stef

January Update!

 

Limbo

4 hours, 2 of 13 achievements
4 out of 5 ⭐

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I played Limbo for the Play or Pay challenge. Thank you for the pick Joe!

Limbo is a puzzle platformer about a boy who enters Limbo in search of his sister. Most people have played this already but I avoided it because I'm really bad at puzzles. I'm glad it was chosen for me because I really enjoyed it!

The puzzles aren't very difficult. Most puzzles involved me dying and then realizing why I died, and finding the solution shortly after. There were really creative platforming portions and the controls felt great.

I don't really like finding collectibles so I didn't get many achievements. I was thinking of 100% the game but then I saw the "no point in dying" achievement and decided to not do that.

I didn't quite understand the ending, but it's probably up to interpretation. Overall, I recommend Limbo if you haven't played it. I'll give Limbo a 4 out of 5.


Purrfect Date

9 hours, 22 of 32 achievements
3 out of 5 ⭐

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Soooo this is a Visual Novel/Dating Sim where you can date cats…

I wanted to play this because I really enjoyed Hatoful Boyfriend. A game where you do date an animal but it's more funny than creepy because of the absurdity of the whole thing. Purrfect Date isn't absurd enough, so you're left with a dating sim where you romance cats. It's not overly creepy, but they aren't playing it for laughs either.

I'll go through the pros and cons of the game:

The biggest pro is the story. I didn't expect much, but it was very interesting. It involves a mystery that gets revealed slowly throughout the game. It kept my interest and I wanted to see all the pieces fit together. (minor spoiler) ----Each chapter has you play a new protagonist who reads the journal of the old protagonist. It results in an interesting groundhog day type story but with multiple people.----

The characters (most which are cats) are well developed. There were interesting side stories and overall nice dialogue. The story takes twists an turns and has a dark tone.

Now to the negatives:

There is no skip or fast forward button. The devs promised to add one but never did. If you fail to romance every cat then you don't get the true ending. Instead, you get a dead end ending. There was no indication that romancing was a necessity, so if you failed a date like me, you'd have to start the whole game over with no skip. If you're an achievement hunter, take note that you'll have to play through multiple playthroughs without a skip button.

Another Issue I had was obviously the dating parts. I'm trying to balance my opinion while not shaming people who did enjoy the dating part of the game. Personally, I think it would have been wholesome if they had a "friendship" portion instead. I know it would take away the gimmick of the game, but it would make more sense to the story. (SPOILERS) --------They are humans that were turned into cats, but they don't remember being human. Plus the earlier protagonists don't know they were human, and are under the impression that they are intelligent cats. Therefore, I thought it'd make more sense that they become friends and fall in love after seeing their human form. Either way, I did enjoy the ending, and that's just my personal take on it. (SPOILER OVER)--------

My last issue is with the art. It's not terrible but I really didn't like looking at it. There are times where it's downright unpleasant. I've enjoyed VN's with worse art, and really it's not that bad, so It's just a tiny nitpick.

Overall I thought Purrfect date would be a funny Hatoful Boyfriend type game. It sadly wasn't and there isn't much to keep the interest. I did enjoy the story and the gameplay idea I mentioned in the minor spoiler. Too many things drag this down which results in a game that is just "okay."

I'll give Purrfect Date a 3 out of 5


PS4

A Way Out

8 hours, 14 of 14 achievements
4 out of 5 ⭐

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I don't normally play multiplayer or co-op games on the PS4 because I don't want to pay for the membership. That's why I was really excited to find out there was a good ol fashion split screen local co-op game coming out. On top of that, my super picky boyfriend actually wanted to play this game.

A Way out is a co-op only game, where you and your partner in crime must work together to break out of prison and survive on the run. The co-op is the best part of the game. Both characters feel important and each player is needed to progress the story. If you're a fan of co-op that actually feels like teamwork, then I recommend A Way Out.

I loved both characters and how you slowly get to learn about both of them. The dialogue is great and each character has different dialogue when talking to the NPCs.

The story could use some work. It had great moments, but also very cliche ones. The story and gameplay got pretty bumpy towards the end, but the impactful ending reigned it back in.

I highly recommend getting the achievements, even if you aren't an achievement hunter. They are very easy to get and totally worth it.

Overall, some of the gameplay and story was lacking, but it makes it up with its likable characters, fun dialogue, and intelligent co-op. If you don't have someone to play with, there's also online co-op. I definitely recommend A Way Out and I'll give it a 4 out of 5.

(sorry, my reviews are all over the place. I'm currently writing this at 2am :P)


Shax

The hospital part in A way out was pure bliss. What was your favorite part?

stef

Definitely the hospital. I was happy I picked Leo because I got the side scroller fighting bit. I also liked the unexpected ending. Both endings were sad but well done

Shax

The ending was apparently based on a tumblr post, I can’t seem to find it right now unfortunately. Basically OP says “I want a game that youplay couch coop with a friend and you play the whole game but later realize that you have to fight each other and one person wins at the end,

It’s still an amazing game

stef

Really? Thats hilarious. It was a good idea imo so im glad they did it!

rafaelgomesxyz

I’ve had my eye on Limbo for a while, I love puzzle and platforming games.

Also, not sure if you’re aware, but you can use ~Spoilers here~ to hide spoilers: Spoilers here

stef

Yeah I tried that but it didn’t seem to work with the Blaeo Generator I’m using. Thanks for the tip though, I’ll try to see if I can fix it next post.

rafaelgomesxyz

Well, I don’t know if you’re aware, but I have a userscript that does pretty much the same thing as that generator, and it works well with markdown: https://github.com/gsrafael01/monkey-scripts/tree/master/scripts/enhanced-blaeo

But if that generator accepts HTML, you can also use <span class="spoiler">Spoilers here</span>: Spoilers here

stef

I was not aware. Thanks!

Pietruszek

Hmm, this section looks outdated. I can’t find a place to input the Steam API key. Is this still a thing?
https://github.com/gsrafael01/monkey-scripts/tree/master/scripts/enhanced-blaeo#theme-list-checker

rafaelgomesxyz

It’s indeed outdated. The API key is no longer needed, as the script now retrieves your owned games from BLAEO itself, without needing to contact Steam.

iskibiribiri

Limbo was the first game I beat on Steam in 2012.
Don’t remember the story, but I remember I died a lot ;-;

stef

It doesnt really have much of a story anyway.

I died in every single area lol. Id be like, “what does this do?” instant death.

Joe

Glad you liked Limbo! How did you enjoy it compared with INSIDE?

stef

I liked INSIDE a little more. The puzzles were easier to figure out without the trial and error method. Plus I loved the atmosphere. I didnt understand the story at all though. At least with Limbo I could theorize what happened.

Both are great and im interested to see what the devs will do next!

Joe

Haha yeah they are both quite puzzling… I had to look things up afterwards as INSIDE especially just left me wondering what on earth was going on towards the end!

Trilled Meow

I also played Purrfect Date recently and didn’t like the dating thing, but I figured it was easy to ignore and justify by thinking these research assistants are just weirdos who are partially turned into cats themselves by that point. The interactions weren’t romantic, so I don’t know why it had to be dating. Otherwise I liked the game and the animal rights issues it brought up. The skip button thing sucks.