Author: LepcisMagna

SPAAAAAAAACE!
This is the Police
by LepcisMagna

There are a lot of things to like about this game.  You’re a 60 year old policeman three months from forced retirement.  All you have to do is survive (and fight crime, presumably).  Unfortunately, the Mafia may have something to say about that.  And City Hall – and they aren’t much better.

One thing I very much liked about this game was the perfect mood it sets.  From the record player in your office to the between-day cutscenes to the choices you make, this is what a game should feel like.  After about nine days, I restarted the game because I had made choices I didn’t understand at the time and determined to play better.  My next game lasted for 10 days until I was shot and killed in my home.  I think I will prefer to think of that as the real end to my game.  Mechanically speaking, my only real complaint is that the events are not randomized – at least in the first nine days, events proceeded exactly the same as my first time through.  That’s acceptable, if unfortunate for replayability.  Other than that, it’s almost perfect (well, besides the “start your car three times every day” thing).  Except… I cheated.  I read some reviews.  And while I understand some people thought it went on too long (and yes, 180 days is actually pretty substantial  – maybe too substantial), the real thing which ruins this is the real lack of choice in the face of apparent options.

During my research, I learned that even if you succeed beyond all expectation in the game parts, you lose in the story parts.  And that’s sad.  If your narrative says that the player will never succeed, then you aren’t really making a game – you’re making a movie.  A player that does well should be given the “third way” that allows them some escape – even if it isn’t optimal or a “perfect ending”.  But it should reward a player for creative thinking or superb performance.  Let me give you an example of a game that doesn’t do this.  At the beginning of Fable III (which is apparently dead on PC now – and I can’t say I mind), you’re told by the king to make a choice of whom to kill/exile: your childhood friend or a group of peasants.  I refused to make this choice – that’s not in my moral code.  I very much – both as a player and as a character – wanted to stride up and hit the king with my sword.  This wasn’t an option.  So as I sat there (trying very hard to use my movement keys to select the king), the king decided to do away with both my friend and the peasants since I didn’t do anything (according to the game).  I think as a player, I was supposed to feel bad about this.  I didn’t, for the simple reason that when a game give you a binary choice (or, more specifically, when a game tries to create a convincing illusion of choice), it should be within your power to reject both of the choices presented.  This is the Police does not allow you this (from my understanding of the endgame).  And so it goes to Tier Three, though I do not regret the few hours I spent playing it.

Steam link

Risen
by LepcisMagna

Risen is an RPG in the style of Morrowind and Neverwinter Nights 2 – moral decisions to make, monsters to fight, places to explore (sadly no character creation, which is a pity).  Of course, there’s a reason I chose those two RPGs to compare it – the graphics are about on par with Morrowind (or maybe my memory is just smoothing out the polygons) and not quite as good as NWN2.  Still, I’m not a stickler for fantastic graphics – in fact, I’d prefer if mechanics and worldbuilding came first more often.  I only mention it because in an open-world RPG, you are quite often looking at the scenery for long periods of time.  Particularly in Risen, when your movement speed isn’t quite as fast as you would like, poor graphics can start to wear you down.  And don’t get me started on whoever modeled the female characters.  I’m surprised they can stand upright.

My real issue with Risen comes from the combat.  Read practically any review of Risen and you’ll see people saying it’s a great RPG hidden behind a terrible combat system.  And they’re probably right – it does seem like there’s quite the branching, fleshed-out world behind the clunky combat.  Extremely clunky combat.  Unreasonably clunky combat.  It’s probably unfair to compare it to Dark Souls, since it was another three years before Dark Souls came out, but that is the most readily available comparison, since Risen features very dangerous combat and a lock-on targeting system – much like Dark Souls.  But where Dark Souls lock-on works wonderfully and allows you to keep or switch targets readily, Risen will automatically lock on to whatever is directly in front of you.  This means that when enemies lunge and you side-step, you lose your lock-on and not get it back for a couple seconds – an eternity in combat time.  I also feel that the dangerous combat is less precise and more luck-based than Dark Souls’, making quicksaves unfortunately mandatory.  This may just be my lack of experience with the system, so take that with a grain of salt.

In the end, this goes into Tier Two because I’m just not having fun with the combat and exploration – two of the three main components (the other being plot/relationships) of an open-world RPG.  Maybe I’ll go play NWN2 again.

Steam Link

Serious Sam – The Other Ones
by LepcisMagna

The Second Encounter

I loaded this up, started out, and thought: “Hmm…this looks suspiciously familiar.  Like, exactly the same as the first game.  Hmm…yep.  Same desert, same oasis.  Though it’s raining this time.  Or maybe I just didn’t notice that the first time.”  Turns out, the Second Encounter was much like a DLC pack for the First Encounter.  And (on Steam at least) if you own both, the First Encounter levels are imported into the Second Encounter game.  Since The Second Encounter is basically more of the same, I’m sticking with my original assessment for this one – Tier One.

That being said, I do have one complaint I didn’t mention in my impression of the First Encounter that has grown to irritate me quite a bit while playing: most enemies teleport in – which means that you’ll frequently be attacked from behind by things that weren’t there five seconds ago.  This feels like a cheap way of increasing difficulty without really making things more challenging.  Having a single type of enemy do this or having it happen on certain levels would make sense.  But when it is the primary method of fighting, it grows tiresome after a while.

The Random Encounter

This is a 2D, turn-based RPG based on Serious Sam.  It’s a parody of Serious Sam, which is itself a parody – and it just doesn’t need to exist.  It isn’t particularly fun.  There are better ways to spend your time.  Don’t play it.  It goes to Tier Three, narrowly escaping Tier Four only because it isn’t aggressively bad all the time.

Serious Sam 2

The First and Second Encounters have a classic charm to them.  Sam makes occasional one-liners that are atrociously bad, but intentionally so – and it’s forgiven because it only happens sometimes.  Somewhat like old Duke Nukem.  There’s real challenge to be found (even ignoring the stupid teleporting monsters).  But in the SS2, there’s an inexplicable return of the lives system which hasn’t made sense since you could save your game.  The art is cartoonish and suffers from what I can only call early-2000s 3D syndrome, where everyone was trying to make things look cool and new, but ended up making games that have aged terribly – worse even than Classic Serious Sam.  This one, too, must be sent to Tier Three – though I may look at it again if I beat all the other games.

Serious Sam: Double D XXL

Why?  Why does Croteam think licensing Serious Sam out for cross-genre games is a good idea?  This time, it’s a sidescrolling shooter.  It doesn’t work well either – though better than the Random Encounter.  Within five seconds, I’m given two tutorial messages that completely stop gameplay.  I’d like to imagine Serious Sam from The First Encounter punching the robot telling you these things, especially when the robot even admits that it’s something Sam would already know.  It doesn’t make it better just because you’re being self-aware about it.  I know the things can teleport.  They just did.  Right in front of me.  Just let me shoot the things.  Tier Three again, but mostly because it pushed my game-hating buttons.  The actual gameplay might not actually be terrible.  I didn’t care to play long enough to find out.

Serious Sam Classics: Revolution

This is an indie remake of the original Serious Sam First and Second Encounters.  It’s different than the HD remasters.  No, I don’t know why there’s another one – though this one is in Early Access.  Once again, I find myself in a desert with a hidden area at an oasis.  It’s also raining this time.  It’s going into Tier Two because at this point, I’ve played the First and Second encounters enough, and this remake just doesn’t capture the same charm as the original for me.  Or I’m just tired of playing through Egypt.  The HD remasters are what you should play.

Serious Sam 3: BFE

Having played Doom, I was totally wrong in my guesses about what BFE meant, though I honestly couldn’t figure out the E (Egg? Echydna?  Exarch?  Eyes?).  Then I learned it was a prequel – so it stands for Before First Encounter.  That’s less entertaining than I was expecting.  Much like the game itself.  I started up a new game and was greeted by … Call of Duty?  Did I start the wrong game?  Oh.  oh…  On the plus side, after it got rolling, things improved and I was soon bashing and shooting my way through thick waves of classic monsters.  While I’m not sure I agree with the inclusion of such powerful melee attacks (almost prescient to DOOM, even), the early fights were satisfying and sufficiently challenging to pique my interest.

Of course, there’s a problem when they introduce the screaming fellows.  You know the ones.  If you don’t, you’ll soon come to love them (if you play this game).  The problem is, it’s the EXACT same moment as the First Encounter.  I believe Sam has the exact same dialogue.  And that’s really the problem I’ve been noticing with these games.  Croteam made 1.5 good Serious Sam games (since the Second Encounter was expanded DLC) and have just been repeating the same game ever since.  First they made SS2, but went too far afield.  Now, they are trying a return to form, though I’m not sure if it succeeds.  So for now, this too will go into Tier Two – since I think it’s probably worth picking up later, after I finish the HD remasters.

On an entirely unrelated note: Croteam’s later release, The Talos Principle, is worth a shot if you like puzzle games – very different than Serious Sam, but even better in its genre than the First Encounter.

Steam Links

Serious Sam: The First Encounter
by LepcisMagna

Sure, it’s basically Doom (no, not DOOM) crossed with Duke Nukem.  But you know?  Those were good games (well, mostly Doom).  Serious Sam: The First Encounter is a worthy successor.  Distinctive enemies (even if a couple of them are palette swaps), satisfying weaponry, and amusing dialogue make for a solid, fun game.

I want to briefly tell you about my first ten minutes: I have a habit of always trying to go the opposite way when a game starts.  Results range from the acceptable break from reality (the screen just doesn’t scroll that way) to the frustrating (Assassin’s Creed desync, I’m looking at you).  But Serious Sam?  I walk 45 seconds in the opposite direction.  A bunch of tough enemies spawn.  Ten minutes later, I’ve killed them all with my pistol and there’s a secret stash waiting at a desert oasis.  I was rewarded for trying something different (there was a slow health drain another minute out, but at least there wasn’t an instakill for not doing what the developers expected).

Before I even felt like I started, my hour was up.  I will definitely be playing more.

Hyper Light Drifter
by LepcisMagna

This game seems a cross between Bastion and Superbrothers: Sword & Sworcery EP.  What luck – those are both great games!  Except…Bastion has the epic combination of sublime narration and blissful soundtrack, while Superbrothers has some clever puzzles backed by fantastic sound and visuals.  Conversely, HLD seems almost mediocre in all respects except the art.  Combat is simple, the goal beyond killing things seems to be entirely item collection, and the story is minimalistic – none of those are necessarily bad by themselves, but a good game needs something to distinguish itself.  It pains me to say it, but this feels like the indie equivalent of many AAA games – it looks pretty, but everything else is milk toast in order to offend the fewest people.  It’s not bad, but there’s nothing motivating me to play it.  I believe I’ve seen similar problems from other Kickstarted games where there’s a pull to please your backers – one which few games escape.  Perhaps I would feel differently had I played its inspiration (I know – it’s gaming heresy that I haven’t – though… I’ve always been more a Chrono Trigger guy).

ICEY
by LepcisMagna

If you haven’t played ICEY, you probably have one of two reactions: “ICEY?  Never heard of it.” which isn’t surprising, since it seems to be a somewhat small title.  But, as is more likely if you keep up with games news: “ICEY?  That’s the Anime Fighter Stanley Parable, right?”  And indeed, it is.

I went into ICEY expecting quite a bit based on the hype.  Initially, I was underwhelmed.  As a fighter, it’s not terribly difficult (though it does use a dual WASD and IJKL control scheme, which I think is kinda nice).  The Stanley Parable bits weren’t terribly exciting; though I probably wouldn’t have said that before the Stanley Parable came out, but now all games must suffer underneath the quintessential decision simulator.

As my hour progressed, I changed my mind – it’s still not terribly difficult (though a few boss fights have been challenging), but it’s a fine addition to the Parable-esque games genre: the hype having washed away, I was able to enjoy it for what it was.  And I ended up playing twice as long as I meant to: which is the whole point of Tier One, no?

Steam link

Vagante
by LepcisMagna

I struggled with where I should put this game.  From my hour of play, it didn’t seem to be anything special – simply another roguelite set in a Spelunky-esque environment.  I died a few times – sometimes to spikes (an aggravating insta-kill – the only one in the game), sometimes to gigantic monsters, and sometimes due to my own ineptitude.  But while this has the usual trappings of a roguelike – e.g. Permadeath, constant danger, and randomly generated levels -it doesn’t have the same feel as you get from, say, Golden Krone Hotel.  I haven’t played enough to confirm this, but at a glance I would say that Vagante doesn’t have the same meaningful choices a roguelike needs to remain entertaining.  I was ready to put this into Tier Three, since I didn’t feel much motivation to continue to play this game.

Two things stopped me: First, this is an Early Access title.  I read some of the Steam reviews, and one fellow had over 1,000 hours into Vagante, proclaiming it one of the best roguelikes ever.  But near the end of his review, there was a note that it had changed since the time he had put in his time – mellowing it out and taking some of the special-ness from it, but making it more accessible.  That saddens me, but it also means that it’s possible it will improve just as much before it leaves Early Access – so it might be worth waiting.

Secondly, it seems to be a Co-op focused title.  My experiences were below par, but part of that may have been playing solo.  If you have a solo mode, good co-op isn’t an excuse for poor solo play – but it’s enough to make me want to revisit this sometime.

Steam link

Golden Krone Hotel
by LepcisMagna

A roguelike set in a castle filled with vampires, monsters, and humans – and you can play as all three (sometimes in one playthrough!).

What makes this worth playing are the few unusual mechanics:

  • Windows let in sunlight and moonlight, hurting or healing you if you are a vampire or werewolf, respectively.
  • The humans are friendly if you are a human, and the vampires are friendly if you’re a vampire. You can get different bits of story from each.
  • Unidentified potions have three possibilities so you have some control over your risk-taking.
  • If an item you find is better, you equip it and sell the old one. If an item isn’t better, you just sell it – ridding the game of tedious inventory management.
Unfortunately – because it is a roguelike – it is a long and difficult journey. I had a lot of fun playing this for an hour and I would definitely recommend this to anyone who likes roguelikes… but there are enough of those on my list that I’m going to have to put this one on the back burner until I clear out more of my Steam inventory. It’s also still in Early Access, so coming back once more polish has been added might not be a terrible idea.
Creeper World 3: Arc Eternal
by LepcisMagna

Creeper World 3: Arc Eternal is one of several sequels to a flash game I played on Kongregate.  It’s a modified Tower Defense game where you battle the “Creeper”: a mindless flood of indeterminate blue goo.  Emitters gradually fill the map with the Creeper (putting out layer after layer that slowly climbs the landscape), and it’s your job to survive long enough to collect the important resources and escape by placing cannons and energy collectors across the map.
I bought this game practically with the mindset of it being a Tier Two game (though we hadn’t come up with that yet): something I wanted to support the developers in because I enjoyed the flash game, but not something I really ever expected to complete.  It has solid core mechanics and dozens – if not hundreds – of levels (not including custom or random maps).  It’s unique enough to be interesting, but I’ve played enough of it to be satisfied (partly I played the flash game).  I’ll return to it when I have time or find myself wanting to play it again.

Steam link

Darkest Dungeon
by LepcisMagna

A side-scrolling/turn-based adventure to clear out your inherited castle with some town upgrade elements thrown in.  It seems a solid game, but it has a gritty grimdark aesthetic which doesn’t quite click for me.
My only real complaints are these:

  • The narrator – who sets a wonderfully insane tone in the introductory cinematic – has a comment about every other action you take, which gets old before the introductory mission is over.
  • Single actions in combat take about 10 seconds to play out – slowing things to a crawl.
  • Due to the art style, buttons and actionable items blend into the environment and make menus seem crammed and unclear.

I may pick this up again in the future – especially if I can find an option to turn off the narrator (to be fair, I didn’t look while playing).  I do enjoy Lovecraftian horror, but the art style and combat pacing are too off-putting.

Steam link