Week of 03 Jul 2022
“You look more like a flooring inspector.”
Achievements Earned In:
- Grey Skies: A War of the World Story
- Lords of the Fallen
- Metro 2033 Redux
- The Secret of Monkey Island: Special Edition
- New Rally-X
- Nexomon
- Quantum Conundrum
- Sonic & Knuckles
- Spellbreak
- SpongeBob’s Truth or Square
- Star Wars: The Force Unleashed II
- Frogger: Hyper Arcade Edition
- Carrion
- Just Dance 2022
Continuing my Bean Dive from last week, I first started Grey Skies: A War of the World Story, a game I was in no way aware of previously. Like…how did a licensed title like this go unnoticed? Doesn’t seem like a difficult completion, either, so I’m shocked I didn’t hear about it around the achievement hunting community, either. But, it’s also VERY boring; the main character walks at a horribly slow pace and you can’t speed up at all. The opening sequence is a sloooow walk through a burning forest with some somber song playing, then I got to a farm and had to sloooowly chase a pig around until I got my first achievement. I hope the entire game doesn’t drag like this…
Achievements unlocked: 1 (+1) | Completion: 9%
Next up was the Souls-like Lords of the Fallen, which is actually my first true game of that type. But, I had to play the game VERY little to get my achievement for finding the first collectible that is just after the very first tutorial. Killed one monster and checked right out.
Achievements unlocked: 1 (+1) | Completion: 2%
I figured I’d toss Metro 2033 Redux on the pile since I’d already completed the game twice before. The first achievement is simply to wipe off the gas mask you get a few minutes into the game.
Achievements unlocked: 1 (+1) | Completion: 2%
The next game was The Secret of Monkey Island: Special Edition, a super easy game to complete with a guide and a bonafide classic of gaming. Even easier is the quick achievement for switching the graphics after the intro cutscene by pressing the Back/View button. Done and done, dun dun dun.
Achievements unlocked: 1 (+1) | Completion: 8%
I decided to another short and easy game in the form of New Rally-X, one of them there retro games. These worry me, because sometimes they can be utter garbage as that is all we had to play back in those days. But, this one seems pretty easy as mentioned, with my unlocking six achievements purely by accident a pretty good sign. It’s a top-down racing…thing. Not fun anyway.
Achievements unlocked: 6 (+6) | Completion: 50%
I actually have been looking for a reason to start the Pokémon-“inspired” Nexomon for a while now, but just couldn’t find one. Seemed a perfect time to do it now. …What? No, me WANTING to play a game is not a good reason, you silly goose. But I did start it for this event and…yeah, it’s Pokémon in just about every way. Something doesn’t sit right with me, though, and I think it’s because when it moves to the combat sections it looks more like a Flash game. Since the rest of the game has a good level of polish, that’s a shame and really takes me out of it. I went back to this later in the week and sat in the beginning area, catching all the Pokém- er, Nexomon I could and leveled up my Uncommon and higher creatures to get ready. I’m curious how I’ll feel about this when all is said and done.
Achievements unlocked: 5 (+5) | Completion: 8%
The Portal-like Quantum Conundrum is next, and it was another game that I didn’t even really get to play before I had my first achievement. I’ve heard good things, and what little dialogue I got to hear definitely has a fun wit to it. Hopefully that time trial achievement isn’t too bad.
Achievements unlocked: 1 (+1) | Completion: 4%
Another game that takes almost no time to get the first achievement, Sonic & Knuckles is at least something I can have an opinion on since it seems these early Sonic games were just copy and pastes each time. I’m sure this will be just like the previous ones I’d played, and just as easy with the usual save states.
Achievements unlocked: 1 (+1) | Completion: 8%
Now here’s the game I actually returned to first once I dived it: Spellbreak, an interesting take on the battle royale formula made popular by PUBG. You drop in from up high, land, and instead of rushing for nearby firearms, you’re instead looking for gauntlets that grant you ice powers or wind powers or…fire arms. While you can shoot blasts of one element or another, the neat part is each gauntlet grants you a sorcery of the same elements (wind gives you a tornado, toxic gives you a smoke bomb, etc.) and many of them you can combine for fun attacks! Other than that, it’s a pretty standard battle royale game and I spent the most time playing this throughout the week. It’s actually really fun, and I’m not too shabby at it. For the completion, you simply have to level each class to level 14, granting you the class-specific afterglow. It’s nice that they apparently lowered the XP requirements to reach each level, while also increasing the XP gained throughout a match. And then the servers are scheduled to go offline in the beginning of next year, so I decided to go ahead and work through this ASAP. Doesn’t hurt I’m having loads of fun. As of the end of the week, I have one class at level 12, one at level 7, and the rest of 5 or 4. I don’t see this taking more than another week or so to wrap up at this pace.
Achievements unlocked: 8 (+8) | Completion: 73%
Okay, I got this. My first superhero landing.
Another easy game, SpongeBob’s Truth or Square was next as a part of my dive. I had to complete the entire first level for the first achievement. It’s a kiddie platformer, so I’m sure it’ll be very simple.
Achievements unlocked: 1 (+1) | Completion: 2%
I’ve eyed Star Wars: The Force Unleashed II for some time, but…I did not have a great experience with the first game. Like, I raged pretty hard at the cheap garbage that game called its boss fights on the hardest difficulty. But, whatever, I started it now. I also went and quickly grabbed the add-ons because I didn’t want to take any chances of them now being delisted.
Achievements unlocked: 1 (+1) | Completion: 2%
I have avoided Frogger: Hyper Arcade Edition for the same reason I tend to avoid these “remakes” of old arcade games: they can be VERY frustrating. There appear to be challenges, but I haven’t even looked at it. Got two achievements, actually, and moved on. It appears to be Frogger; pretty obvious what most of this gameplay will be.
Achievements unlocked: 2 (+2) | Completion: 17%
To continue my streak, every day before jumping on Spellbreak for the evening, I would load up Carrion and complete a zone. The game is super fun, with the movement as the playable blob of horror a particular highlight. It just feels visceral pulling myself quickly along room and corridors to come upon a human (or three), murder and eat them all, then squeeze my mass into a nearby duct and slide to the next room. It’s a lot of fun and quite easy so far. The hardest part of the game is just keeping everything straight, as there is no menu to see where you’ve been, where you have to go, and what upgrades you’ve collected. I quickly loaded up a guide for the optional upgrades needed for the final achievement, along with a map. This makes everything much quicker and I’m speeding through the game. With only two storyline achievements left, I can safely say I’ll easily knock this out before it leaves Game Pass.
Achievements unlocked: 17 (+16) | Completion: 81%
I’m gonna make sure you can never sit on a toilet without major anxiety ever again.
Being back at home has many perks that rank much higher than getting to play Just Dance 2022 again, but it is indeed at least on the list. I’ve been saving my Mojo on the game for a good while, and I had far more than enough to knock out the gift machine’s stock and claim that achievement. I can’t remember why I had been doing so, but now that I’m back I figured I’d quickly unlock that one. I’m already level 89, too, so it won’t be much longer until I have the full completion as well!
Achievements unlocked: 30 (+1) | Completion: 94%
Highest ratio: 4.47
Stalwart Savior (Spellbreak)
Lowest ratio: 1.00 (tie)
Old School (The Secret of Monkey Island: Special Edition)
Special Flag (New Rally-X)
Lucky Flag (New Rally-X)
Fuel Bonus (New Rally-X)
Nexomon Tamer (Nexomon)
First Battle (Nexomon)
Nuclear Nooby (Quantum Conundrum)
