The backlog, week 3 [day late and a dollar short edition]
Sorry this one is so late. I decided to play through the entirety of the last game in this week’s pool. So sorry for the minor delay. I don’t have anything really to mention in this opening paragraph… Bloodstained ritual of the night looks good….
Absolute Drift playtime: 30 min
I was half tempted to just link the tokyo drift or initial D soundtracks. But I knew that would be a cop out. And I am not that much of a hack yet. The basic premise of this game is DEJA VU I SWEAR I'VE BEEN IN THIS PLACE BEFORE. Ahem sorry. The whole thing of this game is drifting. You have to drift to win. The better you drift the more points you get. I had trouble wrapping my febil mind around how to drift in this game. Im sure if I practiced enough I would get good enough to get good scores. But for my short time with the game I ended up crashing a lot and spinning out a lot more. It is a fun game if you understand how to drift, but i just could not figure it out. Bumping into walls and spiraling out of control was just not fun for me. Play it if you like racing games. 7.8/10 not enough eurobeat /s
Absolver play time: 1 ½ hours.
To put it simply, Absolver is dark souls, but if it was a fighting game. You wander around a big open ish map and get into fights with random mobs, collect loot, level up, and occasionally get the [poop] beaten out of you by randos on the internet. There are a few differences in Absolver though. The aforementioned randos are always there in the world, no summoning or invasions required. Teamwork is also recommended. Some of the mini bosses are much easier if you have someone there to help with the beat downs. And if one of you bite it, you have 60 seconds for your fight friend to revive you. There is a dearth of options for fighting. Downside, is that you have to learn new moves by dodging them. So learning new moves is slow and not an exact thing. The art style is simplistic yet beautiful. A phrase you'll read me saying a lot this week. The soundtrack is low key, in that I don't remember having an opinion on it. This game is a lot deeper than my time with it has shown. If you're looking for a different flavor of Souls, Absolver might be up your alley.
ABZU: play time 40 min
Don't play this game if you are afraid of sharks or the ocean. For all of us non Galeophobes, abzu is an amazingly beautiful game. Most of the discussion about the game is around just how gosh darn pretty this game is. The game is set entirely underwater. I don't quite know what the story is all about, but i know you have to travel from place to place revitalizing shrines and small areas of the sea. And maybe try to close an all consuming black hole? I don't know. What i do know that this game is drop dead gorgeous. The oceanic environments are stunningly colorful and vibrant, with many different kinds of fish swimming about and doing their fishy business. There are even shark statues you can sit on and just watch fish. The calming soundtrack only enhances the mellow tone that the game is trying to set. Abzu is a chill out game. A game you can put on after a hard day at work and just swim around and enjoy looking at the pretty fish.
Oh, and uhh… it controls alright too.
AER: Memories of Old. playtime 1 ½ hour.
so … I found a crab rave in this game. I got an achievement for it. I thought that was funny. But that's not important. Half of this game is amazing. In this game you play as a lady who can turn into a bird. You are on a pilgrimage to the three shrines to fight the void or whatever. Like Abzu before it, this game delivers on movement that feels great and satisfying. One of the coolest things to do is to fly really fast and then turn back into a human and glide down to your destination. You fly around a bunch of floating islands, most of which contain some bit of this game’s deep (but sort of boring) lore, and impressive ancient structures… or crabs. However, while the flight is fun, there does come a point where you have to land and enter a temple. In the temples and caves of the world, you can't turn into a bird. If you could that would break a few puzzles. So you're stuck walking around, at a pace that feels fast but is just slow enough to be annoying, solving puzzles and looking a ghosts with your magic lantern. These temple parts bored me. Their only saving grace was the fact that they looked great. This game does the low poly art style nicely. Between the gorgeous visuals and the satisfying flight, this game could use a sequel where there is more flight and more to do in the temples than just walking around.
Agatha Christie - The ABC Murders play time 5 hours
This is the game that caused this week’s reviews to be late. This game is based off of the book of the same name, penned by the prolific mystery novelist Agatha Christie. You play as inspector Poirot. A detective with a brilliant mind, a silly accent, and a beautiful mustache. It is your duty to investigate a trio of strange murders perpetrated by the elusive ABC. the game play is your standard point and click adventure game affair. You meander about a space, clicking on things, talking to people, and solving puzzles. The latter two are the most dominant of the mechanics. You must thoroughly examine your surroundings, carefully interrogate witnesses and suspects, and rifle through everyone’s personal belongings. That last part is tricky though, as it seems the new fad in 1930’s England is to have most important objects in your home be obtuse puzzles. The writing is great, as it should be considering this game was originally a book. The graphics are a bit simple, but they get the point across. The game’s story had me hooked and i just wanted to finish it all in one night. Which wasn't hard as it not a long game. However, im sure I missed some things. Special interaction I could have taken to gain more points. (one of the minor actions you can perform is clicking on a mirror to fix Poirot’s Exquisite mustache). The game showers you in achievements for every little bit of story progression, and I don't understand how I earned a fourth of the ones I did. Overall, I enjoyed my time with this game. Now i want a murder on the orient express game. Not bad for the people who made Garfield kart.
