Category: Game Releases

Pascal Bestebroer is one of those little known, grizzled vets of independent game design. He’s been in the business for something like 15 years, but he’s found a real identity in the last 8 or 9 years. From a few gameplay vids or a round or two of play, you can spot those sometimes intangible signatures of OrangePixel.

Outside of the sprite work style that is similar from game to game, OrangePixel titles all seem to have a fascination with mechanical mash-ups. Reducing genre to its basic building blocks, then smashing them together is the mad doctor mindset you need to be ready for on approach.

The original Space Grunts rose above the glut of indie shooters in 2016 because of it’s bold take on real-time strategy and shoot-em-ups.

If there was one large disappointment about the 2019 follow up is that it doesn’t feel like a bold experiment. As a more traditional, deck building roguelike, Space Grunts 2 feels like a take on a genre that’s getting very close to critical mass.

That isn’t to say the OrangePixel doesn’t have his own ideas about what could change about this popular indie game framework. Space Grunts 2 values speed over anything else. Movement is quick and snappy. The procedurally generated maps are small and (mostly) easy to navigate. There are often a bevy of ways to solve some problems. Every run can feel like a speed run, and it never feels like you’re being forced to overthink your next few steps in order to make ‘the right move.’ It can be a freeing feeling to know that most moves feel like they can be the right move at all times.

While navigating these dungeons, you’ll also be picking up weapons and items. These are floating icons that turn into cards upon pick up, and are added to your deck. Whenever you run into an obstacle or an enemy, a hand of those cards are drawn. These are all the options you have when it comes to dealing with whatever’s bothering you. It takes several runs to really get the hang of what these items do. Over a dozen runs in, and I am no closer to understanding how to gather them in such a way as to create a competent deck.

I try to be discerning, but as cards get used, options become slim when aggressive enemies won’t let you be. You’re also heavily incentivized to pick up everything you come across, because it’s the easiest way to gain experience. But the frequency in which I find myself with an abundance of cards I don’t want or need suggests that some sort of strategy needs to be applied. I wish I was better at finding that balance, and I wish that the game did a bit more work to guide me towards one.

There are ways to affect your deck after you make it, but most of them involve finding little kiosk structures placed around the map. Some can change one card type into a different one. One lets you access all of your healing cards at once. But they spawn unreliably, and oftentimes it’s just easier to run to the exit than it is to find one of these things.

All this makes combat feel a bit uneven as well. The rules are straight forward – You and your opponent play cards one at a time, which resolve to do damage, heal, gain armor, or some mixture of those things. Some attacks can even affect enemies and terrain outside of the combat. But I never feel like my deck has character, or even some sort of win condition. It almost always feels like it’s just a pile of stuff I found that I have no real attachment to, outside of just throwing it at things that are trying to kill me.

Enemies themselves seem to just appear out of nowhere, with little rhyme or reason. Each of the worlds you progress through seem to share mostly the same biomes, and therefore a lot of the same enemy types. As you get further along, newer and stronger monsters appear, but they never feel like they belong in the environments that you find them skulking around in. When they do attack you, their plays are often a mystery to you. Without any hints of how they might act, you can find yourself throwing away valuable cards at them. More than once has an enemy chased me tirelessly from room to room, finally catch me, and do nothing on the first time, effectively wasting a big counter card I played. Their behavior doesn’t do your tactical play calling any favors.

The low bit sprite style is kind of an old hat by this point, but Space Grunts 2 does look pretty good, even if it’s not groundbreaking. Some of the HUD and tooltips lack polish, though. The directional arrows sit askew of center in a subtle but distracting way. Some of the text runs into each other. Part of my screen is obscured by the camera bevel on the front of my phone. Just odd, small things that alone aren’t problems, but taken together really makes me wish some of that stuff got a second coat of paint.

All in all, Space Grunts 2 isn’t nearly as exciting as the first. It does nothing to really rethink the card-based roguelike in any fundamental way. The scaled down approach does make it an appealing distraction for awhile. But without much depth, the quick dips into chaos will get old pretty fast.

Black Desert Mobile is an iOS and Android adaptation of the popular MMORPG Black Desert Online. The game will task players with uncovering the hidden secrets of the Ancients by following the Black Spirit. Some questions about controller support, family names, and best classes have arisen among players, so we are here to offer some advice and practical tips to help you get started.

Black Desert Mobile Guide

Does Black Desert Mobile Offer Controller Support?

The answer here is both yes and no. Yes, Black Desert Mobile does offer bluetooth controller support, but it’s functionality is limited at best. This means that you can pair a PlayStation 4 or Xbox One bluetooth controller to your iPhone or Android device, but you’ll only get limited functionality out of it.

What does that mean exactly? You’ll be able to use the controller to do things like move the camera, your character, and utilize basic attack moves. However, as far as using the controller to select buttons on the screen and navigate through the menu goes, you’ll have to use your fingers.

Some players have suggested that they were able to avoid this by using a controller with mapping features, but the majority of folks likely won’t have that on hand. It’s unclear if Pearl Abyss plans to build out the Black Desert Mobile controller support any further, or leave it as is.

What is a Family Name in Black Desert Online?

If you’re a Black Desert veteran, you’ll likely be familiar with Family Names, but if you’re new to the game or have been away for a while, a short explanation will go a long way. In Black Desert Mobile, your family name is essentially your surname, a name that is unique to you and all of your characters in the server.

You can change your family name by purchasing a name change coupon in the store, but it won’t be free. It’ll cost you 400 Pearls, which comes out to $10/£7. Once you’ve purchased the coupon, you’ll be able to change your family name. This Black Desert Mobile tip should help you as you start.

Black Desert Mobile – Family Name vs. Character Name

As the name implies, your character name is simply your first name, while your family name is your last name. So if your character was named, John Doe (I know, creative, huh?) then your character name would be John and your family name would be Doe. Every new character will adapt a new character name but will keep the same family name. Hopefully this Black Desert Mobile tip will go a long ways towards explaining the difference.

Black Desert Mobile Class – Which Should You Pick?

Perhaps the biggest question players are asking is which Black Desert Mobile class should you pick? While there is no right answer, the class you choose will affect your character’s appearance and fighting style.

There are currently five Black Desert Mobile classes available in the game, with more coming in the future. Below is a list of all five classes:

• Giant
• Ranger
• Valkyrie
• Warrior
• Witch

While there is no right answer on which class is the best to choose, each class will likely be better for different players based on their playstyle.

The Giant class is best for those who love to melee and cause chaos. With a high DPS (damage per second), you’ll be able to deal loads of damage to enemies rather quickly. On the other hand, the Ranger class offers a mix of melee and ranged fighting. While it still offers a high DPS, you’ll also be able to deal a fair amount of damage from distance as well.

The Valkyrie class in Black Desert Mobile is best for those who want to play a support role. As a Valkyrie, you’ll be able to cast recovery spells and defensive aid to keep your team alive.

The Warrior is perhaps one of the best all-round Black Desert Mobile classes. With a nice balance, players will be able to try their hand at playing an attacking role as well as a defensive role. The Witch is similar to the Ranger in that it can deal lots of damage to enemies really quick, however, you’ll need to be careful because this class can’t take a whole lot of damage.

Black Desert Mobile Auto Attack/Combat

Black Desert Mobile offers players the opportunity to use an auto attack/combat feature which will make fighting a whole lot easier. However, it isn’t available right away, so figuring out how to unlock and use auto attack/combat can be a little bit confusing.

To unlock auto attack/combat, you’ll need to finish the Ancient Stone Chamber story quest, which will come around level 13. Once you’ve completed that mission, you’ll be able to use the auto attack feature.

Once you’ve unlocked it, you should see a button on your screen when you’re in combat that will allow you to enable the auto attack feature. Simply press the button every time you’re in a fight and would like to use it and you’ll instantly attack all the nearby enemies.

Is Black Desert Mobile Pay to Win?

As with any mobile game, a lot of questions are being asked about Black Desert Mobile microtransactions and if it is a pay to win style game. The game offers a premium currency called Black Pearls, which players can use in the shop to buy more item storage, pets, cosmetics, and more.

Players can also earn Black Pearls by playing through the game as rewards, but as you might expect, it’ll take longer. While players who buy Black Pearls may have a slight advantage, overall, Black Desert Online is not a pay to win game and the microtransactions are handled well in our opinion.

What is the Black Desert Mobile Max Level?

Players will be able to ‘Awaken’ their character at level 65, which will essentially change their playstyle. Once your character class has been awoken, you’ll get new abilities, weapons, and more.

Each of the Black Desert Mobile classes offer different types of awakenings. You can see each class’s awakening below:

• Giant – Destroyer
• Ranger – Windwalker
• Valkyrie – Lancer
• Warrior – Berkserker
• Witch – Archmage

Hopefully this list of Black Desert Mobile tips and advice will help your first few hours go by smoothly. If you have any questions, drop a comment below and we will do our best to get back to you.

Andrew Smith is a freelance contributor at Pocket Tactics. You can find more of his work on his site, Guide Fall.

It’s a pretty busy week here at PT towers – not only did we kick off voting for our GOTY Awards, but we’ve also begun the look-out for a new Editor (and Staff Writer) to lead Pocket Tactics into the future. Not to mention some reviews, news and other features, and it’s been a well-rounded time in the world of mobile games.

Next week we’ve got reviews of recently released games going up (Space Grunts 2, for sure), as well as some experimental Black Desert Mobile coverage (see below) and more typical features. During the Xmas/New Year period content will be a bit lighter, but I’ve got some retrospectives and of course we’ll share the GOTY results.

Meanwhile, in Mobile land…

New iOS & Android Games

Yellow & Yangtze (iOS & Android)

Another board game release this week, this time it’s Dire Wolf Digital’s adaptation of this Reiner Knizia classic set during the Warring States period of China. It’s predominantly a tile-placement game, where you must place pieces of different types in order to develop your realm and compete with the other players. We’ve got Matt hard at work on a review, so expect to hear more from us on this over the next week or so.

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cAd3LWqrrn4?controls=0]

Black Desert Mobile (iOS & Android)

The popular Free-to-Play MMORPG Black Desert Online has come to mobile. In the post-World of Warcraft landscape MMOs can have a hard time finding their audience, but Black Desert has managed it surprisingly well. The combat mechanics make it more like an Action-RPG than a true mmo, and are quite fluid, and the majority of the game content is playable for free – it’s mainly cosmetic items that carry most of the micro-transactions.

I played this for a bit on PC, so coming to the mobile version is a bit of a surreal experience – the game certainly looks quite similar on my Google Pixel 3XL, so the developers have done a great job making the game look pretty. UI is quite busy, but that’s to be expected, and controls come in the form of a virtual joystick for movement, and buttons to trigger combat abilities. There’s a lot of auto-pathing and movement options to take advantage of, and the game throws a lot of information at you quite quickly, so the new-player experience is kind of weird.

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IxGL5u3g488?controls=0]

The Last Remnant (iOS & Android)

Hats off to TouchArcade for spotting this one as I wasn’t expecting this to appear anytime soon, but Square Enix have stealth released the Remastered version of The Last Remnant. I remember reviewing this on the Xbox 360 ages ago. It was… ok? I think? I know people speak quite fondly of it in general. It’s a JRPG through-and-through.

The mobile version is quite pricey ($20) and has a large install size (8.5GB in total!), and it also requires iOS 13 or above. We don’t currently have a review planned for this one but if I can get code, might be worth looking at. RPGs of this calibre don’t often come to mobile.

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aCo-h0nyPV8?controls=0]

Dragon Castle (iOS & Android)

I’d personally not heard of this game before prior to the developers reach out to me; Dragon Castle is a Mahjong-inspired table-top game that’s been brought to digital platforms by Studio Clangore, the same people behind the digital port of Potion Explosion. We’ve got Matt Thrower doing a review for us, so in the meantime check out the trailer…

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RukAkd2kNtM?controls=0]

Machinaero (iOS)

A quick shout-out to this one as it’s been on our radar for a while and has finally been released into the wild. It’s a 2D game about building different types of machines and testing them to explore the game world, from gliders to space ships. There’s at least 50 types of blocks you can use for your inventions, and the game boasts realistic simulations such as wind and temperature.

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ipNrl6jaMPU?controls=0]

App Updates & News

Cosmic Frontline AR has just received a major update, which adds a new game mode and the ability to play without AR. It also redesigns the maps, and balances difficulty, with better graphics and new tutorials. Dick reviewed it for us earlier this year, so I had him take a look at the update. While he didn’t think it warranted any special attention, he was impressed by the changes and if this had been the state at launch, he commented that the game would have gotten a slightly higher score.

War Tortoise 2 is a thing, apparently. And that’s about the only thing I can say about it because even after having watched the trailer, I have no idea what’s going on (third-person rails shooter, by the looks of things).

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4p-KxJpjZC0?controls=0]

It’s been ages since we looked at a decent Word game, and this one caught my eye because it blends word puzzles with strategy mechanics. Hexicon is currently available to try for free via Testflight and Google Play Early Access, and involves players fighting for board control via word-smithing. There is a central objective that gives points, and then the boards reset, with the first to 16 points being the winner. Seems quite deep and complex, so might try this one out for ourselves.

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zJQksh8mMvE?controls=0]

Also worth noting that Terraforming Mars did receive a major update after launch, which fixed things like notifications for multiplayer matches. Since it was released while Matt was working on his review we folded it into the main article, but we’re aware that the state of the game just after launch wasn’t great.

Sales

Black Friday seems like such a long time ago now, but so long ago that decent sales haven’t been sparse. Still, found a few interesting ones crop-up you might like to check out:

Seen anything else you liked? Played any of the above? Let us know in the comments!

By Admin 12 Dec 2019