Games What I Played December 2k25 Edition
Well. We've done it. We've survived 2025, and what a fucking year (derogatory). Luckily, I've survived, and, what's the Steam? You have an update on how many games I've played? What's that you say boy?
Fuck. Well, let's wrap up December before I contemplate the year as a whole I guess.
Previous months: January, February, March, April, May, June, July, August, September, October, November, and Demos.
Demos What I Played
SHRIMP GAME
I was sold on this as being “Armored Core but you’re a shrimp,” and it’s not quite that, but it’s pretty close. You play as a shrimp in the oceans and you get magic powers to shoot guns of various types. The types are dropped by enemies, and you can swap out whenever you want, and aside from that, you swim around shooting things. It’s not stable, it’s kind of difficult to tell what to do, but it’s kind of compelling. Definitely one to watch.
Pragmata (Sketchbook)
This is the newest Capcom joint using the miraculous RE engine. It’s a third person shooter where you play an astronaut with a robot kid on your back. Capcom has kind of nailed the feel of a third person shooter using the RE engine at this point, so if it stopped there it’d be worth looking into. The particular fly in this ointment is that kid though. The kid’s a robot, and she spends her time on your shoulder hacking the enemy you have in your crosshairs. Only you also control the hacking in a minigame that’s ongoing, and if you want to do appreciable damage, you have to hack successfully. Playing it well feels like rubbing your belly and patting your head at the same time, as you’re dealing with aiming and positioning your spaceman and hacking with your robotgirl, but it really comes together in a satisfying gameplay loop. I’m way more excited for this than I thought I was going to be, even if I am disappointed this isn’t a stealth attempt to reboot the Mega Man franchise. See, because robotgirl is wearing a blue bomber jacket and is also a robot.
Timesplitters Rewind
I love first person shooters. Have for a long time, since I first played Doom as a wee bab, and I’ve been hankering for a good one. On top of that, I love the Timesplitters series, which are old FPS games from the makers of Goldeneye which continued that particular evolution line of the genre, but didn’t survive the PS2/Gamecube generation. I genuinely think Timesplitters 2 is one of my favorite FPSes, and I hate that I can’t play it. So when I saw that not only is there a fan attempt to bring it back, but that it had a demo? I had to try it out. And… I’m still kind of hankering for something good. It’s… fine. The only thing included so far are the levels from Timesplitters 1, and some challenge and maybe multiplayer maps. The problem is that it’s a very early and rough demo. The guns feel kind of bad to shoot, in that ineffable way that FPS guns are either good or bad. The movement feels really slidey in a not-fun way. The enemies are way too accurate and do too much damage. And Timesplitters 1 levels are kind of bad in that they have one goal that doesn’t appear to ever change. You start at the beginning of a map, you have to pick up a bafomodad at the end after shooting through a level themed around some grindhouse genre of movie, and then you have to return to the beginning while shooting through new enemies that warp in after picking up the bafmodad. It’s uninteresting level and goal design, especially when the rest of the game kind of sucks to play. I’m excited to see where this goes, especially because Timesplitters 2 is way more interesting from a design standpoint (at least as far as my nostalgic memories go, so, grain of salt and whatnot), but it’s got a long way to go.
Old Games
The Operator
This was on a list of things I wanted to play from last year, so I’m actually pretty disappointed. The Operator is a UI game where you play support to a spy/investigation agency and use your computer to look things up in 1992. I specify that it’s 1992, because the game does, and because it leads in to the game not really holding together at a narrative level. The year is 1992, but the tech you’re using to find answers is way more complicated than it would have been at the time. And the overall plot… doesn’t really work or go anywhere. It’s kind of disappointing. I get that it’s a small dev, and this was their first project, but it’s pretty light for what it is. On top of that, they used AI for precisely one image of a thing that didn’t need to be there, so I’m not entirely sure that I’d trust their future stuff. I’d probably give this one a pass, though it sounds like they’re working on a sequel, so maybe?
Trails to Cold Steel 2
I don’t like Erebonia. This is not a shocking revelaiton to anyone who’s been following my Bluesky. Or who’s asked me how Trails is going. I don’t really know what it is, but this is far and away the least interesting part of Trails so far.
Cold Steel 2, though, has been way better than Cold Steel 1. Where CS1 leaned heavily into the format of Sky FC, where your newbie group of adventurers went to new and unique areas of their respective nations to learn about the culture and have themed adventures, CS2 leans into Sky SC’s structure, where the nation has been turned upside down by the machinations of those in and out of the nation. Broad strokes, it works well, and when it hits, it really hits. As you go, the games goes to lengths to explain how the events of CS2 are (intentionally) mimicking the history of Erebonia, which reinforces that CS2 was likely meant to mimic Sky SC. It’s a neat narrative trick.
The problem is, I don’t give a fuck about the main cast, to it’s detriment. I’m not going to say that the Sky cast is my favorite or significantly better; I think I like roughly the same amount of characters from each game. The problem is that Rean sucks. If Rean were given the “Say a communist or fascist thing or fuck off” from Disco Elysian, he would fuck off. Rean has no convictions beyond “I wanna see my friends,” and “I wanna save my terrorist boyfriend” and “I will stay neutral in this war,” despite the fact that one side is cartoonishly evil and he takes actions in the game pretty much exclusively against that side anyway.
And Rean’s classmates aren’t much better. I do like some of them. Fie, Laura, and Emma get good character moments and are interesting. The rest…. Exist. And I would say roughly the same thing about the Sky cast. But the main difference is that I adore Estelle, the main character of Sky who you are with 99% of the time. I cannot stand Rean Schwarzer.
I’ve reached the end of the Finale section in CS2, and started the Divertessement, and I think there’s one other section beyond there. The plot’s finally started to move, and I’m kind of torn on it. The ending in the Finale section really makes the rest of the game feel like I just spent 50-60 hours treading water until the next major thing happened. Which isn’t fully fair, but I just. Don’t give a fuck about Rean’s school day hijinks, and I wish it would focus more on the side characters who are infinitely more interesting.
This is probably the last time I’m going to write about CS2, unless the Divertissement and Actual Finale blow my socks off (And they might, because the Divertissement commits the grave sin of giving me two characters I actually care about immediately). As it stands, this is Yet Another Trails game. It’s fine. The problem with rating it is that there’s significant Trails metaplot progress that you can’t just skip, and if you’re seven games deep at this point you’re going to keep going, but man if some of that isn’t a slog.
Wait, one final graphic design about CS's UI. See that text box with the name of the character at the top?
See how the text box indicating who's speaking only has lines on the left and bottom of the text box? I spent most of both CS1 and CS2 afraid that I was cutting off some of the screen because of that UI bit. What a minor frustration!
Oh also the CG characters have less character than the weird dolls of the previous series, and I know they get better eventually, but their grasp of cinematography hasn't really made up for that loss of character.
New Games
Incredidicer
It’s an idle game. As I write this, it’s been a week since I’ve beaten it, and I’m going to be blunt. I don’t remember anything about it. That’s a lie, there’s some memories coming back. It’s still fine; it’s really similar to… Keep on Mining, which I played in August, but a bit more barebones. That said, the sound of the dice rolling is *really* satisfying. It’s fine. If you want an idle in the background making a cool pop sound, look into it.
A Game About Feeding A Black Hole
Another idle game. That said, this one's way better. The visualizer aspect is more interesting to look at, and the game has a bunch of alternative modes once you've finished the main game with different objectives. And more are going to be added. I actually really recommend this game; this is a Good One Of Those.
Megabonk
In a “How did it take me this long to actually play this,” Megabonk is a Vampy Survivy where the big change is that you’re navigating a third dimension instead of the 2D plane. It’s neat, but I don’t know that I love it more than Vampy Survivy. The third dimension is kind of a pain to navigate, especially when you’re getting yote across the map away from your end point. In a way, it feels like a third person Risk of Rain more than Vampy Survivy. It’s weird! But it’s a really good second screen game, so I can see myself plugging a lot of hours into it.
Metal Garden
I love the idea of megastructures. I think it’s a really fascinating sci-fi idea; the idea that someone has built something at a scale that’s unfeasible for no reason other than, apparently, to build it, and then exploring it as a normal human. I think it’s really neat. In my ideal world, if Armored Core had gone with a more Dark Souls-esque structure, I’d love to use it exploring a megastructure.
Metal Garden is a low key game shooter where you spend a couple hours exploring a megastructure. The game begins with you failing to repair your mech and deciding to abandon it and proceed on foot. Proceed where? Who knows, who cares. Onwards. You find some guys who want you dead. Why? Doesn’t matter. There are hints, and implications at greater world building, but it’s very minimalist, very BLAME!. The minimalism spreads to the color palette too; everything is a variation of a shade on concrete. Even the skybox is concrete shaded, since you are inside an artificial megastructure the entire time. I had a lot of fun. It’s a neat little tone poem of a game.
Clair Obscur: Expedition 33
I don’t have much more substantive to say here since I apparently decided to largely focus on things that are either second screen games, games I could slide in around other activities, or much shorter experiences. Plus, how much more could I add to the conversation around this? Even I’m not going to waste more words on my personal thing. It’s good. It continues to be good. It deserves the plaudits it’s received.
Absolum
This here’s a classic belt scrolling beat-em-up from a team who’s done a bunch of much-lauded beat-em-ups. The only difference being where the previous ones were done as licensed work. This particular team worked specifically on Streets of Rage 4, and DotEmu as a whole has done TMNT, Metal Slug, Ninja Gaiden, Marvel, etc. They’ve got a bunch of experience, but none of their own homegrown series.
Absolums’ their first shot at something unique, and they kind of nailed it. The game itself is incredibly solid; it has the perfect amount of hitstun and screen shake to make the hits feel meaty. Everything is tight and feels good.
More importantly, the game is structured similarly to the Capcom Dungeons and Dragons beat-em-ups. In those games, you played one of a character class that had different strengths and abilities. The Warrior had access to most weapons and was physically the strongest, the Rogue is the best and I’ll not hear otherwise, and the wizard and cleric could cast spells depending on spell slot availability. As you play through, you can choose different routes, ultimately ending up in different places. They’re great games, probably my second favorite beat-em-ups of all time. If you’re going to pull from an inspirational source, you could certainly do worse.
Here, the game borrows the choose-a-level layout, but with a few additional rogue-like elements. First, you can choose different modifiers in the way of crystals which will modify something about how you play. Some of these are great, some of them aren’t, and some are just game breakingly good. On top of that, the world may react to your choices. Maybe in one run you helped open up a bridge between a human settlement and orc territory. So, the next run, you find out that the humans are invading across this bridge and the orcs hate you now. Then you find a way to get more orcs, and now the humans hate you. It gives just enough variety and long term goals to make the world more interesting and reactive than the average beat-em-up, and it really works.
This is all on top of a fantasy set-dressing that really works. I don’t know that it’s the most original fantasy setting I’ve ever seen before, but it works well enough. It’s neat, highly suggested, even if you don’t like beat-em-ups.
Routine
I grew up around a surprising amount of tech when I was a kid. Surprising because my dad fell off hard around the XP era, and it was never really his particular interest. But I’ve got a lot of formative memories of old tech. Flipping on the various power switches for our IBM Personal Computer, inserting 8.5” floppies and clicking down the disk holder, the sound of that classic gray mechanical keyboard…. It’s catnip. But one of my favorite buttons was the degauss on the various CRTs I grew up with. CRTs are interesting little pieces of tech. They were amazing bits that allowed what is effectively an electron gun to shoot electrons to light up phosphorous dots on the screen itself. They are also bombs. The tube has to be vacuum sealed, which means if it’s breached it will catastrophically fall in on itself and explode outwards. It’s also susceptible to electrical buildup and interference. To remedy this, CRT monitors had a button that allowed you to deguass, which safely discharged the electricity. It also flickered the screen and had a great bwom sound. I didn’t understand why it was necessary, and I barely do now, but I loved pressing it.
Routine is a game that is best when it’s dropping you in that level of tech. In Routine, you play a nameless software technician on a moonbase in the late-90s. You don’t know what’s happening, but the base appears to be evacuated and there may or may not be murderous robots around and you need to figure out what’s up.
It’s really good! First off, this game is gorgeous. I love the level and era of tech the game is emulating, and it is all pitch perfect. I can feel all the hard plastic and mechanical switches you spend the game futzing around with. It’s great. And on top of that, this is maybe the single most tactile game I’ve played all year. You are deeply aware of where your physical body is and what it’s doing in a way that isn’t important to most games, to the point that the tutorial takes pains to teach you how to lean to the left and right, how to get low on your belly, and how to stand on your tip toes. And you will do all that. Hell, the Technician’s sprint is a weird headlong sprint where you are barely in control of your momentum, so it takes a second to start and stop. It feels weird and great, and everything works really well.
The problem is that the game is a little too gorgeous, and it does not offer any obvious visual indicators as to where to go next or what to do. There’s enough lighting that you’re never too confused as to the path to take, but puzzles and possible solutions are non-obvious until you twig to what the area is asking you to do. That and the plot is…. Fine. It’s fine. It works, enough, and the end does a lot to tie things together.
I love sci-fi horror a lot. I admit that a lot of this is me chasing the high that Signalis was. Like, I don’t know what it was about Signalis, but that game hit me at a level that…. Basically nothing has in recent memory. I’m always kind of hoping for that. Routine was close; but it didn’t quite get there almost entirely due to the disconnection of the plot.
The Seance of Blake Manor
These days, when I’m playing games, I’m trying to think about what a good looking screen shots to illustrate these sections. It doesn’t always work; I don’t have the best skill or eye, and a lot of the art of choosing a fun screen shot is knowing what’s coming and when the best time to capture that moment in time. I do ok, but that’s more on the games I play being really clear.
The best thing I can say about The Seance of Blake Manor is that I do not have a lot of screenshots from it because I was fully engrossed. This is an excellent game. You play Declan Ward, an Irish detective who gets a letter asking him to look for Evelyn Deane, a woman who’s gone missing at a planned seance… of Blake Manor. So you arrive, and you begin solving the various mysteries of the estate and the party guests.
What sets this aside from other mystery games is that nearly every action you take uses up a minute or more of time. If you investigate a painting, it costs a minute. If you look at any of the turnip jack o’ lanterns spread about, one minute. Ask a guest about that weird thing you found in their room? That’s a minute. And you have a strict time limit, you arrive late Friday evening, and the seance is scheduled to occur on Sunday evening. Best not investigate every turnip pumpkin.
I generally hate games with time limits. I played Prince of Persia as a kid, and that really bothered me. But the time limit here really adds to the tension; you know precisely how long it is until the next change over, so you’re trying to get your questions in while you’re sure where everyone is. It’s a great feeling; and the trick is that there’s more than enough time; I had like an hour and a half at the end of the game.
Everything about this game is great. The story and characters are super compelling, and the final reveal is straight up maybe my favorite reveal of anything released this year. Visually, the game looks fascinating, like exploring a super moody comic with incredibly harsh shadows. It’s not perfect, there’s some really specific triggers you have to hit to solve mysteries that you can definitely suss out on your own which is super frustrating. But that’s a normal puzzle game thing. This is really good; it’s up there with Obra Dinn in my book. Raw Fury’s been on a tear this year.
Ok now I have to Contemplate The Rankings for the Year. BRB.
