Spec Ops: The Line (PC) (2012)

Overview: Third-person shooter.

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20170827:
Today I continued with Spec Ops: The Line to cross off yet another game which cost $29.99 that I had not already played (see the footnote in my Mafia II post). Unfortunately, I had to end the experience early because I had some caffeine and playing the game had started to give me a headache.*

Setup: The graphics seemed to have been automatically set to their max. Difficulty: Combat op (Normal).

Steam Game Time: 41 minutes

*There used to be a time when I didn't understand why I got headaches while playing first-person or third-person shooters. Even today it took a little while before I realized why my head started hurting.

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Thoughts:
Pros:
+ Good story

+ Good checkpoints
+ Decent graphics (with respect to Aug 2017)

Neutral:
~ What's the death condition?

---

Summary:
While I was unable to get more than forty-five minutes of gameplay in with Spec Ops: The Line, my time with the game left a good first impression and I will eventually dedicate more time with the game.

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Spec Ops: The Line (PC) (2012)

Relevant Links:
Spec Ops: The Line Website
Spec Ops: The Line (Wikipedia.org)
Spec Ops (series) (Wikipedia.org)
Spec Ops: The Line (PC) (MetaCritic.com)
Spec Ops: The Line (Steam Store Page)

Blade & Soul (PC) (2016)

Overview: Korean action MMORPG.

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Important: once a character is created, the appearance cannot be changed again without paying a fee

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20170824:
I tried to play Blade & Soul once before but the game wouldn't run after I installed it. Today, however, I realized I might be able to play it on my current desktop computer. Luckily it worked for me this time. After choosing a race/class (5 minute) and customizing a character (32 minutes), I played the Prologue (eight chapters) and the first four chapters of Act 1 (81 minutes).

Standing around.

Game Time: approximately 2 hours (session), 2 hours (total)

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20170827 Midnight:
Today I resumed the game, played for an hour, finished Act 1 Chapter 5, and played the very start of Act 1 Chapter 6.

Game Time: approximately 1 hour (session), 3 hours (total)

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20170827 Noon:
At noon, I picked up from where I left off and played for about two hours. I had completed Act 1 Chapter 10 when I stopped playing.

Casting a spell.

Game Time: approximately 2 hours (session), 5 hours (total)

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Thoughts:
Pros:
+ Strong character customization
+ Attractive female character models
+ Decently aesthetic environments / enemies.
+ Cool attack animations.

Talking with an NPC (non-player character)

Neutral:
~ Anime style
~ Free to play

Minor Cons:
- Terrible quest: I was supposed to read some letter and I did what it said but the game didn't seem to register the action.
- Bug: I got stuck after using fly. WTF. If i wasn't allowed to be there why were borders set the way they were.
- Not the best interface

About to throw a bomb at the enemy (Blackram)

- Loading screens are annoying. Can't that stuff be cached based on proximity?
- Running should be unlimited when out of combat.

---

Summary:
While the game was rough around the edges, I enjoyed playing it. However, since I've only played a couple of MMORPGs,* I find myself unable to make any meaningful recommendations. Actually, if a short clip of gameplay or the game's graphics look appealing, then it wouldn't hurt to give the game a try because it's free-to-play.

Selection of races and classes.

The availability of classes and gender depends on the race.

*Besides Blade & Soul, I've played WildStar (2014), Realm of the Mad God (2011), Spiral Knights (2009). Apparently I also played an MMORPG called Darkfall Unholy Wars (2013).

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Blade & Soul (PC) (2016)

Relevant Links:
Blade & Soul (Wikipedia.org)
Blade & Soul (PC) (MetaCritic.com)
Blade & Soul Website

DmC: Devil May Cry (PC) (2013)

Overview: A hack-and-slash where the player takes control of Dante, a half-angel, half-demon, who wields a sword named Rebellion and two hand guns named Ebony and Ivory. In the second mission, the player acquires the ability to transform Dante's sword into an axe (Arbiter) or scythe (Osiris) at whim.

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20170822:
Off the top of my head, I couldn't recall the last time I played an action-adventure hack-and-slash similar to DmC: Devil May Cry.*

Dante

Regardless, it was yet another game at the $29.99 price point which I had not already played (see the footnote in my Mafia II post) and I had heard good things about the game.

Setup: Devil Hunter (i.e., Normal Difficulty)

Steam Game Time: 94 minutes

Kat

*1) I've never played any game from the God of War series. 2) I once tried to play Blade & Soul (PC) (NA, 2016) but ran into some compatibility issues. 3) I own Darksiders (PC) (2010). 4) A long time ago I tried playing Soulcalibur Legends (Wii) (2007) but the hack-and-slash there is basic compared to that of DmC.

[20170826]

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Thoughts:
Pros:
+ Dante's personality
+ Fun, cool action

The first boss of the game.

+ Great presentation
+ Replayability
+ Skills can be respecified; why can't more action-adventure games do this?
+ Introduction of new mechanics is integrated into the story and introduced at an appropriate pace

Dante and Arbiter (axe)

Minor Cons:
- Lacks a targeting system
- Sometimes poor camera angles; common problem in action-adventure games

---

Summary:
As far as I can remember, I've never played this time of hack-and-slash before but I have the feeling that DmC: Devil May Cry has set a high standard. From a different point of view, DmC - within the action or action-adventure genre - is a high-quality game. In general, any weaknesses the game has can be overlooked by its strengths. Consequently, I would easily recommend this game to anyone who enjoys hack-and-slash games.

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DmC: Devil May Cry (PC) (2013)

Relevant Links:
DmC: Devil May Cry (Wikipedia.org)
DmC: Devil May Cry (PC) (MetaCritic.com)
DmC: Devil May Cry (Steam Store Page)

Kat, Vergil, and Dante

Dungeons 2 (PC) (2015)

Overview: Play as the Ultimate Evil and defend your dungeon from the good guys and conquer the Alliance.

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20170820:
Today I continued knocking down games at the $29.99 price point which I have yet to play (see the footnote in my Mafia II post). First up was Dungeons 2.

Sending Orcs to the surface.

Game Log:
I played the first two missions (tutorial in nature) in 72 minutes. At one part I was stuck when I was building a treasury room here and there, but it didn't trigger the event. I eventually realized the game wanted me to build a treasury room on the 8 squares marked by an exclamation mark.

I took a break and considered not resuming the game. But I eventually decided I barely got into the meat of the game and so I continued playing some more. This, of course, was an indication that the first two missions left a good impression.

Tip: When finding a gold vein, immediately build a treasury around it. In fact, building a treasury around any significant source of gold will save time.

So much gold!!!

Steam Game Time: 3.8 hours (total game time)

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20170822:
Today I played part of the next mission which involved killing a unicorn. The game opened up from there, but I had trouble managing my workers. This was frustrating.

The (presumably) last three missions involved destroying three cities and I was able to defeat the first one but all of my army died. I think it would have worked without flaw if the Naga (serpent species which are long range and heal) had stayed alive. This required me to spawn a new army and try again. Thus while I had the resources, the end game just required time. Instead of attacking, I could have also tried to beef up my army in the arena.

There were a lot of other upgrades as well, but again my workers (goblins) weren't cooperating.

Steam Game Time: 4.9 hours (total game time) / 1.1 hours (session game time) / 4h 55m (Playnite)

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Thoughts:
Pros:
+ Humorous narrator (apparently the same person who did The Stanley Parable (2013)); chat level can be set in options
+ Model design and general art design

Minor Con:
~ Easy to win by turtling; misplaced challenge (I want a challenge via strategy, not via time). Not enough motivation to finish quickly. I would have implemented a scoring system that favors short completion time, no death, and maybe most gold.

Send in the troops!

Cons:
- Controls feel clunky; picking up and dropping minions feels awkward; choosing actions in the menu screens is often unintuitive
- Related to previous, selection of characters is a difficult process
- In general, most of my complaints had to do with the interface
- Some of the game's goals can be confusing to understand (see "treasury" example above)

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Summary:
After playing for almost four hours, I realized that perhaps I was playing almost too conservatively. With that being said, the game did not push me to act otherwise.

Victory! (no score screen!?! how anticlimactic)

On a different note, while my personal complaints were geared towards the game's control and UI, I later read an IGN.com review which noted that half the time the game was a dungeon keeper and half the time it was a real-time strategy (RTS) game. The review went on to say that the RTS half was overly simplistic, and consequently ruined half of the game. Paraphrasing, the review reasoned that the RTS half of the game paled in comparison to even a simple, yet complete RTS such as Warcraft: Orcs & Human (1994), the first game in the Warcraft series.

In the end, I could see a huge gain in entertainment value upon replaying the game with an optimal strategy in mind, but just playing the game once could potentially be a chore depending one's experience with real-time strategy games.

Remark: I've never played Dungeon Keeper, but I read that this game is similar to it.

[20170822][20240428 Edit]

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20240428 Comment:
Based on what I wrote above, I would give this game a rating of 2.0 out of 5.

Rating: 2.0/5

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Dungeons 2 (PC) (2015)

Time to tackle the fifth mission!!!

Relevant Links:
Dungeons 2 (Wikipedia.org)
Dungeons 2 (PC) (MetaCritic.com)
Dungeons 2 (Steam Store Page)
Dungeons 2 (PC) (IGN.com)

Mafia II (PC) (2010)

Overview: Play as Vito Scaletta as he does a series of jobs for the Mafia.

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PSA: This game is not a traditional open-world game.

Vito Scaletta

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20170819: (AM Hours)
After midnight, I proceeded down the list of games I owned ordered by price - having yesterday (20170818) played Tales of Zestiria using the same method. Among the different games that cost $29.99, I skipped several strategy/RTS games on the list until I arrived at Mafia II. While I can't say I was looking forward to playing it, the game's positive reviews encouraged me to give it a try.

Setup: Keyboard. Default display settings. Medium difficulty.

Vito's best friend Joe Barbaro

Game Log:
The initial sequence in Italy surprised me (for a game titled Mafia).
The game has an open world feel to it, but with a linear storyline. [Supposedly there's an open world mod]
Is the goal of the game to make money? Or perhaps it's simply to experience the story.
I stopped playing after I completed the fourth chapter.

Steam Game Time: 3.7 hours (session game time)

*According to SteamDB, I had a handful of games I had yet to play that cost $29.99. Alphabetically: The Darkness II, DMC: Devil May Cry, Dungeons 2, Horizon, Mafia II, NARUTO SHIPPUDEN: [UNS] 3, Project CARS, Remember Me, Resident Evil Revelations, Sonic Lost World, Spec Ops: The Line, Spintires, StarDrive, Stronghold [CE] HD, Styx: [MoS], Tiny Barbarian DX, Total War: SHOGUN 2, Warhammer 40,000: [DoWII-R], Warhammer: [ET-V], WRC 4: FIA [WRC].

---

Thoughts:
Pros:
+ Great graphics
+ Excellent story
+ Good dialogue
+ Realism; in particular, the cop AI is interesting

My first car. Plated TNYTIM

+ Pays attention to detail. For example, I passed a character on the way towards home and he recognized me; in hindsight, the game's linearity helps in this respect

Neutral:
~ Realistic driving; cops don't enforce staying on the road or running a red, but sometimes it's easier to obey traffic laws in order to avoid crashing into other cars or killing pedestrians - the first will damage your car, the second will get you in trouble with the law; sometimes cops will chase you for speeding

Minor Con:
- It initially seemed like every other open world game I've played (with missions), but it isn't. It's a linear story set in an open world with free roam, but I could only ever complete one objective. I repeat: I had yet to encounter any side missions. Remark: I believe it's the story's linearity which makes the game amazing.

Fist fights happen on occasion.

Con:
- No quick save option.

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Summary:
Overall, I loved the pace of the game. I especially felt this way after having recently played Tales of Zestiria whose action and story was spread out, interspersed with a lot of boring walking. In contrast, even driving around from point A to point B in Mafia II was a fun experience.

In fact, Mafia II was such a fun game that part of me wants to play more. However, having only completed four out of fifteen chapters over the course of 3.7 hours, I have decided to postpone my completion of the game.

I accidentally pulled out my gun in public. A man pulled out his gun and told me to put mine away. Then a cop told the man to put his gun away. Meanwhile, I had holstered mine, thinking it was just a simple mistake. Then the cop shot the man. (screenshot here) I didn't do anything wrong right? Then the cop came up to me and I was given the option to evade arrest or bribe the cop with $50. I bribed him and quietly walked away from the ordeal.

If you love action games with a good story, then I would highly recommend Mafia II. If you love open world games and wouldn't mind sacrificing the freedom to find missions for an excellent story, then I would also highly recommend Mafia II. For all others, I would recommend trying the demo.

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Mafia II (PC) (2010)

Relevant Links:
Mafia II Website
Mafia II (Wikipedia.org)
Mafia II (PC) (MetaCritic.com)
Mafia II (Steam Store Page)

Tales of Zestiria (PC) (2015)

Overview: Japanese RPG and fifteenth game in the main Tales series.

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20170818:
Today I played a Tales of Zestiria for a couple of hours. I chose it because it was the most expensive game (as determined by SteamDB.info) which I had yet to play. In fact, it was third on the list (sorted by price in descending order) after RPG Maker VX Ace ($69.99, doesn't count as a game) and SEGA Mega Drive & Genesis Classics ($61.99, I've played it for 1.9 hours).

Sorey and Mikleo

Setup: English audio, normal difficulty. Keyboard. I eventually turned off the caption.

Steam Game Time: 2.2 hours

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Thoughts:
Pro:
+ Some of the cutscenes are drawn in beautiful 2D animation

Alisha

Neutral:
~ English dub isn't bad
~ A lot of menu options; I guess games aren't simple like they used to be
~ Has an anime art style

Minor Con:
- Representing a group of enemies by one enemy on the map is strange. Why not just represent a group of enemies as a group of enemies?

Sorey and Mikleo confront a Hellion

Con:
- The pace of the game is annoyingly slow. I'm not sure if it picks up after approx. 2 hours, but it lost my attention.
- On that note, too much space between points of interest

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Summary:
I gave the game a little over two hours of my time and by the end of the two hours the story and gameplay were starting to get interesting. Unfortunately, two hours is a lot of time for a game to become interesting and while I might return to the game at a later date, I'm not interested in playing more any time soon.

With that being said, I haven't played very many Japanese role-playing games and my unfamiliarity with the general game mechanics required me to put more time into learning how to play the game as opposed to simply enjoying the game itself.

In the end, I'm unable to give a personal recommendation for the game. It's certainly nowhere near as good as Final Fantasy VII (PS) (1997) and, from what I can recall, it's not as good as Tales of Symphonia (GCN) (2003).

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Tales of Zestiria (PC) (2015)

Relevant Links:
Tales of Zestiria (Wikipedia.org)
Tales (series) (Wikipedia.org)
Tales of Zestiria (PC) (MetaCritic.com)
Tales of Zestiria (PS4) (IGN.com)
Tales of Zestiria (Steam Store Page)

N++ (PC) (2016)

Overview: Momentum-based platformer.

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20170817:
Yesterday I wrote the blog post for The Stanley Parable and noted that it was a game which "I just absolutely wanted to play when I first heard about it, and yet when I acquired the game, I never got around to playing it." Today, that motivated me to play N++.

At first, I played it for half an hour while I waited for a file to download. My initial impression was that the game was awesome. I enjoy playing difficult platformers - at least in small bursts. I later picked up the game from where I left off.

Setup: Although this sort of game probably benefits from a controller, I decided to play it with my keyboard.

Steam Game Time: 2.9 hours (total game time)

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Thoughts:
Pros:
+ Intro levels strike a perfect balance between difficulty and instruction
+ Cool color schemes
+ Nice soundtrack

Neutral:
~ My style of game
~ Perfecting the momentum system follows an 80-20 rule; achieving max height on ramps is difficult
~ I've yet to try these other game modes

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Comparison:
Versus Super Meat Boy (PC) (2010)
Super Meat Boy has a stronger story, better artwork, and incredibly smooth controls. With that being said, N++ sets itself apart by it's use of the momentum mechanic. Furthermore, N++ seems to offer a wider range of obstacles; it has, however, been a while since I've played Super Meat Boy.

Versus Electronic Super Joy (PC) (2013)
If I recall, the music in Electronic Super Joy is level dependent. In contrast, the soundtrack in N++ is independent of the levels. Consequently, while the music in N++ is good, it easily gets relegated to being background music instead of the center of attention as is the case with Electronic Super Joy. With respect to difficulty, N++ is arguably more difficult (especially considering I haven't even played the truly difficult levels). With respect to speed, Electronic Super Joy is more fast paced.

Versus 10 Second Ninja (PC) (2014)
While the story of N++ is about a ninja, the gameplay does not strongly suggest the player character is a ninja. In contrast, the protagonist of 10 Second Ninja wields a katana and three shurikens.

Versus Dustforce (PC) (2012)
N++ reminds me of Dustforce due to all the use of ramps and momentum, though Dustforce is much bigger on ramp usage and less on difficulty. Technically Dustforce is also difficult, but the perceived difficulty is lower.

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Summary:
I've played a variety of difficult platformers and N++ is right up there with the best. Furthermore, N++ manages to provide unique and challenging gameplay.

With that being said, while I was initially excited about the game, I eventually felt overwhelmed by it. More specifically, after completing twelve episodes I started going back in order to collect all of the gold and/or improve the episode time.

If you enjoy difficult platformers, then I would highly recommend N++.

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20210713:
Played through some levels of the co-op with my brother-in-law. We decided to just play through the levels with the goal of finishing a level (open and enter the door).

Setup: Television,* Xbox controller (RK), Steam controller (me).

Steam Game Time: 3.7 hours (total game time) / 0.8 hours (session game time)

*With the television so far away, the game is small. The yellow character is especially hard to see.

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20220903:
Wow this game has a lot of levels. Apparently I haven't even completed the intro levels.

Setup: Steam Deck.

Steam Game Time: 4.9 hours (total game time) / 1.2 hours (session game time)

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20220904:
I continued playing and I completed the intro levels.

Steam Game Time: 6.7 hours (total game time) / 1.8 hours (session game time)

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20210905 AM Hours Comment:
I was on my PC and loaded up N++ to check progress. To my surprise, there was no progress shown. According to the Store Page, the game doesn't support Steam Cloud (despite a section in the Steam interface saying "Cloud Status: Up to date"). Note, however, that the leaderboard information for my account does show.

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20220905:
Steam Game TIme: 7.5 hours (total game time) / 0.8 hours (session game time)

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N++ (PC) (2016)

Relevant Links:
N++ (Wikipedia.org)
N++ (PC) (MetaCritic.com)
N++ (Steam Store Page)

Company of Heroes (PC) (2006)

Overview: A real-time strategy game set in World War II.

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PSA: On Steam, there are two versions of Company of Heroes: "Company of Heroes" and "Company of Heroes (New Steam Version)." As far as I know, the latter was introduced because the online servers for the former were no longer in service. In addition, old threads mentioned that the original might be better for the single-player campaign, because of bugs in the New Steam Version, but it's possible those bugs no longer exist.

Approaching Omaha Beach

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20170816:
I was taking a break from work and tried playing this game. Upon loading it up, I was surprised to learn that it was a real-time strategy game (as opposed to a first-person shooter).

In any case, I was sleepy, and only managed to play the first three tutorials over the time span of forty-two minutes before I decided to take a nap: "Basic Training," "Infantry Combat Training," and "Base Operations Training."

After I woke up, I completed the fourth tutorial, "Armor Training", in ten minutes and proceeded to play the campaign, "Invasion of Normandy," which starts at Omaha Beach. The game often felt slow, but I slowly became more engaged. This was likely due to the game's learning curve.

Apparently putting a camouflaged sniper into the building will trigger aggro...

Setup: I opened the game and manually changed the resolution to 1920x1080. Then I exited the game and let Geforce Experience check the various graphic settings. While the game didn't have a built-in full-screen mode option, I was able to manually put it into full-screen by clicking on the maximize button at the top-right (of the game window).* Normal difficulty.

*I later reminded myself that pressing alt+enter (on a Windows computer) will also switch between windowed and full-screen.

Steam Game Time: 2.8 hours (total game time)

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20170816: (part 2)
I was curious about the mouse scroll setting and so I played a little bit more. I moved the mouse panning speed up just half a tick and it improved my mouse scrolling experience.

I played until I completed the mission, "Carentan."

Steam Game Time: 1.4 hours (session game time)

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Thoughts:
Pros:
+ Smooth transition between gameplay and cinematics
+ Graphics may be old but do not feel outdated
+ Good story (although the game uses events in World War II, it crafts its own dialogue and imagery)

Neutral:
~ It's a real-time strategy and while I probably would have enjoyed playing this sort of game when I was in high-school, I don't have the patience for it anymore.

Cons:
- I disliked the panning speed. [There is a setting to increase the mouse scroll speed, but it's an all or nothing. That is, once the mouse reaches the thin scrolling edge, the mouse scroll speed takes effect. I'd prefer a wider scroll edge with a slower scroll along the inner border and a faster scroll along the outer border (and interpolated speeds in between). Alternatively, the panning can slowly accelerate up to full.]

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Summary:
I enjoyed playing the campaign mode of Company of Heroes. For the most part, it's actually a casual experience and I was able to beat the first three missions on normal difficulty by taking my time and slowly chipping away at the enemy.

The end of a large battle. Convoy successfully destroyed.

But while I built some affinity for the game after three hours of playing, I also know that I have a low chance of returning to the game in the future. Actually, considering I have a low chance of returning to games I absolutely enjoy and love, it's more realistic to say I have a zero chance of returning to Company of Heroes (or any of it's expansions and/or sequels).

Overall, if you enjoy RTS games and/or games with a war setting, then Company of Heroes would be an excellent choice.

---

Company of Heroes (PC) (2006)

Relevant Links:
Company of Heroes (Wikipedia.org)
Company of Heroes (PC) (MetaCritic.com)
Company of Heroes (Steam Store Page)
Company of Heroes (PC) (IGN.com)

An allied soldier fires at retreating Germans. His commanding officer yells, "Cease fire! Lewis! I said cease fire goddammit!"

The Stanley Parable (PC) (2013)

Overview: Play as an office worker named Stanley as he explores his workplace while an unreliable (?), yet comedic narrator commentates. Of course, this isn't your typical office, and it's not your typical story...

Just follow the yellow line...

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20170806:
Today I played The Stanley Parable for the first time and I'm glad I finally did. It's one of those games which I just absolutely wanted to play when I first heard about it, and yet when I acquired the game, I never got around to playing it.*

Steam Game Time: 2.1 hours (total game time)

Game Log:
After several tries, I was confused why I wasn't able to achieve the "Speed run" achievement and so I looked up the solution. With the goal of playing as many games in my gaming library as possible, I had no qualms about looking up the solution, but if you're in the position of getting the most out of a small selection of games, then I recommend you simply spend the time replaying The Stanley Parable until you achieve this achievement organically.

Creepy.

I also looked up the solution to "8888888888888888". There was a guide with a hint to the solution but I ignored the hint and went straight for the answer. The hint provided was as follows: Play the demo.

*The last such game I played was Goat Simulator, and that game initially fell below my expectations, while this game immediately surpassed my expectations (which were already high).

[20170816]

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Thoughts:
Pros:
+ Unconventional, yet absolutely wonderful story.

A museum!

+ Great narrator. Carries a comedic and narrative role similar to GLaDOS (of Portal) or Wheatley (of Portal 2).
+ Many endings and replay value
+ Interesting Steam achievements

Neutral:
~ Stanley can't jump!?! Haha.

---

Summary:
I've played a handful of walking simulators, but at the moment I could only readily recall one, Dear Esther (2012), and

---

with some time a second, Thirty Flights of Loving (2012).

What happened here!?!

In short, The Stanley Parable is a great walking simulator, and anyone that enjoys playing video games with a strong story should consider playing The Stanley Parable.

---

The Stanley Parable (PC) (2013)

Relevant Links:
The Stanley Parable Website
The Stanley Parable (Wikipedia.org)
The Stanley Parable (PC) (MetaCritic.com)
The Stanley Parable (Steam Store Page)

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Ending Checklist: (Spoiler Alert)
Freedom Ending - 20170806 #6
Explosion Ending
Coward Ending
Mariella / Insane Ending - 20170806 # 5
Museum Ending - 20170806 (I quit the game) #7
Confusion Ending - 20170806 #4
Phone Ending - 20170806 #1
Not Stanley Ending
Powerful Ending - 20170806 #3
Games Ending
Zending - 20170806 #2
Cold Feet Ending
Escape Pod Ending
Out of Map Ending
Heaven Ending
Serious Ending
Art Ending
Whiteboard Ending
Broom Closet Ending

Solar 2 (PC) (2011)

Overview: 2D open world video game set in space.

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20170801:
I tried playing this game today and found it mildly interesting.

Small Planet

Setup: I played with my keyboard (using the arrow keys), but using a controller would probably have be superior. With that being said, I didn't have access to my controller at the time.

Steam Game Time: 31 minutes

[20170804]

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20170804 AM:
Before going to bed I tried to play a little more in order to write up this post. Unfortunately, I was already sleepy and battled with my drooping eyes. Eventually I called it a night.

Steam Game Time: 60 minutes (cumulative game time) / 29 minutes (session game time)

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Controls

20170804:
After waking up I played some more and I learned (by looking at the controls) that there were more actions (because after becoming a planet I couldn't figure out how to increase the mass). This opened up more gameplay options and effectively hooked me into the game.

As such, in addition to what I played in the morning, I found myself playing more of the game before going to bed in the evening.

Steam Game Time (morning): 2.9 hours (cumulative game time) / 1.9 hours (session game time)
Steam Game Time (evening): 3.5 hours (cumulative game time) / 0.6 hours (session game time)

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20170805:
Today I played the game for about half an hour offline. (So the time won't be reflected on Steam.)

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Life Planet: generates army (green)

Thoughts:
Pros:
+ A good balance between fun and challenging
+ Decent art and music
+ Humorous

Neutral:
~ Not the best controls
~ Physics-based

Con:
- Lacks a story and/or motivation

---

Binary Star System, baby!

Summary:
I initially found Solar 2 boring and was ready to give up on it. However, I luckily found controls which were essential to making the game more fun.

With that being said, the game can occasionally feel slow and involves some grinding (collecting asteroids to grow objects in mass).

Overall, Solar 2 should provide at least two to three hours of entertainment for anybody that enjoys open world games, but additional mileage may vary.

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20241001 Snapshot:
Steam Game Time: 3.5 hours (cumulative game time) / 3h 31m (Playnite)
Last Played: 20170806

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20241001:
Looking at my list of games "Played" on Playnite, I decided to pick up Solar 2. Unfortunately, I wasn't feeling the fun of the game. Perhaps I was missing something.

Steam Game Time: 4.6 hours (cumulative game time) / 1.1 hours (session game time)

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20241002:
I couldn't quite let the game go and so I read a guide which opened the opportunity for me to return to the game.

Tips: From the guide, I learned there are controls not listed in the control menu. They are "P" for paths and "O" for orbits. This lets one see the trajectory of objects and can be used to more easily gather asteroids and planets.

Gameplay Log:
- Did some missions. Got far in the "police" missino but couldn't complete it.
- Felt stuck and took a break
- Returned to the game and ticked off two more missions leaving only the "police" one unfinished. That mission is too long.
- Tackled all the challenge missions except the one locked by the "police" mission. Got the red (hard) scores for them

Overall, it is not a perfect game, but it does have its moments. As I mentioned before, the game can be grindy at times. As such, I think the game gets a so-so score of 3.4 out of 5.

Steam Game Time: 7.0 hours (cumulative game time) / 2.4 hours (session game time)

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Solar 2 (PC) (2011)

Four Star System!!!

Relevant Links:
Solar 2 (Wikipedia.org)
Solar 2 (PC) (MetaCritic.com)
Solar 2 (Steam Store Page)