Did one of those el cheapo game bundle things that I do from time to time. Cost me $2.59, or 51.8 cents per game.
At that price, I am virtually guaranteed to get my money’s worth for each game. The entertainment value of just getting to try something new is worth more than that.
And with the weather all snowy and dull, and with my usual supplies dwindling away, I thought it would be the perfect time to give some new stuff a try.
So without further ado, here are my little reviews of the five games I got, in no particularly meaningful order :
Little Big Adventure. Trash. Absolute garbage. Everything about it sucks. Bad writing, terrible voice acting, ugly graphics, cheap sound effects, inane controls… the list goes on and on. Trying this game wearied my soul.
All the moreso because, knowing the game was a hit way back in 1994 (!) when it came out, I kept playing as I tried to see the appeal.
But it has none, at least for me. And it being from 1994 only partially excuses its flaws, as I was around in 1994 and I don’t recall it being the Year Where All Games Sucked.
Still, I suppose it was an achievement of sorts in its day. It would have been impressively 3D for something that came out before Wolfenstein, and it is clearly the product of one person’s particular vision, and that counts for something.
But by today’s standards, it sucks ass.
Oh, and here’s the kicker : I was playing the “enhanced edition”.
Now with even more total crap!
Fall of Light : Darkest Edition. Amateurish and pretentious, which is always a winning combo. But not without some promise.
Of course, anything looked good to me compared to Little Big Adventure Enhanced Edition. It could have been Pong played via blinking and it would still have looked like a million dollars in the bank.
The basic idea : There was nothing. That had people in it. Tormented souls in chaos. Then light came and now there could be stuff. And everything was awesome for “13 eras”. But then a wizard named Pain was born and he was evil and fucked everything up just for the hell of it. You fight his evil forces in order to bring back the light.
Or something like that.
It’s very ambitious, and that’s a good thing, but it bites off a lot more than it can chew. The controls are clunky and the dialogue is nowhere near as deep as it thinks it is.
I like the metaphorical aspect of it. Light versus darkness is always a good theme, in my opinion. Being visual creatures who are most active during the day, we humans tend to see light as good and shadow as bad.
The truth is more complex, but isn’t it always?
Still, not a great game. Not a keeper. I can’t see myself playing it in the future. The plot and premise are somewhat intriguing but not enough to get me past the weak gameplay and general ponderous pretentiousness.
Give it a miss.
More after the break.
Dex, Very interesting. Possibly very good as well.
Certainly very ambitious. You play Dex, an ordinary person in a dark cyberpunk dystopia who was chosen by a god-like AI to carry its “seed” – enough of its programming to restart it outside of the control of the evil corporate government.
This means you can connect to the cyberweb without a jack.
This freaks people out.
So far I am very much enjoying the setting and the story, and the voice acting is excellent. It is even an open world game, which I enjoy.
I am still undecided on the combat though. It’s not bad but it’s not great. At first, all you can do is punch people, which get old pretty fast.
I bought a gun but don’t know how to use it yet. That’s on me though.
Overall I am quite intrigued and look forward to exploring this cyberpunk future.
Odyssey : The Story Of Science. AKA “Reading With Some Puzzles”.
This game is a very good attempt at blending education with adventure. But not really a successful attempt, as that is nearly impossible to do effectively.
The idea is that it’s up to you to rescue a science and history loving family from evil sailors who are forcing them to dig for a mythical hidden treasure.
In order to do so, you are going to have to solve all the history of science based puzzles they left behind in order to slow down the scientifically ignorant evil sailors.
What you mostly end up doing is reading the journals that the daughter of the family left behind then using that knowledge to solve puzzles.
I don’t normally mind reading, but it’s not what I am looking for in a video game. And the puzzles are not too hard so far, but I am betting that it will not be long to before I hit one that exceeds my (low amount of) willingness to put up with being frustrated and having not one clue what to do next.
I am not proud of my low frustration tolerance in those situations. In the journals, the father keeps asking his kid the sort of “figure it out yourself” questions that bring out the worst in me because I get so frustrated and angry. “Just tell me already!!”.
My therapist has learned not to do that to me. It is not helpful.
And the thing is, I know damned well that I am smart enough to figure these things out. So it really comes down to character. My natural gifts are such that I have not had times in my life where I had no choice but to figure shit out, even when I have no clue where to go from here, and so I never developed the discipline.
I wish I’d had a mentor who was both tough and patient enough to make me think outside the box and solve puzzles that were beyond my natural capacities.
But no. I never had to overcome frustration. So I never learned to do it.
Not even in the idealized world of video games.
I will talk to you nice people (and review the fifth game) tomorrow.