Hello World!
Well, I’ve been using Backlog Assassins for a year now and I wanted to write a report since a few months ago, so what better time than now? It’s also a good distraction for some stuff I’m going through, and to be honest, I like telling my experience to people! And to give myself a sense of pride and accomplishment progression and overall doing something for myself.
Oh also I probably use this format you see for my reports, maybe with a few changes here and there once in a while.
Without further ado, here are the games I played in the last month:
A short game made in 48 hours for 2021 Aotearoa Game Jam.
The devs call it a "Comedy Horror Experience", while there isn't much comedy in it and it's not very scary, it's still a good experience.
The scenery looks gorgeous, sound design is nice and the ambience is very calming.
Don't expect a story or lore here, other than Mr. Wilson the Bear and creepy white eyes, there isn't much. I can see it become something like The Stanley Parable in terms of humor, if the devs decide to expand it one day.
In terms of gameplay, there isn't much again. You just sit in your tent, read book covers and occasionally throw a sandwich or shine your flashlight around. You can't walk, but you can still use your keyboard, mainly for throwing sandwiches.
You can finish the game in less than 20 minutes, and for what it is, that's not very bad. It's also free so be sure to give it a try!
Originally replayed it for a bounty at Unplugged Giveaways, but ended up getting the remaining achievements too!
I got most achievements last year when I played it, only missed "ACHIEVEMENT WHORE" and "GENOCIDE", first one for getting all the achievements and second one for killing 50,000 enemies. I finished the game on Normal Mode, got an A+/S rating on most levels more than once, then finished Hard Mode and I just reached 28,000 kills! The grind was painful x_x
Spent 1-2 hours on "First Blood" level grinding kills. It wasn't harder than Hard Mode achievement, but it was very boring. Glad I got it!
As for the game, it's bigger, better and more violent than the first game. The levels are significantly bigger, story and lore are expanded and there is now a Level Editor! It started life as a DLC to the first game, but it ended up getting its own game.
Since there is nothing else to tell, the devs have no plan on making a Hotline Miami 3. They are still working on a new game though, can't wait!
I had the pleasure of knowing this game through a friend's stream, Ylthin! (Thank you again! 🧡)
It's a narrative driven puzzle/adventure game where you follow a cat named Theo.
To be honest, I think this is one of my favorite puzzle games! The puzzles are not too hard, but fair and require thinking a bit.
The story and characters are actually pretty great! There is enough collectible to give backstory and the narrator did a great job!
I just wish more questions were answered and there was more harder puzzles, but other than that, I had no problem.
I can't do the justice of recommending this game enough, so go and play it! You're not going to be disappointed!
I won the game on Unplugged Giveaways.
Damn, this is a sad and heavy game :(
If you're not comfortable with dark themes like depression and suicide, better skip this one.
It's a free visual novel made in Ren'Py by Angela He. The art is very beautiful and the music is nice, but as the genre suggests, its well written and thought-provoking story is the main attention of the game.
I don't want to spoil anything, it's short and it's worth your time. Give it a try!
Replayed the game for the Speedrun achievement, only missed that from my previous playthroughs. I followed RiskyCB's Any% Speedrun as a guide and used a few glitches like Small Mech for skipping major parts of levels and bosses, it's Any% Speedrun after all! Took me two hours of practice to get it in 55 minutes!
I tried a glitchless Speedrun too, but my time was more than 1 hour.
It's also a good Metroidvania game! More faithful to Metroid than Castlevania. And who doesn't like cats?! 😸
Another replay, just because I wanted to :D I got this version with the Director's Cut, so technically it's still a SG win.
It has some major differences with the Director's Cut, mainly story, original version has none. Bonus puzzles are missing, textures flicker because graphical bugs and DLC is inaccessible because store page is removed. By far, Director's Cut gives you a better experience, but other than those I mentioned, it's more or less same.
Oh, It's also one of the games I submitted to July's PAGYWOSG event, only one I finished sadly.
A roguelite, corporate satire dungeon crawler. It's very fun to play!
Story while cool, is quite short, with only 8 dungeons to explore before you finish it. Did I mention it's pretty humorous? Dialogue, visuals, skills or better say the whole game manages to perfectly deliver the humor!
The combat is fun, the music is quite catchy and visuals and aesthetic are unique! The kind of visuals corporations use for advertising.
All the good stuff aside, I still had some problems. Difficulty spike on the second part of the game is unforgiving, one of the dungeons will be inaccessible once you finish it and the story mode leaves you wanting more. The devs also released an update that added more content like a new challenge mode, new skills and more!
Also a game I won on Unplugged Giveaways.
Biphase
1.9 hours, no achievements
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2D puzzle platformer about Bipolar Disorder.
The visuals are cute and minimal, the puzzles are challenging enough and the story it tells is decent.
The story is based on Type 1 Bipolar Disorder with gene as the cause of disease. It's a nice way of informing others about it.
It's short, free and it's worth a try.
Gurgamoth
2.2 hours, no achievements
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A coop competitive game where you defeat your enemies using the environment.
It's not bad, but it gets repetitive very quick. After playing for 1-2 hours you see everything that the game has to offer. It only has 8 maps, each with different gimmicks and it doesn't support online coop. Don't expect any kind of story, it doesn't have any campaign. You might think: Who are these people? Why are they awakening Gurgamoth? What even is Gurgamoth? You either get this information on Trading Cards' description, or you don't get them anywhere at all.
It also doesn't support mouse and keyboard, only controllers. So if you want to play it with your friends, you need four controllers. It might be because simple controls and movement, but it wouldn't be too hard to implant them to the keyboard.
On the plus side, visual design is nice and it's fun to play for a while. Play it if you already have it, but if you have any plans on buying it, I recommend against it.
Doki Doki Literature Club
10.1 hours, no achievements
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Well, there isn't much that hasn't been told. Everyone knows that the cheerful, romantic visual novel is just a beautiful façade to horror and much darker things. It's still a visual novel though :P
The whole game was made in Ren'Py game engine, and the devs used its max potential, even modified it to create a more unique experience.
I originally played it shortly after it came out, heard people talking about it a lot and I was curious. I was not disappointed by what I got! Replayed it on Steam again when DDLC+ was announced. Unlike the original version, DDLC+ was made in the Unity game engine.
As I said a few lines ago, it's a dark game, suicide, depression and free will are just a few themes DDLC looks into. And of course, the whole creepypasta thing! I'm sure there are more games like this (Daniel Mullins games are good examples), but I think DDLC gave it more popularity. I'm sure the story and characters wouldn't be this good if it wasn't for that and Monika. Just Monika, Just Monika, Just Monika...
Oh, where was I? Oh yes! I absolutely recommend this game! If you like it enough, buy DDLC+, it's an expanded version with more stories, more artworks and more Monika!
I didn't play it enough to give a good first impression honestly, but it looks like a decent turn based game.
Same as Dead Age, didn't play it enough. It has online coop, so if you want someone else to play with, let me know!
Once upon a time I met a good friend of mine, and she introduced me to another side of RPGs with Gothic and Piranha Bytes! That started a chain reaction that led me here, to ELEX! I couldn't play it much last month, but I will definitely play it more soon!
It's also an SG win.
What does the future hold for us?
For you? The best 🧡For me? More games, more real world stuff and hopefully, the best! Also sorry if my writing is boring, I'm trying to make it short and sweet! Less info dump and more my own experience. If you have any suggestions or criticism, let me know! I love improving myself :D
Nope, don’t own it yet :P But will get it in the future, it’s one of few visual novels I like.
Hey! Great first post. I like how neatly the games are categorized in the three tabs. Makes the post very short and yet it’s quite a lot of reviews if you want to read them :)
I’m not an avid reader of Visual Novels, but played DDLC and yeah, that’s definitely a unique experience. Glad that I tried it (thanks to BLAEO btw).
Writing reviews and posts is definitely a chore sometimes, but most of the time it’s fun and gives — as you say — a great sense of accomplishment. And why not enjoy playing games twoways: a) from playing them and b) from writing nice reviews and sorting them in the neatly colored categories?
Thank you! I like to see everything looking neat, this one is no exception :P
Yeah, writing is fun most times, need to do it more often! ^^
Oh youre a colour person. I do like the idea of having the colours change depending on the picture its with but thats extra time and would look funky with a huge set of games
Will you be buying the doki doki + or do you own it. You kinda sound you like own it but that you don’t