Category: First Impression

FEZ
by Chezni

FEZ is a 3-D game with one game-altering twist. Instead of rotating your avatar (Gomez) and your camera around in the world you play in, you instead rotate the world around Gomez at 90 degree intervals while Gomez is always confined to two-dimensional movement upon the either the  X or Y and the Z axes. Aside from providing an interesting mechanic to allow problem-solving in a platforming setting, this also just provides an interesting method of understanding the perspectives of 2-D vs 3-D movement in general. For instance, there is a section with a seemingly endless ocean that you can swim across in a on-dimensional line. After swimming out for a minute or so, simply rotating your perspective of the world once will place Gomez right back at the island, since from a two dimensional perspective looking at Gomez in the opposite direction he was swimming in would indicate that he is right next to the island itself. The game does not increase Gomez’s size, accounting for size discrepancies however, since perspectively Gomez would appear to be larger compared to the island in the distance than he actually was (and perhaps that’s a game for another time) but as that would ruin the game’s mechanics, I have no problem with this.

 

 

Plotwise, the world of FEZ is going to blow up because of the broken nature of three-dimensional movement impeding upon the two-dimensional and it’s up to you to collect 32 cubes (many of which are broken into multiple pieces) around the world. As far as I can tell, that’s pretty much it. There are no enemies, no villains, no spikes or catapults–it’s simply a game where you travel around quaint 2-D/3-D environments and collect cubes.

 

 

Now I’ll admit that so far, the game sounds a bit dull. In fact, while trying to critique FEZ, I underwent an internal struggle. If you haven’t heard before, I hate about 90% of the world’s puzzle games. As a whole I think they are a waste of time under the guise of a fun experience. When it comes to FEZ, two years ago I had actually played about 30 minutes of the game before–enough to identify it (incorrectly I admit) as just another 2-D puzzle game with a cheap gimmick that has no substance. While I can’t sit here and tell you that FEZ is a revolutionary product that breaks the boundaries of what a game can be, I also know that my initial analysis of the game was incorrect–the game isn’t really that bad. One problem I may have as a player is that when I play a game, I’m constantly looking for a challenge; I’m constantly looking to test my skills. Realistically, FEZ is not challenging. You have infinite lives, immediate respawns off any cliff you’ve fallen from and autosaves at every corner. However, If you slow down and don’t try to take it too seriously, it’s actually kind of fun. The game can be used as a sort of reprieve from complexity and its appeal falls in line with games like Mario 64 or Banjo Kazooie–the reward isn’t necessarily the defeat of another great enemy, but the collection of a piece of something resulting from the exploration of an interesting colorful world.

 

 

In the end, I realized that in some ways, the world may need games like this. Maybe I’m just feeling a little leniency from my usual harsher judgement of puzzle games. Maybe FEZ got lucky and in the moment I needed something a little slower-moving to provide a respite from the intensities of my usual challenging repertoire of games. Or maybe this challenge of Lepcis’s and mine is giving me a better appreciation and perspective over gaming as a whole. Regardless, I believe that FEZ needs to go into Tier 1, if only to remind stiff gamers like me that sometimes a game can be simple and relaxed, while still providing an engaging concept worth exploring. If you like Platformers that bend reality, this one might be for you.

 

Steam Link

 

 

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

Dark Messiah of Might and Magic
by Chezni

 

Completed Review

Dark Messiah of Might and Magic took me by surprise. When I think of the MM series, I typically think of party-built dungeon crawlers and tactical army-based strategy games. What I don’t think of are first-person RPGs—and yet not only is DMoMM (can we just call that DM?) a first-person RPG, it’s a great first-person RPG.

DM has everything a great game needs. Excitement, adventure, enough dialogue to keep things interesting, not too much dialogue to make things boring, mechanics that don’t just push the game forward but mechanics that are fun—for instance, one interesting feature is that you can always deliver a good strong kick in front of you with the F key. What can this be used for? What can’t this be used for! I’ve kicked people into fireplaces. I’ve kicked people into spikes. I’ve kicked zombies off of cliffs. I’ve drop-kicked pottery into a town guard’s head just for fun! Kicking isn’t just a strictly combative mechanical feature of the game, it’s built into the way you can interact with the world around you. A good strong kick (or a series of the same) will destroy a large portion of the architecture in the game and a majority of the objects are able to interacted with, or at least picked up and thrown. This means that the traditional combat of “block and strike” opens up into a wide range of feats in a 3-D world. You can do something as simple as throw a barrel at a knight, or find some oil, break it on the ground near a chokepoint and when in danger ignite it while running past to cover your retreat. You can lure guards to unstable storage structures and break the supports when they are underneath. You can pick up a teacup and chuck it at a ghoul because… well darn it, sometimes you just have a desire to throw the good china at the undead!

While progress in the game is linear, the levels are designed with enough secrets and multiple paths that in many instances you can choose your route. Combined with the destructive environment, and simple but distinct choice of weapons and skill paths, I felt encouraged to explore unique ways of fighting because the game seems to reward it all in an equally potent manner. Usually when I play a game, I find specialization in traps to be an overwhelmingly tedious task with underwhelming rewards. In DM though, I’ve not only discovered how to effectively use my fire trap spell, I’ve found that I love it! I feel excited when I’m running away from a pack of thugs and in my haste I have the presence of mind to throw down the trap in the middle of the doorway. The sound of explosions behind me usually signal that its done its job well. The collateral damage caused by the explosion just adds more fun to the chaos. Once, I found myself in an attic whereupon with each trigger of the trap spell, another portion of the floor boards were blown completely away, making combat with the remaining enemies a dance upon the remaining shifty rafter floorboards.

The environments of the game are nice, and despite being over 10 years old, the game largely avoids uncanny valley by not overstepping the bounds of its graphical design. The story and characters, while not particularly profound or engaging, are likewise not bad and provide sufficient motivation for the player while having a few interesting twists here and there. If I had one complaint, it’s that in spite of the well-designed nooks and crannies containing hidden treasure, I feel that too often the treasure is healing or mana potions. I would have enjoyed more unique rewards for my exploration (something along the lines of Lands of Lore II where almost every secret reveals something unique or rare) but the limited pool of weapons and equipment does keep the game from becoming a gear hunt and more of a check against your skill as a player with the equipment you have on hand.

From what little of DM I’ve played, it’s been a well-paced and simply a fun experience. Whether it’s finding the next hidden terrace I can leap onto through a window, or the next sweet explosion from a fire trap that destroys half the environment, I look forward to my future exploits in the game.

 

Steam Link

 

 

 

 

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).

Fallout Tactics
by Chezni

The Fallout series (much to the dismay of my peers) has never been my cup of clam chowder. Don’t get me wrong, I appreciate the game franchise for what it is and what it provides its players–it’s just that I’ve never really liked the Wasteland setting for my post-apocalyptic games. Maybe the series is just too dry for me–or maybe I don’t like the way that the ever looming presence of the desert, radiation, and a less than plentiful supply of bullets constantly weighs down upon my weary desert-traveling soul. Don’t count my credentials out though–I’ve beaten Fallout 1, and I’ve even beaten its spiritual ancestor “Wasteland” (let me tell you, that was a trip) but at no point did I ever feel the special connection that so many seemed to have with this kind of game. As I loaded up Fallout Tactics, the third in the Fallout series, I expected to be met with the same wall that before had segregated my enjoyment of the series and was surprised to find… that I think I actually like this game.

Just as the other two Fallout games, Fallout Tactics begins with you building your character with the exact same stats, perks and skills as before. What makes this game different, is that instead of being kicked out of your vault with a knife, a pistol and a handful of bullets with the expectation that you survive in the harsh wasteland, you instead are injected into a series of scenarios that you must tackle, each with their own objective. The story goes, that you are in-training for the Brotherhood of Steel, and as a new recruit you are being sent on a series of missions to test your metal. In each mission you’ll get a handful of party members to assist you; thus the tactical portion of Fallout Tactics.

I’ve heard complaints about this game from fans of the others, and I can see why. Gone are the sections of exploration. Gone is the need for extensive role-playing with NPCs or grueling survival through the desert. It’s these absences that are probably the source of many’s complaints about this game–but it is the source of my enjoyment. I no longer feel like I’m wasting my time, wandering from town to town because I didn’t use the right dialogue option on a random NPC. Gone are the hours spent trying to pierce The Glow’s radiation without the proper equipment, or trying to track down a damn water chip. Instead, you focus much more on equipment management and party tactics in combat.

Does it deserve to be a Fallout game? …Probably not. If Fallout lore or role playing isn’t that big of a deal for you and you enjoy mini-scenarios involving strategy and party management then you might find something in this title. It’s nothing spectacular, but it’s less frustrating than trying to unearth the next piece of plot in Fallout 1.

 

Steam Link

 

  

Sid Meier’s Ace Patrol
by Chezni

“Oh, a game by Sid Meier with planes? So, a plane builder/simulator I’m guessing?” *clicks on game* “Oh… dear. What is this.”

SM’s Ace Patrol is surprisingly a hexagonal strategy game involving the command of up to 4 planes in a take-turn simulated dog-fight experience set in… some war… sometime. Over in Europe or something. Er, maybe it was WWI. I dunno. I didn’t pay attention… to the game or my history classes. (Also, if you want this to get weirder, it was made by 2K–the same people who brought you BioShock and Borderlands.)

Recently I’ve been in a pattern of embellishing my reviews, but I’m just gonna give you this one straight up. Don’t play this game. It’s not worth your time.

The game starts out with you picking a pilot… but it wont’ really matter because you’ll get them all anyway. It then throws you into some tutorial missions, and then onto the campaign screen where you can manage your planes, pilots and missions. I also found that for some reason, someone had set the difficulty to the easiest setting which I raised. Each mission was an interesting yet simple simulation of what grid-based aircraft piloting would look like, with easy-to understand accounting for elevation, G-Force, and other factors, but in the end, you’ll probably just end up clicking arrows on whatever lets you deal the most damage to an enemy plane, without really thinking about what you’re doing.

 

Your pilots will gain levels and skills, with a wide variety of plane techniques, but I’ll be honest–I didn’t read any of them or try to figure out what they did, because in the end, I knew it would matter, so I just clicked on random ones for each pilot when it came time for upgrades. Also, is it me, or do you just want to punch each of the pilots in the face too?

 

 

 

I played enough levels to get to what I assume was a milestone mission where I had to take down a Zeppelin, upon which I was showered with more upgrades and skills that I scattered about my pilots without rhyme or reason. All I did to win the mission was click on arrows and make sure that my pilots were focus-firing. The game is somewhat amusing but has little substance and is a time waster in the strictest sense. Lightweight gamers may enjoy this, but it’s barely above the complexity of a Facebook game.

 

Steam Link

 

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