Still playing and following through with my plan to finally do some “adventurous” missions.
It’s pretty much a full-on role-play of a weak person tasked with various “hero” jobs. Need sneaking? I can do that. Fighting weak enemies? Sure! Get something from a dungeon filled with powerful hostiles? I… can try sprinting through? Things can be a bit difficult at times when playing a non-combat character (until now) so I ended up bailing on few of the quests but I’m slowly improving.
It’s an interesting way of playing compared to the usual power fantasy. It also helps me to finally get used to the approach of “failing is fun” - not the same as “losing” since I keep going instead of starting from scratch but dealing with consequences (however minimal in this game) is something I’d like to expand to other games I play.
It’s not an easy switch after years of being “the chosen one” but I’m getting there.
Leisure Suit Larry: Reloaded
Continuing with my point and click adventures I decided to try Leisure Suit Larry. I got it for free on GOG some years ago but never really gave it a shot since I didn’t think it was up my alley. Here are some brief thoughts:
Art looks nice but the art style is very inconsistent. I’m sure it’s intended but it it doesn’t always work in my opinion.
It could really use subtitles. There are no separate volume sliders and dialogue lines can get lost under the music (there’s an option to turn off the music but that’s not a great choice either for me).
Gameplay is simple but enjoyable, there are no dead ends according to the tutorial but you can absolutely screw yourself by running out of money. You can (and later have to) get more through gambling but that’s not really a viable solution without save scumming.
Writing is… not my cup of tea but it’s fine for what it is. Constant narration can be a little annoying at times.
All in all, it was fun enough but I don’t think I’ll be checking out other games in the series. I’m glad to scratch this off my backlog at least.
Shadowrun Returns
I was a little worried since I haven’t played this kind of RPG (let alone a Shadowrun title) in a long time but it’s been pretty straightforward so far. Combat is simple and enjoyable even without a proper tutorial. I appreciate the amount of skill and item checks so far, leading to multiple ways of solving problems. Not all of them, obviously, but it’s still common enough to be noticeable.
Art style and graphics in general hold up really well, so does audio. I also like the writing so far, especially how pleasant the conversations can be - just two people being courteous towards each other, without the need to act edgy just because cyberpunk. The only thing I don’t particularly care about is the mix of sci-fi and magic. Not that I hate it, it just does nothing for me despite being a pretty unique approach to the genre.
So yeah, it’s cool and I’m enjoying it so- What’s that? Unbeatable just released? Yeah… I’m gonna have to take a break from Shadowrun for a bit. I’ll be back once I’m done doing crime.
Early access and super cheap, gets almost weekly updates that won’t break a save.
Very, very similar. But much deeper and if we’re patient and support it could be bg3 level.
Like, seriously the only other time I’ve enjoyed an early access was bg3. It’s deep enough to run it like a rouge light. Especially since if you go a couple months without touching there’s a bunch of new content when you come back.
I also played Leisure Suit Larry: Reloaded I think last year or the year before and have similar thoughts. I know it’s a famous title/franchise and I wanted to check it out, and it was pretty much what I expected. I really hated the forced gambling-via-savescumming but it was otherwise an alright point and click puzzler with hit-or-miss humour.
I have half an idea of playing Love For Sail too at some point as that’s supposedly the series high point, but it’s not exactly a high priority.
I don’t mind the writing that much since not everything has to be up my alley and, more importantly, it’s a remake of a game from 1987 - different time, different industry. I do however think they could update it a bit more in terms of gameplay at least. Maybe not completely reworking the moon logic behind some puzzles but getting rid of the option to hard lock your progress would be enough to improve the experience quite a bit, at least for me.
The hard lock is particularly egregious I agree. I also dislike moon logic but I chalk that up to “those were the times” as well. Back in those days strategy guides and phone-based help lines for adventure/puzzle games were common and making games inscrutable and puzzles impossibly idiotic were seen as a value-add to extend playtime on your purchase.
As far as the humour, one thing that stood out to me (besides the multitude of variously juvenile sex jokes) was that there was a little bit of a mean-spirited streak in the writing. At the end of the day Larry is not a bad or evil guy, he is a naive loser. And a large part of the game is kind of making fun of him for that, and something about that doesn’t sit right with me.
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Daggerfall Unity
Still playing and following through with my plan to finally do some “adventurous” missions.
It’s pretty much a full-on role-play of a weak person tasked with various “hero” jobs. Need sneaking? I can do that. Fighting weak enemies? Sure! Get something from a dungeon filled with powerful hostiles? I… can try sprinting through? Things can be a bit difficult at times when playing a non-combat character (until now) so I ended up bailing on few of the quests but I’m slowly improving.
It’s an interesting way of playing compared to the usual power fantasy. It also helps me to finally get used to the approach of “failing is fun” - not the same as “losing” since I keep going instead of starting from scratch but dealing with consequences (however minimal in this game) is something I’d like to expand to other games I play.
It’s not an easy switch after years of being “the chosen one” but I’m getting there.
Leisure Suit Larry: Reloaded
Continuing with my point and click adventures I decided to try Leisure Suit Larry. I got it for free on GOG some years ago but never really gave it a shot since I didn’t think it was up my alley. Here are some brief thoughts:
All in all, it was fun enough but I don’t think I’ll be checking out other games in the series. I’m glad to scratch this off my backlog at least.
Shadowrun Returns
I was a little worried since I haven’t played this kind of RPG (let alone a Shadowrun title) in a long time but it’s been pretty straightforward so far. Combat is simple and enjoyable even without a proper tutorial. I appreciate the amount of skill and item checks so far, leading to multiple ways of solving problems. Not all of them, obviously, but it’s still common enough to be noticeable.
Art style and graphics in general hold up really well, so does audio. I also like the writing so far, especially how pleasant the conversations can be - just two people being courteous towards each other, without the need to act edgy just because cyberpunk. The only thing I don’t particularly care about is the mix of sci-fi and magic. Not that I hate it, it just does nothing for me despite being a pretty unique approach to the genre.
So yeah, it’s cool and I’m enjoying it so- What’s that? Unbeatable just released? Yeah… I’m gonna have to take a break from Shadowrun for a bit. I’ll be back once I’m done doing crime.
Check out “Cyber Knights: Flashpoint”
Early access and super cheap, gets almost weekly updates that won’t break a save.
Very, very similar. But much deeper and if we’re patient and support it could be bg3 level.
Like, seriously the only other time I’ve enjoyed an early access was bg3. It’s deep enough to run it like a rouge light. Especially since if you go a couple months without touching there’s a bunch of new content when you come back.
I’m mostly focusing on my backlog for now (except for already mentioned Unbeatable) but I’ll keep this in mind. Thanks for letting me know about it!
I also played Leisure Suit Larry: Reloaded I think last year or the year before and have similar thoughts. I know it’s a famous title/franchise and I wanted to check it out, and it was pretty much what I expected. I really hated the forced gambling-via-savescumming but it was otherwise an alright point and click puzzler with hit-or-miss humour.
I have half an idea of playing Love For Sail too at some point as that’s supposedly the series high point, but it’s not exactly a high priority.
I don’t mind the writing that much since not everything has to be up my alley and, more importantly, it’s a remake of a game from 1987 - different time, different industry. I do however think they could update it a bit more in terms of gameplay at least. Maybe not completely reworking the moon logic behind some puzzles but getting rid of the option to hard lock your progress would be enough to improve the experience quite a bit, at least for me.
The hard lock is particularly egregious I agree. I also dislike moon logic but I chalk that up to “those were the times” as well. Back in those days strategy guides and phone-based help lines for adventure/puzzle games were common and making games inscrutable and puzzles impossibly idiotic were seen as a value-add to extend playtime on your purchase.
As far as the humour, one thing that stood out to me (besides the multitude of variously juvenile sex jokes) was that there was a little bit of a mean-spirited streak in the writing. At the end of the day Larry is not a bad or evil guy, he is a naive loser. And a large part of the game is kind of making fun of him for that, and something about that doesn’t sit right with me.