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Hades II (Switch 2): COMPLETED!

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Remember that other Hades II? The one with turtles in it? That was a great game, wasn’t it? I bought that because it was so much like Hades and there wasn’t really any other Hades-likes around that had good reviews. Oh, except for actual Hades II. Which I finally got round to buying.

Set a number of years after the first game, after Hades himself stopped being a Bad Dad And Husband and Zagreus brought the family back together, Hades II stars new addition to the family – Melinoë. She’s Zagreus’ younger sister, born after the first game and squirrelled away by Hecate, a witch in Hades’ employ, for her own protection when Hades’ own dad Chronos escapes from his prison and enacts revenge on his family.

Hecate has been training Melinoë for years, and the time has come for her to journey (repeatedly) back to Tartarus, defeat Grandad, retake the House of Hades and free everyone. And it plays just like the original game, really. Each run, you might progress a bit further, unlock something new, or gain enough of certain resources to enable permanent upgrades. Or luck might not be on your side and you fail horribly.

You see, like Hades and Teenage Mutant Hades Turtles, you get frequent temporary (for the duration of the run, or for a set number of rooms) upgrades and boons, but they’re generally random. You can stack the cards in your favour a little, to make it more likely certain upgrades will come your way, but it’s very possible you’ll end up with rubbish, a wealth of coin but not power, or several boons which don’t really work well together. But that doesn’t matter! Every failed run nets you something, so there’s always a sense of improving, even when you don’t.

Different to the first Hades is a choice – a few hours in, at least – of two paths. It turns out you’re actually needed to fight the war on two fronts, both on the way to Chronos, but also Mount Olympus is in jeopardy because Chronos has unleashed Typhon on the Gods, and he’s a bit big and nasty. That means you’ve two routes, with different levels, baddies, stories and goals, but the plot of the game explains why you need to do both. And complete both. Multiple times.

Other than that, and some tweaks to how certain rooms “work”, Hades II is “just” more Hades. The slick fighting and the massively varied builds you can create are well crafted. The seemingly endless, and rarely-repeated dialogue between you, your friends, foes, Gods and even mumbling to yourself, is incredible – as it was in the original game. Every character is well fleshed out and the voice acting is fantastic.

So, don’t expect anything too radically different if you’ve played Hades, but if you enjoyed that even just a little bit, Hades II is up your street. It certainly was up mine and I loved it from start to end.

Tested On Humans Escape Room (Steam Deck): COMPLETED!

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I’ve enjoyed this sort of puzzle game in the past, a category I’d include The Witness, The Room, Maquette, Doors – Paradox, and so on in, so when Amazon were giving away a whole set of them, of which Tested On Humans Escape Room was one, I was very pleased. Sadly, it isn’t great.

The issues I had were mainly because the puzzles were either way too obvious or incredibly obscure and illogical. The joy of puzzle games is when they make you feel Very Clever, but TOHES never does that. It also doesn’t help that at least one of the puzzles has two working solutions but only one is accepted.

The Triangle Puzzle, not named in the game but it is, uh, a triangle, is one of these. You’re give a triangle with spaces on each side for coloured balls. Clues elsewhere show that each ball is worth a certain amount, and each side must add up to a certain total. My screenshot is a working solution, but isn’t the correct answer.

There is a plot, in that you’re a sort of prisoner in a medical testing facility, but that never really amounts to anything. You uncover notes about you, and your – presumably dead given all the blood – cellmates but in the end it’s all just a dream? Or isn’t? It’s very unsatisfying.

So, OK for free, but a bit of a disappointment. I might try one of the other games in the series just to see if it’s any better.

Definitely not a copy of Rubik’s Clock at all.

Entropy Survivors (Steam Deck): COMPLETED!

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I actually got this in a random game bundle a while back, and it was one of the better games in that pack, but for some reason I didn’t put much time into it. Over the last few months I’ve been doing the odd run here and there, eventually finishing it today.

As the name suggests, it’s a Survivorslike. In this one, you’re a frog riding a mech because of course you are, and you have two basic weapons – the frog has a rubbish gun, and the robot has a rubbish sword. As you slay the many thousands of baddies, you level up and unlock other weapons or improvements for your gun or sword, just like you would in other games in the genre. Here, they include rockets, blasts that knock back groups of foes, or freeze them, roll everyone up like you’re playing Katamari, or for reasons not readily explainable, summon a fleet of dustbin lorries to mow down everyone.

At the end of a run (either you die or you survive long enough and get extra bonuses) your skills reset, but you can use the items and gold collected to improve various skills more permanently. Again, like other games in this genre.

It’s a bit weird, and as you’re riding a mech it’s slower and clunkier than, say, Vampire Survivors, but it is different enough to warrant its existence. I liked it a lot, but it is only really playable for one run or two at a time. I think it being slow, and the seemingly slow build up of power each run, makes it feel like a bit of a chore if you don’t space it out.

Find My Frogs (Steam Deck): COMPLETED!

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You’ll never guess from the title of the game what sort of game this is and what you’re supposed to do. No, not punch Nazis (although that would make a good game), it’s finding – get this – frogs. Incredible.

In a dramatic change from the ten thousand “hidden cats” games currently available, this is a large, scrollable image with hidden frogs in it. Click on them to “find” them, and when you’ve got them all (and all the gnomes, and worms, and various other things for… reasons), you win! Oh, except some of the frogs are toads. How can you tell frogs from toads? Frogs are slimy and green, and toads are toadaly different. GONG

(Actually, there’s no real different between frogs and toads – toads are just a types of frog)

Where was I. Yes, finding frogs. It was an enjoyable hour or so. I’ve nothing against those cat games either, by the way – and have played a few – it’s just there’s only so many hidden cat games you need, and it’s nice to have a change of art style and animal for a bit. Also, the frogs are very cute.

Unboxathon (Steam Deck): COMPLETED!

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Unboxathon is a simple, relatively short, clicker game. In this one (and I feel like I’ve played a lot of these recently), you buy boxes, open them, and sell the random contents. As you make more money and collect more stuff also found in the boxes, you can buy and unlock better boxes with higher value contents.

There are upgrades which do things like improve the chances of rarer items, or allow you to open boxes with fewer clicks, or, well you know – the usual sort of things you’d expect in a numbers go up game. Higher and higher numbers which generate even higher and higher numbers.

There’s nothing special about Unboxathon, and it didn’t really have the hook that some clickers (like Gambler’s Table or Timber Rush) seems to have, but it’s OK to kill some time, I suppose.