Completed games of 2012

[TyDrace]

Keeping a small log here of games I'm beating throughout the year. Figured, since I just beat my first one, it'll be easy to give a post-mortem straight after. Feel free to add to it on one requirement, you must have beaten the game in any significant way. It's either the story mode for most regular games or a significant amount of time for non-story / non-level games.

LIMBO
Before buying Humble Bundle 4 I had low expectations of indie games. As a student game developer I honestly have all the right, I see a lot of crap from the indie scene. But what I didn't really use before the Humble Bundle was Steam, and how glorious Steam is to pick out the indie games that are good and do deserve being played. During the Steam holiday sales, it was LIMBO's art style that caught my eye. The simplicity of it lured me in. Grimdark, so detailed yet so simple. Having gained some faith due to the above mentioned bundle, I bought it.

The art style is absolutely gorgeous and that alone well worth the money. Sadly, I found that after 3 hours of playing, or perhaps even less if you don't count talking to friends, the game ended. It was short and powerful, but left me wishing for more. The game works as a simple puzzle platformer. You can run, jump and pull or push objects. The designers really knew how to use this art style to the game's advantage. There is no tutorial, there are no explanations nor hints. The beauty is that it doesn't need any of this because the art works so well. You're not left in the dark in such a sense, that even though the puzzle might not seem obvious at first, you can easily find the components you need to use to solve it.

The puzzles vary on difficulty, but I can't really say they were all too difficult. It mostly depends on using your eyes to scour which objects you can use and then find a way to make them fit. Oversee one object, a rare occurrence but it happened, and it can take a (short) while to find the way.

While a tad short, I say it was worth all my money. I don't think it's expensive even without the Steam deal, so check it out if you're interested.

7 burning feathers out of 10.

[Archem]

The game was brilliant. I loved every second, and wish it could have been longer. The only part that was a stumper (and killed the flow of the game, really) was... Well, if you played the game, you already know that part.

Really, the game isn't hard, but it feels like it shouldn't be. Like, you should have to think about it, but you shouldn't need to stick there for an hour to figure it out. It feels natural in that sense.

[TyDrace]

Left 4 Dead 2
I've always been a fan of zombie games, having played Resident Evil, Dead Rising and Left 4 Dead. While I liked the originally Left 4 Dead, it was a short game and it felt lacking. Luckily, Left 4 Dead 2 took the existing formula and expanded on it. Honestly, I didn't get whole boycott deal about this game. Releasing a year after the original might have been early but the existing engine was already made, it only needed to be expanded on. And they did, but not on everything.

Melee weapons were a must, but they leave the player up for so many attacks. The addition of being able to hurt your team with the melee weapon makes it difficult to use when the hectic rises. While the game also has a larger arsenal in general, I must say that I couldn't care less about most weapons since they almost all seem to handle the same. The extra items were well thought and certainly needed, and they make sure the original game feels like a prototype without them.

The new special infected were good additions, and making the witch patrol was a feature that really improved that enemy. Uncommon infected were also highly needed, it added that extra challenge to the campaigns to have one unique enemy. However, the main characters were highly less enjoyable. I couldn't care less about them, unlike the original four which I really liked.

The levels still feel short though and the game hammers on replaying levels over and over and over. The linearity has also not gone away, a feature I really hoped they would've added. And finally, the AI. Just play with friends if you can because the AI falls flat.

7 chewed off fingers out of 10.