As a storytelling medium, video games are something of a double-edged sword. On the one hand, their interactive nature has the ability to create far more visceral and engaging experiences for players. However, this also brings with it some inherent drawbacks. Budgets need to be allocated not just to production design, but also to programming, QA, and more. Bugs and glitches may spontaneously occur, sucking up massive amounts of time and energy. I bring up this comparison, because Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons stands as a prime example of both. It is hampered in many areas by the restrictions of the medium, with bugs, technical problems, and gameplay issues taking me out of the experience on a number of occasions. Despite this, it manages to feel like a near-perfect pairing of story and gameplay, where each is able to complement and enhance the other.
Tag: Narrative
Jazzpunk Review
Absurdist humour is something that can be very difficult to pull off. If you push things too far, you risk alienating your audience, with the potential exception of the “lol, so random” crowd. If you don’t go far enough, most, if not all of the jokes will just fall flat, since (as the name implies), their humour comes from how utterly absurd they are. Add into the mix the complexity inherent in interactive media, and you have the delicate balancing act that is Jazzpunk.
The Games I Wish I Had Played in 2016
Well, it’s officially 2017 around the world. The start of a new year. Which means that everyone’s looking back on the last year and going, “Well that was a bit toss, wasn’t it?” That is, except for the people who are taking the opportunity to look back at their fond memories from the year past, namely when it comes to video games. There were countless fantastic games that got released last year, so many of which I desperately wanted to try out. Unfortunately, as a university student, there are two things that I severely lack in: money and time. As a result, it is incredibly common that I have to watch as new releases are hyped, released, and enjoyed by the masses, while waiting patiently for the day that they inevitably go on sale and I actually have the time to sit down with them. Some of these games have been sitting in my library for months, awaiting their eventual installation. Others are on my wishlist, hoping to one day be added to my ever-growing backlog. Whatever the case, these are (in no particular order) the games that I wish I had gotten to in 2016. You can also consider this to be a “To play in 2017” list, if that’s your thing. Either way, you’ve probably all already played all of these and think I’m a pleb for not looking at them yet.
Okay. 😦
Something Something Christmas Post
‘Twas the night before Christmas, and all through the house,
Not a sound could be heard, ‘cept the click of a mouse.
I tapped softly at keys, poking them one by one,
In hopes that my Christmas post soon would be done.
Volume Review
The video gaming industry can be a fascinating place full of continuously changing focuses. Case in point: Volume, a dystopian-themed sneak-‘em-up, comes courtesy of a studio whose last game was a platformer whose emotional story was told through an assortment of colourful rectangles. I think it’s safe to say that there’s a bit of a shift present; iterative follow-up project, this is not. However, that’s by no means a bad thing, and Volume serves as an excellent example of how trying new things can yield thoroughly impressive results.
The Static Speaks My Name Review
“Well then.”
That was all I could really say upon “beating” The Static Speaks My Name. I have “beating” in quotes, as this was a case where it didn’t so much feel like I had beaten the game as I felt that it had beaten me. I felt uncomfortable. Disturbed. Anxious. I honestly considered not even writing this review, because I didn’t know if I could properly put into words how the game made me feel. Plus, I wasn’t sure I wanted to dwell on it any longer than I had to. But here I am, doing just that, so hopefully I can get some coherent thoughts out and not come across as much more pretentious than I usually do.
Message Quest Review
Short games present an interesting conundrum. On one hand, they tell a brief, concise story that can generally be experienced in one or two sittings without overstaying its welcome. On the other, they provide significantly less time for the player to actually get invested in the game, whether it’s the story, characters, or gameplay. In some games, this can work well; games like Dr. Langeskov, The Tiger, and The Terribly Cursed Emerald: A Whirlwind Heist immediately come to mind. However, others can feel like they’re over before they’ve even really begun; sorry, I don’t have some perfectly relevant example for this off the top of my head. Interestingly, though, Message Quest manages to fall somewhere in between, feeling like it’s both over too quickly and not soon enough.
Awkward Dimensions Redux Review
Dreams are weird. Well, they can be. They can also be exciting, frightening, sad, or all of the above. But they almost invariably tell us something about ourselves. Except for that one I had about Donald Trump eating a plate of pancakes. That one was just weird. Maybe I’m getting sidetracked, though…
Awkward Dimensions Redux is a short free-to-play game that takes the player through a series of short levels, each of which is meant to be a manifestation of a dream the game’s developer had. Some of the levels have small sets of objectives built into them, such as navigating a platforming challenge or taking an object from point A to point B. Overall, though, it is a linear “walking simulator”-type experience that gives you a glimpse into the psyche of a young artist. It really reminded me of The Beginner’s Guide, both in the ways in which it took me through a series of minimalistic, often abstract environments to the ways in which it used said environments to tell a story.
I Am a Brave Knight Review
Life is an incredibly complex thing. Every day, we have hundreds of experiences, ranging from the mundane to the life-changing, and that particular set of experiences is completely unique to us. No two people ever have the exact same day at the exact same time. However, despite the overwhelming dissimilarities, our lives are more similar than we might think. All of them have the same beginning and end; the differences arise in how we get there. Many people go through a number of standard “steps” in life, as well. Most remember being disciplined by their parents at some point. Lots of people get married. Still others have children; crazies, I tell you. Our lives continually cross at these points of commonality before diverging into an abyss of personal choices. However, it is through these points that I Am a Brave Knight tells its story, connecting each dot together into a brief, yet universal narrative.
The End of the World Review
The end of the world happens every day.
Well, I guess that’s a slightly misleading statement. A better way of putting it would be that the end of a world happens every day. It may not involve you or someone you know, but hardship is a constant presence in our lives. Day in and day out, we struggle to build up and maintain some semblance of a satisfactory existence, yet it’s seemingly inevitable that it will all come crashing down. It happens in different ways at different times for different people, but there always seems to come a point where every facet of our existence, carefully placed and polished to a mirror sheen, becomes utterly meaningless in the face of some seemingly insurmountable challenge. The world that we’ve so carefully built up around ourselves shatters into thousands of pieces, and we’re left to wade through some of the hardest times in our life as everything seems to fall apart.
Such is the premise of The End of the World, a short, linear, narrative-driven experience for mobile devices. As the game’s store description explains, it follows the life of a man whose world ended the day that he lost his love. In the game, this “world ending” takes the form of the world literally falling apart and decaying around the protagonist as time goes on. It’s the player’s task to take the man through the terrible hardships he faces and hopefully find a way to move on.
Olive's Game Garden 