Are you meaning to post this in 2015? Have you harnessed the power of time travel and you're going back and forth in order to complete more games last year?


Nevermind - I see you're just getting around to reviews for games finished prior. Don't mind me.

Ultratron

Ultratron is yet another top-down shooter (srsly), apparently a reimagining (or ripoff, if you are feeling less charitable) of Robotron. Well, I can't claim to know completely as I have never played Robotron extensively. Anyway, the game's layout is simple; shoot androids till they stop respawning, collect cash that you can spend on a variety of upgrades (as far as upgrades go, there is standard stuff like stronger weapons, bombs, health and some not-so-standard as android helpers and the ability to dodge through enemy projectiles), fight a boss every 10 levels and rinse and repeat. Sounds repetitive and it is. You see, the enemies remain the same throughout the whole game and their only difference is that there is a greater number of them and they are faster.

Oh, and the game absolutely loves to confuse your poor eyes. During the last areas of the game, trying to discern enemy projectiles can be spectacularly difficult thanks to the absolute chaos that erupts; it's like watching fireworks constantly go off and trying to spot the one that can actually harm you. A bit more clarity would have certainly helped, but it still wouldn't be enough to make the game anything special.

List.

Going through my 'backup of finished games' folder to remind me of what I did finish:

01-2015: Dragon Age Awakenings completed my 2nd and 3rd playthrough of the game, also completed the Golems of Amgarrak and Leliane's Song DLC's in this month.

01-2015: Dragon Age: Origins: for the 5th time with a human Elementalist mage (started 06-2013)

04-2015: Dragon Age: Origins: for the 6th time, this time with a Dalish Elf warrior (started 02-2013)

06-2015: XCOM: Enemy Unknown: (started 10-2014, when it was sold for only 1 euro by GreenManGaming for voting in the Golden Joystick Awards)

09-2015: Baldur's Gate Enhanced Edition (started 02-2015 - finishing the same year I started is quick for me)

09-2015: Fallout 3 (started 12-2011) - left 2 of 5 DLC's unfinished though, Mothership Zeta and Point Lookout I didn't like and I called it quits in 10-2015.

09-2015: The Incredible Adventures of Van Helsing: didn't finish the game 'waiting for the Final Cut being released as promised on GOG' though.

also sometime early 2015 I did complete Titan Quest's main campaign with 2 different characters, only to decide in the Immortal Throne expansion part that I tired of the game and called it quits.

also somewhere in 2015 I finished Medal of Honor (2010) and Medal of Honor Warfighter both for a second time.

I thought I didn't complete nearly as many games as the average GOGlodyte, but looking at this list I'm not disappointed.

Deadlight

Deadlight is, in essence, the original Prince of Persia (with stiff and laggy controls and all), except that it's more linear, more cinematic and sports a zombie apocalypse. If that doesn't sound particularly appealing, then you're advised to steer clear of the game.

In Deadlight, you'll have to jump high and low, climb, crouch and fight your way through its levels, all set against backgrounds familiar of a zombie apocalypse; ravaged alleys, countryside, abandoned factories and offices, sewers etc. Like in Prince of Persia, your character executes his actions a bit after you press the corresponding button, so you'll have to get used to this oddity, if you want to have any hope of success. Unlike Prince of Persia, there are no duels to be found (though a zombie duelist would be a funny sight), but you can engage the zombies with an axe, a handgun, or a shotgun. While firing at zombies with the guns isn't particularly problematic (you can kill them with just one headshot), fighting them with the axe can definitely be, as the axe swings drain stamina (you know, the same stamina that you use to run and jump),the zombies are pretty resistant and can only be killed by it if they are knocked down (except in the rare circumstances that you get a critical and decapitate the zombie) and have a finishing move performed upon them, which is slow, leaves you wide open to other zombie attacks (and risking having the move getting interrupted) and drains an even higher chunk of your stamina. On top of all that, there are quite a few areas that zombies constantly respawn, so the game discourages you from actually fighting the zombies, which might be better in the long run.

The game, however, doesn't only frustrate you with its combat, but also with its trial-and-error nature. Situations will occur that will lead you to instant death and you'll not always be sure of what you were supposed to do and you'll have to die in the same situation (sometimes more than once) till you get it. The game's laggy controls don't help one bit and the game's horrible stuttering made matters worse (and while I'm aware that it might be just my PC, I'm still quite surprised that it had such an unstable framerate, sometimes for no significant reason). All in all, I felt that the game was miserable and tried to infect its players with its misery, but I'll survive.

List.

Ever since its release on Xbox 360 back in 2009, Shadow Complex was hailed as a great Metroidvania. Not that I would know anything of it, as I didn't own the console and, thus, skipped it. Fast-forward 6 years later and Epic decides to bundle Shadow Complex Remastered with their own client, so why not give it a go?

The client was slow and unresponsive, but I eventually succeeded at getting it to work. But what about the game? Well, it was awesome! With Nintendo not having released any new side-scrolling Metroid ever since Zero Mission (just 11 years since then), Shadow Complex is the closest thing to a 2D Metroid that we can get (and perhaps Axiom Verge). The greatest thing about Shadow Complex is the gradual transformation of your character from a total and utter wimp to a real badass. (Note: I played it on hard, so your experience might be different). You start with a pathetic pistol, low health and a meager wall jump to help you in your exploration. Later, you'll be getting access to assault rifles that will replace your pathetic pistol, grenades, missiles, a special foamgun reminiscent of Metroid's Ice Beam, health and armor upgrades, double jump, the ability to breath underwater and the Speed Booster which you can use to travel faster and destroy any enemy foolish enough to get in your way. You'll no longer be cowering and taking cover from the simplest enemies, but instead will be running and taking them down in melee (something pretty cool about the takedowns is that they differ depending on your relevant position to the enemy) and enemies who were once fearsome and tough will be nothing more than slightly challenging.

Now, while I thought that the game was awesome, I'll have to say that I wasn't particularly impressed by the backgrounds which were, for the most part, boring and not memorable at all. I can also say the same for the music, which I can barely remember anything (in contrast with other Metroidvania games). Finally, the game suffered from some pretty serious stuttering (which made some sections harder than necessary), which seemed particularly random and would persist even when I lowered the quality of the settings. I'm not sure whether to blame Unreal Engine 3 or the Epic client for this. Hopefully, it will be patched and then I can try playing it on the hardest difficulty.

Full list.

P.S.: It was interesting how the game was also reminiscent of a third person shooter, what with taking cover and being able to attack and be attacked by enemies in the background.
P.S.2: While plenty of games allow you to climb down a ladder faster than usual, Shadow Complex seems to be the only one that also allows you to climb up faster!

Escape Goat is an indie puzzle-platformer with pixel graphics. While this might sound absolutely enthralling, it somehow works.

You take control of the eponymous goat and you must escape from the dungeon that you are kept imprisoned (while also freeing some sheep), using your natural goatish agility, wit and a little help from your rodent friend. In your way will stand the gloomy dungeons' twisted designs, mechanisms, traps and its nefarious denizens (grim reapers?). You'll need to jump, activate devices and ram to destroy some blocks or cover some distance (the game has no combat, so the ram won't be do anything against enemies). Even those, though, won't be enough to allow you to make your escape and you'll need the help of the mouse. The mouse can enter places that you can't fit, used as a weight against a pressure plate, or even act as a decoy against an enemy. In some stages, you'll get access to a magic hat which you can use to switch places with the mouse in order to complete the stage's puzzles, which are somewhat challenging, but won't really prevent you from blazing through the game in an afternoon. Once you complete the game, you'll get access to more stages which, while indeed harder, are also very tedious and annoying and I didn't bother with them.

To summarize, while Escape Goat didn't light my world on fire, it was still a nice little game to play on an afternoon. Also, a thumbs up for the game's actually nice pixelated look and its soundtrack.

List.

Blood Rayne: Betrayal

I do remember having fun with the two previous BloodRayne games. While flawed, they were certainly quite a bit of fun and draining your opponents' blood and/or chopping their limbs was always a great pleasure. For the third game in the series, Majesco decided to make the game 2D sidescroller and hand over development to WayForward, developers of Shantae and other sidescrolling platformers. How did it end up? Not that good...

My pet peeve with the game is that you don't always feel that you are in full control of Rayne. The controls can be laggy and unresponsive, something that gets worse when you realise that animations can't be interrupted, so you get to watch in frustration as you are hit by enemies, tossed down and then hit some more, because the game wouldn't let you dodge at the precise moment. Platforming can also be an exercise in frustration, particularly during the last levels. I lost the amount of times I had to repeat a certain section because the controls were such bollocks. I was also never able to figure out whether combination produced a certain combo and just resorted to button mashing, which to my surprise (and frustration) produced different results and at certain circumstances even lead to my doom. Lesson learned here folks, don't try to hit too many times. Hit a few times, stop, then hit a few more, stop, etc.

The combat itself is mediocre and repetitive. You fight the almost same kind of enemies from beginning to the end in the same ways; hack them till they die, shoot them with your pistols till they run out of ammo, drain them their blood or explode them after you bit them. I have to say, though, that the last one is pretty cool and can be a way to end fights faster if you are bored and tired of hacking enemies.

Overall, while the new look of BloodRayne: Betrayal is nice and the soundtrack pretty good, the same can't be said for the game itself. If you still want to play it, prepare for frustration.

Final list.

And that was 2015, just 9 days later. Overall, I completed about 6 games/month. I'll try to make it 7 games/month this year.

I forgot to post this! Finished it in November, I think.

Tales from the Borderlands (Adventure)

Options include Controls (controller or mouse, not re-bindable), Audio/Video (separate sliders for master volume, music, and brightness -- Subtitles are NOT the default, so if you want them, turn them on here), Gameplay Settings (Invert Y and Display Style -- no idea what these do), Graphics Settings (texture quality, anti-aliasing, full screen or windowed, and resolution from 800x450 up to 1920x1080.)

You can have up to four saved games, and like the other episodic Telltale Games series, you can "rewind" and re-do something if you so choose (from the main menu.) You will of course lose all of your progress up to that point, though.

If you haven't played this type of game before, it's kind of like an interactive movie... and yet the moments where you're making your choices aren't jarring or disruptive to the flow of the game/story. Choices are timed, which adds an urgency to the gameplay and keeps things (even more) interesting, but if you don't like anything timed, no worries -- You can pause the game by hitting the space bar. Well, that will help with the timed choices, but there are a few action sequences that you'll have to deal with. Nothing game-stopping for those without good reflexes, though I did have to re-do several scenes.

Now that we've got the boring stuff out of the way, let me preface this review by saying that I only recently obtained the original Borderlands games -- I have not played them yet, so I am not familiar with the Borderlands lore. This game apparently takes place after the events of Borderlands 2.

To be honest I wasn't sure that I was going to like the game when I first started playing, as I wasn't sure that I liked the characters or the story line. By the beginning of chapter 2, though, I was completely sucked in. There was a moment during the opening credits of episode 2 (of all things!) that had me almost literally shouting, "Oh my god, this is so frickin' AWESOME!" I DID literally do a fist-pump. *laughs*

For those who have played the game, my favorite characters are actually [spoiler]Loader Bot, Gordys, Scooter, and Athena [/spoiler]
Not to say that I didn't like the other characters -- I loved 'em all, good and bad and in between! I'm just partial to these four.

This is pure Telltale, with fantastic storytelling, eye-catching graphics, rich characters, perfectly-chosen music and sound effects, great voice-acting, and immersive environments... and yet, it's completely different than the other titles in their repertoire. There were twists and turns that I never saw coming, and in the end, I was flabbergasted by how far we came in just five episodes. The Walking Dead will always be my favorite -- 'cause, well, ZOMBIES -- but Tales from the Borderlands takes a close second for me! Absolutely recommended, whether you're a Borderlands fanatic, or a newbie like me.

List for 2015

MP Only/Endless Games Included (4+ Hrs)
Every Game is Reviewed

Completed in 2015
[42] Fire Emblem Awakening - 12/21/15 (23/23 Paralogues Completed)
[41] Dr. Langeskov, The Tiger, and The Terribly Cursed Emerald: A Whirlwind Heist - 12/10/15
[40] Shin Megami Tensei: Persona 3 Portable - 11/28/15 (Death & Life Endings Completed)
[39] MANOS: The Hands of Fate - Director's Cut - 11/16/15
[38] Hook - 11/16/15
[37] Stay Dead Evolution - 11/15/15
[36] Are You Smarter Than a 5th Grader? - 11/14/15
[35] Dinner Date - 11/14/15
[34] Into The War - 11/12/15
[33] NEKOPARA Vol. 0 - 11/11/15
[32] Call of Juarez Gunslinger - 11/11/15
[31] NEKOPARA Vol. 1 - 11/05/15
[30] Postmortem: One Must Die (Extended Cut) - 11/04/15
[29] Synonymy - 11/04/15
[28] Forward to the Sky - 11/04/15
[27] Unhack - 11/04/15
[26] Shan Gui (山桂) - 11/03/15
[25] The Plan - 11/01/15
[24] Submerged - 11/01/15
[23] Sakura Spirit - 10/29/15
[22] Make it indie! - 10/29/15
[21] Her Story - 10/28/15
[20] Retention - 10/26/15
[19] Fine Sweeper - 10/26/15 (52 Levels Completed in Campaign Mode)
[18] A Bird Story - 10/25/15
[17] Croixleur Σ - 10/24/15 (1/2 Character Stories Completed)
[16] Pretentious Game - 10/24/15 (4/4 Chapters Completed)
[15] Chainsaw Warrior - 10/22/15
[14] METAL GEAR SOLID V: THE PHANTOM PAIN - 10/21/15 (40/51 Main Missions, 53/157 Side Ops Completed)
[13] The Walking Dead: Season 2 - 09/09/15
[12] METAL GEAR SOLID V: GROUND ZEROES - 09/02/15
[11] Evoland - 09/01/15
[10] Trine 3: The Artifacts of Power - 08/27/15 (1050/1050 Trineangles Collected)
[9] Poker Night 2 - 07/03/15 (1/5 Items Collected)
[8] Dying Light - 04/06/15 (44/44 Side Quests Completed)
[7] Go! Go! Nippon! ~My First Trip to Japan~ - 02/24/15
[6] Bastion - 02/23/15
[5] Long Live The Queen - 02/18/15
[4] The Walking Dead - 02/16/15 (400 Days Completed)
[3] Nightmares from the Deep: The Cursed Heart - 01/24/15
[2] Clockwork Tales: Of Glass and Ink - 01/04/15
[1] Endless Legend - 01/04/15

A Wolf In Autumn

Another game made by fellow GOGolyte Jefequeso, A Wolf In Autumn follows the same general style as his earlier games The Moon Sliver and The Music Machine. So yeah...you do sort of know what you're getting here, a atmosphere based horror game with no jump scares, just stories to learn here and sound effects to get creeped out by.

The gameplay is the same as the aforementioned games, so you know what you're getting. Very simple puzzles based around finding the right items and throwing them at the puzzle. Everything here is just to keep it from having no interaction at all.

Storywise it's a short and dark affair. You have two characters Autumn (the player character) and her mother and as the game goes on you get the gist of their relationship and past events. I can't give much more info without falling into spoiler territory so I'll just reiterate that it's a (well written) dark slab of writing.

Graphically it has its own flair rather than falling back to the styles of The Moon Sliver or The Music Machine, the outside area is sharp and vibrant, the inside areas are at best dim and generally heavily black, which is a good thing in this case. Even with the lighting tools (a flash light and candles that can be lit) you can barely see in some areas and it makes the atmosphere really work.

As mentioned earlier the atmosphere is strong here thanks to the lack of light and sound effects that get under your skin, whether it being a unseen dog growling or just the constant sound of water slowly dripping.

Musically and soundwise, everything does its job to be sure, I just wouldn't say that there is anything of note here on its own.

All in all I enjoyed my playthrough of this and would recommend it if you're looking for a "Dear Esther but horror based" style game. It IS rather short, shorter than his other games to be sure (It took me about a half hour to beat) but I can't hold it against it, a strong half hour game is better than a mediocre six hour game, at least in my opinion.

I wish! I fell a bit behind in my reviews :P

A bit? xD
Good job.

Anyone have the link to the 2016 thread handy?

https://www.gog.com/forum/general/games_finished_in_2016