Most Recent Platinum

[grimydawg___]

145

Fun: 8/10

Difficulty: 5/10

While I didn't quite have as much fun on the last gen version of NBA 2K22, I still had a lot of fun playing the game.  I'm looking forward to NBA 2K23 next month.  For now, I'll work on Horizon, Monster Hunter games and Syphon Filter, like I mentioned a few weeks ago.

Edited August 4, 2022 by grimydawg___

[X_Wizi_X]

 #190 The Bureau: XCOM Declassified

 

 

 

Completionist
Obtain all the Trophies

 

[greenzsaber]

Sword and Fairy 7: Together Forever

 

Pretty chill RPG that released this week. No missables, and the hardest thing in the game is probably winning 15 card battles, which is doable with enough tries/luck. Definitely recommend if you like action RPGs and want to experience an eastern RPG with a Chinese flair. Also has a free PS5 upgrade and an autopop plat for PS5, although you have to update your PS5 version to the latest, as one trophy won't pop without it.

[Motik_UA]

 846 Ice Age: Scrat's Nutty Adventure PS4

 847 Spyro the Dragon PS4 

 848 Spyro 2: Ripto's Rage! PS4  

 849 Spyro 3: Year of the Dragon PS4

 850 Control PS5

[A-950502]

 #52 God of War: Ascension

Champion of the Gods

Unlock all Trophies

Rarity: 13.52%

Fun: 9/10

Difficulty: 6/10 (Trial of Archimedes)

[percy547389126yv]

#1,383 PS5 version of The Tennis T

[samuri241]

#154 Darksiders

Solid game, not too difficult, but frustratingly glitchy - had to reload old saves multiple times due to game-breaking glitches.

 

I started this originally when it was free on plus - it's now my longest time-to-platinum at just over 10 years, beating the previous longest of Assassin's Creed 2 by just over 6 months.

Edited August 4, 2022 by samuri241

[Undead Wolf]

 #415 - Payday 2

Completely OVERKILL

Complete everything. OVERKILL salutes you!

 

Now this is one platinum that I never thought I was going to get. I originally started this game back in 2014, like 5 months after I got a PS3 and made this account. The game was "free" as a part of PS+ at the time, so I started the game without really thinking. It didn't really click with me at the time, so I didn't play for very long, but it was enough to earn a few trophies. I think the biggest reason why I didn't enjoy the game back then was because I had been playing solo. I've thought about returning to this game on many different occasions over these past 8 years, but I just assumed the online community for this game was dead. I mean it makes sense that people would have moved onto the PS4 version and especially the PC version by now if they like this game, right? Well, I was surprised to discover that there's still a fairly sizable community keeping the PS3 version of this game alive in 2022. I never had any trouble finding random lobbies. Once I learned the basics and started playing online, that's when this game became really fun. I've had a blast playing this game for the past week to the point where I had a hard time tearing myself away. 

Another reason why i was put off coming back to this game so long was the trophy list. It looks like something that would require a lot of communication between your teammates, but that's not really the case. I got all of them either solo or with randoms with the one exception being 'Short Fuse'. That one is *almost* impossible solo (you need an insane amount of luck), and ideally, you want 3 other players who are all going for the trophy. It's not really something that's going to happen naturally in games with randoms. Thankfully, after I set up a boosting session here, I was messaged by someone who was going for the trophy with his 2 friends, so that was pretty lucky.

The other pain in the ass trophy is 'Guessing Game'. Anyone else who's played this game understands the pain I went through to get it I'm sure. But for everyone else, it's basically for completing a level without ever triggering the alarm after cutting the 2 correct wire boxes out of the 5 total around the map. You have to sneak around the level looking for these boxes since their positions change every time you restart, and even if you do that without getting spotted, you have a very low chance of actually picking the right wire boxes, so your run will be ruined anyway. Then there are the heartbreaking runs where you do eventually get lucky enough to pick the right 2 boxes, but the enemy spots something suspicious and raises the alarm anyway. Even just typing this out is giving me PTSD. ? I spent almost a whole day trying to get this one trophy, but thankfully, the other RNG trophies on the list are nowhere near as bad as this one.

Playing stealthily is all well and good, but going loud is definitely the more enjoyable experience, helped in no small part thanks to that excellent soundtrack (especially when the police assault waves arrive). Just listen to this. ?
 

This game is now my new personal best when it comes to slowest platinum. ?

Edited August 4, 2022 by Undead Wolf

[buenatortuga]

 #119 Call Of Duty: Modern Warfare Remastered

PSN: Buenatortuga
https://psnprofiles.com/buenatortuga
 

Rarity: 9.29%

[RedRodriguez87]

JP

 

 #397: 全てのトロフィーを獲得す

 

I decided one day, "Sure, I'll go ahead and do the JP version". And it's just as fun as it was the first time. I love this dark take on Alice, from story to characters to world and look. Again, want to point out how great it is that it's incredibly disturbing gorey imagery feels like it serves a point for the narrative. The gameplay is of a 3d-hack and slash adventure fit to a Wonderland theme is still great; I still keep hearing talks of a third, and I still wouldn't mind checking it out, though I still feel that the game ended on a somewhat conclusive note (conclusive enough considering the tone, anyways), that it would be fine if it didn't continue.

[insaneeeRob]

Power Couple

It Takes Two

Such a fun game but it was too long for me hahaha.

[percy547389126yv]

#1,384 PS4 version of The Jumping Nuggets

[Sunny]

Platinum # 222

 

-Bayonetta.

 

.Well it's hard for me to talk about Bayo since it's my second time get platinum in it, I love this game so much, from it's witty humor to its over the top...everything, the combat is so much fun I never get tired of perfect parrying and getting that sexy perfect witch time, trophy wise it's pretty simple your standard hack and slash collect this defeat that, nothing overly complicated, to me it was a very nice platinum to get, shame Bayonetta 2 and 3 won't have a PS release I would 100% platinum them.

Edited August 5, 2022 by Sunnyburrito

[Lordguwa]

platinum #623 Strikers Edge (ps4)

completed in 7 hours and 29 minutes

platinum rarity 11.49% rare

platinum name: Summit Striker

online shutdown date: september 30th 2022

 

had to get this one in time to save all the squirrels oops i mean online portions to be shut down. i get to go back to atelier sophie and the mysterious book for a few weeks before i begin the remainder of the AC 3 grind (need to do the wolfpack DLC trophy's).

[turbogeek421]

#309 Stray (PS5)

 

[Juzota]

#157 & 158 - Resident Evil 3 (PS4 & PS5)

- I played the PS4 version and autopopped the PS5 trophy list, maybe should've play the PS5 version but I guess it's alright. The game was pretty entertaining, but nowhere near as much fun as RE2 remake. My favorite part of the game was probably the hospital when playing as Carlos. I liked him much more than Jill who didn't really feel like Jill in this game. Hopefully the REmake4 is more like REmake2, pretty please.

 

Enjoyment: 7/10

Difficulty: 3/10

Nemesis: Not Mr. X/10

[percy547389126yv]

#1,385 PS4 version of Pickle Run

[percy547389126yv]

#1,386 After Wave: Downfall

[XIIDoomsdayIIX]

#132 - Saint's Row IV: Re- Elected.

 

 

 

[James Tiger]

#102 Crash Team Racing Nitro-Fueled

 

Not my rarest but definitely one of my proudest platinum.

I was expecting a kid karting game with easy platinum but ended up getting hardcore racing game instead. 

Nitros Oxide's time trial is brutal but still doable after mastering triple drift boosting and U turning. (Still took me a while to mastering U turning though)

Strongly recommend to those hardcore racing games fans.

 

[percy547389126yv]

#1,387 PS5 version of Pickle Run

[DrBloodmoney]

  527

 665

 

Marvel's Guardians of the Galaxy

 

A 2021 released narrative 3rd-Person shooter from Eidos Montréal - developers of the latter day Deus Ex games - and released in the wake of the abysmally received Marvel's Avengers game, (which Eidos Montréal also had some hand in assistant development of,) - Marvel's Guardians of the Galaxy was a game with a significant uphill battle to fight for credibility. 
Indeed, there could hardly be argued to ever be a worse time for a big, splashy Marvel action game to release. The rampant micro-transaction-riddled mediocrity of the Avengers game had salted the earth, Deathloop, Ratchet and Clank: Rift Apart, Psychonauts 2, It Takes Two and Returnal had already released the same year, each doing more interesting (or at least, more unusual) things in the big, single-player space, and to top it off, the Marvel Movie Machine had never been more subject to talk of over-saturation and fatigue among the fan-base. 

The situation was a recipe for mediocrity at best, and disaster at worst, and frankly, more than a few players (myself included) had all but written off Guardians of the Galaxy before it even hit shelves. What a pleasant surprise it turned out to be then, when (possibly as a direct result of the dire showing the Avengers game made,) Guardians came out - and was a true single-player game, free of micro-transactions, modest in its pre-order bonus commercialisation, absent season-passes or loot-box style elements... and was in fact, a pretty solid, well made game, telling a decent (if not revolutionary) story in a fun, established fiction.

That narrative is pretty good, all told. The Guardians - seemingly relatively early in their tenure as a team - are conducting several small stakes missions, trying to build their reputation as a mercenary group for hire (and spending more time fixing the problems they create for themselves than those of others,) when their own actions spark and interweave into a larger, galactic threat, as the Universal Church of Truth regains former glory, and threatens to envelop the entire galaxy in its cult.

The actual beats of the main narrative are relatively simplistic and somewhat throwaway, however. The real meat of the story is in the interplay between the members of the team themselves - Gomorra, Drax, Rocket Raccoon, Groot and Star Lord- and with the few tertiary characters who most notably affect them. 
It falls in the grand tradition of comedic adventure movies, where the "heroes" are often simply stumbling around the perilous universal dangers, either oblivious to, (or actually responsible for) them, but manage to come good in the end. That is a formula that can really work - just ask Marty McFly, or Indiana Jones. 
Here, I'd argue it is pretty successful, and the reason is the same as in those case - fundamentally, it is just fun to be around the characters. We like spending time with them, whatever they're doing. The game knows this is its strength, and works with that.

There's something I should probably state that has some bearing on my relationship with this game: I am a sucker for teams. (which is odd, considering how anti-social I am as a person!)
I love Sports movies, I love heist movies - I love fiction where a team comes together to do a thing. 
I find pep-talks and team dynamics genuinely affecting - even in situations where others find them cheesy or cringe-worthy. 
Guardians of the Galaxy is 100% a game whose narrative theme is the power of friendship, and the power of teams - and so there is a certain extent to which I give leeway to the story. I am primed to like it, simply because I am a sucker for its thematic principles. That the characters are all good, and that their dynamics are fun to be around, and fun to tag along with as they stumble through their narrative is kind of all I need... but I do think the plot works well enough, even for those who aren't of the same persuasion!

Most characters in Guardians walk something of a creative knife-edge. They almost all have the potential to be either one note, or insufferable in the wrong hands - but here each avoids that trap. The closest to grating is Rocket - he can be a little much sometimes - but even his overly caricatured New York cabbie,  “I’m walkin’ here!” attitude is still effective and funny in some key moments.

A lot of this success comes down to the voice acting, which is uniformly great in the game. Virtually every actor gives a good performance, imbuing their parts a lot of character, and - importantly - making the jokes hit well. Even the clunkers are saved at times by the voice cast. 
Particular props should be given to Jason Cavalier as Drax, who turns what could be a dull, one-note joke into a really likeable and funny character, (his delivery of the line "Ha! Congratulations Peter Quill! You will make a terrible father!" managed to get the biggest laugh I've had in a game this year)...
... and Emannuelle Lussier Martinez, who's fantastic performance as Mantis absolutely blows the tepid, dull version of that character featured in the lacklustre second Guardians film out of the water.

Let's just state for the record - Mantis as a character was really done dirty by that film. Here though, she is easily the highlight of the entire game. The game plays into her psychic abilities, (Mantis is able to see the future, but is unable to distinguish between which version of reality she is seeing, and so is constantly both the most, and least knowledgeable person in any situation!) That makes her both difficult to write, and to plot around effectively. It makes her even more difficult to portray. 
She is one character that could easily have been insufferable, but is given exactly the right balance of confusion, detachment, omniscient wonder and sensory-overloaded hyperlexia to become a really strange, compelling and charmingly odd character, whose presence elevates every scene she is in.

The game itself is, mechanically, pretty simple - even by the already streamlined mechanical standard of the big, splashy "Triple A" linear titles that are its peers. While all the visual and narrative hallmarks point to a similar design to something like God of War 2018, or Uncharted, the game really does focus primarily on two element of those games above all others - narrative, and spectacle. this is not necessarily a detrimental negative on its face - both God of War 2018 and Uncharted, I would argue, sell themselves on those two elements at their core - but the fact remains that both also have significant "B-Cores" backing up that spectacle. 
In the case of Uncharted, there are puzzle elements, which while never approaching the level of a true puzzle game, are engaging enough to have weight. 
In the case of God of War, the combat, while never overly technical, does have some nuance to it. 

Guardians, on the other hand, doesn't really. There are no real puzzle elements to the game, and so aside from the (genuinely good) story, and the fun, very likeable characters and camaraderie, all it really has is combat. 
Lots and LOTS of combat. 
If only it were interesting.

While the game is rife with combat encounters, these are remarkably - almost impressively - one-note. 
Star Lord has his gun, and over the course of the game will unlock various elemental modes for them, but really, use of these boils down so simply "match the symbol". Each enemy has a weakness, which is shown floating above their heads. Use that element, and they go down a little quicker.
Throughout combat, the other four members of the team will fight independently, doing modest damage to the swarms of enemies, with their "special" moves reserved for Star Lord (i.e. the player) to determine when to use. These, unlike regular attacks, are absurdly powerful, but operate on a timer cool-down. The general flow of battle, therefore, becomes simply a case of slowly chipping away at enemies, while waiting for cool-down timers to allow the next devastating special to be unleashed. 

There's an odd element to this set up - it feels like it was designed to make the game lean into the thematic elements of the game, i.e. the importance of teamwork, and of working together and having one another's backs... however, because the teammates fight on their own, and will simply "warp in" when called on for their specials, (or to use one of the conveniently abundant environmental combat objects they can use,) it actually has the opposite effect. 
There is no feeling of being a team, and in fact, each other member simply feels like a tool to be exploited. There is no real requirement to fight together, and every reason to simply avoid combat until the next cool-down meter is filled. As a result, the general combat (which makes up over half the game time,) works in direct opposition to the narrative, which makes up the remainder. 

There is one element of combat where the narrative themes shine through however - the morale speeches. After a certain amount of "momentum" is built up (through successful attacks), Star Lord is able to call his team to a "huddle". These are something of a flight of fancy (they seem to take place in a fugue state, with the enemies presumably waiting patiently outside!) where the team members will comment broadly on what is happening in the fight, and the player given a choice of two possible responses - one of which is a situationally appropriate morale boost, and one of which isn't. If chosen correctly, the team morale is boosted, all characters receive a health and damage boost... but more importantly, one of the games (many) licensed music tracks will replace the general combat score. 
It may be a small thing, but these are genuinely fun moments, and because the song is random, they can either be delightfully cheesy and satisfying (if, for example, Holding out for a Hero by Bonnie Tyler or White Wedding by Billy Idol is randomly selected,) or comically dissonant and funny (if, for example, Bobby McFarrin's Don't Worry, Be Happy, or Never Gonna Give You Up by Rick Astley cues in!)

 

Those moments aside though, the combat in the game looks good, and is never completely unsatisfying or terribly dull - the issue is there is simply far too much of it for as little variety as it has. 

Speaking of visuals - they more than live up to the Triple A nature of the game. The Guardians universe is a lively, fun, colourful one, and the game does a great job of working within that template with their art design. Character designs are highly detailed, emotive and fun, and the game does a good job of both designing new characters to work within the world, and with established characters, making them recognisably themselves, but with some distinct, signature flavour. 
The weakest among them is arguably Star Lord himself, who's look is a little close to a Sims 4 character, and a little "over-animated" given that he has to bear some mild emotional scenes, but aside from him, the designs are very good across the board. 

Locations are fun and varied, often gloriously bizarre, and attention to detail is impressive - there isn't huge scope within the linear game for exploration, but in the few areas where it is possible (the spaceport Knowhere, for example,) the art really gets to stretch its legs, and meets the challenge well.

From a technical point of view, of course, Guardians in on the higher end of console games - I'm not sure it quite matches the pinnacles of the likes of Ratchet and Clank: Rift Apart, but it comes very close. The bright and colourful universe really lends itself to HDR too - I do think Guardians has the most vivid and best use of HDR I have personally seen on console - the whole game pops off the screen and really compliments the vibrancy of the universe it is set in.

Audio is mixed - in terms of music, the original score is decent at best, and generally just serviceable, however, the licensed 80s soundtrack (a staple of the Guardians universe,) is well chosen, varied, fun and silly, and used well within the game. A lot of its music cues are played for comedy, and like the writing, some hit and some miss, but the misses are inoffensive, and the hits pretty good.
The big audio draw here though, is, as said earlier, the voice acting, and that is what is most likely to be remembered. 

Overall, Guardians is exactly the kind of game it should be, given the films that facilitated its existence - fun, silly, watchable and likeable, if never quite as mechanically varied as it could have been. 
Yes, the story is a little dull in its overall plot beats, and yes, it is over-reliant on a combat model that isn't even close to capable of handling the absurd screen time it is given, however, even at it's lowest points, Guardians of the Galaxy is still enjoyable popcorn fare... and its high points are far higher - and more numerous - than one might expect. 
The characters and the interplay are well crafted and well drawn, keeping the player engaged even when the mechanics drop the ball, and the voice cast do a sterling job delivering on that.
While that might not make for the most replayable (or sequel-friendly) game, it does make for a fun, frivolous good time.

 

 

(For original review and Scientific  Ranking see HERE)

[DrBloodmoney]

  528

 666

 

Stray

 

A 2022 narrative Adventure / Puzzle hybrid from small developer BlueTwelve and published by premier purveyor of quality Indie fare Annapurna, Stray is arguably one of the smallest games ever to reach the heights of bonafide gaming phenomenon status! 
After its reveal and initial showing over two years prior as one of a handful of games included in visual showcases of future PS5 games, "That cat game" managed to secure a place in "most anticipated" lists the world over. The reasons are obvious - we, as a culture, are, frankly, obsessed with cats. Just ask the internet. As a people, we agree on nothing. We differ on politics, we differ on movies, we differ on book and TV shows and celebrities, and virtually everything else. 
We can't even reach a consensus on whether pineapple belongs on a pizza... 
...but we all seem to love seeing a cute cat do a thing!

Rampant anticipation, of course, can be a petard, as well as a benefit. One need only recall the debacles of Cyberpunk 2077, or, (more applicably,) indie game No Man's Sky, to see how quickly rabid public anticipation of a game can sour when the game fails to live up to those expectations. For a game as small, crafted and intimate as Stray, the chance of it being overwhelmed and crushed by the weight of the expectation was not an inconsiderable danger.
(I do wonder, in fact, what the final consensus will be on the game, once the dust settles. While anyone who reads on will quickly learn that I very much liked the game - it is a game in my particular wheelhouse. The sheer number of people playing it currently does dwarf the numbers I traditionally see for games of this ilk though, and so whether it connects with all of them remains to be seen.)
Qualitatively though, Stray inarguably lives up to the level of hype it - for better or worse - acquired.

The player takes the role of a stray cat - living a seemingly rather idyllic life with his feline friends, in a dilapidated, overgrown and dried-out water canal system. The place is clearly run down from a human point of view, but free, bright, and perfect for the feline inhabitants, who live their days exploring under the clear blue sky.

When, on one of these explorations, the Stray jumps to a broken pipe, and falls down a drainage ditch, he finds himself in a dank, dark alley. Exploring, he soon finds himself lost in a strange, alien city, under a dark, starless sky. The City, populated only by robots playing out some feeble approximation of a human existence, know nothing of the outside, and consider the very notion of a blue sky to be the stuff of myth and legend... but when Stray stumbles upon a chirpy drone robot named B-12, the two set out to cross the dark city, and find the fabled outside once more.

The narrative is a very good one here. There is a remarkable amount of story and environmental lore in the game, considering the "critical path" playthrough can be fairly short. Told over ten chapters, the narrative is fairly tight, but there is ample scope in many areas to investigate beyond that critical path by talking with different NPC robots (via B-12's handy translator,) or by simple exploring the spaces and drinking in the details, and this is almost always rewarding and worthwhile.

The storytelling can feel at times a little bit over-reliant on a principal contrivance: that the cat would understand complex human concepts, if only the language barrier were removed... however, the world of Stray is not aiming for realism, but rather magical realism. 
This is not a realistic world, but rather one more akin to Studio Ghibli, or Wes Anderson's stop-motion films, and within that context, that contrivance feels right at home. It still retains enough emotional connection to the player that when the game chooses to weaponises it - particularly at the end - it is very effective.

The game functions generally in the realm of light social commentary - the robot inhabitants of the city life a facsimile of human existence, and while this is used (as in much sci-fi) as a way to shine a light on real-world issues (class and caste systems, the futility of struggle vs. the blessing and tyranny of hope, the pathos of aimlessness or purposelessness,) these concerns are generally treated fairly broadly, and with a light touch. There are poignant moments for sure, but more often these are purely emotional in nature. Unlike something like Nier Automata, which uses some of the same "machine-as-human-facsimile" notions, but does so with a more cerebral nature, dissecting specific human philosophies or cultural eccentricities to show divisions in human types, Stray is more interested in broad, universal elements of the human condition - hope, fear, inertia,  listlessness, anguish.

Stray is a game that really leans into the concept of environmental storytelling. Detail in the environments - particularly the attention to detail in some of the dilapidation and ruin of the broken city - is extremely good - not just for an indie game, but for any game. Frankly, it is on a level I have not really encountered since The Last of Us Part II.
Obviously Stray is a smaller game, and with a more heightened tone, however, that can almost be a distraction from the really impressive art on show. This is an instance where fantastic artwork is almost overshadowed by cool, interesting art design - not because one is stronger than the other, but simply because one is more obvious than the other. The design of the robots and the technological anomalies of the city are genuinely interesting - they would warrant mention even without the level of fine detailing in the environmental design - but because of that, it can almost pull attention away from what is a really incredible level of finesse in the background environmental details.

In Stray, the world is a human proportioned one, yet seeing it from the perspective of a cat really makes it feel like a whole different world. The player is forced to constantly think twice about what is accessible or isn't, or what is a barrier, or what is a passageway, as their human understanding of the landscape is not applicable to little Stray. 
In fact, the environment design of the game really shows how limited some other games are when showing "alien" landscapes or locations when the player is playing as a human. Often when a player is exploring a ship / building  /location that is narratively supposed to belong to an alien race of beings, the designers still tend to "default" back to one-to-one correlations to human proportioned or familiar elements. 
Doors are human-sized, walkways still have barriers, steps are designed for the human player to navigate, despite there being no narrative reason why this would be the case. 
It is a convention so common, that as gamers we have been conditioned not to notice it. Stray, however, specifically and deliberately shows the player a familiar "human" world...
...but then asks that they think about the space on new terms, to review what is actually possible, not for them, but for the feline protagonist they control. The world is designed to make narrative and stylistic sense for the primary occupants of it, not necessarily the player playing it. As such, the player is forced to really consider their path from a new, unusual angle, and a lot of the puzzle solving is essentially predicated on the players ability to adapt a surface level understanding of a space to one custom to the avatar they inhabit.

Mechanically, the game functions relatively simply. Actual puzzles and platforming are pretty basic - in fact, all gameplay elements are, though not detrimentally so. There are sections of the game that dip lightly into various different genres - platforming, stealth, puzzle, action, exploration, and even light RPG or Adventure game mechanics - however, the game tends to favour retaining its own unique style and overlaying these elements on top of that, rather than contorting its core design to accommodate them. 
Because Stray is a game that very much favours quality over quantity in terms of its pacing and mechanics (something I appreciate) and tends to feature single, well implemented uses of a mechanic, rather than over-egging the pudding with full "sections" of one style or another, (which I also appreciate!) the player is never really made consciously aware of the changing mechanical dynamics. 
While the puzzle-solving Adventure game mechanics involved in acquiring a cassette tape, to then distract a shop-keeper long enough to acquire a stolen jacket are a long way removed from an action chase sequence through the sewers with Zurks (enemy blobs) on Stray's tail, or an RPG-style "collection of items for an NPC" section, it still all feels cohesively "one thing". The game manages to contain elements of many genres, without feeling like it is bogged down in - or inelegantly stitching together - any of them.

The music is wonderfully odd - the soundtrack is a strange mix of electronic, atmospheric and oddly cartoonish and cheery - and it works both as a unique audio signature, and as a mood setter. The game flips between genuine emotional beats, where the music "plays it straight", and sections where the music seems to actively work as a contrast to the setting - but that dissonance never feels like an accident. 
In fact, the oddly cheery or plucky music in areas of extreme dilapidation and seeming hopelessness is actually something of a mood setting element in itself. Because Stray is a "fish out of water" in the City, and his spirit has not been crushed by the oppressive darkness and malaise that the robotic inhabitants have bene living in - and because this world is not one designed for him - the oddly dissonant musical tones feel somehow more appropriate than straight emotional ones would. When Stray himself is sad, the music follows suit, but when he is simply navigating a world that is sad around him, but he himself is indifferent or unbroken by it, the music is more upbeat. It follows the path set by the protagonists understanding of the world - not the players. 

Sound and foley work is excellent too - the robots speak in a kind of buzzing, half-broken early Macintosh style (befitting their design, which also seems inspired by the Apple Macintosh,) and the sounds of object clinking and clattering as Stray pushes past them or knocks them over (which happens a lot!) are satisfying and well implemented. The fact that there is a "meow" button mapped is a curious and fun little thing - its virtually impossible not to keep meowing at the world as you play, and there are quite a few different sound samples mixed in to make Stray himself feel more natural, and less robotic.

Overall, Stray is a great game - a short, sweet gameplay experience that works on a gameplay and mechanical level, and tells a genuinely affecting story within a unique, interesting and compelling world. 
It's not a game likely to take any player longer than 10-odd hours to platinum, and there is nothing particularly challenging in it, but it's a game that leaves its mark, and will likely remain alive in their memories for a long time afterwards.

 

(For original review and Scientific  Ranking see HERE)

[DrBloodmoney]

  529

 667

 

Backbone

 

Summary: 

 

A pixel-art Narrative Detective Adventure with a sci-fi, dystopian slant, Backbone, from Eggnut Games, takes the basic staples of old detective Adventure games like Gabriel Knight, but adds a modern slant, in the vein of latter-day Telltale - minimising the mechanical and puzzle elements, and instead focussing on atmospheric storytelling and branching dialogue.

The narrative is a curious one to say the least. It begins as pure, hardboiled detective noire - and is pretty on point... more so than most games which dabble in the genre manage. The game is unusually - almost oppressively - bleak: in setting, in tone, and in plot.  While the City Backbone takes place in is populated by anthropomorphised animals, this is a far cry from Chicory or even Night in the Woods. This a a grimy, seedy world, populated by down-and-outs, have-nots, and those simply scraping by. Drugs, prostitution and crime are rampant, and the city operates on an extreme caste system, with Apes as the elite ruling class who live in the opulence of obscene wealth and power, iron boot on the face of the proletariat. 
The noire overtones are closer here, in fact, to the abject hopeless noire of 1984 or Bladerunner than the somewhat sanitised versions of Raymond Chandler more traditionally seen in videogames. 

In fact, both 1984 and Bladerunner are interesting as parallels for another reason too - because they are ostensibly Sci-Fi noire. Backbone takes from that specific strain of the genre far more than one might initially expect. Without going into spoilers, the game actually takes a fairly sharp turn in its second half, where the more hard-boiled detective elements give way to a pure dystopian sci-fi angle... one that can feel jarring, (deliberately so,) though admittedly, never quite feels as absurd as it might, simply because the dour, sombre tone of the whole game is measured and retained effectively throughout the genre bait-n-switch. 

That bait-n-switch is a very unusual thing in games - and truth be told, Backbone does something with its narrative left-turn and mechanical gameplay shift that has been seen in other games more as a reflection of troubled design, or mishandled deadline management, where games feel like they abandon one genre in favour of another simply as a band-aid. However, I am confident that here, the turn is absolutely planned and executed as intended - and worked for me. While I was initially turned off by the game's abandonment of its initial mechanics - and apparent direction, in favour of a new one - the more I progressed, the more it came to feel like a fluid, deliberate design, used to effectively wrong-foot the player, in a mirror of the protagonists situation.

The game goes further than that even, doing something pretty wild in terms of narrative towards the end - (I guess this is a very mild spoiler, though I won't give any specifics) - in true noire style, the main protagonist - Howard Lotor - is revealed to not only not be the linchpin of the narrative, but in fact, to have simply been a small cog in a very large narrative machine. 
The portion of the broad story to which he was privy, is also the only part of it we as players are really privy to. We see only a little more than he does, and so the narrative feels very much like it "goes on" beyond the game. 
Personally, I loved this idea, it found it both fitting for the noire style, and bold as a narrative device... but the fact remains - it has the potential to leave no small portion of the audience unsatisfied - particularly after the narrative already took a hard left turn from detective noire to sci-fi noire at the mid point.

Mechanically, Backbone is very simple. There are a few very slight puzzles, and several "stealth" sections (that are, frankly, so insignificant and simple as to border on superfluous,)  however, that isn't the draw here. What is, is the dialogue and the narrative. The actual conversations and dialogue trees are varied, and genuinely interesting. There is no hard "Paragon / Renegade" dichotomy in play - Howard can be many shades of himself, but rarely is he in a position to be fully one or another, and the dialogue does feel more flowing as a result. This is noire - it's not exactly "natural" dialogue (I'd contest that none of the dialogue in the Maltese Falcon, or The Big Sleep, or Chinatown is "naturalistic" either,) however, it does feel freeform enough to give the player agency, yet genre appropriate enough to have the ring of truth.

While the broad narrative does not change significantly depending on conversational choices, the individual conversations certainly do. In terms of fitting into the grimy noire-fiction genre, it hits the nail squarely on the head, but without feeling like a pastiche of the genre. Howard Lotor doesn't feel like Sam Spade, or Jake Gittes, or Phillip Marlowe because he is doing an impression of them - in fact, his dialogue is fairly distinctly different from that filmic archetype - but he does feel like them within the game fiction, simply because the plot, pacing and themes of those noire anti-heroes and their worlds are well transposed. 
Howard is not good in a fight. He takes more punishment than he gives. He is street-smart, but not a genius. His personal life is messy, but not a mess. His apartment and office is a mess, but not a sty. 
He is realistically noire, without being a caricature of noire. 
In fact, were he not a bipedal racoon in a raincoat, I might be tempted to describe him as one of the most realistic noire protagonists I've seen in a videogame.

Backbone is, it must be said, an unusual game, in the sense that it feel mechanically thin, (it undoubtedly is,) but it's hard to really hold that against it, because the areas in which it really shines, are also the areas with the least mechanical involvement.
It feels good to put together the clues of the case in the early part of the game - but really, this is fairly guided. There isn't an LA Noire style potential for failure - or an Outer Wilds style potential to miss elements - the broad structure of the case will be known to the player by the time the game ends, even if they fluff every single dialogue, and look like a prize idiot in every conversation - however, how much they really understand of the world around the case - of the reasons - often come down to how they conducted themselves. Who they spoke to. How they spoke to them. What they learned, or what lines of enquiry they focussed on. 
As such, the short puzzles, or minor stealth elements are presumably made so simple purposefully. Backbone isn't a game where failing a stealth section or being stuck on a puzzle would be in any way fun, and so they exist simply as narrative device - to show the tools of Howard's trade to the player, rather than to actively challenge them.
Actually, some of the games best moments of atmosphere and storytelling - where it really comes together perfectly - are often in sections where the only mechanical involvement is in holding right and walking... and so the odd lack of depth in the occasional stealth / puzzle elements don't feel particularly detrimental.

In terms of audio - there is little in the way of sound effects, and no spoken dialogue... but the score is - and I don't say this lightly - the best element in the game. It is wonderful. A strange mix of traditional brooding jazz tones and noire themes, with occasional shifts to (very evocative) vocal tracks, or more modern, slightly electronic elements, and it works perfectly in every instance. 

Visually too, the game is top-notch. It is, of course, pixel-art, so there is no real technical prowess on show, but some of the ways little technical flourishes are used on top of the pixel-art are subtle, but really effective. Raindrops on the camera, or water in the environment, or lighting effects and interesting parallax scrolling techniques really make the environments pop. Character design is good for sure - creating a rabbit one feels genuinely sorry for, or a racoon that is visibly suffering drug withdrawal is tough, and is done well - but city and environments are where Backbone really shines. They are very evocative, and while little is really seen of the broader city, the few locations there are all feel distinct, yet part of a grand whole, and do a fantastic job of evoking the run down bleakness or obscene opulence of the different locations. 

There is one genuine downside to the game, however, that I really didn't appreciate, but must be mentioned here: The Trophies. 
The Trophies in Backbone... are a bit of a mess. 
The game itself functions perfectly well - I experienced no glitches or technical issues on that end, however, the trophies seem particularly prone to issues. This is problematic, in the sense that so many of them require specific playthroughs, and have multiple, not-always-clear requirements. 
When coupled with the tendency for trophies to fail to unlock due to issues with save files, that is a recipe for frustration - and I required a full 5 or 6 playthroughs to unlock the platinum. 
The game is short (around 2-3 hours,) and conversations in it are quite interesting and relatively variable based on dialogue choices, that is still stretched far beyond the game's ability to sustain.

Unfortunately, that makes this a rough one in terms of recommendations to others, particularly on this site - I think Backbone is a really interesting, genuinely good game... but for the trophy hungry, and the completionist among us, they should know that the road to the platinum will likely contain some real annoyance at times.

Overall, Backbone is a smart, interesting and very engaging mystery, which keeps the player involved throughout and keeps ahead of them with plot twists that feel genuinely interesting, narratively bold, and both original, and within the genre to which it belongs. 

It is a great example of pixel-art as evocative art-style, and features stellar music... and while the trophies do make it a little rough as a recommend, I'd still advise anyone with a taste for noire to check it out.

 

(For original review and Scientific  Ranking see HERE)

[Yoey_666]

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