My Thoughts on The Big Con

Picture: Steam

One of my favourite gaming experiences from 2022 was this little game called The Big Con. I saw it on Steam store and colourful 90's aesthetics really drag me in. And to be honest, game is really fun! It is very short, took me about 5 hours, but that's fine - too many games nowadays are so long that I just get bored or overwhelmed at half way through. 

The Big Con is a story of Ali, who is on a mission to save their mother's video store by... stealing money. Game revolves around this theme and sends Ali on a journey through the country, meeting new people and exploring topics like what’s right or wrong. I don’t want to spoil too much, but I personally enjoyed game’s dry humour and little stories you’ll encounter while trying to rob people. Everyone seems to have their own problems, and while doing your not so legal tasks you can help many of them… or just take their money. In the end, it’s up to you.

Gameplay is simple enough. You walk around and trigger a simple mini game (which you can also skip entirely if you just want to enjoy the story) and sometimes progress through dialogue. Nothing too hard and as game is just short enough it doesn’t get too repeative. There were some game-breaking bugs like sometimes dialogue screen would just stay up with no way to exit, which was kinda irritating but restarting fixed that. Sometimes several restarts but what can you do. Other bugs were so minor that they didn’t bother me - or I just don’t remember them as it’s been few months since I played The Big Con. 

Overall The Big Con is memorable little experience that I would recommend to everyone. It’s simple enough for casual players and fun enough for everyone else - except if you don’t have any nostalgia towards 90s. Then I don’t know what to say. 

Playing a Detective in The Outer Worlds: Murder on Eridanos

The Outer Worlds is one of my favourite games from recent years. It has that very familiar Obsidian dark humor going on and it was set on the space - what more could you wish from an open-world RPG? Well, a murder mystery DLC, of course.

I've always been a fan of murder mysteries in Fallout-styled games. Why, I don't know. Maybe it has something to do with searching for the clues in a clunky game world with mechanics that are not meant to be used for that kind of gameplay, maybe I just happen to like the humor these missions have. Whatever the reason is, Murder on Eridanos delivers that experience.

Plot is very simple: famous actor has been murdered and you have been asked to find the murderer. You go through this whole new playable area with a hotel, a factory that remains a lot of Nuka-Cola factories from Fallout games, and a little town for an example. There's a lot to see and many secrets to be found, and the main plot takes you through the all main areas so you'll get pretty familiar with them. And as good detective story should have, there's plot twists! Which you certainly didn't expect!

Snek.

Most of the missions are searching for clues with your new weapon Discrepancy Amplifier, which is this ''thing'' that analyzes and comments your actions in funny ways. Other missions are mostly shoot the bad guys or animals in the face or search for items. Nothing fancy, but they work and to be honest, I never got bored. That's a good sign, right?

Characters are pretty memorable, especially all the actors you meet though there could have been more interactions with many of them. With most you just speak once or twice and then they start repeating themselves. That's the problem with The Outer Worlds in a big picture, and I'm hoping that the upcoming sequel changes that. My favourite NPC was this little bit crazy medical professional, Dr. Goodnight. They made me giggle a lot with all the weird and fucked up things they kept saying.

And that's my thoughts on The Outer Worlds' second DLC. It was fun, and I can't wait to continue my adventure on Peril on Gorgon! What might that mysterious package be that's waiting on my ship?