Monthly January 2024 Report on progress
All finished within January. Quite productive month for me in terms of gaming to my surprise. Only finished most of Goat Sim before it (apart from 2 DLCs) and got few achievements in Room 13.
BloodRayne Review
Status: Completed on Steam too. Played before had Steam. The only thing I didn't try are cheats in Steam version.
About: 3rd person shooter with melee fighting and even horror elements. You play as BloodRayne, who was turned into half-vampire against her will. She's searching for her vampire "father" to revenge herself and her family. In process joins Brimstone society, which fights vs occult things.
Rayne fights Nazis, monsters and vampires and tries to save the world during game.
Pros:
- Has some unique story/plot, even though quite standard in terms of development. Interesting for 1st run, though.
- Melee (especially) and shooting are very satisfying. Melee also has few moves and kinda body part based. Good dismemberment. Has useful harpoon to reach enemies.
- A lot of different firearms and some explosives.
- Abilities, especially infinite slowmo.
- Different enemy types in each of 3 chapters (2 types of mutant humans one of which has different firearms or even explosive, 2 types of insect-like creatures+nests etc.). Infights.
- Interesting mini-bosses/bosses.
- Most enemies are medkits long before DOOM reboot.
- Some minor platforming. Water being a hazard for half-vampire is interesting. Not taking fall damage apart from jumping into abyss like places (which is deadly).
- Levels sometimes allow to choose, where to go first. Some destructible elements.
- High dynamic action. Requires some tactical approach in some cases.
- Difficulty settings.
- Old graphics, but still looking nice in terms of vibe.
- Like soundtrack. Kinda memorable for me, even though it's mostly electronic music.
- Not very long (took ~9 hours to fully finish). Maybe a bit short for my desire to play it longer.
- Cheats. Don't disable achievements (didn't try, though).
- Ability to switch to older version.
- Not restricted saving system in terms of slots.
- Low requirements.
- Stabile and no bugs were encountered.
- Relatively cheap, especially with discounts/bundle.
- Achievements. All story driven.
- Has Cards/Badges.
Cons:
- Levels are a bit small/short, look a bit empty and game doesn't have many enemies per level.
- Faces look outdated.
- Most of low/mid-tier firearms are filler weapons helping with shooting, until you find stronger one.
- Target ability is quite useless.
- Since you rely on weaker and only humanoid enemies in terms of health, you may get in trouble without those.
- Health doesn't restore between levels, which may lead to very problematic progression, if you start with almost 0 HP.
- For some reason performance in Terminal Cut version is bad in some areas and has low FPS. Didn't have such issue on weaker PC with original game.
- Some difficulty spikes (hello Bridge or level before Beliar's eye or final boss fight, if you choose wrong target first).
Misc:
- No Workshop and no DLCs (but that's because game is very old).
Summary: I really liked that game and played it many times before having Steam. Maybe I even underrated it in my rating. Really recommend, if you into melee fighting/shooters, like to fight different enemies and like vampires/occult stuff.
BloodRayne 2 Review
Status: Fully finished, but HP/Rage bars aren't fully upgraded and pistols aren't upgraded at all and didn't try cheats (maybe would try all of these things later).
About: 3rd person fighting/shooter with revenge plot. Continuation of 1st game with same base elements, but which work differently. More and stronger enemies, more moves, different approach to firearms, reliance on feeding finish moves, places to finish enemies instantly, upgrading system etc. More hardcore, more long.
Pros:
- Has more present plot/story compared to 1st game, even though I consider both interesting for 1st run.
- A lot of different enemies, which mix with each other and armed differently. More enemies with melee weapons. A bit of infighting in the end part and can enthrall enemy for a while with Aura ability upgrade.
- Places with infinite amount of enemies, until task is complete, which allows to have fun.
- Nice mini-bosses and interesting bosses.
- Upgrade system in general.
- A lot of different places to instantly finish enemies, which increase you HP/Rage bars with more kills.
- More advanced platforming. You don't get instantly killed, when jumping even in deep water/abyss like spaces (just damaged and teleported instead).
- Way more melee moves. Some are quite brutal. Gore/dismemberment is even better. Harpoon is still there, but throws enemies instead of helping reach them.
- 3 abilities: Aura, Rage, Slowmo. All abilities are useful and all have 3 unique upgrades for each, which added with story progression.
- Rage bar doesn't require to be full anymore - just only filled enough for specific ability.
- Secret restoration rooms.
- Interesting, but more linear level design. Destructible objects.
- More chapters, which take place in more locations.
- Took me almost x2 time to finish it (23 hours).
- High dynamic action. Requires quite a bit of tactical approach in some cases.
- A bit better graphics compared to BR1. Way bigger and longer levels.
- Like soundtrack too.
- Good performance apart from few minor cases. Low requitements.
- New Game+ with all upgrades you got during previous game.
- Cheats. Don't disable achievements (didn't try, though).
- Ability to switch to older version.
- Relatively polished.
- Cheap, especially during sales/with bundle.
- Achievements. Most achievements are story based, but few require using new mechanics.
- Has Cards/Badges.
Mixed:
- New firearms approach: instead of a lot of different guns/explosives and imbalance between them, you have only 2 pistols, which shoot different types of ammo (unlocks from story progression) and waste ammo first and then HP, if run out of ammo. I have mixed feelings, because I basically never used them apart from cases, when they were kinda needed, due to achievements, HP/Rage upgrading and balance. Ammo amount is small by default and require special feeding moves to restore (and if I remember, they don't restore Rage bar). To upgrade them, I assume you need to kill more with them, but you also need to kill more with insta-killing things to upgrade you HP/Rage, so I chose HP/Rage over Pistols upgrade.
- I barely used upgraded versions of Aura ability, since apart from level 1 Aura one all abilities and their upgrades spend Rage bar points, but I give it a try in 2nd run, if I do it.
- Kinda hardcore at least for new players, especially without special moves/upgrades unlocked. No difficulty slider, which is kinda meh, but ok at the same time.
- Checkpoint system: mostly compensates for longer levels.
Cons:
- Graphics still a bit outdated, especially in terms of faces.
- Some level design is confusing (example: platforming/insta killing things for enemies). Also it's basically corridor like.
- There are places where you get stuck (and thankfully die to restart from checkpoint), even in walls. Hello place where you need to destroy 4 engines with mini-boss attacks.
- Melee enemies may stunlock you hard, especially, if attack fast or few at the same time. Attack for feeding from the back may register as attack from the front, which leads to being thrown away and damaged, since melee enemies can block feeding. Enemies with ranged weapons are usually weak.
- Places with infinite amount of enemies are worth it only, if you want to upgrade a bit and restore HP/Rage/Pistols ammo. Otherwise, fights are pointless, even though only place, where you can actually fight without worry about upgrades.
- I was a bit confused how to deal with certain bosses, until figured it out. Mini-bosses may be a bit too hard and repetitve, while bosses a bit too weak. Last boss is straight disappointment.
- Nobody tells about upgrade system and you may miss it, like I did it with pistols.
- Places where to brutally (instanrtly) finish enemies are not highlighted by aura vision and enemies may miss them when thrown there/won't be killed. 2 achievements rely on this and if you want to upgrade HP/Rage bars you would need to kill a lot of enemies like this, instead of fighting them (or in most cases feeding on them), which leads to a bit weird gameplay. Feeding and insta-killing them at the same time is possible with few, though. Also enemies after certain numbers in specific area stop to count and stop to increase your meter (I assume, same fair for Pistols upgrades). Thankfully, 1 achievement require only 50 kills and another one can be achieved during 3rd chapter.
- Platforming may be a bit annoying and may be a bit too slow for cases, when enemies nearby. Also in at least 1 case it was a bit bugged and Rayne jumped in wrong direction. And I don't get a point in sticking to city lights. Also you may fall down sometimes in platforming sections when feeding, because Rayne jumped away from victim, so you need to either jump towards wall or perform only certain finish moves.
- Only few melee moves are impressive and only special attacks/moves matter, so I basically used mostly same moves, which I liked most of a game.
- Enemy bodies disappear short after being killed, which I assume for performance purposes.
- All Rage upgrades are barely useful apart from fighting mini-bosses/final boss.
- Secret rooms aren't very intuitively placed and require Aura vision to see/enter.
- Took me longer than should be, only due to hardcore elements or some poorly impelemented things or even due to bugs/quasi-crash.
- Checkpoint saves don't work, when you exit game - only start level from the beginning.
- Restriction on save slots. You would overwrite almost half of the saves in 32(+ending save) levels game.
- Windows button disables application activity in panel (while it still kept in task manager), which makes game unplayble until relaunched (which with checkpoint not saving is real pain).
- New game+ may not start upon relaunching, so you need to keep save with ending to re-enable it.
- Less polished than BR1. Some bugs mentioned above, but these issues aren't only one (there are also minor level design issues).
Misc:
- My guide with info, tips and tricks for this game.
- No Workshop and no DLCs (but that's because game is very old and quite good with base content).
Summary: While I definitely can't put it on par with BR1, even with all anger, frustration and mixed feelings, which I had during game...I must admit, I enjoyed it. I can't recommend it to everyone due to mentioned issues and more hardcore approach, but still liked it and with learning it a bit more and juicy Game+ I may even want to replay it someday.
Goat Simulator Review
Status: Completed. Didin't finish some quests in Waste of Space without rewards and some quests didn't register there - otherwise, finished fully.
About: Funny absurd 3rd person game, where you play as a goat. You can goof around and entertain yourself with different activities. For such game has surprising amount of content. Rating so low due to my experience with Waste of Space DLC alone.
Pros:
- A ltitle bit of funny plot in FLC/DLCs. Funny quests.
- Interactions with world by jumping, licking, hitting with a head and Baa-ing at it. Also can go ragdoll or walk on front legs. Slowmo ability is present.
- Relatively big 3 levels (+3 in DLCs) with well packed content per meter.
- Long enough to play 40+ hours with base game+FLC for completionist.
- Engaging, if you're into goofing around.
- Dynamic. Require some thinking.
- Graphics is fine for indie game. Fun glitchy physics.
- Performance is good apart from Waste of Space and Requirements are low.
- Stability is fine. Even though game crashes sometimes - it saves your progress. Again - with Waste of Space as an exception.
- Bugs in this game probably a feature, rather then downside. Waste of Space - exception.
- 3 DLCs+1 FLC.
- Has Steam Workshop.
- Doesn't weight much.
- Quite cheap, especially with discount/bundle.
- Achievements. Some are quite unique and fun.
- Cards/Badges.
Mixed:
- Fine music, even though may be a bit repetitive.
- Doesn't have difficulty settins, but usually don't need it.
Cons:
- Objects appear right before your eyes nearby. As said, graphics just fine for indie game. Physics is too simplistic. Goat/NPCs physics is a bit too glitchy.
- Some tasks usually related to achievements may be hard or too grindy.
- Progress doesn't save offline - only online mode.
- Walking on front legs is a bit problematic with slowmo.
- Achievements require DLCs to 100%. And again, some achievements are very tedious/grindy and some are hard.
- Waste of Space DLC as a whole for me. Very luck dependant factor, I guess, but it was a Nightmare. For more info there is my Review for it with 13 (!) severe issues I encontered. Generally speaking, if not for this DLC, rating and recommendation would be higher.
Misc:
- Got a badge level 1 long time ago, since it was cheap back then.
Summary: Fun game, which I would recommend to anyone, who wants to goof around a bit. Won't recommend it to those, who want to finish game fully/get all achievements - otherwise, if you don't care about it, don't recommend only Waste of Space DLC due to luck factor and chances of getting horrible experience.
Room13 Review
Status: Completed. 1 boss never spawned for 76 hours. I didn't watch all pictures in the end (only 2) and didn't check most faces abilities vs bosses.
About: 2D a bit rogue like shooter game with, to my surprise, quite a bit of content. Kill enemies, pick up meat, pick up Blood Jar 3 times, finish level, pick up rewards, stay or travel to next room. Pick up 3 mysterious keys for Room13.
Pros:
- A tiny bit of plot shown after picking up masks of bosses.
- Around 29 faces, which affect gameplay, 32 weapon upgrades - all may be randomly hidden in boxes after round is finished and start to appear after conditions are met. Some are quite interesting and useful. Game allows to get secondary weapon too and use explosives.
- 3 regular enemies, 13 rooms (which can go dark) with 12+ traps and 13 bosses (with minions). Bosses are interesting to fight against.
- A bit random with starting rooms, hidden weapon upgrades and masks, which add replayability.
- A bit addictive loop/time killer.
- Dynamic. Require some thinking.
- Liked visual approach.
- Easy to learn, a bit harder to master.
- Simplistic level design and mechanics, which makes it easy to get involve.
- Could take quite a bit of time to check everything.
- Very good performance and very low requirements.
- Good stability.
- Only 70-80MB of storage space.
- Very cheap price, especially during discount.
- Achievements. All progression oriented.
- Has Cards/Badges.
Mixed:
- Audio is just ok. Barely present, but present for everything needed, including boss fights music.
- Has melee weapons, but due to very low durability of them and fists not dealing damage, barely used them.
- No Workshop. No cheats or any other bonuses. No DLCs.
Cons:
- Visuals and general content approach may be too simple for some.
- Plot almost doesn't exist.
- There are actually 32 faces, but 2 boss faces are bugged and lead to freeze and as said - didn't encounter 1 boss ever.
- Quite few weapon upgrades are useless or even bad. One weapon build (with MiniGun) and 2 masks (with a lot of HP) are no brainers for me and melt hordes/bosses like nothing.
- Conditions for opening upgrades are kill X amount of enemies, survive X rounds per 1 Game/Career.
- 1 trap is a bit too hard for my taste. Some bosses may be hard, if not having good face and weapon upgrades.
- Most of the time you would fight hordes, try to survive, get best stuff and basically you won anything, if you won't get screwed by faces deactivation after few rounds.
- All achievements are binded to progression. Few quite grindy and 2 (kill 50000 Undead and die 1000 times) are very grindy, even with taking into account that there are ways to get these easier.
- No saving system for game. More than that, if you don't finish it or won't die, game progess won't count (for example in case of exiting game or getting freeze).
- There were performance issues with Shark mask ability.
- Quite a bit of bugs for such small game. 2 mentioned with bosses masks and 1 with opening weapon supply box near door lead to freezes. There is a way to get stuck in falling animation (basically dead) and fall through lowest floor (stuck - restart).
- Could be frustrating sometimes due to bugs or randomness factor.
Misc:
- My guide with info, tips and tricks for this game.
Summary: Quite underrated game in my opinion. Recommended, if you like simple indie games/shooters with simple gameplay and like to experiment a bit with upgrades/fight bosses.
Plan to play something of this later.