by slax
Wow, 2022 and still COVID, how exciting.
2021 was a strange year for gaming for me personally. At the beginning of the year I set out to discover what made a game personally worth playing. After a lot of rumination and thought I think I have the inkling of an idea, but I'm still not sure how that will affect what games I choose to play, or fully understand why some games stick and others don't. I will say, that keeping this list does encourage me to finish games, even if only at the beginning of the year.
New rating scale this year, because, why not!
We'll see how we like it. I think it does a better job at accounting for the biases we have when selecting a game (i.e. we mostly will only pick games to play that we think we will enjoy) and flattens the bottom of the scale, as in the past what is the difference between a 1 and 2 star game, or on a 10 point scale, a 1 through a 4.
This list will once will again act as a bit of a journal of games I played in a year. Games I finish will obviously appear, but so will games that I have started, put some time into, and decided to be done with them. The truncated scale might have trouble with these games depending on why I put them down, but too be fair, this is how I enjoy a game, so maybe it'll just be a low score and that is that.
Also, these are not reviews, as much as thoughts that give my feeling on a game. The writing is going to be...rough. Sorry!! :D
November Update - So far this year has really made clear how difficult it is to have too many "life-style games". I can't really keep up with FFXIV and play other stuff, the monthly fee makes me feel guilty. And, while early on I saw the appeal, having too many Battle Passes is a sure way to stop enjoying every game you are playing. In a year where I wanted to play my backlog of JRPGs, I haven't really done that and that's largely thanks to these games that suck up hours each day just trying to keep up on dailies, or in FFXIV play a never-ending JRPG, which kinda counts?
I also played a fair amount of Valorant, OW2 and now Gunfire Reborn again.
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***** Got the 100% achievement, #49 Global Leaderboard as of 7/22 I've never been a time-trial type person until this game. Something about having gameplay that is so instantly familiar, yet with so much depth to learn, just made it click so instantly. I'm decent at an FPS, so why not use those skills to climb the leaderboard. And it was so fun! I gotta thank the GB community and a little bit Jeff Grubb, for filling out the friends leaderboard which gave me something to shoot for. And before too long I was like, ohh, I can climb on the global leaderboard too, this is great! I'm basically cutting myself off of this game. I could keep grinding times, try to go for the Heaven and Hell rushes (although that isn't what I like about this game), but it's perfect to me right now. I've put almost 75 hours into this game, and no matter what Grubb may say, while that's a lot of time, not nearly as much as I would need to go for WR times or get good at the rushes. But that's okay! I had a top 10 time for a while, and felt invincible! The story is cool, the much maligned writing is good actually. Nothing about the story and characters is transcendent, but it's enjoyable! And the gameplay is transcendent, which really keeps pulling the strings. I don't know, this is 100% ramble, stream of consciousness, feeling the high of both getting high on the overall Global leaderboard and also, being free? Like, I can play other games now? That'll be fun.
***** All Endings/Achievements: 3/29 This is my favorite Souls game (I haven't played Bloodborne yet, so it's not a definitive ranking) and my second favorite FROM game behind Sekiro. Elden Ring felt like the map and some of the design philosophy of BoTW done in all the right ways for me that clicked in a way that BotW hasn't yet. It's such a great example of what an open-world game can do and feel like. I really enjoyed exploring it and it's just such a huge game. I loved nearly everything about it. I truly can't wait until the lore videos all come out and explain what seems like a really cool story! My three minor knocks against this game are: The combat will still never be as good as Sekiro. I don't think it can be, so it's not really this games fault, but playing this game made me miss Sekiro. Co-op in these games need to be overhauled especially with the open-world design in mind. I should be able to summon someone anytime (whether or not the area boss is alive) and we should be able to stick together until we decide to be done. I'm fine if the host dies everyone goes back to the bonefire and has to move from there, but stopping the flow of the game to resummon everyone and try again, and not be able to be as aggressive since you are scared you'll ruin the co-op experience, is a pretty big bummer. Finally, they broke new game plus. I think Dark Souls 2 did it best, where there was actually changes in new game plus, but at least the other games had better versions of rings/talismans and other things to collect. It doesn't seem like that is true in Elden Ring, which means that just like Sekiro, while it's cool to feel powerful, it drains a bit of life out of the game once you've finished your first playthrough. And since the game is so large restarting feels daunting. I almost wish they added a mode that some other RPGs did, where there is new game plus, game gets harder you keep all your stuff. And a reincarnation mode or something, where your stats and Runes all reset, but maybe you can keep all your items, it just takes all your weapons back to +0 or something. That might be ideal, but also, just don't be dumb like me and start over and have fun, at some point. This is a long-ass game. Otherwise I adored this game. The ending open areas are not quite as great as Limgrave, but who can blame them, Limgrave is divine. I spent just over 100 hours on my main character doing everything I could find and had a great time.
***** Lots of playtime, still going strong. Snap does so much so well, that any short-comings, while glaring, are often easy to overlook. The core loop of very quick games of small decks that you can see 75% at least every game create a satisfying approach to trial and error as you slightly tweak decks to make them hum. The locations being the random element is what stops games from being stale and adds to your strategy on how you let them help or stop them from hindering your gameplan. Plus leveling up cards, which just makes them look cooler, is real fun! Like the whole collection level system, where, even if you don't spend money, as long as you are doing quests and playing games you will get all the cards (although pool 3 gets a bit hairy there for a bit) is real rewarding. The season pass could reward you a bit more, for sure, but overall I think this game is real smart and fun. I hope it keeps evolving and continues being enjoyable for months to come.
***** Finished 3.0 August 15th Turns out FFXIV has its hooks in me again. What an absolute banger of a game, although I suppose some of this rating has to do with Red Mage being my new main and simply being a delight to play. So fair enough Stormblood. I fell off this game in early 2020, which is wild, since I had the most amount of time to play then. My job became work from home, and going out wasn't something I was willing to risk. But alas, it took getting a new job and loads of vaccines I guess to bring me back, and I'm glad I am. I don't know that the story hits as much as I think it should, but I have so much fun with the game and the spectacle, and some of the moments are just so cool. It's like Advent Children (am I gonna get shot) the story is just a bunch of people talking nonsense, but then the power of friendship throws someone into the sky defying physics, hell yeah! Anyway, I'm gonna keep playing this game, and try to keep taking my time and enjoying the journey! October Update (The in-between expansions feel so much harder to get through, I don't know what it is, they are still story and stuff still happens, but the motivation just gets sucked out of me)
***** 100% one playthrough, maybe newgame + probably not 6/17 This is a vast improvement over the original game in so many ways, and makes me excited to see where they take the sequel. The first thing I noticed was the way that Miles swung, it was a little more haphazard and that made it feel better I guess. The trick system was way more enjoyable, and the combat was a huge step up. Turns out losing half the gadgets to have cool electricity moves is a great trade. Not only that, though, decoupling the finishers from the healing was also a great choice. The combat feels way more fluid and fun, the game can throw more enemies at you and it still feels manageable thanks to all the new toys. The story is good here, there is a little too much TV talk at the end, where you wish people would just communicate, and when you get into situations like that, it seems like you could've made some choices to really make the story sing. But overall the characters are great, and the game was just about the right length! This is all extra surprising to me coming directly off playing a lot of the original game. I figured burn out may dampen my enjoyment of the game, but really seeing the differences so clearly, really made this game feel even better.
**** All achievements as of 2/13 It's really hard to say anything negative about a $3 game like this that has so much going on. Such a simple and fun concept. The fact that runs are limited to around 30 minutes at the most makes this game feel more contained than other games like this, making it easier to play 1 more. Big fan! Ed. - HoloCure, the free hololive version of vampire survivors is also good!
**** Finished 12/30 What a lovely little game! I decided to organize my entire steam library as it was getting out of control, and found this well received game and figured I'd give it a shot and had such a good time. It's cute, the mechanics of tacking pictures is fun and for the most part the puzzles are pretty breezy which I enjoyed. The only mark against this game, is that the game was pretty particular about specific puzzle solutions, meaning you really need the guide on to see if the game sees what you are seeing (which I totally understand from a game developer perspective) but it meant when I took a picture of the man with a mustache and the game was like nahhh, I figured I took the wrong picture and went elsewhere. Only to later find out, I had to zoom in more so the mustache registered as it's own entity and then it worked. This just meant that some of the puzzles didn't feel as fun to solve because I was second guessing if I had the solution wrong, or just needed to take a "better" picture. But that was such a small gripe, it was fun traveling around, taking people's pictures and the ending was gorgeous! I know there is some post-credit stuff that was added, but I may be ready to be done with the game now. It was such a specific and perfect vibe, I'd hate for it to wear out its welcome.
**** I found someone to play fighting games with and am having a real good time. I knew I was always on the edge of just jumping into one of these games, and I think I'm more on the edge than ever! It still hasn't made me want to lab combos a lot or grind the online so much, but I will play and have a great time. This game is easy enough to pick up and do cool stuff with, and learning more and more what can be done is super rewarding. The lobbies are fine, and I haven't really figured out if I care about the single player, but all of this has made me v excited to maybe deep dive into SFVI.
**** Played 50+ hours 12/18 Played this mostly co-op with a friend across the country, and having a co-op Slay the Spire (but more finicky, get to that later) is great! Having someone to teach you the ropes though almost feels vital, as the game doesn't really onboard you as much as just show you a bunch of options and sends you on your way. This game also suffers from triggers on cards having slightly confusing definitions (could use a consistency pass all throughout it's text) but overall this is a real fun deck building game. And it is totally enhanced with friends. I want to jump more into the more random Obelisk mode, because I think that seems even more fun.
**** Finished: 1/2 So close to getting this finished in time to put it on my 2021 list, I mean I suppose I still could, but this seems more fun. I had a bit of trouble with the beginning of this game, not the fault of the game, just having a moment of overwhelming amount of things to do and not really understanding how the game was going to help facilitate it. Honestly the game does it really well, helping track quests, having Skyrim (I mean it makes sense) dialogue trees greyed out when you have exhausted the dialogue, and having things that guide you along the way, it isn't as daunting as it might first seem. Honestly it is a rather small game, it just takes a bit to fully grasp what it may look like. Once I got passed that first hump, I enjoyed my time! The story is interesting in how it unfolds, some of the characters are compelling, and some of the dialogue really impressed me allowing me to select options in a way that represented how I felt. It's a fun world to explore and the world building they do, while not wholly new, is done really well. On the other hand, some of the philosophizing doesn't feel as deep as the game wants you to believe, and over half the characters just have once problem for you to resolve and then aren't really characters beyond that. I'll also say that the game probably didn't need to have "action elements". They allow you to skip most of them maybe, but in an attempt to see everything the game had to offer I jumped in. They are easy and probably not worth it? The "horror' that is also a part of this section, while not scary, I think is well done. Overall had a wonderful time with this game, and am always excited to play a game in a couple of sittings that really clicks.
