Game Backlog Burner - Part 4
I didn't have any particular plans for this week, as I had met my goal by week 3. I didn't play as much and I revisited one of the games that I had played in Week 3 - Truberbrook - to make some more progress. Guild of Dungeoneering and Q.U.B.E. Director's Cut both get mini-reviews.
Week 4
Q.U.B.E. Director's Cut
This is a cute little puzzler similar to Portal. I really enjoyed it, and I will probably try some of the "extra" stuff that is included later, but I'm probably going to move on to Q.U.B.E. 2 first. This was a very enjoyable 3D puzzle game. 7/10
Guild of Dungeoneering
After playing Book of Demons (4/10 do not recommend) I really wanted to play something that scratched the desire I didn't know that I had which was a dungeon crawly card mechanic game. This is the game that I wanted. It's an actual card game, with three main phases - you build your guild with items to recruit guild members; you send guild members into dungeons, where you place tiles, monsters and loot; you battle monsters that you meet along the way. The graphics are adorable, the music is fun, the writing is endearing, the mechanics are good, the card playing is simple, but not so simple that it's unenjoyable. This probably got bonus marks for scratching in itch awoken by an earlier bad game. 8/10
Dandara: Trials of Fear
This one was actually a really impressive game. It's one I may come back to in the future to give another shot. It reminds me of Celeste in terms of its artwork and presentation and VVVVVV in its gameplay. Your main character can launch from surface to surface, sticking only to specifically identified areas of levels. It uses this main mechanic and sprawling level design to create a metroidvania with a very unique traversal method. I found that I loved the concept and execution of the game (it's very well made) but didn't love the gameplay itself. I also found it hard to mentally map the game and kept getting lost, even in the early areas. 6/10
Truberbrook
I played more of Truberbrook - it's still fun. I didn't spend as much time on games this week as previous weeks; I picked up "Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain" and have been working on that in my free time instead.
Final Thoughts
My overall goal was to play a game from each of the last 12 Humble Monthly Bundles, and I did that. I also took the opportunity to make a library of all the extra keys that I had, but I unfortunately distributed them right before we had an event to distribute keys around people. I also spent a bit of time evaluating if I was going to continue with the humble monthly bundle, and I will be for now. That bit of retrospection was a nice side effect of this.
This was a rough month for me personally - lockdown is starting to grate on me and my family. This event was helpful; it was a very enjoyable distraction from the current situation. There were a few standout games - Evergarden is one that I've returned to for 10 minutes at a time, and I really like Nordheim and am planning to return to that. I really enjoyed this and would take part in another one.