Video Game Review: Slayer Shock

Originally posted on November 13th, 2016

Let me start by saying that I do really like developers Minor Key Games. At the time of this writing I've got 44 hours in their first game, Eldritch, a "Call of Cthulhu by way of Minecraft" type first person rogue-lite. So you could say I'm a fan and none of this is meant as an insult against them.

Slayer Shock is an interesting game and does have potential. You play as the Slayer, an implied Buffy expy who hangs out in a coffee shop with a gang of friends and occasionally goes out to hunt undead monsters. The game is very Buffy, even to the extent of dividing itself up into seasons and episodes - every mission is an episode, find and defeat the boss vamp, that's the end of the season. Move on to the next season and the next boss.

It isn't a bad premise and like I said it does have potential. The problem right now is the gameplay. Again, the idea isn't bad. It's basically the same combat and movement mechanics from Eldritch, but turned up a notch. There are RPG elements at play; you can't just expect 1-2 shot kills all the time like you could in Eldritch, instead enemies actually have HP and damage stats of their own.

And that's kind of the issue here. Slayer Shock is a hard game, and unfortunately it's not all for legitimate reasons. Despite what the game's Steam store page says stealth really isn't optional. Enemies tend to travel in large packs, they often take many hits to kill and they strike fast so evading isn't as easy as it was in Eldritch. If you're playing on anything above Easy difficulty open combat becomes suicidal, so you'll really need to rely on stealth to get by.

The problem is, the stealth doesn't work very well. You move so slow that trying to sneak up behind enemies while they're moving away from you is next to impossible, there is no grace period when you're spotted, and even with the perk that lets you deal additional damage on a backstab you're STILL looking at a protracted battle against most enemies.

Worse, enemies like to spawn in on top of you. I've seen enemies pop up two inches in front of my face as I was walking, and unlike Eldritch where you could stop spawns by not looting enemies, here there is NO WAY to stop new enemies from re-appearing constantly.

Basically, Slayer Shock is a good premise, executed poorly. The developers are still working on the game as of this writing, so hopefully they'll fix the stealth mechanics and the respawn problem. If they do then expect this review to be updated but for right now I can't really recommend this game in good faith.


BAD

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Annotation From The Future:
It seems that Minor Key Games has, sadly, given up on Slayer Shock so sadly none of these issues will ever be fixed or addressed. I know it's their game but still. It had potential and its sad to see that potential squandered. As they say, a work of art is never finished, it is only given up on, and Minor Key Games... they gave up.

Power Rangers Operation Overdrive

Super Sentai Equivalent: GoGo Sentai Boukenger (Rumbling Team Adventure Ranger)

Many years ago, Last Sunday A.D. The elemental brothers Moltor and Flurious wrought havoc on the universe searching for the magical crown of the gods, the Corona Aurora. They were defeated and imprisoned by the mystical Sentinel Knight. In order to prevent the crown from being fought over any longer, Sentinel Knight took the crown jewels and scattered them across the Earth. In the present day, adventurer Andrew Hartford discovers the crown, accidentally releasing the evil brothers into the world once more. In order to correct his mistake, he'll gather a team of the most talented individuals in the world, to become the Overdrive Power Rangers!

As always, I'll start with what the series did right. The Rangers aren't bad. This is the second series after Lightspeed Rescue where the Rangers are explicitly recruited for their skills and they actually have a certain degree of competence and maturity to them, though they can still be a bit whiny at times too. There's also a pretty interesting plot twist involving the Red Ranger, Mack, which I won't spoil. In all I found them pretty likeable, I enjoyed the interactions between them... not bad.

On the downside, the plot is pretty weak and it's all Disney's fault. According to the crew, the show was pitched as the Power Rangers take on Indiana Jones, with "a new exotic locale in every episode." Disney loved it so much that they gave the show a shoestring budget that made that impossible, and demanded the use of even more stock footage. One has to wonder why Disney even wanted this franchise if this is how they were going to treat it. Haim Saban might be a greedy dick, but at least he kind of cared about what he was doing.

The villains are pretty weak too. They get their small victories, which is important as I mentioned in my review for Mystic Force, and that at least puts them a step above Lightspeed Rescue's villains. They're just... not really interesting. And they come so close too...

For example, let's talk about the aforementioned elemental brothers, Moltor and Flurious. These two actually used to be human, but they turned themselves into monsters in order to gain power. "OMG! Spoilers, man!" Except not really, because in order to be a spoiler it has to be an actual plot point and it isn't. The only reason I even know about this is because of a single throw-away line in the penultimate episode, in which Mack calls Moltor out on sacrificing the "precious gift" of humanity. It means nothing.

Oh yeah, and even though they're brothers, they hate each other! Why? Well, when they were kids, Moltor broke Flurious' favorite toy sled. Haha, that's sure silly, I guess... but wouldn't it be cool if it was replaced by an actual backstory instead?

Oh yeah, and the kalishplosions begin to reach critical mass, to the point of watching things like the villain Flurious shooting the Rangers with ice, and causing them to explode in a giant ball of FIRE. What?

There's a little bit to like here, but not enough to make up for the show's flaws.


MEDIOCRE

PROS:	CONS:
+ Rangers are pretty okay.	- Story is pretty weak and never does much to stand out.
+ Villains get their small victories.	- Ice beams explode into fire because Bruce Kalish is a lunatic.
+ Multiple villain groups creates the potential for some interesting interactions.	- The villains' potential is totally squandered.