The Big Depression Game Reviewfest
I haven't posted in 2 months, and while I don't like posting about posting, it's context.
Long story short, almost everyone of working age in my life has been experiencing professional burnout last year, and while I've been able to avoid it myself it's had an impact on me indirectly. This kind of hit a peak in December and once I lost a handle on my RSS feed I pretty much gave up on this part of my life for a bit.
The upshot is that I've spent a lot less time browsing and writing, and a lot more time managing our basic needs and playing video games.
So I'm collating here some 100-word-or-less-reviews of the games I've been playing, some I'm finished with and some I'm still very willing to play more of and change my view. This is all games I played while in a grim state in grim weather in a grim country, so that is the context of my opinions.
Complete Thoughts
Demonschool
This was honestly a big disappointment for me - aesthetically a real Persona-like but in practice a very messy and low-impact experience. I fell off it after about 4 hours, and it's hard for me to pinpoint why. I think I disliked the writing, but it made me chuckle plenty. I suppose it lacked sincerity, and the mini-game world backing it up didn't fill in that gap for me.
All the animation flare of a Persona or Yakuza, but without the soul.
Q-UP
I need to trust my instincts more. I saw this getting rave reviews as a lovely meta-commentary of live-service multiplayer games so gave it a go based on that, but it's just not for me - it's extreme old-man commentary, but I'm kind of over this kind of ironic flippancy - similar problem to Demonschool in that way. It's extremely well executed for what it is, but I played a single 90 minute session then never booted it again.
Dragon's Dogma 2
Bit of a weird one! I played this back at launch and really enjoyed it, thought didn't get the most out of it. I had a GPU upgrade planned so started benchmarking it - fell in love again and ended up playing 40 hours before the card arrived (runs like a dream there btw). Played it much more thoroughly and had a great time on its terms - it definitely does drag a bit in the 2nd half though. Still ~80% done and probably won't finish it, but I still love this dumb game.
Strange Jigsaws
Incredibly charming puzzle game that loosely organises itself around jigsaw puzzle aesthetics. I played through it in 2 hours or so and loved it, hearty recommend.
Taiji
A sort of 2D Witness-like? A bunch of different puzzle types holding closed gates in the overworld, all of them fully explored individually before being combined in a couple of really satisfying ways towards the end. One of the puzzle types feels very out of place, but is thankfully absent from the combinations. It apparently has some big post-game meta-puzzles but I looked up the gist and just don't have the patience for that. I had a great 9 hours with the main game, which felt slow but very satisfying.
The Planet Crafter
Slightly janky solo-or-multiplayer survival crafter with a terraforming theme - the environment changes as you advance. I've played about 50 hours of this with my partner while we've been in the doldrums, and it definitely has been a highlight. Really incredibly charming, and amenable to divergent coop - my partner went off exploring while I managed our base storage system. I strongly recommend this if you have a less game-confident partner as the only threats are gravity and the oxygen/water bars (and your hubris).
Bombe
Fascinating concept - you're basically programming a general-purpose minesweeper solver. The game turns cell numbers into zones of influence, and the player encodes combinations into solutions so they never have to solve the same scenario twice. As time goes on you unlock more generalisations that take longer to implement but save repeated work. A key trick is that you're limited to 4 interacting zones, preventing you from just solving a ton of hyper-specific 1-offs. Really engaging, but totally brain-melting. I have much more to achieve in this game, but I'm a little daunted.
Arctic Eggs
Great weird little physics challenge to play in a oner. You fry eggs in a dystopia under various unreasonable conditions. Took me about 90 minutes to beat the whole main game, though I haven't tinkered with the sandbox mode. Love it, no regrets buying it.
Chrono Ark
A roguelike deckbuilder with a time-loop anime story. That summary is catnip to me, but it fell extremely flat. I played 6 runs in about 7 hours, obviously not getting a full view of the game, but every run felt awfully samey. The story is apparently a big draw but it feels incredibly standard. All 20 characters have their own rules, it's shock-and-awe design - if you take time to learn them before clicking cards, the challenge is mostly in the RNG. Maybe I'm just good at these games now, but I should at least be enjoying the winning.
Reviews in Progress
Dispatch
Played 6 of the 8 episodes with my partner, which would usually be enough to have full thoughts but this game is 100% hinging on a satisfying story. So far it rules though - funny, crude, tricky choices and fun characters, personal stakes and petty office politics. A real antidote to all-things DC/Marvel in a way that Invincible just wasn't. Reminded me why I used to enjoy superheroes.
Brutal Orchestra
Another roguelike, but much grimmer thematically. Shades of Binding of Isaac in its story, but more mature in its crude exploitation. A really compelling turn-economy and tile-movement puzzle, let down slightly by the ability-therefore-obligation to kite a single weak enemy for 20 minutes full-healing my party. I had my first 5 hours without losing a run, but it compels me in a way Chrono Ark doesn't. Real gem here, amazed I only heard of it recently as it's a few years old.
Bloomtown: A Different Story
Stranger Things meets Earthbound meets Persona? Heavy on the Persona. I've only played a couple of hours so far but I'm extremely charmed - really captures a sense of childhood irresponsibility in the way it implements its timekeeping, though I haven't had to deal much with the nuts and bolts of it.
The Seance of Blake Manor
I've never failed the tutorial of a puzzle game before. Another Metroidbrainia/Database-em-up/Knowledge game, with a twist I wasn't really prepared for - time passes with each investigative act, and it's very possible to spend too long rifling through cupboards finding blank stationery and miss a crucial event. I'm not convinced I'm going to like this, but 95% positive reviews mean I'll give it a fair shake - I must be missing something.
Kingdom Come: Deliverance II
A bit unfair to review this as I've only played an hour of the intro, but good lord what a bad first impression. Probably some of my issues stem from playing on Linux, but a baffling one is that my Right Stick has what feels like weeks of input lag - but only for camera movement. Mouse inputs is instant, but I flick the right stick and it's fully stationary before the screen changes. Made the tutorial nigh unplayable, and I don't have the wrists for directional melee combat. Want to fix it though, compellingly made.
Is This Seat Taken?
Charming whiner-placement puzzle game. I can see why people were so pleased with this when it launched. I've only played the first set of levels but I enjoyed it a lot. It's a little awkward having to mouse over people to see all their thoughts, but it works well enough. Looking forward to playing more.