With the Steam Summer Sale currently in full swing, this seems like the perfect time to introduce a new feature for Indie Overlook, First Impressions. I’ve been wanting to add something like this in for a while so I’m really excited about this. First Impressions will be short articles based entirely on the first ~30 minutes (~60 for RPG’s) of gameplay with accompanying videos showing my experience during those 30 minutes.
Unlike with most other articles, the games on display here are going to range quite a bit in quality since, after all, I’m going into these games blind and any game I choose for a First Impression will get an article written about it regardless of how good or bad it ends up being. There’s generally going to be a harsher tone to both the videos and the articles as well in part because of the wide quality range and in part because I’ll be speaking and writing about a very specific, small part of the game without having experienced in it full.
First Impressions will be located in the Extras section for now, but they’ll likely get their own section once there are a decent number of them. I plan to make a Gaming Grab Bag stream every Monday, Wednesday, and Saturday in which I play through three or four games for 30 minutes each for the duration of the Steam Summer Sale. Every day that isn’t a stream day will be dedicated to writing one or two First Impression articles for the games shown off in these streams until I’ve covered all of them.
Last, but by no means least, I want to stress that these really are first impressions. Seemingly good games may wear thin later on and games which get off to rough starts may turn out to be great once they get going. These are by no means judgements upon each game as a whole. Nevertheless, good first impressions are important, even for video games, and I hope these articles prove to be both fun and informative for everyone who reads them.