More thoughts! More games! More thoughts on games as I continue the survey of my 2024 in video gaming. On reflection I really feel like the majority of these games are getting suspiciously modern and 'current' like they might hold a degree of relevance to the present moment in which we live. I feel like I should be playing an obscure green screen graphical adventure from 1988 just to restore the balance somehow. I won't actually do that as I do go a bit retro in this entry towards the end. That said let's crack on with the hot takes, the medium heat takes and the 'why the heck would anyone play that?' takes.
Citizen Sleeper (2022)
Now for one of those critical darlings and a modern take on the graphic text adventure game. This time with dice rolls! This was a nifty game all said, the tale of a human consciousness uploaded to an android who has gone rogue and is now on the run, hiding out in a busy space station at the end of civilised space. All presented with a distinctive look, feel and sound and told primarily via blocks of text with choices attached to them.
Take a chance on a risky gambit and the game will make you roll dice to determine your outcome. So very much a game in the mold of tabletop D&D but with an abstract sci-fi aesthetic floating on by in the background. Strong undercurrents of corporate dystopia and growing turmoil accompany you on your journey to finding your ultimate escape. It's a somewhat lean experience but involving nonetheless. Four escapes to the stars out of five!
Neon White (2022)
Picture a game based around first person rapid movement through an abstract 3D space, where your various abilities have to be chained together to make it through to the end in the fastest time. Now picture that same game taking place within a story about dead assassins vying for a place in the better part of the afterlife. All whilst angels plot and God might indeed be dead. There you've got Neon White and this was a genuinely fun surprise.
Normally time trials requiring feats of exacting co-ordination and nimble ambidexterity would not be my cup of tea, not so here in this anime flavoured tale of killers navigating their way through the dramas and intrigues of the great beyond. I really enjoyed this game and was surprised at how adept it was at increasing the difficulty and complexity of the challenges within. Possibly a little too difficult towards the end there but on the whole this was a great game that comes with a high recommendation. Five speed dashes out of five!
Valorant (2020)
Upon its arrival on console this year I decided to check out Valorant after hearing some positive things about it from the PC master race a while back. Wasn't sure what I was expecting going into this one but Counter-Strike by way of magical cyberpunk was what I got and you know what? It works, it works really well indeed.
Haven't played Counter-Strike in a while and there's few games like it on console at the moment so this fulfilled a need I hadn't thought about in quite a while. A deliberately measured pace that demands a skillful aim and a steady nerve, Valorant delivers a polished experience that stands out in the free to play space. Haven't played it for a few months now but I think this will be one I'll return to in the near future. Four and a half detonations out of five!
Nier: Automata (2017)
Androids in the far future fighting a seemingly neverending war against alien machines on behalf of their human masters who remain unseen in orbit. This game and the Nier series generally has quite the enthusiastic following and I can understand the hype to a point. The hack and slash gameplay intermingled with bullet hell shooter in a barren world harbouring eccentric robot communities does make for a fun time when everything clicks into place.
On the flip side, I'm not a fan of multiple fake out endings and running the credits multiple times in order to get something like the whole story. As with Nier: Replicant I liked the actual ending once it all came together but boy did whole sections of this game feels padded out to excess. So the uneven pacing was an issue here even if the core game was great. Cool character designs though and some neat variety to the various set-pieces within. Four sentient AI's out of five!
Flashback (2018)
Another trip down video game archeology lane here with a re-releaae of a game for modern platforms which originally debuted in 1992. As with the LucasArts games featured earlier in this retrospective, this and it's sequel (see below) are considered cult classics and mold breakers of their time. As with those earlier games, I'm not too sure the appeal translates all that well in the 21st century. A somewhat janky platformer with shooting and puzzle elements. Your protagonist starts with limited recall in a confounding situation that he has to make sense of.
Visually the game acquits itself very nicely by the standards of the early 90's but gameplay wise I found it to be a little more than a chore to play. Simple acts of timing become laborious acts to pull off when translated to a modern control pad. Insta-kills and sudden fail states can spring upon you with little warning. It all feels like you need a game walkthrough by your side just to pull off the simple stuff. Alas this is one trip to the past out of five!
The Eternal Castle [REMASTERED] (2021)
Seguing from a game firmly of its time to a modern game that channels the best parts of yesteryear with modern polish, The Eternal Castle was an engaging experience with better gameplay and a strong visual art style. As with Mothmen 1966, what you have here is a game that very faithfully recreates the look of the past whilst avoiding much of the clunkiness that came with the venerable efforts of the past times.
With an expressive pixelart style you are a spaceman who has crash landed on a planet and must now navigate the strange and hostile landscape in search of a way back home. The game is pitched as a 'remake' to a fictional 1980's game that never existed and the entire thing does a rather excellent job of conveying much with it's minimalist aesthetic. Few difficulty spikes aside, I'm a big fan of this one. Four indeterminate shadow things out of five!
Another World - 20th Anniversary Edition (2014)
It's a rare occasion where I play a sequel before it's predecessor but due to a lack of research on my part I played Flashback before Another World. In practical terms I don't think it means much as Flashback was more a spiritual follow up largely unconnected to this one. Also this one did get something of a new coat of paint and a little more modernisation under the hood which made the core gameplay a little more tolerable.
Anyhow you're a scientist type who finds himself whisked off to a hostile alien world and who now has to shoot and puzzle solve their way through the alien oppressors who live there. As with Flashback it's all a bit fiddly and tests your patience more than it tests your skill. It has a neat visual aesthetic that probably made a more distinctive impression back upon its original 1991 release and there's a nascent sense of cinematic ambition here too even if that would soon be eclipsed by other games in due course. Ultimately it's one and a half mis-timed laser shots out of five from me!
Varney Lake (2023)
The follow up to Mothmen 1966 and the second part of the Pixel Pulp series, Varney Lake tells the story of a trio of friends as they idle away the long summer sometime in mid 1950's USA. Navigating teen drama and sheer boredom they come upon on a creature who will irrevocably change their lives. As with Mothmen the story is told with text and a deft use of pixel art to convey a moody and foreboding tone.
As with the previous game, it's not the most complex or in-depth gaming experience but that matters little in the course of what's it's setting out to do. It's a fun, if brief slice of horror fiction that largely delivers on the promised experience. Nostalgia updated and finessed to the point where it feels refreshing. It's possibly a little too short and ends perhaps a touch too abruptly, but nonetheless I enjoyed this one. Three and a half bygone summers out of five!
Uncanny Valley (2017)
A random selection from the old game library comes a low budget side scrolling 2D adventure game that tries to be a bit weird, a bit strange and a bit David Lynch. So far, so up my street. You're starting a job as a night watchman in a new town both sleepy and snowy but it soon becomes apparent that not all is well behind the scenes. There are strange sinister forces afoot and you have to confront them whilst also turning up to work on time.
At the outset I expected I would enjoy this one but ultimately it felt a touch too undercooked for me. The first two thirds of it unfold at a relatively leisurely pace and then it felt like it was over before I could blink. It felt like it was going for a similar feel to something like Lone Survivor but that game felt overall more well developed and more consistent than this one. What is here is fine but I wasn't feeling the need to play it again to get the alternative ending. Two night shifts out of five!
Ultratron (2015)
Top down twin stick shooter vibes here channeling again the games of yesteryear as you guide your robot through waves of brightly designed enemy forces. It's another random game from the game library but one I had rather a good time with. Maybe not quite as polished or high budget as some efforts but a worthy successor to some of the retro efforts I cover below. Something like the original Geometry Wars comfortably outshines it, but still a good time was had. Three bullet hells out of five!
Lifeless Planet (2014)
This was one of those games that feels like I've been meaning to get around to it for a long time and wouldn't you look at that it's been out a decade already? After a preliminary setup you find yourself as an American astronaut crash landing on a strange new world only to find evidence that the Soviet Union beat you to he punch and arrived before you. Something happened to them though and all that's left of them is their abandoned settlement.
Cue some exploration through a mostly barren empty landscape as you search for answers and oxygen. Believe this is a relatively low budget single person effort but I think it works pretty well for most of its brief playtime. Has the vague feel of an old Twilight Zone episode about it which Is fine by me even if the gameplay feels a little too sparce for content at times. Just after I completed it there came word the long awaited sequel was arriving on Playstation too so may check that out in less than a decade. Anyhow I'll give this two and a half Commies out of five!
Dark Souls II: Scholar Of The First Sin (2015)
A game I mused upon at length earlier this year, Dark Souls II was the surprise in a year of games that surprised me. The grim dark fantasy series with unforgiving difficulty that demands a high level of patience and skill. Little wonder then it's taken me the best part of a decade to get back around to these games as my brain simply wasn't ready for Demon's Souls and the original Dark Souls when I first played them way back when. Anyway I tremendously enjoyed this game, the accursed Fume Knight fight notwithstanding. I surprised myself by how much I enjoyed this.
I understand this is something of a black sheep in the family of Souls games, having made some changes to the formula that didn't go down well with everyone. For me though this felt like the Souls game where I finally got what all the fuss was about with these games. The gameplay loop here really clicked for me and yes whilst I certainly died a lot, I found I couldn't stop getting back up for more. Aesthetically strong, constantly devious but with a real palpable sense of progress being made despite the setbacks, this is the game that has got me on side for From Software. Five merciless boss battles out of five!
Not A Hero (2016)
At the behest of a maniacal rabbit who has come back from the future in order to run for mayor and save the world... sorry lost my train of thought there. You are probably already sensing that this game doesn't take itself too seriously. It's a 2D side scrolling shoot em up where you play as one of a selection of colourful charicutures enlisted by said rabbit to clean up the streets and ensure his mission succeeds.
Made by the beloved (and now sadly closed down) Roll7, this game had strong echoes of other absurdly gleeful action feats like Mercenary Kings or Super Time Force. It reveals in it's absurdity whilst providing a robust gameplay loop with plenty of explosive potential. It largely succeeds in what it sets out to do even if it becomes overly repetitive and a little too devious a few levels shy of the conclusion. Four campaign slogans out of five!
Cyberbots - Fullmetal Madness (1995)
Coming to me courtesy of the Capcom Arcade Stadium retro collection, I decided to roll the dice on a random selection of ROM's legally available for purchase through this portal. First up its a beat em up but with characters piloting mechs duking it out across some vividly rendered stages.
It's short, sweet and charmingly ridiculous. It's emulated well and plays really smooethly. It looks great for its age with an arcadey aesthetic that is pitched just right for the outlandish plot unfolding throthughout the game. In short it's exactly the kind of game that we mean when we talk about videogame preservation as they definitely don't make them like this anymore. Four giant robot space battles out of five!
Giga Wing (1999)
Next up from Capcom Arcade Stadium is a top down vertically scrolling bullet hell shooter. Again the particulars of the plot are a little lost to me when I try to recall them. It felt a little steampunk by way of the Great War. I suspect the plot is neither here or there as it's all about navigating a situation where the screen becomes increasingly crowded with pure visual noise and you're meant to survive it all somehow as you get shot at from every direction.
Playing it now and mentally comparing it to more modern efforts I'm struck by how little difference there is outside of the presentation. I know this kind of game is a retro staple that has been around for a long time but they really did perfect it back in the day. Maybe that's why we don't see many new ones in this genre due to the difficulty in taking it forward? Anyhow it was good if a little repetitive for my tastes, four screen clearing super bombs out of five!
Saturday Night Slam Masters (1993)
Moving on to the Capcom Arcade 2nd Stadium collection now with a game I've been meaning to play for a very long time. I kept hearing about this one from various corners online, an early 90's Capcom pro-wrestling game that borrowed some of the DNA from it's rather more well-known Street Fighter series. Replete with all the glitz and glamour of late 80's WWF but with an entirely original set of characters comes Saturday Night Slam Masters, a game I really wanted to like but alas...
It's not a bad game, I can see some elements of what won gamers over here but something was off. May have been the controls, the quality of the emulation or just a skill issue on behalf of yours truly but success in this game felt like a case of random luck when I wasn't resorting to spamming moves for survival. The difficulty ramps up pretty quickly and the whole thing just becomes a chore to play. Shame really, as this otherwise looks and feels like my platonic ideal of a pro-wrestling game. Two Gunloc's out of five!
Hyper Dyne Side Arms (1986)
Also from the Capcom Arcade 2nd Stadium is a game with a title so awesomely rad I just had to play it in order to determine it's exact levels of rad-itude. As it turns out, no game can live up to such expectations. That said, this was a perfectly fine side scrolling arcade shoot em up from back in the day well-emulated for all to play.
Aliens are attacking Earth yadda yadda and you pilot a flying mecha suit to save the day. Not a spectacular example of the form, think this itch was better scratched by some of the other games in these collections but it's a fun little diversion that will see you good for an hour or two before you move onto the next thing. Two PC Engine's out of five!
Dark Stalkers - The Night Warriors (1994)
Onto the last game I played in the Capcom Arcade 2nd Stadium Collection, the inaugural entry in the Dark Stalkers series so beloved by various fighting game afficianados online. It's a Capcom beat em up from what some might say was a golden era for such games. So you get the cool art style, a well developed fighting system and a plot ever so very off the wall.
In short, I very much enjoyed this game. It all plays smoothly and even with my ineptitude with these games, I could still pull off some tremendous attacks. Thinking back upon it I think the visuals perhaps stick out more than the gameplay itself. This was definitely a game that delivered on its art design with it's pretty memorable selection of supernatural fighters. Let's say four catgirls out of five for this one!
...and that's it for the second part of my 2024 in gaming. A broad eclectic mix of old and new here I think you'll agree. Some genuine surprises, some so-so efforts and some games I will not care to play ever again. Join me next time for the third and final part of this gaming odyssey.
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