Well, I'm out of the pit: unemployment cut the first of many checks and it's time to really commit to...not wasting my time applying for jobs that aren't hiring. I started 2 new titles this month.
Vampyr is one of the PS+ titles for Oct 2020 and would have rocked my socks off had I not just come off of Witcher. You play as Jonathan Reid, a doctor in London during the Spanish flu about 100 years ago. He's just been turned into a vampire, killing his sister in his delierium while in the new state. This all happens in the first 5 minutes, so I'm not spoiling much. It's an action game with stiff combat and a variety of skills and stats to increase. There's a detective part of the game where each area of London has a cast of characters that you talk to, and learn facts about one another. As you do so, you gain XP through conversations and dialogue choices which stands out and gives you incentive to talk. However, the game does the legwork of memorization for you, which is good and bad. It's good because the game isn't engaging enough to me personally to want to do more than complete the game as quickly as possible. I blame The Witcher because it's the diamond standard for this type of game. However, it's bad because maybe without the game remembering facts for you, I might be inclined to pay more attention.
The other thing about Vampyr is that these citizens have various sicknesses that you can cure, as you're a doctor, and in turn that makes their blood more appealing. If you solve a citizen's problems (quests) and cure their condition, you can suck their blood and level up quite nicely. However, and it's totally my fault as a trophy hunter, one of the game's trophies requires you not to suck anyone's blood. This trophy entirely alters the experience of this game, as you're not allowed to really be a vampire, which is the title of the game. Also, you miss out on leveling up so everything is harder. Again, I accept full responsibility that I'm choosing the trophy over the game designers' intentions, but in general quite a few trophies encourage gameplay that rewards you. For example, hunting trophies based on collectibles means you build the habit of scanning your environment, and that usually leads to finding valuable things in your quest, no matter the game. Between my backlog and the fact that the game is only slightly entertaining, I'm not going to do another playthrough just to see what's different. Also, the combat is clunky as hell. Theoretically, you can equip two different sets of weapons to, say, switch between close combat and ranged. This doesn't work, and when fighting multiple targets, you have to stop and go into the menu.
The other game on the menu is Shiness: The Lightning Kingdom. It's a fighter-RPG done in a very pretty colorful anime style. This is another game where the trophies really dictate the experience; I can't die in this playthrough. It builds it into the save, so I'll be over-leveling and occasionally backing up my save to USB.
Other than that are Apex Legends, Overwatch and Doom: Eternal's Halloween events.
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