Monthly in a Month #15: The Apocalypse Edition

Reply here once done.

Hey CJ! Hope all is well and you're staying safe. I'm finally fully vaccinated and starting to hang out with friends again. Might not finish if I go out a ton, but I should be able to beat the games in time. :D

For this month, this is what Im currently looking at, though I may change the lineup for various reasons:

Reviews:
Cyber Hook: Cyber Hook was a very fun (and only mildly frustrating) 3D precision platformer. It felt a lot like Mirror's Edge with a grappling hook and it mostly had reasonable, yet fun levels. Enough of them were exciting to play additional times to get better times and it honestly controlled a lot better than I expected. I found a few levels tedious rather than something akin to a fun challenge. The music wasn't bad, but it really didn't do much to add excitement for me. I did love the visual aesthetic of the game overall.

Skully: Skully was an interesting looking 3D platformer, but it was very lacking in pretty much every regard. The voice acting was pretty good, though the story itself was pretty shallow. The visual design was interesting, but it looked pretty unpolished and was fairly barren. Aside from a single collectible, there were no indicators of where you were supposed to go in numerous places and it really struggled to feel fun and engaging most of the way through. There were numerous other visual and mechanical glitches and overall, I was pretty disappointed. The plus side is that it was very short, so it made it more reasonable to finish. Overall, would not recommend.

The Witness: The Witness was an interesting experience. From a basic standpoint, it teaches you without teaching you. You are given no tutorial, no instructions, nothing. You just start the game, in a bunker. You press keys to learn to move and see a small puzzle. It is so simple and so easy and it teaches you what to look for. After that door opens, another, slightly more complex one arises. Again, it's super easy, but it again teaches you that the puzzles will progressively become more challenging. For most of the first section, every puzzle is straightforward. Eventually, different hazards and rules are added based on the puzzle. It is pretty straightforward and nice, but it eventually grows into a culmination of frustration or boredom, depending on the section. After awhile, there is much less feeling of "Eureka!" when you solve a puzzle and it instead becomes a bit of a grind. It's definitely not a bad game overall and it's probably better when played over time rather than marathoning fourteen and a half hours in a day and a half, but it started to become more annoying than fun. The puzzles, which were often times clever, just started to get annoying and certain sections really weren't the best for me. Overall, it was a fun experience, but Im pretty happy to be done with it and not really interested in going deeper into post-game stuff.

SUPERHOT: SUPERHOT was really interesting. Though it uses shooter mechanics, it really is not one, at least in the traditional sense. It is a puzzle game disguised as a shooter with a pseudo-ARG feel to it. Knowing this going in, it was fun. The menu and story is really exciting and the mechanics were a lot of fun. It did a very good job at making me curious about what was gonna happen next and the menu offered a lot of interesting interaction while breaking the fourth wall. What more can I say about it. It's the most innovative shooter I've seen in years.

Furi: Furi is an interesting game. In essence, it is just a handful of tough boss fights with some cinematic scenes between each. The game has a loose story , which was honestly a bit compelling and had enough in it to help motivate me through. The basic mechanics were solid and most of the fights were pretty fun. There were some fights that were a bit more tedious than fun, or certain phases in otherwise good ones. The game was interesting and I think that it lacked some depth and the game would've been much better if it was stretched into a fuller game, though it may have been tedious and uninteresting. Graphically, the game was beautiful and a lot of the music, effects, and cinematic sections were very well executed. There were a few minor glitches I experienced, but nothing too bad to detract from the overall experience. I think it was a solid game overall and one that I could see going back and playing again at some point. If you like boss fights and bullet hell games, this is perfect for you. If you like one of those and are fine with the other, still a solid recommendation. If you actively dislike either of those, I'd steer very clear of it.

Yooka-Laylee and the Impossible Lair: Yooka-Laylee and the Impossible Lair was another nostalgia trip, but this time, something clicked in a much better way. Rare being best known for Banjo-Kazooie, which the Yooka-Laylee was a spiritual successor to, had a fair bit of issues and I felt it didn't work in the modern age. Rare also made the SNES classics, Donkey Kong Country 1, 2, and 3. This game did a lot right and felt a lot like those did. The game's storyline was simple and lighthearted and the game looked fantastic, and this is coming from a girl who typically hates 2.5D games. The platforming was fast and entertaining, the fact that each stage was used twice with some sort of different aspect when going back in was nice. I loved the overworld map having secrets and passages, but also just having fast travel if you didn't feel like exploring. The game's power-up system felt very balanced, where you can get special abilities, but it came at the expense of quills (this games currency) and there were numerous Easter eggs and interesting ones that just changed the visuals at no deduction of currency percentage. Having the challenge of the final boss available from the start was very interesting and was a lot of fun to take on, though some sections were exceptionally tedious in that. The soundtrack was wonderful, as is everything that David Wise and Grant Kirkhope make. While there were 40 levels, it still felt a little on the short side. I don't think I'd have wanted much more, but maybe one additional area with another 3 chapters to get a little bit more playtime in, but it felt pretty good where it was at. Overall, it was a very fun game and any fans of the Donkey Kong Country games, I'd heavily recommend this to.

Favorite game of the month: Yooka-Laylee and the Impossible Lair
I honestly enjoyed every game I played. SUPERHOT I had played some previously on my friends Xbox One awhile ago, but honestly, this month had a lot of hits. That being said, The Witness kinda got boring a bit into it and I really disliked Skully and would recommend everyone stay far away from that.

Bump!

Ageless beaten
metro exodus beaten
hellpoint beaten
Skully beaten
iris and the giant beaten, screenshot for iris
levelhead beaten, screenshot for levelhead
-had some trouble with in game screenshot for levelhead

Oof cutting it close, levelhead and hellpoint took me longer then I expected xD

• Yooka-Laylee Done
• Life is Strange Done
• Morkredd Done
• SIMULACRA Done
• NAIRI: Tower of Shirin Done
• Lightmatter Done

Bump!

I'll give this a bump but I think I'm free this month

1. Control
2. Family Man
3. Kathy Rain
4. Maize - Credits
5. Minit
6. Skully

Thanks for these giveaways, as always.

Valkyria Chronicles 4:
Mixed. I really like the TPS and turn-based strategy gameplay, but the game doesn't have much depth. The games' AI is kinda terrible and will just march to their deaths over and over again, so it's primary way of imposing a challenge is to just throw in one or two massively overpowered guys in the enemies' army who can take 7 tank mortars to the face and oneshot your infantry units. I really like the painterly artstyle, but the story is kinda terrible. The game was fun enough for me to finish, despite all of this and being about 40hrs long. Would recommend, but only if you have a high tolerance for anime cliche.

Styx - Shards of Darkness:
Great game. Loved the first Styx and loved this one. Really great stealth action with platforming elements with fantastic openly designed levels. I love the games story and lore, the setting is one of my favorite takes on dark fantasy I've played. Some people have criticised the combat in these games, but I frankly feel like they're missing the point. The ending felt a little anti-climactic, though, what best qualities as the game's boss fights just aren't very fun. Overall, I loved playing at and I intend to revisit it for 100% completion.

Chasm:
Really liked it. Solid Metroidvania with a nice art style, fun combat and well designed bosses. The progression felt a bit off, for example, the blacksmith NPC can graft material in exchange for ingots, but by the time you have access to the best ingots you're already at the final boss anyway, and the best equipment comes from random drops anyway. I played on normal difficulty and the difficulty felt tough but fair, reasonally balanced.
Would like to play again sometime, something I expect the randomly generated maps to help with.

Relicta:
Did not like it. Puzzles feel aimless, you walk into a room and see a tangled mess of switches, buttons and wires and about 3 different subrooms with their own puzzles to solve; because of this every puzzle starts with you walking around trying to figure out where to even start. The story wasn't really grabbing me either, It started very slow, got a bit more intriging when things actually started happening, but I lost interest mainly because the puzzles kept breaking up the story. The story's justification for the puzzles is that they are some sort of physics experiment that for arbitrary reasons can't be turned off despite imminent danger, maybe it's better justified by the end, I don't know, based on the achievments list I stopped playing about 65% through the story campaign.

Skully:
Holy shit, the base price for this on steam is AUD$42.95 hahahahaha
I did not enjoy Skully much. Platforming while rolling around is fun but the game insists on having several transformations you need to use to solve puzzles and clear obstacles. These forms are slow, clunky and just destroy the flow of the game. I did not like the story, characters or acting. My patience was really tested at the chapter where you have to get through a dark cave with incredibly poor visibility (everyone's favorite game design trope) and I probably would have quit there if I didn't know I was already near the end of this VERY short game. Another thing; At one point, at around the 60% mark, I alt-tabbed out of the game on the main menu to get up a podcast. Upon returning, I accidentally hit 'New Game'. All data instantly erased. Without even an 'Are you sure?'. Fuck this game.
Music's nice though.

If I'll find enough time this month, I might try beating a game or two^^ (or maybe even six)
Thank you for doing these giveaways^^

1 Some achievements in Moon Hunters unlocked at the same time - after I killed the final boss and completed the full run some just popped out with "what you have achieved in this run" so they are unlocked at the same time.

My most favorite games out of these would definitely be Epistory - Typing Chronicles and Moon Hunters. I need to play Moon Hunters when I'll have more time, I went just for one ending but there's still so much stuff left to explore and the fact that the game is co-op makes it a lot easier for me with finding time for it. (Co-op games have the highest priority in my backlog^^)
GoNNER was a bit harder that I expected it to be so it took me a while to beat the final boss. But I also enjoyed this game a lot.
Morkredd was in my priority list (co-op game) and I enjoyed it a lot. There's never enough co-op games with logic elements x3 (if Automachef had multiplayer I would declare it the best game ever)
The Wild Eight wasn't quite something I would normally play, I though that from the trailer on steam this game looked really neat and the game is really nice indeed but it just wasn't exactly my cup of tea. I'll stick with puzzle/logic/co-op games (preferably with some story).
I have a really mixed opinion about Vane. The game itself is fun and looks amazing, but the camera is horrible. I wouldn't play it again if I had the chance, I though that I'll be able to play it in one sitting but I had to stop and take a break due to motion sickness I was getting from it. It makes me sad, I really wanted to like that game 'cause it looked really original and the puzzles were really enjoyable but that camera ruins it a bit for me. I would still reccomend it to those who love exploration and don't get nausea from gaming.

Aaaaaand another month of backlog slaying, brought to you by CJ!
It's like you're reading my wishlist!

I'm well into Inquisitor for now but I'll get to it in a few days!

I highly recommend Don't Escape! Amazing game! I played straight through it and started another playthrough right away.

Kero Blaster though... oh boy. I suck at platformers so much! I have never struggled that hard for one lousy achievement! And judging by the achievement numbers on Steam, I'm not the only one. So I guess if you are really good at platformers, you'll have fun.

I got massively bored halfway through Tales of the Neon Sea so it was a bit of a drag finishing it. I love cyberpunk settings and the game is very pretty but the gameplay is tedious. One minigame/puzzle after the other. The story is ok, not amazing but ok, and it deserved a better gameplay, imo.

Not Tonight was awesome. The gameplay got mildly repetitive in the last chapter but the humor and the story kept it going to the end.

Wooops, Days Gone is gonna tear me out of my hole. Participating!

Oh, I'm definitely in, the fight with backlog must go on!
This Is the Police (May 2017) - Achievements
Nairi: Tower of Shirin (July 2019) - Achievements
AER Memories of Old (April 2018) - Achievements
The Journey Down: Chapter Three (May 2019) - Screenshot
Frog Detective 2: The Case of the Invisible Wizard (December 2020) - Achievements
Rover Mechanic Simulator (November 2020) - Screenshot

Thanks for another awesome event!

Got sick last month and couldn't join in (though not for lack of trying; just didn't have enough time once I got better) which was a shame since I was pretty interested in ME. Oh well, here's to (hopefully) finishing this month!

Ended up swapping out Remothered: Broken Porcelain with Smile For Me.

Again! Edit: I did it!
Stories Untold 100%
Rise of the Tomb Raider Extreme Survivor
Lara Croft Go 100%
My Friend Pedro Face the Truth
Little Misfortune 100%
In Other Waters Screenshot

niiiice. got a couple games i need to finish up first before i get started. i stupidly started playing yakuza 0 a few days too early to count :/
5/23: just finished 100%'ing yakuza 0 and i have a week to get these done. looks like i'll be knocking out some of my shorter games. 😑

• little misfortune
• a case of distrust
• the ambassador: fractured timeline
• family man
• youropa
• beyond eyes

Update #1 (9 May): Beaten Monster Prom. That was shorter than I expected.
Update #2 (13 May): Beaten Owlboy. Screenshots included from the last scene and credits since there's no achievement for the game's completion.
Update #3 (22 May): Beaten Ken Follett's The Pillars of the Earth. Loved it!
Update #4 (26 May): Beaten Night Call. Really underwhelming and repetitive game.
Update #5 (30 May): Beaten Kentucky Route Zero.
Update #6 (31 May): Beaten Morkredd. Challenge completed.

it seems i missed this month's thread, hahah