BOARD GAME REVIEW: ADRENALINE

Adrenaline is a game that is at once exactly what it says on the cover and also nothing like what it says on the cover. This is a game that bills itself as a board game version of a first-person shooter.

In some ways, that is exactly what it is. Each turn, you can take two actions to pick up ammo, new weapons, move, and shoot. Each shot damages an opponent. Each shot you take damages you. However, the more damage you get, the more your adrenaline pumps and the more powerful your actions can be. There is a cool variety of weapons, each broken in some way.

However, how damage works is decidely non-first person shooter. Yo are in effect engaging in a game of area control, but each of your areas is the other player. This is because of how damage works. You score based on the majority of your damage markers being on your target, so the game is all about timing an dtring to block out your opponents, rather than a run-and-gun style affair. In fact, some of your turns can become quite cerebral.

I personally think that the choice to do this makes this game unique. It would have been simple to do a dice-chucker-type game. Instead, they made a bunch of unique mechanisms based around achieving the goal of making it a more thinking-type game. Although it does play slightly slower than I would like, and I would've liked to see some more variety in power-ups, I think the core gameplay is very interesting and the weapon combinations always make it interesting to play. 

3.5 out of 5 hyper waffles.

PS4 GAME REVIEW: DOOM (2016)

Doom is a reboot/relaunch of the popular first-person shooter series by Bethesda. It is a game where you are a death-machine, running and gunning your way through hordes of demons, collecting weapons and power-ups in your quest to, well, kill allot of things.

Doom eschews many of the more modern trappings of first-person shooters. Gone are things such as regenerating health and taking cover for reloading, replaced by health pick-ups and highly mobile enemies. It is not a mistake that the player character is faster than most demons, with the speed being intended to be used both for defense and offense.

The Doom story is also there, but it is definitely not at the front. Much like other games (such as Dark Souls) the story is just in the background. There are item descriptions and environmental clues about the backstory, but you can just as easily ignore it and blast your way through hordes of Demons.

All this comes together in a very good package. The single-player experience is a nice rush of circle strafing and shotgun-blasting people. There is also a glory kill system where you can finish off staggered demons for more ammo. The iconic chainsaw is also used to help replenish your stocks and the BFG is great for boss fights or in a tight spot.

The only criticisms are that the level design occasionally calls for some precision platforming. Although not too unforgiving, trying to judge your jumping or position in first-person is never easy. Similarly, although the levels are well designed for the most part, a couple of the levels can get quite confusing. And finally, some of the glory kills are a bit slow (considering they are mini-cutscenes) and stop the pace of a high-paced gunfight.

At the end of the day, these are quite small critiques as the platforming is mostly quite forgiving, the levels are mostly well designed and clear, and the glory kills are an overall positive mechanism. This is definitely a game worth checking out.

5 out of 5 gore-stained waffles.

VIDEO GAME REVIEW: SUPERHOT (2016)

I recently received a steam key for Superhot as part of the Kickstarter for the board game. I have recently spent a little bit of time with it and have mostly found it to be fun although it is occasionally frustrating.

The main game is a first person shooter where 1 hit will kill you (and 1 hit will mostly kill the enemies as well). The main hook of the game is the art style, which is featureless polygons. The other hook is that time only moves when you move (which includes looking around). You go through a series of levels and a meta-story about playing a hacked game while you do this.

The game is fun in that each level is like a mini-puzzle with weapons and enemies lying around. The mechanic of time only moving when you do lets you assess situations and takes a normally frantic game type (first person shooter) and makes it nearly turn-based.

However, the frustrating part is that it is a puzzle and it does still rely on reflex. On some of the larger levels, it can get quite tedious to go through the same first slow-moving part of the level before you puzzle out a solution. This is particularly true if you are completing a difficult section of the level and than a stray bullet catches you, meaning your pinpoint timing has to be repeated. 

Most the levels, however, are too short and fast paced for this to be a worry. Overall, I found Superhot to be a very enjoyable game which has a novel take on the first person shooter genre. It is definitely worth checking out.

4 out of 5 smoking-hot waffles