Finished in October (and September) (1-5)

Big project at work is finished, so I actually took most of my holiday time. And since I didn’t have free time for 2 years - now I have two months of vacation. In September I was knocking around mountains, so I finished only one game, and decided to include it in this month post. But in October I can play for how much I want, so I already finished one huge game, and started another one.

• Psychonauts 2
  

  22 hours playtime

  48 of 57 achievements

Psychonauts 2

9/10

I was playing Psychonauts 15 years ago and have some very good memories about them. This game is just perfect sequel - gameplay is gorgeous, story is awesome, they fixed many, many problems with original game, and they have even full dedicated Jack Black song (search for Cosmic I on you tube. I cannot wait for an official soundtrack on Spotify, should appear at the end of this month). They also did quite a good job recalling things that happen in previous game, so I don’t think you need to play original to have a good time and perfect understandment of the plot. Long story short - there’s a reason, why I saw a few films on you tube analizing, how to make a perfect sequel and taking this game as an example.

• Pillars of Eternity
  

  47 hours playtime

  21 of 48 achievements

Pillars of Eternity

8/10

Pillars were really embarrasing for me… I won them 4 years ago on Steamgifts, and couldn’t really find a time to sit and properly appreciate them. Well finally I did, and this was really good game - huge love letter to Baldurs Gates and other old RPG’s. I actually had more fun with them than with Divinity 2, mostly because the writing was better (although Divinity’s battles are absolutely the best in the genre). I think the writers took some tips from Dragon Age series, which has the best written companions I’ve ever seen. And even if I wasn’t totally blown away, I’m looking forward to play second part… somewhere in 2025 if I know myself….

• Juanito Arcade Mayhem
  

  6 hours playtime

  56 of 81 achievements

Juanito Arcade Mayhem

6/10

I just needed some pallet cleaning after Pillars. This is a simple arcade game where you are shooting bacteria-like aliens. There are a few sets of levels in this game, each set is based on a classic video game, and in each set the rules are a bit changed to match a specific game. In Tetris you need to watch out for blocks falling from the sky, in Pacman you can kill enemies only if you eat a special pill, and don’t even let me started on Pong levels, because the last one was a nightmare… It’s an OK game, nothing sensational, but a nice way to waste a couple of hours.

• Carto
  

  8 hours playtime

  12 of 20 achievements

Carto

8/10

This game is cute. And has a quite clever idea for a gameplay. You are a granddaughter of cartographer and you just got lost. You need to find your grandma, and to do that you need to find pieces of the map. The catch is - you can arrange those pieces in different ways, and the world is actually changing around you. An example of early puzzle - you are told, that you need to find someone in the biggest forrest on island - so you need to move map pieces, so each forrest area is connected into one big patch of trees. Later you may be ask to go to the lake, which looks like fish or follow the road which is turning 2 times right… It’s not a hard game, but a very charming one, and characters are very likeable.

• Songbringer
  

  11 hours playtime

  23 of 37 achievements

Songbringer

6/10

Songbringer is a simple game made in the spirit of early Zelda. you are on alien planet, you need to go back to the ship, there are some alien monsters you are fighting with the sword, some dungeons in which there are useful items… there are few interesting things here - the game is kinda procedurally generated - it has a lot of key places, but the map is randomised so so particular dungeon can start in many different places. It is also very open - you can do a lot of stuff out of order, and totally ignore half of the map if you want, cause a lot of upgrades will make your life easier, but are not mandatory to finish. All in all, it was ok, even if I’m not in love with the genre.