playing through my entire steam library! Arctic Eggs, DEAD LETTER DEPT., Afterparty

Hello there, dear reader! I recently realized that I have over 100 games in my Steam library, but that I've only played a handful of them. As such, I'm pushing myself to play all ~140 games in my library before buying any new ones. I've decided that this DOES include games I've played before. During this journey I want a place to record my thoughts on each game I play, flex those games journalism muscles I guess. 

My next games are decided via a random spinning wheel. I did not keep track of play session dates or times when playing this first batch, but I'd like to pay attention to that in the future! 

These reviews/write-ups will contain spoilers for the games discussed!!!

SO!!! without further ado...........

Arctic Eggs was the first game my random game wheel gave to me. Sitting untouched in my library since its release, I truly had no idea what to expect. I had pretty much entirely avoided spoilers for this game before playing.

Arctic Eggs takes place in a dystopian society where the consumption of poultry has been outlawed. Homes are raided and chickens are seized by a militarized police force. People in the city eat instead, eggs, bacon, fish, cigarettes, bullets, cockroaches.

It is the player's job to cook for the hungry people. You spend your time in this game exploring the city and talking to its residents, cooking them meals in your trusty non-stick pan. Your goal is to feed enough people to be able to confront the Saint of Six Stomachs and earn your freedom, all the while spurred on by the question "Can you fry an egg on top of Mount Everest?" 

I REALLY enjoyed Arctic Eggs. It was funny and beautiful and dark and bizarre. It was so strange and lovingly crafted. The gameplay was simple but fun, sometimes surprisingly difficult. It made me want to make weirder, more interesting art (and also learn how to model ps1/low poly graphics). 

TLDR; Arctic Eggs was a surprising and wonderful game that made me feel Emotions. 

I first heard about Dead Letter Dept. in Jacob Geller's video essay 3 Games / 3 Hours / 3 Cursed Computers, and I was instantly intrigued. When I was in high school I spent hours of my day volunteering on the Smithsonian Archives online by transcribing documents. Old letters and ledgers, legal documents and correspondence. Turning that monotony into horror was such an exciting concept to me right off the bat. 

In DLD, the player has just moved to a new city and started a new job doing data entry for a strange company. Letters that have been lost in the mail are sent to them to transcribe and slowly train the company's AI. Everyday, the player walks from their apartment to the train and then to their office inside of an old warehouse. There, the player transcribes letters and addresses, slowly uncovering information about their senders, recipients, and themself. 

I had a REALLY good time playing DLD. The atmosphere is tense and horrifying and I felt, constantly, like I needed to be looking over my shoulder. Because of the gameplay--physically typing on your own keyboard--the creeping horror was so much more visceral than it might've been. 

I'm incredibly eager to replay this game! Apparently there are many different endings and paths to take, so I'm very curious to see what else the game has to offer. 

TLDR; Very scary, very fun, very unique, I loved it. 

Afterparty is... a game...

Afterparty is made by the same studio as Oxenfree, one of my all time favorite games (and one that will eventually be summoned by The Wheel), so I was very curious to see what this game had to offer. I love the gameplay of Oxenfree and the idea of the conversation/social mechanics plus silly drinks changing your abilities was very fun to me!!

The story follows Milo and Lola, childhood best friends, and their journey through Hell after their untimely deaths. The two of them have one night to save their souls and escape damnation by challenging Satan to a drinking contest. The story culminates with Satan's brothers and sisters confronting him about his drinking problem and Milo and Lola either getting him to lean into his issues for their own needs or sacrificing themselves in order to help him with his issues. 

Unfortunately, Afterparty is kind of doodoo ass. The writing is sloppy and corny, the characters and conflicts between them feel artificial, and the look is unappealing to me. By the end of the game characters are making weirdly meta comments, kind of out of nowhere and the whole thing just feels a little pointless. There are some things about it that I think are genuinely fun, some goofy and cool concepts that get thrown out, but the meat of the game is just so... nothing...? 

TLDR; This game kinda boring and lame. It had a few funny/cute moments but ultimately is just Hazbin Hotel but purple. 

So yeah !! thats my little viddy game write up for now !! my next game will beeeeeeeee Inscryption! which will be the first entry in the next batch of games !!

have you played any of these games? what did you think about them? any games youd like to know my thoughts on?

thanks for reading :D !!