September 2020 Progress Report

I focused more on other games than this one for the month. I did join the Railroad faction though as a change of pace compared to typically siding with Brotherhood of Steel for their tech, and I started my journey of finding the Institute.  After installing MSI Afterburner, I learned that my CPU is bottlenecking my game almost as often as my GPU. At least the game usually stays well above 60fps @ 1440p as long as I'm not outside in the middle of a city.

I'm glad it released out of Early Access and they added with a tutorial and a single player mode with an AI companion. The AI bot is kinda dumb though, requiring your commands. The command/chat system is intuitive at least, otherwise I wouldnt have played multiple sessions before. When it comes to single player though it can be tough at first to think constantly for what the bot should be doing, so there's a learning curve there. However when playing with other gamers its easier because anyone who isn't playing the game for the very first time easily falls into a cooperative groove of what is most important to do to keep the train going and reach the next station. 

I enjoyed the first game, and I enjoyed this one just as much with its more varied mechanics. It does have similar self pretentiousness, but the modifiers you can gain and that affect enemies & levels change things up. It is interesting how the game deconstructs at the end similar to how it builds up at the beginning. Going through the "story" completes all achievements, and it only requires a subset of "levels" to be beaten reach the end of the game, though beating more levels can yield rewards in some cases.

The lack of engagement and narrative significance for me could not be overcome by some of the more unique mechanics and any meaning that could be derived from the game. The beginning acts almost anyone can appreciate as an introduction to the initial characters and the game world as I did. These and at least interludes between some episodes are available on the game's website or elsewhere as video. The middle acts will test the amount you are engaged in the characters and surrealism, which I failed. The final act will be the biggest test of how much wonder or significance you can squeeze out of this game, which I could no longer. This game was not for me.

A turn based RPG with board-game type elements and largely RNG actions & attacks influenced by character abilities and loot. I tried a playthrough a few times on the easiest difficulty using a variety of characters, but cant finish the first campaign, and have no idea how close I was to completing it. So I'm marking this one as stuck.

Great match-3 RPG hybrid that I got stuck on after getting a score of few million.  It was improved upon by its sequel, You Must Build a Boat.

Best butt scooting platformer racer, but I got stuck trying to get through the second half of 1 player mode.

A pretty Cryengine puzzle game, but an important puzzle glitched on me that I cannot complete and I do not want to restart the game.

Ride a unicycle through levels and don't fall over or down a pit.  Got the little gameplay I wanted out of it.  Best as a mobile game.

An accurate simulator of mundane cop life, including being crass.  I got the gameplay I wanted out of it.

A CCG-ish game with a lite story got too complicated for me in terms of deck building for me to get very far in the story or enjoy it in the mid-game.

Discovered this years ago when a Landfall dev was posting to /r/GamePhysics on reddit, and enjoyed it as a parkour-like platformer. Got most of the way through the levels but got repetitive for me when I got stuck.

ED…ehhh. Its a mindless 3rd person shooter that I'd recommend with friends shooting the breeze, but its not for me.

Got the gameplay I wanted out of this classic physics sandbox.

Gratuitous 2D upfront planning then watch the battle unfold battles. I like strategy games, but I guess I like turn based and RTS more than an up front commander-type strategy.

Got the gameplay I wanted out of the campaign.

Cute amusing game, but the mechanics seemed fairly simple to me and didn't engage me like the demo of the franchise's space game.  I rarely enjoy crafting anyways.

For me it crosses the threshold of challenging controls into unnecessarily frustrating, especially with camera angles in various places.

I guess I just suck at Zachtronics, as I'm now 0 for 2 with this and SpaceChem.  My hunch is that these are too complex and unlike any other puzzles for me to wrap my head around beyond the beginning of the game.  I hope the same can't be said of Exapunks and Eliza.

Got grindy in the mid to late game for building up levels or coins in order to be viable in the main storyline's dungeons.

Enjoyed the beginning of the platformer, but bosses got too hard. I'd rather spend time on other platformers.

Okay block matching game but I could only get part way through the fixed levels.

Neat courses, but simple graphics and meh story makes this less engaging than other games with golf including Tower Unite and others.

Fond memories of this as the first massively popular digital-only console indie self published game (at least on the Nintendo Wii).  I could only get half way through the puzzles, and that's okay