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I haven’t gotten around to playing the Monster Hunter games yet, and that was the first thing that jumped out to me with this game. I watched the trailer and it showed the protagonist Brynn climbing up giant enemies, attempting to take down mountain-sized monsters. On top of that, the description talked about wielding magic, and creating weapons and armor to enhance your abilities, which sounded right up my alley. I installed it and dove in, and so far, I’m pleasantly surprised.

Visuals

The first thing I noticed were the graphics and visuals, and the various cutscene styles in the game. Some of the cutscenes are full videos, some are just a series of still with audio over them, and some are interesting in a way that’s difficult to describe. The characters move at, like, 5 FPS, and the scenery is mostly static. I don’t know, check this out:

I kind of like what they did there, strangely. It’s a little weird to look at, sure, but it’s unique and I bet it saves a lot on the size of the game. I can appreciate the efficiency.

When you’re actually playing the game, I’d say the graphics are kind of “comic book” in a way, and I think it looks great. The world is beautiful and the scenery is enjoyable to take in as you jump, climb, and fight around the various areas. It doesn’t look realistic — but in a way that looks intentional. And in my opinion, it really works.

Story & Gameplay

When it comes to the storyline and gameplay, Eternal Strands combines elements from a lot of different types of games into it’s own unique package, in a way that I’ve been enjoying.

In a storyline that seems somewhat reminiscent of The Witcher, you play as a “Weaver” — someone who studies and wields magic — who have largely been shunned from society. In the past, Weavers lived in harmony with the rest of the world, with their primary home being The Enclave. But 50 years ago there was an “arcane event”, after which the weavers sealed themselves off in The Enclave and the world plunged into war. While it’s not explicitly known what role the weavers had in the “event” and the war, they’ve been blamed for it nonetheless.

Not all Weavers called The Enclave home, though, and the ones remaining in the world have become a pariah. So, a lot of them have dedicated their time to getting beyond the barrier into The Enclave, so that they can get answers. Unfortunately, though, nobody has been able to.

Brynn has bounced around with a few different bands of Weavers, but when her last team disbanded, she landed with this group. And in a stroke of luck (maybe?) we’ve managed to become the first weavers to every make it beyond the veil and into The Enclave. Hopefully we’ll be able to learn more about what happened.

It’s a resource-gathering and crafting game, but not a mining or survival game. You need resources in order to craft weapons and armor, but you don’t need to make any sort of additional tools. Resources are dropped, seemingly randomly, from the various destructible items in the world (which there are plenty of, but I’ll get to that). And it’s a roguelite, where you essentially go on “runs” to complete tasks and gather the resources needed to upgrade your weapons and gear.

Between runs, you go back to your camp; and each time you do, the time passes. There’s two day periods and one night period, and the weather can change forcing you to think about your strategy each time you head back out. The strength and weaknesses of your enemies, and the ones that you should focus on for yourself, will change based on the time and weather conditions. So you’ll have to create many different types of weapons and armor using varying materials so that you can be prepared for whatever the game throws at you.

At the camp is where you can upgrade your gear, which is done by the various members of your Weaver group. Talking to the people around the camp, you’ll be able to create and unlock upgrades that will help with your survival in the world. Ultimately making your task of finding out answers easier.

There’s no character customization, but the armor you equip will change your look a bit. I haven’t seen any sort of transmog at all, but there’s a chance it’ll come later. Other than the items’ look itself, you can also change the colors of each item by using a different material. That said, the different materials grant different bonuses, so you won’t want to focus solely on cosmetics.

Exploration & Navigation

When exploring in Eternal Strands, there isn’t a minimap or compass or anything like that to show you where you are while you’re moving around the world, unfortunately. There is an actual map you can check in the pause menu, and you can call a “Watcher’s Wisp” that will guide you toward your objective. But if you’re one place in the world and you want to go to another area (not necessarily toward your next objective), you’ll largely have to orient yourself on the map in the pause menu and rely on memory.

That said, instead of one gigantic map, the game is broken into smaller worlds you go to on each run. Overall, it is one giant world, and you can move between them; but I’ve found that each run is typically spent in one world/area. And while they’re not necessarily massive, the worlds have plenty to explore, and many hidden secrets to be found. It all feels very tight and deliberate (in the best way), and I never found myself feeling particularly lost. There were times where I wasn’t 100% sure where I was, but a quick look at the map and it was pretty obvious.

Some things — larger items like trees in particular — break into smaller pieces that can also be destroyed. I think endgame content for me is to simply see if I can destroy everything that can be destroyed in the world in one run. If my spells and weapons are powerful enough, I’ll give it a shot for sure. Stay tuned for that.

Also not only is nearly everything destructible, but almost every surface is climbable as well. There’s mountains and trees and buildings, and you can climb all of them. Be mindful of your stamina bar, though. Once it runs out, you’re going to drop off of whatever it is that you’re climbing.

Movement & Combat

Movement can be a little wonky, especially around running out of stamina. When you’re sprinting, there tends to be a little bit of drift (though, that’s fairly easy to get used to) and occasionally there’s a delayed reaction after pressing a buttons. I will say that I did notice that my stamina was low in those situations sometimes. So, maybe this was user error. I often accidentally overlook the stamina bar while I’m focused on enemies — it kind of just fades in to the background for me — so it’s just something i need to be cognizant about.

There’s also the typical issue of getting stuck on an object while trying to dodge or escape an enemy, because you were focused on them and couldn’t really see what was around you. I’m not sure how any game could manage that better, though.

Combat is fine, but there is a little to be desired there, too. There were times where it was unmistakable to me that I hit an enemy, but they didn’t get hit. I was maybe just a little too far away? I’m not sure. Video games. And when I was climbing one of the giant enemies — an Ark — trying to hit its vulnerable spot after knocking off its armor, I had to be in the exact right spot in order to actually get a hit. You don’t have a lot of time before the Ark tries to either grab you and pull you off, or shake you off. So it was that much more frustrating missing a hit when I knew I didn’t have that many opportunities.

It’s also one of those games where the attack animation won’t interrupt in order to do something else. If you start to attack, but notice that the enemy is attacking, there’s not much you can do to avoid it. She’s going to continue to swing the sword and take the hit in the process. It calls for a lot more patient combat instead of just button-mashing.

I’d love to be able to stop what I’m doing to dodge or parry, but it is what it is. It is more realistic, but, I mean, where’s the realism when I’m using magic. And sometimes, even when I want to be patient, it’s tough when their attacks are faster than yours. Some of the enemies have a couple quick hits that they can get in while you’re swinging.

I had some struggles working with the spells, too — especially the telekinesis spell. In order to lift and move an object, the object needs to be glowing to confirm it’s the one you want to manipulate. It takes a bit before the item glows, though, and you have to be pretty spot on with the reticle. If you’re off by just a little bit, it won’t recognize what you want to grab.

Or, there would be a delay, so when I tried to grab something, I’d release the button to try again thinking that it didn’t work. It did work, though, and now the item is just floating there. And each time you press the button to activate the spell, you use some of your magic, whether you actually do the thing you’re intending to do or not. You could pick up nothing and the magic would still get spent, so if you mis-grab even twice, you’re now out of magic.

This all proved to be incredibly frustrating when I’m being attacked from multiple angles, and I’m trying to use a rock or a trailer to knock the enemies back and give myself some breathing room. Hopefully as I upgrade that move, it works a bit more quickly and reliably. The rest of the elements are similar in that you have to be pretty spot on with your aim in order to hit where you’re trying to hit. It’s pretty unforgiving.

Additional Details

Speaking of combat, one of the biggest issues to me is that you can be harmed by your own elements. If you trap an enemy with an ice spell then run up to attack them with your sword, you’re going to be taking damage from being too close to the ice. Or if you want to hit an enemy with your flame spell, you better hope you’re not too close to it because you’re going to take damage, too.

Again, I guess I get it from a realism perspective, but it also kind of makes me not want to use my powers in a lot of ways, which I think defeats the purpose. Also, when an enemy essentially has to attack through themselves to get to you (because you’re on top of them, like with the Ashpeak Drake) they don’t take damage from their own spells, so why do I? IDK, I guess it hasn’t proven to be that big of a deal yet, but it is a little weird. Something to get used to.

Health is somewhat hard to come by. It seems as though it’s a random drop, and there’s no indicator of which item will drop health — at least I haven’t noticed one. If there is and I missed it, let me know in the comments, I’d be so upset. I wouldn’t be shocked to find/be able to make equipment that gives me health regen or something to keep me alive longer, later, but early-on It’s a bit of a struggle. More than once, I had to do a tactical retreat from the enemies to see if I could find more health.

I played for several hours, but feel like I’ve only just begun with this game. I feel like I’m struggling a bit with the enemies, but I also think I could stand to take my time a little bit and not rush. I’m focused so much on completing the next task that I’m not taking time to make sure I’m strong enough to actually accomplish it.

The second time I fought the Ark in the beginning world, the battle itself took me a long time. I ended up running away several times to look for more health vials before going back and re-engaging. Eventually, when I couldn’t find anymore health vials, I ended up just standing in places where I couldn’t really get hit and just using my bow which was incredibly tedious.

After a bunch of running away, coming back, hiding, etc. I did end up defeating the Ark again. But I found myself wondering if I was going against the spirit of the game. Maybe I’ll take the time to get strong enough to dominate the area I’m in before moving on to the next. It is a roguelite after-all. Gotta buckle in.

I sunk a bunch of hours into this game, saw several maps, and took out 3 bosses; but truthfully, I feel like I’ve barely scratched the surface. I’ve only crafted a couple new weapons and pieces of armor, and am looking forward to seeing what else I can create. And I’ve only leveled up two of my spells, with quite a bit more yet to be discovered. Despite some of the kind of wonky mechanics, there’s a whole lot about this game to like, and even more to be discovered. I can’t wait to find out what’s hiding out there.

Thanks for reading! Let me know in the comments what you thought of Eternal Strands if you’ve played it. If not, give it a shot on GamePass. And make sure to come back soon for more gaming content!

The post Eternal Strands | Giant-Slaying Roguelite appeared first on I Talk Games.

Balatro hit my radar a little while ago, and I was finally able to dive in. Read on to see how it went.

When I started hearing about this new poker game that was taking off, I had a feeling it would be something I’d be in to. The first details were vague, I just knew that I would be playing poker and using special cards, “Jokers”, as power-ups of sorts to increase my odds of winning.

I thought I was going to be playing against other people, and the opponents would get harder as the game went on. Honestly, I didn’t really know what to expect. Once I knew I definitely wanted to play, I started avoiding information about it. I wanted to go in fresh and see how I could do without any outside influence.

Gameplay

The game is played in “runs” where you have to get through 8 rounds or “antes”. Each ante consists of 3 blinds — a small blind, big blind, and boss blind — where the small and big blinds are simply to hit a target score (and can be skipped for an either an immediate reward, or a potentially better reward later), and the boss blind throws a twist at you to make scoring harder, like having a suit not being able to score, or fewer hands available to play.

As you play through the runs, you’ll gain opportunities to increase the “strength” of your cards — increasing the amount of chips that they’ll add to the “chip” count, or increasing the “mult” value, for example. And your scores can really explode when you start to add in the Jokers that are in the game.

After each blind played (like I said, you can skip some blinds), you’re taken to the shop; and the shop is primarily where you become stronger. There’s a variety of types of changes that can be made to your hand throughout your run, and the shop is largely where you make those changes.

There’s Planet cards, that will increase the base amount of chips and mult that each hand will give, there’s tarot cards that will allow you to, say, duplicate a card or get rid of cards, there’s of course the jokers, and there’s spectral cards that can take your hand to entirely new levels.

In the shop, there’s 2 random cards available to be purchased outright, or you can buy “packs” that can be a little cheaper but will give you a random assortment to choose from. Also, the prices can be lowered in the shop and the frequency of different types of cards can be increased.

Money is made during runs — there’s a base amount of money that you get for winning each round, and you also get an additional $1 for each hand left over after you win. You also earn interest of $1 for each $5 you have after a round, and if you’re still hurting for cash, you can sell your jokers or any stashed consumable cards you have.

The various cards sell for different values based on their effectiveness, and of course the amount of money you can make and the sell value of cards and more can all be increased throughout your run.

Your Secret Weapons — Jokers

There are over 150 jokers already in the game, with more coming soon. The jokers do all sorts of things, and can be combined together so you can reach crazy scores.

There’s a joker that will make all of your cards play as face cards, and another that will add to your mult value for each face-card. So every hand played automatically gets the mult bump. And, honestly, that’s a pretty modest combination in Balatro.

Some jokers will even multiply the mult value, and that’s how you can reach the truly insane scores. Insane scores that, honestly, I haven’t even hit yet. I’m still struggling to reach 8 figures.

There’s so many combinations that can be made, that I paired a couple of jokers together without even realizing it. In Balatro, you start out with 5 slots for your jokers. So, depending on the situation, it sometimes doesn’t make sense not to take a joker, even if it doesn’t immediately help you.

For example, a major way to get more jokers is to open the Buffoon Packs, and often, none of the Jokers provided really suit your play style for that run. And sometimes when that happens, one of the options is the card that increases it’s own value after each round. So you grab it thinking hey, at least I can sell it for a good amount later *and* free up a joker slot.

So I did that, putting the increase-it’s-own-value card on the back-burner in my mind, not really thinking about it. Shortly after, I got a joker that increased my mult value in rounds based on the sell value of my jokers.

When I initially got the second joker, like I said, I had just gotten the first, so it’s value was only about $3. Still, my Jokers’ total value was a decent enough amount, so I took the card. A few rounds later, I noticed that I was getting a lot higher numbers in my mult value from that card than I was expecting; and when I checked, I was reminded about the card that increased it’s own value each round. I didn’t put 2-and-2 together somehow, and still made a pretty strong combo. Or maybe I’m just dumb.

Another one was when I had the aforementioned “all cards are face cards” joker and the boss challenge was that all face cards were debuffed. I mean, I know that given enough rounds and enough playtime that sort of thing is bound to happen, I don’t actually think that the game can tell what your strategy is and actively work against it; but it’s really hard not to feel that way sometimes

Winning a Run

In order to win a run, you have to get through all 8 antes. You don’t have to play every round (or “blind”), but you do have to play every boss. You’ve got to combine your Jokers, hand-level increases, changes to your hands using Tarot cards, and more in order to maximize the number of points you can get from playing hands in the round. And if you do so well enough, and win a run, you’re rewarded with an endless mode where you can truly test your mettle.

And as you win runs, you’ll unlock entirely new decks that will keep you on your toes, and have you testing new strategies. You might get fewer hands to play each round, and fewer discards; or maybe you’ll start off with all cards of each color being the same suit (leading toward easier royal flush opportunities, and millions of points). And each deck has several difficulty levels as well, offering even more challenges to conquer and strategies to try.

Overall, there are nearly endless possibilities in Balatro, and I’ve been having a blast trying to put together the strongest combinations I can. I’m super excited to keep playing, so keep an eye on my YouTube channel where I’ll show off high scores and crazy plays, and comment below with your highest score so far (and any tips you may have).

Thanks for reading!

The post Balatro — The Poker High-Score Roguelite appeared first on I Talk Games.