Bonus Video: July 2022 Playlist (Patreon)

Hello! So back in April I stopped doing monthly playlist videos in favour of a more general "bonus" video each month. But that doesn't mean the playlist is gone forever. In fact, here's a new one! Right now! With a big bunch of games I've been playing since we last chatted. There's a lot of them, so let's get straight into it.

Tunic

Tunic is a charming Zelda-inspired adventure game, about a teeny fox exploring a low-poly world. The innovative feature in this one is that the game has a retro instruction manual - inside the game. And you can find new pages for it as pick-ups in the world.

Manual pages might teach you important mechanics, or explain cryptic systems, or show you some new map of the world. It's a clever feature and gives the game a really unique charm - but I do wonder if the devs could have explored it even further. I feel like there's only one big "aha" moment tied to this mechanic, when the manual explains how to use some mysterious gates you've seen dotted about the world.

I would have liked to have seen more things like that, where you're really using the manual to solve puzzles and make progress - and not just tell you what different pick-ups do and the like.

But anyway, even without the manual feature this is a very nice game. It's pretty similar to Death's Door, another isometric Zelda-like game, with little secrets, a pleasant world, and splashes of menacing Souls-inspired combat. So if you liked that, you'll probably like this one too.

Inscryption

Okay, I tried to play Inscryption back at launch, but bounced off it because I was pretty rubbish at the card game. But I gave it another shot and - wow, yeah, I can see why people dig this game. It's an absolute gem. I'll try not to spoil it because it's better to go in knowing nothing.

So at the heart of the game is a very good card battler. It's got a clever system where you need to sacrifice your weak cards in order to play higher tier monsters, and lots of modifiers like flying enemies, enemies who spawn new cards on death, and so on. And there's also a good way of tracking wins where each direct hit adds weight to a scale - until one side tips the balance.

But there's more to the game than this. Like, a lot more. For one, you can get up from the table and explore the rest of the shack. Here, you're able to solve puzzles to unlock more cards. There are also special cards who talk to you, giving you hints and tips for how to break the cycle and actually beat the dealer at his own game.

And when you finally win - well let's just say, the game's not over. Not by a long shot: this is a truly great example of a game that goes beyond what you might expect, and never ceases to surprise. It comes from Daniel Mullen - maker of the metafictional, mind-bending, psychological horror game Pony Island. So, expect similar stuff from Inscryption. It's a good'un.

Cuphead: The Delicious Last Course

There's not a great deal to say about this Cuphead DLC. I loved the original game back in 2017, and this is just... more of that! More absurd bosses with lots of phases and tricky attack patterns, all drawn in that astounding 1930s rubber hose cartoon aesthetic.

When I first loaded up the DLC I wondered if I really wanted to spend another few hours repeatedly dying to the same boss as I slowly tore my hair out in frustration. But I guess the answer was: yes! The game is just so funny, inventive, and charming that I stuck with it until all the bosses were dead. Yay!

Citizen Sleeper

Okay, I really liked this one. We've seen and heard about a lot of massive RPGs lately. Todd Howard is busy telling us why we want a sci-fi role-player with 1000 planets to explore. But I think I've come to realise that I really like RPGs with extremely small worlds, like Disco Elysium, The Forgotten City, and - now - Citizen Sleeper.

So the game takes place on a space station, and you're a robot looking for a ticket out of there. You'll chat to people, do tasks, juggle different quests, and try to piece together an exit plan. And the whole thing is achieved with an innovative dice-based mechanic. Each day you get a handful of dice, with random values. And you can spend those dice doing different actions. So you have to prioritise some missions over others.

There are also events that are on timers, which tick by every day. So after a few days, a man might want you to pay his protection money. Every week, a new shipment of parts comes in.

The reason I talk about the small scale of the game is that this allows you to really get to know the characters, the world, and the politics of this place. People don't feel like nondescript NPCs but living citizens of this space station. And over the course of the game's short run time, I felt like I got to know these characters, and build lasting bonds with them. It's rare for me to get sucked into a game's story, but this was one of those times.

I will say that the middle of the game starts to sag a bit. The game is perhaps a little too generous, making it pretty easy to do what you need to do - this means you don't have to make many difficult decisions about how to spend your dice, and instead just have to waste time going through the motions of completing tasks and quests. So, it could do with a tune up. But other than that, I thought this game was great.

Escape Academy

A quick recommendation for Escape Academy. This is a collection of escape rooms, but as a video game. So you explore areas in first person, pick up items, look for clues, and solve puzzles involving riddles, maps, codes, and passwords.

It's not doing anything spectacular, and I have to admit the visuals are not super attractive. Plus, the story is... well, I skipped every cutscene.

But it's still a lot of fun. The game can be played in co-op, and so I went through the whole thing with my brother. We had fun communicating puzzle solutions to each other, and dividing up tasks based on the things we are best at. The puzzles were almost always just the right level of challenge - though, perhaps a touch on the easy side. We'd usually finish a level in half the time allotted.

That is, right up until the end, for a massive 45 minute level. And we finished it with... 35 second to spare! That was quite an epic, high-stakes end to the experience. Can't promise that will happen to you, but it certainly made it memorable for us. It's free on Game Pass, so give it a try.

Dying Light 2

Whatever happened to this game? Dying Light 1 was well loved, and this sequel was in the works forever. And then it finally comes out and... it feels like nobody cared at all. So, as a fan of first-person parkour, I thought I should check it out and see what happened.

And, yeah, I can kinda see it. So, just judging the parkour alone this game is pretty fun. It feels good to race over the rooftops, there are all sorts of combo moves to use, and there's a fun mechanic where you can boost yourself into the air. I really enjoyed doing some of the race missions and trying to nail the gold trophies by learning the routes and improving my skills.

The problem is, it takes forever to actually get to the point where the game is fun. For one, almost every parkour move is part of the game's skill tree, and those powers are unlocked very slowly. It will take many many hours before you have enough mechanics to make movement actually feel enjoyable. Same goes for the world: at the start, it's often hard to find routes that will keep you above the ground and in constant motion. That's because you need to do various missions to unlock new mechanics in the world like zip-lines and bounce pads. It's only after 10-or-so hours that the place actually feels joined up.

And then there's the fact that you need to do a whole bunch of other stuff. Clunky first-person melee battles with zombies. Bad stealth bits with ambiguous detection. Boring quests with pretty iffy voice acting. It's the video game equivalent of eating a meal when you're a kid: you've got to eat your vegetables, not just the yummy stuff.

After many hours of play, I was just left wanting a game that would let me get on and do the fun bit. Oh, wait...

Neon White

Okay, so Neon White is that game. This is a first-person platforming game that is laser focused on letting you run, jump, chain together moves, and try to beat your best times. In each tiny level you need to make your way from start to finish in as little time as possible, all while killing all of the monsters.

But it's not really a combat game. Yeah, there are enemies and you pick up guns and bullets - but this is all tied into the platforming. Some enemies act as spring boards when you kill them. Some guns have an alternate fire that lets you double jump, or ground pound, or dash.

Every time you finish the level, you get given a medal and a chance to do it again for a better time. And you better believe I couldn't move on until I had at least a gold. There's also an ace medal, usually only attainable by exploiting some cheat or strategy. Which kinda makes you feel like a speedrunner. There's an obvious path through the level, but you can shave off seconds by bouncing over a wall.

Man it just feels so good! And unlike Dying Light 2, it gets to the point! Sure there's a story - some nonsense anime gibberish. But you can skip it all and just focus on the good stuff. Neon White achieves in five minutes what Dying Light 2 takes five hours to do. That's the power of indie games, I think - that laser focus on doing one thing, really well. And Neon White is that, for first-person platforming.

Okay, that's your lot for this instalment. See you in a few months for more playlist!