What I'm Playing

Greetings, one and all!

I've been playing a variety of games lately, from an old school-ish shooter, to an action-RPG, and even a harem simulator similar to Sanctuary in Time.

Old School-ish Shooter

One of the games I've been excited to dig into recently is Inferno 2+ by Radiangames. Released in 2019 on Xbox (but also available on mobile, PC, PS4, and Switch), Inferno 2+ is a well-designed, old-school-ish shooter with twin-stick mechanics, gorgeous modern 2-D graphics, and RPG-light sensibilities. 

You control a small sphere as it flies around dungeon-like digital mazes, complete with baddies to blast, XP to earn, loot to collect, and upgrades to unlock. It's all done very well and has some excellent gameplay mechanics at work. I've been enjoying it, a 12-year-old cousin visiting from out-of-town has been enjoying it, and even my 72-year-old stepfather has given it a whirl. It's got 80 levels to play through, 3 tiers of difficulty, and even a "new game+" mode for an extra layer of challenge. At $5 on the Xbox store, you can't beat the value.

Action-RPG

On the action-RPG front, I've been diving back into Sacred 3 by Keen Games via backward compatibility on Xbox. Released in 2014 on PC, Playstation 3, and Xbox 360, Sacred 3 is a game that got mixed reviews upon launching, but I've always found it to be fun. In particular, I think it got a lot of flak at the time, because it differed so much from its predecessors, Sacred 1 & 2. But if you take the game on its own, it's really quite well-made and a fun hack-and-slash experience.

In the past, I'd primarily played as the Safiri Warrior, who's a hulking, dark-skinned dynamo of destruction, similar to the Barbarian in Diablo 3. But this time, I decided to shake things up and play through as the tomboyish, tattooed Ancarian Lancer, a woman with fierce red hair, an even fiercer attitude, and a deadly fighting stick. If I'm being perfectly honest, she reminds me a bit of Brianna Morgyn from my own game, a character I dearly love, so that served in part as motivation for me.

I have to say, the game still looks really good after all these years (upscaled and running via backward compatibility on Xbox Series X), and it's a heck of a lot of fun to play. Oh, and P.S., the Ancarian Lancer kicks ***.

Harem-Simulator

On the harem-simulator front, I've been digging back into Free Cities by FC Author, a game I hadn't played in quite a while, but which served as partial inspiration for the design of Sanctuary in Time. Free Cities is a game I have a bit of a love / hate relationship with, as there are some elements of this game I really admire, and other elements that just don't appeal to me.

In particular, I find the depth of the simulation elements truly impressive, even if overwhelming at times. And I feel like FC Author does an outstanding job of bringing one's harem to life with various personality quirks and qualities that help sell the realism of the whole experience.

On the other hand, there's quite a bit of extreme content that I don't find particularly appealing, and the underlying concept of enslavement is one I find morally troubling.

But I wanted to dive back into Free Cities after a long absence, because I'm looking for inspiration on ways to improve Sanctuary in Time. There are some things Free Cities does extremely well, such as the variety and meaningful impact of random side events, and after playing it for a while, I've already had several ideas for ways to improve my own game in future updates.

Wrap-up

So, that's what I've been playing lately, how about all of you? Got any good games you'd like to recommend? What's keeping your thumbs busy during the in-between hours?

Max (Novus Operandi)