Good evening, squiders!
If you recall, I added in a video game goal for the year, which is supposed to be about five hours a week, but life is uneven and nothing can be relied upon, so how it’s really manifesting is that I’ve been picking three Steam games per month to focus on, with the hopes of beating them.
This is actually working really well, because when my brain is too fried for writing, instead of binging YouTube or playing hours of Minesweeper, I’m turning to these games instead and actually making some progress.
I thought we’d look at the games I’ve played thus far and see how they’re going.
(As a bit of background, I have a lot of Steam games that I’ve never played or have only touched for a short time, because I tend to buy bundles and then get overwhelmed by choice and so play none of them. I’d like to make the list more manageable and, you know, play games that I paid money for. Otherwise it’s a lot like my notebook collection.)
January
I picked three games for January: Paperbark, Assemble with Care, and the Beasts of Maravilla Island. Paperbark is one of my oldest games, from a bundle that was raising money for the Australian wildfires, and Beasts was from a cozy game bundle I bought in 2023.
I got through all three games and then poked some of the older ones that I’d tried and never really gotten very far on, to see what the deal was.
Paperbark
In Paperback you play as a wombat. The graphics in the game frankly overwhelmed my last computer, which is why I’d never gotten very far, and even with my new computer it was still pretty laggy. Basically you wander through the undergrowth (everything is fogged and is revealed as you move) and attempt to find various things. I did end up getting through the whole game story-wise and decided I didn’t care enough about completion to try to fight with the graphics anymore. (5/10)
Beasts of Maravilla Island
Beasts reminds me a lot of Amazon Trail, actually, which was a favorite of mine as a kid. You travel through three different fantastical environments, taking pictures of the wildlife and learning about various species. There is a light storyline which is relatively interesting as well. (8/10)
Assemble with Care
Assemble with Care is a puzzle game where you repair various objects. The play is all in the repair puzzles, which get harder and more complex as the game goes on, though each object is accompanied by a long-ish story portion, and the game is ostensibly about repairing relationships as much as the objects that accompany them. This was one of my newest game, and I enjoyed the puzzles, which were just the right level of challenging. (8/10)
The Perfect Tower II
I don’t remember getting this game (and, indeed, it’s free because it’s early access) but I did poke it to see what it was. (I swear sometimes games just show up in my library. Or maybe I added it randomly because it was free and then forgot about it. I mean, I don’t normally do that, but anything is possible.) It’s a tower defense game with the added mechanic of having a little town you build on the side to help you upgrade things. Fairly fun but also addictive, so I categorized it and put it to the side. (7.5/10)
Evoland
Evoland, again, is one of my oldest games. You play through the evolution of games, so you start with black and white 2D graphics (and no music) and through a series of chests, unlock things like save files, sound, color, 3D graphics, etc. I am ridiculously bad at this game. I find it so, so frustrating, and I’ve never been able to make it terribly far. Nothing has changed. (3/10)
Race the Sun
I think I got this game in my very first Steam bundle, whatever the heck that was. Race the Sun reminds me a lot of some game from the ’80s that I only barely remember. You’re a solar craft, and you need to fly around obstacles and see how far you can go, and you unlock upgrades and so forth as you complete goals. Apparently it was supposed to update daily but has been abandoned by the developers at this point. Relatively fun, no story, bit of a time waster. Upgrades don’t come quickly. (4.5/10)
February
For this month I selected Strange Horticulture, Garden Story, and A Short Hike. I also poked at Townscaper which I bought on a whim because someone in the reviews said it was very relaxing, and I was stressed at the time (and the game was on sale).
I haven’t touched Strange Horticulture yet this month, but I was playing it on and off throughout the end of 2023 and I believe I’m about done with it. You run a horticulture shop and have to identify which plants are which and then use them to fix people’s problems (there’s also a storyline going about some sort of ancient evil in the forest). I really like it, I’m just bad at focusing. Fingers crossed that I get a good ending. I like puzzle games, but only some sorts of puzzles.
A Short Hike
This game may have come out of the cozy game bundle too. A Short Hike involves getting your little bird character to the top of the mountain on an island to get cell phone service (and doing little adventure game things along the way. I traded a turtle a trowel for a big shovel and now I can dig up treasure, woot.). I’ve only played it about 15 minutes thus far because I’m having some control issues.
Townscaper
Not really a game, more like a zen garden. With Townscaper you click various places and it grows pavement or buildings or what have you. It is relaxing. For about 10 minutes.
Garden Story
Garden Story is an adventure game where you play a grape named Concord and attempt to save the Grove from the rot that’s eating it. My first session I wasn’t convinced about the game, but it’s growing on me, har har. Google tells me it takes 20-40 hours to get through the game so we’re going to be at it for a while.
So that’s the year in games thus far! Definitely making some progress, though it feels like a drop in the bucket. I’ve got 77 games uncategorized, and my hope is to beat some and categorize at least a few more (I have a category for games that I’ve tried and given up on for whatever reason–no reason to waste time on games I’m not enjoying, right? I also have a category for online multiplayer games to play with friends and one for games I really like that I can come back to over and over.)
My categories are thus:
- Beat the Game But Would Play Again (currently only Oxenfree, which I HIGHLY recommend, very creepy, and two “find the cats” games)
- Beat the Game! (for games I have beaten and probably will not play again)
- Fun! (the aforementioned category for games I really like)
- Idle Games (idle miners and clickers)
- Online Multiplayer (self-explanatory)
- Tried but Eh (didn’t like or were frustrating for whatever reason)
- Uncategorized
Oh well.
Are you a computer gamer, squider? Do you use Steam for your games? (I have Epic and Amazon too, but I primarily use Steam.) Favorite game you’ve played recently?
