Tag: adventure

2017-09-142017-09-12

Game Ramblings #51 – Knack II

Genre: Action/Adventure
Platform: PS4

TL;DR

Much deeper combat system than the original that significantly improves the overall experience
Use of size changing is clever, and done in a much more controlled fashion than the original
Still too many quick time events, and the game might as well not be a platformer for how little it takes advantage of the capabilities

I’ll be perfectly honest here; I bought this game simply because I didn’t believe the decent reviews coming in for this game. The original was a curious release from a tech-demo point of view, but calling it an unforgettable game is being pretty nice to it. At one point early in Knack II, they joke that the main character only knows three punches and a kick, and that really was the depth of the original game. This one adds significant depth to the combat systems, while smoothing out some of the more obnoxious difficulty problems with the original game, and makes the overall experience a lot of fun to play. It’s not perfect, but I’ll be damned if I’m not surprised with the end result.

Even if the environments are simple, seeing Knack full of pieces is still an impressive sight.

The core idea behind Knack is essentially the idea of a controlled power curve based on finding relic pieces and adding them to Knack’s body. You can instantly transform between tiny and full grown variants, leading to puzzle and platforming opportunities. As Knack grows, he gets stronger, typically leading to fights against increasingly strong enemies and generally speaking a boss or similarly large scale puzzle element to end most chapters.

Where the first game really failed to take advantage of this is that it really just kind of pushed the growth, took it all away mid-game, and never really reestablished a good feel to the growth curve. Knack 2 significantly improved that curve. Rather than being a more game-wide growth curve, each chapter typically had its own growth curve. Most chapters started you off in the 4-6 foot range, with various amounts of growth by the end of the chapter. This was also typically paired with a similar power curve in the enemies so there was always a feeling of progress in each area.

Not all of the combat is on the ground. Sometimes you just accidentally steal a giant robot.

Where this change would have fallen apart in the original game, the introduction of significantly deeper combat meant that there was a higher metagame to combat skill that was entirely separate from the growth mechanics. Just from a base skill perspective, there were grabs, shield break maneuvers, smooth dodging mechanics, ranged boomerangs that trap enemies, and the ability to parry projectiles back at their shooter. Add in a skill tree to augment skills, as well as add new optional skills, and the tool set available to the player is significantly better than the original’s three punches and a kick.

This all comes together with a significantly improved difficulty curve to make a system that was quite a lot of fun in general, let alone a significant improvement over the first game. Different strategies had to be made on the fly based on Knack’s current size, as well as the enemy count. Bunch of enemies that can be one shot? Try to round them up and do a jump smash to kill them all at once. Handful of larger enemies that require a few hits? Lock one down with the boomerang while you concentrate on the others. Boss that can very easily chunk your health away? Dodge as you move towards it, or parry back projectiles to do ongoing damage as you move closer. Basically, there’s a ton of options here, and the way they’ve set it up in conjunction with the character’s physical growth has gone a long way to making this a very fun game to play.

Platforming segments are there, such as this stealth segment with a tiny glass Knack, but they’re rare and don’t typically take advantage of potential.

Outside of combat is where the game still shows its biggest weaknesses. It’s pretty typical for there to be a big cutscene extravaganza in each chapter with a series of quick time events. These are just kind of boring, and I’d much rather they just play the cutscene back as intended. The platforming is also fairly non-present. While the tools are there, with the ability to double jump and hover, most platforming areas are basically small 30 second puzzles in between combat encounters. Once you’re in a combat area, it’s flat and the platforming gives way to pure action. There’s just kind of a lot of missed potential there, even if the focus of the game has leaned significantly more into the action side of things.

The end result here really is surprising. You still get the big wow moments of a significantly large Knack against giant bosses that the original game had. The improvement is that the time between those big wow moments is no longer terrible. The combat is fun, the moves you get are varied and cool to see, the enemies have a lot of variety to match the moves you learn. Now, this game isn’t going to make a run at game of the year or anything like that; it just doesn’t have the depth in its non-combat to really do that. However, what came out with this game is a sequel that is good in its own right, and even more so a shockingly large improvement over the original game that could best be described as a great tech demo with bad gameplay.

2017-09-10

Game Ramblings #50 – Uncharted: The Lost Legacy

More Info from Sony

Genre: Action/Adventure
Platform: PS4

TL;DR

Same ol Uncharted gameplay, over the top action sequences, and beautiful visuals
Short length meant the story didn’t drag out, which felt like a plus
First half showed some growth in their design w/ an almost Tomb Raider semi open world.

I’m not going to sit here and say that this is a hugely original title for the series. I’m also going to be straight here and say that the changes in The Lost Legacy feel a lot like copping some features from Tomb Raider. However, this very well might be the best Uncharted title I’ve yet played. It being a condensed experience certainly helped (about 6-8 hours I’d assume will be typical first play through), but a nice use of a large non-linear area to start the game went a long way to providing a fresh look at the series, and may just prove there’s life to be had in this universe.

Like previous Uncharted titles, this is another visual masterpiece.

There’s a lot to be familiar with here. The gunplay is still good, but nothing mind blowing, going for solid feel without too much difference between core weapon types. Combat sequences in the more linear segments are still at obvious points when you turn a corner and have a ton of crates around. Enemies are still decent but basic in their approach to flanking behaviors. The game’s finale (and a couple points in between) is still a wildly bombastic experience that would feel at home in any big budget Hollywood film. End of the day, this is still Uncharted at its core, but with a big difference in the first half that showed some progress.

Roughly the first half of the game takes place in a large open area, with a set of non-linear objectives to drive to, and a bunch of hidden collectibles to find in the area. This alone felt like a fantastic change to the series, even if it felt right out of the recent Tomb Raider games. Because of the layout of this opening area, combat also felt much improved relative to the standard single direction combat of the linear exploration areas typical of the series. Combat segments felt very free form, since you could approach from basically any direction, and enemies could do the same. In a lot of these areas, I’d be stealthing around to find a good entry point, then doing what I could to pick off enemies one by one without revealing my location. If things started to go awry, many of the areas also had a lot of swing points, so I could easily move around to find new hiding spots if enemies started to get a drop on me. In general, this was the best I’ve ever seen combat in the series, although it unfortunately went away once the more linear segments of the game started.

While not as complex as the Tomb Raider series, the side exploration in the opening area was a welcome addition to Uncharted.

The unfortunate thing though is that the opening area gave way to more traditional Uncharted linear mechanics. While this works fine in the general sense, it feels like they missed an opportunity to really make a special full entry in the series based around the gameplay changes of the first half. The puzzle areas of the linear temple portions worked great, but it was back to the more boring combat style and tiresome climbing areas. Realistically I can only do the same pattern of climb, jump to crumbling wall hold, fall down to conveniently placed grab spot, then finish climbing up so many times. On the other hand, the fact that this is a much shorter expansion-style game meant that the experience was fantastically condensed before I really wanted to just get through.

End of the day you kind of know what you’re getting into here when buying an Uncharted game, and this one doesn’t differ much. It shows some promising changes in the first half should Naughty Dog decide to continue with the series, but never really expands on the changes for the full length of this game, let alone makes a full game out of it. However, treated as an end of summer blockbuster experience, this is still just as worth playing as the previous entries and definitely left me entertained, and that’s about all I can ask for.

2017-08-172018-01-13

Game Ramblings #46 – Yonder: The Cloud Catcher Chronicles

More Info from Prideful Sloth

Genre: Adventure
Platform: PS4
Also Available On: Steam

TL;DR

Fantastically gorgeous environment and great soundtrack
Main quest line that’s entertaining to play, and gives you the right amount of push to continue seeing the new environments
High end crafting and side quests are fundamentally problematic with the game loop as implemented

Yonder is a game that at its core feels like it was made by a group of artists. The attention to detail in the environment is up there with some of the best games available this generation. The soundtrack backing it is the right level of ambient orchestral music without getting in the way. All of this is tied into a fantastic implementation of a day/night cycle very reminiscent of its use in Breath of the Wild. However, once you go beyond the core story quest line, the lack of real depth to the game systems in place, and a crafting system that is more menu and resource frustration really shows the problems that come out in the game loop that’s available.

One of the first areas you see in the game.

Right off the bat, it’s clear that this is going to be a beautiful game experience. After an initial intro scene and cave crawl, you immediately get out into an open field that gives you a vista of a large part of the island the game takes place on, and it’s astoundingly beautiful. The characters and animals around have a simple but effective style, and everything is fairly recognizable right off the bat. Each area that you go to throughout the game then has its own core visual theme, whether it’s the snowy areas as you climb the central mountain, the palm trees near the beach, or the sparse rock formations in the desert. Each area is just as great looking as the one you just had left.

Things look just as great when you hit night time. The sky grows dawk, constellations fill it, and the player’s character breaks out a torch to give some local dynamic lighting around. At the same time, the music drops in intensity, and you really feel the encroachment of night time around you.

The core gameplay itself is built around an effective set of collection and crafting quests. The main line is pretty straightforward, with a series of quests that basically lead you into visiting each area, collecting Sprite creatures to clear off the Murk attacking the island, and collecting parts to fix the Cloud Catcher from the title. By and large these serve as a way to get you to the towns that hold the various crafting type masters, and allow you to expand your repertoire or skills, which lead into further use through side quests. While there are some systems in place on the side dealing with farming, it’s not deep enough to serve as a long term distraction. This along with the nature of the side quests really starts becoming the main problem in exposing the larger issues with the core of the game’s systems.

The side quests take the core collect/craft mechanic of the main story line, and ramp it up to 11. The problem is that the crafting system in general is just not that good, and the collecting of resources in the environment is kind of a hassle.

Materials used to craft a single bridge…

As an example, I created the above list to try and wrap my head around what I needed to craft a single bridge. At the highest level, this thing required somewhere around 300 stone, and a bunch of other various ingredients. The big problem is that stones can either be found solo on the ground, or in groups of 4 that can be mined out of a single boulder. Just from a length of time to collect, this then becomes rather time prohibitive. It also means hopping around to a ton of different areas in the crafting menu to craft individual pieces, then larger pieces, then larger pieces where each tab in was another level down in the crafting sequence. For me, there was also the fundamental problem of not really understanding why something that uses parts made out of stone then requires MORE stone. Even as it currently exists, being able to pick the high level item (say a stone arch), getting a total list of ALL resources needed to build it, then being able to one shot complete the project would have significantly improved the experience, as opposed to the current mess of crafting large items.

Scenes like this pushed me to keep playing.

End of the day, the main reason why this was not another entry into Shelved It has more to do with the fact that the game was abrupt in finishing, and I wanted to see what else the environment team had put together. While the base that is there has potential, there’s too many fundamental problems with the crafting and collecting systems that are the core of the game to really consider this one worthy of high praise. On the other hand, given the lack of content, a few changes to the way these work could fairly quickly elevate this one to a pretty entertaining and relaxing adventure title. However, if you really want to see a gorgeous game, it may be worth taking a look at anyway.