JustKneller
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I love Redwall and Mouse Guard even more. One of my favorite moves to switch gears in tabletop is to have everyone play mice for a while. Dwarves, elves, and the like get a little tired now and again.
What's the last game you've finished?
- Thread starter Antimatter
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Another game that I purchased in the Steam sale was Indiana Jones and the Great Circle. Now I finished it after 44 hours, so it's another (relatively) short game.
I've never been a fan of Indiana Jones. Not that I disliked it or anything, I just completely missed the old movies, so the character never meant anything to me. My purchase of the game was driven by the studio that created it - MachineGames, and Wolfenstein games from them are among my favorite games.
I can say that I enjoyed the experience. It felt like a fun game for summer, with the vibe of a 90s blockbuster movie. It gave the feeling of going on an adventure, and as it's my first real introduction to Indiana, I actually liked him a lot. Not only his excellent VO (Troy Baker who actually tried to sound unlike Troy but more similar to Harrison Ford), but the whole concept of this character was nicely done - he is intelligent, reasonable, courageous, and a bit cheeky.
In a way, I guess, that's my entrance to the Indiana Jones franchise, similar to how I first discovered The Witcher world and lore from the game, not from the books.
The game is a fun package: combat is intuitive and has that "feels satisfying" factor; areas, environment, historical sights - all look beautiful and authentic; characters all feel excellent; they have that movie vibe, of course, as is, a bit different from just common people, but they look nicely, talk realistically, and they are all nicely animated. Don't expect characters and stories to have deep meaning; they are light-hearted and fit the setting. The game shines in its variety of puzzles/mysteries you need to solve. I never felt any repetitiveness, and some were really fun to solve. Don't expect them to be TOO hard, though. Again, very much in the tone of the setting.
From the combat perspective, I preferred to mostly act stealthily and fight enemies in melee, almost not using any fireguns.
The game has 3 big acts (areas): Vatican, Egypt, and Siam (Thailand). For me personally, it was fresh to play in the Vatican streets and buildings, and explore the jungles of Siam. There is a bit of environmental storytelling there, all 3 areas allow you to get a glimpse of what life is like in those places (or was like, mind you, the time of the game is 1937). The game being first-person helps tremendously in feeling yourself actually walking those places. And the game still allows you to see Indiana from the third-person perspective during every cutscene.
My favorite part of the game is exploration. While you can follow the main story down a linear path, the major areas function as large sandbox environments filled with optional discoveries, hidden tombs, collectibles, mysteries, and side quests. Many of these side missions help push the story along and are important to do.
The cast for the game was excellent. There were a lot of characters who spoke Italian, Arabic, and Thai. Very authentic. All main characters, including the villain, are best in business, which is one of the strengths of MachineGames.
I can recommend this game if you're looking for a "feel-good" game that entertains you and offers you many interesting sights to explore and dig into puzzles. Its cinematic vibe, along with memorable characters, locations, and puzzles, makes it one of the best licensed game adaptations I've ever played.
The Vatican part made me wish there was a game where you could play as a Vatican priest and explore the place and its mysteries even more.
I've never been a fan of Indiana Jones. Not that I disliked it or anything, I just completely missed the old movies, so the character never meant anything to me. My purchase of the game was driven by the studio that created it - MachineGames, and Wolfenstein games from them are among my favorite games.
I can say that I enjoyed the experience. It felt like a fun game for summer, with the vibe of a 90s blockbuster movie. It gave the feeling of going on an adventure, and as it's my first real introduction to Indiana, I actually liked him a lot. Not only his excellent VO (Troy Baker who actually tried to sound unlike Troy but more similar to Harrison Ford), but the whole concept of this character was nicely done - he is intelligent, reasonable, courageous, and a bit cheeky.
In a way, I guess, that's my entrance to the Indiana Jones franchise, similar to how I first discovered The Witcher world and lore from the game, not from the books.
The game is a fun package: combat is intuitive and has that "feels satisfying" factor; areas, environment, historical sights - all look beautiful and authentic; characters all feel excellent; they have that movie vibe, of course, as is, a bit different from just common people, but they look nicely, talk realistically, and they are all nicely animated. Don't expect characters and stories to have deep meaning; they are light-hearted and fit the setting. The game shines in its variety of puzzles/mysteries you need to solve. I never felt any repetitiveness, and some were really fun to solve. Don't expect them to be TOO hard, though. Again, very much in the tone of the setting.
From the combat perspective, I preferred to mostly act stealthily and fight enemies in melee, almost not using any fireguns.
The game has 3 big acts (areas): Vatican, Egypt, and Siam (Thailand). For me personally, it was fresh to play in the Vatican streets and buildings, and explore the jungles of Siam. There is a bit of environmental storytelling there, all 3 areas allow you to get a glimpse of what life is like in those places (or was like, mind you, the time of the game is 1937). The game being first-person helps tremendously in feeling yourself actually walking those places. And the game still allows you to see Indiana from the third-person perspective during every cutscene.
My favorite part of the game is exploration. While you can follow the main story down a linear path, the major areas function as large sandbox environments filled with optional discoveries, hidden tombs, collectibles, mysteries, and side quests. Many of these side missions help push the story along and are important to do.
The cast for the game was excellent. There were a lot of characters who spoke Italian, Arabic, and Thai. Very authentic. All main characters, including the villain, are best in business, which is one of the strengths of MachineGames.
I can recommend this game if you're looking for a "feel-good" game that entertains you and offers you many interesting sights to explore and dig into puzzles. Its cinematic vibe, along with memorable characters, locations, and puzzles, makes it one of the best licensed game adaptations I've ever played.
The Vatican part made me wish there was a game where you could play as a Vatican priest and explore the place and its mysteries even more.
JustKneller
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I'm currently doing an Icewind Dale run and need something as a palette cleanser before I start an entirely new concept for an Icewind Dale run. I saw that Riven was on sale on GoG. I played this game after it came out when I was a kid. This series (Myst) was basically the only video games my dad would play when I was a kid and we beat these games together. I remember us keeping our own notebooks for clues to the puzzles and spending probably weeks or so trying to work out everything in the game. However, it's been so long since I have played it that I don't remember a thing (which is odd because I remember a lot about the first game). I figure this kind of thing is a good break from IE games as the gameplay is so different. Just for nostalgia, I booted it up the other day to run through the introduction. Sure enough, I didn't remember a thing. I figured I would just play the first couple hours because I had just finished the gauntlet that is Dragon Eye and was chipping away at the Severed Hand in Icewind Dale and could use a small break.
In those two hours, I beat the entire game. When I hit the ending, I was surprised I was already there. I used only 2 pages of a 5x4 notebook to record my clues. I felt like there was really only a singular significant puzzle in the game, and one somewhat smaller one. Everything else was just push-a-button-see-what-happens. This seemed like such an epic journey back in the day that took two of us weeks to crack. Maybe I'm remembering it wrong?
In any event, I also picked up Myst 3: Exile for when I am actually done my current IWD run. I kinda want to pick up something else, but nothing on sale on my wishlist is tempting me except for UnderRail, but that is far too similar in gameplay to an IE game (especially a dungeon crawler) to be a change of gears. There's also Rogue Legacy (which is quite different), but I think I actually already have that somewhere.
In those two hours, I beat the entire game. When I hit the ending, I was surprised I was already there. I used only 2 pages of a 5x4 notebook to record my clues. I felt like there was really only a singular significant puzzle in the game, and one somewhat smaller one. Everything else was just push-a-button-see-what-happens. This seemed like such an epic journey back in the day that took two of us weeks to crack. Maybe I'm remembering it wrong?
In any event, I also picked up Myst 3: Exile for when I am actually done my current IWD run. I kinda want to pick up something else, but nothing on sale on my wishlist is tempting me except for UnderRail, but that is far too similar in gameplay to an IE game (especially a dungeon crawler) to be a change of gears. There's also Rogue Legacy (which is quite different), but I think I actually already have that somewhere.