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Dust – Elysian Tail

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Working my way through the many digital releases on XBLA & PS+ to see if anything bites. Disappointed by the checkpoints in Outland & scared witless with Outlast.

I really wanted Deadlight to be a metroidvania/shadow complex style of game but this is where Dust Elysian Tail ticks all the boxes. Lovely characters with great voice-acting & great gameplay.

You play Dust who wakes up with forgotten memories & his greeted by a sword & it's companion Fidget. They accompany you towards the nearest village which is infested by monsters. After you save the village the mayor asks you to go to another nearby village where the monsters commander is based.

You get given various quests from the town dwellers which open up more of the world map for you to explore.

The monsters leader Fuse is a Moonblood creature who are victims of a genocide by a man known as General Gaius. Fuse also tells Dust that he was a soldier in this war. I now have a quest to go to the northern mountains to find more information about the general.

I am waiting for more skills to unlock so I can revisit some areas which I can't at the moment reach.

Looking forward to seeing where the story evolves & what new skills unlock.

Outland – Shredder

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The checkpoints are too far apart in the game especially frustrating when you have managed to connect with a sequence of jumps only to die by an enemy.

This was one of those it's on sale & I have MS Points so lets buy it purchases & definitely one where I should have played the demo first.

Shredder Treatment

Deadlight – Complex Shadows

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Zombie Apocalypse 'check'
Search for family members 'check'
Limited Ammo 'check'
Simple Puzzles 'check'
Metroidvania 2D style 'check'

Except it's no metroidvania you have no map & you only keep going forward. It does have atmosphere but I think I'm OD'd on zombie games this generation to appreciate it.

I needed something short to play whilst co-op gaming (Army of Two/Knack) with the boys so turned to the ton of XBLA games I have on the 360.

It is not a bad game, I'm still enjoying it but it could have been so much more. WHY?! have Chair Entertainment not made a Shadow Complex 2 ?!!

Back to Deadlight you are Randall Wayne & the game starts with you shooting another surviver in the head who has just been bitten. You help the other survivors escape & begin your search for your family. 

Whilst walking, running & zombie bashing your way across Seattle you find a group called "The New Law" who seem hellbent on killing other humans that won't join them. I came across Sam one of the survivors who I helped escape earlier shot by this group & bleeding to death.

I continue my way across Seattle but eventually get cornered by a crowd of shadows. A manhole cover opens & I get dragged inside by 'RAT' an old man living in the sewers. The sewer section of the game is full of booby traps for the shadows but I need to be careful to ensure I don't get caught in any of them. 'RAT' then asks me to go save his son for him & he will give me information about the other survivors & my family. There is a sequence where a helicopter is chasing & shooting at you, this took me quite a few attempts but it is all about timing your jumps to vault over obstacles.

This is not a game where you have an unlimited supply of ammo & just shoot all the zombies. The opposite in fact, it is better to avoid confronting the shadows & conserving your ammo for when you really need it. I tend to use the 'shout, jump & run' approach quite a bit. Shout to grab the shadows attention when they are all gathered below me jump over them & run !!

Army of Two – Devil’s Cartel

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The 360 console has been the king of local co-op gaming from the Lego games to Halo & Gears of War but Army of Two for me has been the co-op shooter series. Mission based, agro fueled, bullet spraying chaos.

The Devils Cartel continues the series fine tuned experience giving you the armory section to specialise your weapons & purchase new upgrades. Customise your character with unique masks & camouflage your armour or weapons.

The story in this game is your usual South American cartel affair nothing original but the missions so far have been very fast paced & have thrown up a few nice moments inc sniping whilst inside a helicopter & manning a turret to defend your co-op player.

Aggro remains from the previous games & you can use it to attract the attention of enemies whilst the other player flanks to take them out. The few missions we have completed have not shown the series rock, paper & scissors joke or the back to back sequence yet.

You are escorting a politician convoy that comes under attack from the cartels gunmen who seemed to be pretty well equipped with rocket launchers & grenades. A flashback gives you a tutorial mission & also an opportunity to meet up with the series protagonists Rios & Salem for a mission.

This may potentially be our last local co-op game for the 360 & so far it's an enjoyable experience.

Gauntlet: generally boring

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Some games don't age well, unfortunately. Moreover, some games just don't suit certain settings in the first place, and age makes it ever more evident.  Playing Gauntlet last night, I felt that it should have stayed in the arcade, as the constant draining of health and difficulty in dispatching enemies feels odd when there's nobody waiting to have the next go on the machine.

In the end I just decided to clear an achievement for getting the highest score on the leaderboard.  This meant getting above 8000 on a single life.  By warping to level four, I found I could stand in a corridor and kill all the enemies spawning around a corner; after a while the walls changed to exits and I could kill even more in the level.  Not the most fun thing ever, though.