Gallery: Shattered Space

Now Playing: The Invincible

The Invincible is a sci-fi narrative adventure game (AKA walking simulator) based on the 1964 Stanisław Lem novel of the same name – which I’m ashamed to say I’d never actually heard of despite liking my classic sci-fi.

I wouldn’t say the game is a direct adaptation (at least it doesn’t appear to be based on the novel’s Wikipedia summary) more ‘inspired by’ as it utilises the same location and premise, but with entirely different characters and potential endings.

You play as Yasna, an astrobiologist who awakes on the planet of Regis III with a bad case of short term amnesia – yep, that old trope. She doesn’t know how she ended up there or what happened to the rest of her crew. That becomes your first mission – figuring out where you are and what the hell you were supposed to be doing there.

It quickly becomes clear that Regis III isn’t all it seems and Yasna soon learns that a rival faction – The Alliance – is also interested in the mysterious planet. Can she find her missing crew? Can she discover the secret of Regis III? And can she escape the planet alive?

I won’t say anything more specific about the story because the story is the primary draw of a game like this. It is very much a ‘walking simulator’ in terms of gameplay and if that’s not your jam, The Invincible won’t win you over. Yasna can (thankfully) sprint so it’s not always just ‘walking’ and there are sections you get to drive a cool little rover.

But ultimately, the gameplay remains the same – move along a linear path and watch as the story unfolds. There’s no combat or puzzles. You do, however, get various dialogue options. The majority of these are just to provide a little more flavour to your experience, but there are those that do shape how the game and story progresses as you press on.

The different narrative paths aren’t particularly substantial, not really until the very end where the game does feature a handful of different endings. Although the branching narrative isn’t anything amazing, it does at least give the game some degree of replay value.

Because overall, the story of The Invincible is good enough to carry you through and make you want to see what you can change. But is it good enough to warrant an entire second or even third run? Probably not. You’ll probably be content to watch the alternative endings on YouTube.

And that’s because the game is pretty slow. Even with the sprint and vehicle sections, The Invincible is a game that never really picks up pace, even when it feels like it should. Whenever you do get a sense of urgency within the narrative, the gameplay never really reflects that. It’s just more trudging along, occasionally interacting with a button or switch.

Like I said, it’s a walking simulator and if that’s not your thing, this won’t change your mind. It’s not really my thing, to be honest, not unless the story and characters can totally win me over. I’d say they take a good stab at it, but don’t quite succeed. I do really like the general premise and how the secret of the planet is slowly revealed and what it turns out to be. It’s all cool stuff.

But the game’s pacing is a little off and Yasna can be a tad irritating to play sometimes. I get the situation may seem bleak but she sure does complain a lot. I just found it hard to fully invest in her journey.

The endings of the game are a little abrupt which makes them all feel a bit disappointing . . . or maybe dissatisfying is the better word to use. It’s one of those game when the credits start to roll and you say ‘wait, that’s it?’

It took me about 6 hours to complete The Invincible but honestly, it probably could and should have been shorter. There’s a fair bit of padding to get through, mostly as Yasna travels slowly from A to B. I replayed some sections for achievements and to see the other endings, but aside from that, I don’t ever see myself replaying The Invincible.

It’s a solid and interesting sci-fi adventure and if you like your classic sci-fi with cool retro designs and an intriguing story and don’t mind some slow paced walking and talking then I’d say The Invincible is most certainly worth giving a spin – on sale, at least.

6/10

Meta Quest 3 VR

Way back in October 2019 I shared my first impressions of the HTC VIVE, which at the time felt like something of a gamble given the cost because I had no way of knowing if I’d like VR or not. Turns out, I did like it. And with more than a thousand hours now clocked in Steam VR, I decided the time had finally come to upgrade.

But which of the new generation of VR headsets did I want to go for? And was it worth waiting to see if Valve revealed an Index 2? But waiting for Valve is never a good idea and odds are, if the Index 2 ever comes, it will likely be a quality but very expensive piece of kit.

So I opted for the most popular and price friendly option – the Meta Quest 3 – which was nearly half the price I paid for my VIVE back in the day once you factor in accessories like the VIVE pro strap and lighthouse tracking mounts.

What struck me about the Quest 3 upon arrival was how light it felt compared to the VIVE. I’d say it feels about 3 times lighter in hand which also makes it quite a lot easier to wear. The included strap is basic, like the default VIVE strap. However, because of how light the unit is, I’d say the default strap is just fine – if a little fiddly to adjust.

I’m also pleased to say that the default sound quality on the Quest 3 is surprisingly good. The VIVE, on the other hand, really required that pro strap to accommodate the extra weight and for the included earphones.

The face pad on the Quest 3 feels like another improvement. The fit isn’t quite as snug as the VIVE but light bleed is minimal and the material doesn’t result in you starting to sweat after 30 minutes or so of use.

The controllers are f**king tiny, so they’re going to take some getting used to, but they have all the buttons you’d need and also don’t need thanks to the impressive hand tracking built into the Quest 3. Seriously, I thought the finger tracking on the Index controllers was impressive, but this is a massive step up. Being able to type on virtual keyboards and drag virtual screens around using my fingers in VR is kind of nuts.

Speaking of tracking, whereas the VIVE required the use of two lighthouse units for room scale VR, the Quest 3 has entirely internal tracking. No, it doesn’t offer quite the same degree of accuracy as the full 360 degree lighthouse trackers, but it’s good enough that it’s very nice not having to spend a few minutes plugging in the trackers and spinning them up every time I want to play something.

It’s also really nice not having to plug a very long lead from the headset into my PC – a lead you’re always aware of and at risk of tripping on. Because the Quest 3 is entirely self-contained, no PC required. Of course, that’s not how I intend to use it.

And this is where Steam Link comes into play as it allows you to wirelessly connect the Quest 3 with Steam running on your PC and then stream your games directly to the headset. I did try the alternative (free) option – Meta’s own Airlink – but found it more clunky and slow to use. It’s important to note that you will need to have your PC on a wired connection to your router for this to work, which isn’t going to be suitable for everyone.

And I suppose that’s what I like most about the Quest 3 compared to my old VIVE – the ease of use. Because as much as I do like VR, the VIVE could prove tedious to set up and play at times. You’d get the trackers switched on, clear the play area, connect the headset cable and then carefully run it in such a way that you won’t get tangled or trip. You’d then pull on the headset and adjust the strap so the weight wouldn’t strain your neck. But the Quest 3? You just slip it on and press the power button and you’re good to go.

I tested the Quest 3 by running Phasmophobia, Blade & Sorcery and Half Life: Alyx via wireless Steam Link and they all ran smoothly and without issue and looked, quite frankly, much sharper and clean than they did on my wired VIVE. Obviously, the higher resolution lenses of the Quest 3 help a lot, as do my updated prescription lens inserts.

But I expected there to be some degradation in quality when streaming and honestly, I’m not seeing anything, even on the default Steam Link settings. Everything I’ve tried runs smoothly and looks better than it did on my wired VIVE.

There’s no noticeable ‘screen door’ effect like with the VIVE, not unless you really stare hard to see it and this also helps make colours really pop compared to the VIVE. The field of view is also greatly improved. When I went back to the VIVE to compare, it’s shocking how narrow it felt and how washed out everything looked visually.

Passthrough is a fantastic feature and yes, it can be fuzzy depending upon local lighting, but it’s so fast to switch to and makes moving around the real world so much easier. The mixed reality game I tried was also super fun and impressive with how it scanned my local surroundings and incorporated everything into the game.

The big downside to the Quest 3 is the battery life, which only gives you around 2 hours of play depending upon your activity. There are ways to improve the battery life – such as turning off things when you don’t need them – and there are battery packs you can buy to connect and extend your play sessions. But honestly, a few hours in VR at a time is usually enough for me anyway, so taking a break and recharging the headset isn’t really a problem.

Overall, I’m very pleased with my Quest 3 purchase. It’s an upgrade in pretty much every way over the VIVE from a hardware perspective, but also and perhaps more importantly, for ease of use. All we need now is for Valve to finally release a new VR game because Alyx remains the bar and I don’t see anyone else clearing it unless Valve steps up themselves.

Now Playing: Echoes of Wisdom

The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom is a very clever and fun little adventure that successfully blends a classic Zelda progression structure with the more modern creative sandbox approach of Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom. In a first for the series, you don’t play as Link but as Zelda herself, on a mission to rescue not only Link, but all of Hyrule from mysterious rifts that are opening across the land and swallowing everything in their path.

The game utilises a similar ‘cute’ isometric style to the Link’s Awakening Switch remake which I wasn’t such a fan of in that game because of my nostalgia for the original visuals. But here, in a new game with such a fresh gameplay concept, I’d say it fits quite well.

As Zelda, you have the ability to create ‘echoes’ (copies) of items and enemies you encounter throughout the game. It seems like such a simple concept, and it’s so flawlessly and effortlessly incorporated into the game that it would be easy to overlook just how impressively complex it really is and how incredibly difficult it must have been to design and balance the game around it.

There are 127 echoes to collect in the game and I picked up 122 of them before I reached the end. You have simple item echoes that can serve various needs, to specific use tools as well as every enemy type in the game. Yes, that’s right – every enemy you defeat can then be learnt and recreated as an echo to fight alongside you.

All echoes have a power cost which limits how many you can have active at any one time, but this limit can be increased (and the power cost of various echoes decreased) as you progress and level up your cute little companion Tri. Weaker creatures and more simple echoes have a low cost, but more powerful creatures and more complex echoes have a higher cost. It’s a simple way to limit the player and force them to think about how to utilise their echoes in the most cost efficient way.

The structure of Echoes of Wisdom is pretty much what you’d expect of a classic Zelda – you journey to the different regions of Hyrule to close a big rift (dungeon) in each area. So you’ve got a rift in the Gerudo Desert, a rift in the Zora Kingdom, a rift on Eldin Volcano . . . it’s safe and it’s familiar and predicable but it works.

The map isn’t huge, but it’s large enough to incorporate lots of fun little locations to explore and discover with their own hidden treasures such as heart pieces, might crystals (to upgrade your gear) accessories and smoothie ingredients. There’s also quite a few side quests you can pick up from the locals of each region. They don’t typically take more than a few minutes to complete, but they add some more value.

Echoes of Wisdom is not a super long game, and I didn’t do absolutely everything but I did most of it and if I did go back and wrap up what I’d missed I’d probably have about 20 hours clocked. It’s a perfect length for a game with such a simple – but clever – concept.

As I said, Echoes may adhere to a more traditional Zelda structure in terms of progression, but it takes a more creative approach as seen in the more recent titles such as BotW. That’s thanks to your echoes, all of which can be utilised as you see fit. Echoes is the kind of game that no two people will play the same. Everyone will find their own solutions, using their echoes in their own unique ways.

I was playing Echoes alongside someone else and at one point they got stuck. I offered to help but when I tried to use the echo that I had in the same place, I realised they hadn’t collected it yet. So instead, I had to look at what they did have and find a different way. And it really shouldn’t be underappreciated just how impressive this is – how they designed the game in such a way that you can find so many different ways to progress through the creative use of whatever echoes you have available.

I’m very interested to know what the minimum number and types of echoes are you’d need to finish the game. There are some you have to collect as a requirement to progress, but I suspect the number is actually quite small. In addition to your echoes, Zelda also has the use of a charge limited special form that lets her move and attack with a sword, bow or bombs like Link.

It’s a fun addition, but was it a necessary one? Early on, with such a limited charge you have to use the form sparingly, but once you upgrade your charge meter, it becomes a bit too easy to pop in and out of the form and brute force your way through nearly every encounter.

So far, so impressive, right? But this is where I’m going to get a little more critical of Echoes and explain why I liked but didn’t really love it. First of all, let’s address the performance concerns. There are areas where you get a noticeable drop in frame rate but they’re petty rare. I’d say I found Echoes to be far more stable and smooth than Link’s Awakening.

I’ve also seen people say the UI can be a mess in terms of echo selection. This can be a bit annoying when you’re scrolling through for a specific echo, but the game does let you sort echoes according to specific criteria – such as the ‘most used’ category – and that’s usually all you really need.

No, my main criticism of the game is that it’s just too damn easy. Now, that’s not me trying to brag about how clever or skilled I am. It’s just a fact. Echoes of Wisdom is a very easy game. No, I didn’t play it on the ‘Hero’ mode but that wouldn’t make the game more difficult in the way that I want. It wouldn’t make the puzzles more complex.

The Zelda games have always been this careful balance of action and puzzles, but Echoes of Wisdom is far more weighted towards the puzzle side of things. And if you’re going to be a more puzzle focused Zelda, you really need to deliver some very clever puzzles to engage and challenge the player.

But Echoes never really does this. Don’t get me wrong – the puzzles are clever in how you can utilise your echoes in various way to complete them – but they’re also all incredibly simple and straightforward. There’s always a very obvious and easy solution. I think I can count on one hand the amount of times I actually needed to stop and consider how to solve a problem.

The game is just too f**king easy to the point that I felt like I was progressing on autopilot. I just don’t feel like the puzzle aspect of Echoes reaches anywhere near its potential. With so many echoes, I’d have loved some more complex puzzles and dungeons that really forced me to think outside the box and combine my echoes in new and unexpected ways in order to progress.

But you never really need to do that. In fact, I’d say many echoes you collect are largely useless. That’s going to be a controversial opinion as I’m sure people will argue every echo has a use. But using them for your own enjoyment doesn’t make them actually all that useful compared to others.

There are some echoes – like the water block – that make progression in some areas entirely trivial. Why wouldn’t you use it? Sure, there are other ways to say, cross a gap or reach a high ledge, but the water block is the fastest and most efficient. And that’s kind of a problem when despite having so many echoes available, there’s a small number that do everything you need faster and more efficiently than everything else. I barely used the ‘armed’ monster echoes for example because they’re so slow and cost too much. A smaller, faster and cheaper monster is always the better option.

The puzzles are never testing. Everything is too simple and easy. And for me, I feel like I need some resistance, some challenge to my progression to really make me sit up and engage with the experience. It doesn’t necessarily have to be through gameplay – a strong narrative can offer the engagement I crave, but Echoes doesn’t really have that either.

The story is fine. It’s fine! It’s exactly what you expect it to be and plays out exactly like you think it will. And that kind of sums up how I feel about Echoes of Wisdom – it’s all too easy, predictable and familiar and it doesn’t push the player or its own – admittedly ingenious – gameplay mechanics as hard as it should.

It’s a sedate, fun little adventure but one that won’t really test you in any way. It’s very clever. It’s incredibly well designed. But it really needed to do more to engage the player. To really challenge them to be creative with their echoes – all their echoes – and to find new ways to progress as they go.

You actually use a wider variety of echoes early on when you have less to pick from than you do later in the game when you have more. Because by then you have a core 4-5 that will solve nearly any problem. After that, you just collect echoes for fun but you’ll never really need to use them.

What else? Oh, I also think the ‘smoothie’ system of making drinks for health or certain buffs is totally unnecessary because you never really need them at all. And the ‘automatons’ you can learn through a side quest are also entirely useless. Okay – maybe not useless in the sense that you can’t find a use for them – more that you don’t need to.

Overall, Echoes of Wisdom is a very good, unique and fun entry in the Zelda series but it’s a game I feel is falling very short of its potential. I wouldn’t have cared so much if the main quest was so simple and straightforward if the game also offered some challenging optional content. But sadly, it doesn’t. As I said, I felt like I was playing the game on autopilot much of the time and as a result, it’s probably not a game I’m going to recall much about in a week from now.

7/10