Prime Gaming - December 2022

One last month of 2022 and it just had to be one of the worst of all of this year’s Prime Gaming offerings. As always, players of games like World of Warships, World of Warcraft, and those in the world of Grand Theft Horse 2 can pick up the ever-present “in-game loot” for their predominantly live-service games. From Battlefield to Roblox, Call of Duty, and New World, there is probably something useless for you that I don’t care about and would rather not talk about much longer.

Moving on to this month’s offerings, we’ll start with Josef Fares’ first game that bored the christ out of me: Brothers – A Tale of Two Sons. An interesting concept of an artsy platformer with a focus on two characters instead of the typical one. With an innately single-player focus until the Switch’s exclusive multiplayer mode came along, Brothers – A Tale of Two Sons was a mind-bending, artistic, and sometimes annoying experience. The two brothers are controlled by each analog stick, and it doesn’t work very well.

From one disappointment to another, it is a retread of an action platformer you presumably already have on Amazon Games or you simply don’t care, Spinch. Yes, it is colorful which is often a tick in my box, but Queen Bee Games’ Spinch is something I’ve had sitting there since February 2021, and there is a reason for that. With the countless options you have with systems like this or even Epic’s boundless offerings week in and week out, I just don’t have Spinch at the top of my to-play list. I assume you may be rather similar in that regard.

A new release and something Alexx was telling me he wants to play, Door: Paradox is a puzzle game that just released the other week on Steam for a couple of bucks. It is a somewhat simple twist on the hidden-object game. You unlock doors with items you find locked behind doors… to unlock doors. A simple idea, something to spend an hour or two in bed playing on a Saturday, but certainly not a highlight any other month for Prime Gaming. This will be a theme for this month.

A true mark of quality is certainly not a phrase I’d use for anything that Big Fish games claim to be publishing or hosting. When the Steam page for Rose Riddle 2: Werewolf Shadow is in the aspect ratio of 4:3, there is a good chance the adventure game that is being advertised isn’t going to be too exciting to the mid-20s writer that has to drag a whole paragraph out about it. At least if nan is around this year on the 25th, you can stop her from giving her opinions on your new boyfriend by distracting her for 20 minutes.

The first of the deckbuilders this month, The Amazing American Circus is one of those Darkest Dungeon-style side-on turn-based party battle games set in a circus. It is colorful and interesting, but very simple compared to the other titles trying to be Darkest Dungeon with a circus theme. The worst of it is, I already have one of these games in the pipeline to review with the same aesthetic but more interesting from earlier this year. I’ll say it later on, but I’ve yet to have one of these games properly grab me the way it seems to with others, like David

I can’t remember what I last said about Desert Child when it was offered back in February of 2020 (oh we were so innocent back then), but I think I was positive. The truth is, I never did get around to playing it in the nearly three years we’ve had since then, and I don’t think I’ll be jumping to play it this time around either. For fans of RPGs, this is the treat for them this month.

Sadly, as usual around this time of year for the site, we’re a bit too busy to focus on things like Desert Child unless we’re planning on writing about it quickly. It is colorful and interesting as a concept, and definitely on my “to get to” list alongside everything ever released.

Next is another one of those rogue-like deckbuilders with turn-based combat, but this time with very angry fantasy bears in dark moody lighting. Banners of Ruin is the type of thing for all those that really enjoy Darkest Dungeon, Slay the Spire, and other card-based RPG-style games. I’ve personally yet to find one that invites me into the dark dank hell that is the dungeon in Naheulbeuk. This one isn’t exactly exciting as the penultimate game of the year for Prime Gaming, but I’m sure someone new to the game found Banners of Ruin to try on Boxing Day

So the month after Fallout: New Vegas was the highlight, something special has to follow that up, right? Quake. Yeah, the 1996’s highlight of the shooter genre, Quake: Brown castles followed by sepia-toned strongholds. The final tale of two Johns climaxed in what would set sail the ship of brown shooters for more than a decade to come. While it was revolutionary for the time, it is now about as dead as all the original reindeer from your childhood. Oh, it was such a cheery Christmas in 2022 thanks to Prime Gaming.