The last game you completed

[Johnway]

Forgot to mention it, so i'll do it now. As i mentioned on the other thread, i completed Huntdown. A 2d side scrolling platform shooter for 2 players. A cracking game with top notch presentation and gameplay.

Visually its very impressive each level having different detailed backgrounds that are visually pleasing. To top it off the audio work is impressive the rocking soundtrack sets the tempo, the voice work is brilliant and it captures that 80s tone nicely. the trash talking never gets old.

Below is one of my fav soundtracks as you charge across the highway:

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-6P4FLcIAaM&list=OLAK5uy_lFY6F9obLNl79l6qi1UQwqcDxPQvQHwJA&index=10



Gameplay is standard run and gun platformer similar to metal slug and like that game its all well done. You can pick from 3 bounty hunters and switch between them as and when you want. I obviously opted for Mow Man the puntastic dry witted killer android namely he's balanced between the 2 other bounty hunters when it comes to basic weapon and secondary. The gameplay loop does stay fresh as each level offers different (escalating) challenges/scenarios and a varied bunch of enemies and weapons. It keeps it all interesting and again with the banging sound track, visuals and voice work its a joy to continue.


Edit as promised heres a gif. I was messing around how all this uploading thing worked:

Outside of the gameplay you can work towards medals and they're just kill x number of guys, collect the 3 stashes and/or complete the level without dying. rinse and repeat. Oh there are secrets but honestly i never found them. I only know because i found one and didn't really understand the significance of it.

I played it on normal and overall i found the difficulty about right, its gets progressively more difficult as in later stages you face better armed gangs and i didn't think there weren't any seriously uneven random difficulty spikes. Its pretty generous with checkpoints, weapons and resources etc. OK, some of the bosses i had real trouble with but that was on the final act and once you get the pattern down its usually a cakewalk. On normal anyway. Observe, adapt and overcome. Oh, and stay calm, too often i would lose because i choked.

The only downside is that its a bit short. I finished it in less then 5 hours on normal. But considering there was 20 levels split over 4 stages, i think its more my fault that i finished the game so quickly. Like a kid with a box of top luxary chocolates, i've eaten the whole lot in an evening. That said, once you've completed the game, theres very little more to go back to. Perhaps trying and collect any missing collectables, maybe try and beat each level without dying or try out arcade mode. As far as i can see, harder difficulty is essentially the same game but you take fewer hits before dying. if you could beat normal without dying/taking a hit you'll probably beat the higher difficulties no problem. I did get this on the epic store so no achievements to unlock, even less reason for me to hang around after beating it,

Would i recommend the game? For the price i got it absolutely. Its probably one of few games recently (or this year) that elicited any feeling resembling fun in me. Get it half price and you're onto a winner.

 

[Johnway]

I'll quickly add another one to the list. I finished the legend of zelda a link to 2 worlds on the 3ds

An interesting game this. The game is a sequel of sorts to the Snes game a link to the past and it uses the same hyrule down to the same layout. The good news was that it wasn't some sort of remaster of the game. In reality its a halfway house: hyrule maybe be practically intact layout wise, but the game does enough to be its own game. I found myself in this interesting situation that it was something familiar and yet refreshingly different at the same time.

Ok i'm rambling on, lets get into details. Visually i can't complain its nice and pleasant, the 3ds 3d effects are cool if unnecessary (it feels like looking into a glass box). What really was great was the improvement in controls. no more 90degrees attacks, i've got full 360 movement and attack now! makes combat less awkward or clunky.

The QOL stuff doesn't end there though. dual screens means i can have a handy map that i can mark and even tells me my next objective(s) and is my inventory screen as well. Truth be told i wouldn't have been able to appreciate all of it if the game hadn't told me about it. Quick travel! hyrule/lowrule may not be that big, but its certainly damn useful.

But the best part? Right from the outset you can RENT or even out right BUY most of the tools. Bombs, the hookshot, ice/fire staffs etc are all found in one location no need to hunt for them. it means you can minimize back tracking and you have the tools to go practically everywhere and complete any dungeon in any order instead of fruitlessly wandering (assuming you have the item). ok, there are a few things, such as the titan mitts and you still have to work out WHEN you need them. But whatever, minor stuff.

Gameplay wise its your standard zelda title. So if you've played any on the handhelds or the snes you know what you're getting into. None of the nintendo quality was lost as its jolly fun. The portrait feature is useful/interesting enough as you can travel between worlds from various cracks/solve puzzles and isn't a completely shoehorned gimmick.

Whilst its set in the same hyrule as in a link to the past, there is a significant amount of new content, lowrule is a completely different map (what happens when the triforce a force of good, becomes a force of destruction and downfall of its people?), there are plenty of side stuff you can do etc and travelling around was entertaining. Whilst i didn't particularly get the hang of the baseball game, its a welcome change of pace. The game itself is relatively easy with most of the dungeons being surprisingly short for what they are, but then, i'm a 36 year old hardened gamer with prior experience so whatever. I prefer a game that's easier to maintain the momentum and flow then a headscratching cryptic puzzle that results in my game grinding to a halt.

So was there ANY criticisms? The only one that springs to mind is the camera angle at times made navigation (intentionally?) difficult or hard to spot, but i've seen worse. The clean visuals usually was enough to figure it out. Terrenigma i'm looking at you.

So yeah, unsurprisingly a glowing review and recommendation from me. Enjoyed the time playing it. it had an interesting story and setting to keep me entertained throughout.

 

[WoodenSaucer]

I'll quickly add another one to the list. I finished the legend of zelda a link to 2 worlds on the 3ds

A Link Between Worlds is a great game. I loved it. The only 2D Zelda game I liked more was The Minish Cap, just because I loved the shrinking mechanic. But the 3D wall mechanic in ALBW was awesome, too.

 

[Johnway]

A Link Between Worlds is a great game. I loved it. The only 2D Zelda game I liked more was The Minish Cap, just because I loved the shrinking mechanic. But the 3D wall mechanic in ALBW was awesome, too.

That was the beauty of it. You think its just a flat 2d world faux 3d and in fact is actual true 3d and added to the experience. plus it was a pretty handy for dodging and fleeing when things got too hot to handle. Now i need to figure out what to play next. i was playing liberty cities and the original persona but they feel tedious and vapid atm.

 

[PointnClicker01]

Time to conclude on some games I've recently finished:

#1 Agent A: A puzzle in disguise

Agent A: A puzzle in disguise on Steam

A suave secret agent adventure game. Your mission (should you choose to accept) is to infiltrate enemy spy Ruby La Rouge’s secret hideaway and put a stop to her evil plans!

store.steampowered.com

A classic PnC adventure with a solid and amusing storyline. The riddles and puzzles are well balanced and I hardly ever got stuck, which ist quite surprising as there is no hint/help system in the game. For experienced PnC players, this may be a short adventure of about 2-4 hours, so pricewise, I'd recommend to get this game only when on sale. All in all I'd give the game a 6/10, ( 8/10 if you get it for the discount price I got it).Thanks again to @Brian Boru for pointing this game out to me.

#2 Puzzle Agent 1 & 2

Puzzle Agent on Steam

Created with indie comic artist Graham Annable's unique narrative and visual sensibilities, delivered with the distinctive Telltale storytelling style, Puzzle Agent is sure to challenge, thrill and engage in more ways than you can shake a cryptogram at!

store.steampowered.com

Puzzle Agent 2 on Steam

Agent Nelson Tethers just solved his biggest case yet. So why isn't he satisfied? Venture back to eerie Scoggins, Minnesota to solve the mystery of "the Hidden People" once and for all!

store.steampowered.com

Another classic PnC adventure with a lovely style. It didn't take me long to warm up with the main character Agent Thethers, Special Agent of the FBI Puzzle Devision. The gameplay ist quite forward and well guided - sometimes almost too guided in my opinion.
I missed the freedom to explore the game on my own, open several leads at once and get me all messed up, before slowly getting to the bottom of things. Instead, between the puzzles its always clear what to do. Either Agent Thethers or the other people in the game point it out to you in the conversations. So for experienced PnC addicts like me, the game is made almost too easy - not including the puzzles. However, the game tries to make it up with integrating many many puzzles throughout the gameplay. Given the fact, that the name of the game is Puzzle Agent, and Agent Thethers is from the FBI Puzzle Devision, it is to be expected that you have to solve puzzles.
The puzzles were ok in my opinion, all were solvable with or without hints and I'd say the puzzles from the second game were a tick harder than the ones from the first game.
About the story... It didn't really catch me. Also, the ending sections of both games were a bit too crazy. It was enjoyable but I wouldn't replay the series.
I think the series would be a good start for adult players who are new to the genre of PnC. All in all I'd give the first game a 6/10 and the second a 7/10 (because they improved the introduction to the gameplay there and made the puzzles more balanced). Thanks to @Pifanjr for pointing out the series to me.

 

[Pifanjr]

About the story... It didn't really catch me.

But that was the best part!

 

[PointnClicker01]

But that was the best part!

Ah.. I‘m sure there‘s many people - you included - who love those kind of stories Unfortunately, not me

 

[Brian Boru]

riddles and puzzles are well balanced and I hardly ever got stuck, which ist quite surprising as there is no hint/help system

I agree, if we can just get a mirror out:
Riddles and puzzles are all over the place and I always got stuck, which is not remotely surprising as there is no hint/help system.

There, that sums it up nicely—don't let our silver-tongued Swiss cheeser fool you, you need a good memory between game sessions and good spatial awareness to get thru this thing. Maybe I made the mistake of making it my goto short break game, but I lost track of the locations and objectives half-way thru.

Or maybe I'm getting dumber—been associating too much recently with a moronic Santa and an illiterate, perhaps

 

[Brian Boru]

#2 Puzzle Agent 1 & 2

Bought #1 five years ago, and you guessed it…
#2 has been in bundles 6 times since release, so that's likely the value way to get it if you like to bundle up—was also free on Prime for a month last December, which makes more sense for a short game with little replay value.

 

[Brian Boru]

Puzzle Agent
~50 puzzles
Unclear instructions
Appealing, humorous
Rating 75%
Personal take 60%

I knocked off 15% for my take due to:
Unclear instructions—I had a few 'puzzling' moments wondering what was wrong with my solution, which required reinterpreting the instructions a different way;
Credits rolled at end, couldn't escape out of it, had to Alt+Tab & kill it from Taskbar;
I didn't get any summary score of how I did overall, or even if I got all the puzzles.

I recommend this for sure to puzzlers, apart from the above the puzzles are mostly easy enough to figure out, and the setting and interactions are quirky and funny a lot of the time.

ETA:
How Long to Beat

Main Story	3h 27m
Main Story And Extras	3h 45m
Completionist	4h 09m

 

[JarlBSoD]

Just finnished my 6th or so, playthrough of Masseffect 1, first one in the legendary edition though, and i finniesd the domination campaign in Warhammer Total war 3, as VALKIA The oh so Bloody!

 

[WoodenSaucer]

Brian mentioned that I should put my write-up here, so here we go...

Monday, I finally beat Immortals: Fenyx Rising. I'm not a fast gamer. It took me about 68 hours to upgrade most of my abilities and finish the story. I didn't 100% it, though. I probably could have spent at least 80 hours total on the game if I wanted to try to do everything. Maybe more.

But the game was absolutely amazing. In fact, I think it was probably my 3rd favorite game of all time, after Skyrim and Breath of the Wild. The game play is a lot like BotW, but there are differences. Overall, BotW has the edge on being a better game, but Fenyx Rising actually does some things better.

Similarities:
They're both open world games with regions on the map that are revealed when you climb a tower/statue. BotW has "shrines" that are like small puzzle-based dungeons that give you a reward that you can use to upgrade your health or stamina. Some of the shrines are combat-based. Fenyx Rising has the same thing, only they're called Vaults of Tartaros. Most are puzzle-based, but some are combat-based. The reward in FR is Zeus's Lightning that goes toward upgrading stamina. Both games, you can climb everything, except you can't in shrines/vaults. Both games feature gliding. Both games have potions for health, stamina, attack, and defense that you can craft out of foraging. The gameplay is very similar. Even the overarching format is the same. In BotW, you have 4 Divine Beasts, which if you beat them all, each one aides you in fighting the final boss. In FR, you save 4 Greek gods, and they end up aiding you in fighting the final boss. Lol, they figured out how to be a blatant rip-off, yet create a completely different game.

Differences:
Fenyx Rising is based on Greek mythology, and it does the story much, much better than BotW does its story. In my opinion, FR's vaults are probably a little better done than BotW's shrines. In FR, all of the good guys, except the gods, are turned to stone, so you don't have any interaction with friendly NPCs, like you do throughout BotW. That's one downside. Because of that, FR feels more like a game, while BotW feels more like a life experience. That gives BotW the edge. FR isn't nearly as big and varied as BotW. BotW has 4 "Divine Beasts," which are like their larger dungeons, and they're completely different than the shrines. FR has a few larger dungeons, but they're just bigger vaults, so they're not that much different. Having said that, the vaults do have a lot of variety to them. And I think the final boss sequence was done a lot better in Fenyx Rising. Also, FR has what they call "Myth Challenges" scattered throughout the world. They give you coins that allow you to upgrade your abilities, and they're really fun to do. Those are some of the highlights of the game.

Overall, BotW is a little better game, and the atmosphere is different (but great) in both games. But even though I'm comparing Fenyx Rising to Breath of the Wild so much, it does stand as an amazing game on its own right. I highly recommend it to everyone.

 

[Johnway]

So another game completed on my raspberry pi during my Lunch hour. This time its Enix's Terranigma. The game was released in 1995 so probably one the last SNES games to come out and considered a hidden gem and one of those hidden RPG classics. Amazingly this game never made it to US shores!

Terranigma is what you get when you take influence from all the top RPG games on the SNES. Use Legend of zelda as a base, add a cup of Chrono trigger for the plot and a pinch of Secrets of mana for magic and other binding agents. To put it mildly, its an open world Action RPG.

The plot revolves our carefree local jerkass prick troublemaker kid Ark who one day goes into the forbidden basement and triggers quite literally world changing events ny opening pandora's box... The local village is is frozen in time including Elle Ark's girlfriend of sorts and only Ark and the elder are free from the affliction. The elder of the village tells Ark that the only way to save/restore the village is to go out and activate the 5 towers in the world. Unbeknownst to Ark, by activating the 5 towers also rebuilds the surface world: AKA Earth as well, each continent brought forth from destruction.

So job, done village restored right? Well. not quite. Ark is exiled from the village by the elder and sent forth down/up to Earth and fix that place as well. The 5 towers shaped the world, now he has to restore life to it. And so the journey continues....

So far so standard. But play through the game there is an interesting story that's too spoiler heavy but its filled with plenty of twists and turns, filled with betrayal and heroism etc. its just a shame that its not exactly well delivered in places and it doesn't really come together until the end. That said it does deliver some serious situations, at one point Ark will encounter a wife forced to eat her dead husband to survive and offers Ark a place at the table. Ok, She is (literally) a mountain goat and her male husband mountain goat died in the avalanche but still, that's hardcore stuff especially for kids to witness. The ending itself is bittersweet. if you want the full story, go to the wikipedia article and read it there.


But enough of the story, what about the game itself? The first hour was fantastic. The graphics were amazing, combat felt good (you could attack freely using a variety of moves, block attacks and money is easy to come by) but best of all was the soundtrack. For first impressions it was presented very well and i had a good feeling for the game. The auto healing was a welcome QOL step, you could heal outside of combat and use the life bulbs during fights when you had to deal with bosses etc.

Unfortunately, once you get to earth, the whole thing starts to wobble. Stripped of the auto healing you're left with the healing bulbs to heal. Enemies only drop cash so what healing you carry into the map is all you get. The bigger problems revolve around gameplay/design ideas so great that it seriously impacted my enjoyment. I can boil it down into several key points:


1. overly long levels, . Saves are few and far between. once you commit to a dungeon/level you're going to be in there for a while and there's no saves until you leave (by retreating or beating it)

2. The bloody mary fight. It was all going so well until i reached mid game facing bloody mary. its not fun doing 3-8 dmg when she has a life pool of 300... Didn't invest in magic? tough luck you're in for the long grind. Eventually i got to the bit where i was facing robots and it took absolutely ages. had to grind but generally if you get to level 36/37 you should be good. That said, for most of the time its a cake walk apart from bosses.

3 . dodgy design issues. Probably my biggest gripe with this game. Far too often i was found stuck because of ambiguous level design, features that look like background elements are actually paths or ladders and how it all blends together makes it difficult to spot.
others are hidden in view (so compulsory secrets) for example the city full of zombies, there is a back door you have to take to progress. The only problem? camera only shows the front. How do you know its there? 2 zombies shuffling down behind the building and disappearing. You wouldn't be blamed to think that they were just covered up by the building.

Other times its mystery man at the start of the game stopping you completing the 5th tower for reasons other then to go back into town to collect a cloak. it gets worse on one point i to progress you have to talk to a random penguin to get the star jewel. Hope you had the pretty flower equipped (which has no use up until this point) when you interreacted with the right one otherwise nothing happens....

what about building the colerado river bit? you had to go into the forest and killed monsters to pick up logs. The process is tedious as you need to do it at least 3 times to get 9 logs in total. To add insult to injury, when you killed the forest guardians, their corpses covered up the logs so unless you picked up a log, they remained hidden and like me, scratch my head as to what was the whole bloody point.

The overworld map is filled with tiny forests and areas you have to explore to locate stuff and the only way you're going to discover it is with a lot of patience, backtracking and searching every inch of the world. tedious stuff.


My younger self would have loved this game, i don't regret plating it, but there are some pretty glaring faults with the game that seriously ruined my enjoyment and leaves ugly scratches in what could have been potentially a classic. it did review pretty well back in the day so perhaps its a product of its time, but by 2022 standards? yeah, not quite so much....

 

[Pifanjr]

I just completed the Sisters of Twilight Vortex campaign in Total War: Warhammer 2. I think it's one of my favourite campaigns, though not necessarily my favourite factions. The campaign requires you to conquer at least two out of four magical forests and then make sure the settlements around it aren't occupied by other, non-allied factions. Meaning you can either conquer them, raze them or ally whoever occupies the settlement.

Since the four magical forests are in different corners of the map, there's a lot more variety in the enemies you fight, which is nice. And since you don't have any real use for settlements outside of the ones adjacent to magical forests, you're not just constantly busy conquering settlement after settlement.

The faction itself is a lot of fun, but really overpowered. At the end I was using auto-resolve against full stacks of enemies and only losing a few dozen units at most. Ranged units have a major advantage in this game, which I also noticed in my Vampire Coast campaign.

The campaign lasted a little too long, which is my own fault for not paying enough attention to the victory condition. I missed the condition I had to wipe out the Skaven faction to the North of my starting forest and they happened to have done pretty well for themselves, so I had to go around and capture all of their settlements long after they posed any kind of threat. I stopped paying attention to equipment, I had enough money to buy whatever I wanted and I beat several Skaven armies with just the few units in the garrison, because they couldn't afford to build better armies.

I played this campaign on Hard and I think I'll go to Very Hard for the next campaign, though I think I'm going to take a break from Warhammer 2 for a bit. There's still a lot of games in my backlog I've been looking forward to starting.

 

[Brian Boru]

These Nights in Cairo 40%
Visual novel with very little interaction—maybe 10-12 screens where you click on a choice. Rest is all dialogue and pressing Spacebar or clicking to get next sentence—bad design that you can't go back a step, so don't click in error! So it's slow but not long, around 3-4 hours to get an ending.

You can press an Auto button to move the dialogue along without needing to interact, but focus as you can't jump back if you miss something. There are multiple endings, and for a following playthru you can click a Skip button for dialogue you met in previous plays—I did one replay and took ~30 minutes.

Story is decent for a VN—not that I have much experience—involving an archaeology expedition in Egypt over 100 years ago. You play as Margaret, the daughter of one of the top guys. There's the usual skullduggery—oh I guess it's skulldiggery, given the context—in an adventure mystery, and ancient myth layered in.

I like the art style, and while it's not a replay title for me, it was a pleasant enough few hours with a genre which isn't my thing. 4/10

 

[ruzuyu]

Just finished Elden Ring for the 6th time... Before that, it was Zelda BOTW. Now I'm playing Diablo 2 Resurrected for the first time. Will update this post once I have finished it. Planning on moving onto D3 after this until Diablo IV comes out..

 

[Brian Boru]

finished Elden Ring for the 6th time

So I wonder… do you like it?

And Zelda—how was your experience with the games?

 

[ruzuyu]

So I wonder… do you like it?

And Zelda—how was your experience with the games?

Elden Ring really hooked me up as I am a big fan of Souls games. I played it since day 1 and now I have decided it is a good time to take a break from it for a while. Though some may think it is one of the easiest souls games which I agree to some extent, it didn't hold me back from having fun at all - contrary to some people who claim that.

Fresh open world, tons of weapons and armor sets with which you can create a myriad of builds and finally some good looking magic spells make this game an unforgettable experience and add lots of replayability. The game is freaking difficult for sure, but it also gives you a lot of options to make it less difficult. At least more than the previous Souls titles. So I find these debates completely pointless. 'Just play it and see it for yourself' is what I have been telling these people when they are trying to rate Elden Ring merely based on its diffuculty (lmao).

And Zelda BOTW was my very first Zelda game and I can't believe how I have ignored the series for YEARS. I finished the game after 100 hours of gameplay and saw that the map completion percentage is only 21%. It just blew my mind. Now I have to go back to find all the Korok seeds and do the shrines I missed.. But I'll get to it a bit later.. probably after my Diablo runs.

 

[ryzen5]

Metro 2033 the game is very good. I wanted to play after reading the book.
Especially liked the ending I chose the non-canonical ending (this finish I like better)

 

[WoodenSaucer]

And Zelda BOTW was my very first Zelda game and I can't believe how I have ignored the series for YEARS. I finished the game after 100 hours of gameplay and saw that the map completion percentage is only 21%. It just blew my mind. Now I have to go back to find all the Korok seeds and do the shrines I missed.. But I'll get to it a bit later.. probably after my Diablo runs.

If you're thinking about going back and playing some of the older Zelda games, just know that none of them are anything like Breath of the Wild. Wind Waker, and some old 2D games are the only ones that are open world at all. But they're all still very solid games. It's my favorite game franchise.

 

[Johnway]

Ok its done, i've finished shovel knight Treasure trove edition. This will be a long one as essentially its 2 games and a whole load of DLC that could be a game of their own.

So lets start with the original Shovel knight: shovel of hope. All things considered its very well executed to give that 8 bit nostalgia going. memorable characters, catchy sound track and it plays like the original ducktales game. Like an 8 bit platformer its also a bit on the unforgiving side and some levels/sections are just bottomless pit hell with enemies just made to push you into those pits or punish slip ups. Not going to lie, there were points where i was grinding my teeth as i lose half of my money to dying and yes, i can grind earlier levels but losing the money before i have a chance to collect it is galling all the same. Even the base game is pretty generous as once you beat the game you get new game+, soundtrack mode and a challenge mode so some additional content to keep you going. I had fun and didn't think it was a waste of my time playing it.

lets move onto the DLCs there are 3 of them and we'll do them in order:

Plague of shadows: its the main campaign except you play as the Plague knight villain! Essentially, its the same shovel of hope campaign from before with a few minor tweaks, adding side areas etc. To put it mildly; it was torture to play it.

The biggest problem was that the mechanics are half-baked/restrictive and breaks the gameplay flow. Your main attacks are customizable flasks, but have to constantly pause the game, switch/reconfigure the bombs to suit the situation and this could be every second depending on whether the enemy is above you or below you etc. Yes, you do get a wide array of configurations that adjust the attack patterns, the damage and timers but its still bloody annoying and flawed. Just making a simple frontal attack for a large chunk of the game is a nightmare.

second - jump mechanic is functional but not great. Hold the attack button and plague knight can do a jump boost attack to propel him over high walls and across vast distances. The problem is that i have to perform all sorts of finger gymnastics just to use it. Try holding down X and trying to press A and you'll have a rough idea of the constant battles. yes Plague knight does also have a double jump feature but its more to controlling the landing/stopping of the plague knight rather then something i can constantly use as each jump is pitifully low.

Thirdly - The life system. You drink potions to heal. Simple yes? To get the full health pool, you need to drink potions to temporarily gain the max number of health. Whereas the other DLC you can buy and max out life PERMANENTLY. So the plague knight will only have 7 health as standard in the final levels unless he uses 3 or 4 potions to get the max life. The problem is that once you die you lose all of the temporary gains and it just means i don't bother using them and have to deal with playing the game with less health unless i'm in dire emergencies. yes, you do have a regen life ability if you attack enemies. That's assuming you can hit any of your bloody enemies and thats assuming that you're not hit when you try to use the potion in the first place...

Fourth - everything else. there's very little gameplay wise to really justify playing the main game again with a much more awful character. Oh i suppose you could go and collect cipher coins throughout the world. All 400+ of them to unlock a superdooper cloak - which essentially randomizes your bomb configurations every second... So you lose the ability to configure your own bombs for the potential chance of devastating power. You'll only get to use it on the final level... So a complete waste of time when i did it...

So gameplay is its greatest downfall, but not going to lie its still very charming, the same characters are around and it does put a twist to certain parts of the story, fleshes out some of the characters. Like Mona who normally sits in the corner of the room in the first village and that's it. here, she plays a more integral role to the story and the world in general. yes, you can play new game + , soundtrack mode and challenge mode gets unlocked. But would i recommend it? i say avoid unless you're after a challenge, huge amounts of patience and love shovel knight lore.

the 2 dlcs i'll discuss in another post...

 

[Johnway]

Ok part 2 of shovel knight treasure trove

Spectre of torment - See the (tragic) backstory of the undead spectre knight and how he became undead and his part in the order of no quarter. Again fills in a few more bits of the story with various characters and how they all fit in the world of shovel knight.

A massive improvement over plague of shadows and a worth a play i say.. For starters there is a lot of "new" content; the layout of the maps are heavily modified and different to the main game, an all new remixed soundtrack making the originals even better and to top it off it plays much much better. I can attack straight ahead for one thing. On the flip side, no side areas, you head to the mirror of fate and jump straight into main levels.

There are a few limitations of the specter knight he can't jump long distances so he has to wall jump around or slash attack his away around the level. The latter is especially tricky as you can only determine whether you slash up or down based on whether you're above or below a target. keep calm, level headed and you'll be fine. slash wildly and you're going to suffer. The only downside to spectre knights attacks is that he can't attack directly below him easily and the last boss has a horrible habit of of hiding under the floors for most of the fight. Hell, even plague knight (despite how awful the game mechanics were) made it easier to attack targets below you (standard flasks and homing proximity fuses helps a lot)

The good news is that its a lot more friendlier in that bottomless pits aren't instant death provided you get the right gear and its one of the first pieces you can buy so my death count was much much lower. So thank god for small favors. The only tricky part is probably collecting the red skulls as this is how you get special abilities/ attacks. Again, not too difficult near the end and in fact to get the best stuff you don't need them all. Even the prize for collecting all of them is a cosmetic swap which is worthless because how late in the game you get it. But once you get the ability to hover/fly and combined with the Cloak of Clemency life is a lot easier.

Since players can't go to the hall of champions area, the tower of fate does have a sort of challenge map as you climb the top of the tower as the screen scrolls up. Nothing difficult but besides earning some money as a rewards there's little reason to complete it more then once. Again once you beat the game, new game+, sound mode and challenges are unlocked.


King of cards - the last and probably the best of the DLC. my personal fav and definite recommendation to play. Prologue to the main game as the King knight sets to become the champion of joustus and become a king of the land.

Again the devs have improved/changed things significantly, new soundtracks, the world view is back with new levels/bosses to fight. The biggest change is the size of the levels, essentially the core levels have been broken down into bitesize chunks with a theme/locale to them making playing the game much more manageable.

The good news is that King knight isn't horrible to play. Think wario with his dash attack and being able to follow it up with a stomp attack and you have a good idea of what he's capable of. Again plenty of QOL improvements such as being able to collect cash easily, a free heal ability and of course falling into bottomless pits isn't guaranteed death with the right armor set.

The biggest addition of course is the joustus card game. its simple stuff and can get quite compelling, getting cards is fairly easy and its fairly forgiving if you lose. yes, you lose a card, but you can either win it back or just buy the card back. Failing that you do have cheat cards to help you. Don't worry, the top players have their own cheat cards so there's no shame. Thankfully, none of the main boss fights are you're expected to play joustus to defeat them. Its a straight up fight. Although Cardia before you face her, you have to play one final game. But that's end game stuff when should have beaten all the Joustus houses and acquired a whole load of top tier cards.


But wait... There's more! Shovel Knight showdown is packed with this game. A sort of Party smash bro melee style game. there is a story mode that's set in the story of the spectre knight story where everyone gets sucked into the mirror and all duke it out to be the first out of the mirror. Honestly didn't play much of this. I just picked Spectre knight and breezed through it once. I'll probably play more of it and might do an updated opinion on it.

So... Shovel knight treasure trovel edition. Was it good? i say yes. I got some entertainment and enjoyed the story and its characters and kept me playing even after i had beaten the main game. The amount of bang for your buck makes it worth the asking price.

 

[McStabStab]

X-Com 2 - I bought this game 5 and a half years ago and put it down after being completely turned off by the timed objectives and ruler battles. I went back to it this week and finished the game. I really wished they would have found different ways to innovate the gameplay because I love the original X-Com games as well as the first remake. I hope X-Com 3’s focus is more Terror From the Deep inspired.

Scorn - I’ve done things human hands should never do, seen things human eyes should never see, and experienced combat mechanics human gamers should never be subjected to. An absolutely unique experience that has you saying WTF more and more throughout your descent into layers of disturbing imagery and experiences. The combat is so frustrating, though. By the end of the game you just want to skip the awkward boss battles so you can find out how the story ends. Either way, worth the journey.

 

[PointnClicker01]

I've just finished Lost Horizon... Thanks @Brian Boru for pointing the game out to me, it was a very nostalgic experience and I loved every second of it. I will definitely try out the second part of it as well. Probably right after I had a look into:

These Nights in Cairo

Since the story is about Egypt, Egyptology and especially Egyptology from a hundred years ago... I just had to move this title to the very top of the list.

But first things first: What's my conclusion after finishing Lost Horizon?
I have to admit: Because the Secret File Series have a very special place in my gamer heart and Lost Horizon is from the same developer and it spreads the same "charme"... I am unable to judge neutrally about this game. For me, the developer achieves to combine everything I love about Point'n'Click: A thrilling story, funny and humorous characters as well as exactly the right amount of: "How on earth should this combination of things work?!" puzzles. The only thing I have to critisize a little about is, that there were too many or too long cutscenes in comparison to the parts where the player had to interact with things/people and to solve puzzles.
The bonus area which you can enter after finishing the game for the first time was also a pleasant surprise. The possibility to play the start of the prototype version is great and I secretly hope that they would work parts of the alternate version into the second game of the series... I will find it out soon!

 

[Slasken]

Just finished Red Dead Redemtion 2. Great game, and I truly loved my experience. I wish RDR1 would be remastered on PC so I could continue the story. I finished that one when it came out, but it would be interesting to play it again with new eyes.