Super Raft Boat

 

It just gets at one of the cores of the human condition, the will to build and to survive against chaos. The two actions are at odds: left click to destroy (enemies) and right click to create (a raft). But in a balance between I found some meaning.

The Final Hours of Half Life: Alyx

 

In a series of 15 chapters, Geoff Keighley covers the ambitious and tumultuous journey of creating the flagship VR Half-Life game.  It's a tale about continuing to fan the flames of creativity in the next generation, the complex necessities of game development, and the dedication to craft at Valve.

Seek Etyliv

It's a concise puzzle game that makes the most of very little.  Seek Etyliv doesn't try to explain.  Instead it lets the natural curiosity and need to conquer challenge arise from the player.  I completed the story (in puzzle and poem form) in a little over an hour.  

That's when the extra, unnecessary challenge began, of executing puzzles without making a single mistake.  I do not know if there is a secret hidden at the end of the deadly dungeon, but that's not important.  Because someone with a true calling to the task should take up the gauntlet.

The game takes its promise of minimalistic design seriously.  I especially liked the simplistic menu navigation with arrow keys (the only flaw being a reliance on the escape key).  It's strict adherence to the 3x3 grid let it explore its own little design space.  I suppose it's like tic tac toe crossed with rogue and sokoban.

https://rokasv.itch.io/seek-etyliv

Cyberpunk 2077

A review of Cyberpunk would be incomplete without mention of it's launch debacle, but I'll highlight my experience here and save the marketing analysis for another post.  I managed to avoid most issues by playing on PC, and by focusing on the stealth shooter and hacking gameplay. 

Cyberpunk was my most anticipated game of the year, in part because of it's gameplay similarities to the recent Deus Ex trilogy.   It's inclusion of augmentation, an expansive sci-fi universe, and sneaky gunplay put me into the same mode of immersion and wonder that I experienced playing Deus Ex Human Revolution.  And boy was I immersed.  It was impossible for me to put down the game until I'd made my way through to the end. 

This game succeeded for me the most in it's thrilling, cinematic main campaign, and it's varied level design.  Stepping into a hostile zone meant having to be on high alert, scanning the area and concocting a plan of infiltration.  The uniqueness of each location (an underrated feat!) kept the game fresh.  It's a marvel that CD Projekt Red designed a world of that size with such depth.  It's open world density of unique, loosely isolated encounters improved on the Skyrim formula of dungeon design.

My approach was almost always to open with stealth, trying to hack, disable, and silently take down as many enemies as possible.  Naturally, my execution would not be perfect!  I'd get spotted, trigger a shootout, and have to use my pistol or rifles to clear the rest of the camp.

Each encounter, as described, followed this pattern of rising and falling tension that made every quest end with a satisfying player story. Whether I came out of the fights unscathed like a ninja or explosively in a hail of bullets, the journey through that danger was thrilling. I'd leave the battlefield feeling like a hero and walk down the street to the next quest.

That's not to say Cyberpunk 2077 was without it's weaknesses. Outside of combat, the world did not facilitate much interaction. The playspace of CP2077 only existed in a few places: encounters, driving, inventory, and photography. While it's world of Night City was a sprawling metropolis, the most intricate action a player could do within it was to "Press [F] to pick up an item". It's a big disappointment because so much of the city is designed to be filled with unique locales, yet it is all reduced to set dressing, just a facade. There's so much room for deeper immersion around the city districts.

Another big problem with the game was the ambiguity of the non-lethal playstyle. It was not clear whether downed enemies where sleeping or dead. It seemed there was some breathing animation but that was inconsistent and confusing at best.

The worst offense of the game has to be it's lack of responsibility in handling food that exists in its narrative. Vendors do not actually sell any of the items that they say they have during cutscenes. Claire is the worst example. She's the bartender at the Afterlife, and a big part of the appeal of that bar, is that they serve drinks named after the most famous mercenaries. There's a whole conversation about Johnny Silverhand's drink, but when I went to buy something from her, she only had generic consumables.

Later in the game, Claire invites V to grab a beer from her fridge. I scoured the room, but there were no fridges, and no beers. The game is a lie.

This is a serious case of ludonarrative dissonance, and completely threw me out of the game. My conjecture is that it's a symptom of misalignment between various teams working on the game, and that there was not enough time or resources for detailed direction to bring the project to a cohesive whole.

But it's flaws are somewhat redeemed for by the detail in the core parts of the game and its occasional exceptionally great quests. The gems of Cyberpunk are in its side content, not laid out for the player but built into the world. Players are left to discover them, either by chance or by thorough exploration.

That's the most interesting part of the Cyberpunk experience: that the memorable moments are the ones you discover in between the main story quests. These are the moments that are special to my V.

Progression Ideas for Valorant BP

The pass is locked to the existing daily/weekly quest system for progression (This is the base system in the game for unlocking heroes.)  Expand options for pass progression:

• Alternate sources of progress like Event Challenges (based on skilled execution or rare events) or Social Achievements could reinforce positive behavior and reward play.
• Quest Diversity (involve specific heroes for diverse play, and habit forming activities to build retention).
• Playstyle Rewards: a Battle Pass Exclusive bounty with Bonus Battle Pass EXP for winning with each hero, or with each role.
• Story Driven Progression. The Valorant rollout is designed around an unfolding story around the Agents. Battle Passes were titled as Episodes and Acts, but only hint at a story through cosmetic rewards.  

My Experience with 3 Riot Battle Passes

I've played through a battle pass each for Valorant, League of Legends, and Legends of Runeterra.  Back in Season 1 I grabbed Fortnite's pass to learn from their practices.  I completed some and left others unfinished.  Sometimes it was a roller coaster of emotion between the elation of achieving a reward versus the futile realization that I would not have enough time to grind it out.  Today, I'm also in the midst of active passes in Dota 2 and Brawl Stars. 

Here are my experiences with Riot's passes:

League of Legends - The must have content (Prestige Riven) drew me to playing and earning it.  I had to dedicate myself to the game, playing a few games a day to complete missions and getting the points to purchase the skin.  My goal was super clear from the onset and even though I don't play riven that much anymore, I felt I had to complete my collection.  I might play another one of these League events if another of my favorite characters gets a skin.

Valorant - I nearly finished this pass by grinding alone, but in the end I shelled out an extra 600 VP to reach the last tier.  Towards the middle of the pass timer, I was getting burnt out on Valorant having to play everyday to keep up.  The spike rush mode became more attractive over time and I stopped enjoying the game. 

This pass didn't have a wow factor to the skins, which made me set a goal of grinding to the end (a detrimental goal given the effort required).  I think this pass burned me out on the game instead of allowing me to enjoy it at a reasonable pace. 

Legends of Runeterra  - The first reward in the Runeterra Spirit Blossom event was a cute fox.  This was a great entry point into the pass, as I was able to quickly discern if I wanted that fox or not.  The highest tier reward was a prettier, dressed up variation of the fox.  Great thing there was that even though I did not get the ultimate fox at the end, I had the basic version of him.  I didn't end up getting to the end of the pass-- there was no option to purchase progression--but I completed all the event quests and got fairly far.  I missed out on 2 premium cosmetic rewards but don't feel bad about it.

Super Time Force Ultra

What a blast!  Once you get a hang of the time rewinding, it's so fun to go ham on shooting.  There's a balance here between playing for time score, completion, and life efficiency.  Each run can be good in any one of these, so completing a level feels well deserved!

The biggest frustration for me (a personal one), is that I get very weary of repeated deaths that happen over and over.  Even though the game is lenient in giving me plenty of lives, I still feel terrible when my guy dies.

It's a fun take on time-travel, filled with jokes, and ultimately let me strategize with my past self and correct my own mistakes.  Though the tone is absurdly light, there's a meaningful message here of responsibility and self-forgiveness.

I'm not compelled to complete all the levels, and I had trouble performing clean runs (where all time force teammates are saved from death), but the core game loop of live die repeat was executed perfectly.  My go to strategy was spamming shields and rockets.  Halfway through the game I discovered that saving a teammate gave me assist powers when using a charged attack, so I doubled them up and spammed them even more. If I were to replay the game, there's a ton of things I could do to change the experience (using different characters, going for clean runs, discovering secrets).

Necrobarista

I love the art and the music presented here: The character designer Ngoc Vu created very memorable designs that eek personality in every way. The music kept the tension up and the catchy bits stayed in my ear for a while.

Playing through the game was a little slow paced for my taste. The story was intriguing at the outset, but took a long time to build up into the any sort of activity-filled scene. The game is more of a slice of the cafe's ongoings, with heavy emphasis on the development of character relationships.

The characters' internal struggles have a hard time surfacing. They become a bit lost on the audience with the sporadic switching between scenes. With every jump, time became more lost on me.

For a game about the scarcity of time, this made time extra difficult to digest. I acknowledge that the scenario--a Terminal where spirits pass, run by quasi-immortal beings-- lends itself to a feeling of timelessness. But at the story's core, the dead only have 24 hours to stay. I don't think I felt that as strongly. I felt lost with regards to feeling time progress.

The presentation as a 3D environment with stealthy camerawork was an attempt at cinematic drama, but without voice acting, it is more reminiscent of the old silent films. A bit difficult to digest.

Interestingly, the parts of the game that put me most at ease were the Memories (text-only excerpts of dialogue, story, and lore). These sections let the writing speak for itself, without the complication of messaging through the contemporary set and characters.

Superhot: Mind Control Delete

The sequel to SUPERHOT was really simple to pick up:  node level selection, wave based combat, and cryptic, unobtrusive story.  It really fit into the modern schedule:  short bursts of entertainment that doesn't try to overstay its welcome.  I was happy to play it, being given access for free as a I already had SUPERHOT in my library.

This ease of jumping into and out of the game let me play through in about 7, one-hour-long sessions over the last few weeks.  And I certainly enjoyed it.

SUPERHOT: Mind Control Delete had very appropriate and creative theming (MORE, MORE, MORE).  It continued the fourth-wall-breaking computer simulation veil, with a bit of self-aware critique.  The narrative suggested that I was yearning for more, and feeding an addiction to the game.  While partially true (I did want to overcome its challenges to see what it had to offer next, I thought that it was better viewed as a commentary on media consumption in general.  The messaged goaded me on and kept my curiosity up: "Why would the game prod me about playing too much?". 

It was a sensory stimulating experience, very well integrated with its marketing strategy and ability to stand out as a unique game.  I think it was a great idea to distribute free copies to generate interest and dialogue about it.  If not for that I would not have picked the new game up, as the original superhot was a wholly complete experience that did not ask for MORE.

Check out the replay system!

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