The second game I am playing for the Backlog Game Blog is Endorlight.
Endorlight is a 2-D Rogue-like where you are a small person who has to escape from a cave with each level getting progressively more difficult. It was released on Steam in Early Access on December 22nd, 2015 so it’s a rather recent game. However, currently only 66% of the user reviews recommend it so I don’t have high hopes for it. I received a promotional key for the game on the IndieGala Store on February 13th, 2016, otherwise it’s listed for $2.99.
From the promotional videos on the game’s Steam page it looks similar to Devious Dungeon on mobile, just without as much polish. Unfortunately it also sounds like the music will get repetitive after a couple of minutes. Here’s hoping I don’t lose my mind before my 3 hours are up, maybe it’s a diamond in the rough but I’m not going to hold my breath.
Thursday, January 26, 2017
Thursday, January 19, 2017
Darksiders Impressions
After the first 90 minutes or so I've beaten the first boss and have received my first upgrade: a pair of glider wings that are so far only kind of useful. I say only kind of because they don’t carry me as far as I am expecting, the angle of descent is much steeper. The longer distances typically have two vertical boost orbs to get you across, but I think with a slower rate of decay the designers could have reduced that to one booster and made the wings more versatile in the regular stage areas.
I completely agree with what Yahtzee said in his Zero Punctuation review of Darksiders; the combat system is clunky. When I'm in the middle of a chain of blows in one direction I'm still vulnerable from behind and when I'm getting mobbed it's very likely that one of the mooks behind me will land a blow before I can break the chain and turn to face them. It feels like it cheapens the combat a little, but there are ample opportunities to restore health around the levels so it’s not like I died after every two mob fights.
The special moves require all manner of button combos that feel really awkward to use in conjunction with the targeting system and the alternate weapons. For example: to target a single enemy you have to hold down the left trigger, but the Wrath moves use the left bumper with the face buttons so I either have to stop targeting to use a Wrath move or else pull the trigger with my middle finger and use my index finger on the bumper. I’ve tried holding the controller like that for other games and it just feels weird to me.
So far, however, it's not enough for me to give up on the game. I'll probably go back and play through further than the allotted 3 hours for this blog, but I'm not itching to do it right away.
As I’ve reached the first 3 hours I am in the middle of the first Zelda-style dungeon trying to make my way to fight Tiamat, the first of the four demon guardians that block my way into The Destroyer’s spire. I made myself laugh at one point because as I opened a chest I said “You got the Map!” and I did. This game is definitely taking cues from other games, though it seems the list Yahtzee provided in his review was incomplete: One thing he omitted was the several-minute-long Panzer Dragoon section as I made my way to Tiamat’s Dungeon; flying, shooting, and dodging my way through both Angels and Demons to get there.
Otherwise things have been all right. In coming back to the game after yesterday, the controls feel familiar and I’ve had a better time using them. It’s still slightly awkward to target while using special abilities, but I’ve found that it’s almost better to not bother targeting during combat. My other complaint is that the FOV is really narrow and can’t be adjusted in the normal options menu. This is one of the few games where I’ve felt a little discomfort while playing close to the monitor, when I scooted my chair back about a foot the feeling went away so I doubt they changed much from the console release where you’ll typically be 6-8 feet from the screen.
At one point in the second area I was tasked with clearing five of what were effectively Challenge Arenas in order to proceed. Each was a variation on the “Kill [X] enemies within the time limit using [Y] restriction” theme and did well to practice some of the finer points in the combat system. The first two were straight-up timed murder-fests, the second had the twist that I was poisoned and my dwindling health bar was the time limit, but the other three were more interesting: one had me killing a number of enemies with my finishing move which I could use directly on the flying enemies--the most fun was chaining 6 of these mid-air finishers together--but the other ground guys I had to whittle down first; another required me to kill enemies while in the air so I had to use the sword uppercut skill to launch them and then wail on them before we fell back to the ground.
So far nothing’s completely turned me off of the game. I’ve died several times, but it’s been pretty clear that’s from trying too hard to tank the larger mooks rather than dodging and kiting during a melee. Yahtzee was also correct that the enemies will heavily telegraph their strikes as they start an attack chain of their own so getting hit is really more or less my own fault. The story of the game is pretty amateur-hour so far and from the synopsis on the game’s Wikipedia page it doesn’t look like it gets any better so I’m ignoring it for the most part and just beating up the hell-beasts for the fun of it.
I definitely want to go back and at least finish Tiamat’s Dungeon to see what my reward is--I suspect it’s the Not-Hookshot because outside of the entrance there were several lit beacons hanging on the air in a row going off in a direction that looked like the exit to the next area. The rest of the game has some Metroidvania elements: there are ice walls dotted around everywhere and I don’t have a flame-based skill or weapon yet, and there are some bomb spawners that are situated on out-of-reach destroyable walls that I’m sure I could detonate with the Not-Hookshot or some other projectile weapon.
If you already own this game but haven’t played it yet, I think you’d enjoy it. The art style is neat, much of the environment is drab so that War’s costume pops out. He almost looks like a DotA hero dropped into Hellgate: London. However I don’t know that I can recommend that anyone go out and buy it. The gameplay is pretty repetitive and so far I haven’t found any bonus or other satisfaction from combat finesse, you just succeed by hitting the enemies more than they hit you. It’s currently retailing at $20 on Steam and honestly it’s nowhere near worth that. If you can get it for 75% off like I did, either alone or as part of the franchise pack, that’s the only time I would recommend buying it.
ADDENDUM: I originally played this for the blog before the Warmastered Edition came out in October, 2016 so this was written without knowing of any graphical settings updates like an adjustable FOV slider or whatnot that may have been added to the game.
I completely agree with what Yahtzee said in his Zero Punctuation review of Darksiders; the combat system is clunky. When I'm in the middle of a chain of blows in one direction I'm still vulnerable from behind and when I'm getting mobbed it's very likely that one of the mooks behind me will land a blow before I can break the chain and turn to face them. It feels like it cheapens the combat a little, but there are ample opportunities to restore health around the levels so it’s not like I died after every two mob fights.
The special moves require all manner of button combos that feel really awkward to use in conjunction with the targeting system and the alternate weapons. For example: to target a single enemy you have to hold down the left trigger, but the Wrath moves use the left bumper with the face buttons so I either have to stop targeting to use a Wrath move or else pull the trigger with my middle finger and use my index finger on the bumper. I’ve tried holding the controller like that for other games and it just feels weird to me.
So far, however, it's not enough for me to give up on the game. I'll probably go back and play through further than the allotted 3 hours for this blog, but I'm not itching to do it right away.
Darksiders has everything! From Half-Life Barnacles...
... to Prince of Persia Wall-Crawling...
... to a throwing glaive that behaves very much like the Legend of Zelda Boomerang.
As I’ve reached the first 3 hours I am in the middle of the first Zelda-style dungeon trying to make my way to fight Tiamat, the first of the four demon guardians that block my way into The Destroyer’s spire. I made myself laugh at one point because as I opened a chest I said “You got the Map!” and I did. This game is definitely taking cues from other games, though it seems the list Yahtzee provided in his review was incomplete: One thing he omitted was the several-minute-long Panzer Dragoon section as I made my way to Tiamat’s Dungeon; flying, shooting, and dodging my way through both Angels and Demons to get there.
Otherwise things have been all right. In coming back to the game after yesterday, the controls feel familiar and I’ve had a better time using them. It’s still slightly awkward to target while using special abilities, but I’ve found that it’s almost better to not bother targeting during combat. My other complaint is that the FOV is really narrow and can’t be adjusted in the normal options menu. This is one of the few games where I’ve felt a little discomfort while playing close to the monitor, when I scooted my chair back about a foot the feeling went away so I doubt they changed much from the console release where you’ll typically be 6-8 feet from the screen.
At one point in the second area I was tasked with clearing five of what were effectively Challenge Arenas in order to proceed. Each was a variation on the “Kill [X] enemies within the time limit using [Y] restriction” theme and did well to practice some of the finer points in the combat system. The first two were straight-up timed murder-fests, the second had the twist that I was poisoned and my dwindling health bar was the time limit, but the other three were more interesting: one had me killing a number of enemies with my finishing move which I could use directly on the flying enemies--the most fun was chaining 6 of these mid-air finishers together--but the other ground guys I had to whittle down first; another required me to kill enemies while in the air so I had to use the sword uppercut skill to launch them and then wail on them before we fell back to the ground.
So far nothing’s completely turned me off of the game. I’ve died several times, but it’s been pretty clear that’s from trying too hard to tank the larger mooks rather than dodging and kiting during a melee. Yahtzee was also correct that the enemies will heavily telegraph their strikes as they start an attack chain of their own so getting hit is really more or less my own fault. The story of the game is pretty amateur-hour so far and from the synopsis on the game’s Wikipedia page it doesn’t look like it gets any better so I’m ignoring it for the most part and just beating up the hell-beasts for the fun of it.
I definitely want to go back and at least finish Tiamat’s Dungeon to see what my reward is--I suspect it’s the Not-Hookshot because outside of the entrance there were several lit beacons hanging on the air in a row going off in a direction that looked like the exit to the next area. The rest of the game has some Metroidvania elements: there are ice walls dotted around everywhere and I don’t have a flame-based skill or weapon yet, and there are some bomb spawners that are situated on out-of-reach destroyable walls that I’m sure I could detonate with the Not-Hookshot or some other projectile weapon.
If you already own this game but haven’t played it yet, I think you’d enjoy it. The art style is neat, much of the environment is drab so that War’s costume pops out. He almost looks like a DotA hero dropped into Hellgate: London. However I don’t know that I can recommend that anyone go out and buy it. The gameplay is pretty repetitive and so far I haven’t found any bonus or other satisfaction from combat finesse, you just succeed by hitting the enemies more than they hit you. It’s currently retailing at $20 on Steam and honestly it’s nowhere near worth that. If you can get it for 75% off like I did, either alone or as part of the franchise pack, that’s the only time I would recommend buying it.
ADDENDUM: I originally played this for the blog before the Warmastered Edition came out in October, 2016 so this was written without knowing of any graphical settings updates like an adjustable FOV slider or whatnot that may have been added to the game.
Thursday, January 12, 2017
Playthrough 001: Darksiders
Game the first: Darksiders
Released for PC September 23, 2010
Originally bought during the 2012 Winter Steam Sale as part of a Darksiders Franchise Pack that includes the sequel.
Zero Punctuation Review: https://youtu.be/EWTSeTxKLJo
So for my first game the system has chosen Darksiders, a third-person action game from 2010. My understanding of the game is entirely based on the Zero Punctuation review that was published a couple of weeks after the game was released. It originally came out for PS3 and Xbox 360--neither of which I owned--so I didn’t pay it any attention, even when it came out for PC later that year. It wasn’t until the Steam Holiday Sale of 2012 that I had a decent amount of dosh to blow on games that looked like a good deal. I purchased Darksiders as part of the Darksiders Franchise Pack, which also included the sequel and most of the DLC though for some reason at the time did not include the Darksiders 2 soundtrack.
Anyway, I expect this game will be all right. It currently has an average user rating of 89% on Steam, meaning 89% of all user reviews for the game recommend it, and that’s out of over 6,000 reviews. While the “Start off all-powerful then some plot contrivance causes you to lose all your powers and you have to earn them back one at a time” is rather tropish, I’ve enjoyed enough Metroid games that I doubt it will bother me much.
Next time I’ll tell you about my experiences in the first 3 hours of game, see you then!
Thursday, January 5, 2017
Introductions - aka "What's All This, Then?"
Welcome to my blog.
My name is Steffen and I have a massive collection of games on Steam, over 900 as of the new year, roughly 750 of which I have never played. This is what's commonly known as a Steam Backlog, and it only ever seems to grow bigger as I keep buying games faster than I play them.As part of a New Year's resolution to make better use of the things I have, I will be using this blog to chronicle playing through my backlog one game at a time, chosen at random.
I've been a fan of video games for most of my life. When I was a child I would often borrow my uncle's Commodore 64 or Sega Genesis, or his game diskettes for my father's Commodore Amiga computer. The Genesis was the only game console I had at home, but I had friends who owned the NES, SNES, PlayStation, and N64 and we would get together and play a lot.When I was in High School I won a Sega Dreamcast in an online survey drawing and played the ever-loving hell out of the Power Stone demo and watched the Sonic Adventure video many times before being able to buy the full games. Once I got my first regular job I bought a lot of Dreamcast games and accessories. At one point I had at least 6 VMUs in all different colors and controllers to match.I was introduced to Steam around 2005 when I was working at a computer store and went to a LAN party with some of the other guys. While I had been collecting PC games on CD for years, this was a convenient, if novel way to have access to my Valve games and I was able to register my disc copy of Half-Life and got all the non-Source expansions for free as well as Pre-Ordering the Orange Box.Since then my library has expanded quite a bit between Steam Sales, Humble Bundles, and giveaways. I have only myself to blame for this of course; I think I've purchased something like 2/3 of all the PC Humble Bundles available since they started in 2010. At an average 94% discount they're hard to pass up even if I'm only mildly interested in one title.Anyway, with 750 games that I have never played, some I've owned since I joined Steam, I'm going to work my way through them and document my experiences here. They run the gamut of user review scores and quality, so hopefully this will be entertaining whether I love it or hate it.
I will use a random number generator (this one) to select an integer from the set of numbers between 1 and the total number of unplayed games I have which I will then map to a table of my unplayed games sorted alphabetically. Each number will determine the next game that I play with one exception: If a selected game is a sequel or expansion to a game I have not played yet, I will play the original or earliest unplayed instead. For example, I own the first 10 Tomb Raider games on Steam, if any of them are selected by the RNG I will play the original first, then 2, then Adventures of Lara Croft, etc.Prior to my play session I will make a post introducing the game and talking about what I know of it and when and why I bought it. Then I will play the game for three hours and write a follow-up post talking about my experience and whether or not I recommend it. I'm only playing for three hours because that seems like enough time to get a feel for the game but short enough that I can keep up a consistent schedule.
My name is Steffen and I have a massive collection of games on Steam, over 900 as of the new year, roughly 750 of which I have never played. This is what's commonly known as a Steam Backlog, and it only ever seems to grow bigger as I keep buying games faster than I play them.As part of a New Year's resolution to make better use of the things I have, I will be using this blog to chronicle playing through my backlog one game at a time, chosen at random.
A Little About Me
I've been a fan of video games for most of my life. When I was a child I would often borrow my uncle's Commodore 64 or Sega Genesis, or his game diskettes for my father's Commodore Amiga computer. The Genesis was the only game console I had at home, but I had friends who owned the NES, SNES, PlayStation, and N64 and we would get together and play a lot.When I was in High School I won a Sega Dreamcast in an online survey drawing and played the ever-loving hell out of the Power Stone demo and watched the Sonic Adventure video many times before being able to buy the full games. Once I got my first regular job I bought a lot of Dreamcast games and accessories. At one point I had at least 6 VMUs in all different colors and controllers to match.I was introduced to Steam around 2005 when I was working at a computer store and went to a LAN party with some of the other guys. While I had been collecting PC games on CD for years, this was a convenient, if novel way to have access to my Valve games and I was able to register my disc copy of Half-Life and got all the non-Source expansions for free as well as Pre-Ordering the Orange Box.Since then my library has expanded quite a bit between Steam Sales, Humble Bundles, and giveaways. I have only myself to blame for this of course; I think I've purchased something like 2/3 of all the PC Humble Bundles available since they started in 2010. At an average 94% discount they're hard to pass up even if I'm only mildly interested in one title.Anyway, with 750 games that I have never played, some I've owned since I joined Steam, I'm going to work my way through them and document my experiences here. They run the gamut of user review scores and quality, so hopefully this will be entertaining whether I love it or hate it.
The Rules
I will use a random number generator (this one) to select an integer from the set of numbers between 1 and the total number of unplayed games I have which I will then map to a table of my unplayed games sorted alphabetically. Each number will determine the next game that I play with one exception: If a selected game is a sequel or expansion to a game I have not played yet, I will play the original or earliest unplayed instead. For example, I own the first 10 Tomb Raider games on Steam, if any of them are selected by the RNG I will play the original first, then 2, then Adventures of Lara Croft, etc.Prior to my play session I will make a post introducing the game and talking about what I know of it and when and why I bought it. Then I will play the game for three hours and write a follow-up post talking about my experience and whether or not I recommend it. I'm only playing for three hours because that seems like enough time to get a feel for the game but short enough that I can keep up a consistent schedule.
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