One of the best games I've played, glad you remembered it! If you also own the second, go for it. It was one of my early few games that made me really sympathize the main character.

I actually played the second first a long time ago, and liked it in much the same way, although I still have nightmares about those jungle levels, creeping through the brush and then hearing a guy yell "Cuidado!" followed by the clank of a grenade landing next to me.

Prey (2017)

As a fan of the Dishonored games I had to give this one a go especially with how highly any people speak of it and I can't say I am disappointed. Exploring Talos I was a great experience as was finding way around problems. The difference areas of the station were similar but varied enough to make exploration fun with plenty of things (and crew members) to find along the way.

The game started off harder while figuring things out but once you've unlocked various skills you begin to feel your power creeping and by the late game most enemies don't give you much trouble (though I would still get surprised my the odd mimic jumping out at me!). I opted for mostly human skills on my first run through but still used a couple of basic powers to spice it up and found it fairly comfortable in terms of progression and being able to tackle problems. In the future I definitely want to go through again using more of the powers and see the game from a different perspective.

I would say that the first half is possibly better than the second as you spend more time in the early game exploring each area for the first time whereas later in the game there is a fair amount of backtracking (for both the main story and side quests) which tends to mean you B-line through each area to reach where you need to be for an objective. This leads to seeing the loading screens more often later in the game which does bog down the experience a little.

The other minor gripe I had coming from Dishonored (or even Deus Ex as I played Mankind Divided last year) is that I felt that combat was almost unavoidable at times which is ultimately fine as I had a good time with the combat and the enemies however at the beginning I felt it was a shame that I couldn't really just avoid things easily if I wanted like in Dishonored/Deus Ex. I imagine it probably is possible just that from my experience it seems like it would be slightly cumbersome.

In any case, I had a great time with this one and it left me looking forward to another playthrough one day as well as checking out Mooncrash eventually for a different spin on the game.

I was so sad with Mullins, when I played the second game. I've never forgotten his phrase "Someone is going to die", and the way in which he said it. If you remember what I mean (to avoid spoilers).

Planet of Lana

Beautiful art and sound design, simple but interesting setting and story. The game reminded me of Another World, Limbo/Inside (linear cinematic side-scrolling puzzle platformer), Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons (rescue mission, bonding and working as a pair), Oddworld: Abe's Oddyssee (stealth passages, outsmarting machines and directing your partner), and a little bit of Prince of Persia (the way you jump from and to ledges). Puzzles were mostly easy but enjoyable enough, if sometimes a bit repetitive. I quite liked Planet of Lana, but I often had to take breaks from it because I would get kind of sleepy, and I think it wasn't just from tiredness. The game is very calm, almost meditative, and more puzzles than action, and there are longer stretches where not much new is happening. It always looks nice, but there could have been a bit more variety here and there, some more action scenes mixing things up maybe. Apart from that, it's rather cute though.

Cult of the Lamb

A cutesy cult management game with roguelike dungeons. A fairly interesting combination if you enjoy both sides of the gameplay however it can possibly be said that neither side is as fleshed out as game that focus on one or the other. Despite that I had a good time smashing through the dungeons and recruiting new followers while progressively getting access to new building to open up options for my cult. There are plenty of accessibility options that can be used to make certain aspects of the game easier or less tedius if desired.

I generally had a good time however managing the challenges during the startup of the cult was slightly more interesting than later in the game and by the end while I wasn't necessarily worn out it did feel like it was slowly being a chore. There are still some aspects I haven't done (2nd rounds of bosses, collecting more items etc) however I'll likely save that for another time if I get the itch to go back.

Kaptain Brave: A Brave New World

A p&c adventure with a mix of Monkey Island and Flash Gordon in characters. Graphics reminds a lot to Curse specially at the beginning. Also it has a chapter that coulb be extracted of The Dig. It takes me about 7 hours to finish, puzzles are not difficult, the robot - roboat will be not possible to forget;)

I finished Cyberpunk a second time, with a different ending this time. (asking the Nomads to raid Arasaka with me).

Also finished XIII. First time playing it and loved it, but the check-point save system I thought was annoying.

I finished the main game of Two Worlds 2. Now on to its expansions.

The Plucky Squire

Finally finished another game this year. And this really was quirky, this was funny, original and made with a lot of heart.

Let's just not mention the spectacularly misdesigned last hour, when they throw undoable variants of their minigames at you and top it off with bullet hells in a non bullet hell game. After two or three dozen attempts I eventually skipped the minigames and used invincibility mode. Diminishing sense of achievement incoming.

Octopath Traveler II (XSX Game Pass)

It's exactly like the first game. Same systems, same sort of eight story paths that come together for the finale- where the companions just travel together out of convenience. I really like the combat system and the way the job systems work. My only complaint is that the game just feels too long. We're talking over 80 hours, and up to 100 if you're planning on all post-game content. There is nothing new to see from the halfway point. It would be better if it was Hextopath Traveler and dropped the game to around 60 hours.

Still, both games are some my favorite of the old school type of modern turn based JRPG. However, I think that Yakuza-Like a Dragon and Persona 5 Royal are much turn based JRPG's overall, and Fire Emblem Three Houses is better for a tactical turn-based game.

I finished a few games this week:

A Juggler's Tale

Short and sweet, if you're in the mood for a linear puzzle platformer in the vein of Limbo. My only criticism is that sometimes the checkpoints could have been placed more reasonably, although it was just an occasional slight annoyance due to the repetition, not really something that you'd lose much time on.

RÖKI

The major part of the game I played through two years ago, and I liked it very much. I thought it was refreshing to play something similar to a point-and-click adventure but in which you freely steer the protagonist like in a platfomer or action game (in my case with the gamepad). The graphics remind of nicely drawn cartoons or children's book illustrations, and the Nordic fairy-tale / mythology setting combined with some family drama story was interesting. I might have gotten stuck once or twice, but all in all I remember that the game had nice pacing. But just as suspense was rising and I thought I was getting close to the ending, the flow was interrupted by a whole new chapter that was mainly puzzles and not much action, with a lot of backtracking and repetition and no real music except for the same meditative background atmosphere. I soon ran out of patience with this chapter, because it was so vast and slow and I got stuck quite often due to overlooking things. Eventually, I paused my playthrough and I only picked it up now, two years later, making heavy use of hints and walktroughs, and even with that, it often felt more like busywork. But I'm glad I pushed through to see the ending and get some closure. While I would have preferred RÖKI to be a little shorter and I didn't enjoy the last chapter as much as the rest, overall I still thought it was a good adventure game.

Calcium Contract

Not as spectacular as some of the more well known retro shooter, but still quite enjoyable. Plays a bit like a GZDoom mod but I think it's using its own engine. What's special about it, apart from the wacky, colorful and varied enemies and some unusual weapon choices (there's a pretty decent one with unlimited ammo, making others with limited ammo seem weak in comparison), is that I think this is the first and only FPS I've played that allows you to rewind time with the press of a button, which makes quicksaving and loading more or less obsolete. If you die, just rewind the last few seconds and try harder this time. Another difference to other FPS campaigns is that you start each level with the default weapon and full health again, so it's more a collection of levels, very loosely connected by a simple narration, but otherwise quite independent of each other. The game also has a procedurally created rogue-like arena mode now, which I tried for a bit, just for fun, but I prefer the regular levels. I wouldn't say Calcium Contract is a must-play retro shooter but it's worth a look for fans of the genre. Personally, I enjoyed it.

Cosmo's Cosmic Adventure - 2/5

Going by what is written on Wikipedia, Cosmo's Cosmic Adventure started (and ended) development mid-way through Duke Nukem II's two year development.

And given this game's pretty overt advertising of Duke Nukem II (Duke himself even shows up in one level and tells you about his "next exciting adventure, Duke Nukum II [sic]"), it's pretty clear that Apogee was mainly just thinking about Duke Nukem II

I haven't played Cosmo in 30 or so years, and it's always had this certain nostalgic presence in my mind. So, I was felt like it was time to give it another playthrough. Actually, I'm honestly not sure if I ever played beyond the first episode before. Well, if I hadn't then, I certainly have now.

And, let me just say, in 2025, a lot of the gameplay & level design in this feels annoying and unenjoyable. But, fortunately though, in 2025, it's easy to play this with save states...which I may or may not have made liberal use of.

Ultimately, I guess I didn't have a terrible time playing it, but it really is pretty lacklustre.