This list has all the games I've finished in July. For the June list,
go here.
July 1st: Leisure Suit Larry: Reloaded. Great remake...or a remake of a remake. Whatever you wanna call it. It's like the original (naturally), but with enhanced graphics, new voice acting, a couple of new puzzles and some altered ones. While I have played the original, it's been such a long time that I could classify this experience as pretty much completely new. And it was great fun to take a look at the scenes and think "hey, I remember this place!" As with most games, this one had some flaws too: in a couple of places, the voice acting had some weird static there, like it was recorded on a bad mic (for example, the girl Taffy at the disco); I wish there had been more animation since often times the narrator explained what Larry was currently doing (like examining his zipper) instead of Larry actually doing those things; and there were some little bugs left (I broke the blackjack machine at Caesar's). Also, playing the blackjack was a little tedious because there wasn't a "Bet All" button. And why wasn't Angry Broads playable?? Finally, sometimes I knew what I had to do but didn't know how the game wanted me to handle the situation. For example, getting it on with the hooker was a pain in the ass until I thought to use the hand icon on Larry to remove his clothes, and not the zipper icon, which to me would've been a lot more natural choice. But anyway, besides those small issues, I had a good time with this game. I originally pledged for their Kickstarter, and I would say the end product was well worth the wait.
July 3rd: Clive Barker's Undying. Creepy game; at times a little too creepy. Even though the 3D graphics are quite aged, I liked the little details they put into the game - the paintings, for example, and how different they look with the help of a little spell... I also liked the sound design and it played a huge part in creating the scary atmosphere. The monsters were also quite nasty and every time I saw a new type, I thought to myself: "what the hell is that" and gave them little nicknames too (the one that spits some green goo is now called A Cthulhu Beast, btw.) There were also some things I didn't like. First of all, the enemy AI was pretty shitty; all they do is run towards you - no other tactics, pretty much. One time a human enemy ran past me to take cover next to a wall, that was completely open from my side, and just stood there while I slowly shot him with the revolver. Also, combat against flying enemies often became a charade, where I would spin 360 degrees around, shield up, trying to swing the enemy with the scythe like I was trying to swat a fly. The level design was sometimes a little frustrating, because often I didn't have a clear idea where to head next in the mansion. The difficulty was an issue: the game quickly became a little too easy once I had the scythe and the shield spell, and by the end of the game I had like 50 medpacks with me. The final boss was really boring: you just need to stay completely still and fire the Skull Storm at its head and vagina (I'm not kidding) in turns for about five minutes. And finally: why no subtitles?? Some of the characters had very thick Irish accents, making the deciphering of their sentences that much more difficult. In overall, I felt the game was a little better than average though. Not the best shooter I've played but not the worst either.
July 6th: BioShock Infinite. The game certainly made a great first impression: Columbia looked absolutely
divine. And my amazement didn't end there. As far as storytelling goes, the plot in this game was amazing and very interesting to follow. Not to mention, the girl you're trying to rescue, Elizabeth, is probably the cutest and best-written (female) NPC I've ran into in a game, ever. The game is pretty much perfect in all the fields that matter. My only complaints are just nitpicking: for example, I wish they would've handled money and HP distribution a little differently. I felt like a bum, rummaging through garbage bins for cotton candy and swiping people's purses left and right. Sometimes I even couldn't properly concentrate on anything else, because I was busy being on the lookout for barrels which could hold ammo or dirty oranges lying on the ground. Also, money was never really an issue, because after I had fully upgraded all the things I wanted (the pistol, the carbine, the Possession Vigor and the Shock Jockey Vigor), there wasn't really anything major I wanted to buy and therefor ended up with nearly 5000 Silver Eagles in cash. The game also didn't really punish you from dying, therefor the game was a little too easy (at least on the Normal difficulty). But yeah, these were pretty much the only negatives. Other than that, a real gem of a game and absolutely the best one I've played this year.
July 12th: Tomb Raider (2013). First of all, this was a good game, perhaps even great. However, it still wasn't at all what I expected. My first gripe starts with the title: the game was very different from the early Tomb Raider games, so why call it that? The only things that were the same, were the climbing and the fact the protagonist is called Lara Croft. Now, I understand it's a reboot, but this was like having a racing simulation and calling it FlatOut. And besides, tomb raiding wasn't even anywhere near the main objective in the game: I raided like four tombs in the entire time, and they were all optional - the rest of the time I was busy trying to save my ship's crew who kept getting in trouble all the fucking time. I hated that group of bozos, who contributed pretty much nothing, and I grew tired of Lara yelling "Sam! SAM! SAAAAM!" every two seconds. Why not have just Lara on the island, with the main objective of getting the hell off the island. Speaking of which, the game should've had a lot bigger emphasis on survival - why not have a hunger meter, that when empty, fucks up your aim or something. Instead I was killing rabbits and rats in order to use their pelts to make my rifle better...somehow. Also, the plot was a bit ridiculous. But still, I liked the action and the climbing. I just wish the developers had had the balls to make the game the type of survival adventure they marketed it as when the game was still in early development.
July 13th: Sword of the Stars: The Pit. Finished this on Easy with the Engineer. Gonna try a Normal run later. What can I say: fun game! Hard as balls though, and I think it depends a bit too much on luck, whether or not you get decent enough gear not to die on the first five levels already. The next runs will probably be easier now that I have found lots of recipes to make good gear. After 29 levels, I was very confident I would ace the last level: I had lots of weapons and ammo, a very nice chitin armor, and food and medpacks to last another 29 levels. But boy, was the last level swarming with enemies! My ammo was quickly depleted, all weapons demolished except the mag pistol (though I had less than 10 bullets left at that point), and the armor too. I was already about to give up, but at the last minute decided to see how far I could go before dying, and by accident stumbled upon the room where I needed to go, and the enemies didn't follow. Victory has never been this sweet, nor so close to turn into a defeat.
July 16th: Sword of the Stars: The Pit. Finished this on Normal with the Scout. Even though I had amazing luck finding awesome gear and more weapons I could carry, by around floor 20 I had to start skipping certain rooms and in room 29 things briefly looked quite grim. I was blinded, surrounded by bots and a toxoid, but luckily the bots bazooka'ed the toxoid and I could make a run for it. In room 30 I had huge trouble with the bots, even with the cyber scramblers (they make them go berserk) and they demolished most of my weapons, and armor too (luckily I had a spare Cheetah Exo). With my superior speed I was able to dodge them however, and then there was just one more room in the way before the goal. It was swarming with regular beasts, but good thing I had packed pheromone baits (the beast equivalent of cyber scrambler) and many of the beasts killed themselves while I just watched. Then it was just another beeline towards the finish, and even though a toxoid grabbed me on the way, I still had a few auto shotgun shells to get the thing off of me. Phew! I'm still rushing with adrenaline! This game is truly very unforgiving, but I'm so happy I got through the game on Normal too. However, I'm not going to even TOUCH the harder difficulties!
The list of games beaten in July is continued
here.
