2018 ABC Challenge

A - Among the Sleep
B - Brütal Legend
C - Clockwork Tales: Of Glass and Ink
D - Dark Years
E - Edna & Harvey: The Breakout
F - Fallout: New Vegas
G - Grim Legends: The Forsaken Bride
H - Haunted Memories
I - I Have No Mouth, and I Must Scream
J - Jesus Christ RPG Trilogy
K - KHOLAT
L - Leona’s Tricky Adventures
M - Merchants of Kaidan
N - Night Mysteries: The Amphora Prisoner
O - Oknytt
P - Portal 2
Q - (none)
R - Risen
S - Sanctum 2
T - This War of Mine
U - Under Zero
V - Verde Station
W - Wrath of Anna
X - XCOM 2 (from my brother’s shared library because there are no X’s in mine)
Y - You Doesn’t Exist
Z - (none)
‘#’ - 2064: Read Only Memories

Rules:

1. Games may be played in any order, but all must be beaten in 2018.
2. Games should either be restarted if they are unfinished, or never played. No replays for finished games unless there is no other game for that letter.
3. Games may be added later for the missing letters.
4. Games may be switched out for another game of the same letter if they are not working.

Update
I took a break from working on my backlog for the past few months due to some difficult things I was going through. But now, I’m doing a lot better, I have a new job, and I’ve got some more free time. This means that I will once again work eliminating targets off my long list. June will probably be a busy month for me since I have quite a few games that fit the monthly theme, as well as a lot of reviews that I need to catch up on. Well, this short post is just to say hello again, and happy slaying!

The Old Tree

The Old Tree is a short, atmospheric game in which you help a cute, newly-hatched alien along its journey. Your job is to clear obstacles for the baby alien so it can continue on its way. Some of the obstacles are easy puzzles, while some just require you to click to move things away. Although it is very simple, the game is free, relaxing, and I really like the art. I enjoyed it, especially due to its atmosphere; I just wish that there was a bit more. It’s definitely worth the 10 minutes it takes to play.

Screenshots

Mountain

Mountain is a game that I completed a while ago, but I just put off writing the review until now. This is a game where you play as a mountain. Yes, it is as boring as it sounds. Even though some of the screenshots may look pretty, there is nothing to do in this game. The only things you can do with your mountain are spin, tilt, zoom in, and zoom out. Also, you can play the keyboard (keys “a” through “k” and “z” through “,” on a standard US keyboard) to make music, which makes time in the game go faster. Lets just say I got pretty good at the few tunes I figured out. There’s not much else you can do. You just watch cycles of day and night, the change of the seasons, and different weather conditions that occur. Every once in a while, your mountain has a pretentious thought which appears at the top of the screen. After a while, the mountain starts to collect space junk, which are just random items that crash into it about once every 45 minutes. A couple of the things that appeared on my mountain disappeared after a while, but most just stayed and did nothing. The only one of interest was the old record player. If you click on it, it would play one of two old-timey songs. This was the most interesting part of the whole game. Overall, nice looking but nothing to do.

Screenshots

A very late summary of August
I kind of took a break from games for a while when life happened. Went back to school in August, and I’ve been busy since, but I do have a few hours of free time on the weekends. So last month, I only complete 4 games total (and they were short). I started several games from the monthly theme, but didn’t complete any of them. :( But I guess some progress is better than nothing… I only have one game for September’s monthly theme, but I’ve got so much going on that it’s enough for this (half) month. So here the list of monthly theme games and games I’ve played in August.

My quick rating scale:
Great, good, and ok - I enjoyed the game a lot, a fair amount, and somewhat, respectively;
Meh - I was neutral towards it;
Really didn’t like it - (self-explanatory);
Not yet decided - I need to play more before I can rate it;

See the more detailed ratings and recommendations in the posts about individual games if you are interested. Good luck fellow assassins!

Among Ripples

Among Ripples is a simple marine ecosystem simulation game. In this game, you have control over a small pond. You can spawn a limited number of animals from six different species, and change the amount of oxygen in the water. You then watch and see what happens, and whether the ecosystem is balanced or not. I think this would be useful as an educational game for children. The gameplay is very simple, though it does provide some entertainment for a little while. The art in the game is nice, and it adds to the relaxing atmosphere of it.

Screenshots

To The Moon

I recently played To the Moon. I had high hopes for this game since I find the idea of going back in people’s memories to be an interesting idea for a story, and a lot of people, including real life friends, liked it. I was disappointed because I found it very boring, especially in the first two acts. Every scene was drawn out painfully long, with seemingly endless amounts of contrived dialogue. The gameplay consisted of the boring task of clicking on mundane items and then reading through the dialogue that follows. The dialogue and gameplay ruined what would have been an otherwise interesting plot. Also, for what’s supposed to be an emotional story, I found the characters rather difficult to sympathize with. It seems that I was just expected to care about them from the beginning, without really knowing anything about them. Yes the story had sad and sappy parts, but they were not impactful or strong enough to really move me much. This is likely due to the format getting in the way of the story.
Not everything about this game was awful. The music in the game was beautiful; it was my favorite thing about the game. There were occasional bits of humorous dialogue which broke up the monotony. The third act was better that the earlier ones and kept my interest because things happened at a faster pace, and the story started to come together. Although this act was fine, I felt like it was a chore to even get to it and almost didn’t make it there. I also enjoyed the art, and took some screenshots, but Steam wouldn’t let me upload them. :(
I also played the two minisodes a bit later. In my opinion, they could accurately be named “Smalltalk with your Coworkers Simulator.” The dialogue was just as bad as in the main game, and as soon as they started to touch on something interesting, they ended.
Overall, I was very disappointed in To the Moon and I don’t understand why this game has such good ratings, but at least it’s not the worst game I’ve ever played. Instead of playing this, I would recommend watching Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, a very good movie that deals with similar ideas of regret and being able to change memories.

Achievements

July Summary
My first month as a backlog assassin just came to an end. I finished (and completed) seven games in the two weeks I’ve been here. Even though I didn’t reach my goal of finishing off all the themed targets this month, I’d say it wasn’t a bad start. I also had a lot of games that that fit this month’s theme. I did play some non-themed games, and some longer ones that I will work on over time. Here’s the list of all the themed games in my library, and all the games I’ve played this July:

My quick rating scale:
Great, good, and ok - I enjoyed the game a lot, a fair amount, and somewhat, respectively;
Meh - I was neutral towards it;
Really didn’t like it - (self-explanatory);
Not yet decided - I need to play more before I can rate it;

See my more detailed opinions in the posts about individual games if you are interested. Looking forward to August, my themed list contains fewer games, but longer ones. Good luck fellow assassins!

Sparkle 2 Evo

I started Sparkle 2 Evo last month, but finished and completed it last week (I’m falling behind on these posts already). Like the other games in the series, the gameplay is simple: you swim around, eat, and grow. The thing I like most about it is the colorful, trippy visuals. This is my favorite of the three Sparkle games I’ve played so far. Sparkle ZERO doesn’t have as much to do. Like Sparkle 3 Genesis, Sparkle 2 Evo has the three colors of food, which let you evolve in different ways. Out of these two, I found this one to be more relaxing due to the frustrating tunnel quests in the other. Even though it isn’t a great game, it’s still just a fun game to relax to.

Screenshots
Achievements

Little Inferno

I recently replayed Little Inferno, a game that speaks to the pyromaniac inside all of us. The gameplay is simple: buy stuff from the catalog, burn it, repeat. As you play, you can find combos and unlock more catalogs. This is fun, but it does get a bit repetitive. After playing through it, the ending contains an ironic, but good message. Overall, fun, although a bit simple and repetitive, with an ending that was better than what I expected.

Screenshots