[Game Journal] The upward spiral of videogames

Janp · Oct 27, 2021

Silent Hill 2
Well, this was Silent Hill 1 on drugs.

Gameplay-wise, it's more polished, has some new cool mechanics, like combining items, and controls are smoother. It's also a lot harder. Enemies now survive more hits and are more aggressive. The scaries part of the game was when a basic patient demon jumped from under the car. I had no idea they can move while lying on the ground and it caught me completely off-guard. Respawning enemies also made backtracking a lot harder.

On the other hand, it's even more generous than the previous game. I had 100+ ammo in both pistol and shotgun by the final location. I did use melee weapons more, since some enemies took 20+ shots from pistol, but I think it's still a lot. At one point, I just equiped shotgun and killed everything with it. But it also felt like I had only a handful of healing. Realistically speaking, I still had 5+ pieces of each healing item after the final boss, but I used a lot of healing on each bossfight. Third, fourth and fifth bossfight cost me almost all of my healing. They were a lot harder, usually taking place in a small room, where you can barely move.

Story-wise, this was completely different from the first game. There was no cult, no gods and no world-ending scenario. This was psychological horror centered around the main character James Sunderland and his dead wife. Just like in the previous game, I have a bunch of questions after finishing the game, but this time I caught up on what was the point of some characters.

Overall, this is improvement over already great game. 9.5/10.

Janp · Nov 4, 2021

Silent Hill 3
Okay, now this was another proper sequel. While I love the second game, it feels like a spin-off, after playing this one. It's a direct continuation of the first Silent Hill, taking 17 years after the first game. It takes the best from both games, add few new things, but also kinda breaks some well working mechanics to be honest. Well, no game is perfect after all.

Gameplay-wise it's a classic Silent Hill. You go around spooky areas, collect stuff, kill/avoid monsters, rinse and repeat. And it's still fun. Heather, a new protagonist, looks at items you can interact with, so it's easy to pick them up, just like in the previous game. I like some new weapons like katana and submachine gun, but I still think hunting rifle is better. I've only ever useed submachine gun against the final boss.

Now, something I loved about the game is how it dealt with the generous problem. There was almost no ammo or healing anywhere. I guess it makes sense, since James took everything during Silent Hill 2. I barely killed any monster with ranged weapons and still run out of all of my ammo during the final fight and had to use my katana to finish the fight. Same with healing. I think I got hit more times, especially in the bossfights, but I also fought less overall. Still, I had no healing at the end of the game.

Speaking of fighting, there is a little revamped battle system and it's broken. The hits sometimes don't register and hitboxes are all over the place. Heather has more attacks, but some monsters are so small or are lying on the ground, so you won't even hit them in the end. Luckily, you could just avoid most fights. There are new monsters, but they don't really have some deep meaning behind them. There are dogs and nurses that are reference to the first game and that makes sense, given that Heather is Alessa's reincarnation. But the rest are just random enemies. They look cool, but they lack the depth of Silent Hill 2 monsters. It also doesn't help that they are basically threw at you right from the start, in contrast with how slowly were new monsters introduced in the previous games.

When it comes to story, it's direct sequel to the first game. I quite like it and probably prefer the occult theme over the psychological horror theme of Silent Hill 2 in the end. To be honest, Claudia was pretty weak villain. She really didn't do much during the story. But I loved her design. The fact that she has no eyebrows makes her face so uncanny. I wish she actually had more of a personality above the "I love God". I also enjoyed Harry Mason appearing, but I wish he had bigger role. What I didn't like about the story was the fact that the game barely takes place in Silent Hill. Majority of the game is about Heather going home from a mall. And it just doesn't make sense lore-wise (after Silent Hill 2) for monsters to appear in that location. But the locations Heather has to go through are at least creepy. When the game gets to Silent Hill, there isn't really much to explore and you are forced to go through the old locations like Brookhaven Hospital. They were fine, but there are still unexplored locations in Silent Hill I would love to see.

Overall, I love this game and would rank it even higher that Silent Hill 2. It's short, but intense experience, it solves some problems I had with the previous games, while also maintaining their quality. 9.5/10.

Next up, I'll most likely play Silent Hill 4 and then check up some more franchises. I bought Metroid Dread and Super Mario 3D All-Stars, but I'm not sure if I'll be able to finish them this month. I was also thinking about going back to Yakuza series, so I will most likely play Yakuza Kiwami 2 after Silent Hill 4.

Janp · Nov 13, 2021

Silent Hill 4
I guess it was time for this series to start losing its quality. It doesn't mean this game is bad, it's quite good actually. It's just not a masterpiece like the previous 3 games.

I think the worst part about the game is the fact, that by changing 2 names, there would be no connection to Silent Hill. It feels like the devs had a cool idea about a guy not being able to leave his apartment and only during the development decided to put it in the Silent Hill universe. Someone just took one random article from Silent Hill 2 and decided to name 2 characters in the game after people mentioned in the article. But I like this story about Walter Sullivan, it expand the history of Silent Hill. It could be told via news articles in a game that has its own story, since it is actually told mostly via news articles in this game, only then you are forced to go through random "scary" locations.

Characters are really bland. At the start of the game the main character, Henry Townshend, is a guy who was locked up in his apartment. At the end of the game, Henry is a guy who was locked up in his apartment. There is literally no information about who Henry is. He shows no emotion and barely talks throughout the whole game. He has no motivation to really do anything in the story. The second main character, Eileen Galvin, is basically the same. She's Henry's neighbor. And she is kind. That's her whole character. You find nothing more about them. They have no character development. They are just a blank mannequins you experience the story through.

Now, let's talk about gameplay. There are 2 modes you play in. One is 1st person in Henry's apartment. This is one of the best parts of the game. The apartment is healing you up, you can save the game there and pick up new items, since you have limited inventory this time. You even have some pretty original and cool puzzles tied to the apartment. Then, at one point, it starts hurting you instead and you really get the feeling of never being safe anywhere. It's unexpected and so good. The 2nd mode is a classic Silent Hill gameplay. It's great, but it still has some bad changes. When you hit someone, they will be pushed back a little bit, forcing you to move close to them to hit them again. And there is no point in using pistol. Since the inventory is limited, yo ucan only carry small amount of ammo. And since majority of enemies are immune to pistol bullets, there is no point in carrying them around. Plus, when you are performing a charged attack with melee weapon, you are invincible. I have no idea why. But it makes battles a cake walk. But overall, it fine.

The locations are now strictly linear, which makes the game a lot easier. You also don't have to find a map, since Henry will draw his own. The locations are pretty random. You get to them through portals in your apartment and you go from a metro station to a forest to a prison to a random building to your apartment. And then you have to go through each location again, but now you have to escort Eileen with you. Each location is also fairly lit, so you can see everything. Henry doesn't have his own flashlight or radio, which was a staple of the series.

Monsters in this game are also not that interesting. They are usually rehash of the monsters from previous games, but they have no hidden meaning in them. Then, there are ghosts and Walter himself. Ghosts are Walter's victims. They can't be killed, can follow you through the whole location and hurt you just by standing near you. They work great on paper, but they are annoying to deal with in the slow, explorative gameplay of Silent Hill series. They can be stopped by special item, but there are like 5 copies of it the in the entire game, not enough for all ghosts. And then, there is Walter. He's like ghosts, but can't be stopped and is aggresive. He starts following you once you are joined by Eileen. And she constantly get stucked because of him or starts attacking him, if she has a weapon. It makes the quality of the game drops to the lowest possible point.

Overall, it was fine. I know I criticized it a lot above, but it wasn't as bad as some of the bad games I've played this year. It just wasn't as good as the original trilogy. In the end, I was glad I was done with it, because dealing with ghosts and Walter was the worst part of any Silent Hill so far. Puzzles were fun and utilized the ability of Henry to go between the level and his apartment. The apartment itself was also a nice surprise. 7.5/10.

Janp · Nov 21, 2021

Gray Matter
It has been a while, since I've played this game last time, so I was afraid about how badly it aged, but it's surprisingly playable.

The graphics are ugly at some places, especially in close-ups on character's faces. But the art in cutscenes is still nice.

On the other side, the story is brilliant. It keeps this mysterious atmosphere until the very (rushed) end. It perfectly ties together 3 main story threads and pushes their potential to the very maximum. Characters are complex and I had a hard time guessing which are on my side and which are only playing an act. Some do fall of by the end, but other characters get more background because of that.

Overall, it defended its place as my favourite P&C adventure. I would love to talk about it some more, but I feel like I would just repeat same few lines again and again. It's well crafted mystery story, has cool mechanics like preparing magic tricks, characters are fun to watch, the music is great, as well as Oxford locations. I miss those old-school P&C adventures. 9.5/10.

Janp · Nov 30, 2021

Yakuza Kiwami 2
Exactly after one year since I finished the first game, I finally got around to play this one.

I was a little worried I forgot most of the plot and characters and that it would be a problem, since Yakuza is story-focused game, but there is a huge recap right at the beginning of the game. A little bit too huge for my liking. It makes sure you know every single detail about every single character that appeared in the first game. But I guess I should have expected it.

Story-wise, I wasn't sure how can this game follow up on self-sustained story of the first game. But it was fine. It wasn't as good as in the first game, mostly because it focused on Kiryu, Mizuki, Nishikiyama and their relationships. This game is all about saving the Tokyo from evil mafia. It's not as captivating as the first one. On top of that, there are few weak parts that are there just to introduce mediocre minigame. I wasn't really a fan of that. Haruka segments remained me of the previous game, but they still slowed the story more than I would prefer. The final chapter was such a mindfuck in a good way, but I couldn't stop laughing, when the game backpedaled and changed the final boss 4 times in 10 minutes. And the ending... I hate the game for playing with my emotions so much. I was so good!

I found the battle system to be fun, but I kinda missed 4 different styles from the previous game. Especially since my progress was reseted basically without any explanation. There was a long series of side quests to get whole Dragon of Dojima style in the first game, but it's locked behind another series of side quests again. Well, the battles would be trivial with Tiger Drop and other combos from Dragon of Dojima style, but I would welcome a explanation of why can't Kiryu use them. Boss battles were big improvement on the other hand. Bosses still had pretty basic attacks, but at least they cut down their HP, so they didn't kill the pacing of the game.

Side stories and minigames were mostly recycled from the first game, so I didn't bother with most of them. That basically meant I spend 30 hours less on this one than the first one. I hated mandatory minigames in the story, especially since they also packed more than 30 minutes of cutscenes that had nothing to do with the main story. These were the only cutscenes I skipped in the game, because I had better things to do than to listen to 4 villains exclusive to Majima's minigame talking about how evil they are. But there were also great new minigames like Tekken minigame. I spent way too long on that one.

Overall, it's a really enjoyable game. The story was a little bit weaker than in the previous game, but was still good. The fighting system was improved and everything else kept the level of polish it had in the first game. 8.5/10.

Janp · Dec 18, 2021

Gothic 3
I have no idea how to rate this game. I love it, but no matter how many patches tries to make it better, it's fundamentally a bad game.

It tries to do something new, with a huge open world, but it fails to put a meaningful content in it. After you finish up questing in one city and move to the next one, you'll find the same boring fetch quests with same boring dialogues. And then you move to the next city, finish another batch of boring fetch quests and so on... I got so bored after finishing nearly whole Myrtana that I just skipped whole Nordmar. I decided to play for Beliar, so I had to get through whole Varant, but since this game is unfinished, there are only few quests in each city in there and they are usually easy and fast to finish.

On the other hand, I love the atmosphere, the nature, the world and the music in this game. It's so good. Yeah, it's funny how a single enemy can trigger the epic battle music and hero's shout when he dies is also, but otherwise, the music works so well with the world. I love the moment when you first leave Ardea or make your first steps in Varant or get to the huge temples of Bakaresh. It's such a nice a detailed world. One thing I noticed on this playthorugh is how subtly the story is told. It's told through random dialogues and you have to really pay attention to get everything. Like how did one of the Adanos artefacts got all the way to the Demon of Gotha. I don't think I've ever found this story on my previous playthroughs.

Battle system is another thing that is awful. Not only there are only two attacks in melee battles, but you can't train your battle style like in previous Gothic games. On top of that, the enemies are stupid and you can easily dodge their attacks. One strategy literally works on every enemy and it doesn't even matter how many enemies are attacking you. I decided to use magic and all I needed was a basic fireball to kill everything with 1-2 shots. I did pick up few summoning spells and it was fun to use skeleton or demon or even a whole skeleton army by the end, but they weren't really necessary for me to kill everyone. Aside from that, I had no reason to buy better equipment or upgrade my HP, stamina or anything aside from AK and Mana.

Overall, like I said, I have a hard time ranking this game. I love it for its estetics, but the gameplay is boring. It's not really a game you can play all at once. I found it relaxing to get lost in the braindead quests, but I was really looking forward finally finishing the game in the end. 7/10.

Janp · Dec 23, 2021

Metroid Dread
To be honest, when I first watched the trailer and saw a parry mechanic from Samus Returns, I wasn't sure if I want to play this entry. I'm glad my love for Metroid was stronger, because parries in this game and in Samus Returns are nothing alike. It was overused and forced in Samus Returns, but Dread uses it just right.

It was surprisingly a great Metroid game. I enjoyed exploring a new planet, upgrades always changed a way I looked at the world, enemies were fine, but I wouldn't mind more variety than just having X taking over every living creature. Every location was unique and I loved their background, because they felt alive. The underwater section gave me goosebumps with all the huge alien squids swimming in the background. E.M.M.I. were great. I loved every single one of them, even the broken one at the start. Bosses on the other hand were not that great, especially since vast majority of them were just regular enemies just bigger or repeated quite often. But they were still fun to beat.

The story was okay for Metroid game for most parts. It was there just to have some reason for Samus to go to the planet. I have a mixed feelings about the final twist. I like that Metroid DNA gave Samus new abilities, but it's nothing new, since something similar happened in Fusion. But the reveal about Samus and Raven Beak's relationship was so boring. Literally nothing about the game would change if it wasn't shoehorned in. Whose idea was it? It just killed my excitement for the game and made it from excellent game with okay story into a excellent game with bad story.

Overall, I'm so glad I decided to get it even after watching the first trailer. It was really great game and one of the best I've played this year. 9.5/10.

Janp · Dec 25, 2021

I'll be honest, I picked these two games mostly because they are short, since I wanted to finish up my challenge before 31st.

Polarity
Polarity is a Portal clone. And it's not half bad. The main gimmick revolves around the player changing their polarity between red and blue to either go through or get stopped by blue and red walls and lasers. And it's surprisingly fun.

But it's clear this is dev's first game. It's full of small mistakes or weird design choices. I got softlocked on almost every level, while trying to solve them. There were bunch of levels that required throwing a cube at a power platform, but there was no fail-safe. When I failed, I had to restart a whole level. Sometimes if I died, I got transported at the start of the puzzle, but puzzles wouldn't restart, which means I had no way in progressing without restarting the whole level. It wasn't as annoying as it sounds, because most levels took me less than 3 minutes to finish, but I would welcome a way to restart a puzzle without restarting the whole level.

The story of the game is almost non-existent, but serves it's purpose. You're told that you're a hacker at the start of the game and that by solving puzzles, you hack the system. You also have to collect data on your way to finish the game, which was nice. And finding some data was hard.

Overall, it was cool game that scratched my Portal itch and was fun for the whole hour it took me to finish it. I wouldn't mind more levels and especially more polished game. 7/10.

Dyna Blaster
This game was huge part of my childhood. I even found a piece of paper with level passwords that me and my mum wrote back in early 2000 and used them when I needed to go back to the game. They worked!

And it was still a great experience. But it was a little bit slower than I remember, which meant I sometimes screwed the timing, especially at the start of the game. But otherwise, I enjoyed it. The basic loop of trapping enemies with bombs and not kill yourself in the process is still fun. It got a little bit repetitive by the final 3 locations, especially when I had all upgrades tho.

Overall, I'm glad I finally got around to replay this after almost 2 decades. 7.5/10.

And with that, I'm done with my goal of playing 50 games. I'll do one big review of the whole year and rank each new game, where I'll also decide on what to do next year.

Janp · Dec 27, 2021

Year in Review
Phew, what a year. I have no idea how, but I did it! It was fun, but I feel I won't be repeating it next year. Completing this event was my main focus in my free time, so I kinda neglected other hobbies because of it. Plus I had a lot of irl stuff going on and I know I'll have even more stuff to take care of in 2022, so I'll decrease my goal number by a lot next year.

Anyway, I found a lot of great new series like Eye of the Beholder, Frog Detective, Dark Souls or Silent Hill. I also finally got Switch and played few games on it. But not every game was great. I would say Tell Me Why is still the biggest disappointment for me, followed up by Dark Souls 2. Some games were straight up boring like The Stillness of the Wind or 911 Operator. I decided to rank each new game I've played this year. This means following games won't be included in the list:

Spoiler:

So, without further ado...

38. Tell Me Why
I'm so glad I didn't pay any money for this awful homophobic piece of crap. I like DONTNOD games, but I feel like they just can't capture the same feeling as with the original Life is Strange. I'm sorry but if the only thing you can say about your game is that it has a trans character in it (which is basically what is their website all about), and that character turns out to be completely irrelevant and without any other characteristics aside from being a trans character, then what is really a point of this game? It has boring story, badly written characters, barely any explanation is given to main characters' powers, but at least puzzles and cinematography were decent. After this and Life is Strange 2, this is last game from DONTNOD I'll ever play.

37. Dark Souls 2: Scholar of the First Sin
How can this game exists? It's nothing like Dark Souls 1. It's quite the opposite. All the clever enemy placement is replaced with simple room with random multiple enemies, clever level design is replaced with straight lines, clever hidden lore of each boss is replaced with well... nothing. And so on. I wish I never touched this game.

36. 911 Operator
I don't think I even have to say what made me dislike this game. It's in its header already. Ads. Ads to other games are everywhere in this game. Before I even got to the main menu, the devs pushed their other games in my face. And the gameplay itself was pretty weak and got boring quickly.

35. The Stillness of the Wind
If any game was pointless, it was this one. No matter what I did or how hard I tried, it had no effect on the outcome. The game just took all my progress away, when it decided it's time to end. On top of that, while it acts as one of those relaxing farming games, I was stressed out of my mind just to do everything I could to survive, not knowing that I could just let the game go on on its own and read a book or go out instead.

34. The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild
To this point the games were straight up bad. Breath of the Wild is the divider between bad and mediocre games. What a disappointment this game was. Ubisoft level of open world mixed with barely any Zelda gameplay resulted in a game that was boring, uninteresting and painfully long.

33. Eye of the Beholder III: Assault on Myth Drannor
While worst out of the trilogy, it does introduce few good mechanics like using all possible attacks with only one button. It just wasn't as good as the other Eye of the Beholder games. And when I started making this list, I realized it wasn't as good as other games too.

32. Minit
You know I like when a game has an unique gimmick or mechanic. Minit has one. But it doesn't really do much with it and it quickly becomes annoying. At least it was not a long game.

31. Polarity
In lot of ways similar to Minit, but the problem with this game is more about bad save/puzzle design than anything else. I wish the devs actually made sequel or remake of this game with more levels and softlocking solved.

30. Yo-kai Watch 2: Fleshy Souls
This was basically Yo-kai Watch, which I loved, but with so much worse story, bossfights and mechanics. Like train travelling. Oh my god how I hated that thing.

29. Silent Hill 4
Continuing on with another disappointing sequel, Silent Hill 4 wasn't a bad horror game. It was just bad Silent Hill game. There was literally no reason for this game to be called Silent Hill and it would be 100x better.

28. Might & Magic: Book One
I think I was too harsh with my score for this game. Looking back at it, it was fine. I'll play more M&M games in 2022.

27. Nekopara 4
On the other hand, I was probably way too forgiving with my score for this game. When it comes to Nekopara games, it's one of the best, but it's still just a simple visual novel.

26. Path of Giants
I almost forget about this game. It was fine, but nothing to return to or remember after the first playthrough.

25. Doom II: Hell of Earth
Doom has become one of my favourite games from this year, but it's sequel was just not that interesting as the first one. It was basically the original Doom, but harder. I enjoyed it.

24. Firewatch
I wanted to play Firewatch since it was released, but wasn't sure if it isn't overpriced and overhyped. In the end, I'm glad I played it, but it's one of those games that tries way too hard to have a deep philosophical story and fails to deliver.

23. Crash Team Racing Nitro-Fueled
Fine remake that I still return to to this day.

22. The Haunted Island, a Frog Detective Game
This was a pleasant surprised. It's simple and short, but has so much personality. One small island was able to create more believable world in less than 60 minutes than some epic RPGs could in 50 hours.

21. Frog Detective 2: The Case of the Invisible Wizard
Basically the first game, but set in a location that I personally enjoyed more.

20. Yakuza Kiwami 2
I'm beginning to see a pattern. Great sequel, but with not as good story as the original game. But I still can't wait to see, how it all continues.

19. Dishonored
Not the kind of game I would play often, but I enjoyed it. Not enough for me immediately check the sequel, but I think I'll get to it one day.

18. Eye of the Beholder
I was afraid this game would be too hard or complicated for me, since I've never really played dungeon crawlers, but in the end, it made me enjoy this genre a lot.

17. Yoku's Island Express
Another game that won me over because of its gimmick. Pinball sections were fun to beat and it always felt worth it.

16. Blue Fire
Yet another cool surprise. If only it was more polished.

15. Little Big Workshop
Building genre is another genre I don't really play, because these games don't usually have a clear goal. This one had it. And it was fun. I'm even considering buying DLC and replaying it.

14. Silent Hill 2
It was hard to rank the original Silent Hill trilogy, but in the end I realized that I enjoyed Silent Hill 2 the least. It was way too easy and while the story was top notch, it didn't really tied to the first and third game.

13. Tsioque
Modern old-school P&C adventure was something I had no idea I wanted or needed, but now I want more.

12. Silent Hill
Extremely well done horror. To this day, I remember the section in school, how I got lost in there and how afraid I was to explore it. And it only got better from there.

11. Monster Hunter: Rise
Not as good as World, but still a great Monster Hunter game. I just wish the ending wasn't one huge grind on few repeating levels.

10. Carto
This game was magical. The map building was fun and I enjoyed how it affected the world.

Eye_of_the_Beholder_II_The_Legend_of_Darkmoon_cover.png

9. Eye of the Beholder II: The Legend of Darkmoon
I fell in love with dungeon crawlers because of this game. Another genre I'll focus on in 2022.

8. DuckTales Remastered
The main theme became staple in my playlist. And the rest of the game is as good as the music.

7. The Ultimate Doom
Now we're talking. Nothing but a pure swift action. And now that I talk about it, I should play more games like this in 2022.

6. Silent Hill 3
Just outside the TOP5 is Silent Hill 3. It was more action oriented than the previous Silent Hill games, but it was the most polished game from the trilogy.

5. Superliminal
You might have notice that I like puzzle games by now. And this one was mindblowing. It really played with me and my perception and broke the classic puzzle stereotypes.

4. Metroid Dread
Modern Metroid in classic style. Once I started playing, I had a hard time putting the game down.

3. Dark Souls
Why did I avoid this series for so long? One of the most satisfying experience I've ever had. It became one of my favourite RPG of all time, alongside Gothic and Kingdom Come: Deliverence.

2. The Longing
How good can a game that forces you to wait 400 days to finish be? Well, extremely good. I loved how this game treated a time. And how well it built up the world around you. I'm still considering replaying it and getting other endings.

1. There Is No Game: Wrong Dimension
I had no idea this game will grab me as much as it did. It will be just short game with meta commentary that will think how clever it is, I thought. Oh, how wrong I was. Well, it was just that, but it was good. The moment the first credits started rolling and I realized it's actually a level, I said it's one of the best game I've ever played. It was back in March. And no other game for the rest of the year could get even close to change it.

And that's it for this year. For the next year, I think I'll set up a goal of playing 30 games. And I'll make a list of games/series I want to focus on, since I sometimes found myself not knowing what to play next.

Janp · Jan 1, 2022

START OF THE 2022 GAMING

So, this time I decided to make a list of games I would like to play this year. In the end, I got exactly 50 games, but I set my goal only on 25 games.

The list as following, in no particular order:

Spoiler:

I already started playing Stories 2, but I'll still count it towards this year, since I didn't make any huge progress. I also played Jazz Jackrabbit 2 co-op missions with my sister and I think I could finish the campaign in a day or two.

Janp · Jan 2, 2022

And I've already beaten first game of 2022. That was fast. But Jazz Jackrabbit 2 is short game that I played hundreds of times when I was younger.

Jazz Jackrabbit 2
Jazz Jackrabbit 2 is a side-scrolling shooter game about... well, I actually never payed attention to the story of this game before. But apparently there is a time travelling plot. You can imagine that the plot isn't really important or mindblowing. And it doesn't make much sense. Levels are supposed to be based on historical locations, but there are levels based on Alice in Wonderland.

But the gameplay is so much fun. It's simple. You shoot enemies in front of you and make your way through the level, while looking for secrets. I was surprised how many secrets I remember. Not just in the first few levels, but everywhere. On your way, you can pick up new kinds of ammo, but to be honest, I barely used them in combat. I still remember what each one did, but the regular pistol was just enough to blast through everything. Especially with few castfire upgrades, which turned it into full auto rifle. It was a true pain when I died and lost all castfire upgrades and had to build them up. Not having them made the final boss harder. I also played as Jazz this time. I'm used to play as Spaz and I missed his double jump. But as Jazz, I could get to places I usually couldn't get as Spaz.

I love the levels. They are linear, but you never know when there is a secret branching path. There are still places I never found a way to access. I also love their design. They have this unique style that's hard to describe. Imagine Tool songs getting transformed in game levels. That's probably the closest. Speaking of Tool, the music in this game... is nothing like Tool. But it's surprisingly good. I only started paying attention to the music in games few years ago, so I had no recollection of what is it like in this game prior to replaying it. But there are few levels that I feel like were way too short and linear and without much content. And towards the end, these levels grew in numbers.

On top of everything, there is multiplayer that I sinked in few hours with my sister on New Year's Eve. We played few rounds of each mode except for co-op, but we plan on playing co-op campaign some day later this year.

Overall, I'm glad I started new year with this game. It was nice trip to my childhood. It's not without mistakes, but it's still a great game. 8.5/10.

Janp · Jan 18, 2022

Monster Hunter Stories 2: Wings of Ruin
I remember playing the demo of the first MHS and liking quite a lot, but never getting around to actually buy it. So I was looking forward this sequel.

I knew what I was going in and enjoyed vast majority of this game. It has well-crafted world, maps and mechanics. I spent so much time hunting for specific eggs and genes, and then planning how to use these genes. Exploring the world was fun, even though some rewards were weak. Especially after the first location, because I had enough money to buy everything in the game. The monstie selection was fine, but I felt like it was a little bit unbalanced. Like for the first third of the game, I had monstly fire attribute monsters, for the second third of the game, I had mostly ice attribute monsters and for the final part, I had mostly electric attribute monsters. And there wasn't really a good selection for some abilities like Jump. There was Velocidrome at the beginning and then like 2 monsters after it.

But one thing that really grind my gears was story and characters in the game. For the game that has "stories" in the title, the story was pretty generic even for Monster Hunter game. And it wasn't really good either. It felt like one story beat repeated over and over again. After the first location, the story is basically: Navirou's friend tells you that your bond with Ratha is weak, you strengthen it, beat the big bad monster of the area and move to the next location, where the next Navirou's friend tells you that your bond with Ratha is weak... You get the idea. Speaking of Navirou, I don't want to see or hear this character ever again. Or at least for a while. He's the main character of the game. Not your character or Ratha, actually, your character is barely involved in the story and is often reduced to the background character. Heck, your character isn't even the one who beat the final boss. Navirou has to comment everything and be in every single shot. It's his friends, who help you around the world. And he keeps repeating the same few puns over and over again. I didn't even got to Rutoh and already wanted Navirou to disappear from the game. On top of that, there is an evil team randomly introduced halfway the game, which is forgotten about for the rest of the game until the final quests. At least the story served the purpose of giving context for the hunting.

I loved the battle system. It was simple, yet could get pretty complex. I enjoyed finding and guessing monsters weaknesses. It was a little lame, when I found out that every member of one species uses the same strategy, I would, for example, expect them to react to your monsties. Like if I'm using monstie with Speed attacks, then the monster would use Technical attacks against me. But the system worked well without it, thanks to various forms each monster could have in the fight and various weapons you could use.

I was surprised how smooth the game runs. It has FPS drops in the first 2 quest hubs, but it runs well for the rest of the game. Even in flying mode, where you see majority of the map at once. And the transition between ground and flying mode was also done really well.

Overall, this is the best Pokémon game I've ever played. I would play the first one too, but I noticed Navirou on the cover, so I'll probably put it low on my to-play list. 8.5/10.

Next, I still have to start and finish my game for this month's challenge - Dex. It should be a lot shorter than MHS2, so I think I can finish it this month. And I still have Octopath Traveller and Crysis Remaster on Switch, but I think I'll beat one of them next month.

Janp · Jan 27, 2022

Dex
Dex is 2D side scrolling RPG set in a cyberpunk city. I didn't have much expectations, but it was a pleasant surprise.

It is classic cyberpunk. It has hackers vs evil corporation, augmentations, military organization doing shady business and everything else you could ask from cyberpunk game. The main story is fairly linear, to the point that most decisions don't matter at all, except for the final cutscene. Which is a shame, because vast majority of sidequests and locations offer more ways to explore them. Be it hacking, lockpicking, fighting, talking or sneaking.

The linearity comes with another problem. There is a hacking minigame, that is a topdown shooter. It was fun at first, but quickly overstayed it's welcome. After doing it few times, I've seen everything it has to offer and realized fighting or sneaking is just a better way of solving problems. But the game forced me to play this minigame in the main story over and over again and even the final bossfight took place in this minigame.

The ending felt a little bit rushed and the final choice was poor. The ending I picked had one 5 second long cutscene that didn't explain anything. Other endings had better cutscenes, but they still left a lot unanswered.

The pixel art and the design of the world were top notch. It was fun just exploring the world and looking at the scenery of this dark future. Quests and NPCs were surprisingly written well and helped build the world around.

Overall, it was fine game. It doesn't bring anything new to the genre, but works well with it. The ending left me wanting more, which is a shame, because I finished every single quest in the game, so there isn't more. 8/10.

Janp · Jan 31, 2022

Genesis Noir
I had my eyes set on this day since the moment it was revealed. I love detective stories and been interested in astronomy/astrophysics lately. Plus I'm always looking after unique experiences in games. So this game should be perfect for me. But, now that I've actually played it, I have a really mixed feelings about it.

Well, this game is barely a game. Most interactions are about pointing/clicking the cursor at one point on the screen. There are few more complex puzzles, but they weren't fun to solve and usually required try and error method to finish them. There are few instances, where you control the main character and can explore a level, but they were usually empty. And for some reason, the engine couldn't handle them and drops FPS. Also, there were a loads of invisible walls in these areas, so I could barely explore it.

On the other hand, the game has interesting story about the creation and end of the universe and combines the noir detective story and sci-fi aesthetics really well. Characters are, as far as I understood, embodiment of abstract concepts like time or creation. And figuring their roles up was cool. The jazz music and the whole sound design was magnificent. Together with animations, it reminded me of the old Soviet Russia cartoons.

But the game really lost me during the last quarter. For some reason, it completely changes its style. It introduces more color outside black and white, changes music into more indie genre, adds voice acting and just butcher the story. It forgets about the main villain to the point or about the main goal and instead horribly executes a "deep" episode about letting go of your loved one. Which could easily be done without these weird changes.

Overall, I was a little bit disappointed, but mostly because I was looking for something different. Probably had my expentations way too high and was expecting something on The Longing or There Is No Game level. But for what it was, it was actually pretty cool experience. More like a movie than a game, but I think I'll still remember it for some time. 7/10.

Janp · Feb 13, 2022

Crysis Remastered
I've played this game on Switch and I liked it. I never played the original game, because back in 2007, my PC couldn't run it. And when I had a computer that could run it, I kinda lost interest in FPS genre altogether. So I never bothered to return to it. Until I got this remaster as gift for Christmas.

I wasn't sure about playing a FPS game on Switch. But surprisingly, it played well. And I loved aiming using motion controls. Well, correcting my aim/making it more precious with motion controls. It took some time to get used to it, but it made aiming a lot better.

Weapons and power-ups were fun to experiment with. I mostly used stealthy approach at the start. Sneaking in enemy bases and stealing weapons, ammo and informations was fun. And only later, when the shit hits the fan, I switched to more aggressive strategies. I also enjoyed how open missions were. Kinda reminded me of the first Far Cry. I disliked only one mission - on the alien spaceship. It was just a messy corridor. It looked nice, but gameplay-wise, it was the worst mission.

The game also run really well. I can't speak about graphics, since I have no idea how the original looked, but I was satisfied. Same with sound design. No complain there.

Overall, I enjoyed this game. It was great FPS with fun mechanics and map and with cool twist halfway the game. The ending was a little bit rushed, but it left me wanting more, so I'll most likely play both sequels this year. 9/10.

Next up, I'm playing Feudal Alloy. And to be honest, I'm not having much fun so far. I clocked in about 5 hours and have been considering dropping it for the last 3 hours. I think I wouldn't bother with it past 2 hours mark if it wasn't made by Czech developer. Hopefully I'm done with it soon and can move on better games.

Janp · Feb 17, 2022

Feudal Alloy
I've been eyeing this game pretty much from the moment it was released. I thought the idea of having a robot controlled by a fish set in a medieval era is great. And it really is great. Sadly, it's the only great thing about the game.

After about 2 hours of gameplay, I was strongly considering dropping the game. I've not only seen everything this game has to offer, but that content also started repeating. There are only few enemies and they start repeating way too quickly. There aren't really any special strategies to beat them. You just smash one button. And they respawn with each visit of each room, so they get annoying fast. I like stamina meter - it's a heater. It also came in play in some areas with extreme heat, where it incapacitated you to do anything.

There is pretty wide skill tree. But you will barely touch it, because it takes forever to level up. And even after that, the skills make almost to difference. Same with gear. I tested how much does the gear affect your stats and found out that it doesn't affect them at all. Like I had a sword + full set of armor with damage buff and every enemy still took the same number of hits to beat. Same with stamina meter and health gears. The game doesn't show you any numbers for you to compare two pieces of gear. Plus you can't even view gear you have equiped. And the inventory itself isn't made that well. Because of this, there is no reason to buy new gear. Which means there is no reason to explore the map, because the only rewards for finding treasures is gold and gear. And both are useless.

The game also lacks any kind of story or lore for the world. There is one cutscene at the start and then one at the end and that's it. That's the whole story. There is also no text to build up a world around you and majority of the map is copypasted, so there is nothing that could tell you more about the world. Why does this world have fishes in robots?

Overall, this game is lacking a lot in pretty much every regard. I don't think I would bother with this game if it wasn't made by a Czech developer. 5/10.

Janp · Feb 27, 2022

Dead Space
This game was on my to-play list since 2013. I even started it back then and played it for like 60 minutes. What I find strange is that I clearly remember what happened in those 60 minutes for all these years.

I had fun. The atmosphere was perfectly dark and cold, exactly what I would expect from a space horror. Exploring was rewarding and it never felt like I'm going out of my way to explore the ship. It never interfered the main story and the feeling of dread and urge to get to the main objective. I also have to mention a sound design, which was just perfect. It reminded me a lot of Silent Hill, with all the rusty pipes' clinging and sounds of metal going on.

I liked the 3D map, but it was hard to navigate through it sometimes, because of how the HUD was made. HP, stasis meter, inventory and ammo were fine, but I think 3D map needs a way to rotate it to be useful.

I was surprised to see a shop in the game. And while the idea of buying new weapons and having almost infinite amount of healing and ammo was great at first, I quickly found out new weapons are inferior to plasma cutter and I constantly had full inventory of healing and ammo, so there was no reason to buy anything outside armor upgrades. Same with weapon upgrades. They felt way too expensive for what little stats they add, so I often forgot to buy them at benches.

Enemies were horrifying. I loved their design. And each of them had cool introduction to them. On the other hand, a lot of them felt the same and could be defeated with the same strategy of shooting their legs off and then finishing them with a headshot. They also got predictable pretty fast. I don't think I've ever let a bat necromorph resurrect a single corpse after the first one. On the other hand, it took me quite some time to check each dead body to not get ambushed by necromorph hiding inside. I think the enemies were scary only in the first chapter, when I had no idea what can they actually do. By the fourth chapter, it felt more like enemies are locked in the ship with me, instead of me beaing locked with them. So they became more of an annoyance than the actual threat pretty quickly.

The story was ok. It wasn't anything worldbreaking, but I think it worked for most parts. On the other hand, I also feel like it had way too many detours and filler fetch quests. I would say half of the chapters could be cut and the story wouldn't change a bit. It would probably even made the whole experience better.

There was one segment that I hate. A turret minigame. It was so bad. It wasn't hard or anything like that, it was just unnecessary, tedious and not working properly on the controller. Why is this in a survival horror game? And why is it there twice? The first time was more than enough. I literally didn't play the game for a whole week after experiencing this minigame for the first time and was considering just giving it up at that point. I'm glad I didn't do that, but if Dead Space 2 has this kind of minigame in it, I'll never touch it.

Overall, it was extremely good survival horror, that shines more with the environment, atmosphere and sound design, that it does with gameplay. I was getting bored in the second half of the game, because it was getting repetitive. Same enemies attacking in the same hoards at the same moments in almost same rooms. 7.5/10.

And that's it for February. I wasn't really feeling like gaming this month for some reason, yet I was able to finish 3 games. Not sure about what I'll play next. I have As Far As The Eye on my list for March and since it is roguelike game, I think it will take me some time to finish it. But after finishing Dead Space, I feel like playing something more relaxing. So, I'll wait until new theme is revealed for Game Along.

Janp · Mar 10, 2022

Gobliiins 4 Platinum
I wasn't sure how to deal with this review, because Gobliiins 4 also include remasters of previous 3 titles. I did play through all of them in the end, so I think it might be worth it to talk abou each of them.

First game was classic 90s P&C adventure. A lot of pixel hunting and just trial and error. It has a cool fable-themed art style and simple story that works well with the overall tone of the game. But I wasn't fan of a HP bar, that went down with each wrong interaction. Plus almost each screen has 2+ copies of one item with only one of them being the right one. But you have no way of knowing which one you need to progress. Overall, it was okay.

The second one was also pretty good. There is an inventory and save system now, which was nice. But puzzles were even more crazier and I had to consult a walkthrough several times, because I got stucked way too often on stupid interactions. Both goblins can now move simultaneously and some puzzles are about timing their interactions correctly. Overall, not as good as the first one, but also pretty good.

The third one was weak. It tried way too hard to be funny and quirky, and puzzles were uninspired. And for some reason, everything in this game had to make an annoying sound all the time. I had to turn off sound because I couldn't stand it any longer. Overall, this one didn't click with me.

And finally, the newest Gobliiins. Long story short, it was bad. It lost all charm of previous games. It took the worst out of them and mashed it into something weird. It played and looked bad. Even for 2009 standards, this game is outdated. I mean it was released the same year as Machinarium and Black Mirror, and only few months earlier than Heavy Rain and Grey Matter.

Overall, I was glad to revisit the first 2 games, since I haven't play them it a while, but the rest of the series was bad. I would give 7.5 to the first one, 7 to the second one, 6 to the third one and 5 to the last one. So 6.5 for the whole collection.

Janp · Mar 20, 2022

As Far As The Eye
As Far As The Eye is unique mix of roguelike and turn-based strategy. You take care of nomadic clan fleeing before a flood and your goal is to take them to The Eye, which is a safe haven for nomads.

What I found confusing at the start was the main menu and game modes. There is a campaign, which is also a tutorial, but then there are regular runs, that also have tutorials in them. At first, I though I would finish the campaign and call it a day, but since it was a tutorial, I decided to finish the game with each clan to tick it as completed. Many players had 30+ hours in it and claimed they only finished 1 or 2 runs. You probably noticed by now that I find challenging games intriguing, so I was looking forward this.

Then I started my first non-tutorial run and easily finished it. Well, I had like 2 turns left, but it was a breeze until the final map. Maybe I just got lucky. Then I finished runs with 2nd and 3rd clan on the first try. The final clan had the worst initial conditions and their followers cost more resources per turn. So I had to take some time and find optimal strategy. It also made me apreciate follower's traits and jobs. There is pretty deep system of jobs your followers can improve in like stonecutter, cook, gatherer, builder, druid and so on. They gain various bonuses that can make a difference between winning and losing.

It's surprisingly relaxing, despite the fact that you're constantly put on a timer. You have around 200 turns on each map, but with harvesting/building taking 4 turns, there isn't much time to waste. Yet, it's weirdly soothing to watch your followers work.

What I didn't like that much was RNG. There are positive and negative perks that are randomly rolled on your followers. And I feel like negative perks are extremely negative, while positive perks barely helps. It's similar with map generation. Sometimes, you need one resource to move on the next map, but your current map doesn't have this resource at all. Or, there are magical auras that make it impossible to harvest in their area, unless you spend few turns turning it off for some time. Sometimes, 3 different auras appeared on a small map, practically making it impossible to harvest on a whole map. I also have a feeling runs get harder with each finished run, because you unlock more negative and positive perks. There are also random vagaries, like an earthquake or a tempest that can also quickly end your turn.

I would also point out graphics, that have no reason to be so nice in indie game. It's nice to look at and together with music creates amazing atmosphere.

Overall, this was a pleasant surprise. The game combines both genres into a cool strategy that makes you think ahead and actively avoid any misfortune that can come your way. The RNG is leaning toward unfair territory, but is still manageable. 9/10.

Janp · Apr 15, 2022

Baldur's Gate: Enchanted Edition
I'm not sure how to tackle this review, because I feel like I missed 90% of the game. When I look at hltb, the median of the playtime is around 50 hours. I finished it in 16 hours and I've spent about an hour alone on the final encounter. And I didn't rush it or anything. I finished most side quest I could find and pretty much explored all maps I could get on.

I always feared playing CRPGs, because I heard they are hard and complex games that need micromanaging and huge knowledge of the mechanics to be able to leave the starting area. This was pretty much 1:1 conversion of old D&D and it's mindblowing how everything works so well. The character creation options were insane. I spent quite a while making my character and in the end I created Chaotic Neutral character.

And that's when the problems started. The game's story wasn't build for Neutral characters. The beginning was fine and I got all the way to the Friendly Inn. And that was the last time I found the story interesting. The game doesn't really give me a reason to follow up the main story, other than "you have to". And I couldn't even explore and do side quests at this point, because some characters threaten to leave if I don't do the main quest right away. So I did cleared the mine, beat the mage at the end and found out where to go next. At the next location, I cleared the mine, beat the mage at the end and found out where to go next. And basically repeated this until the end of the game.

There were some moments, when what I did and what game said I did contradicted each other. Like there was a moment, where the game said I infiltrated a bandit camp, but I only attacked and destroyed the camp. Or a moment, where I killed few antagonists and got arrested for it. But the game acted like I didn't kill them and instead was framed for it. And the story was full of these inconsistencies. I'm not even talking about the fact that the main villain randomly became my brother without any prior explanations. Well, after talking about it with my friend, there is a letter that basically explains the whole plot, but I never got to it, because I got arrested right before being able to get it.

Combat on the other hand was great. I enjoy trying each new character and figuring out new combos. It was a little dissapointing that almost each boss was a mage, but I usually had different party members on each bossfight, so it didn't get stale. Final bossfight was true test of my skills.

Overall, it was fine game. The story was quite boring and uninteresting, I hate how it acted like I had a choice to affect the story, but these choices did nothing. But combat and other mechanics were excellent and I enjoyed trying new companion combinations. The controls also didn't age that well, but were still manageable. 7/10.