Last Game You Finished and Your Rating

Alwa's Legacy (Switch)

A standalone follow-up to Alwa's Awakening, Legacy drops the faithful NES recreation of Awakening to provide a larger and more lively experience, but the limited origins are still evident in the design and gamefeel and no longer feel justified by the game's vision. I still had a lot of fun with it across my six and a bit hours, and it's a great metroidvania in its own right with some cool ideas, but I wasn't engaged enough to push through past the end credits to 100% completion. The returning spells from Awakening (block and bubble mostly, less the lightning) still make for some fun and novel combat, puzzling and traversal and I really liked some of the upgrades like the projectable spiked block, and while the game is still designed with exploiting them in mind I think it feels a little less exploited and more limited by design. You can't quite pull off the bubble and block jump chaining you could in Awakening, and the things you can do feel more like you were meant to do them. I think that probably reflects how the game was made (as I understand, the exploitable mechanics in Awakening were discovered in speed run playtesting and then decided to be kept because of how fun they are, whereas in Legacy I can only assume they were carried over as deliberate design elements from the start). The new powers feel too awkward to use for me to ever really enjoy them in the same way as the rod spells, and part of that is down to no longer excusing the UX as a deliberate NES-like quirk.

Another solid metroidvania that I would happily recommend to genre fans then, but it doesn't have the more focused appeal of Awakening's NES-like recreation.

Halo: ODST

This has certainly been my favourite game of the Halo franchise (I have played 1-3 + Reach at launch and again as part of the MCC, but had never played ODST until now, again as part of the MCC).

The whole tone of it pulled me in, in a way that the former games never quite managed. Really enjoyed the music, and thought that the sizes of the skirmishes you constantly found yourself in were just the right size. It was probably the first one wher ei have managed to follow the story as well, probably because its (for the most part) more small scale and perosnal.

Bonus points for there not being any horribly dissapointing / frustratingly difficult levels either. It felt like they had run out of idea by the end, but 90% of the design was really refreshing and imaginative.

8

OrangeRKN wrote:Alwa's Legacy (Switch)

A standalone follow-up to Alwa's Awakening, Legacy drops the faithful NES recreation of Awakening to provide a larger and more lively experience, but the limited origins are still evident in the design and gamefeel and no longer feel justified by the game's vision. I still had a lot of fun with it across my six and a bit hours, and it's a great metroidvania in its own right with some cool ideas, but I wasn't engaged enough to push through past the end credits to 100% completion. The returning spells from Awakening (block and bubble mostly, less the lightning) still make for some fun and novel combat, puzzling and traversal and I really liked some of the upgrades like the projectable spiked block, and while the game is still designed with exploiting them in mind I think it feels a little less exploited and more limited by design. You can't quite pull off the bubble and block jump chaining you could in Awakening, and the things you can do feel more like you were meant to do them. I think that probably reflects how the game was made (as I understand, the exploitable mechanics in Awakening were discovered in speed run playtesting and then decided to be kept because of how fun they are, whereas in Legacy I can only assume they were carried over as deliberate design elements from the start). The new powers feel too awkward to use for me to ever really enjoy them in the same way as the rod spells, and part of that is down to no longer excusing the UX as a deliberate NES-like quirk.

Another solid metroidvania that I would happily recommend to genre fans then, but it doesn't have the more focused appeal of Awakening's NES-like recreation.

I really need to check out both Alwa games, Awakening has been on my Switch wishlist for ages now but I've just not got around to it. I'm feeling the urge for another Metroidvania experience at the moment so I may just go for it!

I really liked Alwa's Awakening. If you like metroidvanias and have the nostalgia and/or patience for faithful NES-era design then I'd definitely recommend it. Those that only have the former would probably be happy jumping straight into Legacy, even with the few NES-like holdovers in design.

Cool thanks for the info, I'm a big fan of the original NES Metroid so I think I'll check out Awakening soon!

EDIT: Just seen that it's only a fiver as well so I don't see any reason not to go for it!

Life is Strange

I'd played the first 20 mins before once or twice, but for some reason never managed to go further (New games coming out, poor attention span). Finally pushed through to at least finish the first episode. Glad I did, as the rest is brilliant. Probably aimed at a slightly younger age group, but a great story overall. One of those games that stays with you a little after you've finished it.

I've heard the second is trash, so I'll probably avoid it, but I'll probably give Before the Storm a try eventually.

D_C wrote:Life is Strange

I'd played the first 20 mins before once or twice, but for some reason never managed to go further (New games coming out, poor attention span). Finally pushed through to at least finish the first episode. Glad I did, as the rest is brilliant. Probably aimed at a slightly younger age group, but a great story overall. One of those games that stays with you a little after you've finished it.

I've heard the second is trash, so I'll probably avoid it, but I'll probably give Before the Storm a try eventually.

I was older than you when i played it some time ago and thoroughly enjoyed it. Before the Storm is also really good. LiS2 is not trash, but the first 2 episodes of it are really excellent and then the script drops in quality, which makes it all the more painful.

Tell Me Why is good - probably in joint 2nd place for me (with Before the Storm).

kazanova_Frankenstein wrote:I was older than you when i played it some time ago and thoroughly enjoyed it.

Tell Me Why is good - probably in joint 2nd place for me (with Before the Storm).

It just came across as more of a teen drama aimed at teenagers to me (Although it got darker towards the end more than I thought it would), however I enjoyed it more than most games I've finished in the past few years.
I'll take a look at Tell Me Why as well

D_C wrote:

kazanova_Frankenstein wrote:I was older than you when i played it some time ago and thoroughly enjoyed it.

Tell Me Why is good - probably in joint 2nd place for me (with Before the Storm).

It just came across as more of a teen drama aimed at teenagers to me (Although it got darker towards the end more than I thought it would), however I enjoyed it more than most games I've finished in the past few years.
I'll take a look at Tell Me Why as well

Its probably testimony to how bad most videogame writing is that this one felt polished and effecting

Sherlock Holmes: The Devil's Daughter

An enjoyable romp that experiments with numerous types of gaming mechanics with varying levels of success. The searching for clues / interogating suspects / forming deductions works very well, with seemingly numerous ways that things could go (no doubt some smoke and mirrors here). Other times the game resorts to boring slidey tile / rotatey puzzle type mechanics, which are dull but can be skipped. Infact most things can be skipped if you desire, which is actually a pretty forward thinking thing to put in by the developers (albeit somewhat acknowledging that some parts are a touch dull).

Graphics not great and plenty of stitlted animation, and the voice actor for Kate (aforementioned daughter) is awful and shrill. Story is decent with some continuity between each case.

All in all the most "7" game i have played for a while.

8 7

kazanova_Frankenstein wrote:...All in all the most "7" game i have played for a while.

8 7

Your comments totally read like a [5], kaz!

jawa wrote:

kazanova_Frankenstein wrote:...All in all the most "7" game i have played for a while.

8 7

Your comments totally read like a [5], kaz!

Some of the game played like a 5 tbf. But i think that the ambition and passion puts it up to a 7.

I dont think i could finish a game that scored a 5 or lower tbh. It would mean i was persevering with something i was actively not enjoying. Persona Dancing All Night is the last one that comes to mind for me.

Doom 64 - 7/10

This would have been an 8/10 had the last boss not been a complete shitfest. Still the best classic Doom game despite that. I love how atmospheric it is.

I'm also playing the lost levels expansion and it's fun so far.

D_C wrote:I've heard the second is trash, so I'll probably avoid it, but I'll probably give Before the Storm a try eventually.

Before The Storm made me cry. It's a beautiful game. The second one is indeed absolute trash.

Doom 64 is fun but there's no way it gets close to the real classic Doom games, to suggest that is basically blasphemy!

Surely blasphemy is what Doom is all about!

Jenuall wrote:Doom 64 is fun but there's no way it gets close to the real classic Doom games, to suggest that is basically blasphemy!

Went through all of them this past year, with the exception of The Plutonia Experiment. All of them have some really dumb level designs in them. Doom 2 especially.

Doom 64 admittedly still has some of that, but it's a bit more thought out. I liked it more because of that.

I triedd playing Doom 64 in VR the other week. Some of those dark areas are very confusing. Especially that one near the begining with the triangles on the floor. I still wake up in cold sweats over that.

Squinty wrote:

Jenuall wrote:Doom 64 is fun but there's no way it gets close to the real classic Doom games, to suggest that is basically blasphemy!

Went through all of them this past year, with the exception of The Plutonia Experiment. All of them have some really dumb level designs in them. Doom 2 especially.

Doom 64 admittedly still has some of that, but it's a bit more thought out. I liked it more because of that.

That's fair enough, and don't get me wrong I loved playing 64 it just isn't on the same level as the originals for me personally.

Bioshock 2

So bloody good, better than I remember in fact.