Tier Two – Page 11 – Please Insert CD

Hitman: Blood Money

Does anyone else think that Agent 47 looks like a giant bald big-faced baby? I am of course talking about our protagonist in…

I’m… not even sure what to say about this game franchise anymore. I’m going to once again ruin the ending and tell you the rating for this game now: Tier 2. Yes, after the last two Tier 3 debacles, Hitman Blood Money scrapes its way back up into the Tier 2 category. So why do I sound so nonplussed about it? Well, because in spite of having 4 games–4 damn chances to perfect their system, work out the kinks and really deliver–Hitman Blood Money just leaves me feeling as bland as ever about the series. Technically a “good” game but overall what feels like wasted potential, and a lot of it.

The story this time is… oh I don’t even know or care at this point. It’s agent baby-faced white dude 47, out to murder the crap out of a bunch more brainless idiots through a series of unavoidable missions briefed by the same woman from the agency that made her debut in Silent Assassin. Point-and-click third-person gunplay with weapons so standard that it hurts, planted explosives for obviously scripted events and enough fiber cord to create the world’s largest ball of string; Agent 47 isn’t going to wow you with anything new in this one. The most exciting addition to 47’s arsenal is the fantastical option to toss out some pocket change which he can throw to distract his enemies. Other than that, it’s all tactically and mechanically similar to our previous titles.

I guess that’s not entirely fair. You can now do things like hide bodies in containers, hide weapons in crates, hide in closets (a lot of hiding) and do a couple more silent kills (such as from above) but none of things really change the game itself. They all just feel like tweaks on what was already there. I think that’s my biggest complaint so far about the series as a whole. Codename 47 (the first game in the series) was as close as it got to making me actually feel like a hitman. It may have been a confusing mess of interfaces, blocky models and small levels, but it made me feel like I was doing what a hitman would actually do. In all the later titles though, I feel like the devs have just made a game that happens to be hitman flavored. It’s like the difference between eating cooked BBQ and BBQ flavored chips. The chips can be good, but they aren’t wholesome and could never truly substitute what they imitate.

In a sense, I almost feel like the Hitman squad has fallen into a the trappings of its own brand. They set the mold inadvertently with their first game and they keep revisiting it over and over as if they’re trying to make it just *that* much better each time. I’m glad they’re improving with each game. That much can be applauded–but I feel that the mechanics themselves (walk around, point and click to shoot, steal clothes, walk behind somebody, murder them silently, rinse and repeat) while okay were just that–“okay.” They weren’t great; a simulator of a hitman simulator. While they continue to polish and clean up their old system with each release, nothing new is gained or explored. Nothing is inspired or redesigned. This is the kind of thing I expect from other games that are based off of a set of fun and challenging rules–Fire Emblem being a perfect example. I’m not upset when I load up a new Fire Emblem game and find myself controlling tiny units on a grid, because that’s what Fire Emblem was designed to be–a tactical game where you control tiny units on a grid. That is the heart of what Fire Emblem is. The heart of Hitman? Stupid AI and boring gunfights. Woo.

Overall, I hate to be so negative in the face of improvement. I mean, there’s even more on the “better-than-last-time” list. You no longer soak up bullets like a sponge soaks up water, you can run in front of guards without them gunning you down now, the levels have a nice balance of openness yet definable pathways and strategies. However, I think the biggest problem is that none of this strikes me as “fun.” I never have fun with the actual “doing” part of any of this. It doesn’t feel exciting, or creative or intuitive. I’m just not sure what my motivation for the series is anymore. I know I keep repeating myself but so does this franchise so I’ll say it again; I’m not exploring anything new in this setting anymore. This game has become stale. Luckily, I have but one more Hitman title to make my way through. Wish me luck my friends (or curse me if you happen to love Hitman).

Steam Link

Blackwell

by LepcisMagna

Blackwell: A five game series of point-and-click adventures about guiding lost souls to the afterlife. I love point-and-clicks, and Blackwell has a lot of good elements to it – psychic detectives, a touch of gothic horror, and just a good overall point–and–click atmosphere. Unfortunately, unlike the games I just linked, those elements just never came together for me. This view may be biased (particularly against the later games) since I just came off of 10 hours of playing through the series (and I’ll admit, I had to look up a few puzzles), but I feel that I have to write this before my memory fails me.

Point-and-Clicks

That isn’t to say that these games are bad – in fact, they steadily improve as you play through the series. These are solid Tier Two games – with the notable exception of the second game, Blackwell Unbound. The trouble here comes more from the potential you find in point-and-click games. For me, point-and-click games exist in a unique middle ground for video games. In a fully “free” or open-world game, your practically unlimited agency makes small things like not being able to jump a two-foot-high fence a remarkable annoyance. In a platformer, story is often neglected. In a visual novel, there is no real challenge or choice (though there are exceptions to that rule). Conversely, a good point-and-click adventure gives you just the amount of freedom to let you feel as if you contribute, just enough challenge to keep you thinking, and just enough story to keep you engaged.

Perhaps I’m biased. At the end of my favorite point-and-click, The Longest Journey, I found myself unable to play any video games for a day or two – anything else would have been less perfect. Between TLJ representing the pinnacle of story-telling and Submachine representing the pinnacle of puzzle-solving, any new point-and-click adventure game has a high bar to clear. But before I go further about the overarching adventure, let me give you my per-game opinions. For the record – and because I was constantly confused about it myself – the games go in this order:

The Blackwell Legacy
Blackwell Unbound
Blackwell Convergence
Blackwell Deception
Blackwell Epiphany

The Blackwell Legacy

I’m afraid I don’t have any pictures for this one, since I beat it some time ago. That says something, as I never found the motivation to go on to the rest of the series. The protagonist, Rosa Blackwell, is a medium that leads lost souls – ghosts – to the afterlife, with the aid of her spirit guide, Joey Mallone. Joey is a 30s clothing shop clerk who was gunned down after his best friend got into debt with a loan shark. This is important, as it is never clearly explained why Joey is special or how often these “spirit guides” are created. A Tier Two game since I had fun, but there wasn’t enough of the overarching plot to really draw me in.

Blackwell Unbound

Unbound is a prequel, following the aunt of Rosa – mentioned in the first game – back before she lost her grip on reality after the universe poured into her mind. That’s understandable, but this game frustrated me the most in the series. The protagonist isn’t particularly likable, the puzzles were the worst of the series, and the only connection to the main games was explained in 30 seconds in the next game. You can safely skip this game and move on to Convergence without losing much, so it must be relegated to Tier Three.

Blackwell Convergence

I think this was my favorite of the series: just the right blend of mysterious foreboding and day-to-day ghostbustin’. One of the most important mechanical changes happened here as well – your cursor changes color depending on which character you are currently controlling (which was quite relieving, having played the previous game). The series’ art also peaked right around here. The pixel art may not be quite as good as Epiphany, but at least the character portraits aren’t in a jarringly different style. The NPCs are well-developed and feature some of the best side characters of the series. It finishes strong with the hope of future adventures ahead. The entire game has charm and conjures up that certain panache which good 90s games captured so well. This is the game I almost put into Tier One – and if you’re okay with a semi-cliffhanger, I’d almost suggest that you stop playing here (while also having skipped Unbound).

Blackwell Deception

And they were doing so well. While this game keeps some of the refinement of the previous one, it also introduces the two major issues I had with the series: a strangely uncharacteristic tone and an increasingly jarring art style. Scroll up a bit – see that beautiful “spiritual realm” art? Well, for some reason, this game makes the same place look like a 90s sci-fi set:

To be entirely fair, this game also introduced two things that greatly streamlined gameplay. The first is a mobile phone so you don’t have to go running home to look things up every ten seconds. The second is this slider:

Walking speed. WALKING. SPEED. Every point-and-click needs this. I almost forgive this entire game its increasingly bizarre tone just for that slider. I would sell my left arm to have that in The Longest Journey – as much as I love that game. But even counting that slider, this too must fall into Tier Two.

Blackwell Epiphany

This game has some of the best art of the series – and more importantly, it has widescreen resolutions. Well, a widescreen resolution. Did I mention that all the previous games run at 640×480? This one runs at 640×400. Apparently, HD is a foreign concept even in 2013.

Even so, the wonderful art doesn’t entirely forgive the definite changes in tone. This is certainly the most “film noir” of the series, but that doesn’t really fit in with the rest of the series. Especially when you compare Legacy to Epiphany, you wonder where the tone shift of the last two games came from. Epiphany has ghosts ripped apart, child ghosts, suicide, prostitution, and more. It really feels too much like an attempt to have a serious (and bittersweet) ending. Worse yet, several main plot points aren’t resolved and the epilogue throws in a strange twist not even hinted at previously that entirely invalidates the plot progression from the previous game. I should clarify that I’m not complaining because everything didn’t end up perfect for everyone – I’m a sucker for bittersweet endings. I’m complaining because the ending didn’t make sense and didn’t fit in with the information given to us in previous games. It avoids Tier Three because it is pretty and does provide some touching moments. At least they kinda fixed the spiritual realm art:

And now that I’m thinking about it, this scene’s art has quite the Doctor Strange vibe (though mostly I just wanted to use this screenshot).

The Series

From a mechanical standpoint, the Blackwell series isn’t particularly impressive. Visual cues are often lost in the backdrop and important mechanics don’t always act the way you want. None of the puzzles really stood out, preferring to blend into the story. That’s a stylistic choice, and I can respect that – but it does make the few puzzles which require video-gamey logic particularly immersion-breaking. This improved in later games, but there were still a few strange leaps of logic to be made, and the requirement that you talk to everyone about a subject five to six times particularly grates.

I liked the characters, and the overarching story was engaging enough to motivate me to finish the series. That being said, the tone shifts unnecessarily in the final two games: introducing elements that really don’t fit into the earlier mythos in an effort to make it more serious. Lovecraftian horror I can get behind, but the grimdark turn this game takes… I cannot. If you just play the games with Nishanthi in them (which would be the first and third ones), you’ll be fine.

Steam link (1-4)

Steam link (Epiphany)

Hitman: Codename 47

by Chezni

Have you ever wanted to be a bald, soulless, featureless shell of a hit-man? Me neither. But hey–with Hitman: Codename 47, you can reap the exciting benefits of such a life with none of the consequence!

Hitman: Codename 47 is the first in its long legacy of 8 games to date. Loading it up, I wasn’t quite sure what to expect as I’ve never even seen a second of footage from any of the 8 games (although I remember seeing a lot of promotional cardboard cutouts in Gamestop when I was a kid). H:C47, in spite of being a bit dated did not fail to impress me on a few fronts… just don’t look too closely at the graphics.

From what I can tell, you’re some sort of “produced” hitman, complete with nondescript features and a barcode on the back of your head. The tutorial is your last training mission, whereupon its end you must kill a guard, take his clothes and escape your prison under the watchful gaze of a mysterious man in front of a green-lit computer. I feel a bit stupid, but after trying the tutorial 3 times and failing, I had to look up how to do that last bit about taking the guard’s clothes which leads to my greatest complaint against the game; initially, nothing is intuitive. Take for instance environmental object interaction. In order to interact with a button that can do multiple things, you must first left-click on it, roll the mouse wheel up or down, choose which option you want, left-click again to exit the selection menu, walk up close enough to the object to interact with it, then push the interact key. Let me tell you right there, that for most games that would be enough for me to dismiss it on the grounds of unnecessary and confusing gameplay mechanics. Much can be forgiven though, once you get out of the tutorial.

The gameplay itself is a tried but somewhat underused pattern that hearkens back to 90’s gaming–choose your loadout. Each level begins with a mission dossier, something that pushes the plot forward a little bit and lets you know who and where your next target is. Then, from the funds you have available (which rollover from previous missions if you managed to save a few [thousand] bucks) you get to choose which weapons and gadgets you want from the list of things the agency can help you smuggle in. This is absolutely beautiful from an immersion and gameplay standpoint. First, it explains why you can’t tote in all the weapons you’ve cached up from your previous exploits and second, it lets each level become tailor-made while allowing a large amount of player freedom. Do you want to equip yourself to run in guns blazing? Do you want to take fewer bullets and try for accuracy to save on cash? Do you take a handgun with you as a backup to the sniper rifle in case things go south, or do you trust your in your skill and go sniper rifle only?

The levels themselves follow the same suit. While they are a bit small, you’re allowed to carry out the mission in any way and from any angle that you can find. Do you go for a clean shot from atop a building (if you can find one)? Do you take to the ground and silently kill off the guards one-by-one with your piano wire? The mission only gives you the objective, but lets you figure out how to accomplish them. No baby-hand-holding, no checkpoints, no mission markers. The way it should be.

H:C47 is not a perfect game at all. The controls are clunky, aspects of the game are not intuitive and its graphics haven’t aged all that well. None of that matters though, because at the heart of the game is something great–good enough to make it into Tier 2 in spite of its flaws. If you like creative problem solving and that sweet satisfaction of doing a clean run at a mission (avoiding the “cleaners” fees from being deducted from your reward) then this one’s for you.

Steam Link

Valdis Story: Abyssal City

by Chezni

Heralding back to metroidvanias, have you ever asked yourself what one would look like underwater? Look onward my friend towards…

I’m just going to give this one to you straight and quick. Valdis Story is a polished metroidvania game with tons of toys for you to play with but fails to perfectly capture the goodness of the genre that it represents.

Story-wise, it has something to do with sea-dwellers being labeled as angels by those who live underneath it, two goddess sisters born unto light and dark and some sort of clash between both aforementioned pairs. You play as a top-sider who falls into a city in the sea and it’s up to you to beat the ever-living crap out of anything that gets between you and the next plot-trigger. The dialogue is acceptable (if a bit dull) and the opening drags on for what feels like an eternity.

There are 4 playable characters to choose from (2 of which need to be unlocked) each with a focus in a different fighting style, although it seems that it can be easily summed up as “Fighter, Healer, Thief and Mage.” I chose the healer (because I’ll be damned if I’m stuck playing a fighter again after Fortune Summoners) and I was happy to discover 8 distinct starting spells and several spell-casty perks to be picked up with each level gained.

The art is appealing as well, with very stylized characters and a bright and colorful world. The HUD and menu’s interfaces are also snappy, colorful and very user-friendly. It took me a matter of seconds to become acclimated to them. Monster drops are bright and apparent and upon pickup are immediately sent to their cozy little home on the inventory screen. Judging by the blank spaces, there’s even the promise of multiple pieces of equipment ranging from weapons to armors to finishers and pets.

The problem is, something about the game just doesn’t feel right. The world is almost too bright, and oftentimes I’ll lose the character in the action that’s going on. Smacking enemies in Castlevania felt satisfying and every level up felt earned–in Valdis Story, combat feels a bit button-mashy and level-ups almost feel gimmicky. You start out with so many skills that I almost feel spoiled and I feel I’ve done little to earn the power that I have yet I’m just as impatient for more power so that I feel a sense of progression. Horizontal movement within the game feels very slow and while I appreciated acquiring an early dash, it’s button input (down and quarter turn right/left?) was a little bit awkward. It was probably done so that other buttons (bumpers, I’m looking at you) could be reserved for powerups later, but the Castlevania series reserved the shoulder buttons for dashes for a reason.

In spite of all this polish and content I wish more thought had been put into the game design itself. Access to a healing spell right off the bat puts emphasis on turtling and hoarding MP just to have a bigger life bar. Some skills don’t seem very dynamic while others just seem like an alternative (and MP draining) method to mashing the attack key. Regardless, it can’t be denied that there seems like a lot to discover through multiple playthroughs and even offers a decent challenge–and I was only playing on “Normal” which was 3 levels below the ominous “God Slayer” difficulty. All this adds up to a high Tier 2 and definitely will be something I come back for once I clear out my T1 list.

Steam Link

Rise of Nations

by LepcisMagna

Imagine Civilization crossed with Age of Empires II. Actually, you don’t even need to imagine since it exists: in the form of Rise of Nations. As a real-time 4X-ish game that progresses through the ages, it seems pretty solid. Remarkably solid, even. The thing is, I’m not a big fan of that sort of game. I’m definitely more of a Sim City or Sim Tower (or, if we’re sticking with strictly RTS, Homeworld or Masters of Orion) sort of person. So while this game seems mechanically sound and pretty deep…I can’t really say I was having fun. That being said, this game does combine a lot of the better features of both Civilization and Age of Empires. Maybe if I was playing over LAN with a few friends I would have a more favorable opinion. Since I can imagine picking this up again someday, I’m going to stick this into Tier Two, with a distinct possibility of an upgrade if it’s the right group.

Steam link

Fortune Summoners: Secret of the Elemental Stone

by Chezni

Ever been thrill-baited into thinking that you’ll finally get the chance to be a magical girl, only to have it taken away from you at the last minute and have yet another dim-witted sword-wielding antagonist thrust upon you? Ah, then you too must have played…

It’s okay. I’ll admit it. I’ve always wanted to be a magical girl. Who wouldn’t? They’re basically like power rangers only pretty, fight with their heart and inevitably fall in love with their crush by the end. What’s not desirable about that? Fortune Summoners dangles this carrot in front of me as I begin to play the game but its sinister wiles whisper dark chants, bits of which I can only make out as “traditional main character uses a sword…” Yes, Arche, young girl at the prime age to be magical, just-moved-to-a-new-town, attending a school of predominantly female occupation that teaches magic… is doomed to be the elemental stoneless, sword-fisted, brainless, muscle-bound power-house that can’t use magic. I can’t be too mad though. She’s freaking adorable.

So for the hour, I lived out the life of Arche, adorable hyper-child, by doing what any 8-year old girl would do.

Doing cartwheels like mad around the house…

…And holding up Mom at sword-point demanding that supper be ready.

Yep. That seems pretty accurate.

Jokes aside, Fortune Summoners has some great sprite-work in it, especially when it comes to the three protagonists who are portrayed with the cutest animations.

The game functions as a traditional RPG in a non-traditional 2-D format, whereas you can tumble, dash, run roll and launch little Arche nearly 15 feet up into the air with her jumping skills. During my first impression run, that part just didn’t get old for me.

The combat is fun if a bit simple. While you do have several different slashes at your disposal when it comes to fighting enemies, typically the best strategy is to just murder them as fast as possible with a barrage of swings. Player accuracy is important, but if my instincts tell me anything about it, it’s much like Tales of Phantasia; very fun and light-weight at the beginning of the game, very old and repetitive by the end of the game. I did get a party member along the way in support of my school shenanigans, and to my delight I was allowed to swap over and play as her… but her not being the protagonist inevitably led to her departure and me being stuck with the avatar of a sugar-infused jittery hyper-child again.

I want to put this in Tier 1, except that I know better. The pacing compiled with the charming but simplistic plot is likely to lead to a game that is less about meaningful progression and more about grinding. In Dark Souls, I know I can beat an enemy if I’m clever enough. I’m certain that in Fortune Summoners, I would be able to overcome all enemies if I level enough. I fear that in my older age, I’ve outgrown the illusion of progression and instead prefer actual progression. This is why games like Unepic, a game that could have just as easily fallen into the same trap, will always be more impressionable to me. In it, winning comes from a combination of not just stats but also overcoming very clever boss designs. Maybe I’m reading too much into Fortune Summoners from just an hour of play, but it is so seldom that a JRPG diverges from this artificial extension/progression formula. Even the Shin Megami Tensei and Persona series which are some of the best JRPGs created to date rely on the ol’ grind eventually. Seeing nothing else that sets Fortune Summoners apart has me awarding it Tier 2.

Steam Link

Eversion

by LepcisMagna

Eversion is a game about ~~hailing the dark lord~~ collecting gems in a ~~post-apocalyptic~~ ~~cthulhu-esque~~ happy little meadow, ~~somewhat reminiscent of another game~~. This is both a first impression and a full review, since I finished the game in under an hour. Well, technically, I got the “bad” ending, but I didn’t really feel like doing all the work to get the “good” ending. Eversion is based on an interesting concept – the slow decay of the world around you as you traverse what I assume are different time periods in each area. Unfortunately, it’s too short – and getting the good ending requires quite a bit of additional effort. While that wouldn’t normally be so terrible, the main draw of the game is your first experience. When you are forced to go back and get every collectible ~~skull~~ gem, it quickly becomes just a chore since the mechanics aren’t terribly new or remarkably executed. If it were longer and had more branches, I think it would be a solid Tier One. As it is, it must go into Tier Two.

U.N. Squadron (SNES Legacy)

by Chezni

Sidescrolling? Infinite massive energy blasts as a main attack? Tons of powerups? It must be~~! Well, actually, that describes just about any side-scrolling ship-based shooter from the 90’s. But we’re talking about~~

Sidescrolling shooters were the *thing* throughout much of the 90’s, and the SNES was no exception. Heck, out of the 12 games already covered under SNES Legacay, two of them were already sidescrolling ship-based shooters. If that’s the case, then what sets this one apart?

Well, for starters, you get to select a character. While choosing a character is par for the course in many a side-scrolling beat’em up, we often don’t get to see it in the “shmup” counterpart. Heck, oftentimes we’re lucky if we get to see the pilot. In UNS, each character has a different skill (albeit I have no idea’s what Mickey’s actually is). I’d recommend picking up Greg if you’re a beginner since he recovers from damage quicker, and if you’re a pro you’ll probably go with Shin since he levels up his planes faster. This is useful since if you know how to beat the levels quickly you’ll get less EXP than someone who’s likely to die a few times before completing them.

Oh, right; did I mention? There’s EXP. It’s not as impactful to the gameplay as I would have liked it to be, but after picking up enough blue and red powerups you’ll notice your guns shooting larger blasts or maybe even shooting a shot in a second direction. I wish I could say that this was an appealing part of the game but… well, it sort of works like this. The first time you play the game, you’ll find yourself dying so often that you’ll be drowning in EXP and your ship will quickly become maxed out. At this point EXP might as well not even be a part of the game since you’re only a couple levels in. On the other hand, if you’re good enough at the game to make it through the first couple levels without dying, you’re probably good enough that it doesn’t really matter when you level up, since you don’t necessarily need the added firepower right away. I guess what I’m trying to say is that leveling up just kind of “happens,” and you just play the game without paying too much attention to it, or necessarily strategizing heavily around it.

Ship-purchasing is unfortunately in the same boat. There may be 6 ships to choose from (5 of them you have to buy) but they all play out fairly similarly enough to each other. I came the conclusion that instead of trying to buy some of the cheaper ships early on, I should just skip them all in lieu of the “best” ship “Efreet”, saving up $1,000,000 right from the start to buy it. That being said, the powerups are where the real strategy and (in my opinion) fun from the game comes from. Assuming you have the money to do so (and the Efreet ship) you can load out your plane any way you want (with every single weapon if you really wanted). This made approaching each level a lot of fun, since you got to truly customize your loadout and approach each level with the best strategy you could come up with. Since you have to juggle all the powerups one at a time, it really isn’t to your advantage to take a bunch of guns with you that are no good for the level. Likewise, clever use of the weapons themselves at certain points makes the difference between a difficult level and a manageable one. To boot, none of the powerups made other ones obsolete–they all felt unique and useful in their own way. (Except for the Falcon missile, because that thing is a worthless piece of crap.)

The last unique mechanic that separates UNS from other shmups is the way ship destruction is handled. In quite a few shmups, damage of any kind means instant death, or a very near equivalent (loss of powerups). I can understand the sentiment for this implementation–it keeps the game challenging in light of your usually ridiculously powerful arsenal. The problem is that it can lead to frustration or even a sense of unfairness within the player (Gradius III I feel is a pretty good example of this). On the other hand, if you gave your player a health bar with say, 5 hits, they would take advantage of the health pool and purposefully face-tank their way through some obstacles. UNS has a perfect balance of both worlds. You have a health bar that allows you to take several (6?) shots of damage over the course of the level. The catch is, that the moment you are shot, you enter into a “DANGER” state, where for about 5 seconds if you get hit again you straight-up die. This truly is a beautiful mechanic that allows forgiveness of mistakes without letting the player off scot-free.

Missions are chosen in a pseudo-linear fashion with various portions where you get to choose which level you attend within a set. Don’t get too excited by the mission select screen either–it’s sort of neat that there are moving pieces on it that approach and (eventually) attack your base, but there’s not a lot of strategic element to it. Basically if any of the 3 special units (the two planes or the submarine) enter attacking range of the base, you are forced to complete their level before you gain the freedom to choose your levels again. Other than that and the RNG of the convoys that you can target (bonus mission for extra gold) it’s just your basic “select your mission” screen.

Overall, I’ve played far worse games and far worse shmups, as UNS is pretty solid. Its enemies and bosses may not be the most creative in the franchise, but the freshness of some of its mechanics that diverge from the norm, combined with the game’s forgiving learning curve give the game some genuine appeal. It’s not too long–my final run at beating the game only lasted an hour-and-a-half, with my overall playtime somewhere in the 5 hour range. With the grades in, I’m putting this in Tier 2–it’s guaranteed to at least be the delight of shmup fans and even a few who aren’t.

Magicite (Completed)

by Chezni

Magicite First Impression

Upon beating Magicite, I experienced the same hollowing feeling that grasps the heart of any gamer upon the completion of a roguelike. It is an emptiness that creeps in and takes over, instilling upon the player the realization that the very thing they had been trying to achieve so hard–completion of the game–was in fact, not what they were enjoying so much. It is the survival in a roguelike that brings joy. It is the unexpected that brings happiness. It is the ability to push yourself and your character a couple inches further into an unyielding world of death and mystery that brings accomplishment. “Winning” a roguelike takes all of this away and simply replaces the experience with a feeling of “been here, done this,” which is by no means the fault of Magicite or any roguelike for that matter, but was nonetheless my feeling at Magicite’s end.

Magicite, unfortunately, will be the first game that I place in a lower Tier after completing the game than when I initially rated it in my first impression. It is still worthy of Tier 2, but as I played the game, a lot of the promised mystery unfolded in a less-than-ideal manner. Mechanical balance of the game became questionable. Class distinction grew less defined. Exploratory cleverness no longer seemed to be rewarded in the face of safe consistency. Probably one of the worst disappointments was the crafting, which seemed to hold so much promise, but in the end fell flat. By the time I wrote my First Impression review, I was under the delusion that I had only scratched the surface of the potential crafting recipes, when in fact I had completely exhausted them save for two of them, resulting in crafting feeling rather pointless and simply as a method of “using stuff to get stuff.”

Do I regret playing Magicite? No, not at all. Until its defeat, it proved to be a fun game that provided many hours of diversion. Until I had overcame its challenge, it was enjoyable to find the ways to press stats, skills and equipment as hard as I could into my favor, ultimately resulting in success. It is just that after a more comprehensive inspection of the game’s elements, questionable balance and underutilized mechanics, it no longer entirely deserves my previous acclaim. If you have some time to kill, I would still recommend it–it just must be understood that the longevity of its value or quality is not assured.

Steam Link

100% Orange Juice

by Chezni

It’s like Mario Party, only with robots, little girls and seagulls. Actually, that may be more like Mario Party than I remember. I’m of course, talking about…

Okay, not gonna lie, I might have met my match here. I like to consider myself a well-seasoned gamer. I’ve survived games that were terrible, games that were incredibly difficult and games that were just plain unfair… but 100% OJ reaches an entirely new level. Of insanity. Complete and utter insanity. And little girls that steal things. The closest thing I can compare it to is Mario Party, but even that doesn’t do it justice. Sure, similar to our lovable Italian’s favorite party game, 100% OJ is played on a board, you roll dice, you gain a currency for committing acts of felony, and it is undoubtedly the place where friendships go to die (if I had any friends to play this with me). Unlike Mario Party though, there are no mini-games after each round, there is a pseudo RPG-combat system, you can murder people, and play cards as if it was one of the crazy half-baked games a villainous henchman invented in an episode of Yugioh. I would say that these things make it the Japanese version of Mario Party except… yeah… the old plumber is already Japanese.

In regards to about half the things happening in the game, I have no ability to explain them. I chose a character that I liked, partially based on the fact that I thought she seemed cool and partially because she looked about as clueless as I was, which comforted me somehow. I think the goal of the game was to achieve five “Normas” which come in the form of two kinds of quests–murder stuff or get stuff (stars). Along the way, a little dog girl kept stealing money from the only boy on the board. I kept drawing cards that had neat pictures, but for some reason was never allowed to use any of them. To this day, my inability to play anything I drew haunts me. At some point a giant boss robot appeared and murdered everyone. Then the boy who’s wallet was stolen punched me out. It was around chapter (round) 40 that I was convinced the game was a satirical commentary about Marxism and how it connected with the social injustices concerning the youth of modern day Japan. I’m not entirely convinced that I’m wrong.

Eventually the dog-girl won. Apparently, most of my opponents were as clueless as I was, considering that I somehow got second place. In the end, I’m not convinced that this is a bad game. There’s clearly a large selection of wacky effects and strategies that can be implemented through use of the game’s numerous cards. If you’re willing to shell out a bit for the DLC, there are quite a few characters. A quick flip through the game’s community artwork will show you that there’s clearly a large group of people who embrace the game’s wild chance, zaniness, and ridiculous combination of adorable sinister-like qualities. There’s online play for those who want to be social, and even a rather wide selection of things you can unlock.

If I was younger, had more time and/or had a group of friends to play this game with, I think I would enjoy it quite a bit more. As it stands that I have none of these things, I am willing to take a step back and recognize that it may simply not be something I can get into. I love the art, humor and considering the somewhat stale nature of Mario games as of late, this game could be a great way to fill the niche of those who have fond memories of the old Mario Party games. For now though, I place it in Tier 2, putting it gently in a corner of the closet, praying that we leave each other on good terms–an attempt to respectfully avoid bending my mind around its madness any longer.

Steam Link