Category: Game Reviews

Crusader Kings II is a grand strategy game able to rival other major strategy games like Civilization and Europa Universalis (with which they connect). This review will have a storyline, gameplay, graphics & SFX and finally, personal thoughts section. Without further ado:

Storyline

The game doesn’t have a storyline. It’s set usually in the early medieval times, but generally, any game can start from 769 to 1066 and the game ends in 1453.

Many historical events happen in the game regardless of the in-game events. A good example of this is the Ottoman Invasion in Constantinople.

Gameplay

Crusader Kings II is not like any traditional strategy game as it has some RPG elements to it. Before you begin, you can choose your empire, kingdom, duchy, county, etc…

Beginning as a count is considered the hardest option, as you don’t have many options during the early game, and you are always under many others who are able to stop your advances through just a command.

Before you begin, you have the option of creating your own ruler, in appearance, religion, culture, and nationality.

You can also some of his stats, but every stat alters his age based on its power. You can likewise give him some characteristics that also change your age.

These characteristics range from brave and strong to hunchback and lustful, and just about anything you can think of. Finally, you choose the number of children, and each child also increases your age.

Once you are in the game, you have two purposes.

Firstly it is the usual one. Sustain your provinces to stand the test of time.

The second one, however, is far more interesting, due to its uniqueness. You have to sustain your Dynasty (family).

This means that before your character dies (and trust me, this can happen at any time!), you must have a valid heir from your bloodline. Once you die, you take over as the heir you sculptured.

Before I delve deeper into the Dynasty system, let’s get to the actual gameplay.

The game has many complicated systems. Generally, the map is split into counties. Each county has a major city that can have 1 or more provinces. You cannot control more than a specific number of them (a number that is calculated from some of your stats).

If you exceed the number, you must set some of your vassals to rule over some of your territories, for a price of course.

By controlling enough (specific) counties, you can create a duchy. Have enough duchies and you can create an independent kingdom. And like this, you can work your way up to an emperor.

You also have your own council, with 5 positions, each representing one of the 5 stats. You also choose your councilors and their tasks in order to better manage your lands.

Warmongering in this game is different. You cannot just create units by paying resources, instead, every province has its own number of levies (troops) dependent on each province’s buildings.

In order to declare war, you must have a valid Casus Beli, and you win the war by defeating enemy armies and towns enough times to make them surrender.

You can also take a county by birthright; if you marry one of your children with that county’s count, heir, or any heir in line after the first.

Afterward, you can try to assassinate every heir until you reach to your child, which will give you a strong claim to that county. These apply (but are harder to do) to duchies, kingdoms, and empires.

Now, on to the character system. Your first goal should be to get married. But that is a hard decision to make.

Firstly, if you get married to some nobody, you will lose prestige, which is important to the game.

Secondly, her stats, nationality, culture, and religion are very important, as there is a high chance that your children will inherit some of her characteristics.

Following that, you have to care for your children. You have to choose a guardian, which will be the central figure in their life.

You must also choose childhood and teenage focuses, which determined their characters and stats as they grow.

Finally, you have to decide which one will be your heir (also depending on the succession law of your realm).

Throughout the game, you will get some random events. These determine things like characteristics (which affect your stats), or other events that are about your realm.

There are also some paranormal events like meeting with death, which gives you a high chance of dying, and an event that makes you practically immortal (you can only die in war or from assassination).

The game has many other game concepts and mechanics, but I suggest you learn about these as you play, as if I start explaining, it might get too overwhelming.

[adinserter block=”1″]

Visuals

The graphics aren’t anything amazing. In fact, this game can be played without a problem on most PCs, even some of the toasters. It is a low-spec game, which actually gives it a bonus, as most other grand strategy or 4X games require very good specs.

Personal Thoughts

Crusader Kings II is a very fun game to play, especially if you are a strategy game fan and don’t have the PC for higher-spec games.

The overwhelming amount of mechanics is bound to keep you for hours, and the randomness of the game and the Dynasty system will keep you hooked.

The negatives include its win conditions and its price. About the win condition. There is no clear win condition other than having the highest score when the game ends, or when all players die.

About, the price, since this is a still updating game, there are many expansions and DLCs, which all cost extra, so I highly recommend you buy them all on Steam sales.

I forgot to mention that if you finish a game without dying, you can take that game’s data and transfer it as it is to Europa Universalis IV.

Final Verdict

Storyline: –

Gameplay: 9.0

Visuals: 7.0

General Rating: 8.0

Have you played Crusader Kings II? Have you enjoyed the review? If you have any questions, feel free to ask in the comments below.

You can support us and get notified when we post a new article by following us on Twitter, liking our Facebook Page and sharing our articles.

Follow @GamerWelfare

Hi guys! Today I will talk about Dark Souls 3. As always, the review will have four parts, firstly I will talk about the storyline, then about the gameplay, afterward, I will talk about the visuals and finally, I will tell you my personal thoughts and give you a rating for the game from 0-10 (10 being the best).

Storyline

Now the story of Dark Souls 3 is a tricky subject. If this is your first Dark Souls game, then I promise you that you will not understand a thing about what’s going on.

The game doesn’t explain the story in a traditional sense, meaning through dialogue and exposition from characters.

To understand the story of Dark Souls you need to read each item information, to talk to all the NPCs that you find in the game, to watch the locations you visit for the scenery since that might give hints about the story.

Even if you do all that, you know about 50% of the story. The other 50% is hypothesizing since From Software doesn’t give a clear explanation about the story.

I personally didn’t care much for the story in this game, I just played it for the challenge of beating it, since I heard it was hard. This is it for the story, now let’s talk about the combat system of the game.

Gameplay

Dark Souls 3 is an RPG that allows you to create your own character, customize him, and choose your character’s class.

Each time you gather enough souls (you get souls by killing enemies, selling items, finding items that grant big amount of souls in the map and killing bosses) you can buy a level up and get 1 point to put in one of 9 attributes and those are vigor, attunement, endurance, vitality, strength, dexterity, intelligence, faith, luck.

Each of those attributes affect your stats in the game and what you can do. I won’t explain what each attribute does since it’s pretty each to find out by searching on google (the game has very good wiki pages) or in the game by seeing each attribute’s information.

The combat in this game isn’t very complex, you have a right-hand weapon and a left-hand weapon and each are assigned to a button on your controller or your mouse (if you play with keyboard and mouse), you also have items which you can use that heal your HP, and your FP (FP is basically your mana points), there are also rings that you can wear that give you stats and different armor sets that you get through the game.

To avoid attacks you roll (this is what you will do 90% of the time) and you can also parry attacks if you have a weapon that can use parry since not all weapons can do that.

The difficulty of the game at least in my experience depends heavily on your build and your playstyle. I personally didn’t find Dark Souls 3’s base difficulty all that hard, but that might have to do with the build I used.

Lastly, the game wants you to explore since there are a lot of items that are hidden behind illusionary walls and in difficult to access places.

There are bonfires in the game, that serve as a checkpoint since when you die you return to the last bonfire you rested at, and you can travel between bonfires. That’s it for the gameplay.

Visuals

Graphics in Dark Souls 3 aren’t eye-catching that’s for sure. The color grey is extremely prominent, and the game’s colors aren’t vibrant.

Additionally, the game character models aren’t amazing looking too. I have seen games that came years before Dark Souls 3 and look a lot better.

The Graphics are average, and people that want to see a game that looks amazing in the eyes will be disappointed.

That said the people that play this game, don’t play it for the graphics, they play it for the challenging gameplay.

[adinserter block=”1″]

Final Thoughts

Dark Souls 3 is a game for those that want a challenge, it’s not for casual players.

To understand how to play the game, you will probably need to search for some things in wikis and spend hours changing builds and strategies if you think that the build you play isn’t good enough.

The game’s combat is challenging in the sense that it needs good reflexes.

The graphics of the game are average but as I said you don’t play this game for the graphics.

If you want to buy this game I strongly recommend the deluxe edition since it includes the two DLCs that this game has, and one of those DLCs includes an arena where you can play in different PvP modes.

You can play PvP without this DLC but I strongly recommend you buy it either way for the additional challenge.

PvP in this game is peer to peer which means it depends on your internet speed and the distance between you and the opponent, so it will get laggy sometimes.

If you thinking of buying this game I recommend that you wait for a sale since this game is often on sale and you can get everything with 21 dollars or euro.

Final Verdict

Storyline: 8

Gameplay: 9

Visuals: 8

General Rating: 8

That’s it for my review guys, I hope you liked it. If you liked the game leave a comment down below and tell me what you liked the most about this game. See ya in the next article.

You can support us and get notified when we post a new article by following us on Twitter, liking our Facebook Page and sharing our articles.

Follow @GamerWelfare

Here is the link for the images I used:

https://www.igdb.com/games/dark-souls-iii/presskit

When playing games, what excites me the most is anything element related. Most games fail to implement elements correctly and you wind up with characters that control 2 or 3 of the elements.

I personally always wanted to play a game where you feel like the Avatar (from the masterpiece series Avatar: The Last Airbender and Avatar: The Legend of Korra) and with Wizard of Legend, you do just that.

This review will per usual have a storyline, gameplay, graphics & SFX and finally, personal thoughts section. Without further ado:

Storyline

You begin as a simple visitor in the museum of …… where after a small tutorial tour where you learn the basic controls and storyline elements, a portal opens up and takes you to the past, at the time where the Chaos Trials were held.

Any wizard who beat the Chaos Trials will be crowned Wizard of Legend and that is your ultimate goal.

Gameplay

The game is a classic dungeon crawler game (the newer generation ones). Unlike most of them, however, you do have a basic setup that you choose before you enter which is entire of your own making instead of beginning with the same types of attacks every game and progressing through the dungeon. There is however progression, or else it wouldn’t be considered a dungeon crawler game. 

Inside the dungeon, by defeating monsters and bosses you gain gold and chaos gems. Gold is the in-dungeon currency used to buy arcana (the arcana are the objects which allow you to channel each spell) and relics (relics are passive items) from the shopkeepers in each floor.

Those spells and items are temporary and are lost when you leave the chaos trials. Chaos gems are the out of game currency, used to permanently unlock spells and relics for future use when entering the dungeon.

The arcana are divided into 5 elements, water (and ice), fire, electric, air, and earth (and poison).

Each spell has a variant in all 5 elements but there are some that are unique to each element.

Each element has loosely their own playstyle too, but you can combine anything successfully if you find it fits you. As is the case with those kinds of games, each element is strong against one and weak against another in a perfect cycle of fire -> air -> earth -> electric -> water -> fire.

There is also a secret sixth element, chaos, which is unlocked upon beating the chaos trials for the first time. Chaos arcana are generally stronger due to their rarity.

Arcana are further divided into 4 subcategories: basic, dash, regular, and signature. You will pick one of each prior entering the dungeon.

Inside the dungeon, you may find or buy more regular arcana. Each arcana has an upgraded version. More analytically:

• Basic Arcana are your basic attack. They have no cooldown and are your go-to arcana for most situations.
• Dash Arcana are your movement spells. Defaulting with space, generally, dashes have no cooldown so you can dash all you want, but the dash arcana effect (like leaving behind traps or an ice clone) will (almost) always have a cooldown.
• Regular Arcana is your basic un-upgraded spell. Pretty simple, it has its effect (which you should know since you chose it) and you use it whenever you deem necessary and is off cooldown.
• Signature Arcana is your combo maker and your most powerful spell. You might notice that it’s an upgraded version of a regular arcana (and that is true, every signature arcana can be used as a regular spell if one wishes), but there is a catch. There is a meter that fills as you hit monsters with your other arcana. Once that meter is full your signature arcana goes automatically off cooldown and can be used for a bonus effect that is usually 3 times as strong as the original. The signature arcana cannot be replaced nor changed while inside the Chaos Trials. They are also unlocked differently from the other arcana, by defeating a stage boss.

You will also choose two more things before entering, your staring relic and your cloak.

Relics, as stated, are passive items, and cloaks, besides making you look stylish, also give you (or take away) some stats.

Depending on the cloak, you might have a bonus effect (like being able to heal out of combat).

There are also other changes you can make before entering through the various NPCs but I’m only gonna focus on the two most prominent.

The first is the cursed relic shop. Cursed relics are relics that give you a powerful effect and a big disadvantage, and you cannot get rid of them unless you die.

The cured relic shop has a random choice between three, and there is no inventory which means that you buy it only once, and if you want to use it again you will have to wait for it to reappear in the shop. You can also find cursed relics inside the dungeon.

The second is practically the hard mode. After beating the chaos trials for the first time you can make the game harder.

Normally, the game has scaling difficulty, as you move forward, the harder it gets.

However in the hard mode, every enemy and boss is as hard as it would be if you were on the final stage.

The game is split into 3 (+1) stages each with 3 sub-stages for a total of 10 levels. Each stage (except the last) has a main element, and its final boss on its final substage is the master of that element. The first two sub-stages contain two mini-bosses that unrelated to any element.

The game also has a co-op mode, but that requires 2 controllers or one controller and one keyboard, sadly, you cannot play online or even LAN. In co-op, every player has his own build, but share gold, which makes the game more tactical. When one player dies, he can be revived when the other player defeated enough monsters.

[adinserter block=”1″]

Visuals

The game’s graphics are plain 2D looking graphics which is as it should for a dungeon crawler. That is not to say however that is doesn’t look good, the arcana animation is amazing and when comboing, you really do feel like the Avatar.

One thing I have to note is the level of detail that went inside each dungeon, each one is very fitting with its respective element.

Personal Thoughts

Wizard of Legend is a dungeon crawler that is definitely worth its money. It has an active community and developer team that introduces new features and arcana very frequently. It also fulfills your fantasy of controlling the elements. It is very versatile and every build has potential.

I suggest you wait for it to go on sale to buy it, and I’m sure you’ll like it.

Final Verdict

Storyline: 6.0

Gameplay: 8.5

Visuals: 8.0

General Rating: 7.5

That’s it for my review. Have you tried this game? Do you have any questions? What is your favorite build? Just leave a comment below.

You can support us and get notified when we post a new article by following us on Twitter, liking our Facebook Page and sharing our articles.

Follow @GamerWelfare

The images and gifs I used are from the following links:

www.wizardoflegend.com

www.igdb.com

Hi guys! Today I will talk about Hitman (2016). As always, the review will have four parts, firstly I will talk about the storyline, then about the gameplay, afterward, I will talk about the visuals and finally, I will tell you my personal thoughts and give you a rating for the game from 0-10 (10 being the best).

Storyline

Hitman (2016) is one of the best stealth assassination games you will ever play. Now that that is out of the way let’s start with the story.

Hitman (2016) doesn’t exactly have a story. It has a lot of missions but honestly not a real story.

You will see in the tutorial how Agent 47 was recruited but don’t buy this game if you want a story-driven game.

Gameplay

The best part of this game is the stealth assassinations. You will visit several different locations where you will be tasked to assassinate some people. Those areas feel unique, they are full of opportunities that will help you assassinate your targets if you take the time and explore the areas.

The game on its default settings gives you tips on how to go about assassinating your targets and informs you when you have discovered an opportunity to assassinate your target.

This “assist” mode makes the game less overwhelming for new players and allows them to learn the ropes of the game.

Of course, you can disable these “assist” settings and play the game without any help or tips.

I wouldn’t recommend it though for new players since it will take a lot of time to learn how to play the game that way and it might discourage you from continuing to play the game.

There are a lot of ways to assassinate your targets and that gives the game a lot of replayability.

There is also the Escalation Mode, a new feature that adds requirements to existing levels and makes the game even more challenging.

There are also the Elusive Targets, a mode that has a timer and in that mode, you are tasked to kill targets that cant be seen on the map and you have one chance to kill them if you fail you won’t be able to access that mission again.

You can also create your own missions by making NPCs targets, setting kill requirements and you can share those missions with other players.

One problem, if you can call it a problem is that the game discourages you from using guns and going guns blazing.

There are guns in the game, but I wonder why the game even gives you the option to use them since you die amazingly fast if the enemies shoot you and you don’t do a lot of damage with your guns unless you headshot everyone.

Additionally, if you kill people the game lowers your score when you finish the mission, so basically it punishes you for using the gun that the game provides you.

That seems unorthodox to me, they should either not allow you to use any guns or not punish you for using guns, allowing you to use guns and punishing you for using them makes no sense to me.

You are an assassin and going guns blazing isn’t very assassin-like, but I still think they should have thought of a better way to discourage people from using guns rather than punishing them.

Visuals

The graphics of Hitman (2016) are amazing and won’t disappoint.

There is customization too since you can pick the outfit you will wear on your missions from a list of outfits, it isn’t a big list but there are some.

The locations you will visit are amazingly designed and are very realistic, that is the advantage of a game that isn’t an open-world, the developers can polish a few locations as much as they can be polished rather than having to make an entire world with much less polish.

[adinserter block=”1″]

Final Thoughts

Hitman (2016) is a great game. I totally recommend this game to anyone that loves stealth assassination games.

Of course, since Hitman 2 is already released, I don’t recommend that you buy Hitman (2016) at full price. Wait for Steam Sales, that’s how I bought it.

Paying full price for a game that has a sequel isn’t a good idea for me. If you have money to spend and don’t feel like waiting, then, by all means, buy this game at full price, you won’t be disappointed by this game.

The gameplay is amazing, and the graphics too, it is a worthy addition to the Hitman franchise.

Final Verdict

Storyline: 8.0

Gameplay: 8.5

Visuals: 9.3

General Rating: 8.6

That’s it for my review guys, I hope you liked it. If you liked the game leave a comment down below and tell me what you liked the most about this game. See ya in the next article.

You can support us and get notified when we post a new article by following us on Twitter, liking our Facebook Page and sharing our articles.

Follow @GamerWelfare

Here is the link for the images I used:

https://www.igdb.com/games/hitman/presskit

Hi guys! Today I will talk about For Honor. The game had a lot of issues at the beginning (like most Ubisoft games) but after years of patches and fixes it turned out to be a solid game.

As always, the review will have four parts, firstly I will talk about the storyline, then about the gameplay, afterward, I will talk about the visuals and finally, I will tell you my personal thoughts and give you a rating for the game from 0-10 (10 being the best).

Storyline

Let’s start with the campaign.

The campaign is pretty much a tutorial for the player to learn the ropes of the game and to experience how some of the available heroes are played.

The story is uninteresting, and you will want the campaign to be over fast because it’s very boring and tedious.

Nobody bought this game for the story and the developers didn’t seem to care much about the story, to begin with, so who can blame the players for not liking the story.

Gameplay

Now let’s talk about the reason everyone buys this game, and that reason is the multiplayer experience.

For Honor has four multiplayer games modes: Duel, Brawl, Dominion and Elimination. I would say the most popular mode is Dominion, but I will explain each mode from the beginning.

Duel is a 1v1 multiplayer match. Players fight each other 1v1 and the victor gets more experience, game rewards (such as items) and increases his rank. I should mention that there are normal duels and ranked duels.

Players that prefer ranked will be disappointed because the rating system is broken and unfair. It’s a huge frustration for the community and most players advise to stay away from ranked.

Brawl is a 2vs2 multiplayer experience. Players fight as a group of 2 people against 2 others. This mode has ranked too.

The problem with playing with other players is that you kind of depend on them to win so if, for example, your teammate goes AFK or disconnects, you are helpless, and you will lose.

That is a huge problem in team-based games and based on my personal experience with the game, people do disconnect(sometimes because of server problems,

I had some friends that got disconnected from the game very often due to server issues) and it is frustrating.  If you don’t mind losing just because someone went AFK then you can try this mode.

There are also two 4vs4 modes. The most popular one is Dominion, and the other is Elimination.

In Dominion two teams of 4 players face each other. After a team has reached 1000 points, the opposing team “breaks” and the fight is to the death. The breaking team members will no longer be able to respawn.

Points will continue to accumulate until a team is defeated. The side that has gathered the most points wins. 

In Elimination there are 2 teams of 4 players that fight each other to the death and when all the players in one of the two teams are dead, that team loses.

When you fight in the multiplayer mode you gather points for the faction you chose. There are three factions; The Samurai, The Knights, and The Vikings.

Each faction controls areas on a map. Depending on the points that the players in each faction gather, a faction might get some other factions’ areas or might lose one of its areas.

That faction war takes place in a certain time period and when that period is over the faction that has more areas wins and its players get a lot of rewards. 

Now let’s talk about the combat system. The combat system in this game is something I haven’t seen before.

It is certainly something new and it is certainly fun at times. The reason that I say the combat system is fun “at times” is because the game isn’t very well balanced.

Some heroes have some abilities that are just broken, and players will spam those abilities against you and there is very little you can do.

Spamming some heroes’ unblockable attacks is very frustrating for the player receiving that spamming. This type of spam makes the game unfun and makes it more about picking heroes that have spammable abilities that are broken than actually having a skillful duel.

The game has a lot of heroes for you to choose from and more are released every year since the game still has a lot of support from the developers. You will certainly find a hero that you like.

Visuals

For Honor’s graphics are top-notch and you will certainly won’t be disappointed in that department. The scenery makes you feel like you are fighting in the era that the game takes place at and the heroes that you play feel just as realistic.

There are also a lot of customization options for you to choose for the available heroes and more are unlocked by either paying real money or by playing the game.

I like the deep customization options that this game has. Good customization makes a game so much better because I believe everyone wants to look cool in a game.

[adinserter block=”1″]

Final Thoughts

For Honor is a solid game with a unique combat system and good graphics, that is true, and I don’t think anyone can disagree with that.

That said, I personally gave up on the game after playing it every day for almost a week.

It got me hooked at first, but after the hype, I realized that this game wasn’t for me.

I hated, and I will say it again, I hated the spam. Almost every time I played against other people, I would face someone that just spammed a broken ability repeatedly and it is truly frustrating to face people like that.

Even if I beat them, I don’t feel almost any sense of satisfaction at all. I know I can just practice more to improve and beat them all the time, but the game just doesn’t give me the incentive to do it.

The idea of having to practice to beat spammers, it’s just boring as hell to me.

Even if I beat them, fighting against them is still boring since the only thing they do is spam. You might like that, and if you do, then, by all means, buy the game.

Final Verdict

Storyline: 7.4

Gameplay: 8.0

Visuals: 9.0

General Rating: 8.1

That’s it for my review guys, I hope you liked it. If you liked the game leave a comment down below and tell me what you liked the most about this game. See ya in the next article.

You can support us and get notified when we post a new article by following us on Twitter, liking our Facebook Page and sharing our articles.

Follow @GamerWelfare

Here is the link for one of the images I used:

https://www.igdb.com/games/for-honor/presskit

The two Portal games are puzzle-platforming games released from Valve, which explains why there isn’t another sequel as Valve seems to be allergic to the number 3.

A legendary game, the legacy it left behind is huge. Why did such a seemingly simple game become so popular? The review will be split into storyline, gameplay, graphics & SFX and finally, personal thoughts. Without further ado:

Storyline

The storyline is mostly experienced by the in-game dialogs (mostly from the game’s other characters, the main character is the classic “silent protagonist” archetype).

Most of the story (backstory rather) is also experienced in the second game as the first game is quite short on its duration.

The general idea is that you are being used as a test subject for a facility known as Aperture Science, testing their newest invention: the Aperture Science Handheld Portal Device, or the portal gun, a gun that lets you fire two different portals that you can teleport from the one portal’s location to the other’s.

Other than that, it is heavily implied that the game takes part in the same universe and timeline as the Half-Life series, and the game’s events run parallelly to Half-Life.

Gameplay

The portal gun is the game’s main gimmick. You are tasked with solving puzzles that require you to place the two portals creatively in order to clear objectives and move on.

Sometimes, key timing is required, and other usage of momentum and gravity are used.

Seldom, reflection mechanics are to be used, and/or any combination of the above.

The puzzles get more and more complicated as you move on, but there isn’t a puzzle that can’t be solved with enough thinking; the game is not known for being difficult after all.

Besides the puzzles you must solve, there are oftentimes some obstacles and hazards in the environment.

The obstacles are mainly turrets, either regular sentry turrets that shoot on sight or rocket turrets, which shoot a rocket after locking on.

The second game also has a co-op multiplayer mode that takes place right after the events of the single-player campaign.

The gameplay remains largely the same except the fact that you have to think more cooperatively on where each player should place his portals.

The SFX of the game is mostly ambient sound, as it should be, as you don’t need any distractions on a puzzle game.

There are however two ending songs, one for each game, and I must say, they are amazing!

The songs are sung by the game’s antagonist, GLaDOS, a character that you are bound to love.

The voice acting, the lines, even the character herself (she is technically an A.I.) are delivered flawlessly.

The killer robotic turrets also sympathize with you if you kill them. Generally, the voice acting in both games is perfect, and it specifically Elaine McLain’s performance helped GLaDOS won many best character awards. Her song, Still Alive, also won some awards itself.

[adinserter block=”1″]

Visuals

The graphics of the game are similar to Half-Life 2’s graphics, as due to their restrictions, the team working on the original game re-used the art style from Half-Life 2. That is no detriment of course, as the graphics are quite polished. Generally, the games don’t look their age.

Personal Thoughts

Portal might not seem much at first glance, but firstly, the game was very innovative. There never was another game to utilize the mechanics that Portal does.

Plus, there were many memes left in the gaming community after its release, and the game also left us GLaDOS and her witty lines and songs. Even though I keep mentioning GLaDOS, the other characters are likable too, even the game’s silent protagonist, from what you can gather about her at least.

Objectively, despite the game being a puzzle game, it will definitely make you have the feels at some point or another. The game is fluid and fun, and there is a certain amount of satisfaction after you solve each puzzle.

There is a reason after all, that the first game was voted best game of 2007. The game has numerous other awards and very scarce complaints. The game even has an award for the best sidekick character give to a literal object!

In all honesty, I really believe that the games only have two negatives: first, they never had another sequel, and second, once you play them, you will never be able to relive these experiences for the first time.

The game is more than worth its price.

Final Verdict

Storyline: 9.5

Gameplay: 9.0

Visuals: 8.5

General Rating: 9.0

Have you played Portal? Do you consider playing it? Do you have any questions? If so, just leave a comment and I will answer as soon as I can.

You can support us and get notified when we post a new article by following us on Twitter, liking our Facebook Page and sharing our articles.

Follow @GamerWelfare

Heroes of the Storm (abbr. HotS) is another one of the popular MOBAs, but it has been declining steadily in the past years. Is it due to it being a bad game, or is there another reason?

The review will per usual have a storyline, gameplay, graphics & SFX and finally, personal thoughts section. Without further ado:

Storyline

There is a big, multi-dimensional storm called the Nexus. The Nexus itself can destroy universes, but it can stabilize others.

Those stabilized inner universes are called Realms, and each Realm has its own lord. Some Realm lords fight with each other for dominance.

In order to wage their wars, they use the heroes that are transported there from the universes of Warcraft, Diablo, and Starcraft. The heroes themselves can’t die; their death is only temporary.

The lore isn’t something too big if you want to get into it, and it only recently started forming.

Gameplay

The gameplay is the classic MOBA one, on its basis at least. Blizzard decided to change it up a bit, so the game could be independent, not just another usual MOBA.

One of the main differences in HotS is that it doesn’t have a stable game mode, rather there are different maps with different layouts and strategies.

Another difference is the game structure. HotS is not reliant on grinding for gold and experience, on the contrary, HotS doesn’t even have a shop and items. The experience is shared among the team, which means that no one player can snowball and carry the game.

The game is also very objective focused. Each map has its own big objective (like holding an area for some time, or killing some minions, or even escorting the payload!) which helps a lot toward winning the game. These objectives are almost always heavily contested which makes the game very fast-paced.

There is a progress system, of course, it wouldn’t be a MOBA without it. As the team levels, every hero has a choice of talents to enhance their skills or some sort of passive.

Overall, HotS tends to be a very teamwork-oriented game and quite fast-paced too. It can, many times feel like you are being dragged down by your team.

There are also some weird heroes that totally bend the rules, but that is more fun than not.

The SFX are what you’d expect. You can understand what’s happening and the announcer never confuses you.

What’s really good is the fact that you can see and hear your favorite characters from any of Blizzard’s popular games with new lines and their iconic traits and skills, albeit a bit renewed and rebalanced.

There are also many announcers to choose from, all heroes within the Nexus.

[adinserter block=”1″]

Visuals

The graphics are a little more polished than its would-be competitors DotA and LoL, which means that by a small margin, it’s harder to run. It’s nothing too obvious though.

Other than that, the graphics are good, there is never a cluster of effects to confuse you and you can understand what’s happening. The maps look very good, it is Blizzard after all.

There are also many maps based on the universes from the popular games and Blizzard did an excellent job at reimagining them.

Personal Thoughts

Generally, HotS is a very fun game, fast-paced and teamwork-oriented. The bonus of characters you already know and love makes for a very good combo. In fact, as I have stated before, it is my favorite MOBA. Alas, it comes with negatives.

Firstly, HotS is very casual. There is no other way to see it, the game is not as intense as the other MOBAs.

That is fully evident now that the esports scene is no longer supported, and thus, doesn’t exist anymore. Which is another con.

No matter how good you are, you can’t profit, and you will not be rewarded for your skill.

The future of the game seems stable, but with a game that doesn’t have an endgame, no goal, and is doomed to be played just for fun, it really doesn’t seem sustainable.

The game is free to play (which is very weird, considering we’re talking about Blizzard), and the company is pouring money for it. If they see that they are only losing money, they will slowly cut it out. They won’t delete the game or anything, but they’ll stop supporting it with further updates.

I’m very sad about this development, as I really thought that HotS had potential. But I still do recommend you to play the game.

If you don’t want an intense experience and looking for the meta and the optimal strategies and builds, or if you just want to get in touch with some of your favorite characters, I wholeheartedly support this decision.

The game is worth it while it’s still supported, so I recommend it to anyone willing to look past its flaws.

Final Verdict

Storyline: 7.0

Gameplay: 7.5

Visuals: 6.8

General Rating: 7.1

That’s it for my review. Have you played HotS? Do you enjoy the game and its wackiness? Were you disappointed when you heard about the cut in esports? Let me know in the comments below, and I will get back to you.

You can support us and get notified when we post a new article by following us on Twitter, liking our Facebook Page and sharing our articles.

Follow @GamerWelfare

The images I used are from the following sites:

www.igdb.com

Hey guys, today I will review a mobile game for the first time. Due to reviewing a mobile, there will hardly be a need for a storyline section or a graphics and SFX section, so instead I will do just general, gameplay and finally, personal thoughts, and I will cover everything you need to know with these three sections. So, without further ado:

General

Clash Royale was developed by Supercell, the company that created the hit mobile game Clash of Clans.

In fact, the two games share the same fictional universe, even though they are not connected at all gameplay-wise.

While the games are developed and maintained by the same company, and being part of the same universe (which means that the characters remain the same), you will find that most players prefer one of the two games, and rarely (if at all) bother with the other.

Clash Royale is a belongs to the real-time strategy genre (RTS), but it combines elements from RTS, MOBAs, collectible card games (CCGs), and tower defense games (TDs).

Clash Royale was the first and best of its kind, and as is usual with these cases, Clash Royale spawned many clone games.

The game became a massive success, having reached one billion in revenue within its first year of release.

The game is frequently updated by the developers, and balance changes come on a monthly basis.

The game also has a promising esports scene, and it gives the chance to amateurs to compete by hosting an annual tournament in which everyone who wins it can compete in the Clash Royale League (you must win 20 games, and you are kicked out if you get three losses).

Furthermore, there is always something new going on in the game, so it really never gets or feels old, as you can stop playing for 3 months and return to a game with completely new and/or different features.

Let’s not forget about the new cards that get released every 3 months.

But is the game’s gameplay as fun and exciting as its popularity implies? Let’s move on to the gameplay section to find out.

Gameplay

As mentioned, Clash Royale is a mix of RTS, MOBA, CCG, and TD. That is very evident in its gameplay.

After you play the tutorial, you are tasked with building your deck from some available starting cards and one or two new ones that you unlocked. You will then be pitted against other players who also play against their deck.

The starting pool of cards you can choose from is very small, but as you win and gain more trophies, more and more cards will become available to unlock.

The main way to unlock cards is by in-game chests. You win chests by winning games.

There are different rarities for chests, and the more common a chest is, the less card it gives and the more common they are. But, the more common a chest is, the less time it will take to unlock it.

The minimum is three hours. You can unlock them early using gems, which is an in-game currency that requires real money.

Cards are split into four different rarities; common, rare, epic, legendary. These don’t determine power, they determine how often you can get one, and how easy it is to find one.

The cards also have levels that determine their power compared to other cards.

The levels range from 1 to 13, and each rarity has a different starting level. Commons begin from level 1, rares from level 4, epics from 6 and legendaries from 9.

There is also what is known as tournament standard levels. You can upgrade these cards by collecting enough stacks of the one you want to upgrade (the higher the level, the more card it will require), and by spending gold, which is gained by winning, chests, and many other ways.

Each win against an opponent gives you trophies. The more trophies you collect, the higher your arena will be, and the better and stronger your opponents will get. This is called ladder climbing.

Generally, grinding something to level 13 is quite hard and tedious (unless you pay money), which is where the tournament standards come. The tournament standard level is 9.

Essentially, these exist to give all players a chance to show their true skill without needing to pay.

Every tournament and event that is hosted is played at tournament standard level, so higher leveled players will be leveled down for the tournament.

Now for the actual gameplay.

Each card in your 8-card deck represents one of three possible types: a troop, a spell or a building.

These cards also have their own elixir cost. You gain elixir passively over time, and you must manage it in order to maximize your chances of winning.

When you play a card, it is manifested in the field. Each player has his own side, which is separated by the river in the middle.

There are two entrances to the other side of the field, the bridges on the left and right.

Your purpose is to strategically play your units, spells, and building in such a way, that you get to destroy more enemy towers, than the opponent, does yours.

Each player has 3 towers, two weaker princess towers left and right, and a stronger king tower in the back middle.

If the king tower is destroyed, then it is an automatic game over for the one who lost it (similarly to chess).

Your towers also have a level that determines their stats, and you can level them up with experience, which is gained upon leveling up a card.

Each game has three minutes. If three minutes have passed and both players have the same number of towers destroyed, the game goes to overtime sudden death, where that first player to get a tower within 3 more minutes wins. If those three minutes pass without any player destroying any tower, then the game ends as a draw.

After the first 2 minutes passed, the game will produce double the amount of elixir.

All of the above make the game quite flexible, as there are countless strategies and decks you can use.

The game also has a 2v2 mode where there are no trophies and you can either play with a friend or a stranger.

Finally, there are clans. A clan is good as you can ask for donations for any common or rare card you have and want to level up without involving RNG, and you can donate cards you don’t want in order to make some money and experience.

There are also the clan wars, which is split into two days, the collection day and the war day.

By competing in clan wars, clans can earn clan trophies which determine their individual week, plus, every player who competed in at least one war per two weeks gains a bonus chest depending on the clan’s best position those past weeks.

In the collection day, you play three games with a choice of four different game modes (the rotation changes frequently), and depending on if you won or lost, and your place in the ladder, you gain some cards for the next day.

In war day, you must draft a deck from all the cards your clan won the previous day and fight against a member of another clan who has done the same.

[adinserter block=”1″]

Personal Thoughts

Generally, Clash Royale gains a lot of praise, and for a good reason. Have I even mentioned it can be played on any device from 2014 onward?

The only complaint that the game gets is about its supposed pay-to-win system.

My opinion about this is that firstly, yes, you can get an advantage by paying money, and this advantage is almost always unfair.

It’s not like if someone has better levels than you, then the difference is small, you can literally lose games just because you had weaker cards. But it doesn’t matter.

For starters, if you lose to someone who actually paid, or grinds more than you, then it’s ok, the ladder isn’t going anywhere.

Theoretically, you can someday attain max level to everything without paying a dime, and then only skill will matter.

But even if you are impatient, reaching the tournament standards is pretty routine, and you can show your true skills within tournaments and events.

The esports scene doesn’t even require you to be max leveled, you just need the tournament standards. So, while it might seem unfair at the start, honestly, you just get used to it.

There are times though when the game can be outright infuriating, if that happens, just close the game, and take a one or two days to break.

And in the end, Supercell needs to make money, and while one might argue that they could do other things to get money, and still keep being fair, that’s what they chose, so it’s something you must accept if you want to play the game.

Besides, they themselves are doing what they can to keep free-to-play players satisfied. Believe me, getting the cards you want without paying is a thousand times easier than when the game began.

I already stated my opinions about mobile games in general here, and how they should be preferably be played when you have nothing better to do, or don’t have the time or space to open your PC.

But Clash Royale certainly can be played more seriously, and is worth devoting time to get better at it.

---

---

Edit: Clash Royale has released the all-new (if you don’t play Clash of Clans) Season Pass, where there are free prizes for everyone, but tons of prizes, perks, and bonuses for those who pay a buck extra.

There is even an all-time exclusive tower skin that you can never get EVER, and there is no other way to take it. And the best part, the seasons change every month, so if you miss it then tough luck. I’m heavily disappointment by this development for 2 reasons:

First, the game took a step in the opposite direction of making things easier for free to play players (which I can’t really blame as they need revenue (not that they don’t have enough already but whatevs)).

Two, the exclusive tower skin. If for any reason (not having a job, being tight economically, etc, etc) you can’t pay for the pass, you’ll spend the rest of your lifespan (your Clash Royale lifespan) being reminded on a daily basis that someone has something better than you simply because he has more money or richer parents and that you could have done ABSOLUTELY NOTHING to get it, and will never have the chance to ever get it again. Sure, you can pay for one you really like, but again, firstly, that’s a nightmare for the collectors who want everything, and second, who’s to say you won’t like the next one better.

Honestly, I’m probably just venting here, but I can’t hide my disappointment. However, the game doesn’t change much but it will lose 1 point from its personal score due to becoming more P2W again.

---

---

General Rating: 7.0

Do you play Clash Royale? What is your favorite card? If you don’t do you like my review.

If you want to add something or have any questions, feel free to ask them in the comments, and I will answer as soon as I can.

You can support us and get notified when we post a new article by following us on Twitter, liking our Facebook Page and sharing our articles.

Follow @GamerWelfare

Hi guys! Today I will talk about Batman: Arkham Origins. As always, the review will have four parts, firstly I will talk about the storyline, then about the gameplay, afterward, I will talk about the visuals and finally, I will tell you my personal thoughts and give you a rating for the game from 0-10 (10 being the best).

Storyline

Batman: Arkham Origins serves as a prequel to the Batman Arkham games.

The story of this game is pretty good. Someone has placed a 50 million bounty on Batman and all the criminals are after you.

This makes for a nice twist since Batman becomes the hunted instead of the hunter.

Gameplay

As for the gameplay, the combat is very good and fluid as is in all Batman Arkham games.

There are many gadgets for you to use that you have seen in the previous games also. The city roaming with the grappling hook is good but nothing you haven’t seen before.

One small problem with the open world is that the city streets don’t have civilians which don’t make sense but I personally didn’t care that much about it.

You can also fast travel now with the Batwing to places that you have visited on the map, making traveling from each point of the map to the other faster.

The fights with enemy bosses are very good and entertaining, especially the fight with Deathstroke.

The game improves upon the crime-scene investigation compared to the previous games, but it’s nothing too extreme.

There is also a new gadget that you unlock at a certain point in this game that you haven’t seen in any of the other Arkham games, which is the Shock Gauntlets. They certainly make the game more fun once you unlock them, but they make it easier also since they are pretty OP.

There are also puzzles and collectibles gathered all over the open world waiting for you to discover.

I never personally liked collectibles, I know that there is a group of gamers that loves those and likes to roam the city for hours trying to collect them all.

Besides the open world, there are also challenge rooms which are fun and as the name suggests challenging, and they will certainly keep you entertained for hours.

There is also a multiplayer mode in which you play with other players as a team of things vs a team of other things controlled by other players and there are also 2 players that control Batman and Robin.

You have to beat the opposing team while Batman and Robin will try to beat both teams. It is a fun little addition to this game and Batman games in general.

There is also DLC in this game too. The two DLC I recommend for you to buy is the Cold, Cold Heart where you fight Mr. Freeze and the Initiation DLC where you play as Bruce during his training in the League of Shadows.

Both DLCs are fun and you should definitely buy them along with the game when the game is on sale on Steam.

Visuals

Batman: Arkham Origins is a game of 2013 and the graphics are solid for its age, nothing amazing, but for today’s standards the game has respectable graphics.

Also, you have a large variety of Batman suits to choose from in the game. As for the open world, for the age of the game, it is very decent, it’s dark and snowy, streets are what you’d expect from a Batman game, making you feel the coldness of the night.

[adinserter block=”1″]

Final Thoughts

Batman: Arkham Origins doesn’t introduce any game-breaking mechanics, and it doesn’t have stunning graphics, but it is a solid and fun game that I personally believe that it is a good addition to the Arkham games even if it isn’t something special and unforgettable.

For me a game doesn’t have to make a breakthrough to be good, it can just be fun and entertaining and I will gladly play it, and this game is both fun and entertaining if you like superhero games or single-player games or both.

It has a solid storyline and gameplay that won’t disappoint you and decent graphics.

I wouldn’t recommend to buy it at full price because for me it isn’t worth 20$, comparing it to today’s standards. I recommend you buy it on Steam sales though and Batman games are very often on sale so keep an eye out for this game.

Final Verdict

Storyline: 8.8

Gameplay: 7.8

Visuals: 8.2

General Rating: 8.2

That’s it for my review guys, I hope you liked it. If you liked the game leave a comment down below and tell me what you liked the most about this game. See ya in the next article.

You can support us and get notified when we post a new article by following us on Twitter, liking our Facebook Page and sharing our articles.

Follow @GamerWelfare

Here is the link for the images I used:

https://www.igdb.com/games/batman-arkham-origins/presskit

Defense of the Ancients 2 (or simply DotA 2) is the deuteragonist of the MOBA scene in the world. Make no mistake though, it’s not second because it’s worse, rather, the game is generally harder to pick up for new players which is a big deterrent.

This review does not aim to compare DotA 2 to its competitors, instead, I will per usual explain how the game works. Without further ado:

Storyline

Most of DotA’s storyline comes from various comics released, but you can find some deep lore if you care about it.

The main premise is that there are two opposing teams of 5 heroes fighting each on the side of an Ancient, the Radiant and the Dire, two greater fragments of a primordial, imprisoned into a single moon by the third fragment, Zet.

The Ancients’ influence is so strong, that it brainwashes weaker-minded being called creeps into doing their will. Heroes also have their own backgrounds, but it doesn’t affect the side they’re fighting on.

The reason for fighting is because it brings them closer to their respective goals.

Gameplay

The gameplay is what you’d expect from a MOBA, at least on its basis. People consider DotA to be very complicated and hard to master, and that is not far from the truth. The main purpose is using your heroes, and with the help of your teammates, you whittle down your enemies’ base in order to kill their Ancient.

As the game progresses, your hero becomes stronger and gains gold, which he can use to buy items to further augment his strengths or cover some of his weaknesses.

While the above sound pretty standard for a MOBA, DotA is more complicated than that.

There are over a hundred heroes for you to learn, and because they are all free from the start, this can feel overwhelming. Almost every hero has at least one complicated mechanic that can be very strong when utilized correctly.

There are 3 main attributes (strength, agility, and intelligence) and every hero scales with one of them. The items can give you any combination of the above stats.

But almost every item has an active of its own, which makes the game even more confusing, as you do not only have your hero’s abilities to manage but 3-5 active items (that’s how many active items are usually taken).

The map feels huge, and you can’t teleport back to base, you must walk instead, or use a teleportation scroll, which has a cooldown.

The death timers are pretty unforgiving, but you can buy your early revival for a hefty cost. Games tend to last for at least 40 minutes, which is way more from any other typical MOBA.

The aforementioned characteristics might seem like I’m bashing the game, but I’m not, I’m just explaining how everything feels from a newbie’s perspective.

As a matter of fact, these characteristics are what make DotA so unique and deep as a game.

In DotA, you can carry the game with any hero, even in a 1v5 situation. I’ve seen a game where literally one player was playing and his team left the game, and he still won, and it’s not like he had a huge lead. That’s also why DotA’s fanbase is fiercely loyal to the game.

This can be seen by DotA’s esports. While not very renowned, DotA 2 offers the biggest prize pools in all of esports. Not to mention the diversity of the game.

In pro play, DotA 2 has a remarkable diversity on the hero picks, only 1-2% of the heroes are not being picked in any game in pro matches.

Farming is very hard and complicated. Most heroes’ attacks have a slow missile speed (or animation if they’re melee) and usually, the creeps die before your final attack reaches them.

The mana costs for abilities are steep during the early game, which is why games tend to last so long.

Additionally, the enemy heroes can actually attack their own creeps and structures and deliver the last hit, thus “denying” you gold and experience.

Each hero also has something called a “turn rate” which is some time (microseconds) that it takes each hero to do a 180^o turn. Not every hero has the same turn rate.

The SFX is nothing special as it should. However, there are many different announcers, using many in-game champions.

There are even announcers from other popular titles like GLaDOS from Portal, or Adam Jensen from the Deus Ex Machina series.

All in all, DotA 2 really is worthy of all the trouble, but it needs a lot of time spent to truly grasp it as a game. In fact, once you really understand it, the other MOBAs will seem like child’s play.

[adinserter block=”1″]

Visuals

DotA’s graphics are kinda moody but it’s nothing bad, it actually sets the mood.

The map is split in the middle by a river, and each side has its own theme, respective to each sides’ Ancient.

One is bright and full of vegetation, and the other is dark and full of dead ground and trees.

The day has a day and night cycle, which isn’t only a cosmetic thing, it actually plays a role in the game, it reduces vision range for all heroes, and some heroes have passive abilities that come to play during the night.

The graphics can be quite nostalgic to all of you Warcraft 3 fans, as they Valve tried to make the game as close to the original appearance-wise.

Generally, DotA 2 can be run on most machines without much problems, which really helps with low budget players.

Personal Thoughts

DotA 2 is a game that requires a lot of time to master. Anyone of has spent the time required will tell you that it is worth it, as it a very good game.

Balancing is near perfect, which means that there isn’t a predefined pool of heroes that if you don’t play, you’re gonna get flamed and be at a disadvantage.

However, the game can feel stale, as large updates are scarce and new heroes come about once every half year.

In the end, DotA 2 deserves its place in the gaming world and is a game you should pick up if you really intend on spending a lot of time.

Fortunately, the community can help you in the game, there is even a feature where random players can join in games as a team’s coach and oversee a team and give them advice.

DotA is very innovative as a game in general.

Final Verdict

Storyline: 5.0

Gameplay: 9.0

Visuals: 6.0

General Rating: 6.7

Do you agree with my review? Is DotA 2 the MOBA of your choice, or do you prefer another? Did this review skim your point of view? If you have anything to add or anything you want to say, leave a comment and I will answer as soon as I can.

You can support us and get notified when we post a new article by following us on Twitter, liking our Facebook Page and sharing our articles.

Follow @GamerWelfare

The images I used are from the following site:

www.igdb.com