12 Weeks, 12 Games, Year 2, Week 3

Thank God I finished Wolfenstein, and it was no easy feat in the end either. The last few missions were such a drag and made overly difficult by the same thing I was moaning about last week, wave after wave of enemies. Not to mention that the final boss was a giant pain as it seemed to take all the ammo in the world to beat him, but there was no health bar so how were you supposed to know if you were getting anywhere near defeating him, especially when the room you're fighting him in is full of fire. I honestly thought I wouldn't get past it and I'd just lie here and said that I had but fortunately (top tip coming) it turns out if you hide underneath the metal gantry on the right hand side you can shoot him but he can't shoot you (mostly (just remember to let your health regen)). At least the penultimate boss, The London Monitor, was easy, you just had to shoot him up with robotic arse.

   Still, it seems like I managed to make the game a whole lot more difficult for myself by missing the most important weapon upgrade in the game, the scope attachment for the LKW (battery powered laser gun) which basically lets you wipe out big robotic enemies in 1 shot, as opposed to all the ammo that I had as I was having to do. Seriously, find 1 New Order YouTube clip (this game, not something involving a John Barnes rap) that doesn't have the filmer using that none stop. Then, think of me wondering how on Earth to get through a section, and finding every piece of help online being done with a weapon upgrade I never got. FFS.

   Still, onwards and (thankfully) upwards as I carry on going through games I've picked up for free thanks to Games with Gold/ PS Plus and this time on to 'The Swapper'. It's a 2D puzzle platfromer with an interesting premise. Someone has inventing a cloning/ mind swapping gun meanwhile someone else has bought some sentient rocks aboard the space station you're on (the game takes place on a space station btw), the rocks kill a bunch of people by releasing rock gas or something and people switch their minds with the rocks and medical samples and stuff to stay alive (actually, the story is pretty good but it's better to find out that for yourself). Anyway, you're the rescue party and you come on board some unspecified amount of time later to save the crew. Unfortunately it turns out there's only 1 left alive (plus loads of rocks) and you have to restore the station to power to save that 1 person. This involves solving puzzles to get orbs to unlock gates and move on.
   Obviously this involves the clone/ mind swapper gun as well as old puzzle tropes like pressure switches, gravity swaps, areas where you can't use some abilities and etc. but it's done really well. This really is a terrific game and a great example of what a 2d puzzle platfromer should be like. The puzzles are hard in places, but not impossible, so there's enough of a challenge to make you think, but when you get it you feel like a genius. Of course that's so long as you don't a) break something first (I didn't (seriously)) or b)find an online guide, which I'm elated to say I didn't! This is probably the first puzzle game since Braid (released 7 years ago) where I've done it all by myself and it really bought me a sense of accomplishment. You couldn't wipe the smile off my face at 2am last night!

   There's a terrific atmosphere too added to by the music and look of the station that makes you feel so alone. There's even a choice of ending. Needless to say I picked the arsehole one.
   My only problem is that this station makes no sense. There's lifts, and transport beams, pick one ya'  know. There are sections you couldn't possibly get to without 'The Swapper' (that's the name of the gun), but that wasn't invented until after they'd already departed on their quest. there are lots of other bits too, but needless to say if I worked on this station I'd be writing a letter of complaint to the designer. Also, whoever wrote the dialogue was obviously a fan of Metroid.
   Sill, the main thing to take away is that it's great. Play it!

   Carrying on with the free games view it was on to D4: Dark dreams don't die. Now, I never played Deadly Premonition (known by many as the best bad game ever (made by this studio (hence the point)) so I had no idea what I was walking in to, and after getting about an hour in I can just say, wtf is this? This game is weird. Why is there a woman that thinks she's a cat but everyone is fine with it? Why do you push an owl of a perch? Why is there a TV credits style opening? Why does gum improve your stamina but coffee doesn't? why is not only having ghostly visions of you're wife enough but you have to have them of your cat to, and what happened to said cat, and why did it have a big bow, and why does this woman that seems to think she is a cat also have a bow, are these 2 things related or just some regular weird thing this studio does? I guess I'll have the answers to some, maybe, of these questions next week, if I carry on with it, which is hard to say, I can't tell yet if it's the work of a mad genius or that of a 5 year old.

Completed

Transistor
Worms Battlegrounds
Saints Row: Gat out of Hell
Wolfenstein: The New order
The Swapper

Underway

D4: Dark dreams don't die