My year in games – Part 1 (Jan-Mar)
So, this is going to be a regular thing now. And by regular, I mean yearly. So you don’t need to worry about making too much of a commitment to it. 😉
And what is this exactly? Well, I’ve decided to write a yearly compendium of mini-reviews of all the games I have played over the previous twelve months. This will not contain your standard reviews of the big releases of the year, as I bought none of them. In fact, the only game on this list that was released in 2020 is Paradise Killer! No, this is a list of games I played this year, pulled from a mix of my Steam backlog (550 and counting), the itch.io Bundle for Racial Justice and Equality, and some random picks from GOG and the Epic store.
And we’ve got 20 to get through in three month chunks, so let’s not dally any longer!
Here’s links to the other parts: Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4
JANUARY
KYLE IS FAMOUS
OK, this text-based adventure game is ridiculous. The plot (such as there is) is that you are Kyle, a very famous person, and you wake up on the day of a TV interview with a well-known chat show host. And you are in control of everything you do, from choosing which clothes to wear, not wearing any, being serious or ridiculous in the interview, not going to the interview at all, or finding a secret time machine in your wardrobe. A time machine which you can use to give you more time to get ready, or in the case of the funniest ending (of which there are many) pulling yourself and your interviewer back into prehistory, before you work together to build a nuclear power source to get back to the present day. Told you it was ridiculous.
Score: Very funny out of Worst Interview Preparations Ever
RIME
You play a young child washed up on the shore of a strange island… and so has begun dozens of indie games apeing a certain Nintendo classic. However this game has a unique charm to it as you guide this young boy through a series of gorgeous cartoon-like environments, chasing after some kind of spirit fox. It’s basically a 3D exploration game with light puzzles and story elements, as you gather hints as to what this place is and how you got there. The only negative points are the fiddly controls for the underwater swimming sections, and the number of spiral staircases, which genuinely made me queasy. Also, I will warn you it has a rather downbeat ending, but is overall very lovely and well worth your time.
Score: Cute foxes out of Shipwrecks
FEBRUARY
HELLBLADE: SENUA’S SACRIFICE
I have had this game in my library for some time, but knowing the heavy themes involved, I decided to hold off until I felt it was the right time to tackle it – say, for example, at the start of a global pandemic. Yeah, perfect timing.
For those who don’t know, while this is essentially a 3rd-person over-the-shoulder sword combat game, it features a main character suffering a psychotic episode, whose village and family are killed while she is out in the wilds trying to cope with her ‘visions’. She subsequently goes on a voyage to the underworld to save her husband, killing the invaders who took his life, all the while suffering from visual and auditory hallucinations. Let’s just say that playing with headphones is highly recommended, while also being extremely not recommended if you don’t feel like being terrified at hearing voices constantly berating you and whispering to each other about what a failure you are.
This game deservedly won many awards, although it’s best played in short bursts.
Score: Dark Visions out of The Hebrides
ASSASSIN’S CREED ODYSSEY
Well, February was definitely my month for playing warrior women with swords. Heck, that’s every month! The Assassin’s Creed series needs little introduction, having been going since the Second World War. I jest, but there have been many of these games, all set in various historical time periods, such as the French revolution, Victorian London, Renaissance Italy and in the case of Odyssey, ancient Greece. You play Kassandra, a mercenary of Spartan heritage, during the time of the Pelopennesian War. It is historically accurate up to the point where you have an eagle companion gifted to you by the gods and a giant Cyclops lives inside an island. But, you do get to mix with Pericles at a party, receive sage advice from Herodotus, get annoyed at Socrates never giving you a straight answer, and see incredible recreations of ancient buildings and cities as they once were. And in between, you’re murdering the Cult of Cosmos, murdering bandits for the people of Greece, murdering people who haven’t paid their debts, and trying to but also not to murder your brother who you already thought was dead.
Huge game, very fun, and one you can dip in and out of as you like.
Score: Bat out of Hades
MARCH
THE LEGEND OF GRIMROCK
I played this game the year it came out, which I’ve just discovered out was 2012. Good grief! Anyway, I supposed enough time had passed that I would have forgotten most of it, and indeed I had. While some puzzles came back to me as I played, enough felt new for me to still enjoy this first-person dungeon crawler. You control a party of four prisoners condemned to death in the depths of Grimrock. After hearing a strange voice encouraging you onwards, you fight your way up the inside of the mountain, fighting monsters, avoiding traps and levelling up your party.
It’s classic stuff, but still holds up eight years later (eight years… Christ almighty…) and that scream when you fall down a pit still gives me the shivers.
Score: Giant Crabs out of Dark Corners
ARX FATALIS
I went into this one knowing nothing much about it other than it was quite old and needed another piece of software to get it running at a modern-day resolution. Once loaded, I encountered a slightly janky first-person role-playing game, with far more depth than at first sight. You play a random bloke who wakes up in a prison with no memory (so far, so videogame), but once you escape you slowly become involved in the warring and politics of the different factions of humans, trolls and goblins who live in the Arx, a huge underground world that they all retreated to decades ago when the world above froze over.
It is very clearly an older title, both graphically (which doesn’t bother me) and in terms of the game design (which does – on many occasions I have found it not at all clear how to progress certain quests). Despite the issues, I quite enjoyed my time with this one, although I have yet to finish it and doubt I will return.
Score: Amnesia out of… uhh, something
KNIGHTS AND BIKES
Well this is just lovely. I backed this game on Kickstarter, but it took me a while to get round to playing it. You are Demelza, a young girl who lives on the rain-wracked British island of Penfurzy. Your father owns a tourist resort which is slowly going under, and together with Nessa, an older girl who arrives on the island, you decide to find the famed island treasure so you can stop him having to sell up. Unfortunately, you awaken ancient spirits which take over the islanders, and it’s up to the two of you (either playing both of them yourself, or co-op with a second player) to take to your bicycles, defeat the monsters, rescue your friends and save the island. Oh, and your pet goose Captain Honkers comes along for the ride.
The whole game is presented in a really unique 2D art style, and while getting from place to place can become quite confusing as the island opens up to you, this is great fun for adults of all ages, as they say.
Score: Honking Geese in Muddy Puddles
