valvaris
5 reviews liked by valvaris
Half-life 3 and Silksong fans are so melodramatic when they say how long they've been waiting for a sequel. Try being a Cathode Ray Tube Amusement Device fan
This review contains spoilers
Why is this a video game?
I feel kinda bad because there are glimpses of really interesting things in this game but at the same time, this is an unapologetically bad game. So get this, this game uses horror elements to tackle a character's struggle with their past actions by visualizing their psyche. Pretty interesting I don't think any other piece of media has done this before. I'm really tired of this trope being used all the time, it is overdone and makes the story extraordinarily predictable (but don’t tell the writers that, they’’ still always treat each story beat and revelation as if it is a twist). It never won't feel like they think they're smarter than their audience and need to spell out each detail to them while their own story has less complexity than I'd expect out of a high school creative writing class. That being said this game does hint at some intriguing ideas that I wish they would develop and build upon, but they don't.
In terms of art direction and visual fidelity, it's quite impressive but that might be heavily aided by how linear the game is. People are calling this a walking sim and frankly, I find that a bit insulting, to walking sims. This is more like watching a movie on a free streaming service where every few minutes the movie stops and you have to watch an ad for 30 seconds, just replace watching the ad with pressing forward on the left joystick. I'm going to talk about the "actual gameplay" in a second but first I just want to touch on the theme/context of the game. This game is about suicide, kinda, it's about depression more accurately. You don't need me to tell you that though the game will remind you every single second.
The full story (spoilers I guess but it was obvious from the first no-joke five seconds of gameplay) is about how trauma can define us, blinding us to the world, allowing us to only focus on ourselves, and that you have to learn to accept your trauma so you can move on and no longer let it consume your life. This is a complex and important thing to talk about that demands nuance and care if you want to handle it in a way that can deliver this message in a meaningful way. This game gives none of that and genuinely feels disrespectful. Side note the live-action scenes were stylish and had actual direction and the in-engine ones were incredibly dull in comparison, maybe they were trying to further the main character's disconnect from the world considering she is the only human in the game that's not shown in live action but I think that's giving this game too much credit.
The gameplay is a maze you run through while you avoid an instant-kill monster. I get what they were going for narrativley here but that doesn't change the fact that it's just really boring to play, not frustrating or unfun just boring. I felt it was an obvious choice to have the player eventually act against the rigid structure of the game and instead turn around to beat the game, you know mirroring the narrative, but no, it really is that linear just because, oh and the character instead of course just develops in a cutscene.
The scariest part of this horror game is realizing that if you mess up you'll have to play it for even longer. The last gameplay section sees you playing Slenderman, having to collect a bunch of items to unlock a door. You don't know where the items are and are moving so fast through this maze because if you aren’t you’ll be punished, getting reset and having to find all the items all over again, because of this you cannot get a good spatial image of how the maze links together. It was such a stupid idea that I dropped the game and watched the ending on YouTube instead. The fact a free-to-play game that is less than two hours long failed to compel me to complete it should say enough about its quality.
I feel kinda bad because there are glimpses of really interesting things in this game but at the same time, this is an unapologetically bad game. So get this, this game uses horror elements to tackle a character's struggle with their past actions by visualizing their psyche. Pretty interesting I don't think any other piece of media has done this before. I'm really tired of this trope being used all the time, it is overdone and makes the story extraordinarily predictable (but don’t tell the writers that, they’’ still always treat each story beat and revelation as if it is a twist). It never won't feel like they think they're smarter than their audience and need to spell out each detail to them while their own story has less complexity than I'd expect out of a high school creative writing class. That being said this game does hint at some intriguing ideas that I wish they would develop and build upon, but they don't.
In terms of art direction and visual fidelity, it's quite impressive but that might be heavily aided by how linear the game is. People are calling this a walking sim and frankly, I find that a bit insulting, to walking sims. This is more like watching a movie on a free streaming service where every few minutes the movie stops and you have to watch an ad for 30 seconds, just replace watching the ad with pressing forward on the left joystick. I'm going to talk about the "actual gameplay" in a second but first I just want to touch on the theme/context of the game. This game is about suicide, kinda, it's about depression more accurately. You don't need me to tell you that though the game will remind you every single second.
The full story (spoilers I guess but it was obvious from the first no-joke five seconds of gameplay) is about how trauma can define us, blinding us to the world, allowing us to only focus on ourselves, and that you have to learn to accept your trauma so you can move on and no longer let it consume your life. This is a complex and important thing to talk about that demands nuance and care if you want to handle it in a way that can deliver this message in a meaningful way. This game gives none of that and genuinely feels disrespectful. Side note the live-action scenes were stylish and had actual direction and the in-engine ones were incredibly dull in comparison, maybe they were trying to further the main character's disconnect from the world considering she is the only human in the game that's not shown in live action but I think that's giving this game too much credit.
The gameplay is a maze you run through while you avoid an instant-kill monster. I get what they were going for narrativley here but that doesn't change the fact that it's just really boring to play, not frustrating or unfun just boring. I felt it was an obvious choice to have the player eventually act against the rigid structure of the game and instead turn around to beat the game, you know mirroring the narrative, but no, it really is that linear just because, oh and the character instead of course just develops in a cutscene.
The scariest part of this horror game is realizing that if you mess up you'll have to play it for even longer. The last gameplay section sees you playing Slenderman, having to collect a bunch of items to unlock a door. You don't know where the items are and are moving so fast through this maze because if you aren’t you’ll be punished, getting reset and having to find all the items all over again, because of this you cannot get a good spatial image of how the maze links together. It was such a stupid idea that I dropped the game and watched the ending on YouTube instead. The fact a free-to-play game that is less than two hours long failed to compel me to complete it should say enough about its quality.
I KNOW THE CONTROLS ARE BAD. I KNOW FI IS ANNOYING. LOOK ME IN THE EYE. YES, YOU. LOOK ME IN THE EYE. CLOSER. CLOSER. okay now back up too close.
i am full. of whimsy. and fun. annoying gameplay and infuriating fights become nothing to me when im flying around on my big bird over the clouds. am i blinded by a childhood i barely got to experience? maybe! fuck if i care though!
i am full. of whimsy. and fun. annoying gameplay and infuriating fights become nothing to me when im flying around on my big bird over the clouds. am i blinded by a childhood i barely got to experience? maybe! fuck if i care though!
Wii Music
2008
Look i am willing to admit it isnt a perfect game
its trying to be a rhythm game and its horrible at that
but have you ever actually sat down and just fucked around in wii music
its like loading up gm_flatgrass and just spawning things to throw against a wall or weld together
you dont have a goal
you're just fucking around
wii music is good for all the wrong things
its trying to be a rhythm game and its horrible at that
but have you ever actually sat down and just fucked around in wii music
its like loading up gm_flatgrass and just spawning things to throw against a wall or weld together
you dont have a goal
you're just fucking around
wii music is good for all the wrong things
I just don't think this game is for me. This is coming off of about 15 hours of gameplay, with me just finishing one dungeon and then running around for a while before deciding I'm not having enough fun to warrant putting a hundred more hours into this game.
I feel like this game is in a great conflict with itself, in terms of not knowing whether or not it wants to be nonlinear. The greatest example of this that I can think of is right at the beginning, where TotK decides to release you into the world without giving you the paraglider. Compared to BotW's treatment of the paraglider as the keys to the world, this is an extremely interesting decision. The paraglider is optional now? Something that I have to find in the world?
Well, not really. See, exploring without the paraglider is not fun or easy. I think this is fairly self evident, but an easy example is how if you ever ride one of those rocks up to a sky island you'll quickly run into the conundrum of getting back down. You'll also have a rather difficult time entering the Depths. Even if you want to do a challenge run of sorts, you'll find out that there is at least one dungeon in the game that requires the paraglider, both to access it and to explore it. So in order to unlock this essential part of my kit, I eventually asked a friend what the deal was and was told I had to go to Lookout Landing. It was also at this point that I discovered that Lookout Landing is also how you unlock the ability to actually use the towers, and that if I hadn't come here I'd have been unable to update my map upon reaching one of the towers.
I hate this! My instinct when I start up an open world game is to run in the opposite direction as the main quest indicator. In fact, when I played BotW I did exactly this, going to Gerudo Desert before I even met Impa. And you know what? That first bit of blind exploration was one of my favorite parts of the 100 hour playthrough, as I challenged myself to just barely survive exploring this dangerous region and take out Thunderblight Ganon with a measly 3 hearts. I can't do that in this game; my ability to explore is actively held hostage by the main story.
This pattern of excitement followed up by disappointment would be a recurring theme for the rest of my short playthrough. Take the Depths as another example. I love horror. When I found out that there was an entire map in this game full of darkness, corruption, and more danger than the rest of the overworld, I was incredibly intrigued. I spent an hour or two wandering around in the Depths and felt completely bored. It turns out that, while it makes for a cool atmosphere, an extremely dark overworld is a bad move. What it does is essentially remove any element of "ooh, what's that over there?" that serves as the baseline for the flow of most open world exploration, leaving nothing but going from point A to B for most of my time in the region.
Shrines were often unsatisfying. I'll go into that in detail, because I think the change in shrines is actually the most significant change between BotW and TotK. In BotW, Shrines were (assuming you didn't get one of the dreaded Tests of Strength) entertaining puzzles. I think shrines in BotW hold a more subtle purpose as well; they are changes of pace. While exploration is fun, there is only so much running and wall climbing one can do before it starts to feel tedious. Shrines serve as a reward for exploration. They give the quantifiable reward of an Orb and a fast travel point. More importantly, they give the intrinsic reward of a fun, mentally stimulating experience that leaves you refreshed and ready for more exploration when finished.
I would hesitate to call the shrines in TotK puzzles. Some would argue with me here, but I think putting a balloon, a source of fire, and a few wooden platforms in a room with nowhere to go but up to be a set of wordless instructions, not a puzzle. To me, this is what most shrines in TotK are. They provide you with the tools needed for you to set up a physics demo. This isn't to say they're badly designed. Doing this allows the player to invent things in the shrines and then recreate those same things in their overworld exploration. In that sense, shrines in TotK are covert tutorials on this game's physics engine. However, in terms of providing fun or mental stimulation, they are lacking. To me, this makes shrines less appealing. The quantifiable reward is still there, but I was left feeling more "oh, I have to do that shrine over there" than "Oh good, a shrine!". Having the main reward for exploration in this game be a tutorial on how to do better exploration is something that, to me, doesn't work out. Another thing with how the shrines are designed is that, as mentioned previously, the tools needed to "solve the puzzle" are almost always clearly presented before you. In this way, the famous "you can come up with a hundred unintended solutions for any given puzzle" attitude from BotW is barely present. Don't get me wrong, you can pull out Zonai capsules and hijack the puzzle all you want, but there's never a reason to spend resources when the game gives you perfectly functional ones. I don't envy the developers, because the alternative is no better; when a solution is obvious but the player has no way to achieve it without pulling things from their inventory that they might not have, it's even more unsatisfying. Also, slightly unrelated, I found that the game would often arbitrarily limit my efforts to move through the skies. Platforms or wings just disintegrating after long enough, despite me actively spending resources to make these things functional, feels like Nintendo personally saying "no, not like that" whenever I try to use them to get somewhere.
This is a lot of words. A lot more than I'd usually write for a 6/10 score. While a lot of this was just venting into the void, I do want to sum it up by saying that, more often than not, the game is still passably fun. It's like going bowling when you can't think of anything better to do. Like, sure , we can go bowling for a couple hours, I don't have anything going on tonight and we'll probably have a decent time and then go months before we ever think about going bowling again. But I wouldn't wanna go bowling for 100 hours.
I feel like this game is in a great conflict with itself, in terms of not knowing whether or not it wants to be nonlinear. The greatest example of this that I can think of is right at the beginning, where TotK decides to release you into the world without giving you the paraglider. Compared to BotW's treatment of the paraglider as the keys to the world, this is an extremely interesting decision. The paraglider is optional now? Something that I have to find in the world?
Well, not really. See, exploring without the paraglider is not fun or easy. I think this is fairly self evident, but an easy example is how if you ever ride one of those rocks up to a sky island you'll quickly run into the conundrum of getting back down. You'll also have a rather difficult time entering the Depths. Even if you want to do a challenge run of sorts, you'll find out that there is at least one dungeon in the game that requires the paraglider, both to access it and to explore it. So in order to unlock this essential part of my kit, I eventually asked a friend what the deal was and was told I had to go to Lookout Landing. It was also at this point that I discovered that Lookout Landing is also how you unlock the ability to actually use the towers, and that if I hadn't come here I'd have been unable to update my map upon reaching one of the towers.
I hate this! My instinct when I start up an open world game is to run in the opposite direction as the main quest indicator. In fact, when I played BotW I did exactly this, going to Gerudo Desert before I even met Impa. And you know what? That first bit of blind exploration was one of my favorite parts of the 100 hour playthrough, as I challenged myself to just barely survive exploring this dangerous region and take out Thunderblight Ganon with a measly 3 hearts. I can't do that in this game; my ability to explore is actively held hostage by the main story.
This pattern of excitement followed up by disappointment would be a recurring theme for the rest of my short playthrough. Take the Depths as another example. I love horror. When I found out that there was an entire map in this game full of darkness, corruption, and more danger than the rest of the overworld, I was incredibly intrigued. I spent an hour or two wandering around in the Depths and felt completely bored. It turns out that, while it makes for a cool atmosphere, an extremely dark overworld is a bad move. What it does is essentially remove any element of "ooh, what's that over there?" that serves as the baseline for the flow of most open world exploration, leaving nothing but going from point A to B for most of my time in the region.
Shrines were often unsatisfying. I'll go into that in detail, because I think the change in shrines is actually the most significant change between BotW and TotK. In BotW, Shrines were (assuming you didn't get one of the dreaded Tests of Strength) entertaining puzzles. I think shrines in BotW hold a more subtle purpose as well; they are changes of pace. While exploration is fun, there is only so much running and wall climbing one can do before it starts to feel tedious. Shrines serve as a reward for exploration. They give the quantifiable reward of an Orb and a fast travel point. More importantly, they give the intrinsic reward of a fun, mentally stimulating experience that leaves you refreshed and ready for more exploration when finished.
I would hesitate to call the shrines in TotK puzzles. Some would argue with me here, but I think putting a balloon, a source of fire, and a few wooden platforms in a room with nowhere to go but up to be a set of wordless instructions, not a puzzle. To me, this is what most shrines in TotK are. They provide you with the tools needed for you to set up a physics demo. This isn't to say they're badly designed. Doing this allows the player to invent things in the shrines and then recreate those same things in their overworld exploration. In that sense, shrines in TotK are covert tutorials on this game's physics engine. However, in terms of providing fun or mental stimulation, they are lacking. To me, this makes shrines less appealing. The quantifiable reward is still there, but I was left feeling more "oh, I have to do that shrine over there" than "Oh good, a shrine!". Having the main reward for exploration in this game be a tutorial on how to do better exploration is something that, to me, doesn't work out. Another thing with how the shrines are designed is that, as mentioned previously, the tools needed to "solve the puzzle" are almost always clearly presented before you. In this way, the famous "you can come up with a hundred unintended solutions for any given puzzle" attitude from BotW is barely present. Don't get me wrong, you can pull out Zonai capsules and hijack the puzzle all you want, but there's never a reason to spend resources when the game gives you perfectly functional ones. I don't envy the developers, because the alternative is no better; when a solution is obvious but the player has no way to achieve it without pulling things from their inventory that they might not have, it's even more unsatisfying. Also, slightly unrelated, I found that the game would often arbitrarily limit my efforts to move through the skies. Platforms or wings just disintegrating after long enough, despite me actively spending resources to make these things functional, feels like Nintendo personally saying "no, not like that" whenever I try to use them to get somewhere.
This is a lot of words. A lot more than I'd usually write for a 6/10 score. While a lot of this was just venting into the void, I do want to sum it up by saying that, more often than not, the game is still passably fun. It's like going bowling when you can't think of anything better to do. Like, sure , we can go bowling for a couple hours, I don't have anything going on tonight and we'll probably have a decent time and then go months before we ever think about going bowling again. But I wouldn't wanna go bowling for 100 hours.
