Feb. 20th, 2026

solo_knight: (Chomp)
First Impressions The Cog That Remains
(Find it in the current No ICE Bundle)

Game Description )

It's not the game, it's me. It really is. I love the system – you get 52 (and here, 54) prompts which come up randomly; you have the additional Jenga tower mechanic (which I play with a paper equivalent since a physical tower would be less fair), but this type of game demands that you create your own story. Which is great.

But.

Firstly, I am strapped for time. I would like to try a second dedicated solo adventure this month. Then I'm poking at a Scarlet Heroes hexcrawl/wilderness adventure (and am learning a lot from that), and from time to time I poke at a freeform adventure (I have no system I play with or character stats; I'll add them when I need them, but so far, I'm just exploring).

Plus I'm downloading the _No ICE_ bundle (page 15 of 48; see link above) and despite a lot of games being duplicates, Windows-only, or for systems I have no interest in (eg Mothership) that's still A LOT of games to glance at and save.

This is a game about keeping a giant mecha running. I'd struggle coming up with appropriate stories about maintaining a car, but at least I've owned cars for many decades and done _some_ maintenance, and know what you use a car for.

I know nothing about giant mechas and their pilots, and after a week of staring at my first prompts and not coming up with anything useful, I have to conclude that this game needs more prep and more story brain than I am able to give it.

Which is a shame. Prompts like
Something about the Mecha’s original construction was flawed. Pull from the tower. What limb, part, or system simply doesn’t work the way it should? How do you jury-rig a solution?
sound like they will create great stories – there's just enough substance here to spark imagination and not enough to feel railroaded.

I, however, am in the 'wait, they have limbs? What kind of limbs' stage; I have no knowledge of my own to link this prompt to, and this game feels like work. Work that I am not willing to put in, not while other settings/stories sound so much more interesting.

So, with some reluctance, I am letting this go, or rather, putting it on ice in the hope that one day I may feel bored and curious enough to go back to it.

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