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chuckrofault milestone one - A visual novel of magical girls in a land of hereditary manakravft. It’s very wordy but not particularly well-written, high on telling rather than showing (even for the medium) and feels very “anime.” I didn’t dig it.
D/Generation HD - ¾-view action/puzzle/rescue mission in a building full of bioengineered aliens. It’s hard to see what's going on, and very easy to die, which is a terrible combination. I managed to get an assortment of achievements for dying in various ways while also managing to accidentally murder all the survivors I found. Appropriate given the name of the bundle.
Dungeon Nightmares II: The Memory - First-person horror exploration. Randomly-generated dark dungeons full of jumpscares and killer monsters, but as far as I can tell, no overarching story beyond “you have night terrors.” Did you know that a candle only provides 10 seconds of light and might cause a skeleton to eat you?
Space Colony - THE SIMS! IN! SPAAAACE! I mean, apparently there’s alien interactions and exploration elements, but mostly, you’re trying to keep some humans who can’t manage to sleep or eat without being commanded to do so alive on a space colony. Probably would be a fun change of pace if you enjoy that sort of game.
Bound By Flame - A 3D action rpg that reminds me a lot of the Drakengard series. In a world where the Ice Lords of the north are leading their undead armies to destroy humanity and bring perpetual winter (*cough* Game of Thrones ripoff *cough*), a sellsword named Vulcan ends up in the right place and right time to have a demon put into her soul, which grants the power to fight back against the undead armies. I might revisit it if I get a craving, but I have NeiR Automata if I want to put the dozen hours in.
Circuit Breakers – A fun little top-down shoot-em-up, in which you need to destroy lots of robots and collect the circuits they leave behind to upgrade yourself. Accuracy matters, because your level decreases as you fire (and drops to the bottom level if you die, because continuing is painful). There are multiple characters and weapons, and lots of achievements to unlock. I found it amusing in bursts, but not for long lengths of time.
Knee Deep - Interactive theater done as a video game. It interested me, but it goes on a bit too long for what’s there. I played an hour and a half and hadn’t even finish Act 1 (of three), and while I was moderately interested in the plot and the investigative mechanics, it was too long and too much repetitive play to get to an actual payoff. I feel like the idea for this sort of game would be 1-2 hours total, about the length of a movie and short enough that replaying seems worthwhile.
200% Mixed Juice! - I had figured this was a board game, but it’s actually a goofy mon-battle rpg using the character set from the board game 100% Orange Juice. It’s really goofy, full of anime tropes and a rock-paper-scissors battle system; and it’s almost painfully linear. Are these characters from some other source, and maybe that’s why anyone would care about them?
Pneuma: Breath of Life – A British-accented amnesiac possible god wanders through what he presumes are his creations, solving various puzzles that involve looking at things while moving in odd ways, because your gaze is what causes interactions. The random narrative philosophy is actually entertaining and the scenery is pretty (if repetitive), but the nature of the puzzles gets rather obtuse. I watched a Youtube video of the last few levels.
System Shock: Enhanced Edition – I tried the classic edition first, and was amused by how much there was to it despite the primitive graphics and systems. The enhanced edition is much more playable to modern sensibilities. It’s overall a neat concept, trying to save a space station from an insane AI. I give them huge credit for allowing you to tailor your experience, with difficulty toggles for the fighting, the puzzles, the story and the cyberspace aspects. The real problem is that I’m not wild about the real-time, first-person dungeon-crawling that is the meat of the game. (Even without a time limit and with passive, weak enemies.)
Overall: The overarching theme of this bundle was, “Cool concept, kind fun, but I don’t want to play a full game’s worth of it.” Most of the games got half an hour to an hour put into them, and that’s not so bad for the price.
D/Generation HD - ¾-view action/puzzle/rescue mission in a building full of bioengineered aliens. It’s hard to see what's going on, and very easy to die, which is a terrible combination. I managed to get an assortment of achievements for dying in various ways while also managing to accidentally murder all the survivors I found. Appropriate given the name of the bundle.
Dungeon Nightmares II: The Memory - First-person horror exploration. Randomly-generated dark dungeons full of jumpscares and killer monsters, but as far as I can tell, no overarching story beyond “you have night terrors.” Did you know that a candle only provides 10 seconds of light and might cause a skeleton to eat you?
Space Colony - THE SIMS! IN! SPAAAACE! I mean, apparently there’s alien interactions and exploration elements, but mostly, you’re trying to keep some humans who can’t manage to sleep or eat without being commanded to do so alive on a space colony. Probably would be a fun change of pace if you enjoy that sort of game.
Bound By Flame - A 3D action rpg that reminds me a lot of the Drakengard series. In a world where the Ice Lords of the north are leading their undead armies to destroy humanity and bring perpetual winter (*cough* Game of Thrones ripoff *cough*), a sellsword named Vulcan ends up in the right place and right time to have a demon put into her soul, which grants the power to fight back against the undead armies. I might revisit it if I get a craving, but I have NeiR Automata if I want to put the dozen hours in.
Circuit Breakers – A fun little top-down shoot-em-up, in which you need to destroy lots of robots and collect the circuits they leave behind to upgrade yourself. Accuracy matters, because your level decreases as you fire (and drops to the bottom level if you die, because continuing is painful). There are multiple characters and weapons, and lots of achievements to unlock. I found it amusing in bursts, but not for long lengths of time.
Knee Deep - Interactive theater done as a video game. It interested me, but it goes on a bit too long for what’s there. I played an hour and a half and hadn’t even finish Act 1 (of three), and while I was moderately interested in the plot and the investigative mechanics, it was too long and too much repetitive play to get to an actual payoff. I feel like the idea for this sort of game would be 1-2 hours total, about the length of a movie and short enough that replaying seems worthwhile.
200% Mixed Juice! - I had figured this was a board game, but it’s actually a goofy mon-battle rpg using the character set from the board game 100% Orange Juice. It’s really goofy, full of anime tropes and a rock-paper-scissors battle system; and it’s almost painfully linear. Are these characters from some other source, and maybe that’s why anyone would care about them?
Pneuma: Breath of Life – A British-accented amnesiac possible god wanders through what he presumes are his creations, solving various puzzles that involve looking at things while moving in odd ways, because your gaze is what causes interactions. The random narrative philosophy is actually entertaining and the scenery is pretty (if repetitive), but the nature of the puzzles gets rather obtuse. I watched a Youtube video of the last few levels.
System Shock: Enhanced Edition – I tried the classic edition first, and was amused by how much there was to it despite the primitive graphics and systems. The enhanced edition is much more playable to modern sensibilities. It’s overall a neat concept, trying to save a space station from an insane AI. I give them huge credit for allowing you to tailor your experience, with difficulty toggles for the fighting, the puzzles, the story and the cyberspace aspects. The real problem is that I’m not wild about the real-time, first-person dungeon-crawling that is the meat of the game. (Even without a time limit and with passive, weak enemies.)
Overall: The overarching theme of this bundle was, “Cool concept, kind fun, but I don’t want to play a full game’s worth of it.” Most of the games got half an hour to an hour put into them, and that’s not so bad for the price.
