My Life in Gaming

This is a post I found in my drafts. I really wish I finished writing this before I stopped using Tumblr for a bit. I never took enough screenshots of it, but I’ve added what I could and wanted to post it anyway as this was a huge game for me. 

Since writing this, I did manage to get the trophy for completing the game under 20 minutes and I managed to complete Hard Mode like I wanted and had an absolute blast doing so. I can’t recommend this game enough! 

Original Post

This game consumed me for a while and I’m continuing to play it. I’d owned it on PC since release but didn’t really get into it until I grabbed it in a special on the Playstation store and played through on the Vita (this also showed me how much the Vita is a gold mine for great indie titles made portable).

This time around I really fell in love with the game. When playing at home I got sick of the wandering around the overworld but on the bus it didn’t feel like lost time, so I enjoyed exploring a lot more and was able to get the most out of the game this way. The art style and music are both absolutely beautiful and create this amazing atmosphere which really drew me in. It was during this that I stumbled upon the secret Titan which contains the only dialogue in the game. This had a big impact on me and started making me think about what the point of collecting the souls was and why the main character does it. I started researching and found that there are a few fan theories to the story of Titan Souls and found that that there is a lot more fun to be had from the game other than just beating the required 12 Titans to access the final area.

The first step for me was beating all 19 Titans in my first run through. I found out you only encounter the 19th boss if you kill the other 18 first and this unlocks Truth mode, which translates all of the boss names in NewGame+. I was drawn to the lore of this world, so this was a must for me.

Playing through all of the Titans gave me such an appreciation for the mechanics. There are only two buttons; dodge / run, and shoot / recall arrow. It sounds simple but the mechanics are so well implemented that it means the player has to develop and improve their play and approach each battle in a different way rather than the main character improving through new abilities. 19 Titan battles and the developers managed to make (almost) every battle unique in how you had to take them down, with each battle as much about discovery when finding out their weakness, as it was about pulling off the shot to actually defeat them. This really made overcoming each boss feel so rewarding to finally pull off.

Heart of Darkness 15/03/2016 Playstation One

Unfortunately my capture card doesn’t work with PS1 resolutions, so photos from my phone will have to do :(

This is one of those games I loved as a kid but never managed to finish. The great thing is that, like playing through Sonic 3 + Sonic & Knuckles, I’ve gained a whole new appreciation for this game by coming back and playing it again. Although the resolution hasn’t done this game any favours on a 1080p screen, I could still appreciate how good the pre-rendered environments art was.

One thing I didn’t realise when I first played this is how short it was and I never realised just how close to the end I was. It didn’t feel too short though and it was a nice challenge the whole way through. Amazing Studio did an incredible job of presenting new challenges with a great blend of cinematic storytelling, solid platforming and puzzles that always brought a smile to my face when I realised how they needed to be completed.

My favourite, which I still remember 3 months after finishing it, is the puzzle in the third picture. At this point you’d been introduced to the slugs that tunnel through the walls and will try and eat you while you climb unless you shoot them (which is hard to pull off because they’re so fast). You’re also familiar with the guy at the bottom, who splits into two blobs after taking a few shots which will grow into copies of the same enemy if they’re not defeated quick enough in blob form. The reason this challenge is so genius is the usual method of slowly taking out the slugs before climbing across wouldn’t work because there was too many of them and they were faster than normal. So how can you pass? Next I tried defeating the big guy at the bottom but after botching this once I saw the slugs would eat the copies if they spawned. Then it all clicked. You had to create a bunch of copies of the big guy and then quickly climb past the slugs as they spend their time collecting the copies.

From a gameplay perspective, I think this is the best example of why this game is so great. It provides the knowledge you need to progress and then presents creative new scenarios that push the player to use the information they have in new ways. This creative level design coupled with the need for some precise platforming execution lead to such a challenging and rewarding experience.

As well as this great gaming experience is a story which seems innocent in its ‘Disney children’s show’ presentation but quickly shows you how dark it really is when you find out how quickly and easily your character can meet their death. Although it was fairly simple, I loved the story and the characters. I also have to give mention to the fact that this is the first game to ever use a full orchestra for the soundtrack and it does wonders to add to the charm of this game.

24/01/2016 Batman: Arkham Knight Playstation 4

I really enjoyed my time with Batman: Arkham Knight. It ticked so many boxes for me; fun gameplay, satisfying combat, an interesting story and amazing visuals. It was so easy to just get lost in the city of Gotham, constantly getting side tracked by the massive amount of side tasks to do. That said, I do think it suffered from being over hyped, at least for me, and it left me wanting a little more by the end.

In terms of gameplay, the main thing that caused some frustration for me was that it felt like it didn’t spend much time teaching some of the combat mechanics covered in previous games. I’ll admit, I’m not the biggest fan of having my hand held in games but from about mid way through the Arkham Knight I started to find some of the fights a bit unfair. I knew there must have been some technique I needed to use to overcome some of the enemies but I could not remember them seeing as it’s been so long since I played Arkham City and they were only briefly touched on earlier in the game. This wasn’t too much of on issue in the main story but it kept me from bothering with some of the side missions like Occupy Gotham which had some tougher groups of enemies.

For that negative in gameplay though there was a positive in the introduction of the Batmobile for the first time in the Arkham series, and oh my was that fun! The handling took a little to get used to but felt great once you’d adjusted, and being able to switch to combat mode was great great during combat sequences. I fell in love with the Batmobile combat, this was easily the strongest part of the game for me. The abilities of the Batmobile were great and the enemies were nice and varied to keep you on your toes.

A close second for my favourite part of the game was the Riddler challenges. The racing was a great challenge and the use of the Batmobile during puzzle sections were a great way to mix things up. Once you’d done the Batmobile parts you then got to have some fun working with Catwoman. These puzzles weren’t the most challenging but were still great fun. I just wish you didn’t have to complete all of the Riddler trophies in order to finish the Riddler mission line, as I just found this too overwhelming to bother complete.

Although Scarecrow was the main villain in this game, Joker’s involvement was easily the coolest part of the main story and completely stole the show. The way that he was woven into the story was great and did a good job of utilising a technique from Arkham Asylum. The only thing that annoyed me about the story was that I felt a bit cheated that the “true” ending wasn’t at the end of the story mission but locked away until you completed the side missions. I’d completed all of the side missions that I cared about by the end of the story, so I didn’t bother completing the rest and just looked it up on YouTube. I’m glad I didn’t bother to be honest, the end just leaves you going “... what...?”

29/11/2015 Mass Effect 2 Xbox 360

With the holiday period and starting a new job, I haven’t had much of a chance to post. Time to start catching up on the games I’ve been playing, starting with Mass Effect 2.

The first game was a slow grow for me. The combat didn’t make sense at first because I came at it like it was a 3rd person shooter, which it wasn’t. It was the depth of the characters and worlds that I encountered that drew me into the game.

With Mass Effect 2 Bioware continued to expand on an amazing universe with deep characters, stories and cultures to discover and I couldn’t get enough of it. I never considered myself a completionist but I couldn’t help myself with the last few games and this continued the trend. I did absolutely everything I could in my playthrough; learned everything I could about my crew through chatting between missions, completed all side missions, fully upgraded the Normandy 2, played through all the DLC, hit the level cap and laughed at an amazingly awkward relationship with Gareth (before reloading a save because I want the relationship with Liara to continue in ME3).

The combat was a big improvement over the first game too. Once I got used to it I started to really enjoy the system in ME1 but it was still nice to have a more familiar 3rd person shooter style combat for ME2. I think my character build for Shepherd worked well for this too, pretty much turning her into a walking tank that could charge into battle with guns blazing. What was great about the switch in combat style though was that the element of strategy wasn’t lost. You still needed to stick to cover and plan your attack to take out enemies and always had opportunities to utilise the environment. The only real downside was that the level design made it so obvious that a battle would take place. I’m hoping the battle locations are blended into the environment a bit better in Mass Effect 3.

20/12/2015 XBox Year in Review

I’ve taken @themolloy‘s lead and had a look at my stats for the year on XBox Live. I’m pretty happy with most of it, especially seeing as I don’t dedicate myself to a single platform.

Biggest surprise: Finding my GS and achievements put me in the top 1%

4/11/2015 Assassin’s Creed: Black Flag Xbox One

Assassin’s Creed had lost me. While playing through Assassin’s Creed 3, the only thing that kept me playing through it was wanting to see how Desmond’s story played out. After seeing how his story ended, I felt like there was nothing pulling me forwards in the series any more. I still gave Black Flag a crack when it came out but I just didn’t feel that drive any more and stopped after a few hours.

I was perfectly happy not playing any more Assassin’s Creed, especially after how Unity was received, but I was convinced to give it another shot after finding that everyone I talked to about it loved it. Not just because of the gameplay but because of the storyline.

I really enjoyed the story in this game. I found it a little slow to develop initially, but once it kicked in it moved along nicely and had some interesting twists that I wasn’t always expecting. The thing I really liked though was that the events occurring in the present day were relevant to what was being uncovered whilst in the Animus.

One reason I think it was slow to begin with though is because the gameplay was so much fun. I was absolutely hooked on pirating and couldn’t help but work towards upgrading the Jackdaw to become the meanest ship on the seas and it got to the point where I would put off the story missions for the sake of pirating to gain the materials I needed. It’s kind of impressive when a game is so fun it’s to the detriment of the story that it is trying to tell.

Reverse Double Aerial Save in Rocket League

11/10/2015 Ori and the Blind Forest Xbox One

I was going to start this with a single word but quickly realised that isn’t enough for this game. This is easily one of my standout games. I’m not just talking about this year or recently, I mean this is one of my all time favourite games now.

I feel like the Moon Studios have done such a brilliant job in every aspect of this game. The art style looked great and the animations and the fact that nothing felt static did amazing work at making this world feel so alive. I feel like it would be easy for the setting of a 2D platformer to feel samey and the fact that each area had a nice, distinct feel made it so interesting to explore all of these environments.

Speaking of exploring, the movement made this such a joy. I’ve said before that I tend to get bored of collectables but this is a game where I couldn’t get enough of them. The metroidvania style that this was influenced by meant you were always seeing secrets or areas that you couldn’t get to yet but you knew you would be able to head back there later and I loved this. As you learned more abilities it just added to the enjoyment of travelling through this world and the collectables gave you more of a reason to discover everything it had to offer. The other thing I loved about the movement is the fact that the level design made the world feel open for interpretation on how you travel it. There were areas where you knew you probably got an ability that would allow you to get there later but with some skill and persistence you could use your current abilities to get to an area or collectable earlier. I found way to much satisfaction in being able to make some ridiculous wall jumps to climb to some areas you were meant to use the charge jump to reach later.

The weakest area I feel for this game was the enemies. There were enough types of enemies to keep battles interesting and each type had multiple variants as you progressed through the game to keep them from getting repetitive but I would’ve liked to see some more. This is a small criticism though and this area still keeps up with the high standard of the rest of the game. The other side to the enemies that kept this up to the standard of the other elements of the game is how much the abilities you learn utilise the enemies attacks to your advantage.

The music and story were great as well and complemented each other perfectly. The story is told more through your companion Stein, the occasional narration from the Spirit Tree and through interactions with the environment and other characters and the music sets the mood perfectly for these. I thought the story itself was beautiful and left me with mixed feelings towards the end as you learn more about the main enemy of the game, Kuro. Like with Transistor, the final scene you’re left with is both happy and sad but kind of perfect.

I honestly can’t get enough of this game and will be jumping back in for some of the achievements that need multiple playthroughs. Next playthrough will be finishing without spending any ability points which should be good fun. I’m planning on doing a 24hr stream to raise money for charity and want to aim for the achievement for completing the game in 3 hours as part of this.

Transistor

27/08/2015 Transistor Playstation 4

After a string of AAA titles, this was a refreshing game to play. Rather than amazing graphics, I got to see an amazing art style with Transistor. There was so much colour and so much love that you could see put into this. I’m curious to see if the levels were created by piecing together different elements that were created or if every level was created by hand.

I’d heard of how good this game was meant to be but I found I spent the first 45-60 minutes wondering what the hell was going on. The story starts off thrusting you into the situation without giving you any information and the combat isn’t too involved initially but after that point you quickly start to see what makes this game so great.

First off, the combat mechanic for the game blew me away. As you level you unlock additional functions to use in battle but what keeps things interesting is the seemingly endless combinations of ways to use these functions. Each function can be used in one of three ways; either as an active, upgrade or passive function. So, you can have up to 4 active functions but these can be modified with up to two functions each as upgrades and on top of that you can have up to 4 passive functions. With 16 functions in total at your disposal (once you level enough), you’re given a massive amount of flexibility for the tactics you can use in battle.

A fairly unique way they managed to push you to experiment with this was that each function was based off of a person, and as you use the function in each of the 3 different ways, you unlock more information about that person. Initially I was doing this because I thought it was interesting hearing about these characters but it wasn’t until I started unlocking the third part of their stories that I started to see how they were related and how they are all part of the overarching story of the game. Suddenly I was hooked on using the functions in the different ways so that I could find out all I could about the characters. On top of this I was also seeing just how big a difference it can make using the functions in their different ways. By the final boss I had my favourite combination of functions but until near that point, I don’t think I used the same combination for more than a few battles. Thanks to this, the combat never got boring and you were constantly finding out more about the story through the information on these characters.