Limbo

Appropriately named for the wrong reason.

This is stylistic/minimalistic(?) black and white puzzle platformer is pretty nifty and despite being on the short side of things has some good head scratching sections, especially if you are aiming to get all the extra easter eggs. For something that doesn't use any text or speech, it starts out pretty decent at teaching the player of their limitations and what things are fatal to your character: pretty much everything. :P

It also does a great job of imbuing dread and fear in the earlier stages, something that is unfortunately lost as you progress where things begin relying more on either prior knowledge or excellent gamer ability. The achievement of making it through with less than five deaths is almost certainly unattainable for a first time player as that method of teaching then practice quickly evaporates later on.

Pretty cool for something just in shades of gray.

I feel that the best bits of it are at the beginning. For some reason it seems to have the most care taken design wise. Towards the end when you are avoiding laser guided bullets and playing with gravity altering buttons it feels more and more like a slower Super Meat Boy experience. Doesn't help that the final bit required me to switch to windowed mode to avoid a game breaking crash and that the actual end is quite sudden. I guess much like the title, it's own spirit was lost in Limbo. Still a fun game but not a great game in my book, and it easily could have been. I give it three terrifying giant spiders out of five.

Skyrim: End of Eternity

Adventures in Skyrim - spoilers ahead! You can follow the rest of the story here!

The crypt was lightly sprinkled with draugr as one might expect. Deeper in was a nice surprise of a dragon priest turning into a spectral dragon though! Not that it was dangerous for me, just a neat effect. The last chamber was hilarious though: it was filled with "draugr Bob"!

This place looks familiar...

After killing the one true Bob (only one with a key), I found a sacred flame and touched it to find myself transported to... Sovngarde? The mead hall was very different now though. All the nord heroes were dead and burning in the pyre. I mean re-dead? Ahhh this is as confusing as Spirit Society in Bleach! The lone Thalmor Commander, Grand Duamus Rhonac had effectively destroyed it single handedly.

Too bad he and his second spirit form couldn't do the same to me.

After eliminating him I was fortunate enough to find a glowing ball of light that teleported me back to the fisherman's shack. A little annoyed I had to row back to the mainland by myself though!

Skyrim: Teaching them a Lesson

Adventures in Skyrim - spoilers ahead! You can follow the rest of the story here!

The underground cavern was massive, and far below I could see a small fort guarded by a handful of patrolling Thalmor. The bridges leading down had broken and were replaced instead by... lit floating torches? *Sigh* Someone likes jumping puzzles. A few hops, skips and jumps down and I was sniping the clueless guards. One shot, one kill.

Jumping puzzle with invisible platforms. Thanks crazy Thalmor!

The interior wasn't much better defended, and I managed to catch the guard captain and his "adventuring team" sitting at dinner. Shot him in the head and rushed the rest. Half of them were dead before they could even stand and draw weapons. The other half didn't fare much better. In their cheese filled basement below I did the Thalmor a favor by exploding their skeever infestation, then proceeded up stairs and stumbled upon a magic class.

Ultimate stealth: Casting destructive ritual magic in the center of an enemy magic class and not being detected.

After dealing with them and some fire eles, I made my way to the top of the tower to deal with the head honcho only to find, he wasn't there. A note and key suggested he went into the crypts below, and so after a lot of looking I finally found a passage behind one of the many tapestries that led even deeper underground... People just love digging too deep.

Skyrim: Middle of Nowhere

Adventures in Skyrim - spoilers ahead! You can follow the rest of the story here!

Gotta dodge the laser beams!

In one of the deeper vaults on the island I found an army of dwemer spheres busy at work and proof of the Kraken's origin. I mean who else would construct a giant mecha right? After destroying Mazinger Z, I cleared as many more enemies as I could but then had to return, leaving the rest of Summerset Isle's conquest in the capable hands of the sisters and their soldiers.

This is because the mod is unfinished, and I ran into the speedforce.

Upon returning to Skyrim, Brutus told me that during his incarceration he learned of a secret Thalmor under the ocean. The best way there would be via rowboat, and would need to be a solo mission as to keep it low key. Because I like surprising people. This was fine since Braga Clearwater basically "graduated" and was now a competent adventurer. I gave her a big hug and sent her on her way, then found myself a boat.

Well, that's specific...

At the coordinates Brutus gave I found an unguarded tiny island and a fisherman's shack. Under the bed was a trap door that led to a huge cave system though, guarded by a ghost and his ghost dog. Yeeeah ok. After splattering their ectoplasm all over the walls I found stairs leading even deeper.

Skyrim: Summerset Isle

Adventures in Skyrim - spoilers ahead! You can follow the rest of the story here!

The soldiers of Skyrim were doing a pretty good job slaying the Thalmor defenders, despite taking losses of their own. I was pleased to see Aurora and Twilight with them in the fray, but I could not let them have all the fun. Using my super speed I made sure to get ahead of the main pack and slaughter as many of the enemy as I could, personally.

Though it was nice to watch the two NPC forces clash too.

During my rampage I came across a prison with a familiar face being slowly executed by a fiery boss Thalmor. After slaying the incinerator I freed Brutus Brutalus, the assassin who obviously survived my final attack last time and whose armor I now wore. Apparently he managed to crawl away, only to be taken hostage by the elves and tortured for information. He did manage to escape and cause some chaos though.

The very definition of a hero!

Since he now owed me (a lot) he offered his aid against our common enemy. I told him to go recover first while I thought about it, instructing Braga to take him back to the ships while I forged ahead deeper inland where more Thalmor, including one of their "master wizards", met their ends at my blade. Their paralyzing archer squads came close to putting me down though. Close but not enough.

For glory!

Skyrim: Plotting the Course

Adventures in Skyrim - spoilers ahead! You can follow the rest of the story here!

Braga's training continued as we hunted more master vampires and bandit bosses together. At Falkreath we received a strange request via courier: a local hunter wanted us to hunt down a monster in town. I let Braga take the lead on the investigation, which led us to finding the body of one female victim and ultimately into the "hunters'" house.

The price of guilt.

Turns out he was the monster too, but ultimately we didn't have to fight him since he took himself out with a dagger. After that slightly depressing mission we finally got word from Njada about the source of "the Kraken" from last time - Summerset Isle, home of the Thalmor. She had already arranged a fleet and loyalist troops to go and eliminate all the scum there. I was only too happy to join.

No place to run, assassin!

During the voyage I was attacked by a left over bounty hunter who had snuck aboard, but Braga and the nearby soldiers took care of him. Soon enough we reached the shores of the Thalmor controlled island, and charged onto the beach under enemy fire. The elf scum were waiting.

Skyrim: The Student

Adventures in Skyrim - spoilers ahead! You can follow the rest of the story here!

Less than a week had passed when Braga Clearwater of Adal Matar came knocking on my door. She sought me out to be her tutor in all things adventuring. Unlike her brother she had no combat experience so I thought we'd  start with simple things like recovering books for the College of Winterhold and hunting vampires for the Dawnguard.

Pierce the chest and remove the head.

I demonstrated how to sneak past giants, pickpocket vamps and obviously tested her combat ability against some Silverhand and Summerset Shadows gang members. She was also tested by the Augur of Dunlain beneath the College against some pretty tough ghosts, a test she passed easily and was rewarded with a powerful restoration ritual.

I then took her on patrol along the shoreline and found another gigantic enemy: the Kraken. Not what I was expecting though, as it was a giant dwemer spider bot! Fortunately the machination was malfunctioning and was easy for Braga and I to destroy. I did wonder where the heck this thing was built though, so I sent pieces I could salvage back to Njada to examine.

Not your typical kraken!