1. If I was a betting man, I'd bet whoever decided Hot Pixel should be made handed the development team a copy of a WarioWare game and said, "Here, do exactly this."
2. Okay, it is not exactly the same as WarioWare but the influence is clear and present. Hot Pixel consists episodes, each a collection of micro-games, followed by a micro-game boss battle. I think this will strike Nintendo fans as not unfamiliar.
3. This is going for some kind of a sanitized 90s urban vibe. Or, it might have been a very out of touch attempt at a contemporary urban vibe in 2007. Suffice to say: break beats, skateboards and "attitude" are all front and center.
4. Oddly, many of the micro-games are throwbacks to early 80s arcade titles so who the hell knows how that fits in.
5. Before and after each episode, there are brief and strange live videos of a thirty year old acting like a teenager. This is absolutely baffling to me but it does kind of fit in w/ the sort of scattershot presentation Hot Pixel has going on all the time.
6. Lack of attention to detail that holds the game back generally. Micro-games are an established premise but you've got to keep it polished to make everything flow.
7. The games themselves are pretty good. Well, mostly pretty good. There is supposedly two hundred of them but it depends how you count. It feels more like there's a couple dozen games, each of which have a couple variations.
8. Some of the variations just have the screen shaking a bit or scrolling around. It's kind of annoying.
9. Some of these game variations seem randomized and I think some of the random variations might be actually impossible. It is hard to tell since you can't really get back to that exact version of the game to retry it. Even if there aren't impossible scenarios, every now and then there will be a giant difficulty spike and that's never fun.
10. This gets into a problem a lot of these micro-games type deals. Your goal is typically to get through a set number of micro-games in a row w/ only a few failures allowed. Successfully completing these can often feel more like luck of the draw in getting mostly easy challenges rather than like you are actually getting better.
11. This is one of very few PSP games where I notice the load times from
the UMD being distracting. The micro-games are meant to come at you fast
and furious and those split seconds are much more egregious in
something like this than in most games.
12. In addition to episode mode, there's a couple other ways to play. You can do a marathon of random games or pick your own list of games to play among other things, This stuff is all unlocked by playing through the episodes. It's a pretty decent bonus but it's all the same games just in a different order so not really all that much more content.
13. I have a soft spot for micro-games. This isn't the best of the genre but is certainly worth having as a weird low-budget Atari curio if nothing else. The whole thing seems a little half-baked in the end but Hot Pixel will distract you pretty well for a few hours.
Wednesday, March 28, 2018
Monday, March 26, 2018
13 Points on The Shrouded Isle - Kitfox Games - 2017 [PC]
1. Looking at the Game Boy-esque standard color schemes in the promotional screenshots, I just figured this would be some kind of twisted action game. I thought this even after reading the description where it explains The Shrouded Isle is a management sim. I am definitely smart enough that it's worth your time to keep reading.
2. So, yeah, the first thing anyone is gonna notice is this looks like some crazy hi-res version of handheld gaming in 1989. The artwork actually has a hand-drawn flare rather than the pixel-art but the palate is unmistakable. The sickly green color and callback to a simpler era of gaming fit w/ the twisted, backward mindset of the cultists depicted in-game.
3. The cult, in this case, is attempting to resurrect Cthulhu. Cthulhu is called by some other name in-game but, let's face it, Cthulhu is the gold standard of evil Lovecraft-style gods. You can call it something else but we still know it's Cthulhu.
4. You serve as cult leader and your job is the ensure the titular island's population stays pure so the resurrection goes well. Doing this looks surprisingly similar to getting a bunch of sliding bars to stay in the right place. You must evaluate the capabilities of your various cultists, enlist their help when appropriate and then kill them one by one. This is a game. It's fun!
5. The setup here is rather simple but trying to describe it is giving me a headaches. You have a bunch of people who have to do stuff. Using them or choosing not to use them makes other people either happy or unhappy and it all gets convoluted pretty quick. Still, the complexity is such that it's not hard to keep track of everything, only to find the best reaction to each situation.
6. The Shrouded Isle comes by default w/ a little DLC pack that has an extra wrinkle where people get sick and you can send them to a sanitarium, which has its own ups and downs. The game w/ this content seems to be considered the definitive version by the devs and what I am covering here.
7. Each playthrough is rather short start to finish. You essentially play twenty turns altogether, each of which takes maybe a couple minutes once you get gameplay down. The majority of playtime for most people will be spent failing and retrying.
8. There is some light storytelling elements mixed in but most of these will be skipped over after a few times through. The Shrouded Isle manages to maintain it's uneasy atmosphere regardless. This is partly due to its graphical style but the sound deserves a lot of credit as well. The music is haunting--it reminds me quite a bit of the reverbed-out music in Diablo--and the sound effects are fairly sparse. There is a stillness that is every now and then shattered by a sharp snap or crash and this somehow remained effective at keeping me off balance even after hearing the same thing many times.
9. It also helps that the game never lets you fall into a pattern and you are never on completely stable footing after the first few rounds and maybe the last few if you're lucky.
10. My main complaint about The Shrouded Isle's mechanics is it almost never favors bold action. W/ only very rare exceptions, attempting to do something drastic will blow up in your face. There are no strokes of genius to get you out of tough situations. You start out on good footing and are managing your decline from there on out. It is more about not making mistakes--and a lot of luck--than it is building an effective system.
11. I played through this many times and never once did I get to a situation where I heroically scraped through a turn by the skin of my teeth and then found myself able to regain more stable footing. The way it goes is: heroically scrape by by the skin of your teeth, game over on your next turn anyway.
12. If I had some kind of solution to this problem I'd offer it up now but, honestly, if I was the kind of person to come up w/ some kind of solution to this problem, I'd probably be spending more time designing games and less time writing list-based game reviews. Just saying. It's a great game, just not perfect and I can offer no suggestion on how to make it better.
13. What impresses me most about The Shrouded Isle is just how well the elements all come together. The graphics, sound and gameplay fit together as seamlessly as they do in any game I can think of. The experience is invloving when you start playing and as you struggle to figure out how to get through the mid-game. Putting together the final pieces is satisfying and relieving all at once. This strives to be more of a high-concept vignette than an endlessly playable sim and is definitely worth sinking a few nights into for those looking to move some sliders around under a truly unique pretense.
2. So, yeah, the first thing anyone is gonna notice is this looks like some crazy hi-res version of handheld gaming in 1989. The artwork actually has a hand-drawn flare rather than the pixel-art but the palate is unmistakable. The sickly green color and callback to a simpler era of gaming fit w/ the twisted, backward mindset of the cultists depicted in-game.
3. The cult, in this case, is attempting to resurrect Cthulhu. Cthulhu is called by some other name in-game but, let's face it, Cthulhu is the gold standard of evil Lovecraft-style gods. You can call it something else but we still know it's Cthulhu.
4. You serve as cult leader and your job is the ensure the titular island's population stays pure so the resurrection goes well. Doing this looks surprisingly similar to getting a bunch of sliding bars to stay in the right place. You must evaluate the capabilities of your various cultists, enlist their help when appropriate and then kill them one by one. This is a game. It's fun!
5. The setup here is rather simple but trying to describe it is giving me a headaches. You have a bunch of people who have to do stuff. Using them or choosing not to use them makes other people either happy or unhappy and it all gets convoluted pretty quick. Still, the complexity is such that it's not hard to keep track of everything, only to find the best reaction to each situation.
6. The Shrouded Isle comes by default w/ a little DLC pack that has an extra wrinkle where people get sick and you can send them to a sanitarium, which has its own ups and downs. The game w/ this content seems to be considered the definitive version by the devs and what I am covering here.
7. Each playthrough is rather short start to finish. You essentially play twenty turns altogether, each of which takes maybe a couple minutes once you get gameplay down. The majority of playtime for most people will be spent failing and retrying.
8. There is some light storytelling elements mixed in but most of these will be skipped over after a few times through. The Shrouded Isle manages to maintain it's uneasy atmosphere regardless. This is partly due to its graphical style but the sound deserves a lot of credit as well. The music is haunting--it reminds me quite a bit of the reverbed-out music in Diablo--and the sound effects are fairly sparse. There is a stillness that is every now and then shattered by a sharp snap or crash and this somehow remained effective at keeping me off balance even after hearing the same thing many times.
9. It also helps that the game never lets you fall into a pattern and you are never on completely stable footing after the first few rounds and maybe the last few if you're lucky.
10. My main complaint about The Shrouded Isle's mechanics is it almost never favors bold action. W/ only very rare exceptions, attempting to do something drastic will blow up in your face. There are no strokes of genius to get you out of tough situations. You start out on good footing and are managing your decline from there on out. It is more about not making mistakes--and a lot of luck--than it is building an effective system.
11. I played through this many times and never once did I get to a situation where I heroically scraped through a turn by the skin of my teeth and then found myself able to regain more stable footing. The way it goes is: heroically scrape by by the skin of your teeth, game over on your next turn anyway.
12. If I had some kind of solution to this problem I'd offer it up now but, honestly, if I was the kind of person to come up w/ some kind of solution to this problem, I'd probably be spending more time designing games and less time writing list-based game reviews. Just saying. It's a great game, just not perfect and I can offer no suggestion on how to make it better.
13. What impresses me most about The Shrouded Isle is just how well the elements all come together. The graphics, sound and gameplay fit together as seamlessly as they do in any game I can think of. The experience is invloving when you start playing and as you struggle to figure out how to get through the mid-game. Putting together the final pieces is satisfying and relieving all at once. This strives to be more of a high-concept vignette than an endlessly playable sim and is definitely worth sinking a few nights into for those looking to move some sliders around under a truly unique pretense.
Friday, March 23, 2018
13 Points on Bioshock - Irrational Games - 2007 [PC]
1. This game is in conflict w/ itself.
2. On one hand it is a moody, slow simmering sci-fi thriller.
3. On the other hand, it is an FPS in which evil mutants fly at you in rapid succession.
4. Both of these elements hold their own but they don't really fit together. Each element works despite the other element not because of it. There is no synergy.
5. The first person combat is great. A combination of melee, gun and magic attacks and a well thought-out progression of upgrades makes for a rather deep experience and allows a fairly wide variety of play styles.
6. The focus on combat doesn't really allow for your gameplay to have much of a plot. You basically get dropped into this underwater city and do what some guy tells you two for a dozen or so hours and then there's the ending.
7. This is different than me saying there isn't a plot. The majority of the plot just happens before the player is ever involved and is told by having the player discover tape recorders throughout the course of the game. It all gets kinda laid out to you no matter what you happen to be doing at the time.
8. Who cares? The atmosphere is cool and it's fun.
9. There is some minor illusion of moral choice in this game. You chose between "harvesting" and "saving" what appear to be little girls. They try to add some ambiguity as far is what is the right choice but, honestly, if you are scratching your head over what to do in this situation, I don't want you around my children.
10. There are multiple endings but they are not worth replaying the game for.
11. It is worth replaying to try out new combat mechanics or just for fun. Higher difficulty levels are worth checking out because in addition to making enemies more powerful, it adjusts random loot drop frequencies and makes certain powers take more energy to use so you do really need to adjust how you go about things rather than just aim and dodge better.
12. There are vending machines that yell at you in this and it's the most annoying thing ever.
13. And for my last point: The inevitable comparison to Infinite: I like this one better. The storytelling in the later game is better but since the combat in Infinite is even faster paced and more frenetic, the disconnect between the thriller atmosphere and the combat is even worse. The original Bioshock just feels better and more consistent to me. If you like one, you'll like both though, each being great games in their own right.
2. On one hand it is a moody, slow simmering sci-fi thriller.
3. On the other hand, it is an FPS in which evil mutants fly at you in rapid succession.
4. Both of these elements hold their own but they don't really fit together. Each element works despite the other element not because of it. There is no synergy.
5. The first person combat is great. A combination of melee, gun and magic attacks and a well thought-out progression of upgrades makes for a rather deep experience and allows a fairly wide variety of play styles.
6. The focus on combat doesn't really allow for your gameplay to have much of a plot. You basically get dropped into this underwater city and do what some guy tells you two for a dozen or so hours and then there's the ending.
7. This is different than me saying there isn't a plot. The majority of the plot just happens before the player is ever involved and is told by having the player discover tape recorders throughout the course of the game. It all gets kinda laid out to you no matter what you happen to be doing at the time.
8. Who cares? The atmosphere is cool and it's fun.
9. There is some minor illusion of moral choice in this game. You chose between "harvesting" and "saving" what appear to be little girls. They try to add some ambiguity as far is what is the right choice but, honestly, if you are scratching your head over what to do in this situation, I don't want you around my children.
10. There are multiple endings but they are not worth replaying the game for.
11. It is worth replaying to try out new combat mechanics or just for fun. Higher difficulty levels are worth checking out because in addition to making enemies more powerful, it adjusts random loot drop frequencies and makes certain powers take more energy to use so you do really need to adjust how you go about things rather than just aim and dodge better.
12. There are vending machines that yell at you in this and it's the most annoying thing ever.
13. And for my last point: The inevitable comparison to Infinite: I like this one better. The storytelling in the later game is better but since the combat in Infinite is even faster paced and more frenetic, the disconnect between the thriller atmosphere and the combat is even worse. The original Bioshock just feels better and more consistent to me. If you like one, you'll like both though, each being great games in their own right.
Wednesday, March 21, 2018
13 Points on Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars - Rockstar Games - 2009 [Sony PSP]
1. Chinatown Wars borrows the top-down perspective from the first two GTA games but its closest cousin is GTA III and you get all the freedom and mayhem you could ask for from the series.
2. This was not some handheld cash grab either. Lots of big developers farm out their handheld versions of big franchises to third parties and the end result is frequently half-ass. Rockstar put considerable effort into making this a complete GTA game. Case in point: the theme song is a full-on banger featuring Ghostface Killah and MF DOOM. This shit is real.
3. While Chinatown Wars is top-down, it really feels more like the 3D GTA games than the first few. The camera twists and turns to stay behind you so it's really more of a long-distance third person camera than truly overhead view. From a technical standpoint, I think this is used to deal w/ what would be the lack of draw-distance had the camera been over-the-shoulder. It's a compromise but a good one and it's pretty rare that the camera causes issues where you can't tell what's going on.
4. You play as Huang Lee who just arrived Liberty City, which is the series's take on NYC, from some unspecified location in China. Huang's father was recently murdered and Huang's out for revenge even though he doesn't really much seem to care about his family or family business.
5. Your strategy is essentially to play both sides against he middle until you find the perpetrator of your father's killing--only there's like five sides to the complex organized crime rivalries in Liberty City. Throughout all this nobody seems to know or care too much that you do outside of your immediate relationship to them. You can show up to their hideout w/ a police tail immediately after assisting their rivals and nobody much cares if you do what they ask.
7. This is all fairly improbable but it actually works w/ the wacky logic that pervades the GTA universe. This is a series of games where you can often get away w/ gunning down civilians in a public park but police will engage you in a high speed chase if you fail to pay a toll. It wears its lack of realism on its sleeve.
7. The story is presented through stylish comic book panels and dialog is delivered via text w/o any voice acting, which is fine by me. Though Chinatown Wars's cast of ethnic crime bosses, corrupt cops and assorted crime drama standbys generally play it straight, you always get the sense that Huang is completely aware of the absurdity of the situation and his wry sense of humor gives you the impression he is in on the joke w/ you.
8. The main game menu, where you access the map and get incoming missions, is on a PDA rather than a smartphone. I'd say this is a funny quirk of the times but Chinatown Wars was released two years after the first iPhone and a decade after the first BlackBerry so using a PDA was a bit anachronistic even then.
9. The missions don't have checkpoints. Most missions ramp up in difficulty as they go along so this means you'll likely spend an awful lot of time replaying the least interesting parts of the game over and over. You do get to skip the occasional driving section and every now and again some trivial part of the mission gets left out on replays but having to repeatedly redo boring shit remains an problem from the beginning of Chinatown Wars until the end.
10. The theme song never reappears after the intro but Chinatown Wars's soundtrack stays solid throughout. It provides a fairly diverse array of contemporary music styles, often licensed from popular artists. (The PSP version has more licensed music than the DS one if you are concerned w/ such things.) You can switch the radio station using the main game menu but music seems to be custom picked for your current mission so I generally chose to just let whatever the game chooses for me rip.
11. In addition to your standard mucking about w/ firearms and stolen vehicles, there are a bunch of mini-games you have to do when you do things like hot wire a car or plant explosives. I say "have to do" because they are no fun at all. They are also clearly designed for the DS touchscreen so they really feel forced into the PSP version as well.
12. GTA has always been central to the controversy surrounding violence in video games. This time round a drug dealing mini-game was the subject of public ire, dealing drugs being such a great crime compared to killing hundreds of human beings. What a country!
13. Whether you actually play through the story or just like to get in a vehicle and mow down pedestrians, Chinatown Wars will give you what you want out of a GTA game. It actually replicates the full-blown versions to a fault including the fact that the missions get all samey halfway through and the mid-game really drags. I have to give Rockstar credit for this one.They changed how their 3D games looked but not really how they played. This is a really well-done handheld adaptation of a big series and a good game in general.
2. This was not some handheld cash grab either. Lots of big developers farm out their handheld versions of big franchises to third parties and the end result is frequently half-ass. Rockstar put considerable effort into making this a complete GTA game. Case in point: the theme song is a full-on banger featuring Ghostface Killah and MF DOOM. This shit is real.
3. While Chinatown Wars is top-down, it really feels more like the 3D GTA games than the first few. The camera twists and turns to stay behind you so it's really more of a long-distance third person camera than truly overhead view. From a technical standpoint, I think this is used to deal w/ what would be the lack of draw-distance had the camera been over-the-shoulder. It's a compromise but a good one and it's pretty rare that the camera causes issues where you can't tell what's going on.
4. You play as Huang Lee who just arrived Liberty City, which is the series's take on NYC, from some unspecified location in China. Huang's father was recently murdered and Huang's out for revenge even though he doesn't really much seem to care about his family or family business.
5. Your strategy is essentially to play both sides against he middle until you find the perpetrator of your father's killing--only there's like five sides to the complex organized crime rivalries in Liberty City. Throughout all this nobody seems to know or care too much that you do outside of your immediate relationship to them. You can show up to their hideout w/ a police tail immediately after assisting their rivals and nobody much cares if you do what they ask.
7. This is all fairly improbable but it actually works w/ the wacky logic that pervades the GTA universe. This is a series of games where you can often get away w/ gunning down civilians in a public park but police will engage you in a high speed chase if you fail to pay a toll. It wears its lack of realism on its sleeve.
7. The story is presented through stylish comic book panels and dialog is delivered via text w/o any voice acting, which is fine by me. Though Chinatown Wars's cast of ethnic crime bosses, corrupt cops and assorted crime drama standbys generally play it straight, you always get the sense that Huang is completely aware of the absurdity of the situation and his wry sense of humor gives you the impression he is in on the joke w/ you.
8. The main game menu, where you access the map and get incoming missions, is on a PDA rather than a smartphone. I'd say this is a funny quirk of the times but Chinatown Wars was released two years after the first iPhone and a decade after the first BlackBerry so using a PDA was a bit anachronistic even then.
9. The missions don't have checkpoints. Most missions ramp up in difficulty as they go along so this means you'll likely spend an awful lot of time replaying the least interesting parts of the game over and over. You do get to skip the occasional driving section and every now and again some trivial part of the mission gets left out on replays but having to repeatedly redo boring shit remains an problem from the beginning of Chinatown Wars until the end.
10. The theme song never reappears after the intro but Chinatown Wars's soundtrack stays solid throughout. It provides a fairly diverse array of contemporary music styles, often licensed from popular artists. (The PSP version has more licensed music than the DS one if you are concerned w/ such things.) You can switch the radio station using the main game menu but music seems to be custom picked for your current mission so I generally chose to just let whatever the game chooses for me rip.
11. In addition to your standard mucking about w/ firearms and stolen vehicles, there are a bunch of mini-games you have to do when you do things like hot wire a car or plant explosives. I say "have to do" because they are no fun at all. They are also clearly designed for the DS touchscreen so they really feel forced into the PSP version as well.
12. GTA has always been central to the controversy surrounding violence in video games. This time round a drug dealing mini-game was the subject of public ire, dealing drugs being such a great crime compared to killing hundreds of human beings. What a country!
13. Whether you actually play through the story or just like to get in a vehicle and mow down pedestrians, Chinatown Wars will give you what you want out of a GTA game. It actually replicates the full-blown versions to a fault including the fact that the missions get all samey halfway through and the mid-game really drags. I have to give Rockstar credit for this one.They changed how their 3D games looked but not really how they played. This is a really well-done handheld adaptation of a big series and a good game in general.
Monday, March 19, 2018
13 Points on The 39 Steps - The Story Mechanics - 2013 [PC]
1. This is an adaptation of a novel in game form. It is not a game based on a book. It is the entire book redone as a game. Yes, there is a difference.
2. It does this by taking the narrative from the original novel pretty much straight-up and augmenting it only w/ some simple game mechanics. For example, when a room would simply be described in a book, you are asked to click around on various objects in the room and receive the description in return for your trouble in doing so. Your interaction w/ the world is really quite minimal and the whole experience is entirely scripted.
3. If you look through user reviews on games like this, there will frequently be admonishments that it's not really a game. I am not sure quite where the line between being a game and not being a game is but I do feel like this holds up pretty well as a way of telling stories whatever it is.
4. The story here is... I dunno... pretty good. It's based on a novel by the same title which was good enough to be reworked by Hitchcock among others so they probably know better than I do. I thought the setup was a bit thin but it works well enough as an excuse to put together suspenseful scenes.
5. Like basically everything in The 39 Steps, the initial impetus to action for the main character comes at random. Our man is called Hannay and he's a Canadian living in London after amassing some wealth mining diamonds in Rhodesia. He is growing ever more bored of living the high life but, luckily for him, this seems about to change upon meeting a spy who just happens to live in the same apartment complex.
6. It is not lucky for the spy who is promptly murdered after leaving Hannay w/ the details of an insidious conspiracy to murder the Greek premier when he visits London.
7. Actually, it is only lucky for Hannay if you consider being on the lam from both the law--who think he murdered the spy--and the people who actually murdered the spy preferable to being bored by eating in London's best restaurants every night.
8. Hannay flees from London to Scotland from where his family is native. He runs into a series of improbable situations, both helpful and potentially deadly where he is forced to rely on wits and quit thinking to push toward his ultimate goal of surviving and busting the conspiracy to assassinate the Greek premiere. The episodic nature of these encounters provides a constant pulse of tension and release that keeps The 39 Steps consistently tense and captivating throughout.
9. While the story here is pretty pulp, the presentation keeps it from seeming entirely stupid. A hand drawn art style and mostly well-acted voice work (there is one guy who does bit part accents that are a bit much) set a believable stage for each scene to be acted out. The coincidences are a bit much--Hannay even seems to acknowledge as much in his own narration--but this is less about being strictly believable than it is about creating a mood.
10. Along w/ the art and music, some the unique details that make this presentation of The 39 Steps the most engaging have nothing to do w/ the game-like elements. People, for example, are typically shown as ghost-like figures leaving the player to fill in the details w/ what fits their mind best for the story.
11. There are a few times though where having some interaction is essential. The simple act of having people click on things to get a description works well in a visual medium. In a novel, the author can subtly point out the most important details, but just displaying the scene as you might in a movie, the viewer could miss essential elements you want them to see. You also have the option of just altogether skipping looking through everything, which is something someone in Hannay's situation might reasonably do.
12. The conclusion to this whole business is rather satisfying and not sewn up in quite the way you might expect.
13. I am hesitant to use the word experimental to describe this. I feel like when people call art experimental, what they really mean is that it is art that is trying to be weird. The 39 Steps is not weird at all. It is an actual experiment in narrative that incorporates elements of movies, games and novels and it comes off as a perfectly natural way to tell a story.
2. It does this by taking the narrative from the original novel pretty much straight-up and augmenting it only w/ some simple game mechanics. For example, when a room would simply be described in a book, you are asked to click around on various objects in the room and receive the description in return for your trouble in doing so. Your interaction w/ the world is really quite minimal and the whole experience is entirely scripted.
3. If you look through user reviews on games like this, there will frequently be admonishments that it's not really a game. I am not sure quite where the line between being a game and not being a game is but I do feel like this holds up pretty well as a way of telling stories whatever it is.
4. The story here is... I dunno... pretty good. It's based on a novel by the same title which was good enough to be reworked by Hitchcock among others so they probably know better than I do. I thought the setup was a bit thin but it works well enough as an excuse to put together suspenseful scenes.
5. Like basically everything in The 39 Steps, the initial impetus to action for the main character comes at random. Our man is called Hannay and he's a Canadian living in London after amassing some wealth mining diamonds in Rhodesia. He is growing ever more bored of living the high life but, luckily for him, this seems about to change upon meeting a spy who just happens to live in the same apartment complex.
6. It is not lucky for the spy who is promptly murdered after leaving Hannay w/ the details of an insidious conspiracy to murder the Greek premier when he visits London.
7. Actually, it is only lucky for Hannay if you consider being on the lam from both the law--who think he murdered the spy--and the people who actually murdered the spy preferable to being bored by eating in London's best restaurants every night.
8. Hannay flees from London to Scotland from where his family is native. He runs into a series of improbable situations, both helpful and potentially deadly where he is forced to rely on wits and quit thinking to push toward his ultimate goal of surviving and busting the conspiracy to assassinate the Greek premiere. The episodic nature of these encounters provides a constant pulse of tension and release that keeps The 39 Steps consistently tense and captivating throughout.
9. While the story here is pretty pulp, the presentation keeps it from seeming entirely stupid. A hand drawn art style and mostly well-acted voice work (there is one guy who does bit part accents that are a bit much) set a believable stage for each scene to be acted out. The coincidences are a bit much--Hannay even seems to acknowledge as much in his own narration--but this is less about being strictly believable than it is about creating a mood.
10. Along w/ the art and music, some the unique details that make this presentation of The 39 Steps the most engaging have nothing to do w/ the game-like elements. People, for example, are typically shown as ghost-like figures leaving the player to fill in the details w/ what fits their mind best for the story.
11. There are a few times though where having some interaction is essential. The simple act of having people click on things to get a description works well in a visual medium. In a novel, the author can subtly point out the most important details, but just displaying the scene as you might in a movie, the viewer could miss essential elements you want them to see. You also have the option of just altogether skipping looking through everything, which is something someone in Hannay's situation might reasonably do.
12. The conclusion to this whole business is rather satisfying and not sewn up in quite the way you might expect.
13. I am hesitant to use the word experimental to describe this. I feel like when people call art experimental, what they really mean is that it is art that is trying to be weird. The 39 Steps is not weird at all. It is an actual experiment in narrative that incorporates elements of movies, games and novels and it comes off as a perfectly natural way to tell a story.
Friday, March 16, 2018
13 Points on Snake Pass - Sumo Digital - 2017 [PC]
1. Snake Pass is a platformer where you play as a snake named Noodles. Snakes can't jump so this is kind of a weird fit for a genre that revolves around jumping but, hey, they make it work so good for them.
2. You actually do the one action that is far from jumping as possible: you slither. You hold down a button to go forward but that only gets you started. You need to wiggle back and forth to maintain forward momentum. In place of jumping, you can climb over conveniently placed bamboo poles scattered throughout each level. It's good times for real and something that has never been done before in any noteworthy game that I can think of.
3. This obviously draws influence from the first generation of 3D collect-a-thon platformers in the nineties. Your task is basically to use your slithery platforming skills to collect a few items from across the level and return them to a particular location. There's a bunch of optional collectables you can pick up as well.
4, I don't know about you people but when I play a game of this sort, I live in constant fear that at some point the game is going to be like, "Oh, you poor, hapless nerd. You thought those collectables were optional? Go back and replay the first few levels for a couple more hours." At which point, I put the game down and play something that doesn't suck. Thankfully, Snake Pass does not do this. The extra items that are in there for a bit of extra challenge are in there just for a bit of extra challenge. This seems reasonable to me.
5. Typically, Snake Pass thoughtfully includes checkpoints relatively near some of its most difficult challenges, which encourages you to at least give them a try because dying on them doesn't set you back much. Every now and then, there will be an easy section you will have to replay over and over to get to the tough spots but those are relatively rare.
6. This has the colorful, cheerful presentation you'd expect for a game that obviously has a heavy 90s platforming influence. These graphics are, of course, much better than a twenty year old console though. Everything is bright and crisp. I found myself going out of my way occasionally just to get a cool view--and I almost never do things like that when gaming.
7, Speaking of your view though, the low-to-the ground perspective of a snake seems to be somewhat at odds w/ the way the camera works here. This was not always good for my blood pressure. *shakes cane*
8. Also bad for my blood pressure: you can hold the button that makes you go forward the whole time you respawn and you still go forward but holding the button that makes your head lift up and allows you to cross short gaps must be pressed again once you are moving. I fell off the edges of cliffs like ten thousand times an hour because of this. No exaggeration.
9. There is some sort of plot here, I think, but my eyes glazed over for it because it didn't seem important. You've got to collect stuff to stop something bad from happening or something like that. I dunno. End of the day, it's an excuse for you to cruise through Snake Pass's fifteen levels, see some pretty stuff and slither up bamboo polls.
10. I feel about the same about the music. I mean, it is fine. It's there. I like it but I never really had a moment where I felt like it was essential to the experience.
11. If there is real a problem w/ Snake Pass's presentation it's that it doesn't change all too much as you progress. Each of its four worlds are themed but I struggle to remember those themes were. There just wasn't enough different between the worlds to differentiate them.
12. The gameplay doesn't progress all that much either. Later levels add hazards so that when you fail a challenge, you die rather than fall to the ground but because of the frequent check points, there is really not that much difference in that. Some moving parts eventually add a timing challenge--which was indeed difficult from time to time--but I thought these were a bit at odds w/ Snake Pass's overall relaxing and slower-paced play style.
13. My complaints about this game are significant enough I can't ignore them but they are ultimately niggles compared to the overall experience. In recent years there's been quite a few retro-inflected 3D platformers that have gotten significant attention but most have just been better or worse rehashes of the same old thing. Snake Pass builds something familiar but uses a truly unique mechanic. If you have any interest in game design--mine is frankly only casual--this is something you simply must try for yourself.
2. You actually do the one action that is far from jumping as possible: you slither. You hold down a button to go forward but that only gets you started. You need to wiggle back and forth to maintain forward momentum. In place of jumping, you can climb over conveniently placed bamboo poles scattered throughout each level. It's good times for real and something that has never been done before in any noteworthy game that I can think of.
3. This obviously draws influence from the first generation of 3D collect-a-thon platformers in the nineties. Your task is basically to use your slithery platforming skills to collect a few items from across the level and return them to a particular location. There's a bunch of optional collectables you can pick up as well.
4, I don't know about you people but when I play a game of this sort, I live in constant fear that at some point the game is going to be like, "Oh, you poor, hapless nerd. You thought those collectables were optional? Go back and replay the first few levels for a couple more hours." At which point, I put the game down and play something that doesn't suck. Thankfully, Snake Pass does not do this. The extra items that are in there for a bit of extra challenge are in there just for a bit of extra challenge. This seems reasonable to me.
5. Typically, Snake Pass thoughtfully includes checkpoints relatively near some of its most difficult challenges, which encourages you to at least give them a try because dying on them doesn't set you back much. Every now and then, there will be an easy section you will have to replay over and over to get to the tough spots but those are relatively rare.
6. This has the colorful, cheerful presentation you'd expect for a game that obviously has a heavy 90s platforming influence. These graphics are, of course, much better than a twenty year old console though. Everything is bright and crisp. I found myself going out of my way occasionally just to get a cool view--and I almost never do things like that when gaming.
7, Speaking of your view though, the low-to-the ground perspective of a snake seems to be somewhat at odds w/ the way the camera works here. This was not always good for my blood pressure. *shakes cane*
8. Also bad for my blood pressure: you can hold the button that makes you go forward the whole time you respawn and you still go forward but holding the button that makes your head lift up and allows you to cross short gaps must be pressed again once you are moving. I fell off the edges of cliffs like ten thousand times an hour because of this. No exaggeration.
9. There is some sort of plot here, I think, but my eyes glazed over for it because it didn't seem important. You've got to collect stuff to stop something bad from happening or something like that. I dunno. End of the day, it's an excuse for you to cruise through Snake Pass's fifteen levels, see some pretty stuff and slither up bamboo polls.
10. I feel about the same about the music. I mean, it is fine. It's there. I like it but I never really had a moment where I felt like it was essential to the experience.
11. If there is real a problem w/ Snake Pass's presentation it's that it doesn't change all too much as you progress. Each of its four worlds are themed but I struggle to remember those themes were. There just wasn't enough different between the worlds to differentiate them.
12. The gameplay doesn't progress all that much either. Later levels add hazards so that when you fail a challenge, you die rather than fall to the ground but because of the frequent check points, there is really not that much difference in that. Some moving parts eventually add a timing challenge--which was indeed difficult from time to time--but I thought these were a bit at odds w/ Snake Pass's overall relaxing and slower-paced play style.
13. My complaints about this game are significant enough I can't ignore them but they are ultimately niggles compared to the overall experience. In recent years there's been quite a few retro-inflected 3D platformers that have gotten significant attention but most have just been better or worse rehashes of the same old thing. Snake Pass builds something familiar but uses a truly unique mechanic. If you have any interest in game design--mine is frankly only casual--this is something you simply must try for yourself.
Tuesday, March 13, 2018
13 Points on Ink - ZackBellGames - 2015 [PC]
1. Ink is a platforming game where you can't see that platforms. Holy smokes, how does that even work!? Well, Ink is not just a clever title. You see, as you jump and die, you spread colored ink all over the level and it gradually becomes clear where everything is.
2. This is a pointedly simple design. We are talking rectangles, circles, triangles and no other shapes at all level simplicity. Your character is a square that distorts a bit as you move. That's as complex as it gets.
3. The controls are similarly simple: jump, double jump, wall jump, directional control.
4. The double jump also functions as a means of discovering the layout of stages. It sprays little squirts of your many colored ink all over the place. You also paint surfaces as you move across them and when you die you splatter ink as well.
5. Ultimately, at least for your first playthrough, the whole invisible level thing ends up being kind of a gimmick. I'd basically double jump once to see what's going on at the start of the level and the rest of it would be revealed by me dying. Most of my playtime was spent knowing exactly where everything was.
6. I am not overly concerned w/ 5 because Ink doesn't really lean into its gimmick too much. These levels would be tricky, fun and satisfying w/o it.
7. The first few levels serve as a tutorial. Your goal is simply to get from the starting point to a door on each level. Over the course of the game, it adds enemies--all of which must be killed to open the door--and various hazards. Eventually, some areas are blocked off and you need to collect a key to access them.
8. The varied level design is a real highlight of Ink. There is a certain similarity across all levels, of course, but over time, they challenge you in different aspects of their gameplay. Some levels require precise jumps, some have an element of timing or speed, some require you to do things in a specific order and some just have loads of crazy annoying projectiles that seek you out. Also, every twenty-fifth level is a boss fight and they are pretty awesome.
9. Getting good at Ink is quite satisfying. You feel not only like you've managed the physical dexterity to pull off the tricky jumping but like you've figured out the best path through a messy situation. The levels feel solved almost as much as beaten when you are done w/ them.
10. The challenge level of Ink is: the later levels seem impossible when you first encounter them and then easy by the time you beat them. This is just about perfect if you ask me.
11. Ink's soundtrack is surprisingly lush ambient music. Ambient, building electronic music doesn't seem like a natural fit for a twitchy game like this but it works really well. It draws you in and helps you focus.
12. Going all the way back to 5, the ink gimmick does become more of a factor on repeat playthroughs. It adds a greater element of memory to no-death and speed runs if you are into that sort of thing--and I suspect a lot of people who play a game like Ink will be.
13. I don't imagine many people who like 2D platformers won't like Ink. It's simple and well-designed w/ presentation strongly oriented towards gameplay. It is a platforming fan's platformer. Platforming fans should probably play it.
2. This is a pointedly simple design. We are talking rectangles, circles, triangles and no other shapes at all level simplicity. Your character is a square that distorts a bit as you move. That's as complex as it gets.
3. The controls are similarly simple: jump, double jump, wall jump, directional control.
4. The double jump also functions as a means of discovering the layout of stages. It sprays little squirts of your many colored ink all over the place. You also paint surfaces as you move across them and when you die you splatter ink as well.
5. Ultimately, at least for your first playthrough, the whole invisible level thing ends up being kind of a gimmick. I'd basically double jump once to see what's going on at the start of the level and the rest of it would be revealed by me dying. Most of my playtime was spent knowing exactly where everything was.
6. I am not overly concerned w/ 5 because Ink doesn't really lean into its gimmick too much. These levels would be tricky, fun and satisfying w/o it.
7. The first few levels serve as a tutorial. Your goal is simply to get from the starting point to a door on each level. Over the course of the game, it adds enemies--all of which must be killed to open the door--and various hazards. Eventually, some areas are blocked off and you need to collect a key to access them.
8. The varied level design is a real highlight of Ink. There is a certain similarity across all levels, of course, but over time, they challenge you in different aspects of their gameplay. Some levels require precise jumps, some have an element of timing or speed, some require you to do things in a specific order and some just have loads of crazy annoying projectiles that seek you out. Also, every twenty-fifth level is a boss fight and they are pretty awesome.
9. Getting good at Ink is quite satisfying. You feel not only like you've managed the physical dexterity to pull off the tricky jumping but like you've figured out the best path through a messy situation. The levels feel solved almost as much as beaten when you are done w/ them.
10. The challenge level of Ink is: the later levels seem impossible when you first encounter them and then easy by the time you beat them. This is just about perfect if you ask me.
11. Ink's soundtrack is surprisingly lush ambient music. Ambient, building electronic music doesn't seem like a natural fit for a twitchy game like this but it works really well. It draws you in and helps you focus.
12. Going all the way back to 5, the ink gimmick does become more of a factor on repeat playthroughs. It adds a greater element of memory to no-death and speed runs if you are into that sort of thing--and I suspect a lot of people who play a game like Ink will be.
13. I don't imagine many people who like 2D platformers won't like Ink. It's simple and well-designed w/ presentation strongly oriented towards gameplay. It is a platforming fan's platformer. Platforming fans should probably play it.
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