once you have researched them which requires time and money will give you access to those items that you can then build and equip. currently there isn't much in the way of items in the game and I would certainly hope to see a lot of items in game come full release.

The world itself is a simulated city, as you walk through the streets people will be going about their daily lives. Hover cars zoom down the roads which you can get in but its not a fun as you think as its essentially on rails so you cant veer from the road. The city looks both depressing and full of vibrant life as the neon lit billboards shine off the wet concrete floors.

Graphically even in this early build the game is looking very nice. The animations look smooth and graphical effects such as rain, gunfire and explosions are visual pleasing. The art style the team have gone for is very eye catching, the neon colours against the sea of grey stands out well, everything in the world thus far looks very good. Visually the biggest issue is the current UI, its doesn't work well. Character portraits are too small, text is hard to read and often blurred or even outright glitched. The menus don't look very good and due to their current layout, nothing flows well sometimes you cant tell if something can be pressed. Ultimately the current menus and overall UI is a mess and definitely needs a rework, it is possible that this was just a temporary UI however if this is what they were going to be going for, please don't. Everything from aiming reticles to the character portraits needs redesigned, a clear, fluid and vivid UI design will go a long way.

In this early access build currently there is no real tutorial and due to the main story thus far not yet being implemented in any big way, if your looking for a well told narrative at this point you won't find it. I certainly feel that once the game reaches full release, the writing and overall narrative will be crucial in keeping people playing. While I am all for the emergent gameplay the game is trying to provide, you still need a good story and narrative to find reason.

In terms of future content the developers have stated that there is an array of features to come. Things like additional skills, abilities, weapons, items plus factional relationships and a propaganda system. There will of course be more districts to play through though whether these will be released throughout early access or saved until full release is unclear. Another feature yet to be implemented is cloning, from what it sounds like cloning could be a feature that serves as a character customization tab as well as a explanation as to why your agents can respawn after they die. At the end of the day this build is a very early build and it's clear there is a ton of content to be implemented. The future content does sound promising but we shall have to wait and see what comes of it.

I must warn you there are a ton of bugs in this version and its not just small bugs, there is occasionally some progress hampering stuff in here. Not is only is there a lot of bugs but a ton of the games features are yet to be implemented as such your realistically only getting a skeleton of a game but it does have some nice looking bones. I feel that amply sums up the entire early access build currently, Yes it holds a lot of potential and looks nice but in terms of actual game to play, as of yet there's not much to it. I think unless your dead set on being involved in the testing right now you may wish to hold off until the game has a lot more content. For the price you are paying I would recommend that people wait until release or at least very late on in early access until many more features have been put in.

Full Video Review -

https://youtu.be/OmLcw91MEqI

PROS
- Great third person turn based combat ) in the style of Valkyria chronicles)
- Warhammer Fantasy setting
- Roguelike elements
- Deep progression
- Mulitplayer
- Difficulty

CONS
- Shockingly long loading times
- Battles are a serious time investment
- Steep learning curve
- Hard to find opponent on multiplayer sometimes
- Repetative missions

Full Video Review - http://youtu.be/MGTB7qEDuFE

Console to PC ports haven't got the best track record ever. Often they can be lazy and not fit for purpose. Thankfully barring a few issues Valkyria is a relatively good port. Firstly there is not a frame-rate lock which is great, the game is not locked at 30fps and the game will happily run at any resolution your system will support. They also have put in rebind-able keys which you may think is standard but console ports are notorious for leaving this out for PC gamers. One issue I do have is that the pre rendered in engine game cut-scenes will only show at playstation 3 quality which is annoying considering it means that more than likely you'll be playing most of the game at a better quality than the cut-scenes. Lastly the game runs very well even on limited hardware, I was away from home while playing this on a friends desktop that was running 4gb ram and a GTX 630 even on this the game not only ran smooth but the game saved that quick that I had to check if it had actually saved.

Now I personally hadn't played the game when it originally released due to not having a playstation 3. So I was coming into this as a new player as many PC gamers will be. The game is told through a menu which is a book that has chapters. Each chapter has several episodes which can be played one by one. Some episodes are story cutscenes only, others will be missions and lastly there will be optional cutscene episodes that while aren't required to advance usually have great story relating to the characters.


Lets get down to the core of the game play which is the combat. The game is a turn based tactical RPG and works from command points. At the start of each turn you have a set number of CP to use. CP is used to move units and attack, use orders and request reinforcements. Depending on the action it may require one or more CP to be used for example moving and attacking using a scout will use one CP but doing that with a tank will require two. The amount of CP you have each turn depends on the units you have selected to do battle with. Some units are leader units which will add a CP each turn if you deploy them however should they die that CP will be removed. You can also take out leader units in the enemies team to achieve the same effect on their side.

Once you've selected a unit you move from the command view map to third person and you can free move the character but have a limited movement bar which will deplete as you move. You can attack by pressing to enter target mode at any time and you can change your equipment too. One thing that has irritated me about movement in the game was the games cover system. You can crouch at sandbags which gives you cover and thus a defensive and evade bonus, you can also go prone in tall grass however you cannot crouch and enter cover in other objects around the battlefields like wall rubble and such which doesn't really make sense.

Each character has different stats such as health etc. That coupled with the weapon stats will effect things like aiming, evade chance, damage and more. Each class has strengths and weaknesses that need to be taken into account. An example is the scout class, they have more movement than other units, they are long range however they cannot take many hits and are weak against heavily armored foes. Alternatively the Lancer is a great anti armor unit, perfect for taking out tanks and such however they are very vunreable to gun fire.

Characters also have special abilities called potentials which are essentially stat modifiers that are triggered by various psychological or environmental factors in battle. An example of this is one shock-trooper named Rosie. Should you have her lead the way while surrounded by your squad you'll active her big sister potential which grants buffs. Potentials are not all good however such as some troops having a pollen allergy and should you run them through bushes or grassland it might trigger making them less effective in combat.

The environment plays a big factor in battle. Not only does play a part in activating certain potentials but using the environment to your advantage is key to finding the best strategy to win. Take a enemy gun bunker, now head on you could use lancers or a tank to destroy it but that would take several shots and use an awful lot of CP. However you could use less CP to take a scout and skillfully move through the environment to flank the bunker and shoot the ragnite canister behind it to blow it up in one. Using the environment is not only useful for taking out the enemy but its essential for keeping your troops alive, leaving them exposed invites enemy snipers to make short work of your squad.

Should one of your squad go down they enter critical condition and need to be medevac'd. This can happen by moving one of your squad to their location and they will call for a medic or using a specific order. Should you not get to them in time or an enemy touches their body, they will die and be gone forever. However you can summon reinforcements in the midst of battle by using your base.

On many battlefields there are several bases denoted by flags. Once you occupy an enemy base and fly your flag you'll be able to use it to summon new troops and to retreat ones currently in battle. Bases also give stat bonuses for any squad members standing in them as well as bonus health regen at the start of the turn for those in range/

Graphically the game is a treat not only does the art direction and hand drawn art look beautiful but it gives the game a timeless quality so that even now and years to come the game will look fantastic. While there aren't many options it play with the graphics the game works runs well on low end machines. The games soundtrack composed by Hitoshi Sakimoto it is a fantastic score that adds wonderful drama and tension throughout the game.

The games story is wonderfully told, its packed with great characters and writing. While if your not a fan of JRPG style stories and characters it's charm might be lost on you. I have always enjoyed JRPG's and Valkyria Chronicles ticks all the right boxes for me, its got action, drama, betrayal, love as well as some more meaningful themes that are not too dissimilar from real life world wars.

Overall Valkyria stands the test of time and is a must for any RPG fan. It's certainly a rarity that a console port is good even more rare is that a SEGA port is good. The blend of episodic storytelling with tactical turn based combat works really well and the game hooks you into the characters so you really care about not letting them die in battle. I would certainly recommend the game to anyone especially people who have never played the game before.

Video Review - http://youtu.be/z-Pq6SQIDvE

The events in the game series begin towards the end of Season Three of the HBO series, and end right before the beginning of Season Five. My major concern with this particular Telltale series over others like Tales From the borderlands was that it would simply be a cheap way for people to experience events in the TV series in video game from. That the game would not have a story that it could call it's own and instead due to the HBO partnership, it would simply be directed to suit HBO and not allow telltale to do what they do best.

The first episode introduces you to three of the overall five playable characters in this series which is more than Telltale have ever previously done. The whole story focuses around House Forrester, a noble house seated at Ironrath in the wolfswood. The wolfswood is located in the north and as such House forrester have been loyal bannermen for the Starks for centuries. The wolfswood also contains Ironwood which the house harvest as its the strongest wood available. The Forrester house words are 'Iron from Ice', which is aptly the first episodes title. The phrase reflects the belief that like the ironwood, the unforgiving landscape of the North only makes them stronger.

Game play wise Telltales formula for this story driven games remains unchanged. There's plenty of quick time events for action sequences and the few areas you can freely walk around in there's a few items to pick up that will no doubt be used for later episodes as well as things that give you more lore information. As always the games future events are dictated by the choices you make in conversations with others. One thing I did notice was in terms of conversations I made use of the option not to say anything for the first time in a telltale game. While the option has been there in the previous series of games, as fans of the show know all too well, sometimes its best to say nothing.

Graphically the game looks a little different to Telltales previous games. Usually they have a comic book aesthetic to them however whether it was a creative choice on their part or something that came from HBO they have toned down their traditional look. Instead while the graphics still have a Telltale look about them, they have opted for a water color style which to be fair looks nice and the color palette suits the Game of thrones look. I did notice some technical issues in the game, characters clothes clipping and the occasional character jumping form place to place instead of running. While they are relatively minor, I wonder if it shows a lack of time to polish and that perhaps the game could have done with a extra week or two to get that extra shine. I also found that the game did not want to record which was funny for me, I can record Far Cry 4 at high settings without dropping below 40fps but this game was lagging awfully when I was recording no matter how much I fiddled with the settings.

Dialogue and voice acting is crucial in Telltales story driven games. Actors from the HBO series have reprized their roles in the game and have done well. The voice acting from all characters is overall good however the playable characters voice acting goes from good to bad in places. In particular there was a conversation I was having as lord Ethan and everything was fine until I made a response which should have been said one way given the tone of the conversation but the voice acting said it completely wrong and it didn't fit in at all. Speaking of the playable characters themselves I at first found them to be bland but as the story went on they started to come to life but still have a certain blank canvass feel to them throughout which was disappointing. The first episode should make me care about these characters and be a good introduction to them however I don't think it executed that well overall.

The stand out voice performance for me was Iwan Rheon as Ramsey Snow. I hate Ramsey Snows character in the TV series but having him in a game where he can actually affect my characters brings a sense of dread that was horrific. In fact while there are many disappointing facets to the first episode, what it hits perfectly is that Game of Thrones feel, the political maneuvering, the verbal jousting. Several times you feel tense in the game facing down someone who has power over your mortality. Other times your so aware of how people love to betray others in Game of Thrones you feel nervous telling inconspicuous people the littlest of information. The dialogue is well written and thanks to that fact it made me go from not liking one playable character to having them become my favorite from the episode.

Overall the first episode has several good moments that fans will really enjoy. it does a decent but not great job of introducing house forrester and hints at a very good story to come through the coming episodes. I was pleased the see the lack of sexual content in the game, one thing that always drove me crazy was the sheer amount of sex in the HBO series that just seemed unnecessary and thankfully at least so far the game seems intent on letting the story and its characters be the driving force for keeping players coming back and not cheap thrills. In my opinion so far only a few of the main characters have me genuinely interested in their stories including one not yet playable but it may well be just a slow start for the others. Fans of the books and TV show will feel right at home however despite Telltales insistance that people who now nothing about Game of thrones can enjoy it too, I don't think that. While you could go through the game knowing nothing about the lore and still enjoy some of it, the game relies on important events that take place and if you know nothing about them, their significance will be completely lost on you. Plus the game takes place in mid flow of the TV show shows events which is not a great place for newcomers to jump in to the complicated economic and political world of game of thrones. In fact I would as go as far to say that if you have never seen the series or read the books, do that first, otherwise your experience in game will be disjointed at best and just outright boring and confusing at worst.

First Episode Video Review - http://youtu.be/5GuDnjHM4yU

As the first episode in the series episode one is all about introductions and setting the tone. Taking place after the events of Borderlands 2 we are introduced to the two main and playable characters of the game. First we meet Rhys a handsome jack wannabe working for hyperion who has been screwed over for his promotion. Rhys goes planet-side to Pandora to find a way to screw his boss over and become the new star company man. Second we meet Fiona a stylish con artist and pandoran orphan. Fiona alongside her sister and mentor are working the con of their lives and events thrust Fiona and Rhys into a shaky alliance.

In terms of game play the game is similar to telltales previous series. In Zero Sum there's no exploration, its all a story driven linear experience. There's quick time events for all the action sequences which usually require you to do a combination of moving left and right and then aiming on the screen and hitting the right button. The very few areas you have the ability to walk around there are a few objects to either look at and interact with. Telltales format of story driven point and click has at this point become a sub genre of its own and if you've played The walking dead or the wolf among us, you'll be right at home game play wise.

As is now common place in telltales style of storytelling the game is filled with choices for you to make that dictates future events. Your dialogue choices, action choices will not only effect the immediate situation but as players of telltales previous games know, it will effect events in later episodes. As Zero Sum is the first episode you won't see much in terms of the effects of the things you say but there's plenty of choices in the episode that will have an effect on episode 2 and beyond.

Coming into Tales from the borderlands I was curious about was how they would implement and stay true to the core series and its content. After all the Borderlands games are FPS, loot galore games and I was curious to see if any elements of the games would be brought into this series. Interesting while you don't use it much in the first episode your given a small glimmer into an inventory system. Through out the zero sum episode you pick up a few items but nothing much however I certainly hope that in the future episodes that we see interesting things happen with the inventory system and perhaps that depending on what loot you choose to use, that it effects the outcome of situations.

One thing I was disappointment with which I hope appears in the coming episodes was the lack of puzzles. There was ample opportunity for some good puzzles in Zero Sum, especially when Rhys tries to hack something with his optical cybernetics. Not only are puzzles a good part of point and clicks but I feel they could have been implemented in a really good way in the first episode plus it would have added some decent game play to boot.

Graphically the game hits all the right marks, it looks and feels borderlands. All the locations are well designed and have great detail. I did encounter an issue where the subtitle text would from time to time go out of sync with the sound but its minor. One thing I was really impressed with was the UI design and how it fits perfectly with the borderlands theme. It;s got that futuristic tech feel about it that blends perfectly with the rest of the aesthetic which is great as many games tend to have a disjointed look between the two.

The story without giving any spoilers has been fantastic in my opinion. Story is certainly a subjective thing and what some people enjoy and think is good others don't. One of my biggest annoyances with the original borderlands games was the potential for good story but they never really went anywhere with it. Borderlands two's story was a lot better than the first but that was due to the introduction of a really good villain being handsome jack voiced by troy baker.

Tales from the borderlands story at least in the first episode is told retrospectively by Rhys and Fiona as they have been captured by an unknown bandit who is interrogating them. Not only is the story well told but its packed with borderlands humor too which is very entertaining. What the game does thus far is bring a depth to the universe that I feel was missing from the first person shooters. You will see characters from the other games make appearances too and its all very well executed.

Interestingly enough personally I found more enjoyment out of this than I did the walking dead series. Mainly for two reasons, one, the walking dead became very predictable very fast. Going through, you knew that people where going to die frequently and to be fair I'm done with zombies at the moment. Secondly, while there is established lore in the borderlands universe, telltale could go anywhere in the story. You feel that they have a freedom with the universe that they never had with the walking dead. It leaves you open to being surprised and interested in seeing the story through.

Overall it was a good first episode. It did a good job of introducing the characters and setting the wheels in motion. I was disappointed with the lack of puzzles and not being able to walk around much. However as story driven games go, Telltale are quickly becoming masters at the art form in this particular format.