What we've been playing

15th of July, 2022

Hello! Welcome back to our regular feature where we write a little bit about some of the games weve found ourselves playing over the last few days. This time: demons, nuking solar systems, and slackers versus zombies.

If you fancy catching up on some of the older editions of What Weve Been Playing,
heres our archive.

Diablo Immortal, Pixel 6

Was I hard on Diablo Immortal? I keep thinking about this because Ive gone back to it and started a new character and now Im playing it fairly regularly every day. I really like it. And the things I worried about – the shop and spending money? I still havent done that. Whats more, I still havent felt even remotely tempted to do that. Im playing this game like a Diablo game and its fulfilling everything I want from it.

And I hear what people are saying about a grind and for sure, it slows down after level 30, but thats allowed me to discover more of the game and understand the different components of it – to try groups, to try bounties, to mess around with skill set-ups. All of that rather than just dumbly following quest markers without ever really stopping to read whats going on (and I can still go back to that, it hasnt changed that much).

Maybe Im easily pleased, but then I think about Diablo 3 and what the experience was like there and I remember a grind. I remember grinding through a boring story on an unfulfilling difficulty before I could get to the good stuff. And the experience of doing it was no better than here. Ive looted just as many legendaries, if thats how you measure things. The only difference is here Ive got much more to do and play with. This experience is better.

Look, I dont think Diablo Immortal is the second coming and I have reservations I wont go into here, because I havent got enough space, but it plays a game of Diablo as good as Diablo 3 – if not better.

Bertie

Endless Space 2, PC

I’ve been quite busy this week with managing my space empire driven by illegal trade and organ harvesting, but I can’t seem to stop myself from drowning in the ecstasy of absolute control. And, well, absolute control is what Endless Space 2 provides.

Getting to pick from a variety of space-faring races is just the tip of the iceberg in Endless Space 2, as right now I find myself either conquering the galaxy through debt via the capitalistic frenzy of the Lumeris or straight up nuking the sun of a solar system for laughs.

Note: Donlan asked for space pictures for his James Webb piece, and I then proceeded to play this game for six hours after work.

Paolo Balmes

Scott Pilgrim Vs the World: The Game, Switch

Susana Polos brilliant Monday Funnies pieces on Polygon mean that Ive been reading comics and graphic novels much more than usual. (I absolutely recommend The Nice House on the Lake and Eight Billion Genies, both of which I read about in Polos column.)

Somewhere between all that and the recent Turtles video game, I decided to have another run at the Scott Pilgrim beat-em-up. I have played this many times, but Id never really ventured into the menus. And whats this? Extra modes?

So I spent a worrying amount of time this week smashing up zombies in Survival Horror. Just Scott – or whoever – and a single screen and an endless throng of milling undead.

It works beautifully, not least because the undead take a surprising amount of time to defeat, so Ive really been able to get back on top of the move list. Its also a chance to see the little details in the animation that suggest the deep love that went into this video game. I dont play Scott Pilgrim often, but Ive never deleted it from the Switch, while feels telling. Im done with the zombies for now, but Ive just noticed a Dodge Ball mode waiting below it, so Ill probably be back soon.

Chris Donlan