Prime Gaming – August 2024

Thanks Jeffrey, your timing was really fun when it came to being able to get this Prime Gaming article out. With my sedate, Malcome Tucker on propofol out of the way, I can point out that the only “in-game content” available with Prime is some awful tripe shaped like cats for that game with a logo that’s creatively one step away from being constructed by brain surgeons after a shotgun blast to the back of the head. So Lost (T)ark then? Yep! Otherwise, you can still play daily challenges for Nerdle, Dungleon Gauntlet [sic], Putt Putt Problems, and a few others if pleasuring truckers stop being fun.

Let’s start with what is available now. August has a lot of GOG codes to be handed out. We’ll start with the game that doesn’t excite me as much as its real-time, digging, Metroidvania predecessor, it is SteamWorld Heist. Available through GOG, you’ll take command of a pirate crew as they get into turn-based, tactical shootouts in confined 2D environments. I honestly don’t know why the steampunk space adventure doesn’t excite me, but I know it doesn’t grab me half as much as it should.

From something I don’t quite like and I’m on the outside for that, to something I do like, and I’m apparently on the outside for such an opinion. Deux Ex: Mankind Divided isn’t the best Deus Ex game, I know that. The story is begging for a third act we’ll never get at this rate and there is little hope we’ll ever see the series as it was ever again. However, I think the world and its use of racism and the depictions of how nasty a world can be to you in those situations is something not often taken in many games. Available through GOG, you can pick up Mankind Divided right now.

Sadly, you can also pick up (through GOG) Core Design’s 2003 title, Tomb Raider: The Angel of Darkness. Oh, hold me back while I try to bite my tongue on its awful controls, its camera, and the technical issues that were about as fantastically funny as cutting the breaks on a pensioner’s wheelchair. If I had to elect a mid-00s title to praise it would be 2006’s Legend, one of the last proper Tomb Raider titles which is difficult to launch on PC in 2024. The Angel of Darkness should be left in 2003 alongside its 2000s counterpart.

Speaking of abhorrent piles of desecrations, Tomb Raider: The Last Revelation + Chronicles is also available through GOG. While the latter is not as unwelcome as The Angel of Darkness, Chronicles tried to relaunch the ship that had been launched four times by this point; coming after (spoiler) 1999’s The Last Revelation tried to kill Lara. Instead, it was Eidos Interactive’s infinite wisdom that said half the team should work on Chronicles and the other half (who lick anything with jam on it) make The Angel of Darkness. How did that work out, Ian Livingstone?

Moving on to the 8th, maybe I’ll not want to rip someone’s genitals off and use it as a sock puppet for their kids. Gravity Circuit launched in 2023 and you’ve probably never heard of it despite having an overwhelmingly positive rating on Steam. While 2D action platformers were in last year, Pizza Tower took up all the nostalgia in the genre for itself, and none was left over for a consistent and very 80s-inspired title like Gravity Circuit. Available through the Amazon Games App, you don’t have to deal with the faff of a code.

You will, however, for 2020’s narrative-driven title about two Cambridge academics who are embroiled in a political conflict. State of Play’s South of the Circle is a stunning and downright charming minimalist title that was released on Apple Arcade in 2020 but saw a PC and console release in 2022. Set during the Cold War, you mostly play as Cambridge lecturer Peter as he’s on an expedition in the Antarctic but will relive his memories with his Scottish partner, Clara McKirrick. Might as well have just made her a shortbread tin. Available through GOG, South of the Circle is one to pay attention to.

As is the title available through the Epic Games Store, Four Quarters fantastic and magnificent time looping title from 2021, I’m of course getting to talk about Loop Hero again. A minimalist deckbuilding auto battling Rogue-like/lite RPG with a heavy fantasy and retro style to it, I’m almost surprised I got into it before its release. Deeply refreshing to the Rogue-like/lite genre, I can’t recommend giving Loop Hero a try enough.

Coming to the Epic Games Store too, you’ll be able to pick up Trek to Yomi on the 8th of August. Much like Ghost of Tsushima, Leonard Menchian and Flying Wild Hog’s 2022 side-scrolling title is heavily inspired by Kurosawa. A hack and slash with more style than substance, the plot takes a while to get going and when it does it does the very Kurosawa thing of short, fast-paced fights that pose little threat. It is once you get to Yomi-no-kuni, which if I’m bastardizing Shintoism I’d call it hell, where you fight all sorts.

Similarly short, Kraken Academy!! is a top-down pixel-based RPG comedy from Happy Broccoli Games. Yes, the very same developer behind the brilliant Duck Detective from earlier this year, you’ll “make friends, free spirits, and make sure the world doesn’t end.” I believe that’s also the task in November. Released in 2021, you’ll be able to pick up Kraken Academy!! on the Amazon Games App from the 8th.

Moving on to the 15th I feel I don’t have to say it at this point because it’s already come, gone, and returned before I’m sure. Baldur’s Gate II: Enhanced Edition is available through the Amazon Games App and is a very early BioWare RPG that everyone seems to have played. I’m good making like Matt Berry and saying “Gay is in. Gay is hot. I want some gay. Gay it’s gonna be” when it comes to my Baldur’s Ga(y)te options. Need I say more? Because I honestly don’t know enough about Baldur’s Gate II.

Also available through the Amazon Games App, you’ll be able to pick up Beholder 3 which released in 2022. If you thought I had nothing to say about Baldur’s Gate II and those crap Tomb Raiders, then my apathy for the Beholder series might astonish you. Marked with the ever-delightful “mixed” reviews, it seems Paintbucket Games didn’t use the MS Paint Paintbucket tool to fix everyone’s problems, some calling it boring while others called it good. My problem with the series is that no matter how I feel about the dystopian stylization, I never get excited for it.

Up next (it’s a long month) we’ve got Ice Code Games’ 2022 tactical Weird West RPG, Hard West 2. Noted for breaking up and finding something fresh in the XCOM-like genre, its artistic style might not be on par WolfEye Studios’ Weird West or similar titles. Though it seems to make up for it in the gameplay, and there is supposedly plenty of that to go around. Available through GOG, you’ll be able to pick up Hard West 2 from the 15th.

Something surprising also comes on the 15th, in fact, two things I didn’t expect – it seems Jeffrey finally got the message. Another GOG code, this time it is for Fireplay Games’ 2023 title released almost a year to the day you’ll be able to pick it up, En Garde! A Three-Musketeers ’em up with a whole lot of flair and a whole lore of swashbuckling fun. Add a bit of chivalry and you’d have Miguel de Cervantes’ El ingenioso hidalgo don Quixote de la Mancha.

The other GOG code-based surprise is also from 2023 and was released last August by Summerfall Studios, Stray Gods: The Roleplaying Musical. A game as gay and Greek as Hades itself, though it might be worth getting to know the in-laws before you start romancing a god or goddess on your adventures. Written by Dragon Age, Neverwinter Nights, and even Baldur’s Gate II writer, David Gaider, and with music direction from Austin Wintory, of Journey fame. I’m sure Alexx had a lot to say last year upon its release.

Moving on to the penultimate batch, we’ve got Grime: Definitive Edition to look forward to on the 22nd of August via the Amazon Games App. The 2021 Metroidvania from Clover Bite has appeared on Epic and here for Prime Gaming too. Yet for all its appearances, I just can’t get behind its somewhat muted tones in the art direction. Aiming a bit more for dark fantasy, Grime is trying to be exciting with its mashed-together monstrosities for enemies, but I’m slightly more excited for its more colorful sequel that was announced last year.

Remaining in 2021 for a minute, Stonewheet & Sons’ co-op-based puzzler, KeyWe is delightful and charming as you play as two kiwis called Jeff and Debra. There isn’t much to say about KeyWe as it almost does what it says on the tin, as it is a puzzle game about kiwis trying to make the post happen. Available through the Epic Games Store, this is one to pick up for sure.

You’ll also want to pick up Bedtime Digital Games’ 2023 title, and sequel to one of my favorite weird games, Figment 2: Creed Valley. Available through the Amazon Games App, you’ll join Dusty as you explore the world, solve puzzles, fight bosses, and maybe join in on the whole musical battle thing we started back with Stray Gods here a moment ago. I honestly don’t know why the 2017 surrealist universe of Figment captured me so well, but it makes me excited to see more of it with Figment 2.

If you want a bit more of Harold Wanderer but without Joanne’s grubby mits all over the IP, Spells & Secrets might be up your Diagon Alley. A bit less magical school day ’em up, the signs are there to show what it is that is aimed for, with the school quite literally called “Academy of Greifenstein.” By chance do you enter through an aperture of egress? Released last November, you might have missed it because of its more chibi art style and not having a perpetually online woman tanking the IP. Available through GOG, you can pick up Spells & Secrets from the 22nd.

The final game… for the 22nd, is 2022’s artistically interesting Young Souls. Available through the Amazon Games App, you’ll fight your way through dungeons as kids who listen to angry music, Tristan and Jenn. More of a brawler than the title would have you assume, it also does something I’ve been writing about a lot lately, the use of swearing to pretend the story is more grown up than it seems. However, the actual story and narrative beats themselves show more maturity than the casually used swearing (which can be turned off in the settings).

Moving on to the 29th of August, thank the baby Jeffrey up above, it is another repeat of something from Epic recently. Oh well, I’ll take my thanks back. Available through a GOG code, you can pick up Arcade Paradise, the 2022 business management/mini-game game where you run a laundry mat and turn it into a hive of 80s nostalgia. If you’re currently snorting Supermarket Simulator like the boxes of “sugar” you end up buying, you’ll enjoy Arcade Paradise.

Yet another repeat of something we’ve seen on Epic in recent months, I didn’t have much to say about Bleakmill’s 2021 title Industria then either. Available via a GOG code, you can pick up this Cold War-era adventure set in East Berlin with heavy influence from Half-Life 2. I mean, I get it, it was revolutionary, but that was 2006 when it was released and we need to move on. Maybe update your reference point to Spec Ops: The Line when it comes to shooters? Ok, we’ll just have nice dystopian environments and blah, dated gameplay.

Part of me wants to keep up this anger to close out the month, but I can’t as I need to talk about John Willian Evelyn’s 2020 Apple Arcade exclusive until April of 2024. The Collage Atlas isn’t the most expansive or high-action title, but its art direction is nothing short of breathtaking. Available through the Amazon Games App, with Evelyn describing the game as “an absorbing first-person adventure through a picture book dream world.” If you aren’t a fan of art styles wowing you or some philosophical nonsense in the background of your games, you’ll hate it. However, my dour mood changed as soon as I saw it.