At least I get played some more games this year

Another batch of games played and the shadow backlog has at least decreased a bit as well as the primary wish list. Getting more achievement in the process as well :P

• Seven Mysteries: The Last Page
  

  4 hours playtime

  26 of 26 achievements

• Forgotton Anne
  

  12 hours playtime

  33 of 33 achievements

• Kindergarten 2
  

  10 hours playtime

  24 of 24 achievements

• Resident Evil Revelations 2
  

  46 hours playtime

  43 of 43 achievements

• Deep Sleep Trilogy
  

  2 hours playtime

  11 of 11 achievements

• Don't Escape: 4 Days to Survive
  

  12 hours playtime

  25 of 25 achievements

Seven Mysteries: The Last Page: A typical RPG maker game which starts with a series of very very short chapters with “mysterious” happenings at a school. It is solely story focused with some minor puzzles and exploration. But most of the time is walking to destination and reading. For me the game had a to slow of a start with a lot of confusing things and starting picking up pace in the middle weaving the happenings in a story. Honestly, it got better and made curious as to what happens at the end. Overall, the story is still confusing for me though even if I understood the ghist of it. A bit less may have helped here. The open ending didn’t help either. It was an okay game.

Forgotton Anne: For the trouble I had for getting this game I expected slightly more. Still a good game and the graphics have been ripped straight out of an animation movie. Outstanding work on that part alone. The Story is about Anne which is one of only two humans in a world full of forgotten things and has the power (thanks to her special glove) to rip out the anima of the living things which granted her the title of the enforcer, along with the respect and fear of the inhibitants of the forgotten world. Her mentor and master is currently working on a way to connect the world to the Ether in order to return the Forgotten to the real world. However, the rebels have different plans and Anne is an important part in the overall process. Forgotton Anne is mostly a linear story-focused platformer with an integrated choice/moral system with influences slightly the happenings. It would have been nice if the game would have tried to paint both sides more equal in good faith. But the way the story is told it is basically very clear what the morally correct choice is which is getting put down your throat even more. Nonetheless, indifferent from your behaviour you have two main choices at the end with one being an actual non-choice. Overall, a good game. Achievement-wise there are several story achievements as well as skilled tied achievements. For those worrying like me, at the very end you finally get something akin to chapter select for going back and getting the skilled based achievements or collectibles if you have missed them the first time. Only one achievement needs a consistent playthough from the beginning to the end so if you want to save time, make sure to pay attention to it.

Kindergarten 2: Yesterday (Monday) you used your time in Kindergarten to find out that your director is evil and so you killed him for the better all while dealing with the crazy teachers and children around you. Today (Tuesday) you are therefore in a new Kindergarten once again trying to find your place without dying. The bad news, all of the children from your previous Kindergarten as well as the teachers (and the janitor) have come with you. And the new children and teacher are not less problematic. There is basically just one adult which is morally upright and non-crazy. Kindergarten (1 & 2) in their core are puzzle games. You have a limited amount of actions per time of the day which you have to use to engage with other children and teacher and getting items in order to fulfil your objective. Kindergarten 2 is hereby more structured by outright showing you which 9 missions exists and how to start them which makes it more accessible as you just have to follow the quest chain. Achievement-wise there is nothing missable as you repeat the same day over and over again. However, there is some grind involved as there are clothes and monster cards as collectible which sometimes can be collected along the way of your current quest line and other times need a very specific approach which is not mixable with any quest line to finish.

Resident Evil Revelations 2: I think Resident Evil should be known to pretty much everyone here. Revelations 2 is another entry slightly outside of the main series, putting focus on the lesser known protagonists Claire (RE2 and Code Veronica) and Barry (playable first time) as well as new side characters like Moira Burton and Natalia Korda. The series is used to explain a bit the world building in the RE univers which picked up pretty much with Resident Evil 4 where the whole series turned into evil Bioweapons distributors versus the heroes coupled with a lot of betrayal, conspiracies and pharma bashing. In this sense Revelations is canon to the main series and the animated movies. Timeline-wise the game plays between RE5 and RE6 so Uroboros is known, Wesker dead but the world not yet globally fucked. The game plays from over the shoulder perspective with a focus on survival, ressource management and horror in an episodic design. You first play as Claire/Moira which have been kidnapped to who knows where and then play as Barry/Natalia where certain areas per episode are shared between the two duos. Time-wise the stories of Claire and six months apart which explains why certain parts look different and why there are different monsters to fight. Per duo you have one action partner which does the shooting and one support partner which can find hidden objects, stun enemies or sense enemies. You can switch between partners at each time (after a few introductions in episode 1) to make use of both their strengths or even play in co-op. Due to the shared areas it also means that certain actions in Claire’s scenario have influence in Barry’s scenario which can lead to slightly different playthroughs if you want to (not much though). Overall a good Resident Evil entry which can occupy for about 10 hours first time playing with a good story, especially since Claire is one of my favourite and seeing Barry again is nice too.
Achievement-wise there is a lot to do and you need to play through the episodes at least thrice, probably far more (although some runs take only 20-30 minutes since you know where to go and what to do). There are the usual story achievements, some kill/grind achievements and some skill achievements. There is a lot annoying ones like getting all medals in an episode (some minor challenges which need focus though) or the invisible enemies campaign (which sounds more horrible then it actually is). There is also Raid Mode but I didnt pay attention to that more than necessary.

Deep Sleep Trilogy: A compilation of three very short point & click adventures centered around the same premise, a person who visits in his dream a dream dimension where he needs to solve puzzles to get out again all while being in the danger of being hunted by the shadow people. The games play directly behind each other in a timeline-sense. Puzzle are mostly fair although you have sometimes run around a lot until you find out what to do. Largest problems I had in the first game. Achievements are sometimes for easter eggs, sometimes for story and sometimes for collectibles. Nothing to time-consuming. Mostly bought this one since I like the Don’t Escape Trilogy. Which brings me to the next game …..

Don't Escape: 4 Days to Survive: ….. which is a massive improvement over every other game Sriptwelder has ever done. Per title it belongs to the Don’t Escape series and plays similar to Don’t Escape 2 (if you played that trilogy) where you have a base and have to fortify it against an incoming thread all while mentioning the available time. Time is a ressource and is needed for traveling and prolonged activities like using duct tape to make the windows safe against poisonous gas clouds. The thread you encounter is different each of the four days and has a rather rare feature namely being random (with three possibilities on day 1 and two possibilities on subsequent days) giving the game actual replayability. And that for a Point & Click adventure. At the same time the game manages to create an interesting and mostly coherent story even managing the astounding feat to include the lore of both main universes, the Deep Sleep Trilogy and the previous Don’t Escape games. Overall, the game can only be recommanded and is probably one of the best P&C experiences you can find. Find a full review here.
Achievement-wise you have again story achievements, some more easter eggs achievements as well as “Perfect Nights” achievements for flawless preparation against the incoming hazards. Honestly, I was very positively surprised by this game.

And back to the meta-game. Still have to finish After Hours, at least I made some progress but the (probably) last password is still in the way (and I am still to stubborn to use the direct solution guide). Will probably buy There is no game: Wrong dimension from my wishlist next and then look what is left in my unplayed staple as well as my shadow backlog. Will not run out of games so fast. And still have my endless games like Puzzle Pirates, Vermintide 2 or Orange Juice (endless for different reasons though).