Title: Valfaris
Genre: Videogame
Release date: 10th October 2019
Vote: 90/100
It was a lot of time that I wanted to open a section entirely focused on the videogames... or better, METAL videogames! They are "metal" in the sense that they are characterized by heavy metal influences not only in their soundtrack but also in their imagery, in their look, in some references. They can be videogames of every kind of genre but, since the aggressiveness of their metal nature, they often belongs obviously to the action games, that are also my favourite ones. And I don't care if they are in 2D, in 3D or in any dimension you want because the important is that they are good and enjoyable. But now I think that this new section could be only opened with an action game released in 2019 whose soundtrack was made by nothing else than an ex-Celtic Frost member: Valfaris!
Now, Valfaris, that I bought last year on discount, is the sci-fi sequel of Slain: Back from Hell, that was more based on a sword and sorcery approach, so both were created by the same developers' studio, Steel Mantis. It is a shooter/platform close to perfection that's characterized by an amazing and coloured pixel art, a fast-paced brutal action leaving no moments of breath and, indeed, a gothic and epic soundtrack made by Curt Victor Bryant (that was the Celtic Frost guitarist between 1988 and 1990), who surely was the perfect person to give the right sonic mood to a videogame of this kind.
Plus, the game is various and challenging, thanks even to bosses that can be enormous and often beautiful to see. There are many types of scenarios (i.e. the Egyptian one, very fukken full of infernal traps!), so the enemies are different not only aesthetically but also in their patterns of attack. You can beat them with a huge number of weapons, that are divided in weapons fit for the range attacks (some of them are monstrous!) and in weapons fit for the close combat (some of them, instead, are a bit strange!). Into this last category, there is a powerful weapon called Bathoryn, a sword whose name is a reference not only to the black/viking metal band Bathory but also to the homonymous hero of Slain: Back from Hell and brother of Therion (like the band?), the marvelous and long-haired character you move in Valfaris (that, in the game, is the fortress where he hunts Vroll, their evil father).
In brief, we are in presence of a fantastic shooter game that seem to be a combination between the deepness of Turrican and the chaotic action of Contra. I can say I already fell in love with Valfaris when I played its demo before its official release and I knew it would be so great! And now it's even greater thanks to the new Full Metal Mode, making Valfaris in a more difficult way and adding also, for example, a new awesome weapon for the range attacks. I finished the game (that is translated, among the others, in Italian!) even in this mode after something like 16 hours of playing, dying an incalculable number of times! I found no real flaws in Valfaris (only I hate the spawning enemies but this is a thing of mine!), so you have no excuses to miss it, especially when you are a fan of this kind of action games... and also because it's so epic and metallic as it should be!
Steam: https://store.steampowered.com/app/600130/Valfaris/
OTHER PICS (SHOT BY ME IN GAME):
Genre: Videogame
Release date: 10th October 2019
Vote: 90/100
It was a lot of time that I wanted to open a section entirely focused on the videogames... or better, METAL videogames! They are "metal" in the sense that they are characterized by heavy metal influences not only in their soundtrack but also in their imagery, in their look, in some references. They can be videogames of every kind of genre but, since the aggressiveness of their metal nature, they often belongs obviously to the action games, that are also my favourite ones. And I don't care if they are in 2D, in 3D or in any dimension you want because the important is that they are good and enjoyable. But now I think that this new section could be only opened with an action game released in 2019 whose soundtrack was made by nothing else than an ex-Celtic Frost member: Valfaris!
Now, Valfaris, that I bought last year on discount, is the sci-fi sequel of Slain: Back from Hell, that was more based on a sword and sorcery approach, so both were created by the same developers' studio, Steel Mantis. It is a shooter/platform close to perfection that's characterized by an amazing and coloured pixel art, a fast-paced brutal action leaving no moments of breath and, indeed, a gothic and epic soundtrack made by Curt Victor Bryant (that was the Celtic Frost guitarist between 1988 and 1990), who surely was the perfect person to give the right sonic mood to a videogame of this kind.
Plus, the game is various and challenging, thanks even to bosses that can be enormous and often beautiful to see. There are many types of scenarios (i.e. the Egyptian one, very fukken full of infernal traps!), so the enemies are different not only aesthetically but also in their patterns of attack. You can beat them with a huge number of weapons, that are divided in weapons fit for the range attacks (some of them are monstrous!) and in weapons fit for the close combat (some of them, instead, are a bit strange!). Into this last category, there is a powerful weapon called Bathoryn, a sword whose name is a reference not only to the black/viking metal band Bathory but also to the homonymous hero of Slain: Back from Hell and brother of Therion (like the band?), the marvelous and long-haired character you move in Valfaris (that, in the game, is the fortress where he hunts Vroll, their evil father).
In brief, we are in presence of a fantastic shooter game that seem to be a combination between the deepness of Turrican and the chaotic action of Contra. I can say I already fell in love with Valfaris when I played its demo before its official release and I knew it would be so great! And now it's even greater thanks to the new Full Metal Mode, making Valfaris in a more difficult way and adding also, for example, a new awesome weapon for the range attacks. I finished the game (that is translated, among the others, in Italian!) even in this mode after something like 16 hours of playing, dying an incalculable number of times! I found no real flaws in Valfaris (only I hate the spawning enemies but this is a thing of mine!), so you have no excuses to miss it, especially when you are a fan of this kind of action games... and also because it's so epic and metallic as it should be!Steam: https://store.steampowered.com/app/600130/Valfaris/
OTHER PICS (SHOT BY ME IN GAME):
No comments:
Post a Comment