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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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Road 96 (PC) by dkirschner |
| Dunno what to expect. Road trip with political themes? How interactive will it be? -------- Quite interactive! Really neat narrative structure. |
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most recent entry: Sunday 25 June, 2023
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Really neat narrative adventure game. It's like a road trip simulator and reminded me of something like a hybrid between 80 Days and a Telltale adventure, except in a pretty unique setting. I say "pretty unique" because the game is set in an authoritarian country with an upcoming contentious election, and it's clearly meant to evoke the current conservative/liberal polarization. The incumbent, a conservative white man, President "Tyrak" (who cannot think of "tyrant" here?), whose campaign color is red (Republican) vs. the liberal, Hispanic (I'm assuming--Florres) woman whose campaign color is blue (Democrat). The police and the media are all pro-Tyrak. Police are caricatured as violent assholes, except the one we get to see with some depth. Tyrak has established a border wall, has a state media outlet, is drilling everywhere for oil, and sends runaway teens who try to cross the border to work in the iron mines. Less is known about Florres' policies, just that character insist she'll make things better. There is a resistance movement, who is not necessarily associated with Florres, especially the more violent wing of it, but it can be assumed that this is the case. The backdrop certainly serves to villify conservatives as authoritarian and cruel and paints liberals as democratic, kind, and oppressed, while taking care to draw a line between "regular" liberals and "extreme" liberals who might be terrorists. It doesn't give such treatment to conservatives, who of course may also be moderate or extreme.
Anyway, you play as a series of nameless teenagers who are trying to cross the border. One by one, you guide them north by car, bus, and foot. You have to manage their energy and money; if you don't you'll be too broke to pay when you need to and you can actually die by exhaustion/starvation. Along the way, you'll meet a series of story NPCs with each teen and uncover their complicated backstories and web of relationships. Without giving anything away, there is the aforementioned "good cop," a trucker, another runaway, a hacker, a cab driver, a pair of robbers, and a news broadcaster (my favorite).
I was intrigued by both the narrative uncertainty of what would come next, of who I was going to meet and what I would learn about them, as well as the gameplay uncertainty of whether I would find food, be able to afford what I needed, and ultimately, whether I'd be able to make it to the border. And if a teen makes it to the border, crossing the border is another story. Not all your teens will make it across. In fact, I made it on my first try (before I understood what the game was doing) and thought, "Wow, I beat this game in an hour? Weird." I proceeded to get arrested or die on nearly every other attempt!
The game says that "every road trip is unique" and talks about procedurally generated routes, so I gather that you'll encounter the NPCs in various orders and scenarios. However, there is an overarching series of events that unfolds regardless of the procedural generation. Your dialogue choices affect outcomes of scenarios, when and how story NPCs will encounter one another, as well as the ending of the game itself, though it wasn't clear to me that my choices were affecting anything outside of immediate scenarios as I was playing. After each of your teens dies, is arrested, or makes it across the border, you'll see a news report mentioning something that happened on your journey and a current political poll. The entire time, the poll was roughly 2/3 Tyrak and 1/3 Florres (along with like 20-30% "abstaining," which totals to like 125% of the vote, and I have no idea if the developers overlooked the math here, or if it's a joke or what exactly...you can't have 65% Tyrak, 35% Florres, and 25% abstain...).
Because I wasn't really sure what the impact of my actions was, especially in the beginning before I understood much about the NPCs and their relationships, and before I suspected how I might be influencing things, I initially didn't play in an ideologically consistent way. You can generally choose important dialogue choices that signal you as a revolutionary (burn it down and rebuild!), a pro-democracy person (vote for change!), or an opportunist (as long as I get out, I don't care what happens!). Though it makes sense not to be ideologically consistent between trips because you are playing as different teenagers. But you, the player, probably have a perspective, and it does make sense to influence the story how you want; therefore, you might play all the teens in the same way. I ended up trying to play a hybrid of the revolutionary and pro-democracy person, and actually wound up with the "good" ending, which is the democratic one.
There is a new game+ feature, which carries over how much of each NPC's story you have completed (I was about 85% complete on average) and your abilities (each NPC can gift you an ability like lockpicking or new dialogue options for speaking to police; I got four of six). I started new game+, which opened with a new scenario for one of the NPCs, and I was thinking, "Oh, neat, I can just play until I 100% all the NPCs' stories!" But then the next scenario was one I had played in my first run, and I realized that it must repeat scenarios from game to game, even in new game+. I might watch the rest of their stories on YouTube, because they are fun and interesting.
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