Issue #11-12
November-December Report
______________________________________A Tale of Endings, and Surprises.
Hey everybody, how are you?
I think I will stick with the double report style, since I don’t really play many games, and I don’t find much time to write the report. And I have to be in the right mood for doing both things. Anyway, the final report for 2020! I thought about doing also a year summary report, but probably I will postpone this to next year. Or never.
This months were pretty similar to the previous ones, with some differences… I completed Scrubs in November, in December I participated in the Secret Santa event, and we had some nice snow around Christmas. Cool, if only I could stay at home from work XD
From the gaming point of view, it was a pretty satisfying couple of months. After reaching the 300 hours in FM2020, I was finally satisfied enough to go back to real games with a story. First I decided to complete the story of Bear with Me, that I really enjoyed last year, but its prequel resulted a little underwhelming to me. Then I went for a couple of larger games I had great expectations about: God Eater Resurrection was quite a delusion, extremely repetitive, while I really enjoyed a lot playing Darksiders - Warmastered Edition. So much that it was the Game of the Bi-Month - at least, until the very final days of December. Also, a mention is needed for Night Call, that was right behind Darksiders in my November ranking: not much action, a lot of dialogues, and a very interesting setting. A game I’m looking to complete, after beating it: I’m not an achievement hunter, but this game makes me curious. There are stories I want to listen to.
December was a mixed month. On one side I decided to finally beat some games I had installed on my hdd for a while - like Antichamber, which I didn’t enjoy much. On the other side, I decided to go indie, and played a couple of little gems. In particular, in the latest days of the year I enjoyed the sci-fi story of The Red Strings Club, a very cool short game with a nice style and interesting setting. But the game I totally fell in love with was GNOG. So dumb. So weird. So lovely. So relaxing. So peaceful. It was a perfect way to conclude a strange year.
* as shown by GOG Galaxy 2.0
A nice prequel to the main game. Same mechanics, same noir style, same Ted E Bear ironic detective. Not as good as the main game, though.
Played on Steam.
Not a great game. Or at least, if all you want is to continuously repeat to kill the same monsters, without any useful story, and in team with companions having the one of the worst AIs I've ever seen - this is the game for you. But for me, this was a great delusion. I was prepared to something a little repetitive and focused on monster killing, but this was just too much.
Played on Steam.
A cool game. Pretty nice story inspired on Apocalyptic characters, to create a funny adventure game. It's pretty easy, and plays like classic PS1-era games like MediEvil. From a technical point of view, the experience is quite completely flawless. The story is intriguing enough, too. I'm looking forward to playing the next chapters of the series.
Played on Steam.
Bridge Constructor 
A good, relaxing, physics-based game. Perfect for spending some hours doing something different. It becomes repetitive pretty fast, though.
Played on Twitch.
A present from my Secret Santa! A nice style and art, a pretty balanced puzzle game, with some levels that can be quite difficult. Extremely short, with a story just outlined. But the funny movements of the main character and the disco style are the real center of the game.
Played on Steam.
A funny poker simulator, with characters known from old classic games.
Played on Steam.
A short story, told through flashbacks, exploring Marie's teenage years room. Not bad, not particularly good: it tries to provoke emotions in the player/reader, but it's not good enough in making you empathise with the characters, so it slightly fails in its purpose.
Played on Steam.
A dungeon with mind-bending, nonsense-rich rules to solve the riddles and proceed from one room to another. Some parts should need more guidance. All in all, an unpleasant experience - but that is what the game was meant to be, I think. You totally feel lost, in some moments.
Played on Steam.
November: Free ride
Nope, not fitting for this theme. Or, at least: I played a free-to-play game, but in December.
December: Best Of
Even though I didn't register them in the page of the theme, I actually played 2 games fitting this theme! Yay!
GNOG
A lovely and relaxing experience. You explore the colorful heads of some monsters, and by solving easy riddles you make them sing. It's a game made for touch screens, and for children probably; but it's a wholesome experience for anyone. Super short, but totally worth it.
Played on Epic.
The Red Strings Club
An interesting sci-fi story, about transhumanism. All the game develops around a barman and its club, and is totally focus on the dialogues between the barman and it customers. You have to choose the right cocktails to drive the conversation in the direction you're interested into, and this mechanics is pretty interesting. Also, it's not super easy to do the right choice in the dialogues: anything you say might have consequences. All in all, a pleasant short experience.
Played on Amazon.
November: Thanks Giving
One!
Interesting. You're a taxi driver working in Parisian night, and you have to find out the identity of 3 serial killers. And you find clues by talking to your customers, choosing the right words to make them open up to you. But this is not really what this game is about. All the people you can collect have their own stories. Some more emotional, some more funny, some more incredible. All inspired by real stories, it seems. And that's the real purpose of the game - or at least what I think this is about: collecting their stories, finding the right ways to help them, or just seeing how their stories end. It's super interesting.
Played on Steam.
December: Home alone
Not this time.
2021 is here.
Nice to see you enjoyed Darksiders! I still have the 3 first ones in my backlog :_(
This first chapter was a pretty fun and easy experience indeed, worth playing :D
I have similar feelings related to God Eater. It has a wasted potential, and it disappointed me too. I didn’t play the following instalments, but from what I read they’re better. But I imagine that the base gameplay will be the same,
I hope they will be better, at least a little more varied. I will play GE2 for sure, but not soon, after the experience with the first chapter.