Vito

Report #51

Last report I was hoping to finish my goal of playing 50% of my backlog with this report. “Unfortunately” I forgot that I preordered CK3, which unlocked in the meantime. Which means, I had to finish another game to reach said goal (well, 0.5 of a game, but that’s not possible ;) ). Therefore…this report is still not the epic 50% backlog cleared report :D


Reviews

Half-Life 2
Released 2011

Might & Magic: Clash of Heroes

4/5
32.7 hours
11 of 14 achievements

According to wikipedia M&M: Clash of Heroes is a "puzzle role-playing adventure" game. While you travel through the world of Ashan to stop a demonic invasion, playing 5 young heroes over the course of 5 smaller campaigns, you fight your enemies in tactical match 3 fights.

It is the first match 3 game I played --- at least as far as I remember. And I enjoyed it. It was a welcome change and interesting to experience as something new to me. There was enough variance to keep me entertained for the time being. Only nearing the end of the game the gameplay became a bit too repetitive and stall. In my opinion the game ended just at the right time. The story is nothing intricate and special, but enough to keep me entertained between the match 3 fights.

The only other thing that irritated me a bit was the varying difficulty. It happened to me several times that a fight was really easy, but the next one was very hard and I needed to grind random enemies in between to further upgrade my hero. I could have done without the grinding. Also, as already mentioned, there could've been a bit more variety in the match 3 mechanics. Both are only minor complaints though.

Half-Life 2
Released 2003

Galactic Civilizations I: Ultimate Edition

1/5
9.3 hours
no achievements

Galactic Civilizations I is a 4X space strategy game. You play the human race, which just joined the starfaring races in the galaxy and fight for your place in the galactic order.

The gameplay is very similar to the (old) Master of Orion games and rather simplistic compared to more modern games. While the basic ideas were good, it lacked depth for my taste. I attribute that to the age of the game, which is also it's main problem. The game is just too old and uncomfortable to play nowadays. There are just so many newer and better 4X space simulations out there by now. So although I really love these kind of games, Galactic Civilizations is not worth playing. Maybe it's sequels will be more enjoyable, I have them in my backlog as well.

Half-Life 2
Released 2018

A Case of Distrust

4/5
2.7 hours
10 of 10 achievements

A Case of Distrust is a detective game with a very unique artstyle. You play a female PI in 1920s San Francisco, examinig the murder of an underworld figure. The game is rather a piece of art than an actual game. The music, the narration, the artstyle… to me everything is an homage. I felt like I'm taking part in a Humphrey Bogart movie. The game exceeds in requickening the feeling of the hardboiled detective novels of the 1930s to 1950s, with the additional twist of portraying the typically male PI as female. I'm not sure whether even the name of the MC, Malone, is a reference to Chandler's Marlowe, one of the most iconic hardboiled detectives.

Apart from that, the story itself falls a bit flat for me, but that doesn't matter much. The game is definitely worth playing for enough other reasons.


Currently playing

As if Gal Civ wasn’t determent enough, I’m currently playing another ancient game: Tropico 1! My main reasoning for chosing this game was symmetry though. I have 125 unplayed, 61 unfinished, 45 beaten and 139 completed games at the moment. So by completing (not beating!) one unfinished game, I would not only reach 50% backlog clearance, but also very beautiful numbers. Which is crucial, as we all know!


Hopefully with the next report I can finally talk about reaching my goal. On the other hand…once I’ve reached my goal, how will I proceed afterwards??

Stay save and happy backlog-clearing to everyone,
Vito

LeoTurambar

LOL, CK3 unlocked will mean no other games played for the month, I fear :D

Vito

Yeah, I haven’t even installed it yet, because I probably couldn’t stop once I started :D