What are you currently playing?
- Thread starter Nick Calandra
- Start date
Found a dealio on City of Brass for £1.50, which is half the price of an anemic prepackaged sandwich or (not "and") a stale branded coffee in my local area! So picked that up, as it waved around the words "made by veteran devs of Bioshock" with gleeful abandon in every promotional material thrust upon thy time-worn eyes. It is everything I expected it to be from a small dev team making a FPS melee-focused roguelike set in a magical Arabian style shifting city full of undead communities and floor spikes. There are other traps too I suppose, but floor spikes are the main antagonist here and for possibly all of time: The sneaky little shitnibblers just love to kick you when you're already down and bleeding from your intestines, I hate them and everything they stand for.
There's also a whip. And it doesn't feel utterly horrendous to use. So that's...that. Haven't played much. Not since the 78th death to walking into floor spikes while trying to dodge flaming archers. *Clenches pawfist* Not mad. Not at all. Just parched. So very parched, am downing this high-percentage booze for perfectly parched reasons. (£1.50 tho!)
There's also a whip. And it doesn't feel utterly horrendous to use. So that's...that. Haven't played much. Not since the 78th death to walking into floor spikes while trying to dodge flaming archers. *Clenches pawfist* Not mad. Not at all. Just parched. So very parched, am downing this high-percentage booze for perfectly parched reasons. (£1.50 tho!)
Ancestors. I really want to like it, but the lack of guidance (which I understand is deliberate and part of the point), is driving me mad. Also, my controller cable is really short and I have to sit too close to the TV (I don't usually use a controller on PC).
I finished the 3rd of the initial 3 areas in Hyper Light Drifter by beating that damn cat boss. Last time I got this far, like 4-5 years ago i threw myself against that guy for hours and never beat him, which led to me stopping the game and not getting back to it until now(and doing a brand new run). This time I beat him in 15 minutes and a handful of tries, possibly because I'm better at the game this time around. So now that I've passed the big roadblock that stopped me cold last time, I'm ready to proceed into the previously inaccessible Southern area(because that area is gated off until the first 3 areas are cleared) and presumably I'm not that far from the end of the game.
And I'm already updating my short list of games I want to play next. Cuphead is on there but someone said Katana Zero is pretty good and it looks interesting. There's also the Forgotten City which I've been meaning to play for months now.
And I'm already updating my short list of games I want to play next. Cuphead is on there but someone said Katana Zero is pretty good and it looks interesting. There's also the Forgotten City which I've been meaning to play for months now.
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Did I tell you that Halo 1 is repetitive?
Oh I did? Well consider me a fancy pants meta analytist, because I'm here once again to be comically repetitive about how comically repetitive this comically repetitive game is. The latest mission I completed was the mission where the Flood are introduced.
It genuinely feels that Bungie made about 5 rooms for each mission, and then just copypasted those ad nauseam. Multiple times during the control room mission I found myself thinking "hang on, wasn't I just in here?" because the rooms are literally identical to one another. It's genuinely that lazy. I've actually started just skipping some combat encounters altogether and just looking for the way to the next objective, because the combat itself feels so pointless.
If I wasn't aware that Halo is one of the biggest gaming franchises of all time, I'd assume this game to be a mid-range shooter by a mid-sized studio with massive ambitions but short on development time and/or resources, so they spent most of the time on prettying up the graphics and just settled on using the same 4 or 5 enemies and reusing assets like a ************. The emptiness and cleanliness of every (identical) interior makes the game lack a sense of place and history. It feels more like walking through a bunch of sets than a place where anything happens or happened.
On the good side though, at least the jungle was a more interesting environment to look at, and looks pretty damn nice in the remaster. The short bit where I actually got to pilot an aircraft was also sweet, I hope there's more of that. And the Flood, reminiscent of the headcrabs from Half-Life as they are, at least provided a different kind of combat experience. So things are looking up at least in some regards.
I also installed Gothic 2 and gave it a spin. And 15 minutes later I stopped the spin and uninstalled the game.
I knew a PC exclusive western RPG from the early 2000s was going to take some getting used to, but holy balls, this was just insurmountable. Let's ignore the fact that if you haven't played Gothic 1, you're going to be completely lost in the beginning story wise. Let's instead focus on the simple facts like:
Oh I did? Well consider me a fancy pants meta analytist, because I'm here once again to be comically repetitive about how comically repetitive this comically repetitive game is. The latest mission I completed was the mission where the Flood are introduced.
It genuinely feels that Bungie made about 5 rooms for each mission, and then just copypasted those ad nauseam. Multiple times during the control room mission I found myself thinking "hang on, wasn't I just in here?" because the rooms are literally identical to one another. It's genuinely that lazy. I've actually started just skipping some combat encounters altogether and just looking for the way to the next objective, because the combat itself feels so pointless.
If I wasn't aware that Halo is one of the biggest gaming franchises of all time, I'd assume this game to be a mid-range shooter by a mid-sized studio with massive ambitions but short on development time and/or resources, so they spent most of the time on prettying up the graphics and just settled on using the same 4 or 5 enemies and reusing assets like a ************. The emptiness and cleanliness of every (identical) interior makes the game lack a sense of place and history. It feels more like walking through a bunch of sets than a place where anything happens or happened.
On the good side though, at least the jungle was a more interesting environment to look at, and looks pretty damn nice in the remaster. The short bit where I actually got to pilot an aircraft was also sweet, I hope there's more of that. And the Flood, reminiscent of the headcrabs from Half-Life as they are, at least provided a different kind of combat experience. So things are looking up at least in some regards.
I also installed Gothic 2 and gave it a spin. And 15 minutes later I stopped the spin and uninstalled the game.
I knew a PC exclusive western RPG from the early 2000s was going to take some getting used to, but holy balls, this was just insurmountable. Let's ignore the fact that if you haven't played Gothic 1, you're going to be completely lost in the beginning story wise. Let's instead focus on the simple facts like:
- There is no mouse cursor in the menus, or a targeting reticle during gameplay. This genuinely made me do a double take, because it seemed so unbelievable. This brings problems right in the start menu, when the option you're selecting is highlighted in white, and the others in beige, making it hard to even discern what you're choosing. This aggravation continues in gameplay, where you have to individually be pointing at every item you want to pick up. Thankfully there's at least a highlight around each item, but that's instantly ruined by the fact that...
- The camera follows you on a delay. This is legit one of the most baffling gameplay decisions I've ever seen. If you're moving to the side, the camera takes about half a second to follow you. If you move the camera, there's a delay of a few milliseconds between moving the mouse and the camera moving, which makes targeting things incredibly flimsy because of the aforementioned lack of a targeting reticle. I genuinely cannot for the life of me think of a single justification for this, and I saw no option to turn it off.
- You can only move forward, back, left and right. This could be okay if the above two problems didn't exist
- There are zero tutorials. Literally none. I kind of expected that going in, but it's still quite stunning. Dark Souls 1 had more tutorials than this. Morrowind was more intuitive than this.
- As far as I could tell, there were no hotkeys for items either. As in, not even in the key bindings menu. That's when I said "fuck this".
Finished Yoku's Island Express. It's wonderful, combining the thrill of exploration and discovery in Metroidvania with the simple catharsis of pinball into one of the most unique games I've played. Some of the trickier aspects of pinball might be off-putting at first but I can't recommend it enough.
I haven't played it but I think GMTK has talked about it and it seems like a really interesting concept.
I finished Hyper Light Drifter and it only took me 5 years 
Actually, 8 hours over the past two weeks from start to finish. I didn't find everything but I was more then prepared to deal with the final area and the final boss. And well, the ending doesn't really explain much because it's as minimalist as the rest of the game is but it was fun and it holds up well for the 8 hours it took to finish it. I do appreciate how all the upgrades are available from the hub town from the start of the game, but you need to find the gearbits(money) around the world to purchase them and you can choose to which ones you want and in what order. The only thing locked behind bosses(besides the final area) are weapons you get after beating each boss. Ironically, I finished 90% of the game just using the basic pistol and shotgun(which is OP as hell at close range) and getting ammo upgrades for them.
Started Cuphead and beat the first boss and Run and Gun stage. I've attempted 3 other bosses but they're a lot harder then they look(considering everything looks cartoony by design, I guess no shit). I might also try out Katana Zero because apparently that game is like Hotline Miami but with A Ninja(and it's a few hours long so not a huge commitment).
Actually, 8 hours over the past two weeks from start to finish. I didn't find everything but I was more then prepared to deal with the final area and the final boss. And well, the ending doesn't really explain much because it's as minimalist as the rest of the game is but it was fun and it holds up well for the 8 hours it took to finish it. I do appreciate how all the upgrades are available from the hub town from the start of the game, but you need to find the gearbits(money) around the world to purchase them and you can choose to which ones you want and in what order. The only thing locked behind bosses(besides the final area) are weapons you get after beating each boss. Ironically, I finished 90% of the game just using the basic pistol and shotgun(which is OP as hell at close range) and getting ammo upgrades for them. Started Cuphead and beat the first boss and Run and Gun stage. I've attempted 3 other bosses but they're a lot harder then they look(considering everything looks cartoony by design, I guess no shit). I might also try out Katana Zero because apparently that game is like Hotline Miami but with A Ninja(and it's a few hours long so not a huge commitment).
Wartales (PC; Steam)
Early access Battle Brothers clone. Build a mercenary group and wander around a sort of dark ages ?Wales/Scotland?, make money, kill stuff; do some crafting, take some missions. Seems in relatively good nick for EA - plenty to do - but it needs some fine tuning and fixing. For instance, I cannot understand why every battlefield seems to have bear traps and throwing spears lying around. Lots of small errors, like a sword called a "glaive" - a glaive is a type of polearm. I don't think the game has a central storyline or ending: you just trudge round and do stuff. Maybe they'll add one.
If I can briefly pause to rant, as with many fantasy RPG type games, the economy is bewilderingly absurd. Meat was very expensive: cows (milk), sheep (wool), chickens (eggs) etc. were really valuable things back then, they weren't casually killed for food by the peasantry. If a leg of lamb is the same price as a loaf of bread in your cod-European fantasy world, something is very wrong. In the same lines, where are the fish in the market? How are you growing grapes in wet and cold highlands? And then the weapons: even a low quality peasant sword would be about 2 days of labour by a skilled craftsman, never mind the raw material cost. Should they be the same price as a few days rations for a person? I really think they should not.
The fact this game calls the currency "Krowns"... really annoys me. Either use a "C", or pick a different name. At least it avoid the pit trap of calling them "gold pieces" which most fantasy games do: because if gold pieces work like fantasy games think they do, gold is barely any rarer than iron in their world. In the medieval era, a peasant's annual income was equivalent to around 6-10 gold pieces (and that's the lowest value gold coins), and yet in fantasy RPGs you're buying slop at cheap taverns for that kind of money. But "Krowns" - you can at least pretend they're copper or bronze.
Early access Battle Brothers clone. Build a mercenary group and wander around a sort of dark ages ?Wales/Scotland?, make money, kill stuff; do some crafting, take some missions. Seems in relatively good nick for EA - plenty to do - but it needs some fine tuning and fixing. For instance, I cannot understand why every battlefield seems to have bear traps and throwing spears lying around. Lots of small errors, like a sword called a "glaive" - a glaive is a type of polearm. I don't think the game has a central storyline or ending: you just trudge round and do stuff. Maybe they'll add one.
If I can briefly pause to rant, as with many fantasy RPG type games, the economy is bewilderingly absurd. Meat was very expensive: cows (milk), sheep (wool), chickens (eggs) etc. were really valuable things back then, they weren't casually killed for food by the peasantry. If a leg of lamb is the same price as a loaf of bread in your cod-European fantasy world, something is very wrong. In the same lines, where are the fish in the market? How are you growing grapes in wet and cold highlands? And then the weapons: even a low quality peasant sword would be about 2 days of labour by a skilled craftsman, never mind the raw material cost. Should they be the same price as a few days rations for a person? I really think they should not.
The fact this game calls the currency "Krowns"... really annoys me. Either use a "C", or pick a different name. At least it avoid the pit trap of calling them "gold pieces" which most fantasy games do: because if gold pieces work like fantasy games think they do, gold is barely any rarer than iron in their world. In the medieval era, a peasant's annual income was equivalent to around 6-10 gold pieces (and that's the lowest value gold coins), and yet in fantasy RPGs you're buying slop at cheap taverns for that kind of money. But "Krowns" - you can at least pretend they're copper or bronze.
Recently completed Death's Gambit: Afterlife (the recent total overhaul of the original Death's Gambit; it doubled in size and added numerous extra bosses and areas). It's a much meatier game now. Got Ending A.
Also finished Spiderman: Miles Morales yesterday. Excellent follow-up to the PS4 Spiderman. Worth pursuing the platinum trophy I think.
Also finished Spiderman: Miles Morales yesterday. Excellent follow-up to the PS4 Spiderman. Worth pursuing the platinum trophy I think.
I've actually been playing Cyberpunk 2077. My steam refund request was denied as I'd had it about 3 weeks, so I thought fuck it, I've paid £25 for it, might as well get my money's worth, but it was just not fun to play at all and I found a lot of the dialogue and characters irritating.
Then I went to the nexus, downloaded the complete overhaul/rebalance mod or whatever it's called, better minimap and a few others. Although there's still a lot I don't like about it, the missions I've done so far do actually play ok, the gunfights aren't awful, picking through buildings deactivating security measures is reasonably entertaining. It's not the Cyberpunk 2020 game I wanted, but as someone who is primarily a Warhammer gamer I'll take it, I'm used to playing games that are "OK" to play in the IP I want.
Then I went to the nexus, downloaded the complete overhaul/rebalance mod or whatever it's called, better minimap and a few others. Although there's still a lot I don't like about it, the missions I've done so far do actually play ok, the gunfights aren't awful, picking through buildings deactivating security measures is reasonably entertaining. It's not the Cyberpunk 2020 game I wanted, but as someone who is primarily a Warhammer gamer I'll take it, I'm used to playing games that are "OK" to play in the IP I want.
Days gone on PC has been driving me insane with some controller issues and a save bug. The controller thing is my fault I was using a hacked PS4 controller and having connection issues, switched to an xbox one, but the buttons changed and I got killed.
This wouldn't be bad but Days Gone has this infuriating issue on PC where it doesn't matter when you quicksaved or autosaved, if you died after you recently did something meaningful like defeated a base it resets you back to the beginning even if that was literally like 20 minutes of gameplay ago. So like I defeated a base, saved my game, got killed by a zombie 5 minutes later and it reset me back to before I beat the base UUURFGGGJGH. I wish the story was compelling enough to make me throw up my hands and dive back in, but instead I just huck my controller at a wall and go do something else.
One of my god kids said he missed his DS, so while I was buying one for him I also found a spare and made an excuse to start playing Etrian Odyssey. I've never played a DS and I always wanted to check this out because its a old school dudgeon crawler like Labyrinth of Refrain, which is one of my favorite games. Its surprises me how easily I'm hooked on these Dungeon crawlers. Its literally like crack and Ive been playing 24/7 the last couple days. I think there's something about not being dragged through a game like taking a cat for a walk.
Its just like "fuck you, make a party, heres the keys the dungeon, kill stuff and you'll learn the story...IF you're good enough"
The opposite of this is Tales Of Vesperia which I recently got on Switch. I'm like an hour or two in and ...idk I'm escaping a castle escaping with some chick, had a couple tutorial battles blah blah blah I hope this game starts soon. Actually I don't I havent touched my switch since I switched to Etrian Odyssey. If nothing else I wish RPG directors understood when is the time to tell story and do tutorials and when is the time to hook the player. I recall both Final Fantasy 6 & 7 started off with bangers before making the player do the mundanity. Actually I just started Final Fantasy Tactics and it also dumps you right into a battle and doesn't smear a tutorial in your face.
This wouldn't be bad but Days Gone has this infuriating issue on PC where it doesn't matter when you quicksaved or autosaved, if you died after you recently did something meaningful like defeated a base it resets you back to the beginning even if that was literally like 20 minutes of gameplay ago. So like I defeated a base, saved my game, got killed by a zombie 5 minutes later and it reset me back to before I beat the base UUURFGGGJGH. I wish the story was compelling enough to make me throw up my hands and dive back in, but instead I just huck my controller at a wall and go do something else.
One of my god kids said he missed his DS, so while I was buying one for him I also found a spare and made an excuse to start playing Etrian Odyssey. I've never played a DS and I always wanted to check this out because its a old school dudgeon crawler like Labyrinth of Refrain, which is one of my favorite games. Its surprises me how easily I'm hooked on these Dungeon crawlers. Its literally like crack and Ive been playing 24/7 the last couple days. I think there's something about not being dragged through a game like taking a cat for a walk.
Its just like "fuck you, make a party, heres the keys the dungeon, kill stuff and you'll learn the story...IF you're good enough"
The opposite of this is Tales Of Vesperia which I recently got on Switch. I'm like an hour or two in and ...idk I'm escaping a castle escaping with some chick, had a couple tutorial battles blah blah blah I hope this game starts soon. Actually I don't I havent touched my switch since I switched to Etrian Odyssey. If nothing else I wish RPG directors understood when is the time to tell story and do tutorials and when is the time to hook the player. I recall both Final Fantasy 6 & 7 started off with bangers before making the player do the mundanity. Actually I just started Final Fantasy Tactics and it also dumps you right into a battle and doesn't smear a tutorial in your face.
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Played a bit of etrian odyssey (I think it was EO4) but the game lack variety in gameplay, so I was having fun for the first 10 hours but things got pretty routine after. Loot is just the usual boring stuff that increase number with no interesting effect, class pretty quickly hey every skill they need and from there own don't really evolve and dungeon need more interesting gimmick to differentiate themselves. I got to the last boss but he was immune to status effect and one of the class I picked was entirely built around status effects... So overall I've found it a bit meh.
Tales of game are pretty heavy on story so if you don't like the idea of spending most of your time in cutscene I wouldn't bother continuing. I actually quite liked Vesperia but I can't play tales of game after playing Tales of Grace F since the combat system was so much better than every other entry. I tried replaying Vesperia when it got a PC port but I dropped it after 15 hours cause the combat was just too boring.
Days gone is okay but nothing amazing, if the story/character didn't really grab you there's no reason to push on, exploration is non existent and gameplay doesn't really evolve from the first few hours
I had to look up Death's Gambit because I kept thinking of Deaths Door, which came out a month or so ago and has gotten a lot of praise. Can you elaborate a little more on Deaths Gambit?
I've been playing Dark Souls 1 with both an item randomizer and an enemy randomizer mod. The parameters can be set in a way where it won't completely break the game (like Seath the Scaleless being forced into a narrow tunnel) so I've been playing on that, and it's genuinely a different kind of experience. It's really interesting when all the items are shuffled and you have no consistent basis to make a build on, so you have to make do with what you're given. I started out with a Partizan that I got to level up once due to an early titanite drop, so it was quite a struggle until I got hold of a Demon's Spear, and the game got a lot easier.
Despite the game feeling very fresh due to these shuffled elements, the inevitable result of such an imbalance is that you can become incredibly overpowered very easily. Endgame items can spawn before the game even starts, because my character started out with the armor of the final boss. Often times you'll just get a ton of souls for free from enemies falling into bottomless pits and death planes due to the AI not being programmed for the environment they spawn in. Many larger enemies will get stuck in doorframes, making them a cakewalk to fight. Merchant items are shuffled as well, so you can find an ordinary longsword costing like 20 000 souls, but also Legendary Souls (10k a pop) being sold for peanuts, making leveling up incredibly easy. In the run I'm currently on Andre was selling Twinkling Titanite for 100 souls each, and soon I was walking around with a fully upgraded Black Knight Greataxe before even killing the gargoyles.
Bosses are replaced randomly with other bosses as well, but retain the health bars of the original bosses. For example the Gaping Dragon was replaced by Artorias in my run, but due to it having the dragon's health pool and not Artorias's, it went down in like 8 hits. This dampens the excitement of the unbalance a fair bit, because it feels like the game fails to meet the power level it's allowed me to climb to with properly challening enemies. A lot of the time the shuffled bosses are also ill-fitted for the areas, like when the Capra Demon was replaced with the Sanctuary Guardian, and it literally couldn't hit me because of the smallness of the arena.
Still, it's quite an interesting experience, and I'd recommend it. It's as close as you're going to get to a genuine 3d Dark Souls roguelike.
Despite the game feeling very fresh due to these shuffled elements, the inevitable result of such an imbalance is that you can become incredibly overpowered very easily. Endgame items can spawn before the game even starts, because my character started out with the armor of the final boss. Often times you'll just get a ton of souls for free from enemies falling into bottomless pits and death planes due to the AI not being programmed for the environment they spawn in. Many larger enemies will get stuck in doorframes, making them a cakewalk to fight. Merchant items are shuffled as well, so you can find an ordinary longsword costing like 20 000 souls, but also Legendary Souls (10k a pop) being sold for peanuts, making leveling up incredibly easy. In the run I'm currently on Andre was selling Twinkling Titanite for 100 souls each, and soon I was walking around with a fully upgraded Black Knight Greataxe before even killing the gargoyles.
Bosses are replaced randomly with other bosses as well, but retain the health bars of the original bosses. For example the Gaping Dragon was replaced by Artorias in my run, but due to it having the dragon's health pool and not Artorias's, it went down in like 8 hits. This dampens the excitement of the unbalance a fair bit, because it feels like the game fails to meet the power level it's allowed me to climb to with properly challening enemies. A lot of the time the shuffled bosses are also ill-fitted for the areas, like when the Capra Demon was replaced with the Sanctuary Guardian, and it literally couldn't hit me because of the smallness of the arena.
Still, it's quite an interesting experience, and I'd recommend it. It's as close as you're going to get to a genuine 3d Dark Souls roguelike.
I’d love/hate to see what boss swaps with Bed of Chaos.
Slowly grinding through Cuphead. Getting a feel for how the game wants me to play it and I've gotten really close to beating some of the early bosses(Heidi Berg) in particular but I'm still not good at it. Thank god you can jus reattempt the boss without doing a level before it, what little help that is. I think I need to experiment with some of the other weapons and grind coins to get them or something.
Played an hour of Katana Zero thanks to JM8's video. Interesting game. Basically lot Hotline Miami(so I'm told) but pixelated art/2d side scrolling and you play a Samurai dude? Basically you work for some shadowy dudes as a hitman to kill whoever you're told to today and you're injected with a Drug before each mission that allows you to experience time in a really weird way. Basically, it gives you the ability to slow down time on command(like Bullet time) but also gives you a form of precognition.
So basically, you fight through one room of mooks and traps at a time and both you and the mooks die in 1 hit, meaning the action is fast and frantic(but bullet time gives you an advantage here). When you die, you get a brief "That won't work" and quickly rewind to the start of the level(not the mission) to try again. When you successfully pass the level by killing all the dudes and getting to the end, you see the whole thing in real time again like you're watching VHS security camera footage(this is skippable, BTW) and it's implied that you playing it was essentially planning all of this out and the replay is actually you doing it. Thus you never canonically die, you act out the same scenario until you find one where you survive and complete the level. Which is an interesting way of dealing with this idea.
You also see how these missions canonically last about 10 minutes or less(in one early mission, an mook gets on the elevator to escape you and you kill him when the elevator reaches the top floor just as you do after killing your way through the building), with you typically painting the hallways red with the blood of dozens of mooks in the process(and the local news keeps remarking on the slaughter you've left behind you) thanks to the time altering nature of the drug. You also get this cool little detail of when you start the combat part of a mission, your character turns on his music player to provide that levels soundtrack while you're playing(and the tunes are pretty good too).
The setting is a dystopian cyberpunk one with a lot of 80's/90's aesthetic to it and between each mission you get a few minutes to unwind a bit and talk to people and chill in your craphole apartment before the next mission. There's little purpose to this other then to let you soak in the setting a little and hint at the plot points, which is shrouded in mystery because as of several missions in I have no idea who or what I'm working for or doing. The main character, only known as Zero, is presumably a war vet who remembers almost none of his past or even who he is and you're told not to ask questions, just to go places and kill people for reasons because the shadowy organization who pays you and gives you your time drug tells you to. In one mission in particular, you're ordered to off an underground DJ and very explicitly told "DO NOT TALK TO THE DJ"(which is begging for you to do so but you don't have to) and if you do, he drops some hints about the drug you're continually injected with. It's very atmospheric and you can have conversations(with dialogue choices) during these bits, or you can just skip it entirely if you don't like it. I don't know if any of it affects the plot but it is a nice touch.
Apparently it's a rather short game(like 5 hours to complete) and that's fine, as so far it does a lot with it's length and worth checking out if it sounds interesting. Currently $9 at GOG, but it's $15 at full price and honestly it feels like it's worth the price tag even at $15.
Played an hour of Katana Zero thanks to JM8's video. Interesting game. Basically lot Hotline Miami(so I'm told) but pixelated art/2d side scrolling and you play a Samurai dude? Basically you work for some shadowy dudes as a hitman to kill whoever you're told to today and you're injected with a Drug before each mission that allows you to experience time in a really weird way. Basically, it gives you the ability to slow down time on command(like Bullet time) but also gives you a form of precognition.
So basically, you fight through one room of mooks and traps at a time and both you and the mooks die in 1 hit, meaning the action is fast and frantic(but bullet time gives you an advantage here). When you die, you get a brief "That won't work" and quickly rewind to the start of the level(not the mission) to try again. When you successfully pass the level by killing all the dudes and getting to the end, you see the whole thing in real time again like you're watching VHS security camera footage(this is skippable, BTW) and it's implied that you playing it was essentially planning all of this out and the replay is actually you doing it. Thus you never canonically die, you act out the same scenario until you find one where you survive and complete the level. Which is an interesting way of dealing with this idea.
You also see how these missions canonically last about 10 minutes or less(in one early mission, an mook gets on the elevator to escape you and you kill him when the elevator reaches the top floor just as you do after killing your way through the building), with you typically painting the hallways red with the blood of dozens of mooks in the process(and the local news keeps remarking on the slaughter you've left behind you) thanks to the time altering nature of the drug. You also get this cool little detail of when you start the combat part of a mission, your character turns on his music player to provide that levels soundtrack while you're playing(and the tunes are pretty good too).
The setting is a dystopian cyberpunk one with a lot of 80's/90's aesthetic to it and between each mission you get a few minutes to unwind a bit and talk to people and chill in your craphole apartment before the next mission. There's little purpose to this other then to let you soak in the setting a little and hint at the plot points, which is shrouded in mystery because as of several missions in I have no idea who or what I'm working for or doing. The main character, only known as Zero, is presumably a war vet who remembers almost none of his past or even who he is and you're told not to ask questions, just to go places and kill people for reasons because the shadowy organization who pays you and gives you your time drug tells you to. In one mission in particular, you're ordered to off an underground DJ and very explicitly told "DO NOT TALK TO THE DJ"(which is begging for you to do so but you don't have to) and if you do, he drops some hints about the drug you're continually injected with. It's very atmospheric and you can have conversations(with dialogue choices) during these bits, or you can just skip it entirely if you don't like it. I don't know if any of it affects the plot but it is a nice touch.
Apparently it's a rather short game(like 5 hours to complete) and that's fine, as so far it does a lot with it's length and worth checking out if it sounds interesting. Currently $9 at GOG, but it's $15 at full price and honestly it feels like it's worth the price tag even at $15.
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Katana is great but it is sadly very short and also essentially unfinished (ie it end on a cliffhanger with some vague promise of DLC/sequel). I do like that it's almost the only game that introduce the concept of slowing time and raise the point that it's fucking terrifying to get stuck in slow time in very discomfortable situation or to repeatedly re experience your death over and over again. Light spoiler, one character is forced to experience slow time while being tortured and then killed, so in their head they just repeatedly experienced their death, possibly to infinity.
I did a round of Captain Commando; had to scratch that itch. I decided to play the Japanese version to have the proper name for all of the characters. I played as Ninja Commando, Sho. The fast, but weak guy of the group. He's actually my favorite along with Jennetty. The weak thing about Sho is that he really does not get as many opportunities to use his off-the-wall jump kick compared to Guy in Final Fight.
Speaking of Final Fight, this game is the better Final Fight sequel and game. Way better than both SNES sequels; especially Final Fight 2. It's implied that Captain Commando takes place in Metro City, but in the future. Capcom introduced some staples that would carry in to most of their beat'em ups: You can now dash/run, there are multiple weapons, more enemy variety, and just better level design. Captain Commando almost makes Final Fight look like a tech demo by comparison, and the latter ages worse when compared to Streets of Rage 2 and beyond. Still no back attacks. I wonder why Capcom never bothered implementing that in any of their arcade brawlers. Nor kicking the enemy while they are down (Battle Circuit allowed you to grab mooks and bosses off the ground), but that was more so Konami's trademark, so I get it. Captain Commando is still fun game, there are many brawlers that surpassed it too. Capcom library being many of them. Battle Circuit is literally Captain Commando except there are no weapon pick ups, but you get a large repertoire moves that can be upgraded.
Speaking of Final Fight, this game is the better Final Fight sequel and game. Way better than both SNES sequels; especially Final Fight 2. It's implied that Captain Commando takes place in Metro City, but in the future. Capcom introduced some staples that would carry in to most of their beat'em ups: You can now dash/run, there are multiple weapons, more enemy variety, and just better level design. Captain Commando almost makes Final Fight look like a tech demo by comparison, and the latter ages worse when compared to Streets of Rage 2 and beyond. Still no back attacks. I wonder why Capcom never bothered implementing that in any of their arcade brawlers. Nor kicking the enemy while they are down (Battle Circuit allowed you to grab mooks and bosses off the ground), but that was more so Konami's trademark, so I get it. Captain Commando is still fun game, there are many brawlers that surpassed it too. Capcom library being many of them. Battle Circuit is literally Captain Commando except there are no weapon pick ups, but you get a large repertoire moves that can be upgraded.