March!
Been a while! I can’t exactly remember what my gaming patterns have been over the past 4 months since my last post, so I’ll just throw in a couple of updates. The holidays consisted of me not playing as many games as I would’ve hoped - mostly due to a decreased urge to actually play them! Also, uni is already back in full swing so I’ll currently be squeezing in whatever small amount of playing I can here and there.
Having said all that, I’ve actually checked off quite a few games over this period, so I’ll list the highlights.
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Distrust
6 hours playtime
34 of 56 achievements
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Domina
10 hours playtime
30 of 34 achievements
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Caravan
16 hours playtime
14 of 14 achievements
Distrust
Good little survival/strategy game. Would definitely recommend if you are into those genres. Can be hard at times, and there are some mechanics I just couldn’t figure out. Getting 100% achievements would take far longer than I cared to spend on this game. Nonetheless, I enjoyed it and am happy I beat it. Rating: 7/10
Domina
Really loved this one. It’s a management style of game where you build up your army and take them into battle. Good emphasis on individual unit customisation. Not a whole lot else to say as I don’t want to turn this into a long game review, but I really did enjoy playing it and comfortably beating it. Unfortunately though, I couldn’t quite grab 100% achievements. Only had 4 left to earn, but 3 of them are heavily RNG-based and one of them requires a big grind. Wasn’t really worth it as I realised that: in the time I would spend earning the last few achievements, I could start and finish and entirely new game - which I would much rather do. I will say this about the game though: if I had a much smaller library, I would keep it around and still probably still play it from time to time, as it is a lot of fun. However, as we all experience, our backlogs are much too long to allow this! Rating: 8/10
Caravan
This gaming is basically a trading simulator with an interesting story. I absolutely loved the trading mechanic! I felt we got along really well. The other features, such as combat and progression, are pretty polished too. However, seeing the same unskippable cutscenes over and over got kinda irritating, but it keeps with the slow and relaxed feel of the game. Another big plus: very manageable 100% achievements. Most come with the story progression/regular playing - you’ll only have to go out of your way to get a few of them, and even then they aren’t that difficult. My playtime for the game is a bit of a lie - it really only took about 8 hours to beat the game normally, plus another couple for the achievements. [Tangent Warning] I don’t think I’ve mentioned this before, but in my steam games list, I like the playtimes to be very organised. When I finish a game, it must have the playtime on a whole hour (e.g. 8.0, 10.0, 15.0). For games that take longer than 20 hours (and the decimal place is not shown), it must still be on a nice number (25, 30, 40, 550, etc.). And for shorter games, I separate the trash from the good ones by leaving the trash games on a final playtime of X.1 hours (e.g. 3.1, 5.1). [End Tangent] I was hoping to leave Caravan on 10.0 hours, but by the time I finished off the achievements it was already like 10.3. So naturally, I was going to idle it up to 12.0 hours (11 is a yucky number) but I idled it for too long and missed it. I aimed for 15.0 next, but missed that too! (Really have to set a timer for these things.) So now, it rests on 16.0. Rating: 9/10
Thanks for reading if you got this far! I’m aware that probably no one reads my rants, but I mostly write it for my own records anyway :P
Happy playing!
Hmm looks like Distrust just moved up a bit on my to-play list. See you beat it in about 6 hours so might be good for the shorter attention span. Picked it up recently, I’m guessing in Fanatical mystery bundle or so. The art looks good.
You had any experience with the coop by any chance? Not that I have people to play it with probably but always nice to know about coop. :)
About the aimlessly browsing, I know that feeling. I often turn on the computer to play some games, see installed games, want something fresh instead of the same over and over again. And then I end up scrolling up and down the games library, unable to pick something as half the games in my library don’t even ring a bell. Then I end up watching youtube or something instead. ^^ So having some organising helps a lot to get a better picture of what I wan’t to play and don’t want to play.
Still have to add quite some games to my won’t play list though. But there I also often get sidetracked. I managed to complete the list up to everything starting with A. :D
Distrust was actually a Steamgifts win for me :D but yes I believe it was a Fanatical bundle. A single run to beat the game is actually even shorter than 6 hours! I spent a few hours getting achievements etc. which I know you don’t care for, so you can probably beat it much faster :P
Unfortunately no, I didn’t experience co-op. I can imagine it would be pretty fun though, and less stressful only having to manage 1 character instead of 2-3.
Haha yikes - your library is ~5 times as large as mine, so browsing to choose a game must be a monstrous task! And yeah, sometimes I want something fresh, but I also want to finish the games that I’ve started! I think what’s important is to not stress too much - just go with the flow. After all, games are meant to be fun and enjoyed, not a chore that is dreaded. (Having an organisation system helps too, though.)
Good luck with your playing man! I’ll try to keep up to date with your posts too, as your journey interests me ^_^
I read it! Thanks for the Domina review, always wondered if the game is good. Looks like my impression was correct and it is good indeed. Maybe I’ll see it in a sale sometime :)
Yeah, uni can really steal a lot of time from gaming…i have that as well. And sometimes when coming home from uni it’s just too tiring to play a game and you end up surfing the internet aimlessly for hours :D
Thank you for reading! I means a lot <3 (no homo). Domina is definitely worthwhile - however I’m always careful of recommending games here because we are meant to be shrinking our backlogs, not growing them! If you have it, play it. But if it shows up in a sale or bundle, don’t be afraid to grab it either :D
My pet peeve is aimlessly browsing for hours - because then I didn’t accomplish any study OR gaming! I’d much rather be “wasting” time playing games, because then at least I’m progressing on something (my backlog). I think it’s best when you are able to do some study and then are able to reward yourself with some games :))
I am absolutely with you on that one, but sometimes I’m just too exhausted to play games. Sounds weird, but still happens from time to time. Less over the last months, thankfully.
The. Worst.
My goal for this semester is to cut down on overall time-wasting so that I can fit in more study and still have time for games :D