So it’s been over a year since I’ve updated my progress. And I came across the ‘June is a “play a game you won on Steamgifts” month - Through the eyes of a child. WE GOT A WEBSITE!’ thread on Steamgifts. And since I’d just played through a few games for both Play Or Pay & Playing Appreciated SteamGifts group, I decided to submit them to https://pagywosg.xyz since some of them fitted the June theme for PAGYWOSG.

Some games I beat/completed in June were:

Neon Space (Won on SteamGifts)
Yes I finally got to play Neon Space after playing Neon Space 2 over a year ago. Compared to Neon Space 2, Neon Space seems much tougher in the later 25 levels (out of a total of 50) compared to NS2. The movement controls felt a bit jankier and a bit harder to control as I had to use the mouse to “point” my orb and the WASD keys to move it. It led me to GIT GUD as I had to reload the later levels so many time :( On hindsight, I should have used a controller.

The obstacles felt like they came from a budget SHMUP with moving red laser beams, spores of red death and timed gates with laser traps. It was a bit tough as the hitbox of the orb was a bit bigger than it looked. The final level upped the ante with a boss that was shooting death balls at you while you’re trying the activate various portals. Overall, a simple & frustrating budget time-killing game with a killer dubstep soundtrack

Chroma Squad (Won on SteamGifts)

Awesome and slightly humorous (YMMV) turn based combat squad & budget management game with a blood pumping Japanese pop soundtrack. It has above average pixel graphics, plenty of Sci-fi & anime references and some customization options for your squad mates, armor & loadout, crafting, etc. It has 3 difficulty settings: Casual, Interesting and Challenging with the game balanced around the Challenging difficulty. Even on Interesting difficulty, each mission feels like a challenge as minions often take 2 hits or down to down, reinforcements often spawn and there are different Director’s Instructions and movesets for each squadmate that you should try to pull off in order to increase your audience numbers and hence your fan base and income. Money is important to pay for actors’ salaries, studio upgrades, marketing firms and crafting items. There was a lot of hidden complexity for each mission and for an partial OCD gamer like me, I had both anxiety and enjoyment from planning the tasks I wanted each actor to perform and also adapting the plan when the enemies respawned/called in reinforcements/a boss appeared etc. in order to pull off a successful episode with maximum audience numbers. Highly recommend this game for turn based squad management fans.

Bastion (Won on SteamGifts)

I was enjoying the gameplay, city building, “crafting”, lore, music of this beautiful up until the last area/level when it devolved (imho) into a 3D platformer with no clue which way to go and unsuitable WASD controls. Also, it really screwed me over during the final boss fight but I shouldn’t spoil it. That level really destroyed the fun I had. The ending was a bit emotional but I really wanted to kick the “villain’s” ass… but I wasn’t given the pleasure (though given the ending of the story I could see why I didn’t get the chance). The constant narrating really got on my nerves too after the first 20 mins. I think Transistor was a way better game imho though the unique combat style in Transistor takes some getting used to. Not a buy from me but I can understand why it has so many positive reviews.