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What Games Have You Completed? (2021 Edition)

Gamer Bhoy 89

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Retr0gamer

Game|Platform|Game|Platform
Megaman X2|SNES||
Streets of Rage 4|PC||
Sekiro|PC||
Megaman 7|SNES||
Megaman 8|PS1||
Megaman X3|SNES||
Megaman & Bass|SNES||
13 Sentinels: Aegis Rim|PS4||
Broken Sword: Director's Cut|PC||

Broken Sword: Director's Cut

I've been playing this on and off the last couple of weeks. I've finished this years ago but never played the director's cut.

Broken Sword is a great point and click adventure even if it doesn't really live up to the heights of the best of Lucas Arts. However it's pretty much the next best thing outside of the Wadjet Eye games. Puzzles are great if not too obtuse and the dialogue is frequently amusing.

It's strange playing this now. What at the time felt like a high budget game feels a bit cheap. The director's cut makes it even more apparent. The Director's cut adds some new puzzles (which are kind of annoying), irons out some issues with the original including the pain in the arse goat puzzle and adds new sections with Nico. The Nico sections are fun but ultimately adds nothing to the story. It also makes the main game seem cheaper as there is a big jump in art asset quality and in particular sound quality in these sections.

Still worth a play and I'll give the sequel a go but want to finally beat Monkey Island 2 so will play that first. I also really should play more of the Wadjet Eye games.

The Phantom Pain

Retr0gamer wrote: »

Well I don't care about either but I prefer Gamerscore because it actually works on a technical level.

On XBox if I want to check achievements and check what achievements my friends have and so a comparison is super quick with instantaneous loading and near instantaneous when looking at a friends.

Trophies on the other hand have always been a disaster technically. They take ages to load up if you just want to check. I noticed when I got my platinum they also take forever to update as I went to check if I did actually get a platinum but my trophies were at 60% for a good two minutes before updating.

And then checking a friends trophies? Forget about it unless you can wait until the heat death of the sun before they load.

So even though I don't care about either I'd sometimes check achievements as it's so quick and easy whereas I've to put on the kettle to check trophies while they load so never bother.

I literally have no problem loading trophies or comparing with friends. All you need to do is press the 'compare' button...

Gamer Bhoy 89

GAME Half-Life 2
PLATFORM PC

That was more like it!

I thoroughly enjoyed this one a lot more than the predecessor. It was more contained and there were maybe only two sections that I would've preferred to be a lot shorter (the vehicle sections were way too long) but other than that, much more enjoyable. And the best part about this one, for me at least, is the aliens take a bit of a back seat in this instalment. No overly-elaborate and maze-like alien planets or anything like that.

Black Mesa nearly turned me away from the series entirely just as I was starting to get into it, but Half-Life 2 kept my interest.

|GAMES BEATEN IN 2021|
#|GAME|PLATFORM|#|GAME|PLATFORM|#|GAME|PLATFORM

1|RESIDENT EVIL 3|PS4|11|NEOGEO BATTLE COLISEUM|XBOX 360|21|SF ALPHA 3 (30TH A'VERSARY COLLECTION)|PC

2|ACE COMBAT 7: SKIES UNKNOWN|PS4|12|FATAL FURY (ACA NEOGEO)|PS4|22|SF3: NEW GENERATION (30TH A'VERSARY COLLECTION)|PC

3|GRIS|PS4|13|STREET FIGHTER (30TH A'VERSARY COLLECTION)|PC|23|SF3: 2ND IMPACT (30TH A'VERSARY COLLECTION)|PC

4|SCOTT PILGRIM VS. THE WORLD|PS4|14|SFII: THE WORLD WARRIOR (30TH A'VERSARY COLLECTION)|PC|24|SF3: 3RD STRIKE (30TH A'VERSARY COLLECTION)|PC

5|STREETS OF RAGE 4|SWITCH|15|SFII: CHAMPION EDITION (30TH A'VERSARY COLLECTION)|PC|25|SHANK|PC

6|KOF '94 (ACA NEOGEO)|PS4|16|SFII: HYPER FIGHTING (30TH A'VERSARY COLLECTION)|PC|26|SHANK 2|PC

7|KOF '95 (KOF COLLECTION: THE OROCHI SAGA)|PS4|17|SSFII: THE NEW CHALLENGERS (30TH A'VERSARY COLLECTION)|PC|27|BLACK MESA|PC

8|KOF '96 (KOF COLLECTION: THE OROCHI SAGA)|PS4|18|SSFII TURBO (30TH A'VERSARY COLLECTION)|PC|28|HALF-LIFE 2|PC

9|KOF '97: GLOBAL MATCH|PS4|19|SF ALPHA (30TH A'VERSARY COLLECTION)|PC

10|KOF '98: ULTIMATE MATCH|PS4|20|SF ALPHA 2 (30TH A'VERSARY COLLECTION)|PC

Mal-Adjusted

Another update

#|GAME|PLATFORM
1|Bioshock 2 | PC
2|GTA San Andreas | PC
3|Metro 2033 | XBOX 360

Metro 2033.
On paper it really shouldn't work. it's a by the numbers corridor shooter (80% of the game is in train tunnels FFS!) with uninspired combat and a so-so story. But my god, the atmosphere. It's tense as f^£k throughout and feels like anything can jump out of the shadows at you. Managing your dwindling supply of filters and ammo while praying for the safety of the next station lends to this bleak, hopeless world. It really ows a lot to the Stalker games and it comes from the same pedigree.

Americanisms

Bit of a weird one but just 100%'ed Rayman 2 for the GameBoy Color.

Really fun 2d platforming game, just a shame there is no new music track from Rayman 1 (GBC)

Mr.Fantastic

#|GAME|PLATFORM
1|Streets of Rage 4 | Switch
2|Cyberpunk 2077 | PS5(Ps4 version)
3| Remnant from the ashes | PS5(ps4)
4| Life is strange Season 2 | PS5(PS4)
5| FFX HD remaster | Switch
6| AC:Odyssey | PS5(PS4)

AC:Odyssey

Finally finished all three strands of the main story here, was good but I feel like zelda BOTW has ruined open world games for me. I did enjoy the story and the lead character Kassandra, but felt there was an awful lot of fetch questing and also the way you are locked out of quests due to level forces you to some bull**** side missions.

Felt the overall arc was good but I feel that it would have been a better game if they just left the AC part out , was cool going around ancient greece suppose thats why they made immortals since.

Have valhalla in the backlog but will leave that to maybe end of summer as I have objective marker fatigue.

Currently playing Halo 5 guardians on the series x and its a nice dumb palate cleanser pew pew.

Retr0gamer

Kingp35

#|Game|Platform
1| Resident Evil 3| PlayStation 4|
2| Resident Evil 4| PlayStation 4|
3| Yakuza Kiwami| PlayStation 4|
4| Yakuza Kiwami 2| PlayStation 4|
5| Endless Fable 3: Dark Moor| PlayStation 4|
6| Cube Escape: The Lake| Android

Yakuza Kiwami 2

I thought this was definitely an improvement on the first game. Gone are the four fighting styles which made fights much more fluid. Big improvements in graphics too, the game just plays better than the first one. There's loads to do around the two cities including two larger mini games in Cabaret Club and Clan Creator. The only major downside is that like the previous game it's too easy. Legend difficulty should be available from the start, the game is too long to play through twice. I have Yakuza 0 downloaded but I'll play something else before tackling that.

I also cleared two other games, Endless Fable 3 which is another Artifex Mundi puzzle game but not one of their better ones as it's very short, even by their standards. I also cleared Cube Escape: The Lake, a free short puzzle game on Android that I enjoyed a lot.

Oymyakon

#|Game|Platform
1| Borderlands 3| PlayStation 4|

It only took me a year and a half. Have to say I was not terribly impressed overall, I loved the original Borderlands but this one just didn't compel me. I guess I felt the entire game was pretty repetitive. On to Hades on Nintendo Switch next, then back to the PS4 for FFVII Remake after.

Gamer Bhoy 89

GAME Little Nightmares 2
PLATFORM Xbox One

The original was a personal favourite of mine. The style and tone really grabbed my attention, and was one of those games that I didn't look to reviews, or general opinion to know if it was any good. It was a game I saw and thought "looks good, I'll try that" and it ended up being one of my favourite games that year.

This one was just as good. It felt a little shorter than the original but maybe it's because I was already familiar with the gameplay I kinda knew most of the tropes.

As per with these types of games, however, there are a lot of trial-and-error moments, and a few times where I felt a bit stupid during a puzzle that was really simple in hindsight. There was also one instance, though, where I ran into a game-breaking bug; I was forced to restart the entire chapter but thankfully I was able to get through it in a fraction of the time, and never seen another bug since. A simple patch will fix that - the game is only 2 weeks old as I write this post. Another thing that I just haven't been able to grasp in the 28 years I've played video games, is "run away" sections. This game has probably one per chapter at least, and they just stresses me out.

Nevertheless this was one of the best indie* games I've played this year. *Technically it's not an indie title as it's published by Bandai Namco.
There was also a class twist a the end, making me hope that there'll be a post-story expansion, or at least another sequel in the future.

If you've played the likes of Limbo, Inside, and enjoyed them, you owe it to yourself to give these games a go as well. Stunning visuals, creepy characters (creepy being a massive understatement) and great music that fits the aforementioned tone.

I love, love, love, LOVE games like this.

I may go back and do all the DLC on the original game - bought the "season pass" and didn't utilise it at all.

|GAMES BEATEN IN 2021|
#|GAME|PLATFORM|#|GAME|PLATFORM|#|GAME|PLATFORM

1|RESIDENT EVIL 3|PS4|11|NEOGEO BATTLE COLISEUM|XBOX 360|21|STREET FIGHTER ALPHA 3|PC

2|ACE COMBAT 7: SKIES UNKNOWN|PS4|12|FATAL FURY (ACA NEOGEO)|PS4|22|STREET FIGHTER 3: NEW GENERATION|PC

3|GRIS|PS4|13|STREET FIGHTER|PC|23|STREET FIGHTER 3: 2ND IMPACT|PC

4|SCOTT PILGRIM VS. THE WORLD|PS4|14|STREET FIGHTER 2: THE WORLD WARRIOR|PC|24|STREET FIGHTER 3: 3RD STRIKE|PC

5|STREETS OF RAGE 4|SWITCH|15|STREET FIGHTER 2: CHAMPION EDITION|PC|25|SHANK|PC

6|KING OF FIGHTERS '94 (ACA NEOGEO)|PS4|16|STREET FIGHTER 2: HYPER FIGHTING|PC|26|SHANK 2|PC

7|KING OF FIGHTERS '95|PS4|17|SUPER STREET FIGHTER 2: THE NEW CHALLENGERS|PC|27|BLACK MESA|PC

8|KING OF FIGHTERS '96|PS4|18|SUPER STREET FIGHTER 2 TURBO|PC|28|HALF-LIFE 2|PC

9|KING OF FIGHTERS '97: GLOBAL MATCH|PS4|19|STREET FIGHTER ALPHA|PC|29|LITTLE NIGHTMARES 2|XBOX ONE

10|KING OF FIGHTERS '98: ULTIMATE MATCH|PS4|20|STREET FIGHTER ALPHA 2|PC

Retr0gamer

Game|Platform|Game|Platform
Megaman X2|SNES||
Streets of Rage 4|PC||
Sekiro|PC||
Megaman 7|SNES||
Megaman 8|PS1||
Megaman X3|SNES||
Megaman & Bass|SNES||
13 Sentinels: Aegis Rim|PS4||
Broken Sword: Director's Cut|PC||
Command & Conquer: Red Alert|PC||
Mischief Makers|N64||

Mischief Makers

Beaten with all yellow gems and an overall A ranking.

Another Treasure game that flies in the face of conventions. It's a platform game with a very weird control scheme that focuses on dashing as well as grabbing, shaking and throwing things. Also strange is that it's a 2D sprite based game on the N64.

This doesn't sound like much but all 52 levels explore these controls in insane ways. One level will have you riding a raft over magma throwing enemies off it so it doesn't sink. Another will have you rescuing kids in a fairground. Another will have you riding a missile to the excite. It's constantly weird and constantly surprising.

It's a pretty easy game but it really comes into its own when you go for the hidden yellow gems on each level and go for an overall A rank on levels to get the secret ending.

Some great boss battles as well but then it's a Treasure game so that's a given.

Had an absolute blast with this game and it's up there as one of the very best N64 games.

Mr.Saturn

#|GAME|PLATFORM
1|Bit Trip Runner| Switch
2|Speed Dating for Ghosts | Switch
3| Mother Russia Bleeds | Switch
4| Bioshock Infinite: Burial at Sea | PS4
5| Bioshock 2: Minerva's Den | PS4
6| A Short Hike | Switch
7| Shadow of the Colossus| PS4
8| What Remains of Edith Finch| Switch
9| Yakuza Kiwami | PS4
10| Captain Toad: Treasure Tracker | Switch
11| Yakuza Zero | PS4
12| Yakuza Kiwami 2 | PS4
13| Florence | Switch
14|Night in the Woods| Switch
15|The Stretchers | Switch
16|Wario Land: The Shake Dimension | Wii

Has anyone played this Wario Land? I was super excited to lap up some more Wario, puzzle-platformer deliciousness, even with tacked-on motion control nonsense. For the most part, it does the job - unlocking some of the nooks and crevices is equal part mind-bending as it is fun with the exit from the first desert stage being a highlight.

That said, the game destroys so much the goodwill it generates by gating off the final stretch behind a grind-a-thon. You've to buy maps with the coins collected to open up new levels, but the final one is so well outside "sure, you'll pick them up as you along" territory you'd be forgiven for dumping it there and then. Which would be a shame, as the final boss was actually great fun. Actually, on the whole, the bosses were good craic with the showdown with flower pot being a stand-out.

I'd recommend it if you're absolutely dying for a bit of Wario Land (assuming you've played all the other much better ones) and can tolerate a good bit of "we need 10 hours out of this" padding.

Kingp35

earthwormjack

johnny_ultimate

Maquette - Bit of a frustrating one, this. Moments of absolute brilliance clash up against many rough edges.

The central conceit is a good one: a puzzle game set in 'recursive', nested worlds within worlds. The plain you're in has a smaller replica, and you yourself are in a replica of a larger world. Items manipulated in your world are replicated on a smaller / bigger scale in the other worlds. It's hard to explain, but worthy of quite a few 'huzzah!' moments as your brain manages to figure out the oddball logic involved in the game's best puzzles.

It looks and sounds great for a debut too, and is a rare game that utilises full music cues - as in actual songs!

Unfortunately, while the game's around four hours long, it doesn't sustain its good ideas over its modest running time. The physics aren't snappy enough for some of the more niggly item placement bits. Despite the grand concept, ultimately you're fairly roped in to three 'layers' of diorama. Worse, there's some carelessness in the design here and there - in one particular bit you can experiment with a potential solution only for a key item to become irretrievable in a bit of landscape, forcing a reload (I laughed reading the Eurogamer review because it has a screenshot of the exact same situation I ended up with at one point).

It's the story that's the biggest let down, though - a trite, unimaginative relationship study that goes nowhere interesting at all. There are some cool moments when the landscape reflects certain emotional states, but largely it's delivered through text 'projections' on the landscapes and bland little cutscenes. Especially in the more linear back-half of the game, it's like a walking sim without the superior storytelling of that genre's best-in-class. Bryce Dallas Howard is certainly over-qualified for the material!

I'm down on it, but it's a solid debut nonetheless - and there's a fun (if occasionally clunky) 3D puzzle game here when it focuses on that central conceit. I'm eager to see the developer's next game - 'shows promise, but room for improvement'.

Penn

johnny_ultimate wrote: »

Worse, there's some carelessness in the design here and there - in one particular bit you can experiment with a potential solution only for a key item to become irretrievable in a bit of landscape, forcing a reload (I laughed reading the Eurogamer review because it has a screenshot of the exact some situation I ended up with at one point).

Just checked the Eurogamer review.

Yup....

The Phantom Pain

Tomb Raider Definitive Edition.
Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhood Remastered (The Ezio Collection).
Everybody’s Gone to the Rapture

Astro’s Playroom. Completed and platinumed.

Right from the top, this is an absolute recommend for ALL gamers of varying tastes but especially long time Playstation fans. Essentially a 3D platformer tech demo, Astro’s Playroom takes you down memory lane (

) of Sony’s Playstation through the years with cute little cameos that I won’t spoil, but I was like that Captain America meme every few minutes, “I understood that reference!”

The graphics are stunning with each level being distinctive both visually and in mechanical ideas. The way you can interact with pretty much anything and receive some sort of physical and emotional response, including from the other Astro Bot NPCs, will peak your curiosity and have you doing all sorts of mischievous stuff.

The music is also perfect for the tone; perky and catchy, I laughed when I suddenly realised what the lyrics were saying!

There are 4 maps and within each one are 4 levels (16 levels in total). When you beat them all you unlock 8 speedrun levels which riff on some of the levels already completed. I don’t even like speedruns but I just had to have one more excuse to extend my playtime with this game. Plus there’s a DLC trophy for getting a total speedrun of 7 minutes or under too and I even did that! It helps that it’s mostly win or die: when you fall you fall to your death which automatically forces you to restart the speedrun from the beginning rather than checkpointing where you left off and continuing the timer in a fail state. Plus all the 8 speedrun levels are relatively short; the average gamer can complete them in about 50 seconds each.

This is a game where the platinum feels deeply embedded into the experience as it provides the incentive for you to get all the puzzle pieces and artefacts as well as perform unique level-specific actions which extend your playtime with an otherwise 2 hour game to about 5 to 7 hours. In a cute twist, the "artefacts" consist of the different Playstation consoles and accessories throughout the years and when you acquire them they get stored in the Playstation Labo (a sort of homebase for the Astro Bot) where you can marvel at them at your leisure.

I have to admit that I almost cried when I took the time to explore the Labo. As well as enabling me to appreciate how far the Playstation has come it brought back so many good memories. I got into gaming very young via my dad but the Atari was his console and the SNES was more my older sister’s who, in fairness, let me play whenever I wanted. The Playstation 1 was the first console that was truly mine and I got it late into the generation for Christmas after begging my dad for ages. Seeing the memory stick and remembering how my dad accidentally erased my entire playthrough of Heart of Darkness because he forgot to slot it in when he was playing (and I was on the final level too!) made me laugh. Remembering how the Disney Tarzan game was the very first game I ever saw to completion (because I was obsessed with the movie) made me want to go back to the family home and dig it up again (if Covid wasn’t an issue). I'm sure this game will trigger a lot of warm, fuzzy feelings for others as it did for me.

As previously mentioned, this is mainly a tech showcase for the haptic feedback of the new Dualsense controller which makes it probably the only true Playstation 5 game. I’m usually not fussed about this sort of stuff but even I enjoyed the patting sensation of rain drops and trudging in the mud, or even blowing into the mic to make a fan move or tilting the controller left or right to guide the direction of the Astro Bot whenever he was in his special suit; it felt so fresh and exciting. One of the speedruns requires you to roll a ball down a super tight expressway using the touch pad and I was surprised at the sharp turns I was making while going at full speed. It shows just how polished the controls and the Dualsense is. I think this might be my favourite controller ever.

TL;DR: If you manage to acquire a PS5 make sure Astro’s Playroom is the first game you play. It’s a beautiful tribute to a legendary console series and a wonderful first impression for the PS5. Makes me really hopeful for this generation.

Kingp35

YoshiSays

Retr0gamer

For the me 3D Land games only get great with the extra post game levels. You've the best to go!

YoshiSays

Also, nice and short. Not a huge time sink and can dip in and out on the portable console.

johnny_ultimate

Bowser’s Fury - I’m a big supporter of developers making smaller, less time consuming and more experimental entries in major franchises, and great to see Nintendo enter the fray.

This is open world Mario, but thankfully in a way that’s more akin to Outer Wilds than a Ubisoft game. There’s a big overworld with a bunch of discrete levels. What’s fun is how fast and pacy this makes the game - you’re free to hop between the different challenges without any friction, and there’s a bunch of hidden bits and pieces or mini-challenges in-between them. If most open world game add friction and noise to the core game, this funnily enough makes everything feel that bit tighter and more focused. It reuses many of the basic assets and mechanics of 3D World, but it’s hard to complain when it feels and looks this good.

The big hook - and this is where the Outer Wilds comparison really comes in - is that there’s a timed element to it all: every 10 minutes or so, giant bowser will appear and spew the world with fire and debris. This is the only way to unlock certain objectives (mainly by breaking otherwise invincible blocks). The core goal is to collect enough sprites to unlock a series of massive scale kaiju type brawls between Bowser and Mario. It’s a fun central hook, and it’s something it’d be great to see remixed or revisited in a later Mario game as the slightly lower-budget nature of this production to me suggests some potential left to be fulfilled. The tech struggles to handle the frame rate when things get very messy, but by and large there’s a great sense of scale to the world without things ever becoming too sprawling or overwhelming.

What’s most striking in the end is that this isn’t quite polished to the sheer mirror sheen Mario games usually are - there are rough edges and imperfections. But that almost makes it more interesting - a bold, vibrant and thoroughly entertaining experiment from Nintendo. They’ve experimented before of course on even grander canvases, but this has a certain freewheeling, b-team feel to it that I found entirely endearing. Fast, short and delightful.

The only real issue is it being bundled in with a full-price re-release of a game I already owned - if that’s Nintendo’s eccentric business practices at their worst, the game at least is Nintendo’s developers pushing just the right amount against expectations.

Mr.Fantastic

#|GAME|PLATFORM
1|Streets of Rage 4 | Switch
2|Cyberpunk 2077 | PS5(Ps4 version)
3| Remnant from the ashes | PS5(ps4)
4| Life is strange Season 2 | PS5(PS4)
5| FFX HD remaster | Switch
6| AC:Odyssey | PS5(PS4)
7|Resident evil 3:remake | PS5(PS4)
8|Halo 5: Guardians | Xbox Series x

Resident evil 3:remake

Great game if only a tad short, not as good as the second one but highly enjoyed it, was a breath of fresh air that I could finish it in a few sittings.

Really enjoyed the combat and the story even if some of the voice lines are unbearable 90s cringe. The character models are great though looks great on ps5 super smooth.

Halo 5: Guardians

Wrapped this up also per the story mode, I think 343 forgot half of the plot on the cutting room floor. Agree 100 percent with a review I read on this game which stated that the ending was so disappointing because the plot never even started.

Aside from this I dip in now and again and play online with my buddies, still got it yo high plat rank and the last halo I played was reach online back on x 360

Currently dividing my time now between Gears of War 4 and Nioh2 (which is balls to the wall hard)

B.A._Baracus

Resident Evil 2 remake.
Really good. I only briefly played the original despite playing most of the series. Good job by Capcom. Gonna move on to RE3 REMAKE soon.

BioShock burial at sea 1 & 2 dlc.
Enjoyed them both but I would say the first dlc was probably better.

Deus Ex human Revolution.
A classic from the Xbox 360 days. Really fun game.

YoshiSays

Retr0gamer

Game|Platform|Game|Platform
Megaman X2|SNES||
Streets of Rage 4|PC||
Sekiro|PC||
Megaman 7|SNES||
Megaman 8|PS1||
Megaman X3|SNES||
Megaman & Bass|SNES||
13 Sentinels: Aegis Rim|PS4||
Broken Sword: Director's Cut|PC||
Command & Conquer: Red Alert|PC||
Mischief Makers|N64||
Wolfenstein 2: New Colossus (DLC)|PC||

Wolfenstein 2: New Colossus (DLC: Freedom Chronicles)

Forgot I bought the season pass for this game. Played the main game back in the day and while I really enjoyed it it was kind of missing something.

The DLC is basically more of the same. You have 3 characters that play differently from each other, one is balls to the wall blasting, another is focused on stealth and the other is more like BJ. It's all presented in a faux grindhouse aesthetic which I enjoyed.

My main issue is that it seems a bit cheap with a lot of recycled assets and not a lot new to the game. The main gameplay is satisfying but I was expecting a little bit more from my money rather than what felt like more challenge rooms. Still the Wolfenstein 2 gameplay is still extremely satisfying with good stealth and guns that feel incredible. The way the guns tear apart Nazi's, kkk members and the scenery is so satisfying.

Overall, I don't think the DLC is worth bothering with.

One thing that got to me was back when I played it in 2017 the juxaposition of the nazis in america and the far right seemed over the top and silly in a tongue in cheek way. Playing it now it's scary how such an over the top piece of satire seemed to cut so close to the bone.

Kingp35

#|Game|Platform
1| Resident Evil 3| PlayStation 4|
2| Resident Evil 4| PlayStation 4|
3| Yakuza Kiwami| PlayStation 4|
4| Yakuza Kiwami 2| PlayStation 4|
5| Endless Fable 3: Dark Moor| PlayStation 4|
6| Cube Escape: The Lake| Android|
7| The Secret Order 7: Shadow Breach| PlayStation 4
8| A Plague Tale: Innocence| PlayStation 4|
9| Ghost Files: Memory of a Crime| PlayStation 4|
10| Irony Curtain: From Matryoshka With Love| PlayStation 4|
11| Anodyne| PlayStation 4 (PS Now)|
12| Dandara| PlayStation 4 (PS Now)

I've finished four games since my last post. The first being Ghost Files: Memory of a Crime which is a standard Artifex Mundi puzzle game with a good playtime.

Irony Curtain: From Matryoshka With Love

The second game is also an Artifex Mundi game but it's totally different to their usual fare. Instead it's an old school point and click game in the same vein as Day of the Tentacle. It's based around a fictional communist country called Matryoshka and is full of satire and humour. It's genuinely a good game and one that was probably overlooked due to the developer. Fans of point and click games really should check this one out.

I decided to have a look through PS Now for games I'd never heard of but sounded interesting and I've found a few that I added to my list.

Anodyne

Anodyne is a 16/8 bit action adventure metroidvania game similar to The Legend of Zelda in that you you explore and world and dungeons one screen at a time. The story is silly but the gameplay is very good and brought back great memories of similar games. There's nothing 'new' here but it definitely scratched my nostalgia itch.

Dandara

Finally Dandara is another metroidvania game on PS Now that I had never heard of. I really enjoyed this one. The main gameplay mechanic is that you can only move leaping from one wall to another, you can't just walk left and right. This makes for some challenging gameplay at times. You can unlock different weapons, there's boss fights, upgrades to find and hidden areas. I'm not sure why I hadn't heard of this as it really is an excellent game and one I'd recommend to all.

johnny_ultimate

Cyberpunk 2077 - CDPR fall flat on their face with this shallow, uninspired mediocrity. There are a few well-drawn characters and decent side missions. It obviously looks great, even if it crashed more times for me than any other game I’ve ever played by a substantial margin. But for the most part this is a failure - a game that tries to be everything, and ends up as nothing interesting. I don’t blame the developers, given the stories we’ve heard about CDPR management - the bosses and shareholders pushed too hard, and ruined their team’s work in the process.It’s simply a bad RPG, a bad open world game, a bad action game, and a bad take on the Cyberpunk genre - most of all, it’s a failure of vision.

Devotion - from a failure of vision to a triumph of vision. I LOVED this game. I’d grown a bit disillusioned by the walking sim genre, as I felt it had kind of being overshadowed by the more mechanically robust narrative games we’ve seen in recent years. But this is a superb PT-like, sending you creeping through fascinating, haunting and occasionally horrifying settings. Mostly set in a single apartment, the space transforms and twists in a whole bunch of ways - you never quite know what awaits when you open a familiar door again.

Its a horror game, but with a strong focus on characters. Its Taiwan setting is vividly realised, and loaded with cultural detail and context (the in-game ads and TV shows are so convincing I assumed they had to be actual archive footage). I was left a bit shaken by how dark the themes ultimately get, with the story driven by one man’s increasingly fanatical disappearance into his faith and frustrations. The art and graphics are pretty stunning for a small game, and the production values remarkable throughout.

Don’t let the absurd, depressing controversy around the game distract from what is one of the sharpest, most unnerving horror / story games yet made.

one armed dwarf

I also beat Devotion and frankly am a bit surprised by the lack of general interest across the internet now that it's got released. When you look up on some of the cultural context to it it's got some pretty interesting things to say about Taiwanese attitudes to the topics it discusses, which I won't really get into cause the point of the game is how the narrative layers get peeled back. It's a bit disappointing tho that the banning of the game makes up 90% of its online chatter. I do think also it over-indulges in some pretty cheesy jump scares including one absolutely rubbish section that feels like it belongs in Outlast. Just having the hint of something threatening behind a corner is enough in a lot of cases, I consider a jump scare something which should only be used once or twice to get a player in a frame of mind. Not something that they can easily predict and anticipate cause it actually kind of destroys any feeling of being scared after a while

Retr0gamer

It got a lot of exposure on the steam release, great reviews and ended up on a lot of 2020 game of the year lists.

Just the wind has been taken out of its sails which is a pity. Really hope it's a success for these guys and selling from their own site nets them the profits they missed out on from the initial sales rush.