What has been your primary game this past month? It could have been a recent title, a new discovery, or something from your backlog. Or perhaps an old favorite you returned to years later? Honorable mentions are also welcome, these would be other games that you enjoyed this past month, but not the one you spent the most time enjoying.
I am aware I am a day early… but I doubt I’ll have time to create this thread tomorrow. :P
For May my game of the month is:
Subnautica: Below Zero , a little over a dozen or so hours into this, but its been my most played game this past month. And while I don’t think its as good as original Subnautica, it is nice to revisit one of the best under the sea exploration and building series out there. I think it would have been better as an add-on expansion than a stand alone game, as I really do miss the vehicles from the first game.
Honorable mentions:
Antihero - playing a few rounds a week, when time permits.
Deep Rock Galactic - Still mining and getting new beards.
AC: Valhalla - a few more hours into this, its like the longest single player game ever.
What game defined May 2021 for you? What was your Game of the Month?
Red Dead Redemption 2 - slowly and steadily making my way to the end, after 2 (?) years of gradual play
Galactic Civilizations 3 - finally got it’s hooks in me 6 (?) years after release, really enjoying learning the systems, although it does suffer from the decision / unit bloat past the midgame of all 4Xs
Guilty Gear XX Accent Code +R. Initially picked this up with the intention of just dabbling to get more familiar with the series before Strive comes out, but 700 matches later, I’m really liking it on its own terms. Great netcode and an active enough community that it’s easy to find opponents at a somewhat comparable skill level.
NieR Replicant™ ver.1.22474487139 - really liked it. I think NieR Automata is better in every single aspect, but it’s only because the latter stands on the shoulders of the former.
The Legend of Heroes: Trails of Cold Steel - finished it in May. Great game. Likeable characters, nice storytelling, combat is great, it’s pretty linear but in a good way. And after 60+ hours playing, it ends in a big cliffhanger. Which is why…
The Legend of Heroes: Trails of Cold Steel 2 - yeah, I had to see what happened after that cliffhanger. I’m already some 20 hours into this one and I can’t wait to see where it goes from there. ;)
Late to the Hades party, but having a blast with it. Still wonder why developer Supergiant Games make the characters and text so tiny on games that will be played on handhelds. Had the same issue with Transistor.
Runner up is Shin Megami Tensei III and here’s hoping Atlua ports/remaster more of their older games for the Switch.
Stuck my toe in Solasta, completed the tutorial and haven’t gone further. Bit of noise in the thread on it that makes me think I might want to wait a bit and let it bake.
Also started but didn’t get very far yet in Sunless Skies, but look forward to diving in.
What I’m a bit obsessed with the last couple of weeks is AI War 2. Graphically rather boring as you spend much of your time in a galaxy map that just looks like a bunch of lines, but what pulled me in is the unique take on RTS where your AI opponent initially treats you as the joke you are since you control only one planet at the start, but as things progress and you become more of a threat it begins sending more and higher level forces to stop you. It’s clever game design and it’s not hiding the ball, it tells you every step of the way how seriously it’s taking you, how much more you’ve gotten it’s attention by your actions and even warns you in advance when it’s about to attack. This is what I currently can’t stop playing…
I’m currently playing the early access release of Graven, which is apparently just the demo with a few modifications. Still though, I’m loving it and hope they finish it soon.
Also, I’m fondly replaying Heretic: Shadow Of The Serpent Riders, and loving that as well. I was going to play Hexen instead, but once I got started and memories began flooding into my brain along with the endorphins, I quickly remembered that I had trouble back in the day with the hub design and a few of the early puzzling. I’m sure I’ll still go back to it, but for now I’ll stick with my very pleasant memories of Heretic. Those levels are forever burned into my brain, and I need to see and play through them all again.
Also got started on Amid Evil. A beautiful game, and fun as well. Looks to be right up my alley.
Mass Effect. My original run back in the day was paragon so now I’m playing the super jerk level renegade option. Screw the universe, how can I profit out of all this?
I sunk the most time into Below Zero but that doesn’t get to be my game of the month when Sagebrush was so good. Got it in the big itch bundle last year. It’s a short ‘first-person narrative adventure game about exploring a cult compound in the remote New Mexico desert’. I found it gripping, creepy and affecting.
Honourable mention goes to Hunt: Showdown because I’m still having some cracking games on that with my brother.
IMO, it’s similar. Some people think Cold Steel is worse, but I don’t think so. It is a bit less charming overall (because Estelle and Joshua and the rest of the “crew” in Sky are hard to top), and the story is more focused, and it takes longer to get the player attached to the characters for a variety of reasons, but in the end I think it’s pretty good and overall on par with Sky. It helps that it plays better and that it has a smoother difficulty curve overall.
