Braid (PC, XBox, PS3)

Introduction

Tim is an innocuous young man with the bizarre power to rewind time. He’s having some sort of problem with a Princess. It’s uncertain what their relationship was but Tim is pretty torn up about it. We join Tim on his journey to make amends for what he did as he traverses a series of worlds that allow us to use Tim’s powers in different ways.

Time and Forgiveness, that’s certainly what this game is all about— or is it!?

History

Braid was developed by Jonathan Blow. This was his first game and it was one of the first Indie Games. His intention was to create a puzzle game that was “bringing together the abstract parts of a complex puzzle, revealing deep moral and philosophical questions.” To that end Braid played with the knowledge of the subject and the nature of time. He wanted the time travelling mechanic to have an effect on the world as opposed to just altering the player.

Blow pushed a two dimensional plane and the very idea of simplicity to its limits trying to design puzzles for the game that were intuitive and would click in the mind of the player. Blow didn’t want anyone to look up a walkthrough playing through the game. He tried to link the ideas of certain puzzles into puzzles encountered later. This was meant to create a sort of “Ah Ha” moment for the player who would run back to the earlier level.

Fun Fact: Edmund McMillen of Team Meat fame worked on the art before Blow hired David Hellman to do it instead.

Braid was released on August 6th 2008. It’s competition was Too Human (XBox 360), Mercenaries 2: World in Flames (PS2, PS3, XBox 360, PC), and Stalker: Clear Sky (PC).

Experiences

I really liked Indie Game the Movie. Johnathan Blow makes an appearance talking about Braid as the indie game that has already been released. I really liked hearing about his game but there’s a scene where a  bunch of young guys laugh and having a grand old time just using the time power to go forward and back. It cuts back to Blow and he talks about how that’s not how he wanted his game to be played (I don’t remember the exact quote, correct me if I’m wrong). I don’t think it’s relevant how the developer wants their game to be played. A book or a film or any other form of media experiences something called the death of the author where the author’s desires shouldn’t impact the work once it’s past their hands. I wonder why he said that and I wonder a little about how he wants his games to be played.

Gameplay

The gameplay is deceptively simple. Tim can walk, jump, and rewind time. Unlike in most platformers Tim can’t actually die. Whenever Tim dies the player is prompted to rewind until he’s alive again. The world is typically made in such a way that enemies and obstacles create continuous patterns eternally so Tim can rewind to the beginning of the level or the beginning of the problem area and everything will unveil as it did before.

The enemies in the game act strangely like tools instead of actual obstacles most of the time. Jumping on an enemy springboards Tim into the air, increasing how high he can jump, allowing him to reach new places– and as previously stated there is no consequence for death.

Sometimes this bouncing mechanic is of critical importance.

There are six worlds, each world has 12 puzzle pieces that form an image in the hub world. Each world has a different thing in it that effects Tim’s powers. It really mixes up the gameplay and keeps things interesting. Each world has a couple of stages that act as a sort of checkpoint for Tim’s time travel powers– although time travelling back through the whole game could have been fun. And by fun I mean game ruining.

The Gush

The gimmicks for all of these worlds are really interesting and easy to understand but difficult to master. My personal favorite is the one in which going to the right makes time move forward and moving to the left makes time go back as well. It creates unique puzzles that require intense thinking about how much the character moves.

Although I find the bosses lacking I really enjoyed the silly, “But your princess is in another castle,” joke. Everyone who ever played Super Mario Brothers got a quick chuckle out of that one.

Which is apparently being delivered by some sort of plush dinosaur.

I really liked the finale of the game. It’s a little confusing but when it clicks it’s so compelling and I found it really interesting. I can only encourage players not to stop and play all the way to the end.

The art and music are contemplative and gorgeous. Music is really important in a puzzle game because it can distract the player or help us percolate an interesting idea. It’s also what we have when we fail to come up with an idea. And while we’re not coming up with any ideas we can just take a look at this beautiful art and wonderful backgrounds.

Why is a gorilla holding that cannon? Who can rightly say?

The Kvetch

The boss fights are really similar and I’m not exactly sure what they’re supposed to accomplish. Each one employs the mechanic of the world but most of the puzzles are more challenging than the frantic movement that the boss fight brings. It also loses impact because the boss can’t kill you, you just rewind to before you got and avoid the attack.

The plot is conveyed by books that project text in each of the worlds’ minihubs. I think there could have been a more interesting way to convey this but it probably would have been more complex and might have muddled some things. I think it’s meant to add to the ambiguity of the plot. Instead of seeing what happens we only have Tim’s account but it feels a little weak.

The Verdict

I found Braid to be a thoroughly enjoyable experience that didn’t pad out its play time. It knew what it wanted to do and executed it very well. If you’ve got the hankering for some puzzles with time based shenanigans then I definitely suggest giving Braid a try.

Next Week: One Piece Mansion

Farcry 3’s Vaas Montenegro is Actually Guiding the Protagonist

Now hear me out on this one. I know that he’s the henchman of the big bad and he kidnaps your friends and kills a shit ton of innocent people but he’s the reason that Jason saves the day.

I mean, he seems like a trustworthy advisor to me.

Lets start with the facts. He was born and raised on the Rook Islands as a part of the Rakyat Warrior tribe. His only relative that we know of his sister, their current leader. At some point he leaves the Rakyat to join Hoyt Volker, a criminal who had been harvesting the islands people in order to sell them as part of his human trafficking ring, enticed by the promise of money and drugs. He assembles his group of pirates from the disparate people of the islands and fashions them into a brutal fighting force that rapes, loots, and plunders across the villages of the islands.

Jason Brody and his friends go for a vacation on these islands, being rich and not having anything else to do. Vaas kidnaps them and ransoms them to their parents –and I quote, “You guys smell like money to me”–. Jason and his older brother Grant break out of their cage and Grant dies helping Jason escape. Jason rises to power by indulging the dark side of humanity– and doing a lot of drugs– and kills Vaas and liberates the Islands. But did Vaas want Jason to kill him? If Vaas wanted to take revenge on Hoyt and liberate the islands he might need Jason because he can’t, because he’s not sane enough to do it, or because he doesn’t think he can get close enough to Hoyt and isn’t strong enough to beat his personal army.

Is it just me or is that a lot of eye shadow?

Vaas has ample opportunity to kill Jason in their encounters together and the ways that Jason escapes these scenarios defy logic and stretch suspension of disbelief so hard that I came up with this theory. The only thing that makes sense to me is that Vaas doesn’t want to kill Jason, he wants him riled up.

The first interaction between Vaas and Jason Vaas has considerable advantage. Vaas has looked through every bit of information he could scour from Jason and his friends’ phones. He knows their relations and he might know deep personal things about them. One of the first thing he says is that Jason and Grant are his bitch. As anyone who’s seen too much media about prisons we all know that the all know that the only way to stop being someone’s bitch is to commit acts of violence against the master and his friends. Vaas knows that Grant is ex-military and leaves them alone with one guard. Grant is able to break Jason free with his military skills.

We next meet Vaas while he’s executing prisoners by shooting them in the head, I only mention this because it will come into play later. Before Grant and Jason can escape Vaas shoots Grant. Now, Jason is the middle brother between Grant and Riley. This killing gives Jason the perfect opportunity to rise to violence. The oldest brother is responsible for protecting and keeping his younger siblings safe if they can’t help themselves, we see Grant do this with Jason. And so Jason will want to do it as the oldest brother. His previous status as the middle brother means that he’s not the baby, and doesn’t have everything given to him. As the middle brother he lacks direction. He is an empty vessel waiting to be filled. Vaas talks a lot about his sister so he might know a thing or two about familiar dynamics and even if he didn’t then killing Grant gives Jason more than enough reason to have vendetta against him.

After this Vaas tells Jason he’ll give him a ten second head start and then waits for him to start running before he counts. And I quote, “Run Forrest run. Run you chicken fuck.” Jason runs through the jungle and escapes the countless pirates and a fucking helicopter. I don’t know what sort of world this is but the only reason Jason gets away is because Vaas probably told his men that “The jungle will kill him,” or other such nonsense. Vaas knows this to be untrue. The river that Jason has fallen into is upstream from a Rakyat supporter named Dennis. Dennis, who is on the lookout for something or someone to turn the tide against the pirates. Dennis who is kind to a fault. It might be a little chancy, but he loses nothing by Jason’s death and has everything to gain by Jason’s life.

One small strange thing is that one of Jason’s friend’s Daisy “escapes” to a man who will protect her. A man who’s dead daughter looks suspiciously like Daisy. I doubt that Daisy would be able to escape a convoy of pirates, especially considering that she gets incredibly sick by brushing up against poisonous plants. The sheer fortune of her escape near a doctor’s house who looks very much alike to his dead daughter seems like too many coincidences to me. It seems more like a bread trail, a small success to goad Jason on.

Jason goes off looking for his friends and gets knocked out by the pirates. This would be an opportune moment to kill him, as we know that Vaas executes his enemies, but Vaas doesn’t. Jason wakes up in a room, he, his girlfriend, and one of this other friends are tied to chairs and Vaas is pirouetting around pouring gasoline around. Vaas monologues about the nature of family while he tries to get a lighter to light. It won’t. Vaas talks about his sister, the leader of the resistance. The last person he should want Jason to meet. He puts it into Jason’s chest pocket, takes the friend out, and produces a book of matches. He lights the matches and the building goes up. When Jason and Liza escape there is one guard taking a piss by a jeep. Why would Vaas leave one guy to defend the biggest pain in his ass?

There’s even a dude with a gun in the room. As if to say that he doesn’t want that to happen.

 

Jason meets Vaas’ sister and they start working together to liberate the islands. She eventually tasks him with hunting down some captured soldiers. They’re not being escorted by pirates, they’re actually being escorted by Hoyt’s personal guard. When Jason reaches the APC Vaas jumps out and punches him in the face, knocking him out. Vaas has impressed on Hoyt how he, “Doesn’t give a fuck about Jason Brody,” but if Hoyt wanted him to lay a trap then it would benefit Vaas that Jason learn about this military organization.

When Jason wakes he’s bound and tied to a concrete block. Vaas monologues about the definition of insanity in one of the most compelling speeches I’ve heard in a game. When he’s done he kicks the block into an underground lake. Jason falls and escapes his bonds because he’s the protagonist– or because Vaas tied them poorly. Jason escapes the lake to a waterfall right next to Vaas’ camp. What are the odds?

Welcome to the pit.

Jason tries to escape by holding up a helicopter but it crashes. Who walks out of the jungle but Vaas himself. Vaas walks up to a delirous Jason and draws his pistol. He pushes it into Jason’s chest, breaking with his tradition of execution style killings, and fires. Jason doesn’t die though, the lighter VAAS PUT THERE stops the bullet. I know Vaas is a crazy meth addict but this is absurd. Jason awakes in a mass grave– someplace he’ll be unnoticed– and climbs out. He’s conveniently right next to the camp where his equipment is kept.

The lighter is the last straw. The last thing that stretched the established plots’ sensibility before it snapped. No one is that lucky. No one is that incompetent. Vaas has whipped Jason into a frenzied warrior who will kill anyone who gets in his way. Vaas has led him to the Rakyat and against Hoyt, the man responsible for his madness. If Vaas wanted to be a pirate he failed in Jason Brody. If he wanted to kill Hoyt then Jason is his magnum opus.

Either that or Ubisoft has some of the worst, most cliched writers in history.

Borderlands (PC, Playstation 3, XBox 360)

Introduction

In a galaxy of planet purchasing corporations– that are embroiled in a brutal debate as to which of them is actually bigger than God– four childhood friends join to fulfill their dream to find the greatest treasure in history. This treasure is rumored to be kept in The Vault on the lawless planet of Pandora– I mean look at that guy up there, if he’s the average citizen this might not be a great place. These Vault Hunters will weather through Bandits, the wildlife, and annoying robots to reach the fabled Vault with all its immense riches– that is… if treasure is what lies within.

Picture here is the main cast, from left to right, Roland the Soldier, Lilith the Siren, Mordecai the Hunter, and Brick.

History

Borderlands was designed to run on a modified version of the Unreal Engine 3. At the time of release the engine would be five years old. The developers made up for this simple engine with a cel shaded and cartoonish world design that would be memorable and visually appealing. The old design was meant to be much more realistic. After this realistic design was scrapped the Art Director felt so offended that she walked out on the project.

Rumors abound that the deadline for the game got pushed forward surprisingly in the final stretches of the game. Speculation abounds that this is what caused the ending of the main game to be so lackluster.

Borderlands was released for PC on October 26 2009– what is it with 2009 popping up a lot lately? It’s competition included League of Legends: Clash of Fate (PC), Bayonetta (PS3, XBox 360), and Saw: The Video Game (PS3, Xbox 360)

Nostalgia

When this game came out it was super exploitable. The computer club that I frequented bought one copy and simply removed the disk after they started up the game. This way everyone there was able to play at the same time together and we didn’t have to buy four copies of it on our limited budget. We came into a snag though because although we made character profiles there was no cloud support. Every time we wanted to play we had to use the same computers if we wanted to play our level appropriate characters. It lead us to keep switching computers and starting new characters. We eventually got to the end but we played through the opening section so many times we had strategies specifically for getting through it as quickly as possible. We would position people at quest markers the game hadn’t given us yet, ready to go to other areas as they unlocked.

Gameplay

This game is described as a loot based shooter. The player assists the people of Pandora and they’re given more powerful weapons, shields, and grenades in return– oh yeah, and cash which is kind of useless.

Each of the different characters has an action skills and abilities that they can spend skill points on. It’s really easy and cheap to redistribute a characters skill points. Certain items offer the character passive abilities or bonus points to different skills. These abilities are usually pretty similar but the action skills couldn’t be more different. From siccing large birds on enemies to pummeling them with your fists in a berzerk rage, these skills will heavily influence the way you play.

The game was touted as having a Bazillion Guns and they weren’t kidding around. From machine pistols to rocket launchers this game has weapons large and small for intrepid Vault Hunters and Bandits alike. Each weapon can have different parts on it that change its appearance and stats. One assault rifle might reload really quick or have interesting elemental power which really mixes things up.

Very rare weapons also have special enchantments that appear in red text with no clear explanation to their effect– trust in their awesomeness.

The Gush

I was listening to the soundtrack when I was writing this and I found it to be remarkably good. I hadn’t really been paying attention to it when I was playing– too busy shooting people and trying not to get dead and all that– but now that I focus on it I really like it a lot. It’s got this sort of western movie, mysterious, alien, and Diabloesque nature to it that I really dig. Ain’t No Rest For the Wicked was a perfect choice for the title theme as well. Showing off the mercenary nature of Pandora.

Even though cash is a largely useless resource– there’s not usually a gun available for purchase that’s better than what you have– it’s still fun in it’s own way to imagine this character’s fortune growing to an immense size.

The writing in this game is decently comedic. It seems to cover up for the games lack of compelling narrative and I think it does that pretty well. Some of the jokes fell flat but the later DLC campaigns got more funny as they went on.

The creature design for this game is really cool. The character design is pretty good too. I’ll never forget Helena Pierces wicked scarred face or Ned’s absurd mustache poking out over his surgical mask.

I dunno what that thing is but I think it’s coming this way and I’m not entirely comfortable with that.

The DLC in this game made up for the lame ending in my opinion. The delectable camp of the Zombie Island of Dr. Ned, the real closure brought by General Knox’s Armory, and the sheer ridiculous fun of the Robolution were all a great time to be had by all.

The Kvetch

The bandit design is originally reminiscent of Mad Max or some similar post-apocalyptic setting and I thought it was really interesting. As the game went on and it was more of the same masked individuals I became very bored with it.

Killer bird things ripping out the eyes of masked thugs! This should be awesome but it’s sort of worn after the 50th time.

It’s something so small but it was a point of contention among me and my friends for the longest time. An abilities has ranks from 0-5. Class modification items can boost skills in rank. Does that mean they still cap out at 5 or can they be pushed beyond that limit? The answer is that they can be pushed above fifth rank but the game doesn’t inform the player as to the new statistical advantages.

This all being said, the skill menu looks quite nice. It just would have been great if there was an inclusive tooltip or something.

The planet of Pandora has all sorts of strange animals living on it and they’re all pretty cool. The Vault was reportedly built by a race of aliens known as the Eridians. That’s pretty cool, how the aliens left it behind. It would be quite the mystery if it wasn’t for the fact that actual living Eridians show up, especially during the finale. They have no desire to communicate with the player and serve only to create loose ends.

The ending of this game is a real let-down. After hours of mounting tension it’s revealed that The Vault was a hoax, which could have been cool in itself but it’s actually some sort of prison for a monster. Instead it was exacerbated by the existence of the Eridians. It makes sense why they wouldn’t want you to open it but then why would they have made a key to open it in the first place? I just… don’t understand.

The Verdict

This game is most enjoyed with friends but it’s ultimately disappointing. The DLC helps alleviate the shoddy ending but I’ll never forget the time I was promised mystery and subsequent closure and was given a Space Vagina Kraken in return.

“Hey guys! Itsa me!”

Next Week: Braid

Zoe’s MMO Corner: The Secret World

The Secret World is a one-time payment plus payment for additional content (with subscription option) modern fantasy/horror/supernatural/mythology-and-urban-legend based RPG–clearly there’s a lot going on here but it all makes sense mostly–where you do NOT play the chosen one.

History and Development

Funcom, also responsible for Age of Conan which is apparently hugely popular, developed The Secret World.  The idea came about sometime in 2002 and went through a million changes; apparently it was originally set in the 1920’s which actually would have been super cool and I’m sort of upset it’s not now that I know that, but I’ll get over it.  The goal was to make a game without classes or levels, with massive amounts of freedom for character and play style, and a great smorgasbord of mythologies, ideologies, monsters, locations both real and imaginary, and cute mission notes from NPCs.

The Secret World was “announced” to the public in 2007 when they released a poem–a goddamn poem, wait, though, it gets better–in like five languages that when solved led to an internet treasure hunt ending eventually in the official forum, because in The Secret World, nothing can be simple, or in English.  From there they liked to leak all this weird shit over the next few years that made you look at things and go “What the fuck are they playing at in there?”

I first saw a trailer for The Secret World in 2009 in my friend’s dorm room and we watched it six times in a row.  It was incredible and for those of you unfamiliar with it, I really recommend seeing it because it was mind-blowingly cool looking.  It had no fighting, really, no story, no chiseled white dudes with guns blasting away at aliens.  All it had was one tattooed skinny Chinese girl making a milkshake, but it was probably the most atmospheric thing I’d seen or have seen in years.

And then shit got real

I was immediately in love.

I had to wait three years or so, of course.  The Secret World was released in June of 2012.  At first it was pay-to-play but within a year it had ditched the subscription fee and ran instead on a system where you could get the free game for an A experience and pay for any expansions that came out, or you could subscribe for an A+ experience and get points every month to pay for the expansions, plus some other cool stuff including the super important experience boost milkshake.  I’ve played TSW with and without subscription and they’re both fine.  There’s no difference in game play or anything and which I do like to support them when I can, when I’m in my periods of unemployed writer-dom and I can’t afford the $15 a month, it’s just fine to go without.  You can go on and off whenever you’d like and the points stay with you after you unsubscribe.  It’s all very fair.

Character Creation

There has been one major complaint that the masses have put in about character creation in this world; people aren’t pretty enough.  Sorry, boys and girls and non-binary individuals, but this complaint is a bullshit complaint.  Sure, like, I’m not going to deny that people can look kind of odd, but it’s human odd, not like, the graphics are fucked up odd.  They have options for multiple races and ethnicities–like, programmed in, not “lets futz with character sliders until they look not-white,” a lot of fun hair, and NON-SEXUALIZED CLOTHING.  Player Characters in TSW look like normal people and dress (mostly) like them, so there’s no “oh no, this armor has better stats but makes me look like a fifteen-year-old’s wet dream.”  You just put on a fucking turtle neck and go to Romania.

There are, of course, some…other opinions on clothing…

(I was going to include my friend’s character here, who wears a purple Hawaiian shirt, a kilt, and flip flops, but it didn’t work out and also it’s nearly too painful to live)

Because there are no classes, the only thing you chose about your character other than physical appearance is your faction, what secret society you belong to.  You choices: Templars, not as douchey or holier-than-thou as they’re cracked up to be, but pretty douchey; Illuminati, the original frat but with more guns and murder and spike heels; and Dragon, hanging out in the corner flapping butterflies at each other in an attempt to creature storms on the other side of the world.  All three are super cool in their own ways.  Some people have preferences.  I do not.  They are all great.

Story

The Secret World comes with three areas, each with a major story.  Additional content, which comes in “issues” introduces new missions, new areas, new parts of the story, and new crazy fucking shit.  There are currently ten issues in addition to the original game.

I have no idea what this game is about.

Look, this is my favorite MMO of ever (whoops, spoilers) and I honestly have no idea what’s going on the vast majority of the time.  The Secret World does not like to give you information.  It likes to string you along with riddles and confusion and absolute pants-wetting terror until you just give up trying to understand the master plan and just let yourself be swept away in the atmosphere of it.  Trying to comprehend the story or apply normal black-and-white good-vs.-evil game logic to this is impossible.  Even Bioware’s games, famous for making you make moral decisions, still have SOME big evil that has to be dealt with.  The Secret World does not.

Here’s an example: The first area is an island in Maine being slowly overrun by zombies from the ocean due to Lovecraftian influence and something called “the fog”.  The lore of the island include Elder Gods, Vikings, a Native American tribe, Illuminati secrets and puzzles under the town, a haunted amusement park, the power of the earth, and the fucking sword Excalibur.  So yeah, you tell me what’s going on there.  Because I don’t even know.

Gameplay

Okay, see, I promised once that I wouldn’t make these things all really positive even if it’s a game like The Secret World that I love, and here’s where that’s going to come in. There are some gameplay problems.  I’ll get into that in a bit, but first here’s the basics:

Since there are no classes, TSW works entirely on skills.  You get to chose two main weapons from nine choices, three each of melee (hammers, swords, and fists), ranged (pistols, rifle, and shotgun) and magic (blood, elemental, and chaos).  Then you get eight active skills and eight passive skills based on those two weapons.  At any point, you can change around what weapons and skills and items–which give you health, DPS damage, magic damage, basically any stat you can think of, that’s from items–you have equip and become a totally new person.  A healer can decide to be a glass cannon or a tank or a ranged DPS on a whim if they’ve bought the skills to do it.

The ability wheel: know it, love it, be confused by it.

In order to facilitate this and make it less complicated to get the hang of, you also have decks, which are groups of skills that do certain things–an unofficial class, if you will–that the developers put in.  You don’t have to stick to a deck either but it’s a nice starting point.  Also a lot of them give you cool hats and shit as a reward for completing them.  The Secret World: Do Stuff and We’ll Give You Hats.

Then later you can get a third weapon, an auxiliary, which you get one active and one passive skill for which can be fun for an extra boost.  And then there’s some new stuff about augments on your skills to further tailor them, plus this new thing in combat about breaking barriers on enemies…it’s kind of crazy and a lot to manage and that’s one of my complaints, that the level of skill customization can get really, really overwhelming at times.  It’s easy to get bogged down in all the different skill stuff and lose sight of the game itself.

Also, the game itself is actually really, really difficult sometimes so frustration levels can skyrocket if you’re not careful.  Just a word of advice, take it easy and slow, don’t expect too much from yourself early on, and do not, and I repeat DO NOT do the mission “The Eye of Horus” more than once because it’s the most painful thing ever and I hated doing it the first time.

Speaking of missions (did you like that segue?) quests are repeatable!  This is super cool because you don’t need to level grind. Instead, you quest grind.  They reset every so many hours (usually 24) but they really dole out the experience later on which can be quite nice to just see your XP rocketing upwards in bursts rather than slowly dragging itself towards the next Skill Point.

The Good

The atmosphere.  The best part of this game is how hard they work to make everything seem both real and terrifying, funny and sarcastic and yet so completely fucked up that you’re not sure if you’re supposed to be laughing or screaming. Both.  The answer is both.

I don’t scare easy because I usually see the literary tricks behind suspense stories (sorry, guys, this is what a degree in English can do for you) but this shit is terrifying.  There’s an issue called “The Vanishing of Tyler Freeborn” which I played with my friend and it was basically two people screaming at their computers for two hours as we went through it.  There’s one mission with creepy singing children and a number that involves charismatic but definitely evil voices offering you great power.  There’s a sixteen-year-old girl who explodes every once in a while, a family trapped in the statues of Egyptian gods, and a horrifying parasite that eventually starts talking to you.

Oh yeah, AND VAGINA WITCHES.

Would you like to see one of those coming towards you tentacles first on a dark night?  It’s awful. 

Oh, and there’s no fall damage so that’s super fucking awesome, not gonna lie.

The Bad

The customization is a pro and a con.  It’s cool in theory, decent in execution, but really hard to totally comprehend in reality.  There are just so many different abilities and it’s tricky to figure out how they’re going to interact together.  Some people do a ton of research in order to figure out what they should build but I am not a research person so I work on trial and error, mostly.  It’s not a bad way to go, but it can leave you feeling like you missed something important.

The Ugly

THE INVENORY.  I know it’s a weird thing to freak out about, but god is it tragically terrible.  There’s no rhyme or reason to it, it works on icons and the crafting system is also sort of shit so you get all this material and it’s hard to figure out what to do with it.  I mostly sell it and buy pre-made shit because I refuse to deal with the crafting, but regardless, the inventory can be real pain in the ass.

From here…?

Get it.  It’s often cheap, often on sale, always on Steam if that’s your poison. If you hate it, you hate it, and I’m sorry – I’m aware this isn’t a game for everyone, I know a lot of people who can’t stand it because, I don’t know, they don’t tell you anything which I guess could be frustrating if you’re looking for a simpler, non-think-y gaming experience – but you should give it a try.  If you’re interested in history, languages, puzzles, mythology, urban legend, sarcastic writing, great graphics, cool monster design or being constantly afraid for your life, buy this game.  You don’t even need to subscribe.

Next Month: Wildstar!  A game I want to love but am still unsure about!  The pain of expectation and the confusion of it not actually being Firefly!

Machinarium (PC, Playstation Vita, PS3, IPad, and Android)

Introduction

The game opens with a city in the background that looks like the Emerald Palace was made of junk. A flying machine drops its payload of refuse into a pile unceremoniously. One of these “scrap” pieces is our eager hero. He’s a little worse for wear but he’s got a mission to do and that means getting back into the city — which won’t be easy, I guess he left his ID in his other pants’ pocket. Walk, adjust your height, and solve puzzles to find out why our little robot friend got dumped from his home and why he needs to get back in.

History

Machinarium was created by Amanita Design which is a group of seven Czechs who like to make point and click adventures. The game was originally released on PC but Amanita wanted to expand to other platforms. Machinarium was set to be released on Microsoft’s XBox Live arcade but after some sort of debacle Amanita decided to ditch Microsoft and turn to Sony instead.

Machinarium is one of the most pirated games in history. Amanita sent out a survey asking how many people had purchased the game. The data they got back suggested that only 15% of people who had played it actually purchased the game. At this point Amanita kindly asked pirates to pay for the game and incentivized it by lowering the price to $5 but it wasn’t very successful. What really bothers me is that Amanita design has three free similar games on their website but some people weren’t willing to dish out pocket change for one.

Machinarium was released on October 16th 2009. It’s competition was Borderlands (PS3, XBox 360), Brutal Legend (PS3, XBox 360), and Eufloria (PC).

Nostalgia

The first time I saw this game was as a Demo that a friend was playing. I saw it’s Oddworldesque design and was enchanted. I wanted to know what this world of machines was, how it worked, and how it came to be. I also wanted to know the story of the little robot he was controlling. Whether he was actually remotely controlling it or was just a player to its character ie. was there a human controlling the robot in the context of the game? I wouldn’t end up playing it until 2011 but it was always there in the back of my head. I would ask people what they remembered about that point and click adventure game with the robot but no one could remember what I was talking about.

And then I got to see the scrap city for what it was… kinda run down but brimming with character.

Gameplay

The game is a point and click adventure that focuses on puzzle solving. So you’ll be picking things up and rubbing them on other things to try to get something to work to open a door or something. Our little robot friend here has a hollow torso so he’s always got room to put things in himself– although I’m now confused to how he’s supposed to function.

BTW, there are dolls of this guy available for purchase and they’re also hollow.

If you get a little lost you can ask the robot for a vague idea of what he’s trying to do. These hints, as well as the rest of the “dialogue” in the game, are expressed through animated thought bubbles– or thought bubbles of animation. If the puzzle is a really stumping you then you can look up a walkthrough or use the walkthrough that’s in the game. There’s a notebook in the upper right hand corner that has drawings of solutions to every puzzle in the game. If that sounds cheap then I should mention the Galaga-esqu lock that holds the notebook shut.

Our little robot does have one useful ability, he can alter his height. He can stretch his torso of holding to grow short or tall. That being said, he can’t walk as fast as his normal height when he’s tall or short. Sometimes speed is an important factor and if that’s the case then you’re gonna want this guy to be in the best running shape by returning his torso shape to normal.

It’s a really useful ability… it’s also fucking adorable.

The Gush

The art design of this game is fucking beautiful. The city feels alive with colorful robots living out their robot existences. It’s cute and interesting to try and figure out how this robot city differs and is similar to our own.

I don’t know what’s in that tower but I wanna live in it.

The music is marvelously atmospheric. Each area has its own music that creates an ambiance that fades into the background when you’re solving a puzzle and then comes forward again when it’s time to travel. Well, the music for the most intense puzzle is much more in-your-face but I thought it was appropriate for the situation.

Even the most fiendish puzzle in this game can be brute forced. If you don’t know the answer and are too proud to look it up then you can just try to do everything possible until it works. That being said the puzzles are pretty easy to get the idea of, they’re sometimes just difficult to execute.

All the dialogue is communicated through the pencil animations in voice bubbles. There isn’t a single word of spoken dialogue and I think that’s super cool. It conveys the plot so well, I never felt like I was lost.

The Kvetch

Sometimes it’s unclear what the robot is capable of. Sometimes he can jump higher or farther than I thought he would be able to. Sometimes he could pick something up or move something that I didn’t think he was strong enough to move. Those are just sort of pitfalls that go along with a game about robots, I guess.

Every puzzle game has “That Fucking Puzzle” and Machinarium is no exception. I guarantee that one of the puzzles in this game will be “That Fucking Puzzle” for you. Mine looks something like this.

the goal is to shut off water to the first, third, fourth, and last valves as marked at the top. You accomplish this by fastening three wrenches to the pipes at the plus looking parts. It’s harder than it looks.

The Verdict

I think this game is awesome. I’ve had nothing but a good time with it. You can get it at Amanita Design’s website, http://amanita-design.net/ or by checking it out on Steam. I found it to be super fun and really interesting. It’s got solid art, music, puzzles, and story. It’s all good here.

Next Week: Borderlands

All of Our Friends Are Dead (PC)

 

Introduction

I’m not even gonna pretend like I know what’s going on in this game. You play as some sort of soldier in a post-apocalyptic world. I don’t even know if the character is human or not– I do know that by the head banging he does he must be listening to some bitchin’ tunes. Run, Jump, Shoot, Explore and try to figure out what the hell is going on in this shooter platformer.

What’s that? A group of nuns bleeding form their faces while looking down? That’s just what I needed.

History

All of Our Friends Are Dead was developed by Benjamin Braden under the pseudonym Amon 26. Braden suffers from chronic nightmares and uses the things that he sees to create the frightening imagery in the game. The game is just that, an opportunity for him to shoot and kill these nightmarish creatures.

Fun Fact: He’s been doing the music for Anna Anthropy after she “took him under her wing”.

All of Our Friends Are Dead was released on March 24, 2009. It was super Indie, released for pay what you want, and was comparatively unknown BUT it’s competition was Freaky Creatures (PC), The Last Remnant (PC), and Wallace and Gromit’s Grand Adventures (PC).

Nostalgia

Whenever I get into a spooky mood and have someone around who’s also down for the spook who likes spectating games I pull out this one. It’s short, bitter, and is filled with all sorts of bizarre images and sounds. It’s a compact package. A bullet of insanity that strikes at my heart. I remember playing it at my cousin’s and keeping us both rapt until the wee hours of the morning marveling at the strange sights.

A giant betentacled fetus isn’t normal, but in your nightmares it is.

Gameplay

The gameplay is really simple in this game. You can run and shoot. Anything that moves and looks like Cthulhu would call it kin is probably an enemy.

The platforming is pretty solid and comfortably smooth. There are jump pads that allow the player to jump and reach areas that would normally be inaccessible.

You die in one hit but the game has a quick save and quick load function using the F5 and F6 keys. They’re a little out of the way but I think that prevents players from spamming them.

It’s not game that’s about its controls, mechanics, or story. It’s a little mysterious but it’s really about taking in the spectacle. It also might come as a bit of a challenge, the enemies don’t make this one easy on you.

Gush

The player death sprite is satisfyingly gory. Also, that… thing is terrifying.

The backgrounds for this game are minimalist but very satisfying. White dots falling turn to a rain of ash and red static becomes bizarre chaos through the lens of imagination.

Sometimes there are signs or just floating text.

The sound design for this game is shockingly impressive. There isn’t really any music but there is atmospheric noise that fills my heart with dread and confusion.

This… just… all of this. The sheer strangeness of the sentence structure here is wonderful.

I love the poem that ends this game. It’s nearly nihilistic nonsense but it’s rhyme and cadence are wonderful nevertheless.

The Kvetch

If I had one complaint its that the game isn’t very long. I beat it in an hour and I explored all the nooks and died a lot. But for the low cost of a dollar or free it’s impossible to complain.

The Verdict

In the dead of night, in the right mindset this game can deliver some serious scares in a short amount of time. But as it stands, the game is very simple and serves as a stepping stone toward Au-Sable (It’s spiritual sequel) and the talent of its creator.

Next Thursday: Machinarium

Audiosurf (PC)

Introduction

A jet bike flying through three lanes of traffic, hitting colored blocks and dodging the boring grey blocks. I don’t know why this jet bike needs to get to a space portal at the end, how the blocks help it, or why the world has all these trippy shapes in the background– who cares? It’s fun.

Look at the colors maaaan.

History

The game was basically made by one guy, Dylan Fitterer. He was a big fan of the game REZ (A game I should review sometime) and a music visualizer. He wondered what else could be done with music in three dimensional space.

Audiosurf was released on August 15th, 2008. It’s competition was Stalker: Clear Sky (PC), Too Human (XBox 360), and Ratchet and Clank: Quest for Booty (PS3).

Nostalgia

I found a weird glitch when I was playing this with a friend. When a Steam friend is playing the same song that you’re playing it’ll show where they are in the song. We saw the display for the song and that someone was already playing it, it was us. We were apparently already playing the song which didn’t make sense. We tried to make our selections quickly to try and “catch up” with ourselves but we never did.

Medals give you a general indication of how well you’ve been doing, but it’s all about he fun.

Gameplay

There are a bunch of different game modes but they all boil down to the same thing. Your bike will go down the road and you need to pick up colored blocks and avoid the grey blocks. After a little bit the colored blocks that are connected will disperse and you’ll get points, the more blocks you connect the more points you get. The colors shift with the intensity of the music. There are general increases in difficulty but it doesn’t really matter, just have fun.

Songs have very active leader boards. It seems like people get dropped of the leader boards for a little while but it’s good to be king for a day. On the flip side, that guy who’s been at #1 forever might not be forever. It feels really rewarding to get in the top 10.

There are also a series of bonuses that will increase your score if you perform certain tasks.

The game can be controlled with either the keys or the mouse. The mouse control but the keys are more precise. I’ve been in a lane when I thought I wasn’t because I was half way into it. Using the keys moves you to the center of the chosen lane so there’s no ambiguity but it’s hard to hit the keys as fast as you can flick the mouse.

The Gush

I really like how the complexity of the map isn’t based on the intensity of the music but the complexity of the music. A guitar solo doesn’t make the field intense but a 12 piece orchestra or static makes the game go berzerk.

The rings represent moments of intensity.

I love the capacity for this game to help people have fun sharing music. Sharing music is already cool but it feels so passive, this game eliminates this passivity and turns it into a crazy time.

It’s really interesting to see that other people have been listening to the crazy stuff you have. I’ve found active rankings for crazy songs that I thought no one else had heard of.

I don’t know what causes it but sometimes the track does loopety-loops and it’s the most awesome thing.

The game works on a variety of older machines. My compaq from 1999 was able to play it at the lowest settings.

Sharing music has never been more fun than playing Double-Vision mode.

The Kvetch

Some of the game modes are a level of crazy that I can’t even begin to comprehend. Apparently Pointman and Pusher allow huge scores but I have NO idea how they work. Maybe you’ll like them.

The Verdict

I highly recommend this game as one that utilizes your music. The only other game that comes as close to the coolness of Audiosurf’s use of music would be Vib Ribbon. It’s silly fun and a great way to do something else while you listen to your music.

Because I missed posting last week there will be another post on Monday. This Monday I review All of Our Friends are Dead.