t1z4l

In 2021, we took a deep look at Dark Deity, a tactical RPG from indie developer Chip Moore and his studio, Sword & Axe. Four years later, the team delivered the sequel Dark Deity 2 that looks to build on the first’s world and ideas to make something a bit larger and more polished.

Narratively, Dark Deity 2 takes the path of many before it: it’s a story sequel and it’d love if you cared about the old characters, but it’s not crucial. The game takes place 25 years after the first, so you’ll see some of the old party , but a lot of the core crew is a new generation. The writing’s a lot stronger, too — it helps to bring on a dedicated writer, so well done — though we did find ourselves losing a bit of patience in a few of the more verbose scenes. The best consequence of a stronger focus on story is the opportunity it gives players to make meaningful choices. A few times during the game, you'll choose a side in a fight, making different allies and sometimes seeing entire factions wiped from the map.

Though the first game wasn’t shy about its influences, Dark Deity 2 feels like it moves just a shade closer to its main inspiration in a lot of areas: classic Fire Emblem. Rather than the four different weapon trees of the original, this sequel sees a move to equippable weapons. The upgrade items for skills and stats are similar in frequency and use. Even characters feel a bit more Fire Emblem-y.

One area in which it doesn’t feel like Fire Emblem is its pace and focus on objective-based maps. Dark Deity 2 essentially treats every chapter like a special event, with the pressure on and multiple priorities to juggle. You’ll need to protect and rescue civilians, seize particular points on the map and fend off waves of reinforcements, all within a tight turn limit. (There is a difficulty that removes the time restriction, if that’s a dealbreaker for you.)

Whether that pace feels overwhelming will likely hinge on how often you use training maps. The game offers a rotating selection of ten training maps, and these are much more generic “defeat all the baddies in your own time” fare. Challenging one costs 1,000 gold, allowing you to grind up units’ levels if you want but making it come at the expense of upgrades and weapons.

There’s also a change that makes it a bit more tolerable to bring underleveled units into battle. The first Dark Deity felt built around its “grave wounds” system: permanent stat decreases instead of permanent death. This sequel makes that less severe, with penalties that last for the next chapter or so. You’ll still try to avoid it, but most of the time it happened for us, we found ourselves shrugging and just taking the penalty for a map.

Dark Deity 2 comes much closer than its predecessor to nailing its target aesthetic. The first one had excellently animated attacks, but the maps were less professional (even after a much-needed revamp) and the interface didn’t follow the pixel art look. This time around, the map sprites are charming, the environments feel like they’re done with more care and there’s even a pixel font in the menus that largely fits in with the resolution of the other art. The character art is still jarringly high-resolution, unfortunately, but it largely gets away with it.

That said, there are still elements of the game that show that it’s a small-team Game Maker project. Maps have an extra row and column that you can’t reach but your cursor can move into, losing itself off the screen. We don’t have an exact answer why, but we’d guess it’s a workaround for some limitation of the game engine. The enemy ranges, which many players keep on permanently as a nice help, don’t update with reinforcements or when terrain changes, so you have to toggle it off and on again like you’re running IT . And the “ally” movements are often less than ideal, either idling out of the way instead of helping or running full-speed into enemy territory to their inevitable deaths.

Dark Deity 2 is far from perfect, and it could use a few rounds of post-launch polish. But it’s a strong step forward from the first game’s base, adding and refining smartly to make something within their means that’s still engaging to play. We hope they’re able to keep delivering games like this in the future!

Dark Deity 2, developed by Fire & Axe and published by Indie.io, launches March 24, 2025 on Steam.

The post Review: Dark Deity 2 Refines Both Its Pixels and Its Tactics appeared first on Siliconera.

I've spent an absurd amount of time playing farming sims. There is something therapeutic about switching off your brain for several hours and either helping local villagers find irrelevant items or growing some carrots, only to sell them for a pittance later. Everholm has a lot of potential, but many unpolished elements make it a rough experience, almost like the jagged ends of a precious stone.

The plot is intentionally vague, contributing to a paranormal mystery. You take control of a young girl called Lilly, who chases after her sister who's ed through a magical gate. Afterwards, Lilly wakes up on a farm without any memories of the island's inhabitants. But the townsfolk know her very well and often reference conversations and activities they experienced together. It almost feels like an out-of-body experience. As you live out your days on the island of Everholm, part of your goal is try to figure out what has happened to you and find your sister.

Although your "supposed mission" is to find your missing sister, Everholm allows you to spend your days as you wish. If you're interested in the agricultural side of things, you can focus on planting and harvesting crops for your farm. The process is very similar to other farming games. You plant seeds and water them every day until they are ready to be harvested. You can grow a good selection of vegetables and fruits that each take a different amount of time to ripen. Looking after the farm is a relaxing affair that will encourage a sense of cathartic repetition.

But this wasn't always the case, as playing on a controller was problematic at launch. In the same vein as other farming games, energy is used whenever you use an action. If you run out, you will collapse from exhaustion and a new day will start. However, the cursor would be finicky when trying to aim at a specific spot, and performing an action would eat up energy regardless of whether it was successful. This made watering crops a nightmare. Luckily, this problem has been massively addressed with the latest patch, where not only has the cursor dramatically improved, but energy will only be used on successful actions.

Everholm encourages creativity, as you can buy and expand your farm and add decorative objects like fences around the area. Later down the line, you can also get blueprints to build new items and buildings, like a barn to look after animals or a scarecrow to intimidate birds so they will stay away from your crops. There is plenty to get into, and you can easily spend hours on these optional activities. I often found myself fishing, as selling what you catch is a great way to make money. 

Although, I believe I encountered a bug in one of the major building facilities. You receive the blueprints for the furnace in your mailbox after entering the dungeon for the first time. When you read the mail, you have two options: accept or back out. Usually, it doesn't matter what you select—you still get the contents from the letter. In a rush, I picked back out and didn't receive the furnace blueprints. Luckily, I realized this before I started the new day (which is when the game saves) and reloaded my file. But I still haven't come across any other way of getting the blueprints for the furnace. If this is the only way to get it, this is a big deal, as you need it to make items to progress with the main story.

You can also socialize with the residents of the island. The townsfolk often assign you tasks, and completing these quests will increase your closeness with them. These tasks are usually very straightforward, but they are enjoyable to complete. There is a big emphasis on these interactions in Everholm, as the characters connect to the island's magic and play a part in the overarching story. They know information about your past and your missing sister. The problem is that I found the characters rather forgettable and not too interesting, which is not great from a title where the plot is a big focal point.

The island of Everholm also hosts local festivals with distinctive themes and pop-up shops. These events enhance the sense of community and create the feeling of ing through the seasons. There is a good selection of activities, with my favorite event being the egg and spoon race. You must input button commands at the right time to boost your running speed. It feels so whimsical and silly that it's hard not to smile. I wish there were more seasonal events, but the activities are on par with Ova Magica.

After a week has ed, the first dungeon will become available to you. If you've played Fae Farm, the dungeon set-up is very similar. Every dungeon is procedurally generated, meaning the environmental layout will change every time. There will also be different enemies and resources on each level. To proceed to the dungeon's next floor, you must axe down the rocks to find a button underneath.

You will initially be given a bat, which is a very standard, close-combat weapon, but later you will acquire more long-ranged weapons that are better to take on the dungeons. For example, one is a bee cannon that shoots out a swarm of angry bees, and another is a bazooka that fires explosive bamboo. I really liked tackling the dungeons, as they were highly engaging, but also matched the tempo of the rest of the experience. In a strange way, it was pretty relaxing. Leaving the dungeon is also easy if you want to retreat at any point. My only minor complaint is sometimes you will die with the health bar still displaying you had some health left, so you might want to heal anytime the bar is on the lower side.

Visually, Everholm looks flat-out adorable. The beautiful coat of pixelated graphics adds a cozy vibe to the entire game, whether you're on your farm, traversing the beautiful prairie grasslands or exploring the spooky dungeons. You can tell a lot of time and attention was poured into the presentation, which is hard not to ire. The soundtrack is lovely, too, which adds to the laid-back atmosphere.

I've spent over twenty hours with Everholm, and I know I've only scratched the surface of what there is to see. I like the aesthetic vibe of Everholm, and the gameplay has an enticing daily routine cycle that will be a hit with fans of Stardew Valley. The supernatural mystery failed to hook me in, but the tasks were so enjoyable that it wasn't as big of a deal as it should have been. But there are quite a few issues that sometimes break the immersion. That said, the developers are already addressing some of these issues, which is great to see, as Everholm definitely has the fundamental ingredients of an excellent farming sim.

Everholm is now available on PCs.

The post Review: Everholm Is Rough Around the Edges appeared first on Siliconera.

We’re in a minor renaissance for 2D brawlers. Once a dead genre left in the 1990s, we now have a full resurgence thanks to games like Streets of Rage 4, River City Girls and TMNT: Shredder’s Revenge. G.I. Joe: Wrath of Cobra is the latest classic franchise brought back in brawler form, as Hasbro’s action figure line takes center stage.

G.I. Joe: Wrath of Cobra has a simple premise. COBRA has unleashed an army of clones to attack the world’s monuments, you have to stop them. That’s it. Now go punch some guys. At the start of the game you can play as four characters, all from the 1980s G.I. Joe team: Duke, Scarlett, Snake Eyes and Roadblock.

If you’ve played any other game in this genre, you already know how gameplay operates. You’re on a 2D plane moving from left to right, although there is some movement up and down the screen too. You fight off armies of enemies that attempt to crowd around you and punch you in the face, so you have to punch them first. There are two attack buttons, and these attacks change when dashing, along with an aerial move. There’s also a special move you can activate once you’ve filled up an energy bar. The specifics of these moves change between characters, although the general control scheme stays the same.

However, while other modern brawlers have done interesting things with their mechanics, G.I. Joe: Wrath of Cobra feels comparatively basic. While Streets of Rage 4 offered creative use of special moves and Shredder’s Revenge offered some superb movement mechanics, Wrath of Cobra…has guns. Various firearms drop throughout the levels and can be used to blast enemies from across the stage. It’s not the most interesting addition, but there is some satisfaction to be found in blasting enemies from across the stage for a moment. Sadly, they can turn those guns on you too, which is much less satisfying to deal with.

G.I. Joe: Wrath of Cobra is old school to a fault here. It’s missing most of its contemporaries’ quality-of-life improvements, instead feeling like it stumbled straight out of 1992. Defensive and movement options are limited. Some enemies are tedious damage sponges. Getting surrounded happens often and can be brutal. All these elements were present in classic Streets of Rages and Double Dragons, which I still consider to be great games. However, while it’s easy to accept all this in games from the NES and Genesis eras, it’s less forgivable in 2024 when so many games have moved the genre forward in recent years.

On top of this, movement is sluggish and occasionally unresponsive. This is notable in turning, which was either so fast I broke into an unintentional run or it simply didn’t that I wanted to turn around. Turning in mid-air was also a dice roll, as the game simply decided on a whim whether or not it was possible to do.

Character balance is also significantly messy. I tried out each of the initial four characters and it’s impressive how much character choice affects the experience. If you’re playing as Snake Eyes, you can bump this review’s score up a point. He’s ludicrously fast, his attacks have brilliant range, he can dish out endless combos and, most importantly, his special summons a wolf. Playing as Snake Eyes felt like a power fantasy and much more in line with what I was expecting.

Then we have the rest of the cast. Duke is decent, but he’s also where most of my complaints about the game’s sluggishness came from. He’s the most generic brawler character imaginable, with decent moves that don’t stand out much. He does have a cool dash move quirk where he’ll slide himself behind an enemy but other than this, he’s average in every way.

And then we have Scarlett and Roadblock. The latter is a powerhouse with his attacks, but good luck getting them out because he’s so slow you’ll likely be hit before your animation barely begins. Scarlett has the opposite problem, with excellent speed but weak attacks. She should have one of the best attacks in the game, as she drops a miniature bomb for her aerial, but the explosive range is poor and it’s next to impossible to aim effectively. One of her dash moves inexplicably leaves her vulnerable for a full second too, a decision seemingly based on nothing more than trolling the player.

Presentation is serviceable. The sprite work is excellent but it’s hard to shake the feeling that it’s all pretty standard. I know I keep making comparisons to other recent brawlers Wrath of Cobra feels noticeably bland compared to the likes of Streets of Rage 4. That said, I did like how much of the military equipment was so obviously based on the toy line where the sight of every dirt bike and van led me to hearing “playsets sold separately” in my head. The goofy plastic feel of everything adds a lot to the setting, and I wish they’d leaned into it further to give the game a more unique identity.

The intro animations are severely lacking though. The character designs are bland and the voice acting is terrible. However, I’m willing to give it some credit if this was an intentional choice to replicate the stiff, limited animations of many 80s cartoons. Sadly, this is still better than how the rest of the story is delivered. You get text on the most boring loading screens in existence and nothing more. Obviously, story isn’t a huge draw for games of this type, but it did feel cheap.

The soundtrack was good, but I couldn’t help but feel like Tee Lopes was phoning it in. There’s still some catchy tunes here but it doesn’t quite reach the heights of his previous work in Sonic Mania or Shredder’s Revenge. That said, the opening theme song was a bop, mostly enhanced by the presence of Crush 40’s Johnny Gioeli. It’s an original composition rather than a recreation of the 80s theme song, but I feel it was a significant improvement. Gioeli is roaring “the all-American hero” with the same energy he sings about hedgehogs and “hell yes” is the only possible response.

However, it would be nice if the game’s technical issues didn’t get in the way of my enjoyment of that opening theme. Both animated sequences at the start of the game suffered problems in my copy. The opening animation just cut off halfway through while the opening story animation crashed the game entirely. While I rarely had issues in actual gameplay, those two glitches left a bad first impression.

On the whole, I found a decent amount of enjoyment in G.I. Joe: Wrath of Cobra. For the most part, it’s a standard brawler which is a fun time for a few hours, and I imagine is enhanced with friends. However, the inexperience of the dev team shows throughout, and I was left imagining how much better this would have been in the hands of Dotemu or WayForward.

G.I. Joe: Wrath of Cobra ends up being a decent if unremarkable entry into the retro brawler genre. However, unbalanced characters, technical issues and bland presentation make it hard to recommend over more polished games from recent years.

G.I Joe: Wrath of Cobra is out now for PC, Nintendo Switch, PS5 and Xbox Series X/S.

The post Review: G.I. Joe: Wrath of Cobra is a Decent But Unremarkable Brawler appeared first on Siliconera.