Last Game You Finished and Your Rating

N.O.V.A. - PSP (emulated)

Don't know why I played this, its a port of a 2010s mobile game to PSP that looks and plays like an N64 demake of Halo, back when "mobile game" meant "like a regular game but trimmed down a lot" instead of "dystopian time-wasting cash grabber". Its not very long and is kind of fun in terms of how it works with its own limitations, and is refreshing to play something without battlepasses, achievements, gear/loot and 'rpg elements'.

Played The Last Faith recently after funding it on Kickstarter. It's a Metroidvania that is very open about being "Bloodborne but 2D".

Overall it looks and sounds great. The dialogue is a bit overly flowery which can sometimes make it a bit hard to follow, but the story is really just an excuse to fight vampires. The enemy designs around the 3rd quarter start to get a bit repetitive, but otherwise designs are great.

The actual Metroidvaniaing part, as in the "I just got the double jump, time to look at the map for 5 minutes" part, is a little limited as there are fewer upgrades than I was expecting, but the combat is more interesting than the majority of Metroidvanias that I've played as that's where the Bloodborne inspiration comes through on the gameplay.

Overall I give it a solid 8, definitely worth £25. The main gripe is that, while it does what it sets out to do, the straddling the line between Souls-like and Metroidvania leaves both a little lacking compared to a full blown version of either.

Grime 8/10

Good Soulsborne Metroidvania game that I'll probably play again one day.

Resident Evil 4 Remake - 9/10 couldn't have asked for more really.

Pillars of the Earth (Switch) - 6.5/10
A little janky in places with cumbersome movement and simplistic gameplay elements. However, the voice acting is great, visuals good and the story engaging, with plenty of opportunity to influence the protagonists journeys. Worth it for the (lengthy) story; the gameplay, not so much.

Deliver us Mars

Really enjoyable narrative driven puzzle / platforming game. Looks lovely on Steam Deck with a bit of fiddling. Slight reliance on a repeating puzzle mechanic is the only thing that drags it down a bit for me. And it’s a bit choppy in cut scenes. And it crashed once.

Certainly worth giving it a go if you enjoyed the first one.

7.

Outer Wilds: Echoes of the Eye

Brilliant. Maybe an 8.5/10 but only because the bar of wonder and surprise is set so high by the base game.

This is a great addition and companion to it and anyone who likes the base game should give it a try - I slept on it for a couple years (despite the base game being an all-timer, I think I was being a bit lazy and apprehensive and avoidant of that First Entry Into Dungeon overwhelm) but it turned out more manageable and contained than I'd imagined. And it surprised me and surpassed my expectations within like an hour and then kept doing so until the end.

EDIT: does feel a bit reductive using a score for this game (game pair) in particular. The quality of its effect is such that playing through Outer Wilds/Echoes leaves you (me) feeling somehow bigger because of it

Witchspring R - 8/10

Cute and fairly relaxed JRPG with a pretty derivative storyline but it oozes charm and is a joy to play.

Gets bonus point for being relatively easy to play using the mouse for almost everything.

Final Fantasy VII Remake - 6/10

I haven't been disappointed this much in a game for a long time hahahaah

Steam World Build - 6/10

It's OK, but only OK.

I found it quite relaxing, the music's good and there's enough to keep you occupied for around 10 hours.

It's very linear for a game that purports to be a builder, drags on a bit towards the end and the story is entirely superfluous.
The tower defence stuff is rather slight and feels underused.

Mafia 3

Great stuff. Very atmospheric with a brilliant setting and accompanying soundtrack. Good action and story. Bit long though with repetitive activities so I'm glad it's finished but overall I think it was very good.

All of the main characters were fantastic though. I loved Donovan but his scene during the credits was the cherry on top :lol:

Been in a bit of a nostalgia run lately thanks to steam deck.

Half Life 2 - 9/10

Haven’t played this in years but it still holds up amazingly well. Shooting is solid and the level design is timeless. I forget how ahead of its time this really was. My original complaints haven’t lessened. I felt the air boat and car sections went on a bit too long.

Half Life 2 episode one - 7.5/10

This was a dip in quality for me personally. The opening spends too long in the citadel which is visually less interesting and I found the difficulty a bit uneven. First time ever I felt it was unfair and a bit trial and error also I got stuck and had to look up a hint on where to go at one point, unusual since valve are usually good at signposting subtly where to go. I did love the final encounter though, escorting civilians with ramping difficulty. Felt very epic!

Half Life 2 episode two -8.5/10

Big step up, new enemies in hunters ( bastards that they are) better location variety and encounter design. Felt more meaningful in terms of story too. Realise this is the first time I ever actually completed it too, I played on PS3 orange box but got stuck at final battle. That end encounter was cleverly designed but a fraction too difficult for me to fully enjoy. Also the car section again felt over long. When they gave me radar for optional stashes I just wasn’t interested. Knocked down half a mark because of the unresolved cliff hanger…. Damn you valve give us Half Life 3!

Dishonored - 9/10

According to save data this was my first time playing since 2014 so it felt fresh again. Ran beautifully on the deck and has such a rich and engaging world. I love the semi open world nature of the levels and multiple approaches. I played non lethal as it felt the intended way but it does limit your tactics away from a vast range of tools you have. I’d forgotten much of the story too so was great to relive this. Makes me want a dishonored 3 all the more.

Batman Arkham Origins - 8/10

A great game and unfairly treated as the worst I think. Setting and story is great and gameplay is more or less identical to city. I will say the shock gloves do trivialise encounters so maybe that removes some of the challenge. Still looks brilliant for a game that is 10 years old. I do however feel it suffers from poor signposting on where to go and several times I found myself back tracking when I shouldn’t have because I missed a door or vent that I needed to progress. I recall at the time loving the open world of this and city but in hindsight I think the linear approach of asylum was maybe better suited. I never liked Arkham knight since it focused too much on god awful Batmobile combat. I liked the story this told even if some of the boss encounters were a bit “throwaway” and as usual joker took all the spotlight.

Killer Frequency

A first-person horror puzzle game set in 1987, that puts you in the role of a late-night radio talk show host in small town America whose callers are being stalked by a mysterious killer.

I really, really loved this. Reminded me a lot of Firewatch, in that all your interactions with other people are through a phone/radio, giving a real sense of loneliness and a wider, inhabited world just out of reach. Very effectively eerie and only takes 5 hours to finish the story once, which is the perfect length really. I messed up some of the later puzzles so a few people did unfortunately get murdered in my game but I saved far more people than not so I didn't do too badly.

It's not without faults but I would really, really recommend this if you like something a little different.

Zilent Night wrote:Killer Frequency

A first-person horror puzzle game set in 1987, that puts you in the role of a late-night radio talk show host in small town America whose callers are being stalked by a mysterious killer.

I really, really loved this. Reminded me a lot of Firewatch, in that all your interactions with other people are through a phone/radio, giving a real sense of loneliness and a wider, inhabited world just out of reach. Very effectively eerie and only takes 5 hours to finish the story once, which is the perfect length really. I messed up some of the later puzzles so a few people did unfortunately get murdered in my game but I saved far more people than not so I didn't do too badly.

It's not without faults but I would really, really recommend this if you like something a little different.

I think I did a review for this. I enjoyed it.

Batman: Arkham Asylum (PS5) - 10/10

Absolute classic, still as playable and top tier as it was back in 2009.

Zilent Night wrote:Killer Frequency

A first-person horror puzzle game set in 1987, that puts you in the role of a late-night radio talk show host in small town America whose callers are being stalked by a mysterious killer.

I really, really loved this. Reminded me a lot of Firewatch, in that all your interactions with other people are through a phone/radio, giving a real sense of loneliness and a wider, inhabited world just out of reach. Very effectively eerie and only takes 5 hours to finish the story once, which is the perfect length really. I messed up some of the later puzzles so a few people did unfortunately get murdered in my game but I saved far more people than not so I didn't do too badly.

It's not without faults but I would really, really recommend this if you like something a little different.

I picked this up for my Quest 2 a while back and still have not got around to playing it. Maybe I can squeeze it in this side of Christmas.

Spiderman- 8/10

Kind of derivative of the Arkham games, but I really enjoyed this one. The boss battle with Electric dude and Vulture was awesome. Felt great swinging around the city.

Lost Odyssey - 8.5/10
When I first started this I was pretty sure it was going to be a 9/10 or even 10/10 game, but sadly it dipped a bit in terms of the overall experience along the way. Still a really good game though.

+ Visuals and art style are nice.
+ Some lovely music.
+ The plot's actually quite interesting and emotive.
+ Battle system is pretty good.
+ Some nice environments, towns, and areas to explore.

- Awkard controls in place.
- Some dungeons seem designed to annoy and frustrate.
- The frequeny of the random battles is genuinely detrimental to the experience and fun of the game.

Loved a lot of it, the story and dreams were great, and the battles and overall exploration fun. If it was a bit less obsessed with the random battles and trying to annoy the player it would've scored higher.

This is the final 360 game in my collection, so that sees out that generation of consoles I think. What a console the 360 was. Onto the PS4 now :toot:

Star Wars: Jedi Survivor

5/10

On any given moment during playing this I could have given it anywhere from a 3 to an 8, to be honest. But I played it through to completion so I suppose I must have enjoyed it a fair bit overall. I think the exploration and 'platforming' came in for a bit of stick, but I actually quite liked that aspect of it, as there were some Prince of Persia-like moments where I did have to stop and figure out possible routes forward. And some of the settings and set-pieces were impressive and quite good fun.

Sadly, there was a lot of frankly tedious stuff too where I found myself wishing segments of the game would just hurry up and finish. The main bad guy was terrible, the other bad guy was terrible, and the general storyline was, too. I quite often found myself thinking 'I just don't care' and doing something else while the cutscenes played.

In the end, I switched the difficulty to 'easy' and just motored my way through it - and I actually enjoyed it a bit more this way as I felt like Cal was in fact a kick-ass Jedi slicing his way through legions of baddies with no real trouble.

Not as good as the first one.

Christmas.Past wrote:
Not as good as the first one.

Pretty much my thoughts. Open world does not make it better.

Last Game You Finished and Your Rating

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