This week I acquired a bad cold for the first time in years. Fortunately it seems I continue to avoid the Corona Virus Disease (2019), though I'm still sick and felt pretty horrible at the peak.
I finished off Abscission, which I enjoyed. The cosmic horror was suitably fucked up, and I did get the sense that my earlier decisions altered the progression of the game. The ending (that I got) itself was OK, but rather rote and has the protagonist inexplicably self-sacrificing as is typical of the style. However it became more and more of a grind as the game went on. Of particular note here is the lack of use of the game's "4 humours" themed interrogation mechanic, which showed up precisely three times in my game (and one was a tutorial.)
Over the years I've come to realise that I have a problem with building games. Specifically that many of them, while technically functional, are entirely uninteresting once played. And that I often get sucked in by them and only realise the problem once it's too late. In this spirit, I picked up Manor Lords after watching a friend play and seeing the overworld map. This was enough to fool me into thinking the game would be something more than the typical Banished clone. For some reason Banished is a formative game for many people, and this mystifies me because it's entirely unspectacular compared to many others in the genre, and the ways it innovates are annoying more than anything. Anyway I didn't play much of Manor Lords, it's fine, so far I regret buying it.
What I did do after buying Manor Lords was immediately become seized with the mania that makes me play OpenTTD every so often. This game started as a modern engine with which to play Transport Tycoon Deluxe, but has since removed all need to possess the original and become its own game. The current iteration of OpenTTD seems just as solid as it ever was, though my game has some random 10-20 pauses that it never used to (I believe this has something to do with the logic of the custom CPU AI I am using) My game is into the 1990s in game, so the transition from electric rail to Maglev will happen soon, which is the point where all the automatic update tools stop being usable and a lot of cumbersome work needs to be done (one thing that remains annoying in OpenTTD is that you can't build anything when the game is paused). So I'll likely stop playing this save soon. The game is still incredible though.
Another mania made me play Daikatana for the first time in years. I'd forgotten how annoying those frogs and mosquitos are. I'd also forgotten how to exit the first level. This game still sucks.
I also picked up Ages of Conflict: World War Simulator. Which is less a game than it is a Voronoi diagram generation tool. Where you can create a custom map (standard world maps, etc are provided,) generate a bunch of countries/city-states, and watch them go at it seizing free territory and battling over borderlands, automatically negotiating alliances/wars/truces/etc. The game has an extremely basic economy and combat system, which is interesting enough for a few minutes. It also includes rudimentary tools to "play as" a nation, but this doesn't seem very compelling. And is shoddily done, mixing "gameplay" tools with "god mode superpower" tools as if they are equivalent. It's fine for what it is though.
Generally speaking I find the "STEAM KEY PLZ!!!111" comments on itch.io games to be repulsive (particularly in the context of say, a charity bundle where you get 28472961 games for $10). I will often avail myself said keys if they are available, but usually I'm fine just playing the version straight from itch. The release of version 3 of Slice & Dice (which does not include a Steam key on itch) and its subsequent Steam release has pushed me as close as is possible to agreeing with these repugnant oafs. Since Version 3, the android version got erroneously included in with the PC versions, and in an attempt to cope with the error the price has been doubled (not an issue for me as I already own the game.) The game also now does not work properly with the itch.io app, erroneously downloading Version 2 of the game even when you explicitly select version 3, requiring you to manually download the game from the itch.io website to ensure you get the latest version (Again, not an issue for me who already knows about version 3 and how to get it. It's more problematic for someone who doesn't know what they are doing.) These are mostly minor issues, but they help Zeno's Paradox the game towards the 'you should include a Steam key' asymptote.
All of this above is a shame. Because Slice & Dice version the third is fantastic. I've loved the game since playing it in its first iteration and this version adds an absurd amount of variety and unlockable content to the game, and addresses many (but not all) of the worst issues with the game. The game is a dice combat game, where your squad (of varying classes/subclasses) and your enemies role six-sided dice labeled with various levels of damage,healing, or other bizarre effects, and then choose who you will target with the result. The game progresses through a linear series of fights, upgrading after each fight (alternating between characters moving to a higher level subclass, and getting a random inventory item.) As you play the game, more and more things unlock. Literally hundreds of special effect keywords, and dozens of alternate game modes (helpfully categorised into Classic/Cool/Cursed/etc.) This is one of those games where I will sit down to play for a few minutes (it autosaves after every battle.)
I do have issues though. My main problems after playing the initial release of Slice & Dice a few years ago were:
- Way too often the dice rolling animation literally has a die go straigh up and down, landing on the same side it started on with negligible rotation. These don't seem to skew the results, but it's pretty shit presentation and puts weird ideas in the players' heads. I don't know if these are canned animations, or physical simulation of dice (probably the latter,) but there is a simple solution to this in either case.
- The normal mode is fine for what it is. But I'd like something that plays the same but a bit more challenging. Unfortunately the hard mode is not just normal mode but harder, it is a harder mode with additional 'curses' on top of it. Almost all of these curses remove at least one of the mechanics that make the game fun.
My main problems after playing the current release of Slice & Dice are:
- Way too often the dice rolling animation literally has a die go straight up and down, landing on the same side it started on with negligible rotation. These don't seem to skew the results, but it's pretty shit presentation and weird ideas in the players' heads. I don't know if these are canned animations, or physical simulation of dice (probably the latter,) but there is a simple solution to this.
- The normal mode is fine for what it is. But I'd like something that plays the same but a bit more challenging. Unfortunately the hard mode is not just normal mode but harder, it is a harder mode with additional 'curses' on top of it. The curses are now much more varied and actually add unique twists to gameplay. But they are still largely grouped into "removes part of the game" or "unique but impossibly hard without perfect RNG".
The dice (non-)animation problem serves as Slice & Dice's Erosion Joker Card for me, though this is less of a conscious micro-managing game design choice. Where every piece of bad luck in the game gets filtered through the poisonous lens of "well they've fucked me over before..." Like the hard mode curse improvements are a fantastic improvement to the game, but I still can't help reflexively thinking the game is out to get me. I have a few other minor quibbles too, weirdly inconsistent language in modifier descriptions. And the enemies have a lot of variety (particularly in the new 'flee' mechanic) but there's not quite enough to be an amazing bespoke bestiary, but not enough is repeated to make it feel like robust systems-driven enemies. But generally this is a disproportionate amount of complaints for a game that I think is one of the best I've played in the last few years, mostly I bring them up because I feel like Slice & Dice would be the standard setter in the genre if not for what I mentioned.
Lastly, Indika is a fucking weird game that only gets weirder as it goes. The player controls the titular Indika, a 19th century Russian orthodox nun who also seems to be literally possessed by the devil. It's mostly a narrative-driven linear experience with what gameplay there is revolving around moving items into place so Indika can climb on them and scale a wall, or unlock a door. Though there is a strangely large amount of Indika driving forklift equivalents. There's also a sadly underutilised mechanic where the devil possessing Indika rends the world asunder while ranting at her, She can suppress the effect through prayer, thus enabling puzzle solving with strategic diabolic and prayerful periods. Additionally, there's some pixel art flashbacks that are quite decent storytelling, but highly mixed in terms of gameplay.
Indika seems to be fairly grounded in reality at first, you start off in the convent performing menial duties (collecting 'points' and leveling up as you perform Christian activities) and largely being hated by the other nuns. Then Indika is tasked with delivering a letter outside the convent, and through a bizarre series of circumstances she is soon escaping on a steam-powered bike, at walking pace, from a visually-impaired czarist with a rifle, while towing a injured convict named Ilya with a gangrenous arm (who has taken Indika hostage) in a sled. From there the two of them proceed to travel to Spasov in hope of a witnessing a miracle.
It's at this point you will probably notice that the architecture of Indika is absurdly huge with a Piranesi'esque quality to it (Less like the work of the artist specifically, and more like the book Piranesi with its dank, cold, and regularly flooded giant halls covered by all the biological side-effects of sea and bird life.) A section of the game where Ilya and Indika traverse a colossal "Fish Factory" is spectacularly intimidating and disgusting. As the game progresses it focuses more on having Ilya and Indika discuss the nature of the soul in these surreal environments, and less on the zany encounters. And for the most part it works, I would have played through it in one setting if I weren't sick. The critiques of the church in the game are solid, but not particularly novel. However judging by the reaction of some, it does seem to have struck a nerve.
Two caveats though. One: Immediately turn all graphics as low as possible at the start, as the game immediately jumps into a gorgeous, but graphically intensive cutscene that will hang for about 10 seconds while the audio plays on with the default settings. Two: The game is quite graphic in its depiction of a lot of things (there's one moment with a dead Dark Souls dog jammed in gear mechanisms that is incredible, but doesn't really spare the details), and in the moments where it isn't explicit is somehow even more disturbing.
April GAME OF THE MONTH
Felvidek
The rarest of rare things is a comedy game that is actually funny. Not only is Felvidek hilarious, but it has a fantastic soundtrack, and intriguing weird fiction plot, and JRPG combat that is relatively novel on top of that.
All Games Played
- Abscission: Good
- Manor Lords: OK
- OpenTTD: GREAT
- Daikatana: BAD
- Ages of Conflict - World War Simulator: OK
- Slice & Dice: GREAT (Notable)
- Indika: GREAT (Notable)