So, I have Cryostasis and Dragon Age to play, but something somewhere pointed me at a PC game by Tale of Tales called The Path, and I decided to try that one first. It’s rumored to be a pretty powerful interactive horror story. So far, it’s intriguing but confusing. I’m not sure yet whether I am missing something major about how to play the game, or whether I’m supposed to be failing the first few times to unlock things. It’s moody in an interesting way, but I’m not totally sure I’m going to stick with it. Spoilers within.
Smokescreen: Final Smack
Smokescreen is billed as a casual ARG, and it delivers on that at many levels. It’s a mixed bag, but there are some very good parts and there are just so many different mechanics that you can’t help but be impressed with the ingenuity. Also, in that difficult task of serious game design, it wholeheartedly succeeds. It teaches you about the dangers of the internet without being pedantic or simplistic, and amazingly you learn by doing the things in a nearly natural way. That is no small accomplishment.
– November 5, 2009
Smokescreen Day#9: It’s History
Today was the release of the final mission of Smokescreen, and I have played it for your reading pleasure. You hunt down the criminal and save the day in a decent narrative tie-up. The case is an interesting idea of searching browsing histories which is hurt a little bit by lack of feedback. It’s not my favorite mission, but it’s a good way to end the story. Spoilers within.
Posted in Core.
– November 5, 2009
Smokescreen Day#8: Memory Lanes
Today was the penultimate mission of Smokescreen. It’s a dive into the memory of the person behind all of the chaos of Smokescreen, and the reveal itself is decent but not too surprising. The narrative bit of it is good, but pales in comparison to Mission 8. There’s also a totally incidental game mechanic that was pretty solidly eh. Spoilers within.
Posted in Core.
– November 4, 2009
Smokescreen Day#7 Part Two: Just the Facts
Back to the main characters for Mission 11, where we try to clear our friend’s name by putting together evidence about who might be framing him. The narrative makes an interesting twist that does a good job of teaching a key internet lesson (people online lie about their identities), but I have to say that the mechanic here does not really work. It’s another new game idea, but both the mechanic and the implementation have issues. Spoilers within.
Posted in Core.
– November 2, 2009
Smokescreen Day#7 Part One: Workin’ for the Man
While I get my next hardcore game set-up, I decided to go back and finish up Smokescreen. It’s been quite original in terms of introducing new mechanics and have a solid narrative. Today was Mission 10 and 11. Mission 10 puts you in a totally new role: that of the police. It’s pretty short, and it features a nice logic minigame which is only hampered by some poor design in the control and interface. Spoilers within.
Posted in Core.
– November 2, 2009
Brutal Legend: Final Smack
Brutal Legend is truly a shame. Everything about this game is good: the voice-acting, the graphics, the world, the story, the dialogue, and the music. Everything except the gameplay. The peripheral game parts are fine — no great shakes but decent — but the stage battles are simply not good. And unfortunately, that’s enough to sink the game for most players. More details below.
– October 30, 2009
Brutal Legend Day#8: The Final Showdown
Finale of the main game on Day 8. It’s a series of stage battles in which you tie up the narrative and arrive at the ending boss fight. The stage battles are okay, I guess. I figure them out pretty quickly, with one taking a couple tries. It’s a decent ending to the game, and the narrative wraps up with a quite good set of twists, but you can’t help thinking that this is a game full of great stuff that fails because its core mechanic is bad. Spoilers within.
Posted in Hardcore.
– October 29, 2009
Brutal Legend Day#7: Children of the Grave
Day 7 of Brutal Legend, and I breathe a sigh of relief as the narrative improves sharply. The game feels a bit more like an adventure game this session, and I have a couple of puzzles and a lot of much needed back story and explanation. Another stage battle, and I have to admit that I’m starting to figure it out, but I also have a better sense of what the key issue is. RTS + over-the-shoulder perspective + control of units based on proximity to avatar = not fun. Spoilers within.
Posted in Hardcore.
– October 27, 2009
Brutal Legend Day#6: Creeping Death
Day 6 with Brutal Legend is getting a bit more troubling. The story is starting to accelerate, and that is not a good thing. However, it continues to be interesting and make interesting turns, so I’m sticking with it. The battles are getting harder — there are whole new kinds of enemies now, and I still have no sense of what an effective strategy is when the stage is up. Oh, and my current pet peeve of bad savepoint design rears its ugly and unwelcome head. Spoilers within.
Posted in Hardcore.
– October 24, 2009
