What I’m Playing Vol. 12

The Cafe Archive
I have played many games in “The Lost Months” (which is what I call the period of time where I never posted, heh). I haven’t felt very strongly about most of them, particularly the new stuff that’s come out this year. I’ve liked a lot of what I’ve played, but it feels like this has been a sort of a lull first half of 2022.

What that means is that it’s backlog season. In reflection of that, here’s what I’ve been playing lately.

Arkham Knight

I bounced off this game like 4 times, and it took getting it on my PC to finally get into it for real. This is because I’m playing it at 90FPS. I’ve come to realize that, whilst I don’t care about graphics, I am a slut for high frame rates, so I can go back to old games when they run like butter.

With the gift of hindsight and distance, I can say pretty confidently that the Batmobile isn’t that bad. It isn’t! The Batmobile is perfectly fine. I suppose if you’re a perfectionist, you’ll find yourself sitting in it more than you’d like. But if you aren’t, you’ll find the pacing pretty strong, with your Man of the Bat persuasion bouncing between car chases, tank fights, and the usual investigations and mook beatdowns. I also think it’s cool because it completes the fantasy of playing as the Caped Crusader. It’s fine! The criticisms were overblown, as is frequently the case with Gamers.

That said, I am also a free soul with a full-time job, so I don’t feel the need to solve every Riddler challenge. That puts the game at a comfy 20 hours, so I’ll be down with it within the week.

Little Noah: Scion of Paradise

This was a surprise release that dropped after a Nintendo Direct in June that has ended up being one of my favorite releases in 2022. It’s a game built out of repurposed assets from some gacha that Cygames made a while back. I don’t know if that was any good, but this game certainly is.

Little Noah is a side-scrolling platformer rougelite. Normally that set of words would make my eyes roll into the back of my head, but the cute art by Akihiko Yoshida and the $15 price point convinced me to grab it, and I’m glad I did. Little Noah is esquisitely made. It’s polished to a fine sheen, with some interesting mechanics that help set it apart from other rougelites. Noah attacks using creatures that she can slot into her combos. Each monster has a different attack animation, element, and damage type. There are hundreds, if not thousands of combos that you can create with these little minions, which is a huge chunk of where the appeal comes from.

That’s just the tip of the iceberg, but I won’t get into it in detail. What I’ll say is that it’s a great game, and you should try it. It’s kinda short, at least in normal mode, but I enjoyed every second of it.

Grim Dawn

I’ve been on a dungeon crawler kick lately, which I usually play when I’m severely depressed, lol. It’s easy to feel sedated by the sense of progression when number go up. But I didn’t want to play anything by Blizzard because screw them, so I grabbed Grim Dawn to compliment the more simplistic Minecraft Dungeons, which I’ve been playing with homies.

Grim Dawn is very similar to Diablo. It’s edgy, has lots of text to describe items, and enemies explode into a shower of loot, which checks every box I’m looking for. One thing that sets it apart is the dual-class mechanic. You can pick any two classes and take their skills and passives. I’m sure there are some godlike, broken builds out there, but I’ve been having enough fun as an Assassin-type, who can also hurl fire grenades at the various undead hordes. It’s like $5 on Steam right now, and I’ve definitely gotten my money’s worth, so check it out.

Gunfire Reborn

This game came out of nowhere for me. It’s another roguelike, but I’d describe it as “what would happen if Rogue Legacy had a baby with Redwall and Borderlands.” It looks like a mobile game, and just got a mobile port, but don’t let the looks deceive you — this game is sick as hell. The gunplay is incredibly satisfying, the builds you can create during runs are all pretty cool, and the aesthetic is actually pretty pleasant, with bright colors and some unique guns — one is a lizard that you squeeze to shoot out grenades.

It’s coming to Gamepass later this year when it drops on consoles, so I’ll be harassing all the homies to get it when it does, because it’s multiplayer too! One of my top games this year.

That’s all from me. What have you been playing? Let me know @mintmakesthings!