Still true to my fleeting new year motivation (each year), I am currently trying to rack up some shorter games to play a bit different from my usual background noise. For this, I activated two keys from a puzzle-based Humble Bundle. Just to find out that these puzzle games also eat quite a bit of time ^^’ At least if you don’t use guides.

• Taiji
  

  27 hours playtime

  12 of 12 achievements

• Patrick's Parabox
  

  19 hours playtime

  22 of 22 achievements

• Uncanny Valley
  

  9 hours playtime

  18 of 18 achievements

Taiji: This is proably my favorite from this batch. Taiji is a logic-based puzzle game which is apparently heavily “inspired” (up to the point of identical mechanics?) from the Witness (which i haven’t played yet but technically have a key). You run around an island with different areas and lots of field puzzles. Meaning you start the puzzle and have a kind of blank piece of paper in front of you with multiple squares. Your goal is to mark some of them white/bright and letting the remaining ones black/dark. For this, you have to understand the mechanics correctly and/or read the surrounding area correctly. Which is probably also the weakest part of the game, getting the entry point. After some very easy early puzzles, you quickly enter the main island. And there it is quite easy to get to an area with advanced mechanics which are hard to solve as you don’t know them. Even if you get into the areas with the easier puzzle, you first have to find the actual entry puzzles, meaning those of the bunch which are meant for teaching the mechanics. It took quite a while until i understood that, so that I had a very frustrating entry. But after getting the hang, it was quite a bit of fun. There are basically two different type of puzzles: mechanic-based (meaning there are symbols on the field which dicated certain conditions you have to fulfil) and area-based (meaning in close vicinity is some kind of landmark you need to “translate” into the solution). The mechanic-based puzzles (four different sub-types) then also start to mix making for some good and difficult puzzles. In addition to this, you have some meta-puzzles for the two endings and the secret area with the most complex puzzles. Achievement-wise you need the endings which are already difficulty enough, especially the one with the meta-puzzles. The secret area is not achievement-tied but I completed it just because I could. And I managed to solve nearly the whole game myself but needed some hints (I think for four puzzles in total like the card one in the gallery, the start of the meta-puzzles, the teleporter there and I think one other).

What I liked especially about the game was that it is purely logic-based as puzzle game. This means at times, I stared at my computer screen, not doing anything, just trialing different options in my brain or searching the starting point of the puzzle in front of me. I didn’t need to experiment around because the solution could easily be confirmed the moment you had it. I knew i was on the right track (minus meta-puzzles which need some leap of faith). I also liked that if a puzzle had a non-unique solution, the game would accept each solution as long as it fulfilled the set conditions. Overall, a very enjoyable and challenging game.

Patrick’s Parabox: And here we have the second puzzle game which I thought, I would like more but didn’t. Don’t get me wrong, it is a good game. But it is more on the other side of the spectrum meaning it was less about logic and deduction but more about experimenting and figuring out what I was supposed to do. So, most of the puzzles I had first to check the limitation of my actual moves and then started to solve puzzles mostly based on intuition which worked quite well. Optically and mechanically, the game is messing quite a bit with the brain. It starts timid with simple mechanics and boxes in boxes and then ends up and self-looping boxes and different kind of infinity moves. It was at parts a very weird experience. A good game but different from games like Taiji (close to pure logic-based) or Baba is You (containing both heavy logic-based but also experimenting/intuition based puzzles). I managed to solve about 358 (?) from 364 (?) boxes myself and then gave up for the last six (getting angry because two of these I could have solved myself). Achievement-wise, it is quite simple. You need to solve everything.

Uncanny Valley: My “pride” from this batch similar to Resident Evil 5 from the last batch. I had Uncanny Valley in my libary for a long time and played about an hour years, years, years ago but then stopped for …. don’t know anymore. Seeing it in my Unfinished list, playing with the idea of getting a Completed Rate of 90 % (which I will probably not reach), I decided to give it another try.
The game itself is an “adventure” with some light mystery/horror elements. You have taken a job as guard in a facility and you can patrol around, starting to notice strange things. Between each day, you have nightmares based on your past which happened before the game. All of this sounds more interesting than it actually was. Gameplay is very “shallow” for the most part and most things can be considered events where you have to make a decision which influences the ending. This consequence system is also the most interesting part as some changes here and there can lead to different outcomes (lots of them have to do with death).
What I like was the overall story, the atmosphere, the consequence system. What I didn’t like was that SOME things did not have consequences although they should. And not all consequences are clear. Also, the game is messy. At times the story jumps quite a bit ahead and it may be confusing the first time until you get the overall (not really difficult picture). Worst thing, the game is quite buggy. At times, text can overlap and sequences can jumble if you make a mistake. AND, certain parts of the game (two) can NOT be solved when playing with a controller. If you have a controller remove it from the pc and play with K&M because it is literally impossible to finish the generator puzzle or use the glass shard (although that one seems to be just an alternative route). Achievement-wise, there are five or six achievements for different endings, some for collecting some minor stuff and some for certain plot elements). If you go for all endings, you should get most of the other achievements on the way. However, I needed a guide for three endings to make my life easier. Because each ending needs a new playthrough which can range from 20 minutes for the very quick ones to 90 minutes for the longer ones (especially navigating the subterrain the first time). And there is only one save game which automatically overwrites when you finish one round. So, you have to do the meaningless five minutes at the start over and over again. Despite the game being bugged, all achievements can be obtained in the current version of the game, although some are finnicky in execution due to bugs (“Terminated” with the vanishing enemies for example).

Well, and now back to gaming. More Puzzle Pirates very likely. Maybe a map or two for Crystal Caves HD. Maybe some Wizordum Custom Maps. And then hopefully something different. Need to finish Persona 4 Golden. Only halfway through on my first run. This is probably my next target. And at the same time I will check my Unfinished/Beaten list if there is anything ripe for completion. Or maybe start one of the few remaining unplayed games or buying/activating something new. Still have lots of unused keys ^^’