Games I Finished in 2020

2020 seemed such a promising year for games but now looking back, there was barely anything among new releases that truly got me excited. 2020 was colored by worrying news and delays. And Cyberpunk 2077 then crowned the year by getting released too early and on the now-last-generation consoles, on which the game clearly shouldn't be.

DOOM Eternal

DOOM (2016) was a fun game for one playthrough. I tried replaying it later on but the game felt samey and I quickly uninstalled it. With DOOM Eternal I didn't even get to the end of my first run before I felt I had had enough. It's not that the game is just more Doom; there is enough new stuff to make it feel fresh. The problem I feel is that Eternal has higher skill ceiling and even on mere Hurt Me Plenty difficulty I had to reload a myriad number of times. That tends to be annoying.

Assassin's Quest

In an unexpected turn of events, The Farseer Trilogy improved in its final volume. I wouldn't say Assassin's Quest was good though, just better. And the book definitely doesn't begin as such: I would compare the misery of the experience to watching Logan which I truly hated.

Darksiders Genesis

Fans of the Darksiders series have been speculating how the final Horseman's game would work since his signature weapons are dual pistols. Would the fourth Darksiders title be more of a third-person shooter than a hack and slash game? Or will Strife even get his own game? Not necessarily answering either question, Strife is instead introduced as a playable character in a spin-off prequel Darksiders Genesis.

Wizard's First Rule

Probably because I've watched so much of Brandon Sanderson's stuff, YouTube started recommending me videos by one Daniel Greene who does fantasy book reviews and such. One of Mr. Greene's videos is a "blistering review" of Wizard's First Rule by Terry Goodkind. He also has another discussing why the author is so controversial. Or was -- Terry Goodkind passed away in September.

Deliver Us The Moon

Deliver Us The Moon is a first/third person puzzle adventure game developed by KeokeN Interactive. I would like to call it a walking simulator for the simplicity of its puzzles but that would misrepresent the game since there are action sequences that offer plenty of opportunities to actually fail.

Observation

Microsoft is currently offering three months of Game Pass Ultimate for 1€. Unfortunately I subscribed a day before that deal went live so I only got the previous deal which was one month for the price. But looking at how I've already beaten three games of the five (or six if/when EA Play is included in the service on the 15th) I wanted to play in less than two weeks, one month will be just plenty.

Blindsight

I was browsing internet forums for science fiction book recommendations, for what I should keep an eye out. Blindsight by Peter Watts appeared in few lists. One person described it as like watching Alien for the first time. That definitely piqued my interest but after reading the book, I wouldn't compare it to Alien exactly. It does have a first contact with an extraterrestrial life form, and I suppose it can be a bit creepy, but that's about it. Alien is horror in a futuristic setting whereas Blindsight is hard science fiction -- really hard science fiction.

NEON STRUCT

The other indie immersive sim included in Steam's 0451 sale I later bought was NEON STRUCT (as it's stylized), in the cover art also subtitled Die Augen Der Welt ('the eyes of the world'). It's only a 90 MB download, which is kind of impressive but the small size also means you won't be getting much in terms of assets.

Spirits of Xanadu

Few months back Steam had a little sale titled the 0451 Sale: titles of the immersive sim kind i.e. Deus Ex, BioShock, Dishonored, and the like. I already had all the big names since there are so few of them but the sale included a handful of unknown indie titles as well. They looked kind of suspect but I wishlisted a couple of them regardless to maybe buy them later when they're on sale again. Spirits of Xanadu was one of them.

Assassin's Apprentice & Royal Assassin

Robin Hobb is kind of an obvious pen name though I didn't realize it until my sister pointed it out. I pretty much never guess when an author is using a made up name and when not. Based on the name I also assumed Hobb (Margaret Lindholm Ogden) is a man even though that's not at all clear from just Robin.

Risen

Here's Risen, another title I had hidden on Steam -- a whole trio of Risen games in fact. I thought I might do a full franchise run but apparently whatever Deep Silver bundle the second game came in didn't include its DLC, so that will have to wait until a sale happens.