Danger Crew Review

 By Logan Manfredi on PC

Overview
        Danger Crew is precisely the type of game I had in mind when I started this website. A passionate work of art that clearly encapsulates the developers love for games. Every moment in the game has a tremendous amount of care put into it, and it shows. I wanted more of it as soon as I was done. Danger Crew is a turn-based RPG set in the fast-paced world of computer programming. The developers have no problem poking fun at themselves and other devs, and the result is a hilarious experience full of witty one-liners and a vibrant environment worth exploring. 

As far as RPG elements go the story and combat stood out the most to me.  Combat feels great and is extremely polished. There is a multitude of attacks and abilities that take the form of "Scripts" each with their own name and effect that relate back to the "development" theme. The story, while somewhat short, is jam-packed with content. Side quests flow effortlessly into the main narrative and offer a more in-depth look into the characters and game world. Every NPC has something to say, and most provide helpful information for completing quests. The map is full of places to explore and items that can significantly change the course of combat. The level design has a flow to it that encourages the player to see what happens next. I could easily see players tackling Danger Crew in one or a few long gaming sessions.

The details
        Players will create their own character at the start of the game and have eight different appearances to choose from. Each is quite different from the rest and allows for players to pick an avatar that feels like them.

As the new guy at the job, it's your goal to prove yourself to your coworkers by completing tasks around the office. These tasks can range from finding items scattered in the building, to participating in hack battles. Hack battles are how Danger Crew handles combat. When two developers in the game decide to do battle, they will whip out their laptops and get to coding. Attacks and abilities take the form of "Scripts" and items such as Battery packs, and Password resets replace the standard potions or antidotes found in most RPGs. These small changes work together with the theme of the game to create a level of immersion I wasn't expecting in a 2d game. The art style reminded me of a Pokémon game crossed with Funko pop, and I loved it. While Danger Crew is more retro graphically speaking the animations and level design are clean and as modern as can be. The music, complete with accompanying battle sounds reminded me of the golden days of Gameboy Advanced. The sounds are simple enough to convey what's going on without being so basic they drive you insane like some other retro-styled games. By the 4th or 5th battle, I started humming the victory music every time it was played, and I really want it as my ringtone now.   

That good music.

My favorite thing
        My favorite thing about the game is the depth of combat. Numerous different Scripts, upgrades, and items flow together and add levels to the gameplay. At first, I was able to dispatch of enemies quickly, but as my character grew more powerful, so did the NPC's. The pacing is perfect, the rate at which difficulty increases allows the player to learn as much as possible before they meet a challenge. This creates a super rewarding feeling later in the game and a level of difficulty that I enjoyed. After some time, players will be joined by companions they can also create and customize. The addition of teammates in combat busts the game wide open. Battles go from 1v1 to 3v3, and the enemies take a significant step up in terms of difficulty. There is a wide range of status effects in the game, such as "Lagged out," "Deadline," or "Hacked" each with the ability to drastically change the course of a battle. My favorite being Deadline because it gives the affected player an extra turn in combat. I would use the ability on a player who could also use Deadline and be able to have my whole team taking two turns by the second round of combat.

 I'll admit when I first figured this out, I felt unstoppable. That was until I ran into an enemy with the ability "Scope Stab," a Script that does critical damage to players affected by Deadline. That's when I saw just how detailed the combat is. To complete the game, I needed more than just that one combination of abilities. Boss fights pushed the combat even further and showed just how in-depth battles could be. With each new boss came the exciting challenge of finding a new build of abilities that will succeed. 

Puzzle elements help to fill out the game world

In the end
        Danger crew is fun, the combat feels great, and the story and characters are as charming as can be. The campaign will probably take you less than 10 hours to complete, and honestly, the only thing I'd change with the game is the length. The combat is designed with such depth and care that I could easily see it having more endgame content in the future. In fact, Danger Crew has already been updated with more battles. These updates feature such bosses as the Hacker King and even a showdown with the developers themselves. The passion of the developers is present everywhere in the game, and I know I'll be coming back to play Danger Crew again with each new update. If you have ever studied web development, the game will make you laugh out loud, and for me personally, I found the game incredibly inspiring. On sale on Steam until the 5th of August, there is no reason to skip this game. Any fan of classic RPG's will love it, and Danger Crew is the perfect weekend game to finish in a couple longer gaming sessions.

 I give Danger Crew 4.5 out of 5 Snails!

My Friend Pedro Preview

By: Logan Manfredi on Nintendo Switch

Overview

        My friend Pedro is a new game out today published by the always reliable Devolver Digital and developed by solo dev Dead Toast Entertainment. Using a Genre to label this game would be reductive. Stylistically it's that of a dark comedy you'd find on Adult Swim. From a gameplay perspective, Pedro feels more like a highly polished bullet hell or arcade classic. The controls are easy to grasp but offer a level of mastery that I can see being all over Twitch and social media. Mission ranks at the end of each level provide an easy way to challenge friends and leader boards for high scores. 

Aiming two guns simultaneously while flipping through the air has never felt this precise. Every time you start to feel comfortable with the controls, a new unique mechanic is added. Items such as kick-able balls or gas cans add yet another layer to the intricate dance that is gameplay. Something that Pedro does excellently is keeping the player on their toes. What I mean by that is, every time a new mechanic gets added, there's a certain level of uncertainty and adrenaline the player feels as they try to complete the level as fluidly as possible. The stages are shorter than I imagined but work perfectly with the design of the game. Each level focuses on typically one new mechanic to learn and then master over a few obstacles. The subsequent levels then add to those concepts in a delicately beautiful snowballing fashion. After each significant chunk of levels, there are gorgeous set pieces that feel like an entirely new game. Things like motorcycles or sky diving replace the normal side-scrolling action and propel the eccentric story forward with each one. The story itself, which I won't spoil is worth experiencing and is consistently surprising me with new and exciting ideas. 

The first few levels
        The beginning of the game will see you the player learn all the basic mechanics of the game such as Focus, Split shooting, and dodging. Focus is the game's version of a bullet time effect in which time slows down so the player can plan and score higher combos.  Personally, I've been using this to clear certain jumps or if I know there a specific path I need to follow to get an impressive looking kill sequence. Split shooting is the act of dual wielding guns and aiming them at two different targets. This is handled the best I've seen in any game in Pedro and feels incredibly natural. Using Focus to slow time and aim your split shot, you can score some crazy combos and pull off some real John Wick style moves. Dodging is simple in design but combined with the other core mechanics adds a sense of flair to the gameplay. In order to dodge the player holds a button and spins. This is interesting because the player can still shoot when spinning or even reload and the animation itself makes everything you do look that much cooler. The start of the game is a great time to explore combining each of these mechanics and find precisely how you like to play without being punished by some of the more advanced features like intense platforming sections later on. 

**Mild Spoiler alert**

Sizzle reel

Mechanics to watch out for
        I'm enjoying My Friend Pedro just as much as I thought I would and will probably finish it tonight or tomorrow. That being said, it's not without some hiccups. There were a few small things that I found not necessarily bad, but they didn't fit the way they should with the rest of the game and some caused pauses in an otherwise action-packed game.  The skateboard functions like all the other kick-able objects except for the fact that you can ride and jump with it. 

The problem is that the jump with skateboard mechanic always seems to lose the skateboard and cause me to lose my momentum. The level design where skateboards are present clearly show paths for the entire level to be done in a swift kickflipping combo of death, but the skateboard itself is just too slippery to clear most obstacles. Instead, I found myself walking around them intentionally, so I could do more badass ninja flips, and 360 wall jumps in slow motion. I worry that the rest of the game feels so incredibly good to play that skateboards may be ignored so you can continue with your bullet ninja flow. I found a few other little things that were not game breaking but kept consistently killing me until I figured out exactly what was happening. Typically, the gameplay is quite fast-paced, and bodies are flying everywhere. I kept dying and not knowing why that was until I saw that enemies would sometimes get stuck behind other dead enemies and bullets in Pedro do not pass through bodies. This would result in me pouring clips into enemies never actually hitting them. This was easy enough to address by slowing down and using Focus to get a new angle on the corpse shield using jerks. 

Overall it took nothing away from my gameplay experience, but it seemed unintentional in design. The only other thing I found to be a nuisance was that the button control for Focus is to push down the left stick and that causes my heavy fingers to unintentionally trigger Focus more often than I would like to admit.

Tips and tricks

• You can kick enemies for a melee attack that helps extend combos when reloading.
• The larger the combo, the bigger your score. You can extend combos by killing enemies.
• Switch guns often, certain situations are much more suited for a specific weapon.
• You can dodge bullets and reload at the same time.
• Levels are short if you're playing for a high score restart the whole level when you die to get the no death bonus.
• Pay attention to your score screen at the end for ways that you can increase your high score. 

If you like it
        My Friend Pedro is a blast to play, and for the current discounted price of $16.99 until July 9th on Steam, it's completely worth picking up. There are hours of intense adrenaline filled gunplay to be had, and the Banana named Pedro is simply the man. The wacky story filled with comedy lends perfectly to the hectic yet rewarding gameplay, and I can see perfectionists getting tons of replay value from competing for high scores on individual levels. Frequent new mechanics and wildly varying level design pull the player in and make it an incredibly hard game to put down. As far as fun is concerned the game is an 11/10 and I can't think of any game quite like it. I highly recommend giving it a try and look forward to anything more from the developer.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/557340/My_Friend_Pedro/

Steam World Heist Review

By Logan Manfredi

on Nintendo Switch 

Overview

        The Steamworld games from Image and Form are some of the most interesting in modern gaming. We, as players, often see sequels and game series that update graphics or add a few new mechanics, but virtually the games stay the same. While the first two games in the series Steamworld Dig 1 & 2 follow that pattern, the third installment, Steamworld Heist flips the series on its head in a completely different way, and it’s magical. The third game in the franchise takes a 180-degree turn from its Metroidvania roots and finds itself as turn-based strategy game instead. Procedurally generated tunnels are traded for spaceships in the sci-fi continuation of the Steamworld universe. Heist is unique, 2d graphics and turn-based gameplay haven’t worked this well since the SNES. The core loop of the game is boarding ships, getting loot, and evacuating, and it feels different every time. Never was I bored being a space pirate. Heist follows a crew of Steambots who until now were just trying to get by. Circumstances beyond their control force the team into a daring quest that will determine the very fate of Steambot kind. Along the way, they will meet a charming cast of characters each with unique motivations entirely their own.

The story itself is minimal in exposition, but that doesn’t take away from the connection between the player and playable characters. These connections are made possible by the detailed dialogues that take place between missions on your home ship. Each time the player returns home, the crew from the previous mission will be waiting with an optional conversation that will either reference what just happened in the story or reveal a pivotal moment in the characters past. The most shocking thing about this game for me was the length of the campaign. Typically for twenty dollars, you don’t expect games to extend past the ten or twelve-hour mark. Heist shatters this expectation with a heap of content that will take the average player close to twenty hours just to complete the story. Beyond that, the game offers tons of replayability with a four-star ranking system for each quest and a new game+ mode that allows for players to max out each character and find all of the items and weapons available in the game. For twenty dollars few games hold up to Steamworld Heist in terms of content alone.    

The Details

        Cerebral would be a kind word to describe Steamworld Heist. The game at times feels more like chess than a video game, and that’s something I was not mad about. Incredible detail in character and level design allows for rewarding combinations of character abilities that can play out over multiple turns making the player feel like a strategic genius. That being said, there are some things I found that the game could do without, but nothing significant enough to stop me from enjoying my time with it. At the end of missions, once everything has been done, players must walk around and grab loot, being that the game is turn based this takes more time than I would like. Without enemies having their turns the act of taking endless turns to move slowly towards loot and back feels quite tedious. A simple fix would be if just after completing a mission you could get all the loot still left on the ground. In all reality, there is no need for an excess four or five turns just to run around and grab loot with no risk. 

item descriptions are hilarious and worth reading.

        Another excellent detail of the game is how the playable characters progress. Typically, in a game that’s this long by the end, the characters would be in the high double digits in terms of level with numerous passive and active abilities. Where Heist stands out is with its slow and methodical leveling that makes each level-up have a drastic effect on gameplay. Every new ability changes the core strategy of said character and allows for new and exciting ways to tackle missions. The game has a little bit of a dip towards the middle portion, but new characters and the wildly varying types of missions make the end of the game feel incredibly fresh and rewarding. The specific addition of Billy, the deep space diver, drastically changes the pace and style of the game, and after about 11 hours, he was just what I needed to remain invested.  On a lighter note, the game has some enjoyable features available on the Switch. The HD rumble of the Joycons makes the joining of airlocks and recoil of firearms feel great, and the addition of full touch controls not only makes aiming much easier but allows for a certain level of comfort when playing the game. I’ve been recovering from surgery as of late and was able to complete the game almost entirely with one hand. 

My favorite thing

        My favorite thing about Heist is the abundant variance in mission structure. No two missions are the same. From size and layout to number and type of enemies, every mission is uniquely its own. On top of that, depending on what characters the player decides to take on the mission, the same exact quest could have multiple different outcomes and paths to completion. Some missions require a single character, while others could require up to four, this allows for precise leveling of certain characters and creates a wonderful sense of variety throughout the game.

Variety in crew size.

Like most players, I found myself gravitating towards a specific crew and taking the same four characters out on most missions. It wasn’t until about eleven hours in that I started to experiment with mixing up my team and the way I played the game changed completely. Each crew member has specific skills such as self-healing, increased movement range, or becoming invincible for a turn. Combing different crewmates skills allowed for wildly different strategies and helped to keep the longer than average campaign from getting stale. Typically, I spend about a week reviewing a game, but the sheer variance in playstyles of Steamworld had me solely playing it for about two weeks. Every time I thought I was at the end of the game, I was pleasantly surprised by the addition of a new crewmate, items, or even entirely new zones to explore. 

Example of cutscene 

 In the end

        Steamworld Heist is an exciting new take on an already stellar franchise. The charisma of Steamworld and its characters match that of the others in the series perfectly. Entirely new gameplay mechanics introduce fans new and old to an exciting and fresh way to play this beast of a strategy game. Variety in gameplay is where this game shines, and no two players could expect to have the same crew. While the length of the game could deter some, I highly recommend switching up your team as often as possible because it creates fun and exciting new ways to play the game and the story is worth experiencing. The game is also often on sale, and at the already budget price of $19.99 few others match it in terms of content. I recommend it for any fan of strategy games like X-com, or Divinity or to anyone looking to mix up their gaming habits. 

I give Steamworld Heist 3 and a half snails out of 5.