Tag: PS4

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Mini Ramblings #4 – Gap Fillers

I had a bit of time to fill in between Dark Cloud 2 and the release of Final Fantasy VII Remake, so I took the opportunity to run through a whole slew of short games on my backlog. Below are some of the random notes about the ones I selected.

Gorogoa

  • Genre: Puzzle
  • Platform: Switch
  • Also Available On: Windows, iOS, PS4, Xbox One

Ultimately this is a really well crafted puzzle game that is meant for touch screens or mice, so I’m glad I played it on Switch. Originally released for Windows and iOS, the Switch version came over with full touch screen support, and that’s how I ended up playing it.

The core loop involves a 2×2 square board where interactive tiles can be moved around, layered on top of each other, pulled apart, and more. As a player, you end up interacting with multiple of these tiles at once to try and find the connections between them and move the story forward. This could be as simple as changing the zoom on a couple tiles until they can be placed next to each other, allowing a person to walk between tiles. This could be something like lining up two tiles with parts of a gear in order to rotate a third tile and find a new way to zoom into the interaction.

In practice, it’s incredible how much the game finds ways to just keep the interaction moving. At the start of the game you have one tile, and until the end of the game, you’ll never be at zero tiles. It sounds so simple to have a puzzle game of 2×2 tiles, but the amount of interactions that come out of it was astounding. This is all helped by a really vibrant art style that really pushes color as a helper for finding those puzzle connections. All of that made this a really enjoyable couple hour experience that I think is worth playing, particularly on a touch screen.

The Garden’s Between

  • Genre: Puzzle
  • Platform: Switch
  • Also Available On: Linux, macOS, Windows, PS4, Xbox One, iOS

This was another surprising puzzle game that I pulled out of the pile. The core idea is that you manipulate time to move the main characters through a linear level. The only other thing you really can do is interact with a handful of in-level objects that can move around, or pick up torches to clear away some obstacles.

The bulk of the puzzles involve generally passing the torch around in a fairly common pattern, moving time forward to grab the torch, backing up to get it to some important thing that is moving around or needs to be cleared, then moving time forward again through the new path. On the surface, it sounds simple but it’s an effective pattern that is used in surprisingly varied ways.

This was a pretty quick play through in about an hour and a half or so, but was an enjoyable experience that didn’t overstay its welcome.

Old Man’s Journey

  • Genre: Adventure
  • Platform: Switch
  • Also Available On: Android, iOS, macOS, Windows, PS4, Xbox One

This was my complete relaxation game during this whole stretch. While it’s technically an adventure game, and technically has puzzles, the game is really best thought of as a relaxing visual journey. The only real mechanic at play is the ability to drag the landscape in different directions, opening up the path for the title’s old man to move around.

Beyond the core mechanic, this was just a really relaxing little adventure. It tells a light story about an old man travelling to see an ex before her passing, but really it’s a replay of his memories along the way. If you’ve got an hour to kill, and want something to hit on the same relaxation level of a book, this is a good place to end up.

Gunvolt Chronicles: Luminous Avenger iX

  • Genre: Action/Platformer
  • Platform: Switch
  • Also Available On: PS4, Windows, Xbox One

Describing this as anything but Mega Man X would be a complete lie. The gameplay is the same, the pattern of killing bosses to unlock their powers is the same, the game’s structure is the same. Where it’s different though is in how it handles health, and it’s far more forgiving for it.

While there is a standard health pool there, if the player is playing well they won’t ever use it. Core to the experience is a reloadable energy store that powers both an impenetrable shield as well as things like an air dash. It can be reloaded quickly at any time with a quick double tap down, leaving it up to the player to manage it effectively. At its core, the real sway becomes less of a health management game and more of a choice of doing more damage quickly or staying safe.

While this may sound like it’s just making the experience easy, there’s still options for truly skilled players to show off. Avoiding being hit allows a score combo to grow, so truly good players are able to use the score and completion time as true measures, while less skilled players can still complete the game on their own terms. It’s one of the more interesting ways I’ve seen in this style game to open up the experience to more players, and I think it ends up working really well.

Jupiter & Mars

  • Genre: Adventure
  • Platform: PS4

In a lot of ways, this was a modern take on specifically the Dreamcast version of Ecco the Dolphin. You play a dolphin going around trying to save the planet from environmental catastrophe, either shutting down machines or rescuing other animals along the way.

This was ultimately a better experience than it is a game though. There’s nothing particularly offensive about it, but there’s nothing particularly standout either. Controls are alright, but weird since you control a dolphin in first-person. The AI companion that you command generally does what you want, but often gets stuck behind obstacles. Your goal is generally not that clear, but there’s not a ton of exploration to do so you generally end up finding your way. From a gameplay experience, I’d probably describe it as something akin to Flower, but with significantly less polish.

However, this is an absolute standout visually. The entire game takes on a sort of realistic, but also sort of Tron style and it’s generally a sight to behold. Things are already lit up in interesting ways, but then you activate sonar and the whole scene lights up in crazy colors. If there’s anything to point at as a reason to experience this one, it’s easily the visuals.

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Game Ramblings #108 – Control

More Info from Remedy Entertainment

  • Genre: Action/Adventure
  • Platform: PS4
  • Also Available On: Windows, Xbox One

So, this is a really fun game. Admittedly, I was a big fan of Max Payne and Alan Wake, so it’s not overly surprising that I also enjoy this entry from the team. Admittedly I’m also forgiving some warts in the experience, particularly in the gun play that is generally not that good. However, it’s got such a great setting, such great use of telekinesis, and such fun puzzle solving that I really didn’t care about the smaller problems at play.

Ultimately, this is a game of powers. There’s a bunch that you gain throughout the game, but there’s really two that I want to focus on – launch and seize. These two were the core of how I really built out my personal combat focus in the game.

Seize is simply the ability to take control of an enemy, and have them fight for you. You drop them down to low health and take over, and suddenly you’ve got some helper NPCs at play. This was the first part of my combat plans – distraction. Taking a few weak enemies, having them turn on their allies, and even get in some damage here and there was a good way to take the heat off of me. It provided opportunities for me to move and flank, and find better locations to take out the rest of the group. If I wanted to be aggressive, it provided ways for me to remove some damage and really go in for the kill.

Launch on the other hand does exactly what it sounds like, it launches shit at targets. You can basically pull chunks out of every floor, ceiling, and wall, and use them as built-in ammunition. Later on you can also start launching enemy missiles back at them. Because of this, there’s an endless amount of ammunition in the world, as long as you have energy remaining to use your powers.

Together, these two powers were the core of my encounter focus. I would start an encounter by finding a weak enemy or two, and take them out with either my gun or the Launch power. Once they were able to be Seized, I would do so. With that distraction in place, I could then reposition myself or move in for quick kills with subsequent launches. This all felt extremely good. Launch in particular has really wide aim assists, but also pretty inaccurate throwing, so in general it just causes hilarious chaos with pretty fair average damage.

The powers working well was great, because ultimately I didn’t find the gunplay all that good. It basically felt functional to me, but not overwhelming in quality. The guns had enough variety – you have your pistol, shotgun, rifle, etc. However, they don’t really feel that impactful in either their damage output or in their visual feedback. From a controller standpoint, their aim assists don’t really feel up to the modern expectations of something like Halo or Destiny. They kind of exist, and I made use of them, but I far preferred using powers as my main damage source, unless absolutely necessary.

End of the day, it was the setting that really kept me going. This is very much a story in the vein of Alan Wake, and some of the lore ties into it. The tl;dr is that you’re playing the head of what is basically a paranormal FBI, and are tasked with clearing out an extradimensional invasion that has warped the entire department. Some of the key points are presented in cutscenes, but a lot of it is presented in really well done passive content.

Some of that is things like audio recordings or projected videos that you can’t help seeing. However, a lot of it is stuff that as a player you have to actually search for, and that kind of thing is always a huge plus for me. I can really dig into games that have hidden lore, and this has literally hundreds of files to find. You’ll find folders and crates and tape decks all over the game filled with lore entries. Some of it is essential to expanding your knowledge of the game setting. Some of it is department bickering via memos. Some of it is history books telling of past paranormal events throughout the world, including the one from Alan Wake itself. It’s this kind of scattering of information that really drives me to explore, and it was all written in an extremely high quality fashion to really get me wanting more.

That pace change between combat sections and exploring is so typical of the genre, but it feels so much better crafted here. The entire setting being in a warped building caused by a paranormal event allows so much flexibility in building environments that are simply built to be fun to play in. Where turning corners in Uncharted leads to obvious combat rooms, this feels extremely organic, partly because weird shaped rooms are the norm but also because the rooms can warp back to a normal shape once combat is complete. Where Gears of War hides their dog tags around in corners just to give a reason to explore, this game has lore entries scattered around on desks and cabinets because this is an office building and of course they would be there. Where Halo has to keep inventing bigger baddies to elevate the sense of danger, this can simply throw a refrigerator at you with some demonic presence and not care that it’s ludicrous. It’s not that they’re doing anything particularly new here, but their setting being slightly off kilter allows so much flexibility for them to take the genre norms and get rid of that little bit that makes them feel so unnatural in other games, but completely expected here.

This game was a real surprise to me, and I guess in hindsight I’m surprised that it was a surprise. I’ve always liked Remedy’s work, and while I tend to gravitate towards RPGs, I’ve always been a huge fan of this kind of 3rd person adventure. I think more than anything, it was kind of a game that just fell off my radar. I’d heard a few friends and a few coworkers continue to recommend it to me, so I kind of just bit the bullet and picked it up, and I couldn’t be happier. This is the type of game that I ended playing wanting more, and after a few bigger releases get cleared off my plate, I suspect the DLC for Control is now not too far off in my future plans.

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Game Ramblings #107 – GRIS

More Info from Nomada Studio

  • Genre: Adventure/Platformer
  • Platform: PS4
  • Also Available On: Switch, Windows, macOS, iOS

I’m honestly not going to spend much time talking about the game itself here. Mechanically speaking, it’s a super tight and really well constructed game. It hits a nice mix of platforming precision and intelligent level design to make a really relaxing experience. It’s also phenomenally gorgeous, especially with some of the improvements done for 4k support on the PS4. As a core adventure experience, it’s worth playing for that alone.

What I am going to hit on is where my brain was going as I was playing this. There’s not that many games that I recommend based on me thinking about things outside of the game – really the only ones I can think of off the top of my head are titles like Journey, Hellblade, or Firewatch. However, this one really hit on two main things that were really personal to me, and honestly really unexpected.

One of the things that I’m always trying to find as a developer is a way to ship a game that has an impact on my players. I’ve spent a lot of time festering on my jobs thinking on how to achieve that, but never really knowing where that thought leads. I’ve been lucky enough to work on games like Rocket League or Smite or Killing Floor, which have clearly had large enough audiences to be considered impactful in some way, but to me I’ve had various levels of enjoyment out of actually having been involved in those.

I’ve always looked at some of the indie darlings and thought “hey, I can pull that off easily enough, maybe I should just do that.” However, playing GRIS has kind of solidified what I actually want out of development. GRIS is ultimately a game that I really loved playing, and has had a heavy impact on players, but in hindsight, making a game like it was never going to be interesting for me. Mechanically speaking, it’s super simple and isn’t something that really needs much in the way of programmer help to achieve the gameplay mechanics that it has. What it does in really special ways are the visuals and story telling, both things that I’m not at all interested in from a development perspective.

The things that I’ve always gotten the most enjoyment out of from a development perspective have been the crazy mechanics that I get to work on as a gameplay programmer. It’s things like working on an open world spawn system in Maneater, even if I don’t think the game is that good. It’s working on things like predator stealth for Medusa in Smite, even if that didn’t end up shipping. It’s things like working on Star Fox-style ship movement in Arc Squadron or FF Tactics-style combat in Smite Tactics because I love both of those inspirations, even if both of those games were complete bombs. Working on stuff like that is why I stay up at 3am in Visual Studio; not the end result of shipping something off to players.

Combining those mechanics I love working on with a title that has an impact on players is kind of the ultimate goal, and while I’ve been pushing in this direction with my thoughts, GRIS definitely helped solidify that I want to focus on the smaller picture over the bigger picture for the sake of my own happiness, and if something more comes out of that? Fantastic.

This bird….

From a high level, GRIS is a travel through the five stages of grief. The bird section of the game ends up falling between Anger and Bargaining as far as the game’s travels go. It also hit really close to home.

Everyone’s got their issues with depression or anxiety, and I’m no different in that regard. Everyone’s also got their own ways to manage and deal with it. In the past I generally dealt with it by bottling it up until I got stressed out and lash out.

Which is exactly what that bird does.

That whole pattern comes in waves. I’ve gotten a lot better as I’ve gotten older at recognizing when it’s starting with me, and I’ve gotten a lot better at finding ways to mitigate whatever stress is causing me issues. However, I’m not entirely there yet, and I don’t really think I’ll ever truly solve it. Coworkers will probably recognize this as “Dan being grumpy”, and while there’s some truth to that being the public-facing outcome, it’s deeper than that for me. At this point it’s something that I usually work myself out of pretty quick through some quiet time or taking a bit of time off. However, seeing it in game form was entirely jarring.

I shut the game off after the level and didn’t come back to it for a couple days. It’s not that I’m particularly going through a period of stress right now, but seeing something like that level wasn’t something I was really ready for. In this case, fixing a lego kit was a good distraction until I could get back to it, and really the rest of the game matched coming out of any one of those periods. However, it was an unexpected reminder that I’m not there yet.

So ya, go play GRIS. Maybe you’ll simply play it for the experience and be better off for the enjoyment. Maybe it’ll hit some note for you like it did for me, and you’ll get further meaning out of the experience. In either case, it’s something positive on the other end.