tendog
BACKER
2022
nothing against violence in video games but the realism is a bit too much for me
like, am i the only one actually experiencing major cognitive dissonance?
maybe its just being from LA but it sort of fucks with my head to run someone over with my car. or get shot. or shoot someone. at the mall i shop at. ack. i can't play this game anymore.
what does it take for something to get so real it actually feels wrong to play? why are we bothering to find out?
like, am i the only one actually experiencing major cognitive dissonance?
maybe its just being from LA but it sort of fucks with my head to run someone over with my car. or get shot. or shoot someone. at the mall i shop at. ack. i can't play this game anymore.
what does it take for something to get so real it actually feels wrong to play? why are we bothering to find out?
it's refreshing to see a game so loose on the guided experience, allowing you to figure out the world for yourself, which also aptly suits the plot and major theme of the game.
Maybe I gamified my experience too much, but at some points I felt like I was simply cutscene-hunting by visiting every area at every time of day. Ironically this was because I had enough money to buy things I wanted, I wasn't buying many things anyways, and farming became a bit boring.
Instead, I was just buying these things I don't even need just because I sort of wanted to have them. It felt like things weren't changing. Days and days passed before I knew it.
...writing that out, it sort of reminds me of how my own life has felt recently.
Was that the point of the game?
Is there a point to the game?
Is it okay for games to not have a "point", a reason behind why we are spending our time with them?
Hmm...
Maybe I gamified my experience too much, but at some points I felt like I was simply cutscene-hunting by visiting every area at every time of day. Ironically this was because I had enough money to buy things I wanted, I wasn't buying many things anyways, and farming became a bit boring.
Instead, I was just buying these things I don't even need just because I sort of wanted to have them. It felt like things weren't changing. Days and days passed before I knew it.
...writing that out, it sort of reminds me of how my own life has felt recently.
Was that the point of the game?
Is there a point to the game?
Is it okay for games to not have a "point", a reason behind why we are spending our time with them?
Hmm...
2013
Unique concept that makes for a neat short game you can beat in about ~122 years
Knocked it out of the park. Played with family and had a blast making breakthroughs and piecing together the Roottree family tree. The way it all fell into place was so so so satisfying. If this sounds interesting to you, just play it! It's free! (though you can donate to the dev if you want)
2023
Born of Bread has all the trappings of a great RPG. Fun environmental design, memorable characters with actual personhood, and self-aware writing that both pokes fun and investigates the tropes of gaming. Where BoB stumbles is in its gameplay, which didn't reach far beyond anything that it's main source of inspiration, Paper Mario: The Thousand Year Door did 20 years prior.
The battle system was a slight exception, trying out equippable weapons for the main character, Loaf, while having a small tree of options for the partner characters. There is also a Pokemon-esque type system for moves and enemies, but its simplicity boils down to choosing the right attack type if you have it or avoiding using the enemy's protected type. Without the "Attack Sight" boon, which is this game's version of TTYD's badge, that allowed me to see the types of the enemies, I don't think I would have been able to always figure out which of the 7+ types the enemy was.
Unfortunately, by the end of the game, I was beating all enemies in 1 hit and not worrying about damage or WP (like FP from TTYD) consumption. This is because the game is far far too generous towards the player. Items are bursting out of the seams, to a comical point of having to avoid dropped items that scatter the levels. Battles rarely have more than 2 enemies, and the majority of time had just one. The enemies were also extremely samey, attacking in one of a handful of ways and never having any sort of special trick to them, like HP-drain or flying enemies or enemies that split or have phases or etc etc etc. BoB had the material for a more clever variety of enemies, it just didn't utilize it.
There are lot of nitpicks that bothered me with the gameplay. Lots of small things that felt like they could have been reported on by some more playtesting and fixed before releasing it out to the wild. I'm not going into them.
Born of Bread runs on charm, art, and dialogue while getting a bit too repetitive and easy as it went on.
The battle system was a slight exception, trying out equippable weapons for the main character, Loaf, while having a small tree of options for the partner characters. There is also a Pokemon-esque type system for moves and enemies, but its simplicity boils down to choosing the right attack type if you have it or avoiding using the enemy's protected type. Without the "Attack Sight" boon, which is this game's version of TTYD's badge, that allowed me to see the types of the enemies, I don't think I would have been able to always figure out which of the 7+ types the enemy was.
Unfortunately, by the end of the game, I was beating all enemies in 1 hit and not worrying about damage or WP (like FP from TTYD) consumption. This is because the game is far far too generous towards the player. Items are bursting out of the seams, to a comical point of having to avoid dropped items that scatter the levels. Battles rarely have more than 2 enemies, and the majority of time had just one. The enemies were also extremely samey, attacking in one of a handful of ways and never having any sort of special trick to them, like HP-drain or flying enemies or enemies that split or have phases or etc etc etc. BoB had the material for a more clever variety of enemies, it just didn't utilize it.
There are lot of nitpicks that bothered me with the gameplay. Lots of small things that felt like they could have been reported on by some more playtesting and fixed before releasing it out to the wild. I'm not going into them.
Born of Bread runs on charm, art, and dialogue while getting a bit too repetitive and easy as it went on.
2022
stopped playing because ads took over the site and ruined the experience. was fun while it lasted
2008
I had a bit of a delayed reaction to everything in off.
The artstyle would appear amateur and scratchy, and then I'd understand it better within the context of other art in the game.
The music in-game would feel too harsh or strange, and then listening to the tracks in isolation, I'd get flooded with the feeling of the moment I first heard it.
The plot of the game would confuse me, and then after I was done I kept wondering what it all really meant.
Off is not really a good game. The fighting system is so trivial that the game provides the option at the start of every fight to just let it play out automatically. Random encounters would make exploring the world frustrating. The puzzles are often unclear and confusing.
But, maybe counterintuitively, it's better this way.
The artstyle would appear amateur and scratchy, and then I'd understand it better within the context of other art in the game.
The music in-game would feel too harsh or strange, and then listening to the tracks in isolation, I'd get flooded with the feeling of the moment I first heard it.
The plot of the game would confuse me, and then after I was done I kept wondering what it all really meant.
Off is not really a good game. The fighting system is so trivial that the game provides the option at the start of every fight to just let it play out automatically. Random encounters would make exploring the world frustrating. The puzzles are often unclear and confusing.
But, maybe counterintuitively, it's better this way.
1998
This was a fun one to finally get around playing!
It's a game that I always knew about, without knowing anything about it, which was a great way to dive into it, actually. The game opened up slow, but found its footing in the second act where it really dazzled. The Art Deco/Aztec fusion (Azteco) is so unique and so wonderfully created. GF chooses to show the player its world through backdoors and hushed rooms instead of the lavish settings which are only presented in glimpses of distant lights and parades, and somehow, instead of feeling like a grandiose world was being hidden away, it felt like the hidden world was where all the excitement was anyway.
There were some sore spots. Moving Manny is like operating a tank. Walls seem to reflect movement in really awkward ways that can make entering small doorways a pain. Manny tended to get stuck in odd corners, forcing me to reload some saves and learn the hard way that I should save more often than I would want. A few of the required actions were indicated quite badly. There were 3 occasions in total where I went to look up a guide instead of repeatedly trying all of my items in all of the places I could. One of them I think I rushed to the guide prematurely, but the other 2 felt unfair. In one of them, the game literally told me "no you can't do that on a ladder" when it was exactly what I needed to do... on a different ladder. Frustrating!
However, for the most part, I liked the "puzzles"/detective work required to get through each section. I was having the most fun when I had plenty of goals to accomplish in Rubacava and had moments of epiphany while thinking and wandering the night. If you look for it, in 90% of the cases, the game really tries to lead you towards the answer without being boring and having Manny go "hey maybe I should use x on y". Sometimes, using the right item in the wrong place/person even provided a useful hint.
side rant... It's typical to see complaints about the obtuseness of puzzles in 90s PC adventure games, but I think a lot of those come from a place of impatience. You are supposed to get stuck at first! If you instantly knew what to do at every point, why make the game a game at all? Let your mind stew sometimes... it can be rewarding. ok, end rant.
The dialogue, voice acting, and the inventive use of dialogue choices really gave the game a charm. Each character had their own personality, goals, desires, shortcomings; every character felt real. The writing was superb. I tried not to miss a single line of dialogue if I could help it, because it infallibly led to a gag, a callback, some extra insight, or whatever else Tim Schaefer had in store. Really, what a delight!
It's a game that I always knew about, without knowing anything about it, which was a great way to dive into it, actually. The game opened up slow, but found its footing in the second act where it really dazzled. The Art Deco/Aztec fusion (
There were some sore spots. Moving Manny is like operating a tank. Walls seem to reflect movement in really awkward ways that can make entering small doorways a pain. Manny tended to get stuck in odd corners, forcing me to reload some saves and learn the hard way that I should save more often than I would want. A few of the required actions were indicated quite badly. There were 3 occasions in total where I went to look up a guide instead of repeatedly trying all of my items in all of the places I could. One of them I think I rushed to the guide prematurely, but the other 2 felt unfair. In one of them, the game literally told me "no you can't do that on a ladder" when it was exactly what I needed to do... on a different ladder. Frustrating!
However, for the most part, I liked the "puzzles"/detective work required to get through each section. I was having the most fun when I had plenty of goals to accomplish in Rubacava and had moments of epiphany while thinking and wandering the night. If you look for it, in 90% of the cases, the game really tries to lead you towards the answer without being boring and having Manny go "hey maybe I should use x on y". Sometimes, using the right item in the wrong place/person even provided a useful hint.
side rant... It's typical to see complaints about the obtuseness of puzzles in 90s PC adventure games, but I think a lot of those come from a place of impatience. You are supposed to get stuck at first! If you instantly knew what to do at every point, why make the game a game at all? Let your mind stew sometimes... it can be rewarding. ok, end rant.
The dialogue, voice acting, and the inventive use of dialogue choices really gave the game a charm. Each character had their own personality, goals, desires, shortcomings; every character felt real. The writing was superb. I tried not to miss a single line of dialogue if I could help it, because it infallibly led to a gag, a callback, some extra insight, or whatever else Tim Schaefer had in store. Really, what a delight!
2023
Yeah... I am not understanding this one.
I was initially excited when this game I had never heard received glowing reviews in praise of it's mysterious layers of depth. I went in with a pad of paper for notes and the full intention of seeing it through, but I kept plodding along for rooms upon rooms, trying to decipher the cryptic lore while only occasionally getting some interesting puzzles to do along the way.
I really didn't care for the big boob anime intermissions with big boob anime humor and am still not sure if they have any actual function in the game. Maybe there is a secret meaning to them but it felt like I was being forced to closely observe something that is just boring to me.
I came across a lot of secrets, some which were rewarding, but many just feeling like some sort of bonus ending that can't be understood without reaching the other endings.
This game might be fun to watch a walkthrough of, because I'm sure there's a lot I didn't see, but it was a slog to play. I played for about 8 hours and called it once I just felt like I was walking in circles reading a book I don't like.
I was initially excited when this game I had never heard received glowing reviews in praise of it's mysterious layers of depth. I went in with a pad of paper for notes and the full intention of seeing it through, but I kept plodding along for rooms upon rooms, trying to decipher the cryptic lore while only occasionally getting some interesting puzzles to do along the way.
I really didn't care for the big boob anime intermissions with big boob anime humor and am still not sure if they have any actual function in the game. Maybe there is a secret meaning to them but it felt like I was being forced to closely observe something that is just boring to me.
I came across a lot of secrets, some which were rewarding, but many just feeling like some sort of bonus ending that can't be understood without reaching the other endings.
This game might be fun to watch a walkthrough of, because I'm sure there's a lot I didn't see, but it was a slog to play. I played for about 8 hours and called it once I just felt like I was walking in circles reading a book I don't like.
2006
This is way too fun for how simple it is.
p.s. I survived 194 seconds back in 2008... still trying to beat that. Let me know if you do!
p.s. I survived 194 seconds back in 2008... still trying to beat that. Let me know if you do!
2020
Dreams is an incredible, unique game that you should check out for numerous reasons, but I'm going to specifically review Tren here.
Tren, a game built within another game (by the devs of the game themselves), is one of the best games of 2023. I easily sunk something like 10 hours into it and completed the full game, 100%ing too. It's the most impressive creation I've ever encountered in Dreams, and could easily be a standalone release.
It took minutes for the question of "how could a game that forces you to stay on tracks be that fun?" to be answered, and answered again, and again and again. The gameplay is straight up joyous. It brought back memories of playing with the wooden train tracks I had as a kid. I had a constant smile on my face and was stoked to see the little train do any sort of trick, and broke out laughing whenever the physics worked in some unexpected way, flinging pieces across the scenery.
The scenery, by the way, is SO meticulously detailed that you could spend the whole game in free cam mode and still have a great time. It's akin to an "I Spy" book, where little scenes built from models and household objects played out across the landscape. I had to slow down and start playing through the time trial levels without watching the timer because I just wanted to check out everything across the ~100 levels.
Because there are like 100 levels! And new, interesting mechanics showed up again and again. Even by the time you are at the last few levels, Tren has still more wonderful surprises built with so much care, just to be featured in one or two levels. The same goes for the music, there are dozens of tracks and you will be hearing new ones right till the end. The music perfectly suits the fun-loving mood of the game. I've started listening to it outside of playing the game, because it's honestly just that good.
If you have Dreams, I can't recommend you play Tren enough. If you don't have Dreams, Tren is a great reason why you should pick it up. What a blast!
Tren, a game built within another game (by the devs of the game themselves), is one of the best games of 2023. I easily sunk something like 10 hours into it and completed the full game, 100%ing too. It's the most impressive creation I've ever encountered in Dreams, and could easily be a standalone release.
It took minutes for the question of "how could a game that forces you to stay on tracks be that fun?" to be answered, and answered again, and again and again. The gameplay is straight up joyous. It brought back memories of playing with the wooden train tracks I had as a kid. I had a constant smile on my face and was stoked to see the little train do any sort of trick, and broke out laughing whenever the physics worked in some unexpected way, flinging pieces across the scenery.
The scenery, by the way, is SO meticulously detailed that you could spend the whole game in free cam mode and still have a great time. It's akin to an "I Spy" book, where little scenes built from models and household objects played out across the landscape. I had to slow down and start playing through the time trial levels without watching the timer because I just wanted to check out everything across the ~100 levels.
Because there are like 100 levels! And new, interesting mechanics showed up again and again. Even by the time you are at the last few levels, Tren has still more wonderful surprises built with so much care, just to be featured in one or two levels. The same goes for the music, there are dozens of tracks and you will be hearing new ones right till the end. The music perfectly suits the fun-loving mood of the game. I've started listening to it outside of playing the game, because it's honestly just that good.
If you have Dreams, I can't recommend you play Tren enough. If you don't have Dreams, Tren is a great reason why you should pick it up. What a blast!
2018
After 35 hours of gameplay scattered across 5 months, I've taken down another Zachtronics game.
It's been a long journey, and my thoughts are not neatly collected anywhere, so I'll just be writing down the major impressions that stuck with me from March till today. These is more of a thought-dump than a review...
First of all, there are no branching paths. You either beat every level in the story or you don't complete the game. Which is pretty brutal, but if memory serves me right, somewhat typical for Zachtronics. It's not always my favorite aspect of their games, but it does force you to try a level again and again until you figure it out. It surprised me how often I would hit what felt like an unscalable wall only to climb it once I came back with a fresh mind.
I think the level descriptions that laid out the task you had to complete were generally kinda bad. On many different occasions, I wouldn't understand what I had to do to beat the level until I had already spent an hour or so making some design that has one crucial flaw, because I misunderstood the task at hand. It wasn't until the literal last level that I found out you could hold down the "Show Goal" button and scroll to the bottom of your command list to see the exact output needed to beat a level, and I'm not sure if that's entirely on me or not.
I had both of the zines for this game printed out and both were useful, but the most useful 4 pages were the instructions list. It's not really necessary to print out the rest, especially if you have a second monitor, but if you prefer physical books to digital copies, it's a really nice option to consider.
Also I never used SWIZ and I still have no idea what it is useful for even though its like the 3rd instruction listed lol. I hope I didn't miss some amazing trick that would've helped me beat some of the harder levels.
Anyway this game is fun if you like coding challenges, and I'm hungry and going to go eat some chips and salsa
It's been a long journey, and my thoughts are not neatly collected anywhere, so I'll just be writing down the major impressions that stuck with me from March till today. These is more of a thought-dump than a review...
First of all, there are no branching paths. You either beat every level in the story or you don't complete the game. Which is pretty brutal, but if memory serves me right, somewhat typical for Zachtronics. It's not always my favorite aspect of their games, but it does force you to try a level again and again until you figure it out. It surprised me how often I would hit what felt like an unscalable wall only to climb it once I came back with a fresh mind.
I think the level descriptions that laid out the task you had to complete were generally kinda bad. On many different occasions, I wouldn't understand what I had to do to beat the level until I had already spent an hour or so making some design that has one crucial flaw, because I misunderstood the task at hand. It wasn't until the literal last level that I found out you could hold down the "Show Goal" button and scroll to the bottom of your command list to see the exact output needed to beat a level, and I'm not sure if that's entirely on me or not.
I had both of the zines for this game printed out and both were useful, but the most useful 4 pages were the instructions list. It's not really necessary to print out the rest, especially if you have a second monitor, but if you prefer physical books to digital copies, it's a really nice option to consider.
Also I never used SWIZ and I still have no idea what it is useful for even though its like the 3rd instruction listed lol. I hope I didn't miss some amazing trick that would've helped me beat some of the harder levels.
Anyway this game is fun if you like coding challenges, and I'm hungry and going to go eat some chips and salsa
I feel somewhat comfortable claiming that the Submachine series is the masterpiece of Adobe Flash's short but eventful life. In fact, playing through the games chronologically demonstrates everything Flash had to offer, from the most basic capabilities of the platform to the most over-the-top, intricate, impressive artwork ever crafted with it. Each entry raises the standard set by the last, until topping out with the massive journey that is Sub10. When the game starts chugging to load in the increasingly meticulously drawn scenes, you begin to sense that Mateusz Skutnik had mastered wielding the power of this realm just like his fictional counterpart Murtaugh had done with his own reality.
Daymare Town is still as creepy, esoteric, and mesmerizing as it was when I first played it in 2007. And just as difficult. I think Daymare Town was made with comments sections in mind. Mateusz Skutnik can be devious in how he toys with the player's expectations, and I think he found his fertile ground in the thin, complex, meandering lines that hid his relics and beings within them.
While the art and world-building just got better and better throughout the series, the new inventory system in DMT3 was frustrating to work with, and DMT4 did not do enough to ameliorate the issues that arose from it. In fact, in some ways DMT4 was worse than DMT3, having far too many items with no apparent purpose while keeping the money system for no apparent reason.
But maybe trying to make the best Daymare Town is a fool's errand. The same thing that makes the games frustrating is what makes them feel so rewarding. When you find a new area or finally find a use for an item, the game just feels so much bigger. Whenever I cheated and pulled up a walkthrough, even when the answer was so obtuse it was unfair, I lost some bit of the mystery.
How strange it is that the distorted, anguished, ruined world of Daymare Town can at the same time feel so cozy.
While the art and world-building just got better and better throughout the series, the new inventory system in DMT3 was frustrating to work with, and DMT4 did not do enough to ameliorate the issues that arose from it. In fact, in some ways DMT4 was worse than DMT3, having far too many items with no apparent purpose while keeping the money system for no apparent reason.
But maybe trying to make the best Daymare Town is a fool's errand. The same thing that makes the games frustrating is what makes them feel so rewarding. When you find a new area or finally find a use for an item, the game just feels so much bigger. Whenever I cheated and pulled up a walkthrough, even when the answer was so obtuse it was unfair, I lost some bit of the mystery.
How strange it is that the distorted, anguished, ruined world of Daymare Town can at the same time feel so cozy.
I think I like this a bit better than the Trapped series.
Might just be me, but the 3D isometric graphics of Rabbit Tell's first two Trapped games as well as Matt Sandorf has held up better than the more classic 2D style they switched to for Trapped Part 3.
I love how Sony commissioned this and let the devs get away with a lot of meta commentary about advertising and perhaps even critique of it?? It's like a Tim and Eric sponsored sketch in that regard, very loosely playing off the premise of the product and instead using the resources to make something genuinely pretty cool. You can easily see the fun they had, the friends that got together to make this happen, and it's really just a charming point'n'click experience.
Might just be me, but the 3D isometric graphics of Rabbit Tell's first two Trapped games as well as Matt Sandorf has held up better than the more classic 2D style they switched to for Trapped Part 3.
I love how Sony commissioned this and let the devs get away with a lot of meta commentary about advertising and perhaps even critique of it?? It's like a Tim and Eric sponsored sketch in that regard, very loosely playing off the premise of the product and instead using the resources to make something genuinely pretty cool. You can easily see the fun they had, the friends that got together to make this happen, and it's really just a charming point'n'click experience.