We’re getting righty down to the wire with getting the last
of my reviews out before start hitting out “Best Of” lists for the year. So
while I found some time, I want to squeak in two indie-game reviews for your
pleasure. There’s more I wanted to do, but we’re cutting it close as it is.
This week we’re hitting One Finger Death
Punch and the Early Access game Hand
of Fate. Both are shorter indie titles without too much meat to hold their
own full review. So they get to share (still two scores to give though).
One Finger Death Punch
(OFDP) is basically what happens when you combine the mechanics of a rhythm
game with the aesthetics of a fighting or action game. The results? Nothing we
haven’t seen before, but it does become an excellent exercise in pure mechanics
for the average fighting game or even character-action game. In fact, I’d
almost say that OFDP is a game to
play if you’re really struggling at mastering combos in games like Bayonetta and Devil May Cry or if you just have poor timing in games like Smash Bros or Soul Calibur. How so?
For those who don’t quite know, a fair number of
action-based combat games like Bayonetta
reward players who don’t button mash their way to victory. One such way is by
providing just a LITTLE more damage each successive hit when you press the
buttons at the right time. For example, if you hit punch and then follow up
with one more successive press of the button once the animation completes. But
if you press the button multiple times during the animation, it cancels out
that minor bonus. It isn’t much, but it can go a long way in certain games
where that little pinch of HP ends the fight that much sooner should you be
having trouble.
The other benefit is that you don’t mess up combos as
easily. As you know, most games of this nature reward much larger amounts of
bonus damage for higher combo chains. But if you hit your buttons too fast and
out of synch with your character’s animations and proximity to the enemy, you
risk missing an attack and ruining your combo chain. And all of these factors
in addition to the amounts of enemies you face in these games stresses the
player out, which pushes them into making a mistake more easily.
All of these small issues are worked on as you play OFDP. A purely mechanical exercise in
finding a rhythm in striking your enemies, as well as practicing techniques to
keep yourself focused an in a zenn-like state of mind when in these types of
situations. It’s easy to get flustered over one missed attack or over a chunk
of damage you take, and such problems occur in OFDP. But the beauty is there is not overarching story you have to
go back through if you fail. There’s no long series of hallways from the last
checkpoint you hit. You just start that fight over again. Load times are quick
so the down time in between each retry isn’t agonizing.
That said, OFDP
isn’t perfect. It’s a game that requires you to play the “campaign” with no
story on the easiest difficulty before trying to do the harder ones at any
capacity. And the campaign is MASSIVELY long (I’m barely getting to the end as
I write the review). And you can’t modify that difficulty until you beat the “campaign”.
And while there are various types of enemies and match-styles, things to get a
repetitive feel well before you actually reach the end of the first round of
the campaign. And that kind of feeling doesn’t entice me to come back for
additional rounds too much.
So it’s a good game with a good concept and I like how it
strips everything down to a very simple exercise in practicing a simple
mechanic. That being said, it feels light enough where it’s basically a game-equivalent
to a salad and doesn’t really fill you up. But it’s a good way to get jazzed up
for taking on a big boss in a bigger game or playing a rock-guitar solo. It’s
definitely in that same vein of Rock Band
where it’s mostly a casual game, but it has enough real-game mechanics to feel
like something more impressive and worthwhile. So pick it up cheap if you can,
but not a necessity to play (unless you need help in getting good at
character-action games).
Next up we have Hand
of Fate, an early access title you can find on Steam which is coming soon
to PS4 and the Vita. The game is simple in concept. You face against a strange
magic guy in a series of card game battles. Except whenever you fight the
monsters on the cards, you actually are placed in an arena where you fight them
with similar mechanics to that of Batman
Arkham though not quite as refined yet (still in beta). The fight locations
aren’t too varied at this point in development, but there’s enough to keep
things from getting too boring too quickly. Likewise, you don’t have too many
enemy types at first, but new ones pop up later to spice things up and
sometimes it gets just a little too hot.
And while it might seem like this is all just an
action-game, there is a semblance of a plot. The monsters have stories behind
them and they’re all minions of the guy across the table. He acts like a
mixture of a dungeon master and a crime boss lording over his servants he sends
into battle to kill you. But, like a dungeon master, he’s fair in the cards he
deals out and doesn’t throw cheap-shots your way. Though there are plenty of
luck-based events you’ll come across that make progression come to a near halt
in some cases.
Throughout the game you can visit shops (when found) as well
as gain new abilities and equipment. So while you might start with the same
boring weapon, things do shake up a bit where you can find ice swords,
lightning axes, and fire maces. It’s all varied enough and randomized in just
the right way where the game can still feel somewhat samey, but have an air of
freshness to it at each level and each attempt at a level. Though once you beat
enough bosses you end up having to fight some of them again as normal
encounters, which can get frustrating when it’s the annoying Jack of Plagues
and the very powerful King of Dust.
Visually, it isn’t the prettiest game in the world, but
animations are very smooth and the style is completely consistent, indicating a
very solid art direction all around. Though there are some longer load times, I
feel that is due to the constant loading of different arenas and enemies. The
problem here is that I did crash on one of these loading screens and while I’m
aware this is still a Beta release, people are being charged money for this, so
I’ll have to dock points, regardless. 
You can also rebuild your deck of cards to your liking, and
after a while, I recommend you do. The game will automatically rebuild your
deck for you between each level of progression. But doing so can leave less
than helpful cards in your deck and merely just waste time from getting much
better cards to work with. Putting a good variety of weapons is important and
having a selection of masks you prefer is crucial as some raise speed or help
you reveal areas you haven’t visited yet. You also control SOME of the
encounter cards, allowing you to pick things that don’t require combat or
require luck-based choices, which can help smooth out your progression.
But in deck building, encounters don’t often explain what
the encounter does. It just says how the encounter begins. It’d be nice if more
details were in place. If a card would just say, “This card requires a player
to make a choice with a 50% success rate” would be enough to give me a reminder
on what the card does so I can weigh it against others. Likewise, you can’t
know what a card does until you encounter it in the game. Though there are some
I’ve encountered in the game and I still don’t know what the hell they do. I
know where Metal Ore has to go, but I haven’t successfully been given the choice
to use it for its intended purpose, so I’m not sure what component I’m missing.
Also, how the hell am I supposed to get 120 or 160 HP for higher options at the
Blood Auction?
Nitpicks aside, this game is still fun and the concept is
something I could spend hours tinkering with once more cards, levels, and
enemies are added (ideally) sometime down the road. But the fact it’s a Beta
might make people suggest I should be kinder to it. And while I have already
said I liked it, it’s still not a game I would say is flawless. Load times need
to be smoothed out, descriptions need to be added, and a push for more variety
at some point should be made to help extend the life of the game farther.
But if you’re a D&D nerd like my and enjoy card games,
this is certainly a title to check out. If not because it’s a decent game,
because the novelty of the concept is intriguing enough on its own to be worth
a look. There are few titles that do what it does and it does it quite well.
That’s all for this review. Be sure to come back next week
when we do all of our “Best of 2014” lists and get ready to bring in 2015. If
you liked this content and want to see more like it, please be sure to like,
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