Try it Tuesday: May 24, 2022
I’m a few days behind on getting this round-up put up for last week’s Try it Tuesday… which honestly, is okay. There are VODs. You can catch up if you really want to know. But also, for my own habits, and to just get the word vomit out of my brain, I’m trying to keep to a schedule here. The space I had to think about my feelings on all the games was occupied suddenly by movies and tv shows, and I just haven’t had the time to stop and reflect a ton on the games. That isn’t to say they were bad; they were actually all pretty good. I’ll stop giving excuses and start giving first impressions now.
Dolmen
Dolmen describes itself as a sci-fi Souls-like with cosmic horror elements. It’s honestly kind of an ambitious game for Massive Work Studio, who for all intents and purposes look to be releasing Dolmen as their first big game out into the wild. I appreciate what it’s trying to do as well: deeper customization and crafting systems, an element angle to your weapons and attacks, different styles for different classes that you can freely swap between. Dolmen has a lot going on within it, and it’s a fun little game. The label of Souls-like is sort of creating a tall order for yourself, which is why Dolmen feels like it’s so ambitious, and potentially falls short of an expectation such a label might create. Some of Dolmen early on felt way too difficult – there was a finessed balance that the enemies clearly lacked, and at times I felt like I didn’t have a lot of choice but to run. I think that’s the point to some extent, though – your primary objective in the game is to manage your energy and pick/choose battles. I can’t fault it for that: it did tell me from right out of the gate. There was a polish that Dolmen needed to truly reach the next level, and grab the attention of audiences who are looking for something that measures up to a space Souls-like that titles like The Surge and Hellpoint set the bar for. Perhaps we’ll see some updates to Dolmen down the road. Perhaps not. Either way, I hope that we see more from this developer down the road, because while I don’t know that I’ll ever return to Dolmen, I can definitely see a potential for greatness with more work under their umbrella.
Links to the game:
Eternal Threads
Eternal Threads really surprised me. I love a good mystery/puzzle game, and this one came out of nowhere with its immediate likeness to Return of the Obra Dinn meets Quantum Leap vibe. I was tapped to do two sponsored streams for this, which turned out to be a magnificent surprise because I loved playing this game, chat seemed fully invested in what was going on, and we’re still not done yet! The basic synopsis is this: you’re some kind of technological time/space operative who is sent back to the year 2015 to solve the mystery of a house fire that took place in England. Six people died there, and you must find out why. Not only that, through the use of advanced technology, you can go through the timeline of events that take place over the course of eight days to manipulate decisions, play out scenarios, and figure out how to save all of the people in the house. The game takes a lot of analyzing and critical thinking, and really illustrates the butterfly effect in an interesting way that, again, I simply was not expecting! Various feedback in chat suggested that the characters weren’t that interesting, or likeable, which I could see. I didn’t entirely agree with the sentiment, but going into the game it is something worth noting: if the scenario is something more interesting to you then the characters involved in it, it’s an easily overlooked detail. I can forgive it – I actually found some of the characters interesting enough to genuinely want to see them have a good ending, which is why I intend to actually finish Eternal Threads on stream. The game also has this really interesting spooky vibe to it, although nothing really spooky has happened through most of the playthrough. Honestly, a pretty rare gem of a game if you’re into slow burn narratives. Wait. I didn’t mean to make that pun.
Links to the game:
Songs of Conquest
I’ve been waiting for Songs of Conquest to drop since 2019, when day9 got SO EXCITED to show the trailer on the PC Gaming Show. I shared the excitement – though I didn’t have the nostalgia for Heroes of Might and Magic, I wish I did. I wasn’t privy to these kinds of games when I was younger, but I would have eaten them up and asked for seconds had I known any better. I recently played Hero’s Hour, and loved it, and knew even MORE that I would love Songs of Conquest. I was not wrong either, and it did not disappoint – Songs of Conquest is from Lavapotion and heavily inspired by the Heroes of Might and Magic series, a classic turn-based strategy game where you explore a sprawling map, recruit armies, gather resources, and battle enemies as you discover… uh, I don’t know. Adventure. CONQUEST. The game has a charming art style, and the time I spent in the single player campaign was something I could have done all night. In fact, I need to return to it on stream as soon as humanly possible. Things I did not try, but that are available in Songs of Conquest: multiplayer (online and local), an in-game level editor, custom maps, and because the game recently launched into early access, likely more coming down the pipeline. I think that, because of this, I couldn’t give it a full solid 5/5, but it’s as close as one can get for a game that’s still not complete. I loved my time with Songs of Conquest, but I’m honestly a biased sucker for high fantasy stuff. Easy sell. Lived up to my expectations. Definitely recommend, especially if you’re into HoMM.
Links to the game:
