Last game you finished, tell us about it

Lords of Xulima

My game save says 83 hours, but it feels like it was twice that… I was craving some overland exploration, turnbased gameplay and this title pretty much burned me out for the next year on that style of game.

At its core, it's a fine game; one part freeform exploration, one part character building. But the sheer number of enemies is absurd! Combine that with the seemingly redundant game design that has you repeat the same plot element (cleansing a temple) EIGHT TIMES, and you quickly want to set it down and play something else. But I had done that already and was determined to finish this go around.

Glad I finished it, but definitely not recommended. Just too much tedium in a game to truly be enjoyable.

150 game day completion… apparently your score takes a hit with anything over 100… There are actually bored crazy people out there that replay to simply tweak their score!

I enjoy Lords of Xulima a lot, but I don't think there are too many enemies. Unless you are compelled to "clear" every area, which is entirely optional and not necessary to progress, then it might seem that way.

83 hours, though, is like a speedrun to me. I played some 110 hours, I think, and am only halfway done with the game! I have to return sometime.

Obviously you don't enjoy it that much if you put it aside. Get back to us when you've finished the game and slogged through the hundreds of fights that pop up at every corner.

Also, 83 hours is an in-game number. Steam is listed at approximately 160. So an average of the two is probably more accurate.

Didn't you just start that playthrough last week? I envy you if you have that much free time for gaming.

Nah, approximately 3 weeks ago. I only vented some frustration in the other thread last week

Drithius said:

Obviously you don't enjoy it that much if you put it aside. Get back to us when you've finished the game and slogged through the hundreds of fights that pop up at every corner.

Also, 83 hours is an in-game number. Steam is listed at approximately 160. So an average of the two is probably more accurate.

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Nah, I enjoyed it a lot. I'll return and finish it just like I do with other huge RPGs later. But it didn't have too many battles, IMO. It had less per area than most JRPGs I grew up with.

Besides, it's essentially a combat dungeon crawler that takes place in an over world instead of indoor areas. I call it a Gameplay RPG.

I thought Lord of Xumilla started with a bang (very good) but finished on a whimper (around 2/3 of the way became quite tedious and quite stupid). I don't remember how long it took to play - according to steam i had 120 hours in the game so I guess play time was probably around 70-80 since I normally spend a lot of play time doing other stuff.

I think it was better for me since I started my first playthrough on Hardcore/Ironman and didn't read any guides or anything. 110 hours in and the economy is still really tightly balanced for me and the game remains challenging.

http://gamejolt.com/games/peridium/257024#close

Completed this EXTREMELY short (but free) adventure game inspired by The Thing. Was pretty neat - but I think it lasted all of 30 mins

That said, I had a choice at the end which might have extended playtime slightly by picking another option.

It wasn't better because you played hardcore/ironman it was better because what interest you differs from myself. As I said the game started out fantastic and i found it not so good the last 1/3rd or so. Yes the game has a linear path to ensure tight balance (it gives the persception of being open but the path is very linear) that is both a positive and negative and i won't comment on that - i will state for the record that many games you find well done I think are trash and conversely some games that you label trash I think are rather well done. This doesn't make you wrong or right but rather our views differ. I dont' know if more people would agree with myself your you and quite frankly i don't give a rat ass either way.

Fluent said:

I think it was better for me since I started my first playthrough on Hardcore/Ironman and didn't read any guides or anything. 110 hours in and the economy is still really tightly balanced for me and the game remains challenging.

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It wasn't better because you played hardcore/ironman it was better because what interest you differs from myself.

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What I meant was, the second half of the game wasn't way too easy and a slog for me like some people experienced, but that's because I didn't know the game too well and jumped in the deep end. So the game stayed challenging for me so far.

you said:

This doesn't make you wrong or right but rather our views differ.

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Yep, for sure.

Finished alien isolation this afternoon. I'm kind of mixed about the game. I played the game on hard most of the way but about 20% in the middle i played on easy. The story aspect of the game is fairly decent (imho); and the production value is fairly decent. However, there are a few issues:
1st: There are quite a few 'bugs' or glitches. These include mini-games that get 'stuck' so you can't issue any commands once you exit them. Clipping errors where you can be shot through the wall; corpses fall into the wall; distance display does not match actual distance and similar. These are not super common but if observant all of them will be spotted several times. Normally this wouldn't be an issue but read on:
2nd: The ai 'cheats'. What I mean by this is the game tracks your location and then have boggies (aliens) circle that position (partial pattern partial random). While the boggies won't attack unless you encounter the rules of engagement (noise, line of sight and similar); there is no method to break out of the general area of encounter (i.e, when you move the area of encounter will move with you). Some people might find this clever or suspenseful but I find it kind of lame. Your mileage will vary (though from reviews either most people didn't notice or didn't care).
3rd: autoSave points are a fix distant points ('cept at the end where they seem to occur every few seconds) and there are save boxes where you can manually save your game but many of these are not in necessary safe areas (watch vents above you). Usually they are fairly close but in a few spots you can go quite a ways (as measured by wall clock) before reaching an autosave or manual save point. This potentially makes glitches extremely annoying when you ahve to repeat large blocks of time (i.e, if you are not goign to allow manual saves whenever the player likes then do a better job removing glitches that can cause death). There was one particular spot that was 15 or 20 minutes from a save point and the next save point was on the other side of a mini-games. Twice the min-game glitched out on me where the game stopped accepting input until (mercifully) an alien killed me and I could reload. I think I know what triggered the glitch so it is probably fixable but this game is old enough it is likely no longer being supported.
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Difficulty is ok. I guess average. The game does a good job of changing enemies as you progress so new methods of either avoiding or destroying need to be learned. Plenty of ammo and items et all. so not overly difficult. I did not try anything beyond hard and the game is very playable on hard but tedious. to be honest I couldn't tell too much of a difference between hard and easy other than escape is easier and some of the harder enemies seem to die with less effort.
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Generally the game is more rewarding without referring to walkthrough but i did use one for about 20% of the game - mostly when stuck looking for a specific vent (5 or 6 times) and a portion of chapter 17 which had an excessive amount of backtracking and increase pace of hunters (does easy make 17 easier - i don' t know but on hard fire seemed to not be as effective and hunting rate was faster than earlier portions of the game).
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I won't give any story spoilers but I found it entertaining and i found the cut-scene added value and well timed.
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Would I play it again - no - seen the story - didnt' find the mechanics that compelling. Do I recommend it - sort of - generally i prefer games with compelling mechanics then again you can usually find it deeply discounted so it isn't a bad investment (I think I payed $15 for the compete package including all dlc).
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The game is suppose to have 'enjoyable' mp but I've not tried and mp for this sort of game is not my thing (occasionally I will play mp in a game like wolfenstein enemy terrority or even farcry; but the name of the titles you can tell it been a while since I've bothered with mp).
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Anyway I think there are better games out there both new and old but if you like the this sort of story give it a shot.

With the exception of some very minor clipping, I never experienced any of the glitches you describe, and I logged 53 hours according to Steam.

As far as the manual save points go, it's a common feature in the survival-horror genre. In fact, some games don't even include the auto-saves to go with it.

Not sure about changing enemies, humans and Joe's were barely an obstacle, ( to me) ambiance was really impeccable...the whole game is a great tribute to it's origins.
Only blunder was the ending, too predictable and plain unnecessary ( and done with lame QTE...really?).
What was scariest moment? Heard a lot of different answers on that one.

There are also some major plot holes (or at least something that's never explained) towards the end. It didn't affect my overall enjoyment of the game though.

Just finished WL2: Directors Cut. Played through the entire game at release and liked it, but the balance is a lot better with DC and the changes to armour and weapons. The addition of perks is a good one, but I still feel character progression is the poorest part of the game. Perks that gave actual abilities and skills instead of just statistical differences would have been more interesting.

Out of my 40+ backed games I'd say WL2 is my favourite so far. Good writing, different solutions to quest, fun combat at least for the major part of the game. I love the reel at the end showing what happened at the different locations, that makes it feel like what I did mattered. Don't think I'll replay the game again anytime soon if ever, but I'm sure as hell looking forward to WL3.

tomasp3n said:

Just finished WL2: Directors Cut. Played through the entire ganme at release and liked it, but the balance is a lot better with DC and the changes to armour and weapons. The addition of perks is a good one, but I still feel character progression is the poorest part of the game. Perks that gave actual abilities and skills instead of just statistical differences would have been more interesting.

Out of my 40+ backed games I'd say WL2 is my favourite so far. Good writing, different solutions to quest, fun combat at least for the major part of the game. I love the reel at the end showing what happened at the different locations, that makes it feel like what I did mattered. Don't think I'll replay the game again anytime soon if ever, but I'm sure as hell looking forward to WL3.

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I loved the first part of the game as well, and I particularly enjoyed the combat and some of the early exploration.

Unfortunately, I felt it dragged around the midpoint - but that could just have been me getting distracted.

I might give it another chance one of these days

Yeah I only recently played WL2, but I really enjoyed it. Agree with Dart that it sags a bit in the middle - the "collect x amount of x" quests after you move location were a bit bland. But the world was interesting, the combat fun, the skills well handled for the most part. I can see a replay happening in the future personally…. not for a while though!

tomasp3n said:

Just finished WL2: Directors Cut. Played through the entire ganme at release and liked it, but the balance is a lot better with DC and the changes to armour and weapons. The addition of perks is a good one, but I still feel character progression is the poorest part of the game. Perks that gave actual abilities and skills instead of just statistical differences would have been more interesting.

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Yes, that's what's stopped me from playing and finishing the game pretty much, I love RPGs for the character progression, gaining new skills, spells and abilities. In WL2 all you gain is like 5% increases in something, and then whatever you use that something for now has better armor, evasion or is 5% more difficult to do, so in the end you didn't gain anything really. Felt like combat was the same at level 1 or at level 10. That's very boring to me.

wolfing said:

Yes, that's what's stopped me from playing and finishing the game pretty much, I love RPGs for the character progression, gaining new skills, spells and abilities. In WL2 all you gain is like 5% increases in something, and then whatever you use that something for now has better armor, evasion or is 5% more difficult to do, so in the end you didn't gain anything really. Felt like combat was the same at level 1 or at level 10. That's very boring to me.

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I did not enjoy the game really. Played for about 10-15 hours but I felt it was too weak in many respects.

Combat felt slow yet unrewarding, inventory management was a pain, the story did not feel very interesting to me...




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