my “review” of it so far after 15 hours: marked as spoilers, but it’s not really a spoiler in terms of the story. I guess just don’t read if you don’t want to already know the game’s structure and difficulty (from my experience).
spoilerI’ve got 15 hours in it so far. I haven’t unlocked everything yet and maybe the story opens up more but it certainly seems like there’s less content. It’s just difficult to compare because there’s a bit more puzzle variety but also a bit more repetition. The game’s divided into chunks so that you experience a bit of puzzles then a bit of story, then you repeat it all, so it’s harder to parse for me how much of my content has been engaging with story vs how much of it was puzzles, whereas the first game was almost entirely divorced from the story. The amount of new mechanics is staggering but as I near the last two worlds I’ve been disappointed with what feels like a developer obsession with lasers. I know the lasers were a huge part of the first game’s story but they weren’t the only feature… I know mines frustrated a lot of people in the first game but honestly? I miss those. And I miss the fizzler thingies that didn’t kill you but still acted like mines. However I think with most mechanics being segregated between the 12 worlds, that opens up a lot more options when you get stuck. For example I hated recording in the first game. Took me ages to work out how it worked and I hated every bit of it, so when I got sick of it it was harder to try other things because in C world and most of B world, most puzzles had recorders. If you don’t like the gravity (“gun”?) mechanic in this you can just go to the 11 other worlds where 99% of the puzzles don’t have it. I don’t really know how to write what I think of it though because it’s so incredibly different from the first game. The story has also been vastly improved in my opinion, but I do think it would be nice to have a little less cutscenes. In general though I think this is one of the better games I’ve played in a very long time. Some people online seem to be saying that it’s “easy” compared to the first game but honestly I’ve been struggling so much with the latter puzzles. Early in the game I was spending maybe 10 minutes tops on a few puzzles but now I’m spending upwards of 30 - 45 minutes (maybe even an hour) on just one puzzle. I also am disappointed with the lack of easter eggs and unmarked secrets. (there’s no minimap but there’s a HUD with a compass that shows you were “?” locations are. I have yet to find more than a handful of interesting items that aren’t marked on the compass and aren’t part of collectible achievements). Maybe I’m just really bad at searching through them, but I remember loving how the first game was so full of secrets. You’d thought you found a way to break out of bounds but then there’s a star or a hidden QR code or pictures of cats… That’s also what made the first game so replayable. The developers didn’t bother with invisible walls or boundaries that pushed you out so you could break the puzzles in very ingenious ways. In this one I have yet to find a way to do that, sadly.
Fair criticism. It does feel more “on rails” to me, both story-wise and gameplay-wise, but at the same time the first one was a bit too broken (which made it very enjoyable but in a different way).
I liked the plot and story. There are plenty of unique/memorable moments. It gets off to a lethargic start, unfortunately, though. The first like five hours at least are quite dull, and I don’t blame anyone for dropping the game based on that. But it improves massively after the intro, and the story is what kept me going.
The writing and storytelling are not good. There’s way too much dialogue and it’s constantly changing tone. One second there’s a meta 4th-wall-breaking joke and the next second it’s serious or sad. It takes me out of the world and many moments lose impact because of this.
The characters are mixed. The two protagonists have zero personality, which is partly a symptom of them being entirely interchangeable. But most other characters have great backstory and some are quite interesting
The combat and gameplay did its job, but lacked depth. The weapons and armor were just simple stat changes, and the stats are pretty standard (hp, mp, phys atk/def, mag atk/def), so character progression was uninteresting. The magic/type locks in battle were sort of more tedious than fun, but I appreciate that it requires some thought and is something unique.
I like the world design and the verticality that gives some interest to running around the world. There are unlockable shortcuts so that you don’t have to repeat long sections again, and there are plenty of rewards to make exploration somewhat worthwhile.
The artwork is amazing. There’s a ton of unique detailed pixel art. Admittedly, I do think some animations are a little rough or are simplistic - like a static sprite bouncing up and down - but this is pretty minor.
I’m mixed on the music. It’s technically great, but I don’t really want to listen to the soundtrack again, honestly. One thing that’s impressive is the music changes seamlessly during night/day cycles so actually every song has like two renditions (or something) which is kind of crazy.
The ending is rushed, though I only really felt it’s the last area (the tower) that’s rushed. You get to the top and the final boss is one fight with space shooter mechanics (???) incorporated, and then the game ends right after. It’s too quick. That actually did motivate me to unlock the true ending, because I felt like there must be more. And unlocking the true ending didn’t take me all that long, but it does suck that it’s a collectathon.
Overall, I enjoyed it a lot, but wouldn’t play through it again. It’s like a 7/10 for me.
If you want to play animal crossing, but only have a PC: try Dinkum. Same gameplay loop, but with a few minor twists and turns. And the setting is Australia. Hence you ride your mu around town, shearing the wool of your pleeps and milking your vombats. Ofcourse you need to defend them from crocos and fire spitting bush devils. But anything you kill can be thrown on the BBQ. And to get rich, you start a fairy bread empire. Exporting millions worth of sugary goodness.
The combat felt really slow to me, but I continued for a while until the game soft locked by just putting the characters in a small, black room. Nothing I could find fixed that and there wasn’t enough of a draw to really look for a fix. Might try again at some point but it was only so so for me overall.
Oh no, that sucks. If you generally like turn based combat I would give it another go. The first few hours are fairly boring but there are some very cool battles later in the game.
Maybe I am just getting old but I’ve started to spend a lot more time with older games and titles that may be rough around the edges but have some unique ideas and actually take some risks with their game mechanics.
One of these games is Outward which has a lot of walking (quick travel is almost non existent) and serviceable combat system that leaves a lot to be desired. However both of these do give the game some flavor that is missing from many modern games now combine this with interesting “death” mechanic where instead of respawning you’re thrown in to random scenarios related to the area where you died. Another mechanic is backpack which you’ll need to carry any meaningful amount of items and which will limit your movement in battle if you do not drop it with all your items. The way palyer needs to sacrifice health to receive mana is also interesting and how different each mastery tree is is also nice. I do have to admit that I’d like the game a lot more without time limits on quests as they stress really me out.
Another one is Incredible adventures of Van Helsing which is diablo-style ARPG that doesn’t take itself too seriously. It took me awhile to understand the games mechanics which lead to bad time initially but once I understood the power-up system, focus on flat elemental damage bonuses instead of percentage based ones and how silly some skills where with power-up the game got me hooked. The dialogue and story is also pretty good for ARPG and fully voice acted.
Third one is Wurm: Unlimited which is basically special version of MMORPG Wurm: Online where players can host their own servers with their own tweaks and mods. While Wurm Online is substriction based mmorpg with very very slow progression most Wurm Unlimited servers are free to play and have quadruple experience modifiers making the game a lot more enjoyable. The game is basically medival fantasy sandbox where players can terraform the world, build all sorts of structures, hunt, farm and even do pvp on pvp servers. While a lot of the game is just pressing buttons and waiting for action timers to pass there’s a lot of depth in the game and it can get suprisingly immersive. I do however recommend joining to one of the long lasting servers like Sklotopolis instead of playing the game solo on self-hosted server as the experience is a lot better with small community even if you prefer to do things solo as the world will feel a lot more interactive and a lot less empty.
Cities: Skylines 2. Hugely problematic launch, but it runs acceptably for me on Linux (just over 40fps consistently on a Ryzen 5 7600X and a 6600 XT). I’ve got all settings on high (except Volumetric Quality set to Disabled and AA set to TAA) and it honestly looks quite good, especially with DOF set to tilt-shift.
In terms of the game itself, I’m very much enjoying it. Every mechanic seems more detailed than C:S1 and there is a lot more planning needed to make a really successful city. Not without bugs but nothing game breaking. Lacks some of the annoyances in the first game (like needing water pipes everywhere).
Finally bought myself a Playstation, so I’ve been playing a bunch of The Last of Us over the last week or so. And I got back into Hypixel Skyblock (please help the game has me trapped.)
I started a second (and third) run of Baldur’s Gate 3 (4 and 3 Player group respectively), one as a barbarian and on as a bard. It’s definitely my favorite game in recent memory, it might even be one of my favorite games or single most favorite game ever.
Besides that, Mario Wonder has also been great, although I didn’t play a lot of it yet. I did finally get a (used) Switch for that game though, so I’m definitely intending to play through this game at least once.
It’s definitely my favorite game in recent memory, it might even be one of my favorite games or single most favorite game ever.
I just began act 3 of my second playthrough, which has amounted to an obscene amount of playtime for me. I play single player games exclusively, and these days am often eagerly thinking of my next game anytime I hit the 30-hour mark of whatever I’m currently playing.
BG3 is a truly monumental achievement. Plus Karlach is indisputably one of the best characters ever created for a game.
Totally solid option for some people, but not everyone. Depends on the game (some can’t be judged in two hours), your available time (can’t refund a game you bought a year ago that you only just now played), etc., and limits you to buying only from Steam. What if you’d rather buy from GOG or Humble Bundle?
Is it a small studio or a place that encourages unionization and pays creators for their creation? Then not really, cuz you still paid for it in the end.
Is it a shit studio with shit ethics? Then yes. Stop giving monsters financial approval.
Or just stop playing games from shit studios with shit ethics in the first place. If they're that bad, you shouldn't be playing their games at all, pirated or not.
You might want to remember that there are also working grunts in that food chain. They already got paid to make the game, yes, but that was in the expectation of profit. If the game crashes, those execs will look for scapegoats.
Buying games feeds the vampires, but also the devs (even if only in scraps). In our current world, there’s not a whole lot of options outside of “only buy indie games” to both support developers and avoid filling the pockets of execs and investors.
A few people pirating games instead of paying for them isn’t a big deal, but it eventually turns into a “tragedy of the commons” issue like other forms of theft. Either the suppliers won’t be able to stay in business or they’ll work out ever more comprehensive (and invasive) prevention mechanisms. Remember when games were just the program on the disk and you didn’t need keys and an online connection to activate your copy?
If you’re buying games that are more than 3 months old, they do not. Bonuses are given for metacritic scores and launch quarter sales. They’re never given royalties.
there’s not a whole lot of options outside of “only buy indie games” to both support developers and avoid filling the pockets of execs and investors.
What’s wrong with telling people to buy indie games and pirate anything made at the directive of blood-sucking vampires?
Remember when games were just the program on the disk and you didn’t need keys and an online connection to activate your copy?
Remember when games were just some free software on Usenet that someone made because they thought it’d be cool, and shared because they were proud of it?
I didn’t say they were getting paid directly, but indirectly. Their employment and income - like all other working class grunts’ - depends on their ability to generate profit for their employer. If we deny the employer their profit, the employer will take that out on their grunts. Conversely, if we pay them, that money likely will end up sponsoring further developments which - guess what? - pays the developers for developing more stuff.
Much of our modern economy is centered around credit and debt. The developers are effectively paid as a credit, in the expectation that the profits will pay the debt. If it doesn’t, that will affect further credits.
And no, I don’t remember Usenet, but it sounds like that was a good time then. How do they compare to modern games in terms of entertainment?
Almost none of the profit made off AAA games goes to the people actually creating the game. They don’t get a bonus if the new Madden makes $10 mil more than the old one. You’re tossing hundreds at the CEOs and saying it’s worth it if the devs get a few pennies.
Many of them probably aren’t even at the same studio anymore by the time you’re buying the game.
Did you actually read my comment? They don’t get the profit from the old game. The success pays for them to develop new games.
Asked the other way round, if the game’s profit doesn’t pay the devs, what does?
The company employing them
Why does the company employ them?
To make money
So what happens if the company stops making money? A game’s profit doesn’t pay the past developers, but it does affect their future employment and income.
I’m not defending the exploitative system that bleeds us dry for the privilege of getting to temporarily benefit from the wealth they’ve already extracted. I’m not opposing piracy. I’m very much in support of OP’s strategy.
All I’m saying is that piracy won’t fix that system, because the ones most dependent on the game’s success aren’t the exec’s that’ll be hired elsewhere nor the investors that’ll extract their wealth elsewhere, but the devs whose employment and existence depends on their capacity to generate that wealth.
Attack the system at the top, but don’t drop the bottom.
I’m enjoying it. I’ve remembered that I’m terrible at building cities, but I’m having fun while coming to that realization again! Performance is mid 50fps with about 5000 people at 1080p with a 2080 super and a ryzen 3600x.
I turned down a few graphic settings but honestly thoughly playable. Looking forward to performance patches so I can turn some of the eye candy back on
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