The last game you completed

[Johnway]

Gosh, has it really been a month and none of us has finished a game?! Anyway 2 to add to the list.

lets start with a doom wad. Ray mohawk 2 - a winner of a cacoaward the game plays like a terrible 80s action movie and its awesome. The weapons are so over powered (x7) that the weaker enemies die in one shot and the monsters have to come in large groups to even put up any resistance. The level design is also good, filled with 80's midis and much of the level design expects you to just hold down the trigger and just charge through corridors blowing past waves upon waves of monsters.

For the most part, the game is relatively easy thanks to the OP weapons. but thats not to say the game doesn't have teeth, by end game archivile's, cyber demons with be deployed in pairs or more. One level you have to contend with 10 at once with a mob of cyber demons it was so difficult i had to cheat through the map. but besides that the rest of the later maps are challenging. A real highlight is the icon of sin battle where ray has to jump down the throat of the demon and then blow the monster apart inside out and exiting out from the demons anus. Awesome. Absolutely bad ass (literally).

Would i recommend a play? Absolutely.


i'll discuss the next game in the next post as i have a lot to talk about...

 

[Johnway]

So after 73 hours i have finally finished my first playthrough of Phantom doctrine. Would i recommend it? considering the game can be bought on sale for less then a £5 I would say yes. Its a competently made game but it has some (serious) issues that makes it means it doesn't stick the landing.

The best way to think of PD? Think a stealthy version of XCOM. The mission starts in infiltration mode and when cover is blown you go to full combat mode. on the whole, the stealth mechanic works fine and there are some tactics involved when sneaking (ie hide around corners, close doors, hide bodies, don't take out too many guards and/or disable security etc. its all very compelling stuff as you methodically complete the maps etc.

Not going to lie, the game does come with some interesting features that even give XCom a run for its money. The stealth mechanics is PD's strong point. The breach mechanic for rooms is seamless and pretty cool. The fact you can use support your agents is a good a idea, simple stuff like clearing fow to lobbing smoke and explosives. MK ultra is a neat feature - as you interrogate agents and do all sorts of nasty things. By the end game it became a human bomb factory; kidnapping enemy agents, get all the info out of them and then releasing them back into the wild and blow up their own hideouts. The overworld strategic element as you manage your agents across the world is quite good. Problems arise when trying to have enough resources in the US and in the far east as they typically take the longest to travel to.

There is an interesting story in the game as you try to uncover what beholder is, what they're planning and trying to stop it. its not the longest game, its only 7 chapters long and there is no real dooms day clock unless you ignore far too many things. There is some longivity though. The opening chapters are different for each facton (KGB/CIA) and if you beat the game you get new game plus where you play as mossad and apparently the main missions are changed up a bit.

Apart from a couple of Ui issues, flawed crafting/acquisition mechanics. PD does have some seriously glaring problems that seriously hurt the game's enjoyment. The combat isn't all that great and the mechanics just doesn't feel like it works properly. Attacks either hit or miss and either does serious amounts of damage or do minimal damage frequently. There is strategy like flanking, using LMGs to suppress and strip awareness etc, but too often the best strategy is to get in close (ie standing next to the enemy) and just letting rip as they can't avoid the attacks. Enemy agents especially can be troublesome as their awareness is what determines evasion and use of skills and this can burn away extremely quickly leaving you getting picked off. Failing that, grenades works wonders in all situations and the enemy knows this as well.

Unfortunately in this game you can't hide from combat forever, the game has an annoying feature where on some missions after 3 turns the enemy just becomes alerted and you're forced to fight. It doesn't happen too often, but when it does its either load the game before you started or struggle through a mission (usually prepared for stealth rather then combat). Another annoying feature is how some main missions just forces combat onto you. You may have stealth/sneaked your way to the objective but open the box etc and all hell breaks loose. Starts off with reinforcements before they send a helicopter gunship to start firing explosives at you.

The other bigger issue is the repetitive nature of the game. Too often i visit the same locales and each one has the same building layout/restricted areas. Sure, the enemy placement is slightly different as are the collectibles but its still far too predictable, played some maps often enough that i had a rough idea where enemies will be and it remove the tension.

But that's not all, the problem the whole thing is just rinse and repeat. The same type of missions and the same strategy. The repetitive nature is not just in maps, its also management activities. New agent recruits frequently use the same handful of photos, nicknames or designs (at one point i had 2 new recruits wearing the same clothes and head, hair style etc!), the cork board whilst initially compelling slowly became a chore as the same documents and words are rotated constantly. its probably why you have the option to fill analytics department with agents to do the work for you. So that streamlines all the processes but you'll probably spend large periods of time twiddling your thumbs waiting for things to happen.

 

[Slasken]

I finished Yakuza: Like a Dragon earlier this week. Awesome game, great story!
First Yakuza game I have played. The other games in the series don't have English voice, and that's the reason I haven't played them, but with how good Like a Dragon was, I will play them as well.

I am playing Judgment now. Great game so far.

 

[Kborom]

I finished Hogwarts Legacy (with about 50% of a second playthrough) and then switched to a blast through Grim Dawn.
Not sure if I actually finished the latter but I only had bounty quests available (and the witch) but the Action RPG itch was well scratched.

 

[Zloth]

Oh yeah! I finished Mass Effect 2. I was actually a bit surprised at how shallow it seemed. Wide, but shallow. You've got 13 crew members. There's a mission to make each one loyal and, for most of them, a mission to find them in the first place. Beyond those missions, though, there wasn't much. You start the game, you do mission to infiltrate an enemy ship mid-game, and you do the end game. There are some little missions you can find but they are mostly very little. A couple of the DLCs added some good missions, too, but still, the vast majority of missions are either about finding a companion or making the companion happy!

The whole EA App insanity has left a bad taste, too. I had to work to keep the old Origin program working just so I could keep getting achievements.

 

[Pifanjr]

I suppose I could say I finished Warhammer 40,000: Gladius - Relics of War, though only with two of the four factions. The factions don't seem to differ all that much from each other though.

I gave my detailed thoughts in other threads already, so I'll just say I would only recommend you try it out if you got it for free, I don't think it's worth buying unless you really like Warhammer 40,000 and combat-focused 4X games.

 

[OsaX Nymloth]

Had an urge to replay Majesty: The Fantasy Kingdom Sim and finished the last mission last night. Even on my first try, actually. Which is surprising as I remember it being super hard, but this time I was near death only once. Other missions gave me much more grief.

An example of how fun the randomness can get: enemy buildings spawning units during this mission decided to spawn in a way that almost surrounded my palace. Barely managed to win that one.

https://twitter.com/x/status/1643751066360741889

View: https://twitter.com/osaxnymloth/status/1643751066360741889


I guess there's the Northern Expansion too, got through 2-3 missions but those are insanely hard in comparison to base game. I never ever finished this expansion.

 

[Pifanjr]

Had an urge to replay Majesty: The Fantasy Kingdom Sim and finished the last mission last night. Even on my first try, actually. Which is surprising as I remember it being super hard, but this time I was near death only once. Other missions gave me much more grief.

I've only played Majesty 2 and while I really like the idea of the game, I would prefer a far more leisurely pace. I think I got stuck on the second or third mission because I wasn't nearly fast enough.

 

[OsaX Nymloth]

I've only played Majesty 2 and while I really like the idea of the game, I would prefer a far more leisurely pace. I think I got stuck on the second or third mission because I wasn't nearly fast enough.

Sadly Majesty 2 for me never clicked. There was something off with it. Like the very first boss having some insane amount of HP because it was the only way devs knew how to make it artificially difficult. I remember trying M2 few times, every time giving up very fast.

On the other hand, original one I replayed a whole lotta times. And hey for a leisure pace you can freeplay and setup some easy chilling difficulty where you basically see your heroes grow into gigachads. Half of the fun is actually watching the "favourites" from the start and see how they fare and screaming inside whenever they are in danger.

 

[jamulim]

I've finally completed Tomb Raider: Shadow of the Tomb Raider. And let me tell you, it was quite the adventure.

I know. It was released some time ago. But let's be real, who cares about release dates when we're chasing nostalgia?

But as thrilling as it all was, there were definitely some moments of frustration along the way. Like when I'd spend hours trying to solve a particularly tricky puzzle, only to realize I was overthinking things. Or when I'd get ambushed by a group of enemies and have to retreat to safety.

Despite these setbacks, I persevered. And when I finally reached the end of the game, I have to admit, I felt a sense of satisfaction that's hard to describe. Sure, I didn't save the world all on my own - but I played a pretty big role in making it happen.

I highly recommend giving Shadow of the Tomb Raider a try.

 

[Zloth]

Sure, I didn't save the world all on my own - but I played a pretty big role in making it happen.

And a pretty big role in putting it into danger in the first place!

I enjoyed that game quite a bit, too, though I found the story to be really poor in several spots.

 

[Johnway]

So... thats another Doom wad finished. This time its Pirate doom! Think if monkey island was an FPS game.

Got to admit i was super skeptical of it. "Ha! just doom with reskinned monsters that have a pirate motif? can't be that good" i thought to myself. But i was so very wrong. yes, the enemies were reskinned/remodelled with pirate stuff but it was really well done. personal favs go the revenant that shoots flying parrots holding explosives and the archvile/witch doctor.

What really sold me was the level design. It was full of smart, clever and creative stuff. Like going into a circus and doing various stunts to progress or perhaps travelling to aztec temples, underwater haunted ship or perhaps fighting through a voodoo mystics home filled with magic and trickery. Another early standout moment is an arena slaughterfest with AC/DC's highway to hell playing in the background as all hell breaks loose at a bar.

Props to the team for the final boss being le chuck and not some rubbish icon of sin battle. Any wad that doesn't use the icon of sin as a final boss is a plus in my books. Even here, le chuck has some pretty interesting skills such as spawning smaller versions of himself to attack you and shooting his head at you. Not so great was the BS of lobbing dynamite, but then i was lobbing the dynamite as well, so....

Would i recommend a play? You know me, i only play cacoaward winning stuff and its a deserved winner. if you're into Doom 2 wads and not played pirate doom, i recommend that you do.

 

[McStabStab]

Elden Ring - however I didn't realize that I was facing the final boss. I thought Malenia, who everyone always talks about, was the final boss. So after the uneventful 20 second cutscene I was like, "hell no I'm not starting NG+, let's get this lady."

Smash cut to me in the Haligtree getting murdered by Loretta and the Putrid Avatar.

So:
Rolled credits ✅
"Completed" ❎

 

[cgogogo]

PS1 METAL GEAR SOLID 1
My Favorite Game EVER! completed so many tims

 

[Johnway]

Another game completed this time its tokyo 42. If i could sum up the game in one sentence it would be "nice game, nice ideas, shame about the execution"

i'll be fair everything does work. the problem is that it felt like it could have been better implemented. Its indie nature makes the game feel clunky at times especially the camera/views make judging things seriously difficult. Not ideal when you only die from one hit and when the bullets start flying its hard to tell where the bullets are flying.

Other then that i think the game wasn't bad. Tokyo 42 is a nice like city with plenty of puzzles and things to see and plenty of quick travel points to travel around. The problem is perhaps some areas are mostly inaccessible and buried in secrets and you need to take a passing ride on a car to get to them. Gameplay wise its mostly solid but again camera views/angles makes some missions seriously difficult. The race type missions are obnoxious and a real turn off, the bike race one especially is galling to beat legitmately. Cheat and its a joke (when the race starts just go the wrong way and just drive over the start/finish line till its over). I can't tell if its an easter egg, a joke or just piss poor programming.

Story wise its unusual; one day you're just framed for a murder you didn't commit, you get rescued by a mysterious person and your journey begins as an assassin to find the truth. Linking the mysterious neo-med that grants immortality - as long as you take the pills that is. There is the unsurprising surprise that the drugs was mind controlling but there is a twist that the drugs didn't control people, it merely compelled people to do things. Like using marketing, media, the fact that you were immortal you would take a chance of doing something that might get you killed etc

So... would i recommend it? meh its ok, nothing essential. A good start for for the indie devs i guess.

 

[Johnway]

Chalk up another indie game finished. This time its never alone ((Kisima Ingitchuna) I believe Epic is giving the game away for free and since i had bought it many years ago (pre 2018?) i decided it was time to play and finish it off.

Essentially a coop game that you can play Single player, the story is set around an old folk tale from the Iñupiat. its a beautiful game, but i won't say it was particularly difficult puzzle game and can be completed in an evening or 2. Think of the game as a sort of interactive museum piece as we learn about the Iñupiat peoples culture and life. Like all good stories its told to teach people a moral or a lesson in life and this game is no exception.

So is it worth playing? that depends, its well made for the most part, although i did have a few niggles and bugs where i clipped through walls. More annoyingly, the DLC ending bugged out on me so all i saw was a black screen...

It is charming to play. So a positive response from me, but by the 2 or 3 hour mark i was starting to feel a bit bored. But that's indie games in general for me. if you are expecting limbo levels of platforming and puzzle you'll probably be leaving a bit disappointed. That said didn't regret playing it.

now its time for another indie game. maybe an RPG this time. Vaporum you're up next.

 

[Johnway]

I finished a game i quickly installed yesterday in less then an hour: Potatoman: seeks the troof.

So its about this patotoman that goes out into the world to seek the truth, its a simple 2d skill based platformer as you go about avoiding various obstacles in increasingly absurd locations and stuff. its not long and it tries to be funny, but is it worth 2.79? Not really. its not a bad game but its not exactly worth that kind of money. I think i got it for free somewhere but i can't remember.

 

[Pifanjr]

I finished a campaign in For the King. On the easiest difficulty and with some custom rules to make it even easier, but still, I did complete it.

There's something about this game that bothers me though and I'm not entirely sure what it is. I think it's a combination of several factors, the main one being the constant time pressure. You have to keep moving or you get penalties that make the game harder. I'm not a big fan of timed missions in general, so having that feeling for the entirety of the campaign gets grating.

Another issue is that there's a lot of RNG in this game. Every fight and every event is based on random rolls, where the chance of success is based off of the appropriate skill level. Considering this is a roguelike, it makes bad luck so much worse, as a game over means you have to start the entire campaign from the very beginning.
Since every roll is based off of an attribute and each character specialises in one attribute, it makes sense to focus on boosting that one attribute as high as you can. However, this really limits your equipment options, which is a shame because there's quite some items that have interesting effects that just aren't worth the equipment slot.

The third issue is that controlling the characters and their inventory is too tedious. You control three characters and move them around the map in turns. However, for most fights you want all of them to participate, so you want them to stick together most of the time. This means you're often just making the same move three times in a row. This is made worse by the fact that healing is pretty limited, so you're forced to backtrack to the nearest town every so often to heal up.
Every character also has their own inventory and it's a bother having to go through each one when you're at a store to sell their trash and figure out what each one has equipped so you can decide whether you should buy an upgrade.

There's more I could say, but I think the point is clear that the game just isn't for me. It's a shame though, because it did work very well as a game I could play in between working on stuff.

 

[Alexmusster]

I finished a game i quickly installed yesterday in less then an hour: Potatoman: seeks the troof.

So its about this patotoman that goes out into the world to seek the truth, its a simple 2d skill based platformer as you go about avoiding various obstacles in increasingly absurd locations and stuff. its not long and it tries to be funny, but is it worth 2.79? Not really. its not a bad game but its not exactly worth that kind of money. I think i got it for free somewhere but i can't remember.

Also recently passed this game. It's a fun platformer. I liked it because I like pixelated platformers.

 

[Johnway]

Also recently passed this game. It's a fun platformer. I liked it because I like pixelated platformers.

it has its moments, but i finished it in like under an hour. its sort of like those skill based platformers that requires a hell of a lot of trial an error and practice.


back to the topic at hand, i've finished the steam punk dungeon crawler Vaporum. You wash ashore to a small island with a metal tower with no memory of yourself, with little choice your hero ventures into the tower to find answers and piece together what happened.

The story wise it gives off strong vibes of Bioshock as the isolated researchers slowly go crazy over a special substance and why the automatons have gone rogue and where is everyone.

gameplay wise its competent and has everything i expect of a dungeon crawler, with grid like movement, combat and a smattering of cryptic puzzles and each floor is filled with secrets. The first 4 floors are relatively easy stuff but get to the library and the game ramps up the difficulty; secrets are harder to spot and much less obvious. Too often i would be scanning every wall and still miss the buttons hiding in plain site. Combat also ramps up in difficulty and even on normal it can be a challenge by the end of it. You're frequently mobbed and as an individual instead of a party of 4, you're going to have a tough time.

More annoying are the last few puzzles, essentially they blind you so you can't see what you're doing and can't tell which direction you're facing. That teleporting puzzle in the penultimate floor where you have to teleport to through 6 identical rooms to complete it. I can't remember if they scramble the map there as well, so you can't tell whether you've messed up or makling progress. It was horrible even with a walkthrough. if you don't have a save before you entered you could quite literally be wandering that section forever. Other level problems also include the sometimes spiteful level design in certain areas like floors randomly open to give way to instanta death spike traps. unless you knew before hand, expect to die to them.

The game does go at a breakneck speed as you'll frequently find new weapons and armor as you climb the tower but that said, it feels a bit rushed or half baked in places. Some skills seem extremely poor deals. Like upgrading shield skill to use more advanced shields. Only problem is that there is probably like 3 or 4 in the whole game. But thats part of the progression to the end game stuff i guess.

But overall it did scratch that dungeon crawler itch. Not as good as say, legend of grimrock 2, but a solid game of its genre. Not sure about playing lockdown i've heard its more puzzle heavy instead of fighting. which will seriously test my patience.

 

[ZedClampet]

I don't know if this counts, but I consider myself to have finished Disney Dreamlight Valley even though there are still missions left. I accomplished my goal and don't intend to go back, so I consider that finished.

 

[Pifanjr]

I don't know if this counts, but I consider myself to have finished Disney Dreamlight Valley even though there are still missions left. I accomplished my goal and don't intend to go back, so I consider that finished.

What did you think of it? I just saw a PCGamer article describe it as a chill game akin to Stardew Valley, but I'm not really sure what the game is about.

 

[ZedClampet]

What did you think of it? I just saw a PCGamer article describe it as a chill game akin to Stardew Valley, but I'm not really sure what the game is about.

I loved it. Put 75 hours into it. You basically round up Disney characters and bring them to the valley to live. You pay to fix up most of the houses and the store and some other things. You make money through mining, gardening and cooking (you sell your products to Goofy who has stalls in all the different areas). There is a ton of stuff to craft, but I never tried to sell anything that I crafted. That might work too. Decorating not just your house but the whole valley is possible if you are into that. You can also tame a wide variety of pets.

The big thing, though, is building relationships with the 25ish Disney characters. When your relationship hits level 2 with a character, you select which activity you want them to help you with (gardening, digging, foraging, fishing and mining). Then if you ask them to come along with you while you do that activity, they give you extra stuff, like more fish when you are fishing.

Each character has a number of story missions, and a some of these reward you with nice abilities, like being able to clear a certain type of barrier. All of these things help to advance the main story. Honestly, I don't know if the story is finished yet. The game is in early access, and I didn't finish everyone's missions.

Figuring out recipes and cooking is a huge thing in the game, and it's pretty fun to experiment with different ingredients (there are a ton) and try to figure out new recipes. My one complaint about the cooking is that every meal you cook requires that you have one coal, so there's a ton of mining involved, but you may decide not to cook as much as I did. I used that as my primary source of income, but you can always just sell the ingredients, too. You don't make as much, obviously.

But, yeah, I thought it was fun.

 

[Pifanjr]

I loved it. Put 75 hours into it. You basically round up Disney characters and bring them to the valley to live. You pay to fix up most of the houses and the store and some other things. You make money through mining, gardening and cooking (you sell your products to Goofy who has stalls in all the different areas). There is a ton of stuff to craft, but I never tried to sell anything that I crafted. That might work too. Decorating not just your house but the whole valley is possible if you are into that. You can also tame a wide variety of pets.

The big thing, though, is building relationships with the 25ish Disney characters. When your relationship hits level 2 with a character, you select which activity you want them to help you with (gardening, digging, foraging, fishing and mining). Then if you ask them to come along with you while you do that activity, they give you extra stuff, like more fish when you are fishing.

Each character has a number of story missions, and a some of these reward you with nice abilities, like being able to clear a certain type of barrier. All of these things help to advance the main story. Honestly, I don't know if the story is finished yet. The game is in early access, and I didn't finish everyone's missions.

Figuring out recipes and cooking is a huge thing in the game, and it's pretty fun to experiment with different ingredients (there are a ton) and try to figure out new recipes. My one complaint about the cooking is that every meal you cook requires that you have one coal, so there's a ton of mining involved, but you may decide not to cook as much as I did. I used that as my primary source of income, but you can always just sell the ingredients, too. You don't make as much, obviously.

But, yeah, I thought it was fun.

Sounds great! I'm going to keep an eye on it, it sounds like it might be a good game to play together with my daughter if it gets local multiplayer.

 

[ZedClampet]

Sounds great! I'm going to keep an eye on it, it sounds like it might be a good game to play together with my daughter if it gets local multiplayer.

Um, critical info I should have given you yesterday. After it comes out of early access, it's going to be free-to-play, but assuming they don't add any more nonsense to the game, it should be a good one.