So I Tried... Desktop Survivors 98

Each edition of So I Tried… I will try a game that I have never played before. Will I find something new to love? Will I find something new to despise? I'll take a full half hour, no matter how bad it gets or how badly I do, to see if this is the game for me. For this challenge, I am going to try out Desktop Survivor 98, which was released for Steam. The look of this game brings back a lot of memories from using the computer when I was younger, and I couldn’t wait to see how your Windows 98 desktop could be transformed into a game.

What I thought it was

When I saw the images, especially of the main assist character, I was instantly reminded of Clippy from Microsoft Word. It looks like you are fighting off enemies on a computer's desktop, while using some of the files and programs to attack. I figure you use the keyboard to move your character around to avoid enemies to survive long enough to clear the screen.

What it actually is

Desktop Survivors 98 is not only a roguelike title, but also a dungeon crawler. You aren’t always playing on the same stage, but you are moving between rooms to battle waves of enemies and collect new weapons. Instead of using a keyboard to attack, your hero is the mouse cursor, so you will have to move it around the screen to avoid the viruses and bullets in your way. Once you get enough points, you will level up and let new weapons that look like common apps you see on an older Windows system like: CD Player, that is like a shotgun that shoots CDs; MS Paint, where buckets that spill paint make hazardous floors; Minesweeper, that places a mine in the middle of the desktop for enemies to run into, and the Recycle Bin that shoots deleted documents at enemies can be equipped.

Will I keep playing

Definitely! This game has so much personality, and all the references to the older Windows operating systems are great. It’s incredibly addictive, and I loved levelling up to see what kind of crazy weapons I would get to try out. I still can’t believe that you have a support friend, named Swordy, who looks just like Clippy, that famous paperclip. All this, along with fun visuals and a great MIDI soundtrack, makes this is going to be a game that I will be addicted to for a long time!