jbcrowe
2024
The goopy and slimy alien design of this game is a huge selling point - the sheer artistic creativity here is off the charts, and it gets really gross at some points. Very phallic and butthole-like things here. If the idea of exploring a completely original feeling world made up of organic and industrial matter in a Metroidvania fashion sounds good to you, definitely put this on your radar.
But there was a lot here that pushed me away despite only taking a few days to finish the main story. There are 2 endings, I think I got the "evil" one... but the game kind of forces you in that direction anyways, so they expect you to go back and try it all a second time to find a "nice" way of finishing things. I felt done by the end though, and satisfied with what I had ended with.
The exploration of the environment is exactly how you'd expect if you're familiar with the genre, and lots of those games have sprawling interconnected maps and systems that are easy to get lost in. Ultros was maybe the most lost I've felt playing a game like this. It's very big, and absolutely full of rooms and hallways that are a slog to run and jump through. They felt like unnecessary padding than anything. Something about this game made it feel like more of a chore than anything about halfway through, when I got lost and unaware of what my next objective was when I got stuck in an area. There's unlockable abilities after you complete a section/boss as per usual, but there's a slightly complicated gardening/seed system that the game kind of haphazardly explains to you. I'll admit, I wasn't using these seeds/plants to their full potential until I was almost done the game, and I think they did that on purpose - to show you, now that you've probably figured out how this shit actually works, go play the game a second time and do all the extra stuff. And one of the endgame things here is to connect all of the sprawling systems on the map. It just feels like too much work in the long run, I didn't really enjoy my time in this world and I was ready to get out.
That being said... I could see myself going back to this in a year or so and trying it again. So for now, 3 stars for a general feel of the game after completing - but there is stuff worth exploring here for lots of folks
But there was a lot here that pushed me away despite only taking a few days to finish the main story. There are 2 endings, I think I got the "evil" one... but the game kind of forces you in that direction anyways, so they expect you to go back and try it all a second time to find a "nice" way of finishing things. I felt done by the end though, and satisfied with what I had ended with.
The exploration of the environment is exactly how you'd expect if you're familiar with the genre, and lots of those games have sprawling interconnected maps and systems that are easy to get lost in. Ultros was maybe the most lost I've felt playing a game like this. It's very big, and absolutely full of rooms and hallways that are a slog to run and jump through. They felt like unnecessary padding than anything. Something about this game made it feel like more of a chore than anything about halfway through, when I got lost and unaware of what my next objective was when I got stuck in an area. There's unlockable abilities after you complete a section/boss as per usual, but there's a slightly complicated gardening/seed system that the game kind of haphazardly explains to you. I'll admit, I wasn't using these seeds/plants to their full potential until I was almost done the game, and I think they did that on purpose - to show you, now that you've probably figured out how this shit actually works, go play the game a second time and do all the extra stuff. And one of the endgame things here is to connect all of the sprawling systems on the map. It just feels like too much work in the long run, I didn't really enjoy my time in this world and I was ready to get out.
That being said... I could see myself going back to this in a year or so and trying it again. So for now, 3 stars for a general feel of the game after completing - but there is stuff worth exploring here for lots of folks
2003
Max Payne on the GBA - pretty damn good! If a physical copy of this wasn't $$$ I'd love to have it for a collector's item, even if I don't own a GBA anymore. But playing this on my homebrew Wii (on my 50 inch TV which looked hilarious) was a trip... and thank god for the save states because this game can be bullshit sometimes.
Bullet time on the GBA never looked cooler (and even the slo-mo sound effects are great) and this version is surprisingly faithful to the original, levels are very similar and even certain rooms and details are identical. It's a bit more stripped down/condensed but that's appreciated.
As for the bullshit, since this is isometric and you're thrown into large rooms where you can't see everything, expect to get shot from offscreen enemies constantly. And there are fire obstacles here that can kill you in one hit which can be almost impossible to avoid as you have to be pixel perfect - the isometric view makes this even worse.
Just make sure to save state a ton in the later levels and you'll be fine - absolutely worth checking out if you're a fan of the series and you'd like to see Sam Lake's pixelized face and hear James McCaffrey's voice in all its 8-bit glory
Bullet time on the GBA never looked cooler (and even the slo-mo sound effects are great) and this version is surprisingly faithful to the original, levels are very similar and even certain rooms and details are identical. It's a bit more stripped down/condensed but that's appreciated.
As for the bullshit, since this is isometric and you're thrown into large rooms where you can't see everything, expect to get shot from offscreen enemies constantly. And there are fire obstacles here that can kill you in one hit which can be almost impossible to avoid as you have to be pixel perfect - the isometric view makes this even worse.
Just make sure to save state a ton in the later levels and you'll be fine - absolutely worth checking out if you're a fan of the series and you'd like to see Sam Lake's pixelized face and hear James McCaffrey's voice in all its 8-bit glory
2016
I was mixed on Bioshock when I played it back in 2007; this and Gears Of War were the first 2 games I bought with my Xbox 360 as they were the two games that you couldn't escape hearing about in regards to that console. But I found Bioshock a bit frustrating; for some reason I almost felt like I was playing it wrong or something... it just wasn't clicking for me like it seemed to be for everyone else. I think I even gave up during the final stretch of the game as I have no memory of the final boss fight during my initial playthrough.
Coming back 17 years later it smacked me hard over the head like a wrench - this thing aged insanely well. The guns feel great and chunky, and the plasmids encourage you to try different things constantly. It's so so easy to see how this knocked the socks off everyone back then, this is an amazing game for so many reasons.
The plot and all it's mysteries and twists got me engaged all over again, but there's two things I want to mention quickly here that blew me away.
1. The SOUND - my God... playing this with headphones is enough to make you think you're a Rapture citizen gone mad yourself. The noises of each room and location, the vending machines, the insane babbling and screaming, the haunting music playing from old speakers; hearing "How Much Is That Doggy In The Window" playing on a jukebox while a woman cries in another room and a man violently talks to himself in another, and you hear the pounding THUD of the Big Daddies walking around and making that low whale-call type groan they make... it's almost too overwhelming. When chaos erupts and there's several people shouting and bullets flying and shit is on fire and exploding and drones are buzzing around shooting people... pure madness, especially like I mentioned above with headphones on. The game sounds absolutely bonkers all the time.
2. Rapture as a setting has been talked about to death but every room, every hallway, has a purpose here, and it's been planned and structured and detailed to an almost painful level. It all makes sense as a city and doesn't feel video game level-y, if you scrubbed it clean of all the garbage and dead bodies and ruin that it's now in, you can picture it being this perfect idyllic city for capitalistic rich bastards to frolic around in. But my main thing I really noticed here this time is the complete lack of any outdoor area - for obvious reasons, but the fact that it's all big rooms, hallways, confined spaces, really sets it apart from almost every other shooter. There's always a roof over your head and just thinking about that makes you feel claustrophobic even if you aren't.
5 stars for this sucker, this playthrough made me see what everyone else has been saying for years, and I think age has helped it in a weird way. You don't often think of Bioshock when people mention the best horror games, because despite not really being scared at all while playing this, it's also easily one of the scariest games out there. And that's saying something
Coming back 17 years later it smacked me hard over the head like a wrench - this thing aged insanely well. The guns feel great and chunky, and the plasmids encourage you to try different things constantly. It's so so easy to see how this knocked the socks off everyone back then, this is an amazing game for so many reasons.
The plot and all it's mysteries and twists got me engaged all over again, but there's two things I want to mention quickly here that blew me away.
1. The SOUND - my God... playing this with headphones is enough to make you think you're a Rapture citizen gone mad yourself. The noises of each room and location, the vending machines, the insane babbling and screaming, the haunting music playing from old speakers; hearing "How Much Is That Doggy In The Window" playing on a jukebox while a woman cries in another room and a man violently talks to himself in another, and you hear the pounding THUD of the Big Daddies walking around and making that low whale-call type groan they make... it's almost too overwhelming. When chaos erupts and there's several people shouting and bullets flying and shit is on fire and exploding and drones are buzzing around shooting people... pure madness, especially like I mentioned above with headphones on. The game sounds absolutely bonkers all the time.
2. Rapture as a setting has been talked about to death but every room, every hallway, has a purpose here, and it's been planned and structured and detailed to an almost painful level. It all makes sense as a city and doesn't feel video game level-y, if you scrubbed it clean of all the garbage and dead bodies and ruin that it's now in, you can picture it being this perfect idyllic city for capitalistic rich bastards to frolic around in. But my main thing I really noticed here this time is the complete lack of any outdoor area - for obvious reasons, but the fact that it's all big rooms, hallways, confined spaces, really sets it apart from almost every other shooter. There's always a roof over your head and just thinking about that makes you feel claustrophobic even if you aren't.
5 stars for this sucker, this playthrough made me see what everyone else has been saying for years, and I think age has helped it in a weird way. You don't often think of Bioshock when people mention the best horror games, because despite not really being scared at all while playing this, it's also easily one of the scariest games out there. And that's saying something
2016
The second Analgesic title for me in a few weeks - call me a fan now because these games really do it for me in so many different ways. They tell an engaging story with great character dialogue and emotions, with super impressive and memorable music all throughout, and always in these weird colorful worlds that feel out of place, out of time; futuristic and bizarre. And their design philosophy is all about the appreciation of simple and classic old games that give us nostalgia, but that everyone can play and enjoy. Both this game and Sephonie have customizable options that can make the game as easy or accessible as you want from the get go, or just to play the game normally. And they also "break the fourth wall" by talking to you directly as game designers, offering personal advice for the game, showing you how they made certain things, and even containing hidden little rooms and debug options that kind of break the game in a fun way.
Even the Ocean tells a super interesting story using very solid puzzle platforming and exploration, and with ethereal music that feels like Brian Eno meets Grant Kirkhope at times (one of my faves is this track you'll hear quite often in an area that you return to frequently... such a nice dreamy bop). It feels like a lost SNES or Genesis game in the best way. It's not a hard puzzle game except for some late-game sections but even then you won't struggle too much - as I mentioned this is something anyone can enjoy. It wraps up in a way I did not expect and had me engaged the whole time. I can't wait to play other Analgesic titles, what a great team of only two members with a ton of creative zest
Even the Ocean tells a super interesting story using very solid puzzle platforming and exploration, and with ethereal music that feels like Brian Eno meets Grant Kirkhope at times (one of my faves is this track you'll hear quite often in an area that you return to frequently... such a nice dreamy bop). It feels like a lost SNES or Genesis game in the best way. It's not a hard puzzle game except for some late-game sections but even then you won't struggle too much - as I mentioned this is something anyone can enjoy. It wraps up in a way I did not expect and had me engaged the whole time. I can't wait to play other Analgesic titles, what a great team of only two members with a ton of creative zest
A dream-y odyssey of a game that I won't forget anytime soon. I've become very familiar with Analgesic Productions the past while, with Sephonie being a great little introduction to their style, Even The Ocean winning me over even more and then Anodyne 2 solidifying their presence as one of the best and original indie developers going today. You genuinely will not find other game experiences out there like what they have to offer.
There's so much here to love for the nostalgic gamer from another era, with the hazy 3D adventure platformer exploration along with 2D top down dungeon-style levels with puzzles and enemies. The liminal psychedelic world that feels like you dreamed up a video game you never played from the 90's is a sad, lonely landscape, eerie-ly deserted and devoid of most life, except for the odd bizarre being you'll come across. Most of the areas feel unique and distinguishable as you navigate the various sections, with certain landmarks keeping you aware of where you are.
Just wandering/driving around these areas gives you that strange feeling that has become so well known online nowadays - social media is full of videos and posts of liminal spaces; empty malls, toy stores, nighttime parking lots, closed businesses, places from our childhood that are warm and fuzzy in our brains, but feel cold and alien now. Warbly fuzzy synth music is playing over the videos, almost like it's playing from a distant speaker. It's a feeling we all have thinking of our childhoods, but these videos have that huge whiff of "weaponized nostalgia"; oh look how perfect life used to be as a kid. Don't you hate having bills to pay and adult responsibilities? Don't you wish you could still go to Blockbuster and rent PS1 games and have a sleepover and get Pizza Hut?
What Analgesic Productions do with their games that feels like an anomaly in these times is somehow give you that same feeling with their worlds. Yeah sure, they use graphics and art direction and music that resembles that foregone time. But they create their own original worlds with it all, while also making subtle references to the real world and emotions and struggles. Anxiety, self-worth, isolation, it's all here in spades. There's a moment here in Anodyne 2 with a specific character interaction that takes the game and places you into a completely different place that had me completely turned around - I had no idea what was happening and I did not expect it. As the sequence went on and it began exploring real world emotions and feelings, it got... strange. Things felt.. not right. And then it went to a dark and scary place that I was quickly adamant to get through so I could (hopefully) return to the other world I got to know. Even if that world didn't even feel like where I belonged.
I have said this about every Analgesic game I've reviewed so far but the music in their games is always just amazing. Melos Han-Tani knocks it out of the park with memorable song after memorable song, each one distinct enough and perfectly encapsulating the area that its featured in, music that you welcome every time you return to the region. It pulls you into the world like a warm ghostly embrace; it's a soundtrack to fall asleep to, wake up to, feel comforted by and yet also feel tense and uncertain. There's also just some great bops... the guy can write a good bop!
The writing in their games (usually primarily) by Marina Kittaka is a lot... there is a ton of dialogue in their titles, but I'm constantly impressed and taken aback by the sincerity, the train-of-thought observations (and often sometimes real thoughts or opinions a lot of us have had before that feel too personal or weird to share) that they can give to a weird ass looking creature person thing that slightly resembles what a child may endearingly design in a 3D animation program, and who just stands in one spot of the world chilling. Especially with how this game handles its main story/objective; doing an Inception-style dive into these characters' inner self and exploring the little world inside, to rid them of Dust, which is what is infecting the denizens of this world. There is a lot to read in their games (they don't feature voice acting, which is totally fine), and I'm constantly surprised by the writing style and how much thought and care was put into it. Some passages really got to me.
If you're still reading (hi!) and haven't played this and are wondering if it's for you, I want to compare this to one of my favorite games, The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask, which is a comparison I made after completing the game:
You wander around a world (Termina) divided up into regions (north/south/east/west) with a central town type hub (Clown Town) in the middle. There's a looming apocalyptic threat (the moon). You're going around talking to NPC's and helping them with problems (Bombers Notebook), which usually results in a dungeon-type level with puzzles and sometimes a boss battle, and doing so you collect a card (mask..?) and dust, both resources you need to then go back to the central hub and deposit (rupees in the bank) before you begin each new "cycle" (there's no days in Anodyne 2 like in Majora's Mask, but you need to deposit the dust or else you cap off at a certain amount and won't get any new dust until it's deposited). Both feel light-hearted and whimsical at times but have those oppressive and sad moments... their worlds are connected, but disconnected by a threat of darkness. If I really wanted to I could probably make some more far-reaching connections but I'll leave it at that. Both are still very different games but when I suddenly made those comparions, I felt like I could see why this game clicked with me so much. On top of it just being a fantastic indie title.
Analgesic should be on so many peoples radars, I really really adore their work and I find them very influential as someone who writes fiction and would love to take a stab writing a video game some day.
There's so much here to love for the nostalgic gamer from another era, with the hazy 3D adventure platformer exploration along with 2D top down dungeon-style levels with puzzles and enemies. The liminal psychedelic world that feels like you dreamed up a video game you never played from the 90's is a sad, lonely landscape, eerie-ly deserted and devoid of most life, except for the odd bizarre being you'll come across. Most of the areas feel unique and distinguishable as you navigate the various sections, with certain landmarks keeping you aware of where you are.
Just wandering/driving around these areas gives you that strange feeling that has become so well known online nowadays - social media is full of videos and posts of liminal spaces; empty malls, toy stores, nighttime parking lots, closed businesses, places from our childhood that are warm and fuzzy in our brains, but feel cold and alien now. Warbly fuzzy synth music is playing over the videos, almost like it's playing from a distant speaker. It's a feeling we all have thinking of our childhoods, but these videos have that huge whiff of "weaponized nostalgia"; oh look how perfect life used to be as a kid. Don't you hate having bills to pay and adult responsibilities? Don't you wish you could still go to Blockbuster and rent PS1 games and have a sleepover and get Pizza Hut?
What Analgesic Productions do with their games that feels like an anomaly in these times is somehow give you that same feeling with their worlds. Yeah sure, they use graphics and art direction and music that resembles that foregone time. But they create their own original worlds with it all, while also making subtle references to the real world and emotions and struggles. Anxiety, self-worth, isolation, it's all here in spades. There's a moment here in Anodyne 2 with a specific character interaction that takes the game and places you into a completely different place that had me completely turned around - I had no idea what was happening and I did not expect it. As the sequence went on and it began exploring real world emotions and feelings, it got... strange. Things felt.. not right. And then it went to a dark and scary place that I was quickly adamant to get through so I could (hopefully) return to the other world I got to know. Even if that world didn't even feel like where I belonged.
I have said this about every Analgesic game I've reviewed so far but the music in their games is always just amazing. Melos Han-Tani knocks it out of the park with memorable song after memorable song, each one distinct enough and perfectly encapsulating the area that its featured in, music that you welcome every time you return to the region. It pulls you into the world like a warm ghostly embrace; it's a soundtrack to fall asleep to, wake up to, feel comforted by and yet also feel tense and uncertain. There's also just some great bops... the guy can write a good bop!
The writing in their games (usually primarily) by Marina Kittaka is a lot... there is a ton of dialogue in their titles, but I'm constantly impressed and taken aback by the sincerity, the train-of-thought observations (and often sometimes real thoughts or opinions a lot of us have had before that feel too personal or weird to share) that they can give to a weird ass looking creature person thing that slightly resembles what a child may endearingly design in a 3D animation program, and who just stands in one spot of the world chilling. Especially with how this game handles its main story/objective; doing an Inception-style dive into these characters' inner self and exploring the little world inside, to rid them of Dust, which is what is infecting the denizens of this world. There is a lot to read in their games (they don't feature voice acting, which is totally fine), and I'm constantly surprised by the writing style and how much thought and care was put into it. Some passages really got to me.
If you're still reading (hi!) and haven't played this and are wondering if it's for you, I want to compare this to one of my favorite games, The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask, which is a comparison I made after completing the game:
You wander around a world (Termina) divided up into regions (north/south/east/west) with a central town type hub (Clown Town) in the middle. There's a looming apocalyptic threat (the moon). You're going around talking to NPC's and helping them with problems (Bombers Notebook), which usually results in a dungeon-type level with puzzles and sometimes a boss battle, and doing so you collect a card (mask..?) and dust, both resources you need to then go back to the central hub and deposit (rupees in the bank) before you begin each new "cycle" (there's no days in Anodyne 2 like in Majora's Mask, but you need to deposit the dust or else you cap off at a certain amount and won't get any new dust until it's deposited). Both feel light-hearted and whimsical at times but have those oppressive and sad moments... their worlds are connected, but disconnected by a threat of darkness. If I really wanted to I could probably make some more far-reaching connections but I'll leave it at that. Both are still very different games but when I suddenly made those comparions, I felt like I could see why this game clicked with me so much. On top of it just being a fantastic indie title.
Analgesic should be on so many peoples radars, I really really adore their work and I find them very influential as someone who writes fiction and would love to take a stab writing a video game some day.