The Daily Backlog 52

After what seemed like a lifetime Volgarr is complete! Now to move on to my other frustration - Hello Neighbor!

Vik-stroyed!

Good morning everyone!! It’s that time of day again where I sit back, drink some tasty caffeinated bean juice and write sweet backlogged nothings for your eyeballs. All the while dreaming of playing video games and one day having a manageable pile of unplayed titles. Hmmmm… manageable piles.

Luckily, through the graces of patience, perseverance and punctuality (I’m not sure of that last one) I finally knocked another game off the backlog!! Which happens to be our intrepid shirtless Norwegian, Volgarr the Viking! Though now that I think about it, it hasn’t been that long since my last completion, but after braving the palm wringing challenges of Volgarr, it seriously felt like a lifetime. I’ve seen my life of the past week flash before my eyes once I saw those credits roll!

Honestly, the final stretch of Volgarr really wasn’t that bad. Mostly because the devs implemented a feature that they probably should have added to all the others stages, and that was frequent checkpoints! Literally after entering each door you encountered, the game would checkpoint, which meant if you died you didn’t have to start all the way from the beginning of the stage! Typically, you would get a checkpoint at the midpoint of a stage, but that never felt like it was quite enough. But then the stages really weren’t that long so once you learned them you didn’t really need those checkpoints. Gah!! I just can’t decide how I feel about this game!

Anyways, it was nice to have much shorter sections in the final stages so it didn’t feel like you were losing quite as much progress when you died. Each section was still challenging though. Crazy Viking Studios crammed each area full of tough combinations of enemies! But, after snaking my way through 7 or 8 areas (I can’t remember how many) I finally encountered the final boss, Fafnir! Who, turned out to pretty much be a pushover. He was cool looking that’s for sure, but a challenge he was not. I was more than prepared to have to bang my head against this boss like I did the rest of the game, but luckily that wasn’t the case. Mostly because I found a little corner of the arena that let me much dodge each and every one of his attacks while I hurled a battery of spears at his head. And after only two attempts, Fafnir’s head was parted from his body!! The credits rolled! And a part of my body unclenched!

Volgarr was finally finished!

After beating it, I’m still having a difficult time recommending Volgarr. On one hand it was a rewarding challenge and it really did feel good to finally beat it. But on the other, it was frustrating and I never really felt excited to play it when the controller wasn’t in my hands. If you’d like to brave the labyrinth of emotions known as Volgarr though, you can find it on the Xbox One Store for $9.99! I’d be very curious to hear your thoughts!

One Neck Pain to the Next

So, after finishing Volgarr last night, I was kinda at a loss. I’ve never been this on-point with finishing my games. So, I was thinking to myself, what should I play while I wait for Devil May Cry 5 to roll around later this week? And that’s when I glanced over at Hello Neighbor. I mean, I’m still playing this game with my son, but instead of having him watch me try to solve all these puzzles in vain for hours on end, I thought I’d try to get some of the more tedious parts done while he was sleeping.

Unfortunately, the entire game is tedious and frustrating so even after playing for about an hour or so last night, I literally made zero progress. And there’s just something about this game that gets on my nerves. It’s probably the combination of the super obtuse puzzles mixed with the overall janky and glitchy gameplay. It just demotivates me from playing it!!

But, my son does love watching me play it, so of course I’ll power through it. But, honestly, I can’t wait for this game to be finished so I can move on to a new set of games that don’t make me lose sleep! You know a nice, relaxing and cheerful game like Mario + Rabbids. Ahhh, now that will be the day.

The good news is that I did make it further than I ever have in Hello Neighbor and I haven’t encountered any game breaking bugs yet. So, it’s very possible I may actually be able to knock this game off the shelf and then promptly put it back, never to be played again (take care of your games folks). Well, that probably won’t happen, especially if we ever pick up the sequel, but at least I’ll have a bit of a respite!

52 is a Deficient Number

Well my friends, that’ll do it for today!! Volgarr is complete and through mental preparedness I should be able to finally beat Hello Neighbor. That is if it doesn’t crash on me and corrupt my save again! Regardless, I’m excited to have another completion under my belt and despite my feelings for Volgar, I’d be curious to see what Crazy Viking Studios comes up with next. For now, I just need to bide my time waiting for Devil May Cry 5!

Until tomorrow, have a great rest of your Tuesday!

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Currently Playing

Riddled Corpses EX (Switch) - Me

Hello Neighbor (Xbox One) - Me and The Son

Stardew Valley (Switch) - The Wife

Total Backlogged Games: 736 ...Number of time I threw my controller playing Volgarr!

Total Completed Games: 10 ...Rise Warrior!

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