They did well to lead the charge though, beats the 6 they gave GTA III.

Moot_Geeza wrote:

They did well to lead the charge though, beats the 6 they gave GTA III.

Ah yes. The infamous “printing error”.

97. Clan O'Conall & the Crown of the Stag - Switch (5hrs)

This was fairly highly recommended on the SwitchUp channel I occasionally watch, but there was some sort of sponsorship deal involved, so it was one of those 'I know this episode is sponsored by the publishers but it's actually really good' kind of recs.  Maybe.  I was quite drunk when I watched it (and fired up the Switch to buy it) but I think that was the gist.  TBH I don't know why I watch the channel - they're enthusiastic but there are some crazy takes on there.  I don't know why I persisted with this either - one of the characters is called Haggish for fucks sake.  

It started reasonably well (but if these visuals are 'beautiful' I need my eyes replaced) with the three character switch up approach appealing as it was initially more platform hack 'n slasher than puzzler - a bit Guacamelee, even - but the further you progress the more laborious the brain teasers (and obstacle courses) become.  Then it starts to lock you to certain characters to stretch out reeaally long form puzzles that take an age to work through.  One of the stages took me 43 minutes; I was almost melting with tedium.  The initial 'hey, this is pretty neat for £3.23' feeling soon subsided and I ended up almost hating it.

It thinks it's Lost Vikings via Ori, but it really isn't.  With better performance, tighter controls, a modicum of balance to the piss-easy then suddenly annoying platforming, and crucially, less dull precise pattern puzzling it might've won me over, but there's no need for anyone to play something as merely 'okay' as this these days.  What might've scraped a [6] in 2012 is now a [4].

78 on Metacritic with a user score of 8.8.  I don't understand the world any more.

98. Spaceland - Switch (5hrs)

I was getting impatient waiting for the Mario Rabbids 2/Metal Gear Tactics double whammy, so finally grabbed this after months of ignoring whopping discounts (it's down to £3.59 at the mo, which is 80% off iirc).  

It starts really well and the simple grid combat feels surprisingly good, with each additional character adding a worthwhile skillset, but it really starts to flag at around the halfway point.  Not because the mechanics aren't sound, but because the difficulty is pitched in a way that pretty much insists you return to earlier missions to grind in order to afford gear/equipment you'll need for the later stages.  This was originally a mobile game, and the grind betrays its roots*.  It's a shame, because the difficulty feels fine for a good while, but as soon as items start to demand additional funds it begins to unravel slightly.  I found that dropping the difficulty to easy while not bothering to backtrack kept the resistance at a consistent level for a while, but the last two missions required a spot of grinding even on the lower setting.  It's a design choice for sure, but not one I'm keen on and artificial lengthening can almost always go in the bin.

The chunky visuals have an appealing style.  In terms of looks it's a cut above most unknown EShop tactics efforts, to the point where it's a shame the close up view available with a click of R3 is pretty much useless when you're actually playing the game as it's so zoomed in (hidden enemies can reach your position from off screen).  There are at least another handful of issues that take the shine off an otherwise competent effort.  Enemies that appear from sink holes and attack in the same turn should be a no-no for this sort of thing, imo.  You can't spool the action along either, which is crippling for my tastes (I loved Gears Tactics but struggled with the one-speed restriction, I need a go-fast option in my gridders).  The camera does a shoddy job of keeping an eye on the action at times too, often not showing you who's been hit by enemy projectiles.  Menus hang a bit, which unfortunately seems like a standard feature of mobile to Switch ports.  Dialogue is terrible - full space-chat by numbers (breaking space protocol for the greater good, a grizzled veteran harumphing everything contemporary, standard weak lemon drink back & forth patter).  The equipment section is needlessly convoluted and overwatch is disappointingly limp.  I could probably think of more complaints, but I'll wrap this bit up with a big one: I'm 90% sure that the percentages for likely hits lie to you.  The amount of times my characters missed a shot with an 80-90% likelihood of success was ridiculous on standard difficulty, whereas on easy it felt a lot more reliable to gamble with.  I may have just been crushingly unlucky on numerous occasions of course, but my Rotten-in-Denmark sense was tingling.

On the whole though, this is still a fairly enjoyable gung-ho gridmans, and I've only highlighted so many negatives because this could have been a minor gem without the missteps.  As it stands it was still moreish enough to earn a [6] and I don't regret playing it.



*The mobile release actually has a daily challenge mode that you can use to top up your kitty apparently, which is missing from the Switch port (along with the online co-op mode).  This didn't stop them charging £17.99 for it full price though.

22.Spidey Miles Morales - 10 Hours - 7/10 - PS5

Second time through this, just stuck to the main missions as I remember them being a little tiresome and just wanted to enjoy the story and again it was a good bit of fun. Played it on the 120 Performance mode and whilst it looked great it wasn’t as stunning as I had pictured it would be. But it’s still so much fun swinging around and kicking ass.

Good little fun campaign with some aces set pieces. Still suffers from too much combat that’s too simple to have any depth so it’s just too much by the end and I try avoid it at all costs. Don’t think I’ll ever touch it again but that second time through was fun.

7/10

I am also kinda midway through it and yes

Yep. Limbo has aged poorly but Inside would still bang today. So many strong sections.

Oooh Lair of the Clockwork God.  Could go either way that one.

Part 1: Games 1-4 (Ready or Not, Can Androids Pray, Bad End Theater, Anger Foot) 
Part 2: Game 5 (Bloodborne PSX) 
Part 3: Game 6 (Day Repeat Day) 
Part 4: Games 7-14 (Elden Ring, GT7, Horizon: Forbidden West, Emily is Away 3, Fifa 22, Ghostwire: Tokyo, Good Night Knight, There is no Game) 
Part 5: Games 15-22 (Disco Elysium, Cyberpunk 2077, Deep Rock Galactic, YAKLAD, Manifold Garden, Factori, Circadian Dice, Nier Re[in]carnation) 
Part 6: Game 23 (The Sexy Brutale)

24. Dragons Dogma: Dark Arisen
The announcement of a sequel led me back to have another playthrough of this. Or, rather, 2 playthroughs as I've been playing this on both PlayStation and PC. It's still a lot of fun.



It's interesting that in all the intervening years, nothing has really done what Dragon's Dogma does. The pawn system is great, classes feel varied, clambering on monsters is still The Best Time and the world is fun to explore without feeling too sprawling. As a game, it sits somewhere between Monster Hunter and a loot-based ARPG like Diablo or Destiny. While there's a fair bit of strategy to how you approach fights, and the action combat is relatively responsive, the game absolutely relies on Numberwang to create its difficulty curve. This can be frustrating unless you buy in but, once you accept it, there's a great game, grind and combat experience to be had here.

No game since has managed to recreate the sheer joy of climbing over a chimera while your teammates surround and swarm it - DD is still untouched there, and it looks like we'll have to wait for that sequel to enjoy it again. [7]



25. Vampyr
Had been meaning to play this for a while but was a perennial Pile of Shamer. 

Basic overview is this - you're a doctor man who has returned from World War One when London is all dark and smokey. You get turned into a vampire, accidentally murder someone you love in the ensuing post-death confusion (happens to the best of us) and set off in a to uncover the truth by being a...er, Doctor. 

It's by the OG Life is Strange peeps and, honestly, this isn't some bad talky talk. There's less of the point-and-click / visual novel trappings here, as the game is open and explorable and there's a fair chunk of combat, but it's still very much a game about TALKING TO PEOPLE and MAKING DECISIONS. 

Where the game excels is in the areas and NPCs that inhabit them. The London you explore is not a big open world, but instead a handful of small districts. The thing about them though is that rather than fill the world with hundreds of braindead NPCs wandering about, the game instead fills each district with about 10 or so NPCs that would each be a major side-character in another game.

Each NPC has a shit-ton of dialogue and backstory, and they also have relationships with the other NPCs in that particular district, as well as the "pillar" of that community of which there is one in each district. And as you talk to characters in each area, a web of information gets filled out in a menu, telling you how they link to other characters and what information you know about them. It's an elegant system and I struggle to think of a game in the AA/AAA space that has done it better. 

This info can be used in a bunch of different ways - from influencing quest outcomes, to opening dialogue options or even treating a character's illness. And, yes, treating people is a big thing in this game - you are a doctor and many of the people around you have some type of affliction that needs to be treated or cured. Bringing people back to health can have a positive influence on that district, moving it away from chaos and disorder, but it also present an opportunity - healthier people have better blood, better blood gives you more XP if you were to take that NPC somewhere and kill them...

That is what Vampyr gets right above all else. Killing an NPC always feels like an actual choice and the game, unlike many others, doesn't cop out. Bioshock tried to make you choose between Saving or Harvesting the Little Sisters but...it was never a choice. Bioshock, like so many other games, chickened out from actually punishing players for making the hard choice. Vampyr doesn't. You can spare people, but you will be weaker. The game will be harder. You will have fewer skills. And some of these NPCs are absolute assholes. There's no everyone is happy ending - life in 1918 is cruel and people die all the time. Vampyr, for all its flaws, nails that.

Is it an all time classic? No. It can be ponderous, combat is jank and there's way too much of it. It feels unusually dry. The central plot is nowhere near as compelling as the characters in the world. There's some friction between the systems - biting a names NPC is a BIG CHOICE with MAJOR REPURCUSSIONS but you can also bite nameless mobs in combat willy-nilly and the game doesn't give a shit. But, there's also nothing like Vampyr and I had a good time with it. Just be aware...there is a LOT of back and forth conversation in this game. Go in to the game ready to sit and watch a spooky period drama / soap opera and you'll probably enjoy it. [7]



26. Rogue Legacy 2
I did not enjoy Rogue Legacy. I wanted to enjoy it, but the whole loop put me off. The grind works well in that you can eventually beat the game with perseverance but it also has the downside of making skill and mechanical understanding feel far less important. The sheer amount of time it took for a Level 1 speedrun to actually be completed goes to show that it wasn't balanced with that in mind. It just wasn't my bag and I always bounced hard off it. I hated the jumping and the enemy hitboxes and the visual design and, well, pretty much everything about the game.

So, with that in mind I was very sceptical of Rogue Legacy 2. 



Rogue Legacy 2 is an absolute fucking banger. It still maintains the progression grind from the first game, sure, but it has added in a bunch of Metroidvania DNA to the game, encouraging exploration and creating a moveset that feels sooooo good. Bosses stay down for good, as well, with progression instead towards a post game based around increasing levels of NG+. But, if you don't want to do NG+, then that's all good - there's an amazing 20-40 hour Rogue-lite metroidvania here. 

The art style has been overhauled, the systems and combat feel fairer. The biomes and enemies feel more varied. There's a much better sense of forward momentum that exists separately from the gold investment grind. The classes feel varied, unique and fun. The chef is, well, *chefs kiss*. 

A huge surprise and an easy recommendation for anyone partial to rogues, as well as one of my front-runners for GotY. [9] 



27. Laid of the Clockwork God
Garbage. A shame as I'm a fan of their work and trusted them to do sth interesting after The Swindle. Instead we got this. [2]



28. Escape Simulator
This is a decent time. It feels like a VR game that had the VR stripped out of it to sell to a wider audience which, it turns out, is exactly what happens. I think VR is coming back to this (if it's not already added). Anyway, it's a fun little puzzle game where each level is divided into several rooms. Can be played solo or co-op, and there's also a bunch of community creations which seem great. 

Am holding off from playing too much of this as I would like to try co-op at some point but i've played enough of this to know where I stand on it. [7]



29. Ender Lilies
Don't have a huge amount to say about this other than it's really good. Think DS was singing its praises a while back which, in the Metroidvania / Souls-like space, is usually a sign of quality. I prefer it to a bunch of others in that particular genre - your Salt and Sanctuaries and what have you - as I think it nails of core mechanics really well. 



The dodge feels nice, traversal and exploring is rewarding, combat setups feel varied and the world is beautiful. Pretty much everything in this game is nailed, even if it doesn't do anything super unique. I had a good time with it, and need to play more for sure, but unless it completely shits the bed at the backend I feel confident giving this one a decent score. [8]



30. Rhythm Doctor
Utterly brilliant. 



Rhythm Doctor is a one-button rhythm action game with a super simple premise. You are a medical intern testing a new type of treatment for various heart conditions - just press the button on the 7th beat. 

So, you press that button on the 7th beat and it feels good. Then the tempo changes. Then other tracks get added and you're having to treat multiple patients simultaneously. Then there's irregular rhythms, , missing beats, off beats, swing timing (!)...



This is the first "boss" of the game that you will encounter early on. It's still just that 7th beat mechanic, and after this the game really starts mixing things up, but it's a good taster of what to expect. It's a gloriously simple game that adds complexity thick and fast. But it's  always only one button.

There's a surprisingly good story here, which I wasn't expecting and one that clearly loves and respects medical professionals. It has moments of humour, and sadness and joy, but it never feels mawkish. It always zips along. And it never stops throwing out surprises. Setting expectations then flipping mechanics on their head. 

You can "complete" the main story in about 2 hours. Or, at least, you do the main acts and see the credits roll. But there's a whole lot more to do. Each story has a Night version - effectively a much harder remix. Here's the Night version for 1-1:



Beyond that there's a lot of post-game content and a bunch of new stories that unlock. There's also new content being added over time as it is technically still in Early Access (albeit with enough content to justify being content complete if they wished). There's also a level-editor where other players can create and share their own songs and levels and, honestly, there's some fantastic ones. So, you can be done in 2-hours if that's all you wanted, but there's a good 6-10 hours on content here for those that want more after the credits roll for the first time. 

The localization on this game is also stupidly good. It's an international team which is pretty clear from how well some of the songs work in both English and Chinese.

This game just made me smile. If you like Bemani games, or the Rhythm heaven games, or Warioware. Then, get this. It's proper good. [9]



31. Citizen Sleeper
Finished this yesterday and I really enjoyed it. Said in the Just Completed thread that it was a front-runner for GotY and I stand by that - currently in a toss up between Bloodborne PSX, Rogue Legacy 2 and this. 



A cyberpunk-y tabletop-y kinda-but-not-quite visual novel thing, set on a run down space station, you take the role of a "Sleeper" - a robot with a digitzed human consciousness that has effectively sold themselves to a Corp. It's a game about survival, but survival on a very human level. There's the Big Threat of the evil cyberpunk corporations, yeah, but the game is more interested in mundane survival -everyone is just trying to get by. The station decays, your body decays. And everyone at the bottom rung attempts to fight against, or escape, entropy.

There's some Disco Elysium here in the way it coolly focuses on thoughts and existence. The dice-system is perfectly pitched - giving enough control to the player to exert their choices, it also finds a way to use "low" rolls effectively, without ever getting bogged down in needless complexity. And that's kind of a good metaphor for the entire game. There's a lot of systems here - character systems, dice systems, time-based systems, resource based systems, survival mechanics, but they're all only as involved as they need to be in order to feel worthwhile, and not a bit more. 

What makes it is the characters and the writing though. The games makes these human stakes feel real and worthwhile and there were a couple of characters in particular I absolutely fell in love with. So much so that my entire escape plan was abandoned for them. That's something right there. 

It's a good 5-6 hour experience, with another 6 hours of content in a 2nd story coming in 3 dlc patches in the coming months, so there's some value here for the bite at 49p crowd. I'd say grab it if you are at all interested in TTRPGs or Visual Novels. I thought it was superb. [9]

So, The Swindle is their most actiony / platformy game - it's a procedurally generated heist roguelike, and was quite a departure from their previous stuff.

If you wanted more of their point and click stuff, more of that dialogue and puzzle design...just pick up Ben There, Dan That and Time Gentlemen, Please. You can actually buy those as a double pack right now for less than 3 quid.

Moot_Geeza wrote:

... listed as Windows only, which was crushingly disappointing for Rhythm Doctor because I'll need to play that at some point.

It's already been announced for Switch but no sign of a release date yet - think it would be perfect for that machine. Would put money on console dates being announced once it's out of Early Access (which shouldn't be too long now, one would hope).

*puts Rogue Legacy 2, Rhythm Doctor, and Citizen Sleeper on the To-Play list*

I said Elder Lilies was good so this means Cinty now respects my opinion hurrah!

31: Formula Retro Racing (PC) 7/10

A Moot Recommendation at a cheap price, you apparently should get the PC version as it comes with the Car Shadow Expansion Pack as part of the base game.  The half arsed review is 'imagine if the Virtua Racer remaster had 3 times as many tracks but wasn't quite as fun'.  It does have that low budget racing game thing where you'll sometimes crash and get stuck on a barricade for a minute, but it generally feels pretty fun and that high res, low detail, colourful 3D presentation is pretty fetching.  

Not something I would have even considered without a prior recommendation but it's not bloody bad!

32: Need For Speed Hot Pursuit (Switch) 7/10

This is at the other end of the 7/10 arcade racing game spectrum.  You can get it cheap too and it has a LOT of races and variations.  It was a top game in its day.  I imagine it's better on non Switch systems.  I was drawn in by the allure of handheld racing but I'm not sure this game's all that well suited.  This is high detail/low resolution and jaggy, and that's no good when you're looking for traps on the road and can't quite tell which lane the traffic's in on the horizon.  It seems a bit choppy as it is pretty fast and only 30 FPS.  

The actual driving/nitro/powersliding is very good.  On the other hand the rubber banding is pretty egregious and it's biggest irritant is how often the game just stops to show off some bullshit, before throwing you back in control of your car.  The camera goes off on its own when you hit an enemy with a MK style weapon, when a new cop car is introduced, when you crash, and I crash a lot!  

Crashes are the worst as it seems to take ages to reload your car onto the track on Switch.  The camera's just randomly panning and zooming in and out on my failure as I swear at my Switch to hurry the F up.  It's all so slow, you spend way too much time not racing.

Even starting a race, you select your car with A, then you have to pick a colour with the Y button, WTF?  Also the camera is trying to be sexy when you pick a colour, fading to black as it swaps between glamour shots of the car, but the switch is so slow at loading the different shots that it's mostly just black and you can't see what colour your car is.  Wish a bit more care was taken.

33: Lego Batman (PC) 4/10

Like a decade ago a mate and I tried to drunkenly play this on Wii and we literally got stuck on level 1.  I've no idea why, looking back.  I don't see how you can go wrong.  Thought it would be a nice coming of age feeling, but I'm mostly just baffled that I was too dumb to beat level 1 of a children's game.  

I found LB to be very tedious.  I think the best way to play would be with a small child, or at the very least with another person.  1 player is very boring, especially if you're doing 2 hour sessions whilst listening to Casefile podcast.  It certainly spoils the comical bits in the cutscenes.  

But I really didn't get along with it.  The fighting packs no punch and I despaired whenever an enemy popped up.  You only get to use Batman or Robin and they don't have very many variations, in any case it's all very linear and doesn't appear to let you get silly and creative much.  Maybe it does for finding secrets.  I was mostly just looking to finish the levels ASAP though.

I did like when it let you get in a vehicle, and I kinda like the bits where you stand near something and hold down a button so you're character builds something out of loose bricks.  That felt satisfying.  

I got a few Lego Batmen games on PC on the latest sale as I remember Edge once saying that no, seriously, LB2 is good.  I note that this one doesn't have voice acting and the later ones do, so maybe it gets a big budget shot in the arm.  Either way I'll play some other things before dipping back in and I'm a bit burned out atm.