Every so often, I stumble on something — a book, a game, a system, a site — that’s so amazingly not s$&% that I’m forced to admit that I don’t actually hate the thing. Yes, there are things in the world that other people have made — things I didn’t make myself — that aren’t s$%& and are therefore worthy of my non-hate. And that’s worth talking about.
Today — and every alternating Tuesday — I’m going to share a couple of things I don’t hate.
Note that no one’s paying me to do this. And I’m not shilling for anything that I don’t have some personal experience with. Or, in the event of a future release, I’m at least interested enough in getting some personal experience that I’ve preordered the thing or Kickstarted it or am otherwise intending to buy it myself and add it to my collection.
Note also these ain’t reviews. Just my personal takes on things. Based on what I see.
Arora: Age of Desolation Kickstarter
I’m going to admit, right off the bat, that Ghostfire Games sent me one of those e-mails content creators always get. The ones that go, “hey, we’re launching a Kickstarter soon and sure would love you to get all your fans’ eyeballs on our page.” I get a lot of those. And I do glance over them. But I rarely follow up. This one caught my eye though for a couple of reasons. And it caught my eye enough that I e-mailed back and asked for more details. I didn’t get a whole lot of details I could share, but I was intrigued enough to back it at least at the PDF level.
Arora’s a post-apocalyptical fantasy setting. Fantasy world ripped asunder by ecological disaster and now the world seems to be a bunch of elemental-themed Mad Max wastelands. Yeah, it’s basically a Super Mario world with a lava kingdom, an ice kingdom, a swamp kingdom, and so on.
Look, I’m gonna be honest, I didn’t pay much attention to the lore and s$&%. That said, I do like the idea of a hellscape of elements run amok. If that’s what it actually is.
No. What caught my eye — and what I asked for more info about — were these little passages right here. Check this s$&% out:
New 5e Survival System
A brand-new survival system for your 5th Edition campaign. This system gives you all the tools that you need to run an awe inspiring, thematic, and gritty survival session with the defined rules and mechanics that deliver solid foundational structure for adventuring in a world of extreme wilderness challenges.
Improved 5e Exploration System
Exploring the realms of Arora in the Age of Desolation is pivotal to survival for the humanoid survivors of the Five Realms. This improved exploration system provides a solid set of mechanics and rules to bring the exploration pillar of play back to the forefront in your campaign.
Evolved 5e Advantage System
The Advantage system for 5th Edition was revolutionary, a game changer. We have taken this amazing system and evolved it even further. This robust system allows players (and GMs) to elect for alternative benefits over the standard 2d20 Advantage System that base 5th Edition offers if they so choose.
It’s no secret that the Advantage mechanic and I do not get along. So any changes to that s$&%’s probably a good thing. But man, am I super curious about the Survival and Exploration system. Because damn it but I’ve been harping about how to make wilderness travel, exploration, and survival a thing for years now.
Well, I asked about that s$&% and the designers were cool enough to send me a little more info. Not a whole lot — they’re busy with some kind of Kickstarter thing — but a little explanation.
Basically, there’s a system for building regions and populating them with features and landmarks. And the GMs even got a tracking sheet to fill out for a region. The PCs, meanwhile, get their own little journal sheet about the region. Initially, it’s blank, but as they deliberately explore the region, they fill in their little map/journal thing. And that provides a sort of macrostructural backdrop against which the PCs can explore dungeons, visit towns, and other normal RPG s$&%.
Anyway, this is a Kickstarter. So these guys could just be blowing smoke. And there’s a difference between idea and execution. But I, personally, am intrigued enough by the exploration mechanics that I’m backing the thing.
If you want to check it out, they gave me a custom link you can use to visit the site. I think it just flags you as one of my readers so they know whether talking to me was worth their time. Anyway, check it out if you’re interested…
The project hit its goal already, so there’s no chance it’s going to fail. And it’s in its final 48 hours now, so if you want to get in on it, now’s the time.
Arora: Age of Destruction by Ghostfire Gaming on Kickstarter
Carrion from Devolver Digital for PS, Switch, XBox, PC, Steam, GOG, Et Cetera
Look, I’m like two years late on this s$&%. But I blame Devolve Digital for not putting this on the correct platform from the get-go. Because f$&% PC gaming and f$&% the Switch with its tiny, tinker-toy controllers. I mean, what the f$&%, Nintendo? You do know what human hands are shaped like, right? Because you don’t design controllers like you do. I really don’t even f$&%ing get it. I mean, I’ll forgive the original NES because no one knew much about console design back then. I’m not sure what the hell was up with the N64 controller with its THREE handles. But then, you made the Game Cube controller. The single best, most comfortable controller ever f$&%ing design. And now you’re back to tiny slightly curved rectangles again. And I’m not even talking about your delicate hardware which seems to be wired with gossamer-thin strands of moonlight instead of actual wires so they’ve got a lifespan of approximately two weeks before the stick just gives the f$&%. This is just the shape of the f%&$ing controller as compared to the shape of the appendage meant to operate it. It’s just…
Sorry…
Anyway, here’s the story.
Back in 2020, Snoman Gaming — who I absolutely don’t hate — posted a review of Devolver Digital’s Carrion. And I was totally down to get me some of that. But it was only available on everything except the PS4. Which is the only gaming console worth playing. So, I was like, “f$&% it, I’ll wait until Devolver comes to its senses and ports it to a real game console.”
And then I forgot about it.
Apparently, in October of 2021, someone at Devolver grew a f$&%ing brain and put the game on the PS4. But no one was smart enough to tell me about it. So I didn’t even remember the game existed until I spotted it by accident on the PS Store two weeks ago.
Look, Carrion is a pretty awesome little game. The premise is that you’re the Thing. A terrible sci-fi horror monster that escapes containment and starts taking over the science facility in which it’s imprisoned. The main character is basically just a writhing mass of tentacles and toothy mouths and eyeballs. And it drags itself around the space in a way that feels both amazingly loose and free and also amazingly blobby and glumphy. That’s a word. And it perfectly describes how the blob monster handles. Like, when the thing gets to a certain size — because you acquire power-ups that both give you more hit points and make you physically bigger — it’s a little tricky to control. But it feels like an okay kind of tricky because you’re trying to drive a massive blog of biomass that drags itself freely in all directions by projecting tentacles and pulling it along.
The structure’s that a side-scrolling sort-of Metroidvania. An okay Metroidvania. It’s more Metroidvania than Dead Cells or Metroid Dread, but it ain’t Hollow Knight or Super Metroid. Basically, you explore the facility, transitioning periodically to new areas, absorbing new genomes that let you do all sorts of cool s$&%, and solving puzzles.
The power-ups and the puzzle designs are what really grabbed me. First, the power-ups aren’t your usual mix of wall jumps, double jumps, differently colored beams, and grappling hooks. It’s fun to play a Metroidvania game where I can’t predict 90% of the power-ups based on the game environment.
Second, certain power-ups are keyed to your mass. Your maximum mass and maximum hit points go up periodically throughout the game. But your mass is determined by your current hit points. So, if you take too much damage, you shrink down and lose access to certain abilities. And if you’re too big, you can’t use certain abilities.
However, in certain pools of nuclear goo, you can deposit cocoons to store excess mass. And you can go back and pick it up again.
Devolver uses these rules and systems to create some pretty interesting puzzles where you have to figure out how to navigate to the right place and be the right size to use certain abilities to proceed. You have to do things like drop mass in a pool, get to an obstacle, bypass the obstacle, and then find a different way back to pick up your mass and bypass another obstacle. S$&% like that. It’s really well done.
Carrion’s also cathartic as hell. Because you are a biomass of tentacles and teeth and you are just tear-a$&ing your way through the scientists and security guards, punishing them for their hubris in tampering with things not meant to be tampered with. I refuse to use the phrase “reverse horror game,” because that’s a stupid phrase. A horror game from the viewpoint of the horror is a superhero game. Not a reverse horror game.
And while the game’s good at making you feel pretty damned OP, it does ramp up the challenge as time goes on. Scientists and soldiers are understandably vulnerable to being torn asunder by tentacles and shredded with teeth, but the armored soldiers are resilient. And tentacles and teeth aren’t as great against drones, turrets, and mech suits. I mean, it ain’t the Dark Souls of not-reverse-horror. It won’t have you pulling your hair out. But it has a few tricky spots.
One thing I’ve got to mention is that there’s no in-game map. Which I’m actually okay with. Because it’s not really that heavily reliant on exploration. If you keep pushing forward, you’ll mostly get where you need to go. Most of the navigation challenge comes in small, self-contained areas and is connected to those puzzles I mentioned earlier. You really don’t have to do any large-scale navigation.
Thing is, that feels fine to me. Because you’re a devouring blob of teeth and ooze. You’re just an inexorable, consuming mass. So just keep pushing forward, devouring everything, and bypassing obstacles. Tentacle monsters don’t usually pull out roadmaps.
Anyway, if any of this sounds like it’d be worth 20 American bucks to do it for six to ten hours, check it out on whatever platform you want: