COVID19 Backlog:
Death's Gambit
A solid action/adventure game with metroidvania elements. Much like Salt and Sanctuary, the game presents you with a handful of weapon types, even a magic route, as you explore a more compact web of levels that all feed back to a central hub. The game only lasts a handful of hours, and its combat reminded me a bit of Salt's as well in that it's a bit loose. Visually, it's more akin to Blasphemous but the music isn't nearly as memorable. The game features dodging, parrying, and blocking. Enemies hit pretty hard so I didn't bother much with parrying. I felt that the game moved at a good pace and that was enough to keep me going. Weapon progression and upgrading didn't feel especially rewarding. Too many incremental, small, upgrades. Overall, an innocuous title.
The Last Express
A novel experience to be sure, The Last Express is a point and click adventure game with wherein its NPCs adhere to a real-time clock. You have a few days to solve a mystery and try to get as much info as you can. The game is on rails, so think RE tank controls in first person. It was minor inconvenience, it didn't hamper my enjoyment too much. I loved the art style, the animation, and the VO is very well done. This has a timeless aesthetic, a shame about the controls though. The NPCs are a joy to observe, and the game definitely has multiple solutions/routes that you really feel like you're carving your own path through the story. I did run into a few moments where I didn't know what I needed to do, so I had to check out a few hints online. No moon logic here, though there is some pixel hunting involved. All in all, a pleasant experience to be sure due to its novelty.
Full Throttle
What I loved most was the world, the terse dialogue, it's all very cool. I liked the opening section of the game the most, quite simple, more so than the other adventure games. I didn't care for a few puzzles (pixel hunt secret wall) and finding the right pixel to interact with. I liked the story and the characters, again kudos for the dialogue being punchy and having great VO. Once again, long walking cycles, and some eh logic got in the way of my fun here. Music was a nice touch too!
Sam & Max Hit the Road
An excellent point and click adventure game that ranks up there with Day of the Tentacle in my book. Consistently funny, fantastic and zany art, fun dialogue, it's the total package. No real moon logic, but there were some "hotspot" issues I had finding items and even locations. There were also some technical annoyances: not being able to quick exit a screen, having to cycle through all options to find the right "verb," I don't hold these against it too much. In sum, this definitely lives up to the hype. A classic adventure game through and through that will put a smile on your face time and time again.
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