Finally finished Slay the Spire, and yes, it is as good as all the nerds say it is. As you can see, it took me many hours to finally call it beaten, but during that time it such a strong hold on my waking thoughts - other parts of my life may have suffered a bit during, but don't tell them i said that

Not a huge CCG guy growing up, mostly for financial reasons, but cards are nearly fundamental to games (in general) and i always enjoyed playing them, collectible or otherwise. I did jump on Hearthstone when it came out, and spent a few years trying to keep up with that, until eventually burning myself off of it during lock-down. At some point during that Slay the Spire must've emerged, and cards in digital games have mostly exploded since then

Anyway, enough of (personal) history. For those who don't know, StS is a card game rogue-like, you start with a basic deck of ten or so cards, and can add a shiny new card to it after each victory against the various enemies of the Spire, on your way to the top. Other traditional rogue-like elements are here too; character-changing relics, treasure rooms with free goodies, shops with (hopefully) the things you're looking for, risk-reward elite enemies, and bosses ending each act

While there are common card mechanics across the board, each playable character has their own suit of cards, and embodies a broadly different win strategy - having within a few deck archetypes you can build towards (or mix and match). They're introduced in what feels like simplest-to-hardest to understand, but most importantly they all feel quite different to play (some more unique than others perhaps)

Took me a while to realise that i needed to resist the urge to add new shinies to my deck, as having a smaller more focused deck is often better than an overall more powerful deck, that's harder to find the things you need, when you need them (just a basic tip from me).
Good good stuff. Now i want to play every other card game in my library..

Doom: Eternal is pretty much exactly what the algorithm for generating a sequel to Doom 2016 would produce: same fundamental game structure, with more things built on top of it - more mechanics, more systems, more world(s), more story and lore.. more everything, for better or worse.

In the predecessor your basic mechanics were shooting to do damage, glory kills to restore health, and chainsaw kills for ammo. Eternal adds a flame belch for armor, and a frag & ice grenade for some crowd-control, with those and one pip of the chainsaw now on cool-downs (so technically you have unlimited resources, if enemies are around). Keep the double-jump from 2016, and add a double-dash, then add a high-damage blood-punch charged by glory-kills, as a nice removal tool

We're not done adding new things though. Give us some character upgrades in the form of Praetor suit tokens, while still keeping the Argent upgrades to health/armor/ammo, but add some more bonuses to that system as well. Keep all the weapons and their mods (with a few minor tweaks), but in addition to mission challenges for weapon upgrade points, give us some secret encounters that reward them as well. Add some hidden keys to hidden Slayer Gates that give a new super-weapon upon completing, and then add cheats, toys, music tracks, and lore pages all over every level because why not

As incentive to use all of these new systems, enemies have specific weaknesses to 1 or 2 weapon attacks. The difficulty felt cranked up slightly as well, with more demon types, and in greater numbers. Eternal really doesn't care about making you sweat though, giving extra lives to collect, and letting you use cheats without blocking progression. If you die enough in one spot, you can opt for a super-suit to get you through that bit - might've had to use this on the final boss…

There's lots more lore to read as well, with a few more characters floating about - the plot is still primarily a vehicle to get you level to level though (at least to me). What levels though! The world design is gorgeous. I know it's probably just flat images, but damn are they good images to stare at between bouts of carnage

Soundtrack is still ridiculously good, maybe even a touch better in some tracks. Overall Doom: Eternal is easily a great game; lots of fun had i while playing here, and lots of hours spent doing it. I can't help feeling a bit odd about it. It's simultaneously a natural expansion of the original, which feels kind of safe, and also quite experimental with all its new systems. In a good way though.. mostly

I read an article recently about the upcoming Doom: The Dark Ages, comparing it to Doom: Eternal - they said that where Eternal feels like piloting a fighter jet, Dark Ages should feel more like driving a tank. Following that analogy, as thrilling as high-speed flying may be, i'm not sure i'd make the best fighter pilot. I think i'm more of a tank guy, i've just decided… yes, let's go with that…

Oh god, i forgot to mention the Doom Fortress with its Sentinel Battery unlocks, and the Crucible sword weapon…

From a a singing bard to a dancing genie, it seems my month is developing a theme. Shantae is a fairly long-running franchise of metroidvania games, with Seven Sirens being the latest (and the only one i've personally played)

As a metroidvania, it's pretty good. The world is nice to explore, and each new ability is fun to play with, although only about half of them pass the test of "is-it-just-a-glorified-key?" - for extra credit, even the ones that fail will add a sort of mini-game to the unlocked "doorways", which is different at least. Enemies (and bosses) will test you in interesting ways, and controls are tight enough for you to respond. It's not as expansive as the better Castlevania's or Metroid's but it doesn't really have to be

Difficulty-wise, Seven Sirens has the odd quirk where things will get easier over time (at least if you aren't intentionally limiting yourself). The first boss was probably the hardest for me, as character upgrades are scarce at that point, but by the end of the game i was just tanking bosses while whipping them to death with my upgraded hair. I know people are divided on which way a difficulty curve should progress - i'm not even settled on an answer myself - but i found it a touch too obvious here

For aesthetic and narrative, it's (just) pretty good as well. Nicely animated style, and lots of weird characters along the journey. Story has a mild mystery to it, but nothing too wild. Soundtrack has some good bops in there. I guess it's overall well made, and nothing seems out of place.. i'm just kind of running out of things to say…

I want to make it clear though: Shantae and the Seven Sirens is a good game. I enjoyed my time with it, even it was very familiar ground. If this was my first metroidvania, i'd probably like it more

Wandersong is one of the most genuinely lovely games i've played in a long while. It's an honestly good game, in all meanings of the word

You play as a bard, and so not the hero of the story. This is made explicit at the beginning, and repeated throughout, and yet it never stops you from going out to save the world anyway. You eventually meet the actual hero, as your respective quests are directly linked, and in a fun twist, achievements are earned through her actions, not yours. This made things slightly frustrating as an achievement hunter, but is also a brilliant way to reinforce this core theme

All you can do is sing (at pretty much any time, even cut-scenes), and so that's your only option for completing quests. It's definitely being optimistic about the power of solving problems through song, but what sells it is how creatively the game gets you to engage with that simple mechanic. You end up pushing the "sing" command every time you get mildly stuck, letting you feel the same joyful surprise when it actually has a useful effect on the world around you

The visual style is very colourful, emulating paper-craft, and so gives the vibe of a children's story book. The game is easily suitable for young ones, but it also talks about its themes with a certain bravery and grace, rather than holding back or "dumbing things down". As an adult, this meant it felt like talking on the same level, but i'm sure i would've appreciated this tone as a kid. Music is of course lovely, matching the happy, enthusiastic aesthetic, but still manages to create different feelings to match different areas and story beats

Wandersong is great. It's a celebration of creativity, and the joy of existence, and centres that with the humane idea that everyone is special, simply for being themselves. Very happy this was picked for me

And so i finish my four-month sprint of the Infinity Engine games with the best one, Planescape: Torment. I did manage to finish it in December, but only after my monthly post, so i decided to roll it over to 2025

There's a few reasons why it's the best of the four, but the simplest one is the de-emphasis on combat, which was the least entertaining part of these games for my modern brain. Not only is there a lot less combat overall, but your main character is immortal, so combat deaths are just an inconvenience, rather than a game reload. He also gains the 'raise dead' ability pretty early, so companion deaths are similarly inconsequential

Replacing the missing combat is a much greater focus on writing and dialogue, which suits me nicely. The lore of the Planescape setting is so dense and strange, and the characters so rich and interesting, that i rarely got tired of reading about it all. Dialogue choices are expanded as well, with more options for persuasion, intimidation, or even sneaky logical deduction. Most conversation paths simply lead to more exploration of the world, characters, and the various themes floating around, however

For some plot setup: your character wakes up in a mortuary with no memory. Your initial goal is to find out where you are, who or what killed you, and why it didn’t stick. You find some notes tattooed on yourself as starting pointers, and following these eventually reveals your immortality and the numerous lives you've already lived – which obviously leads to a quest to resolve that mystery. Along the way, you'll meet an array of strange characters in stranger settings, attracting the strangest to be your companions

Like i said before, a lot of Planescape: Torment is reading, even if it's very good reading. I got the same feeling exploring the details of this uncanny world as i did reading fantasy novels in my younger years, and so every now and then, i wondered whether a medium like a book or movie would suit the story better. I would always quickly reject that idea, because so much of the story is centered around your narrative choices, and how you (the player) choose to present this character, when faced with the results of his past actions

Planescape: Torment is a lot more narrative and dialogue-focused than Baldur's Gate or Icewind Dale, which i think is a better fit for this genre – although it's easy to say that with writing this good. Be prepared for lots of reading, but also for some new existential thoughts and questions living in your head

VA-11 HALL-A (Valhalla) is a visual novel about a young lady working as a bartender in a dystopian futuristic city. Like most visual novels, a lot of the gameplay is reading; in this case talking to the interesting characters that visit the Valhalla bar, seeing how they (and you) develop over the course of a Christmas-New Year period (how fitting)

Since you're a bartender, there's a mini game about mixing drinks for the patrons you're chatting with. There's a recipe book, you can take as long as you want, and the only challenge is ingredient selection, but, drink choice is the primary way of changing narrative paths (rather than dialogue selection), so it's a good idea to do it well. I guess the right drink at the right time can change a lot

And since it's dystopian fiction, there's an extremely light side game about managing your monthly funds, juggling required bills like rent, electricity and porn, with secondary concerns like sweet posters and new video games. Doing well at your bartending job obviously directly impacts this side, but being able to buy the nice things for your apartment also helps with your mental state back at the bar

Overall, a good game to relax in bed with, a cup of tea nearby, and a good pillow at your back