Games I Played a While Ago

I played these games way back in October of last year and started writing up these reviews, then forgot to finish and publish them. I think I was maybe planning to try out some other games and add them to the list, but I never did. Anyway, here's some quick reviews of games I played a bit of.

Alpha Prime

This opening cutscene goes on forever. Are they trying for noir?

Seems like a pretty generic FPS, except that the enemies seem to be absurdly tough. I don't think I'm missing anything, because Civvie said it sucks.

The Age of Decadence

I hope this game is good. It's very slow to start with and I suspect is going to get unplayably hard. The intro suggests that there are going to be unavoidable fights. I might give it a go at some point but I don't have high hopes.

Bloodrayne 2: Terminal Cut

Controls are dogshit - possibly easier to play with a controller. Definitely showing its age. Fatalities are cool, but get repetitive real fast.

Europa Universalis IV

Not sure what I'm supposed to be doing. People say unhelpful things like "set your own goals" or whatever, but I don't really know what I can even do? Seems like I'd have to spend a lot of time learning the game first before I could have any fun with it.

Hellblade: Senua's Sacrifice

So fucking bad. It starts by giving you subtitle options but then subtitles are switched off when you actually start playing. Why ask me what I want only to ignore it? Everything is slow as molasses. Non-fucking-stop exposition - and not all voices are subtitled so, again, why put the subtitle options right up front only to ignore them? No tutorial: the controls are never explained. And I guess if you die too many times you lose all progress? Every single thing about this game is designed to annoy me. And it looks really cool, so it's also designed to trick me into playing it.

Satellite Reign

Shadowrun style gameplay but realtime? Not a fan. I'm not even sure I could be bothered with that Dragon Age style real-time-with-pause RPG gameplay any more. I want proper turns so I can think instead of react.

TrackMania Nations Forever

Wildly impossible race tracks that take seconds to finish - once you figure them out. It'll take a few attempts, but it's so quick and so easy to retry that it never feels onerous. I'm never going to be great at this game, but it doesn't take greatness to get the gold medal and move on. It's just hard enough to be fun without ever becoming frustrating. This game is a lot of fun.

Except for the "endurance" races. They're long and boring and if you fuck up late in the race you have to start all over again. Which would be fine if they were optional, but you have to complete them to progress. There's plenty you can do before you get locked out by them, but it is a disappointment that you have to waste your time on them if you want to see the rest of the game. The rest of the game is really fun though.

Trine 4

I liked the first game enough to get the second, loved the second and the third, and I am enjoying the fourth but something about it just isn't clicking for me like the earlier ones did. I keep going back to it and I probably will finish it, but I never seem to play for very long at a time. Maybe there's something different about it or maybe, by game four, I'm just a bit over it? In either case, if you're looking for a recommendation I'd say to go with Trine 2. That was probably the peak of the series for me.

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