For the week of December 16- 22
Check out what I played last week
December 16 – Silent Hill 2 (Remake)
When it comes to the Silent Hill franchise, I’m a dabbler. I’ve started the first three games in the series but never finished them. The furthest I’ve gotten is a third of the way through the first game. As for the other two, I doubt I got past the first hour of either game. When they announced a remake for the second game, I was indifferent. Yes, it’s the most memorable part of the original trilogy. Unfortunately, the more recent games have been so forgettable. So, trying to reboot the series was a bit of a surprise.
Because I have no memory of the original, this does feel like a new experience. The game is very slow to start, with not a lot happening. You spent the first 10-15 minutes slowly wandering around a park that includes a cemetery. Here you do encounter your first person, and they warn you to avoid heading into Silent Hill. You don’t listen to them and you continue your way into town. Once there, it’s deserted and most of it blocked off. It’s only after this discovery that you encounter your first group of enemies.
After defeating the first group of foes, I’m trying to complete the game’s first puzzle. I’ve managed to glue together two pieces of an old record I need for a jukebox. Unfortunately, now I’m looking for a coin to use in said jukebox. Since I don’t know where I need to go, I’m going to have to wander the town a bit more to see what I may come across.
I’m enjoying this game so far. This first hour is slow but the build-up makes sense. From what I can remember of the past Silent Hill games, the focus isn’t on shock value. It’s a more psychological horror than gore horror. Right now, I’d love to spend a bit more time with the game since I’d like to see where the story goes next. I’m very curious to see what the jukebox reveals.
December 17 – Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine 2
A few months ago, I had no intention of playing Space Marine 2. It’s been 10+ years but I played through the entirety of the first game and did not enjoy it. From what I can remember, it lacked variety. It was nothing more than a 3rd-person corridor shooter with a forgettable story. It came as quite a surprise that a sequel was in development and I and no plans to play it. Recently though, a 2-hour trial of the game is available for PS+ subscribers on PS5 so I thought it wouldn’t hurt to try it.
To be fair this still feels like a corridor shooter. At the same time though, I did enjoy the first part of the game. This “intro” section has a lot of action and it does a great job of highlighting your Space Marine’s abilities. His arsenal is devastating, so it was fun killing waves of Tyranids. The sequence was predictable, but that didn’t matter too much because I was having fun.
The story though isn’t captivating me yet. There is so much lore in the Warhammer 40K universe that it’s hard to grasp. I’ve played a few Warhammer 40K games (I was a huge fan of the Dawn of War series), but I would not be able to explain any of the lore. I was hoping for a bit more backstory. Considering it’s been over 10 years since the last game, it would have helped to have a “previously…” vignette to start the game.
December 18 – Wario Blast
When looking at some retro games, I wanted something easy to play. So, I decided to try the Game Boy game, Wario Blast. I had no idea that Wario Blast was first a Bomberman game. They reworked the game to include Wario in the Western release. I’ve only ever played one other Bomberman game and that Bomberman Ultra on the PlayStation 3. So far, this is a fun but challenging game.
There isn’t too much to say here. If you’ve played any iteration of Bomberman, this is easy to grasp. Here, you’re playing Wario as you face off against other Bomberman characters. There are three stages before reaching the Boss stage. You have to win 2 out of three to progress and spend a good chunk dying.
It was only after understanding the attack upgrades that I managed to get victories. I did notice that the enemy AI was often doing the heavy lifting for me. Yes, I was defeating foes, but there were many times when they killed themselves. I hope that isn’t an exploit for the rest of the game.
December 19 – Lorelai and the Laser Eyes
Lorelai and the Laser Eyes is a game that I was curious about from earlier in the year when it first came out. I quite enjoy puzzle games, so I wanted to give this a go. Although I should enjoy the mystery behind the story, it still hasn’t quite hit the mark for me. This is also a game that you need to play with a pad of paper handy.
I’ve so far put about two hours into the game, which according to the game means that I’ve unlocked around 25% of the puzzles. The story focuses on the goings-on of a strange European hotel. The puzzles I’ve encountered thus far have been straightforward. These usually incorporate adding two numbers together taken from another nearby object.
My main gripe with the game is that the memories section of the menu is annoying to navigate. Every time you encounter an object, your character memorizes it. This allows you to refer to it whenever you need to. But accessing these memories requires many clicks and it can get tiresome. Because of that, you might want to track these things on a separate piece of paper for easier reference.
For now, this is a fine game but I’m not sure how it got such high praise from many outlets. I don’t know why a few outlets have put this on their shortlist for Game of the Year. It’s good but I have yet to see that “wow” moment where I could consider it as something I’d put on my list.
December 20 – Snakebird Complete
Snakebird is such an easy game to describe. It’s like the classic mobile phone game Snake but with birds replacing the reptiles. This puzzle game is a lot of fun and I’ve already gone through over 20 of the stages.
There isn’t too much more to say about the game. Each stage has you navigate a snakebird to collect items and to reach the goal. Some stages are easy to grasp but a few have proven to offer a nice challenge. The ones with two or more birds to work always give me a hard time. I’ve gotten stuck on one where I can’t get them both to the goal.
What I like most about Snakebird Complete is that it’s great to play in bursts. Play a few stages and move on to something else. So far, I’ve completed around 25 stages. I expect the difficulty will increase. I’m also curious about the other mechanics they introduce in later stages.
December 21 – Hunt: Showdown 1896
The original Hunt: Showdown game came and went, at least for me. I vaguely remember hearing bits and pieces about the game back in 2019 but I had no idea how much of a cult hit it was. A few months ago, its developer and publisher Crytek released an update to the game. I don’t know how different the 1896 version is from the original. It was recently made available for Xbox Game Pass subscribers, so I wanted to give it a try.
I’m a little disappointed with the setup. I was going into this expecting a survival action game set at the turn of the 20th century. What I wasn’t anticipating was a live-service product. This is more or less an online-only game where you play as a hunter. There seem to be two main modes. The first is Bounty Hunt which has you hunt specific enemies on your own or with groups of friends. The other is called Soul Survivor. In this one, you’re trying to take out other players to be the last hunter survivor.
After going through the game’s tutorial, I jumped first into Soul Survivor. Based on my initial understanding of the mode, my experience when I read “Solo-only”, meant it was PvE. That’s not the case. This is a battle royale. Here you’re trying to take out other hunters, collecting their souls so that you can stay alive. Even though I was able to avoid enemies, I ended up losing because of the lack of souls I collected. It was annoying since for my first match, I didn’t quite grasp the mode. Meanwhile, with Bounty Hunt, I played one game solo. I managed to get a bounty but died at the extraction point while waiting for the countdown to finish.
If I had friends to play with, I would have more fun. The game also doesn’t recommend playing alone if you’re new. I didn’t feel like pairing up with random players. Because of that, I doubt I’ll go back unless I manage to find someone to play with me.
December 22 – Ballionaire
Ballionaire came across my radar when I heard it mentioned on the Giant Bombcast. The idea of a pachinko-style game sounded cool. I was almost immediately hooked on the game but have hit a bit of a roadblock in my progression.
The key gameplay hook here is to accumulate a specific score within five ball drops. Every turn has you drop a ball down a pachinko board. you have no say on where the ball goes, it just falls straight down and begins to hit pegs. Each peg hit earns you one point. The key to getting more points is the special items that you add to the stage. After each turn, you can pick from one of three special items to add to the board. Some can go anywhere on the board, with others only able to go to specific spots.
Depending on their ability, you can get different points. Some will cause the ball to bounce back up. Others will earn you specific points when hit. There are even a few that when placed beside another same item, will grant you a point multiplier. The combinations are endless.
Because so much of this game is random, it’s part of why I’m stuck. I am at the point where I need to earn 150,000 points to progress and I can’t seem to get enough points. I’m getting close but whatever I do, it’s not enough. A bounce in one direction might give you 20,000 points. But if it goes in a different direction, you might only get 5,000. I want to get over this hump but if I keep hitting the same wall, I don’t see myself playing more.
