The 2026 what are we playing thread

Adventure/Lucasfilm Games
41

Started playing Zero Parades. It took me a little getting into, as it’s surprisingly opaque as to what your actual task is, and initially you end up following plenty of leads that never amount to much. So imagine how happy I am, that the assignment has finally been revealed, even if the road ahead is still a long one. Step #1, assemble my crew:

Screenshot from 2026-05-25 21-32-42
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Gameplay wise, it’s … intense. For a game that’s pretty much all dialogue-based, the devs came up with a neat mechanic to keep you on your toes. Whenever something upsets your character, one or more of the meters in the bottom left start filling up, and when they reach the end, you loose a skill-point, permanently. So quite the incentive for choosing wisely. On top, there are fairly hard dice rolls (against aforementioned skills) for various important actions, and to improve the odds you can also elect to raise the appropriate meter (by four or five ticks at a time, no less).

Makes progress, and every little success, feel hard earned and rewarding. And now it also starts to get really interesting …

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42

I played Return to Monkey Island again, in my quest to figure out which is the better sequel to MI2… RtMI or CoMI.
The first time I played it I hurtled towards the finish, because I didn’t want to see any spoilers online before I’d seen the secret for myself.
So this time round was a more relaxed playthrough where I was able to focus more on the puzzles/humour/atmosphere and less on the story. Also because I already knew the ending, I went in knowing it wouldn’t be such a gut-punch this time.
Though there is something to be said for having the secret as a motivating factor to keep you plugging away at the game, which wasn’t there this time.

As far as puzzles, it has some of that smooth-flowing puzzle feel of the classic LucasArts games - a nice mix of fetch quests, environmental puzzles, inventory combinations, and dialogue puzzles.
I miss the verbs (or even having a couple more options than just one-click), and the simplified system feels like “classic LucasArts for beginners”. Being able to hover an item over other items and hotspots and immediately see if it’s possible or not takes away some of the freedom and room for additional jokes.
Some puzzles use the same things several times - sometimes this feels ok, sometimes it feels a bit redundant.
But overall, I think RtMI beats CoMI in terms of just puzzles - it just flows better to me and seems better designed.

The humour in this one is a little bit odd and hard to define. I found the most consistently funny parts of the game to be the hover-over descriptions (things like “Try to remember why I’m carrying a frog”), rather than the dialogue.
I remember reading that for MI1, Ron did the writing on the ship, and Tim and Dave did pretty much everything else. Maybe there is a certain Tim-ness that is missing here, as I found Broken Age funnier than RtMI.
The overall humorous vibe is still there and enjoyable, but I think CoMI wins in the humour department. Oddly, the CoMI team seemed to capture the spirit of MI1 and MI2’s humour better than Ron and Dave did in RtMI, for me.

As far as the art and atmosphere of RtMI, while I got used to the art as I played it, nothing feels like it has any real depth or weight, more a simplified sketch of a place rather than an actual place. Because of that, it was hard to really get immersed in the locations. This was especially noticeable in the locations we revisit from MI1 - Melee and Monkey Island itself. Those are so rich and atmospheric in MI1 that the contrast is quite jarring in RtMI.
And while I’m not a massive fan of the CoMI art style, it does feel like Guybrush is in an actual place in CoMI, it’s quite tangible and there is a moodiness to the locations through the art.
With MI1, MI2, and CoMI, after I finished them it was like I had actually visited those locations, while with RtMI I experienced more of a flat, stage-version of a place. I know that’s the idea to some degree, like a story-book, but it wasn’t satisfying on the same level. So CoMI wins on art/atmosphere.

The voice acting in RtMI feels a bit flat and not very characterful in a lot of places.
Some of the choices are just weird - if you speak to the ice queen’s guards, the voice for the big guards sounds like a nervous teenage girl.
Many of them just sound like a regular non-voice actor person doing either their own ordinary voice or an attempt at an accent. It’s not horrible, but it feels uninspired and bland. I much preferred the voice acting in CoMI.

The new characters are a mixed bag - I like LeChuck’s crew, but the new pirate leaders are quite bland and forgettable. So for new characters, I think CoMI wins.

So overall, I think CoMI is the better sequel for me. Even though CoMI is more frustrating in some ways, with the puzzles and some of the grindy parts in the middle, I still really enjoyed visiting that world, even if it wasn’t the same as the MI1 and MI2 worlds. I enjoyed RtMI’s puzzles more, but I feel like I didn’t visit a fully realized world, so I didn’t get the same complete experience.

6 Likes
43

Did you play Disco Elysium? If so I wonder how you think it compares so far.

I’ve been playing Subnautica 2 which is incredible and a sweet deal for $30 early access. Feels nearly complete to me, but I know a lot will be added when they increase the price for full release. I couldn’t even get into Subnautica 1 so how much I instantly loved this game shocked me.

Also played The Last Gas Station which I really liked but only for it’s repetitive gameplay loop and art. The story and writing fell completely flat. No real replayability either so I’m not sure I’d recommend it.

4 Likes
44

Yes.

Overall I would say that Zero Parades pretty much replicates what I liked about Disco Elysium, but as the second installment, a bit of the magic is irretrievably lost.

Here some more impressions, after about 20 hours (and probably nowhere near the half-time mark, I hope!)

Gameplay wise I think it compares quite favorable. The world feels a bit bigger and a bit more open, and the way it plays is near identical. The main differences are less, but not less interesting skills, a slightly different take on the Thought Cabinet, and no changing of gear or leveling up mid-dialogue.

World-building is maybe a little less extravagant. Nothing like the Pale, Radio Computers or Cryptids (so far), and it feels more like a slightly anachronistic version of our own world, with different labels applied to (mostly) countries. That’s not to say that there isn’t curious tech or fantastical elements to be found, but it’s a bit less out there than Disco Elysium was, especially with lots of points in Shivers.

I think where I see the largest deviation from Disco Elysium so far is the protagonist:

  • With Disco Elysium, you play an amnesiac and part of the joy and brilliance is that what’s new to you is new to him. Some of the more recent memories you can recover are outright hilarious, too. In Zero Parades OTOH, it’s more like the main character doesn’t want to recall the past, not that she couldn’t.
  • In Disco, you play as a (more or less) authoritative police officer, so you own the turf and go around in the sure knowledge that nothing bad will befall you, and it mostly won’t (unless it’s self-inflicted). In Zero Parades, you’re a spy in enemy territory. The feeling’s quite different and warrants a more cautionary play-style. (Maybe that’s why, in Disco Elysium, I saw the first death screen before I managed to put on some pants, whereas in Zero Parades I lost exactly one skill point by maxing out my anxiety in the tutorial, and none since. Though I did come close!)
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45

thanks for the detailed response. i’m a huge disco elysium guy, it’s one of my favorite games of all time. you may have convinced me to give zero parades a whirl!

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46

Finished Zero Parades.

Screenshot from 2026-06-12 22-53-23
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And I have so many questions.

I think unlike Disco Elysium, this one has a lot more moral choices to make, and I feel that trying to do what’s right may not necessarily benefit the mission at hand.

The finale was pretty thrilling, and with different companions to take along, and different methods to complete the assignment, it’s certainly worth re-playing at some point in the future.

4 Likes
47

One or two months ago I played Clair Obscur. I liked it quite a bit, but my wife found the music annoying and said she was glad when I finished it.

The formula is the same as regular old Final Fantasy and the like, but without random encounters and with actual skill on my end in the parrying mechanic. I really like that because it’s more like how in Tony Hawk if you’re good enough your skater’s stats barely matter, rather than that you did everything right and nothing happened because your character is missing some stat. In short, it made leveling up more fun and challenging rather than a horrendous chore, which is why I usually tap out of RPGs long before the end.

I played a bit of Planescape Torment for maybe a half hour. So far it seems interesting enough. My only real complaint so far is that you have to click on people’s feet in order to interact with them. I keep messing that up. Also the text window is quite anemic, which makes the text feel much more voluminous than it actually is. Characters frequently say things that don’t fit and require scrolling, or worse, clicking more.

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48

I gave Clair Obscur a try, given how lauded it is, but that mechanic was what essentially soured the experience for me. It felt a lot like QTEs, but with much more subtle prompts, and at times pretty short time windows to get it right. It’s not like it wasn’t manageable, but it felt more like sports than relaxation (and perhaps that’s the appeal for people, as getting it right is certainly rewarding). There are mods to change this, so perhaps I’ll come back at some point.

I don’t remember that specifically, but the UI/UX certainly shows its age, even in the Enhanced Edition.

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It’s more of what they call a “souls-like” without having to worry about moving, or like Tony Hawk or Devil May Cry or a dancing rhythm game, but it’s true that when QTEs are actually good they can be similar. Though at that point you might also wonder if they’re actually still QTEs or if they’ve become something else (cf. the aforementioned dancing rhythm game). I think it might’ve been the Guardians of the Galaxy Telltale game that had (some) good QTE sections like that.

QTEs in the bad sense means you’re watching a cutscene and someone decided you should randomly interact with the cutscene for Reasons™ so you die. The same thing happens without QTEs sometimes if they go from cutscene to playing the game too seamlessly. People start shooting, oh no, you suddenly get control without realizing it and you should’ve ducked within a second — indistinguishable from a bad QTE but not a QTE since you have full character control. But when you’re actually busy playing the game it’s not really any different than the timing you need for any other kind of game action.

I played on medium, but I wouldn’t expect it to matter too much on easy. I suppose if you like everything about Final Fantasy it would be annoying.

Intuitively I just click on their torso like in any other game ever,[1] but they’re unclickable unless you click on their feet. I suppose it’s technically the floor location and not actually the feet.

[1] I never played Baldur’s Gate or Icewind Dale. I believe they share the same engine, so they likely also share this behavior.

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50

PS There was one thing about Clair Obscur that was extremely annoying: the jumping mechanic. Some enemies hit the ground and then you have to jump to evade. That concept is simple enough. But later you run into enemies that hit the ground, where you shouldn’t jump to evade, indicated by there not being a little jump icon on screen. This took me forever to figure out, because some tutorial aid type of thing disappearing after the jumping tutorial phase is over is just normal game design.

Here’s a Reddit thread about it: Goblu jump timing : expedition33

Please, any tips when to jump-dodge his slam attack? I’ve been trying to figure it out for a while now, but no matter what I do it I take damage from his slam. Visually I am in the air (jumping) when his attack hits me, but I still take damage. I tried jumping very late, very early, when the world “slows” down, nothing seems to work.

All attacks that require you to dodge via Jumping will flash that yellow symbol that was in the Curator’s tutorial (it’s also shown next to the Jump button prompt.) If it doesn’t flash that symbol, you use a regular dodge or parry.

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51

Not sure if I came across that yet, as I only made it to the underwater world so far.

On a different topic, I am halfway through Dungeons of Hinterberg. It’s a cozy action adventure with a neat art style in an Austrian setting, which it seems to nail perfectly (judging by my own limited experience). Each of the titular dungeons has a bit of puzzling and a bit of combat, but so far I am impressed in how varied each of them feels. I think I’ve seen 12 or 13 so far, with probably as many still to go.

The game isn’t very difficult (on normal setting), as you can easily find gear that is intended for higher-level areas, but the puzzles are fun and at times surprising. There’s a bit of a mystery to uncover, too, but seems the story bits are mostly set-pieces that play as the game progresses.

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52

The jumping thing is fine once you realize that it only applies when the indicator is there; it’s just a major troll by the game to give you an enemy where it looks like the jumping mechanic applies by any means except for the indicator.

I still find moving around and interacting with objects in Planescape Torment tedious. I wish it were more like [Entomorph: Plague of the Darkfall](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PVYVseGvdzM).

53

Then stay away from those ‘80s DOS RPGs!

In order to enjoy the (hopefully) ever improving UI, my plan is to play all the CRPGs I have in chronological order. So far I’ve completed 1 (out of 75 labeled as RPG on GOG and not including those I have physical copies of (Baldur’s gates, Diablos and SW KOTRs - of which I had already finished two more). So 3 out 80.

4 Likes
54

Maybe, but Entomorph is half a decade older, and Fallout and Diablo also have a few years on it.

So far I’m not really enjoying the game part of Planescape Torment outside of the written text. It’d work significantly better as a mediocre-good graphical or text adventure than as a typical sloggish RPG. The advertising of it being mostly without combat is just not true at all, and I don’t mean in the if you answer the wrong thing sense. When that’s an option it’s usually little more than just not shouting “die, you scum” at the first opportunity. It’s also full of attacking thugs and and rats. (Why is it always rats.) In Fallout and Entomorph you can actually go forever without fighting. Not so in this game. (Yeah, okay, you could probably always run way but then you can’t explore that section.)

In short, it’s mildly better than I anticipated back around 2000, but there’s more than enough of the problematic RPG crap in there to already turn it into a bit of a slog.

I will try to keep going for now[1] but for a game that supposedly de-emphasizes combat it’s not doing a good job of it. Pity though, the textual part of it is decent.

[1] I searched around a bit and I’ve seen suggestions to use something called “autopause” to make it easier to win but it’s not like I was dying… I just find it tedious. I suppose that’s how the protagonist is supposed to experience it too, but even so…

55

I just finished playing "The Biggleboss Incident", a point-and-click comedy mystery game. I knew about it mainly from the dev’s youtube channel, The Point & Click Devlog, which covers the entire making of the game over the 5 or so years it took to make it.

I had fun with the game overall. Some observations:

  • Puzzles are pretty enjoyable, some are maybe a little too easy (especially in parts where the game gets more linear and you have one thing to solve and only three items on you, so you just try all three items), but it has a nice flow and moves along well.

  • Humour is ok… it’s not exactly my kind of humour, but it still has a fun vibe to it. The main issue is that the characters have lots and lots of dialogue. There will be a good joke buried in there somewhere, but for me it needs editing down to make it snappier. Brevity is the soul of wit, etc.

  • Locations are all in one office building, you explore it via an elevator. There are about 20 main rooms, and then some more during the ending of the game. I’m more of sci-fi/fantasy kind of guy, so it was a bit bland, but not a deal-breaker. I feel kind of just neutral on the locations.

  • Art and music are fine. I’d have preferred pixel art, but it has its own cartoony charm to it that I warmed to pretty fast. One music issue is that the sound seems to jump up massively in volume during cutscenes and changes whatever level you had set it to previously.

  • Voice acting is good, though I was reading the text and so I skipped a lot of the voice acting to keep reading smoothly (though I find that happens in most games with voice acting).

  • It took me about 2 hours 15 minutes to finish, though 15-20 minutes is the ending cutscenes, some bits of which are controllable and/or you get to choose dialogue options.

The dev is now doing smaller, non-P&C games, I think because this one took him so long to make. That’s a shame, because I’d have liked to have seen what he could do having made this one and learned from it.

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56

It’s only on Steam at the moment?

57

I think it’s only Steam and the Apple App Store (he develops everything on Apple computers/devices)…

I got it on Steam a while back, though on the App Store he’s selling it for a lot cheaper - $2.99.

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58

Thanks! I’ll put it on my wishlist. Looks promising.

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59

Currently playing Tales of the Neon Sea. Has anyone finish it?

I’m enjoying it so far, the pixel art is gorgeous to the point that I will probably finish no matter what just to see everything. So far my only complain is that there is no visual indication at all that something is clickable, which means it’s pixel hunting all the time in a way (I don’t recall seeing a Point & Click game like this?)

Also is there a “20xx what are we playing thread” for every single year since 2017?

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60

Re-visiting Thimbleweed Park again. :heart:

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