"In Death" do us VR

I love playing VR games, and I love playing GOOD VR games even more. My son got an Oculus Quest 2 for Christmas, and it's been a lot of experimentation with what's out there on the Oculus store. I haven't really written about any of the VR games I've been playing for some reason, but I've finally been playing a game that has me solidly hooked, and that game is "In Death: Unchained."

In Death Unchained is all about traversing a procedurally generated dungeon and shooting things with a bow and arrow.  In fact, movement is even accomplished with the bow. With the press of a button your regular arrows turn into glowing movement arrows, which can allow for a lot of sneaking around and gaining crazy vantage points to shoot down and surprise your enemies. It can also allow for a lot of OH CRAP moments when you accidentally shoot a movement arrow into your enemy instead of a regular arrow. Yeah, it's happened. *sheepish grin*

Snipe a knight!

In Death: Unchained is also a 6 Degrees of Freedom (6DoF) VR game, meaning you can dodge your enemy's attacks by moving around, or shooting around a corner. It is incredibly cool to get into a shoot out with the Bow Monks and you're ducking for cover to escape their arrows and trying to time your shots. 

The Oculus Quest 2 excels at these types of games. Why? Because it is simply the best VR system out there to date right now.  It's 1- relatively affordable, 2- has no wires (thus the "unchained" in its title as the original In Death game on Steam didn't have this luxury), 3- has no dirty earbuds to mess with, 4- excellent boundary drawing tools for creating your play space. Granted, the only VR system I played before this was the PS4, but it's hands down a better experience all around.

If you managed to descend far enough into In Death, you'll find portals to more challenging content than what you'll find in the initial castle crawl. There are truly terrifying specters that don't seem to die unless you hit an arrow directly in their hearts while they are within a close range. Demons that chuck fireballs. Skeletal archers with deadly aim. Bosses with tons of hit points surrounded by swarms of undead. etc. etc.

Time to dodge a fireball from a portly demon

It's terrifying and fun at the same time. A couple days ago I actually ran forward out of fear when a couple of skeletal archers found me and almost knocked my desk over. I really really wish I would have been recording. It was hilarious. I saw myself exit the game boundary I had drawn and actually crashed into my computer desk. (When you go out of your boundary, you see your surroundings in Black and White, so watching my desk almost dump over was pretty funny.) The skeletons made quick work of me despite my efforts. I was giggling too hard.

There are a few other modes in the game, but currently I'm enjoying running the Purgatory dungeons. The Tower Defense mode is good, although very stationary. The more action-packed Desolation Mode is much more fast-paced with less sneaking around and more mass target practice.

Good times await!

. . . and I haven't even tried using the crossbow yet . . . I'm having too much fun with the bow mechanics only possible with a two-hand controller system like the Quest 2.

All in all, I have to say this was the best purchase I've made on the Quest 2 to date. Hopefully someday I'll actually be able to survive when delving deep into the dungeons, but for now I'm just having fun trying to stay alive.

Happy Dueling!  

Spiritcaller, Icywiz, and Stingite vs. New World

Imagine my happiness and surprise when I saw my good friends Steven Spiritcaller and Icywiz (of Spiral Radio fame) streaming some New World!  Also imagine the good fortune of them playing on the exact server I had already started playing on before my friend lost interest in the game.  Awesome!

Before you knew it, I was logged on and hanging out with 'em like we were the three musketeers.

It's a brave New World, friends!

The only bad thing here is that they have awesome colonial names and I'm "Stingite." waaaa waaaaaaa! Yeah, Name change isn't a thing in New World, but perhaps someday I can match the awesome names of Eudoria Wells and Ewan Hardcastle . . . get on that Amazon! *snaps fingers to encourage haste*

The main reasons my friend, Tess, stopped playing New World seems to be lack of variety in quests and the projected disappointment when there was to be an eventual lack of content at high level. 

That's it . . . that's all there is . . .

That's fair. While the lack of content at high level will most likely be addressed in the future, I doubt the treadmill to get there will be changed. It all has a kind of LOTRO vibe about it where you kill wolves, then more wolves, then bigger badder wolves, then the biggest of baddest wolves, and then the epic of the biggest badder wolves.  At least that's how it feels in the beginning of the game. Some don't mind, and some would rather kill crazy looking varied creatures. *shrug*

I will say that following the main quest line has run us into some pretty awesome undead, and perhaps that is what was missing for my friend. If you stick in one area and just do the city quests and faction quests, well, it can all get pretty same-y pretty quickly.

The great thing about last weekend was that it was double xp and double weapon xp! 

YES PLEASE!

With that, it wasn't much work for me to advance from level 18 to level 24 with only moderate play time. I was also able to unlock a penultimate skill with my firestaff that slaps down a rune underneath me that increases my damage by 25%. 

HELIOS!!

Rumor has it that Steven and Icy will be continuing their journeys in New World throughout the week, but I also hear they're feeling the pull of ARK as well.  I'm just happy I was able to play with my old friends again.

Happy Dueling!

Venomancy in Perfect World -- In and Out of the Tutorial

So, my friend Tessanna from Runes of Magic really loves Perfect World, and since it's a game I've never tried, I decided to give it a go. The TL:DR is that I've been wanting to like this MMO, but so far . . . it's been a real battle for me to fall in love with it, and it hasn't happened for me yet. 

Why haven't the McElroy bros done PWI for Monster Factory yet?

It might just be that I'm tired of old MMOs after Runes of Magic to be honest. While playing this game, in the back of my mind I kept saying, why would I play Perfect World, when I could just as easily play Swords of Legends?

I mean, the double jumping with no fall damage, the flying dragon mounts, the quest flow, the NPC camera shifts during dialog, and just the overall Eastern MMO vibes . . . it all just seemed to be done better in a more modern MMO, and that's Swords of Legends.

Flying around on the back of a weird fish dragon is pretty epic

Also, you know what I hate? I absolutely hate gender locking class choices in MMOs. It's an immediate turn off for me. Out of all the classes available to me in Perfect World, the one that matches me the most seems to be the Venomancer. Right?  1- It's a pet class. 2- It's all about poisoning your foes. 3- I could be The Friendly Venonmancer!  It just makes sense.  The part that doesn't make sense is that I have to be female.

On my way to becoming a Demon?

It shouldn't bother me. I mean, it doesn't really bother me in the Diablo series, but then again there's a difference between Diablo where I'm taking an avatar's journey through a story and an MMO where it's my customized avatar taking my journey through multiple stories.

As for the Perfect World tutorial, it does its job.  By the time it's over, you'll have fought several cool looking bosses, flown on the back of a dragon to travel around a map, gained your basic skills, and will have been introduced to how to complete quests and follow POIs. 

Perfect World's tutorial was perfectly fine . . . other than really making me feel separated from the rest of the game. It was very much a solo game experience. I ran into only maybe 3-5 people while I was logged on? One guy was endlessly farming mobs afk.  Everybody else was just seen in passing. Nobody was sync'ed up with me on my quest path, so it all felt a bit empty and void?  That's typically the problem with older MMOs: Where's all the people?

Death to Drunk Monkeys!

I wish I would have fallen in love with my character by the end of the tutorial, but I didn't. The monkey pet that the Venomancer gets is pretty good, and it holds agro super well against the big bosses.  Outside of the bosses though, your pet seems lame.  

Also, because I'm a Venomancer I can turn into a fox?  I should love that since I spent so much time in Project Gorgon as a fox, but honestly I didn't even see the benefit of doing so.  Two shots of poison killed pretty much everything that wasn't a boss while being a fox just seemed to hamper my dps and put me in harm's way.

There also seems to be some method of taming new pets, but I couldn't figure it out. There's just something I'm not getting about this class yet.  I probably should go read a whole bunch of guides, but why does that not sound fun like it usually does? I think maybe I'm just not in the mood to learn a new, um, old, MMO right now.

If you've got some thoughts that would change my mind, I'm listening!

Happy Dueling!

Caving in to the New World

So it went down a bit like this . . . New World launched around 6 months ago and it was HOT. Everybody was talking about New World. New World this, New World that. It's kind of like how it is now with Lost Ark. 

As for me, being how I am, I took a solid pass to New World because why would I ever play the hot, new game of the moment? Me?  Play the latest and greatest game and write about it on my blog?  NEVER!  If you're over here at The Friendly Necromancer looking for a play-by-play of Elden Ring, you've come to the wrong spot.

Side note, wouldn't it be amazing if I did a play-by-play of Elden Ring and posted about it on my blog?! 

Anyway, the buzz has died down and most of the heavy surge of players who were there at launch have left, so I figure New World is fair game for The Friendly Necromancer to write about.

The whole reason I bought this game is my friend from Runes of Magic, one Tessanna . . . or (since that name was taken in New World) "Tereayna." Tereayna bought New World back when it was all the hotness and just never played the game. Now was the time she chose to try it, and because of that, $40 later I was in! LET'S DO THIS!

Tereayna was adorable, y'all.  For the first couple hours of the game she ran around without a mouse using the mousepad to play. At one time she was training like 7 mobs behind her, and I was like . . . OK HERE WE GO! 

Run Tereayna, Run!

As for me, Stingite is sporting his classic mohawk in New World and after finding a Fire Staff, I was kind of in my element. Not gonna lie, the game so far has been just as fun as everyone said it would be. It just feels new and good, and the graphics are fantastic. I love how I have to aim my shots to hit, and I also love that the game is somewhat forgiving when I just barely miss.  I guess I'm just used to competitive shooters. 

I guess I answer to Gilander Dempsterfire? COVENANT FOR LIFE!

Can I just say how cool fishing is in this game?  The mini-game is really really good and captures a lot of the tension from trying to wear down a fish's strength while simultaneously trying to not snap your fishing line. It's one of the best fishing systems I've messed with to date.

Reeling in the big one!

Also, it might be the heavy use of violin and adventurous sounding music, but New World's music is giving me serious Valheim vibes. (Side note, I should try playing Valheim on my new computer here -- I bet it's a better experience for me.) 

So there you have it. I'll be logging in to new World with my buddy Tereayna and playing from time to time. So far I'm having fun with the game.

Daddy needs a new pair of boots

Happy Dueling!

Sheesh, Runes of Magic! Enoch already!

Over the past couple days I've had some time to quest through the next island of the Shamtaem Archipelago known as Enoch.  You know, Noah's great grandfather from the Bible.  Just kidding -- I'm sure the zone in Runes of Magic has no relation . . . unless for some reason this entire zone is somehow taken into heaven and never seen again because it's just that good. . . until then, no relation.

Nebula Woods Camp, in the Nebula of Enoch

No Enoch plays out pretty much in the same way that Tasuq and Korris did.  You start out by going to help Kerley Hill set up a camp yet again (which is already set up of course), and then uncover more nefarious plots by the Inexorable League. 

Kerley is again on the hunt to analyze the spatial transfer of the area. Right outside that first Nebula Woods Camp are hidden Angren "lionesses" known as Lurkers.  Invis mobs are a total pain to deal with, but after a few minutes you just come to accept that every 30 footsteps you're going to run into one until you're about 100 paces outside of camp.

Silent but deadly?

Angren are to Runes of Magic as Vah Shir are to Everquest or as Charr are to Guild Wars. You know . . . conflicted war-torn lion people.  The people in the Nebula Woods Camp are convinced their anger has something to do with the Inexorable League, so you know what that means . . . it's cat person killing time!

Don't worry, cat person killing time doesn't last long, instead it turns into cat person HELPING time. Just down the road from the Nebula Woods camp is the Jadefang Outpost where the friendly "Leonine people" of the Angren race are chilling. 

It's Angren vs. Angren out there! We must even the odds!

As it turns out this entire tribe of Angren was living in Northern Janost Forest (remember that place?), and they and a faction of Elves known as the Jyr'na were both transported to the island through some kind of magic.  When they arrived at Korris, the welcoming party there was . . . you guessed it . . . the Inexorable League.

Kadnis!  She's a plant demoness!

Kadnis from the Inexorable League cast a big nasty spell and now a good chunk of Enoch known as the Twilight Marsh is shrouded in Eternal Darkness. Half the of the Angren and elves fell to dark magic, and the other half are stubbornly good, which is good news for us since they will give us plenty of quests and gold to line our coffers in exchange for our assistance.

Twilight Marsh in perpetual darkness. Like my brain around 11pm, but all the time.

Eventually you'll make your way past another camp of NPCs, who send you into the Twilight Marsh -- it's scary in there, and then you end up in the Azure Lake area, which is a breath of fresh air.  There's another really stellar daily quest here where you capture "adorable mutant" flowers.  I also "won the game" when I found the cutest quest item the Runes of Magic offers . . . a little frog.

it's cute

Yup,  that's right. I can finally stop playing Runes of Magic, this frog has won the game for me.

The last stop off in Enoch is a terribly unforgiving area that's densely packed in with enemies called the Demon Bastion.  I've died here plenty of times just running around . . . just trying to talk to a quest giver even.

Why . . . just why?

Side note, listen up designers . . . never . . . NEVER EVER EVER . . . never put mobs next to a quest giver.  You may be thinking . . . oh! It'll be a fun challenge to get over there and talk to the NPCs with these two enemies just standing here right by them. DON'T YOU DO IT.  Just don't.  Ever.

A lot of the quests in this area simply have to do with trying to figure out what the Inexorable League is up to in the area and once again leads to a dungeon zone (as is the reoccurring theme in the Shamtaem Archipelago islands). 

Some day I shall visit the Sun Temple of Eternal Sleep, but for now it's off to Vortis, our next destination in Runes of Magic.

Behold the entrance to the Temple of Eternal Sleep. The very place my brain wishes to be at 11pm.

Happy Dueling!

Of Korris! It's no problem in Runes of Magic

And just like that . . . another island in the Shamtaem Archipelago has been cleared of quests by the Vampire slash Telekinetic known as Stingite in that crazy MMO known as Runes of Magic. 

Korris . . . it's like a poptart. Frosting on the top half, and Regrets on the bottom half.

Well, I cleared it all but two quests up there near the entrance to Ice Blade Plateau.  That's a dungeon. I'd just need to convince a group of high level friends to go clear it with me before I could really call Korris complete, but this is close enough for jazz.

Korris is kind of an interesting island. For some reason, half of the island is covered in snow and the other half is a jungle.  

Hillwatch camp down in southern Korris. They watch hills here.

Why's it so crazy?  Well, I blame the League of Inexorable Gentlemen! That's right, the Inexorable League continues to be our main antagonist as we travel through the end zones of Runes of Magic.

It's freezing up here in Northern Korris. She really needs to put on a jacket.

As it turns out, The Inexorable League was conducting experiments on creatures in the Shadow Camp of Tasuq to "measure their spatial magic adaptability" . . . whatever that means. Seriously, some of these quests are like reading a technical manual on how to gaslight players. 

Said . . . what?!

Basically, the Inexorable League won over the cyclops and minotaur tribes to their cause. The cyclopes are just power hungry. The minotaurs involvement was a bit more . . . hard to understand. Because of this, the good guys, aka the Hand of Balance, need your help with all kinds of crazy stuff in Korris.

One of those crazy stuffs is a great daily quest that my guildie, Misstreat, showed me, and I've been running circles in Korris ever since. Minong Marluqi in the Icefog Camp wants you to take Fluctuation Sensor readings in two locations, one down in the warm area of Korris, and one in the cold area of Korris. Yes, you are playing a fantasy game, and no, this isn't Star Trek; although, I gotta say, a Fluctuation Sensor kinda sounds more sci-fi than fantasy.

That's "Minong Marluqi" or "M&M" for short.

Run that quest 10 times a day and you'll end up with 8.3 million exp and 1.1 million gold. Easy stuff.

All in all, I enjoyed questing through Korris.  The difficulty in the game keeps ratcheting up and sure enough Korris is a bit more difficult than Tasuq, but with the passing of time and a couple premium currency purchases, I'm staying ahead of the curve and surviving the best I can.

I like the variety of enemies you can find in this zone and who doesn't love killing cyclops, right?

Just LOOK at that cute, little stupid face! 

To be honest, and I'm pretty sure you can tell this by my lack of posting lately, I've been busy and haven't been playing a ton of Runes of Magic. Currently the hot thing to do in game is to (once again) farm Coins of Petals. You can turn in 800 coins a day for 8 orbs of 5 million peak experience. Crazy, right? Even crazier, this event is going on all month. This all seems to be part of their 13th anniversary for the game. woot!

So that's it for Korris and it's now on to Enoch.  I've already quested through the main line there, but I still have to conquer those sidequests . . . should be fun!

Happy Dueling!

A quick plug for Inscryption!

My oldest child bought me Inscryption for Christmas, and I've been meaning to drop some thoughts here about this fantastic deck builder / puzzler indie game, but first let me allow you to be creeped out by this aesthetic . . .

He just wants to hug me . . . right?!

Just to put it out there right up front, it's really good. point blank. All of my kids have played it, and have done their best to keep me spoiler free. Half the fun is hearing them whisper around me to keep stuff a secret.

Anyway, Inscryption is a 4-lane card battler with a ton of conditions, randomness, and boss play to make it well worth your time and money. Originally released in October 2021, I'm late to the Halloween party, but I'm glad I've now had a chance to experience its unsettling kind of fun.

The developer behind Inscryption is the same Daniel Mullins Studios that brought us The Hex and Pony Island. The Publisher is Devolver, the same group behind great games like Loop Hero and Exit the Gungeon, among a plethora of other great Steam games.

Now that that's all said . . . If you don't want any spoilers . . . stop reading . . . just go get the game and be happy with your purchase. For the rest of you . . . whooo boy.

I struggled on the first act of this game for a long time until I got an undying squirrel totem from the woodcarver, and it was just too much power. It carried me right through that final boss with no issues at all.  I don't know if I could have done it without that totem to be honest. I've got so many "stingite" death cards that it was humbling seeing them all attacking me on that final fight.

So many squirrel cards . . .

After the first act, you're treated to a series of YouTube-like videos from a content creator who ends up finding an old floppy disk from the 90's buried in the forest with the Inscryption game on it (playing into the 16-bit aesthetic as well).  It definitely has the whole Blair Witch Project vibe going for it, but not without making fun of itself in the process.

Green screen and all!

The other interesting portion of the game comes from when you press the back button enough times that you stand up away from the game table and look around your capture's cabin.  Herein are several small minigame puzzles that will give you advantages in the actual game.

All the things the arcane eye sees!

Apparently there are three acts total to this game, and I've only managed to get half way through the second act, so . . . I still have a lot to explore here.

Anyway . . . just had to plug this card game in case some of my readers hadn't played it yet. Good times and highly recommended.

Happy Dueling!