Super Adventures with the Xbox Game Pass, Part 4

This week on Super Adventures, I hope you don't mind that I'm still writing about all these games I played with my month of Xbox Game Pass Ultimate last November, because I'm on the last part now and I'm not quitting until it's done.

Once again I should point out that I only played most of these games for an hour or so, long enough for me to get distracted by something else and turn them off, but not long enough for me to accurate assess the majority of their content or the intricacies of their gameplay. I'll also point out that these aren't just Xbox games! I played most of them on PC, and a lot of them can be played on lots of systems.

You can find part 1 here: Part 1.
Part 2 is here: Part 2.
Part 3 is here: Part 3.

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Bad North: Jotunn Edition

Developer: Plausible Concept | Release Date: 2018 | Played on: Windows I keep getting this game mixed up with Jøtun: Valhalla Edition for some reason. This one's like the tiniest version of a Total War game, mixed with a roguelite like FTL. You've got up to four units of soldiers (each with their own tiny flag) and they've got to defend their tiny island from incoming waves of tiny boats. Each unit has one of three kinds of weapons: bow, sword and pike, and you've got to make sure you move the right unit to the right square on the island to take on whatever's being shipped over. Like if they've got a boat full of bows, then sending arrow-resistant sword-wielders over to meet them will take the heat off your own archers, who can then pick them off from the top of a cliff while they're distracted. The tricky part is spotting what type of soldier is sailing in through the fog as you have to look for the weapons they're holding... and they're tiny. Once you're done with an island you get a few coins for each surviving building and then you get to pick your next island on a very FTL map (complete with an encroaching wave of disaster you need to stay ahead of). Coins can be spent on upgrading each unit's class and skill, but you're not overburdened with an abundance of choice. Overall I wasn't frustrated with the game, it's been alright so far (if a bit simple), but I wasn't keen to stick with it either. Partly because I was bored, partly because I knew it was only a matter of time before I slipped up and lost a unit, and my failures would snowball from there. I've never been keen on losing a game and starting again from the beginning. So what's the other Jotun game about then? The one that isn't on Game Pass. Jøtun: Valhalla Edition (PC) Oh it's a hack and slash game where you explore levels and slay massive cartoon bosses for Viking reasons. Nice sound and visuals, and the gameplay seems solid too. It's not really my thing but I can see this being of interest to people.

Everspace

Developer: Rockfish | Release Date: 2016 | Played on: Xbox One You might be looking at this screenshot thinking 'well that's obviously a space shooter' and you'd be right, but Everspace is also a roguelite! So it's somewhere between Freelancer and FTL I guess. I was continually frustrated with having to switch between my shield-depleting gun and my hull-destroying gun every time I took part in a dogfight, but I started to find the fun in jumping to the next sector, searching for swag to enhance my ship and space pirates to shoot, and hopefully scavenging enough fuel to jump to the next sector and do it all over again. It doesn't seem like you ever visit planets and take on jobs, but there's a bit of a story going on and your fighter's computer is very chatty, in a snooty patronising butler kind of way. It's a pretty nice looking ship as well. The rest of the content is procedurally generated so you're technically not replaying the same bit every time you get blown up and start again, plus you're building up persistent upgrades for your fighter over time, but it sure felt like I'd just lost all my progress and wasted all my time when it happened. I just don't have the right mindset for roguelites I guess. Well, okay Rogue Legacy was cool, but aside from that they don't work for me.

Full Metal Furies

Developer: Cellar Door | Release Date: 2018 | Played on: Windows Full Metal Furies is a co-op top down shooty brawler, with a story and some hidden puzzle elements. Too hidden apparently, as a lot of players had no idea the puzzles were meant to be such a big part of it and pretty much ignored them. To be honest I was mostly interested in this because it's by the Rogue Legacy people; I figured if they could trick me into liking a roguelite they could trick me into liking whatever this is as well. I wanted to see what their version of a puzzle brawler looked like, and it turns out it looks a bit scruffy. It has a lot of mismatched art styles, with pixel characters walking around painted backgrounds. It kinds of works though I think, visually I mean. The gameplay probably works well too, if you're into this kind of game, and you're playing it co-op. In single player I had to keep switching between heroes all the time to smash colour-coded shields, and it would've been nice to have someone around to draw some of the fire. Not that I was struggling to play it solo, I was actually making steady progress: winning levels, unlocking upgrades, finding mysterious clues on stone tablets etc. Then I turned it off to do something else. Maybe it just wasn't what I was in the mood for.

Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor

Developer: Monolith | Release Date: 2014 | Played on: Windows From the makers of Blood, SHOGO, No One Lives Forever, F.E.A.R. and Condemned: a game with pretty much no first person shooting in it. In fact if I'd been told this was by the makers of Assassin's Creed or Batman: Arkham Asylum I would've believed it, as there's a lot of sneaking around, climbing buildings, beating up crowds and following quest markers to all the icons scattered around the open world map. Actually there's two separate regions in this, but they're tiny enough to run across on foot and I got very familiar with the fortresses the uruks like to lurk inside. Look at all those little icons all over the place. The white icons are challenges, the red icons are power struggle missions and the gold icons... aren't there in this shot, but they're the story missions. You run over to the icon, activate the glowy circle to start the mission, and then you're either following some dude around Mordor, listening to them go on and on about whatever before getting a chance to actually do something (story mission) or you're ambushing some uruk-hai captain with the intent to remove him from the uruk hierarchy. The uruk captains are the game's unique selling point, as they're busy doing their own thing, recruiting followers, fighting rivals etc, and as they succeed they'll grow in power and rank, while new captains move in to replace the fallen. These power struggles all happens over time, and time happens when you die, so if you want to see them making moves you have to lose occasionally. Or you could just move time forward at one of your fast-travel towers I suppose, but that's not going to get you a nemesis! I'd heard that the game's a bit too easy for the uruk captain system to really work, so I took someone's advice and put my cash into everything except health upgrades. I'm not sure if it changed much to be honest, I was still dominating most of the fights I started. But there were a few captains out there (mostly the ones with giant iron shields) that utterly wrecked me without fail, rejecting every move I tried to make against them like an implacable wall of 'nope'. Though the real problem was all their bloody friends. The fighting system is basically Arkham Asylum, except with a sword, so you're surrounded by crowds of enemies attacking you from all angles. The trick is to keep moving from enemy to enemy without breaking your flow so you build up a combo, hitting the counter button when the icon appears so that they don't hit you back. String enough hits together and your sword starts glowing, allowing you to pull off special moves like executions. So not exactly like Arkham Asylum. Different enemies require different approaches, so you might have to flip over their head and stun them from behind for example, but you never have to worry about aiming or stamina or anything else that'd make fighting awkward. It was a great battle system in Batman and it's great here. The trouble I was having is that the Arkham games generally keep the fighting levels and the stealthy levels separate, while this lets you do both at once. Nothing wrong with that, except it means that the ranged enemies get to join in while you're punching. There's no health potions in this (you get health by running off and collecting a herb), so you generally stay alive by not being hit, but there's no button to block and counter an arrow flying in from off-screen! Archers and spearthrowers kept sniping me all the time while I was hitting people and it was bloody annoying, especially as it's typically what got me killed. I suppose the lesson here is 'sneak around and take the archers out first'. Hang from ledges and lure them over, or stick an arrow into them yourself from across the fortress (there's a move you can get later that lets you teleport over to whoever you shot, which is bloody handy for getting around sneakily). Or you can just ride a monster up to the top of their tower and eat them, though that tends to get noticed, and all your diligent prep work can be for nothing if they set the alarm off and call in reinforcements. Anyway, the game's pretty good, with decent characters, surprisingly funny uruk dialogue, great gameplay and a nice toybox of special skills to collect. Good enough for me to push though all the uruk captains giving me trouble and actually finish the thing.

Superhot

Developer: Superhot Team | Release Date: 2016 | Played on: Xbox One Superhot is a first person shooter where time only moves when you do. Well, okay it moves a little bit even if you're just standing there, but really it's the closest thing to a turn-based FPS we've got. The other gimmick is that guns only have three shots and can't be reloaded, but they can be knocked out of other people's hands and caught in mid-air, so you can spin around with someone else's pistol and shoot their mate with it. Probably best to step to the side while you're doing it though, as there always seems to be one of them behind you and a bullet already coming your way. I'd played the prototype version of this a while back, but this was my first time playing the actual game, and... it grew on me. Genius concept, decent implementation, nice looking style, and I wish those assholes would stop literally teleporting in behind me. It's not that much of an issue as the stages are so tiny you can pretty much memorise where they all teleport from, but it's still annoying to pull off a flashy set of kills and then get shot in the back by someone who wasn't there. That's not how you get an awesome replay after the level. The stark colour palette and basic visuals could've been a negative but it actually solves a problem I have a lot in shooters, which is that I can't see the bloody enemies against the background. It gets even worse if there's allies around because I can't tell them apart. No allies in Superhot by the way, just people that need shooting. Or punching. Or a sword thrown at them. Though you do stop for a bit of a chat sometimes... The game's so short that I made it a decent way through in not much time at all, but you can spend ages replaying levels to get secrets or win all the bonus modes and I probably would've done if I didn't have a list of other things that needed to get played in a hurry. It is, I believe, a pretty good game. Though I still haven't really forgiven it for not letting me remap my keys properly on PC.

Unavowed

Developer: Wadjet Eye | Release Date: 2018 | Played on: Windows Unavowed is a 2D point and click adventure that feels like it could've be released somewhere between Broken Sword and Grim Fandango (in a good way). It's definitely post-verbs, as it only uses the one mouse button and you've got no say in what it'll do when you click on stuff. To be honest I got frustrated at not being able to 'look at' things. I mean it automatically gives you a line of description text for whatever you point the cursor at, you're not working in the dark, but it felt weird that I couldn't also click to get the character to share their observations. Though I could click to examine a tacky hula dancer at least! The game's set in the same universe as Wadjet Eye's long running Blackwell series and I wish I'd played one recently so I could compare the gameplay. Though one big difference I noticed is that it's gone a bit RPG, giving you choices to make during the story, and letting you pick you name, sex and what origin prologue you want to play through. You can even play as a demon! Well, actually no you can't. Sorry. The story's basically about the protagonist trying to figure out what he or she did during a wild night of heavy drinking, and by 'night' I mean 'year' and by 'drinking' I mean 'demonic possession'. But what the game's really about is the rain effects. It felt like everywhere I went there were raindrops and puddles with rippling reflections, and it's all very pretty. You also get to pick your own partners to bring out with you, each with their own useful ability, and they'll even chat between themselves. Seems like it could get awkward to have to continually go back to swap them out when you're stuck and trying everything on everything, but you can always ask them for advice before it gets to that point. Weirdly, the thing that kept tripping me up was how empty the rooms were and how I'd have to go pixel hunting to find something to do there. I didn't help that sometimes what I had to do was walk away, as going somewhere else would trigger a vision with the next clue. Tonally the game's more like a semi-jokey TV series like The X-Files or Supernatural than a cartoon like Monkey Island, and it gets pretty dark at times. Lots of corpses in this one. It seems to be running on LucasArts rules though, where you can't get stuck or dead. Then again what adventure game doesn't these days? (Not complaining.) It's alright this one I reckon. Very alright. In fact I think the biggest problem I have with the game is I don't have it anymore, so I can't see where the story's going. I was getting into it!

Void Bastards

Developer: Blue Manchu | Release Date: 2019 | Played on: Xbox One The premise of Void Bastards is that there's a prison ship stranded in the Sargasso nebula among a lot of other derelicts and the computer would like you, the prisoner he's just rehydrated and stuck in a shuttle, to go out and get the parts needed to get things moving again. And when you inevitably die you get to play as the next prisoner, and so on. It's a first person roguelite! Well, kind of, you don't actually lose your gear on your next run. I'm a fan of spaceships and first person shooters, so combining the two is a concept I can get behind. Plus it doesn't hurt that the game looks like a 2000 AD comic outside of gameplay, with humour to match (in fact the enemies still look like a comic inside of gameplay, as they seem to be 2D sprites). Basically the game had won me over before I'd even started, and I was just looking for more reasons to like it. What I found instead was frustration. One of the first things the game does is kill your prisoner off in a hopeless situation to make it clear that it's going to be a thing that happens. A lot. You're going to fail, your backpack's going to get up and fly your shuttle back with your scavenged materials and crafted weapons (completing the necessary paperwork along the way), and the next prisoner is going to start again with a brand new branching tree of routes featuring a fresh selection of procedurally generated derelicts. Over and over again, as you keep banging your head against the game until either the gameplay begins to click or fortune takes pity on you. But even knowing that death was just part of the process I still quit after failing my first proper run, because I'd gotten completely demoralised with it. Partly because I'd ran out of ammo after just two ships and couldn't do anything after that but run around from enemies until they finally caught me. Stealth wasn't an option because the prisoners get random traits and mine was 'alerts enemies by with loud coughs'. People say this is a great game and I'm willing to believe them. Maybe I'd even like myself it if I gave it enough time and collected a few more weapons than just the pistol. But I don't like it now.

CONCLUSION

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Okay, all that's left for me to do now is to come up with my top three of this last batch of games. I'm not keen on the roguelites, which knocks three games out of the running right away, and I wasn't that keen on Full Metal Furies either, so that means the final list is:

1. Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor
2. Unavowed
3. Superhot

Not a huge surprise that I'm giving the top slot to the AAA game I beat (even though it's still weird to me that 'earth' isn't capitalised). Second place goes to Unavowed, which has definitely earned my interest, even if it hasn't asked me to do a whole lot of adventure gaming so far. And third place goes to Superhot, which didn't click with me as much as I hoped it would, but definitely has its moments.

But this is my entirely subjective opinion based on a tiny amount of playtime. All seven games are in the 75-85ish range on Metacritic and have gotten 'Very Positive' or better on Steam (with Unavowed being the highest and Bad North being at the bottom), so it seems plausible that any of them could be worth your time.

In fact I've got no regrets about playing anything I downloaded from my Game Pass subscription. Spending that £1 to try it out actually worked out pretty well for me in the end, even though it made me download a huge update for Windows first and locked me out of the game folders on my own damn hard drive. But I'm trying to minimise the amount of money automatically leaking out of my bank account, so I was happy to take the cheap month and then walk away.

I don't need the distraction anyway, not when I've got all these other games that need playing.

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If you want me to do another page full of mini non-reviews like this at some point in the future let me know in the comments! I can always find reason to play a bunch of games at once, and there's no danger of these articles ever replacing my regular posts. Like, I could go through a PlayStation demo disc or an Amiga, uh... demo disk. I dunno, I need to give it some thought.

While I'm doing that, you could be giving some thought to what the next game might be. Though don't take too long, because I have a feeling it's going to be guessed quickly this time.