bellwoods
Bio
They/them
I tend to play adventure, puzzle, and mystery/detective games, as well as anything with a good meaty plot.
★ - Complete waste of time and/or literally unplayable.
★★ - I got something out of it, but overall wouldn't recommend.
★★★ - Conditionally recommend: good but didn't wow me, or did wow me but also had serious issues that take it down from a 4.
★★★★ - Unreservedly recommend, I liked it a lot.
★★★★★ - Highly innovative and/or a classic, "must play" of the genre.
They/them
I tend to play adventure, puzzle, and mystery/detective games, as well as anything with a good meaty plot.
★ - Complete waste of time and/or literally unplayable.
★★ - I got something out of it, but overall wouldn't recommend.
★★★ - Conditionally recommend: good but didn't wow me, or did wow me but also had serious issues that take it down from a 4.
★★★★ - Unreservedly recommend, I liked it a lot.
★★★★★ - Highly innovative and/or a classic, "must play" of the genre.
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Donor
Liked 50+ reviews / lists
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Mentioned by another user
Busy Day
Journaled 5+ games in a single day
Roadtrip
Voted for at least 3 features on the roadmap
Best Friends
Become mutual friends with at least 3 others
On Schedule
Journaled games once a day for a week straight
Shreked
Found the secret ogre page
Organized
Created a list folder with 5+ lists
Listed
Created 10+ public lists
GOTY '23
Participated in the 2023 Game of the Year Event
1 Years of Service
Being part of the Backloggd community for 1 year
Noticed
Gained 3+ followers
Liked
Gained 10+ total review likes
GOTY '22
Participated in the 2022 Game of the Year Event
N00b
Played 100+ games
Favorite Games
244
Total Games Played
012
Played in 2024
016
Games Backloggd
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I played the demo of this at a game development conference over a decade ago (sheesh!), loved it, and in my usual manner swore I would get around to the full 2017 version definitely, maybe, at some point. I finally did, and had a great time. Wonderfully unique puzzle game, and while some might find it a little on the short side, I felt like all the elements were watchmaker-perfect in their integration. No wasted space; it knows exactly what it wants to do and it does it.
Gorogoa is a game about perspective, both in its central puzzle mechanics and its story. A dragon threatens a city (as these stories go) and the only way to appease it is a sacrifice. Thus a boy goes on a quest for five fruits. But, as the player eventually susses out, this journey can only be completed by navigating through scenes from the rest of the boy's life, after he has already failed, and the city is destroyed and then rebuilt. You end up manipulating not only the locations in the city, but eventually thought, time, and memory. It's an interesting, fable-like structure. Combined with the detailed and delicate art, the overall effect put me in mind of a Colin Thompson storybook. But I'm mainly giving it 5 stars because fairly cluing puzzles with zero text is incredibly difficult, and this game does it incredibly well. I always knew the shape of what I was supposed to do, if not the "how".
Gorogoa is a game about perspective, both in its central puzzle mechanics and its story. A dragon threatens a city (as these stories go) and the only way to appease it is a sacrifice. Thus a boy goes on a quest for five fruits. But, as the player eventually susses out, this journey can only be completed by navigating through scenes from the rest of the boy's life, after he has already failed, and the city is destroyed and then rebuilt. You end up manipulating not only the locations in the city, but eventually thought, time, and memory. It's an interesting, fable-like structure. Combined with the detailed and delicate art, the overall effect put me in mind of a Colin Thompson storybook. But I'm mainly giving it 5 stars because fairly cluing puzzles with zero text is incredibly difficult, and this game does it incredibly well. I always knew the shape of what I was supposed to do, if not the "how".
Fever dream of a game. I played Devil's Daughter because it came bundled with Crimes & Punishments for $50 cheaper than either game on its own. Despite being bundled with C&P, it's actually a direct sequel to Testament, a game I have not played, in which Holmes and Watson have adopted Moriarty's daughter Katelyn.
Not that the chain of sequels and prequels really matters, because Devil's Daughter's biggest stylistic influence isn't either of its predecessors, but Guy Ritchie's Holmes films. Which is fine, if you liked them. Though I can't understate the uncanny valley effect of seeing C&P characters alongside Watson's Jude Law glow-up and Holmes's dangling suspenders.
I'm genuinely unsure if I enjoyed this or not, let alone how to rate it. There are a truckload more QTEs than C&P (including the entire final segment), but they play better. Cases 1 and 4 are good (or at least, good fanfiction of the Ritchie movies)--case 4 in particular I enjoyed far more than anything in C&P. The domino effect deduction was great fun, and it didn't overstay its welcome. On the other hand, case 2 mirrors Sign of the Four down to the racist elements, and the treatment of Alice is just awful across the board (at one point you can backhand her).
Mostly, I was left baffled. A sequence I can only describe as Assassin's Creed: Wiggins (featuring a "lung disease" meter) had my wife in hysterics. At one point, Sherlock Holmes is hunted for sport. There's a metallurgy rhythm game, a lawn bowls tournament, and a sewer platforming level. And the final case is... how do I even describe it. It's directed like a "journey to the centre of the mind" dream sequence, but for no apparent reason, because all the events are supposed to be actually happening. I felt like I was playing an improvised children's bedtime story. When the case ended abruptly after perhaps an hour, I turned to my wife and whispered, "What the fuck?"
Not that the chain of sequels and prequels really matters, because Devil's Daughter's biggest stylistic influence isn't either of its predecessors, but Guy Ritchie's Holmes films. Which is fine, if you liked them. Though I can't understate the uncanny valley effect of seeing C&P characters alongside Watson's Jude Law glow-up and Holmes's dangling suspenders.
I'm genuinely unsure if I enjoyed this or not, let alone how to rate it. There are a truckload more QTEs than C&P (including the entire final segment), but they play better. Cases 1 and 4 are good (or at least, good fanfiction of the Ritchie movies)--case 4 in particular I enjoyed far more than anything in C&P. The domino effect deduction was great fun, and it didn't overstay its welcome. On the other hand, case 2 mirrors Sign of the Four down to the racist elements, and the treatment of Alice is just awful across the board (at one point you can backhand her).
Mostly, I was left baffled. A sequence I can only describe as Assassin's Creed: Wiggins (featuring a "lung disease" meter) had my wife in hysterics. At one point, Sherlock Holmes is hunted for sport. There's a metallurgy rhythm game, a lawn bowls tournament, and a sewer platforming level. And the final case is... how do I even describe it. It's directed like a "journey to the centre of the mind" dream sequence, but for no apparent reason, because all the events are supposed to be actually happening. I felt like I was playing an improvised children's bedtime story. When the case ended abruptly after perhaps an hour, I turned to my wife and whispered, "What the fuck?"
A few interesting environmental puzzles, but they're crushed under the weight of heavy-handed metaphor. The mixture of weepiness and cynicism almost reminded me of Photopia, except that Alley in Photopia was a happy kid, loved by her friends and family. The protagonist of The Almost Gone', by comparison, apparently never managed to eke out a moment's joy in her miserable existence--which makes it proportionally difficult to care about her untimely death. Early on, I examined a shattered plate on the ground, only for her to remark that she knows how it feels. She continued to make similarly one-note observations for almost the next hour before I simply gave up.