The Backlog Check-in Vol. 114: 3/7/20: Nioh 2 & Ori and the Will of the Wisps Edition

[jfissel]

Finished: Nothing

Now Playing: Spider-Man DLC

Added to Backlog: Nothing

Current Backlog: 35 games

Alright, finally back in the gaming groove - I completed the 2nd Spider-Man DLC and have moved onto the 3rd and final one. I don't know if it's just me not playing for a month or what, but the 2nd DLC was pretty hard in certain spots.

[Phaseknox]

Played: Dead Nation, How to Survive, How to Survive 2

Finished: Dead Nation

Playing: How to Survive

I finished Dead Nation. I somewhat enjoyed it for the few hours that it took me to reach its abrupt end, but it had the potential to be so much better than it was. It's ultimately a shallow and repetitive isometric view arcade twin stick shooter, and nothing more. It felt like one long somewhat same-y looking level taking place at night with you simply mowing down hordes and mobs of continuous zombies and nothing else. The core gameplay was somewhat fun, but it would have benefitted from having a little more to do in it than just shooting zombies nonstop. At the very least it should have been longer, it's short and just kind of ends. I felt unfulfilled and unsatisfied when I finished it.

I was still in an isometric view zombie shooting mood, so I started playing How to Survive. It has similar play mechanics to Dead Nation, but offers a lot more depth since it's an action RPG/survival game. It's somewhat low budget and plays a little clunky, but the fun factor is definitely there. It offers solid melee and shooting combat, and has crafting, leveling and skill unlocking. There are survival aspects as well such as needing to eat, drink and sleep. The graphics are decent, and it mixes seriousness and humor. It's challenging on the default "easy" setting, but it's entertaining and interesting enough to keep me wanting to play despite some difficulty spikes.

I started playing How to Survive 2 to see how it compares to the first game, and it's both similar and different. The graphics and gameplay have been improved somewhat, and everything feels more streamlined in general. But while the first game is more open-ended having you travel to different islands, this one has a big hub area but warps you to different self-contained areas for specific missions. Also, the first game has you select one of four (two male two female) pre-established characters while this one has you begin as a set male avatar that you can change to a different avatar in an inventory screen whenever you want. There's four male avatars to choose from and only one female which is disappointing, but at least you can customize her hair and outfit a little.

Based on what I've played of both games, I think that I like the first one a little more. It's a more cohesive experience that feels like an ongoing adventure, and offers a more realistic take on the survival aspects. The second game is good too, but has less of an adventure feel since you warp to self-contained mission areas instead of having one big connected map.

[jfissel]

Hmmm, I'm not sure I've heard of How to Survive, Phase. But if I'm ever in the mood for more zombies, I'll give them a look.

In other news, I get to work from home for the next 3 weeks. Should be interesting.

[Phaseknox]

Hmmm, I'm not sure I've heard of How to Survive, Phase. But if I'm ever in the mood for more zombies, I'll give them a look.

I quit playing both games. I was really enjoying the first one, but it gets ridiculously hard with swarms of enemies. The gameplay isn't really suited for dealing with tons of enemies at a time, especially when some of the enemies like the alligators and infected deer are absurdly fast and strong taking a ridiculous amount of hits to kill. That's in addition to the mobs of zombies. It's another good game ruined by being too hard. The second game is a lot more reasonable in terms of difficulty, but it's extremely repetitive. There are basically two types of environments: swamps/wilderness and city. There's a big wilderness hub area, but missions send you to separate self-contained areas that are the same swamp/wilderness and city environments just with different layouts. And all of the missions that I played were basically fetch quests. I just felt like I was doing the same things in the same areas over and over again, so I quit playing.

I started playing Need For Speed: Payback, and it makes a good first impression with a cheesy but entertaining story, nice graphics, cool music and tight racing controls, but once the game really opens up it kind of just becomes another open world racing game where you go to race points on the map and race. There's street races and off-road races to add a little variety, but it's still all racing. I lost interest in racing games because while racing can be fun for a while, it becomes repetitive when that's all that you do for the entirety of a game.

[canedaddy]

I had heard good things about that one. Ah well.


Played this week: The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past, Gunman Clive

Finished: nothing

Added to backlog: nothing

Current backlog: 36 (14 PS4, 9 Vita, 7 3DS/2DS, 5 PS2)


I was on a work trip last week, didn't play anything except Zelda and Clive on the plane. Clive is a nice 2D side-scrolling shooter with cool art, but it got too hard for me a ways in. So I switched to Link to the Past, which is ... ha, I'm sure you've all played it. Cool game, though I'm not sure I'll get back to it until my next flight.

I hope to play some DQ this weekend. Also might try out the Call of Duty: Warzone (at the urging of two co-workers). Has anybody here played it?

[Phaseknox]

I had heard good things about that one. Ah well.

which one? Need For Speed: Payback? It's definitely a good racing game, but I'm personally burned out on the genre because just racing and nothing else in a game these days becomes repetitive fast IMO. I would personally like to see some adventure elements added to the genre such as you creating your own character, starting with a junk car and having to win low level races to earn money to buy better cars to compete in more advanced races, the ability to get in and out of your car and interact with NPCs, a decent story, etc. But as long as the genre remains pretty much the same as it has been for the past 20 years then I'm no longer interested.

[isthatallyougot]

I've been playing Samurai Western PS2 and Super Mario Land 2 for the original gameboy. Samurai Western is a pretty fun hack n slash with plenty to unlock. And Mario is Mario.

[canedaddy]

which one? Need For Speed: Payback? It's definitely a good racing game, but I'm personally burned out on the genre because just racing and nothing else in a game these days becomes repetitive fast IMO. I would personally like to see some adventure elements added to the genre such as you creating your own character, starting with a junk car and having to win low level races to earn money to buy better cars to compete in more advanced races, the ability to get in and out of your car and interact with NPCs, a decent story, etc. But as long as the genre remains pretty much the same as it has been for the past 20 years then I'm no longer interested.

Yeah, that one.

Midnight Club had some of those elements. Sigh, I guess we'll never get another one.