In the later years of videogame development (IE: the fifth generation) we began to see the rise of the Survival Horror games, starting with Resident Evil in 1996 (I'm aware of Alone in the Dark (1992, PC) and Sweet Home (1989, NES), but they were forerunners to the genre). Resident Evil introduced the mainstream gaming crowd to slow paced scares requiring the player to analyse the situation and work out how to progress through the game. Being an older gamer, I've been around the industry for a LONG time and still remember the first time the dogs jumped through the windows.
But why did this push towards survival horror take place in the late 90's? Was it the changing land scape of the world? Societal upheaval? The possible end times that so many groups of people thought was coming in the year 2000? I posit this: the graphics. Simply put.
When you take a look at Resident Evil on the Playstation in 1996 and compare it to the Gamecube remake from 2002, you can see the leaps and bounds made in graphics between the 5th and 6th generation of game systems. Think about graphics going even further back, how could a game from 1992 possibly present the same ideas and fears that Resident Evil, Silent Hill, Fatal Frame and Parasite Eve?
The maturation of the industry, as well, is owed credit for the recent prevelence of horror games. With early games in the industry, the lack of photo like graphics didn't allow any violent or frightening images to be displayed with any power. There were games made based on horror movies for the Atari 2600, but it looked like stick men attacking stick men and trying to avoid traps. Later the industry was able to convey these horrible images and it was quickly recognized that gaming wasn't just for children and that there could be a sort of "Adult without Sex" end of the industry.
"Enter Survival Horror." So, does Resident Evil say anything more than "ZOMBIES!"? Of course it does, the arching plot of the series over the last 13 years has been based solely on the fact that a faceless, multinational corporation trying to make money at the expense of its customers. It definitely gave you something to think about in the late 1990's, but after 13 years of the same story being shoved down our throats, it's grown stale. Silent Hill is perhaps the crowning moment of videogame storyline achievement. Not just the first game, but the entire series. Silent Hill 2 being the perfect example.
Konami used Silent Hill 2 (2001) to mindfuck us. While playing through the game you're exposed to not only (arguably) the industry's scariest villain but also a ghost of James Sunderland's late wife, messages from the past and a creepy little girl that makes no sense in the story.
Resident Evil and Silent Hill offer much more than any other series of horror games have presented to the industry. Games like Kuon, Rule of Rose, Fatal Frame and Obscure. This isn't to say that the aforementioned games are not playable or even good games, but the fact is that they are formulaic and archaic compared to Capcom and Konami's offerings.
In recent years, though, Survival Horror has been put under the guillotine, causing us to play action games slated as Survival Horror. Resident Evil 4 started this revolution. I played the game as closely to the original Resident Evil as was possible and quickly found that by the end of the game I had hundreds of rounds of ammunition left over, where as I could never have enough in the original. Cold Fear quickly followed on the heals of Resident Evil 4 with a terrible game engine, terrible graphics and a plot that made me want to swallow a shotgun shell. Konami also tried to jump start this dying genre with their new take: Silent Hill 4: The Room. It went in the opposite direction of Resident Evil 4 by trapping the player in their character's apartment while playing mind games and denying the player weapons. And then the 7th Generation took place.
This is where I feel the genre ended. The Xbox 360 released with Resident Evil 5 on the horizon, Dead Rising slated for an early release date and Silent Hill 5 on the books. All of these games were made with more action in them than the earlier incarnations of the genre. Left 4 Dead introduced co-op first person players to the genre in a setting that they felt comfortable in and subsequently put the final nails in the coffin of the genre.
It's no secret that this genre is stale. 90% of Survival Horror games play exactly the same as one an other and the stories are getting rehashed and old. But, the elements that made Silent Hill, Resident Evil, Fatal Frame and Eternal Darkness so frightening and refreshing have been removed from the industry (including the aforementioned series') and have been replaced with "humorous" romps in malls, first person action shooters and rehashed "he's insane" story lines.
Wednesday, January 6, 2010
Tuesday, January 5, 2010
Star Wars: Old Republic (PC) commentary
So, I'm a huge fan of Knights of the Old Republic and am not ashamed of the fact that I bought an Xbox in 2004 just to play the sequel before it came out on the PC (although, looking back, the money I spent on the Xbox would have been better served buying a graphics card and waiting*) and have spent incalculable hours playing the series. The stories always offered something that was just amazing and made was able to suck me in for hours at a time.
I'm currently playing Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion and enjoying some seasonal beer and realized what I truly enjoy in an RPG and why I'm frightened of the upcoming Bioware/Lucasarts MMORPG coming out in 2010: the story will be lacking. I spent a few months playing World of Warcraft and quickly fell behind my more serious friends and found that I didn't enjoy playing as a gimped character at level 12 while my level 30 friends did "awesome dungeons" and picked up awesome loot. I even spent a couple years playing the original Star Wars: Galaxies, as well as the "New Experience" and found that they lacked any kind of continuing story that I look for in games.
Which is why Star Wars: Old Republic scares the hell out of me, I'm afraid that turning the franchise into an MMORPG will sully the good name that Bioware worked out for this IP. I read the comics, I played the games and I waited years for the Team Gizka patch that never came, hoping for some extra bits and pieces of the story. I wanted to find out what happened to Revan and the Exile after the events of the games. I wanted to find out how the Exile came to have Reven's droids, I wanted to play more of the story...
But, by transforming it into an MMORPG, I can't see the story being exposed to the player. I have no doubt that this joint effort of two titans of the industry will produce a spectacular gaming experience, but I doubt that it will be able to flesh out the story in any shape that fans of the series are looking forward to.
I know that it'll be awesome to play as a Smuggler on Nal Hutta and pick up some awesome missions and such, but I fear that the ease with which a player can pick up a lightsaber will also create a void of homogeneity, leading to a server full of Jedi and Sith.
I really just want to play Knights of the Old Republic III, not an MMO where I'm forced to listen to idiots blather on in chatrooms and over microphones like I'm on Xbox Live. I just want to learn what happened to all my favorite characters.
I know that I'll sink the cash and time into the game, but I'm worried that I'm not going to get what I want out of the game...
(* I was running a Pentium 4 3.2ghz CPU with 512 DDR Ram at 577 and a Geforce FX5200GT at the time, premium and top notch, aside from the 5200. Only thing I ever upgraded in that system was the ram, up to 1.5gb. Now, it's an Intel Q6600 clocked at 3.1GHZ with 3 Gigs of DDR2 at 800MHZ and a Geforce 8800GT, not the cream of the crop, but, decent.)
I'm currently playing Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion and enjoying some seasonal beer and realized what I truly enjoy in an RPG and why I'm frightened of the upcoming Bioware/Lucasarts MMORPG coming out in 2010: the story will be lacking. I spent a few months playing World of Warcraft and quickly fell behind my more serious friends and found that I didn't enjoy playing as a gimped character at level 12 while my level 30 friends did "awesome dungeons" and picked up awesome loot. I even spent a couple years playing the original Star Wars: Galaxies, as well as the "New Experience" and found that they lacked any kind of continuing story that I look for in games.
Which is why Star Wars: Old Republic scares the hell out of me, I'm afraid that turning the franchise into an MMORPG will sully the good name that Bioware worked out for this IP. I read the comics, I played the games and I waited years for the Team Gizka patch that never came, hoping for some extra bits and pieces of the story. I wanted to find out what happened to Revan and the Exile after the events of the games. I wanted to find out how the Exile came to have Reven's droids, I wanted to play more of the story...
But, by transforming it into an MMORPG, I can't see the story being exposed to the player. I have no doubt that this joint effort of two titans of the industry will produce a spectacular gaming experience, but I doubt that it will be able to flesh out the story in any shape that fans of the series are looking forward to.
I know that it'll be awesome to play as a Smuggler on Nal Hutta and pick up some awesome missions and such, but I fear that the ease with which a player can pick up a lightsaber will also create a void of homogeneity, leading to a server full of Jedi and Sith.
I really just want to play Knights of the Old Republic III, not an MMO where I'm forced to listen to idiots blather on in chatrooms and over microphones like I'm on Xbox Live. I just want to learn what happened to all my favorite characters.
I know that I'll sink the cash and time into the game, but I'm worried that I'm not going to get what I want out of the game...
(* I was running a Pentium 4 3.2ghz CPU with 512 DDR Ram at 577 and a Geforce FX5200GT at the time, premium and top notch, aside from the 5200. Only thing I ever upgraded in that system was the ram, up to 1.5gb. Now, it's an Intel Q6600 clocked at 3.1GHZ with 3 Gigs of DDR2 at 800MHZ and a Geforce 8800GT, not the cream of the crop, but, decent.)
Saturday, January 2, 2010
Silent Hill: Shattered Memories (Wii)
I'm not going to hide my love of Survival Horror games , especially the Resident Evil franchise, so it's no surprise that I've sunk countless hours into the game. It even started a cascade of playing through the entire series of Silent Hill games, one after the other.
Shattered Memories breaks free of certain conventions that have been part of the Survival Horror since the inception of Infogrames' Alone in the Dark in 1992. You don't have to worry about ammo conservation or juggling health items in your limited inventory, you in fact don't even have an inventory or any weapons! It's a strange experience to play a game like this without weapons, and creates a very intense feeling of dread when you feel danger is imminent. It seems that, given Resident Evil 4, Silent Hill: Homecoming, Alone in the Dark (2008), Dead Rising and Left 4 Dead, that Survival Horror is in the throes of being reimagined and changed (sometimes for the better, sometimes for the worse). Shattered Memories plays out more like an old point-n-click adventure game in 3D than a conventional Survival Horror game.
Shattered Memories is a standard retelling of Silent Hill to start with, but quickly varies from the source material, just as Christopher Gans' terrible film adaptation did. The variations in this game were welcome, when compared to the film, as a complete remake, rather than reimagination, would be boring to most fans of the series. Even Silent Hill: 0 (Origins in N/A) lacked much new material and felt somewhat forced into the series, Shattered Memories does not fall into that trap. It starts with Harry Mason trying to find his daughter, Cheryl, after a car crash, as the rest of the game plays out, you scratch your head trying to figure it out. All of the characters from the original Playstation's Silent Hill are featured in the game, but in very different ways than you're used to in the series. Lisa Garland, Cybil Bennett, Dahlia and Dr. Kaufmann are all in the game, but if you're hoping for them to be the same people from 1999, you're in for a disappointment.
Shattered Memories plays fairly quickly, and fluidly. There are very few points in the game where you find yourself stuck and unable to figure out the puzzles (all of which are fairly simple), the hardest puzzles take place in the middle of the dreaded "chase sequences," sometimes requiring you to backtrack through danger and take photos while small, ugly monsters attempt to kill you. Just a tip: remember what color the toucan's beak is. The chase sequences are something that I feel get repetitive and confusing. On initial playthroughs of the game, it's easy for the player to get lost running through new environments and get overwhelmed by the following monsters. It's true that doors are highlighted, helping you get away, but I found myself going in circles quite frequently. On subsequent playthroughs, I would plan my path out before known chase sequences and beeline to the end of the chase sequences.
As you progress through the game, your mind is constantly raped by the other characters and events in the game, especially if you're used to the franchise. None of the characters in the game are what they seem. An interesting route that Climax took with this installation of the series, was a constantly changing game. Being a Survival Horror addict, I'm well aware and used to the idea of different endings in games, but in each subsequent play through with Shattered Memories I found not only subtle differences, but felt the game had a completely different demeanor. Sometimes the women would be hussies, sometimes respectable. Sometimes the monsters featured awkwardly sexual anatomy, sometimes just faceless goons. The ending is always the same, it's the back story that changes, in an interesting twist. The outcome and condition of the game is decided through a series of psychological examinations given to you by another character, what object you spend more time looking at, as well as what you take pictures of, it's very fluid and dynamic and it isn't as simple as you'd think to get the outcomes you want.
This game does feature the most elaborate means of achieving the UFO ending in all the series. It requires you to capture 18 UFOs with your camera and call a phone number on Harry's phone. Speaking of Harry's phone, Climax took some hints from other current popular games (IE: GTAIV) and incorporated the Cell Phone as a tool and stole the "Camera capturing ghosts" idea from Fatal Frame. It isn't anything new for ideas from one series to translate into the other (especially in the Survival Horror genre), but it's rare for it to be as fluidly incorporated as Climax did. There are bonus finds throughout the game that help elaborate on the story of the game if you find all the little bits and pieces. Through your phone, you can call for help, take pictures of ghosts and receive voice and text messages from the dead. It's a very interesting mechanic to add to the game.
Overall, I was fairly pleased with the game. It wasn't as predictable as I thought it would be, but I attribute that to my anticipations as a fan, the gameplay was fresh and I thoroughly enjoyed the entire experience. For many, the game may be worth merely a rental, as a single play through can be had in one or two nights, but for fans of the genre, a purchase is necessary to achieve all endings and extras.
Pros: It's Silent Hill, refreshing game play, unique character development, great visuals, chilling sound, perfect controls.
Cons: Ending isn't as epic as past Silent Hill outings, lacks any type of combat, sometimes feel repetitive, certain characters in the game seem forced.
Play if you like: Survival Horror in general.
Overall: 8/10
Shattered Memories breaks free of certain conventions that have been part of the Survival Horror since the inception of Infogrames' Alone in the Dark in 1992. You don't have to worry about ammo conservation or juggling health items in your limited inventory, you in fact don't even have an inventory or any weapons! It's a strange experience to play a game like this without weapons, and creates a very intense feeling of dread when you feel danger is imminent. It seems that, given Resident Evil 4, Silent Hill: Homecoming, Alone in the Dark (2008), Dead Rising and Left 4 Dead, that Survival Horror is in the throes of being reimagined and changed (sometimes for the better, sometimes for the worse). Shattered Memories plays out more like an old point-n-click adventure game in 3D than a conventional Survival Horror game.
Shattered Memories is a standard retelling of Silent Hill to start with, but quickly varies from the source material, just as Christopher Gans' terrible film adaptation did. The variations in this game were welcome, when compared to the film, as a complete remake, rather than reimagination, would be boring to most fans of the series. Even Silent Hill: 0 (Origins in N/A) lacked much new material and felt somewhat forced into the series, Shattered Memories does not fall into that trap. It starts with Harry Mason trying to find his daughter, Cheryl, after a car crash, as the rest of the game plays out, you scratch your head trying to figure it out. All of the characters from the original Playstation's Silent Hill are featured in the game, but in very different ways than you're used to in the series. Lisa Garland, Cybil Bennett, Dahlia and Dr. Kaufmann are all in the game, but if you're hoping for them to be the same people from 1999, you're in for a disappointment.
Shattered Memories plays fairly quickly, and fluidly. There are very few points in the game where you find yourself stuck and unable to figure out the puzzles (all of which are fairly simple), the hardest puzzles take place in the middle of the dreaded "chase sequences," sometimes requiring you to backtrack through danger and take photos while small, ugly monsters attempt to kill you. Just a tip: remember what color the toucan's beak is. The chase sequences are something that I feel get repetitive and confusing. On initial playthroughs of the game, it's easy for the player to get lost running through new environments and get overwhelmed by the following monsters. It's true that doors are highlighted, helping you get away, but I found myself going in circles quite frequently. On subsequent playthroughs, I would plan my path out before known chase sequences and beeline to the end of the chase sequences.
As you progress through the game, your mind is constantly raped by the other characters and events in the game, especially if you're used to the franchise. None of the characters in the game are what they seem. An interesting route that Climax took with this installation of the series, was a constantly changing game. Being a Survival Horror addict, I'm well aware and used to the idea of different endings in games, but in each subsequent play through with Shattered Memories I found not only subtle differences, but felt the game had a completely different demeanor. Sometimes the women would be hussies, sometimes respectable. Sometimes the monsters featured awkwardly sexual anatomy, sometimes just faceless goons. The ending is always the same, it's the back story that changes, in an interesting twist. The outcome and condition of the game is decided through a series of psychological examinations given to you by another character, what object you spend more time looking at, as well as what you take pictures of, it's very fluid and dynamic and it isn't as simple as you'd think to get the outcomes you want.
This game does feature the most elaborate means of achieving the UFO ending in all the series. It requires you to capture 18 UFOs with your camera and call a phone number on Harry's phone. Speaking of Harry's phone, Climax took some hints from other current popular games (IE: GTAIV) and incorporated the Cell Phone as a tool and stole the "Camera capturing ghosts" idea from Fatal Frame. It isn't anything new for ideas from one series to translate into the other (especially in the Survival Horror genre), but it's rare for it to be as fluidly incorporated as Climax did. There are bonus finds throughout the game that help elaborate on the story of the game if you find all the little bits and pieces. Through your phone, you can call for help, take pictures of ghosts and receive voice and text messages from the dead. It's a very interesting mechanic to add to the game.
Overall, I was fairly pleased with the game. It wasn't as predictable as I thought it would be, but I attribute that to my anticipations as a fan, the gameplay was fresh and I thoroughly enjoyed the entire experience. For many, the game may be worth merely a rental, as a single play through can be had in one or two nights, but for fans of the genre, a purchase is necessary to achieve all endings and extras.
Pros: It's Silent Hill, refreshing game play, unique character development, great visuals, chilling sound, perfect controls.
Cons: Ending isn't as epic as past Silent Hill outings, lacks any type of combat, sometimes feel repetitive, certain characters in the game seem forced.
Play if you like: Survival Horror in general.
Overall: 8/10
Broken Sword: Shadow of the Templars Directors Cut (DS)
This game was released almost 3 quarters of a year ago in March of '09. It, unfortunately, slipped under my nose for so long, but yesterday I acquired a copy of the game and spent the entire day playing the game.
I was raised playing Lucasarts and Sierra point-n-click games on PC, going all the way back to Headline Harry, Gold Rush and Colonel's Bequest on a 286 (not to mention, I never really got anywhere in Gold Rush, that game's crazy hard). I'm not going to hide my bias towards point-n-click gameplay and adventure games, as that's the entire reason I spent an entire day playing Broken Sword on the DS.
This is a port, as well as minor reimagining, of the original game from the Broken Sword series. The main game varies ever so slightly from the original release on PC (in 1996), the only parts of the game that were definitely new were the parts where you play as the supporting character Nicole Collard, as well as a gallery of concept art. That's not a whole lot of extra game (considering I own an original copy from 1996) to make up for buying a new copy of the game, but it does add just a little bit to the story.
The game, itself, has a classic adventure narrative, coupled with an unusual diaspora theme as well as religious ideology being a large piece of the narrative without being overbearing. You play as George Stobartt, an American on vacation in Paris, who gets unwittingly involved in a conspiracy that leads to his travelling across all of Europe. The story seems rather forced, initially, but once you get past George's initial involvement, you start to settle into the story and appreciate the grandeur of the game. To give you an idea of how forced it is without giving away any major plot events, George says "I believe in justice, and I must go after the man who did this" and does a better job at investigating than the police.
The graphics are about what you'd expect, quality wise, from a port of a PC from 1996, but I was slightly bothered by the cartoonish style that the characters were drawn in. It wasn't an issue with the graphics themselves, but rather a differing of opinion that the artists at Revolution Software and myself have. The puzzles in the game tend to be simpler than most other games from the same period (think of Kings Quest 6 from Sierra and The Dig from Lucasarts as contemporaries), but still offered a bit of a challenge from time to time.
Broken Sword also offers an in game hint system that made consulting the internet for frustrating parts almost completely obsolete. It made it easier to stay submerged in the game's universe and appreciate that the developer was more interested in making the game accessible and enjoyable than create moments of absolute frustration and hatred.
I finished the game in a single sitting, albeit a 12 hour single sitting with breaks for lunch and dinner. I can't say that the game is absolutely worth the price of admission, given the lack of a talkie track (especially, considering that with SCUMMVM DS and a copy of The Dig, you can get that with a talkie track on your DS) and any other extras that I'd hope to get in a "Directors Cut," but it was a fun trip down memory lane for this old Adventure gamer. There was also the issue of the soundtrack being Midi tracks, rather than WAV or MP3 audio, making for a quick disconnect, sound wise, from the game. I admit, that once I found out there was no talking track and the audio was weak, I spent the day watching movies while playing the game.
Pros: Beautiful graphics for a 13 year old port, hint system allows easy play, grand story line that spans Europe, decent character developement, strangely relevant in 2010 for a game made in 1996, beautiful cut scenes.
Cons: No talking track, Midi audio blows, ending comes far to quickly and with too little effort.
Play if you liked: any of the adventure games from the 80's and 90's.
Overall: 7/10
Also, visit the developers website for info on the game, as well as freeware versions of Beneath of Steel Sky and Lure of the Temptress, which are both very similar games:
http://www.revolution.co.uk/
I was raised playing Lucasarts and Sierra point-n-click games on PC, going all the way back to Headline Harry, Gold Rush and Colonel's Bequest on a 286 (not to mention, I never really got anywhere in Gold Rush, that game's crazy hard). I'm not going to hide my bias towards point-n-click gameplay and adventure games, as that's the entire reason I spent an entire day playing Broken Sword on the DS.
This is a port, as well as minor reimagining, of the original game from the Broken Sword series. The main game varies ever so slightly from the original release on PC (in 1996), the only parts of the game that were definitely new were the parts where you play as the supporting character Nicole Collard, as well as a gallery of concept art. That's not a whole lot of extra game (considering I own an original copy from 1996) to make up for buying a new copy of the game, but it does add just a little bit to the story.
The game, itself, has a classic adventure narrative, coupled with an unusual diaspora theme as well as religious ideology being a large piece of the narrative without being overbearing. You play as George Stobartt, an American on vacation in Paris, who gets unwittingly involved in a conspiracy that leads to his travelling across all of Europe. The story seems rather forced, initially, but once you get past George's initial involvement, you start to settle into the story and appreciate the grandeur of the game. To give you an idea of how forced it is without giving away any major plot events, George says "I believe in justice, and I must go after the man who did this" and does a better job at investigating than the police.
The graphics are about what you'd expect, quality wise, from a port of a PC from 1996, but I was slightly bothered by the cartoonish style that the characters were drawn in. It wasn't an issue with the graphics themselves, but rather a differing of opinion that the artists at Revolution Software and myself have. The puzzles in the game tend to be simpler than most other games from the same period (think of Kings Quest 6 from Sierra and The Dig from Lucasarts as contemporaries), but still offered a bit of a challenge from time to time.
Broken Sword also offers an in game hint system that made consulting the internet for frustrating parts almost completely obsolete. It made it easier to stay submerged in the game's universe and appreciate that the developer was more interested in making the game accessible and enjoyable than create moments of absolute frustration and hatred.
I finished the game in a single sitting, albeit a 12 hour single sitting with breaks for lunch and dinner. I can't say that the game is absolutely worth the price of admission, given the lack of a talkie track (especially, considering that with SCUMMVM DS and a copy of The Dig, you can get that with a talkie track on your DS) and any other extras that I'd hope to get in a "Directors Cut," but it was a fun trip down memory lane for this old Adventure gamer. There was also the issue of the soundtrack being Midi tracks, rather than WAV or MP3 audio, making for a quick disconnect, sound wise, from the game. I admit, that once I found out there was no talking track and the audio was weak, I spent the day watching movies while playing the game.
Pros: Beautiful graphics for a 13 year old port, hint system allows easy play, grand story line that spans Europe, decent character developement, strangely relevant in 2010 for a game made in 1996, beautiful cut scenes.
Cons: No talking track, Midi audio blows, ending comes far to quickly and with too little effort.
Play if you liked: any of the adventure games from the 80's and 90's.
Overall: 7/10
Also, visit the developers website for info on the game, as well as freeware versions of Beneath of Steel Sky and Lure of the Temptress, which are both very similar games:
http://www.revolution.co.uk/
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