Monsters, Guilt, Nostalgia

Sometimes, so much time passes between my updates that I already forget about half of these games ^^’ Well, main reason I give an update today is Monstronomy anyway. Here is my progress.

• Monstronomy
  

  26 hours playtime

  17 of 17 achievements

• GYLT
  

  10 hours playtime

  29 of 29 achievements

• The Pedestrian
  

  5 hours playtime

  10 of 10 achievements

• Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri™ Planetary Pack
  

  105 hours playtime

  no achievements

Monstronomy: The focus of this update will be on Monstronomy. I will try to keep the rest shorter. So, here is a 1:1 copy of my review (beware lots of text :P):
“What happened to you mom?”

If you consider buying Monstronomy expecting a monster-tamer game you are right. And you are wrong at the same time. The game has a lot of things, you will be familiar with. And at the same time, Monstronomy throws a lot of strange at you, right from the beginning. In order to showcase this, I will give you a summarization of the first 5-10 minutes. You start at a desktop. Files & folders are there, you can click through. Most important are the controls-file as well as the Downloads-Folder where you find and can start the actual game you expected. So you start the Monstronomy file inside Monstronomy. You wake up in your room and go downstairs where your mother tells you to feed your monster. You go to a chest in the garden where you can choose your starter. You have the choice between an Order-, Chaos- or Demon-type monster. You return to the house, your mother lying on the gorund, blood everywhere. Dead. You leave the house, dead people and monster everywhere and your first fight against a cultist. Here starts your quest for revenge.

The monster-tamer game is quite solid. I absolutely love the different monsters and their design. The choice of two final evolution forms for every monster is a really neet idea and later on, you can even switch constantly between the two. The strengths and weaknesses are well balanced as well as the whole game. You level fast, and in each fight, the whole group gains experiences. Overall balance is also okay. The game isn’t really difficult but you have to pay a bit attention or go back healing. You can catch new monsters with chests and in the end-game there are even “legendaries”. The attack-design I would consider on the weaker part though. You do not have move limitations but stronger attacks have lower accuracy trying to cancel it out. Overall, the gameplay is not as complex or deep as the most well-known competitor but it is functional and shines especially in the monster design.

Though, weird as it is - the game and the situation - Monstronomy shines the most in the moments it isn’t a monster-tamer game. The story alone is already unusual. But it only gets weirder and at one point you find yourself intrigued. Trying to understand what is really happening here. Inside the Monstronomy game world a lot of - let’s say disturbing - videos are scattered around. Often you find them on TVs, sometimes on random objects and sometimes they are unavidable during story events. Aside from the videos, you notice that NPCs start behaving weirder and weirder and across the game world, you have green and sometimes even red texts. Certain names reappear over and over again. Progressing in the story, also unlocks new files on the Desktop (where you start the game) although locked by passwords. All of this creates a great mystery, you might want to solve. I wouldn’t call Monstronomy a horror game but disturbing on certain levels. And in the end-game I would call Monstronomy even a puzzle game where you try to solve the games puzzles & mysteries. You will try to find the “legendaries”, trying to figure out the real story, trying to unlock the desktop files. All of this comes together in one fulminant ARG, leading you temporarily even outside the game. And while there exists a guide, telling you how to solve most of it, I would implore you dear potential buyer, to try figuring out all of this stuff by yourself first as it makes for a far better experience.

The games also has music which I am undecided on. It is only a few tracks and most of the time, you hear this happy-to-lucky overworld tune which doesn’t really fit. On the other hand this discrepancy may be well intended. From the technical side, I don’t think I have encountered any bugs but the game’s movement feels kinda choppy. The game has also achievements which need you to solve most of the game’s mysteries. The main story itself probably takes around 6-10 hours. If you go for the post-game endgame content, you can add another 5-10 hours if you try it for yourself. Less if you use a lot of help.

If all of this sounds interesting to you then apply for Project Dreamcatcher today consider buying the game. If you have more questions, leave a comment and I’ll try to come back to it.

Gylt: Gylt describes the story of Sally on the search for her cousin Emily. While being chased by bullies, Sally takes the cable car but somehow ends up in a different version of her hometown, one full of nightmarish monsters. Unluckily, this is also where Emily has been “hiding” for the last month. Gylt is a 3d adventure with an emphasis on stealth and avoding monsters. Though, you get early on a flashlight and kill pretty much every shadow creature you encounter. And they do not respawn. You run around, looking for ways into the school, towards Emily, unlocking new areas and items. All areas can be revisitted which is helpful as there are a lot of icollectibles and sometimes you actually need items gained later to get these collectibles. Over the course of the story, you find out the reasons why Emily landed here and also what Sally had to do with it. There are also three endings, depending on your effort. The atmosphere is good and the story okay (though I didn’t understand the part with the second city completely). Achievement-wise, a lot can be gained even at the end of the game. But there are a pair of missables, though you can get them in a few hours if your replay the game. Overall, Gylt is a good game with mostly easy stealth gameplay.

The Pedestrian: The Pedestrian is a puzzle game, where you play a stick figure on traffic signs and similar. Main gadget of the game is the re-arrangement of the signs, allowing you to connect the different doors and ladders, creating new ways. In this manner, you have to find the correct arrangement, as there is often (always?) just one correct solution to progress further. While new mechanics have been introduced, the game never felt really different and personally I found it often more tedious than fun. Which is a shame because it is a solid puzzle game. It just didn’t click with me. I never really felt clever like other excellent puzzle games outside of the final puzzle which was a combination of a late game introduction of 3d movement and the signs puzzle. While clever, I am glad that there haven’t been more puzzles like this. Because this as well felt more tedious. The story is kept very abstract. Read something here and there but I don’t think it is much to talk about. Achievement-wise I think you get everything just by playing. While there are a few secret areas where you can get hats, they are not mandatory for the achievements. As a mirror of the whole game, these secret areas also don’t need clever solutions of the puzzle but rather a keen eye to see hidden ladders. A solid puzzle-game. Just not for me.

Sid Meier’s Alpha Centauri: Why is this “only” beaten? Because you never complete Alpha Centauri. To keep it short, Alpha Centauri is basically Civilizaiotn 2. Just in space. With better gameplay. With memorable quotes. Interesting faction leaders and personalities. A murderous planet. And humanity’s attempt to survive in this cruel new world. Luckily, the game has no achievements. Because that could have been a major pain. As they were missing, I didn’t hesitate long to buy it as soon as I saw this unexpected wave of old school “EA” games. If you are looking for a turn-based game with some interesting mechanics, this is it? Really good game. Although, for strategy fans it might be a bit to easy. Even I can play easily and dominate on the 4th of 6 difficulty levels. Sure, I could go higher but I am not here for the challenge :P

And that’s it. Now back to my favourite game: What to play next? Maybe I can finally make some more Crystal Caves maps. Also, the next Wizordum update (see my last post) is around the corner. Other than that, maybe I return to Resident Evil 1 and my other Resident-Evil like games. Or I activate something new from my shadow backlog.