Canadian indie developers Frima will be bringing their action platformer Talent Not Included to Steam on August 30th. The game stars Zordok, Derp, and Kevin, three monsters who love violence and Shakespeare. The talent-less trio decide to put on a play mixing their two loves. The demon critic Zot (an actual demon, not the usual soulless critic) is using this play as an opportunity to create havoc.
Players will fight a variety of monsters set on a cylindrical theater stage. The game features couch co-op and some really absurd humour. Talent Not Included is priced at $12.99 USD and will support both Mac and Windows. There are no pre-orders available at this time, so buyers will have to wait until August 30th to pick up the game on Steam.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jrhia_xmx54
This game takes place at a point in time where the name Batman is known by both criminals and hunted by the police as a vigilante but he is still at the beginning of his time behind the cowl since not only is Gordon still a Lieutenant but one of Batman’s standard gadgets, a smokebomb, is described as still being in a trial phase when used to subdue the thugs. Problem is, the thugs weren’t the only ones after something precious being kept by the mayor as Catwoman, or as the game initially calls her, a cat woman, is after a digital device.
Batman: The Telltale Series does something few other games revolving around the character do by placing a heavy emphasis on the amount of time spent as Bruce compared to Batman. This is demonstrated by a pleasing sequence during the initial conflict with the armed robbers as the scenes shift from the action back to Bruce recovering from his latest outing while talking, and being treated by, Alfred. This is also reflected well in how Bruce feels more at home in his bat cave, where he is in control, than anywhere else as those around him vie for his attention and power.
Choices made by the player so far are rather interesting and smaller in scope for the moment as players can either choose to attempt to placate a mob boss, be extremely aggressive as Batman, and even select between who to trust with vital information but for now these various choices don’t seem to play a major role in how things unfold in this first episode. This means that Realm of Shadows serves as something of a building block for everything that is to come and thankfully it manages to pull it off extremely well by introducing a number of characters that will play a major role in the future, be it friend or foe, and an intriguing storyline that fans will want to keep an eye on.
The exploration sequences also seem to have a bit more heft this time around as Batman, at least in this first episode, is able to examine the scene of a crime and can link together various pieces of evidence in order to piece together roughly what happened. This puzzle element is extremely small but it is a nice touch considering many would be hoping for some detective sequences here.
As for the voice work this title sports quite a few familiar names who come to work well with the cast of the game, including Troy Baker as the voice of Batman himself and a few other actors that certainly live up to the reputation of the characters they are portraying. It is worth noting that the game does explain that the batsuit features a voice modulator to lower the sound of Bruce’s voice but I found it to be rather iffy sounding in more than a few situations.
After being informed that Vault 88 was as far from finished as vaults come, with only the entrance area fully functioning in an effort to put up a front for investors, players must use the Workshop mode to clear out rubble, remove various debris, and activate the rest of the wings of the Vault that stretch all the way into a subway system and even a shop, making it hardly the safest and secure place one would expect.
These variables are chosen before every test and range from simply providing a better taste to a fountain drink machine to completely suppressing the drinker’s appetite and even going so far to draw images out of a dweller’s brain using an eye exam machine or simply generating a pleasant aroma from a workout bike. Depending on what players choose from with these variables the Overseer will either be happy or so angry she will leave the vault entirely thanks to the results and put the player in charge of what she deems a failure and letting players proceed to simply treat the giant area as any other settlement.
It is unfortunate to say that this also means that the game’s incredibly faulty snap building mode plays a big role in how much you’ll enjoy actually crafting rooms and hallways for your settlers to travel through since it continues to rely on how iffy the system is, often refusing to place pieces how you wish to or simply not being able to put them down altogether thanks to unseen obstacles. One major addition, at least for gamers on consoles such as myself, is the Vault-Tec population control terminal that allows players to create little quests through the VIP tracker to show exactly where your companions are, meaning if you managed to send someone off to an unknown settlement and lost them, they can be easily found now.