FREE Game at EG Valued at $29.99 on Steam November 29th + FREE Game at EG Valued at $14.99 on Steam December 5th

[Paul Rudd]

FREE Game for TODAY, November 29th at the Epic Games store.

Valued at $29.99 on Steam here... Link it has 3,186 Very Positive reviews.

 

FREE Game for December 5th at the Epic Games store.

Valued at $14.99 on Steam here... Link it has 1,516 Very Positive reviews.

 

Next Thursday, I'll own this free game valued at $14.99 on Steam on 3 different platforms as they gave it out back in July of 2017 on both Steam and GOG.

[JZStudios]

Interesting that Valhalla Jotun has positive reviews on Steam. I tried it on GOG and it was pretty bland. Think GOG reviews were pretty average too.

[Paul Rudd]

17 hours ago, JZStudios said:

Interesting that Valhalla Jotun has positive reviews on Steam. I tried it on GOG and it was pretty bland. Think GOG reviews were pretty average too.

How many minutes of game-play do you have in the game?

[JZStudios]

8 hours ago, Intransigent said:

How many minutes of game-play do you have in the game?

Dunno. It was from GOG and I don't track play time, nor do I use Galaxy. I'd say an hour or two. After reading a Steam review I remembered that the combat isn't great and I managed to get lost and couldn't figure out where to go so it was a lot of slow walking through empty forest.

[Paul Rudd]

5 hours ago, JZStudios said:

I managed to get lost and couldn't figure out where to go so it was a lot of slow walking through empty forest.

Sounds like Zelda II The Adventure of Link on the NES. One of the best games of all time. If you're not much into ARPG's, you may not like Jotun.

[JZStudios]

12 hours ago, Intransigent said:

Sounds like Zelda II The Adventure of Link on the NES. One of the best games of all time. If you're not much into ARPG's, you may not like Jotun.

Zelda had enemies to fight and combat that wasn't garbage.

[Paul Rudd]

1 hour ago, JZStudios said:

Zelda had enemies to fight and combat that wasn't garbage.

I don't think they went for excellent combat.

 

Seems to me they went for story/narrative, mood, voyage/wandering, animation, inspiration, mysticism, affection, themed levels, atmosphere, environmental backdrops/vistas/dangers, design, puzzles, exploration and captivation.

 

It's obviously to be experienced slowly, so that you can appreciate and savor its artistry, rather than to be completed as quickly as possible. Defeating the Jotuns is fast-paced and action heavy to mix with the calms of exploration.

 

The combat, while seeming to be garbage, is actually humble in comparison. A light and heavy attack, a dodge and a few limited use, healing/damage boosting abilities. Each encounter sparks a hectic dance of avoiding massive attacks while navigating environmental pitfalls. Picking a moment to strike back is almost always a tough challenge. Reaching the end makes you want more to explore and experience.

 

If beauty and wonder doesn't interest you, unfolding Jotun like a storybook isn't going to either. I suppose I like it for that reason. It's like watching a movie such as The Neverending Story. And if you haven't watched that movie, you best buy and watch it asap. It's currently free to watch on the Roku channel.

[JZStudios]

2 hours ago, Intransigent said:

I don't think they went for excellent combat.

 

Seems to me they went for story/narrative, mood, voyage/wandering, animation, inspiration, mysticism, affection, themed levels, atmosphere, environmental backdrops/vistas/dangers, design, puzzles, exploration and captivation.

 

It's obviously to be experienced slowly, so that you can appreciate and savor its artistry, rather than to be completed as quickly as possible. Defeating the Jotuns is fast-paced and action heavy to mix with the calms of exploration.

 

The combat, while seeming to be garbage, is actually humble in comparison. A light and heavy attack, a dodge and a few limited use, healing/damage boosting abilities. Each encounter sparks a hectic dance of avoiding massive attacks while navigating environmental pitfalls. Picking a moment to strike back is almost always a tough challenge. Reaching the end makes you want more to explore and experience.

 

If beauty and wonder doesn't interest you, unfolding Jotun like a storybook isn't going to either. I suppose I like it for that reason. It's like watching a movie such as The Neverending Story. And if you haven't watched that movie, you best buy and watch it asap. It's currently free to watch on the Roku channel.

I like slow, plodding games. I thoroughly enjoyed FireWatch, Ethan Carter, Edith Finch, etc. but the combat was garbage, and it's a game about boss fights. Walking through screens of identical looking forest trying to figure out where the fuck to go since there's no clues or indications of any kind isn't fun, interesting, engaging, nor explorative.

[Paul Rudd]

2 hours ago, JZStudios said:

but the combat was garbage, and it's a game about boss fights.

The game isn't about boss fights until you reach the bosses. You have yet to complete the game(supposedly around 10 hours), so maybe the combat will pick up for you as you advance further. Sometimes a game can seem very boring until you give it more time. Did that with Skyrim and I totally regretted it.

2 hours ago, JZStudios said:

Walking through screens of identical looking forest trying to figure out where the fuck to go since there's no clues or indications of any kind isn't fun, interesting, engaging, nor explorative.

It may not be fun or interesting(to you at least), but it's definitely engaging(not super engaging) and explorative. But I mean, you pretty much just described the definition of explore. To travel in or through (an unfamiliar country or area) in order to learn about or familiarize oneself with it. Figuring out where to go is familiarizing yourself in order to learn about the world. If the environments are identical looking to you, I'd say that could be a con of some sort. Pretty much every game has cons. It's not a 10/10 game. It's somehow 9/10 on Steam and 7 to 8 out of 10 at familiar review sites.

 

Imo, you just gotta be more into what it's all about rather than hoping the combat is its strong-suit. If everything outside of combat is not fun to you, maybe it's just not your cup of tea. To this day I'll never understand why people play Plague Inc, I just won't.

[JZStudios]

15 hours ago, Intransigent said:

The game isn't about boss fights until you reach the bosses. You have yet to complete the game(supposedly around 10 hours), so maybe the combat will pick up for you as you advance further. Sometimes a game can seem very boring until you give it more time. Did that with Skyrim and I totally regretted it.

It may not be fun or interesting(to you at least), but it's definitely engaging(not super engaging) and explorative. But I mean, you pretty much just described the definition of explore. To travel in or through (an unfamiliar country or area) in order to learn about or familiarize oneself with it. Figuring out where to go is familiarizing yourself in order to learn about the world. If the environments are identical looking to you, I'd say that could be a con of some sort. Pretty much every game has cons. It's not a 10/10 game. It's somehow 9/10 on Steam and 7 to 8 out of 10 at familiar review sites.

 

Imo, you just gotta be more into what it's all about rather than hoping the combat is its strong-suit. If everything outside of combat is not fun to you, maybe it's just not your cup of tea. To this day I'll never understand why people play Plague Inc, I just won't.

No, Zelda has exploration done well. Moving from place to place with points of interest, puzzles to solve, and enemies to fight. Wandering lost through a forest is not exploration. It's not even an interesting enough forest to be distracted, like in any of the games I mentioned prior.

 

Interestingly, it has significantly lower review scores on GOG that I'm more inclined to agree with.

https://www.gog.com/game/jotun

[Paul Rudd]

8 hours ago, JZStudios said:

Interestingly, it has significantly lower review scores on GOG that I'm more inclined to agree with.

3.4/5, not bad. That's pretty much 6.8/10. Sounds about right.

[JZStudios]

20 hours ago, Intransigent said:

3.4/5, not bad. That's pretty much 6.8/10. Sounds about right.

It's not stunning. I guess the issue with steam reviews is it's either yes or no. 6.8 isn't a definite no, but it's also not exactly a glowing recommendation like I might give for Yakuza or something.