Game Sneak Peek #3: Caster

As I continue running this Sneak Peek series, I contemplate the direction I would like to take it with regards to what content I choose to cover. As I have an abundance of material, I believe that discussing what stands out to me the most, rather than every game I play, is more appropriate. Note, however, that this does not necessarily mean that they stand out to me in a good way. As there were a number of games I have played to completion this past week, I had a somewhat difficult time determining which one would be most appropriate to cover in this preview. However, I have finally decided on covering Caster. Click here to find out why.

They say you can't judge a book by its cover, but right from previews, you should already be able to get a pretty good idea of the game's quality. By all means, this game should be average at best and deplorable at worst. Its graphics are rather plain, and the trailer provided does nothing to entice the prospective gamer into picking this up into their collection.

But if that was the extent of my decision making on whether or not to play this game, then this review would have been over faster than a speeding bullet, and so I've decided to give this one a try in spite of what I was seeing about it in others' reviews.

Rather than the excruciating, subpar experience that I was expecting from it, I was pleasantly surprised as to how it managed to garner my interest in possible future replays and additional content, should the creator continue his/her updates. Completing one mission turned into finishing a second, and before I knew it, I had sped-run through all of its posted content and finding myself wanting more.

Given its content, which I will get into more detail in a little bit, this should not have happened after going through all of its one hundred minutes or so content, yet everything about it came together in this endearing way to create that sensation.

By far, its strongest attribute is its mechanics. Its has a number of different types of abilities you can you use and upgrade as you increase levels, which you do as you naturally play through its campaign. The execution of each of those casts was fluid, and overpowering the enemies with your leveled weapons and dashing and jumping around them created a satisfying, lasting impression on me.

Its concept isn't all that bad either. There's nothing spectacular about it, as it sticks to a generic 'save the world be ending the war' staple, but there's nothing wrong with that either so long it isn't outlandish and the gameplay is fun. And from my previous comment, it is apparent that I had fun.

So, if I had such a good time, if this game stood out among the rest of the crowd as being something that's not just another run of the mill game, why did it get such an average score? What exactly brings this game's experience, and subsequently its rating, down so much?

There are two main things that bring this game's quality down. Though one can normally forgive a game for its lack of visuals, and by no means is this game's blocky appearance stunning, there is one other quality that is much harder to forgive, and that's the nigh blank canvas of an environment that we're given. Every level's scenery is more or less forgettable; nothing really stands out about it, at least in a good way, and running across the restricted area in under ten seconds and basically seeing nothing (aside from the objectives) can create a stale experience for the particular-type gamers.

The second thing that brings its quality down I think is slightly more difficult to fix. See, despite what I said earlier about how fun the casting abilities are to use, they are inherently broken in the later stages. From jumping 200 feet into the air and effectively over the entire board to running back across that board in under ten seconds, from its bomb abilities blowing up hundreds of minions at once to its rocket ability spamming dozens of heat seekers at once, your arsenal is simply overpowered, and you'll find that, for the most part, your enemies don't stand a chance.

I think a lot of this most of this has to do with its scaling factor. There are only five tiers in each cast, and each time you unlock the next tier, the effect is quite dramatic. Additionally, there's no stopping you from dumping all of your points into a single cast, say your dash ability for example which you can use to just skirt enemies' attacks, right away.

'But Amore, that sounds like an easy fix! Just create more tiers and limit the number of points you can apply to each cast depending on your level.'

You'd be right. It would be easy... if the game didn't actually require you to have those overpowering abilities, which I argue are game-breaking in the later tiers, to complete some of the levels. For example, I could not see how you could complete this one level, which had insanely tall mountainous regions, without dumping in a lot of points into the dash cast or jump cast to scale it, which you obviously need to do in order to defeat the enemies posted at their peaks.

Aside from that, there's only a few types of missions to play from, which doesn't create a lot of variety as to how the game unfolds. There's a little bit more variety within its post-game content, but for the sake of the review, I am only sticking with the main content.

All of these reasons culminates to the average score I've given it. By no means is it dull, though it has generic qualities, and in some ways its bad, but for whatever reason, the charm of its mechanics are still something to behold, and so long as you can forgive its stale environment and nigh game-breaking abilities, this game isn't that bad of an experience. I certainly don't mind having it ready to play, and if you're someone who enjoys a mindless action game, I encourage you to give this a try for yourself, fellow caster.

Score:

Concept: 6/10
Gameplay: 7/10
Visuals/Soundtrack: 3/10
Environment: 4/10
Subjective: 7/10

Final Score: 5.5/10

Would you like to request a specific game for me to review? I have a new list of my games, on the How Long To Beat website, which I keep up to date, and it more accurately portrays my library of games than Steam does alone. You can just find me at this link My HowLongToBeat Profile, and you should be able to check out my library. And if you can't, let me know and I'll find someway for you all to view the list.

If you're viewing something in my list and you're still not finding what you're looking for? That's no problem! Just send me a game request, and I'll do my best to fulfill it. Depending on the prices, the review may or may not take longer to fulfill this way, but I will always at least consider games if I do not own them already.

Would you be interested in seeing me playing games? Once upon a time, I used to run Let's Plays. I was never very successful at it, but if there's a genuine interest in partaking of that activity, feel free to let me know in the comments below. Since I am already doing reviews of the game, it would not be much more effort for me to create Let's Plays of them, and you may even gain access to more content -- exposure to more games -- than you would have otherwise.

I am also planning on branching this Sneak Peek series out to a wider variety of content. I am planning on starting to cover anime films as well as games, starting first with My Hero Academy. If you'd like to see me review other content, I am happy to do so. There is an extensive selection of media I can review. Books, stories, movies, YouTube videos (even YouTubers), television series, and more are all available for me to view, so there is no shortage of entertainment for me to cover. I'd love to see your feedback below.