I don’t have a ton to say about this “game” (its just Half-Life 2 mod) but I will have a ton to say about its sequel. For this one, just know that it is a mostly expertly made little title with a lot of good ideas, plenty of great pulls from some cut ideas and a lot – and I mean a lot – of charm for a short game, taking only a few hours if you don’t get stuck on some of the more… interesting puzzles.
The main conceit in this game is you play as a member of civil protection in another City in the HL2 time frame. You attempt to root out a rebel uprising and survive a viral outbreak at the same time, fighting human rebels, vortigaunt insurrectionists, and other Xen fauna. It takes place mostly in “City” levels but there is a finale in a citadel-like structure. If you’ve played a Half-Life 2 game or mod before, you know what the gameplay and firefights are going to be like.
The great stuff in this is the “new” stuff – the prototype AR2 is a great gun and a lot of fun to use. It differs in recoil and ammo count from the one found in the base game and even has a crunchier sound effect for fire. And the way the vorts fight and eventually corrupt a Hunter as cool if not very simple. Still, there is a lot variety and some fun puzzles (but some that can go straight to hell) in this thing and is a nice primer for the second game in this series.
“Demon Turf” is an interesting platforming adventure game that has some charm, some annoying music, and offers quite a bit of internal replayability (that is to say, visiting worlds you’ve completed a second time offers up new challenges, new layouts, and new collectables to pick up) and if you’re a speedrunning fanatic, the movement system featured here has a wide array of possible exploits and ways to bend the rules and get better scores.
The story is really, really simple: the main character wants to overthrow the current leader of the demon realm but must first kick out a bunch of his top goons and claim their titular “turf” – this is done very simply by just getting enough specific items in each “zone” of the game by running through the levels featured within. If you’ve played a game like this, then you know what you’re in for with the level design, by the way. Each zone has a theme and each level follows that theme in interesting and sometimes confounding ways. There is a beach/ocean theme, there is an ice world, there is a major cityscape (my personal favorite just due to the open-ness of the areas to explore), volcanos and giant windstorms and ski slopes and blah blah blah. I might come across as dismissive here, but the themes are serviceable for this kind of game and the more cartoony and thus rather plain art for the game works well for everything you’ll see here.
The actual gameplay comes in two flavors: Basic level exploration for various sweet treats and the primary goal: Batteries… and then the Boss fights. Both are actually really good, with some levels being a blast to play and more than one boss fight being a genuine thrill that put a smile on my face more than once. The platforming itself is almost never slippery (aside from aforementioned ice levels) and everything feels fair and tight, when using all your abilities or just standard jumping. There is swimming that doesn’t feel unforgiving, there is gliding and flying and some lite-combat to be done, but mostly just just time your jumps and collect the cakes and get to the credits.
The boss fights, though, can range from incredibly well designed (I love the flying bird chase and the first battle with the giant pig) to kind of infuriating and lacking in good checkpoints (that hydra fight was some BS from time to time). You will get new items for traversal and be tested on your knowledge of the previous items (I like the wheel, myself) throughout and while I said that the checkpoints in that one fight can be finnicky… let me explain to you the best part of the game.
The primary innovation that this game brings to the table is the ability to set your own checkpoint in most levels (not counting bosses). You press and hold a button when you think you need to put one down (usually after a large and difficult platforming gauntlet) and then next time you die you will start over there. Or, if you missed some good stuff to collect, you can warp between and use the games wayfinding system to guide you back to that item you left behind. Its a great system and makes it so you can basically set your own difficulty. You can even buy more checkpoints to use in the game’s item shops (as well as change your appearance or get other abilities) and trust me you will likely want them for the last level of the base game (I did not play the DLC).
All in all, this is a fun and not-over-long platformer that works incredibly well on Deck and I recommend it to anyone wanting a fast and fun thinking game to play. It won’t stick with you, really, after a time, but I had a lot of fun playing it and would look forward to more from this developer and more from this series.
I’m really not going to say anything that hasn’t been said before (by me, a million times no less). Chrono Trigger is one of the greatest games I’ve ever played, one of the best SNES games released and easily one of the best RPG’s to come out of Square. It plays like a dream on the Deck and is full of such charm, such wit, and such great music.
Two of the things I love the most about this game are the way the story starts out so small and innocent, then gets crazy, but then gets even more crazy. Seriously, when you are approaching the final dungeon of the game, think back to how it all started and then be amazed at all the dots that had to connect to get you to that ending. Its a wild ride and I will take it again and again before my life is over.
The other thing I’m going to say is that the combat in this game has to be some of the most kinetic and fun RPG combat ever. Turn based or not, the variety of mechanics on display is real simple to learn but a hoot to master. And when the dungeons and battle sequences are this tight and well streamlined, you never get bored with exploring and fighting before you’re already finished up and on to the next area or combat scenario.
I can not endorse this game enough and if you want great retro gaming, you can almost assuredly do no better than this.
If you haven’t played Bioshock by this point, then I don’t know what I can tell you to convince you to give it a go. Its historic at this point. Spiritual successor to System Shock, containing a few scant memories of the immersive sim style of gameplay, and is filled with wonderful art design, compelling stories, and some solid combat (aside from a less-than-stellar final boss fight that has been discussed by everyone and their dogs by this point).
But as this was my second time playing through it (I played it on XBox 360 when it came out, back in the day), I want to briefly talk about the replayability of it in a world where the enemies, the twists, and the art deco style have simply been absorbed into the gaming culture at large. In that regard? I don’t think it holds up quite as well. The story is barely told to you but more AT you via the audio logs. The combat is fairly easy, even on some of the harder difficulties. And its actually rather short, even with a lot of exploration, given mostly to the game’s surprisingly linear trek through the world, something I’d not really remembered.
None of this is to say its bad, but just not as engaging as I remembered and definitely not as “big” a game as I remember, either. But, having said that, the Big Daddy fights are still a hoot, the atmosphere in some areas is equal parts creepy and immersive, and the twist – even if it apes System Shock 2’s to some degree – is still captivating and worthy of the praise it gets. Just wish that final boss fight wasn’t so easy and lame and that some enemies weren’t so bullet-sponge-y. Still, a good time to be sure, especially if you’ve never played it before.
The first game on my list was Archvale, a small indie game and – I believe – a first outing for the developer. One part SNES-Zelda, one part Dark Souls, and one part Binding of Isaac, Archvale is a bullet-hell hack-n-slash RPG with cute graphics, bright colors, and addictive gameplay.
Set in a fantasy world that has been closed off from all other realities, you play as a nameless and mysterious character who is the first person ever to stand up to the giant, dungeon-dwelling boss characters who guard the fragments of the arch, a gateway to a realm that has sealed a great evil. You travel the lands encountering enemies, towns full of aid, and secrets to find around every corner. Its a simple game, with simple combat and an easy to understand loop; you dodge incoming projectiles and toss your own, gaining enough gold and materials to buy and upgrade your equipment and getting stronger the whole time.
The array of combat options is delightfully robust but still small enough to be tight. I ended up playing as a mage because I found the elemental damage and firing rates of some of the wands and books to be better, but the melee weapons (everything fires projectiles, even swords and axes, mind you) still pack a punch. Though if you look around every corner you can find and complete a weapon so powerful that it trivializes the final bosses of the game, though you can’t get that until near the end.
The progression is blocked, really, only by skill to a certain point. There are a few roadblocks that require you to complete certain challenges and obtain certain items, but you can’t get to the credits without completing every dungeon anyhow, so “sequence breaking” isn’t really a worthwhile tactic. Plus, the dungeons are fun and the right level of difficult and the boss fights are MOSTLY well put together and paced. More than once though I found a boss that was a bit much and required quite a few attempts. And that’s where the Dark Souls mechanic comes in (as well as the mentioned BOI similarities).
When you die in this game, you transport back to the most recently “active” checkpoint (of which there are a large number and each one gives you a permanent but small stat boost) and you have to trek through the enemies you killed, again, to reach your point of death. You also lose some resources forever in this process, but you can save a bunch of money in towns at the banks, each one unlocked upping the cap for how much you can save. This comes in handy for keeping a steady upgrade to your weapons and armors as you go (the armors also change your appearance which, while unnecessary, is cute and adds an extra touch of character to the game). The bosses, meanwhile, are sometimes ripped from Isaac in obvious ways (the slime bosses are just Monstro clones, for example) and you deal with them like you would bosses at the end of floors in that game. Its addictive and fun and you never feel like you can’t win, ever. You just gotta “git gud”.
Overall, a solid, fairly short game. My 100% playthrough took me just about 11 and a half hours and that was only to get all the achievements, which aren’t really necessary, so probably a 8-9 hour game, really. Its cute, its fun, there were no bugs and no giant difficulty spikes that made progress a chore, and the music – which wasn’t anything particularly special – was inoffensive and helped move the game along. An enjoyable little indie and I hope, based on the ending, there is a sequel coming at some point because I’d play the heck out of it!
(Of note: this review is long because I’ve never played it before and I had stuff to say. Bioshock Remastered is next up and will likely be shorter because I’d beaten it once before and don’t need to really go in depth on a game that everyone and their grandma has played, by now.)
So I got a Steam Deck almost a year ago and, like anyone with a Steam account will tell you, you rack up a large backlog rapidly. Game after game, sale after sale. I went from having probably 40ish? 260, now. How am I going to tackle this?
Two things: #1, there are always new games coming out at any given moment and sales around every corner. Its a real problem. So with a backlog that is ever growing, I have a lot to get through. #2, this creates what I call “choice paralysis”, that is to say, when I look at the list of games I haven’t finished yet, I get lost in what to pick next. With over 200 games to pick from across various different genres, years, and companies, how do I keep myself from just playing the same type of thing over and over again?
THE ABC’s MOTHERFUCKER!
At any given time I am going to have 28 games installed on my machine (more on the extra two in a second), one representing each letter of the alphabet. This way, I know I have to pick a game from the letter of “A”, which instantly limits my choices to a subdivision, and makes it that the first game in the list is one of those games. Then the same with “B” and “C” all the way to “Z” (assuming I have a game for each letter, anyhow).
I am also including numbers and symbols in there, as I have a few games that start with those and don’t want them left out. And then the 28th game is some kind of sim or relaxation game to play when I need downtime. I will always have a game like that (currently Car Mechanic Simulator 2021) just to play inbetween games or when I need a break from one.
Through this practice I intend to make my way through, one game and one letter at a time. I’m already getting close to wrapping up my game for “D”, now, and will move on to “E”. This will keep me from getting stuck between titles and also encourage me to play more types of games.
I will try to do small write ups about each game as I finish them so as to have way to remember them. I will have four to do pretty quick, here…
(Also of note, I will not be replacing the completed games from the list with the next one, that way if I acquire anything interesting in the meantime, they have a fair shot at getting added to the list as time goes on.)
Anyhow, for now… here is the list for Round 1:
A- Archvale B- Bioshock Remasterd C- Chrono Trigger D- Demon Turn: Queen’s Edition E- Entropy: Zero F- Farcry 3: Blood Dragon G- Gish H- Hogwarts Legacy I- In Between J- Jasspunk: Director’s Cut K- Kingdom Rush L- A Little to the Left M- Milk Outside a Bag of Milk Outside a Bag of Milk… N- Nickelodeon All Star Brawl O- Othercide P- Portal 2 Q- Quake 2 R- Resident Evil 0 S- Sorry, We’re Open T- The Talos Principle U- Undertale (baby!) V- Velocibox W- Warharmmer 40K Inquisitor: Martyr X- XCOM: Enemy Unknown Y- Yes, Your Grace Z- Zamboni Simulator #- 50 Years
skylerbartels 