Kill Your Completion v3. 0

[dmland12]

Game #1: Joe Dever's Lone Wolf

Progress: 27/49 Trophies (47%)

Completion: 94.78% (-0.89%)

 

Overall, I really enjoyed this one.  I didn't quite get through all of the story in 3 days, but I'm near the end.  Things are getting tense, but the rules are the rules!  Luckily there were plenty of trophies that were either tied to the story or easy enough to get just playing the game normally, so my completion percentage didn't go down too much.  

 

Lone Wolf is an RPG/Gamebook.  I didn't really have any idea what a gamebook was going into this one, and I'm not still not sure I do.    In any case, in this game you read the story from a book and have to make decisions or deal with enemies.

 

Combat

The combat is kind of hard to explain, but it's pretty detailed... more than it appears to be at first.  The enemies can hit hard so you need to have a good plan on how to take them down before they get through your vitality (HP), especially later in the game.  Below is a fight I had from Act II...  no spoilers, just action, so don't worry.  I made some mistakes and died (if you die, you get the option to redo the battle, start from a previous checkpoint, or reduce the difficulty).  The biggest mistake was at the very end...

 

 

Yup, I dealt my own killing blow on myself.  If you are running low on endurance you can still hit back after a dodge/parry and you'll lose some vitality instead.  Don't do that if it'll kill you.  

 

Story

I felt the story started to drag around the middle of Act II (there are 4 acts), right around the time that the combat difficulty started spiking (I'm guessing this combination is why the trophy for finishing Act II is only at 12%).  But, I really enjoyed the Act III story, and although I haven't been able to finish it, the Act IV story is looking promising!  I don't want to spoil anything, so I'll just leave it at this.

 

Story Decisions

From time to time, you get to make decisions about how you will handle things.  There's several variations here.  Sometimes you will be required to do some quick-time-events to complete the task.  Sometimes your choice won't go so well.  Most of the time it's kind of obvious how things will go.  If you rush in without looking for traps, or if you attack a group of enemies head-on instead of trying something else first, you'll generally have a tougher time.  Which sort of decisions you go for also effect which stats go up when you level up (which happens at the end of each chapter... there's three per Act).  There's a lockpicking minigame, and a rotate-the-magic-cube-into-the-correct-shape-to-break-the-magic-lock minigame.  I also died from one of my decisions in Act IV (you just get to redo it), so that's also possible at least for that one.    Overall, there's a nice variety, and it feels pretty fair.

 

Last Thoughts

I'm looking forward to finishing the story and platting this one later.  The playthrough on hard difficulty will be tough, but the rest of the trophies I lack shouldn't be too bad, with enough time.  I'll be starting Shovel Knight tomorrow.  I think I'll make a post on my initial thoughts and then one more at the end like I did for Lone Wolf.

Edited March 4, 2017 by dmland12

[PerryToxteth]

4 hours ago, xFalionx said:

So, I barely managed to tear myself away from my second game to go to sleep. Here are my first impressions while they're still fresh.

 

Game #2: Prince of Persia: The Forgotten Sands (on PS3)

0.5th day
Total playtime: about 1 hour and 30 minutes

 

I've played this game for a bit and the story is starting to pick up now. 

 

The game begins with you, the prince, visiting your brother Malik at his keep. Turns out you chose the best time to visit since the keep is in the middle of being attacked by another faction. You decide to look for Malik, who is currently retreating into his treasure chamber to unleash a secret magic sand army unto his opponents. When you finally meet up with him within the treasure chamber, you witness him breaking the seal and the sand army turning against him, turning his men into stone. You pick up one half of the broken seal, which just so happens to have protective magic powers that keep you from turning to stone yourself and get told by some magic Jinn who sealed these creatures up in there in the first place, to reunite both halfs of the seal to clean up the mess your brother made. That's where the game starts.

 

One and a half hours in and I'm already hooked, like I said above it was really, really hard to stop playing in the first place because the game is just that addicting. The platforming sections feel nice and fast paced, the combat is not all that hard but does require you to actually think about how you approach the hordes of enemies you run into. I really like the skill system, which lets you choose different perks like increased maximum health, special magic abilities that you can use to attack your enemies or shield yourself from them, or more energy points which are required to use these magic abilities. Up until now I've found 2 different types of enemies: normal ones and shielded ones. The shielded enemies require you to kick down their shield using , which can be pretty hard when you've got 15 other non-shielded enemies attacking you from all other sides.

 

The only 2 things I'm a bit disappointed about are the fact that I was only allowed to choose between normal and easy difficulties (I usually start games on hard from the get go), and the fact that the camera feels dodgy and takes some getting used to. Luckily the camera is locked in the direction you need to head for the most part, so you don't really have to deal with it that often. This is not a game breaker, but it's something that could have been better.

 

I'm really looking forward to playing this some more tomorrow and right now it's a real contender for a  rating in Billy's scale, but let's see about that in another 10 hours or so.

 

I played this game in the last KYC event and it ended up being my favorite of the 10.  It felt like a throwback to games on the PS1 or PS2, but I mean that as a compliment.  Not sure if you're using a guide or not, but there are a few missable trophies with the bosses.  I can give you more info if you like but I dont want to give out too much info if you want to play blind. 

[Myu]

9 hours ago, xFalionx said:

I don't know why but that name feels oddly familiar.  

 

Also, only 20 more minutes until I can start my second game after finishing my first game a day early.  

 

Really? Because I don't know (or maybe I can't remember) what it is about. On Google Image, you only get pictures of cars or of a weird cat 0_0

[Oobedoob S Benubi]

Sorry guys, I'll definitely not have time for any game before #3, glad I already did #2

[Mendant909]

Game #1

Day 3

 

Got stuck with another maze puzzle in the penultimate part of the game, so I can't say much in regards to the story. I'll try to finish the game before I properly rank the games from this event, but it's kind of a shame that the game's narrative is purely optional. Hopefully the secret ending satisfies more than the normal ending.

 

The third chapter of the game begins with the introduction of a floating mechanic and a mushroom that not only reverses controls but later serves as your umbrella. Floating is complicated with shadows obstructing your path or spiked walls coming towards you. Level 3-2 is a big pain as a large section consists floating while dodging those spiked walls, yet you need to open a path that could get you stuck between it and the incoming wall and then you need to know to trigger a lever next to the upcoming wall to stop a fan. Level 3-3 introduces ivy that's affected by the fireflies, paperweights that help with pressing buttons and feeding others, and peashooters. Level 4-1 was a mystery house with way too many doors. Level 4-2 was getting a peashooter through the whole level. Honestly, all of these levels are pretty short but one simple screw-up and you have to redo a section over, and over, and over again.

 

Firefly Diary is a decent game that stretches its minimalist design with punishing deaths that quickly repel players from continuing to play the game. It would have been better if the story was integrated as part of the core of the game rather than a side-show attraction as that would have given players an incentive to see the full mystery. For now I see this game being in the middle of the rankings, coming in 5th or 6th place at the end of the month, but I'm hoping the endings do give me a sense of closure.

[voodoo_eyes]

3 hours ago, dmland12 said:

Game #1: Joe Dever's Lone Wolf

Progress: 27/49 Trophies (47%)

Completion: 94.78% (-0.89%)

 

Overall, I really enjoyed this one.  I didn't quite get through all of the story in 3 days, but I'm near the end.  Things are getting tense, but the rules are the rules!  Luckily there were plenty of trophies that were either tied to the story or easy enough to get just playing the game normally, so my completion percentage didn't go down too much.  

 

Lone Wolf is an RPG/Gamebook.  I didn't really have any idea what a gamebook was going into this one, and I'm not still not sure I do.    In any case, in this game you read the story from a book and have to make decisions or deal with enemies.

 

Combat

The combat is kind of hard to explain, but it's pretty detailed... more than it appears to be at first.  The enemies can hit hard so you need to have a good plan on how to take them down before they get through your vitality (HP), especially later in the game.  Below is a fight I had from Act II...  no spoilers, just action, so don't worry.  I made some mistakes and died (if you die, you get the option to redo the battle, start from a previous checkpoint, or reduce the difficulty).  The biggest mistake was at the very end...

 

 

Yup, I dealt my own killing blow on myself.  If you are running low on endurance you can still hit back after a dodge/parry and you'll lose some vitality instead.  Don't do that if it'll kill you.  

 

Story

I felt the story started to drag around the middle of Act II (there are 4 acts), right around the time that the combat difficulty started spiking (I'm guessing this combination is why the trophy for finishing Act II is only at 12%).  But, I really enjoyed the Act III story, and although I haven't been able to finish it, the Act IV story is looking promising!  I don't want to spoil anything, so I'll just leave it at this.

 

Story Decisions

From time to time, you get to make decisions about how you will handle things.  There's several variations here.  Sometimes you will be required to do some quick-time-events to complete the task.  Sometimes your choice won't go so well.  Most of the time it's kind of obvious how things will go.  If you rush in without looking for traps, or if you attack a group of enemies head-on instead of trying something else first, you'll generally have a tougher time.  Which sort of decisions you go for also effect which stats go up when you level up (which happens at the end of each chapter... there's three per Act).  There's a lockpicking minigame, and a rotate-the-magic-cube-into-the-correct-shape-to-break-the-magic-lock minigame.  I also died from one of my decisions in Act IV (you just get to redo it), so that's also possible at least for that one.    Overall, there's a nice variety, and it feels pretty fair.

 

Last Thoughts

I'm looking forward to finishing the story and platting this one later.  The playthrough on hard difficulty will be tough, but the rest of the trophies I lack shouldn't be too bad, with enough time.  I'll be starting Shovel Knight tomorrow.  I think I'll make a post on my initial thoughts and then one more at the end like I did for Lone Wolf.

 

Sounds interesting enough for me to consider buying it the next time it goes on sale.

 

 

On a different note, I wrapped up Deathly Hallows. Like suspected, it only took another 30 minutes to finish the story. Difficulty doesn't stack, which means another two playthroughs for the plat...

 

I'll start Slain a sometime later today.

[xFalionx]

3 hours ago, PerryToxteth said:

I played this game in the last KYC event and it ended up being my favorite of the 10.  It felt like a throwback to games on the PS1 or PS2, but I mean that as a compliment.  Not sure if you're using a guide or not, but there are a few missable trophies with the bosses.  I can give you more info if you like but I dont want to give out too much info if you want to play blind. 

I always have a look at the missable trophies before or shortly after I start, I'm playing it blind with the exception of the sarcophagi locations. I just let the video show a few frames of the next location and whenever I'm around there, I have a look for it. The only things I know besides that are that There's a boss in the throne room I have to beat without getting hit, same thing for the last boss, and that I should stay on it for a minute directly after I get the ability to solidify water.

 

1 hour ago, Myu said:

Really? Because I don't know (or maybe I can't remember) what it is about. On Google Image, you only get pictures of cars or of a weird cat 0_0

Have a look at my user name.  

 

14 hours ago, MStalker58 said:

@xFalionx Wanted to let you know that I bought Terraria. Your comments pushed me in that direction and then I watched an awesome video review from someone who also thought it was one of the greatest games of all time. That sold me and decided to go ahead and buy it. Before bringing it up in this thread, I was actually leaning towards passing on it. Your thoughts made me take a second look so thanks for that. Unless I end up hating the game, then I'll be coming for you. 

That's great to hear, have fun with the game.  

But if you end up hating the game, I'll be coming for you instead.  

Edited March 4, 2017 by xFalionx

[Myu]

51 minutes ago, xFalionx said:

Have a look at my user name.  

 

I have a real talent for missing the obvious  

[Alpsmile05]

8 hours ago, Pickle2907 said:

Bad move.....came home from work at midnight and stuck this on. Rogue like game....I suck at these and generally rage quit within a short space of time. 2hrs 15mins later, still not a great deal of progress, but the little that I made and the relatively quick load times has me coming back again and again.....maybe this time will be my run!

Haha, I couldn't describe it better myself, these are exactly my feelings too except that I only played about 1 hour

 

Game 2: The Swindle

 

Initial thoughts:

 

So I played about an hour after coming home from work. I was pretty tired so even clumsier than normal which didn't help for this game. At the start you basically are dropped in the game without any explanation and have no idea what you need to do, which resulted in me pushing some buttons to see what they do. This way I opened the front door of the first house I was at and died because there was a guy at the other side of the door. I was like... OK, let's retry... and managed to get the first heist done. Than I could choose to continue with another heist or go back to where you improve your stuff. I felt lucky and decided to do another heist... I died, and died again, and again... (I mean who would've thought that if you fall down from to high you'd die...) So to summon up my progress so far: I'm about 20 days in the game, have died about 15 times, have made very little to no progress and am seriously thinking about restarting from 0. Oh and by the way I have no idea how to deblock the other modes.

 

Than the good news: I got a trophy. And it was by accident, I mean I didn't really want to jump into that spiked pit with 100% of the loot obtained. It really was an accident! It was only after that that I had a look at the trophies of this game and saw: 'Finish the game with your initial burglar'. So I have to finish the game without dying? I only die 75% of times. How on earth will I manage this? 

 

Practice makes perfect? I have 3 days to find out!

Edited March 4, 2017 by Fredoline05

[wtru9]

Day 3 - Final Thoughts

Game #1: Need for Speed Rivals

Playtime: 9 hours???

 

Well, I managed to complete the racer "story", if you can call it that. It's really basically a series of to-do lists loosely tied together around some cutscenes that touch upon the basic philosophy of law enforcement or something? I'm not really sure. It felt like they kinda tried to do something profound, which I'm all for if they execute it right, but they only half committed, and therefore it really feels half baked and out of place.

 

The hot pursuit game mode, where you race other racers along a set course while being pursued by a full serving of cops, and a mode I played to death online in NFS: Hot Pursuit (because Rivals is essentially a newer version of that), becomes incredibly infuriating later on. It feels like the police are only interested in bringing you, and you alone down, and when you combine that with 5 other fully weaponized Racers, who carry weapons such as a "shockwave" which practically sends anyone near their car to Narnia, you're just in for a bad time. The real kicker is that if the cops fall too far back, they despawn and another cops spawns in the middle of the road right in front of you. It happened a few times where I lost several places because I literally could not avoid the police car that suddenly materialized right in front of me.

 

I feel like I may be harping on about the negatives a bit too much, it's always easier to identify things that you find problematic. I'll give Rivals one redeeming positive: The handling model. I found it to be solid and fun, what you'd expect from Need for Speed game. It's tight, but not too much so that the car feels like it's on rails, but not too loose that the car is practically uncontrollable.

 

Overall, I'd give it a . It didn't blow me away, but I enjoyed my time with it enough, and it far from bombed.

Buy it if: You feel the need...

Avoid if: You're a physics teacher/ You prefer to use your cars to run over squishy pedestrians.

 

Next game: Plants Vs. Zombies Garden Warfare 2

Edited March 4, 2017 by wtru9

[voodoo_eyes]

6 minutes ago, wtru9 said:

Day 3 - Final Thoughts

Game #1: Need for Speed Rivals

Playtime: 9 hours???

 

Well, I managed to complete the racer "story", if you can call it that. It's really basically a series of to-do lists loosely tied together around some cutscenes that touch upon the basic philosophy of law enforcement or something? I'm not really sure. It felt like they kinda tried to do something profound, which I'm all for if they execute it right, but they only half committed, and therefore it really feels half baked and out of place.

 

The hot pursuit game mode, where you race other racers along a set course while being pursued by a full serving of cops, and a mode I played to death online in NFS: Hot Pursuit (because Rivals is essentially a newer version of that), becomes incredibly infuriating later on. It feels like the police are only interested in bringing you, and you alone down, and when you combine that with 5 other fully weaponized Racers, who carry weapons such as a "shockwave" which practically sends anyone near their car to Narnia, you're just in for a bad time. The real kicker is that if the cops fall too far back, they despawn and another cops spawns in the middle of the road right in front of you. It happened a few times where I lost several places because I literally could not avoid the police car that suddenly materialized right in front of me.

 

I feel like I may be harping on about the negatives a bit too much, it's always easier to identify things that you find problematic. I'll give Rivals one redeeming positive: The handling model. I found it to be solid and fun, what you'd expect from Need for Speed game. It's tight, but not too much so that the car feels like it's on rails, but not too loose that the car is practically uncontrollable.

 

Overall, I'd give it a . It didn't blow me away, but I enjoyed my time with it enough, and it far from bombed.

Buy it if: You feel the need...

Avoid if: You're a physics teacher/ You prefer to use your cars to run over squishy pedestrians.

 

Next game: Plants Vs. Zombies Garden Warfare 2

 

I played this during the last KYC and found it reasonably fun, but felt it would wear itself out fast (which it did). I played this on and off after the event and finished the racer "campaign" once as well. The to-do list has to be completed another 2 times to reach rank 60... same goes for the cop route, which puts me off this game for the most part.

[ghostly-legend]

aaaah Damn it. Found the topic too late this time around. Otherwise i should have joined along. 

 

Some cool games already came by I see. 

 

Goodluck everyone! 

[Oobedoob S Benubi]

2 minutes ago, ghostly-legend said:

aaaah Damn it. Found the topic too late this time around. Otherwise i should have joined along. 

 

Some cool games already came by I see. 

 

Goodluck everyone! 

 

KyC4 will be in July, I'm guessing... 

[zettlock]

Here goes first ever review (kinda):

 

 

I love this game. Period. We are done now?

No...?

Ok... Oreshika is a mix of JRPG and simplified strategy game. You need a good strategy, that's it. You take control of medieval Japanese clan (1120 AD) killed or rather executed in some wierd magical process. So when this cool looking god comes to your rescue, to revive you, (s)he founds out you have been cursed. So the respawn is limited – your clanmates can live only up to 24 months (they mature militarly in a two months and sexually in eight months). So you have to pass the genes. Yeah, basically this game is about eugenics. To do so, you can mate only with gods (well, not really „only”) and to do so you have to have enough of Glory to persuade them to koochi koochi with you. And this is one instance of many, when this game reminds you it's Japanese roots, especially when one of your pool fellows has to fuck a white Snorlax. Anyhows, you earn glory by fighting. Battle system is extremely easy – you and enemy have two rows of formation, front and rear, and place guys accordingly to their class and what you want to achieve with them. You take turns to whack eachother and that's it. Classes are very different – I didn't unlock all of them, I stick with gunner (basically wipes all of enemies in one shot – no brainer, duh), fencer (samurai dude that is pin-point damage dealer and great versus bosses), halberdier (he damages front row with one swing) and archer (can shoot anybody everywhere). There is this nice twist that if you kill the captain, the enemy routs (same applies to your team). So snipers are welcome, though game is so easy that you end up exterminating them all anyway. You fight all those Japanese mythology enemies and even gods sometimes, when they pay you a visit. I battled a toddlers once – yeah, Japanese game, what you gonna do... When you decide to go to battle, called here a raid, you have got a set time limit to roam around – when it's gone it's month that just passed. You can decide to stay there longer or return home.

When you are back in your town, you can manage items (obviously), invest in new goodies, develop your town (just by upgrading, very simplified) or mate with gods (takes a whole month – that's one hell of a foreplay!). You can craft heirlooms, a weapons that are exclusive to one person and can be passed on (inherited) and they level up along you, so they can become really overpowered.

Why I love this game? I don't know, really. It might look like there is so much to do, but in fact there isn't. It just has this one-more-turn-and-I'm-done-holy-shit-it's-7-am! effect like Civilization has. And you really attach to those short lived guys. Only thing I didn't like is unnecessarly convoluted lair system.

I recommend this game to anyone that loves Japanese games and is into strategy and JRPG games. Now I have to get a boxed copy somewhere... And I will plat that game surely!

Long live Rieki Clan!

 

Rating: 9 incests out of 10 battling toddlers

Trophy progress: 10 of 48

Completion drop: 91.63% → 90.56%

[FFHannibal]

I apologize for the wall of text. This is actually the first time I tried to do this. My thoughts have a tendency to be all over the place, so if something seems like word vomit it probably is. Thanks for reading though if you manage to get through all of it .

 

Started with: 42.45%
Now: 42.57% (Totally inaccurate because I platted Watch Dogs sorry but not really...)

 

Game #1: Unit 13 (PS Vita)

 

Trophies: 14 / 44
Playtime: 3 hours 10 minutes

First off, I've only had my Vita for a little less than a month so I don't have a lot of experience with it. Expect some controls-rage, graphics complaints and/or all-round Vita praising when I feel like it.

I had already installed the game and loaded the trophy list when I first got my Vita. I also got really lucky because I bought everything used (real cheap) and the online voucher for Unit 13 was still working (as was the one for Resistance: Burning Skies). The only thing I knew about Unit 13 before starting this was that it's a shooter. I'd already played Resistance and I really liked the controls there. I wasn't really a fan of doing fast paced stuff with the touch screen like melee, but we're not here to talk about Resistance.

When I booted it up I was already 'happy' with the simplicity of the main menu. Nothing is more off-putting than flashy screens and a million buttons and screens to start a simple match (I'm looking at you Ridge Racer). I figured I shouldn't jump into co-op yet, so I went for the solo missions which dropped me into a Tutorial before I could start real missions.

As usual the Tutorial covered about everything you need to know. The controls are pretty instinctive: to aim to shoot.  is somehow not jump but sprint, but I don't mind because it's an infinite sprint as long as you keep walking/aiming with . is a melee attack (already a plus in my book because it's the thing that annoys me the most about Resistance). The lack of dual triggers does mean I need to throw grenades and defuse mines with the touchscreen, but I can live with that. So far I've had no need to throw a grenade whilst walking, aiming and firing.

 

After the Tutorial I played the first mission. I wasn't too into it yet, so seeing as they classed it as Long kinda had me 'annoyed' for a bit, but if this is what they call long I'd hate to see their short missions. It wasn't overly difficult, I don't know yet if there's any real story or if it's all just seperate missions, but I won't go into too much detail. Of course I died on the first (easy) mission and it immediately made me notice how little health I had. Now I know there's different characters to play with, but I haven't figured out if they've got different stats or just different 'abilities'. I don't like having such a tiny margin of error, but it does make it a lot more realistic I guess.

I stopped playing after that and continued the next day. I noticed there was a menu for a daily challenge, so me being me decided to try it after completing one mission. Never mind the daily mission being an elite one . Let's just say I didn't get the trophy for completing a daily mission. After that abysmal attempt I figured I'd be better of playing a few more solo missions, at which point I noticed there were different categories. I'd completed a Direct Action one the previous day, which is just completing a certain set of objectives. The next one was a short covert one.

I was right about their short missions being really short and I was ready to curse the game when I only got 1 star at the end of the mission, thinking that if I was already doing so poorly on the second mission how would I ever do all 36. Turns out I needed a refresher on what the word Covert meant, because apparently killing all enemies does not give you a higher score and you can complete the level without ever being seen and killing anyone in under 1 minute (which did get me 5 stars).

Next mission was a speed one, completing the level as fast as you can. I haven't figured out if you're really just supposed to speed through or if you also need to kill everyone, etc. to get a higher score. I still got 4 stars on it, so not too bad I guess. Mission after that one was an elite one (have to complete entire level without dying). After my amazing experience with one before I just turned the game off for the day not ready to fail spectacularly again.

I'd only played for about an hour and a half total the previous two days combined so I kinda had to double that amount to have played at least 3 hours. I wanted to check out the high value targets (seeing as there's a trophy for every target), but the first one required 20 stars and I'd only gotten 14. So I went back to that dreaded solo elite mission and to my surprise it was kinda easy. I did die and having to start over when you've almost completed the level is annoying. It didn't make me ragequit so that's a good sign. (I also aced that mission apparently, 5 stars ftw )

I got 5 stars on the next mission too, though 1 would've been enough to try the HVT. As far as I can tell the HVT levels are the same as an elite one, with you having to start over if you die. I was however playing the level while at a party for my sister's boyfriend, so I don't really remember if I died a lot. Same goes for the 3 solo missions I played after. According to my stars for those levels, my skills were deteriorating a bit

So I stopped playing at midnight (also because the next solo mission was an elite one) and there's still a few things I haven't done. I didn't try another daily challenge. I have yet to try a co-op mission, so I've got a few reasons to pick this game up again.

Lastly, I got more trophies than I thought I would. A lot of the trophies in this game are pretty standard (Complete one mission of kind X, Complete all missions of kind X, Eliminate all HVTs, etc.). There are a few grindy ones (Level up all characters) and there are some misc ones (Kill 2 people with one shot, etc.). All in all they're pretty straightforward trophies and not too difficult. I'd imagine that completing every mission will (almost) get you the grindy trophies, so certainly doable.

Likelihood of me going for the platinum: 80%

 

Edited March 4, 2017 by FFHannibal

[Melanogaster1987]

Game #1: Tomb Raider: Legend

 

Staying within my comfort zone for my first game - I'm familiar with this genre, having previously played Tomb Raider:Anniversary, as well as every Uncharted game except Golden Abyss. I wasn't sure how well this game from 2006 would hold up in 2017, especially with the awesomeness that is Uncharted 4 still being fresh in my mind.

 

I played for about 5 hours, and I've got through the first 3 levels (Bolivia, Peru, Japan), and spent some time roaming around Croft Manor. That's nearly half the game done - looks like it'll be quite short; most players would probably reach this point in 3 hours, but I always take longer than most as I like to explore everywhere.

 

The varied environments have impressed me so far; we've had mountains, a ghost town in the desert, and a brightly-lit Japanese city - I'm always looking forward to seeing what the next stage has to offer.

 

The first part of the opening level serves as a nice tutorial, and the controls feel intuitive. However, movement can be cumbersome at times, especially when pushing blocks or rotating whilst hanging from a rope. This can be a problem given that platforming is not too forgiving; slightly misalign a jump, and rather than stick out an arm to grab the nearby ledge, Lara prefers to go splat on the floor below instead.

 

The combat works exactly the same as TR:Anniversary - making use of a simplistic auto-aim system, but I prefer Legend's gunplay for the most part simply because I've managed to make good use of all the different weapons at some point, whereas in Anniversary, I found that each gun was almost totally obsolete once I got my hands on the next weapon. Being able to kill your enemies by shooting environmental hazards is a nice touch as well. Having said that, I do wish that you could throw the grenades further; it's very easy to get caught in your own grenade's blast. Although the combat works OK, I can't help but feel underwhelmed by it all having played through the Uncharted series - it really makes you appreciate just how much the Uncharted games revolutionised this genre.

 

I know that lots of people don't like the motorcycle sequences in this game, but I thought that the one chase sequence that I have played so far worked well and was a nice change of pace - having auto-aim definitely helped here as I always find parts like this in games very hard if there is no aim assist.

 

All of this brings me onto the biggest problem I have with this game - although I think the gunplay is OK for an old game, there is simply too much of it and not enough puzzles for my liking. TR:Anniversary had at least one excellent puzzle in almost every level, and I was very much looking forward to see what the developers could come up with in Legend - but so far I've been seriously disappointed. I'm nearly halfway through the game and only real puzzles so far have been two rather underwhelming "get 3 cubes/spheres onto the 3 pressure pads to open the door" puzzles.

 

Overall, not a bad game, but the gunplay is showing its age, and it doesn't get the ratio of combat to puzzles right for me.

 

My rating: Would be Bronze, if comparing it to modern games, but such a comparison is rather unfair, given that it came before the revolutionary Uncharted series, so I'm going to bump it up to  Silver 

 

---

 

Trophies earned in this game: 13 (1, 12) for 210 points

Total trophies earned in this event: 13 (1, 12) for 210 points

 

Current completion rate: 65.92% [Down 0.75%]

Edited March 4, 2017 by Melanogaster1987

[PerryToxteth]

3 hours ago, xFalionx said:

I always have a look at the missable trophies before or shortly after I start, I'm playing it blind with the exception of the sarcophagi locations. I just let the video show a few frames of the next location and whenever I'm around there, I have a look for it. The only things I know besides that are that There's a boss in the throne room I have to beat without getting hit, same thing for the last boss, and that I should stay on it for a minute directly after I get the ability to solidify water.

 

Yeah, you got it covered. If you get hit once, quit and try again.  And trust me, you WILL get hit. 

 

Good idea on the sarcophagi too.  Most aren't hard to find but no point in replaying an entire game for one missed collectible. Keep enjoying it!

[Kevvik]

Game #1: TorqueL

 

So I didn't have a lot of playing time, about 3-3.5 hrs but I think that this impression is solid.

 

TorqueL is a puzzle game of sorts as you manoeuvre a character in a square around an environment to an exit. Using the four shape buttons, you can extend protrusions from the different sides of the square to aid you in passing obstacles while moving towards the exit. Using the left stick or directional buttons you can rotate/roll your square across sections as well.

 

That's the basics. In practice, I didn't find it as simple as it sounds but I don't fault the controls which I found responsive, if occasionally overly so. My ability to move around increased with practice though I still have some difficulty.

 

The trophies are set around completing the routes which start the same but proceed through branches at certain levels. Either their completion or the time taken provide the bulk of the trophies.  Repetition of several levels take away a bit of the enjoyment but knowing them better on subsequent plays will also allow for improvement of times so it evens out.

 

Overall, I enjoyed this game while personally finding it quite challenging. I will likely return to this at times this month to keep going at some of the routes.

 

Final rating 6/10

 

Current status for trophies 4/13

Completion rate currently -0.15%

 

Hopefully I will have more time this weekend for Game #2.

[ladynadiad]

Going to be rather busy today so I won't be able to start my second game quite yet.  Of course I still need to decide what that will be.

 

[Pickle_Riiiick_X]

4 hours ago, Fredoline05 said:

Haha, I couldn't describe it better myself, these are exactly my feelings too except that I only played about 1 hour

 

Game 2: The Swindle

 

Initial thoughts:

 

So I played about an hour after coming home from work. I was pretty tired so even clumsier than normal which didn't help for this game. At the start you basically are dropped in the game without any explanation and have no idea what you need to do, which resulted in me pushing some buttons to see what they do. This way I opened the front door of the first house I was at and died because there was a guy at the other side of the door. I was like... OK, let's retry... and managed to get the first heist done. Than I could choose to continue with another heist or go back to where you improve your stuff. I felt lucky and decided to do another heist... I died, and died again, and again... (I mean who would've thought that if you fall down from to high you'd die...) So to summon up my progress so far: I'm about 20 days in the game, have died about 15 times, have made very little to no progress and am seriously thinking about restarting from 0. Oh and by the way I have no idea how to deblock the other modes.

 

Than the good news: I got a trophy. And it was by accident, I mean I didn't really want to jump into that spiked pit with 100% of the loot obtained. It really was an accident! It was only after that that I had a look at the trophies of this game and saw: 'Finish the game with your initial burglar'. So I have to finish the game without dying? I only die 75% of times. How on earth will I manage this? 

 

Practice makes perfect? I have 3 days to find out!

 

LMAO!.....There's a manual save "cheat" you can use.

 

Conclusion

Game: The Swindle

Playtime: Approx 7hrs

Completion%: 38.51%

 

Doing my write up now, doubt I'll get any playtime tomorrow with RL interfering.

 

This game has chewed me up and spat me out repeatedly! Still enjoying it though, just that "one more try" mentality. Unlocked up to the third level of security.....it's hard.....and frustrating.

 

Approximately 1 death in 10 is just awkward controls or getting stuck against platforms I shouldn't be stuck against....always seems to be on the heist I think I can pull off too.

 

When I've got room on my vita memory card this will be taking a spot.....installed it earlier to try get a sneaky level or 2 in at work when it's quiet but there isn't enough space to install the update so I have no cross save functionality and no will to start from scratch again just yet, lol.

 

Earned 1 trophy, same one as @Fredoline05....but I did it intentionally to make an impact on my trophy card, hehe.

[MStalker58]

2 hours ago, FFHannibal said:

I apologize for the wall of text. This is actually the first time I tried to do this. My thoughts have a tendency to be all over the place, so if something seems like word vomit it probably is. Thanks for reading though if you manage to get through all of it .

 

Started with: 42.45%
Now: 42.57% (Totally inaccurate because I platted Watch Dogs sorry but not really...)

 

Game #1: Unit 13 (PS Vita)

 

Trophies: 14 / 44
Playtime: 3 hours 10 minutes

 

 

Hey, we both got the Watch Dogs plat on the same day! Looks like you beat me by about 6 hours. 

 

I managed to get through the wall of text, do I get a prize? I've never heard of that game but really enjoyed reading your review. Especially liked the part where you thought killing everything in sight on a covert mission was a good idea. 

[PerryToxteth]

Game No. 1

Middle-Earth: Shadow of Mordor

 

 

Trophies Earned: 15/75

Playing Time: 7 hours

 

   Well, I learned from the last KYC event that there are games where you are glad to see the three-day window close and games where you wish you had more days to play. This game definitely falls into the latter category.  I can't believe this game has sat on my harddrive for almost a year and I never even fired it up! And I'm actually quite sad to be leaving it, as the story and all the game's activities are really opening up. Of course, I know Hemiak has no rules about playing games on the side but I want to give the other nine games a proper look (and I'm having to compensate for days I will miss mid-event).

  This is definitely the best Tolkien-theme game for the PS3 and PS4. And the strange thing is, it's not very Tolkien-esque.  Sure, you are a ranger and you kill Orc, Uruks and other familiar Middle-Earth beasties, but the game really steps away from the popular LOTR and Hobbitt themes. And I think that's  a good thing! War in the North's cameos of hobbits and elves felt a little forced.  There are a couple appearances of old faces but it seems to work well story-wise.

Gameplay: As previously stated by other KYCers, its an open-world, hack&slash with RPGish elements incorporated in like special powers, skill trees, etc.  In seven hours of gameplay, I got through half of the 20 story missions and have completed 25% of the overall game.  I have done a few side missions but there are a ton left.  And I have yet to really delve into the captain/ nemesis missions, which frankly, seem a bit complicated trophy-wise. 

Trophies: So far the game has a good variety of them and they are spread out through the gameplay.  It is a pet peeve of mine when games have trophies back-loaded, meaning you have to invest 20+ hours of playing before 10 trophies pop in the last hour (i.e. LEGO games!).

  There is only one online trophy involving a vendetta mission, where another player has died and you need to revenge their death by taking out their killer. Thankfully, @Pickle2907 provided ample opportunities to get this trophy by dying numerous times all over Middle-Earth.  I'm sure I reciprocated the gesture more than enough times for him as well.  It had the appearance of being troublesome (like the AC Black Flag Sharing is Caring trophy), but the missions popped up on my map pretty quick into open world play.

  There are a couple more complicated trophies involving captains but I haven't got that far yet.  I'm sure DamagingRob could answer any questions on those. Heck, I have a few questions myself. 

Final Thoughts: Simply put, a GREAT game. Not sure if this will be topped in the event. I will give it a  only because I am only 25% into the game.  But it looks worthy of a . And the sequel is coming! 

 

Stats Update After Game 1:  (Pre-KYC3 Stats)

Games Completed/ Played:  62/42  (60/42)

Trophies Earned: 2155.                       (2135)

Unearned: 380                                    (309)

Completion %:  83.36                         (85.93)

Rarity: 43.40%                                    (43.14%)

 

- The stats are a bit skewed because I had to log a few hours into Game 5 of the event.

 

It's the beginning of baseball season here in the States so I'll reference its lingo for my upcoming games.

On Deck: Unravel

In the Hole: Deadly Tower of Monsters

[dizzyshadow]

Game #1 Darkest Dungeon

 

playtime approx 6 hours

 

So I've been looking forward to playing this game since I first came across it on steam, I'm glad this event finally gave me the excuse to try it.

 

the backstory is that you have just inherited you family mansion, but this mansion has been ruined by your ancestors who became obsessed by discovering some ancient powers that lurked there, the suggestion is that while playing the game you will discover the terrible things they have done. 

 

In in terms of gameplay it's a fairly typical dungeon crawler with turned based battles, you sends team of 4 heroes into a dungeon on a mission, should you succeed you obtain rewards which can be used to upgrade your hamlet (base) or heroes to allow you to take on more difficult missions. Missions are relatively short ( maybe 30 mins). You can chop and change which heroes you use for each mission, and you are forced to because of various game mechanics.

 

they have worked hard to make the heroes appear more real, each hero has not only has a class and typical stats but also have quirks, these are both positive or negative. These maybe fairly basic e.g. Bonuses in certain terrains or against certain monsters but there are some more interesting ones, for example it took my a while to work out why one character would whistle when he discovered certain loot and declare he was keeping it for himself, it turned out he had the trait kleptomaniac.

 

However the key twist appears to be the stress mechanic, heroes become stressed while on an adventure based on what happens to them, what they and the behaviour of themselves, other party members and monster. If they become too stressed then their resolve in tested and depending on the outcome they obtain a new quirk, apparently there are more serious consequences as well but I've not seen those yet. 

 

In town heroes roes can be sent to church or the tavern to reduce stress, and they can also be sent to the sanitarium to remove quirks. However this makes them unavailable for the next mission, so really forces you to maintain a squad of heroes and change them regularly yet, the game also features permanent hand saves very regularly so there is virtually no chance to go back and change what you did. its supposed to be encouraging you to make trade offs and sacrifices e.g do you abandon a mission to save one of your heroes or do you sacrifice them. However this hasn't really grabbed me yet, maybe it's still too early in the game for me to be attached to or worried about what happens to the heroes.

 

because of this there are a lot of options,I feel like I've barely scratched the surface of all the options that are involved. There is definitely potential here, I'll definitely play more of this,whether there is enough here to keep me Interested to play through the whole game which looks pretty long, or go for the plat, which apparently difficult and very long remains to be seen.

[Alpsmile05]

51 minutes ago, Pickle2907 said:

LMAO!.....There's a manual save "cheat" you can use.

Really? OOooooh

 

Normally I'm against these kind of little 'cheats'. I always try to do everything legit, but this might become an exception to that. I just can't see me finishing the game without dying. Even if I get better at it those damn controls will definately kill me a few times.

 

Game 2, Day 1: The Swindle

 

I played a bit more, I must be around 2 hours in total game time now and I'm still having a hard time. I managed to unlock the 2nd level of security though (to unlock them you just need to buy them). And I managed to encounter new enemies (flying robots that shoot you, weird looking animals that kill you if you walk on them after you killed them, ...) It's true that everybody has some of those to protect their homes from burglars right? Ah well, just to say the game is still very difficult for me, and getting harder every new heist I play. Most of the time I try to hack 1 computer and get out, just to say it wasn't a complete waste. But now even those easy computers have camera's above them that will see you while you hack them...

 

Although I'm struggling the game has its charm, it's actually pretty nice if you like these kind of games, but I don't! Basically now I'm trying to reach that 100 day mark just to see what happens.

 

No new trophies yet, but 1 thing is for sure, I won't get the 100% before Christmas' Eve (what a stupid idea for a trophy)!

[Hemiak]

Update #3, 4.5 hours played

5/20, 22%, A rank

 

Got a late start because Friday is paperwork night. Jumped right into chapter 3 and I'm in control of Mi again. The two fairies, Dora and Cilia are still with me, and chide me for sleeping in late after a hard night. Interesting because the last thing I remember is being blown up in a crazy tunnel thing at the end of chapter 1 and 2.

 

Anyway, we set out from a room I don't recognize and immediately in the next room are given a task. Apparently every 600 years a member of my family is tasked with ringing the 6 bells of Awakening. (not really the name but I couldn't resist.) Anyway, this year I'm the lucky winner, even though everybody else was hoping my brother would get chosen because, you know, he can actually talk. Anyway, at this point I'm given an option to "send" Dora or Cilia. This basically takes the place of speech for the rest of the game. Dora is very positive and happy, while Cilia is kind of a downer and occasional outright bitch. It doesn't seem to affect the end result of each conversation, but people react differently, and sometimes very amusingly, to the different approaches.

 

Anyway I set off exploring and start hitting random buttons to see if anything has changed. Low and Behold, by hitting I now turn from Mi into Bob (the bouncing ball). How that happens isn't explained, and it isn't even really mentioned. This opens up a whole new world of platforming. Bob is much faster and he can bounce much higher than Mi can jump, but he can't climb anything or use the power balls. So often you will climb something with Mi, turn into Bob and hold to get a super jump, pass through a power ball, switch back to Mi, activate the ball, and then grab on to a wall or ledge. It gets pretty complicated at times, and it's pretty rewarding when you pull it off.

 

I spent almost two hours last night just randomly exploring. I originally set off towards one of the Bells but never did manage to find one of the damn things and eventually gave up. It's very apparent that the first two chapters are merely tutorial levels for the two styles of play, and that the meat of the game is here in chapter 3. Both the areas from 1 and 2 are here, and they are but a fraction of the entire map, going from the places where my objectives are lit up. I just enjoyed my time exploring and trying out the various "puzzles" that were scattered around. I picked up 4 or 5 new quests, completed one of them, and found 8 or 9 random objects (probably for quests) along the way.

 

All in all I like this game a bunch. I could see it getting really old if you just played it for trophies but if you want a puzzler with a great feeling of exploration this is a pretty good game. I finally had to turn it off around 12:50am because I was supposed to be playing The Swindle. I did manage to get about an hour with that game, and my initial thoughts will be posted a bit later.

 

All in all I'd give this game a solid for what it is, though I could see this easily being a or for some people.