Murder is Meat

This was a semi-busy but overall productive month. Again, got more downtime than expected, but also got plenty done.

So, the big games:

  • Path of Giants Beat the campaign, but I’ll go back for the extra challenges. It’s a bit mechanically limited to the point that I only ever played in short bursts, but it really is charming on the whole. If you’re into simple character-centric puzzle games, you’ll have a great time.
  • Glorkian Warrior: The Trials Of Glork Got the highest cumulative points bonus. It’s fine, not the best balance which means if you get bad RNG the next few rounds will be painful, but the dialogue is mildly funny and the cast is charming.
  • Reventure This is amazing. Sure, some of the actions needed for some endings get a bit repetitive, but it has a great combination of funny scenarios with some minor Metroidvania-like progression in terms of finding new paths by either earning permanent shortcuts or figuring out mechanics.
  • The Coma 2: Vicious Sisters I got “stuck” at a point with some QTE. I’ll get back to it and give it another go or alternatively try a run where I “fall” for traps which could have been prevented. But back to talking to the game, it was a legitimately engaging experience. Great atmosphere, and while a few enemy encounters were BS (eg. when the stalker is up a flight of stairs), it generally managed to be creepy even when I was “safe”.
  • Trine Got to the third area. Damn, this is janky, partially in terms of design, partially in terms of what I assume are bugs (such as the knight character straight up not hitting anything with his sword). Will force myself to finish it since I have the sequel waiting, but this is some good ideas with less than shining execution.

Smaller ones:

  • Little Hidden City It was okay. No replayability and could have used with some in-game clues, but I won’t complain.
  • Ablepsia Just bad. Obstacles either provide no challenge or only serve o test your patience. Okay-ish pixel art and music, so I hope the artist for both (TeaWithTears) does some more work for better games.
  • Pink Gum It was more of an oh so slightly interactive art short film than a game proper, but it was quite enjoyable. If you’re into that, try it, and if you seriously disliked it and need $4 back, you will be within refund time. (I got it for free from the developer, but don’t think I’d have refunded.)
  • Savant - Ascent Fun campaign, albeit most of the challenge is gone once you have full upgrades. Boss took me waaaay to long to figure out, but it was still fun. Difficulty curve for the arcadey post-game is straight up a cliff, though.
  • UBERMOSH:SANTICIDE It’s the same old UBERMOSH we all know, this time having you be even more overpowered. Just played a few rounds, and will at some point get back to 100% it.

Others I wasn’t even planning to talk about, but might as well, lest I forget later:

  • Robot Heroes Pretty interesting concept, but I feel the gamespeed is in an awkward middle spot between a reflex challenge and the strategic/puzzlery challenge it hopes to be.
  • Minoria Kinda disappointing. Low speed, and I am unsure if it’s just my computer or if the game is really that clunky. Even if that wasn’t an issue, level design is uninspired and combat isn’t too fun. Gonna press on, but there’s better Soulsvanias, that’s for sure.
  • Vive le Roi Forced myself to beat a few more levels than last time I had picked it up and I stand by the fact this is just frustrating. There are good concepts here, but the implementation is a hot mess that’s less than the sum of its parts.
  • Em-A-Zurvival I decided to give this a second chance, and I’m glad I did. Main character’s writing might be cringey, but the overall game is strangely enticing for a game which for the most part plays zombie tropes extremely straight.
samwise84

Can’t really remember Trine, but Trine 2, 3 and 4 get better with mechanics. While I had a bit of trouble in Trine 2 as solo player it got a lot better with 3 and 4, which I finished last week.

Zelrune

Congratulations on your assassinations!
Trine traumatized me.
I remember playing and then my dog broke a ceramic vase outside which I proceeded to nearly cut my finger off trying to clean it.
One visit to the ER and 4 stitches later I still feel pretty sure it’s cursed. I have a cute little scar now.

I’m glad I skipped out on Minoria, I thought about adding it but the reviews for it convinced me otherwise.