BLAEO — Backlog Assassins Extraordinaire

Another week, another update :P Some short-ish games this time around.

Cosmic Express

0 hours, no achievements
Non-steam version

Cosmic Express was a really pleasant surprised. At its core, it's a rather simple puzzle game, you need to connect a few points together, and you can't let your line cross itself. I'm sure you've seen similar puzzles before in other games. But Cosmic Express takes this simple premise, and offers a few nice twists on it. Combine this with well designed puzzles that are not too hard, nor too easy, and a great presentation, and you've got a really nice little puzzle game! Fans of these types of games should absolutely check it out!

Ghostbusters: The Video Game

7.6 hours, no achievements

As part of this month's theme, I decided to go for a game that got a lot of attention, 10 years ago. Ghostbusters: The Video Game. This is more or less a direct sequel to the original Ghostbusters movies, and continues the story of those. The actors who played the original Ghostbusters reprise their roles here, and from an audio-visual point of view, this game is very Ghostbusters in general.

Overall, this is a fun, but in no way spectacular game, that is carried by its theme. The level design is a bit bland, but it has some interesting enemies, and the fact that you need to capture the ghosts, not just shoot them, adds another layer to the game, and makes it more than just a mindless third person shooter.

While I said that the game is true to its source material, it has two major wrinkles: The weapons, and the locations. The first weapon you get is the standard proton stream, from the movies, and it does feel like it is what it's supposed to be, but the other weapons end up feeling out of place. You've got like a shotgun & a machine gun built into your proton pack. You've also got a slime gun, but I guess that one does not feel quite as out of place. Basically, these weapons don't feel like they're consistent with the logic presented in the movies, or heck, even the game, and stick out in a negative way. The game is also a bit too fanservicey, to the point where it loses its own identity. You re-visit several locations from the first movie, instead of new ones, because of a rather flimsy story excuse, and heck, even the story does not dare to stand on its own. I get it, this is a game for fans, but it goes overboard with it.

This game does not exist on steam, so no fancy banners here:
A way out

Wow, what an amazing game! A Way Out is a pure co-op experience, where you and a friend each play as one of two convicts who need to break out of prison. Both characters are connected to a third character on the outside, someone they want to take revenge on. I won’t spoil more of the story, because this is really something that should be experienced first-hand. And while yes, it’s a simple story, it’s well written, and both of the characters are sympathetic in their own way, and well rounded. The developers really did a good job differentiating the characters as well. Through the game you’ve got a lot of things you can interact with, and for many of them, the characters will do different things that are in line with their personality. It really does help flesh out the characters a lot. And that should come as no surprise if you’re familiar with the main person behind the game, Josef Fares, who is well known for his well written characters.
Sadly the game is a bit inconsistent in its quality. I loved the early bits of the game, where you and your partner solve simple puzzles, talk to people and interact with the world. It was very well done, but you’ve also got some pure action sequences, and these are not quite as good. Still, despite this, I would still say that A Way Out is a must play. Few games has got me as emotionally engaged in the story as this one, and had I played this last year (the year it was released) it would have been a very strong game of the year contender. In fact, I think this experience will stay with me far longer than the game I did say was my “game of the year” last year, Pillars of Eternity 2.

Glass Painting: Winter Art

0 hours, 0 of 16 achievements

Developer broke the game with a patch, just shortly after releasing it, and never bothered going back to fix it. So this game is literally unplayable.