What we've been playing - "It's like Supermarket Sweep if you can get up quick enough"

A few of the things that have us hooked this week.

21st March

Hello and welcome back to our regular feature where we write a little about the games we've been playing. This week, Bertie discovers he's not as good at Slay the Spire 2 as he would like to be; Connor continues to fall to the Dark Side and embrace his inner troll; and Marie realises that older games really were more challenging.

What have you been playing this week?

Here's another question: do you remember what you were playing last week? You don't have to! The What We've Been Playing archive has you covered.

Slay the Spire 2, PC

Why don't you play a different game, Bertie? Why don't you zip it! It's been a more dabbling week for me and games, so a few runs of Slay the Spire 2 was all I could fit in the cracks of available time. And these snatched sessions: they feel much more like the Slay experience I'm used to. Rushed, intense, often frustrating.

I've been pushing with The Regent, one of the new characters in the sequel, and I've had mixed success. The Regent has a secondary resource system in 'stars' and can summon - and buff - a cosmic sword that floats around though the fight, so they've interesting new ideas going on. But trying to make it all work harmoniously? I'm having trouble with that. I make good progress then suddenly come unstuck - Slay giveth and Slay takes away - sometimes on not especially challenging enemies. There's no worse feeling.

I'd forgotten how infuriating Slay can be in this regard, and I know, it's a skill issue, a deck-building issue, a user error. But none of that understanding can shake a background feeling that there's some hokey pokey RNG unfairness too. To reiterate: a better-build deck with fewer cards and more card draw would guard against this - I am aware of this. But tell that Bertie who's just toiletted 45 minutes of careful progress against some no-name enemy.

I'll say it again: Slay giveth and Slay takes away.

-Bertie

Marathon, PS5

I've been playing too much Marathon, to the point where all I've had to do while waiting for the ranked queue to come is gather treasures and farm reputation. As of writing, I've got two of the six reputations at VIP - which is pretty good!

But, being at this level of progression in a live service game forces you to create your own goals. With no quests or need for loot, the joys of crafting a new adventure presents itself. As such, let me tell you about Outpost's secret Drone wing entrance, and the fun I've been having with it.

Okay, in basic terms, at the centre of Outpost in a zone called Pinwheel. It's this big sprawling base above the rest of the map where the best loot is. There were three ways in: guarded gates you need keycards for, the destroyed wing, and the Drone Wing container entrance. Thief players could also grapple up a little hole, but that was removed by Bungie. Thief players! Nightmares.

The Destroyed Wing has been locked off for now. Players were getting in there too easily and it kind of messed the map pacing up. Why farm keys to enter normally if it's picked clean when you get in there? As such, that leaves the keycards and the Drone Wing. Keycards are boring, apparently. So what players looking for quick loot do is rush around the dedicated spawns for a special item used to open up the Drone Wing. You do have to wait for a container to drop down and slowly ride it back up to actually get in there, but it's like Supermarket Sweep if you can get up quick enough.

So am I rushing up this entrance? Absolutely not. What I'm doing is running solo matches of Outpost on a free kit (risking nothing) as Vandal. Vandal has a big arm cannon which, crucially, knocks players away from its blast. I sit on a roof and wait for someone to summon the container down, wait until they start riding towards good lootin' and blast 'em off their ride. I don't even kill them most of the time! I just annoy them some. It's great fun. What happens after that doesn't matter really - but it speaks to the merit of Outpost's design that it allows me to be a goblin like this. Big fan!

-Connor

Spyro Adventure (aka Spyro: Attack of the Rhynocs), Game Boy Advance SP

I've found myself yearning to play Spyro: A Hero's Tail lately, but alas I cannot get my PS2 up and running, so I've settled back into Spyro Adventure. My biggest thought here is that I used to find it incredibly hard as a kid, and I'm quite happy that it still poses a decent challenge now. I can't just breeze my way through it and I have to think about what I'm doing.

The levels themselves boast traversal challenges, as most Spyro's do, but Adventure stands out to me because you're progress-gated within some of the levels themselves. So you not only have to progress enough to access the level, but you also need to find certain things and return to the same level at a later part of the game to be able to complete it. You're not simply able to run through it once, complete it, and that's it.

I'm rather enjoying myself, but I still really want to play a Hero's Tail again...

-Marie

Marathon, PC

I have played some Marathon, and I think it is both fantastic and, I fear, probably something I'm not going to play much more of. I have all the same opinions as all the other people with correct opinions, i.e. that its sense of impossibly dreadful disaster-capitalist atmosphere is brilliant; the art design (including the fonts) is sublime; the gunplay is peerless and themes of it all - a free-for-all scramble for loose change dropped by the gods of future-commerce - are immaculately woven into the concept of the game itself. It's a belter. But I don't have a spare slot in my hobby-grade time inventory to dedicate to it, so, much like Destiny, where I did one raid, loved it, and never did it again, I'll probably have to enjoy most of this one from afar.

-Chris