52 Games Challenge 2023!!!

[Cartagia]

Couldn't sleep last night so I beat Tails of Iron and got the Platinum which only took about 30-45 minutes after beating it.  Game is definitely worth playing.  The world and combat are GREAT, it just needed better world exploration options like a faster walk speed or more fast travel hubs along with a hair more enemy variety.   

[dhaabi]

09. I Am Dead || PlayStation 5 || 04.09.23

As another game which I knew little about before playing, I Am Dead initially caught my attention by its simple and straightforward title, to be honest. Additionally, after learning that it was a stylized adventure game of short length, I decided there was enough catching my attention for me to begin a playthrough.

Like the title suggests, you as the player-character Pete are dead. I Am Dead begins from a first-person perspective along the beach of Pete's home Shelmerston, where we learn that Pete died recently and is now a ghost. Visiting a museum he managed while alive, Pete is reunited with his also deceased dog Sparky, who serves as a guide of sorts throughout the narrative. After a short reunion, we learn that Shelmerston's safety is in question, as the long-dormant volcano will soon erupt. Apparently, the volcano's activity is stabilized by an island spirit who serves as the island's protector, more or less. However, this spirit has long been needing to move away from this ghostly plane, so we are tasked with finding a new one out of several potential candidates.

In order to find these individuals, we must draw them out by connecting with those still alive who were close to them. To accomplish this, we are to dive into people's memories which will give us a clue as to important objects from the deceased's life and locate these mementos. The details regarding this are interesting, as we learn little details about who these ghosts were through the memories of others—adults, children, humanoid species, and even animals. While exploring, we learn about each of these connected individuals as well, albeit to a lesser degree, in addition to Shelmerston's culture and history. Surprisingly, there is a lot of quirky character given to the world presented, which I appreciated and took my time to read most details while exploring. However, to my disappointment, little time is given when actually meeting these summoned characters. After a short conversation, the player is simply guided to the next stage of the narrative.

As previously mentioned, the chief gameplay revolved around going through people's memories. Complemented by a collection of illustrations, we learn about who these ghosts were while still alive, such as their qualities, relationships, and interests. To progress through this narration, we must reveal the illustration properly as it morphs from being distorted to clear. After learning about items they cherished, players must inspect the environment around us to find them. While inspecting observable items, Pete as a ghost has the ability to delve deep into items' cores, layer by layer. After delving deep inside the environment, only then are we able to reveal what is needed to carry out our goals. Truthfully, it is an odd and certainly unique system that I can best describe as breaking down items piece-by-piece. While playing, I was greatly reminded of a stop-motion animation YouTube channel called XYSS.

Admittedly, the means to achieve all of this are a bit convoluted, but without this layer of gameplay, the game would devolve into much simpler find-it puzzle game accompanied by a still engaging narrative. Alongside the actual narrative objectives, the player is prompted to find two sets of optional and more difficult-to-find items. For the first set of items, you are told what to look for by way of riddles, and the time to solve these clues and locate the items is limited. For the second set, the item in question must be located at a specific angle at a specific layer depth. Knowing what the item is prior to finding it can be challenging at times, as the vignette shown is only of an obscure pattern or outline of combined shapes of sorts. At first, I did not think highly about these extra tasks, but I looked forward to finding them as the game progressed. Initially, I did not quite understand how the second set of items were to be located, as the space items can be hidden is larger than meets the eye. However, auditory, visual, and vibration prompts initiate once in the item's active layer.

While the majority of I Am Dead adopts the puzzle find-it genre for its gameplay, it still is an adventure game at its core. While playing, I was pleased at the amount of dialogue which is all voiced and presented as dialogue boxes with character portraits which update expressions as the conversations moves forward. The game is presented with a simple, modern illustrated style with cartoonish characters and world, which I was greatly attracted to.

With all that said, I did have issues throughout my playthrough. Before completing the first stage, I confirmed that stages can be replayed. However, when I finished the game and was wanting to revisit areas, I could not figure out how for nearly ten minutes. There is no clear indicator as to how it's accomplished, and nothing online described how it was done. I tried interacting with so many segments of the menu screen without luck. Finally, I figured out that you must click the actual map marker itself with is a small and obviously specific UI element easy to overlook. Perhaps it is apparent how to accomplish this simple task, but I was surprised at how poor my experience was with it. While the previous issue was perhaps due to human error and small in hindsight, the second issue is something I have major complaints with. Throughout the narrative, there is a clear problem needing to be solved, and the steps to solve this issue are certainly taken. Despite this, absolutely nothing is formally addressed as to what happens after the final conversation. It was not a matter of interpretation or the story concluding with a cliffhanger. Instead, it truly felt as if the writers forgot to conclude the story.

In spite of the huge disappointment I had regarding the game's finality, I enjoyed playing I Am Dead. The game just happens to follow a find-it puzzle type gameplay, which is coincidental as I've recently played other games like this. While the game's length does not overstay its welcome and is perhaps perfect, I personally would have been happy to learn more about the world and its inhabitants. Overall, if a cute narrative-driven puzzle game sounds interesting to you, you would probably enjoy I Am Dead.

[bikingjahuty]

It's been a crazy last month or so. I've barely had any time (or motivation in some cases) to play anything. I hope to change that now that things have leveled out somewhat. Time to get back on track to beat 52 games this year

[telly]

I put about 12 hours into Twilight Princess HD only to get stuck on the third tears of light quest. One of the bugs I was chasing has glitched into the ground and now I can't recover it  I think I'll need to restart my entire playthrough, so frustrating.

[Cartagia]

Oops, wrong thread!

[kamikazekeeg]

11 - House of the Dead: Remake (PC 2022) - A quick one with this apparently.  I knew it was a remake of an old arcade shooter, but I didn't realize how short a run was lol I think I had a normal run of it in about half an hour and I know there are multiple paths based on how you interact with things, but eh, I can't say I found it fun enough.  Silly, but playing with just a mouse isn't ideal.  It's basically just spamming R and left click as fast as I can.  Kinda annoyingly they locked the other guns behind an achievement, so being stuck with just the pistol the whole first run is really boring.  I ended up just refunding the game on Steam because I can't see myself playing it anymore than I did and it's just way too short, even if I was to replay it one or twice more. 

If light guns were possible again or this came out with a VR version, I'd be down for that, but otherwise, I'd probably pass on it unless you are like a super House of the Dead fan.  Honestly, I'm just waiting on a real good sale for Typing of the Dead Overkill, I think that would be more fun right now lol

[kashell]

30. Mega Man Battle Network

I had a lot of back and forth about whether or not to start the Mega Man Battle Network Legacy Collection with the first game. I heard it was the worst in the series. I'm glad I started with this because it will (hopefully) lay out the foundation of what's to come with later entries. It was definitely rough around edges (the powerplant level can eff right off) and the encounter rate could be a bit much. Also, there was a lot of running back and forth through the towns to just advance the plot. Ultimately it didn't matter too much because I had a great time. If this is indeed the worst of the bunch, then I can't wait to see how the other games compare. I'll probably jump right into Battle Network 2.

[moonlightvalkyrie]

4. Valkyrie Profile: Lenneth (PS4)-My favorite game of all time! It is really hard for me to talk about how great this game is from the story to the gameplay. I fell in love with this from the very first few moments when I played it back in the PS1 days. I was so excited to get the Platinum trophy!

[telly]

30. Mega Man Battle Network

I had a lot of back and forth about whether or not to start the Mega Man Battle Network Legacy Collection with the first game. I heard it was the worst in the series. I'm glad I started with this because it will (hopefully) lay out the foundation of what's to come with later entries. It was definitely rough around edges (the powerplant level can eff right off) and the encounter rate could be a bit much. Also, there was a lot of running back and forth through the towns to just advance the plot. Ultimately it didn't matter too much because I had a great time. If this is indeed the worst of the bunch, then I can't wait to see how the other games compare. I'll probably jump right into Battle Network 2.

I'm so happy you're playing these games I agree, 1 is the worst in the series. I'm afraid that some of the stuff you mentioned (encounter rates, back and forth story progression) only improve marginally throughout the series. What does improve are graphics, level design, chip selection, and other mechanics that can increase the customization options for Mega Man.

I think 2 is solid, but 3 is my personal favorite. I intend to play all of them except 2 since I played it last year. I'm personally excited to play 5 and 6 as those were the ones I had when I was a kid. I'm excited to hear what you think about the rest of the series!

[kashell]

30. Mega Man Battle Network

I had a lot of back and forth about whether or not to start the Mega Man Battle Network Legacy Collection with the first game. I heard it was the worst in the series. I'm glad I started with this because it will (hopefully) lay out the foundation of what's to come with later entries. It was definitely rough around edges (the powerplant level can eff right off) and the encounter rate could be a bit much. Also, there was a lot of running back and forth through the towns to just advance the plot. Ultimately it didn't matter too much because I had a great time. If this is indeed the worst of the bunch, then I can't wait to see how the other games compare. I'll probably jump right into Battle Network 2.

I'm so happy you're playing these games I agree, 1 is the worst in the series. I'm afraid that some of the stuff you mentioned (encounter rates, back and forth story progression) only improve marginally throughout the series. What does improve are graphics, level design, chip selection, and other mechanics that can increase the customization options for Mega Man.

I think 2 is solid, but 3 is my personal favorite. I intend to play all of them except 2 since I played it last year. I'm personally excited to play 5 and 6 as those were the ones I had when I was a kid. I'm excited to hear what you think about the rest of the series!

Glad to hear it! Yeah, I'm pretty sure I'm going to hop right into 2 and take a break after I finish that one. I'm playing a couple of other things now but since I had such a good time with BN I'm craving more of it.

[dhaabi]

10. Minefield || PlayStation 4 || 04.16.23

When reviewing my thoughts for games played, I generally avoid mentioning other games. However, Minefield is a clear rehash of the original Minesweeper found on Microsoft systems from the '90s, so nearly all of my thoughts will be comparing the two. As a fan of Minesweeper for its simplicity and quaint addictiveness, I decided to see what a modern version of the game would be like.

To be brief, the player is presented with a blank grid made up of individual spaces that are either safe or contain mines which will detonate. The goal is to successfully mark each square as being clear or not. When clearing a space by interacting with it, a number is shown which details how many mines—if any—are directly touching it. That being said, there are eight adjacent spaces to one. However, although eight possible mines can theoretically surround a free space like in Minesweeper, the highest number I ever encountered while playing Minefield was five. While the core gameplay is the exact same between the two games, I believe this is the extent of total similarities.

In Minesweeper, there are three field sizes for the player to select which determines how many mines are hidden, although the ability to create custom field sizes is also given. At the same time, I believe that the level of difficulty for each field is automatically determined by the field size. The best addition Minefield offers is that, in addition to being able to select a field size, three preset difficulty options are also available. So, if one were wanting to play on a small field with the highest difficulty selected, that option is possible. On that note, the custom field size feature is absent in Minefield.

Apart from difficulty options being added, Minefield adds little else. For some reason, there is a robust catalog of themes to choose from, which are essentially background images. Even when playing on the smallest field, the image is mostly covered by the grid itself. As a modern game, there are other visual differences, although it is largely relating to some limited animation for when the cursor crosses from one space to another. When a space is selected, the surrounding spaces become raised, although I did not understand its purpose until after I uninstalled the game. For those who understand the rules, it is a visually annoying feature. I would consider it a fair addition for newcomers unfamiliar to the rules, but no rules are ever offered to read, so players must blindly play without any instruction. I will mention that there is a scoring component and leaderboard system as well which differentiates the two games, but that aspect did not interest me whatsoever and was easy to completely ignore.

As a simple game, I was surprised at how many aspects are poorly designed, and especially while knowing how almost perfect Minesweeper is for its time. The biggest issue is that puzzle layout is predetermined once the field loads. This means that, even when selecting the first space which is always a random selection, the player can still fail. This is not an issue in Minesweeper, as it instead creates the puzzle after the player makes their first move. Like in Minesweeper, the total numbers of mines is shown. However, unlike in Minesweeper, the mine number in Minefield never changes. Before, when a player marked a mine space, the number went down so that players are better able to keep track of how many mines remain. That is not the case with Minefield, so the feature altogether serves no purpose. While playing, the game's visual design hinders puzzle-solving. In Mindfield, the spaces' numbers are a dark shade presented on a dark gray space. The contrast is quite poor, so legibility suffers when the large field size is selected as each space becomes much smaller with this setting as both dark blue and dark green are used for numbers 2 and 3. To make matters worse, the software did freeze at one point after I was prompted with a retry/quit screen.

I believe that I redeemed this game through PlayStation Plus many years ago, but I only now decided to try it. I can't suggest to anyone to actually play Minefield, as its source material is far superior.

[kashell]

A friend had a birthday party at an arcade. I spent most of the time on pinball or just dabbling in miscellaneous fighting games that lasted a few rounds. The majority of the game time was spent with this game below.

31. Chicken Shift

I read the title as, well, I'm sure you can figure it out. Anyway, this was a really fun game that I spent a lot of time with. You have two buttons that move chutes that must be toggled as eggs from fall chickens at the top of the screen. These chickens are healthy; the eggs are non-stop. If the chutes are properly aligned, then the eggs land in cartons. You need to get a certain number of eggs in cartons before the level ends. Broken eggs move you close to a game over. All in all, really fun and surprising title that I never even heard of until now.

[dhaabi]

I had the idea to include a small image with each of my game reviews moving forward. I'm hoping that this will allow anyone reading to better understand my thoughts while also quickly grabbing attention as I feel most people become visually interested in things first.

[dhaabi]

11. Gabbuchi || PlayStation 4 || 04.18.23



Continuing to browse the PlayStation Plus Extra's available offerings, I came across the simple-looking puzzle game Gabbuchi. I noticed that it was only available for a few remaining days, so I decided to try it out.

In Gabbuchi, you play as who I'm assuming to be the titular character, Gabbucchi. To be quite brief, your objective is to reach the end goal. As Gabbuchi, there are only four actions you can take: move, jump, eat, and change colors. The puzzle aspect to Gabbuchi lies in that there are blocks along your path of two colors--either white or red. Gabbuchi themself can swap between these two same colors which relates to which color blocks they are able to eat that will reveal a path to level completion. While moving from block to block and removing unneeded ones, you'll then be able to reach your goal. One other element which I'll elaborate further upon later is the satisfaction meter that is illustrated by heart icons which must become full. All that said, with such a simple gameplay mechanic of swapping back-and-forth between two colors, a seemingly straightforward objective consistently proves itself to be more challenging than most would anticipate.

Offering 180 unique levels, Gabbuchi is generally able to maintain player interest without becoming repetitive. After completing about 25% of total stages, new stage components are introduced one-at-a-time that greatly impact how a stage is to be completed. At this time, enemies are introduced which are to be avoided and cannot be eaten. Shortly after, locked doors requiring keys is added. Usually, one set of stages will focus on only one of these added gameplay elements at a time, which allows for the player to gain a better understanding about how what is new works. While I appreciate the core gameplay, toward the end of the initial 25% of stages, I was wanting for something new to happen to allow me overcome new types of challenges. Added stage components perhaps should have been introduced just little earlier, as playing longer sessions did become a little monotonous. I will also mention that there is a stage creator tool, but I did not engage with it. I've read that, while it is a nice feature, it is limited for local play online with no online capabilities being available.

While the main focus is clear stages, there is more required if wanting to perfect each stage. In short, there are three objectives. The first is to find a way to the end goal. The second is to clear the stage with full hearts. The third is to clear a stage with full satisfaction within a limited amount of color change uses. With these three objectives in mind, perfecting a stage is often challenging. In later levels, the difficulty to simply completing the stage becomes much greater, let alone perfecting it. On that note, stages certainly are designed with a trial-and-error type of approach. With each new attempt, players will better understand the visual changes, as empty spaces form with deleted blocks which quite literally create a path as remaining blocks serve as stepping stones to the stage goal.

I'll briefly add that I found Gabbuchi to employ good use of UX. While playing, you will surely come across stages which seem impossible to complete. For those not wanting to overcome such challenge right away or to have the chance to revisit it later, a skip stage option is immediately given after one failed attempt. Similarly, as stages are divided into worlds, only a two-thirds of stages must be completed to unlock to next world. By the time I unlocked the final world, I had the final one-third of stages needing to be completed. Lastly, Gabbuchi is a game that players will die or make a mistake. It is not a matter of if, but when. At any time, an instant stage restart is accessible with a one-button input.

Nevertheless, I did encounter one major issue. However, that issue is not anything relating to the gameplay itself. Instead, of all things, it relates to the game's soundtrack. In total, there are seven tracks: one menu theme, three stage themes, and three stage completion themes, although the final group can be better described as momentary jingles. Each third of the game introduces a new stage and stage completion theme. So, for 60 stages—which I will guarantee that players will spend hours not only playing but actively solving a puzzle—the same track is played. This limitation alone is incredibly monotonous, but the style of music makes something bad much worse. The music quickly becomes irritating, as it is best described as upbeat parade-like songs full of bells, jingles, and noisy woodwinds that easily inhibit players from being able to concentrate. Upon starting stage 61, I genuinely felt a significant moment of relief.

Ultimately, I found Gabbuchi to offer quality puzzle design accompanying one simple mechanic. I played through most of the game in about five long sessions given the time constraint I had access to play, so I would definitely recommend to spread out playtime more.

[kamikazekeeg]

12 - Dead Island 2 (PC 2023) - It's always nice when a game that went through development hell, actually gets to be released, and also be a good game at the same time.  I was originally a fan of this series, initially notorious for that really great trailer that didn't really get across the games actual tone (It's not a very serious game at all outside of one characters storyline), but the first two games were fun, Riptide in particular overall improving from the jank of the first game.

The sequel does a lot right, where it embraces how goofy it is with its characters, the setting, all the violence and gore, the perks you get, it is absolutely not trying to be too serious, it's having fun.  It's that perfect mid-tier level game where it's not trying to be a God of War, or the really huge AAA, genre defining experiences, it's kind of a throwback to that 360 era of gaming where you are just running around, causing havoc, in a semi-open world setting.  It's not Sunset Overdrive levels of silly at all, that's on the extreme end.  I feel like the characters are more like...Grand Theft Auto level, where it's all just abit stylized and pumped up.

Gameplay might feel a tad stiff at first, heavy attacks kinda lock on to enemies depending on where you are striking and that can feel a tad jarring, but like a good half hour of action and I was into it.  They offer a wild amount of customization to your playstyle.  You can choose to have a dodge move or block, a drop kick or more of just a stronger kick, you can do a war cry buff, a stunning power punch, or a ground slam.  And then there's numerous modifiers for your fury mode, ways to gain health or stamina from killing, improving heavy attacks or normal attacks, and there are character specific cards, so you can replay the game with a different character with all their own dialogue and some unique perk elements.  It's honestly a lot, though you aren't forced to play any specific way, like I went with Dani, the punk Irish rocker gal and she has her own stats and special bonuses, but I never felt like I had to play that strength, like I needed to focus on heavy weapons or blades, it was just whatever I wanted to upgrade.

I guess if I had one complaint, is that the ending is kinda split between a cliffhanger and an ending, the main plot is dealt with, and story stuff that's been trickled out as you played will be finished in the expansion content they'll add later.  It doesn't feel like cut content, there's more than enough game here (It took me 22 hours to beat it and that's with...maybe a 70% or 80% completion due to some side quest I still have left to do, it's a great length that doesn't overstay its welcome, it just rubs a little wrong to not have that true ending in the main release. 

I still absolutely recommend this game though, if you just want dumb, fun, zombie slaying, action this is it.  I heard Dying Light 2 was kinda missing the mark on things (I couldn't play it, the launch for it was rough and its performance was awful for me), but this is exactly what I wanted to see.  I'm gonna try to finish up the sidequests I have left, and then down the road, I'll replay it with an all new character with their own entirely different personality.  That's gonna be great.