Category: Tier One

Sunless Sea
by LepcisMagna

“Lose your mind.  Eat your crew. Die.”

This is the motto of Sunless Sea, and well it encapsulates the nature of this sea-faring adventure game with roguelike elements. The premise is straightforward yet perfectly hints at what is to come: 100 years ago, London fell beneath the earth into the Sunless Sea.  You are out to seek your fortune in this dangerous world, and can choose one of several goals. The DLC (Zubmariner) adds the goal of immortality, so of course I chose that one.

Along the way toward your goal, you meet strange and fascinating people, visit alien islands, and occasionally sail off the edge of the world to meet an elder god and have his minion join your crew. The draw of all this are the countless, beautifully written stories you run into at every turn. This game is narrative storytelling done right – a well-written text adventure punctuated by vast, empty sea.

On that note, it might be tempting to criticize Sunless Sea for the sheer time it takes to get from one point on the map to the other. Your ship moves painfully slowly across seemingly endless sea.  But I think it would be impossible to have this game without those long moments of nothingness.  Indeed, at the heart of Sunless Sea is a feeling of exploration.  Your supplies running low, the terror mounting as you sail into utter blackness simply hoping for a port to appear on the horizon. That’s what makes exploration exhilarating – and it would be impossible to have the moments of adventure and discovery without the blackness between. That’s something Elite: Dangerous tried to have, but spread itself too thin in the process.

From a mechanics standpoint, Sunless Sea is very straightforward.  You purchase fuel and food, keep within sight of land to stall rising terror from your crew, and occasionally battle a sea monster or pirate ship with under-powered weapons and a paper-thin hull. This is my only point of contention with Sunless Sea: the AI for the pirates is bad enough that you can just follow right behind them and win every time, while the sea monsters are maneuverable enough that very little can be gained from fighting them for most of the game – it’s easier to just run away.  There’s little middle ground to the challenge, which is a pity.

Even so, I can forgive the terrible combat since Sunless Sea is much more about exploration and narrative adventure – and that it does well. There are few reliable trade routes that are worth the supplies required, so your best bet is almost always to continue exploring – story events will often reward you handsomely. The stories you find are typically as isolated as the islands they take place on, but there is enough connective tissue in quests from London that it never feels entirely disconnected.


I’ll admit, I’m struggling to write this – partially because I’ve been idle for so long and partially because anything I could write is put to shame by the quality of writing within Sunless Sea.  I’ll leave it at this: Sunless Sea is a solid Tier One – something you can get lost in; not as perfect as FTL, but forgiven for its depth of story and perfect evocation of being a Zailor on the Sunless Sea.

Steam link

Boss Monster (with Expansion)
by LepcisMagna

 

It’s been a while since I’ve posted. Too long a while. That’s mostly because I’ve been playing Dark Souls III – a review I want to write soon, but one that I’m not sure I can do justice.

In the meantime, I have played another board game with Chezni at our FLGS. This time, the game is Boss Monster with its expansion “The Next Level.”  When we first played this some time ago, it seemed a tad simplistic, but with a lot of potential.  Now that we’ve played with the expansion, I can say definitively that the game – as it comes out of the box – is disappointing.  The typical game goes something like this: You are the boss of a dungeon, à la Dungeon Keeper (the original, not that abomination).  You build a dungeon using card “rooms,” and heroes come to attack you and the other players based on the room card treasure types (of which there are four).  You have a rather limited pool of spells you can use to help yourself or hinder the other players, but they are sorely underused.  There is very little interaction with the other players beyond choosing your dungeon treasure specialization.  Once you’ve built a reasonable dungeon, the game becomes a bit of a slow plod to the victory condition (beating all the heroes or acquiring 10 hero souls in our game). This is quite sad, since the rooms and spells are varied and interact with each other in interesting ways.

So here are the problems: First, spells are criminally underused unless you fall into the “Mage” category of dungeon (even then, the rooms which allow you to draw spells are typically underpowered). Second, games are either too short (with normal victory conditions) or far too long (with the alternate game modes). Finally, interaction with the other player dungeons is almost nonexistent and the heroes themselves aren’t unique or interesting enough to provide challenge or variety enough to make this a good game. This is terrible, since the cards themselves are well-made, pretty, and well-balanced.  Chezni and I spent some time trying to fix these problems, and here’s what we came up with:

Changes:

  1. Draw a room card OR a spell card at the beginning of each turn, and remove all the “Haunted Library” cards from the deck.
  2. In a two-player game, set the win condition to 20 points.  In general, increase win conditions for fewer players and increase loss conditions for more players.
  3. In a two-player game, remove half the ordinary hero cards if you are playing with the expansion.
  4. Set a maximum for +x spell cards to +3 for balance.

These changes allow for an early race to build a suitable dungeon, but ensure that once you have a good enough dungeon you are able to focus on inhibiting the other players by drawing spell cards instead.  Since the Sorcerobe School cards do essentially this, it makes sense to just remove them from the game. Increasing the victory condition allows you to have a more entertaining game by ensuring you get epic heroes and good use out of spell cards. Together, these fixes bring this game from “okay, but flawed” to “actually fun”; or, in PICD terms: from Tier Three to Tier One.

Amazon link

 

EDIT 2018-10-03: We have confirmed that this is a fun game with the above changes for two players.  Adding spells makes the game far more dynamic and interactive – things can change quickly and there’s a lot more play between bosses, rather than just running your own dungeon.

Deus Ex: GOTY (Completed)
by Chezni

 

 

First Impression Review

Lepcis and I have been busy lately pretending to be adults, which has left our attention to PICD a bit scarce. Rest assured, our passion for gaming in all forms has never ebbed, it has merely had to be redirected in a few ways to better mold to our schedule. So what has ol’ Chezni been up to? Well, aside from repeatedly getting my Runner teeth kicked in by the NBN corporation controlled by Lepcis (click here if confused) I’ve been dumping my free time back into Deus Ex: Game of the Year Edition. Continue reading “Deus Ex: GOTY (Completed)” →

Deus Ex: Game of the Year Edition
by Chezni

 

Completed Review

 

You gain Brouzouf

You gain Brouzouf

You gain Brouzouf

My legs are ok

It all makes sense now… thanks to…

 

 

So I didn’t grow up getting to play Daikatana, Perfect Dark, System Shock, Deus Ex, or any of the other popular sci-fi futuristic FPS’s when I was a kid. I don’t think I was ever necessarily against them, but I think the age of the intended audience when these games were being released was generally above mine and my parents weren’t keen on giving me access to “mature” games. Luckily, in the recent years I’ve gotten to play a couple of these kinds of titles and some of them have been fantastic–E.Y.E. in particular (although this didn’t come out until 2011). All the while I was fascinated with E.Y.E., I kept reading references that it was largely inspired by Deus Ex; there’s even a monster in E.Y.E. called the Deus Ex Machina (which I know is also a saying but shutup). I don’t know why I was surprised when I turned on Deus Ex: Game of the Year Edition, but Deus Ex’s mechanics are very similar to E.Y.E.’s and in some cases I love Deus Ex’s even more-so.

 

 

Deus Ex is a sci-fi futuristic FPS with some basic RPG elements, a real-time body-part injury system, an equipment inventory feature (with plenty of items to pick up) and a choose-your-own-adventure playstyle where you get to solve the missions the way you want to. Similar to E.Y.E. (or vice versa), in the world of Deus Ex people are just as much machine as they are human. Cyber implants are installed to boost performance in specialized fields, personal batteries need recharged to power augmentations and vast bodily injury is not only sustainable but quickly repaired given the presence of the appropriate medical robots. See that picture up there? It doesn’t look too impressive (or hilarious) until you realize that that I have no legs. During the training exercises in the beginning of the game, I accidentally blew my own legs off upon which I was relegated to using my arms to crawl around on the ground at the speed of a snail while leaving a blood trail. See that guy in the window? He’s one of the training instructors. He just watched me the whole time. I’m convinced he’s jackass.

 

 

It didn’t take me long to figure out what kind of game I was playing or what I could expect after a couple rounds on the first mission. Upon the mission’s start, I grabbed some booze and an open can of soda lying on the docks, proceeded to talk to my brother and drink the open can of soda, tried to taze a robot with a stun rod, got filled with a copious amount of machine-fired bullets and bled to death on the docks. Thinking I should take a wiser approach, I decided to avoid the robot and search around for anything to aid my in my quest. I found a crowbar, and as any reasonable person would, began bashing in nearby crates to see if they had any goods. Running into a UNATCO Troop who was aimlessly walking around, he greeted me with “Welcome aboard, Agent.” Immediately, I identified such complacent courtesy with the actions of a double-agent, so I began to bash his face in with said crowbar. Luckily I was able to part his soul from his mortal container before I was gunned down on the spot by my very own brother–a clear sign that he was in cahoots with the conspiracy as well. My third attempt, my spirit left battered and bruised from my previous two, lead me to taking a desperate route where I beat any terrorist I found to death with nothing but a police baton. This revealed itself to be a surprisingly effective strategy until one of the terrorists decided to throw a poison grenade at me, resulting in my slow an painful death. Clearly this is the baton’s one and only flaw.

 

 

I went back and forth on whether this deserved Tier 1 or Tier 2 priority. Arguments for Tier 1 include getting to choose your playstyle, a somewhat interesting setting and mood, not babying your actions, having clear consequences for your actions, rewarding exploration and plenty of tools and gadgets for you to play with. Tier 2 arguments comprise of simplistic combat, a somewhat generic story (so far), a lack of in-game motivation to succeed (I’m not sure exactly why Denton is doing what he’s doing) and the talky bits can be a bit… well talky. In  the end, I parked at Tier 1–there’s just something raw about the game that provided the final tipping point. It’s the way that you’re left to discover the game on your own and figure things out–success is granted with reward and failure granted with punishment. Whichever side of the line you fall on relies on you. Now, that being said… just what am I going to do with this open can of soda?

Steam Link

Hitman: Absolution
by Chezni

 

Finally, I’ve reached the apex. The 5th Hitman game in my library. The final shot. The final chance for Hitman to right the wrongs, put all the pieces together and really deliver on something good. With a sigh I loaded…

 

 

Wow. How. Why?

These questions all came to my mind when , but do little for you, my reader, to implicate what emotion was attached to them. I can tell you that what I felt was a long forgotten feeling. Something that had only barely sparked while playing the first game in the series. Excitement. Interest. Fun. HECK yeah. Hitman Absolution is fantastic.

 

 

Wow.

So let’s start with the wow. Absolution took what was present in the previous 4 Hitman games and finally had the courage to push it to the next level. It probably helps that Square Enix was the publisher. Say what you will about their departure from the formula of the old Final Fantasy games, I guess money and experience are probably good ingredients for any game. The first thing I noticed when kicking off Absolution’s executable was the mood. Finally, the mood was right. Agent 47 had the perfect blend of foreboding brooding and silent power without overdoing it. His actions, lines, and mannerisms struck gold in the name of interest, clarity and entertainment all at once. The presentation of 47 was believable without being boring–power fantasy inducing without being gratuitous. For the first time in the franchise, I thought 47 was cool. For the first time, I wanted to be him.

 

 

How.

But enough feelings–here’s the list. Level design is fantastic. Pathways are clear but not blatant. Stealth and Brute Force now seem like equally viable options. Stealth options are clear with varying “puzzles” (like drugging a guard’s coffee) that keep it from just being limited to “steal someone’s clothes and walk slowly.” Brute force now feels fun instead of unrealistic–there are actual gunplay mechanics now. Cover can be taken because taking cover makes sense in a gunfight, but it does not devolve into just another cover-shooter game. Time slows down when you get a headshot on an unsuspecting target giving you motivation to aim for the head and be precise in your targeting–a case where mechanics and mood are confluent into the role that you are playing. It makes you feel like a hitman, who would want to leave as few bullets as possible.

 

 

If your cover is blown,  you can regain it by eliminating all who’ve seen you. Your actions and the way they affect the world around you and your score is very clearly shown through the HUD. Skills are usable through a rechargeable “instinct” bar which add a new level of strategy and technique. Enemies aren’t brainless–they move and act like intelligent people intent on self-preservation. Out of combat they react to you and each other in manners that add believability to their existence. There are tons of ways to solve your problems and you’re allowed to choose whichever method you can figure out. 47 drags bodies quickly (it’s about damn time). Stealth actually seems as fun as brute force–I felt like I was missing out by taking the bloodbath path on the first mission so much so, that I restarted the mission and did it cleaner.

 

 

Why.

After such a positive influx of gameplay I turned off the game, sat back and tried to figure out why the heck I was having such a better time. Was it because I expected to have a bad time and thus the bar was low? No, I expected to have a bad time for the 3rd and 4th installment. Was it because it was a more modern game? A game released by Enix, who could afford to throw in the extra kinds of lighting, special effects and graphical detail expected from a AAA title? Well, they certainly didn’t hurt, but some of my favorite games have graphics so ugly that it’s probably a sin, so I don’t think that was it either. Was it the sex-appeal from the shower scene where you fridge your former partner? Or the appeal of the school-girl, literally in a school-girl uniform? Once again, no, I was sold long before I got to these scenes. So what was it? Why is this one good?

 

 

Every time I think back to what exactly it was that I liked about the game, I keep going back one moment–how cool I felt sniping people in the back of the head with my silenced ballers. That’s it. That’s literally it. That’s what I keep referencing in my head as being the most satisfying. But why? I could have done that in the older games. Why was this one different? I think I have the answer. I already mentioned this earlier, but Absolution’s mood, setting and immersion is believable. Because it feels believable, it doesn’t feel like a cheap power fantasy designed to give immediate gratification for overpowering hordes of mindless victims. Because it feels believable, I feel like I’m actually overcoming intelligent opponents which makes me feel intelligent. If I sit back and think about it, I know it’s still a game, I know I’m just pushing buttons on a controller but while I’m in the game I feel like a super hero (or villain depending on how you look a it). I feel like a competent agent. I feel like a hitman.

 

 

This game is Tier 1 material. I just have to see more of what it has to offer. There are 12 different game-recognized methods for taking down the target in the Chinatown level alone. If I don’t try at least 6 of those, I’m going to go nuts. Until then, I remain disappointed that I was not able to enjoy the 4 games leading up to this one, but happy to see Absolution break much of the old game’s stale mold.

Steam Link

Tomb Raider
by LepcisMagna

I suppose it was inevitable that I’d be rolling a lot of big series in my Steam lottery. I have many, many games that are part of a series that I haven’t played. Mostly, I held off because I like to start at the beginning of a series, and the first game is usually not that great (I’m looking at you, Final Fantasy.  And Ultima.).  This time, it’s Tomb Raider and the various adventures of Lara Croft.  I have now tried all the PC-released Tomb Raiders (except Rise of the Tomb Raider.  Don’t have that one – though I’ve heard good things). There’s a lot to say here, but I’ll try to keep things moving quickly.

The Tomb Raider franchise is one of the most well-known of video game franchises, and Lara Croft is perhaps the most famous female video game character thus far in gaming history (competing with Princess Peach, Samus Aran, and Cortana). The PC releases of the franchise can be broken into three categories: the originals – built on the classic engine, the Legend chronology – built on the Legend engine, and the modern era – a hard reboot from 2013.

Tomb Raider, Tomb Raider II, Tomb Raider III, Last Revelation, Chronicles, Angel of Darkness

Why, you might ask, are all six of these games grouped together?  It’s because I’m cheating a bit. I’m lumping all of these into the “Technical Issues” category – though not because the games didn’t run on my computer. They’re being shuffled to the side because I just could not get the hang of the controls. Between not having mouselook and Lara turning and jumping crazily, my ability to play these games is almost non-existent. Back when they were released, I’m sure I would have put the time into learning the controls – but today?  I’m content to just look for a fan mod that makes it easier to play. I do want to comment on my (limited) experience, but that will wait until my discussion of Lara herself.

Tomb Raider Legend and Tomb Raider Anniversary

These two games marked the first soft reboot of the series and a long-overdue move to a far superior game engine.  Both of these games go solidly into Tier One – Legend is the only game I played longer than I force myself to – and Anniversary seemed on par.  The platforming isn’t as terrible as in previous games (or future ones, for that matter), Lara is still a strong protagonist, and her legs are composed of more than three polygons. The set pieces are fun (even though I did get a bit lost).  Near the beginning there’s an arena that I got stuck in for about ten minutes while I tried to find my way out.  That brings me to the two problems I had with this section of games: puzzles aren’t always clearly presented, and climbing is a bit tricky (and not in a good way).

My complaints wouldn’t be such a problem except that puzzles and climbing are the bread and butter of the Tomb Raider franchise. While it kept being fun, I found myself wishing that these games had the puzzle-presentation of Valve with the free-running of Assassin’s Creed. There’s a bit of advice (I don’t remember where I first heard it) about puzzles: it stated that a good video game puzzle is one that you have all the pieces to.  In Tomb Raider Legend, there’s far too many instances where a puzzle relies on a small hidden door or switch – this is acceptable from time to time, but it breaks the flow of the game when it goes on too long. Similarly, climbing is limited to very specific (and often unclearly marked) ledges – which makes the navigation part of the game that much more obtuse.

Nevertheless, these games were fun and kept me interested and playing.  In fact, Anniversary (a re-imagining of the first game with the engine of Legend) had that ineffable “good” feeling you get when playing a game that is just plain fun.

Tomb Raider Underworld

Those of you who have played the Tomb Raider franchise may have noticed I left off one of the Legend engine games: Underworld. This is because it goes into Tier Three, unlike its predecessors. It goes into Tier Three for two reasons.  First, the camera and movement.  While Legend and Anniversary’s camera control was reasonable, Underworld’s camera and Lara’s direction of movement will only occasionally follow your command.

The second problem comes from the ridiculous and contrived plot – which is a remarkable complaint when talking about a Tomb Raider game. But as you see above, one of your first tasks is to murder a giant octopus. Typically, it is best to descend slowly into strange worlds: slowly revealing more and more unnatural things. Underworld pays little mind to this – or to reason itself – preferring to have a plot that progresses because there wouldn’t be a story otherwise.  Why do you kill the octopus?  No particular reason.  Why do you call your team before diving to the underground city? No reason. How do the “bad guys” show up immediately behind you with no warning and entirely silently? Because there wouldn’t be as much plot otherwise. This seems to be a theme throughout the game – trying to “raise the stakes” just results in an unbelievable story.

Tomb Raider

Finally, we come to the most recent reboot.  I don’t have any pictures for this section since I actually beat this game a year or two ago. Since it is part of the same series, I thought I should talk about it briefly here.  This also gives me the chance to put a second game into Tier Four. I recently talked with Chezni about Tier Four, and it turns out we had different ideas about what it meant.  The definition on the rules states that Tier Four games are not worth the time put into them.  I had taken that to mean the time spent to play them was entirely wasted, while Chezni saw the definition as saying that the game itself was not worth the time spent developing it.  I like that definition more, and it is the definition I use here.

So why does the Tomb Raider reboot go into Tier Four – particularly given the large number of accolades it received? It’s not because it uses the most cliche of plots (with Nazis and supposedly sympathetic nerds sacrificing themselves for no good reason).  Instead, it starts with quick-time events. Quick-time events pervade Tomb Raider and its cutscenes – these replace gameplay with a punishment for not knowing exactly which buttons to push. This is apparent challenge without real challenge, and they only exist to give the player a feeling of accomplishment for doing something cool during what might as well be a cutscene. And if you fail?  You run into the next problem: the unreasonably gruesome deaths of Lara Croft.

Lara Croft will die in the most horrific and terrible ways – for no good reason (quite often that you hit the wrong button during a QTE).  While playing the game I could only guess that the game designers really, really liked blood and watching people die. Recently, I was talking with Chezni and he mentioned that the producer wanted it this way to inspire the player to want to protect Lara – which certainly explains some things (more on that later). I have no problem with gore or violence. I have a problem with pointless gore and violence. Think about the time the developers spent on animating Lara getting eaten by dogs, impaled by spikes, and nearly/probably raped. Think about the time they could have spend making more places to explore.  Get mad.

Finally, we have the biggest problem – at least gameplay-wise. There are mini-temples and crafting mechanics throughout the game, but no motivation to actually use them. I finished the game without finishing a single side-dungeon – and only actually finding one. The game is designed to trick you into thinking you have a whole island to explore. But really, you just follow a set of linear quests to the end of the game. Admittedly, I did not take their chances to explore the island – for the reason that at every point in the main quest-line, you are given a sense of urgency to complete the next mission.  I took this to mean that perhaps Lara would return to the island after finishing the plot and give you time to go find all the nooks and crannies where treasure might be hidden.  It did not. The Lara in this game would likely never return to this island even if it contained the most fabulous treasures in the world.

Lara Croft

Lara Croft is a difficult character to analyze, made more difficult by the four distinct takes on her character. The Lara Croft of the first six games, the Lara Croft of the Legend trilogy, the Lara Croft of the reboot, and the Lara Croft of the movies are all distinct. Perhaps the best way to describe her influence is controversial (I promise I wrote that before reading her Wikipedia article).  On the one hand, all but her most recent portrayal has been as a devil-may-care action hero.  On the other hand, perhaps her most famous physical feature is her remarkable pair of…eyes.  And if you played video games in the ’90s and early 2000s, it was almost impossible to avoid the seemingly endless supply of nude mods for the Tomb Raider games.  Though, on this last point, I’m not sure we should judge a character based on what is done to them by the internet – Rule 34 exists for a reason.

We are faced with two aspects of Lara Croft that diminished as the series progressed: body proportions and sassiness.  Earlier iterations of Lara were entirely unrealistic, but she also commanded an attitude of control and confidence – approaching a level rivaling Saints Row. The Legend games toned down both her unrealistic proportions and her remarkable attitude.  I think this was probably the sweet spot for Lara as a character – even if it was still on the side of unrealistically proportioned.  An action hero can be unrealistic both in character and in body, as long as neither are taken too seriously.  At the same time, this must be balanced by believability if you want to start telling a complex story.  This toning down continued on both fronts into the reboot – and Lara became yet another bland protagonist for people to project their fancies on.

The Lara of earlier games is an action hero in the style of Bruce Willis in The Fifth Element or RED – ridiculous, over-the-top, and a bunch of fun (if a bit questionable on occasion). This is important because these elements are so diminished in Underworld and non-existent in the reboot universe.  In attempting to make Lara more realistic, they made Lara less Lara.

Oh well.  At least the developers of Tomb Raider don’t care about body proportions regardless of gender:

 

Steam Link 

Shadow Warrior
by Chezni

 

“I like sword. That’s a personal weapon.”

 

I was a bit worried when I loaded Shadow Warrior. Many years after its release I picked up Shadow Warrior Classic Redux after noticing its similarities to Duke Nukem. I was not disappointed (it was made by the same company after all) and discovered a fast-paced FPS with bad 90’s humor, overly done racial stereotypes and a challenging difficulty level (at least for newcomers). Some of the jokes were better than others (I generally felt uncomfortable when stumbling upon the naked  adolescent) but with such a copious torrent of Lo “Wang” jokes much was forgiven. This was why I was worried though–SW Classic managed to pull something off that walked precariously along the edge of good and terrible, and in spite of crossing onto the wrong side a few times, by the end it emerged as something pretty decent. To try and create a reboot of something like this just seemed very risky (RIP Nukem). So–they didn’t. They made something new. And it is filled with awesome.

 

 

SW features the familiar character of Lo Wang in an unfamiliar way. Whereas Classic Lo Wang came off as sort of that crotchety old man who made a lot of pervy grandpa jokes, new Wang is a lot younger and more fiery. He still has that same irreverent attitude as before, but now it’s… well it’s actually funny. That might sound weird, but old Wang was usually funny because of how stupid what he was saying was. New Wang is a young aggressive punk that doesn’t take shit from anyone, but has a biting witty humor about him. He’s very cock… err… wang-strong, grossly self-confident and singularly driven to accomplish whatever his goal happens to be. I’m not saying he’s a nice guy or even a good guy, but he’s extremely likeable in the manner that he doesn’t give a fig about what anyone else thinks.

 

 

Speaking of good and bad, Lo Wang works for Zilla in this one–or at least he starts out that way (Zilla was the villain in SW Classic). This is one of many references to the original game that makes an appearance and they are all worked in very well. Maybe I find it too funny, but I cracked a smile whereupon picking up your katana in Chapter 1, Wang says, “Hmmm… Sword. For when you want to make it personal.” Add to this rebooted monsters, weapons, fortune cookies and even an arcade machine and those who enjoyed the older game will at least find something to laugh at from nostalgia.

 

 

By no means is this game all (or even in the majority) throw-back. Combat has been completely revamped in lieu of a pseudo-level up system that features many skills weapons and upgrades. I’m actually surprised that they managed to cram so many different options onto one X-Box controller, but through the double-tap of the L-Stick and some shoulder buttons, everything you need is accessible on the fly without the use of a menu. I found the combat to be a bit non-challenging and perhaps simplistic, but that also meant that it didn’t drag and let’s be real, you just play this game to hear the next thing that comes out of Wang (or Hoji’s[?]) mouth, not for the combat. That’s not to say that slicing up demons and humans alike into deli meats isn’t fun, albeit I lean towards gun-toting ranged combat as a stylistic choice. Oh right–and you make a deal with a fox-demon named Hoji. That’s a thing.

 

 

Recently I rated D&D:Daggerdale at Tier 1, explaining that even though it was unfinished and simplistic, I still really enjoyed the gameplay. D&D:D carried many stipulations that indicated its poor quality but I submitted that if you could enjoy it for what it was, then it was worth it. Shadow Warrior on the other hand is something I think would recommend to a much wider audience with much less stipulation. So far, this has just been a fun game. The pacing has been fast and fun. The skills and combat has been fun. The characters have been fun.

 

 

I’m not trying to say that this kind of game or story hasn’t been done before (after all, it feels very 90’s–early 2000’s action hero-y, but if I can use Lo Wang’s cell phone from the beginning as a reference point, I think that this game is supposed to take place in the late 80’s) but I am saying that there don’t seem to be many obstructions to the game’s entertainment. The humor and setting is in the same key as the Deadpool film and who doesn’t like that? Tier 1 for now–I’ll be very disappointed (and a little sad) if I have to lower it later.

Steam Link

Dark Messiah of Might & Magic
by LepcisMagna

Chezni already reviewed this, so I’ll spare you the details.  Suffice to say that as a Source-based RPG, Dark Messiah isn’t bad.  Here’s an analogy to explain: I recently watched a movie called Hudson Hawk, starring Bruce Willis.  It was an interesting movie – sort of a cross between Die Hard and The Fifth Element.  It wasn’t the best movie ever (and it wasn’t as good as either Die Hard or The Fifth Element), but it tried something new and was an overall decent movie with a couple great scenes.  In the same way, Dark Messiah isn’t bad (though the running animations are hilariously bad) – it has some interesting interaction with your environment (kick everything).  It wasn’t terribly long or unique plot-wise, but at least it tried something new.  It scrapes its way into Tier One because it isn’t Risen and because you can kick everything (though the platforming is still terrible).  My only real problem with it is its serious fascination with spiders.  So.  Many.  Spiders.

And, because Chezni took the dark path: I took the light path.  Interestingly, I found the succubus’ voice annoying (though occasionally amusing) and your companion likable but underdeveloped.  Dark Messiah definitely falls into the trap of “female interest likes you because the plot says so.”  There is practically no development for Leanna (and the Succubus is mostly a tutorial voice), which was a bit disappointing.  They really could have done quite a bit with both of those characters as they follow you on your adventures, but then the game would need to also be twice as long (which would not be a bad thing).

 

Nevertheless, as for my endings:

Yeah…they’re all pretty much the same.  The only difference is that whats-her-name is with you instead of the Succubus.  I mean, she doesn’t tempt you to rule the world.  But the no-succubus demon-father ending is exactly the same as the one Chezni mentioned with the succubus.  The “good” ending (with Leanna and re-chaining your father) is equally disappointing – perhaps more so since the narrator essentially says “and the fate is still unknown” – so your entire effort was for naught.

Ah well.  I can’t say I didn’t enjoy my time, or that I didn’t wish I could spend some more – which is why it stays in Tier One.

Deadcore (Completed)
by Chezni

So I don’t have any fancy screenshots for this one, but I had to throw my two cents in here along with Lepcis’s, because he brought up some good points. For what it is, Deadcore is a fantastic game certainly deserving of Tier 1. It’s fast, it’s smooth, it has tons of paths to choose from and its five levels are more than enough to keep you entertained, especially if you’re going for some of those top scores (although level 4 can still go to the place of fiery burning). If you couldn’t tell from our Deadcore contest, we had a friendly competition to see if we could beat each other’s times, all the while sharing our pathing to collaborate to find a faster and faster route through the level.

While I’ve loved speedrunning as a concept for many years and have watched no small number of them (what game-lover hasn’t), Deadcore was the first one that I got into hands-on. The experience was great and it really opened my eyes to many facets of speedrunning. One that really stuck out to me was that the thrill of the run didn’t come from the prospect of beating a high score time, but instead from beating your own best time.

Ultimately though, it has awakened me to what makes a “good” speedrunning game. Take for instance Zelda OoT. One of Nintendo’s most beloved titles, this game has been speedran to death. In fact, it’s gotten so ridiculous that last I checked, the fastest time involved messing with variables so that the use of Queen Ghoma’s door instantly won you the game. While from a technical perspective and possibly from a fan’s perspective, this is very entertaining. However, from a gameplay or speedrunning standpoint, it’s not that interesting. After all, where’s the contest? Will the judge of who is a better OoT runner be who can subtly input the variables switches ever-so-slightly faster so that they have a .01 second better time? This isn’t really that interesting to the player or the viewer once the concept has been understood and ultimately fails to capture just what OoT is all about.

In line with what Lepcis was saying about the RNG within Deadcore. The cubes are an RNG that produces inconsistent results. Jump pads (while technically not RNG) are so imprecisely manipulatable that they become an unreliant method of traveling through the game–and yet, if you want to get the fastest time, you must make a run at the level hundreds (if not thousands) of times so that you can “get lucky” and nail all of the ridiculously precise “bugs” of the game to get the perfect time. Slope-dashing and Super/Mega Jumping are interesting ideas, but as they were not really intended to be part of the game (and are so difficult to pull off consistently) that they just turn the game into a set of variable manipulations instead of executing strategies related to the purpose of the game’s initial intent (just like the problem with OoT). Not to mention the fact that a slope-dash into Mega Jump on the pad after the door on Level 1 skips most of the level. If that’s the case, what’s the point in the level existing at all? This was a big reason Lepcis and I outlawed Mega Jumping.

It’s not that Deadcore developers did nothing. They removed rocket-jump-chaining (an even more notorious bug) in order to make the game more competitive. I feel though that within reason, if a game is to truly devote itself to speedrunning, then no bug or feature of the game should completely override or remove other parts of the game unless it does so within the expected and encouraged mechanics of the game. I do not blame speedrunners at all for searching for, using and abusing glitches within games in order to accomplish a faster time–I merely feel that a pure speedrun game would be constantly updated to remove these exploits until eventually what you were left with was a game that you truly had to play and the victor of “best time” would go to those that understood the game and its entirety the best, not just the person who could macro a Mega Jump script.

Steam Link