Steam Challenge – SpaceChem (Blaugust Day 12)

This is part of my Steam Challenge Series (the full list is here).

Time played: 29 hours

Oh. My. Gods. This is devastating. I lost my save files for SpaceChem. I was on the last mission of the 4th-last world. I cannot believe I have to go through it all again, because naturally, I did not save my solutions. Maybe one day I will return to it, but right now I cannot face that climb again.

I am devastated because I love this game. It is one of, if not the, best puzzle games I have played. The mechanics are simple enough to learn, but there is endless complexity here. It does not give you clues. It does not hold your hand. It gives you a task, and the tools (the different reactor types), and sets you loose.

The thing that I love about it – particularly in the later missions – is that you start the mission, look at the outputs required, and despair. But you start breaking it down into component parts, and gradually it becomes plausible, then manageable, then solvable. It was taking me hours to solve the missions I was up to – sometimes you’d hit a roadblock and have to sleep on it.

It is not a game for everyone. It is unforgiving, and there is no “easy mode”. There is no “right answer”. There are “best” answers, the most optimised solutions, but more often than not you are simply glad to have solved it at all. There is no action. This is purely a thinking game.

I cannot recommend it more highly.

NSFW – language

Muph & Plutonic – Heaps Good

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Keeping Track of My Hobby

I’ve decided that, as much as I appreciate Aywren for inspiring me to take up the Steam Challenge, it’s not enough. I need to not only play through the games that I have, but restrict my new acquisitions as well. No more snap-buying Bundles for that one game that I like – that’s how I got into this predicament in the first place. I’m already pretty good about reining myself in at Steam Holiday sales, but that isn’t my only source of new games. Way back when I first started reading Clean Casuals (before it was called that!), one post brought the Steamgifts site to my attention, and I have been a participant ever since. I’ve won 5 games from there now. If my win rate continues, I could be looking at another half a dozen games this year. So clearly that contributes to my growing list of titles. Plus, I’ve been receiving games from very generous blogger friends. Basically I’m writing this post as a record of what I am doing. Anyone who cares can follow along, though I won’t be doing any more posts about it. I’ll be putting up a page that lists all of my new acquisitions in 2015, whether I play them or not this year. Next year I can look back and compare that list to the Steam Challenge list and sigh. Will it be in satisfaction, or despair? Stay tuned!