November 2023

Only two games - I spent my free time this month mostly reading. And of course - I was a victim of Steam sale, as usual.

Finished games:

• Garden Story
  

  11 hours playtime

  13 of 21 achievements

• The Lord of the Rings: War in the North
  

  14 hours playtime

  35 of 46 achievements

New games:

• Wavetale
  

  75 minutes playtime

  2 of 14 achievements

• The Talos Principle 2
  

  11 hours playtime

  no achievements

• Stray Gods: The Roleplaying Musical
  

  0 minutes playtime

  0 of 37 achievements

• Cleo - a pirate's tale
  

  0 minutes playtime

  0 of 24 achievements

• Exo One
  

  0 minutes playtime

  0 of 28 achievements

• SCARF
  

  41 minutes playtime

  0 of 25 achievements

• Forgotton Anne
  

  0 minutes playtime

  0 of 33 achievements

Quick thoughts:

Garden Story

6/10

Little game in which you are a protector of the village - you fight monsters, collect resources, build little useful construction. It was nice, but a bit incoherent - the whole building and improving village mechanic was almost entirely optional, and I could go through the whole game ignoring halt of the mechanics.

The Lord of the Rings: War in the North

7/10

Old game, which today would be known as soul-like, except it was made long before the whole Souls-mania thing. I would say it aged suprisingly well, it clearly based on Lords of the Rings movies, but there is an original story, going simultaneously to the movies plot. It was quite a good story, gameplay was allright, even if enemies had a little too much HP, you can meet some important characters from the books… I can recommend it.

October 2023

5 in, 6 out. And hard choice for a game of the month, because both Chants of Senaar and Laika were very, very good.

Best game of the month: Laika: Aged Through Blood

Finished games:

• Marsupilami: Hoobadventure
  

  10 hours playtime

  47 of 72 achievements

• Tormentum - Dark Sorrow
  

  3 hours playtime

  21 of 34 achievements

• Chronicon
  

  24 hours playtime

  111 of 152 achievements

• Chants of Sennaar
  

  7 hours playtime

  23 of 25 achievements

• It came from space and ate our brains
  

  11 hours playtime

  27 of 57 achievements

• Laika: Aged Through Blood
  

  21 hours playtime

  33 of 42 achievements

New games:

• Tormentum - Dark Sorrow
  

  3 hours playtime

  21 of 34 achievements

• dotAGE
  

  2 hours playtime

  0 of 73 achievements

• COCOON
  

  2 hours playtime

  0 of 17 achievements

• Chants of Sennaar
  

  7 hours playtime

  23 of 25 achievements

• Laika: Aged Through Blood
  

  21 hours playtime

  33 of 42 achievements

Quick thoughts:

Marsupilami: Hoobadventure

8/10

Very cute 2d platformer based on a french comic character. Nothing groundbreaking, but it’s colorful, gameplay is smooth and it’s 100% doing what is supposed to do. Maaaaaybe a bit better story would be nice.

Tormentum - Dark Sorrow

7/10

A dark adventure game with an interesting art. Very brutal and a bit surreal. Riddles are ok, mostly logical, although there was one or two places with a moon logic involved. The writing could be a bit more better, there were places, where you clearly feel that characters were saying things, only because the player need to get his part of the lore.

Chronicon

6/10

It’s basically an indie Diablo. Quite good, and without microtransactions, so it can be very fun for those, who like the genre. For me, as every other ARPG - it’s a bit too repetitve, and with a good build, I flew over the game, dying maybe 2 times during the whole playthrough.

Chants of Sennaar

8/10

Very interesting concept, in which you have to decrypt a language, based on the context, in which words are used. For example if every character is greeting you with the same world - it’s propably mean “hi”. The language part is done very well, but there are also stealth sections, because someone decided, that we cannot have game based only on logic thinking… those are passable, but way worse than a riddle part.

It came from space and ate our brains

5/10

Simplistic twin stick shooter prepared to play in co-op. I was playing single, finished the campain - in all honestly I don’t see anything particulary interesting in this game.

Laika: Aged Through Blood

8/10

This is more Mad Max than an official Mad Max game. It’s a mix between metroidvania, and good old Eelastomania game, in which you are jumping between platforms on a bike, and shooting enemies. The core gameplay is extremely satisfying, but in I’ve seen some problems - teleports were a bit too scarce, so there was incredibly amount of backtracking, side quests were mostly fetch quest, in which you needed to search for items in places, you have already been… It is also extremely violent - both in visuals (although those are cartoony style), and in descriptions. It is starting with a description of torturing a child, so you know exacly, what you are stepping into.

September 2023

I went on vacation so I didn’t have a lot time for gaming. I finished only one game - a bad one. I also was playing a bit of Starfield, but I must say - I don’t like this game. I think I’ll drop it.

Best game of the month: Nothing

Finished games:

• Alchemy Garden
  

  4/10

  42 of 43 achievements

  ﷯

New games:

• Starfield
  

  21 hours playtime

  6 of 50 achievements

• Chronicon
  

  0 minutes playtime

  0 of 152 achievements

• Marsupilami: Hoobadventure
  

  0 minutes playtime

  0 of 72 achievements

• Garden Story
  

  29 minutes playtime

  0 of 21 achievements

Quick thoughts:

Alchemy Garden

4/10

Incredibly basic and primitive farming game, where you are collecting plants and preparing potions. There are three little maps (+ a cave), on which you can search for plants, you can plant seeds and you can open a shop to sell potions you brew. And thats all - there are no goals, no story, a few furnitures to build, barely any progress. The most abysmal thing is that there is no way to water your garden automatically, so you need to go with watering can and spray every plant manually - and to have efficient shop, your garn should be big. I was using this as a distraction, while I was watching you tube, but I cannot recomend it to anybody.

August 2023

A bunch of very mediocre games. Oh well, I cannot play masterpieces every month.

Best game of the month: Havsala

Finished games:

• Chicken Assassin: Reloaded
  

  3/10

  13 of 13 achievements

• Skyborn
  

  5/10

  17 of 24 achievements

• Havsala: Into the Soul Palace
  

  7/10

  17 of 21 achievements

• Shieldmaiden
  

  5/10

  22 of 27 achievements

• Manual Samuel - Anniversary Edition
  

  6/10

  15 of 28 achievements

New games:

• Havsala: Into the Soul Palace
  

  2 hours playtime

  17 of 21 achievements

• Demon Turf
  

  36 minutes playtime

  1 of 40 achievements

Quick thoughts:

Chicken Assassin: Reloaded

3/10

Basically an idle game, with nonsensical story and not much charm. You need to train your character by clicking and collecting coins, upgrading stats, and when he is strong enough you can beat a level. I finished it thanks to my good old friend autoclicker.

Skyborn

5/10

I am not a fan of RPG maker games and this one is not changing my mind. It’s a basic RPG with linear plot and cliche story. Plus it basically soft lock me at the bossfight, because to beat the final battle, I should have one of 2 or 3 skills, and I didn’t unlock those particular skills by any of my character. Previous fights were easy for me, so nothing told me, that I am underlevel. And of course I couldn’t back up and grind. I had to lower the difficulty to beat a game.

Havsala: Into the Soul Palace

7/10

Escape room game. Quite nice one. The plot is about reincarnation and finding your previous lives, the riddles are not bad, there is a hint system… It was short, and it is DEFINIETELY not The Room but I liked it.

Shieldmaiden

5/10

Platformer. A bit junky. I feel I died more times because I was fighting the controls, than because of the real threads. The idea of the shield, which is absorbing attacks and let you use them against your opponents is neat on paper, but too many times I was basically standing still catching bullets and being bored, before I could one shot everyone on the screen.

Manual Samuel - Anniversary Edition

6/10

It’s basically an easier version of Octodad in 2D - you need to control every part of your body to do tasks, such as walking a stairs, or driving a car. It was allright, I guess. At least the plot had some creativity in it, although the jokes were hit and miss.

July 2023

I bought nothing this month. I’m in shock… My backlog got significantly smaller.

Best game of the month: DAVE THE DIVER

Finished games:

• Dordogne
  

  7/10

  no achievements

• New Super Lucky's Tale
  

  8/10

  41 of 54 achievements

• Crumble
  

  6/10

  18 of 32 achievements

• Postmouse
  

  7/10

  no achievements

• DAVE THE DIVER
  

  9/10

  38 of 43 achievements

• Voodoo Detective
  

  7/10

  no achievements

• Hero of the Kingdom: The Lost Tales 1
  

  6/10

  26 of 26 achievements

• Creepy Tale 2
  

  6/10

  13 of 15 achievements

• Songs for a Hero - Definitive Edition
  

  7/10

  30 of 59 achievements

New games:

Nothing….

Finished in July(6-9)

Second part of this month’s games

• Voodoo Detective
  

  4 hours playtime

  no achievements

Voodoo Detective

7/10

A classic adventure game - Broken’s sword’s type. Really nice little adventure on the carribean island, made with a bit more knowledge than normally (the fact, that they know a difference between voodoo and hoodoo is appreciated). A story is a typical detective plot, serious enough, although there is some wacky humor in random places (our first task is to stop the fire made by the title of the game). The riddles are mostly logical, I think there were two moments, when I needed to check the solution, because there was some weird logic. All in all - I liked.

• Hero of the Kingdom: The Lost Tales 1
  

  3 hours playtime

  26 of 26 achievements

Hero of the Kingdom: The Lost Tales 1

6/10

This was weird… I don’t even know the genre of this game - it is acting like an RPG, but is more an adventure, or even HOPA game. The plot is very standard - a young hero, who want to slay a dragon, but all the fighting is done by having necessary items and energy. So basically the player is collecting items, selling them, buying other items, eating food, to increase energy level and killing enemy after enemy to clear a path. There are some side quests based on bringing some resources here and there - it is very basic game, but honestly I had more fun, than I should.

• Creepy Tale 2
  

  7 hours playtime

  13 of 15 achievements

Creepy Tale 2

6/10

Another little adventure game - very creepy in style of original Grimm fairy tales. It was OK, better than the first one, but I don’t really like stealth sections in adventure games, plus, like in the first one, there are some riddles in which you are just dying constantly until you find a correct sollution.

• Songs for a Hero - Definitive Edition
  

  7 hours playtime

  29 of 59 achievements

Song for the hero

7/10

It’s a very standard platformer based on one gimmick, but it wasn’t a bad gimmick. The main hero is singing - almost all the time - there is an inner singing monologue about everything that is happening in game. I thought it will get annoying quickly, but the game is short enough so I didn’t get tired. Honestly - my biggest proble is, that I wish the singing voice was a bit better :)

Finished in July(1-5)

Already finished 5 games, so I think I can write some reviews. Also I have classic “I just finished a good game and I don’t know what to do with my life” mood, I need to think, what to play next

• Dordogne
  

  4 hours playtime

  no achievements

Dordogne

7/10

A little cute game about a woman, who is remembering her childhood holidays, with her grandma. A premise was a bit far-fetched, but overall nice story, interesting visuals, very simplistic gameplay - some easy minigames, and a bit of point and click. Collectables were a bit annoying, cause they were very easy to miss, so quickly I just ptopped caring for them.

• New Super Lucky's Tale
  

  11 hours playtime

  41 of 54 achievements

New Super Lucky's Tale

8/10

Very fun and very, very easy 3d platformer. I basically 100% every level on the first, or second try. The story was e bit meh, like in most of the games of this genre, but it was incredibly cute and relaxing game, with some variety of levels, some 3D, some 2d, some auto-runners, some bossfights, and some puzzles (although to many Sokoban-like for my taste - but I must say - they were optional). The fact, that I couldn’t use a mouse in this game was very confusing at first, but I get used to controls quite quickly

• Crumble
  

  4 hours playtime

  18 of 32 achievements

Crumble

6/10

A kind of 3D platformer, which basically is an obstacle course - you have one way and you need to move forward. It is a mix between a precision platformer and complete chaos - because my character could use it’s tongue as a rope, many times I was barely hanging and fighting for my life just swingin on the bottom of the course. It is designed to promote multiple tries on each levels and trying to be as fast as possible, but I finished main levels once, and I have enough

• Postmouse
  

  63 minutes playtime

  no achievements

Postmouse

7/10

Short, cute, free 3D platform game about a mouse postman. A bit junky, a bit buggy, but nothing major, and clearly made with small budget, but I wouldn’t mind to pay 1-2 $ for it. So as they say - free is a very fair price.

• DAVE THE DIVER
  

  34 hours playtime

  31 of 43 achievements

DAVE THE DIVER

9/10

This game is quite popular now, so it’s not a surprise, but I must say - it is really, really good. In the core it’s a fishing game, where during day you are catching fish, and at night you are selling dishes made of them, but it has so, so much little mechanics, that are unlocking during the whole playthrough, that it is impossible to get bored during the whole story campaign. And it is incredibly cozy - there is no penalties for being bad at it, except for slower progress, so you can relax and just swimming and catching sea creatures. The only thing I didn’t like is that you sometimes need luck to do certain objectives, especcially optional ones, becuse some fishes and other stuff to collect appeared randomly.

June 2023

Steam Sale month! Of course my wallet got hurt. Also, this month I was playing with Steam deck a bit, so I finished some games there.

Best game of the month: ENDER LILIES

Finished games:

• ENDER LILIES
  

  8/10

  35 of 38 achievements

• Cult of the Lamb
  

  7/10

  26 of 42 achievements

• Webbed
  

  7/10

  12 of 19 achievements

• Minute of Islands
  

  5/10

  17 of 17 achievements

New games:

• Minute of Islands
  

  6 hours playtime

  17 of 17 achievements

• Black Book
  

  8 hours playtime

  9 of 50 achievements

• Crumble
  

  2 hours playtime

  11 of 32 achievements

• Dordogne
  

  2 hours playtime

  no achievements

• DAVE THE DIVER
  

  0 minutes playtime

  0 of 15 achievements

• New Super Lucky's Tale
  

  3 hours playtime

  0 of 54 achievements

• Well...
  

  11 minutes playtime

  2 of 10 achievements

• Voodoo Detective
  

  0 minutes playtime

  no achievements

Finished in June (1-4)

Indie games time!

• ENDER LILIES
  

  24 hours playtime

  35 of 38 achievements

ENDER LILIES

8/10

Very nice, hard metroidvania, with some Souls-like bosses, a lot of weapons and nice combat system. Almost too hard to me, but I managed to finish it. Nice artstyle, story - convoluted in Dark Souls style.

• Cult of the Lamb
  

  16 hours playtime

  26 of 42 achievements

Cult of the Lamb

7/10

Nice mix between roguelike fights, Binding of Isaac style, and base building. Unfortunately both parts of the game are a bit shallow - managin base quickly changed into list of chores I needed to do between runs, and roguelike part, while quite hard, was a bit basic. I had some fun, I finished a story, but I definietely dont need to 100% it.

• Webbed
  

  8 hours playtime

  12 of 19 achievements

Webbed

7/10

Cute platformer about a spider, with some webbing mechanics. I started this two times - first time I gave up, beacuse I didn’t understand some mechanics. Second time I figured them out but I think a tutorial should be a bit clearer. Also - I played last bossfight 3 times, because first two it bugged for me. The rest - it was very nice little game

• Minute of Islands
  

  6 hours playtime

  17 of 17 achievements

Minute of Islands

5/10

The story and artstyle of this game is very nice, but most things in gameplay are a bit off. Every cutscene, and a lot of animations are a bit too long. Because of the art, sometimes is hard to day, where you can stand, and what is background. There is some iritating backtracking. This game is better to watch than to play.

May 2023

Busy month, not many things happen in my gaming life. I managed to finish a few games, but nothing groundbreaking.

Best game of the month: Mafia II

Finished/abandoned games:

• Little Inferno
  

  7/10

  17 of 22 achievements

• Yooka-Laylee
  

  5/10

  21 of 35 achievements

• Mafia II (Classic)
  

  7/10

  35 of 67 achievements

New games:

• Mega Man Legacy Collection
  

  3 hours playtime

  0 of 24 achievements

• Days Gone
  

  3 hours playtime

  0 of 61 achievements

• Cult of the Lamb
  

  5 hours playtime

  7 of 42 achievements