Chowder
1991
This review contains spoilers
I'm so happy I finally got around to giving Another World a try. I've heard a lot of people in game design circles talk it up a lot without ever really specifying why they thought it was brilliant.
After finally seeing it for myself, I definitely understand why it's talked about so much. Fundamentally, this game's strength is its simplicity. It only has 5 buttons total, which is what allows for puzzles and trial and error design to work. I usually get stuck when I play games. I get lost behind infinite complexity and I find it hard to forge my own path without looking stuff up constantly. I just finished Fallout 1 before this, and there is was definitely the case. Another World (aside from two puzzles: the grenade wall and grenade breaking floor puzzle) parsed down everything to a point that I was able to figure it out myself. It created a nice flow that allowed me to stay in the game rather than deferring elsewhere.
I think the star of the show is the checkpointing. Throughout the game, you are given exceptionally generous checkpoints that allow you to perform trial and error puzzles, similar to point and click adventure games of this time. This really let me just sit back and enjoy thinking about what I'm supposed to be doing without worrying about bugs or softlocks. That being said, I feel some of the checkpointing was a little inconsistent, with you sometimes being put behind annoying little combat gauntlets that you have to clear before trying an idea. It puts a damper on the pace for me in a way that was a little disappointing.
The combat generally worked well for me, but I was having an issue where my holds of the action button weren't being counted all the time and it led me to dying way more than I think I should have. It's annoying, especially for a game that can get pretty tough.
The rest of the controls, however were excellent. There's something about the movement and design of this game that makes it feel modern to me, despite it being over 30 years old as this point. The movement of the pixel art is SO smooth and does a great job of making you feel in charge of where you wanted the character to go.
The other art was simple yet great as well. The entire game had this really cute charm that kept me going and having a really great time. Seeing the main character pull up at the beginning in a Lamborghini was unexpected and pulled me right in. Also, the choice of having no UI whatsoever created a really engaging experience where you really had to pay attention to what was on screen. That being said, however, there were a couple moments that lacked visual clarity, and made it more difficult than it should have been to parse what I should be doing. I can think of at least 4 examples over my three hours.
[Escape vent at the end of the chase, floor to be destroyed by grenade, chandelier that you're supposed to shoot, stairs leading behind the hut where your friend is captured]
I think the standout of the game however, is the tank section. When I first played it, it made me smile and laugh so much, and got me excited to see where it was going to go next. It's burned into my mind so deeply now. I really do think more games need more bespoke diagetic minigames like this in them.
When the credits rolled, I laughed to myself and couldn't stop smiling. I was so happy that I made it out, especially after how deadly that whole journey felt.
I think, however, for how much I admire and respect the design of the game, I get the feeling that I'm going to forget it rather quickly. It's a shame. It's fun and heartful, and I bet the next time I go to play it will be great. The closer to you get to playing perfectly, the closer you get to roleplaying the character, seeing a seamless escape from the alien planet.
I love this game, and I hope to be inspired by it for a long time to come.
After finally seeing it for myself, I definitely understand why it's talked about so much. Fundamentally, this game's strength is its simplicity. It only has 5 buttons total, which is what allows for puzzles and trial and error design to work. I usually get stuck when I play games. I get lost behind infinite complexity and I find it hard to forge my own path without looking stuff up constantly. I just finished Fallout 1 before this, and there is was definitely the case. Another World (aside from two puzzles: the grenade wall and grenade breaking floor puzzle) parsed down everything to a point that I was able to figure it out myself. It created a nice flow that allowed me to stay in the game rather than deferring elsewhere.
I think the star of the show is the checkpointing. Throughout the game, you are given exceptionally generous checkpoints that allow you to perform trial and error puzzles, similar to point and click adventure games of this time. This really let me just sit back and enjoy thinking about what I'm supposed to be doing without worrying about bugs or softlocks. That being said, I feel some of the checkpointing was a little inconsistent, with you sometimes being put behind annoying little combat gauntlets that you have to clear before trying an idea. It puts a damper on the pace for me in a way that was a little disappointing.
The combat generally worked well for me, but I was having an issue where my holds of the action button weren't being counted all the time and it led me to dying way more than I think I should have. It's annoying, especially for a game that can get pretty tough.
The rest of the controls, however were excellent. There's something about the movement and design of this game that makes it feel modern to me, despite it being over 30 years old as this point. The movement of the pixel art is SO smooth and does a great job of making you feel in charge of where you wanted the character to go.
The other art was simple yet great as well. The entire game had this really cute charm that kept me going and having a really great time. Seeing the main character pull up at the beginning in a Lamborghini was unexpected and pulled me right in. Also, the choice of having no UI whatsoever created a really engaging experience where you really had to pay attention to what was on screen. That being said, however, there were a couple moments that lacked visual clarity, and made it more difficult than it should have been to parse what I should be doing. I can think of at least 4 examples over my three hours.
[Escape vent at the end of the chase, floor to be destroyed by grenade, chandelier that you're supposed to shoot, stairs leading behind the hut where your friend is captured]
I think the standout of the game however, is the tank section. When I first played it, it made me smile and laugh so much, and got me excited to see where it was going to go next. It's burned into my mind so deeply now. I really do think more games need more bespoke diagetic minigames like this in them.
When the credits rolled, I laughed to myself and couldn't stop smiling. I was so happy that I made it out, especially after how deadly that whole journey felt.
I think, however, for how much I admire and respect the design of the game, I get the feeling that I'm going to forget it rather quickly. It's a shame. It's fun and heartful, and I bet the next time I go to play it will be great. The closer to you get to playing perfectly, the closer you get to roleplaying the character, seeing a seamless escape from the alien planet.
I love this game, and I hope to be inspired by it for a long time to come.
2013
Imported from my Backloggery:
I thoroughly enjoyed DKG3. It's rife with hype-ass moments and some killer music, which allows for some really incredible action sequences. The combat was serviceable, offering some visceral fun and primal enjoyment via the progression system (which beautifully ties into the narrative). The story is the main attraction though, a lot of characters are more nuanced than they initially let on, and the plot ties so well with the rest of the series. It's just begging to be analyzed.
DLC:
Though largely superfluous, there are still some nice stories to be found in these DLCs. Two's DLC really stood out to me for that, her descent into madness is well done, and uses the anime art style to push your suspension of disbelief as far as it will go. The rest of them weren't Earth-shattering, but they are some nice context. I just wish playing these in Japanese wasn't such a pain to do.
I thoroughly enjoyed DKG3. It's rife with hype-ass moments and some killer music, which allows for some really incredible action sequences. The combat was serviceable, offering some visceral fun and primal enjoyment via the progression system (which beautifully ties into the narrative). The story is the main attraction though, a lot of characters are more nuanced than they initially let on, and the plot ties so well with the rest of the series. It's just begging to be analyzed.
DLC:
Though largely superfluous, there are still some nice stories to be found in these DLCs. Two's DLC really stood out to me for that, her descent into madness is well done, and uses the anime art style to push your suspension of disbelief as far as it will go. The rest of them weren't Earth-shattering, but they are some nice context. I just wish playing these in Japanese wasn't such a pain to do.
2020
Imported from my Backloggery:
Despite having an initially gripping setup, characters, and truly immersive world, the game ultimately failed to bring any sort of meaningful emotional payoff for the story. Overall, I never got much out of the game beyond 'woah, this is cool'. Some SQs were great, but most were lackluster. The gameplay is rather lacking in replay value and meaningful roleplaying and decision making as well. The combat beyond the many ways you can tackle an encounter is nothing to write home about.
Despite having an initially gripping setup, characters, and truly immersive world, the game ultimately failed to bring any sort of meaningful emotional payoff for the story. Overall, I never got much out of the game beyond 'woah, this is cool'. Some SQs were great, but most were lackluster. The gameplay is rather lacking in replay value and meaningful roleplaying and decision making as well. The combat beyond the many ways you can tackle an encounter is nothing to write home about.
2017
Imported from my Backloggery:
I enjoyed what I played of Tacoma for the most part, the narrative was interesting for the most part, and some the implications that existed in the story were interesting, and quite dark. The theme and story they were telling was singular, but Tacoma lacked one huge part of the experience, which was involvement. You don't affect anything, you are a passive observer, which deflated a lot of it for me. Most of the narrative was told to you, which bothered me. I also lost my save.
I enjoyed what I played of Tacoma for the most part, the narrative was interesting for the most part, and some the implications that existed in the story were interesting, and quite dark. The theme and story they were telling was singular, but Tacoma lacked one huge part of the experience, which was involvement. You don't affect anything, you are a passive observer, which deflated a lot of it for me. Most of the narrative was told to you, which bothered me. I also lost my save.
2019
Imported from my Backloggery account:
This game is fun gameplay-wise, but nothing beyond that. The story has a few heartfelt moments, but fails to really stick the landing overall. The villains are lackluster and downright annoying. The gameplay is serviceable and fun, but nothing beyond that. In addition, the sheer amount of talking makes the game less fun to play through multiple times, and kept me from keeping on with the game. The core gameplay loop is fun, but the rest of the game bogs it down.
Beaten: Oct 2019 in 60 hours
This game is fun gameplay-wise, but nothing beyond that. The story has a few heartfelt moments, but fails to really stick the landing overall. The villains are lackluster and downright annoying. The gameplay is serviceable and fun, but nothing beyond that. In addition, the sheer amount of talking makes the game less fun to play through multiple times, and kept me from keeping on with the game. The core gameplay loop is fun, but the rest of the game bogs it down.
Beaten: Oct 2019 in 60 hours
Imported from my Backloggery:
The story for this game is fantastic and highly engrossing. Once I got to chapter 2, I couldn't put the game down. I loved everything except for a few small issues that stopped me from enjoying the game as much as I could have. At points, I got into a few fights that I had no idea were coming. I was in a fight that I had no way of winning, so I had to download a god mode mod for that fight. Other than that, I have very few complaints. I'm now invested in The Witcher series!
The story for this game is fantastic and highly engrossing. Once I got to chapter 2, I couldn't put the game down. I loved everything except for a few small issues that stopped me from enjoying the game as much as I could have. At points, I got into a few fights that I had no idea were coming. I was in a fight that I had no way of winning, so I had to download a god mode mod for that fight. Other than that, I have very few complaints. I'm now invested in The Witcher series!
2013
Imported from my Backloggery: (Easily beaten on hard)
Tomb Raider is a great time, as a cover shooter, it is standard, but a blast to play. Running around swapping weapons while popping heads is great, but it doesn't really make too much sense in the context of the story. You are becoming the tomb raider, not starting as a killing machine from the beginning. The game is impeccably paced and the map design is excellent. The only issue that I have is that it feels slightly dated and generic. I'm very excited to play the sequel.
Tomb Raider is a great time, as a cover shooter, it is standard, but a blast to play. Running around swapping weapons while popping heads is great, but it doesn't really make too much sense in the context of the story. You are becoming the tomb raider, not starting as a killing machine from the beginning. The game is impeccably paced and the map design is excellent. The only issue that I have is that it feels slightly dated and generic. I'm very excited to play the sequel.
2016
I ended up playing this game with my best friend, and had a decent enough time to start, it was fun making choices with a friend, and being able to make group choices and choices of your own. I really enjoyed that aspect, but it felt like the game never really delivered on its promises.
For how many times the game wants you to play it, I expected the narrative to vary in some real way, but it felt like you were simply working to change the final outcome. I wish there were more 'bad' endings, in your attempts to change it, but it never really felt like you have real control over how the game turns out, which is disappointing. The skill checks were fun, but they don't flesh it out enough to make it rewarding.
My other problem came down to the characters and the combat. I feel like the balance in the game was all over the place, with some characters being WAY stronger than others, and all the characters I wanted to play were significantly weaker than the one my friend was playing. The combat and feel of characters was not great, with you being consistently locked in place when attacking. The button inputs also just felt very unresponsive at times, which was disappointing. I wanted to play the bard really bad, but she just felt so weak and janky to play.
It was fun at first, but the lack of balance and meaningful storytelling made it fall short.
For how many times the game wants you to play it, I expected the narrative to vary in some real way, but it felt like you were simply working to change the final outcome. I wish there were more 'bad' endings, in your attempts to change it, but it never really felt like you have real control over how the game turns out, which is disappointing. The skill checks were fun, but they don't flesh it out enough to make it rewarding.
My other problem came down to the characters and the combat. I feel like the balance in the game was all over the place, with some characters being WAY stronger than others, and all the characters I wanted to play were significantly weaker than the one my friend was playing. The combat and feel of characters was not great, with you being consistently locked in place when attacking. The button inputs also just felt very unresponsive at times, which was disappointing. I wanted to play the bard really bad, but she just felt so weak and janky to play.
It was fun at first, but the lack of balance and meaningful storytelling made it fall short.
Imported from Backloggery: Combat: Hard - Exploration: Normal
I enjoyed the highs of this game a lot. The tension, especially in certain scenes, is turned to 11. I love the fact that there were multiple sequences that I actually found scary and nailbiting. Jonah is more fleshed out and better than ever (he's so likeable). Croft ends up in a good place too. The graphics were surprisingly underwhelming, and the gameplay was super derivative of the other games in the franchise, but the focus on plot and puzzles made up for it.
I enjoyed the highs of this game a lot. The tension, especially in certain scenes, is turned to 11. I love the fact that there were multiple sequences that I actually found scary and nailbiting. Jonah is more fleshed out and better than ever (he's so likeable). Croft ends up in a good place too. The graphics were surprisingly underwhelming, and the gameplay was super derivative of the other games in the franchise, but the focus on plot and puzzles made up for it.
Imported from my Backloggery: (Took a break at D.o.H. hate that guy!)
Precise, thrilling, tense, and engrossing, Sekiro had me gripped through almost the entire experience. Although I never connected to the world like I did in Dark Souls, the atmosphere made up for that, with creative setpieces and a cinematic story. The gameplay is simple yet precise, and puts you directly into the mindset of a samurai, where combat is lethal, and seconds matter. At a point, the inputs dissappear, and fights become a complex dance that reels you in. Exploration was fun too!
Precise, thrilling, tense, and engrossing, Sekiro had me gripped through almost the entire experience. Although I never connected to the world like I did in Dark Souls, the atmosphere made up for that, with creative setpieces and a cinematic story. The gameplay is simple yet precise, and puts you directly into the mindset of a samurai, where combat is lethal, and seconds matter. At a point, the inputs dissappear, and fights become a complex dance that reels you in. Exploration was fun too!
Imported from my Backloggery: (Beaten on Survivor Difficulty)
This game opened really strong, running and looking great, with incredibly breathtaking action setpieces, but toward the last third, the game's quality fell off, I had trouble understanding Lara's motivations throughout the game, as she flip flopped back and forth with what she wanted. Once the end came along, the gameplay and visuals stopped being original, and just felt like a repeat of the first one. Overall, it's better than the first, but a massive rehash with some much needed streamlining.
This game opened really strong, running and looking great, with incredibly breathtaking action setpieces, but toward the last third, the game's quality fell off, I had trouble understanding Lara's motivations throughout the game, as she flip flopped back and forth with what she wanted. Once the end came along, the gameplay and visuals stopped being original, and just felt like a repeat of the first one. Overall, it's better than the first, but a massive rehash with some much needed streamlining.
2005
Psychonauts was a game that impressed and delighted me in so many ways; the writing was sharp and fun, the level design clever, and the art direction striking and unique. That being said, however, I think a lot of the design decisions, especially in terms of the pacing and general flow of the game were just off to me, and prevented me from getting as into this game as I wanted to.
The star of this game, is of course the writing. Everyone on the writing team has done an excellent job of doing what Tim Schafer and the rest of the team at DoubleFine does best, creating funny, creative and quotable dialogue that will stay in your head as long as you live. This game had a few jokes that really made me smile, and I don't often get that from a game. I loved the way kids were written and talked, speaking kinda weird a lot of the time, and just saying some really crazy stuff, just like normal kids do. There was also some pretty surprisingly dark stuff in here, that I feel added another layer to it and made it feel a lot more authentic and honest to me. In addition, I think generally this game has a great narrative and themes. Even through the designs of the levels and sometimes even really small details, they've created something that pretty much all great stories do, creating a narrative with consistent themes and ideas, that makes replays a joy.
The writing is well complemented by the art design itself, where the designs of each character and level do a really great job at building and reinforcing the story even more. Many times they were so unique and off kilter, which was just so much fun.
I also of course loved Peter McConnell's soundtrack, I swear that guy does not miss, and always infuses any game with a whimsy and charm you just can't get anywhere else.
The level design super impressed me as well, they give you a wealth of tools, especially one movement tool that is ridiculously powerful, but still they manage to keep the game engaging and make it work, despite the fact it had the potential to make the levels really uninteresting. They also did a really good job of letting you use all of your powerups throughout the game, and you're always on your toes for when to use them. I think they could have gone a little harder in this aspect, pushing the use cases of all the powerups further, but I'm astounded they made all the powerups as detailed as they ended up being. Many of these places were a joy to explore, even if sometimes I felt like I was being distracted too much by meaningless collection.
The amount of collectibles scattered around the map started to feel really excessive at times, as though they were simply there in order to make the levels feel more interesting, but didn't actually add much depth. I think making figments 2D objects can make picking them up feel really weird and finnicky, as you don't really know where those hitboxes actually are. The mental baggage also felt like it had pretty much no reason to exist other than just a random collectible and a funny little joke.
The mental baggage ties into my main issue with the game, and that's the general moment to moment pace. Psychonauts has a lot of cutscenes. It feels as though you can't go for more than 1 minute without hitting some sort of thing that yoinks all the interactivity out of your hand. In many cases, these cutscenes aren't needed, like the mental baggage cutscenes, or honestly a lot of the dialogue. I wish they had kept me in control and played the dialogue while I was playing. This would let you choose how much or little you paid attention to the dialogue and jokes, which could honestly aid with the replayability too. I think if they did remove a lot of the cutscenes, however, you'd start to feel the weakness of the gameplay a lot more than I did while playing.
The gameplay, although clever at points isn't anything super revolutionary, and probably what I'd just call "functional". It generally got the job done, but there were a surprising amount of times throughout my playthrough where something behaved in a really unexpected way, which got me killed. The ledge grab and the ropes come to mind for me.
I don't want to come across as too harsh, because I really did enjoy my time with this game. I'm always happy to have more of Tim Schafer's writing and Peter McConnell's music to enjoy, and I feel this game has so much heart put into it. The narrative even has really strong themes, which I super appreciate! I can definitely see how this could be someone's favorite game, there's just so much to love here. It's so caringly made, and astoundingly detailed from front to back. But for me, the game itself held it back quite a bit.
PS: The bacon hint system is so good and I wish more games had it.
The star of this game, is of course the writing. Everyone on the writing team has done an excellent job of doing what Tim Schafer and the rest of the team at DoubleFine does best, creating funny, creative and quotable dialogue that will stay in your head as long as you live. This game had a few jokes that really made me smile, and I don't often get that from a game. I loved the way kids were written and talked, speaking kinda weird a lot of the time, and just saying some really crazy stuff, just like normal kids do. There was also some pretty surprisingly dark stuff in here, that I feel added another layer to it and made it feel a lot more authentic and honest to me. In addition, I think generally this game has a great narrative and themes. Even through the designs of the levels and sometimes even really small details, they've created something that pretty much all great stories do, creating a narrative with consistent themes and ideas, that makes replays a joy.
The writing is well complemented by the art design itself, where the designs of each character and level do a really great job at building and reinforcing the story even more. Many times they were so unique and off kilter, which was just so much fun.
I also of course loved Peter McConnell's soundtrack, I swear that guy does not miss, and always infuses any game with a whimsy and charm you just can't get anywhere else.
The level design super impressed me as well, they give you a wealth of tools, especially one movement tool that is ridiculously powerful, but still they manage to keep the game engaging and make it work, despite the fact it had the potential to make the levels really uninteresting. They also did a really good job of letting you use all of your powerups throughout the game, and you're always on your toes for when to use them. I think they could have gone a little harder in this aspect, pushing the use cases of all the powerups further, but I'm astounded they made all the powerups as detailed as they ended up being. Many of these places were a joy to explore, even if sometimes I felt like I was being distracted too much by meaningless collection.
The amount of collectibles scattered around the map started to feel really excessive at times, as though they were simply there in order to make the levels feel more interesting, but didn't actually add much depth. I think making figments 2D objects can make picking them up feel really weird and finnicky, as you don't really know where those hitboxes actually are. The mental baggage also felt like it had pretty much no reason to exist other than just a random collectible and a funny little joke.
The mental baggage ties into my main issue with the game, and that's the general moment to moment pace. Psychonauts has a lot of cutscenes. It feels as though you can't go for more than 1 minute without hitting some sort of thing that yoinks all the interactivity out of your hand. In many cases, these cutscenes aren't needed, like the mental baggage cutscenes, or honestly a lot of the dialogue. I wish they had kept me in control and played the dialogue while I was playing. This would let you choose how much or little you paid attention to the dialogue and jokes, which could honestly aid with the replayability too. I think if they did remove a lot of the cutscenes, however, you'd start to feel the weakness of the gameplay a lot more than I did while playing.
The gameplay, although clever at points isn't anything super revolutionary, and probably what I'd just call "functional". It generally got the job done, but there were a surprising amount of times throughout my playthrough where something behaved in a really unexpected way, which got me killed. The ledge grab and the ropes come to mind for me.
I don't want to come across as too harsh, because I really did enjoy my time with this game. I'm always happy to have more of Tim Schafer's writing and Peter McConnell's music to enjoy, and I feel this game has so much heart put into it. The narrative even has really strong themes, which I super appreciate! I can definitely see how this could be someone's favorite game, there's just so much to love here. It's so caringly made, and astoundingly detailed from front to back. But for me, the game itself held it back quite a bit.
PS: The bacon hint system is so good and I wish more games had it.
2019
Imported from my Backloggery:
This game was a blast. The team did an incredible job updating the classic Resident Evil gameplay into 3D, which was a huge surprise. The graphics and sound design create absolutely terrifying moments. That being said, the puzzle design was super lacking. There was never any point where I even remotely had to think, instead I was charting routes from point A to B, which was fun. In boss fights, I got frustrated bc I didn't know whether to run or fight. The story was dumb, but I loved Leon.
This game was a blast. The team did an incredible job updating the classic Resident Evil gameplay into 3D, which was a huge surprise. The graphics and sound design create absolutely terrifying moments. That being said, the puzzle design was super lacking. There was never any point where I even remotely had to think, instead I was charting routes from point A to B, which was fun. In boss fights, I got frustrated bc I didn't know whether to run or fight. The story was dumb, but I loved Leon.
2013
Imported from my Backloggery:
This game is largely forgettable in its combat and story, but some of the game mechanics were super fresh. The combo creation system was inconsequential, but a cool mechanic nonetheless. The memory remix mechanic was great though. The visual design was amazing and is something that I will always remember. The game still treated me like a baby throughout and largely felt generic. It lacks impact, and is worth a skip.
This game is largely forgettable in its combat and story, but some of the game mechanics were super fresh. The combo creation system was inconsequential, but a cool mechanic nonetheless. The memory remix mechanic was great though. The visual design was amazing and is something that I will always remember. The game still treated me like a baby throughout and largely felt generic. It lacks impact, and is worth a skip.
Imported from my Backloggery:
Red Dead 2 will probably be a game I will really enjoy in a few years, but as it stands right now, I do not have the patience or energy to play a game like this. The first the hours were relatively unexciting despite having incredible sound design, music, acting, and graphics. In addition to this, the game was simply not fun to play. The auto aim felt way worse than it did in the original, and the way the recoil works doesn't feel powerful at all. It's overwrought with tedious mechanics.
Red Dead 2 will probably be a game I will really enjoy in a few years, but as it stands right now, I do not have the patience or energy to play a game like this. The first the hours were relatively unexciting despite having incredible sound design, music, acting, and graphics. In addition to this, the game was simply not fun to play. The auto aim felt way worse than it did in the original, and the way the recoil works doesn't feel powerful at all. It's overwrought with tedious mechanics.