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    Battle Armor Event overview!

    in Apex Legends

    Posted

    Up your game as we up the armor. Drop in with your armor locked and prove you’ve got the skills to come out on top.

     

     

    Hi everyone,

    I’m Jason McCord, Design Director on Apex Legends.

     

    Throughout the last year we’ve heard many fun ideas from our fans about different ways to play Apex Legends. One of my favorites has been suggested countless times, and even more so when we introduced the Evo Shields in The System Override Event.

     

    I’m excited to announce that starting Tuesday, April 28 we’re introducing a new limited-time mode called Battle Armor. The Battle Armor event takes place on World’s Edge and will evolve over 7 days, with a new twist on armor every few days. 

     

    Here’s how it’ll play out: during the event rotation only one armor type will be available, and players will drop into the match with it already equipped. Players will also drop with a P2020. All armor will be removed from the loot pool, but shield cells and batteries, as well as all the other sweet, sweet loot, will still be available (just not armor). 

     

    The schedule is as follows: 

    Tuesday, April 28 @ 10am PDT  - Saturday, May 2nd @ 10am PDT: Level 1 (White) armor only.  

    Saturday, May 2 @ 10:01 am PDT - Wednesday, May 6 @ 10am PDT: Level 2 (Blue) armor

    Wednesday, May 6 @ 10:01am PDT - Saturday, May 9 @ 10am PDT: Level 3 (Purple) armor. We expect to see some drawn out fights as everyone drops with some of the best armor in the game.  

    Saturday, May 9 @ 10:01 am PDT - Tuesday, May 12th @ 10am PDT (when Season 5 kicks off): Evo Armor only. Players have been asking for this since we introduced the concept of Evo Armor, so we’re particularly excited to see how this unfolds. And if you want a pro-tip from me: get in fights early, or you’ll be left limping into the final circle with Level 1 armor! We’re also turning on double Level XP for Top 5 finishes across all modes during this phase. 

     

    The Battle Armor Event is just one way we are going to start experimenting with the core gameplay of Apex Legends, and we’re excited to introduce even more twists in Season 5 and beyond. 

     

    From the entire Apex Legends team here at Respawn we just want to say thanks for all the love and support you’ve shown the game. We love to hear your feedback so please share it with us, and I look forward to seeing you in the Games. 

     

    Jason McCord

    Design Director

     

    Let us know what you think over at the discussion thread. 

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    XCOM: Chimera Squad Review – A New Kind Of Goon Squad

    in Game Reviews

    Posted

    xcom_chimera_squad_-_patchwork_breach.jp

    Publisher: 2K Games
    Developer: Firaxis Games
    Rating: Mature
    Reviewed on: PC

    At the end of XCOM 2, the human resistance overcame impossible odds to overthrow an oppressive alien hegemony controlling our planet. Now, freed from their shackles, humanity must find a way to live in harmony with the eclectic alien races that now call Earth home. Factions on both sides of the fence are unhappy with this new world order. Chimera Squad is a standalone strategy game in which you manage an elite team of hardened warriors from across the cosmos, putting out cultural fires and hunting down anyone who aims to disrupt Earth’s fragile alliance. Their methods are radical and often explosive, and sometimes they make a few wrong moves – just like the game itself.

    Chimera Squad is built atop XCOM 2’s smartly designed strategic action, which is a great starting point. You manage a team of super soldiers through several tense turn-based encounters with fearsome alien monsters. The stakes are always high, so bad positioning and missed shots can have dire consequences, but that sense of heightened danger is all the more thrilling.

    Firaxis smartly expands on those existing mechanics with a new system called Breach Mode. At the beginning of each encounter, your soldiers can plan their entrance onto the battlefield. During a breach, you are presented with several entry points, each with its own advantages and disadvantages. For example, a surprise back-door assault might give your units an aim advantage, but the first unit through the door is marked by the enemy and easier to hit. Weighing the costs and benefits for each breach point is fun, and wiping several enemies off the board during the initial onslaught is always satisfying. Overall, the new Breach Mode is a clever system that adds to the XCOM formula without overly complicating the already-deep strategy. 

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    Some of Chimera Squad's other changes are less successful. Instead of issuing commands to all your units at the same time, Chimera Squad features a new interweaved attack order. Each units’ turn is listed on a timeline on the side of the screen, and your units’ attacks are often shuffled between enemy attacks. I can’t overstate how dramatically this alters XCOM's combat, because it changes how you approach each encounter. On one hand, the timeline adds a neat strategic element; many soldiers have special moves that can alter that timeline, like rallying your troops into action early or delaying an enemy assault. I loved tinkering with the turn order, and clearing out groups of enemies before they've even had a chance to move is empowering. On the other hand, this new approach makes it harder to coordinate your units’ attacks. Since enemies often attack between each of your units, they have a greater chance to disrupt your plans. As a result, I fell back on the same attacks and maneuvers for each hero that seemed to work the best, rather than coordinating assaults based on context. Chimera Squad throws a few surprises at you, but near the endgame I had fallen into a repetitive routine.

    The XCOM series has never put a big focus on narrative. Instead, it usually excels in engineering moments where you tell your own story with your customized team. Chimera Squad replaces this system with a set of 11 pre-made heroes, complete with their own unique abilities and character quirks. Each hero is fully voiced, which allows them to interact more in narrative moments. I loved the small character moments that sprung up during my journey – listening to one character complain about their locker space, or hearing another confess to eating all the leftovers in the fridge. These soldiers feel like more fully realized characters than the units in previous XCOM games, and I liked using them in battle. But you can’t recruit new heroes whenever you like, which means they are a limited resource. As a result, Firaxis has removed permadeath; whenever one of your heroes dies, it’s game over. Losing a unit in previous XCOM games was a powerful gut punch, now it's just a frustration that forces you to reload the battle, which removes some of the tension in each encounter.

    Click here to watch embedded media

    Instead of the all-encompassing global war featured in previous XCOM games, Chimera Squad's action takes place within City 31. This futuristic metropolis was home to an active Starport during the alien rule, so it is teeming with the best and the worst the galaxy has to offer. Between firefights, you manage the city's crime levels from Chimera Squad's HQ. From this central heat map, you can see the crime levels for each district in the city. You can also deploy field teams and issue emergency commands that help control the rising tides of discord. This city-level strategy isn’t too complex, but it offers a nice change of pace from the turn-based combat, and Chimera Squad's HQ is a great place to regroup after a battle as you train your troops and tweak your loadouts.

    The XCOM series is well-known for its intricate turn-based action. Chimera Squad augments those systems with a few clever ideas, but some of the new systems don't play well with XCOM's existing foundation. The interwoven turn order and removal of permadeath are fun experiments, but they ultimately weaken XCOM's delicately balanced action. Chimera Squad is a neat standalone project, but it doesn’t stand as tall as the rest of the series. 

    xcom_chimera_squad_key_art_vertical.jpg

    Score: 8

    Summary: Chimera Squad is built atop XCOM 2’s smartly designed strategic action, which is a great starting point, but it doesn't ultimately live up to previous entries.

    Concept: Manage an odd mix of aliens and super-powered humans as they maintain a fragile peace within a city ready to boil over

    Graphics: New comic book-inspired cutscenes are full of style, but the lack of customization options for your heroes feels like a downgrade

    Sound: The futuristic soundtrack is subdued but solid, and the new character voicework helps you to get to know all your soldiers

    Playability: These tense firefights test your composure under pressure. Sadly, the new interwoven turn order reduces some of your tactical capability

    Entertainment: Chimera Squad's action remains incredibly rich, but the slightly repetitive combat mars the overall thrill

    Replay: Moderately High

    Click to Purchase

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    Trials of Mana Review – Fun But Faithful To A Fault

    in Game Reviews

    Posted

    screenshot_4.jpg

    Publisher: Square Enix
    Developer: Square Enix
    Release: April 24, 2020
    Reviewed on: PlayStation 4
    Also on: Switch, PC

    The beloved Mana series hasn’t traveled an easy road. After earning accolades in the ‘90s, the franchise has struggled to capture the same magic in a modern landscape. People began to wonder if the series had seen its last days, but 2018’s Secret of Mana remake showed Square Enix still had a place for the fan-favorite property. That remake didn’t exactly do justice to the original, and now the team is trying again with a remake of Trials of Mana. 

    Did they learn their lessons? Trials of Mana is definitely an improvement over the Secret of Mana remake, but it still comes with many of the same problems; I still noticed poor A.I., questionable voice performances, and technical hiccups – just to a lesser degree. Even so, this is probably the most fun I’ve had with a Mana game in a long time, and that’s thanks to smooth combat, amazing boss fights, and cool ways to upgrade your characters.

    Trials of Mana still retains its classic elements and feel. It’s a linear and straightforward RPG, and the remake sticks close to the original story and structure. Because players form a party of three from the six available heroes, I like the replay value in selecting different characters and experiencing their stories and different fighting styles. Seeing how the characters’ adventures intersect is intriguing, especially learning the tragic events that gave them something to fight for. However, Square Enix may have stayed too true to the original script, which creates issues in terms of presentation. The dialogue is extremely unnatural, so all the voice acting sounds stilted. It doesn’t help that, while the voice acting is a slight improvement over the previous remake, the production sounds amateurish, with weird pauses and horrible accents. Do yourself a favor and stick to subtitles.

    The real draw of Trials of Mana is its fantastic action-oriented combat. Combat plays fast and smooth, as you have access to strong, weak, and aerial attacks alongside special moves and dodging abilities. On the surface, this all sounds simple, but it becomes a game of chaining together combos, avoiding spells, and canceling out enemy’s larger attacks by striking at opportune moments. The addition of a jump button also comes in handy for avoiding attacks and more combo options. There’s never a dull moment on the battlefield, and I enjoy that kind of frenzy. 

    Every character in your party plays differently, and you can swap with the touch of a button. This means you can easily go from an up-close brawler like Kevin to spellcaster like Charlotte. It not only gives you variety in how you fight, but also can play into your strategy, especially if you want to knock out an enemy and create a flurry of special moves.  As you level up and open new classes, you gain access to more powerful combos and moves to keep things interesting. I enjoyed being able to build my characters to a certain degree by investing points in their stats and unlocking different perks for battles, like auto-heal or increased critical odds. 

    Click image thumbnails to view larger version

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    Regular battles are quick affairs, which is balanced well by the more laborious boss battles where you have to whittle down their large health bars. The bosses are high points of the journey; they’re creative, memorable, require different strategies, and let you prove your mastery of the battle system. More than a few got my adrenaline pumping. Plus, the satisfaction that comes when you finally get that last hit is divine, like when I fought atop a dragon against a three-headed beast. Unfortunately, boss battles expose your party member A.I’s weaknesses. This was a huge issue in the Secret of Mana remake, and while it isn’t as prevalent, it still stands as a common frustration. 

    Having to babysit your A.I.’s health isn’t fun, but the worst part is that they just don’t have any awareness for incoming attacks. For instance, if the enemy is launching an AoE attack, I swap characters to move my allies out of the way, and what do they do? They run straight back into the attack for deadly damage. You can adjust their tactics, but none of the options fix this. I didn’t have issues with them in regular battles, but constantly healing and reviving them during boss fights is annoying – especially since the game renders you helpless to prevent it. The original Trials of Mana had co-op, which might have alleviated some of these issues, but that feature is not included in this version.

    While I enjoyed my time busting up baddies and scouring every inch of the land for treasures, the remake does not remove the repetition or grinding that was present in the original. The structure of the game has you going back and forth to the same dungeons. They usually have a different area or boss within them, but I would have appreciated not trekking through the same content to access them. Difficulty spikes and item hunts have you battling the same enemies and searching the depths of these areas again. The world seems wondrous at first, but all of the recycled content makes it less exciting over time. 

    It may look more modern, but Trials of Mana is a faithful remake outside of its combat tweaks – and that isn’t necessarily a good thing. But as a fan of the original, parts of this game are still charming. I adored the combat and boss fights (when my A.I. cooperated), and even with some of its repetitive nature and horrible voice acting, I didn’t want to put the game down. It’s a decent remake but not the fantastic one it could have been. This series has so much potential, I’d just love to see it fully realized.

    trialsofmana.jpg

    Score: 7.75

    Summary: Trials of Mana is definitely an improvement over the Secret of Mana remake, but it still comes with many of the same problems.

    Concept: Remake the third entry in the beloved Mana series with new visuals, voice acting, and various gameplay enhancements

    Graphics: While the classic sprites will always hold the most allure for me, the 3D graphics look decent and help bring the vibrant and inviting world to life, even if some NPC designs leave much to be desired

    Sound: The new remixed tracks keep the series’ essence alive, giving personality to the world and bringing intensity to battles. The voice acting feels embarrassingly phoned in, with stilted dialogue and awkward deliveries

    Playability: Trials of Mana is a simple action/RPG on the surface, but there’s more to it than button mashing. Just don’t expect too much guidance for the more complex parts

    Entertainment: This action/RPG excels in its fast-paced combat and intense boss battles, but a few frustrating elements ruin the enjoyment

    Replay: Moderate

    Click to Purchase

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