Issue #6
June Report
_____________________________________A Tale of Challenge Me, Watchmen, and Itch
Not many games, and not many words, for this month. But the few, were mainly very good. I played quite some games for my first participation in the “Challenge me” event, going from incredibly good puzzle games (like Portal and The Talos Principle) to emotional experiences (I’m talking about Life is Strange: Before the Storm).
I really enjoyed all of them, and all of them surprised me in some way.
I knew Portal was a classic, but having played Half Life, and seeing how it felt old, I feared to have the same sensation from this; and instead, this was just great, and full of humour.
I had huge expectations on The Talos Principle, but still I didn’t really expect the mystical and deep experience this game can offer. Sometimes a little too wordy, and too much playing with words; but an extremely interesting experience it was. Not considering the good puzzles, usually very well polished.
Going back to the Life is Strange saga, I feared to be deluded by this prequel chapter, and ruin the emotions I had towards the original one. Instead, the work made by the developers here was good and delicate, being able to find an equilibrium between being just a tribute, and being too different and ruining the atmosphere. It caught me from the beginning, and carried me to the end without a stop.
Talking about my backlog, I was really good with the Steam sales, as I only bought 1 small game, and a couple of DLCs. But on the other hand, I bought the Itch.io megabundle for Racial Justice, so now I’m spending hours just going through all the stuff in there, and sorting out the good/interesting ones. So I think I will choose one month to be an “Itch.io only month”, and I will play lots of them.
And I was also incredibly lucky on SG: I won 3 games, in June, after 3 months of nothing from that point of view. Cool month! :D
During this month I also read the Watchmen saga. Cool stuff, a different point of view on superheroes. Much more human, much more metropolitan and - I may say, even if not right - noir.
BTW, no graphs or donuts this month, next month probably they will be back.
A poor mobile game, "converted" to PC. The gameplay is just a series of turn based battles; the story is classic and not really deep; the enemies all look the same with different dimensions; the art goes from bad to awful. The only positive part is the presence of some funny irony; but that's not enough to make this game worth the time you spend playing it.
Played on Steam.
World Ocean's Month
Not many games I played, none fitting here this time.
Live. Die. Repeat.
I tried one game, was too hard, spent too little time, and failed in the end. Next month may be better.
DISTRAINT: Deluxe Edition
A disturbing experience. A reflection on greed and humanity, carried out with a horror-styled, nightmarish game. The story is pretty clear from the beginning, and develops through puzzles - pretty easy, typically. The art style, the lights, the sound and the effects all together work very well, in order to create a really creepy atmosphere for this descent into darkness, towards the final event.
Played on Steam.
This is something more than a game. It's an impressive experience, that required a lot of work from the creators. The gameplay in itself is pretty simple: a collection of "portal-inspired" puzzles. Usually not too easy, but even not too hard, perfectly balanced and very well polished. Exception made for the "bonus" ones, to find the stars: they go from pretty hard to hellish. All this is set in the framework of a somewhat futuristic Biblical story, where the main character is a robot, and has to go around and do things following the will of his God, and withstand temptations. Or fall into it. During your exploration you will find, in very suggestive and mystical locations, pieces of text, audio records, or dialogues, that will offer you philosophical reflections on life, death and being human - particularly deep reflections, sometimes, for a videogame. In the end, it's a very cool rewriting of an old-know story.
In addition, I played the Road to Gehenna DLC. A great addition to a great game. The story is related, even if not that much biblical. The interactions with the world and the characters are quite different, but still well designed. And there are some more puzzles, pretty harder and larger than in the original game. Cool DLC.
Played on Steam.
Life is Strange: Before the Storm
I thought I recovered from the scars left on my soul by the original Life is Strange. I was wrong. From the first note of the soundtrack, I got thrown back to Arcadia Bay, and all that events and feelings were back too. Even worse, because this game is a prequel, so you already know what will be the fate of the main characters; and because you had already grown fond of the characters before.
The developers did a great job in creating this game. The story is good, even if shorter than the original, and with much less choices with consequences. Some mechanics are different, but of course the game is different. The music is great, as it was in the first chapter.
Played on Steam.
A classic, I finally came to play, thanks to the suggestion in this event. A familiar setting (having played Half Life not that much time ago), but sure much more modern, talking about graphics. It's a clever puzzle game, also filled with a great and strange irony. I don't know why, so often, I find that in movies and videogames the characters with the best level and kind of irony are machines. XD Anyway, this was clearly the inspiration and starting point for many successive puzzle game, it's pretty clear. The only "negative" thing, for such a good game, is that it was too short.
Played on Steam.
July is coming.
Woah. I haven’t played Half Life. But yeah I loved Portal too.
Definitely try Portal 2 soon. It’s much longer.
Also, when you do that, grab a friend to play co-op. I’ve spent hours playing Portal 2 with my friend and that was an amazing time!
As with LiS:BTS, I only have one complaint that I feel they did not give closure to the story.
There are a lot of unanswered questions. For example, what happened to Rachel’s mother? Why did Max leave Arcadia Bay? Why did she come back? Why didn’t she try to contact Chloe all this while?
Cool, I will have to find an online friend then :D Nice to know that Portal 2 is good and longer, I’ll take a little break from puzzle games, but then will be back to it!
Yeah, in the end there was a lot of not said, that’s true, but probably they didn’t have clear ideas on that, and decided to avoid the risk of ruining a good work… And also, the decision to limit the game to 3 chapters forced them to stay focused on Chloe alone.
Maybe you’re right! Reading Chloe’s diary made me feel really sad though. She became so lonely and desperate after Max left :(
Yeah totally, it game goes hard on feelings. Especially because you already feel something for the characters, and you already know how they will end… And you just want them to be happy. The bonus chapter is an added stab in the chest, too.
You mean ‘Farewell’?
Damn! Haven’t played that :/
Yep, that’s it. Set before the game, unrelated to this. But a part of the story that you already know, and as you explore it (much more of a collection of memories, than a game chapter) you understand what will happen so soon. Pretty sad too.
But it doesn’t add much to what you know, so I don’t know if it’s worth buying it (I don’t even know the price).