Viewing entries tagged
adventure
It's not often that I get excited on release day for a game, but after playing the excellent FAR: Lone Sails back in 2018, the news of its sequel immediately filled me with anticipation. The first game was a beautifully explorative and ambient puzzle adventure that gripped me from start to finish, and even from early trailers I could tell that this second instalment would be more of the same.
I've mentioned it before, but I'm really enjoying this renaissance of FMV in gaming, as we're at a point now where the technology has reached an equilibrium with the concept. What used to be a fairly janky way to include photo-realistic graphics in a game, has since become a viable and high resolution solution. In fact, I would argue that a lot of the modern FMV games wouldn't be half as interesting if they had gone with an all-CG cast instead.
Fair warning, I'm very much one of those weird Blade Runner fans who loves the movie more than is reasonable for anyone to love a movie. I have multiple copies of all five different cuts of the original, as well as a collector's edition that came with lithographic prints and a model cop car from the film. So everything I have to say about this game, should probably be taken with a grain of salt.
It's been a hot minute since I wrote about any games on this blog, but that's not for a lack of choice, as I've been enjoying a whole heap of interesting titles along the way. It's just a matter of fact that life usually wins when prioritising how I spend my time, so as much as I enjoy these little rants about games, they can easily be pushed aside. Nevertheless, I thought it fitting to post about a game that I would usually avoid like the plague, but eventually hooked me in and never let go.
Life has been pretty good in the world of licensed games for the last decade or so, but it wasn't always that way. If you've been around long enough you might remember when the term "licensed" could be synonymous with "rushed" or just "crap". Thankfully though, these days when a licensed game is released, fans of whatever franchise is being given the treatment can look on with interest and expect something worth diving into.
I feel like at this stage, I could ask any regular reader of this blog for a short list of things that I really like to see in games and anyone keeping track would have an easy time figuring it out. Perhaps you might start with a narrative, or some king of story-telling device that plays a central role. You might then add in some kind of aesthetic importance, where the graphics can be considered art, and they play an important role in telling the aforementioned story. Finally, even though it's not as obvious as the others, you might think to shape the game mechanically as a traditional point-and-click adventure. If you did all that, you'd undoubtedly be pretty close to a game that really can't fail to impress me.
Not going to lie, I 'm pretty happy to get back to a good old point-and-click adventure again. This is one of my favourite genres, as it has the potential to combine gameplay elements and story-telling in such a satisfying way. Besides, there's nothing that makes you feel smarter than finally hunting down the perfect pixel, or solving that maddening moon-logic puzzle once and for all.
There's something about the latest Tomb Raider trilogy that always leaves me with unanswered questions. After finishing each game, I think back on the story and the gameplay, and find a large hole where something important seems to be missing. Even though I've enjoyed these games and have been wonderfully entertained by the updated adventures of Lara Croft, I feel like I'm still left wanting. Now that I've finished the third in the recent series, I feel like I might be able to put my finger on precisely what could be missing.
It wasn't so long ago that I delved into Remedy Entertainment's odd sci-fi experience, Quantum Break, which now seems like an interesting experiment along the way to much better things. In fact it seems like they studio have learned a lot of useful lessons from some of the key successes and failures from this troubled entry in their development history.
Of all the crazes and gimmicks that have had their time in video game history, full-motion-video (FMV) has never been one that I expected to make a comeback. There was a time when it seemed like the greatest invention of all, as the implementation of FMV in games meant that we could finally witness the combination of a digital world with our own. After all, what's more realistic than actual footage of real people?
In some ways, the term "open-world" has become a bit of a dirty word these days. It can either stand for freedom and exploration, or a never-ending to-do list of pointless objectives. While the big budget blockbusters love to fill their huge maps with boring collectibles and errands, it's actually a joy to play a game that encourages exploration, but doesn't waste your time.
Finding a truly original game is often like finding an original movie. These days they're mostly remakes and reboots of stories and actions that have already been proven to work. Turns out we're a simple kind of animal and seeing the same thing we always expect to see is a good way to sell products. Although, sometimes we need to leave those expectations at the door if we're to experience something truly special.
I've never been one of those people who believes media classics to be untouchable and something pristine and perfect. Perhaps I'm not that sentimental when it comes to the things I remember enjoying as a kid, or maybe I've seen nostalgia used far too often in marketing empty promises. Actually, I put it down to being a fan of Blade Runner.
Sometimes I find it quite difficult to sum up my feelings on a big budget game from a large studio. Partly because the good studios have a track record of making decent games with few issues and that doesn't really make for much of a discussion. When my opinion of a game is a simple "it's good", I tend not to make much of a stink about it, even though it probably deserves some praise.
You'd be forgiven for thinking that a classic genre like point-and-click adventure games has nothing new to offer. In fact, for the most part I believe you would be right, as even when we transitioned from 2D to 3D, the format still remained the same. Turns out that it takes a little bit of imagination and circumstantial context to inspire something truly unique and interesting.
It's easy to forget that Telltale Games made a bunch of excellent adventure games before they became a household name in the gaming industry. They were always around, but I'd argue that it wasn't really until The Walking Dead came around that the studio was firmly placed on the map of notable developers. Although, with their recent closure surrounded in questions of mistreated workers and other controversial headlines, it might be worth remembering some of the good work they did before turning into the 'licensed game sweat-shop' (my words, nobody else's).
It's been a long time since I've been as obsessed with a game as I was with the original Myst series. I played the games multiples times to get all the endings, I even ended up reading the novels based in the games' world. Not only was it a compelling science-fiction concept, but Myst was a game unlike any I'd ever seen before, which fascinated me to no end.
After the success of Grand Theft Auto V and the previous Red Dead Redemption game, the avalanche of Red Dead Redemption 2 hype was not unexpected. It seems like whenever Rockstar get around to releasing another game, there's reason to be excited. Few publishers manage to carry that kind of reputation, but is the weight of previous success beginning to weigh them down.
Welcome back to the land of beautifully realised, small-scale, narrative gaming excellence. I'll never ceased to be amazed at how a great little game can stick with you far beyond an average big game. Then again, we all know that sometimes good things really do come in small packages.
There's something exciting in the process of discovery that's often ruined by mass marketing and the hype machine. It's kind of impossible to be surprised by a big budget game with an even bigger advertising budget, as they tend to throw all the good stuff at you before you even make a purchase. Thankfully though, the lower end of the market is full of little surprises waiting to be discovered.
