Amusingly, some of the reviews I read for this game on Steam were complaining that it wasn't worth the hype - that it was a fairly standard metroidvania game with all the same features we remember from Castlevania games of old. Of course, the Castlevania games are awesome, so I really don't know why those people were treating this as a problem. (Admittedly, those were a small percentage of the total.)
Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night is the newest game made by one of the developers of previous Castlevania games (Koji Igarashi) and it is just as good as all of us were hoping for as far as I'm concerned.
One of the first things that struck me about the game was its complexity. There are a lot of different types of weapons, each with its own attack range and special techniques, and the player will run across four or five different types in the first thirty minutes or so. There are crafting systems not just for gear, but for food and other types of crafting ingredients. Just about every enemy in the game has a rare drop that gives the main character different magical abilities, so you have to manage collecting and upgrading those as well... Certainly a lot of it can be safely ignored, but then you'll be slightly less powerful if you don't take the time to do at least some of it.
The graphics are quite good, in general, although some of the models seem a bit off (the main character's scarf or hair jumping around in weird ways in particular). The game does use the same models for conversation and cutscenes as it does for normal gameplay, as far as I can tell. So if you modify the main character's appearance or wear a particular accessory, you'll still see it in the cutscenes, which is a nice touch.
Exploring the castle also works fairly well, with only one or two minor issues where it wasn't clear where I was supposed to look next. Admittedly, those one or two moments were quite frustrating (it's not common for random common enemies to drop critical movement techniques), but overall it wasn't that hard for me to remember what I had and hadn't seen and where I could try using some of the new techniques I'd found. Trying to stay alive in the process was a bit unexpectedly difficult on several occasions, and the solution I settled on feels a bit cheap (i.e. relying a bit too much on ranged magic attacks), but still doable with a little practice.
Overall, I think the complex extras and challenging combat will turn some people off, but I still highly recommend this one even if you are worried about those issues. It's awesome enough in story, exploration, and creative options to make up for those two traits, and even that is assuming one has a problem with those traits. Since I don't, I think it's just all-around spectacular.
Showing posts with label Game reviews. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Game reviews. Show all posts
Sunday, July 14, 2019
Sunday, June 23, 2019
Game review: Baba is You
It's been a while since I played a puzzle game this ridiculously absurd and difficult. I'm a bit surprised I liked it, since I don't normally like stuff that requires tons of lateral thinking, but I did enjoy it quite a bit.
At its core, Baba is You is just about getting your character to the goal in each level, with various objects in the environment that you have to use or bypass in order to reach the goal. The catch that makes this game unique, though, is that the rules which define what all of the object in the level do are also present as blocks of text you can manipulate. Walls that block your path can be completely ignored if you change the rule that makes them solid, an easy-to-reach object can be made into the goal if the original one is out of reach, or you can even change which object on the map is under the player's control.
The first few levels are simple enough, requiring only minor manipulations. It gets harder fast, though; by the second world or so you'll be making all sorts of absurd changes to the world around you in order to even have a chance at victory. It's hilarious and maddening all at once.
One of the things I liked a lot is that the difficulty does ramp upwards rather smoothly. A lot of the tricks you need for later levels are logical extensions of the things you're doing earlier, and while the game doesn't go out of its way to highlight them, it also tends to give you one new extension at a time. Each world has its own unique concept it tends to focus on, so success in the first few levels of a world tends to make the rest easier. It still gets very difficult quickly, but it could have been much worse if the levels had been in even a slightly different order.
I highly recommend this game if you like puzzle games, although that does come with a warning that it's not for someone who is easily frustrated.
At its core, Baba is You is just about getting your character to the goal in each level, with various objects in the environment that you have to use or bypass in order to reach the goal. The catch that makes this game unique, though, is that the rules which define what all of the object in the level do are also present as blocks of text you can manipulate. Walls that block your path can be completely ignored if you change the rule that makes them solid, an easy-to-reach object can be made into the goal if the original one is out of reach, or you can even change which object on the map is under the player's control.
The first few levels are simple enough, requiring only minor manipulations. It gets harder fast, though; by the second world or so you'll be making all sorts of absurd changes to the world around you in order to even have a chance at victory. It's hilarious and maddening all at once.
One of the things I liked a lot is that the difficulty does ramp upwards rather smoothly. A lot of the tricks you need for later levels are logical extensions of the things you're doing earlier, and while the game doesn't go out of its way to highlight them, it also tends to give you one new extension at a time. Each world has its own unique concept it tends to focus on, so success in the first few levels of a world tends to make the rest easier. It still gets very difficult quickly, but it could have been much worse if the levels had been in even a slightly different order.
I highly recommend this game if you like puzzle games, although that does come with a warning that it's not for someone who is easily frustrated.
Saturday, May 11, 2019
Game review: Katana Zero
Katana Zero seems like it was hyped up fairly heavily prior to its release, although that might just be because I kept seeing their ads while I was watching the last Games Done Quick marathon. That advertising certainly did its job, but it also means I had somewhat higher expectations from the start.
This game certainly lived up to the high expectations I had for it, though. I do enjoy it quite a bit when I buy a game based on its strength in one area and then discover that there's a lot more to it than that - and Katana Zero turned out to be not just an excellent mix of an action game and a puzzle but also had an wonderfully convoluted story that forced me to think about what I was saying and why.
About the most I can say without worrying about spoilers is that this game rewards the player for thinking carefully about what they're saying and who they're saying it to. Just about everyone has their own secrets and their own plots, and it takes some carefully chosen words to ferret out as much detail as possible. I will also note that the way the game handled conversations was quite innovative - while this one isn't the first game I've seen that gives the player a limited amount of time to choose a conversation option, I don't recall having run across one that gives me a chance to actually interrupt the person I'm talking to! It's not there just to allow the speedrunners to skip conversations, either; there are moments where not letting the other person get a word out is better than the alternative.
The "to be continued" tag didn't annoy me quite as much as it usually does, either. It did still annoy me, of course, since there is a lot that went unresolved, but the complexity of the story made it feel a bit more like this one was its own complete section of a larger narrative, rather than the typical half-a-story followed by a sequel hook. I might be being a bit too generous there (possibly because I feel like there's more of the story I still need to dig through), but still.
Interestingly, given that the action was one of the things that drew me to this game, my enjoyment of that part started to wane fairly quickly. You can't take a hit and survive, so combat in the late game becomes very short and lethal (whether in your favor or not) very quickly as more gun-wielding enemies show up. While I'm sure there are plenty of action game fans that would enjoy the challenge, I mostly just found it tiresome to repeat the same section half a dozen times trying to get exactly the right combo off. Still doable, of course, and some of the replays of those fights were quite awesome, but I started to focus more on puzzling out the right sequence of actions rather than blindly hacking and slashing.
So while I can, as usual, see some reasons why people might not like this game (convoluted plot, difficult action/puzzle sequences), I enjoyed it quite a bit, and highly recommend it.
This game certainly lived up to the high expectations I had for it, though. I do enjoy it quite a bit when I buy a game based on its strength in one area and then discover that there's a lot more to it than that - and Katana Zero turned out to be not just an excellent mix of an action game and a puzzle but also had an wonderfully convoluted story that forced me to think about what I was saying and why.
About the most I can say without worrying about spoilers is that this game rewards the player for thinking carefully about what they're saying and who they're saying it to. Just about everyone has their own secrets and their own plots, and it takes some carefully chosen words to ferret out as much detail as possible. I will also note that the way the game handled conversations was quite innovative - while this one isn't the first game I've seen that gives the player a limited amount of time to choose a conversation option, I don't recall having run across one that gives me a chance to actually interrupt the person I'm talking to! It's not there just to allow the speedrunners to skip conversations, either; there are moments where not letting the other person get a word out is better than the alternative.
The "to be continued" tag didn't annoy me quite as much as it usually does, either. It did still annoy me, of course, since there is a lot that went unresolved, but the complexity of the story made it feel a bit more like this one was its own complete section of a larger narrative, rather than the typical half-a-story followed by a sequel hook. I might be being a bit too generous there (possibly because I feel like there's more of the story I still need to dig through), but still.
Interestingly, given that the action was one of the things that drew me to this game, my enjoyment of that part started to wane fairly quickly. You can't take a hit and survive, so combat in the late game becomes very short and lethal (whether in your favor or not) very quickly as more gun-wielding enemies show up. While I'm sure there are plenty of action game fans that would enjoy the challenge, I mostly just found it tiresome to repeat the same section half a dozen times trying to get exactly the right combo off. Still doable, of course, and some of the replays of those fights were quite awesome, but I started to focus more on puzzling out the right sequence of actions rather than blindly hacking and slashing.
So while I can, as usual, see some reasons why people might not like this game (convoluted plot, difficult action/puzzle sequences), I enjoyed it quite a bit, and highly recommend it.
Monday, April 22, 2019
Game Review: Arcade Spirits, part 2
I did say I was going to be coming back to this one. I’m quite a bit late (two months, given that I’d intended to get to this on launch weekend), but real life does have a way of interfering with those sorts of plans, so I’m not too disappointed about that.
That and it’s hard to feel unhappy about anything when this game has done an incredible job of living up to the high expectations I had for it. Arcade Spirits has been memorable in a way that all too few of my visual novels have managed - going all the way back to the old Key/Visual Arts games that brought me into this medium. At its best, this medium allows for some very powerful, moving stories with the sort of player interaction that’s difficult in other mediums but without the distraction that more involved gameplay can be. This game lives up to that ideal and then some; even some of the clichés the story uses merely add to the charm.
I’ll put more details below for anyone that wants to read in detail what I did and didn’t like about the story, but since that will involve some serious spoilers, I’ll put my summary here so that everyone can read it: Whether or not you like visual novels, I highly recommend you try this one. I can’t promise it will resonate with you the same way it did for me, but it's still good enough to be worth a shot.
That and it’s hard to feel unhappy about anything when this game has done an incredible job of living up to the high expectations I had for it. Arcade Spirits has been memorable in a way that all too few of my visual novels have managed - going all the way back to the old Key/Visual Arts games that brought me into this medium. At its best, this medium allows for some very powerful, moving stories with the sort of player interaction that’s difficult in other mediums but without the distraction that more involved gameplay can be. This game lives up to that ideal and then some; even some of the clichés the story uses merely add to the charm.
I’ll put more details below for anyone that wants to read in detail what I did and didn’t like about the story, but since that will involve some serious spoilers, I’ll put my summary here so that everyone can read it: Whether or not you like visual novels, I highly recommend you try this one. I can’t promise it will resonate with you the same way it did for me, but it's still good enough to be worth a shot.
Sunday, March 31, 2019
Game Review: Momodora: Reverie under the Moonlight
While using speed runs to help find games I might like playing is an excellent idea, I really need to stop also using those speed runs as tutorials... particularly when I'm still on my first run through the game. Trying to pull off advanced tricks when I'm still working on basic mechanics makes things a bit more difficult than they really need to be.
... Then again, I managed to reach the true ending of Momodora: Reverie under the Moonlight in something like 4 hours of gameplay, so I guess it wasn't quite as much of a problem as it could have been.
My experience doesn't quite feel normal - to the extent where I hesitate to even call this a review - since I already knew much of what I was going to be facing from the beginning. It was challenging enough to be satisfying, but really wasn't all that difficult in the end even with me spending time trying to kill each of the bosses without taking a hit. I suppose I did have the difficulty turned down fairly low, and I am certainly looking forward to trying it again on a higher setting eventually. The story was a bit predictable but still compelling enough to get by.
Also: You're playing as a priestess who uses a leaf and a bow as weapons and eventually gains the ability to turn into a cat in order to get through smaller spaces. The anime nerd in me says that's worth a lot of points right there.
Overall, I enjoyed it, and I definitely think it's worth playing, but it's a bit short and (at least at normal difficulty) not quite as challenging as I might have hoped for.
Monday, February 4, 2019
Game review: Wargroove
So there's three sentences that I think have to be included in any review of this game, if some of the other's I've read are any indication:
It's basically Advance Wars with a swords and sorcery theme applied to it. But that's okay, because Advance Wars was awesome, and this game is just as good. Also there are some very cute dog units (but they run away instead of dying, so don't worry about having to kill them).
Which is really all that needs to be said; if you liked Advance Wars, you're probably going to like this one too. With that out of the way, I'll go ahead and talk about some of the differences, since there is a new critical hit mechanic and changes to the capturing rules that will be new to veterans of that game.
The critical hit mechanic basically rewards the player for putting their units in exactly the right position. They're not random; each unit has specific criteria which allow it to score a critical hit (such as standing on the right type of tile, standing next to a specific unit type, or moving a certain distance before attacking). They're also very thematically appropriate, such as pikemen gaining bonuses from standing shoulder-to-shoulder with other pikemen or knights charging through their full movement before attacking. It's an interesting additional layer of detail to have to worry about, although it's rarely necessary to get every critical hit possible.
The other significant difference is capturing structures. Garrisoned structures start with half the HP of the unit that captured them and slowly regain health. On one hand, it's possible to capture even with low health units... but the enemy can just destroy your garrison immediately if you do that. While any unit can attack a structure, only infantry can capture a neutral structure - and if the structure survives an enemy attack, it'll shoot back, so taking out a structure at full health is actually kind of difficult (and will leave the attacker with plenty of damage) unless you have some fairly powerful units.
There are some other minor changes (unit repairs, commander units), but they don't affect the experience as much. The other big detail is the amount of stuff in this game - the campaign mode is impressive, each commander has their own arcade mode, there's a bunch of puzzles that challenge you to win in a single turn, and there's a system for sharing custom maps and online multiplayer. I've played for hours and I've barely scratched the surface of it all.
On the whole, Wargroove is definitely worth buying.
It's basically Advance Wars with a swords and sorcery theme applied to it. But that's okay, because Advance Wars was awesome, and this game is just as good. Also there are some very cute dog units (but they run away instead of dying, so don't worry about having to kill them).
Which is really all that needs to be said; if you liked Advance Wars, you're probably going to like this one too. With that out of the way, I'll go ahead and talk about some of the differences, since there is a new critical hit mechanic and changes to the capturing rules that will be new to veterans of that game.
The critical hit mechanic basically rewards the player for putting their units in exactly the right position. They're not random; each unit has specific criteria which allow it to score a critical hit (such as standing on the right type of tile, standing next to a specific unit type, or moving a certain distance before attacking). They're also very thematically appropriate, such as pikemen gaining bonuses from standing shoulder-to-shoulder with other pikemen or knights charging through their full movement before attacking. It's an interesting additional layer of detail to have to worry about, although it's rarely necessary to get every critical hit possible.
The other significant difference is capturing structures. Garrisoned structures start with half the HP of the unit that captured them and slowly regain health. On one hand, it's possible to capture even with low health units... but the enemy can just destroy your garrison immediately if you do that. While any unit can attack a structure, only infantry can capture a neutral structure - and if the structure survives an enemy attack, it'll shoot back, so taking out a structure at full health is actually kind of difficult (and will leave the attacker with plenty of damage) unless you have some fairly powerful units.
There are some other minor changes (unit repairs, commander units), but they don't affect the experience as much. The other big detail is the amount of stuff in this game - the campaign mode is impressive, each commander has their own arcade mode, there's a bunch of puzzles that challenge you to win in a single turn, and there's a system for sharing custom maps and online multiplayer. I've played for hours and I've barely scratched the surface of it all.
On the whole, Wargroove is definitely worth buying.
Wednesday, January 23, 2019
Game review: Super Smash Bros Ultimate
Of course I bought this game. I doubt there's a single Nintendo fan in the world that isn't going to, even if many of them are going to complain.
It definitely has its problematic points. The fact that you start with 8 characters out of the 70+ to unlock means that everything you do for the first hour or two triggers a new challenger to fight and unlock, which actually gets a bit old after the third time you're interrupted in the middle of practicing or just randomly messing around.
I also can't decide whether I think the story mode and the associated spirits to unlock and manage are an interesting way to make Smash characters and battles that feel inspired by other games or just an irritating slog through a bunch of too-difficult gimmicky crap. Finding cool spirits is definitely a fun way to reminisce about some of the awesome games I've played in the past... but managing them in order to get to the point where I can actually win some of the harder battles is just a pain. And there's very little actual story to enjoy after the initial cutscene, either, which means I probably land on the "don't like" side of the scale for the story mode.
And as with every other Smash game, it really shines best with friends, which is a bit of a problem for someone like me who doesn't often invite other people to my apartment. To say nothing of the fact that I'm terrible at it, just as with every other fighting game I've tried.
For all the negativity above, though... it's still Smash, and it's still awesome to blast people away with Robin's spells, cut them to ribbons with Link's sword, or just punch them with Mario. For someone that grew up playing the original Smash Bros game, including literally everything from past games down to the stages themselves was a masterstroke. It's a blatant play on everyone's nostalgia, but that doesn't make it any less effective.
I don't know that I'd unabashedly recommend this one unless you know you'll have regular chances to play with friends. But even with its flaws, any Nintendo fan is going to find more than enough to enjoy in seeing so much of Nintendo's history in a single game.
It definitely has its problematic points. The fact that you start with 8 characters out of the 70+ to unlock means that everything you do for the first hour or two triggers a new challenger to fight and unlock, which actually gets a bit old after the third time you're interrupted in the middle of practicing or just randomly messing around.
I also can't decide whether I think the story mode and the associated spirits to unlock and manage are an interesting way to make Smash characters and battles that feel inspired by other games or just an irritating slog through a bunch of too-difficult gimmicky crap. Finding cool spirits is definitely a fun way to reminisce about some of the awesome games I've played in the past... but managing them in order to get to the point where I can actually win some of the harder battles is just a pain. And there's very little actual story to enjoy after the initial cutscene, either, which means I probably land on the "don't like" side of the scale for the story mode.
And as with every other Smash game, it really shines best with friends, which is a bit of a problem for someone like me who doesn't often invite other people to my apartment. To say nothing of the fact that I'm terrible at it, just as with every other fighting game I've tried.
For all the negativity above, though... it's still Smash, and it's still awesome to blast people away with Robin's spells, cut them to ribbons with Link's sword, or just punch them with Mario. For someone that grew up playing the original Smash Bros game, including literally everything from past games down to the stages themselves was a masterstroke. It's a blatant play on everyone's nostalgia, but that doesn't make it any less effective.
I don't know that I'd unabashedly recommend this one unless you know you'll have regular chances to play with friends. But even with its flaws, any Nintendo fan is going to find more than enough to enjoy in seeing so much of Nintendo's history in a single game.
Friday, January 18, 2019
Game review: Mages of Mystralia
Mages of Mystralia is so far one of the rare games to actually make it off of my Steam wish list and into my inventory after a year or two. Most of them either make it off my wish list sooner than that, or slowly languish until I forget why I added them in the first place and eventually remove them.
It's good and bad. I don't know if I can unreservedly recommend it, but there are definitely some enjoyable parts, and I'm sure some people will like those enough to bother with it. On the other hand, the slower parts will definitely drive some people away.
The most enjoyable part is the spell design system. Experimenting with the different modifiers and triggers to find out what they do is a lot of fun, and using them to create massively powerful spells that fill the entire screen with homing fireballs is even more fun.
This also, however, leads to the biggest problem: You start the game without any of the really interesting options, and are pretty much guaranteed to spend at least two thirds of the game spamming the same one or two combat spells in an effort to reach the puzzles that allow you to unlock those legitimately interesting options.
The story is a little bit of both. On one hand, the store page plays up the fact that it was written by Ed Greenwood; I enjoyed his work on many Forgotten Realms novels quite a bit, and he mostly doesn't disappoint here either. It's basically the classic sort of fantasy story about a young protagonist who slowly learns that they're the chosen hero and/or have some kind of special power - which is a classic for a reason.
On the other hand, there are one or two moments where it wasn't clearly explained what the next step was supposed to be, and yet the main character seemed to luckily stumble on the right idea anyway, which feels like a bit of an unlikely coincidence. It also ended at something that feels like the halfway point of a bigger story, and I don't see any evidence of a planned sequel.
Overall, it was definitely worth what I paid for it and fun enough for me to recommend it, but I do have to attach a few caveats to that since there are some flaws.
It's good and bad. I don't know if I can unreservedly recommend it, but there are definitely some enjoyable parts, and I'm sure some people will like those enough to bother with it. On the other hand, the slower parts will definitely drive some people away.
The most enjoyable part is the spell design system. Experimenting with the different modifiers and triggers to find out what they do is a lot of fun, and using them to create massively powerful spells that fill the entire screen with homing fireballs is even more fun.
This also, however, leads to the biggest problem: You start the game without any of the really interesting options, and are pretty much guaranteed to spend at least two thirds of the game spamming the same one or two combat spells in an effort to reach the puzzles that allow you to unlock those legitimately interesting options.
The story is a little bit of both. On one hand, the store page plays up the fact that it was written by Ed Greenwood; I enjoyed his work on many Forgotten Realms novels quite a bit, and he mostly doesn't disappoint here either. It's basically the classic sort of fantasy story about a young protagonist who slowly learns that they're the chosen hero and/or have some kind of special power - which is a classic for a reason.
On the other hand, there are one or two moments where it wasn't clearly explained what the next step was supposed to be, and yet the main character seemed to luckily stumble on the right idea anyway, which feels like a bit of an unlikely coincidence. It also ended at something that feels like the halfway point of a bigger story, and I don't see any evidence of a planned sequel.
Overall, it was definitely worth what I paid for it and fun enough for me to recommend it, but I do have to attach a few caveats to that since there are some flaws.
Wednesday, December 12, 2018
Game review: Epic Battle Fantasy 5
So one of the reasons I didn't restart the blog last week was because I was taking a bit of a break from writing every day... and then the other reason is that I was busy playing Epic Battle Fantasy 5 (which came out on December 1st) every chance I got.
Just to be honest about how much I was playing it - that came out to about 40 hours of play time, or about 5 hours per day from the 1st to the 8th.
I've played previous games in the Epic Battle Fantasy series and enjoyed them quite a bit (my review for 4 is here), so this doesn't come as much of a surprise to me. It's a fairly traditional RPG along the lines of games like Final Fantasy - your party of characters has to go on an adventure to save the world, with plenty of monsters to kill, treasure to find, and cool weapons and armors to use. And these games have always rewarded scouring every inch for hidden secrets and talking to everyone to get clues about other secret areas and quests, so there's quite a bit to do. Or you can just read all the jokes, memes, and RPG parodies that the story comes up with, which as far as I can tell is "all of them"; it's utterly hilarious.
EBF 5 also allows for a number of different play styles - if you want to just breeze through the game to read all of the story and humor, then you can set the difficulty to zero and do that. Or you can play on Epic difficulty and work on mastering the battle system in order to get every single achievement, if you're more interested in a challenge. And you can change between the two easily, since the difficulty can be changed at any time.
I should mention that I do have one or two complaints, though. One is that right around the 15 or 20 hour mark, simply playing through the game starts to feel a bit like a grind. You don't usually need to grind for gold or EXP in the EBF games, even on the higher difficulties, and this one is no exception. But you do still have to deal with the monsters that are blocking your path through each of the areas, and those battles, plus the extra ones you have to go through in order to get all the treasure, start to get a little old after a while.
The other complaint is less of a complaint and more of an acknowledgement that not everyone is going to find every part of this funny. Personally, I find the mockery the author directs at feminism and political correctness (of which there is very little, to be fair) to be more grating than funny, for example. There are actually options now to tone down some of the mature humor and impractical armor designs for the female characters, but not everything is affected by that.
Overall, I greatly enjoy this game's humor, and I enjoy the challenge of trying to get every achievement I can. I highly recommend it.
Just to be honest about how much I was playing it - that came out to about 40 hours of play time, or about 5 hours per day from the 1st to the 8th.
I've played previous games in the Epic Battle Fantasy series and enjoyed them quite a bit (my review for 4 is here), so this doesn't come as much of a surprise to me. It's a fairly traditional RPG along the lines of games like Final Fantasy - your party of characters has to go on an adventure to save the world, with plenty of monsters to kill, treasure to find, and cool weapons and armors to use. And these games have always rewarded scouring every inch for hidden secrets and talking to everyone to get clues about other secret areas and quests, so there's quite a bit to do. Or you can just read all the jokes, memes, and RPG parodies that the story comes up with, which as far as I can tell is "all of them"; it's utterly hilarious.
EBF 5 also allows for a number of different play styles - if you want to just breeze through the game to read all of the story and humor, then you can set the difficulty to zero and do that. Or you can play on Epic difficulty and work on mastering the battle system in order to get every single achievement, if you're more interested in a challenge. And you can change between the two easily, since the difficulty can be changed at any time.
I should mention that I do have one or two complaints, though. One is that right around the 15 or 20 hour mark, simply playing through the game starts to feel a bit like a grind. You don't usually need to grind for gold or EXP in the EBF games, even on the higher difficulties, and this one is no exception. But you do still have to deal with the monsters that are blocking your path through each of the areas, and those battles, plus the extra ones you have to go through in order to get all the treasure, start to get a little old after a while.
The other complaint is less of a complaint and more of an acknowledgement that not everyone is going to find every part of this funny. Personally, I find the mockery the author directs at feminism and political correctness (of which there is very little, to be fair) to be more grating than funny, for example. There are actually options now to tone down some of the mature humor and impractical armor designs for the female characters, but not everything is affected by that.
Overall, I greatly enjoy this game's humor, and I enjoy the challenge of trying to get every achievement I can. I highly recommend it.
Monday, November 5, 2018
Game review: Epic Battle Fantasy 4
Epic Battle Fantasy 4 is a comedy RPG that uses plenty of memes and parodies to tell a story about a bunch of murderous hobos that go out to save the world (again).
For the most part, it is a fairly conventional RPG. A cult has stolen a powerful artifact, and the heroes have to chase them down in an attempt to recover it before Bad Things happen. Each of the characters has different spells, weapon skills, and equipment that they can use to fight their way through the monsters in various parts of the world on their way to recover the artifact, protect the others in the set, and stop the cult.
Technically this is a spoiler, but they naturally fail, falling just short in their efforts to reach and protect all of the other artifacts in the set and arriving at the final boss arena just in time to watch the final boss get summoned. I say technically because realistically, this game parodies RPG tropes so much that it's blindingly obvious that things are going to work out that way for much of the game. The humor relies on a lot of self-referential jokes (there is no fourth wall here) and culture or gaming related parodies, and while one or two of them felt like an unfair shot to me, the whole thing still manages to be very amusing.
It does manage to be a legitimately challenging RPG, in addition to a parody, though. Particularly if you turn the difficulty up a bit - then one is forced to rely on the right combinations of debuffs and buffs to survive long enough to win. There is a level system that increases your base stats and a skill point system which can be used to buy new skills, whether out of a character specific pool or out of a shared skill pool. There's a surprising amount of creativity in deciding which skills to level first and which skills from the shared pool should go to each character; it's easily one of the more fun parts of the game.
Overall, I highly recommend it.
For the most part, it is a fairly conventional RPG. A cult has stolen a powerful artifact, and the heroes have to chase them down in an attempt to recover it before Bad Things happen. Each of the characters has different spells, weapon skills, and equipment that they can use to fight their way through the monsters in various parts of the world on their way to recover the artifact, protect the others in the set, and stop the cult.
Technically this is a spoiler, but they naturally fail, falling just short in their efforts to reach and protect all of the other artifacts in the set and arriving at the final boss arena just in time to watch the final boss get summoned. I say technically because realistically, this game parodies RPG tropes so much that it's blindingly obvious that things are going to work out that way for much of the game. The humor relies on a lot of self-referential jokes (there is no fourth wall here) and culture or gaming related parodies, and while one or two of them felt like an unfair shot to me, the whole thing still manages to be very amusing.
It does manage to be a legitimately challenging RPG, in addition to a parody, though. Particularly if you turn the difficulty up a bit - then one is forced to rely on the right combinations of debuffs and buffs to survive long enough to win. There is a level system that increases your base stats and a skill point system which can be used to buy new skills, whether out of a character specific pool or out of a shared skill pool. There's a surprising amount of creativity in deciding which skills to level first and which skills from the shared pool should go to each character; it's easily one of the more fun parts of the game.
Overall, I highly recommend it.
Wednesday, October 31, 2018
Game review: Heat Signature
Heat Signature is, at its core, a stealth game about breaking into spaceships and doing various unpleasant things to the people aboard them. Or it can be an action game about breaking into spaceships and doing unpleasant things to the people aboard them, if you'd rather.
The story in this one is minimal, at best - there's a bit of backstory to the whole thing, and an ultimate conclusion you're working towards, but the two combined make up about 15 minutes. If you read particularly slowly. It's a bit weird to me that I like it anyway, since I typically prefer elaborate stories, but then I can make plenty of amusing stories of my own in describing how I managed to pull off the latest impossible missions.
On that note, the core of the game is the missions you take; these can involve assassinating someone, stealing something, rescuing someone, or capturing someone. You can use whatever combination of guns, teleporters, grenade launchers, hacking devices, or other gadgets you prefer to break through the locked doors in each ship preventing you from getting to your target. Each ship is also guarded by crew with various gadgets of their own, who will be all too happy to shoot you and throw your dying body out the airlock if they see you.
What makes it incredibly fun is the creativity this fosters. With a clever combination of gadgets, it's possible to bust through an entire ship without even being seen - or one could just take a pile of guns and ammo and kill everything on that same ship. Finding clever solutions to some of the more difficult missions is a great way to feel accomplished... although there are also moments when a stupid misclick costs one quite a bit, too. I highly recommend it.
The story in this one is minimal, at best - there's a bit of backstory to the whole thing, and an ultimate conclusion you're working towards, but the two combined make up about 15 minutes. If you read particularly slowly. It's a bit weird to me that I like it anyway, since I typically prefer elaborate stories, but then I can make plenty of amusing stories of my own in describing how I managed to pull off the latest impossible missions.
On that note, the core of the game is the missions you take; these can involve assassinating someone, stealing something, rescuing someone, or capturing someone. You can use whatever combination of guns, teleporters, grenade launchers, hacking devices, or other gadgets you prefer to break through the locked doors in each ship preventing you from getting to your target. Each ship is also guarded by crew with various gadgets of their own, who will be all too happy to shoot you and throw your dying body out the airlock if they see you.
What makes it incredibly fun is the creativity this fosters. With a clever combination of gadgets, it's possible to bust through an entire ship without even being seen - or one could just take a pile of guns and ammo and kill everything on that same ship. Finding clever solutions to some of the more difficult missions is a great way to feel accomplished... although there are also moments when a stupid misclick costs one quite a bit, too. I highly recommend it.
Wednesday, October 10, 2018
Game Review: Sword Art Online: Fatal Bullet
Yeah, I'm still playing around in Sword Art Online's universe. It's not going to end anytime soon either, since even after stuff like this there's a new season of the anime that just started airing. (Incidentally, having read the light novels, I'm quite certain the new season will be awesome.)
I've never really cared that much about the various Sword Art Online games, admittedly (Fatal Bullet is not the first one they've created). A lot of single player games that attempt to mimic massively multiplayer games end up with a lot of useless "chat" or "friend list" features that serve no actual purpose, and force the player to deal with threats balanced for a 4 person party... with one actual person and three AI characters that range from stupid to horribly stupid. It would be more understandable if there actually was an option to play with friends, but there usually isn't anything like that.
Which does actually bring me to my first complaint, since Fatal Bullet has indeed lived down to my expectations in that regard. I would love to experiment with different builds more, and try to work with new people and come up with interesting party setups, but it mostly just feels kind of pointless when the only customization the rest of my party can manage is me selecting from a predefined list. The only good thing that can be said for this part is that I knew what I was getting myself into from the beginning, so it softened the blow a bit.
Luckily, it does turn out that there's a really good character customization system built into the game. It's not just a matter of setting height, weight, eye color, or even the more precise options for just about every physical trait imaginable - there's also a system for modifying (okay, mostly just recoloring, but still) a lot of the gear items as well. My character could look quite different from someone else's even if we had the exact same items equipped; that's always a nice option to have.
As for the gameplay itself... It's at least okay. A lot of the reviews I read compared it to Phantasy Star Online 2 (mostly in the context of "you should probably play this instead", to be fair) and I have to say the comparison is quite apt both in good and bad respects. On the negative side, there's a lot of time spent farming and grinding to find the exact gear you actually want to use, and the story doesn't feel especially elaborate or compelling (yet, at least). But, wandering through the wilderness shooting everything that moves does manage to be fun most of the time, and there's enough interest in exploring the various areas and finding secrets to keep me from dropping it. Also this game actually lets the player jump across gaps, unlike PSO.
In the end, I think I have to agree with the reviews that say it's probably not worth it unless one is either an SAO fan, or the game is on sale - ideally both. Anyone that liked PSO or PSO2 should like this as well, but the SAO brand probably doesn't add enough to make it worth playing this instead of those games.
I've never really cared that much about the various Sword Art Online games, admittedly (Fatal Bullet is not the first one they've created). A lot of single player games that attempt to mimic massively multiplayer games end up with a lot of useless "chat" or "friend list" features that serve no actual purpose, and force the player to deal with threats balanced for a 4 person party... with one actual person and three AI characters that range from stupid to horribly stupid. It would be more understandable if there actually was an option to play with friends, but there usually isn't anything like that.
Which does actually bring me to my first complaint, since Fatal Bullet has indeed lived down to my expectations in that regard. I would love to experiment with different builds more, and try to work with new people and come up with interesting party setups, but it mostly just feels kind of pointless when the only customization the rest of my party can manage is me selecting from a predefined list. The only good thing that can be said for this part is that I knew what I was getting myself into from the beginning, so it softened the blow a bit.
Luckily, it does turn out that there's a really good character customization system built into the game. It's not just a matter of setting height, weight, eye color, or even the more precise options for just about every physical trait imaginable - there's also a system for modifying (okay, mostly just recoloring, but still) a lot of the gear items as well. My character could look quite different from someone else's even if we had the exact same items equipped; that's always a nice option to have.
As for the gameplay itself... It's at least okay. A lot of the reviews I read compared it to Phantasy Star Online 2 (mostly in the context of "you should probably play this instead", to be fair) and I have to say the comparison is quite apt both in good and bad respects. On the negative side, there's a lot of time spent farming and grinding to find the exact gear you actually want to use, and the story doesn't feel especially elaborate or compelling (yet, at least). But, wandering through the wilderness shooting everything that moves does manage to be fun most of the time, and there's enough interest in exploring the various areas and finding secrets to keep me from dropping it. Also this game actually lets the player jump across gaps, unlike PSO.
In the end, I think I have to agree with the reviews that say it's probably not worth it unless one is either an SAO fan, or the game is on sale - ideally both. Anyone that liked PSO or PSO2 should like this as well, but the SAO brand probably doesn't add enough to make it worth playing this instead of those games.
Wednesday, October 3, 2018
Game review: Arcade Spirits (Part 1)
So this time I'm actually reviewing a game that's not out for the general public yet. This is possible because I supported the game's creator on Patreon, so I got access to the closed beta test. Yes, this probably means I'm a bit predisposed to like the game, if for no other reason than that I'd hate for something I supported that way to turn out bad.
That's also why this is marked as part 1. I haven't played through the full game yet, and couldn't even if I had devoted more time to trying out the beta given that the full game doesn't exist yet. So there will be another review of this game at some point in the future once I've had the chance to actually play the full version.
Everything I've seen so far is positive, though. Arcade Spirits is a visual novel, set in a fictional alternate reality in which the video game crash in the 80's never happened, which means that gaming and arcades are much more of a mainstream pursuit than they are in the world we actually live in. It's partly romantic comedy and partly a rather serious drama about chasing one's dreams. It also features an alignment system of sorts (which players of some RPG computer games may recognize) - your choices give you points towards a variety of character traits, as well as relationship points with the other characters, and as the story proceeds, that starts to have an impact on how everyone reacts to the main character.
The biggest single point in this game's favor, of course, is Stefan Gagne's writing. He's responsible for writing a lot of the game's story, and I've liked everything he's written ever since I first read one of his stories. The worlds he's built are interesting and amusing by turns, and the characters he puts in them have very realistic strengths and weaknesses - he always avoids giving his characters the idiot ball for no reason, but also doesn't have any boring invincible heroes that I can remember offhand. And the dialogue choices are written in such a way that you can tell what type of person you're going to be, but it's not obvious to the point of parody. That's a common flaw with alignment systems like this game's, but this one avoids it to at least some extent.
One of the other interesting details, though, is the character customization options and how they affect the romantic options. Or rather - how they don't. I haven't actually reached any of those story lines yet, but from what I understand the player is free to romance whoever they like, regardless of what gender they picked for their character. That's not common, and it's kind of refreshing to see it treated as utterly normal and unremarkable.
As for the rest of it, I guess we'll see. Everything I've seen makes me think I'll like this one, though, and I strongly recommend at least giving the demo a look.
That's also why this is marked as part 1. I haven't played through the full game yet, and couldn't even if I had devoted more time to trying out the beta given that the full game doesn't exist yet. So there will be another review of this game at some point in the future once I've had the chance to actually play the full version.
Everything I've seen so far is positive, though. Arcade Spirits is a visual novel, set in a fictional alternate reality in which the video game crash in the 80's never happened, which means that gaming and arcades are much more of a mainstream pursuit than they are in the world we actually live in. It's partly romantic comedy and partly a rather serious drama about chasing one's dreams. It also features an alignment system of sorts (which players of some RPG computer games may recognize) - your choices give you points towards a variety of character traits, as well as relationship points with the other characters, and as the story proceeds, that starts to have an impact on how everyone reacts to the main character.
The biggest single point in this game's favor, of course, is Stefan Gagne's writing. He's responsible for writing a lot of the game's story, and I've liked everything he's written ever since I first read one of his stories. The worlds he's built are interesting and amusing by turns, and the characters he puts in them have very realistic strengths and weaknesses - he always avoids giving his characters the idiot ball for no reason, but also doesn't have any boring invincible heroes that I can remember offhand. And the dialogue choices are written in such a way that you can tell what type of person you're going to be, but it's not obvious to the point of parody. That's a common flaw with alignment systems like this game's, but this one avoids it to at least some extent.
One of the other interesting details, though, is the character customization options and how they affect the romantic options. Or rather - how they don't. I haven't actually reached any of those story lines yet, but from what I understand the player is free to romance whoever they like, regardless of what gender they picked for their character. That's not common, and it's kind of refreshing to see it treated as utterly normal and unremarkable.
As for the rest of it, I guess we'll see. Everything I've seen makes me think I'll like this one, though, and I strongly recommend at least giving the demo a look.
Tuesday, October 2, 2018
Game Review: Shantae and the Pirate's Curse
One of the problems with this review is that I'd like to open with a concise summary, and phrasing it in a way that doesn't leave an overly negative impression is going to be difficult. Shantae and the Pirate's Curse was fun to play, and I think it was worth what I paid for it, but it did benefit a bit from some low expectations on my part.
The game's main character (Shantae, of course) is a dancer (okay) who is also a half-genie (?) whose primary weapon is whipping enemies with her hair (!?)... and that's not even in the top five most ridiculous things this game comes up with. There are a lot of comedies that would lose me very quickly by being this ridiculously stupid, but this game managed to consistently land on the right side of the line between hilariously stupid and just being stupid. Probably by virtue of sheer audacity; it's pretty much impossible to expect anything serious out of this one.
As a platforming game, it's acceptable. Certainly it's not much of a challenge given that I've been playing games like Celeste recently, but it had enough tricky boss fights and platforming to keep me from getting too bored and managed to avoid being difficult for the wrong reasons (e.g. control issues). The exploration aspects probably would have been a bit more interesting if I hadn't already known where everything was (my introduction to the series was watching other people play it), but there's not much I can do about that at this point, nor is it an actual problem with the game.
In the end, as I mentioned at the beginning - I enjoyed the time I spent playing, and I think I got my money's worth. But there's also nothing here that makes this game exceptional, at least as far as I'm concerned. If you're looking for a quick, not too challenging, and amusingly stupid 2D platformer, it'll do. But if you're looking for something more engaging, this game probably isn't what you're looking for.
Monday, September 10, 2018
Game Review: ZONE OF THE ENDERS THE 2nd RUNNER : M∀RS
Oddly enough, despite only having played one Zone of the Enders game (the one for Game Boy Advance) before this one, I've considered myself a fan of the franchise. I'm sure I would have played more of them if I had any Sony consoles...
Well, now that this remastered version of the second ZOE game has come out on PC, I can finally play more of them. Better yet, since Konami included full VR support, I can play the whole game from the cockpit of the main character's giant robot (or Orbital Frame, if you want to use the proper in-game term).
... It's quite awesome. I've tried a couple VR space combat games looking for one that I can really enjoy, but most of them either don't have a plot that interests me, don't actually have a good combat system, or cause some severe motion sickness. (In some cases, more than one of those problems.) This one, though, manages to avoid all three problems, even when I'm up close and personal with the enemy robots and the view is snapping back and forth between lock on targets as I wipe them all out.
I should be fair and mention that there are some problems. The plot has a couple of good thought-provoking moments, but then there are also plenty of scenes that are simply weird. A lot of the characters' motivations are either poorly explained or just don't make sense, and the same goes for some of the history. And there are some minor control problems - most centered around the way the game handles switching between lock on targets.
Those problems are more than outweighed by the good points. It's just fun to feel like you're actually sitting in the cockpit of a giant robot blasting your way through entire hordes of enemies. It takes a bit of experimenting to figure out which weapons are easiest to use and most effective, but there's enough time and chances to figure it out to prevent the whole thing from feeling like a irritating slog. Overall, I highly recommend this game.
Those problems are more than outweighed by the good points. It's just fun to feel like you're actually sitting in the cockpit of a giant robot blasting your way through entire hordes of enemies. It takes a bit of experimenting to figure out which weapons are easiest to use and most effective, but there's enough time and chances to figure it out to prevent the whole thing from feeling like a irritating slog. Overall, I highly recommend this game.
Wednesday, August 1, 2018
Game review: Cultist Simulator
Pretty sure the detail that makes this game a proper simulation of being a cultist is the level of devotion it sparks that makes time completely meaningless. (Also known as: wait, why is it suddenly past midnight?)
More seriously, Cultist Simulator is basically a deck building and resource management game. Your character's own health, reason, passion, and money are the primary resources (augmented later by your disciples, occult tools, and esoteric lore once you manage to find any of it). Oh, and you have to manage your fascination with the occult and your existential dread in order to stay sane... and you have to watch out for entirely mortal hunters who don't like sharing a city with someone dabbling in the forbidden arts (or the various supernatural creatures such a person summons) for some strange reason.
Despite the cards you accumulate being one of the primary mechanics, there's also some real-time strategy elements, because all the actions you do with those cards function on timers. Some of those timers will force you to use cards - you'll keep losing the funds you need to pay for food and shelter as time moves on, for example. Other timers simply dictate how long it takes for your actions to bear fruit, so if you don't watch out, you'll occasionally find yourself in need of a resource with no way to actually produce it in time. Most of those timers range from 30 to 90 seconds (there are a lot of minute timers), which is probably why the game burns time so fast. There's always something new coming up in just another twenty seconds or so; it adds up quickly.
The game does a great job of being very strange and mysterious; its lore really does evoke the feeling of hunting after unusual and unknowable things. Unfortunately, some of those unknowable things are basic aspects which in any typical game would simply be explained in a tutorial. While I appreciate there are thematic reasons not to do that in this game, it leads to a lot of false difficulty and confused fumbling while you try and figure out exactly what the game is expecting you to do next. I think it's still worth it, but I won't deny it's a bit frustrating.
Now if you'll excuse me, my cult's enemies grow ever more persistent. I need to get back to summoning some eldritch horrors to send after them.
More seriously, Cultist Simulator is basically a deck building and resource management game. Your character's own health, reason, passion, and money are the primary resources (augmented later by your disciples, occult tools, and esoteric lore once you manage to find any of it). Oh, and you have to manage your fascination with the occult and your existential dread in order to stay sane... and you have to watch out for entirely mortal hunters who don't like sharing a city with someone dabbling in the forbidden arts (or the various supernatural creatures such a person summons) for some strange reason.
Despite the cards you accumulate being one of the primary mechanics, there's also some real-time strategy elements, because all the actions you do with those cards function on timers. Some of those timers will force you to use cards - you'll keep losing the funds you need to pay for food and shelter as time moves on, for example. Other timers simply dictate how long it takes for your actions to bear fruit, so if you don't watch out, you'll occasionally find yourself in need of a resource with no way to actually produce it in time. Most of those timers range from 30 to 90 seconds (there are a lot of minute timers), which is probably why the game burns time so fast. There's always something new coming up in just another twenty seconds or so; it adds up quickly.
The game does a great job of being very strange and mysterious; its lore really does evoke the feeling of hunting after unusual and unknowable things. Unfortunately, some of those unknowable things are basic aspects which in any typical game would simply be explained in a tutorial. While I appreciate there are thematic reasons not to do that in this game, it leads to a lot of false difficulty and confused fumbling while you try and figure out exactly what the game is expecting you to do next. I think it's still worth it, but I won't deny it's a bit frustrating.
Now if you'll excuse me, my cult's enemies grow ever more persistent. I need to get back to summoning some eldritch horrors to send after them.
Wednesday, July 25, 2018
Game Review: Contagion VR
... Okay, it's not much of a review, since I have yet to play much more than the demo.
A large part of what attracted me to this was the good experience I had with the original Contagion. It's a great mix of exploration, stealth, and FPS action that creates a great horror game, yet also gives you the tools you need to survive - if you're very good, very lucky, or ideally both. I don't like the sort of horror game that relies on jump scares and hopelessly deadly monsters chasing you, but the sort of creeping dread that Contagion creates from not knowing when the next door you're going to open or the next shot you're going to fire is going to attract a lot of zombies or not is something I... well enjoy is probably not the right word either.
Based on the five to ten minute runs through the demo, I'd say the VR version is going to be just as good. The fact that the inventory management system is moving the objects to where holsters or pockets would reasonably be located is a great touch all by itself, and jumping back and forth in real life to kite away from the zombies and then go back in to hit them with a melee weapon is a lot more adrenaline-inducing than kiting zombies in the original Contagion was. So it's making great use of the possibilities VR provides.
It will probably fall victim to some of the motion sickness flaws I've seen people complaining about, unfortunately. I haven't played it for long enough to have that problem, but I have played one or two other games where the difference between what my eyes were telling me and what my inner ear was telling me started to make me feel a bit nauseous. Still, I don't think I'm going to want to play this one for long stretches of time anyway.
A large part of what attracted me to this was the good experience I had with the original Contagion. It's a great mix of exploration, stealth, and FPS action that creates a great horror game, yet also gives you the tools you need to survive - if you're very good, very lucky, or ideally both. I don't like the sort of horror game that relies on jump scares and hopelessly deadly monsters chasing you, but the sort of creeping dread that Contagion creates from not knowing when the next door you're going to open or the next shot you're going to fire is going to attract a lot of zombies or not is something I... well enjoy is probably not the right word either.
Based on the five to ten minute runs through the demo, I'd say the VR version is going to be just as good. The fact that the inventory management system is moving the objects to where holsters or pockets would reasonably be located is a great touch all by itself, and jumping back and forth in real life to kite away from the zombies and then go back in to hit them with a melee weapon is a lot more adrenaline-inducing than kiting zombies in the original Contagion was. So it's making great use of the possibilities VR provides.
It will probably fall victim to some of the motion sickness flaws I've seen people complaining about, unfortunately. I haven't played it for long enough to have that problem, but I have played one or two other games where the difference between what my eyes were telling me and what my inner ear was telling me started to make me feel a bit nauseous. Still, I don't think I'm going to want to play this one for long stretches of time anyway.
Thursday, July 5, 2018
Game review: Celeste
Celeste is an extremely challenging platformer about climbing a mountain.
How challenging? Well, clearing the main story took me about five and a half hours, and I racked up 1118 deaths in that time - just over three deaths per minute, in other words. This is definitely the sort of game that takes practice and learning its challenges the hard way, as well as a fair bit of patience (or perhaps stubbornness) to keep trying in the face of defeat.
One of the things that kept me going was the story... because to be honest, I don't think this game is really about climbing a mountain at all. The mountain is merely a convenient place for the heroine to face her inner demons, and the challenges her own head throws at her would apply equally well to any task she chose. Her struggle, and the way she and the other characters react to it, is portrayed incredibly well and will be quite familiar to anyone who has ever dealt with anxiety or depression. In the end, even the game's own difficulty and the feeling of overcoming a major challenge plays into the story's message; it is neither easy nor simple to see things improve, but it is still possible.
Honestly, I'm not sure I can recommend the game to anyone who isn't at least somewhat of a hardcore gamer, because the difficulty is just ridiculous (although there is an option for an assist mode, which I'm told is easier, but I don't know how much easier since I've never used it). That said, though, like every other game that I truly love, this one's story is well worth the trouble.
How challenging? Well, clearing the main story took me about five and a half hours, and I racked up 1118 deaths in that time - just over three deaths per minute, in other words. This is definitely the sort of game that takes practice and learning its challenges the hard way, as well as a fair bit of patience (or perhaps stubbornness) to keep trying in the face of defeat.
One of the things that kept me going was the story... because to be honest, I don't think this game is really about climbing a mountain at all. The mountain is merely a convenient place for the heroine to face her inner demons, and the challenges her own head throws at her would apply equally well to any task she chose. Her struggle, and the way she and the other characters react to it, is portrayed incredibly well and will be quite familiar to anyone who has ever dealt with anxiety or depression. In the end, even the game's own difficulty and the feeling of overcoming a major challenge plays into the story's message; it is neither easy nor simple to see things improve, but it is still possible.
Honestly, I'm not sure I can recommend the game to anyone who isn't at least somewhat of a hardcore gamer, because the difficulty is just ridiculous (although there is an option for an assist mode, which I'm told is easier, but I don't know how much easier since I've never used it). That said, though, like every other game that I truly love, this one's story is well worth the trouble.
Saturday, June 16, 2018
Game review: Budget Cuts
Because of course the right response to automation taking your coworkers' jobs is to sneak through your office and assassinate all the robots that have been taking their jobs with office supplies (e.g. scissors, letter openers) on your way to discuss the matter with the CEO.
... Wait, that's not the right answer? Well, that's what the main character has to do in Budget Cuts. All of your human coworkers keep getting summoned to meetings with HR, and they're not being seen again (at all, I mean, not just in the "they're fired and leave immediately" sense). Luckily, a mysterious friend has sent you a pager and uses it to send you codes you can use to receive messages and advice from her - between that and your prototype teleporter, it's time to see if you can escape whatever fate has befallen your coworkers.
It really is worth it. The enemy units in the game can only see your head, so there's real benefit to crawling around on the floor in order to hide behind cubicle walls or climb through narrow ducts. Even though the primary movement is teleporting, there's also benefits to walking around in your play area to peer around corners or get exactly the right angle on a teleport. These feel like exactly the sort of mechanics that a VR game should be taking advantage of, even if they can be a bit hard on my knees. The throwing mechanics (the only way to kill enemies) feel a bit frustrating to me - it's really hard to actually hit anything more than a few feet away, and quickly upgrades to impossible if the anything in question is actually moving - but it's also possible that I just suck at throwing things.
The story is certainly a bit silly, but still offers enough weird questions about the exact nature of what's going on to keep you engaged the whole way through. About my only concern there is that the game (like many other current VR offerings) is a bit short, and it ends with the dreaded "to be continued" - which was an irritatingly unexpected lack of a concrete end to the story.
... of course, it's not going to stop me from buying the continuation, when or if it comes out. Indeed, I look forward to seeing what else these people come up with.
... Wait, that's not the right answer? Well, that's what the main character has to do in Budget Cuts. All of your human coworkers keep getting summoned to meetings with HR, and they're not being seen again (at all, I mean, not just in the "they're fired and leave immediately" sense). Luckily, a mysterious friend has sent you a pager and uses it to send you codes you can use to receive messages and advice from her - between that and your prototype teleporter, it's time to see if you can escape whatever fate has befallen your coworkers.
It really is worth it. The enemy units in the game can only see your head, so there's real benefit to crawling around on the floor in order to hide behind cubicle walls or climb through narrow ducts. Even though the primary movement is teleporting, there's also benefits to walking around in your play area to peer around corners or get exactly the right angle on a teleport. These feel like exactly the sort of mechanics that a VR game should be taking advantage of, even if they can be a bit hard on my knees. The throwing mechanics (the only way to kill enemies) feel a bit frustrating to me - it's really hard to actually hit anything more than a few feet away, and quickly upgrades to impossible if the anything in question is actually moving - but it's also possible that I just suck at throwing things.
The story is certainly a bit silly, but still offers enough weird questions about the exact nature of what's going on to keep you engaged the whole way through. About my only concern there is that the game (like many other current VR offerings) is a bit short, and it ends with the dreaded "to be continued" - which was an irritatingly unexpected lack of a concrete end to the story.
... of course, it's not going to stop me from buying the continuation, when or if it comes out. Indeed, I look forward to seeing what else these people come up with.
Friday, May 25, 2018
Game review: SteamVR
Sorry I missed the last two days. In my defense, I've been a bit preoccupied with some of my other toys.
... such as my new VR headset.
About the only problematic part was the initial setup, and that only because I'm a bit short on power outlets and wall mounts. It's definitely not something one can pull out of the box, plug in, and be playing immediately - even without the problems I ran into, I don't see how I could have made the setup go any faster than about a half hour.
Everything else is quite unabashedly positive. The accuracy of the motion tracking for the controllers and the head tracking for the headset itself is very good; I was expecting that to be a bit less accurate, but as far as I can tell it's just about perfect. It's also surprisingly easy to forget that you're wearing the headset in the first place and really enjoy the feeling of immersion in whatever environment you've picked, even with the visible hash marks denoting the edge of the play area. (This does mean that I've so far smashed the controllers into the wall about three times. No serious damage to either controllers or wall yet, but I'm going to have to be careful going forward.)
Even without purchasing any games, there's a surprising amount of utility in the free SteamVR setup. There are a number of computer-generated environments, little games that just use basic movement and object manipulation, and real world environments brought into VR by taking hundreds of pictures of the area in question. The list of available places and free gaming options is only going to continue getting larger - and I'm looking forward to it quite a bit.
... such as my new VR headset.
About the only problematic part was the initial setup, and that only because I'm a bit short on power outlets and wall mounts. It's definitely not something one can pull out of the box, plug in, and be playing immediately - even without the problems I ran into, I don't see how I could have made the setup go any faster than about a half hour.
Everything else is quite unabashedly positive. The accuracy of the motion tracking for the controllers and the head tracking for the headset itself is very good; I was expecting that to be a bit less accurate, but as far as I can tell it's just about perfect. It's also surprisingly easy to forget that you're wearing the headset in the first place and really enjoy the feeling of immersion in whatever environment you've picked, even with the visible hash marks denoting the edge of the play area. (This does mean that I've so far smashed the controllers into the wall about three times. No serious damage to either controllers or wall yet, but I'm going to have to be careful going forward.)
Even without purchasing any games, there's a surprising amount of utility in the free SteamVR setup. There are a number of computer-generated environments, little games that just use basic movement and object manipulation, and real world environments brought into VR by taking hundreds of pictures of the area in question. The list of available places and free gaming options is only going to continue getting larger - and I'm looking forward to it quite a bit.
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