I'm not one for "New Year's resolutions", but I am one for overly ambitious projects.
For 2023, Project365 is "One New Game Per Day".
Given that I have 634 unplayed games in my Steam account and {mumble} unredeemed bundle Steam keys, there's a reason my unplayed collection is tagged "Pile of Shame".
I'll pin this to my profile, and give a brief summary here each day (or x, if I miss x days due to work or stuff).
I'll play 15-30 minutes of (at least) one new game I've never played before (or played less than 15 minutes of). I'll give every game at least 15 minutes, even if I hate every minute of it.
I'm also open to suggestions; if you reply to this thread with a game, I'll schedule it, or tell you what I thought of it.
One of the things that's come up is that I have a bunch of games that I've played once, and not touched again.
Jan 1, 2023 - Day 1 - Bonus Review
Total NewPlays: 2
Game: Prey
Platform: Steam PC
Release Date: May 5, 2017
Library Date: July 20, 2019
Unplayed: 1261 days (3y5m12d)
Playtime: 2.1h
I bought this on a whim when the Digital Deluxe edition was on special for about 75% off. Then I read a little more closely, and realised it was survival horror, and I don't DO horror.
Except... recently, I have started playing games I never would have touched before. I'm not sure why, but for the first time in my life I'm actually finding some enjoyment in that type of game, instead of uncontrollable anxiety.
I've also realised that I really seem to dig Arkane Studios games. I started playing Dishonored for the first time a few months ago, I've been playing through Deathloop, so I thought I might take Prey out for a spin for half an hour. 2 hours of jump scares, frantically smashing mimics, and trying to stay alive later, I saved out to write this up, and grab some dinner.
Jan 12, 2023 - Day 12 - NewPlay Review
Total NewPlays: 16
Game: Breathedge
Platform: Steam PC
Release Date: Feb 26, 2021
Library Date: Dec 12, 2022
Unplayed: 31 days (31d)
Playtime: 3.5h
I have a love-hate relationship with survival games, and a big chunk of that is probably down to "is it multiplayer PvP?" (ugh), and is "there some kind of objective beyond build random stuff?"
Rust, and V Rising: Meh.
Subnautica: Excellent.
I'd seen Breathedge described as "Subnautica in space", which is kind-of true, but it has its own wild humour that you'll either love or hate.
So far, I love it. At 10pm last night, I thought I'd play it for half an hour. I logged out at 1:30am.
If a game can get me hooked like that so deeply that I lose track of time, that's an excellent game.
Apr 12, 2023 - Day 102 - NewPlay Review
Total NewPlays: 109
Game: Subterrain
Platform: Steam PC
Release Date: Jan 21, 2016
Library Date: Apr 9, 2018
Unplayed: 1829d (5y3d)
Playtime: 73m
Subterrain is a top-down sci-fi horror survival game.
Apparently.
You play an imprisoned scientist who has to break out of his cell, and finds that the entire prison, and apparently, base on Mars has been overrun by zombies, maybe. Based on some flavour text, on something I picked up.
It's moody & atmospheric, and I spent 73 minutes exploring all of the nooks and crannies of the prison, waiting for something to happen.
There's next to zero guidance, and you need to discover your way forward, which is why I explored every nook and cranny; all the while collecting things until I hit my carry limit. There's a recycle-and-build system in there somewhere, but by the time I got close to it, I'd had enough.
The game itself is well designed, and the sound design kept me thinking that something was just about to happen... but no. I killed two zombies in the first two levels.
There's a hint of something interesting in there, but it's buried under so much drudgery, that for a moment I questioned why I'm doing these reviews at all.
Ultimately Subterrain felt like style without substance, and I'm genuinely disappointed; it feels like I wasted 73 minutes of my life that I didn't enjoy, and won't get back. It's just:
Apr 25, 2023 - Day 115 - NewPlay Review
Total NewPlays: 129
Game: Sir, You Are Being Hunted
Platform: Steam PC
Release Date: Aug 19, 2013
Library Date: Nov 24, 2017
Unplayed: 1978d (5y5m1d)
Playtime: 15m
Sir, You Are Being Hunted is a first person stealth survival game.
If you've been reading up on my reviews, you might assume how this is going to go, and you'd be correct.
Up front, though, let me say how utterly refreshing it is to have a game where the gameplay voiceover heavily features a gendered honorific, & allows you to change that from "Sir" to "Madam" with a button at the main menu.
Unfortunately, any potential gender euphoria from this change is overwhelmed by playing a stealth survival game.
For the newcomers: I'm not a big fan of survival games, and even less so of stealth games where you're primarily helpless; this is both. Not great for a woman with anxiety issues.
If that's your cup of tea, have at it; a game set in a quaint & creepy English countryside, where you're being hunted by robots was always going to be a big ask, & it was a "please be over, please be over" every time I died and checked the clock.
There's a whole layer of real-world subtext for me about being hunted by English people who want me to not exist that really drives the final nail into this game's coffin.
Apr 27, 2023 - Day 117 - NewPlay Review
Total NewPlays: 132
Game: Phoning Home
Platform: Steam
Release Date: Feb 8, 2017
Library Date: Mar 13, 2018
Unplayed: 1871d (5y1m14d)
Playtime: 95m
Phoning Home is a third-person open-world robot survival sim. It is also free on Steam (which is why there's a link at the end).
Phoning Home was developed by ION LANDS, who went on to create Cloudpunk, (one of my all-time favourite games).
I've mentioned before that I'm not a big fan of sandbox survival games. Valheim left me cold, and V Rising genuinely left me regretting spending the money on it.
Phoning Home, on the other hand, is a narrative driven survival game, which takes the exploration and construction and gives it purpose.
I only intended to play this for 15 minutes before work, and was an hour late starting work, so deep did it suck me in and make me want to keep playing, and further the story of the cute little WALL-E inspired robot, ION.
To the point that the new Warframe expansion The Duviri Paradox dropped today (it's free too!), and if I'm to have any hope of giving it a fair go, I'll need to play that first, because otherwise I suspect I'll be up all night playing Phoning Home.
Apr 28, 2023 - Day 118 - NewPlay Review
Total NewPlays: 133
Game: Unfortunate Spacemen
Platform: Steam
Release Date: Jun 13, 2020
Library Date: Jun 14, 2020
Unplayed: 1048d (2y10m14d)
Playtime: 31m
Unfortunate Spacemen feels like a first-person mash-up of Among Us, Dead By Daylight, and Alien. It's a free multiplayer survival game that's suffered the same fate as most of the other free & paid multiplayer games that sat in my Pile of Shame for too long: no-one is playing.
The game starts with a slightly over-the-top tutorial playing as one of the titular Spacemen. It's frustratingly slow as the voiceover drones on endlessly, switching out halfway through in what was (I guess) supposed to feel funny, but just felt odd & forced. There's nothing here you don't already know from every other FPS.
Next, the "playing as the monster" tutorial. You start out disguised as one of the spacemen; you can then switch into monster form to kill a spaceman, then back to spaceman again, or even take on the identity of whoever you killed.
The gameplay feels a bit janky in the way it plays, but the biggest problem is the same one experienced by most F2P PvP games: get big quick, or go home.
The servers are still running (unlike many other games), but there aren't a lot of players, & apparently most are just griefing.
Whenever I make fish fingers for tea I remember a new mum asking me if I knew you could just make them yourself? I was already on to my second child and knew that was very much not the point of fish fingers! #parenting#survival