This week I spent time in a variety of games, not all of which were open worlds, but there are two games on the list that were, and I spent most of my play time there. The play list this week consisted of: Terraria, Defiance, God Mode, Grid 2, Sword of the Stars: The Pit, and Rogue Legacy.

Terraria:
I’ve already expressed my opinions on Terraria. Having played the game quite a bit more, I have still been enjoying it, although I wouldn’t say that I’ve made a whole lot of progress. I did some odd things just to earn a few of the trophies (and in turn, explore) like building a “ladder” straight up to the top of the world. Gravity actually starts to lessen as you get higher up and dunking on that professional size basketball hoop seems doable. Falling to your death from such a height is pretty humorous as well. Later, I built another ladder looking for a floating island that the trophy speaks of, and found one. On it was a building made of gold bricks. That’s right, gold effing bricks! Inside was a gold chest that I couldn’t open… so while I consulted the wiki (and found out you need a golden key that I didn’t posess) the building was surrounded by Harpies. Lots of them. I thought to myself, what the hell, it’s just a couple harpies NBD, and was promptly flattened by them. I’ll tackle that island again later. Deciding that I needed to upgrade my crappy wood armor to something more, well, metal, I headed off to mine some ores and metals. I am still in the process of doing so, so that I can take on harder monsters, dig deeper and try to hunt down some of the prerequisites to summon the bosses.

Defiance:
Wait what? I thought you didn’t play MMOs anymore?! Yeah that’s what I thought too. And then this game went on sale for $2.50 and how could I say no? Be that as it may, Defiance is classified as an MMO, but really it plays like Borderlands with more people populating the world. Instead of 4 player co-op, there are many players. But that hasn’t stopped me from treating it as a single player game, and playing by myself. More on this later. So I started up the game not really knowing what to expect, as I had read many mixed reviews on the interwebs. After getting through the tutorial and figuring out the buttons and various menus, it really isn’t any harder to understand than Borderlands. A good entry-level MMO, and there isn’t an unattainable cap, though it seems that there really isn’t an end game outside of playing PVP. But I really don’t know, I’m not there yet. I rolled up an Irathien Male Survivalist, but this game doesn’t have any sort of classes, nor racial advantages. So this just boils down to appearance and starting weaponry. My choice boiled down to the Survivalist coming with a Sniper rifle, which I felt would be advantageous. After playing through the story to a point where I have a vehicle and can really go exploring, being a sniper can be a good and bad thing. It really sucks only having a pistol as a side arm, so once I picked up a SMG I felt better about things. Playing solo is dangerous, and if there isn’t anyone playing in the immediate area you can get swarmed quick. If you have ample cover it’s cool to snipe, but when cleavers are running up to your face it’s sidearm time, and the SMG handles things nicely. So far I’m enjoying the solo aspect, but it requires certain EGO levels before you are allowed to participate in the co-op missions and the PVP. Those come complete with matchmaking though, so knowing people to play with isn’t required, which is a plus. I have yet to participate in an Arkfall yet, which is an open world event, or the open world PVP Shadow War. So there will be more on this game as I get into it further.

The Others:
God Mode – I’m level 10. I fully upgraded the SMG (starting weapon), and upgraded to the plasma pistol as my sidearm. Also picked up the healing special power, which is far superior to the shield and works when you’re running some oaths (thing negative boosters like in Uncharted, or a negative attribute. I have beaten all  of the levels solo on Bronze difficulty,  and have since moved up to Silver and did one level solo. Might try out gold, as one of the trophies requires beating all levels on the hardest difficulty. There still isn’t much of a player base online, so I guess the sale I took part in wasn’t very popular.

Grid 2 – I only played a couple of races thus far, and the game seems cool, but the controls are kind of wonky. But I remember feeling that way when I first played Gran Turismo 5, and I think I had to make adjustments. I’m not sure, I don’t play racing games all that much but they are usually fun. The game plays somewhere in between Gran Turismo (simulation) and Need for Speed (arcade-y).

SotS: The Pit – I started another play through, for the 2nd time I chose a Ranger. Currently on Level 9. I’m on floor 10. I started this game on normal difficulty, and used the option to skip to level 5 and utilize banked experience from my previous Ranger play through. Picked up a fair bit of gear, though haven’t made much recipe progress.

Rogue Legacy – I’ve played sporadically. Had many more deaths, many more heirs. I have started locking the castle as I have now explored all of the castle, and have moved onto clearing out the forest. I will probably continue to lock it now as I progress through the game. Currently level 30 or so (though I’m too lazy to look right now).

On the Horizon:
This week’s Playstation Plus offering was Borderlands 2. Knowing that the player base will get a kick in the pants is getting me really itching to go back and play through the DLC that I have owned since release and haven’t played (bought the season pass, but only played through the first DLC). I had friends playing the game when it first came out, but I don’t see them playing anymore, and convincing someone who has quit a game to come back isn’t all that easy. So I’m thinking of playing and letting anyone join my game, which I have never done before. I have a headset now, so maybe this is the thing to do. I’ve been missing having the multiplayer element and it seems like everyone I used to play games with is off doing their own thing. Maybe I’ll get some new online buddies this way.