April 2020 report
Hello everyone! April was a really good month for my backlog. The best in history seems like. :) I hope this will only continue as I yet again became weak and acquired many new games. X)
Random number generator picked 19 - so I should aim for completing Planet Stronghold… but as I have many entries in Monthly challenge, PoP or PAGYWOSG event, I don’t see it any pinky. ;)
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Please excuse me if you find any mistakes, after I post my report I usually find many of them, but I really read the post few times before I send it out. X) Feel free to point them out to me. ;)
Enough of small talks and now to the actual assassinations! Good luck in a new month and have a nice time everyone!
This was fun!
We are playing as a badass detective Ronan O’Connor who is investigating (like the rest of the police department) series of mysterious murders, which are highly resembling the infamous Witch hunts that happened in Salem Town hundred years ago. Everything would go smoothly if we wouldn’t be murdered in the first 50 seconds as Ronan is a wild guy and has nothing to lose! :D But with our death just begins the right fun. ;)
So before Ronan leaves over the shining bridge to his death wife, he has to find the truth behind this “Bell Killer” and do everything he can to stop him. He wouldn’t be alone on this case as he joins his powers with young medium girl Joy who is searching for her lost mother… everything is intertwined.
Your hunt after the killer will take you through whole city and its important places. The world of the living and dead are connected, you can see the past and sometimes have to take detour as the route is closed. You can meet troubled souls who are lost and offer them help, that was nice touch as Ronan remains detective even after death. ;) Also if you search the city for notes, pictures, photos etc. you can learn a lot of about history of the city, Ronan, his wife and many others, oh don’t forget collecting scary stories! And they were rather scary. ;)
As a ghost Ronan gains new powers. He can go everywhere he wants… well, in case of houses only when doors are open, it doesn’t mean that he can go through every wall he see - I really liked this aspect, he must be invited. ;) He can possess humans (and cats!!!), read their minds and influence them in some cases. Teleporting is another skill he masters as well as dispersing himself into souls remains that you will see through the city. They are important part of the game as demons will try to catch Ronan and pull him into hell!
We can divide the game into two parts. Detective work when you search for clues, then you analyze them and connect them accordingly. Have to say that Ronan was a little bit slow sometimes. XD Other part is stealth action, when you need to hide before the demons. I have noticed that many gamers have spoken ill about this, so I was rather cautious, but I really like these kind of games and have to say that it was easy peasy! :D It was great, I have enjoyed it very much! So to say, you have demons who have floating pattern, which is very short. You can also see them through walls. You have to hide in the souls remains (you can safely teleport between them) and then pass by them or you can exorcise them, which is definitely better as they won’t disturb you any longer. You can do that when you sneak upon them or you wait for them to pass by you when you are dispersed. All it took was just a moment of patience to learn the field and then quickly act. I had to redo only one situation as he was situated in a bad place. I have really liked it and would even wanted more, as I was still waiting for some demons in the city as you have there the hiding soul remains, but nothing… I think that was a little wasted potential.
All and all, I have enjoyed it soooooo much! Story was interesting and gripping, characters likeable. I want some another dead detective! :D
This is very nice puzzle game which is best played with friend! The graphic is beautiful as soundtrack (I would love getting it). Story follows Ember and Rime, separated by their different elements, but searching for a way to be together. Narration is done pleasantly and we always stopped to perceive it fully, few times some words were missing or the line wasn’t voiced, but it didn’t disturbed us much.
Gameplay is brilliant. At first I couldn’t have imagined how it will work properly, but it’s so clever! Main aspect of the game is the separation and influence of their elements of the world. It’s very nice to watch how the world changes with the Ember’s heat or with Rime’s cold… one could spent all time with sightseeing. Through the game you have to collect scarfs, which will open another worlds to explore. In those you separation is changed. Once you get forcefully pushed away if you just slightly touch, other time you can cloak yourself so the other element rules whole world, other time your area of influence got shrunk down or you would make solid bridge between you, and it’s up to you to use these situation to your gain. Some of the puzzles were simple and straightforward, others were hard and required a lot of attempts. But they all were very clever and nicely done! Another nice aspect is, that you can see how many scarfs you have in the world and you mark your way, so if you need to return you can quickly go back.
So, in this case works the saying: Nomen omen, as it was truly Weird. XD
Weird Park: Broken Tune - your first visit in an old amusement park which is said to be haunted by tragically deceased clown (he is ugly). You play detective on search for lost journalist. You will also find little Joker who sabotage you on your way. In the end you send Joker with ugly clown to abyss.
This one is weakest from them, not so good graphic, huge backtracking. One good point for “scary moments”, some of them were rather nice. When I thought that I got to the end, second half just started… it seemed to last forever.
Weird Park: Scary Tales - this time I am not sure if we are playing as man or woman. o.O Young girl ghost causes us to crush near an old abandoned house, where apparently lived the deceased ugly clown. So Joker and ugly Clown are back on scene. So after we many many many times thoroughly search the crashed car, house, hut, under lake, flooded library we enter the mysterious fantasy realm in which we have to save nine children. They are turned into dolls based on 7 different fairy tales (Cinderella, Aladin etc.). All in all, this was a nice idea and I would have liked it, if I we didn’t spent so much time in the real world. Again, I have just wanted it to end and it was still going on and on and on.
This one has better graphic and also some voice overs. Real world has a lot of undesired backtracking. It crashed on me and corrupted my profile, luckily when I was done with it.
Weird Park: The Final Show Collector's Edition - the big finale. Another missing child another work for detective. This time we spent a little time in real world and jump right away into fantasy realm. Big ugly clown is back yet again with his fellow Joker. But! Twist! Big ugly clown needs our help as he is just victim. Okay… Young boy is slowly turning into doll and thus giving his humanity to devious Joker who wants to rule the world. Humanish Joker was even uglier than our clown and that’s really something.
Graphic is nice in this one, but sadly all cutscenes were weirdly blurred, all of the characters are voiced. One of the hidden object scene has a bug, where you are supposed to find two exactly same things. You will find it only once as the other thing is completely different thing. So, I wanted to get the in game achievement for not using hint or skipping mini game, I had to click on everything to find my right item. And then I find out that I have not obtained these two achievements! Gah!
This was really weird experience. If they made just the first game it would have served the purpose. With both closed eyes we could call it mildly scary. But with those sequels, you know, our big ugly clown is getting some sort of truly disturbing inclination… glad it’s over me.
This one was definitely better than the Weird Park! Better graphic, puzzles, story.
Twisted Lands: Shadow Town - young couple gets on boat ride and on their way back they are washed away. Mark (can’t really remember if it’s right) after he wakes up realise that his girlfriend is missing, more likely she was abducted. You have to search this mysterious island, which looks very abandoned for clues as to find what have exactly happened. You will also uncover many secrets about this place and its inhabitants.
It has good atmosphere, but little bit silly cutscenes. Puzzles were good, not too hard not too easy. No map though, so there is a lot of backtracking. Extra chapter. Very informative diary.
Twisted Lands: Insomniac - we are continuing the previous story on the same island, Angel is hospitalized for suspicion of mental disorder as she talks about green ugly creatures killing Mark and chasing her. This time it’s a little bit twisted as there are at least two time planes. You are in the hospital trying to escape and then you are in the abandoned city full of ghosts. As Angel keeps running away she gets closer to uncovering the truth about the events that happened are happening.
Again lot of backtracking, some places are revisited. Improvement in graphic, still good puzzles, extra chapter included. The diary our main hero writes is very comprehensive and contains almost every bit of information.
Twisted Lands: Origin! - story is coming to its end… or beginning? ;) This time we are on the trail of uncovering the events that turned this island into a scary place. We stumble upon crazy scientist, his experiments and its upon us to save the remaining inhabitants.
I didn’t like the cutscenes and some of the characters. Diary is again filled with every bit of information. No extra chapter as the story gets concluded.
When most of my friends started to pop this up in activity feed I have wondered why is that. And as it looked interesting I thought that I could try it as well. But you know, I am so silly (or stupid - add this if more appropriate) that I actually play my games even if some giveaway is happening (and yes, I have really played it for almost 8 hours before I got truly at the end). And as the righteous are always punished I have not received my Moons.
But never mind that, I got The Black Watchmen in the end.
In Cyrano story you are uncovering the backstory of the crew nearing the Moons of Madness. This is done through personal audio logs of Dr. Olivia Mason, but to get them you have to offer right answers to Void, Dark Entity, Higher being… it has many names.
All in all, there are six moons to be opened. Each obtain set of clues, be it writing, image, cypher, destination… anything. You have to analyse it, connect it and then find the answer.
The beginning of the game is perfect! I love how they are communicating with you. When you write something completely off they remain silent, if you are getting near they tempt you - “Yes, you are thinking out of the box.” ; “The seal is almost broken.” and so.
If your answer is one of the clues, they agree with you and describe it some more, so you know that you are truly on the right trail.
First moon was a quick solution for me and I think it worked the best way. Second moon, there came the first hardship as to find what exactly they wanted to hear. Because as the final answer I have offered parent term of the term they wanted to hear... I believe they should have reacted on both terms. Third moon on the other hand went yet again smoothly, maybe the clues were more clear and didn’t offered many possible solutions. Fourth moon, here I started going in circles a little and a lot of time got wasted until I found the right trail, I am still not sure if it should have been like that... Fifth moon is truly terrible. This one made me quit and come back the other day. Its first clues are splendid, was real fun cracking them. But the final got ridiculous. You know, their responses, their help is mandatory for your advance, so usually when you get an idea of the clue and you get the close enough word they react. Surprise, not anymore. Or I am not sure what should I think. SPOILER! You can fairly quickly uncover one of the words - life. It’s part of phrase they want, but they react even on that one word. One of the clues is duality, so you try the second one and that is death. Nothing. Okay, you try dead. Nothing. Okay, you forget this and move on for search of another word. Wrong! You have the right one even though they don’t react on it. Question is, how can they react on one word of phrase and not on the other word of phrase? Mystery. SPOILER END! This poor design made me rage quit. Sixth moon was the most confusing one. At first you don’t have any clues, they ask you questions instead, that’s fine, you can work with this. There are two routes you can take, one takes you to an end, other uncover clues. Here the real fun begins as they don’t react even on the name of the person that is a clue. Very helpful.
I have first ended with the route without clues, but I wanted to open them, to see the connection. In the end I got it, although I am not satisfied with it as I still feel that something is lacking there.
There is a guide, on Steam it’s just the ending words as you can skip the moon completely with it, other on wiki is a step by step so you can see the connection, but last moon is not complete, it doesn’t contain the part with clues. By just giving the last words you are missing the meaning, connection, I think you miss a lot when you skip through it.
It’s simple looking game, but the fun begins when they talk back to you. I have enjoyed that, it could be pretty scary in dark room all alone. ;) Voice acting of our dear Doctor is really amazing, so many emotions in her voice.
I have enjoyed it, the puzzles were hard and required you to think out of the box, but the lacking guidance in the latter moons was disappointing, I understand it’s supposed to be a challenge, but if they truly wanted that they wouldn’t have made those final words able to skip it whole, as you can with a pure luck walk through it without any sense of what’s happening.
I have decided to complete it while it’s still fresh on my mind. Good thing is, that you can see what items you are missing and select that particular mission. Some items proved very hard to find. To my surprise I have managed to get the achievement for no mistake in the drive mini game on my first try. Hardest one is to get the healing without any tiny mistake. Something like Pikuniku and dancing battle.
I love jigsaw puzzles, but I don't play them much on PC as they don't offer me much of excitement. I liked how this one have a story that you uncover through the puzzles, so you have motivation to keep going, because you want to know more. :)
The art is truly beautiful and I am happy that you can download the pictures afterwards! Music was pleasant and set the right mood well.
You can play on challenge mood (you get rewarded by trophy upon your time) or just on casual without any pressure. There are three modes of puzzles you can select from - Traditional jigsaw, mosaic or arrow. And I have to say that I loved the arrow the most! I have done most of the puzzles in it. :) You can choose 5 different sizes from 28 to 220 pieces, so I think it offers nice variety. Also some of the pictures, especially later on, very truly challenging.
You can adjust many setting to your liking. Developer is very responsive and listening to our feedback and I would say he works very hard on his games! :)
Very nice game for casual calm playing, can only recommend.
Our heroine, who was orphaned 25 years ago, gets on quest to save her mother (and with it even father) in seemingly idealistic under sea facility. In the process she uncovers mysterious artifact and its devil plans on ruling the world (yep, everyone wants to do this). The story is little bit stupid… there is even guy turning slowly into crab without any background story about it. It’s something between Bioshock and Pirates of Caribbean with a touch of Dreamatorium of Dr. Magnus... and I thought that I will not see it again. XD On the other side the extra story was even more stupider than the main game.
Graphic is nice, puzzles were rather good as well the hidden object scenes. You have to your aid little robot, which was a nice addition. And there are lost kittens, so hurry up and save them!
Cute little clicker game where you take care of your ever growing garden. You have at your disposal many kinds of plants, bushes, trees and animals. As you harvest more and more you and your garden gains level and that means more money for you. You have to protect your garden from pests, so you can buy cute little dogs or scarecrows.
You won't be alone for harvesting as you have blue fellows who are helping you with that. Good thing is, that they are collecting your crop even when the game is shut down, so when you start it next time you gain your money (counted by level).
Nice peaceful game for calm playing.
I was missing only four achievements, so I decided (random number generator) to finally complete it - not sure why haven’t I done it sooner? o.O Took me about 20 minutes to get the missing shots, I could have been even quicker if I wouldn’t be sightseeing.
This is amazing game. I love the looks of it, very beautiful almost eerie. Another strong element is the soundtrack, it complements the game, the whole story very much! I have found the story interesting, twisting, surprising. Characters were likeable and I wanted to know more about them.
Only one letdown for me was one of the aspects of endings. In the end none of our decisions really mattered… and I was so hardworking for them. Still, I recommend this game very very much! I share birthday with one of the characters and I also think that the Final Fantasy: Spirits Within is underrated! :D
I have added Ronan from Murdered: Soul Suspect. :)
Big thank you for my wins! :)
I have yet again failed to resist...- So for the purpose of this list, only games marked as completed counts - until said otherwise.
- Games can be played in whichever order.
- Unfinished games will be restarted or continued.
Assassinated 8 of 29
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16bit Trader
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Agarest: Generations of War
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Brothers - A Tale of Two Sons
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Cooking Academy Fire and Knives
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Dark Messiah of Might & Magic
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Eventide: Slavic Fable
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Fortune Summoners: Secret of the Elemental Stone
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Glass Masquerade
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Hakuoki: Kyoto Winds
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Hakuoki: Edo Blossoms
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Chaos on Deponia
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Inquisitor
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J.U.L.I.A.: Among the Stars
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KHOLAT
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Loren The Amazon Princess
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Merchants of Kaidan
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Nancy Drew: Curse of Blackmoor Manor
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Overlord: Raising Hell
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Postmortem: one must die (Extended Cut)
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Quest for Infamy
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Remothered: Tormented Fathers
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Sins Of The Demon RPG
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Tempest
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Unium
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Velvet Assassin
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Weird Park Trilogy
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XCOM: Enemy Unknown
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Yomawari: Night Alone
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ZanZarah: The Hidden Portal
I can relate on Cyrano Story, took me 7 hours to break all those seals ; the giveway was finished long before I finally got over it ^^
Another poor soul, I feel your pain. ;)
If you want dead (kinda) detective you can try Blackwell series. Those are 100% traditional adventure games, but the writing is absolutely brilliant. The only problem with them is that you should play them in order for the best experience, and the first one isn’t as good as the rest :)
You are right! I have actually won one game from the series and each sale I am keeping my eye on them. This time I will buy it! :D
lol that’s a dedication worth of applause for Cyrano Story. I tried few times guessing the password but I just gave up and followed the guide. Some answers didn’t made sense to me anyway, some did. But in the end I got nothing, apparently I started it after they changed drop rate from 100% to something like 5% :/
And still on Hollow Knight I see? Are you stuck on speedruns or the Pantheon?
Haha, thanks. XD I have also started it in the later batch and even stopped for a day, but they have left some keys for Black Watchmen to keep dropping… I have wasted a lot of time with searching, analyzing, I just wanted to get all the answers, to crack it myself. ;)
Hollow Knight forever! <3 Neither, I am now doing steel soul mode, but after long time of neglection I have just fooled around in Godhood with all the bosses. Good thing is, that I killed all of them even Pure Vessel without any bigger problems. :D After that I will go for speedruns and I don’t think I will ever make The Pantheon of Hallownest. ;)
Wow, that’s a lot of games played in a month. Well done you! =)
Thank you! :) Few of them required just a bit of time to hunt the remaining achievements though. ;)
As you expect from time traveling games decisions really don’t matter in the end. But hey at least in life is strange 2 the ending does change that game so yay for spoilers!
Oh look the brothers game we all talked about disliking to you. Enjoy
Oh no, spoilers! O_O
Haha, yeah what a coincidence. ;) I wanted to play it for the co-op challenge, but not enough time. We will see when I get to it. :)