One Happy Team…

Category: PC Gaming

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  • Blood West

    Was very excited to find a unique version of the Prodigal Daughter enemy, VIP Daughter, tucked away in a cave. Later discovered that she’s part of a quest which I ruined. And since there’s only a single save in this game: no reward for me.

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    There’s a really fun quest that predates this one where you need to find and talk to cacti. There’s a seniorita cacti, miner cacti, sheriff cacti, and they are all voiced. You can only talk to them while drunk. I wonder why…

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    The drunk game is very strong in this game in general. As a reward for this quest you get a bottomless flask. Before that, you got a knife, that has a bonus damage while drunk, but drains your life while sober. With the bottomless flask, though, it’s not a problem anymore. And there’s also a rifle for drunkards, that has bonus damage while being drunk.

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    Wendigo are like local version of Deathclaws. They are terrifying, but fair: they will chase you, but won’t fit in small caves, where you can snipe them from. The most annoying enemy are the flying skulls. They pass through walls, hard to hit, take multiple shots, and relentless.

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  • Blood West

    It starts like Blood and looks like Hexen 2, but it’s neither. You have a stealth system, with a full fledged visibility and noise meter which I haven’t seen in ages. And an inventory system. There’s also money, with multiple traders, and experience, with skills and multiple upgrades. The loot is fair. If an enemy has shotgut, it will drop shotgun once killed. At this point, I’d like to say it plays like a Deus Ex, but honestly I don’t remember how Deus Ex plays.

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    You cannot save freely. Monsters respawn, but I couldn’t figure out when. Not when you rest, or die. When you die, you don’t need to pick up your corpse to recover stuff, but you do get a curse every time, lowering your stats. And if you get cursed three times, you need to complete a miniquest to remove the curse: do 5 headshots, stealthly kill 3 enemies, or something like that.

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    The start is quite brutal, until you get the lever action rifle. It holds more bullets than revolver, and unlike it is actually able to deliver headshots. Also, ammo is plentiful, since it’s the same as the revolver one.

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  • Deathloop

    Completed Deathloop.
    I thought that the sniper rifle shown on the promo art is not in the game. But you get it in a very Hitman 47-like twist, where Eternalists set a package for you, then snipers ambush you from all sides. By that point, though, I had a Metal Gear Solid-like stealth, that is infinite, as long as you don’t move, which is crazy.

    So the main plot twist is that Julianna is not your disgrunted lover. She’s your daughter.

    At first I was under the impression that I needed to figure out in which order to execute the Visionaries. But turns out there is just one order, and it’s all explained to you, no missing it
    Overall, executing the plan is fun, with one exception. Maybe I spent too long, but most visionaries stopped dying from a single headshot. Power creep. So what was supposed to be an elegant kill turned out to be messing firefight.
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  • Deathloop

    I like how the game doesn’t force a stealthy approach on you, like Dishonored did. You get spotted, you often get a chance to fight out of it, without repercussions.

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    What I don’t like is that the game does make me feel a bit dump. The expectation that I would be able to create a time-bending plan to trap and kill all 8 of my Visionary “friends” in a single day is a bit too much.

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    Funny enough, Deathloop has same problem with its arsenal as Far Cry 6. Early on I got an elephant rifle from Julianna that fires explosive bullets. And honestly, you don’t need any other weapon in this game. It one-shots all enemies at such a distance they don’t even hear the shot. And it’s still efficient at close range.

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  • Deathloop

    I never liked roguelikes, especially not roguelike FPSs, but then that’s because they didn’t have budget. Deathloop tries to pull what Hades did before: roguelike, but with a good story and art. This one has a 60’s aesthetics, which haven’t tired yet.

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    It’s a stealth shooter at its core. You mark your enemeies, they have alert meters, you’re given a silent nailgun early on, all that stuff. For some reason they decided to do away with bodies, maybe they didn’t want you to carry them around. But unlike stealth shooters, weapons have different quality levels.

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    As the name suggests, it’s a Groundhog day. Every day divided into 4 episodes, and then you wake up on a beach again. You play as Colt, amnesiac former head of security, who is now set to escape. In order to do so, he needs to eliminate all 8 of his former colleagues in a single day.

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    They really nailed the shooting mechanics. Weapons look unique enough, but also recognizable enough to understand their function, and they handle just right. There’s a jamming mechanic, which I don’t remember since Far Cry 2. Probably added so I wouldn’t be able to mow down dozens of enemies like I did in Far Cry 6.
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  • Hexen

    There is a remaster of Hexen that came out this month, and I remember that I completed it, but didn’t remember when, so I checked my notes, and turns out it was 21 years ago.

    Almost a reason to complete it again, as I don’t even remember if I played Warrior or Priest.

    On the wave of the remaster there are also some new videos dedicated to it, and I didn’t know that Warrior gauntlets had a combo system (3rd attack is much more powerful than the first two):

  • Diablo Immortal

    I haven’t played Diablo Immortal for a long time, so after checking the druid, I decided to go back to the Tempest class. And the catchup mechanic is crazy. They give you a legendary for every day you log in, and also some crazy experience boost, so my Tempest went from level 25 to 59 in a matter of two-three days 😆
    Tempest class feels broken. It supposed to be “dual wield rogue” archetype. But usually, this archetype sacrifices AoE for DPS. In case of Tempest, you get it all, though: DPS, and AoE, and also almost every move is a dash.


  • Simon the Sorcerer 25th Anniversary Edition

    Even by adventure games remaster standards, this is atrocious. They used xBRZ filter, which turns the game graphic into unintelligble mess. But that’s only half ot he problem, as the filter can be disabled. The other half, is that the game itself is bad.
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    Major parts of the map are forest zones, which, while beautiful in a pixelart sense, are mostly pointless. Then, you have very vague goals (find the mage Calysto, find necromancer’s staff) and even more vague means to achieve them. There are 20+ items in my inventory, and I have not a clue when any of these items might be useful.
    At one point, you meed a barbarian in the forest, and you’re given a whistle if you ever need his help. Then you meet a troll blocking a bridge, and that troll asks for goat stew. How do you get a goat stew? You don’t. How do you use the whistle? You don’t. You need to talk to the troll a second time, and then he will grab the whistle and use it himself, beconing his demise. It’s funny, but I came to this solution by chance, not through some logical process.
    I ended up using a guide at Goblin Cave, because I thought that I might have softlocked my playthrough. I didn’t, but it is just that I tried to “give” bucket to the druid, instead of “using” bucket on a druid. Or maybe I tried to “use” it, but Simon walked to him instead, and I assumed it does nothing and didn’t try again.
    In any case, I think I’m done with this game. The only positive bit is custom animations. Those are impressive, considering they are used only once, and they are genuinely funny. Like when Simon pops out of Iron Maiden, where he was hiding from the goblins, takes a sip of water, and in starts leaking from different places. Or when Rapunzel drops his braid on him, and he becomes this hat with shoes for a few moments.
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  • Slender Threads

    Completed Slender Threads.
    I’m not very good in puzzle games, so the difficulty for me is alright. Most of the puzzles are just item puzzles, although there’s one mapping a sequence and another with “alien numbers”, which I bruteforced, because two numbers are obvious, and for the other two, you have just 3 options each. Also, at a couple of episodes you get your inventory taken away, and have to do with what you find.

    The story is a bit meta, but not in a way I was expecting. I thought that the protagonist will be an escapee from the asylum. Then I thought it will go towards breaking the 4th wall, and the black hand being that of the player.
    But turns out, all characters are marionettes (thus, threads). And the plays they are used to are kind of Twilight Zone (familiar from Alan Wake), that’s why at one point you’re told something like “you will kill us in many different ways every evening”. And the radio you hear at the beginning is the announcement of the next show.
    All in all, it’s a great adventure game. Not too difficult, with a lot of smart references (the veil and the window are straigth from Cthulhu mythos) and with a distict visual style.

    Games like Slender Threads also make me think why I often enjoy modern adventure games, but not those from the Golden Age. Those tried to justify full-price tag, and so made the puzzles too difficult, so the game would feel longer. While modern adventure games often cost a fraction, and I don’t mind when I finish them in a couple of evenings.
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  • Slender Threads

    It’s hard to understand from the screenshots, but it’s actually a 3D point’n’click adventure that makes itself look like 2D.
    Gameplay wise, it’s pretty standard: you talk to people, you have your inventory, you can combine stuff.
    Storywise, though, it is not so much horror as it is dark comedy. You do standard point’n’click stuff, like trying to prank a barber to get a pile of hair you aren’t even sure you need… And the barber ends up having a heart attack.
    The complexity comes not from its puzzles, those are rather logical, I must admit, but from the sheer number of locations and characters that are available almost from the get go. Also you quickly find half a dozen items in your inventory you have a very vague idea where to use. Luckily there’s a decent hints system built in. It’s not 90s anymore.
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  • Diablo Immortal

    Diablo Immortal added a new class, Druid. Althouth this one is a classic, both from Diablo 2 and Diablo 4. Still, it’s ironic how Diablo Immortal, salvaging everything from Diablo 3, is still head above most other ARPGs in the tactile sense. Yes, there’s same issue Diablo 3 had, most classes feel kind of the same: basic attack, AoE attack, mobility skill, “rage button”.

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    But turning into a werewolf and summoning tornadoes still feels great.

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    Only summoning wolves is a bit lackluster, as they “teleport” too much. I haven’t stopped until I reached Westmarch yet again.

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  • Torchlight Infinite

    As I love both Diablo 2/3 and Torchlight 2, I decided to give Torchlight Infinite another try. And it squandered it.
    One annoying mechanic is timed boss battles. You have 5 minutes to kill a boss, otherwise, you have to try again. You also have a limited number of retries: around 10, I think. This wasn’t a problem until level 38, when I faced Keegan. This one can kill a character in a couple of hits, and I was barely doing any damage. Managed to kill it after a few tries, but that was a major difficulty spike there out of nowhere.
    Then I went to a guide and respected (luckily it’s free), and after that, it was much easier. But it’s not fun to play ARPG that you need a leveling guide for.
    So, in the end, out of all mobile Diablo clones, only Diablo Immortal is worth any attention, despite all the hate it got when it released (and probably still gets).
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  • Crow Country

    It is clearly inspired by Resident Evil, but doesn’t copy it as much as I thought it would.
    The item screen with heartbeat reflecting health and ID are there.

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    As is the raise weapon mechanic.

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    But that’s where the differences start, as your camera is not fixed, and neither your aim.
    Flashligth and theme park setting are more Silent Hill, though, as is the screen noise filter.

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  • If On A Winter’s Night, Four Travelers

    Completed it in a single sitting.
    A two-hour long point’n’click adventure, but with isometric perspective, which is slightly uncharacteristic. Sanitarium did the same, though, and even had same themes of seemingly bizzare world that had some concrete reasonings. Structurally, it reminiscent of “I have no mouth“, as there are three stories that unravel one after the other.
    There’s no inventory management, so all you have to do is click the objects in the right order.
    First story is pretty straightforward: gay lover meeting a married man in Rome. It does some picture swaps and uncanny music, kind of like Last Door, but nothing fancy.

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    The second story is much more impressive. It’s about a woman that is going mad from grief and laundaum. At first, it has this effect from We Happy Few, whenever she drinks laundaum the grey world becomes happy and colourful.

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    But by the end of the story, rooms become half grey, half happy, as she moves through them, which is innovative for a pixelart game.
    They also switch the character models for her, and she starts to shamble as she gets more unhinged.

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    Third story is about black doctor in Chicago that struggles with memories from the First World War and with being accused of stealing morphine, which he did, but only to help his neighbour dying from tuberculosis.

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    It would be all pretty grim and melancholic, if not for the epilogues, which clearly took inspiration from Grim Fandango.

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  • Disco Elysium

    Completed Disco Elysium for good now.

    This time I played the Sensitive cop. Out of the three archetypes, this is the most balanced one, as he has plenty of health and morale. I did pick the Revancholian Nationhood thought, though, that damages your morale when you pick the wrong dialogue options without much benefits. That was a mistake.
    This time I tried to avoid cryptozoologists on purpose, get my gun and help with the welkins MMORPG game. Also, turns out when you play as Sensitive Cop, your necktie starts talking to you in a crazy voice.
    Then I painted myself into a corner with the Hardie boys. There’s a Logic check that you need to pass to start looking for Ruby. And I failed it. Usually, that’s not a problem, as you can retry the check if you put another point into the skill. But since I’m playing Sensitive Cop, I have just one point in Logic. So I had to wait the entire day doing nothing, in hopes that the communist club plotline will bring me somewhere. It didn’t. I just ended up reloading a very old save.

    The only qualm I have with the game is that the ending has less variance than might seem. Titus can survive, Ruby can die, you can arrest Klaasje, and not know anything about phasmid, but still the killer is the same old man on the island which you never met. I can’t say “it’s not a great writing” about a game with greatest writing since ever. But I still feel a bit cheated, just a little bit.
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  • Disco Elysium

    One thing that the game doesn’t explain well is how important “Volition” skill is. During the first 4 days, you don’t get into any fights at all, and rarely ever get hurt. But your morale gets damaged during dialogues quite often. And if you’re morale hits zero, it’s a game-over, just like with health.
    On the 4th evening the fight between mercenaries and Union “regulators” finally errupts. I’m not sure if it’s possible to completely diffuse it, as you shouldn’t be able to know who the real killer is by this point. I survived it by having the armor, and not having any gun, as I let Ruby go (so I didn’t pick up her gun from the corpse), and I didn’t manage to recover my pistol.

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    Got the first ending. I let both Ruby and Klasje escape, Titus dies, and Colonel was killed by a crazed communist on the island that is still fighting The War. And there’s also the huge telepatic insect that I got to chat with. After all that, Harry is accepted back to the force, and Kim joins him in Presinct 41.
    Also, I didn’t manage to complete the MMORPG quest. Now I’ll try another build and pick different thoughts to see if I get another ending without a guide.
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  • Disco Elysium

    The game uses real game time: some characters will go to work and return in the evening, shops close at night. A bit like Shenmue. That also means that you need to hustle for money to pay for your hotel every day, as you start the game not just broke, but also in debt. One way to earn money is to collect empty bottles scattered around the district.
    Perk system is interesting. Perks are called “thoughts”. You need to learn, or “internalize” them first, which takes a few hours of game time. During that process, you may get some negative effects as well.
    Some checks are straightforward: fail them once, and that’s it. But some actually benefit from repeats, or picking the right option before the attempt. Sometimes it also works the other way around: if you pick a wrong option, you get a debuff for your attempt.
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  • Disco Elysium

    It is indeed very impressive, with the amount of dialogues (a lot of them internal), all voiced, and skill checks. I have played Planescape Torment only as a teenager, so the closest comparison for me would be LA Noir.
    I’ve recently listened to an interview with creators of Dark City, and how the City is supposed to be from different epochs and placed, making the viewer uncomfortable. There’s a similar theme there, where a city is both post-WW2 Berlin, divided between external powers, but uses French names, and the struggle between communist Union Workers and capitalists is more of US in the 20s.
    And our investigation doesn’t start with a dead girl! Instead, we have a security guard that was apparently lynched by some Union workers.
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  • Greedfall

    Completed Greedfall.
    The game becomes slightly tedious towards the end, but same could be said about any Mass Effect as well. The monsters do not level up with you, which is good, but you still have to fight them every time you enter a region. I miss the system from Witcher, where underleveled monsters would run away from you. But I think that’s the only game that ever implemented it.
    The story is still good, though. It’s not groundbreaking, but it has this nice back-and-forth, showing that someone understood what they were doing.
    We need the High King of the Natives in order to understand the nature of the plague. But he secluded himself on the mountain, and only his girlfriend knows where to find him. She is held by scientists, but since we rescued them once, they release her without a fight. She tells us where to find the High King, but turns out he’s evil, killing one of the native shamans and kidnapping our plagued cousing. And we fight and kill his girlfriend, who we rescued recently, in the process.
    Here it is a bit disappointing, as you cannot negotiate with her or him, no matter what. And natives will get angry at you for that. But I guess there had to be some conflict.
    Final confrontation has your companions stay behind one by one. I think Mass Effect 2 did the same. Then you need to pick between sacrificing your cousin, who did you no wrong and your companions. Picking your cousing is considered the bad choice, although it’s not clear to me why, as even at the end of the game he doesn’t act as a tyrant.
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  • Greedfall

    Still impressed by what this game has to offer. I assumed that if I completed Kurt’s quest before the coup, he may stay with the band, and the game didn’t disappoint. There’s also quest for Vasco, a sailor. All of the sailors have Maori-like facial tattoos and once you complete his quest line, his appearance also changes. Well done indeed.
    It’s not all rosy, of course. The idea of the combat system is that you would first break opponents armor with a blunt weapon, then switch to a sword to finish them. But with the upgrades, you can easily create a weapon that works well against both armored and unarmored opponents, completely negating the point in switching between weapons.
    There’s also a reputation system, but story-wise, it is heavily skewed towards natives. You will inevitably loose reputation with Mercenaries during the coup, and since the only healer that can actually help Constantin is the native healer, you will loose reputation with “Spaniards” as well.
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