December 14, 2024December 14, 2024PC Games

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Shinkansen 0 | 新幹線 0号

Developer: Chilla’s Art | Released: 2024 | Genre: Adventure, First Person

That sure was one weird ass game. I went in completely blind, not reading any user reviews on what it was about. I think I chose wisely, as my worried feeling about what I should expect worked well for this game. The premise was actually quite simple. I was in the bullet train of Shinkansen heading for Tokyo, and I needed to walk through passenger cars, looking for any anomalies.

It’s worth a try if you’re into weird and eerie adventure games, but know it’s not long – and you don’t get to see anything else than the interior of a passenger car and the toilets in between them.

Spoiler: Click

After some experimentation it dawned on me that I needed to reach the front of the train and press the button to stop the train. Walking through the passenger cars had a floor sticker telling me to walk back if I spotted an anomaly among the passenger seats. If I got this right, the number of the car decreased each time I opened a new passenger car. If I missed too many anomalies in a row, a can dropped and a ghost would start chasing me down. I always managed to outrun it.

The passenger cars were exactly the same in both directions, adding to the weirdness of the game.

Anomalies could be hands somewhere, someone hugging a seat, even all passenger seats missing or plant growth all over the place. It was usually more strange and out of place than actually horrific.

Solving the first set of passenger cars revealed to be just one of two train sets. I then had to do another, with different color seats, a lady selling food and candy, one guy frozen as he put his luggage away above him, and even a dark guy with a green light as one of his eyes. Those were the normal things. Oh, and the rules were swapped. If I spotted an anomaly here, I needed to go forward instead of back.

A shame I couldn’t see the landscape rushing by fast through the train windows. They were just completely black. What I did see in the reflection of the windows was myself. A thin guy with a white shirt and a tie.

I got the first ending in less than an hour.

6/10

December 14, 2024December 19, 2024PC Games

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Jusant

Developer: Dontnod Entertainment | Released: 2023 | Genre: Platform, Third Person

Just like Submerged, this was solely a climbing game. Borrowing the atmosphere from ICO, it started with a kid walking on the sandy bottom of what was once an ocean. He arrived at a dried out coral mountain and started climbing it to the top, a daunting task since it was exceptionally tall. It turns out there were once a civilization living there, but now it was empty habitats and boats hanging on the side.

Apart from climbing and exploring, I could also find abandoned letters.

The climbing was a lot more sophisticated than in Submerged, and also considerably more challenging. I had a rope with me and could attach it to the wall at up to three spots during a climbing session. The game didn’t allow me to fall to my death, but falling to the end of the rope meant having to redo a lot of climbing. It was also possible to lower the rope and swing it to the sides for reaching a handhold.

Borrowing the hand swapping style from Crazy Climber, I had to alternate left and right hand gripping with each hotkey. I also had a small creature with me that could discharge a magical effect for making plants grow, creating more handholds for me to climb.

December 7, 2024December 8, 2024PC Games

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Adventure Games

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Ghost on the Shore

Developer: like Charlie | Released: 2022 | Genre: Adventure, Facile

This was a walking simulator across three islands, following a sad story about a dad leaving his wife and child behind. It was first person and I never saw any faces up close, except for a few ghosts on the islands. As the protagonist Riley, I also had the ghost Josh speaking to me, panning between loudspeakers.

The 3D art was simple yet created a nice atmosphere. There was a lot of talking between Riley and the ghost, Josh. The walking was excessive and made it abundantly clear this was truly a walking simulator. In fact, some of the strolling on the islands reminded me a little of Dear Esther.

At times, a dream-like cutscene showed a few ghost figures talking together in the past.

December 1, 2024December 1, 2024PC Games

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Still Wakes the Deep

I’m trying something different again as I wasn’t quite satisfied with the game notes format. I’ll try a more relaxed format now, just writing my thoughts about the game. Just like I used to before the balanced reviews.

Developer: The Chinese Room | Released: 2024 | Genre: Adventure, Horror

An adventure game trying to escape an oil rig after a disaster hit it. It was made by the same developer that also made Dear Esther, Amnesia: A Machine for Pigs, and Everybody’s Gone to the Rapture.

Excellent experience. The lighting, filthy details and the profanic Scottish voice acting from the protagonist and the crew was spot on. Things like a convincing rough sea and water drops sailing down windows made it clear this was a game the developer really cared about. The game was also very dynamic in a way that reminded me of Half-Life. The ceiling crashing down, water rushing in, something grabbing you, etc.

The gameplay was not groundbreaking. Jumping, crawling, answering wall phones, using (a lot of) ladders, running jumps, a few QTE – that sort of stuff. Later there were also stealth sequences, sneaking between cover and throwing objects to lure a monster away.

November 26, 2024December 15, 2024Game Notes PC Games

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Adventure Games

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PC Game: NUTS

Developer: Joon, Pol, Muutsch, Char & Torfi | Released: 2021 | Genre: Adventure, First Person

A first person adventure a little bit like Firewatch, placing cameras during the day and watching the footage at night, tracking the movements of squirrels. And yes, the game really use colors like that.

Spoiler: Notes

I didn’t play this for long until it occurred to me that this wasn’t as much a first person adventure game, as it was a “Squirrel Photography Simulator” in essence. I’m rarely all that keen on simulators and so I was close to abandoning the game right there.

But there was something alluring by the game, so I returned and completed it anyway.

Sure, figuring out where to place cameras judging by the direction a squirrel ran on the footage of last night was the prevailing game play, and by itself it could get old fast.

But the later levels really did try to branch it out.

The was a level where I had to film a squirrel at specific intervals within a minute to track its route, then send the interval photos using the fax machine. In another level, my standard cameras were destroyed and I had to place a nut and then follow a squirrel and snapshot it with my handheld camera.

My trip back to the caravan to record footage was frequently interrupted by a phone call of my female overseer. This was the only voice acting. I didn’t have a voice of my own and there were no dialogue trees. The only way I could respond was by sending photos or messages on a fax machine.

Then she would immediately call me up and comment on that.

I giggled a little when I found a squirrel nest with sticks of dynamite. A shame the game didn’t let me light a fuse and run out of there real fast.

The use of colors mostly felt like the developers really wanted to stand out and look different. It was slightly annoying to begin with but I quickly got used to it.

I can certainly understand why some players would hate it.

The end game took place after falling down a rock slide and a squirrel took off with my journal. Since it had the important evidence, I had to track it down. I found another caravan nearby a automobile graveyard with cameras to be conveniently found. The squirrel met up with other squirrels and crossed a river by going out on a branch. I tried the same thing and came crashing down on the shore. The squirrels then led me directly to a stranded ship where they had all their stashes of nuts – and even my journal.

7/10

November 17, 2024December 15, 2024Game Notes PC Games

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RPG

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PC Game: The Outer Worlds

I’ve decided to post one game at a time instead of waiting until I have played five of them, at least for the longer games. But everything else is the same – it’s basically just my hidden personal notes about the game.

Developer: Obsidian Entertainment | Released: 2019 | Genre: RPG, First Person

A sci-fi RPG much akin to the popular RPG games by Bethesda. Lots of planets to visit, with my own space ship and a small crew of companions. Planets were confined – it was not a true open world game.

Spoiler: Notes

I was this close to abandoning the game before getting my own space ship and leaving the first planet. It felt bland and mediocre. I found lots of forum threads on the internet agreeing with that impression.

Also, the planetary areas were surprisingly small and didn’t warrant much exploration.

But when I did get a space ship and landed on Monarch, I had to fight through hordes of difficult monsters trying to reach Stellar Bay, and that’s where the game grabbed me. I did have to lower the difficulty level as it was rough. Later I learned that I wasn’t really supposed to fight my way through that. I should have started a quest elsewhere to skip it, or alternatively have run all the way.

But it didn’t take long until combat was a walk in the park. Especially after being hardened on Monarch. So in this game you really could find some truth in the old adage, “That which doesn’t kill you…”

Tim Cain called this game “Fallout meets Firefly” – I could clearly see the Fallout inspiration, but other than that I felt it owed the rest of the style to BioShock. Especially when using the vending machines.

The colors were all over the place, but instead of making the game distinct and look dazzling, it somehow contributed to the feeling of blandness. Some of the armor looked like it was bought in Toys “R” Us.

There was way too much loot in this game. I couldn’t walk three meters without finding more containers and objects to pick up. And since I’m OCD when it comes to loot, I just had to get it all.

Apart from perks, the game sometimes offered a flaw for an extra perk. I only took two, for more plasma and corrosive damage. All the other flaws were about lowering attributes, and I didn’t want that.

My two favorite companions were Parvati and Nyoka.

I hated how 90% of all women in this game had short hair. You can call me everything from misogynistic to chauvinistic, I don’t care. Beautiful women should never have short hair. Period.

I liked that tapping the hotkey for sprinting kept it on until I released a direction key.

The buff feature was weird. Extra buff items could be placed in slots to be activated together with healing myself. That didn’t make sense to me. Why not activate the buffs by themselves before a fight?

The companion abilities reminded me of the cut scene powers in Final Fantasy VII.

Byzantium, the great capital of Terra 2, somehow reminded me of Dishonored. It was another example of uninspired design in this game. Bland and uninteresting, in spite of the prosperous setting.

I skipped the acting quest for a good reason.

7/10

September 22, 2024October 3, 2024PC Games

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3PS

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Submerged: Hidden Depths

7/10Developer: Uppercut Games | Released: 2022 | Genre: 3PS, Adventure

This will be the last entry in my blog series with balanced reviews.

This sequel to Submerged is essentially more of the same. The goal is different – put a big seed in an enormous flower located in large buildings – and it has more collections as well as a few more features, including the brother now joining in on the adventure. But other than that, it’s still relaxed climbing, jumping and sailing, and again it often feels a little bit too easy.

With the brother now steering the boat, the two siblings sail between buildings to climb them for various objectives. The main one is lifting a beach ball of a seed into a big flower to change the organic flow of the building, but there are also other objectives such as finding relics, collections, books with the history of the city, boat boosters, light a fire in towers, discovering landmarks and animals, etc.

The most noticeable new features are mostly related to the boat. It can now drag bridges and platforms out with a rope, and it’s also where you see the brother raise relics with an anchor. The siblings are randomly in control when going on a climbing adventure in a building. That was a really cute feature, although the main story buildings with the seeds are for the sister only, as that part relates directly to her.

September 15, 2024September 15, 2024PC Games

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Adventure Games

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Chants of Sennaar

8/10Developer: Rundisc | Released: 2023 | Genre: Adventure, Point & Click

This game received an overwhelmingly positive user rating on Steam. Although I agree it was very well done, with a amazing drawn style that reminded me of both Sable and the graphical novel art by Moebius, and an intriguing climb of the tower of babel while deciphering glyphs to understand the languages of the people living there, it did have a few things that dragged it down ever so slightly for me.

As a true point-and-click adventure with a minimal inventory, I had to walk around and collect more glyphs from people and objects. After watching some of them used in situations that could give a hint about what they mean, a notebook is opened with about 3-6 glyphs and a few drawings. Time to guess what that set means. The more glyphs guessed, the easier it is to understand what you need to do on that level.

There are about five levels to climb in the enormous tower, and each level have several interconnected locations like in oldskool adventure games. It’s not just clicking objects to pick up and use, sometimes there are genuine stealth sequences too. Typically a ghostly destination figure is shown that, when clicked, makes your characters sneak over there – hopefully without being spotted.

September 1, 2024September 2, 2024PC Games

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Adventure Games

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The Invincible

8/10Developer: Starward Industries | Released: 2023 | Genre: Adventure, Facile

Take the excellent Firewatch, throw it in a blender together with Lifeless Moon, maintain the first person perspective, hit the blender button – and you’ll end up with something much like The Invincible.

The game is based on a science fiction novel by Stanisław Lem.

As Yasna, a female astronaut originally party of a small team landing on a barren planet, you wake up in the sand much like Matt Damon did in The Martian – albeit with amnesia. Thankfully the amnesia part is not a significant part of the game. Soon she remembers most of what she needs to remember, except for the main purpose of the game – where to find the other astronaut team members.

It doesn’t take long until she has another person on the radio that she talks to throughout most of the game. Commander Novik is in orbit and can only hear what she is doing – she has to describe the things she finds. Often this evolves into interesting discussions, and sometimes they even get mad at each other. If you have played Firewatch, this is the part that reminded me so much of that game.

August 25, 2024September 1, 2024PC Games

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Platform Puzzle

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Planet of Lana

9/10Developer: Wishfully | Released: 2023 | Genre: Platform, Puzzle

This was a beautiful side-scrolling puzzle platform game with great variety, featuring a boy looking for his sister abducted by mechanical aliens. Early in the game, the boy rescues a small pet which opens up for cooperation puzzles. The kind where the pet can do things the boy can’t do, and vice versa.

The pet is really cute and you can pat it.

Although the game does have its challenges, for most of the game they were spaced out far by stretches of easy jumping and contained cooperation puzzles. As always it does get a little more challenging towards the end, which also introduces a few QTE – including the quick tapping kind. I would say these are not the worst QTE I’ve encountered, but you do have to pay close attention.

I also liked that many puzzle set pieces had an exit with a rope on a ledge that required the pet to go fetch it for the boy to climb. First, this made sure the puzzle couldn’t be exited until both characters were able to leave together, and second, it made it impossible to leave until the puzzle was solved. Later on in the game, the rope on a ledge is replaced with a tentacle creature but it serves the same purpose.