Well, I’m getting down to the nitty gritty here. Sessions 51-60 saw three games completed and one game eliminated. Let’s talk about the three completed first.
Little Nightmares was one of those games that probably should never have been in the Backlog to begin with. It was a pretty short game, and once I sat down and actually played it, it only took two play sessions to get it done. It was actually the 49th Session, but since I got about 90% of the way through it I decided to finish it off as session 51.
A Plague Tale: Innocence was the next one I completed, and honestly it was another one of those games that I played past the end of the official “session.” Two reasons for that; one, it was a pretty damn good game that I didn’t really want to put down, and two, it had specific gameplay mechanics that took me a while to get back into. I died about three times just trying to remember what her capabilities were. Once I got the hang of it again, I didn’t want to put it back down.
The last game completed during this stretch was SOMA. I literally had to force myself to finish this one (also the RNG liked choosing this game, A LOT). I liked it, but I had some complaints.
I’m in the process of writing them up, so if you don’t see them up yet, stay tuned.
This brings me to the game that was eliminated in the Shotgun Round. I’m actually pretty happy I thought up the shotgun round. Yay me. It gets rid of games like Unravel. I didn’t dislike Unravel, but I didn’t really care for it either. And I don’t think it was the game’s fault, it just so happened to fall into my path during a time when my plate was full of passive puzzle games. SOMA, Little Nightmares, Eastshade, Sea of Solitude, Nightmares from the Deep 3, The Touryst, all these games are puzzlers with little to no combat. Sometimes that’s a great thing, a nice casual change of pace. But when you’ve been playing a lot of them lately they tend to get a tad boring. Unravel, in a different time, might have been just what I needed. It just wasn’t enticing enough for me to get interested in it, and I was a bit relieved to see it go. Maybe one day I’ll see Yarnie again, I’m not ruling it out.
That only leaves four games that weren’t completed or eliminated. Tell Me Why, Yakuza 0, Supraland, and Silent Hill HD Collection all popped up (Silent Hill for the first time ever) and I played a bit of each of them. Supraland started off strong, but I’m getting a bit of puzzle fatigue from it. Every single area I go to has more puzzles, and it’s a bit of that puzzle platformer burnout that i mentioned above. It has combat, albeit extremely simple, but it would be nice to enter an area that was straight-forward hack ‘n slash and less pushing buttons and moving blocks. I can appreciate the game for what it is, but like Unravel, I’m getting a bit fatigued with these types of games.
Yakuza 0 continues to be the game that won’t go away. I would not be sad if this one got shotgunned. I don’t hate the game, but oh my god the talking. The endless, constant conversation. Then, to make it even worse, the game magically transformed into a business simulator. I don’t want to play a business management sim. I really, really don’t like those kinds of games. It was passable when it was just the nightclubs, but then the other guy’s storyline kicked off another one. Now there are two businesses to manage. That’s not what I signed up for. If this one doesn’t get shottied, I might just abandon it.
Tell Me Why is another one of those passive games, and it revolves entirely around conversations. It has a very specific subject matter, one that I can’t personally relate to. But hey, I’m down for a good story, regardless. and Tell Me Why is intriguing, it’s just not terribly exciting. I’m really hoping this game isn’t very long, because if Yakuza is any indication, I really don’t have the patience for conversation.
Silent Hill HD Collection finally got chosen by the RNG and it’s been… an experience. I was a huge fan of Silent Hill back in the day, and I beat the original Playstation game multiple times. I did play through and beat Silent Hill 2 and 3 both back on the PS2, so I know what I’m up against, but damn these games did not age well, and I’m not just referring to the graphics. I’ve had a few play sessions with Silent Hill 2 and I’m progressing, but damn this game is rough, and… boring? I am playing on Easy combat difficulty setting, because I just can’t be bothered at this point, so that might have something to do with it. Either that or an old game is just being an old game. Thankfully, I’m pretty sure Silent Hill 3 is a linear experience, so once I get through SH2 it shouldn’t take long to wrap up the HD Collection.
Well that does it for these play sessions. I’m getting down to the bare minimum here. These remaining games will really test my patience, and I can already see myself abandoning one or two. Warhammer Inquisitor-Martyr is a game I just can’t seem to wrap my head around. On one hand, it’s a simple dungeon crawler hack n slash looter, and that’s fine. But there’s also a crazy convoluted community system at play, almost like an MMO, with a whole bunch of other shit going on, and I just don’t have the time or the brainpower to figure it out. Maybe if the world and game were more interesting to me, I’d be willing. But Warhammer 40k has never really been my jam.
Another one that might get abandoned is The Outer Worlds, and it’s not because it’s a bad game, it’s because not only is it a long game, it’s one that has yet to be chosen by the RNG. I don’t know how, but it’s avoided the spotlight all this time. The idea of starting a long, involved game like Outer Worlds this late into the Backlog Bingo game is really kind of a buzzkill. Maybe I’ll get lucky and it will get shottied.
I guess we’ll have to wait and see.
