It’s been a while since I actually had enough time to play anything on my Steam backlog. I still haven’t since last time I posted about this project, but I have been playing a few smartphone games and even a PS3 game, so I’m splicing them into the project. Gaming is gaming, more or less, and it’s worth writing a bit about these. Standard boilerplate disclaimer/description, with a rider that most of the images this time around are swiped from the ‘net, since I couldn’t get screenshots:
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I’m going through my Steam list (and then some, as it happens) alphabetically, picking up games I own but haven’t played to see what’s there. 15 minutes each is all I’m budgeting, but I reserve the right to get sucked into a cool game. Some I’ve played already, though, so I’ll mention them in passing here and there, giving them a rating like the other games.
I’ll be giving each of these Backlog games a rating of sorts, as follows: Regret (uninstall and forget), Remember (uninstall but wish for more time), Revisit (leave installed for later) and Recommend (wish for more time to play this right now). This is a squishy continuum of sorts, and deliberately imprecise. This isn’t an in depth survey-and-review, it’s Spring Cleaning of my video game backlog.
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First, I’ve mentioned Slingshot Braves before, which I’ve played on my Android smartphone and an Android tablet. It’s a fairly solid game, as far as actual combat goes, but the progression system and gear acquisition system is… not good. If you’re up for some good combat-billiards…ish sort of gaming, it’s worth checking out for a bit. Just don’t spend any real money on it, and don’t expect to make much progress once the leveling curve ramps up. The “Gacha” system, popular in Japan but with all the stink of F2P underbellies, is kin to the lockbox system we see in many Free To Play MMOs, where you can pony up about $5 worth of premium currency (earned either slowly in-game or via cash purchase) to open a thingamabob that might have a small chance of being useful instead of something you will just break down into materials you could literally earn in a three minute mission. It’s a waste of money. I’m not above wasting money, but this just itches in all the wrong places. It’s a game I Regret, but only because it could have been so much better, not because it was awful to actually play.
Yes, that’s his best armor. Optimus Striptease, The Chief and Tutu Gogo. The game’s gear design is largely the same old ridiculous chainmail bikini sort of crap, but once in a while they do something cool like steampunk armor, so there’s gold in there somewhere.
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Automatic RPG is silly. That’s OK, as the charm of the goofy writing takes mild jabs at badly translated Japanese games and other RPG tropes. The gameplay is minimal, even banking on the “it plays itself” mechanic to sell itself, and it’s kin to mildly entertaining time wasters like Candy Box and Candy Box 2. It was fun for a while, seeing what gear the team found and what conversational malaprops happened, but there’s not really any meat on the game’s bones. The Fire Emblem-like minimal graphics are good for what they are, and the competent music is probably out of a game dev bundle somewhere, but they serve their purpose well enough. Again, not something to spend money on, but it’s fun to see what people do sometimes. I don’t exactly Regret playing it, but it’s close, and it won’t last for more than another week or so, unless I forget I have it installed.
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Random aside: The current (for another 12 hours) Humble Weekly Bundle has some game-making programs and assets that are worth investigating, if you’re itching to dig into making games.
There’s also a ton of stuff in this bundle:
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Terra Battle is my current favorite mobile game. It’s from the Mistwalker crew, complete with Nobuo Uematsu and Yoko Shimomura music, as well as art from stars in the JRPG community, so there’s more to it than Just Another Mobile game. The core design is derived from the Puzzle And Dragons mechanic of swiping a unit around, nudging other units into place for some sort of attack, but the increased depth in its tactical considerations of placement and team composition is much more satisfying than games of that ilk. Sure, there’s a Doctor Who and a Mario P&D variant if those are your IP hooks, but Terra battle takes the core design further, and does a great job at making it more satisfying.
The goal is not to line up units or whatzits to match three in a row and have them pop, but rather, to move your fighting units around to pincer enemies in, since the only way you attack is if you can set up your units in that sort of pincer. This spreads things out, rather than clumping them as in a match-x sort of game, which shakes up the formula nicely. Also, units that are lined up with the units initiating the pincer can lend some support, especially mages and healers, so mastering the entire battlefield and positioning is critical. It’s rewarding to learn the system and plan things out well, making the most of your assets.
(Image from this review, complete with a customer complaint.)
Mistwalker has also promised to do a console Terra Battle game, though the last time I checked, they didn’t know what sort of game it would be. I’d love to see them tackle a Final Fantasy Tactics sort of game using that IP. I can dream.
I Recommend this game, with the caveat that the bog standard “free to play” shenanigans pop up with its own sort of “gacha” system for character recruitment. Extremely rare mages are somewhat overpowered, but I was able to finish the game’s main storyline without needing them and without spending money. Rare characters are not critical to success in the game, and the game is more generous with its premium currency than most, but still… it’s not something I want to spend money on. I’d be perfectly happy to pay $15 or so for a faster leveling pace and guaranteed recruiting (say, in given story missions) in a Buy-And-Play version of the game, though.
It’s a solid game, fun to play, at least until frustration sets in with a slow leveling curve and some of the game’s more annoying bosses or level hazards (spiked floors in chapter 18 are eeeeeeevil) pop up. I finished the main storyline without spending a dime, and I think I have a good feel for what the game offers. I played way more than the 15 minutes I’m budgeting for this project, but I love just playing the game, so I don’t mind.
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And then there’s the biggie. Motorstorm: Apocalypse.
I love this game. I Recommend it. It’s ridiculous, entertaining, and just a blast to drive through crazy, shattered locations. Yes, I’m a sucker for apocalyptic land-and-cityscapes, and the overall look of the game is really what sold me, but the gameplay is really, really solid in my book. The challenge of driving any of a fairly wide variety of vehicles through tracks that don’t always stay in place is just fun. They really embrace the post-apocalyptic setting, but only as a vehicle for making sweet places to drive in absurd scenarios. Drive through an earthquake, a hurricane, or just a huge rainstorm, all while plowing through buildings and skating across roads that break as you drive on them. Drive anything from a semi truck to a superbike, taking advantage of the terrain and your ride, which makes replay interesting as the same track plays differently according to your vehicle. Sure, it’s all contrived, and Michael Bay-like explosive events conveniently happening as you drive by are sort of silly, but it’s all so goofily fun in a wonderfully conceived and realized world that it’s hard to complain.
The “comic book” storytelling is weak, with palpable yearning to be Image Comics in video game form and a thin story with cliche characters. It’s not offensively bad, but it doesn’t really add to the game.
I was hooked in the first five minutes of driving through a broken city, though. I’ve played through about half of the story and driven on about a third of the open “free race” tracks. There are more tracks that I get to unlock, but out of the gate, there is plenty of fun to be found.
It’s not quite as great as Burnout Revenge in my driving library, but it’s easily in second place, just edging out Burnout Paradise. And yes, all of these edge out any Mario Kart game I’ve played. Perhaps that’s sacrilege, but the pure mayhem in Burnout Revenge (crash events, especially), gorgeous explorable world in Burnout Paradise, and the broken, beautiful world of Motorstorm: Apocalypse are just more fun for me. Sure, I had a blast with the original Mario Kart on the SNES back in the day, just like I had a lot of fun with Goldeneye, but these days, the field is a bit more stuffed with options. I also haven’t played more than a few glorious minutes of DIRT 3, which seems like it might fit in the top 5 somewhere with a proper review.
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This is also a good excuse to share a few of my favorite short films. First, there’s Ruin, which is most on-topic. This post-apocalyptic short film is apparently a “tiny” piece of a bigger world, and I’d love to see more of it. The character is a bit JRPGgy, in that he’s slightly oddly proportioned and moves in some regular cycles, reminiscent of Final Fantasy characters in their prerendered movies, but that’s the animator in me nitpicking. The sense of world and place is great in this film, and I’m fond of the world building that the creator indulged in.
Then there’s World Builder, which scratches my film-making and game dev itches at the same time, and is just a sweet little story to boot.
And then there’s Carousel, one of the best CG short films I’ve seen to date. The clowns are creepy, the “moment of time” hook is brilliant, and the story told really works well for what could have simply been an exercise in showing off fancy image-smithing.
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Until next time, then! I’m hoping to dive back into Steam, but the Tinker Plastic Dice should be at my place this week or early next week, so I’ll be busy again with that for a while.
Tish Tosh Tesh 