9
votes
Tildes' Game Backlog Burner Event: Week 3 Update Thread
What is this?
See here for full details on the event.
Post Your Update
- How did your week go?
- What games did you get through?
- How did you feel about them?
- What's up next for you?
(Optional!) Focuses for Week 4 (Last Week!)
- ANYTHING GOES!
Week 2 Update
I've thought more on the games since my edits to last week's threads. This last week was a bit rough, and I spent more time in the evening playing video games than I should have. As a result, I have made it through my April goal, which was to play one game from each of the last 12 months of Humble Monthly Bundles.
Week 3
Evergarden November 2019 - This is a beautiful puzzle game. that I would describe as a cross between the Witness and 2048. You tend a magical garden, combining plants to grow them, similar to how you combine numbers in 2048. Plants can have between 1 and 6 leaves, and combining two 6-leaf plants will allow you to harvest a puzzle piece at the end of the game, which you use to solve another type of tile puzzle. It is simple, beautiful, and enticing. I showed to my 9 year old and she played one game and beat my high score. I give this 8/10 and definitely recommend if you enjoy small, self contained puzzle games.
Soul Calibur VI - December 2019 - this is a fighting game, which is not really to my taste, but it's a pretty good fighting game. Instead of playing Story Mode, I started playing Mission mode - in this mode, you create a character and run through... a story. It should really be "story" mode. I found the dialog and story more engaging here than in the "Story" mode. Character creation and editing is addictive and entertaining. My current fighter is an 8 foot tall living statue that uses enormous zweihander swords to fight. I put a few more hours into it beyond my previous update, and I will play Mission mode through to completion. I definitely recommend this if you like this sort of game. I'm changing my original 7/10 to an 8/10. After playing some more, I've really enjoyed it.
Book of Demons February 2020 - this is a sort of rogue-like game that has a couple of sort of card mechanics and it's sort of on rails and sort of diablo-esque. The graphic style is very cool, very jagged and a bit stylized. There are a bunch of different monsters, and I think that there's a lot of good individual elements, but you probably noticed how "sort of" everything was. It felt disjointed, and I won't be returning to it. The cards don't make much sense - there's no reason for them to be cards - the rogue-like elements don't make sense when you're on a rail, and the game mechanics aren't that great, again because you're on a rail and can't move freely. The best thing about it is the janky art. I have uninstalled it and will not continue. Updated score on further reflection: 4/10
Truberbrook April 2020 - I want to start by saying that I love Day of the Tentacle and Grim Fandango and Full Throttle. If you like those games, you'll like this game. It is pointy. It is clicky. The art direction is beautiful. The dialog is good. The characters are interesting. The story is cool. If you don't like the point and click genre, then you won't like this, but I dig them. Once I'm done with Soul Calibur, I will be going back to this: 8/10
Niffelheim March 2020 - I specifically said I would opt for a non-viking based game, and yet here we are. Side note: for a while in university, my nickname was actually "Viking". Amusingly, none of the viking games that I installed and tried are the same genre - this is a 2D sidescrolling game that features crafting, gathering, combat, RPG-ish progression, diplomacy, quests... there's a lot packed in. The art is pretty cool, though I would not call it polished; there's an almost "paper cut out" quality to it that is endearing if not beautiful. I played for a few hours, and I'll come back to this at some point, but it's not got the same draw as some of the other on my list. 6/10
Bonus Games
Since I met my original goal, I played some other games as well.
A Short Hike - thanks to @douglas' review, I installed this and got to the peak. This game is very relaxing and happy. I smiled most of the time that I played it. It brought delight into an otherwise not particularly delightful week. The graphics are cute, but I had to scale down the window a lot so I didn't feel queasy while playing, which is a first for me - the pixelation, which is intended, was pretty rough at 4k. I played a bit even after reaching the end of the hike, and by that I mean that despite reaching the 'end' I came back the next day and did some more exploring. I will probably do so again. 8/10
Opus Magnum (April 2020) - this is a cute little puzzle game. You are an alchemist, and you are making machines that have a particular input and create a particular output. I found it somewhat similar to Human Resource Machine, but I liked HRM better. The character that you play as seemed insufferable to me, which is a very minor nitpick, but it was enough to put a bad taste in my mouth. I liked having a histogram of how other people performed, but I felt like it was a bit of a whip to continue playing, which I fought against. The puzzle aspects are cool, though. 6/10
The Deadly Tower of Monsters - I wouldn't typically say this, but this game is an absolute gas! The concept is that the game is a cheesy sci-fi movie, and there's a constant voice over telling you how they did the things that you're doing in the game, and why. The controls are fine, the graphics are okay, the story is whatever, but what a concept! 7/10
What's next
Book of Demons is a strange one. I tried it out through a demo or free weekend of some sort, and after about half an hour I was quite interested in it, thought it had some really neat potential, and bought the full game. Then after playing a couple more hours it hadn't really progressed significantly beyond what I saw in that first half hour. It didn't seem to use much of the potential and started feeling tedious pretty quickly. I've never gone back to it and don't really intend to. The devs seem to be working on some other games with similar themes, so I'm hoping they're able to do more with those ones.
That sums it up really well.
The first half hour I was excited, and then it quickly turned into uninstalling and not playing anymore. I think that the devs got "cool-itis". I feel like there was a pitch meeting that went like this:
"Let's make a rogue like! That's cool!"
"Yeah, and let's put card mechanics in. That's cool!"
"Yeah, and let's put it on a rail. That's cool!"
"Yeah, and make it hell-themed. That's cool!"
They have a whole bunch of cool things, but they don't really work together. It's the Rachel's Trifle of video games.
Previous update
Q.U.B.E. 2
Completed after 5.0 hours
Thoughts
I played the first Q.U.B.E. years ago and liked it, albeit with some reservations. I feel much the same about this one. It's a first-person puzzle game reminiscent of Portal where you have individual puzzle rooms that you have to solve your way through using your abilities and the environment.
I thought the graphics and atmosphere were wonderful in the game, though it was a little on the easy side. The beginning felt a little slow as they introduced you to the puzzle concepts, but as the game opens up and gives you more abilities, it starts to shine more and more. I very much liked it by the end, and will be picking up the DLC levels to play at some point.
Also, shoutouts to Proton, which ran this game flawlessly. I legitimately had to double check whether or not I was running a native build.
Remnants of Naezith
Moved on after 30 minutes
Thoughts
This is a grappling hook platformer/time-trial game. There is a very good game here -- for someone far more skilled than me. The movement feels great and has a good amount of depth to it. It reminds me of Dustforce in that regard, which also comes with a very high skill ceiling. If I were willing to spend hours and hours getting good at this game, I have no doubt that it would be very rewarding. I'm not willing to commit to that at the moment though.
If you're wanting to get a feel for the game, a good introduction is its speedrun.
Also, shoutouts to Proton, which ran this game even though there's a Linux build. The Linux build wouldn't start for me, but the Windows one ran flawlessly through Proton.
Steel Rats
Moved on after 40 minutes
Thoughts
This is a very odd game. It's hard to describe, as I've never quite played anything like it. It's a 2.5 D driving, combat, exploration, time-trial game? It has a lot of different pieces to it. Unfortunately, rather than it being a confluence of innovative design, it felt a bit muddled for me. I'm moving on for now, but it's one I might come back to and devote more time to. At 40 minutes in I still hadn't really cleared the tutorial, so I don't think I really gave the game a fair shake yet.
Also, shoutouts again to Proton (I'm sensing a theme, lol!). This was another game where the Linux build didn't work, so I ran the Windows build instead. It wasn't perfect (lots of stuttering on shader compilation, and it wouldn't load cutscenes), but it was at least playable whereas the Linux build wasn't.
Tyler: Model 005
Moved on after 20 minutes
Thoughts
I wanted to like this, but it's really, REALLY unpolished -- almost unplayably so.Next up:
Urban Trial Playground
Oh I have Q.U.B.E. 1 and 2 and haven't played either. Installed!
Q.U.B.E. is a great puzzler so far, very enjoyable. Thanks for the update and the inspiration @kfwyre!
Glad you're enjoying it! Are you playing the original version or the Director's Cut?
I'm playing the Director's Cut; seems like the addition of story mode etc. was a good call. Strangely I have both (or maybe it's not strange - I don't recall when I got these).
I think they gave the Director's Cut to everyone who had the original game in their library when it released. I played the original and IIRC there wasn't any narration or story. Furthermore, there were a couple of REALLY frustrating puzzles that I believe they tweaked or eliminated. It's not that they were frustrating in that they were particularly tricky; they were frustrating in that you knew what you had to do but executing that was very difficult to get right (and very easy to mess up).
I might actually go back and play the Director's Cut sometime soon, as now I'm curious if the story from 2 ties into 1 in any way.
Urban Trial Playground
Moved on after 1 hour
Thoughts
I actually wanted to play this for longer but had to stop on account of technical issues. The game had these odd jitters/stutters that weren't bad enough for me to nope out immediately but were definitely annoying enough over time to get me to stop. They were present in both the Linux build and the Windows build through Proton.
The game itself is casual, budget Trials which I was actually really enjoying, as Trials itself tends to be too hard for me, especially the recent releases. If the tech issue ever gets resolved, I'd easily go back to this one.
Viking Saga: The Cursed Ring
Moved on after 15 minutes
Thoughts
This is a casual game in a genre that I believe is called "time management". It basically is a click-things-in-the-right-order game where you build up resources to spend on tasks that consume resources so that you can build up resources so that you can spend resources, etc. I've played a couple of games like this as the background for audiobooks, but wasn't in the mood to get into this one.
Widget Satchel
Moved on after 15 minutes
Thoughts
This is a cute platformer where you play as a ferret who accumulates widgets. The gimmick of the game is that the more widgets you accumulate, the heavier your satchel gets, which slows your character down and prevents him from jumping as high. At the end of levels the scrap can be exchanged for items and powerups.It's a neat idea but it seems flawed from a design perspective? Like, the more you get the resource you're supposed to, the less fun the game becomes. I found myself wanting to not collect widgets in order to be able to stay fast and jump high.
Xenoraid
Moved on after 15 minutes
Thoughts
I generally like 10tons games. They're rarely amazing but are almost always decent time-sinks. This one was promising: it's a roguelike scrolling shooter. Unfortunately, it seems really, REALLY bland. Pair that with some minor issues due to running it in Proton, and I decided to move on.
Next up:
YORG.io
YORG.io
Moved on after 45 minutes
Thoughts
This is an interesting little base-building game where you build up a network of resource generators and defenses to ward off attacks from enemies, so that you can continue to build your base bigger, so that you can continue to fight bigger waves of enemies. It's got a nice loop to it, and I could see myself liking something very similar to this. Unfortunately, I ran into an issue where it seems my resources weren't transporting like they were supposed to. The whole game is about having a sort of sprawling, connected base, but my resources would often refuse to follow connections and just spill out, forcing me to re-connect or build additional connections for already connected sections in order to get the resources to go where they were supposed to. Part of this might have been my misunderstanding of the game mechanics, but it sure felt like a bug or an oversight. If the game worked as (seemingly) intended, I probably would have sunk a lot of time into it.
Zombotron
Moved on after 30 minutes
Thoughts
This is a good game with a terrible name. It's basically side-scrolling Doom with zombies instead of demons, along with randomized loot drops. I liked what I played but also felt like I saw everything I needed to see in the 30 minutes that I played. I could have kept going and been fine, or I could have stopped like I did and also been fine. I might come back and replay this as a backdrop to an audiobook someday.
Next up:
I finished my alphabet of games! I met my backlog goal!
I'm now going to pivot away from my backlog and replay a couple of old favorites. I'm already most of the way through a replay of Borderlands. Meanwhile, @nothis has inspired me to take yet another ride on The Last Express, and @aphoenix has inspired me to re-enter the Q.U.B.E..
Glad you liked A Short Hike, @aphoenix! That game just had such an infectious charm, like reading the Sunday comics on a lazy afternoon.
I have not been able to game as much as I'd have liked to these past couple of weeks (missed last week's update). Ironically my friends have never wanted to hang out more than they do now during this quarantine business via Hangouts and what-not.
The time I did get in I played:
Endzone: A World Apart. I don't know why I keep trying my hand at strategy games, I suck terribly at them and don't have much fun. I think I just enjoy the idea of building up an isometric town over time based on nostalgic memories of games like Red Alert or Fallout 1 & 2 (where I know you didn't build towns, but the isometric views were nice). I should've liked this game. The tutorial was a bit too hands off, but the game was easy enough to pick up. Over time you're told about new hurdles your colony has to overcome, but their checkpoints seemed a bit arbitrary. For example, nobody in my colony had tools or masks for the longest time, but suddenly after X months pass, it's the biggest problem. I may come back to it some other time, but for now I refunded it and put it back on the wishlist.
More Conan Exiles. It's filling the MMO hole in my life for now (even if it's not technically an MMO). I really like the idea of a game like WoW with an accessible ending. I don't want the carrot on the end of that stick forever. Plus I am a sucker for base building as I've mentioned before.
I talked friends into playing The Forest on PS4 which one of them was reluctant to on account he hates horror games. But I turned on "vegetarian mode" which makes the monsters only come out at night (and stay in caves), turned off base destruction, and we're all having a hell of a time. I am playing it for the second time and only saw ~60% of the stuff the first playthrough. As we get more and more powerful over time, the friend who hates horror games is having the most fun turning the tides of the monsters. Also if I'm being honest, the monsters get to be more annoying than they are scary if you don't have those options enabled. You can barely get anything done as they keep coming in hordes for you over time.
I keep trying to wrap up Conarium on my lunch breaks... which feels disrespectful and not at all how it's meant to be experienced, like watching an epic movie on an iPhone or something. I know I'm falling victim to the whole sunk-cost thing (even though it was free, so nothing's been spent other than my time), but I also know I'm so close to beating it I just want to power through for no reason whatsoever or than for myself-- whatever that means. If it were a longer game I'd have probably given up and uninstalled.
In VR land I picked up Apex Construct on sale... meh. I just wanted to fire bows and arrows at enemies constantly and so far I've done way more of that in Skyrim. Also I think my VR standards are just raising over time and Apex just feels like a bland tech demo compared to my immerse/intense experience with RE7, or the exploration in No Man's Sky, etc..
Next Friday my friends and I will try World War Z which we all got for free through Epic a few weeks ago. We decided to forego the Predator after being unimpressed by the demo.
Since the only time I've had to game has been in the afternoon/daylight, I think I'll forego my horror backlog for now and maybe focus on powering through the rest of Black Mesa, which has been fun... but honestly I played Half-Life 1 so many times that this redux hasn't gotten any bigger a reaction out of me other than "...neat! That is the same ol' map with some added stuff." I was hoping they would have a VR port, but no dice.
That's a perfect, succinct summary of the game. Sunday comics and warm cocoa.
Re: The Forest - have you tried The Long Dark? I haven't tried The Forest, but it seems superficially related (and Steam told me that they're similar).
I Kickstarted The Long Dark! ...and I have yet to touch it beyond the first ~2 hours 😅
There's no fault with it whatsoever (other than my being distracted by Mark Meer/Commander Shepard's voice acting), it just feels like one of those games that really have to give 100% of my attention to/shouldn't play other games around the same time, lest I forget the story/controls/etc.
That said, I can't really attest to the differences between the two, but The Forest is essentially an open world crafting game with a story nudging you into other areas of the map that you then explore for items that unlock other areas of the map. There are monsters that have a seemingly arbitrary (but supposedly patterned) progression system as to what prompts them to attack you and seek out your base, which adds to the horror element; a night or day may pass and you don't see anyone, and the next you are completely bombarded. My sister has allegedly played half the game without provoking any monsters enough to come attack her after she'd researched what does and doesn't set them off. It IS a little glitchy (programmed by only 5 people I think?), but it's so fun and intense that I forgive a lot of it. I think my crack with crafting/base-building games is just give me a giant map to explore and a story to guide me through it-- it's not enough to just be like Minecraft, Rust, or 7 Days to Die and not give me any real linear objectives. I like solving mysteries.
If you're indifferent about horror games, there's several cheats and game modes to tone that part down. As I'd said the monsters can absolutely just get more annoying than they are scary. I do not find it fun having to repair the walls of my base every night I'm attacked and would rather spend the days hunting/gathering supplies to make journeys elsewhere.
I first tried the Long Dark before they introduced story mode, and I think that's still my favourite way to play - just trying to survive in the desolate north, no other people around. The story mode is okay as well, but I enjoy just existing, avoiding wolves and bears, hunting for food, foraging, exploring, and riding out the occasional snow storm.
Then this whole "actually in isolation" thing happened, and now it's less delightful. Still a great game thought!
I will probably try the Forest at some point, but I'm trying not to purchase more games for a while - this backlog burner has me really thinking about how many games I have acquired and never played. It's ridiculous.