Just in time for the holiday’s a few of my favourite games have had decent updates during the last week. Naturally this means I been playing them.
Hell Let Loose
Sainte Mere Eglise has arrived in Hell Let Loose. The more urban-focused map delivers a new style of warfare to the game with it being set in and around the large town. Long streets, narrow back alleys and lots of buildings help create a different pace to the game. Not only does the map look stunning, but it plays well too. There are great choke points that create intense drawn out firefights. Additionally, there still those sprawling fields around the town that lend themselves to the more ‘classic’ Hell Let Loose gameplay experience.
Whilst both Omaha and Utah are iconic locations, it’s great to see some more built-up maps with a bit of terrain variation.
Hell Let Loose has probably been my standout early access game of the year. Black Matter has delivered several excellent updates throughout the year. As a result, we have a solid shooter on our hands.
There have also been some changes to the Foy map, which include both visual updates and some new object and terrain changes. They’ve also converted the map to have the new offensive game mode too. Not only that, but there are also some new customisable additions to change the way your characters look.
It’s been a solid update and is an excellent sign for the future of the game. Hell Let Loose is shaping up to be very, very good.
Risk of Rain 2
Risk of Rain 2 is probably one of my favourite coop games of this year. The ever-increasingly difficult gameplay delivers an experience like no other. It’s also another game that has been receiving some good updates this year. This latest Hidden Realms update brings another new playable character, some new stages and stage variations, new items and a load of other good stuff.
Having said that, I didn’t really get to experience much of the new stuff whilst playing over the weekend. Although we did manage to make our way to what I assume is one of the new hidden realms… It was kind of terrifying and we bailed out pretty quickly through a nearby portal.
Whilst I haven’t unlocked, let alone played as the new character, I do know that it’s called Acrid and that its skill set it based around poisoning your enemies to do damage over time and stacking attacks. Acrid is a lizard looking creature and sounds tough to unlock. However, that’s always been something I’ve liked about the game. The characters aren’t just given to you, you must work out how to get them and they’re all very different methods. Acrid sounds like a totally different character to what we already have and will surely require a different play style which keeps things interesting!
If you’re someone who likes playing coop games and are looking for something a little different then definitely take a look at Risk of Rain 2!
It’s also worth noting that both of these games are currently on sale on Steam!
-Will
Death Stranding
Are you surprised? I’m over 40 hours into the game and still plugging away at this beauty of a game. I’ve recently completed a 2nd Episode that featured Clifford and was set in a WWII environment. I preferred this encounter much more than the previous in the bunker level. This time you were in a war ravished town that further hit home how badly I’d like to see Kojima tackle a WWII Game.
I also completed the Heartman Episode which was another pretty deep episode with regards to a moving back story. However in this stint of the game I’m now finding that the majority of my deliveries and routes are in the mountains and man are they a test of endurance to complete.
Prior to getting to involved in the mountainous deliveries I set out to make a zipline network across the UCA stations. I’ve now created a zipline route from The Craftsman prepper all the way down to Mountain Knot City with an off shoot line to the Mountaineer prepper. I’ve also got a highway built from Lake Knot city all the way down to South Knot City. So I’m pretty well connected with regards to delivery routes in that regard. I want to start getting zip line sin place for the Eastern preppers such as the film director and the chiral artist, but one step at a time aye.
This is where my addiction with this game lies, while I do want to progress the story on, I’m having so much fun building these highways and ziplines to connect everyone to make delivery routes easier. Then I find I get distracted with new standard orders from one prepper to another. Just absolutely hooked to this game. Even with Christmas coming and some new games inbound, I feel you’ll hear me rambling on about Death Stranding for a fair few more roundups to come.
With that, hope everyone has a great Christmas and some nice time off to play some games.
– Murr
