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Nov 5th, 2025 at 16:18:07 - The Invincible (PS5) |
I had never heard of this (the book or the game), but picked it up on PS Plus because it sounded interesting. Indeed, it is. It’s a walking simulator (sorry), aka narrative-heavy first-person exploration game. You play as an astronaut who wakes up near her camp and can’t remember what was going on. Explore around a bit and find out that your crew are dead or missing. Eventually, you make comms contact with the crew’s supervisor, whose title is “Astrogator,” which obviously would make anyone think of an alligator with a space helmet. Sadly, he is a regular person (although I haven’t actually SEEN him…).
You follow clues to search for your crew, find out what happened to them, figure out what a rival nation was searching for on the planet and what happened to that crew, learn about the strange biology of the planet you’re on, solve the mystery of why you keep passing out, and try to get off the planet. The whole time you learn more about your mission, and things get worse.
There are a few tools you have with which to interact, such as a metal detector, some binoculars, a map/journal, and that’s about it. You’re really just following a trail of map markers the whole game. Doesn’t sound terribly exciting, but I dug the atmosphere and the story. It is a slow-paced game; I had trouble playing it at night because I would nod off as the characters talked. There is a lot of talking sometimes. The two main voice actors are great, but there is another guy introduced toward the end whose voice didn’t seem to fit, so I didn’t find him too believable. Apparently there are 11 endings, but I really would like to know what happens after! Maybe I’ll check out this book.
And either I’m getting old or the default text is really small. Go accessibility features! But, there are bugs. My character, or the rover if I was driving, got stuck several times on the terrain. I had to reload once from getting permanently stuck. Other times, the “interact” icon would fail to appear until I walked around the object from all different angles and back. Interesting game, wouldn’t recommend though unless you really love a hard sci-fi story and don’t mind the slow pace. Later Astrogator (actual quote from the game).
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Nov 4th, 2025 at 12:28:38 - Until Dawn (PS5) |
I don’t think I would have played this if it weren’t on PS Plus, but it appeared for Halloween and I’ve been hearing about it for years. Seemed like a sort of generic jump scare horror game. I played one of the Dark Pictures games with Patrick, which was good dumb fun with lots of jump scares. I think this is one of that studio’s earlier games, and it feels similar. Same basic set-up and gameplay: you control a variety of characters (this one is about a group of friends who go to a remote cabin together and get stalked by a maniac), who walk around through spooky environments being hunted.
You make basic narrative decisions, which purportedly affect each character’s “stats” (no idea what it matters if a character is more or less charitable or curious or romantic or whatever) and their relationships with other characters (again, no idea the implications of this). There are QTEs during action sequences (e.g., take the safe route or the quick route; press triangle to avoid falling in a ditch; etc.). Find clues to explain the story more. Find totems that give you premonitions of your friends dying and other actions. I’m unsure exactly the purpose of the totems. Like, what does it matter if I see a premonition? I think it’s just one outcome that you see, and potentially knowing that one outcome means you can change it? One time I saw a premonition of a man petting a wolf. Later on, one character encounters a wolf. I accidentally (I swear) kicked it, then tried to pet it and it growled at me. But I soon found a bone and gave it to it, then pet it successfully. Win.
The first few chapters are campy horror movie stuff. The horny young adults are all trying to couple up and bone one another. There’s some inter-friend-group drama. You see many glimpses of a mysterious figure in the background, and the killer starts becoming more…active. The young adults are getting more and more scared, and then the action picks up and they start suffering. There’s a Saw vibe to the game. Then there are some twists, one of which I saw coming, another of which I didn’t (though one pausing to think about the plot could probably see it). More death. I think only three or four characters lived in my game (all the girls?).
It's cool that later on you can start to see how decisions led to characters’ deaths. For example, one character died because I decided to open a hatch and there was something bad underneath it. Another guy died because I had (as his girlfriend) kept a gun, so when he needed it, he didn’t have it. I assume that if I had given the gun to him that his girlfriend would have died at some point because she didn’t have it. Another character died because (as him) I had made a tough call to shoot one of the girls instead of killing himself, and later when he needed help, the girl hesitated and he was killed.
It was a fun and silly game, a good interactive B horror movie. Definitely not essential to play though. Also, it would have been two hours shorter if there was a RUN button! The characters spend 90% of their time walking very slowly. Annoying! No wonder they all died!
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Oct 30th, 2025 at 14:28:23 - Alan Wake 2 (PS5) |
If I had to offer one word for Alan Wake 2, it would be “ambitious.” The production on this monster is next-level. It integrated live action video and gameplay in ways I have never even imagined. There is a part where you, as Alan, have to navigate the backstage area of a talk show production while the talk show is ongoing and being displayed on screens throughout the backstage. Except you are also in the talk show, and except instead of talking, the show is being sung, to the backing of original heavy metal music complete with a band performing, choreographed dancers, and a light show. Add to this that sometimes the characters in the live action portion appear to be interacting with you through the screens, pointing you where to go, following you with their eyes, singing to you, and so on. And during this massive metal backstage area, enemies begin appearing and so you are fighting them with all of this going on around you. This was my favorite part of the whole game and one of the most mesmerizing parts of any video game I’ve ever seen.
The ambition extends to the story, which I think is really interesting. It’s a direct sequel to the first game after Alan disappears into Cauldron Lake and the Dark Place. He spends this game trying to get out of the Dark Place, and in so doing, messes with some of his characters' lives, one of whom is the other playable main protagonist, an FBI agent named Saga Anderson. Saga and Alan's stories intersect time and again, and in the game you alternate between playing them. However, I wish the story was presented more concisely because this game can drag.
There were so many neat ways that narrative was presented and ways that narrative moved forward, but this works to the game's detriment too because it beats you over the head reviewing plot details in so many different ways. For example, a key feature of the game is entering Saga's "mind place," a sort of supernatural room in her mind where she can think about cases. You might find a picture as you are exploring, or speak to an NPC, or whatever, and be prompted to go to the mind place. Go there and you are presented with a giant corkboard where Saga places pictures, notecards, and connects everything with string. You have to place clues/pictures/pieces of information on the corkboard in the correct spot. You read the description of the clue, then when you place it, some writing appears providing a little more information from Saga, and when you complete a string of clues, Saga chimes in with her thoughts. You may also have a manuscript page that says more or less the same thing you put on the board. Then you may need to profile someone in the mind place, and they may say basically the same thing you already found out. Then you go back to the game and Saga will comment again the same thing you already found out. Sometimes you have to go through all this to move things forward; other times placing all the clues on the corkboard (literally probably 200 throughout the game) seems optional. It's just like...SO slow, tedious, and repetitive. I love the mind place in theory, and I thought it was unique and engaging at first, but I became so tired of it by the end. Saga will say "So I need to go to the cabin in the woods to get the Clicker" (or something) and I am like "OMG I knew that 15 minutes ago, but I had to profile someone who told me the same thing, then go to the corkboard and pin clues that told me the same thing, and I already heard you Saga say that I need to go to the cabin in the woods in the mind place 3 times, and the person I profiled said it again, and Alan Wake narrated it because it was also in a manuscript page, AAAAAH!" The game wants you to "get into the heads" of the characters, and it certainly succeeds, but sometimes less is more.
The other frustrating aspect of the game, unfortunately, was the combat. Alan and Saga control like tanks, while enemies can be much faster. I died probably 50 times. I have no problem dying in a survival horror game, don't get me wrong! But these deaths often felt unfair. I got backed into a corner and couldn't see to get out or couldn't dash past enemies. I didn't hold R2 down long enough to heal all the way and so the health kit failed. An enemy changed direction at the last second and there is just no way Alan or Saga could turn fast enough to shoot. I couldn't pick up what I needed during a fight from the ground because I would get killed while waiting for the "pick up item" animation, and even if I did pick it up, I can't equip it in the middle of combat because pulling up your inventory or map doesn't pause the action. Timing dodges, especially with fast enemies or thrown objects, is really hard to do. Etc. At some point, I realized I could run past a lot of the regular enemies, so I quit engaging except when necessary. Also, I definitely enjoy the flashlight mechanic less than I remember from the previous game.
In the end, I was glad for this to be over. The story (while really interesting) and combat (while generally fine) just seemed to like bloat the game because of the repetition and slow speed. There's also Remedy's whole tie-in to the Federal Bureau of Control now, which, again, while interesting, adds a bunch of extra layers to a story that already has like 5 layers of reality going on. I'm impressed by the game. It's technically pretty amazing and the story is wonderfully complex. I liked the game. But I didn't love the game, and it went on for nearly 30 hours, which is really long for survival horror.
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Oct 28th, 2025 at 15:53:42 - Returnal (PS5) |
I started this about a year ago on a PS Plus subscription and dove back into it for a while on this current subscription. If I recall, it was about 6 hours last time and another 12 or so this time, so I had some really in-depth sessions last week. My initial notes last time just read "hard, grindy, neat vibe." I can say after another 12 hours that these three descriptors are still accurate!
Returnal is a third-person shooter / roguelite / bullet-hell game made by Housemarque, who is known (to me) for shoot-em-up / bullet hell type games like Outland, Resogun, and Nex Machina. The move to a AAA third-person shooter somehow works and retains the insanity of a typical 2d bullet hell. You play as an astronaut named Selene who crash lands on an alien planet after following a mysterious signal, and then finds herself stuck in a time loop. There's the set-up for a roguelite then. When you die, you restart at the crash site, slightly better off than the time before thanks to a slow-and-steady drip of persistent unlocks and upgrades.
Selene explores various biomes, following objective markers. The biomes are pretty big and have randomly generated layouts, so every run is a bit different (though after 18 hours, biome 1 was getting really fucking repetitive). Layouts are also branching: there are main and optional paths. Following the main path will eventually get you to whatever objective marker you're following, the boss, and the way out. Optional paths feature all manner of special rooms, which can have everything between great loot to deadly minibosses. The randomness in the design makes runs ridiculously intense. You constantly have to make decisions where one outcome could help (from slightly better than neutral to overpowered boon) or hurt (from a slight annoyance to dooming the run). Such decisions can involve whether to open a chest, use an item, go into a room or not, switch weapons, acquire a parasite, pick up a health kit now or later, spend more time in the current biome or leave it for the next, and so on.
Here is the anatomy of my 18 hours so far:
0-6 - Learn the basics in biome 1, die die die. Not sure if I ever even made it to the boss.
6-12 - Re-learn the basics in biome 1 after not playing the game for the better part of a year, and feel like I'm starting to get a good grasp on mechanics, enemies, strategies. Make it to Phrike, the biome 1 boss, a few times.
12-16 - Have a godly run where I finally kill Phrike, and then proceed to one-shot biome 2 and nearly one-shot biome 3. I would have one-shot biome 3 except that I FORGOT TO USE A HEALTH KIT during the battle! Uggggggggh! The boss and I were both almost dead. Like 3 more seconds and I would have killed it. I was so engrossed in the battle that I forgot I had purchased a major health kit that would have restored me to full life. I cannot believe I did this. /cry
16-18 - Demoralization makes me suck at the game. Never make it back to biome 3. Cry some more over the unused health kit.
I learned that when you beat biome 3, then you forever after can start your run in biome 4. Since I failed to use a health kit, and therefore did not beat biome 3, I had to start back in biome 1 AGAIN. This was really demoralizing and after playing a couple more hours, I decided to start another game instead of beat my head against this one. Although, I know that I can best Returnal! I just need more time. The run where I did so well (and every run before that), I meticulously explored the maps, killing lots of enemies (and therefore leveling up my weapon proficiency, which makes you find stronger weapons), getting lots of good parasites and artifacts, and boosting my max HP. After the run where I forgot to use a health potion, I was just zipping to the next biome as soon as I found the teleporter, but as a consequence, my weapon proficiency was lower, my max health was lower, and I didn't have many good parasites or artifacts, which meant that everything was relatively harder. Although my skill had increased, it didn't make up for having like 25% less proficiency, health, etc. So, I need to (a) continue getting better at the game and/or (b) continue moving slowly and completely exploring biomes as I go so that I will be strong enough to tackle the challenges that the game springs on me. Since I'm on a PS Plus subscription, I have other games I want to play, so I don't want to spend too much on this one, as it could potentially take quite a long time to beat. If I have time left after finishing the others I want to play, then I'll come back. Or I might just buy this next time I see it on sale, or perhaps I'll just wait for its spiritual successor to come out next year.
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