Prime Gaming – October 2021

Every month this sneaks up on me, and I think I’m prepared to cover all that is available with Prime Gaming. Nope! I held off from the leaks since I had reservations, but it turns out this is the one month there is very little horror and at least two or three interesting things available. Don’t go playing me like this, don’t be an amateur and do this one month of the year. Either play this hard or go home Prime! Was that nothing more than a sly way of getting in a reference to Bo Burnham’s “Bezos I?” Maybe.

We’ll start with the only true horror game that I can say with certainty is of quality, and we’re starting here because you have to redeem it through the Epic Games Store. Alien: Isolation is the 2015 first-person horror game based on the original Alien film (the best one), and does so well. I can’t stand horror, I can hardly stand the good ones like Silent Hill 2 and Resident Evil 4. Otherwise, I am hiding in the cupboard with Ritchie Tozer’s teacups. While there are moments of Alien: Isolation that are a little scripted in terms of their jump-out horror moments, they are used rather sparingly. That is more than I can say of the moments you are beating off the Autons with a stick, which is the most annoying part of an otherwise brilliant adaptation of such an IP.

I won’t overly detail the in-game loot section this month for multiple reasons, but most importantly, no one cares. Yes, Grand Theft Auto Online and Red Dead Online are still doing their same rodeo. Until the 8th of October, you can pick up Mirage’s Brand Ambassador outfit for Apex Legends. Madden NFL 22, and FIFA 21/22 fans can continue their assorted affair with those digital card pack things I don’t understand. Meanwhile, mobile games continue their annoying trend of taking up more than a quarter of the 40+ slots.

The second game is actually four-in-one, but all part of one wonderful claymation comedy. Wallace & Gromit. Specifically, you can claim the 2009 Telltale series Wallace & Gromit’s Grand Adventures. It was re-released late last year following messy managerial issues and closure of the studio in October of 2018 along with their eventual re-launch in December 2018. I can’t honestly say it was the best series the studio adapted, as this was the pre-Walking Dead days. Not long after they’d also release the similarly mediocre Back to the Future series. I’m sure you’ll enjoy them, but I doubt you’ll call them excellent.

Next up is the only other horror game for the month of Halloween, which I find weird given how much Americans bang on about the day. Song of Horror is a survival horror game with Lovecraftian themes because that is the law now, like everything that includes electricity needs to mention Nikola Tesla. As I said, I’m not one for horror, but from my research it at least takes inspiration from those late 90s/early 00s horror games we’re remastering now: Resident Evil, Silent Hills, and Fatal Frame/Project Zero.

As I said above, I’ll keep this brief. World of Tanks continues to offer in-game rewards for your subscription, and Sea of Thieves offers cosmetics. Possibly most importantly, Amazon’s own MMORPG that will be laying at the feet of Activision-Blizzard even after their legal troubles, New World is offering a cosmetic pack too. Meanwhile, VALORANT offers another spray, Rainbow Six Siege offers a FrAgMenT [sic] operator bundle, and Call of Duty: Mobile and Cold War offer two separate bundles. There are lots more available loot drops that I have not mentioned.

The next game is one you’ll have to redeem through GOG, and I don’t know why we’re doing this at all, but I don’t care. If Katana Zero is best described as speedy-Hitman, then Ghostrunner is a speedy first-person Hitman with not too subtle symbolism. Similar to all [blank]-runner media, it is a dystopian cyberpunk world where the rich live high on up and the pond scum (humans) have to suck on a damp and dirty dishtowel for drinking water. You are a contract killer who seems to think wearing saucepans on your clogs was a great idea when you were hired to go kill someone, resulting in hell’s firing squad being unleashed anytime you show up at the front desk of the apartment building of EvilCorp’s CEO. It’s good, kind of.

How in all that is holy Secret Files 3 released in 2012 is a mystery beyond my comprehension. It looks like a time traveler saw Black Widow and went back to 2005. Then they made a game with a fiery redhead in a black skin-tight suit, got drunk, and woke up hanging the time machine in 2012, declaring it time to release the game. It is still the same point-and-click adventure business as before, with the same aged look about it as the previous games. I can honestly say, I don’t know why this series ever got off the ground.

Ok, time for one of the most obnoxious titles this side of Leisure Suit Larry 3. Whiskey & Zombies: The Great Southern Zombie Escape is a top-down zombie shooter with pretensions of being a larger game, one that would require stealth for instance. It works on the assumption that it is funny while lacking a reason to play it and find out, which I think is one of its biggest drawbacks out the gate. You might find the survival aspect of the shoot ’em up entertaining, I just simply can’t find a reason to go near it out of all the games available this month.

Red Wings: Aces of the Sky is a kind of cel-shaded/cartoon arcade plane/shooter set during World War 1, and despite its generic look, I’m interested. Maybe it is not an instant recommendation to all your friends type of game, but certainly it is one to tootle about with for a few hours. I know, it is a novel concept that not everything has to be a 10 out of 10 triple-A masterpiece, but unlike hillbilly Joe’s basement gunfight with zombies (or whatever it was called), the art style and the concept is making me want to play it. It may be a little generic, but it is not as generic as dirt.

This brings me to the third and final game to be redeemed outside of the Prime Gaming app, Star Wars: Squadrons. The 2020 space dogfighting game (no dogs were harmed in the making of this sentence) set in the Star Wars universe released to not all too rapturous applause. With some decent ideas, it was capturing the minds of fans, but not breaking out into being the next big Star Wars success in gaming. More so, it is the sound of R2-D2 getting flung down a flight of stairs. It sounds like great fun but there is only one result from the whole thing and it doesn’t last long. You can redeem this one (of course) over on EA’s launcher, Origin.

Ok, time for the mobile phone port that only recently (very recently) made its way to Steam. Tiny Robots Recharged is a port of a mobile phone puzzle, point & click, and hidden object game… I think. The Steam page isn’t the most helpful, and screenshots are a little too generic to tell you much detail. In truth, it seems like you get a small area where maybe a puzzle or two is hidden, you have to activate something or rub objects against others to 90s adventure game your problems to success, and that’s it. It is simple, effective, but not that type of thing I’d want to play on my PC rather than my phone.

An odd little duck is next. Blue Fire: Void of Sorrows is a platforming hack & slash affair that is cute, yet attempts some Souls-like themes. The little My Chemical Romance fan for a lead character is possibly too innocent for a world that wants to shove things up your bum, like the rest of the internet. I’m oddly interested in this last one simply because it is a Souls-like and I am sure I’ve recently said something about not wanting another Souls-like in my life unless it is Elden Ring. It might not tide me over to January, but it will do.