Tuffty
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Post by Tuffty on Aug 11, 2023 6:00:55 GMT
Deaths Door - 7/10 Death's Door is a 3D isometric action adventure game in the vein of 2D Zelda games or more recently Tunic. You're tasked with killing 3 bosses as a means to unlock the titular Deaths Door which sets you on a journey across different areas where you are mostly fighting enemies with some extremely light puzzle solving thrown in for good measure. The combat can be fast and brutal. You have just 4 pips of health by default with no means of healing mid combat. The aim is to fight your way from one checkpoint to another without dying, expecting to deal with a fair amount of enemies along the way through wave based combat or through a level dealing with enemies and environmental hazards. Coming away from it, I had a decent enough time but ultimately left feeling a bit disappointed. The combat is fast and snappy in a way that's satisfying but some enemy types were annoying to fight and it didn't get easier asking you to fight multiple of them in the same encounter. The combat is also just rather too bland at times with just melee strikes, a charged attack and ranged magic spells, 3 of which behave functionally the same. The boss fights are the most interesting aspect but that final boss has far too much health to ask you to beat, even with upgraded stats. The visual style and presentation brings it up a point but ultimately, the 10 hrs I spent completing this game even seemed too long for what was on offer.
Tunic had incredible adventure and exploration with pretty bad combat and Deaths Door has the inverse. For being two similar games, if you merged the two together you would have a truly incredible game.
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malek86
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Pomegranate Deseeder
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Post by malek86 on Aug 11, 2023 21:17:28 GMT
I liked Death's Door in terms of combat and exploration, but Tunic's metagame was what really elevated it from the rest. In comparison, Death's Door seemed pretty generic - sure it's great at what it does, but what it does is nothing new.
Doesn't mean I wouldn't replay it. In fact, I think it might be almost time for a second run through.
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Post by Rubicon on Aug 12, 2023 9:08:43 GMT
24. Splinter Cell (PC - 2002)
I was in the mood for some stealth action and wanted to see how this fared.
Despite appearances and the amount of options you seem to have it's frustratingly restrictive: turning off/shooting out lights in empty rooms alerts enemies (who also seem able to see through walls), firing your supressed weapons alerts enemies, due to needing to run and jump for some of Fishers moves you alert enemies etc etc. This is aggravated by some levels having enemies spawn in so will react to what you've done despite you being further ahead and when you have limited alarms that can go off then it becomes infuriating. So in the end it's easier to do none of the fun stuff and just dodge from shadow to shadow which given the trial and error nature of the game becomes tedious.
On the flip side there are some action sequences where you finally get to do some shooting but the crosshair takes what feels like an eternity to steady, so you might get one headshot but having to manoeuvre for another throws that off and more often than not you'll be killed by the time it realigns, which doesn't quite sit right given the character your playing.
Visually the game is OK but you'll have the NV googles on for most of it so it doesn't really matter. Cinematics are where the game seems to have aged the worst. Michael Ironside is great and initially I thought it did a good job of capturing that early 2000s spy thriller.
The game may have been great for the time (and later games would improve on it) but its that restrictiveness that holds it back and the lack of any ability to have fun with it which will try the patience.
4/10
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Post by kilters on Aug 12, 2023 21:11:36 GMT
Plague Tale: Requiem 7.5/10
Some slight jankiness aside, this is a solid game with a very well told, intense and dark story. Parts of it are stunning and look almost life like. Good performance from the leads makes for a great ending.
Possibly could have been slightly shorter but highly recommended.
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Post by ToomuchFluffy on Aug 14, 2023 17:13:57 GMT
Homeworld - Deserts of Kharak (11 hours):
Cheating a little bit as I did lose interest after about half of the campaign. But that almost always happens with RTS campaigns and in case of this genre I'm rarely bothered by it.
I instead invested some time in Skirmish mode, which was a better fit for me. The presentation was great in general. Both the in-game cutscenes and the drawn ones are really well done and the developer just has a sense of style that is apparent in almost everything. Delivery of voice lines during the story, the random chatter of units that have discussions on their comm channels, weapons fire that seems proportionally sized, but is still easily recognizable, the music, the way units skid across the sand after being destroyed or a damaged unit moving away with a trail of smoke behind. The desert maps themselves also look quite nice and together with the voicework and music it really is quite atmospheric for an RTS.
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malek86
Junior Member
Pomegranate Deseeder
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Post by malek86 on Aug 14, 2023 22:10:17 GMT
Splinter Cell (PC - 2002) I was in the mood for some stealth action and wanted to see how this fared. Despite appearances and the amount of options you seem to have it's frustratingly restrictive: turning off/shooting out lights in empty rooms alerts enemies (who also seem able to see through walls), firing your supressed weapons alerts enemies, due to needing to run and jump for some of Fishers moves you alert enemies etc etc. This is aggravated by some levels having enemies spawn in so will react to what you've done despite you being further ahead and when you have limited alarms that can go off then it becomes infuriating. So in the end it's easier to do none of the fun stuff and just dodge from shadow to shadow which given the trial and error nature of the game becomes tedious. On the flip side there are some action sequences where you finally get to do some shooting but the crosshair takes what feels like an eternity to steady, so you might get one headshot but having to manoeuvre for another throws that off and more often than not you'll be killed by the time it realigns, which doesn't quite sit right given the character your playing. Visually the game is OK but you'll have the NV googles on for most of it so it doesn't really matter. Cinematics are where the game seems to have aged the worst. Michael Ironside is great and initially I thought it did a good job of capturing that early 2000s spy thriller. The game may have been great for the time (and later games would improve on it) but its that restrictiveness that holds it back and the lack of any ability to have fun with it which will try the patience. 4/10 If you experiment around a bit, there's a surprising amount of things you can do without blowing your cover or esorting to trial and error, especially after you pick up the rifle. It can be equipped to shoot silent electric rounds that stun enemies, bigger rounds that will drop them with two hits, sticky cameras that you can use to learn guarding patterns, and even cameras that attract enemies and blow sleeping gas on them. Smoke grenades are also very good to use on groups and make no noise. Shooting lights or killing enemies with your pistol also won't alert others as long as they are not too close and you don't forget to hide any bodies in the dark (enemies will suspect something if they see the lights out, but as long as they can't find anything and you don't just keep shooting every light you see, they will drop the investigation after a while). Later games would make things more varied, but I think they also lost something in the process: Splinter Cell (and Pandora Tomorrow to a lesser extent) are pretty much the purest form of stealth games imo. There's lots of waiting around, no doubt, and while you can make things easier for yourself in many ways, in the end it still boils down to waiting around in the dark until you find a good moment to move out. To be clear, I play for those moments.
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Tuffty
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Post by Tuffty on Aug 14, 2023 23:52:58 GMT
Bramble : The Mountain King - 8/10
In a year packed with so many stellar games, this is one to look out for. The bulk of the gameplay is a little platforming and a little puzzle solving with very little by the way of 'combat' but one of it's strengths is in the ability to introduce something new to do pretty much constantly in every location you go to that always keeps you engaged. The game usually throws obstacles at you that builds on something you previously learned and the situtations you find yourself in vary from inquisitive exploration to chase sequences to hiding from the big bad monsters. And it's a really intriguing tale too, built up on Nordic folklore, you're essentially traversing through these dark fairytale esque locations to save your sister. There's a content warning when you start the game and it is not kidding, death is omnipresent and brutal in this game when you're on the receiving end. Thankfully the checkpointing is extremely forgiving. It's short, about a 3-4 hr playthrough all told, but the price reflects it and I would give it an easy recommend.
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Post by ToomuchFluffy on Aug 15, 2023 15:13:19 GMT
Warhammer 40,000: Mechanicus (28 hours):
I started on it in June, but got distracted by other games and have only come back to it about a week ago. I had already started enjoying it more back then as more options started to be introduced and I had unlocked a third party member. That is frankly the aspect of it that I enjoyed the most: The decision-making what to upgrade, what to equip, thinking about how different disciplines combine and so on.
I honestly don't remember what difficulty I started on. I assume Normal, though from what I'm reading there apparently is a lot of difficulty customization that I completely missed. Overall it was a bit too easy, but until the end it didn't feel like too much of an issue. One of the more difficult missions was one of the "Normal" ones early on. I wasn't quite prepared for Deathmarks and Destroyers. "Hard" missions weren't really and that was also true for the boss scenarioes. But there was some good scenario design. Even though I felt that a lot of the events that happen during map exploration and the various bonuses and penalties they can apply, were too random and it does not seem integrated with the combat encounters. They are thematically fitting though.
Other than that the enironmental visuals weren't particularly remarkable, but there is a good variety of satisfying weapon effects and sounds and the soundtrack (electronica & chorals/church music) is unique and fitting as well.
I did appreciate the simplicity of the equipment and levelling system and the way many of the elements intertwine. The only problem was that the game throws too much currency at the player, so that after a while my tech priests were more limited by their slots than by ressource constraints. Still, lots of choice when it comes to equipment and the ranged weaponry has enough options that are different in damage type and functionality to keep things interesting. There is a good amount of variety when it comes to enemy types as well. I did encounter some of them way more than others though. I couldn't say too much about Lychguards or Vargards, but aside from the more common types there were a lot of Praetorians and Immortals. The Awakening meter pushed me towards finishing the game, so maybe some of those were more prevalent in the tombs were I didn't do too many missions.
In any case, in spite of some balance issues I quite enjoyed it and will definitely come back for a replay sooner or later.
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Post by Aunt Alison on Aug 15, 2023 17:58:16 GMT
Children of Morta A fun little Diablo lite with roguelite elements and a nice story It felt quite short but I had a break about half way through so can't remember how long I had played it for before then. I wouldn't call that a negative anyway You have your basic skill trees for each character and then pick up items that offer various benefits or augment your skills in certain ways during runs, all of which are lost at the end of it (base skills are persistent). Runs are dungeons around 2-4 levels each and a boss. Stats like damage, health, critical chance, etc are upgraded between runs using Morv (gold) collected during runs and are applied to all characters
Runs themselves feel very much like a fairly simplistic Diablo but without the loot. One of the characters is basically a whirlwind barb. A lot of the music reminded me of it as well and the pot smashing sound might be the exact same one. The characters all felt varied and fun to play. I think my favourites were probably Lucy, Mark and Linda (mage, monk and archer) The story is very intimate and focuses largely on the family of characters you play as and their generational duty as guardians of a mountain that's going through a rough patch, which I liked a lot. Most of the story and dialogue is told via a single narrator who does a really great job Completing it unlocked a new game plus with increased difficulty and level caps. I can see myself going back for that. There's also a separate mode that sounds like more of a roguelike without any saved progression and permadeath Cool little game
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Post by Trowel 🏴 on Aug 15, 2023 18:03:06 GMT
I'm about halfway through Children of Morta at the moment, it's a gem.
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apollo
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Posts: 1,504
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Post by apollo on Aug 15, 2023 18:34:49 GMT
Mass effect 2 legendary edition
Its a shame they didn't improve of fix any of the issues, the graphics do look good for such old game no doubt to the work but it would of been amazing (or you could say legendary) if they fixed the animation, tweak the mechanics or made lot more improvements. ME1 got some great improvements as it was old but this needed as well. Still hate jack, she is this linkin park era emo try hard. Could of been written so much better. Grunt is no Wrex and grunt just keeps saying "I am krogan!!!" a lot if you take into fights, gets annoying as fuck. Rest of the cast are good although the DLC ones don't have much speech compared to the main characters, no doubt EA making them DLC characters
Firewalker/overlord DLC -4/10
firewalker missions which is hovercraft you get and they are barebone missions. The ending of Overlord is ok but getting there is combat heavy slog
Lair of the shadow broker 7/10-ish Apart from the awful chase mission that handles like broken shopping trolley (no work has gone into it) its good.
Its very combat heavy game and feels more run and gun at times as EA wanted to appeal the COD/gears crowd as the RPG aspects from the 1st game where cut heavily. The end boss still feels out of place, so many devs just throw in some huge end boss with glowing weak spots as its common game design thing
Overall its good trip down memory line but they missed the chance to fix the mistakes. Also they never fixed the constant crashing on the human colony mission early on (xbox ver)
7/10
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Post by simple on Aug 18, 2023 0:00:26 GMT
As much as I love the games and think that Legendary Edition is an epic that belongs in any game library the final boss in 2 has never made sense to me.
Its the sort of thing they’d throw at you in a 16-bit game during the era of every game having an Ed-209, xenomorph and terminator knock off in them.
Sonic The Hedgehog Game Gear version in Sonic Origins
The Master System version is my Sonic. I could complete it without losing a life on a good day and this is more or less the same game. A couple of the levels and bosses are a bit different but the main thing is its extremely zoomed in and cropped. Mostly that means missing out in seeing more nice level art but later on it turns a couple of straight-forward timed jump sections into a series of leaps of faith.
Theres also some pretty severe slowdown anytime there are object like collapsing platforms in action.
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Post by baihu1983 on Aug 19, 2023 13:42:14 GMT
The ME2 end boss was terrible which is a real shame considering how good the rest of the mission is.
What Remains of Edith Finch 2/5
I'm not a big walking simulator fan but at least give them a slightly faster walk. I like the idea of each story having a different style but the Horror film and Video game fantasy are the only 2 I found slightly fun to play. And just all too grim really for me to get into the story.
Did laugh at the end of the hunting trip story though.
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mrpon
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Posts: 3,547
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Post by mrpon on Aug 21, 2023 14:18:32 GMT
Firewatch (PS4/5 - £3.74 currently)
A fairly short, narrative heavy first person walkathon. Essentially, get from point a to point b with just a compass and a map. Lovely visuals, melancholy music and a lot of voice work, the two leads are great. Probably around 4-5 hours so <£4 sounds good to me.
7/10
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Post by cptjohnnycasino on Aug 21, 2023 15:46:24 GMT
Inside - Xbox series X via Games Pass
Heard great things about this and really enjoyed 'Limbo' from the same folks.
Incredibly atmospheric and ominous in buckets, in a good way! Quite often big spectacle AAA games have so much going on that I find it hard to fully immerse myself and understand the scale of what I'm in. Didn't have that issue with this game, the pared back "simple" presentation really allowed me to take in the stark environment and sense of dread.
Definitely a bit of an odd ending that I didn't expect. Shamefully had to look up a couple of solutions to puzzles too!
Highly recommend to anyone looking to lose 3-5 hours.
8/10
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Post by harrypalmer on Aug 22, 2023 11:04:53 GMT
Inscryption - 9/10 - PS Premium/Extra
A very unsettling horror themed roguelike deck builder with a lot more going on, which I won’t spoil. I found it great to play, funny, surprising, emotional and scary. A banger.
One of the most original games I’ve ever played. Reminded me of Undertale. My only real complaint is that the card game got progressively less enjoyable as I progressed.
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Post by dfunked on Aug 23, 2023 7:22:09 GMT
Dave the Diver (Steam) - 9/10
Bloody excellent game that just keeps adding more stuff to the mix. Has a few annoying fetch quests, but aside from that it's mostly gold. It could probably do with some automation for harvesting fish and veg later in the game, which is kind of putting me off coming back to clean up the last few cheevos.
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Post by Rubicon on Aug 23, 2023 8:18:25 GMT
25. The Darkness II (PC)
I'd come into this not familiar with the comic book and only ever played the demo of the original game back on the 360.
If plot is important to you then I'd suggest playing the original first (if you can find a copy) as it's more character driven than I'd expected it to be but still easy enough to follow. Visually the cell shaded graphics still look great as do the animations and it's one of those games that looks great in motion. The voice cast is top notch with Mike Patton in there and only takes about 5/6 hours to complete so good if you want a quick blast of something.
I did have some issues with the games use of light, which as someone who suffers from headaches, I found disorientating as you accidentally stumble into a pool of light and are blinded whilst having Mike Patton hissing in your ear over and over. I assume it's meant to be strategic but it breaks up the flow of combat as you try and grab an enemy only to realise you can't and your getting your face shot off.
I know I should like this but I found there were more frustrating moments than bits I actually enjoyed.
6/10
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Post by baihu1983 on Aug 23, 2023 8:47:44 GMT
Think both are on sale at the moment on Xbox
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Post by ToomuchFluffy on Aug 24, 2023 18:47:16 GMT
Inquisitor - Martyr (38 hours):
That's if for the first playthrough with a Crusader. Main story plus two of the side investigations, which are smaller, narrated chains of missions. Aside from that there are also various other mission types, but I barely engaged with them.
The story was handled fairly well with the writing and voice acting being decent and it fits the Warhammer 40k setting. The story went through some twists and turns and while it could seem that it drags its feet a bit, it worked well enough narratively. It just takes its time and sends you all over the place for various reasons. The story is simple, so they eventually had to invent reasons to get more running time out of the campaign and these various diversions from the main objective stretch believability a bit, but moment to moment it was still fun, so I didn't have reason to complain.
Gameplay was fun and the loot grind not too bad. The amount of drops isn't too extreme and the same is true for the amount of numbers on the items. The constant loot management still wastes time needlessly, but at least there were some items that I actually cared about and Crafting allows for a lot of adjustment. Weaponry is varied and all weapons had four attack skills associated with them, which seemed a bit much at first. But it offers a good amount of flexibility and and makes everything decently viable. Visually the gear also changes based on item level and possibly rarity, which was a nice touch.
Atmospherically it merely seemed ok. Maps and themes are as maximum grimdark as you might imagine, but there is a decent variety, so it seemed good enough and a lot elements of the environments are breakable. There was a good variety of music, but nothing that stood out to me. The hub that one returns to after every mission is tiny and never opens up.
Overall I'm fine with it, but it doesn't leave a good impression in the performance department.
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Post by kilters on Aug 24, 2023 19:15:05 GMT
Deathloop 8/10
Enjoyed this a lot. Takes about an hour for it to click but once the loop starts making sense, lots of fun can be had with the various routes an powers. Unmistakably Arkane in a good way with fantastic level design and ingenious upgrades to abilities that allow you to complete objectives differently.
That said enemy AI isn't great and overall it felt a tad too easy. But it did make progression steady and the end came before it got tedious.
Shout out to the turrets. Created some epic killzones with them. Love me a game with turrets. Highly recommended.
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apollo
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Posts: 1,504
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Post by apollo on Aug 25, 2023 9:49:46 GMT
Everspace 2 - 6/10
Best described as "but we have starfield at home" Its a shame the devs didn't listen to more of the user's feedback when it was in early access. As it could of been 8/10 but quickly the game falls back on tired mission design and grinding resources (which need a lot of and there is loads of different resources) to get upgrades, update your gear etc.
There is something there that made me complete it, the ship combat is good and once you get better ships, its really fun (better ships cost a lot, so you need to buy resources cheap and find the right system to sell them for high price and you need to find a guide as the game does not tell you) The tier 4 ships are horrible grind to get as stuck behind upgrade tree and are expensive AF. The devs need to go back and balance the game as they fall back on ramping up levels forcing you to grind levels even on very easy. My tier 3 heavy vindicator ship wrecked everything, the light ships are pretty shit unless you want to do the optional races
Glad its gamepass title as never want to start a new game now. It made me want to play starfield more
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lukasz
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Meat popsicle
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Post by lukasz on Aug 25, 2023 15:31:13 GMT
Cyberpunk 2077
Started the game in February and finally I managed to complete it.
I have played all 5 endings earlier in the month, with 6 one not being accessible to me, but for past few weeks i was grinding money to buy all the cars which got me achievement and allowed me to explore city more by doing gigs and crime fighting. some really nice environments and ended up in some places I have not seen before yet they were pretty detailed and suprising.
Great game, on pc, with mods 2.5 years after a release. but not as strong as TW3.
Main issue is that every character exists separately from other characters. You do not get river and Rogue interaction, Panam and Judy, Kerry and Perelez.
So game feels more lonely. Less connected. Didnt feel that with TW3 where it felt like characters are living their own lives, greatly affected by Geralt but independent from him and are part of the world without Geralt. Here it seems they all exist for V's purpose. When V is not around they wait patiently for her to show up so they can do stuff.
Will replay the game some day. with phantom liberty, but it should be years before it happens. maybe 2026?
Games this year: 08/01 - Horizon Zero Dawn: The Frozen Wilds
17/01 - Horizon Zero Dawn - ultra hard, all achievements
06/02 - Pillars of Eternity
26/07 - Vampire Survivors
26/08 - Cyberpunk 2077
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Post by deekyfun on Aug 25, 2023 16:06:01 GMT
The thing is, I think lonely perfectly suits the theme.
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Post by pierrepressure on Aug 27, 2023 13:11:45 GMT
Rogue Legacy 2 - 9/10
Loved this, loved the first one too.
Everything is bigger with more ways to tool up before each run.
I understand it doesn't truly open up until the first time you complete it but I had my fun, I need to return to FFXVI!
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Post by baihu1983 on Aug 27, 2023 19:42:19 GMT
Sherlock Holmes Chapter One
Enjoyed the story and liked it having a personal quest going on throughout the case solving.
Detective stuff was good and a nice amount of side quests. Also looks pretty nice at times though still has that old style of characters barely moving while talking. Very Mass Effect 1.
Open world felt a bit lifeless and the combat sections suck.
3/5
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Nanocrystal
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Post by Nanocrystal on Aug 28, 2023 1:45:01 GMT
The Forgotten City - PS5
The game that began as a Skyrim mod and was eventually developed into a standalone game by its small (3 person) dev team. You find yourself trapped in a time loop in a small Roman-era city of about 20 inhabitants and are tasked with both solving a mystery and finding a way out. It's a narrative-heavy affair where you spend most of your time talking to the NPCs, who each have unique and interesting backgrounds, motivations, needs and relationships with the others. The writing, characterisation and overall story is the game's biggest strength, and the voice acting is superb across the board. There are some dialogue options that I genuinely had to think carefully about, which seems all too rare in modern games.
Given the small dev team it's not surprising that there's a bit of jank (some dodgy facial animations and lacklustre combat, though thankfully not too much of the latter), but I could easily look past those issues thanks to the engaging plot and unique setting. The game also features a hint system that very much leads you by the hand... I actually found this quite well implemented (it is explained in-game) as it made progress frictionless and kept the running time fairly short (around 10 hours). There are multiple endings with the "best" ending being particularly good. Yeah, really enjoyed this.
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lukasz
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Post by lukasz on Aug 28, 2023 1:53:55 GMT
The Forgotten City - PS5. Yeah, really enjoyed this. Aaaaaanddd wishlisted. How long it took you to beat. Edit. Ah. 10h. Perfect. Will get it for sure at next sale to take break from bg3
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Nanocrystal
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Post by Nanocrystal on Aug 28, 2023 1:57:46 GMT
lukasz It's not long, around 8-10 hours or so. I guess longer if you turn off the hint system.
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Duffman5
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big cook, little cook welcome to our cafe
Posts: 1,332
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Post by Duffman5 on Aug 28, 2023 6:28:28 GMT
The Forgotten City - PS5. Yeah, really enjoyed this. Aaaaaanddd wishlisted. How long it took you to beat. Edit. Ah. 10h. Perfect. Will get it for sure at next sale to take break from bg3 Also had my eye on this for a while, I'm currently playing about 6 games so why not add this into the mix!
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