DrBloodmoney's Super Scientific Ranking of Games!

[grayhammmer]

Okay so, you mentioned during the Bayonetta review that Enzo could be compared to Zeke from InFamous, and then after looking through the rankings I realized that you haven't ranked ANY of the InFamous games despite having completed all of them. That surprised me a bit given how Famous (heh) the series was on Playstation, so if it's at all possible for me to do so I want the entire series to be put on priority ranking. If not, then at least go until the second one because I want to know if Zeke's character development worked for you in that game after the Bayonetta comment.

[DrBloodmoney]

4 hours ago, grayhammmer said:

Okay so, you mentioned during the Bayonetta review that Enzo could be compared to Zeke from InFamous, and then after looking through the rankings I realized that you haven't ranked ANY of the InFamous games despite having completed all of them. That surprised me a bit given how Famous (heh) the series was on Playstation, so if it's at all possible for me to do so I want the entire series to be put on priority ranking. If not, then at least go until the second one because I want to know if Zeke's character development worked for you in that game after the Bayonetta comment.

 

Good point - not sure why the inFamous games have slipped the net for so long.... this must be corrected! ☝️

 

I've flagged the first one for Priority Ranking with you name ?

[rjkclarke]

I am.... FASHIONABLY LATE AS EVER .... So late I had to re-read some of these.

 

I really need to y'know, write a template or something for every time I come in here... I expect it'll read something like this....

 

"Oh for goodness sake Doc, you've added to _________ this to my backlog/ wishlist, I guess that goes on the pile too!" Or words to that effect, and unfortunately it would be no different this time around either.

 

So let's get into that side of it!

 

You have thankfully not added Bayonetta to that list, I always kind of wanted to play it, but I didn't realise that the game was quite like you described. Obviously the gameplay side of it, I was aware of -  but reading what you had to say about Bayonetta and how they characterised her rather put me off. I've heard so many people wax lyrical about how awesome she is - but I don't think they look too far beyond how sexy they thought she was. 

 

This, is another really interesting point you made about the character:

 

Quote

Kratos made me hate him. Bayonetta made me nothing her

 

Brutal! But that is probably quite accurate going off of everything else you said in that review. 

 

I'm probably going to play Path of Sin:Greed eventually, as you know I'm partial to An Artifex Mundi dabble or two, but this does sound like one that I could probably let fall a little further down even the line of Artifex Mundi titles on my hypothetical waiting list ?

 

I really like the sound of Road 96 warts and all, that sounds too interesting an idea of a game to pass up, even if not every single element of it quite works. I'm willing to forgive quite a lot when it comes to games anyway, so this is another one that I really like the look of, that I'd never of heard of had it been so soon, if it weren't for this awesome place!

 

Unpacking sounds really interesting - although admittedly a game I'd be absolutely bloody terrible at in the real world. I am pretty disorganised when it comes to actually creating a space that isn't too chaotic, so I'd definitely struggle with that side of it .

 

The side of it that really sounds amazing though is it's ability to enrich a character so much without the use of voice acting or anything like that, just tapping into things that we can mostly all understand to some level, that aspect sounds borderline genius, and one you'd just never expect going into a game like that!

 

I think between yourself and @Billie__227 and a few others now to be fair - I feel like I ought to dive into Doki Doki Literature Club and give that a go at some point too, I'm too intrigued about what that whole "pulling the rug from under you" moment is like to actually experience, that I find myself incredibly intrigued by it.

 

Oh man, I'm so torn on JETT: The Far Shore... I can almost feel your frustration coming off the page when you're writing that, about the fact that there's so many genuinely awesome aspects to it, and then an almost equal amount of frustrating ones. I remember when you posted a status update about that, it sounded so promising and something that I'd be pretty certain to like. With this one though, I'm almost certain I'd have a lot of the same frustrations you seemed to have with it. and that really bums me out, I still might pick it up at some point though, because the good aspects really do sound very very worth it. 

 

Without sounding too much like a broken record (it's tough, I'm me after all ?) A huge batch of awesome reads as always man!

[DrBloodmoney]

29 minutes ago, rjkclarke said:

I am.... FASHIONABLY LATE AS EVER .... So late I had to re-read some of these.

 

I really need to y'know, write a template or something for every time I come in here... I expect it'll read something like this....

 

"Oh for goodness sake Doc, you've added to _________ this to my backlog/ wishlist, I guess that goes on the pile too!" Or words to that effect, and unfortunately it would be no different this time around either.

 

So let's get into that side of it!

 

Cheers duder!

 

Quote

 

You have thankfully not added Bayonetta to that list, I always kind of wanted to play it, but I didn't realise that the game was quite like you described. Obviously the gameplay side of it, I was aware of -  but reading what you had to say about Bayonetta and how they characterised her rather put me off. I've heard so many people wax lyrical about how awesome she is - but I don't think they look too far beyond how sexy they thought she was. 

 

This, is another really interesting point you made about the character:

 

 

Brutal! But that is probably quite accurate going off of everything else you said in that review. 

 

Yeah - the irony is, it’s a damned good action game, but it’s not like those are all that rare… you really need more than that, and story-wise, that one is just not there the way it seems to think it is.

 

Occasionally it seems winking - like it knows what it is - but the “look how cool and edgy!” stuff does really undercut that. 

 

Quote

I'm probably going to play Path of Sin:Greed eventually, as you know I'm partial to An Artifex Mundi dabble or two, but this does sound like one that I could probably let fall a little further down even the line of Artifex Mundi titles on my hypothetical waiting list

 

Yeah - never bad, but about as middle of the road as Artifex Mundi can get - not good, not bad… just kinda there in front of you ?

 

Quote

I really like the sound of Road 96 warts and all, that sounds too interesting an idea of a game to pass up, even if not every single element of it quite works. I'm willing to forgive quite a lot when it comes to games anyway, so this is another one that I really like the look of, that I'd never of heard of had it been so soon, if it weren't for this awesome place!

I reckon you’d dig it - it’s tough to define exactly why it works, but it’s just got a vibe - a style that maybe shouldn’t work, but somehow comes together, and just turns all its potential drawbacks into assets!

 

I suspect the music helps that, but really, it’s just in its own strange world, and it comes together!

 

 

Quote

Unpacking sounds really interesting - although admittedly a game I'd be absolutely bloody terrible at in the real world. I am pretty disorganised when it comes to actually creating a space that isn't too chaotic, so I'd definitely struggle with that side of it .

 

The side of it that really sounds amazing though is it's ability to enrich a character so much without the use of voice acting or anything like that, just tapping into things that we can mostly all understand to some level, that aspect sounds borderline genius, and one you'd just never expect going into a game like that!

Yeah, really caught me off guard that - I had wondered why it was talked about so much in game of the year discussions on various outlets prior - that’s pretty much why I checked it out in the first place, but even knowing there was something special to it, it still surprised me with that stuff!

 

Quote

I think between yourself and @Billie__227 and a few others now to be fair - I feel like I ought to dive into Doki Doki Literature Club and give that a go at some point too, I'm too intrigued about what that whole "pulling the rug from under you" moment is like to actually experience, that I find myself incredibly intrigued by it.

 

Dude - do it!

 

And do yourself a favour, if that decision is a possibility… avoid everything about it until then! I’m not a big “oooohhh, spoilers, run!” Kinda guy, but in this particular case, you want to limit them as far as possible!

 

Quote

Oh man, I'm so torn on JETT: The Far Shore... I can almost feel your frustration coming off the page when you're writing that, about the fact that there's so many genuinely awesome aspects to it, and then an almost equal amount of frustrating ones. I remember when you posted a status update about that, it sounded so promising and something that I'd be pretty certain to like. With this one though, I'm almost certain I'd have a lot of the same frustrations you seemed to have with it. and that really bums me out, I still might pick it up at some point though, because the good aspects really do sound very very worth it. 

 

Man, it’s a bummer, because there is so much good stuff in there - along with so much “why?!?!”

 

I think I still come out the back end kind of recommending it - it’s not for everyone, but I suspect your appreciation of the musical and artistic sides of games will definitely help you push through the negatives - it’s just frustrating because starting out, I was mentally noting it as a contender for top games this year, and by the end, I was genuinely asking myself “how much of a weird caveat am I gonna have to write if this ends up on my “best art”, “best music”, “oddball”… and “most disappointing” lists come December?!” ?

Edited June 12, 2022 by DrBloodmoney

[Yuber6969]

Nice write-up on Doki Doki!

 

SPOILERS

Spoiler

That suicide scene gave me goosebumps, even though the trigger warning at the start of the game made it obvious to me that it would happen. Trigger warning aside, I think the game did a great job making you think that it was going to be some cutesy VN/dating sim.

 

[DrBloodmoney]

 

!!SCIENCE UPDATE!!

 

 

The next (somewhat) randomly selected games to be submitted for scientific analysis shall be:

 

 

Legacy

 

Fruit Ninja

inFamous

Papers, Please

 

New

Tetragon

The Gardens Between

 

 

 

Subject(s) in RED marked for PRIORITY ASSIGNEMENT

[Care of @grayhammmer & @Zvetiki ]

 

 

 

Can 'Current Most Awesome' game, Hitman 3, continue its glorious reign?

 

Is gaming turdlet LA Cops ever going to lose the title of 'Least Awesome Game'?

 

 

Let's find out, Science Chums!

[DrBloodmoney]

 

  NEW SCIENTIFIC RESULTS ARE IN! 

 

 

Hello Science-Homers and Science-Marges, as promised (and in some cases requested), here are the latest results of our great scientific endeavour!

 

 

 

 

Fruit Ninja

 

Summary: 

The screen-slashing arcade game originally released for iOS in 2010 by Halfbrick Studios, Fruit Ninja was ported to Vita in 2013 (as part of Halfbrick's quest to release it on every platform in the known universe!), bringing its curiously addictive brand of fruit-destroying finger-exercise with it.

It's unlikely at this point that anyone is unfamiliar with the game, but essentially, Fruit Ninja places the player in the perspective of the eponymous Ninja, with one goal - slash pieces of fruit that are launched like clay pigeons against a simple backdrop, with swipes of their fingers (taking the place of their sword.) Avoid the bombs that sometimes accompany them, build up high-scores and combos (single swipes slashing multiple fruits, and deal with the increasingly hectic barrage of tasty... as an ever-increasing fruit salad accumulates at their unseen feet!

The game is incredibly simple - rooting its inspiration with abstracted arcade games like Tetris or Bejeweled, and featuring no real story, rhyme or motivation for the Ninja's seemingly endless animosity towards the fruit he so wantonly destroys... but it doesn't need any of that. 
It is entirely designed around score-chasing, but much like something like Pac Man Championship Edition DX, what Fruit Ninja does expertly is make all of the tertiary elements around its very simple design look good, sound good, and just feel perfect. The simple act of slashing the fruit has to feel satisfying... and ho-boy, does it ever!

Every swipe of the player's finger is accompanied by the most satisfying sword "swish" I think exists in gaming, and the fruit slices apart with a palpable "squish" that seems to buzz directly into the dopamine centre of the brain. The fruit looks really good, and the little frills like the juice splatting off the sword, and the walls, looks both endlessly fun... and curiously delicious! 

The game is, of course, utterly reliant on the touch-screen. Fruit Ninja is a game that is predicated on the fun of tactile feel - one designed originally to make solid use of the iOS touch facilities - and the Vita does the job... though the mere fact that the touch controls on vita don't quite live up to their iPad counterpart does have a corresponding impact on the satisfaction of the game. 
Really, the only times the game loses its magic is the rare occasion that the touch inputs fail. That doesn't happen too often on Vita, but it basically never happens on iPad, and so while the Vita version is still good, my broad recommendation is to play it on iOS. The inclusion of "multi-touch" wherein multiple blades can be used with multiple fingers is not really present (or at least, well implemented,) on the Vita side, and so the game leans more into the "combo" mechanic - awarding extra multipliers for slashing multiple fruits with one swipe.
I'll note - my son, who has fine motor-control issues, loves Fruit Ninja - and it has been a staple of every iPad our household has owned - its brand of endlessly satisfying "splatting" is a household favourite... though he was less enamoured of the Vita version. This was partly, I think, due to the input requiring more forceful swipes, and partly because the smaller screen does limit the game somewhat, and make it more "fiddly" than its iPad counterpart.
(I do know the game exists on some platforms where the touch input is missing - I have no idea how well it might work on those platforms, but I cannot imagine it is great, given so much of the game is predicated on "feel" - and while the Vita is not the best of these touch-based devices by a long shot, the game is good enough to overcome those hurdles and still work there.)

The game looks and sounds great, as said - it has to deliver on those elements to work, but it goes well beyond the minimum it would need to do to simply function - and even the UI and menus are crisp, bright, colourful, and fun to use (the slashing mechanic is used, even to select a game mode, or navigate the menus.)
The music is fun and chirpy, and the whole game feels well build and solid - much more so than a lot of iOS ports do when transitioning to the Vita. 

There are enough game modes to satisfy and keep the game feeling varied enough - and Endless challenge for example, or a "Zen" mode which lowers the difficulty, and clearly Halfbrick know what they have - they add modes for all the family, knowing that the biggest draw is the simple, tactile sensation of the game.

Overall, Fruit Ninja is hardly the kind of game to absorb a player for hundreds of hours... though the fact that it is, essentially, a glorified few-minute-time-waster should not detract from the idea that this simple mechanic is so much fun to engage with, that I (and certainly Bloodmoney Junior!) have sunk more hours into it than most full-fledged Triple A games over the years.

A simple premise, executed absurdly well, resulting an an incredibly compulsive and very satisfying game that is easy to play, simple to understand, and incredibly satisfying to engage with.

 

 

The Ranking:

So for ranking, the first games I considered were games with similarly iOS roots - Bejeweled 2, and Plants vs Zombies... and in both cases, I think Fruit Ninja has them beat handily. 

In the case of Plants vs Zombies, the basic premise works well, however, I do think the satisfaction Fruit Ninja captures is so good, that it stomps all over the mild fun on Plants vs Zombies. In terms of Bejeweled 2, that is a game that also suffers for the port across to console, but I think it suffers more. That may be simply because I played the PS3 version, rather than the Vita one, however, that is the version that is ranked. 

I started looking at similarly high-score chasing arcade style games then - I do think Fruit Ninja's satisfaction manages to out-do some classics like Dug Dug in 2022 - Dig Dug is a great old game, but it's control issues and antiquated nature make it a tough sell to players nowadays, but the one I can't see Fruit Ninja beating out is Gradius. The Arcade Archives: Gradius port Hamster did is excellent - and it being a more full "game" and having its great soundtrack does manage to hold up against the compulsive fruit slashing enough to keep its place. 
 
That puts it somewhere in between, but I have trouble seeing Fruit Ninja placing higher than JETT: The Far Shore or Ratchet and Clank: Rift Apart. Both those games are flawed in many ways, whereas Fruit Ninja does exactly what it should, and more... however, they do both have exceptional aspects, and both are much grander, bigger games.

As such I think the fitting place for Fruit Ninja is just above Q.U.B.E Director's Cut, and below JETT: The Far Shore.

 

 

 

 

 

inFamous

 

Summary: 

A 2009 Superhero Action Open-World game from Sly Cooper developer Suckerpunch, the original inFamous came out in the heady days of Open World being the undisputed king of gaming genres, yet before any real notion of "Open World Fatigue" has tarnished the genre within the consumer base.

inFamous - along with its tonal (and inferior) peer Prototype, (which released around the same time,) actually represent a game type that is largely gone now - and was very much representative of a the cultural landscape in which they released. The two games represent a specific strand of the "Triple A" genre that is unlikely to be seen again for some time - the original superhero story. 

In 2009 superhero media was on the rise - we had had the Raimi Spiderman films, and the X-Men, and of course Batman and Superman were existing staples, but the previous year had seen the release of what would eventually be recognised as the beginning of our current cultural relationship with superheroes - Iron Man. 
That film began the true conglomeration and galvanisation of the superhero movie as the Ur-Action movie within mainstream culture, and of course, heralded the beginning of the Marvel Movie Machine as we know it now. Within a few short years, that machine would not only cement as the dominant force in Blockbuster entertainment (in a way we have still not really divested ourselves as a culture, even 14 years later,) but it also unified and regimented the rule-book for how to approach hero stories in popular media in general. In a very real sense, all superhero media has worked to the framework it established - most follow the same lines, and even those which don't are doing so consciously - specifically deviating from those lines - and are judged accordingly.
By the time 2012 saw the release of the first Avengers movie - a behemoth congealment of all things superhero - and broke every sales record, proving once and for all the power of "Multi-versing", the idea of crafting a game like inFamous from the ground up would feel so antiquated as to border on quaint... or even naive. 
Nowadays, any studio looking to make a new, "Triple A" game in the mould of inFamous would be fighting inevitable question: "Why make a new superhero who MIGHT sell, when there are so many licensed superheroes to work with that we KNOW will?"

The player takes the role of Cole - a bike messenger and urban-exploration enthusiast in the fictional New York facsimile Empire City - who, while delivering a package, has it blow up in his hands - taking half the city, and all of his consciousness with it. 
Upon waking from a coma, he finds the city in both ruins and governmentally and physically mandated quarantine, and his body imbued with superhuman abilities - all themed around the retention and expulsion of electricity.
Seeking out his girlfriend Trish (with whom his relationship is immediately strained, due to a loss she suffered in the initial blast,) and his best friend Zeke, (whose "comedic" stylings serve as the one truly, eye-wateringly bad element of the game,) he tries to make sense of his powers, find out what happened to the city - and himself -, and learns that distinctly arachnoid lesson all superheroes must: that with great power comes great responsibility.

As a game, inFamous functions in the Crackdown / Saints Row / Spiderman style, with a vast open city to explore, main and side missions, a plethora of side activities and challenges, a skill tree of powers unlockable through XP, and a real focus on mobility and speed above all else. 

Cole moves fantastically well. It's clear almost immediately that inFamous comes from the same developer whose pedigree includes Sly Cooper - his ability to move quickly, turn on a dime, and "snap-to" onto objects to balance are all second nature to those familiar with our old recidivist raccoon friend. The one area that some city-based open world games struggle with - fast movement between areas - is all but completely solved in the inFamous series right from the get-go - Cole is able to jump and scale buildings with incredible easy, making light work of the task for the player.
The game doesn't pussy-foot around trying to mark specific hand-holds or special routes - Cole can scale virtually anything, and that means the combinations of moves he has, and his speed is rarely ever stymied by difficult geometry. Indeed, by the time his abilities are half-way maxed out, Cole can navigate the city with a speed that approaches Spiderman games.
His aggressive powers are fluid and fun to use - Cole is an acrobatic guy, and in combination with his ranged abilities, the game is tremendous fun to play, no matter how many (and there are many!) groups of antagonistic bad guys the game throws at the player.

The game - like quite a few of the PS3 era did - works with a Good/Evil dynamic, with the narrative (and eventual outcome) of the game morphing to one extreme or the other based on the player actions throughout. It's a mechanic I broadly like, though I think it's one that rarely really works well with a narrative - particularly where trophies and achievements are baked in. 
inFamous is the clear exception.

In a lot of games with a Good/Evil dichotomy built in as a mechanic, the black and white nature can feel a little odd - particularly with the steroid of trophies pumping through the game's veins. Trophies tend to encourage players to play completely one way or completely the other to satisfy requirements, and in a lot of game I think that's a narrative detriment. Even one of the most famous, well regarded (and fairly well implemented) instances - Mass Effect's Shepherd - it can feel antithetical to the flow of the narrative. Shepherd is, by design, a complex character. A truly "realistic" playthrough of any Mass Effect game would naturally have her skirt that "morality line," falling sometimes on the Paragon, and sometimes on the Renegade side of it. The trophy-dictated encouragement to go full throttle in either direction tends to work against the nuance of the game from a story perspective. 

 

With inFamous though, the more comic-book narrative style, (tying it to a strain of fiction that is always far more heightened, and more back and white by nature,) coupled with the extremity of Cole's possible swings in morality, make this mechanic feel more of an asset than in almost any other game. "Good" actions - saving people, sparing lives, doing no harm - are obviously, clearly and quantifiably good... but the "Evil" actions are often so absurdly and obviously evil, that any perceived "redemption" for Cole as a character would be virtually impossible after engaging with them even once! 
His ability to heal by "draining" people for example. Healing can take a while in the game - requiring Cole draining multiple in game electrical objects, such as street lights or cars, and can often be the game's biggest source of difficulty in longer fights... if he wants to be good, that is. 

The evil way, however, is much quicker - draining a single NPC will max out his health, and doing so is very simple... but the game forces the player not only to look right in the eyes of the person as they struggle to fend off the power-hungry Cole, but to tap the buttons to overpower them. After Cole has - even once - grabbed some hapless woman off the street, smashed her to the pavement, and sucked her life force from her as she struggles in terror, it would be pretty tough for any amount of good deeds to make up for that!

The game actually leans into this mechanic far more than most do too - rather than simply changing the outcome of some missions, there is a reasonable proportion of the missions (around 30%) that are ONLY available to a Cole who is karmically aligned with one "side" or the other. That, coupled with the different endings and the genuinely different feel to the top-end powers on the skill tree (which again, are only available to one version of Cole or the other,) means replaying the game to try the opposite play-style feels markedly different in a way few "karmically infused" games do.

Story-wise, inFamous certainly falls back on a lot of "standard" video-gamey structures - the city is on three islands, there are three main bosses, and  a lot of the individual missions have all the structural hallmarks of tried-and-true "Game Design 101"... however, there is a reason these things became tropes in the first place. When used well, they can be very effective. 
There's little in inFamous that feels particularly exceptional or genre-defying in terms of narrative, but given that it is playing in the Superhero realm, and given that none of the more base-level elements ever feel bad, that is forgivable. Really, inFamous is a "gameplay-forward, narrative-back" kind of experience, and so the relatively simple story is not a detriment. If anything, from a 2022 perspective, the novelty of it not being a licensed product is almost original enough on its own, as to gloss over the fact that it doesn't really do anything that wouldn't be done in the equivalent licensed game. 

Cole also, despite being one of the MANY PS3 era "bald grunting white dude" protagonists, does have more personality that one might anticipate, and his character journey works better than one might expect... regardless of which karmic direction the player takes him. 
Trish is a well enough established character, if a little "Mary Jane" adjacent... and even his relationship with Zeke does work... to a point. I believe Zeke himself to be, without hyperbole, insufferable as a character, to the point where I suspect most players will actively groan whenever he appears on screen... but narratively, the hooks are there, and serve their purpose. 

Visuals are an area where inFamous does show its age now - though to be honest, they were not particularly outstanding even at the time. There are some nice effects on his powers, and nothing is designed particularly poorly... but the colour palate and artistic style of the game absolutely screams PS3 at its least original. If one were to select a single game to act as the ambassador for the "Grey and Brown PS3 Era", I'm not sure if inFamous would be the winner... but it would be a strong contender. 
It's worth noting - the visuals are one of the reasons (along with the better narrative and setting,) that I fully expect inFamous 2 to rank higher than this original game. inFamous 2 looks great - the art style matures into something more sumptuous, the New Orleans inspired setting is much more interesting and fresh, and the bright colour palate is a breath of fresh air after this dour-looking original entry.

Audio is perfectly good - the score is never exceptional, but has some really nice swells and some grandeur to it - though the player might actually want to adjust the audio settings, as I found the score to be rather maligned in how far into the background it gets mixed.) 
Sound effects and folly are well done - again, not so exceptional as to draw attention, but a good example nonetheless. 
Voice work is fine - Cole is, in this entry, a relatively blank slate in terms of emotion, but his performance in key moments does the job, and certainly never actively detracts from the narrative. Trish has probably the best performance moments in the game, and Zeke... 
well... 
...I don't want to blame the voice work, because if the remit was to make hm as irritating to listen to as he is as a character, I think the voice artist absolutely nails it... but the less said about Zeke the better really!

Overall, inFamous is a pretty great game mechanically, a perfectly adequate game narratively, and a workman like, if not terribly impressive game visually and auditorially. It was "Triple A" at the time, though now, feels almost more a great example of the "B-Game" than a "Triple A" in some sense - the kind of game you love despite some flaws, rather than one you notice flaws in and shake your head despairingly.
It set the ground work for a better sequel, but that by no means suggests the original entry was anything to sniff at - it was a truly competent open world game, (released at a time when those were truly in vogue and plentiful,) and it still stood taller than most of its peers.
It might not be the most original game structurally, but there's a lot to be said for the comfort of a very competent rendition of old ideas. 
Just ask Horizon: Zero Dawn.

 

 

The Ranking:

For ranking, There are two games that jumped to mind for narrowing the field - Sucker Punch's previous series Sly Cooper, and similarly early-PS3 era, interesting without much originality game Darksiders.

I don't personally think this first inFamous quite manages to beat out the original Darksiders - Darksiders was cribbing from another series almost completely, (post SNES Zelda,) however, it did it very well, and given that Zelda doesn't exist on Sony consoles, there is some console originality there, in lieu of actual originality. I also think the story Darksiders tells (also working with original material in an established genre,) is a little better, and the game more varied, and nicer to look at. inFamous controls better, but Darksiders is no slouch there, so overall, Darksiders takes the win.

As compared to the original Sly Cooper, however, it's a battle on points. inFamous takes it on controls and narrative, (where inFamous would lose points due to Zeke, it doesn't lose too many, as both Murray and Bentley have their own irritations associated with them!), while Sly Cooper takes it on visuals and Audio. 
Both games are very good, however, I'd be lying if I said I'd rather play the original Sly Cooper again before replaying inFamous - and I'd be more excited about a new inFamous than a new Sly Cooper game, so inFamous takes the win.

There are a fair few action games in between - so I'll knock out a few match-ups quickly - inFamous wins against the first God of War, but loses, I think, to Tomb Raider Legend, and to Kena: Bridge of Spirits (who's visuals do a lot of work in that fight!) 

Between them, Ratchet & Clank 3: Up Your Arsenal is a very close call, but I think inFamous just manages to squeak by it, but I have trouble seeing it beat out Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time, despite that game having dated a lot more.

That leaves only Superliminal and Weird West in the fight, and with all the issues Weird West had bogging it down, I think the fair placement is right in between them...
...and so inFamous finds its spot!

 

 

 

 

 

Papers, Please

 

Summary: 

A pixel-art simulation come lite-puzzle game created by Lucas Pope (of future Return of the Obra Dinn fame,) Papers, Please originally released in 2013 for PC, with a Vita port coming 4 years later. 

Papers, Please belongs to that curious strain of gaming that is rare enough in indie development (and almost entirely absent in "Triple A" development) - the "gamification" of non-traditional, seemingly game-incompatible elements of life. 
These games should, by rights, be terribly boring - they often take what are mundane tasks in regular life - ones that, often, people are employed to do, and consider "work" - but gamify them in a way that, (if they are successful,) manages to extract the essence of those task without importing the elements that turn them into a chore.

In some sense these games are doing what all games do, (Call of Duty, for example, provides the thill of tactics and warfare without the horrors of real violence and war, and Hitman gives the player the thrill of being an assassin, without the moral, physical, ethical and life-threatening elements that doing so in real life would entail!) however, applying that logic to more mundane tasks is still relatively novel in gaming. 

 

Some games doing so, do this to extract the good feelings that come with the completion of mundane tasks. Unpacking, for example, which distils the act of unpacking boxes into purely the satisfaction element of that task, without the back-breaking labour, or House Flipper, which takes the act of cleaning a house, but evokes only the dopamine satisfaction of doing so, without the physical exertion. 

However, there is another variant of these "mundanity simulators", where simulating these tasks is used not as a delivery mechanism for positive feelings, but as a statement on the grotesquery of the mundanity of the task itself. The most emblematic games of this genre are probably threefold.

Cart Life, which simulates the crushing, hopeless feeling of living just below the breadline - of simply being overwhelmed, and never being able to be fully manage one's life, no matter how hard you work, This War of Mine, which adds a few more gameplay-familiar elements in terms of resource management and a wartime setting, but roots itself in the mundane elements of living through warfare that most games gloss over as a statement on war itself... 
...and Paper, Please, which manages to touch on both.

Papers, Please is a game wherein the player is set a routine, mundane task - checking papers at a border control point - distills it, gamifies it, then uses that gamification to make a rather profound statement about the nature of following orders... or not.
The player takes the thankless role of an immigration official at the checkpoint between his own nation - the fictional totalitarian Eastern European state of Arstotzka - and the equally fictional Kolechia. The game is divided into "days", and during each, different people will approach the player's desk with their papers, attempting to enter the country. It's up to the player to examine their documents, ensure all details are correct, and confirm that each of the onerous requirements (which, as often happens in small nations during tumultuous times, change almost daily,) are met, to determine a final choice: Approve, or Deny. 

These documents are actually tactile, in world items - the player physically moves them around his/her small desk, correlating and cross-referencing them with the day's current requirements documents - and as the days go on, and requirements and regulations become more and more convoluted, labyrinthine and bureaucratic, simply managing that space becomes a challenging part of the game. 
There is a soft timer - it is in the player's interest to be as quick as they can, as each day ends with a summary of how much they are paid, and what their own family require to continue to live in the poverty stricken nation. Each "correct" denial/approval means more money, but each "incorrect" one is financially punished, and without enough money, the player can end up falling destitute. 

That takes care of the basic gameplay functions - examine papers, detect anomalies, accept or reject, receive awards, repeat... however, that's just the job. It speaks nothing to morality. The problem with being an immigration official, is that you aren't just dealing with documents - you're dealing with the people handing them to you. 

Each person has a story, and as the game progresses, the player will begin to encounter situations that test their ethical boundaries, and their dedication to following orders... in this case, substituted for gameplay mechanics.
Will the player happily take the gameplay (and reward) hit, to allow a married couple through together, even though one has the right documents, and one doesn't?
Will they deliberately deny a sleazy pimp from entry, despite his correct documents, given they can infer what he has planned for the girl he is going to meet?
When they start seeing evidence of a genuine political uprising seeping into Arstotzka, will they defend their brutal dictatorship from it, ensuring their own survival, or will they do their part for the resistance, at potential cost to themselves?

These kind of moral and gameplay dilemmas are what make Papers, Please work - and the fact that they are weighed against the very real possibility of the player failing makes it work so well. 
There isn't any real level of deception here - unlike something like "Train" wherein the player is completing a gamified task happily, only to have the curtain drawn back near the end, Papers, Please starts from an already uncomfortable place. It amps up its moral dilemmas over the course of days, slowly chipping away further and further at the players personal limits, but it is made fairly clear from the start that the government they work for is hardly the "good guy".
(Train, for those who may not know, was an experimental board game by Brenda Romero, released a few years prior to Papers, Please, but playing with some of the same notions of using gameplay to simulate "following orders" in a dictatorship. In that case the players work to succeed in the game by maximising how many passengers can be transported in a train... before the final destination is revealed to be Auschwitz, and their desire to "win" is tested against their own moral compass.)
While that reveal was effective in forcing players to confront the idea of following orders blindly, and without probing further, I actually think Papers, Please addresses an even more sinister and hopeless aspect of human nature than simple ignorance - it addresses the breaking point of morality, and the human need not only for for survival, but for adulation, even when they already KNOW the act they are engaged with is potentially (or actually) immoral or harmful.

Papers, Please weaponises the very elements of gameplay that we, as gamers, have taken for granted, and seek out in our hobby.
Gamers are conditioned to want "perfect" runs in games. We are pre-programmed to want the dopamine hit of a perfect score, and so when presented with clear moral reasons to sacrifice that, the game manages to simulate on a small scale, the very issues faced under such regimes.
 It's not simply balancing our survival - it's also balancing our base-desires as humans. Humans are satisfied with a job well done. We like following rules. We like to be good at thing...
...but at what point does "just following orders" become too much of a strain on our own morality? How thoroughly are we willing to abandon out ethical compass, just to receive a pat on the back and a "job well done"?

In terms of reviews, this one is very "experience heavy"... it follows the game that way. I haven't talked much about the visuals or audio - primarily because those aren't the impactful elements.

Visually, I will say, I think the game does a lot with a little - it's relatively simple pixel-art, but the tone and colour palette work very well, and the drudgery of the job, the frailty of the people, and the brutal indifference of the system they are navigating are conveyed very effectively.

The score is simple but effective, and virtually every piece of sound work is additive - in particular, the finality of the "stamping" noise (Accepted or Rejected) is oddly satisfying - helping the game to drive home it's cruel, yet smart message, that taking satisfaction in a job is not necessarily "right", even if it does feel good.

I do think the gameplay of Papers, Please is oddly, and surprisingly compulsive - there is a real satisfaction in just the basic detective "odd-one-out" or "spot-the-difference" elements involved in the routine tasks. That is necessary, of course - making the simple act of being the jobsworth that Arstotzka wants the player to be feel satisfying is a requirement if they want to test the player's willingness to keep doing it in the face of obvious moral reasons not to - but the game does, I think, go beyond the baseline it would need to make the thesis statement hit. 
Because the documents are manually sorted and shuffled, there is a tactile feel to the game that really works on the Vita screen, and that manual control really starts to evoke the genuine burden of a job like that ,when the day is waning, and the player knows they have to find the right document under the mountain of paperwork before they (and their family) go hungry. 

 

The downside to the game is that it is very experiential - it's tough to recapture the feeling of the first time through the game, as the key moments in it are scripted and non-variable. A second playthrough will always result in the same encounters with the same people on the same days.
I don't actually think this is a negative - the game is very well paced to deliver its thesis punch, however, it does mean Papers, Please is very much a "one and done" kind of game, in terms of impact. It has multiple ending, but it struggles to really find impact beyond the first one. Seeing the other endings is interesting academically, but less so emotionally.

There are actually additional modes - an endless one for example -but I struggle to understand the purpose of including these, given the nature of the main game. The whole point of the game is about how the player chooses to balance their need for survival, their dopamine desire for "game progression" and "winning", and their ethical desires. To balance what feels morally right, but "gameplay wrong". 
The actual detective work of the gameplay being satisfying enough to sustain an endless mode is laudable - making the busywork of passport control fun to play is a tough needle to thread, and one Papers, Please manages to thread perfectly... 
...but really, that dopamine hit gamers get from a "perfect score" is weaponised to make a serious point in the main game. The idea of then abandoning that statement, in favour of simply doing the task feels oddly defeatist, and almost crass.

Overall, Papers, Please remains a tentpole in a necessarily rare genre - the one that does perhaps the hardest thing to do in videogames: to use gameplay itself as both a mouthpiece, and a cudgel. It turns the usual relationship between player and game into a facsimile of something much more insidious - the relationship between a dictatorial government and it's people - and manages, on a small scale, to distill the moral quandaries such a relationship invokes. 
I suspect very few people will play the game, and not come away from that first, blind playthrough questioning some element of what they did... and what that might say about them!

 

 

 

The Ranking:

Papers Please is a tough one, as once again, I'm ranking a game that is stronger in its message than its game elements.

The first obvious comparison is This War of Mine, but as impactful and good as Papers, Please is, I don't think it competes at that level, simple because while the message is as powerful, the gameplay elements, visuals and score are not on the same level. I also think This War of Mine manages to have impact over and over again, with multiple playthroughs, wheres Papers, Please can't really, by nature. 

 

The other comparison that is clear, is Return of the Obra Dinn, since that is also from the same mind. Again, I don't see Papers, Please beating it, but for different reasons. Return of the Obra Dinn has nothing of the political or moral aspects or messages - it is just a great puzzle game... but it is such an absurdly great puzzle game, that it blows Papers, Please out the water on that strength alone. Its visual are stunningly original too - much more so than Papers, Please's are, the score is much better, and the combination of these things just massively overwhelms Papers, Please, even accounting for its great elements. 

 

It's a completely impossible task to come up with true comparisons below those two - games which are of similar stock in terms of visuals generally lack the emotional impact of Papers, Please, but the games with that side covered are rare, and often very different in scope. 

 

As such, unfortunately, All I can do is work down the list, asking the old question: "Overall, is Papers, Please more awesome at what it tries to do?"

Doing so, the last game where I think the answer is "Not quite", is Ratchet & Clank: A Crack in Time, and just below it, the first "Yes," is with the original Psychonauts.

 

Completely different games in terms of virtually every element, of course, but that feels broadly correct when I spot check against the games around it, and so Papers, Please finds its spot on the list.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Tetragon

 

Summary: 

A small-scale puzzle game, and first effort by Cafundo Creative Studio, Tetragon is a curious little game, and one which, given the total player-base of 52 (at the time of writing) between both SKUs, is seemingly almost unknown on this site!

Narratively extremely bare-bones, the player takes the role of a woodsman whos son goes missing in the dark forrest. Setting out to find him, he find himself delving deep into a curious, geometric world in which gravity is malleable, and with the aid of mysterious lantern he is gifted by a woodland spirit, (and against the threat of some kind of spirit entity which has apparently kidnapped the boy,) he traverses the concentrically spiralling, angular world, by manipulating gravity, and the pillars that make up the geometry.

Tetragon is a puzzle game through-and-through - while there is some basic narrative here, it is about as minimal - and marginalised - as a narrative can be while still maintaining the facade of one. That is not necessarily a bad thing within the genre, of course - puzzle games can have great stories, but they rarely require them. Really, the actual investment in Tetragon is not in any way driven by the arc of the character or his plight, but simply by the player relationship with the puzzles themselves. Tetragon would work almost exactly the same as it does if it was entirely abstracted, with no narrative hooks, and so while the narrative here is very simple and unengaging, I don't really hold that against the game in any way.

Visually, the game has a distinct look, and while graphically it is very basic, it does get the job done. Levels never really look stunning - or even close to that - but there is a nice visual palate to the game, and some nice design flourishes here and there. I actually really like the background design to levels - future levels can be seen slightly askew and warped in the background of the current one, giving a foggy "infinity mirror" effect that is both nice to look at, and apropos, given the "decent into mystery" the game is predicated on - even if the actual geometry of the levels themselves are quite basic , and really, these are purely cosmetic. Little can be gleaned about the future level in these warped images, just a basic shape, but it's a nice touch nonetheless.

Audio has a similarly workman-like quality - it is fine, never grating and occasionally haunting - but never particularly stand-out.

The puzzles themselves are, in fact, very good for the most part. The game is rarely ever truly fiendish - I'd wager even the less puzzle-minded of players could traverse even the more complex of them in a relatively timely fashion, and without the need to resort to guides, as, despite red herrings, there is often only a few possible ways to go at any given point - however, the game is more than capable of throwing in occasional moments of confoundment.
There are some collectibles in the game - two types actually. One, (the ghostly after-images of the protagonist's son,) are generally easily found along the "main" path of puzzle completion, however, the second type - "fragments of the Tetragon" often require a rather more elaborate puzzle to be solved within the confines of the main one. 
This kind of puzzle-within-a-puzzle is not an easy thing to get right, and I actually think Tetragon does a good job with these. Given that all Puzzle Rooms in the game are single, static screens, each collectible is visible right from the start, and so devising puzzles that work as a main traversal, have an alternate solution, and still manage to maintain a reasonable and sensible difficulty arc is laudable.

Gameplay essentially boils down to creating traversable paths through the level by manipulating movable columns within it. By using his lantern, the woodsman can "slide" these columns back and forth, creating platform which he can traverse, usually to a sort of plant/totem which can them be used to "swivel" the world on its axis. By manipulating the column positions, and turning the world round and round, a path through a seemingly impossible level to traverse can be created.

Where the game stumbles though, is not in the design of the puzzles themselves, but in the controls, and the player input required to solve them. 
There seem to be a litany of small issues that just tend to compound to detract from the fun of the puzzles themselves.

Firstly, control of the columns in a level becomes rather laborious on console once levels with large numbers of them become the norm. Selection of the specific one to be moved within a level requires the player to "cycle" through them one at a time, in either clockwise or anti-clockwise fashion until they reach the right one. This is something of a necessary burden on controller. I do know on PC the selection can be mouse controlled, which would solve this issue, but on console, it really slows the pace of the game down. 
(Actually, it's worth noting, when playing, I assumed the game had been designed for touch-pad controls... I was flabbergasted when I discovered it does not exist on iOS or Android. The game feels tailor-made to work on an iPad, given the single-screen nature of the puzzles, and how well the column-sliding mechanics would translate to a screen-drag... but apparently this isn't the case!)

Secondly, there is the awkward, slightly confusing control scheme on the woodsman. Controls are relatively stiff generally, making the movement feel a bit finicky and plodding, but for some reason, the baffling decision was made to have different button inputs required depending on the height of ledge or platform being climbed. If the ledge is 1 or 2 "Blocks" high, the player has to push towards the ledge to traverse it. If it is 3 blocks high, however, the player has to stand beneath it, and press "up". It might seem petty reading that, but it's incredibly unintuitive - particularly in a game where ledges are not always measured in exact increments. A ledge that is "2 and a bit" high... you tell me? 
I played the entire game twice, and at no point did I ever stop halting at "inbetweeny" ledges, simply because I was pressing the wrong input!

Those things - coupled with an occasional issue wherein the gravity spins on an axis, but the camera fails to follow it (a glitch I experienced a couple of times,) tend to slow down the game, and make if feel a little half-baked, even despite the decent puzzles.
The puzzles will most likely carry a puzzle-enthusiast thorough the game in spite of them though, and while glitches / stiff controls are an annoyance, they are easily dealt with, and only tend to interfere around the periphery, rather than genuinely cause issues with the puzzles themselves...

...until the last level.

I very rarely bring up specific levels in these reviews (I think that's even rarer than my mentioning trophies at this point!) but I need to in this case.

The final, "boss" level of Tetragon... is an abomination. 

 

The game switches, suddenly, to a style of game it has never even hinted at before - the action puzzler. Suddenly, the game needs the player to adhere to strict timing as they control it... and so all the control issues that were merely trivial annoyances before, become genuine problems.

The level requires the player to survive, while setting up level geometry to reflect incoming attacks as they hide and run...
...but the game simply cannot cope with it. 
It seems to glitch more, (I had three or four times more stuttering or glitching issues in the final level than the rest of the game combined,) the level is incredibly long with elements of randomness often placing the player in hopeless, unrecoverable positions, and with the stiff controls, becomes incredibly frustrating to navigate. 
(I actually think the developer seems to understand it's a problem, as they change the fall damage model without any reason or in-game justification, beyond the simple, (and clear,) understanding that the level is already extremely frustrating and prone to issues, even without deaths by falling.)

It is, actually, a pretty clever idea for the boss, but just terribly implemented - and serves as the worst possible closing point for the game. It highlights all the negative aspects of the game, and none of the positives, leaving a relatively sour taste in the mouth of the player as they finish...
...and to make matters worse, for the platinum hunter at least... 
...the level must be done twice!

A shame really, as overall there's a solid set of fun puzzles here - and for the most part, I'd say anyone interested, who is able to deal with the occasional bit of jank could do a lot worse than Tetragon... but I have to caveat that by pointing out, that last level is woeful!

 

 

The Ranking:

Unfortunately, because of the prevalence of glitches and the stiff controls, coupled with that final level choice that really hampers Tetragon, the game is drawn away from competing with similarly original puzzle games, and into more direct competition with other "interesting but critically flawed" games.

 

As such, the first ones that spring to mind are Lost Ember, and Claire. Lost Ember is a game with a lot of problems - mostly self inflicted, by the controls and the collectibles, however, the game devoid of issues would probably still beat out Tetragon, and Tetragon's problems are more fundamental. 

 

I do however, have trouble with the Claire comparison - that game is flawed too, but its flaws aren't technical, they are endemic - the game is just not executing on its narrative or its gameplay in any way that is enjoyable. That, I have to concede, is worse - a Tetragon that didn't have the technical issues would be a much better game than Claire is, and given that Tetragon's issues are (mostly) manageable, I think Tetragon still ranks higher.

 

In between, Neverending Nightmares is a game I found not to have the impact it wanted, but it is still a competent game, albeit a rather dull one... but I think it's visuals are better, it's soundtrack more interesting, and it's premise more intriguing. It retains it's spot, but I think in 2022, I'd rather replay Tetragon (final level and all!) than dive back into the antiquated Arcade Archives: Crazy Climber, and so Tetragon finds its spot.

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Gardens Between

 

Summary: 

An artistic puzzle game from The Voxel Agents released in 2018, The Gardens Between sees the player take the role of two best friends - neighbour kids Arina and Frendt - whose small, suburban looking homes, which share a common patch of waste ground with a single tree and treehouse, sit surrounded by a more modern city skyline. 
Seemingly the last hold-outs against urban regeneration, (or gentrification,) that little patch of ground serves as their personal imaginarium - the hollodeck within which the worlds of their imagination have sprung to life through their play throughout their young lives.

With an impending change seemingly on the horizon - one the player is not privy to at the outset, though the keen eyed among them may infer from visual clues - they take a trip back trough the memories of the two children, reliving some of their play times that have taken place in that same little garden between their houses over the years, unlocking visual vignettes of key moments in their friendship as they go, in a sort of living picture-book memory of a friendship born out of proximity, but cemented through childish wonder.

The puzzle are straight-forward in some sense - there is little scope for really fiendish puzzling when all levels operate essentially on a linear "track", however, the breadth of variety within that fairly simplistic model is actually very broad, smart and interesting. 
Because each puzzle area is unique, and features unique objects and mechanics, and because there are but a few unified puzzling "rules" - and little guidance - the challenging aspect becomes less about application of mechanics, than discovery of them. Rather than solving a complex problem with a known tool set, the game focusses more on awareness and reasoning - asking the player to use their senses, observe what happens at each point on the timeline, experiment and establish what different objects do when you alter or interact with them, and infer what the specific rules of the level are. 
Figuring out the rules of each puzzle is the puzzle - executing on it is merely a triviality once those rules are established.

Puzzles with multiple characters being controlled by the a single player are often tricky to make work - in some cases, (Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons, for example,) specific control schemes are implemented allowing both characters to be independently moves simultaneously, which can work (it did in that case,) however, even there, it became tricky at times. Actually controlling the characters effectively became a part of the challenge of the game. 
In others games, the player simple switches from one character to another, moving them discretely, which also works, however, it can throttle pacing a little. 

The Garden Between solves this a unique way however - and it's both fairly elegant, and feeds into the mechanics. Direct movement of the characters is not possible, only advancing or reversing the passage of time. For the most part, advancing will move the characters forward, and reversing back, though the game is quick to add eccentricities on top of that - areas where the level geometry can be independently "fast forwarded" or "rewound" around the static characters, or spots where "holding" time still will have an effect not seen in a regular timeline. 
Because the characters are moving on a set path, this allows the game to actually use the characters themselves as one of the elements the player must observe closely when looking for a puzzle solution.  Noting that, for example, Arina pauses for a moment at a certain spot can often give a clue as to a solution - if she pauses somewhere, for no apparent reason, and raises her hand... what can be manipulated in the timeline to place some object close enough for her to touch it at that point?

Visually, the game really is beautiful to look at. While linear in practice, the levels themselves all follow a spiralling, circular pattern - each one forms an island, filled with the specific objects that make up different types of play and imagination-based fun the two children have, and movement rotates around them like a zoetrope. That allows the player to get a good sense of the space, lending much greater visual depth to the environments, and allowing for a lot of the bespoke puzzle mechanics, where, for example, following items as they move around the space, or passing off objects from one part of the level to the other become possible.  It also, of course, makes narrative sense - Arina and Frendt play within a very small patch of ground, and so all their imaginary world would necessitate running in circles, given the lack of available space. 
What is very impressive is how each imagination stage manages to be both evocative of a particular season and the particular things the two children were enjoying at that time, and still incorporate elements of the "real" garden into them - the treehouse might be a shelter, or a boat, or a bench, but it always features somewhere given it is the focal point of the play-space.  A rainwater outflow pipe that exists in the real garden might form a tunnel, or an obstacle or simple dressing, but it is usually there in some capacity. 

The art-style is, I should note, not hugely original - any player of Rime, or Hob, or various other high-visual-quality polygonal indies will be roughly familiar with the environmental geometry and soft-pastel palate, however, it does add some nice twists. The character models follow the same aesthetic, but use white lines rather than black ones to define detail, and while that might seem a small change, the effect is quite impactful. It lends an ethereal edge to the design, that both looks cool and fits with the "childhood imaginarium" magical-realism vibe of the game.

The two characters animate nicely - little gestures and familiar motions with one another give away a lot about thier personalities, their relationship and their friendship, without the need for complex backstory or narrative. Without words - spoken or written - the player is keenly aware that Arina is the more dominant of the two in terms of driving their play, and the more agile, but Frendt is more technically minded and the better logical thinker. 

There is a narrative here - actually a very touching one, but until the very end, where the reason for the odd level design in the game (the  nature of the trip back through memory, and the metaphorical nature of the "holding onto time" mechanics) are given their full explanation and emotional resonance, it is simply hinted at - and left to the player to interpret for the most part.
At the close of the game, the nature is made clear and unambiguous, but that only caps that feeling of sad catharsis, rather than trampling on it. (If anything, despite the sadness of the real ending, I was glad it wasn't the even more tragic notion I had worried it might be, and partly been dreading!)

The audioscape of the game is really lovely too - a very ambient, chilled out score accompanies the whole game, ebbing and flowing in tone to match the different areas and memories. It's one I wouldn't necessarily listen to divorced from the game itself as it is mostly very much a tonal piece, (aside from the final credits song, which is a lovely, folksy composition, featuring the only spoken words in the game,) but it directly feeds specific game moments, and as a part of the whole, is excellent, and very evocative. 

There is a downside to the game, that warrants mentioning here though - the length.
The Gardens Between is, as said, not a difficult game, and when coupled with the pretty slight length, it does mean a very quick playthrough. There are only around 15 levels to the game, and while the excellent visuals and audio, and the really sterling all round presentation and production do disguise that a little, the fact remains... it is very short. 
This is not a case, like, say, Hoa, where the game feels too abrupt in its ending - The Gardens Between does feel complete and well rounded - but I do think each area could have stood to have included around 5-6 levels per "memory area" as opposed to the 2-3 there are. 
It's unusual for me to level such a criticism - all to often, I swing the other way, and lament the lack of editing in a game, and feel they could do with cutting down on filler, but here, the gameplay and narrative feel strong enough to carry at least twice the content, without ever feeling padded or over-long.

 

Overall, The Garden Between is a smart, satisfying and quite emotive journey, with a simple narrative, but one that really works, and is likely to have quite an impact when it lands. 
It isn't a particularly difficult or long game, and in some sense underuses what is a pretty great set of mechanics... 
...though if the worst thing one can say about a game is that they wish there was more of it, that is a pretty sound endorsement of what is there!

 

 

The Ranking:

There's a good spread of puzzle and puzzle platformer games already on the list that can provide a comparison, and so narrowing down the initial field is made relatively simple at first - the two games that really make such a narrowing easy are Quantum Conundrum, and the original Trine.

 

Quantum Conundrum is a game that is certainly the lesser in terms of narrative and emotive content when compared with The Gardens Between, as well as visually, however, the puzzles are much more involved and interesting overall, and the game has a length, repeatability and a breadth of puzzling nuance that completely outshines The Gardens Between. While that might not be enough for some, it matters a great deal in this genre - and given that Quantum Conundrum is quite charming in its own way, overall, I think it has to retain its place. 

 

Trine is a different case though - I love Trine as a series, and while the original game is good, it is also quite short, and it one of the weaker entries, given how much improvement was made in Trine 2 and Trine 4. 

Trine is also a great looking series, but arguably the visuals of the original have finally aged enough that they are not really outshining the nice pastel shade visuals of The Gardens Between, and once you add the narrative and music, I think The Garden Between takes it.

 

That places it between.

Another short but smart puzzle game sits there - Superliminal - and while The Gardens Between certainly wins on narrative and visuals, I think Superliminal takes it on puzzles for sure, and originality of concept too. The length is also interesting, in that while both games are of similar length in a second playthrough, in the first one, Superliminal feels much longer, as the game is more varied and trickier. That means it doesn't feel like it is too short, whereas The Gardens Between did a little. 

 

Looking at the few games in between, I actually think the best place for The Gardens Between is just above the original Trine - were it a touch longer, it might well beat out something like Ratchet & Clank 3: Up Your Arsenal, or Weird West... or even inFamous... but with it feeling a little too short, I think those games manage to hold onto their spots. 

 

As such, The Gardens Between finds its spot. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

So there we have it folks!

 

Thanks to @grayhammmer & @Zvetiki for putting in a request!

 

 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! 

[zizimonster]

1 hour ago, DrBloodmoney said:

 

 

...the breadth of variety within that fairly simplistic model is actually very broad, smart and interesting.

Yep. Simple, broad, smart and interesting is why I love The Gardens Between.

[DrBloodmoney]

1 hour ago, zizimonster said:

Yep. Simple, broad, smart and interesting is why I love The Gardens Between.

Yikes - really highlighting my tenuous grasp of a good sentence with that quote there…

 

”the breadth […] is broad…?” I need to proof read these better ?

[realm722]

14 hours ago, DrBloodmoney said:

Papers, Please

 

Lovely review! Papers, Please is a game that captivated my attention ages ago and I've watched multiple full playthroughs on YouTube on the game since the game is so enjoyable to see people's genuine reactions the first time! All of Jorji's antics, the moral dilemmas, the actual stress of doing the job well, etc... I'm envious that it's not available to play on normal hardware. I've never felt the urge to buy a PS Vita since mobile gaming isn't something that captures much of my interest but this and P4 Golden (which will soon be available on modern hardware :D) were 2 of the games that always made me wish I had one. Glad to see it scored so highly cracking the Top 80 for you!

[DrBloodmoney]

7 hours ago, realm722 said:

 

Lovely review! Papers, Please is a game that captivated my attention ages ago and I've watched multiple full playthroughs on YouTube on the game since the game is so enjoyable to see people's genuine reactions the first time! All of Jorji's antics, the moral dilemmas, the actual stress of doing the job well, etc... I'm envious that it's not available to play on normal hardware. I've never felt the urge to buy a PS Vita since mobile gaming isn't something that captures much of my interest but this and P4 Golden (which will soon be available on modern hardware :D) were 2 of the games that always made me wish I had one. Glad to see it scored so highly cracking the Top 80 for you!

Oh Jorji - he’s really the MVP of that game!

 

Yeah, kind of a weird one, because the shuffling papers aspect really needs the touch screen to work as intended - it could be done with selection from a list or something, but that wouldn’t really convey the frantic struggle to cope with the bureaucracy, and mouse controls on a stick would be almost impossible for that!

 

It’s tough to recommend the Vita in 2022 - it’s a great system for indie ports, but there really wasn’t the big-game support it needed. Pity really - was great hardware!

[Zvetiki]

23 hours ago, DrBloodmoney said:

Papers, Please

 

Each person has a story, and as the game progresses, the player will begin to encounter situations that test their ethical boundaries, and their dedication to following orders... in this case, substituted for gameplay mechanics.

Will the player happily take the gameplay (and reward) hit, to allow a married couple through together, even though one has the right documents, and one doesn't?
Will they deliberately deny a sleazy pimp from entry, despite his correct documents, given they can infer what he has planned for the girl he is going to meet?
When they start seeing evidence of a genuine political uprising seeping into Arstotzka, will they defend their brutal dictatorship from it, ensuring their own survival, or will they do their part for the resistance, at potential cost to themselves?

These kind of moral and gameplay dilemmas are what make Papers, Please work - and the fact that they are weighed against the very real possibility of the player failing makes it work so well.

 

Very interesting. You stress the moral dilemmas and argue that the player finds something out about himself. Maybe this was actually intended by the author;
or maybe the game was just intended as a puzzle game with a story in a specific setting; I don't know.
 

I happily pursued the various main endings just to see how they play out. I played the role, as it were, of a government employee just following orders so as to not endanger his family, or a dissident hoping for change, or an ordinary citizen merely trying to get out of this mess, respectively. Never did I question my actions; I simply did in the game what that role would have done.

The sort of emotional attachment that you feel was completely lost to me. (But then, it is in general rare that I form an emotional investment in a game. Apparently, Brothers is widely considered to be "an emotional ride" as well; never figured out why. ?)

 

Quote

The score is simple but effective, and virtually every piece of sound work is additive - in particular, the finality of the "stamping" noise (Accepted or Rejected) is oddly satisfying - helping the game to drive home it's cruel, yet smart message, that taking satisfaction in a job is not necessarily "right", even if it does feel good.

Only one sentence for the master piece that the theme and sound design is?

What this game does magnificiently is to create an atmosphere, to make the player feel inside a setting (I think we are in agreement about that.). And the music and sound design forms a major element of that atmosphere. Fire up the game again and listen to the first 10 seconds of the main theme, and you are inside the world of Arstotzka again. Each sound effect seems just right and contributes to the immersion perfectly.
 

The same goes for the visuals. All too often pixel art or retro style are used as an excuse for bad game design. ("You don't like the game? It's 'boring'? Well, sorry for not having state-of-the-art graphics. Now go away and keep playing CoD.") When it's done right, it forms part of an overall design, and it becomes un-noticeable. Thimbleweed Park is pixel art done right. Rabi-Ribi as well, and a few other examples. But Papers, Please is one of the very rare games which simply would not work in another style. I can imagine Thimbleweed Park with modern graphics; I can't imagine Papers, Please in any other style.

So full credits to the game for providing a brilliant atmosphere and bringing the setting alive (emotional investment notwithstanding). Glad to see that the scientific investigation comes to the same conclusion as my layman's observations.

 

 

[DrBloodmoney]

25 minutes ago, Zvetiki said:

Very interesting. You stress the moral dilemmas and argue that the player finds something out about himself. Maybe this was actually intended by the author;
or maybe the game was just intended as a puzzle game with a story in a specific setting; I don't know.
 

I happily pursued the various main endings just to see how they play out. I played the role, as it were, of a government employee just following orders so as to not endanger his family, or a dissident hoping for change, or an ordinary citizen merely trying to get out of this mess, respectively. Never did I question my actions; I simply did in the game what that role would have done.

The sort of emotional attachment that you feel was completely lost to me. (But then, it is in general rare that I form an emotional investment in a game. Apparently, Brothers is widely considered to be "an emotional ride" as well; never figured out why. )

Ha, well, for sure, something I’m defined noticing in these write ups is that the stuff that sticks with me the most is when a game has some kind of emotional or cerebral element to latch onto - and even more so, when a game uses that element to make me feel uncomfortable, or to make a point about something specific about me or other players!

 

Quote

Only one sentence for the master piece that the theme and sound design is?

What this game does magnificiently is to create an atmosphere, to make the player feel inside a setting (I think we are in agreement about that.). And the music and sound design forms a major element of that atmosphere. Fire up the game again and listen to the first 10 seconds of the main theme, and you are inside the world of Arstotzka again. Each sound effect seems just right and contributes to the immersion perfectly.
 

The same goes for the visuals. All too often pixel art or retro style are used as an excuse for bad game design. ("You don't like the game? It's 'boring'? Well, sorry for not having state-of-the-art graphics. Now go away and keep playing CoD.") When it's done right, it forms part of an overall design, and it becomes un-noticeable. Thimbleweed Park is pixel art done right. Rabi-Ribi as well, and a few other examples. But Papers, Please is one of the very rare games which simply would not work in another style. I can imagine Thimbleweed Park with modern graphics; I can't imagine Papers, Please in any other style.

That’s true - I can’t really imagine a higher fidelity version having such an impact - good point!

 

On the music and visuals - yeah, I like them, but in the case of Papers, Please, those aspects didn’t have as much impact on me as the statement the game was making… that’s not to disparage them, but speaks to the how good the game is at the “statement” part!

 

I do tend to let these reviews each concentrate on different aspects - I always just let the most stand-out parts be the main focus, so the fact I spent less time on the music and look of it is only because I had a lot to say on the overall game experience… and don’t want these to be too long ?

 

 

Quote

So full credits to the game for providing a brilliant atmosphere and bringing the setting alive (emotional investment notwithstanding). Glad to see that the scientific investigation comes to the same conclusion as my layman's observations.

Glad to be of service, and thanks for the request! 

Edited June 18, 2022 by DrBloodmoney

[rjkclarke]

As you're infinitely more efficient and timely than me, with writing about your older (and new completions too come to think of it) than I am, I'd better post what I wanted to post the day I read these! Before a load more magically appear ?.

 

On 17/06/2022 at 1:40 PM, DrBloodmoney said:

Fruit Ninja

 

This sounds like quite a lot of fun actually. Somebody should create a real life version or something.... but y'know with some health and safety measures implemented so you don't end up beheading your entire family by accident. So I guess it'd have to be outside rather than indoors ?

 

Nice to read about your time playing it with your son, I imagine that would be quite a bundle of fun for a kid to play particularly!

 

On 17/06/2022 at 1:40 PM, DrBloodmoney said:

inFamous

 

Hell of a good read this one... well I mean they all were obviously, I guess that's a given.

 

It really was a great game for it's time wasn't it. But as you rightly say, also incredibly representative of that very specific era of gaming at the time, that we've moved past quite a bit now. 

 

Nice to see you didn't spend a huge portion of your time writing about it complaining about "THE ONE BLAST SHARD THAT THEY JUST COULDN'T FIND." Like I see a lot of people doing. 

 

Also I couldn't agree more about Zeke, I honestly struggle to find anything likeable about him at all. If I was Cole I probably would have been itching to turn him into a pile of ash.  I think he's probably most bearable in Festival of Blood. That could be down to the shortness of the game though. I'm assuming you're going to review that one too? I think you were tasked with all of them right?

 

I think I'd also take another Infamous game over another Sly Cooper game. I think there's much more scope with what you could potentially do there, than with Sly, Murray and the misery sponge Bentley

 

On 17/06/2022 at 1:40 PM, DrBloodmoney said:

 

Papers, Please

 

If I could justify spending all that money for one console, it might be for this one. I assume this is also available on PC though, so I might just pick it up on that platform, and then write a review of it anyway (as that's usually what I'm always advising people to do, so why not take my own advice for once ).

 

I think you'll definitely get on with Beholder, and specifically parts of Beholder 2 that very much lovingly borrow from Papers, Please. That game also explores some of the consequences of your actions in the later chapters too, I don't know if Papers, Please does that too, but it's certainly an interesting avenue for the game to explore.

 

On 17/06/2022 at 1:40 PM, DrBloodmoney said:

These documents are actually tactile, in world items - the player physically moves them around his/her small desk, correlating and cross-referencing them with the day's current requirements documents - and as the days go on, and requirements and regulations become more and more convoluted, labyrinthine and bureaucratic, simply managing that space becomes a challenging part of the game. 

 

I've gotta mention this!

 

Oh I like that! That sounds not necessarily appealing, but very interesting! I'm naturally a little chaotic with how my desk is structured in real life. I hate that, but it's not something I do a very good job of controlling, so I'd be really interested to see if some of my own more disorganised habits might also translate into the game organically.

 

On 17/06/2022 at 1:40 PM, DrBloodmoney said:

 

Tetragon

 

Tetragon sounds like my kind of thing.... until you mentioned the final stretch of the game, and that made me want to panic just a tiny bit! Well, panic and post the SCARY BAD Rain Man gif.... until I remember it's probably offensive to some people 

 

I did look up some gameplay of it, after reading the review, and it still looks interesting. It's got a hell of a nice art-style to it. It's just that whole change in pace of the gameplay at the end that really seems like a rash decision on the developers part.

 

I'll have to watch out for this one though, as it does look like quite a satisfying puzzler. When I was first reading your review of it, I expected it to play like a larger version of one of part of the recent Kings Quest, which also has some pretty elaborate column puzzles in it, but judging by the gameplay it's entirely different!

 

On 17/06/2022 at 1:40 PM, DrBloodmoney said:

 

The Gardens Between

 

I think I've really gotta pull the trigger on this one though!

 

I've had my eye on it for ages... Especially as it's being championed by @zizimonster very often, I just never seem to pick it up whenever I see it on sale, but perhaps now might be the time!

 

There were so many things in there that screamed out as particularly noteworthy. Especially the fact that in almost every level there's familiar pieces of the environment that re-occur despite a change in setting. That's quite genius actually! Well done level designers (eurgh I sounded so patronising then). ?

 

So looks like you've fired another bullet into my backlog ?

 

Although if it keeps getting added to..... I'm going to have to start proclaiming this each time. 

 

 

 

Thanks for another set of awesome reads dude!

 

[DrBloodmoney]

2 minutes ago, rjkclarke said:

As you're infinitely more efficient and timely than me, with writing about your older (and new completions too come to think of it) than I am, I'd better post what I wanted to post the day I read these! Before a load more magically appear .

 

Ha - it is getting a little more manageable now - I’m glad I switched the format around to just make it 5 each time - because my previous requirement to do 5 + the bonus games was having a slightly negative effect…

 

…I was starting to dread finishing a game, as it would add another review to the in-progress post ?

 

 

2 minutes ago, rjkclarke said:

 

It really was a great game for it's time wasn't it. But as you rightly say, also incredibly representative of that very specific era of gaming at the time, that we've moved past quite a bit now. 

 

Nice to see you didn't spend a huge portion of your time writing about it complaining about "THE ONE BLAST SHARD THAT THEY JUST COULDN'T FIND." Like I see a lot of people doing. 

 

Also I couldn't agree more about Zeke, I honestly struggle to find anything likeable about him at all. If I was Cole I probably would have been itching to turn him into a pile of ash.  I think he's probably most bearable in Festival of Blood. That could be down to the shortness of the game though. I'm assuming you're going to review that one too? I think you were tasked with all of them right?

 

God, Zeke is just the worst - Someday, someone is going to have to do the definitive work to establish who is the more irritating side character - Zeke, or Hurk…

…. but good Lord, it won’t be me ?

 

You know what’s weird…

…I’ve never played Festival of Blood!

I’ve done all 4 of the big games, but somehow Festival of Blood passed me by - I’m not sure why, as I’ve heard it ranked up there with Minerva’s Den and Undead Nightmare as great DLCs of that era, but somehow it just skirted my radar!

 

2 minutes ago, rjkclarke said:

If I could justify spending all that money for one console, it might be for this one. I assume this is also available on PC though, so I might just pick it up on that platform, and then write a review of it anyway (as that's usually what I'm always advising people to do, so why not take my own advice for once ).

 

It must be, right?

 

I assume it has to be - and I mean, it would take nothing to run it - a decent toaster could probably run the game at this point, so I’m sure it’s available somehow without having to buy a Vita or an iPad!

 

2 minutes ago, rjkclarke said:

I think you'll definitely get on with Beholder, and specifically parts of Beholder 2 that very much lovingly borrow from Papers, Please. That game also explores some of the consequences of your actions in the later chapters too, I don't know if Papers, Please does that too, but it's certainly an interesting avenue for the game to explore.

 

Damn - I gotta get on those - I bought them ages ago, but as ever, my eyes are too big form my gaming thumbs!

 

2 minutes ago, rjkclarke said:

 

Tetragon sounds like my kind of thing.... until you mentioned the final stretch of the game, and that made me want to panic just a tiny bit! Well, panic and post the SCARY BAD Rain Man gif.... until I remember it's probably offensive to some people 

 

I did look up some gameplay of it, after reading the review, and it still looks interesting. It's got a hell of a nice art-style to it. It's just that whole change in pace of the gameplay at the end that really seems like a rash decision on the developers part.

 

I'll have to watch out for this one though, as it does look like quite a satisfying puzzler. When I was first reading your review of it, I expected it to play like a larger version of one of part of the recent Kings Quest, which also has some pretty elaborate column puzzles in it, but judging by the gameplay it's entirely different!

 

Oh, it has merit - and for sure, I know you’d persevere through that final stage - but it’s a big ask to have to do the worst part of the game twice, so had to be mentioned at least!

 

 

2 minutes ago, rjkclarke said:

 

I think I've really gotta pull the trigger on this one though!

 

I've had my eye on it for ages... Especially as it's being championed by @zizimonster very often, I just never seem to pick it up whenever I see it on sale, but perhaps now might be the time!

 

There were so many things in there that screamed out as particularly noteworthy. Especially the fact that in almost every level there's familiar pieces of the environment that re-occur despite a change in setting. That's quite genius actually! Well done level designers (eurgh I sounded so patronising then).

 

Well - probably the best endorsement I can give for that one is… a Ps5 version came out a couple days after I finished…

…and I’m almost assuredly going to replay it pretty soon!

 

 

2 minutes ago, rjkclarke said:

So looks like you've fired another bullet into my backlog

 

Although if it keeps getting added to..... I'm going to have to start proclaiming this each time. 

 

 

 

Thanks for another set of awesome reads dude!

 

 

Cheers min!

[zizimonster]

23 minutes ago, rjkclarke said:

I've had my eye on it for ages... Especially as it's being championed by @zizimonster very often, I just never seem to pick it up whenever I see it on sale, but perhaps now might be the time!

I've actually championed another game a lot more often.

 

 

?

[rjkclarke]

8 minutes ago, DrBloodmoney said:

Ha - it is getting a little more manageable now - I’m glad I switched the format around to just make it 5 each time - because my previous requirement to do 5 + the bonus games was having a slightly negative effect…

 

…I was starting to dread finishing a game, as it would add another review to the in-progress post 

 

I could probably do with some sort of actual defined format myself. I'd get to writing about my older completions much faster.  But my brain seems to tell me to laugh in the face of order and structure and just write them whenever the mood takes me. But that isn't very efficient by the looks of it. I WANT MY CAKE AND TO BE ABLE TO EAT IT ?

 

Ouch - yeah I could imagine that's not the best feeling. I suffered a little bit of that dread myself when I finished Pool Nation at the weekend, I was like "Shit now I have to write about that too, on top of everything else ". But when you've already commited yourself to writing five, yeah I could imagine that's only amplified! 

 

I think you're doing a pretty fantastic job of actually writing about those older completions though, it's remarkable how many you've managed to get through in a little over a year.

 

I think I might have written close to 100 over the last year, but you must have doubled that at least I would have thought.

 

15 minutes ago, DrBloodmoney said:

God, Zeke is just the worst - Someday, someone is going to have to do the definitive work to establish who is the more irritating side character - Zeke, or Hurk…

…. but good Lord, it won’t be me 

 

You know what’s weird…

…I’ve never played Festival of Blood!

I’ve done all 4 of the big games, but somehow Festival of Blood passed me by - I’m not sure why, as I’ve heard it ranked up there with Minerva’s Den and Undead Nightmare as great DLCs of that era, but somehow it just skirted my radar!

 

It isn't going to be me either... I think we should leave that to a professional, otherwise if either of us attempted it, we'd be sat on a psychotherapists sofa having an existential crisis pretty quickly.

 

For some reason I'd assumed that you'd already played Festival of Blood. I did that same thing to you recently with another game like a complete Nimrod haha! I liked that one a lot actually. It's like a slightly smaller scale First Light, but still very enjoyable. quite interesting how the whole "vampire power" thing manifested itself. I'd definitely put up there as a great DLC from that time period. That reminds me.... I erm, I guess I still have Bioshock 2 unfinished on my backlog waving a giant fist at me.... thanks for the reminder man ?

 

19 minutes ago, DrBloodmoney said:

Damn - I gotta get on those - I bought them ages ago, but as ever, my eyes are too big form my gaming thumbs!

 

That's the problem we all face ... Take it from me though, you can zip through those games pretty quickly. That's without rushing them too, so whenever you feel the urge to play them, they won't take up too much of your time, but I think you'll have a great time with them.

 

20 minutes ago, DrBloodmoney said:

Well - probably the best endorsement I can give for that one is… a Ps5 version came out a couple days after I finished…

…and I’m almost assuredly going to replay it pretty soon!

 

That is a pretty ringing endorsement I agree! Especially as you're willing to replay it SO SOON after playing the original.

 

8 minutes ago, zizimonster said:

I've actually championed another game a lot more often.

 

Haha! I know you have! So has practically everyone else, so I'll get to it eventually! ?

 

 

[DrunkenEngineer]

Papers, Please is absolutely on PC (Steam, to be precise).  It's on my wishlist so with all this chatter I'll finally check it out next time it's on sale ?

[DrBloodmoney]

12 minutes ago, DrunkenEngineer said:

Papers, Please is absolutely on PC (Steam, to be precise).  It's on my wishlist so with all this chatter I'll finally check it out next time it's on sale 

good lookin’ out man - @rjkclarke y’all go no excuses now! ?

[DrBloodmoney]

 

!!SCIENCE UPDATE!!

 

 

The next (somewhat) randomly selected games to be submitted for scientific analysis shall be:

 

 

Legacy

 

Jazzpunk 
Shütshimi

 

 

 

New

 Ghost Giant

Resident Evil 7: Biohazard
Agent A: A Puzzle in Disguise 

 

 

 

No Priority Assignments this Batch, as I'm all caught up for now...

...so if you have one you'd like to read, this is the best time to get them in! ?

 

 

 

Can 'Current Most Awesome' game, Hitman 3, continue its glorious reign?

 

Is gaming turdlet LA Cops ever going to lose the title of 'Least Awesome Game'?

 

 

Let's find out, Science Chums!

[DrBloodmoney]

 

  NEW SCIENTIFIC RESULTS ARE IN! 

 

 

Hello Science-Stans and Science-Francines, as promised (and in some no cases requested), here are the latest results of our great scientific endeavour!

 

 

 

 

Jazzpunk

 

Summary:

A comedy Adventure game from developer Necrophone Games, (and one of the early games to be published by Adult Swim,) Jazzpunk is a unique, pure comedic experience, seemingly designed with one rather specific goal in mind... to repeatedly get the following words extracted from its players: 

 

"Wait... what? 
Bwaahaahahaaa! 
Well, anyway..."

At its most basic level, Jazzpunk is a narrative game of sorts - The player takes the role of Polyblank - a secret agent... I think? At least, he is a secret agent when the player takes control of him, though it appears he may not really have been one prior... he seems to have simply been mailed to the agency in a man-shaped suitcase by accident... but rather than question such things, he slides into his role without question...

After meeting with the head of the organisation in their secret headquarters in a subway station in 1960's era Japanda - seemingly a Japanese colonised America - Polyblank is debriefed of his first mission... and set to work. 

Each mission is a discrete, semi-open world level - begun when Polyblank is given his prescription of "Missionol" and swallows them - and these missions range from smuggling pigeons, cross-dressing, killing pigs with ukuleles, photocopying his butt, and all manner of nonsensical shenanigans in aid of keeping the bad guys from domination. 

These elements are, of course, ridiculous, as they are designed to be. like most Adventure games, the actual narrative - the reason for the missions, or the missions themselves - are less important than the journey to fulfil them... but unlike most Adventure games, those missions and narrative are, here, are almost entirely superfluous. The actual methods of accomplishing them are not only exceptionally goofy, but also uniformly simple, and easy. 
The reason? Because that narrative exist only as a loose spine, upon which the game can be littered (and I do mean littered) with jokes. The mission structure is the barest of Christmas trees... but it is so stuffed with joke-baubles that you can barely see a hint of green between them anyways. A player could, most likely, follow a guide and be done with Jazzpunk in a matter of an hour or two... but to do so, would be both a tragedy, and a complete waste of time. The missions only exist in order to justify the odd semi-open levels, and those levels' primary purpose is to house a million and one bizarre and tangential gags.

 

In each area, there are sight-gags, NPCs with dialogue and physical jokes, machinery and interactable objects, random elements of humour and odd little mini-games, all layered so thick and deep that it is virtually impossible to discern which elements are purely one-offs, and which are mission critical. These jokes follow a Naked Gun / Top Secret! type formula of being off-the-wall, varying in type, and operating very quickly - often so fast that the joke is almost over before the player even fully registers it. By the time they are laughing, they are often back to the open world again, and frequently in the middle of the next, or just parsing the latest overlapping one. 

 

Virtually every possible action the player could take results in some gag or other, and not a single sliver of an opportunity to make a gag is ever allowed to pass by un-adorned. 
If you think a Pizza Box lying on a park bench, for example, is just decoration... think again. Touching it will reveal a portal to a a 90 second vignette, wherein Polyblank is, inexplicably, transported into a Zombie game, fighting off Pizza monsters with a pizza-roller in one hand and a spatula in the other. If you imagine that taking a coin from a busker's hat, and using it on a mechanical prostitute-bot will not result in some ridiculous nonsense... you are playing the wrong game, my friend.

That kind of scattershot non sequitur is the norm here, and if that kind of thing appeals stylistically, Jazzpunk has more than enough of it to keep you entertained throughout its five or six hours of gameplay. 
If it doesn't... well... this probably isn't the game for you!

As with any media where the jokes are flying fast and furiously, there are some that work better than others, but in the case of Jazzpunk, that ratio is very good. 
Humour is a personal thing, of course, and a matter of taste, but as someone with a strong love for the Zucker brothers, Monty Python, The Goons, as well as The Simpsons and Rick and Morty style quick-fire - and armed with enough movie and pop-culture knowledge to recognise most of the references - I am squarely in Necrophone's demographic. I found the hit-to-miss ratio of their humour to be very good. 
Some might merely raise a smile, rather than a full laugh... but rarely does one result in living-room tumbleweed. Often the jokes are laid on thick enough that even while one is not quite hitting, another is happening concurrently... and if not, there is guaranteed to be a better one just around the corner. 
There is certainly low-hanging fruit being served on occasion, however, part of the beauty of the quick-fire pace is that nothing sticks - good or bad. Like The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy, or Python, or The Simpsons, the viewer is rarely left alone long enough to dwell on any single joke.

Part of that high hit-rate is the writing of course, but it is also aided by signature style. There are certain through-line elements that  provide a really good baseline upon which the gags can flourish (for example, the art-style, where all characters are designed as simple semi-animated "street sign" type shapes, allowing for oddities to stand out, or characters to be designed to meet single-gag-use requirements, or the fact that almost all voiced characters - for some inexplicable reason - speak through modulators, like Jigsaw from the Saw movies... making lines like "Okay, I love You. Goodbye" from a shadowy government official seem all the more bizarre and ridiculous.)

 

It is more than simply the artistic foundation that makes Jazzpunk work - it is also the technical foundation. 
Jazzpunk is not a game playing anywhere near the bleeding edge of graphics or frame-rate or anything of that type, (even when it released,) however, care has clearly been taken to match the jokes to the capabilities. Physical humour is something that almost never works in games, outside of cut-scenes. The ability for it to work in-engine requires minute-finessing of timing. Hitting the marks is crucial, and so most games actively avoid it... but Jazzpunk's simplistic art-style allows even the PS3 to keep up, allowing genuine quick-fire physical comedy to work. When a character falls over, or makes a swift exit, or appears out of nowhere, the timing is always just right, for maximum humorous effect. I know nothing of the technical side of making games, but I know that is a hard thing to do, for no other reason than the fact that I've seen it not work far more often than work!

There is, it must be said, little to discuss in Jazzpunk beyond the humour, as that is its raison d'être. I think it looks great - the style is unusual and silly and nice to look at - but that art is, like everything else, in service to the jokes. 

Audio too - it is actually far, far more well produced than it needs to be to make the game merely work -  within minutes of loading the game, the player is watching a psychedelic James Bond style introductory movie, which is as catchy and fun as it is peculiar - but as good as it is, that is not the element likely to stick with a player after they are done with the game. 

The vocal work is very nicely hokey when it needs to be, and irreverent the rest of the time - (mostly provided by the game's creator, though some additional guest appearances from the likes of fellow gaming alum Zoe Quinn, or gaming critic Jim Sterling fill out the odd world of Japanda,) - and while this works well, there is only really one aspect that has to be hit consistently... 
...is it funny?
Luckily, it usually is.

 

Jazzpunk is definitely one of those games that utterly lives and dies on taste in humour. There are funny games I've played, like Stick it to The Man, or Flipping Death, where humour is a big part, but the game could probably still entertain someone to a reasonable degree on gameplay alone, even if they don't mesh with the style of humour...
...but Jazzpunk is not that. 
It is more like Accounting+ in that regard - the gameplay is entirely a delivery mechanism for the jokes and antics. That means if that humour works for you, Jazzpunk is great... and if it doesn't... well, there's not much here for you.

 

In my case, it works.

 

 

 

The Ranking:

As with all funny games, ranking is a rough thing to do, and entirely about taste, but this is made somewhat easier by the comedy games already ranked. Two specifically - both from Zoink - Stick it to The Man, and Flipping Death.

 

Both those games have more gameplay substance than Jazzpunk, however, in both cases, I would argue Jazzpunk has the greater variety, and greater consistency of humour. In the case of Flipping Death, I think the gameplay is markedly better than in Stick it to The Man though, and the combination of elements mean it has to remain higher than Jazzpunk. I like Jazzpunk a lot - it is funny and original and interesting... but so is Flipping Death, and there's more game there.

 

Stick it to The Man has a lot of the same arguments really, however, I do think Stick it to The Man doesn't come together in the same way Flipping Death does. It is more scattershot and uneven in its humour, and less satisfying from a gameplay point of view, and looking at the overall, I do think Jazzpunk's simple hit-ratio of good humoured lunacy ends up squeaking past it on the rankings.

 

That puts us somewhere in between, but probably closer to Stick it to The Man than Flipping Death. Accounting+ is in that bracket too, and I think while Accounting+ is very funny, and has the VR element going for it, I do see myself replaying Jazzpunk for pure laughs before returning to Accounting+. Since both games are pure comedy along, that has to be the decider, so Jazzpunk moves above it.

 

It's close though, and so working up from Accounting+, the first game I think Jazzpunk's pure comedy cannot rightly bypass is Persona 4: Dancing All Night. Unscientific, given the lack of direct comparisons, but such is the curse of the comedy game!

 

 

 

 

Shütshimi

 

Summary: 

A frenetic, wave-based pixel-art scrolling SHMUP from Neon Deity Games, Shütshimi released on multiple consoles in 2015, including the PS4... though arguably the PS Vita provided the the ideal setting for it, due to it's oddly short, quick-fire pacing.

The game has a very unusual, staccato pacing to it.  Waves are incredibly short - around 10 seconds - and are separated by equally short menu sections, where the player must chose from small selections of randomised modifiers to take with them into the next 10 second play wave. The game works that same rhythm - 10 seconds of action, followed by 10 seconds of menu - in repetitious perpetuity.

 
It's an unusual idea, and one clearly designed to give Shütshimi a frenetic, syncopated pace, however, in practice it feels woefully misguided. Rather than making the game feel constantly moving or on a fast-paced, loop the incredibly short play time just tends to feel truncated, and the constant flipping between menus and action simply stymies any feeling of flow that game might have had. SHMUPS, in my (admittedly limited) experience, work best when the player is able to get into a groove - find the pacing and rhythm of the game, and sink into a sort of zen-like flow state, where they find synchronicity with the ebb and flow of the level tempo. 
With Shütshimi though, that tempo is interrupted so regularly that it is impossible to find that flow-state. It's a pity, as the action segments do actually move well and feel pretty snappy and fun, but because the player spends as much time in menus than in gameplay, and because that flipping is determined on a timer, and not by player action, the result feels like playing an action game, while someone else randomly flips the TV channels between their game, and the Bloomberg channel.

It is, actually, a slightly strange combination of game types, even allowing for the failures that the pacing imbues. I can't help but feel like the whole game was conceptually flawed, even before a single line of code was written.  The game is structured like a high-score chaser, but because of the randomising elements, how well the player does in a run is often somewhat out of their hands. 

It is difficult to figure out exactly what Shütshimi wants to be.

If it wants to be an arcade high-score based competitive game, then the randomising elements are out of place. 
If it wants to be a rogue-like, single player game, then it lacks narrative hooks or gameplay variety. 
My guess is that what it really aims to be is a fun Party game - and it has some of the elements required for that, including multiplayer modes... but the strange pacing of the main mode still undercuts that, as it makes mobile gaming on Vita or 3DS the clear frontrunner in terms of system... and those are also inherently the consoles least suited to party or multi-player play. 

The game has some humour to it, which is hit-or-miss, though generally falling on the inoffensive side of mild tedium.
Text in the menu sections makes light of the whole endeavour with jokes and occasional movie references (Rambo, Commando, the usual action movie fare that Shütshimi is loosely parodying in it's James-Pond: RoboCod-esque way.) These aren't always bad. Occasionally they can be relatively funny, however, they do feel a bit wasted, given that the player has very little time to read them.
They are always under the gun, trying to establish which modifiers to pick before the next wave begins, to save being stuck with a negative one, and so the few snippets of the dialogue they are able to glance at can work... but there's a lot they will likely miss.

There are a few gags in the game that made me chuckle - I quite liked, for example, the character choosing screen, where the player can choose one of the different coloured fish to play as, who all have different stats... like shoe size, spelling, literacy, fashion sense... (it's just a colour choice, they're all the same in practice.) That's not a wildly original joke in games, but its still welcome, and a big dumb idiot like myself can still chuckle at the low-hanging fruit!

The game looks fine generally - the 8-bit style is well enough imitated, but not much more than that. The design on some enemies is perfectly good - actually, some of the more odd enemies (roast chickens with sunglasses, riding surfboards, for example) do actually remind me of the truly bizarre enemy choices that would feature in 8-bit and 16-bit era games, and shows some smart attention to detail in the pastiche imitation...
...but again, the pacing of the game hinders things. Good enemy visuals are a little unsatisfying, considering you often have so little time to see them. 

 

There is a decent variety of enemy types as you progress, however, and the variation of weapons and modifiers, coupled with the randomising factors of the game do help it feel varied across different runs. 

Sound is not particularly interesting - it apes the old 8-bit games fairly well stylistically, but is more reminiscent of the "also-rans" of that era than the prime candidates we all remember fondly. It is evocative of a style, but without being a particularly sterling example of it. 

Overall, Shütshimi is, unfortunately, a bit of a whiff. There are kernels of good game to be found within it - it is mechanically pretty good, during the brief moments it gets to show them off -  but they are wrapped up in a package that fails to stand out artistically, never shines mechanically, and is actively undercut by a curiously misguided pacing and concept - which feel both internally contradictory and antithetical to the genre to which it belongs.

 

 

The Ranking:

We're near the bottom of the list here, I'm afraid. 

Shütshimi isn't in the truly turgid category - it certainly skirts above the most offensively bad games on there like Kick Ass: The Game, Frogger Returns or (God forbid) L.A.Cops...
...but fits pretty neatly among the "ouch, what a mess you made of that idea" category that lives just above those. 

The lowest few games in that particular category (Sniper Ghost Warrior and Terminator Salvation) I do think are markedly worse than Shütshimi - I'd certainly replay a good few hours of Shütshimi before even considering firing those games up again...
...but I actually cannot say the same about the next game up - Cel Damage HD.

As boring as Cel Damage HD is, and as rough as the port is, I do actually think there is more chance of a few games of Cel Damage HD offering some enjoyment than the same few games of Shütshimi. Cel Damage is also a game not conceptually misguided - it simply isn't a good example of what it does. A better version of Cel Damage HD could easily exist with the same design document. I'm not sure a good version of Shütshimi is possible with its one though.

As such, Shütshimi finds its spot.

 

 

 

 

Ghost Giant

 

Summary: 

A VR Narrative Toy box-Puzzle Game from Zoink, (creators of Stick It to The Man, Flipping Death and Lost in Random,) Ghost Giant came out in 2019, and while that places it at the later end of the initial wave of smaller VR games coming from traditionally non-VR gaming studios that accompanied the PSVR release, it bears all the hallmarks of that lose initiative.

At the outset, the player meets Louis - a timid yet precocious young anthropomorphised cat, who lives on a farm with his mother on the outskirts of an idyllic small town. The player's role is of a giant ghost, who seems to be birthed out of Louis's imagination, though as soon as he is, the sheer size of the player both frightens and excites Louis. 
Across 13 vignettes, the player helps Louis to solve problems and complete tasks, as he heads for the local town, picks up items needed for the (oddly run down) farm, does his chores, and prepares a surprise for his mother, who (initially) appears to be poorly.

The actual gameplay follows the the loose sandbox design that tends to favour VR, with the player able to manipulate different objects, and interact with them in various tactile ways which is always fun in a VR setting. Here though, (unlike something like Accounting+ or Vacation Simulator,) there is an element of point-and-click adventure game puzzle solving added. Because the player themselves is distinct from Louis, and not acknowledged or visible to any other characters, but Louis is the one actually engaging in the tasks, the players role becomes one of guide and facilitator - manipulating the environment and the characters around Louis in order to give him a path to success. 

These actions, (whether story critical or not,) are fun and varied - the environment is a bizarre mix of giant levers and switches, allowing Ghost Giant to spin houses around or remove roofs to see inside, and lots of objects can be picked up, played with, thrown etc. 
Each vignette lasts 10-30 minutes, and each has a variety of tasks to be completed by Louis, (with Ghost Giant's help,) and a variety of tertiary things to play with. Each also features a number of collectibles to be found, ranging from little caterpillars who hide in tough to find spots, pinwheels which can be found, help up and blown (the player actually leans in and blows, with the mic picking up the sound of that in game,) hats that can be placed on characters, or basketballs, which must be thrown into distant basketball hoops found hidden in the deep background of the scenes. (These are, by the way, oddly difficult to score - I'm no sportsman, but I can usually score a basket at least, though some of these took a long while to make the shot!)

 

The VR element works pretty well. Ghost Giant is a two-move-wand game, with one for each of Ghost Giant's giant hands, and so does occasionally suffer from the "jittering" that can happen when the VR gets confused - usually when both wands are too close to one another. Here, in fact, the problem seems a little more prevalent that it was in, for example, Déraciné or Accounting+, most likely because the colours chosen for both lights are too similar. (Ghost Giant uses red and pink as the  colours, which feels a little strange - surely choosing more distinct colours would have alleviated this issue to some extent?) However, this issue is mostly manageable, and the actual fidelity outside of this is pretty good. 

Ghost Giant is a game best played seated, and in each vignette, ghost giant himself is stationary, simple swivelling on an axis to view the whole diorama world. this swivelling is done in increments with a button push, and is quite intuitive - and that means at no point did I feel motion sick (an issue for me, as any regular Science Chum will know!) 
 

Visually, the game looks nice - the world is a highly stylised "patchwork and brick-a-brack" design, in some ways sharing some influence with Little Big Planet, though actually, the first game to come to mind was Deathspank. The extremely spherical, "small world" design of the landscape, coupled with the paper-craft decoration and 'junk-yard toy-box' style really felt an almost one-to-one with Deathspank's design - but in the VR setting, it is lent a different vibe. 

The characters of the world - all anthropomorphised animals of different species - look fun and silly - continuing the "toy-box" feel. Each looks and animates as if made from wood, like elaborately articulable marionettes, and the Heath-Robinson world design and comically rickety motion of vehicles and mechanics that is a Zoink staple, is present too - and fun to see in VR.

 

Audio is good, if not stand out - sound effects work very well, and the score is presently inoffensive, if not particularly memorable. Voice work on the various characters is well done, if pitched a little more earnestly than Zoink's usual fare. Some of the repetition of lines can occasionally feel a little overbearing - guidance of what the objective to a puzzle is generally comes from listening to what the NPC characters are saying to themselves, and this cycle can be a bit quick, with characters often repeating their lines on an endless loop quite a bit before a solution is found.
Louis's voice - certainly the most prominent in game - can feel a little too earnest for its own good at times - particularly to those coming to Ghost Giant after playing the more cynical, tongue-in-cheek Stick it to The Man or Flipping Death, and is clearly pitched at a younger audience...
...though whether the game actually is aimed at the younger crowd is somewhat debatable, given the narrative.

What feels a little odd in Ghost Giant's story, is when it gets a little dark. 
Generally, the game has the tone and feel of a younger child's game. As someone with a young son, I see a lot of the softly-educational games that get put on iPad for example, in which characters (usually Sesame Street characters in the Bloodmoney household!) will talk directly to the player, in a coaching, upbeat and encouraging way - and for the most part, that is the kind of game Ghost Giant feels like...
...except when it doesn't. 

There are a few small, throwaway lines in the early game, that hint that something more sad or sinister may be afoot - Louis lies a few times to different NPCs about where his mother is, or why she is staying home as he tends to the chores, and there are specific mentions by NPCs of Louis's family running out of credit at different shops... however, the tone remains light. Louis, especially, seems intent on keeping things easy-breezy.

Later, however, it is revealed that Louis mother appears to suffer from extreme depression, and is all but bed-ridden and crippled by it. Louis's relentlessly upbeat nature and precociousness is suddenly re-contextualised, and made a little sad in this context - he is covering for his mother, and trying to protect her, while his home life falls apart around the pair. During these more emotional scenes, the nature of Ghost Giant is revealed too - when Louis is forced to confront his mother's mental illness, the player shrinks, getting smaller and smaller, and less and less useful to Louis. The game sharply recontextualises the previous play as more a statement on neglect and the trials of mental illness on family life than a soft-educational tool.

Assuming Ghost Giant is the imagined personification of Louis's indomitable spirit, this can feel quite sad and poignant - though really, I do think the game fails to capitalise on this element terribly well. The sections where the  depression angle are dealt with are smart and respectfully done - and build to a genuinely smart message about hiding problems, vs. seeking help -  however, they are very fleeting, and can feel jarringly quick. 
When, near the end, Louis tries valiantly to cheer his mother up, these sections do work as puzzles, but because the game moves quite quickly, I think some of the pathos the player is supposed to feel is less effective than it should be, as they barely have time to really register it. They are likely still considering the recontextualisation of the previous game sections, while playing the current part. I think this could have been solved somewhat by simply lingering a little longer on those elements, and letting the moment sit, before racing forward with the puzzle-solving.

Having said that, there mere fact that the game does manage a "tonal switcheroo" is interesting and laudable, even if it doesn't quite stick the landing as well as it might have. Partly, I might be a little spoiled on this front, having played Doki Doki Literature Club+ so recently - that game pulls off its tonal switch with such flair, that it's tough for other games to measure up!

 

The fact remains, Ghost Giant is a short but very nicely design game, and the most important element of it - the fun of puzzle solving in a unique VR landscape - looks really nice, feels fun and tactile, and has some mild challenge while still being engaging, easy fare. It is good for the younger crowd, but with hooks for the adults, and manages to have a narrative that is deeper than it appears on the surface, with a genuinely positive and admirable message to it. 

Overall, that is more than enough to counter a slightly ill-paced reveal, or some mild technical issues.

 

 

The Ranking:

This might actually be the fastest ranking I ever did, simply because of two games that currently sit right next to each other!

I think Ghost Giant isn't quite as good as other Zoink game Stick it to The Man, however, I had far more fun with it - and certainly think it's message is far more wholesome - and, despite the flaws, well implemented - than the gross and dangerous one in co-op platformer It Takes Two...

...so there is only one spot Ghost Giant can possibly take!

 

 

 

 

 

Resident Evil 7: Biohazard

 

Summary: 

2017 saw the release of the seventh game in the mainline Resident Evil series, and the 24th(!) unique entry in the franchise overall. In terms of that mainline, it represented arguably the biggest divergence in style, gameplay and tone since RE4...
...and an INCREDIBLE return to form.

 

The series had been growing in scale and scope on a relatively steady clip since the original game. This was not always a negative, but the accompanying morph from Survival Horror to Action Horror in RE4, to pure Action in RE5, (and, if a rather more cynical, though not entirely unwarranted view is taken, Unintentional Action Comedy in RE6,) had largely shifted the series away from the core principles that so cemented the game in the zeitgeist in the first place, and invited the acclaim the series enjoyed. 

After the wild success of RE4, going bigger was, seemingly, the only avenue of evolution Capcom could think of for future evolution. Even as sales continued well, each compounding implementation of that ethos generally resulted in lower and lower review scores, less accolades and a steady dampening of fan enthusiasm. While I personally liked RE5 as a co-op cover-shooter quite a bit, it's inarguable that the general consensus was that it was inferior to RE4, or, at best, coasting on prior acclaim... but with RE6 that bubble well and truly burst. 
RE6 represented a series nadir: the biggest, splashiest, silliest - and almost assuredly worst - of the mainline canon. 

I am neither the greatest apologist for RE6, nor its biggest detractor, however, I think few would argue that by that point, the core elements of what made the early games so revelatory - the small scope, claustrophobic and iconic settings, the metroidvania back-tracking and criss-crossing of established areas in search of keys, the curious and bizarre Heath-Robinson-esque architectural puzzles and the scarcity of ammunition, weapons and - crucially - enemies - had largely been abandoned. What took their place was an abundance of cover-shooting, Gears of War style hoards of enemies and Bruckheimer-esque action set-pieces, with the principle character more resembling the cast of a Marvel Superhero movie, or a Fast and Furious film, than a horror movie.

 

So what could Capcom do? 
Well, the only logical thing you can do, when going bigger isn't working any more. You go smaller. You go back to basics. That's exactly what they did, in some sense, but not only did they go small - they also went smart, and most importantly, they went different. 

RE7 pulls away almost completely from all the anchoring elements the series that had collected on its hull like barnacles, replaces some, jettisons others, and establishes itself as a new series baseline - doing exactly what RE4 did before it, but by almost polar opposite methods.

The game is a return in many ways - an iconic, small scope area, tension over action, small number of enemies, limited ammo / weapons etc, yet a refresh in others. Taking a first person view this time, a thoroughly different setting, and, crucially, drawing from a completely different suite of horror influences.

Virtually every previous RE game took its cues from one strain of Horror cinema only - Zombie movies. Though his name never appeared in any credits, George Romero was the defacto godfather of the series.  RE7, curiously, seems to take influence from every strain of modern horror cinema, except Zombie movies. 
The obvious primary sources of influence are clear - The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, The Evil Dead, Saw, Deliverance... however, there are oblique references to movies like The Shining, Seven, The Fly, .Rec, The Blair Witch Project, The Ring... even 1408 gets a nod at one point.

While that may not seem hugely original on its face - other games have been made that take influence from these sources, to varying levels of quality - in the context of Resident Evil, it feels revelatory. Finally unshackled from some of the most tired elements of long-running series - abandoning the confines of "Zombies" as a primary genre, and largely stepping out of the shadow of the convoluted narrative of the Umbrella Corporation, Wesker, and the pre-existing cast of characters, RE7 is able to apply a completely new coat of paint to the one area mainline Resident Evil never failed to deliver on, even at its darkest points - its core gameplay. 

Starting with a new protagonist - Ethan Winters - who receives a message from his lost wife, Mia, who disappeared from a "babysitting" job several years prior, he heads to a derelict plantation home in Dulsey, Louisiana, in the hopes of finding her. Within minutes, he finds himself in a desperate fight for survival and escape from a monstrous, cannibalistic family intent on torturing him to death, and keeping their hands on Mia... who appears to be possessed, or infected, with some kind of aggressive, parasitic entity. 

The basic gameplay is, technically, very "Early Resident Evil". The focus is on metroidvania exploration of a labyrinthine area - in this case, the numerous buildings and areas of the plantation home - however, because the setting is markedly different from any RE game to come before, even the elements that are a return to form, feel quite fresh and different. 
The Baker's home is designed beautifully, and is arguably the most iconic location the series has seen since the fantastic Police Station of Resident Evil 2. It is distinct and designed with an attention to detail that is almost absurd, and - importantly - architecturally sound. The temptation to favour gameplay over realism is avoided - the house does not feel overly large, or misconstructed - every room makes sense in the context, to the extent that the player can intuit where a room might be roughly, without having to rely on maps, and the space feels appropriate for the surroundings. Creeping around the main house, in search of keys and ways of accessing new areas all the while being searched for by the Baker family or the bizarre creatures who infest their home is incredibly fun, very engaging... and damned scary. 

That's right - scary. 
Scarier, in fact, than anything the series has offered before - including at its series height. Part of this results from the new perspective - the First Person view offers an immersive element that outstrips the previous 3rd person style - but it's not only that. 

 

Ethan, unlike most previous protagonists, is not a trained character. He isn't dealing with a situation he expects or knows anything about, nor is he equipped to handle it... and in a lot of ways this is mirrored by the player. Even a player well versed in the particulars of Resident Evil lore, is suddenly out of their element in the same way Ethan is. They are in a new perspective, a new type of location and facing new threats - ones that have little if any clear connection to those they have prior knowledge of.

There is also a sense in which the most frightening elements of previous games have been distilled into RE7. The "unkillable, constantly pursuing" enemy (like Tyrant in RE2, or Nemesis in RE3,) is back, this time in form of Jack - the Baker family patriarch. "Daddy", as he is referred to. 

The extreme limitation on ammunition is back - but this time, in addition to enemies taking random amounts of ammo to kill, they also respawn in a lot of cases, making "clearing out" of areas feel impossible at times. 

 

The criss-crossing metroidvania nature of the puzzle solving also brings back that most exquisite of RE-style anxiety - the knowledge that the player left enemies alive in a room they must now return to. Knowing that one must run the gauntlet - make it through an area they barely survived the first time, to reach a certain door or room is something RE has always played with, but rarely since RE3 has it been terribly effective. Once the series became more action oriented, the fear of being out-matched and out-gunned was lost - it's hard to feel powerless with so much ammo and weaponry that carrying it all is the primary issue!

All of this, added to the simple fact that RE7 is almost entirely divorced from the canonical lore with which the player is likely familiar, makes the whole game feel much more alarming and anxiety inducing than it has in years. For the first time in a long while, even the veteran RE player is left not knowing what to expect. 
This is driven home early, with the unusual setting, but cemented when - some 30 minutes into the game - a wholly Texas-Chainsaw-Massacre-inspired dinner scene with the family is delivered. This scene is outrageously disgusting and unnerving, fantastically well done, and completely unlike anything the series offered prior. 
Capcom makes its point right then... this is not your father's Resident Evil!

The narrative is relatively sound - I won't do spoilers, but the general premise is both smartly divorced from the pre-existing lore, but with just enough little references to keep it within the same universe. It's a tight, and fairly small story - limited in scope, but all the more "real" feeling as a result. There are - admittedly - a few elements that can feel a little rote or not quite sensible upon repeat playthroughs and close examination, (generally around the eldest son character, Lucas,) however, these are fairly minor issues, and not jarring within the context of a first playthrough. (Indeed, some of these Lucas-focussed elements are, troublingly, expanded on in some of the DLC, and explained away, to... pretty absurd results, which is unfortunate, but largely  irrelevant to the narrative of the main game.)

In terms of the visuals, RE7 is really operating at the top end of the PS4's capability. While I wouldn't necessarily consider it the pinnacle (The Last of Us 2 probably takes that mantle,) I do think its worth noting that RE7 is the first PS4 game I have played on my PS5, where I routinely forgot it wasn't a current Gen game. (I'm aware a PS5 version has since released, and can only assume it is even better looking, though there was no issue with it anyways!)

The dilapidated house is detailed and incredibly immersive. Decay and rot feels like it seeps through the pores of the house, rather than simply being painted on top like a veneer. The unique enemies and characters are distinct and horrifying, and the "mob" enemies - this time mould creatures, rather than traditional RE "flesh-monsters", are creepy and beautifully designed - slithering and writhing forms that are hypnotic in their grotesquery. 
Indeed, the game pulls no punches with its enemy design - aiming for disgust, and hitting the mark most of the time. A particular stand-out is the family matriarch - Margarite - whose elasticated limbs and mound of insectoid larvae that encrusts her crotch like a maggot farm are the stuff of nightmares, and as sickening and repulsive as they are detailed!

The game - like most RE entries - uses sound very effectively - the distinct shuffles and clickety-clacks of a crawling moulded, or the wet splatter of a vomiting "bloater", or the hollow-boned crunch of a moulded being "birthed" from the floor are all distinct, and instil their own unique anxieties, but more than that, the game knows exactly where to put a squeaking floorboard, or a pipe clunk, or a door squeal to deliver the maximum level of tension... without feeling the need to constantly pay it off with a firefight. 

In fact, the number of actual enemies faced in RE7 is almost assuredly the lowest of any RE game... but don't let that fool you into thinking that makes the game less tense. The whole game operates on the principle of unrequited anxiety - of building compounding tension without adequate release, and the sound design is a major factor there. 

While previous RE games shared that excellent foley work, one area RE7 is a huge step up is score. The game weaponises silence a lot - there is not a huge amount of scored sections, but when there is, it is excellent. The credits sequence and intro make use of a very effective, evocative rendition of the old nursery rhyme "Go Tell Aunt Rhody"... and it gives the game a thematic audio-signature that is quite unlike any of the previous games, and more specific than any previous one too. 

The game is relatively short - as with most early RE games, it can be completed in a matter of a few hours, once the path through the game is known - however, this is not a negative at all. RE games are like a Tardis - they feel much longer from the "inside" than the "Outside". Before the game can be "seen" in its entirety, and the path established, the first blind playthrough will often take a dozen hours or so to finish. 
This is generally a strength of the games - the smaller scope means more detailed environments and closer attention paid to architectural verisimilitude - and here, this is no exception. Probably the biggest thing lost in RE5 and RE6 was that detail. As the games expanded, they became wearied feeling... like butter spread across too much bread, as Bilbo Baggins might put it. 
By returning to the smaller scope, that tight design and detail returns with a flourish it hasn't seen in years.

 

Something I don't often choose to do, is delve into specific DLC in these reviews, if I've played it as part of the original ranking. I only do if it's as part of a mini review, done afterwards.
With RE7, I really do need to touch on it though. (I almost wish I did play the game as the DLC was coming out, as each of the packs added here would easily warrant a bit of discussion - but part of me is glad I didn't, as if I had, there would be more writing on this one game than any other three games combined!)
There is a huge amount of DLC in RE7 - more than any previous Resident Evil game - and frankly, more than most single player games ever get.

In terms of DLC philosophy, I actually really like the method chosen here. Rather than adding significant content to the base game, or adding superfluous multiplayer (both RE5 and RE6 has multiplayer add-ons, neither of which were particularly engaging or interesting,) with RE7, there seems to have been a deliberate decision to try and recreate other game genres, and use them to put a spin on the existing mechanics. 

"Not a Hero", turns the existing mechanics into an Action Shooter, more in the vein of RE5 and RE6, but with RE7's perspective and pacing. It is fun in terms of gameplay, but does seem to fundamentally misunderstand what was so good about the return to form of the main game - and adds some narrative elements so absurd and ridiculous that they - unfortunately - actively undercut the main narrative. (I, personally, chose to view these as flights of fancy - a non-canonical fever-dream in the mind of a delirious Lucas, rather than actual canon!) This is - without question - the worst the DLC offers, and best ignored.

"Nightmare" mode is the RE7 take on a Call of Duty: Zombies style survival mode. It works fairly well, though the balancing does feel a little haphazard, and could have used a bit more finessing.

"Jacks Birthday" adds a high-gloss, psychedelic UI and silly, fun, time-and-score based arcade-style mode, which turns the games horror tone into something more akin to Lollipop Chainsaw - and while (deliberately) undercutting the horror elements, is actually a ton of fun as an independent game.

"Ethan Must Die" randomises elements of the main game, adds additional traps, and streamlines the narrative into a single-life rogue-like. This works quite well, however, the problem with RE as a rogue-like, is that there isn't the plethora of systems required to make it feel truly variable. The mini-game requires Ethan to move through the house, towards a set boss at the end. Because the only random factor is the pick-ups, and the path through the house remains static, once that path is worked out, it becomes a simple battle against RNG to make it there with the right ammunition to defeat the boss.

"Bedroom", takes cues from Puzzle games, narrowing the scope to a single few rooms, with multiple items to investigate in order to escape. This is great, and really works very well.

"Daughters" removes the combat also, but rather than focussing on puzzles, instead takes cues from something like SOMA or Amnesia: A Machine for Pigs, essentially functioning as a horror Walking Sim. This also works very well, and is arguably the most well done additional narrative the suite of DLCs has to offer, as scant as it is.

"21" goes completely off the reservation mechanically. It takes the more Saw-style elements of Lucas's story as trappings, but turns the whole thing into an (oddly complex, and quite fun) card game. It certainly feels like the outlier in the whole package - I like card games, but they are by far the most out-of-the-norm the DLC gets, and not necessarily something an RE fan would be guaranteed to enjoy. It is, however, an oddly well made thing, and rewards the time investment required to learn the nuance of it.

The most narratively substantive DLC, "End of Zoe" - in which the player takes the role of Jack Baker's un-infected brother, a pugilist tank of a man maned Joe, as he rescues main narrative character Zoe from the swaps around the Baker home - is well done, and a fun, Stealth Action take on the game... though - full disclosure - the final trophy, for completing it on the hardest setting is the stuff of nightmarish frustration, and the only point in my entire saga with RE7 where it felt fundamentally unfair in it's challenge! 

These DLCs are generally somewhat throwaway - at least in regards to the main story narrative, and certainly lesser than the phenomenal main campaign, however, the absurd abundance of them does mean those seeking the S-Rank will likely spend more time on them than the game to which they belong. They are good - but not as good as the main game, and so the completionist among you should bear that in mind.

 

Overall, Resident Evil VII: Biohazard is, quite simply, a phenomenal Resident Evil game, and a hell of a game generally.

It does that thing that is hardest to do - revive a long-running, tired franchise, and bring it back to life - but does so the most difficult (and most admirable) way possible... by returning it to its roots, without going "retro". It feels both old and new at the same time - a perfect mix of traditional RE elements with new ones, and re-sets the baseline for the series, both tonally, and qualitatively. 

 

I genuinely believe that Resident Evil 7 is now the best entry in the franchise - even eclipsing the original, and fantastic remakes, of RE2 and RE3 - and that is something virtually unheard of in franchises with this much baggage under their belt.  It's the stunning, surprising, lavish and meticulously crafted return to form that the series sorely needed, firmly re-iterating Resident Evil as one of the kings of gaming Horror, rather than simply the elder-statesman it had been in danger of becoming.

 

 

 

The Ranking:

As said, I think Resident Evil 7: Biohazard is now the pinnacle of Resident Evil games for me... and for Science! 

The highest currently ranked RE game is the Resident Evil 2 Remake, and that is pretty high up there already, so I'm simply working up from there, looking at the games that are RE7's peers... not so much Horror games necessarily, but the big budget, firmly "Triple A" games that really hit the mark they aim for.

The first one to jump out is excellent Batman game Arkham Asylum. It shares a lot of gameplay DNA with Resident Evil - both are essentially action-focussed 3D Metriodvanias, with unique boss fights, and iconic locations to be explored. Both have superb detail in their environments, both have great enemy design, and both tell a tight, simple and effective story... interestingly, both over the course of a single night. 

I pondered a long while, but I think that while Arkham certainly wins on the combat, and potentially on the strength of some boss fights, the sheer atmosphere and experience of Resident Evil 7 does surpass it. There were moments of thrilling horror in Resident Evil 7 that were unmatched by any single moment of excitement in Arkham Asylum, and for spectacle games like these ones, those peaks of glorious immersion have to be the deciding factor. That is, after all, what Triple A strives for most of all.

Above Arkham Asylum then, there are two big games - Psychonauts 2, and God of War(2018). Psychonauts 2 is in a very different category of narrative (and is arguably on par qualitatively,) however, the real comparison is God of War(2018). The two games are quite different, but both represent resets of long running, slightly stale series, both refresh the mechanics and tone of their respective franchises, and both look, sound and feel blisteringly good.

In the end, I think I have to give the final win between them to God of War(2018) though. As great as RE7 is, it doesn't quite manage to outdo the newly humanised Kratos. God of War(2018) is a longer, even more beautiful looking game, and one that had arguably an even bigger hurdle to overcome than RE7 did in terms of reset - RE had bad games to deal with... God of War had Kratos's completely abhorrent character! 

It's an absolute photo finish though, and as such, Psychonauts 2 ends up getting the short end of the stick, as I'm comfortable with God of War(2018) taking the win only if RE7 is right below it...

...and so that's where it goes!

 

 

 

 

 

Agent-A: A Puzzle in Disguise

 

Summary: 

A simple-but-stylish point-and-click first-person Adventure game by Yak & Co, Agent-A: A Puzzle in Disguise originally debuted on iOS in 2015, with a port to Android the following year, and console ports, including the PS4, coming later - in 2019.

 

Taking the role of the eponymous Agent A, the player finds themselves on the secret island lair of notorious evil-doer and member of crime syndicate HAVOK, Ruby LaRouge, who after blowing up Agent-A's boss, is enacting her schemes to take down the agency Agent-A works for, and escape.

The gameplay is similar in style to Artifex Mundi's stable of breezy Picture-Hunt / light-puzzle games in terms of interface. There is generally less focus on discrete puzzles, (and an absence of the hidden object sections,) and more focus instead on the idea of escape rooms, puzzle-boxes and more traditional long-form adventure game fare.
I would hesitate to call any of the puzzle elements of Agent A particularly tricky, it does feel like a step beyond Artifex Mundi in that regard. While nothing is fiendish, and solutions make logical sense (as compared to some of the more esoteric or baffling puzzle solutions traditional point-and-click adventure games can get into,) there is much more reliance here on remembering long codes, or patterns or clues - and playing with a notepad, (or, on PS4 / PS5, with liberal use of the screenshot function,) is much more of a necessity than in any Artifex Mundi game. 

Depending on the specific chapter being played (there are 5,) the gameplay tends towards similarity to either Artifex Mundi fare, or the gameplay on show in the (excellent) iOS series, The Room. In fact, the feel of the gameplay is very much akin to what an Artifex Mundi inspired single-player answer to Clever Play's co-op sleuthing game Operation Tango might be... though the best chapter (chapter 3) is actually a single, large puzzle box type affair, and shows some real chops from Yak & Co. with regards to puzzling ingenuity, creating a matryoshka of a puzzle box that rivals the best ones in The Room series. 

The tone of the game is rooted firmly in the James Bond / Man from U.N.C.L.E / Get Smart milleu. It's a fun, colourful game, not high on tension, and while it is not particularly aiming for laugh-out-loud comedy, but there is a fun playfulness to the caper, with Agent A making occasional jokes in her responses to trying different incorrect items, or in some of the visual gags. Nothing ever drew a genuine belly-laugh, but there were plenty of smiles at the knowing nods to classic espionage TV fare.

The art-style is simple and effective - similar to the low-poly look of co-op sleuthing game Operation Tango, or a 3D version of (also spy-themed,) Counter Spy. (Apparently, this style of visuals is very appealing to the light-tone spy genre!)

It looks fine for the most part - Agent A has a fairly workman-like quality to the in game visuals, and I don't think it measures up to either of those games in terms of overall art, but it is a pleasing style and tone for the light romp the game is. There is clear, visible artistic lineage to the game's origins on iOS - it moves and feels like an iPad game, and the inventory, for example, is particularly large - clearly designed for use with a swiping finger. Little has been done to translate the UI to console, but it never really hinders the game, except in the (rare) instance where more items are in Agent-A's possession than can be accounted for on-screen, and scrolling through them can feel a little awkward. 

 

The actual control of the game is a little slow as compared to how it would be on iPad - like Artifex Mundi games, it relies on using the analogue stick to control a "mouse pointer", however, the areas of effect are large and forgiving, allowing the player to move around fairly briskly around the nicely designed lair and surrounding island.

What looks less good is character models - they are flat screen stylised characters, and fit with the aesthetic, but in this case, they are combined with a sort of pixellated additional style layer on top, and it tends to just take away from the broader style, rather than add to it. 
In truth, I though they simple looked of lower quality than the rest of the game - a fact clearly exhascerbated by the translation to the big-screen. I assume this is an artistic choice, rather than a genuine graphical flaw, but it's not one I was personally wild about, and I do think it gives a cheapening effect to what is generally a nice, clean visual presentation.

Audio is fine - there's nothing here that is stand out (good or bad.) The ambient music is tone appropriate and unobtrusive, and the (fairly minimal) voice acting is fine - in line with a Saturday morning cartoon fare, and does the job.

The game is not particularly replayable - the narrative remains static, though some effort has gone into allowing replays to have SOME value, as certain "gating" puzzles are given random solutions, and not able to be memorised from one playthrough to the next.  The method of obtaining these solution codes remains the same each time, however, meaning running through the game a second time still requires most of the game to be played in full.  This is a requirement, trophy-wise, given that there is a speed-run trophy, which while not super-stringent, does require the player to be pretty switched on.

Overall, Agent-A: A Puzzle in Disguise is not the kind of game to do anything particularly unique or original, but it is a perfectly solid example of a modern, light adventure game, with a crisp, nice look and puzzles that are engaging and varied, if not terribly difficult. 

It's a game unlikely to draw in anyone not already a fan of the genre, but for those who enjoy the output of Artifex Mundi, for example, Agent-A: A Puzzle in Disguise is close enough to that style to comfort, while being different enough to satisfy.  

 

 

The Ranking:

While I'm wary of mentioning a different developers games as a standard too often with Agent-A, the fact remains, because of the mechanical similarity to Artifex Mundi games - in terms of scale, scope and genre - I do think the most appropriate comparison is to them.

As such, I think if Agent-A was an Artifex Mundi game, it would fall towards the better end of their stable with among the best puzzle set, an artistically inferior, yet stylistically distinct visual flair, and a decent narrative.  Voice work would probably be in the middle of the pack, and character animation on-par...
... but the overall similarity, yet distinctive qualities do mean it probably falls towards the upper end.

I don't think it quite beats out the best AM games - currently Enigmatis 3: The Shadow of Karkhala and Modern Tales: Age of Invention, on variety or art, however, I do think it should place higher than Enigmatis 2: The Mists of Ravenwood. Enigmatis 2: The Mists of Ravenwood is a good, solid example of AM games, with good art, but the puzzles of Agent-A still beat it out, and those are the most important element. 

That places it somewhere in between, and looking at what is in that bracket, I think Midnight Deluxe probably slightly pips it to the post... but I can't say the same for Bentley's Hackpack.

As such, Agent-A: A Puzzle in Disguise finds its spot!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

So there we have it folks!

 

 

 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! 

[grayhammmer]

Okay, I don't remember how I found this but I saw that you completed Virtue's Last Reward, which is the second in a trilogy of visual novel/ escape room puzzle type games. I've completed the series on playstation, but I'm curious what this game is like for someone who didn't play the whole series given that this game sets up to the sequel in its ending and makes some pretty big references to the first game. (Though maybe you've played the first game on it's original platform, the DS).

[DrBloodmoney]

11 hours ago, grayhammmer said:

Okay, I don't remember how I found this but I saw that you completed Virtue's Last Reward, which is the second in a trilogy of visual novel/ escape room puzzle type games. I've completed the series on playstation, but I'm curious what this game is like for someone who didn't play the whole series given that this game sets up to the sequel in its ending and makes some pretty big references to the first game. (Though maybe you've played the first game on it's original platform, the DS).

 

I had played 999 on DS before playing VLR on vita, yeah - though I didn't actually ever play the third one... (which might give some mild hint as to the future ranking of VLR) ?

 

Nevertheless, I shall flag it for Priority Assignment, which your name - and we'll find out! ?

[rjkclarke]

I'm really pleased you're actually doing some of these games quite the service! Especially ones that get bashed around with the "LOL EZPZ PLATINUM" stick!

 

Like this one...

 

23 hours ago, DrBloodmoney said:

Jazzpunk

 

I only had a pretty vague idea about what Jazzpunk was, I just never really looked into it all that much!

 

It sounds like a pretty chaotic but hilarious time though, especially when you mentioned how rewarding it can be to just sort of stumble around the open world areas and find some ridiculous gag that you'd never have expected.

 

 

23 hours ago, DrBloodmoney said:

If you imagine that taking a coin from a busker's hat, and using it on a mechanical prostitute-bot will not result in some ridiculous nonsense... you are playing the wrong game, my friend.

 

Oh that's brilliant.... why the hell am I not playing this game! Especially if that's just one type of gag that you're likely to find. I might keep an eye out for this game from now on, because it sounds like a pretty hilarious time to be honest. I'd seen bits and pieces of gameplay over the years, but I'm sure they were actually mini-guides or something because they weren't really stopping to take part in a lot of the things that you mentioned!

 

23 hours ago, DrBloodmoney said:

Shütshimi

 

 

If I'd played this game, I think I might have just assumed it was actually just a wild fever dream. I'd love to say this sounds great, but I'm not sure that it does. I'm going to trust the science on this one, and just take your word for the fact that the game seems to get in its own way more than it actually helps itself. Which is a shame, as it sounds like it has a few of the components of a good game in there, it just isn't quite one.

 

 

23 hours ago, DrBloodmoney said:

The design on some enemies is perfectly good - actually, some of the more odd enemies (roast chickens with sunglasses, riding surfboards, for example) do actually remind me of the truly bizarre enemy choices that would feature in 8-bit and 16-bit era games, and shows some smart attention to detail in the pastiche imitation...

 

Why couldn't an awesome game have had a roast chicken with sunglasses riding a surfboard.... Instead of... well, this! That's a shame. Guess I'll have to make Roast Chickens With Sunglasses, Riding Surfboards myself.... in my best Dr Nefarious voice..... "LAWRENCE, FETCH ME MY SONY DEV KIT" ?

 

 

23 hours ago, DrBloodmoney said:

Ghost Giant

 

Full disclosure.... I actually made myself laugh out loud for, I don't know, a good while when I read part of this review last night... so I'll get that weirdness out of the way first.

 

23 hours ago, DrBloodmoney said:

I see a lot of the softly-educational games that get put on iPad for example, in which characters (usually Sesame Street characters in the Bloodmoney household!) will talk directly to the player, in a coaching, upbeat and encouraging way - and for the most part, that is the kind of game Ghost Giant feels like...
...except when it doesn't. 

 

For some reason, my mind completely drifted off when I read this part last night, and I imagined how hilarious it would be if Mr Snuffleupagus (The Mammoth from Sesame Street).... this guy....

 

 

Happened to use that same upbeat and encouraging voice to just..... Call me a C**t! You know if you couldn't guess, that word that this site censors above most others. I just couldn't get out of my head how funny that would sound ?

 

Ghost Giant seems interesting though - I'm glad you pointed out that it doesn't give you motion sickness, so I'd actually be a little more up for playing this one if a VR did happen to find it's way in mu direction.

 

It's a shame that the sort of tonal shift doesn't quite work as well as it should have done. It sounds like quite a smart one, even quite a subtle one. I'm not sure those are concepts that would be easy for children to really contextualise easily, so f it is meant to be an educational tool of sorts. I don't know how effective it would be. But I've gotta give Zoink the praise they deserve for actually attempting it!

 

 

23 hours ago, DrBloodmoney said:

Resident Evil 7: Biohazard

 

Take a bow with this one though my friend! These were all great reads, of course... but I particularly enjoyed this one.

 

Unfortunately you've done that thing you and I seem to do to one another fairly regularly, and you've made me not want to review this myself for quite a while, because there are so many bits in yours that would have read incredibly similarly to what I have to say about this game.

 

I think it is so admirable what Capcom did with this game. Recognising that where the series was going wasn't quite where it should have been, or even perhaps where people wanted it to go, so they stripped it back, and they made this. A really cracking game!

 

I can sort of understand some long-time Resident Evil fans gripes that it doesn't feel Resident Evil enough, but for me that was half the reason I loved it so much, BECAUSE it was so different, yet just sharing enough DNA that it is connected.

 

23 hours ago, DrBloodmoney said:

The obvious primary sources of influence are clear - The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, The Evil Dead, Saw, Deliverance... however, there are oblique references to movies like The Shining, Seven, The Fly, .Rec, The Blair Witch Project, The Ring... even 1408 gets a nod at one point.

 

So.... am I actually a Horror fan? And I just haven't really realised? I saw the influence of most of these myself when I played the game. I particularly liked the allusions to Rec and Blair Witch in this one too, as I think that's something they did an incredibly good job with.

 

23 hours ago, DrBloodmoney said:

The game - like most RE entries - uses sound very effectively - the distinct shuffles and clickety-clacks of a crawling moulded, or the wet splatter of a vomiting "bloater", or the hollow-boned crunch of a moulded being "birthed" from the floor are all distinct, and instil their own unique anxieties, but more than that, the game knows exactly where to put a squeaking floorboard, or a pipe clunk, or a door squeal to deliver the maximum level of tension... without feeling the need to constantly pay it off with a firefight. 

 

Yep, yep! It's pretty immaculate in Resident Evil VII, there's such an incredible amount of detail in almost every area of the sound design.... specifically so with something else you picked up on!

 

23 hours ago, DrBloodmoney said:

While previous RE games shared that excellent foley work, one area RE7 is a huge step up is score. The game weaponises silence a lot - there is not a huge amount of scored sections, but when there is, it is excellent.

 

I'm so glad that Capcom did this, and that you noticed it too! Silence is an underrated tool in sound I think. You can use it so effectively to punctuate a sequence, or simply to insert it into somewhere the viewer/player thinks there should naturally be some just to build a bit of tension or general unease. I think it was balanced so well in Resident Evil VII that it really does heighten things terrifically.

 

They're a bit all over the place those DLC's. As a general rule I really like them, and I think as far as actual playtime goes, they are some of the very best value for money ones available. I certainly appreciated what they were trying to do, by putting so much variety into them. So yo could compare Amnesia: Machine For Pigs, to the Daughters DLC huh? That's the Amnesia game I'm most looking forward to, You can probably guess why, because of my Jessica Curry sound goblin tendencies, now I'm even more interested in getting to it. I thought Daughters was great!

 

I could probably sit here all day pulling bits and bobs out of that awesome review, I might come back for the odd one or two more. I'm undecided ?

 

But that was awesome man! I'm really glad you enjoyed the game as much as you did too. It'd definitely become one of my favourite Resident Evil titles myself!

 

23 hours ago, DrBloodmoney said:

Agent-A: A Puzzle in Disguise

 

You were not wrong when you said this game would probably pique interest and it did. I like the idea that it has some slightly more taxing puzzles than an Artifex Mindi title might. As much as I like those the more you play them, the more you almost instantly know what to do, right? So having something with even a small smidgeon more challenge to them would be pretty welcome I think, I'll have to keep an eye out for it!

 

Even if it isn't quite on the same level as a say, Enigmatis 3, that's still pretty high praise, because that was a really great game, just a little smaller in scale. I'm intrigued by this one though. I like the idea of a slightly more relaxed puzzle experience, and almost a focus on solving the puzzles and then onto the next ones.

 

I find depending on how engaging I'm finding Artifex Mundi titles for example, sometimes I get really impatient, and start thinking to myself fine..... can I have some puzzles now please? Unfortunately Clockwork Tales: Of Glass and Ink did that to me a little bit.

 

I suspect if/when you get to playing Irony Curtain, depending on if you apply the same ranking methodology to it, that might end up being a higher ranked Artifex Mundi title.

 

Awesome reads as always man!

[grayhammmer]

5 hours ago, DrBloodmoney said:

 

I had played 999 on DS before playing VLR on vita, yeah - though I didn't actually ever play the third one... (which might give some mild hint as to the future ranking of VLR) 

Trust me, as someone who played through the whole trilogy, if you didn't like the second game you will really not like the third game, so you probably aren't missing much.