continuing to enjoy this but to be perfectly honest – I was more impressed by curse of the moon 2 and ori 2 in relative terms this year!!
also the netcode is real busted
I bet I would enjoy Curse of the Moon. Ori didn’t do much for me.
Not surprised the netcode feels very broken-- he said it was rollback netcode on twitter, and the behavior people are reporting sound a lot like desync issues. Probably works fine between the two computers they tested it on, but something in the PS4 port isn’t as deterministic as they thought it would be.
Hope it’s only a small issue they can track down quickly.
This game might be my kryptonite. Playing safely is pretty easy for me now (at least in the early game), but playing optimally is not! I’m trying to squeeze all the value out of every level now, and small mistakes often turn into death. You’d think I’d learn after countless ghost pot mishaps or turkey mishaps or stealing mishaps but I don’t!
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I bought the shield and then tried to check out the other goods but then I ended up shoving everything into the shop keeper and then he shot me and something exploded and we all died
Roguelikes sure are video games
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I have 18 health, 58 bombs, 18 ropes, shotgun and cape going into 4-2. Definitely going to die to some oneshot that was entirely avoidable!
EDIT: Jesus christ area 6 is pure fucking torment and chaos. Down to 8 health at the start of 6-2.
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edge of my seat (i haven’t played as much as i like yet, only made it to 3-3 a couple times so far)
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I’m down to 5 health, I lost my shotgun in a pit, I have no idea how to interact with whatever 6-4 is!!!
EDIT I’M POISONED
I got credits thank fucking god! I was actually up to 24 health at a certain point. Nearly fucking blew it. I’m very sweaty.
14 Likes
Unlocking the last shortcut might be harder than beating the game lol. It’s at least more tedious. What a dumb unlock system. It should just be money 3 times. I hated it in the first game too.
Challenge runs = good
Forcing challenge runs so that I can practice later areas = bad
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money-based unlocks made game maker spelunky feel really grindy, i liked HD1’s way of encouraging the player to not start from the last unlocked area every time
haven’t seen how 2 handles it yet
It’s the same but it’s more tedious because you have to go farther. Honestly, I’m fine with Necrodancer’s system that just unlocks the next area the first time you get there. Or make the player get there a couple times, idk.
I just think that by the time I unlock this shortcut I’ll already have the experience I wanted in that area, so I won’t need it.
Almost got another win on a daily that just started (my highest score ever, too). I had 48 health but seemingly no way to hurt the boss after I lost ANOTHER shotgun. At least I know what to look out for, now. I don’t think I’ll make that mistake a third time.
Also went to a sub-area I’d never been to in that run – was pretty fun. There’s some wild stuff in this game.
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Jungle sub-area area spoilers:
I was able to find the black market without the Udjat Eye with the help of a pickax and looking at the relative position of doors in the subworld. Really cool that I can do that!
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started playing the pc version today… i am young dumb and full of spelunk.
enjoying! i played the freeware version of the first one a lot until i gradually got a bit burnt out on it, the first levels of this feel like a nice refresher but mostly don’t do a lot that i can see with the big new stuff (liquids, riding things, the background cave rooms) so assume they’re being held off for later. i like the rolling lizard enemies and appreciate that they eat the dung beetles when they’re near. first glimpse of the jungle was nice.
idk, i maybe wrongly remember the first spelunky as seeming very fresh for the way it used roguelike elements in this new context, now there are several million games like that, perhaps sensibly it feels like they leaned into a kind of legacy status rather than trying to do anything too showy in that new context. maybe this connects to the previously mentioned dad vibes as well. no parts where i found myself playing the game in a different way to the original yet but am enjoying just checking out the new room templates and trying to figure out if the spawn rate for those treasure trap areas have changed.
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yeah – it’s definitely a lot of incremental changes vs. a total rework of the whole game. although those sort of stack up (even in the first area) and i find i do end up playing it differently than the original. there are enough new elements that individual runs can feel pretty different in terms of gear or resources.
played a little spelunky hd a couple days ago and it definitely feels quaint in comparison. and the controls are a bit swimmier.
i do wish the game did more obviously differentiate itself in the beginning. that stuff is there, but it takes a bit to understand how the strategy differs, and takes even more time to reach the new areas where things are substantially different.
i’d guess derek was operating on two ideas for the intial area:
- don’t make the game too complicated for entirely new players
- make a lot of subtle differences for veteran players, so they have to learn a lot before making consistent progress
i’m not sure if i agree with those goals, and i’m not even sure how successful they are, but that’s what it feels like to me.
i do like the game a whole ton – been playing it daily since it came out, so it’s having some staying power for me a least.
4 Likes
got my second win on the daily today! i play way better (read: safer) when i’m doing a daily. maybe i should play like that all the time???
still trying to attempt some of the alternate routes. there are some very difficult areas in this game.
and i’m still getting used to what i can and can’t get away with in regards to shopkeepers. definitely a razor’s edge of control and chaos there.
9 Likes
I got the Steam release this week and just got my first win after 13 hours. I think I spent more than half that time on the last two shortcut requirements… I lost like four 10+ health golden key runs in the jungle from bear traps hidden in foliage or getting cursed. That’s the tilting Spelunky I remember…
I beat the game starting from 5-1 shortcut, which involved very judicious use of the four bombs and the ice cave landmines to murder yeti royalty and the bouncers in 6-3. The guaranteed shotgun NPC in 6-3 is an interesting trick to have a final boss a bit more involved than Olmec without requiring equipment from a full run to beat.
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Ok ok so I have like a couple hours a week to play this game. I’m getting very good at world 1 where (if I’m careful) I can usually beat it with more resources than if I were to use the shortcut.
The jungle is a lot more, uh, free flowing tho? I feel like I wanna explore and get more stuff but that usually just extends my risk. What ar general jungle strategies? How much stuff is enough?
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I generally go factory for World 2 but i’ve warmed to jungle a bit over the past couple of days. Here’s what I think are its strengths:
–free paste (giant spider)
–if you’re able to rescue all three siblings they’ll show up in the top right of the Olmec level with a bomb box
–if you get the bee hive you can generally enter and exit the door real quick to make sure the queen is there then bomb from the outside, nice health bonus from the royal jelly
Witch Doctors are the worst though so there’s that.
3 Likes