speculative fiction

The Little Black Fish – Bizhan Khodabandeh (illustrator)

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Little Black Fish CoverFirst Published: 15th March, 2016
Genre: Children’s Fiction / Graphic Novel
Available: Amazon.com | Amazon UK | Rosarium

The little black fish is tired of swimming in circles all day, so she decides to leave and find out where the stream ends.

This comic is an adaptation of the children’s book “The Little Black Fish” by Samad Behrangi. There’s a note at the end discussing some of the changes from the original material, though none of them are that major. The main flow of the story is the same as the original text.

I loved the art style in this. It’s very colourful with a lot of detailed patterns. The panel layouts are varied, which helps provide visual interest. The balance of text to art worked to make it clear what was going on.

As to the story itself, its strengths and weaknesses are down to the source material. On the plus side, it’s a tale of how one person’s achievements can inspired others. The frame story is a fish telling her children and grandchildren (I liked the nod to biological accuracy, as there’s a huge number of them) about the black fish’s adventures. It’s a story about striving to achieve your dreams and ask questions, even if others are sure you’re wrong.

It’s also interesting in a political context, as it touches on issues like people being shunned or killed to maintain the status quo, and attempts to suppress knowledge. As someone born to a working class family, feeling like life is swimming in pointless circles, and wanting to escape that, is something I can relate to.

There are aspects I did not like as much, and would make me hesitant to read this to a younger child. Crying is treated harshly. To cry makes you a cry-baby and a disgrace. The old are criticised for whining about things. The black fish is called crazy, and calls others ignorant in response. Though being called crazy is portrayed as a bad thing, it is the black fish who is saying others must not complain about things and are ignorant for not agreeing with her. Those are all things people throw at others to shut them up (stop whining, stop crying, you’re just stupid), which rather goes against the central theme of the black fish wanting the freedom to speak her mind and achieve her dreams. It’s a selective freedom for her, and people who think like her.

It’s also a rather simplified metaphor when it comes to the poor. A lot of people aren’t caught swimming in circles because they don’t believe there’s anything else, but because they can’t escape their circumstances. There isn’t an opening in the stream for them to swim down. Or if there is one, they’re not able to fit through it. This is implied with the lizard, as he offers support for the fish without going himself, but it’s not directly stated.

For an older child or adult, the story can be considered in the context of when and where the original was written. For a younger child, that’s going to be a bit over their heads.

I think this would be a great book for any fans of the original, as well as people new to the story. The comic adaptation does add something extra. But it is very much a story where knowing the context is important, as some of the morals of the tale are a little uncomfortable in a modern context. I’m all for telling people to strive for their dreams and to be inspired by others, but not so much that it’s bad to complain or cry when something’s hurting you.

[A copy of this book was received from the publisher for review purposes]

How to Live on Other Planets: A Handbook for Aspiring Aliens – Joanne Merriam (editor)

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oplanets2First Published: 16th February, 2015
Genre: Science Fiction / Short Story Anthology
Authors: Dean Francis Alfar; Celia Lisset Alvarez; RJ Astruc; Lisa Bao; Pinckney Benedict; Lisa Bolekaja; Mary Buchinger; Zen Cho; Tina Connolly; Indrapramit Das; Tom Doyle; Peg Duthie; Tom Greene; Benjamin S. Grossberg; Minal Hajratwala; Julie Bloss Kelsey; Rose Lemberg; Ken Liu; Alex Dally MacFarlane; Anil Menon; Joanne Merriam; Mary Anne Mohanraj; Daniel José Older; Abbey Mei Otis; Sarah Pinsker; Elyss G. Punsalan; Benjamin Rosenbaum; Erica L. Satifka; Nisi Shawl; Lewis Shiner; Marge Simon; Sonya Taaffe; Bogi Takács; Bryan Thao Worra; Deborah Walker; Nick Wood
Available: Amazon.com | Amazon UK | Barnes & Noble

I have mixed feelings about the anthology, which aren’t anything to do with the individual stories and poems. It’s about the stated theme and how that theme is described. It starts with the preface of the anthology. I’m not a huge fan of describing invasion as immigration. It’s true it’s a form of migration, but that term is used to soften or dismiss what went down. When people say Europeans migrated to the Americas, it’s often a way to avoid addressing it as an invasion or having to talk about genocide. There’s also the underlying implication of all migrants being equal, from the invader who lives with the advantages that brings, to the refugee who is struggling to survive.

So the preface rubbed me the wrong way right from the start, and the question at the end didn’t seem to flow from the rest. When I think of migration, I don’t think: “Who do we become when we live with the unfamiliar?”

When I think about migration, my big questions are: “What leads people to migrate? What are the obstacles they face?” For me, colonialism, assimilation pressures, and politics are core issues of the theme. Questioning if things are a bit weird compared to home, and how you might change to deal with that, is another softening of the theme. The suggestion is immigration is mostly about dealing with small details like food being different or your accent seeming strange to locals.

Moving on to the stories, some stood out more than others, for better or worse. A favourite was “Zero Bar” (Tom Greene). It’s about someone who had her gene expression altered before birth, so that she looks whiter than the rest of her family. Though I live in a different place, and I’m at the other end of the scale (the darker one in a lighter family), some of the experiences resonated with mine. Like not knowing how to fill out diversity forms and other people always being sure they’re the expert in how a mixed race person should identify.

“Sea Changes” (Erica L. Satifka) deals with someone born in an undersea dome adjusting after being “rescued” and bought back to a surface city. It’s a short piece with a great atmosphere, that touches on the harm the system can do when it thinks it knows best.

There are a lot of other strong works in the mix. “muo-ka’s Child” (Indrapramit Das) explores how humans could have unintended ecological impacts on planets just by arriving. “The Four Generations of Chang E” (Zen Cho) is a story with moon rabbits and changing attitudes across generations. “The Tiny English-Hungarian Phrasebook For Visiting Extraterrestrials” (Bogi Takács) is a bit of humour.

Though there were many stories I liked, there was some I didn’t. “In Colors Everywhere” (Nisi Shawl) is one I really didn’t enjoy at all. It’s set on a penal colony planet, from the perspective of someone who has grown up on the planet. I would have avoided reading this one if I’d realised the crime most of the original residents committed was being trans, and that it was a story of how people in the colony will be raped and exploited, with no way to escape. I’ve liked other stories by this author, but this one was very much not my cup of tea.

There’s a difficulty here about whether I judge the anthology by what the title implies it’s about or by the stated intention in the preface. Neither one entirely works. Some of the stories are not about someone living with the unfamiliar, as people are living right where they were born, and sometimes where their parents have lived for generations. But some of the stories aren’t really science fiction immigration either. A tourist isn’t an immigrant even with the most open of definitions.

I’d say it’s a good anthology in terms of the quality of stories included. Many of the authors have experience of immigration, which shows in the handling of the theme. But I’m not so convinced the curation of the anthology was built on an understanding of the theme. More on hoping the authors would understand and it would fall into place. The declaration that it doesn’t contain polemics, and is instead meant to entertain, adds to my feeling on this. A lot of marginalised authors have faced having their work dismissed as being a polemic or message fiction, and that no one could possibly enjoy their work. Stating strongly that their work isn’t comes across as, “I know work by authors like this is usually dull message fiction, but these stories are different.” Which is rather a backhanded compliment.

That said, it will appeal to people who like to see a diversity in protagonists, and some of the themes surrounding immigration and colonialism explored. Many of the authors are not new to me, but are frequently underpromoted. This is a good place to see their work collected together.

[A copy of this book was received from the publisher for review purposes]

PlayStation Plus 2015 (Mini-Reviews)

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This was my first year of PlayStation Plus. The service has a number of features, like cloud space to backup save files, and discounts on top of usual sale prices. But the one I’m focusing on here is the games. During 2015, there were two titles per console per month (PS4, PS3 and PS Vita). I had a PS4 and PS3 early on, and borrowed a Vita a few months in.

I only played games I thought I might like. This is mainly single player games with a story, with a preference for fantasy and science fiction. Which means I had a reasonable chance of liking the games, as I’d weeded out most of the ones I’d hate before I played them. It says bad things about the ones I hated anyway.

Where a game title is a link, it goes to a longer review of the game. I’ve given some estimates of playtime, though most titles on PS+ are on the shorter side. The consoles listed are for the version given away free… some of the games are available on the others too.

 

January

inFAMOUS: First Light (PS4) – Fetch has neon powers in a world where conduits (superpowered people) are illegal. When her brother is kidnapped, she uses her powers to find him, but risks being captured in the process. I didn’t initially like the game much, but I warmed up to it. As an introduction to the series, it’s a bit of a sharp learning curve (the combat tutorial comes after the first fight, for example). The neon powers are nice and the game does play smoothly. The world was a little generic feeling though. [3D Action]

The Swapper (PS4 | PS3 | PS Vita) – A person in a spacesuit is launched in an escape pod and lands on a planet. She soon discovers a device called the swapper, which create clones and swaps the mind/soul between them. The basic gameplay is a puzzle game, using the swapper device. What makes this game is the intriguing storyline that binds the puzzle rooms together. As more of the area is accessed, there are a number of mysteries. What are the rocks everywhere? What happened to the crew? What does the swapper really do? And who is in that spacesuit? The art style is also unique, as it’s made from found objects, rather than being computer generated. This is a great puzzle game, with a good balance of story to puzzles. [2D Puzzle Platformer]

Prototype 2 (PS3) – While James Heller is serving in the military, a zombie virus outbreak leads to his wife and daughter being killed by the infected. When he returns, he ends up infected with a form of the virus that turns him into a superhuman. In this game, you can literally pull someone’s arms off and beat them with them. Which does get a bit gory, but I found it too over-the-top to really take seriously. The thing that’s unsettling is the oppression. The people in the quarantine zones are treated terribly, in a way that’s not too far from the real world. James is initially taken in for experiments, which is chilling given the history of using black people for unethical medical experimentation in the USA. That atmosphere, and a smooth superpowered combat system, make for an interesting game. The weakest parts were its handling of women (it starts with fridging his family, which sets the tone here) and not fleshing out some of the subplots very well. [3D Action]

 

February

Apotheon (PS4) – The Gods of Olympus abandon humans. A man called Nikandreos fights his way to Olympus to claim their powers and save humanity. I was taken by the art style of the game, which is based on Greek pottery. The gameplay was reasonable in the bit I tried. The thing I couldn’t get used to was the audio, as it played through only one ear at a time, depending on which way the character was facing. This probably sounds fine with speakers, but it’s really odd (and difficult to hear anything, especially when it’s my bad ear) with headphones. This game needed a headphone mix or an option to turn off directional sound. Probably a fun game if you have speakers. I might come back to it at some point and turn the sound off. [2D Adventure]

Transistor (PS4) – A failed attempt on Red’s life leaves her unable to speak. Her friend’s body is killed, but his voice lives on in the Transistor, the giant sword used to attack her. They hunt down her attackers and find out what’s happening in the city of Cloudbank. Transistor is cyberpunk meets art nouveau in terms of style. The combat is pseudo turn based with a detailed skills system. The mystery of what’s going on, and the nature of Cloudbank, is interesting… if somewhat tragic. It has some QUILTBAG representation, which had some issues (note the tragic part), but I did appreciate that one of the profiles was for a non-binary person. [Isometric RPG]

Thief (PS3) – Garrett is a thief, who decides he knows best and steals one of his friend’s tools. She ends up hurt / possibly dead when she doesn’t have the tool when she needs it. Garrett has angst. This game started glitching on me from the start. The tutorial stopped giving me instructions, and the subtitles in the first chapter were completely out of sync. That said, the glitches aren’t why I stopped playing. I intended to go back, but there were always other games I wanted to play more. It suffered from being passable, rather than something I was excited to play. Will Garrett stop angsting or is the smokey eyeshadow forever? I might never know. [3D Stealth]

 

March

Valiant Hearts: The Great War (PS4) – The story of several people living during World War I. This is an educational puzzle game, which covers the main events in the war. Collectibles are items from the time period, which give additional historical facts. The focus is on the hardships of everyday people, rather than glorifying battle. Cartoon graphics act to soften the gore, though it doesn’t pull any punches when it comes to showing the emotional tragedy of war. This is a well-crafted game, but the theme meant I couldn’t play it for very long in one sitting. [2D Puzzle Adventure]

Papo & Yo (PS3) – Quico escapes from his abusive father into a fantasy world, where his best friend is Monster. But Monster is addicted to eating frogs, which send him into violent rages. This game is based on the developer’s experience of an abusive alcoholic father, which shows in the careful handling of the topic. Quico tries to take on responsibility for Monster, by removing frogs where he can, and searching for a cure for Monster’s problem. But the game doesn’t look to blame Quico for Monster’s (or his father’s) behaviour, even if at times he blames himself. In terms of puzzles, the world looks realistic, with buildings and streets. Until buildings grow legs and walk or stairs are pulled out of walls. I felt the puzzles could have gone up in difficulty a little more during the game, and there are some rough edges on the graphics (like character mouths not moving during speech), but this is a unique game dealing with a difficult topic. [3D Puzzle Adventure]

Sherlock Holmes: Crimes and Punishments (PS3) – Holmes and Watson set out to solve a number of tricky cases. The main gameplay is finding clues and interviewing people, with some puzzles and QTEs on the way. Unlike many detective games, the player can choose any of the suspects. Pick the first one that pops up based on circumstantial evidence, or keep going until you’ve found all the possible suspects. There is a right or wrong answer, but the game doesn’t stop you choosing the wrong one. This makes it the best detective game I’ve played for actual detective work. In criticisms, the overall story linking the cases wasn’t very strong. I’d have liked to find some more hints of that during the cases. The loading times were a little long. It’s debatable if the green mystic guy was intended to be the most stereotypical mystic Asian possible (as in, he may have been acting that way to sell stuff to London’s elite), but he didn’t get enough character time to really know. [3D Detective]

CounterSpy (PS4 | PS3 | PS Vita) – You work for a secret agency, trying to stop the world’s superpowers from blowing up the moon. With digs at the cold war (with both sides being as destructive as each other), this game has its funny moments. The big issue is the procedurally generated levels. Technically it means it’s replayable. The reality is the random levels can turn out to be impossible for the current character progression…. or too easy. They can be restarted infinitely to get a level design that works, but it does get tedious. Very soon, all the levels start to look the same. [2.5D Shooter]

 

April

Never Alone (PS4) – When an endless blizzard hits, Nuna and Fox head out into the storm to find the source. This game is a reimagining of an Iñupiat (Alaska Native peoples) story, produced in collaboration with the community. As well as the puzzle platformer gameplay, there are little videos explaining things about the stories and culture. The atmosphere is great, with the endless winds and various spirits that help or hinder the friends along the way. It can be played as a two-player co-op or alone (switching between the characters). For the most part, it’s fairly easy, but single player mode can have some issues with the AI of the other character putting them in danger. [2D Puzzle Platformer]

Aaru’s Awakening (PS4 | PS3) – Aaru is a war machine from an ancient war, who is awakened to fight a new threat. Interesting idea and lovely artwork. However, it comes complete with clunky controls and a narrator who sounds like a child being forced to read in class. As well as the controls, the gameplay focuses exclusively on speedrunning the levels. So there’s never really time to stop and look at the art, experience any sort of story (outside of the awful narrated sections) or learn about the world. If you want a platformer where the biggest challenge is the controls, and there’s no content outside of doing everything really fast, this might be for you. This was the worst game I tried all year. [2D Puzzle Platformer]

MonsterBag (PS Vita) – Nia leaves her bag behind when she goes to school. But the bag is a monster, who sets out to find her. This is a puzzle game where the bag has to travel along a line of people to reach Nia. The early levels involved finding items and using them/giving them to people to clear the path along the line. I enjoyed the start, as it was something a bit different, though could have done without the cannibals trope part. The big problem was the later levels discarded this concept, and instead become about precisely timed jumps between near-identical line members. I’d have liked the game a lot more if it’d stuck with that opening puzzle concept. But as it was, the end was rather generic compared to the beginning. [2D Puzzle]

 

May

Ether One (PS4) – You work as a restorer, going into the minds of dementia patients to help them regain their memories. This time, the memories centre around Pinwheel, a Cornish village, and the mining disaster that happened there years ago. Players can either just explore (finding ribbons) or can stop to do puzzles (put together projectors, which give more story information). I felt the game did a good job of presenting the confusion of dementia. Memories were in fragments and blurred into each other, making it hard to piece together exactly what went on. The initial release on PS4 was buggy, but after the patches, this was an enjoyable game (though sad in places, given the theme). [3D Adventure]

Hohokum (PS4 | PS3 | PS Vita) – A snake plays hide-and-seek with their snake friends. This is an exploration game, where the exact objectives are left for the player to discover. Completing tasks can help reveal the hidden snake in every world. Or just wander around the colourful scenery seeing what everything does. I enjoyed the art style and gameplay of this one, as I’m a fan of exploration games. However, it isn’t a good choice if you like games with clear objectives. [2D Exploration]

The Unfinished Swan (PS4 | PS3 | PS Vita) – When Monroe’s mother dies, he keeps her favourite painting: an unfinished swan. The swan disappears one night and he follows it into a strange world. This is a shooter with a difference, as it’s about shooting paint at the environment. The first level is completely blank and the player has to paint it to see where they’re going. No game mechanic overstays its welcome, as each level uses the paint shooting in different ways. It’s a sweet story, of a boy finding out more about his family, that captures the storybook feel perfectly. Note that the whiteness of early levels may cause migraine issues for some players. [3D Shooter Adventure]

Race the Sun (PS4 | PS3 | PS Vita) – A solar ship has to race towards the sunset, to avoid losing power. This is an endless runner, with basic geometric graphics. It’s a solid example of the genre, and has the usual expected features (like missions to achieve during the runs and levelling up). I was too terrible at it to get a lot out of it, as I died too quickly. But it’s not a bad title for someone looking for an endless runner to play. [3D Endless Runner]

Murasaki Baby (PS Vita) – Baby is looking for Mommy and needs you to guide her. Baby lives in a creepy world of monsters, where everyone has their mouth on top of their head (including Baby). Creepily cute would be a good description of the art style. This game is also very much a Vita game. The player leads Baby by taking her hand with the front touchpad, and the background can be changed by swiping the back touchpad. Some levels require turning the Vita upside-down. It uses the Vita features in a way most games don’t. This can be awkward at times, but the game is only a few hours, so it’s not too bad. (Putting the Vita into flight mode is recommended for earning trophies). [2D Puzzle Platformer]

 

June

Super Exploding Zoo! (PS4 | PS Vita) – This is made by the same developers as Hohokum, but is a very different game. It’s a puzzle game solved by directing herds of exploding animals to destroy aliens. Nothing wrong with it really, but it wasn’t enough to keep my attention for long. I like a bit more story with my puzzles. [2D Puzzle]

 

July

Rocket League (PS4) – Rocket-powered cars play football (soccer). It has online multiplayer and offline single-player modes. I’m not a big fan of sports games, but thought this looked interesting enough to try. It was fun enough for me to get the trophies, but it’s not something I’d play for a long time. However, it’s not because the game is bad. It’s polished and the online games could keep a sports fan entertained for a long time. This is a better investment than the big name sports titles where they’ll close the servers after a few months. [3D Sports]

MouseCraft (PS4 | PS3 | PS Vita) – A cat scientist runs experiments on mice, to power his mysterious machine. This puzzle game is like a cross between Lemmings and Tetris. The player places tetromino blocks to create a path for the mice. The larger story is barely there, so there’s not a lot to get invested in. This is the sort of puzzle game that fills a few minutes here and there. [2D Puzzle]

Entwined (PS4 | PS3 | PS Vita) – A fish and a bird are in love across many lifetimes. Entwined is a rhythm game. The fish and bird fly down a tunnel, and each stick on the controller moves one of them. They have to hit patterns in order to reach the end of each lifetime, where they combine to form a dragon. The main part of the game is pretty relaxing, though the challenge mode is not. [Rhythm]

Rain (PS3) – A boy sees an invisible girl being chased by invisible monsters, due to them showing in the rain. He heads out to follow them, becoming invisible himself. This is a short adventure, with puzzles based around being visible in the rain, and invisible outside of the rain. I enjoyed the melancholy atmosphere and rain-based puzzles. It’s a reasonably easy game, though note it doesn’t have spoken narration. [3D Puzzle Adventure]

 

August

Sound Shapes (PS4 | PS3 | PS Vita) – A platform game where everything makes music. Collecting notes on the way adds beats to the score. This is pretty fun. There’s not a lot else to say about it, as there’s no hidden depth or storylines here. If you like the sound of a musical platformer, you might enjoy this. [2D Platformer]

Stealth Inc. 2: A Game of Clones (PS4 | PS3 | PS Vita) – A clone escapes in a factory and works to free other clones. Death is a minor inconvenience in this game, making it easier to travel around and complete the various puzzle rooms. Perfecting the rooms is a little harder. [2D Puzzle Platformer]

 

September

Grow Home (PS4) – BUD the robot is collecting star seeds to save his planet. But first, he has to grow the star plant to the stratosphere so that it’ll flower. Robots, giant star plants, and the occasional mushroom, made this game right up my alley. BUD’s controls take a little getting used to, as gravity is low on the planet (easy to run off things) and climbing is done by controlling each arm separately. There is a clear visual and sound to let you know when a hand has grabbed on successfully, so this isn’t too bad with a bit of patience. Later on, he gets faster ways to travel. My only real complaint is one of the skins for BUD was a tad dubious (a Native skin, with a feather, that makes BUD closer to nature… might as well have called it the Noble Savage skin), but this is a small optional thing. You can remain as default BUD and grow your plant to space without that. Overall, a fun little game with a cute robot. [3D Exploration]

Teslagrad (PS4 | PS3) – A boy flees his home chased by people. A steampunk puzzle game sounded like my sort of thing, but this just didn’t grab me. I think one of the issues is the story was told by tiny pictures found on scrolls, which were hard enough to see, let alone interpret. I didn’t end up getting very far, as I was indifferent to it. There’s nothing really wrong with the game as such. It plays well enough. It just didn’t have that extra spark. [2D Puzzle Platformer]

 

October

Broken Age (PS4 |PS Vita) – Vella is about to be offered as a sacrifice to a monster to save her village. Shay lives on a spaceship and is bored by his repetitive routine. Broken Age is a point-and-click adventure following the lives of the two teens. It’s reminiscent of older point-and-clicks, with quirky characters and jokes. The puzzles are the object collection/combination style typical of the genre. It’s an entertaining game, though I enjoyed Vella’s side of the story more than Shay’s. [Point-and-Click Adventure]

Unmechanical Extended (PS4 | PS3) – A little helicopter robot is kidnapped, and has to escape from an underground facility. Also included is the extended adventure, where two robots are kidnapped and work together to escape (not a co-op thing… you only control one of them). I found most of the puzzles straightforward. There’s no moon logic here, so not a lot to get stuck on. The atmosphere of the underground base is great and I loved the robot design. Don’t expect to find out the wider story though, as that’s left to player interpretation. This was a fun little game to fill a few hours. [2D Puzzle Adventure]

 

November

The Walking Dead: Season Two (PS4) – Clementine is a child survivor in a zombie apocalypse. This is an interactive story, so is mainly listening to dialogue and doing a few QTEs. The issue being I didn’t care much about the story. Because it’s so unrelentingly bleak, and because everyone dies, it makes the story rather pointless. You make a choice that a character will remember, but they die in the next scene, so the choice was irrelevant. There aren’t any stable character relationships to get behind, because of the whole death thing. The texturing on the QTE prompts also made them difficult for me to see and follow (though at least the sequences were pretty easy and could be repeated). It passed the time and was fine as a free game, but not something I’d pay out for on a budget. [3D Interactive Story]

 

December

Far Cry 3: Blood Dragon (PS3) – This short title is a completely separate story to the main Far Cry 3 game. It’s set in the early 2000s, as might have been written by people in the 1980s. Nuclear wastelands, lots of cyborgs and neon, and so forth. Though I could appreciate the retro setting, I found the gameplay rather average. [3D Shooter]

King’s Quest – Chapter 1: A Knight to Remember (PS4) – An elderly King Graham tells stories to his granddaughter about how he went from no one to king, starting with how he became a knight. This is a light-hearted fantasy adventure story, with quirky character and puns. I liked that a number of the puzzles had multiple solutions (and which solution is chosen can affect how other characters view Graham). It was longer than I expected for an episodic game (around five hours for this episode). I plan to get a season pass to continue with the story at some point. [Adventure]

 

2015 Overview

I enjoyed enough of the games to get value for money. A year’s subscription was £40 in 2015, at a time when the average big game costs £40-£60, and the average smaller game costs around £10. Even with sale prices, I’d have struggled to get this many games for £40. I’m looking forward to next year.

Top Five: This was difficult, as I liked a lot of the games. In no particular order…

  • The Swapper
  • Transistor
  • Never Alone
  • Grow Home
  • King’s Quest

Bottom Five: I feel bad for four of the five games here, as I didn’t hate them. I just didn’t love them. They’re not in the same league as Aaru’s Awakening, which I hated. But I suppose it’s a good thing I didn’t have five games I truly despised.

  • Aaru’s Awakening
  • Thief
  • Super Exploding Zoo!
  • Apotheon
  • Teslagrad

Conversation in Strange Horizons

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Bogi Takács and I have a non-fiction piece in Strange Horizons. It’s called Gender, Sex, and Sexuality in SF: A Conversation. We talk about various stuff, from things we think are handled badly to recommendations. This also marks my first non-fiction sale.

While we were talking, I did have a tangent that I didn’t include. It’s something I think would interest my fiction readers more than people who don’t know who I am. Namely about the issue of times when it’s hard to show in a short story that humans do something too / it’s not an alien-only thing. I had a story where it was an issue: “The Dragonfly People” in Rainbow Lights. The viewpoint character is a giant scorpion-like alien, who comes from a strict trinary gender system. She assumes, based on what she sees, that humans have a strict binary gender system. Without concepts like being trans existing in her own culture, or a fluent shared language to discuss the issues, she remains thinking her initial assumption is correct.

It was something I considered at the time I wrote it, though I felt overall it’d be clear it wasn’t my view from my body of work, and there was a sequel in progress about the alien/human relations in the next generation that tackled those issues.

But the thing that struck me, and where this tangent is going, is those sorts of stories are rarely the ones where people are saying they couldn’t see how to mention it. They tend to be stories with human viewpoint characters, very human-like aliens, and/or characters who speak each other’s languages fluently. Which is why I often feel like replying to those statements with, “Is your viewpoint character a giant scorpion who thinks humans are weird squishy things that make funny sounds? No? Then someone can tell them trans people exist, okay.”

Now, I’m off to eat solstice chocolates. I hope you enjoy the conversation!

The Order: 1886

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The Order: 1886 Cover

Developer: Ready At Dawn
First Release: 20th February, 2015
Version Played: PS4
Length: Medium

The Order: 1886 is a steampunk game set in London. The Order is a group of knights, named for the original knights of the round table, who prolong their lives by drinking blackwater from the grail. Their mission is to fight the half-breeds (such as the lycans… werewolves by another name).

Though the game has some shooter and stealth elements, it’s mainly about the story. That makes it a good place to start when discussing the game, as this is likely to make or break whether someone enjoys it.

Story

The story follows Sir Galahad, starting with the prologue where he’s being held prisoner by the Order, and flashing back to what led to this. In the flashback, a lot of things are happening in London. The poor are rebelling against oppression. A killer (Jack the Ripper) is targeting prostitutes. The patients of a mental asylum have broken out, and there’s suspicion of a lycan connection. The knights have a lot to deal with, but not everything is as it seems.

Anyone expecting a more common action game narrative of defeating the big bad and saving the day is likely to be disappointed, as it’s not that sort of story. It’s more about Galahad’s personal journey, as he discovers things aren’t as black and white as he assumed, and has to decide where he stands.

One thing I look for in steampunk is how colonial themes are tackled. Some stories are prone to glorifying the British Empire and all it did. The Order doesn’t. Some of the characters certainly think that way, but it’s clear to the player that the poor join the rebellion out of desperation for how they’re treated. The authorities are doing little about the murdered women, and something odd was going down at the asylum.

The supernatural elements are shown as taking advantage of the British Empire’s expansion, rather than being responsible for it. A subtle difference, but an important one, as blaming it all on magic is a common way for stories to avoid addressing history.

In terms of inclusion, there are two Indian women who are important to the story. However, I would have liked to see a wider racial mix among the inhabitants of Whitechapel. At this point in history (and there’s no suggestion that the game version is any different) people moved to London from all parts of the Empire. Few would make it into the upper classes (such as the knights), but the poor workers would be more diverse.

The biggest issue with the story was not developing some of the characters and subplots. The collectables would have been a good way to introduce more information about the things going on at the asylum and hospital. The knights visit a brothel, which makes sense as prostitutes are being targeted by Jack the Ripper. But they don’t actually talk to anyone to find out more about that, which seems like a wasted opportunity. These things could have been fleshed out without giving away everything. And in turn, a little more story in the subplots would have given more space to develop the characters.

Overall though, I enjoyed the story. It was the gameplay where my reaction was more lukewarm.

Gameplay

The shooter parts of the game were solid. It’s cover-based shooting, with a variety of weapons. There are a number of fun science weapons, designed by Tesla (though I would have liked more time to explode things with these). I also liked the tools, such as the lockpicking, morse code sender and circuit breaker. These could have been used more, such as having some puzzles that required them, but the basic mechanism for how they worked was fine. If this was all the gameplay, it would have been fun.

Unfortunately, the game also had quick time events. These can be fiddly for someone like me, as my coordination isn’t the best, and reacting quickly to onscreen prompts is difficult. I could at least retry the cutscenes with quick time events, so I got there eventually. The stopping point was the stealth takedowns. Rather than sneaking up and hitting the takedown key, it has rings around the button prompt. Only at the precise moment the rings hit the prompt, and the buttons highlights, can the takedown be performed successfully. Failure means total failure, as Galahad forgets how to fight if they turn around to face him. Which meant I failed as often as I succeeded. This was hard enough when I had to perform two takedowns in a row. But a later chapter with multiple takedowns was extremely difficult, and not in a fun challenging way. I thought I wouldn’t be able to complete the game due to that chapter. I can’t imagine why any developer would think it was fun to fail, and fail, and fail, and fail, for hours on end. So my assumption is they didn’t consider that quick time events can be a problem for people (I’d note that using an easy difficulty only seems to change the gun fights, not the reaction time for quick time events).

Subtitles

The subtitles had some issues. They were a little small for a start. Fine on the big screen I’m using, but I feel for anyone using them on a smaller screen.

I often got no subtitles for a conversation happening next to me, but at the same time I got subtitles for a conversation happened elsewhere. I would have also liked non-translated subtitles to go with dialogue in other languages (this was especially strange when the French character used the odd French word in mostly English dialogue, and the subtitles translated it… I wanted to know what he actually said).

The game was pretty free of bugs, though I did find one with the subtitles. I picked up a newspaper while a conversation was happening, and the subtitles got stuck on the screen.

It does feel like they needed a tester who uses subtitles regularly.

Graphics and Polish

The game’s graphics are as good as the promotion promised them to be. It sets a high bar for photorealistic games. Outside of my subtitle bug, I didn’t find anything else amiss. There was no getting stuck on geometry, trophies failing to award, save file corruption or other issues of that nature. It was clearly polished to a high standard.

As someone who likes collectables, I would have liked them to have more additional lore in them. I also would have liked a collectables log, so I could track them. The basic system for collectibles is really nice (Galahad can pick them up and look them over), so the potential is there.

No game is perfect, but this one certainly gives the feel of hitting what the developers set out to do.

Conclusions

The Order: 1886 is a beautiful game, with an interesting setting and storyline. It will appeal to steampunk fans, with its airships, Tesla devices and other trappings. For someone who is good at quick time events, it will be a quick play with easy trophies. However, I don’t recommend it for anyone who struggles with quick time events, as the chapters with multiple stealth takedowns will be frustratingly difficult.

I’m on the fence about whether I’d get another game in the series. The stealth takedowns were the least fun I’ve had in a game for a long while, and I’m not sure the story is going to be enough to sign up for that.