Battling the Backlog 2024 - July
Another month attempting to battle the backlog. Did I complete a good number of my backlog in July 2024 or was I too busy with more important day to day issues?
Games Mentioned:
- The Tartarus Key
- Darksiders II
- Water Margin: A Tale of Clouds and Wind
- Darksiders: Genesis
- Injustice: Gods Among Us
- A Little Golf Journey
- Injustice 2
- Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Shredder's Revenge
- Tomb Raider Level Editor: Baalul's Hollow
- The Darkside Detective: A Fumble in the Dark
- Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night
- Republique
Completed on 2nd July
This was a strange one - I kind of liked it but I kind of despised it at the same time.
It has some interesting PS1 style graphics.
The game is very puzzle heavy and does not have any enemies.
There are a number of Escape Room type puzzles and at first I really enjoyed them but after time the puzzles felt rather obtuse and I wanted to just know what happened in the story rather than keep solving puzzles.
There is some odd dialogue at times from the characters as well.
6/10
Completed on 7th July
Played on PS5 via PS4 Backwards Compatibility
I was a big fan of Darksiders 1 and 2 when they came out and with the whole financial difficulties of THQ I thought we would never see another sequel from the original team. Around a decade later the third game in franchise about the four horsemen was released. When I read it was to take inspiration from the Souls like genre I was massively disappointed and I never bought the sequel on release.
I have nothing against Dark Souls type of games but I am not really a fan of them and I hoped that Darksiders 3 would be more of a hack en slash like the previous games. Recently, I saw that an online retailer was selling new copies of the game for around £4.00 so I thought I might as well try and see how I fair at the game for that low price.
Darksiders III Trailer
Thankfully, for me, the Dark Souls aspect could be dialled back a little and their was an option to make the combat be more hack en slash like the original games although the boss battles did seem to retain the Dark Souls inspiration even with the option selected.
The further and further I progressed into the game the more I felt I was enjoying my time with Darksiders III and I regret not giving the game a chance when it first came out. In many ways the game felt like a return to the original Darksiders formula which very heavily inspired by the Legend of Zelda series.
Overall the game had elements of Zelda, light Metroidvania with a touch of Dark Souls and later on in the game when I could switch between forms to navigate the environments and had I little bit of flashbacks to the classic PlayStation 2 adventure Primal.
8.5/10
Highlighted Track: The Submerged Realm
Completed on 10th July
Water Margin: A Tale of Clouds and Wind
Played on PC
This game was included in the Evercade Piko Interactive Collection 1 and most of the other games included did not seem that interesting. So instead of spending £17.99 on essentially one game I wanted to play (which was Water Margin) I bought the GOG version and the summer sale was happening so I only spend £2 on the DRM free digital version.
Note: I do not actually own an Evercade Console yet, but I plan to pre order the newest version of the console which is bundled with the first three classic Tomb Raider games. I also bought the first Duke Nukem collection that had the remastered versions of the first and second Duke Nukem games that were previously released as DOS games on the PC - at the time of writing I believe the Evercade versions are the only way to play the Duke remastered games.
I believe Water Margin was released on the Megadrive console as an unlicensed title and was only sold in Taiwan. Piko ended up owning the game and created a more legal version of the game that is now on different platforms like Steam, GOG and the Evercade console.
It was a fine scrolling beat em up but not anything as quality as Streets of Rage/Final Fight or Golden Axe. I have played a number of side scrolling beat em ups on Antstream (a streaming service where you can play some retro games for free with the option of a subscription) and Water Margin was better than most of the side scrolling beat em ups that are currently on Antstream.
The game takes around 1 hour and 30 minutes.
6/10
Completed on 12th July
Played on PS5 via PS4 Backwards Compatibility
Darksiders Genesis is both a slight disappointment in the Darksiders series and a fun game at the same time.
It is slightly disappointing because it is not a third person game like the previous three entries but it takes an isometric view and feels like those spin off Tomb Raider games: Lara Croft The Guardian of Light and The Temple of Osiris.
Darksiders Genesis does not continue the story of the previous games, but is instead a prequel spin off title. Similar to Darksiders III I found the longer I progressed the more I started to enjoy it. Like the previous Darksiders titles you gain skills that can be used to solve environmental puzzles, but this time in an isometric view. Two of the Horsemen are playable - Fury from Darksiders III and Strife who has never yet had his own Darksiders game.
The Darksiders series is about the four Horsemen (or the developers versions) and all but one have had their own game. Darksiders 1 stared War, Darksides II stared Death, Darksiders III stared Fury and the final horseman Strife makes his debut in Darksiders Genesis.
What I like about the Darksiders first three games is you control one of the Horsemen for each game and the story events parallel each other so each game is taking place at the same time but you get to see the different perspectives of each Horsemen.
It is good that Darksiders Genesis finally lets us play as the fourth Horseman but it would be nice have another third person game where Strife is the main character and we can see his perspective of the story that has played out in the three previous Darksiders titles.
7/10
Highlighted Track: Main Theme
Completed on 14th July
Injustice: Gods Among Us - Ultimate Edition
Played on PS5 via PS4 Backwards Compatibility
I am not exactly a huge fan of the fighting genre and I am not a huge fan of comic books. So I decided to purchase a game (for as high as £6.00) that combined both the fighting genre and comic book characters.
The most of my knowledge about comic book heroes and villains comes from the odd superhero movie or game I have consumed in the past.
Announcement Trailer
In the last few years I have tried and enjoyed some beat em up fighting games and since Mortal Kombat started introducing story modes I have become more interested in playing the odd fighter. I played Mortal Kombat vs DC in the past and enjoyed it, so I thought I would give Injustice a chance - after all it is from the same developers of the Mortal Kombat series.
The story mode was my main reasoning for wanting to try Injustice and it was an interesting experience. I probably spend 2 hours and 30 minutes with the story mode and it was certainly over the top stuff. I like the aspect of alternate realties with villain and superheroes playing reverse roles.
Overall it was a fun over the top Beat Em Up, but to me not quite as fun as others in the genre such as Dead or Alive or Tekken - remember, I am not a huge fan of the genre so other more skilled fighters may love this game a lot more than I do. Still, it does have some many great moments that make me want to revisit every so often for a couple rounds of superhero battling.
7/10
Retired on 20th July
This trailer describes A Little Golf Journey as a cosy golfing physics puzzler.
Completed on 20th July
Story Trailer
Completed on 24th July
Completed on 25th July
Retired on 26th July
The Darkside Detective: A Fumble in the Dark
Played on PS5
Note: I played the sequel on the Super Rare published physical version which also comes with the first game (which I have previously completed on the Nintendo Switch).
Well, that was a disappointment after I enjoyed the first game a few years ago. I am not a huge Point and Click fan but I have played a few throughout the years (e.g. Broken Sword, Monkey Island etc).
The sequel just seems to be so tedious compared to the first game and I wanted to continue my time in the world of Twin Lakes, but it just feels like it lacks the charm of the first game.
Also the game has some odd dialogue shoe horned in (because current day weird Twitter stuff = the real world).
Retired on 27th July
Retired on 28th July
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