Most Recent Platinum

[Yuuria_]

#34 Returnal

 

One of the main reasons I really wanted to pick up a Playstation 5 early, Retunal was definetely worth the time; it has a stellar presentation, great audio design and a very fun moment to moment gameplay loop that will keep you going through 'just another room'.

 

Returnal is quite remarkable; our main character, Seline, doesn't really get stronger as the game progresses, there are very few permanent upgrades scattered across Atropos, yet the game manages to somehow maintain a constant state of balance, never becoming quite too hard or too easy. What changes during the journey is that you get better, you learn and adapt. Pretty much all the drops in difficulty are the result of the player acquiring a better undestanding of the game's mechanics and foes, despite that the experience never becomes too trivial a challenge, you need but a momentary distraction to be sent back at the crash site even by the most basic of enemies.

Difficulty is relative, I was expecting a brutal time but was able to complete all 3 acts in around 27 hours, only looping back to Helios on rare occasions.

Everything is doable with just a bit of patience, don't let the presumed high difficulty discourage you! 

 

The last boss however, a being called RNG, was absolutely hideous. It used the long forgotten tactic of drawing out the fight to weaken its opponent's resolve, resulting in a premature termination of the Platinum mission. It was a hard fight, not once did I get the opportunity to look straight into the eyes of my foe but it was there, its presence always hanging in the air. I rummaged through Atropos in my quest for clues, there were 90 of them, most I could find easily, just hidden off the beaten path, but some were rare, locked away in locations that would hardy materialize on this ever changing planet; it was eating away at my sanity. My time was spent running, sprinting my way through the biomes, rushing past enemies, comforted by the fact that I could not really die. Eventually, it got to a point where it became hard to justify my struggle, was the Astra Platinum mission truly a noble pursuit? I mustered my strenght and each tumble lead to newfound strenght; but it couldn't last forever.

I had been to all the rarest formations, I had seen everything; I was truly starting to lose hope. 'Just one more attempt' I told myself I don't know how many times, maybe it was supposed to be a fruitless journey? Maybe I should've stayed on Helios' relic, the console terminal was still working, maybe Overwatch wasn't so bad a time sink after all. These thoughts were ravaging my mind as I made my way through the desert one last time. I rounded a corner and.. there it was! The last Cypher, I could not believe it, I could've sworn that I had been to that location already; I lunged at it, half expecting it to disappear in a cruel twist of fate. I could feel my worries escape my body as I laid my hand on the stone; I was finally free, it was all real!             - Scout Log AST-AL-068

 

Grinding for Cyphers added nearly 20 hours to my total playtime as my journey came to an end at around the 46 hours mark. 43% of my time with the game was spent exclusively looking for collectibles and I honestly didn't enjoy most of it. I don't mind grinding but there's a fundamental lack of progression here, you either make progress or you don't. Everything else wrong with the system is explained in the, hopefully, digestable little story above; I hope it makes sense, I had fun making it ^^

Audio design is superlative in Returnal, you can instinctively dodge incoming attacks and dash around the levels while keeping your focus on the big target, never having to turn around to pinpoint the location of the lesser enemies. 

All the weapons shine bright, you'll fire guns you won't be able to find and equivalent for in any other game, however some are quite niche and will have a severe drop-off in performance against specific enemies and bosses; for first encounters against bosses especially it is recommended to bring a versatile weapon lest you risk becoming effectively powerless. 

 

All in all I really enjoyed my time with Returnal and I'm glad Sony approved of such a risky and niche production. I highly suggest anyone even remotely interested to give this one a shot: it plays, sounds and looks incredible and has a good, albeit cryptic, story, one that admittedly still escapes me in some capacity as it leaves a lot up to interpretation. 

Housemarque has come a long way and I'm happy to see them realizing their potential while maintaining their unique style intact, their first big production hit the mark for me and I'm very excited to see where they'll take us next. 

 

 

 

 

Edited February 5, 2022 by Yuuria_
Minor corrections

[Odd-Shokupan]

Uncharted: The Lost Legacy

 

 

Uncharted: Legacy of Thieves Collection

 

[starcrunch061]

My plats seem to come in twos these days, and it's two RPGs to boot:

 

Plat #467: Shin Megami Tensai 3: Nocturne

 

 

True King of Chaos

Obtained all the trophies.

 

How did I miss Nocturne back in the day?!? I played both Digital Devil Sagas. I played both Devil Summoner Raidous. But for whatever reason, I missed the game of which they surely spun off. And what a great game it is. It shows it age at time, but even when it does, I appreciated what it was trying to do. But let's not get ahead of ourselves. WARNING: some very slight spoilers to follow. You've been warned.

 

On PS consoles, people are most familiar with Persona games. However, those are a side mission from the original Shin Megami Tensai (SMT) like, which is clearly in Nintendo's wheelhouse. Like many, I had never played a mainline SMT game in my life, despite playing multiple Personas (going back to Revelations on the PS1). The idea is similar: you play as a protagonist with a close affinity to the demon world. In this case, you ARE a demon (or at least, a demi demon). The world has ended because of...reasons, and you are tasked with putting it back together again. Or not.

 

First, the story. The concept of this story is great. In addition to your silent protago...nism, some of your high school chums, your high school teacher, a couple of assholes, and the Morning Star himself, are also trying to reshape (or, in Lucifer's case, destroy utterly) the world. You can choose to side with one or none of them. The game has genuine choice and consequence here. It's not particularly well implemented, but for a JRPG, it is (or was) a major step, and I'm sorry that this evolutionary line wasn't followed further in Japan. The storytelling is a little lazy; it's hard to know exactly when you're making an important choice for the shaping of the world. Most of the time, characters drift into the picture, and out again, and back in, with little motivation whatsoever. The worlds they envision make some sense given the limited knowledge of their character traits, but you get precious little insight into each character. This game mostly eschews cut scenes and long, pointless dialogue. This is a good thing, but Japan has never been very good at telling story in any way other than needlessly long exposition. Some diary entries, some emails - these would have gone a long way towards understanding the main players in this drama more.

 

Gameplay-wise, Nocturne takes it cue from much older RPGs. Figuring out what you have to do next is a task requiring you to re-visit NPCs, seeing what new things they might say. There is a bar owner that often (cryptically) gives hints about your next destination. I enjoy this greatly, though it might not appeal to the current generation of gamers who are more accustomed to a passive approach to JRPGs. 

 

Dungeons, too, take their cue from classic 2-D games. Long tunnels are the rule here. Exploration is vital, but many passages lead to dead ends. Puzzles in dungeons are all about trial and error. A seemingly open path often hides a pitfall, or a teleporter, that will take you to a new place completely. You run in circles a lot. Treasures are plentiful, but even then, there's a trick to getting the best stuff. Encounters are random, and encounter rate is high. Enemies are deadly. Insta-deth is the rule here, not the exception, and if your main character dies, the game is over. Nocturne couldn't care less about your time or your state of mind. It says, "You want to see the ending? Beat me"...

...

...or, at least it did back in the PS2 days. Here, there is a free DLC that gives a "MERCIFUL" difficulty. And to be honest, while I would recommend that everyone play their first playthrough (mostly) blind and on Normal difficulty, it was very nice to know that in order to get the remaining 5 endings of the game, I could lower the difficulty safely. The puzzles are still there, but now, you'll dodge those insta-deths more often.

 

You do have party members, in the form of demons. If you've played Persona 5 (or earlier Personas from the PS1), you'll recognize the mechanic. You can negotiate with demons in battle to earn their trust. You can also fuse demons into more powerful ones. This has always been a satisfying system to me, and that didn't change here.

 

The plat is a bit of a nuisance. You'll need to get all 6 endings in the game, which is best accomplished through well-placed saves at important decisions (hence my call for a "mostly" blind playthrough). You also need to raise all of your stats to max. This is a bit of a drag, though it is very useful if you play on a difficulty above Merciful (and, in particular, if you decide to go for the big BIG boss). ATLUS has thankfully given you a DLC that allows for easier level grinding...assuming you pay for it. Lame. 

 

Also, the remaster of this game is pretty bad. I had numerous crashes as I went for the remaining endings. The images are cleaned up, and there are a couple of potential QoL improvements (there is a way to choose which skills to inherit in a fusion, which beats the hell out of backing out of a fusion and retrying it 100 times to get what you want), but honestly, this looks like a PS2 to PS4 game. Most of those were priced at $14.99, though, and this was sold originally for $49.99! I wouldn't pay that, but half of that, or even $30, seems fair.

 

All in all, though, a solid game. With some care, you can get the plat relatively quickly (I took around 70 hours, though I could have cut a lot of that off had I played completely on Merciful difficulty). It's worth a playthrough. I would have liked to see more of the elements here make their way into Persona games. Perhaps the re-insertion of negotiation is a first step.

 

Plat  #468: Monster Viator

 

 

Complete!

Obtained all the trophies.

 

At this point, I can't even call myself a closet Kemco fan anymore. I've played a ton of these cheap-o JRPGs. For the most part, I've enjoyed the ones developed by Hit Point (which made this game) over the others developed by exe.create. But here? Well...

 

Monster Viator isn't a bad game. In fact, it's pretty good. It has a nice story. It has (mostly) pleasing graphics. It has a good, fast battle system that isn't trivial. For the most part, I enjoyed it. But the plat is terrible. And the reason is singular. Kemco has always had MTs in their games. For mobile applications, this makes sense, as these games are free. But on PS4, it makes less sense, since they list for $14.99. However, for literally every other Kemco game I've played, these MTs are completely unnecessary. Sure, it might cut your playtime down from 20 hours to 10, but why would I want to do that? I paid for this, so I want to play.

 

But in Monster Viator, there is the addition of a roguelike tower which is absolute hell...unless you pay for the DLC. There is no in-game reward for beating the tower. In fact, the time you spend in the tower doesn't even count towards your playtime. The tower is 50 floors, and each floor takes about 5-6 minutes to finish. Further, you cannot save in the tower (though there is a way to work around that thankfully). How many people really wanted to spend 5 hours going through a pointless tower with no in-game reward? Well, if you want the plat, you're gonna do it. It took me a year, as well as finding out that I really could save in the tower, before I finally did it. And...it sucked. You can have a bad run, get terrible drops, and get stuck on a mostly impossible boss. Your option? BACK TO FLOOR ONE. 

 

But with some determination, you'll finally succeed, as I did. I'm honestly surprised that the plat percentage is so high for this one. But as a reference? Leave this one in the pile, and play something like Legend of the Tetrarchs or Monochrome Order. Both are similar to this, but have much better plat runs.

Edited February 4, 2022 by starcrunch061

[VLAAMINGK_N1]

 

 Platinum #192: Wolfenstein II The New Colossus

 

Total hours played: 65

Difficulity: 9/10

Fun: 9/10

 

 

I started this game with a challenge, as a friend also was aiming to do a Mein Leben run. Ofcourse I started the game on the lowest difficulity just to make things easy as harder parts will come later. This game is a masterpiece in many aspects: the cutscenes, atmosphere, the story behind William Joseph Blaskovich. I really enjoyed my journey in this game, even tho you have to replay it quite a while on your Mein Leben runs. Every run makes it unique as nothing is the same as before: enemies may take different turns, an explosion you didn't expect and many more aspects.

I would recommend everyone to give this game a go, even tho the mein leben is hardcore as hell. With the right practice and a little dedication you will achieve this eventually. Mein leben shouldn't turn you down to play this beautiful game!

 

 

[percy547389126yv]

#1,078 MyMaite

[MatThaRiPP3R84]

 

 Masters of the Multiverse

Difficulty: lol

Fun Factor: 9

 

good game, good characters, lots of eye candy, the puzzles and stuff are skippable without negating trophies if you really can't be bothered, but they're not too bad either. Overall it could have been better but it's better then no ratchet game.

[vinicius2323]

 

#56 Gravel (ps4)

 

Grind

[BlinkWinkel]

(post deleted)

Edited June 22, 2022 by BlinkWinkel

[sephiroth4424]

 #295 Grand Theft Auto: Vice City (ps4)

 

 

 

 

Kingpin

 

Enjoyment: 10/10

Difficulty: 2/10

 

 

Although the definitive edition isn't anything special, Vice City is still my favourite GTA with the best radio stations in the series!

Also my Tommy can swim

 

[Lordguwa]

platinum #588 Hentai Vs Evil (ps4)

completed in 3 hours and 17 minutes

platinum rarity 95.58% common

platinum name: Weapon Master

 

managed to 100% borderlands GOTY despite the crashing issue that happened towards the end. going to go and clear borderlands 3 DLC (6 packs) and Crosskrush (ps4) already have a big plat to work on after this next one it'll be a surprise it isn't fallout.

Edited February 5, 2022 by Lordguwa

[HankValentine]

Brutal legend platinum & 100% (10 hrs 24 mins)

ROCK GOD!

Brutal legend is an amazing game, a proper cult classic. Very overlooked and underrated. 

Plat 50 too. ?

 

 

Edited February 5, 2022 by HankValentine

[buenatortuga]

Platinum #108

Wolfenstein 2: The new Colossus

PSN: Buenatortuga

https://psnprofiles.com/buenatortuga

[DesmaBR]

#158 (Trophy 8000)

 

 

 A Special Girl
Obtain all trophies.

 

 

I hate Blue Reflection

It is what I consider the worst game I've ever played.

When people think of "The Worst Game Ever", it's easy to think of easy targets like "Life of Black Tiger" or whatever.

But I think you needed to had some expectation for said game before, being able to look at the finished product and have it break your hear for what could've been. I can't be hurt if I didn't expect anything from something after all.

 

And, that game looked pretty incredible.

You had a pretty fascinating premise for a game, dealing with teenage depression.

You had some amazing character designs

And the finest damn soundtracks ever conceived by mankind

How could've gone wrong!?!?!

 

Golly gee, did it go wrong.

It was really clear that they just pissed out and released the game half finished.

Honestly, I think that was one of the games I've most laughed at, some stuff in there are shockingly bad.

And that pisses me off, as there were moments where the game showed what could've been, but the state the game was released, the game was a joke.

And the fanservice was fucking gross, the icing on the shit cake.

Sure, Japanese games are gonna have fanservice, "what's new?", but it's a special kind of gross that pisses me off.

Not only due to the main character of that clearly suffering from depression, and sexualizing a character in that much of a vulnerable state is definitely on my "not good list"

But there's this interview where the devs said that they went to a girls high school and interviewed the students to try and figure out how to make this game.

And I'm sorry, but the fanservice that game had, and having knowledge of that... fuck 'em. Fuck 'em.

 

Blue Reflection is a disgusting, vile game that just makes me sad.

I think it could've been something truly special, but they just pissed all over it and called it a day.

 

...

 

But I'm a kind soul, I'm willing to give 'em a second chance. A "Second Light" if you will.

So when they announced a sequel to it, I was intrigued to say the least.

... But they just had to fuck it up right from the beginning, because they could not help themselves.

They didn't just announce a game, no no.

They also announced an anime and a mobile game.

The anime would take place before the sequel and I guess the mobile game will take place game after?

 

So great, I gotta watch an anime before playing this game. It's .hack//sign again.

But it's not just an anime, it's a mothefucking 2 cour anime.

How do you even make a 2 cour anime of Blue Reflection? No fucking idea, but I've decided to give it a try.

I watched like 3 episodes and I just gave it, it is quite shocking how bad it is.

Part of me kinda really wants to do a hate watch of it, because it was honestly pretty funny.

If animes based on a game are made to advertise the game, I'm sure this anime did the complete opposite.

 

...

 

Now, for the game itself...

Fellas, wtf did I just play?

 

I'll say it right now, this game is a lot better than it has any right to be.

And I'm sure it's all because of the one and only Akira Tsuchiya (Ar tonelico creator), as he's credited as the Producer of the game.

Any real good this game has is due to the writing, which is clearly my boy Akira strongest suit.

Doing the Dates (as the game calls it) is a bit annoying, but they're really the game's strong suit.

I've played tons of games that have stuff like this where the character just say shit like "Cool tree, right?" "Yeah, it sure does photosynthesis"

But here, even dumb scenes like characters looking at a space suit can have a surprisingly amount of depth here, and that's just because the characters here are really strong.

You can look at a character like Rena and immediately think "Oh, it's one of thoooose characters", but be very surprised with her later on.

 

The game does the best it can with them... because boy, the actual plot is shocking.

Idk if it's the anime's fault or whatever, but it is an insane plot that retcons the first game so bad, and it makes it somehow even worse now.

Every time time the plot would come out, I would just think "wtf"

 

A big issue the plot has is amnesia.

Somehow, all of the characters have amnesia here, yes even including the main character from the first game.

Any kind of plot progression is due to a character going "Oh, I remember now!"

...

God, amnesia is dumb.

 

The soundtrack is also distressingly worse than the original.

Yeah, they got Hayato Asano back for this, and dude's a beast.

But sadly, it just doesn't feel like he was trying with this.

I do think the best pieces of media out there are the one that are effortless, you don't even feel like they're trying.

But like, there are three boss themes for this games.

The original had three boss themes... for each boss.

I found that to be really distracting honestly, especially when tracks from the original game started playing here.

 

Honestly, I'm confused.

I'm glad I've played it, but it's pretty clear to me now that Gust is incapable of delivering what this franchise could.

I hope this series dies off, and that they let my boy Tsuchiya make one of those games of his again.

[EverythingOnFire]

#36

and my first PS5 plat!

 

art of rally

 

Playtime: 25 hours
Difficulty: 5/10
Enjoyment: 7.5/10

 

A beautiful & adorable Rally game with probably the best overall collection of synthwave music I've ever heard. Seriously check
out the soundtrack to this one; it's incredible. Chill, dark, dream, etc.; all the waves are there. At times it made the very game zen & hypnotic.

 

I think this is the first "authentic handling" driving/racing game I've played, and I'll just say that you probably wouldn't want to watch any of my playthoughs any time soon.

I had fun though, and in the end I managed to stumble my way through to the platinum.

 

Big thanks to @nivasan6 for the great PSNP trophy guide ?

 

 

[Riv1404]

Oddworld: Soulstorm

 

 

Difficulty: 6/10

Playtime: 75+

Enjoyment: 8/10

[Squarevii87]

 # 175 

 

 

 

 

 

Enjoyment   10/10

Difficulty 5/10 

300 HOURS 

LEVEL 290 

2 AND A HALF WALKTHROUGHS

 

A MASTERPIECE OF GAMEPLAY 

FROMSOFTWARE PIONEERS

 

 

Edited February 6, 2022 by Squarevii87

[percy547389126yv]

#1,079 PS4 version of The Song Out of Space

[Viscera1900]

 #330  -  Uncharted: Legacy of Thieves Collection

 

A Thief's Legacy

"Collect all the Trophies"

 

Completion time: 3 hours / 1 day, 33 minutes

 

I won't comment too much about this one, since I auto-popped most of trophies using my old PS4 save files. I had to redo most of combat related trophies again, but this time around on 120 FPS 1080p resolution (Performence+ mode); I can't believe I used to play both of these games on 30 FPS back in the days. I tried to play on fidelity mode a bit and although it looked very beautiful visually; I just can't get used to play this on 30 FPS again.

 

 

 

[Geninjo]

#092 - F.I.S.T - Forged in Shadow Torch

 

#093 - One Punch Man: A Hero Nobody Knows

 

#094 - Lumo

 

#095 - The Medium

 

#096 - Marvel's Guardians of the Galaxy [PS4]

 

#097 - Marvel's Guardians of the Galaxy [PS5]

 

#098 - Death's Door

 

#099 - Among Us

 

 #100 - One Piece World Seeker 

[DrBloodmoney]

  499

 637

 

The Artful Escape

A narrative-focussed light-platformer from (awesomely named) developer Beethoven & Dinosaur, The Artful Escape is a game that is difficult to classify but easy to play... difficult to define, but very easy to love.

 

Every once in a while, a game comes along that really surprises me. In fairness, quite a few of the games to meet that bar in the past 5 or 6 years have been courtesy of Annapurna - a publisher who have really distinguished themselves as the industry standard for interesting, well crafted indie games - and The Artful Escape is no exception in that regard.
It's rare enough that a game surprises me in a positive way in terms of any single aspect, but even rarer where what surprised me was not a specific mechanic, but a lack thereof. What really caught me off guard about The Artful Escape was how little mechanical game there is to it. That sounds like a negative - and in many cases it would be - however, here it absolutely is not. Let me be clear - for a game in which there isn't a lot of actual gameplay, every hour of The Artful Escape has more impact - narratively, artistically, emotionally and in terms of engagement - than many mechanics-heavy games manage in their total!

 

The player takes the role of Francis Vendetti - a resident of Calypso, a small, idyllic Colorado town most famous for being the home of his now deceased, and legendarily great folk musician uncle, Johnson Vendetti. Francis is musically gifted, and feels pressured to follow in the footsteps of his legendary uncle, attempting to become a folk singer, but as the lonesome intro to the game shows us, his heart is not in that genre. While he fiddles around half-heartedly when strumming the soulful melodies of his folk output, he comes alive when wailing overblown, psychedelic Space-Rock to an open sky, on his electric guitar.

 

On the eve of a folk performance he is due to give, as part of a festival celebrating the legacy of his uncle, he meets a curious young woman named Violetta, who, in a laid-back, acerbic tone, encourages him to take a risk - to do what he feels. He should begin doing this - she says - by visiting 'Lightman's' in town - a place Francis knows does not exist. 
Upon heading home, Francis is visited by both an alien, and a fantastically odd old-man musician - Lightman (played to absolute perfection by the inimitable Carl Weathers!) - who take Francis on a journey, through a booking agents office that doesn't exist, across a psychedelic cosmos, and on to Lightman's inter dimensional spaceship - The Cosmic Lung. The reason? In order for The Cosmic Lung to pass through the Cosmic Extraordinary on it's intergalactic journey, Lightman needs to perform a concert for an alien being known as the Glamourgonn - and he wants (nay, needs!) Francis Vendetti on the bill, as his warm-up act.

 

Now - lets not mice words - that sounds like nonsense. 
And it is. Complete nonsense - the whole story is.
It's also wonderful.

The plot of The Artful Escape is completely off-the-wall and ridiculous - and fabulously so. It is, I would wager, one of the best examples of using a ridiculous, overblown, comically-bizarre narrative to make a serious point that I think I have ever seen in gaming.

The story serves as a fun, light, and never-not-charming metaphor for some very real concerns - those of feeling overshadowed by past family glory, of feeling pushed on to one path when one feels naturally inclined towards another, of pursuing ones dreams in spite of the fears and risks associated, and of the transformative power of music.
Francis is a man who unironically loves the music that he feels in his heart, but societal pressures have pushed him to couch those feelings in secrecy, and in the pretence of irony. He feels he needs to be a folk musician, not just to please the ghost of his uncle and the spectre of public expectation, but also because those pressures have forced him to feel that Folk music is 'legitimate art' to the exclusion of other genres. 
He knows what he wants, but thinks he is supposed to want something else, and his internal struggle with this is the crux of the game. Fighting that battle between fake irony and real sincerity is the thesis of the game - that one should love what they love without shame, and never feel beholden to the outside influence of others.
The game is, in essence, a psychedelic love letter to feeling your own feelings without shame, and not trying to force yourself to feel otherwise. To liking what you like in spite of the common consensus. Of having your own opinions. Of the notion that genuine love for something will shine through, and influence others to do the same, far more than the consensus opinion can ever quash them. 
That the Emperor has, in fact, got no clothes on.

It's a thesis statement that is powerful - and one that I think gamers especially - particularly those on sites such as this one, where opinions and consensus-think can be rife, and where loving something everyone else dismisses is often seen as a peculiarity and a negative - can easily find connection with.

 

Mechanically, the game is, as said, pretty minimal. General levels follow a fairly standard light-platforming tract - and to be honest, there is little to them aside from moving from one side of the level to the other. The platforming is not challenging at all. Really these sections serve as a backdrop for the player to experience the visual design of the environments, and to have fun with the movement mechanics. These are a source of great fun in the game. Francis has his electric guitar on him at all times, and holding the square button will see him constantly wailing out abstract space-rock melodies on it. If he presses this during a jump, it results in a slight-slow-motion rocking leap the feels great. Every single time. I don't often tell people how to play their games... but if you are jumping in The Artful Escape, and not ripping a solo as you do - you are playing it wrong!

 

The other side of the game, from a mechanical point of view, is in various Simon-style rhythm mini-game sections. These consist of 'repeat-after-me' button pushing, using a five-note/ five-button input, wherein Francis can play along with (or battle) various earthly or inter-dimensional beings in musical face-offs. These sections are not difficult either - indeed, there is no fail-state in the game, as incorrect input simply requires another try without penalty, but they serve exactly the same purpose that the light-platforming does - they provide just enough player engagement to feel a part of the narrative, and enough input to feel connected to Francis and his through-line to matter, and the game lets the art, music and narrative do the rest. The functional gaming within The Artful Escape is simply a way to the story alive and moving. They are what draws the player in, and hold their hand throughout, giving their hands something to do, but the parts around the edges of those mechanics are what keep their brain engaged.

 

Artistically and stylistically, the game manages to do something pretty difficult - it follows ever-heightening reality and increasingly psychedelic aspects of the narrative, but without feeling like it is ever really 'switching' styles. The early game - in Calypso - has the artistic leanings of a Wes Anderson film - the straight-on framing and crisp, clean lines of the idyllic town feel cut form a completely art-house indie style, yet as the game heightens its reality, heading out into the cosmos, and playing to a narrative straight out of a psychedelic-space-rock album cover, that very same art-style lends itself perfectly to that too. 
There are artistic high points all over the game - the transitional montages as Francis is transported across space-time are hilariously baffling and fun to see - and everything, from character design, to environmental design, to the stylistic flourishes in musical sections - are well done, cohesively connected, and wholly original in the indie game landscape. Are there elements of art-styles seen in other games? - sure, of course - however, the net effect here is something that looks and feels wildly different, and holds it's own, maintaining a uniqueness in totality.

 

Audio is - as it needs to be - fantastic. That is a virtual requirement in terms of music - The Artful Escape is, of course, a game about the power of, and love for, music, and so the fact that the songs played are good is a welcome (and necessary) component of the game. This applies not just to the discrete music sections though - it carries through all aspects of the music, from the folk songs early on, to the space-ballads, to the simple wailing of guitar riffs as Francis runs along the levels is fun, uplifting and genuinely catchy.

 

Voice work is excellent - there is a pretty strong cast on show here, featuring Jason Schwartzman, Lena Headey and Mark Strong, in addition to previously mentioned Carl Weathers, and all do a great job - hitting the mark on the jokes well, and giving a lot of extra personality to the characters - many of whom are bafflingly strange and unusual, but always charming in an odd way. In some instances, I was reminded of Afterparty - in the way the extreme concepts at play are grounded and made unique and emotive through simple grounding of writing and voice work. The normalcy of the individual lines, and in the delivery works in contrast to the outlandish designs and situations, with a comedic edge that works a treat.

 

Overall, The Artful Escape is a hell of a game - and one no one with even a passing interest in either music, or indie gaming should miss out on. 
Its a fleeting thing - the game is only around 4 hours long, and doesn't lend itself to much in the way of repeatability beyond simply re-experiencing a great story with a great message, however, that 4 hours is a gloriously silly and fun ride, featuring a storm of wonderful art, an auditory kaleidoscope of great music, a ton of good jokes, interesting characters and imaginative and interesting locations. 
By throwing these elements in with a narrative message that is deceptively poignant, and extremely well implemented, The Artful Escape ends up being a real winner.

 

 

(For original review and Scientific  Ranking see HERE)

 

[Pots3k]

#200 - Super Meat Boy. What a journey that was.

[DrBloodmoney]

  500!

 638

 

Curse of the Dead Gods

 

A 2021 rogue-like isometric dungeon-crawler from Passtech Games, Curse of the Dead Gods has spent much of its existence being - for better or for worse - compared to, and contrasted with, Supergiant's excellent, and similarly isometric dungeon-crawling rogue-like, Hades.

 

That comparison was, no doubt, inevitable. Both games released in similar timeframes, both play in the same genre, and both certainly cater (mechanically at least) to a similar crowd. In the case of this review, that comparison is likely to feature more than once. However, the useful purpose of such comparisons in not to dwell on the similarities Curse of the Dead Gods shares with Hades, but rather to look at the differences, as they are plentiful - and quite fundamental.

In terms of broad genre, certainly Curse of the Dead Gods is tilling the same field as Hades, however, philosophically - from a game design point of view - the two could not be approaching that genre from a more diametrically opposite positions.

Hades is a game made great around the edges of its core mechanics. The actual dungeon-crawling and combat are good - perfectly adequate, and capable of sustaining the players' attention across the platinum journey - however, they are arguably the weakest aspect of Hades' overall package. That game has good mechanics, but shines brightest in its other areas: Its music, its writing, its narrative and its gorgeous artwork. It is, if you will, a perfectly acceptable and tasty steak, with some of the most delicious trimmings ever set to a plate. 
Curse of the Dead Gods does not come with trimmings at all. It is simply a steak on a plate. It is, however, one of the tastiest cuts of meat available in the Steakhouse!

 

The narrative aspects of Curse of the Dead Gods are very slim. There is a story to its dungeon crawling, seeing the player take the role of Cardog McCallister, an explorer seeking riches in an ancient, Mayan temple dedicated to the glory of three 'dead' Gods - T'Amok', Yaatz and Sich'al. Each of these Gods is themed around an element - Fire, Lighting and Poison, and the history and mysteries of each, their champions and their areas of the temple are revealed slowly throughout the game, however, this narrative aspect is confined to text entries associated with different weapons, enemies and challenges. The game maintains a Dark Souls-esque "big-on-lore, small-on-story" minimalism to the narrative elements.
There is no voice work, there is no real characterisation of Cardog, (outside of his stomping gait, his grunting, heavy demeanour, and his fantastic mutton-chops!) Indeed, there is no real time spent in adding fruitful additional aspects around the edges of the mechanical aspects.

 

What there is, instead, is an attention to detail in the core combat mechanics, a variable and artistically cohesive randomised level generation, and a breadth of interdependent and inter-linking subsystems to be engaged with and managed that borders on outrageous. It is, frankly, overwhelming at first, but upon experimenting with the game and learning its many inter-connected facets, it results in one of the most variable, complex, nuanced and - most importantly - engaging rogue-likes I have ever had the good fortune to stumble upon.

 

Those inter-linking variables in each run are truly the magic of the game.

Each dungeon run (after the initial few short 'on-ramping' ones, designed to give a flavour of the game,) consists of three main sections, each of which has 8 stages. Traversal through each of these sections allows the player to select their next destination from a randomly generated 'map', where they can see the room 'types' available. These might be a gold-heavy room, a 'mini-boss', a 'speed' or a 'perfection' challenge, or a room containing a weapon upgrade alter, or a new weapon alter, or an alter giving runic charms - with the final level being a "Champion" - i.e. a boss fight.

The weapons available to Cardog at the outset are limited - and randomised - with initial altars providing a randomised main, secondary and a two-handed weapon, each of which is tied to one button on the controller. These - like everything in the game - have unique strengths and weaknesses. They play differently - more so than in many other rogue-like games - and are able to be managed, upgraded or replaced, depending on the player's choice, the nature of the RNG, and the path taken through the labyrinth. 

 

That may sound fairly standard so far - indeed, many games, particularly rogue-likes, offer multiple weapon classes and randomised item drops - however, what sets Curse of the Dead Gods apart is both the distinctness of individual weapon classes, and the sheer volume of elements that need to be managed within a run.

 

There are damage types - poison, lightning, fire, critical and weakness - each of which can be specced to with different interlinking runes and curses.
There are 3 player stats - Constitution, Dexterity and Perception - each of which can be raised by different actions, and have cumulative and comparative effects on health, power and item drop.
There are runic charms, giving a plethora of bonuses and abilities to different game elements.
There is a stamina meter to manage, with different weapons and combos requiring different amounts, a dodging mechanic, and a parry/riposte mechanic for those with the stomach to stand toe-to-toe with the enemy forces.
There is a 'curse' mechanics, where a curse 'meter' - which increases when attacked, or when passing a door, or which can be increased as substitute for gold at altars - will add random detrimental effects to the player - and culminates in an extremely debilitating 'Final Curse', seeing the player's health reducing constantly to 1HP. 
There is a persistent currency system, allowing the player to unlock different starting weapons to add to the randomised pool, as well as unlock certain bonuses, such as additional re-rolls of randomised offerings at altars, or adding additional starting weapon offerings.
There is a non-persistent money mechanic, a 'sacrificial' mechanic, in which found items can be sacrificed to the Gods for alternate bonuses, a 'light/dark' mechanic in play, an numerous other elements that have to not only be learned and contended with in each run, but only by mastery of which will the player stand a hope of traversing the late game dungeons and facing the final boss - Clovis Pardieux, the Champion of Death.

 

The wealth of elements in play in any single run of Curse of the Dead Gods really is incredible - and very complex and intricate. Bafflingly so at first, however, over the course of my 150 hours with the game, I came to understand just how well these elements have been crafted - not simply on an individual basis, but in combination. Each is balanced and finessed to work together. Not since playing Invisible Inc, had I seen a game use such a massive number of inter-connected variables, within the already variable playfield of a randomly generated rogue-like, with such finesse.
Because each element is dependant upon, and affects, so many others, there is a constant requirement on the player's part to evaluate the micro and macro effects every single item drop and variable will have on their play-style. Every run requires them to make scores of decisions on the fly, then adjust their approach based on those decisions, and on the challenges the game then throws at them.

 

"Is is more important to look to upgrade this awesome whip, which does massive damage, but is slow, or should I swap it for this claw?" 
"The claw is weaker, but increases power as I am cursed, so do I avoid being cursed and take things slow, or allow myself to be cursed and go fast?" 
"If I do, what curses might I get?" 
"Can I deal with them?"
"Will that affect my ability to defeat a champion, and remove a curse?"
"Which one should I remove?"

 

These kind of evaluations are as complex and nuanced as they are frequent... and in each run, they are very frequent!

 

All this is good, however, it would be for nothing if the actual combat was not enjoyable. Luckily, here, it very much is. 
There is not the largest variety of enemy types I've seen in a rogue-like (each of the three 'themed' temples contains 6 or 7 different variants, each of which has a regular and an 'Elite' version.) These enemies are all distinct, however, and require different tactics, and while the variety in terms of individual enemies is small, where the nuance lies is in the combinations of them. Each level's enemies are randomised, and the difference between, say, one 'elite' 'Tomb Horror' and two 'Vermin' requires a hugely different approach to three 'Plague-bringers' or three 'Serpent Cultists'. 

While learning individual emery patterns is simple, dealing with multiple combinations, (along with the myriad of temple traps, which affect both enemy and player alike, and the obvious differences afforded by different weapons and builds,) requires an on-the-fly decision-making and nuanced approach that does not grow stale, even over the lengthly platinum journey.

The bosses - of which there are 10 total - are each well designed and unique fights, each with their own strengths and weaknesses, requiring specific approaches. Each will be faced numerous times throughout the game, and each has its own patterns to be learned, and experimentation in these fights is fun, challenging and rewarding.

 

Visually, the game has a pretty awesome look to it. A cell-shaded, comic-book-esque style with dark, heavy black lines and cell-shaded elements compliments the Mayan aesthetic really well. This visual style is not simply good from a visual standpoint either - it adds to the game mechanically in a material way too.
The light/dark mechanic, in which Cardog takes increased damage in the dark and cannot see traps, but can be specced to do more damage in the dark, (or light) himself, and is able to either light torches, or destroy them, means there is a mechanical element to the visuals to which the player must be vigilant.
Flourishes like the comic-book 'sweeps' of enemy attacks work really well with the visual style, but also give the player the information they need - about the hit-boxing of the game, and of timing for parry/riposte mechanics, or 'perfect dodges'.

 

In terms of audio, the game is good, if not outstanding. In terms of voice work, of course, there is none, and the general score is good - ominous and thumping - but not stand-out in a crowded field, however, the one area Curse of the Dead Gods does excel in is the foley and sound design. Cardog's grunts and cries are visceral and evocative, and give the player much needed feedback on damage when they are in combat, and not able to glance at health meters for that information. Weapon swings and hits are impactful, and slight differences in the sound of a hit, a perfect hit and a critical give good feedback too, as well as sounding great from a purely artistic point of view. 

 

It is worth noting one additional aspect here - the trophies. I don't make a point to mention them often, but I do where they are of real note, and here, they are. Or rather, one trophy is.
Most of the trophies for Curse of the Dead Gods can be reasonably obtained in a fairly timely fashion - within 30-40 hours, even a a slow, regular pace of an unskilled gamer such as myself. One final trophy, however, - "Memoirs", for completing every entry in the bestiary - is an incredibly long and arduous journey. 
Each entry in the bestiary requires its own set of challenges to be completed, and some of these are no joke. For example, each boss entry requires beating that boss 10 separate times, each without taking a single point of damage. The final boss requires 5 no-hit kills. Each enemy requires 50 kills of the 'elite' variation to be killed, without taking any damage - and these do not spawn at a particularly prodigious rate. 

 

These, plus a litany of other tertiary requirements, means two things: 
1. While getting most of the trophies is available to most players, getting the platinum, and the S-Rank requires a mastery level far beyond simply that of completing the hardest run. 
2. The platinum will take quite some time.

 

I, for one, had all trophies bar that last one (and the platinum) for six months, before I was able to finally finish up the trophy list - and the final trophy took over 100 additional hours. While I am certainly an outlier -I have seen people complete the list in under 60 hours, the fact remains that the game asks a LOT of its players, if they desire that final platinum for their collection.

This is, I will caveat, not a case - like say, RAD, or Void Bastards - where I am warning that the platinum requires a dismal grind or joyless runs - I can categorically state that I enjoyed every run I made in Curse of the Dead Gods, right up to the last one - however, it is worth noting for anyone going into the game - you'll be at it a while!
Every moment of that 'long while' though, is with a damned fine game, that is so well balanced and realised, that every way you decide to play, the game will meet you there, and come armed with a new set of challenges for you to conquer!

Overall, Curse of the Dead Gods is a hell of a rogue-like, and a hell of a game. 
A simple one on paper, but one stacked with variables and interesting nuance, and an abject lesson in how to turn what feels like a small game into one of the most enjoyable and fun and variable experiences money can buy. It's not a rogue-like in the Hades model - there isn't a sweeping or complex narrative, or story hooks - but rather in the Dead Cells model. Its story is in the lore the player builds around the biomes and environments and bosses... and in the tales they tell to other players. Of their new build, and their new method, and their smart exploit and their odd challenge.

 

There aren't too many games I keep loaded on my console after I collect the platinum - Dead Cells, Hitman, Invisible Inc, The Witness - these are the outliers, not the norm. That small pack has a new entry now - Curse of the Dead Gods. Even after 160 hours of play, and a platinum under my belt, I know I haven't smacked Clovis Pardieux around for the last time.

I'll be back.

 

 

(For original review and Scientific  Ranking see HERE)

[DrBloodmoney]

  501

 639

 

Moons of Madness

A Cosmic Horror first-person puzzle explorer, released in 2019 via a co-ordinated effort by Rock Pocket Games and Dreamloop Games, Moons of Madness attempts to mash up the somewhat 'hard sci-fi' elements of films like The Martian, and combine it with Lovecraftian Eldritch Horror, giving a 'horror of hidden knowledge' slant to a semi-realistic 'space and science' setting.

 

Taking the role of Shane - an engineer working for the sinister Orochi Group as part of a secret project on a scientific research facility on Mars, the player combines their routine (and latterly, far-from-routine) tasks around the facility with experiencing Shane's nightmares - a portent of the future, where the facility is overrun by grotesque black 'filth' and tentacles, taking over the rest of the crew, and seemingly controlled by a shadowy, hideous witch-like figure plaguing his dreams.
Throughout the game, it becomes apparent that Shane's selection and inclusion in the mission may not be for the reasons he thought, and his strained, unusual relationship with his mother - a world-renowned researcher into both space and the occult - that had affected his childhood and his current situation may be wrapped up in his hiring, and his current predicament. 

 

Narratively, Moons of Madness is, unfortunately, something of a wet fish. There is certainly potential in the mashing-up of Eldritch Horror, scientific research and the isolation of space, (one only needs to look at the Dead Space series to find good examples of such narratives as backdrop to good action games, or to SOMA as a great example of leaning into the horror and narrative elements for a more stealth-based focus,) however, those comparisons do Moons of Madness no favours. The story is pretty rote, and unusually poorly paced for this style of game. Because the writing is rather simplistic, and the dialogue not particularly well constructed, there is a feeling that the whole narrative has been stitched together, in order to fit in as many pre-existing, tried-and-tested Horror elements as possible, rather than being constructed with a clear story in mind, and building horror moments out of that narrative organically. 

 

The frightening moments are almost uniformly of the jump-scare variety - the laziest and least interesting of horror tropes. Jump-scares can work effectively, however, they really require more of an action-slant to the gameplay to be effective. In Dead Space, or Resident Evil, for example, a good jump scare works, because it spurs an instantaneous call to action - the player has to suddenly react, and make a spur of the moment decision - fight, or flight. In Moons of Madness, because the game has no action elements and no way to fight back, no choice exists, and because it is heavily checkpointed, there is no real threat to these scares. the player always has to run (or, saunter away, since the movement is so slow and stilted - more on that later,) and since dying is simply a cut-scene, followed by a return to a recent checkpoint, these scares only ever work once. The second time, the player knows what is coming, and exactly where from, and so the threat becomes simply an inconvenience in their path to (slowly) walking from one spot to another.

 

There is a second element to the horror in this kind of game - one in which exploration and simple appreciation of a narrative is key - that is a real requirement - tonal unease. Creeping, sustained tension. Games like SOMA, (or Amnesia, or Outlast,) do have jump-scares, but those are not the memorable parts, the memorable parts are the lingering, creeping tone of the games, which oppresses the player constantly with a palpable disquiet. While atmosphere played a part in those games of course, and Moons of Madness does manage the oppressive, chilling atmosphere quite effectively at times, really, that kind of horror is predicated on an investment with the characters and the story - something Moons of Madness is unable to replicate. The narrative elements are too weak. There is very little investment to be had in a narrative that feels like a paleo imitation of other, better ones, and any investment in the protagonist, or the NPC characters is stilted at best, due to the rather ridiculous and underwritten dialogue. 

Shane has a tendency to talk to himself (well, to the player,) but does so with a tonal inconsistency that borders on laughable. Shane's reaction to something like a falling piece of debris will be extreme - shouting and fearful - yet when he witnesses somethings so outrageously horrific - something utterly grotesque from beyond the depths of human understanding - his reaction will be akin to "What the...? That's odd..."
In a fairly early section, for example, where he is - for reasons unknown to him - transported to the basement of his childhood home - his reaction is simply "Huh, my childhood basement."

When, while exploring this space, he uncovers a gloriously bizarre and hideous altar to some ancient, cosmic Gods, his reaction is simply a rather curious "Was this here the whole time? What were you up to, Mom?" - the same reaction one might expect if he had found a photograph of his mother with a stranger.

 

It's these kind of inhuman reactions to extreme circumstances that really deflate any sense of urgency or horrific tonal realism to the whole game. By the time the narrative is reaching its conclusion, and the true horror of Shane's Mother's secrets, and the threat residing on Mars' two moons is revealed, the player has lost all emotional investment in the game, and is simply plodding through it, waiting for the narrative to stop flopping on the floor and fall limp.

 

In terms of gameplay, Moons of Madness has some good points, but they are spread thinly. There are puzzle elements here - both macro, as Shane tries to fix certain areas of the research facility or get from one area to another, and micro - where individual parts require the solving of light puzzle screens to repair - but these are sparingly used. The rest of the game functions as a walking sim, and as any fan of Walking Sim's knows, that requires a good narrative investment to remain interesting. 

There are elements of the early game I really liked - the attention to scientific realism in terms of navigating the base is cool, requiring, for example, airlocks to be used correctly, and oxygen to be managed to avoid suffocation - however, because the rest of the game fails to meet this standard, these aspects do tend to go from feeling realistic and cool, to simply slowing down the story after a while. Having to correctly sequence an airlocks fun the first few times - by the tenth, it is gets repetitive and borders on irritating. 

 

The gameplay does also come - in later game sections - to rely on some stealth aspects. These are not fun, not well implemented, and utterly ruinous to the tempo of the game. Movement in moons of Madness is stilted and slow at all times - indeed, few games outside of Everyone's Gone to Rapture have had such noticeably slow movement. That makes the whole game feel more sludgy and plodding than it should already, but it really, REALLY does not lend itself to stealth sections. There is little clear indication of the distance required to avoid the threats, and even less ability to effectively hide, and so these sections become painfully repetitive 'trial-and-error' walking sections, where the tension is entirely borne out of wanting to avoid repeating the same section, rather than the in-game narrative horror.

 

There is an unusual level of inconsistency in terms of attention to detail in the game. While in some spots, there are admirable flourishes (for example, there are changes to basic animations like filling up space-suit oxygen, depending on how stressed Shane is - with the basic animation of holding a button becoming a frantic, repetitive clicking when he is scared,) however, there are other aspects in which the game feels downright amateurish. Voice dialogue explaining the current situation between Shane and the remote NPCs is generally in a calm, objective tone - fittingly at times - however, if Shane, for example, happens to stray the wrong way, and awaken a security threat, or some ghostly apparition and suddenly heightening the tension, this voice over does not stop. Multiple times, I had overlapping audio playing - where Shane was both calmly chatting with one of his crew-mates, while also shrieking as he was beaten or clawed to death by some horrific threat. In a game where narrative is the main component, that kind of error has a catastrophic and unforgivably destructive effect on the player's ability to invest in the world they have inhabited.

 

Visually, the game is fine, if never stand out. The space-based sections look nice - the base has a clean, sterile look that works, despite never feeling particularly original or interesting - and the vistas and views of the surface of Mars do the job. Sections where Shane is transported into his own childhood, where more Earthly locations are used look decent, but again, unoriginally so. When the 'filth' takes over, there is some interest to be found, but not too much. It's all quite derivative of other, better games (and films.)

 

Audio is okay - the score is a minimal, lonesome affair that fits the tone, and foley is perfectly adequate. Voice work is something of a mixed bag - I'd hesitate to call the voice acting bad, as I feel like most actors are doing their best with poor material - but the writing really lets it down. There is such tonal inconsistency in the writing, that the voice acting can do nothing but follow it down the sink-hole.

Overall, Moons of Madness is a bit of let down across the board. There are some small aspects that are admirable here, but the whole endeavour feels misguided, and lacks any really original or interesting flavour. The narrative feels like an attempt at emulation of other, better games, and ends up being exactly that - an imitation, and not even a particularly sound one.

Yes, there are aspects that bring to mind SOMA, or Dead Space or even Returnal - particularly in the amalgamation of earthly, family trauma and space-based exploration and horror - and Moons of Madness even takes a swing at filmic entries like Event Horizon or Pandorum on occasion, but these invited comparisons don't do the game any favours. 
In the end, all they do is remind the player that they've been here before... and when they were, it was in a much better vehicle.

 

 

(For original review and Scientific  Ranking see HERE)

[DrBloodmoney]

  502

 640

 

Life is Strange Remastered

A narrative, character-focussed 3D adventure-lite in the vein of modern Telltale fare, Life is Strange was the second game released by DotNod studios, after their modestly successful, though largely forgotten freshman effort, Remember Me.

 

Where Remember Me was primarily an action game, set in a futuristic, cyberpunk universe, combining a variety of mechanical genres (action brawler, exploration platformer, time and memory manipulation puzzler,) and felt like a new studio's attempt to pepper an existing, popular genre with their own distinct flavour, Life is Strangefeels decidedly smaller, more intimate, and far more of a direct, unfiltered and unencumbered version of the aspects of gaming and storytelling the studio knew they excelled at.

 

Taking cues from the likes of Telltale's modern, post-The Walking Dead stable (not the least of which, the 5-part episodic structure,) with a smattering of Quantic Dream style, more cinematic aspects, Life is Strange ends up falling somewhere in between those developers in terms of graphical prowess, however, narratively, tonally and in terms of emotional verisimilitude, it lands streaks ahead of any offering from either. 

 

Set in the fictional Oregon town of Arcadia Bay, The player controls Max Caufield, an 18 year old photography student, originally from the town, subsequently moved away, and having returned to attend the local Blackwell Academy. She is having some decidedly Donnie Darko-esque visions of the town's destruction, and of being at the local lighthouse in the throws of a terrible storm, but is unable to comprehend the meaning.  

Shortly into the first episode, Max discovers that she has the ability to rewind time, and very quickly ends up using this ability to save the life of a girl she hears being shot from the confines of a bathroom stall. Having done so, she realises the girl is, in fact, her childhood best friend, Chloe, whom she was once very close to, but has drifted apart from after Max's family moved away. Over the course of the 5 episodes - and in no small way resulting from that initial fate-altering interaction - the plot weaves and winds, covering the reunion and rekindled friendship between the two young girls, as well as delving into such aspects as the fate of a missing local girl - Rachel Amber - with whom Chloe had an intimate relationship during the time Max was away, Chloe's difficult family and personal life resulting from her father's death and her inability to deal with it, a fellow student driven to suicidal tendencies via the bullying of the popular clique and a compromising online viral video, the local school and town politics surrounding the relationship between rich families and school discipline, teacher/ student relationships, and the shifting sands of interpersonal relationships within the student body.

 

That may sound like a mishmash - particularly so, given that I am trying to avoid specific spoilers here - however, the actual beat-by-beat story of Life is Strange is, it must be said, remarkably well plotted. In much the same way that recapping a good television series season can sound ridiculous when done all at once, the plot here is rich, and can sound unwieldy in summary. However, also like a good TV show - that is immaterial when actually watching it. The game is 95% narrative leaning, and so, the time it takes to describe the full plot, with all the nuance would be... well... the length of the game itself!
There is also the added wrinkle of the variable, choice based aspects. Like a Telltale game, the overall plot 'spine' upon which all the choices are hung, has to, of course, follow some form of set path, however, having played Life is Strange many times now, I can confidently state that while the main plot does remain relatively static, what changes dramatically is the colour and tone of it. Yes, the ending does, essentially, boil down to a binary choice, however, the path walked to get there is very variable in tone, if only marginally variable in actual content. Unlike a Quantic Dream game, there are few scenes that can 'slot' in and out of the game based on the choices made, however, the emotional content of the story is variable in a way I never found any Telltale or Quantic Dream game to really achieve. 

More than any game from either of those developers, Life is Strange does a very good job both of showing the player which choices they made that mattered (the end of each episode shows these choices, along with the percentages of people who made the same, across the globe,) and, crucially, of making every choice feel like it was accounted for properly. Playing the game, making any combination of choices, still feels like a tonally and structurally sound narrative, and characters within that story feel embedded in it. Choices may not always have narrative weight, but they almost always have emotional weight, and emotional consequence. 
As a result, the game experience is utterly reliant on an investment with the characters - one I found it to achieve, and with remarkable speed. Indeed, when playing a Life is Strange game, I find myself agonising over a choice I have to make far more than in a Quantic Dream or a Telltale one - which is no small feat, given that these choices are rarely crucial on any mechanical (or trophy) related side. The games reward the same trophies, regardless of the story outcome, so those difficult choices are purely as a result of emotional investment.

 

Tonally, Life is Strange is, it must be said, smack-dab in my personal wheelhouse. Taking heavy inspiration from Donnie Darko and Twin Peaks, and adding in elements of The Butterfly Effect and (wildly underrated) The Jacket, would be plenty to have me reaching for my wallet, but those aspects are actually relatively common influences in gaming, particularly in narrative-focused and indie games. What isn't as common, is the heavy tonal influence from indie cinema. There are similarities in different places to many, many films I love here - everything from Safety Not Guaranteed, Dazed and Confused, Art School Confidential, Ghost World, Juno, Blue is the Warmest Colour, Garden State, Heavenly Creatures, even Hard Candy, Ginger and Rosa and Fish Tank can be seen in spots. That is not to say any of these films form specific references, but rather, to highlight that as a broad piece or work, Life is Strange is aiming for - and hits - a tone closer to indie cinema than virtually any other I can recall. 

 

This is never more evident than in the music of the game. The soundtrack to Life is Strange (and, it should be said, all its sequels) is excellent. At this point, with 4 games released in the series, it has become apparent that part and parcel of playing a Life is Strange game comes a new selection of great indie music recommendations. The soundtrack here includes Syd Matters, Sparklehorse, Foals, Mogwai and a host of others, and use of music in the game, either diegetically or as soundtrack, is extremely well done.

 

On the writing, There is some ups and downs. Plot, as I said, is very well done, but more than that, dialogue is, I think largely well done too. There are parts where dialogue can be clunky at times, or lines are a little on the nose. I don't think it's the norm, however, and actual delivery of these lines can go a long way to make up for it. In some cases, (Chloe's over (and often incorrect use) of "Hella" for example,) while feeling rote, never felt like evidence of poor writing to me, but rather, of good writing of an awkward teenager. Teenagers often overuse words. They often say dumb things. They try to sound like they know more than they do, and sound silly when they do it. Personally, I found such things endearing, and broadly realistic. Perhaps I am giving credit where I shouldn't, however, there is a consistency to the contextual use of these elements  that makes me think they are deliberate.

 

Both Max and Chloe are very well defined - as they need to be to carry the game off. 
Chloe is brash and confident in company, but clearly as a personal barrier she has erected to protect herself. The more of the game we play, the more we see she is utterly haunted by loss - of her father to a car crash, of her mother to her step-dad, of Rachael Amber to God knows what, and of Max herself, having left her in Arcadia the first time. 
Max, on the other hand, is quiet and thoughtful, though painfully self-aware, introverted and un-self-assured. This is never more evident than in her comments about objects interacted with in the environments. Max has something to say about most of these - in a kind of cross between internal monologue and direct comment to the player - and they often reveal more about her than about the specific object being mentioned. It is actually a very clever gameplay device, as having these comments feel like they are, in part, directed to the player, means the players relationship to Max is defined in an interesting way. In playing Life is Strange, the player is not exactly "assuming to role" of Max, nor are they simply a bystander, watching event as an audience. In some sense, the players interactions with Max feels more like as a guiding parent or guardian. The player of a Life is Strange game tends to feel more protective of the characters, than that they are one of the character. We want to see the characters be okay, not necessarily see them do what we would do, or think is the most bombastic or gameplay changing. By casting the player in this 'guardian' role, it grants the best of both emotional gaming concepts - we feel a specific connection to Max, given that she is our window, and in some ways conversing with us directly, but the slightly removed aspects that come with a televisual, observer style, means it is not at the expense of investment with the ensemble cast at large. We car about Chloe, her mom, Warren, Kate Marsh, Victoria Chase, not only by how they affect Max, but in the abstract, all the while, maintaining a special relationship with Max, and therefore having a specific personal stake in her narrative through-line above all.

 

Visually, the game is playing in the B-tier, in terms of graphical prowess. Life is Strange is not a huge budget game, and so there is no attempt to ape the likes of Supermassive or Quantic Dream games, however, what the game lacks in technical prowess, it makes up for in stylisation and design. Arcadia Bay is designed perfectly, feeling like a real, partly run-down coastal town, and the characters are well rendered in it. Character models are well done and while stylised, never feel cartoonish, and allow subtle emotions to show through facial expression very well. Little artistic flourishes - such as photographs being rendered as odd, paint blotchy designs - work to give the game a distinct visual flavour, and the UI elements - highlighting objects of interest in white, sketchbook outlines work well.

 

Mechanically, because the plot is choice based, but revolves around the use of time-rewinding, the game opens up an avenue of dialogue manipulation that is rare in narrative games. While there is a certain element of impermanence that can happen in specific scenes - a scene in which the player must try to talk down a person with a gun, for example, might feel a little less tense, given that Max can rewind if she says the wrong thing, however, because the player connection with the characters is an emotional one, this is largely moot - you may be able to hurt a character, them rewind time and negate it, but it still doesn't feel good to do so.

There are some puzzle elements in play, but they are fairly minimal, and really, not on the level that they should be referred to as such - they are minor aspects, in service of furthering the excellent plot. While there is, unfortunately, a little more of these aspects in the final episode than there is up to that point, which can weight down the finale a little for a short section, they don't fully bust it, and the overall plot does manage to wrap around, and genuinely build to climax that is sweet, sad, touching and genuinely emotional.

 

While it could be argued that Life is Strange has some issues with repeatability - certainly, there is a case to be made that, since the game feels so rooted in personal choice, that repeating it would lessen the impact, I cannot hold to that argument, for a simple reason - I have played Life is Strange many times through. In much the same way as wanting to rewatch a well over movie, I have repeated the game, even making the same choices a lot of the time, and still enjoy it. While that is not necessarily as a result of 'baked-in' replayability (the game could certainly be platinumed in a single playthrough, and indeed, even offers chapter select to do 'collectible clean up' - there has to be some deference to the idea that a narrative game can become very replayable, simply by virtue of the narrative being good enough and the emotional investment strong enough that it leaves a desire for the player to return to it , simply to spend more time with the characters and in the environments.

 

Overall, Life is Strange, as a series, is to my mind the most successful implementation of the narrative, character-based adventure game to date, (a genre I like a lot.) It is remarkable how much of the ongoing tone, flavour and mechanical feel of the games was set, right from the get-go, with this game.
With a stunningly good soundtrack, a great art-style, well written, rounded and interesting characters who are very easy to both relate to, and to love, a variable plot that touches on a lot of different issues - some hot-button, some benign, but none particularly common or overused within the medium -, and a deft hand both in making the narrative feel personal, while constantly surprising and wrong-footing the player, Life is Strange is a remarkable game from start to finish. 

 

(Review written for Life is Strange original release)

(For original review and Scientific  Ranking see HERE)

[Rias Gremory]

 Platinum #741 Guacamelee! Super Turbo Championship Edition

Very Rare: 9.83%

 

 

Difficulty: 3/10.

Enjoyment: 10/10.

Challenge: 8/10.

Music: 6/10.

Story Mode: 6/10.

Genre: Platform, Fighting, Adventure, Action, Fantasy, Comedy, Hack and Slash, Beat em up, Open World and Indie.

Grind Difficulty: 6/10.

Platinum Time: 3 days and 4 hours.

 

 

I've enjoyed Guacamelee! Super Turbo Championship Edition. The learning basic and advance controls were easy enough to master it all of em. The grind did actually took a bit longer then I expected to be. Gathering 100% completion on ALL chests, upgrades and so on. The story maybe bad but certainly not the worst of it all. Doing side quests wasn't much a big hassle and it had 9 side quests and they were easy enough to complete all of em. There's not much for to me to explain in every detail but it is a great and fun indie game to clean everything else and platinum the game 100%.

 

Now I need to focus on Guacamelee 2 and platinum the game next!

 

Platinum Trophy!

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100% Completion Trophy!

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Money to Burn Trophy!

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Highly recommend this game!

 

Next Platinum: Guacamelee 2.