oh shit VisceralBowl finally crossed over? Time to copy and paste then...
Game #1 - Oh...Sir!! The Insult Simulator
Time: 3 hours
I bought this for myself and a friend on a whim because it was dirt cheap on sale (less than a dollar) and we proceeded to spend the next 2 hours insulting each other. It was super fun, and the game has a shocking amount of depth and strategy. Its like a faux "fighting" game, where you choose from a list of words to compose phrases to insult each other. There are combos and even combo breakers, characters have weaknesses so you want o try and steal the words that would hurt you most, or that hurt the other character's weakness... like I said, more depth than I expected. There isnt much content, I unlocked all but the secret character and stage (it requires more grind than Im willing to put into it) but what there is there is totally worth the $1.99 base price. I might get back to it now and then but for now I got what I wanted out of it.
Game #2 - Sneaky Sneaky
Time: 3 and half hours
Super cute little stealth puzzle game. I actually ended up getting the best score and all the collectibles on each stage because I got super into perfect runs (the curse of stealth games where you restart as soon as you mke a mistake lol). Its not very long, and its a mobile port, but I thought the mechanics were great and I just love the look of it. Theres a simple level up system to improve your health or damage from your sword and bow, vrious items you unlock throughout the campaign, overall just pleasant little game. Well worth a playthrough, especially if you like stealth games.
Game #3 - Doom (2016)
Time: 10 hours
Doom is almost the perfect game, and no I dont mean that its the best game ever. Its not even my GOTY for 2016, far from it. But its one of the few games I cant say anything bad about, it executes what it sets out to do flawlessly, and is an instant classic. It looks amazing, the gameplay is so fast and frenetic, the weapons feel great, the soundtrack is metal as fuck, its a long ass campaign for a FPS, the level design is terrific, like I said, Is truggle to find something bad to say about it. Its one of those games that we will always easily recomend when someone asks "hey what should I play?". High stakes for the sequel tho, damn.
Game #4 - Hexcells
Time: 3 hours
Holy shit this was addicting. Played it in almost 1 sitting, just had to do one more puzzle and then one more and then... you get the idea. Very similar to Picross games, at least in spirit if not execution. Super mellow, great puzzles, I got 100% in it (no mistakes because I always restarted if I fucked up, like with every pictross game) and cant wait to play the others. Here's a little depressing nugget... I had actually dimissed this series as bundle fodder trash and chucked it in my "completed" category on Steam without even installing it, when I did my "man im not gonna play any of this crap in my lifetime" cleanse of my list. Thank god a gaffer told me they were like Picross / Paint it black, that was a huge fuck up on my part lol.
Game #5 - Hexcells Plus
Time: 10 hours
Welp, that was a disapointment after the first one. Its a much (MUCH) harder game than the first one, and thus, much longer, which im sure the majority will apreciate but for me some of the later puzzles were just an exercise in frustration. The lack of save state (something that is fixed in Infinite it seems) is completely baffling because these puzzles take ages to finish. The new rules did nothign for me, especially the diagonal lines, which basically just gave me a headache from having to tilt my head all the time. Whats next, upside numbers? I was just happy to delete the game when I finished it, which is something you kinda dont want to feel with games lol. Completely turned me off playing the next one unfortunately, since I loved the first. Back to Pain it Back I guess.
Game #6 - Epistory Typing Chroniclaes
Time: 7 hours
Very neat "typing" action rpg, where you basically type words to attack enemies or interract with things in the world. I lvoe the look, mimicking fold out story books, the gameplay is great, if a little daunting if you arent a very good / fast typer (I actually had to turn off the adaptive difficulty because of this), soundtrack is whimsical, and theres a bit off the path zones and secrets to explore and find. Very cool little package that manages to do something different and original, which always scores big points with me.
Game #7 - Beyond Eyes
Time: 2 hours
The most literal of walking simulators, as the little girl you control walks at the slowest pace ever, which got very old very fast (and the game is very short on top). Anyway, the story of a blind girl searching for her cat friend in a visually impressive world where you only "see" whats near you. Some great visual and sound tricks using this theme, but overall, this walking sim did very little for me. Like I said, the gameplay is very slow and bordrline frustrating, and theres little to the story, except the ending which is quite good
. I continue to be hot and cold on walking sims, as I love some and then others do nothing for me.
Game #8 - Story About my Uncle
Time: 4 and half hours
Great idea, not so great execution is how I would describe Story about my Uncle. For the most part the first person platform / swinging is fine, but there are some terribly frustrating jumps later on in the game that really drag the experience down, as the physics are not always there, the hook doesnt always attach when you expect it, and it all kinda falls apart. It has the same problem that Mirror's Edge had, where its awesome until you stop and lose momentum. Except it doesnt have Mrror's Edge cool character to back it up. Still, its a great looking game, and fun when it works.
Game #9 - Dishonored: Knife of Dunwall
Time: 5 hours
Fantastic DLC to a fantastic game. I forgot how much of a killing sandbox Dishonored is, since I havent played it since I finished it on release back in 2012. The DLC is more of the same, with a focus on Daud this time around. Its very robust, with a bunch of upgrades to collect and huge levels to explore, in fact, I probably could / should have finished it faster but I just have to explore all those levels man. Time to move on to Brigmore Witches then.
Game #10 - Dishonored: The Brigmore Witches
Time: 4 hours
Essencially part 2 of what should have been one giant old school expansion to Dishonored, since both work together to form essencially a full game. Anyway, I liked this one more than the first one, it has better locations and actually some new enemy types. Plus it gets all freaky and supernatural which is cool. Both are amazing DLCs tho, some of the best ive seen in any game, and not only are they totally worth playing, but they actually make Dishonored better game, because it fleshes out Daud's character in ways you had no idea in the main game, and actually makes your decisions in that one much more important. Great stuff.
Game #11 - Jotun
Time: 4 hours
Fantastic action adventure game, with more focus on exploration than actual action. Most of the action in fact comes from the giant bosses you fight, as there is little else in the way of enemies throughout the zones. Its not very long but it still manages to be super varied in the zones it presents, which all come to life with the game's fantastic hand drawn graphics. Cool powers to collect, awesome narration, and a ton of norse mythology lore makes this one of my favorites in while.
Game #12 - Evoland
Time: 3.5 hours
Cute little homage to rpgs over the years, from zelda to final fantasy to diablo. If it was any longer it wouldnt work, but as is it was totally enjoyable. Just dont go in expecting an actual rpg or challenge, just play it for the various homages, both visual and mechanical. I wonder what they did in the sequel, if its more of a "actual" game, because the same schtick wouldnt really work a second time around.
Game #13 - Wolfenstein The Old Blood
Time: 5 hours
Awesome stand alone prequel to New Order, Old Blood has the same great mix of stealth and balls out action that the "full game" had back in 2014. BJ has to recover a important document with the location of Deathhead's compound, and this takes him on a variety of locations in the 4-5 hour campaign. Great weapons, great gameplay, the only real problem I had was that it ran like shit on ultra and I had to bump it down. Great game nontheless, cant wait to see what Machine Head do next.
Game #14 - Power Hover
Time: 2.5 hours
I'm not a big fun of runner style games but I enjoyed this one. The campaign isnt very long, I finished it in a little over 2 hours, even got 3 stars on every level (except the bosses), the levels were fun enough to restart if I missed somehting. I really like the flat shaded look of the game, and the level design is quite good. Except for the boss levels, which are basically random generated levels to see how long you can last (luckily the score you need to get to progress isnt very high), I thought these were by far the worst part of the game and relied more on good RNG on the traps than actual skill. Still, cool little game overall.
Game #15 - Refunct
Time: 22 minutes
Very short but cute first person paltformer that has you restore color to various platform islands. Thats about it, but the music is relaxing, the gameplay is good (wall jumps son!) but it is more "experience" and than game, so it might not be for everyone. Worth a play tho if you get it in a bundle (like I just did in humble bundle).
Game #16 - Castle of Illusion Starring Mickey Mouse
Time: 2.5 hours
Great little platformer that unfortunately is very short, as I was really into it. The levels are great and look fantastic (well the game whole game does), theres lots of variety in places you visit, but its all over way too soon. You need to collect 7 gems to face the last boss, and it starts off by being 1 gem per zone/boss, but then it rushes near the end and you get 2 gems per zone (each zone is only 2 small levels and a boss usually). Shame because I really liked it. Narration is cool also.
Game #17 - Meltdown
Time: 5 hours
This was a nice surprise, it looked like any other dual stick shooter, but its actually more of a isometric cover based shooter. You can take cover, vault over cover, dodge roll, pretty much everything you can do in a third person shooter, oinly from a top down / isometric view. Finished all 30 missions but the game doesnt really end, its meant to be replayed and level up your character, so you can replay levels or do them with friends (or randoms) online. Theres a bunch of stuff to level, from skill trees, you can buy and then upgrade various weapons and gear, the weapons even have their own little skill trees so you can actually customize how you play the game. Very cool stuff. I also really like the look, but unfortunatly theres pretty much only one tileset (which changes up a bit around level 20 upward) so it can get repetitive.
Game #18 - Final Fantasy XIII
Time: 52 hours
My second playthrough since I had played it on ps3 on release, I liked it then and I like it now... but im not even sure why. I wouldnt exctly defend it against people that hate it, I probably like it for weird reasons. Still, the mmo-style trinity battle system is great once you wrap your head around it, the story is incoherrent anime (bad anime at that) nonsense, but at the same time it has heart, the characters are good (imo), its still gorgeous and the music is fantastic. Like I said, Im not sure why I like it, but I do, quite a bit in fact. Super excited to strt 13-2 which Ive never played.
Game #19 - Resident Evil 7 Biohazard
Time: 11 hours
Absolutely fantastic return to form for Capcom as any doubts I had about the new direction vanished when I played the first hour of the game which was one of the strongest intros ever in a videogame for me. It goes off the rails a bit near the end (and by that I mean it goes "full Resident Evil crazyness" which might disapoint some that just wanted the family stuff) but I didnt mind that, its super creepy, good lenght, the classic RE style gameplay is all there, from puzzles to backtracking to big locales that loop around and have a bunch of weird locked doors, the ammo scarcity (except near the end), it compeltely feels like a RE game but with a fresh coat of paint. Its also the best horror movie homage with stuff from evil dead, poltergeist, texas chainsaw massacre and others in there. Great game, actually considering buying the season pass after that.
Game #20 - Evoland 2
Time: 17 hours
Evoland 2 was easily one of my most pleasant surprises in years really. Would have been a top 10 game in whaever year it came out in tbh (I think 2015 but maybe last year?). Just fantastically crafted, loving homage to gaming throughout the years except this this time unlike the first one (which was more of a proof of concept), theres a great game wraped around it, with a shockingly decent time travel story. Highly recomended.
Game #21 - Final Fantasy IV
Time: 27 hours
Stange relationship with this one, as I lvoed half of it, and absolutely hated the second half, and sincethe bad stuff usually leaves a stronger impression on you, thats the one that is going to stick with me. I enjoyed the first 15 hours or so, really liked the low poly look and the story was fun if a little simple, but I liked a lot of the stuff it was doing mechanically with mixing battles and cut scenes, and the way you constantly changed your party for story reasons. Unfortunately eventually the story becomes super cliche, nobody actually dies which really annoyed me, the whole group is super incompetent, and there is a ridiculous difficulty spike near the end (the last dungeon is probably my least favorite zone in any rpg I can remember), so much so that I just wanted the game to end, which is never a good thing. This is a Final Fantasy game I will never replay again (ironically since its built for multiple playthroughs). Left a really bad taste in my mouth man, I hope 6 brings me back on FF's good graces.
Game #22 - Abzu
Time: 1.5 hours
Conflicted feelings on this one because I loved everything about it as a game, but given how short it is, could never recomend it at its price point. Gorgeous visuals and amazing soundtrack, gameplay is very simple and theres barely any actions to do (some sections where you have to press switches and thats about it), but its a fantastic experience that everyone should go through, if you find it cheap or in a bundle or something.
Game #23 - Paint it Back
Time: 73 hours
Yu, 73 fucking hours. My god that game has a lot of content. To be fair tho, I found out way too late that you could jump straight to master puzzles and it would give you the previous difficulty medals automatically, I was doing every puzzle before that lol. Anyway, amazing picross game that was by far my favorite of the genre. Great puzzles, some are real brain breakers, and just the amount of content in such a low price is unbeatable. One of the goats for sure.
Game #24 - Nights of Azure
Time: 24 hours
I really enjoyed this even tho I dont particularly think its a great game. Action rpg with simple combat (devil may cry this aint) and a cool minion system in bland empty environments, and a story out of a bad 90s anime. But at the same time, the characters are good, the story has heart (especially for dealing with a
, dont let the fan service of the character clothes fool you, this is actually quite subdued and cute instead of sexual), and I liked the loop of going out killing monsters to level up my skills and minions. Also its meaty content wise, lots of sidequests, multiple endings, post game content to get the true ending (which I did), so there's a lot here to enjoy if you get past the fan service and simple combat.
Game #25 - Song Of The Deep
Time: 9 hours
Finished with all upgrades but I missed 2 items (the super versions of 2 of the weapons), 9 hours so decent lenght for the genre (how long to beat had it at 6 for the story but I did a fair bit of exploring for items as usual in these games, those 6 hours must be really rushing). Anyway its a great game, game play is good with great level design, combat feels nice once you get all your tools, except for one particular enemy that shows up late in the game, and the physic-y nature of the game sometimes is a little cumbersome, but overall it plays great. It also looks fantastic with a ton of great depth of field effects. All in all a very worthwhile metroidvania (yes Ill continue to call them that).
Game #26 - They Breathe
Time: 30 minutes
Err... what? So I didnt like They Breathe at all, and baffled by the critical acclaim it has, I thought I was missing some deep metaphor the game was trying to tell or something, but no, even the devs say its just what you see, some weird ass alien thing is taking over frogs. For something touted as a horror game and a deep experience, im here left scratching my head because I played a 30min simple game to collect bubbles while avoiding enemies, and that was it, it did nothing for me, neither did it creep me out, left me wondering, or even satisfied me with gameplay. Huge dud imo :/
Game #27 - Zombo Buster Rising
Time: 2 hours
Neat little PvZ style lane defense game, there's not much to it but its fun for its short duration. Cute graphics, action-y gameplay since you are doing a lot of the aiming yourself, just a cool little time waster, well worth playing if you like the genre.
Game #28 - Thirty Flights of Loving
Time: 12 minutes
Super short story that unfortunately did nothing for me. The narrative, what there is of it, is incoherent rabble jumping you from scene to scene like its trying to be a Tarantino movie or something, there a little interaction but none that matters (its basically a walking simulator, and I dont even dislike those, I loved Stanley Parabale, Gone Home and others), its not a looker by any means but it does have a style I guess, even if I didnt like the style, and the whole thing is over in 10 minutes. Complete dud.
Game #29 - Hot Tin Roof The Cat That Wore a Fedora
Time: 4 hours
Man what a huge dissapointment this turned out to be. A 2d side scrolling adventure about a series of cases you and your cat partner need to solve in a cool noir-ish hgumsho detective setting. The ame felt super janky from the start but I was able to voerlook it becaus eI was into the adventure part and the writing, but about halfway through it starts to rely more on actual paltforming and it just falls apart because, it just plays horribly. It also gets super confusing near the end, so much so that the devs had to patch in a way to bypass something near the end (you can buy an item to do it), thats how fucked it gets. Real shame because I was super into it in the first couple of hours.
Game #30 - Spaceport Hope
Time: 4.5 hours
Short but neat little metroidvania, with what seems to be a big focus on collecting stuff because there was a lot of zones I ended up not even going to, because the game just abrubtly ended. Still, for $1 (or 25cents currently on sale lol), its quite good for what you pay, the graphics are pixel art-y, kinda rekind me of cave story, there's lots of weapons, the story is weak but thats not really the focus of these games in the end. Far from the best of the genre, still, if you are a metroidvania nut and want another one, its notterrible.
Game #31 - Titanis
Time: 2.5 hours
Mediocre 2d sidescrolling shooting game with a cool skill tree with various powers to get and a varety of levels with objectives and side objectives to complete. The whole thing feels like a flash game, from the looks to how it plays, but I give it credit for trying at least, it has a little post apocalypse story going on, like I said the skill tree is cool, and its perfectly playable, its just...not very good. Its short tho, so theres that. Im stuck in this streak of short, not very good games because I dont want to start anything big before Hollow Knight, and its kinda bumming me out lol.
Game #32 - Reverse Crawl
Time: 2.5 hours
This is more like it! Don't let the awful name fool you, this is a super fun little strategy rpg, with a ton of different units, great art style, and doesnt overstay its welcome. The battles remind me alot of the King's Bounty series, if a little more simplefied. There is a NG+ and a endless mode when you finish (a campaign isnt very long, 2-3 hours at most). I had a great time with it and would recomend it to anyone that likes the Kings Bounty or just strategy rogs in general.
Game #33 - Dustoff Heli Rescue
Time: 4 hours
This was a great take on the old Choplifter formula, with a good variety of levels and an awesome voxel-y / minecraft inspired artstyle. 25 levels where you have to either rescue soldiers or lift cargo back to base, the controls are super simple (you can actually use "pro" controls but I actually feel the simple controls and auto fire work in the game's favor), the art style is gorgeous like I said, the soundtrack is action movie esque and the sounds are great (I love the radio chatter), its just a really fun little game. Apparently there is a sequel on mobile (this one is also clearly a mobile game originally) and I really hope it comes to PC also. Great surprise.
Game #34 - Plug & Play
Time: 12 minutes
Super short abstract...thing. Its hard to explain. The art style and animations are great and its worth playing just for that, and for the utter nonsense and weirdness I guess.
Game #35 - The Music Machine
Time: 1.2 hours
Another short narrative game, I wouldnt really call it a walking simulator since there are some puzzles and quite a bit of interaction, but I would still put it in the same genre as Gone Home, Stanley Parable and what not. Anyway, I actually really enjoyed this one, the story is both creepy and heartwarming, the visuals are very striking and unsettling, and the whole thing just feels less abstract that a lot of these usually turn out, even tho its quite abstract on its own. I'm not sure if I would go as far as to call it a horror game but its certainly creepy and unsettling. If you like the genre you should give it a go, especially sicne you can finihs it in about 1 hour or hour and half.
Game #36 - Lit
Time: 1 hour
Super short trial and error puzzle game about light manipultion, a port from the iOS version instead of the superior Wii version unfortunately. 16 levels, that you can perfect to get a "good" ending (just a different screen at the end really) but it needs both speed and the amount of exact "steps" to get it, and I hve zero intrest in doing that, I already solved the 16 puzzles. Its not a bad idea but its way too short, these types of games usually have like 50 or 60 levels, not 16. At least it was free from Gamepump (lol).
Game #37 - Hollow Knight
Time: 33 hours
One of the best games I've played in years, if not ever. It is the best "metroidvania" since Symphony of the Night, it is a gigantic, beautiful, intriguing, complex adventure with a ton of maps, ridiculous amoun of enemy vriety, dozens of bosses, a ton of upgrades and powers, a ton of Dark Souls style of story telling, npcs, quests and shit that only crazy would find out how to do, simply put, it will most likely be my Game of the Year, and its absolutely insane that it costs $15. It puts most indie devs and publishers out there to shame, its embarassing that $20 is the norm these days for 3 hour simple games, and these guys did what they did. This one, this one is special.
Game #38 - The Bug Butcher
Time: 3 hours
This was a big disapointment because you look at pictures and it looks like a cool sidescrolling shooter in the vein of a Contra or Metal Slug, but what it actually is, is a arena based shooter where you are stuck in a small room and have to beat all the enemies in time before the clock runs out. There are several upgrades a powerups you can get, and its not bad for what it is, but after clearing the 30 arcade mdoe levels I had no desire to go back and get better scores or even play the Panic mode which is a survival style mode where enemies drop coins that increase your timer, but it just recycles the arcade mode levels. Looks pretty at least tho.
Game #39 - Letter Quest: Grimm's Journey Remastered
Time: 9 hours
Super fun word adventure game where you have to spell words to attack enemies. Various upgrades and equipment to buy and a lenghty campaign with lots of optional objectives in each level to do makes this a great little time waster. I played most of it at work, and got about 2/3 of the stars (you can replay levels with different goals like have a set time limit or only use certain letters), I was actually getting all of them until halfway through when I just decided to go ahead and finish the campaign because, well, as fun as it was, I had gotten all I was going to get out of the game by that point. Still, I enjoyed it a lot more than I expected.
Game #40 - Echoes of Aetheria
Time: 21 hours
Man such mixed feelings in this. For the first half of the game, the game was really good, and it was restoring my faith in RPG Maker games (or at least make me think twice about outright dismissing them), the story was quite well done, the writing was ok if a little amateurish, but it had heart, but the start was easily the combat system, as it uses a isometric, turn based system quite unlike ive seen in other rpg makers. It also has a lot of original art which I apreciated. But then the second half, it all falls apart, especially near the end where the game has a ridiculous and inexlicable difficulty spike, so much so that I had to drop down to easy in the final dungeon, and even then I cant kill the last boss no matter how much I tru, it has a ridiculous amount of OHKOs and you cant do anything. I tried loking at some videos and I guess people had to grind out a lot to get much higher level, because they have a lot more health than me (and my team is in their 60s), but thats just horrible design because nothing in the game until then requires it. So yeah, I just cant be arsed with that type of horseshit, and im going to call it at the "bad ending" that you get for losing to the boss. Super disapointed, especially after loving the first half.
