DrBloodmoney's Super Scientific Ranking of Games!

[DrBloodmoney]

10 minutes ago, Neef-GT5 said:

I was scrolling down this thread to request you share your views on The Cave on PS3 while it’s still fresh in your mind - and there it already is. That must be what they call talent! 🙃

 

Thanks for keeping this topic alive and active, that’s quite a pleasure to read your thorough reviews 👍

 

Thank you mate, I really appreciate that!

 

☺️

[DrunkenEngineer]

I'm the quintessential lurker, but I wanted to express how much I love this thread as a reference.  If I'm thinking about a game, I know I can boot this sucker up and chances are there is a review handy.  This is very handy, thanks again!

[gruffiiti]

Hey DBM... you still taking requests for reviews? Really curious to see your take on Valiant Hearts: The Great War.

[DrBloodmoney]

11 hours ago, gruffiiti said:

Hey DBM... you still taking requests for reviews? Really curious to see your take on Valiant Hearts: The Great War.

 

I do - been a bit slower these past few months, but I'll flag it on the master list with your name - will get there eventually!

[WhiteMonkey88]

Are you trying to tell me there are games that are worse than Albedo?

 

[DrBloodmoney]

5 hours ago, WhiteMonkey88 said:

Are you trying to tell me there are games that are worse than Albedo?

 

On my profile at least 14 of them, yeah.

 

 

On PSN generally though?

There are literally thousands of games worse than Albedo.

 

 

[DrBloodmoney]

 

!!SCIENCE UPDATE!!

 

 

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

 

 

 

Legacy

 

Minit

Remember Me

 

New

 

The Messenger

Sea of Stars

To Hell with the Ugly

 

 

 

 

Subject(s) in RED marked for PRIORITY ASSIGNEMENT

[Care of @grayhammmer & @Breakingthegreen ]

 

 

 

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

 

Is gaming turdlet Htol#niQ: The Firefly Diaries  going to lose its new crown of 'Least Awesome Game'?

 

 

Let's find out, Science Chums!

[DrBloodmoney]

 

  NEW SCIENTIFIC RESULTS ARE IN! 

 

 

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

 

 

 

Minit

 

Summary: 

 

A curious lite-RPG with a timer-based twist, Minit, developed by a small, 4-man team in the Netherlands, and picked up and distributed by Devolver Digital, sees the player take control of a strange little creature (who seems to be somewhere between a mouse and a duck,) in a 2-bit world, who, upon happening upon a curse sword, is doomed to die and be reborn every 60 seconds.

Discovering that the sword was manufactured by a nefarious sword-smith in an evil sword factory, they must figure out a way to traverse the world, make it to the sword factory, defeat the sword-smith and lift the curse...
...all the while, dying every minute, and re-awakening in their bed!

First of all, let's talk about the core mechanic of the game.

The nature of Minit's gameplay - of the player character having a very limited amount of time to complete tasks within it - is not a completely unique concept. Indeed, games like Half Minute Hero do exist, and there are certainly games like Majora's Mask, Deathloop and many other time-loop games that deal in repetition of gameplay as a core mechanic, and accomplishing specific tasks within that cycle to "escape" it, however, the way Minit deals with this concept is relatively novel.

 
The time-based nature of the game is treated fairly loosely and whimsically throughout - and not in a particularly uniform way. Unlike something like Deathloop, or The Sexy Brutale, or The Forgotten City, where the "respawning" is part of a time-loop, and there are quite specific and regimented rules as to how the looping mechanic works, Minit is not really that. It can feel like it at times, but it isn't.

 

The things is, while early on, the constant waking up at home, and the initial characters having limited lines of dialogue can suggest that this is a time-loop game, it's actually less like a time-loop, and more like a Souls game. The world and the player's actions are actually persistent - if they collect an item, they will still have that item upon dying and reawakening, and NPC characters do remember encountering you previously... but the player is simply set back to the starting point, with the enemies respawned. 

What this means, is that essentially what Minit is, is a simple RPG, wherein the player simply cannot last longer than 60 seconds in one life, rather than a player caught in a one-minute time-loop.

 

How, then, can the game possibly function, given that they would need to complete the entire game in under 60 seconds? 
Can the game really be "solved" in less than one minute?
Well... no.

 

To be clear, Minit is a short game - a guide-less, natural playthrough probably falls somewhere in the 2-3 hour range - but really, what it is is an RPG with a timer and specific checkpoints, and these checkpoints take the form of "starting locations".
In essence, the entire loop of the game, is in figuring out ways to open up shortcuts between checkpoints, and reduce the time required to make it from one of these starting locations (the first one being the player's home,) to the next one in under 60 seconds, thus allowing them to reset the starting location, and begin the process of solving the next area, by doing the same to reach the following checkpoint.

It's a clever enough concept, and so, while I'd argue there is actually very little new or particularly unique within the world-building, puzzle design or gameplay of Minit, the mere fact that it is all contained within a conceptually novel idea, and must be approached in such a specific way, makes it feel somewhat  novel anyways.
It's one of those rare instances - that often come about from "Game-Jam" type indie games - where arguably the biggest selling point, and the major draw of the game is simply in seeing how a novel concept can possibly be made to work.
The mere notion of an RPG - a genre famous for being a time-sink, and having a slow and methodical pace - seems antithetical to the idea, and so it is a draw simply to see how such a game can function under such a strict time-limit. 

Does the game stretch and fudge some of its concepts a little to allow for its concept? 
Absolutely... but to be quite honest, these inconsistencies don't tend to feel particularly jarring. 
Partly, because they are understandable as a trade off to allow the unusual and curious concept, and partly because the tone and tenor of the game is so light and whimsical, that strict adherence to a set of "rules" or lore feels unnecessary.

Combat is very simple - simple a basic sword swipe, and there are rarely any enemies that offer combat challenge...
... but really, the majority of gameplay focus is on the micro, and macro puzzle elements. 

There are, essentially, three "levels" to the puzzle implementation.

 

There are the "single life" puzzles, which are generally relatively simple - push this box from here-to-here, create a platform there, flip this switch etc - but because they are required to be done at speed, there is still some tension to the process upon first encountering them. 

 

There the "multi-life" puzzles, which span several runs, and tend to form more RPG / Adventure Game style puzzles, of the "find this object to give to this person" type, and these work for the most part, (and are often fairly whimsical and simple too - at least by the standards of other retro RPGs,) but which allow for some of the humour to shine through.

 

Then, there is of course the "overall" puzzle - the solving of how to get from one checkpoint to the next in the allotted time, and ultimately, to finish the game.

These are the core conceptual conceit of the game, and they work...
...somewhat.

 

When they work, it's because the core idea of the game forms the main thrust of them - and in those instances, the idea of the game is shown to be a good one, but what harms the game is that, strangely, it tends - quite often, in fact - to stray from that core concept, and forget what the point of the game is.

The problem is, Minit is a game where a single core concept that is its entire reason for being. 
It is the one fundamental element the game has that makes it unique, and is its selling point... but while there is certainly some parts of the overall gameplay loop that lean into that core, it often seems to forget what it is that makes it special, and wanders back into "standard" RPG territory...
...and that's where it runs into trouble.

 

The fact is, a good proportion of progression in the game is actually gated by abilities, like a "standard" action RPG, and not really by the novel time mechanic. 
While the 60 second limit does add some tenseness, in reality, far fewer of the gating elements that the player has to solve are related to figuring out how to do something in a short amount of time, than they are to simply figuring out how to do it, period.

Getting an item like "sprint shoes" makes sense as a gate in a game like Minit, as it allows the player to move faster, and potentially do things they couldn't have done within the game's time limit. That is an upgrade that leans into the unique parts of the game, and puzzles that require it feel right at home. 

However, getting something like the "flippers" to travel across water, or the "gardener's gloves" to cut down trees, doesn't really. The player couldn't have crossed the water, or cut down the trees regardless of the timer...
...so those kind of upgrades feel simply like a standard RPG element, and curiously, they are rarely used in a way that serves the core concept.

It would make sense, for example, to have paths that seem traversable, but simply take too long, but can be shortened by use of these new abilities - but that's rarely the case. More often than not, the player has no viable path to the checkpoint - no matter how much time they had - prior to finding these upgrades.

That is a problem, because for all its charm and curious place in the gaming landscape, Minit isn't actually doing anything original beyond its minute-long timer. When it is leaning into that timer as a core game element, it feels original. When it isn't, there are literally thousands of other games doing the same things, but better, and with more substance and flair.

 

This issue is brought into fairly stark relief by some of the additional modes the game offers, post-game.

There is a New Game+ mode, which adds a bit more in the way of difficulty, both in enemy encounters, and in terms of the time limit, reducing the 60 second death timer to 40 seconds...
...but there is also a mode called "Mary's Mode" - and this feels like a very strange addition. 

 

Basically, this is a mode without any timer...
...and it almost feels like the developer shooting their own concept in the foot. 

What Mary's mode does, it turn the game into just a very simple RPG-lite adventure - but that has the rather unintended effect of showing up both how simple and relatively throw-away the actual RPG elements and mechanics are when removed from the timer element... and how little impact the timer actually had on the game, given how little actually feels particularly different without it.

 

In terms of story, the actual narrative is pretty slight - deliberately so - but some of the characters are quite charming in a simple way, and there are a few decent jokes... mostly via the time mechanics. 

An old man character, for example, who talks v.e.r.y... s.l.o.w.l.y....
...makes for a pretty funny set of gags, as the player is desperately wanting them to get to the end of their dialogue before they die their next untimely death...
...but while there is charm to the game, I don't think there is really enough to any of the characters, or the overall narrative, or the visuals to really ever put these characters on the level of some other charming games which manage to pack a lot more personality into minor character with only a few lines. (Toem, for example, or Chicory, or even Reverie.)

Visually the game is quite striking in how stylised its retro look is. Pixel Art games are as common as "modern looking" games at this point - in fact, in the indie scene, I suspect they actually outnumber them at this point - however, the vast majority of pixel art indies are specifically aping either NES / Master System 8-bit, or SNES / Genesis era 16-bit looks.
Far fewer take inspiration from the original Gameboy, but that's exactly what Minit is drawing from...
...specifically, Gameboy Zelda. 
Minit is very clearly aping Link's Awakening. (In fact, the mere fact that the first sword is found on a beach that looks strikingly similar to the one in which Link found his first sword in that game shows that Minit is not shy about wearing its influences on its sleeve!)
It's a bold look to use on a modern console, and while certainly rudimentary, (and, in truth, actually less detailed than even that original Link's Awakening,) it does have a certain black-and-white charm to it.

The audio is okay - I actually think the score, (which is rather grating and tinny sounding, aping the old Gameboy sound chip,) is quite good and has some catchy little tunes, and I do like a lot of the sound effects on things like sword swings and hits, (and came to dread the loud ticking of the seconds as the death meter reaches close to zero!) 

 

Dialogue is not voiced, but there is a sort of garbled "simlish" when characters talk, (reminiscent of Starfox,) which gives a little tone and some broad personality to the speakers.

The downside, of course, is that the sound ship they are styling towards - that of the Gameboy - was never great, and was never intended to be heard through a TV or sound system, or really for extended lengths of time. 
Unlike the NES and SNES sound chips, there isn't really scope to do amazing chip-tune music here, and while the composer does an admirable job, I do think it might have benefitted the devs to just "cheat" their retro stylings a little, and just let the game sound more modern than it does.

 

 

Overall, Minit is a cool concept, and a game that manages to execute on it... just about. 
It is a fun and fleeting thing, that gets its core concept across, doesn't overstay its welcome, and remains largely fun for that short length of time it asks of the player...

...but its also a game that really has one specific concept going for it, and has a tendency to forget that, and start meandering away from itself. When it drifts into "standard RPG" territory, it suffers due to its simplicity, and its proximity - in the indie space - to myriad better games.

Were it to much more closely focus on it's core concept, and to tie all its mechanics far more strictly into that concept, I suspect Minit would end up far more memorable than I found it to be...
...but because it so often drifts into more "gameplay generic" territory, the slightness of its RPG, combat, puzzle and narrative elements are shown up. 
Those areas in which the game is not as strong as it is in concept, are tasked with carrying too heavy a burden when it comes to player engagement, and end up showing their weaknesses too often.

 

 

The Ranking:

 

Ranking Minit ended up being a little easier than I imagined - almost by accident!

I was thinking initially about very low poly, stylised games, and one that popped into my mind for a starting point was the also short, also relatively simple, but still interesting low poly exploration game Proteus.

 

I do think Proteus is the better experience - it's fundamentally more interesting, and oddly more repeatable than Minit, (which is odd, given that there is technically far less to do in it!) but it did get me to a point on the list where a couple of games that offered a more interesting fight lay...
...and that is with the games below it: Deer God, and Flower.

 

In terms of Deer God, that is also a retro pixel art game (albeit a more colourful one!) and it is also a game that has a core concept as its main selling point, but seems to drift from it a bit too often, and feels a little unfocussed.

I do think though, despite it's flaws, I enjoyed my time with Deer God a little more than I did with Minit, and I suspect that if forced to replay only one, I would choose Deer God.

 

A little below though, is Flower. Flower is a game I probably do deviate from the norm a little in my personal opinion - I appreciate the things it tries to do, but never felt it did them particularly successfully, and I would also make the argument that it also is a game that fails to stick to its core concept - i.e. it is a game about relaxing, with a control scheme and set of goals that are antithetical to that relaxation!

I feel like Minit offers the better game experience overall, and I would certainly replay Minit before replaying Flower, so Minit has to rank above it.

 

The only game currently between those two is the relatively standard music rhythm game Invector, and while it never spoke to me massively (primarily due to my disinterest with the AVICII music) I think on balance, Minit comes out on top...

...and as such, finds its spot!
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Remember Me

 

 

Summary: 

 

A cyberpunk action combat platformer released in 2013 by Dontnod (future developer of decidedly non-action games Life is Strange, Vampyr, and Twin Mirror,), Remember Me sees the player take on the role of Nilin - a "memory Hunter" and member of a resistance group called the "Errorists" in a future version of Paris, where human memories are commodities bought and sold by corporations.

Having had her memories wiped by the nefarious Memorize corporation, Nilin, with the help of a mysterious man named Edge, sets out to recover her memories, and bring down the Memorize corporation in the process.

Remember Me is an interesting game looking back from a 2023 stand point. Dontnod's first game, and their only game that feels like it plays to a generally "AAA" genre, it certainly feels like the outlier in their now not inconsiderable catalogue, though the successes and failures of it do, in hindsight, offer some interesting early signs of Dontnod's future desires.

In terms of narrative, Remember Me is particularly good, if still relatively B-Movie Sci Fi fare. The actual concepts used in Remember Me are not hugely original - indeed, there are clear snippets of different filmic and literary influence all over Remember Me, (specifically Johnny Mnemonic, The Matrix, Total Recall, and an absolute litany of Philip K Dick and William Gibson novels) - however, that's not to say it feels copy-cat. While the ideas are relatively well worn territory, that is largely true of most post-Gibson cyberpunk fiction. The ideas are relatively consistent across the entire genre now - What sets good cyberpunk apart from bad cyberpunk is not in the concepts, but in the nuance: what you do with those ideas, and how well you do it.

The plot and writing in Remember Me are, certainly one of the two highlights here.

The plot itself is fun - it's very much a genre piece, and plays exclusively to that - this is cyberpunk noir through-and-through, with little genre deviation, but the hard-boiled voice over writing and the general plotting, work well.

The character of Nilin herself is fairly well defined as cyberpunk protagonists go, and while she has no past, she isn't lacking personality or player engagement in the way those characters sometimes can - particularly ones with amnesiac tendencies... as are almost as common in cyberpunk fiction as they are in JRPGs!

 

The whole game, while no inherently original, is given a slightly more original feel than a lot of other cyberpunk, simply due to the setting: Future Paris. 
Most Cyberpunk takes place in some version of "Neo America" - usually LA or New York. That makes sense, of course, given that a huge pillar of the genre is in using future tech-horror to skewer real life concerns about consumerism and capitalism run amok, and what better locations are there to hammer that point home? - however, cyberpunk is a genre that, due to its specificity of genre, does run the risk of stagnation and going stale, and so seeing it set in a less well worn cityscape is a good idea, and makes for some much more fun and interesting world building.

 

That world building in Remember Me is legitimately great. 
The city looks fantastic, and there is a real sense of originality and curiosity in seeing a historic city like Paris with the cyberpunk future aesthetic layered on top of it. The art design in the game in these outdoor sections is really quite excellent, and gives a particular flavour of a city that feels lively and alive, and a lot of lore of the game is told visually, through this world building. Exploring these areas is easily a highlight of the game. 

However... 
...this excellent art design and visual story-telling actually something of a problem for Remember Me - for two reasons.

 

Firstly, because the outdoor areas of the city, the slums (where the equivalent of junkies, hooked on other people's memories live like hobos,) the landmarks that can be seen in amongst the new futuristic buildings and appendages, are so much more interesting and visually alluring than any of the indoor areas that the game spends a lot of time in. 
These indoor areas are much less visually arresting, and far more "generic future-video-game" - a relatively well worn visual palate of clean white and metal, the likes of which has been done many times elsewhere, and often with more flair.

 

Secondly, because the art design is striving to tell a lot of story in what is  very linear game, and does such a good job of distracting the player, that it tends to make them lament the fact that they can't actually investigate or explore much of it. 

Remember Me is very much a game in the Uncharted model - it has fairly set paths, and very little scope for deviation or exploration - but the game sort of falls into a trap of it's own making. It is good enough to make the player want to explore, but unlike Uncharted, (or even more so, The Last of Us) it is not quite as good at using the tools of game design to make the player feel like they are exploring, and just "magically" end up going the way the developer wants them to.
They manage to make a world the player wants to investigate, but that immediately makes the presence of invisible walls, blocked paths and artificial barriers very obvious, and it tends to create a situation where the player feels like there is an amazing open-world game in there, but they are stuck playing a linear game that won't let them get to it.

Speaking of Uncharted, its relatively obvious in playing Remember Me, that it came out when Uncharted as a franchise was at peak saturation. Uncharted had seen it's 3rd - highly successful and well received - entry come out a few years prior, and that particular blend of action, platforming and narrative was very much the genre du jour.

Remember Me is one of a spate of games that released in Uncharted's wake, adopting its broad model, though not necessarily understanding that what made Uncharted so successful was not so much the things it was doing, as it was the level of quality to which it was doing them.

 

Gameplay-wise, Remember Me is fundamentally built on 3 system - two of which are relatively generic, and not particularly original, and are massively over used...
...and one that is a real highlight, and very cool, and is sadly, rather under-used.

 

Climbing and traversal sections are abundant, and to be fair, they look cool, and are a nice way to show of some of the fairly interesting art design of Neo Paris. The developers do make use of some clever angles and effects to add some suspense...
...but it's not hugely successful as a gameplay mechanic, for a couple of reasons.

 

Firstly, it's incredibly easy, and Nilin is such an expert, that she pretty much never fails to make a jump unless the player actively and deliberately jumps into an open chasm.

 

Secondly, because despite Uncharted being a clear influence, Dontnod didn't make use of one of the key takeaways from that game: the in-world indicators.

Modern games tends to try to indicate where the player should jump to during traversal sections using in-world indicators. Uncharted made use of a colour (yellow), Far Cry uses ropes hanging loosely over platforms, The Last of Us used smears of white...
...Remember Me didn't get the memo though. 
Rather than using something subtle in-world, it uses a constant Call of Duty-style "Go Here" UI element overlaid onto the world, indicating the next ledge to jump to. 
The result, is that every single traversal climbing section, from the beginning to the very end of the game, feels like a tutorial section teaching you how to do it.

 

Combat is the other main pillar of the gameplay, and it relatively simply, comprising what is essentially 4 specific combos, a few special power moves, and an evade. 
Again, this element is perfectly well executed - it looks decent, it works, hit-boxes and dodges feel fine - but it is not a hugely interesting or variable model, and doesn't really lend itself to how much fighting there is in the game...
...which is a lot.

It's actually a little surprising - given that the game was not shy about taking inspiration from popular games of the time - that more of an "Arkham combat" type model was not implemented - one using more of a rhythm game mechanic and a "flow" to the fights - there is some skill involved in the combos, but it's fairly rudimentary..
...and there is a real problem in terms of some of the QTE finishers that happen, in that the camera never "auto-swings" to show them. In a fight with multiple enemies, it is very easy to simply miss a prompt, due to the eney not being in camera view after being staggered.
 

There is one notable addition to the combat, in the form of something called the "Combo Lab". 
This is a menu, in which Nilin's combos can be customised, (and was, as I recall, something much touted by the developer and publisher as a selling point for the game,) however, unfortunately, it is something of a misnomer.

Customising the combos sounds distinctly interesting on paper - it certainly gives the impression that the player could have agency in the actual moves contained within a specific combo - however, it's not really that. What the "Combo Lab" does, in fact, is take the pre-set combos, and allow the player to add specific gameplay modifiers (regenerating health, or power cool-down etc.) to them, which activate upon their use. 

 

It's still a relatively novel and interesting gameplay mechanic, however, it feels a little wasted in a game with combat as simplistic as that on show in Remember Me. To be clear-  combat in the game is certainly functions - it flows and moves pretty well, and looks fine - but it is not hugely varied, and there is a lot of it. 
Because the game has limited moves, limited challenge, and limited variety even in the approach, it does tend to mean that once the ability is gained for the player to assign a reasonably good set of buffs to each of their preferred combos, there is very little reason for them to ever change these up.
There is, for example, no "parrying/riposte" type moves in the game. That doesn't bother me particularly, being, as I am, very much a "dodger" in these kind of games, and preferring to stick-n-move...
...but the point is that everyone has to play my way in Remember Me. There is no option to stand ground and take enemies on by parrying their attacks. that also means, of course, that enemy attacks are limited too - and for a game with as much fighting as Remember Me has, that tends to make each area feel like a bit of a slog to get through, as wave after wave of similar enemies are required to be dispatched in pretty much the same way every time.

 

Some props should be given to the nominal variety afforded by the Combo Lab...
...but in a world where Transistor came out the following year, which allowed customisation of the same relative type on paper, but did it to a level that feels like the depth of an ocean, as opposed to Remember Me's puddle, it's hard to get excited about looking back.

 

Aside from the exploratory platforming and combat, however, there is one gameplay mechanic on show in Remember Me that is distinctly original, genuinely interesting, and feeds much more fluidly and appropriately into the actual narrative of the game: The Memory Remixes.

these are scripted points in the game where Nilin can, by accessing another person's memory and scrubbing backwards and forwards in a set timeline and changing specific elements, alter the person's recollection of the events in question, thus altering their present self, as it was affected by the memory in question. 

These sections are super cool and genuinely interesting to explore. They are not hugely variable or mechanical - they tend to boil down to simple trial-and-error, however, the concept is interesting enough that that doesn't really matter - they are fun puzzles to tty an work out exactly what needs to be altered to achieve a particular result. 

There are, unfortunately though - only 4 of these in the whole game. Each one is a highlight, but they tend to betray the notion that Dontnod, at this point, had ideas for original or more interesting games, but just didn't feel confident in leaning into them too much... yet.

Visually the game is, as said, very nice - the world building is on point, and the game actually looks - for the era - very nice. It's a visual and graphical style that is fairly standard, but its done well, and the overall effect is a game that probably lands - visually - somewhere below an Uncharted, but above a lot of the other "Uncharted-likes" of the time.

Audio is good too - the score is fine, not outstanding, but rousing in places, and perfectly serviceable at worst, and the voice work is actually pretty good. Nilin herself has quite a bit of pseudo-philosophical and bleak-dystopia-noir type dialogue to contend with, and that stuff can often sound pretty hokey, but the voice actress does a pretty good job of keeping the train on the tracks. Some of the other characters can be a little hit or miss, but for the most part, the characters who get the most screen time and the most dialogue hit the mark well.

 

Overall, Remember Me is kind of an odd game to come back to - it's a perfectly competent, if unremarkable, playing game, but it is one that has a decidedly above average art-direction, some pretty high quality writing, and an genuinely interesting world, that could likely have sustained more than just this one game.

 

Fundamentally, while it is possible to question Dontnod's post-Remember Me shift away from action games, given the relative  competence they showed in crafting the fundamentals of the fighting and the traversal,  it's less surprising when one considers just how much stronger the narrative elements and the world-building are in the game.

Dontnod were clearly capable of crafting a perfectly functional action game, but the limited scope of what they chose to do with that action, and the reticence to do anything unusual or ground-breaking with that portion of the game does rather betray that it clearly wasn't where their hearts were. One gets the sense, in Remember Me, that the studio had some great ideas around narrative, but felt the only way to make those idea viable as a commercial product was to couch them in the most in-vogue genre of the time - one they crafted well, but without the panache or finesse or flair of a studio making the kind of game they really want to be making.

 

The result, is a game with a lot of interesting ideas, a lot of interesting narrative, and a tonne of interesting art design, all of which is only visible around the edges of a competent but perfunctory action platformer.

 

 

 

The Ranking:

 

Ranking 3rd person Action games should be easier now, as there are quite a few on the ranking, but actually, that means picking ones to use as a starting point feels a little more difficult!

I ended up trying to think of a series where there are multiple entries ranked, and thinking of one where Remember Me would likely fall between two of those entries...
...and the one that came to mind, for some reason, was the Sly Cooper games!

I think, on balance, that Remember Me falls certainly below the original Sly Cooper, and below the second highest ranked one - Sly 4 - but still falls well above Sly 2, and still comfortably above Sly 3...
...which at least narrows the field a little!

Looking at 3rd person action games in that space then, the two that really helped to narrow a spot were Marvel's Guardians of the Galaxy, and Mafia II.

 

Marvel's Guardians of the Galaxy is also a game with limited (too limited) combat, and a fairly pedestrian "platforming and fighting" gameplay design, but is also one who's narrative and world design elevate the game considerably. While the memory remixing sections of Remember Me do provide a "third pillar" of gameplay that is more interesting than any gameplay mechanic in Marvel's Guardians of the Galaxy, there are very few of them actually in there...
...and as good as the world building and art in Remember Me are, I think Marvel's Guardians of the Galaxy does outmatch them too - and by enough that the overall effect, coupled with the better voice acting and soundtrack, means Marvel's Guardians of the Galaxy holds its spot.

Mafia II is slightly different - it's more of an open world game (though why exactly, no one knows, since the game is as linear as games come!) - but while its paths may vary, it's gameplay doesn't really, and while it is a nicely rendered version of period Americana,  I think the work done to world-build using the art design in Remember Me is more interesting, and more satisfying to be in.

Since both games have issues of similar types with regards to repetitive gameplay, that's pretty much a wash, but unlike Marvel's Guardians of the Galaxy, Mafia II doesn't really elevate any other element to beat out Remember Me's good points, and so I'm comfortable stating Remember Me should beat it.

The only game currently between those two is the odd little IO developed, child-friendly action game Mini Ninjas, and while I liked that game, I do think there's more good points in Remember Me's favour, and I would probably replay Remember Me before replaying Mini Ninjas...
...so Remember Me beats it out, to find its spot!
 

 

 

 

 

 

The Messenger

 

 

Summary: 

 

A 2018 pixel-art retro action-platformer in the vein of early Ninja Gaiden, The Messenger, from Sabotage Studios, sees the player take the role of a ninja from a clan of the last remaining humans in a decimated world, who foretell of a prophesised "Western Hero" who shall arrive to save them from the Demon King in their hour of need.

When the Demon King arrives to rain havoc on the village, the Western Hero does dutifully arrive... but the Demon King is not slain. Instead, he is simply fended off temporarily. The Western Hero bestows a scroll upon the Ninja, dubbing him "The Messenger" and instructs him to head east to deliver it to the highest peak...
...for reasons!

Alone, save for the help of a mysterious Blue-robes shopkeeper in a mystical, omnipresent shop, The Messenger traverses the world to fulfil his duty... 
...only to discover, upon reaching the highest peak, that all was not as it seems, and there is a lot more depth (and temporal and existential malfeasance) to the prophesy he is wrapped up in!

Narratively, The Messenger is a very solid game, and one which - like many of the best indie throwback style love-letters of the modern age - comes in like an iceberg.

Modern throwbacks can often be used by developers to effectively blend the nostalgic beats of the games they loved growing up, with the more meta elements inherent to modern games, specifically by starting as one quite specific thing, then slowly revealing themselves to be something else, or something more...
...and The Messenger is both!

 

The structure of The Messenger is interesting, in that while the game, at the outset, feels unequivocally a level-based affair, that only forms the first act. 
After a number of hours spent settled into a vary NES-era Ninja Gaiden-esque groove, Act II begins with a narrative (and gameplay-bending) bang, wherein the game begins to complicate, and the actual structure becomes more and more akin to an RPG than a straight level-based affair. 
In much the same way as most RPGs begin as a straight "road-trip" with the player's party moving across a world, from one "biome" to another in a linear fashion, until a point in the later game, where the narrative opens up, and the whole world becomes their playground, The Messenger feigns linearity, until it draws back the curtain.

The difference, of course, is that moment is expected in an RPG.

In a retro platformer, far less so.

The early part of the game is very much a "pure" love letter to the NES. The game feels specifically what it was largely sold as - a neo-retro 2D NES-style love letter to the original Ninja Gaiden, and follows a simple, linear structure. The player shifts from one biome to another, complete with an introductory title-card, crosses a level fighting mob enemies, and ends with a boss fight.
For 6 or 7 areas, the game maintains this pace, and little is ever hinted that there may be more hidden beneath the surface, beyond the well written, often 4th-wall-breaking, (and consistently amusing,) dialogue exchanges between the main character and the Shopkeeper - the hooded character who provides his services in his magical and omnipresent store.

It is through the Shopkeeper that virtually all of the world-building lore is presented to the player, as well as the spine of the progression. 
He acts as lore-keeper, upgrade tree, literal shop-keeper, and hint-provider, as well as serving as the driving force allowing the player to progress. 

Where the game really kicks into gear, however, is after this early section. The basic "Act 1" of the game works, and is fun, and culminates in a fairly clever and fun end of Act finale, in which the game is revealed to have been far less linear, and far more temporally anomalous than the player was aware. I wont get into the specifics of what happens, but essentially, the whole game is revealed to have been part of a cyclical, ceaseless time-loop, which the player was supposed to form only a small part of...
...but partly due to their own ignorance, and partly due to the ineptitude and carelessness of the Shopkeeper, they are forced to continue past their allotted part of the eternal cycle, to try to break it for good.

 

Thus begins the larger part of the game, wherein the structure loosens to a much more RPG-style world exploration, and includes a new "time-shifting" element.

This Time shifting factor is - without any hyperbole - fucking awesome!

 

Basically, every biome - ones the player has already seen in Act 1, and new ones - have two variants - the past (rendered in the style they have seen already) and the future. Both are roughly the same layout, though have key differences, meaning that traversal often requires flipping back and forth between them. 
How these are represented is the key to the game though. The NES look that the player is familiar with already, is the past... but when in the future, the same game is now rendered not like an 8-bit NES game, but like a 16-bit SNES game. They are roughly the same areas and enemies, but flipping between the two eras is like seeing an NES game, and its SNES remake being flipped between in real time.

It's an effect that is awesome to see - and works on every level. Not only do both eras look just like they should for their console eras, but they sound like it too - the same tunes will flip back and forth between two versions: one that sounds just like the NES sound chip, and one just like the SNES... and both sound awesome, since the music is balls-to-the-wall fantastic in every era!

 

I will, if you will allow a minor deviation for a moment, speak briefly to the exact genre of the game, because I feel like it is somewhat misunderstood.
The Messenger appears to be considered, in many circles, to be a Metroidvania. 
It is not one. 

 

It has many of the tertiary elements often common to modern retro metroidvania games - retro pixel-art, a skill tree, areas requiring specific items/ abilities to traverse etc, but the actual primary elements that defines a metroidvania is missing...
...namely, the visibility of inaccessible areas and items along the journey, and the subsequent "powered-up" backtracking to access those things once the ability is gained.

 

Now, the confusion is understandable. There are powers and abilities required to access certain areas or traverse certain biomes in The Messenger, however, these powers and abilities are virtually always given to the player by the Shopkeeper, for free, at the first point they would need them. 
There is never, as far as I can recall, an instance of the player being able to see a path to an item or secret area, but not yet having the ability to traverse it, beyond a few specific instances that are purely plot critical. For example, as far as I can recall, every one of the 44 "Power Seals" (the primary collectible in the game) can be collected the first time the player encounters it... provided they actually find the entrance to its associated puzzle room. The odds of them finding them all first time is certainly minimised (primarily due to the lack, in the first half of the game, of an in-game map,) but if they do find them, they can collect them.
 They are gated solely by exploration, not by ability.

 

There are a few specific points in the later game, once it opens up to the more free-form exploration, where finding an item is required to access a specific area, but I would hesitate to assign the game the "Metroidvania" moniker owing to these, because fundamentally, these gating points are plot critical, and not optional. 
They are more akin to finding the key to unlock a door in, say, a Resident Evil game, or being able to access a previously inaccessible island in a Final Fantasy game once the airship is gained, than  to finding the ability to turn into a chicken in Guacamelee, and suddenly being able to access a wealth of new collectibles in previously traversed biomes.

 

If anything, the Metroidvania leanings of the game are only really present to serve to 4th-wall-breaking jokes in the game, than the gameplay. When the player first encounters an impasse, and is unable to progress, they will inevitably end up speaking to the Shopkeeper, who gives them the wing-suit, thus facilitating their continuation on their quest...
...and does so for free, because "Well, you need this to continue, so here you go".
It is, in essence, a joke about the structure of Metroidvania games, rather than an implementation of it. 

 

This is not - I should be clear - a negative. I like a Metroidvania just fine, but the lack of clear Metroidvania elements do not harm The Messenger - it is just an odd thing that I've seen the game so often cited as an example of a Metroidvania, where it really doesn't belong! 

 

 

So, in terms of actual moment-to-moment gameplay, the game is broadly very good, though not completely without issue. 

The platforming is sound, and fairly simple, and is generally all centred around the primary mechanic in the game - namely "cloud stepping". Essentially what this does, is grant one additional, in-air jump for every connecting hit the player does with his sword - either to an enemy, or to particular "totems" in the environment. 
This allows complicated platforming puzzles to be crafted, with the player required to do a sort of "dance" - jumping, then swiping at a totem to grant another jump, to another totem, to an enemy, to a totem, to a dash, to a totem etc. - requiring a relatively precise timing.

For the most part, the main path levels are not particularly unforgiving, and rarely require to long a section to be "danced" - though some of the specific puzzle rooms (usually associated with finding the collectible medals) can be quite tricky, and go over and above the skill level required to simply see credits!

 

The standard "mob" enemies in the game are not usually a threat on their own - combat is simple, and they die easily, and generally these exist primarily as "traversal elements" - only there to facilitate getting hits to allow further cloud-steps. 
However, where they do sometimes cause frustration is not in killing the player directly, but by knocking them out of the particular platforming "dance" that are doing. While each enemy is simple to dispatch, the ones with projectiles can be a menace when they are positioned out of reach, and are able to throw cloud-step-ending projectiles at them as they try to climb a tricky tower! 
These elements can, on occasion, feel a little overly punitive - occasional sections where the platforming requires a level of precision over a long section can become frustrating when a particularly irksome enemy placement means repeated restarts forced by projectile spam...
...but for the most part, these frustrations are few and far between. (They are a little more present in the DLC areas, but this is to be expected, given that the DLC is aiming a to be a challenge for those who have already mastered the main game.)

 

Bosses, on the other hand, are uniformly excellent - there is a really good variety of bosses in the game, and each one - without any exceptions - is a smart, fun, well-designed fight, that requires mechanical skill, but is not so brutally unforgiving as to cause frustration.

 

The game features an interesting "death" mechanic - a creature named Quarble resurrects the player each time they die, but requires payment in the form of the collectible currency in the game. After death, Quarble follows the player like a cross between a tenacious wasp at a picnic and a student loan collector, siphoning all the collectible currency the player collects until their debt is paid. 
It's an interesting and fun twist on the "lives" concept - the player is not limited or frustrated by having a set number of retries, but there is certainly an incentive to playing well, as each death delays how quickly the player will be able to upgrade their abilities, due to the loss of currency. (It also allows the developer to humorously "neg" the player, via Quarble, about how poorly they are playing!)

Visually, the game, as said, is great - the pixel art and retro feel is captured very well, for both era's that it aims for. The Messenger falls squarely in the "could-have-actually-existed" camp of retro pixel-art (as opposed to the games which do retro-feel, but use techniques or effects that could never have existed on the original platforms they are inspired by,)...
...but of course, the mere fact that the game flip-flops between the two era makes it feel more modern anyways. 
It's an interesting case, because I think both the NES and the SNES elements could certainly have existed on their respective old consoles, but being able to see both, flipping between them constantly, is, in and of itself, a very modern element.
Fundamentally though, both provide exactly the "rose-tinted-feel-good" that only proper retro pixel-art can, and both really capture their eras. It is very clear that the developers have a love for both those eras, and strove to make both work perfectly.

Audio needs a mention here - the music in The Messenger is FUCKING OUTSTANDING!
It's chip-tune beats of the absolute highest order - not since 3D Dot Game Heroes have I been so enamoured of some chip-tune beats, but in that case, it was specific tracks that were the stand-out. Here, EVERY SINGLE TRACK is of, or above the quality of the best tracks in 3D Dot Game Heroes...
...and not only are they fantastic, but they are fantastic in two different versions!

When the player flips from Past to Present, the tracks flip too - from an NES era version to an SNES era version, and both sound fantastic. 
In fact, the game uses the "change the music based on the gameplay" in other ways too - when the player, for example, dives underwater, the music suddenly goes muffled, as if being heard from beneath the surface...
...in an effect that is so fun and satisfying that I ended up consistently diving underwater for no reason, just to hear it!

 

Overall, The Messenger is a great game - fun to play, clever, interesting, genre-blending, and one that makes a 30-odd hour journey feel like it goes by in a flash.

The structure of the game, and the consistent pace of reveals, (both narrative and in terms of gameplay hijinx,) genre blending and compounding of ideas works very, very well, and it really makes the game experience move seamlessly and feel consistently interesting and fast paced.

The humour is on point, with a number of genuine laugh out loud moments, and a lot of wry smiles, good nods to gaming tropes, and it manages to both skewer and rib elements of game design, without feeling hollow. It accomplishes a delicate balancing act of identifying and poking some gentle fun at gaming clichés, while still being a very good example of a game, rather than a parody of one.

 

Couple that with some brilliant visual flourishes, a keen eye for the retro elements it apes, and genuinely some of the best chip-tune music I've heard, and it makes for a hell of a game!
 

 

 

 

The Ranking:

 

In terms of 2D retro or retro-esque action platformers, there are a few on the list so far, and with The Messenger being a very good one, it felt right to look in the upper end of the list for obvious comparisons.

 

The first one to really jump out as being broadly in the same wheelhouse as The Messenger is the excellent and unusual Metroidvania Dandara. 

Both games are sizeable ones (Dandara in particular with the very good Trials of Fear DLC added, which virtually doubled it in size!) and both feature a unique movement mechanic that is their core. Both are retro pixel art, and both are indie games with a lot more finesse than one might initially expect!

 

I think in terms of visuals, it's something of a wash between the two - Dandara has more of a truly unique style, but The Messenger has more locations and variety, as well as it's awesome NES/SNES switching mechanic.
In terms of Audio, Dandara has some good score, but The Messenger easily wins, as its soundtrack is off the freakin' hook!
The narrative is cool in both, though The Messenger does have more humour to it, and is a lot more fleshed out...
...though I'd argue the world of Dandara is potentially the more interesting one - it just isn't fleshed out as much, and leaves a lot more of it to the player's interpretation... but for sure, The Messenger easily wins on dialogue.

It comes down to gameplay as the deciding factor though, as while The Messenger is out in slightly ahead on the other aspects, the fact is that the loud-stepping mechanic just isn't as interesting, unique or cool to play with as Dandara's sticky-walls-and-no-way-is-up design. I like The Messenger a lot, but a lot of that is because of the factors around the gameplay, not always because of the gameplay itself (outside of the boss fights.)

Looking further down though, there is another 2D indie I liked a lot - Treasures of the Aegean. That game does, I think easily win on visuals, however, it loses on audio, loses on dialogue, and as blisteringly good fun as the parkour in it is, and as fun as the puzzles are to solve, I do think the gameplay of The Messenger is much more varied and fleshed out, and the narrative cannot really compete with The Messenger.

That places The Messenger somewhere in between the two, and with me looking at other indie fare.

 

A little up from Treasures of the Aegean, we find Rogue Legacy. 
That's a game that is broadly similar - it is also pixel art, though in this case it's a rogue like, and it also has some good boss fights and platforming. I think in terms of gameplay, the basic gameplay of Rogue Legacy beats the basic gameplay of The Messenger, but the boss fights in The Messenger are the superior of the two.
The Messenger wins on visuals and audio (again!), and while I think the gameplay loop of a rogue-like is something I like, I do think the narrative hooks of The Messenger, and it's humour work better, and so I have to give it to The Messenger.

 

There's not much comparable between Rogue Legacy and Dandara, however, so I'm really just working up the list, asking "is the complete package of cool story, great music, cool visuals and fun bosses enough to holistically beat out this other game?"...

 

I think the answer is yes for Rayman Origins, and even for Chicory...
... and in terms of the original Little Big Planet, I think it does win in 2023, given how much of that game was usurped by its bigger, grander sequel.

 

I think the scope and the variety of The Messenger beating Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons too... but the two games above are interesting.

The next games up are Far Cry 3 and Far Cry 4, which sit side by side, with Far Cry 4 being the higher of the two by a sliver...
...but I actually thing that sliver of difference is the deciding factor in beating or not beating The Messenger!

 

The slight edge Far Cry 4 has over Far Cry 3 is just enough to ensure FC4 keeps it's spot and FC3 doesn't, and so The Messenger finds its spot - separating the two!
 

 

 

 

 

 

Sea of Stars

 

 

Summary: 

 

A kickstarted 2023 follow up and prequel to The Messenger, Sea of Stars is set in the same universe, though hundreds of years prior, and while narratively it certainly does offer significant hooks to that previous game, in terms of gameplay, it couldn't be further away!

 

The player takes the role of two "Solstice Warriors" - children of mystical descent, who are delivered to the island of Mooncradle by a giant bird on the Summer or Winter solstices, and trained in the Zenith Academy to fight the forces of a malevolent entity who terrorises the world: The Fleshmancer.

The Fleshmancer's lieutenants - named "Dwellers" - cannot be harmed save for the magic of the Solstice Warriors, and only during an eclipse. The pair dutifully do so, alongside their teacher and a pair of older, more world-weary Solstice Warriors...
...but when, after the first Dweller is battled, a traitorous action betrays them, they are forced to travel the world (this one, and another!) to defeat the cult of acolytes that follow the Fleshmancer, defeat the remaining Dwellers, and restore peace...
...alongside a band of intrepid friends they make along the way.

Where The Messenger was a fast-paced, action-oriented 2D game, taking direct inspiration from early Ninja Gaiden games, Sea of Stars is unashamedly, unabashedly and unequivocally an RPG, through and through.

The game takes cues directly from SNES-era JRPGs like Chronotrigger, Illusion of Gaia, Final Fantasy (in particular FFVII structurally speaking, and FFVI in terms of tone and some gameplay,) but it feels not simply a case of taking inspiration and running with it, but rather, looking at the elements of those games that had the most impact, identifying any minor drawbacks they had, and specifically targeting those deficiencies for improvement, while maintaining broad homage.

 

Take for example, Chronotrigger. 
Chronotrigger is a titanic game - one of the greatest of the era, and a true contender for all time greatest. 
It has very, very few weak elements...
... but if there is a minor one, it is that the actual act of exploring the environments is relatively uninteresting. Actually traversing specific areas are generally rather perfunctory A-to-B treks, made interesting by the narrative, environments and enemies, and not necessarily the gameplay involved. 

Sea of Stars takes that model, does its own version where it also remains interesting in all the key ways… but adds a lot more in the way of little environmental puzzles, criss-crossing environments, unusual layouts, jumping, climbing etc.This makes the act of traversing the areas actually fun and engaging in a way few JRPGs (at least of the era Sea of Stars takes inspiration from) were - not exactly challenging, but much more than simply "walk to the next encounter".

 

That is a particularly tall order in game design - and one that is thoroughly unusual to see done quite this well.

Retro throwbacks are in vogue, and have been for quite a while now, (gaming nostalgia being much more of a force now, as the first generation of "lifetime gamers" like myself start getting grey hairs!) but among the games that fall in that camp, there is a relatively small selection that manage to truly evoke their forbearers in the way that Sea of Stars does - and even fewer that can make some improvements that feel well done, without sullying the nostalgia they aim for.

 

While I do not think Sea of Stars is ever likely to capture the zeitgeist (or my personal favour) with quite the fervour that Chronotrigger did and does (let's not get silly, and Chronotrigger not only benefits from being great, but also of evoking my own childhood, and while the many elements of Sea of Stars are on par with Chronotrigger, the overall narrative isn't,) I really do think that of the (admittedly limited) exposure i have had to retro throwback RPGs, Sea of Stars is quite firmly the best one, and the most deserving of praise. 

 

Sea of Stars, as compared to The Messenger is interesting, in that while they are of a piece, there are distinct and notable differences beyond the simple genre change. Changes in tone, for example. While The Messenger is a specifically and deliberately 4th-wall-breaking game, and one that is generally humorous as it's primary narrative gist, Sea of Stars is significantly more earnest.
It has funny moments, and even finds a few spots to do a similar light ribbing of genre tropes, (primarily via one character - Yolande the pirate, who often makes jokes specifically referencing some of the more clichéd elements of JRPGs,) but Sea of Stars is not really aiming for comedy as often as it is for genuine narrative excitement. 

 

That makes sense in terms of the change of design, of course - The Messenger, while a much bigger game than it initially appears, is still a relatively contained affair as compared to Sea of Stars. In fact, the entirety of The Messenger is - as Sea of Stars makes clear - pretty much all set on one relatively small island...
...an island they visit in Sea of Stars, wherein the player can find a number of areas with direct, 1-to-1 parallels to the various biomes of The Messenger.

As such, Sea of Stars is by nature a grander epic tale, and has a resulting increase in seriousness.

That's not to say the game feels over serious - it retains the lightness and fun of something like a Chronotrigger, but it also keeps its narrative tone grounded enough that when grandiose elements are called for, the game is able to treat them with gravitas, while still keeping a fun, lighthearted tone only a stone's throw away.

On that narrative, I think Sea of Stars is pretty good - but I will say... not completely outstanding. 
It is a case where I feel like the characters and their interactions are fun and keep the narrative bouncing along amiably, but the full "flow" of the primary narrative can feel at times a little over-baked, or under-baked, depending on the point in question. 
At the outset, the story is a little too heavy in terms of world-building, yet later, the speed of the narrative for the primary characters tends to pick up, and the overview can get a little muddled.

It's not a complete failure by any stretch - for sure, the fun of simply being in this world, and on this quest with these particular characters is good fun, but I must admit, that I feel that in an effort to show just how much lore the developer has crafted around the universe (there are plans, I believe, to have at least 3 more games set in it,) coupled with the desire to pay direct homage to certain older games (there are specific, direct references to Chronotrigger, Illusion of Gaia, and I think Final Fantasy VII,) AND the desire to tie into The Messenger, AND the desire to tell an epic stand-alone tale, means there is sometimes too many ideas crammed into one narrative, and it begins to strain under the weight of it all.

 

Characterisation is on point, however - each of the party members is given good screen time - but the stand out - Garl, the childhood "non-magic" friend of the pair of Solstice Warriors, is inarguably the heart and soul of the game. He is so absurdly winning, likeable and fun to be around, that it should be illegal. 
Indeed, Garl is something of a gaming anomaly, in that he should, on paper, be utterly insufferable - he is goodness and kindness personified, and should come across as a complete Mary Sue...
...but somehow he doesn't. He simply wins over the player in exactly the same way he wins over everyone else!

Combat and exploration and puzzles are all very good. The combat system is closest in style to Chronotrigger (complete with in-field enemies, so no Final Fantasy-style "cut-to-random-battle") and has a fair amount of nuance to it. There are quite a variety of mini systems involved - charging, combos, healing on hits, regenerating MP based on physical damage, lock breaks based on damage type etc, and it can feel a little overwhelming at the outset, but the game does a pretty good job of getting through a number of tutorial sections relatively quickly (at least, by JRPG standards!) and once all the powers are available, it makes for a fairly fun (if never hugely challenging) time.

 

The puzzles generally are good too - most of the ones that form the main traversal are, as said, very simple, but they are engaging and diverting enough to make each area feel different and distinct. There are a few decent, not-terribly-hard-but-at-least-need-some-thought ones later, in optional areas that form part of some of the side quests and the "true" ending too, and these are plenty fun.

 

That "True" ending is interesting, in that it is technically optional, but actually, very much forms the "proper" ending to the game narrative. That narrative doesn't treat the "True Ending" as optional exactly - it essentially enters a "holding pattern" of sorts, allowing the player to keep completing the game over and over, on a loop, ad infinitum, until they achieve it, and gives them all the hinting they need to pursue it. 
In a sense, the "True Ending" forms an actual narrative "Act IV", as opposed to an "appendix" as it might in some other games of similar structure.

 

Visually, Sea of Stars is absolutely gorgeous.
It is a bright, varied, interesting and thoroughly cohesive world constructed in isometric pixel-art, and seems never to stop presenting new, engaging areas to explore. 

Unlike The Messenger, Sea of Stars is playing in the "evocation" camp, rather than the "direct homage" camp, in that while the broad strokes of the pixel art world could, I imagine, have theoretically been able to be crafted on the SNES era, 16-bit technology from which it takes inspiration, it could never have looked quite this good.

There are effects layered on top of the pixel-art world - things like dynamic shadows, or mist and fog that shifts and disperses around the moving sprites - that would not have been possible originally, but the game seems to know exactly how to use these to maximum effect. They are used fairly sparingly, without a huge amount of "lantern-hanging" and tend to simply accentuate the game, rather than fully pull the player out of the "retro-feel". 

The pixel density, even, feels a little more fine than an actual SNES game would likely have allowed for - certainly a game at this scale - but it is not SO dramatically different as to negate the retro feel...
...it simply results in a game that looks the best version of how a 40-year-old gamer might remember those games of his or her youth, rather than the best version of what those games actually were.

 

There are also sparing, yet very nice, little flourishes used where the game fully drops the retro pretence - occasional animated sections that are actually animated (in the same way the Studio Ghibli associated Ni No Kuni games do,) and even a couple of rather reality-bending moments where pixel-art sprites become 3D models for a brief moment - but again, these are used as punctuation, rather than substance, and work very well in that context, without pulling from the overall retro-flavour.

 

Audio is very good in Sea of Stars.
There is no voice work, in keeping with the retro throwback - however, the score is top notch - fun, funky and often quite rousing. The composer of The Messenger - Eric W Brown - returns to add some new tunes (as well as some remixes and new compositions of his score from The Messenger, for those areas where there is clear crossover,) and legendary Japanese composer Yasunori Mitsuda provides a number of tracks too...
...yes, that Yasunori Mitsuda, who has scored games like Xenoblade, Xenogears, Shadow Hearts...
...oh, and a little game called Chronotrigger!

 

I will admit, while I do love the soundtrack of Sea of Stars, its not quite on the level of The Messenger - but that is pretty much a matter of personal tastes. For sure, the soundtrack to Sea of Stars is absolutely befitting the genre - and it would feel anachronistic (and wrong) for the game to have all its music be just like The Messenger, (not to mention, probably rather grating, considering the much longer, less action-heavy sections)...
...but I do have to concede that virtually all my favourite moments of the music in Sea of Stars (aside from the fantastic, rousing theme that accompanies one character - Garl,) were ones from the 30-40% of the soundtrack that are direct remasters of The Messenger's soundtrack!

Outdoing The Messenger 's music is a pretty tall order though, so that preference should not be construed as damning with faint praise. As a JRPG-style soundtrack, Sea of Stars' is very good.

 

 

Overall, Sea of Stars is a hell of a game.

It is a retro throwback to a genre that is particularly difficult to channel effectively, and one that does it to a very high level of quality. It evokes strong nostalgia for an era by being a very good example of it, yet does it while retaining just enough modern elements to still feel vital in a 2023 landscape. 

 

It might not quite have the narrative hooks to stand tall next to the true titans of the genre, however, it manages the near impossible task of having virtually every element of it harken directly back to a specific game, yet never fumble them to the point where evoking those great successes is a burden, or makes it shrink in comparison, and many of the ways in which it seeks to improve any wanting elements of those older games, it does pretty successfully.

 

All of that, combined with a great soundtrack, a really winning cast of characters, some fun locations, a neat gameplay loop, and copious tie-ins to the also great The Messenger, make for an excellent game through-and-through!

 

 

 

The Ranking:

 

The first game for comparison is the obvious question - and the one on most people's minds when playing Sea of Stars:

"Is it better than The Messenger?"

 

It's actually a tough question.

The Messenger is the better sounding game, and has arguably the better narrative - Sea of Stars is much more ambitious and grander, and has more compelling characters, but Sea of Stars does get a little bogged down in its grandiosity, so there is something to be said for the lean, "no-fat", humorous storytelling of The Messenger.

 

I think the switching of NES to SNES graphics and back again is masterful, and a better mechanic than any single one in Sea of Stars, and I think the boss fights are better in The Messenger...
...but Sea of Stars has better general gameplay, and a richer fiction, and wins on general graphics and finesse.

In the end, I do think Sea of Stars comes out the victor, though it's by a smaller margin than one might imagine - particularly given that retro JRPG is much more in my personal wheelhouse of nostalgia than Ninja Gaiden ever was! I do have to concede though, that playing The Messenger now, would certainly feel like a prelude to a repeat playthrough of Sea of Stars, and if I were to only replay one, it would be Sea of Stars.

It's not a resounding win, however, so I simply started there, and worked my way up the list, asking the baseline "Is the whole package more awesome than this other game?"

 

The answer was never an obvious one - each game in that list is excellent, and had to be really thought out (and I wont go into the details of every fight, or we'd be here all day!) but I'll just say the final tally:

For Far Cry 4, The Outer Worlds, Dead Nation, and Assassin's Creed Brotherhood, I think the answer was a marginal victory for Sea of Stars...
...but I feel it finally was bested by the Capcom's amazing remake of Resident Evil 2. That game is simply too surprisingly good, too good looking, and too big and complete a package to be beaten in this instance...

...so Sea of Stars finds it's well deserved high spot, just below it!
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

To Hell with the Ugly

 

Summary: 

 

An unusual and extremely visually stylish Jazz-noir narrative adventure game from french developer La Poule Noire, To Hell with the Ugly adapts the novel "Et on tuera tous les affreux" by Boris Vian, and sees the player take on the role of Rock Bailey - a good hearted, naive, handsome but shallow young man in 1950's Los Angeles, who after being drugged and abducted by a mysterious cartel - seemingly set on robbing him of his prized virginity -  must work with a crew of his eclectic friends to solve the mystery - both of his own kidnap, of a murder in his local jazz club, and of a spate of disappearances of attractive people across the city!

I rarely discuss the visual aspects of a game as the first element in any of these reviews, but in the case of To Hell with the Ugly I almost have to... for two reasons.

Firstly, because (aside from the curious title) the visual style of the game were what drew me to purchase this rather niche game (which at the time of writing, sports a paltry 22 game owners on this site)...
...and because the visuals are so incredibly striking!

The aesthetic of the game is highly, highly stylised, using a cartoonish - almost caricature-esque - model for characters, that feels somewhere between vintage Art Deco poster art, and New Yorker cover type "high society sophisticate". This is coupled with an extreme, minimalistic colour palate of hot orange, red, yellow, white and black, and all set on top of a stylised flat-plane vision of 1950-s LA.
Combining this all with cinematic techniques like split-screen, picture-in-picture, dutch angles and very specific shot compositions, the game looks both highly unusual... and extremely good!

 

Virtually everything about the visual design of the game is unusual for videogames - indeed, I'm not sure I can ever recall seeing a game that looks like To Hell with the Ugly does - and in much the same way that other game which successfully use a unique or very untapped art-style (Cuphead, for example) it really elevates the game and makes it stand out from the pack.
There are rarely games where I genuinely bemoan the fact that I don't use screenshots or clips in these write-ups, but I implore anyone who has even the slightest passing interest in this game based off this review to check out some screenshots of the game - or better yet, watch the trailer available on YouTube, as I am quite sure you will not have seen another game that looks quite like it!

 

The narrative is an unusual and quite an over-the-top and outlandish one - and not being familiar with the original novel, I am unequipped to render a verdict on how close it stays to the adapted work, however, from the game alone, I get some sense. If feels noir, yet subtly - and sometimes overtly - comedic in nature, falling somewhere between a Chinatown, an early James Bond film (Dr. No came to mind at several points) and the kind of comedy detective novels that John Schwartzweleder's Frank Burly novels.

 

Rock Bailey is a vain and naive character - one who's entire life seems to revolve around his looks, and who's opinions of situations and other people are entirely based around his knowledge of how handsome he is...
...yet his lack of comprehension of things does actually work as a noir protagonist, because - as in all good noir novels and films - Rock himself is perpetually 3 steps behind everyone else, and constantly being baffled and wrong-footed.
He is often presented with situations he doesn't understand, but is able to get by on his muscles and his looks, and while other characters recognise he isn't the sharpest tool in the box, he is still broadly liked by them, and that actually goes a long way to letting the player grow to kind of like him too. 

Film noir is, of course, a genre in which flawed protagonists really do work well, because they are perpetually having bad things done to them, and the only reason they prevail, is by simply not giving up in the face of adversity, and som the audience is very much predisposed to like the characters regardless of their flaws. It's tough not to see someone perpetually getting made a fool of or beaten up, without some sympathy and empathy taking over!

That noir element is worth point out actually - probably because the game is based on a book, (and while I haven't read it myself, I have to assume a relatively successful and well liked book, given that it is getting a game adaptation so long after the fact!) - the noir tropes are all pretty well on point. The characters are curious and oddball, and the story feels - like in all good pulp noir - like a slow and steady descent into hysteria, with an ever expanding cast of more and more eclectic and unusual characters, as the protagonist delves deeper and deeper into the mystery.

That To Hell with the Ugly is clearly a comedic take on noir elements doesn't really take away from the core principles of the genre. It has a comedic slant, but I'd hesitate to call it parody - or at least out-and-out parody - as while it is funny, it is still a funny take from within the genre, rather than a comedic ribbing of it from the outside.

The overall story does have the sense - that filmic of videogame adaptations of novels often do - of the story being something of a "runaway train" - where the pace moves a little fast, and there is an expectation for the player to keep up, as it is catering to two audiences: Those familiar with the source material, and those new to it, however, I think it works pretty well, for 3 reasons.

 

Firstly, because at its core, it is light, funny, and actually, quite engaging. The story clips along, and while the player is not super influential in how it pans out, it still manages to catch them off guard, and change up the whole premise with a twist here and there.

 

Secondly, because the dialogue writing is actually pretty good. There are, it must be said, some instances of dialogue being a little clunky, and this I suspect is partly down to interpreting a longer novel, and needing to get more exposition into some lines than they can comfortably or naturally contain, and partly due to translation issues (the game will have been originally written in French, and translated,) but more often than not, the noir tropes and stylised, witty dialogue works, and feels - if not naturalistic, at least era and genre appropriate.

 

Thirdly, because its gameplay is pretty simple, but does vary enough, and feel narratively prescient enough, that the player feels properly along for the ride.

 

On that gameplay, I will say...
...Rock Bailey is a handsome yet shallow young man.... and To Hell with the Ugly as a game feels somewhat similar.

 

There are quite a few gameplay systems that come up here and there beyond simple narrative-adventure-game point and clicking - there are fights that take the form of a sort of cross between RPG turn-based fighting and quick-time events, there are some limited stealth sections, some QTE driving sections, some "match the clues" type puzzle solving, and some "choose the right connection" detective work, similar to the lighter Frogware Sherlock Holmes games...
... and none of these are particularly fleshed out.
They work in context, and serve their core purpose - they keep the gameplay feeling varied, and keep the player engaged in the story, and they stop the game ever feeling too close to a simple visual novel - but they work primarily as a whole piece. What I mean by that, is the variety of gameplay is what makes each element work, rather than the specifics of any individual gameplay type.

Each one of these "mini-games" is very rudimentary and simplistic in design and execution, and none are particularly challenging... or even tremendously fun in a vacuum...
...but their use in the overall story does help it, and the overall effect works. That shouldn't sound overly harsh of course - there are great narrative adventure games (Telltale's the Walking Dead or Backbone, or even Norco) about which the same accusation could be levelled - but it is worth pointing out.

In fact, there are arguably more gameplay and mechanical elements to To Hell with the Ugly than there are in something like Norco or Backbone, and I do think that is welcome - though primarily that is because as fun as the narrative story is, I don't actually think it rises to the same level as those games did. Because the world in which To Hell with the Ugly is set is simply 1950's Noir LA, rather than some truly alien reality, that requires a lot of lore building and explanation, there is naturally less engagement on that front, so some more variety in the mechanical engagement is welcome.

Audio is decent in the game - the majority of dialogue is text-based only, but there are some cut scenes in which Rocky delivers spoken voice-over, in the film noir tradition, and these are perfectly fine, but never impressive.

What is a cut above the voice work though, is the electro-jazz score that plays over the game. The soundtrack is really good, both at evoking the seedy charm of the retro setting while keeping the tone buoyant and quirky. The narrative is a comical one in many places - bordering on absurdist at times, and the music feels as integral to maintaining that balance, while still retaining some genuine mystery, noir and tense elements, as any part of the game.

 

 

Overall, To Hell with the Ugly is a curious little game - one that tells a fun enough story, and has a decent enough mystery, but doesn't really stand up against some of the higher-bar narrative adventure games I've played. 
Where it does stand out, however, is in the visual department. It both looks good, and looks very unusual, and both are very welcome!

It's not a terribly long game - a clean, new playthrough clocking in at the 2-3 hour mark, and for that duration, it holds up it's narrative and its audio, and more than excels visually...
...though unlike something like Norco or Backbone, I don't think it necessarily holds up to repeat or multiple playthroughs.

 

 

 

 

The Ranking:

 

For comparison, I was looking at games that are primarily narrative in nature, and built around detective work, or at least, a mystery.

The first one for comparison was the aforementioned Backbone (or Tails Noir, as it is now called.)

 

Backbone does, I think lose out on the visuals - Backbone looks very cool, but To Hell with the Ugly is such an unusual and well executed visual style, that it pretty much beats Backbone out without a scratch...
...but ultimately, while both have limited gameplay beyond the narrative, I think the narrative in Backbone is far superior to To Hell with the Ugly. The world is more interesting, and the dialogue is better, so it wins pretty comfortably.

 

Further down, is Heavy Rain. That game looks great (particularly for the era in which it released,) however, I still would contend that the stylish look of To Hell with the Ugly makes for better, more interesting visuals... but again, even with all the plot holes and issues Heavy Rain has (and the often rather unrealistic dialogue,) the central story and mystery beats out To Hell with the Ugly.

The Spectrum Retreat is a curious one - it's half mystery detective game, and half puzzler, and to be fair, I think the mystery and narrative of To Hell with the Ugly beat the mystery and narrative of The Spectrum Retreat - as does the visuals, and even the audio...
...but The Spectrum Retreat is really holding its place due to the puzzle side of the game, and To Hell with the Ugly has no answer to that. Fundamentally, The Spectrum Retreat is two games in one, and while one of those games is beaten by To Hell with the Ugly, the other one surpasses it by such a margin, that the overall holds its spot.

 
Virginia isa little further down - another detective mystery game, though a highly stylised one - and again, I think it has to beat To Hell with the Ugly. To Hell with the Ugly has the visuals (again) but they are matched on audio (well, score,) but the narrative of the strange, interpretive Virginia is more interesting than the central narrative of To Hell with the Ugly.

 

Further down still though, is The Longest Road on Earth. That's a game I really did like quite a bit - it's one that is rather unfairly maligned, given it has so little gameplay, but it looks really nice, and has some absolutely fantastic music.
It certainly wins on audio, but the stylish look of To Hell with the Ugly does beat its (very nice) greyscale pixel-art, and fundamentally, despite the gameplay in To Hell with the Ugly being pretty rudimentary and shallow, it still counts for something when compared to a game without any real gameplay beyond holding a direction.

I think To Hell with the Ugly has to beat out The Longest Road on Earth - I certainly had more of an emotional connection to The Longest Road on Earth, but the visuals and style of To Hell with the Ugly were very striking, and I think I'd replay it before replaying The Longest Road on Earth.

 

In terms of incomparable games then, the first one above The Longest Road on Earth is visually stunning but shallow Hoa - and I think To Hell with the Ugly (also visually stunning, if a little shallow) does beat it in a one-on-one fight...
...but I can't say the same for Grow Home. 
That game has a cool visual style, that doesn't win against To Hell with the Ugly's, but at least keeps it in contention, and while I think the audio is a win for To Hell with the Ugly, the gameplay and the charm of Grow Home is enough to beat it.

 

As such, To Hell with the Ugly finds its spot!
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

So there we have it folks!

 

 Hitman 3 remains as 'Current Most Awesome Game'!

htoL#NiQ: The Firefly Diaries finally remains as the worst-of-the-worst, with the title of 'Least Awesome Game'!

 

 

What games will be coming along next time to challenge for the top spot... or the bottom rung?

That's up to randomness, me.... and YOU!

 

 

 

Remember:

 

SPECIAL NOTE

 

If there are any specific games anyone wants to see get ranked sooner rather than later - drop a message, and I'll mark them for 'Priority Ranking'! 

 

The only stipulation is that they must be on my profile, at 100% (S-Rank)....

 and aren't already on the Rankings! 

[Breakingthegreen]

3 hours ago, DrBloodmoney said:

Characterisation is on point, however - each of the party members is given good screen time - but the stand out - Garl, the childhood "non-magic" friend of the pair of Solstice Warriors, is inarguably the heart and soul of the game. He is so absurdly winning, likeable and fun to be around, that it should be illegal. 
Indeed, Garl is something of a gaming anomaly, in that he should, on paper, be utterly insufferable - he is goodness and kindness personified, and should come across as a complete Mary Sue...
...but somehow he doesn't. He simply wins over the player in exactly the same way he wins over everyone else!

 

We all love Garl. I feel like we all predicted that he'd be one of the bad guys at the very start of the game, when he didn't show up for the start of the adventure, and then as if by magic he's exactly as you say, the kindest being ever conceived.

[DrBloodmoney]

1 minute ago, Breakingthegreen said:

 

We all love Garl. I feel like we all predicted that he'd be one of the bad guys at the very start of the game, when he didn't show up for the start of the adventure, and then as if by magic he's exactly as you say, the kindest being ever conceived.

 

 

 

I know what you mean - after that intro, I was 100% convinced that he was going to be this game's Pokey Minch...

...but he turned out to be this game's Aireth. 😌

 

 

Spoiler

AND... they did a Chronotrigger, and undid that game's injustice 😂 

 

[Eqill5]

Thank you for doing so much justice for The Messenger in your review! I was really excited to see it coming up for review next I knew it would be well worth reading and man did you deliver. I truly enjoyed every moment with that game. The passion that was put into it is just so obvious from the very get go. 
 

I hope your write up encourages more folk to give it a blast!

[DrBloodmoney]

6 minutes ago, Eqill5 said:

Thank you for doing so much justice for The Messenger in your review! I was really excited to see it coming up for review next I knew it would be well worth reading and man did you deliver. I truly enjoyed every moment with that game. The passion that was put into it is just so obvious from the very get go. 
 

I hope your write up encourages more folk to give it a blast!

Thank you mate - I hope so too, ‘cause that game is a banger!

[Beyondthegrave07]

I don't typically post in other's checklist as I always feel like I'm intruding, but I just saw a few games with a worse ranking than Aabs Animals and did a double-take.

 

I think it says a lot when you have Aabs Animals over a few games. When noticed that, I couldn't help but laugh. Not saying it's wrong or anything. Aabs just has zero gameplay and the fact that they are above actual games is fantastic. Keep up the superb research, doc. 😆

[DrBloodmoney]

7 minutes ago, Beyondthegrave07 said:

I don't typically post in other's checklist as I always feel like I'm intruding, but I just saw a few games with a worse ranking than Aabs Animals and did a double-take.

 

I think it says a lot when you have Aabs Animals over a few games. When noticed that, I couldn't help but laugh. Not saying it's wrong or anything. Aabs just has zero gameplay and the fact that they are above actual games is fantastic. Keep up the superb research, doc. 😆

As science has proven a few times now, the following formula applies:

 

Looking-at-a-not-real-cat > Not-looking-at-a-not-real-cat…

 

…and with some truly terrible games:

doing nothing > playing them!

 

 

(Also - there’s no intrusion possible here - I love the discussion!)

Edited September 30, 2023 by DrBloodmoney

[Breakingthegreen]

Sorry if this has been asked before but I'm curious Doc. When you review a legacy title, how do you do it, because with your level of detail I can only see 3 possibilities: One, you dig through the your previously bought games and replay it from beginning to end. Two, you watch the game online and try to recall how it played. And three (my favourite option) you have a memory that is near super human and you could join the cast of The Chase but you use your memory reserves for games you played over 10 years ago.

Edited October 8, 2023 by Breakingthegreen

[DrBloodmoney]

1 minute ago, Breakingthegreen said:

Sorry if this has been asked before but I'm curious Doc. When you review a legacy, how do you do it, because with your level of detail I can only see 3 possibilities: One, you dig through the your previously bought games and replay it from beginning to end. Two, you watch the game online and try to recall how it played. And three (my favourite option) you have a memory that is near super human and you could join the cast of The Chase but you use your memory reserves for games you played over 10 years ago.

A mix of all three!

 

I do have a pretty good memory for games - I’m the same with movies actually - for some reason I’ve always been way better at recalling fiction than real life!😂

 

If at all possible, I try to dig out the game and replay a bit of it, to remind myself of the feel, but I rarely replay the whole thing - usually, an hour or so is enough to spark the memory… and to be honest, since I don’t try to have a “one-size-fits-all” type structure, or cover every detail of a game, I’m of the opinion that whatever things I remember are - by definition- the important things to talk about since…well… that stuff (good and bad) is what stuck, and so it’s clearly the lasting parts!

 

I will definitely lean on watching some footage too though - particularly to remind myself of the visuals, or highlights, and I’ll also make sure I cross-reference Wikipedia for actual specific plot points, as I am good with remembering plot and gameplay, but terrible with character names / location names etc!

I do, however, try to avoid any footage that has actual editorial on it - because if I agree, it might sneak into my own review by accident, and if I disagree, the review might take on a more combative “wanting to prove it wrong” tone!

 

Also, I’ll generally try to be listening to the soundtrack for the game while writing - because sense-memory is absolutely a thing for me - and hearing the audio of a game will make me remember it much better!

 

In the end though, my write ups are always far more concerned with broad-strokes, and with the feel of a game, or the overall effect of it, than with technical specifics. I rarely get into actually dissecting mechanics on a micro-scale, even in games I just played, because it’s not what really interests me - so that benefits the Legacy reviews, as that is the stuff that I wouldn’t necessarily remember perfectly… but I remember much more how the game made me feel!

 

[Jeanolt]

You definitely gave me inspiration to continue my list! (someday lol). You always make good reads and they are really enjoyable, not to say you write better that most academics these days. Lately I haven't been enjoying videogames that much, I have to get back into the groove and in general, improve my mental health and why can't I get that feeling anymore. Reading your thoughts is always inspiring because of the positiveness it brings.

 

I've been reading your ranking, and I really agree with the games I had played so far. Curiously the most "in the middle" game would be the #220 Guardians of the Galaxy, and it fits a lot the etiquette of "middle" lol. It's just marvel, and I actually played it so I agree with it.

 

Maybe I missed it but, why is there a limit on the games on your list? Is it based on a list you previously wrote? I guess you are also adding new games every year, since Elden Ring only released last year.

Edited October 9, 2023 by Jeanolt

[DrBloodmoney]

2 minutes ago, Jeanolt said:

I've been reading your ranking, and I really agree with the games I had played so far. Curiously the most "in the middle" game would be the #220 Guardians of the Galaxy, and it fits a lot the etiquette of "middle" lol. It's just marvel, and I actually played it so I agree with it.

 

Ha - that one does feel like a rather fitting "middle of the road" type game actually!

 

 

2 minutes ago, Jeanolt said:

Maybe I missed it but, why is there a limit on the games on your list? Is it based on a list you previously wrote? I guess you are also adding new games every year, since Elden Ring only released last year.

 

How do you mean?

 

I only put games on there that I've S-Ranked (there are a small number of games on there that aren't currently S-Ranked, but that's because DLC came out after the ranking) - but I started this when I already had over 500 games outstanding, so it's taking a very long time to add everything!

 

I try to keep on top of all new S-Ranks as a priority, and will dip into doing old games as and when I have time, but it's slow going obviously - I'll try to hit the ones people request as a priority, or if a new one is coming up that is a sequel to an unranked old game, I try to make sure I get the previous ones done first - but I suspect it'll still be a long time before the list actually catches up to only including new stuff - if it ever gets there! 😂

[DrBloodmoney]

 

!!SCIENCE UPDATE!!

 

 

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

 

 

 

Legacy

 

Trine 2: The Complete Story

Valiant Hearts: The Great War

 

New

 

Costume Quest

Costume Quest 2

Echochrome
 

 

 

 

Subject(s) in RED marked for PRIORITY ASSIGNEMENT

[Care of @gruffiiti ]

 

 

 

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

 

Is gaming turdlet Htol#niQ: The Firefly Diaries  going to lose its new crown of 'Least Awesome Game'?

 

 

Let's find out, Science Chums!

Edited October 12, 2023 by DrBloodmoney

[DrBloodmoney]

 

  NEW SCIENTIFIC RESULTS ARE IN! 

 

 

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

 

 

 

Trine 2: The Complete Story

 

Summary: 

 

A 2011 sequel to Frozenbyte's original puzzle platformer Trine, Trine 2 sees the player (and up to two couch-co-op buddies) once again take control of the three heroes - Zoya the Thief, Pontius the Knight, and Amadeus the Wizard - on a new adventure.

 

Summoned, via the Trine - the titular magical artefact that bound their fates together in the first game - and encountering a talking flower with a request - they are sent to explore a new, lost realm, wherein the trio are pulled into a tale of historical magical-oneupmanship and jealousy between two sisters - Isabel and Rosabel - which tore a kingdom asunder, and resulted in it being open to conquering by invading goblin hordes. 

Helping one of the sisters, while slowly learning the history of their feud via collectibles and narrative beats, the trio set about ridding the land of the goblins, dealing with the magical plant life that is running rampant throughout...
...and navigating the tempestuous relationship between the who magical siblings!

 

In terms of visuals, it has to be noted that - like the original game, Trine 2 is absolutely gorgeous. 

It's a whimsical and fantastical land that Pontius, Zoya and Amadeus inhabit, and the one they visit here is no less so. Like the original Trine, Trine 2 is certainly in the "indie" wheelhouse as opposed to the "AAA" one, but also like its predecessor, Trine 2 represented one of the most accomplished and visually spectacular versions of the 2.5D platformer to exist at its time of release.

 

The visual palate is slightly different here than it was in the first game - the character models are much more detailed, and the camera is pulled a little closer into the action than it was, but the sumptuous combination of background detail, lively foreground flourishes, vivid colour and bright - almost neon-tinged lighting effects makes for a visually spectacular experience in both games.
The visuals are something that Trine as a series (now 5 games strong) has always traded on, and Trine was no slouch in that department, but Trine 2 really represents the first point where the kaleidoscopic fandango of light and colour and bouncy, varied detail in each new level and location, and combination of foreground interactable environments, fading into deep, rich, almost-watercolour-looking pained backgrounds, really cemented itself as the primary selling point of the games.

 

Trine 2 takes the very detailed and lush environmental detail that underpinned the original Trine and made it stand out from the crowd in the - at that point - relatively untapped "triple I" indie field, and double down on that enormously. 
Things like lighting effects, water and fire effects, particle effect etc are ramped up to such a degree that in the wrong hands, it could easily tip over into a messy or overly frenetic level of visual design...
...but because the pace of these games is relatively patient, and because drinking in the environmental detail of each new area is a key to solving each of the puzzles - combined with the simple fact that environments are so variable, that the player is constantly drinking in new visuals - it works.

The environments all look like some combination of a Bob Ross painting, and a fairytale picture-book illustration, but move with the fluidity of a well crafted game - and because each new level is generally a completely different biome to the last, the effect really feels like exploring another magical world.

 

The tone of Trine, as a franchise, has always been fable and fairytale - it is, as said, a thoroughly whimsical and magical world, with just a slight hint of knowing wink about it - (think The Princess Bride, or The Neverending Story,) - and while that is fairly well trodden territory in videogames, it's hard to think of another series that does it with quite the innocence and wonder that Trine does...
...nor one with characters that manage to be as archetypal and indelible as Zoya, Pontius and Zoya are, yet still retain distinct, specific personalities for them.

While each character clearly falls into a "fairytale stereotype" - Pontius the brash, if somewhat naive, pie-loving do-gooder, Zoya the sarcastic thief with the heart of gold, and Amadeus the fastidious, over-cautious, eternally anxious magician - the interplay between them is actually made quite charming and winning - which is as much a result of the overall tone of the game as it is the decent (if never outstanding) writing, and the very good voice acting. 
In fact, it's worth noting that Victoria Kruger, Brian Bowles and Kevin Howarth return as the voices of the three character - as they would do for all subsequent games - and their performances as the three put-upon heroes are on point, and, as always, a highlight.

In terms of gameplay, Trine 2 ramps up quite a bit from the previous outing.

It is certainly a longer game - particularly so in the Complete Edition, which adds the DLC levels (wherein the heroes must rid their own lands of the goblin invasion they neglected while saving the other realm!) - and that comes with a correlating expansion of location types. 

 

There is also a significantly greater enemy variety (a point of issue in the original game, which featured only a few enemy types,) and there are a few fundamental changes in the core gameplay.

 

Mana is no longer an issue - in the original game, most abilities required Mana that had to be collected and managed, wheres in Trine 2, the abilities work on more of a "cool-down" principle, which allows more in the way of trial and error for puzzle solving...
...which is a good thing, as the puzzles themselves are quite a bit more complex.

 

Those puzzles tend to be more focussed, here, on specific character use. In the original game, virtually all puzzles could be solved with any character, with hooks designed to allow for that, wheres in Trine 2, there are far more puzzles where specific character abilities - or combinations of specific abilities - must be used in order to proceed.

They are also more difficult, though, it's worth noting, still able to be "cheesed" in a lot of cases, even with the closer focus on limiting the over-power of Amadeus' abilities! - and the difficulty of the enemy encounters is increased - and significantly quicker, making Pontius much more key to victory there.

 

In fact, it's probably also worth noting - for the trophy-hunter among us - Trine 2: The Complete Story (unlike the original Trine 2 release) actually represents really the only time that a Trine game has presented a genuinely tricky trophy list to accompany its gameplay! In all Trine games, the level of difficulty is relatively sedate - the ample checkpoints and unlimited time allows for a pretty relaxed experience - however, Trine 2: The Complete Story adds some trophies for completing entire levels without losing a single life, and these are actually quite difficult in places.

 

There are changes to the ability sets for the characters on show here too.

 

Amadeus has new functions like locking up enemies, or picking them up making him more viable in combat scenarios, though some of the more "broken" elements of puzzle solving that he enjoyed in the original game are limited - primarily by limiting the number of conjured items he can create - and by limiting his ability to simply levitate the other characters past the trickier puzzles, subverting them!

 

Zoya can't fire as many arrows as quickly, but can fire multiple arrows at once, as part of her upgradeable skill tree, and the addition of things like ice arrows, which can freeze enemies in place adds some extra nuance.

 

Pontius can no longer pick up and throw items - limiting him a little in the puzzle solving elements, but has a few traversal skills added, making him more viable as a puzzle solving character, and not simply the "combat-machine" he tended to become in the original - pulled in to clobber the enemies, then swiftly ignored until the goblins show their faces again!

The actual unlocking of these skills is also modified, and in this area, I do think the benefit is...

...questionable at times.

 

In the original game, new skills were generally granted via finding collectibles, and so there was much more incentive to thoroughly exploring the environments. Here, they are "purchased" via currency (also a collectible, but a much more plentiful one,) and the more "special" collectibles tend to form simply letters and narrative information - nice to find, but less gameplay-critical.

This change does make sense, of course, given the increased focus and specificity of puzzle solutions. After all, if a very specific character ability is required to solve a puzzle, and it cannot be completed otherwise, it would be folly to have that ability be locked behind finding an optional collectible...
... however, that does make the reward for finding a secret room, and solving one of the more difficult puzzles contained within it feel a little less revelatory, since the reward is purely some information, rather than a new ability to augment future play.

Audio is very good - as said, the voice acting is nicely done, and fits the whimsical tone well - and the score is good...
...though I will say, I do think the score of the original Trine is probably the one area where the original game has a clear win over its predecessor. There is nothing wrong with the score for Trine 2 - it's rousing where it needs to be, and suitably magical and mystical - but I never found myself humming it away from the game the way I did with the first game!

 

 

Overall, Trine 2 is an excellent game - it looks great (as all Trine games do,) it has a fun, whimsical story, some good lines well delivered by the voice cast, and has some really smart and satisfying puzzle solving across what is a quite long, involved and very varied set of levels.

 

It improves on the very good baseline of the original Trine in a multitude of ways, and only rarely compares unfavourably to it - and having played all Trine games, I can comfortable say that Trine 2 represents the series high-water-mark for me.
It has the perfect balance of good, but still variable, (and variably-solvable,) puzzles, the best mix of narrative, visuals and collectibles, is still in the 2.5D plane where Trine shines the most (the misstep in going "full 3D in Trine 3 will be discussed in that game's review!,)...
... and the few minor areas where it introduces some elements that don't quite work as well as its predecessor - such as the lack of collectible skill additions, or the slightly less memorable score - are more than made up for by the huge strides taken in other areas.

 

It's a puzzle platformer with a perfect blend of cerebral and dexterity challenge, that works perfectly in solo, co-op, or as part of a trio...
...and it looks and sounds great while doing it!
 

 

 

The Ranking:

 

In terms of ranking Trine 2, the most clear comparison is, of course, Trine...
...and that isn't particularly difficult, as I see Trine 2 as the best of the franchise, so it certainly outranks its already very good older sibling!

I started then looking at other puzzle-platformer type 2D games - indies preferably - that currently sit higher than Trine on the list.

Much higher up is the excellent and unusual Metroidvania game Dandara. 
That's an interesting comparison, as while Dandara is pixel-art, I think it is a really, really god example of that art-style... but I do have to admit that as good as it looks, I think Trine 2 beats it out, simply due to its near flawless, sumptuous rendition of High Fantasy Fairytale. Both games look good, but Trine 2 is bigger, longer, has more environments, and keeps up its visual flare across all of it, so it wins on that front.

I think the puzzle solving of Trine 2, and the co-op elements are both ones that work in its favour - however, I do think the originality of Dandara's unusual control scheme and design wins over the more common puzzle platforming of Trine 2, and while I like the narrative of Trine 2 a lot, I think the unusual world of Dandara takes the victory there.

 

Overall, I think Dandara takes the win - but it's by a less wide margin than I might have expected!

Looking a little below Dandara then, a couple of games stuck out - namely 2D Platformer The Messenger, and 2.5D Platformer, Rayman Origins.

 

I do think that, on balance, The Messenger probably beats out Trine 2 - just barely. Its visuals are distinctly different, and in a one-to-one comparison of screenshots, Trine 2 would win hands-down, however, The Messenger uses its visual palate for more than simple visual splendour - it bakes in its cross-crossing of NES and SNES visuals into the fabric of the game, and does things with it mechanically that work so well, it becomes hard to beat simply on being great looking.

I also think The Messenger wins pretty easily on narrative and on music - and while I do enjoy the gameplay of Trine 2 more, The Messenger is no slouch in that regard, so overall, The Messenger comes out on top.

 

I do think, however, that as good as Rayman Origins is (and even with its co-op abilities, which negate one of Trine 2's biggest arrows in its quiver,) the visuals of Trine 2 beat out even the great looks of Rayman Origins, and the core gameplay is the more fun and the more variable. I also think I like the music and sound of Trine 2 more, and so Trine 2 comes out the victor there.

 

There's only few games between The Messenger and Rayman Origins - and the only directly comparable one is the original Little Big Planet. 
I do think that, in a vacuum, Little Big Planet might win, however, Little Big Planet has the negative element that a large part of it is inaccessible in 2023 due to closed servers... and the fact that it was largely rendered obsolete by the powerhouse of its direct sequel, which has access to 95% of the original game, within its more complete framework!

 

As such, with Trine 2 still being as playable and vital as it was upon its initial release, I have to give the win to Trine 2...
...and with only Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons, and Far Cry 3 in between the two, and Trine 2 representing the best of its franchise, and, I think, beating both of those...

...Trine 2: The Complete Story finds its spot, directly below The Messenger!
 

 

 

 

 

 

Valiant Hearts: The Great War

 

 

Summary: 

 

A WWI-themed 2D Puzzle Adventure game from Ubisofts's Montpellier Studio, and released in 2014 to coincide with the centenary of the outbreak of The Great War, Valiant Hearts: The Great War sees the player take on the role of 4 different characters drawn into the conflict in and around the French / German border:

Frenchman Emile, his German son-in-law Karl, American soldier Freddie, and Belgian nurse Anna... as well as a fifth character - Walt the medic dog, who finds his way into every character's story - each have their own intertwining story of courage, hope and loss through the horrors of the war, told largely wordlessly  as the game unfolds. 

War is, of course, over-represented in videogames - indeed, warfare forms as much of the fabric of the medium as Zombies, collectibles and jumping on enemies heads do...
...but as much as that is true, there are two elements of Valiant Hearts that are actually rather under represented in gaming:
1. Showing the actual horror and cost of war to the people it affects...
2. World War 1.

 

 

While The Second World War tends to feature as the backdrop to a huge number of games - and has done since the inception of them - that tends to be for three very specific reasons:

 

Firstly, because it is more recent. The weaponry of WWII tends to lend itself to the kind of bombastic action videogames that Call of Duty and Medal of Honour traffic in far better than that of WWI.

 

Secondly, because it is more recent, and therefore tends to be more well understood. The broad strokes of the second world war still form a major part of school curricula to this day - particularly in European countries - and the saturation via popular media, means that virtually any person on the planet of the age to be playing war games, is likely to have at least a cursory knowledge of that conflict.

 

Thirdly - and perhaps most importantly - the Nazis.
 WWII is a conflict that lends itself to the videogame medium, in the sense that it has, as much as any war ever has, extremely identifiable, black-and-white "Bad Guys". Unlike most conflicts, where there are multiple sides, and identifying true "villainy" is sticky, and prone to being problematic depending on the side of the conflict being viewed, the Nazis lend themselves to being cast as "straight-bad". 
They can be sold the world over as the un-nuanced villains, and it is not difficult to sell, or to justify, a game where the player can take copious visceral pleasure in blowing the faces and heads and bollocks off them over and over again. (Just ask BJ Blazcowicz.)

WWI, on the other hand, is not a black and white conflict. It's a war that happened almost by accident - a dirty, messy, grotesque calamity on a scale never imagined prior to that point, that seemed to bubble like a cancerous tumour as much out of the confluence of congealed treaties and diplomatic relationships than due to any great genocide or true hatred. It was a war that never should have happened, that achieved nothing, and that seemed to simply create itself, barreling forward like a runaway train, because world leaders simply refused to try to, or were unable and ill prepared to, stop it. It was a war that the vast, VAST majority of people whom it affected, had very little notion of what it was even about.

 

It seems fitting, therefore, given the messy, tragic nature of the war, that Valiant Hearts is not a shooter, but a puzzle adventure game, more interested in showing the horror of war and the effect on ordinary people via narrative, than in fetishising the violence via gameplay.

The Gameplay of Valiant Hearts is on a 2D plane, and flip us the style depending on the situation. Some sections fall fulling into the Adventure Game tropes, with items being found and used on environmental elements, others borrow from different genres, such as stealth sections when escaping guards, rhythm driving sections, action set pieces where heavy gunfire or mortars must be avoided - and these all work well.

Each character has some slightly different "special options" - Emile has his trusty shovel, which he can use to dig through some areas, Freddie has blot-cutters which can deal with barbed wire, Anna can treat injuries via some timed button-press mini-game elements.
Most of the time, these "special abilities" are not so much a choice, as a necessity, as the selection of which character to play as is set by the game in each situation, and not the player, however, most of the best puzzles do involve the use of multiple characters, and it is in these sections where the special abilities tend to come into play the most.

That gameplay is not hugely challenging - the puzzles are generally pretty straight-forward, in a style closer to post-Walking Dead Telltale than old-school Adventure game, but this feels both deliberate, and appropriate. The game is, after all, concerned - at least to some extent - with educating, and with showing the horrors of a war that is less common knowledge by the year, and so accessibility to all ages and to all levels of gamer is important. The game is clearly designed for a player of any skill level to be able to progress to the end, and it is in seeing the events play out that the game makes its mark, not in the setting of challenging conundrums.
In fact, even where some aspects of "Adventure Game Logic" do occasionally rear their heads, that might stymie the progress of the less game-savvy player, a pretty robust in-game hint system exists, where single frame pictures are used to jolt their puzzle-solving brain, and where a short timer cool-down will begin, before offering the next hint in a sequence - with the final one essentially showing them exactly what to do.

 

The way the game flips up the genre does work - and actually, having played a fair few of these types of primarily narrative adventure games, that use multiple "mini-game" type genres to keep the play feeling fresh, I do think it's worth noting that Valiant Hearts: The Great War is probably on of the most successful of them. There are some sections that are more fun than others, (the driving mini-game is not hugely successful, as while it does look good, the "driving towards the camera" element of it is one I'm never particularly fond of,) and there is a bit of repetition that starts to creep in by the end, but overall, the game keeps up the pace, and changes up the player engagement pretty admirably.

The narrative isn't something I'm going to get into particularly - given that the game is primarily one of telling a fictionalised version of real events, and that its narrative is its main selling point - but I will simply say that it delivers well - and in its best moments, manages to use the tools of the medium - gameplay - to provide some genuine "gut-punch" moments...
...in particular one towards the end, where the player, upon realising what the only possible solution to a situation is, is forced into doing something they know will have tragic consequences for them, but they have to do... and that moment works very, very well indeed.

The art-style is major highlight here - it's very much a comic book art-style - one that feels somewhere between the sketchbook style of Jeff Lemere and some Silver-Age DC comics - and it really is both absolutely beautiful, and able to straddle the difficult line, of showing the abject horror of some of the locations and situations, without making them so terrifying or grotesque as to be unsuitable for younger audiences.

It actually  uses UbiArt Framework, previously used on the two modern Rayman games and Child of Light, and really highlights how versatile and good an engine it is.

The cartoonish art-style is absolutely perfect for the game - it can really convey the emotions of the characters wordlessly, but manages to do so without seeming so grim, or so bleak that it becomes painful to witness. Indeed, there are really excellent animations and physicality to the characters - there is some dialogue - from the narrator, so the game is not totally wordless, but the vast majority of its storytelling, and its most poignant moments, are conveyed via the animations of the characters rather than dialogue - and the vast majority of "spoken" words are done via symbology and images contained in animated speech bubbles. 
It's a testament to the game, therefore, that at no point dod I ever feel lost in the plot, or in character motivations - wordless or not, i always knew exactly what each character wanted, needed, was feeling and was doing.

The music is wonderful in the game - it is scored via melancholic piano and violin pieces, often juxtaposing the soft, peaceful music with the bombastic action and violence on screen, and it makes for a very emotive experience. This juxtaposition - combined with the already omnipresent juxtaposition of the comic-book art-style with the grim and down-beat narrative elements work to create a really striking game, that sits with the player a long time after playing.

The "educational" element is layered into the game in a few ways, but probably the most successful is the more subtle ones. Playing the game and simply absorbing the grim story and the fates of the 5 characters has an emotional resonance. Even in sections where the game is clearly "gamified" - where puzzles are being solved or where action sequences have a comic-book heightening - they still work, as the excellent art-style, fantastic soundtrack and downbeat elements of plotting still hit the player emotionally, despite any "gamey" elements.

 

Where the educational elements can get a little heavy handed, however, and a little over-bearing and at odds with the game, is in the actual historical trivia.

There are in-game collectibles that provide these trivia cards - generally a real-world photograph, and a short paragraph outlining some element of WWI and the real life information about it - and I'm in two minds about these. Not so much the inclusion of them - given the nature of Valiant Hearts as a somewhat educational game, I do think including these bits of real-life trivia and information about the Great War is laudable...
...however, their placement actually within the game is a little jarring.

 

The fact is, while the game has the ring of emotional truth, and is certainly more emotionally and cerebrally respectful to history than most other games, it is still a game. It is concerned with solving puzzles, and is making the experience fun to play - so while it is hitting some real emotions, juxtaposing the actual horror of real like information (and real photographs) right in the middle of the cartoonish, gamified elements does sometimes have the unintended effect of lessening the impact of the main game - or worse - of making the game feel like it is trivialising elements that I do not think it actually is, via its cartoonish visual style and gameplay hooks.

To be honest, I suspect this could have been alleviated by having these collectibles in game just as they are, but simply having the player access them only form the main menu, rather than pausing the game action to read the real-life version of gameplay elements mid-game - as a slight separation of the "real" from the fictionalised would have helped to avoid the stark tonal shifts.

 

Overall, Valiant Hearts: The Great War is a very good little game. It's one that looks and sounds fantastic, and does a damned fine job of evoking some real emotion through its narrative, while keeping the gameplay fun and engaging enough to carry what is often quite a bleak and stark tone.

 

The visuals and music juxtapose with the narrative well, and it shines a light on a conflict that is under-represented in the videogame format - and does it largely respectfully, and with significant hooks to address real like history via its educational elements, without feeling too much like a lesson.

 

It's not a game that will challenge gaming aficionados much, but it isn't trying to be - it's trying to tell a sombre and truly sad story without becoming maudlin tradgi-porn or fetishising violence, and it succeeds at that admirably.

 

 

 

 

The Ranking:

 

Valiant Hearts: The Great War is a tough one to rank, as it's a game that works very well, and has an educational and emotional element that, I think, is very well founded and successful, but while I enjoy the gameplay, I don't think it is as deep or holds up to repeat playthroughs, the way it might have.

I don't want to fall in the trap of simply saying "this game has a beautiful message, therefore, it should place highly", so what I ended up doing was looking at games with broadly similar gameplay, or games with good emotional hooks, and trying to find a "floor" and a "ceiling" that way.

 

The result was two game - one of each type - The Cave, and The Gardens Between.

 

The Cave is, of course, not an emotional experience per se - it is comedic, and silly - but it is a light adventure game, and one that works very well.

While I think the art-style of Valiant Hearts: The Great War absolutely wins over The Cave, and I think the music and emotional engagements does too...
...I do think the gameplay of The Cave wins very easily - and while comedy does not have the emotional "gut-punch" of tragic drama, I think it's equally difficult to do right, and The Cave does it right.

The two games are really excelling on wholly different fronts, however, I do think that overall, the victory still has to go to The Cave - it's a game I would replay before replaying Valiant Hearts: The Great War, and not solely because Valiant Hearts: The Great War is an emotional heavy-hitter - fundamentally, I do think The Cave has the better gameplay experience, and so it has to win for me.

The Gardens Between is another game where puzzle mechanics are used to tell a dramatic tale though, and in that case, I think Valiant Hearts: The Great War comes out the victor. Both games are relatively easy experiences, telling an intimate tale, but in the case of Valiant Hearts: The Great War, I think the visuals are better, the narrative more impactful - and it has the educational elements and the soundtrack in its favour too.

 

That leaves a glut of around 20 games on the current list in between those two, very few of which are directly (or even indirectly,) comparable to Valiant Hearts: The Great War.

 

That brings me to the old holistic approach - the simple "Do I think the overall effect of the game is more awesome than this other game?"...

...and while I think the answer is yes for Ratchet & Clank 3: Up Your Arsenal, The Sexy Brutale, Superhot: Mind Control Delete, Weird West, inFamous and The Quarry...
...I don't think I can quite say the same of Superliminal - who's awesome puzzles and smart gameplay do manage to hold their own, even against a game as visually stylish and emotionally impactful as Valiant Hearts: The Great War.

 

As such, Valiant Hearts: The Great War finds its spot!

 

 

 

 

 

Costume Quest

 

 

Summary: 

 

A 2010 released comic light-RPG from DoubleFine, Costume Quest sees the player take on the role of one of two fraternal twins - Reynold or Wren - on halloween in Auburn Pines - the neighbourhood they have recently moved to.

 

After their parents put one of the two in charge (whichever one the player picks as the main character,) the two sibling's bickering comes to an abrupt end when the other is kidnapped by a group of nefarious goblin-like creatures known as Grubbins, who have been enlisted by the evil witch Dorsilla to steal Candy!

Using their wits, thier costumes, some newfound friends - and most of all, their imaginations - the player must find the lost sibling, defeat Dorsilla and collect a mountain of candy for themselves...
...all before curfew!

As a basic premise, Costume Quest is a very winning idea. The whole notion of Trick or Treating on Halloween presents a particularly applicable setting for the kind of fun, light, child-based RPG that the game is aiming for. It's a night where the relative absence of adult supervision, and the wild imaginations of the children feel apropos - and the spooky-but-not-scary tone is one that fits right into DoubleFine's wheelhouse.

 

The tone of the game is very well implemented, with jokes generally working well. While the game is certainly simple and the plot family friendly and light, the actual interplay between the kids feels right - with an appropriate amount of snark and sass, and the peril the kids face being treated with the kind of gravitas that only children can muster.

 It's actually interesting playing Costume Quest for the first time now, having already played the two South Park RPGs, because it's relatively clear that both are drawing from the same well - and in fact, it feels likely that Obsidian actually took some influence from Costume Quest in the design of The Stick of Truth and The Fractured But Whole. Both games lean heavily into the concept of children's imaginations imbuing their makeshift worlds with realistic properties, and in showing both the "real-world" versions of things, and the way the kids themselves see them...
...though of course, Costume Quest does it in the more Nickelodeon, Saturday Morning Cartoon version, while South Park is rooted firmly in the Late Night, Adult Swim-adjacent side of that coin!

The game works on a simplified RPG structure, with the world divided into discrete hub areas each of which houses story missions, side quests, mini-game activities and locations to trick-or-treat, and with each culminating in a final boss fight, before moving on to the next.
These areas are relatively small - the game itself is around the 8-10 hour mark for completion, and each area offers a handful of hours of narrative and exploration - but each is fun and distinct and well detailed.

 

The general art-style of the game is nice - it's a cartoonish, polygonal design that gives everything a cute, cheebie look (at least, in the main over-world,) but it's one that works pretty well, particularly on the kids themselves, where facial expressions and animations, while simple, are effective in conveying the personalities - and in punctuating jokes.

 

That humour works too - like most DoubleFine games, Costume Quest is filled with humour, and it works well here - Costume Quest is closer in tone to Psychonauts than to something like Brutal Legend or The Cave, with a particular eye on the interplay of kids... and it works far more often than it doesn't. 
The bickering between the two siblings at the outset feels both funny and familiar, and the ways that basic RPG elements like shopkeepers, antagonists, NPCs etc are transposed to the world of 4th graders on Halloween is funny and well done.

 

The Battle system is a highlight of the game - both in terms of aesthetics, and of gameplay. 

It's a simple enough turn-based system, familiar to anyone with even a passing notion of RPGs, but it stands out on three fronts.

 

Firstly, because despite the relative simplicity, it is all animated and framed well, and does have enough options (based on the different costumes the player collects on their journey, and their ability to swap and exchange them,) to give it some surprising depth.

 

Secondly, because the different costumes offer different special moves, and a lot of these involve some different version of "action" engagement. Some moves can be imbued with additional power by hitting the X button at the perfect time, or others require fast-tapping to power up, etc. These actions are never complicated, but are enough to draw active engagement form the player, and ensure that while the fights are "turn-based", they still have some "real-time" action feel to them.

 

Thirdly - and most importantly - because it is in the battles that the real meat of the the game's premise - the imagination of the kids - comes into full force. 

While in the main map and over-world, the costumes the kids wear look like what they really are - costumes - in battle, we see them from the point of view of the kids themselves. The robot costume, which in the "real world" resembles the cardboard-box-and-sticky-plastic that it actually is, in battle, this transforms into a hulking, Transformers-a-like megatronic colossus, capable of firing missiles at its foes! 
The Knight costume - in reality, a mishmash of glue and paper and cookware - becomes a holy defender of the realm, complete with broadsword and shining armour, capable of slicing its enemies in twain!
Each of the costumes has their own battle style, look and set of animations in battle, and it makes finding each new one a highlight.

The down-side to that system, however, does have to be noted - which is that while all of the above is true, it doesn't necessarily kick into full gear until two things have happened: the player has collected 3 part members, and they have found enough costumes to make it interesting. 
There is quite a lot of fighting in the game - both in areas where the Grubbins are plentiful, and during the game's "candy collection element" where the kids are required to visit each house in each areas, trick-or-treating, and where each house is a coin-flip as to whether it is a nice adult who will give them some candy, or a Grubbin to do battle with... 
...and unfortunately, in the early portion of the game, where the player has only two part members and very few costumes, this can get a little tedious, as there aren't enough options available to make the fights feel sufficiently different from one another.

That is a minor quibble though - the game is only around 8-10 hours in length, and so that early stage lasts little more than a couple of hours, and once more options open up, it dissipates quickly.

The outside of battle elements of the game tend to fall somewhere between a light RPG, and an adventure game. It's telling that Costume Quest comes from DoubleFine - Tim Schafer's studio - as, like The Cave and Psychonauts and Stacking, there are ample clues that adventure games are Costume Quest's genetic progenitor.

Most of the "quests" in the game - the mainline quests, and the side activities, all of which are tracked in a handy checklist - fall somewhere between RPG fetch-quests and Adventure game puzzle beats, with the player generally talking to various NPCs, and solving their particular problem by finding the right items.

 

The costumes collected play a big part in the over-world game as well as in battle too - which the biggest boon afforded by a new costume is their battle capabilities, there are also special out-of-battle abilities offered by some costumes (for example, the robot costume which has "rocket boots" (roller-skates,) or the ninja costume (which can go "invisible") which allows new areas of the different biomes to be explored, and act as a might metroidvania element to gate progression.

There aren't all of the traditional trappings of a larger RPG - there is, for example, only a simply levelling up mechanic, without any kind of "skill-tree" or "sphere grid" style customisations, and there isn't the usual upgrading or purchasing of armour and weaponry - however, there is the finding of costume "parts" which can be combined into new costumes, allowing for new methods of battle, as well as the collecting (or purchasing, via candy,) of "Battle Stamps" - which can be assigned to part members, imbuing them with special skills or buffs in battle. 

 

In fact, this is something of a metaphor for the entirety of Costume Quest in microcosm - it is a game that is certainly simpler and lighter than most traditional RPGs, but lightness should not be necessarily confused with being "throw-away". In fact, while a lot of the weightier elements of traditional RPGs are streamlined, they are not completely absent - they simply have a lighter, less intensive version that has been crafted to replace them, that fits the more bite-sized nature of the gameplay loop, and the child-hood nostalgia and imagination tone the game plays on. 
It's a candy version of an RPG - the jelly bean that is flavoured to taste like one, and so while it's certainly less substantial, it's still surprising just how close that flavour is able to be recreated!

Audio works just fine - there isn't spoken dialogue here, it's all text based (which, given the relative low budget of the game, and the occasional frame-rate issues, probably helps with the jokes, as timing would likely be an issue,) but the general score, while not hugely stand out, is fun and jaunty.
The sound effects and foley work - particularly in battle and in cut-scenes - works perfectly well, and adds to the "imagination is power" vibe the game leans on.

Overall, Costume Quest is a good little game - it's not one that is likely to ask much more than 10-15 hours of the player, and is not particularly challenging, but it offers more than enough charm and jokes to never wear out its welcome, and has simple, yet deceptively engaging gameplay mechanics, which while a little repetitive early on, do come into their own just in time to save the day.

 

The kids and the world are animated nicely and are full of personality, and the locations, while simple and small, are fun to explore, and packed with visual gags and endearingly ridiculous NPC engagements, and the RPG elements work very well at the smaller, "bite-sized-candy-corn" scale the game aims for.

 

 

 

The Ranking:

 

The first port of call in ranking Costume Quest was looking at other DoubleFine games - and the two that jumped to mind were The Cave, and Headlander.

I do think that Costume Quest is quite clearly going to rank below The Cave - The Cave surprised me quite a bit with its gameplay, and I do think that fundamentally it is a stronger game than either of the Costume Quest titles...

...however, Headlander feels like a much closer fight.

Headlander is a game where I think the visuals do probably beat out Costume Quest - it is a smoother, sleeker game for sure, but more than that, its design aesthetic, with its unusual 70's disco trappings are far less well trodden territory than the cheebie look of Costume Quest, and so there in an inherent benefit of originality there.

Costume Quest has more locations, and does benefit form the fun of the "duel-visual-styles" of the over-world vs. the In-Battle visuals, but I think Headlander still beats it out.

The narrative of Costume Quest is the winner on that front, as is its sense of humour, however, I think I prefer the gameplay of Headlander a little more  - at least than the simpler gameplay of the first Costume Quest -  and I think the audio and stylishness of Headlander does mean it is the victor.

 

It's not a huge victory however, and looking a few spots below, I do think that while the offering of Sackboy's Big Adventure - combined with its great look and much broader gameplay means it also beats out the original  Costume Quest overall...
...I don't think I can quite say the same for Gris.

 

That game is absolutely gorgeous to look at, and has a nice narrative with a lot of heart, but the actual gameplay isn't hugely engaging, and I think if I were to replay one of the two games, it would be Costume Quest.

 

As such, Costume Quest finds its spot!

 

 

 

 

 

 

Costume Quest 2

 

 

Summary: 

 

In the 2014 sequel to DoubleFine's Costume Quest, the player once again joins the 4th graders Everett, Lucy, Wren and Reynold, picking up exactly where they were left at the end of the "Grubbin's On Ice" DLC add-on for the original game...
...with them crossing a nexus of inter-dimensional portals back from the Grubbin world, to their own.

 

Upon returning to the halloween night that was the setting of the original game, they spot their family dentist (and halloween despiser) - Dr. Orel White - acting suspiciously, and conversing with a shady figure...
...who turns out to be a "time wizard", and who enables Dr. White to jump into the past via a portal. 

After passing through a portal of their own, and finding themselves in a dystopian future where halloween (and, indeed, costumes,) are outlawed and Dr. White is the oral-hygiene-obsessed ruler, the kids - with the help of an adult Lucy and Everett - set out on an inter-temporal quest to correct the timeline, stop Dr. White, and save Halloween!

As sequels go, Costume Quest 2 is a good, if relatively safe one.

It does not represent an enormous leap in any particular area, and it is not making any huge strides towards different gameplay, however, what it does do, is take the same basic building blocks that made the original game work so well - the endearing characters, the nice visual design, the fun humour and the jelly-bean RPG format - and apply them to a game that is, while still light and breezy, significantly more narratively complex, a good bit longer, and a fair bit more refined.
It takes the framework and concepts of the original Costume Quest, but adds quite a bit more in terms of more traditional RPG trappings - some increase in difficulty, a more robust, longer narrative (complete with a more complicated structure), and a more expansive set of upgrading mechanics.

The narrative is good, and probably represents the biggest leap forward in terms of the two games. The original game had a simple and effective story - and one that was fleshed out a bit more by the addition of the Grubbins On Ice DLC, but generally, it was a very simple A-to-B-to-C type linear affair, with little in the way of backtracking to previous areas, aside from the end-game return to the suburbs, where it all began.

In Costume Quest 2, however, the time-travelling element of the game, and the increased complexity that entails, is handled very well, in that it allows the game to feel significantly broader and bigger, but doesn't ever descend into true complexity. The actual narrative path is still relatively linear, but it lets the game criss-cross more back and forward in time, and back and forth between locations, as the kids solve mysteries and puzzles in pursuit of saving halloween. It also allow the game to pull in a lot of elements of the original game, without feeling like a re-tread.

The battle system doesn't feel hugely altered, however, given that the primary thing that gives the battles their distinct flavour is the variety of costumes, the mere fact that Costume Quest 2 has an almost completely different set of costumes makes it feel inherently different anyways, even despite the actual content and format remaining largely the same.

There is a change in the sense that the game doubles down on the "active" participation of the battles. Not only do costume abilities have the same active participation elements that the original did, but standard attacks now allow "critical" hits to be done via timed button pushes, as well as "counters" and active defensive moves, meaning the player needs to be on-the-ball the whole time... and can really benefit from good rhythm game style reactions! 

 

There is also the introduction of special candy cards, which provide multi-use special buffs and de-buffs (working on a multi-fight cool-down system,) and these provide an additional collectible to find, as well as a much more engaging set of battle powers to be managed throughout.

One area in which the second game differs from the original is in terms of difficulty - and here, the change is both a positive and a negative in different ways. 
Neither game is hugely challenging - they are games designed for family fun, and neither is liable to ever truly frustrate, however, the second game feels significantly more reliant on the player having to genuinely solve problems. 

This applies to the out-of-battle narrative elements - where the quests often require a little more thought than the simple "go here, fetch this, return" structure that formed the majority of quests in the original - as well as within battle, where failing a fight is a much more realistic proposition than it ever was in the first game.

 

All of these are positives, however, one thing I think is perhaps a mis-step, is the removal of the "auto-heal-after-battle" mechanic. In the original game, all fights began with all characters at full health. This certainly meant that the game was broadly easier... but really, all that removing it does, in Costume Quest 2, is result in busy-work, as the player is required to remember to heal themselves - either by drinking at save-point fountains, or by consuming small numbers of their own currency candy between fights. 
It re-introduces one of the RPG elements that the original had streamlined, but I don't see it as a particular benefit, as dealing with it is only an annoyance, rather than something much fun.

 

It's also worth noting that - for the trophy hungry - there is one trophy that is "cross-game" and introduces its own element of challenge - one called "Hardcorn Mode".
In order to get the "Hardcorn Mode" trophy, the player must fight every fight in the game with one of their playable characters in the "joke" costume - the Candy Corn.
The Candy Corn costume essentially renders that character lame - they cannot do anything in battle, aside from occasionally draw aggro... and every round they simply forfeit, with one of a litany of Candy-Corn-related jokes being made. 

This trophy is - I have to admit - genuinely funny. The weird facts and inane comments that accompany the forfeited rounds are generally amusing, and the idea of having one kid permanently standing inert through every battle is a pretty funny joke in and of itself... (not to mention the fact that there is, in the very, very final battle, a good pay-off joke to this mode,)...
...but I do think that it's not really the best way to introduce a "Hard Mode" to a game like Costume Quest, simply because it limits the player's ability to have fun with all the different costume combinations!

In terms of visuals and audio, the game is largely identical to its predecessor. The music remains fun and jaunty, and the visual style is the same fun, cartoony, cheebie look for the over-world, and the same over-blown, crazy calamity cartoon style for the battles, complete with all the special moves and special cut-scenes for each costume's signature moves. 
I do think that the set of costumes on display in Costume quest 2 is not quite as fun and interesting as the set in the original game - though that's probably a pure matter of taste...
... but having said that, the mere fact that they are virtually all original, and there is little repetition or reuse of costumes is admirable, as it would be easy to imagine the "safe" option being taken, where most of the original costumes were only supplemented by a few new ones. 

Overall, Costume Quest 2 is a great sequel, doing exactly what is direct sequel should - it retains the charm and the good elements of the game that came before it, adds some extra nuance, a new narrative, and expands the universe without treading on what made the original game work. It doesn't do anything massively new, but it lets the player re-experience the fun they had before, with just enough new meat to avoid feeling like a simple re-hash.

 

It's not a revelatory experience - it is certainly playing things relatively safe in terms of not changing up too much...
...but the things it does change are largely for the better - and seeing that charming world work with a slightly more complicated, slightly more "big-boy-RPG" framework is proof positive that the original was not simply coasting on charm, and had the chops to serve as a fully functional game!
 

 

 

 

The Ranking:

 

Costume Quest 2 is comparable, obviously, to the original Costume Quest, and while there is something to be said for the simplicity of the original game, I do think the longer, more involving narrative, and the improvements to the battle system and whatnot mean the sequel has to come out as the better game overall.

I also think that, looking at the games that were compared to the original game for its ranking, the expanded and improved elements of Costume Quest 2 do, in fact, mean that it, unlike its predecessor, beat out fellow DoubleFine alumni Headlander in a straight fight. 

Headlander still takes the victory on visuals and audio, but the longer and funnier plot of Costume Quest 2, and the improved mechanics are enough to push it above Headlander.

 

Looking at smaller, more indie-style games above Headlander then, I think a relatively obvious ceiling is provided by Sayonara Wild Hearts. While that's a very different game, it is one that feels very original, and works incredibly well - winning on visuals and certainly on music, and just overall provides an experience I'd replay before replaying Costume Quest 2.

 

Pretty much every game between Sayonara Wild Hearts and Headlander is a much bigger, more expansive game than either of those, so direct comparison is difficult... 
...but one that jumps out is Sly Cooper and the Thievius Raccoonus, given that it is also playing (somewhat) in the same family-friendly arena. 

 

Sly Cooper is definitely the bigger, more expansive game - and it's a good one - however, I do think that Costume Quest 2 is the more imaginative and engaging game of the two. Sly wins on visuals, but Costume Quest 2 wins on music and jokes and characters...
...and while Sly has more gameplay, I do think Costume Quest 2 has better gameplay.

 

That puts Costume Quest 2 above Sly Cooper and the Thievius Raccoonus, and with only a handful of games between that and Sayonara Wild Hearts, it comes down to feel.

I don't see Costume Quest 2 reasonably placing above God of War, Resident Evil: Village or even fellow RPG Final Fantasy XIII-2...

 

...but I do think it outclasses Bayonetta in the overall...

 

...and so it finds its spot just above it!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Echochrome

 

Summary: 

 

A 2008 puzzle game developed by Japan Studio, in conjunction with Game Yarouze, for the PSP, and subsequently re-released multiple times, most recently for the PS4 and PS5 as part of the PSP Classics line-up, Echochrome sees players controlling the perspective of seemingly impossible mazes to guide a persistently walking artist's mannequin, collecting shadowy "echoes" of himself, before returning to his origin point to "complete" the maze.

 

The puzzles themselves appear initially impossible, but are governed by 5 simple rules, all of which allow the player to manipulate the properties of the puzzle in MC Esher-style ways, to make the impossible routes possible, as the properties of the world are governed by their current perspective appearance, rather than simple geometry.

 

The 5 rules - Perspective Travelling, Perspective Jump, Perspective Fall, Perspective Existence and Perspective Absence - all have their own rules, but fundamentally, they all boil down to one simple base law: The world has the properties inherent to its current appearance. 
If the view is shifted so two separate pieces of geometry appear connected, they become connected - and if the view is shifted so a gap or a blockage or a hole are no longer visible, they cease to exist.
Using these rules, the player is able to dynamically alter the routes that the mannequin will take, and allow him to wander safely around the impossible framework with ease.

The puzzles themselves are very clever - Echochrome is not the kind of game where each puzzle has a single, verifiable solution in most cases - each puzzle is solvable in a multitude of ways, and as such, it is a game more interested in testing the player's ability to think creatively using a defined rule-set, than with asking them to figure out one specific, set solution to a puzzle.
Clearly some puzzles are designed to make use of one or two of the five "perspective rules" primarily - but more often than not, each one can actually be solved other ways - and in later, more complex levels (or in the "course" versions of levels, where enemies who are also walking around must be avoided,) looking for the more creative, less obvious method of traversal goes from a creative aside to a necessity.

 

In fact, because each puzzle is "scored" purely on the player's speed of completion - with a "best time" recorded and remaining visible on each puzzle in the menu post-completion, often, the key to a really good time is to think creatively, and avoid the "obvious" methods of completion, in favour of more unusual or less apparent means of traversal.

Unfortunately, the mechanics, while wildly clever and cool, are not completely free of issues. 
There is a rather irksome problem that can happen (quite often in fact,) where two separate blocks are aligned to appear connected (and therefore become connected, and lose their "separation line",) but are, in fact, slightly misaligned, resulting in the character turning to make the crossing, but slipping through the gap, and falling. 

This is a particular problem with Echochrome, because often times, the player will be making adjustments quickly, with the character in motion, and it can be quite irritating to have the correct solution in mind, and align the pieces perfectly enough to appear joined - to both th player, and the walking mannequin - but not enough for the character to actually cross them. It can be doubly annoying to simply be moving the perspective to enact a solution, but have two unrelated pieces accidentally cross each other for a split second at the perfect wrong time, and have the character slip through by accident!

 

Both of these situations can cause problems in the game - particularly given that there is a timer element to the level completion - though it's worth noting that in this PS5 version, it is somewhat alleviated by the fact that it has (as I understand, all PSP Classics do,) a rewind feature. This allows the player to "roll-back" the game...
... which is not of huge benefit generally in a game like Echochrome, given that there are rarely single ways to solve any part of a maze, but is very useful for simple getting a mulligan on instances where the game mechanics have let the player down!

The basic concept of the game is quite simple, however, there are quite a wealth of different pre-made mazes available, and each allows for multiple different types of puzzle within. The "primary" mode is, as outlined above, guiding the mannequin through the maze, collecting echoes, and finishing with a final echo that appears at their point of origin once all others are collected - however, there are alternate modes also.

One where multiple mannequins are present, who's paths must be crossed to "combine them", or one where dangerous "bad guys" are present, who must be kept away from the main mannequin as he complete's his curious quest.

 

The addition of these modes - as well as the inclusion of a fairly robust custom level creator - means the game has quite a sizeable offering, and has the tools to keep players interested for a lot longer than the initial concept might suggest.

Echochrome is structured fairly loosely, and it is clear that the origin of the game is on hand-held. While it is possible to play the game in a set order, and to select specific puzzles to play (numbered as they are in batches, A1 to A8, B1 to B8 etc,) the "main" mode - and indeed, the first mode on the play menu - is one where different puzzles of different types are served up at random... and this feels quite apropos for a game where the player would likely be playing for short bursts on a commute or in a waiting room... or on the commode!
Of course, with this current release, where the player is playing on their "big boy" console, and on the main TV, this mode is likely to be eschewed in favour of the more traditional "pick a level" options, but it still feels somewhat appropriate to a game where relaxation is the name of the game.

 

The standard "choose a level" mode offers some significant options too - the levels can be played discretely, with the player selecting the  puzzle, then the game mode type, or in "courses" - (Course A/ Course B/ Course C etc.) where the 8 mazes of each letter are played back-to-back, within different pre-selected modes on a per-puzzle basis, and the timer runs as a "total completion time" rather than individually on a "per maze" basis.

The timer is interesting actually. In both the discrete mazes, and the courses, there is a timer acting both as a benchmark to success - with a "best time" being recorded, as well as offering some light tension, as there is a time limit, which if the player reaches, the level or course ends (with the message "too bad!" and the mannequin collapsing to his knees in sorrow!)... 
...however, this timer is not actually shown on screen, and the actual limit is never surfaced to them. The only indication the player has of the passage of time prior to their failure or success, is with some audio "chimes" that indicate nebulous temporal "markers" being passed.

 

It's a curious idea - I certainly do think it adds some extra tension to the levels - particularly the longer "courses" - as the player is essentially told they are nearing the end of their time allotment, but not actually told what that allotment is, or how close they are to failure....
...though to be honest, I do question the validity of having a time limit at all, given that the game is clearly concerned with letting the player relax and enjoy some brain-teasing, than with the kind of "speed-run" style precision of action.

 

In fact, I would argue that while having a time stamp on completion is a good idea, as it allows the player to feel a sense of progression as they try to best their own times for levels and courses, having an actual "fail-state" and a time limit is a mistake...
...though it's hard to take too much issue with it, simply because the time limits are actually so long, that it is very rare to ever actually hit one.
I think in my entire S-Rank, I only hit the "fail-state" time limit twice - both on the same course level - and it was entirely down to one particular puzzle, where the mechanics gave me a particularly difficult time, and resulted in multiple times where the mannequin slipped through the geometry due to minor misalignments!

 

Visually, Echochrome is very cool - and is probably the single least obvious game in the PSP catalogue to show its age when playing on modern hardware. The PSP emulation on PS5 is, of course, upscaling games dramatically, and there are clear and obvious elements that look poor as a result - but unlike most games, in Echochrome, these are really only obvious in the menus. 

In the actual gameplay, the pure black-and-white aesthetic, and the clean, simple lines of the game are so simple, that they translate perfectly, and in game, it's easy to forget that the game originated on the PSP. There is very little obvious pixelating, and the game moves smoothly, and still looks clean and crisp, (albeit, a little thicker in the outlines than it likely would if actually remastered for the PS5.)

 

It's a great look anyway - clean, simple, effective and striking - and because it is trafficking entirely on art-style as opposed to technical graphics, it remains perennial - it is exactly as striking in 2023 as it was in 2008.

Unfortunately though, the very good translation of the in-game visuals to the PS5 emulator does highlight the drawbacks more where it does make itself obvious - in the menus, which really show the downside to "blowing up" the small, rather unrefined PSP visual display on a big, hi-def screen.
It's entirely forgivable, of course - the game is simply a PSP game being emulated, and so seeing it on a vastly larger, higher resolution screen will always cause some blurring and pixelation - but the jarring difference between the almost modern-feeling in-game look, and the blurry menus does make me somewhat pine for an actual PS5 remaster of the game - and it's clear that such a version could probably be made without a huge or laborious effort!

Audio is very good in Echochrome - there is a soothing, classical-style instrumental score composed by Hideki Sakamoto that underpins the entire game, and it is perfect for the game. It compliments the classic, simple look of the game, and serves the meditative, relaxing feel of the low-key puzzle solving, and it genuinely good music on its own. (In fact, while MsBloodmoney could not possibly be less interested in the gameplay of this kind of meditative puzzle game, she did comment "that's nice music" when she was passing as I played - which I take as a ringing endorsement!)

Overall, Echochrome is a great little relaxed puzzler, and pretty much a perfect game to benefit from the PSP Classics emulation to modern hardware. It has simple and effective gameplay, an art-style that is both very pleasing and striking - and simple enough that it looks great, even via emulation - excellent music...
... and is a game whose mechanics are not in any way bound to the vogue of any era.

 

It feels exactly as cool and fresh and interesting in 2023 as it did in 2008 - and while the modern indie scene has certainly primed a much larger swathe of gamers for more esoteric gameplay, or more curious art-styles, it is notable that despite Echochrome's obvious influence in the wider indie market, there remains very few other games that quite capture the specific feel of Echochrome, even now.

 

Any puzzle enthusiast who missed Echochrome the first time round would do well to pick this version up...
...and anyone who (like myself,) remembered it fondly, will be plenty happy to discover that, aside from some visual issues with the menus, the game feels just as vital and fun as it was back when they first played it!

 

 

 

 

The Ranking:

 

So, for ranking Echochrome, there were two games that immediately came to mind - perhaps for slightly spurious reasons... 
...but regardless it helped to narrow the field somewhat!

The first was Metrico+, whose stark, simple visual style and puzzling elements felt quite similar to Echochrome's, and the other was fellow puzzler, The Spectrum Retreat... owing as much to its cover art, featuring a faceless robot reminiscent of an Artist's Mannequin as anything else!

That connection to The Spectrum Retreat might be tenuous, but it did get me thinking about the two puzzlers, and while I do think that Echochrome beats out The Spectrum Retreat on visuals in the actual puzzling elements - the stark black and white lines, and the crisp look beating the more jumbled look of the puzzles in The Spectrum Retreat - The Spectrum Retreat also has its whole "detective Walking Sim" side of the game, and Echochrome does suffer for the blurry, emulated menus when playing on PS5.

 

Echochrome is probably the more original game - certainly it was the one that virtually created its own genre, but The Spectrum Retreat did also blend two genres that are rarely found together, and worked surprisingly well. 
Both games have good puzzles, however, I do have to admit that Echochrome's puzzles can often be cheesed in a way that The Spectrum Retreat's can't...
... and so I feel that while the gameplay of Echochrome can feel more "magical" when it works, I do have to err on the side of The Spectrum Retreat having the better puzzles overall.

 

I think overall, The Spectrum Retreat has to - in 2023 - take the slight victory.

Metrico+ is a game that I think is heavily influenced by Echochrome - it also uses a very stark, striking art-style, and one that looks just as good in a lot of spots, and it has more variety in terms of its puzzle types...
...but I think Echochrome still beats it on the actual puzzle mechanics, and still wins on audio...
...plus, the robust puzzle-creator in Echochrome gives it an edge over the limited playability. The slightly frustrating elements of Metrico+ do also tend to annoy more than the equivalent ones in Echochrome!

That places Echochrome somewhere between the two.

 

I think Echochrome's unusual - and at the time, quite revelatory - mechanics do help to push it above a fair few good, but not hugely original games in the gulf between The Spectrum Retreat and Metrico+, but in terms of the puzzle games in that field, I just looked holistically.

 

Echochrome does beat out Maquette, which has smart puzzles, but not enough of them, and is trading more on its narrative than its mechanics, and manages to out-do Donut County's brand of fun, silly gameplay...
..but I don't really see it pushing above Heavenly Bodies, who's brand of comically tricky co-op puzzle solving works far better than one might have imagined, is a tonne of fun, and has an art-style that is really unusual and cool to see!

 

As such, Echochrome finds its spot!

 

 

 

 

 

So there we have it folks!

 

Thanks to @gruffiiti for putting in a request!

 

 

 Hitman 3 remains as 'Current Most Awesome Game'!

htoL#NiQ: The Firefly Diaries finally remains as the worst-of-the-worst, with the title of 'Least Awesome Game'!

 

 

What games will be coming along next time to challenge for the top spot... or the bottom rung?

That's up to randomness, me.... and YOU!

 

 

 

Remember:

 

SPECIAL NOTE

 

If there are any specific games anyone wants to see get ranked sooner rather than later - drop a message, and I'll mark them for 'Priority Ranking'! 

 

The only stipulation is that they must be on my profile, at 100% (S-Rank)....

 and aren't already on the Rankings! 

[The_Kopite]

On 10/12/2023 at 5:52 PM, DrBloodmoney said:

Overall, Valiant Hearts: The Great War is a very good little game. It's one that looks and sounds fantastic, and does a damned fine job of evoking some real emotion through its narrative, while keeping the gameplay fun and engaging enough to carry what is often quite a bleak and stark tone.

Can't argue with this at all. Well worth playing for anyone who hasn't. especially anyone with an interest in WWI.

 

Found your review of Star Trek: Resurgence very interesting. Good to hear an indepth review on that one and nice to hear a vibe of general positivity! Looking forward to getting to use a tricorder myself! 

 

Not sure if anyone has suggested it yet for a review, but considering I've just finished it I have to throw in a request for Sea of Stars! I know you probably want to do that review with The Messenger as well at the same time but the request is there anyways.

[DrBloodmoney]

4 minutes ago, The_Kopite said:

Found your review of Star Trek: Resurgence very interesting. Good to hear an indepth review on that one and nice to hear a vibe of general positivity! Looking forward to getting to use a tricorder myself! 

 

I reckon you'll dig it, my Trek sensei!

 

4 minutes ago, The_Kopite said:

Not sure if anyone has suggested it yet for a review, but considering I've just finished it I have to throw in a request for Sea of Stars! I know you probably want to do that review with The Messenger as well at the same time but the request is there anyways.

 

I'm way ahead of you buddy (on this page, no less!)!

 

 

[DrBloodmoney]

 

!!SCIENCE UPDATE!!

 

 

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

 

 

 

Legacy

 

Trine 3: The Artefacts of Power

 

 

New

 

Sam & Max Save the World

Sam & Max: Beyond Time and Space

Goodbye Volcano High

Alan Wake II

 

 

 

 

 

[No Priority Assignments this time, as I'm all caught up!]

 

 

 

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

 

Is gaming turdlet Htol#niQ: The Firefly Diaries  going to lose its new crown of 'Least Awesome Game'?

 

 

Let's find out, Science Chums!

[ShadyWARcotix]

I told you that I can't wait for your review for Alan Wake 2 but I'm also interested in Goodbye Volcano High and it reminded me a little bit of Night in the Woods (very charming and  underrated gem). GVH looked visually great except for the characters. They looked a little bit weird to me but I'm still open minded. Let's see what you will say about this game.

Edited November 27, 2023 by ShadyWARcotix

[Jeanolt]

Maybe an out of topic question but, have you ever tried to get the account to 100%? Maybe at some point of your life? Although it's possible that with so many games at least one of them glitched and you said screw it lol.

 

There's not many people with a high completion on their main account; I mean, not an account created with the purpose of 100% but actually the original one.