you've found..
brief adventure log - the drifter
I'M SORRY FOR GETTING TOO EXCITED AND TALKING ABOUT something specific i enjoy and is to some degree dear to me XXXTENTACION SO MUCH LAST NIGHT I WAS IN MY FEELINGS IT WILL PROBABLY HAPPEN AGAIN THOUGH
ahem, anyway
my second of two semi-recurrent fallback themes for this advent: i'll briefly talk about adventure games i've played this year that stood out to me
i'm sure i've mentioned this before but just so we're on the same page, i'm making a point of exploring as much of the point and click adventure game genre because i find it an amazing medium. alongside i'm keeping a log of opinions, criticisms, good ideas, etc, then i'll rate the game on a tierlist system. i've got maybe like 50(?) titles down so far and have always intended to catalogue this on the website sometime but, y'know. thinking about it now i'll probably be giving this preamble everytime i talk about my adventure log until i end up actually putting it on my website somewhere proper. oh well, anyway, this year was a pretty damn good year for my adventure log, i played through precisely 20 titles (so far, but i don't think i'm playing anything else this year) and my S tier doubled, going from 3 to 6 games. one of these 3 S-tier games being
man this game was incredible
i don't remember how but at some point i ran into the telwynium, a tiny little free adventure game made by powerhoof for a gamejam. after rotting in my insanely long to-play list, it ended up catching my eye when looking for what's next. over the course of next few days i went through more or less everything powerhoof put out, and i knew right then and there i was smitten with them. the polish, the atmosphere, everything feels like a meticulously and lovingly crafted love letter to the genre itself. how could i not love something like this
the drifter was their first full sized release. it is all that and more
it was due to release in a few months after i've decided to play the telwynium which offered a nice break between this little powerhoof binge and it, a nice palette cleanser, if you will. one in which i ended up playing a very unexpected S-tier but i'll leave this for another time. we're nearing the release date at this point and i was looking forward to it. i think i got it and played it within the week it released. looking forward to games releasing isn't a thing that happened to me in the last, idk, 15 years, much less playing something so soon after it released, but it happened for the drifter. and boy i am so so happy to report that it stood up to and went above those expectations
according to my log i played it in two sittings. it was a summer weekend where i was catsitting pip for my girlfriend and had nothing else planned, just nice food, ice cream, and my game.
my notes on the drifter are actually really sparse, which is something that happens when i really enjoy a game since i'd much rather keep myself immersed instead of breaking to write every so often. it's all just praise anyway, be it for the attention to detail, interesting design choices, writing, it's insane and unprecedented buttery-smooth flow, etc, so i won't bother you too much with it. just a very early excerpt:
this is gonna be such an easy S i can just feel it. it's innovative and fresh while staying true to it's roots. it's like a treasure trove of detail and care
then another from the very end:
this is by far the peak of what modern adventure games can be. easiest S i've given yet
and i really mean it. it didn't feel like just a really good, well polished adventure game. it felt like the next iteration in what adventure games can be
i think it's mostly due to how cinematic it can be, while still feeling like an engaging and interactive game. turns out you CAN have both, and the drifter does
anyway, off a recommendation in some discord or another i went and played stasis afterwards. i guess we had to rebalance the scales somehow :l
star :)
i think this is the last unique flavour we're seeing. it's probably my favourite really, it's not tooooooo orangey like i sometimes feel like orange choc is, instead it's got these nice subtle crunchy bits that have some tanginess to it. i realise now i never gave them the usual food review ratings, my apolocheese to you, dear reader
final rating - [░░░▒▒▒▓▓▓▓████------] : 13.6/20
i'll rate the others as we run into them in subsequent days
ok
