Having in essence covertly taken over the 50s United States in the first game, our villain-hero alien Crypto (or at least, one of his clones) returns to deal with the machinations of a world-shattering conspiracy coming from in the Soviet Union in the 60s- complete with hippies, mod-fashioned Brits, and ninjas. "Destroy All Humans 2" is a third-person action game where the player is tasked with carrying out various missions through a combination of stealth/disguise, over-powered alien weaponry, and flying saucer shenanigans. Its broad sense of humor takes on stoner/hippie culture, the paranoia and deprivation gripping the 60s Soviet Union, spy movies, science fiction, and, well, pretty much whatever the creators felt like taking on. I had a pretty good time with the first game, between the absurdities of tossing cows around American Heartland landscapes and absurd parodies of American tropes and Cold War paranoia. Little about the game was enormously challenging, but it was a pretty good time. DAH2 is distinctly weaker. The controls and camera feel more awkward, the humor feels less sharp and focused, and the mission design is too often tedious, with a couple of difficulty spikes that largely spring from poor interface/mission design and unclear objectives. Cameras getting stuck in buildings, a power that by default takes clicking both thumbsticks to activate, occasional crazy directional swings that force the player to spin around... And more than a few outright bugs remain, as icing on the cake. Nothing too game-breaking, as others have said, but distracting and detracting, none the less. And the caricatures and thick accents of "not-Japan"... Look, I don't consider myself some ultra-orthodox PC proponent, but it's basically a single not-that-funny joke that gets more and more frayed. I started longing for one character speaking perfect English. Like one of the kind people offering directions, on my trip to the real Japan. On sale, worth if for fans of DAH1.
"Sea Salt" is a game that expects the exactitude of a stealth-platformer, while using sub-standard Real Time Strategy controls. That is, controls that would be considered sub-standard FOR a RTS. The theme is great. The graphics are good enough for what they're attempting. Some of the boss fights are all right. The game-play is hair-pulling because of terrible design decisions. Expensive units meander randomly into the paths of traps and enemies that can easily kill them. New units are a series of inadequacies, rather than a series of strengths. You are obligated to destroy all opposition every level, despite getting no reward or recuperation for much of that destruction; Spending twenty minutes trying to lure dangerous foes away from their allies so you'd half a chance of taking them on, only to realize there's simply no way to win with what you have left, is a not-infrequent occurrence. I did finish "Sea Salt", eventually, but I begrudge it the time it took to do so. It's not difficult in the "intriguing, fun, challenging" way, but in the "glitchy, badly balanced, requiring micro-management that the controls make impossible" way. I give it two stars because it has potential; it COULD have been a good game. But it isn't.
I was looking for a game that I could play while I listened to podcasts or YouTube videos, something that wasn't too sound-dependent or demanding of twitch-reflexes or concentration, and "Curious Expedition" isn't bad for that if you adjust the volume sliders. (Maybe don't hide the "settings" button next to all the social media guff, though, guys? Just sayin'...) The setting and basic mechanics are fun. There's always something pleasurable about uncovering a new map, even if it's randomly built. It takes a while to get used to certain intricacies- what equipment does, what NPC abilities/flaws mean in a practical sense, what you should bring on a mission. (Do play the tutorial.) And while the "levelling up" system often doesn't make a *huge* difference, there's still that pleasing sense of development and enhancement. Then, hoping to unlock features, you try playing on the middle difficulty level. Oh, you sweet summer child. Welcome to the world of RNG biting you in the butt. There is always a certain level of roguelike, random-number-generated monkey business to be dealt with, but at "medium" difficulty it laughs at your attempts to allay it. Start with no NPCs, and you cannot carry food AND anything to deal with terrain AND carry some loot to finance the next expedition. (Okay, technically you CAN... but it's suicide.) Magnetic mountains mess up your compass, costing you time wandering uselessly and using up your morale-maintaining supplies. Enemies get more combat dice, and taking a paper cut mid-mission is a death sentence for an NPC unless you're carrying expensive medical supplies (because you're brimming with inventory space, right?). There's just a few too many random tragedies, some downright stupid. You block all damage but still take a wound. Villages offer you a pack animal, then immediately demand its sacrifice. Victory is rendered impossible by an unannounced need for [a] randomly generated item(s). A pity. There's most of a good game, here.
Full disclosure: Though I have played this game, I have not necessarily played this version of it. I purchased it from JAST after the game was talked about on Extra Creditz, many years back, before EC went off the rails and started believing that *cough* playing cops & robbers would turn you into a robber-sympathizer, so to speak. To say that "Song of Saya" isn't for everyone is putting it mildly. It's disturbing. It features, among its story elements, murder, rape, and cannibalism. Perhaps more disturbingly, it shows you some of those things (not all!) in a context that makes you understand why the characters doing them would think it was okay. I will note that it isn't *saying* those things are okay, and definitely not encouraging, condoning, or even necessarily forgiving them. But it does offer some insights into why someone who has become deeply alienated from their peers might choose to indulge in a kind of willful ignorance if it seemed to be the only way to re-connect with someone, and perhaps find happiness again. If you're easily offended, you shouldn't play it. If you don't feel like you have a reasonable amount of cushioning in your mental and emotional reserves, likewise. Also, frankly, if you're looking for titilation, you're probably not going to find it, here. I'm not saying the art is bad, just that it's mostly not in the service of providing the player with what most people would consider erotic. Mostly, what you will find is a rather sad story about isolation, depression, and alienation. What it costs those who suffer from them. How even those who want to help may find their ability to intervene inadequate. It invites the player to see horror in a love story, and tragedy in the end of a relationship despite its being, quite literally, bad for everyone. I will conclude by saying that I've never played anything quite like it, and it's stuck with me. It's inventive, thoughtful, and genuinely horrifying.
