![]() ![]() Act 1 early access really can't come soon enough for me-time for one last run through Club V'heni I guess.For a long time I would have said Jedi Outcast is clearly the better game, but when I replayed them a few years ago I actually enjoyed Jedi Academy more. I crave more of this world, the game's fantastic imm-sim-lite exploration, and its arresting sword fighting combat. I still feel like it's reaching fighting game combo levels of input memorization though, and there were a few times when I felt like I should have mantled a ledge and instead fell to my death.Įven with that caveat, Fortune's Run has immediately jumped to the top of my personal most-wanted list, even surpassing Dread Delusion (opens in new tab) and going toe-to-toe with the unannounced-but-inevitable Elden Ring expansion pack in my silly little consumer-enthusiast cosmology. Team Fortune put out a handy guide on Twitter to the variations and inputs necessary to bounce off the walls like a pro, which helped on my subsequent playthroughs of the demo. I still run hot and cold on the game's wall jump, an essential tool for handling its verticality and occasional platforming puzzles. The path forward is not especially well-signposted, and the sequence requires some Destiny Raid-level navigation of wall geometry to make it out of a strange, fenced-in silo over a lethal drop. This is a stylistic choice that mostly works for me-rough edges grip better after all-but there's one jumping puzzle in particular that still feels more like sequence breaking than the intended path through the game. After a fight I might find every door locked and have to spend a couple minutes to find the vent cover to break or occluded ledge to climb up. Much like with the Jedi Knight games, I found it difficult to know where to go next sometimes. Loved this cheeky Deus Ex reference in the environment art. Those characters all have that weird clay look of 3D models posed and captured as sprites, and the whole shebang has a real "lost '90s masterpiece" vibe to it. Its alien species take a lot of cues from the rubbery practical effects of old Star Wars, with main character Mozah feeling extremely Twi'lek adjacent. I find this all to be really tangible worldbuilding, stuff with a sense of history like Disco Elysium, and it's aided by naturalistic dialogue and superb voice acting.įortune's Run's delivers this band of characters with incredible art direction-it has a real sense of that old, Star Wars Expanded Universe grungy weirdness. Most of the bar's well-heeled clientele have departed and Z'tar's thrown in with that band of ideologically ambiguous revolutionaries, trading his supply connections for their muscle. The oppressive but prosperous Federation is about to pull out of the game's setting of New Zabra, promising freedom but also a power vacuum and political instability. Bar owner Z'tar and other patrons at the establishment allude to some kind of job gone wrong, a revolutionary action that resulted in mass death. The protagonist, Mozah, is a failed revolutionary turned corporate samurai on work release following a 10-year prison sentence. The writing and world building in this tiny sliver of the game surpassed all my expectations. These frenetic encounters never seem to play out the same way twice, and I'm positive I haven't uncovered every secret of this map yet, hence the unending replays. The demo rarely autosaves, so spamming F5 is a must. I especially appreciate the little Deathloop/Prince of Persia-esque rewind animation that plays on a quickload. Unlike recent immersive sims like Gloomwood (opens in new tab) that have removed quicksaving entirely, Fortune's Run enshrines it as a tactic, encouraging trial and error in its firefights. ![]() You're extremely fragile in Fortune's Run, but thankfully it loads Hotline Miami-quick (at least on my SSD). A big part of what keeps me coming back to the demo is this addictive, pulse-pounding combat, a Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance-level fulfilment of that cyborg ninja fantasy all cool and normal people have. ![]() You're not quite as invincible as when wielding the Jedi Knight series' auto-parrying lightsabers, but that makes it even better for my money-bringing a sword to a gunfight in Fortune's Run is intense and exhilarating, with success or failure balanced on a knife's (or space katana's) edge. ![]()
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