PC – Active Quest

Active XP: Resident Evil Village Review (+ Spoilers)

May 31, 2021May 31, 2021 by Chris Penwell, posted in Active Quest, Gaming

Joseph, Josh, and Chris dissect Resident Evil Village’s story, gameplay, and world in this spoiler-filled review.

Review code provided by Capcom

Spoilers start at 10:10

Direct Download Link

Joseph Yaden – twitter.com/josephyaden
Josh Nichols – twitter.com/itsjerkjersh
Chris Penwell – twitter.com/PenwellWrites

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Music

Theme Song made by Novila. soundcloud.com/novila-edm

Overview

Story

With this being a continuation of RE7, we’ll touch on how Village connects to it and how these two games fit into the overall series as a whole. We’ll also touch on how we feel about the game’s narrative, which story beats stood out to us and what we thought about the wacky ending.

Based on previous discussions, it seems like we have different views on how we enjoyed the game’s ending, so we’ll dive into this during the review.

Gameplay

Let’s start off with discussing Resident Evil Village’s gameplay, which has mostly remained the same from RE7. Here is a great time to talk about The Duke merchant and upgrade system, the new weapons, and any standout sections of the game in terms of gameplay.

We’ll cover the boss battles, creature design, level design, and its scare factor. Does it feel like an action game? Does it feel more like survival horror? We discuss our favorite and least favorite sections of the game here.

The Village

With it being called Village, how do the Village sections actually pan out? Does the Village feel like a “character?” Does it warrant being the game’s subtitle? How are these sections handled gameplay-wise and narratively?

Any other notable points

During this section, we discuss any other talking points such as gripe or criticisms we haven’t yet covered, or how we feel about the Mercenaries mode. We’ll use this time to mention anything that didn’t fit in the previous sections.

Main takeaways

Here, we’ll wrap up our overall thoughts on Resident Evil Village, and whether we’d recommend it. We’ll also mention who this game is for and who should skip it.

Active XP: It Takes Two Review

April 8, 2021April 8, 2021 by Chris Penwell, posted in Active Quest, Gaming, Platformer

Joseph Yaden and Chris Penwell review Josef Fares’ latest epic It Takes Two. Spoilers: they absolutely loved it, but there are a few hang-ups to consider.

Review code provided by EA

Hosts:

Joseph Yaden – twitter.com/josephyaden
Chris Penwell – twitter.com/PenwellWrites

You can find us on iTunes, Stitcher, TuneIn, Spotify, and Google Play. You can also subscribe through our RSS feed.

Email us @ ActiveQuestPodcast@gmail.com

Rate us on Apple Podcasts, and Podcast Addict so we can continue to grow. Reviews are so helpful for discovery and opening doors in the industry for us!

Get our official shirt!

teespring.com/active-quest-shirt#pid=2&cid=566&sid=front

We are proud to be a part of the HP Video Game Podcast Network!: itunes.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewArtistSeeAll?cc=us&dkId=4&section=0&ids=1482427275

Music

Theme Song made by Novila. soundcloud.com/novila-edm

Active XP: Marvel’s Avengers Review

October 4, 2020 by Chris Penwell, posted in Gaming

Chris and Joseph feel optimistic about Marvel’s Avengers and love the campaign, but currently, it fails to deliver with its multiplayer mode.

Review code provided by Square Enix. Featured image by Square Enix and Marvel.

Hosts:

Joseph Yaden – twitter.com/josephyaden

Chris Penwell – twitter.com/PenwellWrites

Active XP: Ary and the Secret of Seasons Review

September 12, 2020September 22, 2020 by Chris Penwell, posted in Gaming, Platformer

Chris reviews the disappointing Ary and the Secret of Seasons from Modus Games, eXiin, and Fishing Cactus. A review code was provided by the publisher.

Image from Ary and the Secret of Seasons by Modus Games, eXiin, and Fishing Cactus

Chris Penwell – twitter.com/PenwellWrites

You can find us on iTunes, Stitcher, TuneIn, Spotify, and Google Play. You can also subscribe through our RSS feed.

Email us @ ActiveQuestPodcast@gmail.com

Rate us on iTunes so we can continue to reach people, go to E3, get more review codes to provide coverage to you all and more. Reviews are so helpful for discovery and opening doors in the industry for us!

Get our official shirt!

We are proud to be a part of the HP Video Game Podcast Network!: https://itunes.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewArtistSeeAll?cc=us&dkId=4&section=0&ids=1482427275

Music

Theme Song made by Novila. https://soundcloud.com/novila-edm

Ary and the Secret of Seasons Review Notes

Puzzles are a bit awkward. There was a lever that needed to be pulled but there isn’t a pulling animation until later on. So I had Ary walk into it to pull the lever. It was super strange and took me out of the game. The puzzles are terrible. I had to finagle my way through them rather than thinking of a proper solution. It doesn’t give you a clear thought process on what to do. I literally had Ary walk into a ball to make it roll. Then, I was given a tool to pull things across; that would have been nice earlier rather than awkwardly pushing Ary into a ball by running into it.
Combat Isn’t that fun. Parrying, rolling, and striking. There aren’t any special moves. Combat is dull and there’s only so many times I can hear Ary say, “Son of a cow” before it gets old.
It’s cool that the dialogue changes when you alter the season around characters. NPCs mention they’re cold when you make their area winter. You can also heat up their environment by using the summer ability.
The characters and the animations are so adorable.
The graphics are down right ugly at times.
The art behind the bad graphics stands out. I loved seeing fireworks set in front of the castle.
Frame rate is choppy, despite my laptop being able to run it easily.
Repeating dialogue. “Son of a cow” was cute a few times, but when I hear it a dozen times over one play session…
Ary is so adorable. You could make plushies out of her and they’d sell.
It carries such a light hearted tone
The game is unfinished. Doors aren’t unlocking in the Winter Temple and it mocks me with an opening noise. I can tell something is on the other side by looking through the crack.
After leaving the cathedral to upgrade Ary so I can fight the hyenas more effectively, I couldn’t go back in. Issues like this make me worry that I can’t continue the game. I’ve tried to progress but I’ve literally had a block that won’t let me through, hence reviewing this earlier than I’ve wanted to.
Music is generic, repetitive, and mixed awkwardly from field to battle. I don’t know why they bothered marketing the album release as it’s painfully lifeless.
Side quests failed at being interesting distractions to the main story. I would have loved to know more about the world around her rather than generic fetch quest missions.

3/10