Recently completed video games

[Dewar]

I'd say 3, as it and ODST are the pinnacle of the series in different ways.  If you want to play more after 3, it's not that 4 or Reach are bad, but they aren't as good as 2, 3 or ODST. 

 

I'd disagree and go with Reach. It's another self-contained story and had some pretty cool game play improvements. Halo 2 is pretty clunky these days, but actually connects up with the ODST story, so that could be interesting as well, but it shows its age some.

[Bjorn]

I'll admit to having some major rose colored glasses with both 2 and 3.  Two is one of my favorite gaming memories ever (playing through it in a marathon pizza/soda fueled weekend visiting an old friend of mine).  Reach didn't leave much of an impression on me, so you could very well be right that it's mechanically superior. 

[Professor Video Games]

Halo 3 is a safe bet, though I found the Flood sections annoying. I also really enjoyed Reach FWIW. And if you enjoy the challenge, I'd recommend trying out Legendary difficulty. The combat encounters are almost like puzzles at that point (weapons to use, approaches, etc) and being Halo games, they are all really well designed. Getting through it is very satisfying.

[Patrick R]

I definitely intend to try Legendary at some point, but since Brutal already had me constantly dying and doing the same sections over and over (the first vignette's major battle took me 3 hours to beat) I'll probably hold off until I get more acclimated to the specifics of Halo enemies. 

 

Example: In the first vignette's major battle sequence, two Hunters spawn in at some point. I unloaded about 6 grenades and two fully loaded weapons into each before they died. I imagine there was a specific place I was supposed to shoot them but since the game didn't tell me I didn't know, and spent forever patiently strafing and unloading clip after clip after clip into them with seemingly no effect.

 

I would like to play the main title games to get a feel for how the combat...evolved but I am worried that the story bits will annoy me too much. Also my 360 can't play regular XBox games, so 1 & 2 are out anyhow. So between 3 and Reach I will probably go with whatever I can find cheaper used at Gamestop.

[Bjorn]

I would like to play the main title games to get a feel for how the combat...evolved but I am worried that the story bits will annoy me too much. Also my 360 can't play regular XBox games, so 1 & 2 are out anyhow. So between 3 and Reach I will probably go with whatever I can find cheaper used at Gamestop.

 

Halo 1 got a remastered "Anniversary" edition for the 360, so it's available, but I don't think 2 got that treatment until the X1.  So if you find yourself really wanting to see the story and combat evolution, you could do that.  If you're just looking for the cheapest option, probably worth keeping an eye out for it as well. 

[Griddlelol]

I beat Apotheon, 

Frankly, it was an OK game, that's got a neat " Greek vase" aesthetic and a story too similar to God of War, but it's simply not a "Vania". *shrugs*

 

 

I really liked Apotheon. I'm a sucker for stylish games, and that had style coming out the wazoo. It's not really a vania, I don't know why it was described as such, it's just more like an open world 2D game. That's not really the game's fault though. That's the fault of reviewers and the way we describe games in general.

 

I thought the combat audio visual feedback was fantastic. The sounds of smashing, the way enemies flew away when you hit them at a certain angle. All really satisfying. 

 

"Objectively" it was a competent game, it worked, it was kinda fun, but subjectively, I thought it was awesome. 

[Tanukitsune]

I liked Apotheon too, but I'm simply bummed out it's story was similar to GoW, then again, it's hard to have a Greek Mythology game where you don't kill at least one deity and I was bummed it was tagged as a vania and was not.

 

I just beat Grow Home, it's 3D retro aesthetics and cute clunky robot starts the game out well since you have lots to explore and gems to collect. You can find a cave with unique vegetation where the gem glow gives it an eerie feel, but as you ascend, the vines you have to grow into islands for energy are further and further away and the checkpoints are also further away and suddenly the clunky robot isn't so cute when you have to be more careful and precise.

 

Not to mention that the higher you go, the less there is to do and explore, right before the end is an asteroid field, with nothing much at all happening on it.

 

Even with the jetpack and flower parachute, it gets very frustrating to climb, mostly because I was continuously puzzled by why my robot's grip failed or why it won't let me use the jetpack or simply because the robot bumbled over a cliff and I couldn't recover in time. There is a reason your robot can self destruct, because if you mess up in the higher places it's impossible to recover. 

 

I can't really say how I feel about the game I loved the first part, but hated the second? 

[Dewar]

I'll admit to having some major rose colored glasses with both 2 and 3.  Two is one of my favorite gaming memories ever (playing through it in a marathon pizza/soda fueled weekend visiting an old friend of mine).  Reach didn't leave much of an impression on me, so you could very well be right that it's mechanically superior. 

 

Halo 2 multiplayer is definitely one of my best gaming experiences. It's still pretty awesome playing it now in the Master Chief collection (when it works at least.) Having recently played part of the Halo 2 campaign with my wife, it has its ups and downs.

[Badfinger]

I finally beat all 4 levels of Crypt of the Necrodancer. What a good game. The difficulty curved appropriately, the levels had variety, the music owned. The last two boss fights were excellent. I was skeptical how the last one would be handled after it was introduced, but it was so good. I have beaten what amounts to the New Game+ mode now with Melody, and unlocked Aria. THAT IS A HARD MODE, HOLY SMOKES.

 

Daily challenge still beats me up pretty badly.

[Bjorn]

I played some Necrodancer over the weekend.  I brickwalled hard on Zone 2 back when I was playing it during Early Access, but managed to blow through both 2 and 3 on Sunday.  That's a game that gets me kind of jittery after playing it awhile, and I just couldn't focus on zone 4 by the time I got there.

 

I did try a few of the alternate characters as well.  Holy hell, they are all super hard. 

[SuperBiasedMan]

You think Aria is hard? There's a character that

combines her with two other characters. The grand total is, only a dagger. Must not miss a beat. Only half a heart. Will immediately die when you pick up gold (though one item in a shop is always free) and the whole game moves at double speed.

 

I love that game and still cannot beat the first set of levels as Aria.

 

Dove is a not too hard alternate character, especially once you make good use of her flower.

[Sno]

I think D4 is rad and I hope it gets its season two.

.

[Bjorn]

I think D4 is rad and I hope it gets its season two.

.

 

Are there environments that are better than the airplane once you get past it?  I enjoyed the Prologue, but something about the plane environment just annoyed the hell out of me (walking up and down the same aisle over and over). 

 

It might be that D4 just doesn't work for me, but if there's some silver lining I've missed, I'm willing to listen. 

[Sno]

Kinda not really? D4 is definitely all the way invested in a few small locations. Keep in mind that you can exit out of the "dream" at any time to return to your apartment though, there's new things happening there after almost every event. Sometimes events even play out across both the dream and apartment locations.

[Dewar]

Wait, did season 1 even finish coming out? I heard about the first episode and then nothing.

[Bjorn]

The thing you buy on Steam includes a Prologue, Episode 1 and Episode 2.  I'm not sure if that's considered the complete Season or not. 

[Sno]

I'm quite certain that what is presently available on Steam is all there is of the game at the moment. A prologue and two episodes, with the core narrative just barely getting underway before a jarring cliff-hanger occurs. It would be easy to be upset about how it's been presented, but honestly, i found myself getting kind of lost in how much quirky detail is crammed into what's there, and i really just want more of it.

 

Swery's dropped a few hints that work is underway on the second "season" of the game, but whether the game is doing well enough on Steam to justify that or anything beyond it is kind of up in the air.

[Sno]

Just finished Halo 3: ODST. First Halo game I've ever played, outside of about 10 minutes of the first game at a friend's house. I get the hype! Super fun, especially since playing on Brutal meant I kept repeatedly getting my ass handed to me.

 

It was interesting to play ODST without playing any of the others because there's no attempts in ODST to teach you how Halo games work. I sorta had to figure out what weapons did what and how to beat different enemies through dying a lot, the way I had to learn Spelunky. And there's no explanation for who the aliens are and what war you're in or why or any of that. I don't even know if the characters in it are in other Halo games. Not that I could follow the story anyway, since there's weirdly no subtitles option.

 

ODST is completely standalone, and in that sense it's probably actually a pretty great introduction to Halo. Personally, it's also my favorite Halo campaign. Its huge open-ended spaces do a pretty great job of showcasing Halo's enemy types and their AI hierarchy, things like grunts losing morale if their leaders are defeated, or a hunter berserking if its partner dies. It's great figuring out how to respond to those shifting dynamics, or even manipulating them to your benefit. I love the way that series drops you into big unpredictable combat arenas with all of these AI actors carrying out their own distinct set of interactions in relation to other AI's in the arena.

 

Also, none of the other games really ever bother to explain their mechanics either. Did you pick up on there being different damage types and damage resistances? Broadly, it's energy against shielded enemies, ballistics against soft targets, and learning how to exploit that dynamic is key to winning on the higher difficulties. (Then there's also headshot capable weapons and anti-armor damage against armored targets, or against parts of targets that are armored. In absence of anti-armor weapons, and noting that last detail, a lot of enemies and vehicles also have weaknesses, like the back plating on the hunters, or the engine exhaust on the wraiths.)

 

If you mean to play through those games on legendary, you will enjoy yourself immensely more if you learn those dynamics and carry out decisive and informed actions based around that understanding. (Combining a charged plasma pistol with a headshot capable ballistic will be your bread and butter.) That is all to say that hanging back and trying to safely snipe at enemies with a battle rifle is massively counter-productive. (Especially in Reach, where the Elites will actively hide to let their shields recharge from whatever gradual damage you manage to accrue against them. Incidentally, Reach is probably the most fun i've had with a solo legendary playthrough in Halo.)

 

I want to play more Halo but I have no idea where to start. What's the next 360 Halo game I should play?

 

Either Halo 3 or Reach.

Halo 3 is terrific all around, it's the best game in the series. It's also the last part of a trilogy, so none of that campaign is going to make sense to a new player. However, it bears reiterating that Halo 3 is so good.

 

Reach's campaign might be a tiny bit better, and it's another standalone story like ODST, but Reach is a notably weaker competitive game than 3. (Which probably isn't a concern here, i'm guessing.)

 

Halo 4 is... I like Halo 4 a lot, but 343's first game is not in the same league as the majority of Bungie's efforts. Only Halo 2 is weaker.

[dium]

Finally got around to beating Broken Age, which I left about half way through Act 2 during a house-moving/otherwise-too-busy period in my life.
 
It was pretty fantastic, I thought. It made me wish that I played it all in one go, since pretty much my only complaint with the game was that

(mild pseudo-spoiler)

there were precious few "new environments" in act 2.

That seems like something that wouldn't bother me if the game weren't bifurcated. 

 

The game left me feeling pumped about adventure games, and then immediately sad about how few of them there are of this kind and caliber that I haven't already played. That's about the highest compliment I can give, I think.

 

An aside, I keep Steam in detail view and two out of three of the "recent news" for Broken Age is RPS's John Walker talking about how bad it is. Obviously I disagree, but it's not like many of his points aren't well made... I wonder what adventure games he considers good? Especially regarding puzzles, since he called Broken Age's "awful" and for me they were a highlight.

[SecretAsianMan]

Odious Tea is by far my favorite Halo game.  The individual character segments aren't the best (although by most Halo standards I still think they're fine) but my god did I love wandering around that city.  I'm a huge fan of subtle environmental cues and storytelling and my favorite moments of ODST are when the city itself actively tries to guide you along with signs or barriers.  I absolutely loved that and wish it was more common in games.

 

As far as the rest of the series goes, I'll pretty much echo the comments that have already been said.  Each game in the series iterates on the mechanics, but they're largely the same throughout.  In terms of overall game 3 is probably the best.  I'll agree that 2 is the weakest, but one thing I want to point out is that about half the game is played from the perspective of a Covenant Elite.  Mechanically it makes no difference as he plays exactly the same as the Chief, with the exception of having a permanent active camo ability.  It only lasts for a few seconds and takes time to recharge but I found it quite useful.  The same character appears in Halo 3 (and is controlled by the second player in co-op, players 3 and 4 control two other random Elites) but lacks this ability.

[Zeusthecat]

I finished Guacamelee. I had a blast with it. The art style and music were really solid and gave the game a really great sense of atmosphere. The platforming also felt really good and I enjoyed those difficult segments where you have to have pinpoint timing on all of your button presses and world switching. Some of that shit got really intense and it felt pretty damn good when you finally pull off the correct sequence of moves with the right timing after 20 minutes of failed attempts. The combat also felt really solid and had a lot of complexity woven in, allowing for a lot of different combos and improvisation. All in all, this was just a really solid game. After completing it I saw that Hard mode had opened up. And nope. Fuck that. The base game was difficult enough.

 

I also finished Borderlands 2 on PS4. I've been playing this for the last couple months with some co-workers and I still love the hell out of this game. I enjoyed it when I first played through a couple years ago and found myself having just as much fun the second time around. The only main complaint I have is that if you are going through and doing all of the side missions as well as the main missions, it isn't long before you become way over-leveled for everything. Enemies become too easy, you barely gain any levels and the game does get pretty boring. 

 

We'll probably run through some True Vault Hunter mode after we knock out the last two DLCs which should be fun.

[GavinTheAlmighty]

Mighty Switch Force!

 

I picked it up as part of the Humble Nintendo Bundle a little while back and went to work on it.  16 levels plus 5 bonus levels, three basic mechanics (jump, shoot, switch platforms on/off).  The difficulty curve is really smooth, but you aren't going to beat the par times unless you're really good or you've memorized the map, which I imagine is a challenge.  The last level (and last bonus level) switch up the mechanics in an interesting and challenging way.

 

I'm not a big fan of the art style though - uncomfortably skimpy clothing on the protagonist and the enemies, and then when you beat a level, you see a freeze-frame of you hauling them off to prison or whatnot, and they're all quite scantily-clad.  Playing this on the subway made me a bit uncomfortable and I'd hide my screen.

 

It's good for a couple of hours of fun though!

[dium]

I'm not a big fan of the art style though - uncomfortably skimpy clothing on the protagonist and the enemies, and then when you beat a level, you see a freeze-frame of you hauling them off to prison or whatnot, and they're all quite scantily-clad.  Playing this on the subway made me a bit uncomfortable and I'd hide my screen.

 

This is how I felt about the Shantae game I've played (Pirate's Curse), which I otherwise thought was pretty good. It's not even that I think the art is bad, just unnecessarily fan servicey and uncomfortable to play in public. I guess that's the WayForward house aesthetic.

[Tanukitsune]

I recently completed Finding Teddy 2, while the first game was just a simply point and click adventure, this one is a "metroidvania".

 

The combat is taken from Zelda II and even some of the monster are pretty Zelda II-ish, but not as demanding or intense or balanced since you have NO invulnerability time after a hit you can be pinned down and die quickly if you're unlucky.

 

The exploration part is pretty good, you're in a giant library where you must find four books to travel into with a main area and a temple (which doesn't have extra collectibles), at first you must collect notes of musical language to interact with the world and words from the language too.

 

You WILL have to jot dot a lot of runes and by the game you might even be able to read the language without help.

 

The only downside is that doing the extra stuff almost makes the game too easy, but doing the extra stuff was pretty challenging and satisfying.  

[Atlantic]

I recently completed Binary Domain.

 

It's a strange game: a cover shooter where all of the enemies are robots and you develop your relationship with the rotating cast of your squad by doing well in combat and by responding to their questions. There's a little mechanic where you have a few one or two word answers to the things they ask you. I'm not sure exactly what any of it contributed to though. It's a bit of a mystery. Maybe I didn't pay enough attention.

 

One of the things that I liked about the shooty bits was that it feels like every bullet counts. Sometimes enemies in games are bullet spongey or the guns feel ineffective. In Binary Domain, all of the enemies are robots, and the sound design and the feel of the weapons come together and it feels right. In the later game when you've upgraded your assault rifle it is very satisfying to plow through a few waves of I, Robots.

 

There are odd little things that crop up every now and then. I get the impression that they were trying to do Uncharted-style set pieces and gameplay variations, but they didn't have even a fraction of the budget. For instance, the opening chapter has the character you play, Dan Marshall, and his old pal Big Bo (!!!) infiltrating Tokyo by being sneaky and swimming. Neither swimming nor stealth make a return throughout the rest of the game. There are also about five QTEs, all of which have you use a different mechanic that is then immediately discarded.

 

The story is interesting though. There are a good few cutscenes and they have kind of a low budget Metal Gear vibe about them, without the length or talkiness. It's hard to pin down exactly. I was expecting a certain twist, and the twist was a off-kilter take on what it seems like it's going to be. The part that stood out most to me though is that the character that you play as, Dan Marshall, is a character. He has a personality that is not necessarily in line with me, and he makes decisions in cutscenes that I wouldn't have made (if this were that kind of game). It highlighted why so many characters in AAA games are bland: they're trying to appeal to too many possible people, rather than being a part of a cohesive world.