I have a soft spot for weird sci-fi, something that mixes very realistic hard science elements with stories about facing something completely beyond human comprehension. So when I stumbled upon Observation, I got highly interested. And now that the game has been made available on more distribution platforms, I couldn’t miss my chance to try it out. It… wasn’t as exciting as I was hoping it would be.
Tag: game review
Thoughts on: 428: Shibuya Scramble
When I’ve first learnt of 428: Shibuya Scramble, which wasn’t too long ago, I got incredibly interested. While I’m not a huge fan of visual novels as a genre, there have been many great examples of how to build an engaging interactive narrative among these games. And this title seemed like it had many curious concepts of its own. Multiple characters with converging storylines, similarity to the good old (actually often really bad) FMV titles from the 90s, several story genres in one game telling different sides of the story… It was only later that I’ve learnt that the game was actually originally released back in 2008 on Wii and this new port was the first non-Japan exclusive version of the game. During the first several hours I didn’t even consider this, since the game felt really smart about how it used its own mechanics and how high quality the visual side of the game was.
I was thoroughly enjoying this title for hours, fully expecting to end up praising it a lot and calling it a gem that needed everyone’s attention. But that was only halfway through the game. Then the rest of the game happened.
O tempora: Halo 2: Anniversary (MCC)
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 found Halo to be respectable for when it was released, but ultimately tedious and frustrating as a single player FPS by today’s expectations. Its story was primitive, characters flat, levels a horrible copy-paste and even though its music was still memorable and the size and open nature of the levels (and the use of vehicles) was still impressive, it just wasn’t an enjoyable game to play. From my Halo 2 Vista memories, I knew that the sequel was a very different game, so I was hoping that it, in the new Anniversary version under Master Chief Collection, will be much more fun. And in many ways it is. But it has its flaws.
In love with: SteamWorld Dig 1 and 2
As a huge fan of “metroidvania” games when I first heard of SteamWorld Dig many years ago, I got curious. But then I saw that it focused on mining and my interest instantly evaporated. And even when SteamWorld Dig 2 got released several years later to extremely positive reviews, I continued ignoring the series. It wasn’t until very recently when I accidentally stumbled upon a playthrough of the game that I realized my initial thoughts about the gameplay were wrong and that I might enjoy the games. I love when lucky accidents happen.
Happy about: Lamplight City
To say that I was wary with Lamplight City is an understatement. While I did enjoy Shardlight to a degree, it had too many faults. And lots of those faults were also found in greater amounts in the prior game by Grundislav Games – A Golden Wake. But, after some time I’ve decided to give it a chance. And I’m very glad that I have done that as it turned out to be a really pleasant surprise.
Happy about: Whispers of a Machine
Despite seeing a lot of talk about Whispers of a Machine for a while, I wasn’t planning on playing it myself. You see, the game was developed by two development teams, one of whom previously made Kathy Rain and the others The Samaritan Paradox and I’ve dropped both of those games after a few hours of playing. They just weren’t all that good, despite both having cool ideas of their own. Then, as it occasionally happens, this game landed in my library due to a game bundle so I’ve decided to give it a go. I’m glad that I have.
Disapprove: Armikrog.
I was very curious about how Armikrog can turn out way back when the Kickstarter project for it got announced. Yet, for many reasons I didn’t have too much hope even then. When it was finally released in 2015 to mostly damning reviews I considered simply forgetting about this game. But recently, after seeing it go on big discount, decided to give it a go and see how bad things really were. Turns out, they weren’t as much “bad” as they were just “tedious” or “poor”.
Happy about: Heaven Dust
Usually when you think of knock-off games you think about something low quality, not particularly good and full of shameless ripping from source material. Well, at least that’s what I think of. And Heaven Dust is an unapologetic knock-off of Resident Evil games. Yet, it’s surprisingly well made, despite being cheap and is actually really good. It does rip stuff directly from its inspirations, though. To the “I’m not sure this is legal to do” degree.
O tempora: Halo: Combat Evolved Anniversary (MCC)
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 never played Halo on the “intended platform”. Never owned an Xbox, don’t plan to unless Series X impresses me with something exclusive and unique and even when I was borrowing one of the 360 from a friend of mine, I never ever played Halo on it. Yet, I did play Halo: Combat Evolved. The PC port done by Gearbox Software in 2003 which had some improvements and unique features, but also several bizarre downgrades. And back when I played it, I didn’t like it much. I did, however, feel that it was still a curious game to look at.
With the Master Chief Collection available and slowly updated with supported titles on PC, however, the Halo: Combat Evolved Anniversary brings the newest remaster of the original game to PCs. And, being curious about the series for a long time, I’ve decided to give it a go and play the games in the order they were released. As usual for me, I don’t plan to play the multiplayer or even the coop in these games, which is an important point to stress since Halo has always been most loved specifically for those modes. Yet, I feel that even with coop, I wouldn’t have enjoyed this revisit of the original Halo. Because by 2020 its campaign is genuinely unpleasant to go through.
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Thoughts on: Life is Strange 2
Well, it hasn’t been a 3 years wait before I decided to play the next Life is Strange title in line this time. Only slightly over half a year since the last episode of the game. As with the original (and unlike Before the Storm), I wasn’t sure if I want to continue when I started the first episode and it took me a few months of convincing myself to continue. Unlike with the first game, I’m still not quite sure if it was worth it, though.