Sousui, or as I like to call it, Asteroids with Attitude, is a top-down space shooter wherein you shoot things in space. Nuff said. Sometimes you're escorting colonists to gates while shooting things in space, sometimes you're defending a base while shooting things in space, and sometimes you're just plain shooting things in space.
So, how fun is it to shoot things in space in Sousui? Well, could be worse. The sound effects are satisfying and all the weapons are very well designed and fun to use, but the enemies are just way too tough. I don't care that the big battle cruisers take a long time to kill, but even the little grunts that may as well have a big neon sign above them that says "we die with one hit," actually take several hits to kill.
Even though the weapons are varied and cool looking, they're still not going to be as fun as they could be if killing even the smallest baddies weren't a chore. There's a reason the expert mode in Starfox 64 only makes you more vulnerable rather than making the enemies more durable. The former increases challenge and demands better performance on the player's part, whereas the latter just adds another layer of tedium onto the experience.
Apart from that, there are some cool little details that make the experience more enjoyable than your typical Asteroids wannabe. first off, the graphics, music, and voice acting (voice acting?), yes, voice acting, are all well grounded in the second decade of the 21st century (but Sousui came out in 2008! Shut up, voice in my head...ahem). Also, the first level ends not with a proclamation of your awesomeness and victory, but with your enemy utterly destroying your entire base with one powerful attack. This adds a whole new level of threat to the experience in a way not a lot of shoot 'em ups can claim to. I don't know whether this or anything like it happens again, because I only played the first two levels.
But why did you stop after the second level, Dean? I'm glad you asked. Frankly, I thought the game had overstayed its welcome. As I said before, killing enemies isn't incredibly fun, and the game also just throws way too many of them at you. Because of this, I never really felt like I was progressing. The scenery never changed, I rarely got any feedback from the high-pitched "Daniel Floyd in Extra Credits" voice over man, and the enemies just kept on coming. It felt like I was stuck in one particularly long segment of the game.
I was so tired of picking away at enemies with my vastly inferior weaponry after the second level that I just decided to quit. Maybe the game gets better later, but I couldn't tell ya. That's all I got for now. Until next time, stay pewpewin.
Links
So Sweet: https://www.digipen.edu/?id=1170&proj=1422
Monday, September 9, 2013
Sonace
Well guys, the school year is officially upon us, meaning I'm not going to have the time nor the energy to write reviews of the kind of length I was able to this summer. Be warned, my weekday reviews are going to be more like barebones outlines than actual reviews. As the old adage goes, I don't need em good. I need em by Tuesday.
Sonace is a 2.5D Mega Man-esque platformer. There's really only one interesting thing to talk about here, and that's the game's conveyance. Like Mega Man, it tries to convey all of its controls by using the mechanics alone. A worthy challenge to pose to oneself, I must say. Certainly a great exercise for any aspiring game designer.
At the end of my playthrough, I had learned and mastered about half of the game's controls. Not terrible for a game with no textual explanations for anything whatsoever, but it could have been better.
I will say that the game did a very good, if annoying, job at conveying the fact that pressing jump twice will allow you to hover Princess Peach style around the level at a constant altitude. There's one section about halfway through that I think is impossible to clear without using this technique, so the player is guaranteed to learn it. Also, the first enemies you face are all very high up, attached to the ceiling, so such a technique would be very helpful when aiming your default arcing weapon. Only problem is that the enemies are just as easy to kill with a simple jump-shot, and are even easier to simply skip past, even without using the dash.
Dashing, then, is a skill I had no idea existed until I looked at the controls screen after my first playthrough. There's no need to ever use it, so conveying it isn't really essential, but it makes the game a heck of a lot more fun to play, so why not create some kind of room where you have to dash through a section of floor or spikes come out of it or something?
Also, you can switch weapons, but why you would ever want to is beyond me. Your secondary weapon is short range, and with the exception of the final boss, all of the enemies are fought at medium-long range, because if they get too close, they hurt you. Even the final boss is easily defeated by the default weapon, however.
Or at least I think it was. I honestly couldn't tell whether I beat the game or I died. I was wailing on the boss for quite a while when my health got dangerously close to 0. I kept hitting the boss, however, and suddenly the game just cut to the credits sequence, which makes it seem like I won...I guess.
All-in-all, it's an interesting game and a valiant effort to capture the genius of Mega Man's design. Unfortunately, it does fall short, but that doesn't mean it's not worth checking out. That's all I got for now. Until next time, stay afloat.
Links
So Nice: https://www.digipen.edu/?id=1170&proj=514
Sonace is a 2.5D Mega Man-esque platformer. There's really only one interesting thing to talk about here, and that's the game's conveyance. Like Mega Man, it tries to convey all of its controls by using the mechanics alone. A worthy challenge to pose to oneself, I must say. Certainly a great exercise for any aspiring game designer.
At the end of my playthrough, I had learned and mastered about half of the game's controls. Not terrible for a game with no textual explanations for anything whatsoever, but it could have been better.
I will say that the game did a very good, if annoying, job at conveying the fact that pressing jump twice will allow you to hover Princess Peach style around the level at a constant altitude. There's one section about halfway through that I think is impossible to clear without using this technique, so the player is guaranteed to learn it. Also, the first enemies you face are all very high up, attached to the ceiling, so such a technique would be very helpful when aiming your default arcing weapon. Only problem is that the enemies are just as easy to kill with a simple jump-shot, and are even easier to simply skip past, even without using the dash.
Dashing, then, is a skill I had no idea existed until I looked at the controls screen after my first playthrough. There's no need to ever use it, so conveying it isn't really essential, but it makes the game a heck of a lot more fun to play, so why not create some kind of room where you have to dash through a section of floor or spikes come out of it or something?
Also, you can switch weapons, but why you would ever want to is beyond me. Your secondary weapon is short range, and with the exception of the final boss, all of the enemies are fought at medium-long range, because if they get too close, they hurt you. Even the final boss is easily defeated by the default weapon, however.
Or at least I think it was. I honestly couldn't tell whether I beat the game or I died. I was wailing on the boss for quite a while when my health got dangerously close to 0. I kept hitting the boss, however, and suddenly the game just cut to the credits sequence, which makes it seem like I won...I guess.
All-in-all, it's an interesting game and a valiant effort to capture the genius of Mega Man's design. Unfortunately, it does fall short, but that doesn't mean it's not worth checking out. That's all I got for now. Until next time, stay afloat.
Links
So Nice: https://www.digipen.edu/?id=1170&proj=514
Sunday, September 8, 2013
Sombrero Ninja
At first, this game looked like a 2.5D version of Shattered Core, what with its "move with arrow keys, sword and gun with WASD" control setup. In terms of visuals, it was...interesting. You and the world are traditional 2.5D, the first two enemies you encounter do that Paper Mario thing where 2D characters move in a 3D plane, and your sword and death animations are absolute nightmares of particle effects that somehow actually look charming and kinda cool.
This was, unfortunately, the only experience I've had with Sombrero Ninja, because I couldn't figure out how to get off the very first platform. I started pressing random buttons, half out of desperation to continue and half because I wanted to figure out how to use the shuriken that was so tantalizingly advertised to me on the HUD, when I realized that the "U," "H," "J," and "K" keys can move the camera around. This would be a cool feature if it didn't break the game entirely. Somehow, the camera ended up tilted at a weird angle and I couldn't figure out how to fix it. Plus, the camera doesn't track your character anymore once you move it, so pressing any of those buttons may as well just make your character kneel down and drive his katana through his aorta for all the good it does. I was able to see, by moving the camera, that there are in fact more platforms to get to, but they're so far away from the first that I have no idea how to get to them.
So that's it. Sombrero Ninja is about one hundredth of a very well designed game. That's all I got for now. Until next time, stay isolated.
Links
Big Sword and Funny Hat: https://www.digipen.edu/?id=1170&proj=506
PS- I played the game again, and this time the camera manipulation didn't work. So I have no idea what happened the first time...
This was, unfortunately, the only experience I've had with Sombrero Ninja, because I couldn't figure out how to get off the very first platform. I started pressing random buttons, half out of desperation to continue and half because I wanted to figure out how to use the shuriken that was so tantalizingly advertised to me on the HUD, when I realized that the "U," "H," "J," and "K" keys can move the camera around. This would be a cool feature if it didn't break the game entirely. Somehow, the camera ended up tilted at a weird angle and I couldn't figure out how to fix it. Plus, the camera doesn't track your character anymore once you move it, so pressing any of those buttons may as well just make your character kneel down and drive his katana through his aorta for all the good it does. I was able to see, by moving the camera, that there are in fact more platforms to get to, but they're so far away from the first that I have no idea how to get to them.
So that's it. Sombrero Ninja is about one hundredth of a very well designed game. That's all I got for now. Until next time, stay isolated.
Links
Big Sword and Funny Hat: https://www.digipen.edu/?id=1170&proj=506
PS- I played the game again, and this time the camera manipulation didn't work. So I have no idea what happened the first time...
Saturday, September 7, 2013
Solstice
Solstice is an "experimental" exploration game. Now, I'm fine with experiments, but I have to ask what hypothesis this particular experiment was testing. It seems to be "players will want to keep playing a game even if they're given no motivation whatsoever to continue playing it," which is a hypothesis long since proven false and the negative of which has been held as a basic tenant of game design long before games even stepped into the video world.
In Solstice, you play as a little fairy thing who flies around the world looking for sun fragments. The sun, you see, exploded one day for no particular reason, leaving the world to fester in darkness. Now it's up to you to fly around activating these sun fragments and filling the world's dark soul with LIIIIGHHTTTT....LIGGHTT..LIGHT...light....light....
Sorry.
In the beginning of Solstice, the game tells you that the game is not about winning or losing, but about immersing yourself in a world of music, flight and freedom. At first, I thought that was just a little hint at how to best play the game, like in the beginning of Amnesia, the Dark Descent, but only after I activated enough sun fragments to make the plants come back and found myself flying utterly aimlessly throughout the world I'd just unmasked did I realize that they were actually foreshadowing the "ending" if you can call it that. After a while, you're just left to fly around with no goals, no motivation whatsoever...at least I think so. The game gives you no indication as to whether or not you've accomplished all there is to accomplish. I would've at least started scrolling the credits over the screen or something.
Before the endgame phase, though, you're lead around the dark world from waypoint to waypoint...wait a second, waypoints?! I thought this was an exploration game, why am I still being lead on a linear path? Eh, whatever. At each waypoint, a man trying to do a dark, ominous voice will explain a little bit about what's happening. I have to say, the tone of the voice really clashes with the tone of the game. It's like if the voice overs from Kirby's Epic Yarn featured a Norwegian folk metal vocalist to shout the dialogue to chugging guitars and bagpipes.
And that's Solstice in a nutshell. It's insubstantial and goes from giving the player no freedom to do anything but go from point a to point b to giving the player the freedom to do anything he or she wants in a world in which there is absolutely nothing to do. If I wanted to immerse myself in music, I'd zone out to my Spa station on Pandora.
That's all I got for today. Until next time, stay experimental.
Links
Sun go Boom: https://www.digipen.edu/?id=1170&proj=25267
In Solstice, you play as a little fairy thing who flies around the world looking for sun fragments. The sun, you see, exploded one day for no particular reason, leaving the world to fester in darkness. Now it's up to you to fly around activating these sun fragments and filling the world's dark soul with LIIIIGHHTTTT....LIGGHTT..LIGHT...light....light....
Sorry.
In the beginning of Solstice, the game tells you that the game is not about winning or losing, but about immersing yourself in a world of music, flight and freedom. At first, I thought that was just a little hint at how to best play the game, like in the beginning of Amnesia, the Dark Descent, but only after I activated enough sun fragments to make the plants come back and found myself flying utterly aimlessly throughout the world I'd just unmasked did I realize that they were actually foreshadowing the "ending" if you can call it that. After a while, you're just left to fly around with no goals, no motivation whatsoever...at least I think so. The game gives you no indication as to whether or not you've accomplished all there is to accomplish. I would've at least started scrolling the credits over the screen or something.
Before the endgame phase, though, you're lead around the dark world from waypoint to waypoint...wait a second, waypoints?! I thought this was an exploration game, why am I still being lead on a linear path? Eh, whatever. At each waypoint, a man trying to do a dark, ominous voice will explain a little bit about what's happening. I have to say, the tone of the voice really clashes with the tone of the game. It's like if the voice overs from Kirby's Epic Yarn featured a Norwegian folk metal vocalist to shout the dialogue to chugging guitars and bagpipes.
And that's Solstice in a nutshell. It's insubstantial and goes from giving the player no freedom to do anything but go from point a to point b to giving the player the freedom to do anything he or she wants in a world in which there is absolutely nothing to do. If I wanted to immerse myself in music, I'd zone out to my Spa station on Pandora.
That's all I got for today. Until next time, stay experimental.
Links
Sun go Boom: https://www.digipen.edu/?id=1170&proj=25267
Solar Flare
Solar Flare is a 3D RTS wherein you are a planet hell bent on killing all the other planets. Seems legit.
The general rule of thumb with an RTS game is: the less wait time, the better. Actually, that's a good rule to stick to for any game, but RTS games seem to violate that rule more often than games of other genres do. Solar Flare commits the cardinal sin of "steadily refilling resource points," which means if you build stuff too quickly (that is to say, not making yourself a sandwich every time you erect a cannon), you're going to be waiting around quite a bit for your energy bar to fill up.
To Solar Flare's credit, it does try to keep things as fast-paced as possible, making the player control when the cannons fire rather than having them auto-fire. Honestly, though, that's just not enough. I spent about 3 quarters of a match just building energy towers to make my points refill faster, but I still had to wait an annoyingly long amount of time between cannon builds.
That's pretty much all there is to say about Solar Flare, really. It can be fun if you're patient enough not to mind taking a little nap every time you click a button, but I personally need more engagement. That's all I got for now. Until next time, stay solar.
Links
Ahm Bliiind: https://www.digipen.edu/?id=1170&proj=8719
The general rule of thumb with an RTS game is: the less wait time, the better. Actually, that's a good rule to stick to for any game, but RTS games seem to violate that rule more often than games of other genres do. Solar Flare commits the cardinal sin of "steadily refilling resource points," which means if you build stuff too quickly (that is to say, not making yourself a sandwich every time you erect a cannon), you're going to be waiting around quite a bit for your energy bar to fill up.
To Solar Flare's credit, it does try to keep things as fast-paced as possible, making the player control when the cannons fire rather than having them auto-fire. Honestly, though, that's just not enough. I spent about 3 quarters of a match just building energy towers to make my points refill faster, but I still had to wait an annoyingly long amount of time between cannon builds.
That's pretty much all there is to say about Solar Flare, really. It can be fun if you're patient enough not to mind taking a little nap every time you click a button, but I personally need more engagement. That's all I got for now. Until next time, stay solar.
Links
Ahm Bliiind: https://www.digipen.edu/?id=1170&proj=8719
Solace
The way I see it, there are 3 different kinds of video game narrative. First, there's the kind that explains the plot, setting, etc directly and overtly, like in Mass Effect or pretty much any AAA game. Then, there's the Oniro kind of narrative wherein you're given a vague idea of who you are and why you are where you are, but the events of the story aren't conveyed by traditional means; they're instead conveyed using symbols in the mechanics. That's my favorite kind of narrative, personally, but I digress. The third kind of narrative is the one in which there isn't really any narrative at all. No, I'm not talking about zero-context games like A Series of Tubes, I'm talking about the kind of games that just focus on an emotion or one theme and, rather than expand upon that theme with a story, characters, etc, they skip the middleman and just build their game to reinforce it, like in Shattered Nocturne.
Solace is in the third camp of video game narrative. It's a top-down rhythmic shooter that consists of 5 stages, each one named after one of the five stages of grief. For example, "Anger" has you decked out with a crap-ton of weapons from the get-go while super fast and powerful enemies flood the screen as metal music blasts in the background, each of your shots generating another guitar chug. "Depression" on the other hand, features enemies that pose you no threat whatsoever while your shots, which are almost completely ineffective, generate little acoustic guitar riffs as if played by the world's most depressed country music star. It's nice to see this kind of juxtaposition in the level design.
I only have two minor complaints for this game. First off, the rhythm in the depression stage needed work. Player input generating the music was an integral part of the game, and I understand the concept of taking a bit of control from the player in the depression stage, but the guitar riffs are just slightly off-beat, which is hard to ignore.
Second, some of the stages overstay their welcome a bit. Once again, depression is the worst offender, but really all the stages with the exception of bargaining and acceptance linger just a bit too long. I feel that the emotion they were trying to build gets built to its capacity a good 3-5 minutes before the level ends. Maybe I'm just a bit impatient, but timing is very important in a game like this.
Aside from that, though, the game is great. It's structured wonderfully, the gameplay is fun and varied, and while I won't say it makes you think, it certainly makes you feel. That's all I got for today. Until next time, stay comfy.
Links
Sock Lice: https://www.digipen.edu/?id=1170&proj=18525
Solace is in the third camp of video game narrative. It's a top-down rhythmic shooter that consists of 5 stages, each one named after one of the five stages of grief. For example, "Anger" has you decked out with a crap-ton of weapons from the get-go while super fast and powerful enemies flood the screen as metal music blasts in the background, each of your shots generating another guitar chug. "Depression" on the other hand, features enemies that pose you no threat whatsoever while your shots, which are almost completely ineffective, generate little acoustic guitar riffs as if played by the world's most depressed country music star. It's nice to see this kind of juxtaposition in the level design.
I only have two minor complaints for this game. First off, the rhythm in the depression stage needed work. Player input generating the music was an integral part of the game, and I understand the concept of taking a bit of control from the player in the depression stage, but the guitar riffs are just slightly off-beat, which is hard to ignore.
Second, some of the stages overstay their welcome a bit. Once again, depression is the worst offender, but really all the stages with the exception of bargaining and acceptance linger just a bit too long. I feel that the emotion they were trying to build gets built to its capacity a good 3-5 minutes before the level ends. Maybe I'm just a bit impatient, but timing is very important in a game like this.
Aside from that, though, the game is great. It's structured wonderfully, the gameplay is fun and varied, and while I won't say it makes you think, it certainly makes you feel. That's all I got for today. Until next time, stay comfy.
Links
Sock Lice: https://www.digipen.edu/?id=1170&proj=18525
Friday, September 6, 2013
taking the day off
My birthday isn't for another 26 days, but I celebrated it today, meaning I'm too hungover on cookies and pizza to focus, so screw it. I'll try to do 3 reviews tomorrow once the little gnome in my head stops playing the chimes.
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