Tales from the Unending Void: Season One (Steam)

Another VN from the same team as Sisterly Lust. This shows real improvement too, with actual story beyond just getting everyone into bed. It's still mostly about getting everyone into bed, with a side story of something along the lines of Mass Effect. Best played an episode at a time so as to not get old too quick, since it's actually quite long. It's a decent diversion in between session of more serious games. I'll get the follow-on seasons when they appear at a cheap enough sale.

My finished games so far have been:

Shin Megami Tensei: Devil Summoner: Soul Hackers - 3DS
Needy Streamer Overload - Steam
Dead Drop: A Carol Reed Mystery - MDNA Games official website
Hyperdimension Neptunia Re;Birth1 - Steam

In the longer games I've been almost at the end so that explains why there's already this many at this early of the year.

Warhammer 40,000: Darktide (PC)

I reached level 30 with one character, which concludes the main story. It's a pretty fun co-op game, with the same gameplay loop as games like Left 4 Dead or Vermintide (obviously). You do missions from start to finish completing some objectives along the way and fighting off the horde with three other players. You select the mission you want to do from a map screen in the main hub, and there is always a decent variety of maps, objectives and difficulties to choose from. Even a mission on a higher difficulty can have a modifier telling you that there are a lower number of enemies on the mission, so you can balance it out.

The gameplay is excellent. The guns and melee weapons feel really good, with impact. This one has a bigger focus on guns than Vermintide, but melee weapons are still widely, if not mostly used still. There's nothing like slicing through a horde of heretics with your chainsword. There's a lot of gore and bodyparts flying around, but that's 40K. There's also medipaks and ammo crates you can pick up around the maps.

Graphics are excellent, and they really nailed the grimdark aesthetic and atmosphere. Runs well on my hardware as well. Optimization is on point.

Finding players was never a problem. Still a very active community 1+ year after release, and there has been a few content updates recently. I'll keep playing higher difficulty missions and try to get better gear, and maybe try a new character soon. There is plenty of content here.

Quake II: Call of the Machine (mission pack)

Last year I played Machine Games' mission pack Dimension of the Machine for Quake and it was awesome, the culmination of the new Enhanced package, very atmospheric, fast-paced, enjoyable gameplay, all new textures and clever level design. Can Call of the Machine follow suit? Yes and no.

The structure is very similar to Dimension. Again, there is a hub and 6 missions you can pick in any order you want, before the portal to the final mission is opened. The missions consist of a couple of connected levels, just like in the main game, though possibly a little bit more guided, with less backtracking, and often you can't return to the previous area unless the script wants you to. All in all, I enjoyed the mission pack for the most part but I found it to be somewhat uneven. From what I could tell, only one of the six missions from the hub, Darkest Depths, seemed to feature new textures and a different atmosphere from the main game. Maybe others did too, but they did not manage to impress in the same way, as Dimension did. Still, I also liked Corpse Run and Ruined Earth a lot. Firewall was nice, too, Laser Eyes decent, I think, but Wastelands kind of sucked. I mostly remember it for throwing lots of annoying enemies at you at once, with resurrecting medics in the mix. I think there were also less healing kits, and I possibly overlooked the super shotgun somewhere, if there was one, which made fighting the annoying enemies even more tedious. This mission reminded me less of the quality found in Dimension of the Machine and more of the quality found in Dimension of the Past, which I disliked and did not finish.

So, Call of the Machine to me was pretty good but not as great as Dimension of the Machine. Contrary to the latter, Call was not quite a triumphant culmination of everything good about the game and more like just another nice Quake II campaign among others, with levels of varying quality.

Now I've only got Ground Level Zero left to play, which starts good but seems to be disliked by many. We'll see how it goes for me.

Beat Prodeus on PS5 earlier today. It's very good but I wasn't as blown away as I hoped I'd be.

I'm usually not drawn to boomer shooters because often it seems more like an attempt to cheaply dish out a sellable game than a genuine attempt to create a love letter to 90s shooters. Well, it takes just a single glance at Prodeus to see that this is the real deal. It is easily the prettiest "2.5D shooter" (with "flat" enemies) ever made and it kinda shows us a "what if" scenario of what shooters would look like today if we had all of this modern rendering tech but, bizarrely, still had to resort to sprites for enemies and were stuck with small resolutions. Not only are the enemies these shaded 2D sprites but also the particle effects are pretty much perfect. Now, I'm pretty sure it's all faked and the game only renders 3D objects in a flat manner but still, it's a feast for the eyes (unless you really can't stand this lo-fi aesthetic).

And I also can't really complain about the execution. The gunplay is just fantastic, the sounds and particle effects make every shot and kill super satisfying, damage feels very well-balanced, movement is tight, the weapons and enemy types are diverse, the game also rewards exploration with a currency for permanent upgrades and so on. It's all great.

There's just one problem: this is Doom.

I appreciate the fantastic execution and unique graphics but it's about the most derivative shooter I have ever played. Honestly, it feels like not a single original thought has gone into this game. Almost all enemy types have a direct counterpart in Doom, not only mechanically but also visually. I'm not kidding: you have the shotgunner, the chaingunner, the imp, the cacodemon, the pinky, the lost souls, the pain elemental and in the end also what is basically a cyberdemon. Oh, and there are also cloaked variations of enemies. You know, like the specters Doom. There are a few more enemy types but they are generic stuff. Soon you also get a second enemy faction, guys from the titular Prodeus dimension, but those are just stronger blue versions of some of the regular enemy types. With weapons it's basically the same thing: the game has an impressively large set of weapons but it's basically the Doom weapons, plus a bunch of generic guns like dual SMGs or an auto shotgun and Unreal's bio rifle.

And the colour palette and environmental design is simply Doom 2016. As a matter of fact Prodeus feels more like a Doom 2016 demake than anything else. I think the game is set on an asteroid but with its orange rocks and industrial sci-fi complexes with some gothic architecture it's again simply Doom, maybe with a hint of Quake 2 and 3. And even the minimalistic story is about some dimensional rift and has some hellish elements. It also doesn't help that the music, while fantastic, seems very inspired by Mick Gordon's Doom soundtracks (and was actually made by Andrew Hulshult who worked on Doom Eternal's expansions).

None of that makes the moment to moment gameplay any less dynamic or fun, as a matter of fact I've found Prodeus to be far more entertaining than any Quake campaign or Doom Eternal, but I had to play it in short bursts of 3-4 levels in a row (about an hour of gameplay) because at that point I always got a bit bored and/or exhausted without any changes in pace or anything interesting to look forward to. There's also the problem that especially the first couple of levels lack any memorable or discerning features but luckily this gets better halfway through and especially towards the end. Eventually levels begin having some unique central idea (e.g. a level about circling a strong sniper position or about following cables so you can disable a generator) and even some impressive set pieces. Some of the later levels also break with that generic "industrial Mars" aesthetic which is nice. But still, while I appreciate a throwback to simpler times and a focused title as much as the next guy: a bit more variety, a few original ideas or just a slightly more developed narrative could have done wonders. And its not like those are things that the great original 2.5D shooters didn't have. :)

Anyway, still, it's a pretty great game. It hurts that the game fails to offer a single thing we haven't seen before (besides that gorgeous rendering technique) but it's still easily one of the best boomer shooters out there.

Looking for Aliens

For a hidden object game, the game did a pretty good job. Things are well hidden most of the times, but the small hints helped to find them. Also the graphics were cute and the scenarios detailed and funny, which made it fun to look for things. Sometimes in the huge levels it still got a little frustrating. In the end I lacked the patience to look for the last four cards I missed (would have helped, if the game would have told me in the beginning that the little sparkling meant that the card is nearby) and for two objects that I couldn't find.

Good game, if you like the genre, frustrating experience, if you don't.

Good review, just a quick question out of curiosity:

The first statement makes it sound like you usually give "boomer shooters" a pass, while the second one implies you have played enough to judge which is the best. So I wonder, which ones did you play that you found inferior to Prodeus?

Finished Aerial_Knight's Never Yield. A fun runner, not too difficult with good music and nice graphics. I enjoyed it but it is very short (< 2h) and the story makes no sense.

Full list here

Please include me.

Games I finished in 2024 so far:

Star Wars Episode 3: Revenge of the Sith [Console version, 2005]

Star Wars the Force Unleashed [PS2/WII/PSP/Switch version, 2008]

Star Wars Battlefront 2 [2005]

Halo: Combat Evolved Anniversary [2011]

Mobile Suit Gundam: Journey to Jaburo [2001]

Star Wars Episode 1: Battle For Naboo [2001]

Star Wars Starfighter [2001]

Mobile Suit Gundam: Encounters in Space [2003]

Dragon Ball Z Budokai

Star Wars Dark Forces [1995]

Halo 2 Anniversary [2014]

Halo 3: ODST [2008]

Halo 3 [2007]

Dragon Ball Z Budokai Tenkaichi 3 [2007]

Games I am currently playing:

X-Men Legends [2004]

Call of Duty [2003


Star Wars X-Wing [Windows version, 1998]

Mass Effect 1 [Legendary Edition, 2021]

Simpsons Hit and Run [2003]

Star Wars Knights of the Old Republic [2003]

Batman Arkham Origins [2013]

Star Wars Episode 1: The Phantom Menace [1999]

Games I plan to play later this year:

X-Wing vs TIE Fighter: Balance of Power [1997]

X-Wing Alliance [Upgrade, 2020]

Mass Effect 2&3 [Legendary Edition, 2021]

Star Wars Knights of the Old Republic 2: The Sith Lords [2004]

The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim [2011]

Batman Arkham Asylum [2009]

Spider-Man 2 [Console version, 2004]

G.I Joe: Wrath of Cobra [Upcoming]

Macross Shooting Insight [Upcoming]

X-Men Legends 1&2 [2004-2005]

Marvel Ultimate Alliance [2006]

Wing Commander III and IV [1994-1997]

Ha, you got me there! I used "one of the best" rather mindlessly and rhetorically. Admittedly, among those games that currently make any "best of" list for boomer shooters I've played only a handful and I don't exactly know how Prodeus compares to the other top titles of the genre.

However...
[audience laughs]

I am actually rather confident that the statement is correct on the grounds that it fits the consensus and that in many regards Prodeus is among the best shooters that I have played over the course of 30 years - seriously, in terms of gunplay alone it's possibly the best shooter I have ever played. Since that's the case I'm gonna take a gamble and presume that it's also among the best indie boomer shooters that came out over the last couple of years. I realize that there's been quite a few of those but I doubt that either one has raised the bar so much that my entire conception of what makes a great shooter is deprecated.

I see, thanks for the reply! :)

I was just wondering because I've played quite a few of these indie "boomer shooters" in recent years and found almost all of them to be labours of love, not cheap cash grabs. But then again, tastes differ and I'm probably looking for different things than you. What is true in any case is that they all felt like Doom, Quake, Duke Nukem or Heretic in most ways, and I think they were all proudly going for that, too, instead of trying to innovate much. I still had a blast with them though.

Of Prodeus I've only played the first level so far and wasn't too impressed yet, but I'm sure it picks up later on, and I definitely plan to play through it somewhen this year.

Sea of Stars, Jan 15 (Xbox Game Pass)-An excellent game thru the regular ending. I enjoyed the story, the characters, the combat (with the exception of the timed attacks), the music, finding the secrets and hidden areas, and the puzzles for the most part. But locking the true ending behind another 8-10 hours of fetch quests, rage inducing fishing mini games, and over an hour long final battle with difficult bullet hell sections completely soured me on it. I should have stopped at the regular ending and left with a good impression of the game.

Full List

Higurashi When They Cry Ch4 Himatsubushi, Jan 15 (GOG)-This chapter of Higurashi was a prequel of sorts to the previous games. The chapter was rather short and focused on some side characters. The translation had several errors which was disappointing in a visual novel. This was the last chapter of the question arcs. I'm still curious how this will all wrap up in the answer arcs but I'm worried it won't be satisfying.

Full List

Gratitude, greetings and felicitations to SCPM for these threads, and all present of course.

Not previously contributed hereabouts, as I tend to flit hither & thither through my collection
like a Butterfly Goldfish Man Thing; but today I finally completed Doom 1.

Some replayability here with optional auto-aim, mouse look and jumping. Level design is
just lightly puzzley, so the walk-throughs aren't a strict neccessity. Plus the rythm of
the fight/dodge mechanics is more satisfyingly gentle than the Quake series, I find anyway.

Almost at the end of Doom 2 (minimal cheating) and approaching halfway in Doom 64
(total cheat-fest, as it feels positively cryptic).

Gray Matter (GOG)

Jane Jenson point and click adventure game. Her Gabriel Knight games are still my favorites in the genre- yes even the third game.

Gray matter is very much a game along the lines of the older GK series. Most puzzles are relatively grounded, at least in game logic anyway. The game has good characters, but the voice acting is a bit hit or miss- probably because of budget. The two main characters are well voiced, but some of the characters sound like Americans doing impersonations of various English accents. The story is intriguing and kept me playing to see it through. I did work out who was the culprit relatively early, there's easily enough clues.

It's actually a great game overall and joins the top tier of my all-time favorite point and click adventures- joining the GK games obviously, along with Black Dahlia, The Cat Lady and Harvester. The rendered screens are really nice, the character models are decent for their time and the music evokes the themes from Gabriel Knight- not surprising since it's the same composer. I played the GOG version, luckily, I bought it long before it was delisted years ago. If you want to buy Gray Matter now, then you need to buy the Steam version. It was also an Xbox 360 console exclusive, so you could find a physical 360 disc- but it has no backwards compatibility, so can only be played on a 360.