Hellgnoll
BACKER
2021
Gameplay note: I played through Inscryption with my wife, with her controlling the deckbuilding parts and me controlling the ARG / escape room parts. She had a better time with it than I did, as she is in general more into deckbuilding games.
Extremely mixed feelings on this game. On one hand there was a lot I really liked, but it also waaay overstayed its welcome and had some absolutely grueling parts.
Act 2 grinds the entire game to a halt, and Act 3 has some really cool stuff like Act 1..... except it makes you replay all of Act 2, basically.
Act 2 felt very rough cause i just very abruptly went from having an extremely good time to feeling like everything ground to a halt and now this ok-but-bland retro deckbuilder is in the way of an interesting mystery. And i know this is probably a more esoteric criticism but i think the UI in act two actually makes a lot of poor choices regarding low contrast monochrome for elements when a lot of the backgrounds are full colour. It basically feels like Gameboy graphics over a GBA game and the vibe is… bad? Confusing? Tiring?
The real criticism i will go Esoteric Nerd with is that when the youtuber pulls the floppy disk out of the ground the cover is open and a visible piece of dirt is stuck to the inside ring the entire time and i know it’s a haunted "ben drowned" cartridge situation but the entire time I’m just like “that disk is broken and none of these graphics would fit in that floppy”
Every time a video dump happened during act two I leapt for the controls because I was just starving for literally any interesting content.
And when act 3 hits it is MUCH stronger and really refreshes the vibes, but then it drags itself out sooooo much longer.
The worst part of it is, I think, the fact that literally nothing of the cause behind the supernaturality is even hinted at. It's just vaguely spooky, with vaguely retro aesthetics, but all so shallow that it feels deeply unsatisfying by the end.
Extremely mixed feelings on this game. On one hand there was a lot I really liked, but it also waaay overstayed its welcome and had some absolutely grueling parts.
Act 2 grinds the entire game to a halt, and Act 3 has some really cool stuff like Act 1..... except it makes you replay all of Act 2, basically.
Act 2 felt very rough cause i just very abruptly went from having an extremely good time to feeling like everything ground to a halt and now this ok-but-bland retro deckbuilder is in the way of an interesting mystery. And i know this is probably a more esoteric criticism but i think the UI in act two actually makes a lot of poor choices regarding low contrast monochrome for elements when a lot of the backgrounds are full colour. It basically feels like Gameboy graphics over a GBA game and the vibe is… bad? Confusing? Tiring?
The real criticism i will go Esoteric Nerd with is that when the youtuber pulls the floppy disk out of the ground the cover is open and a visible piece of dirt is stuck to the inside ring the entire time and i know it’s a haunted "ben drowned" cartridge situation but the entire time I’m just like “that disk is broken and none of these graphics would fit in that floppy”
Every time a video dump happened during act two I leapt for the controls because I was just starving for literally any interesting content.
And when act 3 hits it is MUCH stronger and really refreshes the vibes, but then it drags itself out sooooo much longer.
The worst part of it is, I think, the fact that literally nothing of the cause behind the supernaturality is even hinted at. It's just vaguely spooky, with vaguely retro aesthetics, but all so shallow that it feels deeply unsatisfying by the end.
Yuppie Psycho is exactly what i want every time i think of “indie horror game”. It’s like Link’s Awakening smashed into Silent Hill 4 at top speed while Persona was stuck on the tracks. It feels like watching a killer anime thriller miniseries. The art rules. The soundtrack goes hard when it should. The characters are immensely lovable.
It has multiple endings and you WILL want to check ‘em all out because that fits all the pieces together. The story does that Lynchian thing of telling a lot through feelings and vibes so try to leave your literalism at the door!
Played through it over two days basically nonstop because it was so enthralling. If i could go back in time this would be on my GOTY list of 2020.
It has multiple endings and you WILL want to check ‘em all out because that fits all the pieces together. The story does that Lynchian thing of telling a lot through feelings and vibes so try to leave your literalism at the door!
Played through it over two days basically nonstop because it was so enthralling. If i could go back in time this would be on my GOTY list of 2020.
2016
Idk i feel like I’ve walked out of every resident evil with the exact same feeling, that it was really cool for the first half and then got very boring and samey in the back half. Meh
2020
Really fantastic storytelling that really captures the energy of folk stories and their particular magic. Maintains a really specific metatextuality that ties the reality of the stories in the game to their actual sources from life, often dealing with tragedy and traumas deeply personal to the storytellers. It captures the deep, wide breadth of feelings in folk life, and it does so with a deeply charming aesthetic.
2019
Honestly some fantastic forest scenery and an absolutely lovable dog character, but fuck this game is bad otherwise lol
I was actually extremely impressed with where this game goes by the end. A lot of people talk up how many long unplayable cutscenes there are, but I think that tension is actually very core to the themes of the game, as is outright stated in the epilogue with Big Boss. It's a little messy sometimes in trying to make its point, but ultimately this was actually a really solid ending to the quadrology.
what the hell, i missed playing MI2 over the years because of various reasons and for a long time The Curse of Monkey Island was my favorite in the series.
i have never felt more vindicated in that opinion than after playing lechuck's revenge. this one stinks, y'all.
the writing is MEAN spirited, and has aged very badly in a lot of places. the puzzle design is atrocious, and the art style often completely hides important objects. practically pixel hunting for important things like doorways.
skip this one
i have never felt more vindicated in that opinion than after playing lechuck's revenge. this one stinks, y'all.
the writing is MEAN spirited, and has aged very badly in a lot of places. the puzzle design is atrocious, and the art style often completely hides important objects. practically pixel hunting for important things like doorways.
skip this one
2012
damn, it's so sad she died of deadwife
2016
damn, it's so sad she died of deadwife
2019
damn, it's so sad she died of deadwife
Really fun adventure game with some great design and very amusing vibes. Puzzle design was pretty good in general; the motion controls are a little hit-or-miss, but when they work they really feel like they enhance the tactility of the game. When they don't work it can be pretty frustrating. But like, if you're a fan of adventure games this isn't anything new.
It's also interesting in that it feels very in-between a classic Sierra adventure (with death scenes galore and odd item combinations) and a classic console adventure (like a Zelda dungeon).
Also it's got a bunch of funky little pirate bunnies. They're little gnarly dudes! It's great. And your rival, the pirate queen Rose, is a really fantastic design.
It's also interesting in that it feels very in-between a classic Sierra adventure (with death scenes galore and odd item combinations) and a classic console adventure (like a Zelda dungeon).
Also it's got a bunch of funky little pirate bunnies. They're little gnarly dudes! It's great. And your rival, the pirate queen Rose, is a really fantastic design.
2014
Maybe I'll return to this one if somebody gives me a compelling argument, but it's very plodding and I have run out of patience with it.
I'm at the point where i could get the bad end, and I know how to get the true end, and doing so is going to probably take another twenty hours to do so.
My feelings on the game at this point basically are "the witness is less coy about being masturbatory, and portal didn't overstay its welcome." It feels like it probably isn't going to stick the landing and the puzzles are very samey once you unlock all the tech.
I'm at the point where i could get the bad end, and I know how to get the true end, and doing so is going to probably take another twenty hours to do so.
My feelings on the game at this point basically are "the witness is less coy about being masturbatory, and portal didn't overstay its welcome." It feels like it probably isn't going to stick the landing and the puzzles are very samey once you unlock all the tech.
2010
you feel better, but not much
2020
extremely good! final boss really killed the mood though, astronomically tougher than the game up to that point
2020
It looks really good but it was completely unapparent what i needed to do and got killed by a sirenhead when standing around the car at the opening.