New Year, New Games

Just some quick words on my latest games. In unusual manner I have not completed most of them this time for different reasons:

• Spirit of the North
  

  8 hours playtime

  24 of 24 achievements

• Cats in Time
  

  9 hours playtime

  24 of 24 achievements

• Mana Spark
  

  28 hours playtime

  19 of 20 achievements

• Giraffe and Annika
  

  15 hours playtime

  31 of 33 achievements

• Crypt of the NecroDancer
  

  182 hours playtime

  44 of 53 achievements

Spirit of the North: I saw this game a few years back on the playstation and it seemed quite nice visually. So as I saw it during the sale I thought why not. While it is a visually impressive game in terms of landscape, it is also somehow empty because on most of your journey you don’t encounter any other life outside of spirits from dead humans and a fox. Which is a bit of a shame. Gameplay self is running around in more or less linear levels, solving simple puzzles with your spirit power by activating shrines, portals and some easy platforming elements. As bonus you can search for staves and bring them to their deceased owner. All in all a relaxing experience which can be a bit boring though. As said, nice to look at and not very demanding outside of the final level where you are running around a giant map with very few pointers where to go to. Achievement-wise also on the easy side with lots of story-related achievements and each chapter can be selected afterwards to get missed stuff. Also the lost staves are shown if you found them. If you like cute foxes and need some relaxing trip in the nothern land, go for it.

Cats in Time: I had a lot of fun with this and so had my girlfriend which rarely plays something. Again, a very simple puzzle game where you objective is to find all 10 cats per level. A few cats are out there directly in the open while some others need solving of basic logic puzzles by shoving levers, pressing switches or finding and using items. Levels consist mainly of one large building which you can rotate to access all the different puzzles. There are 7 worlds with 4 levels each and 4 additional bonus levels of different themes. Very enjoyable, hardly frustrating and very cute cats.

Mana Spark: This will end up on my pile of shame of uncompleted games. The final achievement (in a neglect of research) is simply to ridiculous and I even tried it a few time. The basic game is actually quite enjoyable. A simple rogue-lite game where you can chose one of four characters (actually only one at the beginning and the others will be unlocked easily) and then have to travers multiple levels of a dungeon. Game is more on the slower side with movement being slow and attacks needing to be precise or otherwise the enemies will take you down quite easily. On your way through the dungeon you get power-ups to increase your power. The dungeons consists of separate rooms where you have to kill all enemies before proceeding to the next room. The enemies have set patterns which need to be exploited and as a bonus a few enemies can work together, creating new patterns although it doesn’t happen to often. But even with the power-ups the final boss fight is very harsh which is also bound to some bugs making it impossible to win. Although there is a clear winning strategy on all characters to beat it (which consists of stacking attack speed and getting the freezing item).
Achievement-wise most is fair game with beating the game with every character and beating each sub-dungeon without damage (annoying but doable). The missing achievement though is a pure insult. It is Spicy Burrito mode which not only takes away your base power-ups. No it removes also all in-dungeon power-ups and reduces your health to half a heart making you a one-hit wonder. Which gives you the option to chose the close!-range attack warrior, getting some easy hits; the slow shooting sitting duck hunter which doesn’t move for a second while shooting; the faster but weaker guard which can move but needs twice the hits or the tamer which runs around trying to survive while his dog does all the damage because the bumerang doesn’t. The first two sub-dungeons can be completed more or less easily. But starting with third sub-dungeon many enemies per room need a dozen or more hits with narrow navigation area and multiple enemies. I won’t even imagine doing the third boss fight, not even thinking about the final one. Yea, this is a challenge as intended but it is a bullshit one. And so far I have doubts many people have done this legit. Astats insist on five people having done this. But looking at there unlock times and total playtime I am pretty sure, they have cheated it.

Giraffe and Annika: Oh, this was enjoyable. You play Annika, a small cat-girl in a 3d platformer, exploring the island on the search for Lisa. All this is done while getting help a fried called Giraffe. There is a lot to explore, some minor sub-quests, a cute story and graphic-style and some dungeons. As a change in pace, the dungeon ends with boss fights with a rhythm game. Though you can do this on easy where it is hard to fail. If you are going for the achievements though ….. you need to beat all of them on hard with a S-rank which is challenging already. An impression of this can be found in this totally unrelated to me video link. Reason the game is beaten but not completed is because of a timed achievement bound to Christmas. And I bought it after and played it after. I could technically switch the system clock but meh. Will wait a year (just need to remember ^^’).

Crypt of the Necrodancer - Synchrony: I don’t think I have to explain much about this game as it should be widely known. A rogue-lite dungeon crawler where you and the monsters move at each beat with set patterns. Simple learning, hell in mastering, especially with all the additional characters. Last time i stopped playing I had 34 of 44 achievements. With the rest simply being out of my skill level. And then five yeary after a NEW DLC dropped introducing more characters. So I challenged the Crypt one more time and actually managed to beat all new characters and their challenges as well as some other minor new achievements like Aria No Beat mode and another character. Now, I am standing at 44 of 53 achievements still missing the same bullshit difficulty stuff. Great game though and there are people which actually can beat this fairly. Not me though. DLC is still early access, so they might add more or change things. But for now I have completed the DLC.

And that’s it. Next will probably be Cross Code. Or maybe I try some more mana spark or go for one or two other achievements in No More Room in Hell. Or finally back to RE0? I think Cross Code is the most likely.

Short Pre-Christmas Update

Was considering just changing the game status. But as I sometimes use these posts to re-check something, I will give some words.

• The Unfinished Swan
  

  5 hours playtime

  10 of 10 achievements

• Viviette
  

  6 hours playtime

  6 of 6 achievements

• FINAL FANTASY XII THE ZODIAC AGE
  

  114 hours playtime

  41 of 41 achievements

The Unfinished Swan: I did expect a bit more of this game. I think. It was okay but even with the short time it sometimes dragged around. The story was cute enough. Gameplay-wise you shoot ink in order to colour the world. Hereby, you have different mechanics in different worlds. In the first you need it to find your way around as everything is white. In the second-world you need you it to activate some water-based machines. In the third world to make plants grow and so forth. Overall, enough difference. What had been an issue for me has been the contrast though, especially in the first world. Because either everything was white and you couldnt see anything or if you’ve overdone it, everything was black and you didn’t see anything. A simple mechanism so that corners and edges not appear as massive samey surfaces.
Achievement-wise, the game was fairly easy though with some collectibles and with a level-select system. Overall okay game.

Viviette: A 2d-Resident Evil does fit as description quite well. You have a large mansion, a re-occuring enemy (Nemesis-System), keys and doors and weird puzzles. All-in-all I really liked the game, although the puzzles are with issues as you sometimes you don’t get the connection. Pretty early in the game for example I brute forced a clock puzzle because I was in a locked room and thought I had to solve it to leave it (but apparently I missed clicking the person sitting on the table). I also brute forced the bookshelves puzzle, although that one is very easy if you just understand it.
Suspense is most of the time there and your nemesis can be avoided regularly. However, she is often close-by. Bright side is that there are areas she can’t access. Story is also interesting enough to follow. The one thing you have to watch out for though, is the good ending which can be missed very easily (would still recommand to make a blind playthrough first) by doing something to early and by accidently spilling blood (didn’t even understand what happened until reading what happened much later). Achievement-wise you need some playthroughs as there is an achievement for collecting all notes, speedrunning and without dying (reloading your save does not help, it is tainted). But since you can complete the game in less than a hour it doable quite easily. An interesting aspect is that the puzzles are randomized, so you can’t look up the solutions only (though you can look up the logic behind it). As said, if you don’t get the clue some puzzles might appear very difficult, but they all follow an easy logic. The hardest puzzle which was based on music has also been nerfed. So nothing to fear here. Other than that knife-swinging woman following you.

Final Fantasy XII: The Zodiac Age: Japanese RPG with lots of hours to play, large world to explore and some interesting fighting. Don’t think I have to explain much about Final Fantasy. So, I will just go about random tidbits. First thing first, I played FFXII on the PS2 and one thing I was annoyed back then was that everyone had the same license board which meant, I could make them all the same. As I like playing in roles better, I limited myself by only giving them weapons which I considered fitting. But as said, in the end I limited myself. My girlfriend at the time, did the other way and stacked up skills and magic and same weapons ultimately wiping the floor. So as I heard of the international Zodiac system, it sounded more interesting to me and then with the Zodiac Age (a bit different again), I used the chance to re-play the game. And I liked it a lot more as it fitted more with how I play naturally. You can still stack and powergame but I didn’t limit myself so much in comparison. Even when chosing each available job, you could still get a functional and strong team. This way also needed some thinking on which classes to combine and who to get which summon.
Overall, a huge improvement on gameplay-fun for me. Story-wise the game is more political and while some players say that it drags on to much, I liked this kind of different setting. Also, while re-playing I did not finish the game back then, so the finale was new to me. Other stuff I remembered positively from back then were the hunts, which is a bounty hunter system for stronger monsters which add more challenge but also reward with better equipment. In contrast to back then, I tried to get as far as possible without using guides and it makes the experience a lot better instead of looking everything up directly. But a lot of stuff is so hidden within the game (systems) that I needed them for the bonus stuff in the last third. The world is huge and there are several large areas you don’t even need to go to to find stronger Espers or better equipment. You can easily spend 50-60 hours with the game. Music is FF-typical also very good. Gambit-System is also strong, although I remembered it even better. Basically, it allows to automize your characters, so you don’t have to micro-manage them all the time. Achievement-wise it is obviously grind heavy (Asian game), however not in the worst way possible. You need to get all Espers and need to complete all hunts, also find every map. But overall, the game didn’t ask for finding/trading each weapon/item/equipment. It was basically at a point which I would consider myself completion myself without going to much extra-miles. Only exception was finishing the monster catalogue as some enemies can be missed. Still not to bad, and getting all magic and techniques is something you should do anyway. So, I feel mostly positive with the achievements. Oh wait, getting all Myth fusions was a bullshit achievement and I used an autokey program script from the forum. Bullshit.
All-in-all, I enjoyed my return to Ivalice in a grown-up story and a fantastic world-setting with game mechanics more in line with my gameplay preferences. Can’t remember correctly anymore but I think the Zodiac Age is a good chunk easier than the original game for the PS2. Also, the speed-up function is very appreciated. Normal speed feels extremely slow after a while, especially when grinding.

So that’s it. And since I won’t make another post before the end of the year I can already tell you: Happy Christmas and a good end for this year and a good start in the next one! And now back to consider which game to play next. Maybe return shortly to NMRIH, they updated a while ago (again), or making another map for CC HD (you should play all my maps and vote for them!), or something on my unfinished/unplayed pile (+ shadow backlog). But only for a week, and then it goes to Norway for vacation!

Retromania

I think most games in todays update fit somehow in the retro theme with just one notable exception.

• Snail Trek - Chapter 1: Intershellar
  

  59 minutes playtime

  6 of 6 achievements

• Snail Trek - Chapter 2: A Snail Of Two Worlds
  

  61 minutes playtime

  6 of 6 achievements

• Snail Trek - Chapter 3: Lettuce Be
  

  2 hours playtime

  8 of 8 achievements

• Snail Trek - Chapter 4: The Final Fondue
  

  2 hours playtime

  9 of 9 achievements

• Orwell
  

  14 hours playtime

  27 of 27 achievements

• Ocean's Heart
  

  12 hours playtime

  21 of 21 achievements

• The Corruption Within
  

  2 hours playtime

  10 of 10 achievements

• Milkmaid of the Milky Way
  

  2 hours playtime

  6 of 6 achievements

• Crystal Caves HD
  

  33 hours playtime

  32 of 32 achievements

Snail Trek - Episode 1-4: I did duck away long time from purchasing this, simply because I would have preferred this to be one game instead of four separate ones. Well, you can’t have everything. Snail Trek awakes long distant memories from my childhood. What you have here is a simple and extremely short (all episode together take about 4-5 hours to beat if you don’t use guides) adventure game. The gimmick? It is a text parser game. No clicking involved. Just moving your character(s) with the keyboard and everything you want to do, you have to do by typing the correct words in the command line. This means that the first thing you do in a new screen everytime is typing “Look around” to get some descriptions. From there you have then to start figuring out the finer details and solve the existing puzzles. On the “modern” side, if you stand in front of something and type “look” or “press button” it will consider that you mean the thing you stand before. It also has a word suggestion and completion function which helps a bit. But all in all, it still feels different to the classic P&C since you don’t know what items is actually of importance and your “possibilities” are larger (in realitiy more restricted as the developers usually just foresee very specific commands. Story-wise I expected a light-hearted adventure about snails and puns. What I got was expression with a unusual dark theme hinted at in episode 1, giving you the first wtf moment at the end of episode 2 and culminating in episode 4, betraying everything you usually expect from you P&Cs. The puzzles themselves are mostly fair although there have been parts where I was stuck a while, especially in the second episode and also the fourth episode which is the most complicated. But I figured nearly everything out myself in all episodes outside of some specific achievements.
All in all, I enjoyed the game and would like to try some more text parser games as long as the theme seems interesting to me. After all, Hugo’s House of Horror (and the two sequels) have been games which helped me learn english in my childhood. Who knows those here?

Orwell: Gameplay-wise this doesn’t fit the retro theme today. Although if I want to stretch it is heavily based on 1984, so there’s that :P I think this was free at one point so most people should be familiar with it. You are playing a citizen outside of the nation hired to engaged with the new Orwell system in order to monitor some suspects concerning a terror act. This means reading all their private data and upload what seems important to you and hence influence the decisions of your supervisor and the outcome of the game. The story is divided in different chapters, where each chapter describes a certain event. How the event takes place is in your power though which makes it feel like you have influence. The overall story though does progress anyway. At times the game feels exhausting with all the text, even if the upload chunks are specifically marked. It also doesn’t make sense that the give informs you about conflicting data chunks for data you have not yet found :P But overall, it was an interesting read and experience. It was pretty clear from the beginning that the game tries you to convince that monitoring citizens is bad and shouldn’t be done. Although it also takes time to make you understand that there was some benefit. So overall, it tries to draw a balanced line although it favours the first scenario. I liked how the whole games did fit together but - although not exactly predictable - a lot of the happenings where horribly cliched, especially in the last episode.

Ocean’s Heart: Looks like Zelda? Plays also like Zelda. Although you don’t have the rigid 8 dungeons structure, you earn new items over the course of the game which helps you to reach new areas. All of this is mixed with a lot of optional sidequests and exploring and for the most part being very fun. There is also some story about pirates and the protagonists father and all that. Not much to add here. Colourful, some puzzles, lots of exploration, the possibility to make the game harder or easier in-game. As said, liked this very much, so it seems strange to me that I can’t write a lot about it ^^’

The Corruption Within: Another short (about 2 hours) adventure game in retro graphics. A P&C adventure with a dark theme and undertone sometimes even feeling a bit unsettling. You play a man on vacation with his family which then disappears. And you go searching for them, asking for help in the nearby mansion. Classic puzzle adventures and for the most part very fair. Only thing a bit unusual is the usage of a lot of NPCs acting as dynamic element. You have access to most of the areas in the game right from the start. But you often need to talk with people first, so that you can interact with certain stuff. They also sometimes change places and making space so you can visit previously occupied or non-interactable rooms. For the most part interesting but very short (not that I wanted it to drag on longer) for the price. Also contains five decision points which will give you different ending messages.

Milkmaid of the Milky Way: And another P&C adventure betraying my expections. I expected a light-hearted tale about a Milk Maid and some space stuff in rhyme form. I got a tale about a girl having lost both her parents, following her kidnapped cows to an alien race with a tyrannic queen. Same as before, the puzzles have been mostly fair outside of the final one. Graphic is nice enough and the rhymes are a fun difference to the usual. Still didn’t expect this to be for the most part so dark and hoped for some conclusion concerning a specific matter which has not been given by the game.

Crystal Caves HD: This has been imported straight from the nineties of the last century (and millenia). Although imported is wrong. It has been completely remade in Unity but still plays absolutely identical to the original (so take the HD addition with a bit of salt). At least I think so because I can’t remember how it played, just that I played it. Simple platforming fun and going for high scores. Comes with some achievements, a save function, leaderboards and a robust level editor with currenty about 700 custom levels. I also made some, so if you have the game, play and vote for them! So yea, it seems Apogee is back and some other games received an update too. However, they don’t seem to hold the IP rights on Commander Keen and Duke Nukem which is a shame.

Strangely enough I haven’t written much about achievements today O.o If you have quesionts concerning them, just ask. Oh, I also have a Steam Deck and try to figure what to best play on it.

About Heroes, Stickmen, Witches and Depression

Wild mix today of games from both sides of the spectrum:

• Songs for a Hero - Definitive Edition
  

  15 hours playtime

  59 of 59 achievements

• INMOST
  

  9 hours playtime

  29 of 29 achievements

• The Henry Stickmin Collection
  

  11 hours playtime

  82 of 82 achievements

• Black Book
  

  40 hours playtime

  50 of 50 achievements

Songs for a Hero - Definitive Edition: Definetely on the light-hearted side. Songs for a Hero is a platformer game which - for the most part - is on the easier side. During the game you mostly progress from the left to the right, fighting enemies with your sword and some simple magic and searching for secrets and hidden/collectible stuff. “Novelty” of the game is that your “progress” is accompanied by descriptive singing of the game OST. But before you wonder - or complain - it does not follow your every tiny movement but rather sing certain text passages when you reach the trigger point in the level. Still, it is mostly entertaining and you can have some fun with the text (also special mention for the level names which are horrible puns and wordplays).
Collectibles reach from three notes per level, as well as two heart and diamond halfs which increase your life and endurance. Each new world introduces a new special power which improves movement or combat ability. Many collectibles are hidden behind non-visible walls which get transparent as soon as you find them. But to be fair, most of them are clearly marked if you look for them. However, some collectibles need certain power-ups to be reachable which you only get in later worlds. Also, there are bonus bosses behind doors locked by a certain amount of needed notes which you can’t possibly have the first time you are there. Both those things make replaying levels a necessiy by design if you go for full completion. Story-wise it mostly starts straight-forward but gets very confusing in the last world. And the epilogue makes everything even more confusing. I didn’t understand those parts. Achievement-wise prepare to bring some time for the whole collectible thingies as well as some minor skills for the no damage boss fights although most have an easy attack pattern. There are some level-specific achievements which need some special conditions but also nothing to difficult.
Game already exists for a longer time but was before only available in portugues until the developer translated and adjusted the texts for english. There are also DLCs which can be easily be missed. Which is sad because the Undead DLC has the best OST in the game. Overall, a nice time waster. A bit less excessive collectibles wouldnt have hurt though.

INMOST: And now into the darker territory of the mind. INMOST is a puzzle-platformer for the most parts which mostly separates into three different parts. The main game part is the bearded man in a kind of dark and rainy metroidvania world where you have to solve puzzles and gather new equipment in order to reach new areas. At certain points in this world, the game switches control to one of two possible other characters. One is a little girl which explores the house she lives in accompanied by one very disturbing bunny toy. This part is mostly story-orientated. The other character is a knight which fights his way through different segments and is more action-orientated. And from gameplay this is mostly is.
Story-wise the game has more to offer, however it is sometimes hard to understand because most of the game is actually a metaphor about depression and grief. The “real” story only happens when you are playing the little girl. However, it is not everything and the reason why her parents react the way towards her and each other is only explained at the ending although hinted at during playing the game. The bearded man in the metroidvania world is a metaphor for the grief and following depression of the mother and/or the man himself which starts consuming more and more of their world. The knight itself is yet another metaphor for the “act” the bearded man has done and how it lead to the problems. Most of the story is made clear in the epilogue scene and also has a halfway forgiving ending. Nonetheless, it is some heavy topics.
Achievement-wise most of it is straight-forward and story-related, but there are also achievements for collectibles (including INVISIBLE pain stones and one permanently missible note) and for no-damage runs during the knight scenes and even a no-death run for the bearded man (reloading last checkpoint is an option though). While some of this sounds difficult, you have a chapter select function. However, few achievements need a complete rerun which is not that bad though as the game can be completed in about 2 hours or less.

The Henry Stickmin Collection: And another light-hearted game again. Henry Stickmin is the protagonist of the game which you have to control through the game. However, you don’t control him actually. The game is …. hm …. some kind of interactive mini-movies where the game at certain points gives you different options to do. Often these decisions lead to failure or death and only one let you continue the game. And there is no way to know which options are the correct ones because the game has a lot of silly. So, it is for most part trial&error which is however fun. That said, sometimes there are also different options correct leading to split routes and different endings for a scene.
Achievement-wise there is also a lot to do and most is fun stuff which can be done easily or is even story-related. But there are once again some time consuming achievements like RMB-clicking EVERY character in the game (with the last episode featuring over 100 different characters) or like randomly clicking at certain objects or texts during the game unlocking special scenes or getting every single fail in the game.
But all in all it is a game where you can have some fun in-between as the episodes are rather short and don’t ask for much brain power. Also, the story and characters are partially more fun then I would have thought. And some of the silly stuff is so over-the-top that it makes you smile.

Black Book: And here the game which took most of my time from this batch. Black Book is a story-heavy, deck-builder game where you play a young witch which has very very recently her fiance. Driven by grief she finally accepts her grand-fathers offer to become a witch. All this is done in order to break the seals on the black book, an one-of-a-kind special item which grants the wielder one wish of his choice if he manages to break them all. However, she has only 40 days. And with this the premise for the game is already given, as well as the game structure. Each chapter you have to break a new seal and you first have to find out and remove all obstacles in your way. With each new broken seal you gain access to new cards - which you can sometimes buy or you get them after fighting enemies - more powerful than before, ever increasing your power. However, being a witch (or koldun) is not as easy as it sounds. The power comes with responsibility and you get your own devil servants which you have to send out to do sinful things in your name. And if you don’t do this they will torture you. As a person of power, a koldun, you also get visited regularly by people who want your help and not always for good things. So, there is a lot of moral choices you have to do which may lead to you accumulating sins which have influence at the ending of the game.
One things I like about games is that they give you insight on different cultures you have never heard before. DreadOut for example plays in an Indonesian horror setting and Unforgiving in nordic folklore. For Black Book it is russian folklore during the tzar time, revolving around the dark magics of kolduns (wizards), chorts (devils) and more. All voice is therefore also in russian with the text translated to english (although some minor sentences have slipped through the crack :P).
Achievement-wise you can do a lot as long as you just do everything possible. But depending on some choices you might miss one or two achievements forcing a second playthrough - which you probably need anyone thanks to the sin system. Story-wise the game does an excellent job portraing the responsibilities of the kolduns and how they are regarded throughout the world. And also showing why our young witch is doing what she has to and becoming more and more powerful. While the power sounds enticing it is a given fact that every koldun ends up in hell.

And with this, a new batch is done. A now I will go back to either trading new games, activating some old keys or maybe finally playing some already activated left-over games.

About Bards and Dragons

Also, I play to much Vermintide :P

• Wandersong
  

  11 hours playtime

  75 of 75 achievements

• Spyro™ Reignited Trilogy
  

  41 hours playtime

  105 of 105 achievements

• Dagon
  

  71 minutes playtime

  6 of 6 achievements

Wandersong: Wandersong is a strange game in some sense. Gameplay-wise it is a story-driven rhythm game with some light adventure and platformer elements. Most of the time you arrive at a new location and need to find the song of the overseer. This is mostly done by talking with people, doing some simple quests and using your singing ability. Because you are a bard. The music mini-games range from hitting notes at specific moments, to rhythm games, memorizing patterns to creating own jingles (although it doesnt matter what you make there). All of this is extremely forgiving and you will basically always succeed. All the talking, especially in the beginning make up for a very slow start which may cause some people to drop it to early. Because the latter game is definetely the stronger part when the story and message pick up pace. And when the characters develop or not. The part which sticked out particularly to me have been the achievements which have been used to carry one of the main gimmicks of the game. And due to their importance I will set this for a rare change in spoilers.
There is a simple brilliance in the achievements. You see the game tries to tell you constantly that you are not the hero of the story (despite being clearly the protagonist and the most important character). This is underlined by the achievements which left me head-scratching for a long time. Why? Because you don’t get them. You do side-quests and no achievements. And then comes the moment where it starts to make sense. Because for a very short moment you play the hero and you get swamped with stupid achievements. And looking back you notice that the only two achievements you gained before have been tied to the hero as well. Basically every achievement in the game is tied to the hero which you don’t play most of the game. And the hero is stuck in his vision on what he has to do, while the Bard is trying to do it differently. This clash of visions finally lead to one very entertaining final fight between the two incomparable characters where all achievements are still for the hero you are fighting. So you get attacked by him and the game rewards you with achievements like “Ultimate Bard Kicker” because …. you are not the hero. In a sidenote, if you miss an achievement there is a level-select later on, so don’t worry.
All in all, an interesting premise and concept for a game which tries to carry its message. This leaves it with a slow start though.

Spyro™ Reignited Trilogy: This are - as the name implies - three games in one. And all of them are simple platformers and a lot of stuff to collect. If you just go for beating the game it isn’t to hard. Spyro 1 has some of the easiest bosses I have ever seen in a game. The more challenging and interesting stuff is if you start going for collecting everything available which is also necessary for the achievements. In addition to these collection achievements, there are also some “challenge” achievements where you have to do a specific action in specific levels.
Overall, the games are probably on the easier side but with three of them and so many things to collect, it can still eat up some time. Playing each game in succession also shows nicely how gameplay has been added over the various entries. In Spyro 1, you have your basic set of moves and this never changes. Which is nice because you know that every level you enter can be 100%ed the same moment. In Spyro 2, you gain additional abilities in the different worlds like diving or climbing ladders. This gives some feelings of progress, however it also means backtracking because for some levels items are locked behind abilities you can only learn one world later. In Spyro 3 all of these abilities are unlocked from the beginning (actually making sense in contest to sequels where you magically forget everything you once knew) but you are still locked out of certain parts in some levels. Because they have added side-characters you can play for certain segments. However, most of them are caged at the beginning of the game and you can only free one per world. So again backtracking after unlocking that character. In adds to the diversity in gameplay though. Nice games, but after playing all three of them in a row I was glad to be finished finally.

Dagon: Not much to say here. It is a short-story supported by some nice-to-look-at graphics and some minor looking around and searching for Trivia. It is a free game and the story is nice enough. Graphics are actually quite good but no free movement. Also fast to complete in 30 to 60 minutes depending on reading speed and how long you search for the Trivias yourself.

And for a change of pace, I also know what I am gonna play next: The Henry Stickmin Collection and Inmost (together with the played games it should be obvious I bought the Ukraine Humble Bundle). Also trying to trade for Songs for a Hero. But as all available traders either declined my offer or simply have nothing on their wishlist I could even offer I doubt I will be succesful there. Well, this time I still have some moments before I have to decide again on what to play next.

One less on the “Beaten” list

Also, I play to much Vermintide :P

• A Plague Tale: Innocence
  

  18 hours playtime

  35 of 35 achievements

• Okami HD
  

  52 hours playtime

  51 of 51 achievements

• Everyday Genius: SquareLogic
  

  68 hours playtime

  24 of 24 achievements

A Plague Tale: Innocence: As someone who plays a lot of Vermintide, the story of “A Plague Tale: Innocence” has something amusing due to some vague parallels to the Endtimes narrative. The game is a 3rd person adventure game combining a halfway interesting story (of the siblings Amicia and Hugo), with stealth, puzzle, crafting and fighting elements and some additives into the supernatural. After a small prelude already hinting at the larger “problem”, the game gets fast into its main aspect: the onslaught of rats over the region and the people living in there, obliterating whole towns in the process. As this is not enough you also have the inquisition looking for you as well as a war between two nations. With the help of your sling and rats which you can manipulate with fire and alchemic items you have to fight your way through the story to the end. Watching thousands of rats crawling over the screens, frantically searching for the gap in your light defense. So I went from one game with millions of rats overrunning towns to another game. Achievement hunting has some annoying specifics like collecting all flowers and finding all presents etc but you can revisit old levels which makes it easier overall. Also most of the achievements are fair and enjoyable. Overall an interesting experience.

Okami HD: Another well known game. Okami is a 3rd dog adventure game in the veins of Zelda. Over the course of the game you acquire new techniques and moves in dungeons which you can use to further explore the world and subsequently unlocking new areas with new dungeons and new moves and techniques. And everywhere there are some things to find, subquests to complete, fishes to fish and animals to feed. This is combined with a quick dash through japanese folklore and an iconic graphic style both centering around the revitalization of the gaming world cursed by an ancient evil. Main gimmick of the game is the drawing mechanic which allows you (or even forces you) to freeze time and draw specific symbols which either slash the enemies, summon fire, control water or make flowers and trees bloom. On the bad side is the audio of the characters which is no real language and can often not be skipped which might annoy some people as it gets old pretty fast. Achievement hunting is a lot of story achievements, some challenge achievements, lots of collecting achievements and sadly one or two missable achievements. On the bright side you do not need to feed all animals to 100 %. All in all, Okami is a great game and can be recommanded to nearly everyone. I would suggest using a controller though :P

Everyday Genius: SquareLogic: This is basically a Sudoku game with increasing difficulty and some thematics. The first region “Ocean” starts easy enough as 4x4 squares which increases by one with each new region. It has passed a lot of time since I played the game the first time, so I cant remember all the specifics of the later regions. However, the “twist” of the game is the existence of sub-areas in your 4x4 (5x5, ….) squares which are tied to their own rules. So you might have a two-space sub-area with a “4+” index. This means that the numbers in this sub-area when added results in four. There are other operators like multiplicative, divisive, smaller/larger, etc. By using these information you can slowly fill out the previously empty space. All in all a great game with lots of puzzles to keep you occupied if you want to play it casually. On the achievement hunting side, the game is a bit tedious though. Most achievements are fairly easy and fair game, however one or two are really grindy. One achievement is completing the challenge puzzles in all locations which already takes a bit of time. Another achievement is completing all puzzles in one location (and nearly all locations have 800! puzzles). Though these achievements are still kinda bearable and the game was at 23 of 24 achievements the longest time. So what is the missing achievement I now - after the long hiatus - went for? Completing all puzzles in a region and each region has exactly 5000! puzzles to solve. So this might be demotivating for some hunters. As I have a vacation and still couldnt decide what to play next I spent 40 hours on this single feat and completed in that time about 4000 puzzles which I needed for completing the region. Obviously in the Ocean region because otherwise you can’t maintain a sub-one-minute time for the puzzles. Great game for the casual puzzler who wants some brain training. Torture for most achievement hunters ^^

Welp, time to decide what to play next. Still have some games I have not yet played as well as several unactivated keys. AND I bought the Humbe Bundle Ukrainian bundle which added yet another batch of keys. Although there is a lot i am not interested in. I think Inmost looks the most interesting for the moment.

Finished the Underrail at long last

But first for some smaller titles:

• There Is No Game: Wrong Dimension
  

  8 hours playtime

  34 of 34 achievements

• Carto
  

  9 hours playtime

  20 of 20 achievements

• Underrail
  

  224 hours playtime

  55 of 55 achievements

There Is No Game: Wrong Dimension: Man, it has been long since I played the game. Let’s check what I remember. There is no Game: Wrong dimension is a puzzle game where you are currently looking for a game only to be led astray by the narrator voice. The puzzles are diverse enough but often take a bit longer than it should and sometimes either being obnoxiously trial & error or taking to long (remember the P&C section and the credits section which were to slow for my liking). Story-wise it is mostly shallow but picks up pace at later point and is certainly a bit moving while staying on the silly side. Overall a good enough game and there was at least one very memoriable scene when the most important and best song in the whole game sets in. I also smiled as the game over and over fades away when the big bad explains his evil plan so that you never really learn it.
Achievement-wise not to complicated as you can replay chapters after beating the game. But as said, some sections are kinda slow which makes it more tedious than necessary. Puzzle-wise a refreshing experience though.

Carto: A neat little puzzle game centered around finding map pieces and rearranging them by swapping position and rotating them. Starts simple enough with just finding new pieces and arrange them, with slightly increasing difficulty of forming specific formations (found by in-game dialogue) which reveal new locations. For example a sheep is in the middle of the flower field so you have to rotate and place four map pieces around an imaginary middle piece which will promptly appear if everything is placed correctly. There are also some navigation puzzles where you have to leave the map piece in the right direction and arrange the same piece to a new place inbetween. Actually there is not really that much difficulty to find here. Story-wise it is a short tale with a child dropping down from an airship where she lived with her grandma and then tries to reunite with her, meeting and helping new people while doing so. It is a fun game for a short break from longer stuff. Most stuff is straightforward with only the “secret” puzzles needing some personal input and can be easily missed.
Achievement-wise it is okay with most being story achievements. There are some secret achievements tied to the puzzle pieces and some minor other stuff. After finishing the game, chapters can replayed separately although I would have wished for a function in my finished game to revisit earlier locations.

Underrail: Mankind is doomed. Living on the surface is no longer possible and giant corporations use their power and scientific knowledge to create a world inside earth. Times pass, history is forgotten and you are now in the Underrail (actually all of this is a slight spoiler but nothing severe). You start as a new resident in the South Gate Station and begin with doing your typical RPG tasks by helping out here and there, only to get dragged in a confusing and large story of powerful artifacts, deception and strange creatures all mingled in a pseudo-science package.
Underrail is a RPG with a large and complex world where you can form your character to your will, although it quickly pans out that you need to skill certain stuff to live a halfway easy life. The world is to large and complex for my taste and the story parts and sidequests took longer than necessary. I mean it is great that you can always discover something new. But it takes so long until you get this feeling of finally having accomplished something. On the good side, there are no clear sides in the game. You often have to decide on personal feelings and informations for whom you should do quests, how you should end quests and what you maybe should avoid because there is not always a clear good side. Difficulty-wise the game is hard and that already on the second difficulty (I have no idea how anyone should beat the final boss on Dominating). If you want to see most of the stuff available you can easily plan for about 120 hours with lots of interesting lore, partially explaining how the world came as it is. The game is good, interesting, complex. But it slightly overwelcomes all these points.
Achievement-wise there is mostly grind by using certain skills or weapons and accumulating kills, hacks, etc ….. with a few story-achievements. There are however some story achievements which need you to go to the end as well as the “optional” side-end. Lots to do, like really lots to do. I am glad that I am finally finished.

And now I have space again to activate some new keys. Next will be Plague Tale - Innocence and Okami which I have already bought on Gamersgate (strangely enough often cheaper for Germans). I will also have to revisit No More Room in Hell as they recently added some new achievements which should be doable for me. Would also like to finish After Hours where I am stuck on the final puzzle. I could look up the answer but that is boring. Issue with that game is the feast or famine approach. You either know what to do or are tapping in the Darkness as there is no Trial&Error approach to the puzzle. Have a similar issue with Baba is You where I am also stuck (and here I would have to wrap my head around the game again).

Other than that, enjoying my vacation and trying around that photo enhance software. And since we are close to the new year, well: Happy New Year to all.

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).

Moving some more games to completed

So that I can buy and trade new games. There is somehow this part of games I really want to complete/start but can’t motivate myself to. At least I keep playing the new additions so that my unplayed usually stays below 10. Also trading reduces my shadow backlog step-by-step. Although for some games people are sitting on them as they were pure gold.

• The Walking Dead: The Final Season
  

  17 hours playtime

  48 of 48 achievements

• Moons of Madness
  

  7 hours playtime

  23 of 23 achievements

• Songbird Symphony
  

  6 hours playtime

  11 of 11 achievements

• Minoria
  

  11 hours playtime

  15 of 15 achievements

• Mega Man 11
  

  24 hours playtime

  50 of 50 achievements

The Walking Dead: The Final Season: I got lucky. Shortly after finishing the New Frontier, the Final Season appeared in a bundle and I was able to quickly trade for it. The Walking Dead still has issues with its trope of “There is no hope” and by design you can’t save everyone. But similar to Season 3 it ends on a more concilatory note. And for the first time in the whole fricking series, it makes sense that the NPC’s are behaving irrational and doing poor decisions or are tasking Clementine with the hard decisions. Because you are working together with other children which partially are much younger than you. Overall an improvement. But I am glad that the series is finished. I played all the games with the exception of Michonne which - so I assume - has no impact on Clementine’s story. Achievement-wise they mixed things up with adding several achievements bound to finding things or doing certain stuff. Makes it more interesting but also forced me to replay certain parts after the first playthrough. While I normally have no issues with that it feels weird in a game where you have to make so many decisions influencing nuances. There shall appear a comic - I think beginning of July - where Clementine will be featured. I may try to get my hands on that one but fear to be disappointed again by more gruesome happenings.

Moons of Madness: Not exactly a Walking simulator but I think it comes close by. Belongs probably in the same category as Amnesia. You play an Engineer on a Secret Mission to colonize Mars. So Secret that your father thinks you are on the Northpole and the rest of manking hasn’t been informed either. Reason for this is that the original purpose of the mission is different from what the crew thought it was. And for this reason things start to go down (and strange) like the plants growing more and weirder and also this weird eldritch abomination temple on Mars. I’ll keep from more examples as this would probably spoil the story a bit which is partially kinda non-sensical. Then again the game plays into the lore of the “Secret World” which is all about conspiracies and supernatural stuff. So it is kinda fitting there. Achievement-wise mostly relaxing with one achievement which can be missed. Sadly, no chapter select so in worst case you have to replay the first 60-90 minutes of the game.

Songbird Symphony: A really cute game and a game I wanted to have solely because of the cute, fat, little bird …. whose name I’ve forgotten. Birdie looks different than the other birds and his uncle Peat so he is getting mocked. And to find out what kind of bird he really is, he asks the Great Owl for help which sends him to all the different regions and their birdy inhabitants. The game is visually appealing and doesn’t take itself to seriously with showing dance contests between the Penguins and the … beach birds. Or having the birds working in the mine just to waste the money in the casino. Each area has some simple sidequests like finding certain stuff or playing the right melody. Story-wise you have small rhythm games in regular intervals which change in design and get more and more difficult with the protagonist learning more and more notes. The rhythm games are getting brutally difficult and some are really insane. Luckily, the developer decided to not make this a reason for failure. So even if you mess up you still can continue the story. You just have a bad rating. Also achievement-wise they are not important. Achievements are for finding secret areas or doing some sidequests. Nothing to difficulty and nothing which can be missed as far as I can tell. Mostly a cute, heartwarming game with a fat little bird.

Minoria: A 2d-sidescroller fighting game from the makers of Momodora. Nothing much to say. Lots of combat, different weapons, different areas, several bosses and some minimal Metroidvania elements. All in all a good game with this kinda intended depressing subtone (visible also in colour-style) although nothing to memorable.

Mega Man 11: Well, since I already completed Mega Man 1 - 10 on Steam, I thought why not keeping going on. Overall, a solid game. Graphics, Aesthetics have been brought up to date, sound is still good and gameplay was diverse. What I have to say though is that the game is pretty challenging. I have not understood how some people said that it is an easier game because I have played all previous entries. I think the main issue was that in my first playthrough I have been going for the “No-shop” and “Only buster shot for bosses” achievements which make this game pretty hard. Some levels are really long and have several cheap shots. If you use all stuff available as well as the new double gear system (a slow-down mechanism and a power-up mechanism) the game becomes easier. I still have most older games easier in my mind. Achievement-wise a lot to do with some specific level bound stuff which is actually kinda fun and some challenge based ones like no continue used or bosses only with starting weapons. Hardest one though is the Speedrun and the Light’s challenges one. The time for the speedrun is pretty strict (we ignore that people manage to complete the game in 40 minutes). I am no stronger to speedrunning and you are simply not allowed large screw-ups and even the small ones have to be kept down to a minimum. I needed to testplay each level a few times before I got an acceptable time and still managed it only we exactly one hour. Most people should have more trouble with it especially since time for saving and potential shopping are ticking the clock away as well. Dr. Light’s challenge is the other difficult one where you have to pass a sequence of 30 challenge rooms with recovery items only each 10 rooms. So you have to avoid damage at all cost but use your powers strategically where you need them most.

And with the old pile on the completed side, I will go forward with the new ones. I have already succesfully traded for Seven Mysteries. And will try again for Forgottton and and Don’t Escape: 4 Days to Survive. Maybe I will get back to After Hours as well. There are still some games to complete :P

Still alive, still gaming

Well, for a year that was defined by people sitting at home I didn’t do that much gaming. Well, to be fair. I actually played a lot. It just wasn’t that much difference stuff. Also, I live with the fairly lucky situation that I could do my job more or less without any changes (outside of meetings) and we had not shortage of work as well. So let’s get to the bit of gaming I did.

• Don't Escape Trilogy
  

  5 hours playtime

  13 of 13 achievements

• DreadOut 2
  

  13 hours playtime

  15 of 15 achievements

• Left 4 Dead 2
  

  266 hours playtime

  101 of 101 achievements

• Mages of Mystralia
  

  19 hours playtime

  30 of 30 achievements

• Shovel Knight: Treasure Trove
  

  81 hours playtime

  138 of 138 achievements

• The Walking Dead: A New Frontier
  

  7 hours playtime

  30 of 30 achievements

Don’t Escape Trilogy: Only bought this because I saw part 4 and thought it might be an idea to try out the earlier version. It is - as the name implies - a collection of three games all fairly short and different enough with their own unique short story. In all cases the goal is to avoid escaping. And all games are basically point & click, collecting stuff and applying it at the correct place. In the first game you are finding yourself in a hut and have to seal it and yourself from the inside so you don’t break out at night when you do …… stuff. So it is a direct subversion of the Escape Room games. The second game is what I assume to be the closest one to part 4, a ressource management game (time) where you have to decided where to go in which order to scavenge stuff and to shut in yourself to avoid the coming zombie onslaught. Last game is on a Space Station where you have to find out what happened and how to get rid of the “unwanted passenger”. It gets the closest to an eerie feeling of the three. Overall, the games are not to complex and achievements can be figured out alone without relying on guides. A nice diversion and I think I have a better understanding on what would expect me if I buy or trade for the last part.

DreadOut 2: After the mixed reviews in the beginning, I gave in and bought the game anyway. Mainly because review score is not always an indication and because I played both prequels, know about their issues and still liked them very much. And I wanted to see how the story goes on for Linda. The developers wanted to go on for a more open world feeling, mixed with the same more linear design we have seen in DreadOut. Overall, the game keeps it main gimmick of “fighting” ghosts with the camera, supported by levels with a new melee fight system now. Perspective is hereby switching from third person (most of the time) to first person (using camera). The fighting - both with camera and melee - is still plagued by the same problems than DreadOut. Inability to avoid certain hits and potentially being stunlocked. Add to this a story which doesn’t bother to explain itself in all details and you have an understanding for the mixed reviews. Although, the story telling got slightly more direct than its predecessors and is overall fairly interesting, even when confusing and partly painful for seeing all the shit being dumped on the main character. Also, DreadOut has an interesting Lore behind and gets the atmosphere for a horror game right. If you played the prequels and liked them, I think you are safe by playing this too.

Left 4 Dead 2: Like other games before I had completed this once. And like other games before, someone thought it was a cool idea to add an update and increase achievements. So I had to go hunt again. Personally, I could have lived without playing Left 4 Dead 2 again, although I have no issues with the update (AFTER 10 YEARS) per se. If you missed all the drama surrounding the update release and the burning forum you can be glad, although it was fairly entertaining how a few upset people tried to paint the image of ALL mankind totally being against the update. The new update (and achievements) center mostly around new & old survival maps and surviving 10 minutes on each of them. Which is …. kinda annoying. Because you need other people for it and they are …. of mixed quality. Sure, you could cheat it. But what’s the point of that? If you like the survival mode I think there is a lot of value in the update. However, I would say that it is a merely niche group. Don’t think I have to explain the gameplay of L4D2.

Mages of Mystralia: Now this is a little gem. I will skip on the story. It is there, it is okay but it is overall neglible. You play a young girl which had to flee from home because she accidently burned something down, because she is a mage. And being a mage is forbidden in the valley since someone had to go crazy before. So you are encountering another mage, who tutors you and from there on you start more or less. The heart and soul of the game is the magic system which you unlock step by step. After finding your very special magic tome, you start with basically four spells, each with its own element. Basically, you have a melee spell, an direct damage spell, an AoE spell and an ego spell for effects on yourself. You then start to unlock runes which you can use to customize your spells. You find movement, and your direct damage fire spell is a fireball. Now you find another rune and you have a homing fireball. Then you find the Copy rune and you have three homing fireballs. Then you can do larger fireballs or increase their spread. And then you learn to use different elements per spell category and then you learn even the combine the spells, allowing you to create large mayhem (until you run out of mana). It is kinda entertaining although most people probably go into the same direction with their spells. But there is a large variety to be discovered. And if you want to make a fire dash, leaving behind a fire copy of yourself which explodes upon being hit, creating a deadly fire rain. Then yea, that is possible as well. Want to create a stone wall which shoots homing iceballs on nearby enemies. Yes, that is possible as well. I’m not sure I have seen a magic system this flexible since Magicka. Long story short. It is fun.

Shovel Knight: Treasure Trove: Shovel Knight should be fairly known as well. It is a platformer game inspired by the Mega Man series were you have to fight a series of evil Knights in order to save the day. Upon winning you gain a new ability from your opponent, giving you more and more weaponry. Main difference to Mega Man is that you have an overworld map which gives you less flexibility for the order you want to face your opponents but introduces non-battle areas, rpg elements and secrets. All in all you get you vivid mix which works very well. This main game is accompanied by four spin-offs which I want go into more detail here. Most of them played a bit different, although there is at least one which is to similar to the first game (level-wise) and playing all games in short succession can also feel a bit like a drag. This is supported by achievements which have a lot of interesting ideas but also those which add on the drag. EACH of the four platformer games has an achievement for completing it, completing it and destroying all save points, completing it and never dying to begin with, completing it in 1:30 hour or less. You can partially combine these runs but you need to do at least two, often three runs of the same game.

The Walking Dead: A New Frontier: Well, after being very sour having played The Walking Dead - Season 2 I wasn’t sure I would continue playing this series. Why? Because there is no hope. I have no issues that Telltale games are strictly linear in their story most time, I loved Tales from the Borderlands. I have an issue though with the Walking Dead and their main motto: There is no hope. So if you are meeting someone in the game you can pretty sure that he will die at one point. The more important he is, the more gruesome the death will be. As such I started the game without trying to not get overly attached to the characters and awaiting them to do stupid stuff. In defense of the game, certain unavoidable scenarios are this time more justified as there is a driving force behind the shit happening. Also, there are actually more people surviving dependent on how you play the game. But yea, there are still horrible decisions by non-player characters which could have easily avoided the death of countless people (I’m looking at you brother!) or some people simply not getting the message and keeping hitting on me.
Overall, I liked this entry a bit better than Season 2. I liked the protagonist and some other characters were portrayed a bit better than in earlier entries. If there is still something which kinda made me mad is that I gave in to easily to the doctor’s “wish” and that I didn’t get the best ending because Clementine trusted me to much!! And that despite me ratting her out TWICE.

And that’s it on completed games. Obviously, I also played more Vermintide 2 (and 100 % Orange Juice for that matter which had a really fair new achievement mechanic added). What I have not mentioned here because I have not completed it (yet) is Baba is you. I just want to name it shortly because it is an amazing puzzle game and has one of the most logical and fairest level design I have seen. There are nearly no red herrings and from looking at the tiles given and the shape of the map, you can figure out the correct answer. Strangely enough, it is also one of the best co-op experiences I ever had. I played with a friend, starting levels, trying stuff out and discussing solutions. Both of us could control the player figure with their respective controller and some random comments from the one lead to solutions the other one already figured out, but didnt know what it was far. A creative game which rewards exploration of possibilities. Currently, there is just one level left for me which I have to complete to progress which is kinda annoying. Haven’t tried it for months. Maybe I’ll get back to it and finally complete this amazing game.

And now back to the old meta-game. What to play next? I still haven’t finished Resident Evil Zero or started the Sunless Sea :P But at least I traded two games from my Shadow Backlog for two other games.

Fire Mage: https://i.imgur.com/W8F9Eyl.mp4
Ice Spell: https://i.imgur.com/O2Q2gws.mp4