Bangledeschler

April 2021 Part 1
Featured game track from Wasted: Supernova - Mike Daw, Jenny Ramage
Bonus Track from Wasted: I Just Can’t Say No - Michael James Getches, Calvin Ross Pfeffer, Eric Vasquez
(Couldn’t find a good quote from the games this month, so subbing in a song track I found great. May or may not be adding this into my future posts)

So, this month was relatively active and long. So much so that I will actually be splitting my progress into two posts. This will focus more on Steam and the next will be outside of Steam. As you may have noticed, I am still quite behind on my updates. This is in part due to increased work load on my job, various other stressors, and my plans for moving. On the upside, I did find a place and got the internet set up. So, we are getting a little closer to a preferred state of being. All of this is obviously affecting my writing and thought process for reviews, so apologies in advance. Other than that, let’s get this started and a little more caught up.

Top 3 Recommended Games: Wasted, Metal Slug 3, Costume Quest

    Audiosurf 2

    Audiosurf 2

    2 hours playtime

    A somewhat unique rhythm game that’s more about building up your block combo without redeeming it until you are full rather than just getting every note you see. This gives the player to study the track more and deploy strategy with quick reaction timing. There are also various other modes to vary the gameplay widely. A decent assortment of songs that are quite enjoyable and can even use your owned music for even more content.

    Lewd? Nope, just vibe (or whatever it is you do with music)

    Recommend? Though I prefer the max-combo get-every-note style of rhythm games, I can certainly see the appeal and suggest people give this a try.

    Beyond Eyes

    Beyond Eyes

    2 hours playtime

    Ever wonder what it’s like to be blind? Well you can stop trying to pour bleach in your eyes, because this game might just be for you. Jokes aside, this is actually a pretty sad story of a little girl who has an unfortunate incident with some fireworks on her birthday. Things start to look up turn for the better when she befriends a cat. But back down the hill we go when the cat goes missing and you must make your way through an uncertain and scary world as you hope to find the cat once more.
    Though you are blind, you actually get to see the immediate area around you and it slowly draws in as you venture forth (similar to a fog of war) Various sounds and scents will have a colored line leading to them. It is understandable, but your movement is quite slow in this game with some pretty big areas to try and scout around which makes an already slow-paced game slower.

    Lew… We are just going to throw this one away this time, alright?

    Recommend? Generally yes, but more of a on the fence recommendation. You are more playing a slow-paced story than an actual game. It’s about as walking sim as you get.

    Freedom Planet

    Freedom Planet

    4 hours playtime

    You like Sonic the Hedgehog? Well this is like Sonic’s Fanfic loving cousin. You can either play as a couple anthropomorphic animals/creatures such as a dragon who travels at the speed of sound noise and a sassy cat with a motorcycle (with only one tail). Almost immediately the characters reference past events and groups that you have no knowledge about and somehow expects you to understand (Don’t worry, there is not much more context given later). Essentially the story goes that an alien invades an opposing nation and uses it to try and conquer the world and possibly get some sort of crystal that the nations use for power. You, a randomish traveler, must stop this puppet nation while not being caught by your own government. The voice acting is decent while the writing is …okay, but somehow when they were combined it just seemed off and weird. Perhaps a matter of taste.
    Much like the sonic games, there is a large focus on speed w/ minimal combat and some platforming all while facing each stage boss. Most of the stages have decent designs, but I would have liked to see a little more paths to take as I frequently found myself having to slow down to figure out how to proceed because there were certain mechanics or devices not explained.

    Lewd? Nope, go back to your filthy Sonic fanfics you weirdy.

    Recommend? Sure, the game is enjoyable enough and if you can figure out how to do your various abilities you can enjoy this game well enough.

    Grey Cubes

    Grey Cubes

    3 hours playtime

    This is Breakout (see Atari game) but with a bunch of weird additions that no one wanted. What if various pillars began to rise? Or an annoying teleporter sent your ball somewhere else, or perhaps have multiple layers to the level? I understand they are trying to reinvent the wheel here by adding something to an old classic, but this simply got to be too much.
    I guess to briefly explain the gameplay: A ball bounces around, you control a paddle that moves left to right that can hit this ball back up in order to break all the blocks. Simple enough, then you get various power ups at random and various modifiers to obstruct your ball.

    Lewd? Nope

    Recommend? No, the various obstacles just got to be too annoying and, in some cases, felt there was a bit of RNG to getting some of those blocks.

    Guns'N'Zombies

    Guns'N'Zombies

    3 hours playtime

    Top down zombie shooter with objectives and some tower defense elements. The game is alright enough but can be a bit rough if you do not grind some of the levels to upgrade your abilities or guns. Specifically, any escort-esque mission is going to suck without some serious firepower and strategy. Other than that, your main goal is to get through each mission which will either comprise of survive waves, protect area/vehicle, collect items, or kill boss.

    Lewd? Nope, just zombie guts.

    Recommend? Meh, it’s alright enough, but nothing special.

    Hammerwatch

    Hammerwatch

    21 hours playtime

    Dungeon-crawler that you can play with up to 4 people. Various classes are available that start with a basic attack and one ability, which each can unlock additional activate abilities and passive through stores. Go through 4 stages of multi-floored dungeons to collect gold, improve stats & abilities, and items. I really must emphasize the importance of co-op in this game. This game becomes so much longer and slow-paced on solo. Had I not had a friend who was eager to play this, it would have been a real slog.
    The level design is decent and most of the enemies are okay (though some are absolutely terrible to have to fight against) while the combat is fairly simple.

    Lewd? Nope

    Recommend? No, due to the fact that without friends this game can wear on you especially if it is already not something you normally would go for.

    Homefront

    Homefront

    4 hours playtime

    A fairly standard COD-like FPS but instead of having to do anything with WW2 or Russians, the story actually revolves around the Korean invasion of America. The game starts out fairly post invasion as you are being transported by the Korean military (during which you see all sorts of cruelty). Lucky for you, you caught the eye of the resistance as a pilot and they secure you with the help of definitely-not-Frank-Woods with anger issues.
    My biggest issue is how they gate your progression through each level. No matter how fast you are, you are always waiting on an NPC to either open a door or move an obstacle out of the way. There are so many times I am just sitting and waiting for them to do so that it just gets to be infuriating. Like, do my hands only know how to shoot gun and fly plane? Can I not do these things? Despite the fact you were recruited for your piloting skills, you only really fly for one mission and relatively short one at that. That being said the game is actually quite short as well and ends a little abruptly (no doubt hoping to make a sequel).
    As expected, the multiplayer was dead as can be, but it was still cool to see just how big the maps were.

    Lewd? Nope, your gun is the only thing that goes pew pew.

    Recommend? The combat was fun enough and the opening was a little surreal, so sure.

    Knight Squad

    Knight Squad

    3 hours playtime

    Top-down party game that has you and other knights battling it out for objectives. Various objectives are rather standard (Team deathmatch, free for all, capture the zone, etc.) and various power ups will appear around the map. There is a single-player mode that has you doing more challenges and boss fights but rather short. This game isn’t really anything special and wouldn’t think it worth more than $.99. The game just doesn’t have any oomph to it and is kind of plain.

    Lewd? Nope

    Recommend? No

    LIMBO

    LIMBO

    2 hours playtime

    This is one of those games I feel needs little introduction as it was one of the greater influences on darker platform side scrollers more focused on puzzles and traps than actual combat and death is more of a lesson than a punishment. To get to the premise, you are a little boy making his way through a dark and unknown world. Anything you do can get you killed. Since the world is comprised of black and white, with very few shades in between, you will need to make out traps and potential dangers from the shapes you see. Though, despite some of your best efforts you will likely have to learn by dying. Otherwise, no puzzle solving is usually too ridiculous (other than a few gravity/physics-based ones and can be completed without too much frustration.

    Lewd? Nope

    Recommend? Yes, a bit of a classic at this point and enjoyable if you can ignore it’s attempt at creating a deepest and interpretive story.

    METAL SLUG 3

    METAL SLUG 3

    2 hours playtime

    Truly a classic side scrolling shooter. Take control of 1 out of 4 army personnel to take on the dictator and his army filled with various mutated creatures and crazy machines. Save POW’s to get bonus score and upgrades, find vehicles, and never stop shooting. The combat is fluid, the levels are well built, and the sprites (oh my god the sprites) are some of the best sprites I have seen to this day. If you haven’t played it, then you should If you have played it, you should play it again.

    Lewd? No

    Recommend? Yes, very much so.

    Mini Metro

    Mini Metro

    5 hours playtime

    At first I thought this might be some relaxing game as the music is ambient, the dings of the couple of trams getting to each stop were melodious, and you could just sort of watch the train lines you go back and forth. This quickly turns to panic and anxiety as more and more stations pop up and you only have so many lines and trains while you realize you need another tunnel to get across the river and you have none and the blue train line extends have the map and can barely keep up. Your once short and beautifully planned routes soon turn to horrendous loops as chaos ensues. This wouldn’t be so much of a problem if you didn’t have to get a certain score to unlock more maps. Even worse, a lot of these maps are pretty bland with small variances in river/mountain placement.

    Lewd? Nope

    Recommend? Not really, the gameplay isn’t very exciting and gets old fast. If it geared more towards a calm ASMR tranquil vibe, I could get it. Or if it was a little more competitive and structured, I could get that. However, it seems to miss both marks.

    Monaco

    Monaco

    6 hours playtime

    Top down stealth game that requires you to use various characters in order to infiltrate some top notch security. Various characters have special abilities such as knocking out guards, hacking computer systems, lockpicking adept, breaking through walls, etc. However, once dead you will have to leave the corpse of your body behind until the next level (revive system is available in multiplayer). Go for the goal of the map and, if you are daring, collect all the coins and cash along the way.
    This game was interesting at first, but even with friends grew boring quick. Perhaps my stealth is not as good as I would like, but I eventually found death marches just became the quickest and best way to deal with later maps.

    Lewd? Despite the Redhead (character name) ability to woo enemies, no lewdness here.

    Recommend? This game was recommended to me for a stream, but I can not recommend it myself. Simply grows old too fast.

    Risk of Rain

    Risk of Rain

    4 hours playtime

    I’m not really sure what the synopsis of this game is other than get power ups to get to get to the last level, to fight the boss, to fly the ship away. This was mostly just another reminder that I don’t really like rogue-likes other than Binding of Isaac. Like most rogue-likes there are a bunch of different classes, most will have to be unlocked by playing.
    The 2D pixel combat is kind of subpar in my opinion as it’s kind of hard to tell what is actually happening. I just know that I would press buttons, abilities would happen, I would probably hit the enemy and maybe all my health would just disappear from something.

    Lewd? Nope

    Recommend? Nope

    Stacking

    Stacking

    4 hours playtime

    Semi-interesting concept of playing a little Russian stacking doll who can stack inside someone one size larger than him to control their movement and abilities. You can continue to stack so long as the next person is one size larger. This creates a HITMAN style gameplay where there are multiple ways to complete a task using various abilities and disguises. If you want to immediately try one of the other solutions after completion, you are able. I was generally for this, but not so much for the story and cinematics. Though neat that it was set in the Industrial Age and cinematics had that old silent film setup, I really could care less for it.

    Lewd? Nope

    Recommend? Fun enough little puzzle game, for the right discounted price I recommend.

    Super Cyborg

    Super Cyborg

    6 hours playtime

    A love letter to Contra, if you will, this new retro game provides a blast to the past to the modern day. If you are not familiar, it is mostly side scrolling platform (w/ some top down portions) shooter w/ challenging levels and difficult bosses. You start out with a machine gun like weapon and can get various upgrades to change the bullet spread, frequency, and damage. Each weapon has a charged special. The premise seems to be you are a cyborg fit on destroying an army of mutating insect-like creatures that are amassing far too quickly. The game really is just a solid return to classic platform shooters, not too much more to say about this.

    Lewd? Nope

    Recommend? Yes, difficult but fun.

    Talisman: Digital Edition

    Talisman: Digital Edition

    3 hours playtime

    Board game gone digital. Pick your class w/ their own abilities, roll your dice to move, determine attack power, and/or do an event. The map is made up of 3 layers of square outlines where your goal is to ultimately get to the center. Transitioning to each layer requires various, but varied pre-requisites. The final layer is the hardest as you can only move one square at a time and MUST pass the various battles/dice rolls in order to proceed. Though you can respawn infinitely, once someone enters the final square, all deaths are final and the last one standing is the victor. The art is heavily old-school fantasy.
    My luck on average is terrible so naturally my dice rolls are terrible (traumatic flashbacks to %100 Orange Juice), still I imagine with a group of friends even I could enjoy this.

    Lewd? Nope

    Recommend? If you are a board game enthusiast, then yes. Traditional video gamer? Probably not.

    Titan Souls

    Titan Souls

    3 hours playtime

    The Souls-like of Souls-like games. Well… not really, but this did emerge during that boom of those games and that phrasing. Quite a simple game at that as it has the most basic mechanics and simple goal, kill the boss. No enemies in between. Simply enter the boss door and do battle. Here comes the “souls-like” addition to it, you can dodge roll and you can only get hit once before dying. In fairness, the boss also only takes one hit, but the difference is that you must figure out their gimmick and weak point while your whole body is just a walking danger area. To make matters worse, you are armed with a boy and only one arrow. You can repick up this arrow or call it to you (done right, this can also hit the boss w/ enough speed). You’ll have to kill enough bosses to open up the gate to the next area or just kill them all.
    Despite the dramatic sucking in a boss soul after each victory, you don’t actually get any stronger or new abilities, which is a little disappointing. However, this is all about challenge so just do it Soul Level 1 n00b 😉

    Lewd? Nope

    Recommend? It’s alright enough. Nothing great, nothing terrible.

    Town of Salem

    Town of Salem

    50 minutes playtime

    The “Among Us” before Among Us. Get assigned a role and work with the town to slowly figure out the killers. There is a little more complication than that as there are multiple groups of killers and a wild card that can take either side. The actual villagers need to use their roles to figure out the imposters the jailer detains and questions, the escort stops a user from using their role’s ability for the night, etc.
    The game seems alright enough, though not so sure I would want to play with a bunch of randoms. Luckily, if you are interested in this sort of thing, the game doesn’t seem to be quite dead yet as I found little issue finding a random game. Unfortunately for me, a lot of these people are long time players and use lingo that I was not familiar with. Drawing suspicion on myself more as I was adjusting to the game.

    Lewd? Nope

    Recommend? Eh, I would personally not play this again, but can still recommend people look into it if given a cheap or free chance.

    Vertical Drop Heroes HD

    Vertical Drop Heroes HD

    4 hours playtime

    Rogue-like that, as you may guess, has a focus on you playing heroes that must make their way down long shafts of monsters, quests, items, etc. You will slowly unlock more classes and spells/abilities as you either find or buy them.
    Even for rogue-likes, this game really isn’t all that special. It’s okay at the best of times and annoying at the worst. The final boss being just that. I needed some luck and a very solid build in order to best his many reiterations.

    Lewd? Nope

    Recommened? Nope, just another fairly plain rogue-like with subpar visuals and underwhelming gameplay.

    WASTED

    WASTED

    19 hours playtime

    This was an unexpected gem that I did not honestly think I would enjoy so much when I first looked into it. This is essentially Fallout if the bombs dropped in the 80s (this means 80s style music on the radio, citizens wearing leg warmers and headbands, 80's action heroes impersonations and various other 80's movie references) and had Wild Wasteland turned up to 11 (just overall not taking itself seriously). You, and many other wastelanders, are trying to get in each bunker that holds irradiated alcoholic beverages to not only get wasted but mutate with special Fallout-like perks. Of course, it’s not so simple. Each floor is randomly generated and depending on the bunker can have bandits, bots, ghouls, and mutants all wanting to kill you. If that’s not so bad, each floor has a time limit before the “Purifier” comes down which is essentially a power armored soldier w/ a machine gun and a sole purpose to dispose of you. On top of all that, if you want the real good perks w/ no draw backs… you gotta go deep into the bunker to get them. Otherwise you could end up making yourself weaker.

    One of the few major downsides to this game is that you can’t enter the bunkers until you drink and get your perk this becomes worse when you are farming perks and must go several floors each time just to get one perk and automatically leave. This only gets real soul crushing as when you die, you lose all perks and any items you had on you. Items are easy enough as you can collect as much as you need and store in your hub. Your perks though… that’s a much bigger loss. I would have liked some sort of safety perk that lets you randomly keep half of your perks or make it so that you can decide when to finish a bunker (i.e. you can collect multiple perks before leaving).

    Also, despite being able to customize your character in the beginning, you won’t ever see their face again and if you die, you get a randomly generated new character.

    Other than that gameplay is pretty much 1 to 1 with Fallout, but I haven’t even got to the best part, the radio music! I enjoyed every song they had available on the radio in game and really wish it was available to purchase as a soundtrack. The mixture of 80’s synth vibes gave me the vigor to grind through each bunker and beneficial ear worms to have throughout the work day. There is a story, and thus an end, but you can always play new game plus or return to the moment before you beat the game if you wish to grind more. Either way, you don’t lose everything regardless of your choice.

    Lewd? Kinda, mostly jokes and humorous suggestions. Nothing explicit.

    Recommend? Very much so. Despite being a rogue-like, I really felt the strong Fallout influence which came with solid gameplay. There could be more to it and changes, but still an enjoyable experience.

    Costume Quest

    Costume Quest

    6 hours playtime

    Cute basic RPG game that has you and some newfound friends dress up during Halloween and fight monsters. Your costume is your power as it both will change your abilities/attacks in battle and abilities when traversing the world. The combat is incredibly simple (similar to The Stick of Truth) as you will have attack, defend, and ability (which is only 1 ability per costume and must charge up after x turns). This can be both a positive and a negative as this means easy to understand combat, but also removes any chance of having creative solutions or fighting that can really suit you. I even found that some costumes were borderline mandatory for combat while most others were fairly useless. On top of this, each character gets to equip a sticker which grants them additional buffs and abilities. These can either be found in the world or bought from the sticker emporium.

    The story is fairly solid, nothing special, but gives you reason to keep going door to door either getting straight candy or fighting the ghouls of the night. Essentially you and your twin sibling are going out to trick or treat all the while fighting with each other. That is until… your sibling is stolen by monsters and you must save them!

    All in all the combat is simple, but engaging enough (though reseeing some supers or executing the same solid strategy gets old fast. The DLC continues the story, but is more of the same with new monsters, costumes, and area.

    Lewd? Nope

    Recommend? Yup

    Ghost Encounters: Deadwood - Collector's Edition

    Ghost Encounters: Deadwood - Collector's Edition

    3 hours playtime
    no achievements

    Point and Click x Hidden Object Game that tasks you, a paranormal investigator with psychic powers, to investigate the missing of several people in a ghost town thought to be haunted by an old evil bandit ghost. The point-and-click is pretty standard enough and the hidden object games come randomly, but they do what you expect. The big issue comes in on where you have to click and the protagonist’s refusal to hang onto items. There are times you need an item and you would go to the place you would think to get it (I.e. a hammer might be found at the blacksmith’s place). However, that is not always the case. There are plenty of times you have to click on a box you have previously searched that you would have no reason to even think to check this particular place again. Also, the frequency you re need an item (such as a hammer), your character still feels the need to throw it out after 1 use. This is only made worse when you later need a hammer again an must click some random spot to do a Hidden Object minigame to find it.

    Lewd? No

    Recommend? Honestly, the game just got to frustrating when there were parts that were just not intuitive whatsoever to finding items or solutions. It’s also quite easy to miss some areas entirely.

ninglor03

Did you play the first Audiosurf game? (It’s the game I got steam back in the day xD)
If so, how are they compared to each other? thinking
Funny enough I don’t feel tempted to get the second. Oh well.

Happy Gaming :3

Bangledeschler

I have played the first game. Honestly, they are pretty one to one as far as similarities. The only real differences is that Audiosurf 2 has slightly better graphics, a different mono mode (There are blocks and spikes, spikes remove a block from whatever column you collect it in, as opposed to the decaying gray blocks in AS1 that will cause you to overfill and lose points if you collect too many), and more of a base soundtrack.

There was an option to stream music from Sound Cloud for the game, but I’m pretty sure that has been long removed.

So, honestly, there’s not enough huge improvements to “upgrade” to the sequel. Maybe get it for a cheap cheap if you ever do get that temptation.

ninglor03

Thanks :3
So, I guess I won’t get it, since I’m nowadays always like “naaaa, don’t think I wanna do it starts some other game instead”. I honestly don’t see me changing that anytime soon, so no reason, right? xD

Bangledeschler

I’m in that exact same headspace. This will have been the first Summer Sale where I didn’t actually buy anything thanks to that thought process.

Definitely no reason, haha.

ninglor03

Hehe. Very good. I might have gotten things xD