Spirit City: Lofi Sessions
I love this. It's not really a game as such, but it's still nice to customise the character and decor while listening to some great lofi songs in the background.
Life is Strange: True Colors
I love this game. I mean it doesn't come anywhere near the emotional roller coaster than was the first game, but that 's not a bad thing. It's just a different game with different mechanics and new characters, with the exception of one of my favourites. Of course I mean Steph.
The different aura colours to show the characters' emotions worked very well and the overall story was great. I especially loved the LARP game, as that was incredibly fun and meant that I could be distracted from all the emotional stuff (both in game and IRL). I admit, I may have missed a few of the optional auras that could have been more obvious that there was a side story available. I guess I learned that from the recap screen at the end of each chapter.
I believe that Alex, like Max, was only trying to help those around her using her power, even if in some cases it may have made things worse for her friends or herself.
The Plucky Squire
This is an amazing game of popping in and out of a story book to solve puzzles and explore the world. I like that half of the game takes place in the real world and you get to explore the items on the desk and that you can interact and manipulate the book to change the story, I also like that you can change the words in the book to change the story.
Although the story mode is quite short, there is plenty of different activities to do along the way. The characters are fun and the art is well drawn.
Life is Strange (Remastered)
This game is truly remarkable. Despite half the game being in the form of cut scenes and dialog, I can't complain as it is almost perfect. I missed it when it first came out in 2016 as I didn't play this kind of game then, but I'm glad I found it while searching steam for something different.
This game had me crying for the first time in years, it's like it found all my repressed teenage memories I thought were locked away somewhere and brought them all flooding back to the surface. I'm not complaining, I just didn't know a video game could do that. I chose the save Chloe option for my first play through as after going through all the effort of bringing her back like 5 times, I just couldn't sacrifice her. Initially I tried to convince myself that the storm wasn't that bad, although the comics seem to suggest it did damage most of the town.
I believe it could be because as a teenager I experienced something very strange: I had a constant sense on deja vu between the ages of 16-18, so around the age of the characters in this game and the prequel. At the time it felt like I was stuck in a time loop and had to live these years over and over again. I felt sure that I had made a mistake in a previous life and now was a chance to redo things, only in real life we don't get an "unwind" ability like Max does. Eventually the "storm" stopped and I went to university, got a job and got on with my life,. Until I played this game and all those memories good and bad came back to me.
I also know several people in real life who lost family when they were of school age and it completely broke them like it did to Chloe. Luckily most of them ended up ok in the end, once they settled down. For this reason I can't hate Chloe for the things she does as a teenager, as I know given the time to heal, things would likely turn out ok eventually. This also seems to be the case in the comics, although I'm not sure how canon they are.
Life is Strange: Before the Storm (Remastered)
I played this game the day after I finished playing the first game (remastered) as I just got into these games so much. It's nice to play as Chloe instead of Max and get to see Rachel, even if she was fairly manipulative. I get the feeling towards the end that Rachel genuinely feels bad for getting Chloe into trouble at school and with her parents. Would Chloe have gotten expelled if she hadn't befriended Rachel? I don't know, but I get the feeling she was looking for someone who she could be herself with and not have to deal with all the crazy stuff going on at that time in her life.
I loved this game as much as I loved the first game, although this game didn't quite manage to bring me to tear like the first one did. I don't know if this was because I already knew Rachel's fate, and that the events of the prequel were certain to happen anyway, or I had already cried everything I had from the first game.
I like that Chloe spent the whole of the game keeping a journal for Max, even though she didn't know if she would see her again. I'm not sure if Max ever got to read all the messages she left for her. The bonus chapter was also great, it was not only cute to see them playing as pirates one last time, but it actually sets the context for the fact that Max had to leave the same day Chloe's dad gets into his crash. I mean I knew these events happened, but I didn't realise they happened with a day or two, so it really explains why Chloe was so upset when Max left.
Stardew Valley
I think I can honestly say this game got me into the whole cosy side of steam games. Before I played this game I had mainly played RPGs and before that shooting games, but I hadn't played anything coming close to this.
This game is almost perfect and really started a lot of the cosy farming games I've been playing this past year.
When I first saw this game I wasn't sure if I wanted to play a pixel game, since I hadn't played anything like this since my Pokemon days, but it didn't take long before I was completely taken in by the setting, characters and game design. There are so many things to do and you don't have to just grind the farming if you want to explore the town and other areas, meet the NPCs, dungeon delve or just waste some time while listening to some amazing music.
Once I made significant progress (year 3), I started to look up the wiki to see if I was missing anything and realised there were still more areas to unlock. The desert comes with a second dungeon and eventually the tropical island has a volcano and second farm to explore. Plus some awesome end game items to buy once you unlock the walnut room.
The Room
Bought this game for a heavy discount and having not played puzzle games for a long time wasn't sure if I would like it.
I did enjoy every part of this game and proceeded to buy the bundle of the first 4 games and spent a week playing them all.
I love the way how intricate the puzzles are didn't have too much of problem solving them, some took longer than others, but that's expected.
Definitely worth the price, even if I had bought it full price.
The Room Three
I played this game after one and two and as much as I enjoyed this game, I will say it took a lot longer for me to complete compared with the others. I did feel there was a bit more back and forth compared with the first two, but this just made the game feel more complete, so not really a complaint.
After completing the main game I did have to look up a guide for how to unlock the alternate endings, as it wasn't immediately obvious without the hints, but nice to have a little bit of extended content once you think you are done with the game.
The Room 4: Old Sins
After playing the first 3 games in order, I did wonder if they are going to do the same as game 3 again, but pleasantly surprised it was a very different game, while still being very familiar.
I loved the different rooms of the dolls house and how they made it clear once you have cleared a room.
This was probably my favourite of the 4 games, and kind of hope they make more in the future (non VR).
Tales of the Shire
I've now reached a point where I have hit end game, after completing the main quest, getting every characters to level 10 and 3 out of 4 clubs to level 5. The only thing I have left now to unlock is the fishing club.
The game is very fun and cosy, the only complaints are the graphics are not as good as they could be and the performance (at least on steam deck) can be a bit choppy at times. Overall though the game is definitely playable and only encountered one game breaking bug, which required a restart, but otherwise the game runs fine.
The way how you plant up the crops is fairly unique. Most farming games have either a grid plot or a box, like this does, but in this game you actually have to place the plants of different sizes into the planters. Also interesting is that some crops do and don't like to be planted together. The crops grow quicker than in other games (usually only 3 days) and this is because the focus of the game is on getting lots of quality ingredients for the cooking system, rather than making a profitable farm.
The cooking systems seem to be the main focus of the game, which is fine. The system itself gives you lots of flexibility in ingredient choice and flavour profiles with the extensive seasoning system. You can basically make any combination of flavour from any ingredients, with a few exceptions. The only thing is there's no way to sell the extra meals you make, so I end up with 1 and 2 star meals sitting in the pantry. It would be nice if we could sell these unwanted meals.
Fae Farm
I've played quite a few farming games now and I always love when there's something that make them fun and unique. In this game you get seasonal and fae grow beds, meaning you can grow what you want any time of the year. While other games usually get around this by having a greenhouse, I like the way this is done is Fae Farm, as you can turn your basic all year round crops into seasonal or magic varieties,
The combat in this game is very minimalist, so it doesn't feel like a grind, when you need some specific material. Also I love the use of unlock-able wayshrines as you can teleport to whichever level you want and it tells you the probability of finding each item on each dungeon floor.
Wylde Flowers
This is one of favourite games of recent times, if not of all time. If you don't want to read everything below, I will say this game is definitely worth it. Hopefully not too many spoilers in the review.
I was hoping for a game that was basically Stardew Valley with gay witches and it turns out this exact game exists. I've played it all the way through to Spring year 4 and have finally unlocked everything I can find. The only shame is there's not much left to do once you've completed all quests and achievements as there's nothing to spend your money on. I can't complain though, as I've gotten more that 160 hours of amazing game play out of this game and that was just a single play through.
I love that you are in control of the seasons and you're not fixed to the 28 days you get with Stardew, so there's no need to worry about trying to time your crops so they don't expire, plus the whole story behind the coven's responsibilities over the seasons and the weather. You also get winter crops, which is something Stardew didn't have.
Locomoto
I will recommend this game, but I will say that compared to other similar games it does feel more limited. The size of the map feels fine, but the size of the areas you visit are quite limited and there are only a small number of NPCs with quests, which are very quick and easy to do. I can't complain as the game is still very fun, but I was able to complete the main quest and all side quests after only 20 hours. The only thing left to do really is to use all the tokens I've accumulated and make an excellent looking train, as currently it is a bit of a mismatch of random furniture styles.
The train driving mechanism is fairly good and straight forward, I wouldn't want to change it. However once you've unlocked the main quests, there's not much left to do other than driving around taking the NPCs to random destinations for more token.
The train is the inventory system, which is fine as you get a cargo carriage. The only thing I would have liked better, is a way of easily sorting the items you get, as I tended to just dump stuff on the floor. There are shelves you can unlock, but they aren't always easy to find the item you are looking for.
Squirreled Away
I love the game, I just wish it was bigger. Not the map, the map is actually huge, I mean the quests and available items.
I have completed the main quest and all side quests after 11 hours. Ok, so the quests were probably not the intended focus of the game, but they easily could add more NPCs and quests given the size of the world. Maybe even different animals.
As for the tree houses, I love it. The idea of squirrels building their own houses in the trees is adorable. The only shame is the number of available building pieces. The build system is similar to the one used in Valheim, but with the advantage that stuff doesn't randomly break if it's not supported (to my knowledge).
The problem is that there only seems to be two main choices of style, basically plain wood or fancy wood. Now I'm not expecting squirrels to be building marble palaces in the sky or anything like that, but having more styles to build with and more decorative items would definitely make this game feel more complete.I love the idea of Squirrelvana, it's just a shame it only serves as a passageway to the credit screen and there's nothing to do there.
Cozy Caravan (Early Access Review)
This is probably one of the cutest games I've ever played and unlike other games, I've not run into inventory management issues, other than the max items I can carry, but the fact the caravan is nearby make it fine. Even travelling between places isn't a problem as everything is so close together it doesn't take too long to get places. Just love the dialog and the character stories.
Valheim (Early Access Review)
This game is the first survival game I've played in a long time, and at first I was nervous to deal with mobs etc, but once you get into the game it is so in depth and fun. I can see myself playing this for hours and is possibly even more additive than the closest game I've played before which is Minecraft.