This game is called THE SECRET ORDER: SHADOW BREACH on PlayStation, but it’s called The Secret Order 7 on Steam. It definitely felt like part of a series, with references to characters, story and events from, I assume, the past six games I hadn’t played.
But I still had a good time with THE SECRET ORDER, a hidden object puzzle adventure developed by Sunward Games and published by Artifex Mundi in February 2019. It is definitely possible to play through without having played any of the other Secret Order games before.
As the protagonist, Sarah, I collected several magical artifacts scattered across the world in secret labs, forests, mansions, and mountain ruins. There were elements of fantasy and science fiction, with dragons, druids, ray guns, aliens, knights and scientists.
The beautiful artwork is the biggest appeal of THE SECRET ORDER, followed by the challenging puzzles. The story… well… the dialogue was so bad it was funny, almost like a porno.
At one point, Sarah walked into a room and said, “I’m looking for a special relic. It’s an urgent matter. There’s an evil force.”
And the dude replied something along the lines of “I don’t know anything about relics, but we have some great wine.” Then sent her to find his “secret room” in the cellar, which wasn’t a sex dungeon … but for a minute I thought it might be.
I played the entire game on “expert” mode and didn’t have much of a problem until the bonus chapter, which I found difficult and a bit weird.
I mean, games like this are always odd, in their own way, with elaborate puzzle locks on jewelry boxes, unusual ways to use every day items, and villains who somehow don’t notice me rummaging around in the piles of hidden objects five feet away. But this particular bonus chapter had some solutions that felt really random, achieved by just clicking everything, everywhere until something worked, rather than being able to think through logical connections.
Or maybe I couldn’t think straight because I was too disturbed by this purple genie creature who showed up out of nowhere to stare at me with its glowing eyes of judgment! What is this? Was it in previous Secret Order games? Why is it smiling at me like that?!
THE SECRET ORDER: SHADOW BREACH is for ages 12 and up. Available on PS4, PC, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch and mobile phone apps.
This week I played EVENTIDE 3: LEGACY OF LEGENDS, developed by The House of Fables and published by Artifex Mundi in 2017.
I enjoyed the first Eventide game back in January 2018 and I tried the EVENTIDE 3 free demo back in September 2018. But I didn’t continue at that time because I wanted to play them in order. I played Eventide 2 earlier this year, so it was time to complete the trilogy.
Like the others, EVENTIDE 3 is a point-and-click HOPA (Hidden Object Puzzle Adventure) developed by The House of Fables and published by Artifex Mundi.
Of course, another family member is in peril and this time botanist Mary Gilbert must travel to the Cloud Kingdom to rescue her brother, a meteorologist with magical powers. She must prove her worth to the thunder god Perun and save the world from catastrophe.
EVENTIDE 3 was a fun finale to this fairy tale series. The voice acting could be better, but the music is relaxing, with lovely scenes and a good combination of story, brain teasers, and hidden object games, with the option to play in “casual” or “expert” modes.
Rated “E” for everyone aged 10 and up by the ESRB. Available on PS4, PC, Xbox One, and mobile phone.
The troublesome Team Trashcake trio played Sims 4 today. Well, technically, IceStella played Sims 4 while Sulfur & I visited via headset to help create avatars of ourselves, choose outfits and decorate our rooms.
I joined them about halfway through the stream, hosted by IceStella on her YouTube channel.
Near the end of the stream, she also showed us a sneak peek of her latest project – a replica of her Stardew Valley house built in Sims 4.
~ J.L. Hilton
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EVENTIDE 2: SORCERER’S MIRROR is a 2016 point-and-click puzzle-solving adventure developed by the House of Fables and published by Artifex Mundi. I had a good time playing the first game, Eventide: Slavic Fable, back in January 2018, so I wanted to complete the trilogy.
The botanist Mary Gilbert returns in EVENTIDE 2. This time, she rescues her niece from an evil wizard, with the help of an herbalist, innkeeper, gravedigger, butcher and other inhabitants of a small village surrounded by magic and monsters straight out of Eastern and Central European fairy tales.
This video is a collection of edited highlights from my Twitch Try-It Tuesday live stream of the free PlayStation 4 demo. It’s not intended to be a walkthrough but to give an idea of the story and gameplay.
I bought the full game and completed it the next day. EVENTIDE 2 took about four hours total, compared to the six hours I spent playing Eventide: Slavic Fable. There’s no bonus level to this one. Instead, it features a branching narrative where the choices you make at certain critical points affect the progression and outcome of the story. I assume it could be replayed again to make different choices and see what happens.
I enjoyed EVENTIDE 2. I think the trilogy has beautiful artwork with a nice combination of story, brain teasers, and hidden object games. There are hints, if needed, and a choice of “casual” or “expert” mode.
EVENTIDE 2 is rated “T” for teens due to violence. Available for PS4, PC, Xbox One, Android and macOS.
SPOILER ALERT * * * The second half of this article contains major story details * * *
THE OUTER WORLDS felt like Firefly fanfiction, complete with twangy guitar riffs, a ragtag crew, old-timey frontier style speech, and an occasional cargo bay full of cattle, as seen in the episode “Safe” from the sci-fi TV series.
This made me want to play the game, as a long-time Browncoat and supporter of the “Can’t Stop the Serenity” fan-run fundraisers that have contributed over a million dollars to charity.
I started THE OUTER WORLDS during my January 28, 2020, Try-It Tuesday livestream and continued playing throughout February and March.
The visual style was a gorgeous mash up of Firefly and BioShock, with stunning celestial skyscapes. But there was very little variety to the enemies and locations. Maybe it was an intentional design choice, to reinforce the idea of cookie-cutter corporate space colonies, but I felt a bit burned out on the same-iness before long.
Conversations dragged and combat underwhelmed. Food, drink, alcohol and tobacco products provided boosts I rarely bothered to use. I only died a couple times and not during a fight – once from falling and once from being scalded by steam in a hallway full of leaky pipes.
More than once during the first half of the game, I considered quitting and playing something else.
Negative experiences, such as being burned or shocked too many times, triggered the opportunity to accept flaws, which weakened the protagonist but granted extra perks. I never bothered with flaws because the perks weren’t worth it, particularly perks for “Tactical Time Dilation” – something like Fallout’s VATS but not VATS, of course – and which I also rarely bothered to use.
The ship itself had an AI personality named ADA who got on my last nerve. Every damn time I returned from a mission or errand, she’d tell me that crew members were talking to each other. Yeah, I get it, they have scripted encounters to make the place feel lived in. Let me wander into the conversations naturally on my own, thanks. How many times do you want me to hear Nyoka yell at Max about hogging the bathroom, ADA? HOW MANY?
In a NoClip documentary about THE OUTER WORLDS, game directors Tim Cain and Leonard Boyarsky discussed the scope of the game and how much they had to cut, which might explain why it felt, to me, like an uneven, incomplete game that never quite realized its full potential. It says a lot, though, that I really wanted it to be more.
There’s a long side quest revolving around Parvati’s date night, as well as a kind of simulated sex scene between ADA and the ship’s cleaning robot SAM, but despite the emphasis on companion relationships and nuanced role-playing, there were no romantic options for the player at all.
In a Polygon article, Boyarsky said, “We felt like sometimes (romance) kind of waters down your roleplaying for your character because it turns into this mini game of how do I seduce this companion or that companion. So it was just one of the things we felt wasn’t really what we wanted to focus our time on.”
If Obsidian had limited resources and didn’t want to spend them on romantic subplots or alternate endings, I get that. But caring about the crew did not “water down” my game experience. The exact opposite. My fondness for Vicar Max, Felix and Nyoka is the main reason I played THE OUTER WORLDS to completion. Without them, I may have given into those (many) temptations to quit and play something else.
Devs could have at least acknowledged that players might want to roleplay something more than hammering out treaties or meeting Ellie’s snobby parents.
A couple lines of dialog for each crew member would allow them to be approached or flirted with, but then deflect the advances with an excuse befitting each character. Nyoka could say something like “you’re not screwed up enough to be my type,” Max could say he’s too dedicated to his own spiritual struggles to share his life with someone else, Felix could be pining for someone on another world, etc.
Something else that felt a bit incomplete: I obtained two pieces of information that should have been literal game changers but actually changed nothing.
One came from the Rizzo lab on Monarch, where a terminal entry explained how all of the dangerous creatures could be killed by changing the oxygen levels in the atmosphere, and that the change would not harm humans. Far as I could tell, I had no opportunity to discuss this information with anyone. That seemed like terribly important stuff for communities surrounded by packs of wild monsters and clinging to survival by a thread.
The other bit came from Adelaide, a lady I met early in THE OUTER WORLDS, who figured out how to deal with the plague and grow nutritious crops. When I reached the end-game’s big reveal – that Halcyon would collapse due to famine – I had no opportunity to share Adelaide’s discoveries. Instead, we set about rescuing the Hope, not for the inherent rightness of saving the lives on the ship, but because the scientists on board needed to solve Halcyon’s problems… that Adelaide had already solved.
For all my criticisms, the game had its moments and I’m glad I played THE OUTER WORLDS. I’m a sucker for any story where the friends I’ve made along the way show up to help me in the end. Love it.
If there’s ever any DLC and I play it again someday, I’ll probably ignore a lot of the side missions, increase the difficulty setting, and only take one companion with me at a time, instead of two, to make it more of a challenge.
I got the happy ending and I’m satisfied with the choices I made. Overall, it was a good experience, but it could have been so much better.
Highlights and easter eggs are featured on my OUTER WORLDS playlist and my last livestream can be seen here:
~ J.L. Hilton
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I had a wisdom tooth removed last week and the surgery went well but a stiff jaw, headaches and exhaustion kept me from live streaming for awhile. Instead, I’ve been uploading STARDEW VALLEY highlights to my YouTube channel and setting up my new work space.
Here’s a picture from the 35-page assembly manual for my big corner desk. Yikes! Baby Jewels did most of the construction while I supervised.
I’m super excited to have a studio/office again. Back before I started my gaming channels, I was a writer and a jewelry designer. I wrote novels, articles and short stories, and my jewelry was featured in the books “Steampunk Style Jewelry” and “1000 Steampunk Creations.” I also had a crafting and jewelry-making channel, JLHjewelry, but I haven’t uploaded new content there in four years.
Not long after I started streaming Fallout 4 and Skyrim on YouTube, we moved and I no longer had a place to write or make jewelry. I could do a little bit, here and there, wrote a little fanfiction and made a few things, but it’s really difficult without a place to keep tools and materials, or a place to sit comfortably and work without distractions.
Also, in 2018 and 2019, my husband and I had several health issues, and that kept me from having much ability, energy or spare time to make things, anyway.
We’re doing much better now and we’re in a bigger place where I have room to work again. I’ve got some writing projects in the works, but I’ll still play games, of course, such as Cat Quest 2 and Outer Worlds on Twitch.
~ J.L. Hilton
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Posted inUncategorized|Comments Off on February 2020 Update
As far as I know, there is nothing quite like UNTITLED GOOSE GAME. Its simple, storybook graphics remind me of Burly Men at Sea and Unfinished Swan, while its humor and mischievousness are akin to Catlateral Damage or Octodad. Goat Simulator also comes to mind, but that game is much darker and more violent, thus rated “M” for mature audiences.
UNTITLED GOOSE GAME is rated “E” for everyone. At worst, you cause people to hammer their thumbs or fall on their bums. You play as a wild goose on the loose, stealing keys, hiding tools, honking at frightened children, flapping your wings, snatching shoes, and generally wreaking feathered havoc upon a small English village.
Developed by four-person indie studio House House and published by Panic in September 2019, UNTITLED GOOSE GAME consists mostly of stealth and puzzles, with a number of creative ways to use the objects and environment to achieve each goal.
I spent six extremely enjoyable hours playing through the story and all of the bonus “to do” list objectives that are added after completing the main game. I did not do any of the optional “before the church bells ring” speed runs.
While single-player, it’s fun to play with others watching, as I did while streaming, or to play with family and friends, passing the controller around and seeing how different people approach each task.
I also love the “reactive” music in UNTITLED GOOSE GAME, where the soundtrack responds not only to the environment – such as playing different music when one moves from the garden to the high street shop – but also responds to actions in the game – such as playing slowly when the goose is in hiding then speeding up the tempo when the goose is noticed and chased by villagers.
Available for PS4, PC, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch and macOS.
~ J.L. Hilton
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THE LAST OF US is an incredibly popular action-adventure survival horror game developed by Naughty Dog (who’s also behind the Uncharted franchise) and published by Sony Computer Entertainment as a PlayStation 3 exclusive in 2013.
I downloaded the remastered version, free via PlayStation Plus in October 2019, to give this highly-acclaimed, multiple award winning game a try.
THE LAST OF US features a post-apocalyptic story in which Tess, Joel and Ellie make their way across a ruined Boston wasteland where spores and desperation turn people into monsters.
If my video seems pretty exciting, just keep in mind that I cut 2-1/2 hours of walking, talking and climbing. With its quick-time events, confusing stealth segments, walking simulation and boring conversations, THE LAST OF US didn’t do much for me.
You take the path the game dictates. Slowly. You listen to the conversations it gives you. No dialog choices. No skipping. There aren’t any decisions to make beyond “do I use my alcohol for molotovs or health packs?” or “should I use my limited ammo instead of this pipe that will vanish after five hits?”
I liked Tess. But I reckon she dies or disappears early, since the promotional art and online discussion is all about Joel and Ellie, so that didn’t really encourage me to continue playing, either.
I’ve been told several times “the story is good.” Maybe I didn’t play long enough to mosey along to the interesting scenes. Everything that happened in the first four hours seemed to be some version of:
Lonely guitar riff: Bow-wow-wow
(Characters shuffle into a room)
Tess: I’m mad, you know that?
Joel (gruffly): Y’all know I’m from Texas? Yeehaw or somethin’.
I jus’ don’ reckon we shud be doin’ whut we’re doin’.
Tess: We have to. Let’s get going.
Joel: Yes, ma’am
Lonely guitar riff: Bow-wow-wow
(Slow pan to the skyline)
THE LAST OF US is rated “M” for mature audiences due to blood and gore, intense violence, sexual themes and strong language.
~ J.L. Hilton
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GLASS MASQUERADE is a beautiful, relaxing stained glass puzzle game developed and published by Onyx Lute.
Each puzzle is a colorful clock face inspired by the histories and cultures of twenty-five different countries. There are no time limits but puzzles may be repeated for a faster time, or just to listen to the enchanting soundtrack by Russian composer Nikita Sevalnev.
I enjoyed this game very much. My video shows the first five puzzles – France, Britain, Germany, Portugal and USA – with action sped up 5x to shorten the run time. The entire game will take about three to four hours, depending on how fast you work.
My only criticism of GLASS MASQUERADE is that manipulation of the puzzle pieces with the joystick is a bit awkward on PS4. I’m also disappointed that I can’t get the Halloween, Christmas and other bonus puzzles available to PC players. A sequel, Glass Masquerade 2: Illusions, is available for PC, and I’m hoping it will come to consoles soon.
GLASS MASQUERADE is rated “E” for everyone, and available for Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, Xbox One and PC.
Four years ago, I started playing Fallout 4, and a few months later, in the summer of 2016, I started streaming settlement tours on my YouTube channel.
“Fallout Friday” became a regular feature after I started a second playthrough in March 2017 with Rose the Nuka World raider overboss.
After finishing the main story twice and earning every achievement in Fallout 4 + DLC, I went back to where it all began with Fiona my first Sole Survivor. I’ve been streaming settlement remodeling and other shenanigans with Creation Club content in her wasteland for the past few months.
However, January 31, 2020, will be my last Fallout Friday. Then I will say farewell to Fallout 4.
There’s still hundreds of archived streams, music videos, settlement tours, contraptions showcases and other content archived on my channel, but after January, I will no longer do the 3-4 hour weekly Fallout 4 livestreams.
It’s been a ton of fun but there are several other games I want to play, such as the Untitled Goose Game and The Outer Worlds. My daughter and I want to finish Cat Quest II. I’m enjoying the hell out of playing Stardew Valley co-op with IceStella and Sulfur.
After watching the Witcher on Netflix I want to try Witcher 3 – on sale for only $15 until January 17 on PS4. Artifex Mundi also has several puzzle games I want to solve. And 2020 will probably bring many more games I want to play.
At this point, I have almost 1,500 YouTube subscribers. Which doesn’t sound like much but it’s 1,500 more than I ever thought I’d have and I’m very grateful. I know many came to my YouTube channel because of Fallout 4 and I hope they will stay to share my new adventures.
~ J.L. Hilton
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I played the entire game on “expert” mode and didn’t have much of a problem until the bonus chapter, which I found difficult and a bit weird.
In a 
