An Alphabetical Approach to My Steam Games Library Post #9

In the thirteen years since I opened my Steam account, (Thanks, Half-Life 2) I've collected an enormous collection of games through various Steam sales, and bundles for sale through sites like Humble Bundle, Indie Gala, and Fanatical (formerly Bundle Stars).

The thing is, I haven't played almost any of them, but the most 'popular' titles, and I've got no idea what is good, and what is bad. Steam does have a system of user reviews; but I like to experience things for myself, without context, and to suspend judgement from what others have written.

Steam Stats Sourced from Steamdb.info

So here we go, approaching my Steam Collection with alphabetical precision. I don't know what the frequency of these posts will be, but I can tell you that there may end up being a lot of them!

Avenyond 3-1: Lord of Twilight

A title that seems to be build out of RPG Maker, its a classic, SNES-era top down RPG with a reluctant hero, but developed far more recently. One hour in, and the failings of the SNES era RPG quickly come to the fore - poor environment design (lots of maze like corridors, even in towns - to extend gameplay duration) and grinding to ensure that you're strong enough to face all the enemies that you encounter.

Initially, the story seemed original; but it quickly became banal - the writing was ordinary, and an hour in I felt like falling asleep instead of continuing. There's only so much back and forth you can do in the name of questing.

It gets the vibe of "should be a poor-quality fantasy trilogy," but there's not nearly enough exposition; or skill / talent from the writer to even justify this.

I would give it 2/10. Its a full, realized game, just not one that can have the world quality attached to it.

Axel and Pixel

This is a game about the most stereotypical artist you can get. A beret wearing, moustachioed frenchman and his dog journey through surreal landscapes solving puzzles, painting the world, and making it their own.

It is essentially a hidden object game drawn by hand, and with a few quick time action sequences. The keyboard and mouse controls leave very little to be desired.

As an adult gamer, it doesn't hold my interest, or give me any reason to revisit its world in the future. It is an ordinary game and not worth any more of your time.

2/10

Bad Rats

We're finally up to the B's! Bad Rats is a trollish game. It is a physics based puzzle game where the objective is to crush cats, explode, or otherwise maim them as you play one of the titular "Bad Rats". This game has a history of being gifted to people as a joke, according to the Steam reviews - and I have no idea how I obtained the title.

Approximately ten minues was all that I needed with this game. It is the Incredible Machine, but with rats. Also, it isn't incredible. It is a marvel that this game ended up in my Steam library; and the fact that it is still available today speaks volumes of the meme-ishness that this game commands.

Don't buy it. Don't play it. Don't even look at it. Less than zero out of ten.

Next, there's a game of subtance and consequence - and it will be something that I'll be streaming too: The glorious Baldur's Gate II: Shadows of Amn: Enhanced Edition.

Stay tuned for that!