Alright. January is in the books. This month featured two must plays (or at least must plays for me): Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 and The Temple of Elemental Evil, and those two games absorbed the majority of the month for me. However, I did also buy and play Quarantine Zone: The Last Check, which was also fun and a nice little palate cleanser after the intensity of Clair Obscur. I rounded out the month with RogueJack21, a game that came through one of my curators and was a decent Balatro-like (only, it’s blackjack); and The Pedestrian, which I’m currently playing and probably won’t finish today, so it’ll carry into February. Decent month overall.
January Completions
The Temple of Elemental Evil
55.3 hours, no achievements
One of the classic Greyhawk adventures and a top 10 all-time AD&D module, in video game form. It's a very honest adaptation overall. And fortunately, while not all the design choices are modern and not all the bugs were killed by SNEG, they did a great job of addressing most of the bugs and making it actually playable out of the box. Which is already quite the accomplishment. This one is a piece of gaming history, a legend in the TTRPG community, and worth a look if you appreciate CRPG history in general.
RogueJack21
3.8 hours, 6 of 25 achievements
Decent time waster and fun little Balatro-like, but Blackjack instead of Poker.
Clair Obscur: Expedition 33
29.1 hours, 29 of 55 achievements
The game was undeniable. The hype was mostly real. It's an intense game with some very real holy shit moments and some twists that were genuinely shocking. I do think it overstayed its welcome a little bit in Act 3, but it's unquestionably one of the great games to release in recent memory.
Quarantine Zone: The Last Check
16.1 hours, 20 of 25 achievements
A fun and casual checkpoint sim set during a zombie apocalypse. It's basically a 3-D Papers, Please-like. But with more gameplay options. Also doesn't take itself too seriously. I had fun with this one.
January Retirements
- Prophecy of the Shadow - This is one of those great old games that absolutely does not hold up at all. The controls that at one point were probably innovative are currently what I’d consider a mess and essentially break the game for me. Refunded.
- The Summoning - Same of Prophecy of the Shadow. Exactly the same issue with the same controls.
- Fabled Lands - Fun storybook, but it definitely lacks direction. That said, I did play this for like ten hours, so it’s not really bad. Just got a bit bored and didn’t feel like uncovering whatever the endgame would be.
- Backpack Hero - Decent backpack organizer meets dungeon crawl and base builder. Still, it didn’t really capture my imagination.
- Atomic Heart - My take away from Atomic Heart is that everything feels cluttered. The controls are pretty seamless, but the level design is just messy IMO. And that dialogue is cringe for reals. I just can’t do it. At least not right now.
Currently Playing
The Pedestrian
2.1 hours, 4 of 10 achievements
Pretty unique puzzle game with some lite platforming and very clever design. The presentation is unlike anything else I've personally seen. It's a good time, and I'm sure I'll wrap it up over the next day or two. Word to the wise though: don't take a lengthy break in between sessions. It's easy to forget some of the puzzle mechanics. Which I did and had to sleep on what I was forgetting, lol.
Plans for February
Definitely finish The Pedestrian. After that, I’m thinking Lies of P will be my next big game, and I’ll definitely add some shorter titles. Really thinking about also diving into Solasta: Crown of the Magister and/or Kingdom Come: Deliverance II. We shall see. I have the season pass for both, so each will be a lengthy commitment. Or perhaps Tainted Grail: The Fall of Avalon. IDK, lol.