Games You Might Not Have Tried - ep 14 - Mechs, Monsters and More! - Extra Credits

Hey everyone. It's been a while since we've done one of these. So just to recap, we are promising that the games on this list will all be the greatest things you've ever played. Each and every one more perfectly suited to your specific gaming tastes than the last. And James swears on Walpole that this will be the Oh. Uh oh. Oh. Sorry, this is my first one of these. Thanks, Scott. Where was I? Oh yeah. We are not promising all the games on this list are good, just that they're going to be interesting. So if you love looking at weird design or just tired of seeing the same game with a different skin, hopefully you find something here. Hunt: Showdown. We rarely recommend early access games, but this game just hits too many of my buttons not to talk about. Civil War era? Check. Bayou horror? Check. Battle

Royale? Check. And if you're already saying to yourself, "Not another Battle Royale game." Wait, there's more. Because this Battle Royale game is mostly PvE. And unlike basically all other Battle Royale, where everyone just hops in and starts shooting, there are real stakes here. You have a character. They level, they get skills, they grow, and they die. It's got an amazing risk versus reward mechanic where at any time, if you can get to an extraction point, you can just bug out. You can leave the map, keep your XP and your character. But if your character dies, they're torn up and you start a new one. High-level characters don't have so much of an advantage that they break the game, but the fact that your character can die makes this the most horror feeling multiplayer experience I've, well, ever experienced. The sound design is brilliant, the enemies are horrific, and the Civil War era weapons feel sufficiently clunky. So that it doesn't ever feel like you're just mowing down zombies with a machine gun. Hunt is still in early access, so the

queue times can be pretty long, and the game takes a pretty serious rig to run. But, if you're looking for a way to share a horror experience, or just want a totally new take on how to bring PvE into Battle Royale, it's one you should definitely check out. Tower of Time. Want an RPG with lots of exploration and a Baldur's Gate-like combat system? Want one where they actually focused on fine-tuning the combat more than the old cRPGs? Then grab Tower of Time. The world and lore are interesting. The character writing, on the other hand, is a bit on the weak side. But, if you're looking for interesting tactical cRPG-style combat that makes you think through how to use the map and how to gear your characters, this one's worth a look. Slay the Spire. Most of you have probably already spent some time with Slay the Spire, so we won't take too long on it. But, it's one of those games that has to make it on a games you might not have tried list. So, if you want a game with roguelike mechanics, drafting and deck-building gameplay, and ethereal dungeon whales,

look no further. BattleTech. Jordan Weisman, the man who founded FASA, comes full circle to bring us a tactical turn-based BattleTech game. The interesting design here is that the game is slow and fiddly. It has all that legacy of the old tabletop BattleTech experience. Heat sinks, mechs with a ton of different hit point bars, and the possibility of your giant battle robot falling over if it's knocked around too much. They're all here, wrapped in a nice managing a mercenary company wrapper. This is a game that feels like industry wisdom would say it couldn't succeed because it's too old school. But, that wisdom is at least half wrong. BattleTech does a good job of showing us why we shouldn't always throw out complications if what we're trying to make the player feel is that they're operating a massive, complicated machine. On the downside, though, be warned that sometimes they go a little too far with how much they slow the game down. Even if you turn off all the critical hit animations and the random camera zooms, every turn still feels

ponderous as you wait for every single vehicle in an enemy convoy to move. If you can see past that, though, it'll definitely scratch that old-school turn-based itch. A Way Out Looking for something to play with a friend or partner? A Way Out delivers just that. Spearheaded by many of the people who made Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons, A Way Out is a two-player only game, but it's not a traditional multiplayer game. It's a narrative game focused on having the players help each other through the puzzles it provides as the characters build a friendship. It's simple enough that anyone can pick it up even if they haven't played a lot of games before, but helping each other feels rewarding enough that even veteran players won't really notice that the gameplay itself is fairly basic. A word of warning, though, it does start as a run-of-the-mill prison break drama that can feel a little contrived at times. So, if working together isn't getting you past that, this might not be the game for you. Oh, and we should probably mention there's a scene with full male nudity if that's a concern. It's not sexualized, but it's certainly there.

Overall, though, if you're looking for a novel multiplayer experience that shows there are other ways to play together than simply being on a team that's part of a larger competition, A Way Out is worth a look. Minute Zelda where every life you die in exactly 1 minute. You've piqued my interest and have my attention. The gameplay and puzzle design here mostly involves trying new things every life until you figure out some new way to interact with the game world, eventually coming up with an optimal path so your task can get done in under a minute. The core concept wears a little thin as you get towards the end of the game, but it's short enough where it doesn't overstay its welcome. And finally, Frostpunk It's a bleak world, frozen, dying. Some of the last survivors huddle around a piece of technology that came from the doomed cities before the world froze, an ancient generator to keep them warm. Now you must lead them to flourish in this new ice age. This game is a city builder, but it

makes it on this list because it forces the player to ask how much is too much. What would you do to survive? There are moments that may make you want to put this game down, like when it seems you may have to resort to child labor. And these things should make you want to put it down. But if we give the developers the benefit of the doubt, this game is always showing us that there's a better way. Every time there's an odious choice in this game, it becomes abundantly clear that if you had just done better, if you had just worked harder as a player, you wouldn't have to make that compromise, and you wouldn't have to do the evil thing. So, for being a strangely compelling morality lesson wrapped in an interesting city building skin, Frostpunk rounds out our list. So, there you have it. I guarantee every game on this list is perfectly interesting. Huh? Good? Okay. So, I hope you check them out. See you next time.