1. Frog Detective 2: The Case of the Invisible Wizard (PC)(Adventure)
2. Revulsion (PC)(FPS)
3. Nonogram - Master's Legacy (PC)(Puzzle)
4. Sekiro (PC)(Action-Adventure)
5. Grim Dawn (PC)(Action RPG)
6. Grim Dawn: Ashes of Malmouth (PC)(Action RPG)
7. Grim Dawn: Forgotten Gods (PC)(Action RPG)
8. Viscera Cleanup Detail: Santa's Rampage (PC)(FPS)
9. Viscera Cleanup Detail: Shadow Warrior (PC)(FPS)
10. Shrine (PC)(FPS)
11. Record of Lodoss War - Deedlit in Wonder Labyrinth (PC)(Adventure)
12. Forgotten Realms: Demon Stone (PC)(Action)
13. Red Alliance (PC)(FPS)
14. The Forest (PC)(Horror)
15. Pixel Puzzles: Japan (PC)(Puzzle)
16. 12 is Better Than 6 (PC)(Top Down Shooter)
17. Torchlight II (PC)(RPG)
18. An Elder Scrolls Legend: Battlespire (PC)(RPG)
19. Port of Call (PC)(Walking Sim)
20. NeonCode (PC)(Walking Sim)
21. Carrion (PC)(Adventure)
22. Dr. Langeskov, The Tiger, and The Terribly Cursed Emerald: A Whirlwind Heist (PC)(Walking Sim)
23. Helltaker (PC)(Puzzle)
24. Warhammer 40,000: Inquisitor - Martyr (PC)(RPG)
25. Castlevania: Bloodlines (Switch)(Platformer)
26. Treachery in Beatdown City (Switch)(RPG)
27. Zeno Clash (PC)(Action)
28. Borderlands: Enhanced Edition (PC)(FPS/RPG)
29. Ion Fury (PC)(FPS)
30. Wolfenstein: The Old Blood (PC)(FPS)
31. Shrine II (PC)(FPS)
32. Lycanthorn I (PC)(Action Platformer)
33. Lycanthorn II (PC)(Action Platformer)
34. DLC Quest (PC)(Adventure)
35. Live Freemium or Die (PC)(Adventure)
36. Satellite Reign (PC)(Real-Time Tactics)
37. Heat Signature (PC)(Action)
38. HellSign (PC)(Action)
39. The Walking Dead: Season Two (PC)(Point-and-Click Adventure)
40. Umurangi Generation (PC)(Action)
41. Shadow of Loot Box (PC)(FPS)
42. Hellbreaker (PC)(FPS)
43. Kona (PC)(Adventure)
44. Eastshade (PC)(Adventure)
45. Warhammer 40,000: Mechanicus (Switch)(Strategy)
46. Terminator: Resistance - Annihilation Line (PC)(FPS)
47. Defense Grid: The Awakening (PC)(Strategy)
Terminator: Resistance - Annihilation Line
Annihilation Line is the final (currently) DLC campaign for Terminator: Resistance. It serves as its own standalone campaign, and while the story does fit into the larger Terminator: Resistance storyline, it can be played on its own if you so desire. The plot follows a rescue attempt by a group of soldiers under Kyle Reese to save humans imprisoned by the killer AI Skynet. Because the game takes place in what is generally the nastier sections of the Terminator universe, it makes for a tougher game, with hordes of wandering drones, squads or even platoons of T-800s wandering the various battlefields, and the fast ramping up of enemies and gear to fight those enemies as you move through the handful of levels. Also, people die. Sometimes in sudden and surprising ways, which makes for some incredible set pieces.
Annihilation Line stays true to what Terminator: Resistance was already doing, presenting a somewhat limited Fallout-esque world with some crafting, hacking, and lockpicking, but with the difficulty ramped up from the base game. It follows the typical expansion belief of "Oh, you need more of a challenge." But the actual core of the game is not changed. As a result, Annihilation Line is kinda just there if you really want more shooting lasers at robots, which...ok, yeah, we all need more shooting lasers at robots. Pew pew.
Defense Grid: The Awakening
Back around 2011 or so, Steam decided it would be a good idea to offer up free copies of a tower defense game that had come out around 2008, so I snagged this one for free. Apparently a similar strategy was done with the Xbox version in 2013, and there were some later tie-ins with the Portal series and additional campaigns, which led me to learn that developer Hidden Path Entertainment has been partnering with Valve for well over a decade at this point on various Counter-Strike titles. Cool.
Anyway, Defense Grid: The Awakening is a tower defense strategy game. You have fixed points where you can build various types of defensive towers to stop aliens who enter at point A, go to point B to steal power cores from your computer, and then either exit point A again or a separate point C. Basically, kill all the aliens. To complicate this, they come in different types, so your various weapon turrets may or may not be useful against them. Therefore, you must plan your strategy, build an understanding for how enemy pathing works, and try to create a series of deathtraps for your extraterrestrial foe. And you do all this under the watchful eye of a ridiculously old and depressed AI that really misses raspberries.
While the story is all well and good, the really interesting thing that Defense Grid provides are alternate level modes. While there is a story mission and then a more difficult version of the story mission, you can also try things like Out of Bullets, where you cannot build towers that would fire those kinds of projectiles, or Grinder, where you have 99 waves of increasingly larger hordes of basic enemies swarming en masse, or Story Reversed, where the entrance and exit points are flipped so the level is played backwards. This adds a lot of life to the game, and depending on how you do it, it is possible to rack up ridiculously high scores through certain advanced tactics...and scores are tracked for your friends on Steam, so you're gonna see just how much your buddies are kicking your butt on the scoreboard.
Admittedly tower defense games have come a long way and tried some interesting variations since 2008, and you're not directly involved in the battle, so if you're looking to join in the fighting like in Sanctum or Iron Brigade, this ain't it. But if you want the thrill of constructing defenses, timing your upgrades for the most opportune moment, and getting to understand the significance of weapon positioning and how best to inflict maximum casualties, Defense Grid: The Awakening isn't a bad game at all. It offers enough gameplay and challenge that if this kind of title appeals to you, it's worth checking out.
Games Beaten 2021
-
elricorico
- 32-bit
- Posts: 232
- Joined: Wed Sep 19, 2012 11:02 pm
Re: Games Beaten 2021
1. Cosmic Star Heroine (NS)
2. Boom Blox (Wii)
3. Grandia (NS)
4. New Super Mario Bros. (NDS)
5. Moss (PSVR)
6. Portal 2 (PS3)
7. Ys VIII: Lacrimosa of DANA (PS4)
8. Pokemon Snap (N64)
9. I am Setsuna (NS)
This morning I finished I am Setsuna on the Switch. Put around 25 hours in with some of the optional content done and more grinding than I probably needed to do. This game is said to be strongly inspired by Chrono Trigger and is marketed as a retro-styled RPG for those that have been playing since the 16-bit era. It should be right up my alley.
The Chrono Trigger inspiration shows in a number of ways - the overworld, visible enemies, the size of your party, combination techniques and a few of the plot devices could all align. However, the story is much smaller in scale, settings are consistently snowy mountains with just a couple of deviations for an icy cave or a technologically advanced yet ancient ruin. The characters are likeable, but don't reach to depth that Chrono Trigger's did.
I found myself wondering at times if I liked the game or if I felt obliged to like it. By the end I think I did like it, but perhaps I had set my expectations too high. I wished for a lot more in variety of setting and music, and found some of the design decisions just didn't sit well with me. The "flux" system never really made full sense to me even by the end of the game, but I didn't need to understand that to become fairly overpowered. There are no "inns" as one would expect in a retro-rpg, and I saw talk that the lack of inns was specifically due to the lore of the world(too dangerous for frequent travel, so inns wouldn't survive). However I would expect that a town finding travelers have arrived would think it is pretty special and make a safe space for them to rest; a small nitpick, but it lingered.
Battles are fairly good - you can almost always surprise the regular encounters giving a large advantage. The game seems designed to make you play an all-or-nothing type style, throwing big combo techniques to clear out whole battles in one shot much of the time. Still, it made grinding fairly enjoyable.
By the end I decided that I did like this game, but I would say it is a B-tier RPG at best. Worthwhile if you are the type of gamer that devours RPGs and you are looking for some deeper cuts, but with my currently limited gaming time I probably would have been able to pick something even better out of my backlog.
2. Boom Blox (Wii)
3. Grandia (NS)
4. New Super Mario Bros. (NDS)
5. Moss (PSVR)
6. Portal 2 (PS3)
7. Ys VIII: Lacrimosa of DANA (PS4)
8. Pokemon Snap (N64)
9. I am Setsuna (NS)
This morning I finished I am Setsuna on the Switch. Put around 25 hours in with some of the optional content done and more grinding than I probably needed to do. This game is said to be strongly inspired by Chrono Trigger and is marketed as a retro-styled RPG for those that have been playing since the 16-bit era. It should be right up my alley.
The Chrono Trigger inspiration shows in a number of ways - the overworld, visible enemies, the size of your party, combination techniques and a few of the plot devices could all align. However, the story is much smaller in scale, settings are consistently snowy mountains with just a couple of deviations for an icy cave or a technologically advanced yet ancient ruin. The characters are likeable, but don't reach to depth that Chrono Trigger's did.
I found myself wondering at times if I liked the game or if I felt obliged to like it. By the end I think I did like it, but perhaps I had set my expectations too high. I wished for a lot more in variety of setting and music, and found some of the design decisions just didn't sit well with me. The "flux" system never really made full sense to me even by the end of the game, but I didn't need to understand that to become fairly overpowered. There are no "inns" as one would expect in a retro-rpg, and I saw talk that the lack of inns was specifically due to the lore of the world(too dangerous for frequent travel, so inns wouldn't survive). However I would expect that a town finding travelers have arrived would think it is pretty special and make a safe space for them to rest; a small nitpick, but it lingered.
Battles are fairly good - you can almost always surprise the regular encounters giving a large advantage. The game seems designed to make you play an all-or-nothing type style, throwing big combo techniques to clear out whole battles in one shot much of the time. Still, it made grinding fairly enjoyable.
By the end I decided that I did like this game, but I would say it is a B-tier RPG at best. Worthwhile if you are the type of gamer that devours RPGs and you are looking for some deeper cuts, but with my currently limited gaming time I probably would have been able to pick something even better out of my backlog.
Re: Games Beaten 2021
Previous Years: 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020
First 50:
Second 50:
101. Odin Sphere Leifthrasir - PS4
102. Magic Carpet 2: The Netherworlds - PC
103. Shining the Holy Ark - Saturn
104. Iron Harvest: Operation Eagle - PC
105. Shining Force CD: Book 3 - Sega CD
In addition to improving the graphics and collecting the first two Game Gear games together, Shining Force CD also adds in a third post-game chapter. The story begins with Prince Nick about to be crowned as King of Cypress when an old lady and her cronies show up and kidnap Queen Anri. Cue six maps with the devs just kinda letting things hang out. Since they weren't constrained by the Game Gear they have a lot more triggers and higher enemy counts. You have access to almost every single character from the first two games, and can load their stats from your save files. You don't carry over equipment, and there seems to be a mechanism where characters get brought up to a minimum level.
The tone of the story is really weird. The enemies are Japan-themed, complete with new music, but overall the whole thing is very lighthearted, which is at odds with everything else in the game. It also relies a lot on hidden items for the minimal upgrades available, which is annoying. Many of theme are in locations you wouldn't ever check. Outside of the rings and the Running Pimento it's fine if you miss them, though.
The whole thing is pretty high powered, and you'll always get full experience for kills, so you'll end up with everyone at or near 20 by the end. It's not a bad diversion if you played through the two main games.
First 50:
Second 50:
101. Odin Sphere Leifthrasir - PS4
102. Magic Carpet 2: The Netherworlds - PC
103. Shining the Holy Ark - Saturn
104. Iron Harvest: Operation Eagle - PC
105. Shining Force CD: Book 3 - Sega CD
In addition to improving the graphics and collecting the first two Game Gear games together, Shining Force CD also adds in a third post-game chapter. The story begins with Prince Nick about to be crowned as King of Cypress when an old lady and her cronies show up and kidnap Queen Anri. Cue six maps with the devs just kinda letting things hang out. Since they weren't constrained by the Game Gear they have a lot more triggers and higher enemy counts. You have access to almost every single character from the first two games, and can load their stats from your save files. You don't carry over equipment, and there seems to be a mechanism where characters get brought up to a minimum level.
The tone of the story is really weird. The enemies are Japan-themed, complete with new music, but overall the whole thing is very lighthearted, which is at odds with everything else in the game. It also relies a lot on hidden items for the minimal upgrades available, which is annoying. Many of theme are in locations you wouldn't ever check. Outside of the rings and the Running Pimento it's fine if you miss them, though.
The whole thing is pretty high powered, and you'll always get full experience for kills, so you'll end up with everyone at or near 20 by the end. It's not a bad diversion if you played through the two main games.
Blizzard Entertainment Software Developer - All comments and views are my own and not representative of the company.
Re: Games Beaten 2021
Previous Years: 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020
First 50:
Second 50:
101. Odin Sphere Leifthrasir - PS4
102. Magic Carpet 2: The Netherworlds - PC
103. Shining the Holy Ark - Saturn
104. Iron Harvest: Operation Eagle - PC
105. Shining Force CD: Book 3 - Sega CD
106. Satellite Reign - PC
Satellite Reign is a game I backed on Kickstarter ages ago; the pedigree was that it had several Syndicate devs on board and was supposed to be a spiritual successor. Well, now that I actually got around to playing the old Syndicate games I figured it was time to play this one. The game definitely starts off with Syndicate's design document, but they are not hampered by it; it has a TON of modern sensibilities in it that overall makes it a richer experience, but not without room for improvement.
The story is that in the cyberpunk future a company called Dracogenics has found a new way to divide the rich from the poor by inventing brain downloading technology for functional immortality. You do need to put the mind into a human body, so the plebes can now be harvested for their bodies so the rich can keep going. You are hired by a mysterious benefactor to steal this technology; a group prior to yours had managed to steal the old version, which allows you to keep your agents going, but you need the real deal. And if you don't take the time to find all the terminals scattered through the game that's basically all the story you get. But the terminals contain various messages that expand on the world and go deeper into why you're doing what you're doing.
Now on to the gameplay front. Like Syndicate, the game is a real time tactics game where you control a team of four agents as they accomplish missions. However, instead of a series of isolated levels you have a large open world city available to you. The city is divided into four zones, with subsequent zones being unlocked once you take the steps to get the necessary permits to cross the checkpoints. Within these zones you will want to unlock all the respawn points, hack all the ATMs for passive cash, and then do the combat zones. Now, just walking the streets if your weapons are holstered you're like any other civilian. But there are various walled off zones controlled by various companies where you need to get inside, penetrate to a key building, and get out. Some of these zones have multiple key buildings, so there's a bit of risk/reward in terms of trying to do them all in one run or not.
Unlike Syndicate, here your agents all have specific roles. The soldier is your big guy, able to carry multiple weapons and draw fire from other agents. The support is just overall team buffs and healing. The hacker lets you hack devices and serves as the game's Persuadertron replacement by being able to hack people; you'll need to do so to get more clone bodies with buffs, as whenever you die your current body gets worse. Finally, the Infiltrator is the guy with the cloak. While you'll normally keep them all together for ease of use, sometimes you'll want to split them off to use their unique abilities.
However, this emphasis on unique units doesn't quite jive well with the real time combat. If this had been turn-based then you would have full control to fully utilize the strengths and mitigate the weaknesses of everyone. Since it is real time you now are in the realm of needing to micro like a Starcraft player to really feel like you aren't just wasting them as bad versions of the soldier. This is most apparent with the Infiltrator; he has a set of skills around long range sniping, but the interface is not conducive to having one guy away from everyone else providing overwatch. It was a valiant effort to try and give your agents some personality beyond "four guys with miniguns and one guy can also mind control people", but the execution leaves a little to be desired.
Still, the game is quite fun all in all, and manages to not be any longer than it should. The game starts to feel a bit repetitive by the end, as there really isn't much difference between zones, but there was just enough escalation in level design going on. Had they added any additional zones it would have been too much. This game is certainly worth a look if you're a fan of commando missions in RTS games or want a meatier Syndicate experience.
First 50:
Second 50:
101. Odin Sphere Leifthrasir - PS4
102. Magic Carpet 2: The Netherworlds - PC
103. Shining the Holy Ark - Saturn
104. Iron Harvest: Operation Eagle - PC
105. Shining Force CD: Book 3 - Sega CD
106. Satellite Reign - PC
Satellite Reign is a game I backed on Kickstarter ages ago; the pedigree was that it had several Syndicate devs on board and was supposed to be a spiritual successor. Well, now that I actually got around to playing the old Syndicate games I figured it was time to play this one. The game definitely starts off with Syndicate's design document, but they are not hampered by it; it has a TON of modern sensibilities in it that overall makes it a richer experience, but not without room for improvement.
The story is that in the cyberpunk future a company called Dracogenics has found a new way to divide the rich from the poor by inventing brain downloading technology for functional immortality. You do need to put the mind into a human body, so the plebes can now be harvested for their bodies so the rich can keep going. You are hired by a mysterious benefactor to steal this technology; a group prior to yours had managed to steal the old version, which allows you to keep your agents going, but you need the real deal. And if you don't take the time to find all the terminals scattered through the game that's basically all the story you get. But the terminals contain various messages that expand on the world and go deeper into why you're doing what you're doing.
Now on to the gameplay front. Like Syndicate, the game is a real time tactics game where you control a team of four agents as they accomplish missions. However, instead of a series of isolated levels you have a large open world city available to you. The city is divided into four zones, with subsequent zones being unlocked once you take the steps to get the necessary permits to cross the checkpoints. Within these zones you will want to unlock all the respawn points, hack all the ATMs for passive cash, and then do the combat zones. Now, just walking the streets if your weapons are holstered you're like any other civilian. But there are various walled off zones controlled by various companies where you need to get inside, penetrate to a key building, and get out. Some of these zones have multiple key buildings, so there's a bit of risk/reward in terms of trying to do them all in one run or not.
Unlike Syndicate, here your agents all have specific roles. The soldier is your big guy, able to carry multiple weapons and draw fire from other agents. The support is just overall team buffs and healing. The hacker lets you hack devices and serves as the game's Persuadertron replacement by being able to hack people; you'll need to do so to get more clone bodies with buffs, as whenever you die your current body gets worse. Finally, the Infiltrator is the guy with the cloak. While you'll normally keep them all together for ease of use, sometimes you'll want to split them off to use their unique abilities.
However, this emphasis on unique units doesn't quite jive well with the real time combat. If this had been turn-based then you would have full control to fully utilize the strengths and mitigate the weaknesses of everyone. Since it is real time you now are in the realm of needing to micro like a Starcraft player to really feel like you aren't just wasting them as bad versions of the soldier. This is most apparent with the Infiltrator; he has a set of skills around long range sniping, but the interface is not conducive to having one guy away from everyone else providing overwatch. It was a valiant effort to try and give your agents some personality beyond "four guys with miniguns and one guy can also mind control people", but the execution leaves a little to be desired.
Still, the game is quite fun all in all, and manages to not be any longer than it should. The game starts to feel a bit repetitive by the end, as there really isn't much difference between zones, but there was just enough escalation in level design going on. Had they added any additional zones it would have been too much. This game is certainly worth a look if you're a fan of commando missions in RTS games or want a meatier Syndicate experience.
Blizzard Entertainment Software Developer - All comments and views are my own and not representative of the company.
Re: Games Beaten 2021
Previous Years: 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020
First 50:
Second 50:
101. Odin Sphere Leifthrasir - PS4
102. Magic Carpet 2: The Netherworlds - PC
103. Shining the Holy Ark - Saturn
104. Iron Harvest: Operation Eagle - PC
105. Shining Force CD: Book 3 - Sega CD
106. Satellite Reign - PC
107. Ultima VII - PC
Ultima VII kicks off the final Ultima story "trilogy" (I use quotes because there's four games in it because of how Richard Garriott wanted to number things), and the first that actually had a fully planned out story. The first trilogy was just "yeah, these three games existed", the second was backed into in the subsequent games, but this one actually had planned out the saga of the Guardian coming to take over Britannia. It's also the point where EA bought out Origin and the whole series went off the rails.
Ultima VII begins with a weird red face materializing in your monitor and saying he's your new master, and then a red moongate brings you to Britannia. But this time there's no obvious reason why it came; instead you just show up in Trinsic and have to investigate a rather gruesome murder. In the process you discover a new "church" has spun up that seems to be taking in the populace and is also rather transparently cultish and probably evil. So you go investigate the murders, learn more about the cult, discover who brought you back to Britannia, and stop the big bad's plan.
The game builds on what Ultima VI did in terms of technology. You have the same "just barely tilted" overhead view, but now it takes up the whole screen instead of just a window. But don't worry; they zoomed in the view again so it's still claustrophobic like a Game Boy platformer and the environmental tiles are far too busy for easy parsing. Combat has been updated to be fully real time and is an absolute clusterfuck. Fortunately, it's also completely automated with the only decision making being casting a spell, and the only worthwhile spells in combat are healing. Also fortunately, all modern rereleases include the Forge of Virtue expansion you can do very early to pump up the Avatar's stats and get the best weapons in the game so you don't actually have to engage with the terrible combat. It also removes all real stat progression, turning the game into an adventure game.
The game is both quite short and really long. If you just follow the main plot breadcrubs you can knock it out in a few days. If you spend your time talking with everyone, digging into the dialog trees, and then doing their quests, it takes far longer. But doing those quests also doesn't really have any tangible benefits; you get some experience which lets you level, but leveling is a frustrating process and the Forge of Virtue makes it unnecessary for the Avatar (other than needing to be level 5 to cast the required spells to get past certain in-game barriers, and you start at level 3). And frankly, your party members are far more hinderance than help; the gear from Forge of Virtue makes you a one person wrecking crew, so you don't need their sword arms, and while they serve as pack mules they also whine for food you have to manually feed them.
In fact, the biggest selling point of Ultima VII is the thing that will determine whether you think it's amazing or a major disappointment. Ultima VII bills itself as being super heavy on the simulationist aspects. NPCs have schedules and will do things like open windows in the morning. You can forge weapons (and not just from a menu like an Elder Scrolls game), bake bread, and spin thread. As mentioned, you have to eat, and you can move around anything and do things like build a staircase out of boxes (which is required for one main quest item). If you're the type who wants to see a digital recreation of life then Ultima VII is one of the most full featured even today. And the reason it still holds that title is that everyone who isn't Richard Garriott realized that games, first and foremost, need to be games, and so they all cut out anything that was just to show off your ability to inject tedium for "recreation of real life". If I wanted to do laundry I'd actually do laundry and have some clean clothes when I'm done.
Overall I was quite disappointed with the game. It completely jettisons the moral system of the previous trilogy that made it interesting and instead gives a fairly generic series of fetch quests that ends with a couple of minor encounters with regular foes. And Ultima VIII and IX are both known for being hot garbage, so do you really want to get involved with the final trilogy? However, if you're the type who geeks out over the idea of being able to open a bag of flour, spread it out on a table, adding water to it, kneading some dough, and sticking it in the oven to get bread then this is a game you should check out, because it ticks all your boxes.
First 50:
Second 50:
101. Odin Sphere Leifthrasir - PS4
102. Magic Carpet 2: The Netherworlds - PC
103. Shining the Holy Ark - Saturn
104. Iron Harvest: Operation Eagle - PC
105. Shining Force CD: Book 3 - Sega CD
106. Satellite Reign - PC
107. Ultima VII - PC
Ultima VII kicks off the final Ultima story "trilogy" (I use quotes because there's four games in it because of how Richard Garriott wanted to number things), and the first that actually had a fully planned out story. The first trilogy was just "yeah, these three games existed", the second was backed into in the subsequent games, but this one actually had planned out the saga of the Guardian coming to take over Britannia. It's also the point where EA bought out Origin and the whole series went off the rails.
Ultima VII begins with a weird red face materializing in your monitor and saying he's your new master, and then a red moongate brings you to Britannia. But this time there's no obvious reason why it came; instead you just show up in Trinsic and have to investigate a rather gruesome murder. In the process you discover a new "church" has spun up that seems to be taking in the populace and is also rather transparently cultish and probably evil. So you go investigate the murders, learn more about the cult, discover who brought you back to Britannia, and stop the big bad's plan.
The game builds on what Ultima VI did in terms of technology. You have the same "just barely tilted" overhead view, but now it takes up the whole screen instead of just a window. But don't worry; they zoomed in the view again so it's still claustrophobic like a Game Boy platformer and the environmental tiles are far too busy for easy parsing. Combat has been updated to be fully real time and is an absolute clusterfuck. Fortunately, it's also completely automated with the only decision making being casting a spell, and the only worthwhile spells in combat are healing. Also fortunately, all modern rereleases include the Forge of Virtue expansion you can do very early to pump up the Avatar's stats and get the best weapons in the game so you don't actually have to engage with the terrible combat. It also removes all real stat progression, turning the game into an adventure game.
The game is both quite short and really long. If you just follow the main plot breadcrubs you can knock it out in a few days. If you spend your time talking with everyone, digging into the dialog trees, and then doing their quests, it takes far longer. But doing those quests also doesn't really have any tangible benefits; you get some experience which lets you level, but leveling is a frustrating process and the Forge of Virtue makes it unnecessary for the Avatar (other than needing to be level 5 to cast the required spells to get past certain in-game barriers, and you start at level 3). And frankly, your party members are far more hinderance than help; the gear from Forge of Virtue makes you a one person wrecking crew, so you don't need their sword arms, and while they serve as pack mules they also whine for food you have to manually feed them.
In fact, the biggest selling point of Ultima VII is the thing that will determine whether you think it's amazing or a major disappointment. Ultima VII bills itself as being super heavy on the simulationist aspects. NPCs have schedules and will do things like open windows in the morning. You can forge weapons (and not just from a menu like an Elder Scrolls game), bake bread, and spin thread. As mentioned, you have to eat, and you can move around anything and do things like build a staircase out of boxes (which is required for one main quest item). If you're the type who wants to see a digital recreation of life then Ultima VII is one of the most full featured even today. And the reason it still holds that title is that everyone who isn't Richard Garriott realized that games, first and foremost, need to be games, and so they all cut out anything that was just to show off your ability to inject tedium for "recreation of real life". If I wanted to do laundry I'd actually do laundry and have some clean clothes when I'm done.
Overall I was quite disappointed with the game. It completely jettisons the moral system of the previous trilogy that made it interesting and instead gives a fairly generic series of fetch quests that ends with a couple of minor encounters with regular foes. And Ultima VIII and IX are both known for being hot garbage, so do you really want to get involved with the final trilogy? However, if you're the type who geeks out over the idea of being able to open a bag of flour, spread it out on a table, adding water to it, kneading some dough, and sticking it in the oven to get bread then this is a game you should check out, because it ticks all your boxes.
Blizzard Entertainment Software Developer - All comments and views are my own and not representative of the company.
-
prfsnl_gmr
- Next-Gen
- Posts: 12301
- Joined: Mon Jun 01, 2009 10:26 pm
- Location: Charlotte, North Carolina
Re: Games Beaten 2021
First 60
61. Metroid Prime Hunters (NDS)
62. Metroid Prime Federation Force (3DS)
63. Panzer Dragoon: Remake (Switch)
64. Unsighted (Switch)
65. Death’s Door (Switch)
66. Olija (Switch)
67. Trash Quest (Switch)
68. #Breakforcist Battle (Switch)
69. Timothy and The Mysterious Forest (Switch)
70. Sweet Witches (Switch)
I’m sprinting to complete a bunch of games before the end of the year!
Olija is outstanding. It is an action-platformer with a dark atmosphere reminiscent of games like Castlevania and Demon’s Souls, and graphics and sound inspired by classic PC cinematic-platformers such as Another World, Flashback, and Karateka. Unlike all of those games, however, Olija’s gameplay is really forgiving and fun. In it, you play as Lord Farraday, a noblemen who takes to the sea seeking a source of food for his kingdom after its crops fail. He is shipwrecked along with his crew on a cursed archipelago inhabited by bloodthirsty natives and rotting demons. He obtains a cursed harpoon, hated by the island’s civilized inhabitants, which he can use to attack his enemies. He can also change locations with the harpoon, however, and by throwing the harpoon, Lord Farraday can quickly navigate a variety of platforming puzzles. The game controls wonderfully, and, again, it looks and sounds great. (Moreover, and despite its very dark atmosphere, a few scenes towards the end featuring Lady Olija, the archipelago’s princess and Lord Farraday’s love interest, are among the sexiest in any game. The game uses a fight to demonstrate a physical attraction between the two characters and a slight, but very perceptible animation and input lag toward the very end to demonstrate an emotional connection. Everything about the two scenes was family-friendly, but their impact really took me by surprise.) I really can’t recommend this game highly enough, and I hope some of you will give it a shot.
Trash Quest is a bite-sized metroidvania in which you play as a raccoon stowaway on a space station. It has some really challenging platforming, but it’s never frustrating. Moreover, you can complete it in less than two hours; so, the simple gameplay doesn’t overstay its welcome. I paid $1.99 for it, and I definitely got my money’s worth. Recommended (at that price point).
#Breakforcist Battle is a absolutely insane brick-breaker. In it, you exorcise demon’s from breakfast food by hitting a ball at them as they descend toward you. The game has bright, highly stylized graphics, and the soundtrack is fast-paced techno music about the importance of eating breakfast every day. It is clear someone had a very, very weird vision and…TOOK…IT…ALL…THE…WAY!!! The gameplay is as fast-paced and manic as the music, and, wonderfully, power ups stack. As a result, you’ll quickly find yourself hitting multiple giant pancake-shaped balls to exorcise demons from waffles and eggs while, simultaneously, shooting a bacon laser. The game is just a blast, and it’s really intended to be a four-player party game. Still, you can play the arcade mode by yourself. Like Tetris, that mode never ends, but I was able to make it through ten rounds and get very close to the highest score I found online after about an hour of dedicated play, which is enough for me to consider the game beaten.
Timothy and the Mysterious Forest looks a lot like Link’s Awakening, but don’t be fooled! While Link’s Awakening is a good action game, Timothy and the Mysterious Forest is a horrible adventure game. It consists, basically, of a series of fetch quests, punctuated by the cheapest deaths possible. (Answer a NPC’s nonsense question wrong, die. Graze an enemy, die. Step on a tile with, literally, one different pixel, die.) It’s like someone played Romancia and thought, “What if we changed the perspective and made the gameplay even frustrating and obtuse? We could even add in the worst, cheapest aspects of old Sierra adventure games!” If you don’t already own this game, don’t buy it. If, like me, the graphics lured you in to a blind purchase, either delete it or get through it as quickly as possible. Do not, like me, play the game to completion. (Great games reward exploration with more great game. Delving into Timothy and the Mysterious Forest, however, just results in a secret, hidden second half of the game, which is just more Timothy and the Mysterious Forest, which sucks.)
Sweet Witches plays like an old “maze”:arcade game, such as Burgertime, City Connection, or Mappy. You move around a single screen climbing ladders, avoiding enemies, and running over certain tiles to plant flowers. Once you’ve planted a flower in each of the special tiles, you advance to the next stage. The gameplay is pretty basic, which is fine. The graphics, however, are exceptional. The backgrounds, characters, and enemies are animated wonderfully. The game looks as good as, if not better than, something developed by WayForward. I am pretty terrible at old “maze” arcade games like this; so, I didn’t love Sweet Witches. If you like these types of games, though, I think Sweet Witches would be a great choice. (It allows co-operative play, and beating the game unlocks some additional playable characters that play a bit differently than the ones available at the beginning of the game.)
61. Metroid Prime Hunters (NDS)
62. Metroid Prime Federation Force (3DS)
63. Panzer Dragoon: Remake (Switch)
64. Unsighted (Switch)
65. Death’s Door (Switch)
66. Olija (Switch)
67. Trash Quest (Switch)
68. #Breakforcist Battle (Switch)
69. Timothy and The Mysterious Forest (Switch)
70. Sweet Witches (Switch)
I’m sprinting to complete a bunch of games before the end of the year!
Olija is outstanding. It is an action-platformer with a dark atmosphere reminiscent of games like Castlevania and Demon’s Souls, and graphics and sound inspired by classic PC cinematic-platformers such as Another World, Flashback, and Karateka. Unlike all of those games, however, Olija’s gameplay is really forgiving and fun. In it, you play as Lord Farraday, a noblemen who takes to the sea seeking a source of food for his kingdom after its crops fail. He is shipwrecked along with his crew on a cursed archipelago inhabited by bloodthirsty natives and rotting demons. He obtains a cursed harpoon, hated by the island’s civilized inhabitants, which he can use to attack his enemies. He can also change locations with the harpoon, however, and by throwing the harpoon, Lord Farraday can quickly navigate a variety of platforming puzzles. The game controls wonderfully, and, again, it looks and sounds great. (Moreover, and despite its very dark atmosphere, a few scenes towards the end featuring Lady Olija, the archipelago’s princess and Lord Farraday’s love interest, are among the sexiest in any game. The game uses a fight to demonstrate a physical attraction between the two characters and a slight, but very perceptible animation and input lag toward the very end to demonstrate an emotional connection. Everything about the two scenes was family-friendly, but their impact really took me by surprise.) I really can’t recommend this game highly enough, and I hope some of you will give it a shot.
Trash Quest is a bite-sized metroidvania in which you play as a raccoon stowaway on a space station. It has some really challenging platforming, but it’s never frustrating. Moreover, you can complete it in less than two hours; so, the simple gameplay doesn’t overstay its welcome. I paid $1.99 for it, and I definitely got my money’s worth. Recommended (at that price point).
#Breakforcist Battle is a absolutely insane brick-breaker. In it, you exorcise demon’s from breakfast food by hitting a ball at them as they descend toward you. The game has bright, highly stylized graphics, and the soundtrack is fast-paced techno music about the importance of eating breakfast every day. It is clear someone had a very, very weird vision and…TOOK…IT…ALL…THE…WAY!!! The gameplay is as fast-paced and manic as the music, and, wonderfully, power ups stack. As a result, you’ll quickly find yourself hitting multiple giant pancake-shaped balls to exorcise demons from waffles and eggs while, simultaneously, shooting a bacon laser. The game is just a blast, and it’s really intended to be a four-player party game. Still, you can play the arcade mode by yourself. Like Tetris, that mode never ends, but I was able to make it through ten rounds and get very close to the highest score I found online after about an hour of dedicated play, which is enough for me to consider the game beaten.
Timothy and the Mysterious Forest looks a lot like Link’s Awakening, but don’t be fooled! While Link’s Awakening is a good action game, Timothy and the Mysterious Forest is a horrible adventure game. It consists, basically, of a series of fetch quests, punctuated by the cheapest deaths possible. (Answer a NPC’s nonsense question wrong, die. Graze an enemy, die. Step on a tile with, literally, one different pixel, die.) It’s like someone played Romancia and thought, “What if we changed the perspective and made the gameplay even frustrating and obtuse? We could even add in the worst, cheapest aspects of old Sierra adventure games!” If you don’t already own this game, don’t buy it. If, like me, the graphics lured you in to a blind purchase, either delete it or get through it as quickly as possible. Do not, like me, play the game to completion. (Great games reward exploration with more great game. Delving into Timothy and the Mysterious Forest, however, just results in a secret, hidden second half of the game, which is just more Timothy and the Mysterious Forest, which sucks.)
Sweet Witches plays like an old “maze”:arcade game, such as Burgertime, City Connection, or Mappy. You move around a single screen climbing ladders, avoiding enemies, and running over certain tiles to plant flowers. Once you’ve planted a flower in each of the special tiles, you advance to the next stage. The gameplay is pretty basic, which is fine. The graphics, however, are exceptional. The backgrounds, characters, and enemies are animated wonderfully. The game looks as good as, if not better than, something developed by WayForward. I am pretty terrible at old “maze” arcade games like this; so, I didn’t love Sweet Witches. If you like these types of games, though, I think Sweet Witches would be a great choice. (It allows co-operative play, and beating the game unlocks some additional playable characters that play a bit differently than the ones available at the beginning of the game.)
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PartridgeSenpai
- Next-Gen
- Posts: 3062
- Joined: Mon Dec 14, 2015 9:27 am
- Location: Northern Japan
Re: Games Beaten 2021
Partridge Senpai's 2021 Beaten Games:
Previously: 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020
* indicates a repeat
Games 1~51
Games 52~100
101. Splatterhouse (PCE)
102. Shin Megami Tensei 2 (SFC)
103. Shin Megami Tensei if... (SFC)
104. Shin Megami Tensei: Devil Summoner (Saturn)
105. Alundra (PS1)
106. Lunar: Silver Star Story (Saturn)
107. Tales of Xillia (PS3)
108. Digimon Rumble Arena (PS1)
109. Blue Stinger (DC)
110. Clockwork Knight (Saturn)
111. Tales of Xillia 2 (PS3)
112. Nightmare Creatures (PS1)
113. Tales of Rebirth (PSP)
114. Shin Megami Tensei: Devil Children: Red Book (GBC)
115. Heart of the Woods (PC)
116. Analogue: A Hate Story (PC)
117. Ibunroku Persona (PS1)
118. Megami Tensei: Last Bible (GB)
119. Mechstermination Force (Switch)
120. Bloodstained: Curse of the Moon (Switch)
121. Shining Force (Genesis)
122. Shining Wisdom (Saturn)
123. Pokemon Green (GB)
124. Shining Force 2 (Genesis)
Verdict: Hesitantly Recommended. Though I'd heard a fair bit about Shining Force 2 (and I went into it knowing I probably also wouldn't like it very much), I not only have a hard time recommending it but also don't really think it's all that much better than the first game. The first game's map design and difficulty balancing also had its problems, but I overall prefer it a fair deal to this game, especially with the better localization. If you liked Shining Force 1, you'll almost certainly also like this, but Shining Force 2 will in no way sway anyone who wasn't sold on the first game.
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125. Trash Quest (Switch)
Verdict: Recommended. It's a quite short game, but it's a very well polished one and was a really fun way to spend an hour! If you're not so into tougher platformers, you very well might have a bit more trouble enjoying this one, but if that's your thing, then this is definitely a metroidvania worth seeking out.
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126. Funny Field (GB)
Verdict: Recommended. It's a little harder than I'd like it to be in some ways, but Funny Field is a really good little game. I'm not sure it's good enough to warrant an import for all but the staunchest of GameBoy fans, but if you don't mind emulation or can manage to find a copy cheap despite the shipping cost, this is a really fun way to spend a few hours.
Previously: 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020
* indicates a repeat
Games 1~51
Games 52~100
101. Splatterhouse (PCE)
102. Shin Megami Tensei 2 (SFC)
103. Shin Megami Tensei if... (SFC)
104. Shin Megami Tensei: Devil Summoner (Saturn)
105. Alundra (PS1)
106. Lunar: Silver Star Story (Saturn)
107. Tales of Xillia (PS3)
108. Digimon Rumble Arena (PS1)
109. Blue Stinger (DC)
110. Clockwork Knight (Saturn)
111. Tales of Xillia 2 (PS3)
112. Nightmare Creatures (PS1)
113. Tales of Rebirth (PSP)
114. Shin Megami Tensei: Devil Children: Red Book (GBC)
115. Heart of the Woods (PC)
116. Analogue: A Hate Story (PC)
117. Ibunroku Persona (PS1)
118. Megami Tensei: Last Bible (GB)
119. Mechstermination Force (Switch)
120. Bloodstained: Curse of the Moon (Switch)
121. Shining Force (Genesis)
122. Shining Wisdom (Saturn)
123. Pokemon Green (GB)
124. Shining Force 2 (Genesis)
Verdict: Hesitantly Recommended. Though I'd heard a fair bit about Shining Force 2 (and I went into it knowing I probably also wouldn't like it very much), I not only have a hard time recommending it but also don't really think it's all that much better than the first game. The first game's map design and difficulty balancing also had its problems, but I overall prefer it a fair deal to this game, especially with the better localization. If you liked Shining Force 1, you'll almost certainly also like this, but Shining Force 2 will in no way sway anyone who wasn't sold on the first game.
----
125. Trash Quest (Switch)
Verdict: Recommended. It's a quite short game, but it's a very well polished one and was a really fun way to spend an hour! If you're not so into tougher platformers, you very well might have a bit more trouble enjoying this one, but if that's your thing, then this is definitely a metroidvania worth seeking out.
----
126. Funny Field (GB)
Verdict: Recommended. It's a little harder than I'd like it to be in some ways, but Funny Field is a really good little game. I'm not sure it's good enough to warrant an import for all but the staunchest of GameBoy fans, but if you don't mind emulation or can manage to find a copy cheap despite the shipping cost, this is a really fun way to spend a few hours.
I identify everyone via avatar, so if you change your avatar, I genuinely might completely forget who you are. -- Me
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prfsnl_gmr
- Next-Gen
- Posts: 12301
- Joined: Mon Jun 01, 2009 10:26 pm
- Location: Charlotte, North Carolina
Re: Games Beaten 2021
Glad you liked Trash Quest! Apparently, there’s some DLC that extends the game’s length a bit, but it’s currently exclusive to the PC version. Hopefully, we’ll get a Switch update at some point.
…..
First 70
71. Semblance (Switch)
Semblance is a puzzle platformer in which you play as a little purple blob with the ability to manipulate the world around it. Specifically, you can bend, shape, and move platforms and walls by dashing toward them, and manipulating your environment is critical to navigating the game’s various puzzles and traps. The game has clean, colorful graphics, and the puzzles are well-designed. Each level introduces a new mechanic, and at about 3 hours in length, it is just long enough to feel substantial without wearing out it’s welcome. Recommended at its usual sale price of $1.99.
…..
First 70
71. Semblance (Switch)
Semblance is a puzzle platformer in which you play as a little purple blob with the ability to manipulate the world around it. Specifically, you can bend, shape, and move platforms and walls by dashing toward them, and manipulating your environment is critical to navigating the game’s various puzzles and traps. The game has clean, colorful graphics, and the puzzles are well-designed. Each level introduces a new mechanic, and at about 3 hours in length, it is just long enough to feel substantial without wearing out it’s welcome. Recommended at its usual sale price of $1.99.
Re: Games Beaten 2021
Previous Years: 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020
First 50:
Second 50:
101. Odin Sphere Leifthrasir - PS4
102. Magic Carpet 2: The Netherworlds - PC
103. Shining the Holy Ark - Saturn
104. Iron Harvest: Operation Eagle - PC
105. Shining Force CD: Book 3 - Sega CD
106. Satellite Reign - PC
107. Ultima VII - PC
108. Ultima Underworld II - PC
Ultima Underworld II serves as both a gameplay follow up to the first game and a story sequel to Ultima VII. It doesn't do anything fundamentally different from the first Ultima Underworld, but it does more interesting things with the maps and has a proper story tied with the wider Ultima universe. Which is a consequence of being decided to be part of Ultima prior to development, rather than midway through.
After the events of Ultima VII the Avatar spends a year helping to rebuild Britannia. On the eve of the anniversary Lord British holds a feast to celebrate. Then magic happens and the castle is encased in an impenetrable dome of magic-dampening blackrock. Clearly the Guardian is making another attempt at Britannia, and you must find a way to break the barrier.
While the original game was a trek through eight levels of a single dungeon, Ultima Underworld II has you jump through a portal to multiple worlds. As a result, while you end up having about the same about of game space, there is now a lot more freedom to make it more interesting. One world is a prison tower, another is an ice over cave system. This ends up being a bit of a mixed bag, though. The game gets a bit too deep into obtuse puzzles and platforming (and the engine is NOT designed for platforming). So the map updates end up being a one step forward, one step backward situation.
One of the biggest strengths of the game is it gives a much bigger look at the Guardian and what he's done to the myriad worlds out there. Definitely an interesting follow up to the groundwork laid in Utlima VII.
First 50:
Second 50:
101. Odin Sphere Leifthrasir - PS4
102. Magic Carpet 2: The Netherworlds - PC
103. Shining the Holy Ark - Saturn
104. Iron Harvest: Operation Eagle - PC
105. Shining Force CD: Book 3 - Sega CD
106. Satellite Reign - PC
107. Ultima VII - PC
108. Ultima Underworld II - PC
Ultima Underworld II serves as both a gameplay follow up to the first game and a story sequel to Ultima VII. It doesn't do anything fundamentally different from the first Ultima Underworld, but it does more interesting things with the maps and has a proper story tied with the wider Ultima universe. Which is a consequence of being decided to be part of Ultima prior to development, rather than midway through.
After the events of Ultima VII the Avatar spends a year helping to rebuild Britannia. On the eve of the anniversary Lord British holds a feast to celebrate. Then magic happens and the castle is encased in an impenetrable dome of magic-dampening blackrock. Clearly the Guardian is making another attempt at Britannia, and you must find a way to break the barrier.
While the original game was a trek through eight levels of a single dungeon, Ultima Underworld II has you jump through a portal to multiple worlds. As a result, while you end up having about the same about of game space, there is now a lot more freedom to make it more interesting. One world is a prison tower, another is an ice over cave system. This ends up being a bit of a mixed bag, though. The game gets a bit too deep into obtuse puzzles and platforming (and the engine is NOT designed for platforming). So the map updates end up being a one step forward, one step backward situation.
One of the biggest strengths of the game is it gives a much bigger look at the Guardian and what he's done to the myriad worlds out there. Definitely an interesting follow up to the groundwork laid in Utlima VII.
Blizzard Entertainment Software Developer - All comments and views are my own and not representative of the company.
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prfsnl_gmr
- Next-Gen
- Posts: 12301
- Joined: Mon Jun 01, 2009 10:26 pm
- Location: Charlotte, North Carolina
Re: Games Beaten 2021
First 70
71. Semblance (Switch)
72. Dreamo (Switch)
Dreamo is, basically, a series of inspired “gears on a cube” puzzles wrapped up in a ho-hum walking simulator. The puzzles are cubes with a moving gear on one side and a “goal” gear on another. The cube has pegs onto which you can slot other gears, and the goal is to transfer movement from the moving gear to the “goal” gear. The puzzles become increasingly complex, and they are genuinely challenging without being frustrating. (The exception is the last puzzle, which is a beast.) I actually really like the puzzles in Dreamo, even if they were a bit repetitive.
The walking simulator portion is much weaker., unfortunately. While it feature solid graphics, clearly inspired by The Witness, the story is weak, the script clearly was not translated by a native English speaker, and the voice acting is wooden. Thankfully, there is a “challenge” mode if you just want to play the game’s puzzles, and you can always keep moving to skip the game’s stilted dialogue (which is what I did after about 30 minutes of play). You can beat the game in about 2 1/2 hours, depending on how long it takes you to get through the puzzles; so, the game never wears out its welcome. Hesitantly recommended if you can get it on sale.
71. Semblance (Switch)
72. Dreamo (Switch)
Dreamo is, basically, a series of inspired “gears on a cube” puzzles wrapped up in a ho-hum walking simulator. The puzzles are cubes with a moving gear on one side and a “goal” gear on another. The cube has pegs onto which you can slot other gears, and the goal is to transfer movement from the moving gear to the “goal” gear. The puzzles become increasingly complex, and they are genuinely challenging without being frustrating. (The exception is the last puzzle, which is a beast.) I actually really like the puzzles in Dreamo, even if they were a bit repetitive.
The walking simulator portion is much weaker., unfortunately. While it feature solid graphics, clearly inspired by The Witness, the story is weak, the script clearly was not translated by a native English speaker, and the voice acting is wooden. Thankfully, there is a “challenge” mode if you just want to play the game’s puzzles, and you can always keep moving to skip the game’s stilted dialogue (which is what I did after about 30 minutes of play). You can beat the game in about 2 1/2 hours, depending on how long it takes you to get through the puzzles; so, the game never wears out its welcome. Hesitantly recommended if you can get it on sale.