• inivekin@lemmy.worldOP
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      6 months ago

      It got me stuck in another blind-actual-play loop that I’m currently living, just like the base game had done… can’t remember how I escaped last time. The drawing is what I am/was doing while watching these. The dlc also managed to be the only video game dlc to make me cry, to join the base game being the only video game to make me cry.

      I especially liked the clever narrative/gameplay decision to make the dlc endgame about:

      hacking the in-game virtual world, where it would have been lesser to just have a bunch of puzzles to find the three chain unlocking codes which they burnt out of existence.

      Little touches like that made it feel a lot more menacing as to the reason for:

      why the hell am I opening this vault.

      It sort of mirrored the base game where:

      originally I was caught emotionally vulnerable by the space whimsy which got subverted by the bitter-sweet end, and the dlc caught me emotionally vulnerable by the constant foreboding of horror to be subverted by the bitter-sweet end. I think how they both opt to make the living things with-in the universe have so much empathy and go against the more common cold-and-unfeeling-lovecraftian-universe trope is also a big factor.

      I also didn’t feel the urge to cheat at any of the puzzles, they felt very balanced for me in difficulty (that base-game ash-twin core entrance was the only thing that required a google from me and always haunts me, glad to not have to feel guilty in the same way for the dlc - that big would I have gotten it on my own if I didn’t look it up). I think I’d heard other people thought it was too easy? I guess I am a little on the dumb side :)

      I also really like how they mash up a couple warmly-familiar animals to make cool aliens. Might like to try do a bunch myself. I’ve done one with frog+octopus - any other cute animal combo suggestions?