I haven't posted in 10,000 years (finally, I'm free!) so I'm just gonna dump anything I played in the last few months and hopefully I won't repeat myself
High on Life – I played like two hours of this and I've gotta say, the guy can write funny jokes but it's like there's no filter... There are jokes that you filter out on a conscious or a subconscious level, and here there's a distressing number of "jokes" that you wouldn't even have to think about before chucking if you were writing a comedy videogame. For eg. there's a knife character who constantly talks about stabbing... that's sub-Borderlands level humour. The gameplay seemed bad too. Zach of OneyPlays/Smiling Friends fame does a few voices and apparently there's a RedLetterMedia cameo too, but there's no incentive great enough to make me sit through this stinker.
Gal Gun Returns – re-release of the original Gal Gun game that wasn't originally released in the west. Also the best Gal Gun game. You're some dweebish high school kid who gets shot with too many Cupid's arrows so now you have to shoot girls to protect yourself from their advances... Basically it's a rail shooter, a playthrough takes an hour roughly and there are four routes that you pick from right at the start.
The level design, as it were, has a good pace – girls will pop up all over the place and it keeps you on your toes. They have weakspots, one of four zones, that will instantly incapacitate them. If you shoot any girl outside of their weakspot then your combo is over. Each route has several unique minigames and they're all fun shooting challenges.
Anyway, this is a really solid rail shooter! It's simple fun (and very easy with mouse aiming) but that's all you want, sometimes.
Gal Gun Double Peace – what if they made a sequel to Gal Gun that was worse in every way? The characters are less fun, the script is dry, the levels poorly paced & dull, and you play the same crap minigame over and over. The sisters from this game are starring in a spin-off 2D platformer game called Grim Guardians which is coming out later this month and will likely pwn because Inti Creates very rarely makes bad platformers (besides Luminous Avenger iX 2)
Gal Gun 2 – the fourth game in the Gal Gun series. In this one an angel from heaven gives you a VR headset and a suction gun; you've been picked as the one who's going to have to go into the girls' showers and suck up any demons that happen to be possessing said girls. It's tough work, but somebody's got to do it.
In all seriousness, there's definitely a progression here... the first game was mostly just cute, okay? I feel like I have to defend its honour.
The obvious gimmick here is that the game is designed for VR headsets (though it's locked behind DLC!!!!! YES!!!!!!! I LOVE MICROTRANSACTIONS FOR FUNDAMENTAL GAME ELEMENTS!), although mouse & keyboard will work fine. Now you have full 360 degree rotation and the girls are much more aggressive – they'll line up and shout projectiles at you, or possessed girls will run up at all angles and knock you to the floor as you frantically shoot at them. You'll have demons to hoover up but at the same time you're being assailed from all over... it's frenetic. I haven't finished this one yet but it's good fun.
Dead Space Remake – it's Dead Space. The game is slightly less scary than Gal Gun 2, and the lore is less appealing, but we can all agree that Dead Space is a good game yeah? Isaac has to run around a space station looking for his fairly haggard 57 year old wife... man, this game really is the anti Gal Gun ain't it? There's a bunch of badly written texts about how a cult runs the space station and they all worship a magic marker. It's the sort of thing that feels like it's going through the motions, regurgitating stale cliches, which is why I stopped reading or listening to any words the game presented me with after the first half hour. Fun game though. 7.9/10
Resident Evil 4 VR – I bought a VR headset for Gal Gun 2. Let that sink in for a second. Anyway, RE4VR is a surprisingly complete conversion of RE4 for the Meta Quest 2, with immersive features like pulling guns and ammo from your body. My main peeve with this is that entering the inventory is slow and takes you out of things... you can only equip one small and one large weapon at a time, plus a grenade and healing item, so it's necessary to open it quite often. Aiming is easier than with a controller, but everything else is more difficult, so it ends up feeling reasonably well balanced for VR. All in all, this is great fun – RE4 is an all time classic, after all.
Neptunia Sisters Vs Sisters – why do they keep making these games and why do I keep buying them? Why have I completed more than ten different Idea Factory games? (Not even counting outsourced Neptunia spin-offs.) The script here feels about on the level of VII, except the funny characters aren't present so actual jokes are too sparse and there's an overreliance on simply referencing things that actually exist in lieu of wit. The battle system is bad but at least it's breezy, fights don't take too long. Why do I keep buying these?
Stay Out of the House – as far as this kind of game goes, this was pretty good! You get abducted after stepping into the eponymous house and, after breaking out of your cage, you skulk around with the aim of somehow escaping. There's a killer, and there's also an old lady in a wheelchair who scoots around at speed and will alert the killer on discovering you. When you're spotted, the killer is extremely aggressive and accompanied by a bright red glow – it's a simple thing but it really conveys the murderous rage of the killer.
The house itself is a fairly compact setting, so you're never that far from danger. There's a pervasive feeling of claustrophobia and you have to stay aware of your surroundings, at least to the extent of considering escape routes; the killer can also leave bear traps and will even set up cameras, so you really do have to be cautious at all times. Since the game does such a good job of rooting the environment via the gameplay, the atmosphere is enhanced and exploration feels meaningful... in that sense it's reminiscent of something like the Resident Evil 2 remake, but obviously the gameplay isn't nearly as developed as in that game. Progression is mostly made by finding the correct location to use the correct item, and you will undoubtedly miss something at some point and waste a lot of time searching... I wouldn't feel too bad if you have to use a guide on this game.
Anyway, I'd give a strong recommendation to anyone who wants to play a solid indie horror game. There's a little more to the gameplay than I described, but I wouldn't want to spoil it.
Take me with you!
