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What games have you been playing, and what's your opinion on them?
What have you been playing lately? Discussion about video games and board games are both welcome. Please don't just make a list of titles, give some thoughts about the game(s) as well.
Hades II (PC/Steam Deck): I wasn't playing many video games when Hades launched but I was aware of it and I was a fan of Supergiant Studio's Bastion (2011). And Hades did get a several hours of playtime last year (only 2.5 hours per Steam), the reason it didn't stick is that I didn't really give it the focus necessary to buy into its world.
That is not the case with Hades II (20.5hrs per steam): damn this game is clean.
✅ phenomenal voice acting
✅ darkly vibrant world brought to life through beautiful artwork
✅ hot but tastefully executed character designs
✅ a narrative structure that melds perfectly with the roguelike loop
✅ a very clean gameplay loop that is rewarding every time.
Just now at this 20 hours mark does it feel like farming runs are required for progression. All weapons are unlocked and I've reached the big bad once (and I think I was close to taking him down). But I'm well aware tha tthere is much more to this game.
I don't know how much longer I will keep playing it but October has a lot of stuff I've been waiting for (and Hades II wasn't one of them):
Edit: also forgot Hollow Knight: Silk Song I beat the fourth boss earlier this week but Hades II took over the rest of my week.
Also HadesII. I had no patience for Basion, and HadesI I refunded, but this one is fun. Usually I put audio on the monitor speakers, but this I play with headphones, it's just so nice.
You know, I was a fan of what Bastion was doing, but despite starting it a lot, I never really stuck with it. I think they've really hit the sweet spot with Hades II.
I'm playing Kingdom Come:Deliverance. I'm Czech and the team behind the game is Czech based with many Czech members that are well known in the gaming industry. It was just a matter of time until I start playing it. I play it on Steam Deck exclusively, runs well.
So far after around 10 hours in, I love the way this RPG game plays. You are basically nobody, no action hero, absolutely not invincible, quite the contrary. You have to eat, sleep, you start your skill on level 0 and the progress isn't that fast. You can't even swing a sword properly, fighting is kinda mini-gamish where you just don't click the mouse, you have to aim, block, parry, do combos and all while your stamina is getting lower and lower. If you get hit and start bleeding you can just die if you don't tend to it. You can eat foul food and die from that either. You can die from meeting a robber on your way.. And the craziest thing is that the game autosaves just sporadically and whennyou want to make manual save game, you have to have (and drink) a special potion. There is no magic, it is supposed to be like real-life middle ages set in real-life lore/history/with many (f)actual history information baked into the game.
I can easily see why the game is so successful. And I should have played it long ago.
I finished everything in the original Hollow Knight except for the Godmaster content, so I figured that was a good point as any to finally start Silksong and I'm really glad I beat Hollow Knight first because the sequel comes right out of the gates swinging. Traversing the map is more demanding on platforming skills, regular enemies have more health and varied speed/attacks, and even early game boss attacks do 2 masks of damage. It is without a doubt harder than the first game, which is great for HK/metroidvania veterans that want a challenge to keep them engaged, but very rough on relative newcomers to the genre. The game can afford to tell a more clear story and plot this time around since Hornet can actually talk, so there's a good amount of dialogue with NPCs so far. I haven't reached the Citadel yet but I've been having a pretty good time, definitely struggled with a few bosses already but I'm still missing large parts of my arsenal so I figure fights will get more interesting once I discover more of those.