Lorn’s Lure - This game absolutely enthralled me over the past 2 weeks. It’s a parkour/exploration game, one developer, and it’s just so well designed. Punches way over it’s price for $15.
The maps are these enormous sprawling runes of an ancient machine, and there so much to find and see in each level. Then after beating the game you can go back with all upgrades and there are so many new paths, new secrets. There’s this special feeling when a developer adds so much in just for their love of the game. Things that don’t unlock new content, don’t satisfy any goals, just more fun and interesting stuff to look at and play around in, if you want. Then you get to the last level and it’s such an emotional peak. It’s like the dev spent 7 chapters just teaching us, preparing the player for the final level, and then doesn’t hold anything back.
AND it relates to both Hatch and Kill the K.O.T.H., Hatch specifically could be a lesson in pacing, I recommend that as well for anyone interested.
I feel like I’m ranting but I just want to talk about this game so much. The game is basically linear, but if you find a random hidden path you’re rewarded with a tiny bit of environmental storytelling. If you work your way off the main path, you find entire sections of jump challenges that have no purpose to the game. It’s like the game is saying “Look at this thing I built! Come jump around for a while!”
Cult of the Lamb - Got this for my birthday from my buddy and it's been very solid. I see why the reviews hype this game up; it's a weird rpg with base building elements and that's right up my alley. I've been playing it on the steam deck with a conservative power profile and it's been a lot of fun.
Tactics Ogre Reborn - I'm a FF Tactics fan and I was told this game would scratch the itch. So far I can say it's at got a captivating story. It's great that my choices matter in this game and that character development is based on those choices. The gameplay is familiar and fluid. The AI also seems to scale well with the difficulty setting. I'd say fans of FF Tactics should definitely pick this up.
Much like in real life, see them off with large groups of light cavalry. Meet them on their own terms with something that can chase them down and mob them.
Edit: but yeah, I find them to be largely ineffective or game breaking and nothing in-between.
I think playing with them can be fun. And done right they usually have some counter. For example, foot archers being able to fire further than the horse archers so ample enough of foot archers should be able to cause them problems.
Finished Limbo after it was sitting in my library for years and it was really emjoyable. I did not expect to like it as much as I did but the puzzles were all completely doable (
Tap for spoilerexcept that one with the minecart and the electric rail grr)
.
Also played through Mouthwashing and was pleasantly disturbed. The lasst 20 minutes get a bit long in the teeth but overall a great experience.
The Forever Winter. Released in early access due to popular demand. It’s rough, divisive, and difficult as hell. It’s also incredibly grim and hauntingly beautiful. It’s a PvE-only, stealth-based, extraction (non-)shooter where you scavenge resources to survive in the shadow of a military-industrial complex run absolutely amok. You are incredibly underpowered, outnumbered and outgunned, to the point where if you need to start shooting, you’re probably already dead. Gameplay is tense, frightening, and really drives home the overwhelming feeling of being a small fish in a really fucking big pond. It’s the opposite of a power fantasy and I’m really glad someone is doing something that different.
I’m not sure I’d recommend it in the state it’s in, if at all, but it’s definitely making me feel some kind of way. I don’t normally enjoy extraction shooters, but I find myself coming back to this one. Not that it’s really a shooter. Maybe that’s what’s doing it for me. The most divisive part is the water mechanic. It’s a key resource for your settlement; If you run out of water you lose all your stuff. But, it drains in real time not game time so it’s kind of a big commitment at the moment. Personally I understand both sides of the argument and I haven’t decided where I fall yet. It’s definitely worked on me because I find myself thinking about the game when I’m not playing, but if I end up taking a break I’m not sure I’ll have the commitment to build back up from scratch again.
Late to the party, but I finally picked up Helldivers 2. My friends have had it since it came out, but I was being the “hipster gamer” and didn’t get the popular game. Plus, our group has a tendency to do “flavor of the week”/FOMO gaming, where 1 or 2 people buy a new game, convince/guilt trip others into buying the game, we all spend $30-50 on it, play it for like 2 days, then never touch it again. So I was hesitant to get it, lest I get burned again (a la Starfield). Lastly, I’m also not a huge shooter player.
But I wanted to played with the boys, and they were playing it again recently, so I picked it up. And I’m glad I did. Because it’s fun. Stupid fun even. Which is right up our alley. Already put 20hrs in over the last week.
The mechanics are simple. The missions are straightforward. And I like that it’s a pickup/putdown game. Play a 20-40min round, then come back later or tomorrow. It’s not like we’re playing hours on end, which is great. We’ll play a match or two, then maybe do another before we start signing-off for the night.
If you like the random irrelevant conversations of Metal Gear, you might like Tales of Berseria. It’s basically a band of pirates, lead by an edgelord but with many people that are very world-traveled, so you get a lot of encyclopedic explanations of why the world is the way it is, or what kind of pet they’d prefer. Certainly much less happy-go-lucky conversation than the rest of the Tales games.
I’m 160 hours in, completed the base game, and now am on what I believe to be the final boss of the DLC. I got to phase 2 on the first try, only to hit a brick wall lol.
The DLC is a lot bigger than I was expecting, and some of the bosses are the most difficult I’ve faced. The highlight for me has been Cerulean Coast and
spoilerPutrescent Knight - such a pain in the ass, but looks extremely cool while doing it.
Looking forward to NG+ and beyond as I work towards the 100% achievement - speaking of which, it’s a little disappointing how little is required to get it compared to DS1/2/3, especially since ER is so much bigger of a game. I really enjoyed hunting down all the rings for DS3 and felt they could have had a talisman achievement to match in ER.
My favourite moment of the past week was when I summoned two players for a certain boss (another phase 2 kicking my ass), but we got invaded by “Jesus” who just kinda lore-walked around and gestured, and eventually we followed along. Nobody got hurt, and they even gave some gestures of encouragement for us to go beat the boss. https://lemmy.ca/pictrs/image/2bae8c37-0587-4277-9e16-ef2f4fb0f8ab.jpeg
Ilamentia
Very weird indie puzzle/platformer. It feels like a fever dream. You have a FPS view and (some of the time) a set of hands that shoot projectiles (reminds me of Gauntlets of the Necromancer from Heretic), except they don’t necessarily do damage, they interact with the puzzles in each world.
There are some abstract hints for each level, but I find myself really having to think about what’s in front of me to solve the puzzles (in a good way). I noticed a negative review complaining about the game mechanics not being consistent, but I think that is completely intentional and serves the overall feel of the game nicely. It’s not meant to be obvious or easy, you have to figure it out. I don’t think this is a game for everyone, but I am enjoying it for what it is. Apparently there are 96 levels so I’m more than getting my money’s worth. https://lemmy.ca/pictrs/image/530bf0c5-6242-48dd-b508-4f142e0b9e02.png
Bleak Sword DX
Action/roguelike/soulslike? Each world is broken into about 10 levels + boss fights, and from what I can tell there are about 10 worlds. I’m enjoying the feel of the gameplay a lot - blocking and dodging are satisfying like a souls game. The difficulty is starting to ramp up as I work to finish world 3. Surprised I hadn’t heard of this sooner. Probably a good one for Hollow Knight fans, but there isn’t exploration. It’s bite-sized action and it’s done well imo. https://lemmy.ca/pictrs/image/c4b415c8-0990-4b48-8067-306e9983536b.png
Noita
What a game. Alchemy, wand-building, every single pixel is trying to kill you. Especially the water which is also on fire. It’s amazing and highly addictive. I have no idea how large the world actually is yet, since I’ve been busy discovering new ways to blow myself up. Pretty much every run I see something new. This will easily get 100+ hours out of me.
Darkwood and Disco Elysium, as games recommended by friends. Darkwood scares the crap out of me, maybe because I’m more alert to sounds in general. Disco Elysium is very interesting, but a tad slow, and not as engaging as other games.
Most of ny playtime now is Dark Souls 3. I only played 1 and 2 before, and this is about what I expected, more, slightly better and different Dark Souls. I’ll probably replay it more than DS 2, but that depends, because I might prefer 2’s less linear progression.
Also, still grinding supports I want to see (which is a lot) in Fire Emblem Revelations on bus rides.
I used a guide to be sure I saw everything and could just focus on the story, which is mainly why I played them. I spent about 15 hours plating both thoroughly. So they’re fairly short. I really liked them. Especially considering when they were originally released.
Making my way through Like a dragon: Infinite wealthLoving it so far, and think this might actually be the first Yakuza/LAD game I finish, always got distracted in the past.
I tried darkwood this weekend, and it’s left me torn. I really enjoy certain aspects about it, but I feel like the pacing is weird.
I finished Still wakes the deep the other day and I thought it was ok. It was an interesting environment to explore, but I didn’t think it was all too scary.
I’m off to find a different horror game to play now.
What’s up with Darkwood’s popularity recently? I know Pyrocynical made a video about a week ago, but I started it before that, because of a friend recommended it to me like a month ago. And I think I saw it mentioned elsewhere somehere inbetween too.
I generally don’t play horror games, so Darkwood scares me enough that I only play for maybe half an hour during daytime. Might take a month to get through.
My guess is that people are getting into the Halloween Spooky vibes already! But otherwise, I don’t know. Darkwood was free on Xbox games with gold a long time ago, and I snagged it then, but I just never got around to it until now
LOOOOVED darkwood! It took me a bit to get a feeling for the game, but after I got my daily rhythm I found the gameplay satisfying, tense, and occasionally scary.
bin.pol.social
Najnowsze