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A World of Keflings: do it yourself

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I got this free from Microsoft last year and hadn't heard too much about it, so didn't bother trying it.  If I'd known that it was a real-time strategy game which was broadly similar to Populous: the Beginning, I may have paid more attention.  Yes, there are many differences - directly controlling the main character, having to craft parts to build new buildings, no enemy tribes - but I got the same vibe.


And, like Populous, the game makes hours disappear.  I quickly completed the first chapter, set in the frozen lands, and met the king without a castle.  I built many new buildings and set many keflings on tasks to collect raw materials and transport them between workshops.  I travelled back to the ice kingdom, and built a palace.



I travelled back to the main kingdom, and decided that I ought to call it a night.  I have a feeling that the game won't last me too long, unfortunately ...


Dust – Sorrowing Meadows

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The start of chapter 3 takes you to the Sorrowing Meadows where the path to the mountains is blocked. You have to visit four mansions to collect artifacts. The game glitched out on me when visiting the first mansion (left on the map) because upon reaching the treasure room there was no artifact to collect after trying this mansion a few times I watched a youtube video which showed the mansion filled with rock walls & obstacles. So I restarted the console & this time the mansion was filled with obstacles & rock walls. The demon chased me all the way to the treasure room & the artifact was shimmering to be collected, I also picked up a new climb ability which no lets me grab onto vines. At this point fearing a corrupted save I promptly created five new save files.

The sorrowing meadows introduces a few new enemies, most notably zombies but the Necromancers are tough because they can only be attacked by using Fidget's abilities. I completed a second mansion & then exited the map to revisit some of the earlier locations like the Glade & Abadis Forest to reach areas with my new climb ability.

That was all I had time for this weekend, I will continue to revisit the earlier locations like the Caverns & Hidden Cove to see if I can complete those areas before returning to The Sorrowing Meadows to visit the remaining two mansions.

Dust – Darkness

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The game is split into chapters, Destiny was the first chapter which concluded with me fighting Fuse. Ginger left Aurora to go the northern mountains in search of General Gaius but an explosion unleashed monsters on the village.

The explosion also opened up access to the Cirromon Caverns & the village of Mudpot below Aurora. In the caverns I found a new ability to crouch slide (just like metroid, you slowly get the skills to revisit areas & progress further) which is perfect for getting through tight spaces.

The flow of water has stopped to the village of Mudpot & I venture further deep into the caverns to find "The Lady" who is the next boss fight. She was overcome by Darkness & is now cured by getting her ass kicked by Dust.

With my new skill acquired, some armour upgrades & a ton of sidequests completed  I can now venture to the Northern mountains & here starts Chapter 3 Love.

Army of Two – Co-op Carnage

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Not had much time to play much gaming the past week on the consoles but I did get some time to co-op with Abbas on Army of Two.

The game has a mission based structure with some taking longer than others (especially if we die & have to respawn to the last checkpoint). There have been some nice gameplay moments which include a nice driving section with the other player on a mounted gun & a slide down a hallway with a building exploding (reminds of some gameplay I saw on Bulletstorm).

The game seems to have done away with the back to back feature from the previous game which had you taking out a large number of enemies whilst having your back to your co-op partner.

Earlier in the game there was a mission set in the past in which we rescued a hostage named Fiona who we now meet up five years later & she informs us of the cartel's hideout which is in a church.

Stacking: completed!

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Woah, where did that come from?  Nothing about the game at all, then suddenly completed?

Stacking is sort of an evolution of the point-and-click adventure game, except rather than using objects you find in the world, you use the individual abilities of the characters you meet instead.  You do this by stacking inside them - you play as Charlie, the smallest Russian doll in the world, and the other Russian dolls are of varying sizes.  To control a doll of size 3, you need to first stack into a doll of size 2.  You directly control Charlie (or the doll which Charlie is inside), and at times this was a little imprecise, with at least one instance of the doll getting stuck on scenery.


That was a minor annoyance though, and the game has plenty of charm to overcome it.  Presentationally, it's well thought out, set in the 1930s with a silent movie art deco feel to it.  It's very clever, as well, as most of the puzzles have multiple solutions, and you only require one to continue through the story.  On the first level I did just this, but by the time I was running around a Zeppelin, I was intrigued as to how to solve each puzzle in as many ways possible.

Not only that, but there are additional challenges and special characters to collect and amusing things to do.  I'm not one for repeating things over and over again, but this game was amusing, charming and (maybe most importantly) short, and I found myself at the end of a few hours seeing the ending with the majority of collectibles from levels three and four in the bag.



I still went back to those levels though.  There are some really funny bits of dialogue throughout the game, and some of the animations on dolls is ingenious.  The Widow Chastity manages to sway her hips, even though she doesn't have any hips.


Other dolls have their own personality.




So enamoured was I with the game, that I immediately went back to the first levels and found all the collectibles there as well.  I completed the game by wrapping five dolls in bandages aboard the ocean liner, which seems a fitting end.





There's some additional content available for about £3.50 (causing the locked achievements above); I may well buy that one day when I'm tired of playing a gritty brown adventure game.