Transistor was a gift from last holiday season, and another superb release from Supergiant Games. It’s highly polished, and beautiful to both look at and listen to. It didn’t immediately grab me the way that Bastion did, but I soon became a sucker for the added strategy of its real-time/turn-based hybrid combat. I also like how it gently encouraged experimentation by only unlocking background lore if you varied your combat setup. It’s a great game and I’d highly recommend it. I can’t say that I cared for the ending, though, and didn’t feel that the love story was portrayed convincingly enough.
Ittle Dew is a cute, light-hearted puzzle adventure game that was chosen for me in the last Challenge Me!. It’s colorful and cartoony, has a nice dose of humor, and is full of puzzles that range from simple/obvious to downright tricky. (I wasn’t able to make it through the entire Master Cave without consulting a walkthrough.) It’s not particularly long (it’s possible to speedrun it in under 15 minutes if that’s your thing), but I took my time exploring all there was to see, and it’s a fun time while it lasts.
Orcs Must Die! is another fun, cartoony game that was picked for this challenge. It’s a combination of tower defense and third-person shooter, which often has you running back and forth in order to defend against enemies from multiple directions. There’s a nice variety of traps and passive perks to choose from, which greatly affect how you approach each map, and most of my time in the game was spent simply looking around the maps and strategizing. The formula is essentially to come up with a plan, execute it, move on if it succeeds, or reevaluate it and try another plan, and some of the maps may require a few tries before you find something that works well. It’s a fun game, and I found it plays best in short spurts doing a map or two at a time, rather than sitting down for a long marathon session.
Hi! Orcs must die is a lot of fun indeed, very relaxing to play a map or two at a time, just as you said. Glad you enjoyed it!
Haha. It was certainly fun, but my playthrough wasn’t what I’d describe as relaxing, since I was constantly rushing around and juggling between multiple entrances. Of course, being determined to earn 5 skulls (which has a time limit) on each map probably had a lot to do with that. ;)
Yeah okay, I was just finishing the levels, going for all skulls is not really relaxing, I agree :D
You’re the 3rd person I’ve heard wasn’t immediately taken by the beginning of Transistor but grew to love it soon afterwards. Makes me hopeful! I’ve been intrigued since release and know everyone’s raved about it, but I watched the first 30 minutes and wasn’t sold. It certainly looks beautiful but I’m not so sure the gameplay is for me. From all the reviews I’ve read though I’m always like dang that sounds right up my alley tho!! Should really give it a chance, plan on buying it eventually. :)
Yeah I loved how chill ittle dew was but surprisingly difficult at times. I think generally speaking the difficulty was just right, enough for me to think about the puzzles but not speed thru or get stuck (until the end). I’m glad you liked OMD! as well. I completely agree about playing them in small doses. Whenever I crave a tower defense game I’ll load it up and it’ll scratch that itch. Orcs Must Die! 2 really expanded the first game with more customisability with traps, trinkets and maps. Feels like the setup possibilities are even more endless.
Thanks again for letting me pick for you, glad you enjoyed them! Hope you have fun with w/e you play next. :D
Honestly, thank you for choosing such great games for me! I actually installed them all (including The Walking Dead: Season One so that I could play the 400 Days DLC before tackling the second season), but I didn’t get nearly as far in the challenge as I had hoped. The biggest obstacle for me in tackling my backlog is that I’m a social gamer and spend more time than I’d care to admit playing multiplayer games (that have no end) with steam friends. Yeah, I’m looking at you, 7 Days To Die, Killing Floor 2, Insurgency, etc.
Regarding Transistor, I’d recommend giving it a try, especially if you liked Bastion. They’re different games, but share enough similarities that if you enjoy one, you’ll likely enjoy the other. They’re both great games, but Bastion’s narrative approach does a better job of immediately sucking you in. You’ll warm up to Transistor within a few minutes of playing, though. :)
I was going to offer you a gog key for Defender’s Quest: Valley of the Forgotten, but I see that you already have it on Steam. I haven’t played many tower defense games, but I highly recommend that one. It’s 2D and doesn’t have the action shooter aspect of OMD!, but has some RPG elements and character creation (since your “towers” in that game are characters), decent writing, good humor, and was simply fun to play. (Hmm, I didn’t check to see if there’s a new Challenge Me! yet, but if you plan on taking part this month, maybe this could be a “pre-pick” from me.) :P
Yeah I feel you, I spend the majority of my time playing with friends too when I’m able. Nothing wrong with that though as long as you’re having fun. :D Playing games with buddies can be the best.
And ooh thank you for the rec!! I honestly forgot all about it, I’m genuinely really excited. ^-^ It looks right up my alley, will definitely give it a try. I’m not gonna be doing the Challenge Me again but I’ll be sure to let you know once I’ve played it! :)
Yeah I agree with your assessment of Transistor. I think not enough context is given for the love story. Like why do they love each other enough that she is willing to stab herself to be joined with him at the end? We’re thrown into the story after it’s already in motion and never given enough backstory to care that her lover is trapped in the sword. All that’s really revealed is how it came to happen.
Yeah, while I thoroughly enjoyed the game, I wish they would have done more to convey some sense of emotional connection between them, and had some sort of dramatic buildup before she made her choice. To me, the ending felt rushed and anti-climactic, and while it shocked me, I wasn’t particularly moved by it because although the game told me that they were in love, I didn’t actually feel it.