Game reviews
A Hat in Time
Let’s start with options. I always say that the quality of the main menu and available options speaks volumes about the quality of the game itself. There is a surprisingly detailed assortment of options available here. Hell, motion blur is even separated into per-object motion blur and screen blur (because who likes screen blur?). Every option is accompanied with a description of what it does. In terms of essential options, you have all the ones you’d expect from a decent PC game: FoV sliders, individual audio sliders, wide array of FPS locks, and plenty of graphical options.
Performance wise, I get a consistent 120 FPS on a i5-6600K and GTX 1070 with every option maxed (except screen blur, of course). Seems fairly optimized for my particular build, but your mileage may vary.
Controls are tight. You never feel like you’re fighting against the game.
Level design is, well, good. Not great, but good enough that you certainly don’t notice its shortcomings while playing. When you step back and think about it though, the level design really isn’t anything to write home about. In general I found the levels to be too busy and lacking cohesion. They’re not very memorable in the sense that if you were to drop me in a random part of a level, I’d have difficulty identifying exactly where I was.
There’s a ton of little details in the world that are just delightful. There’s an adorable little roomba that roams your spaceship! But the one thing that really stood out to me is the 4-piece band you have in your spaceship. You can tell this band to play you some tunes, and get this: the members of the band only start playing at their corresponding parts of the song! If there aren’t any drumbeats, the drummer doesn’t drum. The trumpet player doesn’t start playing until the song has trumpets. That’s an incredible attention to detail.
Which I guess brings me to the soundtrack. It’s phenomenal. At the time of writing (with a -20% discount), the deluxe edition is only $4 extra, and is well worth the cost. Gear with Breakfast has also put up the full soundtrack on YouTube, so go check it out!
The platforming is solid. It’s not hard as nails; there’s some measure of difficulty but not frustratingly so.
There’s a lot of collectibles. Typically you get cosmetic rewards for your efforts. The platforming is satisfying enough that I had no qualms in going out of my way to collect ‘em all.
Overall A Hat in Time is an exceedingly good game. I think it’s one of those games that are greater than the sum of its parts. While each aspect of the game is good in and of itself; put together it’s just a work of art.
GREYHAT - A Digital Detective Adventure
An excellent game with interesting puzzles and a very compelling story.
The subtitle, “Digital detective adventure”, is an apt description for the game. The puzzles are the investigative sort, with logical solutions. Most puzzles will involve reading emails/documents and looking at photographs for clues. Some have little minigames and physical interactions as well. The puzzles aren’t straightforward either; you’re typically required to take down notes, and the game helpfully provides a little notepad for you. I particularly enjoy the puzzles because often they’re about some real-world scenario, whether it’s solving a murder case or preventing some disaster. There’s an overarching story as well, and each puzzle you solve is in some way tied to it.
As for the story, I must say I was hooked within the first 15 minutes. I honestly didn’t expect such a compelling story! The story is presented in the form of text and email conversations, and it works surprisingly well. The “boring” nature of text conversations is enhanced by a rather interesting input mechanism. It’s a little hard to explain coherently via text, but let’s say that it introduces some interactivity to the act of advancing dialog.
There is a demo available. Honestly I only played it halfway before I went and purchased the game, but I think I can assume where the demo stops. I think it’ll provide a good indication of what the game will be like. Highly recommend checking out the demo if what I’ve written above interests even in the slightest.
Levelhead
Love it. Bought it on a whim and was hooked within the first half hour.
The tutorialization is really good. Gradually introduces new concepts and eases the player into the flow of things. The campaign (called “training” levels in-game) is of excellent quality as well. I appreciated the heavy tutorialization that introduced the level editor, as someone without prior experience in the genre.
Speaking of the level editor, I found it intuitive to use. Had no issues with designing and building a level.
Though what really stands out to me is the level discoverability. Levelhead has a really smart system that incentives players to play newly-created levels made by other players. Essentially new levels get put into the “marketing department”, and you earn “exposure bucks” from playing other player-created levels. These bucks can be spent on your own levels to increase its visibility.
The end result is a happy little feedback loop where you’re incentived to play other players’ levels, and other players' are incentivized to play yours. It’s quite rewarding when the levels you so painstakingly build get played by others.
And finally… there are so many great levels by the community! Lots of very unique creations, which is also testament to the robust level editor.
Would absolutely recommend Levelhead to anyone even remotely interested in platformers.
Persona 4: Golden
Just finished the game and I’m honestly feeling a little speechless. What a fantastic game. I didn’t expect it, but Persona 4: Golden has fast become one of my favorite RPGs. I’m a sucker for stories featuring camaraderie between a cast of characters, and this game delivers that so, so well. The interactions between each character felt so genuine, I found myself sitting there with a smile on my face for much of my playthrough.
You know that feeling when you finish a book or TV series you really loved? I call it a book hangover, it’s such a bittersweet feeling, having to say goodbye to the world and its characters. I felt the same with the world Persona 4 and its characters. This game is the perfect remedy for loneliness.
I have a couple recommendations for anyone interested in the game:
- Try the game out with Japanese audio and English subs, you might prefer it. I much preferred this setup; couldn’t stand the English dubs.
- Go in as blind as you can. Stay away from forums until you’ve finished the game.
Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six 3: Gold Edition
I love this game. This game was one of my very first gaming experiences. Before Neopets. Before Pokemon. Before my PS1 and Xbox. Before Warcraft 3 and Diablo and all the other good stuff. I used to play this all the time with my dad, and as such constitutes some of my fondest childhood memories.
Anyway, let’s dive right in.
This game has technical issues. The menus are locked to 800x600 (?) resolution, though the game itself supports much higher resolutions. It did 1080p just fine for me. However, due to the different resolutions, your resolution will fluctuate whenever you enter/leave the menus. Kind of annoying, but no big deal. You better get used to the low resolution though, because you’ll be spending a lot of time in the planning menu. Which brings me to my next point…
This is not your typical action FPS. It’s relatively slow paced and you spend a lot of time planning things out. There are 3 teams you can customize. You can outfit each team member with different armor, weapons, weapon attachments, various types of grenades, and various utility tools. During planning you can dictate where your teams go, how they go there, what they do when the reach there, etc.
For example, you might want green and gold team to wait for your signal (“Alpha, go!") before they clear a particular room.
- Want one team to throw a smoke and the other to throw a flashbang before doing storming the room? Done.
- Locked door? No problem, tell them to breach it first.
- Hostages? Throw some tear gas in. Don’t worry, you can outfit your guys with gas masks.
There is a ton of ways to complete missions. You can take control of a team as well, and co-ordinate with the other teams in clearing a level.
AI sometimes spotty. On occasions the AI will get stuck bumping into one another, or they’ll be looking in stupid directions while taking fire. Most of the time though the AI is quite capable. You’ll see your teams moving in formation, covering for one another. They’ll strafe into rooms. I’ve actually been saved by my AI companion more times than I can count, so they’re certainly not a burden.
There is auto-aim, but you can turn it off. You can also configure how sensitive you want the auto-aim to be.
There is a lot of trial and error. Your plans will not work on the first try. You’ll be going through the level halfway when one of your teams starts getting killed off. Then you’ll go back to the planning stage and try to rectify the flaws in your master plan. Maybe green team should throw a smoke before storming this particular room. Maybe you should reposition gold team so that they can better cover fire for green team. This is as much a strategy game as it is an action one.
Another this is that death is permanent. You have a roster of soldiers, and if they die during a mission, they will not be available for subsequent missions. This gives you an incentive to complete missions with minimum casualties. Soldiers can be wounded too, making them move slower and have slower reflexes. Wounded soldiers recover after a couple missions.
This game is fantastic, but it’s not for everyone. It can’t really be compared to anything else on the market. Unfortunately the Rainbow Six series is no longer the tactical shooter it once was.
Spelunky 2
A worthy sequel to the original Spelunky.
The game is more difficult than the original. The levels are larger and more complex. There are new mobs, while some old ones have new behaviors. These changes generally give the game a slower pace. The original Spelunky had simpler levels, with enemies that weren’t very threatening; meaning that a sufficiently skilled player could essentially run through the game without getting into much danger. I enjoy the slower and more methodical playstyle, so I think this is a large improvement over the first game. Spelunky veterans who’ve developed an opposing playstyle preference may feel very differently. New players will likely find the opening levels too difficult for the first few hours.
Spelunky is full of secrets. Derek Yu made a comment in an interview (26:36) on how gamers these days have a tendency to fixate on “beating the game”. He mentioned that he designed Spelunky to be about exploration and discovery. Thinking to yourself - What happens if I do this, or do that, or how does this work, or how might I access this new area, and so on. I’m inclined to agree with this philosophy; I think a large part of why I’m enjoying Spelunky 2 so much is because everything is new and I’m trying to figure out what things do or how to do certain things. So far I’ve managed to avoid major spoilers and am just enjoying the personal discovery process. If you get the game wanting to “beat it”, I think Spelunky 2 (and Spelunky in general) is not going to be for you.
This is a rather contentious game, and certainly not for everyone. I’d highly recommend it to anyone who has played and enjoyed the original Spelunky. I only weakly recommend it to new players; I think many people will be put off by the permadeath and lack of permanent upgrades common in other roguelites (e.g. Rogue Legacy, Hades, Dead Cells, etc.).
Stardew Valley
Stardew Valley is about more than just farming. You fish, mine, rear animals, build relationships, marry, explore, and yes, make money. These systems are all extremely fleshed out.
There are multiple ways to construct a profitable farm. Be a bee keeper and sell honey. Place a ton of tappers on trees to collect their sap. Harvest fruits and make wine. Make beer and ale instead. Rear animals and sell their products. Or just straight up farm crops to sell.
The world feels alive and populated. The villagers have their own schedules and you often see them going about their day. After a while you get to know more about each character, and they’re often deeper than would appear!
As you become more liked by the residents of Stardew Valley (by giving them gifts!), you’ll trigger little cutscenes with them. These cutscenes and interactions do a really good job in making it feel like your relationship building efforts are actually doing something. It’s this sense of progression that keeps the game from feeling like you’re just raising an arbitrary stat to get a certain ending.
Speaking of progression, Stardew Valley’s pacing is particularly well done. When you start the game for the first time, it doesn’t hold your hand and lead you through a step-by-step tutorial. You get some seeds, basic farming instructions, and off you go. Then you’re given an initial quest to meet the villagers. That’s all you really need. Each new feature or system that comes up is organically introduced and explained. You never reach a point where you have to wonder, “well now what do I do?”.
Wholeheartedly recommend. I feel a little guilty paying just $15 for this.
TIS-100
This is a programming puzzle game. However, you don’t need to know programming to understand the game. It certainly helps, but this game is less about writing code and more about the logic processes involved in building a solution. If you have a logical mind and enjoy puzzles, this game may be for you. If you enjoy programming, this game is most definitely for you.
The game uses a fictional implementation of an assembly type language. You get a manual in PDF form. Yes, you have to read a manual. It’s not complicated though, as there are only a handful of operations available to you. There’s enough to allow for interesting solutions yet limited enough to make the game challenging. A very good balance between the two, I’d say.
Regarding the puzzle aspect, you’re expected to work with nodes, each only allowing a limited number of lines and containing two memory registers (no addressable memory!), only one of which can be actively accessed for read/write operations. As a result, you need to structure your program around these limitations, perhaps by breaking it down into various components.
The problems are varied and quite grounded in real-world applications (sequence peak detector, histogram, etc.). The game is simplistic and doesn’t hold your hand, but the problems are organized such that there’s a clear difficulty curve as you progress. The curve should be quite manageable for those with prior experience in programming.
There are also leaderboards so you can compare how efficient your solution was compared to your friends, because who doesn’t like improving?
Wholeheartedly recommend this to anyone who loves programming.
Titanfall 2
One of the best single-player campaigns I’ve played in a while. Finished it in around 4 hours, so it’s relatively short as far as single-player campaigns go. However this is largely because the game has very little to no filler, and I love it for that. Too many games try to drag out content to hit some arbitrary industry benchmark of 10 hours or so of gameplay. Titanfall 2 instead has no filler; it introduces a gameplay concept, explores it, then moves on.
I tend to enjoy movement shooters. My most played game of all time is Team Fortress 2 after all. Titanfall 2 absolutely does not disappoint in that regard. There’s an incredible amount of mobility in the game. Combined with good gunplay and it makes for a very fast-paced and responsive game.