EYE is a really bizarre game. I love it, but like many games I love, it's terrifically scruffy and flawed, but there's something about that game that makes me willing to forgive its flaws. It's a first-person shooter that plays more like an RPG--you create a character with certain stats, level him to what you want to do, equip him by unlocking items, and have an array of options from guns, swords, cybernetics, mind powers, and literal no-holds-barred magic. It gives a Shadowrun feel with its blend of dark cyberpunk dystopia with arcane and bizarre sorcery.
To get the cons out of the way: It's completely unpolished and poorly translated, the textures look like ass, and you'll probably fall through the map or get stuck on geometry at least once, and probably more times than that. You'll find missions unbeatable because an enemy fell through the map or because an ally's dialogue tree broke.
Every level sprawls with optional quests which you're left to find yourself. Occasionally you'll get a prompt, but it's rare, and there's usually more quests than the prompt dictates. There's usually layers and layers of areas inside of one mission zone.
The story is arcane, difficult to follow, and yet great, with countless factions plotting against each other as public (and private) secrets. You'll make deals with bandits, generals, and your worst enemies. You'll go undercover and then have the option to stay in that faction forever.
I'd recommend EYE if you like cyberpunk style and don't mind a game that's (very) rough around the edges. It has a lot of content and plenty of silly options to keep you entertained for a while if you match its wavelength.
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For a cyberpunk feature in the opposite direction, Read Only Memories is colorful, fairly well polished and controlled, and very lively--but still undeniably cyberpunk. It's a point-and-click adventure game in the first-person perspective. The puzzles were pretty straightforward, but it was the demo after all--and this particular adventure game is more about the character interaction than anything else.
You're approached by a sentient robot whose creator has been kidnapped for mysterious purposes. Its cookie-cutter plot aside, the characters seem to have real depth and interesting backgrounds, the art is fantastic, and most of the world can be explored and learned about, even if a lot of it might sound like you've read it in 5 William Gibson novels before.
ROM really is in the opposite direction, because while EYE takes a route that's perhaps sloppily executed but so off-the-wall and full of content that you might find it entertaining regardless, ROM takes a relatively safe approach to the cyberpunk experience (except for being a point-in-click in 2015) and polishes it to a mirror shine. It's a little unfair to point out it has less content than EYE since only the demo is currently available, but one can tell even with a brief playthrough it doesn't come with the 'more-is-more' attitude EYE brought to the table. That said, it's wonderfully executed, the dialogue is cleverly written, and the demo--which is free and available here. Give it a shot!
I'm definitely looking forward to the full version of ROM, and I think you should too.
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There are a few things I've wanted to do for a while that I think would be good options for this blog.
First, I'm going to try and start streaming again. This will require a connection with a great deal of bandwidth, which I do not have. I think this motel's connection could be reasonably measured in baud.
In the meantime, I'll try and review games as I'm playing them on the blog here. There's plenty of new games coming out I'm interested in, and while I won't always be able to shell out for a triple-A title, I'll try to do at least one new one a month.
I also have a horrifically tainted attempt at a Let's Play channel that never really got off the ground. I tried to LP Far Cry 3 like, 3 times. Each time I failed horribly, more each time than the last. The LPs before that were mired in technical difficulties (read: I know slightly more about video editing than the history of Mongolian royal families, in that I know that video editing does, in fact, exist in the present day.), poor presentation, and general tomfoolery. The only way I could really see resolving this would be to get someone to partner with me and help with commentary while I play the games--dual LPs always seem to do the best. (The only solo LPer I watch these days is supergreatfriend.)
My ultimate long term goal is to get an original Xbox and play some games that didn't make it to the Xbox 360 backwards compatibility line-up. There were great titles you can't find anymore, on 360 or on the PC. I'm looking at YOU, Jet Set Radio Future!
For now, though, I think I'll take the easy road and do some reviews of games I think didn't receive enough attention.
Wednesday, February 4, 2015
Tuesday, January 20, 2015
Time for some backlogged game reviews.
A lot of stuff's happened since my last game review, but I won't bore you with the details.
Let's talk about video games.
I've played quite a bit of games since Dark Souls. I say "since Dark Souls," but I still pick it up with some considerable purpose now and then. NG6+ won't beat itself.
Anyways, I played two diametrically opposed games in that time in-between, and I think both deserve more press than they get. They aren't *super* indie, but people don't talk about them enough.
The first is The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind. I used to think of myself as a huge elder scrolls fan, but looking back I think literally every Elder Scrolls title could stand to learn from Morrowind. Go backwards in time to Arena and Daggerfall, and you find a hopelessly retarded UI, broken code, and worlds largely made of copy-pasted cells and towns with the sole intent of being mind-numbingly massive. Everywhere in Elder Scrolls I and II looks the same, because it's all very poorly procedurally generated. I suppose that was considered amazing in the 90s, but then again so were pogs.
The later titles, Oblivion and Skyrim, bear their own faults. Oblivion is easily the worst elder scrolls game--I say the worst because I like to pretend Elder Scrolls Online doesn't exist. I played the beta and made dry-heaving noises the entire time--Oblivion, for all its production value and attempt to suck you into the game, simply doesn't have the balls that Morrowind did. The world is bland, boring fantasy land number a billion--the world feels like a Renaissance festival with exceptionally bad cosplayers--the character models are, amazingly, even uglier than Morrowind's, the grass is way too manicured, and the small inventions they eventually turned into Skyrim don't save the game from ultimate mediocrity.
Skyrim itself seems like they were simultaneously trying to please the "mainstream" audience and snivelling fanboys who were incensed at the lack of werewolves in (vanilla) Morrowind, the lack of dual-wielding, and so on. (I personally find dual-wielding absurd, unless you're dual-wielding rocket launchers. See Advent Rising) The combat system, while a vast improvement over its predecessors, still sucks indescribable amounts of ass, and it's usually easier and more rewarding to sneak around and shoot stuff from a distance. Of course, once your sneak skill becomes absurd and you have chameleon enchanted on every possible wearable item, that stops being the case too.
So what did Morrowind have that neither its predecessors nor its descendants did?
I already gave the answer away--balls.
Morrowind was a highly experimental game. I can't say it didn't fail in a lot of respects--the combat is boring, slow, and requires no real strategy. The core gameplay could be described as "walking a lot." It's not brave or amazing because of any of its core gameplay values, but because it immerses you in a unique, beautiful world, and damn well expects you to get interested.
Characters in the main story expect you to read about the history of the world. It's immensely slow-paced, and it's perfectly fine with that. I played a character who, rather than fighting, tended to bribe or smooth-talk her way to her goal. This was not only extremely lucrative, but also gave me an excuse to delve into the rich world Bethesda built around this particular masterwork.
I can't recommend Morrowind to people who got into Elder Scrolls at Skyrim. You'll curse at the fact you aren't shooting lightning out of your fingers within 3 minutes. It's a game for people who prefer books, Curl up, relax, and enjoy the scenery. You'll go through swamps, roads made by lava, mushroom towers, craggy islands, an entire city section built inside of a crab shell, and chat with a couple gods along the way.
Now let's talk about Morrowind's complete logical opposite, which also happens to be amazing.
I speak, of course, of Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance.
MGR was originally called Metal Gear Solid: Rising. The idea was that it would contain fast-paced stealth that required you to use acrobatic manuevers to stay hidden. You'd also be able to strategically cut off limbs or pieces of a machine by aiming your sword in "Blade Mode." Kojima had trouble designing the game and turned it over to Platinum Games, famed at the time for their work on Devil May Cry and Bayonetta.
Platinum scrapped (most of) the stealth and instead focused on the action. And I mean *really* focused. The combat is fast paced, requires a great deal of timing and patience despite that there's usually more than one dismembered limb in the air at any given time.
And, well, you can do this:
That's the first boss fight, by the way.
As demonstrated in the above video, well thought out quick-time events sprinkle the action with intense short videos of acrobatic robot murder. The best part is MGR still feels like a Metal Gear game: there's plenty of codec calls that offer context to the world around you, lots of Kojima's natural story-telling weirdness that combines seemingly rational ideas with completely insane ones (strangely enough, I'd say this story is a little more sensible than some of the MGS titles, especially 2.), and of course, lots of insanely long cutscenes.
I wound up playing Morrowind after MGR, perhaps to get a breather. It didn't last too long, because I was stupid and killed a vital NPC. At some point I'll get off my lazy, dumb ass and get her back with a console command. Until then, I'm playing Warframe, which I'll review when I stop sucking at it.
My overall message is you should be open to games of various paces. A slow paced game has just as much to offer as a fast-paced one, and vice versa--if done properly, the pace won't inhibit the designer's ability to communicate through their medium. If you're more into slow-paced games, give yourself a chance to delve into some action with MGR. If you prefer adrenaline pumping games, try out something a little slower with Morrowind.
Let's talk about video games.
I've played quite a bit of games since Dark Souls. I say "since Dark Souls," but I still pick it up with some considerable purpose now and then. NG6+ won't beat itself.
Anyways, I played two diametrically opposed games in that time in-between, and I think both deserve more press than they get. They aren't *super* indie, but people don't talk about them enough.
The first is The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind. I used to think of myself as a huge elder scrolls fan, but looking back I think literally every Elder Scrolls title could stand to learn from Morrowind. Go backwards in time to Arena and Daggerfall, and you find a hopelessly retarded UI, broken code, and worlds largely made of copy-pasted cells and towns with the sole intent of being mind-numbingly massive. Everywhere in Elder Scrolls I and II looks the same, because it's all very poorly procedurally generated. I suppose that was considered amazing in the 90s, but then again so were pogs.
The later titles, Oblivion and Skyrim, bear their own faults. Oblivion is easily the worst elder scrolls game--I say the worst because I like to pretend Elder Scrolls Online doesn't exist. I played the beta and made dry-heaving noises the entire time--Oblivion, for all its production value and attempt to suck you into the game, simply doesn't have the balls that Morrowind did. The world is bland, boring fantasy land number a billion--the world feels like a Renaissance festival with exceptionally bad cosplayers--the character models are, amazingly, even uglier than Morrowind's, the grass is way too manicured, and the small inventions they eventually turned into Skyrim don't save the game from ultimate mediocrity.
Skyrim itself seems like they were simultaneously trying to please the "mainstream" audience and snivelling fanboys who were incensed at the lack of werewolves in (vanilla) Morrowind, the lack of dual-wielding, and so on. (I personally find dual-wielding absurd, unless you're dual-wielding rocket launchers. See Advent Rising) The combat system, while a vast improvement over its predecessors, still sucks indescribable amounts of ass, and it's usually easier and more rewarding to sneak around and shoot stuff from a distance. Of course, once your sneak skill becomes absurd and you have chameleon enchanted on every possible wearable item, that stops being the case too.
So what did Morrowind have that neither its predecessors nor its descendants did?
I already gave the answer away--balls.
Morrowind was a highly experimental game. I can't say it didn't fail in a lot of respects--the combat is boring, slow, and requires no real strategy. The core gameplay could be described as "walking a lot." It's not brave or amazing because of any of its core gameplay values, but because it immerses you in a unique, beautiful world, and damn well expects you to get interested.
Characters in the main story expect you to read about the history of the world. It's immensely slow-paced, and it's perfectly fine with that. I played a character who, rather than fighting, tended to bribe or smooth-talk her way to her goal. This was not only extremely lucrative, but also gave me an excuse to delve into the rich world Bethesda built around this particular masterwork.
I can't recommend Morrowind to people who got into Elder Scrolls at Skyrim. You'll curse at the fact you aren't shooting lightning out of your fingers within 3 minutes. It's a game for people who prefer books, Curl up, relax, and enjoy the scenery. You'll go through swamps, roads made by lava, mushroom towers, craggy islands, an entire city section built inside of a crab shell, and chat with a couple gods along the way.
Now let's talk about Morrowind's complete logical opposite, which also happens to be amazing.
I speak, of course, of Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance.
MGR was originally called Metal Gear Solid: Rising. The idea was that it would contain fast-paced stealth that required you to use acrobatic manuevers to stay hidden. You'd also be able to strategically cut off limbs or pieces of a machine by aiming your sword in "Blade Mode." Kojima had trouble designing the game and turned it over to Platinum Games, famed at the time for their work on Devil May Cry and Bayonetta.
Platinum scrapped (most of) the stealth and instead focused on the action. And I mean *really* focused. The combat is fast paced, requires a great deal of timing and patience despite that there's usually more than one dismembered limb in the air at any given time.
And, well, you can do this:
That's the first boss fight, by the way.
As demonstrated in the above video, well thought out quick-time events sprinkle the action with intense short videos of acrobatic robot murder. The best part is MGR still feels like a Metal Gear game: there's plenty of codec calls that offer context to the world around you, lots of Kojima's natural story-telling weirdness that combines seemingly rational ideas with completely insane ones (strangely enough, I'd say this story is a little more sensible than some of the MGS titles, especially 2.), and of course, lots of insanely long cutscenes.
I wound up playing Morrowind after MGR, perhaps to get a breather. It didn't last too long, because I was stupid and killed a vital NPC. At some point I'll get off my lazy, dumb ass and get her back with a console command. Until then, I'm playing Warframe, which I'll review when I stop sucking at it.
My overall message is you should be open to games of various paces. A slow paced game has just as much to offer as a fast-paced one, and vice versa--if done properly, the pace won't inhibit the designer's ability to communicate through their medium. If you're more into slow-paced games, give yourself a chance to delve into some action with MGR. If you prefer adrenaline pumping games, try out something a little slower with Morrowind.
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