Topic: User Impressions/Reviews Thread

I haven't submitted a piece in a while, but I'd like to start shining a light on a lot of the smaller, weirder games I somehow own on platforms like Nintendo Switch and Steam, as opposed to the same small set of bigger releases everyone seems to know about and play. It's a lot of fun going into a game with no idea what to expect because of how relatively obscure it is.

I'll start with a game I did a few runs of today.

#1: "Long Live The Queen"
Platform: Steam

Long Live The Queen is a fantasy simulation game where you guide the upbringing of Princess Elodie, imminently poised for coronation as Queen of her kingdom after the untimely death of her mother. Should be straight-forward, right? But without a Queen, there's a power vacuum, and you'll have to guide Elodie through a minefield of international tensions, assassination attempts, and power plays by corrupt nobles.

And it is almost literally a minefield, because this game is quite consciously filled with a variety of ways for your princess to die. More likely than not, your first attempt will end with the death of your princess. Thankfully, the game is short, as it's designed around experimentation and replayability, so you'll be able to play around with a variety of responses to the game's challenges.

How your princess tackles the problems in front of her are dictated by the education she receives. Every week, you'll put points into a variety of different skillsets that'll potentially come into play over the course of the game via skill checks (some more useful than others: being able to sense magic or react quickly to surprises is going to be far more useful than being skilled at caring for animals, for example). Seems simple enough, but this is complicated by the fact that the princess' emotional state dictates the effectiveness of the education she receives, which means you're also micro-managing her emotions every week by selecting options that'll raise and lower meters that dictate the character of her personality.

It's all a bit tedious at times, to be honest, and lacking the comparative depth of something like the Princess Maker series that this clearly draws heavy inspiration from. But there is something to be said for the flexibility of the system: just as there are many ways to lose this game, there are also many ways to survive to coronation, and several of the game's primary challenges can be tackled in a variety of ways. Maybe you utilize your knowledge of the region's sociopolitical conflicts to broker piece with enemies. Maybe you prevent assassination attempts by wising up to the plots of potential enemies ahead of time. Or maybe you muscle your way through the game as a militaristic dictator who uses her magical girl powers (yes, complete with a Sailor Moon-esque transformation and everything) to fry anyone who opposes her. There's an impressive level of variety in what can be accomplished from one run to the next.

Ultimately, this is missing some vital component to really keep me engaged. There's simultaneously too many options combined with gameplay and game progression that feel too streamlined. That said, if you happen to find it on sale for a few bucks, it'll likely keep you entertained well enough for an afternoon.

Senua's Saga: Hellblade II (Series X) - Impressions

I just finished this game, which took me about 8 hours to get through. I thought it was a phenomenal experience. The gameplay itself wasn't anything special, it was the story, the atmosphere and obviously the visuals that were the highlights of the game.

This has to be the most visually impressive game ever made, it's absolutely insane how detailed the world is. I can understand now why it took Ninja Theory over five years to make this game. I also thought the psychological aspect of the game was really cool, more games need to do this instead of being completely grounded.

As for the gameplay, I've heard some say that it's repetitive. I don't see that at all. The combat is rather challenging. The game has a dynamic difficulty setting so I'm guessing if you're bad at the game then it'll go easier on you and vice versa. But because the game was challenging for me, I never thought the combat was repetitive. In fact, I never truly got good at the game but I did become better over time. It was a great feeling whenever I got through a fight by parrying and dodging well. In other words, the combat was challenging but satisfying and I liked it.

In terms of the puzzle-solving though, I thought it was rather cool at first but then this aspect definitely got stale over time. All you do is go to certain points in an area and interact with something in order to either see a hidden symbol in the scenery or change the environment, thus opening up new paths that let you progress. That's basically all the puzzles in the game in a nutshell. So I didn't like this aspect as much as the combat as it slowed down the pacing.

Speaking of which, there is a lot of walking in this game but that's combined with narration and rich atmosphere. It made for a really immersive experience. Unfortunately, I didn't play the game with headphones but that would've elevated the experience even further. It's worth mentioning then that you have to be in the right mood in order to fully enjoy this game. It definitely leans more towards being an "experience" rather than a video game so to speak.

In short, I really liked this game and I thought the experience was absolutely exceptional. It's in my opinion one of the few truly "next-gen" experiences available on the market now. Even if it doesn't do anything new to push the medium forward, it definitely delivers a visually impressive experience that's unprecedented. It's worth playing for that alone.

On a side note, I just have to add how great it is to play a simple game like Hellblade II. In a time when we have games like God of War Ragnarok and Spider-Man 2 where you basically have to go through university courses in order to fully learn the game, it's very refreshing to have a game with a simple control scheme.

@LtSarge Thanks for the review. I’ve really been anticipating Hellblade II. How do you think the sequel compares to the first game? You mention the combat being simple in its core scheme and also the environmental puzzles, both which sound similar to the first game. I actually thought the puzzles in the first game could be challenging at times, but it sounds like they scaled those back. The combat in the first game was like a very limited and simplified version of God of War, and I don’t recall having to worry much about parrying. Perhaps despite its still being simple, the combat is more expansive than the first game?

And the first game was really all about the psychological aspects and the stellar audio design. Without spoiling too much, is that still an important part of the experience? The first game encouraged the player to use headphones to get the full effect of the voices in your head that would trick you and lie to you and the delusions you’d have so I would hope the sequel continues with something similar.

I’m glad it was a satisfying experience for you and for the first time I’m jealous of an Xbox exclusive. I didn’t care about Starfield (and still don’t), nor about HiFi Rush or Halo or Gears or Forza, etc. I mean, I’m curious about some of those properties, sure, but I don’t really hunger to play them in any meaningful way. Hellblade II though is something I really wish I had access to. For an 8 hr game though it’s not a system seller for me, not to mention I feel confident it will be ported to PS5 eventually. If the reports are true, they’ve got to make some money back on some of these games and GamePass subscriptions haven’t grown enough to offset the enormous development costs of some of these projects.

@Th3solution To be honest, I don't really remember much of the first Hellblade. I think I played it around five years ago. I do remember thinking that it was a decent experience though.

I think it's fair to say that the puzzles are more straightforward and the combat is more challenging compared to the first game. You'll be parrying a lot. The enemies have basic attacks for parrying and stronger attacks that you can't parry, so you need to dodge them instead. The game is very forgiving though. Even if you keep getting hit, you have multiple opportunities to recover. There are different enemy types and these are what makes the combat challenging.

The psychological aspects and immersive audio design are still present here. In fact, I'd say the devs have turned them up a notch compared to the first game. There were so many trippy situations that you'd normally find in e.g. psychological horror games or a Kojima game. I absolutely love moments like these.

I think it's great that Microsoft has decided to port their titles to PlayStation so that others get to play them as well. I cannot imagine Hellblade II not coming out on PS5 within a year or so. So yeah, I wouldn't bother getting an Xbox. It's cool though that there's actually a reason now for PlayStation-only gamers to follow these games as they might come out on PlayStation. Who knows, maybe some games shown on the Xbox showcase this Sunday will come out on PS5 as well.

@LtSarge I just picked up Hifi Rush, which is the first Xbox game I’ve bought in well over a decade… if Hellblade 2 gets ported I’ll buy that too. I know the reactions been mixed but I reckon that if I play it at the right time (when I’m fancying something a bit more chilled and narrative-heavy) I reckon I’ll feel similarly to you about it.

@colonelkilgore I think mine might be Halo The Master Chief Collection when it drops on PS5. 👀

@JohnnyShoulder yeah I might be tempted by that too in fairness 😉

@colonelkilgore I still haven't played through Hi-Fi Rush. Maybe I should give it a go since I still have a few weeks left of my Game Pass subscription.

Yeah, just don't expect a traditional gaming experience and you should be fine with Hellblade II.

@LTsarge I have not played Hellblade but I know that Ninja Theory is a very very good developer (and so is Tango Gameworks) so it would be cool to look more into Hellblade at some point in time. I honestly dont know what Hellblade is about though.

Still Wakes The Deep (Series X) - Impressions

Just finished Still Wakes The Deep on Series X after about six hours of playtime. Absolutely brilliant game! There are two things I want to praise this game for. The first is just how much variety there is to the gameplay even if it's first and foremost a walking simulator. The gameplay never gets stale and each section never overstays its welcome. It's always terrible when you play a horror game and you get stuck for a long time during a sneaking section. It just ruins the pacing. But that's not the case with this game as it constantly switches between stealth sections, platforming sections and so on.

The second thing I want to praise it for is its progressive game design. An example of this is how you enter a room and you see lockers and other hiding places but then you exit the room and realise that no enemy showed up in that room. Same thing in the next room, but then an enemy shows up in the room after that. I think this is brilliant game design as whenever you see stuff like this in video games, you always know that an enemy is going to show up in that room and because you're always expecting it, the tension gets ruined. But having rooms where no enemies show up just to throw you off is such a brilliant concept.

The story was fantastic as well. I love how the game starts off by showing you how normal everything is and then it becomes absolutely bizarre by the end of the journey. I always adore when games have supernatural elements in them. The story just becomes more interesting as opposed to a more grounded tale. Also, the setting of an oil rig is just unique and cool. You'd think there wouldn't be a lot of variety in terms of environments, but there actually is.

I also have to mention how great the voice acting is. I never knew how much I liked Scottish English! They should make more games with Scottish voice acting, it just sounds so cool.

All in all, this might be my favourite walking sim as it was simply such an engaging experience from start to finish. I just couldn't stop playing it! I highly recommend checking it out.

@LtSarge Like I said in the comments section for the review of that game, I look forward to playing it someday. I'm not sure when it will be as there's a lot of games, but I hope to remember to check it out at some point as it looks like it should be pretty enjoyable (if you are into that kind of game of course). It deserves attention.

@KilloWertz It's very enjoyable. I've heard that the other game The Chinese Room has made, Everybody's Gone to Rapture, is cool but very boring. I didn't find Still Wakes The Deep to be boring at all and like I said in my previous post, it doesn't overstay its welcome. Hope you'll like it whenever you get around to it.

@AgentCooper Be sure to share your thoughts about the game! Would love to hear what other people think about it.

@LtSarge Yeah I found Everybody's Gone to Rapture a complete bore to play lol. Glad Still Wakes The Deep seems to have a bit more to it then walking around and listen to the odd ghost.

@JohnnyShoulder I've been on the fence numerous times on buying Everybody's Gone to Rapture when it's been on sale. But I've always decided against it based on what I've heard about it. Safe to say that it was probably a good idea lol.

@Malaise I loved What Remains of Edith Finch. Some truly harrowing scenes. Also really enjoyed The Vanishing of Ethan Carter and Firewatch, but didn't like Gone Home.

@Malaise I never did finish it as my save file got corrupted right before the end.

@JohnnyShoulder @Malaise I should play Firewatch soon. It's been in my backlog for ages now but I haven't been in a mood to play it. Considering how engrossing I thought Still Wakes The Deep was, I'd probably enjoy Firewatch right now.

@LtSarge @JohnnyShoulder @Malaise
I used play a lot more walking sims, but have been too caught up in all the action games out there. Of those I’ve played, I’d rank them thus:

1. What Remains of Edith Finch
2. Firewatch
3. The Stanley Parable
4. Gone Home
5. Everybody’s Gone to the Rapture
6.Virginia
7. Tacoma
8. Dear Esther
9. Proteus

I’ve seen Stray referred to as a walking sim… not sure if I agree with that but if so it would take the #2 spot on my list.
Also have heard people call Abzu, Journey and Death Stranding walking sims. In the purest sense I would say no.

Still need to play:
Vanishing of Ethan Carter
Soma (also a walking sim…?)
and Still Wakes the Deep looks good so it needs to be added to the list. There’s not many of these being made anymore.

@Malaise Thanks, I had forgot about Adr1ft. I remember reading a review from Rog he wrote. I’ll add it to the wishlist to track it for a sale or future PS+ inclusion. 👍🏼

As for Tacoma and Virginia, you can probably finish both in one weekend. Maybe even in one afternoon, honestly. Each are just a couple hours, and easy platinums if that’s your thing.

Marvel's Spiderman Remastered PS5 Review
Finished up Marvel's Spiderman Remastered PS5 yesterday. To me, the story only picked up in the last third - as a nonstop boss run - and the ending was good. To get there, I had to endure endless repetitive monotonous tasks to collect tokens, photographing landmarks and Black Cat spots. If they weren't connected to trophies, then I would've skipped most of them.

With the backpacks, they constantly disappeared, and I had to be forced to reload the save file just to make them appear. This really irked me, and considering this was present in the PS4 game, Insomniac Games could not fix that? Even after patches? Personally, I find this around above average and not as good as the general consensus makes it out as. To me, the Rocksteady Batman games are more enjoyable than this.
7 / 10

Control Ultimate Edition (Xbox Gamepass)
Also finished up with the game, except the Foundation dlc. Apart from the terrible astral challenge to get the dodge ability, everything else was fantastic.

Don't know how Sam Lake and co. at Remedy comes up with such trippy, paranatural narrative but it works. Their use of live-action projector reels, along with tape recordings, and all documents connected to the Oldest House is excellent. The gameworld is phenomenal, although the map was hard to follow. At least the signage pointed me to the right direction.

I did the AWE dlc, and that was excellent. I think you need to play at least Alan Wake to get the narrative, otherwise you'll be lost. BTW, I've played all Remedy titles except Alan Wake 2 and Quantum Break.
9 / 10