 |
|
Aug 8th, 2016 at 10:49:02 - Valiant Hearts: The Great War (PC) |
Excellent game with mostly really high highs but also some pretty low lows.
Highs: (1) The art and sound are top notch. It's done in some sort of comic book style, and given the (2) historical accuracy of the material, I wouldn't doubt if the style is based on WWI-era comics or artwork. I might be wrong, but again I wouldn't be surprised if the collectibles that you find are actual digitized images of real objects. I know the photos are, but like the letters you can find from soldiers on the front, I bet they are real letters.
(3) Yall, this is a war game where you never shoot anything. That's pretty cool. You do throw some grenades and get people killed, but (4) killing soldiers is usually an upsetting experience in Valiant Hearts. For example, (5) I had tears in my eyes at the end of the game. I had been sitting on the couch next to my girlfriend playing the last few missions, and as Emile was walking with the officer in leg chains, I told her, in disbelief, how I thought this game was about to end. I was right. So, (6) girlfriend gets satisfaction of watching me cry.
Some of the scenarios/missions in the game were amazing, especially (7) the ones where you are driving and dodging missiles/avoiding traffic/fighting a boss set to music like the can can. The first one of those I was like "wtf is this" and then I was pretty soon like "this is awesome." I like that I played this so soon after Spec Ops: The Line because it's similar thematically just about war being hell. (8) The story is excellent. I really enjoyed the 5 characters, especially the main character Emile and the dog that joins him. (9) The game does a great job of showing that war is hell, that it tears apart families, creates alliances and social divisions, and destroys the environment. Through the (10) really interesting historical facts, I learned all sorts of things about weapons development in WWI and military culture, as well as how everyday people survived through it all. And despite how profoundly moving the game is, (11) it contains much humor, joy, and whimsy, and in that way reminded me of the film Life is Beautiful.
Lows: This is sort of a puzzle / point-and-click adventure style game in terms of the actual gameplay. (1) The puzzles for 90% of the game are really simple, which and the longer ones can get monotonous and really drag the progression of the game to a halt. I remember this one in particular where you are trying to advance under enemy fire and you get to a tree with a mine cart hanging from it. You have to break the tree limb to drop the mine cart so you can continue the advance. Well, there is a box of bombs way back at the beginning of the level, and so you have to sloooowly go back to the bomb box to get a bomb and back to the mine cart to toss it in there, three different times to break the limb. And if you get shot, which I did a handful of times, you have to go get the bombs 3 times again. Why not just make me do it once? I get it the idea and doing the action over and over is tedious!
(2) Oddly, the puzzles at the end of the game jump in difficulty, which is weird because that's when the story is at its most urgent. So the puzzles really throw the pace of the game off. I get the desire to increase the challenge, but it just isn't necessary in the context of the story and given how the puzzles for most of the game are very easy.
(3) The dialogue in the diaries is cheesy and feels inauthentic juxtaposed to the excellent "historical facts" and history that the game is steeped in. Also, I understand this was made by Ubisoft Montpellier, but there are tons and tons of odd uses of English words. First world problems, right?
(4) My game has a terrible bug where the "up" key doesn't work when digging. I'm not sure if you can normally dig up, but if I want to dig, say, up and right diagonally, I can't. The game doesn't register the "up" key and so I can only go right. This was really really really irritating because this first became an issue during a part where you have to dig up and right. I couldn't figure out what to do. I died 20 times either suffocating from gas in a tunnel or hitting a buried explosive. I could see that I might be able to dig around the explosive, up and right, but just couldn't do it. I'd die, try again, reload, run around the level, try to get the dog to do something, look at the in-game hint system, but I could not figure it out. So after probably half an hour, I went online to a walkthrough and they all just say to dig around the bomb. So I checked some forums, and lo and behold, some people experience a bug where the game doesn't register the "up" key when digging. You have to go into options and rebind it to another key and then it works fine. Then there are about 5 more times in the game where I had to rebind the "up" key in order to effectively move past obstacles because it doesn't register the default up arrow as up when digging. Really annoying. Not sure why that's not patched.
So the pros certainly outweigh the cons, and despite quantifying everything, my qualitative evaluation is that this is a must-play game. It's beautiful, has an important presentation of a war and its effect on people, and is generally a joy to play. Plus you learn something and might go read a book or look up more about chlorine gas or early tanks or flamethrowers or whatever on Wikipedia.
add a comment  - read this GameLog  |
|
Aug 1st, 2016 at 11:36:18 - Legend of Grimrock II (PC) |
I’m absolutely loving Legend of Grimrock II (LoG), and I'm totally annoyed that school is starting and I won't be able to finish it for a while. Oh summer, I will miss you dearly.
One of my absolute favorite things about LoG is that I'm always learning something (often after being stumped by a puzzle). It's interesting playing this after coming off of Grim Fandango. The latter follows that bizarre adventure game logic, while LoG is highly rational. It's more rational than I am used to thinking. For example, I was stumped yesterday on how to gain entry to the Crystal Mines. At the entrance were three pressure plates in a line and two statue heads flanking the last plate in front of a gap in a stone wall. Obviously you are supposed to go through that gap to reach the Mines. I stepped on the first pressure plate, and a gate sprouted from the ground, sealing off the gap. Crap. I stepped on the next pressure plate. Nothing. And walked to the third. The two statue heads shot a poison bolt at me, ew.
No worries. There's always some trick to the pressure plate puzzles. But it seems that this one triggered that gate when I stepped on the first plate, and the gate won't go back down. Maybe I should place an item on each pressure plate. Hmm, these are a bit different. It seems only my weight will trigger the plates (usually you can place rocks and other items on them, but not always). What to do, what to do? I suddenly remember finding a hint some time earlier about how to get in the Mines. It said something about walking the path of the snail. Hmm. I went and stood on the first pressure plate for a minute. No click of a mechanism, nothing. Hmm. I'd put a snail figurine on a pedestal for another puzzle in another area, so I went and retrieved it. But what do I do with it? I walked across the plates with the snail in my inventory. No luck. I put the snail down on each plate. No luck. Hmmmmmm. No other snail-related items around...
So I did what I do in these situations in LoG: turn to the walkthrough. I've used a walkthrough about 5 times to help me when I'm out of places to go. I've always failed to get a key puzzle. One time, I knew I had to do something with pressure plates on the other side of a gate, but I couldn't figure out how to get to them or how to get objects on them. I'd try to throw a rock through the gate, but you can't throw things through gates. I eventually looked up the puzzle because I couldn't figure it out for the life of me. And do you know what? You have to *drop* an item through the gate, not throw it. Who knew?! Well, I should have because when I was reading my entries for Legend of Grimrock 1 which I played last year, and I quote: "I admit to looking at a walkthrough one time only, and that was because I didn't realize I could drop items through a gate (hint: you can drop items through gates)." I also didn't realize in the previous game that you could put items into sacks that you picked up (and I wondered why my inventory was always full), but I figured that out quickly this time.
So back to my snail story. I said that LoG was highly rational in its logic. To get the gate to open, you have to walk...really...slowly...across the pressure plates, standing on each one for a few seconds before progressing. Omg. So literal. I was close. I would have figured it out if there were some audio cue like a switch sound when I stood on the first plate for a while thinking, but there was no audio cue, so I didn't know I was on the right track. Such a clever little puzzle! And as it has been with LoG II, I'll explore the Crystal Mines, and hopefully solve the important puzzles and make my way to new areas, but will probably peek at a walkthrough after another few hours of unaided exploration.
A couple other odds and ends: LoG II is HUGELY expanded over the first game. The first one was set in one dungeon that you went down, down, down into. LoG II is set on an island and there are many dungeons and caves and locations (30 in all, versus 13 in the original). There are so many secrets, hidden paths, items to find, puzzles to solve. It is really fantastic level design. Since a large part of the game is outdoors, there's a day/night cycle, which is of course key to some puzzles and secrets and things. Carry plenty of torches until your mage (I hope you have a mage!) learns the Light spell. I feel like I've learned a lot of spells, though I have mostly relied on the basic fireball spell for most of the game.
I've had a couple mishaps in character creation. My shortbow-wielding rogue is supposed to also be an alchemist, but I realized probably 10 hours in that I *really* should have figured out how to make potions by now. Turns out I missed picking up a mortar and pestle early on. Oops. Glad I didn't put more than one point in Alchemy. On the bright side, his inventory space is freed up after throwing away 100+ flowers. Then my minotaur fighter was supposed to be dual-wielding two-handed weapons by now, but I misread: the heavy weapon feat to wield 2-h weapons in one hand does not state that you can dual wield these 2-h weapons. You can only dual-wield 1-h weapons. Though I wonder if you get the feat to dual wield 1-h weapons, if you can have a 2-h in one hand and a 1-h in the other. I can interpret the rule either way.
Aaaand finally for now, there are other cool additions, like the rope, shovel, and timepiece. These items are practical. The rope lets you descend into pits without falling and taking the accompanying beating from that; the shovel lets you dig for secret buried chests and items; the timepiece lets you know where in the day/night cycle you are, which is super useful in no small part because night time is scary in LoG. It's nice to be able to rest until you know it's dawn and skip the night.
That's all for now! More...later.
*Edit on 8/4* I ended up finishing sooner rather than later after all. Nothing new to report. Technically, I watched the end on YouTube. The last boss was really hard, but I could have gotten him if I were more patient. Excellent game.
This entry has been edited 1 time. It was last edited on Aug 4th, 2016 at 17:51:05.
add a comment - read this GameLog |
|
Jul 25th, 2016 at 21:55:32 - Grim Fandango Remastered (PC) |
Funny old adventure game from Tim Schafer. I never played it back in the day, and I'm glad I picked up the remastered version on Steam. It works well with a controller, though there are some directional issues after screen transitions. Grim Fandango's got a quirky story and gets mega bonus points from me for having a lot of references to Marxism.
The plot is basically that main character Manny Calavera is a salesman of sorts in the underworld. The system is corrupt, and he winds up chasing after a girl. He finds himself on the side of some revolutionaries and travels through the underworld across four years to help them dismantle capitalism. Wait no, they don't dismantle capitalism! Manny just gets the girl and kills the bad guy. But he does meet communists and beatniks and striking workers, and carries around what is essentially a pocket Communist Manifesto for a while. It's all very amusing.
In true 90s adventure game fashion, the puzzles are nonsensical. I made it about an hour (halfway through Year 1) before turning to a walkthrough, and shortly thereafter just used it for the rest of the game (thanks Eurogamer!). Here's what stumped me enough to finally quit thinking for myself:
"Sneak into Domino's empty office via the window, then hit the punching bad inside until you get a blue mouthguard [???]. Take it, walk over to the desk, then take the piece of coral from the drawer. Leave the office via the same window you crawled in through. Make your way back to the rope and grab the other end of it [I had no idea there were two ends]. Tie the coral to the rope, then throw it towards the ladder [???]. You can now make your way across to the ladder and climb all the way up onto the roof. Walk along the roof until you come to a ventilation point. Use the cat balloon on the bowl here [why the hell would I use a balloon on a bowl?], then use the bread from the stall by the clown on the bowl. When the birds come over to nibble on the bread, they'll burst the balloon and be startled enough to fly off [who saw that coming?!]. You can now nab their eggs."
Ah, CLASSIC. It doesn't help that a lot of times when you use an object, you're not standing in just the right place, so the action doesn't trigger. That is SO annoying when you think or know you are doing something right, and you get a false negative. Totally throws you off the trail.
I was talking with a friend about video game hint lines from back in the day. She never used them; my parents never let me, but I totally would have been on the phone with Nintendo about The Legend of Zelda and LucasArts about The Dig and Full Throttle, and would have wasted a lot of money, I'm sure. Were we smarter back then? More patient? Easier to play these games if we think like kids and don't bind ourselves with logic? You can get into the logic of these games and it makes them more doable, but man, it's some serious effort. It's easier to read Foucault than figure out these puzzles.
But that's what walkthroughs are for! Making old games fun! I really enjoyed my playthrough of Grim Fandango. The writing is excellent, and yeah the plot and puzzles are weird, but it's funny and got a lot of love put into it, you can tell. Looking forward to the Day of the Tentacle remaster next time.
add a comment - read this GameLog |
|
Jul 21st, 2016 at 09:37:12 - Spec Ops: The Line (PC) |
I know the answers to my questions, but they've been bouncing around in my head for a week after playing the excellent Spec Ops: The Line: How is this game not more popular? How are people so into Call of Duty and Battlefield but not this? Why don't Call of Duty and Battlefield tackle tough questions about war like this game does? This is the best military-themed shooter I've played possibly ever. The story is brilliant. I don't care if it forces you into committing war crimes; that's the point: to think about this kind of thing from the perspective of soldiers who are stressed out, under fire, surviving, negotiating between commands, protocols, common sense, personal morality, ethical responsibility, mission objectives, situational factors, etc., etc. Until there are more games that quit letting us all play the hero all the time, we aren't going to de-glorify war and we aren't going to understand what it is like to be in situations where, yeah you theoretically have a choice, but it is constrained to the point of nonexistence or pure reaction and sometimes really bad things result.
War is traumatic, not entertainment, and that's what Spec Ops argues. It puts you in a terrible situation, a wrecked Dubai caught in a sand storm. Another Army group, the Damned 33rd, led by a guy named Konrad, had previously gone in en route from Afghanistan to evacuate the population, but they ended up taking over the ruined city and establishing martial law. So you and your team are sent in to recon for survivors after a radio broadcast from the Damned 33rd somehow gets out from behind the sand storm wall. You quickly learn that the Damned 33rd under Konrad has carried out atrocities against the Emirate civilians and foreign workers stuck in the city, so you (as the commander of your 3-man squad) decide to intervene. What follows is an epic journey to the heart of Dubai and ultimately through the mind of your character. This game takes clear influence from Heart of Darkness (character Konrad, character Kurtz, author Conrad) and Apocalypse Now.
I can't say too much about the story without spoiling key moments, but if you've read anything about this game, then you've read about the white phosphorous scene. It is horrific, far more upsetting than I had imagined. It makes me think what it might have been like in Hiroshima and Nagasaki and Tokyo and Dresden or some other place that was obliterated by people putting the "greater good" above the lives of tens of thousands of civilians. It makes me think about the people who gave the orders for these bombings and the people who created weapons of war and Oppenheimer's famous quoting from the Bhagavad-Gita, "Now I am become Death, the destroyer of worlds." It makes me think about drone attacks in the Middle East, and about the power of fear and moral crusading and the consequences of (competing) rigid ideologies.
And there are more scenes than just the white phosphorous one that elicit similar reactions, though it was by far the heaviest. But this is the kind of thing people need to experience, the perspective that people need to be exposed to, even if they disagree in the end. In video games, it's a perspective on war that hasn't been much explored, the perspective that war is hell; it is not about playing the hero. I look forward to playing some other recent games that challenge dominant perspectives on war, that challenge the good guy/bad guy dichotomy, that make me think. I just got This War of Mine during the last Steam sale, which provides a civilian perspective, and I've got Valiant Hearts queued up to play soon.
Spec Ops: The Line is a really important game thematically. It's not the most innovative shooter or anything. I found the gameplay fun, engaging, and polished, but this is the kind of game that by the end you are playing to see what happens. There is a cool mechanic with the sand. If you see sand falling or piled up outside a window, you can shoot the glass out and cause a sand avalanche that drowns or stuns enemies. Anyway, that's about it. Do yourself a favor and play this!
add a comment - read this GameLog |
