13 Points on A Normal Lost Phone - Accidental Queens - 2017 [PC]

1. As you might expect from the title, the phone in this A Normal Lost Phone is not actually normal. It is a phone that tells you a story.

2. I would argue this is an RPG. The role you play is the kind of creepy asshole who goes through a stranger's phone. I mean, seriously, respect people's privacy. Throw the phone at the mayor's house if you want to do something fun w/ it.

3. This said, w/o going homeland security on some rando, there would not be much of a game here--though I suppose a responsibly disposing of an old phone simulator game would not be the strangest thing out there.

4. It is kind of hard to discuss this w/o at least hinting at spoiling the game's big reveal but there's a trigger warning at the beginning that there will be anti-LGBTQ language involved so I think it's fair enough to let you all know that the game's protagonist, Sam, isn't a straight cis male and not everyone knows this.

5. As you initially start to go through Sam's phone, you are funneled toward reading texts and from this, you can figure out passwords and such to gain access to other apps, which give you hints at how to access the next round of new things and so on.

6. Not gonna lie: I just looked up most of the passwords online when it came to it. Fiddling w/ getting them in right or looking through stuff you've already read struck me as tedious more so than satisfying. I think the game could have added some automatic note-taking of some sort or a system that gave you options like try your birthday or try your address or whatever.

7. Poking through a phone is a pretty effective perspective from which to tell a story. It's very personal and yet not colored in the same way as, say, an intimate conversation w/ that person would be.

8. As compelling as it is, perhaps a coming out story is not the story to tell in this way. Or, in any case, A Normal Lost Phone goes too far in this matter. Eventually, in order to progress, you start using the phone to send people messages that reveal personal details about Sam. Nobody does this aside from the kind of creepy asshole you are apparently supposed to roleplay as.

9. It ultimately feels as much like a missed opportunity as much as anything. Why not make the person you are roll playing as Sam's father or someone? Why not make the player come face to face w/ the fact that what they are doing is wrong?

10. The thing is this overstepping is never pointed out as such. It is not dwelled on or even pointed out that you violating a person's privacy. You go through the motions like you are solving a puzzle in a Professor Layton game or something. I suppose if you can take for granted that your snooping is not meant to be seen as malicious in this context you can then unashamedly learn about Sam's life and story.

11.  At this point though, you have reduced the framing device of looking through someone's phone to a simple gimmick and then what's the point. I did think it was cool though that the in-game music game from just playing songs on the phone's music app though.

12. Sam's story is quite touching for what it's worth. It is a step by step of a person finding themselves but then having to leave much of what they know behind in doing so. It feels directly relatable even if you have not experienced what Sam has.

13. As I started writing this, I did not expect such a large number of these thirteen points to be about the lost phone gimmick but, I dunno, I suppose that's the name of the game so it makes sense. I will say, despite my reservations about it, I enjoyed A Normal Lost Phone and it was a good use of the couple of hours it took to play it. It makes me a little uneasy but it's not a bad game to play.

13 Points on Halo: Combat Evolved - Bungie - 2001 [Microsoft Xbox]

1. Halo: Combat Evolved is a groundbreaking game from the early 2000s, primarily loved for its multiplayer experience. I'm reviewing its single player campaign in 2019. I can't explain how my life got to this point.

2. You can actually still play multiplayer if you really want. You need to either play couch co-op, which requires friends you don't have and a couch, or you can play online which requires a complex process to simulate a local area network over the internet and friends you don't have.

3. It's the single player campaign of a multi-player focused game so we're not talking Bioshock in terms of environmental storytelling but the combat mechanics are exceptional and it's extremely important historically so definitely worth a run through.

4. You play as a space marine in a special suit of armor that makes you kick ass real good. You have an AI companion named Cortana who now wants to use all your PC's idle processor cycles to send personal information about your family to Microsoft.

5. Your enemies are an alliance consisting of every non-human sentient species that you see in game. No human is on their side and not one of them sides w/ the humans. People suck, I guess.

6. Combat is a high point, it being what has evolved after all. The specific smoothness of how you move in Halo makes it feel like a thoroughly modern shooter. This said, the original Xbox controller has only one set of shoulder buttons and so some controls are mapped in weird spots. I cannot tell you how many times I wanted to aim down sites and accidentally threw a grenade.

7. The middle of Halo drags a lot. It starts to feel like every time you fight your way through a string of similar looking metal tunnels, enemies are going to respawn and you will have to fight your way right back out of that string of similar looking metal tunnels.

8. About two thirds of the way through though, a wrinkle in the story appears that amps up the tense atmosphere and pulls you through the rest of the game. W/ this wrinkle, you run into enemy types that use the same weapons as you do. You can always pick up the alien weapons in the game but the only place you ever find ammunition for the human weapons is at crash sites or whatever pre-set area the developers chose to have that ammunition in. Having enemies show up all of sudden where you start feeling like you no longer have to preserve ammunition for your favorite gun mixes up the gameplay nicely at a critical juncture.

9. Changing the difficulty improves enemy AI in addition to changing how tough they are, which is awesome, but I found myself wishing for some more granular difficulty settings. I got kinda sick of some of the bullet-spongey enemies at higher levels but didn't necessarily want to make them less aggressive and more stupid to lower their HP.

10. It is possible to auto-save yourself into a really bad situation. You can get stuck w/ low HP and low ammo and if you're stuck, you're stuck. You can't drop the difficulty temporarily to get out of a pickle so you have to restart the level unless you can find a way to cheese yourself out of your conundrum.

11. And, yeah, cheesing the AI is 101-level science in this game. Even on higher difficulties, it can be pretty easy to attract attention then run away to string enemies out and pick them off a few at a time. In fairness, doing this is sometimes how I got myself auto-saved into really bad situations.

12. The theme to Halo is an iconic piece of music but most of the in-game soundtrack is forgettable. Great sound design mostly makes up for this. Directional sound worked beautifully through stereo speakers and some of the enemy yelps are pretty much hilarious.

13. Playing through Halo for the first time now is hardly the ideal way to experience it but I suppose that and memories is what we are stuck w/. If it came out today, I'd tell you the story is decent, the controls are great, the combat is varied enough that it's only boring sometimes and it looks like an original Xbox game. After playing through the story once, I think this is destined to remain on my shelf for all eternity or until I make friends, whichever comes first.