What we’ve been playing – Loot fountains, Indy delights, and layers of game trifle

January 4

Hello and Happy New Year! Did you have a good break? I hope so.

This is our regular column where we write a little about some of the games we played, in this case over the holiday break. This time we ate our fill of booty in Diablo 4 And Path of Exile 2we were pleasantly surprised, no, delighted by Indiana Jones, and delved into those trivial layers of genius that make up Animal well.

Check out older editions of this column in our Archive “What We Played”.

Diablo 4: Vessel of Hate, PS5

Over the Christmas break, I ping-ponged between Diablo 4 and Path of Exile 2—I filled my ARPG cup, you could say. What surprised me about this was how complementary the games can be. Path of Exile 2 is modest. He doesn’t give anything away easily. You progress through zones and then try to defeat bosses multiple times, and when you do they don’t give you much, you cheap bastards. Path of Exile 2 definitely doesn’t shower you with the same rewards as Diablo 4.

Never was this more evident than during Diablo 4’s Slay Ride to Hell holiday celebration, which saw Treasure Goblins—those scurrying, Santa-like bearers of bottomless bags of loot—seemingly popping up all over the map. Spawns were especially effective in the new Vessel of Hate expansion zone, Nahantu, which it turns out I hadn’t been to yet because I hadn’t played the expansion yet. So, it’s the perfect storm for me: catching up on a year of loot changes and expansion content, and getting gushers of loot along the way.

It became obsolete over time, but not before I ran through the standard character levels with the new Spiritual Warrior class and bought out literal bags full of some of the best loot in the game. I even managed to rearm a few more characters. It’s an embarrassment of riches that couldn’t be further from Path of Exile 2’s Scrooge approach, and I loved Diablo for it – I got my fill of it.

However, I’ve now returned to Path of Exile 2, as if to cleanse myself of the excesses of Diablo. I think this is quite appropriate for January.

-Bertie

Animal Well, PC (Steam Deck)

I popped an Animal Well pill with my Christmas dinner this holiday season and it’s a real gem of a game. I know it’s been said a million times already, but developer Billy Basso has something truly special in store with this debut, and Metroidvania fans owe it to themselves to play it if they haven’t already. It’s a brilliant take on the genre, not only in the sense that it changes the rules of traversal and discovery (for example, replacing double jumps with frisbees and bubble wands, and dashes with yo-yos and tops), but also because it’s just so damn clever. It does what many of my favorite games do: it takes you into a world and then simply points you to an open door, allowing you to open it yourself with little to no guidance. This is such an addictive game that occupies your every thought while you play it.

Case in point: I loved discovering all the different “layers” of Animal Well the more I played it. The first is a six-hour walk that you have to take just to get to the bottom of the well, complete the main part of the story quest and defeat the “final” boss. However, the second level is where Animal Well really comes to life: a 64-person egg hunt that actually allows you to leave the well altogether, leading to what I consider to be a proper ending. This is what I managed to finish over the holidays, increasing my play time to about 20 hours. But there’s a third level that makes use of all sorts of Tunic/Fez/ARG-style “deep” secrets involving hidden bunnies, barcodes, community riddles that – raise your hands – are probably beyond my comprehension (or rather, beyond my comprehension available I have free space for such things, as well as work).

But damn, this egg hunt level was really good, if only because the tools and gadgets you need to get to find them all go far beyond what’s required to beat Animal Well’s first level. It really makes you wonder what’s possible in this strange environment and what other secrets might have been hiding in plain sight all along. And some of these eggs are hidden so well! An absolutely insane achievement for a solo developer, well deserving of its place in our ranking. Top 50 games of 2024.

–Catherine

Indiana Jones and the Great Circle, Xbox Series X

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What a joy he discovered Indiana Jones and the Big CircleEurogamer Game of the Year 2024. I happily admit to some initial skepticism about this. Indiana Jones is a franchise that hasn’t always been well taken care of, and while MachineGames is undoubtedly a talented developer, it isn’t known for releasing licensed adventure games. How wrong I was! I’m having more fun than any other game released last year.

But Indy is more than just a fun game. MachineGames consistently demonstrates an understanding of Indy’s essence – its half-mumbled conclusions, slightly wry humor, and subtle movements and facial animations that make me feel like I’m watching a fresh show directed by Harrison Ford himself.

Then there’s the attention to detail. Was I the only one who teased the appearance of the game’s first villain even longer while reading all the fossil exhibits in the college library? And hopefully I’m not the only one who noticed that MachineGames has finally solved something that annoys me about many of the games I play: you explore a cave/dungeon/some catacombs that have supposedly remained untouched for hundreds of years, for except for the fact that all the candles are still burning.

Indiana Jones, I should have known that one day you would walk through my door with a shiny new chapter. I just didn’t expect it to be like this.

-Volume