For the week of October 7 – 13
Check out what I played last week
October 7 – Silver Chains
Silver Chains is a game I got through a promotion. Many of these third-party Steam key sites will give away games and this is one I got for free. Based on the Steam reviews, I thought I’d enjoy Silver Chains but what I’ve played so far is dull.
For a game touted as a horror game, I wasn’t scared. You start the game as a victim of a car crash. As you stumble your way towards the nearest home you pass out. You wake up inside the home but it doesn’t seem normal. As you wander around looking for a way out, you also are trying to piece together what’s going on.
But, nothing happens. I spent most of my time figuring out how to get a key hanging from an inaccessible room. It took me forever to interact with a fire poker which I could use to reach the key. Other than that, I’m only wandering the halls and seeing what I can interact with.
The first and only “scare” I encountered was a joke. As I am walking up some stairs, I hear a noise from the other side of the room. A massive ghost-looking woman storms into the room and begins to make chase. But I’m so far away that there is more than enough time to “hide” and avoid any conflict. After I got out of the closet, I knew this game wasn’t for me and I stopped playing.
October 8 – Diablo IV: Vessel of Hatred
When I started Diablo IV: Vessel of Hatred, I wasn’t sure if I should include it here. I haven’t included other Expansion content, but to be fair, this is the first Expansion I’ve played this year. Since I finished the main campaign of Diablo IV, this felt alright. I wouldn’t have included it if I needed to play more of the base game to reach the Expansion content.
You have to play a bit before experiencing most of the new expansion content. The first 45 minutes have you trek your way to the new area. This might take you more or less time depending on if you get sidetracked. Like most Blizzard games, the cutscene that kicks off the new area is intense and I was eager to get into it.
I’m enjoying the new content so far. I’m playing with the new Spirtborn class. This is also the first time I’ve respected my character. After unlocking a few of my skills, I wanted to tweak it a bit and try a different approach. I’m using ranged skills, including one Eagle attack that does some massive damage to foes in a specific area.
Based on my progress, I still feel very early in the story. I met up with Neyrelle briefly and saw some crazy stuff happen. You can tell that the game is going to go in some crazy directions and I’m having fun with what they give me. This content doesn’t feel too long but I’d like to see all of it. Plus, I do want to play most of the seasonal content they added before that ends.
October 9 – Throne and Liberty
As I was looking at the top played Steam Deck charts, another game caught my eye. This time it was Throne and Liberty. Upon looking at the details, this is a free-to-play MMO. It might be high on the charts, but this doesn’t seem like a game optimized for the portable unit. I’ve put in a bit of time into this one. Other than some nice visuals, this is pretty dull.
There isn’t too much to say about this game. The intro section is cool, with a lot happening. Once you reach the game’s hub, it’s your run-of-the-mill MMO. My character is running around completing basic tasks. The few combat sections are quick and don’t offer any sort of challenge.
This type of game is fun to try but lacks any long-term appeal. I was quickly bored with the story, spending more of time time trying to explore. My character looks sharp, but I want her to have better gear. It feels that a lot of the cool gear is behind a season pass. I have no plans to invest the time and money necessary. So, I’ll move on to something else.
October 10 – Black Book
Keeping with the horror-like themes, I decided to try Black Book. This is a card-based RPG. Taking place in a fictional Slavic nation, this features a lot of Slavic mythology. There are some cool aspects to the game. At the same time, there are some frustrations early on.
For starters, they incorporate an interesting way of storytelling. Venturing through the game’s world, you get some fun story vignettes at each location. A narrator is telling a story: “While walking through the forest you hear some faint singing. As you approach, you notice a goblin reciting a childhood lullaby.”. Then you have a set of options to choose from: let them finish the song, attack, or leave. Depending on your actions, you might get a reward or cause further trouble. While the result isn’t deep, it does give the player the perception you have an impact on the world.
The combat is fine, but for the early parts of the game, it’s limited. Your collection of playable cards is small, so there are very few actions you can take. I struggled in the game’s prologue main fight because the cards I was getting per turn were not effective. I had to prolong the fight by using herbs. It was the only way I could win that fight.
I stopped playing as I began to complete some tasks for a Changeling. They need my help to free them of their curse, so my character has to do three things for them. This sounds interesting and I’m curious how difficult it will be to complete these tasks. If I decide to keep playing, hopefully, I come across some cool scenarios.
October 11 – D
“D” is a game I’ve known for decades. What’s funny is this game my younger sister first told me about back in the day. It’s only now that I’ve finally given it a try. The only problem I’m facing with the game is not performance but time.
What I didn’t know going in is that this game is a real-time horror-adventure game. Meaning, there is no “pause” or “save” function. You have two hours to finish the game. Unfortunately for me, I didn’t have two straight hours to play the game. I was playing for about an hour, struggling to get a handle on the controls when I had to stop playing. Thinking that all interactions were automatic, you need to press the “I” button to open your inventory and use specific items. So, I’m wandering around a few rooms trying to do things but unsure why nothing is happening.
Then I got to a puzzle that required getting a specific number. It took me forever to get “8” to open the safe. That wasn’t very pleasant. I got to this point when I had to stop playing. Because this is a two-hour experience, I’d like to go back and try this again. Now that I know the actions to do, I can run through these sections and get to the parts I missed.
October 12 – Policenauts
I’m in Japan for the week. While on my flight, I was browsing through my collection of downloaded ROMs. The first game that caught my eye was Policenauts. Like Snatcher earlier in the year, this was the other one of Hideo Kojima’s games that I had yet to play.
I’ve only spent an hour playing but I like the story. It’s got a lot of mystery and tons to learn. There isn’t too much gameplay. The first interactive section is in your character’s office. In this section, I spent a lot of time touching things before it triggered the next scene. The only “combat” sequence was pretty easy and forgiving. You need to fire at an assailant and I was able to use a ton of bullets without penalty.
Policenauts never got an official English release in North America. The unofficial English patch that I’m playing seems pretty good so far. This game is even more cinematic than Snatcher. Because of that, I’m impressed with the effort they put into its translations. Like his other game, I want to keep playing and see how this story unfolds.
October 13 – Poker Poker Magic
Before my flight to Japan, I noticed a few new games on the Playdate that caught my eye. Earlier this year, I had fun with Mars After Midnight. So, I was hoping that I’d find other must-play games. I picked up two games to try them out. With its mobile release, I’ve gotten back into playing Balatro. Today’s game, Poker Poker Magic also uses Poker in its gameplay but in a match-three approach. While I don’t hate the game, it feels pretty limited.
This is like other match-3 puzzle games. Pieces containing two playing cards drop down the board. Your goal is to match the same three numbers or face cards. If you’ve played Puyo-Puyo or Dr. Mario, this feels the same. In the game’s story mode, you’re playing against other characters you meet. The goal is to outlast them.
But the story isn’t that interesting and the matches against them are always the same. I noticed that as I was progressing, the only difference was how fast the matches were. My opponents were getting faster and doing more actions than I was. In most of my wins, I was only winning because the AI was playing too fast and making mistakes. It was rare for me to perform successful matches to impact their screen.
There doesn’t appear to be an infinite mode unless it’s something you unlock. Instead of going through a dull story mode, I’d rather try to set a high score. As it stands, I’m not too keen on continuing to play Poker Poker Magic.
