I finished a playthrough of The Shattering yesterday - it doesn't take more than a few hours in total and to the developers credit, those few hours were completely void of any bugs and the game itself ran fine on my rig besides some odd stuttering. Gameplay-wise, The Shattering is a walking sim with some light puzzle mechanics and the occasional escape sequence where you play as John, a man who is aided by a therapist in experiencing traumatizing memories. In short: The Shattering is a story about mental illness and the devs manages to check just about every cliché imaginable (SPOILERS INCOMING). An entire chapter is dedicated to Johns shitty childhood with depictions of bullying and abuse from both peers and adults but it's completely void of emotional impact. Partly because of the total absense of subtlety and partly because of how predictable it all is. Oh, so the guy who got tormented for no apparent reason, hallucinates and has a substance abuse ALSO turns out to have an imaginery wife? How poignant. By the end of the game I felt nothing but indiffenrence to Johns sob story. Yeah, his life sucks, we get it. If you want a game that makes you reach for a handkerchief, there are plenty of better ones to choose from on GOG.
I recently finished Figment 2 on my Xbox and I was positively surprised. The first game was good but but not without flaws and the sequel is essentially an improvement in all relevant areas. Fighting enemies is still a rather simple affair and the game very rarely gets challenging but it's still an entertaining journey. The game is all about overcoming mental challenges, usually nightmares, that manifest themselves as comical figures (usually monster-like). The visual style is cute and well made but the highlight of the show is the soundtrack that sets the tone very well. Sadly, GOG lacks the soundtrack and that is a major dissapointment - this is otherwise a very accomplished release that I fully recommend. The story lacks the serious emotional side that the first game had (towards the end) but besides this minor flaw, it's a solid gem!
So I just finished Planet of Lana (PoL) and I must say it was one heck of a ride. I did play the game on Xbox and I can definitely recommend playing the game with a controller but I'm sure it works fine with mouse and keyboard as well. You play as the eponymous Lana, a girl living in a small but vibrant fishing village surrounded by open water and lush green forest. Lanas peaceful life gets brutally interrupted when the entire planet is being invaded by hostile robots who starts abducting people and Lana has to make a desperate attempt at freeing her older sister from the clutches of the invading machines. On her journey, Lana teams up with a small yet intelligent cat-like creature called Mui. Mui can jump incredible heights and Lane can command it to cut ropes with its teeth and operate some simple machinery and together Lana and Mui solves overcome obstacles by solving puzzles (mostly physics based) and handle some rather simple platforming sections. The gameplay isn't exactly challenging (besides a puzzle or two which might take a minute or so to figure out) and the entire game is over in less than 4 hours (depending on player skills of course). I'm thoroughly grateful for the fact that PoL doesn't attempt to extend the playtime beyond that - I much prefer wanting more over being fed up with a game and PoLs strenght lies in audovisual presentation rather in compelling game mechanics. PoL is drop dead gorgeous and the soundtrack is amazing. The characters are smoothly animated and the surroundings are simply beautiful to gaze upon. It saddens me that GOG doesn't offer the soundtrack in a deluxe edition of PoL since it truly is a gem of its own but alas, all we have here is the game and what an easy recommendation that game is.
So, I just finished TPE (which I played on Nintendo Switch) and honestly, I very seldomly enjoyed the experience. TPE is an isometric puzzle adventure game where your protagonist, humming office guy we may call him, clocks out of his boring office job to head home and then... things happen. TPE is basically about office guy navigating through an increasingly absurd dystopian future while looking for his family. This means dark and mostly grey surroundings which office guy traverses while trying to figure out different puzzles. I'll put it bluntly: the puzzles are illogical garbage for the most part and I started accessing video guides after a while. For example: game wants you to break a window. It doesn't really give any clue about this: office guy can try interacting with window but without the proper tool he will simply shake his head and grunt (this is all he does if something is missing). So you look for maybe a rock or a brick. But you can't pick it up, not until you turned a light on or something. Sounds simple enough but the game gives you no clues whatsoever what it wants you to do and a lot of the times, you can't deduce from rational thinking what it wants you to do, especially when the game demand that you touch things in a specific order. All you get is head shake and grunt, ad naseum. TPE does have some better sections, especially towards the end of the game but then instead of bad puzzles, the game throws bad platforming sections your way. Completing the game was frustrating to say the least and despite the meager price tag, I honestly can't recommend this game, even at a steep discount. If the devs ditched gameplay challenges altogether and turned TPE into a walking sim with more focus on the absurd atmosphere, it might've been a decent experience but currently it ought to be renamed The Pissing Off Effect.
So I just finished Carrion (which I played on my Switch Lite but do own on GOG as well) and oh man, it was too long ago that a game felt like this much fun! In Carrion, you play as a freakish meat-blob that is caused by some freakish experiment in an underground lab and well, your mission is to A: grow in size and B: escape. To grow in size, you need to consume the humans of the lab and these come in two flavours: civilians and soldiers. Unsurprisingly, eating the people with firearms is a lot more challenging and as the game progresses, you also face off other obstacles such as gun turrets, armed mechas and flying drones that will do their best to end your journey using bullets, fire or explosives. On your way you will develop new abilities such as turning your blob invisible for short periods and growing in size does also give you new abilities (while removing others). The one ability that makes all the difference is when you learn to control humans and make them do your biddings such as opening doors for you or even open fire on their comrades. A written description won't do the experience any justice - it's just fun (and gruesome). The game does sometimes turn into a puzzler when you try to find new routes towards your goal and towards the end of the game it can be a bit difficult to know which way you go as the game doesn't have a map of any sort. Besides that, I have no complaints at all. This game is a gem and a solid recommendation!
So I just finished Out Of Line (OOL) which I do own on GOG but chose to play on the Nintendo Switch. It's a fairly standard 2D-platformer with puzzles where you play as San, a small character armed with a spear that you can throw in an arc and nail to walls and other places to solve puzzles. The spear can be used to create platforms for San to jump on but also to trigger buttons and jam the cogs of different machinery and, later in the game, to use as a lever to manipulate machinery in the more intricate puzzles that the game introduces. OOL is, to summarize it as fairly as I can, a game that would probably be considered an indie darling had it been released about a decade earlier when games like Limbo, Fez and Braid recieved praise. OOL isn't nearly as stylish as these three but we have pretty hand drawn visuals, a neat soundtrack and platforming but not much of a story. San is shown being chased by huge machine claws that give of shrieking noices and then by spiders but again: there isn't much of a story besides escaping the dangers and moving on. The game is fairly fun but it's nothing that hasn't been done before. OOL is a bit bland. Not a bad game but not a great one either and if you've played any other puzzle platformer this is familiar territory. You never get tired with the gaming mechanics due to clever pacing and OOL is over in a couple (as in: two) hours and I consider that to be an adequate lenght: the developer deserves credit for not extending the game beyond what the gameplay can carry.
I enjoyed the previous AA-game thoroughly and love just about everything made by Remedy so far and American Nightmare (AN) is made with the same care as their other releases. AN takes the concept of the full AA-game and turn it into a Twilight Zone episode where three seperate game areas are visited repeatedly as the game progresses. The basic premises of the previous game is still here: use flashlight to burn away darkness from enemies to hurt them, stand in light to heal and (and save your game) and collect pages from Alans novel manuscript. In AN, these pages lets you access more powerful weapons if you collect enough of them and there are more weapons to choose from compared to AA. I like the whole premise of returning to the same areas as the characters are stuck in a loop but the game doesn't really do anything interesting with the premise. The voice actors and actresses are doing a fine job and the soundtrack is great but the game lacks ambiance - it feels more goofy than surreal and I'm not sure I enjoy that aspect. I also kinda think that the game could do with more puzzles to improve the pacing but all in all, Alan Wake's American Nightmare is still a solid, short experience and in a world where so many games strive to extend their lenghts beyond what's necessary, that in itself is commendable.
So, this game is mostly run-of-the-mill and you would be forgiven for asking "why playing it then" but it's just so good in all its mediocre glory. The bobbing camera, the weird visual artefacts and the extreme b-movie qualities combined with brain dead shooting just works oh so well. I thoroughly enjoyed my playthrough despite all the obvious flaws. Give it a shot and show those triad goons who's boss!
