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Cobalt Core (PC) by jp (May 8th, 2024 at 14:25:11) |
I've since played a bunch more, unlocked more characters, etc. The story unlocks are a lot slower/grindy than I'd like and I've realized that some character combinations are pretty bad! I think I've reached the point where I've figured out a bunch of things, but am not quite ready to take my play to another level - as in, there are things it has not occurred to my to try out. This is sort of the moment where I might look at some guide online or see what the player community is saying - what does expert play look like in this space? can I pull off some of the more challenging strategies? I don't know...I'm sort of interested in exploring some more, but also looking at a (digital) stack of other unplayed games... hmm. choices!
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Signs of the Sojourner (PC) by jp (May 8th, 2024 at 14:21:18) |
Maybe it's the road trip aspect of this game, but I was really reminded of the game "Road 96" even though the gameplay and story are completely unrelated. Both games are unrelated. I don't really know why the connection popped into my head to be honest.
Anyways, interesting game - especially the deckbuilding aspects of it. The game does away with most of the intricate and sophisticated mechanics you see while simplifying some things in a way that's pretty refreshing: your deck is always the same size and at the end of every encounter/conversation you have to remove a card from your deck and pick a new one from a small selection (was it 6 options or 3? I can't recall as I write this). The game's mechanics themselves are also simple and interesting - and there's cards that have different effects and such, but not too many.
So, I really liked the pared down deckbuilding! But, the playing a little less so - I mean the playing the card game part - there are perhaps a few too many turns in which I couldn't really do anything and that's always a bummer. On the other hand, the experience aligns well with the game's theme and story! (communication, culture, how people change when exposed to others and their cultures, etc.)
Also, having only played a "full game" once - I feel strangely satisfied, I got the story I got, had the experience I had, and feel no desire to go back and play it differently...which I think is a good thing for many narrative-based games (where replays essentially becomes more about optimizing/ gaming the game than having different stories). This is because in many, but obviously not all, games - playing a gain sort of ruins the experience because you get to see too much behind the curtain - e.g. realizing which things happen regardless of your choices, what the system is doing behind the scenes, etc.
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Loop Hero (PC) by jp (May 8th, 2024 at 14:07:31) |
It's an interesting game for sure. Mostly because I enjoyed slowly figuring stuff out - which tiles to place where and why, and so on. That being said, the "learning loop" (the length of time you have to play in order to try something out and then learn from it) is pretty long - which makes the game a bit of a slog in that sense. This is because, in a nutshell, the effects of your strategies are systemic - they'll play out slowly, over time, as you play the game. In my mind this is similar to playing city-building games (which I'm bad at - I get too impatient and reactive, which means everything goes ok until it all spirals out of control once certain thresholds/tipping points are met). It also makes it hard to try out multiple things at the same time - should I focus on doing X and Y while avoiding Z? (sort of too many variables).
I'm not saying any of this as a bad thing - just as a characteristic that results from this game's design. And, like I said, it is interesting to try out different things and hopefully see success (or failure you can learn from). But, the game's moment to moment isn't that interesting - you mostly watch the game play and pause every now and then to change your loadout (e.g. equip a better weapon that just dropped).
So, the game sort of gets boring pretty soon?
Oh, there's also an entire town-building system - but it's super slow to make any progress here because you need to "farm" (from the main combat/action loop) resources - though what resources you get depends on what tiles your placing, so understanding THOSE relationships is also important.
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Mass Effect: Andromeda (PS4) by jp (May 7th, 2024 at 18:25:53) |
I know this game was reviewed quite poorly. I only remember stuff about the characters (art) and animations not being very good. I'd guess there was other stuff too, but that's all I recall as I type this.
So, I'm fully expecting to play a bit of the game, get tired/bored/frustrated, and then I'll move on. BUT, I'll be able to say - "yes, I have played one of the Mass Effect games for a few hours" and I'll have a better sense of the series even if it is coming from the least respected main-line entry.
I'm only a few hours in at this point - more hours than it should be due to technical issues with the disc: it didn't work while installing on the PS4, so I installed in PS5 instead, and then I had issues....and, anyways. I think it's all solved now... but - I've made it to the point where you gain access to a ship and I'm expecting to start flying around and doing missions and enjoying a bit more freedom than I have so far. BUT, so far it's been pretty fun and I'm genuinely curious and interested to continue playing...so we'll see!
The game's early intro is interesting - for an RPG in my view - because it leads with all-action stuff! There's moving around and jumping and shooting... Sure, there was some story and cut-scenes and what not. But the gameplay was all on-planet action based! I was like "woah, this is not the RPG I was expecting". And then there's an important story moment (my father dies! I'm now the pathfinder, so much responsibility), and the entire next section of the game is sort of the introduction to what'll probably be the main cast of other characters - namely everyone else on the ship we're on as part of a big "lets colonize other galaxies" effort. I walked around, talked to people, accepted missions/tasks, solved a case of someone sabotaging something in the ship and got a big info dump on "what is generally going on here".
So, in these few hours I feel like I've just had the intro stuff and that now the game will "open up" into the rest of the game!
I'm pretty excited to be honest and yes, the characters don't look "great" and I saw the AI do some weird stuff...but, it's all good.
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Cuphead (Switch) by jp (May 7th, 2024 at 13:25:08) |
I've been playing this with my son and yes, it is as hard as I'd heard. And no, we probably won't be able to finish it. But, we'll see how far we get and how much fun we're still having. We've just (almost) cleared the first island (only missing one of the run-n-gun missions).
What stands out so far?
a. Levels are a lot shorter than I expected - in a good way. I was sort of kind of dreading having to play these really long levels. But no, they're pretty short which is nice.
b. I like the variety! Not just in the enemies and their attacks and whatnot. But, so far there are run and gun (typical Contra-style running, platforming, and shooting), flying levels (only one so far, like 2D shooters of yore), and boss fights (multi-stage single screen battles). It's nice to mix things up and I've enjoyed that part of the game.
c. I did not remember their being an upgrade system wherein you could purchase different weapons, boons, and variations on your super attack. I'm not a fan of the "this upgrade also has a drawback" (e.g. get one extra heart, but do less damage in your attacks). But still, I like the variety overall.
d. Many of the boss fights have SOME randomization which is interesting (to me, not saying it's a huge novelty in the genre) - for example the boss might change into one of three different enemies (I'm thinking of the first flying level where you either get a bull, dancing twins, or an archer). The slot machine level was fun for this - even if the different attack patterns (even if one of them, the golden platforms was significantly harder for me).
e. In this game it never makes sense to not shoot all the time - I wish there was just an autofire toggle or something.
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Cyberpunk 2077 (PS4) by jp |
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most recent entry: Thursday 17 December, 2020
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Since playing the intro/tutorial I’ve since gone on to play a much longer session (I think I’m 9 hours in at this point?) that ended at the beginning of Act 2. There have been interesting reveals and stuff that is really setting the stage for what I think is to come. I’ve also mostly avoided doing any of the side missions – for some reason the main storyline seemed more compelling and urgent and I just sort of went with the flow.
I’ve seen lots of graphical glitches (lots). The most common is seeing Jackie just walk through closed doors (including elevator ones). Nothing I’d consider game-breaking, though the game has crashed a number of times on me. This is what’s bugging me the most, to be honest, but the game’s auto-saving system has not let me down at all and I’ve never felt like I wasted a lot of my time.
As for the game? I have thoughts and opinions – but, I’m still chewing on a lot of this and trying to make sense of it.
(a)
After the introduction I got into the main storyline mission – you’re approached by a fixer (Dex) who is hiring you to steal a McGuffin – he’s been hired by someone – and you basically spend time getting a piece of equipment (a flathead robot) to carry out the steal as well as doing intel work in order to plan everything. You then “do the mission” – things go south as expected – and that’s sort of the end of act 1. There’s a major story surprise about the McGuffin that I won’t spoil here…
My overall feeling is – WOW, that was a really fun and authentic Cyberpunk 2020-style adventure. I would definitely have played that back in the day. Or today, for that matter. It’s very much a by-the-numbers adventure that hits the typical things you’d want in a good tabletop adventure. There’s a setup, it’s a high stakes job, it pays well, it would mean a big rep boost, it ties in to at least one of the characters motivations (revenge, here), you need to do some prep work/intelligence gathering, and there are surprises along the way.
The resolution of the adventure is very much NOT like your typical adventure – mostly because it goes south so badly. In my trpg experience, when things go bad it’s either a TPK or significant loss of resources. Sure, a PC may die – but that’s pretty rare. They’ll get beat up, need to lay low, etc.
In this sense, so far I’ve had exactly the kind of game experience I was hoping and wishing for. An authentic CP2020 experience that’s engaged with the game’s world and lore.
But…
(b)
I’m surprised by how completely and entirely different the game’s core systems and mechanics are from the tabletop game. I think, at this point, the only commonality is in the basic stats (INT, REF, BOD, COOL, TECH) (though, EMPATHY and ATT ~ Attractiveness is gone, but they also killed it in CP RED which makes sense). I mean, none of it is there. I was curious to see what they’d do – would they keep the skill-based system of the original (to “do” something you roll against a difficulty number using a D10 roll+your skill level (no. between 1-10) + relevant basic stat. While I wasn’t expecting the die rolling to be up front, I wondered if we’d see a list of skills and so on. This matters in the TRPG because different characters in the team have access to different skills based on their role (class) – and though you can choose from one of three roles in CP2077, as far as I can tell the only difference between the roles is the dialogue options you get access too. Perhaps the basic stats numbers are different? But, in the trpg it’s the skill list that really makes a difference. Additionally each role has a special (unique to the role) skill that sets them apart from the other characters. Solos are REALLY good at going first in combat, Techies can jury rig equipment on the fly (ala MacGuyver), and so on.
Now, the system their using in the game works and I have no complaints about it – you unlock perks that boost your abilities, stats, etc. It’s very standard modern-action RPG videogame fare. There’s a tree with stuff to unlock and you decide where you spend your points. But, it’s not cyberpunk’s system…
I wonder what the thinking there was? Was it that most skills would be useless/unsupportable in the videogame? They needed to PC to be much more vanilla/jack-of-all-trades?
Oh, and it’s not just the skill system that’s gone – the videogame has a level-based progression system (you level up and thus unlock points to spend increasing basic stats and perks) that’s completely anathema to the trpg’s system (no levels, it’s all skills – and the skills go up individually).
Finally, the health system is ALSO completely different. The core concept I mean. Broadly speaking everyone in CP2020 has the same amount of hitpoints. It never really changes and that’s it. This makes combat super deadly and dangerous – regardless of how long you’ve been playing. This is the opposite of other games like D&D where you can start to bullet-sponge enemies and so on. CP2077’s system has hit points and they go up (but not all the time like in D&D)
So, in the system sense – Cyberpunk2077 is it’s own beast. It’s entirely inauthentic to the TRPG.
And the other stuff?
Well, that’s all different too – CP2077 has a significant crafting/modding system (that I haven’t really gotten into) that’s fresh/new to the world. I mean, you could make stuff in the regular TRPG, but not with the ease and simplicity you can in the videogame and perhaps, more importantly, it wasn’t a core system of the game (at most the TRPG’s original sourcebook had rules for creating drugs – but not weapons!) And, while I haven’t gotten into the cyberware too much (in terms of buying/installing) – it already seems really different. There was a strong system reason to NOT go all out with cyberware in CP2020 (it reduced your empathy stat that made all the social skills a lot harder to succeed at) – and, other than lack of money to pay – I’m not sure there is any such disincentive here.
Netrunning is also completely different – but that’s mostly a good thing because the original TRPG’s system was awful…and it’s all changed based on stuff that’s happened in the world/lore.
In all?
Well, I wonder what non CP2020 fans are enjoying/getting out of the game. Is it the world/story/characters? The system? Is the game really Cyberpunk in 2077? Not really, it really feels much more like CP2020 that’s had an editorial facelift to update/remove the things that were futuristic THEN (1980s-1990s) but are quaint and out-dated now. It’s kept the tone and feel while ditching all the crunchiness of the game’s system.
I guess like CP2020’s rulebook states about what characters should care about – style over substance – I think that CP2077 is all of the STYLE without any of the SUBSTANCE of the original. It’s got it’s own substance – so that’s not really a problem. But there’s more to the differences than just “oh, that wouldn’t work in a videogame so we had to change it”.
That being said, I probably have many, many hours left to play…so, I’ll see?
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