Developer: Sokpop Collective, Tom van den Boogaart
Release Date: 4 October 2024
A gardener gets hired for maintenance work over the weekend. A simple task, but strangely some tools are missing…The owner of the garden isn’t around, and their house is off-limits. Perhaps new tools can be found in the mysterious town, or maybe some of the reserved townsfolk have seen them?
Grunn mixes together a type of game that I love with a type of game that I hate. Together, they become a genius concoction that I absolutely don’t want to play despite REALLY wanting to play. Let me explain.
I love a task simulator. Give me games like Powerwash Sim, House Flipper or similar and I can play them all day, getting myself into that hyper fixated state of ‘just one more task’. The entire idea of this genre – in my opinion – is to allow for a flow state, zoning out of your everyday life, keeping your hands busy and your dopamine bar full. No thinking, only doing. As soon as I begun cutting the grass in this slightly overgrown garden I instantly fell into this zone, my safe zone, forgetting any uncanny feelings I may have had prior. What a perfect zone to get someone in before intruding, pulling the rug and making their hair stand on edge.
In Grunn, we are hired to do some gardening. We are left some instructions, a deadline, and that is all you get as you are let loose into this sandbox of oddities. I am not going to spoil in which way this is a horror game, you will have to play yourself for that, but I will say that at one point I did squeal. Once you notice something strange, you may notice something else, until the things you are noticing are probably nothing at all. Or.. If you are like me you will just get on with the job you were hired to do, happily snip-snip-snipping away without a care in the world. Once you realise, however, that things don’t quite seem ordinary, the dread creeps in and the real game begins.
You have been placed into a playground and the world is yours to explore, experiment and tidy up.. or not. Every action you take, object you find or information you obtain will lead you to the next, adding to your knowledge banks ready to take action somewhere down the line. The game takes place with a running clock, which means you only have limited time to do what you need to do, and there is far more to do than you could achieve before the deadline. The time pressure looms as you make your choice on what you pursue. I recommend a notebook as you find yourself zipping around, following clues without context and discover leads that you may want to follow up on.
I found the games unique aesthetic to be a little jarring at first. The generally soft colour palette draws you into the initial ‘cozy’ atmosphere, but it never feels perfect as what can only be described as a surreal wobble obfuscates your environment. This can be turned off in the settings but I quickly got used to it, preferring to keep it on as a scapegoat for any potential peripheral movement that should not be, that I would rather deny happened.
The demo contains 5 endings, with the full game presumably adding many more. In my playtime I found 2, neither of which being the true ending of the demo. While I had ideas of more things to try, I decided to wait for the full game to puzzle it out. Maybe then, I will finally dare to stay out after dark.
If you enjoy weird and wonderful, subversions and curiosity, I recommend giving this one a go. Something is going on here, and it is NOT wholesome.
Demo Length – 1+ Hours At a glance + All in on the surreal aesthetic that can so easily turn creepy. + Tasks feel good to do and complete. + Freedom/No handholding. + So weird. + Multiple endings feel achievable in a game this length and densely packed. + Non-traditional puzzle game. + Contrasts cozy ideas with less cozy moments.
Slow is smooth. Smooth is fast. Fast is panic. Oops, let me repair that for you. Repeat.
Uncle Chop’s Rocket Shop
Developer: Beard Envy
Release Date: November 2024
Come on down to Uncle Chop’s Rocket Shop, for all your roguelite spaceship repair simulation needs!
WARNING: Untested genre not suitable for people with tentacles for arms or an aversion to dying horrifically. Side effects include improved reading comprehension under pressure and a furry fetish.
Uncle Chop’s Rocket Shop is a roguelite puzzle game that is built around minigames. We have been soulbound tasked to run the local Rocket Shop, and not only do passers by need their ships fixing to the highest standard for you know, safety, we have rent to pay and the better job we do, the more sweet sweet space cash we earn.
This is a game about problem solving, following instructions and being strategic where it matters. In focused mode you can take your time, meticulously getting to know the machines you are repairing and the components within. In frantic mode, the more jobs that you get done within a certain timeframe, the more money you earn. Personally, I enjoyed the idea of frantic mode, feeling reminiscent of games like Among Us, Tin Can, Keep Talking and No One Explodes and Papers, Please. However, for me, focused mode was the way to go, feeling more akin to House Flipper or a building flat pack furniture situation, allowing me to take my time, dig deep into the detailed and amusing instruction manual, and still somehow manage to do something wrong.
Not only does the gameplay have a high concentration yet flow state inducing element to it, the entire design is great. Everything is simple enough and clear to read, while also being very distinct and colourful. Everything you click on is responsive and makes visual changes that communicate to the player clearly. The design of the different aliens arriving at the shop and the vehicles in tow are creative and fun, the dialogue is funny, the random events that occur always made me smirk and I continued to be surprised at the new things occurring each run.
The game has run based progression that is erased when you die/lose, as well as a classic meta progression system that ticks over with you onto your next run. Dialogue and scenareos are slightly altered each run, adding more elements and allowing forward momentum as you get more familiar with the loop. It is the type of game where familiarity is going to help you improve equally as much as the upgrades.
The attention to detail is fantastic, the game play is silky smooth and my time with the demo was an absolute joy. I am going to be keeping an eye on this one for sure.
Demo Length – 2+ Hours At a glance + High concentration yet flow state gameplay. + Funny. + Polished. + Two key options for gameplay offer different experiences. + Keeps on giving. + The roguelite aspects feel seamless.
Clean up ocean waste in this relaxing & satisfying cozy game! Recycle, earn coins, upgrade your boat, repeat! Explore and clean up new areas with more waste and new challenges!
Spilled! is a breezy 10-15 minute demo that I recommend checking out if you enjoy flow-state, meditative games.
Upon booting up the game I was greeted with a very wholesome screen with a small amount of information about the developer. They are creating this game after leaving school to follow their dream, living from their savings while living on a boat! I honestly would love if more indie games would do this as I immediatly felt more of a connection knowing the story behind the game. This isn’t the entire reason for the recommendation of course. The game is zen, therapeutic and ran smooth as can be.
In Spilled! we take control of a boat, driving around clearing spillages and plastics polluting the water around us. The more that we collect, we can cash it in to buy upgrades for our boat, allowing more efficiency in our cleansing operation. The more that we clear the waters of the litter, the clearer they get in colour, giving us the real time effect of the efforts we are making and we can collect wildlife along the way.
Lente the developer, is very transparent about the goals of her project. This isn’t going to be a long game, but it is clearly made with love and I hope that the game sells well when it gets a release, allowing her to move onto further projects!
Demo Length – 10-15 minutes At a glance + A meditative experience. + Very pleasing on the eye. + Cleaning rather than fishing fits the wholesome feel. + A solo developer with an interesting story. +/- It is going to be a short game.
This dungeon is closed for cleaning. We apologize for any inconvenience.
Goblin Cleanup
Developer: Crisalu Games
Release Date: To be announced
A co-op cleaning game where you have to clean and rearrange a dungeon before the next adventurers come to complete it again.
As evidenced by my Powerwash Sim and Crime Scene Cleaner love, I have a bit of a tendency towards a nice, cleaning, task simulator. I am always so grateful when another game pops up like this and they are good. The line between compulsive and boring is surprisingly thin, it would be so easy to misstep, but this demo – along with the other games I mentioned above – sits on the compulsive side.
The game is planned for an Early Access release (no date at the time of writing) and that makes Goblin Cleanup all the more exciting to me. This was a great, fully functional, polished demo that showcases the core concept of the game. Community feedback will inform the direction of the rest of the game and the functionality of the demo makes me have confidence in the developers to really deliver the content.
What I mean by that is everything just worked so well. Goblin Cleanup is a twist on the genre where your job is to clean away the blood and gore of heros and adventurers that have fallen in the clients dungeon. Through the grime you will be both avoiding and resetting traps, placing the furniture back where it belongs and wondering what the heck happened to make such a mess. It is user friendly, snappy and there was only one mechanic that I would have liked an upgrade for.
The traps add a new idea to a tried and tested core, adding a slight order of operations puzzle to ensure maximum efficiency. After all, you don’t want to trip the crossbow to shoot you point blank because you didn’t move a piece of furniture earlier, spilling your own blood and meat over your freshly mopped floor. Navigation is also part of the fun, finding the best way to get the furniture to where it belongs without stepping on a pressure plate because you couldn’t see in front of your feet, because you were carrying furniture. Each dungeon has a large amount of levels, allowing you to experience the journey that the unfortunate heros themselves would face, with interesting winding level design and no way of knowing how to navigate until you try it for yourself.
I can’t speak for the co-op experience as these types of game are a solo endeavour for me, but it is certainly going on my wishlist as a podcast/tv show companion game. I only played 2 levels but I am sold that this is a fun time, worthy of it’s place in the genre. Adding magic to cleaning is an angle I didn’t know that I needed.
Demo Length – 2+ hour At a glance + Another fine example of the genre with its own twist. + A funny concept. + Plays smoothly. + User friendly. + Compulsive. + Stays on the right side of fun vs tedious (so far). +/- I did not get as far as levels with enemies yet so I can’t comment on whether that adds a fun challenge or frustration. – My one problem was walking backwards and forwards so much to get fresh water, I could have used some pockets for my slimes.
This time last year I was living my best life. Driven mad by my backlog and the continually rising number of games on my Game Pass ‘play later’ list, I gave myself a beautiful gift. That gift was permission. Permission to dive into said list. 12 games, 12 videos, 12 impressions – maybe I should have called it the Duodecuplary games. It turned out to be an absolute treat.
One year later I am still looking back fondly on this time. While it was so much more work than I anticipated (why would I even consider that this would only be 12 hours of gameplay?!), I loved every second. I didn’t only do it for enjoyment though, it served a purpose. I wanted to try out a bunch of games before they left the service, experience what they were about, decide if I wanted to play them to completion and by extension, see whether I wanted to make content with them.
I would have loved to have done it again this year but circumstances mean that my content has slowed down. Even if I somehow managed to carve out the time to do the 12 Days of Games, it would feel bad knowing that I didn’t manage to Let’s Play most of the games that I wanted to from the previous batch. So instead I am doing a recap!
Finished
Citizen Sleeper (2022)
You are a sleeper, a digitised human consciousness in an artificial body, owned by a corporation that wants you back. Thrust amongst the unfamiliar and colourful inhabitants of the Eye, you need to build friendships, earn your keep, and navigate the factions of this strange metropolis, if you hope to survive to see the next cycle.
Citizen Sleeper was the first game from the bunch that I decided to complete as a Let’s Play, and little did I know, the only game. It was quite an undertaking as it is primarily a text based game with zero voice acting, but it turned out to be the perfect choice. The final DLC got released at exactly the time that I reached it and we got to experience the full story, and honestly, the DLC is very worth playing. I was pretty happy with where I ended up in the main game and felt strongly content in my decisions. The DLC was great at how it managed to progress that in a very natural way and a reminder that the end of one story can be the beginning of another.
Super glad that we played this one, I love that there is a sequel on the way and I really enjoyed getting back to recording.
Game Pass Status – Still available.
Original Ranking – Continue playing online. Where are we at now? – Let’s Play completed.
Exo One (2021)
A strange signal… an alien craft… Exo One is an interplanetary, gravity-defying journey through space and time.
Exo One was such a strange one. After reflection with the context of having tried out so many games, I was pretty sure that I was just going to let this one go. I got the idea, I didn’t thrive with the controls and thought I had had my fill. But for whatever reason, I couldn’t.
I think that reason could possibly be that I played 1 and 1/2 hours of a game that ‘How Long to Beat’ tells me is a two hours long. I was so close, I needed to see it through! Of course, HLtB hours are shorter than Noob hours so it did take longer than anticipated. However, I think I am pleased with seeing it through.
I can’t say that I understood what actually happened in the game, but I can say that my favourite thing was seeing the variety of absolutely stunning environments. While it didn’t blow me away with its gameplay, I am glad that I reached the end because no doubt I would still be kicking myself to this day for putting it down unfinished.
Game Pass Status – Left the service.
Original Ranking – Continue playing offline/That’s enough for me. Where are we at now? – Finished offline.
Spore (2008)
Be the architect of your own universe with Spore, an exciting single-player adventure available for download to your PC. Will you be a bloodthirsty carnivore destined to crush your competitors, or a gentle herbivore seeking out stronger allies to enforce your quiet way of life?
Confession – I didn’t technically finish Spore. BUT I played enough to be satisfied so I am keeping it in my ‘Finished’ category.
The game is made up of 5 eras correlating to stages of evolution, but what I didn’t know is that the final stage can be as long as the rest of the game combined. I didn’t love the gameplay throughout but I did desperatly want to see how my species turned out, and the levels changed regularly enough that everytime I was beginning to feel fed up, it was almost time for the next one.
I made it to the space phase and once I saw what it was about I was happy to call it a day. The evolution of my specific creature while also discovering different creatures around me were my favourite parts of the game. If I could have that in a game with a different gameplay structure I think I could get really on board, the only problem is that I can’t identify what I would rather the gameplay be!
Game Pass Status – Still available.
Original Ranking – Continue playing offline/That’s enough for me. Where are we at now? – Finished offline to an extent.
Opus: Echo of Starsong (2021)
Asteroids emitting a sound known as “Starsongs” have become the center of conflict for the immense power they hold. Determined to claim asteroids of his own, a young man ventures out with a girl who can imitate starsongs, lending her voice to unravel an ancient myth deep in the heart of space.
I ended up continuing this one offline due to the voice acting being in Japanese. I wanted to hear it but I didn’t want to talk over it which obviously doesn’t make for a good Let’s Play!
I am SO glad I went back to it though, once I got into the flow of the story and the exploration I had a really good time. It was beautiful, emotional and I enjoyed it more than I expected.
It has parallels with Citizen Sleeper in a way, being Visual Novel adjacent, set in a fictional space world with time/resource management aspects. Having said that though, they are both entirely different experiences, both of which I think are worth the playthrough!
Game Pass Status – Still available.
Original Ranking – Continue playing online/Continue playing offline. Where are we at now?– Finished offline.
Dropped
Valheim (Early Access 2021)
Valheim is a brutal exploration and survival game for 1-10 players set in a procedurally-generated world inspired by Norse mythology. Craft powerful weapons, construct longhouses, and slay mighty foes to prove yourself to Odin!
I am so hit or miss with survival games, with miss being the much more likely outcome. I thought that I might have been drawn back to the game because so many of my friends have thoroughly enjoyed their time with it, but the more time that passed, the more happy I was admitting that it just isn’t for me.
I still see the appeal of being part of a community server, but solo, I have so many other games to play that even just trying out Valheim was enough. On the other hand, I don’t feel like I got to see much of what the game is actually about – what with the savage deaths and mechanical confusion. This does feel like a shame, but like I said, moving on feels good too.
Game Pass Status – Still available.
Original Ranking – Continue playing offline/That’s enough for me. Where are we at now? – Didn’t play more.
Signalis (2022)
Awaken from slumber and explore a surreal retrotech world as Elster, a technician Replika searching for her lost partner and her lost dreams. Discover terrifying secrets, challenging puzzles, and nightmarish creatures in a tense and melancholic experience of cosmic dread and classic psychological survival horror.
I mean… I really did try and I think I managed much better than I anticipated. The thing that kept me going was knowing that once I put it down, I was not going to pick it back up again. This is absolutely not a criticism to the game, I am just not built for survival horror.
I am not built for any horror really but survival may be the most stressful kind. Not only is there the worry of dying at any moment, but something even more stressful? Deciding when to use your resources. I’m a gatherer, I like to collect stuff and I like to keep stuff. Making the decisions about what to carry, what to use and what to pick up is the nightmare of the indecisive. So this was a nightmare within a nightmare.
I did go on to watch a full playthrough of the game and I enjoyed it a lot more that way! I can’t say I understood it well, but I enjoyed the journey, even if it was vicarious.
Game Pass Status – Left the service.
Original Ranking – That’s enough for me. Where are we at now? – Didn’t play more but did watch a full playthrough.
Kentucky Route Zero (2013)
KENTUCKY ROUTE ZERO: TV EDITION is a magical realist adventure game in five acts, featuring a haunting electronic score, and a suite of hymns and bluegrass standards recorded by The Bedquilt Ramblers. Rendered in a striking visual style that draws as much from theater, film, and experimental electronic art as it does from the history of videogames, this is a story of unpayable debts, abandoned futures, and the human drive to find community.
I believe I picked Kentucky Route Zero back up as it was put on the ‘leaving soon’ list, so that provided some urgency. This is the first impression that changed the most after playing more of the game. I am sad to say it but I’m very glad that I didn’t try to continue this one as a Let’s Play.
I managed to complete Act III (of V) but I could not get any further. By the time I got there I had accepted that I just fundamentally do not ‘get‘ the game. Surrealism doesn’t really do an awful lot for me or my imagination. Not understanding what was going on and not being too fussed about figuring it out already sealed the deal, but potentially the most damning thing was, I just found myself quite bored.
Alas, I am glad that I got the chance to play as much as I did before it left the service. Finding out whether I enjoy these games was a huge reason that I begun the series so whether I liked the game or not, I still enjoy the data that comes from trying.
Game Pass Status – Left the service.
Original Ranking – Continue playing online/Continue playing offline. Where are we at now? – Continued playing offline before dropping it.
No Man’s Sky (2016)
In No Man’s Sky, every star is the light of a distant sun, each orbited by planets filled with life, and you can go to any of them you choose. Fly smoothly from deep space to planetary surfaces, with no loading screens, and no limits. In this infinite procedurally generated universe, you’ll discover places and creatures that no other players have seen before – and perhaps never will again.
If I am being totally – and maybe brutally – honest, this is the game that I remember the least out of the 12 that I played.
A year has passed and I remember being on a planet, in a house near a cave. I think I was building it. And that is all I have got. Perhaps it is the curse of the survival game striking again and I need to accept that I don’t enjoy the mechanics. But I don’t think that is the whole problem here. It could be another game that requires more time to really dive in and see what it is about, but with the amount of games that exist now, I am happy enough to leave this one behind in a similar way to Valheim.
Game Pass Status – Still available.
Original Ranking – That’s enough for me. Where are we at now? – Dropped it.
Pending
Undertale (2015)
Welcome to UNDERTALE. In this RPG, you control a human who falls underground into the world of monsters. Now you must find your way out…or stay trapped forever.
Ahh Undertale. I feel like I have had a little bit of a mess with this game. I spent a while considering that if I was going to continue my Let’s Play, how should I approach it? Should I continue with the strategies I was using? Should I let go of my arbitrary rules and just do what feels right in the moment? Should I start again?
All of these questions were then answered by the game leaving the service. It is now on Ps Plus which I do have access to, but of course my save file does not, so starting over would be the only option.
Secondly – and a deciding factor that I should continue offline – is that I had something spoiled. I have no idea how big of a spoiler it really is, but it is enough that I am dissapointed that I know about it and it will impact the enjoyment of being blind on the game.
All of these factors combined helped me to decide that I am just going start again in my own time from my couch. It is still a game that I want to see through to the end and add to my catalogue of knowledge and references. But the Let’s Play unfortunately isn’t meant to be.
Game Pass Status – Left the service.
Original Ranking – Continue playing online. Where are we at now? – Want to continue playing offline.
As Dusk Falls (2022)
As Dusk Falls is an original interactive drama from INTERIOR/NIGHT that explores the entangled lives of two families across thirty years. Starting in 1998 with a robbery-gone-wrong in small town Arizona, the choices you make have a powerful impact on the characters’ lives in this uncompromising story of betrayal, sacrifice and resilience.
In hindsight, it probably would have made sense for me to Let’s Play this game first. It is the shortest of the bunch and games like these don’t really allow for any meandering. BUT if I had done that then Citizen Sleeper wouldn’t have been so perfectly timed, and if my memory serves me, my Game Pass ran out right as I finished CS so I didn’t have time to play these other games.
This game is still on my list, I would have to go back through the video as a reminder for the choices that I made, but the tension was so high, I can only imagine how the rest of the game will go!
Game Pass Status – Still available.
Original Ranking – Continue playing online. Where are we at now? – Want to continue playing online.
Deaths Door (2022)
Reaping souls of the dead and punching a clock might get monotonous but it’s honest work for a Crow. The job gets lively when your assigned soul is stolen and you must track down a desperate thief to a realm untouched by death – where creatures grow far past their expiry and overflow with greed and power.
As mentioned above, I no longer have Game Pass, and while that isn’t the reason that I haven’t done anymore Let’s Plays, it is obviously a hurdle for these specific games that I had chosen. Thankfully, in the last year Death’s Door became a Ps Plus game! That means that I can now play it at any time that I want.
While there is a chance that I just play this one offline instead, I am not going to do that yet unless I get a really really big urge as I still think it could be a fun YouTube series. The only downside to me now having it on Ps Plus is that it lowers it down the priority list, as it is no longer time limited. When I get Game Pass back ‘As Dusk Falls’ and ‘Tunic’ are the focus. But the bright side is I can start this one back up any time I like (that is, after I have played Pyre, Batman, Scarlet Hollow and any other games that I have promised 😅).
Game Pass Status – Still available.
Original Ranking – Continue playing online. Where are we at now? – Want to continue playing online.
Tunic (2022)
Explore a land filled with lost legends, ancient powers, and ferocious monsters in TUNIC, an isometric action game about a small fox on a big adventure. Stranded in a ruined land, and armed with only your own curiosity, you will confront colossal beasts, collect strange and powerful items, and unravel long-lost secrets.
The last but the opposite of the least is Tunic! If I could suddenly have the time and facilities to Let’s Play a game right now, it would be this one. I LOVED exploring around the world, seeing what we would find and how it connected together. It was really fun and I feel like I clicked with it very well.
This is a game that recieved such heavy praise, but I got the impression it was for doing something different. I didn’t get far enough to know what that is and I really would like to discover it for myself, so while I currently still don’t have time to record and have already promised Pyre as my next series, I still have a huge itch to play this game and will do so as soon as the stars align.
Game Pass Status – Still available.
Original Ranking – Continue playing online. Where are we at now? – Want to continue playing online.
If anyone out there is stuck in a rut with your backlog or struggling with analysis paralysis on what to play next, this was an extremely refreshing experience that I would recommend to others to try for themselves. While I haven’t followed through with the recordings that I would still love to do, I did manage to knock 8 games off my backlog and had a tonne of fun doing it. You don’t have to make it into work or a project, just pick a number of games that you want to try and play the first hour. Don’t think too hard, just press play and before you know you might be playing your new favourite game.
Last month I sat down to start my first Let’s Play since Exit/Corners. I was so excited to get back to recording. Just me, the game, the freedom of recording whenever felt good, and the flexibility of being able to take a moment and edit it out. What I didn’t anticipate was the colossal struggle of deciding what I wanted to play. Often, it is not until you begin a game that you know whether you should have recorded or streamed it, which resulted in me staring at my screen in complete decision paralysis.
Then, all of a sudden – there was a lightbulb. Christmas was coming and there were still a few weeks to prepare if I wanted to do a special series. I was too late for an advent calender scenario (in hindsight after 21 hours of recording, thank goodness), but the 12 Days of Christmas doesn’t start till Christmas day. Score!
I immediatly knew that this would be a perfect opportunity for me to finally try out some different games that I have had my eye on. I decided on Game Pass because games can leave at any time and I rarely have a subscription, so if I wanted to get through some of my ‘Play Later’ list I would need to hustle. I painstakingly managed to whittle the list of 70+ games down to 12, and looking at the result – I was extremely excited about it.
Day 1 – Valheim (Early Access 2021)
Valheim is a brutal exploration and survival game for 1-10 players set in a procedurally-generated world inspired by Norse mythology. Craft powerful weapons, construct longhouses, and slay mighty foes to prove yourself to Odin!
Back when this game released – when everyone’s life temporarily became consumed with exploring the mysterious lands, building the fanciest buildings and voyages to collect lost equiptment – I didn’t have access to join in myself. This is probably for the better because I can be known to lose myself to games from time to time. While I think that I barely scratched the surface in my look at the game, I was very pleased to finally have the opportunity to do so.
I definitely wanted to play more when I was done, but I have found that the more games that I have played since then, the less tempted I was to go back. At this point, I have played the beginning of many survival games. Sadly though, it is very rare that I get hooked and while I still could go back to it, it has moved down the priority list far enough that I could be ok leaving it there.
Ranking – Continue playing offline/That’s enough for me.
Day 2 – Undertale (2015)
Welcome to UNDERTALE. In this RPG, you control a human who falls underground into the world of monsters. Now you must find your way out…or stay trapped forever.
Undertale was one of those legendary games for me where I feel like I have heard whispers here and there, but in reality knew virtually nothing about it. As a result, the main desire to play it came from a curiosity and ability to add it to my game reference archives rather than excitement to play the actual game itself. That probably heavily adds to the surprise of how much I loved playing this game. Of the titbits that I had heard, not one thing had lead me to believe that this game was going to be half as funny as it is. That alone would be enough for me to continue, but the intrigue to see where it is going is also strong enough that I didn’t want to put it down.
Now that I have completed this series, Undertale is at the bottom of the Let’s Play priority list purely because I feel like it isn’t going to be easy to pick back up. I also have no idea if I have screwed myself with the choices I have made so I am conflicted as to whether I need to do a little research before diving back in. Don’t worry though, I certainly have to see it through at some point.
Ranking – Continue playing online.
Day 3 – As Dusk Falls (2022)
As Dusk Falls is an original interactive drama from INTERIOR/NIGHT that explores the entangled lives of two families across thirty years. Starting in 1998 with a robbery-gone-wrong in small town Arizona, the choices you make have a powerful impact on the characters’ lives in this uncompromising story of betrayal, sacrifice and resilience.
I am so surprised I didn’t jump on this earlier. It feels like an alternative to a Telltale or a Quantic Dream game, which are some of my absolute favourites. Add in that one of the primary genres – at least in the first chapter – is thriller. How did I not play this sooner?! As opposed to a horror narrative like a Supermassive game (Until Dawn, Man of Medan), I can play this and experience making stressful decisions without the need for reassurance and distractions from the atmosphere. That makes this the perfect game for a Let’s Play as it is exactly the type of content that I love to record. I am always curious to what my gut instincts are in these difficult situations and what happens as a result. It is going to be a lot of fun returning to this and the chapters make for good episode dividers which is always handy for me.
Ranking – Continue playing online.
Day 4 – Deaths Door (2022)
Reaping souls of the dead and punching a clock might get monotonous but it’s honest work for a Crow. The job gets lively when your assigned soul is stolen and you must track down a desperate thief to a realm untouched by death – where creatures grow far past their expiry and overflow with greed and power.
I really enjoyed this game. I loved the concept, I loved exploring the weird world and I loved my little character. I certainly want to continue it, the only hesitation I have is the difficulty. I managed well enough with the combat so far, but I am concerned that I will get stuck and drop off, which I don’t like to do with a series that I am sharing if I can help it. If I do continue online it will be a Let’s Play because that means I can edit any repetitive failures into death montages. I am going to play the other games first then reassess, but if you would like to see it then please let me know. Same goes for all the other games in question as if there is external interest then I will make special effort to continue it online.
Ranking – Continue playing online/Continue playing offline.
Day 5 – Citizen Sleeper (2022)
You are a sleeper, a digitised human consciousness in an artificial body, owned by a corporation that wants you back. Thrust amongst the unfamiliar and colourful inhabitants of the Eye, you need to build friendships, earn your keep, and navigate the factions of this strange metropolis, if you hope to survive to see the next cycle.
Ahhh, Citizen Sleeper. I was nervous about trying this one as I knew it was going to be a lot of reading. To top it off, I got sick and lost my voice right as this was my next game to play. So, as much as I heard good things, I was entering this one with an ever so slight dread in my mind. It didn’t take long, however, before I was enraptured in the world. You know it is a good game when you want to keep going and going despite the reading out loud. The further I got and the more mechanics I learned, I was more and more won over by the game, leading it to be my favourite in the entire bunch. At the time of this post it is likely that the Let’s Play has already begun as I am planning on continuing this game first! Don’t sleep on it (hur hur hur).
Ranking – Continue playing online.
Day 6 – Signalis (2022)
Awaken from slumber and explore a surreal retrotech world as Elster, a technician Replika searching for her lost partner and her lost dreams. Discover terrifying secrets, challenging puzzles, and nightmarish creatures in a tense and melancholic experience of cosmic dread and classic psychological survival horror.
I tried really hard with this one. This game is well loved by a lot of people and I wanted to see why. It is just unfortunate that in survival horror, both survival and horror stress me out massively. This was the first excessively long video as I knew that once I put the game down it was likely I wouldn’t be able to pick it back up, so I wanted to see as much as I could. All things considered, I think I did pretty well! It is awesome to have the classically influenced genre in an entirely new style. It feels modern and old school at the same time.
The great thing is, as much as I suffer with survival horror, I LOVE watching other people suffer through it. So even though I won’t be continuing the game, I will certainly enjoy watching someone else’s playthrough and enjoy it vicariously.
Ranking – That’s enough for me.
Day 7 – Exo One (2021)
A strange signal… an alien craft… Exo One is an interplanetary, gravity-defying journey through space and time.
This is another game that I was nervous to record. I had it recommended and wanted to give it a try as it felt like the type of game that could leave the service before I get around to playing it. From what I understood about the game, I was worried that there was going to be a lot of downtime with nothing to talk about. There certainly was a lot of downtime, but each uniquely beautiful environment seemed to offer enough intrigue to fill the gaps, in a game that also seems well suited to some flow state meditative time.
At the time of recording I decided that it was enough. I reached a point that felt appropriate to stop and called it there. However, for a reason that I cant quite put my finger on, this game stayed in my mind. It could be that we made good progress or it could be a fear of missing out, but not finishing it isn’t sitting right with me. So I think I will actually update my ranking from ‘That’s enough for me’ to ‘Continue Offline’.
Ranking – Continue offline/That’s enough for me.
Day 8 – Spore (2008)
Be the architect of your own universe with Spore, an exciting single-player adventure available for download to your PC. Will you be a bloodthirsty carnivore destined to crush your competitors, or a gentle herbivore seeking out stronger allies to enforce your quiet way of life?
This game is adorable. Seeing where we started and where we ended up is so entertaining and fascinating to me. From weird little critter to slightly bigger weird critter, I am still curious to see how far the game goes. The fun part about it is that everyone’s game is going to be slightly different. I am definitely more interested in the evolution and creation than the rest of the gameplay, but it kept a pace so that you were never far away from your next adaptation. The rest of the gameplay was made more interesting by the other weird critters that you can meet. I am unsure why the game isn’t calling me back, but at the same time I don’t think I can uninstall it until I’ve at least played a little more.
Ranking – Continue playing offline/That’s enough for me.
Day 9 – Kentucky Route Zero (2013)
KENTUCKY ROUTE ZERO: TV EDITION is a magical realist adventure game in five acts, featuring a haunting electronic score, and a suite of hymns and bluegrass standards recorded by The Bedquilt Ramblers. Rendered in a striking visual style that draws as much from theater, film, and experimental electronic art as it does from the history of videogames, this is a story of unpayable debts, abandoned futures, and the human drive to find community.
It is funny how there are so many individual things that I like about this one, but as a whole it didn’t really capture my attention or imagination. I enjoyed the freedom of being able to talk to people then explore the map, seeking out the places they talked about. It felt fantastic that I found a place that was just mentioned off hand when my objective was to go elsewhere. The issue was that I didn’t really feel any pay off from it. Things were weird but I don’t know why they were weird, and even whether to expect any explanations or just more weird.
The thing I liked the most was the art style. It is distinctively simple and effective, and I loved the use of shapes. I am still interested in continuing the game, I am just unsure whether I should record it as there is no way of knowing whether it is going to fall flat for me or not. It will be interesting to see how it developed over the years, but I can see that by playing it myself. Do let me know if you would like to see more.
Ranking – Continue playing online/Continue playing offline.
Day 10 – No Man’s Sky (2016)
In No Man’s Sky, every star is the light of a distant sun, each orbited by planets filled with life, and you can go to any of them you choose. Fly smoothly from deep space to planetary surfaces, with no loading screens, and no limits. In this infinite procedurally generated universe, you’ll discover places and creatures that no other players have seen before – and perhaps never will again.
For whatever reason, I did not expect this game to be such a survival game. I knew it was about exploration but it has all the fundamentals that I have seen in survival games before. The great thing about this though is that you can customise to your heart’s content.
I did enjoy my time with it but I am beginning to think that survival games in general aren’t for me. The introductions and tutorials tend to either be very long and by the time I get freedom I have had enough, or very short with no direction and I lose patience trying to figure it out. That, combined with either a lack of a beginning direction or a lack of an end goal and I should probably conclude that I am not the target audience for the genre. Having said all of that, I am glad to see that this game turned everything around from release and has turned into a vast game with lots to discover, should you choose to.
Ranking – That’s enough for me.
Day 11 – Opus: Echo of Starsong (2021)
Asteroids emitting a sound known as “Starsongs” have become the center of conflict for the immense power they hold. Determined to claim asteroids of his own, a young man ventures out with a girl who can imitate starsongs, lending her voice to unravel an ancient myth deep in the heart of space.
I am not sure whether it comes through on the video – I think I hid it well enough – but I honestly shouldn’t have recorded on this day. I did it because I was on a schedule but I was so exhausted, I probably should have rescheduled. Having said that, if there was any game that I could have played while feeling that way it was this one. The story moved along at a good pace to stay engaged. The world was fictional enough to capture the imagination yet familiar enough with its politics. It was easy to play, nice to look at and is told from a perspective that I feel is more common in movies than games, which happens to work very well in my opinion. The characters are imperfect which makes choices fun, and I definitely would like to see more of the story. It is just a huge shame that the voice acting isn’t in English. Please let me know if you would like to see more of this one.
Ranking – Continue playing online/Continue playing offline.
Day 12 – Tunic (2022)
Explore a land filled with lost legends, ancient powers, and ferocious monsters in TUNIC, an isometric action game about a small fox on a big adventure. Stranded in a ruined land, and armed with only your own curiosity, you will confront colossal beasts, collect strange and powerful items, and unravel long-lost secrets.
Tunic swooped in at the end there to claim the title of my second favourite game in this series. It is very similar to Death’s Door in genre, gameplay and perspective, but with an entirely different vibe. Both of these games have similarities to the Souls series and as a fan from a distance, it is wonderful to get to have the things I like about that series in a game that is more my style. The exploration and level design is wonderful, and the lack of direct information elevates the achievement of figuring something out, as well as the mystery of the land. It is colourful, satisfying, and the accessibility features give me the confidence to definitely pursue this one as a Let’s Play. I cannot wait to get back in there and find a god damn shield!
Ranking – Continue playing online.
The best part about doing this series is not only that I got to experience so many games, but it has also given me a great insight in to the types of games that I would like to play on the channel. Since then, I have created a bigger list of games that I would like to record, so I have plenty of options when my Game Pass runs out. This has been an experiment, a challenge and a joy all at once, and I am so glad that I managed to get it finished in the planned timescale without sacrificing any quantity or quality (I did sacrifice my Christmas Eve so rip to that, but it was worth it). I hope you guys had at least some of the fun that I had. Thankfully, this was just the beginning. I now have the pleasure of actually playing these games!
Definitely continuing as Let’s Plays
Undertale
As Dusk Falls
Citizen Sleeper
Tunic
Potentially continuing as Let’s Plays
Death’s Door
Kentucky Route Zero
Opus: Echo of Starsong
Along side this post I am going to run some Twitter Polls to see if I can gauge interest in the games I am unsure about so please look out for those!
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