Infinite Crisis Review

Another MOBA comes along, but can this one stay?

So many little MOBAs come and go, but when Warner Brothers Games invest into one it's got to be good, right? Well it's true, this game does have some strong points. It is another top view 5v5 MOBA based on DC comic's creations. This means you can play as your favourite super heroes, well for now not many of them but in the future there will be many. Currently there is more versions of heroes than I would of thought required. For example there is a Batman and a Gaslight Batman, both of which are in the same character class but have different abilities. The first unique aspect of this game we come across is the map. Unlike the typical 3 lanes and a jungle it is based in a city with 2 lanes in a pentagram and a suburbs area with the camps/buffs.  This confused me at first (still kind of does) because it is not anything like I'm used to.

Now we run into our first problem. There is no tutorial. I am a hard core League of Legends player but every time I try a new MOBA I like there to be a tutorial so I can get the grasp of the individual game. This has nothing, not even bot games, you are thrown in at the deep end with no idea what to do, just running round like a headless chicken. Then there is the heroes themselves. They don't seem to have any form of balance, I'd go 2-0 up then get completely assassinated with a 2v1 in my favour by nightmare Batman. He is completely ridiculous. At first I thought although the abilities were not too similar to other main MOBAs, which is good, but then I realised you can't target for more than a certain time because it auto casts, the hit detection is off and some just do absolutely nothing to help you.

But less on the bad points, more on the positives. The summoner spells (or equivalent) are all unlocked level 1, and each hero gives a unique power to 1 of the spells. Each game starts with a cutscene of the 5 heroes on your team (as displayed above) and so far I haven't come across raging 12 year old's that are so common in League. With some development (addition of tutorials, balances etc) and some more progression this has the opportunity to be among the big ones. But until that time, Infinite Crisis you are a 4/10, not what I expected from such a big company.

Game Dev Tycoon Revion

Reviewing a game where the objective is to get the best reviews, the irony.

Game Dev Tycoon is an indie game, recently pushed through Steam Greenlight. It is developed by Greenheart Games and is their first tittle. This will only be a short review as not being an AAA tittle, it isn't the most indepth game. You play the role of a game developer in his career to start a company and become a successful game developing firm. The game starts with yourself in a garage and progress to untapped opportunities. At one point, the developers at Greenheart thank you for buying their game with a popup message which I found to be a nice touch. As you gain in size and money you can produce bigger games, research genres, develop your own engine and try to produce the perfect game. In terms of graphics, since there is little movement or any advanced simulations, it is all basic and very obviously not meant to be an ultra realistic simulation but is cute and all good quality. You can find yourself spending hours making use of new possibilities, acting on ideas or (as I did) try to produce as many games that rip off famous tittles as possible.
  To get the perfect game, you have to balance work loads out between differently trained employees, try to use the precise formula of different game aspects (Sound, graphics, gameplay etc.) and platform to achieve the desired effect of the game genre you have chosen. Sounds complex but if you follow the tutorial it is super easy, just requiring some experimentation to find that sweet combo. For me the fantasy RPG of First Fantasy did it, scoring me a perfect score which I have yet to replicate. Greenheart have mastered the rip off technique, since you have to get an idea of platforms, they use names such as zonny and the mBox, giving me a good chuckle as I played.

 At the low price of around $10 this is a nice little pick up that definitely deserves a play, even with the challenge of knowing why level design is different from world design. 6/10. More games please.