Coming from a burning town of horrors this episode was just painful, it felt like I was playing Dark Souls all over again. It was my fault mainly I tried to rush things, not taking the time to slow down and smell the roses. I dove right into every battle headfirst and paid the price over and over again. I start not to bad but it all goes downhill as I gain a tad bit of overconfidence in my sword fighting ability. An enemy I was able to dispatch easily on the first go takes me down with little to no effort on their end.
I feel this screen fits well here
Taking a step back I look through my inventory and decide to trade the sword for a Kusarigama. It’s an awesome weapon in of itself. It’s a chain with a sickle at the end. This is far more useful than a spear as it can cover a wider area although with less damage overall.
It may do less damage but it looks super badass
Banging My Head Against Aforementioned Wall
Alright, all the confidence in the world with using a new weapon doesn’t mean anything if you can’t face your demons. This is where I falter. Over and over, did I mention I hit a brick wall? I feel it’s pretty important here. I decide to tackle the big bad miniboss with my blade as I have more experience with it. It surprisingly goes fairly well until he gets in a lucky strike and takes me down. Undeterred I rush back full speed! Only to immediately die once again before I even get to the miniboss.
That feeling like I’ve been here before
Somehow I manage to make it back to the miniboss without dying. I decide to change things up and take him on with my Kusarigama and it goes well. I watching my Kai, doing Kai blasts when needed and dodging to stay alive. Slowly but surely I take his life down bit by bit. He puts a fight but I get him on the ropes and surely think victories assured. Of course, everything comes to a head when he gets one lucky swing in and drains what’s left of my life. sigh
So Close, So Freaking Close
Look at that life bar, it’s so close yet so far
I rush back with a burning desire to beat this boss. Take the entire fight slow and calculated, dodge when needed, retaliate with some damage, and retreat to recover my health. The problem is none of this matters if I lose all my Kai at the last open and leave myself open enough for him to get a lucky strike in. If I had just had a little more than half health I could have recovered and taken a victory. Alas, it was not meant to be, well get em next time.
After trucking through a number of enemies I start making a beeline through some enemies and march forward to the ominous dark fog that houses a miniboss. Unfortunately, I move a little too fast and take some heavy damage that causes me to die before I even get to the house. But hey at least I gain some familiarity with my blade. Familiarity is a system that allows you to get a stat boost for using specific weapons over time. This is useful if you get a really powerful weapon that you’re able to master.
I look forward to seeing this screen a lot in my future
Round two here we go, this time I make it to the miniboss. This is accomplished by taking it slow and without pulling any enemies my way. I make sure my gears ready, I have everything I need to be equipped, take a deep breathe, and run right into the dark fog. I utilize my ax to help focus on doing damage and retreat when needed to recharge my kai. It takes some back and forth, a few healing items, and some luck but I’m able to drop the hulking monster. Gather some of the new gear it dropped, grab the key to the gate and forward march into a town that’s in the middle of burning. Which is just great.
The bigger they are the harder they fall, as long as it’s not on top of me
The Town on Fire
Thankfully the first you can run to right after viewing the burning town is a shrine to collect yourself at. After a little management its time to jump into the flames feet first and try not to get burned. Taking a side route to get on the roof I find another Kodama and take down an oblivious enemy with my trusty longbow. I stupidly sit on the roof too long and get the attention of another enemy that is just a pain but easily dispatched.
Oh God Not The Face
Falling off the roof I sneak attack a patrolman and manage to just blow the whole ordeal. Taking way to much damage but somehow scrape by with the help of my sword and some stance changes. A little item scavenging and just general discovering the environment brings us a nice ladder you can drop down as a shortcut. Problem is that once you get to it you can’t go back the way you came. Thus you have to push forward. This is where everything goes wrong.
Dark Fog Monsters Vengeance
Welp, this isn’t going to end well
You wouldn’t think that a fight you already managed to win would be that much harder just because of a change of scenery. Instead of inside a house this time you’re on the roof of a house. This limits your movements in a way I was not prepared for, I fail to manage my kai and just get crushed. I think this second one is much tougher than the first which would make sense.
After a little behind the scenes leveling up and changing gear, we’re back in the thick of it. Testing out the spear to take out a couple of enemies, thankfully the spear works great on the shorter crouching enemies that you run into. After a little pitfall, we are back on track and sneak up behind an unsuspecting archer, taking him out with a heavy back attack is nice and easy. Taking a risk and dropping on an enemy below I lunge forward. Unfortunately, the overhead attack isn’t a one-hit kill and I get into a three on one situation very fast.
Attacking from the air is flashy and useful
NIOH is Full of Surprises
Three on one may not seem fair but it’s thrilling, to say the least
Changing from a blade to a spear is my first move. This allows for more range and the ability to hit multiple enemies at once. This is from the center stance where you swing the spear around in a sweeping motion. After taking care of those nuisances and picking out there pretty useless gear we’re back on track. However, I do get a pretty powerful new ax weapon that I equip and test out fairly quickly. It does its job against an unsuspecting enemy and I decide to stick with it. Finding a Kodama I move towards a shrine that’s not too far ahead. Luckily on the way, I collect a Longbow to add to my arsenal.
Calm Before The Storm
You’re going to truly treasure serene moments like this
Make some offerings and we’re moving forward yet again. The game slows down at shrines, which leaves a nice balance for when the game kicks into overdrive. Past the shrine, we throw someone off a cliff. This doesn’t kill the baddy but a quick arrow strike to the head changes that pretty fast. A double headshot is just the icing on the cake. Taking a side route to obtain a “Younge Samurai’s Locks”, I run around back to the shrine and get a quick level up.
A headshot is always rewarding, always
Scouting Ahead
Moving from the shrine I take out the enemy by making him fall off the cliff this time, no longbow needed. Then I use my ax from above to strike an enemy below. Pushing forward into a new area, I take a wrong turn and fall right back into a three on one situation. With my ax and funneling them into a tight space, they aren’t too much of a problem. Seeing where they came from brings me to a door that allows you to enter the building. Now I remembered from the demo that the dark fog (Pictured Below) is really bad news. It is essentially a one-time mini-boss that you just have to beat once. That’s a lot harder said than done. Deciding to ignore the dark fog, for now, I scout out the rest of the area. Collect some stuff, kill a few more enemies, and loop back to the shrine to finish up this episode.
The Dark Fog is bad news
Hey, if you’re playing NIOH let me know in the comments below or on my video up above. I’d love to hear from you and your experiences! Heck if you could let me know if you like my content, it would mean the world to me. Love it or hate it any way you slice it could help me improve.
From the moment you start NIOH you’re thrown into a dank dark dungeon with nothing but your fists and wits. You get a little tutorial just to help layout the groundwork of the game for you. It’s a little splash in what seems like a large pond. You have nothing but your fists and wit as you take out the first enemy that you come across. From there it’s a twisting and turning jail with tons of guards and lots of pitfalls. Sadly after you clear the jail and move past the first boss, which you can surprisingly win against which was a nice touch. You’re tossed off a roof, shipped off a boat, and land onto the first level. Losing everything you gained from the tutorial and left with your trusty fists, some clothes, and the knowledge you’ve gained.
NIOH Keeps Things Simple
You start with nothing but you’ll be discarding items in no time (If you don’t die constantly)
The first thing you’ll notice when landing on the beach is a shrine directly in front of you. These are essentially bonfires from Dark Souls, you can level up, collect DLC items, change your Shrine Guardian Spirits and summon visitors for multiplayer. The coolest feature is that you can make Offerings at a Shrine. This allows you to discard items that are not going to use or just aren’t worth using. Doing this allows you to gather Amrita and gain healing items. Amrita is used to level up your character, you just need to choose which way to spec. The game has a lot of options in this regard allowing you to master a slew of weapons.
NIOH Shrine Screen
Specializing Anyway You Want
Level Up Screen
In NIOH you can choose to level up in a pretty interesting amount of ways. It’s a boil downed version of Dark Souls’ extensive array of options but it manages to still feel a tad overwhelming when you realize that everything affects multiple facets. It comes down to which weapons you want to focus on mastering. I start off going with everything that increases my damage with a sword and ax. Down the road, I find a chain-sickle that you can swing around and decide to spec in that direction instead. It depends on how much you want to grind, which can be daunting since the game is fairly unforgivable even in the early goings.
Let’s Go Exploring
From the shrine you collect a weapon almost immediately, however, you also run into your first enemy. You can just power through him, trying out different stances and getting a better feel of what the combat truly entails. It’s almost like a rhythm game in a way, sort of like a more advanced Batman Arkham battle system. You can block, change stances, manage your Kai, change weapons on the fly, and of course flee if need be. Maybe later in the game, you can change weapons more fluidly to make a powerful combo but in the early goings, it requires time to swap weapons and thus leaving you open.
You can’t really button mash your way through enemies
Enemies and Collectibles In Nioh
Kodama are great collectibles (Plus they’re adorable)
Moving a little uphill past a few enemies we run into our first collectible. The little green men are Kodama that hide throughout a level and give you various bonuses the more you’re able to find. This includes better weapons, armor, and item drops. The first few weren’t too hard to find, plus they return to your shrine, it’s cool to see you making progress other than just moving forward through the stage.
One thing you’ll notice as you carve your way through enemies is that you gain proficiency with the weapon your using as well as familiarity. Proficiency equates to skill points that can be dropped into a skill tree for each weapon and stance. Familiarity gains with a specific weapon, allowing it to gain a stat bonus when used enough to max the proficiency. This is something I don’t take advantage of just quite yet because I didn’t know about it quite yet.
Everything Comes Full Circle
Finding a spear I take it for a test drive and impale various enemies and cower from others. From the beta, I remembered that you can drop a ladder from this point of the map back to the starting shrine and make my way around nearly dying on the way there. Finding my way around I drop the ladder and return to the shrine. I spend the rest of the time leveling up, getting rid of items, and obtaining more from the Boons section. Should have obtained them at the beginning but what are you gonna do.
The Mask you get from completing the beta
Well, that’s all I got to say about my first episode back from a to long hiatus. Some things happened in my life that took away from maintaining this site I hope to build into something fantastic. I want this to grow, expand, and be a home for me and my ramblings. I want to play video games, write, record, and talk about them.
Is this possible? Can this be achievable in 2017? Do I have the chops to make this happen? All amazing questions that of course need answers. I have a lot of ideas, passion, and gaming knowledge. 2017 is the year that every game will truly be amazing, that’s a promise.
The original Dishonored holds a special place in my heart and my past
Dishonored is not something I remember every signal part of. However, I do remember playing it nearly all the time back in 2012. I don’t say it in the above video but back when I was playing the original game was at the same time my dad had passed away. The night I learned he was no longer going to be a part of my life, I didn’t know what to do. I watched hours of Johnny Bravo, Samurai Jack, Ed, Edd n Eddy and played Dishonored until I could face the real world again. I played every mission until I perfected a run, killing everyone, letting everyone live, it didn’t matter, I just wanted to escape and this game was there for me. Thus, the first Dishonored is just plain awesome, it melds stealth, action, and moral choices in a way that felt fresh back then.
Dishonored 2 Is More of a Great Thing
Just look at that title screen flair, pure style right there
The one thing that hits you right off the bat in Dishonored 2 for the PS4 is that the game’s sense of style hasn’t gone anywhere, it’s still flashy and as sharp as the first one. Those sharp edges cut right through you, implying that it’ll be much worse for your adversaries. But the one thing I do on games that give you a moral compass is that I must be the good guy. I can’t help it, the bad choices make me feel bad as a person, as a human being. In the case of Dishonored is that you can kill people, not kill people, or completely ruin their life so others do it for you. Also, the more people you kill the worse of the world of Dishonored is, more rats, more sadness, it’s just not worth the trouble if all that piles up by the end of the game.
An Introduction to Remember
The game starts with an animated recap of the first game. Showing Emily’s mom dying and Corvo picking up the mantle to save her. Emily and Corvo still think of the mother and just want her to be remembered. We walk into a long chamber with a throne at the end, the first thing to notice is just how stunning the detail of the room is. The chandeliers are bright and cast off the flowered backdrops, the candles light up the walkway. It’s all very pretty and bright, which is a stark difference from parts of the first game. We converse with Corvo, honor the mom by placing a Rose and proceed to take our rightful place on the throne.
The first clue something’s wrong should be the hulking death bots
Hearing the festivities are about to begin the doors fly open and in walking giant sword robots. If you watch the video you can see the gears turning inside of their frame, it’s crazy attention to detail. We get a little intro to Delilah as she appears from her chariot carriage thing. Delilah threatens us that this is her throne and she is ready to claim it for her own. She then steps down and sends her goons after Emily and Corvo. It’s a good thing Corvo is still a badass as he quickly disperses the triple threat.
Corvo achieves a flawless triple kill, my version of Corvo would have knocked them out but I ain’t complaining
The First Choice Is the Most Important
Just as Corvo was starting to take enemies down, Deliah isn’t having any of that and stops him as she takes away his powers. Standing for one final holdout we get the choice of who to play as, Corvo or Emily. I already played an entire game as Corvo and decide on a change of pace by going with Emily. Corvo gets turned to stone, Emily gets her face smashed in with a boot and it’s just a great day all around. A treacherous dog of a man drags us to a ledge as we watch him trick a guard and proceed to kill her. He then makes fun of the amazing folding sword, that’s the final straw, he needs to pay.
Yes, that’s all well and good but don’t you dare make fun of that sword, you scum
We get our ring taken away and finally get to play the game. From the starting room, it’s a quick detour through a window and back into the building. The cityscape is beautiful, seeing the river and buildings in the distance just makes you feel small. We meet the girl who greeted us at the door, she gives us a weapon and ceases to exist. Checking out the rooms yields looting while taking in the atmosphere of the building. Pickpocketing a guard gets us a key, that is necessary for a door down the hall. Being the first bad guy I come across I knock him out nice and easy like. Then go and shove his body in a nearby bathtub, cause I’m a pro-adult assassin.
Bathtubs Make Great Hiding Spots
I move to the downstairs portion to immobilize another guard and proceed to throw him in the bathtub alongside the other knocked out baddie. But it isn’t enough they’re just so lonely just being the two of them. Moving back downstairs directs me to the throne room where this all started. Where the monster “Mortimer Ramsey”, pictured above is talking to two losers. This is our first moral choice that I’m willing to guess has an impact on the story in some way. Do we kill the traitor or just lock him in a room he may never escape? Yeah, the choice isn’t too hard here. This is where I learn just how useful the amazing Quick-Save system comes into play. It doesn’t feel as fast as pressing F5 on a keyboard but for a console game, it’s fine.
Ramsey and friends got a little too happy from their short-lived victory
Waiting for him to move away from his friends I come in, knock him out, and take back my ring. Move my way to the bathroom to reunite him with his friends and proceed to toss him in the tub. Of course, my first try I throw him threw a wooden pillar and kill him, oops. Quick-Save to the rescue as I go for round two. Second times the charm as I throw him in the tub and he joins his buddies for a nice bathtub party.
Exiting the Scene
From here I enter the safe room with the newly acquired key. Proceed to grab a new gun, loot a safe for some gold luckily some is small enough to carry. Trying to end level reminds me that I must do something with Mortimer if I want to complete the level. The trick with Dishonored is that if you’re not going to outright kill the target then you still got to ruin their life. In Mortimer’s case, this involves locking him in the safe house, feels about right for the traitor.
The very minimum he deserves is some comfort as I lock him in here forever
Walk out of the safe room and we’re done here for this episode. This was a fun one, I don’t know if my love for the first game gave me nostalgia goggles. Either way, this was incredibly fun and I want to jump back in. Also, this was my first video where I did some editing, nothing fancy. I recorded my voice in a different way than I normally did the last videos. I used my iPhone to record my voice, which worked amazingly. Then I just took the recording from my PS4, linked them up, and boom way better audio quality once I messed with the decibels.
Call of Duty Modern Warfare Remastered Is Amazingly Hard on Veteran
Call of Duty Modern Warfare Remastered is a test of true frustration on Veteran Difficulty. The first couple of levels were total cakewalks compared to what lied ahead. Sure you’d occasionally die here and there, take a bad grenade, get shot in the face, the usual. But once you get to “One Shot, One Kill” which I wrote a bit back about here. The game makes an about-face and just crushes you into the dust. I’m not going to recap the article here but the gist is the game got brutal almost out of nowhere. Enemies all have sniper aiming precision, you can’t hide with tons of grenades falling at your feet. What’s worse your teammates can’t kill anyone to help you.
The Beginning Is Fairly Easy, It’s All About Deception in Call of Duty
Alright, chapter select to Act 2, “HEAT” and finally Veteran difficulty. The easiest part of the whole ordeal choosing menu options; now comes the awful challenge of actually playing. I’m not going to sit through a cut-scene I’ve seen a tad too many times, I know the story, you know the story; Captain Price is here to be a badass plain and simple. I hate how at the beginning of the mission has you running down the hill that you’re going to eventually be running down at the end. It’s cool because it shows you where you’re going to be going later. However, this doesn’t make the ending bolt to escape any easier.
All this cover will be your grave on veteran, the buildings are coffins to stuff grenades into
We get to a ridge to rain down hell on the bad guys. I unload a full clip of my light machine gun into nothing, I didn’t hit a single thing but the ground, off to an amazing start here. I go back and forth from the church to the ambush position, to stay alive. All my ammo is unloaded into the enemy position, I can’t figure out how to move the level forward. Thankfully Price and crew start talking and before long I’ve hit a checkpoint. By now I’m stuck with only the M21 single shot, it’s a lot slower but it’s enough for now. Time to turn and run back up the hill we just came down.
Helicopter Holdoff
This minigun sure feels like a trap on Veteran but it’s still fun to blow stuff up
You can’t run fully go up the hill just yet, that’d be crazy. You first have to hold off the oncoming forces, Price tells you to man the minigun on the downed chopper. This is entirely optional but it’s fun so you suck it up and man the thing. The problem is that on Veteran it overheats in seconds, making it worthless. Taking out a few guys and blowing up some cars is worth it but if you want to live you’re going to want to jump out and just hide in a good sniping position. This is exactly what happens to me, I take cover on a hill overlooking the landscape and just pick enemies off until the game says I can move forward. Which is ruffly when the helicopters come pouring in.
Why did it have to be helicopters, spiders would have been better
Price says that we set up some traps for the oncoming horde of baddies. This part is easy, its the next part I absolutely can not believe is so unforgiving. We move into a house that was previously cleared out in an earlier mission but now there are detonators placed on each upper window of the place. You run to each one and light up the fireworks for the unsuspecting invading ground troops. It’s a fun sequence but more importantly, you are not in death scope thanks to the building’s small windows. You blow all the detonators, congratulate yourself with a nice checkpoint, and before you know it you’re running to the top of the hill to take cover in a barn.
The Real Hell Begins in the Barn Just Trying to Survive the Call of Duty
Getting to the barn can be a pain. I died once because my teammates were in my way and I couldn’t jump a fence. Running across what feels like a no man’s land just to get to a barn to take cover, getting there isn’t the infuriating part, it’s leaving. You first have to acquire a Rocket Launcher to take out about 4 tanks that are advancing on your position. I somehow manage to kill myself by firing a rocket too close to a building directly in front of me. You take out the tanks and get your final checkpoint for the mission, the rest of mission completion relies solely on your ability to play amazingly. You can’t screw up at all, a timer of 4 minutes appears and it’s up to you to run back to the start to evac.
Everything wants you dead and you just want to get to that LZ
The real pain is that for two minutes you can’t move or you’ll die. Luck is your best friend here if you want to complete this nightmare. This was how it was for me, I never was able to get anywhere until Price says we gotta move now. Spending the next 10 minutes just waiting for the timer to go down to move out is just painful. What’s worse is that it constantly teases with its promise of completion but then someone out of your view drops you, it’s an unfair hellscape.
If you were successful please let me know in the comments cause I’d love to hear how you’ve completed this nightmare.
