Games You Beat in 2022: PXoD's Bogus Journey

[TheMightyEthan]

Immortality

 

This game is really good, one of the best I've played this year. The general premise is there's this actress who's disappeared for 20 years, she's come back looking exactly the same, and you're supposed to figure out what happened by looking through these clips of her movies, behind the scenes footage, etc. At first you start out with only one clip unlocked, and you get others by clicking on objects in each clip (such as a face, a prop, whatever) and it will take you to another clip where that thing appears. It can be a little fiddly at times, but it's interesting, and allows the mystery to unspool differently for everyone.

 

The gameplay can be a little fiddly as far as where it takes you, but it works, and the real star of the show is the mystery, and the story you uncover. I can't say much that isn't a spoiler, but it's crazy and mind blowing and I recommend it to everyone.

 

Grade: A with a  (would be A+ if the linking algorithm was a little less fiddly)

[danielpholt]

On 9/12/2022 at 7:47 PM, TheMightyEthan said:

Immortality

 

This game is really good, one of the best I've played this year. The general premise is there's this actress who's disappeared for 20 years, she's come back looking exactly the same, and you're supposed to figure out what happened by looking through these clips of her movies, behind the scenes footage, etc. At first you start out with only one clip unlocked, and you get others by clicking on objects in each clip (such as a face, a prop, whatever) and it will take you to another clip where that thing appears. It can be a little fiddly at times, but it's interesting, and allows the mystery to unspool differently for everyone.

 

The gameplay can be a little fiddly as far as where it takes you, but it works, and the real star of the show is the mystery, and the story you uncover. I can't say much that isn't a spoiler, but it's crazy and mind blowing and I recommend it to everyone.

 

Grade: A with a  (would be A+ if the linking algorithm was a little less fiddly)

 

How is it on the nudity front? That's a big one for me. I refuse to play games that don't offer me at least a bit of underboob. 

 

[Mister Jack]

10 minutes ago, danielpholt said:

How is it on the nudity front? That's a big one for me. I refuse to play games that don't offer me at least a bit of underboob. 

[MetalCaveman]

1 hour ago, danielpholt said:

 

How is it on the nudity front? That's a big one for me. I refuse to play games that don't offer me at least a bit of underboob. 

 

[toxicitizen]

Soul Hackers 2

 

I'm not sure what I expected from this one but overall I really liked it. It sits somewhere between Shin Megami Tensei and Persona. It has more personality than the former and characters that are likeable and actually have their own personalities but it has nowhere near the style and production values of Persona. There's demon recruiting but there's no negotiation, it's a more simplified version of it. There's no social links but you do have a "soul level" with each of your party member that you can raise from various dialog choices and by going out for drinks with them when you unlock "hangout events".

 

Once I was a few hours into it and had gotten a feel for what the entire game would be like, it dawned on me that this is actually a handheld game through and through. At first I assumed it was because the Switch version was the baseline they had to get it running on but it's not even on Switch lmao. But yeah, it really reminded me of those JRPGs I would play on Vita. Hell, downgrade the graphics a bit and I'm sure this could actually run on a Vita.

 

The dungeons are fairly repetitive and visually simple. The main story dungeons each have their own theme going on but the big optional dungeon has got to be the most uninspired thing ever visually: it's all just blue cyberspace cubes as far as the eye can see. And you're spending a good chunk of the game running around in that thing because you keep unlocking new floors as the story progresses and it's how you get new abilities for your party members, with progress being tied to their soul level.

 

Outside of dungeons is where you realize this was made on a shoestring budget, though. There's like three areas with actual geometry in them (4 if you count the safehouse but you don't get to run around in that one). And each of those three areas is basically just a single room with doors to various shops and facilities. Once you enter those, it's just a jpeg background and a menu. The shopkeepers don't even get a 3D model lol. I don't actually have a problem with any of this, mind you. It was just kind of a shock to see just how low-budget this game actually was, even compared to P4G which I replayed just a few months ago. Even SMTV on Switch looks more technically advanced than this. I wouldn't be surprised if you told me this game was made by the same team that developed all their 3DS games.

 

The combat is more or less what you'd expect from an SMT spin-off. You recruit demons, fuse them, etc. In combat, you hit enemies weaknesses which adds demons to a "stack" and at the end of your turn you get a big attack that deals more damage the bigger your stack is. The usual stuff.

 

Overall I had a decently fun time with it. If you like SMT games and don't mind low production values it's definitely worth a look. It was a good way to kill time while I wait for P5R to finally launch on PC. And hey, it was actually good enough to distract me from Spider-Man lol. Man, I fell off that game kinda hard. And I started Judgment two nights ago (and made it a point to try and finish SH2 last night so I could focus on Judgment) because I actually forgot about Spider-Man entirely lmao. Idk, I guess I expected more from it? Gonna have to try chipping away at it here and there to at least finish it. I think I'm fairly far into it so it shouldn't take too long.

[TheMightyEthan]

Dad of War (2018)

 

Replaying this game in preparation for Ragnarok. It's still really good, but I do think it feels a little dated, both visually and design-wise. Played it on PS5 with the 4k60 patch, but even then I was like "man, this really looks like a PS4 game" the whole time, which is the first time that's actually stood out to me (I think largely because it's considered one of the best looking games of that gen).

 

Anyway, still holds up, and I'm more stoked for Ragnarok than I was before this, which is what I wanted.

 

Grade: A

[MetalCaveman]

XCOM Enemy Within

 

The EXALT missions got kinda boring after a while as there's only two types, hack relays or defend relays, the last mission was cool though.

 

Gene upgrades and mech soldiers are cool, ended up only using genetically enhanced soldiers though, as I remember from a previous attempt that mech upgrades are... Permanent, very permanent, at least with genetic modifications they still look like humans.

 

Dr. Vahlen was even more annoying than usual though, it's not my fault aliens are made of TNT and explode when dead, also not my fault they explode near meld canisters, which doesn't matter because we have meld coming out of our ears! I don't even know what to do with all the damn stuff!

 

 

[Mister Jack]

Cult of the Lamb

 

This is a cute little game, although it's made up of two genres and one of them succeeds more than the other. The roguelike dungeon crawling is pretty basic. You have a melee attack and a magic attack that get randomized at the beginning of each run. Don't expect Binding of Isaac items to play with because that's not what this is about. Dungeon runs are just for collecting resources and killing story bosses. Maps are small and most enemies are pretty easy. It's not very engaging. 

 

What IS engaging, however, is running the cult. Recruiting followers, building structures, unlocking cult rituals, and deciding your cult's doctrine is pretty addictive, and your teachings will decide what kind of benefits you get. For example, do you want to preach a fasting period to make your followers' hunger stop decreasing for three days? Or do you want to declare a feast day to completely refill their hunger in one meal? You can only choose one doctrine per rank, so by the time you reach the endgame you could end up with a benevolent brotherhood or a bloodthirsty bunch of sadists depending on how you teach them. Their worship is also a currency in itself that you use to upgrade your cult's buildings, so you want to keep your followers happy or at least obedient. Sometimes they'll ask you to do things for them, whether it's finding them a resource, imprisoning their enemies, getting married, or...feeding them a bowl of poop. Okay dude, whatever floats your boat. 

 

I'd say try this one when it's on sale. The combat portions are kind of a slog but I highly enjoyed the cult building part of the game.

[toxicitizen]

Tekken 7

 

Finally gave this one a shot because of the Tekken 8 hype. My first impression of the game was not great. It's so different from every other fighting game I've played this year. I mean, going from Street Fighter to Guilty Gear isn't that much of a paradigm shift. Guilty Gear is faster and crazier but they have a lot of fundamentals in common. Tekken is a whole other ball game, though, and it took me a while to get used to it.

 

I played through the story mode, which is so insane that I actually had to stop and go on wikipedia to read the plot summaries of Tekken 1 through 6. Turns out this series goes hard on its nonsensical plot. Then I came back to it and it still seemed fucking insane but at least I had some kind of context now. I also watched Tekken Bloodline on Netflix. It's surprisingly decent. Not sure how much you'd get out of it if you're not already invested in the story of Tekken, though.

 

Anyway, by the end of the story mode I sorta had a better sense of how to play so I picked Kazuya and started practicing some of his simple combos. Played online for a bit and it's actually pretty fun! I have no desire to try getting good at this, though. I've already put so much time into SF and GG that I don't feel like dropping them for something completely different. It's a pretty fun game to play casually and I'm happy to leave it at that.

 

Oh and it has a pretty straightforward achievement list, which was a pleasant surprise coming from a fighting game.

 

 

[TheMightyEthan]

Tinykin

 

This is a Pikmin-like with a really cool art style, all the characters are 2D in a 3D environment, kind of like Paper Mario. It's kind of funny how similar to Pikmin is, right down to you being an explorer from another planet who crashes on earth and discover that everything is much much larger than you. There are really only three main differences: 1) there's no timer (that's good), 2) you're inside a house the whole time instead of outside (that's fine), and 3) there's no combat (not so good). 

 

The entire gameplay revolves around solving environmental puzzles so the insect inhabitants of this house will give you the things you need to build a ship to return to your home planet. It's really good as far as it goes, the environments are nicely designed, it's very pretty to look at, and the puzzles are engaging. I just wish there was a little bit in the way of direct opposition from enemies, I think strategically located combat encounters could have broken up the pacing a bit more in a way that would have benefited the game.

 

Overall though the game is really good, and I definitely recommend it to anyone who's interested. It would also be fun and appropriate for kids.

 

Grade: A

[danielpholt]

Rollerdrome

 

For those of you who aren't familiar with Rollerdrome, it's a really cool 3rd-person-shooter-meets-Tony- Hawk's-Pro-Skater, where instead of jumping over benches and police cars, you rollerskate around an arena 'catching air' and laying down some 'neat tricks' in order to earn ammo for your weapons, which in turn can be used to murder everyone. 

 

It feels great, the shooting is solid and the combat has a level of challenge to it that I think makes the game pretty replayable. It looks super nice too, even on the smaller screen of the Steamdeck. 

 

 

[toxicitizen]

Judgment

 

Man, that took me way longer than I expected. My plan was to get through both Judgment and Trails from Zero before P5R's PC launch but I barely made it through Judment... I was actually getting worried that I wouldn't even finish Judgment in time, so near the end I stopped doing all the side-cases as they popped up and focused on the main case just to be safe.

 

On the one hand, playing through Yakuza 1-3 (especially 3...) had me a little worried that Yakuza 0 was a lightning in a bottle kinda deal. They were all good but none of them came close to reaching the same highs as Y0. On the other hand, I had high hopes for Judgment because the detective/serial killer premise sounded so cool.

 

Well, I'm happy to say that Judgment blew even Yakuza 0 out of the water. Maybe it's down to personal preferences, but yeah this game was very my shit. The characters were great, the plot was insanely compelling (and only got more so as it went along) and, considering how repetitive the Yakuza games can get, the gameplay was surprisingly fresh. It could've leaned a little bit more on the detective aspects, though.

 

You do plenty of tailing missions but early on they introduce different detective mechanics like choosing the more important questions to ask first to get bonus points or having you put on a costume to infiltrate a building but the game seems to kinda forget about all that stuff. Like, there's a friend event that has you doing quick jobs for an actual locksmith and it's the most lockpicking I did of the entire game. It honestly felt like they went "Wait, shit, we forgot about the lockpicking. Quick, add something!" I could've done with less tailing and more breaking and entering. The chase sequences were fun, though. So yeah, if I have one hope for the sequel, it would be for it to lean even more into the detective stuff. Break the Yakuza mold even more.

 

Other than that, the combat felt like such a massive improvement after Yakuza 3 lol. I stubbornly went for hard difficulty again and by the end of the game even the boss fights were trivially easy thanks to Tiger Drop. Yagami's faster, more acrobatic fighting style was a welcome change from Kiryu's slower brawler move set. Vaulting over dudes and launching into a backflip from a wallrun was so much fun that I barely ever went for my usual weapon of choice: the trusty bicycle.

 

At first it was kinda weird to run around Kamurocho as someone other than Kiryu but that's probably just because I'm not far enough into the series. I haven't made it to the games with multiple protagonists yet.

 

Like I said above, the story was fantastic. Not all of the twists and turns were great and, at the time, I thought the reveal of who the Mole is was handled weirdly and could've been a bit more dramatic but everything that came after had me on the edge of my seat. And, when you take all the subsequent reveals into account, it all falls into place quite nicely so the way it was handled makes sense in hindsight.

 

Also, that opening theme is such a banger! Every single time I booted up the game, I would go into the cutscenes menu to watch it like I was starting an episode of a TV show.

 

 

Don't know when I'll get around to Lost Judgment but I'm really looking forward to it now. It also has me hopeful that the games really improved over time so I'm way more excited about continuing Yakuza now than I was coming out of Yakuza 3 lol. But for now, there's no time to start anything and hope to finish it by friday so I think maybe I'll try to finish Spider-Man instead. I'm like 70% of the way through the story according to the game, so it should be doable.

[Mister Jack]

Lost Judgment takes place after Yakuza: Like a Dragon, so if you care about spoilers you'll want to get through the other Yakuza games first.

[toxicitizen]

36 minutes ago, Mister Jack said:

Lost Judgment takes place after Yakuza: Like a Dragon, so if you care about spoilers you'll want to get through the other Yakuza games first.

 

Shit, is that really an issue? I kinda figured the two series would coexist independently without ever really acknowledging each other. Didn't think I'd have to worry about Yakuza spoilers here lol. Oh well, I was planning to focus more on Yakuza before getting to it anyway. Thanks for the heads up.

[Mister Jack]

The two stories aren't really connected but the Kiryu saga ends in a way that has such huge ramifications that it's impossible for Judgment not to at least acknowledge it.

[MetalCaveman]

Dead Space

 

First time playing on PC, made the turret sections so much easier lol, aside from some technical issues, like the game not running properly if the Origin overlay was on, and some crashes, I'd say this has aged like fine wine. The atmosphere, the sounds, everything, even after playing through the whole game a bunch of times, it's still scary.

 

Dead Space 2

 

Looks way better than I remember, but maybe that was because I originally played it on PS3 at whatever settings it ran and this time it was on PC at 1440p lol. Holds up pretty well, the drill section is still annoying IMO, but the rest of it is fun.

 

Dead Space 3: Awakened

 

This is what DS3 should have been, scary tense, creepy, loved what they did with the

Spoiler

hallucinations and the prophet. The MOON arena, seeing the moons just floating there and earth visible opposite them, how each time the moons got closer and closer, the "fight" against Carver, all of that was pretty cool.

That was awesome, the ending was also really cool, normally not what I would like, but for a series like this one, it was fitting.

Spoiler

Assuming it wasn't a hallucination lol.

 

 

Originally meant to finish a second run of base DS3, but I couldn't bring myself to finish it lol, made it to where you're supposed to put the thing back together before giving up.

 

Dead Space: S

 

Dead Space 2: A-

 

Dead Space 3: F

 

Dead Space 3 Awakened: A+

[TheMightyEthan]

Hmmm, do you need to play Dead Space 3 before Awakened?

[MetalCaveman]

Yeah kinda, the story beats and revelations might not make sense if you skip the base campaign, also I don't know what kind of inventory the game gives you if you skip it, specially given how you can craft weapons and items.

 

Also I don't know if the game will even allow you to start the DLC without having a base campaign save, I know you don't need a completed save, but you might need to start the base game before playing the DLC?

 

If you can start it right away and you don't want to play through the base campaign, here's a quick recap lol:

 

Spoiler

After DS2 Isaac wants nothing with the markers, Unitology or anything else, Ellie however, wants to stop the markers and save all of humanity. They split up as she goes to look for a way to stop the markers while Isaac goes insane on his own.

 

Some time later Captain Norton and Sergeant Carver of EarthGov arrive at Isaac's apartment on the moon and drag him out with them, Isaac reluctantly agrees to go with them after learning that it was Ellie who sent for him, believing she found a way to stop the markers but needing Isaac's help with the process.

 

At the same time, resident unitologist nutjob Jacob Danik and his faction of heavily armed unitlogists have been looking for Isaac, while activating every marker they run into, apparently, their attacks have been so effective that EarthGov is, for all intents and purposes, toast.

 

Isaac manages to escape alongside Norton and Carver, and they reunite with Ellie and some other scientists/researchers/cannon fodder aboard a derelict ship from the Sovereign Colonies, a long lost faction that lost the war (200 years prior to the game's events) that created EarthGov, they ran into necromorphs and sorta just ordered an exterminatus on themselves.

 

They believe that Tau Volantis, the planet they're on is the marker homeworld, and that Rosetta, whom they believe to be a SCAF (Sovereign Colonies Armed Forces) researcher holds the key to stopping the markers.

 

Danik and his men find them however, because Norton is a jealous piece of shit who sold them out, the idiot genuinely believed that a man who had already destroyed several colonies would let him and Ellie leave if he just handed over Isaac, queue surprised Pikachu face when Danik says he's just going to kill everyone anyway.

 

Isaac and Carver manage to push back Danik's forces and Isaac is forced to kill Norton after the idiot has the gall to blame Isaac for everything when he was the one who sold them out.

 

Ellie isn't exactly happy that her ex killed her current bf, not that Isaac does a good job of explaining things either lol.

 

The rest of the expedition members fall like flies leaving only Isaac, Carver and Ellie to find Rosetta, whom they discover is actually an alien, one of the locals of Tau Volantis who two million years ago had their own encounter with the marker and necromorphs, they learn that these aliens created a machine to stop convergence by flash freezing their planet.

 

Convergence as it turns out, refers to when enough necromorphs have gathered on a planet, and enough biomass is available, then all of that converges into a single entity known as a brethren moon, the true form of the necromorphs and source of all markers, these moons spread markers all over the place in order to create more moons and find planets they can feed off of.

 

Danik arrives, gets the thingy that powers the machine and does what any sane unitologist would, turns the damn thing off, reactivating convergence. He dies shortly after.

 

Isaac and Carver manage to reactivate the machine before things get even more out of hand, causing the moon to crash into the planet, seemingly killing both of them, while Ellie escapes on a shuttle, sad about what happened to Isaac, but finding some solace in the fact that the marker signal seems to have been stopped for good...

 

Except that:

 

Prologue: Beginnings

Chapter 1: Rude Awakening

Chapter 2: On Your Own

Chapter 3: The Roanoke

Chapter 4: History's Ember

Chapter 5: Expect Delays

Chapter 6: Repair to Ride

Chapter 7: Mayhem

Chapter 8: Off The Grid

Chapter 9: Onward

Chapter 10: Now We Know

Chapter 11: Signal Hunting

Chapter 12: Autopsy

Chapter 13: Reach for the Sky

Chapter 14: Everything Has Its Place

Chapter 15: A Change of Fortune

Chapter 16: What Lies Below

Chapter 17: A Strange City

Chapter 18: Kill or Be Killed

Chapter 19: Endings

 

B.R.O.T.H.E.R. M.O.O.N.S. A.R.E. A.W.A.K.E.

 

Maybe not as quick as I thought lol, but that should be all you need to know in order to start Awakened.

[Thursday Next]

I really enjoyed DS3. You could craft some absolutely nuts weapons that were really fun. I highly recommend playing it coop with a buddy.

[TheMightyEthan]

It could be a good game, but nuts weapons that are really fun aren't what I want Dead Space for, I want survival horror.

[Thursday Next]

Dead Space 3 is to Dead Space what Aliens is to Alien (imo). Totally different experience, but an absolute blast to play.

[toxicitizen]

5 hours ago, Thursday Next said:

Dead Space 3 is to Dead Space what Aliens is to Alien (imo). Totally different experience, but an absolute blast to play.

 

I'd argue that's Dead Space 2. More action-y but still very much horror. Dead Space 3 is the Resident Evil 5 of the series. It went too far in the other direction.

 

Although I've admittedly not gotten very far into it, so my impressions could be way off. All I know is I checked out early on when I was getting into Uncharted set pieces and gunfights with human enemies. I should probably give it another shot at this point. This far removed, I no longer care or have any expectations so I'd probably have an easier time enjoying it on its own merits. Pretty sure I grabbed it when they finally released it on Steam, too lol.

[TheMightyEthan]

Yeah, I already didn't like Dead Space 2 as much cause it was too Aliens and not enough Alien, so if DS3 is even more that then I don't think it's for me (which is also in line with everything I've heard).

[TheMightyEthan]

The Spectrum Retreat

 

This game was okay. It seemed really promising at first, the setting was intriguing and the puzzles were engaging. As it went on it kind of lost its lustre though. It seems to think very highly about itself, like it has a very Deep and Important story, but it's really just not all that interesting. And the puzzles go from enjoyably difficult to irritatingly obtuse, with many of the later puzzles ending up with you stuck where you cannot possibly progress due to information you can't possibly have known, so you have to just restart them. It makes it less solving a puzzle than just brute-force trial-and-erroring your way through, because you often can't get enough of a picture of the whole setup to be able to plan ahead.

 

I liked it enough to finish it, but there was definitely a little bit of hate-playing there at the end. I wish the whole thing lived up to the start.

 

Grade: C

[Mister Jack]

Half-Life: Alyx

 

What can I say? It's the essential VR experience. While it's not necessarily the most immersive VR game (weapons are on a radial menu and jumping is teleport based, for example), it is probably the best game that uses a VR headset right now. I think only Saints and Sinners comes close. The game gives you lots of opportunities to use the environment to figure out your way past obstacles. On one occasion I decided, rather than try to slowly defuse a bunch of bombs like the game wants, to pick up a vase and throw it into the tripwires and then duck for cover. It worked, which was pretty satisfying. It should also be said that even if this game doesn't always take the most immersive solution possible for everything, the mechanics it implements give you the best guarantee of smooth gameplay. The movement, at least the kind I used, was a combination of smooth walking and teleport dashing, which was nice and snappy during firefights. I rarely felt like the game wasn't doing what I wanted it to do. The controls are just that good, and I also like how you pick up faraway objects by using the gravity gloves to yank them from afar and then catch them in midair. You can even yank enemy grenades out of the air. 

 

Honestly I can't think of much I didn't like about this game. If I have to nitpick something, I guess sometimes the hacking minigame could be frustrating. Later on each hack is multiple phases, and if you screw up on one phase you have to go all the way back to the beginning. It would have been preferable if you only had to restart the current phase of the hack. Also, your gun is always in your dominant hand, which can make shooting around corners tricky if you're facing the wrong side. Other than that I really can't think of anything negative to say. Hopefully this comes to PS5 so PSVR users can experience it. Otherwise, if you own a PCVR headset and haven't played this yet then you need to rectify that immediately.