December 2024 Update

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November 2024 Update

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Activated: 07/2024

F.I.S.T.: Forged In Shadow Torch (Q4 2021) ⭐️⭐⭐⭐☆

Beaten after: 4 months

Metroidvania Steampunk
17h | 0 of 43 (0%)

⇱ Click to show summary⇲

The good 👍
- Good level design and map
- Fluid combat with combo system, and good enemy design
- Weapons (fist / whip / drill) are used for traversing the map as well, which makes it feel more coherent. Than just getting piles of shiny toys used to open one specific type of door
- Gorgeous graphic

The bad 👎
- There is a big difficulty spike right at the end. I had to drop difficulty to beat the game
- Characters are not fleshed out and lack backstory
- Story is average
- Parrying mechanic during combat is meh and hard to execute

Conclusion:

It is a solid Metroidvania, but still tier below Ori or Hollow Knight. Platforming and combat are smooth, albeit on the easy side. The visuals are good. The story is barebone. There is a lot of backtracking. If it's cheap (or free like I get on Epic) it's worth playing. The game has a demo on Steam, so it can be tested before buying.

---

Details

📘 Story ☐ Bare-bone ☑ Average ☐ Good

This is not a strong part of the game. Ray lives his unhappy life as a veteran of an old world. The world where furtizens were free. Now they are under control of dog-machines, that invaded and countered the land. Ray doesn't care much, until his friend is kidnapped. Now it's serious, so he takes a piece of his old power armor (the fist, which must weigh a ton, and he easily carries it on the back). And off he goes, to punch some enemies, flirt with a mysterious cat, and save the world. There is a good idea there, that lands flat. We mostly run around the map, punching bad guys, getting pieces of story here and there.

🔄 Gameplay loop ☐ Boring ☐ Average ☑ Good	Run from point A to B, and kill encountered enemies. Get an upgrade or new ability along the way, which unlocks additional parts of the map. Nothing ground-breaking that would expand the Metroidvania genre. It is solid though, not much to complain about. Later on, it is easy to avoid the non-boss enemies (they do respawn) so backtracking is a tiny bit less annoying as well.
🪄 Abilities ☐ Basics (walk, jump etc.) ☐ Magic / powers ☑ Advanced combat	We can jump, wall grab, dash, float in air vents (with helicopter-drill), swing (with lasso), swim. A quite standard list for a Metroidvania. Combat upgrades are unlocked at the checkpoint stations, which also work as healing places. The game has single-use healing potions, but they are in limited quantity, don't restore, and need to be found in containers (or drop from the enemies). New abilities are unlocked in a linear way as we progress with the story. HP, special ability, and healing potion meters are upgraded by picking permanent power-ups.
🎮 Controls ☐ Clunky and stiff ☐ Adequate ☑ Fluid and enjoyable	Controls are smooth. Each weapon has many combos (feels a bit like Tekken lite with combinations), but in the end, I was using the easy-to-remember basic combinations. There are no problems with object collisions. The only problem I encouraged was that the parry mechanic didn't feel right. I could barely make it work, which made me not use it at all.
📇 Inventory and menus ☑ Basic ☐ Detailed ☐ Over complicated	There is no inventory. We can swap between the weapons on the fly. The menu button brings up a fallout-like screen where we can swap between the discovered map, found posters, items list, and options.
🥊 Combat 🏹 ☐ Boring and generic ☐ Average ☑ Good ☐ Great	Combat is flashy and fluid. General enemies are dumb and pose a threat only if present in large packs. Mini-bosses have more unpredictable movies and require more planning than spamming the same attack a few times. Bosses are a bit challenging but not more than to repeat the same fight 3 or 4 times to see the boss patterns. Nothing like the difficulty of the mantis fight in Hollow Knight.

💸 Microtransactions ☑ None ☐ Skins ☐ "Time-savers" ☐ Direct purchase ☐ Custom currency (gems etc.)	🏆 Achievements ☐ None ☐ Story progression ☐ Few collectibles / easy to get ☑ Grindy collectibles / hard to get ☐ Require multiple playthroughs	💾 Save system ☐ No saves ☐ No saves, progress carries over ☐ One checkpoint, too rare ☑ One checkpoint, frequent ☐ Manual saves
📊 Performance ☐ Can run on potato ☑ Medium requirements ☐ High requirements ☐ Too low for what is visible on screen ☐ Optimization disaster	🌌 Graphic ☐ May look good 10 years ago, but not now ☐ Blurry textures / geometry problems ☐ Average ☑ Good ☐ Beautiful	🔊 Sound ☑ Nothing to remember ☐ Good voice acting ☐ Good weapons & effects ☐ Good OST ☐ Music flows well with the action
🦚 Customization options ☐ Resolution, volume only ☑ Basic graphic settings ☐ Advanced graphic settings ☐ Adjustable HUD ☐ Accessibility options	🧭 Map ☐ No map ☐ Basic ☑ Detailed ☐ Minimap ☐ Fast travel	Details:

October 2024 Update

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Activated: 06/2024

Chariot (Q4 2014) ⭐️⭐⭐⭐☆

Beaten after: 4 months

Co-op Action
17h | 17 of 46 (37%)

⇱ Click to show summary⇲

The good 👍
- Good physic
- A level design that prompts explorationn
- Child-friendly

The bad 👎
- The jokes quickly grow old

Conclusion:

It is a good co-op game, for both kids and adults. Some areas with ice can be a bit annoying but otherwise, the level design is solid, the gameplay is enjoyable and the rules are easy to understand.

---

Details

📘 Story ☑ Bare-bone ☐ Average ☐ Good

There is literally no story. A king dies and his remains are put into a coffin on wheels. Our job is to escort the coffin to the resting place, pulling the coffin (and thus the old geezer's bones) through the levels with ropes.

🔄 Gameplay loop ☐ Boring ☐ Average ☑ Good	Levels are selected from the hub area. We enter the map and our goal is to move the coffin to the map exit. This unlocks a new level (or another entrance to an already visited map). The coffin is passive aka it doesn't move by itself. We need to push or pull it with a rope, that we shot towards the anchor points. We jump upon the platform, throw the rope to the coffin, and pull the rope to lift the coffin to the platform. Co-op challenges (fragments of the map designed for higher difficulty) can be quite hard, but the basic game is fine. It does require some timing and physics understanding though. We have a few gadgets that work as abilities, unlocked by exploring the maps - we can select to repulse or pull in the carriage without a rope (like a magnet), run faster, or slow down the time. I found repulsor to be the best, it allows me to move the carriage up faster. Just stay under it, and it shots it upward.
🎮 Controls ☐ Clunky and stiff ☐ Adequate ☑ Fluid and enjoyable	No issues with controls. It may take a few attempts to anchor the line (there is a distance limit to how far we can throw it) but otherwise, the character reacts fast to input, there are no weird geometry issues with platforms, and animations are smooth.
🥊 Combat 🏹 ☐ Boring and generic ☑ Average ☐ Good ☐ Great	There is an extremely basic combat in this game. We can find gems / gold on the map. Collecting small gold lumps is safe. Big lumps of gold or diamonds often have enemies spawn points around. Enemies notice us when we collect the gold, jump out from hiding, and attack the coffin, stealing the gold we collected for the deceased king. To chase them off the he-player can shoot rocks with a sling, and she-player can hit them with a sword. It's nothing complicated and can be avoided altogether if we avoid collecting "guarded" treasures.

💸 Microtransactions ☑ None ☐ Skins ☐ "Time-savers" ☐ Direct purchase ☐ Custom currency (gems etc.)	🏆 Achievements ☐ None ☐ Story progression ☐ Few collectibles / easy to get ☑ Grindy collectibles / hard to get ☐ Require multiple playthroughs	💾 Save system ☐ No saves ☐ No saves, progress carries over ☐ One checkpoint, too rare ☑ One checkpoint, frequent ☐ Manual saves
📊 Performance ☐ Can run on potato ☑ Medium requirements ☐ High requirements ☐ Too low for what is visible on screen ☐ Optimization disaster	🌌 Graphic ☐ May look good 10 years ago, but not now ☐ Blurry textures / geometry problems ☐ Average ☑ Good ☐ Beautiful	🔊 Sound ☑ Nothing to remember ☐ Good voice acting ☐ Good weapons & effects ☐ Good OST ☐ Music flows well with the action
🦚 Customization options ☐ Resolution, volume only ☑ Basic graphic settings ☐ Advanced graphic settings ☐ Adjustable HUD ☐ Accessibility options	🧭 Map ☐ No map ☑ Basic ☐ Detailed ☐ Minimap ☐ Fast travel	Details: Sound is quite ambient and not big focus of the game. Extremely basic graphic options.

September 2024 Update

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This post is just a side note, but still connected to the games I have been playing in the past:

• The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim
  

  133 hours playtime

  75 of 75 achievements

• Dark Messiah of Might & Magic Single Player
  

  16 hours playtime

  no achievements

• Far Cry 3
  

  27 hours playtime

  no achievements

• Far Cry 3 Blood Dragon
  

  11 hours playtime

  no achievements

• Horizon Zero Dawn™ Complete Edition
  

  68 hours playtime

  69 of 79 achievements

• Middle-earth™: Shadow of Mordor™
  

  32 hours playtime

  70 of 74 achievements

• Rise of the Tomb Raider
  

  37 hours playtime

  81 of 143 achievements

• Thief
  

  26 hours playtime

  28 of 37 achievements

• Tomb Raider
  

  21 hours playtime

  33 of 50 achievements

If you wonder what all those have in common: they all have a bow. I did leave out games like Orcs Must Die or Witcher, as those have crossbows. And surely forgot some less memorable games with bows. If a game has a bow I would use it. No matter how much better firearms were. I loved every minute of Tomb Raider 2013. Sneaking past, killing enemies with a well-aimed headshot 😎

I thought I could use my newfound time, away from SG, to go to the archery shooting range. A quick look around, and apparently living in a country of Robin Hood does have its perks. Namely: archery clubs. I managed to sign up for the last beginner course of this year, and I got the certificate 2 weeks ago. After some paperwork and joining ArcheryGB I will officially be an archer 😁

It does not mean I know how to shoot well, that requires months of practice. But I do hit the 30m away target, usually in the red / blue area. It is also not an expensive sport to get into, and a disassembled bow takes close to no space. I can at the beginning borrow the club’s bow. And then, if I still have time in a few months, I will shell out 300 - 350 pounds for my own bow with arrows.

This photo is obviously cherry-picked from the 8 sessions that I attended. But also it’s rare to have the target for yourself, which makes it easy to see where I hit :D

August 2024 Update

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Activated: 01/2024

Marvel's Guardians of the Galaxy (Q4 2021) ⭐️⭐⭐⭐☆

Beaten after: 7 months

Action
22h | 0 of 59 (0%)

⇱ Click to show summary⇲

The good 👍
- Very good voice acting and re-creation of characters from the comic
- Fluid and carefree combat
- Good story that is not "just a background for shooting"
- Really good soundtrack
- Lots of character banter

The bad 👎
- Random animation bugs in cutscenes where our comrades can talk into each other, and we don't see the character we interact with
- Lack of enemy variety
- The game can glitch out and scripts don't fire (combat encounters start/stop etc.). Nothing that can't be solved with checkpoint reload, but still breaks the rhythm

Conclusion:

If you enjoyed the comics and movies you will like this one for the characters and humor. If you don't play it for the characters, you will be disappointed with how basic (but flashy) the combat is. The story is good but not extraordinary. I have faith you won't be bored by it.

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Details

📘 Story ☐ Bare-bone ☐ Average ☑ Good

Starlord and his team are in trouble, space police detain them and gave a short time frame to pay a fine. So they take a risky job that goes bad. And now they need to deal with space police, and religious fanatics that want to subdue the galaxy. The team also falls apart a bit as self-focused Starlord doesn't know how to be a leader, and needs to deal with his childhood traumas. But in the end, thanks to Drax's charm and Mantis' awkwardness, the galaxy is saved. The fine to the space police is paid, unless we run out of money due to wasting too much. And the team is back together to run into some more trouble.

🔄 Gameplay loop ☐ Boring ☑ Average ☐ Good	It is a story-driven game with simple combat. At our space ship we chat with companions to learn more about them and listen to their banter. During missions, there is more banter and character background, and the story progresses between simple combat sequences.
🪄 Abilities ☐ Basics (walk, jump etc.) ☑ Magic / powers ☐ Advanced combat	There is a simple experience system where we unlock the abilities for us and our companions. Each character has 3 abilities, which are variations of their main skill. Groot can hold down enemies with roots. Rocket shots grenades. Gamorra has sword attacks. Drax can hit enemies hard to deal damage and stun. Starlord can hover above the battlefield and tell companions which ability to use. There is only one pool of skill points, so we need to decide who we are spending them on. I didn't manage to unlock all character skills. Character's skills have a shared cool down, so using one ability locks the rest for a couple of seconds. There are also weapon upgrades for Starlord, where he unlocks fire / cold / electricity and wind elements. They are used in both combat and to solve simple environmental puzzles.
🎮 Controls ☐ Clunky and stiff ☐ Adequate ☑ Fluid and enjoyable	The controls are hassle-free. There are moments when we can drop from an edge, but we simply respawn close by.
📇 Inventory and menus ☑ Basic ☐ Detailed ☐ Over complicated	Menus are really basic. There is no inventory per se, as we can't change equipment. There is one menu to change characters' skins (they are found in boxes when we explore the nooks and crannies of the environment), and another to increase our health or rate of fire by the workbench (with some junk components we also find in boxes).
🥊 Combat 🏹 ☐ Boring and generic ☑ Average ☐ Good ☐ Great	It is working, but nothing amazing. Shooting feels good. Companions' abilities are flashy. Enemies drop health pick-ups that we run around and collect. During combat, combo meter is filled, and when it's full we can gather up the team to give an awkward inspirational speech that boosts the team and resets the ability cooldown. If we fail to pick the right option for the speech only we get the boost. Enemies are basic and repetitive. And their AI is low.

💸 Microtransactions ☑ None ☐ Skins ☐ "Time-savers" ☐ Direct purchase ☐ Custom currency (gems etc.)	🏆 Achievements ☐ None ☐ Story progression ☑ Few collectibles / easy to get ☐ Grindy collectibles / hard to get ☐ Require multiple playthroughs	💾 Save system ☐ No saves ☐ No saves, progress carries over ☐ One checkpoint, too rare ☑ One checkpoint, frequent ☐ Manual saves
📊 Performance ☐ Can run on potato ☐ Medium requirements ☑ High requirements ☐ Too low for what is visible on the screen ☐ Optimization disaster	🌌 Graphic ☐ May look good 10 years ago, but not now ☐ Blurry textures / geometry problems ☐ Average ☑ Good ☐ Beautiful	🔊 Sound ☐ Nothing to remember ☑ Good voice acting ☐ Good weapons & effects ☑ Good OST ☑ Music flows well with the action
🦚 Customization options ☐ Resolution, volume only ☐ Basic graphic settings ☑ Advanced graphic settings ☐ Adjustable HUD ☐ Accessibility options	🧭 Map ☑ No map ☐ Basic ☐ Detailed ☐ Minimap ☐ Fast travel	Details: - All skins are in-game unlocks - Game is linear so no need for map

Those are some late updates, but I did not have time since the summer holiday to do it ☠

July 2024 Update

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Activated: 07/2024

The Falconeer (Q4 2020) ⭐️⭐☆☆☆

Beaten after: 1 month

Action
0.5h | 0 of 29 (0%)

⇱ Click to show summary⇲

The good 👍
- Nice visuals and music

The bad 👎
- Flying and combat are cumbersome
- Quests are really generic

Conclusion:

I know I did not play a lot, but it looks like a generic game with bare-bone flying, combat, and grind. Flying controls are not enjoyable, combat is generic "aim for circle to offset for enemy movement". It looks nice on trailers and it's impressive it was developed by only 1 person. Still, it doesn't mean people should play it or give it leeway when it comes to gameplay or quality. Fly for a long time to reach the spot, have 1-2 min fight, and go back to base is not a fun game loop.

Activated: 12/2023

Ghostrunner (Q4 2020) ⭐️⭐⭐⭐☆

Beaten after: 7 monts

Action
1h | 1 of 45 (2%)

⇱ Click to show summary⇲

The good 👍
- Music flows very well with parkour and combat
- Combat is smooth and enjoyable
- Upgrade mechanic where we need to "fit" abilities like Tetris blocks means we can't be OP, there is always a tradeoff as better abilities always take up more space

The bad 👎
- Checkpoints are too sparse, resuming the game can send us quite far back and force us to replay the same sequences

Conclusion:

I can see how it is a good game, and I could enjoy it a lot. But not with this checkpoint system. Beat a longer sequence and think it's a good time to end - nope, there is a need to replay the same sequence again 😐 Ugh. I don't have time for long sessions now and don't want to constantly repeat the same sequences because of devs' checkpoint placement.

Not much playing this month was away on holiday at home. Get my last wisdom tooth finally removed 1st week, and used 2nd week of annual leave to recover. Took 1.5h on the dentist’s chair, roots were underneath the 7th teeth and next to the nerve 😅 Still, nothing hurt me, even when local anesthesia wore off.

What are your experiences with dentists? Are you pain-sensitive, or are not bothered with drills and holes in your gums like I am?

June 2024 Update

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Activated: 12/2024

From Space (Q4 2022) ⭐️⭐⭐☆☆

Beaten after: 6 months

Co-op Action
13h | 24 of 41 (59%)

⇱ Click to show summary⇲

The good 👍
- Easy and brainless isometric shooter
- Net code doesn't give issues in co-op

The bad 👎
- Quite repetitive
- Barebone story
- Classes don't differ all that much

Conclusion:

It's playable but not great. Few generic quest types, generic story, and generic shooting. Aliens came to earth and we must kill them to prevent humanity's extermination. There are 3 classes (soldier, support, engineer) that don't differ much in the gameplay as the number of class abilities is limited and they have a long cool down. Enemies are generic and there is nothing interesting about the combat.

Activated: 05/2025

ENDLESS Legend (Q3 2014) ⭐️⭐⭐⭐☆

Beaten after: 1 month

4X
12h | 5 of 139 (4%)

⇱ Click to show summary⇲

The good 👍
- Each race has unique gamplay
- Good learning curve
- Interesting lore

The bad 👎
- Enemy turns take too long
- Quests we receive often don't have anything to do with our fraction. Build a trade route with x city in y turns? I play as a science fraction, why would I invest so many research points into expensive upgrades to build a road? I'm not a trader
- Combat is not great. I played all skirmishes on auto-option

Conclusion:

I see how it can be a huge time-sink. That's why I won't play it anymore. It is engaging. Finding out the optimal science path, building path, etc. But when beating one map takes 6h... it's too much. Especially that later on a lot of turns are just skipped as we wait for a new technology to finish, to get enough resources to build, or are waiting for something to get built. It is a good game when you're fine to play one thing for months. I don't have that much time or life left, too many good story-driven or puzzle games await 🤣

Activated: 04/2024

Supraland (Q2 2019) ⭐️⭐⭐☆☆

Beaten after: 2 months

Metroidvania Puzzle
13,6h | 51 of 98 (52%)

⇱ Click to show summary⇲

The good 👍
- The puzzles are good
- Upgrades are unlocked at a constant rate and don't require grind

The bad 👎
- Map is hard to read (and unlocked through the chest in a hard-to-find secret area...)
- Unless we find specific hidden upgrade enemies never stop to respawn. And combat is boring and repetitive
- The last boss fight is anticlimatic
- There is a lot of backtracking

Conclusion:

It is an interesting mix of Metroidvania and puzzle game. But map quality (when we manage to find it as an optional unlock) is poor. It doesn't mark any chests / coins / areas we saw (and lacked upgrades to reach). No discovered shortcuts are marked. It's possible to write with a crayon "on" the map, but then the crayon is red and it doesn't contrast well with the background. Puzzles are good, but backtracking to a specific one, after we get the necessary unlock, is a pain. And puzzles required for story progression have NPCs around, that will give hints if we like it or not (as a bubble above their head, that is normally used for some dialogue or banter).

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Details

📘 Story ☑ Bare-bone ☐ Average ☐ Good

Literally "nothing to see here". We are the son of the red king. Blue people stopped our water supply. We must reach Blue Village and restore water in the Red Village. There are some NPCs with generic messages about the world and a few cutscenes. And that would be all about the story.

🔄 Gameplay loop ☐ Boring ☑ Average ☐ Good	It is an open-world Metroidvania. At first, we go through levels "in order" solving puzzles of various complexity to get upgrades. Puzzles include pressure pads, energy balls, connecting electricity rods, moving platforms, momentum, teleport gun, colorful door access cards etc. So quite a big variety here. Then backtrack to already visited areas to find shortcuts and solve optional puzzles. It would not be that bad if not for constant fights as enemies respawn endlessly.
🪄 Abilities ☑ Basics (walk, jump etc.) ☐ Magic / powers ☐ Advanced combat	Some abilities are passive: faster movement (which is more of target movement speed, the walking speed we start with is so slow it would be unplayable), more health, armor, higher sword damage, coins magnet etc. We also have a few active abilities: summoning a cube that helps with reaching high spots or pressure pads, an energy gun that allows turning on switches, a magnetic buckle that allows us to levitate near metal objects, a teleport gun, and a line-gun. Active abilities are plot-related and passive are optional.
🎮 Controls ☐ Clunky and stiff ☐ Adequate ☑Fluid and enjoyable	Controls are fluid and precise. There are sometimes problems with cube placement, but it's to be expected in open open-world game where we can try to climb each rock. There are no issues with collision detection.
📇 Inventory and menus ☑ Basic ☐ Detailed ☐ Over complicated	Literally no menus. We can find hats around the world but not wear them. There are no items to be equipped.
🥊 Combat 🏹 ☑ Boring and generic ☐ Average ☐ Good ☐ Great	I don't think combat was a good addition to this game. Early on it makes us struggle as basic enemies are OP. Later we want to run away from enemies, as they die in 1-2 hits and feel like endless fodder present just to slow us down. Enemies will brainlessly charge us head-on, there is no strategy for them or us to use. There are 2 melee, 1 range, and 1 "mini-boss" type of enemy. And that would be a whole variety.

💸 Microtransactions ☑ None ☐ Skins ☐ "Time-savers" ☐ Direct purchase ☐ Custom currency (gems etc.)	🏆 Achievements ☐ None ☐ Story progression ☐ Few collectibles / easy to get ☑ Grindy collectibles / hard to get ☐ Require multiple playthroughs	💾 Save system ☐ No saves ☐ No saves, progress carries over ☐ One checkpoint, too rare ☑ One checkpoint, frequent ☐ Manual saves
📊 Performance ☐ Can run on potato ☑ Medium requirements ☐ High requirements ☐ Too low for what is visible on the screen ☐ Optimization disaster	🌌 Graphic ☐ May look good 10 years ago, but not now ☐ Blurry textures / geometry problems ☑ Average ☐ Good ☐ Beautiful	🔊 Sound ☑ Nothing to remember ☐ Good voice acting ☐ Good weapons & effects ☐ Good OST ☐ Music flows well with the action
🦚 Customization options ☑ Resolution, volume only ☐ Basic graphic settings ☐ Advanced graphic settings ☐ Adjustable HUD ☐ Accessibility options	🧭 Map ☑ No map ☑ Basic ☐ Detailed ☐ Minimap ☐ Fast travel	Details: - The game doesn't have high requirements but is also really basic in terms of graphic

May 2024 Update

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Activated: 12/2024

Horizon Zero Dawn Complete Edition (Q3 2020) ⭐️⭐⭐☆☆

Beaten after: 5 months

Action
68h | 69 of 79 (87%)

⇱ Click to show summary⇲

The good 👍
- Interesting back story and story building
- Not much filler in terms of watch towers, bandit camps etc.
- Good enemy design and attack patterns
- Really good voice acting

The bad 👎
- Bow combat is not great 😅 and heard from people they just meele everything
- The difficulty level in DLC is ridiculous, and enemies are simple "bullet-sponges"
- I could not play it with a controller, aiming was so bad without a strong auto-aim
- There is no freedom in the parkour, only very specific edges selected by the devs can be gripped. It *looks like* you should grab an edge, but Alloy just slides down
- Walking in scan mode is too slow
- The game is badly optimized, textures pop in and out, and even the map overview can fail to load
- Random crashes all the time. The only solution is to drop all graphic settings to medium, as the game is apparently not adjusted at all for PCs
- "My face is tired" Andromeda level of NPC animation
- It's not possible to buy crafting materials. We are required to find spots where rabbit, badger, duck, or fox spawns, and then repeatedly go in and out of this zone, praying to the RNG god to give us a feather. Not a piece of meat. I played the game for 80 hours, and still was not able to upgrade all my gear.

Conclusion:

In the end, it is another "Ubisoft formula" game. With a bit fewer bandit camps, combat that in theory focuses on the bow (ends with a lot of melee, as it's just easier to aim at enemies with it), and good story.

---

Details

📘 Story ☐ Bare-bone ☐ Average ☑ Good

At least the story is good. We are born in a tribe, living in the mountains among snowy peaks. Outcast, raised by an outcast. Only in the middle of the game it's explained why we are "unpure". The world is full of machines, which mimic animals in their function. We have bison, gazelles, wolves, giraffes, birds etc. Unfortunately, machines started acting up, and no longer can be easily hunted to get some spare parts. Our tribe is on the mental level of "gods shot lightning", and they have a lot of taboos. Including one about leaving the safety of the mountains. Although the elders do want to know why machines are going rampant. And Alloy, the person who is already an outcast, is a good candidate to "take a bullet for the tribe" and be allowed to venture forth. We will learn the origins of the machines, how the recent world came to be, and be left with (sadly) an unsurprising cliff changer that is preparation for 2nd game in the series.

🔄 Gameplay loop ☐ Boring ☑ Average ☐ Good	There is a lot of running between objectives, and objectives focus on going somewhere, killing some machines or bandits (optionally finding some junk), and giving a report to the quest-giver. Nothing extraordinary. A couple of bandit camps, climbing towers, and a lot of collectibles to find. There are a lot of campfires that act as fast travel points, so at least it doesn't take long to jump around.
🪄 Abilities ☑ Basics (walk, jump etc.) ☐ Magic / powers ☐ Advanced combat	There are no real powers. We can use gadgets like scanner or line harpoon that immobilize enemies for a short while. Otherwise, we can run, jump, and do basic parkour.
🎮 Controls ☐ Clunky and stiff ☑ Adequate ☐ Fluid and enjoyable	During parkour, there is usually one way to go, and it's enough to hold one button for Alloy to jump around. In combat bow aiming is bad. It works fine as long as we are hidden, but trying to hit the enemy weak spots, when they jump around and charge is impossible.
📇 Inventory and menus ☑ Basic ☐ Detailed ☐ Over complicated	It is clearly made for gamepads. But there is so much junk in the inventory all the time it's hard to navigate. The story collectibles menu is clunky and it doesn't "stay" where we were after we opened an item. E.g. we scroll down to open a voice diary, then we go back to listen to the next in sequence, and we end at the very top of the list. Why? There are a lot of notes and audio logs to read and listen to.
🥊 Combat 🏹 ☐ Boring and generic ☑ Average ☐ Good ☐ Great	We have up to 3 bows that can be equipped. The basic bow is pretty useless. Hunter bow has piercing / fire arrows that are used 90% of the time (except for when we run out of metal wire to make more piercing arrows). And 3rd bow that can shoot electric/corrosive arrows (I used it only for the achievements...). Electric/explosive traps. And line shooter that can immobilize or slow down agile machines. The usual fight looks like this: try to snipe the enemies on the fringe of the pack with piercing arrows. When they spot us switch to spamming line shooter and hitting with melee till they die. The only exception are the bosses aka Big Tirex or Storm Bird. They need to be immobilized and taken out from a distance. People are headshot with piercing arrows.
🤖 Game AI ☐ Brain dead ☑ Really basic ☐ Average ☐ Smart and responsive	Enemies have clear attack patterns, which are satisfying to learn. But it also means there is nothing unpredictable about fights. Enemies don't try to flank us. They always charge head-on. We can overwrite (aka hack) enemies to temporarily fight on our side. Then it looks like a brawl fight where they mirror their attacks until one falls. Human enemies are dumb. They will shoot without trying much to find a better cover. And melee enemies will try to charge us head-on. They are bullet-spongy, so better take them from a distance.

💸 Microtransactions ☑ None ☐ Skins ☐ "Time-savers" ☐ Direct purchase ☐ Custom currency (gems etc.)	🏆 Achievements ☐ None ☐ Story progression ☐ Few collectibles / easy to get ☑ Grindy collectibles / hard to get ☐ Require multiple playthroughs	💾 Save system ☐ No saves ☐ No saves, progress carries over ☐ One checkpoint, too rare ☐ One checkpoint, frequent ☑ Manual saves
📊 Performance ☐ Can run on potato ☐ Medium requirements ☑ High requirements ☐ Too low for what is visible on the screen ☐ Optimization disaster	🌌 Graphic ☐ May look good 10 years ago, but not now ☐ Blurry textures / geometry problems ☑ Average ☐ Good ☐ Beautiful	🔊 Sound ☐ Nothing to remember ☑ Good voice acting ☐ Good weapons & effects ☑ Good OST ☐ Music flows well with the action
🦚 Customization options ☐ Resolution, volume only ☐ Basic graphic settings ☑ Advanced graphic settings ☐ Adjustable HUD ☐ Accessibility options	🧭 Map ☐ No map ☐ Basic ☑ Detailed ☐ Minimap ☑ Fast travel	Details: I already mentioned performance issues and constant crashes. It is reported by people with both low and high-end CPUs and GPUs, so must be an issue with the port itself.

Late post, but was busy with life. I will sign for an archery course this month, so after a disappointing experience with this game, I may have some fun with an actual bow. I like simple recurve bows. Sadly no garden to practice on my own.

April 2024 Update

Next update (works only on profile page)

Activated: 06/2023

CODE VEIN (Q3 2019) ⭐️⭐⭐☆☆

Beaten after: 11 months

Souls-like jRPG
7h | 8 of 43 (19%)

⇱ Click to show summary⇲

The good 👍
- A lot of customization options during character creation

The bad 👎
- Extremely short window to parry attacks
- This game has just 4 years now, and levels are narrow uninteresting corridors or too big and empty open spaces
- Leveling up doesn't feel rewarding
- NPC companion keeps repeating the same few sentences all the time as a "banter"

Conclusion:

Combat-oriented game where combat doesn't feel good. The same couple of basic enemies over and over again, killed with button mash, that try to swarm us so we get stagger locked and die. There are better souls-like / combat games to be played.

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Details

💸 Microtransactions ☑ None ☐ Skins ☐ "Time-savers" ☐ Direct purchase ☐ Custom currency (gems etc.)	🏆 Achievements ☐ None ☐ Story progression ☐ Few collectibles / easy to get ☑ Grindy collectibles / hard to get ☐ Require multiple playthroughs	💾 Save system ☐ No saves ☐ No saves, progress carries over ☑ One checkpoint, too rare ☐ One checkpoint, frequent ☐ Manual saves
📊 Performance ☐ Can run on potato ☑ Medium requirements ☐ High requirements ☐ Too low for what is visible on screen ☐ Optimization disaster	🌌 Graphic ☐ May look good 10 years ago, but not now ☐ Blurry textures / geometry problems ☑ Average ☐ Good ☐ Beautiful	🔊 Sound ☐ Nothing to remember ☑ Good voice acting ☐ Good weapons & effects ☐ Good OST ☐ Music flows well with the action
🦚 Customization options ☐ Resolution, volume only ☑ Basic graphic settings ☐ Advanced graphic settings ☐ Adjustable HUD ☐ Accessibility options	🧭 Map ☐ No map ☑ Basic ☐ Detailed ☐ Minimap ☐ Fast travel	Details:

Activated: 03/2024

The Invincible (Q4 2023) ⭐️⭐⭐⭐☆

Beaten after: 1 month

Walking_sim
12h | 27 of 29 (93%)

⇱ Click to show summary⇲

The good 👍
- If you like Stanisław Lem books, this game feels like an interactive Lem's book
- Good sound and voice acting
- Devs did answer people's complaints and adjust the walking speed, so it's no longer sometimes painful crawl

The bad 👎
- Memory issues, had to repeat one short section multiple times in a few days, as the game was gobbling up to 11GB of RAM and then crashing immediately after loading
- Sometimes objects can't be interacted with, which forces reload of the latest save

Conclusion:

If you want to "play" Lem's book - it is a good game, as all the elements of Lem's style are there. Sci-fi, morality, not obvious back story. If you want a masterpiece walking simulator - this is not the game. It can be clunky, but it is clear it was not made by a big studio with a big budget.

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Details

📘 Story ☐ Bare-bone ☐ Average ☑ Good

Our crew lands on a desert planet, trying to gather research data before our enemies (different human corporation) arrive. After a few days, all our companions are not responding, and we (as astrobiologist Yasna) are sent to the surface to investigate. We find some of our colleagues in a state of lethargy, and evidence of other humans already present on the surface. We try to recover colleagues from the surface and investigate what other humans are doing. There are some moral choices, but they have a limited impact on the ending.

</table>

🔄 Gameplay loop ☐ Boring ☑ Average ☐ Good	It can be boring, as we can walk. And not much more. In some scripped locations we can jump or climb. But otherwise, we walk around, chat with our commander on the radio, and read journals left behind. Sometimes we interact with other characters or there is one (not hard) combat sequence.
📇 Inventory and menus ☑ Basic ☐ Detailed ☐ Over complicated	We don't have inventory, radar and scanner we can use are tied to specific buttons. The menu is in the form of a map. The kind you make yourself, marking terrain as you wander unknown areas. Everything is really basic but also easy to navigate.

💸 Microtransactions ☑ None ☐ Skins ☐ "Time-savers" ☐ Direct purchase ☐ Custom currency (gems etc.)	🏆 Achievements ☐ None ☐ Story progression ☑ Few collectibles / easy to get ☐ Grindy collectibles / hard to get ☐ Require multiple playthroughs	💾 Save system ☐ No saves ☐ No saves, progress carries over ☐ One checkpoint, too rare ☑ One checkpoint, frequent ☐ Manual saves
📊 Performance ☐ Can run on potato ☐ Medium requirements ☑ High requirements ☐ Too low for what is visible on screen ☐ Optimization disaster	🌌 Graphic ☐ May look good 10 years ago, but not now ☐ Blurry textures / geometry problems ☑ Average ☐ Good ☐ Beautiful	🔊 Sound ☐ Nothing to remember ☑ Good voice acting ☐ Good weapons & effects ☑ Good OST ☐ Music flows well with the action
🦚 Customization options ☐ Resolution, volume only ☑ Basic graphic settings ☐ Advanced graphic settings ☐ Adjustable HUD ☐ Accessibility options	🧭 Map ☐ No map ☑ Basic ☐ Detailed ☐ Minimap ☐ Fast travel	Details:

</div> </div>

March 2024 Update

Next update (works only on profile page)

Activated: 02/2024

Superliminal (Q4 2020) ⭐️⭐⭐⭐☆

Beaten after: 1 month

Puzzle
4,5h | 16 of 27 (59%)

⇱ Click to show summary⇲

The good 👍
- Interesting puzzle ideas that focus on perspective

The bad 👎
- Tutorial is not the best in explain mechanics
- it feels a bit like Stanley Parable in some designs, but Stanley did them better
- Only objects that are part of the puzzle are intractable, which means it's too easy to spot what needs to be done

Conclusion:

I am disappointed with this one. Promise looks great, but quite fast it's obvious only 3 things we can do in game is making objects bigger / smaller and multiply very limited number of objects. There is no real difficulty progression, puzzles don't really go harder or require doing something different. It is not groundbreaking or innovative game.

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Details

📘 Story ☐ Bare-bone ☑ Average ☐ Good

</center> Generic "you are stuck in a loop, you must break free". We wake up in a sleep research place, and it turns out we are so deep within our own sleep we can't really wake up.

🔄 Gameplay loop ☐ Boring ☑ Average ☐ Good	We start each loop in a research room, and then progress through a couple of rooms until we go back to the start of the loop. Later levels show more of the "inside" of the facility, just like it's in the case of Portal. But it is predictable and doesn't feel so "revealing" that we are in fact test subjects in a testing facility.
🪄 Abilities ☑ Basics (walk, jump etc.) ☐ Magic / powers ☐ Advanced combat	We can walk, jump, and interact with (limited...) number of objects. Why not design the game in a way that makes sure it won't break, even we use the sofa to prop ourselves up. Not just this one exit sign above the door that creators allowed? Getting closer to hold object makes it smaller, moving away from the object we hold makes it smaller. And clicking some objects multiplies them.

💸 Microtransactions ☑ None ☐ Skins ☐ "Time-savers" ☐ Direct purchase ☐ Custom currency (gems etc.)	🏆 Achievements ☐ None ☐ Story progression ☐ Few collectibles / easy to get ☑ Grindy collectibles / hard to get ☐ Require multiple playthroughs	💾 Save system ☐ No saves ☐ No saves, progress carries over ☐ One checkpoint, too rare ☑ One checkpoint, frequent ☐ Manual saves
📊 Performance ☐ Can run on potato ☑ Medium requirements ☐ High requirements ☐ Too low for what is visible on screen ☐ Optimization disaster	🌌 Graphic ☐ May look good 10 years ago, but not now ☐ Blurry textures / geometry problems ☑ Average ☐ Good ☐ Beautiful	🔊 Sound ☑ Nothing to remember ☐ Good voice acting ☐ Good weapons & effects ☐ Good OST ☐ Music flows well with the action
🦚 Customization options ☐ Resolution, volume only ☑ Basic graphic settings ☐ Advanced graphic settings ☐ Adjustable HUD ☐ Accessibility options	🧭 Map ☑ No map ☐ Basic ☐ Detailed ☐ Minimap ☐ Fast travel	Details:

Activated: 03/2024

Manifold Garden (Q4 2020) ⭐️⭐⭐⭐☆

Beaten after: 1 month

Puzzle
5,5h | 22 of 25 (88%)

⇱ Click to show summary⇲

The good 👍
- Mechanic is easy, but enjoyable when we get a grip of it

The bad 👎
- Puzzles where we need to play Tetris in 3D do suffer from "I don't have level overview to know what to do next"
- I felt nauseous after watching non-skippable end sequence. I do understand some people will not be able to play the game at all

Conclusion:

I do like it quite a lot more than Superliminal, even when puzzles are also quite easy. There is no real story, but the game at least doesn't try to put some paranormal or similar "story through graffiti on the wall" generic theme. Puzzles have good progression, though at the end it's too easy to know which cube to grab and where to run to complete the level.

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Details

📘 Story ☑ Bare-bone ☐ Average ☐ Good

I don't think the game has story, except for "black goo invades reality, do something about it". And it's fine. No need to put murals with human-resembling figures praying to cubes to try and make it look like there is a deep story underneath.

🔄 Gameplay loop ☐ Boring ☐ Average ☑ Good	There are 6 god cubes, one for each world. They are contaminated by void. Each level boils down to using normal cubes to redirect lasers, so that they focus on the god cube. It makes the void inside it expand, so we can walk into it and place void cube in void tree. And that cleanses god cube. Levels are constructed like fractals. They at first seems huge, until we realize it's a more manageable map repeated an infinite amount of times. Which means we can walk from "roof" of construction, to drop on the platform that was previously above us. It was a bit unsetting at first, as I have mild heights fear. But I get used to it, as we don't really fall anywhere. Or die, or get damage. The game is designed for us to constantly "fall" somewhere.
🪄 Abilities ☑ Basics (walk, jump etc.) ☐ Magic / powers ☐ Advanced combat	We can walk / run (and run is infinite). Control the gravity (feels a bit like we walk in gravity boots, so there is no real "up" in this game. Ground is where we currently stand on), and move cubes around. Placing normal cubes in activation receptacles controls doors / platforms / creates new cube tree (that spawns new cube(s) like apples). They can also control the direction in which water flows. We can control gravity by clicking on a "walls". Only limit is that wall must be adjacent to our plane. So we can't click on the ceiling to teleport to it. Each cube has a color that corresponds to a wall color. If we are on blue wall we can control blue cube, but the moment we change gravity direction, blue cube will get "stuck" where we left it. E.g. we move red cube along green wall, by switching between those two gravity colors / sides. Walls are not actually colored, and it's our crosshair that points towards wall that indicates the color. Water can be controlled with cubes to power up water mills or grow new cube trees. There are also (for me a bit annoying) levels where we need to control huge Tetris bricks to make bridges. They have "up" and "down" side indicated by coloring, and we need to change gravity direction to move them in specific direction.
🎮 Controls ☐ Clunky and stiff ☐ Adequate ☑ Fluid and enjoyable	They are thankfully good. Aiming where to land when we fall down is easy. No issues with object models that would be bigger than their textures, so we don't get stuck midair. Change of gravity direction is fluid, and later on we learn how to do it towards the wall when we are actively falling.

💸 Microtransactions ☑ None ☐ Skins ☐ "Time-savers" ☐ Direct purchase ☐ Custom currency (gems etc.)	🏆 Achievements ☐ None ☐ Story progression ☑ Few collectibles / easy to get ☐ Grindy collectibles / hard to get ☐ Require multiple playthroughs	💾 Save system ☐ No saves ☐ No saves, progress carries over ☐ One checkpoint, too rare ☑ One checkpoint, frequent ☐ Manual saves
📊 Performance ☐ Can run on potato ☑ Medium requirements ☐ High requirements ☐ Too low for what is visible on screen ☐ Optimization disaster	🌌 Graphic ☐ May look good 10 years ago, but not now ☐ Blurry textures / geometry problems ☐ Average ☑ Good ☐ Beautiful	🔊 Sound ☑ Nothing to remember ☐ Good voice acting ☐ Good weapons & effects ☐ Good OST ☐ Music flows well with the action
🦚 Customization options ☐ Resolution, volume only ☑ Basic graphic settings ☐ Advanced graphic settings ☐ Adjustable HUD ☐ Accessibility options	🧭 Map ☑ No map ☐ Basic ☐ Detailed ☐ Minimap ☐ Fast travel	Details:

Activated: 03/2024

House Flipper (Q2 2018) ⭐️⭐⭐☆☆

Beaten after: 1 month

Simulator
17,5h | 24 of 86 (28%)

⇱ Click to show summary⇲

The good 👍
- If you are stereotypical German, that comes from work to go work in game, this game is perfect

The bad 👎
- not possible to see color of furniture that is already placed, good luck matching furniture
- not possible to re-position things in bathroom
- no lawnmower to cut grass, and bug that allowed to cut grass for free is obviously patched immediately
- possible to put tiles through walls into adjacent room, which is just waste of material
- not possible to save collection of furniture that we like for easy access, everything need to by re-typed or re-searched through tabs each single time
- not possible to change external walls or build floors
- some ceiling walls are so low they block us from walking?

Conclusion:

I did think this game will be better for me. I do see how it can be a huge time sink and OCD soother. But also so many things are unnecessary cumbersome (or just put into DLC) that I could not bring myself to keep playing. And really, going after bug that allows to "cut" grass outside without paying for DLC, when you intentionally make garden look like shit with weeds, is a dick move. If they want to sell garden DLC, they could make grass grow in said DLC. Not make properties of people who don't want to pay extra look like ugly marsh..

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Details

📘 Story ☑ Bare-bone ☐ Average ☐ Good

Story is "buy house to renovate it and sell to the highest buyer".

🔄 Gameplay loop ☑ Boring ☐ Average ☐ Good	☑ Repetitive We buy house. Clean it from trash. Wipe dirt from ceiling, walls, floor and furniture (!!) with mop. Paint walls, put some furniture in, and sell the house to the highest bidder for profit. There are a couple of buyers, each with own preferences. Family with kids, grandpas, buy-to-let landlord, man cave dude etc. Walls are divided into roughly plank-size chunks, so painting / putting tiles / putting panels puts one strip of material from ceiling to floor.
🪄 Abilities ☑ Basics (walk, jump etc.) ☐ Magic / powers ☐ Advanced combat	We walk, jump. Painting / building internal walls / cleaning gives experience that is spent on speeding up doing said tasks. E.g. painting walls allows investing in faster painting / painting more than one "strip" of wall, or rising efficiency, so we use less paint. Do you want to re-paint walls with the same color? Good luck, no color picker in this game.
📇 Inventory and menus ☑ Basic ☐ Detailed ☐ Over complicated	☑ Hard to navigate I think this aspect of the game should be way better. There is "recently used" tab, but it holds only 5 or 6 recent objects and is not remembered between levels. There is no inventory quick slot bar, where we could put most often used objects (dreaded radiators that are added to each house and need to be searched each time). There is no tab that allows to add favorite items. No filter by available furniture color, so we may end with putting all furniture in Oak, just to realize the shelf we thought about does not allow this variant. There is a lot of clicking back and forth through categories. Is toaster electric appliance? Is it a small object? Is it kitchen accessory? Who knows.

💸 Microtransactions ☐ None ☐ Skins ☐ "Time-savers" ☑ Direct purchase ☐ Custom currency (gems etc.)	🏆 Achievements ☐ None ☐ Story progression ☐ Few collectibles / easy to get ☑ Grindy collectibles / hard to get ☐ Require multiple playthroughs	💾 Save system ☐ No saves ☐ No saves, progress carries over ☐ One checkpoint, too rare ☑ One checkpoint, frequent ☐ Manual saves
📊 Performance ☑ Can run on potato ☐ Medium requirements ☐ High requirements ☐ Too low for what is visible on screen ☐ Optimization disaster	🌌 Graphic ☐ May look good 10 years ago, but not now ☐ Blurry textures / geometry problems ☑ Average ☐ Good ☐ Beautiful	🔊 Sound ☑ Nothing to remember ☐ Good voice acting ☐ Good weapons & effects ☐ Good OST ☐ Music flows well with the action
🦚 Customization options ☐ Resolution, volume only ☑ Basic graphic settings ☐ Advanced graphic settings ☐ Adjustable HUD ☑ Accessibility options	🧭 Map ☐ No map ☐ Basic ☐ Detailed ☑ Minimap ☐ Fast travel	Details: