10 Mean Streets of Gadgetzan Cards That Got Me Excited!

Perspectives

I know, I know. The Impact Factor is on hiatus. The blog is indeed still AWOL. On the good news front, I’ve made finalized drafts for 5 out of my 7 manuscript figures and have started work on a poster for a scientific conference in January. So that’s something?

Despite being on hiatus, I felt obligated to post something about Hearthstone’s latest expansion: Mean Streets of Gadgetzan. On December 1^st players are going to be treated to over 130 new cards to enjoy and a bevy of new strategies to implement. Moreso than many previous sets, I believe Mean Streets of Gadgetzan is going to seriously impact the ranked metagame. I fully expect to see a lot more Priest, Druid climbing to the top tier spot, alongside the return of Aggro Warrior.

As is tradition here on the blog, I wanted to run through a handful of the new cards that have me the most excited. For the past few releases I have made videos, but my limited TIF time means that we’re back to the basics—a text list! So without any further ado, here are the 10 Mean Streets of Gadgetzan cards that got me excited:

Jade Idol

Let’s get ahead of the curve here: I welcome our new Jade Druid overlords. Mean Streets of Gadgetzan has introduced three powerful new factions for the game’s 9 classes, and the Jade Lotus clan has quickly come out as a leader when it comes to power level. Of the three Jade Lotus classes (Shaman, Druid, Rogue), Druid got most of the best faction cards. Jade Idol is near the top of that list. At worst, Jade Idol is a 1 mana 1/1 that makes your next Jade Golem a 2/2. Late in the game, Jade Idol is a 1 mana 4/4, 5/5, and beyond. Jade Idol is also critical in helping Druid deal with control decks. With Jade Idol, you can never fatigue. Ever. The second ability keeps your deck full and the increasingly powerful Jade Golems coming. If Jade Druid is a thing, and I predict it will be, expect to run two copies of Jade Idol.

Rat Pack

Hunter didn’t get a whole lot in Mean Streets of Gadgetzan, but maybe that’s because of Rat Pack. A 3 mana 2/2 is pretty bad stats, but once you read the card’s text its power level becomes clear. Early game minions that deathrattle into new minions have shaped Hearthstone’s metagame for years. At face value, a 2/2 that summons 2 1/1s is pretty good. Increase Rat Pack’s attack by 1 and the card starts to get bonkers. Hunters have a great tool for buffing beats with Houndmaster, and are gaining several new ones from the Grimy Goons faction. Midrange Hunter has always been pretty good, and I’m excited to see where Rat Pack might fit.

Inkmaster Solia

I love how Mean Streets of Gadgetzan’s final faction, the Kabal, are reinforcing the reason to build single copy decks. I’ve had a great time with Reno Jackson, and with Inkmaster Solia, I now have plenty of incentive to make Reno Mage. Playing a card for free is never a bad thing. Assuming you built your deck correctly, Inkmaster Solia’s effect is always going to proc—which can lead to a swingy turn. Turn 7 Inkmaster Solia into a free Flamestrike, Blizzard, or Firelands Portal? Devastating. Magic and Hearthstone pro Brian Kibler has already shown the power of single copy Mage decks, and I expect Inkmaster Solia to easily make the cut.

Small Time Recruits

Mean Streets of Gadgetzan is trying to steer Paladin towards a new, hyper aggressive 1-drop deck. If any card makes this new archetype work it will be Small Time Recruits. Drawing 3 cards for 3 mana is fantastic. Aggressive Paladin lists will run enough 1 drops that you won’t need to worry about Small Time Recruits drawing less than three. Small Time Recruits thins your deck, making you more likely to draw into your powerful finishers like buff spells or Leeroy Jenkins. Top decking a measly 1 drop can feel pretty bad. It’s also a draw that will always work, compared to something Aggro Paladins have previously run in the past (Divine Favor). Especially with Paladin getting new hand buffing tools, having a bunch of creatures in hand is a good thing. The eventual fate of a 1-drop heavy Paladin list is unsure, but if it is competitive, expect Small Time Recruits to play a big role.

Drakonid Operative

I’m calling it now: Drakonid Operative is the best card in the set. It’s a 5 mana 5/6, easily passing the vanilla test. It’s a dragon, and we all know there are a ton of great synergies in dragon decks. It fills a 5 slot that has been default filled with Azure Drake, even though the card isn’t the best for every dragon list. And Drakonid Operative’s battlecry is INSANE. Discovering a card from your opponent’s deck is arguably better than drawing one from your own. Gaining a new card from a minion that is already impressively stated for its cost is ridiculous. Dragon Priest will be an extremely powerful deck in the new metagame, and they will run two copies of Drakonid Operative. If you don’t open them, craft them. You can thank me later.

Dragonfire Potion

You’re seeing it right: I’m spotlighting 2 Priest cards out the 10 for the entire set. The long-suffering Priest class was blessed with a bevy of powerful cards in Mean Streets of Gadgetzan, including one unlike anything they have ever had before. Like a good board clear? Yep. Dragonfire Potion is super powerful. 6 mana to deal 5 damage to all creatures is fantastic. With Dragon Priest getting plenty of new tools, Dragonfire Potion slots in perfectly to help out particularly difficult matchups (like Midrange Shaman). All the better, if your board is dragons, they’re left untouched! Dragonfire Potion will not only find a home in Dragon Priest decks, but likely any Priest deck that is playing for the long game. The one downside is that Dragonfire Potion is extremely weak against other dragon decks. Considering just how powerful Dragon Priest is looking, this could pose a problem.

Hobart Grapplehammer

Aggressive Warrior looks to be a lone savior from the powerful late-game heavy decks on the horizon like Jade Druid. Hobart Gapplehammer is a powerful new addition to the existing archetype. A 2 mana 2/2 isn’t the worst, but it is the battlecry we really care about. Adding +1 attack to every weapon, both in your hand and deck, is crazy. Firey War Axes are now 4-2 weapons, Arcanite Reapers 6/2. I’ve played my fair share of an aggressive Pirate Warrior deck and often find myself missing one or two damage for lethal. Hobart Grapplehammer’s battlecry is the solution to that problem. Weapons are already hard to deal with as only a tiny fraction of cards in the game let you affect them, making Hobart Grapplehammer’s effect feel even better. Be prepared to get smashed in the face by huge weapons soon.

Dopplegangster

Amazing name-pun aside, Dopplegangster could be the card that could makes a Grimy Goons deck work. Any in-hand buff given to Dopplegangster dramatically increases the power level of the card. We already know that 5 mana 3 2/2s doesn’t get played (see Force of Nature), but as we’ve seen with Grim Patron, 3 3/3s is nothing to shake a stick at. Anything above that and it starts getting into the unfair territory. I’m skeptical about the competitive viability of a Grimy Goons faction deck, but if one is good enough, Dopplegangster will almost certainly slot into it.

Genzo, the Shark

No, I didn’t just choose this card because it has ‘shark’ in the name. I seriously think Genzo, the Shark is amazing. He’s also one of the most overlooked cards in the set. As Dragon Priest, Midrange Shaman and Jade Druid appear poised to shape the meta, aggressive strategies will arise as a natural counter. One of the worst possible feelings with an aggressive deck is to dump your hand onto the board, lose it, and then rely on top deck draws to win you the game. Genzo, the Shark helps to stymie that problem. A 4 mana 5/4 isn’t bad (when you want to kill your opponent fast) and his effect is great. Assuming it can live until your next turn (a big assumption) Genzo, the Shark is Jeeves on a big stick. You also control when hands are refilled to 3 cards, making him more versatile than Jeeves. Genzo, the Shark’s fate is uncertain, but I want to believe he might make the cut for a Pirate Warrior or Face Hunter list.

Aya Blackpaw

The champion of Jade decks, Aya Blackpaw is an auto-include for any deck revolving around making Jade Golems. Her stats are bad at a mere 5/3 for 6, but when you start considering the stats of her golem friends she summons, the math starts to get nutty. By turn 6, Jade decks will have (hopefully) summoned at least a golem or two. That means that Aya Blackpaw is often a 6 mana 5/3 that summons a 3/3 or 4/4, and then summons a 4/4 or 5/5 upon dying. Her being on the battlefield doesn’t really matter in the long term, either. Aya Blackpaw ramps up your Jade Golem count by 2 (ignoring any Brann or Feign Death shenanigans), which makes every single other Jade card in your deck that much better. There are not many cards I plan on crafting day one if I don’t open them, but Aya Blackpaw is an exception. I cannot see how she doesn’t get played.

TIF’s Snuggle & Scream Ep. 05: The Invitation
Podcast
Snuggle and Scream as you listen to this podcast about horror films! In Season 2 of this special seasonal spin-off of The Impact Factor, Alex is joined by his co-host, fiancee and fellow (begrudging) horror movie watcher Justine to discuss some scary movies! Each episode we’ll talk about a new horror movie we’ve seen together and give our thoughts.

This week Justine and I discuss 2015's The Invitation.

Send questions & comments to: impactfactorpodcast@gmail.com
Alex is on Twitter @alexsamocha
Follow all things TIF: http://www.theimpactfactor.blogspot.com

Intro: ‘Horror TV’ by FoolBoyMedia, freesound.org. Attribution Noncommercial License.

freesound.org/people/FoolBoyMedia/sounds/246516/

Part Man, Part Machine

Review

Deus Ex: Mankind Divided, Eidos Montreal (PS4)

Abstract: Deus Ex: Mankind Divided is a worthy sequel to 2011’s Deus Ex: Human Revolution, but not one without notable faults. A gripping near-future setting and deft handling of modern social issues stands in contrast with an overly convoluted narrative that ends abruptly. Technical problems plague Mankind Divided, from frame drops to wonky animations. Gameplay is at a franchise best, however, with new skills, challenges, and sandboxes that are better than ever and unapologetically fun. Fans of Deus Ex will get what they want out of Mankind Divided, but it is not a game I would recommend without a caveat or two.

Sirens sound in the distance and the heavy steps of mechanized soldiers reverberate across the cold concrete ground. Drones fly over a world buzzing with technology. Adam Jensen’s task is simple: get from point A to point B. One quick glance at the dilapidated building lets you know your path is anything but straightforward. You have the direct, bloody route in which Jensen will shoot, heal, frag and punch his way through. But what about the serendipitously placed ventilation shaft or the door with a hackable entryway? Do you camouflage and take out enemies silently? Adam Jensen is more than a character, he is you and defined by your actions. Deus Ex: Mankind Divided transforms you into an augmented super spy and the feeling is fantastic.

Deus Ex: Mankind Divided is the sequel to 2011’s Deus Ex: Human Revolution, itself a spiritual successor (and prequel) to the hugely influential Deus Ex games of the early 2000’s. Human Revolution received widespread critical and fan acclaim, transforming it from an off-my-radar title to a must play. At first I approached the game with hesitance—I’m no huge fan of the stealth genre and had no attachment to the IP. A brutally punishing first couple hours all but caused me to completely drop Human Revolution. But then the game shifted, or rather, it finally clicked. My confidence soared as I dropped soldiers left and right, skillfully made my way through the environment, and completed side quests. Human Revolution is a game I would not have expected to like as much as I did.

Would Mankind Divided improve on an already strong foundation? 

Despite my adoration for Human Revolution, I couldn’t bring myself to purchase Mankind Divided proximal to its release. Maybe it was my fear of another challenging stealth sandbox; maybe it was the tone-deaf marketing campaign. After finding myself in the Upside Down and a friend’s strong recommendation I finally picked up Mankind Divided. Does the game live up it the high bar set by its predecessor? Yes and no.

Once again you take control of the cop turned mechanically augmented super spy Adam Jensen, in a direct continuation of the previous game’s plot. The most resonant event from Human Revolution is the aug incident, in which augmented individuals (augs) across the globe were hacked, causing them to enter into a murderous frenzy. This has spawned the world of Mankind Divided, where augs are marginalized citizens, often viewed as less than human. Groups like the Augmented Rights Coalition (ARC) advocate for equal rights, but many view their actions as terroristic. This acts as a backdrop for the adventures of globe trotting ubermensch Adam Jensen. When a mission in Dubai goes awry, Jensen is forced to question his loyalties, fight against unknown enemies, and try to drag into the light those who would do harm from the shadows.

Deus Ex: Mankind Divided is a spy thriller in which you never know who to trust.
Probably not that machine gun robot, though. That's a safe bet.

If it sounds like I didn’t really detail the plot of Mankind Divided, you would be right. I didn’t. And not because I didn’t want to, it is because the mainline story isn’t told with a whole lot of finesse. You're given a jargon-filled world of double agents and hacking. It's nothing new, nor is its attempt at making a narrative feel more mature by making it overly complex. I pieced together enough while playing to enjoy the story, broadly speaking, but it was forgettable. Even worse, the game ends at what feels like the second of three acts. You take out some big threats and gain a relatively clear understanding of all the moving pieces, but Jensen doesn’t address the main threat. The game ends not on a cliffhanger, but on a “to be continued.” Mankind Divided’s plot was more functional than important or engaging.

What really concerned me coming into Mankind Divided, however, was how it would handle its weighty themes. A large part of the game’s marketing was focused on how Mankind Divided will act as a lens through which we can view modern issues. A noble endeavor, sure, but one I quickly soured on after I started seeing “Aug Lives Matter” ads pop up. At best the campaign came across as naïve, and at worst willfully ignorant and trying to monetize a hot-button issue. It came as a huge surprise while playing that Mankind Divided actually handled its serious, real-world parallels with tact. Played out through ambient dialogue, side quests, environmental interactions and more, Mankind Divided portrayed a number of pervasive social issues we face today, like police brutality and institutionalized discrimination, well. I felt something when I was forced to take the augs only part of a train or watch as a serial killer of augs was ignored by a militarized police force.

Heavy handed, sure, but Mankind Divided does a pretty good job with
representing serious issues.

Deus Ex: Mankind Divided clearly focused on refining its gameplay, and I’m happy to write that it is better than ever. The series famous 3^rd person action stealth gameplay makes its triumphant return, replete with new abilities, a streamlining of the more clunky elements from past entries, and delightfully fun sandboxes. Each discrete part of Mankind Divided’s robust gameplay suite feels great. The game not only gives players the tools, it encourages them to play however they want. You can go from guns blazing kick in the front door to crawling around in vents while invisible to anything in-between. Jensen’s best augmentations return in Mankind Divided, like smart vision and high jumps, on top of some spectacular new ones, like Titan armor that temporarily makes you invulnerable and remote hacking to disable distant security cameras. Mercifully, Mankind Divided starts with several essential augmentations already activated, removing that brick wall problem myself and others faced coming into Human Revolution.

Deus Ex: Mankind Divided is an elaborate playground. The moment-to-moment gameplay experience is consistently engaging. You always, always can approach a problem from multiple angles. The sheer number of weapons, items, and power-ups at your disposal is staggering, made all the more impressive when you consider the game’s developers had to keep all of this in mind while designing Mankind Divided’s world. The hub world and missions alike are impeccably designed. In any given moment you could hack, stealth, shoot, run, jump, block, or boost your way around the same problem. Scouring the world for items and paths never stopped being fun. The design felt far more organic this time around. I never felt as if I was abruptly plopped into a ‘stealth’ section. Enemy A.I. is better too, making moving around environments both more challenging and more rewarding.

Difficult gameplay decisions are built into the foundation of Mankind Divided. You’ll die early and often if you’re not thinking while playing. Resources, though relatively plentiful, need to be thoughtfully allocated. Limited inventory space means you need to be decisive about what weapons, ammo, and healing items you have equipped at any given moment. Praxis points, used to power up Jensen’s augmentations, cannot cover the full range of Jensen’s abilities without serious grinding. This means that you have to make tough decisions about what you boost and when—should I get the high jump aug to explore better now or it is more important I increase my body’s battery recharge rate so I can do more in combat? Every augmented action requires energy. Consume it, and you’re unable to use abilities again until it recharges. This includes melee takedowns, a vital element of any mission. I enjoyed having to always think about my actions, whether it was in quiet moments or as a half dozen armed goons charged me with guns blazing.

Decisions, decisions. You should always think before you act,
 inside or outside of combat.

On the PlayStation 4 Deus Ex: Mankind Divided is riddled with some serious performance problems. I’m not a particularly technically minded person, nor am I a guy who gets up in arms about frame rates, resolution, or graphics. But Mankind Divided’s technical issues were hard to overlook. Stuttering and dropped frames occurred with relative frequency, resulting in gameplay than fell below 30 FPS. Textures and geography would pop in abruptly. The combination of the two seriously impacted my gameplay at times. It felt particularly bad perfectly planning an encounter only to be hit with frame stuttering that caused me to mess up, get detected, and then lit up by gunfire. Character model animations were bad, too. Everyone felt stiff. Mouth animations often didn’t line up to the dialogue. Characters in Mankind Divided felt like puppets. They came across mostly like real human beings, but were off just enough that it broke my immersion. For a game that came out 5 years after its predecessor, Mankind Divided felt shockingly rushed. These issues didn’t ruin my experience, but they need to be addressed should another Deus Ex from Eidos Montreal be released.

Character animations in scenes like this are bad. The real Illuminati conspiracy
is that the whole world is filled with awkward marionette people.

So did Deus Ex: Mankind Divided live up to Human Revolution’s legacy? Yes and no. While gameplay was a substantial step forward for the franchise, narrative and performance problems held Mankind Divided back from greatness. Deus Ex: Mankind Divided is more than worth your time if you’re a fan of the franchise or action stealth games, but it isn’t a game I would recommend without reservations.  I’m happy to have played, though. There’s nothing quite like being part man, part machine, and 100% badass super spy. Jensen didn’t choose this, but I sure did.

Deus Ex: Mankind Divided

3/5

Measure Twice, Cut Once

Review

Severed, Drinkbox Studios (PS Vita)

Abstract: Fusing together first-person dungeon crawling with touch-based attacks was a risky choice, but one that pays off in Severed. A gripping world sets the stage of an impeccably designed adventure that builds momentum throughout. Smart infusions of new challenges and gameplay systems keep Severed feeling fresh as you progress. Disappointing boss fights and weak narrative payoff is a bummer, but not one that compromises an otherwise exemplary experience. Severed was a delight. It is a game every Vita owner should play.

Enter a world of colorful vibrancy of death and dismemberment. Severed is a unique creation, a mixture of gameplay conventions old and new. Drinkbox Software earned my trust with Guacamelee, and they make good on the promise of their talent with this dungeon crawling, finger-swiping adventure. Not many titles come out each year that justify the PlayStation Vita as a must own console, but Severed does a great job of proving just how impressive a handheld experience can be.

Severed weaves a tale of loss and the lengths someone will go to save their family. The game begins as the protagonist has her right arm violently severed, only to animate and fly away. You explore a dilapidated home in an alien world. It’s soon made clear that your entire family, your mother and father and brother, are dead and you’re in the ruins of your childhood home. Death is just the beginning of your adventure, however. A surreptitiously granted sword and quick monster encounter later and you’re off. You must now venture into danger filled dungeons, learn about where you are, and find a way to save yourself and your family. I was quickly intrigued by Severed’s plot but unfortunately the game does not do much to build upon it.

The first and most immediately compelling element of the game is Severed’s world. It is never made explicit to the player, but the setting comes across as a demon filled purgatory. Bolstered by a strong art direction, similar to the one they used in Guacamelee, Severed does a great job at establishing a mood. Distinct Central American notes permeate the various landscapes, from the look of the protagonist herself to the various iconography and architecture you encounter. This aesthetic carries over to monster designs as well, each with flair and personality. Exploring the forests, temples, and caves throughout Severed was a treat.

The contrast of color and beauty with gore and horror works fantastically.

On paper Severed sounds like a game that wouldn’t work. Severed is a combination of Ultima Underworld with Fruit Ninja. You read that right. Severed is a first-person dungeon crawler with a touch based control scheme for attacking. It is a unique mix that simply works. First-person dungeon crawlers are a genre of games we don’t really see anymore. It has been close to two decades since I played my last one. Aside from some Japanese developers that have recently adopted this early Western genre, first-person dungeon crawlers are all but lost to time. Thankfully, Severed learned from its ancient lineage to create a solid dungeon crawling experience. Quick access to maps, elegantly simple UI, and straightforward dungeon layouts make exploring easy. Rooms are diverse, often filled with interactable elements like destructible vases (that give resources) and secret paths. Light puzzle solving, typically involving switches or locked doors, prevents monotony while exploring without seriously halting player progress. A fast travel system would have been nice, but never did it feel like a slog to traverse Severed’s large map.

Combat is one of Severed’s most pronounced successes. When you think Fruit Ninja, you don’t picture a tense or thoughtful series of swipes. You think about mindless chaos. Though Severed uses directional swipes for its combat, the experience of battling couldn’t be further from those more casual titles. As you explore, you’ll come across rooms that have monsters inside. To progress to the next room, you have to defeat them. Monsters can be attacked only by swiping your finger across the screen. Short, quick swipes do little damage whereas long swipes deal much more. Defeating enemies is all about pattern recognition and discovering weaknesses. For instance, after being hit a couple times, one monster will block its center to prevent damage, while simultaneously opening up its flanks to attack. Other monsters have weak points that only make themselves apparent after you whittle away their defenses. These demons aren’t just helpless creatures waiting to be wailed on – they fight back. Every enemy has an attack timer, indicated by a meter on the bottom of the screen. Once it’s filled, they attack. The only way to mitigate damage is by parrying their attack, swiping in the opposite direction. Learning how monsters attack and the best way to quickly counter them is absolutely critical to make your way through Severed.

 

Combat is fast and fun. And just a little bit bloody.

As you progress the complexity of monster encounters ramps up. Some monsters don armor that must be destroyed with a charged swipe before you can deal damage. Others have defenses in place that, if you swipe the wrong way, you’ll power the monster up instead of hurting it. Later still, monsters will have stat boots that cause them to attack faster, deal more damage, or even recover health. Fights quickly become more than 1 vs 1, too. You’ll have to fight several monsters at once, which involves rotating your character to face them. Even though you can only face one at a time, monsters can attack whenever. What results is a skill intensive choreography of balancing damage and defense as you attack, parry, and rotate. Mistakes are punished and precision is key.

Think you're going to mindlessly swipe your way to victory?
Think again. 

Severed’s RPG elements manifest themselves in a couple ways. You gain abilities after defeating bosses, which adds new dimensions to both combat and exploration. Early in the game you gain the ability to briefly stun enemies, opening them up for attack and stopping their attack meter. Later on you acquire the devour ability, which not only allows you to open walls marked with its symbol, it also enables you to steal enemy stat boosts for yourself. Additionally, Severed features a robust leveling mechanic based on the game’s namesake. Attacking enemies fills up your Focus meter and, if an enemy’s health is depleted when the meter is full, you are able to use precision swipes to remove limbs, horns, eyeballs and more from your foes. Those severed appendages serve as your experience points. Severed parts can be consumed to fill up nodes on a skill tree. Nodes grant bonuses like better defense, quicker recovery time, or more damaging attacks. Severing quickly becomes the name of the game (pun intended) as you’ll want to cut off everything in sight to make yourself more powerful.

Combat is not without some faults. Though much more skill intensive than something like Fruit Ninja, Severed still asks the player to swipe one heck of a lot. Not only do you look like a madman in the game’s more tricky sections, it also results in some serious wear and tear to your fingertip. I appreciated the monsters, but Severed repeats enemies a bit too often for a 3-4 hour experience (albeit they come back with slightly altered variants). Boss encounters are generally underwhelming, too. In fact, several late game encounters are more challenging than the game’s bosses, both in sheer difficulty and in terms of strategy. When you have to defeat 4 uber-hard monsters on a strict time limit it makes a tiny little crow monster feel like chump change.

I've fought floating eyeballs harder than you! (Seriously) 

Other issues I have with the game lie outside of chopping monsters to bits. The narrative, while intriguing, never fully comes together. The player is left to guess the exact nature of the world, the antagonists, and the final outcome. A little more would have been nice here. The game’s soundtrack is disappointing and quickly became repetitive. Still, I can’t help but be enamored by the number of small things Severed does so right. Your protagonist changes as she gains new abilities, transforming her into an otherworldly-looking monster-slaying badass by game’s end. Sound effects for attacking, parrying, and severing are immensely satisfying. The way the camera dips and rises as you walk, the tactility of everything. Severed has far more in the plus column than minus.

It's the little things that make a game feel special. That, and a
breastplate made from the face of a boss you eviscerated.

Severed is a game I played nonstop until I finished. I got sucked into its world. I was hooked by the novel fusion of old and new. A great sense of momentum carried me through my adventure and my platinum trophy capped off an overall stellar experience. Perhaps Severed isn’t reason enough to buy a Vita, but if you have Vita there is no reason hesitate on this one. There’s nothing quite like its vibrant horror.

Severed

4/5

Beautiful Spectrum

Review

Hyper Light Drifter, Heart Machine (PS4)

Abstract: Hyper Light Drifter is a new classic. The game’s stunning art direction and soundtrack compliment an immensely satisfying gameplay experience. Combat is a perfect balance of simplicity with depth and fluidity with strategy. Hyper Light Drifter creates a world that is easy to get lost in and is filled with hidden secrets. The game does so much with so little and respects the player’s intelligence and perseverance throughout. Hyper Light Drifter should not be missed. It is easily one of 2016’s best.

Hyper Light Drifter makes me jealous. Not as a game designer, not as a critic, but as a scientist. In many ways, Hyper Light Drifter resembles the perfect kind of research manuscript. The game sets itself a goal and accomplishes it with resounding success. And, with what feels little effort. More than that, though, Hyper Light Drifter does so much with so little – it is the perfect combination of small parts that delivers an extraordinary experience. Hyper Light Drifter is simple, but underneath that simplicity (as any good research scientist knows) there almost certainly was an excruciating struggle and peerless work. Hyper Light Drifter is everything I want my own thesis project to be: intrigue, complexity refined into perfect simplicity, and something that immediately grips its audience and doesn’t let go.

A fluorescent-steeped and moody prologue begins your adventure into Hyper Light Drifter. The textless exposition sets the stage of a world destroyed by giant monsters, a deadly disease, a sealed off power, and a people forced to rebuild. The quasi-medieval setting quickly unfolds into something much deeper, with echoes of a lost technological age. Your protagonist is a silent wanderer, donning a flowing cape, glowing sword, and small pistol. He finds himself in a small town with adventure waiting on all sides. The drifter seeks to explore the ruined world and uncover its truths. Along your journey you’ll fight monsters of all shapes and sizes, tyrannical bosses and treacherous terrain. Hyper Light Drifter’s narrative leaves a lot up to the player for interpretation, but by so confidently establishing both mood and lore I was immediately sucked in.

The world calls to me.

The game’s zoomed out isometric perspective gives a great view of its gorgeous world. Usually I wait until later in the review, but I can’t help myself. Hyper Light Drifter is an astoundingly beautiful game. From its animations to its highly detailed pixel art, the game’s aesthetic shines through. Snowy mountains, verdant forests, barren deserts are all wonderfully realized through Hyper Light Drifter’s unique perspective. The world has a certain indefinable charm that exists as a combination of art, music (by the amazing Disasterpiece) and enemy design. In all honesty, the art is what drew me from the start – as early as the game’s embryonic (i.e. Kickstarter) stages. I was so relieved to see the full realization of the designers’ vision in the game’s final release.

Hyper Light Drifter is a 2D action RPG. Gameplay divides nicely into a couple key areas: combat, upgrading your character, and exploration. Hyper Light Drifter’s combat is superb. Fights occur naturally when exploring, in set combat arenas, and against bosses. The drifter has a number of tools to deal with the monsters that flood the world. Your primary weapon is the sword. Enemies can be hit with quick single blows or, if you’ve read their patterns correctly, can be punished with a three-hit combo. Firing your sidearm can damage enemies at a distance. The damage is minimal, unless charged up for a big shot, and ammunition is limited (it refills slowly upon attacking foes with your sword). Your opposition is aggressive, so Hyper Light Drifter also provides the player fantastic tools for escape. You have access to a lightning fast dash move, which can be used offensively or defensively depending on your situation. The player is invulnerable for a short time while dashing, increasing the skill threshold as whole attacks can be mitigated by a well-timed dodge.

Nothing should be underestimated. Hyper Light Drifter
keeps you on your toes.

Combat starts slow as you learn the language of the game. Fluency comes rapidly, though, as your fights become a flashy choreography of dashes and sword strikes and weapon swaps. Mastery feels always just out of reach, perfect for a skill intensive game like Hyper Light Drifter. There’s always more to learn. Your skills are put to the test in boss fights. Bosses run the gamut of shapes and sizes but they always force fluency in some aspect of combat, whether it be pattern recognition, short punishes, or chain dashes. Hyper Light Drifter’s combat also quickly opens up to player customization. You’ll unlock new guns to bolster long distance or close range engagements and new abilities that make battles even more fluid. Combat is a perfect combination of simplicity and depth, risk and reward, and I couldn’t get enough of it.

 

Time to show what you've learned.

Speaking of unlocks, Hyper Light Drifter lives up to its RPG name by featuring a nice suite of methods to power up your hero. Gearbits can be found throughout the world and used as currency to unlock new abilities. Your sword can gain a charge strike to deal massive damage, or a dash strike to attack after a dash. Your dash can gain the ability to chain into itself infinitely and the ability to reflect enemy projectiles. While there are no stats to manage, Hyper Light Drifter does allow for the hero himself to be powered up. You can unlock the ability to carry more health packs, which is essential, as health never regenerates. As you progress through the game, you’ll also come across new outfits for the drifter. These are often more than just an aesthetic change as they can grant bonus abilities like faster ammo recovery or an extra point of health. Hyper Light Drifter is a great RPG while making your RPG-experience as streamlined as possible.

Streamlined or not, I enjoyed Hyper Light Drifter's RPG elements.

Exploration is where Hyper Light Drifter truly shines. Hyper Light Drifter has a world you want to get lost in. Tranquility belies a setting rife with intrigue. Tucked into every nook and cranny of the world is something interesting to see or some new item for your playthrough. The nonverbal communication of the game to the player is fantastic. You’re never told where to go or what path to take—everything is discovered through playing. You’re never told to look for secrets, nor are you told what to do with those secrets. There is a system in place that indicates where a secret hides, but Hyper Light Drifter relies on a player’s intelligence and perseverance to find the pattern. I hate comparing one game I’m reviewing to another, but I can think of no better way to put it here: playing Hyper Light Drifter evokes the same feeling I got playing the original The Legend of Zelda on the NES. The game is a puzzle box that can be solved as rudimentarily, or as meticulously, as you desire. The joy I felt moving from screen to screen scouring for paths is unparalleled in modern gaming. Exploring Hyper Light Drifter is part epic poem and part learning a new language, and the two combine to create something spectacular. There are a precious few games I wish I could erase from my memory so I could experience them again for the first time – Hyper Light Drifter is one of them.

In the spirit of the mostly wordless Hyper Light Drifter I attempted to keep this review brief. I could go on for another thousand words about the satisfying gameplay loop, the hidden bonus challenges, or how the real world around me dissolved while playing. Hyper Light Drifter is one of the most supremely well-designed games I’ve played all year. Hyper Light Drifter not only lived up to expectations, it created a new classic. Hyper Light Drifter is a wide spectrum of excellence not to be missed.

Hyper Light Drifter

5/5

Polygons and Pain

Review

Bound, Plastic (PS4)

Abstract: Bound is a narrative told through motion. You explore a beautiful and abstract world as you relive your past and confront your fears. Bound learns from a long legacy of 3D platformers while creating an identity completely its own. Balletic dance permeates the experience, bringing life to cold geometry. The game’s emphasis on short cuts and speed runs in subsequent playthroughs unfortunately highlights some of Bound’s weaknesses, like its imprecise controls and long load times. Taken as a whole, Bound is a wonderful experience that is much more than it initially appears.   

For me, it was a tree house. Well not a tree house really, more like well-worn 4’x4’ square of processed wood nestled precariously on top of a Y-shaped corner of branches. The tree was a short walk into the wooded area behind my home. I’d climb, recklessly so, to perch in my spot. Time would stop. It was just high enough up to see the tops of other trees, but not nearly elevated enough to feel in danger. Cold or warm, windy or still, I’d climb to my hideout to be away from it all. The tree house was my answer to the same question Plastic’s Bound poses: as a child, how did you cope with pain? In Bound the answer is a beautiful combination of ballet, monsters, and geometry.

Bound begins as the protagonist, a pregnant woman, comes across a quiet beach. Journal in hand, she begins her walk down the sandy path towards a house. Along the way she’ll open up her journal, which is filled with fantastical images of trees, paper planes, mother and daughter and father and son, abstracted into compositions of jagged shapes. Bound’s narrative unfolds as a reflection of the past, a view into the world the game’s protagonist created as an escape. She is reliving her most traumatic childhood memories as she grapples with fundamental issues of family and forgiveness. Bound takes full advantage of its medium, sharing its story with players through actions. The game seeks to evoke emotions through movement, telling a familiar story in a new way. The story spans a few levels, each manifestations of her past pain turned fear. Bound escorts you through five vignettes in an imaginary world she called her own. Levels end with a reconstruction of the traumatic memory in a 3D space you can freely explore. The game culminates in a difficult decision that feels earned. Despite some looseness of the story itself, Bound does an admirable job at creating a narrative with which players can engage.

Face your fears.

Bound’s world is fantastical and bizarre. Bound transports players into a vibrant, chaotic, polygonal world. Shapes float in a barren expanse, reacting to the player’s presence. Monstrous structures assemble into existence as you draw near and orderly disassemble as you journey away. In this world we play as a masked young princess. Across the different vignettes we see conflict between king and queen in a world that struggles to adhere together. Bound’s world is unlike anything I’ve seen in games. It’s visually striking, stunningly beautiful, and has a signature that quickly imprints itself into your mind. Despite its abstract nature, each of the game’s levels is distinct and memorable. Bound’s world was what first drew me to the game and remains a clear highlight of my experience after playing.

 

Bound has a game world I'm not soon to forget.

Gameplay in Bound derives from a long lineage of 3D platformers. On the surface, your task is quite simple—follow the linear main path through each level jumping from platform to platform, up and down ladders, with very light puzzle solving to make it to the end. Along the way you collect memory fragments, glowing shards that both serve as a breadcrumb trail if you get lost in the dynamically shifting world and to complete an end of level mosaics. The controls are quite simple. The player can walk, run, jump, roll, and… dance. Heavily inspired by balletic movements, dance is an essential aspect to playing Bound. Movement has a lightness to it only seen at the ballet. Running, jumping, shimmying along edges, everything is steeped in dance. Motion capture is utilized brilliantly, creating a character that looks and feels human. She’s elegant and graceful. If that weren’t enough, Bound features a button dedicated solely to dancing. Dancing affords a couple advantages to the player. You dance to complete a level and dance to unlock large memory fragments. Most importantly, the player dances to bypass a level’s entrenched obstacles. You dance to fight your fears.

As I mentioned above, each of Bound’s five main levels is a powerful vignette from the protagonist’s past. Each of these centers on a childhood fear: steam, trees, pearls, shout and planes. These fears manifest themselves as physical barriers in each of the levels. Trees are nests of tendrils that grab the player and hold them in place. Planes are paper airplanes that swarm the player, again preventing movement. Dancing frees you from these fears. But there’s so much more. As you play through Bound, each level you complete conquers a fear. For example, conquer the planes level and you’ll no longer be affected by the swarms. This alters the way you play through subsequent levels. Sections that were previously blocked off now become open for exploration. The world adopts more striking colors and warmer tones. Bound is different each time you play, assuming you choose to complete levels in a different order. This offers a unique kind of replayability that I appreciated in a short game like Bound (you can complete your experience in less than 2 hours).

Dance will set you free.

Conquering fears and opening new paths are only one small part of the beautifully designed 3D worlds in Bound. These wide-open spaces are absolutely packed with depth. Levels are replete with hidden memory fragments, telegraphed shortcuts, and fear-blocked paths. You’ll also discover hidden and highly skill intensive sequence breaks, which allow the player to skip huge sections of the level. Bound wants players to find these, and even dedicates a whole mode to speed running the game (completing it as fast as possible) Bound’s main path is easy to complete. Bound’s fastest paths are punishing and demand precision. It’s a great feeling to discover a shortcut the hid in plain sight, or find a hidden path that shaves five plus minutes off your completion time. Despite not having the usual bells and whistles of 3D platformers, like oodles of collectibles and enemies to defeat, Bound offers players plenty to do.

By emphasizing short cuts and speed runs, however, Bound highlights some of its biggest weaknesses. The game’s platforming works well when players are taking their time and absorbing the fullness of the experience. The controls are less than ideal when placed under the magnifying glass speed runs demand. Jumps often feel imprecise. It can be hard to know if you’ll make a jump or fall to your death. Bound has a finicky ‘edge guard’ system that, in theory, is there to help players with difficult platforming sections, but in practice detracts from the fluidity of the motion. Bound implements some smart systems to avoid bad camera placement (endemic to the genre) like having shapes disappear when they would block the screen, but camera problems still arise from errant level geography and during non-horizontal movement. The game’s speed run mode is a disappointment, too. Levels have unskippable opening and end sequences that frustrate as you repeat a level over and over. Repeating is another act of frustration, as long load times make it feel particularly painful when you mess up your run. I typically like pushing myself in platformers to complete these challenges, but some design incompatibilities prevented me from investing myself in Bound beyond its story playthrough.

As much as they are emphasized, speed runs are not the best part of Bound.

Bound exists in great company, however, as one of the few games I’ve ever immediately played through a second time after first beating it. I wanted to see how the world changed, how my play had evolved, and perhaps most strikingly, to make a different narrative decision at the game’s end. Bound is more than visuals. Bound isn’t style over substance. Bound is, in a number of ways, about how one copes with strife. For me, I’ll always think back to my tree house. Bound makes me wish I could have escaped to its world, though. Bound’s was fantastic.

Bound

4/5