December 29, 2023 - Day 363 - NewPlay Bonus Review
Total NewPlays: 393

Game: Mindustry

Platform: Steam
Release Date: Sep 27, 2019
Installation Date: Nov 6, 2021
Unplayed: 783d (2y1m23d)
Playtime: 1h12m

Mindustry is a top-down automation strategy game mashed up with an RTS.

I've always had a thing for automation games, which I suspect is a largely #autistic thing. Most games of this type are about systemisation, finding efficiencies, then building (and rebuilding) automation pipelines to produce a particular outcome.

These are games that I avoid because they suck me in to the point that I've lost entire days inside them, with Shapez & Production Line being just two examples. I've seen at least one person whose *entire* Steam 2023 review was one game played, no new games. All Factorio, all the time.

A game in this space has to bring something different to the table; for Mindustry that's planetary domination, leaning into the RTS side.

Build factories, research technology, build tanks, and defenses, seek and destroy.

Unfortunately, this is where Mindustry leaves me a bit cold. It's not that I don't like RTS games: I cut my teeth on Dune II. I went on to Warcraft II: Tides of Darkness, then finally StarCraft.

Unfortunately, Mindustry feels it doesn't quite pull off either type of game that well. The gameplay elements are not explained clearly, and the UI is *really* clunky, making it difficult to find critical information, and not always making it clear what the next step is.

Unfortunately, the RTS side of things feels like (at least in the early stage of the game) like the only real strategy is Zerg rushing.

I finally quit out of the game, entirely unsure whether I'd completed that stage of the game, or needed to do something else.

There are a bunch of nice ideas in the game, and I think it's the work of a single dev, as far as I can tell. I just feel like it needs a lot of polish.

Mindustry is:

3: OK

#Mindustry #TopDown #Automation #Strategy #RTS #Gaming #Project365ONG #Project365 #NewPlay

December 29, 2023 - Day 363 - NewPlay Bonus Review
Total NewPlays: 394

Game: Shatterline

Platform: Steam
Release Date: Sep 9, 2022
Installation Date: Oct 9, 2022
Unplayed: 446d (1y2m20d)
Playtime: 24m

Shatterline is a multiplayer F2P co-op PvE & PvP FPS with some roguelike & extraction shooter gameplay elements.

Launching a F2P FPS into early access in 2022 was a huge risk in an already flooded market.

Launching a F2P FPS in 2022 when your development headquarters are based in Kyiv, Ukraine? They don't make risk-management charts that big.

The premise is interesting, and the intro is well done. Even the initial PvE tutorial level is great. The gameplay is smooth, and the UI is polished.

However, the problem with F2P multiplayer shooters is that there are so many options available that a game has to present something that's utterly unique to rise above the crowd, and Shatterline doesn't quite deliver that.

In this case, that's less my judgement of the game, and more that Steamcharts shows that the average players has gone down consistently every month since launch averaging 285 players per day over the last 30 days.

No matter how good Shatterline's design and gameplay is, with a game that's primarily multiplayer, without the players, a game is pretty much doomed to failure.

Unfortunately, as interesting as Shatterline's backstory is, and as nice as the gameplay is, I suspect Shatterline may follow in footprints of The Cycle: Frontier before too long.

Shatterline is:

3: OK

#Shatterline #F2P #FPS #PvP #PvE #Multiplayer #Gaming #Project365ONG #Project365 #NewPlay

December 30, 2023 - Day 364 - NewPlay Review
Total NewPlays: 395

Game: Outward Definitive Edition

Platform: Steam
Release Date: Mar 26, 2019
Installation Date: Nov 30, 2023
Unplayed: 30d
Playtime: 37m

Outward Definitive Edition is a third-person fantasy RPG with survival mechanics.

The problem with any RPG released from here on out is that Cyberpunk 2077 and Baldur's Gate 3 both exist.

However it's worse for RPGs that were released before 2023, because between these two games, they've raised the bar so incredibly high, that most games are going to suffer in comparison.

Outward Definitive Edition is an updated release of Outward release in May 2022 that includes "quality of life" improvements; given the state of the game, I shudder to think what QoL was like beforehand.

However, in trying to be fair, I looked up RPGs that were released in 2018 & 2019; which means comparing it to games like Kingdom Come: Deliverance, and Greedfall.

Unfortunately, even then it doesn't fare well. It just feels very rough around the edges, and frustrating to play.

As an example, whether you love it or hate it, most RPGs use some kind of encumbrance gameplay mechanic (and if you love encumbrance, I wonder what's wrong with you).

Outward leans heavily into the realism, which means it takes barely anything collected in your backpack before you're encumbered. Better* still, after combat I picked up two weapons from the mobs I'd just killed. One of them left me encumbered. The second left me completely unable to move.

Not that the screen indicated the change in any way. There's an icon that appears onscreen when you're over the encumbrance limit, but no warning to say I'd been completely immobilised. I thought the game had bugged out completely.

There's also a cooking mechanic (because survival gameplay as well) with some recipes, but also "manual cooking". I tried to cook something with fresh water and *fresh* raw salmon, but instead of boiled salmon, it resulted in "diseased mush". I probably shouldn't have eaten it, because eating it left *me* diseased, with an icon onscreen, and nothing to indicate how to resolve that.

It feels like the game wants you to work really hard to like it, and I'm glad that I got it in a bundle, because I don't feel bad about disliking it.

You've probably already guessed, but Outward Definitive Edition is a:

1: Nope

#OutwardDefinitiveEdition #ThirdPerson #Fantasy #RPG #Gaming #Project365ONG #Project365 #NewPlay

December 30, 2023 - Day 364 - NewPlay Bonus Review
Total NewPlays: 396

Game: Wasteland 3

Platform: Steam
Release Date: Aug 29, 2020
Installation Date: Dec 21, 2023
Unplayed: 9d
Playtime: 54m

Wasteland 3 is an isometric squad-based RPG with turn-based combat mechanics.

Apparently it's all RPGs all day here. Less "all", and more "this afternoon", because I ended up spending all morning cleaning out my desk and sorting screws.

Yeah, I forgot my ADHD meds, and today has been erratic. The kicker was discovering that I'd doubled up on a day count back in early October, meaning that instead of only needing to play one extra game per day for three days, it was two extra games today, and two tomorrow to hit my "400 new games" goal.

Anyway, turns out I've had a bunch of cool isometric RPGs just sitting in my unredeemed Steam keys spreadsheet; it's suddenly an embarrassment of riches, between Pathfinder: Wrath of the Righteous, BG3, and now Wasteland 3.

Having not played the previous two Wasteland games, I thought it was some kind of post-apocalyptic FPS, but instead it's a post-apocalyptic RPG set in a nuclear winter affected Colorado.

The game starts out with a cut-scene talking about what happened to the Desert Rangers after the events of Wasteland 2 (and providing enough information for context), explaining that the Desert Rangers are on their way to Colorado to meet with "the owner of Colorado" to seek assistance for Arizona (I really need to look at a US map).

Looked at the map, got distracted. Anyway, things do not go according to plan, and you get ambushed on your way, and off the game goes.

Looks like I've got a lot of RPGs to play in 2024, because Wasteland 3 seems:

4: Good

#Wasteland3 #Isometric #PostApocalyptic #RPG #Gaming #Project365ONG #Project365 #NewPlay

December 30, 2023 - Day 364 - NewPlay Bonus Review
Total NewPlays: 397

Game: MOTHERGUNSHIP

Platform: Steam
Release Date: Jul 17, 2018
Installation Date: Sep 7, 2019
Unplayed: 1576d (4y3m24d)
Playtime: 16m

MOTHERGUNSHIP is a bullet-hell FPS built in the Unreal Engine.

I immediately ran into problems when I tried to run it, because it did not want to play well with multiple monitors, insisting on running on the left-most monitor (which isn't my main). No options in-game to choose which monitor to run on.

Putting it into a lower resolution and windowed mode somehow made things worse, because it pushed the window chrome AND the back button off the top and bottom of the screen, respectively.

Eventually I got it running on the main monitor, and away we went. You're a nameless pleb dropped into combat on a spaceship, receiving instructions from an army General, and a tech, delivered by VO and a text-box in the middle of the screen.

You're wearing some kind of exo-suit, and you can see your robotic hands at the bottom of the screen, and you're sent off to start punching sci-fi cartoonish turrets.

When you die (oh, and you will die), you're immediately resurrected to keep fighting, with the "General" lampshading this.

A few rooms in, and you can start buying gun parts with the coins you collect, and then you can build and rebuild your weapons, into whatever wild assemblies you can imagine.

I was pretty tired last night, and it's only just occurred to me that the reason I couldn't buy parts in one of the shops was that I didn't have enough coins. There was just an error box icon that would appear when I tried to pick up gun parts, which I thought meant I'd run out of room or something. It didn't make it clear *why* I was getting that icon.

Which highlights one of the issues with the game. The ship(s) are bright and colourful with a lot going on, and the UI just kind of tends to blend in with everything else on screen.

I don't usually highlight the engine that the game is built in, but sometimes games have a certain "feel" to them that immediately registers as the game engine, and when I checked, I wasn't surprised to find it was an Unreal based game (no Unreal splash at the start, though!).

If bullet-hell shooters are your thing, this might be worth picking up on special, but I probably won't be back; they're not my thing, so for me MOTHERGUNSHIP is just a bit:

2: Meh

#MOTHERGUNSHIP #FPS #BulletHell #Gaming #Project365ONG #Project365 #NewPlay

December 31, 2023 - Day 365 - NewPlay Review
Total NewPlays: 398

Game: Beyond: Two Souls

Platform: Steam
Release Date: Jun 18, 2020 (PC)
Installation Date: Dec 19, 2022
Unplayed: 377d (1y12d)
Playtime: 24m

Beyond: Two Souls is a third-person... interactive movie?

I picked a doozy for my final primary NewPlay. The game starts by presenting the option to play in the "original" non-chronological order, or the "remix" chronological order.

I picked "original", and then found myself in a cutscene with a mo-capped pre-transition Elliot page, and then an unexpected Willem Dafoe, setting up an interesting premise.

Whoever Jodie is, she's dangerous.

After the cutscene, I found myself playing as child Jodie. This was where I ran into my first issue with the game. I'd picked mouse & keyboard to play with, but given that this was originally a console release, it really isn't designed for mouse & keyboard, and the controls just felt weird.

Switched to controller, and things started to make more sense.

The hard part of trying to provide more of a review is this: explaining what happens next goes into spoiler territory, and so... I won't.

Because the game relies on mocap, and was originally released in 2013, prior to Elliot Page coming out as a trans man, I found playing as adult Jodie in the next section somewhat disconcerting, and in a way that I really can't quite put into words. Not enough to make me not want to play, but enough to break immersion.

This is not a critique of the game, rather an acknowledgement of how events in the real world can affect my perception of a game.

I really enjoyed (and completed!) one of Quantic Dream's other games, Detroit: Become Human, which is what lead to me buying this and Heavy Rain in a bundle last year.

Based on past experience, I'm interested in continuing this playthrough of Beyond: Two Souls; so far, it's:

3: OK

#BeyondTwoSouls #ThirdPerson #InteractiveMovie #Gaming #Project365ONG #Project365 #NewPlay

December 31, 2023 - Day 365 - NewPlay Bonus Review
Total NewPlays: 399

Game: Saints Row

Platform: Steam
Release Date: Aug 23, 2022 (PC)
Installation Date: Dec 31, 2023
Unplayed: 0d
Playtime: 59m

Saints Row (2022) was a poorly received reboot of the Saints Row franchise. It's a third-person action-adventure RPG, that is, this time around, based around the founding of a criminal gang named "The Saints".

You play as "The Boss", and can choose from a set of pre-made characters, or build your own from scratch, so I lost track of how long I spent in the character creator.

In this case, I didn't go into the game completely unawares; I've played some of Saints Row IV, which was cartoonishly over the top.

I remember reading reviews of Saints Row saying that they wanted it to be more grounded, and to paraphrase Inigo Montoya, "...that word. I do not think it means what you think it means."

Maybe it's not quite as OTT as the last game, but grounded is not a word I'd use either.

I'm a little surprised at this point that the reviews were so awful, as it definitely feels a lot like the previous Saints Row games to me.

I'll probably slot in some further Saints mayhem between RPG sessions in the new year.

So far, Saints Row seems:

4: Good

#SaintsRow #ThirdPerson #ActionAdventure #RPG #Gaming #Project365ONG #Project365 #NewPlay

December 31, 2023 - Day 365 - NewPlay Bonus Review
Total NewPlays: **400**

Game: Dave The Diver

Platform: Steam
Release Date: Jun 28, 2023 (PC)
Installation Date: Dec 31, 2023
Unplayed: 0d
Playtime: 43m

Dave The Diver is a 2D sideways-scrolling pixel-art* game that's part management sim, part fishing sim, part restaurant game, and part action-adventure RPG.

When Dave the Diver first showed up on Steam a few months ago, I was still very much of the "pixel-art-no-thank-you" mindset, so it was a pass.

Then I saw some folks raving about how good it is, and then the free Dredge DLC was announced, and I went back and added it to my wishlist.

As they're currently offering a "Dredging & Diving Bundle" on Steam which meant the game was cheaper than the sale price (by a couple of bucks), I decided to add one more game to my pile of shame, and then take it off again, and what a way to finish this project out.

It is REALLY hard to categorise, because it pulls gameplay aspects from multiple different genres, and it's probably best if I lay it out.

Firstly, to address that asterisk against pixel-art, the game uses pixel-art for the gameplay, but uses vector art for the UI, which is a great way to make the game feel up-to-date.

The game opens with Dave relaxing on a beach, drinking a beer, when his phone rings, and he gets a job offer. Queue plane & map intro cut-scene.

A guy named Cobra has offered Dave a job diving in "the Blue Hole", which is a procedurally generated environment that is different on each dive.

After a tutorial sequence, where you learn to catch fish with a harpoon (fishing sim!), you learn that you've been roped into managing a sushi bar as well (management sim!).

Dive twice during the day to complete quests (RPG gameplay!) and catch the fish that you then use at night to set the nightly sushi bar menu.

Oh, and you're also the sushi bar waiter; this takes partial gameplay ideas from cooking sims like "Cook, Serve, Delicious!" in that the various customers will order the things that you've added to the menu, and the cook (thank goodness!) prepares each meal, as you run back and forth serving them, and cleaning up after some detty pigs, as well as another mini-game where you need to pour green tea and fill the cup perfectly.

Some of the RPG gameplay elements like equipment upgrades and weapon upgrades are handled through unlockable "apps" on an in-game "smartphone", and given that there are a number of preloaded apps on the phone with locks on them, looks like there are more mini-games as well.

Somehow, though, the devs managed to pull this off in such a way that it all fits together seamlessly, and is a lot of fun as well.

So, there you have it; for my final game review of 2023, Dave the Diver is:

5: Excellent

#DaveTheDiver #2D #SidewaysScroller #FishingSim #ManagementSim #CookingSim #ActionAdventure #RPG #Gaming #Project365ONG #Project365 #NewPlay

Decided to continue with the reviews, but in a cut down format. If I'm really moved to write about a game, I might do that, but the pressure is off on writing a proper review, because that time is now reserved for #2024HealthProject

As always, it's a summary of whether I want to continue to play the game or not, not necessarily whether it's good or bad (although if it's a real stinker, I'll probably end up saying so).

January 1, 2024 - Day 366 - NewPlay Review
Total NewPlays: 401

Game: Killing Floor 2

Platform: Steam
Released: Nov 19, 2016
Installed: Jul 12, 2022
Unplayed: 0d
Playtime: 15m

Rating: 1 - Nope

Multiplayer FPS zombie killing. Oh hell no.

#KillingFloor2 #FPS #Zombies #Gaming #ProjectONG

January 2, 2024 - Day 367 - NewPlay Review
Total NewPlays: 402

Game: Killer Instinct

Platform: Steam
Released: Sep 28, 2017
Installed: Nov 30, 2023
Unplayed: 33d (1m2d)
Playtime: 25m

Rating: 2 - Meh

Killer Instinct is a fighting game that went F2P last year as a teaser to get people to buy the Killer Instinct: Anniversary Edition DLC that provides balance updates, and everything available in the in-game shop.

I won't be buying it. It's pretty cheesy, and while the single-button combos make my button mashing a lot easier, my hands get tired far too quickly for this to be fun.

#KillerInstinct #F2P #Fighter #Gaming #ProjectONG

January 2, 2024 - Day 367 - RePlay Review
Total RePlays: 12

Game: Mind Scanners

Platform: Steam
Release Date: May 20, 2021
Reviewed: Dec 17, 2023

Original rating: 1 - Nope
New rating: 3 - OK

Playtime: 4hrs30m (5h)

When I reviewed Mind Scanners a couple of weeks ago, I found it icky. I tagged it for the trading cards, and as with many games that have trading card drops, it has to be played to collect them.

I've sold enough of them to buy whole DLCs with the proceeds, so at least it feels like I got something out of the game. Usually this just reinforces my opinion of the game, and makes me more determined to recover the storage space, but sometimes things go differently.

I started playing this last night, and then kept playing it this morning. It turned out that I'd missed a part of the user interface, and thus gameplay, and instead of just turning everyone in mindless zombies, there's a whole gameplay aspect of also maintaining their personalities in the process.

Which took this from icky to "Ohhh, NOW I get it!", which makes my original review a bit harsh. I'm still not a fan of the pixel-art, but the gameplay is actually interesting, and in getting this part of the gameplay right (effectively restarting the game from scratch), the narrative has now revealed itself.

I was wrong about Mind Scanners. It's OK.

#MindScanners #PixelArt #2D #Dystopian #Gaming #ProjectONG

January 3, 2024 - Day 368 - NewPlay Review
Total NewPlays: 403

Game: Two Point Campus

Platform: Steam
Released: Aug 9, 2022
Installed: Jan 3, 2024
Unplayed: 0d
Playtime: 60m

Rating: 3 - OK

Two Point Campus is an isometric business management sim, with a cartoon vibe.

January's Humble Choice bundle dropped this morning, and this is the second game, because (unsurprisingly), I've already got the first.

I'll come to that tomorrow.

In the meantime, Two Point Campus has a kind of goofy outer layer covering a business management sim.

It's the kind of thing that could probably suck me in when I'm in the right frame of mind, but I already own the predecessor to this (Two Point Hospital), and after a couple of hours it lost me, and I haven't been back since.

Two Point Campus is OK.

#TwoPointCampus #Isometric #ManagementSim #HumbleBundle #Gaming #ProjectONG

January 4, 2024 - Day 369 - NewPlay Review
Total NewPlays: 404

Game: Aragami 2

Platform: Steam
Released: Sep 17, 2021
Installed: Jan 4, 2024
Unplayed: 0d
Playtime: 32m

Rating: 3 - OK

Aragami 2 is a sequel to Aragami, which I reviewed on March 25, 2023 (link below). It's the third game in this month's Humble Choice bundle.

Like its predecessor, it is a third-person stealth game, set in Japan, 100 years later. However, it has no direct connection.

If you like stealth games, this is not a bad way to kill some time.

Aragami 2 is OK.

https://reviews.grissallia.com/2023/03/25/aragami/

#Aragami2 #ThirdPerson #Stealth #HumbleBundle #Gaming #ProjectONG

January 4, 2024 - Day 369 - RePlay Review
Total RePlays: 13

Game: Marvel's Midnight Suns

Platform: Steam
Release Date: Dec 2, 2022
Reviewed: Jan 4, 2023

Rating: 5 - Excellent

Playtime: 20m (105h42m)

Marvel's Midnight Suns is a isometric and third-person tactical RPG with deck-building gameplay elements. It's the first game in this month's Humble Choice Bundle, and I "reviewed" this 12 months ago, to the day.

However, while I've transferred my original review over, it wasn't really much of a review, because early on, I lacked the vocabulary to describe a lot of the games.

Marvel's Midnight Suns takes many existing Marvel characters, and remixes them for the game's narrative.

You play as the "Hunter", a recently resurrected demon-slayer, who died centuries earlier defeating Lilith... their mother (the Hunter can be played as either gender).

Lots of things I can't explain about this because [spoilers, Sweetie], but Hunter has been resurrected because Lilith is back.

Hunter becomes one of the current Midnight Suns. The core roster of fully voiced playable characters at the beginning of the game is:

Hunter
Sister Grimm
Magik
Blade

As the game commences, you also unlock as playable characters:

Doctor Strange
Iron Man
Spider-Man
Captain America
Captain Marvel
Ghost Rider
Wolverine
The Hulk / Bruce Banner
Scarlet Witch

These versions of the characters each have a great storyline to introduce them, with their own specific deck that can be built & customised. Cards are won as part of the gameplay, but can also be created from blueprints.

There are four DLCs that were released for the game after I reviewed it; rather than being post-game content, they integrate into the gameplay. They dropped roughly every four weeks starting from January with:

1. Deadpool
2. Venom
3. Morbius(!)
4. Storm

The biggest question was about how the Deadpool DLC would work, because... it's Deadpool, but it worked surprisingly well, fourth-wall breaking and all.

The voice cast for the game is a veritable who's who of voice actors, with many of them having previously voiced other versions of the characters in other games, animated media, or live media (notably, Sister Grimm/Nico Minoru being voiced by her live action actor, Lyrica Okano), as well as several Critical Role alumni.

It's only improved in the last twelve months as the DLCs were released.

If you don't already own Marvel's Midnight Suns, it's worth buying this month's Humble Choice Bundle for this alone.

Marvel's Midnight Suns is still:

5: Excellent

https://reviews.grissallia.com/2023/01/04/marvels-midnight-suns/

January 5, 2024 - Day 370 - NewPlay Review
Total NewPlays: 405

Game: OTXO

Platform: Steam
Released: Apr 17, 2023
Installed: Jan 5, 2024
Unplayed: 0d
Playtime: 15m

Rating: 1 - Nope

OTXO is a noir-themed pixel-art top-down shooter with roguelite gameplay, and is the fourth game in the January Humble Choice bundle.

The game opened with low-res top-down pixel-art of a train carriage, and as someone gets off the train, they drop a mask that you pick up and are immediately compelled to put on; at which point everything fades to black, and you wake up on a beach like Leonardo DiCaprio in Inception.

You start walking and find a mansion, where a groundskeeper explains to that your loved one who was next to you on the train is now trapped at the heart of the mansion and all you have to do is kill everyone inside.

A tutorial walks you through the gameplay, but the keyboard and mouse controls left a lot to be desired, and I just couldn't get it right with a controller, and I wasn't enjoying myself anyway.

15 minutes and I was done.

OTXO is a:

1: Nope

#OTXO #TopDown #PixelArt #Roguelite #Shooter #HumbleBundle #Gaming #ProjectONG

January 6, 2024 - Day 371 - NewPlay Review
Total NewPlays: 406

Game: Roguebook

Platform: Steam
Released: Jun 18, 2021
Installed: Jan 6, 2024
Unplayed: 0d
Playtime: 28m

Rating: 4 - Good

Roguebook is an isometric roguelike deckbuilder using hex-based gameplay mechanics. It's game five in the January Humble Choice bundle.

The game has an impressive opening animation that leads you to the "Roguebook". You are trapped in the titular Roguebook, and need to gain brushes and ink to reveal what's hidden in the blank hex tiles on the page as you attempt to reach an exit.

Each of the inks do differing things, with some revealing smaller and larger areas around you, and some revealing (n) tiles in a straight line.

In the uncovered tiles you will find gold stashes, locations where you can donate gold to craft a card, basic & elite fights that provide the brushes and ink.

One of the more interesting things about the game is that Richard Garfield was involved in the development; his name may not ring a bell unless you're familiar with another game he created, a little tabletop game called "Magic: The Gathering".

I'm not a big deckbuilder fan, but so far Roguebook seems to be:

4: Good

#Roguebook #Isometric #Roguelike #Deckbuilder #HumbleBundle #Gaming #ProjectONG

January 7, 2024 - Day 372 - NewPlay Review
Total NewPlays: 407

Game: The Red Lantern

Platform: Steam
Released: Dec 9, 2021
Installed: Jan 7, 2024
Unplayed: 0d
Playtime: 34m

Rating: 3 - OK

The Red Lantern is a first-person narrative-driven game about dog-sledding, with some roguelite & survival elements.

It's the sixth game in this month's Humble Choice bundle, and it's an interesting title, that I wouldn't have picked to play.

Making a snow-change, you open the game by meeting a series of dogs, needing to select 4 of them to build a dog-sledding team in Alaska.

Once you've picked your doggos, you reach your destination, and have to make a several-day sled trip to a remote cabin through a procedurally generated environment. The game is the story of that trip.

If you fail, you wake up again in your van, "from a nightmare", and start the sled-trip over, with more resources based on your previous experiences, with your ultimate goal to reach the cabin that's marked by the red lantern hanging outside.

If you're a dog person, this game might definitely be up your alley.

The Red Lantern is:

3: OK

#TheRedLantern #FirstPerson #Survival #DogSledding #Roguelite #HumbleBundle #Gaming #ProjectONG

January 8, 2024 - Day 373 - NewPlay Review
Total NewPlays: 408

Game: Hell Pie

Platform: Steam
Released: Jul 22, 2022
Installed: Jan 8, 2024
Unplayed: 0d
Playtime: 24m

Rating: 1 - Nope

Hell Pie is a cartoonish 3D platformer set in hell, and is the seventh game in the January Humble Bundle.

You play as Nate, a low-level demon, who has been tasked with collecting the ingredients for Satan's birthday pie.

Hell is a muzak-filled cross between a corporate office and hell, which is somewhat tautological.

The game relies on gross-out humour, and it didn't work for me with Ren & Stimpy, and nothing has changed since then.

I found the controls frustrating on both keyboard/mouse and controller, and with the gross-out humour, I had no motivation to try and improve.

Hell Pie is a:

1: Nope

#HellPie #3D #Platformer #HumbleBundle #Gaming #ProjectONG

January 8, 2024 - Day 373 - NewPlay Bonus Review
Total NewPlays: 409

Game: Twin Mirror

Platform: Steam
Released: Dec 1, 2021
Installed: Feb 16, 2023
Unplayed: 326d (10m23d
Playtime: 35m

Rating: 3 - OK

Twin Mirror is a third-person narrative adventure, and is the final game in this month's Humble Choice bundle.

The developers of this game are Don't Nod, responsible for the "Life is Strange" series, as well as "Tell Me Why" (and other games).

In Twin Mirror, you play as a reporter who has returned to his hometown for the funeral of his best friend. His best friend's young daughter believes her father was murdered, and asks you to investigate.

I already owned Twin Mirror, but hadn't played it. It hasn't quite grabbed me as strongly as I thought it would, but it's a game I'll probably poke around a bit more in.

Twin Mirror is:

3: OK

#TwinMirror #ThirdPerson #NarrativeAdventure #HumbleBundle #Gaming #ProjectONG

January 9, 2024 - Day 374 - NewPlay Review
Total NewPlays: 410

Game: Baba Is You

Platform: Steam
Released: Mar 14, 2019
Installed: Dec 14, 2023
Unplayed: 26d
Playtime: 26m

Rating: 5 - Excellent

Baba Is You is a top-down pixel-art puzzle game. It's like Sokoban on acid.

Each puzzle has a goal. The rules for each puzzle are in each puzzle, as blocks you can move.

For example, there are three blocks "Baba", "Is", and "You".

When these three blocks are lined up, they're active as a statement. You can move one of the blocks, which will break the statement, but also fail the level.

The same level might have "Walls", "Are", and "Stop". However, if you move the "Stop" block, it will break the statement, and now you can pass through walls.

Each level also has a win statement, which is usually (but not always) "Flag Is Win". Your goal is to reach the flag.

Wonder what would happen if you pushed the "Wall" block into the place of "Flag".

Now you have an active rule of "Wall Is Win", and... now you just have to walk over a wall piece, and you win the level.

I really needed a simple game to try and knock over tonight, and this hooked me (and my 11yo, who solved one of the puzzles for me, and now wants the game himself!).

Baba Is You is a wonderful example of a pixel-art game whose gameplay overcomes my resistance to pixel-art, and so it's:

5: Excellent

#BabaIsYou #TopDown #PixelArt #Puzzle #Gaming #ProjectONG

January 10, 2024 - Day 375 - NewPlay Review
Total NewPlays: 411

Game: Fell Seal: Arbiter's Mark

Platform: Steam
Released: May 1, 2019
Installed: Jan 10, 2024
Unplayed: 0d
Playtime: 32m

Rating: 1 - Nope

Fell Seal: Arbiter's Mark is a fantasy-oriented isometric turn-based tactical RPG.

It mixes different art styles, which the characters being almost an anime style, while character portraits appear hand-painted.

It would have been a hard sell at the best of times, but compared to some of the tactical RPGs I've played in the last month, the game didn't have a chance.

Will Fell Seal: Arbiter's Mark get to stay on my PC?

1: Nope

#FellSealAribitersMark #Isometric #TurnBased #Tactical #RPG #Gaming #ProjectONG

January 11, 2024 - Day 376 - NewPlay Review
Total NewPlays: 412

Game: Chess Ultra

Platform: Steam
Released: Jun 21, 2017
Installed: Jan 11, 2024
Unplayed: 0d
Playtime: 21m

Rating: 4 - Good

Chess Ultra is a 3D turn-based strategy... chess game.

With a name like that, you'd expect it to have gun battles and all kinds of extreme weapons and it's just a very good 3D chess game with online multiplayer, and reasonably good bots to play offline.

It has several different options for the location of your game, with appropriate sound effects, as well as several difference chess sets you can choose between.

Given my complete lack of chess games on Steam, it was nice to just kick back and play chess for a while. Chess Ultra is:

4: Good

#ChessUltra #3D #TurnBased #Strategy #Gaming #ProjectONG

January 12, 2024 - Day 377 - NewPlay Review
Total NewPlays: 413

Game: Rain World

Platform: Steam
Released: Mar 28, 2017
Installed: Dec 4, 2023
Unplayed: 39d (1m8d)
Playtime: 18m

Rating: 2 - Meh

Rain World is a 2D platformer, set in a post-apocalyptic world, where you play as a "slugcat" that's been separated from its family, in an intro that's almost as depressing as Stray's intro.

The character animations are great, and the environmental design is very well done, but after 15 minutes of shimmying up and down poles and through pipes, while trying to find food and avoid predators, I wasn't really enjoying myself.

Apparently it only gets more difficult moving forward, so it looks like this was a swing and a miss.

I just found Rain World a bit:

2: Meh

#RainWorld #2D #Platformer #Gaming #ProjectONG

January 13, 2024 - Day 378 - NewPlay Review
Total NewPlays: 414

Game: 198X

Platform: Steam
Released: Jun 21, 2019
Installed: Sep 9, 2023
Unplayed: 126d (4m4d)
Playtime: 23m

Rating: 3 - OK

198X is a 2D pixel-art pastiche of 1980's arcade games. It's a bit hard to characterise it other than that.

At the start of the game you're inexplicably dropped into a beat-em-up with a different name, and very little context.

This is one of the times that reading up on the game before I played it might have helped. It took me about 10 minutes to beat that stage, only for the actual game to reveal itself, which is a game about arcade games, and a coming-of-age story.

The pixel-art in this game is *gorgeous*. It captures a mood incredibly well, and combined with the music and voice talent, the game's backstory is well done. It's a pixel-art game where the pixel-art is actually art.

The game is built around five different kinds of arcade games that were popular in the 1980's.

Which is where I ran into problems. The second game is a side-ways scrolling sci-fi shooter, and I was always terrible at this kind of game.

Which means that's where I got stuck, repeating the same section of the game, and dying around the same point each time.

All things considered, I'd like to try and continue playing, but I'm not sure if I'll get past that section to find out.

198X is:

3: OK

#198X #2D #PixelArt #Arcade #Platformer #Gaming #ProjectONG

January 14, 2024 - Day 379 - NewPlay Review
Total NewPlays: 415

Game: DOOM VFR

Platform: Steam
Released: Dec 1, 2017
Installed: Aug 10, 2021
Unplayed: 887d (2y5m4d)
Playtime: 18m

Rating: 3 - OK

DOOM VFR is a VR FPS, and the first time I've reviewed a VR game. My list last year excluded VR games because I didn't have my VR headset set up on the new system.

It's notable that Bethesda really gave VR a red-hot go, with Fallout 4 VR, Skyrim VR, Wolfenstein Cyberpilot, and DOOM VFR.

I bought all four when they were in a ridiculously cheap bundle, and I've had mixed experiences. I've tried Skyrim VR (which I found frustrating), and Wolfenstein Cyberpilot (which tried to so something different).

I hadn't played DOOM VFR or Fallout 4 VR, so that's one more to go.

DOOM VFR follows the Cyberpilot model of setting the game in the existing game world, but doing something different to an existing game (unlike Skyrim VR).

Unfortunately, it suffers from the same problem that a lot of VR games do: "How the hell do you move?"

Gorilla Tag solves it by moving like the top half of a gorilla & loping with your hands, which makes sense.

DOOM VFR uses teleportation, which feels clunky, because it is clunky. In addition, on the Vive controls, the right thumbpad in most games is used for turning.

However, Bethesda chose to use it for a weapon wheel, which means that to turn, you actually need to turn. Most PCVR headsets are wired, which makes this a *great* way to get tangled in the headset cable - which I did.

As far as the actual gameplay goes, it does a reasonable job of giving that DOOM atmosphere; I got freaked out by mobs several times, and screamed out loud in fright when my hand hit *something* in the real world that I assume was the tower fan.

Overall DOOM VFR is:

3: OK

#DOOMVFR #VR #FPS #Gaming #ProjectONG

January 15, 2024 - Day 380 - NewPlay Review
Total NewPlays: 416

Game: Clustertruck

Platform: Steam
Released: Sep 27, 2016
Installed: Aug 4, 2022
Unplayed: 529d (1y5m11d)
Playtime: 17m

Rating: 1 - Nope

I was going to describe Clustertruck as a first-person game of "The Floor is Lava" while jumping between moving trucks, and then discovered that's exactly how the devs describe this physics-based platformer.

You start each level on top of a moving truck and you need to get to the goal at the end of the convoy as fast as possible without touching anything that's not a truck.

It requires pinpoint timing and coordination, two things I am lacking.

Unfortunately, while it's well executed, I did not enjoy Clustertruck; it's a:

1: Nope

#Clustertruck #FirstPerson #Physics #Platformer #Gaming #ProjectONG

January 16, 2024 - Day 381 - NewPlay Review
Total NewPlays: 417

Game: Legend of Keepers

Platform: Steam
Released: Apr 30, 2021
Installed: Aug 9, 2023
Unplayed: 160d (5m7d)
Playtime: 19m

Rating: 3 - OK

Legend of Keepers is part management sim, part turn-based strategy, part roguelite.

Turns out that all those dungeons that gamers raid are managed by the "Dungeons Company".

As a newly hired Dungeon Manager, it's your job to place mobs, hazards, and occasional spells between those so-called "adventurers" and the treasure at the end of the dungeon.

I started out figuring I'd be bored, and was kind of into it by the second round. I'm not sure if it quite hits my "good" level, but it comes close, so Legend of Keepers is (for now):

3: OK

#Clustertruck #FirstPerson #Physics #Platformer #Gaming #ProjectONG

January 17, 2024 - Day 382 - NewPlay Review
Total NewPlays: 418

Game: Felix The Reaper

Platform: Steam
Released: Oct 18, 2019
Installed: Jan 17, 2024
Unplayed: 0d
Playtime: 15m

Rating: 4 - Good

Felix The Reaper is an isometric puzzle game.

You play as Felix, a newly hired "reaper". Reapers enter the mortal realm to ensure that those who should die... do.

The game opens up with your mentor explaining the job to you, and as... OK, the voice actor for the mentor is doing an incredible Patrick Stewart impression...

...this is uncanny...

...OK, I need to Google this.

Oh. It's ACTUALLY Patrick Stewart!

Sir Patrick Stewart OBE, Shakespearean thespian, Jean Luc Picard, and Professor Charles Xavier, is playing a middle manager in the Ministry of Death.

His newly-hired charge, Felix, is already questionable; given his penchant for dancing while going about his job, as well as the fact that he's in love with Life, he's not off to a great start.

The puzzles themselves are amusing with a side of macabre. Felix shows up, time stops. Felix must get object A to point B, all while manipulating the sun so that he can remain in the shadows the whole time, and object A can be involved in a pre-ordained death (by order of the Ministry of Death).

It's gloriously silly, and the presence of SirPatStew is the icing on the cake.

Felix The Reaper is:

4: Good

#FelixTheReaper #Isometric #Puzzle #Gaming #ProjectONG

January 18, 2024 - Day 383 - NewPlay Review
Total NewPlays: 419

Game: Retrowave

Platform: Steam
Released: May 7, 2022
Installed: Jan 18, 2024
Unplayed: 0d
Playtime: 15m

Rating: 2 - Meh

Retrowave is an 80's-inspired arcade racing game. If you enjoyed Outrun, and enjoy Synthwave, you might enjoy this.

I've discovered over the past year I don't mind Synthwave, but as a driving game, I found it boring & repetitive.

I'd prefer Forza with a Synthwave radio station, because unfortunately I just found Retrowave:

2: Meh

#Retrowave #Arcade #Racing #Synthwave #Gaming #ProjectONG

January 19, 2024 - Day 384 - NewPlay Review
Total NewPlays: 420

Game: Suzerain

Platform: Steam
Released: Dec 5, 2020
Installed: Jan 19, 2024
Unplayed: 0d
Playtime: 18m

Rating: 0 - Nope

Suzerain is part visual novel, part political simulator, and very quickly demonstrated to me that I want nothing to do with politics.

I've started trying to hack down my list of unredeemed keys, a piece of mental load that I've decided to try and get rid of.

I recognised the name of the game, but nothing else, so I had no idea what the game was about, or what I was getting myself into.

You play as Anton Rayne, the newly democratically elected President of a country that's moved from a kingdom around the time of your birth, through a civil war as you reached adulthood, to a nation in crisis as a democracy in the 1950's.

If politics is something you do enjoy, this might be the game for you, but turns out it's really not my cup of tea.

The further I got into the game, the less I wanted to play; deciding the fate of a nation was hard enough, but the political machinations required were painful.

Suzerain seems like a well developed game, but for me it's a big:

1: Nope

#Suzerain #VisualNovel #PoliticsSim #Gaming #ProjectONG

January 20, 2024 - Day 385 - NewPlay Review
Total NewPlays: 421

Game: Battle Chasers: Nightwar

Platform: Steam
Released: Oct 4 5, 2017
Installed: Jan 20, 2024
Unplayed: 0d
Playtime: 22m

Rating: 4 - Good

Battle Chasers: Nightwar is an isometric RPG with turn-based combat.

It was literally the first game in the spreadsheet, and the name put me off, but I decided to just get it over and done with after yesterday's disappointment.

It's a party-based system, which uses a character switching mechanism while exploring the world, so that you're only controlling a single character at once.

It seems to have a reasonably well developed storyline, and it's kind of fun. Turns out Battle Chasers: Nightwar is:

4: Good

#BattleChasersNightwar #Isometric #RPG #TurnBasedCombat #Gaming #ProjectONG

January 21, 2024 - Day 386 - NewPlay Review
Total NewPlays: 422

Game: AI War 2

Platform: Steam
Released: Oct 23, 2019
Installed: Jan 21, 2024
Unplayed: 0d
Playtime: 27m

Rating: 1 - Nope

AI War 2 is a "grand strategy/RTS hybrid", involving fighting back against an AI that's taken over a galaxy.

Reading other reviews of the game, it certainly sounds like a game that I'd like, but they don't reflect my experience of the game.

Over time I've concluded that I'm not really wired for this kind of RTS game. They very quickly become overwhelming, which I think is an aspect of #AuDHD. There are so many different moving parts to try and follow, and I tend to hyperfocus on one aspect, which doesn't work terribly well in a lot of RTS games.

In this case I found the tutorials overwhelming. There was so much to keep track of, and so much going on, that I started to feel stressed out.

In the tutorial.

From a design and execution point of view, AI War 2 seems like a really good game, however from the point of view of whether or not I'd enjoy playing it?

1: Nope

#AIWar2 #GrandStrategy #RTS #Gaming #ProjectONG

January 22, 2024 - Day 387 - NewPlay Review
Total NewPlays: 423

Game: Raiden V: Director's Cut

Platform: Steam
Released: Oct 11, 2017
Installed: Jan 22, 2024
Unplayed: 0d
Playtime: 16m

Rating: 1 - Nope

Raiden V is a top-down forward-scrolling shoot-em-up, and the Director's Cut is a 25th anniversary re-release.

I don't do these kinds of games. They drive me spare; I find no fun in them at all, and found Raiden V particularly grating with the voiceover.

I came, I played, I uninstalled; Raiden V: Director's Cut is a:

1: Nope

#RaidenVDirectorsCut #TopDown #ForwardScrolling #ShootEmUp #Gaming #ProjectONG

January 23, 2024 - Day 388 - NewPlay Review
Total NewPlays: 424

Game: Sunless Skies: Sovereign Edition

Platform: Steam
Released: Feb 1, 2019
Installed: Jan 23, 2024
Unplayed: 0d
Playtime: 24m

Rating: 3 - OK

Sunless Skies: Sovereign Edition is a 2D top-down "Gothic Horror" RPG, that's part visual novel and part "what the hell did I just play?"

You start the game as the first mate of a space-faring Victorian steam locomotive that sails through the aether unmoored from such frailties as railway tracks.

It only gets weirder from there.

I genuinely don't know how to review this game, or quite honestly, how I feel about it.

There's something here that I can't quite put my finger on; Sunless Skies: Sovereign Edition is:

3: OK...?

#SunlessSkiesSovereignEdition #2D #TopDown #GothicHorror #VisualNovel #RPG #Gaming #ProjectONG

January 24, 2024 - Day 389 - NewPlay Review
Total NewPlays: 425

Game: Yuppie Psycho

Platform: Steam
Released: Apr 25, 2019
Installed: Jan 24, 2024
Unplayed: 0d
Playtime: 34m

Rating: 1 - Nope

Yuppie Psycho is a 2D pixel-art survival horror game.

I gave it a shot, when it seemed like a point-and-click adventure (although it's more move-and-press 'E' constantly); I was a Kings/Police/Space Quest girl when I was younger, and maybe... but then it turned into survival horror.

Thanks, Yuppie Psycho, but:

1: Nope.

#YuppiePsycho #2D #PixelArt #SurvivalHorror #Gaming #ProjectONG

January 25, 2024 - Day 390 - NewPlay Review
Total NewPlays: 426

Game: Fae Tactics

Platform: Steam
Released: Aug 1, 2020
Installed: Jan 25, 2024
Unplayed: 0d
Playtime: 15m

Rating: 1 - Nope

Fae Tactics is a JRPG-inspired isometric pixel-art tactics game.

For a tactics strategy game to work for me, I need to feel some connection to the story.

Unfortunately for Fae Tactics, the clash between the human world and the fae world, with a human capable of magic, a bird, and a dog, trying to reach some destination did absolutely nothing for me.

I did not enjoy it at all.

Fae Tactics is a:

1: Nope

#FaeTactics #PixelArt #Isometric #Tactics #Gaming #ProjectONG

January 26, 2024 - Day 391 - NewPlay Review
Total NewPlays: 427

Game: Elderborn

Platform: Steam
Released: Jan 31, 2020
Installed: Jan 26, 2024
Unplayed: 0d
Playtime: 22m

Rating: 1 - Nope

Elderborn is a first-person Soulslike slasher melee-combat game.

The game opens with a bombastic monologue from the lead character (at least you can choose their gender), who lays out a brief history of how you got to the point of entering the locked-down city of doom, but there was nothing unique about it that grabbed me. It was just... filler.

(Sidenote: If your game supports 3440x1440 ultrawide, you need a FOV slider. Playing a first-person game through a fisheye lens is not fun.)

The graphics and design feel average. It feels like they forgot the narrative part of a Soulslike that gives you a reason to press on.

Ultimately, the biggest problem with the game is that it's just boring. Run to room. Cut down undead. Run to next room that looks like previous room. Cut down undead. Rinse and repeat.

Elderborn is:

1: Nope

#FirstPerson #MeleeCombat #Soulslike #Gaming #ProjectONG

January 27, 2024 - Day 392 - NewPlay Review
Total NewPlays: 428

Game: Palworld

Platform: Xbox Game Pass for PC
Released: Jan 19, 2024
Installed: Jan 27, 2024
Unplayed: 0d
Playtime: 4.9h

Rating: 4 - Good

Palworld is a third-person tree-punching survival game with a new game mechanic of seeking to be sued out of existence by The Pokemon Company.

If you haven't heard of the game that sold 8 million copies in a week on Steam, and is currently sitting at #2 behind PUBG on the Steam chart for record number of concurrent players, the elevator pitch for Palworld is "Pokemon with guns"

I didn't expect it to be quite so literal.

I'd read a piece about survival games by Zack Zwiezen a few days ago, in which he referred to them as "tree punchers" (which I've stolen from him), and he touched on Palworld in the review; so I had no intention of buying it.

However, after rebooting my PC yesterday, I found myself staring at the Xbox app and an install button for Palworld via Game Pass, which meant I didn't need to buy it, and the die was cast.

The gameplay loop is certainly addictive; I can understand why so many folks are playing it.

It starts out like most survival games; wake up in a random location with no idea how you got there, and start punching trees. It's the same gathering-and-crafting loop we've been doing since Minecraft (and probably even before).

Then there's the Pokemon... sorry, "Pals". I'm not a Nintendo girl. I didn't have any Nintendo stuff growing up, and the first Nintendo console I owned was the N64 I bought for our kids for Christmas 2000 (Christmas 2000 sounds like an awesome B-grade movie).

My first encounter with Pokemon was Pokemon GO. I lack the encyclopaedic memory of all the different Pokemon I encountered in PoGo, but upon encountering -and killing- Pals in Palword, they were definitely giving off Pokemon vibes.

You can also collect the Pals, by attacking them with a weapon until they're weakened enough to capture in a Pokeball... erm, Palsphere.

Once captured, you can put them to work in your base, or, uhh... butcher the cute little PokePals, to feed the other PokePals working in your base.

Best not to think too deeply about a game that is also apparently survival horror.

The Pokemon vibes ceased to be vibes and became "you're going to get sued for IP infringement" when I encountered Gumoss.

Gumoss is a grass-type Pal (yes, they've snarfed the 'type' concept too), which feels unarguably like Ditto in an acorn cap.

If I, with my limited recall of Pokemon, can recognise this, I've no doubt the Pokemon fans calling Pocket Pair out are on the money, and it makes sense that the notoriously laid-back-and-not-at-all-protective-of-their-IP, The Pokemon Company, are "investigating".

Which is primarily why I didn't buy it on Steam; I don't want to lose A$44 when they get sued out of existence for IP infringement.

Still, as a game, Palworld is:

4: Good

#Palworld #ThirdPerson #Survival #Crafting #Gaming #ProjectONG

January 28, 2024 - Day 393 - NewPlay Review
Total NewPlays: 429

Game: Etherborn

Platform: Steam
Released: Jul 19, 2019
Installed: Jan 21, 2024
Unplayed: 7d
Playtime: 28m

Rating: 2 - Meh

Etherborn is a third-person 3D platform puzzle game that seems to have been designed on the principle "What if we remade Monument Valley without understanding what made it tick, and then adding a vaguely philosophical voiceover?"

Unfortunately, it means that Etherborn feels like a knock-off version of Monument Valley, just somewhat annoying.

The same kind of 3D puzzles, now with the added ability to fall off the structure, and get placed right back where you were.

A disembodied voice speaking over the top of the initial level, then at the end of the next level doesn't really add anything to the game, other than making you wait until it finishes speaking. What it has to say seems to have little to do with the actual game.

While you can navigate from any surface to any other surface that is joined by a curve, sometimes you'll jump and suddenly find yourself plummeting to your doom.

The follow camera wanders around all over the place, with some minor adjustments possible with the right thumbstick, often leading to falling to my death because of the angle of view.

More than once I found the avatar obscured from view by parts of the level itself, which just added to the frustration.

I played through the intro level, then the first level, and after that I saved and quit, because it just felt like a chore.

Etherborn is just:

2: Meh

#Etherborn #ThirdPerson #3D #Platform #Puzzle #Gaming #ProjectONG