A running list of the games I've finished in the year of 20 and 15.
Showing 1-10 of 18 items
Bloodborne is great, and Bloodborne is disappointing. It's got beautiful, densely packed environments. It's got fast, satisfying action and that perfectly measured FromSoft game feel. But an emphasis on the half baked Chalice Dungeon concept, and a profound de-emphasis on player customization and build variety really drag the experience down.
Axiom Verge is a welcome trip through a classic Metroid approximation. The traversal abilities all feel fresh and unique and the selection of weapons is very robust. The ability to manipulate glitches is novel and serves as the games one true "hook". The speedrun mode is extremely appreciated. On the other hand, the environments are drab and ugly, and the late game suffers from strange balance issues(Ukhu) and anti climactic bosses. Very satisfying to Platinum.
Early last year I got about an hour into this before getting annoyed with some of the presentation choices it made and moving on. When I spun it back up on a whim I started ignoring the story and the memes that litter the backgrounds, and treated it as a podcast game, and I'm very happy I did. The art is beautiful and bursting with colour. The combat is fluid and fairly unique for a metroidvania style game. The platforming is satisfying and tied smartly with the combat mechanics. I ended up liking it so much that I'm in the middle of a second playthrough, this time on the Super Turbo Championship Edition that just hit PS Plus. I've been pleasantly surprised to find new levels, bosses, mechanics and an altered progression that's just served to make a good game better.
This game looks gorgeous and the traversal mechanics are very fast and satisfying to use. The combat is pretty mediocre though, which makes the emphasis on it's battle arena very disappointing. Seattle feels small, and the mission design is not particularly interesting, but as a little taste of an open world game it does it's job. It bears mentioning again that it looks Fantastic.
I was busy using my PC for Half Life and pretty much nothing else in 1998, so I missed Grim completely the first time around. There's been much ado over the years on it's legendary status so I couldn't NOT play the remaster. The puzzles in many spots weren't quite as obtuse as some earlier adventure game classics, which was a nice surprise. The art, writing, music, and voice acting was all superb. Very glad I got the chance to come back to this. Bring on Day of The Tentacle!
I used my free week of PS Now to catch up on another classic I missed out on back in the day. It was ok. It still controlled well enough, but there were quite a few rough spots. In particular I'd like to call out the rhythm game boss as complete garbage. So too are most of the side activity levels. If someday enough games I care about come to PS Now I'll probably still check out the other Sly games.
At some point last year I made the claim that I'd probably never go back to finish The New Order. I guess that was a lie. It continued to strike me as a pretty, serviceable shooter with an ok story. Nothing particularly great, but I'm glad I went back and saw it the whole way through.
This game is fucking great. It feels so fast and flows so well, it's perfect for those that enjoy getting into a zen like flow state with their games. The progression and difficulty curve is extremely well tuned, when I started I felt useless at the game and figured I wouldn't get passed the second world, but before I knew it I was flying through the Hard campaign and having a great time doing it. Definite top 10 material.
This game feels so much like Binding of Isaac mutated into a first person shooter. This is about the highest praise I can give to a rogueishlike game. I started this just after trying (and hating) Tower of Guns, and it looks even better for the comparison. Ziggurat runs a clinic on how to design a tight, fast FPS roguelike. The only real knock I have against it is that I've found it can get pretty buggy. I haven't seen anything game ending but visual glitches are very common, especially on the final floor. Also, the framerate gets destroyed if you let a room get too wild.
The Unfinished Swan is visually gorgeous. It's short, charming, and gives each level its own clever twist on the paint splatter mechanic. I'm a sucker for interactive credits.