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All of all! / Games of 2023

« Last post by Prpl_Mage on December 31, 2023, 03:25:06 PM »

2023 has been a great year for gaming I think. Or at least that's the impression I get. I mean, let's be honest, it seems like most teenagers only play phone games these days and treat Fortnite seasons like an Olympics but I donno.

But we've seen the release of some hyped games like Zelda Tears of the Kingdom, Starfield, Baldur's Gate 3, Mortal Kombat, Final Fantasy XVI, Diablo IV and Rogue Trader. Did you get any of these? Would you recommend them? Or was there another game in 2023 that really caught your attention?

It was also the end of an era as Nintendo closed down the digital store for all consoles aside from the Switch, and I assume all other online related services on those old consoles as well? I haven't really checked it out to be honest. But I did rush to download a bunch of games I never got around of actually buying and been meaning to get second hand.

But as is tradition, it's time to talk about the games we played in 2023.

2022
http://www.charas-project.net/forum/index.php?topic=29655.0

PC

Samurai Gunn
A nice little couch coop game, nah rather competitive game, like Nidhog and Towerfall Ascension. Start a match and kill each other, get high enough score and you win the game. Your moveset is basically: jumping, wall-jumping, slashing and shooting a 3 bullet gun. Nice for a session in the same way as the other two games mentioned. The game feels smooth but there's not much else to it than that.

Regions of Ruins
It's a mix of different genres that worked for me personally, the game mechanically is a platformer divided across small instances/maps. You enter those places, find some quests, kill some enemies and gather stuff. Use said stuff to build buildings and upgrade the settlement to unlock new options, bonuses and the such that will make your platforming killing easier. You also have a leveling up system and a skill tree. So yeah, it's a mix. But like most of these games that are very open, sooner or later you're climbing through the levels, and the simple gathering quests or killing quests are just a speed bump for your exploration. Once you get tired of visiting every area and finish the last quest, it's over.

Call of Chtulu Prisoner of Ice
There are classic adventure games that has aged well and there are classic adventure games that haven't. Using a more realistic style and finding some inspiration from Lovecraft the game plays out across some different chapters/scenes in which you find items, talk to people and solve a few puzzles. Like most of these kinds of games, you usually get stuck on things and get frustrated. In this one it was because of silly things mostly that made me sigh a bit. I believe pixelhunting is the term used for some of the most common problems. I mean, it's a working game and all, but overall the main character isn't very interesting and the rest of the cast likewise. And as such, following the story unfold isn't that rewarding especially as it jumps from one big disaster to the next and ending with a weird plot twist.

Flockers
A lemlings type of game by Team 17 with their classic Sheep from Worms. It's a nice take on a genre that more or less died out without much reason aside from some of its concepts being incorporated into a lot of platforming games. Each level uses different "upgrades" for your sheep as well as level hazards that you need to overcome to get as many sheep as possible to the goal. Add a 3 star rating system, a "Golden Fleece" to collect in each level and some secret levels and you got a solid game. My main gripe with the game is that all the different upgrades and actions are introduced quite early in the game and no new ones appear. Instead most of the future maps just involve more multitasking and/or figuring out what piece of the map is affected by what button. There are however quite a few levels in which you need to do things in a very certain way with a very certain timing. I got about half way before I got tired of it though, stopped playing one day and just didn't find any motivation to play it for a couple of weeks straight and moved on to other things instead. I believe there are 60 levels in total + secret levels which gives you plenty of fun if you're into these kinds of games. And as always, trial and error is usually the key!

Blood Rage. Digital Edition
Asmodee games has made a business out of digitalizing boardgames, and people may have some feelings about that. I do as well, but mostly I like when a complex game is taken care of by an AI for those times when you don't have 4 hours to spare. Or when you want a larger game for balance but missing people, AI players aren't great, but they exist. Much like the Terraforming Mars adaption, or Scythe, Blood Rage is simply much faster this way, and it cuts down on calculation and mistakes made when keeping track of stats and cards and bonuses etc. Most of all, it's way easier to introduce new players to the genre than teaching them rules and concepts that they are likely to forget. The physical game is great but since the game goes through different ages with areas being removed and the glory points from battle and cards being returned and all that - I think this is a good port! I also own the Blood Rage DLC for Tabletop Simulator, which in turn is more accessible since not everyone needs to make a purchase, but there's just something with having all your work cut out for you, and being able to add AI, and turning it more into a turn based game.

Diablo IV
As expected it feels very much like a "Diablo-like" if that's even the term. Was it scummy that they offered people to pay twice the cost to get some digital goodies and access to the game 4 days earlier than everyone else? Yeah, but that's just the industry right now... Right? Speaking of what other people do, aside from the prologue and dungeons you share the world with other players on your server like in live service games such as Destiny. There is now character customization and a whole bunch of cutscenes where your character is taking part. Gameplay-wise the game feels more Diablo 3 than diablo 2, which is fine because D2 was like 25 years ago or something, skill trees are back but still kinda controlled like in D3 in where you need a certain level to unlock new things. So you have choices, but you don't really have freedom. Skills are divided into basic skills, strong skills, defensive skills etc which represents the "tiers" (also no D2 synergy bonuses) and are unlocked as you level up to make it more bearable at the start and getting more complex as you go. After lvl 50 you get access to the Paragon board which is more freedom, but it's all just passive abilities. So all in all, you've seen all the skills your class has to offer by lvl 30 probably. The world feels more Game of Thrones than DnD, especially all the sidequests. Some areas have a minimum level cap while most of the areas will scale with your level to ensure that you can participate in events and such for rewards that are relevant, but this also makes it so that you are never overpowered which can be a bit of an issue. I did play the first and second season that they released one month into the game and then again in October. The first season was a bit meh while the second came along with a better niche and a bunch of QoL changes that made the overall game experience more enjoyable. At the end of the day you really play to level up, get new gear and kill a bunch of enemies with bigger numbers. It's a solid entry, but it didn't pull me in as much as D3, so I ended up being distracted by other games when the people I played with started dropping off for both seasons.

Sanctum 2
A tower defense kind of game, with the twist that you the player also controls a character in a fps shooter style. So each stage is divided into different waves and inbetween you can place down wall sections and towers to aid you during the coming waves. Prevent the enemies from breaking your core by tactically placing your defenses and run around to deal with threats. Clear the level to gain exp points to rank up and unlock more options of towers etc you can bring to a stage. There are 4 different characters to choose from, you can equip 1 extra weapon, up to 6 towers and 3 perks with passive bonuses. All in all an enjoyable experience, the game introduces enemies with special mechanics early which prevents the game from getting stale at the start, several stages are pretty tricky and you need to consider how to reroute the conga line of enemies. Is it long? Not really, the campaign isn't that long and each stage takes around 30-60min to beat. 16 stages in total but then after there is survival mode etc for those who wants more to do or feats of strengths which gives enemies buffs. Ps I didn't have any of the DLC that adds even more maps, another character, more towers, weapons and perks.

Strangeland
The game is from the same team that made Primordia, both are point and click adventures. Just like the previous game this one has great art and ambience going on that really sets the scene. It's a bit on the shorter end around 3-4 hours of playtime but I felt like it was a good amount of time to finish what they were building up. It got a bit of an unusual vibe going on and it's clear from the start that the setting isn't to be trusted. Likewise it is ambiguous in many regards with symbolism left and right while foreshadowing or dropping info that you won't get until you've progressed the game and learnt more. A part of me wishes we learnt more by the end of the game of course, but maybe it's for the best that some things are left to interpretation.

Forced Showdown
Created back in the era of pseudo deck builder games, this is a top down-ish moba styled arena survival game. Or maybe that's a bad description... See, if you played Forced the top down-ish co-op puzzle solver and action rpg thing before then you are familiar with a lot of the mechanics here. But only now they changed it to a single player game in which you set out on a campaign to complete X battles to win. Each battle consists of 8 randomized arenas (maps) in which you need to kill all enemies to progress to the next arena. At the start of each arena you have the deckbuilding part because just like in Hearthstone you start of with 1 mana before the first arena, 2 for the second and so on. You have a deck of 30 cards, some character specific, others shared and need to spend mana to activate the cards bonus. The cards and mana etc things could just as easily have been a random upgrade system or whatever. The thing is, cards played only last that battle so when you return to the hub and attempt a new battle in the campaign your cards and mana are reset. But inbetween battles you get points that gives you boons (level ups) with more randomized passive bonuses in that campaign. So yeah, rinse and repeat with different ways to increase the challenge and difficulty, unlock the other 3 characters, more variety in battle pets and use in game currency to buy random cards that you can use to tailor your deck. Give it a go for the campaign in that roguelike fasion and try to clear it, or die trying. The team later left the game to make Minion Masters btw which is a competative deckbuilder tower defense thing, so yeah.

Against the Storm
What happens when you take a RTS game like Settlers or Population but then remove the enemy? What you have left is basically a town building game where production and increased efficiency is the key. I realize that this isn't a new concept but this is the first time the game has enough of a premise to interest me. Each level is set in a biome which affects what you are likely to find. There is also a Hearth at the centre of your town around which you must build your housing for the villagers. However, each level is timed. Or rather there is a value of how fast a bar fills up, based on how well you do that bar can increase faster or slower. On the other hand to win the level you need to gain reputation, which can be earned in a few different ways, but the most common one is to complete orders which are "drawn" at certain intervals of time. This can be an order to deliver certain resources or items, to have a certain amount of villagers and other things. And top it off, your choices of blueprints, the orders you get, the resources you find etc are randomized based on the biome. The game reminds me a lot of the old Settlers games in which you need certain buildings to gather certain resources, then you need another building to turn those resources into items or new resources. The items have practical uses (that mostly increases' your villagers' resolve to stay around) or are used for orders and events. Events are revealed when you cut away enough trees to reveal a new glade and gives you a choice what you want to spend and what that will get you. Then you have the whole deal of managing where your villagers go, what task they are assigned to, different races of villagers have different bonuses etc. Also, inbetween levels you can level up which gives more variety (like races and blueprints) as well as spending your score to gain passive bonuses and unlock permanent blueprints. So roguelite elements?

3DS

Liberty Maiden
One of these games that were revealed in a nintendo direct some 15 years past that I added to my wishlist. The game plays kinda like the 3DS Kid Icarus with you controlling with the pad and aiming and shooting with the stylus. It's okay, the game only has 5 stages and each stage except the last works pretty much the same. Fly across the map heading to the indicated location, shoot enemies in a mech shooting combat, defeat enough and a "conduit spike" appears, destroy it and the other two in different locations and the big boss of the stage appears. All the stage bosses has similar mechanics but different movesets so it all works really. However, there isn't much to do other than clearing the game in the 3 different difficulties. It's probably just me but I would've loved more variation in enemies and my own weapons. You have lock-on missiles and a laser to shoot and that's it. So if the game was any longer than 5 stages I probably would've gotten bored with it. So any sort of upgrade system or whatever would be great.

Crimson Shroud
Another 3DS download that I got before it was too late so to speak. This one presents the game itself as a tabletop rpg, the most famous one being D&D of course. However, unlike those, no character creation - Instead the 3 characters and the enemies are figurines and you can use dice to give a boost to your actions in combat (akin to the bardic inspiration kinda). Like a lot of turn based rpgs this one relies on boosting your stats in different ways and debuffing your enemies. Just using strong attacks won't cut it as you progress. It's a neat game that plays out with you choosing rooms on a couple of different map then resolving the events and combats that will happen there. Add a pretty dark setting with intrigue and you got a solid, although kinda short, game with 4 different maps that consists of like 3-5 rooms each. Also there is a new game + for a secret ending, I didn't go for that though.

Wii U

NES Remix 1 & 2
Gonna squeeze these two games together because they are in general the exact same thing. The Wii U store closed so I got these games because I remember playing them at a friend's house one day and enjoying the nostalgia. And let's face it, the NES Remix game is very much about nostalgia. The game is generally divided into 2 parts. On one hand we have the Remixes, a couple of levels to play where some sort of twist is thrown into a classic game. Such as playing Super Mario World but continiously moving right, or playing classic Donkey Kong with limited vision. On the other hand we have "challenges" for each of the games present in the game. So a couple of challenges for Ballon Fight, some for Donkey Kong, some for Dr.Mario etc. The thing is, it's not like you play the actual game and do a challenge. Or well, some challenges are "beat the high score" or "get to the end" etc, but others are "defeat two birds" or "get up the ledge" where you just practice a skill needed to play the game. So as an adult, and an adult who played a bunch of games like these growing up, it's not exactly hard to get a 3 star rating for the challenge. Oh, you collect stars to unlock more challenges and remixes, and also eventually more games to do challenges for / to get remixes for. I just kinda wish the full games were included as well, I mean, I get why they aren't but they could probably have included them as well for the full experience because the only thing these games did was making me want to play the originals. But probably a great introduction if you have kids today who want to learn these classics.

Flight of light
An impulsive buy for the Wii U, it's kind of a music beat game where you travel along a railed path and needs to angle your ship so that you hit the "notes" and try to get as good timing as possible. It's not a very hard, it's not very varied and honestly the music is kinda bland. The thing that kinda kills the game for me though is that even if you miss the things you're trying to hit there's no effect on the music. Like, there are no sound effects in the game, there's control and a soundtrack and a heads up with your score. If you have kids who need to learn timing, I mean this probably does the trick. But another issue is that most stages are like 3-4 minutes, if it was an actual song and not just repeated beats I would get it, but it's too easy to get bored.

Nano Assault Neo
A twin stick shooter kind of thing from the people who made Fast Racing Neo, where you play on revolving worlds, kinda like in Mario Galaxy. However, you're a ship in nano scale defeating enemies on cells. Each cell (stage) is about surviving / defeating enemies until the exit appears and you head there. You get a score and everything, a chance to buy upgrades, then move on to the next cell. The game is divided into 4 of these "clusters" consisting of 3 stages and a then lastly a boss. So each one is like its own little game with no progression being passed to the next cluster just like an arcade. So all in all, the game has 4 different runs, with a total of 12 maps and 4 bosses. Once you complete single player you can also try survival mode, which is a nice touch as it just keeps going instead of ending after 4 stages.

Art of Balance
Another Wii U download that I got, since I really like Fast Racing Neo I figured that I'd get all of the games from that company. Now, this one is a lot different from the racing and shooting game. It's a game in which you attempt different stages in which your task is to pick up and rotate shapes and objects to place them onto a designated area without the entire thing falling apart. I realize that this doesn't sound that interesting but it's a neat idea that works surprisingly smoothly, and future levels introduce more mechanics. Also the entire mood here is chill with some very zen vibes.

PS4

Soulcalibur VI
I didn't get this upon release because I didn't get why the roster was so small and that in general, most of the new characters from 5 were missing. The game consists of 20(+1) fighters, and another 8 are DLC characters. Compared to previous games only 5 are new characters, Groh, Azwel, Geralt, 2b and a second katana guy and only those first three are in the base game. And here's the thing with fighting games, it's about fighting, and once you learn all the enemies there isn't much more fun to the game. SC2 had all these crazy weapon effects that you could toy around with, in SC4 they added stats and equippable skills based on thresholds. SC5 did away with that but still had a refreshed and varied cast (except for Elysium, Edge Master and Kilik all being mimic characters). Another gripe is that the game mostly focuses on the events of SC1-2 instead of building upon what SC5 left off. Does that make the game bad though? No, the game is still solid. It looks good and plays good. The character customization works like it did in the previous 2 games (and even uses the same items as previous games aside from the main cast outfits.) The story mode is divided into two parts, main story and the Libra of Souls. The first one is more classic while Libra of Souls is the more innovative one. So in short, I got what I set out to get, nothing more, nothing less really. Another entry into a series more or less. I didn't really feel like I had been missing out on anything important all these years.

Switch

LoZ: Breath of the Wild
So yeah, it's 2023 and I finally got around to play BotW. I can name my issues with the game on a single hand unlike a lot of other open world games. There seems to be so much thought put into the game that you don't need to feel lost or that things are aimless or a waste of time. And at the same time there isn't too many different enemies nor items and crafting materials etc that you feel overwhelmed. Even if there isn't a tutorial for the game all the concepts are presented in a classic natural way by actually doing things. Sure, there are a lot of repeated assets, but I feel like it builds into the concept of making it easy to navigate the world. The towers for example reveal the map but there are no symbols marked on it from the start, instead it makes it easy to spot and pin areas you want to explore and then just do it. Other open world games tend to hide the world with fog or other line of sight blocking mechanics to isolate you from the openess of the world. So the world isn't just open, it feels open and plays into the openess aspect. The different tools and weapons at your disposal also makes it fun to interact with the world, and even though I get that people didn't like how weapons break or how your inventory starts out limited, it actually made me try new things instead of just saving them for later. Sure, most sidequests could have given you a more interesting rewards than money, and maybe the final battle could've leaned into the game's mechanics more, but hey it's a solid game. And now I'm ready to try Tears of the Kingdom that pretty much everyone has said is like BotW but like 3 times as good.

Astral Chain
This is a Platinum Games title and damn it feels like one. Just like with MGRR and Bayonetta it plays well in combat and feels smooth. This is set on an ark in future Japan in which the place is being invaded by metaphysical apperations. The game is played out in episodes which is typical of Platinum Games and each episode gives you a certain state of the world before going into enemy infested areas finished off with a boss. After the boss you get a score by the end of it. You can then use your rewards to upgrade your gear and unlock skills in a skill tree etc. and of course the next piece of the story. As you play you unlock some new weapon styles that you can switch between in combat and such which also adds to the variety even if you press the same buttons. The big sell point here is that you are synergized with a "legion" which means that you can use that minion in combat to execute cool combos, steer it to circle and chain enemies etc. Disclaimer, I haven't finish this one yet.

Super Mario Wonder
I have to say that I'm a bit disappointed at this entry. New Super Mario Bros (Wii) was a blast because you played coop with friends across levels, collected Shine Sprites and made it to the end of the levels with some checkpoints in between. But you could also toadstool each other in mid air, pick others up, bounce them higher, steal their hats, bump into them etc. All of these interactions added some chaos energy of course but it made them fun to play. In Wonder however, there is no interaction betwen the player characters (aside from one person choosing to play Yoshi). This is probably because the game now has online coop instead of just local. But it's a change I dislike especially since that one 3DS game took the New super mario bros formula, threw in a money race and gave players scores at the end (or did I dream this?). I mean, it's a good platforming game and finding some of the purple coin thingies can be challening, and the "badge" system that assigns a certain mechanic to your playing experience also spice things up.

Rune Factory 4 Special
So this is a 3DS that received a Switch update with some extra content and all that. Anyway, some people online talked about this like a Harvest Moon or Sundew Valley with combat and fantasy elements so that sounded like a good time. You choose your character's gender (but not their appearance) and get thrown into the story that revolves around a small town with a couple of named NPCs with preset activities and routes based day and time. You are introduced to the farming aspect of the game and are told to do requests for the people in the town to increase your points so that you can unlock more things. However, at the start of the game there are a lot of things that feels limited. In fact, most of the game is kinda gated behind a linear progress at the start. You need to do requests to unlock additional aspects of the game such as getting the axe and hammer to gain more resources of that kind. But those requests come once a day, for the rest of the day you are expected to chat NPCs up or go to the "danger zone" to do some combat before ending the day. Later on you unlock the ability to take more than one request, and also licenses to use crafting stations to craft items with your resources etc. Then you can upgrade your farm to plant more things there, additional farms in areas with a set season. You can also tame monsters and as allies (great idea) and so on. There are some different weapon styles that works differently, top down zelda in a sense, and it's mostly dashing and attacking, charging attack or attacking but it still feels different. Throw in some magic and skills and you got a solid variety. And you know what? It works well, lots of different aspects crammed into one with some relationship building activities in the mix. The story is divided into 3 separate parts each with their own credit scene and you can really grind things out for money and prince points if you want ALL the upgrades. But let's be fair, the last story arc was trash, just a big grindfest. And I don't personally see me playing through this ever again, I mean I could try the other romance options, but other than that I've pretty much done everything I could/wanted.

Returning games:

40k Darktide
The Left 4 dead styled coop game received an update and the game is still fun to play with friends. I still play this for the sake of picking up a game, killing a bunch of enemies and give each other a high five for a job well done. A lot of the on-release issues with grinding and randomness has been fixed/balanced but others are still in there. I'm glad to see that they are still working on this game though since the soundtrack is amazing, the setting sets the tone well and gameplay is a good balance between challenging and fun.

Borderlands 3
I didn't really finish everything in Borderlands 3 the last time around and got together with a frined to play through it. All the talking and scenes still annoy me but getting to the end of the game still felt like a rewarding thing. It's still a fun game with great mechanics. It's just that the main story wasn't that much fun. I tried one of the DLC stories that came with the first season pass before getting sidetracked again.

Monster Hunter Rise
The game got the last free content updates and my time with this game has been great. And for the first half of the year this was basically the only thing my coop time was spent on on the evenings. A great entry, It'll be fun to see what the new game will offer.

Tabletop Sim
Good ol' tabletop simulator for when you want something less stressful. It still runs well and I've done some new prototypes to let my friends testplay. But just as often we play Quacks of Quiddleburg or Smash Up.

7 Days to die
This game just celebrated its 10 year anniversary on Steam. And it's still an early access game. There was another update (to Alpha 21) so we gave it a go. It was fun, it was slightly different than previous versions. But just like all other times before. You play the game for a while, get cool gear, unlock skills and recipes and then there's nothing more to the game until the next update.

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