Mortal Online 2

 Check out this video from ESO on the coming game Mortal Online 2. This will be one to keep an eye on!

Starpoint Gemini 2 (Early Access)

Zach Goodier

If you’re like me, you’ve probably looked at games like EVE Online and thought, “A game where I can buy and customize my own ship as I set forth into the final frontier, sign me up!”  But, once you look at the subscription fees, you hestitate.  I played EVE’s free trial, I loved it, but I couldn’t quite commit to a membership.  It’s not like the game isn’t worth it, but with all the bills and the work and school commitments, foresight says that I’d quickly be paying $15/month for a game I would barely have the time to enjoy.  So, where is there to turn for a single-payment, single-player adventure that captures the same elements, but in a game that comes commitment-free package.

Starpoint Gemini is still in beta, but it is already off to a promising start.  There is no story at the present, which means there won’t be a story to sum up, but the gameplay is mostly down, and there’s plenty to enjoy already.

You play as a captain, who is on a quest of some sort (I never played the first game, so I probably am missing all of the background info), and you need to navigate the turbulent solar winds between pirates, empires, and corporate interests.  Jobs are plentiful for those who want to earn an honest buck, and plunder is even more plentiful, for those who want to take to marauding to fill their holds with loot to sell on the market.  That isn’t to say you can’t do both, since attacking pirates or other hostile ships almost always have some loot to scavenge, which helps since the honest jobs rarely pay you very well in terms of affording upgrades and ships.

You have several camera options, allowing you to keep the camera oriented on the ship, or follow your targeting reticule.  You can select targets and auto-fire, which is a blessing when trying to navigate an asteroid field in the middle of a battle. 

Enemy AI seems fairly well done, with ships often attempting to hit their jump drives when they realize a fight is going poorly, forcing you to either give chase, or to abandon your hopes of a prize.  Speaking of prizes, you can forcibly board ships in order to capture them, either for sale or for personal use.  While you must be higher rank to command larger ships, the ability to sell ships allows you to make big money fast.  However, boarding can be risky, and even if the odds are on your side, you can easily lose the boarding action. 

Ship upgrades are costly, but very helpful.  You can upgrade your reactor to support more systems, or allow current systems to run more effectively, or you can upgrade the weapons, shields, or engines.  There are several other categories of upgrades, such as your transporter systems to allow more marines to board in a single action, improving their odds of success, but you will obviously need to return to port to hire new mercs to replace the inevitable losses you will suffer trying to hijack ships.

As of right now, only a few issues exist, such as the limits on how fast you can go with a tractor beam when towing ships, or that enemy ships will never attempt to board you, even when command a dreadnaught and you could be in a small frigate with a skeleton crew.  But overall, this is a very impressive title for an early-access game.  Features like the ability to use captured ships to create a fleet are listed as future goals for the final release, and I look forward to seeing how the final game turns out with story and questing options.

Good:

-Finally, an EVE-style game without a monthly subscription fee.

-Different styles of shipbuilding lead to some interesting designs floating amongst the stars.

-Steam Workshop support allows players to create their own content, leading to both original content and  TV/movie adaptations.

Bad:

-Enemy AI doesn’t feel that intelligent, only possessing a rudimentary “fight or flight” instinct, not utilizing any boarding action or making full use of their systems.

-Lacking any significant depth to diplomacy to make flying freelance feel as dicey as it should.

Scully Rating: 8.5 out of 10

Broforce

By: Robert Murphy

Now while this game is still only an early access title I felt that there was already enough of a game to review and to tell you all about this hilarious new obsession of mine known as Broforce. The game is something ripped right out of my 8 bit dreams and plays something much like the old Contra and Metal Slug saga games but is frankly a lot easier and features alternate versions of your favorite action stars. Yes that's right, this game doesn't tip toe around the idea of making look alikes of the big name action stars of the past few decades although they are renamed to fit their new places on team Broforce. They've been given names such as Rambro, Brobocop, Bro Hard and many more for you to unlock along the way through the campaign story. 

Set in Vietnam, you and your team are put to the task of taking down enemy terrorists and umm Satans dressed in suit and ties at the end of each level, yeah it's an American style game if I've ever seen one. The American racist overtones aside you will be traveling through each stage that varies in difficulty from 1 to 4 leaving a heck of a lot of carnage and destruction in your wake. Literally, everything you touch can be destroyed by emptying bullets into it which can come in handy if you want to tunnel under enemies or make a different path to sneak up on your enemies. But this is a bit of a double edged sword as you can cause too much destruction and you'll end up with no floor to walk on at all or end up causing a chain reaction of enemies leaving you confused and most likely dead in my case. This is half the fun though with all the destruction and chaos that goes on on screen you'll find yourself standing still an awe of what you just caused to happen even if it led to your unfortunate death.

One of the best parts about Broforce though is the fun you have playing as the various bros and unlocking the new ones to see what the developers came up with. Characters in the game are earned by saving captured POW's placed throughout any given level, save enough people and you will unlock a new bro for your brotallion. The list of names that you will see are simply fantastic from Bro Dredd to Bronan the Barbarian to MacBrover and some lady bros as well such as Ellen Ripbro and Cherry Broling. All of which look remarkably like their real life counterparts and feature special abilities to match their characters, Cherry Broling comes with an assault rifle leg that she shoots from. Brominator is undoubtedly one of my favorites as his character features a robotic eye and can go full terminator when you activate his special, making his chain-gun easier to control. 

You also won't have to bro it out alone as the game features up to four player co-op play where you can all play through the campaign together. It can get a little hairy though out on the screen as one person can cause untold amounts of damage, two players is madness and four is absolute calamity. As I said before though, you always want to be careful how you maneuver things, each time you'll see yourself get better and better and learn to use the environments to your advantage. You will start using propane tanks like jet propelled rockets to take down tougher enemies and even shoot out the floors on a spawn area or troop transport so they die instantly. 

In conclusion, Broforce is a spot on game that will make you laugh at all the various characters and gameplay to be had. The campaign is short but fun to play through either by yourself or with your friends as you work together (or not) to beat the handsome devil's at the end of each stage. Unlocking new bros to play as is also good for a laugh as I saw many of the legendary characters from my favorite movies immortalized on screen with all their unique abilities at your finger tips. The game has the ability to do so much more with adding new characters, I'm hoping for a Han Brolo character and there was just a release for an Expendabros expansion pack that I'm looking forward to buying soon. So at the fair price of fifteen bucks, you're looking at a very solid Steam game for your library. 

Good:

- Solid price

- The game features all of your favorite movie action stars in hilarious 8 bit fashion  

- Great gameplay that is easy to pick up for you and your friends to enjoy

- Will make you laugh at all the destruction and chaos that you can cause on screen

Bad:

- A short campaign (so far)

- Don't buy it if you can't put up with the bronacular my friends

Scully Rating: 9.0 out of 10