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Jan 2nd, 2022 at 15:04:54 - The Artful Escape (PC) |
I was excited to play this because it looked visually stunning and had an interesting premise. You play as a teenager whose uncle was a famous folk musician (like a Bob Dylan figure). You are a budding folk musician yourself, except...you don't care for folk. What you really want to be is a guitar phenom playing sci-fi inspired epic rock music. So on the night before your first show at the annual festival in honor of your uncle, some far-out aliens come in need of a supporting act for their intergalactic, jammin' concert tour. Queue a series of incredible looking levels where you ostensibly get to play the guitar with the universe's greats for an intergalactic audience.
Did I mention how great this game looks? Holy crap. The art is phenomenal. I recommend it on that alone. You can make the visuals look even better by holding down X to solo on your guitar as you move left/right through the levels, which makes environments and creatures respond in mesmerizing, gorgeous ways. This interplay between your input, the music, and the environment is pretty cool.
The visuals never get old, but unfortunately the music does! Each level has chill, ambient music by default, and when you hold X, you wail on your guitar. I think that most people can only handle so much spacey guitar soloing, even with the slight variations in each level. But the ambient noise is quite nice, and I wound up just listening to it and admiring the scenery in many areas, especially those in which pressing X didn't trigger any environmental changes.
I've mentioned that you press X to wail on guitar while you move left and right. Okay, so that is >90% of the gameplay. The other <10% is dialogue choices and the concerts. The concerts (or battles, or tests, or whatever you want to call them) are really simple Simon Says mini-games. In a game about a kid finding his musical identity and expressing his creativity, it is odd that the player is prevented from doing either. At one point, you are told that you can press X to be creative and create rhythm or something; this is extremely shallow. You can technically create rhythm by pressing X and by holding buttons during Simon Says (and technically can choose notes during Simon Says), but your range of freedom is minimal. It also doesn't matter whether you get it right or not. The pattern will just repeat if you mess up, and you try again, and the alien is always impressed and you win in the end. There's no perfecting sequences, no encouragement for flair or improvisation. So once you've heard enough guitar solos, learn there is no failure, learn you can't really DO anything, and realize this game is mostly a lot of eye candy, it's kind of like, let's hurry up and get to the end. Luckily it's not that long and I finished it before I fell asleep, though I did nod off toward the end.
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Dec 27th, 2021 at 17:10:42 - Desperados III (PC) |
This is indeed Shadow Tactics: Wild West. It runs on the same engine and looks and plays nearly identical. And, as expected, everything is more polished and refined. I particularly enjoy the greater attention to telling a good story and weaving together the threads of the five characters. We've got a backstory for the main character that we play through that serves as motivation for the current activities, a better geographical journey with a more defined map, and the other characters have a bit more going on than in Shadow Tactics.
I am surprised how similar the characters are in playstyles to those in Shadow Tactics! They all still have a close-up attack (except Kate can only knock out people with hers, not kill them); they all have some sort of distraction; they all have a gun (or guns; except Isabelle, who I just got and who is actually different than the others, very neat). Cooper is Hayato. He throws a knife instead of a shuriken and distracts with a coin instead of a rock. Literally the same playstyle. Hector is a hybrid of Mugen (can kill the Long Coats [aka Wild West Samurais]) and Yuki (he uses a trap and whistle, just like her). The doctor is a hybrid of Mugen (tosses a bag on the ground to lure enemies) and Takuma (he's your sniper), etc., etc. The fifth character I got, Isabelle, pulls some tricks I remember recently from Dishonored 2. She can "link" enemies together and whatever happens to one happens to the other one. She can also mind control an enemy. I am looking forward to playing with her more, as I believe she is the only character who has anything that is really new to the game compared to Shadow Tactics.
There are some other cool changes to the Wild West setting. Mud and sand function just like show regarding footprints. When you knock out enemies, you can hog tie them and render them useless, instead of just having to let them wake up and start patrolling again. The environmental kills are more intuitive now. The UI for triggering them makes them more visible, so I've been hitting horses with coins, for example, to make them kick the enemies walking behind them, or shoving under-construction walls over on top of chatting enemies, or kicking enemies into empty graves, or whatever. There are dedicated "safe zones" in some levels, again with UI information letting you know when you're safe and when you're in enemy territory. One big improvement is that Shadow Mode now pauses the game, which lets you plan collaborative moves better. I didn't like that it was in real-time in Shadow Tactics; this is a really useful change. One big change to Desperados, which fits the Wild West theme, is that there is more focus on guns. There are way more ammo crates laying around levels, and you have more freedom to use your guns to shoot your way through some situations. I like this, because the game is still totally stealthy; now I have this loud option, which I've started using more at the end of levels when I'm nearly done and still have a lot of ammo. Just bam bam bam! instead of continuing to sneak about.
As I played two levels today, I realized that Desperados reminds me quite a lot of a tactics version of Hitman. There are big, intricate levels with environmental things to interact with; you have all these characters with a little variety of weapons and distractions; one character can even wear disguises; maps are starting to have numerous objectives where you "get in and get out"; etc. In the level I just started, for example, you have to help Isabelle find a man she's looking for. There are three enemies in the level who might have information about him. You can track them down and kill them, and you can eavesdrop on conversations in the level to get information faster and (I think) go straight to the one that actually has the info. Then I think you'll have to go find this guy (he's been captured by the bad guys) and rescue him (which could be the following level, not sure). It feels very much like being dropped into one of Hitman's super complex levels and being tasked with assassinating three people before escaping.
If there are three chapters, then I'm about halfway through, and that would seem to add up to the estimate on Howlongtobeat.com. Definitely enjoying this game and I find it more interesting than Shadow Tactics. Looking forward to some more this week.
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Dec 21st, 2021 at 20:01:49 - Shadow Tactics: Blades of the Shogun (PC) |
This gets really difficult! As I had hoped, you get to play with all the characters and put to use all their abilities to get through missions. I actually gave up on the final mission and watched on YouTube. I tried for an hour, restarted because I'd raised too many alarms (which brings additional enemies to patrol and makes things even harder), tried for another hour, and had gotten nowhere. Although I am sure I could have beaten it on my own with more patience, I'd rather just start Desperados III since it's more of the same.
As I expected, you can set up some seriously elaborate traps for enemies and take out groups (even groups with samurais) in really clever ways. You feel like a genius when you figure out a solution to a particularly hard part. In the end, this is what the game felt like: a series of hard puzzles strung together in elaborate maps. Enemies are positioned so purposefully by the designers. You might think you have a clear kill or route, but chances are someone's vision cone will swing your way. Enemies are often standing juuuust at the edge of another's vision cone, and you curse the designers for putting that enemy right there instead of one foot to the left! I was consistently impressed by how meticulous each mission was set up.
Some of my big wins were accidental, or caused by bugs (maybe). Occasionally, an enemy will magically not respond to seeing your character, or will let them sneak up when they shouldn't, or will not properly investigate a dead body, or your spamming the run button will get you from A to B within a hair's breadth of being caught and you think, "There is no way I was supposed to be able to do that." The relief and lucky feelings from these moments were great, almost as if I'd legitimately earned them! Of course, legitimately pulling off something clever is better, and it happens all the time.
My favorite characters by far wound up being Yuki and Aiko. Yuki's trap-and-whistle combo is super fun to use. I eventually figured out how to use the tanuki to pull similar ambushes, and that critter can be quite a powerful ally. Aiko is similarly satisfying to use with a disguise. I loved donning the disguise and just waltzing through enemy lines, talking to an enemy, and assassinating him when no one was looking. Drag the body away, put the disguise back on, and repeat to clear the area. This, of course, is far too simple a strategy to work later in the game, but it's fun in the couple levels that you can basically decimate like this!
One of the most memorable missions I played was when I had to gather intel on the whereabouts of an enemy in a crowded city. I think this was the level that introduced (or shortly thereafter) light sources, which you can extinguish. You can also lure enemies to light sources if they notice one has been put out. This was memorable for killing a lot of civilians and the hundred attempts I made to eavesdrop on a conversation at the end. Eventually, it like bugged out. I killed someone and all the enemies in the courtyard where I needed to eavesdrop cleared out as everyone went on alert looking for me. I was hiding in the courtyard's bushes and just killed enemies one by one as they returned, hid them, and then was able to eavesdrop on the conversation without anyone else around. Another memorable level also involved killing a lot of civilians (initially I thought I wasn't supposed to do this, but nothing deters you from doing it). This was the level where you have to abduct the shogun's nephew and carry his body to a boat. This is one of those levels where I felt like a genius for making it through, but I also felt like a butcher for killing so many civilians. I learned in both of these levels how to strategically raise an alarm.
I really enjoyed this. Going to immediately start Desperados III for similar tactics action but in the Wild West! Maybe I'll get better at the game and be able to finish this time.
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Dec 17th, 2021 at 08:36:00 - Shadow Tactics: Blades of the Shogun (PC) |
Really enjoying this so far. I was pretty sure I would since this is always held up as a phenomenal modern tactics game. It's set sometime in Edo period Japan after the shogunate unified the country and created a period of isolationist peace. Well, it's peaceful because your happy band of "blades" (one character doesn't use a blade at all, but I'll let it slide...) is putting down threats.
The game's style feels very authentic, from color palettes to music to environments. I feel transported to these locations. It's easy to feel immersed because both story and gameplay are highly engaging too. Characters are well written, and their abilities reflect their personalities. The game plays from an isometric top-down perspective like a classic CRPG. In each mission, you control pre-set (so far) combinations of your five characters and are (usually so far) given a couple different ways to meet objectives.
The five characters all have some similar and some different abilities. One type of passive abilities define movement. Hayato, Yuki, and Aiko are the three agile, really sneaky ones. They can all climb ivy vines, grapple up and down rooftops, and enter water. They can all carry bodies, though the two girls (Yuki and Aiko) drag them, while Hayato carries them. This is interesting because it means that Yuki and Aiko are crouched while moving bodies, which means they are invisible in the "shaded" part of an enemy's vision cone while doing so. Hayato, on the other hand, stands and carries bodies over his shoulder. He can move a little faster while carrying a body, but is visible in the shaded part of an enemy's vision cone. These three can also swim, while the other two characters can't. Mugen is a big, beefy samurai. He can't grapple, climb ivy, or enter water, but he can carry two bodies, which is useful because one of his main attacks is an AoE that can kill three enemies at once. The last character, Takuma, is an old man with a cane and a wooden leg. His movement abilities are obviously the most limited. In fact, he makes noise while walking unless he's crouching.
Each character has a unique combat strength. They all have some version of a main attack (which is killing one enemy with their respective blade, except Takuma, who is a marksman and has a long-range rifle), a more powerful/situational secondary attack (Hayato can throw a shuriken, Mugen has his powerful AoE attack, Yuki can set a deadly trap, Aiko can...I forget what hers is..., and Takuma has a couple grenades), a distraction (Hayato throws a stone to divert enemies' attention, Mugen can lure guards with a flask of sake, Yuki similarly lures guards with a bird whistle [luring them into her trap is fun], Aiko can actually pick up disguises and distract enemies with conversation, and Takuma has a pet tanuki that he can order around to make noise), a flintlock pistol (Takuma has something more powerful), and a healing ability (each can heal three HP one time).
In each level I have played so far (5 or 6) I've had two or three characters. You can immediately see how their movement abilities and skills work together to tackle different potential challenges in a level. For example, in one memorable level, I had Mugen and Yuki. We had to steal documents from an official without killing them. Yuki is more stealthy, being able to clamber around on rooftops, so she took the high route and cleared the way for Mugen to follow on the ground. This is a common thing that you can do with Hayato and Yuki especially, take the high route to thin out enemies for the characters on the ground. Mugen, for his part, being a big beefy guy, had to destroy a wooden tower to lure a bunch of guards away from the official. So, you have to get Mugen to the tower, and then get Yuki to the official. Since there are like 5 guards around the tower after Mugen destroys it, he's stuck there hiding in the bushes. You have to figure out how to get the official alone with Yuki with no help.
Enemies all have vision cones, which you can see by clicking on the enemy. Vision cones have two parts, a dark part (they can see you unless you are hidden, like in a bush) and a shaded part (they can see you if you are standing but not if you are crouching, and unless you are hidden, like in a bush). Enemies are usually scanning side to side as they stand or patrol, so you can't just come at them from the side; they'll look that way. Also, enemies don't just magically spot you. If you are in their vision cone, it fills yellow, and when the yellow reaches you, that's when they actually spot you, yell, attack, and sometimes call for reinforcements. This creates fun risk/reward situations where you can like sprint through their vision cone and try to make it to a bush before the yellow reaches you. There is a useful marker you can place that lets you know when and which enemies can see it. You can use this marker (it's a non-diagetic UI feature) for planning purposes.
One thing about Shadow Tactics that I didn't know is that it's real-time. I definitely assumed it was turn-based. But, there is one turn-based-ish mechanic called Shadow Mode (I think that's what it's called), where you can queue up one action per character. So, imagine that there are two guards facing each other. You have gotten a character positioned hidden in a bush behind each guard. If you kill one guard with one character, well, the other guard will see you (the yellow is irrelevant if you're murdering a guard; they just see you). So the trick is to queue up both characters to kill their respective guard simultaneously. When you push Enter after setting this up, it activates whatever you have queued in Shadow Mode. This has already gotten really tricky to play with! For example, imagine there are three guards who are blocking your path forward. They are all looking in your general direction, so you can't just run past and you can't just kill them. You might queue Yuki to do her bird whistle to make one guard walk away to the right, queue Hayato to throw a rock to the left to distract the second guard, and then time Mugen to sneak past while the first two guards are turned away and while the third guard's view cone is swinging to one side. Then with Mugen behind all three, when they reconvene to their positions, he can use his special attack to kill all three, thus clearing the way for Hayato and Yuki to proceed.
I am sure this is going to get exceedingly more complex and I'm loving it. One thing I'm looking forward to are some even bigger levels with even more objectives where I get to use four or even all five characters. It would be great if there were different objectives for each character. I've played one level where there were two ways of completing it, one that involved Yuki poisoning some tea, and another that involved Takuma shooting someone with a rifle. Each way of completing the mission necessitates different approaches. I completed it with Yuki and used her and Hayato to infiltrate this island where the tea ceremony was happening, and used Takuma to shoot some annoying guards on towers so they wouldn't be spotted. If I'd done it the other way, actually, I think it would have been similar. I would have used Hayato and Yuki to get to the target's dog, do something to it (free it? take its food?). I would have gotten Takuma in a marksman's position somewhere to get a clear shot at the dog area. Then when the target came to check on his dog, Takuma would have shot him dead.
Anyway, I wasn't going to play this morning, buuuuuuut writing this has got me thinking about it. I chose to play this now because Desperados III is free on Game Pass and I wanted to play Mimimi's earlier game before their later one, since I'm sure the gameplay has been tweaked for the better. The only issue I have with Shadow Tactics right now is that sometimes it's hard to click on exactly what you mean to click on when there is some clutter of interactable objects. I've grappled up buildings when I meant to jump down. I've picked up/put down bodies when I was trying to do something else. I've crouch-walked up to enemies and not attacked them because I was accidentally clicking on something right next to them. The game encourages quicksaving (there's even a timer showing when the last time you quicksaved was, and it flashes every minute!), so these missteps are never punishing. You're meant to fail a lot and retry and experiment. That's what I mean though, I expect Desperados III to be more polished and I didn't want to be in any way disappointed if I went back and played Shadow Tactics second. So I'm doing them in the proper order!
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