fernandopa’s profile
October Assassination #2
Ugh I'm so frustrated! Ballistic Zen was one of the nicest surprises I've encountered recently. I had never heard of the game or have any idea what it was about, but it was bundled recently and I decided to give it a go. I ended up giving away all other games in the bundle and just kept this one. And boy, what a delight!
Ballistic Zen is a first-person platformer / parkour game. It controls basically just with the mouse - left-click to start or stop, right-click to jump. You accelerate by riding downhill or by quickly shifting between left and right. And … that's pretty much it, a whole game built upon first-person movement, which I'm a sucker for. The goal is to ride "lines", which are courses snaking through the massive, brutalist, vertical open-world. It's literally so simple yet so, so enjoyable.
The part that I hated the most is the realization that I suck at it. The first world kind of warms you up to the game. It took me a while, but eventually I was able to beat all the lines there. Then I went to the second world, and managed to beat maybe 40% of the lines. Third world, 20%, last world, none of them. I eventually made my way up the Pyramid, which is the end-game, and called it a day. Decided to pick it up again to try to clear lines I've had previously struggled with, and even though I played for a loooooooooong time, I managed to beat none of them. Which is fine because the game is still a treat and I'll be booting it up every now and then to go and have fun with it, but man, it is SO HARD to get better at it, and of course, being a niche title, there are no guides or tips and tricks for it.
Absolutely worth buying full price if you enjoy first-person parkour or platforming games with lots of wallrunning and beautifully realized movement mechanics.
Let me try something different - I noticed my monthly posts are too long, and that’s not good for anyone. So I’ll try to catalog my assassinations here as I go throught them, and then by the end of the month, just do a balance of games in and games out. Let’s see how this goes?
October Assassination #1: Chasm
I thought I would never find a 2D Metroidvania I didn't like. But then I played Chasm.
In the most basic level, a Metroidvania has to do two things well: combat and exploration. Chasm draws a lot from the SNES Castlevania titles for combat and movement, with long wind-up times, stance locks during attacks, stun locks during jumps, and different attack reach and arcs based on the weapon. Also the "magic" system is copy paste from Castlevania, particularly Castlevania X and Super Castlevania IV. The problem is that these games are not known for their expressive combat options, or for their fluid and responsive platforming.
If you've played any modern 2D action adventure game, you'll be left scratching your head as why Chasm is so dull. Combat options are extremely limited, and you're constantly punished by enemies that hit pretty hard and stun lock you into place, even on the Normal difficulty. You'll be missing ledge grabs and wall jumps because the inputs for these moves are arcane and unresponsive. You'll be jumping on disappearing platforms, and they will fade before you had a chance to register a jump away. Moving around and fighting enemies is just not fun, and given this is the core of the game, this makes the whole experience a chore.
I could live with these flaws if difficulty was balanced or the map and level design were fun to explore, but alas, they are not. There are very few save points in the game, and they are far from each other. Re-entering a room re-spawns enemies. The first time you encounter an enemy, you'll likely lose a big chunk of health trying to learn its moves (which is harder because your own moveset and attack is sluggish), and then you'll face a challenge: go to the next room hoping it's a save point (probably it won't), or try to backtrack to the last save point but risking dying in the process? If you die, it's game over, main menu, so dying in the game is very punishing. And this system incentivizes you to grind enemies besides the save room. Seriously, a grand total of 0 people find that fun. The amount of times I had been playing for a while (like, thirty minutes) and died, only to have my progress reset, was frustratingly high. And I wasn't even playing on hard, I was just fighting the controls and the platforms instead of fighting the enemies.
To top it off, the devs seem to take a lot of pride from having a proc-gen game. But if I'm just playing the main story once, does it matter? Spoiler alert, it doesn't! Proc-gen makes sense for games with weak narrative and quick gameplay loops, like Rogue Legacy or Enter the Gungeon. Chasm tries to be a narrative-heavy game with a random dungeon that is all disjointed and makes no sense, relying on teleports to "connect" the world, and it fails. It tries to be a modern SNES Castlevania with RPG elements, but fails at that too. It tries to have puzzles, platforming, combat, an in-game economy, and it all falls through the cracks. It's a game that's not fun to play, trying to do too much and doing none of that right.
With three posts in a row, it’s official. As always, I appreciate people reading my longer reviews on Steam, so take a look if any game this month catches your eye!
September 2024
Fables from the Den
Fables from the Den
Is this a game? No. It’s more like a digital book with ~15 minutes of content. I won it as a GA that I joined because the artstyle looked nice, and then did everything I could with this piece of software in a quarter of an hour. I don’t know how I feel about this, but satisfied is not the word. Anyway, I’m already spending longer writing this blurb than I spent “playing” it.
My Review
Screenshots:
Police Stories
Police Stories: The Academy
Police Stories was a game I had won in my first few months on SteamGifts and never got around to it. Well, now I have as part of PAGYWOSG. I’ve tried playing the Prologue first, but it doesn’t accept a gamepad, so I booted the main game instead. Turns out the game was not designed for gamepad, and it’s really clunky to play. So after a frustrating 30 minutes, I went back to the Prologue with K+M and things started to click. On the main game, I hit a skill check around a quarter of the way into the story, and had to check some tips and guides online, which gave me all the tools I needed to blast through the rest of the game after that.
It turns out the gameplay is a structured loop - your goal is to clear a venue room-by-room, trying to avoid shoot-outs (keep it quiet and you’ll attract less attention), leveraging most of your tactical gear, and using your AI partner as another tool, but keeping him in check (as he’s very trigger-happy). It’s an addictive loop that requires fast reflexes, as the levels are all set on a fixed map, but with proc-gen enemy and hostage location. It’s a super fun loop that is not super complex, and once you’re comfortable with it you can turn your brain off and still have fun. I wasn’t tired of playing it by the time I reached the ending.
The Zombie DLC throws your loop in disarray as many of the tactics you grew used to cannot be effectively used. For instance, the main game rewards you for getting up close to enemies and punching them, but the DLC punishes that since close contact means you’ll be bitten and turned into a zombie. It was a nice set of missions that forced me to re-adjust my playstyle.
Plot is nothing to write home about, but serviceable. The cutscenes are all really nice, with a distinctive artstyle. The game is great at building atmosphere, and I’d certainly recommend it to anyone.
My Review - Prologue
My Review - Full Game
Screenshots:
Frog Fractions
Hmmm, I don’t know. I keep hearing people talking about Frog Fractions and how you need to play it, so I gave it a go. It reminded me a lot of Henry Stickmin, a game I heard similar things about. It definitely encapsulates a moment in gaming, specifically the Flash-era of webgaming, but did I have a good time or huge revelations playing it? No. It’s hard to recommend, as I don’t think it’s that fun or meta or whatever. Daniel Mullins took the concept and ran with it, leaving Frog Fractions behind as a curiosity, not necessarily a good piece of entertainment in itself. But it’s free and it’s short, so take a look and decide for yourself?
Screenshots:
Red Dead Redemption 2
Still going on. I played almost 50 hours in August, and added 40 hours in September. Was supposed to be more but I was traveling for a week so here we are.
I feel that I’ve done most of what I wanted in the open world, so free-form exploration took a back seat and I focused more on the main story. While I spent roughly a month on Chapter 2 and another month on Chapter 3, I was able to finish Chapter 4 in a week and Chapter 5 in almost a day. Even when focused on the story, the game is still very long. But it’s undeniably fun regardless of what you are doing.
The whole story feels like it’s on a crescendo, and I can’t wait to actually beat it beat it. Also it’s a bit crazy for me that I am still not able to explore a big chunk of the map (New Austin), damn haha
My Review: Still playing the game!
Screenshots: (it’s impossible to pick only four, damnit haha)
New Games
Yes, I played a lot of games in September, but my backlog still grew. A good mix of purchases, wins, F2P and Discord keys. Since RDR2 is almost over, I feel confident I can try to tackle two or three medium-size wins this month, fingers crossed!
SG Wins
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Dead End Job
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Coromon
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Chasm
Keys received on Discord(s)
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Black Skylands
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Remothered: Tormented Fathers
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Bartlow's Dread Machine
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Lost Eidolons
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stikir
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Izmir: An Independence Simulator
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Agent in Depth
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Saturday Morning RPG
Purchases
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The Crew 2
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Clid the Snail
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Aggelos
Freebies
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Sheepy: A Short Adventure
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Cureocity
Progress on SG Wins
I’m back! Two months in a row starts to become a pattern, I guess?
As always, I appreciate people reading my in-depth reviews on Steam, so feel free to do so if any of the games I played this month catches your eye.
August 2024
The Citadel
The Citadel
I think I mentioned it before, but I always try to break down my playtime in a given month between SG Wins and backlog games. Well, The Citadel was my pick for SG Win in August, and it was … kind of a letdown. Graphically, the game is all I expected and stood up to the reason I entered the GAs in the first place. But when it comes to gameplay … it wasn’t that fun. I felt the game was really hard, with enemies all having perfect aim (although none use hitscan weapons, so you can compensate against the perfect aim with movement), half the guns being annoying to use (you have to reload bullet by bullet), and a high level of lethality combined with poor checkpoints making the game a chore. I still managed to beat it after learning to cheese some sections, but when you’re cheesing your way through a game just to beat it, you know it’s not a good feeling.
The experience was the opposite to Call of Juarez: Gunslinger and Bound in Blood (both also SG wins). In the CoJ games, I expected a cliché, generic shooter, and was greeted with fun, polished experiences that surprised me positively. In The Citadel, I expected a boomer shooter and was greeted with a slow, draggy tactical experience that frustrated me. High expectations were again frustrated. Oh well
Screenshots: I mostly forgot to take them as I played hahah so here are some from the end of the game
Red Dead Redemption 2
Yup. It’s still going on. Last month I sank around 17 hours into the game, whereas this month I played close to 43 hours, give or take. A lot of the issues I first encountered with the game in terms of controls or obtuse systems are now gone. I feel RDR2 is super complex, both physically and mechanically, and you absolutely need some 20 hours at least to grow into the game, at which point, it becomes a drug. I have missed real life appointments because of the game, like the time I was on my way to camp to rest and save, but found some bison and decided to hunt them since I needed a perfect pelt for my satchel. But by the time I skinned them, bounty hunters showed up, forcing me to flee towards the woods, where I bumped into a Legendary Wolf trail, and also realized that area was the one shown on one of the treasure maps I had! After hunting the wolf, I noticed ravens gathering around it, and remembered this would be a good time to do the Weapons Expert challenge, where I needed to kill three bird of prey with a tomahawk, and once I did, of course I had to find the closest Trapper to buy new gun belts, and also the nearest Fence to craft new Trinkets with my Legendary Animal parts. Only then I realized it had been almost one hour since I said I was saving the game and turning it off, and yeah, I was late lol
Absolute banger of a game. I’m now in Chapter 3. Crazy lol
My Review: Still playing the game!
Screenshots:
New Games
If July was a lucky month for me on SG, August was more muted. No new wins, but this is good, since I just played one of my wins this month. I’ll aim to play one short and one medium wins next month, so maybe something around one hour in duration, and something else around the 6-8 hour playtime mark. I still managed to get a few free games on Discord that were on my wishlist, so that’s a win, and I bought a game I’ve been meaning to try for the longest time - freaking Titanfall 2! I also got Hades and Neon White on the Xbox store with a gift card I earned, so you won’t be seeing them here but they are both really high on my backlog!
SG Wins
None - boo
Keys received on Discord(s)
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FALLBACK
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Mini Thief
Purchases
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Titanfall® 2
Freebies
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Super Beast Hunt
0 hours playtime
no achievements
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Classic Marathon Infinity
Progress on SG Wins
Hello world! Better late than never.
My goal is to post once a month, commenting on what I played the month before - both Steam and off Steam. No deep reviews, but general vibes. I’ll start with July 2024 and leave everything else behind, because it’s in the past. Hopefully at least I can keep up from here onwards.
Also, please read the in-depth reviews on Steam and if you like them, give a thumbs-up :)
July 2024
Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order
July was split between SG Wins and backlog games. I had started Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order in June (9 hours played), and kept at it throughout July. The game is part of my personal backlog, and not a SG win. It’s an incredible game, the first proper 3D Souls-like game I’ve played, and I had a blast. Exploration is so much fun, the visuals were impressive, and enemies were fun to deal with. It was a bit frustrating at the beginning because of the high lethality, but if you persevere you keep improving at a pretty satisfying rate. I sunk around 23 hours on the game in July, and managed to get 100% Achievements on it, something I usually don’t go for. Most of the Achievements are either part of the main story, were achieved as I explored the worlds (which were very fun), or were able to be grinded super quickly at the Combat Arena after you beat the game.
Screenshots: For some reason I can’t find them in my Steam directory, so maybe next time
A Story About My Uncle
Once I beat Fallen Order, I decided to reduce my SG Wins backlog, and the chosen game was A Story About My Uncle, a game I won from mdpeters 6 months ago. It’s a short game, which took me a bit less than 3 hours to complete. I love first person platformers, and while this one is visually pleasing, the mechanics started to feel a bit stale towards the end. Even though I looked for secrets, I still wasn’t able to unlock a single achievement, and all of them looked very grindy, so I won’t be pursuing them. It’s a game that could use some additional polish and explore additional gameplay ideas, and maybe cut out the plot to be more focused, but overall not too bad. Time well spent!
Screenshots:
Red Dead Redemption 2
Oh boy. We’re in for a ride. I won RDR2 on SteamGifts from xxxka as part of the SteamGifts Magazine project, and I only have ~2 months to play and review it, so I better get to it! I was able to sink close to 17 hours into the game in July, and I still barely completed the Prologue. This is going to take a while, but I’m already hooked.
My Review: Still playing the game!
Screenshots:
New Games
July was a really lucky game for me on SG! I won Crookz - The Big Heist from Patzl on July 1st, then Deaht’s Door from xxxka and HYPERVIOLENT from abendorg, both on July 10th. Then came Battletoads from Lugum on July 16th, and Fables from the Den from Pebbletool on July 21st. That’s a lot of great wins! I got keys on Discord for Prodigal, Muse Dash, and Super Meat Boy, and I bought Euro Truck Simulator on a deal. Last but not least, Marathon 2 and Intravenous were given for free, so I definitely have a lot of great games to get into eventually! There are more free games I added to my library, but nothign that I care about playing anytime soon besides the ones mentioned here :)
SG Wins
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Crookz - The Big Heist
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Death's Door
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HYPERVIOLENT
0 hours playtime
no achievements
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Battletoads
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Fables from the Den
0 hours playtime
no achievements
Keys received on Discord(s)
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Prodigal
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Muse Dash
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Super Meat Boy
Purchases
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Euro Truck Simulator
0 hours playtime
no achievements
Freebies
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Classic Marathon 2
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Intravenous
| 3615 | games |
| 97% | never played |
| 0% | unfinished |
| 2% | beaten |
| 0% | completed |
| 1% | won't play |
- Won on SteamGifts 201
- Short (0-5h) 706
- Medium (5-20h) 608
- Long (20-50h) 143
- Very Long (50h+) 32