June Report
June was a busy month, so not much progress made, only two games completed. First a game that I really wanted to play and like, cause I’m a big fan of the universe:
- Lore / Story : It's in the universe of the Blacksad comics. So US of the late 50s with anthropomorphic animals. You play as John Blacksad, a private down on its luck. I won't go further into the story because it's the best part of the game.
- Design: I usually don't judge graphic choices, but as this one is from a comics I'm really fond of, I can't help it.
While the design is okayish (I've seen some rendering bug here and there), I feel like it totally lacks the feel of the comics. See https://adventuregamers.com/images/screenshots/32939/ny_city.png vs https://vistapointe.net/images/blacksad-7.jpg
A really good point is the theme. That jazz really fits the game. - Game mechanics : The game is kindda like LA Noire or the new series of Sherlock Holmes. Basic scenes with items to interact with + dialog. And you can link ideas between them.
A mechanism that I found frustrating, is that sometimes interacting with one of the scene element just made you progress to the next scene without you having much of a choice in the matter. And you don't know exactly where you'll start again if you try to restart from a previous point.
On top of that the game is littered with useless QTEs or mechanics that are basically seen only once.
The movement are a bit awkward with kb + mouse. Might be better with a pad tho. - Difficulty : The game in itself isn't hard. Getting all the achievment on the other hand...
Collectibles are randomly placed in certain part of each scenes. Meaning that if you restart a game, your missing collectibles might be in a different scenes as the one they were in in your first game. Oh yeah, and some of them require you to stand on a certain point precisely.
In short you have to know every possible location for collectibles while doing a run to find them all. - Length : Medium game, took me about 12 hours. No big re-playability, the endings are basically decided by one decision early in the game + one just at the end. Some epilogues scenes might be affected by your actions, but I'm not even sure.
- Conclusion : It's an OK investigation game. But nothing worth getting outside of a sale. The story is good, the characters interesting, and the music is good. But that's about it for the good parts. For multiples reasons stated above, the game-play itself is subpar
A little freebie:
- Lore / Story : It's the reunion of two siblings in a small Alaskan town. One of them has been interned for the homicide of their mother. You explore what happens just after their reunion.
- Game mechanics : It's Dontnod game. So if you've played Life Is Strange, you'll feel at home with the controls/interaction. For those who didn't, it's a walking simulator with a bit of interaction.
Only small difference (but that's more a story difference rather than a game-play one) is that you'll switch between the two characters in different scenes.
The 'extra' mechanism is that you can remember stuff. But it's all scripted and doesn't change much. - Difficulty : It's a walking simulator. There is no difficulty.
- Length : Medium game, took me 10 hours.
- Conclusion : While the context is interesting (LGBTQ+ and small rural town), the story itself felt a bit lacking. I never attached myself to the characters.
I’ve been interested in playing both of these games, so thanks for the detailed reviews! I like the way you put them in categories to make them easier to read and digest.
Thanks!
I hope that won’t deter you to much from buying them, but it’s definitely game I wouldn’t recommend getting at full price (though Tell Me Why was free for the month of june if I’m not mistaken)
No worries, I’ve already had both in my library but its hard to decide what games to play when I get the free time lol.
Two games I’m curious about but for different reasons can’t/won’t play them. Thanks for your insight.
You’re welcome! Out of curiosity, why won’t/can’t you play them?
I would be happy to play Tell Me Why, but it is unavailable in my region (Ukraine), while Blacksad is hit or miss that I am willing to play only if I happen to win it on SteamGifts. I have stopped buying bundles for a while, because I have more than enough games to play as it is.
Oh damn, I didn’t knew some game would be unavailable in some regions. I guess it’s due to the LGBTQ+ messaging in it?
Ok, I know the feeling, I have plenty of game on my wishlist that are there just for the purpose of showing up on my steamgift whishlist filter.
I am not sure what is the reasoning behind its unavailability in Ukraine. There are no laws in Ukraine that would prohibit LGBTQ+ themes in media. My guess is that the publisher of the game has a division that is responsible for the so-called RU+CIS region, and, in turn, this division rules Russia as its main market, which means complying with Russian laws and social standards (prohibiting “LGBTQ+ propaganda among kids”, for instance). I cannot stress enough how outrageous it is for me as a Ukrainian, taking into account all that has happened since 2014 between our countries, and also that Ukrainians suffer from being considered “younger/lesser brothers to Russians” (it is a literal translation of the ubiquitous Russian stereotype) in general.
Yeah that’s weird, I would have thought that steam allowing a proper country separation would mean it’d be easy for publisher to publish what could be sold in each country separately. I guess they just don’t care.
And yeah with the recent history between the two countries, I can understand being more than angry bc of something that’s in place in the other one. Sucks :/
On the plus side, you’re not really missing that much for this one, Life is Strange is a better game for me!
Yeah, thank you! It looks like a fairly common opinion on these games. I really wanted to see it for myself, though. Life Is Strange and its prequel, although the latter is from a different studio, are so good!
Two games is way better than no games! congrats!!
Yeah you’re right! Thanks!