Three months later, still gaming

Some more games finished and making space for new ones:

• Behind the Frame: The Finest Scenery
  

  2 hours playtime

  19 of 19 achievements

• CrossCode
  

  113 hours playtime

  86 of 86 achievements

• The Darkside Detective: A Fumble in the Dark
  

  14 hours playtime

  30 of 30 achievements

Behind the Frame: The Finest Scenery: How to describe behind the Frame? It is a game about painting pictures I guess? It is more on the story-side with some minor puzzle elements and painting mini-game mixed in. You play as Amber, trying to get her work for the art competition done. But each day (chapter) she needs a new colour which somehow is hidden somewhere in the apartment. On the other side of a small alley lives an old man who paints as well. And so, you are completing the painting, while having some memory flashbacks each chapter and how the protagonist (Amber) and her neighbor (Jack) are connected. Towards the end it also gets shortly a bit darker. The story is a “bit” confusing. As far as I understood, the main game tells “inside” a painting with Amber being the painting. It is basically a story about painting function as a memory keepsake. That the story does not depict reality, can be seen by the date on the calendar never changing or at the end when you learn that Jack and Amber have been friends roughly the same age. There is also a DLC which panicked me a bit for a moment because it has achievements. But the DLC is actually a side-story from the perspective of Jack in the past which is automatically part of the game unlocked after finishing the main game. So no new purchase needed. I would even argue if this counts as DLC because you can’t get the game without it. Side-story is also more straightforward as it is a direct retelling of past events although it (obviously) still centers around the theme how paintings keep memories alive.
The graphic of the game is handdrawn? Either way, it is very pleasing on the eyes and nice to look at. Soundtrack is also nice and calming and the game makes for an interesting and short experience. Achievement-wise, the most is very fair and while there are about five achievements which you probably won’t find without a guide, it is not an issue as the game has a chapter select. So each missed achievement can easily be gained within a few minutes (exception for the DLC which takes a bit longer as there is no select, but the whole DLC is just 30-60 minutes first time, much faster if you just click through).

CrossCode: Well, well, well. What to say about CrossCode. CrossCode tells the story about Lea, a woman supposedly in coma with missing memories. Though it is known that she played a mmo game before actually plays on a real existing “playground” on another planet. And so, her offline helper Sergey smuggles her back into the game for Lea to regain her memory by playing through the MMO. While this does sound confusing it is not so bad when you playthrough. But the story has multiple layers of past and present and game and reality and how it is connected. Overall, the story (including the DLC) is actually very interesting and also tackles some issue which might become a topic in the future ( and is also shown in other media like the movie “Free Guy”). So, the story is on the strong side.
Gameplay-wise you have a character which can dash, shoot and melee and you learn new elements and active skills by playing through the story and unlocking them in the temples and your circuits boards. You can switch between elements with one button press and if you focus on melee or range is mostly dependent on your preferred playstyle alhtough you should and will mixing more at one point. And as you play a MMO, you regularly complete quests for people. You can also see a lot of extremely well-thought design decisions. Should it be the balancing or the versatility of choice for your combat, the dashing and blocking which add layers to it. Or you basically can not get a game-over in the game. A death just warps you back to the beginning of the scree, but removes all experience and items you got but also gives you consumption items back you used. So, the game never wastes your time. On the other side, this means the game can easily place enemies on the stronger side and make it more challenging as you never really lose anything. And on top, it has two difficulty sliders to even tone it down, if you can’t manage the intended difficulty. There is also the point of the terrain being multilayerd where you can find ways to the off-path needed for the sidequest and chests. And the terrain is designed in such a well manner that you don’t even notice these additional ways, the first time you go through because it looks just that natural. Nearly all available quests per area can be seen in the specific town’s quest hub so you can never miss them. And even in-game they are marked with a large exclamation mark while running around. There is also a strong post-game at the end (and per area) where you can farm items for stronger equipment and an arena for more challenging fights if the story ones were not enough. As said, this game has been planned through, you see it.
So what it is this anxiety your hear subtly in my text? Well, there is one point in the game which soured me strongly. But I can’t really blame the game but more myself for not checking better. The game is puzzle-HEAVY. And I play(ed) a lot of puzzle games games and enjoyed them. And the puzzles for the most part are ALSO designed very well. However, it is simply to much. Each temple, I could have lived with actually just half the amount of puzzles they have used. You want this to finish but it just never stops. A really annoying example is at the end of the game. I was in the final dungeon and it was 1am and I said: “Okay, just get the final boss done and go to sleep”. Long story short I had to break inbetween because the game throws another one hour of complex puzzles at you, delaying the final part. And don’t get me started on the DLC temple which tortures you with two hours+ puzzles in a row. Note, that I solved everything myself. With a guide or replaying it will be a bit faster. Though, I stay with my word that HALF of the puzzles would still have been more than enough.
Achievement-wise, there is a lot of grind. However, everything needed for it is tracked and can be done at nearly any point of the game. So strong plus there as well. Though, there are two missable achievements which (if you didnt pay attention) first time, need a bit of replay. Though they can be made in NG+ with all of your equipment and levels from the previous round. You can even give you hex powers one-shotting everything to speed up further. Also, another special plus for the NG+ as characters react to your items and levels which you should not have at that point in the game. It is very funny. Also, you don’t need the DLC for getting all achievements but i would recommand it for the story nonetheless.
So all in all, CrossCode is a really good game with a lot of very strong designs and design decisions. A heart-warming story, strong gameplay, interesting topics, grindy but mostly fair achievements. But damn, this insane amount of puzzles T_T

The Darkside Detective: A Fumble in the Dark: The Darkside Detective is a humorous PnC adventure playing in the town of Twin Lakes where so many strange things happen that the town has it own police department for it. Or had as the department has been abolished in the second part after the protagonist lost his partner in the Darkside at the end of the first game. The game plays roughly around after the first part and has six main cases which play story-wise after each other. There are a lot of reoccuring characters between the cases and also to the first game which troubled me a bit as I nearly forgot most of it and couldnt get some references. Overall, it is still a good and fun game. Though the cases are to long for my taste and have to many screens. So, you would like to finish them faster. The size also troubled me as I often did know what or how I had to do something, randomly clicking and combining stuff (Note, I did this without guide as you should play a puzzle-game/PnC anyway). But it is not a good feeling, running around 20 minutes having no progress as you don’t know what is missing.
Achievement-wise there is a lot of hidden stuff which might be overlooked first time (though replaying episodes takes about 15 minutes per case). But nothing really unfair. All in all a good and nice game but with to big cases for my taste. It certainly did leave a less positive impression then the first part. Still a positive impression. Game is recommandable alone for the bromance between Dooley and McQueen.