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Jun 3rd, 2018 at 15:59:01 - Sunless Sea (PC) |
Three more captains have sunk to the bottom of the ocean. Two were rammed by monsters, their ship's hulls shattered. The third was killed by her mutinous crew. The crew mutinies when terror reaches 100. Sunless Sea has some very neat aspects -- its setting and Lovecraftian tone -- but some serious drawbacks, mainly that the game doesn't fit well within the roguelike genre.
Other roguelike games that I've played and enjoyed (e.g., FTL, Crypt of the Necrodancer, Spelunky) are not story heavy; or, when they do have a good story, it does not have to be repeated in the same way upon death. Sunless Sea, on the other hand, has a fleshed out world and stories within it, but every time your captain dies, you start over and have the same stories tossed at you again. This means you will have read most of the text you encounter, until you discover new ports and unlock new storylets, every single time you play. As clicking through story text in port is a large part of the game, this becomes extremely repetitive.
Another drawback is that, unlike other roguelikes that are are fast-paced and often skill-based, the pace of Sunless Sea is slow and there isn't much action. Most of your time is spent sailing from place to place and skimming text to speed along storylet completions to get echoes (money). The game does impose a sense of dread in that sea creatures will kill you, you will run out of fuel and food, and other bad things will happen, but most of these things don't result from the player not playing well. Or, they do, but the player not playing well may be a result of trying to move the game along to make something happen, to get from A to B faster and I just want to outrun this stupid zee monster or why is this ship shooting at me (??). In an attempt to speed up the game, I wasted resources, was less careful, didn't explore as much, and ultimately died more quickly. As I just wanted it to move along, I didn't mind the consequences at the time; however, reflecting back, the slow pace of the game was punishment for dead captains that created a negative feedback loop diminishing my desire to press onward.
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May 28th, 2018 at 07:31:14 - Sunless Sea (PC) |
First Captain--David
Wow, there's a lot going on in Sunless Sea, a text-heavy Lovecraftian roguelike. I chose a history for my captain, David, a natural philosopher, whose win condition was to find the bones of his father. I thought I'd channel Darwin. After reading through a tutorial book in my inventory, I accidentally sold it. Error #1 and the internal monologue begins, "The sea is merciless." Rather, the "zee." Some words beginning withe "s" begin with "z" (zailor, for example). I don't know why. It's set in and around Fallen London (so my German accent theory was wrong).
My initial crew of 6 included a ferret ship mascot and a surgeon. In Fallen London, where the game begins, I learned that some terrible event befell the world and the land dropped below the sea. Imagine the game taking place in an underground cavern. I gathered news from Fallen London, picked up some cargo (including the world's version of a leper), browsed the shops to see the upgrade trees for my ship, weapons, and lamp, hired more crew, and set out exploring. There were several ports I'd been asked to stop in--to drop off the leper, to find the first clue as to the whereabouts of my father's bones, to drop off a student doing his dissertation on a beast washed ashore--and I hoped they were nearby because the map was an expanse of blackness.
I quickly found an island with a house inhabited by three sisters, who fed me and told me stories. In Sunless Sea, you trade in stories. People want to hear tales of other lands. I also made a report on their island. You can submit reports to the Admiralty in Fallen London and earn favor and echoes (money). So, some of Sunless Sea seems to be about trading goods like any other trading game (buy this cheap here, sell it for more there), with the inclusion of stories.
Not long into my journey, I was alerted to an enemy's presence! Luckily, it was just a 20HP swarm of bats that I killed with two blasts from my forward gun. Okay, easy entry into combat. Five minutes later, and many latitudes north, I encountered a moving iceberg, called a lifeberg. It had 400HP, but I managed to kill it by realizing that it used a charge attack, and if I kept moving backward it would charge and stop just where my ship was, not where it is. It did ram me a couple times and almost capsized by boat. I needed repairs in Fallen London. Combat in Sunless Sea is (so far) straightforward. You keep the enemy in your lamp light as best you can, and fire your weapon when it's off cooldown. Sail around and avoid being hit. This worked well enough with all the "zee monsters" I encountered, but one time I got into a skirmish with a 200HP ship that fired cannons at me from afar and almost capsized me. I had no chance, and needed more echoes to upgrade my ship from beginner tier.
After going far north, I was low on fuel and supplies, so I found a port to restock and headed back to Fallen London for repairs, to turn in port reports, and purchase additional fuel and supplies. I discovered that the essentials are priced differently in different ports, and that I'd spent twice as much in the north than I would have in London. I've since found a big port called The Iron Republic that sells fuel even cheaper. After conducting various business in Fallen London, I headed out the opposite way, south.
It was too late when I observed that I had forgotten to purchase supplies and my crew was beginning to starve. Error #2: always check fuel and supplies. The hunger meter began to fill and with it, the terror meter, because as my crew became hungrier, they began eating rats, and then turned to cannibalism. I made a sacrifice to one of the three zee gods and found out that some zee creature enemies can be scavenged for food, supplies, or knowledge. The zee creatures and cannibalism was enough to keep my ship afloat, but eventually I got into the aforementioned gun boat skirmish and a jellyfish finished me off. To the depths we went.
Sunless Sea repeatedly warns you that your first captain, and likely many more, will die. But when that happens, some of your captain's stats, equipment, money, and so on can be transferred to your next captain. You can actually create a will (I don't know when or where, never saw an option) and leave more stuff, but I was able to leave my chart to Captain David's successor. I guess if you leave the chart, then the next time round, the Unterzee looks the same; otherwise, it shifts a bit. It might shift anyway and the map may just be approximate.
That was my first attempt. I explored most of the west side of the map (maybe 20%), not including underneath the sea or above the sea. I completed a couple small storylets (quests), made no progress on Captain David's win condition to find his father's bones, learned how combat works, learned more of the game's odd terminology, my crew began eating one another, and those remaining all drowned. Looking forward to another round. The writing is excellent, which is the main reason I purchased the game in the first place, and the Unterzee induces dread and wonder. There's a lot left to explore.
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May 17th, 2018 at 16:21:44 - Grand Theft Auto V (PC) |
I used GTA V in my learning community this semester to teach deviance. After a lecture covering basic theory and concepts, I had students play GTA V for half an hour and answer questions about labeling theory, think about how norms, sanctions, and deviance differ in Los Santos vs. the real world, violate in-game norms and identify sanctions, and try to get a bunch of fake achievements I made up to get labeled deviant in various ways in the game. It was a ton of fun, and effective!
I played the bare minimum to prepare for bringing the game to class (though most of them had played before) because I had to spend most of my time trying to get the thing to run smoothly on my laptop and through a classroom projector. I eventually did it well enough, hooray, but I still haven’t got it running perfectly. It’ll get choppy sometimes while driving and shooting. It could just be that this is where my computer begins to show its age. Sigh. But now that the semester's over, I can go back through games I began for the learning community. According to Steam, I've clocked 33 hours, but it's realistically in the low 20s.
GTA V is the best GTA. I played some of the older ones (San Andreas, Vice City), never all the way through a story, and mostly just for causing mayhem. I played GTA IV for about 10 hours and spent most of that time on the fake internet and watching fake in-game TV. I’m pleased to report that the fake internet and TV are even better this time around and that I have resisted watching all of that content, which I bet runs upward of 20 hours if you count radio stations too.
Why is GTA V the best GTA? For me, it’s the characters, missions, and overall narrative. GTA V does this cool thing where there are three main characters whose lives intertwine. You start with Franklin, a sarcastic, dry-humored, practical black man living with his aunt in a poor neighborhood in Los Santos. Then you meet Michael, a wealthy ex-con in witness protection with an extremely dysfunctional family. Franklin starts to work for Michael. Finally, my favorite, Trevor enters the picture. Trevor is quite literally insane. He’s part meth head and drug and weapons dealer, with a low-rent operation out of a trailer in the desert. He has a history with Michael, and all three of them wind up having to do jobs together for the FIB (GTA’s FBI). There’s some larger story going on about a shady corporation or something called Merryweather and a super weapon. Not sure about all that yet, but certainly intrigued.
Each character is fleshed out, and it makes this story more than about stealing cars and killing people. Serious themes exist underneath the GTA parody about family, trust, speeding up of social life, consumerism, drug culture, etc., etc., and I dare say that not only the game as a whole (obviously), but the characters in particular, are real pieces of art. Franklin’s relationship with his aunt, who is into spiritual femininity and magic crystals, is fraught because they simply don’t understand one another’s lives. His relationship with his dog is adorable. Michael’s family, as mentioned, is insane. His wife is trying to be calm in a fast-moving world and is cheating on him with her yoga instructor. One of the best scenes in the game so far is when Michael and his wife get into an argument, and the yoga instructor comes around and makes them do a family session together, so you, as Michael, have to do yoga, which of course, does nothing to calm anyone down. His daughter is vapid and wants to be a reality TV star. His son smokes weed and plays video games all day. They are all entitled. Michael really does see himself as a good guy, but he’s surrounded by crazy people and pressured into crime, which he does enjoy and is good at. Trevor assaults and kills people at will, is secretly from Canada (and becomes enraged if people point out his accent), hates it when people call him a motherfucker, and in one memorable scene, becomes enraged when Michael describes how Trevor is a hipster, or at least what hipsters aspire to become. Trevor is currently dating a woman whom he kidnapped and does not see a problem with it.
Gameplay wise, it’s typical GTA, but missions are far more varied. This is exemplified by the heists, in which you put together a team (some combination of the three main characters and sometimes other NPCs) to do things like rob banks, rob trains, secure witnesses, or steal other huge items. These involve preparation missions where you observe a place, or acquire a getaway car, or do other tasks before the actual heist. For example, the last one I did was to rob a bank. I first scouted the bank and tested its alarm system to see how fast the police response was. It was very fast, and so I made the decision to shoot our way out. Then, I stole a military truck full of armor and weapons from a convoy to prepare for the shootout. Then, I stole a van for Franklin to use as the getaway vehicle. The other characters (Michael, Trevor, and one hired gun) hit the bank, stole the money, changed into full combat gear, and emerged guns blazing at a stunned police force. We shot our way through them, working our way toward Franklin in the getaway vehicle. I forget how or why this happened, but at some point someone stole a bulldozer to help clear the path of cops.
Part of what’s so cool about heists is that you switch between characters to perform all their roles when they are doing things simultaneously (e.g., one character sniping from a rooftop, one causing a distraction, one stealing something). You do this during the game as well, switching between the three characters at will. They all have different jobs they can do, different contacts for missions, different properties they can purchase, different activities they can engage in, etc. And they so frequently weave together. You’ll go to do a mission as Franklin, and it’ll turn out Michael orchestrated it. Or you’ll go do something with Trevor, and the FIB agent in charge will want Franklin too.
This plenty to write at the moment, but suffice it to say that there is so much more that GTA V offers. Tons of random events, side missions, activities (darts, races, Trevor’s rampages, etc.) will keep a dedicated player busy for a really long time. This may be the last open world game you need for a long time. And I'm saying this almost 5 years after it came out. Oh, there's also GTA V Online. Will update again once I beat story mode with some good memories.
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May 11th, 2018 at 17:36:11 - Killing Floor 2 (PC) |
I bought Killing Floor 2 during Extra Life 2016 and was really impressed with how wonderfully gory it was. It's a co-op FPS with lots of zombies and other hellish creatures. According to Steam, I've played 15 hours...in a year-and-a-half. I've recently been cleaning out multiplayer games and think I'll keep this one installed, because I played some more last night, and it really is fun, if a bit repetitive. There are a lot of character classes with different weapon specialties. I have been playing mostly with the Gunslinger, who uses pistols and a shotgun. General shooty class. Every 5 experience levels, you can access to a choice between two perks for the class (you can change the perks). I think there are like 20 or 25 levels, so there are a lot of perks, times however many classes, means a hefty amount of knowledge, skill, and time to master everything.
So you choose your character, choose your difficulty (it can be a leisurely and gory romp or a ridiculously difficult infinite waves game, your choice), and go into a random match or lobby or whatever. Game starts. It's shorter, medium length, or longer (and I think there's an infinite mode now). I've only played short, which is four waves. After each wave, you go spend your money (earned for killing enemies? I'm not really sure. But I know you can "throw" money at other players and share) at the upgrade station to buy ammo, armor, and new weapons. At the end of the fourth wave (on short) there's a boss. I've seen really only one boss boss, and then other bosses that are variants of strong enemies that already exist. I wish there were more. They generally eat a ton of bullets and I usually die, but that's partly because I'm not very good at the game.
I think the way to play this game is to focus on one or two character classes first to get pretty good at them and learn the ropes. I have...failed to play this way, having dabbled with most of the classes and not having played one enough to really understand it. I should follow my own advice!
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