[Video Games] What are you playing? (Omikron Edition)

Yeah I think you nailed it that Valheim has some very well designed systems. Those initial hours were quite magical, and I think it was because of how well designed it was that I got hooked. I ultimately just dropped it because I feel like I got a good fill at the time. Didn't feel like I needed to repeat that loop, especially given the time commitment I could make at the time (hard to get invested in a "brutal" experience if you only play like 30-60 minutes a week). I think I'll probably try to jump back in with the eventual 1.0 release and see if I'd like to tackle the other areas in the game.


Following up on my last post, I'm winding down on Enshrouded I think, at least in its current form. For some reason, I thought it was mostly done, but there are still large-ish areas of the map blocked out (or seemingly large areas blocked out). Still I'm at around 60 hours, and I ended up nerfing the difficulty (due to reasons I'll explain), so yeah plenty of content if that's your thing (solo-only). By nerf, I mean I just wail away on bosses/enemies without worrying at all about dying (except for the last boss I fought, who packed quite the punch). I could also ignore the "enshrouded" condition in the game. This breaks the game completely (and not like it was as good as Dark Souls, Valheim, or anything like that anyway), but I was essentially speedrunning to evaluate the content. I also had my 4 year old daughter watching and occasionally playing, so I wasn't really going to go grind for an hour to optimize my equipment (hence why I nerfed things). I highly recommend unlocking some of the glider abilities in the skill tree. They make exploration much more fun...maybe because I'm a sucker for gliding in games. Definitely enough fun stuff to jump in now, but also might be good to wait until they finish the game and polish it some more. I don't recommend you try to dumb down the game, but hey nice that you can.



Steam Sale going on now, so I think both games are even cheaper than what I listed before (Valheim is $10!). Go get them! Buy now and wait to play 1.0 later if need be!

 

Sorry just re-read this and decided to reply before doing my own update. Yeah backstory probably helps, though I think the formula started getting a bit stale around this point. This game seemed mostly about wrapping up the trilogy, so if you're just jumping in at that point, might not seem that great.


OK played a lot since my last post (spoiler tag if people hate my tastes haha):

Spoiler

Palword - Finally gave this a shot. It's actually...pretty fun? Guess that's why it sold so well. It feels very unfinished from a balance perspective and whatnot, but I admit that the various gameplay mechanics fit better than I expected.


MiSide - I played a couple of hours of this, then just switched to YouTube as I got the gist of the gameplay and just wanted story. It's...fine I think? Glad I checked it out, but not sure I'd say it is some masterpiece everyone should play/watch (compared to say 1000xRESIST). Oh there is a (somewhat obvious) twist to this game, so I'd recommend going in blind if you do want to check it out.


My Time at Portia/Sandrock - I started by playing Portia, and after 25-30 hours, I switched to Sandrock which I played for around 80-90 hours. The latter seems like a much improved version, though maybe some prefer aspects of the original. Sorta Stardew Valley (minus most of the farming, more building) meets...I don't know. Maybe RPG since there is a strong focus on story missions (the story itself is OKish for the mood). My problem with both games is I really love what I'm playing...then I get bored as I've unlocked most of what I can unlock...and I realize I still around half of the story missions to do. Yes I put in like 80+ hours into Sandrock, and as far as I could tell, there was still a lot of game left. And unfortunately, there are areas, tools, etc that are locked behind completing these story missions, so you're kinda just stuck doing boring daily stuff until those things happen in the game. Hence why I gave up playing. But it is all pretty great until you hit that point, and perhaps not everyone will feel like I did.



Coral Island - A Stardew Valley clone. A decent one, and they have these underwater diving segments which I kinda like (which differentiates it...a slight bit). I wouldn't say it is amazing, but if you want to play a decent Stardew Valley clone, it might be worth checking out.

Sorry, going to do a double-post so I can get all the embeds to work better. Of course I shared too much in one post.

 

Part 2 of what I'm playing (double posting so the embeds work better)

Spoiler

Horizon's Gate - This is an interesting little game that I've put maybe 10 hours into. Combat is that tactical RPG stuff everyone knows. Jobs/classes and all that. I haven't gotten that far, but this part of the game seems fairly average (nothing that sets it apart from other games). But along with that combat system, it is also this open world...ship game? You go around hiring crew, buying new ships for your fleet, taking random jobs, exploring the seas, etc. After the brief intro, you're pretty much free to do whatever you want. It doesn't feel *super* deep to me (yet?), but it is a fairly unique combo of gameplay mechanics that work well. The only problem is the UI is just...garbage. Sorry. I can't really say anything kind about it. Oh and it has SNES graphics....and not the best SNES graphics either. Still good for me, but maybe some would be turned off by that. It probably goes on sale for less than $10, which is certainly a good price for something like this.


Fields of Mistria - I only played like 30 minutes. Basically another Stardew Valley clone. Seemed good, but it kept crashing on me. I'll wait until it is done to play more.


Abiotic Factor - Also only played like 30-60 minutes, but for a variety of reasons, I decided I'd rather play this when it is fully done...which I think is fairly soon. This is kinda Half-Life with survival gameplay mechanics in the world of...SCP I guess? That's what it seemed like to me anyway.


Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 - This is what I'm trying to focus on right now. Only like 5-6 hours in. It has gotten a ton of buzz recently as it reviewed *very* well (and thus is also selling very well). This is basically the old-school turned based RPGs so many people like myself have been begging for. Well...this one is way more French than anything I requested, but I'm not complaining. I can't speak to whether this is truly a masterpiece or just an over-hyped decent game, but I'm *really* enjoying what I've played so far. Only thing I don't like is the QTE stuff you can get in combat (for extra/reduced damage), which I know some people really love, but that just never clicked with me (you can partly bypass with settings though).