Joe

June Progress Picks: Enigmatis 3, Plague Inc and Yooka-Laylee

  • Action Henk

    5 hours playtime

    5 of 21 achievements

  • Copoka

    4 hours playtime

    12 of 12 achievements

  • Enigmatis: The Ghosts of Maple Creek

    10 hours playtime

    11 of 11 achievements

  • Enigmatis 2: The Mists of Ravenwood

    10 hours playtime

    36 of 36 achievements

  • Enigmatis 3: The Shadow of Karkhala

    10 hours playtime

    34 of 34 achievements

  • Plague Inc: Evolved

    46 hours playtime

    175 of 183 achievements

  • Yooka-Laylee

    32 hours playtime

    35 of 35 achievements

Last month I was kindly given some suggestions of a few short games in my backlog I could play, unfortunately just like last month I found myself stuck putting way too many (enjoyable) hours into something else, this time Plague Inc instead of Mini Metro, and as a result there’s still The Silent Age, Tacoma and The Vanishing of Ethan Carter, that I’m keen to try to fit in at some point soon.

Action Henk - Sadly this game really wasn’t for me, I gave it a good try but I couldn’t get used to the controls, I may give it another shot in the future but I didn’t find myself enjoying it. I did enjoy the look of the levels but I’ve never been a fan of racing/time trials unless it’s an actual driving game, absolutely not in platformers.

Copoka - I had so much fun with AER Memories of Old and it made me realise how much I need to play more flying games, just like ABZU and underwater diving, if anyone has some suggestions for either of these genres then I’ll be sure to add them to my wishlist! Copoka is a bit more than just a flying game though, while you’re busy innocently gathering materials for your nest you can’t help overhearing plots of revolution and stories of oppression with armed guards patrolling the streets and propaganda being blasted from town’s loud speakers… as the game progresses so does the story and I found myself really wanting to see what happened next and what that change might bring (if any). Of course you can just ignore all that and fly around as a bird!

Enigmatis 1-3 - I only managed the one HoG series but I think I picked a good one, I felt they only improved with the third game having some lovely art with its mountainous setting. I wasn’t that impressed with the stories, like there is such an obvious reveal in the 2nd game it feels insulting, and there’s some laughably bad writing in how the main character reacts to events, however in terms of casual gameplay they were fun and easy to finish, and I liked piecing together all the evidence.

Plague Inc - I was warned by kiseli that this was “very very grindy if you are going for 100%” and he couldn’t have been more correct. I played the free version of this ages ago and there’s just something about infecting and killing everyone on the planet that is so enjoyable! :P It is strangely relaxing though, and the different disease types and scenarios offer up a few challenges that give you something else to think about, there’s zombies, planet of the apes and vampires that completely change the game in particular. I’ve reached 96% with the remaining achievements being a bit of a pain, it’s unlikely I’ll be able to fully complete this.

Yooka-Laylee - When I saw this in the Humble Monthly I couldn’t help myself from playing it straight away. With the announcement of the Spyro remasters I realised I hadn’t played a single 3D platformer collectathon since, and that PS1 series is one of my all time favourites. So that was what I compared Yooka-Laylee with as I’d never played Banjo-Kazooie. My verdict I think seems to be similar to most, it was fine and I’d recommend it since there don’t seem to be a lot of options on PC in this genre, however it was also a bit disappointing with a few things I want to moan about, these are: the incredibly irritating noises whenever someone speaks, the quizzes, the mine cart challenges, and the length of a couple of boss battles with no checkpoints. I did however like 3 of the 5 worlds, and I ended up completing it as that search for quills and pagies was something I’d missed. It’s just nowhere near the level of Spyro! I’d without hesitation buy that on release if it comes to PC.

Play or Pay - chosen by Blue Lightning

  • Dishonored®: Death of the Outsider™

    0 minutes playtime

    0 of 30 achievements

  • DmC Devil May Cry

    4 hours playtime

    0 of 58 achievements

  • Wuppo

    10 hours playtime

    5 of 23 achievements

I joined the Play or Pay group as I had been a big fan of the BLAEO “Challenge Me” from the few I participated in, I seem to generally enjoy going by other people’s recommendations as I often get a bit lost going through my backlog! This will most likely be a permanent addition to the end of my posts as long as the group is running and I couldn’t be happier with the picks above, especially Dishonored Death of the Outsider. I’ve already started with Wuppo which is certainly an interesting game, and I bought some story DLC for Devil May Cry in the sale so I can try to finish the whole thing.

EvilBlackSheep

I wish there was more games like copoka, I really liked it a lot for such a small game.

Congrats on the progress and good luck finishing your PoP games, Wuppo was really cute and interesting.

Joe

Thanks :) Yeah Wuppo has been good so far, I’ve just reached Popo City, for some reason I’ve been unable to take screenshots which has been the biggest disappointment as some of the locations look amazing even with its strange art style.

EvilBlackSheep

I really loved the art style indeed, as well as a lot of the little hidden stuff that were not mandatory to finish the story, but still neat to discover :3

Forsaken

I’m looking forward to reading your Death of the Outsider review, I hope you like it.

Also good luck against Croatia tomorrow. I can’t wait to watch these matches. All my snacks and beverages are ready. I’m really enjoying the World Cup even though I missed a lot of it. What are your thoughts on it so far?

Joe

Thanks! :)

So nervous about tomorrow, we’ve had a really easy fixture list to make it into the semis and haven’t had a real test yet, Croatia have some amazing players that will make sure to punish any mistakes by our defence which we’ve been fortunate to avoid so far… the last time we reached this stage was 1990 and I wasn’t even born so whatever happens its been a good world cup lol. It’s also been anything other than predictable too with so many shock results, I’ve been really enjoying it too.

JaffaCaffa

I too am always look for more of these genres, some of my favourite games. I was gonna recommend SuperFlight, but I vaguely remembered talking to you about it before and yep you’ve completed it. haha I’ve heard mixed things of Copoka but was thinking of giving it a go, just installed it the other day. Your review makes me a bit more excited, since I’m really on fence.

What about Oure? It’s been on my WL, saw some gameplay and looks great, very chill. I saw you had RIME marked as priority as well, that one’s high up on my list to try out too. Firewatch (though not the same) is another favourite, with similar feels and absolutely beautiful. I see you’ve started Toren, did you enjoy what you played?

I’ve seen little bits of Spyro over the years, but never played it myself. I’m a huge fan of 3D platformers, would be awesome if it was released on Steam! Despite all the mixed reviews of Yooka, I agree that I’m excited to have more of the genre on Steam and hope they just keep getting better with the releases.

Best of luck and enjoy your picks! That group really does sound like a lot of fun, glad this month worked out for you. :) Sorry for blabbing so much. :P

Joe

Thanks for your nice comment :)

I hope you enjoy Copoka, it’s quite short to finish however it feels the right kind of length and you can just fly around afterwards if you ever get the urge to do so! Thanks for the suggestions, Oure does look perfect actually, I’ll keep a close eye on any sales! Unfortunately I can’t help you out with Toren as I ended up abandoning it part the way through, my laptop at the time really struggled with it for some reason which made the experience a lot less pleasant, I do plan to revisit it though.

Ahhh I hope Spyro comes to Steam just so you can experience its greatness lol, they ported the Crash games about a year after the PS4 release so there is some hope it might happen… please!!! There is another one called Snake Pass that get mentioned a lot which might be worth looking at, and A Hat of Time is meant to be much better than Yooka Laylee so I’m really hopeful about that.

JaffaCaffa

I’ve actually only played Crash Team Racing before, that’s another series that I’m sure I would’ve loved but these Playstation-only games meant I could only play what my friends/babysitters had growing up. I had Nintendo consoles instead, I feel like I should remedy it though! I’ve heard nothing but great things, is awesome they’re all coming to PC. :D Will have to keep my eye out!

I saw some gameplay of Snake Pass but it seems quite finnicky, I think it might be more frustrating than not for me but I was really excited for the release. Might give it a try someday. A Hat of Time looks utterly fantastic, definitely my most hyped game of the past year. Fingers crossed you find some gems too!