Some more final impressions of games I recently finished or I'm about to finish.
Manual Samuel
Funny but short game about a guy who has to do everything manually (moving limbs, blinking, breathing etc.) for a day. Humor is spot on and the controls, while similar to Octodad, are more complex, but since it's only a 2D game not quite as frustrating.. Overall this is a nice experience, but ultimately Octodad is the better of the two games.
7/10
Axiom Verge
It's old school Metroid. The game is quite long for an indie game. Difficulty is not easy but not unfair either. Level and enemy design is very alien-ish although in some places maybe even a tad too much. Same could be said for the music, which is quite good, but very old school as well. Since every section has only its own unique theme it can get a bit repetitive when you spend a longer period of time in one of these.
Some upgrades are really unique (glitching enemies or platforms/walls) while the guns, especially in the first half of the game, are IMO the weakest point of the game as you'll most likely only use the same one.
Story-wise the game is alright and in tune with the surroundings (as in giving you a n unease feeling).
8.5/10
TurnOn
This game is, for the most part, an extremely chilly game. You're controlling some kind of living orb that can only travel along power lines, but also jump between them. The majority of the levels are just getting from one part to the next without any real enemies, doing some platforming and finding some junction boxes to progress some events. Those levels were perfect for me when I came home from a hard day of work (I'm exaggerating). Then there are a few auto scroller levels, which are only hard if you go for their achievements and some other levels where you can actually be "killed".
Overall I'd have loved to give this an 8/10 but there were some repeating glitches (occuring on these up and down platforms) where I had to replay whole levels and thus could not justify it.
7.5/10
Coffin Dodgers
This one is just a bad Mario Kart clone. I mean it's not really a clone, as that would've made the game much better. Boring characters, boring level design, few tracks, unimaginative weapons, multiple levels where certain weapons will never appear, terrible music, AI that immediately uses their power up as soon as they receive them, etc.
Still it was somewhat playable and with one or two retries you usually get the top spot.
5/10
Level 22
Stealth game where you need to get through several offices and laboratories to get to your own office without being seen at all.
The game is very specific. There's only one correct way to do it and some items will never appear again in later leves, which I think is kinda weird. You'll be seen a lot but the game has multiple checkpoints although I'm not quite sure when you get them. I think it's when you pick up a new item.
The game is pretty meh-ish and while it has boss fights, the final one is hilariously easy. It's also very short (4hours for 1000G).
5.5/10
I, Zombie
Talking about short games, this one took me about 2 hours for 1000G. It's a mobile port but thankfully one of the cheapest games in the whole Xbox store. The gameplay is really simple but not terrible. It's certainly alright if you wanna play something for 10 minutes and like most mobile games, when you beat a level, you want to look how the next one is going to be like.
6/10
Dear Esther Landmark Edition
I don't know if this is even a game. A walking simulator at its worst. Silence throughout the majority of the game with some voice overs in between. The game is exclusively played with the left and right stick. Every other button will just zoom in. There is no run button.....
At least the visuals are bearable and it runs at 60FPS. Also it's a short game so you aren't being tortured for long.
Although you need to do 2 playthroughs to get all achievements.
1/10
SteamWorld Dig
This one is actually good and somewhat addicting. No surprise though as the Minecraft/Terraria and also Metroidvania elements make for a fun experience. My biggest gripe is the inability to save anywhere but on the surface. It sucks when your bag is full of precious gems and you die because of some stupid shit while trying to get back to the surface.
7.5/10