Viewing entries tagged
mystery
I promise I'll post more about some bigger games eventually, but right now I'm having a great time going through all the lovely little indies I've never mentioned before. These days I think one of my favourite gaming things to do is try out new little ideas and experiences that would never make it as a blockbuster release. After all, the more mainstream something is, the less interesting it ends up being.
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.
Puzzle games are often doomed to be limited in scope, as they involve some kind of abstract game mechanics that have been taken from real world equivalents. Translating something like a sudoku puzzle into a video game actually appears to be a difficult task, at least if you're trying to jazz it up a little and not just make another cookie cutter version of the same thing. With that in mind, I'm thrilled to have discovered that Murder by Numbers is to Picross, as Huniepop is to Match 3.
When I finished playing Life Is Strange 2, I didn't really have much to say that I hadn't already touched on when I wrote about the first game. While the story was something new, everything else was just more of the same, including the nauseating and oh-so-hip characterisations that kept me at arm's length for the entire game. However, now Dontnod are back with their latest take on the formula that has kept them going for a while. Could this be a breath of fresh air, or just another dredge through niche cultural hipster life?
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.
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.
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.
I often try and think about trends in gaming and attempt to figure them out as they're happening. It's an impossible gamble that results in nothing more than a bit of a fun thought process, but I find it interesting either way. Spotting past trends is easy with hindsight; the real challenge is figuring them out as they happen.
Please don't ever let me move to Midsomer, or any other town that features murder after murder. I often spend an evening watching some murder mystery or another, trying to guess the culprit and piece together the puzzle. It should come as no surprise then that I'm a fan of Agatha Christie's stories and in particular, the character of Hercule Poirot.
As much as I'd like to claim otherwise, it's impossible for me to distance myself from when I was a kid spending hours fixated by LucasArts point-and-click adventures. I know I'm not alone, so it's nothing new, but I'd like to think that even though nostalgia can spark interest in a game, it doesn't dictate one's enjoyment. The thing is though, I'm not sure if I love Thimbleweed Park because it takes me back to being a kid, or because it's a fantastic iteration on the genre. I guess I'm pretty sure that it's both.
Following up a huge indie success must be like trying to write a novel after publishing a best-seller. All that expectation and affection gained from success can often be a recipe for disaster, as a sequel rarely lives up to its predecessor. Of course, we remember the ones that do, but have a look at movies in particular, and you'll find that there are a hell of a lot of sequels that you've probably never heard of.
