Review: Broken Age

Double Fine’s Broken Age is an episodic point & click adventure game. In it we play as Vella and Shay, a girl seeking to escape her fate as a sacrificial maiden and a boy looking for real adventure. They both get far more than they expected.

Genre(s): Adventure (Point & Click)

Developer: Double Fine Productions

Publisher: Double Fine Productions

Release Date: January 2014 | April 2015

Played: Main Story (2 Episodes)

Platforms: PC, PS4, PS Vita, OSX, Linux, Ouya, iOS, Android.

Purchase At: Steam, GoG, Green Man Gaming

Good:

  • Beautiful visual style.

  • Interesting characters.

  • Plays with your expectations.

Bad:

  • Cutscene conversations.

  • No Fast-Travel.

  • Villains lack punch.

Review

At the start of each of Broken Age’s episodes, you get to choose whose story you’ll play first. I am a firm believer in “Ladies First” so I picked Vella. She lives in the baker town of Sugar Bunting and when we first meet her it’s the day of the Maiden’s Feast, when she and other girls in town have the honour of becoming sacrifices to appease the dreaded monster Mog Chothra. According to the elders, the Mog appear once every 14 years and if they don’t have any sacrifices, they’ll ravage the town. Her parents and sister are proud but her grandfather hates it and wishes they fight the monster instead of submitting, and that’s exactly what she does, escaping her fate and starting a journey to kill the beast.

Shay’s life is the exact opposite. He wakes up every day to his mollycoddling Mom and Dad, faces on the monitor. He doesn’t even refer to them as parents but as “Computer,” realising he’s alone in his spaceship. He’s outgrown the knitted animatronics around him as well as the different and predictable adventure ‘scenarios’ he plays every day. But when, out of boredom, he decides to go off-script and let a scenario literally derail, he meets Marek, a strange person in a wolf costume. He tells Shay that while he’s been playing around, the galaxy was at war. Wanting to help, Shay joins Marek in rescuing helpless creatures, refugees of war.

If you're planning on visiting Meriloft, pack your cloudshoes!
If you’re planning on visiting Meriloft, pack your cloudshoes!

Each of the character’s first episode plays out independently, though you can freely switch between them. At the end there’s a big revelation and their paths cross momentarily before they switch places. I won’t go into the details so as to not spoil anything though. The first episode sets the first pieces of the story in place and the second deals with truths, about the characters, the world and the story.

While it’s true their first episodes are independent, you’ll need to switch between them at times during the second episode, as information presented to one of them is useful to the other. An example is a tune Shay hears during this episode. It’s useless for him, but it’s the clue for one of Vella’s puzzles. As the episode advances, the need to switch between characters becomes commonplace and in fact the last segment’s central puzzle revolves around it.

Prima Doooooooooooooooooom!
Prima Doooooooooooooooooom!

Vella is strong and decisive, but with a devious streak that comes to play when she needs to get things done. She’s likeable and relatable, but deeply flawed, as her determination often makes her ready to do and sacrifice anything so long as it advances her goals. She’s not above lying and breaking things to get ahead, but it’s all to save the world from having to sacrifice more maidens and to save her family from the monster’s ire. Adventure game protagonists always toe the line between likeable and despicable because of the sometimes horrendous actions they take and how they hurt others, but you can never really fault Vella for what she does, as perhaps we’d all do the same in her place.

Shay on the other hand speaks to the desire of independence we’ve all held at some point in our lives. The need to prove our mettle, to show the world and ourselves that we’re capable of accomplishing everything we set our minds to. In Shay’s case, whatever harm he inflicts on others is due to pure naïveté and ignorance. In many ways he’s still a child and as he learns of the world, we learn with him, but he’s never a faceless avatar.

Shay can be very resourceful when he needs to be, just as Vella!
Shay can be very resourceful when he needs to be, just as Vella!

What I’m trying to say with all of this is that characterisation, for the protagonists, is outstanding. The characters don’t only have depth but they’re capable of growth and understanding and they come out the other end of their journey forever changed, stronger and better.

Secondary characters are just as well developed. Vella and Shay’s families are phenomenal characters, as are the priestesses of the Dead Eye God, minor characters with a surprising amount of depth and a relationship that left me smiling, as I didn’t see it coming. Whil Weaton plays a hilarious hipster lumberjack/metalworker and he’s a joy to talk to and sometimes manipulate.

The villains on the other hand lack polish. Their personalities are one-dimensional, just evil bastards with no other traits. I’m not against a purely evil character, but when everyone else has so much depth, they feel bland in comparison. Their motivation, central to the plot, is a bit weak and the explanation isn’t really satisfying, which is perhaps the most negative thing I can say about Broken Age’s story. There’s a lot going on, and the journey is terrific, but the main conflict lacks punch. The pacing is also a bit off, with the reveals and exposition rushed near the end, to raise the tension before the big climax, but without giving it the proper time to develop.

What the game and its writers did wonderfully is play with your preconceptions and expectations. When you first experience each of the protagonists’ worlds, you’ll make assumptions on genre and where the plot might go, but then the game flips those around and it keeps doing that until the credits roll. They’re subtle reveals, no exposition needed, just things happening that make you reconsider what you held as truth a few minutes before. It’s quite amazing how the game and its developers play with you as much as you play their game.

Puzzles in the game are varied. You have your typical fetch & inventory puzzles, some logic based and others based on timing. The latter are predominant in Vella’s 2nd episode. Broken Age might be the first game in a long time to make me pull out a sheet of paper and pencil to draw and make notes, as there are often so many tiny clues you need to remember to finish puzzles. It’s not something I’m used to seeing in modern adventure games and I felt happy for the challenge, to test not only my deduction skills but my memory as well. With perhaps a couple of exceptions, such as a roundabout Heimlich maneuver, there aren’t any puzzles that are too outlandish and there’s mostly a definite logic in place or a clue somewhere around you. Puzzles can be challenging but they’re never frustrating.

Some puzzles are simple, like the eggs, but that ladder on the other hand might stump you!
Some puzzles are simple, like the eggs, but that ladder on the other hand might stump you!

While puzzles are central to a point & click adventure game, I do have a couple of issues with some gameplay elements. First is the position of the inventory, located at the lower left side of the screen…right where you’re going to be moving and clicking most of the time to explore the environment. I lost count of the times I opened the inventory instead of moving to where I wanted to go. What makes it even worse is that you don’t even need to click to open the inventory but just hover over it, so it gets in the way quite frequently.

Secondly, this game could’ve used a fast-travel option. The spaceship partially addresses this with teleporters in a couple of locations, but outside the backtrack trips from one puzzle to the other will get long and tiresome, especially during the later stages of Vella’s first episode and all of Shay’s second one. A simple map would’ve done wonders to make the game a bit more fluid.

Finally, I thoroughly dislike how conversations handle in Broken Age. Unlike other titles in the genre where you can skip individual lines of dialogue—if you’re a fast reader like me—conversations in the game handle much like old-school FMV adventures. Each conversation is a cutscene so if you decide to skip ahead you’ll miss an entire discussion.

Before he answers make sure not to skip!
Before he answers make sure not to skip!

Wil Wheaton’s voice might be one I instantly recognise but the voice talent in Broken Age is outstanding. Even the tiniest and seemingly insignificant character sounds convincing, even the Maiden airheads you meet throughout the game. You can feel in their voice how convinced they are that they’re better than others by being sacrificial maidens. It’s the same with the soundtrack, there’s a piece for every location and screen and it perfectly sells the mood for the place and situation. There’s a particular chime tune at the end of the game that I found extremely memorable, even though it lasts a short time. It’s beautiful and relaxing and successfully conveys the message “This is the end.”

One of Broken Age’s most striking features is its visual design. A paper-like texture that makes it all seem straight out of a children’s pop-up book. Most of the places you explore and the people you interact with are bright and colourful, vibrant and alive and they offer a striking contrast with the villains, who are grayish and faded, with darker colours and purposes. The use of colour, much like in other forms of art, helps transmit ideas and feelings as effectively as words.

One of the many childish scnearios in Shay’s ship
Oh Curtis, we love your stools! And all your stool jokes!
Maidens dress in the mot outrageous costumes!
He can build anything…with sand.
Very solid, painfully so.
Just as the first episode, the second begins with a choice
Shay’s ship is full of his childhood mementos
One of the cleverest puzzles in the game
When you’re desperate, even the craziest plans sound reasonable
The Star Chart sets the Navigation Scarf! Yes, Scarf!
Only person I’ve ever seen sad because she didn’t get sacrificed to a giant monster!
The dreaded Mog Chothra has seen better days!

Conclusion

Broken Age is perhaps one of the best adventures games I’ve played in the past years. It has a wonderful journey, terrific characters and it offered me something many adventures have failed in the past years: a challenge!

TMA SCORE:

4.5/5 – Amazing!

Guild of Dungeoneering Interview

Last month, during Rezzed 2015, I had the chance of visiting the Versus Evil room and check out some of the of the publisher’s amazing lineup for 2015. Toren drew my eye with its surreal environments and ICO-like gameplay, but the one to really tickle my geekiness was the visually simpler yet much quirkier Guild of Dungeoneering, a card-based game where you build the dungeon for an adventurer but then use cards to help him fight, becoming part Dungeon Master and part player.

Last Thursday I met Colm Larkin from Gambrinous (a word that according to Colm comes from an urban dictionary and means, “to be full of beer”) during the One Game a Month meetup they organise, to talk a bit about the game and its development.

Guild of Dungeoneering’s (GD) started out as a simple One Game a Month prototype, one of many he developed over the months, to get his feet wet in game development and design. As time passed he decided he wanted to turn one of them into a full-fledged game and picked this title because it evoked fun memories from his childhood, as he fondly remember playing Dungeons & Dragons with his older brothers. The RPG is the title’s strongest inspiration, as well as many other tabletop games.

Might look like a potato had, but this chump is powerful!
Might look like a potato had, but this chump is powerful!

At the start of development, Colm thought it would be a three-month project. It’s now over a year in development with four full-time members on the team and a part-time artist, this in part thanks to Versus Evil taking them on as publisher. Once he had a demo built, Colm says he spent the next few months looking for a publisher, but not large ones like EA or Sony but the small but powerful like Versus Evil and Revolver Digital.

It’s thanks to having a publisher that they’ve been able to go to events such as GDC, PAX and Rezzed, so they can show the game’s progress and core gameplay. The build they showed at Rezzed and which other sites covered in the past months, consisted of a single dungeon to explore. The version I saw had significant progress, having multiple dungeons, catchy theme-tunes (more on that later) and the ability to build up your guild, to expand its rooms and skills, giving you more adventurers and powers to choose from when you go out exploring for loot & glory.

During Rezzed I thought Puuba games The Weaponographist was the only non-unity title on show, as every other developer seemed to favour the engine, but I realise now that Guild of Dungeoneering was the other one, as they’re using Flash, Flex and Adobe Air for its development. The upside to this is that it even runs smoothly on Colm’s 8-year-old laptop, which for me only expands its potential customer base, as people still using older operating systems will be able to play it without issue.

One of GD’s more striking’s features is its simple yet charming art style. Colm mentioned he interviewed a number of artists before settling for his friend Fred Mangan who lives in Australia. He based the style on what he could do on his own, with his own drawing skills if he didn’t have an artist working for him. Fred liked the idea of ‘purposely bad’ and polished Colm’s original ideas and sketches into the current look. He’s one of two members of the team not in Dublin, the other being the game’s primary designer who lives in London.

One interesting thing to note is that the artist has done very little in the way of animation for GD. Colm says they “animate by cheating,” making all animations programmatic, adding effects via code.

Once a battle starts, you control the player's actions!
Once a battle starts, you control the player’s actions!

For the music, they went for traditional Irish music, which works really well in a dungeon-crawler fantasy game. The composer actually found a traditional singer and between the two of them created the game’s theme song “This is the Guild of Dungeoneering,” which plays from the main menu and which they were excited to have people hear. In addition to that, there are many more in-game songs. Every time I died for example, a song would play out lamenting my death but basically saying, “meh, there’s more where that one came from!” Helping to sell the cynical corporate guild idea Colm loves, to make you question if you’re really the good guys or just some monstrous organisation sending chumps (the starting class) out to die.

We shared a laugh when the composer, Steve Stems, turned to us, dead serious and said, “I hate the song,” referring to the main theme. “It’s good, but I’ve heard it so many times and it’s been stuck in my head, I hate it now.” He mentioned.

Part of the deal with a publisher is that they need a fixed goal as they can’t afford to keep a game in development indefinitely. Because of that, and in his new role as Director—or Overlord as I suggested, to make the titles more interesting—Colm has had to shut down some of the team’s ideas for content, even something ‘simple’ as battle music, keeping it focused on the single player dungeon-building, guild-expanding experience. There will be no overarching plot, just different tiers of adventures and possibly even challenge/harder modes. As we spoke, and joined by Owen Canavan (another developer in the team) and Steve, I had the opportunity to see Colm in his director role live, mediating with team members and keeping them focused on the end goal. It was perhaps one of the most interesting moments of the night as you rarely see indie devs talking shop with one another.

Colm says that if the game does well and has its audience, they’ll spend the next year developing add-on content, which could even include some multiplayer functionality. One mode he’d love to see in the game is a cooperative/competitive multiplayer mode, where you have to decide if you’ll use your resources to help your adventurer, or screw with the other player’s little chump.

One question I love to ask developers is what would they do with their game if money and time weren’t a consideration, if they could do everything they wanted, what one thing would they add to a game. Colm was perhaps the first one to tell me, “I have no clue. I’m more used to working with the constraints of time and money!”

You build the full dungeon, down to monster placement.
You build the full dungeon, down to monster placement.

More than anything, he’s sensible and grounded on Gambrinous and GD’s future. He’s been working full-time on it for over a year after quitting his previous job. Thanks to a start-up incentive by the Irish Government and the publishing deal with Versus Evil, he could hire staff and pay them, but everything from expansions to sequels to other games in his head all depend on GD being successful. “If it is, we’ll use it to build more fun stuff…if it doesn’t, then we can at least say ‘we had fun building this thing we love’ and we’ll disband.”

Guild of Dungeoneering is set to release later this year and Colm is confident they can finish the game within the next two months. As he states, “We’ve already added systems, now we’re adding content.”

I want to thank Colm Larkin for taking the time to talk to me and for introducing me to the One Game a Month event. I had a fantastic time and I will be talking about that soon.

The Weekly Puzzle – Puzzle Raider

Puzzles are at the core of Adventure gameplay, they provide challenges for you to overcome with brains rather than brawn. For Action Adventures, they offer a break from the hacky-slashy-stabby-shooty element of title.

Every week I’ll bring you a new puzzle, drawn from some of the best and worst adventure or puzzle games I’ve ever played. Every two weeks I’ll even leave you one of my own for you to solve. If you do, I’ll find a way to reward you!

It’s been two weeks and no one even tried to solve my numeric puzzle. For the record, the answer is 22.

Sadly, I don’t have a new puzzle this week. I’ve been without internet for some time and it’s made it difficult for me to do the proper research on certain topics for a puzzle I have in mind, but I will try to have a new one for next week. Also, inventory puzzles are a bit difficult to describe in text without making them too obvious, so those I’m working on slowly and carefully to make them appealing and challenging for readers.

This week I’m actually going to talk about two puzzles, from the same game and both really clever. These are two from Tomb Raider: Anniversary and are simple yet clever.

The first one is at the start of the Greece segment of the game. You come across a panel depicting the Perseus constellation and the different stars are targetable. There is a switch in front to reset them if you shoot the wrong one. The puzzle consists on shooting the right set of stars to open doors and make things happen. The clues are very close and don’t take much exploration to find.

(Image Credit: Stella's Walkthroughs) Oooh shiny!
(Image Credit: Stella’s Walkthroughs) Oooh shiny!

It’s an extremely simple puzzle, but I like it for the sole reason that it involves gunplay in its execution. Many action-adventure games separate the action from the adventure, the guns from the puzzling, but TR Anniversary embraced both and this was just one of the many times where you use Lara’s weaponry as part of a puzzle solution. And because of that it deserves a spot on The Weekly Puzzle.

The second puzzle I’ll mention is in the Temple of Khamoon. You find yourself in a room with four rotating pillars, each with four symbols. If you rotate one, its adjacent pillars do so as well. The point of the puzzle is to align the symbols together, and you have murals depicting the images you should align.

What makes this an interesting puzzle for me is that the clue can also trick you into believing you needed to have the pictures facing the murals, and that is incorrect and made the puzzle twice as long as it should’ve been. Perhaps it was just my lack of attention or maybe the designers intent was for it to serve as both clue and misdirection, but either way, I found it very clever and figuring out the pattern and rotation order to properly align the pillars was a joy.

(Image Credit: Stella's Walkthroughs) Four pillars, four images, can you match them?
(Image Credit: Stella’s Walkthroughs) Four pillars, four images, can you match them?

The Tomb Raider series is filled with hundreds of puzzles, and if you have a favourite one, share it!

Review: In Verbis Virtus

In Verbis Virtus (The Power of Words) is the geek’s dream game. You play a wizard and cast spells by shouting their words into your mic. Ok, you just need to speak them, but come on? Shouting’s the way to go!

Genre(s): Action Adventure

Developer: Indomitus Games

Publisher: Meridian 4

Release Date: April 2015

Played: Main Story (2 Endings)

Platforms: PC

Purchase At: Steam, Green Man Gaming

Good:

  • Layered Lore.

  • Innovative and clever gameplay.

  • Beautiful visuals.

Bad:

  • Finicky voice recognition.

  • Bland enemy design.

Review

At the game’s opening you’re travelling the desert and come across a mysterious temple. You, the player, won’t really know what’s going on, what you’re doing there or who your protagonist is. But as you explore, face the temple’s devious challenges and puzzles, find new spells and read documents, you’ll not only piece together your character’s motivation but also the Temple’s and world’s backstory.

The character’s arc is simple. He has a single purpose and it drives him forward, but you won’t know much until his journal reveals it to you. He’s a silent protagonist and the journal pages are his only voice, the only way he can talk to you. Otherwise, he’s just a blank slate, a faceless avatar.

You'll need to memorise these, or draw them on paper!
You’ll need to memorise these, or draw them on paper!

The world’s story on the other hand is multilayered and quite complex, and it has hundreds of tiny clues to what is really going on in the game that you might miss. The lore you find tells you about the civilisation before the Temple, the structure itself, the study of magic and the religion. These all tie to the plot in one way or another and at the same time make the game world feel grander. But the lore pieces can be quite dark. There is one in particular about a girl trying to be useful that freaked me the hell out.

The Temple is home to different locations, from stone rooms and caverns to deep chasms filled with strange mystical lights. And that is just the base floor. Without spoiling much, there are two main levels of the temple, the lower and upper. The lower is closer to the typical fantasy temple, while the upper I nicknamed The Jedi Temple, technological and made of steel and glass. But beyond aesthetics, the visuals are amazing. Early in the game you come across a cavern with beautiful waterfalls and multicoloured lights. I was so busy looking at the spectacle of magic and lights I didn’t see the swarm of tiny enemies coming and I died.

The environments were amazing but the creature design lacked polish. There are only a handful of enemies and while the bosses (yes there are those) all look amazing, the cannon fodder looks plain and dull. One of the earliest enemies is a red-eyed brown monster with three tentacles coming out its back. The tentacles look like wires, and the creature has a basic and quite bland texture, with almost no features visible. Worst of all, while at first it seems like the red eye is shining, the truth is it has a red light-box floating in front it. Their AI is often buggy so I had many chances to look them up close and I was disappointed to find them so bland.

Another enemy, further down the line is a Lich-like creature, a floating robed skeleton and this one also looks too plain for a game that offers so many beautifully detailed environments and wonderful magic effects.

Clues to puzzles come in many ways, some written and others in beautiful holograms!
Clues to puzzles come in many ways, some written and others in beautiful holograms!

The spell effects are hands-down fantastic. There are subtle ones like the Light spells, a flickering and pulsing ball of light in your hand, and Telekinesis, a semi-transparent hand grasping things, and then are the amazingly flashy ones like the Fire Seal, a pulsing sigil that blows up on command, or the teleportation spell, with its ripple visual effects and floating sigils to mark where you can teleport to. From now on, every time I’m lost in some dreamland of my choosing or writing about sorcerers, this is how I’ll see many spells in my mind.

For a game revolving around words, there aren’t many spoken in the game. There is only one voiced character and it’s difficult to judge the voice acting when she speaks a strange and made-up tongue, as it’s impossible to tell if she’s using the proper inflection or not.

Die you bastard!
Die you bastard!

In Verbis Virtus’ music I found had a different effect depending on whom was listening. There was a piece in the Jedi Temple that I found soothing and wonderful—then again, I have a thing for piano pieces—so I called over my cousin and told him to listen to it. His response, “that’s a pretty eerie tune” and only after he mentioned it did I recognize the somber tones in the piece that gave it the unnerving quality he felt. And it’s the same for most of the background music, and because of it, the music tells as much a story as the lore you find. It’s impressive.

Voice recognition is the most important aspect of this game if we’re being honest and I’d love to tell you it’s amazing and we should all hail Indomitus Games as our overlords. But that’s not the case (besides, I’ve already called dibs on the world, sorry), as the voice recognition will often fail and cast a different spell to the one you want. This is partly because of how it plays with regional accents and the finicky nature of voice recognition in general. To help, Indomitus built in a couple of voice profiles and even a system for you to ‘train’ the recognition system so it works with the way you speak. I never had the need to do this as my English is a pretty neutral accent-less American one (or at least that’s what I tell myself).

Now you get why I called it the Jedi Temple
Now you get why I called it the Jedi Temple

The other problem with the voice recognition system is the vocabulary. What I mean by this is the spell formula (the words you speak) design. Formulae in the game’s made-up language, Maha’ki, share too many words, so it’s not surprising that the voice recognition gets confused with them from time to time. You can change the formula language in the options to English but the formulae become much longer and more complex. For example, the Maha’ki formula for the ice beam is “Ibohn Ektoh,” which is quite easy to say and pronounce, even when you’re running from three monsters and trying to kill them; but the English one is “Freeze by Ice,” which in the same circumstances I squish together or say so fast the voice recognition failed. Another example and one where regional accent plays heavily into is the TK spell, “Obi Kehnu” in Maha’ki but “Mind Over Matter” in English. Just think of them many ways someone can say “Matter.”

Personally, I would’ve expanded the Maha’ki lexicon, to make the different spells as unique as possible. Thankfully, you can do this on your own, as the vocabulary files are editable in your game folder. I’m currently working on making the light spell respond to the word Muffin and the teleport to Boogabooga. If you want to suggest words I use, be my guest! For Russians, someone has already created a Russian pack for the game, which you can get on the Steam forums. There is also one for Latin for the Roman Empire survivors or old-school Catholic priests among you.

But when it works, it’s quite easy to learn and use and if you forget a spell you still have it in the journal and they come with an example pronunciation.

Puzzles will almost exclusively depend on spells in one way or another, particularly Telekinesis if you have to use other objects. Indomitus didn’t play it safe with its design but took a risk and many of the spells have timing. You’ll use one spell to trigger a change and then have to react with another to follow up. For example, later in the game you have a redirecting light puzzle and you need to use coloured cubes to change the light’s hue before it hits a switch. The first switch is Red but as soon as the light hits it, it shifts to a yellow one, so you need to find a way to knock off one of the colour cubes out of the way at that specific moment. Because of what I mentioned above with the voice recognition system, these timing puzzles can lead to a certain degree of frustration, but they are very clever. Telekinesis-focused puzzles require a lot more precision and will often not have any timing involved, but instead you’ll have environmental hazards and even enemies.

As I mentioned, there aren’t many enemies but the ones present are quite deadly (except the little crawly bugs) and hard to fight with the voice control, especially early in the game when your only real choice is to run. Once you have your first fire spell you can start defending yourself properly though. The one-eyed bastards I mentioned in the visual section of this review are difficult enough on their own but then the game starts throwing them at you in packs and always, always, in confined quarters. I often uttered a curse or two along with the spell words when fighting them.

One of the most complex, multi-part puzzles and intricate environmental design!
One of the most complex, multi-part puzzles and intricate environmental design!

The lich like enemies on the other hand are pushovers. When you read about them and what they can do you think them extremely complicated. But when you realise you can use the same spell to counter everything they do, they lose their enemy appeal.

Bosses are puzzles themselves, as they should be in a game like this. The first one buzzes around extremely fast and fires projectiles at you. It’s impossible to hit it when you figure out how to return fire, unless you use another spell first to give you a window. The last one is impossible to kill until you figure out what you need to do to actually damage it and then it becomes much easier. Then there’s the bastard that chases you across lava pits…it’s where I lost my voice playing the game. That is, until I realised there was a second version of the Teleport spell that creates a floating sigil. You can use it to mark where you want to go and that way I got through those sections.

Some environments are rather creepy...
Some environments are rather creepy…

Conclusion

I enjoyed my time with In Verbis Virtus, and while the voice rec cost me my voice for a week and possibly gave me an ulcer, it’s an extremely innovating title and I want to know what Indomitus games come up with next.

TMA SCORE:

4.5/5 – Amazing!

Review: The Weaponographist

Doug McGrave angered the wrong witch! Now he’s loot-less, level-less and powerless, and if he wants to get back to normal, he’ll have to clear a demon infested town.

Genre(s): Arcade

Developer: Puuba Games

Publisher: Mastertronic

Release Date: April 2015

Played: Main Story + Hardcore Depths

Platforms: PC

Purchase At: Steam

Good:

  • Interesting premise.

  • Fun and addictive gameplay.

  • Charming visual style.

Bad:

  • Damage Combo drain doesn’t reset.

  • Really short.

  • Weak plot.

Review

The Weaponographist is an arcade game, one I saw during Rezzed 2015 and which I probably played more than any other game in the event. If you ever played Smash TV, you know how Weaponographist plays like, but for those of you who never have (aka my people) here’s the rundown. You battle your way through a series of rooms with four doors—up, down, left and right—and you need to kill all enemies before one of those opens, then you move to another room and start killing again until you reach the level’s boss fight.

On my keyboard, the game controlled very easily, with WASD used to move Doug and the arrow keys for attacking in one of four directions. Constant movement and precise directional attacks are extremely important in this type of arcade game.

The environments might change a bit, but the layout is always the same: 4 doors and tons of enemies!
The environments might change a bit, but the layout is always the same: 4 doors and tons of enemies!

Puuba Games added its own bizarre twists to the formula and they all revolve around Doug McGrave’s curse. Because of it every weapon he holds will inevitably fail, every coin he picks up turns to dust and every experience point he gains will fade away.

This means that weapon durability drains away with every attack and you’ll need to pick up new weapons to continue fighting. You’ll start every stage without weapons, just your fists, and the first enemy in the room will always drop a weapon, but from there the drop chances are completely random and you’ll have to use the weapons available strategically, making sure to move not only to avoid attacks and get close to the next enemy but also stay within short distance of a weapon. It takes some getting used to but soon enough I had mental routes on how to kill enemies and pick up the next item.

You'll buy a lot of stuff in town.
You’ll buy a lot of stuff in town.

There are to categories of weaponry: main weapons and spells. The former have varying degrees of power and durability and it’s what you’ll be using most of the time. The latter on the other hand are much rarer, are incredibly powerful but will often last for one or maybe two attacks. There are both melee and range main weapons, with Melee ones losing durability with each successful hit and ranged weapons losing durability with each shot fired, no matter if it hit or not. It’s a fair system and one you get used to quite quickly.

The weapons themselves are an eclectic set and in some cases anachronistic. You’ll find swords, spears, bows and maces along with yo-yos, chainsaws and Tommy Guns. And that’s without considering the “body part” weapons, like the Boomerang Satyr horns or the rocket launcher Unicorn horns. I love the Unicorn Rocket Launchers and the flail, the sword and the Tommy Gun! Those were my go-to weapons. Sadly, your favourite weapons won’t always be available.

Unicorn Rockets!!!
Unicorn Rockets!!!

Doug’s curse prevents him from keeping his levels but that doesn’t mean you don’t level up, just that these aren’t permanent. Instead leveling is the basis for the game’s combo system, the more you kill the higher the combo and the more powerful you are, but the bar is constantly draining. At certain combo levels your base level will increase, so that if you ever lose the combo, you still have base to fall back on to build a new one. These base levels also drain but unlike the combo which goes away completely, they drain one level at a time.

During my playthrough my greatest frustration was that once you lost the combo, building a new one became right near impossible. At the start of each depth—what the Weaponographist calls the levels—the combo bar drains slowly but as you take damage the speed at which it drains increases. And for some reason this doesn’t reset when the combo falls off, making new combo levels last barely a few seconds and leaving you constantly losing base levels until you’re back at level 1.

As you kill enemies they drop their weapons...or body parts.
As you kill enemies they drop their weapons…or body parts.

You might think the game would get impossible with these mechanics, but that’s the final twist Puuba added and which they call Rogue-Light. You will most likely die a few times in the Weaponographist–it’s a pretty hard game and the bosses even more so–but when you do you’ll just pop back in Town with a pocket-full of goop. Since Doug can’t carry any money, the townspeople agree to take the goop monster drop when they die as proof of his monster slaying. You can use it to upgrade the damage you do with each main weapon or spell, partially lift the curse to make weapon durability last longer, increase your health or make the combo drain slower. You can even pay the Coffer Wrangler to have his pets set loose in each depth, to give you recovery and buff items when you crack them open. My only complaint with this system is that upgrades are gated and you need to clear a specific depth before the next one unlocks.

The Weaponographist isn’t al long game with only five depths. Each of these increases enemy health and damage and is longer than the previous one, but overall they don’t take long to complete. Once you clear the game though, the Hardcore mode opens up, which puts all depths at the highest possible difficulty level for you to speedrun for a shot at the leaderboards. At the time I played the boards were dominated by Puuba developers, but maybe we can take them off their fancy thrones!

You can slowly break parts of the curse with goop!
You can slowly break parts of the curse with goop!

Enemies are at the game’s core, to keep things varied and entertaining, and while the Weaponographist boasts a significant number of them, I did feel by the end that there could’ve been a bit more enemy variety. This might be because some enemies appear in every depth and other are gated, meaning they only start showing up as soon as you reach a certain depth. I don’t know which would’ve worked best, gating more of them or having them all available from the start.

But enemy variety doesn’t detract from the experience and it’s highly addictive. Even as I played, died repeatedly and quit, I found myself launching the game again within minutes. With the relative shortness of depths and checkpoints placed at certain points in them, this is a game that works really well for short bursts of fun as well as long play sessions.

The music is a bit of a mixed bag. Some depth background music is good but overall they’re just simple tunes droning in the background. A tracklist of two or three songs for each depth might’ve gone a long way, perhaps add some complexity to the tunes and make them more memorable.

Once you clear the game, you can do it all over again in harcore
Once you clear the game, you can do it all over again in harcore

The visuals are very charming. Doug’s chin could bust open a rock and every other character is larger than life, from the goop salesman to the female blacksmith and the coffer wrangler. Even Doug’s Quasimodo-ish assistant looks great. Environment design is really simple but it’s to be expected in this type of game as every room is essentially the same, with only a few different and breakable features. Monster design is phenomenal. The enemies are never scary or intimidating but just quirky and fun. There are Mafioso-type demons with Tommy Guns, the chainsaw ones have a Jason Vorhees mask on, the archers are dark elves with tight and revealing clothes, etc. What makes them unique and fun is the abundance of these little details.

Plot is my biggest gripe with the game. It’s weak. The premise is interesting enough and as you progress you expect there to be a big revelation at the end, but the final twist is just bland, especially after how amazing the last boss fight is. You want to be worthwhile and the payoff simply isn’t good enough. In addition to that there is almost no characterisation. Doug doesn’t grow or change, the townpeople are just vendors with almost no personality and the witch that cursed Doug barely shows up.

We need to take them out of those spots ASAP!
We need to take them out of those spots ASAP!

Conclusion

I had a blast with The Weaponographist and I still play it, trying to improve my times on the leaderboards. It has its flaws and shortcomings but the core gameplay is extremely addictive.

TMA SCORE:

4/5 – Exceptional

Annoying Game Mechanics – Platforming

What are Annoying Game Mechanics? It’s those mechanics that when you encounter them you can’t help but groan. You’ve seen them at their best and worst, but a part of your is just, well, annoyed!

If you find the series name familiar, then you might remember it from its 1001Up days. But now, after careful and hard negotiations (not really, the 1001Up crew are lovely people), AGM has made its move to The Mental Attic. Hope you enjoy it here as much as you did before and make sure to visit AGMs former home as well!

This week the mechanic I’m having an issue with is Platforming!

I’m not talking about platformer games, not Mario, Sonic (no matter how bad some Sonic platforming gets) or even Shadow of the Colossus and Assassin’s Creed. No, what I mean is platforming in games from other genres. Most commonly, you see them in action adventures, to serve as a break from the adventure and/or action elements.

When done right, they can enhance the game’s experience by giving you an additional challenge to overcome or simply be a break from the overall gameplay and give you something fresh and exciting! The problem implementations are those that lack any form of challenge or more specifically the risk of failure. If there isn’t even a chance you might mess up, there’s no excitement possible. You’ve seen these, the obligatory climbing sequences on rails. If something bad happens it’s because you deliberately failed or it was scripted to happen, as the game attempts to use the platforming to enhance its cinematic side and not the game’s experience.

Then there’s Lazy Platforming, where your character does it mostly on its own, jumping over gaps and obstacles without needing your input. These aren’t necessarily bad but they are very tricky.

The staple of an annoying mechanic is that it’s seen both good and bad days. The following are some of the best and most disappointing uses:

Good:

  • Overall, the Legend of Zelda uses Lazy Platforming, but Skyward Sword gave it an interesting twist: Stamina. When you run, climb or performing any platforming you have to pay attention to your stamina. If it runs out you’re in for a long and painful fall or left out of breath and helpless, until it refills.
    • The Handheld 2D Zelda titles though have been using Active Platforming ever since Link’s Awakening, by means of a jumping item. Call it a feather or a cape, you often need to time and perfect your jumps to progress and really master them if you plan on collecting secrets.
  • Even with the Autograb feature, the LAU Tomb Raider games have amazing platforming because there is a great degree of challenge involved. You’re never just climbing, but also avoiding traps, making tricky jumps or even leaps of faith when the camera won’t do what you want it to. It keeps it exciting.
  • Even more so than the previous example are the Core Tomb Raider games, the ones developed by Core Design. In these the platforming was superb and without autograb you had to make sure the jump was spot on and collecting secrets was extremely challenging.
  • The Batman Arkham games use a mix of active and lazy platforming. Lazy for running and jumping but active for everything else, and in a game where everything is a hazard and everyone is out to kill you, the platforming damn well works. The best part of it is the gliding, a twist to platforming by giving you limited flight.
  • Speaking of limited flight, Soul Reaver invented that mechanic. Gliding as part of platforming was one of Raziel’s signature moves and possibly the hardest thing to master in these games.
  • In an already difficult game, Dark Souls keeps it going with some very tricky platforming. With varying running speeds and environmental hazards, the game will make you dread the idea of jumping a gap. But then again, Dark Souls makes you dread every other sequence as well.
  • InVerbis Virtus does platforming really well. Not only do you have your usual moving platforms but with the use of its spells, the platforming becomes another puzzle you need to solve. In this case platforming isn’t a break from the overall gameplay but it part of it.
    • Having said so, there is a degree of frustration when the voice recognition doesn’t pick up what you’re saying.

Bad:

  • Resident Evil, from the 4th installment onwards started using Lazy platforming and for what it adds to the experience they might as well have cut it out. Worst of all are the high-action chase sequences that are nothing more than quick-time events disguised as platforming.
  • Thief (not the original series but the reboot) is guilty of the worst kind of Lazy Platforming, the one that adds nothing to the experience. You’ll climb pipes and ledges in 3rd person but there are completely bland and could’ve been replaced with something a bit more exciting, maybe some grappling and climbing like they did in Far Cry 4.
  • The Castlevania Lords of Shadow series—excluding Mirror of Fate—also features plenty of worthless platforming, especially climbing sequences where you only press UP, before something big, dramatic and entirely cinematic happens.
  • Platforming in Devil May Cry is a mess and rarely works well. When it does it’s brilliant but more often than not it stumbles and just frustrates you. In this series’ case the problem mostly lies with the fixed camera, as it will often obscure the ledges or items you’re jumping towards. And as is always the case with fixed camera your directional input changes with the angles, making it even more frustrating!
Ugh…that jump…
Fly Link Fly!!
The zip-cord added a lot of challenge…and finicky controls
Stamina changed the game for Skyward platforming
These games had hardcore platforming
Pretty much how you’ll overcome any obstacle
Fixed camera angles and platforming do not mix!
At least these segments are short…
Just push the directional keys and you’ll get through this, no challenge whatsoever!

The Weekly Puzzle – Bomb Disposal Psychic

Puzzles are at the core of Adventure gameplay, they provide challenges for you to overcome with brains rather than brawn. For Action Adventures, they offer a break from the hacky-slashy-stabby-shooty element of title.

Every week I’ll bring you a new puzzle, drawn from some of the best and worst adventure or puzzle games I’ve ever played. Every two weeks I’ll even leave you one of my own for you to solve. If you do, I’ll find a way to reward you!

This week’s puzzle isn’t from an old game, but a rather recent one, about a year or two old, Cognition: An Erica Reed Thriller. It’s one of the earliest puzzles in the game, and involves using Erica’s postcognition to figure out the correct way to disable a bomb. You do this by using the power and figuring out the order in which the killer wired the bomb so you can then use the reverse process to defuse it.

It's very clever!
It’s very clever!

It’s not an overly complicated puzzle but I always felt it was very clever. It wasn’t an inventory puzzle but a logic one. Each wire gave you a different vision and you had to deduce the correct order from these jumbled images. The Cognition season has plenty of similar puzzles, but this one in particular has always been my favourite, though the Cordelia/Erica power puzzle in a later episode comes really close. But that’s a subject for another week.

Have you made progress with my little puzzle from last week? Next week is the solution to it and a new one, so make sure you come back!

Writing a Novel – Walking Away

In past issues of this guide we’ve covered the novel writing process, from concept and planning, through the first draft and up to the last bits of editing before you put the “Finished” stamp on it.

Today I’m talking to you about another part of the process, one you don’t want to think about, ever. It’s the hardest thing we as authors can do, Walking Away.

I know that sounds like giving up, but walking away can be healthy and in fact, there are two different walks. I’ve been through one of them and the other is present in my mind and is one I’m not looking forward to but willing to do should it come to that.

Walking Away from a Concept

The first thing I knew about my novel was the character’s name. Before I decided on genre, I knew Jason Wisher would be my protagonist and I knew what kind of a person he was. But I hadn’t built his world.

I originally envisioned that as a post-human society, the entire world affected by a global phenomenon that turns humans into elementals. I call it post-human because after the event no one was Homo sapiens anymore. The entire world turned into element-wielders. Chaos would follow but out of it a new order, with a new police force. My character would be part of it.

But the concept had a flaw. As law enforcement, and to ensure the character didn’t toe thin lines of legality and criminal behaviour—which goes back to me as I am an extremely legal person—his options were limited. There were investigative avenues that he couldn’t take, because he was a by-the-book character. An independent contractor might be able to flaunt rules more defiantly and openly but a cop shouldn’t.

I already had a concept planned for the first novel and beyond, but when it came to the writing I was stuck. I knew where the investigation had to go but because of the restrictions I’d placed on the character and his narrative, I couldn’t push forward. In looking for an answer, I questioned the very nature of my new world, of the people in it, how do they maintain control and I came up short on answers.

I decided to walk away from that world. I still kept the characters and some ideas but I scrapped that sci-fi world. I started to think on what would fit the type of story I wanted to tell, the character I wanted to develop, and the moment I opened myself to new concepts and having discarded the previous one, I found the answer in Urban Fantasy. The pieces came together and I had explanations for everything. It was a cohesive and consistent world. The rules worked in-universe and my character had many more avenues and opportunities not only for investigations but also for growth.

Walking away from a concept is a tough decision, but if things aren’t working. If you can’t answer the hard questions about your world, if you can’t explain everything or if the story just isn’t going anywhere under the rules you’ve established, then it might be time to say goodbye to this concept. Keep as much as you can, but open yourself to changes and new ideas.

I kept character names and ethnicity for mine, but their roles and even species changed.

It’s not an easy choice, but it might be the one you need to make to find the world you want to and should write. I’m not a believer in inspiration, muses and writer’s block. Hard work is all there is, but you can’t force creativity and imagination. If the concept stifles you and makes the writing process harder than it already is, then perhaps it’s not worth it. Perhaps it’s the wrong concept or even genre.

You just need to recognize that it’s time to move on.

Walking Away from a Manuscript

This is the hard one, the truly hard one, and not one you come to lightly—or at all. I only became aware of it after reading a blog post made by an author.

In the previous guide I spoke to you about all the editing process, of getting through your work to streamline, improve, optimise and generally do everything in your power to make your novel the best it can be.

If you choose to look for representation or for a publisher, be prepared for rejection. I still remember the first rejection letter I received and one day I’ll frame it. As many will tell you, it’s a very subjective business and what someone likes another will definitely hate.

Why am I telling you this? Because after each rejection you’ll undoubtedly try to fix something in your novel, that one thing you’re sure was the reason the agent/publisher rejected you. And you’ll do so with neurotic abandon.

But there’s only so much you can fix, only so much you can scrape off.

There comes a time when you have to look at your manuscript and put it aside, walking away from it and towards other ventures. If there’s a fantastic story in your head waiting to be told, don’t let the quest for publication stop you from doing it. If one manuscript is getting nowhere, then you might need to consider letting go and focus your energies on a new project and then try to get that one published.

Don’t Give up too early

Or at all, is what I’d like to say.

I know I’ve just spoken to you about giving up and packing up and leaving things. But you should never do it lightly. Never do it without fighting. Only do so when you’ve reached the point where you’re not getting anywhere, either with the concept or the querying.

And before you decide to give up on the manuscript altogether, maybe you should consider independent publishing. Is it something you’re interested in; is it something you can afford? If the answer’s yes, the maybe that’s the road you should take.

But if not, then maybe it’s time to let it go.

 

I had originally intended on this being the last guide for this series, but as I’ve written and as is always the case, I’ve had more ideas. This will be the last on the process, however, unless I get a request to cover a specific part of it. Future guides will be more about storytelling itself, my advice on handling different types of scenes.

As always, I hope this has been of some help.

Bad Blood – Chapter III – Tale as old a time

If you only knew how many abominations and demons lived in Fallen Square, you wouldn’t wonder about the name. The most opulent of the districts, built right on a ley line, you need to be rich not only to afford the housing, but the wards to keep your neighbours on the other side of the door.

Margot grimaced when the whiff of sulfur hit her nostrils as she stepped from the alley between two of Fallen Square’s high-rise condos. She followed the stench to a host of drunken unconscious imps lying next to a dumpster. She stepped past them and across the street to the fabulous Black Spire Hotel. Chiselled out of pure obsidian from the eight circle, the hotel was the best Makai had to offer and even the most ridiculously wealthy in the world could barely afford a couple of nights.

Lillian and Don Carpenter owned the top three floors.

Margot pushed through the lobby, ignoring the protests from the staff. She cracked the security behemoth in the chin and stepped on the elevator. With just a glance from her, the imp inside pushed the button she wanted and leapt out of the elevator. The problem with demons is you have to remind them you’re dangerous, Margot thought as she rubbed her aching hand. Even increasing the density of her bones didn’t help the pain of hitting a behemoth. It would stay out of her way next time.

With a familiar ding the doors opened to the Carpenters’ penthouse. Margot felt something off, an ominous presence. Great, they warned him…time for the pissing contest. She stepped lightly off the elevator, keeping her eyes and other sense open but as soon as she did, something took her off her feet. She crashed loudly against the far wall, through an ornate armoire. She didn’t even have time to harden herself.

Her vision swam, and it took all she had to stay awake. Margot shook her head and saw the monster stomping towards her. Abaddon…shit. She pushed herself off the armoire and faced the demon. He’d changed since the last time she saw him. No longer an obsidian angel but a crimson-skinned demon with ebon nails, ram horns, a lashing barbed tail and enormous bat-like wings. “Give it a rest, Abaddon.” Margot mumbled.

He chuckled and reached for her throat so fast Margot had no chance to react. Her vision blurred even more as he picked her up and squeezed. He was enjoying it, taking his time and making her suffer. Demons…oh screw this! As her consciousness drifted away, Margot pulled from deep inside herself to where her power laid, not the one she’d borrowed, but her true ability. She could hear Abaddon laughing and it just made her push harder. Through his skin she felt for his core, the source of his powers and with mental push cloned it.

Abaddon’s laugh ended abruptly and his gaze turned to horror as Margot’s skin turned crimson and her eyes topaz yellow to match his own. She clutched his wrist and crushed it effortlessly. As she landed, she gripped even tighter and threw the demon over her shoulder. Abaddon pushed himself off the floor, ready for a fight, his wrist already healing but before he could do so Margot was on his back, one wing in each hand. “No! I yield!” He said desperately.

The sound of his screams filled the Black Spire.

Abaddon lay there, holding himself tightly and shaking, his body returning to his obsidian angel form. “Told you so.” A voice came from the other end of the room. Margot hadn’t noticed Lillian sitting on a sofa, a glass of wine in her hand. She’d cut her hair since the last time they met, and dyed it a deep shade of red, striking against her tanned skin. She looked neither afraid nor impressed. “Hi Mar.” she nodded.

“Lilly.” Margot grumbled, pushing Don’s power away, her skin and strength returning to normal. “What the hell is his problem?” She nodded towards the former demon, now crawling towards his wife.

“He has plenty of them.” She said dismissively, taking another sip. “But in this case, the lobby called about an intruder, didn’t say it was you honey.”

Don’t ‘honey’ me, Margot thought but held back. “Sorry about that, you know demons.”

“Gotta put them in their place!” They shared a smile. “Anyway, help me with this?” She pointed at her husband.

“Sure.” They carried the trembling fallen angel and lay him on the sofa. Lillian sat down and placed his head on her lap, stroking it tenderly.

“What are you doing here, Mar? This isn’t social, is it?”

“Nah, not this time. King sent me.”

Lillian raised an eyebrow. “You…working for him?”

“Missing persons case, lots of them, so he’s stumped.”

“And what makes you think we can help?”

“Because one of them’s The Illusionist.” Margot said flatly. Lillian’s eyes widened and she dropped the wine glass, but Don caught it before it crashed.

“When’s the last time you saw him?”

“Last week…our session…” Don moaned. His wings were already regenerating.

“Tell me about it.” Margo sat opposite them.

“We’re not about to discuss our therapy with you, Mar.” Lillian said sternly, taking the cup from Don.

“I don’t need to know your details; I know all of that already. You’re both too honest, not surprising when you shared body and mind once. Some white lies are good.”

“No they’re not.” They said at the same time.

“Then stop being so bloody sensitive about it all then!”

“We’re working on it…” Don replied.

“Tell me about JWS. What was he like?”

“Calm, collected, annoyingly so, and very understanding and patient.” Don said. “The usual.”

“He seemed distracted.” Lillian said.

“How so?” Even Don gave her a quizzical look. Not surprising the ex-cop picked things the demon couldn’t.

“He acted normal but I could tell his mind was elsewhere. It was scary, almost as if he were back in his Illusionist days. He was here but he wasn’t either.”

“Did he mention anything to you?”

“Not during the session, but I did ask him afterwards. I used to be a cop, I’m nosy!”

“That you are…ow!” Lillian reminded her husband not to speak out of turn.

“And?” Margot said, ignoring the marital display of discipline.

“He said something was coming…”

“That sounds ominous…” Margot said, frowning.

“He said it was something we should’ve taken care of years ago, coming back to bite us in the ass.”

“Paraphrasing?”

“Of course, I can’t talk like him even if I tried. Too old-school aristocrat!” They all shared a smile.

“Anything else?” Margot said, the moment passed.

“Yeah, he said he was going to see Peter. Oh, and he didn’t want Weston to know.”

“Why not?”

“No clue, but you know how those two were, buddies one day, conspiracies the next!”

Margot nodded, remembering her own days with the two of them. “Any clue where Peter hangs out these days?”

“All over the place, really. He’s the wandering hero.”

Margot sighed, shaking her head. “He should leave the job to the Fixers.”

“He’s never been your or Weston’s biggest fan.”

“It’s gonna get him killed someday…not that it’s anything new for him.”

“You should go see Julie.” Margot raised an eyebrow, going through her mental notes but finding no memory of the name. “Julia, Julia Stiles. Weston’s niece. She has a restaurant in the docks and she’s been on and off with Peter for years. They fight more than we do!” She and Don shared a look and giggled.

“I’ll do that then. Sorry for the armoire.”

“My fault, don’t worry about it.” Don said. He pulled himself off Lillian and turned towards the broken furniture. With a flick of his wrist, it disintegrated and remade itself. “Destruction and renewal, my specialty!” He grinned.

“I’ll walk you out. “ Lillian said.

“Sure, see you around Don.” The Demon nodded. “Oh, and next time put on some pants, there is only so much of you I’m interested in looking at!” She glared.

“Sorry, Margot, I’m a taken man. You can look but not touch!” He grinned even wider.

Margot growled but left with Lillian.

“Why don’t you just divorce him, Lilly?” Margot said, leaning on the elevator wall as they descended.

“I love him, simple as that.”

“But you’re always fighting?”

“I didn’t say it was healthy, but…you wouldn’t understand!” She shook her head.

“Really? I wouldn’t understand love?”

“Not what I meant, but if we’re getting into that, your track record is terrible. First you go with…”

“Let’s leave it there, honey.” She said the last word harshly.

“Ok, leaving it there.” Lillian raised her arms in surrender. “But Don and I…we were one, you know? Literally so. I know him best and he knows me best, and we love each other even through that. But even after so many years it’s so difficult to say the things we used to share in thought and spirit.”

“And they all come out wrong when you do say them…” Margot said absent-minded, thinking of her own past, of apologies said and taken wrongly.

“Exactly!” Lillian said.

The ding of the elevator brought them face to face with the behemoth. It snarled at Margot, who simply cracked her knuckles. “She’s with me. If you ever stand in her way…” she left the threat hanging, glaring not only at the massive bouncer but also at every member of the Spire’s staff.

“Impressive.” Margot leaned in to whisper.

“You don’t get to be queen of this hellhole without some authority!” She whispered back.

“Hellhole? You know there’s people who’d kill for this place, right?”

“They can have it. Noisy demons, neighbours and tenants always trying to possess and corrupt, it’s annoying!” She said and then sighed. “But it’s home.”

“You’re weird.” Margot said aloud and left before Lillian could reply.

Profile: Peter Ng, superhero. Formerly known as Tiger. Violent tendencies and disregard for authority. Magic level…extremely high. Likelihood of a fight? High. Margot thought to herself as she walked towards the docks. It was a long walk but there were only so many times she was willing to use the Alleyweb in one day. She was aching from that fight with Don and the web can sense your weakness.

“This is turning into a tour of all the big names in Makai. That can’t be a coincidence.” She said to herself.

Just hope they don’t all want a piece of me…there’s only so much I can fight…

 

Despite her complicated relationship to the King, Weston Stiles, Margot had never met Julia. She’d only heard her name in passing. Maybe I’ll get her profile from…nah, never mind, he’d only get in my way if he knew I was visiting his niece, she thought to herself, remembering how protective the King was of his family and friends. It’s one of his few good points, Margot allowed herself a melancholic smile.

Julia’s restaurant, The Golden Arch was perhaps the most famous Chinese restaurant in the Dock area—mostly because it’s the only one. As Margot approached, she noticed it was full. Rush hour, dockworkers on lunch and new arrivals. She stretched, her joints popping, and then focused on keeping her expression as steady and calm as possible. She might not know Julia, but everyone knows a Fixer and always want to hide stuff from them.

She pushed the door open and it creaked loudly. If Margot were one for the stealth approach, she’d have worried about it. As things were, she just hated the sound it made. As was the case with good restaurants, the smell of the cuisine hit her nostrils, made her mouth water and her stomach rumble. She realised then she hadn’t eaten anything.

Taking that as her excuse, she requested a table. “What can I get you?” The waitress said.

“Scotch, neat then a glass of water and Singapore Noodles!” She handed the blonde girl the menu back. “Oh, and I need to speak with Julia Stiles.”

The girl dropped the menu on the table and gave Margot cold eyes and in them, she could see the girl’s uncle. “Great…” she sighed.

“What do you want with me?” Julia said, crossing her arms.

“I’m working for your uncle…”

“Tell him my personal life is none of his…” She interrupted and raised her voice so much she was making head turns.

“Hey hey!” Margot interrupted, waving her hands in front of the ranting girl. “I don’t give a damn about your personal life or your uncle for that matter. I’m looking for your boyfriend!”

“What the hell do you want with Tiger, Vance?”

I didn’t tell her my name. “How’d you know who I was?”

“Everyone knows Margot Vance, Fixer extraordinaire!” The sarcasm dripped from her lips.

“I need his help.”

“He’s out!” She said flatly and left. Margot saw her heading to the bar and pour the scotch and water. “Here you go.”

“I still need Peter’s help, Julia.” Margot said flatly, glaring at the girl.

To her credit, she didn’t flinch…at first. But Margot’s stare pierced whatever defense she had and she soon looked away, trembling, fearing the restrained violence she saw in the Fixer’s eyes. “He…He’s out patrolling.”

“Then I’ll stay and wait.” Margot said, her tone cold and harsh, to make it certain she wasn’t going anywhere. “How long until the noodles are ready? I’m starving!” She said lightly, smiling, throwing Julia off guard. No need to be mean the whole time, she thought.

“T-t-t-ten minutes!” Julia said shrilly. She left the room looking back at Margot a few times as she did.

Gotta love the effect I have on people…not great on my love life though. Margot shook her head, remembering a string of one-night-stands. Beautiful women, smart women, bubblehead men, she’d tried them all but the job, the fixing always got in the way. It was a dangerous life, and rarely do people regard or remember Fixers with anything but abject fear.

A few minutes later, a young man brought her the plate of noodles and sat opposite her. “You scared Julia, Vance!” He said coldly, his glare almost as harsh and unforgiving as Margot’s…almost. She didn’t bother returning it. I need him to talk not run.

“She was being difficult.” Margot shrugged.

“She can be sometimes!” Peter nodded, relaxing. “It’s the one thing I wish she hadn’t gotten from her uncle…well, that and the Osteomancy! It’s a pain in the ass to argue with her!”

“If it’s such a pain, why stay together?” She realised it was the second time she’d asked something like that today.

“’Cause I love her, and when you love someone you love every bit of them, the good and the bad, the psychotic and the right-down murderous!” He smiled and it was genuine, there was happiness in it, and hope for the future.

Tale as old as time, morons in love…or is it love that turns them into morons?

“So, what do you need?” Peter said, turning serious.

“You were the last person to see John William Spencer, right?” Peter nodded. “He’s missing.”

Peter seemed unfazed by the news. “You’re not surprised, are you?”

“I saw him vanish.” He admitted.

“Why didn’t you tell anyone?”

“Because he asked me not to make a fuss!”

“Where was this? Where did he go?” Margot rose from her chair, her hands planted on the table and she leaned forward. She could smell the noodles and despite her stomach complaining, she pushed the hunger aside.

Peter raised his hands. “Ok, ok! Relax! He told me he was searching for Fixers, some had vanished!” He looked concerned.

“Try all of them…except me of course!” Peter’s looked shocked.

“I didn’t know it was that bad. No wonder I haven’t seen you lot on my patrols!” He said, mostly to himself, scratching his chin.

“So, where’d he go?”

“He said he wanted to check the Necropolis and the Underworld.” The two places Fixers have no jurisdiction over.

“How’d he get there?” Margot asked. I hoped never to return to the Underworld. I hope you have a good reason for all of this, JW.

“He’s the Illusionist, he can do anything!” Peter said, baffled at her question.

“Ok, how’d you do it?”

“I’d open a spirit portal or go through the Alleyweb, the Mapmaker knows where the right doors are.” He explained. “I’d rather use the portal, I don’t trust that guy. Too shady, even by this island’s standards!”

“Yeah, but portals aren’t my specialty, not unless you’d like to help me?”

“Can’t, Vance.” He stubbornly crossed his arms and shook his head

Margot raised an eyebrow. “Why?”

“Told you, promised JW I wouldn’t get in the way!” He said calmly.

“You said ‘not make a fuss’, you didn’t say anything about not helping!” Margot was losing her patience, and her appetite.

“You know how he is; better assume that’s what he meant!” He smiled nervously.

“Yeah…speaking of, did he seem weird to you? I mean more than usual.” She sat down and ate her noodles, almost absentmindedly.

“Not more than usual, no.”

“Weston’s concerned he might be reverting back to the Illusionist.” Margo mumbled with her mouth full.

“That’s impossible, Weston’s just paranoid!” Peter chuckled.

“Why?”

“Because he’d need to lose his soul for that, and he’s not letting go of it anytime soon!”

“What?” This is why I hate Makai’s founders, they all know each other’s histories but never share.

“Ask Weston, he’ll tell you!” Peter seemed to have read her mind, and grinned.

Margot grumbled. She finished the plate and left a stack of money on the table large enough to pay for everyone’s meals, for the rest of the week. Peter whistled, looking at it. “Didn’t know Weston paid this well!”

“I took his super-wallet!” Margot grinned and left another stack. “For the help, and for the contact number you’re giving me right now so I don’t have to scare your girl again!” Margot said in what she assumed was a reasonable tone.

Peter scribbled something on a note and handed it her. “Use this then.” He said and took the money from the table. “Have a nice day!”

“Fat chance of that!” Margot left the restaurant.

Time to meet JC again and see what he has for me. Then off to the Necropolis. I’ll leave the Underworld for when I’m really desperate.

Triple-R: Remakes, Remasters & Rehashes!

A few months ago, an acquaintance and I had an interesting conversation on WhatsApp over the subject of remakes. And as I played through the Grim Fandango remaster and saw the slew of once-mobile games being re-released on Steam, I couldn’t help but go back to that conversation and see not only my points validated, but the other’s as well.

Remakes & Remasters are very similar in that they take an old property and give it a fresh coat of paint and make it accessible to new generations. The major difference is a Remake can, and most likely will, change elements of the game from gameplay to plot—such as Tomb Raider Anniversary or Gabriel Knight 20th Anniversary—while the Remaster will generally just upgrade visuals and audio and maybe add a new control scheme—Grim Fandango and Monkey Island Special Editions.

But both bank on nostalgia. Of these two, the target audience isn’t the new generation but the old one, those that played the game when it originally released. They will want to get the new version in hopes of recreating the feeling they had while playing it the first time—and be ultimately disappointed when that doesn’t happen.

In this case, Definitive is a synonym for remastered!
(Image Credit: United Front Games) In this case, Definitive is a synonym for remastered!

Take the Tomb Raider reboot, a topic I’ve almost run into the ground these past few months. On release it moved over 3.4 million units—impressive, unless you’re Square Enix, in which case it’s a ‘disappointment’. How many of those 3.4 do you think were new players and how many were die-hard fans of the original Tomb Raider series? I’d be willing to bet that at least 70% of those were classic TR players.

I’m not completely against Remakes/Remasters, there are circumstances when I welcome them. Grim Fandango is an example, as it was impossible to easily purchase the game before this re-release. But if you can still buy the game and it still runs in modern computers without much issue, then the remaster/remake starts leaning towards nostalgic cash-grab.

Remakes & Remasters are easy, my acquaintance said and after careful consideration I had to concede the point. Even if you have to remake the game from scratch—by which I mean art, voice, coding, etc.—the truth is a lot of the work is already done. You already have a script, a sequence of events and a completed design that you know works, so there’s no need for reiteration.

I use the term Rehash but I mean sequels, new entries in a series and anything that is not a new IP. From Mario to Call of Duty, rehashes keep bringing you similar experiences over and over. And much like the previous two, there’s not a lot of risk involved in their release. The only way a developer will go for a sequel is if the first one sold well or at least met expectations. Based on the first title’s numbers, it’s easy to predict how much revenue the next one will generate. Thus, it’s safe from a business point of view. If the game has a particularly strong following, then it’s even safer to release a Rehash than a new property.

We can see evidence of this in the many cases of games modified to be part of a given series, because it ensured people would buy them. Devil May Cry 2 and the American Super Mario Bros.2 are two of the most famous cases. The former started out as a brand new IP before they panicked, slapped Dante on it and released what is the most reviled entry in the series. The latter released in japan as Doki Doki Panic, but since the actual Super Mario Bros. 2 released in Japan was so unforgivingly difficult, the American market got a heavily modified version of DDP, which might explain why the plot of that game made little sense!

(Image Credit: NVidia) Unity proved that sequels are a double-edged sword if handled incorrectly.
(Image Credit: NVidia) Unity proved that sequels are a double-edged sword if handled incorrectly.

However, depending on the franchise—or the developer in Nintendo’s case—rehashes can be a double-edged sword. While it’s true they carry significantly less risk than a new IP, the longer a series runs, the higher the expectations. Failing to meet them can lead to catastrophic results for that IP. One example is what happened to Ubisoft last year with Assassin’s Creed Unity. After Black Flag, the expectations for a new Assassin’s Creed were at their highest, so when Ubisoft released an unpolished game, the resulting outrage and backlash was so strong they had to give away DLC and even entire games for season pass holders. Nowadays developers & publishers use DLC sales to make to get as much profit out of a title as possible, so you can imagine just how much money was lost because of Unity’s failure. For me, it killed all love I had for the series. And if I’m not alone in that sentiment, it compounds the problem Ubisoft faces for its next Assassin’s Creed. A scorned fan is a scary thing in the videogame industry.

Rehashing does allow refinement of a series’ formula. It’s the reason all 3D Mario games are nearly perfect, and how Black Sails was the culmination of Assassin’s Creed’s design, or even the Call of Duty games—I’m not a fan of them but I have to admit they are very well designed, because each iteration has helped polish out the base concept and mechanics.

This is why you rarely see new IPs from major—big-budgeted—developers, because it’s too risky. It’s much easier to rehash, remake or remaster something than giving you a completely fresh idea. Even smaller studios often go this way because it’s an easy way to make money—I apologise if this comes off as a tad too cynical.

As the videogame industry and its corporations grow, we’ll see more sequels and remakes and fewer new IPs, because shareholders, board members and even just the five-man-studio will want to avoid risks as much as possible. And you can’t really blame them considering how expensive some of the latest games have been in terms of development costs. Last year I wrote an article about the insane budgets for most modern games—visuals and art being the most expensive part of any of them—and things don’t seem to be getting cheaper. Thus, it becomes paramount that there is a profit, or at least a return of investment.

(Image Credit: Just Push Start) Each Zelda is the same at its core, but the journey is always different!
(Image Credit: Gamespot) Without sequels, Nintendo wouldn’t have refined their concepts and this near perfect game wouldn’t exist!
(Image Credit: Stella’s Walkthroughs) At the time of release, finding and getting the original to work was an Olympian task!
(Image Credit: Gamezone) This game is a remastered remake! It only needs to be a sequel for the Triple-R-trifecta! Then again, Capcom is infamous for its rereleases! Street Fighter Anyone?
(Image Credit: GoG) Without the remaster the game would’ve been lost to us forever
(Image Credit: Blog Critics) Remastering a NES game? Sure, why not?
(mage Credit: What’s HUB) A fresh coat of paint and makeup! Did it need it? Up for debate.

The good news is that for every two developers that play it safe, there is one daredevil that takes constant risks with new ideas. Some are indie but there are many established studios out there willing to take a chance with a new IP.

And of course, there are those studios so big and so powerful they can take the risks without much issue. Blizzard Entertainment is an example, a company (in) famous for its “It’ll be done when it’s done!” attitude towards development and release. World of Warcraft, Diablo III and StarCraft II have given the company so much revenue they can take as many risks as they want. The recently announced and in development Overwatch is an example, a fresh IP in every way, including genre.

How does this affect us? Well, we need to keep an eye out for those new properties because they tend to fly under the radar of most big-name gaming sites, unless the developer is one of the big ones like the aforementioned Blizzard. On the other hand, maybe we shouldn’t buy remakes/remasters of a game unless A) you can’t get it anymore or B) it doesn’t run on your operating system. The likelihood of the original being a superior game is quite high.

And as for sequels I think the only thing we can do is what we already do: play them, enjoy them and then complain about the developers not coming up with new IPs. It’s what we’re used to doing anyway and if there’s one thing my acquaintance has a point on it’s, “you can’t force gamers to do anything!” And yes, I do realise what that means with regards to my previous statement on remakes!

What are your thoughts on Remakes, Remasters, Rehashes and the state of the industry?