Category: Uncategorized Page 47 of 61

Get Your Thoughts Straight: Anodyne

On April 5, 2014

Before I started playing Anodyne, I did not know that its title is a real word. An older term referring to painkiller drugs, it has since acquired a wider meaning, describing anything that is blandly agreeable or even trying too hard to be inoffensive. It’s a fitting title for the game, which explores themes of human relationships and the pressures one might feel to maintain appearances or meet expectations. It’s also a slightly ironic title, because I think Anodyne will prove divisive among players, with many feeling very offended indeed at its “pretentious” presentation and use of symbolism.

Anodyne is very clearly inspired by the Zelda series, especially the early entries. It follows protagonist Young on his journeys through The Land, on a quest to save The Briar from The Darkness. This is accomplished by traversing many top-down screens and battling monsters with his broom. Yes, a broom — only one of many early hints that all is not as it seems.

Fist, Meet Face: Zeno Clash 2

By waltorious

On March 27, 2014

In Uncategorized

As always, you can click on screenshots to view larger versions.

I played the original Zeno Clash before starting this blog, but I did mention it in my first proper post. That post was about why some seriously flawed games are still worth playing, if they’re interesting enough — in fact, they can be more worthy than a solidly-constructed but generic title. But Zeno Clash is not seriously flawed; I simply cited it as an example of a game that displays uncommon imagination. Made by Chilean developers ACE Team (the same developers responsible for the very different but equally strange Rock of Ages), it takes the mechanics of classic brawlers like Streets of Rage or Double Dragon and puts them in a first-person game. This works far better than expected, and would have been interesting enough on its own, but Zeno Clash also takes place in a bizarre and beautiful world full of surreal architecture and landscapes, and populated by all manner of bird-men and other hybrid species. As I played, each location provided some new, breathtaking vista or strange fauna to behold, and the story was even weirder. It is certainly a unique gaming experience.

For all that, however, the playable sections are small, extremely linear affairs, linked by narration and cutscenes. Not unlike Metro 2033, in fact, but the locations in Zeno Clash are much smaller. Later, ACE Team confided that they had originally envisioned an open-world game, where the player could wander freely, getting into fights and otherwise interacting with the locals, but they soon realized this was too ambitious for their first game. So they focused on the fighting mechanics, and built a linear game instead. With Zeno Clash 2, they returned to their original vision of an open-world game with similar mechanics. It’s safe to say I was excited (even though I’m playing it almost a year after release… I am slow to get through my backlog, as always).

The Devil Is In The Details: Solium Infernum

By waltorious

On March 14, 2014

In Uncategorized

As always, you can click on screenshots for larger versions.

It’s high time I wrote about Solium Infernum. Like many players, I purchased it back in 2010 after reading the epic (and epically entertaining) Gameboys From Hell report of a single Solium Infernum game over at Rock, Paper, Shotgun. I started playing shortly thereafter and I never really stopped, not until recently. Solium Infernum is a turn-based play-by-email strategy game that casts the players as archfiends vying for control of Hell, taking heavy inspiration from Milton’s Paradise Lost in its aesthetic. It has simple graphics, no animation whatsoever, runs at a fixed, low-ish resolution, has an unintuitive user interface, and is absolutely fantastic.

Blog Experiences Delays

By waltorious

On March 1, 2014

In Uncategorized

I’ve been rather busy and will continue to be for the next month, so I’ve had little time to play games, let alone write about them. But never fear, I’ll be posting more once I find the time. Stay tuned!

Card Hunter Is Even Better Than Expected

By waltorious

On February 18, 2014

In Uncategorized

Please remember that you can click on screenshots for larger versions.

Many recent games have utilized the new “free to play” business model, in which the game itself is free but players are encouraged to make small purchases, known as “microtransactions”, while playing. Purchases can range from purely cosmetic items to convenience features (reduced waiting times, single-use boosts) to major upgrades that have big impacts on the game. Multiplayer games especially have had great success with this model; since the game is free there are always a lot of players to keep things interesting, and only a small percentage need to spend money for the game to be profitable. But many players (especially older players accustomed to purchasing games with a single transaction) decry the free to play model, citing constant pestering to make purchases and game designs that ignore artistry and vision in favor of squeezing money from players. This certainly can happen, but it’s a mistake to denounce all free to play games on the basis of a few bad ones. There are plenty of games for which the model works very well, garnering both critical praise and popular support. One such game is Card Hunter by Blue Manchu Games, and it’s the perfect game to convince older, curmudgeonly players that free to play isn’t so bad after all. Why? Because it’s an homage to a beloved, classic genre that’s older than even the earliest computer game: the tabletop role-playing game.

Split, But Not Broken: Broken Age Act 1

By waltorious

On February 5, 2014

In Uncategorized

This is as timely as my posts are ever likely to get. Act 1 of Double Fine’s point and click adventure game Broken Age was released a mere week ago; usually, months or years elapse between a game’s release and my posts about it. But the release of Broken Age is especially notable. Long before Act 1 went on sale, Broken Age was already famous for the circumstances of its creation. Tim Schafer, the industry veteran and fan-favorite developer who heads Double Fine, pitched the game (or, more accurately, proposed making an adventure game in general) on Kickstarter roughly two years ago, and the overwhelming response opened the doors for countless other game projects seeking crowdfunding. From other industry veterans to untested indie teams, the influx of games on Kickstarter and other crowdfunding sites can be more or less pinned on Tim Schafer, and everyone wants to see how Broken Age, as the poster child for the movement, is going to turn out.

It’s undeniably exciting, and certainly worth discussing, but I think Broken Age deserves to be judged on its own merits. So, much like Broken Age itself, I’ve split this post into two parts: the first covers the history behind the genre and the development of Broken Age, and the second discusses the actual game. Read on.

History Lessons: Betrayal At Krondor (part 4)

By waltorious

On January 26, 2014

In Uncategorized

New readers may wish to read my History Lessons Introduction first. Also be sure to read part 1, part 2 and part 3 before continuing. Other History Lessons posts can be found here.

At long last, I have finished playing Betrayal at Krondor. I’ve had some time to reflect on the experience, and I’ll offer my thoughts about the game as a whole a little later. First, I should pick up where I left off. When I wrote my last post I was tackling some shorter, more story-focused chapters, but I predicted that the game would open up again afterwards. I was right; Chapter 6 is one of the biggest in the game, and full of interesting things to do and places to go. Unfortunately, it began with an abrupt and jarring plot reveal that seemed unrelated to anything that had happened up to that point. Stranger still, there was little in the way of further explanation until the huge, freely explorable chapter was over. Later, everything is tied together, and in hindsight the overall story is well thought out. But the pacing definitely faltered, and someone who hadn’t read Raymond E. Feist’s Riftwar series could easily have been completely confused by the turn of events.

Roguelike Highlights: Sword Of The Stars: The Pit

By waltorious

On January 9, 2014

In Uncategorized

Readers unfamiliar with roguelikes may wish to read my introduction first. Previous Roguelike Highlights can be found here. Also, as always, you can click on screenshots for bigger versions.

I have never played Sword of the Stars. Apparently it is a space-faring strategy game of the 4X variety. The four “X”s in question stand for eXplore, eXpand, eXploit, and eXterminate. So really it should be 4E. Anyway, the 4X game is a time-honored subset of the strategy game genre, one where building up armies and conquering the world/solar system/universe/general area is the only viable strategy. There are, naturally, many ways to go about this, so these games are no less tactically rich despite their focus on military supremacy. In fact, now that I think about it, Master of Magic (which I’ve previously covered in History Lesson form) qualifies as this type of game, so you can read my post about it if you want more details about the sub-genre.

Anyway, I gather that Sword of the Stars (aka SotS) is a lighthearted take on the classic design, provided the roguelike spin-off game Sword of the Stars: The Pit is any indication. In the tutorial for The Pit, an obvious parody of a grizzled military officer taught me how to make a sotswich, which is of course “a fine, multicultural sandwich”, made from cooked meat and Tarka Warbread. When your universe has aliens who make Warbread, I suppose it’s not that weird to make a science fiction dungeon-crawling roguelike spinoff of your huge empire-building strategy war simulation game. But the tongue-in-cheek humor and science fiction setting are only two of many reasons why The Pit feels different from its roguelike kin.

Click below to read my thoughts on the game.

Clicking skill: 73
99% Chance of Success

Going The Distance In FTL

By waltorious

On December 21, 2013

In Uncategorized

I’ve written about FTL before, and if you’re unfamiliar with the game you should probably read that post first. Here, I’m assuming readers have at least a passing knowledge of the game.

Back when I first wrote about FTL, over a year ago, I didn’t think I’d stick with it that long. In fact, my exact words were:

Still, I don’t think FTL will keep me hooked as long as some more involved roguelikes (and roguelike-likes), but its simplicity is really where it shines. It’s easy to learn, and offers just enough options to make multiple plays interesting and fun. It may become frustrating to have to unlock each ship, depending on what’s required, but even with just the two I have I can easily see myself jumping in for quick games or extended sessions well into the future.

Turns out my fears about FTL’s staying power were completely unfounded. I’ve gone back to FTL regularly in the last year, in my quest to unlock more ships (and alternate layouts for the ones I already have), and I’ve learned that FTL is actually a lot deeper than it seemed at first. With developers Subset Games announcing a free expansion to be released soon, I decided it was high time to write about why I keep going back.

lim x→∞: Approaching Infinity Will Be A Space Exploration Roguelike

By waltorious

On December 8, 2013

In Uncategorized

Readers unfamiliar with roguelikes may wish to read my introduction to the genre here, or my other posts about roguelikes here. Also, as always, you can click on screenshots for larger versions.

Regular readers will know that I’m quite fond of roguelikes. Given the genre’s roots of fantasy-themed dungeon crawling, however, it’s unusual to find roguelikes with science fiction settings. This may be why I’m drawn to examples like Xenocide and Caves of Qud, but even these still follow a single character exploring locations on foot. Approaching Infinity takes the roguelike to the stars, casting the player as a ship captain who both explores space in their ship and explores planets and shipwrecks with an away team. The game is on Kickstarter and has met its funding goal already, but there are three days left (at the time of writing) to raise more money for some stretch goals. If you’re interested, the Kickstarter page links to an alpha demo to try, and backers get an updated demo to play with. I’ve taken the public demo for a spin, and even in its unfinished alpha state I liked what I found.