Zak McKracken and the Alien Mindbenders - 2/5

I walkthroughed the shit out of this game. I feel a little bad for doing so, but also not.

There's definitely seeds of a good game here. Luckily, LucasArts leaned over time and went on to make fantastic games post-1990.

Victor Vran

The game looks amazing plays very well and has no bugs (or at least I did not encounter any). It's a little different from other ARPG games because each weapon has 3 different skills that have only cooldown, mana was replaced overdrive that you gain while you fight and you can costumize your character much better because you have destiny cards and demon powers. Another thing that you can costumize is the difficulty by using Hexes that make the game much harder but at the same time much more rewarding.

Distraint

The game's fucking weird, man. I know it's a character study, but it presents itself by, for example, having you run for your life from a bloodied elephant in a hallway and tripping balls in a bathroom so that you can pass through doors that were previously boarded up. While the game has a nice atmosphere, I'm not sure how the character could become so insane that he'd start hallucinating all these weird kinds of shit. The game is more like an interactive story rather than a game, because you can't die, but I didn't mind too much. Overall, I think the game was okay, especially considering a single guy did everything, but I'm not sure if it's something I'd reminiscence years from now. I guess I would've liked it if they'd flesh out the character some more; now the breaking of his mind just happens, instantaneously.

I thought for the curse to be lifted for the person, they person had to be directly involved.

Yes, I adore Van Glower, he was very suave. And I really liked the Ludwig history too, and interesting taht they had the facts and twisted them so that it fits the lore they're trying to do. I'm sad the game didn't let you shoot Van Glower in the woods when you're supposed to shoot Van Zell, as like a secret ending.

A Boy and His Blob. I would say it's a nice game but not a must-play. It's nice-looking (Wayforward always makes very smooth-looking 2D games), and it corrects the two biggest issues I remember having with the original in that you have unlimited jelly beans and the blob will go get them where you tossed them, which saves you the trouble of mastering how to simply toss a jelly bean in its mouth.

As I recall, the original was more open-ended while this one breaks down into more distinct levels. I kind of wish it was more like the original in that aspect. The controls can be a bit fiddly and the collision detection also felt fuzzy to me, which usually isn't a problem as this is more of a puzzle game than twitchy game, but I found that during boss battles I would get irritated, especially since it's a "one hit and you're dead" game (granted, it's generous with checkpoints).

It's a very cute game and my wife said she wants a blob now. She loved the "hug" function. The blob is definitely cute even if he sometimes frustrated me by freaking out and way overshooting the beans on the ground. The kid is an annoying brat. The blob is clearly an intelligent creature but the boy is always barking orders in his high voice. "Blob!" "Here!" "COME HEEEERE!!!" After hearing him say that stuff over and over I wanted to slap the imperious little git.

There are challenge levels if you unlock them, which I didn't bother with after the first couple. There are some harder puzzles but it's mostly a pretty easy game.

I finished Deus Ex: Mankind Divided a few days ago. It's a spectacular game! Took me 48 hours to beat it without killing anyone or being detected by anyone. I loved the story, the characters, the amount of exploration and secrets and easter eggs, the sound, the music, and the graphics. Absolutely recommend!

One complaint though:

WARNING SPOILERS
WARNING SPOILERS
WARNING SPOILERS

I could not save Miller because earlier I chose to go save Alison as opposed to robing the bank. I'd understand this result, except I robbed the damned bank earlier that same day. I should have had the antidote already. This is really the only serious shortcoming I found. Either don't let me in the bank before I get the quest, or let me take the item when I'm there.

Finished a few games:
- King's Quest II: it seems I am not really a Sierra gamer but more a Lucasarts one :) not bad but not really good for me neither
- Yosumin: fun little casual game but it got a bit tiresome in the end
- Wolfenstein: New Order: great game with a lot of fun / action, an excellent FPS

Full list here.

Grim Legends: Forsaken Bride (HOG/Adv)

Right up there with Mists of Ravenwood this is a very enjoyable hidden object game.

Pretty good balance - only a few super easy puzzles, though none of these are truly brain busters. Object finds felt reasonably fair, other than 1-2 cases of deep pixel hunting, they did a pretty good job just changing expectations by changing colors, etc.

Voice acting was a mix, but the cat companion was a nice presence without being over-used.

Just my humble opinion, but the King's Quest games get better late in the series. 5 & 6 were really good compared to the early ones, imho.

I remember playing KQV in like 1995 or so. It really pissed me off that you could give someone a golden needle as opposed to a coin (or vice versa, I don't remember) and that would make the game completely unbeatable later on. No warning, nothing. Otherwise a capital game.

Eets Munchies

48/48 main levels completed
111/144 pies collected

I'm probably not technically "done" with this game, as really mastering it would be getting all the pies, plus all the "mystery levels" you unlock.

Haven't decided if I'm really going to do that or not. The game is charming, but I don't really feel compelled to exhaust it and sort out all the quirks in the logic.

Reminds me a lot of Human Resource Machine - both are games where you're essentially "coding" a series of commands in advance for the program to execute, except here it's with exploding bomb carts and onions rather than "add" and "if" text commands.

There are a few boards where player interaction after launching the sequence matters, but for most it's all about what you setup in advance. There was one board organized like a pinball machine - that was a nice change of pace, but for the most part this is a game with really one pace, which is figure out the setup, then sit back and watch it run - repeat if you failed or want to try for more pies.

The only one I played in the past was The Princeless Bride and I liked it. I wanted to go through the earlier ones but they are indeed weaker.
Fantasysci5: