RikkiUW

July '19 Play Log II

Another busy month, but I managed to achieve my main goal of beating 2 SG wins, unfinished games, wishlist unplayed, and ABC list games. Of course I had even more incoming, but I’m super happy with several of them.


Downward Spiral: Prologue

Downward Spiral: Prologue

6/10
58 minutes playtime

Experienced on Oculus Rift

Very short, but not surprising since it’s a prologue. It does make me intrigued for the main game, but there’s a lot of room for improvement.

Pros:

  • Very immersive
  • Great graphics
  • Floating around in zero gravity is really neat

Cons:

  • Lacked any sort of story or anything to explore. It would have been much better if you could find logs/etc to give you clues as to what happened or why you’re here.
  • Aim felt a bit off, the guns were always dragging a bit to the left
  • Being able to rotate by grabbing things rather than only by pressing buttons would be an improvement

Verdict: 6/10

Recent SG win. Good but could be better. Good enough for the main game to be on my wishlist though.


Sherlock Holmes: The Devil's Daughter

Sherlock Holmes: The Devil's Daughter

8/10
11 hours playtime

This game relies a lot on your observation skills to solve puzzles, as you may expect. Sadly my observational skills are not great, so I had to consult a walkthrough several times, but overall it was a thoroughly enjoyable experience.

Pros:

  • Brilliant voice acting
  • Challenging but not impossible puzzles
  • The game is split into cases, but there’s an overarching story connecting them ending in a very exciting grand finale

Cons:

  • Some of the puzzles seemed to be more trial and error, but it’s possible I just didn’t see/understand the clues
  • Up until the final case, a lot of the overarching story seemed like minor insignificant details that simply connected the cases. They could have made it more significant and gotten the player more involved

Verdict: 8/10

Started this ages ago and abandoned it for no reason. Glad I finished it, it was very good despite my lack of observation skills. It very much felt like a sequel but I’m not sure which of the other games is supposed to come first or in what order. Does anyone know?


Psychonauts in the Rhombus of Ruin

Psychonauts in the Rhombus of Ruin

9/10
3 hours playtime

A worthy continuation of the original game. Short, but definitely worth it for fans of the original.

Pros:

  • The original cast of character is back, as are their voice actors (or if not, I couldn’t tell the difference)
  • The puzzles are relatively straight forward
  • Enjoyable story
  • The intro and outro songs are amazing
  • The background music in general is very good

Cons:

  • If you go into an object you get a black screen that says ‘outside play area’, but in some small parts (particularly at the end) the play area is small enough that it’s difficult to stay in
  • There’s no reason not to play sitting down (as long as your chair spins) but then you end up too low down. It’s clearly intended to be played standing up despite that not being necessary

Verdict: 9/10

Picked this up not long after I first got my VR set. Absolutely loved it, I really hope Psychonauts 2 supports VR when it comes out. Anyone know if there’s a release timeline for that?


TimeLock VR

TimeLock VR

2/10
65 minutes playtime
no achievements

Experienced on Oculus Rift

Don’t buy this. It’s not completely broken, but it may as well be.

Pros:

  • The graphics (at least the parts that don’t move) are decent

Cons:

  • The graphics that do move are awful
  • The graphics used for enemies would have looked old on a SNES
  • Took me about 10 minutes of messing around with the controls to get them to work. Still not sure how I got the laser to appear and disappear, it’s something to do with pressing in left control stick, which is also how you move
  • Sound effects are jarring
  • No real story
  • The hardest part of the puzzle is figuring out the controls. The rest is just messing around with stuff until your goal or an (obvious) way to access it
  • In game it shows Vive controllers, which doesn’t help with figuring out how to play
  • Once you finally figure out how to play, it can be beaten in half an hour

OLD REVIEW:
This game is NOT compatible with Oculus Rift, despite what it advertises. The touch controllers don’t work at all.

Verdict: 2/10

Rift controls were fixed for this so I was able to play it. Of course it took 15 minutes of futzing about to figure that out. Being playable increased it’s score from a 1 to 2 out of 10. That should tell you all you need to know.


Cat on a Diet

Cat on a Diet

7/10
5 hours playtime

Interesting physics puzzles that are great for casual gamers or puzzle lovers.

Pros:

  • Gets more and more challenging, adding new mechanics
  • Physics is good for the most part

Cons:

  • For the most part it gets harder as you go, but every so often there are puzzles that are randomly extremely difficult
  • I found the soap bubble finicky to use
  • If you’ve given up on finding a way without using help you can end up using a power, then still having to figure out how to get past the next part, then running out of powers so having to grind easy levels to get more.
  • Some levels rely on you getting a cut exactly right so that things fall a certain way, and can be unforgiving

Verdict: 7/10

Ancient SG win for Play a Game You Won On SG. Decent puzzler.


Recent Acquisitions

Writing this section always makes me feel like a Ferengi.

Aquilla

There is a whole serie of Sherlock Holmes games, but I think this one is a sequel to The Testament of Sherlock Holmes . The rest is very loose and can be picked in any order. (I don’t know about Crimes and Punishements - I haven’t play it)

RikkiUW

Thanks! Added to my wishlist.

EvilBlackSheep

I think Crime and Punishments comes before this one too (and the one mentionned by Aquilla just up there).

Congrats on the progress, I didn’t know they had made a Psychonauts VR!

RikkiUW

Alright, I’ll take a look at both of them.
Yep, it’s just a short mission that takes place after the first game, but it’s really well done.

skanda

I’m so jealous of you getting to play Prey and Shadow of the Tomb Raider for the first time! I’d say the same about Kentucky Route Zero but I still don’t believe that’s ever going to be finished. :I

RikkiUW

Haha yeah that was really really good, felt like an early birthday present haha. I’ll have to play the second Tomb Raider first though. I got part way through then lost my save on a non-steam copy. I don’t remember anything about the first either, though I don’t think there’s enough story for that to matter. Super excited to play Prey though.
Apparently the last chapter of Kentucky Route Zero is nearly done (supposedly there’s been a Patreon only post about it). We’ll see. I’m gonna wait a while and hope it appears so I can play it all at once.

skanda

Apparently the last chapter of Kentucky Route Zero is nearly done

I’ve heard that about so many of their episodes by now that I really don’t believe anything until I see it anymore. :( I hope you’re right, though.

Fnord

Hm, to my knowledge Psychonauts 2 was originally meant to have been released last year, so it it was meant to take two years. Now the release schedule seem to point to 2020-2021, so a 4-5 year long development

RikkiUW

Hopefully it’s still coming, the original was amazing.