1. I do not share the halcyon memories of playing these old adventure games w/ many in my peer group. I played them, yes. I had fun for sure but they do not exactly reach the highest heights of refined gameplay. Once I got done microwaving the hamster or telling the text parser to go fuck itself, I always just got frustrated at the trial and error halfway through and either cheated or quit.
2. I still do that.
3. For what it's worth, if you do have halcyon memories of playing these games, this remastered version of The Day of the Tentacle really gets it right. They smooth out the pixelated graphics and bring in brighter, more vibrant colors. They updated the compressed, cruddy sounding audio w/ a clearer, modern sound. There's controller support. That's it. It is still the same game just presented w/ a bit more polish.
4. I can see how someone might find the humor in this game charming but I don't believe anyone who says they think it is actually funny. I smiled a few times but never laughed.
5. The setup here is a tentacle drinks a bunch of toxic waste and takes over the world. A mad scientists recruits a stoner, a nerd and a ditz to travel through time and fix things. This is could maybe be the plot of a straight-to-VHS movie full of post-rehab 80s brat packers. Like I said, this game is not actually funny.
6. The way this game works is you solve puzzles by clicking on things until it's time to stop clicking on things.
7. I'm not going to say there aren't some clever puzzles here but I'm also not gonna say you don't have to sometimes just do some random-ass bullshit to figure stuff out. Or use a walkthrough. This game is a quarter century old, you won't be the first person who cheated.
8. The voice acting was done in 1993. God help us.
9. One actor who does a bad impression of Woody Allen and uses it to voice both some random nerdy guy and John Hancock. I will admit, that was one of the things I smiled at in the game. Of course, I did not laugh because this game is not actually funny.
10. Early on, your characters get split up between three time periods. You can easily send items to other time periods using a time traveling porta-john. You can also leave things some place in the past and have them be there in the future, normally changed to some degree. This turns the whole game into one giant puzzle made of sub-puzzles you need to puzzle through.
11. While number 10, sounds good on the surface, the execution of this idea is problematical. For starters, some items are available way out of context and way before you need them. Combine this w/ some of the goofy, not-actually-funny puzzle solutions and you wind up w/ a lot of Day of the Tentacle being needlessly obtuse and frustrating. This being said, this frustration is at least tempered by the fact that you can not put yourself in a situation where you cannot finish the game. Believe it or not, in some of these old adventure games, you could get yourself in a failure state where you couldn't win and the game didn't even have the courtesy to tell you that.
12. This is the golden age of this type of game in some people's minds. I don't get it.
13. So yeah, at its heart, at this point in time, this is really a nostalgia trip or a history lesson depending how old you are or how much attention you were paying in the nineties. If you are after either of things, absolutely, you should play Day of the Tentacle. If you are looking for the most fun way to spend a few hours of your time, don't play a decades old adventure game.
Thursday, August 31, 2017
Thursday, August 24, 2017
13 Points on Papo & Yo - Minority Media Inc. - 2012 [PC]
1. I found this looking through the ancient dregs of Humble Bundles past in my Steam library. I was like, hey, a 3D puzzle game that is not trying to be Portal and I hit the download button posthaste. Turns out, it is really more of an adventure game. I'm still glad I played.
2. This actually even veers toward walking sim territory but avoids the "wow, look how atmospheric this game is" while you do absolutely nothing trappings of the genre by having a plot you are directly involved in and also having actual gameplay challenges.
3. There is no character in the game called either Papo or Yo. I guess the title means something like daddy and me in Brazilian Portuguese. This is story relevant. You'll figure it out as you play.
4. The atmosphere of this game quite reminds me of the 2006 movie Pan's Labyrinth. It is set up as a child's fantasy but it is clear that this fantasy is rooted in very real danger to its protagonist, Quico. It is charming on the surface but the unreal sheen to it is slightly unsettling from the very start.
5. Having read many reviews of this game, I feel obliged to join in in saying that it is set in a Brazilian favela--as if any of us knew what that word meant before playing this game. It is s third-world type slum w/ lots of warm orange and brown tones, terracotta and stucco. It serves as a perfect background for the fantastical elements of Papo & Yo. Having a giant monster going through a more modern looking city gets a bit too King Kong if you ask me.
6. This monster looks intimidating but the main character, Quico, regards him w/ easy familiarity and initially he seems harmless enough. The gameplay here revolves around mild puzzle solving and platforming to help Quico let the monster his way through the favela.
7. This is not exactly Mario 64 as far as the platforming nor is it Portal as far as the puzzle solving but neither is it completely trivial. Nobody is going to have much trouble getting through this but everyone is going to have to try some sections more than once.
8. This is story focused to be sure but the story is mostly told through gameplay so it never feels like you are just there. There are a few expository cut scenes but almost every step of the way, you are directly involved in everything that happens.
9. You are not given really any choice in how you handle things but this is because the developers have a very clear and well-developed story they want to tell. The purpose of the gameplay is to draw you into it.
10. Quico really scampers up ladders, making this the one game in existence where climbing ladders isn't interminable.
11. The in-game narrative is allegorical in a way that is eventually explained to you completely but it would stand on its own even if the fantasy world was not so strongly tied into real life.
12. I recall liking the music while playing but can't for the life of me remember a strain of it shortly after playing. I'd say this makes it adequate for the game's ambition but perhaps nothing exceptional.
13. If I were to teach a course on designing narrative-focused games, I'd have my students play through this game before the first day of class. It is accessible but not so easy you lose interest. The story is compelling w/o being heavy handed. The narrative gives you plenty to think about w/o sacrificing the moment to money joy of gameplay. Even years later, I find many games of this genre to still be struggling w/ getting all of these elements to fall into place consistently.
2. This actually even veers toward walking sim territory but avoids the "wow, look how atmospheric this game is" while you do absolutely nothing trappings of the genre by having a plot you are directly involved in and also having actual gameplay challenges.
3. There is no character in the game called either Papo or Yo. I guess the title means something like daddy and me in Brazilian Portuguese. This is story relevant. You'll figure it out as you play.
4. The atmosphere of this game quite reminds me of the 2006 movie Pan's Labyrinth. It is set up as a child's fantasy but it is clear that this fantasy is rooted in very real danger to its protagonist, Quico. It is charming on the surface but the unreal sheen to it is slightly unsettling from the very start.
5. Having read many reviews of this game, I feel obliged to join in in saying that it is set in a Brazilian favela--as if any of us knew what that word meant before playing this game. It is s third-world type slum w/ lots of warm orange and brown tones, terracotta and stucco. It serves as a perfect background for the fantastical elements of Papo & Yo. Having a giant monster going through a more modern looking city gets a bit too King Kong if you ask me.
6. This monster looks intimidating but the main character, Quico, regards him w/ easy familiarity and initially he seems harmless enough. The gameplay here revolves around mild puzzle solving and platforming to help Quico let the monster his way through the favela.
7. This is not exactly Mario 64 as far as the platforming nor is it Portal as far as the puzzle solving but neither is it completely trivial. Nobody is going to have much trouble getting through this but everyone is going to have to try some sections more than once.
8. This is story focused to be sure but the story is mostly told through gameplay so it never feels like you are just there. There are a few expository cut scenes but almost every step of the way, you are directly involved in everything that happens.
9. You are not given really any choice in how you handle things but this is because the developers have a very clear and well-developed story they want to tell. The purpose of the gameplay is to draw you into it.
10. Quico really scampers up ladders, making this the one game in existence where climbing ladders isn't interminable.
11. The in-game narrative is allegorical in a way that is eventually explained to you completely but it would stand on its own even if the fantasy world was not so strongly tied into real life.
12. I recall liking the music while playing but can't for the life of me remember a strain of it shortly after playing. I'd say this makes it adequate for the game's ambition but perhaps nothing exceptional.
13. If I were to teach a course on designing narrative-focused games, I'd have my students play through this game before the first day of class. It is accessible but not so easy you lose interest. The story is compelling w/o being heavy handed. The narrative gives you plenty to think about w/o sacrificing the moment to money joy of gameplay. Even years later, I find many games of this genre to still be struggling w/ getting all of these elements to fall into place consistently.
Tuesday, August 22, 2017
13 Points on Owlboy - D-Pad Studio - 2016 [PC]
1. From the reaction of the gaming community, you would think this was the first game ever w/ beautiful pixel art, great music and a story. I dunno... Maybe I was expecting too much but the praise for this seems over the top for what it is.
2. It's in the retro-inspired hi-bit style, which basically looks like a Genesis game w/ like five times the resolution. I was not really a fan of the cartoony character sprites but the backgrounds were simply gorgeous. Something about them quite reminds me of the first jungle level of Flashback w/ its dense detail only much higher res so all the more beautiful.
3. Even w/ the eye-popping graphics, the music still manages to steal the show. It is a full orchestral sounding score w/ electronic touches composed by Johnathan Geer and it complements the pretty graphics perfectly. Outdoor sections are accompanied by swooping strings and boss battles are backed by high-energy bombast. It is not just that the music is great but that it fits so well.
4. The music and graphics make it all the more the pity everything else about the game kinda sucks. Sorry you had to heard it from me.
5. This is a variant on the overlooked underdog saves the world trope only instead of being overlooked, the titular owlboy, Otus, is actively treated like he's worthless by everyone from scene one and it is utterly baffling that he does not immediately take sides w/ the enemy. This is a game about owl people who live on islands in the sky and the least believable thing is that Otus rises above abusive behavior by authorities in his community and goes on to do good in the world.
6. Owlboy tries to be something of a hybrid twin stick shooter and platformer. This is a bad idea. For starters, the fact that you can fly really doesn't do much for the platforming. Your ability to shoot while flying is based on your ability to carry various sidekicks who function basically as different weapons. If you get shot, you drop your side kick and don't resume shooting until you release and re-press the shoot button. Also, if you should happen to touch the ground while flying solo, you automatically land and need to jump in the air again to resume flying. Neither of these sounds like a big deal on paper but are both a constant aggravation while playing.
7. The first dungeon area of this is honestly excellent. It has some mild puzzle solving elements, looks great and has a solid level of challenge for starting out. It feels like a good introduction to a great game.
8. Gameplay progress as you play through so much as it gets more aggravating. The puzzles never develop further and instead are replaced w/ stealth sections that are irritating more so than challenging. The other way they chose to add difficulty is a darkness mechanic that just hides everything in the level beyond a very short distance around you. Gross.
10. Taking this into account, I guess it is kind of an upside that you get frequent respites from this garbage in the form of control being wrested from you so you can sit through cut scenes. There is really no attempt to tell the story through gameplay whatever. It is all stop and let us tell you what's going on.
11. This is pretty much a one time through kinda game. If you like, you can go back an explore previous areas to uncover secret caches of the in-game currency and buy upgrades you don't really need. This is actually worth doing in the first few areas but some of the later areas, yeah, I don't see many people wanting to live through those levels again.
12. Let's tally a score based on what we know about this game, shall we? Pretty graphics, pretty music, mediocre controls, mediocre plot, inconsistent level design and poor storytelling. I think this places this as a rather average gameplay experience on the whole. You might want to check this out if you love how it looks in video clips but temper your excitement before doing so.
13. All of my complaints aside--and knowing of Owlboy's long development cycle--I will say that I do get the strong impression this was a great labor of love from the developers standpoint and it is truly charming as a result of this. The attention to detail into the artistic elements cannot be ignored so I can see why people lost their heads over this when they saw it at PAX or whatever. Still, the game overstays its welcome in so many ways that it's impossible to ignore.
2. It's in the retro-inspired hi-bit style, which basically looks like a Genesis game w/ like five times the resolution. I was not really a fan of the cartoony character sprites but the backgrounds were simply gorgeous. Something about them quite reminds me of the first jungle level of Flashback w/ its dense detail only much higher res so all the more beautiful.
3. Even w/ the eye-popping graphics, the music still manages to steal the show. It is a full orchestral sounding score w/ electronic touches composed by Johnathan Geer and it complements the pretty graphics perfectly. Outdoor sections are accompanied by swooping strings and boss battles are backed by high-energy bombast. It is not just that the music is great but that it fits so well.
4. The music and graphics make it all the more the pity everything else about the game kinda sucks. Sorry you had to heard it from me.
5. This is a variant on the overlooked underdog saves the world trope only instead of being overlooked, the titular owlboy, Otus, is actively treated like he's worthless by everyone from scene one and it is utterly baffling that he does not immediately take sides w/ the enemy. This is a game about owl people who live on islands in the sky and the least believable thing is that Otus rises above abusive behavior by authorities in his community and goes on to do good in the world.
6. Owlboy tries to be something of a hybrid twin stick shooter and platformer. This is a bad idea. For starters, the fact that you can fly really doesn't do much for the platforming. Your ability to shoot while flying is based on your ability to carry various sidekicks who function basically as different weapons. If you get shot, you drop your side kick and don't resume shooting until you release and re-press the shoot button. Also, if you should happen to touch the ground while flying solo, you automatically land and need to jump in the air again to resume flying. Neither of these sounds like a big deal on paper but are both a constant aggravation while playing.
7. The first dungeon area of this is honestly excellent. It has some mild puzzle solving elements, looks great and has a solid level of challenge for starting out. It feels like a good introduction to a great game.
8. Gameplay progress as you play through so much as it gets more aggravating. The puzzles never develop further and instead are replaced w/ stealth sections that are irritating more so than challenging. The other way they chose to add difficulty is a darkness mechanic that just hides everything in the level beyond a very short distance around you. Gross.
10. Taking this into account, I guess it is kind of an upside that you get frequent respites from this garbage in the form of control being wrested from you so you can sit through cut scenes. There is really no attempt to tell the story through gameplay whatever. It is all stop and let us tell you what's going on.
11. This is pretty much a one time through kinda game. If you like, you can go back an explore previous areas to uncover secret caches of the in-game currency and buy upgrades you don't really need. This is actually worth doing in the first few areas but some of the later areas, yeah, I don't see many people wanting to live through those levels again.
12. Let's tally a score based on what we know about this game, shall we? Pretty graphics, pretty music, mediocre controls, mediocre plot, inconsistent level design and poor storytelling. I think this places this as a rather average gameplay experience on the whole. You might want to check this out if you love how it looks in video clips but temper your excitement before doing so.
13. All of my complaints aside--and knowing of Owlboy's long development cycle--I will say that I do get the strong impression this was a great labor of love from the developers standpoint and it is truly charming as a result of this. The attention to detail into the artistic elements cannot be ignored so I can see why people lost their heads over this when they saw it at PAX or whatever. Still, the game overstays its welcome in so many ways that it's impossible to ignore.
Wednesday, August 16, 2017
13 Points on SteamWorld Heist - Image & Form Games - 2015 [PC]
1. I dig what Image & Form Games seem to be doing w/ their SteamWorld IP. They built the world and the lore and are now making games in whichever genre they see fit, each w/ its own uniquely SteamWorld twist. Specifically, they are having pretty remarkable success giving games a casual, approachable sheen and then still providing deeper gameplay for those who want it. You know, cool people like us. *High five*
2. The way they do this w/ SteamWorld Heist is to take X-COM-style turn-based combat and flip it to a 2D plane like a platformer. The change this makes is more psychological than it is practical. Really, most movement in most strategy games is only on two axes. Having those two axes match w/ the two used in Super Mario Bros. makes the whole thing seem a little more familiar.
3. This game is probably the closest we will likely get to a game based on Joss Wheaton's Firefly. It goes as far as to subtitle the game "You can't take the swag from me" when the credits roll.
4. You play as a motley crew of smuggler ro-bots. As you go about you mild mannered piracy, it is revealed that the government is up to some funny business, which you unravel to find yet more insidious machinations underneath the surface.
5. Combat is mostly gun-based w/ some melee and ranged explosive attacks mixed in for good measure. The characters have different special abilities and can only use certain guns, making them each serve a unique potential purpose in your crew.
6. Characters gain experience and become more powerful as the game progresses. You can replay levels as much as you want which lets you grind power-ups for your character. However, this process is pretty slow going and that encourages you to try new strategies rather than just tank up and take everything head-on.
7. It's easy enough to just roll through w/ your initial default crew but most new characters prove useful right away because you can give them current level gear even if they're at a lower level themselves.
8. In addition to the turn based aspect of the combat, there is an added real-time element when aiming your guns. Your hand wavers just a little bit and you have to hit the shoot button at the right moment. It turns combat into a bit of a mini-game w/o breaking flow.
9. This was originally developed for the 3DS and its turn-based nature make it a great fit for that platform but I personally enjoyed playing on the PC simply because the larger screen really showed off the beautiful artwork. It is not pixel-art quite but does have something of a nostalgic vintage gaming tinge to it, though of course in modern resolutions.
10. I can't say enough good the music. It's all done by Steam Powered Giraffe, who are a group that seems built from the ground up to make music for light-hearted steampunk video games. A really nice detail is the band is included in-game and is shown performing unique tracks at each of the bars you visit on the way--complete w/ vocals. You can buy the SteamWorld Heist soundtrack off their Bandcamp page and you should.
11. Difficulty is adjustable before each mission and it does more than just give the enemies more less hit-points or add or subtract enemies from the game. Upping the difficulty changes the strategy you will have to use to beat each level. You have to leverage your team's strengths much better on higher difficulties because most levels have additional waves of enemies that come after a countdown and those can be pretty beastly as they get more powerful. For what it's worth, the default difficulty, "experienced," is well-chosen as it allows you to play somewhat carefully, make some mistakes and still win. It gives you a stiff punishment for failing but not one that will ever become insurmountable.
12. Most of the replayability here is going to come from either wanting to try higher difficulties or play through w/ different combinations of ro-bot combatants. To this end, it offers an new game+ mode that allows you to use all additional characters you acquire on your first play from the very beginning of the next.
13. This game is what I would describe as deceptively good and can really provide a lot of things to a lot of people. You can knock the difficulty down and get a pretty, light game to spend some spare clock cycles when you have an extra moment or you can dig in and get some pretty dense strategy going--and SteamWorld Heist is actually good for both.
2. The way they do this w/ SteamWorld Heist is to take X-COM-style turn-based combat and flip it to a 2D plane like a platformer. The change this makes is more psychological than it is practical. Really, most movement in most strategy games is only on two axes. Having those two axes match w/ the two used in Super Mario Bros. makes the whole thing seem a little more familiar.
3. This game is probably the closest we will likely get to a game based on Joss Wheaton's Firefly. It goes as far as to subtitle the game "You can't take the swag from me" when the credits roll.
4. You play as a motley crew of smuggler ro-bots. As you go about you mild mannered piracy, it is revealed that the government is up to some funny business, which you unravel to find yet more insidious machinations underneath the surface.
5. Combat is mostly gun-based w/ some melee and ranged explosive attacks mixed in for good measure. The characters have different special abilities and can only use certain guns, making them each serve a unique potential purpose in your crew.
6. Characters gain experience and become more powerful as the game progresses. You can replay levels as much as you want which lets you grind power-ups for your character. However, this process is pretty slow going and that encourages you to try new strategies rather than just tank up and take everything head-on.
7. It's easy enough to just roll through w/ your initial default crew but most new characters prove useful right away because you can give them current level gear even if they're at a lower level themselves.
8. In addition to the turn based aspect of the combat, there is an added real-time element when aiming your guns. Your hand wavers just a little bit and you have to hit the shoot button at the right moment. It turns combat into a bit of a mini-game w/o breaking flow.
9. This was originally developed for the 3DS and its turn-based nature make it a great fit for that platform but I personally enjoyed playing on the PC simply because the larger screen really showed off the beautiful artwork. It is not pixel-art quite but does have something of a nostalgic vintage gaming tinge to it, though of course in modern resolutions.
10. I can't say enough good the music. It's all done by Steam Powered Giraffe, who are a group that seems built from the ground up to make music for light-hearted steampunk video games. A really nice detail is the band is included in-game and is shown performing unique tracks at each of the bars you visit on the way--complete w/ vocals. You can buy the SteamWorld Heist soundtrack off their Bandcamp page and you should.
11. Difficulty is adjustable before each mission and it does more than just give the enemies more less hit-points or add or subtract enemies from the game. Upping the difficulty changes the strategy you will have to use to beat each level. You have to leverage your team's strengths much better on higher difficulties because most levels have additional waves of enemies that come after a countdown and those can be pretty beastly as they get more powerful. For what it's worth, the default difficulty, "experienced," is well-chosen as it allows you to play somewhat carefully, make some mistakes and still win. It gives you a stiff punishment for failing but not one that will ever become insurmountable.
12. Most of the replayability here is going to come from either wanting to try higher difficulties or play through w/ different combinations of ro-bot combatants. To this end, it offers an new game+ mode that allows you to use all additional characters you acquire on your first play from the very beginning of the next.
13. This game is what I would describe as deceptively good and can really provide a lot of things to a lot of people. You can knock the difficulty down and get a pretty, light game to spend some spare clock cycles when you have an extra moment or you can dig in and get some pretty dense strategy going--and SteamWorld Heist is actually good for both.
Monday, August 14, 2017
13 Points on Lego City Undercover - TT Fusion - 2013 [Nintendo Wii U]
1. This game was originally a Wii U exclusive because someone at Nintendo got the inkling that it could potentially be a system seller. Unfortunately, nothing on earth could sell the Wii U. Whoops!
2. Lego City Undercover is Grand Theft Auto made of Lego bricks. This is awesome.
3. I'd call this an all-ages game rather than a kids game but it is made so that kids can play it, which does inform some major design decisions. You can't kill Lego people and the game is easy as balls.
4. While this is dripping w/ the same kind of satire common to Lego games, it is one of very few that is not based on some other popular franchise. If you are like me and sick of Star Wars being shoved up your bum ten times a year, this is ideal.
5. The setup here is really just an excuse to tool around Lego City and do Lego things w/ Lego people. You are a cop. There is a bad guy. You've got to get him.
6. The game runs and looks great and the cut scenes could easily be cartoons on TV--not that that bar is particularly high but I do think this shows an attention to detail which becomes a big part of why Lego City Undercover is so much fun to play.
7. It is also worth noting that the music is excellent. It could easily be used as a score for a cop drama on TV. It's bombastic, moody, funky or rocking depending on what the situation requires.
8. A particular favorite was the loading screen music, which is good because you will be looking at loading screens for quite a while, esp. on the Wii U.
9. The driving mechanics are pretty typical for a game that is not a dedicated driving game. Hit the gas and don't let go. There's a good variety of cars and bikes to drive as well as a helicopter and some off the wall stuff that is all pretty fun to tear around on. I mean, if you don't want to drive a Lego T-rex, I don't want to know you.
10. This isn't exactly the most cerebral of games.There is some mild puzzle solving and a lot of just smashing the crap out of everything and seeing what happens.
11. Ground combat gets old fast. There are some cool moves to pull off but if you think it's more than button mashing, you are kidding yourself. You can't really die so you don't have much skin in it either. I found when being approached by a group of henchmen, I frequently just sighed and tuned out while I mashed the attack button.
12. For whatever reason, I found myself sticking to main plot almost exclusively to begin w/ in this, which is quite the opposite of how I normally play such a game. Part of that is the majority of stuff to do outside the main quest is to just search high and low for various items but it is definitely partly a testament to how well the main quest is designed. Playing through, you get a strong feeling it's a really good assortment of everything the game has to offer.
13. I usually find games that actually bill themselves as being relaxing to be frustratingly slow and annoying. Something like this w/ its all-ages accessibility and loads of action packed fun fits the relaxing bill much better for me. This is not a game that is going to stagger you w/ its heart-wrenching genius but it's not trying to be. It does what it tries to do really well and you have to respect that.
2. Lego City Undercover is Grand Theft Auto made of Lego bricks. This is awesome.
3. I'd call this an all-ages game rather than a kids game but it is made so that kids can play it, which does inform some major design decisions. You can't kill Lego people and the game is easy as balls.
4. While this is dripping w/ the same kind of satire common to Lego games, it is one of very few that is not based on some other popular franchise. If you are like me and sick of Star Wars being shoved up your bum ten times a year, this is ideal.
5. The setup here is really just an excuse to tool around Lego City and do Lego things w/ Lego people. You are a cop. There is a bad guy. You've got to get him.
6. The game runs and looks great and the cut scenes could easily be cartoons on TV--not that that bar is particularly high but I do think this shows an attention to detail which becomes a big part of why Lego City Undercover is so much fun to play.
7. It is also worth noting that the music is excellent. It could easily be used as a score for a cop drama on TV. It's bombastic, moody, funky or rocking depending on what the situation requires.
8. A particular favorite was the loading screen music, which is good because you will be looking at loading screens for quite a while, esp. on the Wii U.
9. The driving mechanics are pretty typical for a game that is not a dedicated driving game. Hit the gas and don't let go. There's a good variety of cars and bikes to drive as well as a helicopter and some off the wall stuff that is all pretty fun to tear around on. I mean, if you don't want to drive a Lego T-rex, I don't want to know you.
10. This isn't exactly the most cerebral of games.There is some mild puzzle solving and a lot of just smashing the crap out of everything and seeing what happens.
11. Ground combat gets old fast. There are some cool moves to pull off but if you think it's more than button mashing, you are kidding yourself. You can't really die so you don't have much skin in it either. I found when being approached by a group of henchmen, I frequently just sighed and tuned out while I mashed the attack button.
12. For whatever reason, I found myself sticking to main plot almost exclusively to begin w/ in this, which is quite the opposite of how I normally play such a game. Part of that is the majority of stuff to do outside the main quest is to just search high and low for various items but it is definitely partly a testament to how well the main quest is designed. Playing through, you get a strong feeling it's a really good assortment of everything the game has to offer.
13. I usually find games that actually bill themselves as being relaxing to be frustratingly slow and annoying. Something like this w/ its all-ages accessibility and loads of action packed fun fits the relaxing bill much better for me. This is not a game that is going to stagger you w/ its heart-wrenching genius but it's not trying to be. It does what it tries to do really well and you have to respect that.
Wednesday, August 9, 2017
13 Points on Mad Max - Avalanche Games - 2015 [PC]
1. The marketing materials for this have such a focus on vehicular customization that it had me believing it was going to be Skyrim w/ a bitchen hot rod. Really, it is an action game set in an open world sandbox--which is fine too, I guess.
2. Honestly--and just to get it out of the way--the main reason this game is worth playing is because tearing down a sandy highway after an enemy vehicle, harpooning the driver and ripping his flailing body from the soon to be wreckage of his car just never gets old.
3. Obviously, this is set in the Mad Max universe, which has some qualities which are advantageous for a game world. Specifically, it is populated by a breed of murderous subhumans that can be beaten to death by the titular protagonist w/o regard to troublesome and tedious thoughts of morality and necessity. You will invade the shelter of six dudes and kill them all so that you can steal a small amount of scrap metal and dog food that are the sum total of their material possessions. In the world of Mad Max, you look at the gray vs. gray morality of this situation, shrug you shoulders and shoot these guys' brothers w/ a harpoon when they come after you.
4. As far as doing the actual killing, combat is solid, esp. when you are in your car. Driving has a pretty standard arcade feel to it, along the lines of GTA games or similar. You have a host of weapons you can use while driving and when you go to aim, time slows which enables you to both aim and drive reasonably well at the same time. You can also just quickfire at whatever the game guesses you want to shoot, which is often good enough. These sequences seem so cool that I found myself wishing I could go back and replay them in real time just to see what a hardcore badass I am behind the wheel.
5. Combat on foot is mashing one button to attack and occasionally dodging, parrying or hitting another button for a finisher. The combat looks awesome on screen but I found myself dying because I was trying to rush through the boring fights more than I did because they were actually difficult.
6. Every boss fight in Mad Max is dodging the well telegraphed attack and coming back and beat on them for a minute. Sometimes they throw enemy mobs at you as a distraction.
7. The setup for the story here is Mad Max shows up in a particular section of wasteland, well on his way to reaching some probably imaginary paradise, and he is in search of gasoline. This dude, Scrotus, who has a very bad temper due to being picked on because of his name, runs this little section of wasteland takes issue w/ Max. An altercation ensues leaving Scrotus almost dead and Max w/o his beloved automobile. They become mortal enemies at this point because why not. Max runs into a helpful hunchback named Chumbucket--because people are always named after fishing terms in the endless desert--and together they seek to build Max a new automobile. Along the way, Max runs into the one other person in this vast stretch of desert who is not a degenerate mutant or otherwise horribly decrepit and it just so happens she's an attractive woman who just so happens to have a daughter who just so happens to get kidnapped. *Spoilers* This whole business plays out about how you expect for the most part.
8. The desert setting here is really remarkably good looking. Plains spread endlessly in all directions at the start but you eventually run into plateaus and more mountainous regions which provide a decent diversity of terrain--you know, for a desert. Structures are unfortunately not as diverse. These are all from the same school of architecture used in every post-apocalyptic game world, which is to say they are either half fallen old buildings or randomly thrown together circles of shipping containers, broken down school buses and sheet metal. Either way, the floorplans were made after careful, post-apocalyptic study of Doom 2 WADs and the resulting structures resemble neither functional abodes nor practical defensive works in the least.
9. The various friendly encampments, called strongholds, are inhabited by nameless and long suffering humans who never move anywhere at all. In one, there is a woman vomiting against the wall in a hallway. If you come back at night time, she is still there vomiting in the hallway. After you've helped the stronghold and improved their access to resources, she eventually gets better and thanks you the next time you pass her in the hallway... Just kidding! She will vomit against the wall for all time and nothing you do matters. I presume this is because Mad Max is meant to be allegorical to a real-life existential crisis but maybe the developers, Avalanche Studios, overshot their budget on high-paced harpoon gun action before they got to making realistic NPCs. Who knows for sure.
10. The various characters you run into are all visually alluring and then more or less completely flat. Everyone is either sociopathically self interested or some hot woman who had her daughter kidnapped. It bears pointing out that Max is not in the latter category. The voice acting for these unfortunate folks seems pretty uneven to put it mildly but I really blame the script and the characters themselves over the actors for this.
11. There is a lot to do in Mad Max and the world is pretty expansive. Fast travel isn't enabled until later in the game (and not necessarily at all) and you will spend a good chunk of time just driving from one end of the map to the other, which isn't really a bad thing. Any trip will inevitably be punctuated by a few violent run-ins w/ enemy vehicles and, at least when you are new to an area, diversions to take down enemy defensive structures w/ your handy harpoon gun. This is incredibly fun at first but wears thin as the endless repetitive combat and detours to search for small amounts of resources for upgrades grows tiresome. Most of the sidequesting you do is simply traveling to a particular location, killing everyone and maybe picking up a needed item. It doesn't really add any depth to overall gameplay.
12. The customization much lauded by the marketing materials is the main reason you travel around this endless expanse of samey enemy camps and encounters and it's fairly well done. Many new vehicle components are strictly upgrades from previous versions but there are a good deal of choices that improve one stat while harming another. You can build up a tank that can batter its way through large caravans of enemies or put together an agile car to leave them in the dust. Ultimately, some stats become obviously more important than others and I have a feeling most players w/ similar resources collected will end up w/ similar vehicles. In some places, the game actually forces you to build a particular car and use it, which I feel is basically an admission by the developers that some builds are worthless and you'd never use them if left to your druthers.
13. Despite how my previous twelve points have read, I can honestly whole-heartedly recommend Mad Max to anyone who wants a fun and bombastic game to screw around w/ for a dozen or so hours. I said car combat is awesome and I'm not kidding. Check it out. My advice for the best experience is just resolve to build up a car, whoop some ass and put the game down when that gets boring. Finishing out story mode ultimately proves unsatisfying and is deeply frustrating due to a few racing sections toward that just feel tacked on. This is a 100% completionist's nightmare but a weekend (road) warrior can sure have a good time.
2. Honestly--and just to get it out of the way--the main reason this game is worth playing is because tearing down a sandy highway after an enemy vehicle, harpooning the driver and ripping his flailing body from the soon to be wreckage of his car just never gets old.
3. Obviously, this is set in the Mad Max universe, which has some qualities which are advantageous for a game world. Specifically, it is populated by a breed of murderous subhumans that can be beaten to death by the titular protagonist w/o regard to troublesome and tedious thoughts of morality and necessity. You will invade the shelter of six dudes and kill them all so that you can steal a small amount of scrap metal and dog food that are the sum total of their material possessions. In the world of Mad Max, you look at the gray vs. gray morality of this situation, shrug you shoulders and shoot these guys' brothers w/ a harpoon when they come after you.
4. As far as doing the actual killing, combat is solid, esp. when you are in your car. Driving has a pretty standard arcade feel to it, along the lines of GTA games or similar. You have a host of weapons you can use while driving and when you go to aim, time slows which enables you to both aim and drive reasonably well at the same time. You can also just quickfire at whatever the game guesses you want to shoot, which is often good enough. These sequences seem so cool that I found myself wishing I could go back and replay them in real time just to see what a hardcore badass I am behind the wheel.
5. Combat on foot is mashing one button to attack and occasionally dodging, parrying or hitting another button for a finisher. The combat looks awesome on screen but I found myself dying because I was trying to rush through the boring fights more than I did because they were actually difficult.
6. Every boss fight in Mad Max is dodging the well telegraphed attack and coming back and beat on them for a minute. Sometimes they throw enemy mobs at you as a distraction.
7. The setup for the story here is Mad Max shows up in a particular section of wasteland, well on his way to reaching some probably imaginary paradise, and he is in search of gasoline. This dude, Scrotus, who has a very bad temper due to being picked on because of his name, runs this little section of wasteland takes issue w/ Max. An altercation ensues leaving Scrotus almost dead and Max w/o his beloved automobile. They become mortal enemies at this point because why not. Max runs into a helpful hunchback named Chumbucket--because people are always named after fishing terms in the endless desert--and together they seek to build Max a new automobile. Along the way, Max runs into the one other person in this vast stretch of desert who is not a degenerate mutant or otherwise horribly decrepit and it just so happens she's an attractive woman who just so happens to have a daughter who just so happens to get kidnapped. *Spoilers* This whole business plays out about how you expect for the most part.
8. The desert setting here is really remarkably good looking. Plains spread endlessly in all directions at the start but you eventually run into plateaus and more mountainous regions which provide a decent diversity of terrain--you know, for a desert. Structures are unfortunately not as diverse. These are all from the same school of architecture used in every post-apocalyptic game world, which is to say they are either half fallen old buildings or randomly thrown together circles of shipping containers, broken down school buses and sheet metal. Either way, the floorplans were made after careful, post-apocalyptic study of Doom 2 WADs and the resulting structures resemble neither functional abodes nor practical defensive works in the least.
9. The various friendly encampments, called strongholds, are inhabited by nameless and long suffering humans who never move anywhere at all. In one, there is a woman vomiting against the wall in a hallway. If you come back at night time, she is still there vomiting in the hallway. After you've helped the stronghold and improved their access to resources, she eventually gets better and thanks you the next time you pass her in the hallway... Just kidding! She will vomit against the wall for all time and nothing you do matters. I presume this is because Mad Max is meant to be allegorical to a real-life existential crisis but maybe the developers, Avalanche Studios, overshot their budget on high-paced harpoon gun action before they got to making realistic NPCs. Who knows for sure.
10. The various characters you run into are all visually alluring and then more or less completely flat. Everyone is either sociopathically self interested or some hot woman who had her daughter kidnapped. It bears pointing out that Max is not in the latter category. The voice acting for these unfortunate folks seems pretty uneven to put it mildly but I really blame the script and the characters themselves over the actors for this.
11. There is a lot to do in Mad Max and the world is pretty expansive. Fast travel isn't enabled until later in the game (and not necessarily at all) and you will spend a good chunk of time just driving from one end of the map to the other, which isn't really a bad thing. Any trip will inevitably be punctuated by a few violent run-ins w/ enemy vehicles and, at least when you are new to an area, diversions to take down enemy defensive structures w/ your handy harpoon gun. This is incredibly fun at first but wears thin as the endless repetitive combat and detours to search for small amounts of resources for upgrades grows tiresome. Most of the sidequesting you do is simply traveling to a particular location, killing everyone and maybe picking up a needed item. It doesn't really add any depth to overall gameplay.
12. The customization much lauded by the marketing materials is the main reason you travel around this endless expanse of samey enemy camps and encounters and it's fairly well done. Many new vehicle components are strictly upgrades from previous versions but there are a good deal of choices that improve one stat while harming another. You can build up a tank that can batter its way through large caravans of enemies or put together an agile car to leave them in the dust. Ultimately, some stats become obviously more important than others and I have a feeling most players w/ similar resources collected will end up w/ similar vehicles. In some places, the game actually forces you to build a particular car and use it, which I feel is basically an admission by the developers that some builds are worthless and you'd never use them if left to your druthers.
13. Despite how my previous twelve points have read, I can honestly whole-heartedly recommend Mad Max to anyone who wants a fun and bombastic game to screw around w/ for a dozen or so hours. I said car combat is awesome and I'm not kidding. Check it out. My advice for the best experience is just resolve to build up a car, whoop some ass and put the game down when that gets boring. Finishing out story mode ultimately proves unsatisfying and is deeply frustrating due to a few racing sections toward that just feel tacked on. This is a 100% completionist's nightmare but a weekend (road) warrior can sure have a good time.
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