My 2014 Steam Summer Sale Haul

Posted by Mark Goninon on

Pretty

Well it's only a matter of hours before the end of this year's Steam "Summer" Sale Haul (obviously it's not summer here in Australia) and I thought I'd list the games I managed to grab during the sale and my reasons why I got them. I'm going to exclude the gifts that I bought for friends/gamers in this post and just focus the ones I purchased for my own selfish reasons.

Risk of Rain

  • Sale price: $1.88 (in a 4-pack)
  • Metacritic Rating: 77
I purchased Risk of Rain thanks to hearing it was a game made using GameMaker Studio, one of the three game creation software programs I've actually purchased. It's also got a reasonably good Metacritic rating and it even features co-op - so hopefully something I can try out with some of my mates!

Guacamelee! Gold Edition

  • Sale price: $3.99
  • Metacritic Rating: 88
Not usually my kind of game considering it's apparently a Metroidvania style game, but the interesting art-style and a magical Mexican world, reminds me of Grim Fandango, one of my all-time favourite Lucasarts adventure games. An 88 Metacritic rating isn't too bad either.

Noir Syndrome

  • Sale price: $2.37
  • Metacritic Rating: N/A
While indie games with pixelart graphics are a dime a dozen nowadays, this one caught my eye since it wasn't a Minecraft clone or a fantasy roguelike. Apparently this game has procedurally generated murder mysteries to solve which sounds pretty neat. Maybe I've been playing too much Sid Meier's Covert Action as of late since I wouldn't be surprised if that swayed my decision to get this game.

Child of Light

  • Sale price: $11.24
  • Metacritic Rating: 76
Another game with a reasonably good Metacritic rating although if you look further into it, you'd notice that it actually got much better ratings on the consoles - maybe because the game is a JRPG it has an affinity to the platform? What there is no denying though is the beautiful, hand-drawn art style employed. I'm hoping the game could give me some pointers on how to make an engaging JRPG when I eventually get around to making one.

Banished

  • Sale price: $9.99
  • Metacritic Rating: 73
I'm really starting to get withdrawal symptoms with respect to a good city builder. Yes, there's Tropico 5 but seriously, how much different is that going to be from Tropico 4 (or 3 for that matter)? I'll probably eventually get it, but only after a significant discount :). Then there's Tilted Mill's Medieval Mayor which seems to have entered development hell since nobody's heard anymore of it. So Banished is a probably a game that could fill in the void - but we shall see if it does once I get around to playing it.

Spacebase DF-9 Soundtrack Edition

  • Sale price: $10.19
  • Metacritic Rating: N/A
Maybe I'm just too much of a Tim Schafer fanboi or at least a Double Fine fanboi to admit it, but when I first heard about this game, I thought "ZOMG! Star Trek reference" then "ZOMG! A game where you construct and maintain a deep space habitat! How choice is that?!" Initially the price was a bit high for my liking but the sale dropped it to around $10 which I thought was worth a punt. Oh and that's for the "soundtrack edition" since I'm a sucker for game soundtracks. Unfortunately, the game seems to have some pretty negative reviews so far, mainly concerning how unfinished it is which is why I'm most likely not going to play this game until it's considered complete (which is what I've done with almost all my Early Access and Kickstarter titles). It sometimes leaves a sour taste in the mouth if your first impression is a bad one, despite the fact it's in beta or alpha or whatever.

The Typing of the Dead: Thou Filthy Love Collection

  • Sale price: $11.21
  • Metacritic Rating: 71
I was a big fan of the original The Typing of the Dead. It managed to capture the really bad voice acting of The House of the Dead 2 and make a fun typing tutor game where accurately typing words killed zombies. Genius (in a crazy sort of way)! If they re-released the original The Typing of the Dead on GOG or Steam, I'd buy it in a heartbeat. But then I found out that there was a new The Typing of the Dead that was only released not long ago. Fast Forward to the Steam sale and now the game and its DLC is quite affordable.

Consortium

  • Sale price: $9.99
  • Metacritic Rating: 66
I have to admit, the only reason I originally got excited about this game was because Jeremy Soule, one of my favourite game music composers, worked on the soundtrack. When I discovered that it was some sort of sci-fi RPG to boot, I thought this game was worth a look. I could've got this game for cheaper on GOG (for $5 in fact) but thanks to my basic Internet plan, I usually only purchase smallish games (e.g. 1GB and less) on GOG since I can actually get games quota-free on Steam.

Enslaved: Odyssey to the West

  • Sale price: $4.99
  • Metacritic Rating: 70
I love stories from Ancient China and one of the most famous to Western audiences would be The Journey to the West. Apparently, this game is heavily inspired by this story but instead has post-apocalyptic America as its setting. It looks pretty good and while the Metacritic rating for PC ain't so good, it did well on consoles (maybe a bad PC port then?)

The Yawhg

  • Sale price: $4.99
  • Metacritic Rating: 66
Again I decided to buy a game solely for research purposes as I heard that The Yawhg was developed in Multimedia Fusion 2 and it also sounded like my kind of game (one where the player is offered several choices like a Choose-Your-Own-Adventure). I kind of like the artwork too although I suppose that's important in visual novel games.

So what did you end up getting? Did you set yourself a limit as to how many games you were going to buy or a certain percentage discount? Or did you just go with the flow and bought games like there was no tomorrow?

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