Brief ([UWSL]
[/UWSL]) impressions of demos I managed to play this weekend. Will score them 0-5 in terms of likelihood I'll play them again in their final version. (Long post, can be safely skipped).
I didn't quite expect Grounded to get my attention, but it did. I'm not a survival game guy, although I'll play the odd one here and there, but this game seems to be hitting the right notes for what it is. It's got the right style and performance was good. It's backed by a good studio, and could turn into something. Remains to be seen how much there is to it in the future, but being a gamepass game it's a very safe bet to try. 4/5
I like Everspace a lot, although I haven't really dedicated it as much time as I probably wanted to so far. It seems to be expanding on the same ideas, and there is quite a lot to like already, It looks great (performance still iffy; understandably) but also it's gonna be a full year on EA, so no rush to get back to it. It's the kind of game that I can forget about and be ready to jump back in closer to full launch. 5/5
Never did play Bomber Crew, but I saw a few streams here and there and this seems to be in the same vein with a few twists. This game doesn't play around, and requires you to be full speed all the time, with about 30 different things you need to be paying attention to and a good amount of difficulty. The setting is much more appealing to me than WWII bombing runs, but there are a few things here and there that don't convince me 100%. The second coming of FTL this is not. 3/5
Destroy all Humans feels exactly like what it is, an old gen quirky, simple comedy action game to spend a weekend with when bored. Sometimes that's just enough. I'm not a in a rush to support a THQ Nordic published game tho, so it's the kind of game you'll wait to fall into your hands in the form of a free key, free weekend or sub service extra. 1/5
Solasta is one of the cute surprises of the bunch. It's a D&D through and through experience, which seems to want to recreate the ruleset with a good attention to detail, and does a good job of it for the most part. Seems to be in the early stages of development still, and the dialogue/story feel disappointingly too boiler plate, almost like a random generated adventure you'd find in some old "my first D&D adventure book" with little personality beyond that. The voice acting doesn't get in the way at least, and even with the above caveats, it seems to be ambitious enough to warrant a look from enthusiasts. Had to stop playing because my GPU started misbehaving with it for some reason. Exploded geometry and light issues that I've not seen with any other game ever, so I don't know what that was about. 3/5
Haven is very much not my kind of game, but the artstyle was appealing enough for me to at least give it a try. It seems like it will come good for people looking for that experience, i.e. VN + chill adventure, good voice acting performances and a relationship centered story. Alas, not even the great music in the demo could make me change my mind. 2/5
Arcanium is definitely one of the more polished games from the bunch. A mix of Adventure game with card battles is definitely up my alley... yet, at the same time, it's one of the demos that I just dropped and uninstalled without bothering to see it through. Something about the card based combat didn't feel engaging, maybe it was my mood at the time or something, but I walked away a bit disappointed. It looks good, seems to be most of the way there already, it knows what it is and people will probably like it. Me? Just didn't grab me. 3/5
Riftbreaker is one of, if not THE highlight of the list so far. Damn, that was fun. A mecha-action twin stick shooter with RTS-like base building mechanics and a lot of aliens to blow up is a great combo. Voice acting is good, environments are surprisingly interactive in a fun way (love burning forests down) and there are a ton of toys to play with. My only gripe is that swarms of enemies kinda blend with the background a bit too much, but enemies are highlighted during combat and even though the art is a bit too busy, it's not bothersome enough to be a deal breaker. I can't imagine anyone who played the demo and didn't wish-list to keep an eye on it. Fun. 5/5
Hand of Merlin is an interesting game. I would call it a text adventure-lite, RPG-lite, board game-lite, rogue-lite lite. The mix of Arthurian legend setting with horror elements is unique enough, although it doesn't seem to be doing much else of its own. In the end, it will be all about the balance of the runs, items and skills and if they can make it fun enough for repeated runs. Hard to judge other aspects of the game. It's not a looker, the writing had a bit more personality than Solasta's, the UI needs a few art and usability passes and the one music track was good. I don't know, I hope they can get it where it needs to be. 2/5
Going Under is definitely the more unique game I've seen in a while, at least when it comes to setup. A comedy dungeon crawler that takes place in the world of tech startups is certainly a creative pitch, and they are having fun with it. It runs the risk of the joke running stale after a while, but I think it will be one of the most talked about games of the bunch and it will be a good time. 2/5
Garden Story is one of those lovely adventure games where you can just tell how much they were influenced by certain old school games, and how much love they put into making it look cute and endearing. That said, it's not my jam at the moment, so I didn't see the demo through, but it will have its fans. 3/5
Fae Tactics is a Tactics game. Seems to be doing most of it right from what I could see, and I think it stands out, There is something not quite right about its looks, almost like it can't be bothered to look like how you would expect it to, that makes it interesting. The blend of disparate art and looking both like a PS era reject and modern pixel art indie is actually charming. 3/5
Dungeon of Naheulbeuk is probably the most polished demo I tried next to Grounded. A comedy, self deprecating RPG is nothing new, and neither is what it brings to the table in terms of its isometric, turn based, class based strategy CRPG composition but I had fun with it. Long fun, considering the demo is about 90 minutes long. There is something to be said about just giving you the straight up common place characters (all of them at the same time!) and letting it do its thing (and boy does it enjoy listening to itself talk), but I was somehow impervious to how redundant its comedy bits were, or how samey its simplified D&D ruleset was. Maybe it's the un-challenging construction of it that makes it just that much easier to parse and digest than the more creative offerings above. 4/5
Phew, that was it for these past couple of days. Games on the list that hopefully will make the list tomorrow:
Backbone
Ghostrunner
Metamorphosis
Raji
The Wild at Heart
Stronghold: Warlords
And whatever else the algorithm deems worthy of throwing my way. Sorry, I'm not the kind of person to do a deep dive and find the hidden treasures, but I will call this event a success. I have more items in my wishlist than I did before the event, and that's a net win. [UWSL]
[/UWSL]
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