I added this to my to play list a long time ago because it’s a noteworthy innovation on the RTS genre and originality should always be rewarded. It’s surprisingly rare in video games for someone to attempt to make something really different as opposed to revised versions of familiar games. This title introduces at least one new way of thinking about strategic games and several ways to streamline repetitive actions. Unfortunately this still is an RTS game which as you should all know by now isn’t my favorite genre and playing it is a pretty dry and time-consuming experience.
I play nearly every type of game there is but one popular genre I have never played is the JRPG. That is probably because I do all my gaming on PC and have never owned a console. I thought I ought to play one of them someday and since I don’t want to go back to one of the old classics, I thought I’d try this one that is one Steam. The first game was a full on collaboration between the developer Level-5 and Studio Ghibli. This one isn’t but still features Yoshiyuki Momose formerly of Studio Ghibli as character designer and music by Joe Hisaishi so I thought it would make for a decently modern introduction to the genre.
Still focusing on lighter games, here’s one that I bought a while back that really appealed to me on multiple levels. It’s set in what its makers call the Golden Age of American whaling, being inspired by the novel Moby Dick. It has a boardgame-like look and the mechanics to match. Plus it rocks some pretty great thematically appropriate sea shanties by a Bristol-based group called the Roaring Trowmen. It’s such an original work so different from anything on the market that I just had to get it.
I think most people on the Internet would have by now seen the art by Polish artist Jakub Różalski that inserts giant mechs into late 19th-century or early 20-century settings. This art inspired a board game set in its own fictional universe and it was apparently successful enough to make this RTS game viable. Unfortunately I don’t think this game did too well. I bought for pretty cheap a while ago as I too was intrigued by the art of Różalski and wanted to know more about the world it inspired. Plus I have fond memories of playing Company of Heroes and thought that this might be somewhat similar.
All memories about this game are now forever tied up with the suicide of one of key creators Alec Holowka. I don’t really have anything to say about that but I do think that is very unfortunate as this game was a solid success and deserves to be remembered on its own merits. This still isn’t a game that I would have ordinarily bought for myself but I did remember the praise it received when it was offered for free on Epic and I wanted an easy game to decompress a little with after the intensity of Dirt Rally 2.
According to my Steam records, this is the game that I had left unplayed for the longest time. I loved the first Dirt Rally so much that I bought this sequel quite eagerly. But I also knew that I wouldn’t want to play on anything other than a real driving wheel and I kept putting off that expensive purchase. I did finally get around to buying one this year, choosing Thrustmaster’s T300 and after resolving some initial problems getting everything to work, the gaming experience has been everything I’d hoped it would be. I’ve now put in more hours into than I have into the first game and I still feel that I’ve only completed a fraction of the game and there is still so much room to learn and improve.
Taking up yet another Zachtronics game to play makes me feel like a glutton for punishment. Years after I said I would probably never play this title yet here I am. Not only did I hugely enjoy this, much more so than I ever did with TIS-100, I’m also shocked that I managed to complete just about all of the puzzles in it on my own, at least those in the main campaign. Those in the bonus campaign are another order of difficulty entirely. I’m pretty stoked that I managed the feat even if some of my solutions rate rather poorly against the average.
