Alien: Isolation
Imagine being stranded nearly alone on a space station unable to contact anyone for help, a station that is being run by psychotic androids and haunted by the Xenomorph from Alien, the first movie.
Set between the first and second movies, you play as Ellen Ripley's daughter, Amanda, as she travels to Sevastopol, a space station that claims to have the "black box" from the USS Nostromo, Ripley's ship in the movie.
When you get to Sevastopol, something is wrong. As you cross to the station from your ship, you're separated from your team... and the isolation bit begins.
This is the first game I ever wanted to play or actually played... by myself. I had watched my guy friends play games on their Playstations and PCs but, until my husband installed this on my Alienware laptop, I had never really played any of the more modern videogames. My excuse was always that I didn't know how to play or that I just wanted to watch... then my husband pointed out that I had purchased a gaming laptop to be my main computer for the next fews years.
So I played it on the easiest difficulty.
Then I played it on the normal difficulty.
Finally I played it on the hard difficulty -- and glanced at my husband's computer as he played it on the nighhtmare difficulty.
Yes, I ended up playing it on nightmare.
The game itself is designed from a first-person shooter POV but typically, you'll find that being quiet is more of your friend than anything else. And you'll need that quiet.
As you learn about how the survivors live (and figure out how you're going to find the rest of your team), the xenomorph makes its appearance.
While the game has weapons and devices, nothing can kill the Alien whose stomping around the station only rivals the sound of the slamming of the locker doors that you'll hide in to get away from him.
All in all, even with my limited amount of gaming, this is one of the best video games ever made. Completely worth your time and money -- and don't forget to buy the DLC!
Pathologic Classic HD
I don’t quite remember when or where I found Pathologic, but I did — and it has never left me since.
Pathologic isn’t just a game — it’s an experience.
You play the game in three different roles: the Bachelor (a big city doctor), the Haruspex (defined as: a religious official in Rome who interpreted omens by inspecting the entrails of sacrificial animals), and the Changeling who’s part in this game remains unknown until you play the first two characters.
You have 12 days as each of these characters to stop the plague that is infecting the city. Well, ‘city’ might be a bit too much to call this place. It’s a Russian town on the edge of the steppe with its own culture, heritage and traditions, many of which you’ll discover through playing the game.
Sounds easy, right? Don’t let the game fool you. There is a great deal more at work here than you know.
This game has been a cult classic since it was released in Russian by Ice Pick Lodge. So much so that fans of the game requested the English translations to be clearer and thus this version of Pathologic was born.
This is one of those experiences that, when you get to the end, you won’t necessarily believe your eyes.
Either last year (or the year before, I don’t remember), a Kickstarter raised money for a new, updated version of the game. If you look for it on Steam, they’re calling it Pathologic 2 which is sure to confuse anyone who comes across it. An alpha version of the game was given to backers and, if the actual game will look and play like this (optimized, of course), it will be completely worth the wait.
For now… we play the alpha (no longer available online) and wait.
The Secret World
Illuminati + Templars + Dragon + Everything Else = The Secret World.
There were zombies. There were Draug. There was the Ur-Draug. There were succubi and incubi. There were mummies. There were giant scorpions. There were trains to catch and cultists to kill. There were vampires dressed for the daylight and werewolves and even Dracula himself.
Ahd then there was filth. With the filth came John with the honeysuckle voice and the black gravel tones underneath it.
John's my favorite character.
Ever had one of those life-defining moments through a videogame?
This was mine. I don’t remember the day I joined Agnitio as a cabal member, but it was definitely a defining moment in my life. I met a group of people who accepted me for who I was, just me for me, and I loved every second of it.
Even though we were all waiting for the second episode.
Now TSW the game doesn’t exist (well, except for those who still have it on their computer) now, except in a ‘free-to-play’ version called Secret World Legends. You can still find me there occasionally, looking for the next cosmetic item to pop up so I can get two of them.
SWL still has mostly the same story as TSW had, the DLCs fitting into the main story track. But it’s not the same. I could give you a list of people who’ve left since the switchover and several of them I miss a lot. A few have become good friends, but we play different games.
To be frank, there were a few good changes. The changes from tab targeting (standard MMO targeting) to reticle targeting (Standard ‘action’ RPG) could be seen both ways. However, leveling your gear is now a huge grind — but you can buy your way from green to red gear if you have enough money and purchase enough caches to get distillates that give your gear XP so it will level. You can receive loot from only so many dungeon bosses a day (without buying more keys) and that’s a LOT different. A lot of what they’ve done feels like a cash-grab.
As I said, the story remains the same, but a lot of the people have changed. Funcom made the decision to allow a transfer of cosmetics only from TSW to SWL — not gear, or your level, or things you had worked hard for. I know people who played the game for 5 years, even paid for Grandmaster status and never have to pay for any upgrades or whatever, who lost their characters and had to start from scratch. And yes, almost eight months later, they’re still somewhat sore about it.
Play the game though. Subscribe and give Funcom some money for a while. They’re supposed to release the second episode/season/whatever soon. And I think if they don’t, they’re going to lose what loyal patrons they do have.
Tomorrow
I will post the second half of my list!