AoM: Video Games: February 2023

Friday, February 24, 2023

Reigns: Her Majesty (PC) (2017)

Overview: You are the Queen. Make decisions and try to reign for as many years as possible. When your reign is over, you become the heir to the throne and try again.

20230224 AM Hours:
The icon and title screen for this game is a deer wearing a crown. Judging a book by its cover, this often kept me away from the game, because it seemed artsy. In particular, I thought it would be similar to Superbrothers: Sword & Sorcery EP. Little did I know, the game is nothing like Sword & Sorcery, and it has nothing to do with a deer (at least not that I know of).

In any case, the game is simple and entertaining. The game provides no instructions but it is simple enough to figure out as one plays. Thus far I've passed through being about 5 different Queens.

Steam Game Time: 34 minutes (total game time)

20230224:
Today I played this game some more. Thus far my record Queen lasted for 28 years (1091 to 1119). The next Queen will be the 12th Queen.

Steam Game Time: 82 minutes (total game time) / 48 minutes (session game time)

20230226:
Steam Game Time: 2.4 hours (total game time) / 1.0 hours (session game time)

20230303:
I'm beginning to make less progress, and unfortunately I wasn't taking notes on how my answers affect the outcome. Feeling that I wont be able to optimize without such notes, by the end of today I felt discouraged from playing this game further any time soon.

Steam Game Time: 2.9 hours (total game time) / 0.5 hours (session game time)

Thoughts:
Pros:
+ Fairly simple game mechanic; the items portion of the game seems to be a more advanced aspect
+ Fun and funny

Neutral:
~ I personally don't like how the game could be optimized based on one of the following: memory, innate intuition for the outcomes, or writing information down; to be fair, there are many games plagued with this problem - and some people are fine with this aspect while others like me may not like this type of dependency

Con:
- Can become repetitive

Rating: 4.6/5

Summary:
None at this time

20241009:
Revisited this game on my desktop. Starting from scratch. I tried to take notes but it wasn't practical to make a note of everything.

Steam Game Time: 3.4 hours (cumulative game time) / 0.5 hours (session game time)

20241010:
Steam Game Time: 3.6 hours (cumulative game time) / 0.2 hours (session game time)

20241011:
Steam Game Time: 4.9 hours (cumulative game time) / 1.3 hours (session game time)

Reigns: Her Majesty (PC) (2017)

Relevant Links:
None at this time Reigns: Her Majesty (Wikipedia.org)
Reigns: Her Majesty (PC) (MetaCritic.com)
Reigns: Her Majesty (steamdb.info)
Reigns: Her Majesty (Steam Store Page)

Thursday, February 9, 2023

Puzzle Compound (PC) (Demo)

20230209:
Apparently this game requires 2 or more players. It seems like an online escape room.

Steam Game Time: 6 minutes

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1611290/Puzzle_Compound/

Saturday, February 4, 2023

Space Channel 5: Part 2 (PC) (2011)

20230204:
I played this on the flight back from Florida to California. At first I played with wireless earbuds but the lag caused it to be difficult to hear all the music. Since the music was the only way to keep a beat, the game was unplayable with wireless earbuds. As such, I plugged in the wired earbuds provided by the airline and that was much better.

Despite getting rid of the lag, the timing still took some getting used to. The game felt less intuitive compared to a title from the Dance Dance Revolution series. In any case, while I was getting the hang of it, I still felt it wasn't the smoothest experience. Perhaps the game was not so forgiving with respect to the timing. In other words, it didn't feel beginner friendly; I would not recommend this game to a beginner rhythm player.

Steam Game Time: 37 minutes

https://store.steampowered.com/app/71260/Space_Channel_5_Part_2/

Wednesday, February 1, 2023

Savage Halloween (PC) (2020)

Overview: A Halloween-themed run-and-gun shooter.

20230201 (Part 1):
I tried playing as James. Thus far the game is kind of boring. With that being said, the sidescrolling shooter level felt difficult. I was not used to cycling between ammo types.

Setup: Normal Difficulty.

Steam Game Time: 13 minutes

20230201 (Part 2):
I switched to trying to play with Lulu. One thing I learned during this run was how to better use direction lock. In particular, during the air combat, using lock is great to kite the enemy: move away from the enemy while still firing at them. Note that perhaps the game has audio cues during the first boss battle, but I'm playing with the volume on too low to be of use.

Steam Game Time: 50 minutes (cumulative game time) / 37 minutes (session game time)

Rating: 3.6/5

Thoughts:
None at this time