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Lara Croft and the Guardian of Light

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Developer: Crystal Dynamics | Released: 2010 | Genre: Platform, Isometric

Again I’m changing the format a bit since last time. There are now five specific sections, each with a spoiler tag if necessary. Let’s see if this one works.

It’s been a while since I’ve played a game with the kind of puzzles usually found in Tomb Raider games, and The Guardian of Light not only scratched that itch, it also offered challenging enemy fights. Sometimes it felt like an isometric action RPG when the going got tough, but to be fair many of the levels focused mostly on puzzles often based on pushing stone balls or avoiding spear and fire traps. The level design felt very professional and also had a tangible vertical feel to it. It was not uncommon to see several layers of stone bridges below each other, knowing well enough that I would eventually have to go there too.

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I only completed the game in single player mode, and as always I only used the keyboard and mouse controls. No doubt the game really wanted a gamepad. I don’t think I’ve played a game that made me reconsider my choice of controls as much as this one, but I made it through so it can certainly be done without. That being said, the isometric nature of the level design often required using two directional keys pressed down while jumping, shooting or rappelling. Death was common – there were set pieces where I died more than five times in a row – but the autosaving was quite fair and I never had to redo much.

9.03m

Developer: Space Budgie | Released: 2013 | Genre: Adventure, Facile

I just spent the 13 minutes it took completing 9.03m. A blue and slightly blurry tint dominated everything and it was clearly aiming to be cute and artsy. It was also extremely simple. I just had to walk up to black silhouettes of people on a beach, wait for them to fade into a beacon of light on a thing, then rotate the thing to find a small butterfly symbol to click. It then dissolved into a white butterfly that flew away to show the next silhouette. So it was what gamers would normally call a walking simulator. I’m not entirely fond of this description, though. I’ve been using facile adventure instead on GameDeed.

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I liked it though. It had a good pace, nice piano music – one of those games that can give you a silly face stare. And the ending, which I will not reveal here, was very touching. I doubt there’s any point in replaying it though – although I didn’t really try it, it didn’t seem to allow much else than find the butterflies. On one spiral stone I even bumped against invisible walls.

TitleLengthDatesDiff / ChtSaveScore
9.03m
2013 Space Budgie0h 13m 1
2015-09-12
2015-09-12
7
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Singularity

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Developer: Raven Software | Released: 2010 | Genre: FPS

I’ll try to change the format a bit starting with this review. There will be a short summary in the beginning followed by two lists of minutia – one safe to read, and another with the usual spoiler-ridden stuff. Everything will also be in past tense. To be honest, I’ve never been comfortable with writing a “real” review and I’m trying to figure out how to put my own personal touch to these gaming posts.

After arriving in a crashed helicopter on a Russian island, this FPS felt a lot like BioShock with movie projectors, big statues, and the same level of dilapidation and dread. It didn’t last long before this feeling crossfaded into solid Half-Life 2 vibes instead. After completing it, that’s what I think the developers really wanted it to be. There was even the athletic girl saving your ass and the old scientist that you visit in his own laboratory. Add to this time travel, weird weapons with unique powers, a blatant copy of the gravity gun from said game, enemy soldiers mixed with zombie-style monsters, and self-opening shop lockers. In the first half, I often found myself completely out of ammo for my starter gun. But the good thing about the game was the way it added new powers and weapons a good once in a while, thereby often changing the way I played it. In the last half of the game, I had no problems defending myself anymore.