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Before Your Eyes (PC) by dkirschner (Apr 14th, 2024 at 13:51:13) |
I've been looking forward to playing this, especially after playing One Hand Clapping, which had a singing mechanic. That game activates your mic and you use your voice, raising and lowering pitch, to interact with the game. Before Your Eyes was similar in that the game activates your webcam and uses your eye blinks as input. Before Your Eyes works WAY better than One Hand Clapping, and it's the better game all around. I figure that detecting blinks (yes/no) is easier than detecting notes along the range of human vocal pitch, so kudos to One Hand Clapping for trying.
Blinking in Before Your Eyes doesn't do anything unless you do it over a prompt (mouse over the prompt, then blink to interact) or unless you do it when the metronome icon is visible, which progresses the story to the next scene. The rules are simple, and it became a game in and of itself for me to blink strategically. I imagined that at the end of A Clockwork Orange, Alex's eyes are forced open so that he could successfully complete this game. At times, I felt like holding my eyes open with my fingers. This is because your eyes will get tired/dry/itchy while playing and you will screw up and blink when you don't mean to, skipping dialogue or ending a scene early. That's frustrating enough. Make sure you do the blink calibration, but I think that no matter how well you do it, it will still occasionally register some non-blinks as blinks. This really didn't happen much for me; through calibration, I think I turned the sensitivity way down, and I wonder what effect wearing glasses had. But like I said, it works surprisingly well.
So, the game itself is narrative-heavy. It's an obvious play on the idea that a life can pass in the "blink of an eye." You're picked up by a ferryman of souls who asks you to tell the story of your life. Back in time you go to remember it: your childhood, your parents, your career, etc., blinking your way through each scene. I won't spoil the story, but there is a twist that I absolutely did not see coming (though I should have paid more attention to the mysterious dark scenes) that changes the narrative and the tone of the game. This is one you can spend time reflecting on.
Aesthetically, it's got a simple visual presentation, sort of painterly, with some really nice piano music. The voice acting is good, with the exception of the girl-next-door (who sounds the same at 10 as she does at 40). For some reason, they also used the same voice actor for your dad and her dad, which made the one scene with her dad calling her very confusing ("Why is my dad at her house?!"). But I liked the dad and mom's performances. I was wondering through the whole game if your character was mute and/or on the spectrum because he doesn't talk--only through a typewriter later in the game--and otherwise expresses himself through his prodigious musical and artistic talents. But I think he's just a silent main character, not actually mute.
Anyway, the game won a BAFTA for a reason. It didn't blow my mind, but it's a neat experience that's worth having. It's short too, doesn't waste your time. I'm considering incorporating it into a class.
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Stray (PC) by dkirschner (Apr 13th, 2024 at 12:00:39) |
Patrick and I have been playing this together this semester, and finished it a couple weeks ago. We were talking after beating it about despite how simple and straightforward of a game this is, it manages to be something new. Playing as a cat (and being able to do cat things like curl up and sleep, scratch things, knock objects off tables, etc., so cuuuute) was novel, and the setting and story were interesting. But really, playing as a cat. I smiled a whole lot throughout the game. The lil companion robot was cute too.
On the other hand, I was often tired and bored while playing, and literally fell asleep during several sessions. Patrick would be making dinner or something in the kitchen, and I'd snap awake, cat walking into a wall, and I'd pretend I had not fallen asleep, and that I was just watching the cat walk into the wall and thinking. Like how my dad always used to claim he was "resting his eyes" when he'd fall asleep on the couch.
I would not call the game exciting. It was a lot of wandering around the city and talking to robot NPCs, fetching things for them. The city is a really good-looking dystopia, and the robots are quirky, but I wish they had more dialogue. You don't get a sense that many of them have personalities besides whatever one-note thing they do. I mean, the lack of dialogue makes sense, and it's not really "dialogue" since the cat can't talk. The fact that you are a cat adds a whole layer of silly to the game. Like, why has this lil robot befriended a cat? Why are all these robots putting all their faith in a cat to save them? Cats don't understand what we're saying to them, and cats do whatever they want! Playing as a cat in a game where you're doing fetch quests (fetching is dog stuff!) and doing things to help people is very un-cat-like.
But, you know what? The ability to play as a cat and do cat things trumps how little sense it makes, and I would play as a cat in this dystopia again. Idea for next time: more cats. And what do you think? Were there cats at the end?! Optimistically, I think so.
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Hadean Tactics (PC) by jp (Apr 7th, 2024 at 13:32:36) |
This game is supposed to be a deck-building tactical game and it sort of isn't, but very lightly is - at least in my experience so far.
So, like CD2: Trap Master this game REALLY wears it's Slay the Spire inspirations on its sleeve. Again, there's a path you that branches and you need to pick which nodes to visit - and there's fights, boss fights, resting spots, stores, artifact/rewards, and shops. Oh, there's also "story encounters" where you make a choice that often results in a benefit and a drawback. VERY Slay the Spire - though I noticed the way the events are distributed is different and that it's much more important to plan your way through it since the paths intersect a lot less and you can, for example in my last run, set yourself up with 4 rest/upgrade a card spots in a row!
In addition to a deck of cards you have the character you chose and two "minions" (they're all monsters) that exist on a 2D grid that's quite typical of tactical games. The enemies will spawn, you have energy to cast your cards - generally you cast your cards, unpause and wait for the timer to pause the game when it hits the threshold (7 seconds) for your hand to flush, a new hand is drawn, and you get more mana to cast spells. What isn't really tactical about it is that all the fighting on the tactical grid (which includes everyone having abilities they cast once their mana is full) happens automatically. You can't (afaik) give orders to anyone. At best, if you have the right spells, you can move creatures around (your own or enemy), but they then move back to whatever it is they want to do (e.g. attack the nearest enemy).
One of my runs used a character that had access to "trap" cards which are pretty neat since you lay them on the grid and then have to trigger them (with a different card) and ALL the trap laid will trigger. Some do damage, others heal your allies, and so on. So, the game isn't tactical at all in the turn-by-turn combat and movement decision-making sense. Yes, you choose whom to roll into a fight with, which spells to cast on whom, and when to cast things. But, since you don't directly control your combat units it all feels pretty indirect.
Where the game goes pretty wild (and above/beyond what Slay the Spire does) is that once you've cleared a run - you gain access to making your own hero - choose skills/talents from a list AND choose which spells will be available (again from a list, which only has the ones you've unlocked). So, in this sense the game has a lot, lot more options/replayability and that sort of thing. But, I'm not sure it's that much more interesting?
Oh, there is a meta-progression. When I beat my first run a giant death/reaper creature appeared and said "ok, now you can start to make progress towards winning - you have to collect wings". And I've collected a few since, you get them from killing the stage end bosses (which is nice in that you don't have to get all the way to the end). I need to get 7 - so I wonder if I'll just have to play over and over until I randomly get the right bosses or will the game feed me different ones until I get them all? I've also unlocked a new (third) character...but I kind of don't want to use it because I want to get all the wings with the character I've made some progress with.
I've played about 4 hours and I've really enjoyed the "decay" and "trap" mechanics... we'll see how it goes!
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Deathloop (PS4) by jp (Apr 4th, 2024 at 11:14:36) |
Argh. The longer you go without playing, the worse this game's experience becomes. This is almost entirely due to me forgetting both how to play, but also all the localized information and knowledge you pick up - like who is where, when, and so on.
I love the idea of a "clockwork" game where you deftly navigate your way through things that happen and certain times and places - there's a sense of beauty and elegance to the choreography you develop and create (sort of like when you watch those time loop movies and see a character weave through people and places because they know what's going to happen when and they've just learned it). BUT, that beauty also creates an entry barrier - at least a psychological one for me, because the game's on-ramp is past and now you're in the thick of it. But you've forgotten everything...
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Devil May Cry 5 (PS4) by jp (Apr 4th, 2024 at 11:09:05) |
So I took a break - and then came back to the game and had forgotten how to play. It took a bit to remember (I purposefully avoided looking stuff up because I wanted to see how easy it was for me to remember). So, some of the fights with V took longer than they should have - because I had forgotten that V has to "finish off" the enemies...lol.
While I often focus (for my own personal interests) on game play and game design aspects of a game - I realized as I was playing this game that..wow, the visual design of the large enemies really is phenomenal. They're both beautiful, awesome, creepy, gross, and disgusting. It's quite the accomplishment and I really appreciated it. And, this is in the context of me playing a game that is ~7 years old and running on last gen hardware. Perhaps I haven't played enough PS5 games yet so I'm still too impressionable? Have things moved that far in terms of photorealism?
I have decided to move on even though I realize, from the back of the box, that I'll miss out on the 3rd playable character. It's no fault or problem with DMC5...it's just that I've got too many games to play and I think I've understood enough about this game to move on to another.
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Bastion (PC) by dkirschner |
| Loving the narration and art style, music also great. Fighting is fairly basic. Would be better with a gamepad. ----------- This game is brilliant, especially the narration/storytelling and how it manages difficulty. |
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most recent entry: Thursday 21 June, 2012
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Bastion is a remarkable game. First of all, it's very pretty and the soundtrack is fantastic. Thanks to the most recent Humble Bundle, I have it too! Much has been said about the narration in the game, and I vouch it's every bit as awesome as you heard. The narrator is a character in the story and he tells it, paraphrasing what other people say and always commenting on what you, 'The Kid,' are doing. It's dynamic, which blew my mind. I thought he was going to stop with the dynamic narration, like that was only in the beginning, but it's the entire game and so so so well done. So you come upon a new gun -- "The Kid sees his old friends, the twin repeater pistols." I mean he narrates the story as you move along and narrates significant things that happen and that you see and even makes little remarks about things you do. So I started a New Game + after beating it and I was rolling through the beginning (literally rolling) and he commented "The Kid just rolls right on through." Stuff like that. It's really neat. I would recommend everyone play this game just to hear the narration and experience the presentation of the story. Luckily the rest of it is great too.
Another unique thing this game does is handle its difficulty. You invoke different deities that grant enemies power/handicap you and it's your choice which ones to invoke when. There are 10 total (8 on the first play through) and they do things like make enemies hit harder or have more life, make them drop a grenade when you kill them, make them faster, etc. If the game's too easy (which is most certainly is without a few idols!) then pick a challenge. It's a freaking brilliant system, and to reward you for added difficulty, each idol you use grants you 5-10% bonus crystals and experience. One reason the difficulty system works so well is that when you level up, you get a spirit slot. You can add drinks that give you passive bonuses, 1 for each level. These include +15% damage reduction, +10 health, +100% shield counter damage, etc. The spirits and the idols sort of counterbalance one another. Like the more spirits you have, the more idols you'll be able to handle. And the more idols you use, the more experience you get, so the faster you can level and use more spirits.
I finished the game at level 7. When I got my first idol, I was thinking "haha, you must be crazy, why would I make this harder on myself?" and then I saw the bonus and I tried it out, and it was actually really nice to play with the sped up enemies (which I did first). So every time I got an idol, I added it. I was up to 5 or 6 the first time I ran into trouble. I accidentally made it so I couldn't kill this one boss because I'd turned on the enemy health regeneration idol (in addition to +enemy damage, +enemy defense and all the rest), and I couldn't attack this boss fast enough. He just regenerated faster than I could damage him. That's the first time I took an idol off. Then I just kept with 5 or so because some of the enemies got a bit harder. There is an achievement for completing a 'Who Knows Where' level (which is like a dreamstate with lots of waves of enemies where you can train and get crystals and xp) with at least 1 idol. I figured I'd try it with 1 instead of 5 so I took all of them off. It was then that I realized how crazy easy the game is without idols and how crazy better at the game I was from playing with idols the entire way than if I'd not used them. Like I spent the entire game with enemies moving way faster, taking way more damage, hitting me harder, and dropping grenades. When I took all that stuff off it was just like 'lol wow, really?' It's like how you run faster if you're following someone just faster than you, or you do better at a task when you're told that other people perform at this higher level. Really really great way of handling difficulty! And then once you beat the game you can do a New Game + where you keep all your weapons and upgrades and spirits and idols, which allows you to try and use more idols and keep leveling up for more challenge.
The fighting is pretty basic, feels fairly hack and slash with perhaps a bit more precision than usual since a lot of weapons involve careful aim and timing to pull off power shots. It's a fun system, and you can upgrade your weapons a lot with crystals. There are these weapon challenge areas where you can practice and beat times or scores and unlock some rewards, usually weapon upgrades or special attacks. Those were fun and I actually mastered all but 2.
The only thing I didn't love about the game were the controls on the PC. I think a game pad would be better for moving about the map. The mouse was fine for attacking, but the WASD just lacked precision for rolling and moving around the map. I fell off the map plenty of times. But minor gripe.
Wholeheartedly recommend Bastion.
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