Monday, November 25, 2013
update
I'm going dark until December 3rd. I have to straighten out some personal stuff. That gives me 28 days to get through 51 games. I think I can pull that off. Stay tuned.
Saturday, November 23, 2013
Vinnie's Little Virus
Remember before when I said that a review could potentially boil down to 2 sentences? Well, get ready for the most underwhelming review of all time, because I genuinely have nothing to say about this one.
It's a shoot-em-up wherein you play as a virus with the goal to infect humanity. It's got ASCII graphics, which are charming even during the atrociously ugly cutscenes that make the ones in Crazy Cross look like they had a million dollar budget...and the ones in Crazy Cross were pretty damn bad.
So the central mechanics are simple enough. shoot enemies, collect powerups. Left and right clicks respectively. Is it fun? Well kinda, in the Minesweeper way in that it staves off boredom, but it's certainly not engaging or entertaining or any of the other "e" words a game should strive to be.
I think the devs new they had just made a thing to alt+tab into while you're watching cat videos on Youtube or something, which is why they added the option to automatically beat a level by pressing "m," which I found out before I even learned how to shoot.
So yeah. It's a tiny file with a charming look, so if you get tired of Mahjong Titans and want something a bit more "gamey," then pick this one up.
That's all I got for now. Until next time, stay viral
Links
achoo: https://www.digipen.edu/?id=1170&proj=477
It's a shoot-em-up wherein you play as a virus with the goal to infect humanity. It's got ASCII graphics, which are charming even during the atrociously ugly cutscenes that make the ones in Crazy Cross look like they had a million dollar budget...and the ones in Crazy Cross were pretty damn bad.
So the central mechanics are simple enough. shoot enemies, collect powerups. Left and right clicks respectively. Is it fun? Well kinda, in the Minesweeper way in that it staves off boredom, but it's certainly not engaging or entertaining or any of the other "e" words a game should strive to be.
I think the devs new they had just made a thing to alt+tab into while you're watching cat videos on Youtube or something, which is why they added the option to automatically beat a level by pressing "m," which I found out before I even learned how to shoot.
So yeah. It's a tiny file with a charming look, so if you get tired of Mahjong Titans and want something a bit more "gamey," then pick this one up.
That's all I got for now. Until next time, stay viral
Links
achoo: https://www.digipen.edu/?id=1170&proj=477
bro level
I know I've said this a lot, but I've got a lot of stuff going on in my life right now. This time it's not just schoolwork, although there's plenty of that. Suffice it to say my life is keeping me from writing. I'll do whatever I can to meet the deadline, but the way things are going now...
Don't say I didn't warn you. Again, I'll try my absolute best, but sometimes that's just not enough. Sorry.
As for what's happening in the short term, I don't know. Stay tuned but don't hold your breath.
Don't say I didn't warn you. Again, I'll try my absolute best, but sometimes that's just not enough. Sorry.
As for what's happening in the short term, I don't know. Stay tuned but don't hold your breath.
Thursday, November 21, 2013
VeNix
...I'm so tired.
Since I only have like two things to say about VeNix, I'm going to waste some space up here with an analogy. Imagine you're baking a cake for a party. You really want to impress the people at this party, so you spend hours making the batter as sweet, succulent and decadent as you possibly can. After what seems like an eternity of toiling over a mixer and waiting for the damn thing to bake, you finally come up with an absolutely heavenly cake. Then, your friends come through the door, take one look at your cake and say, "where's the frosting?" That's VeNix in a nutshell.
VeNix is a vehicular homicide simulator kind of like Twisted Metal but a lot slower. You can choose between 4 different cars, each being different enough from each other to keep gameplay interesting. All things considered, the gameplay is fine. Nothing to complain about except for minor things. For example, one of the levels has way too many obstacles strewn about it that the camera always manages to get stuck behind.
The two things I had a problem with are the narrative and the sound design. First, I'll talk about the latter because my criticism of it is short: there is none. By now, most gamers and film-goers are mature enough to realize that you don't always need background music, but silence should probably be avoided unless it's driving a point. Let's use my latest obsessoin, Dark Souls, as an example. There are only a few tracks of bgm in that entire game, but when they're not playing, the game is still full of ambient effects and hit sounds. VeNix leaves you with an empty feeling. You want your ears to be occupied by something other than the annoying sound of the gray alien's special attack that he just spams over and over and over and over...
Sorry, got lost in myself there. Let's talk about the narrative, now. Look, I'm not expecting that every game on this list has a good story, or even just a story. You can have a game just for the sake of being a game. But narrative comprises more than just story. Setting is an important part of a consistent game experience. Twin Gates, for example, wouldn't keep me coming back to it as often as it does if it didn't have the ancient Greek aesthetic. Anyways, VeNix seems to be going for some kind of "save the galaxy" plot, but all of the battles take place in some dude's bathroom or living room or something. A bit more consistency would have been nice...
That's all I got for today. Until next time, stay tiny
Links
Venix Down, 500gil: https://www.digipen.edu/?id=1170&proj=469
Since I only have like two things to say about VeNix, I'm going to waste some space up here with an analogy. Imagine you're baking a cake for a party. You really want to impress the people at this party, so you spend hours making the batter as sweet, succulent and decadent as you possibly can. After what seems like an eternity of toiling over a mixer and waiting for the damn thing to bake, you finally come up with an absolutely heavenly cake. Then, your friends come through the door, take one look at your cake and say, "where's the frosting?" That's VeNix in a nutshell.
VeNix is a vehicular homicide simulator kind of like Twisted Metal but a lot slower. You can choose between 4 different cars, each being different enough from each other to keep gameplay interesting. All things considered, the gameplay is fine. Nothing to complain about except for minor things. For example, one of the levels has way too many obstacles strewn about it that the camera always manages to get stuck behind.
The two things I had a problem with are the narrative and the sound design. First, I'll talk about the latter because my criticism of it is short: there is none. By now, most gamers and film-goers are mature enough to realize that you don't always need background music, but silence should probably be avoided unless it's driving a point. Let's use my latest obsessoin, Dark Souls, as an example. There are only a few tracks of bgm in that entire game, but when they're not playing, the game is still full of ambient effects and hit sounds. VeNix leaves you with an empty feeling. You want your ears to be occupied by something other than the annoying sound of the gray alien's special attack that he just spams over and over and over and over...
Sorry, got lost in myself there. Let's talk about the narrative, now. Look, I'm not expecting that every game on this list has a good story, or even just a story. You can have a game just for the sake of being a game. But narrative comprises more than just story. Setting is an important part of a consistent game experience. Twin Gates, for example, wouldn't keep me coming back to it as often as it does if it didn't have the ancient Greek aesthetic. Anyways, VeNix seems to be going for some kind of "save the galaxy" plot, but all of the battles take place in some dude's bathroom or living room or something. A bit more consistency would have been nice...
That's all I got for today. Until next time, stay tiny
Links
Venix Down, 500gil: https://www.digipen.edu/?id=1170&proj=469
Wednesday, November 20, 2013
Vektor Space
Remember Tron? Well I certainly don't. I guess I'm a bit young...it shames me to admit that I only just recently saw the Matrix. Anyways, apart from that dude on Youtube and the fact that Daft Punk infuriates me, the only thing I can think of when someone says Tron is the lightbike. Whoever came up with that either dropped a lot of acid, was a genius, or both. One of the things that made it so unique and fun to play was the 90 degree turn mechanic. I wondered what would happen if you just made a game about lightbikes but let them turn fluidly...then I played Vektor Space.
Vektor Space isn't quite as unforgiving as some other lightbike games I've played. You can run into somebody's trail once and not die, for instance, but run into two or the wall and its game over. Another innovation that makes this unique from your typical Tron clone is that the vehicles have stats, so you can go for either the tank that can run into three walls in a row without harm or the speed demon who expertly weaves in and out of other peoples' trails.
While I appreciate that Vektor Space added its own flavor to an old classic, I don't think the fluid turning mechanic really helped it all that much. After all, one of the most fun parts of the old lightbike games is that you can charge right for the wall but turn at the last second to get a tactical edge on the poor sap who was following you. If you want to try that strategy in Vektor Space, you're going to have to possess incredible precision to ride the round wall while turning in a tighter circle. I wouldn't really have a problem with it if I thought it added more to the game, but it really just feels like it was added for the sake of uniqueness.
While the core mechanic might not serve the game to the best of its ability, I still think Vektor Assault is a damn fun game. The artistic design is wonderful, the game feel is great, and there's enough variety to make this one of the few games on this list I'll return to when I'm bored. This one gets my seal of approval.
Links
Sector Lace: https://www.digipen.edu/?id=1170&proj=538
Vektor Space isn't quite as unforgiving as some other lightbike games I've played. You can run into somebody's trail once and not die, for instance, but run into two or the wall and its game over. Another innovation that makes this unique from your typical Tron clone is that the vehicles have stats, so you can go for either the tank that can run into three walls in a row without harm or the speed demon who expertly weaves in and out of other peoples' trails.
While I appreciate that Vektor Space added its own flavor to an old classic, I don't think the fluid turning mechanic really helped it all that much. After all, one of the most fun parts of the old lightbike games is that you can charge right for the wall but turn at the last second to get a tactical edge on the poor sap who was following you. If you want to try that strategy in Vektor Space, you're going to have to possess incredible precision to ride the round wall while turning in a tighter circle. I wouldn't really have a problem with it if I thought it added more to the game, but it really just feels like it was added for the sake of uniqueness.
While the core mechanic might not serve the game to the best of its ability, I still think Vektor Assault is a damn fun game. The artistic design is wonderful, the game feel is great, and there's enough variety to make this one of the few games on this list I'll return to when I'm bored. This one gets my seal of approval.
Links
Sector Lace: https://www.digipen.edu/?id=1170&proj=538
Tuesday, November 19, 2013
Vectron Assault
Vectron Assault is apparently a callback to the good old days of arcade FPS games with vector graphics, which apparently means they just didn't bother to color stuff in. Whether or not such a golden age actually existed, I'm too young to know, but if Vectron Assault is an accurate representation of that time, I'm glad I missed it.
seeing a game described as a callback to a time I've never experienced pets me in an awkward situation. All of the problems that I had with the game might have been deliberately put there to reinforce the old timey aesthetic. But you know what? That didn't make it any less infuriating, so I'm going to talk about them anyway.
Far and away the most annoying thing about this game is the level design. The walls all have this weird effect that makes it seem like there's an opening around the corner, but such a thing never exists. This is especially infuriating when you can see the enemies with less than accelerated AI trying to shoot you through the translucent walls. almost half of my playtime was spent circling around the same 5 square feet trying to find a piece of wall i could go through until I realized that the opening I looked for was on the exact opposite side of the level. Try to visualize that: the game lead me to one side of the level and then told me to backtrack through the area I had already cleared in order to progress. That's like, the first thing they tell you not to do in game design 101, isn't it?
Other than that, the only thing worth noting is the control, which makes the came feel like a weird hybrid of Battletanx and Forsaken 64. The position of the mouse in relation to the center of the screen acts sort of like a joystick, if that makes sense. The farther your cursor is to one side, the faster you will turn to that side. This kind of control could work in a fullscreen game, so I guess I have nothing to complain about, but I usually play these games in windows if I have the opportunity, so my cursor was flying off the edge, leaving me motionless, way more often than I would have liked.
Well that's all I got for today. Final Verdict: nice try, but I'll stick with The Shaman Engines. Until next time, stay retro
Links
Graphics of Magnitude and Direction: https://www.digipen.edu/?id=1170&proj=1420
seeing a game described as a callback to a time I've never experienced pets me in an awkward situation. All of the problems that I had with the game might have been deliberately put there to reinforce the old timey aesthetic. But you know what? That didn't make it any less infuriating, so I'm going to talk about them anyway.
Far and away the most annoying thing about this game is the level design. The walls all have this weird effect that makes it seem like there's an opening around the corner, but such a thing never exists. This is especially infuriating when you can see the enemies with less than accelerated AI trying to shoot you through the translucent walls. almost half of my playtime was spent circling around the same 5 square feet trying to find a piece of wall i could go through until I realized that the opening I looked for was on the exact opposite side of the level. Try to visualize that: the game lead me to one side of the level and then told me to backtrack through the area I had already cleared in order to progress. That's like, the first thing they tell you not to do in game design 101, isn't it?
Other than that, the only thing worth noting is the control, which makes the came feel like a weird hybrid of Battletanx and Forsaken 64. The position of the mouse in relation to the center of the screen acts sort of like a joystick, if that makes sense. The farther your cursor is to one side, the faster you will turn to that side. This kind of control could work in a fullscreen game, so I guess I have nothing to complain about, but I usually play these games in windows if I have the opportunity, so my cursor was flying off the edge, leaving me motionless, way more often than I would have liked.
Well that's all I got for today. Final Verdict: nice try, but I'll stick with The Shaman Engines. Until next time, stay retro
Links
Graphics of Magnitude and Direction: https://www.digipen.edu/?id=1170&proj=1420
Vapor
Vapor starts out with what I think might be the most unintentionally hilarious cutscenes I've ever seen. All of the backstory, riddled with cliches, by the way, is delivered via voice over from the voice actress of the main character. In-game, she does her job very well, but for some reason, in the opening scene, she delivers every line like she couldn't give less of a crap about what she's saying. Maybe this is an odd thing to open up a review with, but it cracked me up, so I give the opening sequence my seal of approval.
But will the rest of the game be endowed with such decoration? Spoiler alert: no. I quit the game after about five minutes because I passed by two gate type thingies that looked like checkpoitns, died, and was promptly sent back to the menu screen without an option to pick up where I left off. Yeah, this is ground well trodden by this point, and I get that what the students at DigiPen are really concerned with is mastering game mechanics and design, but how exactly am I supposed to know whether you've made a good game if I get frustrated enough to quit before I've even experienced most of it?
There are three things I think are worth commenting on here. First, the design. Digipen delivers once again: the design is beautiful. The graphics make my GPU happy and the visual style makes my eyes happy. Second, the narrative. Despite the opening being about as enthralling as a used litter box, the way the plot unfolded during my limited play time actually made me interested in what happened to the characters. I attribute most of this to the voice acting, which is surprisingly well done for an amateur project. Third and most importantly, let's talk mechanics. Honestly, it's nothing special. It's your standard isometric shooter, and I didn't play far enough to see them improve. I mean, they are functional, and no matter who or where you are, beaning a goblin in the head with a fireball will always feel good. Still, though, I found myself wanting more. Again, though, maybe that all comes later.
I hate having to end my sentences with "I might totally be wrong, though," but when a game loses my interest, I stop playing it. It's as simple as that. Maybe you won't be quite as discouraged as I was about losing progress, but for me, it's a deal breaker.
that's all I got for now. Until next time, stay vaporous.
Links
Vaypr: https://www.digipen.edu/?id=1170&proj=26720
PS- I totally meant to post this yesterday...
But will the rest of the game be endowed with such decoration? Spoiler alert: no. I quit the game after about five minutes because I passed by two gate type thingies that looked like checkpoitns, died, and was promptly sent back to the menu screen without an option to pick up where I left off. Yeah, this is ground well trodden by this point, and I get that what the students at DigiPen are really concerned with is mastering game mechanics and design, but how exactly am I supposed to know whether you've made a good game if I get frustrated enough to quit before I've even experienced most of it?
There are three things I think are worth commenting on here. First, the design. Digipen delivers once again: the design is beautiful. The graphics make my GPU happy and the visual style makes my eyes happy. Second, the narrative. Despite the opening being about as enthralling as a used litter box, the way the plot unfolded during my limited play time actually made me interested in what happened to the characters. I attribute most of this to the voice acting, which is surprisingly well done for an amateur project. Third and most importantly, let's talk mechanics. Honestly, it's nothing special. It's your standard isometric shooter, and I didn't play far enough to see them improve. I mean, they are functional, and no matter who or where you are, beaning a goblin in the head with a fireball will always feel good. Still, though, I found myself wanting more. Again, though, maybe that all comes later.
I hate having to end my sentences with "I might totally be wrong, though," but when a game loses my interest, I stop playing it. It's as simple as that. Maybe you won't be quite as discouraged as I was about losing progress, but for me, it's a deal breaker.
that's all I got for now. Until next time, stay vaporous.
Links
Vaypr: https://www.digipen.edu/?id=1170&proj=26720
PS- I totally meant to post this yesterday...
Sunday, November 17, 2013
Vanquisher (nope)
It dun work. I'm actually kind of glad, though, because Vanquisher is apparently a tower defense game, which I don't have a great track record with...
Links
https://www.digipen.edu/?id=1170&proj=26630
Links
https://www.digipen.edu/?id=1170&proj=26630
VAMMOS
Oh how I love it when games listen to what I have to say. A little while ago, I said that gaming really has to move past the whole "death as penalty" thing, and along comes VAMMOS with an innovative death system that attempts to punish mistakes without being too frustrating. Before I get to that, though, let me give you some background.
VAMMOS is a physics-based platformer wherein you move blocks around to get from point A to point B. Nothing special so far. The levels are designed fairly well, allowing you to figure out the mechanics by using them. For instance, the game didn't feel the need to tell me that dropping blocks on enemies makes them go boom. It just put a block and an enemy in a narrow corridor and let my primal side take the reins.
So, about this death system. Every time you get asploded, you have three seconds to press space, which will instantly respawn you exactly where you were. If you don't press space, you restart from the nearest checkpoint. The mentality behind this mechanic was that you wouldn't have to be sent back for cheap deaths, like an enemy that you couldn't see or accidentally dropping a block on yourself because your thumb cramped up or whatever. Meanwhile, if you commit a truly unforgivable sin like, say, falling into a spike trap, respwning exactly where you died isn't exactly helpful, so you'll still incur a slight penalty. The checkpoints are close enough together to make the penalty not too annoying.
The problem with this system is that it essentially negates any threat an enemy can pose, since they either fire projectiles or move in a set path. Both of these attack strategies can be easily overcome with the "spam space" method. Maybe the game designers just wanted to give you some toys to destroy along your journey, which I have no problem with, but it still smells a bit like oops.
What made me ragequit the game is something I really don't take that much umbrage with. I got to a point where I had to ascend vertically using blocks, but for some reason, I died whenever I landed the blocks. So yeah, the game glitched me right out of the experience, but that just means it needed to be a bit more fine tuned, which I don't hold against a school project since I have firsthand experience with the hellish pressure a school deadline can apply to a person.
While I can't quite give this game my seal of approval, I can say it's worth your time if you want to check out an interesting platformer. That's all I got for now. Until next time, stay random.
Links
Capital Letters: https://www.digipen.edu/?id=1170&proj=24365
VAMMOS is a physics-based platformer wherein you move blocks around to get from point A to point B. Nothing special so far. The levels are designed fairly well, allowing you to figure out the mechanics by using them. For instance, the game didn't feel the need to tell me that dropping blocks on enemies makes them go boom. It just put a block and an enemy in a narrow corridor and let my primal side take the reins.
So, about this death system. Every time you get asploded, you have three seconds to press space, which will instantly respawn you exactly where you were. If you don't press space, you restart from the nearest checkpoint. The mentality behind this mechanic was that you wouldn't have to be sent back for cheap deaths, like an enemy that you couldn't see or accidentally dropping a block on yourself because your thumb cramped up or whatever. Meanwhile, if you commit a truly unforgivable sin like, say, falling into a spike trap, respwning exactly where you died isn't exactly helpful, so you'll still incur a slight penalty. The checkpoints are close enough together to make the penalty not too annoying.
The problem with this system is that it essentially negates any threat an enemy can pose, since they either fire projectiles or move in a set path. Both of these attack strategies can be easily overcome with the "spam space" method. Maybe the game designers just wanted to give you some toys to destroy along your journey, which I have no problem with, but it still smells a bit like oops.
What made me ragequit the game is something I really don't take that much umbrage with. I got to a point where I had to ascend vertically using blocks, but for some reason, I died whenever I landed the blocks. So yeah, the game glitched me right out of the experience, but that just means it needed to be a bit more fine tuned, which I don't hold against a school project since I have firsthand experience with the hellish pressure a school deadline can apply to a person.
While I can't quite give this game my seal of approval, I can say it's worth your time if you want to check out an interesting platformer. That's all I got for now. Until next time, stay random.
Links
Capital Letters: https://www.digipen.edu/?id=1170&proj=24365
Saturday, November 16, 2013
Valence (kinda)
It doesn't work. I click single player and it tells me I need to select a video mode. I go to video options and there's nothing in the video mode pulldown menu. I click multi player and it tells me some nonsense about an IP address before crashing. I click sandbox and it makes my GUI spaz out a bit before bringing me back to the menu.
Links
https://www.digipen.edu/?id=1170&proj=550
Links
https://www.digipen.edu/?id=1170&proj=550
Friday, November 15, 2013
V1Rus
I know I haven't really been maintaining the blog responsibly lately, but that's what happens when your brain decides to stop being capable of passing Calculus at the same time you have to write college applications. Regardless, I'm going to try out a new scheduling method more reminiscent of the one I started out with. I'm going to play a game and then write down my thoughts. Could be a sentence. Could be three pages. That means no more "3 games 1 post" deals for a while. Right, then. Let's get this show on the road.
Ever wonder what would happen if A Series of Tubes worked? Well, ladies and gentlemen, wonder no longer, because your fantasies are now a reality. V1Rus is structured quite similarly to those infuriating Chaos Emerald stages in Sonic Heroes. Wow. Not only a paragraph in and we've been compared to A Series of Tubes and Sonic Heroes. We're not off to a good start here, V1Rus.
Actually, you might be surprised to hear that I stopped playing not because I was frustrated with the game design, but because the first non-tutorial level is flipping impossible. But it's not impossible in the bad Battletoads way. It's impossible in the good Dark Souls way. When I fly into a spike wall, I feel as though I was given every opportunity to avoid it, but screwed it up. That's a good thing. It motivates you to improve yourself. There is one exception in V1Rus: When the spike balls curl around from the top of the cylinder thing and hit you in your blind spot. This is not very common, though, and you have shields to use, so it's only a very minor annoyance.
This game doesn't provide a very deep experience, but it's fun and engaging and difficult as all hell, so if you're up for a challenge, give it a shot V1rus gets my seal of approval. That's all I got for now. Until next time, stay viral
Links
Mother Vi-Russia: https://www.digipen.edu/?id=1170&proj=25911
Tuesday, November 12, 2013
Twisted, Unfolding Tale, and Untitled Stealth Action
Twisted found itself a nice warm little crevice in my otherwise cold and wrinkly heart because it was built from the ground up using C++. Ironically, the games that choose this route are usually a lot more stable than the games built with the aid of third party engines (*cough* zero engine *cough*). When a game is made entirely of C++, it gets a special kind of admiration from me because my knowledge of coding stops at if-else statements.
Let it never be said that I'm biased, though. I know I have to judge a game on its merits as a game and nothing else; and as a game, Twisted is like oreo creme smushed between two dirty rocks. Sure, the meat of the game is well crafted, but good luck enjoying it through the broken teeth and worms. What I'm talking about, really, is loading screens. It's a little ridiculous how much loading the game has to do from the start, but at least the pace picks up once the tutorial ends.
But then we're greeted with the ever-wonderful color-switching mechanic. you can only land on certain colored platforms depending on what color you are...you're all familiar with this, I'm sure. You use "J" "K" and "L" to cycle through three of these colors, but the game is NOT designed to complement such a mechanic. It's simply too fast. You fall like a rock, so unless your sense of timing is absolutely impeccable, you're going to take a few headers into lava pits and have to start all the way from the beginning of the level.
In all honesty, though, I appreciate a game that's not afraid to beat you to a pulp, and I might even come back to thins game to test my reflexes some time in the future. I just think that the challenge could have been presented without such self-contradictory mechanics. Remember, kids, a hard game is not always a good game. Tell that to anyone who claims to like Battletoads or I Want to Be the Guy.../minirant
Next up we have Unfolding Tale, and I wish I had a more interesting review for you, but literally all this game is is...well...and unfolding tale. A tale of what? I'm not sure. It has something to do with fish...and birds...and maybe the sun?
In terms of challenge, there is none. You just click in the direction you want to go and, eventually, you will get there. Now, let me just say that the gaming medium SEVERELY needs a game that eliminates the idea of death being the only consequence or punishment, so I think it's great that Unfolding Tale tried to present everything it needed to without any threat to the player. But the problem with that is that a game still needs some kind of challenge. There's a reason experiments like this never work (unless I'm missing some brilliant example, which I probably am): if the player is never punished, the game swiftly becomes a movie that occasionally solicits input from its viewer.
So yeah, I think it's safe to say that this game is centered around the narrative, rather than the gameplay. Now, I want you to read that sentence over again. Then do it again. Has your tongue caught fire yet? Has it slithered out of your mouth and started beating you over the head until you promise to stop saying such filthy and blasphemous things? Well it should have, because narrative and gameplay should be inextricable in a game. No, just adding a few collectible fish to follow you around after you pass them does not count as gameplay.
I think what bothers me more than anything is that the mechanics the game does have are actually pretty fun. Flying and swimming around these big open worlds feels good...liberating, even. If only there was something to do with those mechanics...
Last up, we have Untitled Stealth Action, which is one of those top-down FOV avoidance games that I refuse to call stealth games. It's a lot like Subsonic but without those cool sound mechanics. Instead, you can sprint right by an enemy so long as you don't cross their field of view. And if you do, it's instant game over. No exclamation point accompanied by shrill scraping of a violin's strings here, just instant dissatisfaction.
Honestly the game wouldn't even be too bad if it controlled worth a damn. You character tends to keep walking for some indeterminate amount of time between 753 and 896 milliseconds (yes, those numbers came straight from my rear). This can be a real problem when planning your route around mines and spotlights that kill you instantly if you go anywhere near them. Also, speaking of mines, having the player press 3 random keys on the keyboard to disarm mines when they were otherwise using the arrow keys and the occasional "shift" is just not nice.
That's all I got for today. Until next time, stay prolific
Twist and Shout: https://www.digipen.edu/?id=1170&proj=26729
Uninteresting tale: https://www.digipen.edu/?id=1170&proj=26708
A name so lazy it doesn't even exist: https://www.digipen.edu/?id=1170&proj=26020
Let it never be said that I'm biased, though. I know I have to judge a game on its merits as a game and nothing else; and as a game, Twisted is like oreo creme smushed between two dirty rocks. Sure, the meat of the game is well crafted, but good luck enjoying it through the broken teeth and worms. What I'm talking about, really, is loading screens. It's a little ridiculous how much loading the game has to do from the start, but at least the pace picks up once the tutorial ends.
But then we're greeted with the ever-wonderful color-switching mechanic. you can only land on certain colored platforms depending on what color you are...you're all familiar with this, I'm sure. You use "J" "K" and "L" to cycle through three of these colors, but the game is NOT designed to complement such a mechanic. It's simply too fast. You fall like a rock, so unless your sense of timing is absolutely impeccable, you're going to take a few headers into lava pits and have to start all the way from the beginning of the level.
In all honesty, though, I appreciate a game that's not afraid to beat you to a pulp, and I might even come back to thins game to test my reflexes some time in the future. I just think that the challenge could have been presented without such self-contradictory mechanics. Remember, kids, a hard game is not always a good game. Tell that to anyone who claims to like Battletoads or I Want to Be the Guy.../minirant
Next up we have Unfolding Tale, and I wish I had a more interesting review for you, but literally all this game is is...well...and unfolding tale. A tale of what? I'm not sure. It has something to do with fish...and birds...and maybe the sun?
In terms of challenge, there is none. You just click in the direction you want to go and, eventually, you will get there. Now, let me just say that the gaming medium SEVERELY needs a game that eliminates the idea of death being the only consequence or punishment, so I think it's great that Unfolding Tale tried to present everything it needed to without any threat to the player. But the problem with that is that a game still needs some kind of challenge. There's a reason experiments like this never work (unless I'm missing some brilliant example, which I probably am): if the player is never punished, the game swiftly becomes a movie that occasionally solicits input from its viewer.
So yeah, I think it's safe to say that this game is centered around the narrative, rather than the gameplay. Now, I want you to read that sentence over again. Then do it again. Has your tongue caught fire yet? Has it slithered out of your mouth and started beating you over the head until you promise to stop saying such filthy and blasphemous things? Well it should have, because narrative and gameplay should be inextricable in a game. No, just adding a few collectible fish to follow you around after you pass them does not count as gameplay.
I think what bothers me more than anything is that the mechanics the game does have are actually pretty fun. Flying and swimming around these big open worlds feels good...liberating, even. If only there was something to do with those mechanics...
Last up, we have Untitled Stealth Action, which is one of those top-down FOV avoidance games that I refuse to call stealth games. It's a lot like Subsonic but without those cool sound mechanics. Instead, you can sprint right by an enemy so long as you don't cross their field of view. And if you do, it's instant game over. No exclamation point accompanied by shrill scraping of a violin's strings here, just instant dissatisfaction.
Honestly the game wouldn't even be too bad if it controlled worth a damn. You character tends to keep walking for some indeterminate amount of time between 753 and 896 milliseconds (yes, those numbers came straight from my rear). This can be a real problem when planning your route around mines and spotlights that kill you instantly if you go anywhere near them. Also, speaking of mines, having the player press 3 random keys on the keyboard to disarm mines when they were otherwise using the arrow keys and the occasional "shift" is just not nice.
That's all I got for today. Until next time, stay prolific
Twist and Shout: https://www.digipen.edu/?id=1170&proj=26729
Uninteresting tale: https://www.digipen.edu/?id=1170&proj=26708
A name so lazy it doesn't even exist: https://www.digipen.edu/?id=1170&proj=26020
Monday, November 11, 2013
Turnstyle (kinda) and Twin Gates
I only wanted to do one game today, but I would feel terrible about leaving you with an "it's broken" review after my little hiatus. So, I downloaded Twin Gates.
The biggest problem Twin Gates had is that it's not very good at grabbing the player's interest from the beginning. My first instinct when starting the game up was to alt+f4 away from it, because I was greeted by nothing but an empty board and cryptic descriptions on each of the cards in my hands. "Inverts mother, protects friend?" What the hell is that supposed to mean?
Through a bit of patient play, I figured out what's up. You try to fill up the board with tiles of your color before your opponent can. It's kind of like Go in that respect, but not nearly as strategic. There are 2 types of tiles: archetypes and spells. I might be getting those names wrong, but whatever. Archetypes take up 2 spaces and can "invert" certain adjacent enemy archetypes. If you've played Yu-Gi-Oh, imagine an monster with "change of heart" as its effect. In addition, archetypes can protect friendly archetypes from inversion. Spell tiles take up one space and have various effects.
This is a two-player only game, so again, I'm not going to be able to say much. I will say, though that my experience playing against myself and learning the mechanics was quite relaxing. It's an interesting game, and I certainly appreciate a design team trying to innovate in terms of mechanics rather than just in terms of aesthetic or narrative. Check this one out. It gets my seal of approval, but with a slap on the wrist for bad conveyance and for reminding me of my time learning Latin.
Links
The one that didn't work: https://www.digipen.edu/?id=1170&proj=1421
The one that did: https://www.digipen.edu/?id=1170&proj=26133
PS- it's been a while since I've edited a review after I'd published it, but I thought of a new criticism for Twin Gates. You know how if you construct your Yu-Gi-Oh deck poorly you never draw the card you need? This usually happens because you bog down your deck with too many cards so that the effects specific to other cards can never be triggered? Well this is a feeling that comes up a lot in Twin Gates, and it's not a good one.
PPS- I was wrong: there are 3 types of tiles, not 2...but it's like spell cards and trap cards in Yu-Gi-Oh. Yeah, they're different, but not really...
Well...now that I've enraged any Yu-Gi-Oh player worth their salt, I'll say good-bye for now.
The biggest problem Twin Gates had is that it's not very good at grabbing the player's interest from the beginning. My first instinct when starting the game up was to alt+f4 away from it, because I was greeted by nothing but an empty board and cryptic descriptions on each of the cards in my hands. "Inverts mother, protects friend?" What the hell is that supposed to mean?
Through a bit of patient play, I figured out what's up. You try to fill up the board with tiles of your color before your opponent can. It's kind of like Go in that respect, but not nearly as strategic. There are 2 types of tiles: archetypes and spells. I might be getting those names wrong, but whatever. Archetypes take up 2 spaces and can "invert" certain adjacent enemy archetypes. If you've played Yu-Gi-Oh, imagine an monster with "change of heart" as its effect. In addition, archetypes can protect friendly archetypes from inversion. Spell tiles take up one space and have various effects.
This is a two-player only game, so again, I'm not going to be able to say much. I will say, though that my experience playing against myself and learning the mechanics was quite relaxing. It's an interesting game, and I certainly appreciate a design team trying to innovate in terms of mechanics rather than just in terms of aesthetic or narrative. Check this one out. It gets my seal of approval, but with a slap on the wrist for bad conveyance and for reminding me of my time learning Latin.
Links
The one that didn't work: https://www.digipen.edu/?id=1170&proj=1421
The one that did: https://www.digipen.edu/?id=1170&proj=26133
PS- it's been a while since I've edited a review after I'd published it, but I thought of a new criticism for Twin Gates. You know how if you construct your Yu-Gi-Oh deck poorly you never draw the card you need? This usually happens because you bog down your deck with too many cards so that the effects specific to other cards can never be triggered? Well this is a feeling that comes up a lot in Twin Gates, and it's not a good one.
PPS- I was wrong: there are 3 types of tiles, not 2...but it's like spell cards and trap cards in Yu-Gi-Oh. Yeah, they're different, but not really...
Well...now that I've enraged any Yu-Gi-Oh player worth their salt, I'll say good-bye for now.
Saturday, November 9, 2013
a brief hiatus
I'll keep this short, since it's nothing you haven't heard before. I just got through one of the most stressful school weeks of my life and I have a lot of work to do over the weekend; I'd also like some time to decompress. So, I'm taking the day off. I'll return on Monday.
Thursday, November 7, 2013
Truth
Truth started off promisingly enough with a menu screen that played a melancholic single piano note when I moused over one of its options, setting me up for one of them 2D side-scrolling poetic experience, or as I like to call em, Braid-em-ups. Sounds good enough, right?
Well then I started playing, and the first thing I noticed was that the framerate was god awful. The game looks great when it's still, but the movement is choppy, and your eyes are going to need to get used to it...that's putting it as politely as possible.
When I said the game looks great when it's still, though, I wasn't exaggerating. The visual style is actually very impressive. But, of course, the visual style is only truly good when it complements the gameplay. I'll be blunt: the visual style that truly complements Truth's gameplay would be something along these lines:
The first level was riddled with invisible walls, and it only got worse from there. Mechanics were unexplained, sprites stayed when they should have moved, the only cutscene I experienced was a schizophrenic mess...
I'm not going to call this game bad. That would be inaccurate. The game isn't really bad as much as it is "unfinished." If I were a teacher and a student handed this to me, I wouldn't fail it, I would hand it back to the student and say "give it back to me when it's done."
Games are tricky because they can look passable even when they aren't finished. There are plenty of examples out there, but Sonic '06 is probably the most famous. This kind of thing doesn't really happen to such a great extent in other forms of media? I mean, think of how this blog would look if I
Well then I started playing, and the first thing I noticed was that the framerate was god awful. The game looks great when it's still, but the movement is choppy, and your eyes are going to need to get used to it...that's putting it as politely as possible.
When I said the game looks great when it's still, though, I wasn't exaggerating. The visual style is actually very impressive. But, of course, the visual style is only truly good when it complements the gameplay. I'll be blunt: the visual style that truly complements Truth's gameplay would be something along these lines:
The first level was riddled with invisible walls, and it only got worse from there. Mechanics were unexplained, sprites stayed when they should have moved, the only cutscene I experienced was a schizophrenic mess...
I'm not going to call this game bad. That would be inaccurate. The game isn't really bad as much as it is "unfinished." If I were a teacher and a student handed this to me, I wouldn't fail it, I would hand it back to the student and say "give it back to me when it's done."
Games are tricky because they can look passable even when they aren't finished. There are plenty of examples out there, but Sonic '06 is probably the most famous. This kind of thing doesn't really happen to such a great extent in other forms of media? I mean, think of how this blog would look if I
Tuesday, November 5, 2013
Trifflin Slamtastrophe (kinda) and TROP
Again with the not real exe? *sigh*
Well at least I can talk about TROP. I'm assuming this stands for "Tetris...Righteously...um...Oppressing...Pandas?" What I'm getting at is that this game is like Tetris. But at the same time, it's totally not. Imagine Tetris and Donkey Kong drunkenly making out on a love seat. Your job is to, as soon as you get that image out of your head, ascend to the top of the level, get a key, and go to the next level, but there are no platforms for you to initially jump on, so you have to place Tertis blocks in such a way that you can climb on them before you get eaten by a lava.
One thing was made clear within the first few minutes of playing: This is a game that likes to push my buttons. The first thing that happened in level 1 was that I built a wall between me and a shiny collectible. I climbed that wall and then dropped down to get the shiny, only to be greeted by a lava death pit that totally wasn't there before. Then, after that, the game snarkily displays, "Too Hard? Problem?"
As much as this may come as a surprise to any of you who have seen me gripe vehemently about minor frustrations in the past, I'm actually not opposed to a game getting under my skin. the occasional "na na na na na you can't get me" can actually provide an incentive to keep playing, just to prove the snide SOB wrong. It's a dangerous tightrope to walk, but I think TROP pulls it off relatively well.
The graphics, sound, level design (or lack thereof), etc are all kind of underwhelming, but the concept is unique and very fun to play with. The moving lava thing puts just enough pressure on you to keep the game challenging. If you're into retro-style and experimental games, hit this one up. I had fun with it and I bet you will too.
Links
Trifle of Shlomichel: https://www.digipen.edu/?id=1170&proj=607
Trip Trap Trup: https://www.digipen.edu/?id=1170&proj=25989
Well at least I can talk about TROP. I'm assuming this stands for "Tetris...Righteously...um...Oppressing...Pandas?" What I'm getting at is that this game is like Tetris. But at the same time, it's totally not. Imagine Tetris and Donkey Kong drunkenly making out on a love seat. Your job is to, as soon as you get that image out of your head, ascend to the top of the level, get a key, and go to the next level, but there are no platforms for you to initially jump on, so you have to place Tertis blocks in such a way that you can climb on them before you get eaten by a lava.
One thing was made clear within the first few minutes of playing: This is a game that likes to push my buttons. The first thing that happened in level 1 was that I built a wall between me and a shiny collectible. I climbed that wall and then dropped down to get the shiny, only to be greeted by a lava death pit that totally wasn't there before. Then, after that, the game snarkily displays, "Too Hard? Problem?"
As much as this may come as a surprise to any of you who have seen me gripe vehemently about minor frustrations in the past, I'm actually not opposed to a game getting under my skin. the occasional "na na na na na you can't get me" can actually provide an incentive to keep playing, just to prove the snide SOB wrong. It's a dangerous tightrope to walk, but I think TROP pulls it off relatively well.
The graphics, sound, level design (or lack thereof), etc are all kind of underwhelming, but the concept is unique and very fun to play with. The moving lava thing puts just enough pressure on you to keep the game challenging. If you're into retro-style and experimental games, hit this one up. I had fun with it and I bet you will too.
Links
Trifle of Shlomichel: https://www.digipen.edu/?id=1170&proj=607
Trip Trap Trup: https://www.digipen.edu/?id=1170&proj=25989
Monday, November 4, 2013
Tradewind, Tribe Tactics and Trick Shot Golf
Sometimes you forget to blog...When you forget to blog, it's usually because some other things in your life are driving you crazy. Don't worry, I'm not going to fish for sympathy. I'm in the same position as every other high scholar out there, I get it. Just do try and understand that the mood I'm in as of late is definitely not conducive to writing, so I'm just going to give you the bare essentials of these three games today.
Tradewind is probably the best example on this entire list of "good foundation, poor execution." The entire game is built around the movement mechanics; basically, you hold the left mouse button down to rocket in the direction you're pointing. When you get it down, it's insanely fun to zip around this Bioshock Infinite-esque world like a peregrine falcon on speed.
The way the game chooses to put those mechanics to use, however, is lackluster. To be fair, the game does its best to keep the segments varied, but pretty much only the last mission doesn't seem out of place. Otherwise, you're pushing cabbages, fetching sandwiches, or literally rescuing cats from trees. Maybe that was a deliberate attempt to say "yeah, these missions are about as dull as you can get, but you're still having fun, so that must say a lot about the mechanics, eh?"
In short, this is a game I would love to see expanded on, because I think I could have had a lot more fun with it if I had any more motivation than "well this is fun" to keep playing. Maybe that sounds nonsensical, but still. Play the game for yourself. You'll see what I mean; it's very well crafted but shows a lot of potential for expansion. Not improvement, so much...expansion.
Short note on Tribe Tactics before I begin actually reviewing it: this game is very similar to Steamalot: Epoch's Journey, a game made by Indie developer Risen Phoenix Studios, who you should all totally check out on the facebooks. I was planning on reviewing Steamalot once it game out (I had the privilege of playing an early build at New York Comic Con last month), as well as their debut title Go Go Galago, but they're not DigiPen games, so I'll probably have to get around to them sometime in early 2014. Before you accuse, no I was not paid by Risen Phoenix to say this. I simply saw them at Comic Con and think they deserve lots more attention, and reviewing such a similar game to the one they're working on now presented me an ideal opportunity to help that happen.
Anyway, onto the review...
Tribe Tactics is a multiplayer card-based digital board game. Whoa...wrap your head around that one for a second. The way you win is by either killing you opponent's general or by taking out his/her two stationery crystals. The general can spawn warriors as well as effect cards and if I explain it any further it's going to get really confusing really fast. This is the hallmark of a well designed game, I think; the mechanics are confusing enough to be difficult to explain in words, but if you just play the game, you'll know exactly how to play it.
Since this is a multiplayer game, I was only able to pit myself against my own wit, which doesn't make for a very interesting battle. I can only assume that playing against someone else is fun. It seems like it would be, though. The game looks good, sounds good, and feels good, so what could go wrong? Check this out if you need some way to entertain both you and a friend at your next debate tournament or similar event.
Finally, Trick Shot Golf. All I can really say about it is...it's golf. You've got your standard holes: the straight shot, the troll curve, the sadistic ocean with patches of dry land...The game plays like any other golf game you'd find in the shadiest corner of your local pool hall. I assume the main uniqueness of the game stems from "fantasy mode," but my game crashed whenever I tried to load it.
I do have one major criticism of this game, though: the music. One question: Who on god's green earth thought it would be a good idea to put THIS much base in a soundtrack. It hurts! I mean that literally. This game is physically painful to play because of the ridiculous amount of base in the background. I feel like my intestines are being dissolved or something...
All-in-all, we've got three strong titles today. Maybe I'm only being lenient because I recently started programming again (This time in C++), so I have a whole new appreciation for how hellish getting a game to work can be, but I had fun with these games, especially the first two, since they didn't make my ears bleed. That's all I got for now. Until next time, stay resonant.
Links:
My Cabbages!!!: https://www.digipen.edu/?id=1170&proj=25893
Chess without the Chess: https://www.digipen.edu/?id=1170&proj=26911
Golf: https://www.digipen.edu/?id=1170&proj=536
Tradewind is probably the best example on this entire list of "good foundation, poor execution." The entire game is built around the movement mechanics; basically, you hold the left mouse button down to rocket in the direction you're pointing. When you get it down, it's insanely fun to zip around this Bioshock Infinite-esque world like a peregrine falcon on speed.
The way the game chooses to put those mechanics to use, however, is lackluster. To be fair, the game does its best to keep the segments varied, but pretty much only the last mission doesn't seem out of place. Otherwise, you're pushing cabbages, fetching sandwiches, or literally rescuing cats from trees. Maybe that was a deliberate attempt to say "yeah, these missions are about as dull as you can get, but you're still having fun, so that must say a lot about the mechanics, eh?"
In short, this is a game I would love to see expanded on, because I think I could have had a lot more fun with it if I had any more motivation than "well this is fun" to keep playing. Maybe that sounds nonsensical, but still. Play the game for yourself. You'll see what I mean; it's very well crafted but shows a lot of potential for expansion. Not improvement, so much...expansion.
Short note on Tribe Tactics before I begin actually reviewing it: this game is very similar to Steamalot: Epoch's Journey, a game made by Indie developer Risen Phoenix Studios, who you should all totally check out on the facebooks. I was planning on reviewing Steamalot once it game out (I had the privilege of playing an early build at New York Comic Con last month), as well as their debut title Go Go Galago, but they're not DigiPen games, so I'll probably have to get around to them sometime in early 2014. Before you accuse, no I was not paid by Risen Phoenix to say this. I simply saw them at Comic Con and think they deserve lots more attention, and reviewing such a similar game to the one they're working on now presented me an ideal opportunity to help that happen.
Anyway, onto the review...
Tribe Tactics is a multiplayer card-based digital board game. Whoa...wrap your head around that one for a second. The way you win is by either killing you opponent's general or by taking out his/her two stationery crystals. The general can spawn warriors as well as effect cards and if I explain it any further it's going to get really confusing really fast. This is the hallmark of a well designed game, I think; the mechanics are confusing enough to be difficult to explain in words, but if you just play the game, you'll know exactly how to play it.
Since this is a multiplayer game, I was only able to pit myself against my own wit, which doesn't make for a very interesting battle. I can only assume that playing against someone else is fun. It seems like it would be, though. The game looks good, sounds good, and feels good, so what could go wrong? Check this out if you need some way to entertain both you and a friend at your next debate tournament or similar event.
Finally, Trick Shot Golf. All I can really say about it is...it's golf. You've got your standard holes: the straight shot, the troll curve, the sadistic ocean with patches of dry land...The game plays like any other golf game you'd find in the shadiest corner of your local pool hall. I assume the main uniqueness of the game stems from "fantasy mode," but my game crashed whenever I tried to load it.
I do have one major criticism of this game, though: the music. One question: Who on god's green earth thought it would be a good idea to put THIS much base in a soundtrack. It hurts! I mean that literally. This game is physically painful to play because of the ridiculous amount of base in the background. I feel like my intestines are being dissolved or something...
All-in-all, we've got three strong titles today. Maybe I'm only being lenient because I recently started programming again (This time in C++), so I have a whole new appreciation for how hellish getting a game to work can be, but I had fun with these games, especially the first two, since they didn't make my ears bleed. That's all I got for now. Until next time, stay resonant.
Links:
My Cabbages!!!: https://www.digipen.edu/?id=1170&proj=25893
Chess without the Chess: https://www.digipen.edu/?id=1170&proj=26911
Golf: https://www.digipen.edu/?id=1170&proj=536
Saturday, November 2, 2013
Toons n Tactics (kinda) and Trade Tides
My goodness there have been a lot of broken links lately...I guess there's not much I can do other than review the ones that work, right? Sorry, Toons n Tactics
It's okay, though, because Trade Tides filled me with enough anger for like 3 reviews. My first thought when playing this was "boy, this loading screen sure is taking a while." My second thought was "come on, why does this list have to have so many RTS games...and why do they all have to be so terrible at conveying the game's controls?!" So then I clicked the menu button and was immediately greeted by a loading screen.
...WHAT?!
Are you serious? The game needs to go through a loading screen just to bring up the in-game menu?! And then, guess what happened when I clicked "how to play." go on, guess! Have you guessed? Another loading screen! And another one appears when you finally learn the controls (oh, and believe me, I'll get to those in a second), so that makes THREE SEPARATE LOADING SCREENS, none of them especially quick, that you have to sit through just to learn how to play the game! How the hell do you get a game this wrong? I can understand making poor choices when programming a game, or trying new ideas that don't end up working, but THIS?! WHAT IS THIS?!
Oh, but it's my fault for not picking up on the controls, isn't it? Nobody forced me to open up the menu, right? Well guess how the (pretty much) only function in the game is performed? You have to left click on your castle, and then RIGHT CLICK on a surrounding neighborhood to link the two. WELKRJWWHAT?!
How on God's green Earth does that make any sense? Why would you switch up the buttons in the middle of performing a command? Left clicking on both the castle and the town does nothing, so why the hell did anybody think it was a good idea to require the player to first left click and then right click?
And once you've done that...well, you wait until time runs out. No, I'm not kidding. The objective of the game is to link all your territories and then "hold out for 5 minutes." Now, let me go on record saying that the "don't die until x time passes" game mechanic is very rarely pulled off well. I can think of maybe one game that did it right, and it's kind of a stretch (the game is Deus Ex: Human Revolution, and if you played it, you know what scene I'm talking about, and you know how big a stretch it is). Regardless, though, I don't think anyone would deny that one thing you need to make that game mechanic even remotely successful is some sort of threat. In Trade Tides, every now and again some pirates will appear on the screen, but they are so few and far between that by the time the next batch appears, you have enough money to basically flood the map with depth charges. Add onto that the fact that you can quick-plant charges by right clicking wherever you want them to go (ie- right on top of the pirate ships), and you've essentially been given a god hand that makes quick work of anything that might try to stand in your way.
I can only recommend this game to the kind of person who is addicted to winning, because I've never played an easier game that actually claims to have a challenge. That's all I got for today. Until next time, stay seaworthy.
Links
Nothing Works!: https://www.digipen.edu/?id=1170&proj=25906
Trade Tirade: https://www.digipen.edu/?id=1170&proj=24661
It's okay, though, because Trade Tides filled me with enough anger for like 3 reviews. My first thought when playing this was "boy, this loading screen sure is taking a while." My second thought was "come on, why does this list have to have so many RTS games...and why do they all have to be so terrible at conveying the game's controls?!" So then I clicked the menu button and was immediately greeted by a loading screen.
...WHAT?!
Are you serious? The game needs to go through a loading screen just to bring up the in-game menu?! And then, guess what happened when I clicked "how to play." go on, guess! Have you guessed? Another loading screen! And another one appears when you finally learn the controls (oh, and believe me, I'll get to those in a second), so that makes THREE SEPARATE LOADING SCREENS, none of them especially quick, that you have to sit through just to learn how to play the game! How the hell do you get a game this wrong? I can understand making poor choices when programming a game, or trying new ideas that don't end up working, but THIS?! WHAT IS THIS?!
Oh, but it's my fault for not picking up on the controls, isn't it? Nobody forced me to open up the menu, right? Well guess how the (pretty much) only function in the game is performed? You have to left click on your castle, and then RIGHT CLICK on a surrounding neighborhood to link the two. WELKRJWWHAT?!
How on God's green Earth does that make any sense? Why would you switch up the buttons in the middle of performing a command? Left clicking on both the castle and the town does nothing, so why the hell did anybody think it was a good idea to require the player to first left click and then right click?
And once you've done that...well, you wait until time runs out. No, I'm not kidding. The objective of the game is to link all your territories and then "hold out for 5 minutes." Now, let me go on record saying that the "don't die until x time passes" game mechanic is very rarely pulled off well. I can think of maybe one game that did it right, and it's kind of a stretch (the game is Deus Ex: Human Revolution, and if you played it, you know what scene I'm talking about, and you know how big a stretch it is). Regardless, though, I don't think anyone would deny that one thing you need to make that game mechanic even remotely successful is some sort of threat. In Trade Tides, every now and again some pirates will appear on the screen, but they are so few and far between that by the time the next batch appears, you have enough money to basically flood the map with depth charges. Add onto that the fact that you can quick-plant charges by right clicking wherever you want them to go (ie- right on top of the pirate ships), and you've essentially been given a god hand that makes quick work of anything that might try to stand in your way.
I can only recommend this game to the kind of person who is addicted to winning, because I've never played an easier game that actually claims to have a challenge. That's all I got for today. Until next time, stay seaworthy.
Links
Nothing Works!: https://www.digipen.edu/?id=1170&proj=25906
Trade Tirade: https://www.digipen.edu/?id=1170&proj=24661
Friday, November 1, 2013
THUGS, Titanium Snail (kinda), and Toblo
For all 0.25 of you who may be wondering whether the whole "skip a day, come back the next day with triple the power" thing is going to become routine for me, don't worry. I'm only doing it again this week because THUGS took me a little while to figure out. It's not that the game was too long or too hard to understand, it's just that it's not a game that lets you alt+tab out of it for a second without the whole thing breaking, so I needed to find a quiet hour or so where I could play the game without fear of anyone contacting me on the Facebook machine, which I didn't have yesterday. Yeah, I know I could have just signed out, but whatever. This is what we're going with this week.
So for a game that took as long as it did for me to be comfortable writing a review about it, THUGS has probably inspired the shortest review in me yet. All I can really say about it is: "It's Risk." Ever played Risk? You know, the board game? Well it's the same thing, cept this time with cute little graphics of street thugs beating the crap out of one another whenever there's a dispute for territory.
This is where I kind of have to take a step back and let you decide whether or not you want to play this game, because Risk is one of those games that everyone else seemed to love that I just couldn't stand. Since you guys all probably know about Risk, all I can really do to inform you is to point out the objectively worse choices THUGS made that Risk didn't. Really, there's only 1.
In Risk, it is always very clear how powerful your opponents are in any given area. You can tell which territories have how many soldiers and of which color. Here, anything you don't control is just colored black with a big question mark, so you have no idea which areas you need to defend and which areas are vulnerable for attack, meaning this game is even more of a damn dice roll than the combat mechanics that made me hate Risk so much.
As you have probably extrapolated from the titles of my posts by now, Titanium Snail didn't work for me. Sorry...
And that just leaves Toblo, one of the most charming games I've ever laid eyes on. DigiPen seems really good at making charming games, don't they? It's certainly a breath of fresh air from the industry standard, where every title must be hard boiled lest it suffer a commercial demise.
But the aesthetic isn't all that I liked about Toblo. The gameplay was pretty dang fun, too. It controls like a standard third person shooter CTF game, but instead of using guns to dispatch your enemies, you have to pick up blocks and throw them. You can hold up to 15 blocks at a time, and the world itself is made out of these blocks, so picking up ammo is a destructive action in and of itself. You start out in this beautiful LEGO utopia and then in the span of just a few minutes you tear it down with your bare adorable hands. Knocking out enemies with part of the environment conjures that glorious gravity gun feel that made HL2: Deathmatch so enjoyable, and holy hot damn when you get hit, you really feel it. Your character goes soaring and the impact is met with some of the punchiest sound effects I've ever heard.
The only real pitfalls this game falls into are ones that I've never seen a CTF game avoid. Eventually, especially in a singleplayer match where the AI is literally mathematically programmed to be equal in skill, you're going to reach this limbo where neither team makes any progress for a while, which sort of makes the whole game stale, so it would have been nice to see some alternate game modes than just CTF and Sandbox (which is utterly useless, by the way). Still, though, a game shouldn't really be criticized for what it doesn't have, so I'm still willing to give this one my seal of approval, if for no other reason than it was able to make me giggle like a child on an otherwise very gloomy day. Good Job on this one.
That's all I got for now. Until next time, stay happy
Links
Risk-ey business: https://www.digipen.edu/?id=1170&proj=552
Opps it dun werk: https://www.digipen.edu/?id=1170&proj=497
I gahtchu!: https://www.digipen.edu/?id=1170&proj=465
So for a game that took as long as it did for me to be comfortable writing a review about it, THUGS has probably inspired the shortest review in me yet. All I can really say about it is: "It's Risk." Ever played Risk? You know, the board game? Well it's the same thing, cept this time with cute little graphics of street thugs beating the crap out of one another whenever there's a dispute for territory.
This is where I kind of have to take a step back and let you decide whether or not you want to play this game, because Risk is one of those games that everyone else seemed to love that I just couldn't stand. Since you guys all probably know about Risk, all I can really do to inform you is to point out the objectively worse choices THUGS made that Risk didn't. Really, there's only 1.
In Risk, it is always very clear how powerful your opponents are in any given area. You can tell which territories have how many soldiers and of which color. Here, anything you don't control is just colored black with a big question mark, so you have no idea which areas you need to defend and which areas are vulnerable for attack, meaning this game is even more of a damn dice roll than the combat mechanics that made me hate Risk so much.
As you have probably extrapolated from the titles of my posts by now, Titanium Snail didn't work for me. Sorry...
And that just leaves Toblo, one of the most charming games I've ever laid eyes on. DigiPen seems really good at making charming games, don't they? It's certainly a breath of fresh air from the industry standard, where every title must be hard boiled lest it suffer a commercial demise.
But the aesthetic isn't all that I liked about Toblo. The gameplay was pretty dang fun, too. It controls like a standard third person shooter CTF game, but instead of using guns to dispatch your enemies, you have to pick up blocks and throw them. You can hold up to 15 blocks at a time, and the world itself is made out of these blocks, so picking up ammo is a destructive action in and of itself. You start out in this beautiful LEGO utopia and then in the span of just a few minutes you tear it down with your bare adorable hands. Knocking out enemies with part of the environment conjures that glorious gravity gun feel that made HL2: Deathmatch so enjoyable, and holy hot damn when you get hit, you really feel it. Your character goes soaring and the impact is met with some of the punchiest sound effects I've ever heard.
The only real pitfalls this game falls into are ones that I've never seen a CTF game avoid. Eventually, especially in a singleplayer match where the AI is literally mathematically programmed to be equal in skill, you're going to reach this limbo where neither team makes any progress for a while, which sort of makes the whole game stale, so it would have been nice to see some alternate game modes than just CTF and Sandbox (which is utterly useless, by the way). Still, though, a game shouldn't really be criticized for what it doesn't have, so I'm still willing to give this one my seal of approval, if for no other reason than it was able to make me giggle like a child on an otherwise very gloomy day. Good Job on this one.
That's all I got for now. Until next time, stay happy
Links
Risk-ey business: https://www.digipen.edu/?id=1170&proj=552
Opps it dun werk: https://www.digipen.edu/?id=1170&proj=497
I gahtchu!: https://www.digipen.edu/?id=1170&proj=465
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