Look What The March Wind Blew In

Amazon Prime Gaming freebies for March: let's have at them!

March 2 - Baldur’s Gate: Enhanced Edition

March 9 - Adios and I Am Fish

March 16 - Faraway 3: Arctic Escape

March 23 - Book of Demons and Peaky Blinder: Mastermind

March 30 - City Legends: Trapping in Mirror – Collector’s Edition

Hmm. Well, the first thing I'd say is it's a good job this isn't an awards ceremony. I mean, way to blow the big reveal right at the start. Baldur's Gate, eh? We'll get to that in a moment.

The second thing to occur to me is that every month doesn't have the same number of Thursdays, does it? That might be an issue one day. Also, Thursdays. Why?

Logistics aside, it's a more interesting collection for me than February's, from which I claimed nothing at all. Looks like I'll take home at least three titles from March's giveaway. Whether I'll ever play them is another question, of course. Anyway, on with the show.

Baldur's Gate Enhanced Edition - "The classic adventure returns! Baldur’s Gate: Enhanced Edition includes the original Baldur’s Gate adventure, the Tales of the Sword Coast expansion, and all-new content including three new party members."

I don't imagine anyone needs me to tell them what this one is all about. The original is one of the very few games I've played all the way through, twice. I already own the base game and expansion in box form for PC and in some digital version for tablet, too. Well, they're all digital but you know what I mean. I would have grabbed this for convenience' sake anyway but now I see it has extra content I might even play it. Again.

In terms of quality, they really don't come any better. In terms of bargain value, if you had to buy it, it would cost you £15.49 on Steam.

Adios - "A pig farmer decides he no longer wants to dispose of bodies for the mob. What follows is a discussion between him and his would-be killer."

This looks interesting. And odd. Mostly odd, if I'm honest. I watched the trailer and it reminded me of one of those games a team of students knocks out for an end of course show. It has a "Very Positive" rating on Steam but most of the reviews I read, both positive and negative, seemed mildly apologetic for either praising it or knocking it. Makes me think it might be more worthy than entertaining.

One thing I did glean from the reviews was that whatever responses you give during conversation make no difference to the outcome of the game. I did say recently that I approved of games with meaningless choices so I guess I ought to enjoy having no real say in how things turn out. It's also quite short, apparently, which also in it's favor. There's a decent chance I'd play it - eventually - so I'll definitely claim it.

Costwise, it's £13.99 on Steam.

I Am Fish - "A charming, physics-based adventure starring four intrepid fish friends, forcibly separated from their home in a pet shop fish tank. Swim, fly, roll and chomp your way to the open ocean in a bid for freedom and to re-unite once again."

This one really appeals to me. It looks fast, funny and full of character. Unfortunately, it also look hard as fuck. I am not good at these kinds of games even when they're super-easy so it would be completely pointless for me to attempt one that attracts comments like

 "What I saw : cutesy fish game. What I got : pure rage simulator"

 "Its sole problem is unreasonable difficulty and inconsistent physics" (FYI, that's two problems...) 

"The level quality is all over the place, even within the same levels... Many levels have great sections that are over too quickly, followed by horribly boring ones that last far longer, like the devs were unable to tell which parts of their game were actually fun."

And all of those were from positive reviews. The negative ones tended to focus on the inadequacies of the physics engine, quite the problem for a physics game, and the general shoddiness of everything but the graphics, which pretty much everyone agrees are "cute". Pass.

Can be had for £15.99 on Steam, where there's also a free demo. 

Faraway 3: Arctic Escape - "A relaxing adventure escape game full of new puzzles to solve. The final sequel of the Faraway trilogy"or so says Steam, where the game is known simply as "Faraway: Arctic Escape" and has no reviews whatsoever.

On Google Play, however, it has a rating of 4.3 and a more detailed description: "Escape all-new distant places in Faraway 3: Arctic Escape that are full of mind-bending puzzles and new exciting locations to explore. This room escape game will challenge your puzzle solving ability. Sequel to one of the all-time best escape games with over a million players! A room escape puzzle game that will completely challenge your mind, captivate you & offer hours of amazing mobile gaming entertainment."

It's clearly a big hit series on mobile with no presence in PC gaming at all, then. The graphics look super-stylised and quite attractive, if a tad bland, the music is really soothing and most of the complaints I saw revolved around the puzzles being much too easy. Probably a nice, relaxing diversion, then. 

I'm on the fence about this one. I might enjoy it but I suspect that, like the hidden object games, it won't feel so much like a nice timewaster as just a waste of time. It's also free on Google Play and compatible with my Kindle Fire so I could grab it any time. I certainly won't be paying the £4.29  Steam's asking, not even with the curent 10% discount. 

Book of Demons - "a Hack & Slash in which YOU decide the length of quests. Wield magic cards instead of weapons and slay the armies of darkness in the dungeons below the Old Cathedral. Save the terror-stricken Paperverse from the clutches of the Archdemon himself!"

A weird mash-up of isometric arpgs and card battlers with roguleike gameplay that seems designed to please no-one and annoy everyone. And yet it's rated Very Positive from over eight thosuand reviews, so I guess they managed to cut and shut all those parts together without anything too important dropping off. 

Judging from the videos, gameplay looks a little frenetic for my tastes and the voiceover is actively irritating but I still might claim it anyway. I like the idea of the card-based item and spell system and the way the whole thing is set inside a children's pop-up book. Probably won't ever play it, but what the heck.

Should you need to buy it, it's actually the most expensive of this month's offers, retailing at £19.99 on Steam.

Peaky Blinder: Mastermind - "a puzzle-adventure game, based on the multi-award-winning TV show. Become the Mastermind as you control key characters and pull off perfectly synchronized plans."

So far, I've managed to avoid the Peaky Blinders phenomenon and I'd really like to keep it that way. Whether or not this game has anything to offer someone who's never watched the show, I wouldn't care to hazard a guess. I have even less idea whether it'll make the fans happy and frankly I don't care. Pass.

It's also the only game in Prime's March collection that is "no longer available on the Steam store". The link on publisher Curve Game's website goes to a dead page.  Where you'd get it for PC I have no idea. Oh, wait, yes I do: Amazon Prime!

City Legends: Trapping in Mirror – Collector’s Edition - "On your way to writing the perfect supernatural novel, be prepared to face danger. Are you ready for such desperate measures?"

This is yet another hidden object puzzle game, something which doesn't do much to sell it to me. There also seems to be some confusion over what it's called, with Steam having it listed under the rather more gramatically convincing title "City Legends: Trapped In Mirror Collector's Edition".

Either way, the Lovecraft-lite plot coupled with typical hidden object game wishy-washy graphics makes for a pretty unappealing prospect. Pass.

If you had to buy it, Steam would charge you £8.50 but you're not paying that, are you?

And that's that for March. Looks like I need to make a note on the calendar for the 2nd and the 9th and add a question mark against the 23rd. 

Like I really need any more games right now...