Game 3 of 2024: Saltsea Chronicles

Saltsea Chronicles

Developer: Die Gute Fabrik
Publisher: Die Gute Fabrik
Platform: PC
Genre: Narrative Adventure

Difficulty: Easy
Hours: ~6

Finished: Yes
Final Rating: 7.4/10

Saltsea Chronicles is an narrative adventure game where you guide a ship's crew in search of their missing captain. You journey through a post-Flood world, in which many of today's cities have been submerged and tales of the Hoarders of times past warn the inhabitants of Saltsea against greed and selfishness.

Saltsea is beautifully illustrated in a sort of cutout style that is reminiscent of children's picture books. The gameplay is mostly reading, but you do make a lot of choices that can affect tensions among the crewmembers. Some characters will argue and make up, some will develop feelings for one another, and some issues between characters will go unresolved. You can view all the current issues in your logbook, so you can keep track. This adds a nice layer to the standard visual novel format.

The islands you get to explore are vibrant, interesting, and quite frankly the best part of the game.

You can make choices as to where your crew goes at certain points in the story, but there is no free roam around Saltsea, which I actually appreciated in this narrative-heavy game. There is a card game you can play on most of the islands that's reminiscent of Hearts, but I don't care for card games all that much so I mostly skipped it.

The characters are all diverse and interesting with their own hang ups and skills and while I enjoyed getting to know them over the course of the story, the real hero here is the world of Saltsea itself.

Saltsea is an archipelago isolated from the world at large by a great storm. As far as they know, they are the only people left after a worldwide apocalypse known as the Flood. The islands you visit are populated by unique animals and their own interesting societies, and I made sure to click all the prompts so I could learn as much as I could before moving on.

The story itself is decent, if a little, I don't know, twee? It deals with themes like loss, betrayal, climate change and capitalism and while it's fine, it took a back seat to the world itself.

You collect some cool stickers as a record of your travels.

I'd give Saltsea Chronicles a whirl if you're into narrative adventure games like me. If nothing else, it presents a really interesting world to explore with a fascinating history. The narrative might be a little simple and kinda feels like a YA novel at times, but it's mostly well done and even has some replay value.

Game 2 of 2024: Shadows Over Loathing

Shadows Over Loathing

Developer: Asymmetric
Publisher: Asymmetric
Platform: PC
Genre: RPG

Difficulty: Moderate
Hours: ~14

Finished: Yes
Final Rating: 9.5/10

I absolutely adored West of Loathing. I played it with the Steam Link app on my phone so I could play it in bed before finally going to sleep. I wandered the map in hopes of more zany random encounters.

But.

Is the same true of Shadows Over Loathing?

Yes! Yes, yes, yes, a million times yes.

Well written, clever, hilarious, and surprisingly deep, Shadows Over Loathing is a hearty, satisfying experience.

There's an arachnophobia and arachnophilia setting if you're into that kind of thing.

The story starts off with the main character, custom made by you of course, getting a letter from their Uncle Murray beseeching them to come to Ocean City to help with an experiment.

Of course, when you get there, Murray has vanished. You need to solve the mystery of his disappearance by travelling to such places as The Big Moist, a university where you can get jumped by frat dudes and clouds of abstract numbers, and a county that has been overrun by a fossil fuel company. There are a ton (and I mean a ton) of items to gather, from hats (which you equip for stat changes), pants (same), weapons, and shoes (which don't change your stats but change your walking animation). They are almost all hilarious and reflect the game's unique character.

Every scene is given that unique Loathing touch.

Combat is turn based and can get surprisingly hard at times. There are fights where the enemies hit like Mac trucks and you need to make full use of your items and abilities in order to time your attacks correctly. Shadows Over Loathing throws you a bone here; when you hover over enemies you get to see what their next attack is going to be (and they can't be cheesy and change it). This way you can prioritize your actions and make sure you survive another round.

Sometimes there are fights that are just too tough. When you get beaten, you don't die but basically expelled from the fight with an additional perk (sometimes good, sometimes bad). There are often ways to bypass these fights if you have certain items or perks or if your stats are high enough.

I guess if I had one criticism, it's that I had enough experience to buy all the abilities by mid-game, and I didn't really grind or anything. I did try and explore all the locations I found, which might have had something to do with it. I never found money an issue and was able to buy all the stuff I needed. You also find a ton of items and weapons in the field.

I know the art style isn't going to be for everyone, being a black and white stick figure game, but I think it's quite well done and effective. There are some cool, simple graphical effects here and there, but nothing I would describe as ground breaking. I guess if extreme graphical fidelity is something you need, steer clear, but I would urge any RPG fan to grab this immediately.

Book 1 of 2024 - Blindsight

Blindsight

Author: Peter Watts
Genre: Science Fiction

Pages: ~360

Finished: Yes
Final Rating: 8.8/10

This is a book that I think needs to be read at least twice. Dense, heady, and full of scientific jargon, Blindsight is a challenging hard sci-fi treasure.

In the late 21st century, thousands of alien satellites, dubbed "Fireflies", suddenly appear and burn up in the atmosphere, alerting humanity to the presence of an extraterrestrial intelligence. Years later, a crewed ship is sent to investigate a radio transmission coming from Big Ben, a super Jovian object in the Oort Cloud.

The central theme in Blindsight is consciousness. Specifically, is consciousness absolutely necessary for an advanced intelligence? Is it an evolutionary dead-end, perhaps?

Blindsight is a first contact story that I think really nails the 'alien' part of what an alien might be. Intriguing, exciting, and sometimes terrifying, I think this belongs on any sci-fi lovers' bookshelf. If you're not into science fiction, maybe skip this one.

Game 1 of 2024: Robocop: Rogue City

Robocop: Rogue City

Developer: Teyon
Publisher: Nacon
Platform: PC
Genre: Action, FPS

Difficulty: Moderate
Hours: ~10

Finished: No
Final Rating: 6.8/10

Robocop: Rogue City presses all the right nostalgia buttons for 80s action movie fans while delivering what I would describe as a fairly mid experience. 

The game is faithful to the source material to a fault. Our protagonist, Robocop, is rendered in loving detail (seriously, he looks fantastic) and is even voiced by Peter Weller.  Detroit looks like it does in the movies, that is, a bombed out urban wasteland populated by desperate lowlifes and the corporate crooks that profit from human misery.

gee real subtle guys

First, the gameplay. Robocop moves around just like he does in the movies: slowly, with heavy footsteps. You can sprint, but it doesn't give you too much of a speed boost. You clear stages the same way Robocop would, by slowly and methodically shooting all the bad guys.

Robocop always has his trusty Auto-9, which has unlimited ammo, but can also pick up weapons from fallen enemies, like assault rifles and shotguns. The Auto-9 sounds like it does in the movie, and it's great fun to watch the blood fly as you blast away at the bad guys. What is less fun is the enemies themselves. You spend levels mowing down waves of the same three dudes whose AI ranges from ok to downright stupid. The game makes up dumb enemies by making enemies unerring marksmen that see you as soon as you appear on the level.

The enemies become bullet sponges later in the game, which can be a bit frustrating. Especially ED-209.

yooo fuck this guy

Robocop: Rogue City's environments and protagonist look amazing, but the character models could use a little work. They're fairly generic and often kinda creepy lookin'. Peter Weller's voice acting is excellent, but the same can't be said for the rest of the cast, who range from passable to downright cringey.

One of the best things about the action movies of the era is that they didn't overstay their welcome. They got in, did what they needed to do in around 90 minutes, and got out. They knew what you were there for and respected your time.

I can't really say the same thing for Robocop: Rogue City. I spent more time wandering the police station and hospital making idle chitchat (something that could have been a quick cutscene) and completing silly side quests like fetching a towel for some dude in the shower. I think the game clocks in at around 20 hours, which is way too long for a game like this in my opinion. You can skip side quests, but then you miss out on experience you can use to upgrade your abilities. Speaking of abilities, some seem downright useless (Psychology) while others are absolutely necessary (Armor).

Robocop: Rogue City is a decent game, but I can really only recommend this to diehard fans. If you're interested, maybe wait for a sale.