video games

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

Beyond Eyes

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Developer: tiger & squid
First Release: 8th September, 2015
Version Played: PS4
Length: Short

 

Beyond Eyes is a short exploration game, about a girl called Rae going to find her missing cat friend.

The marketing descriptions for Rae’s backstory are a bit of a mess, and don’t line up with what’s stated in the game. In the game, Rae is blinded in a fireworks accident. She becomes reclusive, staying in her garden, as a reaction to the trauma of the accident. That summer, she befriends a cat she calls Nani. The seasons travel through to winter, Nani starts to visit less and less often, and by spring he’s disappeared. Rae heads out to find him.

The difference is the marketing versions say she’s been blind since she was a toddler. However, the game shows her as near the same age (and wearing the same clothes) when she has her accident. The passing of the seasons would make it about a year later when she heads out. This also fits better with her general level of skill in moving around. If she had been blind since she was a toddler, it would come across as strange that she wasn’t more skilled at moving around. This would mean she’d been blind for most of her childhood, which just doesn’t fit.

But anyway, if I hadn’t read those descriptions, I’d have said this takes place about a year later.

The strength of the game is the way the world is painted around Rae. As she uses her other senses to navigate, she imagines the world, and it appears around her. This means she sometimes gets things wrong, such as thinking cloth flapping in the wind is a clothesline, when it’s a scarecrow. She might imagine a gate as closed because it was when she first encountered it, but someone’s opened it since then. As this representation exists only in her mind, it’s also influenced by her current mental state. When she’s frightened, the colours are less bright. When she’s confused, areas can disappear.

Though there are some sadder/tenser moments, it’s overall a gentle experience. Rae’s world is an idyllic village with flowers and birds singing, rendered in watercolour. The threats she faces are common ones, such as crossing the road or a loud dog.

I liked that Rae’s accident was not portrayed as the end of her life. Withdrawal is a normal (though not the only) response to trauma. The key here is it’s also showing her facing that, by leaving to find Nani. Life carries on.

There were two things I noted as not ideal in the portrayal of blindness. It’s odd that Rae’s eyes are closed all the time. Even in cases where the eyes are removed, the eyelids are not usually sewn shut in humans. I wonder if this was done to avoid showing damaged or absent eyes. The second point also doubles as a gameplay issue. There’s a misconception that blind people can’t move quickly. That blind children don’t run when they play, adults never run for the bus, and even a fast confident walk is seen as out of the question. This isn’t true. It’s natural for someone who is re-learning how to navigate to be cautious, but slow movement speed is not inherent to being blind.

The gameplay issue being Rae moves slowly all the time. For the initial exploration, this speed is fine. But it gets painful when backtracking to explore all the areas, which isn’t a good gameplay choice for an exploration game. It makes sense both from a real world perspective, and a game perspective, to have her pick up the pace in areas she’s already been. Even a cautious child is going to move faster going back down the path she knows is fine. It also would have been a nice touch if her basic walk had slowly increased in speed during her adventure, as she got more confident.

In terms of gameplay, I would have liked more events. There were some already in the world, such as being able to feed flowers to a cow, and finding memories of Nani. But there were also places that felt empty. Some of these had objects that could have triggered events. I didn’t feel the balance of things to find, versus the time taken to explore, had been hit.

Accessibility options for blind players would have been good, such as the option to have a narrator reading the story (it’s text only) and controller vibrations when hitting obstacles. Also worth noting the undiscovered areas are white, which can be a migraine or motion sickness trigger for some people. If you’re in that category, keeping game sessions short is advisable.

Overall, Beyond Eyes is a nice addition to the exploration genre. It has some strong points, such as the way the world is painted from Rae’s perception and the beautiful artwork. I would have liked a faster backtracking speed and more things to find, but this didn’t stop me enjoying it. Fans of quieter exploration games and walking simulators are likely to enjoy the game. It took me around six hours to finish everything, including reruns for trophies.

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.

inFAMOUS: First Light

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First Light Cover

Developer: Sucker Punch Productions
First Release: 27th August, 2014
Version Played: PS4
Length: Short
Links: Trailer One, Trailer Two

inFAMOUS: First Light is a short prequel to inFAMOUS: Second Son – a 3D action game set in the near future. First Light was offered as extra content for Second Son players, but is also sold as a standalone game. I got a copy as part of my PlayStation Plus subscription, having never played the other inFAMOUS games. My thoughts are from the perspective of how the game stands up on its own for players who are coming into the series with this as their first game.

In the inFAMOUS world, conduits (superpowered people) are controlled by the authorities in the USA. They’re locked up in government facilities and trained to use their powers for official purposes (like working for the D.U.P., who contain and control conduits).

Abigail “Fetch” Walker is a conduit who controls neon. When she’s a child, her parents want to turn her over to the authorities, so her older brother runs away with her. They spend years living on the streets, struggling with drug addiction, and carrying out petty theft to raise enough money to escape to Canada. This evidently goes wrong, as Fetch is in a D.U.P. prison for conduits, telling her story about what happened in Seattle a few years earlier.

It was clear the game wasn’t initially intended for people who hadn’t played Second Son. The early part forgot a few details, like highlighting what waypoints looked like. Or that waypoints existed at all, and that was the place I needed to go on the map. I wandered a series of streets I couldn’t tell apart until I figured it out. Once at the waypoint, it threw me into a combat situation without a clue about which keys were for combat. A button-mashing extravaganza ensued.

Once I survived that, the game had a combat tutorial (these take place in the prison, where Fetch alternates between telling her story and doing combat training). Because the best time for a combat tutorial is after you’ve already had to fight something. Needless to say, the game wasn’t making the best impression at this point.

But it was free and I wasn’t going to get any more free games for a few weeks, so I kept at it. I took some time out from missions once the open-world objectives appeared on the map. A bit of wandering around and fighting random gang members helped a lot with learning the combat system. The game grew on me after that point, though still had some issues.

Starting with the positives, I liked Fetch. Her neon powers are interesting (she absorbs neon, and uses it to create light weapons, turn into light and run, and other things). Her character design is good, with clothes and mannerisms that match her character, rather than having her posing sexily in her underwear (unfortunately common in games, even when it’s snowing). Her voice actress hits the mark of someone young who’s been through a lot.

The portrayal of women was generally okay. Of the main voice-acted parts, three are women (Fetch, the head of the prison, and a hacker who helps on some missions) and two are men (a drug lord and Fetch’s brother). So Fetch isn’t a single woman in a world consisting entirely of men. There are some uncomfortable themes, like the drug dealer being creepy and sexist towards Fetch, and women being kidnapped by human traffickers, but these aren’t shown as good things (or shown in such loving detail that it seems the storywriter is fetishising them). I would have liked to hear a female voice alternative for the D.U.P. armoured people, as it’s clear they employ women and anyone could be in those armour suits… yet the voice for the mob is always a man. Though the main point isn’t so much First Light, but that the main games of the series have all had men as leads. Fetch gets a smaller prequel game rather than a main title, which is an elephant that needs pointing out.

The open world (the Seattle parts of the game) was a good idea in principle, with collectibles (lumens), lumen races (chasing after moving lumens) and neon graffiti as things to find. It encourages the player to explore the whole map. It’s only a pity the city wasn’t worth exploring. Seattle was beautifully textured for sure. The rain effects were nice, like reflections in the puddles and rain falling on the camera when it was angled up. But the city districts weren’t very distinctive. The buildings felt like empty boxes, which were only there as platforms to jump off to reach lumens. There wasn’t a sense of exploration or finding something unexpected around the corner. A few buildings were clearly copies from the real Seattle, which is nice enough, but the overall city was rather lifeless. As most of the game took place here, this was a problem.

Story isn’t a strength of the game. It has a straight-forward and simple storyline. It does its job well enough, of introducing the character, and holding together the action. It’s just not likely to surprise anyone.

Once the game is done, the player can continue to roam Seattle or play in the prison arenas. The arenas score points, which go on a leader board. In theory, a player could spend a lot of time playing the arenas to compete with other PlayStation players. In practise, I doubt that many people keep playing the arenas after they earn their trophies, as they’re not that interesting. It is worth going for the trophies though, as unusually for a short game, this one comes with a platinum trophy.

I enjoyed the game in the end, but not enough to want to buy the other inFAMOUS games. I might have been swayed if Fetch had been the main character in Second Son, but she isn’t. As far as First Light goes, the grittier sides of the world might put off some players, as there is human trafficking, torture and needles are shown. But if you’re in the market for an action game where you get to smite things with superpowers, and you’re not too worried if the world and story aren’t the strongest, it’s not a bad title.

Never Alone

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Never Alone Cover: Nuna (a girl in a fur-lined coat) and Fox (white arctic fox) in the snow

Developer: Upper One Games, E-Line Media
First Release: 18th November, 2014
Version Played: PS4
Length: Short
Links: Game Website

Never Alone (Kisima Ingitchuna) is a side-scrolling platform game, produced in collaboration with the Iñupiat (Alaska Native peoples). When endless blizzards stop her community from hunting, a young girl (Nuna) heads out into the storm to find the source. She’s soon joined by an arctic fox.

Most of the game mechanics will be familiar to players of this type of game. Nuna can move objects, climb ropes and throw a bola. Fox can scrabble up walls. The difference comes in how the mechanics fit into the game. Air currents used to help or hinder jumps aren’t uncommon, but here the gusts of wind are the ever-present blizzard at the centre of the narrative. Moving platforms are common in the genre, but these platforms are in the form of spirits, which Fox calls and can direct. They fit naturally into the game world, rather than seeming like something that wouldn’t be there if it wasn’t needed for the game.

The atmosphere and story of the game are its strong points. It successfully creates the feel of the tundra and beyond, and the artwork used for the spirits is lovely. The story is a re-telling of a traditional story, with additions and changes to expand it for the game. This is reinforced with narration in the Iñupiaq language and cut-scenes reminiscent of scrimshaw art.

The cultural insights are also a great feature. During the game, there are a number of owls. Reaching the owls unlocks a cultural insight, which can be watched at any point. These are mini documentaries with Alaska Native people talking about their lives and culture. The insights explain various aspects of the game, including how the story is different to the original story. There are also quotes from this story on loading screens. So without leaving the game, the player understands how the game story was constructed (a notable change is turning a man into a young girl and her fox), and the people and culture behind it.

There were some aspects of the game controls that were a bit clunky. In single player mode, it would be very useful to be able to tell the other character to stay. For some puzzles, the AI would walk them into dangerous places (they wouldn’t jump to their death or anything, but would stand in the path of moving dangers). It wasn’t game breaking, as the AI could be dealt with by leaving the other character in a different place. But this could be smoothed out in future releases from the developer.

Experienced gamers will likely find the gameplay on the easy side. However, the atmosphere and the cultural insights made it stand out. I loved exploring the world as Nuna and Fox, and would be on board for any of their future adventures.