Autumn 2019 report
Hello everyone! Still behind with my reports, so this time I have prepared triple post! :)
During September my workplace went through some big turbulence and it all ended with me basically getting promoted. O.O To spice it some more, I had big exams at the end of October… it was really hard and busy month. Most of the time I was rather overworked. The exams went really well even though I was more nervous than with my exams for my magister degree. XD That was the last day of October, November was… alright? I think. XD Still pretty busy even at home as we had ongoing reconstruction of our bathroom, but now we just wait for the furniture. ;)
Also, I was usually writing my reports at work, but now I have barely time to read through other reports, you can see that by my lack of posts. ;)
I look forward to my upcoming vacation in two weeks! :D
Saving of the galaxy was on hiatus these months sadly, but I am coming back! :)
Play or Pay picks got nailed down, just two remained untouched, that’s great I believe. ;D New picks got decided and I am pretty interested in them - already completed two!
Oh and I almost forgot. I got over 3.000 achievements, completed 50 games with achievements and that makes 100 games completed in total. :D
Enough of small talks and now to the actual assassinations! Good luck in new month and have a happy Advent time everyone!
September 2019
Wow, I liked this game! When I started playing I felt like I have seen it somewhere already. After some time in game I have realized that it resembles Layers of Fear to me. And I was right! It was made by the same developers. :D That was a good sign as I have really enjoyed the Layers. ;)
The story is following dark futuristic dystopian world full of drugs, nanotechnology, despair and insanity. You play as detective Dan Lazarski (voiced and modeled by the late Rutger Hauer, he suited our hero very well and added some nostalgic feeling to the game) who is tracking down his long lost son. Once you enter the place where his last signal got detected you are pushed on the edge of your sanity.
The game is taking place in just one apartment complex. Through your interaction with its inhabitants you uncover their secrets, desires and even some disturbing things about yourself. As you go through the building you have to search for clues that would lead to your son, with that helps your enhanced vision system to see biological and technical tracks. Also as an Observer, neural detective, you have power to invade the mind of your suspects... in some cases even of those deceased... and it was a ride, I must say. Almost forgot to mention to watch after your sanity health, as Dan is rather tender kind of man. ;) You can find pills that helps with that all over the building, you just have to look right.
You can go after the main story or you can search around and find some "side quests", I liked that. There is also some stealth action, creepy but doable. ;) When you are hacking into minds the game gets pretty linear, but that's fine, because it serves the story well and most of the time I was like "oh god, what was that... oh my... damn!" anyway. :D In addition there is a cute little mini game that you can find on some computers, Fire and Sword: Spiders. You have to save princess from spiders and each level gets harder, have to say that some of them were real challenge.
Observer offers really disturbing dystopian atmosphere. Through my playtime I had this feeling of anxiety. I think that I was less afraid than when playing Layers of fear (comparing whole playing experiences of both), but I don't think that "fear" was the main purpose of this game... more like the feeling of uncertainty, distress and discomfort. The scary parts worked for me well nevertheless. ;)
I would recommend it to anyone who is fan of sci-fi, dystopian worlds, horror movies, games or books. I think that Observer offer solid experience. But I would certainly NOT RECOMMEND it to anyone who is sensitive to motion sickness or flashing lights, there is a lot of that, sometimes maybe even more than was needed.
Very nice little Otome game. The story, art and characters are enjoyable. Nice addition is that after your first play through you gain access to secret diary which uncover some parts of the story! There are sometimes mistakes in translation, even few complete Russian sentences, but it did not disturbed me much. ;) Would love to pursue one more character though. X)
Some of the achievements are a bit wonky, but they works if the game is switched to Russian and then you just skip through the ending. ;)
Classic point and click adventure game with very nice graphic. Voice acting is decent, at least some of them.
You play as Feodor Morales, young inventor, who wishes to surpass even Leonardo da Vinci! :) Just when you are about to build a flying machine your brother is taken by the Inquisition, so it's up to you to follow his trail through seas and sky and rescue him. On your travel you will start to uncover truth about your origin, which will lead you to mysterious place called Zerzua. But you are not the only one searching for this city, so be prepared for some confrontation!
The game is good... but it didn't really captured me, most of the time I was slightly bored. There were some nice parts I have enjoyed, but I would say that overall it is rather slow paced game. I liked the interaction between Feodor and this pirate girl who wants to use us as slave though. ;) Puzzles were alright, some of them a bit confusing.
When I was playing it I had the feeling of Déjà vu - Zerzua was made by the same studio who made sequels to one of my favorite adventure games, you probably know it as Black Mirror. I don't like its sequels, at all and that's putted really softly. So Zerzua is good, better then Black Mirror 2 and 3, but there is something missing, some emotions... I was rather apathetic to the story and the characters and even wished for some of them to disappear...
Sadly in this one you can't rotate the board as with the second game, I really needed that sometimes. ;)
In this cyberpunk real-time strategy game you control four agents with specific skills on a quest of sabotaging
mega evil corporations. :D You can choose if you will be stealth and subtle or you will take them head on. But if your plan goes wrong you have to improvise and as it is real-time I found out that stealth was surely better approach, because there isn't any pause to plan your strategy... yeah, real-time, I should read game description better next time. XD First two hours were real struggle, but after few disasters I was able to control it properly. All my action were stealthy and required heavy logistic preparations. When I found myself in the heat of firefight I started to panic and didn't know what to do, most of the time I pushed some wrong buttons. ;) Enemies level up with you to keep you up for a challenge, they also have different abilities and weapons. You need to watch out for cameras too.
You have main quest to follow, but if you want to gain some advantage you are free to do side quests, with them you can get to better equipment, augmentations, more money and so. I really enjoyed clearing out each district, even if it can seem rather repetitive, you know, you are doing the same thing again and again after all. ;)
The graphic is pretty good, you could feel the cyberpunk from it! I liked the differences between each district too. I wasn't really comfortable with camera look though, the edge was somehow disturbing. There is an automatic save and you are free to save whenever you want to if you are safe and sound. But if you save your progress during some mission, you will get loaded before you started it. That was very frustrating in the beginning to say the truth. Some of the locations to infiltrate are very large, its very hard to get there and even harder to get outside from the zone where you can save it. My routine was to get in and check the surroundings, then load it and do safe run... it wasn't always so easy though. But I have really enjoyed it even like that, I took it as a challenge. ;)
What is extremely frustrating is opening some of the achievements. It's very tedious work and my "fun meter" is dropping to zero, so I wouldn't recommend it to any achievement completionist. Oh and after 40 hours I have found mod for the game pause, but I am rather proud at myself for completing it without it. XD
I have completed every easy and very easy map, so I consider it as beaten, because it will take me some more hours to play through all of the maps. And I don't think I will be able to complete the very hard ones, as the Tropico is very complex to master!
October 2019
This game is little gem and don't get yourself fooled by it's main picture. I did and if it wouldn't be for my soulmate I would have ignored it otherwise. By the look of it's representative image you would say that it's one of the many shallow hentai games, but it isn't. I was surprised. The story is very mature and heavy, characters are very much likable, I cared for all of them.
I liked the interaction between the characters, nice addition are hidden talks that you can activate when you see the sign or you will miss them. The game is small, you won't find hundreds pieces of equipment, you don't craft either (but you will cook!), you have just 5 - 6 location to explore and they are short, but it's okay. It's enough for the story. Next to the main quest you can do some side quests too. Few of them are even time limited. You will fight only with demons and they will appear one by one. Every time new one appeared I had to level up as he was rather strong. Fight proved to be a challenge till the end.
I have enjoyed it so much! Would love to see some more games from its creator!
Anyone feel the Rapture inspiration? ;)
Nice HOG with few scary and some silly moments. I liked the domino part, but because of that I had to play it two times to open all of the achievements. :P
Mighty Hercules continues in his story. Still good for killing some free time. ;)
November 2019
It's a little bit morbid to say so, but I have enjoyed it so much! I have played it after few years I completed the first one and to my surprise I still remembered the important things from it.
The story is miserable as always and few moments took me by surprise when some decision caused something completely else then I anticipated - and don't get me wrong, because that is a good thing! I enjoy very much when game or movie can surprise me! Also I cried few times.
I do really hope that the third one will come back on Steam someday, as I would love to complete Clems story. Will play it whole again then.
You are supposed to investigate strange suicide on an isolated island, but with question asked the case starts to get more and more complicated.
The art is very nice and the talking animations are very well made, they don't look so silly as usually. ;) Your partner is pretty useless really, he sent you somewhere and when you come back to him, he is hysteric where have you been! XD But I liked how you are actually investigating and interrogating your suspects.
And achievement for completing hidden object scene under 20 seconds is crazy, no fun in that. There is no way you can do it in normal play, you have to learn it first and do it after that, silly.
I enjoy trading games!
So in this one, you find yourself stripped of your honor, status, money and have to earn all of it back from scratch. Oh and also avenge death of your father when you are on it. You travel through big cities or small villages and sell your stuff for the most cash you can get. There are many things that can help you to get your wealth back. You can rebuild ruins into working winery, reconstruct old mines so they earn you money on regular basis. First you have to clear those dungeons from monsters, with that may help you mercenaries you can hire, but beware you pay them daily wage. You can also hire specialist and level them up. They are helpful in many ways - they can run your mine or winery, help you with navigation, fight or so. With your wealth growing up you will need bigger wagons to carry more of the merchandise, but be careful the more you have the more you will pay for taxes or won't you? ;)
You have to be careful on your way. You can stumble upon dragon or bear, you can get robbed or some of your stuff can deteriorate. Against that can help artifacts you buy or find all around the world. Also, pay good attention to your luck, as it cause many things that will happen to you and you want good things to happen, right? ;) There is main story to follow and many many side quests for you to complete. Story moves forward only after you rise through society ranks with the help of merchant guild. There are other means to earn cash and you can use every one of them or just some. As you rise up you open new possibilities as traveling with ship to distant islands or with an airship for very quick transportation. Later on you can even forge collaboration with two more merchants and you will take control of them too. That means issuing three orders a day, which can get tiresome at some point when you don't have anything to do with the other one as you can skip movements only once.
Back to dungeons. They are nice addition, but could have been a little more complex. You take band of mercenaries to mine, safely lead them through and then kill the monster. Simple as that. It had a lot of potential, at least there are... ehm, two kind of traps. XD Never mind that, it still was fun. ;) Shame is, that when you clear ruins there is just an automated fight.
I liked the music and art, there are even season changes which looked very nice. Other good function was that you can see the price of your goods up to 7 days back, really better then doing your own database of prices. XD You can save whenever you want so you are pretty well protected from serious losses, if you care about that. ;)
I have enjoyed playing Merchants of Kaidan. There are some parts that could have been more elaborated, but even in this state it is quite enjoyable. :)
In this short HOG you have to uncover the truth behind the death of the famous writer Edgar Allan Poe. The search for clues will lead you through some of his stories. Hidden object scenes were little bit harder than normal, but you have the lamp which gives you the shape of thing you are searching for, so it's okay. ;)
I managed a lot these past months! Last time I said that I started practicing for the Pantheon of the Knight boss fight. Each day for one hour I fought the boss and then tried the Pantheon to not forget the drill. After a week I did it. I came victorious. Trust me when I say, that I have not believed that I will ever make it. ;) It was an amazing feeling. I love that fight, it's perfect. <3
Next step was completing the Trial of Fool. And that was something horrible. Most horrible from the whole game and I will never ever do it again. It took me longer than the last Pantheon, it was tedious and frustrating. Gah, just remembering it makes me angry. Horrible, really. The worst part was, that I was stuck on section so close to the end of the trial! I tried many charm fusions, but in the end my original set was the winner. When I stopped concentrating on how the others could make it and me not and focused on my own play style, I did it out of blue. From all the anxiousness I almost screwed it and died as I forgot how to even jump properly and my hands were shaking so much, luckily I survived, because I can't imagine doing it one more time. X)
So my final step was getting 112% completion. That meant fighting the ultimate boss. It was quicker than I thought, I managed to beat it after just few tries. :3 Oh, how I want to share with you all of those amazing screenshots I have, but I don't want to spoil you the fun of seeing it for the first time yourself. ;)
Does it mean that I am done with Hollow Knight? Never! :D Now I go for the steel soul mode! You will not get away from me! :P
Nothing new, I need to play something with human characters in it and when I play something like that I need to actually take some screenshots. Yes, Walking dead, I am looking at you. I was so nervous that I would miss some choice that I wasn't able to push the button. XD
Anton Sokolov ; Aliena | B | C | D | E | F |
Grimm ; Garrus Vakarian | Hornet | I | Jack | K | Legion |
Mata Hari | N | The Outsider | P | Quirrel | R |
Saren Arterius | T | U | V | Wrex Urdnot | X |
Y | Z |
Big thank you for my wins! :)
I have also won Plantera - original soundtrack. :)-
Leviathan: The Last Day of the Decade
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Tales from Candlekeep: Tomb of Annihilation
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Time Mysteries 3: The Final Enigma
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HIVESWAP: ACT 1
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Love Alchemy: A Heart In Winter
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12 Labours of Hercules II: The Cretan Bull
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Path of Sin: Greed
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Pikuniku
Big thank you for the gifts! :)
Other addition to my backlog.
On GOG I also got myself original soundtrack from Hollow Knight! Now I can keep it with myself all the time. :D- So for the purpose of this list, only games marked as completed counts - until said otherwise.
- Games can be played in whichever order.
- Unfinished games will be restarted or continued.
Assassinated 6 of 29
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16bit Trader
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Agarest: Generations of War
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Brothers - A Tale of Two Sons
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Cooking Academy Fire and Knives
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Dark Messiah of Might & Magic
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Eventide: Slavic Fable
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Fortune Summoners: Secret of the Elemental Stone
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Glass Masquerade
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Hakuoki: Kyoto Winds
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Hakuoki: Edo Blossoms
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Chaos on Deponia
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Inquisitor
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J.U.L.I.A.: Among the Stars
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KHOLAT
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Loren The Amazon Princess
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Merchants of Kaidan
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Nancy Drew: Curse of Blackmoor Manor
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Overlord: Raising Hell
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Postmortem: one must die (Extended Cut)
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Quest for Infamy
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Remothered: Tormented Fathers
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Sins Of The Demon RPG
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Tempest
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Unium
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Velvet Assassin
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Weird Park Trilogy
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XCOM: Enemy Unknown
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Yomawari: Night Alone
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ZanZarah: The Hidden Portal
Congrats on the Pantheon, and good luck for the steel mode :D
I just beat Nightmare Grim yesterday, Pantheon is the next step !
At least, I already did the Trial of Fool (and I’m never doing this again, thank you).
Thank you! :D
Congratulations for beating Grimm, he is pretty hard too. ;)
Have fun with the Pantheon. :3
What does diamond icon means near your reviews? There’s one everywhere except TWD:S2.
And good to see I’m not the only one behind their reports hahaha! I beated so little since the last one and just played shitload of Isaac with the little free time I had. Probably gonna beat one or two games more this year and that’s it for me. Good luck with your progress, the bathroom and PhD? Unless the magister degree means something else in your country.
The diamond means that the game is a steamgift win. :D
By that you can see, that I am not playing much games from my standard backlog lately. XD
I think I will never be on time with reports. ;)
Two days and I am having a vacation so I think I will play a lot lot lot! :D Doesn’t matter if you completed many games, important thing is to have fun! ;)
Thanks! Furniture for bathroom got separated and half of it will probably be delivered in January, now we have all stuff in bags. X)
I am maybe mystifying you a little, I am for some time Mgr. (that’s called magister, right? o.O), but I am not studying for PhD. I had to complete supplement education (? don’t know if that makes any sense) to keep my current work as I am not exactly from the field. :)
If I focus on just what fun right now then I think I’m gonna spent rest of year on Isaac and CS:GO operation :) I mean I’m gonna have to 100% Isaac some day so I guess I might as well do it now…
By magister do you mean Masters degree? I was guessing that that’s what you meant as magister is what it’s called in my country too lol.
Not sure what you mean in the last sentence, did you do magister/master in a specific speciality and now you have to do a different speciality to be fully educated in your current field?
But whether I understood you correctly or not, good luck with it! :D Also I want to add I enjoy your style of writing, it’s way more laid back compared to mine :P
Yes, yes, you have to complete it anyway. ;D
That would be it! XD You got it right! It was a short course, half a year to be precise. At the end I got myself nice pretty certificate. ;D
Thank you! :D Haha, I have not even noticed. ;)
Congrats on your autumnal accomplishments, hope you get some time to breathe and enjoy the holidays. :) And Pikuniku looks so lovely, have fun with it!
Thank you! I hope so too. XD I will, you also have great holidays. :D
Yes! Just the moment I have some time to spare I am jumping on it. :D