Platinum_Vice Posted August 18, 2021 Share Posted August 18, 2021 9 hours ago, YaManSmevz said: Thanks for the head's up! Saw this, checked the store, and snagged it myself for $5US Now, the matter of when I'll be able to actually play it... Must be a promotional strategy for the release of Hades 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
YaManSmevz Posted August 19, 2021 Share Posted August 19, 2021 20 hours ago, GonzoWARgasm said: Must be a promotional strategy for the release of Hades Supergiant, you diabolical... 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post DrBloodmoney Posted August 20, 2021 Author Popular Post Share Posted August 20, 2021 ?? NEW SCIENTIFIC RESULTS ARE IN! ?? ?? !SCIENCE PROGRESS ALARM! - We are now at 200 games Ranked! Woot Woot!?? Hello Science-Chaps and Science-Chaplets, as promised (and in some cases requested), here are the latest results of our great scientific endeavour! Arcade Archives: Gradius Summary: Based on some of the more tepid reviews I have for some Arcade Archives games on this list, it would be more than reasonable for a reader to ask the question: "why do you buy so many of these games?" The answer is twofold. Firstly, I'm only 37 years old. There is a wealth of arcade games that I was not around for, (or old enough to have been cognisant of,) and I like seeing the history of videogames, and having that base knowledge when I approach modern games. Secondly, because sometimes something like Gradius comes along. Hailing from 1985, this early example of the scrolling, horizontal shooter from Konami is one of the best examples of why Hamster is - with their Arcade Archives ports - doing God's work. On first look, Gradius would seem to be simply doing the same thing many other games have done. The player guides a ship through a side-scrolling alien environment, constantly beset by enemies who attach in set patterns, working towards a boss in each area, the defeat of which open up the next area. That is a pretty tried-and-true, by-the-numbers game design, but Gradius sets itself apart from the many others on a number of different fronts. Firstly, there is the simple quality of the design. Visually, the game looks good for the era. Coming from 1985, pixel art is a little more developed than in some other Arcade Archives ports already ranked, but more than that, the actual art design of the environments and enemies is very strong, in a way that, in our current 2021 gaming landscape of retro, pixel-art games, still stands relatively tall. Secondly, there is the mechanics. The movement is swift and satisfying, and missing a lot of the "stop/start", finicky, juddering controls that could often be an issue with going back to games of this era. Enemies move quickly, but here, you do too, and the responsive controls mean reaction to dangers is paramount, rather than simply memorisation of enemy attack patterns. Unlike some games of the genre and era, in Gradius, if you see that you have made a mistake and placed your ship in harms way, you do actually have the controls and tools at your disposal to react to it, and course correct... if you are quick! The 'ship upgrade' mechanic in the game is smart, and allows for some variation in play-style too. Enemies will frequently drop collectible orbs, the collection of which increased a 5-block meter at the base of the screen. each block represents a different power, and so the player can choose when to 'pop' these, to gain different abilities. Popping after a single orb will give a speed boost, but hold onto it until you have collected 5 orbs, and you can attach a floating tertiary blob that follows your ship and shoots when you do, thus doubling your firepower and effective weapon spread. It's a great risk/reward aspect in a game hailing from a time when such mechanics were not common, and as I understand it, part of what set Gradius apart in its day. It still does! Thirdly, unlike a lot of similar games, Gradius' level design works on a continual, uninterrupted rotoscope. There is no loading screens or fades to black after a boss - the level simply continues, melding seamlessly to the next biome, giving the game a much more fluid, less segmented feel than most other arcade games of the genre at the time. This is great for giving the game a relentless, compulsive draw, but also allows the player to appreciate and enjoy one of the greatest aspects of the game - the soundtrack. The music in Gradius, and I say this without hyperbole, is a chip-tune masterpiece. It is more reminiscent of 16-bit era RPG's than 8-bit side scrollers. (If you take nothing else away from this review, go on youtube, and watch a few minutes of the Gradius to hear it - to my ear, it is up there with Chronotrigger and The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past in terms of catchy, awesome score!) Overall, Gradius is a snappy, fun, compulsive and charming game, worthy of spawning the litany of sequels that it did, and working far better in the current gaming landscape that I had any expectation it would, or that a game from when I was 2 years old has any right to! Gradius isn't going to hold your attention for days and days in 2021, but as a window into what made games tick back in the arcade hay-day, and an example of how a timeless game can still work long after its era has passed, it's hard to imagine a better example. The Ranking: The limited nature of these games means they have trouble with a lot of modern games, however, Gradius is still immensely fun, even now, and stands head-and-shoulders above many of the previously ranked Arcade Archives games. The current highest ranked Hamster port is Arcade Archives: Crazy Climber, but Gradius is in a wholly different category. That game was fun as a timepiece and a historical look at old games. Gradius is all that, but also, crucially, still works as a fun and exciting game too. The next closest comparison is the slightly higher ranked Bandai-Namco in-house developed Arcade Game Series games. The first we hit is Dig-Dug, and while I am a big fan of that game generally, I think Gradius is the clear winner in a match-up. The soundtrack and variable play-style of Gradius, coupled with the smoother, more appealing controls means that while the core concept of Dig Dug is more interesting than Gradius', Gradius executes on its core concept much more effectively, and the end result is a more fun, engaging and less frustrating experience. A little further up, we come to the Pac-Man's though. While Gradius has the vastly superior soundtrack, the overall presentation is similar, and unlike Dig Dug, Pac Man and his wifey do not suffer from any lack of fluidity of control. Couple that with the fact that Pac-Man is simply a more fun core experience, the Family Pac retain their spots above Gradius. In the small selection of games in-between, it comes down to feel, replayability and pure fun to some extent, but more than that, to flaws. While Gradius may be simple and not inherently long or particularly revolutionary, it has remarkably few flaws across its game. While stuff like Astro's Playroom and Sound Shapes can fend off Gradius due to their own merits, and have few flaws of their own hampering their experience, the same cannot be said for Maquette or Assassin's Creed III Liberation which, while much larger and richer games, suffer for their missteps in a way Gradius doesn't. That allows Gradius to sneak past. In the end, Arcade Archives: Gradius finds its very respectable spot, just above Maquette, but just below Sound Shapes. Enigmatis 3: The Shadow of Karkhala Summary: The third entry in one of the best of Artifex Mundi's stable of Hidden Object / Puzzle games keeps up the high standard of its series in terms of the puzzles and the art design, though loses a little tonally from the previous two games. The story is a little weaker (despite higher quality character work,) but it does have good quality puzzles in a good variety, and introduces some more unusual mechanics for Artifex Mundi, in the form of a fairly interesting mystery solving / clue identifying aspect that seems a little influenced by Frogware's (reasonably good, B-level) Sherlock Homes games. The actual setting loses some of the 'haunted' 'spooky' parts of the previous Enigmatis games, but actually, the mountainous Sri-Lankan-esque setting is one of Artifex Mundi's more unique locations, and the accompanying art has a pastel, sunset-hued vibe that is very nice. The art in general is great here - meaning picture hunt sections, (while a little less abundant than elsewhere,) are fun and engaging. No tiresome 'boss fight' parts here - these seem to be replaced with the infinitely more interesting 'crime-solving' sections. Has a good, meaty bonus story, which is certainly weaker than the main story in terms of puzzles, but still worthwhile. The Ranking: Despite not having the strongest story in an AM game, this one does enough with art and unique mechanics, and has few enough dull parts to allow Enigmatis to go out (for now) with a bang. This one, beating out the previous Enigmatis games, which were also, coincidently, the highest ranked Artifex Mundi games so far, makes Enigmatis 3 the current 'Best of Artifex Mundi'! The limited nature of these games stop it competing with too much high on the list, but it jumps a few comfortable spots above Enigmatis 2: The Mists of Ravenwood, leaping past much more ambitious but far more flawed games like The Order: 1886 and Mortal Shell, and beating out short, more artistically interesting but ultimately less engaging, Neverending Nightmares. However, it still can't quite compete with Vita exclusive Unit 13, which while flawed, has its heart in the right place, and did much more with much less console power available, and so Enigmatis 3: The Shadow of Karkhala finds its spot just below Unit 13. Prince of Persia: The Forgotten Sands Summary: Do you remember the movie / book High Fidelity? Remember when protagonist Rob, during his quest for closure on all his previous relationships, meets up with and spends some time with Charlie (Catherine Zeta Jones for the movie,) - the girl he had once been besotted with? During the evening, comes to a startling revelation - Charlie is - and was always - awful. In revisiting the past, he is suddenly forced to confront the idea that what seemed so alluring at one time in his life has the curtain drawn back, and he is forced to reckon with the idea that not only is she a tiresome bore now, she always was - he was just too blind to see it. Prior to the inception of this Scientific Ranking, I was under the (mistaken) impression that the reason I never really liked Prince of Persia: The Forgotten Sands was a "High Fidelity" type issue. I would have sworn up and down that the issue was that, by abandoning the rebooted formula that Ubisoft had designed and executed in the excellent 2008 Prince of Persia reboot, and returning to a version of the previous formula of the Sands of Time trilogy that had been sunset in order to distance the franchise from its sister / offspring franchise Assassin's Creed, they had inadvertently opened my eyes to flaws in that original formula that I had simply not been aware of at the time. However - now that I have gone back and replayed some of every entry in the series, I no longer believe that to be the case. While I certainly do bemoan the abandonment of all the interesting and unique aspects that Ubisoft had honed in the 2008 reboot where they had turned it into more of a 3D spacial puzzle game than a character action one - as I understand it, as both a reaction to the lacklustre reception of PoP:2008, and in an attempt to closer align the game franchise with the (truly appalling, remarkably racist and instantly forgotten) trip the franchise took to the silver screen in the form of Jake Gyllenhaal misstep "Prince of Persia:The Sands of Time: The Movie: Please God, Make some Money Edition" - I no longer think what the game did was shine a light of existing flaws. Those old games still hold up very well. They have aged, yes, but the inherent design is sound, and I have more than enjoyed my revisits to them. Actually, The Forgotten Sands is not an out-and-out bad game necessarily - though I do think it is the worst of the 4 (we'll get to that) - and had it come hot on the heels of The Two Thrones, I think it might have been seen as a perfectly acceptable next step - however, it didn't. It's not that doing another game in the same design wheelhouse highlighted flaws in the old one - it's that seeing the same formula again, with so little changed just felt old, and a little sad. It was, in fact, not a "High Fidelity" issue, but rather a "The World's End" issue. Remember in that movie, how the old school friends get together, and Simon Pegg is exactly as he was back in the day, but it just feels less cool now, after the other guys have lived a life, and he's just been continuing as he always did? That is The Forgotten Sands' problem. It didn't change. The landscape just changed around it. We changed. The Forgotten Sands ignored the 2008 reboot completely. Narratively, it attempts to pick up the story where the original trilogy left off, however, the original trilogy had already concluded pretty neatly in The Two Thrones, not only tying up the narrative, but actually resetting the world in some sense, negating the previous games from history. As such, whet is actually left for The Forgotten Sands to grab on to is more of a tonal strand than a narrative one. The eponymous Prince is travelling to a kingdom ruled by his (previously unmentioned) brother Malik to learn how to be a good ruler from him. This is not a great choice. Upon arrival, he finds Malik embroiled in a losing battle against an opposing army, and over the strong dissuasion of the Prince (who has some experience in the field!) Malik uses a magical seal to unleash a powerful army (Solomon's Army) which quickly becomes the dominant threat, and a poison to Malik's mind, driving a lust for power. The Prince them spends the game pursuing two halves of a sacred seal at the advice of a Genie, which can banish the new threat, and defeat his power-mad brother. The narrative is convoluted and not particularly interesting, however, it does drive the game forward at a good pace, and gives space for the strong points of the game - the combat and the traversal mechanics. Those are both pretty good here - certainly heavily influenced by the mechanics of the previous trilogy, in particular The Two Thrones, and there is a fluidity and acrobatic nature to the movement that is slightly more impressive than in any of the three previous games in the lineage. The down-side though, is that we have seen these before, and not enough is really done with them to - in my opinion - justify the wholesale abandonment of the much more unique and interesting traversal mechanics shown off in the 2008 reboot. One highlight of the new concepts is the Prince's ability to freeze time momentarily, allowing a new mechanic - freezing water. That allows waterfalls to be climbed, or pools to be traversed like platforms, and the game does a pretty good job of using this mechanic in a variety of ways - however, while there are little flourishes and unique components like this one, they still feel very much "of the type". There is nothing that really makes the game feel what it is - a game picking up a franchise after 5 years of industry innovation. Combat is back to the 'mob-against-one' style, and in this area, The Forgotten Sands stands clearly above the 2008 reboot. The one aspect of the 2008 reboot that never really worked was the minimisation of combat in that game, so I cannot deny that having more enemies, and more combat generally is a positive here - I only wish the game it was in was more mechanically different to what had come before. By 2010 Assassin's Creed II was out, and AC:Brotherhood was to follow shortly thereafter. "Mob-vs-one" combat was heavily in vogue in Ubisoft. The problem is, AC was, by this point, the clearly favoured son. The Prince, relegated to B-status in the Ubisoft house, just doesn't seem to have been given enough attention to stand out, and so even a good aspect like the combat feels a little flat and uninspired, and more a cover-version of the previous games than a genuine step forward. There are moves, but not enough. There are animation flourishes, but not enough. there are acrobatics, but not enough. Graphically, the game is ahead of the previous trilogy, but the leap is only the bare minimum of what can be expected based on the general industry gains. Certainly, while nice enough looking, The Forgotten Sands lacks the artistic flair afforded to the 2008 Reboot (who's cell-shaded visuals hold up significantly better than this games visuals do, despite being 2 years older,) and even the artistic design within the framework of the visual model aimed for is less interesting than either The Sands of Time, or The Two Thrones. Generally, it is on par with The Warrior Within - a game 6 years older than The Forgotten Sands - and one in which, while there was a broad aesthetic theme that worked, visual variety was sorely lacking. Audio is similarly workmanlike - acceptable and occasionally pleasing, but never more than that, and often veering significantly less. There is a distinct lack of "oomph" to combat - swords sound tinny when clanging off walls or each other, and there is little in the way of feedback difference between a strike and a miss on enemies. Overall, The Forgotten Sands is not a bad game. It is a mechanically acceptable entry in a franchise, but one that by virtue of its very existence, lessens the original trilogy. It turns what was a 3 part trilogy with a complex and convoluted, but effective, narrative that ended neatly and on a gameplay high, into a four-part quadrilogy that didn't know when to quit, and ended, not with a bang, but with a whimper. The Ranking: Comparisons are, of course, first and foremost to the previously ranked PoP games. As should surprise exactly zero people, The Forgotten Sands will not only not rank higher than the 2008 reboot of PoP, the lack of innovation and technical advancement over what was a sizeable period of time, coupled with the less interesting narrative guarantees that, while entirely functional and acceptable, The Forgotten Sands cannot rank higher than even the lowest ranked of the original trilogy - The Warrior Within. In slipping down the list then, we need to look at other comparison points, and one that stands out, oddly, is Mass Effect Andromeda. While in no way mechanically similar, Mass Effect Andromeda does have one major component in common - it is a later addition to a neatly concluded trilogy, that attempts to both have it's cake (by invoking the past,) and eat it too (by trying to pick up narrative strands where there aren't really any to grasp.) In comparison though, I feel like Mass Effect: Andromeda still remains the clear winner. While it has more out-and-out flaws than The Forgotten Sands, those flaws are as a result of the developer taking chances, and not all of them paying off. In the case of The Forgotten Sands, the issue is not that too many chances were taken, it's that none were. Nothing in the game is even attempting to set itself apart from its predecessors - in fact, every decision seems to have been calculated to deliberately nullify any chances taken on the 2008 reboot - and that is a much more disappointing path to failure. Slipping down the list further, I was actually surprised myself by how many games The Forgotten Sands was unable to rightfully dethrone. The biggest issue the game has - its lack of interesting or innovative additions - means that quite a lot of games that should, by all rights, have a chance at being beaten, just cannot be. Even heavily flawed games that are a detriment (or at least lesser entries) in their respective series - Hitman Absolution, Assassin's Creed Liberation, GTAIV etc. generally achieve that status by trying too much, not trying too little. The first game we come to where the flaws, and the gulf in quality between other entries in their respective franchises, is so egregious that The Forgotten Sands can finally stake a claim though, is Assassin's Creed III. While I would still argue it's failures are as a result of doing too much, rather than not enough, the actual final product is so beset by its own inadequacies, that even a middle-of-the-road, uninspired version of a good formula like The Forgotten Sands is able to out match it. As a result, The Forgotten Sands finds it's spot, just above ACIII. Ratchet and Clank 3: Up Your Arsenal Summary: Releasing only a year after the excellent Ratchet and Clank 2: Going Commando, it is not wholly surprising that R&C3: Up Your Arsenal is mechanically and visually similar to its immediate predecessor, though - given the glowing review that game received a few batches ago - that is no bad thing. Picking up the story of our two titular heroes after their prior victories, and featuring the first appearance of long-term franchise staple Dr.Nefarious, who's plan to conquer the galaxy draws Ratchet and Clank in when he brings the fight to Ratchet's home planet of Veldin, Up Your Arsenal is absolutely an iterative step in the series. It makes relatively few stylistic or mechanical changes to the base game model, but continues to finesse and refine them to a level of sharpness few games of the era could boast. Iterative change is the name of the game here - in more than just technical and mechanical terms. Point for point, almost every aspect noted as a change in the Going Commando review is cemented in Up Your Arsenal, though the massive leaps that game made over the original game do, by simple qualitative levels, have a more marginal impact here. That is completely understandable of course - the almost absurd jump in quality between Ratchet and Clank and Ratchet and Clank 2 mean there is less clear scope available for giant improvements - but it is notable that for every refinement R&C2 made as a change, R&C3 solidifies as an ongoing trend, rather than adding to it to the same level that game did to its predecessor. The narrative continues to become more comedy and action focussed, and less emphasis placed on direct allegory or satire of real-life issues. The series does still retain some aspects of this - focussing here on (very) occasional skewering of both media hero-worship via the still often very funny encounters with Captain Quark, and militaristic jingoism and its role in leadership via Dr Nefarious and the Galactic President - but these are very light in tone, and a far cry, by this point, from the pointed anti-consumerism and environmental stances of the first game. Generally, this is one area that I think may be a little to the games detriment as compared to Going Commando - I very much enjoyed the balance that game struck between goofy comedy and satire, and feel it may have unbalanced itself by going "full comedy" here - however, the pure-comedy elements of Up Your Arsenal do work, and can elicit genuine laughs. The gameplay aspects continue to realign the series' genre focus from "Character Platformer with some shooting", maximising the combat elements and minimise the platforming ones, with Up Your Arsenal being the first game to truly stake the series' claim as more of a "Combat Shooter with occasion Platforming." The relative merits of this change are subjective, and will, of course, depend entirely on the preference of the player, (I personally am no great 3D platformer fan, and so the choice works for me,) however, it is virtually inarguable that - whether marginalising the platforming elements is a preferred choice for the player on paper or not - Up Your Arsenal is a much better playing game than the original Ratchet and Clank, and so the proof is very much in the pudding. It does mean there is an inherent reduction in the "exploration" side of levels, however, as compared to the woeful lack of such fare in - for example - the most recent R&C game, Rift Apart, there is still plenty of it on show here. Weapons remain a highlight of the series, and it is notable how many new ones are present. There are some holdovers form the previous games, however, the game introduces quite a few new ones, and in the case of some - the Refractor, Rift Inducer and Infector, for example - they force an even more "case specific" mentality, where specific weapons are more or less useful in different situations, and switching on the fly is a baked-in requirement of playing effectively. Personally, I did not find the actual selection of weapons to be quite as fun to use as those on show in Going Commando, however, props have to be given for the care taken to ensure each has a more specific use case. In both previous games, most combat encounters could be managed, (albeit more or less effectively,) with any weapon. In Up Your Arsenal, the player really does have to learn each weapon and its best use-case to succeed. The upgrading mechanics on the guns are now much more complex in the back end - with each weapon having 5 levels of upgrade - but since these levels are gained via use, the actual player input is still simple. Use a gun a lot, and you get a better version of it - stat-tracking the actual finite detail of those upgrades is not really a requirement to the player, unless they elect to do so. There are some (minor) wholly new additions in the game - most notably the 2.5D platforming sections. The Captain Quark narrative involves him remembering his past 'glories' as a path to overcoming his internal struggle against cowardice, and the game uses this narrative hook as a great excuse to insert some fatigue-breaking genre-hops, in the form of his "vid-comics". These sections are great - intercut with stylish motion comic art (in a possible hint of some influence from Sly Cooper), unreliable narrator voice-over from Quark himself which is genuinely funny, and featuring scrolling 2.5D puzzle platforming that - while a little less refined and a little more finicky to control than the main game - are smart and fun. It's also worth noting - there was a major addition to the series on the PS2/PS3, in the form of multiplayer. From all accounts, this was a really good mode - however, I have not played it, and it was not featured in the Vita release upon which this review is focussed, and so I won't address it... ...except to say - the smaller leap forward in terms of mechanical and technical quality between R&C2 and R&C3, as compared to R&C2 and the original game makes significantly more sense when one considers that there was a whole multiplayer component there too - it simply never survived the transition to hand-held. In terms of audio, the game retains the level of Going Commando - voice work is top-notch, music and folly of the same high standard set previously. Visually, the game is essentially the same - there is very little graphical difference, and appears to be running on identical engine tech - which makes sense given the short timescale between games. There is a good variety of planets (levels) here, as in the previous game, and they look great - however, I do think the actual art design and conceptual work on them is a little weaker than in Going Commando. There feels a little less variety in terms of aesthetic design. Some of that may be accounted for by the further streamlining of the mechanics, favouring shooter over platformer, but it is discernible, if minor, difference. Overall, Ratchet and Clank 3: Up Your Arsenal is a very direct sequel to Going Commando, and showed the improvements made in that game to be not just a fluke or a one-off, but a trend the franchise would be following - to its benefit. The more comedic, but less fulfilling narrative is a little less memorable or interesting in a lasting sense, but is genuinely funny more often than Going Commando was, and far more often than the original Ratchet and Clank ever managed. The game moves and feels great, looks great, and plays great - and while the giant leap forward that R&C2 made is missing here, and as such, some of the "wow" factor, the game remains a joy to play, even 17 years later. The Ranking: In terms of other Ratchet games on the list, Up Your Arsenal is certainly a better game than the original R&C on almost every front, however, the weaker, more frivolous narrative and the slight reduction in artistic flair and variety does mean it is not able to compete with Going Commando, and so we find ourselves in between. There are three character action games in the gulf between R&C and R&C2 that jump out as notable comparison points - Beyond Good and Evil, the Prince of Persia games, and Sly Cooper and the Thievius Raccoonus. As compared to Beyond Good and Evil, (the highest ranked of those 3,) the match-up is interesting. While Up Your Arsenal has the clear upper hand on visuals and mechanical fidelity, BG&E takes it on gameplay loop, music and of course originality. However, one aspect stands out - the narrative - and on that front BG&E wins by a country mile, due to its nuance and genuinely ballsy and interesting satire. The lowest of those three - Sly Cooper - is a great game, however, being the first entry in its series, it is naturally less mechanically refined, and loses on the same aspects BG&E lost, but it does not make those gains back on all the same aspects. While it is more original, it has no great audio to save it, nor does it have a better narrative, and so Up Your Arsenal beats it fairly handily. As compared to Prince of Persia, the lowest ranked of those games in between Sly Cooper and BG&E is The Sands of Time. For all Up Your Arsenal's great points, the fact that it is beaten by its own predecessor, coupled with The Sands of Time's originality, strong, simple narrative, great art design and interesting mechanics of its own (in the form of the time rewinding) mean I have a hard time placing Up Your Arsenal above it, so that narrows us down a little further. In the end, of the few games left in the possible field, I think Up Your Arsenal does more than enough to beat out beautiful and fun multiplayer platform puzzle game Trine, as that game, while having some great aspects, does suffer specifically in it's lacklustre combat in a way that Up Your Arsenal never does in any aspect. However, when it comes to the incredibly original and clever puzzle implementation of Superliminal, it runs into trouble. While much shorter and smaller in scope, there is no single aspect of Up Your Arsenal that came close to impressing me in the way that game did. As such, Ratchet and Clank 3: Up Your Arsenal finds its spot in the ranking, one notch above Trine, and one below Superliminal. The Witness Summary: Strap in science chums - this one could get a little long! Who loves a protracted metaphor? Me too! Okay, so, imagine if you will, you enter a room, and find a box with a keyhole, and a curious, complex key. You figure out the key, open the box and toss the key behind you, and inside is… a box and a curious key. You open that box, toss the key behind you, and inside that box is... a box and another curious key. You open that box, toss the key behind you, and inside that box is... a box and another curious key. You open that box, toss the key behind you, and inside that box is... ...well, you get it. I shall retire my Ctrl+C/Ctrl+V position. In some, oversimplified sense, when you boil off the flavour and the texture, that is every single puzzle game. Bear in mind, I am a puzzle games guy. Through and through. The Puzzle game has been my most consistently favoured genre since before I knew what a ‘genre’ was. The above metaphor is not designed to disparage the average puzzle game - I fucking love the average puzzle game - but it is, for the most part accurate. Most puzzle games will get more and more intricate and more and more fiddly as you progress, and become more and more tricky to unlock, until, eventually, you open the final box and see… credits. Or a cut scene. Maybe the end of a story that has been told as you progressed. Such is the nature of the genre. The simple act of progression is, for the most part, the satisfaction of puzzle games. The reward for completing a puzzle is... more puzzles. However, let's instead imagine that, during that Sysiphusian metaphor you have found yourself in, after a few hundred boxes, you realise the matryoshka goes far deeper than you had imagined, and you decide to give yourself a break. You turn around, and realise, in a moment of breathtaking clarity, every key you had casually tossed behind you has landed perfectly, interlinking, and forming into the shape of other keys. Giant keys. You look around and realise - the room you are in is filled with other boxes, so large you hadn't even realised what they were, and every one has a keyhole. You gaze around in astonishment, almost overcome by the new layer of challenge ahead of you and the strange refocussing of your own perspective. You shift a little in amazement, and only then realise... the path you stand on within the room is oddly shaped. As you tilt your head, it begins to look like a familiar shape. It's an enormous keyhole... That is The Witness. Now - I am not crazy. I fully understand that the metaphor I have just outlined is conceptually confusing and more than a little rote. Anyone who is familiar with the game will likely know it barely does justice to the overall profundity of the game experience Johnathon Blow's Thekla Inc. has crafted, and those who have yet to experience the game will likely be at a loss as to how it even applies. However, protracted, obtuse metaphor is the only way I am willing to address the nature of the game, I'm afraid, for one simple reason: The Witness has an "Oh My God" moment. Actually, it has THE "Oh My God" moment. I have mentioned "Oh My God" moments before in this thread. They are gaming unicorns. They are moments of such impact, and such rushing, lightning bolt re-focussing of the nature of the game being played, that the entire player experience up to that point, and in all subsequent play thereafter, is so dramatically re-contextualised at such alarming speed that the player is left awestruck. "Oh My God" moments don't happen often. They are, by their nature, absurdly difficult to craft and to pull off, and impossible to relive after having experienced them once. Subsequent replays of games featuring them can be fun - delightful even - but they are never the same. The moments cannot be recaptured or re-experienced. They are the gaming equivalent of knowing who Keyser Soze is, or that Donnie killed Bruce at the start, or that Leo is a patient, or that Norton and Pitt are one and the same. (Congrats to everyone who got all those!) Those moments are very rare in games anyway - I really scoured my memory, and could come up with only 30-odd of them that I think even count, across what has to be well over a thousand games I've played. Of those, only 15 or so are gameplay driven, and not simply excellent or surprising narrative beats, and only 5 I could come up with are user-specific, i.e. their placement in the game is variable and fluid, and driven by the pace of the player, and not of a set narrative. Five. Out of a thousand games. The Witness ranks No.1 within that group. The effect of The Witness' "Oh My God" moment on me was staggering. I refuse to deny anyone else the same moment, and so obtuse metaphor is all I have! For now though, let's simply look at the surface level mechanics. In terms of the immediate presentation, The Witness comprises an abandoned, mysterious island, featuring hundreds of (around 700 I believe) flat panels, upon which a single, deceptively simple puzzle mechanic is present. Every one of these is, as its basic level, a maze. Each one is solved by the player drawing a line from a defined start point, to a defined end point, in the correct path - and each one features some combination of symbols. Those symbols are the key to unlocking the correct solution, and therein lies the game. At no point in The Witness is any text ever present, nor is any type of tutorialising or explanation engaged in, beyond its masterful and meticulous laying out of panels to facilitate a smooth learning gradient. The game simply presents its puzzles, and leaves the player to explore, decipher the meaning of the symbols, and progress as they can, fluidly, at the pace of their own understanding. That may sound like the game could be impenetrable, but it is not. The player is free to explore the island as they choose - indeed, it is split into 11 areas, all accessible from the very beginning - but each one does feature a loose puzzle 'theme'. Some specific panels are laid out in particular ways, as to encourage the player to experiment with short series of panels of increasing complexity, giving a smooth ramp to understanding of specific puzzle concepts, and throughout the areas, there is a fairly steady ramping up of the compounding complexity of the symbology. Early puzzles in an area will focus entirely on knowledge gained in that area. Later ones might add in layers of other areas, meaning back tracking is key, and a willingness to step away, to return later armed with more knowledge is paramount to progressing. The player, while feeling completely free to approach the game from whatever direction they chose, is subtly guided through the natural processes of learning - discovery, experimentation, confirmation, application, internalisation, then interdependent re-affirmation - without really ever feeling like they are being "taught". The game looks beautiful - with a bright, pastel hued vividness, and a clean, unblemished aesthetic. Every nook and cranny of the islands 11 areas is filled with odd or interesting details, and the lack of other living creatures, or musical score gives everything an eerie, ethereal quality. virtually every aspect of The Witness is layered to the point of absurdity. Beyond the obvious puzzles, the secret puzzles, the environmental clues, the interesting but non-puzzle critical nuances and the pure decoration, it feels like every detail of the island is designed to hide some detail in plain sight. Every statue or tree or rock formation or cloud looks like what it is... but also seems to look like something else, or something a little more interesting or notable or odd when viewed from a different angle. Two statues, seemingly unrelated, might not catch the players attention the first 40 times they walk past them, but on the 41st, if they approach from a different direction, suddenly ones high raised hands might line up with the shadow of a tree branch, and suddenly it becomes a sword in his hand, stabbing the other. Those might seem simply fun little details and flourishes - and often they are - however, the net effect of all these instances is also part of the games lessons. Because there are so many secret parts of the game, the player is not ever able to discount anything, as the difference between pure decoration and secret key to secret puzzle is not clear. All aspects are of interest, and the level of applicability is for the player to decipher. Every single thing in The Witness is telling you some version of the same advice: Take a look at things from different angles, and you will see a solution to your problem. The movement is simple - walking sim level really - but interaction with the puzzles is incredibly satisfying. The audio sting and shining, particle-laden light effects that accompany the drawing of lines within the puzzles is smooth and satisfying, and adds to the magical, unreal quality of the experience. In terms of general audio, there is not much - there is some ambient sound, but far less than most games set in an outdoor area would traditionally use. This could be seen as a detriment - indeed, in some games that might feel like evidence of a lack of effort, (or a lack of budget,) however, to argue so in The Witness' case would be absurd, given the astonishing level of detail and nuance in all other aspects of the game. It is clearly deliberate. In fact, the minimalist audio adds to the overall experience, rather than detracting from it. It lends to the dream-like, peculiarity of the island itself - and means that when some audio is heard, it really stands out, and is a signal of importance. Any time an area feels impenetrable, or seems to feature multiple symbols of unknown implication, the game does not hold the player's hand, nor guide them directly. It does not need to. It presents its world to the player right from the start - indeed, if the player has already learned the meaning of all symbols, it is actually possible to see one of the games finale points (arguably the most 'final' of its finale points,) within a few minutes of walking onto the island - however, on first approach, the game is likely to take upwards of 60 hours to reach that point. Even then, the player will likely only have peeled away the first few layers of the onion. There will likely be many further layers left to enjoy. The beauty of The Witness is in how it hides complexity within simplicity. It really feels like every single thing in the game has multiple levels, multiple interpretations, multiple applications and multiple meanings. Take the name - "The Witness." Even there, there are multiple, equally valid interpretations. It could mean that you, the player are a "witness" to the fall of whatever creature, race or being created, then abandoned the island. It could mean that you, the player are "witness" to the lessons the game expertly imparts. Those are both reasonable interpretations, however, a "Witness" in mathematical terms, has a decidedly different meaning. In maths, a "witness" is a proof of a formula - a case that proves the validity of a theorem or formula. It could be interpreted then, that by working through the puzzles, the first puzzle the player solves that gives them a true understanding of the meaning of a symbol is a "witness". Or that the symbols themselves are the "witnesses". Or, on a macro level, that the game itself, by imparting the lessons it so expertly does, is "The Witness" - the proof of the formula that is the player - providing him/her a logical and philosophical set of tool by which they can solve other complex formula. By teaching them the methodical, practical way that knowledge is gained through experimentation and connection of patterns, it is a "Witness" for the formulae and complexities of life. That might sound hifalutin - and it is. However, I cannot deny that of all the games I have played in my life, the closest one to ever imparting genuine lessons I feel are applicable - not only to my gaming life, but to my working life, my parenting life and my social life - it is this one. The profundity of its message has remained with me long after I finished the game. The Witness is not so much a puzzle game, as it is the Ur-Puzzle game. Solving it, in a very tangible sense, it is akin to solving the ability to solve ALL puzzle games. Yes, it is an incredibly fun, engaging and effective puzzle game, even on a surface level, but having progressed through it, solving as you go, peeling away its layers of complexity one by one, and encountering what is - both mechanically, and by way of found audio and video lectures and philosophical symposia on the nature of logic, reason, perception and thought - a comprehensive musing and thorough deep dive into the very nature of puzzle-solving itself. It turns a single game within an established genre into something more - a "Skeleton Key" for the genre, writ large. An absurdly well crafted experience, beautiful, rich, ethereal and fascinating, The Witness may be, on the surface, a simple game of simple puzzles, but beneath the calm, serene, picturesque surface of its beautiful, peculiar island lies a depth that is uncanny. Learning its lessons is not simply the key to unlocking the puzzles. It is the key to unlocking the unlocking of all puzzles. Upon playing The Witness, and absorbing its lessons (a task it makes easy, whether the player actively aims to do so or not,) said player is left better prepared to solve all other puzzles. If those are in gaming, great - but there are puzzles everywhere. Life is a puzzle at times. It can present you with complex equations too. As any mathematician will tell you - if you want to solve a complex formula, you need a Witness. The Ranking: That was a long one, and any reader who stuck with me through that review - I both salute, and thank you! As such, I am not going to go on and on in this ranking section, justifying why I believe The Witness leaps to the very upper echelons of the list so far - for that, just re-read the novel I just put in the Summary section! Instead, lets get down to brass-tacks. The Witness has an effect on me that goes far beyond most videogames. Even lacking the varied gameplay of many of the highest ranked games, it would be absurd for me to try and pretend that doing the one single thing The Witness does at the level that it does it did not affect me far more vividly and more profoundly than most of those games did through the sum of their excellent parts. Lots of those games were experiences I wouldn't trade, but very few of them were experiences I took away, with applicability I find virtually every day, in non-gaming aspects of my life. The other game that I feel did something of the same nature was This War of Mine: The Little Ones. That game had a profound effect on me too, but that was more from an empathetic standpoint. That is valid of course (there is a reason it is ranked current No. 8,) however, in the case of The Witness, it is far more universal and applicable, and it beats that game on that aspect alone. Above it, Transistor, Dark Souls and it's sequel, even Mass Effect 2 - these are games that are incredible, rich, nuanced, complex and varied - however, as astoundingly well made and infinitely exciting and fun as they are, there is little I take away from them beyond simply enjoyment of an expertly crafted gaming experience. Even games like Prey and Dishonoured 2, while representing what I believe to be some of the richest and most replayable and variable gameplay available in the medium, and decimating other games on pure gaming merit, have a tough time when stacked up against something like The Witness - an experience that is not only expertly crafted, absurdly detailed and immensely fun, but also a comprehensive logical and philosophical lesson applicable outside of gaming. In the end, despite much hand wringing, I cannot have The Witness toppled, even by these games, for that simple reason. The sum of all their parts does not quite stack up to the immense tower of The Witness' singular effect on me. That leaves only one man standing in the battle against The Witness - Invisible Inc. Invisible Inc has all the benefits of games like Prey, and Dishonoured 2 and Transistor - the gameplay expertise, the craftsmanship and the addictive and variable gameplay, but it does those things to a level that did beat out those other games. It is also the only game on this list that I have thus-far used the term "genius", and I stand by that. The Witness would be the second. While Invisible Inc's take-away effect is less applicable than The Witness' - certainly, there is no "Life Lesson" in Invisible Inc - it does benefit from some shade of the same hue - in the sense that, as a tactical puzzle game, there is something of the same notion to it, albeit to a lesser (and more esoteric) extent. The fact that each difficult mission can be 'solved' through thinking, strategising and coming up with out-of-the-box methods is absurdly well done. When coupled with all the other aspects of the game... ...it just manages to hold its crown. There is no single aspect that Invisible Inc does as well as The Witness does its one, but it is the only game on the list where the sum of its parts are towering enough to overshadow The Witness. Raw gameplay doesn't count for everything - as The Witness proves beyond a shadow of a doubt - but it does count - and in Invisible Inc's case, it is too well done to be eclipsed, even by the profound effect of The Witness. The closes call Invisible Inc has had - but it holds its crown, after a long, bloody battle, The Witness goes in at current No.2 most awesome game. So there we have it folks! Thanks to @Copanele , @Slava & @grayhammmer for putting in requests Invisible Inc stays on top for now as 'Current Most Awesome Game' - but only just this time! Space Overlords stays as king of the crap-tastic olympics, as 'Least Awesome Game' What games will be coming along next time to challenge for the shining gold... or the aged turd? That's up to randomness, me.... and YOU! Remember: SPECIAL NOTE If there are any specific games anyone wants to see get ranked sooner rather than later - drop a message, and I'll mark them for 'Priority Ranking'! The only stipulation is that they must be on my profile, at 100% (S-Rank).... and aren't already on the Rankings! Catch y'all later my Scientific Brothers and Sisters! ☮️ 15 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Arcesius Posted August 20, 2021 Share Posted August 20, 2021 1 hour ago, DrBloodmoney said: The Witness Holy smokes, man... This was one passionate, interesting write-up! ? I know you liked the game, I just had no idea how much! Personally, I'm not as big on puzzle games as you seem to be. Regardless, The Witness took me by surprise as well. It is a game I played blind from start to end (because where is the fun in solving puzzles if you look up solutions..), and throroughly enjoyed my time with it. However, towards the end, I started feeling more and more irritated... I have mentioned this before, but your metapher above makes total and perfect sense. However, there are two outcomes to building a game like that: You can either maintain your excitement for the next puzzle throughout the entire game, or you can grow tired of the lack of positive feedback. In my case, for the most part I was just happy to unlock more and more puzzles, learn about the new puzzle types, and even just walk around in the island. But at some point, small details started to bother me. The boat being so slow. The platforms (in the labyrinth section) moving so slowly. And what I felt was the most "insulting", if you want to call it that, were the special rewards. I would have been somewhat fine with no rewards at all. But instead, the reward for solving the secret puzzles (with the notes) are those philosophical videos. I... couldn't believe it ? So yeah, let's say I had my ups and downs with the game. Regardless, it is one that definitely managed to... play with my mood. That's not something a lot of games achieve! Again, fantastic write-up... I really mean it! 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DrBloodmoney Posted August 20, 2021 Author Share Posted August 20, 2021 (edited) 51 minutes ago, Arcesius said: Holy smokes, man... This was one passionate, interesting write-up! I know you liked the game, I just had no idea how much! I have to admit, - when @grayhammmer put in The Witness as a request, I was like "Uh oh... here we go..." ? I've known that the Witness had an effect on my that is very unusual in gaming, but it wasn't until now that I've been forced to actually try and articulate exactly what that was - and this one took a lot longer to write than almost any other write up so far ? Quote Personally, I'm not as big on puzzle games as you seem to be. Regardless, The Witness took me by surprise as well. It is a game I played blind from start to end (because where is the fun in solving puzzles if you look up solutions..), and throroughly enjoyed my time with it. However, towards the end, I started feeling more and more irritated... I have mentioned this before, but your metapher above makes total and perfect sense. However, there are two outcomes to building a game like that: You can either maintain your excitement for the next puzzle throughout the entire game, or you can grow tired of the lack of positive feedback. In my case, for the most part I was just happy to unlock more and more puzzles, learn about the new puzzle types, and even just walk around in the island. I do understand that notion - to be honest, the boat in particular did feel slow to me too - but that was before the "moment" happened for me. I must admit, I think the particular time that I got the "Moment" - you know the one - was probably perfect and added to the game immeasurably. I came to it late. It was just as the game as I understood it was just past cresting - I thought I had an understanding of it, and had built and built to a peak of enjoyment, and was just beginning to taper off in my appreciation - and them it happened. Basically, that moment was the puzzle-game, intellectual equivalent of hitting the second jump of a double jump at the absolute apex of the first one - it was perfectly timed, and catapulted me high enough to reach the highest 'platform' of appreciation - and it only built from there. Once I had that realisation that the island was more than it seemed, I must have spent another full 30 hours just walking around it marvelling - and part of that new understanding was the realisation that the game is telling me : "Slow down, Step Back, Don't Rush - Trust Us." That's part of why this... Quote But at some point, small details started to bother me. The boat being so slow. The platforms (in the labyrinth section) moving so slowly. And what I felt was the most "insulting", if you want to call it that, were the special rewards. I would have been somewhat fine with no rewards at all. But instead, the reward for solving the secret puzzles (with the notes) are those philosophical videos. I... couldn't believe it ...didn't bother me - I actually loved it. Part of that is, of course, that those videos and lectures are certainly something I would have watched anyways - I am a sucker for that kind of philosophical musing, and would certainly have watched them all if they were just TED talks served up to me on YouTube. I can understand they hold less appeal to other folks who don't share my tastes, but the fact that the game is asking you to slow down to the point of actually stopping - for a good long while - and watching a lecture actually added to the game for me - in a way that almost any other game would have made me tune out if it did the same thing - (After all, I'm the guy who complained vehemently about over-long MGS cutscenes ?) Quote So yeah, let's say I had my ups and downs with the game. Regardless, it is one that definitely managed to... play with my mood. That's not something a lot of games achieve! Again, fantastic write-up... I really mean it! I appreciate that mate! ☺️ I know the game can't be for everyone (no game can) - but despite the difficulty in articulating what I love about this one, I am glad I got to put that down on paper (well, e-paper I guess ?) I do know I'm not likely to change anyone's mind who played it when it came out and didn't love it, but I've seen so many people dismiss the game as "just a bunch of easy puzzles", and that kills me. The Witness is maybe the only game that makes me get genuinely angry when I see people complaining that the "Challenge" at the end is too hard, and fishing for someone to Shareplay it - then looking at their trophies and realising - they just followed a walkthrough or looked up a symbol key. They not only missed an incredible experience, but they did it by debasing one of my favourite enrtries in a medium I love ?? Imagine deliberately missing out on such a profound lesson and toolset for life?! How Dare They!?!?! ? I had to put across the point of view of someone who was actually profoundly moved and affected by the game. I genuinely do think of it during my work life, or parenting life, and think the lessons burned deep enough to slightly alter my outlook generally - that has to count for something! Edited August 20, 2021 by DrBloodmoney 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rjkclarke Posted August 20, 2021 Share Posted August 20, 2021 What a wonderful love letter to the Witness that was... That sounds like a tremendous experience. Another one I really should have played by now, but just never quite have yet. Great stuff all around man!! Thoroughly enjoyed that. That was an interesting take on Prince of Persia: The Forgotten Sands - what an unnecessary addition to an already fairly well bookended trilogy. I don't want to be that guy that makes some pedantic point or anything, but............. ? If memory serves me correct, which maybe it doesn't ?- I believe Forgotten Sands is actually set between the first and the second game in the Sands of time trilogy, so Two Thrones ending does at least remain the definitive end point. It doesn't get cancelled out by Forgotten Sands. So Forgotten Sands is around the time when The Prince discovered Linkin Park, eyeliner and wallet chains. Setting it in between Sands of Time and Warrior Within, does at least give a little more credence to why The Prince might have gotten slightly darker and more jaded going into Warrior Within, when you factor in what transpires in Forgotten Sands - but ultimately did it need to exist? Probably not. I would have preferred a sequel to the 2008 one. Although if I hadn't replayed it last year, I don't think I'd ever have expected to say that. It was awesome seeing you give some love to the vid comic bits in Ratchet 3 - I really dug those too, I see that get quite a lot of hate directed at it. I always found them a pretty decent change in gameplay. I really enjoyed the last one specifically, the one with the rising goop? Water? Lava whatever it was. Some of Quark and Nefarious' dialogue in that really made me laugh. Awesome stuff as ever!! 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DrBloodmoney Posted August 20, 2021 Author Share Posted August 20, 2021 (edited) 29 minutes ago, rjkclarke said: What a wonderful love letter to the Witness that was... That sounds like a tremendous experience. Another one I really should have played by now, but just never quite have yet. Great stuff all around man!! Thoroughly enjoyed that. Oh, it's a real treat - certainly one worth setting some time aside for though- I was lucky in a way, I was excited for it anyway (I was a big fan of Braid, so was on board for whatever JB did next) but it happened to come out the day MsBloodmoney went away with my (at the time) infant son for a week with the grandparents, so I had the house to myself for a week. By the time I was done, the place looked like a mad serial killers lair - it was covered in post-it notes, wacky diagrams, symbols, empty pizza boxes - if anyone had peeks through the window they probably would have called the cops - or homeland security ? Quote That was an interesting take on Prince of Persia: The Forgotten Sands - what an unnecessary addition to an already fairly well bookended trilogy. I don't want to be that guy that makes some pedantic point or anything, but............. If memory serves me correct, which maybe it doesn't - I believe Forgotten Sands is actually set between the first and the second game in the Sands of time trilogy, so Two Thrones ending does at least remain the definitive end point. It doesn't get cancelled out by Forgotten Sands. God, is that true? That totally slipped past me - I didn't even realise that was what they were doing Quote So Forgotten Sands is around the time when The Prince discovered Linkin Park, eyeliner and wallet chains. Setting it in between Sands of Time and Warrior Within, does at least give a little more credence to why The Prince might have gotten slightly darker and more jaded going into Warrior Within, when you factor in what transpires in Forgotten Sands - but ultimately did it need to exist? Probably not. I would have preferred a sequel to the 2008 one. Although if I hadn't replayed it last year, I don't think I'd ever have expected to say that. TBH, that actually raises more questions for me than it answers though - if that's the case, then it seems strange they did so little to really tie it back into the timeline - though I guess that means the game is actually set in a time already shown to have been erased? Way to make your game have no stakes! ? Wait... should the Dahaka not be chasing him in this one then? Did I just forget something? I can't recall him being featured in The Forgotten Sands - though I may have.... forgotten? Quote It was awesome seeing you give some love to the vid comic bits in Ratchet 3 - I really dug those too, I see that get quite a lot of hate directed at it. I always found them a pretty decent change in gameplay. I really enjoyed the last one specifically, the one with the rising goop? Water? Lava whatever it was. Some of Quark and Nefarious' dialogue in that really made me laugh. Is that true? That seems odd to me - I really liked those sections - yeah, they were definitely a little less finessed than the main game, but I've always liked when primarily 3D games put some 2D iseciton in to breakout up - I remember El Shaddai doing that really well. Mostly though, the overblown narration of Quarks heroics really made me laugh at times - I love that kind of Zapp Brannigan stuff they do with him, and those sections were among the best of that I recall from the ones I've played! Edited August 20, 2021 by DrBloodmoney 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rjkclarke Posted August 20, 2021 Share Posted August 20, 2021 (edited) 1 hour ago, DrBloodmoney said: By the time I was done, the place looked like a mad serial killers lair - it was covered in post-it notes, wacky diagrams, symbols, empty pizza boxes - if anyone had peeks through the window they probably would have called the cops - or homeland security Haha!! That's brilliant - That sounds a little like when I spent virtually a week in the house on my own playing The Witcher 3 for close to 10 hours a day... I think I ate my own weight in Pizza that week. ? Less mystery, intrigue and puzzle solving involved in The Witcher though, so no post it notes for me. Needed more room for the extra pizza boxes anyway. The Witness definitely seems like something I need to dive head first into, in the future though. I should have added that was a nice write up of Enigmatis 3 as well - I don't think I've played one of the Artifex Mundi series up to this point, that's quite hit the heights that the Enigmatis trilogy did. From my limited experiences of them, It tends to be, one series has one really standout entry, then some decent to middling ones. Whereas Enigmatis, I found, I really enjoyed all 3 of them - probably helped I'm a sucker for those, less than stellar Sherlock Holmes titles. 1 hour ago, DrBloodmoney said: God, is that true? That totally slipped past me - I didn't even realise that was what they were doing I just checked to make sure - so that tonight I wouldn't end up cooking at gas mark egg on my face, ? it is indeed the case. As you pointed out though it does raise way more questions than answers. 1 hour ago, DrBloodmoney said: TBH, that actually raises more questions for me than it answers though - if that's the case, then it seems strange they did so little to really tie it back into the timeline - though I guess that means the game is actually set in a time already shown to have been erased? Way to make your game have no stakes! Wait... should the Dahaka not be chasing him in this one then? Did I just forget something? I can't recall him being featured in The Forgotten Sands - though I may have.... forgotten? I guess they gave themselves a little bit of wiggle room - apparently it is set somewhere in the seven years between Sands and Warrior Within. I mean, if I had to choose I'd rather that, than have it set after Two Thrones, because that does rather undermine the rest of the trilogy, if it happened after. I thought the same thing about the Dahaka when I played it years ago - I had assumed the Dahaka had been chasing him during all of the time between Sands and Warrior Within, so before playing Forgotten Sands I wholly expected him to pop up at some point and chase you during that game. Funnily enough, that could have made for some really great sections, changing water into ice in quick succession, to try and get away from him and the like. 1 hour ago, DrBloodmoney said: Is that true? That seems odd to me - I really liked those sections - yeah, they were definitely a little less finessed than the main game, but I've always liked when primarily 3D games put some 2D iseciton in to breakout up - I remember El Shaddai doing that really well. Mostly though, the overblown narration of Quarks heroics really made me laugh at times - I love that kind of App Brannigan stuff they do with him, and those sections were among the best of that I recall from the ones I've played! It is - although I've probably seen more people complain about the difficulty than anything. I Thought that was a bit of a head scratcher myself, as apart from collecting all the tokens in one run, nothing about that seemed difficult. Then again, difficulty is subjective isn't it. The narration is precisely why it never bothered me if I failed a section, because it was genuinely very funny, even if I'd heard it plenty of times. That's a great comparison there to Zapp Brannigan haha! ? Edited August 20, 2021 by rjkclarke 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Platinum_Vice Posted August 21, 2021 Share Posted August 21, 2021 Ah, The Witness... this game also had a big impact on my life as a gamer... obtaining the plat was the catalyst for the last five or six years now of my life with the hobby of trophy hunting. P.S. the trophy guide is ok. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DrBloodmoney Posted August 21, 2021 Author Share Posted August 21, 2021 (edited) 4 hours ago, GonzoWARgasm said: Ah, The Witness... this game also had a big impact on my life as a gamer... obtaining the plat was the catalyst for the last five or six years now of my life with the hobby of trophy hunting. P.S. the trophy guide is ok. I never realised you were the one to make that! Man… … now I feel a little bad for constantly telling people to never use a guide for that game, no matter what? I saw you made very liberal use of the spoiler function though - for which I wholeheartedly salute you - and to be fair, it’s a really well put together guide! Congrats! Edited August 21, 2021 by DrBloodmoney 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DrBloodmoney Posted August 21, 2021 Author Share Posted August 21, 2021 (edited) 22 hours ago, rjkclarke said: I should have added that was a nice write up of Enigmatis 3 as well - I don't think I've played one of the Artifex Mundi series up to this point, that's quite hit the heights that the Enigmatis trilogy did. From my limited experiences of them, It tends to be, one series has one really standout entry, then some decent to middling ones. Whereas Enigmatis, I found, I really enjoyed all 3 of them - probably helped I'm a sucker for those, less than stellar Sherlock Holmes titles. Thanks for that man - Yeah, I've certainly chewed through quite a few of the Artifex Mundi fare at this point (the PS ones on this list are only the half of it - I played a lot of these on iPad too - where I still think they are actually a lot better suited... bu, y'know, trophies yo ?) - and the Enigmatis ones are definitely stand out in the pack. It's funny you mention a penchant for those Frogware Sherlock Holmes games actually - they don't have a lot of crossover on the surface, but there defiantly seems to be a some overlap in the Venn Diagram somewhere, as I've notice those are popular among a lot of the same crowd for some reason. Certainly, a lot of fans of Artifex Mundi are fans of the those too. Anecdotally, I've noticed a lot of folks who like both of those seem to be the ones who grew up loving either Gabriel Knight (the old Sierra Noir-Detective Adventure games) or - and especially - the Nancy Drew PC games. I guess they appeal to those willing to prioritise good, solid puzzle and 'detective work' type gameplay over visuals, maybe? Or at least, those who can laugh at the stilted visuals and dialogue, but still be along for the ride, and not feel taken out of it by those aspects! Certainly Artifex Mundi (and those Nancy Drew games) were never going to win any awards for their visuals (aside from a gaming-razzie ?) , but they're games that have a very satisfying, simple loop - like doing a crossword or a sudoku or a picross or something of that ilk. Actually, those Frogware Sherlock Holmes games are similar (albeit with a toe dipped a little more in the 'big game' pool) - though if anything, that actually seems to hurt them a little. I maintain that if something with the style and visuals of, say, an LA Noire had exactly the same core gameplay as those games, they would be considered great - it's just the budgetary and technical and visual stuff that keeps them in the 'B-Game' category - but because they look to be in the same category as bigger budget games, they suffer from a 'small fish in a big pool' situation, whereas Artifex Mundi don't. No one is judging Artifex Mundi stuff in comparison to AAA, so they get to exist on their own merits, within their own specific category, but the Frogware stuff wanders into the big-game-turf, and gets beaten to a pulp ? Edited August 21, 2021 by DrBloodmoney 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rjkclarke Posted August 21, 2021 Share Posted August 21, 2021 (edited) 1 hour ago, DrBloodmoney said: I guess they appeal to those willing to prioritise good, solid puzzle and 'detective work' type gameplay over visuals, maybe? I always read all of the things you put in the batches, even if it's something I've not played. I struggle to put it all under one big blanket statement. Especially so, if there's so many interesting points you made about the games, that I'm either curious about, or want to have a little mini discussion about. That's why that Enigmatis 3 thing might have seemed a bit tacked on That's certainly the thing that got me hooked on those kind of games, and very much still is the case. In fact if I remember right, the PC exclusive Sherlock titles. The ones pre Sherlock Holmes vs Jack the Ripper at least, those probably had even more in common with Artifex Mundi titles than the latter ones tended to. Even visually. Don't worry by the way, I'm replying to the whole thing - I just wanted to pluck something out that won't take up a huge amount of space. Great point by the way.. It's really interesting to look at the Artifex Mundi titles in that context, I guess it's something I'd never really thought about. I'm definitely going to be playing more Artifex Mundi titles, because I usually find them really enjoyable, apart from one of the Eventide games I didn't quite get on with. But I played it after a really long day at work, in one sitting - which admittedly was probably not the smartest time to play it. I don't think the visuals in Artifex Mundi games are all that bad (or is it more, I've just gotten used to them) - although, you could definitely make the argument that for games released on the PS4, they arguably definitely aren't up to snuff. I think, like you alluded to, people just tend to live with them in favour of a satisfying gameplay loop. There's a few times where the limited visuals work as a strength, I think it works really well in My Brother Rabbit - even if parts of that game don't quite hit the heights that they perhaps wanted to. Some of it visually is incredibly cleverly done, if anything it benefited from not having a lot of cutscenes - as it allowed them to put some very specific attention to detail in some of the backdrops in the areas. I think you're completely right about the fact that if that same gameplay was implemented in a title with a bigger budget, it would probably be much more lauded critically. I think over ambition might be Frogwares problem to an extent - or at the very least; if not ambition, a very deliberate desire to be considered amongst the big hitters, and ultimately it does end up hurting the product a little bit. Personally, I think them trying to modernise the gameplay in their recent Sherlock Holmes titles have hurt them a little bit too. I can certainly understand why they did that, but some of the elements end up feeling a bit tacked on, instead of just organic game evolution. I'm so curious to see how well Frogwares handles an open world detective game in The Sinking City - so I'll probably play that soon. I might have dug out Frogwares over ambition a bit, but I always love to see when developers are so obviously trying, even if it doesn't always hit the heights they'd like it too. Edited August 21, 2021 by rjkclarke 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
YaManSmevz Posted August 21, 2021 Share Posted August 21, 2021 I've played games like Gradius or Prince of Persia. I think I've understood them... they're about girls, right? I'm not the biggest puzzle person, but I do believe you've guided me into the arms of The Witness. You're so romantic! Gotta say I get a real kick out of your second and third generation reviews. I share your fascination of video game history, and if anybody ever knocked on your door saying "we need a curator for our video game museum, can you help us??" all I can tell you is to pack the fam and go wherever they tell you without a second's thought. You're dead on about the music too, although amusingly enough I went to YouTube and an ad started playing, and for a split second I thought "this is from '85??" Me? Me dumb. You smart. Good words? 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DrBloodmoney Posted August 21, 2021 Author Share Posted August 21, 2021 1 hour ago, YaManSmevz said: I'm not the biggest puzzle person, but I do believe you've guided me into the arms of The Witness. Oh man - I can’t tell you how happy it makes me to think I could have encouraged someone to give it a go! ☺️ One thing I’ll advise you - actually, I’ll implore you! - if you are planning on diving in - don’t read anything more about it. Don’t research, don’t look up trophies or anything (for what it’s worth, it’s a simple trophy list - just playing the game is enough to plat) - just try and avoid all related media before you do. Try as hard as you can to go in and play blind - it’s worth it! 1 hour ago, YaManSmevz said: You're dead on about the music too, although amusingly enough I went to YouTube and an ad started playing, and for a split second I thought "this is from '85??" Tha Gradius soundtrack is off the hook, right!? I remembered it being good, but going back for a blast of it really brought in focus how close it gets to some of that classic 16-bit stuff - a little less nuanced since the sound chip was obviously less advanced - but it shows there were some great composers of digital music working in the medium even back then! 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
YaManSmevz Posted August 21, 2021 Share Posted August 21, 2021 3 hours ago, DrBloodmoney said: Oh man - I can’t tell you how happy it makes me to think I could have encouraged someone to give it a go! One thing I’ll advise you - actually, I’ll implore you! - if you are planning on diving in - don’t read anything more about it. Don’t research, don’t look up trophies or anything (for what it’s worth, it’s a simple trophy list - just playing the game is enough to plat) - just try and avoid all related media before you do. Try as hard as you can to go in and play blind - it’s worth it! I'm not the brightest fella but I'm definitely down to give it a shot! Honestly the developers of the games in your top 30 need to send you PR packages so you can give them write-ups to sell their new games. You've made so many games I wouldn't normally think of as my taste sound utterly tantalizing. Like... a puzzle game?? How the hell did you make me want to do that?? 3 hours ago, DrBloodmoney said: Tha Gradius soundtrack is off the hook, right!? I remembered it being good, but going back for a blast of it really brought in focus how close it gets to some of that classic 16-bit stuff - a little less nuanced since the sound chip was obviously less advanced - but it shows there were some great composers of digital music working in the medium even back then! It really does sound startlingly sharp, it's on par with the heights of the NES (for some reason I'm reminded of my near lifelong love of the original Batman game soundtrack). As much as music in games has progressed, the games from back then with solid soundtracks absolutely still hold their own. After all, chiptune didn't become its own genre for nuffin! 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Platinum_Vice Posted August 22, 2021 Share Posted August 22, 2021 10 hours ago, YaManSmevz said: Like... a puzzle game?? How the hell did you make me want to do that?? @DrBloodmoney can you do a write up if a JRPG and make one of those sound good? It's funny how most people will absolutely not have a well-rounded game collection. If Smevz doesn't play many puzzle games, then my equivalent is JRPGs. Smevz, have you played Portal 1 or 2? Or Return of the Obra Dinn? Those would be other must-play puzzlers to dip your toe into the genre. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DrBloodmoney Posted August 22, 2021 Author Share Posted August 22, 2021 (edited) 37 minutes ago, GonzoWARgasm said: @DrBloodmoney can you do a write up if a JRPG and make one of those sound good? It's funny how most people will absolutely not have a well-rounded game collection. If Smevz doesn't play many puzzle games, then my equivalent is JRPGs. Hmmm, well... ... certainly I grew up on a far few jpgs - I'd certainly have ranked Chronotrigger, FFVI, Illusion of Gaia and Earthbound among my favourite games of the 16-bit era, but I must admit, my experience with the genre's a little lacking on the more modern stuff. Certainly, for that genre, your main men on the Trophy Checklist side would certainly be @rjkclarke, @The_Kopite, @Baker & a few others, whos knowledge of the other big JRPG series leaves mine in the dust. ...having said that - I do have some eligible. Theres already a Final Fantasy XIII review up in Batch 9 - and of the ones not already ranked, the few ones I have S-Ranked (and are therefore eligible) I can see off the bat would be: Final Fantasy VII Final Fantasy VII Remake (not really a traditional JRG - more of a Character Action game really) Final Fantasy X HD Final Fantasy XIII-2 I Am Setsuna Ni No Kuni: Wrath of the White Witch Ni No Kuni II: Revenant Kingdom Persona 4 Golden Persona 5 Royal Ys: Memories of Celceta Cosmic Star Heroine Child of Light (a bit of a stretch) Cat Quest (a bit of a stretch) So, I guess take your pick and I'll add one to the Priority Ranking! ☺️? Quote Smevz, have you played Portal 1 or 2? Or Return of the Obra Dinn? Those would be other must-play puzzlers to dip your toe into the genre. Absolutely - all great games! Portal 2 in particular could be a good "gateway drug" to puzzle games, especially for those more used to narrative focussed games? It has an incredibly funny and engaging story to go along with the puzzle element. Obviously, it's best to play Portal first - which would mean hunting down a copy of The Orange box on PS3 - though I think it's probably easier to just download steam - Portal would probably run on basically any system at this point, and it's only a couple of hours long Edited August 22, 2021 by DrBloodmoney 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
YaManSmevz Posted August 22, 2021 Share Posted August 22, 2021 1 hour ago, GonzoWARgasm said: Smevz, have you played Portal 1 or 2? Or Return of the Obra Dinn? Those would be other must-play puzzlers to dip your toe into the genre. I did play Portal 2, that was a lot of fun! A friend and I played that with a few times. I'd be lying if I said I got terribly far but I enjoyed what I played. As I recall, the good Doctor gave Obra Dinn quite a glowing review... crap. Am I a closet puzzle lover and never knew it?? ....probably not. But no sense in missing out on good games! 46 minutes ago, DrBloodmoney said: ... certainly I grew up on a far few jpgs - I'd certainly have ranked Chronotrigger, FFVI, Illusion of Gaia and Earthbound among my favourite games of the 16-bit era, but I must admit, my experience with the genre's a little lacking on the more modern stuff. Same. My expertise fizzles out pretty quickly after about 1995? 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Platinum_Vice Posted August 23, 2021 Share Posted August 23, 2021 (edited) 22 hours ago, DrBloodmoney said: Persona 5 Royal I will probably give P5 and FFVII and IX (the PS1 versions) a go over the next couple of years. If you could add P5R to your list I'd be greatful to hear your take please Edited August 23, 2021 by GonzoWARgasm 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DrBloodmoney Posted August 23, 2021 Author Share Posted August 23, 2021 (edited) 5 hours ago, GonzoWARgasm said: I will probably five P5 and FFVII and IX (the PS1 versions) a go over the next couple of years. If you could add P5R to your list I'd be greatful to hear your take please Absolutely my good man - flagging with your name right now ?? That one might be a longer one, so may save it for a batch or two, but should be in the next couple ? EDIT - actually, I think I will really need to do Persona 4 Golden before I do Persona 5 Royal, just to have some context to work from, so I will flag that one with your name too - just to get the ball rolling! Edited August 23, 2021 by DrBloodmoney 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post DrBloodmoney Posted August 23, 2021 Author Popular Post Share Posted August 23, 2021 !!SCIENCE UPDATE!! The next 5 (somewhat) randomly selected games to be submitted for scientific analysis shall be: Aabs Animals Grim Legends 2: Song of the Dark Swan Knee DeepPersona 4 Golden The Bunker Plus, for the first time ever (??), I happened to finish a bonus game after posting the last batch, but before posting this preview, so can state that there will be at least one bonus addition of: Returnal Subject(s) in RED marked for PRIORITY ASSIGNEMENT [Care of @GonzoWARgasm] Can 'Current Most Awesome' game, Invisible Inc, maintain the title again, after the close call The Witness gave it last round? Is languishing last-in-show Space Overlords going to ever have any competition for 'Least Awesome Game'? Let's find out, Science Pals! 5 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post DrBloodmoney Posted August 24, 2021 Author Popular Post Share Posted August 24, 2021 I did it - I fucking did it! I actually wrote a review of Aabs Animals! *ahem* Sorry - the batch isn't finished, so it's not up yet, but I had no idea how I was gonna do that one, and can hardly believe I managed. Back to your stations everyone. Apologies. I'll see myself out. 6 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post DrBloodmoney Posted August 26, 2021 Author Popular Post Share Posted August 26, 2021 (edited) ?? NEW SCIENTIFIC RESULTS ARE IN! ?? Hello Science-Lads and Science-Lassies, as promised (and in some cases requested), here are the latest results of our great scientific endeavour! Aabs Animals Summary: Y'all though I'd just not bother with this one, right? Admit it - you thought I'd try to gloss over this period in my trophy hunting life, when I dipped my toe in the burgeoning trophy-for-cash industry, and took on the mighty endeavour that is the Aabs Animals S-Rank, in all it's titanic, feline glory... ...well... ...NEVER! Don't you know me but at all? All games deserve their time in the Scientific Spotlight! Every game must be placed under the microscope! Every dog cat must have his day! And so here we go... Let's start with a gameplay summary: You look at a cat. End of gameplay summary. That seems like a joke, but it's factual - Aabs Animals isn't really a game, its more of a moving photograph of a menu-selected kitten. You load it up, a cute, computer-generated kitten plays in some grass, and you... look at it. If you look for the and total of 315 seconds, you get the full S-Rank. So... there really isn't much to latch onto here. I pride myself on giving each game a review based on its merits and its intention, but I'm struggling a bit on this one. Gameplay-wise there is less going on here than there was in the pixelated LCD screen of the Tamagotchi that my (at the time) 10-year old sister had packed herself a lunch of two carrots and a slice of unbuttered white bread in a Tupperware, stole my mom's keys, and headed out to walk 3 miles at 2AM to begin queuing for at the local Jolly Giant Toy-store to secure - thus sparking, upon dawn breaking and her absence from the house noted, a city-wide emergency involving all Glasgow-based members of our extended family network, all friends with phones / cars, and eventually the police to secure her whereabouts. (Spoiler Alert - she was fine, and did get her prize, though was most perturbed to then have it confiscated for a month as punishment for her AWOL status and the ensuing family panic.) To be fair, the intention of Aabs Animals appears to be to make a game in which you look at a cute kitten for five minutes, and Aabs Animals does succeed at that. Are the kittens cute? Actually, you bet - they are super-fucking-cute! Am I looking at it? I sure am! What else am I gonna look at? Does it make me feel marginally more pleasant and soothed than I did before? Kinda, sure? So... I guess it's... a roaring success? 10/10 for cute-cat-ness, I suppose, and given that that is the only intention, I reckon it might be argued this is the most successfully executed game of all time... But seriously. There isn't really anything here. The fur-tech on the kittens is pretty nice. The cats actually move and animate really well. If this "cat-tech" were in, you know, a GAME, it would probably warrant a specific mention - "That cat was so cute, right? I liked that part!" - but it isn't a game in and of itself. In some ways - if I were to reeeeaaaaallly stretch my credulity, and squint almost to the point of blindness, I might argue that there is something of a joke here about Cats vs. Dogs. Since Nintendogs existed, and was more interact-able, you could maybe make the argument that this game being so non-interactive is actually a sort-of-metaphor for the difference between how "interactive" a cat is as a pet, as opposed to a dog...? After all, as the saying goes, you own a dog, a cat owns you... ...but no. That's not the case. After all, Nintendogs+Cats also already existed. Really, Aabs Animals is "Looking at a Not-Real Cat: With Trophies." If that's appealing, you could do worse than this - and I won't judge. I like cute cats too! There is some plinky-plunky music, and it's passable. Certainly for the 5 minutes you need to add this one to your stable of S-Ranks. The Ranking: We can joke around fine in the Summary section, but the Rankings section is where we need to get down to brass-tacks. Aabs Animals isn't a game. (I know some folks might argue the same about some walking sims, or Virginia, or The Bunker or Late Shift etc, or even some Ratalaika published fare... but they are wrong - and even they would admit that is hyperbole.) Here, it is literal - this genuinely isn't a game. You might think that puts it automatically at the very bottom of the list, however, that is not so. Oddly, not being a game doesn't actually make Aabs Animals the worst 'game' on this list. There are, in fact, 4 entries on the list so far that I believe have to rank lower than it, for one simple reason: Playing nothing is preferable to playing Watchmen: The End Is Nigh, WWE Legends Of WrestleMania, Kick-Ass The Game or Space Overlords. "Playing" Aabs Animals is still preferable to playing nothing - in the same sense that looking at a cat video is preferable to not looking at a cat video. That is a truth that is - lets face it - borne out by the entire business model of YouTube, TikTok, Vine etc. The very existence of the internet as we know it is, in a very real way, built on two truths - people like looking at kittens, and people like looking at naked people. The rest of it is really just window-dressing. As such, Aabs Animals has to, by default, place higher than those 4 turdly products. Grin Legends 2: Song of the Dark Swan Summary: Not a bad entry in the Artifex Mundi canon, Grim Legends 2: Song of the Dark Swan continues in the slightly Hans Christian Anderson style of fairytale yarn it set with Grim Legends: The Forsaken Bride, with a bright, colourful European art style. The story is fairly good - eclipsing that of the first Grim Legends game, though the characters are a little bland at times. The selection of puzzles in the game are interesting - not many unique styles on show in this one, but of the usual Artifex Mundi fare, there are versions of most of the best ones, so, while not unique, it is at least a good 'greatest hits' selection. There are fewer actual photo-hunt sections here - a shame, as the vivid art makes the ones that are present good, but some seem to have been usurped by more of the 'shift sections of a mural around to advance a mini-story' type puzzle, which is never a strong point of these games in my view. Still, no silly boss fights, a very good selection of (and strong examples of) well worn puzzles, a decent bonus chapter and strong art make up for the shortfalls in picture-hunt sections and the over-abundance of the less interesting ones. The Ranking: In terms of Artifex Mundi, it still doesn't quite beat out Enigmatis: The Ghosts of Maple Creek, but Grim Legends 2: Song of the Dark Swan does beat Eventide 2: Sorcerer's Mirror and Kingmaker: Rise to the Throne on the strength of the puzzle selection and the art. Of the few games in between, this is a strong enough example of Artifex Mundi's puzzle-lite genre to outdo decent, but flawed longer games like Dokuro and LEGO Legends of Chima, but the comedic elements and limited character of LEGO Movie: The Videogame still manage to fend it off, and so Grim Legends 2: Song of the Dark Swan finds its spot. Knee Deep Summary: Knee Deep is strange. There are quite a lot of games I have ranked (and will rank) about which that could be said, and often it is as a result of a peculiar set of mechanics, or a curious genre mash-up, or simply a bizarre or esoteric narrative, but very few are strange in the specific manner that Knee Deep is. Mechanically, it is a fairly standard narrative-driven point and click adventure game. Closer to the modern Telltale-style of that genre - the choices the player makes are entirely ones of dialogue and responses chosen from lists, rather than the more traditional 'use item on X' ("I don't think that will work") of older Telltale / Lucas Arts / Sierra games. There are no real 'puzzle' elements here, they are curtailed in favour of maintaining a narrative pace. That narrative takes the form of a Swamp-Noire tale set in the fictional Floridian backwater town of Cypress Knee. A small-time down-and-out actor is found dead - hung from the local water tower. In the oppressive swamp-heat of the night, the player takes control - at set points - of three characters: an infotainment blogger looking to make her way back into the news game after a series of professional failures named Romana, a washed-up, depressed reporter named Jack, and a gruff local PI named Gaddis. Each has some sort of complicated history with the town itself and/or each-other, and each is looking to confirm / disprove the working theory of 'suicide' via some noire-level detective work around the town. So far, so normal - right? Right. The narrative is simple, and never incredible, but solid and well enough told. The plot is twisty-turny in a good, strong, Noire sense, and does actually tie together in quite a satisfying way, bringing all three seemingly separate stories to a unified conclusion that is convoluted, but in the right way - one which fans of Raymond Chandler-esque Noire literature and cinema (I am certainly one of them) will appreciate. The game is very linear though - I played 2 full playthroughs, specifically selecting wildly different dialogue or tonal choices, and while individual scenes did change a little in direction or tone, the overall narrative remained virtually unchanged. The objective here is to see a marginally malleable story through to its inevitable conclusion, rather than to craft a specific or individualised one from a treasure trove of possibilities. The tone of the game works well for the most part, and while dialogue is hit-and-miss, and for the most part middling, it tends to veer towards good a little more often than in the other direction. Certainly, the game is not going to win any prizes for its writing, but it is relatively solid, and the characters, while never stand-out and not hugely memorable, do work in respect of the archetypes they are portraying, and service the tone and narrative rather than detracting from it. The mechanics and the narrative, however, are not what sets this one apart from the crowd - it's the presentation. Knee Deep is not presented as a story, it is presented as a theatrical play. This isn't a game portraying a narrative, but rather, a game portraying a play portraying a narrative. The visuals are not an attempt at realistic, but instead, as a realistic depiction of an amateurish theatrical production's attempts at looking realistic. Each scene looks like the location it is presenting, but only shows the parts that would be build if the story were presented on a theatrical stage. Background objects are deliberately flat and rudimentary. The front of the stage is visible at times. Lighting rigs can occasionally be seen high above the stage. When characters monologue, the lighting dims, and a spotlight shines on them, as they deliver their lines directly to the (occasionally seen, and often vocal) audience in which the player sits. When characters make a scene transition, they either stand on a visible set point, as the scene transition happens behind them, or walk 'off-stage' until it is complete. The concept is a very odd one, and one I cannot recall ever having seen before. The dedication Prologue Games have to the idea is carried through the game in every aspect, from hearing the audience around you "gasp" when bigger narrative reveals happen, or seeing mechanical devices shift stage props as scenes transition, to even having some comedic prompts for the player in intermissions or prior to the curtain rising, like 'eat popcorn' or 'play on your phone'. The whole 'play' angle of the game is interesting, and certainly serves to sat what could, without it, be a fairly pedestrian, unmemorable game - however, with such a presentational flourish, comes both good and bad elements from a qualitative point of view. On the plus side, it allows smaller developer Prologue Games to have environments (sets) that lack a level of artistic or graphical prowess and to avoid needing too much art-design in terms of background / dressing etc. The lack of it it makes contextual sense, given this is not simply a conceit, but a conceit within a conceit. It also excuses some of the more lack-lustre dialogue, as it adds a meta-level to the entire endeavour. Was that line clunky because Prologue themselves lacked writing finesse? Or is it showing that the writers of the small-town production we are watching lacked writing finesse? On the negative side though, the fact that the whole game is set one 'level' removed from the player, does mean that I as the player spent a lot of time assuming that the conceit would be made use of more interestingly, and as more than simple dressing. Because the 'Play-within-a-Game' aspect is so unique, I was convinced throughout my time with the game that, at some point, the narrative would 'spill out', and involve a plot that swept up the 'actors' playing the parts, in addition to the characters they were playing. I assumed it would do one of three things. Either: do a "Blazing Saddles" and have the characters 'escape' from the confines of their own play do a "Birdman" and have the story of the actors be a separate but parallel story concurrent with the play* or, go full "Synecdoche, New York", Charlie Kaufmann style, and find the actors interacting with their own characters, and the whole concept interweaving with magical realism. Spoiler Alert: none of this happens. The 'Play-within-a-Game' aspect of Knee Deep is simply a presentational conceit, and nothing more. As such, while it is an interesting dressing, it has the negative side-effect of giving the player a tantalising glimpse of what could be possible using such a construct. Without having any intention of walking any of those more interesting paths, it could be seen as actually detracting a little from what is, in reality, a reasonably good product on its own merits. Within the conceit of the game, the artwork is pretty good - this is a lower budget title, and so the graphical and technical aspects of the visuals are limited, however, artistic flourishes are well done. Lighting is moody and well used, in particular in showing the sets as what they are - sets, presented on a stage. Audio is reasonably good. The score isn't much to write home about, but some of the moody, ominous tones work - certainly within the confines of the 'play' conceit, and some audio-stings during scene transitions set the tone well. Voice work is very variable in quality - the three principal characters are for the most part okay, Gaddis being the most consistent, and Romana the least - though some of the NPC characters are a little "first-take-y". Overall, there are a fair number of things to like in Knee Deep - the story is interesting and coherent, the tone is moody and even, and the presentation is genuinely unique, peculiar and fun to see. While I do wish more had been done with it, it isn't right to hold what a game isn't (and never intended to be) against what it is - and what it is, is pretty good, and well worth checking out. The Ranking: For Ranking, we need to look at other narrative driven, modern adventure games in which dialogue choices are the primary focus. We have a few on the list so far, and the first ones that come to mind are the Supermassive games - Until Dawn, and Hidden Agenda. In terms of Until Dawn, while Knee Deep has the more interesting presentational hook in its 'Play within a Game', it is simply not playing in the same league as Until Dawn, on voice work, characters, visuals or tension. While Knee Deep's story works reasonably well on first playthrough, it is not variable in anywhere close to the way Until Dawn was. Moreover, Until Dawn is going for the Slasher-Flick genre and absolutely nails that aim, in a way Knee Deep never nails it's Swap Noire intentions. With Hidden Agenda though, it is a more interesting comparison. Hidden Agenda also has a single, strong hook - in its case, its multiplayer aspects, allowing 'party-play' of what would seem a single-player genre. While that is, I would argue, actually an even more interesting and unique selling-point that Knee Deep's 'Play within a Game' - and one that is more successful, given that it works far better than expected and does more on a mechanical level to elevate the game it is in, I cannot deny that the actual story of Hidden Agenda is sorely lacking. Yes, it is more variable than Knee Deep's, but across 4 or 5 playthroughs, most narratives in Hidden Agenda were a garbled mess. Knee Deep's held together well. Hidden Agenda is more varied, but only in the sense that a patchwork quilt is more varied than a standard duvet. While I might prefer the patchwork, visually, if it isn't stitched together right, then it doesn't serve its purpose. It falls apart, and leaves you cold, shivering, and longing for the comfort of a standard duvet. As such, despite the graphical discrepancy, Knee Deep outranks Hidden Agenda. In between those two, is another narrative-heavy, choice based game - Twin Mirror. While Twin Mirror doesn't have a unique hook on the level of Knee Deep's (it has the mind palace stuff involving the principal character, but given that those are the weakest aspects of the game, those don't really help it.) However, it does have a lot of other similarities. It is about detective work in a small, insular town about a suicide that might be a murder and is a little noire-ish in tone. This is a closer fight. Twin Mirror is graphically better, but artistically less interesting. Its overall plot and narrative are weaker, but its characters are stronger. Its presentation is less interesting, but its voice-acting markedly better. It's a tough one, but in the end, I think it comes down to intent - and on this aspect, Twin Mirror wins out. As I said in that review (and as part of the even longer write up on the game for the Mental Health Awareness Event on the site) I don't think Twin Mirror is always successful in its attempts to address issues around mental health, but it is sometimes. It tried to, at least, and that counts for something. Knee Deep is not attempting to say anything beyond its surface level, it is simply telling a fun yarn, albeit in an interesting way. Twin Mirror is only sporadically successful at addressing its issues, but Knee Deep doesn't have any. Knee Deep is only Skin Deep. (Sorry, I know, that's one of those jokes you know is coming, and you just have to sit there.) As such, Knee Deep loses in the match-up, however, it is a close fight, and so Knee Deep finds its spot just below it. Persona 4 Golden Summary: ☢️SCIENTIFIC NOTE☢️ Persona 4 Golden was my entry point into the Persona Series. While I have, since then, played its sequel Persona 5 (a review of which will follow in a future batch,) and have played some amount of both Persona and Persona 2, I have, even to this day, not delved into the P4's immediate predecessor, Persona 3, I have also, it should be noted, not played the original PS2 version of Persona 4. (Though, in some sense, I do have a fairly thorough understanding of it - thanks entirely to the Giant Bomb Endurance Run!) As such, this review will not focus on specific changed made to the series in Persona 4 Golden, or look at the evolution of mechanics up to this point, as I am unqualified to speak to them. Instead, this review will treat Persona 4 as what it was for me - and was for a great number of PS Vita owning players - the entry point to the series. Any Doctor Who fans here? No? Good - me neither actually. However, Y'all know what a Tardis is, right? His time-travelling spaceship, which is massive when viewed from the inside, but is only the size of a police box from the outside? Cool, okay. Then this will make sense:Persona 4 is a Reverse-Tardis. The game is fucking massive when viewed from the outside. As primarily a JRPG, the game is playing in a genre synonymous with obscene length anyways, and even in that sandbox, Persona 4 stands out. Running at close to 150 hours for a single playthrough, it is already in the rarified category where no small number of players may baulk at the notion of playing it purely based on hour-count, however, those players would be making a terrible mistake - for 2 simple reasons: 1. Persona 4 is an absolutely marvellous game. 2. The game doesn't feel anywhere as close to at long as it is, from the inside. The 150 hours of playtime goes down so smoothly, and so satisfyingly, that at the end of it, the player is more likely to be disappointed and want to dive straight into a second playthrough than to breathe an exhausted sigh of relief. Persona 4 is, in some senses a genre mash-up, straddling a line between JRPG dungeon crawler, Social and Dating Simulation and Pokemon-style collection game, however, I would struggle to actually define it as such, fo the simple reason that the game marries all its different genre types and systems so incredibly well. Taking place in the sleepy town of Inaba, our protagonist Yu (get it?) arrives from the big city, having been sent to live with his uncle Dojima (a local police detective) and his daughter, the delightfully sweet, television-obsessed Nanako. Attending the local high school the game takes place over the course of an entire year, as Yu makes friends with a fantastic cast of well defined and likeable characters, and follows a convoluted, brilliantly written and bat-shit crazy plot involving a local murder, a magical television show, the kidnapping of students and townsfolk by otherworldly forces, and the taming of characters fears, desires and demons, as they struggle to confront both who they are, what they fear, and the psychological factors of their own personalities that they struggle with. The plot is, necessarily, incredibly long and winding, given the extreme length of the game, however, it really is notable how well it is implemented. Over the course of the entire school year, every day gives something new, and I cannot think of any point in the narrative during which I was not invested. While the game does take a good 5-10 hours to really settle into a stride, even from the very start, the extreme likability of all the principle characters, and the excellent voice work and odd, confident writing sets an incredibly likeable and welcoming tone. Over the course of the game, new characters are added sporadically, but every one feels unique and distinct, with their own personality, tonal additions to the overall flavour, and aspects that set them apart. For a game featuring so many npc characters, it is remarkable how memorable each one is - from the most screen-time heavy cast of Kung-Fu obsessed tomboy Chie, excitable, lovably-inept Yosuke, Shy and retiring Yukiko and completely bizarre TV-dwelling magical bear(?) Teddy, to the smallest parts like curious animal Mysterious Fox, or the Ice Cube inspired vocal stylings of the afro-sporting, quiz-setting "Funky Student", every character is somehow stand out, or interesting, or nuanced, or funny, or charming. The game is very much one of interlinking and interweaving mechanics. Between the narrative elements of the mystery plot, the social interactions, the weather, the dungeons, the collection and management of the eponymous "Personas" (magical beings imbued with different battle / social powers,) and the various different JRPG tropes, the day-by-day structure of the game, in which decisions must be made as to how to spend time must be made and managed, makes the whole experience fly by. Every mechanic in the game is not only well implemented in and of itself, but each one affects all the others in a cross-mechanical matrix. "Social Link" mechanics, (whereby spending time with different characters increases a bond with them,) not only unlocks plot elements and secondary story, but also increased their viability and variability in dungeon battles. Unlocking, taming, combining and equipping different Personas not only affects a character's strength and attributes, and their battle-readiness, but also the viability of different social links and social interactions. The weather system not only affects the plot (characters kidnapped and puled into the "TV World" must be rescued before a foggy day in the real world spells a clear one in TV land, and their doom,) but also affects what social aspects can be engaged in, as well as dungeon difficulty, shop merchandise availability and other aspects. For a game with so many different areas to concentrate on, and so many interweaving mechanics, it is remarkable how little the player ends up feeling lost. The net effect of all these compounding elements on the game experience is that, if at any time the player feels fatigued with one aspect, the game has a plethora of other areas to concentrate on for a while, reinvigorating them. Visually, the game is a beast. The game originally stems from the PS2, and so the main gameplay graphics are of that level, however, the original release of Persona 4, in 2008, was very late in the lifespan of that system (indeed, the PS3 was already released,) and Atlus knew, by that point how to get the most from it. The visuals are given an extra polish in the Golden edition, and that coupled with the benefit of the smaller Vita screen, makes the game virtually indistinguishable from the best looking games on that system. Couple that with what has to be some of the most confident, stylish UI in a JRP, and in games generally, and the excellent hand-animated cut-scenes, and the result is a game that looks a real powerhouse on the Vita. The Audio of the game is great. Voice work is uniformly excellent - which is remarkable given the enormous cast and incredible amount of dialogue. I cannot recall a single character who's voice work dipped below the high bar the game set generally. The music of the game is also incredibly good. If someone had told me, prior to playing any Persona game, that the battle music - ie. the music you hear in EVERY one of the hundreds of battles in the game - would be an actual song with actual lyrics, I would have scoffed and thought the idea absurd, yet even that song remains catchy as hell, and I would happily listen to it now, even for the billionth time. (It is no small compliment to point out that Persona 3, Persona 4 and Persona 5 all have their own rhythm game released, featuring the music of their respective games, and that those games stand tall on the basis of that music.) There are a few minor areas in which the game does suffer a little. The actual combat mechanics, while tremendously fun and variable, can get a little tired over the course of a long dungeon. Because Persona 4 is much more a game of playing the enemies weaknesses than of battling their strengths, once a particular enemy type is fully understood, it can get a little repetitive to simply beat them over and over with the same moves. The dungeons also, can get a little repetitive, depending on how long the player takes to traverse them. Each one is distinct and interesting - tailored to the specific character being 'saved' and tied thematically to their own complex fears and anxieties, because most (certainly early on) do not allow exit and entry to specific floors, it can be exhausting to traverse each one in a single go. There is also, in the 10-30 hour region of the game, a tendency for the player to feel a little overwhelmed by the sheer amount of the game. At that point, so much is available for the player to choose to do on any given day, that it can lead to the paralysis of choice, where they feel a little anxious that they are making the "wrong" choice of how to spend their precious time. However, there is a mechanic - new to the Golden, Vita edition - in which the player can view a "cloud map" of what other players did on any given day, giving something of a rough guide and a nudge in one direction or the other. It should be noted - Time is the main consumable resource in the game. There is a theoretical "ideal" path to unlock everything in the game, however, paying to a guide would, I feel, really dampen what is a thoroughly unique experience, and should be avoided. While these things are, I would say, minor detriments to the experience, I cannot in good faith consider them major drawbacks. The fact of the matter is, Persona 4 was both a blessing and a curse for me in terms of the JRPG genre at large. As a long-time fan, primarily of the 16-bit era Square JRPGs, I had all but fallen off the genre entirely. Persona 4 Golden reinvigorated my love, and made me realise what I had been missing - but it also set an absurdly high bar. Very few games I have dipped my toe into from the JRPG genre have managed to get their hooks into me to a fraction of the depths that Persona 4 did - and in some ways, it has raised my expectations to the level that I have all but excluded the majority of a genre I once loved, by sampling this game. After supping of the ambrosia of Persona 4, it feels hard to return to plain cow-milk. The Ranking: There aren't too many JRPGs on the current list, and the one that is there currently - Final Fantasy XIII - while good, isn't playing in the same league as Persona 4. Frankly, it's barely playing the same sport. As such, and given the superlative quality and stultifying good fun and craftsmanship of Persona 4 Golden, I'm electing to start at the top of the list, and work downwards, rather than working up. There are a good few games at the very top of the list that Persona 4 Golden, while fan-fucking-tastic, isn't touching. Invisible Inc, The Witness, Prey, Dark Souls II: Scholar of the First Sin - I'm not going to do some long justification here for their merits - each has a lengthly and exhaustive (or, at least, "DrBloodmoney Exhaustive"!) review of its own to do that. However, the first game I come to where a genuine match-up is valid, both from a broad genre basis, and a qualitative stand point is Mass Effect 2. Mass Effect 2 is also an RPG of sorts, albeit, at the extreme opposite end of the genre spectrum. What the games do have in common though, is a lengthly, extremely well told, acted and written narrative, a huge cast of excellent, lovable characters, variability of play, and a long play-time that seems to fly by in an instant. Mass Effect 2 does beat out Persona 4 on pure graphical prowess, but Persona 4 take it on style and UI. Audio is comparable, as is vocal performances. Mass Effect 2 takes the points on minute-to-minute excitement in combat, however, Persona 4 takes them on variation of enemies and play-style, and they are a straight tie on memorable, lovable, charming characters I love spending time with. In the end, I think Mass Effect 2 does win on points, but its an extremely close fight, and as such, Persona 4 Golden takes its rightfully high spot, just below it. The Bunker Summary: Entirely narrative, choice based games are a curiously nebulous genre in terms of interactivity. Let's imagine a spectrum scale, on the left of which sits Quantic Dream games like Heavy Rain or Detroit and Supermassive's fare like Until Dawn. Games where the narrative is primary, but there is significant tertiary input in the form of mechanical, player-via-character interactivity. On the extreme right side is such fare as previously ranked Late Shift, or even Netflix's Bandersnatch episode of Black Mirror - in which the player interaction is no more than selecting narrative direction, without any direct character interaction. On that scale, The Bunker, an FMV game developed by Splendy Games and released through Wales Interactive, would certainly sit to the right of centre, though still a little to the left of Late Shift. Certainly, there is more than simple decision-making from a broad, narrative stance - the player does interact (albeit indirectly) with various items and objects of interest in the game, though they do not control the protagonist directly. In terms of interaction, the game is closest in nature to older point-and-click adventure games, with a 'click-to-go-here' input to control the protagonist, though this is necessarily limited by the medium. There are only so many possibilities, when the player character is not 'animated' but a real life actor on a real life set, and the game's window to the player is pre-recorded. Having said that, it is surprising at times how much interactivity The Bunker manages to have, given that it is essentially a series of video clips with a simply UI overlay, and the limited 'gamification' of this interaction does go a remarkably long way in separating the actual gaming experience of The Bunker from something like Late Shift. While the technical and mechanical difference might be slight, there is no denying that I, as a player, had a quite different relationship with this game than that one. In the case of Late Shift, I felt as a standoffish God, moving pieces on a chess board and watching the results. In The Bunker, I felt much more stake in the plot, and much more connection to its player protagonist, John. All FMV games live and die by three metrics - plot, writing and acting. Sure, there is something to be said for the UI, or the way the game stitches scenes together, or the music, or overall tone (all of those aspect, are, in The Bunker, varying degrees of good, by the way,) but without a good, compelling plot, well written dialogue, and at least passable acting, none of them will be able to save the endeavour. Plot wise, The Bunker is pretty sound. John, our protagonist, is a man of around 30, living alone in an underground bunker somewhere in England, necessitated by some sort of nuclear apocalypse that occurred prior to his birth. At the beginning of the game, see his daily routine - one that he has maintained for 11,000-odd days - play out (a humdrum, depressing existence of pills, food, radiation checks, radio checks and "conversation" with his long dead mother. The game forces the unchanging continuation of this fixed routine (serving both as narrative basis and tutorial,) until a technical error in one of the dusty, long-past-their-prime computers forces him to leave the few small areas of the Bunker that have ever been his home, and to explore the other areas, and to, ultimately, discover the truth of his own existence. John is the primary interaction the player has with the game. Aside from some flashback sections sprinkled throughout the game, featuring his mother when she was alive, and with the Vault Commissioner, which tell the sorry tale of how all other inhabitants slowly perished, leaving John alone, his is the only actor we see, and it is to the games benefit that he is played very well by Adam Brown (most notable for the Hobbit movies.) The John character is both heroic and fearful - simultaneously a source of pathos, and hope. He is a child of the bunker, rather than a refugee to it - the Bunker is all he has known, and with limited outside stimulus, and little interaction with other people, he is locked in a permanently child-like state. His understanding of the bunker is very limited, but it is his whole world, and so his interactions are far more interesting and nuanced than the players are. In some ways, The Bunker is both his prison, his home, his father and his God, and while some part of him knows it is failing, he also treats it with reverence. When, for example, he is following some Vault instructions on a maintenance routine in the game, and it call for him to "make a tannoy announcement" he does so. He knows there is no one to hear it, but the Vault told him to, and so he does. It's funny, sad and chilling at the same time. Brown's is an interesting performance, and one that stands out among the (admittedly limited field, and low bar) of other FMV games. So too, do the other two performances on show here. Sarah Greene (playing John's mother in flashback) and Graham Fox (The Commissioner) have a different challenge - theirs is one of setting a very deliberate tone and presence with limited screen time, but both do this well - very well as compared to other FMV games, but actually, pretty well even by the higher standards of some TV shows. Certainly, The Bunker might still seem relatively amateurish in writing as compared with good TV or Movies, but if it were on TV, it wouldn't necessarily be the worst you'd see in an evening of random week-night channel-hopping either. As far as the writing goes, it's all pretty good. The filmic budget is, of course, limited, but the plot being centred in a bunker really helps - clearly Splendy Games have used a real location, and so it lends the game a decent level of realism, and the decent writing and acting elevates that. The game is fairly short - around 3 hours, which is to be expected for the genre, and about right for the experience. The plot unfolds at a good pace, allowing for player interaction, and the game certainly works best if experienced all in one sitting. There is some variety to the experience - there are two distinct endings, though the majority of the game remains the same, with the salient choice being made near the end. All in all, I am not a huge FMV guy - and when I am, it is generally to enjoy the - shall we charitably say 'eccentric' side of the genre. My enjoyment of these games is often more akin to my enjoyment of The Room, or Showgirls than to good filmic fare... ...but on the rare occasion that one comes along that is actually well done - with a decent plot, relatively good acting, and a narrative that I felt a stake in - I am more than capable of recognising it, and being pleasantly surprised. The Bunker was that rare case. The Ranking: First comparison point has to be Late Shift, as it is the only true FMV game currently on the list. While that game was fun in a limited way, and more variable, I never once felt any real engagement or stakes in any character. The acting - while certainly more abundant (there are far more characters in Late Shift,) - was markedly better in The Bunker. Couple that with better UI, better storytelling, and more interactivity, and The Bunker blows Late Shift out of the water. The next heavily narrative game is Hidden Agenda. While that game has a lot more artistry in the sense of its graphics and its art design (by virtue of being a CG game,) its narrative is wonky as all hell, and its character far less memorable or interesting than The Bunker's. It does have it's unique party-play hook, but that isn't worth much when the narrative works as poorly as it does, and so The Bunker rises above it too. Well above that game though, we get to just ranked Knee Deep. As mentioned above, Knee Deep has its really interesting conceit, couple with a pretty interesting story. It does not have a lot of interactivity as compared with most games, but in comparison to The Bunker, it is still a lot more. I think, on narrative, the two are about evenly matched, and on acting (vs. voice work) The Bunker beats it, but that conceit does go a long way, and the limited nature of interactivity begins to hurt The Bunker by this point. As such, I think Knee Deep still takes it. A few places lower is narrative co-op crime adventure A Way Out. That game is highly story focussed, and in terms of pure plot it is outdone by The Bunker. Acting wise, again, it loses, but there is a variety of gameplay here that The Bunker cannot compete with, and it has the co-op element that really buoys it. As such, A Way Out wins in the fight, but it is close. The game one slot below - lacklustre, Pagan Souls-a-like Lords of the Fallen is a game I would return to far less eagerly than I would The Bunker, and as such The Bunker finds it's spot. ⚛️⚛️BONUS GAMES⚛️⚛️ 1 Additional eligible S-Ranks earned this round!: Returnal Summary: My relationship with Returnal was up and down more times than a Yo-Yo on a rollercoaster, and started over a year before it was released. When I first heard that Housemarque - one of the most accomplished of the 'boutique' dev houses, synonymous with auteur, stylish, signature modern-day arcade classics like Dead Nation, Nex Machina, Resogun and Matterfall - were switching gears, as they no longer felt able to secure their ongoing fiscal security via the genre in which they had made their name, I was crushed. Each of their games that I had played to completion felt like a classic, and moreover, their output felt singular - no other developer made games quite like Housemarque, and Housemarque had a stellar track record making game like they did. As rumblings of what their new game would be came down the pipeline, I was more than hesitant or standoffish - I was actively rejectionist. No small part of me was actively hoping, on some bitter level, that a big 'splashy' 3rd person action game from them would fail. I grieved for the loss of the genre they had previously refined and made their own, and was loathe to accept their abandonment of it, in favour of becoming an 'also-ran' in a bigger, looser, more populated and popular genre. I wanted it to tank, so they would be forced to reevaluate their plans, and return to the wheelhouse I loved. I was being, to use a decidedly Scottish term, a right walloper. I should have know better. Yes, I loved those old games, and yes, it would have been a tragedy if Housemarque had only managed to rescue themselves from financial ruin by selling out the essence of what made them Housemarque in the first place - but I had not considered what should, by all rights, have been my obvious expectation. Housemarque didn't 'sell out' their roots to pursue a new genre. They didn't slink away to a more verdant pasture with their heads bowed, too fickle and ashamed to cast an eye back at the rocky, tumultuous terrain they had made their home for the past 20 years. Of course they didn't. They're Housemarque. What they did instead was eyeball their old home with all its rocky terrain and obtuse, complex interesting architecture, pick out the best parts of it, load them up on a truck, and head over to that verdant, green, populated pasture across the way with their heads held high and stake their claim out loud. They didn't move house. They MOVED their house. They strode into a more fiscally fecund genre, and planted their flag as deep as they could, building their new home out of the bones of the old one, with a wind-swept standard held in one hand and a middle finger extended on the other. Is Returnal bigger than their old games? Sure. Is it more appealing to a broader set of players? On the surface - absolutely. Has it lost the features that the old fans loved about their old games? Not. At. All. A Rogue-like, 3D action shooter, Returnal retains all of the hallmarks of previous Housemarque fare: Challenging yet addictive gameplay? Check. Enemies who attack in signature unique patterns? Check. Smooth, lightning fast movement and tight controls? Check. An array of interesting and unique weapons? Check. A Dash mechanic allowing for the implementation of "Bullet Hell" levels of enemy engagement? Check. Awesome particle effects? Check. All of these aspects have not only been retained from Housemarque's arcade-adjacent fare, but have been subtly tweaked and salted to fit the new flavour of the overall package. By doing so, Returnal actually becomes quite an atypical entry in the Rogue-like genre. It is much more lavishly produced from an artistic and graphical point of view than most, and individual runs are significantly longer than in most rogue-adjacent games. The net effect is that while Returnal is certainly a more familiar looking game to the more casual gaming fan than their prior fare, the parts that are uniquely 'Housemarque' still shine through, and so, to the uninitiated, the game stands tall as an interesting and relatively unique one within the genre in which it plays, and to the Housemarque veteran, their style remains clear, and seeps from every crack and pore of its newfound body. Separate from the well-oiled reinvigoration of the signature Housemarque style, there are a variety of the new, more genre specific additions, and this is where the game becomes most surprising. It is not a shock to learn that Housemarque can do what they have already proven they can do very well, time and time again, even in the new outfit Returnal wears. However, what is surprising, is how well they do the parts in which Returnal is - to all intents and purposes - their first time at bat. The artistic design is fantastic. Yes, games like Resogun, Nex Machina and Matterfall all looked great, but they were playing at a scope and scale that allowed for a smaller dev house to shine, without needing to invoke the level of artistic and technical craft to compete with huge budget, AAA type titles. Here, they are taking a swing at the big boys - and they do it very well. Each Biome is distinct, from the dark, brooding, rocky terrain of The Overgrown Ruins, to the sunset-hued, sandstorm riddled Crimson Wastes, to the lush, overgrown Echoing Ruins and the sunken, underwater Abyssal Scar, every location is foreboding and fearful, yet majestic, speaking to the echoes of a fallen, once titanic alien civilisation lost to time and its own hubristic downfall. The music is uniformly excellent - the score is brooding and ominous, with a Bladerunner / Interstellar vibe, underlaid with haunting, ethereal notes that ebb and flow with the gameplay pace. Sound design is absolutely excellent - and some props have to go to Housemarque for their great use of the controller-output audio. Little audio stings are used to tell when near objects of interest, or when weapon alt-fires are recharged etc, and become second nature very quickly in a game where looking at a UI indicator would be impossible due to the pace. Actually, the use of the PS5 controller haptics is great across the board - the best I have yet played, with the possible exception of Astro's Playroom. The triggers, haptic rumble, audio - care has been taken to use the controller to the full extent of its capabilities, and it works fantastically well. The voice of Selene, by Jane Perry (most notably of Hitman fame - "Welcome to Sapienza, Agent 47") has a gritty, fearful and determined quality, and the performance does a lot to convey the character's struggle, knowing she is losing her mind, unwilling to give into it but aware that may be her only option. That plays into a story that - while not the focus of the primarily action-oriented game - is expertly told and paced, and does a huge amount for the atmosphere of the product, given how small a proportion of the actual play-time it comprises. The narrative ended up being one of the strongest aspects of the game for me. Told via introductory cut-scenes, ending scenes, a series of very trippy, creepy sections in Selene's earthly home (bizarrely transposed to the alien planet, in a genuinely creepy masterstroke of horror-movie proportions,) it is a complex and nuanced tale, owing more inspirational credit to David Lynch than to, say, Ridley Scott. Details are left obtuse and dependent on the player interpretation. The cyclical, interdependent and interweaving physchological and metaphysical realities of the principal characters - Selene, her parents Hyperion and Theia and her son Helios (also the name of her ship) are viewed not through direct objective lenses, but rather, through the warped interpretation of Selene herself, and as such there is ample room for speculation as to the real meaning. Personally, I fall on the side of the planet as metaphor - that the entire game is a construct of Selene's broken mind, destroyed by personal failure, medication, an abusive relationship with her mother and abandonment issues with her father, compounded by the death of her son in a car crash from which she narrowly escaped. It is no coincidence that her ship bears his name - each run begins with the text "Warning- Helios Abandoned." Essentially, I fall on the "David Lynch" interpretation. However - I have read several extremely well constructed and plausible arguments for the story being more real than that - the planet and the time-loop is real, and the earthly elements are either pat, future, or in some way happening in parallel realities - an interpretation falling more on the "Kubrickian" 2001: A Space Odyssey side. While I don't necessarily agree they are correct, I still find them fascinating to read, and entirely plausible. The pace of the game, as a Rogue-Like is strong. In terms of the 'rogue-like' vs 'rogue-lite' argument (a tiresome one I know) Returnal falls closer to the 'Rogue-Like' end of the spectrum than, say, Hades - and is closest probably to Dead Cells, in that there is relatively few items or consumables that 'carry over' between runs, but weapons and items are unlocked to an available 'pool' of RNG drops. However, certain metroidvania-style 'permanent' items are unlocked at the ends of biomes, opening up shortcuts to bypass bosses and allow quicker access from one to the other, in a Zelda / Dark Souls-like structure. The game is structured in two distinct paths - Biome 1-3 and Biome 4-6, with each run being one of the two, and requiring Selene to traverse (or bypass) all three to 'complete' a run. Weapon and consumable drops are abundant, and the flow of unlocking new items and adding them to the pool of available ones is smoothed over the course of the game, meaning even after the first few 'complete' runs, there is still a lot to shoot for. For the trophy-hungry, it should be noted, the relative rarity of some room layouts in some biomes does mean there could potentially be a long, post-game grind to find all collectibles. One collectible type - the Cyphers - are specifically tied to specific randomly generating 'rooms', however, I played the game to full 'secret-ending' completion over the course of around 50 hours without deliberately hunting these, and was left with only 2 outstanding at the end. There was a bit of grinding at the end required for these (circa 10 hours or so), owing in part to their location (one was in Biome 3, which meant running through Biomes 1 & 2 each time,) however, this was still fun for the most part, and nothing in comparison to some other games where RNG bashing has been the platinum-blocker for a much longer time (looking at you RAD!) Overall, Returnal is a marvellous game. A fun, challenging, break-neck paced shooter / platformer with a great art style, excellent sound, a gloomy, grown-up tone, and a fascinating, compelling, Lynchian narrative. Housemarque proved my dumb-ass wrong by a country mile - and I'm more than glad they did. The Ranking: The obvious comparison points for Returnal are, of course, two-fold: Other Housemarque games, and other Rogue-likes. As compared to the previously ranked Housemarque fare, the current front-runners are Dead Nation, and Nex Machina. Both are excellent examples of their arcade-style fare, with Nex being the superior game on raw mechanics, but Dead Nation taking the crown based primarily on its excellent co-op. In terms of raw mechanics, Returnal probably falls a little lower than both those games, however, it does have some other significant factors in its favour. Firstly, it is artistically superior. This isn't just a case of the technical side (which is, of course, superior given the new PS5 system,) but also the art design - Returnal has a fascinating and coherent artistic theme, and is shocking well implemented, given it's nature as a randomly generating layout. Returnal also has one element that is not even approached in their previous fare - it's fascinating, rich and nuanced narrative - and this is the area that I think manages to elevate it above both Nex Machina and Dead Nation. Both those games were extremely narrative-lite - which was fine. That was expected. However, in Returnal, I also didn't expect narrative, yet I ended up getting one that I found more interesting, compelling and nuanced than most I have experienced all year - and that was a massive, well received surprise. In terms of Rogue-likes then, we are in a tough spot. The only one higher placed than Dead Nation is actually MUCH higher placed - Dead Cells, at current No.10 (or 11, if you factor in Persona 4.) Dead Cells is, even without the narrative or technical elements, just a better game than Returnal. It is more variable, it's rogue-like elements work better, and it is more compulsive and varied, and simply feels better to play. Don't get me wrong, Returnal feels great when you are shooting your way through biomes and zipping about with your jet-pack, but Dead Cells is on a whole other level, and so Returnal isn't getting near it on the ranking. Working up from Dead Nation then, there are a far few bangers that Returnal manages to out manoeuvre, based on it's compulsive replayability, it's interesting narrative and it's controls, but the first true test is in the original PS3 release of Demon's Souls. While I cannot deny that, in 2021, I would certainly replay Returnal before replaying Demon's Souls for the PS3, that is largely due to the existence of the superior Bluepoint remake of the game, and pound-for-pound, and measured relative to the era in which they released, Demon's Souls has to take it in a match-up. There is just too much originality, variability and lore in Demon's Souls, and coupled with a greater level of variability, and it's own compulsive replayability, it cannot fall to Returnal. Returnal, therefore, finds its spot on the ranking. So there we have it folks! Thanks to @GonzoWARgasm for putting in a request! Invisible Inc stays on top for now as 'Current Most Awesome Game' And Space Overlords stays as king of the crap-tastic olympics, as 'Least Awesome Game' What games will be coming along next time to challenge for the shining gold... or the aged turd? That's up to randomness, me.... and YOU! Remember: SPECIAL NOTE If there are any specific games anyone wants to see get ranked sooner rather than later - drop a message, and I'll mark them for 'Priority Ranking'! The only stipulation is that they must be on my profile, at 100% (S-Rank).... and aren't already on the Rankings! Catch y'all later my Scientific Brothers and Sisters! ☮️ Edited August 26, 2021 by DrBloodmoney 12 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
YaManSmevz Posted August 26, 2021 Share Posted August 26, 2021 I like how the bottom four games have fared so poorly that even a non-game was able to best them. Weirdly makes me wish Sneak King was eligible for ranking? Your description of Knee Deep grabbed me a bit; the concept of a play within a game structure sounds really interesting (not to mention that I loved all three movies you referenced, whether the game itself took those sorts of creative liberties or not), and I've been thinking about giving said genre another chance. I might have to take a look. In the very least a passing glance! 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DrBloodmoney Posted August 26, 2021 Author Share Posted August 26, 2021 2 hours ago, YaManSmevz said: I like how the bottom four games have fared so poorly that even a non-game was able to best them. Weirdly makes me wish Sneak King was eligible for ranking it's true, the formulae is sound: No Game + Cats > No Game > Space Overlords ? 2 hours ago, YaManSmevz said: Your description of Knee Deep grabbed me a bit; the concept of a play within a game structure sounds really interesting (not to mention that I loved all three movies you referenced, whether the game itself took those sorts of creative liberties or not), and I've been thinking about giving said genre another chance. I might have to take a look. In the very least a passing glance! Hey - I'm actually very glad to hear that! Knee Deep is an odd one that kinda falls between the cracks - it's hard to recommend on quality, as it is fine, but not stand-out, but also hard to recommend on "Oh, this is so bad it's good" because, well, it isn't bad. It's fine. What it is, though, is really peculiar - and actually, "really peculiar" is worth recommending too - it's just not a metric most folks value until they see it! I'd say, go in knowing what you are in for - something that doesn't always work perfectly, or stand out on quality, but it has some really strange ideas, and those carry a fairy standard game a few notches further than it would otherwise 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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