A potpourri of different games

And none of my older not-played and unfinished games -_- At least it helps reducing my Shadow Backlog. I think I should do more giveaways again to help with that one too :P So let us look at this months yield:

• Alan Wake's American Nightmare
  

  10 hours playtime

  12 of 12 achievements

• Cyberdimension Neptunia: 4 Goddesses Online
  

  27 hours playtime

  50 of 50 achievements

• SOMA
  

  10 hours playtime

  10 of 10 achievements

Alan Wake’s American Nightmare: Well, this one was a logical choice after playing Alan Wake before and I got it from that Christmas bundle. I was not 100 % sure on this as several reviews said that the story is the same and just repeats three times which is to say ….. just incorrect. But let’s start at the beginning. The gameplay is pretty similar to Alan Wake but more action focused. Combat is a bit more fluid but you still get several unfair situations especially in the Arena Mode (which is needed for achievement completion). Story is adding some parts to the narrative of Alan Wake, setting in two years after the original game. Some people said the writing is worse than the original but I actually liked it. I understand the remark as the intro and outro of each episode sounds like the writing of some hobbyist. But the clue is that Alan has no way of fighting in the real world as he is trapped in the Ocean Space. As such he used an old episode of a TV show he was an author for with a similar plot and used this as basis to fight the evil Mr. Scratch. As such the intro and outro have the same cheesiness as that tv series while the remaining part of text is written on same style as the main game. Mr. Scratch is an evil clone of Alan Wake and over the episodes he is talking to you with video messages, showing the bad stuff he has done and wants to do in your name which is a frightening thought. Due to the mashing of reality and the tv show as basis for Alan to do something at the end of the game you have no idea what really happened but then again this is the “problem” for the whole of the Wakiverse.
Like initially mentioned the story has only three areas (one per episode) which you visit each three times. And each time the objective is the same. But as you get there a second time, the person of interest remembers you and has prepared. As such it plays differently and faster. Each re-visit is siginificantly shorter than the previous one. Achievements are for most part pretty easy as they have toned down the collecting spree to one. Added has been the arena mode which is basically survive for 10 minutes while getting points with a no damage based combo system. Which is for most part okay but like said before due to unfair situations you easily loose the combo. But even so achievements are mostly on the easier side with maybe one or two exceptions. All in all, an interesting enough revisit to the Wakiverse with some interesting information about side characters like Barry or Alice.

Cyberdimension Neptunia: 4GO: Well, it is a Neptunia game so not much to explain here. Only played the first one of the main series. This here belongs to the spin-off series and has therefore a different fighting system which is real-time action based. You play the character of your choice and the three remaining characters are controlled by the computer. You have skills, normal attack and you can block. Added to this you have some equipment choice and that is pretty much the gameplay stuff for the action part. The rest of the game is a Visual Novel, dress up game with a simulation of a MMORPG. You have a guild, a blacksmith, two or three shops etc. Like I said, there is not much to explain if you are familiar with the Neptunia series. The game is pretty easy and very-lighthearted which is a nice change from time to time. Achievements are also easy. Only drawback is that you need post-game some annoying grind for getting stronger weapons so you can beat the bonus bosses. But the whole game can be completed in about 25 hours and is something you can play mindlessy.

SOMA: SOMA on the other hand you should play with concentration (and also not at night with all lights off like me) for two reasons. First, you have to concentrate on your surroundings so you don’t run into monsters by mistake. Since it is dark it helps to remove other light sources in your room :P The second is that the SOMA story covers some really heavy issues. A quote from a person in the game (unimportant person, only there for a minute) was :”Nothing on this station is allowed to die.” Which is really the essence of the game. On the other hand there are some slightly different answers as what one would consider life or existence. And this is the main idea behind the whole game. How would you define existence. Gameplay-wise you are close to Amnesia. You are navigating through a mostly dark station, you are unfamiliar with looking for answers, and avoiding horrible monstrosities on the way. The monster are for the most part nerve-wracking (although there is a SAFE mode making them tame) and navigation works most time. I say works because there have been several parts of the game where I had no idea where I am going to and if I am right here. But I always found the right direction more or less directly and that although I felt lost. Especially the Ocean bottom in the Abyss is heavy to navigate and was an “awful” experience. Im not sure if this is good or bad. It is definetely interesting design O.o There are also puzzles - both simple minigames as well as find out which item you need and where to find - which are mostly doable if you pay attention. But you need to pay attention. And their have been two or three times where I had to look up a video because i didnt know what to do. Most often I overlooked some kind of cable I either had to plug or unplug.
Story-wise I can’t tell to much. Just that Simon, the protagonist had a car crash prior to the game and is having a brain scan made. And the next second he is on some weird sea station, no idea how he got there (this gets explained in the game and ruined my initial thought for the story). Over the course he then finds a companion helping him to navigate and also giving him some kind of objective all the while tackling the issues of existence and also covering how shit went down for humanity in total and especially on the sea station. All in all an interesting experience although not for the easily scareable people. But yea, I probably wouldnt replay this as well due to the tense atmosphere in several parts of the game.

I have skipped over my “completion” of Heroes of Hammerwatch because they finally announced the release of the DLC and as such new achievements.