Category: Legacy

Ok, it’s been a while. Yes, this game doesn’t strictly belong here because it’s not on Steam. It was a very interesting experience though, so I wanted to say something about it.

The Unfinished Swan starts in a featureless white space, in which you have one ability: throwing a ball of black paint. It is the first, and possibly the most striking, of several different “throw stuff to explore your environment” mechanics that the game uses, and it’s every bit as interesting as it sounds.  I would give this game a strong recommendation to anyone who appreciates a different sort of exploration, a striking visual aesthetic, or a beautiful classical/synth soundtrack.  My only real criticism would be a fairly small length:price ratio.  Fifteen dollars isn’t very expensive, but then 2-3 hours isn’t very long.  Your mileage may vary.

As an aside, I first heard about this game through a “Games you might not have tried” segment on Extra Credits.  If you’re interested in the gaming industry and would like a developer/designer perspective, I suggest checking them out.

Absolutely fantastic, from start to finish.  The visuals and atmosphere breathtaking, I found myself just standing around at the beginning listening to Will The Circle Be Unbroken for a while before moving on.

I have to say though, aside from being massive racists (not entirely unexpected in 1912) I found the people of Columbia fairly likable, and felt pretty bad about how probably most all of them had their lives ruined at some point in this game.*

Elizabeth not being a massive liability was a nice change from other games that pair you with an AI companion that you are ostensibly protecting.  If anything having her around makes things substantially easier, what with all the ammo, health, and salts she keeps finding.

My only complaint is the same tried and true complaint for any excellent game.  I just wish there was more.

*Spoiler-ish: Though given how the game ended, I suppose the argument could be made that none of them were ever there in the first place.

It is done, Alduin is defeated and Tamriel is safe.  Ish.  Sort of.  If you don’t worry about all the side quests and DLC I didn’t do.

It was fun, I enjoyed it.  With a few mods installed the game looked fantastic.  I don’t really have a lot to say about Skyrim that hasn’t already been said though, so I’ll leave it at that.

Also, I finished Bulletstorm.  Turns out when I last played it I had stopped about 30 minutes from the end.  So there’s that.

…on Normal, non-ironman. Which hardly counts, but I’m still posting it here and striking it from the list!

I look forward to the crushing difficulty of the higher levels on ironman.  I can’t stress enough how good this game is if you’re a fan of turn-based tactical games.

Next game will be something older, in the interest of actually making progress, I promise!