Games I Completed
Games I've played to the completion of the main storyline or to where I felt I'd experienced most of the game.
Since Giant Bomb doesn't have entries for Flash games or apps, here are the Flash games I've played to completion:
and iOS games that aren't on Giant Bomb:
and one HTML 5 game:
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<p>November, 2011. Xbox version on Average Joe difficulty.</p>
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<p>I wasn't amazed by the Scott Pilgrim movie, but I enjoyed this game a lot. The difficulty curve was uneven – the first three to five levels were quite challenging until I realized you can buy items to up your stats. I bought some huge stat boosts from a store in the first level, and after that the game was extremely easy until the last level, which became much more challenging again. Those issues aside, I loved the game's style and the references to older video games.</p>
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<p>November, 2011. Xbox version. All achievements not in the DLC.</p>
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<p>I loved the style of Costume Quest and the RPG-lite format, but I wish there was more challenge or variety to the combat. Most of the game I would use each character's standard attack until I could use their special ability, then repeat. Finding and using all the costumes was a lot of fun, though, and the humor and art style are top notch.</p>
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<p>November, 2011. Xbox 360 on default difficulty.</p>
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<p>While the core gameplay in Episode Two isn't that different from Episode One, I enjoyed Episode Two quite a bit more. I think partly I just enjoy the outdoor environments more than the city, but there are also some impactful plot twists in Episode Two that keep the pace moving and make you care more about the characters. The hunters are a nice gameplay addition and the Magnusson device was fun to use, even if it felt highly contrived.</p>
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December, 2011. PC version on Normal (1st section) and Easy (2nd two)
I enjoyed the neo-retro style and the music in Bit.Trip Beat, but Normal difficulty got to be way too hard for me. Easy was much easier, except for the last boss fight, which I didn't enjoy much. It would probably be easier to play this game on a touch screen.
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<p>January, 2012. PC on Normal difficulty</p>
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<p>I'm normally not a huge fan of runner games, but I really enjoyed Bit.Trip Runner. Unlike Beat, it forces you to start over after a mistake, but the levels are broken into smaller segments that feel more manageable – at least initially. The music is amazing, and the way it builds as you make progress really pushes you to keep going. One of the harder games I've completed.</p>
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January, 2012
Nothing amazing, but it is a fun distraction. Some funny dialog if you're familiar with the Half-Life characters.
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<p>January, 2012. PC on Normal difficulty in ~5 hours</p>
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<p>Since I never played Quake in the nineties, nostalgia wasn't much of an influence on my experience in 2012. I enjoyed the fast-paced gameplay and the balance between weapons and monster types. The nail gun and rocket launcher were especially fun to use, but the double barrel shotgun didn't feel as powerful to me as the one in Doom II. I also got a bit bored of the brown environments and the repetition in enemy types. The final boss fight was probably the biggest disappointment for me, it didn't feel like a fight at all. However, it certainly could have been worse. Bosses that require dumping all of your ammo into them aren't much fun, either.</p>
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<p>January, 2012. Arcade Difficulty</p>
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<p>Steel Storm doesn't have any revolutionary game mechanics that separate it from other top-down shooters, but the core action kept me entertained for most of the game. There's a nice variety to the weapons (I loved using the MIRV to take out enemies behind walls) and the explosions are quite satisfying. Interesting that the game is built on a modified version of the Quake engine, because it feels completely different.</p>
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<p>February, 2012. Normal difficulty.</p>
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<p>Scourge of Armagon is mostly more of the same Quake gameplay, but the new weapons allow for different strategies and the level design is quite good. The scorpion enemies seemed more annoying than scary to me, but I liked the final boss fight, even if it was short lived.</p>
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<p>I tried installing the epsilon ultra mod after playing a few levels and wow does it change the look of the game. Definitely worth a try if your system can handle it.</p>
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<p>February, 2012. Normal difficulty</p>
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<p>The second mission pack for Quake felt to me like a mission pack done right. It amplifies almost every aspect of the original game, with tougher enemies, more powerful weapons and more challenging death traps. Every level feels different and the Egyptian themes are a nice change in atmosphere. Some of the enemies are downright nasty, but being able to fire four rockets at once goes a long way towards evening the playing field.</p>
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<p>March, 2012. PC version.</p>
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<p>I decided to try VVVVVV in large part because of Jeff Gerstmann's raving recommendations, but that probably set my expectations too high. Not that there was anything I disliked about the game. The retro Metroidvania style gameplay is fun, the music is at times great, and the colorful characters are extremely charming in their cuteness. I guess I was hoping there would be a little more scale and scope to the story and gameplay, but I still enjoyed the experience a lot.</p>
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March, 2012. PC version on Normal. All single player Spec Ops missions.
I realize that the multiplayer in MW2 is far inferior on PC, but the single player looked and played great on my machine. The campaign isn't very long, but the Spec Ops missions add some extra length and challenge that I enjoyed. The campaign story is quite dark and takes the scale of conflict to whole new levels, but I never felt like it carried as much dramatic impact as the events in the first Modern Warfare.
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<p>March, 2012, Legendary difficulty and 14 bonus missions.</p>
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<p>While the artwork and action in Jamestown may not quite compare with a Cave shmup, the quality is still impressively high. I loved the space colonization premise and the neoclassical soundtrack. Later levels are locked until completing all previous levels on a harder difficulty, which sounds frustrating, but I enjoyed the challenge. The bonus levels helped improve my skills and the "farce" version of the story was funny enough to play through the game again.</p>
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<p>March, 2012.</p>
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<p>Garshasp is an extremely impressive game for a small team to have made, but it's hard not to compare it to games with higher production values and better gameplay (it's basically a God of War clone with different mythology). There are a few unique gameplay elements, like scaling cliffs with your sword, but the game mostly feels derivative, unpolished and very short. </p>
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<p>March, 2012 on Xbox 360</p>
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<p>Limbo is an affecting experience and a testament to what can be achieved with minimal UI and game mechanics. The story asks more questions than it answers, which I don't see as a negative. Limbo's biggest strength is probably it's atmosphere.</p>
<p>I had heard complaints about Limbo's later levels before I played the game. I didn't find that the gameplay got any worse, but I would agree that it does lose some focus. The tension and themes of the first third of the game set a very high bar that would be challenging for any game to sustain.</p>
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<p>April, 2012. Single player campaign.</p>
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<p>When I first heard that Valve was making Portal 2 as a full length game, I can't say I felt that excited. I thought the original game had given me my fill of the Portal mechanic and the bar it set would be very hard to meet again. I now realize I should have had more faith in Valve. Portal 2 isn't just a worthy sequel, it's one of my favorite games of all time. I can't think of another game with funnier dialogue or characters who felt as real. Ironically, most of those characters are robots. If you haven't yet, you should experience Portal 2 for yourself.</p>
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May, 2012. Completed the six available quests and unlocked 13 characters.
Hack, Slash, Loot is a streamlined Rogue-like experience that feels more approachable than the average game in this genre. By limiting your inventory to two weapons and what you can wear, you are forced to decide immediately whether to leave or use a given piece of loot. That makes inventory management very simple and you never need to sell anything. It also helps that the really nasty potions have names implying you probably shouldn't drink them. I still died frequently and the frustrations of permadeath can be high, but since the quests are all only five levels long it doesn't feel quite as demotivating. I liked how different quests not only look different, but require different strategies to win. There are also some funny cameos from other games that I enjoyed. Overall, I really liked the game and think it makes for a good introduction to the genre, but only if you aren't turned off by permanent death.
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Some creative levels, but I got bored with a lot of it after a while and started using cheats.
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May, 2012 on Normal.
I was completely turned off by the voice acting, characters and narrative of Vanquish, but the gameplay and visual style won me over. Once the opening cut scene ends and the gameplay begins, I immediately felt part of a much larger conflict. The cover mechanics are similar to Gears of War, but where Gears of War feels like piloting a human tank, Vanquish feels like an F1 racer. Your ability to rocket around the battlefield and the slow-time mechanic are both very useful. I enjoyed leveling up the different weapons, which all have their uses. Your allies can die quickly when they're down, but you get a nice bonus for saving them, which I thought was a nice touch. I enjoyed most of the boss battles and especially liked the game's visual style, which feels polished and distinctly Japanese.
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<p>May, 2012. Maxed out the ship in Classic mode and unlocked 70% of the achievements</p>
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<p>Really Big Sky is a beautiful looking shooter with a nice range of game modes and a high degree of challenge. It feels like a cross between Geometry Wars and a side-scrolling shmup with lots of trippy visual effects. Your ship is weak initially, but it doesn't take long to earn upgrades that help you survive much longer. The boss battles can be exciting and the variety of enemies is nice, although I could do without the asteroids that kill you in one hit. In addition to Classic mode, I liked the bullet hell mode and retro mode, which both made the game feel very different.</p>
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<p>June, 2012 on default (skilled agent) difficulty</p>
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<p>I played the demo of Blake Stone in the nineties, and decided to try it again after the game engine (Wolfenstein 3D) turned 20. The sci-fi setting is very different from Wolfenstein, but not that interesting. The gameplay is very similar to Wolfenstein, although there are a few interesting additions, like NPCs, teleporters and a rocket launcher. Blake Stone was fun to play in short sessions, but the game feels extremely repetitive and I'd only recommend it if you have a lot of nostalgia for the genre.</p>
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<p>June 2011. PC on Normal difficulty.</p>
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<p>Ninja Blade has a frustratingly high number of Quick Time events. I eventually got used to them, but I never enjoyed them much. The over-the-top action sequences and wide range of bosses were fun, though. There's a nice balance to the weapons, which you need to change frequently to progress. The same basic enemy types get repeated a lot, though, and the environments mostly feel the same. The story and voice-acting are bad, but not quite to the point of being laughable.</p>
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<p>July 2012 on iPad. Used a guide for the blocks puzzle and to find the art gallery.</p>
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<p>I can see why the 7th Guest was an impressive game at the time that CD-ROM drives were new, but since I never played it then, its hard to enjoy the game now. The acting is terrible, even by video game standards, and the plot gives little or no direction. I enjoyed some of the puzzles, but half the time the real puzzle was figuring out what type of puzzle I was solving or where the next puzzle was hidden, which wasn't much fun.</p>
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July, 2012. PC on Normal mode
Bastion is a beautiful game and a lot of fun to play. It keeps things fresh by constantly giving you new weapons and abilities to try out. The difficulty isn't that hard, but the dream sequences and idols offer extra challenge. The narration style is also quite original, but sometimes the gruff voice of the narrator felt at odds with the art style. That's a minor criticism, though, of an otherwise great game.
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July, 2012. Novice difficulty.
While I enjoy an occasional shmup, I'm not all that good at the genre, so Gundemonium gave me plenty of challenge, even on novice difficulty with 5 lives. Beating the game felt very rewarding, since the bullet patterns and bosses get quite fiendish. The artwork doesn't compare with a Cave shmup, but it does have a weird charm.
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April 2021 in about 2.5 hours.
A very casual and short game with charming artwork and funny characters.
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