PAGAN ONLINE
Practically from the first announcement of the game Pagan Online is accompanied by a very wide range of different emotions. At the beginning it looked as if two extreme camps had been created and from time to time one, two or three people decided to change their tents. The average score of critics on Metacritic is 65 points out of 100, and users posted 6.8 points out of 10. At first glance Pagan Online looks like Diablo 3's half brother. We are dealing here with an action RPG game belonging to the hack'n'slash sub-genre, which currently represent such titles as Diablo, Path of Exile or Grim Dawn. The action of Pagan Online takes place in pre-biblical times. The gods have turned their backs and left the world in a state of complete, ubiquitous chaos - the situation gets more and more out of control every day, the dark forces grow alarmingly fast in power and kidnap more and more souls of those who are too weak to defend themselves. The player, however, takes on the role of one of the chosen gods. We must stand up for the innocent and thus challenge evil. The question is, will we be able to do it? We observe the hero from above, that is, from an isometric perspective. The game is exactly as it should be - very dynamic, full of fights with huge hordes of opponents. During breaks, we develop our character and manage his equipment, collecting and producing items. Missions are varied, and we can perform them at a chosen level of difficulty. However, we play either alone, as part of a quite large campaign for one player, or with other uses in the online multiplayer mode.
HUNT: SHOWDOWN
Hunt: Showdown is a first-person action game, which puts the greatest emphasis on online cooperation. Originally it was supposed to be a shootout with events observed from behind the hero's back, in addition, based on a free-to-play model. The action of the game was placed in an alternative version of Louisiana. It's the 19th century and the most horrible monsters from legends really do exist. What's more, they mercilessly terrorize humanity. No wonder, then, that suddenly on the horizon appears a secret society of hunters, who are engaged in hunting for the most dangerous creatures. In all of this, they compete with each other for rewards for the killing of these monsters, especially one great monster. In terms of gameplay and technical aspects, Hunt: Showdown combines certain features of battle royale (more like Playerunknown's Battlegrounds than Fortnite, as you know) with elements of racial survival. We observe events in the game from a first-person perspective, looking at the world through the eyes of the aforementioned hunter, whom we choose from many different characters before the game begins. We also adjust the equipment. The game can be played by up to five teams of two, but if you prefer to play alone, there is absolutely nothing to stop you from doing it. We find ourselves on an open map, full of strange zombie-like creatures every year, and hounds straight from hell. From time to time we will also come across beds of much weirder monsters. The goal of the players is to win a trophy for killing a particularly dangerous monster and then leaving the map alive. To track down our target, we use all the clues and search the area for potential hideaways. Once we have found the beast and defeated it, we must drive it back to hell. Only then do we win a trophy. At the end of the game we have to reach one of the points that allow the official end of the game. In addition to the struggles of players with the surrounding environment, we must also remember about the competition - even the defeat of the beast does not have to guarantee us victory. The place of its expulsion is marked on the map and is visible to all participants of the session. The same is true of the team that has with them the proof of defeat of the beast. What does this mean? Almost-winners have to take into account possible attacks of other players. If you add survival elements to this, Hunt: Showdown puts us in a very difficult situation. Range weapons are not as accurate as most shooters, there is little ammo and the bullets are more lethal. Death means the loss of most equipment, and our loot disappears. It sounds uninteresting and great at the same time.
THE DARK PICTURES: MAN OF MEDAN
In short: Man of Medan is a film adventure in a horror movie. The production opens a series of The Dark Pictures Anthology, a series of horror games from Supermassive Games. The publishing house was run by Bandai Namco Entertainment. Each edition is to be a separate story, unrelated in any way to the other parts. In the first one, the story begins with a group of four Americans who go on an expedition to explore a sunken WWII plane. However, when the wreck is examined, very strange things begin to happen, the frequency (and strangeness) of which increases with practically every second. As if that weren't enough, the heroes start worrying about the storm. A mysterious ship also appears on the horizon. So it promises to be interesting, but also very scary. Man of Medan is largely about making choices, but there are also some minor skill challenges and puzzles. History is non-linear - our decisions affect practically everything. It is up to us who will survive, who will die and how the game ends.
CONTROL
Control is a shooter set in a science fiction world. We observe the events in the game from a third person perspective. The player takes on the role of Jesse Faden - a woman who goes to a secret agency called Federal Bureau of Control in New York to solve all the problems of her past. But when it reaches the building, it doesn't take much time to realize that the place, also known as the Oldest House, has become the target of an invasion of a power that definitely has nothing to do with the human world. As if this were not a serious enough problem, the director of the agency dies during the attack and Jesse takes his place as a result of some strange rituals that have taken control of the Federal Audit Office. Then the duty to control the situation and thus neutralize the threat falls on our shoulders. The task sounds simple, almost banal - to fight for the title control. The production focuses mainly on dynamic clashes, during which we can use our special skills. On top of that, there is equipment with the possibility of detailed modification, as well as an interactive (and very pleasant to the eye!) environment. It sounds quite ordinary. Only that it is not a typical shooter, which was proved by all promotional materials of the game. Jesse has a futuristic pistol, which apart from shooting, has also telekinetic functions, allowing the heroine to lift various objects or enemies and throw them at a distance. It can also change its shape, so that it gives us access to completely new functions. Special attention should also be paid to the locations - the creators were inspired by some original architectural style from the late 1940s, which some of you may associate under the name of brutality. Its main assumption is quite simple: the most important are space, construction and sensitivity to the properties of the materials used. In Control, the locations we visit regularly change, which is most often the case before our eyes, thanks to which the creators managed to enrich their production with a large dose of disturbing surrealism. The visual setting, however, does not end at all, because it all has an impact on the gameplay itself. For obvious reasons, maps of particular levels are not constant. The interior of the Oldest House, for example, although it seems small, is much larger than we think.
And what games do you recommend? I am waiting for comments :)