My Steam Winter Sale Experience

in Hive Gaming3 years ago

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You use "avoid." It fails miserably.

The great Steam Winter Sale has been lurking inside my computer! Oh no!

And because I'm terrible and evidently like having three million unplayed games in my Steam Library, I decided that I would allow myself just one little splurge. I would be allowed to buy one game. Just one. It's holiday time! Treat yo'self.

What was that game?

Why, Just Die Already, of course! For a measly $10.

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While the game idea was amusing -- you play one of four selectable elderly people and get them kicked out of a retirement home, then you roam the streets and cause chaos. Lots of blood, gore, ways to die, ways to kill others, haha -- but yes, while the game idea is amusing, in actuality... eh.

The controls seemed pretty standard but were actually terrible, practically unplayable, and... it just wasn't as FUN as I thought it would be? I was looking forward to causing disaster with my little old lady, but... eh. I killed her, turned it off, then requested a refund.

Now I was going to have to find something else, with a price limit of $10.

So, while I awaited the email telling me that my refund had been processed, I browsed the Under $10 sale listings and found... sex sims, very low-effort indie games, and many games that I already owned. Yay. Haha.

If anyone's interested!!! You can get the entire Dragon Age trilogy at the moment for under $15. That's Origins, #2, and Inquisition. Woo. ⚔️🐲

Anyway... so after much scouring of the Under $10 category, I came across...

Cat Goes Fishing, Cat Quest 1 and 2, Plague Inc, some pixel Zombie game where you're the zombie infecting everyone... then finally, I chose Pixel Shopkeeper.

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I wasn't entirely sure I would like this. For the past couple of years I've been trying to get into the shopkeeper or tavernkeeper style of games, and I just haven't really found one I could get into.

Recettear came very highly recommended... but I guess I'm just daft because I couldn't work out how to even play the silly thing. This was yeeeeears ago when I was more impatient and wanting instant gratification, but it seemed too complicated. Maybe I'll try again.

Anyway, Pixel Shopkeeper looked okaaaay enough in the Store screenshots. The reviews were mostly positive. The game's Discussions page was fairly active with a developer who actually responded and helped in almost thread. Looked like a good game to support!

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The game doesn't take itself too seriously. It's just a fun little thing with amusing dialogue and a simple premise.

Dungeon delve, loot things, sell the things, and pay off your student loans before they kill you in 16 weeks? 😱

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Your character will automatically run through these little dungeon things while you, the player, get the job of picking up loot and fitting them into your bag Tetris-style.

Of course you must remember to heal your character too with herbs that drop. I didn't know that until later on in the game and got knocked out a couple of times in the dungeons. Now you know straight away!

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After you're finished in the dungeon and haul home all the loot, you can display it in your shop to sell to all the other heroes in the land!

You can click on them to "poke" them to encourage them buy your wares. You can also click on tumbleweeds and birds that fly past to get a few extra golds. Sometimes people will walk past and offer you advice, gold, and quests.

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As you progress you can unlock crafting, a shop which sells decor and recipes, a park in which you can socialise with other heroes, higher level armour and weapons... and more!

It's a little grindy, but it's a good grindy!

Once I win or fail this campaign, I'm tempted to jump straight into Sandbox mode. In Sandbox, there is no loan you need to pay back -- just however-long-you-want of dungeoning, looting, and selling.

And can I just say, the music in this game is great! Reminds me of old-school games, but, less jarring. 😁 I don't normally care about the music in games, it's just there, some background noise, but this is really good.

I like it. It's definitely a nice little Christmas gift I got for myself, it's just terrible that my first choice was... terrible. 😅

You can find Pixel Shopkeeper on the Steam Store here!

 

Until next time! 😊


⭐️🎄Merry Christmas!! 🎄⭐️

 


 

Just Die Already and Pixel Shopkeeper.All screenshots in this post are courtesy of me, @kaelci and are from the games:

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 3 years ago  

Aww, being honest, causing chaos with an old lady looked more cool than the last game. It's similar to Soul Knight only in the visual aspect, but the gameplay style seems completely different.

Why didn't you decide to buy Plague Inc? It's actually a pretty cool game imo, I used to play it a ton in its phone version years ago. I never managed to pass the first level (I think the difficulty was divided on viruses, I don't remember exterminating the whole world with the first virus XD).

 3 years ago (edited) 

With Plague Inc, mostly it was because I played it sooooo much back when it was on Newgrounds years and years ago. Wasn't sure if it was really worth it to buy the standalone version or not after experiencing the original so many times.

That old people game really could've been great, but the controls were whack and it wasn't as fun as advertised. Sadly. I really wanted to like that one! ☹️ It had been on my wish list for aaaages. Grabbed it immediately in the sale. And was almost immediately disappointed.

That's an awesome price for the DA series! I picked up a couple of gems to from the steam sale. Got myself Outward and Dark Souls 2! Honestly, I'm glad I just saw the steam sale up yesterday, because if I saw it sooner I probably would have sunk a good portion of money into it.

 3 years ago  

That's an awesome price for the DA series!

It really is! If I didn't have Dragon Age already, I totally would've picked them up for that price. 😁

Outward is pretty good!! I haven't gotten very far in it because it can be a co-op game as well as single player, and I thought my partner might like to play it too. Turns out he's not interested though so I can go and play it by myself now, haha. And Dark Souls 2! Woo! 😃😃

DA has got to be one of my favorite game series, or at least in my top 10. I never gave Outward a try yet, I plan on saving that for when I start my Let's Plays back up, same with DS. I played maybe 15 minutes of DS2 when it came out for the PS4, but that was about it.

 3 years ago  

I didn't play Dark Souls, but I did watch a friend play through them and damn it looked difficult, haha. I'm looking forward to Elden Ring! That's going to be my first souls-like. 😅 Preparing to be annihilated!! xD

I'm a huge fan of A Song of Ice and Fire, so I'm excited to see what G.R.R.M is going to bring to it!

I think I might pick up PixelShopKeeper. Looks like the type of game I could get into. I was looking at the Holiday deals from Steam and Epic games. I ended up trying out PC Game Pass from Xbox/Microsoft. $1 for 3 months then i forget what it is a month afterwards. Lots of great games. I usually like to buy and own the games forever not really into subscription services but I would like to try a ton of games for the $1 and maybe purchase them when the 3 months is up. Maybe I'll stay with the subscription. Only time can tell. I enjoy your posts thanks you!!

 3 years ago  

I prefer to buy and own my games too, but sometimes it is nice to pay that cheap price and have access to so many games too 🙂 I subscribe every now and then!

Pixel Shopkeeper is very simple looking, but it's a lot of fun! I've been enjoying it!

Killing old people is a complete nightmare. Is this a game that someone is playing?

 3 years ago  

It's more a game where -you- are the old person and you, as a very cranky elder, are the one causing trouble. 🙂

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