Life is Strange

I can’t review Life is Strange yet because the final episode hasn’t been released, but I thought I’d do a post about the game and my experience with it. It’s an episodic, narrative driven adventure title, similar in style to the Telltale Walking Dead games. You play as Max, a teenage girl with the ability to ‘rewind’ time. As with the Telltale games, it’s a title featuring player choices which impact the unfolding narrative.

Without the fifth and final episode in place, how much impact choices really have still remains to be seen. I’m hoping it will tie together various choices made throughout the previous four, although I suspect, as with the Telltale WD games, it won’t be quite as complex a web of consequences as I would hope.

Choices in LiS fall into two categories – high impact and low impact. There are four to five high impact choices in each episode, with ten or more low impact. High impact decisions obviously alter the narrative in a more substantial way, but some low impact choices, when combined, can also play their part. There’s a wonderful/tragic moment at the end of episode 2 for example, whereby one or two high impact decisions are combined with several low impact choices to determine the outcome. It’s a great example of the choice based gameplay coming together in a meaningful way.

Of course, not every choice has such a fundamental impact on the plot, and even this moment in episode 2, ultimately, doesn’t alter that much going forward, aside from adding an additional scene. That’s not to say these choices, even the relatively pointless low impact decisions (will you water your plant?) aren’t effective at tailoring a unique, player driven narrative. In fact, after completing the currently released episodes and then watching a few other people play via YouTube, I was impressed how differently some scenes and interactions played out. 

And, it should be remembered, that until we have the final episode we won’t really know just how important every decision was - maybe that plant was super important, after all. Overall though, I was quite pleased with how the game handled decisions and consequences. I really hope the final episode ties everything together in a way that makes sense and doesn’t render too many of our decisions irrelevant. I’d love for multiple endings, perhaps even with ‘bad’ endings. I doubt they’ll go this route, and we’ll probably get a single ‘core’ ending with a few variations, but as long as they handle it appropriately, I won’t be too fussed.

Another interesting thing to note about the decisions in LiS is how the rewind mechanic plays into them. Using Max’s special power you get to see the immediate outcome of every choice, large or small. The long term outcome remains to be seen, but it’s nice being able to ‘undo’ a choice if you’re not entirely happy with it – and this ties neatly into the plot as Max struggles with her new ability and how to use it responsibly.

The rewind power can also be used quite cleverly in some situations. For example, in one episode I broke into a room, damaging the lock. I could have left the lock broken but instead, because Max’s position remains constant even during a rewind, I used the power to ‘fix’ the lock, but remained within the room. Now, I’m not sure it will matter later if people know someone broke into the room or not (and it probably won’t) but it’s a neat touch. And there are several similar situations where you can use your power like this to undo actions and cover your tracks. Or not, if you’d prefer.

Before the final episode drops, I’m probably going to set up a second run, but make as many different choices as I can, just to see how much I can alter the narrative. Hopefully, it will also impact a lot on the final episode too. But we’ll see. 

I’ve talked a lot about choices and consequences, but what about the game itself? How does it play? In terms of gameplay, it’s all rather simple, but that’s all it really needed to be. You move Max throughout the environments, clicking to investigate or interact. You can rewind at any point, and this power plays a big part in solving the various puzzles throughout the episodes. There’s nothing particularly challenging or hard to figure out, but the rewind mechanic is nicely incorporated.

There’s a lot to examine (posters, books, computers, photos etc) and the attention to detail throughout the environments is great. The game has a nice art style to it, especially for the interiors, although some of the exteriors do look a little bland. The animations, in general, are good, although the game does suffer from some horribly static facial expressions and lip sync. It’s strange, because at times the facial animations are really good and expressive, but at others, they look a bit shit.

The game makes good use of lighting and sound to enhance the atmosphere. I wouldn’t typically listen to the sort of music featured in the game, but it fits the style, tone and story. I liked the mystery aspect to the plot, especially the moment in episode 4 when you piece all your gathered clues together. Whereas the Telltale titles seem to be moving away from player exploration/investigation, I really appreciated being able to take my time and explore the environments or solve puzzles at my own pace. It’s not all just QTE cut-scenes and dialogue choices. 

Although the first episode is a little slow, it does hint at what’s to come, and thankfully it really kicks into gear during episode 2. By the end of episode 2 I was completely hooked and by 3 I was fully engrossed. I really, really got into this game in a way I didn’t expect and I can’t wait to play the final episode to see how it all wraps up.

In terms of the writing, LiS can be a little inconsistent. There’s a few dialogue heavy moments (one scene in episode 4 in particular) that get a little tedious, and some conversations feel less ‘natural’ than others. Some dialogue is a little dodgy or just, well…bad (STUPID GUN!). And there are some logical inconsistencies with regards to character reactions and the way certain scenes play out. It’s got its rough edges, without a doubt, but they didn’t stop me from becoming emotionally invested in the story.

Although I expected I’d like Life is Strange based on what little I’d seen of it, I didn’t expect to become quite so invested in the narrative or characters. Being the heartless bastard that I am, it’s usually hard to make me care. But LiS made me care. I just hope the final episode doesn’t f**k it all up.

Now Playing: Transistor

I almost didn’t buy Transistor in the recent Steam sale. I’m so glad I did. It’s an action-RPG, set in the futuristic city of Cloudbank. You play as Red, a singer without a voice, on a mission to save and restore Cloudbank from an aggressive transformation called the ‘Process’.

I won’t say much more than that, because I really don’t want to spoil anything. The narrative aspect of Transistor is handled superbly, slowly unfolding before the player as they progress. The world building is also fantastic and perfectly paced.

Though Red may not be able to speak, the developers inject a lot of personality into her character through her animations, and her interactions with various information terminals. The cast of Transistor may be small, but the two primary characters possess an engaging bond that drives the player through the story.

 

This is a game with a lot of lovely little touches and attention to detail. The aforementioned terminals are a neat glimpse into the world, but also to how Red responds to it. And then you have the ‘hum’ and ‘flourish’ buttons. ‘Hum’ certainly has a special context within the game with regards to the character, but it’s also wonderful to listen to. And though ‘flourish’ may seem rather pointless, it injects a little life into Red and the world about her.

In terms of visuals and style, Transistor is a gorgeous game. With a variety of environments and enemies, colourful effects and lovely character designs, Transistor looks fantastic. It also has a superb soundtrack which perfectly complements the action. So, as far as visuals, sound, character and story, Transistor hits every target. But what about the gameplay?

It’s a mixture of real-time and turn-based combat. You have four active ‘functions’ which are your attack abilities. There are 16 in all and you’ll unlock them as you progress and level up. You can attack in real-time, but due to enemy numbers and the speed of combat, you’ll need to use the turn-based system if you want to succeed and survive.

You can pause the action, allowing you to queue up a chain of attacks, or to reposition within the combat environment. You then ‘execute’ this planned turn. Once completed, you’ll have to wait for the turn-based pause to recharge. It’s a neat little system that adds a fair degree of strategy to combat encounters.

 

You’ll be facing a variety of enemy types, and although the game does a good job of introducing new enemies as you progress, it also upgrades existing enemies with new skills, always keeping you on your toes. As you defeat these encounters, you’ll level up, allowing you to select new functions, or unlock new upgrade/passive ability slots.

And this is where the combat system, though quite simple in practice, becomes a lot more interesting. Every function has a primary ability, but also an upgrade and passive ability. By combining different functions, you can build a diverse selection of offensive and defensive abilities. It allows you to enhance or modify every function in various ways depending on how you combine them.

It’s a lot of fun experimenting with this system, building different combinations and seeing what works best for you. The game also includes a small number of challenge style rooms to test your skills in various ways such as speed or efficiency. And efficiency is a key component of Transistor combat – finding the least number of moves to defeat an encounter. It’s a little puzzle-like, in a way, and if you want to make the combat even more interesting and challenging, there are 10 ‘limiters’ you can activate, with various impacts on your own abilities, or on enemy abilities.

Overall, I found the combat system fun, engaging and enjoyable to play – but it’s not without its problems. Some of the combat ‘arenas’ that you get locked into are quite small and restrictive, somewhat limiting your strategy. And because you can’t rotate the map, it’s sometimes easy to lose focus on where enemies are as they become obscured by scenery.

 

It can also play havoc with the targeting system, whereby you’ll often be told your attack will be ‘blocked’ even though there’s no apparent obstacle. As a result of all this, some fights end up being more messy than truly tactical. Battles, I must admit, can also get a little repetitive over time, but thankfully this isn’t too much of an issue as new/upgraded enemies are introduced.

I would have really, really liked to see more boss fights. There’s only a couple in the game, and your very first is great. It’s a shame there’s not more ‘big’ encounters like this, with multiple stages to fight through. I also would have liked a little more exploration of the city, as most of the time you’re pushed along an extremely linear path.

Transistor isn’t a very long game (I beat it in about 9 hours) but I’d say it’s long enough. Any more and it would have just been padding the experience. But though it’s rather short, it does have a decent degree of replay value. There’s a new game plus mode (which I’m already getting stuck into), allowing you to restart with all of your unlocked levels and abilities.

It’s an opportunity to play through the game a second time and appreciate all the details you didn’t pick up on the first time through, but also to challenge yourself by using the various limiters and facing even harder opponents.

Overall, Transistor was an enjoyable, intriguing and frequently touching experience. With fantastic visuals, style and sound, great characters, a superbly unfolding narrative, plus a solid and engaging combat system, it comes highly recommended.

8/10

Writing Update

It’s time for a writing update! Because this is a writing blog, believe it or not. But writing about writing is even more boring than talking about writing so I don’t do these posts very often.

QOTSS is now out on submission to publishers, so it’s time to turn my attention to something new. I’m working on another edit of TLDK. Nothing serious, just making a few small alterations and tightening up the text. I’ve also had an edit of WFTD on hold for about a year so I should really get back to that too.

But working on old stuff is kind of dull and I’m always looking to my next project. I’ve got an idea for a new book, but it’s in the early concept phase right now. It’s a sort-of-but-not-quite prequel to QOTSS currently titled DOTJ. I’m slowly hammering out a plot and building the world and characters.

In other writing news, my e-book promotion came to an end and I’ll try to remember to do another soon.

Now Playing: This War of Mine

In games about war, we’re used to playing as a soldier. In This War of Mine, however, you don’t play as a soldier, but as a civilian, struggling to survive within a war zone. It’s an interesting concept, but I was wary of This War of Mine. Though I found its subject matter intriguing, what I’d seen of its gameplay appeared rather lacklustre. But watching a game and playing a game can provide two very different experiences. So, despite my reservations, I decided to pick it up in the recent Steam sale.

There’s no tutorial to ease you into things. You’re expected to learn on the go, although honestly, everything is fairly self explanatory. You begin with a small group of survivors in your ‘home’ shelter. Each survivor is unique in terms of appearance, skills (scavenging, cooking or bartering) and particular quirks (a preference for coffee or cigarettes, or prone to depression). You control everything with the mouse, clicking to move or interact, and you can switch between the different survivors at will.

The game is split into two phases – Day and Night. During the day, you’ll be at your shelter, issuing commands to your group, having them eat, rest, cook or craft as appropriate. You’ll receive the odd visit from a trader, or perhaps a fellow survivor who wishes to join you or needs help. During the night, you’ll assign your survivors to a certain role – to sleep, to guard your shelter, or to scavenge.

In order to improve your shelter (and therefore your chances of survival) you’ll need materials. Materials come in various categories such as building materials like wood for patching up holes in walls, or herbs you can craft into medicine or cigarettes. You’ll scavenge for these materials during the night phase at various locations which unlock as you progress.

It’s a simple, but solid structure of gather and build, and there’s a certain satisfaction in slowly watching your shelter expand, upgrading crafting stations and positioning new furniture. It’s not the most complex system, but it allows for a small, personal touch to be applied, which is very important in terms of player investment. Because if there’s one thing that This War of Mine struggles to achieve, it’s personal investment on the part of the player.

Upon starting the game, many elements of the world will be randomised. This includes your starting survivors, scavenge locations, local inhabitants, weather and materials. It gives the game a degree of replayability, but it’s sadly not as extensive as you might hope. There’s only a small number of survivors and locations, and ultimately, every game plays out the same regardless of which are available. There’s also a very limited number of unique events or encounters, and you’ll see the majority of these across a single playthrough.

As I mentioned, there’s no tutorial as such, but everything is fairly self-explanatory. If your shelter is cold, you build a heater to warm it up. You build a cooker to, uh, cook food. You build a garden to grow vegetables. If a character is hungry, you feed them. If they’re sick, you give them medication. If they’re tired, you send them to bed. It’s like The Sims, but everyone leads bleak, depressing lives. Actually, it’s exactly like The Sims, except nobody ever needs to use the toilet, which is a little weird.

Purely from the standpoint of its gameplay mechanics, This War of Mine is a rather monotonous affair. The majority of the time you’ll simply be staring at little yellow circles as your survivors craft items or search through trash. Player interactivity is minimal resulting in a very passive ‘playing’ experience. You simply don’t feel involved in the action. And this results in the problem of player investment. Because as much as I was hoping otherwise, I struggled to engage with This War of Mine.

Your ‘unique’ survivors lack any personality aside from the odd quirk, so it’s hard to really care about them as ‘people’. There’s barely any interaction between them – they just tend to stand staring silently at one another until you issue orders. And whilst the game attempts to place the player into moral quandaries – do you steal food from fellow, peaceful survivors? – there’s no real consequences or impact from doing so, aside from making certain characters feel a bit ‘sad’.

I should feel bad about beating a homeless guy to death with a crowbar and stealing his canned food, but This War of Mine fails to elicit any kind of emotional reaction. The real problem, for me, is that this vicious act is handled by the same minimal interactivity of ‘click to move’ and ‘click to murder’. It’s a disconnected experience resulting in an emotionless experience.

This basic gameplay system is also terrible in terms of ‘stealth’ and ‘combat’. Combat is extremely fiddly, as you click to attack, only to watch two characters awkwardly try to slap one another. Thankfully, combat isn’t really necessary or a focus of the experience. Most of the time, you’ll just be searching through piles of junk and loading up supplies to bring home, which you’ll then use to improve your shelter and feed/heal your survivors. And that’s about it really, and yes, it’s as repetitive as it sounds. The ultimate goal is to keep your survivors alive until the (randomised) cease fire.

But with such simplistic gameplay, and a failure to engage the player on an emotive level, it’s hard to recommend This War of Mine. I do, however, think there’s a lot of untapped potential here. There are events such as the shelter raids, but it’s something you never actually see. It happens ‘off screen’ during the night phase and you’re only informed of what happened, what was stolen or who was injured at the start of the next day.
 

This off screen action also applies to helping fellow survivors (such as fending off a bandit raid or retrieving supply drops). It’s a shame these potentially more exciting moments are things you don’t actually get to play. There’s also no real learning/difficulty curve to the game. You can build nearly everything you need to survive within a matter of days, and upgrading these tools is simply a matter of gathering the required resources.

But because there’s a strict limit in how many materials you can carry, (and because many upgrades have pointlessly high material costs) you’ll often return to your shelter a few short of what you need. But this doesn’t make the game any more challenging as it does tedious.

There isn’t really any ‘story’ as such to This War of Mine. You should really view it as a sandbox experience in which you create your own story based around these characters. And one thing I did like was the ‘custom’ game setting, which let me create my own survivor. It’s a very, very limited system, and something I’d love to see expanded in a possible sequel. Because suddenly, with my own ‘guy’ in play, I had a reason to care. I now had a personal investment in keeping him alive to the end.

With a much improved character creation system, a choice of shelters with an expanded range of custom options, more locations and an overhaul of the gameplay – perhaps allowing for direct character control/aiming – you could have something quite special. I also think there’s a lot of scope to improve the narrative aspects in terms of branching events based on decisions you make.

Overall, This War of Mine has some neat ideas, but it feels more like a framework to a better game. It fails to engage the player either through gameplay or narrative, resulting in a monotonous and emotionally hollow experience. Disappointing.

5/10

Total War: Warhammer

I know sod all about Warhammer, but I’ve always wanted to see a fantasy based Total War. I hope it can breathe new life into the series. As much as I liked Attila, I think something like this has the potential to really shake up the franchise in a good way. The early trailers look promising. Let’s hope they don’t f**k it up.

Now Playing: Homeworld Remastered

The original Homeworld was released way back in 1999. It’s a fantastic RTS title, not only in terms of its gameplay mechanics, but also for its visuals, sound and story. It’s the tale of a ship of exiles, traversing a dangerous galaxy to rediscover their lost home.

Homeworld was followed in 2000 by an expansion – Cataclysm – which unfortunately isn’t included in this remastered collection. And then in 2003, Homeworld 2 was released. The sequel was excellent, though it was generally considered to fall somewhat short of the original.

Both Homeworld 1 & 2 are included in this collection in their original ‘Classic’ state. Although I already own these games, I did have some trouble with Homeworld 1 the last time I played it on my Win7 system, and I recall having issues with Homeworld 2 on my older Vista. When the remastered collection recently went on sale I decided it was worth the purchase, if only to enable trouble-free access to these two classic titles.

Of course, this collection isn’t really about the classic versions, but the newly remastered editions. I must admit, when I heard the news of Gearbox acquiring the licence to the Homeworld IP, my reaction wasn’t exactly positive. But with the release of this package, it’s clear the people at GX have treated the licence with respect, whilst also updating these much loved titles in a way that’s more accessible for new players.

Which is also why I was a little wary, because I was aware of particular changes to Homeworld 1 I wasn’t sure I’d like. But before we go into detail, I really have to say that in terms of visuals, the remastered editions look absolutely gorgeous. I still think the original games look pretty good but the remasters, Homeworld 1 in particular, now look absolutely stunning. But, aside from the visuals, how else do the remastered versions differ from the originals?

Let’s talk about Homeworld 2 first, because in this case, there’s very little to say. The remaster of HW2 is essentially all about the upgraded visuals. Every other aspect of the original game remains relatively intact. There are, or so it appeared to me, a few balance tweaks here and there, especially in terms of difficulty, but I’ll speak more about this later.

Homeworld 1, on the other hand, has undergone a far more significant overhaul. Perhaps in a desire to create a degree of parity between the two titles, or simply perhaps for technical reasons, the developers essentially dropped the Homeworld 2 UI (with a few tweaks) and gameplay mechanics into Homeworld 1. This, understandably, upset the purists who simply wanted a like-for-like visual upgrade.

Me? I’m kind of torn on the matter. There are certainly advantages to this tweaked Homeworld 2 UI compared to the original, but having played the original HW numerous times, the remaster felt very, very strange to play. I think for new players, this is a good change that allows an easy transition between Homeworld 1 & 2. But personally, I do prefer the classic version over the remaster, and I wish the option to retain the original UI and mechanics was available.

As with the HW2 remaster, it also seems there’s been several adjustments in terms of unit balance, mission difficulty, resources and AI. Even today, though I know the game well, I still find the original Homeworld to prove a challenging experience. It can be a punishing game, perhaps frustratingly so at times, but for many this was a part of its appeal.

The remaster, by comparison, is a total cakewalk. This is largely due to the insane amount of resources available compared to the original. The AI also seems far less aggressive. Typically I’d have to restart a mission or reload a save at some point when playing through the original version, but in the remaster, I breezed through every level with ease.

This also applies, though not as strongly, to Homeworld 2, which is a little easier in it’s new remastered format compared to the original. These changes may not be to every fan’s taste, but it’s not like the originals are going anywhere, and I can understand why certain changes have been made to make them more accessible for a new audience. And I must admit that some changes, like the lack of unit fuel in HW1, is something I actually kind of prefer, although I’d agree it does subtract another layer of strategy from the experience.

A real issue with the HW1 remaster, however, is that of formations. They’re just completely broken. In the original, formations, particularly for fighters or corvettes, were vital to combat efficiency. But in the remastered HW1, the formations simply don’t work. When combat is joined, any formation instantly breaks.

Now, due to the apparent balance changes in the remaster, this isn’t too big of a deal, but I do feel it leaves fighters feeling somewhat useless compared to the strike craft in the original. Without working formations, strike craft simply lack the effectiveness they originally possessed. Will formations be fixed, or is it simply an issue of the engine and transplanting HW2 features into HW1? (Perhaps due to HW2 using a squad based strike craft system?) Either way, it’s another reason why, as fantastic as the remastered HW1 looks, I’d still rather play the classic edition.

If you’re new to the Homeworld series, this collection is an excellent bundle. And if you’re an older fan, I’d still say it’s worth the purchase, if only for the convenience of the hassle-free classic versions. Plus, it’s a joy to see these wonderful games looking so damn good. It’s a real shame this collection doesn’t include Cataclysm and complete the set, but maybe it’s something we’ll see in the future.

Overall, this package offers a lot. It’s not perfect, and I hope they fix the issues with the HW1 remaster and perhaps make a few balance changes, but aside from those issues, it comes highly recommended.

8/10