Thoughts on: Trepang2

When I’ve first caught wind of Trepang2 it looked like a really cool project – an FPS that’s attempting to recreate the explosive style of F.E.A.R. and Criterion Games’ Black from PS2, but with some of the more modern ideas thrown in? Sign me the hell up! Yet, when I’ve played the demo of the game, I found it to be… Well, sure – still explosive and stylish. But really boring, uninspired and with some of the worst level design I’ve seen in a major release FPS in a while. So, I’ve decided to ignore the game and would’ve continued to do so if not for some of the people I know, who said that the game was better than my initial impressions told me it is. And now that I’ve completed it, in its fully DLC’ed up version, I can say with confidence that my initial thoughts were spot on.

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In love with: Withering Rooms

Withering Rooms is the kind of game you don’t get every day. Back when the title was still in Early Access, one of the ways the developer described this game was somewhere along the lines of “If Clock Tower was an action RPG”. Which… fits and, even more surprisingly, works incredibly well. This game is so strange, yet so fascinating and inventive. Its influences are recognizable, yet its mood is immaculate… And while I didn’t enjoy every second of the game and do find faults with some of its aspects, it was also one of the most inspiring gaming experiences I’ve had in quite a while.

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Thoughts on: Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth

Another year, another Like a Dragon game. It’s been this way for a while now, to be fair, and playing these titles is not tiring, even if a bit routine. Yet I can’t help but feel that the RGG team itself is starting to get tired and for all of the cool ideas and elements they put in these games, they might be dreaming to make a bunch of non-Like a Dragon games instead.

Infinite Wealth, or Like a Dragon 8, is the second jRPG entry in the series so far, focusing on party turn based combat instead of beat ’em up gameplay. And while it has a lot of really cool things and quality of life improvements over the Yakuza: Like a Dragon, I can’t say that I’ve enjoyed it much.

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Happy about: Remnant: From the Ashes (Complete Edition)

I have to give it to Gunfire Games – they seem to be a highly adaptable studio. Founded in 2014 by parts of the team who worked on Darksiders franchise in the by then defunct Vigil Games, I’m sure their original desire was to immediately go into creating Darksiders III. But they’ve adapted to the realities of the market and to built portfolio and keep the studio alive created several VR projects for the then booming initial wave of VR popularity brought in by Oculus Rift. One of which was called Chronos that played like a tough hack and slash inspired by Souls-like games and featured a setting that included both fantasy and post-apocalyptic Earth imagery, which they’ve already played with a lot for Darksiders. This also allowed them to get better acquainted with Unreal Engine 4 which they then used to create a visually beautiful (but incredibly frustrating and unfun) Darksiders III. And to follow that project up, they’ve seemingly decided to experiment with the third person shooting mechanics (as one of the Horseman – Strife, – is a gun user) while reusing a lot of the resources they’ve managed to create up until that point and created a genuinely clever mix of different genres – Remnant: From the Ashes. That also served as a sequel to Chronos (later to be re-released for flat screens as Chronos: Before the Ashes).

And it is really bizarre how they’ve seemingly just experimented and scrambled a bunch of ideas together from what they had on a rather low budget only to create their best game up until that point.

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O tempora: Kanon

O tempora is a series of retrospective posts where I play games from ages before to see if they stood the test of time.

I’m not much of a fan of visual novels and barely ever play them. I tend to prefer adventure game titles, so even if the VN-part of the game is still there, it’s not the focus is instead the game just uses the format to drive the story forward, while emphasizing choices and actions you make. Nonetheless, back in 2007 or so I got curious about Kanon, a game that at the time never had an official version released outside of Japan. And also a game that in most (if not all) PC versions was an eroge. I don’t remember why exactly I got interested in playing it, most likely a combination of hearing that the story was pretty good and also seeing the “ugu~” jokes/references on the internet. Though, remembering myself at the time, I won’t completely discount horny interest too. But point was – I did get the game via dubious means and played it with a fan translation. While very simple, it did click with me, so much in fact that I decided to then also watch both anime adaptations of the game.

Now, the game is finally officially available internationally on PC 25 years since its original release. And I had to replay it and see how I feel about it today.

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Happy about: Riven (2024)

It was two years ago that I’ve finally played Myst from start to finish for the first time. After decades of attempts to “get it”, the game clicked with me, most likely due to the direct controls that made playing it far more convenient than the classic screen by screen navigation. And while its The Chronicles of Amber inspired story didn’t grab me that much, the constant sense of discovery in that game as the main aspect of its puzzles certainly did. Hence why I was very excited to learn that Riven: The Sequel to Myst was getting a similar treatment as well, so I could finally understand how people in Rivne live with all of these puzzles around… Sorry, couldn’t help myself.

Anyway, the Riven remake is out and, from what I’ve checked in video form after completing it, quite different from how the game used to be originally. So, I suppose, I will never know if I like the original game, but I definitely enjoyed this one.

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O tempora: Beyond Good & Evil – 20th Anniversary Edition

O tempora is a series of retrospective posts where I play games from ages before to see if they stood the test of time.

Beyond Good & Evil has always been a pretty odd game. Inventive and unforgettable in many ways, but also clearly unfinished and frustrating in many others. Born out of incredible ambition of the team inside Ubisoft, back when their games were fresh and exciting and not the same game with different coats of paint released several times a year with 15 minutes of end credits they’re known for nowadays. Though even this game’s release was a bizarre choice on the company’s side – released the same day as Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time, another beloved classic, the two games competed for attention, leaving both of them with very high critical scores but less than exciting sales figures. Nonetheless, a sequel Beyond Good and Evil 2 have been in development for… who knows how long, as the game was originally announced back in 2008 (just 5 years after the original), and the development of it has been far more troubled than that of the first game, since no one knows what it’s going to be anymore… That is, no one knew at all until 20th Anniversary Edition remaster of the first game has been released that, among other things, has additional elements that seem to exist specifically to tie the game better with the prequel concept last shown in 2018.

But, that’s all great and all, yet BG&E is now a 21 year old game and not games age well. Is it still worth playing, with the fresh coat of paint or not?

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Happy about: The Talos Principle 2 – Road to Elysium

The Talos Principle 2 was easily one of my favorite game releases of 2023. Wonderfully paced, wittily written and well-balanced in terms of difficulty, the first person puzzle game was an improvement in my eyes over the already amazing original game. That did get a well received epilogue DLC Road To Gehenna half a year after its release. So, I guess, it only makes sense that half a year after the release of the sequel it receives its own DLC – Road to Elysium. And while I doubt it will get as well received, it’s a really fun three piece addition to an already wonderful title.

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Thoughts on: Still Wakes the Deep

It’s odd. I know, from talking to Dan Pinchbeck, the founder and creative director of The Chinese Room, over 10 years ago, that they never wanted to stick to the story exploration games (or walking simulators as people often dismissively call them). Amnesia: A Machine for Pigs, which I still like a lot, was supposed to be more systems driven, before cutting down on features in favor of story on recommendation from Frictional Games. Everybody’s Gone to the Rapture was envisioned as a simulation game where you live out the last moments before the world ends, not a game where you see echoes of these events. And while I didn’t find their first title after being purchased by Sumo Digital, that is Little Orpheus, interesting and never finished it, it was trying to be a cinematic/puzzle platformer, not a game driven by narration. Maybe with the Vampire: The Masquerade – Bloodlines 2 they would finally be able to deliver a title that’s great not just narratively, but also in terms of gameplay. Because Still Wakes the Deep isn’t doing it. It isn’t doing much at all, sadly.

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Happy about: Sniper Elite 5 (Complete Edition)

As mentioned in my recent revisit of Sniper Elite V2 (this time Remastered), I’ve quite enjoyed Sniper Elite 4. It was hardly as detailed or inventive as the titles it directly pulled from, like Hitman or Metal Gear Solid V, but what it had was extremely fun and satisfying. So I was looking forward to playing a sequel, yet when Sniper Elite 5 came out I was too stressed due to living through early months of the full scale russian invasion, I was rather picky about which games I was comfortable playing. Plus, a lot of the initial user reviews on the game were surprisingly negative, commenting on its inferiority to the fourth game. Two years since its release and one year since the release of its final DLC mission, I’ve decided to give it a shot and was not disappointed.

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