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Discussion What Are You Playing Right Now?
- Thread starter Explosive Zombie
- Start date
I've played Day of the Tentacle, Grim Fandango, Full Throttle, Deponia, and Chaos on Deponia. I have Deponia Doomsday and Broken Age, just waiting for the right time to play them.
Started Hundred Line: Final Defense Academy this weekend. My first hours kept me thinking "This is Danganronpa 4, any moment now they will reveal it". The game has the same writting, artstyle, soundtrack identity and even gameplay tropes like side-scrolling exploration, point and click interactions, a bunch of minigames and a lot of things Danganronpa fans are familiar with.
The main difference is the core gameplay. Instead of class trials to solve murder misteries you have to take part in tactical battles like Fire Emblem, positioning characters, farming specials and all. The characters mostly have big area of effects attacks that have unique tile patterns on the map, the enemies also march torwards you in unique pattern formations, allowing to have almost a tactical puyo puyo combat lmao. Some levels are really intense and encourage you to sacrifice characters like chess pieces in order to achieve a greater pay in the next turn.
The story hooked me hard bc it contains a lot of misteries and is constantly pilling stakes on the characters future. Speaking of it, like mentioned before the characters are very intense in their personality, like in the previous Danganronpa games, it has a lot of edge humor going on.
Im excited to unsolve its misteries and keep customizing the characters in social sim activities in order to face bigger battles as the story goes on. This is THE japanese weird game of the year for sure.
The main difference is the core gameplay. Instead of class trials to solve murder misteries you have to take part in tactical battles like Fire Emblem, positioning characters, farming specials and all. The characters mostly have big area of effects attacks that have unique tile patterns on the map, the enemies also march torwards you in unique pattern formations, allowing to have almost a tactical puyo puyo combat lmao. Some levels are really intense and encourage you to sacrifice characters like chess pieces in order to achieve a greater pay in the next turn.
The story hooked me hard bc it contains a lot of misteries and is constantly pilling stakes on the characters future. Speaking of it, like mentioned before the characters are very intense in their personality, like in the previous Danganronpa games, it has a lot of edge humor going on.
Im excited to unsolve its misteries and keep customizing the characters in social sim activities in order to face bigger battles as the story goes on. This is THE japanese weird game of the year for sure.
Started Metaphor Refantazio which has been sitting on the backlog since a month after launch. So far it's just okay, finished the first couple of dungeons, will make more judgments as I meet more characters. So far the artstyle and enemy design is carrying it, but I'm not super impressed compared to the hype the game got (one of the reasons I left it on the pile after playing the demo)
I've just finished playing Clair Obscur: Expedition 33, a turn-based JRPG developed by Sandfall Interactive and published by Kepler Entertainment. The game is spread out across three Acts, with each act offering about 10~15 hours of gameplay, playing normally. However, there is a very robust Act III, so for myself personally, I cleared 100% after around 75 hours playing on Expert.
Clair Obscur is set near the City of Lumiere and the surrounding continent, a fantastical rendition of Paris, France. Every year in Lumiere, The Paintress of the Monolith paints a new number, and with her final brush stroke, every living human that age or older is wiped from existence in an event known as "The Gomage." For decades, this cycle of painting and loss has left a shroud over Lumiere, as its population dwindles, as each number painted is year less than the last. In an attempt to stop The Paintress, every year Lumiere citizens embark to the continent in their final years of life to try to stop the Paintress, so she can never paint death again. Thus, the last hope of humanity, Expedition 33, embarks to the continent captained by the genius inventor, Gustave, the scientist, Luna, an orphan, Maelle, and skilled fighter, Sciel.
The story of Clair Obscur is told across three chapters, each one depicting a different stage in the Expedition's journey, as they find their way across the treacherous continent and work out a way to enter The Monolith. The overarching narrative of Clair Obscur is a beautiful ponderance upon grief, and the role art can play in that process. The Gomage has perpetuated a cycle of loss for Expedition 33, each of whom struggles with the loss of loved ones, and the looming certainty of their own end. While grief is not an uncommon theme in video games, Clair Obscur focuses on the nature of artistic expression, and coping with loss. Clair Obscur explores these themes through explicit narrative progression, optional character interactions, and environmental story telling. The writers execute on each method at very high quality, with details ranging from the careful arrangement of bodies around a journal entry, to the layered slow burn of the world building. The finished result is a new IP of incredible range, which I could easily see carried on into sequels, or spin-off titles.
As one might expect from a game whose focus is on art, the artistic direction of Clair Obscur is at the peak of design direction, with horrifically beautiful landscapes which would not be out of place in the likes of a Fromsoftware title. The world map is represented in a charming diorama style akin to the cult classic Fantasian Neo Dimension, with the developers utilizing a clever implementation of blurred focus to accomplish a game which does not dip in quality significantly when transitioning to the world map. Spread out across this map are many small locations with carefully crafted pathways and secret items. These locations are not only great areas to engage in combat with monstrosities known as Nevrons, but also to search for items to upgrade your skills, or consumables. Like its world design, the character design is also fantastic, with every playable character possessing a variety of wardrobe and hair options. While most of these options are chic looks you'd expect from a high end fashion boutique, the designers also have a sense of humor, offering some rather funny choices as well. Music plays an important role in Clair Obscur, not only narratively in the context of the characters, but also as a fantastic achievement of musical expression in a video game. The range of melodies can vary from up beat piano notes one might expect at a lively tea party, to head pounding rock operas, and nearly everything in between.
As the Expeditioners make their way across the continent, they'll stumble across a variety of merchants and upgradable resources for the party. Each character has five major attributes: Vitality, Might, Agility, Defense, and Luck. As the party gains levels, they gain attribute points which can be allocated freely towards each of these attributes. In a design choice I haven't witnessed in other JRPGs, Clair Obscur utilizes attribute scaling on weapons, with multipliers to damage depending on which attributes a character is most proficient in. Weapons are character specific, so a large aspect of the game is finding weapons which compliment a desired playstyle, and upgrading attributes to enhance those weapons. Thankfully, Clair Obscur is very generous with respec items, so even if a character is raised towards one specific playstyle, it's easy to change things up depending on what is demanded from combat encounters. Clair Obscur also features Skill Points which can be used to unlock skills unique to each character, these skills can range from abilities which apply buffs to your party, or massive damage to enemies. Finally, Clair Obscur offers a "Lumina" system, wherein characters will find items called "Pictos" which function similarly to talismans/accessories in many other games, offering subtle feats to characters, such as increased damage on burning opponents. While a character can equip up to three Pictos, after achieving mastery with a Pictos, the character can utilize a utility point pool of "Lumina Points" to equip any character with the Pictos Feat, without needing to have it equipped. Attributes, weapon scaling, skill points, and Lumina work in harmony to create a rich RPG component of the game, which provides a joyful opportunity to ponder increasingly powerful combinations to achieve higher damage outputs.
Clair Obscur's combat system is most similar to the Persona or Metaphor games, offering a simplified selection of attacking, utilizing an item, or skill on each character's respective turn. However, it changes things up a bit by featuring quick-time events on attacks, the timing of which can provide slight damage boosts. Unlike most turn-based JRPGs, Clair Obscur has an intriguingly reactive approach to combat, allowing party members to jump, dodge, or parry attacks in a combat system not dissimilar from something like Sekiro. Parrying an attack is extremely beneficial, because not only does it charge the valuable resource known as AP, to fuel skills, but it also provides an opportunity to counter attack on the enemy's turn for bonus damage. Dodging, while providing no counterattack, has a more generous timing window, meaning it may serve as a better option in high risk situations. Likewise, some attacks can only be avoided by jumping, providing opponents a chance to catch a player off guard, due to poor button inputs. The system is executed extremely well, with Nevrons possessing delayed attacks, and combo chains integrating a variety of attack methods, forcing the player to familiarize themselves with Nevron attack timing. When the party isn't dodging and parrying, they're on the offence, with Clair Obscur offering excellent spectacle moves, ranging from flying through the air raining down fire, to summoning massive beasts to fight along side. There's even an interesting free-aim mechanic, which allows Expeditioners to target weak points on Nevrons.
For me, Clair Obscur is an easy recommendation for any gamer. Regardless of whether you play games for music, art, narrative, reactive combat, or thoughtful RPG mechanics, this game offers something for almost everyone, and it does so at a level of quality unmatched even by most AAA developers. Discussions for this game being a GotY contender should be taken extremely seriously.
Clair Obscur is set near the City of Lumiere and the surrounding continent, a fantastical rendition of Paris, France. Every year in Lumiere, The Paintress of the Monolith paints a new number, and with her final brush stroke, every living human that age or older is wiped from existence in an event known as "The Gomage." For decades, this cycle of painting and loss has left a shroud over Lumiere, as its population dwindles, as each number painted is year less than the last. In an attempt to stop The Paintress, every year Lumiere citizens embark to the continent in their final years of life to try to stop the Paintress, so she can never paint death again. Thus, the last hope of humanity, Expedition 33, embarks to the continent captained by the genius inventor, Gustave, the scientist, Luna, an orphan, Maelle, and skilled fighter, Sciel.
The story of Clair Obscur is told across three chapters, each one depicting a different stage in the Expedition's journey, as they find their way across the treacherous continent and work out a way to enter The Monolith. The overarching narrative of Clair Obscur is a beautiful ponderance upon grief, and the role art can play in that process. The Gomage has perpetuated a cycle of loss for Expedition 33, each of whom struggles with the loss of loved ones, and the looming certainty of their own end. While grief is not an uncommon theme in video games, Clair Obscur focuses on the nature of artistic expression, and coping with loss. Clair Obscur explores these themes through explicit narrative progression, optional character interactions, and environmental story telling. The writers execute on each method at very high quality, with details ranging from the careful arrangement of bodies around a journal entry, to the layered slow burn of the world building. The finished result is a new IP of incredible range, which I could easily see carried on into sequels, or spin-off titles.
As one might expect from a game whose focus is on art, the artistic direction of Clair Obscur is at the peak of design direction, with horrifically beautiful landscapes which would not be out of place in the likes of a Fromsoftware title. The world map is represented in a charming diorama style akin to the cult classic Fantasian Neo Dimension, with the developers utilizing a clever implementation of blurred focus to accomplish a game which does not dip in quality significantly when transitioning to the world map. Spread out across this map are many small locations with carefully crafted pathways and secret items. These locations are not only great areas to engage in combat with monstrosities known as Nevrons, but also to search for items to upgrade your skills, or consumables. Like its world design, the character design is also fantastic, with every playable character possessing a variety of wardrobe and hair options. While most of these options are chic looks you'd expect from a high end fashion boutique, the designers also have a sense of humor, offering some rather funny choices as well. Music plays an important role in Clair Obscur, not only narratively in the context of the characters, but also as a fantastic achievement of musical expression in a video game. The range of melodies can vary from up beat piano notes one might expect at a lively tea party, to head pounding rock operas, and nearly everything in between.
As the Expeditioners make their way across the continent, they'll stumble across a variety of merchants and upgradable resources for the party. Each character has five major attributes: Vitality, Might, Agility, Defense, and Luck. As the party gains levels, they gain attribute points which can be allocated freely towards each of these attributes. In a design choice I haven't witnessed in other JRPGs, Clair Obscur utilizes attribute scaling on weapons, with multipliers to damage depending on which attributes a character is most proficient in. Weapons are character specific, so a large aspect of the game is finding weapons which compliment a desired playstyle, and upgrading attributes to enhance those weapons. Thankfully, Clair Obscur is very generous with respec items, so even if a character is raised towards one specific playstyle, it's easy to change things up depending on what is demanded from combat encounters. Clair Obscur also features Skill Points which can be used to unlock skills unique to each character, these skills can range from abilities which apply buffs to your party, or massive damage to enemies. Finally, Clair Obscur offers a "Lumina" system, wherein characters will find items called "Pictos" which function similarly to talismans/accessories in many other games, offering subtle feats to characters, such as increased damage on burning opponents. While a character can equip up to three Pictos, after achieving mastery with a Pictos, the character can utilize a utility point pool of "Lumina Points" to equip any character with the Pictos Feat, without needing to have it equipped. Attributes, weapon scaling, skill points, and Lumina work in harmony to create a rich RPG component of the game, which provides a joyful opportunity to ponder increasingly powerful combinations to achieve higher damage outputs.
Clair Obscur's combat system is most similar to the Persona or Metaphor games, offering a simplified selection of attacking, utilizing an item, or skill on each character's respective turn. However, it changes things up a bit by featuring quick-time events on attacks, the timing of which can provide slight damage boosts. Unlike most turn-based JRPGs, Clair Obscur has an intriguingly reactive approach to combat, allowing party members to jump, dodge, or parry attacks in a combat system not dissimilar from something like Sekiro. Parrying an attack is extremely beneficial, because not only does it charge the valuable resource known as AP, to fuel skills, but it also provides an opportunity to counter attack on the enemy's turn for bonus damage. Dodging, while providing no counterattack, has a more generous timing window, meaning it may serve as a better option in high risk situations. Likewise, some attacks can only be avoided by jumping, providing opponents a chance to catch a player off guard, due to poor button inputs. The system is executed extremely well, with Nevrons possessing delayed attacks, and combo chains integrating a variety of attack methods, forcing the player to familiarize themselves with Nevron attack timing. When the party isn't dodging and parrying, they're on the offence, with Clair Obscur offering excellent spectacle moves, ranging from flying through the air raining down fire, to summoning massive beasts to fight along side. There's even an interesting free-aim mechanic, which allows Expeditioners to target weak points on Nevrons.
For me, Clair Obscur is an easy recommendation for any gamer. Regardless of whether you play games for music, art, narrative, reactive combat, or thoughtful RPG mechanics, this game offers something for almost everyone, and it does so at a level of quality unmatched even by most AAA developers. Discussions for this game being a GotY contender should be taken extremely seriously.
I've just finished playing Killer Frequency, an interactive horror fiction game developed and published by Team17. The game features a challenge achievement for completion in under four hours; however, I'd anticipate an average play length to be around five to six. Killer Frequency takes place on a late September evening, in a small town America. The year is 1987, and Forrest Nash, finds himself relegated to the middle of nowheresville, after a career ending fiasco in his past. Once a radio talk show host commanding an audience of over five million listeners, his current setup as a late DJ has fewer than 40 listeners in the sleepy town of Gallow's Creek. Lamenting his new station in life (pun intended), Forrest Nash is about to experience a night he won't soon forget.
Killer Frequency's narrative focuses on two primary characters, Forrest Nash, a used-to-be star of radio, and Peggy Weaver, a local radio producer at KFAM Radio. Decades ago, a serial killer known as "The Whistling Man" terrorized the town of Gallow's Creek; however, they've long since been relegated to the stuff of urban legend. Peggy and Forrest are unexpectedly swept up in a new mystery, as they receive a call from a local emergency line that the killer has returned, and rendered the town's emergency response systems inoperable. Left with no other choice, Forrest and Peggy are deputized as the 911 responders for the evening, in addition to managing their regular radio show broadcast. The story of Killer Frequency is narrated to Forrest quite explicitly, as he's literally locked in a room for much of the game. While Peggy is largely an endless well of historical facts about the town, or knowledge about its layout and people, much of the new information is learned when callers phone in for help. What plays out is an approximately 4~5 hour interactive audio book, with some "choose your own adventure" style story branching.
There is some clear intentionality to direct the tone of this game more towards "campy" than "horror" as callers will dial in with over the top accents, and 911 scenarios which are often times more humorous than tense. Even the grand narrative of the game is not particularly subtle with its clues, as the story unravels with a Scooby Doo level of absurdity to its characters motivations and identities. While this often times works in the game's favor, with there being a sound board in easy reaching distance of the phone line, allowing Forrest to queue in laugh tracks as people are screaming for help on their 911 calls, it does detract a bit from the feeling of a legitimate mystery to solve. The entire cast of characters is just alright, with most representing over-the-top caricatures; however, there's unfortunately not the level of narrative draw to truly intrigue.
The gameplay of Killer Frequency is much more akin to a visual novel, than a traditional adventure game. As the night progresses, Forrest takes calls from users in dangerous emergency situations, often at the hands of The Whistling Man, and must guide them through their problems over the phone. These scenarios may range from helping them jump start a car, to finding their way through a maze. These interactions are made through a limited dialogue tree process, where a caller will ask Forrest a question, and he'll usually respond from a list of three options. Frustratingly, much of the scenes are not easily sped through, which leaves Forrest just fiddling with objects on his desk, or throwing paper balls at the wastebasket during calls. There are some brief interludes where Forrest is given keys to unlock other parts of the building, which do not feel wholly authentic, as Peggy has all the keys but for unexplained reasons does not simply give them all to Forrest.
An interesting concept, I felt that Killer Frequency did not fully realize its potential, with a narrative which rarely rose above writing level of an 80's slasher movie, and gameplay mechanics which felt far too simple. Its boon, perhaps for some, is that the game is very easy, offering a relatively challenge free experience either mentally or technically. Personally, it's not a game I'd immediately volunteer a recommendation for, but I appreciate what they were trying to do with the title.
Killer Frequency's narrative focuses on two primary characters, Forrest Nash, a used-to-be star of radio, and Peggy Weaver, a local radio producer at KFAM Radio. Decades ago, a serial killer known as "The Whistling Man" terrorized the town of Gallow's Creek; however, they've long since been relegated to the stuff of urban legend. Peggy and Forrest are unexpectedly swept up in a new mystery, as they receive a call from a local emergency line that the killer has returned, and rendered the town's emergency response systems inoperable. Left with no other choice, Forrest and Peggy are deputized as the 911 responders for the evening, in addition to managing their regular radio show broadcast. The story of Killer Frequency is narrated to Forrest quite explicitly, as he's literally locked in a room for much of the game. While Peggy is largely an endless well of historical facts about the town, or knowledge about its layout and people, much of the new information is learned when callers phone in for help. What plays out is an approximately 4~5 hour interactive audio book, with some "choose your own adventure" style story branching.
There is some clear intentionality to direct the tone of this game more towards "campy" than "horror" as callers will dial in with over the top accents, and 911 scenarios which are often times more humorous than tense. Even the grand narrative of the game is not particularly subtle with its clues, as the story unravels with a Scooby Doo level of absurdity to its characters motivations and identities. While this often times works in the game's favor, with there being a sound board in easy reaching distance of the phone line, allowing Forrest to queue in laugh tracks as people are screaming for help on their 911 calls, it does detract a bit from the feeling of a legitimate mystery to solve. The entire cast of characters is just alright, with most representing over-the-top caricatures; however, there's unfortunately not the level of narrative draw to truly intrigue.
The gameplay of Killer Frequency is much more akin to a visual novel, than a traditional adventure game. As the night progresses, Forrest takes calls from users in dangerous emergency situations, often at the hands of The Whistling Man, and must guide them through their problems over the phone. These scenarios may range from helping them jump start a car, to finding their way through a maze. These interactions are made through a limited dialogue tree process, where a caller will ask Forrest a question, and he'll usually respond from a list of three options. Frustratingly, much of the scenes are not easily sped through, which leaves Forrest just fiddling with objects on his desk, or throwing paper balls at the wastebasket during calls. There are some brief interludes where Forrest is given keys to unlock other parts of the building, which do not feel wholly authentic, as Peggy has all the keys but for unexplained reasons does not simply give them all to Forrest.
An interesting concept, I felt that Killer Frequency did not fully realize its potential, with a narrative which rarely rose above writing level of an 80's slasher movie, and gameplay mechanics which felt far too simple. Its boon, perhaps for some, is that the game is very easy, offering a relatively challenge free experience either mentally or technically. Personally, it's not a game I'd immediately volunteer a recommendation for, but I appreciate what they were trying to do with the title.
Finished campaign of ghost of Tsushima. I’m really surprised at the high ratings, 6 out of 10 for me.
The simplicity of the graphics really put me off, flat texture cliff faces, cut and paste vegetation. It’s just too basic to entice me to explore the world in any way when it fails to create interest. Combat is good, but it’s an open world and just a bore to get through.
Sorry mega fans.
The simplicity of the graphics really put me off, flat texture cliff faces, cut and paste vegetation. It’s just too basic to entice me to explore the world in any way when it fails to create interest. Combat is good, but it’s an open world and just a bore to get through.
Sorry mega fans.
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Headliners
Cyberpunk
Cyberpunk
I've just finished playing The Invincible a futuristic walking sim developed by Starward Industries and published by 11 bit studios. The Invincibles is approximately a 4~5 hour story; however, pursuing all the achievements practically doubles that time.
The Invincible is set in the far future, when a scientist, Yasna, awakens on an alien planet with incomplete memories. Yasna's crew was on an expeditionary voyage, having just completed a recent mission to recover a rare mineral. Unfortunately, this mission left their captain, Novak, injured and confined to the command center of their ship. Despite his injuries, the crew decided to pursue one final mission to an unexplored planet, Regis III, under the pretext that a rival space corporation was making moves on it. Yasna quickly returns to her campsite, only to find that something very wrong is happening on this alien planet, and her crewmates will be of no help. Having restored her communications, she and captain Novak need to find a way to save the crew and evacuate from the planet. What they'll find on their journey though, will be more than either of them anticipate.
As a walking sim, the narrative of The Invincible basically is the game, which revolves around Yasna's effort to recover her lost memories, learn the secrets of Regis III, and evacuate her crew. Aspects of Yasna's backstory are conveyed via flashback sequences, which serve to provide context to why the crew landed on Regis III, and the events immediately following. As Yasna travels the planet, captain Kovak serves as her primary conversation partner, through which she bounces off various theories, and receives guidance towards the next destination. Rarely is there any method of story telling at play which is not very explicit, and rather heavy handedly conveyed to Yasna via expositional narration. As a heroine, Yasna's personality takes a backseat to the occasional dialogue options, intended to provide the player with some agency over the story. Unfortunately, for the most part, these are little more than flavor text, as Kovak will usually railroad the conversation back in the direction he intends to discuss.
There is a mystery at play on Regis III, as Yasna quickly uncovers evidence of unnatural structures. As one might expect from a futuristic space setting, themes such as artificial intelligence, alien life, and the role of humanity in the cosmos are explored across the events of The Invincible. For fans of sci-fi, there will likely not be any concepts present, which have not already been ruminated upon in other works of fiction. Unfortunately for The Invincible, this sets up a rather unfulfilling narrative, with many plot threads either being easily intuited, or tragically under explored. While the game provides some choice in guiding its outcome, almost none of the choices meaningfully impact the ending, save for couple decisions in the middle of the game, and then in the very last scene.
Mechanically, the gameplay of The Invincible is incredibly straight forward. Dr. Yasna pretty much just walks and interacts with her environment, as one might expect from a walking sim. Yasna has a few tools in her backpack, which can allow things such as a rudimentary tracking of signals in the area, or a metal detector, which can visually display objects beyond the surface of the ground. There are some opportunities for Yasna to interact with some various vehicles; however, they serve only to either gather information, or move her through areas faster. Even for a walking sim, Yasna moves painfully slowly, with even the sprint serving as only a marginal respite. Towards the end of the game I was convinced that if the planet didn't kill me, Yasna's cement laden legs just might. There are many points of gameplay friction which rear their ugly heads, particularly if one is replaying areas for 100% achievement. While some dialogue can be skipped, albeit only by moderately speeding up the speed, other dialogue is bizarrely unskippable. While one might assume this is because important things are happening in the area at the time, this is often not the case, with some unskippable dialogue appearing randomly while standing in a tunnel, or walking up a hillside. Frustratingly, Yasna is completely unable to interact with her environment during this dialogue, which leads to many instances of running into a door while waiting for Kovak to kindly shut up. The peak of this occurs in the last scene of the game, when a sequence of dialogue choices are necessary to influence the ending of the game; however, this scene is 10 minutes long and fully unskippable.
As a game which felt like it had the potential for some really intriguing space horror, The Invincible displayed enough weak points to bely its namesake. Its story, while serviceable, did not carry the weight or intrigue required to sustain my interest for the entire main story, and certainly not during the replay for multiple endings. For me, this game would not be a general recommendation. There are some interesting themes discussed for fans of sci-fi; however, much of it is painfully surface level.
The Invincible is set in the far future, when a scientist, Yasna, awakens on an alien planet with incomplete memories. Yasna's crew was on an expeditionary voyage, having just completed a recent mission to recover a rare mineral. Unfortunately, this mission left their captain, Novak, injured and confined to the command center of their ship. Despite his injuries, the crew decided to pursue one final mission to an unexplored planet, Regis III, under the pretext that a rival space corporation was making moves on it. Yasna quickly returns to her campsite, only to find that something very wrong is happening on this alien planet, and her crewmates will be of no help. Having restored her communications, she and captain Novak need to find a way to save the crew and evacuate from the planet. What they'll find on their journey though, will be more than either of them anticipate.
As a walking sim, the narrative of The Invincible basically is the game, which revolves around Yasna's effort to recover her lost memories, learn the secrets of Regis III, and evacuate her crew. Aspects of Yasna's backstory are conveyed via flashback sequences, which serve to provide context to why the crew landed on Regis III, and the events immediately following. As Yasna travels the planet, captain Kovak serves as her primary conversation partner, through which she bounces off various theories, and receives guidance towards the next destination. Rarely is there any method of story telling at play which is not very explicit, and rather heavy handedly conveyed to Yasna via expositional narration. As a heroine, Yasna's personality takes a backseat to the occasional dialogue options, intended to provide the player with some agency over the story. Unfortunately, for the most part, these are little more than flavor text, as Kovak will usually railroad the conversation back in the direction he intends to discuss.
There is a mystery at play on Regis III, as Yasna quickly uncovers evidence of unnatural structures. As one might expect from a futuristic space setting, themes such as artificial intelligence, alien life, and the role of humanity in the cosmos are explored across the events of The Invincible. For fans of sci-fi, there will likely not be any concepts present, which have not already been ruminated upon in other works of fiction. Unfortunately for The Invincible, this sets up a rather unfulfilling narrative, with many plot threads either being easily intuited, or tragically under explored. While the game provides some choice in guiding its outcome, almost none of the choices meaningfully impact the ending, save for couple decisions in the middle of the game, and then in the very last scene.
Mechanically, the gameplay of The Invincible is incredibly straight forward. Dr. Yasna pretty much just walks and interacts with her environment, as one might expect from a walking sim. Yasna has a few tools in her backpack, which can allow things such as a rudimentary tracking of signals in the area, or a metal detector, which can visually display objects beyond the surface of the ground. There are some opportunities for Yasna to interact with some various vehicles; however, they serve only to either gather information, or move her through areas faster. Even for a walking sim, Yasna moves painfully slowly, with even the sprint serving as only a marginal respite. Towards the end of the game I was convinced that if the planet didn't kill me, Yasna's cement laden legs just might. There are many points of gameplay friction which rear their ugly heads, particularly if one is replaying areas for 100% achievement. While some dialogue can be skipped, albeit only by moderately speeding up the speed, other dialogue is bizarrely unskippable. While one might assume this is because important things are happening in the area at the time, this is often not the case, with some unskippable dialogue appearing randomly while standing in a tunnel, or walking up a hillside. Frustratingly, Yasna is completely unable to interact with her environment during this dialogue, which leads to many instances of running into a door while waiting for Kovak to kindly shut up. The peak of this occurs in the last scene of the game, when a sequence of dialogue choices are necessary to influence the ending of the game; however, this scene is 10 minutes long and fully unskippable.
As a game which felt like it had the potential for some really intriguing space horror, The Invincible displayed enough weak points to bely its namesake. Its story, while serviceable, did not carry the weight or intrigue required to sustain my interest for the entire main story, and certainly not during the replay for multiple endings. For me, this game would not be a general recommendation. There are some interesting themes discussed for fans of sci-fi; however, much of it is painfully surface level.
I've just finished playing Donut County, an indie puzzle game developed by Ben Esposito and published by Annapurna Interactive. A title intended to be short, casual, and funny, the game can be comfortably 100% in under two hours.
Donut County is set in a fictional world with animal residents, not unlike a title such as Animal Crossing. In this world, there is a faction of creatures, Racoons (trash pandas), who control a rather interesting force of nature. The Racoons can use an app to deploy holes in the earth, which swallow up all trash in the area, gradually growing in size as they consume. Enter BK and Mira a pair of friends, one a racoon, and the other a human. The mischievous BK soon learns that by consuming trash via the app, he can earn prizes, such as the coveted quadcopter of his dreams. While lesser beings would be weighed down by morality, BK is a capitalistic racoon, and soon realizes that he can deploy the app at a large scale across the county, by integrating it with the Donut orders from the shop where he works. Chaos ensues.
Much of Donut County's narrative is told in retrospect, as the residents of Donut County assemble 999 feet below the surface of their now ruined county. BK and Mira are going through somewhat of a tense moment in their friendship, as BK is devastated that Mira has destroyed his hard earned quadcopter, whereas Mira is frustrated that BK has not only destroyed an entire county, but is now also trying to portray himself as a victimized hero. Each of the residents of the land beneath Donut County take turns recounting the moments before they were swallowed up by holes in the earth, in scenarios which range from the mundane to the rather comical. Despite its brevity, Donut County is, at its core, a light hearted comedy with BK and Mira's friendship as its central focus. The writing is often short and quippy, allowing the focus to shine on the gameplay aspects.
The gameplay of Donut County is very straight forward, with a whimsical art style which compliments the absurdity of the physics puzzles laid out across a level based format. Each level initiates with a small hole being deployed on a map, which BK controls via an app to slowly move around a sandbox style environment. These cluttered environments feature a wide array of objects strewn about, which necessitates slowly building one's hole larger and larger, to consume objects of ever greater scale. Fans of games like Katamari Damacy will instantly vibe with gameplay which emphasizes chaos, as the hole grows ever larger. While most levels are very straight forward, some introduce some interactivity from the hole, such as regurgitating objects from its depths, or mixing things within it to impact the environment. Each level is tightly designed, allowing a thoughtful player the ability to clear them in 2~3 minutes.
Racoon County is a game which I'd feel comfortable recommending to most people. Given its short length, people hungering for a deeper narrative, may find it lacking; however, its core gameplay loop is very cathartic. I found the experience of exiling things away to a void to be therapeutic, as I ruminated upon the darker points of life. The technical difficulty and straightforward narrative make Donut Country a game which could be easily enjoyed by most gamers.
Donut County is set in a fictional world with animal residents, not unlike a title such as Animal Crossing. In this world, there is a faction of creatures, Racoons (trash pandas), who control a rather interesting force of nature. The Racoons can use an app to deploy holes in the earth, which swallow up all trash in the area, gradually growing in size as they consume. Enter BK and Mira a pair of friends, one a racoon, and the other a human. The mischievous BK soon learns that by consuming trash via the app, he can earn prizes, such as the coveted quadcopter of his dreams. While lesser beings would be weighed down by morality, BK is a capitalistic racoon, and soon realizes that he can deploy the app at a large scale across the county, by integrating it with the Donut orders from the shop where he works. Chaos ensues.
Much of Donut County's narrative is told in retrospect, as the residents of Donut County assemble 999 feet below the surface of their now ruined county. BK and Mira are going through somewhat of a tense moment in their friendship, as BK is devastated that Mira has destroyed his hard earned quadcopter, whereas Mira is frustrated that BK has not only destroyed an entire county, but is now also trying to portray himself as a victimized hero. Each of the residents of the land beneath Donut County take turns recounting the moments before they were swallowed up by holes in the earth, in scenarios which range from the mundane to the rather comical. Despite its brevity, Donut County is, at its core, a light hearted comedy with BK and Mira's friendship as its central focus. The writing is often short and quippy, allowing the focus to shine on the gameplay aspects.
The gameplay of Donut County is very straight forward, with a whimsical art style which compliments the absurdity of the physics puzzles laid out across a level based format. Each level initiates with a small hole being deployed on a map, which BK controls via an app to slowly move around a sandbox style environment. These cluttered environments feature a wide array of objects strewn about, which necessitates slowly building one's hole larger and larger, to consume objects of ever greater scale. Fans of games like Katamari Damacy will instantly vibe with gameplay which emphasizes chaos, as the hole grows ever larger. While most levels are very straight forward, some introduce some interactivity from the hole, such as regurgitating objects from its depths, or mixing things within it to impact the environment. Each level is tightly designed, allowing a thoughtful player the ability to clear them in 2~3 minutes.
Racoon County is a game which I'd feel comfortable recommending to most people. Given its short length, people hungering for a deeper narrative, may find it lacking; however, its core gameplay loop is very cathartic. I found the experience of exiling things away to a void to be therapeutic, as I ruminated upon the darker points of life. The technical difficulty and straightforward narrative make Donut Country a game which could be easily enjoyed by most gamers.
Finished Mafia Remake. Good to hear that the new Mafia game will ditch the open world sections, they have to play to their strengths and make a linear cutscene heavy game with a great story. Now will start Death Stranding again.
What aspects of Mafia do you enjoy the most?