Shredded cat-man, flappy princess, talking dustbin, doggo swordsman.... the gang's all here.
I got this free and fired it up for a go - it had a good atmosphere and a striking art style, and I played it enthusiastically for quite a while. Unfortunately later when moving on to a different area the game got stuck endlessly on the level loading screen - I couldn't exit the game or tab out, and ctrlaltdelete froze the computer solid until I did a hard reset. When I booted the game up again, my save was gone. Apparently this is a long-standing known bug. Given the unforgiving nature of this game and how heavily in relies on RNG, the chance of having all my progress wiped every few hours on top of that really killed my interest.
I read in lot of places that this was like a super-hardcore Super Mario Land, and I was really excited to play it. It really isn't though - just a series of bosses all drawn in beautiful old-timey cartoon style. Rather than being difficult, what's needed here is a lot of patience - die over and over until you have loaded each boss's attack patterns into your muscle-memory, then defeat boss. Then start all over with a new boss. 'Difficulty' is padded out with some fairly cynical time-wasting tactics (the board game style level with mini-bosses springs to mind). The acrobatics and shooting aren't bad, but aren't exactly revolutionary either. I beat the Devil, but didn't get S rank on everything - I'll leave that up to the masochists.
I remember playing the original on a school-friend of mine's Sega Gamegear - damn, now I feel old. The old-timey classic has been upgraded with gorgeous hand-drawn graphics and animations, and all the old music has been re-recorded by musicians on genuine musical instruments. I completed it 4 hours which I wasn't expecting, but still it was well worth the price just for the amazing soundtrack, lovely visuals, and a warm fuzzy trip down memory lane. Go Mouse-Man!
Lots to like about this - genuinely unsettling atmosphere with amazing sound effects which doesn't rely on jumpscares, with really cool gnarly lore and characters. The survival mechanics are pretty satisfying, with a gradual improvement in weapons/equipment and mutant powers throughout the game. There are no waypoints, GPS, or compass, but despite this I never felt uncertain of what to do next - the flow of gameplay moves along nicely, and leads to a nice sense of accomplishment because there is none of the aforementioned 'hand-holding.' Unfortunately the controls and movement are bad (I was reminded a little of the 'tank' controls of Grim Fandango back in the day), and this becomes especially apparent in combat. Aiming and moving is very fiddly, and as there is a long windup on melee attacks it's very easy to get mobbed and stunlocked if there's more than one enemy (this becomes especially punishing in the Swamp). The only concessions towards blocking or dodging is the ability to jump backwards a step, which I never found useful (the best I could come up with was running around in a circle to get behind enemies and have enough time to take a swing or stab.) By the time I got to the last part of the game I was dying about once every five minutes - I you have finished this game on 1life permadeath mode then I salute you. Moving furniture painfully slowly to fortify hideouts is just as dull and awkward as it sounds, and as there is no way to rotate as one is dragging something, moving stuff into the right position involves running against the item (usually a wardrobe) to turn it around until it is roughly where it should be. Darkwood is a great game, let down by bad controls.
Enough said in the title - can't wait for Cyberpunk.
Frostpunk is Steampunkish city-builder set at the end of the 19th century. After a series of cataclysmic volcanic eruptions, Earth is plunged into a new ice-age. A small band of refugees must survive any way they can. You are their 'Captain' and must take charge, fire up their coal-powered generator tower, and see them safely through the long, cold winter... The attention to detail, graphics, music and general Steampunk atmosphere are great, and the hard choices and grim consequences that I had to deal with throughout really made me connect with events and the poor little computer people as they froze and starved. I was eventually forced to adopt either 'Order' (think Communism/Fascism) or 'Faith' (religious fanatacism) to keep control of your people - I chose Order and tried to be a reasonably benevolent dictator, but it's possible to set oneself up as Supreme Leader with secret police, torture, propaganda centres etc. By the time I made it to the end of the first scenario I was genuinely moved by what had happened and was very impressed on the whole. Powerful stuff. A few flaws - progress in the early stages is very linear; without knowing what things to build early on it is very easy to get chewed up by the first bit of real cold, and even though later on there is more room to choose how one eventually faces up to the endgame, I don't think further playthroughs would be much different. One playthrough of the main story (A New Home) took me about 6 hours, so it is also a little on the short side. New scenarios are being added though so hopefully there will a more varied game on the way. Personally I would like to see a free play mode with no time limit.
After lots of patches and some graphical optimisation mods from Nexus, this game is actually looking good and running reasonably smoothly on my PC - I'm glad I waited. All the attention to realism and historical accuracy is very impressive, and setting aside there being a game to play, I enjoyed just walking around the mediaeval towns and countryside soaking it all in. Combat is again well-researched and as realistic to melee combat styles and techniques of the time, and even when I had the best armour/weapons later on, I could still get jumped by some peasant bandits with clubs and get killed quickly if I was unlucky. There is a lot to do in the expansive open-world, and a lot of game here for your money. I found that I was able to get the best horse and powerful gear pretty early though, and once I lost the feeling of progression money started to seem a bit pointless - in turn this made looking for side quests seem pointless as all I was doing was adding to my stack of coins (there don't seem to be any unique gear rewards from quests that can't be bought either). Once this set in I was mostly just running through main story quests to reach the end. Henry the main character is funny and well-acted, but lacking depth unfortunately, and there isn't much choice or opportunity to develop his character. Well-acted but a bit flat is a good way to describe most of the inhabitants of KCD (perhaps less so for Henry's two hapless friends). A good game, but flawed.
This game won an award for its narrative - and it thoroughly deserves it. Jumping and running around town every day to root out all the little bits of story goodies can get a bit dull, but in the end it is so worth it.
Another rough-and-ready Piranha Bytes open worlder. Lots to do and the combat isn't bad, but full price seems a bit cheeky.
