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...
Tuesday, November 19, 2013
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.
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