I like a good stupid game. Something with a simple silly premise, easy to get into gameplay, good length. Something to just sit down, play, enjoy and move on, maybe replaying it again a few years later. And Maneater turned out to be a pretty good example of a game like that. Less than 10 hours of simple gameplay loops of swimming and chomping fish and people, upgrading the shark to be more ridiculous and finding secrets.
Tag: game review
Disapprove: LEGO Builder’s Journey
When I first saw LEGO Builder’s Journey, it looked very interesting. A narrative driven puzzle game mixing the Hitman/Lara Croft GO ideas with Lego bricks was a refreshing change after Traveller’s Tales spent the past fifteen years making the exactly same LEGO-themed game over and over again. And the fact that the PC version of the game (this was originally an Apple Arcade exclusive from 2019) uses the ray traced visuals made it me even more curious to play it for myself. What an annoying game it turned out to be.
Quick thoughts on: Ynglet
I really like games by Nifflas (Nicklas Nygren) even when I don’t like to play them. Truth be told, apart from the wonderful Knytt games, I never finished any of the other titles he designed or worked on. So when I saw Ynglet, my memory went to the really tough platforming parts of Knytt Underground, which were my least liked part of that wonderful game, and I considered skipping this game. Luckily I didn’t.
Quick thoughts on: Emily is Away <3
Emily is Away <3 is the third entry in the visual novel/social media simulation interactive story adventure thing series about relationships. It’s bigger, it’s… somewhat better and it’s quite different with its move from simulating AIM/ICQ to Facebook. And I kinda liked it.
Disapprove: Call of the Sea
I remember when Portal came out and first person adventure/puzzle games exploded and there were so many interesting takes on the subgenre. Some evolved the traditional Myst-like gameplay, some started mixing mechanics and ideas from other genres, some played with physics objects a lot… But for the past 5 or so years, I’ve been mostly ignoring these types of games. There are way too many of them and yet, vast majority of the games seems to fall into two main types: either story driven games with almost pointless adventure elements slapped on top or incredibly complicated puzzle games that make Myst look like an obvious and easy game for children.
Call of the Sea got my attention because it seemed like it could be at least slightly more engaging than a typical “slapped on top” type of adventure. And for the first hour or two, that’s almost what it was. But then it turned into one of the most tedious and poorly designed first person adventure games I’ve played in a while.
Quick thoughts on: Adios
Sometimes some crimes small games get a lot of buzz happening around them, praising the storytelling or the mood of the game or what not. Adios was one of these games for me as since its release a couple of months ago, I’ve heard a lot of good things about the game, with lots of “even if it’s 90 minutes long”. And I like short and succinct story driven games, as they are a rarity and are very hard to do well. Having played the game, I must say that while I can understand someone liking it, it didn’t really do it for me.
Happy about: Fable Anniversary
Many many years ago, in 2005 to be precise, I’ve played Fable: The Lost Chapters on PC and enjoyed it quite a bit. It didn’t exactly wow me, because of how intentionally primitive the storytelling was, but it was full of curious ideas. And from what I’ve seen and heard, all those ideas were developed and expanded upon in the highly praised sequel that still remains exclusive to Xbox 360 and thus, I’ve never given it a proper playthrough. I’ve not checked Fable III either, since the PC port of that game wasn’t particularly great and was tied into the terrible GFWL service, which was apparently the main reason the game was pulled from sales pretty soon after and remains not available for PC since then.
In 2014 an Unreal Engine 3 driven remake/remaster was released, called Fable Anniversary, which was basically exactly the same game as The Lost Chapters, but with many little tweaks and changes and with better support for modern hardware. And for the longest time I’ve not planned to ever play it. I thought that I will find Fable too simplistic and boring and not worth revisiting. Yet a discussion with friends prompted me to reconsider and give this game a go. I’m glad I did that.
Thoughts on: Yakuza 3 Remastered
Every since finally starting my journey through the Yakuza series with 0 three years ago, it’s been very interesting to see series evolve… yet also see that in an “incorrect” way. I mean, sure now I’m fully familiar with Y1 and 2 first hand, but those were the recent Kiwami remakes, not the originals. And even 0 itself was one of the newest developed entries in the series. In fact, Yakuza 3, even in its remastered format, is now the oldest made game in the series I’ve played. This age shows not in the most flattering way.
In love with: Mundaun
I rarely stumble upon praising reviews for a niche game I’ve never heard before, play it and end up liking it a lot. Usually the game turns out to be not some amazing surprise like Sylvio, but rather just a nice but forgettable experience. I am not forgetting Mundaun.
Thoughts on: Resident Evil Village
Four new mainline Resident Evil games in just 4 years… Even during the heyday of the series in the late 90s it didn’t happen quite as often. After trying to recapture the essence of the classic survival horror with flawed but wonderful Resident Evil 7 we got not less wonderful reimagining of Resident Evil 2, both of which managed to recapture the glory of the genre, while attempting new things. Then last year we had a disappointing attempt at a remake, but a very solid and fun linear survival action Resident Evil 3. And this year we get an attempt to mix 7 with 4, in Village (or as they stylize it VII.l.age, to show that it’s RE8). And it’s a really good, really well put together game. That I struggle to care much about.