Games I played last week 6/30-7/6

I didn't get to play a lot of games last week due to the holiday weekend. Also, I didn't get to post this sooner than now due to a busy week. However, here is what I played last week and my thoughts on those games.

My Week in Gaming 6/30-7/6

Escape from Monkey Island

I really struggled with this game in the beginning. The game doesn't give very much direction on what to accomplish next. Sometimes there are general things that I know I must accomplish, but I'm not sure where to even start. Another time, I failed to inspect one inventory item, which caused me to not see a cutscene that progressed the whole game. So, I was literally running around with nothing to do, since the only ting that could progress the game was inspecting that item. I did find a good hint site, though, that will give hints for the puzzles instead of just saying exactly how to solve them. Often, I just need one hint to start me in the right direction. I am anxious to finish this game so I can get to Tales of Monkey Island later this year, which I hope is more fun and a little more directed. I like puzzles in adventure games, but don't like when I am running around with hardly any idea of what the current puzzle may even be.

Monsters Ate My Birthday Cake

I'm slowing down on this game, as I feel it is starting to get a little repetitive. I can't tell you exactly why I think it is getting repetitive, since I play lots of puzzle games that have the same basic rules for dozens of puzzles (Pushmo is the first that comes to mind). Maybe just a little time away from MAMBC will make it more fresh, as I did play about three hours before wanting to put it down. I also may try the Steam version, to see if the controls feel better to me, as the iOS version can feel a little unresponsive at times just based on the limitations of the hardware and touch-controls (which is not the fault of the game).

Mountain

I only booted up Mountain for a few minutes. A lot of people have been playing this (as much as there is to "play"), and I wanted to check it out. The problem is that I find very little time to just boot it up and let my mountain spin without getting bored.

Transistor

I finished Transistor last week. I spent basically the minimum amount of time possible in the game to beat it (almost exactly four hours), and I was glad for it to be over. I really, really, really love the art and aesthetic, and I like the concepts of the world and characters. I'd love an adventure game with the same art and more stories from that world. However, I really didn't like the combat. I found it a slog, basically. I know there are tons of different ways to combine the different skills. However, I found a couple things that worked and never felt the need to switch. A few times, I would look at all my skills again, but I didn't want to switch them, because no other combination was even appealing. So, I had no desire to mix things up, which meant the combat just felt like I was going through the same motions over and over and over again. The vagueness of the story didn't really bother me, but I think that's because I am just really hoping they go back to that world to talk more about it. If they don't ever go back, I will be disappointed and really feel they wasted a big opportunity with this game.