Nightmare Material

Common topic for three of the four games today is Nightmare Material. Well, two of the four games. In my last post, I talked a bit about multiple trades i did in the spring. I also won two or three games during that time, so that I had a bit of backlog in the Unplayed section. Still have, but at least it is below 10 again. Since it is late, I’ll try to keep it concise.

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• Cryptmaster
  

  29 hours playtime

  28 of 28 achievements

• Look Outside
  

  101 hours playtime

  152 of 152 achievements

• Terra Nil
  

  26 hours playtime

  37 of 37 achievements

• Deep Sleep: Labyrinth of the Forsaken
  

  18 hours playtime

  25 of 25 achievements

Cryptmaster: This is actually the last game I finished but it it is the weakest of the bunch. Cryptmaster is a dungeon crawler where you are revived by a Necromancer and have to help him, crawling up, leaving the underworld. The game is played with the arrow keys for moving while attacks and riddles are done by actually typing (you can play with controller but I haven’t tried that out). On the way, there is fishing, skull riddles and chest riddles which grant you souls (currency for your attacks) and letters (as hints for your new attacks and memories since you need to unlock them by guessing the current word). Most of this stuff is actually optional.
The game is quite heavy on riddles and crypticism although most of this is not really needed for the normal game, not even achievements. I tried to solved them myself but took help by guides (since they are unrelated to achievements AND are real world knowledge instead of purely in-game based). Talking about achievements, some are story related, some quest related, one or two secret related, three for endings and four for getting all memories and skills (which will probably take the longest unless you look the words up). Unfortunately, there are two missable (with one directly at the beginning and the other quite late game) and two choice based achievements which made it necessary to replay the game. But even the late game achievement can be done in a few hours if you already know everything. Graphic-wise the game is okay, but the constant black and white is tedious for the eye.

Look Outside: “Before thee lie manifold destinies, though not one among them bringeth comfort or repose.” This is a direct quote from a character being at the same time one of the more obscure secrets in the game. And at the same time, it describes the game perfectly in a certain way, without spoiling anything at all. Look Outside is truly nightmare material. The visitor has come to earth and everyone looking at it will mutate. Some can keep their sanity. Others ….. not. This is actually a RPG made with the RPG maker. Enemy-design, story and world are spectacular and unsettling. The game is difficult (I did my blind playthrough on the normal difficulty) and asks you to manage your ressource. The game is packed with secrets and choices (and guilt tripping you for bad choices) and there are rarely repeat fights. Each enemy can only be fought once and a lot of them are UNIQUE.
After finishing the blind playthrough (getting perfect ritual), I started using the wiki (as I did not find all entries into flesh world), just to notice HOW bad my choices where (for example killing a recruitable character) and how MUCH stuff I haven’t seen yet. In total, for all achievements, I needed like four or five playthroughs and lots or reloads for death related achievements as well as different endings which just needed some minor changes. Even with this, there are still things I have not seen. AND there is a chance some more content might be released. If so, please no new achievements ^^’
A great game and one which can be recommanded if you can handle the setting. And do yourself a favour and do the first run blind. It is worth it.

Terra Nil: This game is the one which doesn’t fit todays topic as well. I would describe Terra Nil as puzzle(?) game which for the most part is relaxing (played on the third of four difficulties) and nice to look at while being a bit tedious at times. For each map, the goal is to re-nature the world. This is separated in three phases, you have to complete each time. First is detoxification, second is renaturation and third is animal wildlife. You get building which do certain tasks like detoxifying or growing grass or plants. Some buildings are common over different maps but each map is basically a new combination of new and known pieces. Later maps also need a bit of planning in the first phase, so you dont run dry on the ressources. The second phase is often the most tedious as certain biomes need pre-conditions and planning them out, takes a bit of time. The last phase wildlife is mostly fiddling with positions and then making photos.
Game could have been shorter for my liking. But I really loved how you could see the change in landscape from a dead area to a sprawling wildlife. The optics are very soothing in that regard. Achievements-wise most stuff is obtainable by simply completing each map. But there are four slightly more difficult map-specific achievements (you can replay any map at any time) and some other special conditions. Also, at least one of the maps has really bad optimization and I stared at a white blank screen for ten minutes (successfully hoping) it jumps the frame to loading the map finish.

Deep Sleep: Labyrinth of the Forsaken: And this here is nightmare material again. However, not in the Look Outside sense but story-wise. You are playing Amy, a woman visiting the apartment of her recently deceased brother out of guilt. Her brother talked to her that he saw something in his dreams but Amy didn’t believe him. And so, she uses a special device to explore her own dreams and finding the truth about her brother’s death.
I would describe Deep Sleep as point and click mostly, however the fourth part has a lot of fighting and needs some ressource managemant and tactics. Each night, you can access your dreams and complete nightmares and unlock new areas. However, don’t be afraid, there is no time limit and nothing can be missed to my knowledge, even when being close to the final. In this regard, all achievements are pretty fair to get with some easter eggs, some secrets and lots of story achievements (as well as a bit of grind).
Gameplay-wise I won’t talk much more. What I REALLY like about Deep Sleep is how flawlessy it incorporates the first three games into its narrative (AND gameplay as a lot of stuff is recycled or better upcycled in quality) to tell a great story all mixed with simple but engaging gameplay. I already liked the fourth part of Scriptwelder second game series (Four days to survive …) because the story is just very engaging to me. And it seems, like the developer is creating his own lore combing both series in an overarching world. Maybe a bit to ambitious but so far it works. Another game which can easily be recommanded. I will look forward to new games by scriptwelder, wondering how he will expand the story/world.

And this is it. In a minor note, I also changed System Shock from Beaten to Completed. Due to Night Dives ignorance, I was forced to delete a Steam achievement by hand (which I did yesterday), so I can actually “enjoy” their “fix” for the last broken achievement. But it is all done now. But I will be wary of Nightdive!

Next up is probably a return to Persona 4 Golden (maybe I get it completed before the remake will be released) as well a replay of La Pucelle (played that on PS2 and couldn’t resist to get it again). But both games are quite long for completion and I will move in August, so not sure how fast I will make progress. There is also a map jam for Wizordum. Will probably take some time for me to complete these games. Looking at October hopefully.