Amnesia: The Dark Descent

Gameplay: 5/10
I feel neutral on this. Survival horror games aren't really ABOUT the gameplay, after all, so it's hardly fair to rate it too harshly. The inventory system was nice. I liked how the on screen pointer changes depending on what you're holding! That said, I didn't have a great time with some of the puzzles. Beasts are unfortunately rather scary to me and it's hard to solve puzzles while scared. I can't really deduct points for this, as it's the point of survival horror games. but i don't want my scary game to be a fucking soulslike where i die every five seconds, so i turned on infinite health. which made the game way more fun. sorry to any Real Gamers who think this is a sin.

Visuals: 7/10
You can really smell the care in this game. I listened to a couple of the developer commentary tapes, and the people who made it seemed to really enjoy talking about the game they made. With the context I have here in 2022 of Amnesia being a well-known horror series, I was surprised by how few names there were in the credits! Something that really impacted me was the developer tape in a room with lots of PIPES. Pipes that, being in a 2010 ass game, I didn't initially think much of. But hearing the dev talk about modeling them… it really brings you back into the "oh yeah, someone MADE all this" mindset.

Story: 4/10
I don't really know what to say here... there certainly is a lot of supplementary lore. Notes upon journals upon letters to read. None of which I could bring myself to care about whatsoever. The only notes I found interesting were the brief ones, not connected to any broader "series" of journal entries or something. The problem with journal entries is.. if you miss even one page, you're lost. So I ended up confused and lost as to why I was doing what I was doing.

Pidge Index: 5/10
There wasn't really a whole lot that personally appealed to me in this game. The setting was alright, the monster design was alright, it was an overall ‘alright’ experience. I didn't feel particularly attached to the game as a whole until the last two or so hours of gameplay. HOWEVER! Almost every item is intractable, meaning I can fling everything around and clip things outside windows and through walls and whatnot.

Final Score: 6/10
A good horror game if you like to read more than you like to run away from beasts.

Amnesia: A Machine For Pigs

Gameplay: (machine)4(pigs)/10
What can you say? Imagine dark descent but remove my personal favorite part (flinging shit around the room like a lunatic). The puzzles were at best mildly entertaining and at worst frustrating to the point of saying “oh fuck OFF” out loud. The beast interactions comprise 3/10 of this score. I do enjoy beasts on occasion, but the beast behaviors were rather lackluster. There were a few good startles, but there wasn't as much threat as there was in dark descent.

Visuals: 5/10
The areas in this game were all very different and easy to distinguish from each other... possibly to its detriment. It's good for locations to look unique, but not unique enough that the player thinks "why on earth would a place that looks like THIS be HERE?". Where dark descent was a single coherent location, a machine for pigs can't for the life of it settle on where it wants to be set. Some horror games benefit from a widely varied environment, and some do not. A machine for pigs does not. That said, the areas that are randomly jumbled together all do feel quite nice, if only there was any rhyme or reason for them being where they are. Purely technically, the visuals are... basically the same as a dark descent. That's not a bad thing, though! It has a nice ambiance for sure.

Story: 4/10
A pretty simple plot presented in a bafflingly roundabout way. I would've loved the plot a whole lot more if it wasn't wrapped up in the clunky package of the gameplay. As far as I know, it has zero connection to the plot of a dark descent. Which is odd for a sequel. But for me, that was kind of a plus, as dark descent had way too much lore that i couldn't be assed to read. So I doubt I would've realized a parallel even if it was there. This gets two points deducted for the ending. So without the ending, I'd give it a 6/10.

Pidge Index: 8/10
I was a big big fan of the AIR this game had about it. The atmosphere was right up my alley. My childhood full of books that took place in industrial revolution England (a strangely broad genre in childrens and teen literature!) did leave me with a residual fondness for the setting. Not to get too spoiler-y but as the title implies, there is a machine, and there are pigs. And you know what machines typically do to pigs. Sometimes the yuck factor hit good and sometimes it didn't!

Final Score: 7/10
Pretty good, but admittedly I gave it 2 extra points because I liked the story better than dark descent. So, if you remove personal bias, it's about a 5/10.

Rune Factory 4

Gameplay: 8/10
Oh boy, what a doozy the gameplay is. if you like farming games, it's gonna be too bare-ones for you to enjoy. if you like combat based games, it's gonna be too repetitive. but if you're a jack of all trades, you'll have a BLAST. there's fishing and crafting and cooking and fighting and farming and all sorts of other things that combine to make a wonderful feedback loop that bounces you from event to event. something as small as a crop being done growing is like a little party. you might get a little level up bonus! you can sell the crops for money that you can use to buy new things! to me, it's pretty much perfect.

Visuals: 4/10
sorry, but this game is ugly as sin. i can't really fault it because it works for what it needs to (the portraits of the anime women and men look fine at least), but still. I've seen far better 3ds games. the sprite art for food does manage to look absolutely delicious though.

Story: 2/10
we're not here for this "story", we're here to make a farm and cook food and fight some monsters. the story is an average fantasy deal. which is, to be honest, a pretty good thing. it gives the gameplay time to shine.

Pidge Index: 10/10
i come crawling back to rune factory 4 whenever i'm feeling down. there's something so soothing, almost hypnotic about the nonstop dinging of leveling up some skill or another, organizing your farm, doing your daily chores, and puttering around to greet townsfolk. it's meditative and entertaining and wonderful. and i've almost seduced leon in this particular playthrough. so there.

Final score: 8/10
ever since i got my copy as a hand-me-down from my cousin, i've loved it to bits, and that still hasn't changed! it's a big comfort game for me, and i think if you ever wish stardew valley felt a little more lively instead of soothing, this is a good choice.