What to do with the gaming portion of this website remains the key question; the section on other stuff is easy, given that it’s the catch-all realm. Critters gets writings focused on, well, critters, which probably could be merged with other stuff, but we’ll see to what extent each section persists without the other’s presence. Climbing shall remain a barren landscape, I fear, given that COVID-19 has crushed that aspect of life into memories and anticipations. Though, I suppose I could relabel it as exercise during this hopefully temporary foray into the apocalypse. Ultimately, the goal behind this website is to prompt me to write, as a means to focus energy during the insanity at large as well as to see what habits, hobbies, curiosity, or the like might emerge.
I hope to connect my love for games to this website in a meaningful, useful fashion. This could mean writing reviews, creating videos to explain rules or serve as reviews, or some other endpoint. No idea. No idea seems firm, and options remain equal parts boundless and inchoate. I thought to write nebulous, but at least each nebula appears discrete in the night sky, and the presence of each excites many a viewer. Messier has no stranglehold on such elations.
This morning wakefulness deprived me of extended slumber. About two hours before my scheduled time to arouse my senses, my eyes were open, backed by an alert mind. Rather than linger in the bed, as is the typical outcome of restlessness at war with my desire to knock back hours of sleep, I moseyed to the kitchen to stumble through coffee making and food gathering to plant myself before my in-session game of Cloudspire. Griege Solo 1, with two waves completed.
This faction feels wild; the entire evolution process is exciting in that it changes the pace of your onslaught, for the evolving units camp out for several turns before they charge toward the enemy gate in powered-up form. The hero who takes health from the gate creates an unnerving situation on the home front, for losing your gate becomes a matter of a powerful enemy or a few mediocre ones sneaking past your units. The powers on the units are fun; they introduce new options in terms of having a unit with toxic secretion and another one with the ability to leave toxic fumes polluting a path upon its death. It’ll be interesting to see how the dearth of spire types will play out, given that the two options seem viable for many situations, even if limited. The Griege feel like a shaken-up incarnation of the familiar, though to what extent they’ll play out different from the other factions remains to be seen, for whereas the other four factions were present throughout the preceding solo scenarios, this marks their first time outside of the plastic chip tray within which they entered my home. I will say that reading through their abilities and considering the various fortress upgrades left me giddy. You can buy a mercenary and essentially sacrifice it to the hive to infuse its ability to your minions or consume it to heal your gate?! Color me intrigued by the less enticing market options!
Overall, my solo plays have been satisfying. I love that much of the game requires you to use the rules against the game, for the AI follows prescribed actions, and then you get to choose for it when multiple viable paths, sometimes in the literal sense, present themselves. That you can influence who hits whom, and set in motion a series of events that will cause area-effect abilities to cause harm to the AI, pleases me, as does flipping landmark minions which will deplete an opposing unit’s health well before it makes it near your own units. That each solo scenario alters the overarching framework keeps me curious, as well as teasing out variations on how to remain nimble.
With only three solo missions left, for I succeeded in securing three renown this morning, I have decided to space out the remaining games. Rather than set up the second Griege solo scenario, I packed away the contents.
Not sure what I shall unearth next, perhaps Too Many Bones. Though, going down the solo rabbit hole present by Hoplomachus: Origins does intrigue me. It seems I’m on a Chip Theory Games kick, though I still wish to see what sort of soloing can be secured by Paladins of the West and Brass: Birmingham. Also, running another Mage Knight session could be fun, as well as picking back up 7th Continent, though I suspect that game might not be for me. Rogue-like games often frustrate me; experiencing Groundhog Day is torture, not fun. Though, sometimes rogue-like offerings are decent, and maybe 7th Continent will turn out to be less painful as the die-repeat process occurs. I suspect that, for me, it’s better played with a friend then alone, so as to distribute the frustrating aspects and add in some dialogue and shared contemplation rather than rushing about as I tend to do while alone. Spirit Island is another contender. With the recent release on Steam, playing has become much easier.