End-of-week Report

Same as last week, really. However, I am starting to get maxed out in Warframe, the current league in Path of Exile is ending in a week, and I promised myself I would get a job in September. In other words, time consuming stuff is running out, and new, not game related time consuming stuff is taking its place.
Next week shall be my last peacefully mundane one in probably quite a while. I think I'll miss it.

I did reach 300 games, sadly, but I can still enjoy it while it's a round number. Not going to delusion myself into believing it's not going to increase beyond this, however.

• Games in backlog: 300 (+2)
• of which Early Access: 58
• Games reviewed last week: 0

End-of-week Report

Well, got to be honest with you, and myself. I've been playing some multiplayer games the past week which I've found to be more enjoyable than going through my list. Some ARAM in League, some Warframe, some Path of Exile... And those can take all of the time in a day, so I don't have any left.
But screw it, I'm enjoying myself. I'll run out of content eventually, and be forced to play something else, but until then - let the backlog grow. It sucks to never reach my goals, but at the same time, until I do reach them, I'll always have something to do.

Two games until the dreaded three hundred. Next weekend? The one after that? Or will I miraculously pull my act together?

• Games in backlog: 298 (+3)
• of which Early Access: 58
• Games reviewed last week: 0

End-of-week Report

How damn hard is it to not miss a week and then some days on writing something which is basically just whatever semi-coherent thoughts come into your head plus a bunch of numbers you can just fetch from a place.
Nah, but really, I've felt a tad less motivated to look through games lately. Maybe even with my helping scripts the influx is just too great. I finally caught up, so that's why the "end-of-week" report is on a Tuesday.

• Games in backlog: 295 (+5)
• of which Early Access: 58
• Games reviewed last (two) week(s): 2

Touhou: Scarlet Curiosity

I've known about Touhou, and it's crazily large fan-following for quite a few years now, but I've yet to really consider playing any of the games until late 2017, when the first official Touhou game came to Steam to a fantastic reaction, placing it in the top 25 games on Steam (according to my algorithms) despite lacking an English language option. Shortly after that came flowing the fan-games, of which there are far more than the official ones, ranging from supposedly great quality games to, honestly, crap. I've added a few of those to my backlog, and I just now got around to playing the first one.

Touhou: Scarlet Curiosity is a (mostly) top-down hack-and-slash bullet hell. There's about a dozen stages, each ending with a boss fight, also about a dozen different abilities, of which 3 can be slotted at a time, a not-particularly-meaningful level system, and some amount of different equipment, which just boosts your stats. Overall the entire thing takes maybe 4-5 hours, there's an optional end-game dungeon I did not play very far, and you can play the same game from a slightly different point of view with another character, swapping out your attacks and abilities (but all the enemies and levels stay the same).

Going into it, the first thing that struck me were the... inconsistent graphics. Particularly, the models, animations, and especially the UI seemed kind of amateurish or simple, while the visual effects and post-processing were really effective. These discrepancies often indicate a poor quality game, so my hopes fell low right at the start. However, to my surprise, the combat felt really good, and definitely outclassed even many bigger action games with how well it flowed. Sadly, after the initial roller coaster of a down and an up, the rest was a slow descent.
For one, the game was way too easy. There was a "bullet hell" mode with a warning sign in the options, which I turned on after the first 10 minutes, fearing I might have made it too difficult. However, with the exception of boss fights, which were of just the right difficulty, everything else was a dead-easy grind. It didn't help that I didn't get many more options or ways to play this. However good the combat felt, it got monotonous as I just mashed attack and one or two abilities against all enemies. For better or worse, it was over before it really started to bore me, making for a rather short experience.

Good combat, short runtime, little content, kind of repetitive, too easy, but really, good combat.
So my verdict on this is unsure. Is it a good game? I'd incline towards "no". Did I enjoy the brief time I spent on it? "Mostly." So would I recommend it? "I guess if you're particularly a fan of hack-and-slash and/or bullet hell and/or Touhou games."

Return of the Obra Dinn

Return of the Obra Dinn is possibly the purest detective game I have ever played. It's made by Lucas Pope, probably known for Papers, Please, and somehow manages to pull off an even more simplistic art style that's not only pixelated, but also 1-bit - just black and white, and yet fully 3D. I'll get back to that later.

I can't say too much about the game, as most any details about the story would spoil some part of it, but you play as an investigator for an insurance company, investigating the fate of the titular ship Obra Dinn when it is found empty after being lost at sea for a long time. You're armed with a notebook for cataloguing your findings, and a pocket watch, which can send you back in time to experience the last few moments of someone's death, given you find their corpse.
So the game is mostly just you, traveling through the 3D still frames surrounding each crew member's death, possibly accompanied by a few lines of dialogue from just before. Using every little clue you can find, you're supposed to piece together the identity, cause of death, and killer of every last person. And, honestly, the game is crafted brilliantly in this regard. You're thrown a few bones (easy cases), but many of the deaths really require you to look at all the details of what these people were doing, what they look like, what they sound like, at the time of their death, and in any memories before. I can't stress enough that it really does feel like detective work in the purest form I've experienced.

Now, I do of course have to point out some negatives. Coming back to the graphics of it... It looks very uniquely stylized, I can appreciate the feel of it, and it's amazing that a graphical game, let alone a 3D game, can work with just 2 colors. But being unique or technically remarkable doesn't make it good. I would have much preferred some style that doesn't require significant effort at times to figure out what is happening. At best it was just a little sore to watch, at worst it was impeding gameplay.
Secondly, and I can't quite pinpoint why this is, but despite liking mystery/detective stories and finding the game incredibly well executed, I still felt something off a bit. I felt like it needed something more, maybe some other mechanics, maybe a bit more content, I don't quite know. All I know is that I didn't enjoy it as much as I feel I should have. But it's vague enough to chalk it off to "just me".

All in all, Return of the Obra Dinn is a masterfully crafted detective game that I would very much recommend. It's quite unique among the games I've played, and the minor grievances I had regarding the graphics, length, or possibilities, don't outweigh just how well-made the core of it is. It surely also earns a spot in my list of the best.