I finished the Revenant game yesterday. It certainly lasted longer than I initially expected. Rough around the edges and difficult. You move by holding RMB, not by clicking the LMB. Apart from just clicking to kill, there are many combat maneuvers to learn (and use them in battles) which use different combinations on the keyboard. Dark story, with full voice!

Ravenswatch

Ravenswatch is a roguelike by the developers of Curse of the Dead Gods. It features a cast of fairytale/folklore inspired characters such as Red Riding Hood, The Pied Piper and Beowulf among others (total of 13 characters with 2 being paid DLC). You can play solo or with up to 3 others but total deaths are shared and once you run out of lives that is the end of the run.

Each character feels unique through their separate movesets and gimmicks so there is a character that will fit most peoples playstyle. Attacks are separated into different types which can then be powered up by items collected during a run and talents selected whenever you level up.

Each run consists of 3 acts (+an extra boss on higher difficulties) with each act taking place on a different map. The general map layout is static but the points of interest (where you find items, upgrades etc) are randomised. The maps are also split into tiers of difficulty which dictate how you progress through them. Each map has a 20 minute timer (though this can be turned off with modifiers) after which the boss awakens and you need to beat it to move on.

Overall, I enjoyed what I played of Ravenswatch so far and will no doubt come back to it again. It felt fresh and different enough from other similar games. My only criticisms would be that it is pretty difficult (though it gets easier with time), more maps would have been nice (maybe some will get added as the game is still being actively worked on and updated) and there is not much boss variety.

Full List

Forager

Forager starts you on a small island with a pickaxe along with a few respawning materials and not much direction so you start collecting the materials, gaining experience in the process. After a while you level up and gain a perk which unlock structures or give you passive bonuses. You start to build structures to process materials into various other resources and items (which can also be automated) and in turn gain more experience for more perks. Once you start getting gold coins you can buy adjacent islands to expand the area you have to work with which comes with new resources, enemies, puzzles and dungeons to conquer. And so on..

It's a fairly simple gameplay loop but also quite satisfying and fun to progress through however can get a bit stale after a while and once I had unlocked most of the things I wanted to I lost interest a bit.

Full List

Half Life Opposing force (Steam)

Finally finished the series. I don't know why, I don't like any of the series all that much and this one was no different. But at least I can now say I've played all the main Half Life games.

I still like the original Half-Life just fine, and the expansions are tolerable from what I remember. I've never particularly liked Half-Life 2 and I can't say I've ever been keen on whether Half-Life 3 will come out at all.

Middle-earth Shadow of Mordor Game of the Year Edition, Nov 11 (GOG)-After starting this a couple of years ago, I finally got around to finishing it. I was really impressed with how good it looks for a 12 year old game. The game itself is brutal in the beginning. Captains and their minions swarm you constantly and I had to run away a lot. I managed to rush the first 8-9 missions in about 2 hours without much trouble but soon hit a wall that required quite a bit of grinding for xp to unlock the best abilities. Once you get those abilities the game becomes far easier. The story didn't grab me and the mini stories within the main quest line should have tied in together rather than be completely separate. The side quests while essential for leveling up were very repetitive. Opening up a second map that was just more of the same was a let down. Late game having to sneak around for a mission with instant failure was annoying when the character was so overpowered. The final boss was a series of QTEs and I played about 5 minutes of each of the DLCs. The Nemesis system was ok I guess. Most of the board was clear for the game and the couple of times I died 6-8 new low level captains would spawn and I'd have to clear them again. I never really developed a true nemesis that I could tell. The game had some moments but overall pretty underwhelming. Not really looking forward to the sequel.

Full List

Chained Echoes

Chained Echoes is turn based JRPG style game taking inspirations from many of the classics in the genre such as Final Fantasy 6, Suikoden 2, Chrono Trigger and so on. I had it on my radar for a long time and this year finally took the plunge and it didn't disappoint. This may be a long one..

The game is set on a continent with three kingdoms and follows the power struggle between them with various twists and turns along the way. You start out with a couple of characters and the cast grows from there over the course of the game until you have up to 12 by the end. The earlier characters do get more time to develop story wise than the last few you get access to but overall I enjoyed all the characters to some extent.

Graphically, the game looks great with detailed pixel art and gorgeous maps. Each location on the map is split into various sections with plenty of optional paths to explore. Early on you unlock the "Reward Board" which is a grid of tasks ranging from things that will occur naturally during the story progression to optional bosses and challenges. Each location has a section on the board and connecting strings of completed tasks earns you rewards which are typically special items and extra skill points.

Speaking of skill points - they one of two ways to strengthen your characters, the other being equipment as you would expect. In terms of skill points they are earned through story progression, typically defeating bosses, and through completing side activities. There is no traditional experience or levels in the game. Skill points can be spent as you wish between active abilities, passive abilities and stat increases with additional stat increases unlocking naturally as points are spent. There are different tiers of abilities that unlock once you reach a certain number of points spent with each tier unlocking more powerful abilities. You can then swap out skills as you wish from the ones you have unlocked and also increase the strength of unlocked skills by spending SP on them which is earned from defeating enemies. It's a fun system overall and gives you the opportunity to customise each character to an extent within their set roles.

Equipment is split between weapons, armor and accessories with the first two being upgradeable with materials dropped or found in the world. On top of that you can slot in crystals to get additional passive bonuses. The crystals are found by mining and you are given a selection of types to pick from each time and they can then be combined to higher levels and so on. It's a nice touch to further customise each character but it swapping them over to new equipment is a bit tedious and one of my few issues with the game.

Combat is turn based with up to 8 characters at once (4 main and 4 back up that can be switched out during the turn). The main gimmick in combat is the overdrive gauge which is split into 3 zones - yellow, green and red. The yellow zone is the neutral starting zone with no bonuses, green is where you want to be and gives you various buffs while red is overheated and leads to taking higher damage. All actions increase the gauge while certain types of attack, switching characters and defending reduce it so it becomes a case of planning your moves to maintain the green section where possible. It's a fun system which makes the combat feel engaging. There are also number quality of life features such as seeing encounters on the field rather than being random and HP/MP fully restoring between fights.

There are a number of other aspects that I haven't touched on but I will leave it at that since this has ended up pretty long already. All of this to say it's a fantastic game, a great homage to some of the classics and I would fully recommend giving it a go to anyone that enjoys this type of game.

Last thing - there is also a DLC set just prior to the end of the game which I haven't played just yet so I can't give my opinion just yet. From what I've read though it's more of the same which, if you enjoy the base game experience, is not a bad thing while making some minor changes like streamlining the crystal system.

Full List

Last one for now..

Firewatch

Firewatch is a small open world narrative driven game with some light exploration, often dubbed a "walking simulator" as that is what you will be doing for the most part.

You take on the role of Henry who has taken a job as a fire lookout at a National Park as a distraction from recent events in his life. The game takes place over a couple of months but gameplay is focused on certain days in that time period. Each day you will have a general task to complete which usually consists of exploring a different area of the map while you chat to your supervisor Delilah over the radio.

The setting is great and the music is relaxing. I found the story to be enjoyable with some fun twists and despite being alone the constant radio chats gave it a cosy feel and helped to establish and develop the characters. There are dialogue choices but as far as I know these are mostly for flavour rather than changing the story in any meaningful way.

At around 3.5 to 4 hours long if you stick mostly to the main objectives it's a fairly short and bite sized experience however I thoroughly enjoyed my time with it and it has left me thinking about it after completion which is always a good sign to me.

Full List