Barnestorming- March of the Ants in Review, Bloodborne, Mushishi

Read more...

Luchador is pretty fun? You bloody savage. It's amazing! Probably helps that I'm a huge wrestling fan. If you're not a wrestling fan, then KoT probably delivers more fun.

I think the sword/gravestone hammer is like the coolest weapon design ever.

I only played Demon's Souls but I remember how peculiar it was to find a lucrative grinding loop and actually feel like I'd stumbled across treasure, rather than a wall I was expected to scale as part of the design.

Mushishi is definitely one of the best and most unique anime series out there. Great all the way through. They made some new ones, I think.

FMA does get a little teeny, but some of the plot points hit pretty hard.

Bloodborne sounds like something I'd dig the hell out of. Except it's almost the only thing I'd want to play on the PS4, so there's basically no chance I'll get a PS4 to play it.

Really, since I never actually made much progress on it, I should probably just install and play through Demon's Souls or Dark Souls, right? But man, I love the Victorian gothic vibe in Bloodborne more than the dark fantasy thing.

Bloodborne is probably the best horror game I've ever played. The gothic horror setting is genius for attaching to a souls game because the mechanics really facilitate horror. So when you play a souls game you are sitting there, incredibly tense, knowing that a single hit could kill you... and then to add the more horror centric trappings, when you're already in that tense, paranoid mindset and physical state... it facilitates everything that a horror movie or game is trying to do via the gameplay.

I'm sorry to hear March of the Ants didn't work for you. I really enjoyed my one play of it.

I got Mega Man 2 on my Wii like five years ago, and I still have never beaten Heat Man because I have never been able to conquer that part where the blocks appear in seemingly random spots around the board. I just haven't had the patience to memorize the pattern.

Great game though.

Ha ha! And that part is EASY!

Even with doing the savestates, the parts that are hard are still freaking hard. But it's almost like a puzzle thing, where you have to work out what you should do and then there's the skill element of executing it.

But you really get into that wonderful old school vibe of encountering something that seems like it's impossible until you notice a pattern or an opportunity. Like the first time you fight the Yellow Devil and see how to anticipate his actions and respond accordingly. Bloodborne is actually like that too.

And yes, Bloodborne is the best horror game I've ever played. The opening alone is so horrifying and spooky that it blows away most films in the genre.

Greg- it is kind of your fault, because I saw your mention in the forums and that reminded me that I needed to check out the game. I don't dislike and it certainly wasn't a waste of time...but it seems like the Great American Ant Game has yet to be created.

I went looking for other reviews for March of the Ants and they were all written before/during the Kickstarter campaign based on prototypes. And of course they all recommend funding the KS like the reviewer did. Kind of untrustworthy and self-serving, imo. So thanks for taking the time to review the final product and not writing like an infomercial for it.

You have my solemn pledge to NEVER review a Kickstarter title before it is available to everyone at retail.

Michael Barnes wrote: Greg- it is kind of your fault, because I saw your mention in the forums and that reminded me that I needed to check out the game. I don't dislike and it certainly wasn't a waste of time...but it seems like the Great American Ant Game has yet to be created.

Yeah, the last part of your review made me think you were looking for a different game than what it is. But I blame them for that, not you. Everything about the game is presented as if it were an ant game, when really it is a Space 4X game in disguise. I also agree that there wasn't too much original about the design except for the compactness that kept the play time down to about 90 minutes.

I have so many questions and issues regarding your review of March of the Ants that I'm not quite sure where to start. Well, I guess my basic question is: What is an example of an "ant-y" mechanic that you would have liked to have seen in the game? Or a game that has mechanics that really reflect the theme in a way that you appreciate or enjoy? These kinds of concrete examples would help me understand your point of critique in the review. In my opinion, the theme, art, graphic design and mechanics of MotA are thoroughly integrated -- the relationship between theme and mechanics is actually one of the things I appreciate most about the game.

@Mad Dog: If there were no huge divergences from the rules sent to reviewers before/during the Kickstarter campaign and those published at retail, what is the difference? If it is not a substantively different game, why does it matter when it was reviewed?

@Gregarius: Are all 4X games space-themed? Is a game with mechanics inspired by space-themed 4X games like Eclipse or TI:3 necessarily a "4X Space game in disguise"? Based on your thinking, I'm just not sure how we ever escape a sort of solipsism where everything is derivative of everything else. Like language…or fantasy tropes…or the fact that all organic matter is made of carbon… In other words: of course the game owes a debt to other games. That inspiration was mentioned very vocally in the Kickstarter materials. It's like your eating a blueberry muffin and complaining that it has too many blueberries.

• Pheromone trails
• Herding other insects
• Slave-making ants
• Sentinel soldier ants on trails of worker ants
• Symbiotic parasitism with plants
• Zombie ant fungus
• Etc