Taking to the Sky

I've decided to give Geralt (and myself--all that clicking is making my wrist sore) a rest for awhile and started a new adventure.  Honestly, I'm still not completely sure that I made a great choice on this or not, but what's done is done--that's right, I'm playing the highly controversial No Man's Sky.  It was recently featured in the "midweek madness" sale on Steam for 50% off and sat atop the top sellers chart throughout the sale.  There seems to be a new wave of excitement about the added multiplayer functionality in the recent "Next" update--now, it's possible to explore the stars with friends!

No Man's Sky is probably best known for being one of the most notorious cases of overhype.  It was a game that featured so many amazing sounding features and it was marketed as being groundbreaking.  As it turned out, many of the features that were lauded pre-launch were missing, and people were understandably very upset.  The result was that the game got lambasted by reviewers on Steam and in professional reviews (the Steam reviews still fall in the "mostly negative" range due to the high volume of extremely negative reviews when NMS was originally released in 2016).  Personally, I had been keeping an eye on NMS but didn't fall for the hype train and could feel some sense of satisfaction that I hadn't laid down $60 on an impulsive pre-order.

Fast forward to two years later and things seem to finally be turning around for NMS.  It seems like Hello Games is serious about adding content and making efforts toward making NMS into the game that was being pitched in their original marketing campaigns.  There have been updates to add in features like base building, freighter management, and now, multiplayer.  With the most recent update, the Steam reviews have been erring toward the "very positive" rather than the "very negative" from the early days.  With this in mind, I decided that I would give one of the most hated games out there a try.

At the core of NMS is the idea of exploring a vast universe--travelling from galaxy to galaxy and mapping uncharted planets.  I've somewhat been doing that, but there's also a sort of space mystery story tucked away in there too.  When you start a new game, you find yourself plopped down on a random planet.  My random planet happened to be dangerously freezing and as I ran around trying to complete the tutorial and learn the basics of surviving in space, I got to experience my first death...from freezing.  Ugh...fortunately, when you die you can return to the place of your death and recover your lost inventory.  The tutorial is very basic and runs you through how to access the various menus and inventories and control schemes.  The opening set of missions help you craft items that are vital to your survival such as a scanner to analyze flora and fauna and help you locate points of interest on the surface of a planet.  Eventually you get to the point where you find the remains of your wrecked ship and set out to repair it.  Once the repairs have been made, it's off to space!  Piloting your ship takes a bit of getting used to, but it's fairly easy once you figure it out.

Once you've taken to space, the main storyline encourages you to find a suitable place to build your home base.  I decided to explore my home system and eventually found a paradise type planet--it has a temperate climate--so no dying to extreme exposure, like on the ice planet--and certain lifeforms produce a type of giant pearl that is a valuable trade commodity.  I landed my ship in a reasonably flat area and set down the groundwork for my base, which is literally a one-room hut with various machinery scattered about.  It's very unimpressive, but it offers shelter from the periodic superheated rain that occasionally falls.

Nighttime at Solan Base--featuring my one-room hut.

After my base was established, the game encouraged me to go back to space and locate a space station where I could trade and interact with some of the aliens who occupy my home system.  Each system is home to a different race of aliens--my home system is populated by the strange, lizard/bird hybrid Gek.  One interesting part of interacting with aliens is that you do not know their language.  There's no handy-dandy autotranslate, so some aliens absolutely can't or won't communicate with you, and others are able to convey their meaning...somehow.  One of the important exploration tasks is finding knowledge stones scattered around various planets and gradually learning words of alien language.  Some of the words you learn are highly useful...others, not so much--I learned the word "syrup," and I'm not really sure the context in which I would ever have to use that specific word.  Thus far, after learning about 50 words of Gek, I've seen at most two or three words actually translated in a sentence.

Probably the most exciting part of NMS is the exploration aspect.  The entire idea of searching the galaxy for new forms of life is kind of cool.  Part of the challenge is cataloguing your new discoveries of plants, minerals, and animals.  The animals that I've found so far range from the bizarre--a weird praying mantis/crab hybrid thing--to the oddly Deathclaw-like thing that I found on one of my paradise worlds.

At first glance, I thought it was a green Deathclaw.

There are numerous tasks that can occupy your time in NMS.  There's an entire storyline that you can pursue--something about a mysterious signal left by an even more mysterious figure--or you could simply focus on gathering materials and building an ultra-base or on the massive exploration-based task.  I will admit to clearly neglecting my base (look at my hut--it's pretty sad), doing a small amount of exploring, and also trying to follow the main storyline.

I've had some interesting things happen in my game--probably the most interesting thing had been my acquisition of a freighter.  As I flew into my home system I was prompted to help fight off some pirates that were attacking a freighter.  I decided to help, shot down the pirates, and then was directed to board the freighter to speak to the grateful captain.  It turned out that the the captain was so grateful that he decided to simply hand over the ship.  Me, space explorer and owner of the impressive one-room hut now owned a huge, capital ship and frigate!  The awesome thing about freighters is that you can send their auxiliary frigates our on different missions.  During these time-based missions your frigate will complete tasks that could gain you credits or gather various commodities or items.  All you have to do is send them out on a mission while you explore and then gather the fruits of their labor once they've completed their expedition.  The downside is that not every expedition is successful and your frigate will often get damaged and require repairs.  Repairs require gathering certain materials to fix damaged components and are another task that will suck up time.

My initial impression of NMS has been mostly positive.  I don't think it's the type of game that every gamer is going to enjoy--it's not action-packed or full of competition--but I think it is a game that people who enjoy sci-fi or the whole concept of exploration will like.  Getting accustomed to the early game can be a bit overwhelming--there's a lot to learn and not a lot that is explained--and I will admit that in the first two hours I did give some thought to refunding.  Once I found a niche, figured out some of the mechanics, and got myself established things got more interesting and I was able to pick a focus from the seemingly overwhelming buffet of choices.

For now I plan on continuing to explore the universe.  I'm not prepared to fully recommend the game yet, but I don't think it's as abysmal as many people have made it sound.

Skellige Magic

Unsurprisingly, I'm still guiding our trusty witcher, Geralt of Rivia, through his adventures in the world of The Witcher 3.  Every playthrough offers the opportunity to make different decisions and see exactly how they play out.  Since I've played through it so many times, I'm also on the prowl for anything that I missed previously.  The weird thing is that I can usually find something that I missed.  Dedicating my time to TW3 means I've had time to think about some of the different aspects of the game.

But first....some exciting non-TW3 news.  The spiritual successor to one of my favorite childhood games (Theme Hospital) has finally announced a release date!  Two Point Hospital will release on August 30th and can be pre-ordered from Steam for 10% off.  I know that pre-ordering is the devil...but I don't think I can resist on this one.  It's priced at $34.99, which is a nice change from the $59.99 of triple AAA titles.

Just look at all those ? in the water....ugh.

Back to TW3--I've progressed Geralt's story to the islands of Skellige.  Skellige is my favorite (and also least favorite...) zone in the game.  I like the story of the viking-inspired culture and clans that populate the islands.  Visually, it's also one of the prettiest zones in the game--tall mountains, dark forests, and lots of open water.  The part that I dislike the most about Skellige is the annoying enemies--namely the flying ones.  As much as I would love to have Geralt spend time sailing around the islands and unearthing all the treasures, I abhor trying to fight off all the stupid sirens.  You can try to fight them on your boat, but it's nearly impossible, or you can opt to dive into the water and pick them off with your crossbow.  Either way, there's a lot of question marks on that dang Skellige map and I don't have the patience to fight off the hordes of flying terrors.  Sadly, the smugglers caches tend to have some very decent loot in them--especially the greater runes.

As I've progressed through the Skellige story line I was faced with one of the major decisions that takes place in that particular zone--who should lead Skellige after the death of King Bran?  The two candidates, Cerys and Hjalmar an Craite, present the possibility of very different styles of rule.  Hjalmar is the kind of hero that they love on Skellige--bold, impulsive, and always looking for another fight or adventure.  His quest line sees Geralt travelling to the island of Undvik which has been deserted due to the fact that a very fierce ice giant appeared and started slaying the residents.  As you search the island to find Hjalmar (and eventually the giant), the story if the expedition unfolds.  Hjalmar's crew has gradually been whittled down by the monstrous hazards of the island--sirens mostly--and by his poor leadership.  By the time you reach the village of Dorve and find Hjalmar, his crew is completely gone (depending on your exploration and choices you could have possibly rescued the archer, Folan, from the clutches of some trolls who love making human soup).  You help Hjalmar fight off the remaining sirens and he leads you to the cave with the giant.  It's here that you find another member of his crew who has been captured by the giant--Vigi the Loon--and can choose to free him or let him stay in his cage (and die...).  You help Hjalmar slay the giant and complete his goal of completing a feat worthy of becoming king.  After it was finished, I started thinking on Hjalmar's quest and his ability to lead.

Team Cerys!

I rarely pick Hjalmar to lead Skellige--of all the times that I've played through TW3 I think I've picked him once.  I've always thought that his style of leadership seems reckless.  On Undvik he blindly charges ahead time after time and leaves the bodies of his own crew in his wake.  It's true that he slays the ice giant and accomplishes what he set out to, but at a too high cost--he gets almost his entire crew killed.  But, when I really think about it, isn't that exactly what the culture and people of Skellige would want?  Every part of their culture revolves around acts of bravery, sacrifice, and battle--so, in a way, Hjalmar is perfect.  They are more than willing to die in a bloodbath as long as they're having another great adventure.

Cerys, on the other hand, is nothing like Hjalmar in her actions.  Rather than being impulsive, she prefers to think about her actions and plan for the best course.  In dealing with Udalryk on Spikeroog, she comes up with a plan to deal with the creature that is terrorizing him.  Her plan is completely devious and shocked me the first time I saw it--but it's also a genius way to resolve the matter of the Hym.  Cerys is the non-traditional choice for Skellige in ways other than her gender and that's why I usually pick her.  Rather than charge blindly ahead, she is the type of leader who wants to plan for the future and see Skellige united into one powerful political unit.  I've always thought she would be the preferable choice when dealing with the threat of Nilfgaard.

Another of the daunting choices I've had to make is the type of armor that I should pursue.  I prefer medium armor for its range of utility--it provides moderate protection and also allows for stamina regeneration.  There happens to be two sets of medium armor in the game--wolven and griffin armors.  The two sets are geared toward slightly different playstyles--griffin armor has stats that support using signs and the wolven set gives a boost to attack power.  Aesthetically, I tend to find the wolven set to be more attractive (even though the short jacket bothers me).  Statistically I've opted for the griffin armor--I think the boost to signs is more important than the boost to attack power.  As I was gathering the diagrams to upgrade the griffin set I (think?) noticed that the superior set has been altered and actually looks pretty awesome.

So pretty!

I like the new look of the superior Griffin set.

Last week I wrote about my indecisiveness regarding Geralt's romantic options--something which always seems very silly, but which I inevitable end up thinking way too hard about--and decided to opt for Yennefer.  I also stumbled across another detailed debate about which sorceress Geralt should woo.  Readers of the short stories (which I would recommend fans of the series should read--but I would forewarn that they aren't easy to read--they tend to have long plodding political plots that are intermittently woven with the more interesting stories of Geralt & Co.) should realize that there really isn't a "perfect" choice for poor Geralt.  Yennefer is prickly, demanding, and seems to mostly see Geralt as a tool to accomplish her own goals.  It's funny to me that several characters in the game bring this point up (Cerys does it very pointedly) and Geralt seems to shake them all off and retain his (seemingly) blind allegiance to Yen.  Triss, on the other hand, is a much more likeable character in the games.  I've always found it interesting the way that her character changed over the course of the three games.  In the first game she's much more...pushy--almost to the point of being overbearing.  I guess that in TW2 they decided to soften her up and make her a more desirable option for Geralt.  In the short stories Triss is almost obsessed with Geralt--she pursues him despite the fact that she's made it completely clear that he's not interested and that he's obviously tied to Yen.  She does take advantage of his amnesia to cultivate a relationship--something that is dealt with in an offhanded way throughout the games.

I think the sorceress dilemma is another example of how the world of The Witcher is filled with flawed and intriguing characters.  No one is perfect and there are no perfect choices.  This dynamic works amazingly to create and engrossing game world. 

The Witcher 4 Seems Like a Possibility

At the beginning of this summer I embarked on a mission to replay my way through the entire Witcher series.  I made it through games one and two fairly quickly and then got distracted by a few new purchases from the Steam summer sale.  Now that I've finished those, I'm back on track for the completion of "Witcherfest 2018!"  The Witcher 3 is my favorite game in the series, and with all the DLC, it's guaranteed to be the a nice, long adventure filled with many of my favorite moments in gaming.  Sadly, I'm already waffling (which is completely ridiculous--I've played through the game at least five times and have seen most of the outcomes) about stupid decisions.  I didn't hesitate to set the difficulty to "death march" and I've been suffering through the early levels of asskickery at the hands of various enemies (usually completely mundane ones too--like wolves).  Now I'm suffering through the toughest decision in the entire game....Triss or Yen?  (Here are my original thoughts on this arduous dilemma--"Triss or Yen?")

(This has nothing to do with The Witcher 4, but I'll get there--I swear)

There's one part of the relationship with Triss that has always bothered me--the rose of remembrance.  In the second game, the rose is a major part of the plot and players can opt to confess their love of Triss and give her the rose.  The elven legend about the rose states that it will bloom as long as love still exists between the two individuals.  In The Witcher 3, Geralt stumbles across the rose while searching through Triss's former home and it's not still blooming...it's wilted and dying.  That's supposed to be a sign that the love that exists between them is gone (any relationship between Triss and Geralt is questioned in the novels--there's a strong indication that Triss is taking advantage of the fact that Geralt loses his memory and can't remember Yennefer.  In the game, Triss does mention this fact in an early conversation with Geralt, but quickly gives up on her train of thought).  Even though I am not a big fan of Yennefer, I feel like the rose is a sign, and that she is the canon romance.  This is literally the dumbest point in the game to spend so much thought on...but I have!

Could a new Witcher game feature Ciri?

Weirdly, as soon as I started replaying TW3, some new Witcher news started rolling out.  The first piece was an interview with the actor who voiced Geralt throughout the series (Doug Cockle).  In this interview he mentions that he felt like if there was a fourth game in the series, that it should focus on Ciri rather than on Geralt (read an article about the interview w/ a link to the interview here).  Yes, this is an actor, not someone who actively works in development, so you could argue that his opinion doesn't carry much weight, but it was interesting to even hear any mention of another Witcher game.  After TW3 it seemed clear that CD Projekt wanted to move on to something new (Cyberpunk 2077--which released an amazing trailer at E3) and that the series was firmly in the rearview mirror.  Fans got a happy ending for Geralt & crew and that should be enough, right?  Wrong!  I think there is a lot of love for Ciri as a character and fans are chomping at the bit to learn more about her.  Having Geralt's VA even mention a game with Ciri lends some credence to this idea.

After this mention another piece came out that does carry more weight than a statement by a VA--the CEO of CD Projekt Red stated that even though a Witcher 4 isn't something that's actively being planned for, the studio does have an interest in eventually revisiting the universe of The Witcher.  (Read it here)  This is an exciting piece of news and one that I'm sure many fans are cheering.  I was quite surprised that after the success of The Witcher 3 that the possibility of another game was shot down very quickly and this seems like at least a positive sign.  If it did happen, it would most likely be many years in the future--Cyberpunk is under heavy development and rumors of it being released in 2019 seem unrealistic.

All of this is good news for fans of The Witcher and I personally would love to see a fourth game featuring Ciri.  We only got to see brief glimpses of Ciri in The Witcher 3, but she is a genuinely interesting character whose abilities and backstory lend themselves to a dazzling array of plot possibilities.  Here are some reasons why I think a fourth game featuring Ciri is the way to go:

1.) Geralt's story has been satisfactorily told through three games.  In Blood and Wine, you even get the ability to give him the ultimate happy ending--settling down in Toussaint with his chosen love interest to live out the rest of his days sipping wine and occasionally slaying some monsters.  It's perfect.  We've had plenty of Geralt, it's time to move on.

2.) Fans are intrigued by Ciri and we only got a few brief snippets of her character.  There is so much possibility with Ciri as the main character--her backstory is great (it was briefly explained and hinted at in TW3, but there's a boatload more that wasn't touched in the game)--namely the time where she was absent prior to the events that took place in the third game.  In the novels, she disappears while trying to evade capture by both Nilfgaard and an evil mage named Vilgefortz (not in the games).  Her Elder Blood inadvertently activates a magical mirror which acts as a portal and she winds up being teleported into the middle of a desert.  She barely manages to survive in the desert but is saved when she finds a unicorn (yup, a freakin' unicorn) that helps to carry her out.  Along the way she is captured by a crew of bounty hunters led by a Nilfgaardian named Sweers (you might remember seeing him in the Nilfgaardian Gwent deck).  They have no idea who they've captured and simply want to turn her in for some sort of payment.  While she's in captivity with the Trappers, the group meets up with another group taking captives to be sold.  It's at this point that she meets Kayleigh, another captive, and member of the notorious gang known as The Rats.  Kayleigh convinces Ciri to help him escape and they both are rescued when the rest of the gang turns up.  During the fighting, the gang sees Ciri in action and is very impressed by her abilities.  They decide to let her join up with them and she gives them a false name, Falka, to cover up her true identity.

Ciri's time with The Rats could make for a good story.  As a group, The Rats fall squarely in the grey area that The Witcher loves to wallow in--they are a gang full of teenagers and young adults who get their kicks robbing and murdering the rich.  They are known for their flamboyant dress and decking themselves out in their ill-begotten gains.  When they aren't robbing, they're partying.  It's during her time with The Rats that Ciri ends up in a relationship with Mistle (a human female, who, like all the other Rats, has a tragic backstory).  It's this relationship that leads Ciri to get the tattoo of a rose on her inner thigh (you can see the tattoo briefly in TW3 if you opt for a toweless sauna session).  Ciri's time with The Rats ends when she decides that she wants to return to Cintra to reclaim her throne.  She says goodbye to Mistle and then sneaks off before the rest of the group can find out.  (Things don't turn out well for either Ciri or The Rats.  An extremely talented and dangerous bounty hunter named Leo Bonhart sets a trap to capture the gang.  Ciri, who has left the group, finds out about the trap and attempts to warn them about it.  She's too late though--they've already attempted to attack Bonhart and fallen squarely into his trap, where they've all been slaughtered.  Ciri arrives in time to witness Bonhart kill and decapitate Mistle.  Even with her potent abilities--which, at this point in the story she has little control over--Ciri winds up being captured by Bonhart...)

I think Ciri's time with The Rats could make for a great story.  The Rats have many adventures and they are all filled with many of the same elements that make up the other games--fighting, romance, and drama.

3.) Ciri's abilities lend themselves to so many plot possibilities.  As the Lady of Worlds, Ciri can travel through time and space.  There is a point in the novels where Ciri is first learning her abilities that she has to use them to travel from world to world in order to try to find her way back to her homeworld.  All the worlds she visits are very distinct and each could have its own part in the story.  (There were some Ciri rumors that she would appear in the world of Cyberpunk 2077--those rumors have been dispelled).  How awesome would it be to play as Ciri and travel to a bunch of crazy worlds?

4.) The Lodge of Sorceresses has a vested and somewhat creepy interest in Ciri and her abilities.  In the games, The Lodge is in tatters and is only barely functioning due to the persecution of Radovid.  Toward the end of TW3, it is seemingly reforged and their interest in Ciri is restated--she is pressured to join.  I think that the Lodge could also provide a compelling part of the plot for a game.  There's a new world being led by Nilfgaard and the surviving sorceresses have all been reunited.  What role could they play in the new world?  Could they teach Ciri how to control her powers and better utilize them?  Are they just out to exploit her?  The Lodge and its motives could provide even more plot possibilities.

5.) The ending of TW3 left the door open for a continuation of the story.  (SPOILERS for TW3!)  If a fourth game did feature Ciri, the end of the third game provides ample opportunity for plot.  You either have Ciri striking out to be a Witcher or Ciri falling in with Nilfgaard (which I've always found weird, but it could work).

All of this is conjecture, but I'm excited to see some renewed interest in the world of The Witcher.  As a fan of both the games and the novels, I can't wait to hear about the possible next steps.

Bird Brains of the Law

When the Steam sales roll around I usually attempt to whittle down my wishlist and have at least a small measure of success.  I've also realized that I have a habit of purchasing at least one game, usually for under $5 (and, in this case, for the odd price of $3.74) because it seems vaguely interesting and, hey, it's cheaper than a fancy coffee!  It's still a bit of a gamble, but oddly it has a tendency to pan out in the form of something non-traditional but entertaining in its own way.  My bargain bin purchase of the 2018 Steam summer sale was the visual novel/detective/lawyer/animal....erm...it's a tad hard to describe..Aviary Attorney.

I had noticed Aviary Attorney when it first came out, but it didn't quite have the draw to end up on my wishlist.  It looked novel (I've made two non-intentional puns and I'm not changing them!) but I wanted to wait until it was cheaper, so I completely forgot it existed.  It was completely by coincidence that I stumbled onto it several years later in the unlikeliest of place...my nemesis, the Steam discovery queue.  I loathe the Steam discovery queue but force myself to suffer through its ridiculousness so I can harvest the three free trading cards from the sale (which is probably the absolutely worst time to use it).  Why do I loathe it?  It seems to just randomly chuck games out and 99% of them look like garbage; it is slow and refuses to load correctly during high demand times (like sales...the only time when I suffer through it); it still puts games into my queue even after I've untagged certain descriptors (like "anime" and "nudity"...it really wanted me to buy weird Japanese girlie games for a long time)...I just don't like it.  Buuuuut, Aviary Attorney popped up one one of the queues I was exploring!  I wouldn't have remember it save for the stupid discovery queue...I guess I should cut it a little bit of slack.

Aviary Attorney is the story of an 1840's lawyer in France.  Oh, and this lawyer and all the other characters in the game are supposed to be animals--they have animal heads and names, but the rest of their bodies are human.  The main character in the story is a JayJay Falcon, an experienced attorney who resides in the city of Paris.  He is assisted by his bird brained little buddy, Sparrowson, who helps him investigate crimes and carry out trials.  The game/story consists of JayJay learning about a crimes, choosing where or what to investigate, gathering evidence, and then participating in the trial.  It's a little bit like a "choose your own adventure" story--you can choose where JayJay should investigate and what questions he should ask.  Sometimes your choices are great and you are able to gather some solid evidence and sometimes your choices are horrible and you glean absolutely nothing--pushing someone too hard when you're questioning them could mean that they run off and give you nothing.  After a certain number of choices/days, the trial starts for the crime that JayJay is investigating.  At the trial your main goal is to use the evidence (that you've hopefully found) to convince the jury of the innocence of your client.  As witnesses testify you can choose what part of their testimony you want to challenge and using evidence you can start to poke holes in their story.  This sounds easy, but since you have a limited amount of time to investigate crimes, sometimes you don't have much evidence (especially if you pick completely wrong locations).  The story still moves on regardless of the outcome of the trial.

Pros:
--Art style.  The entire game is drawn like an antique pen and ink drawing.  The settings change throughout the game and are extremely detailed.  The characters are decked out in 1840's style clothing and all of them are unique.

--Choices.  You get to choose where you want to investigate, which questions to ask, and what strategy you want to follow during trials.  These choices do appear to have some impact on the outcomes.  The story has several endings that are based upon decisions that you make during a certain part of the game.

--Humor.  There is humor sprinkled throughout the game.--there are lots of bird jokes.  Sparrowson is a source of comic relief and plays the role of the goofy sidekick.

--Story.  For a game that only cost $3.74 the story wasn't at all what I expected.  There's a deeper story than just the courtroom antics and investigations.  I found it intriguing that you could completely botch the trials (me) and the story keeps moving on.

--Soundtrack.  The soundtrack is a combination of clips taken from classical works and music composed for the game.  All of it works well with the story, characters, and events in the game.  I enjoyed it.

--Short.  I'm going to say this is a pro, but it's a nice, little short game that you can finish in a few hours.  There is some replayability related to the choices that you make (I failed at almost all of the investigations and definitely want to go back and make some better choices).

Cons:
--Investigations.  They are a little like a "hidden object" game but you have to randomly hover over stuff to find it.  It can be difficult to pick up on every piece of evidence at certain places.  I was frustrated at one scene because I found the trigger to move onto the next part first and didn't get the chance to look for more evidence.

--If you're missing evidence there's no way to just simply say that you don't have it, you have to proceed through clicking the wrong evidence and listening to the negative dialogue several times before someone (or the jury if it's a trial) gets frustrated.

--Blackjack is rigged.  I swear.  I don't know if this is true, but I only won a single game.

--It's a visual novel.  I know that some people don't find that exciting and that reading is the devil.  I like reading, so I don't mind.   If you're someone who doesn't enjoy reading in games...skip it.

If you're looking for a short, unique little game that can be found really cheaply, Aviary Attorney is a good option.  I enjoyed the story, characters, soundtrack and art style in the game.  It has a unique vibe that works.  It's also French, and we all know that anything French is automatically too cool.

The Claws are in Deep

It's now officially the depressing time after the annual Steam summer sale has ended.  There are no more great deals, blasting Saliens, or time spent resignedly navigating the ridiculous "discovery queue" just to get those three free trading cards...*deep sigh.*  Even though the sale is over, now we can all sit back and enjoy the fruits of our impulse buying.  I don't think I spent over $12 on any game that I purchased and, surprisingly, I came away with some games that I'm truly enjoying.  Battle Chef Brigade introduced me to the world of competitive battle cooking; Pyre took me on a journey laden with tough choices and a strangely frustrating (but mostly fun) ball game; and I have yet to delve into the world of 1840's era bird attorneys in Aviary Attorney--they've been great, but there's one game that just unexpectedly sunk its hooks into me--Oxygen Not Included.

Survival games aren't usually my cup of tea, so I don't really know what I was thinking when I purchased ONI.  Most of the decision to buy it was spurred by a cute video of a cartoony character trying to wrangle an equally cute slime.  Fortunately, this decision based off of watching one silly video turned out to be one of the best from the sale.

ONI is a space survival sim that has some similarities to games like Rimworld.  There's not much of a backstory--you control a small group of duplicants (affectionately known as "dupes) who have mysteriously been stranded in the middle of an asteroid (At least, I think it is...there's not much explanation--it's early access, so it's very possible it will be added later).  Your goal is to keep them alive (and maybe escape?  That part has been extremely vague) while exploring your environment, for as long as you can.

My latest colony...The Temporal Hovel.

If that description seems overly simplistic, well...it is.  Keeping your dupes alive is not an easy task--satisfying their basic needs can be extremely challenging--they need food, water, a place to poop, and, most importantly, oxygen...because...SPACE!  Oxygen is a limited resource and one of the biggest challenges is to make sure that you are producing enough.  As your dupes explore the environment, they can dig and find resources that can be used to build machines to produce oxygen.  Of course you'll need to power those machines, so you'll need to create a generator and some batteries to store electricity.  Digging around in the area around your base is vital to find plants and seeds that will produce food and to start looking for a source of water.  Like oxygen, water is also a limited resource and there is much planning involved in trying to make it last.  The one thing you learn very quickly in ONI is that almost everything is a limited resource....thinking ahead to the next shortage is what will keep your base alive.

Simply surviving is a minor feat...keeping your base functioning for cycle after cycle is the true feat.  The longer you stay alive, the more challenges keep getting thrown at you.  Producing oxygen seems straightforward, but there's only so much algae on a map, so you're going to need to invest in some electrolyzers.  Oh, and you should know that electrolyzers produce hydrogen as a by-product.  It's not breathable and it's the lightest gas in the game--that means it's going to float to the highest point and pool.  It's also important to note that electrolyzers produce oxygen at 70°C (which is 158°F) and you're going to build up some serious heat.  Heat can become a serious problem--sure, your dupes will get hot, but the big problem comes when your base gets too hot for plants to grow.  Problems are like rows of dominoes....you think that one is sorted out, but before you know it there's another one starting to tip and threatening to topple the entire fragile row.

There are many, many very complicated science-y mechanics that make up the root of what keeps ONI so engaging--air pressure in your base, heat buildup and how to disperse it, the weights and properties of various gases, disease and how it's spread...those are just a few.  One of the things that new players will discover is that there is very little in the way of tutorial--you just have to figure it out, and that's where much of the challenge lies.  I'm constantly pausing the game to Google a question about something.  I also find myself thinking about solutions at times when I'm not playing...like laying in bed and thinking about how I could solve my ongoing temperature issues.

ONI is in early access, but is surprisingly fun and free of bugs.  If you're the type of person who enjoys learning from your own mistakes and wants the challenge of figuring things out, you will love ONI.  If you're a science or math nerd who wants a game that reflects complicated concepts...you too will probably love ONI.