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Aug 7th, 2023 at 07:00:07 - Infamous Second Son (PS4) |
This one gets a resounding "meh" and surely suffers from me playing it nearly 10 years after release. Ideas that may have been fresh then are not now. In particular, I was struck by how simple and repetitive the game is. Infamous isn't a sequel to the PS3 games, but more or less copy/pastes them as far as I remember. You play as a guy named Delsin, who is Native American. So little was done with his Native American heritage that I think they wrote this in for token diversity. There is some window dressing in the beginning about his living in a Native community, but culturally and for any purposes of the game, it doesn't matter one iota. They could have copy/pasted any other marginalized community: a poor urban neighborhood or a homeless camp or a traveling circus. Delsin could have been anything. Also, literally every other character outside his community is White, which makes it more obvious that his Native background is token, unless you want to read into this some juxtaposition of colonizer and colonized, but nothing is there. It's not deep. Nothing about the game is deep. Two other examples:
The morality system -- Think of the most basic morality system you've ever encountered, and Infamous is in that ballpark. You can be good or bad, no gray areas. Completely binary. This citizen is injured! Do you heal them or kill them? This enemy is surrendering! Do you accept their surrender and tie them up or reject and kill them! Each of your main story sidekicks gets in some trouble! Do you jail/kill/banish them or do you stick up for them and teach them to be good like you? The final boss! Do you expose her crimes or just kill her? And of course you can be an insane Delsin with no moral compass and save/kill people on a whim, and the game is perfectly playable like this, and characters have no particular reaction to what you do either way. Actually, that's not entirely true. I assume that regular citizens begin to act more afraid of you if you're evil, because in my (good) playthrough, by the end, they were taking pictures of me and cheering when I whooshed by. But whether that has any impact on the narrative is doubtful. Some abilities and missions are either "good" or "bad" and if you've gone down one path, you're barred from said abilities/missions. I cannot imagine that the differences matter that much though.
The abilities -- In Infamous, you have superpowers. It's very X-Men. The whole story is very X-Men. The story goes that a truck full of "Conduits" (humans with superpowers), or "bio-terrorists" if you're being prejudicial, crashes and a bunch of conduits get loose. The big bad military-government organization who keeps order is hunting down these conduits. But one of them gave you some superpowers, and you find out that a unique thing about you is that you can absorb other conduits' powers. So, over the game, you hunt a few conduits and absorb their powers, unlocking new skill trees. The problem--the simplification--is that each skill tree is basically the same. Doesn't matter if your R2 shooting attack fires smoke, neon, or video bullets. Doesn't matter if your "circle" ability is to dash as a cloud of smoke, a neon streak, or a digital angel (although, unquestionably the neon dash is the most useful). Doesn't matter if your L1 ability is to fire a big smoke missile, a big neon missile, or a big video missile. It was disappointing to find that every time I caught a conduit and unlocked a new set of abilities, it was basically the old set of abilities with a coat of paint.
There were various other annoying things, from the shallow character development to the dark contrast of an otherwise colorful game to some janky climbing (Assassin's Creed this is not). To the first, the lady conduit that you rescue develops romantic feelings for Delsin immediately. Why? I don't know. Is it ever mentioned later in the game, after they almost kiss? Nope. Why not? I don't know. Delsin is pretty annoying. Sasha walked in the room while I was playing one night and said, "your character sounds like a jokester." I said, "Yeah, he is way too cool." He wears a leather jacket (so cool), spray paints stuff (fuck authority!), talks back to his cop brother (conduits are people too!), but he loves his family (a wholesome rebel). Delsin is like the product of a focus group with 14-year-old boys, but then the executives thought that the 14-year-old boys weren't edgy enough and decided to do a content analysis of 90s advertisements and make their character even more rad. No, I got it. He's like a ninja turtle. A Native American ninja turtle.
Despite the mediocrity, it was still fun enough to plow through the game. I ignored most of the side activities (tagging billboards, finding hidden security cameras, tailing spies, etc.) because it was easy to tell that they didn't impact anything aside from you "taking over" districts of Seattle from the bad guys, which just unlocks fast travel options (and, given your super speed, those are unnecessary). You won't need to backtrack hardly at all in the main story either, which was nice. Movement (save climbing) was probably the smoothest thing about Infamous. I did enjoy turning into a neon bolt and blasting through city streets and streaking up buildings before dive bombing into a throng of enemies. Combat was fine (if repetitive) and could get overwhelming. Auto-healing was pretty forgiving (go stand behind cover for a few seconds to heal up). Hunting for shards to upgrade abilities was fun and added some challenge that was useful for progression. Boss fights were cool, and trying to get to the final area ended up being a surprisingly fun bit of puzzle platforming. Oh, and using the PS4 touch pad to complete some actions (e.g., freeing prisoners, passing checkpoints, shaking a spray paint can) was neat. Console games rarely seem to take advantage of touch pads like this. You don't have to use them in some revolutionary way; just a simple "swipe left to open the door" or "move your finger on the touch pad for a security scan" or "shake the controller up and down to shake the spray paint can" adds some novelty to the experience, instead of "press X."
So, all in all, nothing terribly special, though some points for creativity. Movement-focused action games since 2014 have far surpassed this (if it was even cutting edge then), but luckily for it, movement-focused action games done well are always enjoyable to play.
*Edit* I turned this on to try to find how long it took to beat. There's no timer in the game or the save file, but I do know it was short (probably in the range of 7-10 hours). I completed 68% of it according to the save file. But, I had to point out, re: my criticism about token diversity above, that I was greeted with a loading screen tip that said something like, "Delsin only uses environmentally friendly paints in his graffiti." Oh, REALLY!? Wow, what a guy! There is literally not a word mentioned in this game about the environment. This game does not address environmental issues in any way whatsoever. Another example of the lightest touch on whatever social issue they thought resonated with the target audience. This is so cringe to me.
This entry has been edited 1 time. It was last edited on Aug 7th, 2023 at 12:59:13.
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Jul 20th, 2023 at 22:11:59 - Thronebreaker: The Witcher Tales (PC) |
This is a CCG + Heroes of Might & Magic style Witcher game. One draw of Thronebreaker is that you can acquire cards to use in Gwent. It was well reviewed on its own though, so it was a no-brainer to play (and I paused Gwent until I finished!). Thronebreaker is extremely engaging, though it does peter off after the halfway mark as the game begins to drag for its length. The maps may be a bit bland, but the characters and especially the cards are well drawn and animated. I always like looking at and reading the Gwent cards. The writing is excellent. Gwent itself is fun, but dulled down for this single-player experience, though the addition of puzzles added some interesting situations. You play as Meve, a backstabbed and deposed queen, who travels far and wide, building an army, to expel a conquering army from her land, punish the traitors, and take back the throne.
In the beginning, Thronebreaker seemed to provide some challenge, but unfortunately once you get some specific cards, learn the enemy AI, and develop some fairly basic strategies, it is really easy, even on the hard difficulty (and then you fight the final boss, geez. It took me about 10 tries, some strategizing about my deck, and a dose of luck to win. There should have been more of this difficulty!). This could also be because I’ve played a fair amount of Gwent and other CCGs, but it’s really not that complex here, being distilled from the full Gwent game.
I found a lot of these “insta-win” strategies across my playthrough and rarely had to vary them; they applied to almost all situations. For example, the card Reyna has an “order” ability (which means you can perform an action with the card once it’s played) that lets you choose a card to play from your deck. I had another card with an order ability to give two charges to another card’s order ability. So, of course I always chose that card, then just gave the two charges to Reyna, who could then choose two more cards from the deck. I had yet a third card that gave one charge to any card that had exhausted its order cards. So I always picked that one last and Reyna got another charge, and so did that card that gives cards other charges (so I could give Reyna yet another charge). All in all, by playing Reyna, I started a combo that resulted in me putting like 6 hand-picked cards on the board, which is absurd. No enemy ever was able to match that. That’s part of the problem with the difficulty. The enemy can’t match you. You pull off these crazy combos (that are not hard to set up) and the enemy can do nothing. But, in the story, Reyna massacred some dwarven prisoners because she is racist and I kicked her out of my party, so I lost her card. This happened a few other times too. I thought the game would get a bit more challenging after these characters left and I lost their cards, but not really. There are numerous other insta-win strategies to find.
For example, my last one (near the end of the game, not the final boss) was to play literally the most basic card in the game. It’s a farmer with 10 power who gains +7 power when Meve uses her leader ability (which you can get down to every 2 or 3 turns). Then, on the second turn I play an artifact that lets me play all copies of any card I have on the board. So I play four more copies of the farmer. Then I use Meve’s leader ability. That makes 17x5 = 85 points on turn two. And the artifact is a golden card, and the first time I play a golden card, there’s a cool dog card that automatically plays. So really like 92 points after turn 2. The enemy has no hope of keeping up after that. Another insta-win strategy is to set both enemy rows on fire (I have two cards that set a row on fire) and bounce enemies back and forth between rows (I have five cards and a leader ability that move three cards at a time to a different row and damage them). I mean, these strategies just decimate the AI. The AI, by the way, frustratingly refuses to give up or pass when it’s clearly losing, and forces you to play rounds far longer than is necessary. I’ll be up 200-20 and the enemy AI is still considering its next move. Annoying. A variety of changes could make Thronebreaker meaningfully shorter, and this is one of them. The other main one is smaller maps. They’re unnecessarily large.
So about halfway through the game, I realized it wasn’t going to get any harder. It was a cakewalk. And you basically do the same thing across five giant maps (and yet another small map after you technically beat the game. It keeps fucking going!), traversing the land, clicking on resources, clicking on encounters, making some story decisions, and stomping the enemy in battles. Luckily, as per CD Projekt Red and The Witcher games, the story is thrilling and characters are dark and complex. Every little side branch, every character, every engagement, it’s all so well written, often dreary with unexpected twists, that it’s what has kept me going. Battles are still fun, of course, but knowing I’m going to win makes them feel like time-wasters. One very cool addition though is the puzzle battles. These give you specific cards, specific rules, and a specific objective, and you usually have to figure out a specific order in which to perform actions to meet the objective. Some of these have been quite tricky! Puzzle battles are where the game’s challenge lies, instead of the regular battles (which are also usually arbitrarily shortened to one round, which at first I didn’t like, but now I like because they’re too easy and I want them to go faster). One puzzle battle took the form of a game of memory. Another riffed on Hearthstone, and was hilarious. Another challenged you to get that cute dog I mentioned through a dungeon, eating all the food along the way. Each one is unique.
Finally, you’re collecting all those resources on the map for a reason. You can upgrade your camp, which is interesting enough, but like the realization that the game is easy, you’ll realize you don’t need to think about upgrades either. You’ll have enough resources to upgrade everything and create every card. There aren’t tough gameplay choices to make here.
I’m looking forward to seeing what all I unlocked in Gwent because it turns out I just about 100%ed Thronebreaker! Just. About. I missed a weapon somewhere and got 38/39 achievements. I 97%ed it. Damn mystery weapon!
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Jul 20th, 2023 at 22:03:54 - Pentiment (PC) |
To add, since I wrote the previous entry when I was exhausted. There are three more things I wanted to elaborate on / point out that have popped in my head today.
I quickly mentioned before that the narrative unfolds over 25 years. You play during this period at three points. Your actions have some branching effects over the years. If you’re an asshole to characters, they’ll remember you less fondly. Depending on who you accuse of murder, their trajectory will be different. The main character in particular, Andreas, changes over the years, and this was enjoyable to see. In the beginning, he’s relatively carefree, but later, after he gets married and gains renown, his responsibilities weigh on him. He feels tied down. You can choose to play Andreas as more or less optimistic, more or less of a family man, more or less of a party animal, and so on, or be wildly inconsistent in your interactions. But regardless, Andreas has a rich inner life. We learn about his anxieties, the struggle of his allegiances between the townsfolk and the abbey, and how he mentors another young apprentice. His dreams in the court are really neat, but unfortunately that thread gets dropped in the third part. Other characters change over the years too, becoming bitter, or falling in love and marrying, raising families, losing loved ones. The town and the abbey feel very alive. As I mentioned before, the complexity of relationships, of the effects of history on the present, accumulate over time. It was hard enough to keep track of everyone in the first point in time, but by the third, most characters in town run together, though the major players I could remember.
Another thing to add to my points earlier about historical authenticity is the way dialogue is presented. Andreas initially works in a scriptorium, part of the abbey responsible for transcribing and preserving books, drawing illustrations, and doing contracts for clients who support the abbey. So aesthetically, the whole world is beautifully illustrated, and the dialogue is no different. It appears on screen as if someone is writing it, complete in beautiful script. Different types of characters have different scripts (e.g., peasants’ script is more rugged, while elites’ script is more elaborate). Their writing capability signals their position in the social structure, which is a cool touch. Characters are also prone to misspelling words, and after the dialogue is written, it’ll edit itself. This was kind of annoying sometimes because I didn’t know what a word was until it corrected itself, but I liked the depiction of the writing process. It also slows the game down to what I figure is its deliberate pace. Also, the last time I played, I noticed that sometimes the ink actually appears wet when dialogue first begins, then looks dry after a moment. What attention to detail!
The last thing is experiential. This past winter, I bought a treadmill. I’ve considered putting a TV in front of it, but I recently realized that its media tray supports my laptop, so I was watching TV and movies while walking. When I started playing Pentiment, I thought, “Huh, I bet I could walk and play this with a controller.” I often walk and read a book at the same time, so this seemed similar. Indeed, I could do it! But, as I was playing the first time, I shifted how I was holding the controller and my finger moved over a port on the bottom. The controller shocked the shit out of me. Then it did it again and again. At one point, I changed the volume on the laptop, and when I touched it, the laptop shocked me. Hm. I tried not to touch any ports or the laptop, but inevitably got shocked some more. After a couple days of this, I realized this was probably not good for any of the electronics, let alone my comfort. I looked it up online and apparently treadmills build up static electricity, which makes sense. Treadmills themselves will shock people if they’ve got the charge. It’s really common. People who walk and work on laptops at the same time report being shocked by their laptop. There are solutions to this, but I had never thought about it. I know I need to put the treadmill on a rubber mat, but I’m done using my laptop on there. I’m going to put a TV on a stand or mount one instead, and I can plug my laptop into that. I am curious about this playing games while walking through. Do other people do this? I sometimes play Playstation while using a stepper, so gaming while exercising isn’t new to me. What else to people do while playing games?
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Jul 19th, 2023 at 19:49:41 - Pentiment (PC) |
Retired not long after part 3. This is a point-and-click game, but really more like a visual novel. There aren't puzzles or items to manipulate. You just walk around and talk to characters. Lots and lots of characters, over 25 years. It is impossible to remember who everyone is and all their various relationships over three time periods. By the end, I was just like, "who is that?" to every third person in town.
Pentiment is on many levels really impressive. It's packed full of medieval history and makes that time and the place come alive. It's got language from the time, customs, food, architecture, portrays changes in the church, in power dynamics in a town, demonstrates what life was like for peasants and townsfolk and monks. I mean, the historical stuff coming alive is really something, and I'd say worth taking a look at alone if you have even a slight interest in seeing history represented in a video game.
And actually playing the game captivated me for a good chunk of time. You play as an artist named Andreas who is staying in this small town doing work for the abbey in the scriptorium. There is a murder, and thus begins a mystery that spans the rest of the game. You, as an outsider, investigate what happened. Do you find the murderer? Maybe. But you'll leave town and start a life first. Fast-forward like 10 years and Andreas comes back to the town, now well-to-do. The townsfolk are worse off though, and his arrival isn't necessarily a welcome surprise for all. The murder mystery picks up again, plot plot plot. Andreas leaves again. Fast forward like another 10 years. The game changes tone a bit and dropped some of what I had found interesting playing as Andreas. It starts ruminating on history and how art tells stories of a people or a place, and how meaning is contested. It's all very smart. Someone is going to write a good paper on the game. But I totally lost interest. I got tired of reading, of walking around clicking on characters, having long conversations with them. The story became less interesting and I became less invested and started to wonder what I was doing with my time. So I looked up the ending, don't think I missed much, and quit. I would have liked to have kept at it, but the juice wasn't worth the squeeze.
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