Developer: Kerberos Productions
Publisher: Kerberos
Platform: PC (Steam)
Swords of the Stars: The Pit – Mind Games – Review
Mind Games is the first DLC for Sword of the Stars: The Pit. The Pit is a pretty decent game and 3rd Strike rated the game 6.8. The lack of variation made this game boring now and then and the extreme difficulty made it pretty frustrating. This DLC doesn’t only contain new content like new levels, new enemies and two new classes, but also fixes a lot of the minors of the original game.
Story
This DLC does not add anything new to the original story. A deadly virus is currently spreading on the planet, turning everyone into ghouls. The last desperate hope is a rumor of an ancient alien facility, as known as “the pit”, hidden high in the Feldspar Mountains. Your goal is to explore the pit and find the cause of the deadly virus and even more important, find a cure.
Graphics
In our review of the original game, we’ve mentioned that the game lacked some variation in environments, but this DLC fixes this completely. It contains 10 new levels and contrary to the original game, some of these levels take you outside. On top of that, there are a lot of new enemies and one of the two classes, Ranger, looks so cool. Also the new magic spells add some extra color to the dark environments giving the game some extra shine.
Sound
Nothing special here. Still the same music and sound effects as before. Except the new sound effects of magic. They sound pretty okay.
Gameplay
Mind Games changed the gameplay really hard. Many new additions made the game easier, but to keep the game hard enough for the fans of the hardcore difficulty, they have also added a new and even harder difficulty called “Seriously?!”.
To start with, Mind Games contains two new classes: Psion, specially trained to use the powers of the mind and specialized in using the new Psi Power abilities (pretty much like magic spells) and Ranger, the first non-human class (Tarka) specialized in strong melee attacks which can attack multiple targets and have a faster natural healing.
As earlier mentioned, the Psion is specialized in the new Psi Power abilities, but he’s not the only one who can learn these abilities. Every class can learn them, but Psion has way higher stats on the Psi abilities when you start the game with him. Psi Powers are divided into 7 categories: Empathy, Telekinesis, War Mind, Redaction, Manifestation, Mecha Empathy and Resistance. Each of these categories contain 4 spells which will unlock once you leveled a category sufficiently. The spells are pretty varying: they might heal you, create food, create items, paralyze enemies, etc… It makes it possible to use many new different playstyles and gives the player more freedom to play the game the way he likes.
To make the game a little easier, a new “storage room” has been added. This room makes you able to store your current experience points and items and makes you able to retrieve them during your next playthrough. It also functions as a checkpoint, since you can restart the game from floors where you’ve previously entered the storage room.
These new storage rooms, new classes and new Psi Powers adds more variation to the game but also makes the game way easier. A great advantage for players who are less experienced with games like this. For those who prefer a harder difficulty, there’s still the option to ignore the storage rooms and start the game on the new hardest difficulty.
Conclusion
New levels, new enemies, new Psi Power (or you might just call it magic) a new difficulty and storage rooms which also function as checkpoints. This DLC features a lot of new stuff for its low price. It doesn’t only add new elements, but also changes the original game pretty hard. In a good way of course. That’s why we’ve chosen to write a complete review for this DLC, since it pretty much created a complete new “The Pit” game. Downloading this DLC is a must for those who’ve played The Pit before. If you didn’t buy the game yet, but want to buy it now, don’t hesitate to include this DLC in your purchase.
Swords of the Stars: The Pit - Mind Games - Review,
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