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Earthfall is a four player co-op first person shooter clearly inspired by Left for dead but with aliens! Holospark is a small company with the greatest minds behind gaming in it. From games like Destiny 2, Middle earth: Shadow of war, No one lives forever 2, Call of duty 3 and bioshock infinite to name a few. They have also released other games like The impossible travel agency and Séance: The unquiet, Holospark clearly has a lot of talent but how did they do with Earthfall. Just like everybody else I just thought this was going to be Left for dead but with aliens and that’s not so untrue. That’s exactly what this is, let’s start with the story the world is in ruins. An alien invasion has hit the earth and you play as four survivors using a wide variety of weapons and supplies to combat the alien invasion. The game is broken up into two campaigns with five missions each. Each of them being a whole new area to explore and with different objectives to complete. Now these objectives aren’t different from mission to mission, most of them end up just being fetch this or fix that. Which in my option just adds unnecessary time to missions that isn’t needed, instead of doing something different every mission ends up feeling like you do the same thing over and over again. Even though they look different. This is where the game fails, it already doesn’t have much content and then with the little content it has. It just ends up feeling very unoriginal and there is no endgame that I know of, only by replaying the whole story on the highest difficulty which isn’t that fun. So after you’ve played the story which would only take you 4 hours at most you have already gotten through everything the game has to offer. Now co-op does offer a nice change and I’m always down to play with my buddies. There is only so much you can do in co-op with your friends. Even the gun play which is a big part of fps games, in this they end up feeling very clunky and like they barely do damage. When you end up choosing your favorites there isn’t much else that changes up gunplay in the game. Even the 3D printer and yes there’s a 3D printer, I just found myself using this as a way to refill my ammo when I was out. Everything you also did to progress throughout the mission would attract a swarm, there is even one point where in the second mission you are fixing a van to escape the area. By simplify putting a battery in the van it would attract a swarm, I mean how loud could that be right? I feel like at times they did this also just to extend the length of the mission by distracting you with adds every few minutes. Which again isn’t that fun when that’s all you’ve been doing. Even with the different kinds of species of aliens it still felt very unoriginal. Not even the special aliens did anything different they were more of a filler for mission time I felt. The graphics as well did nothing and they had a chance to make the game look incredible but they didn’t. Most alien bodies would just turn into a pixelated mess after getting killed and having the limbs blown off. The game also ran really bad at times and I was playing on an xbox one. A few days also after the games release, the game got a 9.5 GB update which is the size of the game like seriously? When the update was finished it was easier to get in a co-op game before all it did was put you in a lobby by yourself which I guess was a good move. After everything I had to deal with from this game, all it did was leave a bad taste in my mouth. None of the missions feels original, the graphics the broken co-op it as a whole was just bad. I honestly expected a lot more from Holospark and I was disappointed. The only good thing is Holospark as already confirmed that all future content for the game will be free which is a step in the right direction.

Three fields entertainment brings us another burnout inspired game. Now I looked at all the games released by these guys and all of them has something to do with destruction. Like the first Danger zone game and dangerous golf which tasks you with literally just breaking everything down. They already have a new game in the works releasing later this year called Dangerous driving which is…yes you guessed it all about the destruction but now it’s on tracks. Now one thing that caught me off guard is that this isn’t like burnout I would even go as far as to say it only made me want to play burnout paradise again. That was partly my fault though I expected it to be like burnout which was wrong of me it is its own unique game only inspired by burnout. The game opens up with a tutorial guiding you through the mechanics of the game and how scoring works. The game mixes up gameplay with different events like, every event it has certain scores to earn different medals ranging from bronze, silver, gold and platinum. Which isn’t a bad thing it made me replay levels to get the platinum but my thing is. If you are going to have scoring like this in your, game there should be a way to always get the platinum medal. I found myself getting frustrated because there were some levels where I had to get extremely lucky to earn the high score. Not only was the scoring luck based at times but when I needed my car to work .it would react to hitting certain things in a weird way. All of a sudden my car would have no weight to it and it would fly all over the place, proving my previous point. The game did a fair bit with gameplay I enjoyed the time I had with it apart from the problems I had fun with it. The change up in terrain was a nice fit plus the different events from getting to the crash site as fast as possible or just causing the most damage you possibly can. I even managed to grab a number one spot on a certain event and having number one for the all-time biggest crash, so the fun-factor defiantly is there. The graphics for the game didn’t look that bad either, however I don’t know what it is about seeing cars get crashed but I always felt good seeing just what would happen. In the burnout games you almost wanted to crash your car that’s how good it felt, maybe it’s just me. That’s where I feel this game needed a change up is, an open world mode where you can do events or just crash your car. It felt to linear I wanted more from this game, maybe asking developers to create a whole open world would be a tough ask I just feel it would have been a nice addition. Also asking this from a team of this size is also hard but an open world would have done this game so much good. In conclusion should you give this time your time of day, I say yes. It might not be burnout but it is, its own little game on its own and it does provide a good bit of fun. This was also made by only seven people if this is their best then they did an amazing job and I look forward to anything Three fields entertainment does in the future.

This game was developed and published by Michael Hicks a one man company who’s been making video games for a very long time. You might know him from certain games like Pillar and Sentenia games released for the 360 on the indie section. In this game you play as Motus a troll with a dream to do more, his village is covered in this forest that nobody can find a way out of. Many have tried but all have failed but you as Motus believes he can find a way out and on his journey he encounters bullies who are there to stop him, but he uses his words to beat them. Now while this game appears to be like any other platformer you have played before but it’s not. At first it starts off very basic but then it brings this unique way of fighting to the table. By literally using your words each action button says a different word and while this might seem simplistic at first. Some bullies can only be attacked with a certain word as if only a certain thing hurts their feelings and this is why I feel it’s amazing with what Michael did here. This only scratches the surface with how deep this game goes. There is also a change up in the gameplay but using this very unique style of puzzling that doesn’t make you feel like it’s a waste but it’s refreshing with what it does. While this can be a bit hard at times it really does make you think and try to get through it. After making you struggle through puzzles it does feel rewarding when you get through it. Micheal also makes a good use of easter eggs in these optional caves that’s not really part of the story, it only holds collectible pages that adds to the back story which is something I want to touch on. He does such a good job at telling this story about bullying that I feel comes from a personal place. Throughout the game you have bullies who are literally there to give you a message that you should give up and stop trying because your life is worthless, but you as the player pushes on, you don’t give up and you see how Motus achieves what he set out to do and that’s make a difference. That’s why I said this is coming from a personal place, like a lot of us in our lives people doubt us and with good reason. We usually have ambitious goals that nobody thinks we can achieve. This is why I feel the over-arching message here is to never give up on your dreams and to always believe in yourself no matter what. This is why I love story driven indie games at times because these guys pour their hearts and souls into these games and they have such powerful messages behind them. I couldn’t help but get reminded of a time where this happened in my life and I could relate to the story in my own way, I think this was what micheal was trying to do. Even when you complete the game it provides new puzzles and collectibles and this is what did it for me. The “high roads” collectibles which is throughout the levels now I at first couldn’t understand how to collect. You have to get pass certain sections of the game without hurting the bullies, so you have to be better even when they bully you. Which at first I didn’t get but it provides a nice challenge. Do I feel the game is worth your time I say yes, apart from certain things like the game not saving and a few puzzles feeling almost impossible at times Other than that for a game only made by 2 people mostly they did an incredible job at telling a story and I wish all the best for micheal and any else he works on.