With the end of January, my first update post for the year - it's been a productive month and I'm up to 12 games beaten so far!
Master post here.
1.
Agent A: A puzzle in disguise (Switch) | 1 January 2020
Complete playthrough. A short and fairly simple first-person point-and-click puzzle game with a secret agent theme,
Agent A generally achieves what it sets out to achieve, with logical solutions to puzzles. Difficulty comes mostly from working out (and remembering) what can be interacted with rather than the interactions themselves, as especially in the later chapters there are numerous areas throughout which the puzzles take place - which can lead to some frustration. Of course, a quick reference to a guide is an easy way to relieve that!
2.
New Super Mario Bros. U (Switch) | 3 January 2019
5-starred save file (100% completion) for story mode, as part of
New Super Mario Bros. U Deluxe. While I played
New Super Mario Bros. U in its original form on Wii U, that was now several years ago so this felt like a fresh experience. Level design is up to Nintendo's usual high standards, with nice variety in environment themes to keep things interesting and some well-hidden secrets. Ultimately most of the game follows a familiar formula, but that doesn't detract from the satisfying gameplay that Nintendo's 2D platformers are always able to deliver.
3.
Sayonara Wild Hearts (Switch) | 4 January 2020
Completed with gold ranks on all stages and the majority of 'Zodiac riddles' solved. An absolutely superb, extremely stylish rhythm game, with a stunning electronic pop soundtrack. The level design and variety is excellent throughout, always perfectly complementing the soundtrack for each stage, with an electrifying sense of speed for the faster stages. Behind the gameplay and music is an uplifting story of recovery from heartbreak, which is a nice touch though not at all necessary for enjoyment of the game. While a short experience for a single playthrough (around an hour), chasing high scores ( I gather that there's a higher ranking even than gold) and achievements brings some longevity, quite aside from just enjoying the music.
4.
Hellblade: Senua's Sacrifice (PS4) | 7 January 2020
Platinum trophy earned.
Hellblade: Senua's Sacrifice is a superb achievement for Ninja Theory, telling the story of a young female warrior on a quest to restore the soul of her dead lover. The game has a very dark atmosphere throughout and has mental health as a core theme, with Senua suffering from psychosis that manifests itself most obviously through a number of voices that appear to speak to Senua throughout the game, displaying a range of personality traits, often directly opposing each other such as with fear and confidence. Senua's psychosis also allows for a refreshing unusual approach to plot exposition, with certain characters appearing to her to her and providing further background detail, creating a real sense of investment.
Sound direction is particularly outstanding, with a good pair of headphones being near-essential to experience the game at its best, allowing the use of binaural audio to evoke a sense of the voices being 'in your head'; environmental audio is similarly excellent and there's a compelling backing soundtrack. In terms of 'gameplay', some of the puzzle-solving is very interesting, making good use of illusion mechanics justified by Senua's psychosis. Combat mechanics, while not a primary focus of the game, are serviceable enough, and the environments that the game presents are always interesting, evocative and well-designed.
While the dark, at times 'horror'-based, themes that
Senua's Sacrifice centres itself upon wouldn't usually to my tastes, this has been a very memorable experience and one that I'd highly recommend.
5.
Thirty Flights of Loving (Steam) | 7 January 2020
Complete playthrough.
Thirty Flights of Loving is a very short first-person story with limited interactivity. It quite effectively draws the player into its story through the use of jump cuts between scenes that clearly take place in sequence, but with notable gaps between them, inviting you to fill in the details of its plot. While perhaps part of the charm, the very primitive graphical style may be a turn-off for many, but the soundtrack is pretty good. Although very cheap, I'm not sure that I'd recommend buying this on its own (I received it as part of a bundle), but it's an interesting experience to play through while it lasts - overall I'd give the game a qualified recommendation
6.
Gravity Bone (Steam) | 9 January 2020
Complete playthrough. An earlier game from Blendo Game,
Gravity Bone shares the short length and oddball graphical style of
Thirty Flights of Loving, but actually I found that I enjoyed it somewhat more. The game still jumps between scenes, but the events are more clearly defined, alongside having more interesting objectives and an enjoyable sense of humour throughout.
7.
Control (PS4) | 16 January 2020
Platinum trophy earned.
Control is easily among my highlights of 2019, with well-realised combat that conveys a real sense of power, alongside an excellent control scheme that ensures that a diverse set of supernatural powers are always right at your fingertips. Where the game really excels, though, is in the superbly well-crafted setting - the "Oldest House" that the game tasks you to explore holds some fascinating secrets, while an extensive range of collectibles - including text documents, images, voice recordings and videos - flesh out the background lore that sits behind the engrossing story.
8.
Sparklite (Switch) | 21 January 2020
Beaten with all Refuge upgrades purchased.
Sparklite is an enjoyable, though fairly shallow, rogue-lite with 2D Zelda-style core gameplay. With five main areas that each unlock after defeating the boss of the previous area, the procedurally-generated game world is nicely varied and enjoyable to explore. Each time that your character is loses all life, they'll be rescued and returned to an airborne 'Refuge', where ability upgrades can be purchased, then applied to a customisable 'patch' board to take effect for your next run. While these upgrades allow for increased life, greater damage output, reduced damage received, etc., ability upgrades and gadgets can be collected from the game world as you progress, some of which are nicely imaginative.
The core combat mechanic works well, while rarely being overly difficult so long as you're careful; the end of area boss fights are definite highlights and very satisfying to beat, especially when you're able to master the attack patterns and emerge unscathed. That said, I found the final boss encounter to be somewhat frustrating (no specifics so as to avoid spoilers), but I suppose as the climax to the game a bit of a difficulty spike is justifiable!
9.
Puzzle Book (Switch) | 23 January 2020
All sizes completed for all puzzles. Puzzle Book is a jigsaw puzzle game, with a total of 34 puzzles to solve within six different themes, from animals through to space and fantasy. Although the gameplay is inherently rather simplistic, the controls are well-implemented in both docked and undocked modes and the puzzle images are brightly-coloured and attractive, alongside an appropriately relaxed soundtrack. With each puzzle being available in six different sizes, from 6 pieces up to 60, there's a good range of complexity, making this a decent package as far as it goes.
10.
Outer Wilds (Xbox One) | 30 January 2020
100% complete, aside from the Hotshot achievement.
Outer Wilds is a simply stunning exploration game, with a superbly crafted mystery threaded throughout the solar system that allows a completely free-form approach - but to say much more would risk getting into spoilers. While the controls take a little getting used to, it's absolutely worth pushing through that initial friction. Special mention also must go to the incredibly poignant and well-used soundtrack.
11.
Tangle Tower (Switch) | 30 January 2020
Complete playthrough. With an enjoyable mix of gameplay styles along the lines of the
Ace Attorney and
Professor Layton series,
Tangle Tower tasks the player with finding clues, solving puzzles and composing deductions with the aim of solving a murder case. While never overly challenging - there's no fail state for any of the puzzles and a handy hint system is available to suggest potential ways forward - the game is enjoyable throughout. It's a little on the short side - the game wraps up surprisingly quickly once the initial investigative stages are completed - but an enjoyable soundtrack, superb writing and voice-acting, alongside animation that imbues the characters with a great deal of personality, ensure that this is an enjoyable package all around.
12.
Tametsi (Steam) | 31 January 2020
All puzzles completed without errors; 100% of achievements unlocked. The next step up from the excellent
Hexcells,
Tametsi is a fiendishly difficult combination of
Minesweeper and
Picross, with a few other elements thrown in to provide greater variety still. Mechanically, the game is well-implemented, with a free drawing tool available to sketch out possible solutions/thought processes before committing to revealing tiles, but the game's quality really turns on the puzzle design, which really can't be faulted. With 160 puzzles on offer, all of which can be solved entirely without guessing,
Tametsi will last you a long time.
