#2 - APRIL 2019: BEGINNING OF THE MONTH UPDATE
Hey folks, I hope your month is good so far. Personally, life’s been pretty hectic (a family death took us by surprise), but we’re trying to keep our heads up.
April, so far, consisted of Point & Click games. With a side of Hotline Miami.
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Dropsy
8 hours playtime
30 of 30 achievements
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The Darkside Detective
13 hours playtime
30 of 30 achievements
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Nightmares from the Deep: The Cursed Heart
15 hours playtime
13 of 15 achievements
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Hotline Miami
12 hours playtime
11 of 35 achievements
NOW COMPLETED:
DROPSY
Started & beaten the main game during March. Replayed & finally got everything this week.
Started & beaten the main game back in January, but only got around to completing it this week. I’m looking forward to Season 2!
BEATEN (FOR NOW) + SPOILERS:
NIGHTMARES FROM THE DEEP: THE CURSED HEART
SG win! Luckily, I had free time to start & was able to beat the main story within a day. I enjoyed most of the puzzles and was surprised that there was a good variety of them. You can complete hidden object scenes, rearrange a tile wall piece, and more… At one point, you’re like some sort of scientist that makes an acidic liquid. Later you put together a voodoo doll, even gather a recipe for a potion that turns a dead snake alive. That same snake then eats a rat. Ha.
The story is not what I expected as at first, but later on after reading journal logs, finding other pieces of the story & seeing the in-game events unfold (mostly told/shown by The Guardian through flashbacks after giving him coins ‘doubloons’), I realized that the story is a bit deeper that it seemed. Not amazing, but it was entertaining. Since you do a lot of backtracking, it was nice to have some pretty environments to look at & explore. +1 also for voice acting. After playing Dropsy & Darkside Detective (both games with no voice acting & lots of text), I really appreciated that. Sometimes, it’s just sweet to listen to sit back & let someone else do the talking, you know? :P
I was frustrated & confused at some parts (mostly during my second playthrough without using hints) and followed guides. Though, the most surprising and let-down part of this game was the quality of cutscenes. Everything else was in HD, but the cutscenes are literally blurry/low quality. No way to change or bump it. Oh and shout-out to this game though because until playing it, I had never heard of Mahjong, so that’s cool. :)
Now, I’m trying to get two more achievements, but one of them is a bit of a challenge, so 100% will take a while.
Where do I even start? To anyone else whose also played this, you feel me when I say it can be really frustrating at times, yeah? It sounds like I dislike the game, but I don’t. It’s just one of those titles that kicks your butt and sometimes almost feels impossible to play/progress with, but then when you do… you can’t help but feel like a badass, really. And you keep going without even thinking. I categorized it with my list of “Made me shed blood, sweat, & tears”. It was hard but I’m proud to have beaten it and have it in my library. There were moments of “uggh ahhh” (mostly at the violence/gore) and laughter because things can be chaotic and even a blast at times.
Overall, now I can see why many people have hours & hours logged on to this. It’s definitely a game that you can be really great at if you play/practice enough. Some speed run videos finish a level like it’s nothing. It’s nuts. The pixel art, gore, & music are are pretty cool too. I found myself bobbing my head to some of the tracks as I kill some bad dudes or while I’m being killed by said bad dudes. Here’s a taste of what the OST is on Youtube.
I think I’ll dedicate a longer post or ‘review’ for Hotline Miami later. Hopefully now that it’s done, I can boot this from time to time & simply try to have fun it. There’s still a lot of achievements that I don’t know when or if I can ever get lol, but hey, at least it’s done for now! Plus, there’s post-game content with an extra, playable character ‘Biker’ with his own new levels. And did you know this guy throws butcher knives? Yep.
I won my first SG GA(not sure if the gifter is a fellow BLAEO Assassin, but thank you again if you see this) this week and also did my first giveaway, though I’ll be honest and say, I felt sad that the winner did not leave a comment on the GA post, etc. after receiving it. No one’s obligated to say thanks, I understand, but yeah.
Thank you for your time & for reading this post. Good luck with your own backlogs as always. Let me know your personal thoughts/experiences with any of these games.
Have a good one,
-D
A belated welcome to BLAEO and Steamgifts! :D
Yeah, the majority of winners of public giveaways don’t thank you for winning games, especially, in my experience, at the lowest and highest levels (0, 1, 9, and 10). Your winner has won 85 games and never given one away, and has 4,200-plus hours of DOTA2, 1,300-plus hours of CSGO, and 650-plus hours of CS and PUBG, so draw your own conclusions…
Happy gaming! And sorry for your loss. :(
I did create a ticket for a re-roll mostly after seeing likewise what you listed (specifically win-given ratio), but cancelled because support might not consider it anyways (especially since I made it public & level 0). And just didn’t want to bother anyone. Regardless of what requirements (CV level, lublic/private, etc) one can create for a GA - some folks just won’t bother with a thanks, I suppose.
And thank you for the welcome, BLAEO has become one of my favorite places to visit. It’s a nice place to read & chat with others. Thank you also for the condolences.
Yes, to clarify, there’s no rule saying you have to give a game away, so there is no basis for a re-roll. But if you’re collecting 80-plus games without giving one away, you might not be inclined to say thank you for the gift. :p But yes, anybody at any level might not say thank you. :(
It looks like even though you had a difficult month, you made great progress in beating your backlog. I hope it gave you a welcome respite and a place where you could take your mind off things. Jedi Hugs in solidarity!
You had a good spread of games this month, and kudos for giving away your first game! It DOES suck when you don’t get a thank you… but that says a lot about the person who won!
I hope your next month is better, and welcome to BLAEO c:
It’s nice to know others have had same situations with the GA. It does sucks, but it’s okay now. Thank you for the nice words & the BLAEO welcome. Not sure if your month is going well or not, but I wish the same for you this April & next month as well! May we all have better days.
Last night and this morning have been SPECTACULAR, so your well wishes have come in at exactly the right time!
The good part of community is that when times are rough, it’s a place where we can get through together c:
Good to hear things are spectacular (I like that word too) :)
The good part of community is that when times are rough, it’s a place where we can get through together c:
Very true. 👍🏻
Oh, yes. It’s such a chaotic rush.
And that’s also one of the best tracks. Nice pick.
I’m very sorry for your loss. Loosing someone is hard, I wish you all the energy you need right now. I’m sure other people can find better words. I hope your gaming helps you taking your mind off of it for a moment or two. Stay strong!
Wow. Thank you so much your thoughtful message. Maybe it’s because it’s almost 4 am right now and I’m exhausted, but reading that made me tear up.
And agree.. loss is hard. Especially since death is such a permanent thing. Luckily, games are here for us. It has kept me distracted from some thoughts. Thank you again for the kind words. I appreciate it.