Tomi on 10/3/2019 at 20:24
Yes, another backlog reducin' thread, but I'm trying something a bit different here!
The idea of the
mystery game challenge is to pick any game from your collection that you know
absolutely nothing about and give it a try. Don't look at any screenshots or try to look up any information about the game beforehand. Just install it and then play it for five minutes, or five hours, or five days (disclaimer: remember to sleep and eat in between!) or for as long as you like - it doesn't matter, as long as you can say that you've given it a fair chance. It's up to you what you want to do with the game afterwards.
I don't know about you people, but at least I've got loads of games in my library that I really know nothing about. Most of them are from some random bundles, I think, but I can't say for sure where and when I've got some of them. My first two mystery game challenge trialists are
GoNNER and
Headlander.
GoNNERThis seemed so confusing at first, and I still don't really know what I'm supposed to do. I think GoNNER could be described as a roguelike 2D platformer. It reminds me a lot of
Downwell actually, this one's just a bit less hectic. Here and there you'll find upgrades and weapons that help you to stay alive and get as far as possible before you die. There are also some glyphs that work as some kind of currency in the game. I had a hard time figuring out what all the different items do. I didn't find the game very fun at first, but once I stopped dying all the time and got a bit further a few times, I noticed that there's some potential fun to be had. I still think that GoNNER is missing some killer game mechanic that makes it stand out, so I doubt that I'll get back to it again. Then again, it's one of those games that you can play when you only have five minutes to spare, so perhaps I'll keep this on my hard drive for a bit longer.
Inline Image:
http://i67.tinypic.com/2cmsmly.jpgHeadlanderThe little icon on Steam reminded me of
The Swapper, and that's not too far off actually! In Headlander you're also sort of a swapper, as you control a floating head that you can attach to different robot bodies in the game world. The floating head is equipped with a rocket engine, and it also comes with a handy vacuum cleaner that you can use to vacuum off someone's head before you land on the body.
Land your head... Headlander... Get it? :p Of course you can shoot someone's head off first too if you prefer violent solutions.
Headlander is a very weird game all in all. It's all about the puzzles. You have to move your head from one robot body to another because they have different kind of functionalities. Sometimes the only option is to fly around with your head only when you have to fly through a small tunnel for example, but that also makes you very vulnerable. There are also gunfights which should be fun in a game like this, but the controls just don't work for me and I don't find the action bits enjoyable at all. Headlander looks surprisingly good actually and I kinda dig the 70's retro sci-fi style. It's also occasionally funny - not "ha-ha" funny, more like "heh" funny, but still.
If you ever decide to give Headlander a try, make sure that you get past the tutorial stage. I found it pretty dull at first and it didn't help that the tutorial level was ugly and repetitive too, so I was just about ready to quit. It does get a lot better and more interesting after that, but I'm still not sure if it gets good enough for me to finish it.
Inline Image:
http://i65.tinypic.com/2ywzn0y.jpg
henke on 11/3/2019 at 05:38
Oooh, good idea for a thread. I'm pretty good at keeping my backlog in check, but even so I have 3-4 games that I know next to nothing about that I could give a whirl for this.
Tomi on 12/3/2019 at 11:07
Go for it henke! I guess you don't have to be so strict with the rules; a mystery game might as well be a game that you don't know
much about, or something. :D
Anyway, I gotta say that this has been a rather fun experiment so far! There's something exciting about launching a mystery game while you have no idea what to expect. Of course I don't expect to like most of these games, but finding out what they're like can sometimes be more fun than the game itself.
TreadnautsOK, maybe it would be a good idea to find out
something about these games before I play them, but where's the fun in that? Turns out that Treadnauts is multiplayer-only. And not only it's multiplayer-only, it's also a multiplayer game that no one plays. I tried joining an online game and waited for more than five minutes for other players to turn up, until I gave up. There's a training mode that I tried quickly, but it's just boring target practice where you try to shoot down all the targets as quickly as possible. You control a tank that can jump and perform somersaults and stick to any surface, and apparently in the proper game you're supposed to shoot other tanks. There's also a local multiplayer mode but I don't know anyone who would play jumpy tanks with me.
Verdict: This game is dead.
Inline Image:
http://i65.tinypic.com/2hhouhg.jpgAaeroAaero is one of those rhythm games and you'll need a dual stick controller to play it. It's an interesting combo of Tempest, good old Skyroads, and um... Beat Saber? You're controlling a spaceship and most of the time you're speeding through a tunnel and trying to follow the
ribbon. There's some electronic dance music playing on the background and the ribbon follows the tune; you move your spaceship with the left stick and try to follow the rollercoaster of high notes and low notes, and sometimes the ribbon goes all the way around the tunnel - it's hard to explain but you'll get in the flow when you hear the music. To make things more challenging, you'll have to avoid crashing into some obstacles too, and every now and then you'll be attacked by enemy spaceships and you'll have to use the right stick to shoot them down.
I'm not a huge EDM fan, so I think that someone who's more into this kind of music will also get more out of Aaero. I only played a few levels (each level has its own music, and I can't believe that they chose the most annoying tune for the very first level!) and found it quite hypnotic at times, but it's also a very fast game where you're gonna need some quick reflexes, so it's not always as relaxing as I'd like it to be.
Verdict: Not exactly my cup of tea, but I'll try to squeeze out some more fun out of it, so I'll play it again later.
Inline Image:
http://i67.tinypic.com/2ed8krb.jpg
henke on 12/3/2019 at 15:41
(https://store.steampowered.com/app/400630/Wuppo/) WuppoWhat I knew about it going inIt's some kinda platformer.
What it actually isIt's indeed a platformer, with a cartoony style and some surprisingly complex adventure-puzzling and item-usage. The game started with me getting kicked out of a hotel for spilling ice cream all over the place and then I went on a crazy adventure.
I played the first: 90min
What I thought of itIt's very charming. I like it, but probably not enough to keep playing.
edit: played a bit more. Befriended a primitive tribe-people and then killed their god. Was eventually let back into the hotel but had to clean up the mess I'd made. The story is still only beginning, but I think I've seen enough.
WingedKagouti on 12/3/2019 at 18:07
That story sounds like someone just emptied a barrel of random words and tried to string them together.
henke on 13/3/2019 at 14:57
(https://store.steampowered.com/app/851880/RA/) RŌAWhat I knew about it going inThis came bundled with AENTITY so it's probably some artsy bullshit.
What it actually isIt's some artsy bullshit.
I played the first: 4min
What I thought of itBasically AENTITY but rougher and (I think) lighter on content. AENTITY somehow hypnotized me into playing for 50 minutes, but I get the feeling this is just a lesser version of the same thing, so... eh, I'm out.
henke on 13/3/2019 at 17:50
(https://store.steampowered.com/app/365190/TASTEE_Lethal_Tactics/) TASTEE: Lethal TacticsWhat I knew about it going inTurn based tactics game. Possibly even
simultaneous turn based tactics game? Has a terrible title.
What it actually isIt
is simultaneous! The vague story has you leading a team of criminals on various CRIME MISSIONS. The opening cutscene plays the song "Diamond" by Klint, y'know, from the opening scene in Snatch. Or possibly just a song that's such a close rip-off of that song that it should be getting slammed with copyright claims.
I played the first: 91min
What I thought of itVery glad to see more games apeing Frozen Synapse's gameplay (it even has the same Simulate-function), but this one is a tad too clunky to feel as good as FS. There's a slight delay to a lot of actions that makes the whole thing feel sluggish. I'm enjoying it tho, think I might play a few more missions and see how it goes.
Pyrian on 13/3/2019 at 19:15
Wait, what? Somebody else is doing simul-turns? I'll have to check it out.
Tomi on 13/3/2019 at 23:09
Quote Posted by henke
It's some artsy bullshit.
Gratuitous use of umlauts and other diacritical signs (had to look that up in wikipedia) in the title of a game almost always means that the game is some artsy bullshit. :D
TASTEE looks interesting, but I haven't played Frozen Synapse either, so I'll have to check that out first. Wuppo looks really odd (but also fun)!
N'Al on 14/3/2019 at 05:12
Quote Posted by Tomi
Gratuitous use of umlauts and other diacritical signs (had to look that up in wikipedia) in the title of a game almost always means that the game is some artsy bullshit.
Brütal Legend says hello. [emoji6]