Games That Don’t Have a Thread Catch-All

Sounds like a great combination of Marauders and base building. I threw it on my wishlist to check out later.

I miss playing coop games with goodjers, but getting online late on the west coast has made it a challenge. Would love a general coop game catchall to find other players.

Anyone up for grabbing the coop humble bundle and playing games from it?
https://www.humblebundle.com/games/f...

Back 4 Blood
Zombie Army 4
Warhammer: Vermintide 2
Killing Floor 2 Digital Deluxe Edition
The Anacrusis
Zombie Army Trilogy

I've sunk many hours into Vermintide 2, and was going to gift my copy to a friend who sounded interested. Played a little bit of Back 4 Blood, but I'd have to restart on steam now that my live account has lapsed.

Been playing a bit of Stranded: Alien Dawn. Its... ok. Its by the folks who made Surviving Mars (originally) and its a passable Rimworld-like. This one is fully 3d and has a few different starting scenarios like crash survivors, trading post, and military outpost. You need to gather resources to build shelters and scavenge the remnants of your ship.

You observe alien flora and fauna to learn what resources you can get from them (this activity is just sending a colonist to a place and filling up an activity bar). You build up an outpost, you survive some periodic bug raids, you can build a hot air balloon to go on 'expeditions'. Maybe those open the game up a bit but if they're just 'your guys are gone for a few days and come back with injuries and resources' then that's about all there is to the game. Not very deep.

I believe you'll find more survivors and build bigger bases and fend off bigger bug attacks, but the above are the core functions.

One innovation I like is borrowed from Surviving Mars. Your researchers will (randomly?) achieve some insights into the tech they're working on which gives you some unique advantages for this playthrough. So far mine are both improved weapons.

Shadows of Doubt

Been playing this while its in early access. Gritty dynamically generated noir detective game. You basically walk around a small city and occasionally someone gets murdered and you get paid to figure out who. It's not ready for prime time I'd say. Needs more polish. But for some people the main hook will be extremely appealing. Sneaking in to the victims apartments, getting fingerprint, hitting the street for info. That sort of thing.

With some more content types, and a good bit of polish it could be really special.

Shadows of Doubt immediately puts me in mind of Murder!, which was a 1990 game by US Gold and also featured procedurally-generated murder mysteries (albeit on a more basic scale). The player assumed the role of a sleuth trying to solve a killing at a country-house dinner party, and, each time you played, the details were randomized - the layout of the mansion, the guests, the objects in the world, etc. Gameplay consisted mainly of questioning guests to try to tease out a motive, then following suspects around until they put down a glass or a cigarette and grabbing it for fingerprints. All very ambitious and exciting for 1990!

Given that the biggest knock on detective games is that they are one-and-done (no replayability after you figure out the mystery), it's a surprise that it's taken 30 years to get another detective game that uses procedural generation. This one has my attention.

I finished the core mode in Stranded: Alien Dawn. Though it felt pretty average overall in the beginning, the moment to moment events and challenges were keeping me going. In the core mode, you're crash landed and your goal is to survive and escape. This will take years so you really do need a proper base complete with farming. I got up to 7 survivors, 1 died because I enabled a super-far away task past a bug-nest on accident, the rest escaped 1 by 1 thanks to passing spaceships with rescue pods.

There's not a ton this does in that core mode that Rimworld doesn't. There are Mechs and that's a game changer when you get one. I would love a mod with a workhorse mech though. The main adversary is still just escalating bug attacks and that does get a bit old.

Im playing the Trading Outpost scenario now, which has a much different feel. I have a trading pod I can use to contact ships, hire workers, and trade goods. The goal is to earn enough money to buy exclusive rights to the planet.

There's 1 more scenario, a military base. Not sure what the objective is. At least there's some variety. Like Surviving Mars there are game modifiers you can choose and there seems to be pretty good mod support, so I think, like Surviving Mars, this one will have some longevity.

Age of Wonders 4 seems to be getting a lot of positive feedback. Potato dramatically described it as potentially the cause of death of his Civ6 YT channel; and perhaps the best 4X since Civ6.

Customisable factions sounds pretty awesome. If anyone gets into it I'd love to hear how it goes.

Planetfall was good, if humungous. I expect the same from this one. Looking forward to it.

Circus Electrique (Zen) is on sale for 4.99 on Steam. Anyone have any experience with this game? I have Iratus Lord of the Dead in my unplayed pile.
Trying to decide whether to take the plunge. If Circus is a Darkest Dungeon kite, then maybe?

Welcome any comments!

Chad

*Legion* wrote:

Don't think there's a thread for System Shock 1.

I made a Shock series thread, with the new remake coming out in a month.

chooka1 wrote:

Circus Electrique (Zen) is on sale for 4.99 on Steam. Anyone have any experience with this game? I have Iratus Lord of the Dead in my unplayed pile.
Trying to decide whether to take the plunge. If Circus is a Darkest Dungeon kite, then maybe?

Welcome any comments!

Chad

I was going to write you a bit today.

Yes, buy it! TO be fair I have only played to the first boss so about an hour, but it has been quite fun. $5 for an hour is already worth it but I expect more time in the coming days.
Since I am only a bit into it perhaps it totally goes downhill but I feel ok saying give it a try.

farley3k,

Thank you for the nudge. I've had my eye on the game and the reviews do suggest that there is a frustrating RNG later in the game. I've been trying to adjust my gaming expectations to more of a "play until an unfair wall or until I have gotten the essence of the gaming experience" to lessen expectations that I have to play a game until completion and that a game needs to be awesome beginning to end. Circus sounds like a great $5 will buy you an hour or more of fun approach. Pulling the trigger.

Thanks,
Chad

Bfgp wrote:

Age of Wonders 4 seems to be getting a lot of positive feedback. Potato dramatically described it as potentially the cause of death of his Civ6 YT channel; and perhaps the best 4X since Civ6.

Customisable factions sounds pretty awesome. If anyone gets into it I'd love to hear how it goes.

Will this be on Xbox Game Pass PC?

Played a little bit of Cassette Beasts today and I have to say, it is looking pretty good. Liked the mix of graphical art styles and the general bits of combat I tried out. Didn't get too far, but I'll be diving in again in the coming days, for sure.

Got back into Beacon Pines and I have to say I love this game's score. Getting back into the thick of the plot and what is turning out to be pretty well-woven intrigue.

Balthezor wrote:
Bfgp wrote:

Age of Wonders 4 seems to be getting a lot of positive feedback. Potato dramatically described it as potentially the cause of death of his Civ6 YT channel; and perhaps the best 4X since Civ6.

Customisable factions sounds pretty awesome. If anyone gets into it I'd love to hear how it goes.

Will this be on Xbox Game Pass PC?

No official confirmation yet, although Planetfall was previously on Games Pass and Paradox supposedly has a close relationship with Microsoft.

Very much enjoying Age of Wonders 4. It's polished. It's got lots of systems that are all well-explained and many of which interlock. Tons of unit variety. The ability to redo battles (at least at the initial difficulty level). A good fast pace; every turn has something significant going on.

I've had one crash so far, to desktop.

Should we give it its own thread?

Robear wrote:

Should we give it its own thread?

Yeah I think it merits one.

master0 wrote:

Shadows of Doubt

Been playing this while its in early access. Gritty dynamically generated noir detective game. You basically walk around a small city and occasionally someone gets murdered and you get paid to figure out who. It's not ready for prime time I'd say. Needs more polish. But for some people the main hook will be extremely appealing. Sneaking in to the victims apartments, getting fingerprint, hitting the street for info. That sort of thing.

With some more content types, and a good bit of polish it could be really special.

I already think it's special because I cannot get my current case out of my head. I went to bed thinking about it and I woke up this morning thinking about it.

Was playing a bunch more and your right it is special, there really isn't another game like it currently. I just feel it needs three things: motives for killer, interviewing witnesses, and more complex cases. And honestly none of these things are too crazy to make. I was thinking about the game again and there so many things they could add. Lots of potential and its already good. As long as it doesn't turn into a hardship spacebreakers, and follows a separate tangent from it's core gameplay loop.

Been trying out Ni No Kuni: Cross Worlds, a mobile MMORPG/Gacha game. It's a bit like an MMO style version of Genshin Impact with gorgeous Miyazaki studio style art. It also has a full auto mode where the game plays itself, kind of like that mobile Lineage 2 from a few years ago.
I'm sure I will tire of it soon ish, but it is very pretty.

I'm curious if anyone has played any good modern world or sci-fi themed mobile Gachas, because the high fantasy gets old quickly to me.

Rat Boy wrote:

I already think it's special because I cannot get my current case out of my head. I went to bed thinking about it and I woke up this morning thinking about it.

Finally nailed that case out of sheer luck. After hours of hitting dead ends I went back to the victim's place of work, bought a pass to get in rather than break in later at night, found a terminal already logged into, and checked employee records. Randomly hitting two keys yielded a name who had the exact same fingerprints as the set I couldn't account for in the murder room.

Mixolyde wrote:

Been trying out Ni No Kuni: Cross Worlds, a mobile MMORPG/Gacha game. It's a bit like an MMO style version of Genshin Impact with gorgeous Miyazaki studio style art. It also has a full auto mode where the game plays itself, kind of like that mobile Lineage 2 from a few years ago.
I'm sure I will tire of it soon ish, but it is very pretty.

I'm curious if anyone has played any good modern world or sci-fi themed mobile Gachas, because the high fantasy gets old quickly to me.

IIRC, the game before Genshin Impact by the same devs was a sci-fi gacha. Honkai Impact 3rd? There was also a new Honkai game that just came out. I stopped paying attention to that type of game a while ago, though.

I don’t know what to make of this game. It looks phenomenal, with gorgeous Dark Soulsy graphics and weighty looking combat but the trailer has been thrown out without much fan fare i.e. not part of a big reveal event or anything. We’ll get the true measure of it when we hear more I guess.

Higgledy wrote:

I don’t know what to make of this game. It looks phenomenal, with gorgeous Dark Soulsy graphics and weighty looking combat but the trailer has been thrown out without much fan fare i.e. not part of a big reveal event or anything. We’ll get the true measure of it when we hear more I guess.

Well I'm intrigued. There is some really nice art in there, and I'm always encouraged when a reveal trailer includes large portions of gameplay. Looking forward to learning more.

I've given Shadow of Doubts a try, but I'm finding the tutorial story quite hard.

Spoiler:

I found Onni's friend, who told me about an assassin. I went to the assassin's house and found her husband, but I'm stuck now. The prompts are still telling me to search his house, but I think I've found everything. But perhaps not. There was a mention of a restaurant, the Jade Dragon or something, but I went into their camera room and couldn't find anything on that computer.

I'm finding the whole thing a bit fiddly - maybe it hasn't clicked for me yet, or maybe it's not my kind of puzzle.

DudleySmith wrote:

I've given Shadow of Doubts a try, but I'm finding the tutorial story quite hard.

Spoiler:

I found Onni's friend, who told me about an assassin. I went to the assassin's house and found her husband, but I'm stuck now. The prompts are still telling me to search his house, but I think I've found everything. But perhaps not. There was a mention of a restaurant, the Jade Dragon or something, but I went into their camera room and couldn't find anything on that computer.

I'm finding the whole thing a bit fiddly - maybe it hasn't clicked for me yet, or maybe it's not my kind of puzzle.

It's definitely fiddly. In this case the person might be at work, or outside having something to eat. Or worse stuck on a rock and glitched. I had to restart the tutorial once cause I got stuck in a similar way. It definitely took a while to click.

mrtomaytohead wrote:
Mixolyde wrote:

Been trying out Ni No Kuni: Cross Worlds, a mobile MMORPG/Gacha game. It's a bit like an MMO style version of Genshin Impact with gorgeous Miyazaki studio style art. It also has a full auto mode where the game plays itself, kind of like that mobile Lineage 2 from a few years ago.
I'm sure I will tire of it soon ish, but it is very pretty.

I'm curious if anyone has played any good modern world or sci-fi themed mobile Gachas, because the high fantasy gets old quickly to me.

IIRC, the game before Genshin Impact by the same devs was a sci-fi gacha. Honkai Impact 3rd? There was also a new Honkai game that just came out. I stopped paying attention to that type of game a while ago, though.

I am taking a look at both, but holy crap, a 12Gig download for Impact 3rd? I'm gonna need an external drive for my phone. I'll let you know what it's like in 4 days after the download.

Mixolyde wrote:
mrtomaytohead wrote:
Mixolyde wrote:

Been trying out Ni No Kuni: Cross Worlds, a mobile MMORPG/Gacha game. It's a bit like an MMO style version of Genshin Impact with gorgeous Miyazaki studio style art. It also has a full auto mode where the game plays itself, kind of like that mobile Lineage 2 from a few years ago.
I'm sure I will tire of it soon ish, but it is very pretty.

I'm curious if anyone has played any good modern world or sci-fi themed mobile Gachas, because the high fantasy gets old quickly to me.

IIRC, the game before Genshin Impact by the same devs was a sci-fi gacha. Honkai Impact 3rd? There was also a new Honkai game that just came out. I stopped paying attention to that type of game a while ago, though.

I am taking a look at both, but holy crap, a 12Gig download for Impact 3rd? I'm gonna need an external drive for my phone. I'll let you know what it's like in 4 days after the download.

Hoyoverse games are AAA games that just happen to be playable on the phone. I'm honestly surprised Honkai and Genshin aren't much bigger than they are.

Honkai Star Rail is at least under 10 GB... for now.