So finally I have played these games! Life is Strange was all the hype a few years ago and now I understand the hype. Because omg no other games have made me cry like these.
Life is Strange is about Max Caulfield who, after five years, returns to her home town of Arcadia Bay. She loves photography and she's a shy and timid little girl. Until she figures out that she can reverse time. What follows is an adventure that takes so many twists and turns and while the first two episodes were innocent enough, the last two are a scary and tearful ride.
I loved the scenery of the game and how the whole thing looked and felt while playing and while I'm way older than Max and her friends I recognise so much from when I was at that point in life.
This game is just wow.
*waters plant*
This action will have consequences.
Before the Storm tells the story of Chloe before Max returns to Arcadia Bay and how she became friends with Rachel. It's not quite as adventurous like the original (no time-travelling) and not quite as good, but still amazing. I didn't really like Chloe to begin with in Life is Strange, but she kind of grew on me while I played and even more so when I played Before the Storm.
And Chloe... How do you manage to get yourself mixed up in all these shitty situations?
I really wanted to like this game. I really, really did and I was so excited when I started it up. And then it all fell apart before my eyes. The controls were wonky, the powers faulty, the sneak mechanics broken, the story failed to be engaging, the voice actors and the script sounded like they were trying out for the school drama club, and the whole goth vibe they were trying for was so wannabe that it became cringeworthy and ridiculous.
I was going to give it a chance to redeem itself, but when the game kept pitching my lowbie vampire with barely any powers unlocked (I haven't gotten that far yet) against 20+ guys with automatic weapons it just wasn't fun anymore. If every missions means I have to die ten times because if one enemy finds a body (why were there no practical humongous dust bins like in Dishonored in this game?) he alerts all the other enemies at the same time and they all go on the warpath together and you have to spend around 10 minute sulking in a corner before the enemies decide you probably got away and then we do the whole dance all over again. There are no practical places to hide the body of an enemy you just killed, you just have to hope this dark corner under the stairs is sufficient (which it never is), and Eric just refuses to pick up a gun. Like... there are 20+ guys with automatic weapons here, you just killed one of them, why don't you pick up his gun?!?!?!?!?!?
From other reviews I've read I understand that the kind of enemies you're up against basically doesn't change towards the end, while you gain more and more powers to the degree that in the end of the game you're ridiculously OP. And that's not a good way to go about making a game either...
After Dishonored 2 I was really excited about this game, but I soon realised that Billie Lurk was a lot more squishy than Corvo and that her powers weren't nearly as good.
But after I got used to her weird powers, halfway through the second mission or so, the game became really fun. I didn't care much about the contracts. If I succeeded, then good, if I didn't, whatever. But the execution of this game felt a lot more similar to the original Dishonored than Dishonored 2 did. I could murder my way to the end and still get a good ending depending on what I chose to do at the end. Not like in Dishonored 2 where if I killed even a single person my chance for getting a good ending was severly limited.
I barely remember the Brigmore Witches DLC from the first Dishonored, but I do remember Daud and it was great to get to see him again. Although it felt like a waste of time to save him when he was just gone a mission later.
The mission to kill the Outsider was cool and if you do the "find another way" option you'll find out so much more about his background, and I found it hilarious that his mark is literally just the way his name was written in the language from 4000 years ago when he was human. So he's basically just been putting his signature on people! x'''D
In the end I had a great time running around Karnaca as Billie Lurk. Returning to the Royal Conservatory was also interesting. The missions were straight-forward but offered several ways to complete them (ofc I went with guns blazing every time except for when I came face to face with the Outsider). The missions even made me laugh several times especially Ivan Jacobi and Shan Yun. Not that what they were doing was funny, but their personalities were imo.
But when it was over I just wished it could've been longer...
When I first started playing this game it was early 2017. That time I made the mistake of starting the game without any powers which made it a lot harder than it had to be. Then I got lost and stuck at the Clockwork mansion and decided to drop the game indefinitely.
Now I felt like the time was right again. This time I made sure to play with powers, which made the whole game much easier. (Though I only ever used Blink and occasionally Dark Vision) I also followed a guide for the Clockwork mansion because if I had gotten stuck there again I probably would never have finished this game.
Dishonored 2 is supposed to be played stealthily to get the good ending. I knew this, but I suck at stealth so I knew I'd get the bad ending. I tried to find alternate means to deal with the key figures rather than just killing them (I killed most of the guards, but I tried to stay away from killing civilians). I cured Hypatia. I made goo of Jindosh's brain (but he's still alive, not sure if that's a mercy). Breanna Ashworth just had to join a fight I had with a few of her witches and got herself killed, if she hadn't I would've gone with the mercy option there too. After seeing what became of Aramis Stilton I decided that killing him would be the merciful option - so I did. I tried dealing with the Duke's body double, but the real Duke just had to go too close to a pylon I had rewired and got himself killed. I was going to go merciful with Delilah too, but the game didn't tell me how to do it just "Find another way", and after running around for a long time trying to find another way I got so sick of it that I just killed her too (and after I killed her the game told me what it had wanted me to do as "another way". gee, thanks game).
The only thing I didn't like in this game was who judgmental all the characters became towards the end because I killed so many guards and what not. I did the same in the original Dishonored and I can't remember them being so judgmental towards me back then. I also didn't like how dark Corvo had become. I guess both of those are understandable and realistic, but I still didn't like them :P
But all in all I enjoyed being back in the world of Dishonored. I had forgotten how great it was :3 I particularly enjoyed the times when the story let you run around and explore the streets rather than having you stuck inside a mansion or building. Next is to play Death of the Outsider and then there's no more Dishonored.
The 90s were strong with this one. I played the remastered edition but the 90s vibe was still incredibly strong. The humour was childish but still made me giggle every now and then. The point-and-click aspects were old-school but worked really well once you learned how to use them.
So you are Guybrush Threepwood and you want to be a pirate! You start at Melee Island where you go to the local bar and talk to the pirates there. They tell you what's required to become one of them (the Three Trials) and you're also told a story of why they are all sitting there rather than being out with their ships - it's due to the ghost ship of the ghostly pirate LeChuck. They tell you the story of how he became a ghost and why nobody dares to even go close to Monkey Island nowadays.
But off you go to become a pirate. First step is to get a sword. To get that you need money and so you become a temporary circus act. When that is over you take your money and go buy a sword, make sure to ask the shopkeeper about the Sword Master. Then you go to train with the trainer and when he deems you ready he sends you out to practice duelling with random pirates you meet on the streets. When they start getting impressed with you, you're off to find the Sword Master who lives in the forest. When you defeat her she gives you a T-shirt as proof, and now you're off to do the second trial - find the treasure of Melee Island. When you do it's a tourist attraction and you get another T-shirt as proof. Now it's time to break into the Governor's mansion and complete the Trial of Thievery and steal the Idol of Many Hands. It goes well, except that the new sheriff catches you and throws you into the ocean along with the Idol.
When you manage to get out of the water and bring your victories to the pirates at the bar to prove you're a pirate you discover that the Governor has been kidnapped by LeChuck. You decide to go and save her so you start chasing down a crew and a ship, after a lot of running around you're finally on your way to Monkey Island.
Or so you think. Your crew isn't happy and they decide to just work on their tans and let the ship drift. Guybrush follows the recipe to Monkey Island (yes the directions are a recipe) and the result completely knocks him out. When he comes to they have arrived at Monkey Island. After some running around dealing with the locals (cannibals), the castaway and the monkeys Guybrush is finally able to find LeChuck's hideout, but when he's ready to fight and defeat LeChuck the ghost ship is gone. A left-behind crew member of LeChuck's tells Guybrush that they left for a wedding to be held in the church at Melee Island. So off we go again.
Guybrush arrives back at Melee Island and while killing ghosts he makes his way to the church where it's revealed the the Governor had everything under control and actually didn't need to be saved. But in the end Guybrush defeats LeChuck with root beer and then the Governor and Guybrush watch the ensuing fireworks together.
The game had its annoying moments, but mostly it was a lot of pretty straightforward fun. I did use a guide for some of it though. I liked this game and I'm looking forward to play the sequel (at some point).
1. Eld, by Mats Strandberg & Sara Bergmark Elfgren. I loved the drama, the intrigue and the whole investigative element of finding out who's evil and what the ultimate goal is of the demons this time around. If the first book was disappointing in holding everything back, this is the book where the story truly kicks off and the story unfolds and nothing is held back by the authors anymore. I loved to read about Linnea and how Ida starts to grow. I loved how Anna-Karin starts to become a bit more comfortable in herself and how Minoo finally dares to start explore her powers. This book is all about growth and self-exploration, and while the characters explore themslves the reader finds out more about the magical aspects of the world.
2. Nyckeln, by Mats Strandberg & Sara Bergmark Elfgren. Yes! This is how you end a trilogy! With a bang! Quite literally as the school blows up... This whole book is the climax of the story and it never gets boring. Minoo's self-sacrifice is enormous and yet it leads to them all ultimately getting together. All seven of them. The whole Circle together at last. Finding out what the Protectors really were was something I didn't see coming. I loved how the girls decided to open up about what was going on and the ending was perfect.
3. Färjan, by Mats Strandberg. This book has been hailed as a Swedish Stephen King novel. Not sure I agree... First of all it was a long time since I read a book where I wanted all of the characters to die. I didn't root for a single one of them (only the children grew on me towards the end). Second of all the threat and horror-aspect was so incredibly obvious that when it was revealed that there were vampires on the ferry I just rolled my eyes - yes, I know, what else? Nothing about the story was unexpected, the author left so many obvious clues throughout the story that when the events that he had hinted to actually happened they were so obvious that nothing was shocking. And the ending felt completely unresolved. Ok, so the vampires can't get to you now, but you're aware that they don't need to breathe at the bottom of the ocean and they can still move about... So how long before they get to a shore and the whole business starts again?
4. Hemmet, by Mats Strandberg. The second horror book by the author hailed as a Swedish Stephen King... This time the nature of the threat was left ambiguous way longer, which was better in a way, but it was also left ambiguous and unknown to the characters for most of the book which made it seem like they either didn't care or were chasing question marks. While his other book was extremely obvious this one was just flat. I'm just happy it was short. The only thing I really enjoyed with this book was the subtle hint that this one and his other horror book (Färjan) take place in the same universe, which could possibly mean that the author is building up to some major supernatural horror event that could turn out great if done right. Once again nothing was resolved towards the end, and the characters just shrug and move on with their lives.
5. The Gold Finch, by Donna Tartt. A book blogger I follow set this book as her favourite book of 2015 (I think, could've been 2016) and she talked so much about it and praised it so highly that I decided I wanted to read it too. Now, lots of the reviews on Goodreads categorise this book as Dickensian, but I would rather go French and call it Balzacien. Why, you ask, since Dickens and Balzac were in the same genre? For me there's a huge difference, mainly that I liked reading Dickens but I definitely didn't enjoy Balzac. Dickens has a plot and there's always something going on, Balzac is mostly just a huge monologue of someone's messed up life. In simpler terms - Dickens shows, Balzac tells. And Tartt also tells. Until Theo becomes an adult (in the last third of the book) The Gold Finch is just a huge monologue of Theo's messed up life. The famous painting who gave the book its name is mostly just a figment among Theo's thoughts and while he thinks about it a lot it doesn't really have any bearing on the story until the last third of the book. I really enjoyed the language of the book, she has a beautiful way of writing, but for the most part it didn't really seem as if she had a story to tell and rather she just rambled (beautifully) about this not-so-lucky-in-life boy. Halfway she seemed to have lost the thread and didn't really find it again until Boris shows up when they are adults and something finally happens! The book ended on a high note for me and as I watched the pieces come together in the end and see everything played out and resolved I actually felt rather content and to my surprise I can actually see myself re-reading this in the future.
Remember 2002? No? Let's go back in time! Here are a bunch of videos that 11/12 y/o me watched all the time (and not on Youtube because that site wasn't even created yet).
This is a short indie horror game that I picked up only becauase it seemed cool. The ambience was really creepy at times, but mostly the whole game was "wtf is going oooooon?"
The story is about Price and young man who wants to prove himself at work to become a partner. His job is to evict people from their property for different reasons and he feels so bad about doing it that his mental state slowly deteriorates.
The first person he needs to evict is Mrs. Goodwin. An elderly widowed lady who hasn't been doing so great financially since her husband died and now she's being evicted for not paying her rent. Price is already losing control of his mind as blood starts to seap through the doors and gorey things start walking past outside windows. He convinces Mrs. Goodwin to leave her apartment and then leaves.
The next morning Price is woken up by a nightmare and as you get ready for work in Price's apartment he gets a surprise visit from his parents. Which seems normal, except these guys are dead. And Price is having a conversation with them in his kitchen while drinking coffee and they're trying to convince him to quit his job.
The next person he needs to evict is a hermit living alone in a cabin in the woods. But the city wants to build a new highway right across his land. So they're evicting him since he doesn't want to leave. Price gets there and the hermit has pretty much given up anyway. But he asks Price to help him find his dog before he leaves. Price looks around every inch of the house and the grounds and finally finds a starved dog eating a fox. Bring the dog to the hermit and they leave together.
Afterwards Price has another nightmare that Mrs. Goodwin has had a stroke and is in a home and she's asking him to come visit because she doesn't have anyone else. When he wakes up there's another visit from his parents before the phone rings and exactly the conversation that happened in his nightmare plays out. He decides to go visit her and the retirement home is probably the creepiest environment in the whole game.
When the visit is over and done with it's time for the third eviction; a junkie who can't afford his apartment anymore. This was by far the trippiest part of the game and I actually had to use a guide to get me through this part.
When the third eviction is done you're back in Price's apartment and you get a nighttime visit from his parents who are in the kitchen. They're busy killing the "elephant in the room". Literally. And then Price gets a phone call from the retirement home that Mrs. Goodwin has passed away. That makes up his mind that he shouldn't be doing this job anymore and he decides to go into the office and resign. But first a trip to the cemetary to visit Mrs. Goodwin.
After the visit to the cemetary there is some time spent at the creepy office annoying the poor reception lady. Price goes looking through his bosses's offices and find out some things about them which only reaffirms his decision to quit. When you're done going through the offices he heads through the main doors... and straight into a surprise party for him for his promotion to partner. Which makes him stay on the job.
Fast forward and an older and alcoholic Price is sitting at his kitchen table talking to a young man who's there to evict him for no longer being able to pay the rent. Price warns the young man about the dangers of his job, but the guy goes on to finalise the eviction and Price does the only thing he feels he can do at this point. He shoots himself in the head.
Funnily enough, there's a Distraint 2 in the works.
The original Far Cry was a huge disappointing mess when coming directly from Far Cry Primal. Far Cry 2 on the other hand was lightyears better than the original. It's the only Far Cry that I know of that let's you choose a character at the beginning, but afaik it doesn't matter what character you choose. The story is straight-forward: you're a mercenary in Africa tasked with killing the warlord called The Jackal who's been arming both sides of the civil war.
Five minutes in you get malaria and the Jackal is the one who saves you. Your first priority becomes to find medicine for the malaria before even attempting to go after the Jackal. Throughout the game you continuously have to find more medicine for the malaria and the illness becomes quite the nuisance as you can get a malaria attack mid-fight or while driving (causing you to not being able to steer and quite possibly falling off the edge of a bridge or a cliff).
With the malaria (mostly) out of the way you start picking up quests from your buddies (people you save along the way), weapons merchants, assassination points, and both sides of the civil war (the UFLL and the APR). What originally annoyed me was that I couldn't have one quest of each type active at the same time i.e. one buddy quest, one weapons quest, one assassination quest and one civil war quest. That would've made my trying to drive away from enemies less of a hassle and I wouldn't have had to go back and forth between quest pick-ups and the airfield like four times in a row.
Something else that annoyed me was that the weapons always started jamming after having used the same one for 20 minutes (even with freshly bought ones) and that caused me dying more often than not. Also the ridiculously slow healing process that's always interrupted if a single enemy shot hits you when trying to heal also caused me to die several times. Or the times I was in my car trying to outrun enemies but they followed me with another car and shot at me (because they're always at least two so they can drive and shoot at the same time and I cannot) and so many times I got run over as soon as I got out of the car. Or even better. I jump out of the car start shooting towards the other car who's shooting at me and behind me comes a second car who runs me over. Greeeeeeeeaaaaaaat -.-'
Anyway the first act ends with me being screwed over doing the last APR civil war quest. I rush to save my buddies (you get a choice: your buddies or the Underground) and I watch my friends die around me. Then my character blacks out. He wakes up on the back of a truck with a bunch of dead bodies, falls off the truck and proceeds to wander the desert in a sandstorm. Once again the Jackal saves you, and you're then picked up by familiar faces from the UFLL. And after getting back on your feet your next mission becomes the assassinate the APR person who screwed you over.
The game then continues in the same way as before, but on a new map. You gain a bunch of new friends and get a bunch of new quests to do. Unfortunately all the meddling with both sides of the war and assassinating their leaders on the request of each side, they end up joining forces to drive all foreigners out of the country and start murdering civilians. You're thrown into prison with your new best buddy Hakim. You escape the prison with your buddy and then start making murderous business. The Jackal wants you to help him kill the civil war and tells you to go back to the prison and follow the route behind it. This is it. No turning back now.
The Jackal has requested you to kill both leaders of the new joined UFLL/APR, and also to pick up the diamons needed to get the civilians out of the country. You first go to pick up the diamonds (the path leads you there first), and your best buddy Hakim meets you there. He greets you and then a familiar face shows up - Warren, your original best buddy who was killed in act 1. All your friends come out and start shooting at you. Warren said something about "We made our deal. He's on his own." And that's all the explanation you ever get for how your friends are suddenly alive and shooting at you. So there I am killing Hakim and Warren and Josip and Michelle and several others, for what seems like no reason at all other than the developers wanting to create some sort of omg moment that fell completely flat.
When you get the diamonds you move on to kill the leaders. Easy enough since they both trust you and they let you walk right up to them and shoot them in the face. And afterwards you move on to the Jackal's cabin. He tells you that to kill this cancer that is the civil war it needs to be contained and destroyed. One of you has to blow up the pass to the border so ensure the civilians can escape, and the other needs to get the diamonds there to pay off the transport and then shoot himself in the head. No active part of the civil war gets to escape. I chose to blow up the pass (and myself).
And that's the whole game. It felt very repetitive and every mission (except for the very last part after returning to the prison) works exactly the same every time. There was almost no variety to anything and towards the end I just continued to play it because I wanted to complete it and get it off my list so I could move on. It's a lot more open world than the original, and as much as I complain Far Cry 2 is actually less repetitive than the original. But the game left me with a pretty meh feeling when it was done. I was happy it was over, but the story didn't have enough momentum or interesting characters to actually make me interested in anything that happened. For me it was simply a case of getting through the next thing and then the next thing and the next to complete this extremely repetitive thing and move on to the next game.
