Smythe
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Garden Story
13 hours playtime
19 of 21 achievements
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Darksiders Genesis
21 hours playtime
20 of 30 achievements
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Batman: Arkham Knight
52 hours playtime
76 of 113 achievements
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Doom & Destiny
13 hours playtime
44 of 44 achievements
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inbento
78 minutes playtime
15 of 15 achievements
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DREDGE
21 hours playtime
40 of 48 achievements
September-November
A long period with no posts again for the usual reason - work being busy. I want to do a separate end-of-year post and should have more time to game in December, so hopefully I can post at the end of this month and break the recent trend of 2-3 month long intervals.
I had a bit of a spending spree recently. A new laptop (no gaming, just everyday stuff away from the office/game room), new TV, new monitor (30% off in Black Friday sales) and some clothes. I’m normally pretty restrained, but felt like splurging a bit!
Not many games were beaten or completed in these 3 months and I got a lot of new ones (-.-;). On the bright side, I enjoyed lots of the games I played. So, time well spent!
Onto this month’s assassinations:
Steam
Garden Story
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Had my eye on this for a while and picked it up in a trade (it appeared in a bundle soon after). It's a cute adventure game. A few 'tricky' bits but nothing really difficult, so quite relaxing to play. I've nothing bad to say about this. It's not gonna blow you away, but this is the kind of game I've been enjoying more and more recently. Easy to drop in for a quick session, plays well on the Deck, a simple but interesting story, and not too long. Basically, the kind of game that helps me to wind down a bit and it's satisfying rather than frustrating.
I have actually completed this and it appears as 100% on Steam but the BLAEO site isn't picking up the last couple of achievements. Hopefully, it will be fixed or miraculously fix itself in the near future.
Darksiders Genesis
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I didn't actually want this game. I made a mistake with keys when trading it and activated it on my own account. I won an earlier Darksiders game on Steamgifts and, while it wasn't 'bad', I wasn't that into it and thought I'd give the series a miss.
I knew what I was in for having played an earlier game. It was pretty much more of the same. I don't remember the ability to switch characters in the other game I played (Darksiders 2, I think) but that's probably my bad memory! Different story, but the graphics and controls were basically the same.Gameplay - hack and slash, fantasy setting, collect lots of things. As with 2, I didn't dislike it. I wasn't really interested in the story but it was engaging enough and the levels were varied enough to keep me playing. Main story is beaten and I got quite a few achievements. The remaining ones are mainly speed and difficulty-based, although there are things I didn't collect. Beaten.
Batman Arkham Knight
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This is the third Batman game I got (along with Batman: Arkham City and Batman: Arkham Asylum). I beat the other two, but these games have a lot of achievements, so 100% is a bit unrealistic for me. I can't really remember getting this. I guess it was in a bundle, a deep discount, or I got a good trade as it's not a game that would be on my wishlist.
The mechanics of this game aren't so different from Darksiders now I think about it, but I enjoyed this more. The story had a lot of different villains in it and was pretty interesting. The DLC wasn't great, but a few parts were quite fun. As with Darksiders, this is a game that's easy to drop into for a while. Depending on my mood, I could try to advance the main story, complete a side mission, or just spend 15 minutes collecting things. So, even if I didn't play for long, I was still picking up an achievemnt or two or could see I was getting closer to one. A lot of skill / time based achievements remain (as with the other Batman games I have) but the main story is done and I have a respectable 67%, so this gets the Beaten tag.
Doom & Destiny
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The turn-based combat RPG and RPG maker tags on this game would normally mean I ignore it, but the 'Overwhelmingly Positive' Steam reviews and seeing the game recommended elsewhere got my attention. It sat low on my wishlist for a while but I picked it up in one of the recent sales.
I liked the story and the writing. There are quite a few sections of the game with typos and strange English (the most annoying one is in the achievements themselves 'Reach Chapetr 3' aghhh!) but I liked the story and humour in the game. Lots of references to other games and pop culture in there. I'm not keen on turn-based combat and this didn't change my opinion about that, but the other elements kept me interested. I used a guide to make sure that I got all the achievements as there are quite a few that are easy to miss. So, a fairly successful gamble based on that 'Overwhelmingly Positive' rating. I'm glad I played it and it's another completed game, but I'm unlikely to pick up anything similar in the near future.
Inbento
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A simple puzzle game that was 80% off in the Steam sale. Place different food in a bento box to match the pattern on the screen. Later on you get different controls to shift multiple sections or to swap food around. Difficult to explain but it's fairly intuative. It looks cute, is challenging and pretty fun overall. The usual thing with puzzle games for me. Simple at the start, becomes tricky, then hard puzzles with genuine feelings of achievement when I complete a level, then finally too much for my tired old brain and I refer to a guide after staring at the screen for ages. A guide assisted 100% and into the Completed pile.
Dredge
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Believe the hype. Dredge is good. Got this in a trade and I was keen to play, so got stuck in pretty much straight away.
A fishing adventure with a dark undercurrent. It's not a 'scary' game, but there is an undercurrent of forboding and expectation that something bad will happen. I think the game instills that feeling very well. Right at the start of the game, I was reluctatnt to head out in the dark even though there was no sign of danger. Just the mood that had been set and the visuals put me off it. Like being a kid again! The end of the story is a little strange, but it doesn't detract from the game as a whole. I enjoyed collecting everything, doing the tasks I was given, and working my way towards the bigger goals. I have 100% in the main game, but the Steam achievements include the DLC achievements too so I' sitting at 83% officiallly. I'm not sure about the DLC, I've read mixed reviews and it doesn't seem to be that much more content so I'm not keen on buying it just yet. Maybe when there is a big sale. Beaten for now.
Backlog Additions
Oh dear, lots of additions. I won Starfield in a competition. Most of the others were from trades but I bought a couple and added Starbound from an old bundle that I forgot about.
Bear and Breakfast, inbento, The Case of the Golden Idol, DREDGE, A Story Beside, DAVE THE DIVER, Will You Snail?, Unpacking, Starbound, Cult of the Lamb, Starfield, Journey to the Savage Planet
Congratulations on all of your assassinations! I would say something like “Rip, your backlog” but- it looks like a lot of your added games are really, really nice! Best of luck and have fun!
Yeah, I’ve picked up a lot of good ones recently. So much so that I sometimes forget which ones are sat waiting for me to play them. I should really resist the Steam Winter Sale to try and make ammends but that will be hard!