The 39 Steps (PC) (2013)

20150131:
I didn't know a thing about this game when I clicked on it. I clicked on it, because it was near the top of the list of games I recently added to Steam via bundles (e.g., Humble Indie Bundle and Indie Royale).

What eventually became an intriguing story experience...

While knowing about a game/movie before playing/watching it can be beneficial, not knowing about a game/movie before playing/watching it can be exciting. In this case, I took a risk and was rewarded with an exciting experience.

Gameplay:
The game opened with credits and it felt like I was watching a movie.

At the opening title screen, I typed my name and check out the options. I left them as they were.

...started off slowly.

After finishing the second level/chapter, I finally got the sense that the original story (and hence this game) was a mystery/thriller.

Stopping after the second level/chapter, I went back to the profile menu and the "original text" option made more sense. I also began to think the inspirational material was a book.*

A Google search first came up with the 1935 film adaptation directed by Alfred Hitchcock. Searching more, I discovered the movie was based on the thriller/adventure novel The Thirty-Nine Steps (1915) written by John Buchan.

*Actually, there are various out-in-the-open indications that the game was a digital adaptation of the novel which I simply managed to miss.

---

Thoughts:
I enjoyed the artwork, the voice acting, the interaction, and the thrill of discovering what the game was about.

However, I would nitpick about the alternate control scheme devised for the narrative text. And worse than the control scheme was the explanation: "to go back, rotate the mouse counter-clockwise; to go forward, rotate the mouse clockwise". This confused me, because I didn't know how to rotate a mouse and have it be detected (the output of a mouse cursor exhibits translation, not rotation).

Eventually, determined to figure it out, I discovered that I only needed to draw little circles (about an inch in diameter) in a clockwise or counter-clockwise motion. In other words, I traced out a circle with my mouse cursor.

I'm glad I made the effort to play the second level/chapter after playing the first. The story began to unfold in the second level/chapter and was much more interesting than the first.

Unfortunately, after the second level/chapter, I had to go to sleep, otherwise I would have considered playing more.

---

The 39 Steps (PC) (2013)

Relevant Links:
The 39 Steps (PC) (MetaCritic.com)
The 39 Steps (Steam Store Page)
The Thirty-Nine Steps > Video game (Wikipedia.org)

Draw the symbols (with the mouse) as they appear.

Resident Evil 6 (PC) (2013)

Overview: Resident Evil 6 is a first-person shooter.

---

20150114:
Today I began with the tutorial and it ended with the prompt, "Back for more?" From there, the menu gives the player one of four campaigns to choose from.

My friend started the Leon campaign and after he watched the cutscene he invited me to join the session. I joined as the girl (Helena) and we head out. Unfortunately, an NPC we found got stuck in an aisle and we couldn't open the door.

To see if quitting would help (my friend had to head to sleep soon anyways), I quit and apparently my character also started to bug.

Note that my friend also encountered a bug (possibly reoccurring for now) where his game is pitch black for five minutes before it finally loads.

[20170318 Edit]

---

20150117:
Today my friend and I tried playing some more Resident Evil 6. This time I started a campaign and watched the first scene. However, since I set the join option to private, I could not invite him to the game and he could not join it. Since I had just started the campaign, I quit, invited him, and started the campaign.

Getting into the game, we quickly got passed the part that gave us trouble the first time around.

Eventually, we encountered a part in the game where we triggered an alarm and fought off a bunch of zombies. At this point, there were many item drops, but since we were busy fighting the zombies we didn't pick any of them up. Unexpectedly, a cutscene was triggered which moved the characters through the door and away from the hoard. Then a checkpoint was created and I was left with almost no ammunition.

Luckily, we were just playing on Normal and ammunition could readily be found. However, it was annoying that all the item drops prior to the event trigger were just left behind. (Actually, the characters eventually retrace their steps to that hallway, but the items will have already disappeared.)

Soon we found ourselves in a tunnel and some time along this tunnel my friend got disconnected. Unfortunately, again because the join option was set to private, I could not invite him to the game.

While we pondered on the idea of quitting and seeing what the last checkpoint would have been, my friend alt-tabbed and the game crashed on him. Then, due to his loading bug, he decided to stop playing for the day. Meanwhile, I left the game session and returned with the join option set to allow players to join.

Then, since my friend didn't join, I eventually had a stranger join my game (I had played with an AI from the start of the tunnel to the point where the player characters enter the subway).

Steam Game Time: 72 minutes (total game time)

[20170318 Edit]

---

Recommendation:
Most of the games I play are simple and upon playing a game like Resident Evil 6, I am wowed by the graphics. Two other games which I have played recently in this respect are Half-Life 2 and Skyrim. In any case, while the game was amazing to look at, it did a terrible job of teaching me how to play the game.

Explicitly, the game taught me how to move, shoot, and use an herb, but there were many other actions which were omitted from the tutorial. This include dodging, rolling, inventory use, and switching weapons.

In fact, my friend and I still don't exactly know how the aiming reticule works with respect to headshots. One thing I do know is that the red dot will grow to maximum size when the placement for the headshot is correct. What I don't know, however, is why the red dot doesn't stay in the center of the crosshair.

In any case, another aspect of the game which can be hit or miss was its heavy use of quick-time events. While sometimes quick-time events are fun and welcome, they become a pain when unexpected or ambiguous.

For example, in Chapter 1-2, a train is coming and a quick-time event initiates. While the train is on its way, the player can press the set of buttons as soon as the prompt comes up (as opposed to waiting for when the train comes close). This was reasonable.

[20150117][20170318 Edit]

---

Resident Evil 6 (PC) (2013)*
*Biohazard 6

Relevant Links:
Resident Evil 6 (PC) (MetaCritic.com)
Resident Evil 6 / Biohazard 6 (Steam Store Page)
Resident Evil 6 (Wikipedia.org)

Eliss Infinity (Android) (2014)

20150114:
Today I played Eliss Infinity. It's not bad, though perhaps purposely cryptic in terms of goals.

There were some clarity issues, such as the size of the balls being unclear.

Another drawback is that the game requires playing with the phone on a surface. In that case, it's probably better to play on a tablet.
9:21PM PT

---

Eliss Infinity (Android) (2014)

Relevant Links:
Eliss Webpage
Eliss Infinity (iOS) (MetaCritic.com)
Eliss > Eliss Infinity (Wikipedia.org)
Eliss Infinity (App Store)
Eliss Infinity (Google Play)

The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim (PC) (2011)

Overview: Not available at this time.

---

20150113:
I played about one to two hours of The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim today. Unfortunately, I was distracted by a personal dilemma. It was so bad that I couldn't even concentrate. I was subsequently so flustered that I didn't know what to do. In any case, it hindered my Skyrim experience.

My character! (20150113)

Setup: I started off playing with a controller, but I wondered if using a mouse and keyboard would be better. I eventually did some research and most people seem to like using a mouse and keyboard better. The main advantage I saw for using a controller would be to sit back and relax.

Steam Game Time: 2.6 hours

---

Check out that bow. (20150113)

Summary: Not available at this time.

---

20220527: My brother-in-law visited not too long ago and he was playing Skyrim. Seeing him play it renewed my interest to try the game again. Today I started playing The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim - Special Edition (2016).

Setup: 1920x1080 resolution. Graphic settings set to high. No mods. Survival mode off. Keyboard and mouse.

Gameplay Log:
At character creation, I made a female wood elf. [While editing this post, it appears this was also the base choice for my character when I first tried to play over seven years ago (see 20150113)]
Followed Ralof to Riverwood
Made and tempered a dagger
To do: go to Whiterun

Steam Game Time (Special Edition): 82 minutes

---

20220528:
Today I returned to the game!

Gameplay Log:
Entered a temple.
Ran out of potions, but leveled up with increased health, focused on using bow and sneak to avoid direct combat, and made use of regeneration
Completed the temple (actually when I reached the lock, I had to backtrack all the way to retrieve the Golden Claw).
Went fishing (discovered I could cross the river)
Went back to Riverwood to sell off equipment and completed Tempered Hide Helmet
I made the mistake of converting too much of my leather to leather straps (so I have excess leather straps)
--took a break--
Killed dragon at the Western Watchtower
To do: go to the East to speak with the Greybeard monks in High Hrothgar
--took a break--
Got lost trying to head to High Hrothgar
Killed a dragon
Got back on the road, backtracked a little, and started followed the signs to Ivarstead
Entered a cave
Read an interesting story titled Breathing Water. I like the ending.
Completed the cave which turns the icy winter mountain into a spring-time mountain
Kind of messed around looking for money, crafting items to sell, and making potions
At first I just ate each ingredient to unlock a proprety, but then I decided to just use a tool (http://www.garralab.com/skyrim/alchemy.php)

Steam Game Time (Special Edition): 11.1 hours (total game time)

---

20220603:
Gameplay Log:
A dragon respawned near Whiterun. Defeated it.
Tried to find a treasure indicated by a treasure map.
There was an orc who wanted a good fight. Tried to fight him, but died once and decided not to waste resources.
Might have succeeded except the gold I found was in a tower, as opposed to what I thought of treasure as being buried in the ground.
Tried to fight a giant, but failed. It seemed possible, but decided not to waste resources.
Later played around with trying to get the giant to kill the bandits for me.
I later discovered after much effort that a defeated bandit would respawn.
Got enough money for a house in Whiterun
Decided to use the glitch that saves the 5000 gold
Used much of that gold for the house upgrades

Steam Game Time (Special Edition): 2.2 hours (session game time) / 15.3 hours (total game time)

---

20220604:
Gameplay Log:
Joined the Companions
Started having Lydia follow me

Steam Game Time (Special Edition): 7.2 hours (session game time) / 22.5 hours (total game time)

---

20220605:
Gameplay Log:
Bought a horse (White Run stables, 1000 gold)
Steam Game Time (Special Edition): 0.8 hours (session game time) / 23.3 hours (total game time)

---

20220615:
Gameplay Log:
Lydia sometimes blocks my way, but having her melee while I use magic can be useful
The horse will reset next to your location after fast travel!
Made it to Winterhold
It occurs to me that the Stormcloaks don't like elves or basically any race except Nords; so while it seemed like joining them would be my initial inclination, as a Dark Elf I feel like joining the Imperials would be smarter [I did some reading and technically it doesn't matter, but there is that aforementioned roleplay element of race and the Stormcloaks would eventually have you attack Whiterun which is a great home base; also the entire storyline is considered a side quest...]
Read a particular mage build guide. Learned about using Soul Trap to power level Conjuration in order to use Dremora Lords.
Got these spells from College: ...
Putting the Soul Trap strat into practice, I leveled Conjuration to 66 before taking a break and proceeded with the game. Using "Conjure Flame Atronach" has been useful though.

Steam Game Time (Special Edition): 6.6 hours (session game time) / 29.9 hours (total game time)

---

20220616:
Gameplay Log:
Trained with Angi. The training helps boost Archery level, but the item she gives is crappy [20220617: apparently this is a waste of Angi's training; "this training is best left until they reach Level 94 as the subsequent levels would take much longer to train if done so in normal combat."]

Steam Game Time (Special Edition): 3.4 hours (session game time) / 33.3 hours (total game time)

---

20220617:
Gameplay Log:
Got level 100
Got the Dremora Lord
Summoned Unbound Dremora (easy with Lydia and two Dremora Lords)
Got Flame Thrall (read pros and cons of Dremora Lord to Atronachs; Should use Storm Atronach against dragons)

Steam Game Time (Special Edition): 7.0 hours (session game time) / 40.3 hours (total game time)

---

20220618:
Gameplay Log:
Explored some area with a strange orb.
The next part of that quest is to find some stolen books.

Steam Game Time (Special Edition): 1.5 hours (session game time) / 41.8 hours (total game time)

---

20220621:
Gameplay Log:
Completed some quests in the Northeast.

Steam Game Time (Special Edition): 2.5 hours (session game time) / 44.3 hours (total game time)

---

20220622:
Gampelay Log:
Did the mine quest (?) in Solsteim (sp?)
Focus on enchanting

Steam Game Time (Special Edition): (session game time) / (total game time)

---

The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim (PC) (2011)

Relevant Links:
The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim (Wikipedia.org)
The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim (PC) (MetaCritic.com)
The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim (Steam Store Page)

Character creation is part of the fun! (20150113)

DUET (Android) (2013)

20150113:
Today I played DUET. Compared to Eliss Infinity, DUET was simple, but interesting and fun. The levels started out easy, but became more difficult at a good pace.

Twist the pair of balls along the circle either clockwise or counter-clockwise.

[20150114]

---

DUET (Android) (2013)

Fail...

Relevant Links:
Duet (iOS) (MetaCritic.com)
Duet (Steam Store Page)
Duet (video ggame) (Wikipedia.org)

Card City Nights (PC) (2014)

20150112:
Today I logged two hours and forty five minutes of gameplay!

Needless to say the game is an interesting card game. Mechanically, its different than other card games on the market (Yu-Gi-Oh!, Pokemon, and Magic The Gathering). Unfortunately, its strategies seem limited.

In particular, without collecting more cards, it seems an offensive/disability deck is much better than a defensive deck. To be reactive in this game is much trickier than being proactive.

One problem with the game is that I don't understand how to buy or sell cards. Upon entering the store, I can click on a card, but the game doesn't seem to let me buy or sell anything.

While I have little knowledge on strategies for Pokemon, I was a big fan of Yu-Gi-Oh! back in high school (when the game was first released) and of Magic: The Gathering in middle school (Urza's block and Masques block). From what I recall, both games had a lot of variety and choices in gameplay.

In any case, I still think this game is good for what it is.

Though perhaps unintentional, playing Card City Nights reminds me of both Yu-Gi-Oh! and Pokemon. For Yu-Gi-Oh!, we have the deck building theme and a corporation that makes cards (like Kaiba industries). For Pokemon, we have to collect eight Legendary cards (like eight gym badges) and an opponent who is trying to beat us to become the best (like Gary).

Overall, the game was interesting enough that I tried playing it for over two and a half hours. While it's not amazing enough to recommend, it's worthy of some playtime if it's already in your collection of games.

---

Overview: Card City Nights is a card game.

---

20240509 Snapshot:
Steam Game Time: 2.8 hours (cumulative game time) / 2h 49m (Playnite)
Last Played: 20150112

---

20240509:
Unfortunately I didn't seem to have a save file for this game. However, I supposed it would be worth playing from the beginning, and so that's what I did.

Steam Game Time: 5.0 hours (cumulative game time) / 2.2 hours (session game time)

---

20240510:
Steam Game Time: 6.6 hours (cumulative game time) / 1.6 hours (session game time)

---

20240511:
Steam Game Time: 8.2 hours (cumulative game time) / 1.6 hours (session game time)

---

20240512:
Gameplay Log: Played some.
Read a card list guide and decide to farm some cards.
A couple tries to get Ultra Fishbunjin 3000
One try to get Mc Cluck
Continue playing

Steam Game Time: 10.1 hours (cumulative game time) / 1.9 hours (session game time)

---

20240513:
Gameplay Log:
Used the card list guide to trade in some cards (Alchemy)

Steam Game Time: 12.1 hours (cumulative game time) / 2.0 hours (session game time)

---

20240514:
Steam Game Time: 12.9 hours (cumulative game time) / 0.8 hours (session game time)

---

20240515:
Steam Game Time: 15.8 hours (cumulative game time) / 2.9 hours (session game time)

---

20240516:
Steam Game Time: 16.2 hours (cumulative game time) / 0.4 hours (session game time)

---

20240517:
Gameplay Log:
I had trouble sleeping and played for 0.7 hours. Completing the tournament.

Steam Game Time: 16.9 hours (cumulative game time) / 0.7 hours (session game time)

---

20240518:
Steam Game Time: 18.8 hours (cumulative game time) / 1.9 hours (session game time)

---

20240519:
Gameplay Log:
Defeated the boss.
Couldn't defeat the assistant.

Steam Game Time: hours (cumulative game time) / hours (session game time)

---

20240521:
Gameplay Log:
Was farming for Itan Carver but then it turned out that because I already unlocked Business Casual Man that I could just buy it (in fact, I couldn't trade in for another one unless I'm missing something*)
Modified deck and faced the assistant again. Manage to luck out a 3-2 win. Very close best of 5.

Steam Game Time: 22.5 hours (cumulative game time) / hours (session game time)

*The next day I tried removing cards from my decks and that seemed to make the card available. But the funny thing was I had opened a booster with an Itan Carver so it should have freed up the card. I think somehow you can use the same copy across multiple decks but it doesn't count as a spare uf it's used in moredecks than copies. As an example, I suspect if I had one Itan Carver, I could use it in two decks, but until I have 3 Itan Carvers, I wouldn't be able to use Alchemy.

---

Card City Nights (PC) (2014)

Relevants Links:
Card City Nights Website
Card City Nights (Steam Store Page)
Card City Nights (PC) (MetaCritic.com)

Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons (PC) (2013)

20150110:
I just put about two hours and fifty minutes to play and finish this game. Throughout the game, I definitely praised it for its stunning visuals and its powerful soundtrack. At times, playing Brothers - A Tale of Two Sons felt more like watching a movie.

The game's puzzles were decent, perhaps hovering around the difficulty of puzzles in standard action-adventure games like The Legend of Zelda: The Ocarina of Time or Beyond Good & Evil. I would, however, turn the focus back to the game's visuals and soundtrack, which alone are more than enough reason to play the game.

Of course, the game also has a powerful story with an ending that just blew me away with its execution. Without giving anything away, the story delivers the "Book Ends" trope (tvtropes.org). The three things that originally came to my mind when I thought of the "Book Ends" trope were puzzle platformer Limbo, television series LOST, and 3D platformer Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time.

Getting back to the game, I would also say that the end was so shocking and good that I kept thinking thoughts like "Is this for reals?" and "Oh okay, that makes sense."

Overall, this game certainly deserves its positive reviews and ratings. I would highly recommend this game to anybody who has a computer that can run it smoothly.

Remark: I have yet to try how the game feels with a keyboard; however, I imagine that playing the game with a keyboard will be slightly less natural than playing the game with a controller.

Second remark: Having only achieved six of twelve achievements on my first run, I'll definitely have to play this game again some day. It helps that its a short game.

Third remark: The game has a checkpoint/auto-save system. While this is generally good, it would be most unfortunate if a bug occurred and the only choice was to start over. For this reason, I would personally favor a multi-slot save/auto-save system in game design, as found in Portal and Half-Life.

Steam Game Time: 2.9 hours (cumulative game time)

---

20231219:
Today I revisit the game while looking to complete the remaining six achievements:
Call of the giants "You sounded a giant horn."
A sad tune "You made someone feel better."
Whale Song "You practised singing."
Falling star "Make a wish."
Take a Break "You Took a break from adventuring."
Love Birds "You re-united the two love birds."

Gameplay Log:
I stopped the game to try and fix the controller (left y-axis was inverted). In my case, simply "Enable Steam Input" fixed both that issue and my B and A buttons being reversed.
I got to the statue and waited. But apparently I did it with the Big Brother, and tried it with both. Doing it with the Little Brother, however, is what it takes to unlock the achievement.
A sad tune. I did the first part of this automatically (save the man) but I had to read the second part in a guide otherwise I would have missed completion of the achievement.
Love Birds. I felt like the telescope was key to achievement, I could have sworn I saw a bird cage in the tower, but I had started the gliding and restarted checkpoint. I looked at the guide and sure enough the telescope would help trigger the Love Birds achievement, but not at all in the location I thought.
Call of the giants. Looking for a giant horn makes this one straightforward.
Whale Song. There's a chance I would have found this without the guide, but I can also see how one would miss it. I've been sitting on all the benches throughout the game, but this bench is located just beyond a saw which players would naturally stop to take to progress the story, thereby missing this bench. This woman jumped across a wide gap... she can't be human.
I had forgotten that this woman was a monster.
I did not like this boss battle. Dismemberment of the legs just seems strange.
I had forgotten that the older brother died. While there is a small plot point to be gained in that the little brother was able to do some tasks on his own, it did not seem within the boundaries of the story for us to expect the older brother's death.
Completed at 6.1 hours total (so about 3.2 hours for the run)
Finished the final missing achievement by restarting Chapter 1. Had to rewatch the cutscene with no way to skip.

Overall, while I previously gave this game the top 25 tag, I did not like the story much this time through. A lot of the visuals were still great and some of the interactions were neat. There were various times throughout the game where the strengths of the two brothers was just a bit more than I could believe. I do think it would be reasonable for them to be strong - they seem to live the life of farmhands of some sort. But again, I just felt there were portions in the game where their strength exceeded my believability.

Steam Game Time: 6.2 hours (cumulative game time) / 3.3 hours (session game time)

---

Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons (PC) (2013)

Relevant Links:
Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons
Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons (Wikipedia.org)
Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons (PC) (MetaCritic.com)
Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons (Steam Store Page)

Half-Life 2 (PC) (2004)

Overview:
Half-Life 2 is a first-person shooter which takes place some time after the events of Half-Life. As Morgan Freeman, the protagonist of the original Half-Life, you enter a place called City 17. There you meet some old friends and, as far as I can tell, your job is to save the world.

---

Recommendation:
Having played about twelve percent of the game, I can say that I really enjoy Half-Life 2. From the graphics to the story-telling, Half-Life 2 does everything well and stands to symbolize gaming at its best.

[20150203]

---

20150107:
Today I played some Half-Life 2 for the first time.

I played for an hour and stopped somewhere in the river canal (Route Canal - Chapter 3).

Thus far I've faced cops (Civil Protection forces), those ceiling creatures (Barnacles), and an annoying helicopter (Hunter-Chopper).

Thankfully, the game provides a healthy supply of health and energy.

Overall, the game's graphics are a big improvement over Half-Life.

I won't be able to comment on the game's story yet, except that the game certainly pays attention to the details.

Unfortunately, due to a combination of my camera movement and what I ate prior to playing, I felt a little woozy after the game.

[20150203 Edit]

---

Steam Game Time: 80 minutes

---

---

Half-Life 2 (PC) (2004)

Relevant Links:
Half-Life 2 (Wikipedia.org)
Half-Life 2 (PC) (MetaCritic.com)

KickBeat: Steam Edition (PC) (2014)

Overview: KickBeat is a run-of-the-mill rhythm game with a martial arts theme. Press the correct buttons to the beat as enemies come in from the top, bottom, left, and right.

---

Occasionally a scene activates.

Recommendation:
While KickBeat may look cool, it doesn't offer anything new, such as rhythm and RPG game Sequence (PC) (2011). If you're really into rhythm games then by all means check out KickBeat, otherwise you're better off playing traditional rhythm games such as Dance Dance Revolution or Guitar Hero.

---

KickBeat: Steam Edition (PC) (2014)*
*KickBeat (PS3) (2013)

I activated the left shoulder button, but I forgot what it does. (20150202)

Relevant Links:
KickBeat: Steam Edition (PC) (MetaCritic.com)
KickBeat (Wikipedia.org)
KickBeat Steam Edition KickBeat (Steam Store Page)

---

20150105:
Today I started this game, playing the first tutorial and starting the second tutorial. Unfortunately, in the middle of the second tutorial, the game crashed on me and I didn't feel like starting it up again.*

Another example of a scene activating.

*Note that various games will crash due to the presence of Open Broadcaster Software (OBS), but most only crash the moment the recording button is pressed. Regardless, I didn't always feel like resuming right away.

20150106: [20150514 Edit]
Today I tried playing again, picking up with the second tutorial and almost finishing the third. Unfortunately, the game crashed in the middle of the third tutorial. This time, however, I wasn't running OBS.

Taking screenshots while playing is hard. I'm in the danger zone!

While I have yet to play the game, I can confirm that the game is basically just your average rhythm game with a martial arts skin attached to it.

Despite the crash, this time I gave the chance and started it up again after a couple of minutes passed. Apparently I was only moments from the ending of the third tutorial! In any case, I started the first level and definitely agree with my initial opinion: the game is practically your average rhythm game.

Defeat

With that being said, it is kind of nice to have the "notes" (enemies) coming in from the four directions instead of from top to bottom or bottom to top. I suppose this scheme also benefits from directly correlating with the arrow keys and/or gamepad buttons.

Unfortunately, once again, the game crashed. This time it crashed after the level ended. Rather annoyed, I stopped playing and felt like I would never play again.

20150202:
I played the first and second level today in order to take some screenshots. Playing them gave me a more positive opinion of the game, but it's still just plain vanilla.

20150514:
Today I played seven more levels of KickBeat and found it interesting that the game had a story.

While playing, I also remembered another positive point about the game: enemies (notes) circle in from the outside and so the scrolling effect (notes scrolling down or up) created in rhythm games like Guitar Hero and DDR does not occur.

With that being said, KickBeat (on normal) feels more difficult than Guitar Hero and DDR.

Remark: The game didn't detect my Logitech Dual Action gamepad and so I just used the keyboard.

Tip: The enemies are color-coded. Red enemies come in pairs (e.g., press two directions simultaneously). Blue enemies will come fast (I think if one comes on the beat, the one after it will come on a half-beat). Yellow enemies are sometimes linked (press the direction on the first of the pair and hold the direction down. Releasing the button on the second enemy).

Tip: Activating chi temporarily doubles the score multiplier.

Hamlet or the Last Game without MMORPG Features, Shaders and Product Placement (PC) (2010)

Overview: Hamlet is a point-and-click adventure game whose characters are inspired by the characters in the play Hamlet by William Shakespeare.

---

Recommendation:
First, this game's title has no real significance. Second, other than the character names, the game's story has no clear relationship with the play. Then, as for the parenthetical portion of the game's name, it'd be more accurately titled "Hamlet (just another point-and-click adventure)."

While this game may be cheap (when on sale), it is short and some of its puzzles are not well made. For example, some puzzles are overly complicated by false clues left to mask the simplicity of the solution.

Though the game does provide hints after the player has taken too long, who wants to solve a point-and-click adventure game using hints!?!

Overall, this game performs below average and I would not recommend it. I did, however, enjoy the artwork.

You have to be a bit quick here, but its not as bad as the game's final puzzle.

---

20150104 AM Hours:
When I decided to play this game, I didn't know it would be a point-and-click adventure. In particular, its title seems so much more epic than what it turned out to be.

In the room where you have to guess the password, I tried to Google the compound Fe7O7 and among the search results was the answer. Unfortunately, there was nothing I could do about that spoiler.

At this weird puzzle with the changing face and compass directions, I was able to use brute force. I eventually read, however, that there's a heuristic solution (that I would never have thought of). This puzzle suffers from providing fake, unhelpful information. Brute force led to the following unexplained solution: open O; sad C; smile D; teeth E; squiggle S; tongue P; neutral I

Yes! I'm glad I got this monkey game without using a hint. Hint: I found the ties, even without knowing they were ties, subconsciously helped me solve the puzzle. Answer: Rock, paper, scissors!

Getting through the forest. Hint: Apparently the path flashes at the start. Otherwise, I just kept track of the answer via pen and paper. Answer: Clockwise, choose the 2nd, 1st, 2nd, 2nd, 2nd, 2nd, 1st, 2nd, 1st, and 2nd path.

I'm stuck at this room with four buttons that must be clicked and the correct combination must be found. I tried looking at the room for clues but didn't find anything. I tried to determine some relationships between the shapes and symbols but none of them seemed to unlock the door.

So far this adventure game isn't as fun as other adventure games I've played. I suppose at times its puzzles are too cryptic and at other times its puzzles are too easy.

I would have to say I enjoy Botanicula much more. Botanicula has it all among the point-and-click games I've played. What does Hamlet have? No idea.

This puzzle was hard, maybe too hard.

---

20150104 Noon Time:
Today i tried to go back to this tricky puzzle. I realized there are more relationships that I can consider.

Eventually, as I was going over to my blog to jot down a few notes and prepare to use the hint, my final notes magically materialized into the solution! Of course, I say "magically", because I have no idea why the solution is correct. In fact, I don't even know what the solution is.

Afterwards I read the actual solution and my reasoning was totally off.

With that being said, at one point I did attempt to do what was required by the actual solution, but I was thinking on the wrong scale.

There is, however, a possibility that I subconsciously arrived at the answer, because accidentally stumbling it seems difficult.

What an annoying puzzle.

Moving on, the last few "puzzles" are just annoying: Secret Hideout Door, Grim Reaper, Hourglass, and Claudius; actually, Claudius was the worst "puzzle" I've ever encountered.
Note that for the Grim Reaper, the bottom color is a dark blue/purple and the center color is magenta.

Claudius is annoying because it's basically a quick-time event that's super hard to pull off. I must have tried two hundred times before getting it.

---

Hamlet or the Last Game without MMORPG Features, Shaders and Product Placement (PC) (2010)

Relevant Links:
Hamlet (video game) (Wikipedia.org)
Hamlet or the Last Game without MMORPG Features, Shaders and Product Placement (PC) (MetaCritic.com)
Hamlet Or the Last Game without MMORPG Features, Shaders and Product Placement (Steam Store Page)