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Sherlock Holmes: Crimes and Punishments (PS4) by jp (Apr 21st, 2024 at 00:26:13) |
This game is way more interesting than I initially gave it credit for (and I might even play all the cases, I'm that curious!)
There's a bunch of cases, you're Sherlock and you gather clues, investigate locations, use your special "eyesight", interrogate suspects, and more. So far, this is what you'd expect.
Some clues become more important and they show up in your "brain" where you can pair it up with another clue (if it's the correct one) to deduce something. Once you have enough of those, you can reach a conclusion. ALSO, once you've reached a conclusion you can decide how to act on it (usually it's either call the cops or call Mycroft - i think...).
What's really wild is that in the brain-connecting clues interface, you can reach lots of different conclusions! (I think it's 4 per case, at least it has been that so far and I've completed two cases). OH! And, as far as I can tell, the you can get it wrong! And, you just move on...the game calls some of them moral choices - which I'm confused by. But the idea that you could arrive at an incorrect conclusion and the game just moves on to the next case is pretty wild. So far, I've gotten both right (because there's abutton you can press that even warns you - like "spoiler alert" and it shows my result in green - which I assume is that I got it right).
Anyways, that's super cool!
Oh, and the game haslots of little mini-games that you play once, and they're part of the story (e.g. taking sherlock's pulse, or arm-wrestling with a sailor)..
The 2nd case is pretty neat - it takes place in the UK, there's a missing train...and there are rich Chilean (and Mexican) businessmen involved! Whoah.
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Fights in Tight Spaces (PC) by jp (Apr 21st, 2024 at 00:19:38) |
This one's a bit weird and I'll confess I didn't play it that much (just played one mission - which is like 1/5 of a full run?). It looks like it wants to be SuperHot, but it isn't - that's ok. But, it has a "play the movie" of what you just did in a level that you would think would play fast and smooth and super action-y. But now, it's slow and it even pauses between card plays...so it looks rather boring, which is a real shame.
As for the game, there's interesting stuff going on, but I haven't fully understood everything:
a. There's a typical energy system for casting, but a secondary system (combo) that lets you play some cards with a combo cost. If you move in your turn you lose combo so it's sometimes tricky to get everything to pull off.
b. While playing I was disappointed (because it seemed unfair) that there are objectives (bonus ones) in each level - and I wasn't getting any because I didn't know what they were! Apparently they're actually shown on screen, but in a place I did not see or notice.
c. The game seemed a bit slow - I was just moving and getting out of the way as I waited to draw into a good hand of cards. This cuts the momentum for sure and also made it hard/impossible to accidentally hit the secret (not really secret) objectives. So, I'm curious to go back and try again with awareness of the objectives. They should help a lot - in that I'm more likely to try to "solve the puzzle" of each turn and hopefully get the bonus objectives.
d. It's strange that you have to pay to heal, but I thought it was neat that you can upgrade several cards (if you have the money) and that some cards are cheap to upgrade - there's different pricing for them!
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Hadean Tactics (PC) by jp (Apr 21st, 2024 at 00:11:34) |
Ok, I've now cleared the game (not unlocked everything, of course) and it really is quite fun and interesting. The 3rd character (which I was waiting on to try out because I wanted to clear the game with the 2nd one) is pretty neat as well though as I write this all I can really remember is that it has an orb mechanic similar to one of the characters in Slay the Spire.
The harder ending is basically another 3 levels, but they get shorter! The last one, if I remember correctly, is just the boss. I don't remember what deck I was running, but it was pretty good - in the sense that I had picked up some good combos..traps and all.
I'm going to stop playing, for now, mostly because the list of games too look at keeps on growing - one a week - because of the design seminar I'm teaching.
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Before Your Eyes (PC) by dkirschner (Apr 14th, 2024 at 13:51:13) |
I've been looking forward to playing this, especially after playing One Hand Clapping, which had a singing mechanic. That game activates your mic and you use your voice, raising and lowering pitch, to interact with the game. Before Your Eyes was similar in that the game activates your webcam and uses your eye blinks as input. Before Your Eyes works WAY better than One Hand Clapping, and it's the better game all around. I figure that detecting blinks (yes/no) is easier than detecting notes along the range of human vocal pitch, so kudos to One Hand Clapping for trying.
Blinking in Before Your Eyes doesn't do anything unless you do it over a prompt (mouse over the prompt, then blink to interact) or unless you do it when the metronome icon is visible, which progresses the story to the next scene. The rules are simple, and it became a game in and of itself for me to blink strategically. I imagined that at the end of A Clockwork Orange, Alex's eyes are forced open so that he could successfully complete this game. At times, I felt like holding my eyes open with my fingers. This is because your eyes will get tired/dry/itchy while playing and you will screw up and blink when you don't mean to, skipping dialogue or ending a scene early. That's frustrating enough. Make sure you do the blink calibration, but I think that no matter how well you do it, it will still occasionally register some non-blinks as blinks. This really didn't happen much for me; through calibration, I think I turned the sensitivity way down, and I wonder what effect wearing glasses had. But like I said, it works surprisingly well.
So, the game itself is narrative-heavy. It's an obvious play on the idea that a life can pass in the "blink of an eye." You're picked up by a ferryman of souls who asks you to tell the story of your life. Back in time you go to remember it: your childhood, your parents, your career, etc., blinking your way through each scene. I won't spoil the story, but there is a twist that I absolutely did not see coming (though I should have paid more attention to the mysterious dark scenes) that changes the narrative and the tone of the game. This is one you can spend time reflecting on.
Aesthetically, it's got a simple visual presentation, sort of painterly, with some really nice piano music. The voice acting is good, with the exception of the girl-next-door (who sounds the same at 10 as she does at 40). For some reason, they also used the same voice actor for your dad and her dad, which made the one scene with her dad calling her very confusing ("Why is my dad at her house?!"). But I liked the dad and mom's performances. I was wondering through the whole game if your character was mute and/or on the spectrum because he doesn't talk--only through a typewriter later in the game--and otherwise expresses himself through his prodigious musical and artistic talents. But I think he's just a silent main character, not actually mute.
Anyway, the game won a BAFTA for a reason. It didn't blow my mind, but it's a neat experience that's worth having. It's short too, doesn't waste your time. I'm considering incorporating it into a class.
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Stray (PC) by dkirschner (Apr 13th, 2024 at 12:00:39) |
Patrick and I have been playing this together this semester, and finished it a couple weeks ago. We were talking after beating it about despite how simple and straightforward of a game this is, it manages to be something new. Playing as a cat (and being able to do cat things like curl up and sleep, scratch things, knock objects off tables, etc., so cuuuute) was novel, and the setting and story were interesting. But really, playing as a cat. I smiled a whole lot throughout the game. The lil companion robot was cute too.
On the other hand, I was often tired and bored while playing, and literally fell asleep during several sessions. Patrick would be making dinner or something in the kitchen, and I'd snap awake, cat walking into a wall, and I'd pretend I had not fallen asleep, and that I was just watching the cat walk into the wall and thinking. Like how my dad always used to claim he was "resting his eyes" when he'd fall asleep on the couch.
I would not call the game exciting. It was a lot of wandering around the city and talking to robot NPCs, fetching things for them. The city is a really good-looking dystopia, and the robots are quirky, but I wish they had more dialogue. You don't get a sense that many of them have personalities besides whatever one-note thing they do. I mean, the lack of dialogue makes sense, and it's not really "dialogue" since the cat can't talk. The fact that you are a cat adds a whole layer of silly to the game. Like, why has this lil robot befriended a cat? Why are all these robots putting all their faith in a cat to save them? Cats don't understand what we're saying to them, and cats do whatever they want! Playing as a cat in a game where you're doing fetch quests (fetching is dog stuff!) and doing things to help people is very un-cat-like.
But, you know what? The ability to play as a cat and do cat things trumps how little sense it makes, and I would play as a cat in this dystopia again. Idea for next time: more cats. And what do you think? Were there cats at the end?! Optimistically, I think so.
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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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