Every other week or so I go through the Steam discovery queue out of curiosity if nothing else. The algorithm is more miss than hit the majority of the time, yet there have been those rare occasions over the years where Steam surprised me with a queue that seems almost entirely tailored to me. I don’t usually buy the games right away but they will end up on the Wishlist for lack of a better tracking method. This August has brought a few new games to my attention that have made the cut, so I might as well share them here.
As usual I am drawn to the smaller titles. According to the Steam info, Snufkin: Melody of Moominvalley is a “musical adventure about restoring harmony and balance to Moominvalley, protecting it from the industrious Park Keeper”. I’ve always been interested in video games that use music/-making as a gameplay feature, so this could be a fun game for me to try out sometime.
Everything about the premise of Thank Goodness You’re Here! sounds like it could be a great laugh. If the Steam reviews can be believed, it’s well worth the money even if it’s only about 3 hours of total playtime. They also assured me you don’t have to be an English lady or gentleman to get the humor, although that’s probably a plus. If you enjoy quirky indie games that are doing their own thing, this title could be interesting. It’s probably the safest bet out of the three for me.
I was on the fence about adding Once Human when it came up on the discovery queue. It’s not like I need yet another “open world survival crafter bla” but the game is free and multi-player, so I might have a go sometimes with the better half, for shits and giggles if nothing else. The reviews aren’t the greatest either, not that this is always a reliable indicator of how much I’ll enjoy a game.
So much for the month of August 2024 on Steam. I’ll be reporting back on these once I’ve played any or all of them.
Being a big Tove Jansonn fan, I had Snufkin on my wishlist – until I played the demo in Next Fest, after which I immediately removed it. It was very dull and seemed to have next to nothing to do with the Moominland I knew apart from the names and the images. I was hoping for something along the lines of a cosy game set in that universe but it seemed more like a puzzle game aimed squarely at people who like puzzle games, with the Moomin lore stretched across the mechanics as a thin skin. I see it has an overwhelmingly positive rating, though, so either it’s improved a lot since the demo or I very much was not the target audience.
Once Human is a btilliant game. It’s a true MMORPG, not just a survival game, and iboth the best hybrid of the two genres I’ve seen and the best of each individual genre I’ve played since Valheim and New World respectively. The dev team are very responsive, too, and it has an as-yet untested Seasonal structure that potentially re-boots the entire game every couple of months, so how different it will be by the time you get to play it I can’t say. Right now, though, it’s about the only game I’m playing and I can’t get enough of it.
As for the third one on your list, oddly that came up on some list of mine yesterday. I’d never heard of it before but it looks interesting. I didn’t like the look of the graphics, though.
I’ll be interested to hear your thoughts on all of them when you’ve had time to play.
Hmm bummer about the Moomin game – I was hoping it was more of a puzzle adventure where the musical aspects shine. It has garnered a lot of praise and accolades apparently but that doesn’t have to mean much. I will see when I can check it out but I am curious for sure.
And you just sold Once Human to me, thanks! 😀 I will definitely post about my experiences with the different Steam Wishlist games once I got around investing a few hours at least.