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‘Death’s Gambit’: Combines Permadeath With Classic ‘Castlevania’

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Gambit

Adult Swim Games has gone into the permadeath RPG bizz, and the results are pretty freaking satisfying. Death’s Gambit, is the latest from the game studio and it takes a beholden approach to the classic elements of RPG’s of yesteryear while throwing in that permadeath sub-genre that is all the rage right now.

Right from the start menu, you are introduced to your character who has been mortally wounded in battle and is being drug to a massive pyre consisting of what is assumedly your fallen comrades.  Just before being tossed in you are “saved” by Death. Nice guy that he is, he offers you a chance to come back to life in order to get revenge. After the formalities of a blood contract, Death Vito Corleones you and informs you that in return, you will owe him a favor one day.

From there you enter the world of Siradon, freshly dubbed as an agent of Death, where you take on an intensely challenging, RPG experience.

The world of Siradon, is vast and dynamic. Each of the new locales is paired with an assortment of enemies that are ever-adaptive to playstyles, and have a nice mix of mini-bosses thrown into the mix to keep things interesting along the way.

I couldn’t go any further without saying Dark Souls. So here it goes. Death’s Gambit is a side-scroller that is heavily inspired by the permadeath nature of the Souls games, which in my opinion, if done right, is never a bad thing.

Character design is legit as heck in both pixelated and classically illustrated form. Each character within Death Gambit’s world is extremely cool, and have well-done voice work to match. The art is very rooted in the classic Final Fantasy and Vagrant Story realm. These detailed art representations are displayed when exchanging dialogue. Outside of that, the world takes on a vintage pixelated look, closer to what you see in Castlevania games with the controls and action to match.

From the get-go, you are able to create your own class of character, along with a specialized item type. I went with a Wizard class, that focused on ranged spell attacks. Throughout the play through, enemies are constantly dropping random items that range from armor and weapon types to consumables. The randomness of these items makes for unique play-through opportunities.

The Rashomon-rooted, non-linear story structure is where the game shines its brightest. These slowly reveal what occurred hours before your character began their quest and even does a really cool limbo thing that has you revisiting your childhood home as a special type of hell. The narrative keeps things interesting till the very end by offering up surprises neck and neck with the surreal.

From the very beginning and your initial deal with Death, you are given a blood signed contract. This allows you to be resurrected after being slaughtered by baddies. Much like fires in Dark Souls, you are respawned at the last site where you rested. From those rest stops, you can do upgrades to your abilities and stats along with reclaiming “feather plums” that you can also use to heal in battle.

Everything done with its own voice is refreshing, even if it is taking place in a familiar arena. Death’s Gambit structures itself on the Souls cornerstone, but its narrative, art design and approach to combat is rad and refreshing. The 10-12 hour play through is challenging, gorgeous and something I think, Death himself and Souls would be proud of.

Death’s Gambit is out now on Playstation 4 and PC for $19.99.

 

 

 

 

 

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Another Creepy Spider Movie Hits Shudder This Month

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Good spider films are a theme this year. First, we had Sting and then there was Infested. The former is still in theaters and the latter is coming to Shudder starting April 26.

Infested has been getting some good reviews. People are saying that it’s not only a great creature feature but also a social commentary on racism in France.

According to IMDb: Writer/director Sébastien Vanicek was looking for ideas around the discrimination faced by black and Arab-looking people in France, and that led him to spiders, which are rarely welcome in homes; whenever they’re spotted, they’re swatted. As everyone in the story (people and spiders) is treated like vermin by society, the title came to him naturally.

Shudder has become the gold standard for streaming horror content. Since 2016, the service has been offering fans an expansive library of genre movies. in 2017, they began to stream exclusive content.

Since then Shudder has become a powerhouse in the film festival circuit, buying distribution rights to movies, or just producing some of their own. Just like Netflix, they give a film a short theatrical run before adding it to their library exclusively for subscribers.

Late Night With the Devil is a great example. It was released theatrically on March 22 and will begin streaming on the platform starting April 19.

While not getting the same buzz as Late Night, Infested is a festival favorite and many have said if you suffer from arachnophobia, you might want to take heed before watching it.

Infested

According to the synopsis, our main character, Kalib is turning 30 and dealing with some family issues. “He’s fighting with his sister over an inheritance and has cut ties with his best friend. Fascinated by exotic animals, he finds a venomous spider in a shop and brings it back to his apartment. It only takes a moment for the spider to escape and reproduce, turning the whole building into a dreadful web trap. The only option for Kaleb and his friends is to find a way out and survive.”

The film will be available to watch on Shudder starting April 26.

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Part Concert, Part Horror Movie M. Night Shyamalan’s ‘Trap’ Trailer Released

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In true Shyamalan form, he sets his film Trap inside a social situation where we aren’t sure what is going on. Hopefully, there is a twist at the end. Furthermore, we hope it’s better than the one in his divisive 2021 movie Old.

The trailer seemingly gives away a lot, but, as in the past, you can’t rely on his trailers because they are often red herrings and you are being gaslit to think a certain way. For instance, his movie Knock at the Cabin was completely different than what the trailer implied and if you hadn’t read the book on which the film is based it was still like going in blind.

The plot for Trap is being dubbed an “experience” and we aren’t quite sure what that means. If we were to guess based on the trailer, it’s a concert movie wrapped around a horror mystery. There are original songs performed by Saleka, who plays Lady Raven, a kind of Taylor Swift/Lady Gaga hybrid. They have even set up a Lady Raven website to further the illusion.

Here is the fresh trailer:

According to the synopsis, a father takes his daughter to one of Lady Raven’s jam-packed concerts, “where they realize they’re at the center of a dark and sinister event.”

Written and directed by M. Night Shyamalan, Trap stars Josh Hartnett, Ariel Donoghue, Saleka Shyamalan, Hayley Mills and Allison Pill. The film is produced by Ashwin Rajan, Marc Bienstock and M. Night Shyamalan. The executive producer is Steven Schneider.

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Woman Brings Corpse Into Bank To Sign Loan Papers

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Warning: This is a disturbing story.

You have to be pretty desperate for money to do what this Brazilian woman did at the bank to get a loan. She wheeled in a fresh corpse to endorse the contract and she seemingly thought the bank employees wouldn’t notice. They did.

This weird and disturbing story comes via ScreenGeek an entertainment digital publication. They write that a woman identified as Erika de Souza Vieira Nunes pushed a man she identified as her uncle into the bank pleading with him to sign loan papers for $3,400. 

If you’re squeamish or easily triggered, be aware that the video captured of the situation is disturbing. 

Latin America’s largest commercial network, TV Globo, reported on the crime, and according to ScreenGeek this is what Nunes says in Portuguese during the attempted transaction. 

“Uncle, are you paying attention? You must sign [the loan contract]. If you don’t sign, there’s no way, as I cannot sign on your behalf!”

She then adds: “Sign so you can spare me further headaches; I can’t bear it any longer.” 

At first we thought this might be a hoax, but according to Brazilian police, the uncle, 68-year-old Paulo Roberto Braga had passed away earlier that day.

 “She attempted to feign his signature for the loan. He entered the bank already deceased,” Police Chief Fábio Luiz said in an interview with TV Globo. “Our priority is to continue investigating to identify other family members and gather more information regarding this loan.”

If convicted Nunes could be facing jail time on charges of fraud, embezzlement, and desecration of a corpse.

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