grayhammmer Posted January 7, 2022 Share Posted January 7, 2022 (edited) If it wasn't for the fact that you're beginning the DLC for it and will probably rank it soon after re-S-ranking it, I would absolutely put a priority ranking on Outer Wilds as that game blew me away when I played it and I'm very interested to see what you thought of it. Though given the backlog of games you've completed recently that you'll have to analyze first, I doubt priority rankings will be touched for a little while. Edited January 7, 2022 by grayhammmer 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DrBloodmoney Posted January 7, 2022 Author Share Posted January 7, 2022 8 hours ago, grayhammmer said: If it wasn't for the fact that you're beginning the DLC for it and will probably rank it soon after re-S-ranking it, I would absolutely put a priority ranking on Outer Wilds as that game blew me away when I played it and I'm very interested to see what you thought of it. Though given the backlog of games you've completed recently that you'll have to analyze first, I doubt priority rankings will be touched for a little while. Yeah, playing that Echoes of the Eye DLC now, and just taking my time trying to figure it all out, but once that's done, I'll definitely be doing a ranking for it - I suspect it will do very well, as that game blew me away too... in a rather The Witness-y way! ? 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rjkclarke Posted January 7, 2022 Share Posted January 7, 2022 Looks as if you've gotten 2022 of reviews off to a very strong start Doc! Nice to see Psychonauts 1 getting some well deserved love! My backlog is safe for the time being though - I think anyway. Most of the things I would have been interested in are already there... Like Psychonauts 2 was always a given for me.... And after we spoke about Rhombus of Ruin a couple of weeks back I might have to purchase that and borrow my friends VR headset if he doesn't mind. On 06/01/2022 at 5:42 PM, DrBloodmoney said: There is no level quite as unique as the adventure-game-heavy Milkman Conspiracy, or the completely different Lungfishopolis That is a bit of a sad face though - but if the 3D platforming is as good as you say it is..... Then I guess I can forgive that...... Only if Mr Schafer gives us a Broken Age 2 just to make up for the lack of Adventure-gaminesss. Well I can dream right? I am very much looking forward to Psychonauts 2 though - a friend of mine recently played Psychonauts 1 & 2 in short succession although he played the second game first, and then the first game, no idea why. But it does kind of prove what you said to Smevz about the fact there is more than just the one game now, so the ability to move through the series and have more than just the first game really does help. I'm really on the fence about Lost Words initially all you had to write was this...... On 06/01/2022 at 5:42 PM, DrBloodmoney said: Lost Words: Beyond the Page is a word-based puzzle-lite platformer, written by Rhianna Pratchett (daughter of the late, great Terry, and who has considerable videogame credentials to her name, including BAFTA award winning writing on Heavenly Sword, and Writer's Guild Award winning writing for Overlord.) .....to sell me on the game.... Then I read the rest of it and now I'm really not sure. Also I had a little MIND = BLOWN moment when you mentioned Rhianna being Terry's daughter - I knew of her already, but I didn't know about the connection she had to him, that's really awesome! I'm glad you got to experience the game the way you did, with your Son, that probably significantly enhanced the experience for you. I'm really unsure on this one - might be one I kind of "have in reserve" for if/when I have children to experience it with - I just don't know that there is enough of a pull there for me to want to dive on in, I'm really glad I now know if its existence though, so thanks for that! We've already discussed You Are Being Followed a fair bit - I like the idea of it, but it sounds like it'd turn my house into a vomitised Jackson Pollock and that isn't good for anyone. ? I guess as everyone seems to be nailing so much writing at the moment, I guess I ought to do some myself instead of being such a lazy bones about it .... You really did get quite a bit of productive gaming done over the festive period, I did 1 game , so at least I have much less of a catch-up job review wise ?... Looking forward to whatever you've got next to be measured against the science though! 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DrBloodmoney Posted January 7, 2022 Author Share Posted January 7, 2022 (edited) 34 minutes ago, rjkclarke said: Looks as if you've gotten 2022 of reviews off to a very strong start Doc! Nice to see Psychonauts 1 getting some well deserved love! My backlog is safe for the time being though - I think anyway. Most of the things I would have been interested in are already there... Like Psychonauts 2 was always a given for me.... And after we spoke about Rhombus of Ruin a couple of weeks back I might have to purchase that and borrow my friends VR headset if he doesn't mind. oh, for sure - I was kinda wondering as I started Psychonauts 2 how much Rhombus of Ruin would feel necessary, and the way I see it, is it’s not a requirement - it does summarise what you need to know - but if there is any chance of getting to play it, it’s certainly got some subtle jokes that would make more sense having played it. More importantly though, I think it would certainly make Rhombus work less well to play it after Psychonauts 2, so if you do have the opportunity to play it at any time, doing so in the right order is the way to go! Quote That is a bit of a sad face though - but if the 3D platforming is as good as you say it is..... Then I guess I can forgive that...... Yeah - it is a little sad the adventure game stuff is gone, but I really do think it’s made up for with the great story, and the artistic variety. Where in Psychonauts, it feels like a new design ethos in each level, in 2, it almost feels like a different rendering engine at times! I mean, I went in with pretty high hopes, but I really didn’t imagine I’d end up ranking it higher than the original… that was a surprise for sure! Quote Only if Mr Schafer gives us a Broken Age 2 just to make up for the lack of Adventure-gaminesss. Well I can dream right? You know… I’d bet we haven’t seen the last Tim Schafer adventure game. I just don’t think the guy will ever pull himself away from them completely! Quote I'm really on the fence about Lost Words initially all you had to write was this...... .....to sell me on the game.... Then I read the rest of it and now I'm really not sure. Also I had a little MIND = BLOWN moment when you mentioned Rhianna being Terry's daughter - I knew of her already, but I didn't know about the connection she had to him, that's really awesome! I'm glad you got to experience the game the way you did, with your Son, that probably significantly enhanced the experience for you. I'm really unsure on this one - might be one I kind of "have in reserve" for if/when I have children to experience it with - I just don't know that there is enough of a pull there for me to want to dive on in, I'm really glad I now know if its existence though, so thanks for that! Yeah… to be honest, I’d say it’s probably only worth a look as a curiosity if you don’t have younglings around. From an adult point of view, it is a very simple game - and most of the best aspects can probably be appreciated from a video as much as by playing. Quite a lovely little game - but it has it’s audience, and without at least one of them along for the ride, it would feel a little wanting, I suspect. Quote We've already discussed You Are Being Followed a fair bit - I like the idea of it, but it sounds like it'd turn my house into a vomitised Jackson Pollock and that isn't good for anyone. I guess as everyone seems to be nailing so much writing at the moment, I guess I ought to do some myself instead of being such a lazy bones about it .... You really did get quite a bit of productive gaming done over the festive period, I did 1 game , so at least I have much less of a catch-up job review wise ... Looking forward to whatever you've got next to be measured against the science though! Haha, I know - I don’t know what happened over Christmas! The previous holiday I spent most of the time playing some older stuff and doing some overdue dlcs and whatnot (Arkham Knight / Shadow of Mordor) and had one long game on the go (ACIII), but this year, I wanted to catch up on some of the smaller games I had built up… some I knew I would tear through quickly, but it seemed even the ones I expected to take longer - Carrion or Morbid for example - just ended up taking very little time too… so much so, that I’ve ended up giving myself a mountain of write-ups to get through now!? Edited January 7, 2022 by DrBloodmoney 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rjkclarke Posted January 7, 2022 Share Posted January 7, 2022 (edited) 1 hour ago, DrBloodmoney said: oh, for sure - I was kinda wondering as I started Psychonauts 2 how much Rhombus of Ruin would feel necessary, and the way I see it, is it’s not a requirement - it does summarise what you need to know - but if there is any chance of getting to play it, it’s certainly got some subtle jokes that would make more sense having played it. More importantly though, I think it would certainly make Rhombus work less well to play it after Psychonauts 2, so if you do have the opportunity to play it at any time, doing so in the right order is the way to go! Well I'll try and play them in the correct order - but I do have previous for playing things in a stupid order.... I mean the way its turned out I've gone about Yakuza has been weird...... Psychonauts I'll try playing the recommended order though. I would likely not play Psychonauts 2 till I have a PS5 anyway. So Rhombus might be something I'll just get to at some point. You know one thing I wish we got with the PS4 version of Psychonauts was a proper full fledged HD remaster, instead of the port. The PS2 version of Psychonauts was always the worst version of that game anyway, I originally had it on Xbox - so when I came to play the PS4 version I remember thinking "I was sure the game was smoother than this....." apparently not though, the PS2 version was always just a little bit ropey. 1 hour ago, DrBloodmoney said: Yeah - it is a little sad the adventure game stuff is gone, but I really do think it’s made up for with the great story, and the artistic variety. Where in Psychonauts, it feels like a new design ethos in each level, in 2, it almost feels like a different rendering engine at times! I mean, I went in with pretty high hopes, but I really didn’t imagine I’d end up ranking it higher than the original… that was a surprise for sure! That's good to know then - because I probably similarly would have gone in with high hopes, so I'm really glad to hear that it actually does deliver. Especially that some of the levels feel like a different rendering engine, that sounds really awesome.... Psychonauts as a series (now at least) - I've always thought, is one of the games that would most benefit from the passage of time and newer and better technology. So it sounds like now we're rocking and rolling with some tech that can actually realise some of Tim Schafers vision a bit better. 1 hour ago, DrBloodmoney said: You know… I’d bet we haven’t seen the last Tim Schafer adventure game. I just don’t think the guy will ever pull himself away from them completely! I hope not - I don't think he will quite pull himself away either.... I mean he contributed ideas and even a few written pieces here and there to Thimbleweed Park and you can read them in the games library so he still has his toes in the water to some extent. Adventure games have had somewhat of a mini-renaissance in the last five years or so, so it'd be nice to see him get in on the action again - especially when Broken Age is such a great example of how well he really can still nail that genre. 1 hour ago, DrBloodmoney said: Quite a lovely little game - but it has it’s audience, and without at least one of them along for the ride, it would feel a little wanting, I suspect. That was definitely the impression I got from your review of it - so yeah, I think I'll just leave it as a maybe for now - it isn't as if I don't have a backlog the size of Somerset anyway - so one less game can't hurt. 1 hour ago, DrBloodmoney said: Haha, I know - I don’t know what happened over Christmas! The previous holiday I spent most of the time playing some older stuff and doing some overdue dlcs and whatnot (Arkham Knight / Shadow of Mordor) and had one long game on the go (ACIII), but this year, I wanted to catch up on some of the smaller games I had built up… some I knew I would tear through quickly, but it seemed even the ones I expected to take longer - Carrion or Morbid for example - just ended up taking very little time too… so much so, that I’ve ended up giving myself a mountain of write-ups to get through now! Oh dear - I feel for you on that one..... ACIII does feel long too, I like that game don't get me wrong, but that has a lot of stuff to do in it. Especially as Connor is about as compelling a protagonist, as the plot of a book of carpet samples is interesting! Shhhhhh Doc! Why did you bring up Arkham Knight? I was hoping nobody would mention it so that I could just pretend away like I didn't desperately hope to have finished it by now instead of stare at it blankly hoping it will play itself. That's actually good idea though - tackle a lot of the games that you know you can get through quickly. Something I ought to probably consider....... I'm sure you'll get through the mountain of write-ups though..... I'm struggling to motivate myself to even do one, and you've already done five! So hats off with that one man! I gotta pick up the pace If this was a tortoise and hare thing.... I would be neither - just a slug stuck in treacle ? Edited January 7, 2022 by rjkclarke 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shrooba Posted January 8, 2022 Share Posted January 8, 2022 A new batch has arrived doc, well done! I really want to read it right now but I'll wait until I get into the Psychonauts series. I'll have this batch bookmarked, and I'll be sure to read it once I dive in to the games! ? 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post DrBloodmoney Posted January 10, 2022 Author Popular Post Share Posted January 10, 2022 !!SCIENCE UPDATE!! The next 5 (not at all!) randomly selected games to be submitted for scientific analysis shall be: Access Denied Statik Carrion Hoa Shady Part of Me Still playing catch-up from the Festive Break, so still no Priority Rankings here, but I reckon there will be one more purely catch-up Batch after this next one, and then I should be back in the swing of things! Can 'Current Most Awesome' game, Hitman 3, fend off all new adversaries? Is gaming butt-plug LA Cops going to pop out and be replaced as 'Least Awesome Game'? Let's find out, Science Chums! 6 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
YaManSmevz Posted January 10, 2022 Share Posted January 10, 2022 Shady Part of Me!!! I've almost bought that one so many times... once when it wasn't even on sale! 8 hours ago, DrBloodmoney said: Is gaming butt-plug LA Cops going to pop out and be replaced as 'Least Awesome Game'? I could actually hear a foul popping sound in my head as I read that??? 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post DrBloodmoney Posted January 11, 2022 Author Popular Post Share Posted January 11, 2022 (edited) NEW SCIENTIFIC RESULTS ARE IN! Hello Science-Dudes and Science-Dude-esses, as promised (and in some no cases requested), here are the latest results of our great scientific endeavour! Access Denied Summary: Access Denied, by Stately Snail Games is a bit of a conundrum for me, as it is a pretty disappointing game, but in a genre I like a lot, and which is, as far as I can tell, rather underserved on Playstation consoles. A narrative-free, semi-abstracted puzzle-box game, the player is presented, without context, with a series of elaborate looking 3D puzzle-box contraptions they have to solve, in order to move onto the next one. No instructions are given, and little help is given via UI, and so tinkering with the contraptions and investigating them is the key to solving them, with the player having to experiment, see what different inputs do, and establish how to complete each one. Visually, Access Denied is extremely simple, with each device simply sitting on a desk workstation in some kind of cluttered Engineering Laboratory, and, to give the game some credit, while there is little in the way of variety, (and, it must be said, a general blandness across the board,) the backdrop is fine, level change animations are okay, and the actual contraptions look pretty good. Since solving them requires spinning them around and investigating each device from all angles, and since each one is unique, there is a level of detail that works well enough for specific, contextual clues to be hidden in plain sight, and the textures and models are adequate to the task - though never more than that. The Puzzle Box genre is, as I say, usually a pretty simple one visually - the nature of the genre virtually necessitates it - however, while that does excuse the basic visuals of Access Denied to a point, it doesn't really excuse the lack of personality or the overall blandness. Games like the excellent iOS franchise The Room, (or, indeed, VR Puzzle box game Statik - reviewed next!) prove - there is considerable room to excel visually, and to inject a distinct personality, even within that minimalist genre. Access Denied never does, nor seems to ever really attempt to. Audio is pretty poor across the game. The music is pretty rote, and oddly ill-fitting - it feels like it is conveying a timed element and sense of high tension that simply isn't present in the actual puzzles. There is no voice work to speak of, and while the foley work and indication sounds that emanate from the contraptions when certain actions are taken are fine and get the job done, they are never stand-out or particularly interesting. The real fundamental issues with Access Denied, however, are not visual or auditory - they are mechanical. Firstly, in terms of controls. The game just never feels quite right. The contraptions are spun, but only on a rotational X-Y plane, and the isometric view on them means this feels a little clunky. With no way to rotate on the Z-axis, it feels like the player never quite gets the a wholistic view on the device being investigated. Interface with the boxes is via a hovering mouse control, and while this is really the only viable method for this game on console, I never once felt like the control scheme really worked. Several times, I hit switches and thought they had no effect, as it turned out the cursor wasn't quite aligning perfectly with the input. I've said this before, but it's worth reiterating: more than any other genre, Puzzle Game controls MUST be above reproach! Puzzle games are the one genre where the player MUST be confident in thier inputs, as nothing sours people on a puzzle game faster than trying something, having it not work, discounting it as a solution, only to discover much later it was the correct solution, but the controls simply failed to have it register. All the time spent playing Access Denied, I felt like it would be much, much better suited to the touchscreen interface of an iPad. (Full Disclosure - I played Access Denied on a PS5. I am not sure if the Vita version uses the touch screen. If it does, that would likely solve this issue!) Luckily, however, the control problem didn't last long. It is fairly quickly alleviated, by the game's much larger issue... ... it is incredibly short and incredibly simple. The puzzles in Access Denied are just not challenging. I am rarely the person to call out a game for being "too easy" - I generally find such complaints tiresome and not a little braggadocios on the part of the complainer - however, in a Puzzle Box game, being 'stuck' is the entire point. The genre is predicated on (and incumbent upon) giving the player "eureka moments" as they finally see the solution to a section that has been hidden in plain sight... ...and that is not possible if there is no struggle whatsoever. The game also stumbles in this regard, by having no real difficulty curve. There doesn't seem to be much of a ramp in difficulty as the game progresses. Beyond the first few very rudimentary levels, all levels feel similar in challenge - Box 4 or box 5 do not feel particularly easier than boxes 19 or 20. This issue is - it should be stated - partly down to the genre itself. Because the nature of Puzzle Box games requires that each box is different, there cannot be the compounding effect that narrative puzzle games use to give a consistent difficulty ramp. In a puzzle box game, the player's journey will be staccato - they progress in bursts, with the player being 'blocked' periodically, as they find something they just can't figure out - but generally, these should happen fairly frequently, and more towards the end. In Access Denied, they almost never happen, and the occasions they do, they seem entirely random... almost as if the actual numbering of the box levels has simply been randomly assigned, rather than someone actively attempting to put more complex boxes towards the end and simpler ones towards the start. Overall, Access Denied was a pretty disappointing experience. The puzzles are too easy, and not particularly enjoyable or intuitive to control. The game looks okay at best - think Artifex Mundi, but without the variety or imagination. The sound is pretty basic, and while I am not necessarily looking for long or complex narrative in a Puzzle Box game, the sheer lack of context in Access Denied is jarring, even within that genre. If anything, Access Denied serves as evidence of the reason the Puzzle Box genre is underserved on consoles - part of the fun of the genre is the feel of tinkering and toying with a mysterious physical object - and without a touch-screen or similarly tactile input, that becomes difficult to replicate. If only there were a game in this genre that used the PSVR... The Ranking: Despite my liking Puzzle Box games, the fact remains that Access Denied just isn't up to snuff with regards to the genre really. The best elements it has are generally 'acceptable' at best, and the whole game is let down quite considerably by its lesser elements - the awkward controls and the lack of good feedback or difficulty in particular. As such, I'm looking art the low end of the ranking, and specifically at puzzle games in that region. The two that pop out as obvious points of comparison are middling Marble Madness inspired Chronovolt, and decidedly lacklustre Match-3 puzzle game Gem Smashers. I think Access Denied certainly falls above Gem Smashers - while it does nothing particularly interesting, it is at least less technically problematic than Gem Smashers, and the fundamental game is more fun. However, I would have trouble ranking it above Chronovolt. That is a game that is significantly more fun to play - it is hampered by some serious design flaws, however, the basic mechanics are still fairly solid. That leaves only a smattering of games in-between. The first two above Gem Smashers are two Artifex Mundi games - Persian Nights: Sands of Wonders, and Lost Grimoires 2: Shard of Mystery - which actually makes this decision easy. I was pretty disappointed by Persian Nights: Sands of Wonders and think, on merit, that Access Denied does manage to place higher than it, however, it really doesn't do enough to outdo even the middling Lost Grimoires 2: Shard of Mystery. As such, Access Denied finds its spot on the list. Statik Summary: Statik: Institute of Retention (to give the game its Sunday name) is a PSVR exclusive Puzzle box game from Tarsier Studios - creators of the awesome Little Nightmares games - in which the player is presented with a series of elaborate looking 3D puzzle-box contraptions they have to solve, in order to move onto the next one. No instructions are given, and little help is given via UI, and so tinkering with the contraptions and investigating them is the key to solving them, with the player having to experiment, see what different inputs do, and establish how to complete each one... ...wait... ...haven't we done this before? Yes, I understand - you may be feeling a little déjà vu right now - and with good reason! Eagle-eyed readers of this thread might notice that I have shuffled the order of these write-ups around a little, letting Statik jump the queue a little, in order to review back-to-back with Access Denied. There is a reason for this - two reasons actually. Firstly, the entire reason I even played Access Denied. It was as a result of Statik. Not to get too far into the weeds of my personal proclivities here, but I became aware of Statik primarily when the "Bingo Bonanza" Community Event required me to seek out some VR games to play. I realised Statik seemed a perfect fit for me, and bought it immediately. However, it was still 2021, and the event I bought it for hadn't started, but I now had a hunger for some puzzle boxes! I bought Access Denied to tide me over, and get the Puzzle-Box monkey off my back in the mean time. Secondly, because I was right. Access Denied is similar to Statik in terms of genre. Both games are un-guided puzzle-box solving games, both feature unknown engineering / laboratory settings and unseen / unknown reasons for the game being played. Luckily though, that is where the similarities end. In every area in which Access Denied is acceptable, Statik excels, and in every area in which Access Denied is lacking, Statik excels even further! Let's just get this statement out of the way right now: Statik represents, as far as I am concerned, both a best-in-class entry in the Puzzle-Box genre (certainly as far as Playstation consoles are concerned, but even beyond that,) and the best use of PSVR I have so far encountered, in my (admittedly limited) foray into the platform. Statik is brilliant. The set-up of the game is fairly simple and ambiguous. Sitting in a nondescript, white-walled laboratory, strapped to a chair in front of a nondescript, infinitely patient and condescendingly soft-spoken scientist (whose face is always curiously blurred no matter what angle you look from, as if to protect his identity in news-reel footage,) the player finds that their hands are trapped within a strange box-device. The emotionless scientist explains just enough for them to know they need to solve the box for some unknown reason, but little else... then proceeds to sit next to you, breathing softly, sipping his coffee, and occasionally jotting down notes (presumably about you) or passing occasional, condescending comments about the actions you attempt, with cold, clinical objectivity. His demeanour is something between a stern parent and an eerily passive kidnapper - as if he graduated summa cum laude from the GladOS School of Etiquette and Engineering. The use of VR in the game is remarkably well done. Because the game uses the Duel-shock controller, rather than the move controllers, Tarsier is able to so something really clever with the simulation - the motions and position necessitated by the use of the controller maps perfectly to the configuration in which the player's avatar's hands are trapped within the box. That means that, immediately, the simulation feels accurate - it is completely believable that the players hands are trapped inside the box, and able to press all the buttons within it, as the controller serves as a perfect 1-to-1 with the box. Tilt the controllers to the side, and the box tilts, so they can see the sides. press any button, and the corresponding box action moves and functions with eerie synchronicity. That might feel like a strange accolade - "The buttons do a thing on the screen!" - given that all games do that, but because the box actions are generally mechanical, and not electronic, this really does have a strangely tactile sensation to it. Being able to press a button, and watch a small servo motor turn, unscrewing a piston and watching the mechanisms work, while being able to tilt the box and peer right inside the revealed internals is mesmerising and fascinating, and allows the player to lose all concept of reality... slipping into the game in a way even VR often fails to effectively do. The fact that the laboratory rooms change each level - and indeed, come to contain solutions in the environmental details (both for the puzzle being conducted, and - spoiler - for really sneaky, smart "alternative" solutions to other level's puzzles, the completion of which leads to a secret ending - mean that each new puzzle is not only satisfying in a tactile sense, but in an exploratory one too. Because so little context is given about the facility, but because it is so interesting in its design and the experiments so mysterious, I found myself frequently scouring the environments for clues not only to the solutions, but to the environmental storytelling. Each puzzle box is unique and uses a variety of different, unique hooks, in a way that never gets boring or trite, and really showcase exactly what can be done within the Puzzle Box genre, if properly applied. Indeed, there are only 9 main puzzles in the game, (as opposed to 30-odd in Access Denied,) however, because each is so wildly interesting and so carefully and thoughtfully designed, the game feels much longer, much better and much more interesting than Access Denied ever did. The visuals are wonderful in the game. It is a simple aesthetic, which makes sense for the narrative and the genre - think Portal or Q.U.B.E or The Turing Test - but these environments are rendered really nicely. It lets contextual clues stand out a little, while never feeling like a lantern is being shone on them - and actually, the sterile and cold, clinical feel of the laboratory showcase just how well the VR elements are implemented. Because the environment is one of right angles and straight lines, any sag or yaw of the environment would be very obvious. Here, the surroundings remain perfectly rigid, further letting the player completely buy into their surroundings, and letting the real world melt away into this bizarre new landscape. Audio is the game is truly fantastic. There is very little in the way of music - unlike Access Denied - which tries to add a feeling of tension by putting oddly ill-fitting 'tense' music over the non-tense puzzle solving - Statik instead adds considerably more tension by simply being silent, with only the occasional comments, sighs, grunts, coughs, coffee-sips or scribbling sounds of the mysterious scientist to accompany the player. It is a hard thing to properly articulate, but there is something fascinating about just how unnerving it feels to be sitting in silence, desperately struggling to solve a puzzle for unknown reasons, as a person sits 3 feet away from you, observing everything you do. Sound plays into this a great deal - while creepy scientist is never particularly noisy, there is just enough ambient shuffle and breathing to never forget he is right there, and that means when the player is struggling they feel both stupid, small, helpless... and tremendously uncomfortable! All the little noises that emanate from the boxes when actions are performed sound great too - whirring servos, clunking mechanisms, buzzing oscilloscope sounds and whirring electrics combine with the duel-shock vibrations to create a real feeling of tactile, haptic feedback. The puzzles themselves are not outrageously difficult, but they are very varied and always interesting - and while the player is likely to get stuck fairly often, they can always rely on the two most important factors in a game if this kind: The controls are perfect, (with each button on the controller doing something - and usually something satisfying to feel / see,) and the solutions, once realised, are always clear. While a section might at first feel impenetrable, or obtuse, you can always rely on the knowledge that you do have the clues to solve it. They are there - whether in the box, or in the environment, or in the sounds or the comments of the scientist - you just need to figure out the significance of what you are being told. Overall, Statik: Institute of Retention is a fantastic Puzzle Box game, a fantastic VR game, and just a fantastic game overall. It is not a terribly long experience - clocking in at around the 4-5 hour mark to solve for the 'normal' ending, but it does have significant secrets buried for uncovering that could increase it's length considerably, and what is there is a creepy, unusual joy from start to finish. In general, my comment having played a good puzzle game is that "anyone who likes Puzzle Games should check this one out", however, in the case of Statik, I would go further, and state that anyone who has, or has access to, a PSVR NEEDS to play this game... Puzzle Game fan or not. The ways in which it uses VR - from the tactility, to the technical aspects, to the smart use of the format for creating fear out of quiet and proximity to an NPC... these are elements that are not just to this game's credit - they go further, and actually cement the viability of PSVR in a way no previous game did for me. A Remarkable achievement from start to finish - and a crime the game seems to have been largely ignored or forgotten. Between Little Nightmares, Little Nightmares II and now Statik, Tarsier Studio has elevated in my mind to that rarified pantheon of developers alongside Arkane, Klee, Supergiant, Night School, No Code and Playdead - where I will buy anything they make now, sight-unseen! The Ranking: The most appropriate comparable games are, obviously puzzle games, but also VR games. Since there are few VR games on the list currently, I decided to look to those first, and the current VR frontrunner is Psychonauts and the Rhombus of Ruin. Statik, I think, has to rank higher than Psychonauts and the Rhombus of Ruin, for a couple of reasons. Firstly, I do think that while Rhombus of Ruin is great, the actual use of VR in Statik is more impressive - the feeling of immersion is stronger, and Statik does things that simply couldn't work outside of VR. Statik is also a brand new, original game, and so benefits from that originality of narrative, in addition to the novelty value. It is not a complete cake-walk however - Psychonauts and the Rhombus of Ruin is still a great game after-all, so looking at puzzle games that sit close above it. The two that jump out first are The Last Campfire and The Pedestrian. Both of those are good games, however, I think Statik does certainly manage to outdo The Last Campfire - that game looks the business, and it does have a richer, more fleshed out narrative, but the actual puzzles are a bit too easy, and there isn't anything quite as original or interesting as Statik. The Pedestrian becomes a genuinely close fight though. It has the originality and interesting concepts to compete with Statik, and the challenge is there, plus The Pedestrian has the visuals to compete, and has the "big twist" which probably just edges out Statik's equivalent... but in the end, Statik manages to squeeze out the win. Its audio, and its clever use of "npc proximity" to cause creepy tension is such a smart addition, and it just ends up being an overall package that sits a little prouder than The Pedestrian. It's close though, and in the game right above The Pedestrian, we have Gris. Because Statik is a small game, and fairly short, I think Gris is a reasonable comparison also. The things Gris does with music and visuals, and its message is more profound, which certainly counts for something, however, the fundamental act of playing Statik is more engaging, on a moment to moment level, I think... This one becomes very difficult, and in some ways entirely down to taste, but I'm leaning towards Statik beating Gris, simply on the fact that Statik was more surprising, and generally more gameplay-engaging and more unique. It's so close though, that I think it has to land in just the next spot above, and so Statik finds its spot! Carrion (Shout out to @Crispy_Oglop for the recommend!) Summary: A Pixel-art Metroidvania-lite from Phobia Game Studio, Carrion is a game that flips the Sci-Fi "experiment-gone-wrong" genre on it's head... by having the player take on the role of the experiment itself! Escaping containment in an underground facility owned by the fictional 'Relith Science' the player controls an amorphous entity akin to The Blob, as they move around the facility areas, smashing doors, squeezing through vents and ducting, takes over areas with its rampantly expanding mass and slaughtering the facility workers as it runs amok. The goal is to collect splices of the creature's own DNA, removed for study in various research stations, allowing it to gain mass and power, and opening up new methods of exfiltration and attack as it gains strength, with a view to eventual escape from the labs themselves. Narratively, Carrion is pretty slight, though it does provide some. Occasional sections of the game allow flashbacks, wherein the player is shown the origins of the creature's confinement - it's discovery, its original host, and the steps Relith took to originally contain it - and these (un-narrated) sections do provide enough insight to give some context to the game. However, the real draw here is not in fine nuance, but in wanton chaos. The movement of the creature within the facility is interesting - as the creature can move swiftly across any surface - wall, floor or ceiling - the effect is to make the flat-frames 2D facility feel more like a top-down, any-directional floor map. The facility is designed to make sense as a 3D side-view (the flashback sections, wherein the player controls a human form prove this well,) however, for the majority of the game, gravity is barely a factor. The creatures movement is something of a double-edged sword, in the sense that while it looks great in motion, (and it does, with tendrils and tentacles firing out to grip ledges and ceilings that look both physically possible and gross as hell!) and moves around with an uncanny speed and frightful force, the actual fine-control is somewhat lost. The player is able to control an extendable knot of tentacles with the right stick, which can be used to grab scientists or doors or operate switches etc. however, this more specific control is pretty finicky to master, and can really get frustrating - particularly towards the latter half of the game, where enemies are more powerful, and where more fine control is required for the operation of levels and specific buttons to progress. (It's worth noting that this game was originally a PC release, and I would imagine mouse control is far more suited to it. Controlling this tendril with the analogue stick is adequate for direction, but gauging and controlling differences in distance is difficult with the small swing of an analogue stick.) The game functions, as said, as a Metroidvania of sorts, with the whole map being interlinked, and areas gated by the acquisition of new powers, however, that is not to say the game is non-linear. In fact, there is a very specific and set 'path' through the game, with little allowance for variations in which area to progress to, and so this element is a little lost. Because the whole map feels open, but each power only allows access to one new area at a time, and because areas do have fairly similar aesthetics, the result is that the game doesn't seem so much 'open' as it does 'confusing'. Early in the game, I found myself quite often going along a path for quite a while, before realising I was heading back in a direction I had already been. Because there isn't really much in the way of side content, or reasons to backtrack, this feels a little unnecessary - I can't help but feel the game might have done well to simply close off previous areas until the very end of the game, where there is (finally) a reason to go back to each previous level for a narrative reason. The game looks pretty great - the pixel art is not outstanding, but is nice - akin to something like Lone Survivor or Claire - however, the creature movement looks so rad and the game moves at such speed that it really elevates the experience. This, unfortunately, does lose some of its impact in the back half of the game though, where the difficulty ramps up, and the chaotic, uncanny movement of the creature must be slowed down, and areas approached much more carefully to avoid death at the hands of the more powerful human enemies. This is actually something worth noting with regards to virtually all fronts of the game - it is better in the first half than the second. Bumbling and sliming your way around the facility is tremendous fun when you feel like an overpowered creature wreaking havoc and vengeance - a pixel-art game equivalent of old 50s Sci-Fi B-Movies - however, in the second half, where the puzzle elements become more prevalent, the enemies become more powerful and the layout more complicated, the fun seeps away, and the control issues move to the forefront. There is a narrative aspect in which this becomes incongruous - playing as the creature loses some of its impact when a single human with a gun can wipe you out in a few seconds. Mechanically, it becomes tiresome quite quickly, when you are forced to repeat an area several times, simply because the game is asking a speed and accuracy of you that is not easy to achieve with the analogue stick controls. It's hard to feel the cool aspects of the early game - where you feel like an overpowered, destructive force - when you are forced to hide in a duct, and only slip out to 'stealth' around, picking dangerous humans off one by one. There is, I'd imagine, a way to do this really effectively (let's face it, the Arkham games do this under-powered-but-overlording mechanic routinely with their 'Predator' sections,) however, in Carrion, the poor controls make it never much fun, and generally a burden. Sound-wise, the game is pretty good - there are some great, disgusting 'crunches' when humans are thrown around, (or eaten!) and gun shots and general foley sound pretty good. Music is mostly dark, ominous tones, but relatively effective, if never stand-out. Overall, Carrion is an interesting one - a great, and pretty original premise, which is tremendous fun as a chaos-sand-box in the early game, but who's controls and gameplay layout do hamper the game in the latter half. The puzzle and metroidvania trappings are fine, but are little more than that - trappings - and actually, the Metroidvania powers element doesn't really function as intended, as it is somewhat backwards. Really, the game would work a lot better if it was difficult in the early game, but as powers are gained, the player feels more powerful and more able to deal with the challenges the game throws at them, but in Carrion the opposite is true. In the early game, the challenge is so slight that the player gets to feel all-powerful, but as the challenge ramps up, the powers the player gains do not keep pace, and so by the time the player finishes the game, they feel far less powerful than they did at the start - a mechanical flaw that works in direct opposition to the narrative. The Ranking: There's almost nothing on the current ranking that is directly comparable to Carrion, so this one will feel a little unscientific, but there is one game that popped out - semi-rogue-like pixel-art game Chasm. Chasm is a very different style of gameplay, however, it has a similarity in terms of the pixel-art aesthetic, the indie game trappings... and the fact that the game has a fair few flaws that hold it back. Carrion is, I think a better game than Chasm though - its flaws do not hold it down in the same way, and so it has to sit prouder than Chasm. Above Chasm then, it simply comes down to asking the fundamental question "Would I replay Carrion before replaying this?" There are a few games for which the answer is easy and Carrion takes it handily - Freedom Wars, A Way Out, Dragon's Crown... but where Carrion begins to stumble is at Bejeweled 2. That game's only real flaw is in that it isn't particularly suited to controller play on the big screen. Carrion has some of the same problems - the analogue stick control is an issue, and I'd argue a bigger one - and aside from that, Carrion also has gameplay design issues that Bejeweled 2 doesn't. As such, Carrion finds its spot! Hoa Summary: Hoa, from Skrollcat Studio is a hand-animated indie Puzzle Platformer, in which the player takes the role of the eponymous Hoa - a young member of a faerie tribe empowered to be curators and tenders of the natural world - who returns to her home after having been smuggled away during a time of upheaval and tragedy, and sets about restoring beauty and harmony to the world around her. She does so, via simple platforming and light puzzle-mechanics, traversing each level to first discover a creature or guardian (who generally recall the past that Hoa herself does not, and the events that precipitated her hasty and secretive departure, filling in the backstory to the narrative to the player,) then collecting various shining orbs. These orbs, when delivered to the level guardian will enliven the area, grant Hoa a new ability, and open the pathway to the next area. Visually, Hoa is - quite literally - one of the most stunningly beautiful games I have ever seen. Rendered in a hand-animated, Studio Ghibli-inspired art-style, the game looks utterly gorgeous. The natural environments and backgrounds are sumptuous and beautiful, and character designs - from Hoa herself, to the beetles and birds and insects she encounters, to the robotic creatures and the giant stone statues she meets - are uniformly imaginative, impressive and genuinely delightful. While stylistically, there are other games which have aped the best of Studio Ghibli - most notably, of course, the Ni No Kuni games, which are directly tied to it - but nods also go to SpiritFarer, Forgotten Anne or even Breath of the Wild - I don't believe any have ever managed to capture the essence of the best of Ghibli with quite the deft artistic touch that Hoa does. The entire game has the feel of the latter half of (personal Ghibli favourite) Castle in the Sky, and manages to imbue even the more mechanical or unnatural forms with an organic, flowing majesty and haunting, ethereal sadness. This is a game in which a single screenshot - taken at literally any point during a playthrough - looks like a work of art. Take a screenshot anywhere and frame it, and I'd be happy to hang it on my wall! (Note - I played the PS4 version of the game, having accidentally purchased that version rather than the PS5 one, and the game still took my breath away. I can only imagine what a native 4K version would look like!) Audio follows the path tilled by the visuals - there is no spoken dialogue in the game, but the music is soaring, triumphant and beautiful - a classical-style soundtrack befitting the best of Ghibli's animated classics. There is an occasional issue with the contextual cues the music takes - the swell and timbre of the score is tied to specific actions and locations in the game, and rises triumphantly as Hoa, for example, moves upwards in a level. Quickly turning around and going back - or falling - can occasionally trip it up, resulting in a hard cut from loud and majestic to relative quiet, however, this is a small price to pay for a score that - when it works - feels especially perfect from moment to moment as the player traverses the short game... ..."the short game," I did say. That brings us to the single, major downside to Hoa, however - its length. Hoa is, unequivocally, a fantastic artistic experience, however, it is very, very short, and very, VERY simple. There are games out there where similar issues have been present - Gris is one that quickly comes to mind, where the artistic vision and the audio are transcendent, but the gameplay lacks challenge or length - however, even in that company, Hoa stands out as being acutely, noticeably thin on the mechanical side. There are 6 main levels in the game - each gorgeous and a wonder to explore - but that exploration takes very little time. In the first 3 or 4, in fact, there is so little actual challenge or gameplay, that Hoa genuinely struggles to feel like a puzzle platformer - it is closer in nature, in fact, to a Walking Sim. Now, I am a fan of Walking Sims, and this is not a deal-breaker for me - however, Walking Sims generally have some tension, omnipresent threat or true mystery involved narratively in order to keep the proceedings feeling propelled. In Hoa, the narrative is only explained in small vignettes, and in pieces, and so it is not until late in the game that the player is even aware of the 'threat' element in the narrative. For the first half, really, the visuals and music have to be as good as they are - since they are really the only driving force behind the game. By the time the player reaches the final few levels of the game, it does begin to introduce a level of mechanical complexity and challenge that one might associate with the very early levels of a relatively easy Puzzle Platformer, but this is really the apex of challenge Hoa ever reaches - indeed, when the game ended, while I was very happy with the narrative hooks, and the visuals and audio had been beyond reproach, I had the feeling that the mechanical gameplay elements were only just beginning to flourish. That is a shame - particularly in light of what the final level of the game is. That final level is really quite fascinating, and does some simple, but very effective toying with the player inputs that show, without question, that Skrollcat have some excellent ideas in the Puzzle Platforming arena - Hoa just isn't long enough or challenging enough to really showcase them. The game is an art-piece, and proves their considerable talents there, but the final level easily confirms they have what it takes in the gameplay side too - they just need a longer, meatier game to put those chops to use! I mentioned before that I had accidentally purchased the PS4 version of the game, rather than the PS5 version. For a game of this level of artistic mastery, I would normally feel okay with then re-purchasing the better version, and replaying, however, with Hoa I haven't. That is simply because, as gorgeous as it was, I have difficulty justifying the additional purchase, given just how short and simple the actual game is - and that does speak to something. Gris, for example, I would pick up a PS5 up-scaled version of and replay in a heartbeat, despite the relative ease. With Hoa, that purchase becomes harder to justify due to length. Overall, Hoa is a game that is incredibly easy to recommend - the art along is well worth the price of admission, and the music more than supports it - however, it does have to come with the relative caveat, that a player - of any skill level really - is very unlikely to get much more than 4 or 5 hours out of it... and they will have plenty of brain-space available to appreciate the art, as they won't need to tax it much to progress through the levels. In the end, it is really down to the player to ask "am I in this thing for the challenge, or for the beauty of it?" If you can accept a game that is ONLY the latter, then this is the one - I'd wager that, in that regard, Hoa stands without equal! The Ranking: The art of Hoa is unparalleled, and that does mean something, but the lack of gameplay challenge, length or mechanical hooks does ensure it a lower ranking than that art would immediately suggest. A game that came to mind when ranking pretty quickly was The Touryst - that game also looks incredible, and while it doesn't have the emotional content Hoa has (or ever aims for it,) the mechanical gameplay and the length and variety beat Hoa in a match up. Recently ranked Lost Words: Beyond the Page also sells itself mostly on art, and while that game has the educational aspects that are more explicit and quite interesting, the art of Hoa does easily surpass it, as does the music - and for all that Lost Words: Beyond the Page is explicitly educational, I'd argue Hoa has some lessons to impart to younger players too - as well as being mechanically simple enough for them to get to grips with, and is probably more engaging on to that audience too. As such, Hoa ranks higher than Lost Words: Beyond the Page. The next game above Lost Words: Beyond the Page is Ratchet & Clank: Nexus, and while the art design and visuals of it are not competing with Hoa, they are still no slouch, and the gameplay and other factors do make it tough for a game as slight as Hoa to compete, and as such, I think Hoa finds its spot. Shady Part of Me Summary: A narrative Puzzle Platformer and first game from 7-person French developer Douze Dixièmes, Shady Part of Me keeps the dial firmly on the 'puzzle' end of the puzzle-platform spectrum, taking a single core mechanic - the duality of the central character, and the ability to independently control both her, and her shadow - and wraps it in a loosely allegorical narrative about the duality of the principal characters personality. The girl in question begins the game in some kind of mental health facility, from which she wants to escape, and her shadow takes the role of primary confidante and imaginary friend - both encouraging and soothing the girl. Throughout the game, however, the relationship between the two morphs and changes, with each side of the girl coming to represent different aspects of her personality - the real-self and the 'shady-part-of her', with both seeming somewhat beholden, yet resentful of the other in different situations. It's a dichotomy that works generally, and the slightly vague elements of the overall narrative do help this split to function as the game's central mystery and point of intrigue. Because we know little of the world in which the girl inhabits - less even than she seems consciously aware - much of the relationship the girl has to the world around her is conveyed to the player via the changing nature of her interactions with her shadow. That narrative device is quite interesting, and does help to keep what is a fairly simply story interesting throughout the length of the game. While the story is left open to some level of interpretation, the emotional elements are clear and well defined - not least by the good vocal work of both the girl, and her shadow - both voiced by Hannah Murray (most famous, probably, as Gilly in Game of Thrones.) Mechanically, the game is playing with concepts that have been approached by other games - the idea of puzzles requiring control of two characters have been done before, (Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons being a good example) and the idea of light in a 3D realm creating barriers / platforms for a shadow character in a 2D one has been approached too - most notably in early PS4 indie game Contrast - however, Shady Part of Me does manage to take these elements and stamp them with its own distinct personality and style. Unlike something like Contrast, Shady Part of Me is not an open world, but very much a level-based progression, with the game breaking down into discrete, individual puzzles. While these do flow seamlessly from one to the next in a playthrough, it allows individual puzzles to be returned to from a menu, and be treated as whole and distinct. The puzzles are generally pretty good, and follow a smart design. The girl herself moves within a semi-3D environment (think Little Nightmares' diorama world,) and is able to move in the Z-Axis to some extent, while the Shadow is confined to the 2D-plane that the girl can create by the moving of object etc. The flow of the game follow a well worn format, in the sense that simply solving them for progress is often clever, but never outrageously taxing, but some collectibles scattered throughout the game, (in this case, origami birds, which can exist in either the 'real' world or the shadow one,) require some more difficult or less intuitive solutions to find, and to collect. Aesthetically, the game looks good - there is a sketchbook, pencil-drawn quality to the 3D world, and an almost sepia-tones colour-palette that looks really quite charming in spots, but is only ever a creepy noise or a moving shadow away from eerie or frightening. The shadow elements are, of course, silhouette, but nicely animated, and the game does a good job of giving subtle clues as to solutions using non-critical objects in the environment and their shadows, giving a 'key' through which the player can assess the different light-sources in a given area, helping to work out a method for solving the trickier puzzles. Audio is pretty good - as said, voice work is well done, and it is the highlight of the audioscape, though that is not to say the score is lacking. While not overly stand-out or memorable, the music does a good job setting tone throughout the narrative, and creaks and audio stings do a good job too - these are sparingly used, and so when they are made use of - either for scares, puzzle clues or simple flavour - they work effectively. Shady Part of Me is a very effective and satisfyingly well constructed set of puzzles, with interesting and well thought out mechanics, a clean, well established set of rules and controls, a nice visual style and narrative, and a good flow of difficulty from beginning to end. The game is not likely to truly tax puzzle-savvy players, but nor is it a walk in the park, and does get pretty tricky towards the end. Some of the bespoke solutions required to find all collectibles can be quite clever and occasionally difficult, and the level-select feature and good collectible tracking make finding these a joy, rather than a chore. This was the first game from Douze Dixièmes, and shows some good chops - I'll be looking out for whatever they do next, and for a first game, I can think of no more ringing an endorsement! The Ranking: As puzzle platformers go, there are a lot of games on the ranking already, and that should, one would think, make ranking Shady Part of Me quite difficult... ...but actually, the entire process is easily bypassed in this instance, as there are two games, currently side-by-side, which both reminded me a little of Shady Part of Me for different reasons, and provide an easy ranking - Lost in Random, and Rain. Rain is a game much more in the same genre as Shady Part of Me - it is an environmental set of puzzles, flowing point-to-point through a narrative, and involving a lot of the same puzzle-solving brain-space, but I think Shady Part of Me is just a hair more interesting and smarter. Rain might take it on visuals, but it's close, and Shady Part of Me wins on audio and puzzle variety. Lost in Random isn't in the same genre, but has thematic similarities in some cases, as well as tonal and visual ones - however, it is a more interesting and unique game, and beats out Shady Part of Me. As such, with no games in between those, Shady Part of Me finds its spot! So there we have it folks! No Priority Assignments completed this round - it's going to stay the same for the next one, as I catch up on festive gaming, but all requests will be honoured in due course, I promise! Hitman 3 remains as 'Current Most Awesome Game'! LA Cops stays as the worst-of-the-worst, with the title of 'Least Awesome Game' What games will be coming along next time to challenge for the top spot... or the bottom rung? That's up to randomness, me.... and YOU! Remember: SPECIAL NOTE If there are any specific games anyone wants to see get ranked sooner rather than later - drop a message, and I'll mark them for 'Priority Ranking'! The only stipulation is that they must be on my profile, at 100% (S-Rank).... and aren't already on the Rankings! Catch y'all later my Scientific Brothers and Sisters! Edited January 11, 2022 by DrBloodmoney 13 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The_Kopite Posted January 12, 2022 Share Posted January 12, 2022 Any more Final Fantasys, Resident Evils or Sonics awaiting review? 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DrBloodmoney Posted January 12, 2022 Author Share Posted January 12, 2022 (edited) 1 hour ago, The_Kopite said: Any more Final Fantasys, Resident Evils or Sonics awaiting review? Hmmm, well, Sonic-wise, there’s nothing - never been a Sonic guy myself, but there are a couple of RE games - RE5 and RE6 still outstanding. FFX is still pending, as is FFXIII-2, and I think that’s it for Final Fantasy (no chance FFXV is going to qualify, as there are a whole mess of unobtainables in there I didn’t get in time… though that’s probably a dodged bullet for FFXV, as I didn’t like that game nearly as much as most of the others!) Edited January 12, 2022 by DrBloodmoney 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The_Kopite Posted January 12, 2022 Share Posted January 12, 2022 31 minutes ago, DrBloodmoney said: Hmmm, well, Sonic-wise, there’s nothing - never been a Sonic guy myself, but there are a couple of RE games - RE5 and RE6 still outstanding. FFX is still pending, as is FFXIII-2, and I think that’s it for Final Fantasy (no chance FFXV is going to qualify, as there are a whole mess of unobtainables in there I didn’t get in time… though that’s probably a dodged bullet for FFXV, as I didn’t like that game nearly as much as most of the others!) Yes I remember you saying you weren't a Sonic guy yourself. RE5 and RE6, not exactly the strongest games in the RE franchise but I'd be interested to see how harsh you are with either of those. FFX is my 2nd favourite FF game so I'd hope you'd have enjoyed that one as well and FFXIII-2 would be an interesting read definitely. A sequel that wasn't needed story wise but had some fantastic elements to it. FFXV isn't my favourite FF by a long way so no worries there lol I can't decide between RE6 or FFXIII-2 so I'll let you choose! haha 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DrBloodmoney Posted January 12, 2022 Author Share Posted January 12, 2022 1 minute ago, The_Kopite said: Yes I remember you saying you weren't a Sonic guy yourself. RE5 and RE6, not exactly the strongest games in the RE franchise but I'd be interested to see how harsh you are with either of those. FFX is my 2nd favourite FF game so I'd hope you'd have enjoyed that one as well and FFXIII-2 would be an interesting read definitely. A sequel that wasn't needed story wise but had some fantastic elements to it. FFXV isn't my favourite FF by a long way so no worries there lol I can't decide between RE6 or FFXIII-2 so I'll let you choose! haha Well, the time shall come for everything eventually…but given that I’m still clawing my way through some of my holiday backlog - so won’t get to the Priority Rankings for at least a couple of batches - I’ll stick FFXIII-2 on there with your name, as that one has the context of FFXIII already on there! I really think I’d need RE5 done before RE6, to give proper context, so will try to get to that sooner rather than later though… TBH, there is probably enough crossover there, that doing them back to back probably makes sense! 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The_Kopite Posted January 13, 2022 Share Posted January 13, 2022 13 hours ago, DrBloodmoney said: Well, the time shall come for everything eventually…but given that I’m still clawing my way through some of my holiday backlog - so won’t get to the Priority Rankings for at least a couple of batches - I’ll stick FFXIII-2 on there with your name, as that one has the context of FFXIII already on there! I really think I’d need RE5 done before RE6, to give proper context, so will try to get to that sooner rather than later though… TBH, there is probably enough crossover there, that doing them back to back probably makes sense! Sounds like a smart way to go! Looking forward to them. Cheers! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DrBloodmoney Posted January 13, 2022 Author Share Posted January 13, 2022 18 minutes ago, The_Kopite said: Sounds like a smart way to go! Looking forward to them. Cheers! Oh! I also forgot - there will be a FFVII Remake ranking to do at some point - however, even though it technically qualifies right now, I've decided to hold off on that one, until I play the PS5 version, as it has the Yuffie DLC, which I really want to see before tackling it... That means it'll be a "Bonus Ranking" when I do get around to it... and let's face it - I liked that game so much that I'm looking forward to doing it all over again... which probably gives away the fact that it's liable to do very well on the list ?? 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The_Kopite Posted January 13, 2022 Share Posted January 13, 2022 Just now, DrBloodmoney said: Oh! I also forgot - there will be a FFVII Remake ranking to do at some point - however, even though it technically qualifies right now, I've decided to hold off on that one, until I play the PS5 version, as it has the Yuffie DLC, which I really want to see before tackling it... That means it'll be a "Bonus Ranking" when I do get around to it... and let's face it - I liked that game so much that I'm looking forward to doing it all over again... which probably gives away the fact that it's liable to do very well on the list Yes!!! Bring it on! Yeah I totally understand, I've got the FFVII Remake Integrade PS5 version sitting on a shelf, with no PS5 to play it on lol it went pretty cheap so grabbed it as wanted that version for the colletion anyways lol The Yuffie DLC is supposed to be pretty good and give a new kind of ending scene too linking towards Part 2, so I'm looking forward to playing it whenever I get my hands on a damn PS5! lol 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DrBloodmoney Posted January 13, 2022 Author Share Posted January 13, 2022 (edited) 7 minutes ago, The_Kopite said: Yes!!! Bring it on! Yeah I totally understand, I've got the FFVII Remake Integrade PS5 version sitting on a shelf, with no PS5 to play it on lol it went pretty cheap so grabbed it as wanted that version for the colletion anyways lol The Yuffie DLC is supposed to be pretty good and give a new kind of ending scene too linking towards Part 2, so I'm looking forward to playing it whenever I get my hands on a damn PS5! lol I'm glad to hear you enjoyed FFVIIR actually - as one of (if not the) PSNP resident FF appreciator, I did wonder what your stance on it would be - it seems to be one of those Marmite games for FF Fans - they either love it, or despise it, and there's no middle ground at all! Personally, I couldn't have been happier with the direction they took... but I'll leave it for the eventual review ? Edited January 13, 2022 by DrBloodmoney 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The_Kopite Posted January 13, 2022 Share Posted January 13, 2022 1 hour ago, DrBloodmoney said: I'm glad to hear you enjoyed FFVIIR actually - as one of (if not the) PSNP resident FF appreciator, I did wonder what your stance on it would be - it seems to be one of those Marmite games for FF Fans - they either love it, or despise it, and there's no middle ground at all! Personally, I couldn't have been happier with the direction they took... but I'll leave it for the eventual review ? Wow, I should get a nice badge that says that and wear it whilst going to the shops haha "The PSNP resident FF appreciator". lol I enjoyed it overall a lot, thought it was really good. Certainly doesn't beat the original for me, but then even though I love FF as a franchise, I didn't go into it thinking it was going to be the same game but with nicer graphics. Square Enix would never have done that, they'd look to mix things up a bit and integrate other elements from other FFVII lore too. Think they did it well overall and for me, as long as the main story beats stay essentially the same then that'll do. I really appreciated the combat system after FFXV's (which I could not get on board with well at all). So yeah, definitely don't despise it, but don't love it either. I like it a lot and that's all that could be asked imho. It'll be very interesting to read your review in the future! 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post DrBloodmoney Posted January 13, 2022 Author Popular Post Share Posted January 13, 2022 (edited) !!SCIENCE UPDATE!! The next 5 (not at all!) randomly selected games to be submitted for scientific analysis shall be: Flipping Death Morbid: The Seven Acolytes Stories Untold Déraciné Accounting+ This will be the last batch that is purely playing catch-up from the Festive Break - I promise! ? Still no Priority Rankings here, but the next one will have a few for sure, as after this batch, there are only 2 remaining games in my "Oh God, why did I do this to myself, I should have written as I went..." list! Can 'Current Most Awesome' game, Hitman 3, fend off all new adversaries? Is gaming catastrophe LA Cops going to finally find something to out-catastrophise it, as 'Least Awesome Game'? Let's find out, Science Chums! Edited January 13, 2022 by DrBloodmoney 7 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Arcesius Posted January 14, 2022 Share Posted January 14, 2022 Ha, I was hesitant to request it since I though the game might appear canonically on your next batch... I'm curious to see what you think of FromSoft's attempt at making a VR game ? Looking forward to the update! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cleggworth Posted January 14, 2022 Share Posted January 14, 2022 Couldn't agree more with your praise for the Hitman trilogy doc. Spent an evening on the Sniper maps last night attempting to mop up the previous game DLC in anticipation of starting Hitman III proper and it was like I'd never been away. What I like most about the game is that its actually incredibly easy to pick up. It seems daunting at first but before you realise it you've sneaked through an entire villa of guards and strangled your target and dumped him in a wood chipper. You can never go wrong because of the sheer volume of potential options to your objective, if it is starting to look a bit dicey just duck in a side room, choke out a hapless employee and follow up any new openings it presents. It does a fantastic job of making you feel good at the game, you feel as good at the art of killing as 47 himself in all honesty! I have one more game to squeeze in before I crack on with but i already know it'll be my GOTY for '22. On one other note, Hitman III was crowned the new most awesome game in the same batch as your Jedi Fallen Order review. I really liked it but I'm pretty sure it's purely down to the Star Wars fandom thing because you were spot on with everything about it.... sheesh a lot of it was awful. Oh look another sliding down a hill section ?♂️ I don't know what it is about it though as soon as you turn your saber on.... ? I was way more excited than I probably should have been when you first see cal's master in those flashback sections as well. I literally stood up outta my seat and called out to my wife "HE'S A LASAT!" ? 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The_Kopite Posted January 14, 2022 Share Posted January 14, 2022 1 hour ago, Cleggworth said: On one other note, Hitman III was crowned the new most awesome game in the same batch as your Jedi Fallen Order review. I really liked it but I'm pretty sure it's purely down to the Star Wars fandom thing because you were spot on with everything about it.... sheesh a lot of it was awful. Oh look another sliding down a hill section ?♂️ I don't know what it is about it though as soon as you turn your saber on.... ? I was way more excited than I probably should have been when you first see cal's master in those flashback sections as well. I literally stood up outta my seat and called out to my wife "HE'S A LASAT!" ? Ah man, I was really looking forward to that as well. Got it ready and waiting for the PS5, just need a PS5...... 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DrBloodmoney Posted January 16, 2022 Author Share Posted January 16, 2022 (edited) On 14/01/2022 at 4:24 PM, Cleggworth said: Couldn't agree more with your praise for the Hitman trilogy doc. Spent an evening on the Sniper maps last night attempting to mop up the previous game DLC in anticipation of starting Hitman III proper and it was like I'd never been away. What I like most about the game is that its actually incredibly easy to pick up. It seems daunting at first but before you realise it you've sneaked through an entire villa of guards and strangled your target and dumped him in a wood chipper. You can never go wrong because of the sheer volume of potential options to your objective, if it is starting to look a bit dicey just duck in a side room, choke out a hapless employee and follow up any new openings it presents. It does a fantastic job of making you feel good at the game, you feel as good at the art of killing as 47 himself in all honesty! Haha - glad you are enjoying them man! That, in particular, is actually a really important thing that I kind of glossed over in my reviews - but I think you're absolutely right, and it's something that Hitman has never really managed prior to the rebooted trilogy. The games always had a very high skill ceiling, but they always had a bit of high floor too - for all that I loved Blood Money and Contracts back in the day (and I sure did!) they were always tough sells to new players, as they were pretty hard to pick up. You really had to spend quite a bit of time getting worked by the game, before you could even come close to finishing a hit. In the new ones though, the ceiling is sky-high (and, given some of the outrageous stuff people do in videos on the web, I'd argue it's near infinite!) but the barrier to entry is much lower. You can stumble and bumble your way through a mission, Frank Drebin Style, and still have a whale of a time doing so - in fact, seeing people play a mission for the first time, not knowing anything is a joy in the new trilogy that really isn't matched by any game I can think of... but knowing there is still thousands of ways to do it completely perfectly, in addition to the millions of goofy, silly, bumbling ways is what makes the game such a masterclass in design... ...plus, often, the bumbling, silly run you do where you finish in a hippie outfit, after a bloodbath with an exploding duck and a melee fish, can give you a nugget of an idea that leads to an insane but cool way of pulling it off in a unique, but still awesome way next time! ? Quote I have one more game to squeeze in before I crack on with but i already know it'll be my GOTY for '22. Well, after seeing what they have planned for Year 2, I'd say it isn't a guanrantee that it won't be mine too ? Quote On one other note, Hitman III was crowned the new most awesome game in the same batch as your Jedi Fallen Order review. I really liked it but I'm pretty sure it's purely down to the Star Wars fandom thing because you were spot on with everything about it.... sheesh a lot of it was awful. Oh look another sliding down a hill section ?♂️ I don't know what it is about it though as soon as you turn your saber on.... ? I was way more excited than I probably should have been when you first see cal's master in those flashback sections as well. I literally stood up outta my seat and called out to my wife "HE'S A LASAT!" ? On 14/01/2022 at 5:36 PM, The_Kopite said: Ah man, I was really looking forward to that as well. Got it ready and waiting for the PS5, just need a PS5...... You know - as much as I was disappointed with Jedi (and I super was - I mean, the review is pretty scathing, I admit!) I still would never want the end result of anyone reading this thread being that they were put off playing a game they fancy - I'm super happy you dug the game - and hope @The_Kopite enjoys it too - it was just incredibly not my bag! In the end though, we all have games that we like in spite of flaws, and what's forgivable for some is deal-breaking for others - as my constant and enduring love for bizarre, long-forgotten Konami PS2 entry Shadow of Memories will attest ?... that game is a stone cold mess in a lot of ways, and yet I still won't let my sister get rid of my old PS2, just incase I want to replay it ? The real victory in this thread is if someone picks up something they wouldn't have otherwise, and likes it... ...as far as putting people off games... that's an absolute last resort for me - one man's chuff is another mans cheddar after all! Except LA Cops. I'll happily put people off that one.? Edited January 16, 2022 by DrBloodmoney 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The_Kopite Posted January 16, 2022 Share Posted January 16, 2022 2 hours ago, DrBloodmoney said: You know - as much as I was disappointed with Jedi (and I super was - I mean, the review is pretty scathing, I admit!) I still would never want the end result of anyone reading this thread being that they were put off playing a game they fancy - I'm super happy you dug the game - and hope @The_Kopite enjoys it too - it was just incredibly not my bag! In the end though, we all have games that we like in spite of flaws, and what's forgivable for some is deal-breaking for others - as my constant and enduring love for bizarre, long-forgotten Konami PS2 entry Shadow of Memories will attest ?... that game is a stone cold mess in a lot of ways, and yet I still won't let my sister get rid of my old PS2, just incase I want to replay it ? The real victory in this thread is if someone picks up something they wouldn't have otherwise, and likes it... ...as far as putting people off games... that's an absolute last resort for me - one man's chuff is another mans cheddar after all! Except LA Cops. I'll happily put people off that one.? I'm hoping I like it, it certainly looks like a game that I would enjoy. Still who knows when that'll be considering getting a PS5 seems to be harder than getting rid of all the Sith in the galaxy lol "one man's chuff is another mans cheddar after all!" - That is one cheesy take on that saying haha it's very true though. I'm sure we could all name games that the next person would go "Hated that game/That game's not for me" etc etc. Clearly I've missed this review of LA Cops then lol 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post DrBloodmoney Posted January 18, 2022 Author Popular Post Share Posted January 18, 2022 NEW SCIENTIFIC RESULTS ARE IN! Hello Science-Lads and Science-Lassies, as promised (and in some no cases requested), here are the latest results of our great scientific endeavour! Flipping Death Summary: A Puzzle-focused, comedy Adventure game, Flipping Death sees Zoink Games continue in a mould they originally set with 2013 comedy puzzle-adventure Stick It To The Man. Combining an extreme, unusual art-style, absurdist sense of humour and irreverent puzzle design, they filter it this time through a much more focussed and thematically consistent lens, add a more consistent through-line narrative, and up the stakes in terms of voice work and comedic elements, resulting an a simple yet effective game, that is well-crafted, artistically imaginative and genuinely funny. The player takes the role of Penny - an acerbic yet excitable and extremely likeable goth-girl protagonist - who, after dying in an untimely (and rather unceremonious) fashion, is quickly - and mistakenly - tasked with taking over temporary duties as Death, while the grim reaper takes a long overdue vacation on the moon. Discovering that she now has the ability not only to shepherd restless souls to the afterlife, but to solve the outstanding issues of both the dead and the living via 'flipping' between the spirit realm and the real one, and possessing the eclectic mix of bizarre characters in her town, she sets about helping some of the lingering spirits to find some peace - as well as solve the mystery of her own demise - by using her newfound powers to solve series of absurd, yet logically consistent adventure puzzles. The mechanical gameplay is really quite charming. Most chapters (there are six) takes place in the same town, and each generally involves Penny trying to aid a spirit still lingering in the spirit realm to achieve whatever unfinished business is still tying them to the physical world. While these requests are often confusing at first, strands of what to do can invariably be found via possession of the many odd characters of the real-world side of the town. Simply possessing them, "chatting" with them (Penny generally is mistaken for their own conscience or inner monologue, to comedic effect,) and establishing the different ways in which characters can impact the world gives keys to the overall puzzle. These methods tend to follow the kind of comedically extremist logic of old Lucas Arts games like Day of the Tentacle or Grim Fandango, (Grim Fandango in particular feel like a significant inspiration, given the subject matter,) - where the solution feels both ridiculous, and bizarrely logical - however, Flipping Death does take advantage of quite a few more modern game concepts with regards to hints and tricks. Indeed, a pretty robust "hint" system exists within the game, whereby a long checklist of hints (given via a simple sketch-diagram, without text,) ensure that while the player is never given explicit instruction or the puzzle completely negated, they are rarely ever left genuinely stuck for too long. The puzzle solutions are often pretty funny, and the ways in which different characters can interact with one another is great - though that is not the primary source of the comedy in the game - that is provided by the voice work, which is tip-top here. Comedy is one of the most difficult needles to thread in videogames - a fact proven by the wealth of games that try and fail - however, here, the voice work, the writing and the highly-stylised visuals really make it come alive, and resulted in some pretty consistent out-loud laughs on my part. There are also some spots - particular highlights - where flashbacks are used, with a diagetic narrator, where storytelling narrative devices and fourth-wall breaking shenanigans are used to compound the comedy, and these are very well done, upping the ante on the absurdist laughs, but also quite skilfully interweaving the plastic realities of Penny's and the townspeople's lives with the players own experience, and keeping everything feeling light and fun, while pulling the narrative strings together. Sense of humour is, of course, extremely personal, and entirely taste-based - however, I'd have a hard time envisioning anyone who likes the Monty Python-esque comedic slant Tim Schafer and Ron Gilbert often take, or indeed, the comedy Zoink themselves have demonstrated in titles like Stick It To The Man, and more recently in Lost in Random, not enjoying Flipping Death, as it is a very good example of that particular joke-style, wrapped in a game that works both in a narrative sense, and a mechanical one. Each inhabitant of the town generally has a single, unique function, (there's a character who loves to poke things, a character with a drill, a policeman who can arrest people etc,) however, because these characters persist and can be used as solutions in multiple puzzles and across multiple chapters, there is quite a bit of dialogue for each one, letting the player get to know the town inhabitants well, and come to feel at home there. A character who is arrested in an early chapter, for example, remains in the police station cells in subsequent chapters, allowing the player to re-posses them, and gloat, or hear what they think of their situation and subsequent ones, giving the game a level of coherence and fluidity not immediately expected in what is generally quite an off-the-wall and anarchic genre. There is also a surprising amount of incidental dialogue and jokes crafted around the interaction between different combinations of character - many of whom have no functional or mechanical reason to do so. Indeed, Flipping Death is a game where I would advise real caution if considering using any kind of 'walkthrough', as 'efficient' play is not the best way to experience the game. A huge amount of the fun is in seeing the things that don't work, before seeing the ones that do! Visually, as said, Zoink are drinking from an art-style they have tapped before - and it shows. The visuals of Flipping Death are, stylistically, very similar to Stick It To The Man - with characters being sketch-book extremist, almost grotesque creations in the vein of Ren and Stimpy - however, there is also a visual flair in things like the transition between the spirit realm and the real world, or the paper-cut-out 'flipping' as characters turn around from left to right, or simply in the design and the layout of the town itself that demonstrates a confidence and competency that Stick It To The Man never quite reached. The technical and mechanical interface of Stick It To The Man always felt a little flimsy - as if Zoink were pushing the art-style a little further than they were capable of fully controlling - whereas Flipping Death feels entirely sound, and functions smoothly and cleanly - letting the bizarrity of the look breathe, while still keeping the player firmly in control. Individual characters are designed very well - identifiable and distinct, even in silhouette (a requirement, given that the player only sees living characters as such when traversing the spirit realm 'flip-side') - and each is curiously charming in their own way. Audio works really well. As said, the voice work is excellent here - from pretty much the whole cast - and that is a good thing. Given that many, if not most, of the comedy comes from the writing, nothing could have hurt the game more than casting people who wouldn't be able to hit the comedic marks set up in the writing. Music is fun and whimsical also - not the catchiest I've ever heard, but more than adequate or functional, and adding to the distinct personality and the light tone of the game very well. Overall, Flipping Death is a really great little modern adventure game - one that is not going to particularly challenge the player, however, if they come to this looking for mechanical challenge, they have rather missed the point. Where Flipping Death excels is in the originality of the concepts, the very strong and very unusual visual designs, the excellent comedy writing, and the high-quality vocal work that accompanies it... ...the fact that the game is also very solid and mechanically sound is just the icing on an already very tasty cake! The Ranking: Under normal circumstances, I would probably have tried to be sensible, and rank Stick it to the Man on the list first, as that would be the most obvious comparison point for Flipping Death, however, because I'm in "sprint-mode" right now - trying to clear the backlog of games completed over the holidays, there wasn't time for being sensible! As such, the main comparisons are other adventure games with comedic slants, and of course, other Zoink games - which on the current list means Lost in Random! Grim Fandango is on the list right now, and while I do think the remastered version is showing it's age visually, and certainly loses to Flipping Death in that aspect, the writing and the jokes are still tip-top, and it would be disingenuous to pretend Flipping Death doesn't owe a huge dept to Grim Fandango in terms of tone and theme. While I'd argue Flipping Death might actually take Grim Fandango in a fight over voice acting (that's not a knock on Grim, but rather, a testament to the strength of Flipping Death!), I do think Grim still sits above it. A new player having played either, would still be advised by me to play Grim Fandango first, and so it wins the bout. The other Zoink game on the list - Lost in Random - sits about 15 places lower than Grim currently, and that becomes a peculiar match-up. While Lost in Random is a much larger and grander game, Flipping Death is no less enjoyable than it, and actually, while both go for comedy to some extent, Flipping Death hits that comedic mark far harder and more consistently. Yes, Lost in Random is no necessarily going for quite the same tone, and it works well in what it does, but I think that, pound-for-pound, Flipping Death manages to nail its chosen tone harder than Lost in Random nails its. While Lost in Random has an unusual, well realised and creative design aesthetic, Flipping Death does too. In fact, having an unusual, well realised and creative design aesthetic is pretty much the signature of a Zoink game at this point... and while Flipping Death might be smaller and sillier, and while I found both games charming, I can't deny that in the moment-to-moment playing Flipping Death, I enjoyed it more than Lost in Random, and so I think it has to win that fight. In between, it gets more down to feel. I think Flipping Death certainly lives above Concrete Genie, and should also jump past Psychonauts and the Rhombus of Ruin, as while that game is plenty funny and creative, it is shorter than Flipping Death, and is working in an existing franchise. Flipping Death is wholly original. Where I have trouble, however, is with Operation Tango. That game is completely different in genre, but as a co-op only game - and a damned fine one - it is playing in a more unique playing field - and has it's own interesting aesthetic, which while not measuring up to Flipping Death's, is still an achievement. All it's good points do, I think, manage to edge out Flipping Death, and so Flipping Death finds it's spot just below it! Morbid: The Seven Acolytes Summary: A pixel-art Souls-like with a gory, Pagan-steam-punk aesthetic and Lovecraftian, Eldritch horror overtures, Morbid: The Seven Acolytes from small developer Still Running takes a basic soul-like formula - tough enemies, minimalist narrative, unique boss fights and a grim, overbearing world, and applies it to a 16-bit inspired isometric action view. The player takes the role of an unnamed, white-haired bad-ass lady, the last surviving "Striver of Dibrom" (no, I've completed it, and I still don't know if Dibrom is a place, a group or a religion!) - a group of mythologised warriors, tasked with freeing the lands from the yoke of cosmic horror-inspired overlords known as the Gahars. The Gahars require a host to live, and currently occupy the minds (and bodies) of seven earthly creatures - the Seven Acolytes - and rule the lands with a tyrannical fist via these hosts, cursing the population of the unnamed realm to misery. By Slaying the Seven Acolytes in a single generation, (a task no Striver has yet accomplished,) the world can be freed of the Gahars, and so the player sets out to do so, armed with nothing but a rough idea of locations, a few bowls of "disgusting gruel" a found sword, and her bad-ass self. Let's get this part out of the way now - Morbid: The Seven Acolytes seems like a game that hits a lot of aspects of my own personal taste. On paper, it's like my own gaming DNA has been broken down in a laboratory, and the essential components spliced and parsed - with a single game being created that is a match to as many as possible: Souls-Like? Check!Pixel-Art? Check!Gory and Pagan themes? Check!Eldritch Horror? Check! Unfortunately though, there is one addition to that list that the game doesn't quite manage to hit: Good? ...oh. Dang. Not so much. So, Morbid: The Seven Acolytes has a few good things going for it. Firstly, the visuals. The pixel-art for the game is pretty great. Enemy design is nice, and there are animations for general enemies, and for Bosses in particular, which both evoke and ape real 16-Bit games very well, and look good doing it. Environments even more so. The look and feel of the world in the different areas is really excellent - the grim township of The Cursed Hamlet, the once majestic but now overgrown Gardens of Mornia, the fecund, gnarled forrest of Grimwald's Grove or the broken-down fishing village, with its piers and beaches and rotten whale-corpses - each area looks distinct and interesting and foreboding in its own way. It's worth mentioning here, that modern "retro" pixel-art games generally fall in two camps - those which are genuine throwbacks, and could probably have actually run on SNES / Megadrive era tech, (Carrion, for example, falls in this camp, along with something like Football Game, and Home,) and those games that nod to that style primarily, but employ other, more technically advanced elements to add flourishes or lighting or effects that really couldn't have been done on the old hardware. (Axiom Verge, for example, or Lone Survivor.) Neither is, I think, superior to the other - there are fantastic examples of both - but there are distinct visual flavours to each camp, and Morbid: The Seven Acolytes falls squarely in the former. Audio in the game is also a relative positive. There is no voice work, and the foley is simply okay, but the score is menacing and dour in the right ways, and certainly adds to the proceedings, rather than taking away from them. I'm in two minds on this one really though, as there is something of a higher bar when it comes to score in pixel-art indie games. Because the visuals are less intensive, a lot of indies really go all out on the score, providing incredible chip-tune or orchestral soundtracks that can often have a life on Spotify long after the game is completed and deleted - and in Morbid: The Seven Acolytes' case, that simply isn't so. The music was fine, but never had me reaching for my phone to add the tracks to a playlist. The real issue with Morbid: The Seven Acolytes, however, is nothing artistic. Indeed, there is signifiant room for a great game to be made out of all the component parts it has - it just doesn't get delivered here. Instead, they are good element that are, unfortunately, duct-taped onto the side of a mechanically unsound game. The main reasons it falls over are twofold: movement, and combat. In Morbid, the character movement is slow, finicky and stuttering at times. I hesitate to call it imprecise exactly - that feels not quite right, as that suggests it moves too quickly - but that seems the only word that really fits. The issue isn't a lack of control due to speed, but due to positional constraints. The character can move in a full 360 degrees of motion, but because weapon swings and actions are based on an 8-way directional axis, there is a constant necessity to manage exact position relative to enemy placement, to ensure the swing will connect. This might be less of an issue in a game that were more tactical, however, the combat in Morbid is oddly unbalanced, and - curiously - in both directions. That might seem like a contradiction in terms, but what I mean is that since all combat in the game essentially boils down to swing, back off to avoid enemy swing, repeat; each encounter is essentially determined by the first hit. If the player connects with their first hit, most enemies are easily dealt with. If they miss, they are virtually guaranteed to take some damage, and because the rhythm is thrown off, this will almost always compound into more and more, often ending a run rather quickly. If multiple enemies are on the field, (as they often are,) this is compounded further. This feels like it would be a massive frustration in a souls-like game, however, this also brings up a point - Morbid: The Seven Acolytes sells itself as a Souls-Like, but it isn't really. It borrows a lot of the tropes of Souls-Like games - tough enemies, unforgiving combat (when it works) unique bosses, an Estus Flask equivalent that can be upgraded in both potency and number of uses, a bonfire equivalent, NG+ etc - however, it leaves out the crucial requirement for a game to feel "Soulsian" - corpse runs, and loss of progress. In Morbid, the player does not lose their gained experience when they die. Because all items are found (there is no "purchasing" of items of any kind, and no upgrading or repairing mechanic using experience as currency,) the only thing experience is for, is levelling up the character, and because this isn't lost upon death, the game essentially bypasses any real skill requirement in its gameplay by allowing the player to brute-force their way through everything. Each area tends to default to the same basic routine - get as far as you can before dying, then do it again, then again, then again. Yes, you could be getting better at it, but it's largely a moot requirement - you will also be getting more powerful due to the increased experience, so really, within 5 or 6 tries, you will likely have levelled to the extent you can simply overpower the area. The game knows this, and does attempt to increase difficulty in later stages, but only by an increase in genuinely frustrating encounter design. By the time the player reaches one of the final areas, for example, they have probably learned how to deal with most enemies - and since those enemies behave in pretty predictable ways, they have most likely learned all the patterns. Rather than introduce better AI, or newer, smarter enemies, the game tends to just increase the frequency of enemies that have such massive ranges of swing, that taking some damage is virtually guaranteed. The actual method of fighting them remains the same, there's just a "war of attrition" aspect to it now, where you know you will lose 'X' amount of health per encounter. Or, worse, the game truly goes for broke, with an enemy who's ability is to spawn all other kinds of enemy - and does it at alarming frequency, continually, until killed. That might seem like an interesting concept on paper (and it is,) however, because of the cumbersome movement and the difficulty in precision attacking, the result is, 9 times out of 10, there ends up being so many enemies flooded on screen that it is simply impossible to get to the main enemy, let alone attack it. You can't cut down the spawned enemies fast enough to get a hit, and so the screen simply fills with enemies until you die. This is the very definition of unbalanced in both directions - as these enemies are very easy to deal with if you manage to get a hit right away, killing them, but if you miss once, it's almost impossible to get a second chance. As such, there is no real feeling of improvement or skill here - you are simply waiting until you happen to get a run where the first wave of additional enemies spawn in such a pattern as to allow the first hit. It's RNG, by any other name. As said, there are found weapons in the game - a fair number, and these do feel quite different, though I struggle to really see the benefit to using anything but the highest damage, 'heavy' weapons. The player has a melee and a ranged weapon, and there are different animations and swings, however, because the movement is so stilted and cumbersome, I was never able to see any benefit to using light-weapons. In most games, there is a push-pull between higher damage, offset against faster movement, however, here, the movement is confounding regardless of weapon speed, that there is little benefit to a faster swing. High damage weapons are always better, as taking out an enemy in one hit is the only real guarantee of success. Bosses are, to the games credit, nicely designed, and are all unique - of the 7 of them, at least 4 are fairly interestingly designed fights, though again, let down by the movement and controls. One in particular - a frog monster - is a fight that genuinely reminded me of a boss fight in Fester's Quest... and anyone who remembers that game knows, that is not a comparison any game invites on purpose! Overall, Morbid: The Seven Acolytes is not a terrible game, but it is a fatally flawed one, and a genuine disappointment for me. It taps into a lot of areas that really appeal - when I happened across it in the PS Store, I was tremendously excited. A lot of the reasons it appealed to me really do get delivered - visuals being the high-point - but because the fundamental mechanics are so rudimentary, stilted and cumbersome, and because the actual gameplay loop is so thin, and so reliant on cheap tricks in place of smart design, it lent enjoying those good aspects something of a melancholic streak. A game that is bad through-and-through is just bad... but a game that does a lot of good stuff, but does them on top of a core that is bad is not just bad... it's disappointing, and in some ways, that's so much worse. Unfortunately, "Disappointing" is the first word I think of when considering Morbid: The Seven Acolytes. The Ranking: There are a lot of souls-likes on the list already, but unfortunately, we are looking at the lowest ranked ones currently for comparison - and that means Mortal Shell, and Jedi: Fallen Order. Mortal Shell, I think, still handily beats Morbid: The Seven Acolytes. While it has it's own issues with control, and with hit-boxing and enemy nonsense, the actual boss fights are still pretty great, and in contrast to Morbid: The Seven Acolytes, the things Mortal Shell does with the Souls-Like formula are genuinely innovative and interesting. With Morbid: The Seven Acolytes, I struggle to think of any aspect that it did that was original, and most of the aspects lifted whole-both were done so rather carelessly, and bolted onto an unsound core set of mechanics. Even lower, we have Jedi: Fallen Order. That is a game that is wildly more frustrating and irritating than Morbid: The Seven Acolytes, and certainly suffers a similar problem as Morbid in the sense that visuals are the only real thing is has going for it - however, I do think it would be silly to pretend the spectacle Jedi goes for isn't sometimes attained. Also, as boring and flat as the combat in Jedi is, I do think that I would still prefer doing a replay through at least the main narrative of Jedi to repeating Morbid: The Seven Acolytes. A lot of Jedi: Fallen Order's most egregious flaws come from the side content and collectibles, and taking them out of the equation, I suspect it would rank just a little higher than Morbid, and when it comes to design, both have some nice environments, but I think Jedi edges out Morbid overall there too. As such, I think Morbid: The Seven Acolytes falls even lower, making it the current lowest-ranked souls-like game already. The next game that cough my eye for comparison is Dokuro. Why a Puzzle Platformer? Well, not because of it's genre, but simply because Dokuro is a game that has ideas, but is undone by stilted and cumbersome controls too. It also has a cool, signature look, but doesn't really do anything much original, and renders itself a burden to play with its mechanics. That said - Dokuro is a game where improved controls would likely result in a pretty good game. Good controls would only ever make Morbid: The Seven Acolytes a mediocre one, and so Dokuro is safe too. This one is starting to get depressing, so I'll cut to the chase - it comes down to instinct now, as there's not much similar, but the first game working down the list where I know I would prefer a replay of Morbid: The Seven Acolytes to a replay of it is lacklustre vita action RPG Adventure of Mana. As such, Morbid: The Seven Acolytes finds its spot. Stories Untold (Shout out to @Crispy_Oglop for the recommend!) Summary: Split into 4 parts, with each treated like a new episode in an anthology TV show, (complete with VHS Box aesthetic and stylish, 80's cult-TV inspired intro repeating the beginning of each,) Stories Untold takes 3 seemingly unrelated - and mechanically dissimilar - tales, each of which plays with some version of isolation, of miscommunication, and of the slow, queasy, horror of dissimilating forbidden knowledge, and over these 30-60 minute stories, builds to a Twilight Zone / Outer Limits-esque finale both on a micro level - within the individual episode - and on a macro level - with the final episode serving as both wrap-around, and stylish re-contextualisation of the previous proceedings. In 'The House Abandon', the player is sitting at an old Commodore 64-style computer in their long-abandoned family home, playing a version of an old text adventure. This starts out fairly ordinarily, however, it becomes quickly apparent that the character in the game is the character who is playing the game, and the house they are exploring is the very house in which they sit. In 'The Lab Conduct', the player plays a lab assistant, conducting experiments on some piece of an extra-terrestrial device, at the command and behest of two unseen scientists... and possibly by the alien artefact itself. (Here, the gameplay resembles, interestingly, some of the future Observation-style, with the player interpreting manuals and commands to control different scientific instruments on a work-station.) In 'The Station Process', the player plays a signal operation in a remote Greenland monitoring station, once again following commands of his peers and boss in other stations, deciphering and decoding signals as they are routed to him. As eerie tension builds, it becomes apparent something terrible has happened in the populated areas of the world, to which the player has no point of reference outside of the other remote contacts. All three of these episodes are - as said - distinct and separate, however, there are occasional odd coincidences, or significant worlds or names in the documents and instruments that cross-over, and offer the first hints that there is something not quite right about the whole construct. The fourth episode, however - entitled - 'The Last Session' - turns the whole game on its head, and pulls them all together with a sharp - and quite effective - recontextualising of all three stories... that I won't spoil. Suffice to say - I enjoyed it very much, and thought it did a very good job of resetting the player's interpretation of what they had played, and casting it in a new light. Mechanically, Stories Untold is relatively simple. Essentially, most of the gameplay boils down to one of two aspects - either the Zork-style text adventure, or the more Papers, Please/ Observation style gameplay of receiving instructions, and looking back and forth through rules and instruction manuals and code-books to identify what to do with that instruction. Both of these styles are certainly acquired tastes as videogames go - certainly I'd wager that the 80's throwback aspects of the game are not purely stylistic, there is a real benefit to having at least a passing familiarity with 80's gameplay tropes to enjoy the text-adventure parts - however, in both cases, No Code do a bang up job with knowing exactly how much of this gameplay is palatable, and where quality-of-life improvements or streamlining are required. For example, when inputting text, this is done via selection of set pieces of script, rather than analogue typing, allowing the player to make a lot of entries quickly, without having the old problem of "I thought this didn't work, but it turned out I spelled "Garden" wrong". The other side of the gameplay - the following instructions and interpreting information is clearly in the same style as Observation, and while Observation did have more variety in this regard, Stories Untold still manages to make it seem satisfying and smart, without being overly burdensome or a chore. Visually, the game is just great. Like Observation, there is a focus on realism here, and also like Observation, the use of video-effects and filters is able to make game graphics look almost photo-real. In many cases, the rendered instruments and workstations are indistinguishable from actual real-life ones, filmed on an 8mm camera and recoded on VHS. The design aesthetic is very much in the Spielberg / Stephen King / Stranger Things 80's throwback wheelhouse - the whole style of the game is based around a kind of "Tales from the Crypt" cheesy 80's kitsch, mixed with Cronenberg-esque unease, and it works marvellously. The audio is an absolute triumph in the game - the tone is dark and odd and ominous, and the music plays a huge role in maintaining that, and voice work is very good. There is no overblown or "Hollywood" dialogue here - that every character is playing things very sombre and low-key is part of the eerie, creepiness of the whole endeavour. It is worth noting - Stories Untold, has something of a backwards legacy on Playstation, as it was the first game created and developed by indie developer No Code, (released on PC in 2017,) who followed that game up with the awesome Observation, two years later. However, while Observation was released on PS4 simultaneously with PC, Stories Untold was not released on PS4 until 2020, and so, for Playstation players, (myself included,) it plays more like a follow up to Observation. That anomaly is - it should be said - not particularly to Stories Untold's benefit. While Stories Untold is a genuinely fascinating game, and one I enjoyed a great deal, it isn't really on the same level as Observation in terms of technical prowess or narrative grandeur, and so playing after Observation does make it feel a little smaller than it might otherwise. If someone had not played either game before, I think I would probably advise them to start with Stories Untold, and move on to Observation afterwards - following the 'real' chronology, rather than the PS4 release chronology - as that gives a much truer reflection of No Code's evolution. I do think Stories Untold fares better when considered - as it was - a blisteringly original, and clever debut game form a new studio, who's sophomore follow-up doubled down on their unique style and set it to work on a grander, more meaty narrative, than it does the other way around. Overall, Stories Untold is a very unusual game - much like Observation, that came after it - and in fact, Stories Untold is in many ways has an even more "cult hit" kind of feel. It's a game that feels odd that it is episodic at first, but toys with that formula very effectively, and when it's done, it makes complete sense, and manages that which is quite rare in game - a genuine turnaround for the player, and real re-contextualisation of their own actions leading to the finale. While I do think the overall narrative doesn't quite meet the high bar set by Observation (and the fact that the narrative doesn't reveal itself to be a totalitarian narrative at all until the final act) does make Stories Untold a slightly harder sell, it nevertheless remains a really interesting and enjoyable experience from a developer who are wholly unique, with a great design aesthetic, a fresh perspective, and a keen eye from what games can do with sci-fi horror without relying on over-dramatics or gore. The Ranking: So, I said that Stories Untold falls lower than Observation, and I stick by that, though that doesn't really narrow things down that much, considering that Observation is very highly placed! It was also though, one of the only real comparison points in terms of mechanics and genre, and as such, Stories Untold is pretty much guaranteed to be a tough one. In the end, probably the best rough comparisons are puzzle games - there is at least enough broad similarities to allow a slight narrowing of the list, and the two that jump out are VR Puzzle-Box mystery Statik, and First Person 3D Puzzler / Mystery construct The Spectrum Retreat. Stories Untold has some loose similarities to Statik in some sense - more in episodes 2 and 3 than elsewhere, and while I think Stories Untold takes the win on music and narrative, Statik still takes it on visuals and gameplay. Both are quite original in their own ways, but Statik manages to do some really smart stuff with VR, which I think edges out the smart narrative things Stories Untold does, and so Statik takes the overall win. I do think, however, that Stories Untold beats out The Spectrum Retreat. They are both working with multiple gameplay genres, and have complex stories involving mystery around the central protagonist, but the eerie feeling and sense of tension and atmosphere is just more palpable in Stories Untold. The game also looks better, and while The Spectrum Retreat is longer, and more complex, Stories feels more satisfying overall, and so Stories Untold takes the win there. It really does become a matter of instinct between those - I think against Operation Tango, Stories loses (just), but against Shady Part of Me it wins... ...that narrows things down further and further, and where the game ends up, is just below Psychonauts and the Rhombus of Ruin, but above Concrete Genie. It's not easy to make direct comparisons there, but it feels right, and when there's little genre connections to go on, that's got to be what substitutes for science! Déraciné (Shout out to @Xylobe for the recommend!) Summary: A VR adventure game from FROM Software, in Déraciné the player takes on the role of a Faerie in an isolated Victorian boarding school. After being summoned by a young girl named Yuliya, and convincing the other children in the boarding school of their existence, the player gets wrapped up in a mystery involving Yuliya, the children, the headmaster, another wicked Faerie draining the life from the children, and a long forgotten secret connection between the school's founders and the Faerie beings. Déraciné is a game that is mechanically quite simple, yet it stands out from the crowd in a number of ways - particularly in terms of tone and setting, and in terms of narrative lore. The faerie myths it draws on are not ones I was familiar with prior to this game (in truth, I am unaware if these are aspects wholly unique to the game, or if they stem from some mythos,) whereby Faeries are not winged, pixie-creatures sprinting fairy-dust, but rather ethereal creatures moving within a spirit plane, with the ability to draw life force form living things, and re-apportion it to the deceased, or to use the time drawn from the living as 'fuel' to travel through time, affecting the past or future. It's a conceptually interesting take on the creatures, and while somewhat convoluted, (and requiring a bit of an exposition-dump during an extended tutorial section at the start,) does make for an interesting, non-linear narrative that is quite compelling. It also allows for the games biggest contrivance in a sense - because the Faeries are established as beings with a morphing and malleable relationship with time, it means that the chapters - in which the human characters exists in a kind of fugue state, alive, and in action, but partially 'frozen' in time - to make sense. From a gameplay point of view, this is clearly by necessity - having all characters essentially inanimate during scenes allows the player to move around the boarding school at thier own pace, and examine each person and object within the VR carefully, and without time constraints, but it does work - and actually adds to the overall uneasy tone of the game, which is pretty unusual for video-games. The tenor and style of the game is very much Victorian. The children are prim and proper and dressed in era-appropriate garb, and the setting is very well established. The actual layout of the boarding school is believable - the place is large, but not incongruously so, and feels somewhat lived-in, yet still retains the echoey emptiness one might expect of a grand old manor house that has only 8 students there now. It creates an atmosphere that is - exactly as intended - quite haunting. The game is remarkably eerie, even before anything particularly frightening or tense happens. There is a level of prim-and-proper-ness to the school and its inhabitants (the children and the elderly headmaster) that borders on absurdity in the modern era, but when coupled with the sense of isolation and odd out-of-time aspects of the mechanics, give a really unusual style of creepy unease. That particular style is a difficult thing to articulate, but anyone who has seen Peter Weir's masterful film adaptation of Picnic at Hanging Rock will know - when done right, it is incredibly effective. In Déraciné, that tone isn't quite hitting at the level of that film, of course, but it does enough right to approach the same areas - and in terms of videogames, there are very few that even attempt that kind of tone. It's a dangerous one, as if the needle isn't threaded perfectly, the result isn't simply a lack of focus - it is liable to come off as stilted and boring. Indeed, "Boring" is a word you might read when looking up reviews of Déraciné elsewhere. Personally, I don't think it's appropriate, but it isn't difficult to see why the tone didn't hit for everyone as it did for me, and the fact that the narrative - in typical FROM-Software-style - isn't terribly explicit about its themes - I have to applaud FROM Software for even trying. The had to know some portion of the audience would baulk at it! Throughout the first half of the game (which is broken down into distinct chapters,) the actions taken by the player are relatively simply and benign, as the children of the boarding school come to believe in the player's existence. These stages are used primarily to allow the player to get to know the individual children and some of the background to the school - though there is a dark purpose too. It isn't made terribly explicit, but it is during these early portions that the player comes to slowly suspect - then eventually have reinforced - that Yuliya is not actually a part of the group. She is the most connected with the faerie because she is already dead, and the player is conversing not with her corporeal form, but with her lingering spirit. As this becomes more obvious, and as some of the darker elements of the school's history become clear, the role of the player becomes darker, but also more focussed. Rather than simply interacting with the children, they become part of the Headmaster's wish to save the children from a potential calamity - one that will happen if they take a certain action. The player continually tries to nudge fate in favour of avoiding it - without success - until things go truly awry, and they are forced to take serious action to rewind time, and prevent the doomed outcome. That all sounds rather vague - unfortunately, that is par for the course with an entirely narrative based mystery such as this one - but suffice to say, the narrative, I think, does work, though it isn't without some problems. As much as the children are well established early on, with their own identities and personalities, there is an extent to which some of the less critical characters become harder to distinguish later on, as the narrative heats up a little. There is also the FROM Software signature dynamics at play in terms of the narrative - namely a lack of hand-holding, and a preference for lore-building, as opposed to straight narrative - allowing the player to interpret meaning. That is an aspect I love in the Souls games, and in their other works, however, here, it is a little more burdensome, as there isn't a meaty gameplay and mechanical aspect to fall back on when things feel vague or ambiguous. There is a sense, at times, when the player is lost or unsure what to do, of simply being 'stuck' - something Souls games always avoided. The fact is, even if a player completely ignores the narrative in a Dark Souls game, they can still have a whale of time fighting their way through the game. In Déraciné, the narrative IS the game, to you better be able to put those ambiguous clues together, because if you don't, there's nothing else, and the game isn't going to help you out much! This concept culminates in the finale to the game, which is - I think - the very definition of a double-edged sword. I won't talk in any kind of specifics, but I will say this - the game does something with the final act that is, narratively, very clever, cool, and - if you understood the entirety of the story you were playing - very astute. The player is essentially brought back into a loop - continually replaying one chapter and the game's original tutorial - over and over, until they take a certain action that would break it correctly. If they interpreted the narrative correctly, this action should feel obvious, however, as even a cursory google-search would prove, a lot of people did not, and actually derided the game for being broken, or having some kind of game-breaking glitch. Now - I am not for dumbing down games - Lord knows, we have enough games out there which are dumb-as-a-post already, however, I do think that this highlights a major flaw with Déraciné - it has no fall-back. There is nothing in the way of a hint system, or really any way to help the player get on the right track, if they have misinterpreted something. Because the early portion is so easy, it is feasible for a player to simply stumble through, not realising why they are doing things, or not understanding the significance, and there is no point where the game "tests" whether they have followed the narrative, until it becomes a blocker at the very end. At that point, there are only vague hints that might steer the player right - and those hints are fully dependent on the player having put other, previous information together correctly. While that isn't a huge detriment, it is a small one. A purely narrative game should really be a little easier to follow, or to catch up on that Déraciné is - particularly a VR one, where players who may be entirely unfamiliar with FROM Software's other works might be trying it out, and where long sessions are much more taxing on the player. Visually, I think the game looks good. The school and surrounding areas are well realised and lovingly rendered. It's a visually striking place to get to explore within VR, and there is a lot of care taken to allow the player the freedom to explore different areas in different chapters, without getting too lost or off track. The human models are fine - they are generally distinct enough to identify from a distance, and there are some weather effects and unusual areas later on that are quite striking. Audio is great here - the soundtrack is haunting and evocative, and perfectly captures the twee-yet-eerie tone. The voice work on the part of the children is generally good - there are a few instances of young children sounding like adults, but given the victorian setting, it could be argued that is deliberate too. The headmaster's aged, Scottish twang is a nice touch, and actually pretty well delivered, if a little hokey at times, and foley work, while minimal is all pretty well done. In particular, some of the ticking-clock and chiming effects that happen in time-change transitions are really haunting, and work well. Overall, Déraciné is a really unusual game, from an already unusual developer. It's a game that isn't without flaws, but the unique setting and narrative do a lot to keep the the game interesting over its 6-7 hour length, and the creepy tone is managed well - keeping a game that might be boring in lesser hands, feeling haunting and strange and curious in FROM's. The Ranking: The first main games Déraciné is in competition with, obviously, are other VR games - and on the list, there still aren't too many. Statik remains comfortably ahead of it, as it's minimal story is still intriguing, it's visuals still interesting, but the gameplay is just more fun, and significantly more VR-Specific than Déraciné's is. While Déraciné is playing in a tone and setting unusual for games (and VR in particular,) it doesn't always result in great gameplay, and so it loses that fight. Next down is Psychonauts in the Rhombus of Ruin, and there, despite some good aspects, Déraciné also loses. The fact is, Déraciné is a game that benefits from VR - it is more immersive and makes more narrative sense as a VR game, however, it is a game that could work in standard First Person. Psychonauts in the Rhombus of Ruin makes more specific use of VR, and in more interesting ways... and is also just more fun, and more cohesive mechanically. That brings us to more Adventure Game and Puzzle game genres as comparison points. A Good one that stands out is moody indie puzzler Rain - that's a game with a unique tone and setting, and a wistful, slightly ethereal feel to it that has some commonalities with Déraciné, but I think Rain manages to hold out against it. While Déraciné is more narratively interesting, and more ambitious, the actual puzzles are a little simplistic mechanically, and a little convoluted narratively, particularly towards the end, which does hurt it a little. Further down though, we have Maquette, and there, I think Déraciné has the edge. Maquette is an interesting game with a hell of a soundtrack, and wins on that element (and on voice work,) however, it's puzzles, while mechanically more interesting, don't always work, and the visuals don't compete with Déraciné's. That finds us somewhere in between, and where Déraciné ends up falling, for me, is just below surprising and delightful little escapist vacation The Touryst, but above lacklustre (and narratively bankrupt) It Takes Two - the game that is mechanically fine, but morally problematic, and made me no longer enjoy MsBloodmoney's full trust in choosing co-op games for us! Accounting+ Summary: A Comedy Adventure game, with a capital 'Comedy' and small-case 'adventure', Accounting+ is a VR showpiece from Crows Crows Crows, the game studio of William Pugh (of The Stanley Parable notoriety,) in conjunction with Squanchtendo - the gaming arm of Justin Roiland's empire (of TV's Rick and Morty fame.) The player is thrown in at the deep end, beginning their VR journey by taking a role at failing, small accounting firm "Smith and Smitherson." The two owners (played by Roiland and Pugh) are terribly excited both to have the player start work, and to engage in their brand new venture - Virtual Reality Accounting! Starting out by putting on an in-game VR headset (on top of the headset already worn by the player, of course,) the job goes swiftly awry, as the wrong programme has been selected. The player finds themselves in a peaceful, tranquil forrest glade, and is allowed about 20 seconds to survey and enjoy the scenery, before a bizarre, amorphous balloon-like creature pops his head out of tree, and starts loudly, ceaselessly and mercilessly swearing at the player - berating them for being in his place, touching his stuff, and... well... for being alive. After toying around with the environment and establishing what can and can't be done, (and receiving a panicked, apologetic phonetical from Smith and Smitherson, interrupted continually with cries of "Fuck You! Hey! Fuck You! Don't Touch My Phone! Fuck You!" from the balloon creature,) the player manages to find the exit - another in-game VR headset, allowing them to go deeper into the simulation. They then find themselves in the next vignette, wherein a group of street-tough anthropomorphised animals insult the player, and ask him/her to prove their worth to join the gang. This leads on through a series of continually changing, continually more and more bizarre situations through which the player bounces, as they strive to find the way out of the nightmarish and ridiculous VR simulation labyrinth. The game's tone, (for better or worse, depending on personal taste,) is clearly and unequivocally derived from the Squanchtendo side of the development pairing. In terms of actual mechanical complexity, there is extremely little - indeed, Accounting+ is possible to "complete" (i.e. see one ending of) in as little as 20-30 minutes. However, that is not to say that is necessarily detrimental to the proceedings... for two reasons. Firstly, there is the mechanical elements. The game, while providing little in the way of puzzle-game trappings or real meaty gameplay, does have a non-linear element. While there is a "most obvious" through line, most vignettes have multiple methods of escape, or various optional elements that can be completed, resulting in different paths through the experience. In fact, since the primary goal is entirely up to the player to discover through experimentation and chaos, it is never really clear which of these is the "right" one, if any can be called that. Actually, in my first playthrough of the game, I stumbled across what it turns out is considered more of a "secret" ending - resulting in the game being a little longer, a little more grotesque, and tapping into some of Roiland's signature poking fun of his own audience! Secondly, there is the comedic elements - and this is the real draw of the game, and source of the length. Considering how simple most of the mechanical elements of each vignette are, it is remarkable how much dialogue each one contains, and how much of that dialogue is specifically tailored to what the player does at any point. Because the entire game is really about the joy of discovery and the quick-fire nature of the changes in ridiculous situations the players find themselves in, I am not going to reference any more vignettes than I already have. In the first one though, as an example, there is an absolute wealth of different ways in which the balloon creature insults the player. Every single thing the player can do seems to be accounted for, with every action triggering specific tailored dialogue. Pick up a seed? "Hey, don't touch that! Fuck you! That's my special Seed! What are you doing with that seed?! No! Don't put it in dirt! Fuck you! You got my special seed all dirty! You got dirt on my seed! Fuck You!" Touch the odd electronic gizmo? "Hey! Fuck You! Leave my thing! That's my thing! I own that thing! Fuck you! You probably don't even know what that thing does!" Open a door? "..." ...well, you get the idea. Every vignette has this degree of dialogue specificity, as well as a fair amount of dialogue that simply runs if the player does nothing, that can be like simply watching a show. Indeed, most areas I began simply by sitting and watching play out for a while, as the comedy is very much to my taste, and I loved seeing it all. That brings us to the main point of note with Accounting+ - it is absolutely a taste-dependent product. I am a big fan of Rick and Morty. That particular sense of humour is very much in my wheelhouse, and I find that style of semi-improvised sounding dialogue funny as hell in this context. That is useful... because Accounting+ is 100%, squarely, no-room-for-interpretation, firmly in the Rick and Morty style. If you like Rick and Morty, I find it almost impossible to imagine not getting a kick out of Accounting+. If you don't, there really is NOTHING for you here. Aside from the absence of the actual characters from that TV show, Accounting+ is pitched - and indeed paced - almost exactly like one of the quick-fire "Intergalactic Cable TV" episodes of that show. That is actually why I do not hold what is - by gaming standards - an incredibly short length as a detriment. In this game's case, it is actually a benefit, in that a single playthrough lasts not much more than a half hour. That is about the length of time of a TV episode, and is about the length of time such mad-cap, goofy craziness can remain fresh and funny, before it starts to wane, or to creak and groan under its own weight, losing the audience a bit. The visuals of the game are pretty simple, but do the job, and really, are clearly made slightly blocky or basic as a way to further the tone and to help the jokes, as opposed to as a result of technical limitation. They aren't the draw, but do what is needed - and like the game mechanics themselves, are really a vehicle for joke delivery. Music, of course, is the same - entirely about supporting a comedic premise - but where they are used, they are used well. Audio, though, also encapsulates the voice work, and there, the game stands out. There is comedic talent assembled here - clearly possible via Roiland's TV connections, that includes Reggie Watts, Cassie Steele and Echo Kellum, complementing Roiland and Pugh (both of who provide some characters,) and - as one would expect - the vocal performances are easily on the level of Rick and Morty. Overall, Accounting+ is a short experience for sure, but it is absolutely crammed with jokes, almost all of which are funny, and its mechanical, non-linear elements combined with the breadth of tailored dialogue make replaying it plenty fun, with loads of new content to find within its anarchic maze of jokes and oddness. It's a silly, frivolous thing - and it absolutely knows, and revels in it - but there is real sharpness to the jokes, and the quick-fire nature of the game means it never has time to get old. The Ranking: A tough one for ranking, as Accounting+ is incredibly short and simple, (a fact that has anchored a fair few good games on the list,) yet it is a game where that is a benefit - a longer, more complicated version of the game would almost certainly work less well. This is a game as delivery device for jokes, rather than jokes as trappings on a game. Interestingly, the two points I used as first-pass comparisons are two games ranked in this batch already: Flipping Death, and Déraciné. Flipping Death is a comedy game too, and also very funny. While I think the actual laughs-ratio is higher in Accounting+, and the comedy a little better overall, Flipping Death is a much more mechanically interesting game, and it's visuals are much more interesting and pleasing. It's also making comedy out of a more coherent story, which is more difficult, and it does it very well. Déraciné is also a VR game - and that's all the commonality there is in any way, however, Accounting+ is simply, fundamentally in the genre that I think is more suited to VR. Déraciné is a game that is slow, and careful, and about thinking and exploring, and that's something not always suited to having to don the headset and earphones for an extended period. I think Déraciné could work in regular First Person - Accounting+ would definitely not, and so I think overall Accounting+ takes the win there. That puts us in between, and looking at comedy games - and once again, The Touryst provides some help. In this case, The Touryst's deliberately frivolous feel is actually a bonus, as Accounting+ plays in that scope too - but while The Touryst is charming, Accounting+ is genuinely funny, and that matters more in that particular slant, I think. There is a spilled-bag-of-candy aspect to both games - where the player never knows what they are going to be doing from moment to moment, but in Accounting+, that is ratcheted up to eleven, and doesn't even let the player think for a minute before switching it up to the next crazy thing. It's breathless and chaotic in a way The Touryst isn't, and that worked for me. I also think I'd be much more likely to replay Accounting+ than The Touryst, so it manages a very close win against the little indie vacation. It's incredibly close though, and as such, I think placing Accounting+ just one spot above The Touryst is the right thing to do! So there we have it folks! No Priority Assignments completed this round - but all requests will be honoured - beginning in the next batch, hopefully - thank you for your patience ?! Hitman 3 remains staunchly at the top, as 'Current Most Awesome Game'! LA Cops stays as the worst-of-the-worst, with the title of 'Least Awesome Game' What games will be coming along next time to challenge for the top spot... or the bottom rung? That's up to randomness, me.... and YOU! Remember: SPECIAL NOTE If there are any specific games anyone wants to see get ranked sooner rather than later - drop a message, and I'll mark them for 'Priority Ranking'! The only stipulation is that they must be on my profile, at 100% (S-Rank).... and aren't already on the Rankings! Catch y'all later my Scientific Brothers and Sisters! 15 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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