Week of 13 Oct 2024
“I need my pickles!”
Achievements Earned In:
- Remorse: The List
- Paratopic
- Sanity of Morris
- Insomnis
- Allison's Diary: Rebirth
- Terminal 81
- Mothered
- Choo-Choo Charles
Not to ruin the mystique, but I’d actually finished Remorse: The List before writing last week’s entry. I just try to only write about what I did in that 7-day period prior to each blog entry, y’know? Anyway, I was in the middle of my Nightmare-difficulty playthrough when the clock flipped over past midnight Sunday morning, so I didn’t wanna stop! But, here’s the weirdest thing: Nightmare was leagues easier than Hard. I don’t know if it was a glitch or something, but there were less enemies, similar to Normal’s levels, and only a handful of ammo and item spawns were removed. The enemies don’t become, like, bullet sponges or anything, either! They hit like a truck, but just… don’t get hit. I even finish that final playthrough an almost twenty minutes faster than on Hard, which also acted as my speedrun! Huh. Honestly, overall, I think I recommend this game. It’s a little jank, sure, but if you want a cool mix of Condemned: Criminal Origins and Silent Hill, I think you’ll get a kick out of this one.
Achievements unlocked: 17 (+2) | Completed
Sadly, no photo mode, but the Museum exhibits allow for cool shots.
Now to the actual lineup for the week, starting late Sunday with Paratopic, and… this sure was something. First off, completion-wise, it’s very easy, simple, and short. Somewhat annoyingly achievements don’t pop until you finish a playthrough, but that’s a minor issue. It’s a walking simulator with some bouts of dialogue, and the draw here is how WEIRD it is. There’s… something going on… and tapes… you drive some… an assassin maybe… there’s something in the woods… then you’re skinned and dead. It’s very high-brow. Or maybe just convoluted? But it’s at least a neat idea, and another “looks like an old PS1 game” design. I’ll say, even after reading a breakdown of the story, I still have no clue what happened.
Achievements unlocked: 20 (+20) | Completed
The correct answer is usually “Yes.”
For Monday’s game, I went with one I’d never really heard of: Sanity of Morris. It looked interesting from the screenshots, but I soon found that it’s… well, the game isn’t good. The beginning is actually pretty atmospheric and creepy, as you’re run off the road on the way to check on your estranged father, soon exploring his empty house. I was playing and thinking how this showed promise! There’s even a “sanity” mechanic where you see things and sometimes hallucinate. But, then the story kicks off and the tone completely shifts, and it just isn’t interesting anymore. The location you find yourself in is bland, repetitive, and I kept glitching into the geometry. The story could have been cool! There’s a conspiracy, and you’re not sure what’s real and what’s not, but it’s presented so blandly and boring, so I don’t think I’d recommend this one.
Achievements unlocked: 15 (+15) | Completed
Rule #1 of adventure games: pick up everything!
For Tuesday I decided on the “haunted house” gameplay of Insomnis. There’s no combat, nothing that can kill you, just lots of spooky rooms and puzzles. In this case, it’s all very well-done and looks good! The puzzles are clever and never felt like utter nonsense like some old LucasArts titles. But, as with most puzzle titles, this game is very easy and short when you have a guide. You normally need two playthroughs to get all the achievements, but save-scumming came in clutch here and I managed it all in one! Noice.
Achievements unlocked: 27 (+27) | Completed
Hey, ghost child! No jumping on the bed!
Man, when I finished up Sanity of Morris, I thought for sure that would be the worst game this week! Boy, then I played Allison's Diary: Rebirth on Wednesday. The game doesn’t look good, doesn’t play well, and would barely pass as a game developer class project. You play through as someone investigating the murder of two people by their kid, and as you progress the only checkpoint is when you start a level. So, if the bad gameplay gets you killed by some monster, you get to start the entire area over. Annoying, bad, and generally not fun or spooky.
Achievements unlocked: 11 (+11) | Completed
No, doggo, what have you done???
Probably the big game this week was Terminal 81, a horror-themed job simulator. Yeah, really. You play as a young adult moving to a different town for a job at a supermarket, and Terminal 81 is a place where something is off. As you balance working your job and making money with digging into the mysteries of the port, you’re also able to go have a drink at the bar (or bust a move) or visit the local faire. It’s all “indie” so it’s not exactly expansive, but it’s very cool as a concept and in execution. The fact you’re only ever awake and exploring the area at night adds to the off-putting nature of everything. Oddly, it has a pretty high ratio on TA, even though this is yet another easy and short completion. Well, mostly. I guess there are two things stopping this from being an easily accessible 100%: the lack of a proper written guide (anywhere) and the dancing minigame. For the former, I truly dislike video guides of any kind, so the night prior to playing I stayed up, watching a video guide and transcribing the steps for all the achievements into a text document. So, now I have the only guide, haha! Then there’s the stupid annoying no-good dancing minigame you have to complete three times, each more demanding, for an achievement. I was pretty furious, as it wasn’t just “hard”, but the visual choices are beyond questionable. It’s scrolling arrows, you have to hit the proper directional button when it’s in a circle, but it’s hard to gauge what’s the right time for the best score AND everything (including the inputs) are pulsing and changing colors. It’s a visual nightmare, but I obviously managed. This is also another example of save-scumming coming in clutch, especially since this would require three playthroughs, and is certainly a longer game than Insomnis. Even though that dancing really soured the experience, I think overall this is pretty cool.
Achievements unlocked: 30 (+30) | Completed
The scariest scenario of all: customer service!
Another very strange one was Friday’s Mothered. Like… you play as a child coming home after a surgery, and your family are acting very strangely to you, and hints in the UI and such are letting on something is wrong, but beyond all that the most off-putting part of the whole affair is the mother’s character model. She looks like a mannequin or something, mouth agape and unmoving, and looks plastic. It’s all so creepy and weird. But, a lot of the gameplay is a bit slow, as you move through a week in this household. The worst part? Probably picking apples on each playthrough, as they’re so hard to see and the graphics are poor to begin with. Like most of the games, it was a very short and simple experience, but I had to play a tad longer because I missed a missable achievement just on the other side of the apple picking. Weird, but try it out and experience it yourself.
Achievements unlocked: 15 (+15) | Completed
Mother, is it totally necessary to stand there like that?!
Probably my favorite game of the week was Choo-Choo Charles on Saturday. I kinda knew what the game entailed, but I kind of expected more jumpscare streamer fodder, but no! It’s short, but this is an open world horror title, as you traverse an island helping the villagers and preparing to faceoff with Charles, all while he prowls the island. Usually in games like this the enemy spawns in to face you, but from what it seems the giga-spider train monster is always just roaming around the island, and only attacks if becoming aware of your presence nearby. A really neat concept and fairly polished all things considered. None of the NPCs move their mouth as they speak, but that’s not much of a downside. There are a few other antagonistic characters in certain areas of the map, but you can’t fight back on your own and usually have to avoid them. Your only form of offensive is your train, mounted with various weaponry to fight off cultist miners and Charles himself. For the achievements, they’re all tied to completing side-missions or story missions, except for upgrading your train fully and collecting buckets of paint. If you’re doing the other achievements and exploring areas for scrap, you’d be hard-pressed to not have enough for all the upgrades before the end of the game. And the paint isn’t missable, but you might spend too much time searching without a guide. I hope for a sequel, for sure. Just take the same formula and make it more. Let’s get some Zoom Zoom Zoe and Vroom Vroom Vince added to the mix!
Achievements unlocked: 24 (+24) | Completed
Just a nice, relaxing moonlit cruise through the woods. What could go wrong?
Highest ratio: 8.44
Remorse: Nightmare (Remorse: The List)
Lowest ratio: 1.00 (tie)
Paratopic (Paratopic)
No Smoking (Paratopic)
Welcome to Insomnis (Insomnis)
Diary Page 1 (Allison's Diary: Rebirth)
Home Sweet Home (Mothered)
Baby's First Mission (Choo-Choo Charles)
