Brutal John, The Most Brutal Ever With the awesome comeback of the boomer shooter FPS genre into the scene, There are many studios entering the hall with big dreams and efforts, and today's game is a prime example. With the market starting to get the fun out of the fast paced games, many new indie studios are jumping into the scene for this genre, and many more are getting there quickly and efficiently thanks to the commercial game engine market. With Unreal Engine, Unity and the newest Godot Engine, most of indie games were made possible. Brutal John, is a boomer shooter FPS developed and published by OldSchool Law Interactive , using the Unity engine to its most to deliver a good old boomer shooter experience that bring back the nostalgia of Duke Nukem Forever , the 2001 experience that we wanted to play. with a personal art style that defines the game, good gameplay and a lively vivid world. Brutal John is set in a parallel universe, where a cyborg invaded earth for mining c...
We have discussed a lot about other indie metroidvania games. In the post about another great metroidvania game called Grime Colors of Rot read it here. In that post we took a deep dive in the definition of metroidvania genres in general. In a short sentence, metroidvania, based on the Metroid game series on the Nintendo Network, is a 2d platformer like dead cells, but with some exploration to do. These games really just doesn’t have the very clear distant direction in the game. You game an discover your ways through the maze of 2D platforming.
Today we will take a deeper look into Darkest Tale, a sci-fi story about a small girl having what is called to be a sleep demons and fallen into the darkness. A light fairy is a friend of the child and wants to help her, so she gets the help she needs from a stuffed bear toy, Alicia the young kid used to play with. This is just the beginning intro of the game. I was surprised actually of how the game had so many animations and cutscenes, and this is an indie game. Indie games usually have a single developer or a small team with a very small budget. To see an indie game like this and have this such amazing content is just great, and also shows how the indie game direction is coping very hard with the AAA game studios in the modern era of upgraded game engines evolving for everyone. The story was compelling and heart warming. It was not so serious as a fairy light, a bear and a child. So if you like gore games like DOOM Eternal or else, this one isn’t for you. This game is all about enjoying the story and getting inside the story of saving Alicia and fighting her sleep demons inside her head.
This game had many features that made the game completely unique and never seen before. Firstly the artstyle follows that of “Ori - The Will Of Wisps” (a metroidvania made by Microsoft). This is not bad, of course it had its difference in the artstyle. The graphics were good, not too fancy yet not too chubby. It is just seems as if the game was optimized to run everywhere, that’s all. Again a great point for indie game makers for the care of accessibility. Most indie makers nowadays care about the accessibility of the game, making almost everyone to get the chance to play the game or try it. This is a huge point for any game. Since more low end old devices will carry the game and this in return reflects on the success of the game, especially for indie makers.
One of the most defying points in Darkest Tale is the platforming. This is a complete story to write about this ingenious way it was made. On the first time you get the controls of the game, you will be stunned by the things you step on. You can see a paw of a dead animal on the background, you are barely seeing it as it is so blurred and drafted. You jump on it and discover it is actually a platform that lead to another section from the map. This is the use of depth at a 2D platformer. I liked it and it made me amazed so much that I had to replay the game a couple of times to try different platforms and images on the background to see if it is a platform that lead to a secret passageway or else. This is a technical feat for a game in my opinion and it should get the attention required.
The game features a couple of levels/biomes to explore and progress through the story. There is a combat system for fighting different sort of demons/monsters in each level. It was a little bit on the not good side but not bad enough to make you hate the game. There is a skill tree that you can upgrade through your progress in the game. The game has a good direction, after some time you will be able to get where to go and what to do first and then second etc. It was good with the depth platforming that was in the game.
The Verdict
The Darkest Tales is a new indie metroidvania game with a lot of features and compelling story. The game had the technical feat of using Depth Platforming, where you see the platform as far on the background and still be able to step on it. Great artstyle lie Ori The Will of The Wisps and good accessibility on older devices so more and more people will be able to enjoy the game. The game features and inventory and a skill tree as a reward for progressing through the game and not good/not bad combat system. You can grab a copy from the game for a 72% sale on cdkeys here Get the Darkest Tales for sale
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