A challenging but addicting platformer, Spelunky free on PSN this month

Free this month on the PlayStation Network is a platformer called “Spelunky.” Originally developed by two guys (Derek Wu and Andy Hull), the PS4 version was developed by Blitworks. It was initially released in 2009 with PS3 and 360 remakes released in 2013.

I always download these PSN games because who doesn’t love free stuff? I was expecting the usual points-based platformer but what I got was a lot different. Spelunky is brutal. Spelunky is unforgiving. This cutesy, colorful, seemingly kiddy platformer about collecting treasure will kick you when you’re down with pleasure. Honestly, the Dark Souls “You will die” tagline would also fit Spelunky perfectly.

I hated Spelunky at first. I told myself I hated it and I told my friends I tried it but wasn’t crazy about it. But I kept playing. I kept going back for more and eventually I realized why.

I thought at first that Spelunky was too much, that it was overly difficult, the learning curve was too steep and that it was far too unforgiving. But as I kept playing, I kept picking up on ways I could play better. How I could tighten up my game, keep an eye out for traps and play quickly but play smart. It sucks when I accidentally sprint off a ledge, take fall damage, get hit by a bat and bounced into a spike pit and killed within moments of starting a new game (and yes – that actually happened to me) but the more you play, the more you realize how you can avoid those hazards in the future.

In Spelunky, you play as a treasure hunter exploring a strange series of caverns that is constantly changing and comprised of several different areas. The levels are randomly generated so every time you play, your experience is different. There are also I think, five different areas that each present their own traps and enemies. There is lots of treasure to collect which counts toward your high score, but that treasure can also be used to buy items which aids in your progression (like a parachute that saves you from fall damage or a compass which points to the exit in each level). You also have bombs to reach inaccessible areas (or damage enemies) and ropes to reach higher areas (or allow you to descend). There is also a “damsel” in each level which, if taken to the exit, gives you an extra hit point.

The most difficult aspect of Spelunky aren’t the relentless enemies or traps but the fact that you only have one life with four hit points. If you die, you start back at 1-1. Doesn’t matter if you make it to the second, third or fourth level – if you die, you go back to the beginning. Some people won’t be able to get past this aspect. Gamers these days seem to expect check points and save spots and Spelunky doesn’t offer anything like that. Granted, you can access later levels by completing the four levels of an area and giving Tunnel Man items to complete a shortcut to that area, though if you use that shortcut to start your game, your high score won’t be recorded.

Spelunky originally had 8-bit inspired visuals but are very clean and cartoony in the PS4 version. The music also calls back to earlier eras of gaming and is very reminiscent of Sega Genesis music. Honestly, the music is one of my favorite parts of Spelunky and I’ll often catch myself humming various tunes throughout the day. There are also several different characters to choose from and more that can be unlocked through the course of the game.

Despite the tremendous challenge that Spelunky presents and it’s still an incredibly well-made game and one that you could play for hours on end and have fun with yet never quite master. The challenge will always be different every time you boot it up and with random level design, unique challenges and level types, Spelunky will always keep you on your toes and is a platformer that deftly spans the gap between fun challenge and absurdly difficult. Spelunky is free this month on PSN but even if you have to pay for it, it’s well worth the price.

Destiny patch 1.0.2 brings fixes for several issues

If you’ve been playing Destiny and have reached level 20, you’re probably familiar with this scenario – be out killing aliens and happen upon a purple engram. “Sweet,” you think, “This is going to net me some legendary gear!” Only, once you get back to the Tower and have the Cryptarch decode it for you, it turns into rare or uncommon gear.

This heartbreaking scene played out more times than I can remember in my game and I’m sure in many other games as well. In Destiny, there are color-coded tiers of value for weapons and gear – common (white), uncommon (green), rare (blue), legendary (purple) and exotic (yellow). Engrams are special items that are classified by weapon or armor piece but the specifics are unknown until it is “decrypted” by an NPC at the Tower.

Until Patch 1.0.2 was released, a purple engram could be decoded into a purple item but all too often could turn into a blue item, a class below. Personally, before 1.0.2, out of 10-15 legendary engrams I found out in the world or as a reward from a strike or a Crucible game, I only got one or two legendary items and the rest were rare items that I didn’t need. Though, from a legendary before the patch I did get an exotic weapon – the Ice Breaker sniper rifle. I wasn’t too high on it at first, since I’m a Titan and not much of a sniper but the more I use it the more I love it. It has a 6 shot clip and it regenerates ammo and never needs to be reloaded. Also, its upgrades are awesome. Missed shots have a chance to be returned to your magazine and enemies killed combust and have a chance to deal damage to nearby enemies among other perks.

But I’m getting off topic. With the release of Patch 1.0.2, every engram you find from now on will either be that class or better – never worse. This is great news for everyone (including myself) who had become jaded with the fact that legendary engrams never seemed to turn into legendary gear, only blue stuff that usually wasn’t of any use.

The new patch also increases the chance that you will earn or happen across blue and purple engrams. Drops for these items seem to be increased in the PvE modes and now you’re more likely to earn them in the Daily Heroic Mission, the Weekly Heroic Mission and the Tiger-level strikes in the Strike Playlist.

Patch 1.0.2 also adjusts some elements of the Crucible. The time limit for the Bastion and First Light maps in Control and Clash has been reduced from 15 to 12 minutes, to bring them in line with non-vehicle maps in those modes. Additionally, the weight for Bastion and First Light in Control and Clash has been reduced so players will see them less often in those modes.

Fixing the Cryptarch so engrams only give you equal or better gear (instead of usually worse) is one of the biggest fixes that Bungie has added so far. I feel like the fact that engrams usually decoded into worse stuff is a big reason why many players would want to exploit the (now defunct) “Loot Cave” or methods of glimmer farming – so that they would increase their chances of possibly getting good gear since getting legendary engrams didn’t always mean legendary gear. But now that there is a higher chance of getting quality engrams and that those engrams will always be of equal or greater value, I feel like people will be less inclined to try and exploit  areas for easy items and instead try to earn them as Bungie intended.

That’s all for my notes about the patch but since I’ve been playing a ton of Destiny, I just want to talk a little about how my character is evolving so far.

Right now, my Titan is level 27 and over the past week or so I’ve been able to acquire all legendary armor to replace my rare armor. I think first I got purple boots from an engram (the first time a purple engram turned into purple gear). Next, I finally ranked up to level 2 Crucible rep and bought myself a legendary helmet. Then, the very next thing I did after buying it was a Queen’s Wrath mission where the reward was – you guessed it – a legendary helmet. I kept that helmet because I can’t bring myself to break down legendary gear but I wear the one I bought. Next I earned a chest piece from another Queen mission and yesterday I finally found legendary gauntlets to wear.

 

As far as my weaponry goes, I have different loadouts for PvE and PvP.

In the Crucible, I like to use an auto rifle, a shotgun and a light machine gun. In the Crucible, stats don’t matter and so I don’t feel compelled to use my highest quality weapons, but the weapons that will perform the best against people. I don’t like pistols, pulse rifles or scout rifles since auto rifles get so many more shots off and have limited recoil than pistols or other rifles. And like I said before, I’m not much of a sniper so I don’t bother trying against humans. And though I usually get destroyed by fusion rifles in Crucible, I’ve never had much luck with them against people. As far as heavy weapons go, I like having more ammo with LMGs and more opportunity to generate kills than the limited ammo offered by a rocket launcher.

In PvE, I generally load up the best gear I have. Right now, I’ve been leveling up a legendary pulse rifle “Fair and Square” and am working on the last set of damage upgrades for it. My secondary weapon is the exotic sniper rifle Ice Breaker, though sometimes I’ll switch in a rare shotgun or fusion rifle. In my heavy weapons slot, I just got the rocket launcher “Unfriendly Giant” this morning and am going to try leveling that up – though I still prefer LMGs to rocket launchers in PvE as well.

I also wanted to talk about my gear because I finally got my first legendary bounty the other day, the reward for which is the legendary handgun, Thorn. I was really excited to get the chance to complete a legendary bounty. I had heard about these bounties but had never received one and apparently it’s just random chance that you’re offered one.

If you get a legendary bounty you’ll probably be similarly stoked to have the chance at exotic gear or weaponry – until you realize how much work you’re going to have to put in to complete the bounty. These aren’t simple “action-reward” like the Vanguard or Crucible bounties – legendary bounties make you work. Here’s how mine has gone so far:

-Complete the moon strike

(Not so bad, I’ve done this plenty of times. Phogoth was difficult the first time but not so bad once you reach a higher level.)

-Kill 500 Hive

(Wow, that’s a lot of Hive. But still, this is for a legendary gun. I powered through this just running through the Hellmouth on the moon a couple times.)

-Earn 500 points in Crucible with void damage. Deaths set you back.

(Wait a minute. Hold on here. I have to do what? I didn’t even have any weapons that did void damage when I hit this part of the bounty, so I had to go to the gunsmith and buy a green shotgun that did void damage. Luckily, I eventually happened upon a LMG that did void damage as well as finding out that the sticky grenade in my subclass did void damage. But still, with a kill earning 5 points and deaths subtracting 2, this took me a while. But I eventually did it and thought that would be the final step. Oh, you naïve fool, you.)

-Talk to the Speaker and “purify” the weapon

(Apparently the gun was corrupted or something? Well whatever it was, I had to spend a Mote of Light at the Speaker to have the gun cleansed. Now I can start killing, right? Whoa, hold on there, not so fast…)

-Speak to the Warlock Vanguard

(OK and she’s going to purify it more or lift some spell and then I can use it, right?)

-Kill Xyor the Unwed

(Oh come on now!)

And this is where I’m at now. Apparently Xyor the Unwed is a unique monster that only shows up during the final battle of the moon strike. You have to keep killing Phogoth’s minons until he shows up which according to the internet can take between 15-30 minutes(!). So now, I have to wait for my fireteam to be able to play so I can convince them to help me with this because if I tried to do this on my own with a team of randoms, I’m sure they would just kill off Phogoth before Xyor showed up and I’d be out of luck. And after all this bounty has put me through, I’m not even sure I’ll get the gun after finishing this step. So many times I’ve want to just abandon this bounty, telling myself it’s not worth it (mostly during the Crucible step), but I’ve soldiered on, the allure of another exotic gun too great to pass up.

Despite the trials of this legendary bounty, I’m still having a blast with Destiny. Leveling up my Titan has become an addiction and I’m hopefully going to be able to try the Vault of Glass raid sometime soon (mainly because I need Ascendant material to upgrade my legendary gear). But even if I get tired of my Titan, there’s still two other classes I haven’t even touched yet, which really excites me since there are so many Strikes and Story missions to play as well as the Crucible, which is a lot more fun than I anticipated.