Popular Post Zircon_Lotus Posted February 21, 2023 Popular Post Share Posted February 21, 2023 Platinum #130 God of War Ragnarok Spoiler Alert!!! God of War Ragnarok is the highly waited sequel to the 2018 game. Was it worth the wait? The story does start slow. I was left wondering where the progress of the first game was at, but after the first half the story really picks up and get really good. It is full of really heavy and powerful scenes. All the characters we love from the previous game are here, alongside new ones. It is hard, if impossible, to find a dislikable character, all of them are really well written. The exploration of themes like overcoming fate, changing your nature, forgiveness and trust was well done, as was the growth of the characters throughout the story. But I felt that the last part of the story was rushed. The gameplay is fantastic. You have three weapons and plenty of ways to customize the combat in the form of relics, amulets and runic attacks. There are many different enemies to fight, and plenty of bosses too. I played on normal and think the game is challenging in a very healthy dose, although generic enemies became too easy later in the game as I got more upgrades. The optional bosses offset this, specially the valkyrie queen and King Hrolf. The second one was my last trophy, and I was pumped the entire fight. Defeated him with a sliver of health after some really epic parries. Cant even imagine how tough he is on hard or more. The exploration part is also really good. You need to wait until later to fully explore all realms, but the maps are huge and there is plenty to collect. Going after collectibles while watching the interactions between the party, specially Kratos and Mimir was as enjoyable as in the first game. The original trilogy was incredible at its time, but there is no doubt that the norse duology surpassed it completely. The only aspect the original trilogy has over this is the epicness. Battling Thor and Odin, and the later demise should be way more epic than it was, and certainly would be if it happened in any of the first three games. But the new combat, the character development and interactions and the world makes up for it with extra. Now I would like to know if there will be another game. Given how it ended seemed like they retired Kratos, but being honest, I would not like a game with Atreus as the lead, without Kratos it is not fun. Maybe it is time to give the original games a deserved remake? One can imagine how they would play and look three generations later. 14 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post mega-tallica Posted February 21, 2023 Popular Post Share Posted February 21, 2023 Doom Eternal + 100% DLC Enjoyment: 4/5 - Probably would be a 5/5 if it weren't for the DLC and terrible multiplayer which was far better in the 2016 game. The solo campaign is a lot of fun though and better than the 2016 game. Boosting the multiplayer in this game was just painful. Difficulty: 3/5 - The base game is a step up in challenge from the 2016 game but the DLC is a whole other animal. Just gauntlet after gauntlet of the toughest enemies the game can throw at you and all at once. Total chaos but not in the fun way, more in the headache-inducing way as there's just no let up to catch your breath until it's over. I suppose the more hardcore Doom players enjoyed the added absurdity of The Ancient Gods DLC but not this guy. 8 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
percy547389126yv Posted February 21, 2023 Share Posted February 21, 2023 #2,107 & #2,108 PS4 & PS5 Japanese versions of Platty Bird 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post x7251 Posted February 22, 2023 Popular Post Share Posted February 22, 2023 #75 - Binary Domain I enjoyed this game. Invasion Mode is the hardest part of the game. You and your friends will need teamwork, and coordination to beat 50 rounds of enemies for all 3 Invasion maps. 10 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post Jermster_91 Posted February 22, 2023 Popular Post Share Posted February 22, 2023 #122 Sly 2: Band of Thieves (PS3) I must say, I think I enjoyed Sly 2 a little more than the first Sly Cooper game. It might be me, but it does seem a little more easier in terms of gameplay. You only have to get the glass bottles for 1 of the 8 stages, compared to every level with the previous game. I also like that you don't have to rely on lives anymore when you die. Your health bar is deducted when you take damage or happen to fall. My only problem with the game, was that it would freeze randomly on at least one level per stage. It could be that I played it through PS Premium, but that is my only complaint about this game. Overall, I enjoyed this game a little more than the first, although there is less platforming than the first one. Definitely worth trying if you have yet to play this series. 11 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post whodeygamer Posted February 22, 2023 Popular Post Share Posted February 22, 2023 #45: Super Stardust Portable I thought about doing the stack for this one, but honestly there’s much better things for me to be doing than getting a stack on a boring game like this, so I’ll leave this one at just the PS5 plat and be done with it. 7 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
percy547389126yv Posted February 22, 2023 Share Posted February 22, 2023 #2,109 PS5 Japanese version of Takotan Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post Finalcorehearts Posted February 22, 2023 Popular Post Share Posted February 22, 2023 Slayaway Camp Platinum! A decent horror/comedy throwback. But felt the Friday the 13th puzzle game that now is removed from PS Store because of license trouble did it better, but still need to get around to Platinum that one ? 5 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post Fr_0zt Posted February 22, 2023 Popular Post Share Posted February 22, 2023 #215 Hogwarts Legacy Trophy Triumph Fun = 9/10 Difficulty = 4/10 Time = 75 hours This game is just fantastic! 15 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post Kal-El457 Posted February 22, 2023 Popular Post Share Posted February 22, 2023 Hogwarts Legacy! Fun : 10/10 Difficulty : 3/10 Time : 50-65HRS. Game is absolutely amazing! Light hearted fun, lots of charm. The devs really cared about the lore and overall feel of the world. The launch is marred by a lot of trophy bugs regarding collectibles. I took a week break from the game waiting for a patch and I was able to finish it up. Gameplay is pretty basic early on but as you get further into the game it really becomes a lot more fluid and varied. The game was that enjoyable that I was asking for a $50 season pass, something I'd never ever do because I can't stand scam practices like that generally. It is also important to note that I am not even a big harry potter fan but the game was that compelling, it makes me want to rewatch all the movies and maybe even read the books entirely! 12 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
percy547389126yv Posted February 22, 2023 Share Posted February 22, 2023 #2,110 PS5 Japanese version of Pretty Girls Breakers! 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
percy547389126yv Posted February 22, 2023 Share Posted February 22, 2023 #2,111 PS4 version of Zen Pong 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post X_Wizi_X Posted February 22, 2023 Popular Post Share Posted February 22, 2023 #206 Bloodborne Bloodborne All trophies acquired. Hats off! 20 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
R123Rob Posted February 22, 2023 Share Posted February 22, 2023 Platinum #1406 - Mermaidio 3 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post aarnettbraun Posted February 23, 2023 Popular Post Share Posted February 23, 2023 (edited) The Quarry (PlayStation 4) What Doesn't Kill You… Achieved all Trophies! Difficulty: 2/10 Time: 24+ Hours Screenshot When Earned: The Quarry (PlayStation 5) What Doesn't Kill You… Achieved all Trophies! Difficulty: 2/10 Time: 24+ Hours Screenshot When Earned: Edited February 28, 2023 by notandrebraun 10 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post Bean_Cove Posted February 23, 2023 Popular Post Share Posted February 23, 2023 #117 - Life is Strange: Before the Storm 9 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post randotrophy Posted February 23, 2023 Popular Post Share Posted February 23, 2023 Trophies Completed Difficulty 2/10 Enjoyment 7/10 I had a blast with this, it was much better than I thought it would be, my only complaint is that I wish the open world didn't feel as empty as it did 10 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post Infected Elite Posted February 23, 2023 Popular Post Share Posted February 23, 2023 (edited) Platinum #181: Hogwarts Legacy 10/10. Only complaint is how far you have to play with each house. Beginning is both quick and slow. But yeah. Great game. Edited February 23, 2023 by Infected Elite 13 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post Marvy_G23 Posted February 23, 2023 Popular Post Share Posted February 23, 2023 #750 12 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post NorthPaul93 Posted February 23, 2023 Popular Post Share Posted February 23, 2023 #119 Alan Wake Platinum Trophy 22 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post DrBloodmoney Posted February 23, 2023 Popular Post Share Posted February 23, 2023 561 700 Golf Club Wasteland A 2018 released iOS and Android game from Demagog Studios and ported to consoles in 2021, Golf Club Wasteland sees the player take the role of an initially unknown astronaut, landing on a decimated and post-apocalyptic Earth, having travelled from the remaining Earth colony on Mars, in order to do the only thing anyone in this world does on it now - play a round of golf in the ashes of the failed society. Over the course of 35 holes (levels,) the player plays what is essentially a 2D, stylised round of crazy-golf, (mini-golf, to my American cousins!) as the astronaut slowly makes his way across the destroyed Terran landscape, avoiding pools of radiation, broken sink-holes, decaying streets and irradiated, mutated wildlife, and bouncing his golf ball through such obstacles as over cranes, up buildings, through desolate shopping malls and broken nightclubs, onto abandoned yachts, beneath crumbling landmarks, and up disused elevator shafts, trying as he might to keep under the course par! As a game, Golf Club Wasteland is a particularly strange beast, as it is a game that deliberately - indeed, almost obstinately - jams together elements that should, at least on paper, clash. That's a risky thing to try - but it can also be a very winning one when done right. Marrying elements that aren't immediately or obviously compatible can be a recipe for disaster, but it can also be a shortcut and a fast path to genuine originality. Just ask the likes of Yoku's Island Express, which took two well-trodden genres (pinball, and platforming metroidvania,) but combined them in such a way that the final product felt far more original than the sum of its parts. In some places, Golf Club Wasteland's combinations of clashing elements don't quite work... but in a lot of places they do. The gameplay is curious, as it is pretty light and simple in terms of input, yet oddly tricky when playing at the more difficult end of the "modes". While Golf Club Wasteland is a golf game, the actual inputs are akin to something like Desert Golf, rather than a golfing sim. There is no club selection or anything of that nature - all shots are simply a matter of power and angle, and the level of fine control the player has is pretty slim. The indicator of shot direction and power is notably vague, and while there is a distinct difference in, for example, the roll or bounce on different surfaces, this is not something that can be determined by any UI or advice - it is simply a case of trial and error, and intuition based on the surface type. Its an odd one, as the gameplay is probably the area where the combination of elements doesn't quite work. The gameplay and design works very well for the kind of loose, un-punishing model that is present in the basic "Story Mode". That mode allows the player to take as many shots as is required - without penalty for going over par - and still see the game through to the end, and this is both the best initial mode, and really, the most appropriate avenue for what is a fairly spongey, relatively imprecise shot model. It does still somewhat work for the medium "Challenge Mode", though a little less well. In this mode, the player must complete each hole on or under par, and if they go over that shot count, must restart. This is still a fairly simply challenge, all told - while the shot model can be tricky to get perfect, the par requirements for holes are fairly loose (with some levels having par-scores of up to 20 shots,) and while the average player will likely fail a few of the trickier holes a few times, the punishment is not terribly onerous. Simply replaying one of the short holes in not a frustration - in fact, in many holes, restarting can be easier than trying to rescue the ball from difficult spots. Where the gameplay really doesn't gel well though, is in the "Iron Man Mode." This mode (required for the S-Rank) asks the player to not only complete every hole under par (which is not a huge task,) but also, to NEVER LOSE THE BALL - and that is extremely tricky... and the punishment for doing so is pretty ludicrous: It restarts the entire game. Because the game is tough to control with finesse, and because the difference between a perfect shot, and rolling past the "green" an into a hazard is such tiny increments, this mode is an absolute recipe for frustration. Staying under par is easy - but avoiding every obstacle the game has, in every one of 35 holes, first time, is an absurd challenge. It's one that I, (and, I strongly suspect, virtually everyone with the platinum trophy,) save-scummed. Doing so isn't difficult - the window for quitting out of the game, to restart at that level is pretty wide, however, this results in a rather irritating and irksome series of loading screens, as the player re-loads the game multiple times, and is totally antithetical to the "casual", sombre pace of the game that is set by the tone and visuals. Its a case where the challenge of the game clashes severely with the level of control the player has to master it, and the result is simply that the game ends up working against itself. The levels are not expressly difficult - indeed, having played the game most likely twice through before attempting Iron Man, the general tactics are going to be well known, however, the nature of the "loosey-goosey" control scheme is such that taking a fist "suck-it-and-see" shot, and adjusting from that is the primary method of improving... so asking the player to complete a mode where every shot must be perfect right off the bat is simply a misstep. In terms of stylings, there is real marrying of what should be clashing concepts too... though here, they are much, much more successful. The game is comedic in nature - at least in terms of the darkly comic concept of playing a frivolous round of golf in the destroyed wasteland of our society - but oddly, the actual tone of the game is not light at all. Actually, it is quite mournful and maudlin - to the extent of even being truly bleak and dark. Despite the cartoony visual style, and the bouncy, fun-times gameplay, the whole game is scored with a fantastically well produced and extremely good fake radio station - "Radio Nostalgia from Mars" - and it is this audio that provides both the first real moment of cognitive gaming dissonance, and the ongoing tonal elements of the game. Radio Nostalgia from Mars is great. It is both a talk and music station, hosted by the smooth, soporific stylings of a laid back, host, (clearly styled after Ira Glass, of This American Life fame,) and features an eclectic mix of genuinely good original songs, musings about the ecological calamity that befell Earth, the new life the colonists have on Mars, and well produced monologues from "survivors", recounting their final days on Earth. Anyone familiar with the This American Life Podcast knows exactly the tone of these sections - the parody / homage is pitch perfect - and because the nature of how the remaining humans live now, and the fact that, of course, only the richest of the rich - those arguably most responsible for the calamity - were the ones able to escape it, and carry that guilt alongside their nostalgia , it makes for an incredibly evocative, oddly emotional, (and even viscerally angry, or pointed,) reaction to this by the player... even as they try to hit a trick shot to bounce a ball off a balcony, and land on a dinghy in an irradiated river, before a seagull grabs it! The whole game is also intercut with very shot - often only one line - interstitials. which initially seem confusing, but over time, become more specific, and feed into something that the game initially seems not to have - a straight narrative. Several times throughout the game, as the astronaut moves through the different levels, a strange, albino child can be seen following him in the foreground, and as the game progresses it becomes apparent that there is more life left on Earth than the colonists think - and that these little musings are not from the astronaut's point of view, but rather, this mysterious child. It serves as loose tying material early on, offering a marginal little mystery to accompany the primary gameplay, but as the game heads into the final acts, this gets more screen time, and culminates upon completion of the final hole, in a fairly lengthly, motion-comic-accompanied narrative culmination, explaining both the child, and the nature of the player character. This section is pretty interesting, and does serve to tie the game together, however, this is arguably one of the areas where the game finally over-tips it's tonal balance, and gets a little too depressing and sad for what is still, at its gameplay core, a comedic, light game. Overall Golf Club Wasteland is a pretty winning gameplay formula, with more narrative and a much more cohesive and interesting tone than one might expect from such a game, and some really excellent attention to detail - particularly in the audio. The gameplay is simple and works, but it does suffer a little due to the lack of additional levels, given that the same 35 are sued for every mode, and the ability for that gameplay to support a challenge mode like Iron Man is highly suspect, and as such, that end of the game tends to simply descend into frustration. It's a shame, as the gameplay is genuinely fun, and the concept and execution good for 95% of what's on offer - but that Iron Man mode inclusion simply asks the player to deposit a cheque that the control scheme of the game cannot cash. (For original review and Scientific Ranking see HERE) 8 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post DrBloodmoney Posted February 23, 2023 Popular Post Share Posted February 23, 2023 562 701 The Quarry After the success of Until Dawn put Supermassive on the map, as arguably the first developer to really enter the extreme-visual-fidelity, motion-capture-dependent, cinematic modern Adventure Game space that had previously been dominated, (and, to give credit where it is due, immeasurably advanced by,) David Cage's Quantic Dream, they set about securing their standing as one of the pillars of that particular strain of gaming on Playstation. Some of that post Until Dawn work was more successful (both qualitatively, and commercially,) than others - however, their missteps (Hidden Agenda, for example,) were considerably outweighed by the successes, as they settled into a groove of offering shorter, themed versions of their cinematic experiences in the form of the Dark Pictures Anthology - a sort of loose collection of shorter games, released at a regular clip, and tied together by a common "host", in Rod Serling Twilight Zone fashion. The Dark Pictures are, almost inarguably, the perfect format for the likes of Supermassive as an ongoing concern. The somewhat episodic, smaller-than-a-full-length, but still larger-than-a-telltale-episode caters to their audience well, and allows experimentation, while retaining the safety net of an over-arching thematic blanket under which each little horror play sits, and allows them to do the kind of forward planning and schedule management that is required when dealing with productions involving working actors, while maintaining a revenue stream more stable and reliable than most developers could hope for. It has allowed Supermassive to, over the last few years, really carve out their niche. What they never really had though, due to the ongoing smaller games, was a big, splashy "second feature". If the Dark Pictures Anthology is the "Masters of Horror" style prestige TV show they parleyed their debut feature's success into, then The Quarry is really their first "film" since Until Dawn. Film is an analogy that will likely permeate this review - and with good reason. Supermassive games generally - and The Quarry specifically - are of a very specific type. Many games nowadays are "filmic", but most use the trappings of cinema as additions to a primary core of interactive gameplay. In Until Dawn, and in The Quarry though, those cinematic elements far, far outstrip any gameplay elements. The games are there to be "watched" primarily, and actively "played" secondarily. That is not to say they are not games - of course, they are, and player agency and choice in the story is a form of gameplay - but it is to say this: if a spectrum exists, with "videogame" on one end, and "movie" on the other - the difference between where The Quarry (with its extreme-fidelity-motion-capture) resides on that spectrum, where something like Late Shift, The Bunker, and other FMV games reside, and where something like Netflix's Black Mirror: Bandersnatch or other "interactive movies" have landed by approaching form the other end, is a matter of inches, not miles. It means that engagement with those products comes more from the point of view of what a player likes to watch, than what they like to play. More than any other type of videogame, The Quarry - and games like it - are reliant on player's filmic tastes. A person could easily be imagined who dislikes, say, Zombie movies, but enjoys Resident Evil games, as the gameplay is doing a lot of heavy lifting. With The Quarry, (as with Until Dawn,) though, that scenario is less realistic - it's virtually impossible to imagine a player who doesn't like teen-horror cinema, but does enjoy The Quarry, as it is so specifically and deliberately genre-dependent, and so specifically aping cinematic experiences. The personal "genre" tastes of the player are not filtered through a secondary layer of "gaming" taste. Even if a player really likes choose-your-own-adventure games, their personal filmic taste remains the overriding barrier to entry. That has its advantages. It taps into a pre-existing personal taste factor that is far less well tapped than most "straight-gaming" genres, and is therefor playing in a field that is less well filled out, and features less direct competition. However, there is a potential downside to this extreme shifting of the burden of engagement from "gameplay design" to the writers and actors. It raises the bar for those actors and writers. They are shouldering the weight of the game, and have to rise to that task. Here, I would argue - they do. The Quarry is, as a creature feature, and a teen-horror romp, not revolutionary outside of the extreme amount of variability - there is nothing in the basic narrative that hasn't been seen elsewhere in the film and TV world - however, all elements required to bear that burden do a pretty great job. The writing is required to do a complex thing - it has to keep the narrative as malleable as all the interactivity requires, yet still flow coherently as a "film", no matter what combination of choices are selected. That's a tricky task - many games have tried, and most tend to either solve the issue internally, by making most choices only "skin-deep" and have the narrative very quickly loop back to the same rough thread regardless of the choice, or simply by limiting the number of choices. Those that don't, and do retain the huge variety of choice, often end up feeling a little "stitched together" in the narrative. In The Quarry, the variability of the narrative is arguably greater than almost any similar game I have played - including Until Dawn - and while that "stitching" is apparent in places, it is generally only by seeing the game played in multiple variations, and in multiple ways, that it becomes obviously so. I appreciate this kind of game anyways - I give a certain latitude to narratives, allowing for some "roughness" in scene transitions, aware as I am of the complexity of crafting such a narrative... but I can confidently say that while my initial playthroughs did throw a few obvious "I can see the seams" moments - there were markedly, notably fewer in The Quarry than in any other game I've experienced of its ilk. Having played the game through many times in pursuit of the platinum, the game is both impressive in how variable it is, how interdependent and interconnected many of the "inflection points" are... and how well the writing papers over those inflection points pretty naturally. In fact, even the parts where the choices are "skin-deep" and where the game does quickly loop back to the same eventual outcome, the way this is handled is usually quite clever, and with enough elegance to mask it, until the player really deconstructs the scene over many different playthroughs. With those successes in mind, it is therefore doubly impressive that the game manages to layer more on top of the technical achievement - it adds style. Dialogue is genre-appropriate, and often genuinely funny - both where jokes are literal, and where they are seemingly not, and appear to be funny "by accident"... as these are usually knowing nods to genre tropes. Until Dawn had a few good jokes peppered throughout it, but in truth, it had as many misses as hits. The Quarry hits by a much more impressive rate, and rarely does a full scene go by without at least one pretty naturalistic moment of levity. That really goes a long way to keeping what is a relatively long game feeling like it is moving at a pace. The narrative of The Quarry is, of course, genre-fiction. It is firmly in the same "teen-horror", "creature-feature" genre - and that comes with certain baggage. The genre itself is a niche one in terms of personal tastes, and because these games are so filmic in nature, they lean into that "personal taste" element far more than most. Teen horror has elements that grate on some, and are loved by others. Characters who are archetypes. A particular brand of comedic snark. Specific characters who seem overtly dumb in high-stress situations, and some who are deliberately grating. A fairly loose, casual relationship to the realities of technology and law-enforcement, and with the "outside world". To be clear, all of these genre-staple elements are, in fact, represented very well in The Quarry - and that is good. It does mean though, that if a person simply doesn't like those films it apes - if they are not a fan of Friday the 13th, or Halloween, or The Haunting, or Nightmare on Elm Street... they are not going to find much here to cushion them. Happily, for my part, I very much am. The only real issue the game has narratively, does filter from that variability though - the ending. Because there are so many different possible outcomes, for so many different characters, and because, unlike something like Until Dawn, The Quarry resists the temptation to circle every choice back to a single "finale point" the ending can be a little anti-climactic. Depending on the paths chosen, it is possible for it to be more or less satisfying, but truth be told, even at its most "complete", the ending still tends to feel more like a list of individual outcomes than a single grande finale. This is perhaps the one area in which The Quarry doesn't live up to the bar set by Until Dawn. Until Dawn was far less malleable, but did at least have single, dramatic ending that tied the whole game together. That forced the rest of the game into a more rigid format - The Quarry rejects that rigidity, which is the more interesting path generally, but does it at the expense of its grande finale. A potential trap The Quarry's filmic focus could have laid for itself, is the reliance on actor's performances. In many games, the cast matters, but here they really matter. As with a film, a bad performance could kill decent writing stone dead. Happily cast here is, across the board, pretty good. The teens all work, and have a pretty good dynamic, and sense of individuality. Some have more to do than others, and some shine more than others, but at worst they do well with what little they have (Ariel Winter and Evan Evangora,) and at best, they really work (Halston Sage's Emma, Brenda Song's Kaitlyn, and Miles Robbins' Dylan.) Two teen characters in particular have to carry some much more heavy exposition than the rest - Skyler Gisondo and Siobhan Williams as Max and Laura, and they do particularly good work - and the cast of adults is filled out very well, with Ted Raimi playing the creepiest cop in the world, Lance Henriksen and Ethan Suplee supplying some "Redneck fucked-up family" factor, and David Arquette bringing his odd brand of squinting (and, of course, considerable Teen-Horror credentials,) to the mix. The biggest casting accolades have to go, however, to the two adult women on the cast. The Quarry requires not one, but two "creepy older-lady performances,"... and whoever in the casting office decided to approach both Lin Shaye and Grace Zabriskie, sure earned their paycheque. I don't know who the list of the best candidates in film to pull off an "Older scary lady" performance are... but any top 5 would have to include both. Lin Shaye has a relatively small part, but gives it her all as the matriarch of a cursed family, but Zabriskie has some serious screen time. She serves as the "host" of the game - returned to for creepy tarot readings after each chapter - and is the only character speaking directly to the player, filling the role that Peter Stormare did in Until Dawn - and she is simply perfect as such. There's not many actors I could imagine out-doing Stormare for creep value, but Zabriskie has spent a career proving she is one of them! The motion captured visuals of the game are of particular note here, of course. They are pretty amazing. Facial capture reached the point where actors were recognisable as themselves within games quite a long time ago, and have only been improving, but in the last few years, games have stepped past that initial barrier of "impressive", and entered a new level. Now, motion capture is at the level where not only are actors recognisable, but their performances - and therefore, the engagement factor that the game itself relies on - is primarily governed not by the animations within the game made by effects artists and computer modellers, but by the actors themselves. So accurate is the recreation of their performances, and the fidelity of the facial capture of minute expressions etc. that the acting performances are as critical to the games, as they would be to a film. There are still moments of uncanny valley, or where the gamified elements of the art design does detract from or affect that performance - the occasional glassy-eyed, too-distant stare, or the odd moment where hair or teeth don't look exactly perfect, (or in this particular case, when water is involved,) - but The Quarry is the first instance I have seen harness this technology effectively enough that these moments are the exception, rather than the rule. They stand out, specifically because they are pretty rare. Far more so than in previous "photo-real" motion capture games, the effect is that scenes without player-governed movement or exploration simply DO feel like watch film - and that brings both good elements, and bad. Some characters do seem slightly better captured / rendered than others, but this is evident only by the extreme high quality of some, in relation to others. The high points are so exceptional in their verisimilitude, that they can contrast with other elements that are "merely" substantially better than any game of this style to come before. One chapter in particular - Chapter 7, in which several character are engaged in what is essentially a 3-part play in a jail-cell. There is little player interaction aside from dialogue choices for a good 40-minute chunk of the game at this point - which would, would likely, in previous cases of this style of game, have been a nadir. Here, it becomes a genuine highlight. The whole chapter is so exceptionally well rendered, and the characters so highly detailed and naturalistic - and in combination with well written dialogue, often eliciting genuine (deliberate,) chuckles - that I would argue it represents arguably the most applicable and appropriate section of any game to demonstrate the potential for these games to the normally gaming-averse. I played the game the first time with my wife, taking turns controlling different characters, (via the robust co-op implementation,) and in this section, it almost felt jarring to need to take control of the characters when called to control their movement. The game had drawn us in on the level a film does - we had become comfortable simply watching it... beginning to forget it was, in fact, a game! The game does some nice visual stuff around the edges too. There are collectibles in the form of evidence collected and things found by characters flesh out the world well, without over-tipping the story, and a smart little "additional info" style add on to the text descriptions allows multiple items pointing to similar evidence to reveal more about each-other as they are collected. There are also a more "4th wall breaking" collectible in the form of tarot cards - these are found by the player, rather than the characters themselves, and at the end of each chapter, are presented to the "host" - Zabriskie - who can reveal snippets of possible outcomes of future choices based on them. These are not always terribly useful - without the context, they really are simply snippets - but the effect works in terms of divorcing the player slightly from the characters, and feeding the tone of the game. Elements like the "choice trees", (the visual representations of key story threads, which can be reviewed within the game,) are relatively standard in these kind of games now, but are given nice additional artistic flourishes in the form of each being "themed" and featuring it's own fake movie VHS, complete with cover, leaning into the "creature feature" horror vibe, and confirming the tone the game itself is aiming for. In fact, every part of the menus and UI elements of the game are nicely produced, and given a level of care and attention that is laudable - and deepens that tone-setting. Audio is very good here too. The vocal performances are good, of course - it could hardly be otherwise, given that the actual performances are - and the use of music and score is well done, and genre appropriate. There are some licensed songs, and while occasionally a little on-the-nose, these are generally pretty fun. Foley is an odd one to judge - given that most of it is diagetic to filmic scenes, and not as interactive as in most games, however, it is good - and where it is interactive - for example, footfalls when exploring, or stings working as jump scares, they serve the game well. I will note, the Platinum journey does require a lot of playthroughs - and this does make it The Quarry a rough game for "powering through"... though the fluid way in which the story dynamics play - changing based on multiple choices at multiple points, with few obvious "this-or-that" choices immediately evident - does mean that, despite some open possibility of repetition-exhaustion, there is genuine fun and value in seeing the ways the narrative can be manipulated. Towards the end of an S-Rank journey, the game becomes less like ticking off an "event list," (as can happen in some similar games - David Cage's offering, for example -) but rather, a puzzle. The player is trying to deconstruct a much more elaborate and interweaving narrative, to confirm which elements were the real catalyst for future ones, and which change based on what set-ups. Overall, The Quarry is a game that is arguably review-proof in one sense: it is entirely reliant on personal affection for the genre it plays in, but that should really be seen as a compliment. Most games of this nature require the writing and performance to be high quality, and the gamified elements to simply not interfere with that, or drag it down. In this case, those elements are good, and elevate the overall product. For those who dislike that genre, no amount of high-quality, well done genre aping, nor any amount of impressive visuals, technical writing or dialogue adeptness will likely turn the tide... ...but for those who do have affection for the genre, those elements are all impressive here - more so than virtually all previous examples of the technology - and it makes for a great time. is far from the best horror film, and it is not something actively reaching for the crown of gaming... ...but within that small, specialised pool of media that split the difference between the two, I don't think there has been a better example, for my money. (For original review and Scientific Ranking see HERE) 13 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post DrBloodmoney Posted February 23, 2023 Popular Post Share Posted February 23, 2023 563 702 Call of Duty: Modern Warfare (2019) The 16th(!) Mainline entry in the Call of Duty franchise, and a reboot of arguably its most iconic (and certainly most ground-breaking) sub-series, Modern Warfare, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare(2019) reprises and re-contextualises one of the most famous and iconic characters from the series - Captain Price - as he, British SAS Sergeant Gaz, and CIA operative Alex, are embroiled in the shady machinations of a rising conflict between Russia and the (fictional) Urzikstan. Western support of Urzikstan is strictly off-book and unofficial, but when the theft of an extremely dangerous, (and war-crime inducing,) cache of chemical weapons from a Russian storage facility pours gas (pun unintentional, but acknowledged!) on the fire of the Russian-Urzik conflict, raising tensions between Russia and the west, as well as between the Urzik nationalist groups. Various black-ops avenues of off-book Urzik support are sent into high alert, resulting in a slick, cross-country game of whodunnit cat-and-mouse. The narrative is a slick, tight action-espionage-thriller. Despite the warfare angles that the Call of Duty name carries, realistically, the narrative of the Modern Warfare games specifically has far more in common with espionage thrillers like the Bourne films, than with the true "war films" that the more traditional WWII COD games took licence from. The story that the game tells is more of an action thriller set during war, than a game specifically about those conflicts, and while certainly not revelatory or particularly original in that genre, this one does at least stand up alongside the kind of Tom Clancy / Robert Ludlum type fare it apes. That style of storytelling has positives and negatives in a game context. On the plus side, the game retains the kind of "simplicity within complexity" that the genre revels in. While the overall narrative is often relatively complicated, with lip service paid to broad, geo-political background aspects, continually shifting alliances and allegiances, and technical elements, these tend to be played for flavour more than anything else. The actual moment-to-moment elements of the story are always pretty clear cut, well explained and simple. The player might not always have a complete understanding of the broader narrative machinations at all times, but they can generally rely on the game giving them clear objectives and clear specific motivations within each scene (or level,) and so the narrative arc can work regardless of whether they lose the broader threads. The player can always be confident that the game will keep them right, and allow them to parse the macro narrative as they progress. On the downside however, because the nature of games means the narrative is crafted by committee, and lacks the singular point of view and clarity of vision of a single author, the actual politics of the story can tend to be muddled, and feel less focussed - and in a genre that uses realistic (and often fairly "hot-button") subject matter - that can be an issue. When reading, say, a Jack Ryan novel, Clancy's political views and political outlook are generally pretty clear and focussed. The reader might not agree with them, but they are at least coherent and clear within that fiction. With a game as popular as Call of Duty is, however, there often feels like there are conflicting ideologies at play within the game narrative. In Modern Warfare, the technical aspects of warfare are very good, and the game's technical credentials solid, but the specific point of view of the game on these concepts does tend to feel muddled. At some points, the game clearly tries to espouse a "the world needs protecting, whatever the cost" mentality - siding with the black-ops, war-crime adjacent, rules-are-made-to-be-broken viewpoint of many of the principle characters. However, at other points, there is a clear attempt to undercut that and cater to a more left-leaning sensibility, by leaning more into a "the good guys are as bad as the bad guys" viewpoint, where the actions of the player are deliberately made no different than those of the antagonists... and where the characters themselves are conflicted as a result. These two elements can be made to work together well in some fiction, but in Modern Warfare, it never really gets there, as the individual scenes seem to swing too quickly from one to the other. Individual character arcs are interesting enough for some of the primary characters - in particular, Price himself, and Farrah Karim, an Urzik rebel leader played by Claudia Domit - but the game itself tends to feel a little wishy-washy in what it actually wants to say about the subject matter it tackles. Gameplay is where Call of Duty always shines brightest, and in Modern Warfare, that remains the case. In terms of Single Player Campaign, the game is pretty much a resounding success. The gameplay is simple - certainly there is little in the way of player choice of variety of play-style within individual levels - but the location-hopping, varied level design does keep the simplistic cover-shooting gameplay feeling fresh across the 5-6 hour campaign. There is a good mix between contained, tactical fire-fights, stealth levels and all-out conflict sections, and all work pretty well. The Stealth sections and more contained action set-pieces are arguably the strongest parts - the Clean House level is a highlight, as is an excellent series of escalating fire-fights involving the extraction of an enemy combatant to and from an Embassy. A great stealth-focussed level late in the game involving a more free-form hunt around a residential compound at night has a great balance between stealth and combat, feeling tense, but with a loose enough stealth model not to feel oppressive. The more "open-warfare" sections do certainly feel frenetic and exciting, but tend to have the same issues most war-games do in these sections: the openness and higher body-count tend to make the game feel more "gamey" and the aspects that make it a game show more, (infinite spawning enemies, or checkpoint determination of enemy counts etc,) resulting in a loss of the realism as compared to the other styles of level. Multiplayer still exists in the game - of course (what Call of Duty would ever lose it?) - however, I am not a big player of online competitive MP these days, and did not sample it. The feel of gunplay, the audio and visuals and the smooth, 60fps movement are all present, and so I have no doubt that those translate well to the MP environment, and the featuring of Call of Duty's Warzone (Activision's answer to the Fortnite / PUBG / Apex Legends style 1 vs. 100) makes for a very robust offering for the Multiplayer gamer. What I did play, however, was the new version of co-operative MP: The new Spec Ops... ...and this is a bit of a whiff, unfortunately. Spec Ops mode in the original Modern Warfare games was, as I recall, a two-player focussed mode, involving short, tight objective-based missions played with a partner, and resulting in a star-rating. They felt wholly different to the competitive MP, and felt, in fact, much closer in alignment to the Single Player Campaigns. Spec Ops in Modern Warfare (2019), however, is different. These are longer, multi-objective based missions, requiring 4 players, and being much more open and long-form, feel much closer in nature to the competitive MP. Unlocks, levelling and persistent XP add to this, and the result is a mode that feels like a robust addition to the MP arsenal, but not necessarily a change I enjoyed, or think works as well. Because the Spec Ops missions require 4 players, (and cannot even be started without a full squad,) and because the players can level based on actions taken within these missions (kills etc.) there is a tendency for players to need to play with random people online... ...and because many of those people will be more interested in their personal levelling than in completing the objectives of the specific Op, there can be a rather disheartening situation, where a player is trying to complete the objectives, (which are difficult, and often require co-ordination by players,) with people who are not even attempting to do the same. Visually, the game is really quite something. There is an inherent issue with military shooters, or gritty, realistic games like Modern Warfare - because they are aiming for straight "realism" in their visual design, they can sometimes end up feeling a little more pedestrian than they actually are, because there isn't any grand, "wow-ing" artistic design or conceptual visual palate to draw the eye, and add that flair and "videogame spectacle". There can be something of a "these things look like the things they look like" element, where no matter how well rendered a building, or a gun, or a vehicle is, it is inherently less "impressive" because it is aiming to look simply like that thing looks in real life. What is most impressive with Modern Warfare though, is that it looks so good, that it manages to circumvent that softening of spectacle. It's one thing for a game like Rollerdrome to wow with its amazing visual signature style, or for a game like God of War to have moments of visual climax by showing the player things they have never seen before. It's quite another to manage to have "wow" moments, when the thing being rendered is a realistic thing, rendered in a realistic style... but is shocking simply because it looks so realistic. The whole game looks really fantastic, with a breadth of environments and attention to detail befitting the enormous budget of these games. Call of Duty has always maintained impressive technical credentials as it shifts with the times, however, there are certain moments in this iteration where I found myself genuinely awestruck, simply by how very real it looked. One mission in particular - Clean House - sees the team infiltrate a townhouse in England, making use of night-vision during arts of the close-quarters storming, and these sections are so richly detailed, so well rendered, and make such careful use of lighting and effects, that the gameplay begins to take on the guise of film... or more realistically, newsreel footage. Cut scenes look good - the motion capture of actors and the performances are not on the level of something like The Quarry, but actors are recognisable, and the strengths of the performances do shine through. Audio is good too - while I don't think the score is doing much to elevate the game, it isn't detracting from it... ...but where audio really does add to the game is in foley work. Gunfire, explosions, the chaos of conflict and war sound visceral and realistic - and really add a lot to the overall feeling of immersion. Vocal work is good too - the performances are, in fact, pretty good across the board - and while the script itself is certainly nothing to write home about, pitching itself (deliberately,) in the Jerry Bruckheimer, slightly cheese-ball action genre in which these games live, the actors go a long way to selling the gravitas and seriousness of the narrative within its own internal fiction. One thing that I don't often mention, but feel like I almost have to here, given just how much of a detriment it is - is the UI and menus in the game.In most videogames, complaints about the quality or the menus would feel like a pointless nit-pick - and in 99% of cases, it would be - however, I cannot even begin to describe just how obtuse, labyrinthine, byzantine and convoluted the process to actually get to play Call of Duty: Modern Warfare (2019) was. Never have I come so close to deleting a game before I even managed to get started. The game is sectioned into discrete parts, each of which offers a separate download. Presumably this was done to allow people (like myself,) who have no interest in one section of the game to bypass downloading it entirely (in my case, the competitive MP,) however, it simply doesn't work. Not only was I unable to play the Campaign until after downloading all elements of the game, but each element also seemed to have multiple additional downloads required from within the game menu, before it could run correctly. The result is a game that - for me, at least - is a 4-5 hour campaign and a few Spec ops missions for a PS4 game, that took up the hard-disc footprint of several full PS5 games! This obtuseness did not end at the downloading stage though - the game requires multiple hoops to be jumped through to get into the action - different installations, creation of Activision online accounts, (complete with 2-factor password creation,) and multiple levels of menu hopping simply to find the correct options. UI design is something that is often overlooked - indeed, it is something that when done right, is invisible, and is only made obvious when done poorly... ...but in this case, it is extremely obvious, due to being extremely poor. That lack of good user-interface carries all throughout the game too - navigating Spec Ops and the limited MP I was exposed to is overly complicated, burdensome, filled with superfluous or contradictory information, and absolutely saturated with pushy advertisements for micro-transactional add-ons. It is understandable to a point, of course - COD is Activision's cash-cow, extremely popular, and designed with micro-transactions in mind - however, the level to which this stuff encroaches on the game - to the extent that it makes simply getting to the content that has been paid for difficult, is unforgivable, particularly in a franchise as high-profile and popular as this one. It's a shame, because the game contained within these menus is very fun - thrilling, action packed, great looking and genuinely worthy of its deservedly large audience... ...but it comes in a wrapper so woefully misguided and ill-designed, that it immediately sets the player on the wrong foot. Overall though, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare(2019) is a slick, fun, action-packed thrill-ride of a campaign, which aims for espionage war-time thriller, and largely succeeds. It's narrative is not particularly original or ground-breaking, but it works, and allows for a good variety of shooter scenarios across a tight campaign. It looks great, sounds excellent, keeps the adrenaline and the variety up pretty laudably throughout, and manages to reboot some beloved characters in a more modern context well, fleshing out the new versions, without trampling on the iterations of them that came before. The multiplayer remains the tent-pole of the franchise, (I assume,) and from what I understand, it's a good one within that bracket, however, the slightly Frankenstein amalgam of MP and SP that is Spec Ops leaves a lot to be desired... and the less said about the obtuse and convoluted menus and installation process the better! (For original review and Scientific Ranking see HERE) 11 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post DrBloodmoney Posted February 23, 2023 Popular Post Share Posted February 23, 2023 564 703 Hardspace: Shipbreaker A sci-fi work-simulation and Puzzle Game hybrid from Blackbird Interactive, Hardspace: Shipbreaker sees the player take the role of a blue-collar spaceship scrap reclamation worker for the rather pedestrianly pseudo-evil Lynx Corporation. Set in the space equivalent of a scrap-reclamation dry-dock, The player finds themselves in enormous debt to the corporation (in the region of a trillion dollars,) and working in the equivalent of indentured servitude. With infinite time and infinite life at their disposal, courtesy of Lynx Corporations patented "Ever-Work Programme" wherein the worker's genetic data is stored, and can be re-inserted into "spares" upon death, (at, of course, the player's extreme expense,) there is little they can possibly do other than exactly what they are "employed" to do... ...cut, burn and slice apart the derelict spacecrafts in their dock, salvaging the useful parts, and sending the scrap to the furnace! Hardspace: Shipbreaker is an unusual game in terms of genre. In some sense it certainly falls into the slightly unusual "mundanity simulator" type games - the purview of such games as Power-Wash Simulator, House Flipper, Lawn-Mowing Simulator etc - in the sense that the task being undertaken by the player is, in essence, a continual repetition of a similar, workman-like task, and the difference between "good" and "bad" play is derived from the more successful completion of the task, and improving at the "job" comes more from the player learning how to do it more meticulously each time. There are, however, three distinct elements that set it apart from the majority of those games. Firstly, the setting and the task itself. While "Shipbreaking" is, in the fiction of the game, a mundane, workaday task, it is not simulating something any player will ever do in real life. The actual process of breaking a ship apart - the meat and potatoes of the game - manages to combine two elements, both of which are quite difficult elements to get right in a game. It is both immensely satisfying in a calming, Zen-like way due to the repetitive nature of the work... ...and also open to moments of extreme high-tension, due to the dangerous nature of the work. Each ship consists, realistically, of 3 types of materials - salvageable items (computer terminals/ chairs / desks / light fixtures / air-recycling units etc,) which are fired down to a collection barge below the dock, Valuable Materials, (precious metals etc which are fed to a recycling port,) and Scrap Metal (hull chassis etc,) which must be fed to an incinerator. The player has, at their disposal, a burning tool with different settings, ( which can be used to either meticulously burn off connecting brackets, allowing whole pieces of ships to be dislodged from one another, or can be used as a laser-cutter, slicing, in an immensely satisfying, tactile way, into the ships, slicing them apart,) and a gripping tool that can tether sections, and be used to shift or blast them into the various receptacles. As they progress, these tools, and their various suit functions such as oxygen tanks etc, can be upgraded, as well as augmented by the addition of tethers (used to move larger sections of ships, by connecting two points,) and explosive charges (used to blow apart tougher connecting joints. That is really all the player needs to know about the main process of playing the game... ...however, the fact that all of this work is done in zero-gravity, and the fact that each ship is so well designed and the rate at which additional complications are added with bigger and more advanced ships is extremely well implemented. The fact that the player feels they are getting better at the job, at the same rate they are upgrading the tools they use to do it, and are being offered more and more challenging tasks to meet that skillset and further test it is worked out to an incredibly satisfying degree. That brings us to the second way in which Hardspace: Shipbreaker stands separate to the general pack: the puzzling elements the ships afford. Because of the hard-sci-fi element of the game, there is a really smart balance struck between the "reality-based" elements of Shipbreaking, and the Sci-Fi elements. The Space craft being salvaged are, of course, not based on real vehicles, however, the physics and the make-up of them is grounded and realistic enough that while foreign, they follow quite clear and intuitive design rules. The player will not, the first time they encounter one, have any real notion of how to safely dismantle the tertiary systems that feed a reactor core on a ship, (and will likely need a spare, as they blow themselves up in the process!) however, once they have encountered a few, they will come to understand the science upon which the sci-fi elements of these ships is predicated - and be equipped to deal with new ones on new ships, because they follow the same rules. While each ship might be different, if there is a reactor, it will have similar systems powering it. It will have a similar casing structure. It will have a similar coolant system. In the same way that an auto-mechanic will likely be able to parse the makeup of a vehicle that they have not seen before, simply by understanding the guiding principles of a car generally, a player will eventually become familiar with the basic make-up of a ships internal systems. It becomes simply a case of figuring out how each ship differs, and how they use these systems. The rate at which new eccentricities and nuances are given to the player is very good too. While early ships will be small, light crafts with only rocket fuel, and single hulls, without additional hazards such as coolant systems or pressure locks, slowly but surely additional complications are added - and explained. No sooner does the player feel like they have mastered a ship type, than one will come along with - for example - multiple internal hulls, all of which have their own air-locks. These can, of course, simply be cut into... ...but it behoves the player to try and move through the ship systematically releasing pressure in a specific sequence - to avoid either blasting the whole ship off at an angle as the pressure releases in an uncontrolled manner... or having the last thing they see be an airlock door firing towards their head, and the shattering of their helmet! Its things like this - the additions of "uncuttable" materials, the addition of airlocks, of reactors, of coolant and environment systems, of more complex or complicated engine fuel systems, of flammable or reactive components... or even, in late game, of artificial intelligence nodes remaining on the ship (who do not want you to destroy them, and will use their rudimentary intelligence to try and stop you... say... by closing an airlock door on you and trying to trap you in with the reactor you just dislodged and is precariously ticking down to a meltdown!) - as well as the fascinatingly complex, yet grounded and varied nature of each individual ships build - that keep the game feeling genuinely fresh with every new 15 minute shift. While early ships might be completely dismantled in one or two shifts, the later game ones can take six or seven - several hours or real-time - but the actual task never gets boring, because there is enough variety in that gameplay, and enough upgradable elements to the living quarters and the tool set, that there is always an immediate goal just in reach with one more shift. That, of course, and the third way Hardspace: Shipbreaker sets itself apart: the narrative. Yes, narrative. While Hardspace: Shipbreaker's basic premise as a "work simulator" is excellent, and the balance struck for the actual work so satisfying and fun that it could very easily stand on its own without any real narrative... ...that doesn't stop it from having a brilliant one. Hardspace: Shipbreaker has no on-screen characters. At no point during the gameplay is another character model ever seen, however, the player is not alone. They are part of a crew. Off in the distance, the player can see that there are other salvage docks in the same orbit, and via the radio, they come to know the other members - Deedee, Kaito, Lou, and most notably, Weaver - the team foreman. Weaver serves as both the ongoing tutorial, offering the player both advice on new ship hardware, and a calm, encouraging manner, and the dialogue between him and the other members instills an odd sense of solidarity between the player and their unseen crew-mates. The back and forth between the characters works really well - because the game is about simply getting on with a task, and the satisfaction of completing it well, the sections where dialogue is accompanying that work has the feel of listening to a familiar podcast. The characters all have distinct personalities, all are in the same boat (and debt,) have the same gripes and grumbles about the company... and when, midway through the game, Lynx sends a brash, uncaring and almost sociopathically ambitious company man - in the form of Hal - to "help" (and almost immediately begin to undermine,) Weaver, the tensions that spark from that feel very real, and very realistic. The overall narrative arc and thematic hooks of the game - dealing with exploitation of labour, union forming (and breaking,) industrial action, solidarity and good vs. bad management are all done very well. In fact, when - in a late game moment, the game actually creates a situation where the team are undertaking a form of strike action - by deliberately sabotaging the salvaging - and the player can chose to either join with the strike, or be a scab and support the company... ...well, let's just say, I wish there had not been trophies for both options. I am perfectly happy to chose the "evil" path in choice based games generally - I have no issue killing the good guys and supporting the bad guys in a shooter or an RPG... ...but (perhaps owing to my family roots, or my Scottish heritage,) I have never felt more grossed out with y own in-game behaviour than when I was disappointing Weaver, and making Hal happy by undermining my team in their efforts! Thank goodness for save-reloading! On technical elements, the game is pretty much perfect. The game looks fantastic - there isn't a huge amount of variety in the graphical style, of course, (the game takes place entirely in the lonely dry-dock and the sparse living quarters afforded to the player by Lynx,) however, this area does look fantastic. The feeling of isolation in space is very real, and the visuals of Earth in the distance, the other docks floating around the planets, space, and the industrial, functional areas look great. Effects like burning and cutting look great and feel great, and the ships themselves are intricately and wonderfully well though out and designed. Different ship classes and manufacturers have thematic art-style signatures, and the feeling that all parts of this universe are following the same engineering and design principles never stops individual ships looking cool and unique within that. Audio is, quite simply, perfect. The voice acting is, as said, very good - well acted, and well written - but more than that, the whole game is scored with a fantastic southern-gothic-with-a-twang melancholic soundtrack by Jono Grant, Traz Damji and Philip J. Bennett, with synth remixes by the game's audio director Ben McCullough. The music fits perfectly with the vibe of the game, and more than that, has been a regular feature of my Spotify playlists since. The foley work is also of note - the industrial sounds of metal on metal screeching and tearing, the hums and buzzes of ship systems, the whooshes and thunderous clunks of airlocks depressurising (or fuel tanks exploding,) all sound great, and in the muted, slightly terrifying muffle of dead space, they really add to the lonely feeling of isolation and danger the player is in. Overall, Hardspace: Shipbreaker is a hell of a game. It serves two genres - the "task simulator" and the "narrative sci-fi" genres - and it serves both to a level rarely reached by games that aim only for one or the other. The actual task being undertaken is incredibly satisfying and genuinely interesting and fun to do, with a well honed and well implemented upgrade system, puzzle element and smooth, well-thought-out difficulty arc, - and would work as a perfectly good game simply with that alone... ...but the addition of a rich, well written and well acted narrative with quite a bit to say about labour laws and exploitation, the excellent visual design, and the absolutely fantastic soundtrack, make it a bonafide classic! The "task simulator" genre is generally a niche one - doing a "mundane" task is not something that appeals to all gamers... ...but never have I seen a game that remains ostensibly within that broad genre, with a better shot at converting even the most stubbornly anti-zen player! If you only ever sample one Task Simulator... ...Hardspace: Shipbreaker is the one! (For original review and Scientific Ranking see HERE) 11 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post Sikutai Posted February 23, 2023 Popular Post Share Posted February 23, 2023 Platinum #803: Strawberry Vinegar Difficulty: 04/10 Enjoyment: 02/10 Soundtrack: 07/10 Story: I don't know. Recommenend for: Anyone who likes Strawberry and Vinegar. Platinum Strawberry Get all other trophies. 7 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Create an account or sign in to comment
You need to be a member in order to leave a comment
Create an account
Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!
Register a new accountSign in
Already have an account? Sign in here.
Sign In Now