cobysev
- 54 Posts
- 89 Comments
Joined 2Y ago
Cake day: Jun 15, 2023
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- Final Fantasy VII Rebirth
- Expeditions: A MudRunner Game
- Fear Effect Sedna
- Grim Dawn
- Keep Taking and Nobody Explodes
- RIDE 5
- REKA
- Bomb Rush Cyberfunk
- Old World
- Atlas Fallen: Reign of Sand
- Crime Boss: Rockay City
- Moonstone Island
- Inkulinati
- Monster Prom 3: Monster Roadtrip
- Venba
And I gifted Freedom Planet 2 to a friend.
The Winter Sale isn’t over until January 2nd, so I might buy some more games before it ends. Problem is, I own most of the games on the Steam front page, so finding new and interesting games is getting difficult.
That’s a shame. “Narrative-driven, story-rich games” are mostly all I play. Just because people spend more time in strategy or MOBA games doesn’t mean they’re more popular, just that they take more time and don’t have a designated end point, so people come back to play more often. But we still enjoy story-rich games and they’ll still sell.
This is why Call of Duty has turned to garbage. Because they realized they could get more gameplay out of the multiplayer mode, so they stopped making good campaign modes and focused all their energy on multiplayer and pushing microtransactions. It’s literally prioritizing money over quality gaming.
And I know, they’re a business and the goal is to make money, but who can remember a fun multiplayer level? What even is the point in getting invested long-term in multiplayer when they’re releasing a new game every 1-2 years? Counter-Strike has been mostly the same for decades and was extremely popular because it was so well-known and hardly changed. It only recently released a sequel, which was basically just a huge patch to the original game. Meanwhile, my memory of Call of Duty multiplayer games is fuzzy because I’ve played so many over the years and none really stand out to me.
You guys don’t share your Steam Relay publicly and put it in a showcase on your profile?
/s… but I totally do that. I’m not ashamed of my gameplay.
EDIT: I just read the article and saw the mention of the “Dwarf” category. It’s maxed out on my spider graph, and I’ve only played 2 games with dwarves this year, out of 180 individual games I’ve played.
Considering Ubisoft is struggling to stay relevant after saying players should feel comfortable with not owning games anymore, poor sales with Star Wars: Outlaws, and the controversy over their upcoming Assassin’s Creed Shadows game, I’m sure they’re doing everything they can to draw people back to their games right now. Achievements bring some replayability to their old titles.
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- lemmy.world
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- 1M
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*Get To Work* is a tongue-in-cheek game about climbing the corporate ladder. But it's more metaphorical than literal, as you spend the game on your hands and knees, rollerblading your way up difficult obstacles (and falling back to the ground level) just for the slightest recognition in the workforce.
It's one of those climbing games, like *Getting Over It with Bennett Foddy*, or *Only UP!*, or *A Difficult Game About Climbing*, except you're on rollerblades instead of climbing with your own two hands. This game just released two days ago, so it's very new.
I like the title screen of this game. It's designed to look like a business magazine, while showing off the main character and your game options. Your character reminds me of the political activist Charlie Kirk, with his tiny face on a large head.
I also love the article call-out for Sam Bankman-Fried. In case you're not familiar, he was considered the poster boy for all things crypto, having founded FTX cryptocurrency exchange. That is, until FTX went bankrupt and he was arrested and charged for fraud, conspiracy, and money laundering. As of this year, he's serving 25 years in prison and was forced to pay back $11 billion.
*Get To Work* opens in your bedroom, with you staring at a poster encouraging you to climb that corporate ladder. So you set off, with rollerblades on your hands, feet, knees, and elbows. There is no walking or standing in this game; you rollerblade everywhere.
You reach your first room of obstacles, with the goal being to show up for your first interview. You may notice that there's a clock in the top left corner, giving you a subtle tracker for how long you struggle throughout this game.
A narrator explains the jist of this game for you, essentially claiming that NFTs were more far-fetched than a game about rollerblading up the corporate ladder. If you can't read the narration subtitles at the bottom of this screenshot, open the image in a new window to see its full 4K resolution.
Hidden around each room are these spinning logos for The Grindset, a podcast about business. They have short (usually funny) discussions about corporate life and what you need to know to succeed in today's work climate. As if the climb wasn't hard enough, most of them are in hard-to-reach areas. But there are three achievements for collecting these, so grab every one you can find!
Here's an excerpt of unprompted narration. It sounds silly and preposterous, but is also real in America and kind of sad. Two of my close friends are in this exact situation right now, having spent the past year job-hunting and *still* not having any luck being seriously considered. And one of them has a Harvard degree!
I'm almost to the interview...
You finally get to your first interview, only to find that it's not going to be that easy. We've gone so far metaphorical now, it's wrapping back around to literal!
You finally get an offer letter!
...Only to be rejected and fall all the way back to the start.
Thankfully, you have a family member who can hook you up with a warehouse job in the meantime. So you set out again to climb a new corporate ladder.
The game starts to get really sassy at this point. I got stuck in this room for about an hour, and the more I fell to the ground, the more the narrator had to say about it.
Eventually, the game gave me a GIVE UP button to press, for when I'm "feeling like this game is too much and it's time to give up." They also started mentioning shoes a lot, claiming it would probably be in my best interest to buy a pair and just walk my way to the top instead.
I finally made it to my first pay raise! ...Only to learn it wasn't feasible at this time and instead I received a pizza party. Goddamn, that's too real. But at least there's a manager role that I can promote to, so I'm not done yet, right? RIGHT?
I finally made it to the promotion to manager! Woo!
Only to have a brick wall literally pop up in my face, proclaiming that a college degree is required. Which I apparently don't have.
This was the first time my character seemed to be in real despair. Normally if he fell, he'd immediately pop back up and be ready to go. But after this one, he just lied there, unmoving. I had to jiggle the controls to get him back up.
There was a hallway off to one side that led to an unpaid internship, the only option left for a warehouse worker with no degree. Sigh.
After climbing this next room of obstacles and getting accepted for the unpaid internship, I finally had to call it a night. This humor in this game was starting to get too real and painful. And I spent an hour and a half just to get this far! You will eventually work your way up to CEO before the game ends, so I still have a long way to go.
By the way, [I couldn't resist making this](https://vimeo.com/1035892227). 🤣
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- lemmy.world
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- 1M
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*LocoCycle*, despite its appearance, is not actually a racing game, but an action/adventure fighting game that happens to take place on the open road.
*LocoCycle* opens with a live action B-movie cinematic. We get a few of these cinematic cutscenes throughout the game. We see important military leaders from China, Russia, Africa, and America, along with a ton of other guests in elegant formal wear, gathering at a secret formal event in Nicaragua. It's a gallery held by the arms dealer Big Arms, to show off two new motorcycles: the sentient combat bikes S.P.I.K.E. and I.R.I.S., with advanced AI and powerful weaponry. The bikes will be auctioned off to the highest bidder.
Yes, that is James Gunn in the background. He plays the host of this event, showing off the two bikes. The girl in blue (Lisa Foiles) actually performed the AI voice for I.R.I.S., and S.P.I.K.E. was voiced by Robert Patrick, the guy who played the T-1000 in *Terminator 2: Judgment Day*.
A thunderstorm starts brewing and the party is moved indoors. Some armed guards are asked to move the bikes to the garage, but while one steps away to take a call, I.R.I.S. is hit by lightning!
We're then introduced to I.R.I.S.' mechanic, Pablo, who is asked to repair her. Her circuitry is fried and she needs to be fixed up before the auction begins. Pablo only speaks Spanish throughout the entire game, which makes it impossible for him to communicate with I.R.I.S., whose database of 5,000 languages is now corrupted. If you don't know Spanish, make sure you turn on subtitles!
While Pablo is fixing her up, I.R.I.S. scans the magazine he was reading, then watches a commercial on the nearby TV about a Freedom Rally being held at the fairgrounds in Scottsburg, Indiana. She's inspired by the ad's tagline: "Live Free. Ride Alive."
She decides she needs to find this rally in Scottsburg, IN and she invites Pablo to tag along. Problem is, Pablo's pant leg is caught on I.R.I.S.' rear wheel frame. When she takes off, he finds himself dragged along!
The rest of the game is I.R.I.S. racing to find Scottsburg, IN while dragging Pablo on the pavement behind her. That trip is over 3,000 miles long! I hope Pablo is wearing some durable britches.
I.R.I.S. breaks out of the Big Arms facility and is quickly pursued by men in black suits and heavy firearms.
You'll quickly notice that I.R.I.S. drives on her own, and you only control her other functions. You can steer her back and forth, attack with front or rear wheels (Pablo himself usually being the rear-wheel attack), shoot unlimited rounds from her forward guns, and boost forward for a limited time.
Despite occasionally aiding I.R.I.S. in combat, Pablo insists that he's being dragged along against his will. He begs for help from anyone who comes after them, but is mostly ignored as they do everything they can to take down I.R.I.S.
There are several types of enemies you'll encounter. The armed men in black being the most prevalent, but there are also guys with jet packs, helicopters, and even rocket launchers. I.R.I.S. can counter all their attacks with quick-time events, including throwing rockets back at their launcher.
S.P.I.K.E. himself will come for I.R.I.S., but she refuses to go home with him. So he resolves to take her out and you get a boss fight with him.
When S.P.I.K.E. realizes that Pablo is a "powerful human ally" in I.R.I.S.' escape, he decides to get his own human companion. He grabs the first lady he finds at a campground, who willingly goes along with him despite being dragged on her back for miles of gravel and pavement.
Oh, and I'm pretty sure I.R.I.S. is just holding onto Pablo; he's not actually stuck. Because she can throw him like a ninja star to attack ranged enemies! He always boomerangs back to her and ends up with his pant leg "stuck" on her again.
Because I.R.I.S. is technically malfunctioning, there are times when she might shut down completely and stop in the middle of the road. Then Pablo has a limited amount of time to fix her up before a pursuing semi truck catches up and runs them both over.
It's a little tricky moving Pablo around until he finds problems to fix, but the various fixes themselves are relatively easy to complete.
This is an extremely campy and silly game, but very fun to play! Combat is mostly button-mashing and swerving around obstacles on the road, with some quick-time events to either counter an attack or dodge an obstacle. There are three skill trees to improve I.R.I.S. and Pablo's abilities, and the more stuff you unlock, the easier the game becomes. The whole game is 5 levels with 3 missions per level, plus a final boss fight level. You could probably beat the whole thing in a few hours of gameplay.
Here's a shot of S.P.I.K.E. eating a sweet corn and black raspberry buttermilk ice cream cone:
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- lemmy.world
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- 2M
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Good morning! Today I'm going to be looking at the latest game in the Sonic the Hedgehog franchise: *Sonic X Shadow Generations*. This game is a 2024 remake of the 2011 game *Sonic Generations*, which itself was a modern tribute to Sonic's past games fighting against Dr. Eggman.
*Side note: His name was Dr. Robotnik in the old American version of the games, but he's always been known as Dr. Eggman in the original Japanese. The game* Sonic Adventure *fixed the discrepancy by making "Eggman" a teasing name Sonic called Robotnik. Robotnik liked it enough, he made it his official moniker and he's been known as Dr. Eggman ever since.*
The original *Sonic Generations* inspired the creation of new games in the classic side-scroller series, including *Sonic 4 Episode I* and *II*, *Sonic Mania*, *Sonic Origins* (which was an updated collection of *Sonic 1-3 & Knuckles*, *Sonic CD*, plus 12 Game Gear games), a cameo of "Classic Sonic" and his side-scrolling adventures in *Sonic Forces*, and recently, *Sonic Superstars*.
*Sonic Generations* firmly established in the canon that the 2D side-scroller Classic Sonic was a younger Sonic. Every game since his redesign in *Sonic Adventure* is the 15-yr old "Modern Sonic," whose 3-dimensional third-person games continue to this day.
Today, though, I will be focusing specifically on Shadow the Hedgehog's story in *Sonic X Shadow Generations*, since this is the "Year of Shadow" according to SEGA. He's going to be the new villain in the live-action film *Sonic the Hedgehog 3*, which is releasing late next month.
I do my best not to spoil the games I review, but I need to be extra careful with this one, as the opening cutscene basically explains Shadow's whole tragic past. For those unfamiliar with Shadow's games and don't want his story spoiled before they see the live action film, I will be avoiding any revealing details concerning his past.
*Shadow Generations* starts out with a brief glance at Shadow's past aboard the space colony ARK, a massive station orbiting Earth. This was where Shadow was created 50 years prior, by Professor Gerald Robotnik, Eggman's grandfather.
Shadow lived on the space station, alongside Gerald's young granddaughter Maria, who was a constant ray of sunshine; the only beacon of optimism and light in Shadow's life. The two of them were the best of friends.
Long story short (skipping a lot of revealing backstory), Shadow ended up captured and contained in a cryogenic tube for 50 years, where he was awoken by Dr. Eggman in the game *Sonic Adventure 2*. After losing a half century of time and everyone he's ever known in his life, the despairing hedgehog agreed to team up with the grandson of his creator to fight Sonic and destroy the world that ruined his life. Later, he realized he was fighting for the wrong side (and for the wrong reasons). He eventually teamed up with Sonic to save the world instead, then went off to become an anti-hero, searching to discover the truth about his dark past.
Cutting back to modern-day Shadow, we find him exploring the ARK because of an unusual bio-signature detected aboard the space colony. He's contacted by his partner, Rouge the Bat, who claims he's missing Sonic's birthday party. This was the opening for *Sonic Generations*, showing that Shadow's story takes place at the same time.
Suddenly, Shadow comes across a creature from his dark past: Doom's Eye! This tentacle starfish alien creature is an extension of Black Doom, a world-conquering alien from the game *Shadow the Hedgehog*. Even though Shadow defeated him in the past, he's somehow back!
Doom's Eye can warp reality, trapping Shadow in a Doctor Strange-esque mirror dimension of sorts.
Shadow fights Doom's Eye and after giving him a solid poke in the eye, Doom's Eye runs away through a portal, exclaiming that they'll meet again soon. You receive an alien-looking artifact that's in the shape of the Black Arms symbol, the mark of Black Doom's alien army. If you ever played *Shadow the Hedgehog*, you'll recognize this symbol as part of the game's logo.
As if there weren't enough trouble, the Time Eater from *Sonic Generations* shows up, trapping everyone at Sonic's birthday party in a time anomaly!
This was the latest plot by Dr. Eggman, to control the Time Eater and thus control time itself. He planned to rewrite past events and erase Sonic from existence! Shadow finds himself caught up in the anomaly, although he lands in a barren land of his own past which is frozen in time. There is a floating orb in the sky with eyes surrounding it, which awakens from the Black Arms symbol you collected. Every one you collect throughout the game brings it more to life.
Having no way out of this "White Space," you start exploring various stages, reliving places and villains from Shadow's past. Every stage has two acts, which bring life and color to the area as you complete them.
This area is different from Sonic's White Space in *Sonic Generations*. Sonic explores a 2D White Space, where all the frozen stages are lined up in a row. Shadow gets more of an open map to explore, like the recent open-world *Sonic Frontiers* game.
Eventually, you find others who have been trapped in the time anomaly, like E-123 Omega, Shadow's other partner; Orbot and Cubot, Eggman's robot lackeys; Big the Cat, a friendly fisherman whose looking for his best friend, Froggy; and... Maria and Gerald Robotnik?!
These two familiar faces from Shadow's distant past are a sight for sore eyes. Vowing to protect them, he runs off to save more of the time-frozen realm and stop Black Doom, the main villain of Shadow's past. Black Doom plans to use the time anomaly to accelerate his plans and destroy the world before Shadow has a chance to stop him.
Shadow, as the "ultimate life form," has his own powers, including Chaos Control. It's a way he can use chaos emeralds to warp time and space, which he usually uses to teleport. In this game though, it freezes time for a few seconds while Shadow continues moving. It's used as a way to freeze impossible obstacles so Shadow has a moment to cross, destroy, or escape them. It also freezes your game clock, giving you a few spare seconds to complete an act without dropping to a lower final grade. Destroying enemies fills the Chaos Control gauge at the bottom center of the screen.
You also unlock Doom powers for Shadow, allowing him to use the dark energy for new abilities. But the stronger Shadow gets, the stronger Black Doom gets, making your inevitable fight a tough one.
There was an act in *Sonic Generations* where Sonic goes back in time to a race/fight with Shadow in *Sonic Adventure 2*. This fight was retconned in this remake, where modern-day Shadow runs into Sonic in the time anomaly and they chase each other into the past act where they originally raced. Sonic is looking to take the Chaos Emerald that Shadow has on him, because he needs it in order to stop the Time Eater. But Shadow needs it to perform Chaos Control, so he has an advantage against the Black Arms. Who do you think will win this fight...?
This game was a masterful remake of a tribute to the classic games in the Sonic franchise. Not only modernizing graphics and gameplay, but also adding more lore, exploring Shadow's past games, and introducing his gameplay to elements of more modern games, like *Sonic Forces* and *Sonic Frontiers*.
The gameplay is fantastic, seamlessly blending action and speed with the controls so you actually feel like you're moving at mach speeds while controlling Shadow. And the visuals are just incredible for a Sonic game! Like in the Kingdom Valley stage, where you ride an eagle several times throughout the two acts! This is a throwback to the game *Sonic the Hedgehog (2006)*, where the eagles provided characters transportation throughout Kingdom Valley.
This game is full of references and updated levels of older Sonic games, but you don't need to play the previous games to get enjoyment out of this one. There is plenty of story and lore to fill in the gaps, so you don't feel left out. The important details are fully covered, while also giving you a new full story to enjoy. The only thing that might stop you from playing it is Shadow's backstory, which might ruin parts of the live-action *Sonic the Hedgehog 3* film that's about to release. But that film series is already deviating quite a bit from the original games, so you probably won't spoil much of the film if you play this game.
As a huge Sonic the Hedgehog fan for over 30 years now, I can say that I really enjoyed this game! So much so, that I'm actually going to go back and re-play some of the older Sonic games from my childhood. I wish I could play *Shadow the Hedgehog*, which introduced Black Doom and his Black Arms, but it only released for the PS2 and it never got a port to any other console. We need a modern port and/or remake, SEGA!
creator
toFor single player games, I don’t see why players shouldn’t be able to play on their own pace.
Agreed, I always hate when games force me to rush an event or situation. I’m here to have fun! Let me enjoy it at my own pace!
Although I think the days in this game are plenty long enough. Just when I’m getting tired from running around, I realize it’s evening time in-game. It’s mostly morning that comes too soon. Once I’m prepped for the next day, I don’t have much time to run around and explore before it’s time to reopen the tavern.
I could just close earlier, but the more stuff I sell each day, the more money I have to work with for the next day. Upgrades cost money to unlock, so I’ve been saving up to expand the tavern. I haven’t bought any decorations and I only bought more tables so I can sell to more customers at a time. Although I don’t get enough customers to fill all the seats right now.
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- lemmy.world
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- 2M
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How do you do, fellow gamers? I'm back with another set of video game screenshots! And today's game is a simulator game. I actually love simulator games; I have a whole category in my Steam library dedicated to them. It's the only library collection I've made that's specifically for a genre of game.
I got *Tavern Manager Simulator* on sale yesterday, and whereas there are probably better simulator games in my collection, I did enjoy this one in particular.
It opens with you acquiring a run-down tavern just outside a large castle. The place is boarded up and you need to remove some planks in order to get in the back door and open up the tavern.
The place is in disrepair and you spend some time picking up trash and cleaning stains on the floor before you can open the place.
The large piles of garbage are too much for you to deal with right now, so you just throw a cloth over them to get the place open and running.
You have a small private room just off to the side of the bar room. There's a bed in here where you can sleep until 6 AM the next morning. There's also a desk where you do all the "paperwork" for the tavern. This desk is where you can upgrade your tavern and its amenities. The more you level up your tavern, the more variety of foods you can sell, and the larger the tavern will grow. Literally; it will actually expand into a proper dining hall if you upgrade it enough.
Although the most important category is the Delivery tab, where you can order resources (food), furniture, and decorations.
You will need to make regular food orders as your supplies dwindle. You can place an order anytime and it will be at your back door in less than a minute. You can actually watch a horse-drawn cart show up down the road as soon as you order. Almost half the wait time is just watching it turn in a loop before stopping for you to unload it.
Next, you need to fix your sign out front. This is what you will use to signal when you're open.
When it's facing the tavern, you're closed. But when it's turned to face the road passing by your tavern, you're open. You can switch it anytime, day or night, to start or stop the flow of customers. You can also customize your new sign. Here is my tavern's sign, turned to signal that I'm open for business:
To start, you'll only have ale. Pouring ale is a bit of an art; you have to hold the pour button until it fills to the green line on a bar. Any less and it's just a "good" ale. In that green, it's a "perfect" ale and will have a sparkle to it. And if you go over, you will spill on the floor (requiring a clean-up) and it will be a "bad" ale, with a puke-greenish tint to it.
Make sure you hand out as many good or perfect ales as you can to customers! You're earning reputation to help improve your customer base and upgrade your tavern, so keep those customers happy! I don't know what the customers will do if you serve them a bad ale. I've just been dumping them in the trash and taking the financial loss so I don't hurt my reputation. Here was my very first customer:
You have a limited supply of dishes, so make sure to clean them as often as you can in the kitchen sink. You can get water from the well behind your tavern, and every dish you scrub counts for 2 cleaned dishes. It's super easy to clean, just swirl it in the soapy water for a few seconds and all the gunk will disappear from the dish.
You also have to clean your tavern as you go. Most patrons will leave a mess on the table when they leave. Collect their coin and dishes, but also don't forget to wipe down the tables as needed. Some customers will also leave footprints all over your floors. Don't forget to sweep them up!
Most customers will only make a single food/drink request, then leave when they're done. But this guy kept requesting more beers until he passed out on the bar. You can literally pick up these drunk customers by the scruff of their neck and toss them out. You can also ask anyone to leave anytime you want, but it's more fun to throw them out while they're black-out drunk. Plus, you collect a ton of coin from all the booze they consumed.
There are also beggars who might come into your tavern. You can give them what they ask for, which will give your tavern a boost in reputation, or you can tell them to scram. Later, you acquire a frying pan, which you can brandish as a weapon against unruly patrons or beggars.
This beggar lady came by pretty often. I had one guy come by saying he was dying of thirst and just needed some water. I went to the well out back and got a pail of water and he was very satisfied with that.
Over time, you start to expand the menu; first to sausage, then vegetable soup, and then grilled meat. It gets more complicated as you go on, because you now have to pay attention to customer's requests and not just hand out ale to every customer. Eventually, your kitchen gets fixed up as you level up your tavern and expand your menu. It starts to look like a nice place to work!
You will also unlock fairy helpers, whom you can assign jobs in the tavern. Which is nice when you have to cook soup, grill meat, chop firewood for the stove and grill, pour ale, clean the outhouse, and do dishes. PLUS ensuring customers are getting the food they want in a timely manner, cleaning up after them, and ordering more food when your supplies are getting low. It can get intense. Thankfully, I have not been completely swamped with customers yet. I got maybe 1-3 orders at a time, so I have a little time to balance everything. Just having a fairy to do dishes is a huge relief during open hours.
When you're closed up for the day, if you explore the grounds outside your tavern, you'll find hidden tributes to other medieval fantasy series. So far, I've seen references to Zelda, Dark Souls, Shrek, World of Warcraft, and Lord of the Rings. Let me know if you find any others!
If you catch a break (which I rarely did), you can chat with your customers, which gives you a +1 to your reputation. Although they usually just have either something weird to say, or a medieval dad joke.
Overall, this was a very enjoyable game. I had fun running back and forth, trying to keep food and drink prepared and dealing with customers as they came in. I had to make a lot of orders in the middle of the day to keep my stock up initially, but as I got used to the game, I was able to more effectively plan my food and drink and I was mostly able to make an order at night and be ready for the entire next day. It helps that none of the consumables ever went bad, so I could prep a bunch of stuff and leave it sitting out until customers ordered it.
I always felt there weren't enough hours in the day, though. Every minute of the day was a real-time second, so I basically had 24 minutes max to host customers every day. I'd run my tavern until I was almost out of everything late at night, then I'd spend the last few hours of the night/morning restocking and prepping for the next day. If I went to bed, it was usually with only an hour or two of sleep before getting up the next day. So far, I don't think sleep deprivation is a thing in this game. I ran my tavern for 3 days straight without any side effects at one point.
So if you like restaurant managing/waitressing games, this was a pretty fun medieval spin on the genre. Come grab a pint and enjoy!
Not at all. I believe the game was actually made for English audiences because the speaking animations seem to match the English subtitles and look like a bad dub in French. There is a lot of French in the background, but it’s more like immersive world details. The important stuff is either place names that are explicitly mentioned, like the Saint-Michel Rotunda in the first screenshot, or written in English. Heck, I think there’s more English in that first screenshot than French.
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- lemmy.world
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- 2M
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*Happy (belated) Veteran's Day! Sorry for posting this so late; I'm a recently retired veteran, so yesterday ended up busier than I expected.*
*And speaking of busy... I started these daily posts as 1.) a writing challenge for myself, 2.) a way to geek out about the games that I've been enjoying lately, and 3.) with the hope of adding some interesting and unique content to /c/games. But my ADHD/hyper-focus has been taking the wheel lately, and I've been taking longer and longer to write these up, not counting the several hours of gaming I do every night to acquire screenshots in the first place.*
*I was trying to find something to play the night before last and I ended up bouncing between several games that I just couldn't get into. Then I found* Remember Me *and it was so much fun, I didn't want to stop playing to write about it. I stayed up until dawn playing, then had so much on my schedule for that day, I didn't have time to write until later that night.*
*Basically, I've been spending most of my free time preparing these posts (which is a lot, considering I'm 100% retired now), and as much fun as it is, I need to cut back a bit and focus on other stuff in my life. Like actually finishing some of the fun and interesting games I've been writing about. I can't complete most of these games in a single night, despite my best efforts. But I don't want to make multiple posts about the same game several days in a row; I want to provide new and interesting content for you to read.*
*I'm not going to stop writing detailed (and spoiler-free) posts about video games, but I will cut back a bit on my posting schedule so it's not eating up all my free time. I never promised to do daily posts anyway; that was just a personal writing goal of mine and I've made it to 50 posts with only 3 days missed (including this one), so I'd consider that a win. I'll try to aim for an absolute minimum of a post a week; although I may post more often as I find and play interesting games. I still have a list of games I want to write about, so there's still plenty of content to come.*
*All of my screenshot posts have been archived on a blog, which you can find [here](https://cobyscreenshots.blogspot.com/). I draft them on the blog initially, then copy/paste to Lemmy and post both simultaneously. I have another blog where I review movies, although I've been ignoring it for over a year now and would like to get back into it; another reason I want to slow down these gaming posts. You can find a link to that blog on my blog profile if you're interested.*
*And now back to today's game...*
*Remember Me* is a fascinating cyberpunk game taking place in Neo-Paris in the year 2084, a dark future where people have merged their brains with technology and can now have their memories accessed digitally. This has created a market for buying, selling and trading memories. This has also led to a surveillance society, where corporations can access memories and either wipe or replace them as they desire.
You play a French woman named Nilin, a memory hunter who can not only access memories, but has the extremely rare skill of editing details within them to give a person false memories. She's part of an underground resistance movement, fighting against Memorize, a corporation trying to create a monopoly on human memories. She's classified as an Errorist, which is not only the name for people who can create "error" or false memories, but is also a brilliant take on the word "terrorist."
I'd like to point out that this is a game developed by a French studio, the story takes place in Paris, and the French language is written on signs and billboards and graffiti throughout the game's world, so I felt it was appropriate to play this game in French with English subtitles to get the full effect. It's such a beautiful language and it felt wrong to play this game in English. Especially when Nilin has a British-English accent in the English version.
Unfortunately, this game originally released in 2013, so it wasn't designed for 4K displays and despite having that resolution option on the Steam version, the subtitles don't scale to the size of my screen. They're extremely tiny in these screenshots, so I apologize in advance for that. If you see a fuzzy white line across the bottom of a screenshot, open the image in a new tab and you can zoom in to read the subtitle.
*Remember Me* opens with Nilin squirming on the floor of a prison cell as her memories are erased. When the procedure completes, a doctor approaches her and asks her name. Surprisingly, she's able to remember her name! She doesn't remember much else though, so the doctor consults the head of the department, Dr. Quaid, and Nilin is scheduled for a more detailed memory wipe to scrape out any remnants.
Barely able to stand, she's directed to follow an orange line down the hallway, where she joins a queue for another memory wipe. While waiting in line, a voice pops into her head. A guy by the name of Edge, who claims he's attempting to rescue her.
The power goes out and a blast door next to Nilin raises a little bit, exposing a small gap. She's instructed to slip through the doorway. Her escape is detected though and she's pursued by a large robot, which she's barely able to stumble away from in her dazed state.
Eventually, she falls down an air vent and stumbles across a machine loading up bodies into caskets. She's told to climb into a casket, which she does begrudgingly. The machine seals her in the casket, then launches her out of the prison facility and into a river.
Edge explains who Nilin is and why she's had her memory wiped. Apparently, their resistance movement failed and everyone was rounded up except for their leader, Edge. Nilin was his best fighter though, so he's rescued her so she can help recover their resistance.
Her casket drifts up to Slum 404, a garbage-filled slum of Neo-Paris. She's freed by some scavengers known as Leapers. The correlation to lepers is not lost; deformed and monstrous, they're the corrupted and insane remnants of citizens whose memories have been edited too many times. Their instinct is to attack Nilin when they find her.
Suddenly remembering some basics on how to fight, Nilin is quick to take them down. Her memories start coming back a little at a time throughout the game, although only enough for her to remember key details. Edge informs her to travel to Tommy, her best friend and former memory hunter who is loyal to their cause. He runs a bar in the slums called The Leaking Brain.
He is grateful to see her, even though she doesn't remember him. He rescued her glove that she uses to manipulate memories, as well as her combat skin. He comments that it's a good thing they caught her on her day off, or else they would've gotten their hands on her high-tech gear.
But just as soon as she's suited up, a bounty hunter jumps out of the shadows! Olga Sedova, one of the best in the business, and she's out to collect the bounty on Nilin's head.
Before she can secure her though, Nilin gets her glove close enough to Olga's neck to grab hold of her memories. We're transported into her memory from three hours ago, when Olga was at a hospital watching Dr. Quaid tend to her husband.
Her husband had deleted too many memories over time, causing a syndrome that is breaking down his mind. It's implied that he may be turning into a Leaper. Dr. Quaid promises he can fix it; although it will be very expensive. A bounty for Nilin pops up and Olga promises she can pay, heading off to hunt Nilin.
At this point, you're able to fast-forward and rewind the memory, finding small glitches that you can edit in the details, like unfastening the husband's mask or removing one of his wrist straps. Changing these little details leads to a different outcome for the memory. Your goal is to find the right edits to make Dr. Quaid appear to have killed Olga's husband instead of saving him.
This part may take a while and some tinkering with various details until you find the right combination of edits, but once you figure it out, Olga is forced to watch as her husband dies a violent death due to Dr. Quaid's incompetence. Snapping out of the memory, Olga suddenly decides to side with you as revenge against Memorize for killing her husband! She offers to give you a lift to your next objective.
From here, you carry out missions for Edge, fight more people from your past whom you barely recall, return to the prison to regain more of your memories from their memory backups, and along the way, question who you really are and what you're actually fighting for.
This game is kind of like a cyberpunk version of *Assassin's Creed*. You're part of a shady underground organization, sneaking around, climbing all over the structures of Neo-Paris, and fighting the controlling organization ruling over the land, all while stealing and/or editing people's memories.
You can't free-roam like in *Assassin's Creed* though; you're stuck on a singular path toward your objective, which prevents you from back-tracking even a couple rooms as you progress forward. It does help keep you focused on the story, though. I've played nearly 7 hours and I just finished episode 4 out of 8 total. So the lack of exploration doesn't make this a quick story to burn through.
The combat is extremely fluid, too! You have combo streaks that you can build yourself from various types of attacks (power, healing, cooldowns for special attacks, and chain abilities). Completing combos will grant you points to eventually unlock even longer and more powerful combos, which can make defeating even the toughest enemies no effort at all.
Not to mention, Nilin is extremely light on her feet. Every time an attack is incoming, you can just press your jump button and she immediately cartwheels out of the way, or even flips over enemies' heads if she's up close in combat. You can weave and dodge in and out of a dozen enemies without taking any damage because they always indicate when they're about to strike.
You can also find collectibles in each level called Mnesist memories, which are cultural memories of Neo-Paris, preserving actual history so corruption from edited memories doesn't wash away what actually happened. These are more background lore, if you're interested in world building. They give a history of the fall of Paris during a global war in the 2040s and how Neo-Paris and its current social and economic structure sprouted from the ashes. As well as many other detailed bits of lore to flesh out the world.
One of the only things I didn't enjoy about this game is the camera controls. They're a bit dated and erratic. It is an older game, so it doesn't have smooth modern camera controls. It keeps trying to default the camera to a position that doesn't give a good view of your surroundings, so I found myself constantly adjusting the third-person camera, which didn't want to move smoothly and precisely most of the time.
Also, the shadows and lighting effects are pretty bad. There were tons of dark scenes where I could hardly make out Nilin or others. Her skin tone is so unnaturally dark and shaded in this game, it looks like she spent way too long in a tanning bed. The only time she looks halfway normal is when her face is directly illuminated in a bright space. But if the light wasn't directly on her face, even in bright sunlight, she was unnaturally shadowed.
But again, those are problems due to the age of the game. Physics engines have evolved a ton in the past decade, and if this game was remade today, it would look absolutely stunning. Even for its time, this is a gorgeous look into a future cyberpunk Paris. And the story is captivating and kept me engaged for hours. This is an incredible game, it just needs some tune-ups to the graphics and controls to be perfect.
The orchestral soundtrack gives this game a very cinematic feel, too. I wish they released the soundtrack on Steam so I could listen to its music outside of gameplay.
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- lemmy.world
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*Say No! More* is a relatively short but comical game about empowering people to say "no" more often. It mostly plays itself, with you interacting enthusiastically at key points throughout the gameplay.
The game starts with you creating a character. You can pick one of their 16 presets, or create your own. I modeled mine after my wife, because she's really good at saying "no." 😅
Next, you pick the way you say "no." There are 17 languages, with both a masculine and feminine voice to choose from. I think my favorite is Irish Gaelic. Instead of a 2-letter word, theirs is long and super complicated sounding.
Then the game opens up on a video game called "Wizards of Nay," where you play as a wizard who fights imps and a Devil King by using the word "nay."
When you get a game over, it zooms out of your cell phone to show your character sitting on a park bench. Your roommate approaches you and offers you a custom lunchbox he made, with a home-cooked meal inside. How nice!
But was he just buttering you up? Because the very next thing he asks is if you can cover the rent this month... AGAIN. He has all sorts of excuses as to why. He's short on cash, still job hunting, etc. You try to respond to him and all you can muster is a "..." Which he takes as "we'll discuss it later" and he lets you run off. It's your first day of work at a new company!
You arrive at work and meet up with two other interns, who are already waiting with your new supervisor. He reprimands you for being late and when you can't respond with an excuse, he threatens to fire you before lunch if you don't learn to speak up. But he's one of *those* supervisors, who tries to play off all aggression as just a joke.
He instructs all three of you to say "yes" all the time if you want to promote within the company. The other two interns are motivated and on board, but again, all you can muster is a weak "..."
He decides to have a practice run. He claims he's hungry and wants your lunchbox. What do you say to that...?
When you can't give a straight response, he laughs it off, saying it's just a joke and no one will take your lunch. At least, not yet...
You and the other interns go off to the tiny cramped corner behind the vending machines that has your new desks. After the other two interns are called away, your supervisor pokes his head around the corner and claims he actually forgot his lunch and really needs one today. So...?
Unable to give a response, he takes it as a "yes" and runs off with your lunchbox. You bang your head on your keyboard, defeated.
That is, until a cassette player drops on your head from somewhere. Inside is a cassette tape labeled, "NO!" You put on some headphones and listen to it.
You're introduced to the confident voice of a motivational speaker! He instructs you to have confidence in yourself and speak one magic word: NO!
He has you practice using the word a few times, then shows you how to laugh at people, to confuse them and break their confidence so your "no" is that much more powerful against them.
You chase down your supervisor in the office and use the new word you just learned against him. It's super effective!
You relentlessly pursue him through the office, throwing your powerful word at him, attempting to shake him so he gives your lunchbox back. All your coworkers jump in your way to ask you to do menial "intern tasks" for them, but you can knock them back with the word "no!"
From here, your lunchbox gets passed around to various levels of leadership in the office, while you continue to chase after it.
Thanks to the motivational speaker on your cassette tape, you learn how to say no in different ways to affect different types of people. You have the standard angry no, but you will also learn a cold no, bored no, and wacky no. On top of that, you learn an add-on response to shake your target and make your "no" more brutal. You start with laughing at them before hitting them with a "no," but you will also learn how to slow clap, nod in agreement before saying "no," and a sarcastic "hmm" before landing that solid "no."
Eventually, your coworkers notice you speaking up against management and they start rallying behind you. You go out to lunch together and teach them all how to say "no" as well. Before you know it, you have a whole crowd of employees willing to say the word "no."
The game gets more wacky and outlandish as you go on, with all sorts of hilarious twists and turns to the plot. It's a fun journey through a day in an office where the word "no" is banned. Like I said, the game mostly plays itself and you just shout the word "no" at every opportunity you can. You can probably beat it in about an hour, but it's so much fun, I've already played through it a few times.
Despite all its silliness, this game comes with a pretty decent moral at the end about standing up for yourself, but also knowing when to say "yes" too. So take charge of your life! Learn to say "no" instead of caving to social pressure! And empower those around you!
Yeah, that $950 was already 2 years of payments, which OP was complaining about “investing” in his games. Where are they coming up with an additional $200 per month?! At that point, why not just invest that $200/mo and keep enjoying your games?
EDIT: OP changed their math literally a minute after I posted this. It makes more sense now.
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*Note: I set this game to display in 4K resolution, but it enabled a resolution scale and wouldn't scale larger than 1080p for some reason. After I beat the game, I realized I was in borderless windowed mode. Changing it to fullscreen granted the full 4K resolution. So these screenshots are all going to be 1080p instead of my usual 4K.*
*Death From Above* takes place in the Ukrainian town of Nenatsk during the ongoing Russo-Ukrainian War. You play a Ukrainian drone operator who is captured by invading Russian forces. But you're freed by a little old lady whom the Russians took for granted.
You grab a drone and a bunch of grenades and set out to clear the region from Russian invaders.
You can customize your drone and its pilot. As per usual, I switched to a female drone pilot. I also chose a camo pattern for my drone with Ukrainian colors and a Ukrainian flag trail behind it. Not very good camouflage in real life, but colorful and fun for a game!
You set out to restore communications with your military unit. There's an antenna nearby, guarded by several Russian military members, so you move to engage them. You can switch between your pilot and your drone, and for the most part, you only fight with your drone. Your pilot can't pick up a weapon and engage the enemy, so you want to keep them tucked away somewhere safe. Your drone has some seriously good range on it though (and unlimited battery life), so raise it high enough in the sky so as not to be seen by enemy forces and go scope out the target area ahead.
You can also turn on thermal imaging to make people and vehicles show up easier. Good for finding those stubborn forces hiding in the woods.
An interesting detail is that every time you kill a Russian combatant, their body immediately sprouts sunflowers. The sunflower is Ukraine's national flower, and if you haven't heard the story, there was a Ukrainian woman recorded on video who approached an occupying Russian military member and offered sunflower seeds to put in his pockets, so his dead body would blossom sunflowers. ([Source](https://www.the-independent.com/news/world/europe/ukraine-russia-soldier-woman-confrontation-b2022993.html))
Once you restore communications, you receive a message from Special Forces HQ, asking you to clear out Russian forces in the nearby village. From this point, you'll receive messages from HQ after each mission, directing you toward your next mission.
Also, you'll see a wanted poster of Putin on the wall in this room. Make sure you improve the poster for a huge score bonus. There are several of these posters to be found around the map. Don't forget to deface all of them!
To take out enemy forces, you switch your drone to a bomb view, giving you a target reticle directly below your drone. In this mode, you can drop your grenades on enemies.
Also, you can ask troops to surrender using the drone.
I've only had one guy surrender to me so far, but I got blown away by a tank before I could accept his surrender. The tanks just sat there idly, unmoving. I didn't realize they were armed and ready to target my pilot as soon as she wandered close. Oops.
The Russian troops were looting washing machines from homes, but after you clear out the enemies, you can pick up the washing machines with your drone and drop them onto designated pallets for homeowners to reclaim when they move back in. It doesn't matter which pallets in an area you drop them on; they get beamed up into the sky every time you drop one off, as well as giving you a score bonus.
Once you take over a Russian command post, you'll find the FPV drone. It acts like a guided missile; when you launch it, it shoots rapidly in the direction you're facing and blows up whatever target it hits.
You have some control over its direction, but it needs space to make big turns and it has a very short battery life that will drain in seconds, so make sure you're prepared when you launch it toward a target.
I should mention that you have unlimited ammunition in this game. Despite blowing up the FPV drone on each use, it will respawn in your inventory after a few seconds. Also, your regular drone can only hold 6 grenades at a time, but every time you fly it close to your pilot, it automatically refills all your grenades. So go nuts and take down as many enemies as you can from a safe vantage point!
By the way, the soundtrack for this game is awesome! Starring all Ukrainian bands. You can download it on Steam. The title song, also called "Death From Above," was made and performed by the band *Antytila*. They have three versions of the song: an English version, Ukrainian version, and a 21-minute instrumental version. I've been playing this song on repeat for months now; it's my favorite on the soundtrack!
There's also the band *Surface Tension*, who released their single "Завтра (Tomorrow)," both the original song and an instrumental version.
The band *Odarka Zyrko* released their single "за тобою (Behind You)," also the original version and an instrumental version.
Finally, there's *GO_A* with their single "Kalyna," which is the Ukrainian name for the guelder rose. It's a prominent symbol in Ukrainian culture, showing up in a lot of their media. This is probably my second most favorite song on the soundtrack.
You can hear "Death From Above" playing on radios scattered all throughout the game. But in the first village you come across, if you follow the sound of music, you'll find the actual band jamming in a house! Sadly, you can only watch from a single window. I had to take 2 screenshots to get all the band members in there.
This game actually benefits Ukrainian forces in their ongoing war. The publisher, Lesser Evil, claims that 30% of their proceeds are donated to two organizations helping the Ukraine war effort: "Come Back Alive" and "Army of Drones." Once they've earned back their production costs, they'll change their donation amount to 70%, using the remaining 30% to continue improving this game.
So if you want to show support for Ukraine (while also experiencing what it's like to operate a combat drone in occupied territory), I highly recommend playing this game. It's only $10 on Steam, or $16.46 for the supporter's edition, which includes this rockin' soundtrack and more skins for your pilot and drone.
If I had anything to complain about, it's that the controls currently can't be changed. I'm used to using Shift and Ctrl to go up and down in helicopters in other games, but you use E and Q to fly your drone up and down in this game. It took me a while to adapt to their controls, and I kept getting them confused and dipping into enemies instead of flying away. Developers, please let us change the controls!
Also, the game is relatively short. The whole game takes place on a single large map, but you are directed toward missions in specific regions of the map. There are 8 missions in total (plus a secret warship mission!). If you rushed through it, you could probably beat the whole game in an hour or less. But you earn points toward your total score for every little thing you accomplish in game - every enemy you kill, every vehicle you destroy, every flag you raise or propaganda site you discover. Heck, every washing machine you return gives you a boost to your score. So if you were to run around doing everything you possibly can... well, it took me about 4 hours to complete, and I know I missed a bunch of stuff.
Your total score gives you a global ranking, which you can see on the main menu. I started last night at #5,549 (I had previously played the first mission then quit), and by the time I beat the game, I was #194 globally.
So long story short, this was an extremely fun game with an amazing soundtrack, if not a bit short on gameplay and clunky controls. I hope they continue to improve on it and make it much more enjoyable. Lesser Evil, on their Steam page, claims, *"We are uncompromisingly anti-authoritarian, anti-prejudice, and pro-democracy. We publish video games with clear political or social intent and messaging. We publish games that take a stand."* So even though it's a short game, it's meant to deliver a message against fascism. And I think it did a pretty good job in getting that point across in the span of its gameplay. *Slava Ukraini!*
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- lemmy.world
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*Cult of the Lamb* is a cute game about building, maintaining, and running a cult in order to overthrow the four Bishops controlling the Old Faith. But is there such a thing as a good cult...?
You play as The Lamb, about to be put to death by the four Bishops. They've eliminated all of your kind to prevent a prophecy of "The One Who Waits" returning. With your sacrifice, the prophecy will be impossible to fulfill.
As soon as the blade lands, you wake up in a strange land, in front of The One Who Waits. He's imprisoned by four chains. He says that the Bishops, in trying to keep you from him, ended up sending you directly to him. He claims that he will grant you life again if you would start a cult in his name. Your choice is either "yes" or "absolutely." No middle ground option, I see.
He gives you his Red Crown, which revives you and grants you the power to command the loyalty of your followers and strike fear into the hearts of your enemies. You awaken at the sacrificial grounds, renewed with life, and fight your way out, taking out some of the Bishop's cultists along the way.
On your way out, you run into Ratau, a former vessel of The One Who Waits. He was instructed to help you with starting your cult. He will pop in and give you advice and guidance from time to time.
He also instructs you to save a poor soul about to be sacrificed. The grateful sacrifice will be your very first convert.
From here, you learn how to build your own cult grounds. It takes some work! You can't just leave your cult members to their own devices; you need to check in on them, provide food and shelter, task them with jobs, and overall just ensure they're happy and loyal so they continue to praise and worship you.
The more loyalty they have, the more power you build and the larger you can build your cult. Placing a shrine in the middle of your cult grounds will give your followers a place to pray and grant devotion, a sort of currency that you can use to upgrade various aspects of your cult.
You will also need to build a temple in order to give sermons, enriching your followers and also collecting more devotion from them.
Cultists can be tasked with collecting resources, which are needed to build up your cult grounds. But you also need money and more followers, both of which can be obtained by fighting your way through the lands of the Old Faith.
You ultimately need to end the lives of the four Bishops in order to release your imprisoned leader, so working your way through each of their lands is your overall goal. But it takes time to build up a cult and gain power, so you will slowly work your way up to each Bishop. As you gain more followers, each of the four lands will open up so you can travel through them for resources, money, followers, and power.
Good luck in building a faithful following! And remember:
creator
tocreator
toThe Driller I regularly play with has a nasty habit of abandoning our group to go drill tunnels where we don’t need tunnels. He’s always looking to take shortcuts directly to his objective instead of following the caves.
Then, when we’re trying to run to the drop pod, Molly will just go straight up one of his tunnels in the ceiling, where we can’t follow. Then we’re frantically running around, trying to find another route to the drop pod without Molly’s flags.
Oh, and he fights every large bug with C4, nearly killing us all in the process.
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- lemmy.world
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Did you know you can save Doretta's head in the Escort Duty missions? I make it my goal to always return home with her. No dwarf (or machine) left behind!
*Deep Rock Galactic* is my second-most played game on Steam, with about 546 hours. Which may not seem like a lot for you hardcore gamers, but with almost 3,600 games in my Steam library, it's impressive that I've put that much time into a single game. Their Halloween event just wrapped up this morning, so apologies for the Halloween decorations in some of these screenshots.
For the uninitiated, *Deep Rock Galactic* is an FPS bug-shooting and resource-gathering game, with dwarves as the playable characters. Except you're on a space station, mining minerals from Hoxxes IV, a scorched, tidally-locked planet orbiting the blue star Creus. Every mission, you board a drop pod and are dropped deep into the caverns of the planet to accomplish some sort of mining expedition.
You can have up to four players per game, and there are four classes to play as: the Driller, Engineer, Gunner, and Scout. You can play on a team with any combination of classes you want; you're not stuck with just one of each. There are also tons of cosmetics you can deck out your dwarf crew with. Here are each of the classes with my own custom cosmetics:
The Driller specializes in drilling tunnels and igniting alien bugs with his flamethrower:
The Engineer crafts sentry turrets to protect the team and can shoot platforms against the wall for easier vertical climbing:
The Gunner is the tank of the group, laying down heavy suppressive fire, and he can also shoot ziplines across rooms for the team to traverse:
And the Scout is the lightweight, able to travel quickly across the caves with his personal zipline and illuminate the darkest rooms with a powerful flare gun:
As you can tell, I've sampled all the classes, but I play almost exclusively as the Gunner. It's a running joke among my friends that I'm gold-obsessed (because I'm always making them harvest all the gold they can find in each mission), so I leaned into it and decked out my gunner in all gold. He even juggles a couple gold nuggets at the end of each mission.
There are nine separate types of missions to play, scattered randomly across 10 diverse cavernous regions within the planet.
You can either select random missions to play, or you can pick an assignment from the Assignment Board, which will have a series of specific missions you need to accomplish in order to achieve the assignment and collect its rewards. There is always a Weekly Priority Assignment and a Weekly Core Hunt, both of which have several missions to complete in order to reap the rewards.
There are several robots that aid you in your missions. First and foremost is the Mining Utility Lift Engine (aka M.U.L.E., or "Molly" as the dwarves refer to her). She's a walking mine cart, collecting all the minerals that you mine so you don't have to be weighed down during your missions. There is no limit to the amount of resources she can carry, so call her over to you and regularly empty your bags!
Then there's the APD-B317 (aka "Bosco"), who is a flying drone that helps solo dwarves with their missions. If you're not on a team, Bosco joins you. You can point him at minerals and he will automatically dig them up for you. Pointing at blank walls will cause him to illuminate the space for you. And if threats appear, like alien bugs, he will automatically engage them. Although he has weak firepower, so don't expect him to take on all threats on his own. You can change his appearance and color scheme on the space station, as well as upgrade his abilities, so have fun customizing him for your missions!
Finally, there is the Drilldozer (aka "Doretta" or "Dotty"). She appears only in escort missions, where you have to protect her (and refuel her) while she slowly ventures toward an Ommoran Heartstone.
Doretta will take damage from bug attacks, so make sure you hop on top of her and repair her damage as you go. Once she reaches the Ommoran Heartstone, she will begin drilling into it (when you're ready) and you need to protect her from waves of bug attacks, as well as several defenses from the Heartstone itself.
Don't forget to find and collect her head after the Ommoran Heartstone explodes open! She's still "alive," and I'm sure she appreciates being brought home.
Every mission has a primary objective and an optional objective, which can be seen at the top right of your screen while on the planet. The optional one is usually collecting a particular resource, but not always.
The main mission ranges from harvesting minerals or alien eggs, refining liquid resources, eliminating giant deadly aliens, and salvaging lost equipment left behind by dead teams. Every cave is procedurally generated, so you never play the same area twice. It's always a unique mining expedition.
*Deep Rock Galactic* has recently started doing seasonal content, and the seasons have brought more missions to the game, including industrial sabotage against a competing dwarven mining company, and deep scans, to pick up rare minerals buried very deep beneath the planet's cave structure. As well as various events to encounter within the missions.
The best part about their seasonal content is that you can always acquire all the season rewards, even if you're just starting the game today. Not only can all unclaimed cosmetics be found in various chests scattered throughout the game, but you can actually select which season you want to play and earn the rewards from that season. You're not forced to jump into the latest season. Which is awesome, because there are story missions connecting all the seasons together. You can play through them relatively quick and get caught up with what's going on with the in-game lore. Or just enjoy the unique events that only happen during specific seasons.
So grab a beer at the bar, dance to some jukebox tunes on the dance floor, kick some barrels into the launch bay (to annoy the bureaucrats in Mission Control), then go explore some bio-diverse regions of Hoxxes IV!
You’re absolutely correct, I am approaching it from the wrong mindset. The thing is, I like my crafting games to be chill sandbox games. I have ADHD and am easily distracted, so being dumped into a world where I’m struggling just to survive, and then finding threats everywhere while I’m trying to progress on a build or something… I find myself stressed and unable to focus on progression. So I prefer games that let me go at my own pace, without distractions from the task I’m focusing on.
With Subnautica, I don’t know where to go to progress without spending time exploring and getting distracted along the way. So it will take me hundreds of hours to actually complete the game; time that I rarely dedicate to any single game. And too much time if I’m not having fun along the way.
I’ve been meaning to give Techtonica another chance. I was enjoying it, but I tried to play it with a friend and he checked out early because the build menus and crafting mechanics were too complicated for him. Because of that, we switched to another game to play regularly and I never really got back to Techtonica. I agree with my friend that it was a bit complex at first, but I was enjoying figuring it out.
For me, games are strictly a form of entertainment. I play to escape reality and do something fun for a while. So when a game “treats you like an adult,” I feel like the fun is gone and now I’m stuck working just to gain a little bit of progress. I don’t get a sense of reward from that, I just get frustrated.
Especially if there are important events that you can miss. I used to be a completionist with my games (I still am, to a degree) and I wanted to explore every nook and cranny of a game to really enjoy every bit of effort the developers put into creating this world. But finding out a game takes 50+ hours to beat, and then realizing that I may have missed important details and that I’ll need to replay that lengthy game to find them again… no way. That’s too much effort. I mentally check out really quick.
I agree with you about The Outer Wilds. I think I’ve played about an hour of that game and I had no idea what I was doing or what the plot was about. Everyone kept saying it’s better if you go into it blind, so I didn’t read anything before playing and, well… I don’t know what I was playing. That’s another game on my list to give a second chance before I give up on it completely.
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I think *Subnautica* was the first crafting game I ever played, and I didn't really understand the genre, so I found it frustrating and slow. I prefer my games to have an ongoing story, and this... didn't. Not to say there isn't a story here, it just takes a backseat to the gameplay, which is exploring and crafting.
The game opens with you jumping into an escape pod. Something's wrong with your spaceship, the Aurora, so you're abandoning ship. As you fly away, you watch a massive explosion erupt from your former ship. The blast damages your escape pod and you're hit in the face with a metal panel. When you come to, your escape pod is on fire!
You jump up from your seat and grab a nearby fire extinguisher. Putting out the flames, you realize your secondary life support system and radio are both broken. You need parts to build a repair tool. You climb out of your escape pod to find yourself floating on a water planet, with the wreckage of the Aurora nearby.
In desperate need of resources, you dive into the ocean and start exploring. At first, all you can do is pick up a few resources found on the shallow ocean bed. But with the right kind of components, you can craft a scanner at the fabricator on your escape pod.
The scanner allows you to scan almost everything in your environment, collecting data from this strange alien world. It may also help you to unlock new crafting recipes. You find scattered wreckage all over the ocean floor, and scanning broken components will help you to reassemble their recipes so you can craft them yourself.
Once you've found the necessary resources, you can build a repair tool, which you can then use to repair your secondary life support system and radio.
Almost immediately, your radio picks up a message. Listening to it, you hear survivors of another escape pod. They're nearby, and under attack from a giant sea snake of some sort.
You swim out to their location, only to find the remains of their escape pod. You pick up a PDA left behind in the wreckage and download its data, which will give you the crew's log.
Your own PDA has been communicating vital information to you throughout your journey so far. Around this time, you may hear her say that the Aurora's drive core is going critical and is about to explode. You can actually watch the explosion from the surface, just make sure you're not swimming anywhere near it at the time.
From here, you're just responding to radio signals, exploring and collecting resources to build more and more advanced technologies, and eventually, you can build an entire underwater base to live in.
I didn't get much further than this, because this game is so incredibly slow for me. I enjoy the crafting game *Satisfactory* because all the resources I need to get started are right nearby, almost within eyesight of my landing pod, and I can scan for the location of more resources as I start to branch out. Plus, your hub gives you instructions on what to build, so you have some direction to progress toward.
*Subnautica*, on the other hand, just dumps you in the water with no explanation and expects you to just swim around and collect stuff until you figure out what to do with it. The first time I played this game, several years ago, I spent maybe 2 hours swimming in circles, unsure what I was supposed to do. Eventually, I realized that I needed to repair my escape pod, and then I started getting radio broadcasts.
But even then, every escape pod I tracked down was wrecked with no survivors. It was just demoralizing for me. I was hoping for some sort of plot, or an eventual rescue or *something*. But instead, I found myself just floundering about in the water for hours, not really sure what I'm doing or if this gameplay is going anywhere.
Not to mention, this is a survival game, so on top of trying to figure out what I'm doing, I was also trying to figure out how to find food and water to stay alive. And despite being a game about exploring an alien ocean, I could barely be under water for 30 seconds before I was drowning. It took an exceptionally long time for me to find appropriate resources to build more advanced oxygen tanks so I could stay underwater for longer. I couldn't ping for resources, I kept getting lost or turned around under water, and I could never find exactly what I needed to progress in the game.
I know this game is exceptionally popular and I rarely ever hear a bad thing about it. But I personally just can't get into it. I gave it a second chance last night, and I progressed much faster than I did my first time playing, but it was such a slog. I have no idea if it gets better later, but it's frustratingly slow and I just can't enjoy it.
I’ll be honest, I haven’t been able to get into Subnautica. I spent like 2 hours swimming in circles, trying to figure out what to do in that game before I realized I was supposed to check messages or something on the escape pod first. I felt totally abandoned and alone in the ocean, without much of a direction to go. It was a little too “open world” for me, if that makes sense.
Pacific Drive, on the other hand, drops you right into the action, with three people in your ear helping guide you through this strange and unique world. You can always go off and explore regions on your own, but your primary objectives are always clear. I don’t think I could get lost if I tried.
I’ve been meaning to go back and try Subnautica again. Maybe I’ll do a write-up on it and see if I enjoy it, now that I’m used to crafting/exploring games.
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- lemmy.world
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*Pacific Drive* is a fantastical driving/survival/crafting game, where you are sucked into a reality-altering unstable zone, with the only working car the trapped residents have seen in ages. This is a very story-rich exploration game.
In 1947, the Olympic Peninsula in Washington state became a staging ground for developments in a new technology. Unfortunately, it didn't go as planned, and by 1955, the government had walled off parts of the peninsula. 30 years later, after expanding the radius of the walls many times, the government finally sealed all access and abandoned it. No one ever found out what happened inside the wall. All was quiet until you happen to be driving by in 1998...
Finding the road blocked by the wall, you turn off on a dirt road parallel to the wall, hoping for a path through the region. The ground in front of you starts shifting and morphing until you drive near it and it pops back into stability... until a large enough burst of energy kills your car's engine completely.
You sit in dark silence for a moment, until a massive burst of red glowing energy suddenly swells next to you, dragging your car off the road and into the vortex!
You wake up on the ground, surprised to see bits and pieces of your car floating through the air. The slightest tingle of radiation courses through the air around you. You realize that you're inside the walled-off peninsula now.
Wandering down the path, you find an old station wagon in a garage, flashing its lights at you. Over its radio, you hear someone chime in. They've detected strange but familiar energy readings coming from your vicinity. They identify themselves as Tobias Barlow and Francis Cooke.
The vehicle is extremely beat up, rusted, missing several panels, two doors, and the front left wheel. You find a wheel sitting nearby and install it yourself. You try the engine and surprisingly, it starts up!
You can't respond to Tobias and Francis, but they're tracking the energy your car is giving off. They instruct you to drive a few miles up the road to a safe zone, before the incoming instability scrambles you. You pull up to an auto shop, right as your left front wheel falls off again.
This shop belongs to Dr. Ophelia Turner, or Oppy, as the two guys call her. But without working vehicles, the shop has been mostly abandoned for years. When you turn on the power in the shop, she's alerted to a trespasser and threatens you over an intercom. But Tobias quickly sends out an emergency broadcast, insisting that you're there on official business for them. Oppy is annoyed, but intrigued that you have a working car. She lets you patch it up in her garage and assists you in your journey, if only to help you find a way back out through the border walls and out of her hair.
This will become your staging area for the rest of the game; you'll always return here after each mission. This is also the only place you can save your game. You can't save during a mission; you either need to complete your mission and return home, or abandon it.
At this point, the game becomes a crafting game, except almost exclusively for your vehicle. You learn how to repair, build and replace parts, and even upgrade and add components. You can also upgrade various stations in the garage, and even upgrade your gear to better protect yourself in the wild.
Oppy instructs you to use this strange "repair putty" on the damaged parts of your car. It's a pale green glowing goop that seems to magically restore parts to their full strength! It's in limited supply, but you can always make more at the workbench. This is how you repair your car as it gets beat up in the field.
She also has you fill your trunk with cardboard boxes and a craft mat. The boxes will be your excess storage, outside of your backpack. The craft mat will let you build tools and resources on the road. Your tools have a limited durability and will break after so much use. But as long as you have resources on hand, you can easily craft another one from the trunk of your car.
Finally, Oppy has you install an Arc Device in your passenger seat, her own personal invention. This will be your map, as well as a guide to warn you as anomalous storms approach. It auto-rotates to face you no matter where you're standing, so you can glance over at it while driving, or you can run up to the passenger window and view it quick.
Also included is a status screen on your dashboard, which will inform you of the "health" of your car's parts. As you take damage, each component will turn from green to yellow to red, then gray as they break off the vehicle. Be sure to repair your car as needed!
There is a giant map on the wall of the garage, and Oppy is able to remotely access a projector to display data on it. This is where you'll pick your missions. She instructs you to go find parts to build an antenna for the garage; otherwise, you'll never be able to travel far. The zone within the walls is unstable and entire regions could be erased entirely, or reconstructed into another land that didn't exist previously, so you need to be able to receive data about each region before - and during - your travels there.
It's explained to you by Tobias that your car is a Remnant, which is essentially a shabby cast-off item imbued with strange properties, that randomly appears within the zone. He gives the example of a broken microwave that freezes food instead of heating it, or a rusty paint can that produces every color of paint in existence. Your car gives off this same energy, which is exciting for him because it's been several decades since the last remnant appeared, and it remains to be seen what strange properties your car will produce.
Most of the game is spent exploring regions and scavenging all the parts you can find. You're told that most all of the zone is abandoned and each region could cease to exist if a wave of instability passes through, so you might as well loot everything that's not bolted down. Be aware of aggressive machines roaming the lands. These floating guys in particular will just grab your car and drag it into the woods before abandoning it.
While out scavenging for parts, I ran into these creepy mannequin-like guys stuck in the ground. They pulse red from the head or chest, and if you bump into them, they explode. The creepiest part is, if you get close enough to them, then look away, when you look back at them, they'll be much closer to you. You never see or hear them move, and they never attack you or anything, but if you're not paying attention near them, you might turn and walk into one suddenly. You need to stare them down while backing far away, so they don't pursue you behind your back.
Once you've completed your objective in each zone, you need to find and grab a stable anchor, a round glowing ball sitting on a large semi-circle device, and feed it to your Arc Device. It will cause some instability in the vicinity when you pull it, so be careful.
Grab as many of them as you can! Your map will point them out in the region. There are always a few of them scattered around, and you use their energy to unlock more advanced technologies and blueprints back at the garage. So the more you find, the quicker you can upgrade your crafting capabilities.
Once you have at least one, you will be able to use the Arc Device to open a gateway directly back to the garage. But only activate it when you're ready to leave, as it will quickly collapse the stability in the region. Make sure you know where the gateway is and that you're relatively close to it, Then once you summon it, drive like mad into the giant sky beam! Be prepared to do a bit of off-roading for this part.
As you explore, you can find paints, decals, and other trinkets to deck out your car. Plus, keep upgrading its components to make it stronger and more efficient. Here's my car after applying some glow-in-the-dark decals, adding off-road tires, and replacing all of the panels and doors with steel.
This has been an extremely entertaining game so far! I'm enjoying the open world exploration, scavenging parts off other vehicles or wherever I can find them, and of course, I love driving games! That's your main mode of travel in this game, so you'll be doing a lot of it. Your car is your lifeline, so stick near it at all times!
This game is pretty in-depth, and with 11 hours of gameplay already, I've barely scratched the surface of the plot. I've been so preoccupied exploring around and looting everything that I can get my hands on, that I haven't actually made it very far into the story yet. I'm debating taking a brief hiatus from posting these so I can really enjoy this game.
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- lemmy.world
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*Little Kitty, Big City* is a cute game where you play a cat who fell out of their owner's window, way atop a high-rise apartment.
Miraculously surviving the fall (thanks to some well-placed obstacles and a bird you cling to), you find yourself on the street level several blocks away, unable to find your way home.
The bird admonishes you for your poor flying skills, then offers to get you a fish when you insist you're too tired and hungry to climb all the way back up your building. But you need to pay him in "shinies," which you can find lying around all over the city. You will need to find 4 total fish around the city before you'll have the stamina to climb your way back home.
From there, you're traveling around the city, interacting with other animals and collecting cute hats to wear. You either find the hats lying around in places, or you can pay 5 shinies to the bird at a vending machine and he'll get you a hat out of the machine.
You rescue a rambunctious tanuki stuck in a pipe and he professes to be an inventor. He offers to let you be his test subject for interdimensional travel.
He's been messing with the spacetime continuum and has connected all the sewer pipes through a sort of wormhole. This is your fast-travel in the game, so you can cross the map quickly without having to run across the whole city.
He calls it the Petwork™ and insists you unlock each one with a single bird feather.
Another cat will teach you how to sneak up and pounce on birds, causing them to drop a feather. Don't worry, it's a catch-and-release game; you let the birds fly away as soon as you catch them.
You also meet a duck who has lost his four children. You agree to track them down for him, but be warned that he won't take them back until all four are accounted for. So you'll have a trail of ducklings following you everywhere until you find all of them.
Another fascinating character you'll run into is a chameleon who can't change his colors to match his surroundings. He's convinced you're a magician (like he is!) because you can always see him. He gives you riddles, then "hides" and you have to track him down across the city.
There's also a beetle, who is the manager for Taffy, a wealthy social influencer cat. The poor guy is stressed beyond belief and hanging by a thread. #JusticeForBeetle! He gives you a phone, which you can use to take selfies. In Steam, snapping a selfie will actually take a screenshot.
There are a few other cats who will teach you how to behave more like a street cat, unlocking different cat reactions you can use throughout the game.
And that's pretty much the jist of the game. There are a few other characters to meet and plenty of small puzzles to figure out. Ultimately, you need to get your stamina up so you can scale your building and get home. Which will be a challenge in itself, even with a full stamina bar. But there are plenty of fun things to do around the city on your way there.
Or just find one of many nap spots all across the city and take some time to relax.
creator
toYou’re welcome! Like I mentioned, I almost didn’t get to post today thanks to computer issues. Fortunately, I have a few other non-gaming computers floating around my home (I used to be an IT guy), so my screenshots might not be 4K quality, but I could technically find something else to play with if I needed to.
Actually I have a Steam Deck too! I wonder how decent its resolution/graphics would look on a PC screen…
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*I was almost forced to take a hiatus from posting today! I was up all night playing this game, when around 5 AM, my PC popped and shut off suddenly. It felt hot, so I just left it to cool down and went to bed. This afternoon, it wasn't booting back up, so I opened it up and blew all the dust out of it (it was due for a cleaning anyway). Nothing looked broken, so I flipped off the power switch and flipped it back on... and it started right up! Woo! Adventures in custom-built PCs...*
Anywhoo... today's game is *The Lord of the Rings: Return to Moria*. This game is like a blend between *Satisfactory* (minus the automation) and *Deep Rock Galactic*, with a Lord of the Rings theme. It's a crafting game, but takes place deep in the mines of Moria. You can play solo, or play online co-op with up to 8 players on PC or 4 players on console. The mines are procedurally generated, so no single gameplay will play out the same.
You get to custom-build your own dwarf to play as, including their appearance, name, and origins. Of course, I like to play as women in my games (my mother was a strong, independent type, so I'm drawn to strong women in my life and games), so I made my dwarf a woman. I named her Nordri. I seriously debated giving her a beard (that's an option!) but it made her almost indistinguishable from the men... so clean-shaven for now! You can edit your character any time from the main menu, so you're not stuck with a single look for the entirety of your gameplay.
Gimli declares that it's time to stop waiting for Durin's potential return and that the one true home of the dwarves, Moria, needs to be rebuilt. He calls on dwarves from all regions of Middle Earth to converge on the Misty Mountains and help excavate it. But for some reason, they can't get through the Doors of Durin.
While attempting to use explosives to blow their way in, you end up falling through a fissure that opens up and land deep in the mines. Unable to be heard by anyone, you decide to make your way to the Doors of Durin from the inside.
Along the way, you find Aric, a Raven of Erebor. He's also trapped in the mine, but some "ill curse" prevents him from leaving. So he scouts ahead for other routes out of the mine while you forge ahead on your own.
This is where you get your introduction to crafting and building. Crafting helps you build tools and weapons, while building will create structures that you can use to improve a home, or in this case, climb a wall.
You make your way to the Doors of Durin, only to find them sealed with a shadowy curse from the inside. No wonder no one could get in! It looks like you need to venture further into the mine and find a different exit.
If you explore in the halls near the door, you'll find signs of the Fellowship!
Venturing further into the mines, you find that it's orc-infested. They're pretty cowardly on their own, choosing to run instead of engage you, but be careful of packs of them roaming in the middle of the night. They can be aggressive when they're prepared and in larger numbers.
You run into Aric again and he suggests you rebuild an old camp nearby, so you have somewhere to shelter and prepare food. You fix up an old stone hearth, a furnace, and a forge, and you now have the basics for crafting! You can find mushrooms, berries, and some other plants growing around the ruins, and you can kill roaming rats and wolves for meat. All these resources respawn pretty regularly, so you're never in short supply.
You need to eat at least 2 meals a day to keep from getting hungry. If your hunger bar runs out, you'll take the occasional small bit of damage to your health. You also need to sleep at least once a day to prevent exhaustion. Your stamina bar will get smaller and smaller the more tired you are, until you can barely trudge from one place to another. Sleeping will fast-forward the clock 6 hours.
There is a day and night cycle, and the luminescent stone ceiling in the mines will mimic the time of day, so it's extra dark and cold at night and decently bright during the day. Make sure you keep a torch on you at all times, to keep your courage up in the darkest corners. There are small buffs you get depending on various situations, and you'll see them in the bottom left corner of your screen. Also, certain meals will give you an additional buff if you eat them at certain times of the day.
Occasionally, a pack of orcs will attack in the middle of the night, targeting your current camp. Be prepared to fight them off before they break everything. I learned the hard way to build a wall to keep out the orcs. The first time I came under siege in the night, they just walked in and wrecked my stuff.
Fortunately, you can make a hammer that will restore damage to structures; both your own constructions and to the ruins of Moria. If you spent enough time, you could technically fix up all of the ruins, single-handedly restoring Moria!
If you find damaged statues, be sure to rebuild them. You'll get recipes from some of them which will expand your crafting capabilities. I've mostly received improved armor and weapons from them so far.
Of course, what would a game about dwarves in a mine be without some mining? You need to mine ore in order to smelt various types of metals for armor and weapons, as well as some fancy furniture and structures later on. While mining, you get the option to sing an inspirational tune, which will give you a buff. There are various songs that may be sung and your character may comment on the songs too! They put some serious effort into this detail instead of just designating one mining song that you always sing.
I once found a barrel of ale in the ruins of an old tavern, and it was still good! I drank and sang merrily for a bit, which gave me a little buff.
There are more than just endless dark ruins in the deep. You can find other places, such as an Elven Quarter to explore, and the Great Forge of Narvi, which you can repair to gain more forging abilities.
Keep pressing deeper into the mines to find more advanced crafting and building options, and be sure to move your camp forward as you go. I learned the hard way that sticking with my original camp meant hoofing it a long ways back to drop off supplies or forge new supplies. Eventually, I learned that I need to make a new hearth and rebuild my camp, then move my supplies forward so I'm not spending 90% of my game time running back and forth.
This would probably be easier with multiple players, as you can move all your resources quickly. I had built up my original camp so much, I had to make at least 3 trips to collect everything. I was also stockpiling resources instead of using them, so that made it more difficult to move.
This was a very fun game! It just released in August, so it's relatively new and still being tweaked by the developers. I haven't had any issues with it yet, besides my beefy desktop computer overheating for the first time ever. But that was after 7 hours of continuous gameplay, and I maxed out all graphics settings, so I may have been pushing it a bit on this one.
Otherwise, it was very enjoyable, not only exploring Moria, but getting to fix it up and restore it as I go. Definitely scratched that itch for a good crafting game that *Satisfactory* gave me. And like I said, mining resources, tunneling through caved-in halls, and fighting occasional roaming enemies felt like a medieval fantasy version of *Deep Rock Galactic*, another game I thoroughly enjoy. I give *The Lord of the Rings: Return to Moria* top marks!
In the 18+ hours I’ve played, I only had one enemy takedown mission where the number didn’t go down as I killed enemies. Other than that, I’ve never experienced any bugs in this game.
But I’ve played exclusively solo campaign mode, so maybe there’s something there. I did try to go online last night and it just errored out, so maybe multiplayer/online mode is buggy.
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- lemmy.world
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*Road Redemption* is a unique game, in that it's a motorcycle racing game, but also a fighting game.
There is some lore, presented with a single screen of text. According to the Steam store page, this takes place in a post-apocalyptic world, ruled by a brutal dictator. Biker gangs rule over segments of the country. You're part of the Jackal gang and basically racing against other biker gangs through their territory, pursuing an assassin for the bounty.
Every once in a while, some other Jackals will show up to help you (see first screenshot with the peace symbol over a Jackal's head), but you're on your own for most of the races.
This is a game of stamina. There are 17 total races across 3 gangs' territories, and your status carries over to each one. Any loss of health, nitro, and if you've unlocked it, your jump boost, all carry over to the next race and require you to replenish them during races.
You either pick up resources on the road, or kill other gang members to collect resources. Or you can also gain a small bit of nitro every time you have a "close call" with an oncoming car. Just steer so you nearly miss oncoming traffic and you'll be rewarded with some nitro. Which is needed to catch up to the racers in the lead; you'll never gain on them otherwise.
There are two main types of races: 1.) a straight race to the finish, either finishing in 3rd place or better, or just survive to the finish line by a certain time limit; or 2.) enemy takedown, which requires you to eliminate a certain number of enemies before the finish line. Sometimes the cops show up alongside the gangs to fight everyone, sometimes the cops *are* the takedown enemy.
Cars are especially hard to take down. Explosives are pretty much the only way I've found to stop them. During takedown races, they'll also plow through oncoming traffic, denying you that needed nitro boost to gain on them. It can be very difficult if you're stuck behind a car with no nitro left.
The last race in each territory is a takedown enemy race against the gang's leader. They're pretty tough and you need to kill them before you reach the end of the race.
There is one random event that may take place called "Hallucinogenic Chemical Zone," which will have cars and trucks randomly spawn in the sky and fall onto the track, creating hazards to navigate around. None of these vehicles have their parking brake on, so if they land on their wheels, they'll slowly roll across the road, making it harder to determine the best path around them. You never know which direction they'll start rolling until it's almost too late to change direction.
After each race, you spend the money you earned taking out enemies or meeting the objective to upgrade your current stats or replenish health or nitro.
Whether you win or lose each race, you'll automatically continue on to the next race. But your health bar will shrink if you lose the objective.
The races continue until you die. Then you get to spend all the XP you've earned on permanent upgrades, which will make it easier the next time you play. You likely won't beat the game in your first playthrough. As a matter of fact, I couldn't even beat the first territory until I'd upgraded my permanent stats quite a bit. I've replayed the campaign race many times over and I've finally made it all the way to the assassin, but I still haven't beat him. Gotta keep upgrading my character!
Before each game, you get to select your bike and character. Both come with various stats and weapons, so pick what works best for your play style. You can unlock more bikes and characters as you accomplish certain criteria throughout the game.
I like to play with Admiral Uganda (a Captain America knockoff) because he has 35% resource gains from regular kills, 140% resource gains from shield kills, and 115% max nitro. He also doesn't use guns, which is fine with me. I'm terrible at aiming a gun while also steering my bike, so I mostly fight with close-range weapons that only require a button press to use.
There are other joke characters like Santa Claus, who's a pacifist and can't kill anyone except for bosses; Helloween Rider, a Ghost Rider knockoff; PC Master Racer (see screenshot above); or Theranos, a blonde woman with Thanos' golden gauntlet. Plus a ton more to unlock.
My personal play style is to just kick other bikes. It sends them flying off to one side, and if you time it right, you can kick them into obstacles or off bridges and kill them instantly. Much easier than hacking at them with a sword or beating them with a lead pipe, etc.
Most races are on roads cross-country through mountains, snowy terrain, or post-apocalyptic cities. But the most interesting races (in my opinion) take place across building rooftops. You spend the entire race speeding from rooftop to rooftop, and it's easy to knock people off to their doom. Or fall to yours, if you're not careful. These levels are where the jump boost comes in really handy, keeping you airborne longer if you don't time a jump between buildings well.
Then there's the extra rare rooftop race through a hallucinogenic chemical zone! Don't get hit by falling cars while soaring across rooftops!
I've mostly described the campaign mode for this game, but there is also a 4-player split-screen mode where you can play together or against each other, or you can play online with other gamers.
There's a DLC you can buy on Steam called "name a character" that lets you put a custom name into the game itself. You'll notice that every time you take someone out, it shows their name across the bottom of the screen, then scratches it out in red. Supposedly, these are all names added by other players over time. So the next time you play, keep an eye out for cobysev...
I normally don't like games that force me to replay them over and over, grinding just to level my stats enough to continue the plot (I'm looking at you, *Hades*). But the gameplay is so enjoyable in this one, I can't help but play it over and over. I don't even care if I don't finish; the racing and fighting is so much fun! Every time I play this game, I end up doing nothing else for the rest of the day.
creator
toI usually give a warning in advance that spoilers are upcoming and to skip the next paragraph if you don’t want to read them, then do the spoiler tag for an entire paragraph. That way, even if the spoiler tag doesn’t work, people know to skip the next paragraph to avoid it. Sometimes I’ll even do a full-caps “END OF SPOILERS HERE” to catch eyes and help people skip over them.
Unfortunately, it’s not just an Epic Games exclusive, it’s actually published by Epic Games. Which means it probably won’t ever come to Steam.
The rest of the Alan Wake franchise (and the Control franchise, including the upcoming Control 2) are published by 505 Games or Remedy themselves, so those all get Steam releases.
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- lemmy.world
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October is over, and that means I'm back to playing all variety of games, not just horror or Halloween-themed games. But I did miss one day in my daily October marathon, and I said I'd try to make up for it.
So... consider this game to be a happy medium. *The Invincible* isn't exactly horror - more sci-fi mystery/thriller than anything - but it is kind of a personal fear of mine: being stranded alone on an alien planet with amnesia, limited oxygen, and no certain escape. I definitely shared in the anxiety and fear that the protagonist suffered at times on her journey.
*The Invincible* is a blend between a walking simulator and a visual novel. You spend most of the game walking from one point to the next and performing some basic tasks along the way, while also communicating back and forth with your ship's commander. It's not a particularly strenuous form of gameplay.
There are dialogue choices, but for the most part, the game plays out the same regardless of your choices. Although certain choices can open up deeper philosophical discussions into the theme of the plot. Also, investigating the areas around you might help you learn more about the planet itself, which provides a richer story experience than just trying to get to the end of the game as quick as possible.
Also, as the game progresses, your story path is documented in comic form, which you can pause and read at any time.
This game is actually based on a Polish novel of the same name, published in 1963 by Stanisław Lem. Although I would recommend not reading the summary of that book, as its main plot gives away most of the mystery in this game's story.
*The Invincible* opens up with Yasna waking up on a rocky desert planet, with no memory of where she is or how she got there. Her radio is broken, her locator beacon is missing, and she's all alone. The only thing going for her is that she seems uninjured, and her space suit and oxygen tank are still intact.
She checks her notes and discovers she's there with her team of researchers. Using her logs and hand-drawn maps, she triangulates her approximate position, then sets out to find their main camp.
Along the way, bits of her memory start coming back to her. She remembers her research ship's commander, Novik, who is known for making rash decisions. Previously, his insistence on making an unscheduled stop for a valuable mineral cost him a broken leg and severe pain.
Now, the team was finally on their way home when Novik awoke them early from cryogenic sleep. He made the decision to stop at *yet another* planet, Regis III, because he has intel that it's potentially valuable to the Alliance, and he wants to find out what is so valuable that it would draw them there.
The book followed characters from the Alliance aboard their massive ship, The Invincible. This game, however, follows a small research team of the Interplanetary Commonwealth, an opposing faction. So it's important to Novik that they do their research quick, then get off-planet before the Alliance arrives in their deadly ship.
Yasna reaches her team's base camp, only to find one of the members in a stupor, babbling unintelligibly. His vitals are all normal, but he's unresponsive and helpless. Yasna takes his radio and is finally able to speak with Novik, who is aboard their spaceship orbiting the planet.
Novik has been unable to reach the team for a while now. He's grateful to speak with Yasna and instructs her to find the rest of the team. She catches up on their research notes and sets out to round up the team.
The team was investigating a strange metallic structure sticking out of the ground. It proved impossible to unearth, and scans with their metal detectors showed it stretching underground like tangled metal roots. One of the research team, Dr. Gorsky, ventured off in search of the end of this metal root structure, so Yasna pursues his trail.
She bumps into a damaged probe and, with the help of Novik, is able to boot it up. Using the probe, Novik is able to remotely control it and assist Yasna more directly on the ground. You get the opportunity to pick its name, if you like.
Pursuing her team, Yasna explores complex metallic structures, finds herself lost in underground caverns, and even has run-ins with the Alliance!
Finding all of her team members and getting off-planet proves to be a challenge, with setback after setback. It's up to you whether she'll find the courage to proceed, or succumb to hopelessness and depression.
This was a fantastic story that explored deeper philosophical topics on life and biology, evolution and invasion, and of course, the will to survive. It's an easy-going game, where the most dramatic twists and turns come more from the dialogue than the action. If you want a simple sci-fi game that lets you ponder life's greater mysteries instead of shooting aliens, this may be for you.
Plus, you get to drive around in a little rover! How cute is this thing?
creator
toI don’t think I’ve posted this here yet, but I’ve actually been compiling all these posts into a separate blog. As much time and effort as I’ve been putting into them, I’d hate for them to get wiped if this community goes down, or heaven forbid, I got booted by a mod, etc. So you can either follow my posts here in /c/games, or check them out on my blog. I upload them at the same time, so it doesn’t matter where you go to read them.
creator
toI have yet to beat it myself. The first time I played it, I eventually came across a boss fight that proved too tough, and the only way to level up Jesse was to go and fight random spawns around the building. I got tired of the grind and stopped playing it. But I’m hoping to actually play through to the end this time around. I plan to do all spawn events as they come this time, instead of skipping them to focus on moving the plot forward, so that I’ll be better prepared for that fight when it comes.
creator
toI’m actually very careful to avoid spoilers in my posts. Sure, I get pretty far into the meat of the gameplay before I end my post… but I do my best to avoid any big reveals that might ruin the game for interested players. And I’ve never revealed the ending to a game.
At best, I’ve posted my speculation for the direction a game’s plot might be headed, based on my incomplete gaming session. But I made it clear it was just a personal guess.
My intent is to get people invested in the story, so when I leave off, they’ll want to go check it out and see what happens next. Besides, some of the best screenshots are from the action in the middle of gameplay. I can’t play 15 mins of a game and expect to make a solid post about it; I need to have some sense of what the game is about, and that requires a bit more exploration into the plot.
Since you’re familiar with Control, you’ll probably notice I left out some pretty big details from nearly the start of the game. You gotta have some unknown plot elements, or else I’m just narrating the first hour of the game, and that’s not fun when you actually go to play it for the first time.
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Happy Halloween! I had planned to play one of my favorite games this month, *Alan Wake*, but @[email protected], the other screenshot poster here, already made several posts about that game recently. So in order to generate new content, I'm posting a tangentially-related game, and another absolute favorite of mine, *Control*.
This game is loosely based on the [SCP Foundation](https://scp-wiki.wikidot.com), a fictional secretive organization that contains anomalous or supernatural items and entities away from the eyes of the public. They Secure, Contain, and Protect (SCP).
Their wiki linked above is a creative writing project, where anyone can sign up and submit their own creative writings on supposed anomalies that the SCP has encountered in the world. And they have a Creative Commons ShareAlike license (CC-BY-SA) for all work posted to the wiki, so anyone is able to use it for their own creative projects. As such, a lot of SCP-related video games have been popping up lately. If you search on Steam alone, there are about 75 games with SCP in the title, and that's not counting derivative works like *Control*.
*Control* starts out simple enough. You play a 28-yr old woman by the name of Jesse Faden. She's been looking for the Federal Bureau of Control for 17 years, ever since they kidnapped her brother, Dylan, in their childhood. The shady secret government organization has eluded her all this time, but Jesse just happens to find them in New York City and enters to an empty lobby.
The place seems deserted, except for an odd janitor with a heavily-Scandinavian accent, named Ahti. He asks Jesse if she's here for the job interview, because he's in need of an assistant. He points Jesse toward the Director's office.
The first thing you might notice is that you're trapped in the building now. When you turn around, you realize that the hallway you came down just dead-ends, as if there was never a hallway there in the first place. Also, some of the offices and meeting rooms in the hallway don't seem to have any doors leading into them, just windows. Welcome to "The Oldest House," the office building which is an ever-shifting anomaly in itself.
You enter the Director's office and find the Director dead on the floor; an apparent suicide. Jesse is compelled to pick up the handgun lying next to him, where she suddenly finds herself pressing it to her own temple. You hear distorted voices who refer to themselves as "The Board," and they test whether you're capable of wielding it.
Jesse is transported to the "astral plane," a bright white space with disjointed black and gold marbled cubes to walk on. A giant inverted pyramid looms ever-present in the background.
You fight some faceless humanoid enemies, learning to harness a limited psychic ability to attack them. When you find the gun in the astral plane, you learn how to take down the faceless enemies with it. You have a limited clip of ammo, but it regenerates infinitely, without the need to manually reload or resupply.
When you've completed the training, Jesse is appointed the new Director by The Board. All of a sudden, you're in charge of the Federal Bureau of Control! Portraits can be found already updated with professional photos or paintings of Jesse all around the building.
You also start to find official documentation scattered around the offices concerning various Objects of Power (OoP), including your own service weapon. Just like SCP documentation on their wiki.
Almost immediately, Jesse finds herself exposed to an invasive hissing noise that feels like it's trying to invade her soul (See first screenshot). She's able to withstand it, but it takes over other Control agents and forces them to attack her. Fighting your way to the Central Executive room, you find a marked circle under an inverted pyramid and realize you can use your psychic energy to dispel the "Hiss" from the area and restore the distorted space to its normal state.
Survivors call out from a nearby shelter and Jesse gives them the all-clear. The assistant to the Head of Research, Emily Pope, comes out and immediately recognizes Jesse as the new Director. She's stoked that Jesse's able to withstand the Hiss without specialized equipment and she's excited to perform some experiments to test Jesse's abilities.
Pope quickly becomes your go-to for any information you need about this strange place. She explains that the building has come under attack by a deadly and invasive anomaly that Jesse helped dub the "Hiss," and since Jesse is the only one who seems able to resist and fight back, she's needed to help clear sections of the building and rescue other survivors.
Jesse is also desperate to find her brother, but Pope doesn't have access to that level of information. She suggests Jesse rescue the rest of the former Director's team scattered throughout the building and they should be able to fill her in on what happened to Dylan.
From there, the game is spent running back and forth across the various floors of the building, rescuing people, fighting the Hiss and liberating areas, and learning more about Control and what they do. You can find various sources of media scattered throughout, including documents, tape recordings, and video recordings.
Not to mention, some more OoPs that bind to Jesse and enhance her abilities. You can telekinetically lift and throw objects, rapidly dash through the air to evade enemies or reach far-away platforms, construct a shield out of psychic energy and physical objects, and even fly! Keep progressing through the game to find these OoPs and bind them, then enhance their powers through missions and side quests. Eventually, you'll be practically invincible!
Amongst the video recordings, there's a cheaply made kid's puppet show called the "Threshold Kids" that has episodes randomly distributed all over the building. It goes over various anomalies and supernatural situations, as if it was meant to explain complex topics for young children. It seems simple enough at first, but there's something creepy and off about it, and it gets very dark and existential in later episodes. I love the world-building it brings to the game!
I mentioned *Alan Wake* was tangentially-related to this game. That's because the development studio of both franchises, Remedy Entertainment, included documentation you can find in *Control* that explains *Alan Wake* as an Altered World Event (AWE), with Alan's typewriter being a suspected OoP! And if you play *Control*'s AWE expansion after the main campaign, it sets up *Alan Wake II*.
I love SCP-related content, and the Federal Bureau of Control is a whole SCP-like organization, with rich and detailed lore dealing with supernatural and otherworldly objects and powers. And then adding lore to tie two separate game franchises together in the same universe? I absolutely love it! This has been one of my all-time favorite games since it released and I'm really excited to play *Control 2* whenever it finally comes out.
By the way, the Alan Wake Franchise bundle is 80% off on Steam, so you can play the first game and its spinoff game for only $5, then save a few bucks off *Control* by buying the Alan Wake/Control Franchise bundle. Or wait for a better deal; *Control* was only $8 for a couple weeks last month, so keep an eye out for their next sale and get it super cheap.
My one gripe is that *Alan Wake II* was published by Epic Games, which means it will probably never come to Steam. I'm adamantly against using Epic Games, as they have very anti-competitive practices with the gaming community. So unless someone else gets PC publishing rights, I may never get to play *Alan Wake II*. (Note: I don't own any current-gen consoles, so playing it on console is out) The rest of the franchise is published by 505 Games or Remedy Entertainment themselves, including the upcoming *Control 2*, so I can enjoy everything else in the meantime.
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- lemmy.world
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I had another game I planned to play last night, but then the first *Red Dead Redemption* finally released on Steam yesterday, including its *Undead Nightmare* story mode, and I found myself up all night enjoying the zombie western horror fest! Finally! It only took them 14 years to port it to the PC.
I'm going to be talking exclusively about *Undead Nightmare* today. I'll go over *Red Dead Redemption* another time, but this extra content is basically its own game, with a story that veers off from the main game's campaign. Treat it like an alternate universe to the main game.
*Undead Nightmare* takes place after the main campaign of *Red Dead Redemption*, but before the epilogue. Honestly, you could say it's an alternate ending to the game that replaces the epilogue with a dark twist.
John Marston, the protagonist of the main game, sends his boy to bed and is settling in to bed with his wife when Uncle shows up, bloodied, deranged, and violent. John knocks him out, then goes to get his shotgun. But Uncle isn't down for long, and he chases John's wife out of the house, getting a solid bite on her throat before John returns and guns him down.
John's son comes running to his mother's aid, only to be bitten by her! They both rapidly turn into the undead, and John hog-ties them to keep them from hurting anyone else. He leaves them tied up in the bedroom, then promises to return once he's found a doctor.
John goes to the nearest town to find it overrun with the undead. He helps the few remaining citizens liberate the town, then asks random survivors what's going on.
One girl mentions that her mother came back long after being dead and buried, and ate her dad's face off! She recommends burning coffins at the local cemetery to keep the dead from rising again. And also suggests she had an evil uncle who was buried there.
Considering her contempt for him and the loving message scrawled on his tombstone, it hints at the dark kind of relationship they may have had. Also, she mentions all the horribly abusive things that her own father does, but dismisses them because "he's a good man!" So her uncle must've been a truly terrible person.
From here, you're going from town to town, helping people survive undead attacks, following rumors about what might be causing it, and trying to find an end to the nightmare so you can cure your wife and kid.
In the original campaign, there was an easter egg where you could go way up north into the mountains and find a family of Sasquatch hiding in the forest. In *Undead Nightmare*, you get a quest to hunt them down.
After killing several of them, you find one crying against a tree. He can speak! He begs you to end his life because "some maniac" has killed all of his friends and family and he's the last of his kind left. It's up to you whether or not to end his life.
There are several other mythical creatures to be found roaming the lands, like chupacabra, black horned goats with red eyes, unicorns, and even the Four Horses of the Apocalypse - War, Famine, Pestilence, and Death. The Four *Horsemen* of the Apocalypse are not to be found.
You can wrangle and tame the first three horses, then the horse Death will appear in the wilderness to be tamed. Death is automatically awarded to you when you complete the whole storyline too. My favorite is War, because it's the only one with a fiery mane. The other three just look like regular horses with creepy eyes.
My original horse was just a normal horse... until I encountered an undead bear, which knocked me over and killed my horse. The next time I called for my mount, this undead horse showed up! Turns out there are some tame undead; although the undead horses have a bad habit of ignoring commands and doing their own thing sometimes.
There are many theories as to what's causing the undead to walk again. Some have some merit and warrant investigation, but others are completely outrageous.
Still others are so wrapped up arguing over what to do in this new chaotic world that they don't pay attention to their surroundings...
The most interesting theory I heard was that this was just a thing that happens every couple hundred years. A sort of cleansing ritual or something.
I bought *Red Dead Redemption* ages ago, specifically for this *Undead Nightmare* content. But I didn't want to jump into a story-rich game without knowing all the characters and lore, so I rushed through the campaign as quick as I could.
I later regretted it, as I felt like the campaign was much better than this zombie storyline. Sure, you get a quick tour of all the characters from the campaign and see how they're handling the "zombie apocalypse." Hint: most aren't handling it well. But the undead story just feels like it was tacked on last-minute, with very few story missions and a lot of side quests to keep you running back and forth across the land.
Don't get me wrong, *Undead Nightmare* is a lot of fun to play if you want to run around and shoot zombies in a "spaghetti western" setting. But I much prefer *Red Dead Redemption*.
I apparently have Conarium in my library already! I’ll have to check it out. Thanks for the recommendation!
Yeah, Call of Cthulhu is not really a Lovecraftian game. You could easily substitute any other creature and it would still play out the same. The only element of the old RPG game that really carried over is the sanity level. The tabletop game would have you roll for sanity checks every now and then and basically track your gain or loss of sanity, which could alter your character as the game progressed.
That, and the eldritch creatures, are about all these games share in common with each other, and both are very loosely based on the Lovecraft short story. So it’s about as far removed from an H.P. Lovecraft work as you can get.
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- lemmy.world
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I went into *Call of Cthulhu* blind, not knowing anything except that it's somehow connected to the Cthulhu mythos. Not only was it another period piece supernatural detective story like yesterday's game, *Kona*, but it also stars a private investigator who was a former veteran. This time, though, it takes place in 1924 and our protagonist is a veteran of the first World War. You play Edward Pierce, a down-on-his-luck P.I. who is struggling with insomnia, alcoholism and PTSD from his service in the war.
The game opens with Pierce lying in an underground cavern, panicking as he realizes he's soaked in the blood and guts of mutilated marine animals. He escapes, only to witness faceless cult members attacking a faceless intruder on their ceremony. Then they come for him...
He awakens on the couch of his office. Just a nightmare. A client comes to his door, the father of a famous painter, Sarah Hawkins. He wants Pierce to investigate the mysterious death of his daughter and her husband and son. Supposedly, they all burned to death in a house fire, but the police blamed it on Sarah. They said she went mad and killed them all. Her father doesn't believe it and asks Pierce to uncover the truth.
Pierce travels to Sarah's former home, an island off the coast of Boston called Darkwater, which has been mostly forgotten by the mainland. It's home to a small town of fishermen, as well as the wealthy Sarah Hawkins and her family. While trying to investigate Sarah's old warehouse, Pierce runs into the local muscle, a woman named Cat. She doesn't take kindly to him snooping on her territory.
Did I mention this game has dialogue choices? Depending on how you handle situations (and in what direction you level your character's stats), you can change the course of action in the game.
In this instance, I got my ass kicked by Cat. But, as you may remember from my former posts, I like to play the altruist in my games. I got the option to sneak into the warehouse again, but I was also given a chance to talk with Cat directly instead, and I was polite and honest enough with her that she decided to help me out instead of kicking my ass again. She actually escorted me to the warehouse this time!
In the warehouse, you switch into detective mode, which allows you to scan for clues and piece together the crime scene. Kind of like the visions in *Kona*, except instead of glowing, moving silhouettes in a dark space, they're transparent, unmoving silhouettes in a frosty space.
The local police burst in and kick Pierce out, but through dialogue choices, I got them to not only give me more valuable information, but also give me a lift to the decrepit Hawkins mansion on the island. Which did NOT burn down. Hmm...
Exploring the mansion, Pierce eventually finds an underground passage and ends up falling into a cavern full of mutilated marine animals... the same one from the nightmare at the beginning of the game! Panicking, Pierce attempts to escape, only to experience the same cult scenario play out similar to his nightmare earlier. While running for his life, he's knocked unconscious by falling debris.
From this point, the line between fantasy and reality starts blending. Pierce wakes in an insane asylum, breaks out, and then has to confront the indescribable horrors that he's witnessed. Finding allies to his experiences is difficult though, as most end up insane or dead. Or some people he witnessed being murdered will instead show up healthy with no memory of being harmed. Edward Pierce finds his grip on reality slipping and he needs to solve the case quick, before he falls into complete madness...
There's a lot of lore throughout the story, and despite my lengthy explanation of the plot, there are tons of details that were omitted, to avoid spoilers. Plus, your choices can lead to slightly different outcomes. There are actually four different endings to this game, depending on interactions and how intact Pierce's sanity is by the end.
Like a lot of horror games right now, *Call of Cthulhu* is currently 80% off on Steam, so take advantage of the seasonal deals if you like this kind of thing. Apparently, this game is the latest original story in a (non-related) series of "Call of Cthulhu" video games, which are independently licensed works based on an old tabletop RPG of the same name, *which itself* is loosely based on the H.P. Lovecraft short, "The Call of Cthulhu." So my initial impression, that it's "somehow connected to the Cthulhu mythos," is a pretty good summary of this game.
Thanks! I originally planned for these posts to just be a screenshot or two, with maybe a little discussion on what’s going on in my latest games (See a few of my first posts). But one of my pet peeves with gaming communities is how everyone just assumes you know the game being discussed. They jump into fine details, or use acronyms or in-game lingo to talk about it, which alienates those who’ve never played the game. Sometimes I’m interested in a game being discussed, but I’ve never played it, so I can’t follow the discussion!
So I figured I’d make posts that introduce games to everyone. If you’ve played it before, it’s a nice refresher of the gameplay and gives you a space to gush about what you loved or hated about it. If you’ve never heard of it, it’s a good intro to the game and its story and mechanics.
Also, my other hidden purpose is to force myself to play more games. I have a Steam library of over 3,500 games and I’ve only played 25% of my library (according to SteamDB). So this forces me to pick something new every day and give it a shot. I’m discovering a lot of fun games that I didn’t even know I had in my library! I got a lot of my games through random bundles, so I didn’t even choose a lot of them.
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- lemmy.world
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*Kona* is a supernatural detective story, taking place in Northern Quebec in October 1970. You play as Carl Faubert, a private investigator from Montreal and a veteran from the Korean War. He's hired by the wealthy industrialist, William Hamilton, to come to Atamipek Lake and investigate a simple vandalism issue. Most of Carl's thoughts are spoken aloud by a narrator as you play through this game.
As soon as you arrive, a car desperately trying to get out of town swerves out of control and sends you careening into the ditch. When you wake up a few hours later, a blizzard has set in and you find yourself freezing to death.
You immediately set out to warm and heal yourself so you can repair your truck and get back on the road. The other driver took out a bridge, trapping you in the town. The driver is nowhere to be found, so all you can do is continue on to your prearranged meeting with your client.
You eventually get up the road to the general store, where you were supposed to meet your employer... only to find him dead! Your detective instincts kick in and you start exploring the store for clues.
You find an unusual chunk of glowing ice behind the general store, almost as if an iceberg came out of the ground (see first screenshot). There are wolf tracks leading away from it, but when you take a picture of it, you discover hidden moose tracks alongside it too.
Following the various trails of glowing ice and hidden moose tracks, you will occasionally find completely frozen people - encased in ice from head to toe! Walking up to them will start a vision, showing you what they were up to before they were frozen.
The screen started pulsing uncomfortably with a heavy heartbeat sound every time I got close to them, so I avoided them at first, thinking I would freeze or die or something. It wasn't until I accidentally wandered too close and started a vision that I realized I was missing out on story-advancing clues.
As you uncover more clues, you scribble in more details on your map of Atamipek Lake, giving you more places to explore.
You also discover that Atamipek Lake is mostly a ghost town, with everyone either frozen, having fled, or are dead. There is one living person I came across early on; a surly old French man who's defending himself from the "hybrid wolf/moose creature" in the woods that's freezing everyone. He has some folklore books on his table about Wendigos and what creates one, which I suspect is either a clue as to what's happening, or possibly a red herring.
Either way, the old man gives you a proper winter coat if you go find him a bottle of Caribou (a sort of bootleg alcohol one of the residents was making in their cabin).
I've only played 3-1/2 hours of this game so far (and most of it was spent wandering in the woods or rummaging through abandoned houses), but it's been quite enjoyable. You learn about each of the townsfolk and their motives against William Hamilton. Being a rich guy who swooped in and took over the town, he's not very well liked, so there are plenty of motives for the people to kill him.
I also like that there's a driving aspect to this game. You can walk around in the cold, but you need to occasionally warm yourself and drink/eat to keep your brain power up. And when the cold is affecting you, you can't move fast. So being able to climb into a truck and quickly drive cross-country to the nearest house is convenient. And I do love driving in games.
All of the text in this game is in French, with an automatic English translation popping up over it. I'm not sure if this was originally a French game and/or made by a French developer, or if they were just trying to be authentic to Northern Quebec, a French-speaking region of Canada. But I do enjoy the authenticity of seeing everything in French. The narrator speaks in English, and the old man you run into speaks French, but with English captions.
There's apparently a sequel to this game that released in October last year - *Kona II: Brume*. It follows Carl again as he explores the same region, trying to explore the reality-altering "brume" (French for mist or haze) that covers the region and isolates it from the rest of the world. Sounds almost like a tribute to *Silent Hill*.
And both games are on sale on Steam right now. 80% off for this game; 70% off for the sequel. If this sounds like your kind of game, it's only a few bucks right now, so now's the time to check it out.
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- lemmy.world
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*Cry of Fear* was originally a *Half-Life* mod that evolved into its own independent horror game. And being that it's a *Half-Life* mod, the game is free to play on Steam!
I knew this was a *Half-Life* mod immediately, because it always gave me a "Half-Life Launcher" error and crashed when I tried to load it in 4K resolution. Also, the pause screen was the old classic settings menu from the original *Half-Life* game.
I apologize that the subtitle in the first screenshot is so tiny. This game wasn't originally designed for 4K resolution. I normally run my display scale at 200% so text is easy to read, even at 4K. But this game tried to launch at 4K, blown up to 200% display size, so I could only see a quarter of the screen. Bringing it back down to 100% meant text, and my interface as a whole, was going to be really tiny throughout the game. Good thing I have a 48" monitor; I could still see my interface and read subtitles while playing.
Just a note: These screenshots are automatically squished and blurred a bit to fit here, but if you click to view them separately, you can see the full high-def 4K resolution. (On desktop, right-click and select "Open Image in New Tab." In an app, depending on what app you're using, you may just be able to click on them.)
Cry of Fear takes place in a Scandinavian town. You play a young boy named Simon who stops to help an old man lying on the ground... before a car drives right at you!
After some flashes of some creepy-looking doctor and a padded room, you wake up in a bedroom (with a Half-Life 2 poster on the wall!). You have blurred vision and are carrying a camera in your hands. You leave into a dark room and snap photos on designated spots to find your way out.
After you escape, you find yourself in a back alley in a town, with text messages on your phone to guide you. As you navigate the town, you run into numerous bleeding ghouls who attempt to stab you to death.
You also find creepy murder rooms and child-zombie-things that attempt to kill you too. The more you wander through the streets, the more Simon descends into madness...
*Cry of Fear* has multiple endings and over 20 unlockables, including an extra campaign after you beat single-player. You can also play co-op with up to four people. And of course, this is a horror game, so there are plenty of surprise enemies and jump scares. I actually scared my wife in another room when the first jump scare popped up. I was so surprised, I apparently let out a loud curse that spooked her too!
The graphics may be outdated (and my game crashed several times just trying to get it to load on my 4K monitor), but the spooky atmosphere is there. I actually got a lot of requests to check this game out. It's not exactly my thing; I prefer a more defined storyline instead of flashes of horror scenes and aimlessly wandering around, trying to figure out where to go next or what to do. But if you like dark atmosphere, supernatural horrors, and haunting music, this is the game for you. Don't forget to play it after dark and turn out all the lights first!
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- lemmy.world
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That farmer dude is super creepy!
*Happy's Humble Burger Farm* is a game about working in a fast food restaurant, with all the standard horrors that come with a job like that. The game opens with a couple surgeons chatting as they install a "Reality Fabrication chip" into your brain.
You're then walked through the steps of cooking and assembling a burger, then bagging it and delivering it to customers. With the added warning that making a mistake will summon Happy, the mascot cow, who will pursue you until you feed her a burger with a rotten patty. She only moves if you're not looking at her, so keep your eyes on her while making her burger...
You then wake up in your bedroom, with the goal of getting to work for your first night shift (you only work night shifts). The game defaults to a "VHS filter" over your screen, making everything a little fuzzy and staticky, but you can change it to some other filter in the settings, or turn it off completely. I personally preferred to play it clear, without the blurry imagery.
You'll be working the night shift at Happy's Humble Burger Farm, alongside the manager Toe. But Toe's brain has been turned to mush from all the experiments done to him, so he only mumbles incomprehensibly while standing over the grill. Like in real life, you need to do all the work yourself because your manager is completely useless.
As you explore and find more cassette tapes with audio logs, you learn that all employees of this restaurant have basically been test subjects for some sort of experiment. But all of them either went missing or insane. Toe is still hanging by a thread, but he's a shell of a human being at this point. And you appear to be the latest subject, who still (somewhat) retains their sanity.
Remember this farmer dude? All the various restaurant mascots have large plaster statues scattered around the dining area of the restaurant and will throw out a few catch phrases if you click on them. The farmer, though, speaks with a horrifying deep demon voice and only speaks of death, murder, homicide, etc.
Also, he's the only mascot who moves. When you're not looking, he'll move back and forth around his corner of the restaurant. It's unnerving when he's facing the door, then you walk past and look back and he's suddenly right next to you, staring into your soul. (See first screenshot)
Then there's the weird fry guys. I have no idea what these guys' deal is, but occasionally, the music will turn creepy and then one of these guys will just spawn randomly and scuttle across the restaurant floors for a minute.
As the game advances, more of the town between your apartment and the restaurant will open up for you to explore. There's this interesting "Steal & Sell" shop, which I guess implies you can steal things from your work to sell them for a profit here.
Then there's a coffee shop with a live band playing in the front window. Drinking coffee before a shift will speed up your burger-making process, so make sure to load up on that java!
Finally, there's this Happy's Humble Burger Farm warehouse under construction that opens up after a truck crashes through the fence. Be careful exploring within, though, because there's a massive pig inside that attacks you if you disturb him. He throws something green at you (snot bombs?) while these creepy mannequin-like people stumble toward you and explode.
I'm not sure what to do here, but there's a burger station to one side, so I wonder if I can satiate him by feeding him burgers. It's a little hard to assemble burgers while constantly under attack, though. I was trapped in this building and struggled to make any progress, so that's where I left off for the night.
You might notice that I don't have any screenshots of Happy herself. That's because I used to work in a couple fast food restaurants as a teenager, and also spent 20 years in the military where attention to detail was paramount to keeping people alive. So I didn't make a single mistake making burgers, even with all the custom orders people requested, and Happy never made an appearance during my gameplay. Although that giant pig kind of cut my gameplay short.
When the game starts, there's a loading screen where someone logs into a computer with a username and password. When you get a game over, it shows a BSOD (Blue Screen of Death). So maybe part of the experiment is that this is all a simulation? You're not actually at a restaurant? I dunno; I'll have to play through the whole game to figure out what's actually going on.
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And now for something completely different... *The Complex* is actually an interactive film! Sort of a "choose your own adventure" kind of story. You play as Dr. Amy Tenent (played by Michelle Mylett, of *Letterkenny* fame) as she deals with a medical science crisis.
The game opens with Amy saving lives in the war-torn fictional South-East Asian nation of Kindar. Which feels like a stand-in for North Korea. They even refer to the leader of the dictator regime as the Supreme Leader.
Immediately, you're given a choice, and choices matter in this game. You also have a limited time to make your choice. (Although you can turn off the timer in the options if you struggle to make quick decisions.)
Fast-forward 5 years and Amy is now working for a large organization, developing nanocells that will help heal and repair people. But one of the company's interns collapses on a public transit, having a bad reaction to the under-developed nanocells.
Amy is rushed to an underground complex, where she will attempt to save the young intern's life, while also extracting the nanocells from her blood.
But the complex suddenly goes into lockdown, and some mysterious terrorists attempt to break in. Amy needs to figure out what's actually going on and survive the threat from outside - and from within...
Like I said, choices matter in this game. There are 9 different endings and 196 different scenes to discover. And there isn't a way to save your progress and go back to a previous decision. If you make a bad call, you're locked in to the repercussions of that choice until the end of the game. Just like real life.
I played through this game twice. The first playthrough, I almost made it to the end and got a lot of people killed along the way. I did my best to be kind to everyone - if you remember my previous post, I mentioned that I don't like to be cruel in video games. I try to play as altruistic as I can. But apparently, that didn't work too well in this game. I had to be the "tough bitch" sometimes and make some harsh decisions instead of people-pleasing all the time. They gave me a final assessment of "neurotic." Damn, okay.
My second playthrough, I made a slightly different choice early on in the game... and died almost immediately. At least I got an achievement for getting over 50% relationship status with everyone I'd met... which is called the "People Pleaser" achievement. That hurts. 😖
I actually got this game in a bundle with other interactive film games, although I can't remember the names of the others. I'll need to dig through my Steam library and track down some more of these kind of games. I really enjoyed it.
For me personally, video games are basically interactive stories. I want to have an entertaining tale to follow, where I get to influence the way the main character completes the story.
This kind of game is exactly that, except super heavy on the film side of it with minimal interactions. It was fun to sit through once, but on concurrent playthroughs, I found myself spamming the skip button to get to the choices quicker. And some (lengthy) cutscenes were unskippable because they went over important story details. I would love to find all the endings to this game, but I don't think I have the patience to sit through it many more times. Not when I have many more video games that need my attention. 😉
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Officially, this game is called *Duck Season*, but ~~when they ported it to Steam, they added "PC" to its Steam title~~ the version on Steam without "PC" in its name is VR only. They're both just called *Duck Season* in the game itself.
Old guys like me know the game this is parodying - *Duck Hunt*, for the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES). The "Super Mario Bros/Duck Hunt" cartridge was the first video game I ever owned and I had the original gray gun controller for it. I spent a lot of time shooting ducks in that game back in my youth!
There are a few differences between this game and the original one. Firstly, this one is a high-def simulation of a kid playing the original Duck Hunt. Secondly, instead of an actual dog, it's a guy in a dog costume. And finally... this is a horror game!
Strangely enough, I beat the entire game and was surprised that there were no horror elements. Besides a couple slightly weird scenes, nothing out of the ordinary happened. I beat the game, then the kid I was playing as moved on to "Final Fiesta II," a parody of *Final Fantasy II*. It was the best ending! I even got tons of food, like I was having a sleepover party with friends! Definitely brought back some nostalgic memories of my childhood in the '80s-'90s.
Then the kid's mother mentioned that she would've shot the dog if she was playing, and it hit me - I actively avoid being cruel in video games! That's why nothing bad happened; I wasn't mean to the dog. Oops.
My next playthrough, I accidentally (read: automatically) dialed 911 when I picked up the phone, and I dropped the receiver instead of hanging up, which led to the "Best Men" ending. I was mean to the dog this time, but instead of whatever horrors he would've brought to my house, I instead watched a live news coverage of a police helicopter pursuing him through the neighborhood! I guess I need to play through it again and avoid doing anything logical this time if I want my horror ending...
Interestingly, the game opens like a stage production, with backdrops to tell the story leading into the game. Which is an odd way to introduce a nostalgic video game simulator.
Also, the game itself takes you into the TV, where you're essentially on-stage performing. There are props and boundaries to the stage, and if you turn around, you can see yourself sitting in front of the TV!
I enjoyed the nostalgic toy commercials. Especially with all the blocks that the toys crash through. Very much like old '80s/'90s commercials. Personally, I always wanted those blocks so I could crash my own toys through them! They made it look very appealing for young me.
Here's an amusing bit of trivia: The hunter guy in the shotgun tutorial video is Sam Gorski - someone I went to high school with! He and his buddy, Niko Pueringer (the guy in white who yells at his mini dude in the game's Bootloose VHS tape) are the creators of [Corridor Digital](https://www.corridordigital.com), and I knew them both when we were teenagers.
I wasn't super close with them; they were a few grades below me and we had intersecting friend circles. But I've been following their CG film career on YouTube for the last 2 decades and I was surprised to see their familiar faces in this game.
Digging into the production details of *Duck Season PC*, I discovered that the writer/director, Brandon Laatsch, is the younger brother of an old friend of mine from high school!
And he's not credited, but I'm 99% positive the guy in the "There's No 'I' in Iowa" VHS tape is my high school homecoming king. Small world.
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I was hoping to keep up daily Halloween-themed posts through all of October, but I had way too much on my plate yesterday and didn't get a moment to myself until almost midnight. Who knew retired life could be so busy? Oh well; at least I never promised to do daily posts. Maybe I'll make a double post sometime to make up for it, or review an extra horror game on November 1st.
Today's horror-themed video game is *Alien: Isolation*. This takes place in the Alien movie franchise (specifically after the first film), and actually follows Ellen Ripley's daughter, Amanda, as she tries to track down what happened to her mother aboard the Nostromo.
As you may remember from the original 1979 film (Spoilers ahead; click to reveal)
::: spoiler spoiler
Ellen Ripley's crew responded to an emergency beacon and found an abandoned ship on a small planet. During their exploration, they ran across alien facehugger eggs and accidentally bred an alien, which escaped aboard their ship and managed to kill the whole crew except for Ripley. She managed to barely escape in a small vessel after blowing up their mining ship, the Nostromo.
:::
This game takes place 15 years later. Amanda Ripley, now an adult and working for Weyland-Yutani (her mother's company), heard about a remote trading station called Sevastopol that had recovered the flight recorder from the Nostromo. She was invited along with the recovery team, only to find that the station was under duress and not responding.
Amanda is split up from her team while trying to board, finds the trading station mostly empty except for a few panicked people running and looting for their lives, and eventually discovers what's happening... an alien is loose and hunting people.
Worse yet, the androids running the trading station have locked everyone out of the communications hub and are refusing to contact the outside world. When you try to break in to contact your team on the orbiting ship, the androids mark you as a threat and turn violent. Nothing worse than hearing kind words from an android while being strangled to death...
This game is mostly stealth, sneaking around and avoiding aliens. But it definitely falls under the horror category and has its jump scare moments. The aliens patrol certain regions of the ship and you have to find your way around them using various tools, such as smoke bombs, noisemakers, flash bangs, and EMP mines. All of which you have to craft yourself using items you find scattered around the various floors of the trading station.
Plus, it's everyone for themselves, so you have to be careful about the people you run into. Some will help you; others will attack you. Use your best judgment when approaching others. And don't forget to use your motion tracker to see how close the aliens are to you. They like to hide in the vents and surprise you. But they can also hear the ping of the motion tracker, so use it sparingly if they're close by...
*Alien: Isolation* faithfully reproduces the original film in video game format, with the same theme music from the film, as well as high-quality reproductions of the film sets. The original film was a beautiful sci-fi spectacle, with incredible details on board the Nostromo. You get to see that same level of quality applied not only to your own ship (the same type as the Nostromo), but to the trading station as a whole. No corners were cut in the music and graphics department. Check out these familiar scenes reproduced from the film:
Note: these screenshots are all from my 4K gameplay with maxed out graphics settings. They may look a little blurry here, but click on them and you'll see the full 4K detail. It's absolutely gorgeous level of work that went into replicating everything in game. There are hardly any copy/paste levels; it's an insane amount of work to create a world that feels like you're actually living in it. I keep pausing just to admire the details of everything, even just random hallways!
This game is a masterpiece in graphic design, and the soundtrack pulled right from the 1979 classic film helps to pull you into this world even more. I really enjoyed this game and I can't recommend it enough!
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*Sir, You Are Being Hunted* is a comedic survival game, where you are stuck on a collection of small islands. You need to gather up fragments of an artifact and bring it back to a circle of runestones to create an escape portal.
You are being hunted by British robot gentlemen, though. So you need to be aware of your surroundings and keep quiet. Stealth is the key to survival in this game.
You will lose vitality over time and need to replenish it with food and/or drink. You can hunt game and cook it for fresh meat, or you can scavenge the abandoned villages for resources. Most options in the houses are dubious at best, though, and you need to decide just how important your survival is.
The robots are pretty intelligent, and they only get better as you raise the difficulty. They're actively hunting you, so they will continue to pursue you forever. Your only hope of survival is to avoid them and, if caught, lose them or destroy them. If you are caught and killed, you will get a nice little screen showing off your survival stats for that game.
The five islands are randomly generated, so you never play the same map twice. You can pick between five biomes for each island: castle, industrial, rural, mountainous, and fenland. So you get a variety of terrain to run, hide and scavenge on.
The game is officially called *Sir, You Are Being Hunted*. But if you're not a sir, there is an option on the main screen to switch to *Madam, You Are Being Hunted*. The disembodied voice of Walter, your butler, will refer to you by your chosen pronoun throughout the gameplay.
This is a silly, extremely British survival game, and it's loads of fun to play, even for someone like me who hates survival games. Happy hunting!
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*Dagon* is originally a short story by the creator of the eldritch horror genre, H.P. Lovecraft. This version is a free game on Steam that converts his short story into a visual novel. A narrator reads through the tale while you experience the visuals and landscapes described in the story. You can look around you (and it supports VR too!) but you can't walk and explore. You're stuck in place and only move on as you advance the story.
Throughout the game, you can find hidden bits of trivia, which dive deeper into topics surrounding H.P. Lovecraft's life, the story itself, or other bits of background lore to help you understand the time period in which this story was written.
H.P. Lovecraft himself was terrified of the ocean and all aquatic life, ever since he was two years old; although he has no idea what event may have instilled that fear within him. However, he took that fear and translated it into a new genre of unknowable and incomprehensible horror that defied the rules for standard storytelling of the time. As someone who is also afraid of any body of water in which I can't see the bottom, I totally get it.
*Dagon* is a tale about a sailor who escapes from enemy capture on the high seas by slipping out in a small rowboat in the night. But when he awakes the next morning, he is no longer on the ocean, as a muddy land mass has risen above the ocean level, stranding him along with all sorts of hidden creatures from the deep.
He sees a peak in the distance and spends the next day and night journeying toward it, only to discover on the other side, a giant monolith illuminated in the moonlight, engraved with pictograms of horrifying creatures. But then a creature stirs from deep within a pool at its base...
As a narrative short story, this game will only take you maybe 30 mins or less to play through. But it's fun to search through each area for trivia to collect. There are 20 bits of trivia to find scattered throughout the core game.
The base game is free on Steam, but there are two separate short story DLCs you can buy for a few bucks each. The first is *The Little Glass Bottle*, a short story H.P. Lovecraft wrote when he was seven years old! It's a cute tale about treasure hunting in the ocean that has no horror elements in it.
The second story is *The Railway Horror*, which was a nightmare H.P. Lovecraft experienced and wrote about to a friend of his. Both stories have eight bits of trivia each, giving you further background into Lovecraft's life and works.
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*Bendy and the Ink Machine* is a game about an animation studio that tried to bring their classic cartoon characters to life... with horrifying consequences.
You play a man named Henry who was invited back to the old animation studio he used to work at, by Joey Drew, the head of Joey Drew Studios (which is also this game's developer).
When you arrive, you find the place empty(?), but you also find a giant ink machine that you've never seen before. Through cassette recordings, you learn how to power it up and... before you know it, there's an ink demon running amok through the halls!
You try to run for the exit, but find yourself falling deep into the bowels of the studio. From there, you're solving puzzles and fighting off ink monsters, while also hiding from Bendy himself as he awkwardly staggers around the floors randomly.
You also run into Sammy Lawrence, the former studio's music director, who accidentally ingested some of the ink and partially turned into an ink monster himself. He offers you up as a sacrifice for Bendy, hoping to be rewarded with his humanity.
At one point, you get a choice to head toward either The Demon or The Angel. I chose the angel and found myself at the mercy of a disfigured and insane Alice Angel from the Bendy cartoon series. I'm not sure what's on the demon side; perhaps I should replay it and try that route.
Eventually, you receive a sort of handmade black light that lets you see hidden messages on the walls that guide you. Once you beat the game, it will let you start the game with the black light. I'm excited to play this game over and see what messages I can find in the various rooms and hallways.
I first played this game when it was releasing in 5 separate chapters and I was hooked! Unfortunately, I never beat it. The instructions weren't clear back in the early versions of the game and I found myself wandering aimlessly around several floors, not sure what I needed to do. I don't think I ever finished chapter 3.
Then I picked it up again last night and ended up beating the whole thing in a single sitting. It was much clearer with the full version of the game, and I powered through the whole thing in about 5 hours.
There is a spin-off called *Boris and the Dark Survival*, which is a top-down survival game where you play as Boris the Wolf. You collect supplies while trying to avoid Bendy as he roams around. According to its Steam page, the game will soon be renamed to *Bendy: Lone Wolf*, add a bunch of improvements and add-ons to the game, and increase its price. It's only $3 right now, so might as well snatch it up before it gets more expensive!
Then there was a sequel to the main game called *Bendy and the Dark Revival*. You play as Audrey, an animator who found herself trapped in the dark studio at the mercy of Bendy and his ink monsters.
There is also a free Steam game that came out this year called *Bendy: Secrets of the Machine*, which doesn't really give a description and its trailer is just a tease without explaining anything. I need to play that and see what it's all about.
Finally, there's a upcoming game called *Bendy: The Cage*, which takes place during Bendy and the Dark Revival. It sounds like it will follow our original protagonist, Henry, during that game.
creator
toYou’re welcome! I have too many games and I enjoy playing and discussing them with people, which is why I post here. I sometimes forget what is in my library, so posting about a new game every day helps me to work through some games I’ve forgotten about, or discover new ones I bought in a bundle and never got around to playing.
In my opinion, there are too many news articles here about games and not enough discussion just appreciating games, so I thought I could start some conversation with these posts.
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This Zombie Army franchise is actually a spin-off of the Sniper Elite video game franchise, which portrayed fictional Allied missions carried out by the series' main hero, Karl Fairburne, during World War II.
The Zombie Army story takes place in a separate alternate history where Hitler, upon losing WWII, decided to enact "Plan Z" and resurrect all of the Wehrmacht's soldiers as zombies.
The first two Zombie Army games were compacted into a trilogy release with the third game. This trilogy had Hitler raising his undead army, being killed off, and then resurrected as a sentient zombie leader before being tossed in hell.
This fourth and latest game has millions of zombies running rampant across Europe. It's discovered that Zombie Hitler is still leading the hordes from hell and is now amassing a new zombie army with which to invade Earth.
You play as the hero from the Sniper Elite games, Karl Fairburne. Or, if you prefer, you can play as various other characters from the franchise (and even some from the Left 4 Dead franchise). I personally prefer to play as Jun, an original Chinese character for this game. Each character has different stats, so it's not just choosing a skin for your character; you have to be mindful of their abilities too.
Like the Sniper Elite games, one of the core mechanics of this game is to snipe zombies from afar. Thankfully, these are the clumsy, shambling, slow zombies, so you have time to line up shots, even in a short and narrow area. If you get a perfect aim on a vital organ, it rewards you with a slow-motion cutscene of your bullet firing, zipping across the map, and an x-ray view of the enemy's skeleton shattered or vital organs exploded by your bullet. With rotting zombies, though, there's not much difference between the x-ray view and their normal appearance.
These are supernatural zombies, raised with occult magic, so they don't stay dead. If you don't get a headshot on them, don't be surprised if their body suddenly glows with occult magic and comes back to life. A good way to ensure they don't get back up is to stomp on their corpse until it disintegrates in a gory mess. It'll sometimes release ammo and other beneficial items too!
I love the attention to detail in this game. All across the map, you can find zombie rats and crows with glowing red eyes. They leave you alone, but it's still super creepy how they just linger in the shadows, silently watching you. It's truly a world-building detail, which makes me think about how The Black Plague was spread through rats. I wonder if these rats would turn people into zombies if they got bit...
There are also other signs of the occult in the background, like a zombie hand running around each level that you can snipe for bonus points. Or these creepy china dolls that pop up in various places. Sometimes they're just dolls, sitting there unmoving in dark corners. Other times, they talk or move slightly. And sometimes you have mere seconds to shoot them before they just straight-up vanish into thin air after taunting you. Creepy dolls, man...
You can also find these random zombie heads that are technically alive, but unable to do anything. This one in particular, you could turn on the stove and cook it until it melts into the soup. I like the sign someone wrote on the wall behind the stove. Very important detail to remember!
I find it interesting that this game takes place in mid-1940s Europe, but the music in the game is reminiscent of '80s horror flicks, including posters for each mission that look like worn B-movie horror films from that generation. Also, when you pick up equipment and ammo during a mission, it makes a sound like an old-fashioned mechanical pinball machine from the '80s.
It's like they kept the WWII setting from the Sniper Elite games, but wanted an '80s horror vibe for this game. Classic horror films from the '80s have been pretty popular in the past decade; I feel like Stranger Things helped to bring back that nostalgia for us millennials who grew up in the '80s and '90s, so they were probably trying to cash in on that nostalgia trip while it's hot.
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Don't let the colorful kiddie-friendly graphics fool you; Pumpkin Jack is a game about literal hell on Earth. It takes place in a world where everything was so happy and peaceful, the devil himself got bored and decided to shake things up a bit by releasing monsters across the world.
Humans didn't like having their peaceful lives interrupted like that, so they hired a wizard to protect them against the invading hordes of demons. In response, the devil summoned an infamous trickster known as Jack to take out the wizard. He granted Jack a jack-o-lantern body and offered to free his soul if Jack did this one task for him.
You play as Jack, roaming the lands and fighting various monsters who prevent you from tracking down the wizard. You recruit a crow, who helps you with ranged fighting while you engage in close-quarters combat.
Some places require you to explore and solve a simple puzzle in a place your body can't reach. In those situations, Jack will detach his head and let it crawl around on vine-like tentacles.
Despite releasing in 2020, this game feels like a classic Xbox 360 game from 20 years ago. From the graphic style to the gameplay, this feels like something you'd find in a bargain bin at the game store. It's entertaining, silly, and filled with mechanics that feel like they were designed for a controller.
Not to mention, each level is essentially a single path through various obstacles and enemies. If you do explore, it's only slightly to one side or another, looking for collectibles. If you find crow skull collectibles, you can exchange them for skins for Jack at a vendor who randomly pops up in each of the levels.
You can also find gramophones. I believe the only purpose of collecting them is to get an achievement, but Jack does a little dance number every time you find one, which is mildly amusing.
The game itself is relatively short. There are 6 main levels, but various checkpoints and stages throughout each one. So it should only take you a few hours to beat the whole game. Plus, there are 20 crow skulls and one gramophone per level, so 120 skulls and 6 gramophones in total. Honestly, that's the most early-2000s game vibe I get from this - searching for pointless hidden collectibles that aren't remotely connected to the story.
It's not a bad game, but as old-fashioned as the gameplay is, I definitely wouldn't pay more than $20 max for it. And hey! It's 88% off on Steam until October 20th, so you can get it for only $3.59 right now. Not a bad Halloween deal.
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*Vampire Survivors* is a top-down survival game where you essentially just try to stay alive as long as possible while endless waves of monsters come at you from all sides.
Your weapons and abilities are all automatic; you just need to worry about moving around the map and staying alive. Some of your abilities only fire in the direction you're facing, while others target the nearest enemy, and still others just randomly fire off and hit anything in their path.
Extra strong enemies will drop treasure chests when they die, which will give you gold and a random ability to enhance your character.
As you gain XP and level up from killing monsters, you'll get an option to pick your next ability. Choose wisely; you're given three random abilities and you can only choose one. Make sure you pick something that will help you survive long enough to level up again.
You fight until you're eventually overwhelmed. Then you pick a new character (or the same character if you like) and start over again. The more gold you earn, the more core stats you can boost from the main menu, which will give you a starting advantage in your next playthrough.
There's a timer on the top of the screen that shows how long you're surviving. If you start to do really well, you'll unlock more levels to play. And honestly... that's pretty much it. It's just a fun game to see how long you can overcome insane odds against hordes of monsters. Pretty simple, yet rather addicting. A great way to pass the time.
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*The Fabled Woods* is a short narrative "walking simulator" that explores the lives of several strangers in the woods and how they're connected. While enjoying picturesque scenery and a short jaunt down a forested path, you're treated to the short tales of Larry, Sara, and Todd.
Larry suspects there's someone watching him in the woods, while Sara is investigating a crime scene in the woods.
As you listen to their individual stories, you'll get an option to "remember," which will turn everything dark red except for a glowing-red blood path pointing you toward an object. Taking hold of the object will take you to this dark floating path in a red sky, where you'll hear darker and more intimate details behind each person's life.
Todd's story will tie all the others together, explaining how each person is connected to each other. It's a pretty short game. While taking my time and exploring the beautiful imagery of the forest, it took me about an hour to complete. Most people say they're done in about 40 mins.
There were complaints on Steam that this game was way overpriced for its short and simple gameplay. The developers responded by permanently reducing the price. And it just so happens that it's currently 90% off right now, so if this sounds even remotely intriguing, you can get it for less than a buck until October 27th.
I always buy my Steam games on sale (which is how I could afford to buy over 3,500 of them over the years!) so I like to point out good deals if I find them. The story was mildly interesting at best, so it's definitely worth a buck. I probably wouldn't pay more than that, personally.
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*Little Nightmares* is a wordless, side-scrolling game about a tiny girl in a yellow raincoat named Six, stowed away on a massive ship called The Maw. She journeys from room to room across the ship, trying to escape.
She finds herself surrounded by giant, terrifying, warped versions of adults, who will stop at nothing to capture her. Like this blind guy with stubby legs and horrifyingly long and stretchy spider-like arms. When we meet him, he's packaging up living children in paper and twine like they were hocks of meat. He's very sensitive to sounds; don't let him hear you walking on the creaky floorboards!
Or this chef who is preparing a grisly feast for the grotesque guests aboard the ship.
Six herself is crippled with hunger several times throughout the game. To the point where she starts considering some awful food choices...
Fortunately, she's able to find sustenance around the ship. Next to a cafeteria of sorts, a small child drops a piece of bread for her to eat. She also runs into these little gnome-like creatures scurrying around the ship. After eventually befriending one of them, he offers her food when he sees her struggling.
*Little Nightmares* is a side-scrolling stealth/puzzle game. You're trying to silently find your way across this massive ship without being caught by the giant adults, but you occasionally find yourself stuck and need to find a lever to turn or pull, or a button to press, or a key to unlock a door. They're simple puzzles, but the atmosphere is dark and spooky, making any hesitation in the open a frightening ordeal. Not to mention, the creepy details in the background, like how this bed has straps across it to hold someone down:
The scariest part of the game for me is when you're trying to walk across the dining tables of all the grotesque guests who are shoveling food into their fat faces as fast as they can. If you're not quick enough, you'll get snatched up and crammed into one of their maws. It's such an anxiety-ridden scene, I almost didn't take any screenshots. I was too focused on trying to stay alive!
Not to mention, the creepy subtle music throughout this game. I especially like Six's Theme Part I and Hunger II (for those of you who bought the soundtrack). That haunting child's hum set to a spooky background theme makes for some terrifying mood-setting music.
This game has a sequel, *Little Nightmares II*, which I believe might be a prequel story. You play as a tiny boy named Mono, who discovers a fading Six and attempts to save her, while also searching for a signal tower that's corrupting everyone through horrifying broadcasts. I daresay it's even more terrifying than the first game, with a horrifyingly dark end to its story.
Also, a new game, *Little Nightmares III*, has been announced for release next year. It follows two new children, Low and Alone, trying to find their way out of Nowhere. I'm excited to see what that game will be like! And I hope Six shows up at some point. I'm fascinated with her story and hope we get some more expanded lore on her.
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*Hellblade: Senua's Sacrifice* is an incredible game dealing with psychosis and mental trauma. It's about a Celtic girl named Senua who is journeying to the Viking Hel to bargain with Hela for the life of her lost love. She literally carries his head in a cloth tied to her belt.
Throughout her journey, Senua is plagued by visions and voices, some helpful and some harmful. A narrator of sorts guides her, while a bunch of chatty voices in the background express her fears, desires, anxieties, etc.
Senua finds herself fighting monsters who spawn from thin air, intent on stopping her from her goals. Each time she dies, rot spreads from her limbs. If it spreads to her head, it's game over.
Along the journey, you can find runestones that will explain some ancient Viking mythology and help you understand Senua's intents. You don't need to track them down to beat the game, but it's a welcome world-building tool for us modern-day folks who may not know anything about ancient Viking mythology, geography, and traditions.
This game is beautifully designed and gorgeous to look at. The way cinematic cutscenes blend right into gameplay is amazing! I highly recommend playing with surround sound headphones because the voices in Senua's head whisper from all different angles and distances from her. It's incredibly immersive and gives you a sense of what it's like to deal with psychosis.
I debated whether I should include this in my Halloween gaming marathon because I wouldn't necessarily consider it a horror game. But exploring the mental trauma of a young girl who lost her love and has to battle invisible demons while trying to come to terms with that loss... it's a haunting tale. Definitely on par with some modern day horror plots.
There's a sequel that just released this year called *Senua’s Saga: Hellblade II*, which further explores Senua's struggles as she attempts to save both herself and others. I own it, but it's been so long since I played through *Hellblade: Senua's Sacrifice* that I need to replay the original before I check out the sequel.
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- lemmy.world
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- 3M
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Continuing my Halloween-themed screenshot posts, today we'll be looking at a different kind of game. *Slay the Princess* is a game about, well... slaying a princess. There's a narrator who guides you through the woods and up to a cabin where a princess is chained in the basement, and in order to save the world, you need to slay her. Seems pretty straightforward, right?
But the narrator isn't the only voice who reasons with you. Your voice (Voice of the Hero) will discuss with the narrator and try to make more sense of the situation. It's not like you're given much information to go on. Who can you really trust?
This is a visual novel type game, where you are given conversation and action options, and you choose the path of the story. You can play "20 questions" with the narrator, slay the princess, *save* the princess, or just walk away from the whole affair. But your actions have consequences...
Depending on your actions, you might find yourself conversing with more inner voices centered around the actions you chose, like a Voice of the Stubborn, or a Voice of the Smitten.
Regardless, there's a deeper, darker story going on underneath your seemingly simple choices, and you'll just have to play this game to discover it for yourself.
I especially like that, despite the fact that you're the supposed hero, every shot of your hand shows what appears to be a scaly monster's hand. It makes you wonder who - or what - you really are...
On October 24th, a day after its one-year anniversary, *Slay the Princess* is getting a free update called *The Pristine Cut*. According to the developers, it will add about 35% more content to the game, including thousands of new voice lines and illustrations, 17 new music tracks, improved background artwork, and a new ending to the game.
Also, they'll be porting the game to consoles with this update. I'm a strictly PC gamer, so this doesn't interest me, but if you like console gaming, you'll be able to play this game later this month on PS4/5, Nintendo Switch, and Xbox.
I'm excited to re-play this game later this month. Maybe I might post some new screenshots to compare it to this original version of the game.
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- lemmy.world
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- 3M
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Today we're diving back into the world of psychological horror with the Japanese game *The Exit 8*. This game is a walking simulator, except the purpose is to escape a single underground passageway that you're stuck in. Every time you round the corner, you find yourself back in the same hallway you just left.
The rules are simple. You start at Exit 0 and walk down the hall. If you notice something changed or abnormal in the hallway, turn around and go back the way you came. If you don't notice anything out of the ordinary, keep going.
Once you round that corner, if your exit sign on the wall has moved up a digit, then you're one step closer to finding Exit 8 and escaping. If it has reset back to Exit 0, then you made a mistake and will be starting your journey over.
You need to pay attention to details in this game, because some changes can be extremely subtle. Like the guy in the hallway smiling as he walks:
Or perhaps more obvious, like the eyes of this poster darting back and forth instead of staring straight ahead.
Or they'll be glaringly obvious, like walking into the hall to find it covered in no smoking posters:
Some of the abnormalities are sounds, like the vents clicking noise will be slightly different. Or there will be a banging noise coming from one of the doors on the right. Sometimes it will just be a slight change to a poster on the wall, and if you haven't studied the posters, you might miss it.
There are 32 anomalies, and you might be exposed to a random one every time you go down the hallway. If you can successfully avoid all anomalies, you'll find yourself at Exit 8, which is a stairway back to the surface. I won't give away too many of the anomalies, but here are a few others to look out for:
That last one is the closest to a game over you get. A rushing river of red water comes at you quick, and if you don't turn around and run, it will overtake you and the screen will go black, before you find yourself back at Exit 0.
The Japanese developer (KOTAKE CREATE) also made a sequel game of sorts, called *Platform 8*. It's the exact same premise, except this time you're stuck on a subway line, trying to find your way to the front train car.
And if you enjoy these kind of games, there's yet another game called *Shinkansen 0*, made by Chilla's Art, a small 2-person indie development team who makes Japanese horror games. As you may know, the Shinkansen is what we English-speakers call the bullet train. This is a very similar game to *Platform 8*, except for a few more horror twists in it.
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- lemmy.world
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- 3M
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Here's another fun Halloween-related game: *Witch It!*, a sort of hide-and-seek between witches and hunters.
This little game starts with random team assignments. You'll either be a witch or a hunter. The witches get 30 seconds to hide somewhere on the map before the hunters are let loose.
There are many different abilities and defenses you can set, but by default, witches get to shape-shift into an object they can see in front of them. So they hide by literally becoming part of the environment. Below, I've become a cute little edible gnome house. You can tell what you're shapeshifted as by looking at the text in the top left corner of the screen:
The hunters find witches by throwing potatoes at everything, until something flashes purple and cries out in pain. The hunters also get a range of abilities, but the potato is your main attack. I personally like the chicken, which alerts you when there's a witch nearby.
Once you've damaged a witch enough, they lose. If all the witches are destroyed, the hunters win the match. But if they can't find them all, then the witches win. Here's me winning a match as a tiny broccoli resting at the base of a giant beanstalk:
The below screenshot shows another easy win. I shape-shifted into a "doge firework" and hid on top of a tower next to the map border. No one even came close to me all match long!
You earn all sorts of different outfits and appearances, which you can use to dress up your witch or hunter. Here's my current witch:
Here's another one of me hiding as a red candle pressed up against a wall in a stairwell. I didn't last long in this match; not enough stuff around me to blend in!
My only complaint about this game is that it's online multiplayer, so you need to play with other people. As much fun as it is, it doesn't have a very large following, so there's usually only a few matches going at any given time, and I usually just jump into the largest group I can find.
But if you get a bunch of your friends into this game, you can set up your own private match and play whenever!
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- lemmy.world
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- 3M
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Kids can be mean, huh? But adults can be just as awful sometimes. Here's the conversation at the first house you go trick-or-treating at:
I decided to change things up a bit for my Halloween screenshot postings. I've been posting too much horror and gore lately; it's time for some childish Halloween fun! And what better way than a video game that's all about trick-or-treating?
*Costume Quest* is about two new kids on the block - twin siblings - who are going out trick-or-treating for the first time in their new neighborhood.
At the beginning, you get to choose which of the two siblings to play as: the boy Reynold or the girl Wren. Of course, with my affinity for playing strong feminine characters, I went with Wren.
Your first trick-or-treat door went poorly, as seen above. Afraid to be seen with your embarrassment of a sibling, you let your twin go alone to the next door, where they encounter a monster hunting for candy! And it just so happens, your sibling is wearing a candy corn costume!
Your sibling is abducted and thrown over a gate into an ominous land and you find yourself forced to collect Halloween candy in order to open the gates and pursue your sibling.
Along the way, you find an ally in another new kid who's being bullied. With your combined costumes, you collect candy and fight more monsters you encounter in houses. You can exchange costumes for various abilities, and you can find resources in the neighborhood that let you build new and unique costumes, for more unique abilities that will help you on your quest.
The fights against monsters transform into giant kaiju-like battles, where your costumes provide you with special attacks. The fights are turn-based with quick time events to successfully land a blow.
This was a fun game about trying to rescue your sibling so they don't ruin Halloween for you. This game is a Halloween tradition for me; I always like to re-play this game every October. I personally enjoy it because it feels nostalgic to me. It takes me back to my childhood days of trick-or-treating in suburban neighborhoods. I lived out in the forested countryside, so I had to be driven into town by my parents to go trick-or-treating.
I always looked way older than I actually was, so the last 3 years I went out, people always asked if I was too old to be trick-or-treating. Halloween was my favorite holiday, so it was sad that I had to give up trick-or-treating a little early, just because I looked much older. We need to normalize trick-or-treating for adults!
*Ahem.*
There is also a sequel to this game called *Costume Quest 2*, where trick-or-treating is outlawed in the near future by dentists. You and your sibling go on time-traveling adventures to stop this horrible dark future from happening.
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- lemmy.world
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- 3M
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*White Day* is a South Korean horror game about surviving in a haunted high school at night. It's a very dark game (literally), so I apologize in advance for the dim screenshots.
For my American audience, "White Day" is originally a Japanese holiday that has spread across many East Asian countries. It mirrors Valentine's Day. Unlike in America, where Valentine's Day is just about confessing love and sharing romantic experiences and gifts, in some Asian cultures, the Asian Valentine's Day is a day for women to confess their love with homemade chocolates (or store-bought if you prefer, but homemade are more special and meaningful).
Then a *whole month later,* on March 14th, the guys celebrate White Day, where they will reciprocate with their own homemade (or store-bought) chocolates if their feelings are mutual. Imagine confessing your love and having to wait a whole month to find out if the guy actually likes you back!
I lived in Japan for 3 years and South Korea for 2 years, so I got plenty of experience with this holiday. It's kind of a big deal, in both countries.
*White Day: A Labyrinth Named School* is a game based on the premise of a guy confessing his love for a girl in his school. She lost her diary on the school grounds and he decided to return it, along with a box of chocolates. He does this by sneaking into the school late at night to put it in her locker.
But there's an excessively violent janitor who patrols the school halls, so you have to avoid being caught. You literally watch him take a baseball bat to a kid until he's unconscious, then drag the kid's body to his office! Dang, South Korea!
My screenshot above is your first encounter with the janitor; you outrun him and hide in a classroom until he passes. Throughout the game, you hear his keys jingle in the hallway and that's your cue to run and hide. Here's me taking refuge in the girls' bathroom while he's on patrol:
This is more than just a "hide-and-seek from an angry janitor" game, though. As you roam the school and explore classrooms, you can find ghost stories about the school, and I haven't gotten that far in the game yet, but I believe you actually run into some of the ghosts while roaming the school grounds. Here's a bloody textbook I found in the corner of a room, with two bloody hand prints on the wall nearby it:
This is a puzzle game, where you collect clues and solve puzzles to eventually reach your goal of returning the diary and leaving your chocolate gift. You only know the girls' name and what homeroom she's in, but the classroom is locked, so you need to find your way around the school and gain access to other rooms and resources until you can eventually gain access to the girl's locker.
You also run into some other students sneaking around the school and help each other achieve your goals.
One of the girls is sweet and kind and saves you from the janitor:
While the other is only interested in how you can help her gain access to a classroom. She's a bit more of a tease.
There are also some strange images hanging between classrooms on the wall that are wildly different from one another, both in art style and theme. I feel like they're going to be important for a puzzle later on.
This game wouldn't be too bad if not for the scary music and sound effects. If it was just hiding from a janitor and solving puzzles, I would hardly consider it horror. But there's a storm raging outside, with rattling of doors and windows at inopportune times to give you a fright. Plus, creepy music will play randomly that makes you think something's sneaking up on you. There was one area where I heard voices whispering unintelligibly and they wouldn't stop until I left the area.
I played this at night with all the lights out and it definitely got my heart rate up! If I was this boy in real life, I would've just gone home and given the girls' diary to her directly during the day. As soon as I saw the janitor beat some kid unconscious with a bat, I would've noped right out of there. That's a situation for the police to deal with, not some young student.
There's a sequel to this game called *White Day 2: The Flower That Tells Lies*. It's a direct sequel, returning to the same high school. It looks like it might be an investigation story, trying to solve what really happened at the end of the first game. It looks interesting; once I finish this first game, I'll definitely jump into the sequel.
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- lemmy.world
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- 3M
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Whew, it's been a busy day. I almost didn't make another Halloween-themed screenshot post today.
The vulgar and disturbing screenshot above is from a game called *Gori: Cuddly Carnage*. It's about a hyper-intelligent (but incapable of human speech) cat named Gori who wears human clothes and travels on a sentient hoverboard. I believe he's the result of a scientific experiment.
Gori's human owner, a scientist, is captured by The Bear in a Box and Gori sets off to rescue her on a space ship. According to the game's description, "humanity has been destroyed," so it's up to Gori to save the day. Every level is occupied by zombie unicorns that Gori gets to hack and slash with his hoverboard in the most gruesome ways. There are even bonus levels where you get to save unicorns that haven't been zombified yet.
The Bear in a Box is an extremely sour fella without many nice things to say. I've only played an hour and a half of this game, so I don't know what his story is yet, but he seems to be the main antagonist of the game. He *really* doesn't like Gori.
This is a really fun game to play. You earn combos for creative ways of defeating your enemies, which powers up your ultimate attack with your hoverboard. The action is pretty smooth and enjoyable. It does live up to its name, giving you plenty of semi-cuddly creatures to gorily slice and dice. If you can handle vulgar language and gory fights, this game is pretty cool.
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- lemmy.world
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- 3M
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*Choo-Choo Charles* is a terrifying game about a half-train, half-monster who is terrorizing a small island. It's basically the nightmare version of Thomas the Tank Engine. I wouldn't be surprised if it was loosely based on those horror images of Thomas you can find online.
You're hired to hunt down Charles and end his reign of terror. You do this by running your own train around the island and upgrading its armor, firepower, and speed using whatever scraps you can find lying around. There is a gun on the back of your train which you can use to fight Charles when he attacks. Below is my decked-out train. You can also change its color using paint cans found around the island.
Some of the island residents will give you scrap if you run errands for them too. That is, if they're not cowering in terror as Charles runs amok.
If you read notes lying around the island and pay attention to the residents, you'll learn of a larger plot, where a guy named Warren hired a mining crew to mine the island. He brought their families to the island, which are all the residents you run into. He's protecting three eggs found in the mines that are connected to Charles somehow, and he won't let anyone leave the island.
Charles will fight you until he's severely injured, then he'll run away. But if you collect all three eggs hidden in mines around the island and place them atop a specific altar, it will enrage Charles and he'll fight to the death. Be careful of Warren's loyal miners, though. They won't give up the eggs without a fight.
This game is pretty straightforward and can be run through pretty quickly. On my first play-through, I took my time and still beat it in about 3 hours. But it's definitely good at getting your heart rate up. That terrifying train screech in the distance is your warning that Charles is close, and you have mere seconds to either take shelter or be prepared to fight from your train.
I actually live next to some train tracks, with a train that passes by at least twice a day. After playing through this game once, I felt fear in my chest every time I heard an actual train whistle outside. With its dark, sometimes rainy environment and creepy music, this game does an excellent job setting a terrifying ambiance.
Oh wow, this was actually a thing.