Seemingly out of nowhere, BIG BAD WOLF launched new narrative adventure game “The Council” earlier this month.
“The Council” is a new take on the narrative adventure genre. Usually these games feature an episodic story with branching paths based on player choice. “The Council” finds a way to not only do that, but adds in role-playing game elements with a surprising amount of depth. Story in this genre is massively important and “The Council” delivers. Set in 1793, players control Louis de Richet. Richet, a member of secret society The Golden Order, ventures to an island to find his missing mother, a high ranking member to the order. This is where most games would have players fighting monsters and running through a jungle. The direction “The Council” goes in a completely different direction. Richet arrives at the island as a guest of the eccentric Lord Mortimer. Mortimer throws lavish parties at his island castle, inviting elites from around the world to shape global policy. Along with Louis there is an English duchess and ambassador, the American President George Washington, French lieutenant Napoleon Bonaparte and a Cardinal among other high ranking world leaders. Louis must compete in a battle of wits with high ranking politicians to find the truth about his mother. The story in “The Mad Ones” is downright impressive. The typical length of an episode in this genre is around two hours. “The Mad Ones” delivers around four hours of gameplay, and keeps all four hours interesting. Every scene introduces a new character, a new gameplay concept or advances the main plot or a sub plot. The story is masterfully written, but can get bogged down with stiff dialogue and animations. There is a leveling system in “The Council”. The episode is broken down into missions that upon completion awards the player with experience based on what they accomplished in that mission. After leveling, the player is awarded to put points into skills that can be used throughout the game. In the beginning, the player chooses a class. There is the talkative diplomat, the erudite occultist and the observant detective. The player’s choice of class does not lock certain skills. Instead, it automatically gives the player a free rank in all of that classes skills and costs fewer points to upgrade the skills. There are a few finer points to this system, but that is the gist of things. There is a surprising amount of depth in this game. Players need to decide whether to pick one class and stick to those skills, or branch out and be lower level on more skills. The level of skills matters when it comes to effort points. Effort points are basically stamina. To perform certain actions or dialogue choices, players need to use their skills. Depending on the level of the skill and the difficulty of the action determines the number of effort points the skill will cost. There are a finite number of effort points and players can replenish them with certain items. This forces the player to pick their moments to use skills more tactically and brings a whole new gameplay dynamic to the game. Instead of doing battle with monsters, Louis does battle with words. Every conversation the player with a character is a chance to learn more about the character. Not just from a narrative perspective, but this has gameplay implications as well. Each character has strengths and weaknesses. Certain skills in conversation work better against some and worse against others. If a player exploits a weakness they gain an effort point back and if the run into a characters the player loses an extra point. The final big gameplay mechanic is called “confrontation”. Confrontations are a conversational battle where players are attempting to win the exchange by making the proper dialogue decisions. Each confrontations has a limited number of sections and whether players choose correctly or not the confrontation continues until the final segment. The final segment will repeat until the player chooses the correct option. The player is not allowed an unlimited number of attempts. Every missed attempt cost the player a blunder. Once the player uses all their blunders the confrontation ends whether they made it to the end or not. There is a surprising amount of gameplay within “The Council”, there is even combat just not in the conventional sense. “The Council” found a way to find new ground within a genre that seemed set in its ways. This may be the first episode, but “The Council” is a game to keep your eye on. Score: 9/10 This is a great start to an episodic series. It has great ideas and implements perfectly in and often played out genre. The only thing that keeps this from being a perfect 10 is the stiff animation and dialogue that kept pulling me out of the game.
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Sebastian Castellanos is back and needs to re-enter the world of nightmares he escaped. He must dive back into STEM to save his once believed to be dead daughter. He enter into a world of horror. A world built on the shared consciousness of individuals revolving around the mind of one young girl, the Core.
Welcome the word of “The Evil Within 2”. “The Evil Within 2” is the direct sequel to “The Evil Within”. The original featured Detective Sebastian Castellanos and fellow officers respond to a mass murder at the Beacon Mental Hospital. From there Sebastian must walk through a nightmarish world built from the mind of a psychopath. At the end of the game everything comes to light that everything Sebastian experienced was not entirely real. It was the result of being inside the STEM system. STEM is a system designed by the main antagonist Ruvik, to create a synthesized reality that he can mold as he sees fit. STEM is similar to the Matrix, and Ruvik to a psychotic Neo. In the sequel Sebastian is down on his luck and approached by Mobius, a secret organization that exists in the shadows playing Machiavellian puppet master with the world, and his former partner from the police force Juli Kidman, who was revealed as a Mobius plant in the first game. Sebastian learns his daughter, Lily, did not actually die in a fire like he believed. She was actually taken by Mobius to be used as the core in a new STEM system. The system is breaking down and Mobius decides to send in Sebastian to try and retrieve his daughter and save the system from complete collapse. “The Evil Within 2” is a survival horror game in the third-person perspective. Unlike the first game, which was a more linear experience with survival elements mainly being resource management, the sequel adds sandbox environments. The more open environments give players more freedom and the chance for exploration. The game has plenty of surprises for the industrious player in forms of side quests, in game items and even Bethesda themed collectables. Everything about the narrative and environments in “The Evil Within 2” scream stereotypical horror game. This is neither a good nor a bad thing it all comes down to perspective and what the particular player finds enjoyable. The narrative does try and pull players in emotionally through Sebastian’s love of his daughter. It works at the beginning, but as the game goes on it becomes more of a goal to be achieved, and loses the emotional aspect. This is because the game continuously hammers the player on the head with the goal of the whole game. This is not assisted by hokey writing and at time some sub-par deliveries. What this game nails is its tone. It does what every great horror game does and that is unsettle the player. This is usually done by putting the player in a state of hyper awareness. Games will use lighting, sound and other means to put players in this state. Once in this state, responses to stimuli are increased making things even more disturbing. Out of the psychology lecture and back into the game, “The Evil Within 2” does a phenomenal job of making it feel like there is something just outside of the cameras view. Almost like there is something right behind the character. It also toes that line between making the player feel powerful enough to handle most situations and feeling like everything will kill you. This makes every engagement feel lethal and when players are worried about managing ammunition and healing items, tensions raise even higher. It is less about making players scared, but constantly uncomfortable and unsafe. Resource management is always a big part of survival horror games and “The Evil Within 2” is no different. In the world players can find items and ammunition. From there it is just a matter of conserving restorative items and ammo. “The Evil Within 2” takes it a step further by adding raw materials. For instance player can find gunpowder and use it to craft bullets. Not a wholly original way of doing things, but it works. There are two ways to craft. There are work benches that players can craft items and use weapon parts to upgrade weapons. Players can also craft ammo and items any time from the weapon wheel, but they will cost more resources. This does allow players to be a tad freer with the use of guns, but if they stop paying attention all together they will quickly run out of resources. Like the original, this game brings back the wheelchair that Sabastian sits in to upgrade abilities. Players use green gel that is harvested from defeated enemies to increase skills, health, stamina, etc. There is not much to comment on here, other than the wheel chair and the surrounding imagery fits the game to a T. For those worrying about not playing the first game, “The Evil Within 2” can mostly be played and understood as a standalone title. There will be some gaps in knowledge, but the important things are covered and focuses on its story not the original’s. “The Evil Within 2” finds its own voice in a genre that falls prey to the cliché. Score: 8/10 This is a great horror game, but the story is a little weak. Almost like I'm just trying to complete objectives to beat the game not see the next part of the story. Weekends are often great times to dig through game collections to play something old. This weekend I picked up the 2007 PS2 game “Rogue Galaxy”. The game is currently available on PS4 via PSN with 1080p up-rendering for those who missed the over a decade old game the first time around.
“Rogue Galaxy” is a story of adventure for Jaster Rogue, as he fulfils his dream to explore the stars. Jaster is an inhabitant of the desert planet Rosa. The planet of Rosa is under direct control of the Longardian army, in what is essentially slavery. Jaster lives with his adoptive father, Raul, waiting for his opportunity to explore the stars. Jaster gets his chance when a giant monster attacks his city. Jaster takes up arms to defend his city and is joined by a mysterious hooded figure. Before squaring off against the giant monster, the hooded man gives his sword to Jaster before leaving. It is revealed that the hooded figure is the legendary hunter Desert Claw. He left his sword with Jaster so that he would be mistaken by Steve and Simon, two characters who have been searching for Desert Claw. After defeating the monster Jaster is given an opportunity to join the crew of the Dorgenark and become a space pirate. Jaster sets out on an adventure where the fate of the universe hangs in the balance. The story as a whole is a typical JRPG story. A seemingly ordinary young man gets thrown into a series of events where the fate of the world hangs in the balance. Throughout the game the character gathers companions to aid him on his journey. The first couple chapters of the game are spent introducing the player to those characters. What “Rogue Galaxy” does well is that it uses this classic formula to a high level. The story can draw players in and make them care for the world and the colorful bunch of misfits that inhabit the Dorgenark The game’s combat mechanics are described as being real-time action, a split from what developer Level-5 has done in the past. It really is not that simple. Each of the characters is given an action gauge that depletes as players attack, use items or use skills. After depleting the gauge, players have to wait for it to recharge or block an enemy attack to have it refill. Combat is real-time, but with limitations that make players have to implement strategy and keeps the game from devolving into a simple hack and slash style of game. It is a system similar to the one used in “Final Fantasy 12”. Exploring the worlds in the game, players will randomly encounter monsters. After winning in battle players are awarded with experience points, money and items. Experience levels up the players base stats (health, attack power, etc.), but does not give players skills at certain levels. “Rogue Galaxy” trades the usual way of doing things for a system that the game calls revelation flow. Each character has a revelation chart filled with blank spots for specific items. As players fill out the open slots they gain skills and open up more slots for higher level skills. This system is also reminiscent of a mechanic from “Final Fantasy 12”, the license system which lets players use different types of weapons or magic. “Rogue Galaxy” uses two different item crafting systems. The first is gained early in the second chapter as players gain access to a frog that can fuse weapons together to create a stronger one. As players battle monsters their equipment gains experience and after maxing that experience on two weapons they can be fused. This encourages players to constantly change weapons so they can keep fusing them together to get stronger ones. The second is a factory the players gain access to a few chapters later. This is a little more complicated than the frog. Players can break items down and create better ones that will be sold in shops. Once a player acquires a blueprint they need to acquire the necessary items to fuse. Then they have to run the items through a production line that breaks them down before fusion. This is a pseudo puzzle that makes players think how long it will take the materials to reach the combiner at the same time. The more items the need to be combined the more complicated the puzzle. For those interested in exploring and doing everything there is a host of side content. Through the game the player can capture bugs called insectors. Players can then feed and raise them and even fight them in the arena if they wish. There is also a list of the galaxy’s top hunters. Players can raise through the ranks by defeating set numbers of the monsters met through random encounters. Players can also nab a large amount of points by taking on optional mini bosses called quarries. “Rogue Galaxy” is an often overlooked game, never being recognized for how good it actually is. For players who missed out over a decade ago is available for 15 dollars on the PlayStation Store. Score: 9/10 Feel free to call this a nostalgia score. I love this game and think its great. EA has begun to release titles for it EA Originals initiative, recently releasing cinematic co-op game “A Way Out”. Before “A Way Out”, was a little game by Zoink named “Fe” back in February.
The game dumps players into the forest in control of a small fox-like creature, Fe. As players begin to explore, they discover machine like organisms called the Silent Ones. They are capturing the animals and stealing the songs and sounds of the forest. Fe sets out to rescue the animals and stop the Silent Ones. On the surface “Fe” looks like a traditional platformer, and while there is plenty of platforming, this game plays like a Metroidvania. There is no combat in the game, but Fe has an ability to learn the songs of other animals in the forest. As players gain access to new songs they can interact with the world in different ways. Throughout the game there are flowers that react to a certain song. Some are more platforming focused and others assist in puzzles. Songs also allow Fe to interact with the other animals in the forest. Like the flowers, the animals all have their own abilities to help the player solve puzzles or traverse the world. “Fe” is a relatively short game, only lasting about seven to eight hours. There is something special within that short time. “Fe” is visually stunning in its own way. Deciding to go for a more stylized look, rather than a photo realistic one, the game’s colors and unique look are downright beautiful. With no dialogue in the game, the sound design is extremely important and “Fe” hit the nail right on the head. On every level “Fe” gets it right, from music to the intermingling of the animals’ songs. The game’s musical score finds the perfect moments to take center stage. Most of the time the music takes a back seat and adds flavor to the game’s visuals, but when the strings start to swell and the music builds everything comes together just right for a wonderful and emotional moment. The animal songs harmonize perfectly with each other. Whether it’s the animal songs, the music or both in conjunction, they create a beautiful soundscape that truly makes this game unique. While no dialogue works for this game, it is a double edged sword. It makes it difficult to tell a coherent story, instead leaving it up to individual players’ interpretation. This is an aspect that some will like, but others will find obtuse and irritating. There is also a lack of direction in the game. There are markers on the map that tell players where the objective is, but it’s up to players to figure out what to do. The game takes a hands off approach and lets players learn on their own without a tutorial and a minimal amount of on screen prompts. The game can feel sparse on content at times. There is plenty to be found for the industrious player, but there is not much reward with respect to how much work it takes to collect everything. There are pink gems throughout the game world that, after collecting a certain number, can be exchanged for a new skill. Each subsequent skill costs more and more gems, meaning if the player wants it they need to explore and find more of them. While the skills are helpful, other than the tree climb skill and the glide skill (the first two skills), the skills are not necessary to complete the game. The different songs are what is really necessary and those are obtained by completing the game’s story. There is no incentive to collect all of these and after the game is completed there is little to no replay value for “Fe”. “Fe” has been received everything from a 5-out-of-10 to a 9-out-of-10. It all comes down to the individual’s taste. “Fe” is a unique experience that is not for everyone. Score: 8/10 Normally would give this game a 7 but its sound and art design made me bump it to an 8 |
AuthorI am A.J. Goelz. I'm a gamer first and a writer second. I hope you enjoy the content on this page and check out the rest of my content on YouTube. Archives
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