Welp, that Steam Grand Prix is one hell of a trainwreck. Oh well. Go pigs.
Report 9: Gone Girls
Steam replay. I can’t exactly force myself to call the first game “not as good” or, god forbid, “worse”, so let’s just say Portal 2 is just a bigger and juicier version of the original.
I’ll always have a soft spot for Wheatley’s humour, since GLaDOS’ snarky comments get old pretty quick, especially considering it’s the second game already.
Puzzles became more diverse, but it’s still fairly easy.
Too bad I’m missing on, like, a third (?) of a game because I don’t like co-op and don’t have anyone to play it with. Again, not that I want to.
Singleplayer though? What can I say, it’s a great game.
It’s a sequel to a pretty well-known (I guess?) Emily is Away. It was alright, although I’m not exactly a fan of “MC cops-out” way to disrupt your choices in storytelling. The sequel is not really a continuation, but more of a remake of sorts. Now you’re using the messenger with two available contacts - aforementioned Emily and a new girl, Evelyn. I can see why the script would need her to expand the scope a bit, but it’s pretty obvious most of the players would still refer to her as “not Emily” - I mean, who wouldn’t want to bring MC and Emily together after all the bittersweet and heartbreaking shit you experienced in the first one?
Thankfully, you can actually do it this time. I felt some weird mix of fullfillment and dissapointment at the same time during the ending - I was almost waiting for something bad to happen, and then it just didn’t. Turns out I was being honest enough. Huh.
The conversations were sometimes a bit too simplistic and shallow for my taste, to the point that it sounded unnatural. Especially the parts where you’re comforting the girls about something or commenting about the stuff they like, MC’s answers always sounded somewhat fake and disingenuous. I don’t know if it’s really a thing or I’m just being cynical and bitter.
The “nostalgia trip” part, consisting pretty much of musical references, was kinda awkward, due to abovementioned unimaginative approach - it just keeps shoving bands’ names that were popular at the time. I have to admit, that this game is way more elaborate than it’s predecessor, using the pre-made pages on their website to parody oldschool Youtube, Facebook, Steam and stuff, that was pretty fun actually.
Overall, there were some parts that didn’t felt geniune enough, but it was still pretty good. You feel your choices matter a lot more this time.
And I have no idea why this review is so long, I’ve just re-checked it and - holy shit I didn’t even notice was rambling so much about it
tl;dr: GODDAMNIT I’M LONELY
I don’t think Braid needs any introduction whatsoever. The vague plot, time manipulation puzzles, one of the first big indie titles (I think?).
This game screws with your brain HARD. I always had a hard time trying to recover IRL and stopping to think with porta… i mean, time manipulation. Game’s puzzles are actually ingenious most of the time. But maybe I’m just dumb. They were kinda hard sometimes. But, again, just dumb. Maybe. I ended up looking up the guides more times than I’d like to admit.
It looks gorgeous, it sounds great, and you’re crazy if you think I’ll do your speedrun achievement, Johnatan, thanks, but I’ve had enough.
It’s kinda weird to give it a lower score than I did with Emily is Away Too, but I just can’t help it. Even with all the level of detail, the lore and hidden stuff, the main plot feels just… normal? It’s not a bad plot at all, it just seems like nothing to write home about. I also have a problem with the way the plot is presented - storytelling through notes and environment is a hard thing to pull off, and Gone Home sometimes fails in it. You can find notes way ahead of the plot you already figured out in your head, therefore plotline loses impact without needed context. And, since notes-storytelling is all the storytelling you get, this game is filled to the brim with notes. Sometimes all these plot devices feel a little contrived - why is that note even here? - and all that stuff.
I was told this game is really pretentious. Not really. It’s pretty straightforward.
Well, I’m glad they embraced the meme and made an achievement for speedrunning the game (1min and 10min w/ all the notes).
Too bad I’m missing on, like, a third (?) of a game because I don’t like co-op and don’t have anyone to play it with.
If you have two controllers (maybe even with a combination of keyboard+mouse & controller?) you can finish the co-op campaign on your own. I might be speaking from experience…
Sounds really uncomfortable. I’ve gotta try it out sometimes. I just hope it doesn’t need any fast paced combined actions.
It’s not as bad as it might sound. :) There’s usually more than enough time to sort things out. I can only remember two situations when I had issues with it:
- at some point (shouldn’t really be a spoiler for the puzzle solution since it’s a pretty generic thing to do in a level) one of the characters had to keep going through two portals (on opposite walls so luckily there was a straight line to follow) while the other one shot a portal somewhere. That’s the time when I had to use my feet to keep pushing character 1’s stick forward while using my hands to shoot a portal with the other controller. :D I’m sure there are better ways of doing this, though. :)
- there’s one thing that IS time limited and as much as I probably could have done it on my own eventually, I just asked someone else to use the second controller for a minute because I got tired of trying it over and over again.
Pig is the most stylish one, though.
This one gets it.