Week of 13 Aug 2023
“Is it against the rules to make love to a suspect?”
Achievements Earned In:
- Divinity II - The Dragon Knight Saga
- Vampire Survivors
- Immortality
- The Knight Witch
I actually made pretty good progress on the Divinity II - The Dragon Knight Saga completion this week, which is surprising to me because I just don’t like this game. I scarcely remember when I completed it last time, but I have an overwhelming feeling of complete tedium when I think about it. And it’s funny, because as I work through this game I am just not remembering ANY of this! Wild that I spent 30-some hours on a game and retain almost nothing. The one memory I have of that other game was something about flying through a valley as a dragon and struggling to do whatever was needed. Guess we’ll see if that happens again? The walkthrough I’m using this time seems a lot more accurate and concise, so running through what I need is nice and quick. Struggled a little at first because some of the people I needed to locate were in some unknown places and wasn’t covered in the guide, but a quick Google showed that Captain Rodney is known to be in unexpected places. Cops, amirite? Made it through the first zone of the game by Tuesday, and then proceeded through a lot of the second before I stopped for the week and got into other games. Even better, I’m still very easily skating through the mobs inhabiting Rivellon and hopefully will continue to so I can get this knocked out and gone ASAP.
Achievements unlocked: 24 (+18) | Completion: 48%
I’ve seen Goku do this, I’m sure it’s easy.
I felt the pull of Vampire Survivors this week, and needed to go and kill some…well, not vampires. Weird that there are no vampires in this game? Why does the garlic work on the non-vampire monsters everywhere? Anyway anyway, I didn’t make much effort to unlock achievements while playing, but it comes naturally for the most part. I managed to unlock and master the third level, The Dairy Plant, and got some good runs in on the fourth. I’m not really sure how many there are (incl. the added ones) but there’s not a whole lot to write about. I know this game was such a huge hit last year, and even reached many GOTY runnings, but… I don’t get it. The game is a lot of fun, itches the brain real well and can suck you in, but it’s so simplistic and unimpressive? I’m not sure why this was put on some outlets’ podiums alongside titles like Stray, the Plague Tale sequel, some truly epic PlayStation first-party exclusives, and another game I played this week. Eh, whatever, still lots of fun and I look forward to jumping into it in small bursts between working on my other games.
Achievements unlocked: 57 (+16) | Completion: 30%
So, it was announced this week that Immortality would be leaving the Game Pass library, and considering the massive amount of buzz this received last year I knew that I needed to make time for it. And, with a completion time of only a dozen hours or so, I figured that was manageable. After getting the completion and experiencing the game…WOW, this was quite an interactive experience. The problem with games like this are it’s near impossible to touch on some of the most memorable moments because even coming close to mentioning why these moments hit so hard is a massive spoiler in of itself. Explaining some of the other things can hopefully help convince people to play this example of how games can be art. Though… is this a game? I don’t mean that in a facetious way, like when some people discuss visual novels or so-called “walking simulators”. But you “play” the game by watching clips of three lost films starring actor Marissa Marcel and scrubbing through to look for clues of her disappearance. And these are, like, legit films! The developer managed to recreate the film-making techniques and effects and styles of films from the 70s, 80s, and 90s to amazing effect, then had these actors do an amazing job playing roles within roles! Huge shoutout to star Manon Gage for killing it by playing the role of Marissa Marcel in behind-the-scenes footage and interviews and such, while also playing Marissa playing the three characters in Ambrosio, Minsky, and Two of Everything. I would legit watch the 1970 murder mystery they filmed because the writing really seems compelling and interesting! And, really, the entire game and all the fake films have fantastic writing that truly sells this wild mystery. Completion-wise, the game can be a little frustrating because of how you unlock new scenes for the achievement to collect them all. To reveal new clips, you use a “match cut” mechanic by clicking a feature of the scene (a face, a prop, an action, etc.) and the game jumps (seemingly randomly) to another scene featuring the same actor or a similar prop. So, you could be missing a final scene in one of the films and find yourself clicking a pillar in a particular scene or a flower trying to get the missing scene to show itself. That’s… not ideal, but, honestly, it’s a small issue. Definitely can’t recommend this one enough!
Oh, and be very careful streaming this game. Or playing it around youngins/parents. There is a LOT of graphic sex and nudity. I’d argue that’s a huge selling point, though.
Achievements unlocked: 27 (+27) | Completed
Honestly, this “scene” alone sold me on that particular film’s narrative.
A glutton for punishment, I decided I’d try to do one of this week’s Free Play games, The Knight Witch, a Metroidvania side-scrolling shooter. You play as Rayne, a newly inducted Knight Witch, that has to save the kingdom etcetera, etcetera, etcetera. The story isn’t super interesting and I’m skipping through all the dialogue because I’m on a very tight time limit to get this done. The completion just involves getting 100% of tasks done, such as grabbing all the collectibles, reaching max level, and getting both types of medals from the Ambushes. The latter part is the one sticking point: you have to complete an Ambush without getting hit to earn Sun Medals and under a time limit for Moon Medals. This is luckily one of those games with cheats that you can activate but still unlock achievements, so throughout the normal gameplay I’m invulnerable with infinite mana. This also makes Moon Medals pretty easy. But, for those Sun Medals, you have to not get hit, and the amount of damage you take isn’t the issue. So, even with invulnerability, I’m gonna have to get good at dodging the hail of bullets that come from those encounters. Oh, yeah, this is also a bullet-hell game, so that should be fun. For now, I’m only four zones in, and not sure how many there are in total. Game sure is enjoyable, at least! And I’d never heard of it.
Achievements unlocked: 8 (+8) | Completion: 30%
Why thank you…giant spectral cat.
