Game Diary: The Vast Odyssey

Do you ever get overwhelmed by the sheer size of a game and suffer from indecision about what to do next? That has happened to me with Assassin's Creed: Odyssey this week.  I have been playing it every day since I received it last Friday, but yesterday I needed to take a break.  I have already managed to put 20 hours on the clock though so that's probably understandable.  Things were going well to begin with - the game limits you to the fairly small island of Kephalonia for the first few hours, giving you some freedom to explore and get used to the mechanics of the game.  A lot of it will feel familiar to those who play Origins, but there have been some siginificant changes. Origins took some steps towards becoming a full fledged RPG, and now Odyssey has gone all the way there.  Instead of simple outfits that just changed your appearance, you now have helmets, torso armour, gloves, belts and boots as well.  This has increased the level of enjoyment for me because it means the random loot you find and treasure you pick up is a lot more meaningful.  There are a lot more dialogue options with important decisions to be made that will affect direction of the overall plot, ala Mass Effect or The Witcher 3.

Then there are the multiple levels of side quest. First is the mercenary system, which is quite similar to the nemesis system from the Middle Earth games but a lot less annoying.  While random mercenaries will come after you, they will only do so if you have a bounty on your head, which you can pay off from the map screen at any time, or just wait for your bounty level to drop over time.  These mercs have strengths and weaknesses much like the Uruk Hai of Mordor and there are no less than 9 tiers of them to work your way through.  They don't appear to be randomly generated though, or at least not the early ones. At the end of the starter zone in Kephalonia you will get access to your ship, but you won't really be using it very much as much of the first 15 or so hours takes place on land.  There are vast areas of water to explore further on into the game, but it takes quite a bit of time to get there. Not long after you get your boat, the game reveals the next system: the Cult of Kosmos.  There is a large network of 30 or so targets that need to be taken down, and their identities remain hidden to begin with.  You have to explore the world and find clues before you know who is part of the cult, then you can go and murder them. The higher level the cult member is, the more clues are required, and these high end cultist are level 50 or close to it so you won't be able to finish all of this until the end game or beyond.

In addition to this, I also did an optional quest to kill a legendary boar, which then triggered seven more similar quests to hunt down similar legendary beasts all across the Greek world.  When you add in the daily and weekly notice board quests that can be completed for orichalcum and traded for good weapons and armour, you have quite a lot to be getting on with.  You're looking at a game that will easily take 80 or so hours to finish if you want to do everything, which I do and I was fine with, until I got to Athens.  With the city sprawling in every direction as far as the eye can see, and the map screen littered with question marks, I started to feel like it was getting too much, and that's when I needed to take a break. I have no problem with the massive length of the game, as I can just chip away at it a little bit for months to come.  It's more the sheer number of options of where to go next - just visiting all of those questions marks in Athens will take hours, and it's just one district in the huge land mass of Attika. In addition to this, there are another four or five places on the map that I could go to now that I am level 20.

I think what I have decided to do for now, is to focus on taking out the low end cult members, working my way systematically through them and thoroughly exploring the rest of whatever island they happen to be on as I go.  In between I will play around in Athens for a little bit, but not try and do the entire city in one go. For me the best parts of the recent Assassin's Creed games has not been the densely populated areas, it's been the open countryside and the highly atmospheric tombs, of which there are many to be found in Odyssey too.  I haven't even got to the point where you can fight the mythical creatures like gorgons, minotaurs and so on yet, though I know this is in the game because various streams have shown game play of it.  I will also be taking regular breaks from Odyssey to play other stuff like retro games and Forza Horizon 4.  I am really enjoying my time with Odyssey, but I am wary of burning out and not finishing it.   It wasn't that long ago that I finished the DLC for Origins, after all. Kassandra seems like a really great protagonist from what I've experienced so far, up there with Ezio, Edward Kenway and the Frye twins, so I want to see this game through to the end. I might have another update as I get further in, or I may just wait and write a full review when I'm finished, we'll see!

Summer Backlog Diary #6 / Game Diary: Challenge Complete

I had hoped to get at least one or two more of my Summer Backlog Challenge list completed before the deadline of September 23rd, but alas this isn't going to happen.  Still, I did manage to pass the challenge by completing five out my ten choices, so I don't feel to bad about it. I still intend to finish the rest of the games, just on my own schedule. I will try and make a point of finishing sooner rather than later though. A number of things happened which caused me to drop the ball towards the end of the challenge, unfortunately.  Firstly, a ton of triple A games all dropped within a short space of time.  First it was Yakuza Kiwami 2, then Dragon Quest XI, and mostly recently Spider Man. So I spent quite a bit of time playing each one of these instead of focusing on my challenge list.  Then, my cat grew very ill and had to be put to sleep, and I haven't really felt like spending much time gaming since then.  Not on the bigger games, at any rate, I have still been dipping into retro and indie titles a little bit. I will recover eventually, but at the moment I miss my fuzzy buddy.

I've also recently acquired an Nvidia Shield TV, which has done it's bit in distracting me away from my task as well. With this little beauty, not only can you stream 4K video from all the usual sources, you can play Android games, install emulators for retro consoles and computers, and play certain Steam games via Geforce Now. This works amazingly well provided you have quite a fast internet connection, and it means I can play some PC games in much higher quality than my poor PC could ever manage.  I don't own many of the compatible titles just yet, I have tested out Grim Dawn and Two Point Hospital, both of which are fantastic.  The Geforce Now service is currently free because it's in Beta, and I have no idea how much it's likely to cost when it's rolled out properly, though I hear it will be less for Shield owners vs those who login via PC's, Macs or mobile devices.

You also get access to a range of 40 or so games to play around with via GeForce now, though most of these are quite old. I have tried out a few of them to see how well it works and I have to say I am very impressed. So far I've tried the 2013 Tomb Raider reboot, Alpha Protocol and Sonic Racing Transformed, and they all look great and play really well.  The Nvidia game pad that comes with the Shield TV is very nicely put together - it's comfortable and the buttons are good quality. I have experienced no lag at all with the games and though I haven't tried streaming at full 4K yet, 1080p still looks very nice indeed.  The main reason I bought the Shield TV is for the retro gaming - though I do have a Raspberry Pi box which is good for certain things, it wasn't quite delivering the goods for me.  With the combination of the ARC Browser, Retro X and ton of great emulators, the Shield TV provides a robust and reliable method of playing the classics, and capturing the footage so I can make more videos for you.  That it also allows me to check out Android and Steam games as well is a very nice added bonus!

You've probably noticed that I've been releasing quite a few episodes of RetroGrade recently.  This is because they are fairly easy to make (though they still take about five hours each). Unfortunately I can't just decide which PS2 game I want to make a video about on a Saturday, play it for a bit and make a video on Sunday (technically I could do this but I would be short changing both myself and my audience), whereas it is possible to play an arcade game for a couple of hours before summing up my thoughts. I realise that I've been saying that PS2 Tuesdays is going to return for a while now, and it is - I just need to work out what I'm going to play and then spend enough time playing it so that I can give it a fair review.  That's also why I don't review many RPG's on the PS2, though I hope to try and rectify that by making them either the first or last game in a season going forward. I think I might take a look at Burnout Dominator, Soul Calibur 3 and Rogue Galaxy during the rest of the season, though this is subject to change.

OK, I've rambled on enough for now. I am really quite excited about the opportunities that the Shield TV offers up though! As always, if you have any recommendations for games I should check it, be it modern, retro, Android or Steam, then let me know! In the meantime, take care.

Game Diary: Big Game Season

It's been a few weeks since my last update, so I thought I'd better let you all know what's going on.  Since I uploaded my review of Cosmic Star Heroine, I'm afraid I've dropped the ball with the Summer Backlog Challenge a little bit and have been playing other things, so this is just a regular game diary. As of today there's only three weeks left to go before the challenge ends, so I need to get on with things and try to finish Pyre at the very least, plus Hob if I can possibly manage it.  I do also intend to finish Battle Chasers, Odin Sphere and Growlanser: Wayfarer of Time but they will be outside of the challenge at this point. I can take my time with those but I do want the get to them sooner rather than later - I really don't want another 5 or so years to have gone by before I finish them.

I had a week off work last week though, and the busy gaming season really got underway, so today I'm going to go over what I've been playing recently.  Before my break, I got back into Assassin's Creed: Origins - particularly the DLC.  I finished The Hidden Ones, which I thought was solid but rather dull, and also pretty brief.  Then I started Curse of the Pharaohs which is much more exciting, and pretty huge as well.  You're looking at least 20 hours of gaming if you intend do everything.  I haven't quite finished it yet - I still have two Pharaohs that I need to lay to rest which involve exploring the afterlife and completing some quests before doing battle with them.  The boss fights in this DLC have been pretty challenging so far - they have a lot of hit points and hit hard, so you really need to be patient, use arrows to charge up your meter and then let loose with a powerful attack, then rinse and repeat.  I was struggling because I kept running out of arrows half way through one of the fights, but then I realised I had two other bow types which each had their own unique arrow counts.  The arrows do negligible damage but they do charge up your meter from a safe distance which is the key factor.

I also got the urge to play a Diablo style game again, but I didn't really want to just play Diablo 3 again, as I have done that to death at this point. I almost chose to play Grim Dawn, and I still want to eventually, but for now I returned to Path of Exile.  While I played through the single campaign a few years ago on the PC, a great deal has changed since then, with a whopping six new acts being added and loads of new features. I'm also playing on the Xbox One X this time, which has been great.  The game runs really well and Grinding Gear Games have done a great job in making the controls work on the Xbox controller.  I didn't really enjoy the Incursion league and it's new feature where you go into the past and open up rooms within a Vaal Temple, as you only get a very limited time to try and take down a boss and open some doors before you're wrenched back into the present.  If you don't manage to open the right doors within the temple, it's pretty much a waste of time exploring it for real when you finally get the opportunity because you won't be able to get to the boss.  The brand new Delve league begins today on consoles though and I would like to check it out - it involves exploring an infinitely generated mine with only the protection of torch that trundles along beside you on a cart.  Move too far away and you will be consumed by the darkness, though of course the best loot can be found just out of the safe zone.

Moving on to brand new stuff, Two Point Hospital was released last week, and it's every bit as good as I was hoping it would be.  Anyone who played Theme Hospital 20 years ago and loved it should rush over to Steam and buy a copy right now - it's only about £20 which if you ask me is a bargain! I've only played the first level so far but I have heard there are about 25 in the game total which is loads of quality gaming right there.  It does play pretty much identically to the classic game but with much nicer graphics and plenty of quality of life improvements.  The in game radio stations are great too with some really catchy, cheesy music and hilarious dialogue from the DJ's. The terrible puns and dad jokes are also in full force and will have you groaning and chuckling in equal measure.

The other new game that I've been playing an absolute ton of is Yakuza Kiwami 2.  This may be the fourth Yakuza game to be released in the west within the last two years, but I have been waiting patiently for my chance to finally play Yakuza 2 and here it is at last.  I was tempted to start the PS2 version last year, but I'm glad I waited because this enhanced PS4 remake adds a load of extra content, such The Truth of Goro Majima mini campaign, hostess club management, a tweaked version of the Clan Creator from Yakuza 6, and a saucy photo shoot mini game.  Just playing the hostess club mini game is enjoyable enough, let alone all of the other content! This game is my main focus at the moment, but I will have to cut back on my play time a little bit in order to finish off the Summer Backlog games.

Looking to the future now, another two massive games are just about to come out.  Tomorrow finally sees the arrival of Dragon Quest XI in the west, a game that I have been longing for since before it was announced.  We didn't get Dragon Quest X as that was an MMO released on the Wii and Wii U, two consoles that were either being phased out or weren't successful enough for Square Enix to bother bringing the game over, so it's been years since a new mainline game in the series was released outside of Japan (VII and VIII on the 3DS were nice, but they weren't new). While it will be extremely tempting to dive in to the game as soon as it arrives tomorrow, I shall try and resist until I have the Summer Backlog Challenge is over, and I have wrapped up the AC: Origins DLC and Yakuza Kiwami 2.  It will be tough but I can do it!

Finally, at the end of the week we have the release of Spiderman on the PS4. I wasn't planning on buying it just yet, but the hype has gotten to me so I have pre ordered it from Amazon. While it does looks like a very good game, I am less excited about it than the other games I've already mentioned today, so it will probably go on to my backlog pile for a while.  After that I have a bit of breathing room until October. There is also Shadow of the Tomb Raider in September but I still haven't finished Rise of the Tomb Raider yet, so I don't really feel compelled to pick it up just yet.  If I can hold out until the Christmas holidays I expect it will have come down in price by then (something I really should have done with Spiderman, but oh well). Let me know what you're playing at the moment, and what you're looking forward to from the months ahead. There will be another video up on the channel tomorrow, and hopefully another Summer Backlog Challenge update here on the blog quite soon. That's all from me today though, so I'll see you again later, and in the meantime, take care!

Summer Backlog Review #5: Cosmic Star Heroine

Welcome back to my fifth review for the Summer Backlog Challenge 2018! With this, I have successfully completed the challenge, which I failed to do the previous two times I attempted this.  I'm not going to stop there though, we still have over a month left which should be plenty of time to complete at least one or two more games from my list.  For now though, it's time to review Cosmic Star Heroine.  First of all though, like always, let's go over a bit of the history.

Back in the glory days of the Xbox 360, Microsoft had their Indie Games program where talented (and sometimes not so talented) amateur developers could create their own games using the XNA platform and make them available for others to enjoy. Two of the best and most popular games on the service were Breath of Death VII, and Cthulhu Saves the World, from Zeboyd Games (aka Robert Boyd). These were classic 16-bit style RPG's with a very strong sense of humour and plenty of fun gameplay. Eventually, Zeboyd were handed the reigns to the Penny Arcade RPG series and make the third and fourth entries, which I thought were a big improvement over the first two.  Then, in 2013, a Kickstarter campaign was launched for Cosmic Star Heroine, which would be developed in Unity and released initially on PC and PS4. Since it was released the game has been well received by the sales haven't exactly set the world on fire, unfortunately.  The game is just about to be released for the Nintendo Switch, however, so hopefully it will get into the hands of more people.  I think it really does deserve to do better, so let's get into the reasons why...

Plot & Character: 8 out of 10
Cosmic Star Heroine puts in you in the shoes of Alyssa L'Salle, a talented super spy in a futuristic science fiction universe.   The first mission of the game sees her rescuing hostages and defusing a bomb in a skyscraper with the help of her friends, the "gunmancer" Chahn and hacker, Dave. Rather than being the sort of spy who keeps their identity a secret from all, though, Alyssa is famous across the entire system of planets and has plenty of fans.  This fame comes at a price though, and after discovering something that may threaten the safety of everyone, Alyssa finds herself in the crosshairs of would-be assassins, chased by bounty hunters and double crossed by her own agency. From there it's up to her to conduct her own investigation, gather a rag tag bunch of allies and take down the evil that's threatening the universe.

The game has a lot of characters that you will recruit over the course of the roughly 12 hour long campaign, 10 not including Alyssa herself in fact.  All of them are interesting and have their own part of play in the story, but I found that I didn't really use the later ones very much. Not only was I near the end of the game by the time they came along, I was also quite used to my set up of Chahn, Sue and Psybee (an insectoid alien guy). This is partially down to me though - more adventurous types would probably revel in experimenting with various power combinations, and it certainly is possible to come up with some creative and powerful attacks if you play around a bit.

On the whole I enjoyed the story, it moved along at a brisk pace, and the writing was very good with plenty of jokes as well as more serious moments when required. 

There are plenty of pop culture references that you may recognise.

Graphics: 8 out of 10
The visuals of Cosmic Star Heroine definitely evokes the look and feel of a PlayStation RPG, such as something by Working Designs, except in full widescreen to make the most of modern TV's, of course. The environments are nice and colourful with plenty of different types of location to explore, from swamps to space ships, and tropical planets.  The character sprites are nicely defined and animate well, and there are also nicely drawn character portraits whenever someone speaks. Also, during key scenes there are animated sequences, and quite a lot of work has gone into these.  A particular highlight was the concert where you meet Lauren, and she performs an entire song.  There is definitely a high amount of care and polish that has gone into the graphics which I really appreciate.

Sound & Music: 9 out of 10
While there is no voice acting at all in Cosmic Star Heroine, I really don't feel that the game needs it. What it does have instead is an absolutely fantastic soundtrack thanks to Hyperduck Soundworks.  Highlights here include both the regular battle music and the boss music, and the song from Lauren's concert once again which does include vocals.  I've used each of these pieces of music in the background to my review, so I hope Zeboyd / Hyperduck don't mind!

The other component here are the sound effects, which are also very well done.  Each ability, such as Dave's Zap or Chahn's Purification Torch have their own sound associated with them which are well crafted and sound suitably sci fi.

Here's Chahn in her introductory cut scene.

Game Mechanics: 9 out of 10
In battle, Cosmic Star Heroine adopts the Chrono Trigger style of encounters where enemies can be seen wandering the map and you actively engage with them, rather than the classic random battles. Then, the characters and the enemies take turns biffing each other depending on their speed statistic. Alyssa and friends have up to eight abilities that they can choose from at a time, most of which can only be used once before you have to defend and recharge them. Some of these abilities will be purely offensive such as Alyssa thwacking something with her bo staff or Dave zapping something with electricity, others could be buffs to boost defense or offense, and others still can have some interesting effects.

Take Clarke for example, the disco dancing robot who joins your ranks roughly half way through the story. He has an ability called Mortify, which means that the rest of the party does more damage while he's dead.  You activate it, then on Clarke's next turn you either choose an ability that kills him and heals the rest of the party, or kills him and does massive damage to all the enemies.  He's dead for the rest of the battle but everyone else is now stronger.  This is probably something you want to save towards the end of a boss battle, but it's an interesting mechanic.

Equipping new weapons and shields can also give you access to new "programs" in battle which are additional abilities that can be used. The battles themselves always move along at a brisk pace, with animations playing out smoothly and responsively which is very much appreciated.  Those who have experienced the terrible PlayStation versions of various Final Fantasy games will attest to just how annoying it can be when it takes ages for a simple animation to load, but there's none of that here thankfully.

For roughly the first half of the campaign, your party is preset but different characters will be swapping in and out as the story dictates, which means that you will have to learn and adapt to new skill sets quite frequently.  This keeps things interesting.  Eventually though the game will open up and you will have free reign over who you bring with you.  You also get your own spaceship and can travel back and forth between the three planets in the game at will, though the main story does remain linear - this just allows you to go off and do some optional quests for your various party members should you wish to.

Cosmic Star Heroine features a large and diverse cast of recruitable characters.

Value & Replaybility: 7 out of 10
While Cosmic Star Heroine is hardly the longest RPG, I do feel that you get your money's worth. If you just focus on the critical path then it will probably take you around 12 hours to complete on the standard difficulty setting, which is a decent amount of time.  There are some extra challenges that can be sought out though, such as boss battles with Dem Bones from Breath of Death VII or Cthulhu himself.  These are likely to require a bit of grinding before you will be able to take them on.

There are also four separate difficult options, ranging from Tourist for people who want the game to be a cakewalk, up to Heroine for those who want a steeper challenge.  I found that the normal difficulty was about right for me - it was a perhaps a little on the easy side for most of the game as long as I didn't avoid too many fights, though I did still die a few times during some of the boss battles.  This was usually a case of me either trying to rush through the fight too quickly or not knowing the best strategy, and usually a simple change in tactics or a more patient approach would see me through.

The game isn't terribly replayable really - the story is going to play out the same way regardless of what you do, though you could start over on a higher difficulty.  It is well written and entertaining enough that I could see myself coming back to it again after a while, I guess.  This gets less likely the bigger my backlog gets, unfortunately.

Innovation & Cleverness: 6 out of 10
While the plot and setting are not terribly original, Cosmic Star Heroine deserves some points in this category because of it's well thought out battle system.  Each character has their own palette of abilities that have been very well thought out and often work in conjunction with the abilities of the other characters in interesting ways. Limiting the palettes to eight active slots and giving out new abilities as you level up really forces the player to think hard about what they will leave out.  It is quite easy to quickly swap out a party member or an ability depending on the type of enemy you're likely to face in a given area, however.  Very smart stuff indeed.

Overall: 8 out of 10
I had a lot of fun playing through Cosmic Star Heroine - so much so in fact that when I finally did start playing, it only took me a few play sessions to reach the end because I didn't want to stop. The writing, graphics, music and compelling battle system all combine to deliver an extremely solid RPG that will keep the majority of players amused for a minimum of 12 hours, potentially longer if they decide to increase the difficulty or seek out all of the optional challenges that the game has to offer. If you own a Switch and you enjoy a good RPG then do seriously think about picking this up - it would work very well in handheld mode.  I look forward to seeing what Zeboyd Games does next!

Summer Backlog Diary #5: Cosmic Hob Sphere

I know it's been a little while since my last Summer Backlog Challenge 2018 update, but other than one weekend where I played No Man's Sky instead, I have still been playing the games in the meantime. One day last week, I decided I wanted a bit of variety, so I played the first hour or so from each of Cosmic Star Heroine, Hob and Odin Sphere: Leifthrasir.  I had a lot of fun doing this but at the end I knew I had to commit myself to playing one of them or I would never get anywhere.  Cosmic Star Heroine was the game of choice, and I just got to the end yesterday, so the full review will be incoming next Tuesday. I am going to share a few thoughts about the game here but I will be fairly brief.

I remember first hearing about Cosmic Star Heroine when Kat Bailey spoke about it at length on an episode of Axe of the Blood God, or it may have actually been the precursor show Active Time Babble, I forget now.  At any rate, her in depth review and her interview with the main programmer Robert Boyd made me want to pick it up,  so I did shortly after it was released for the PS4.  There, it remained unplayed until this year.  I'm not entirely sure why - I think it was a combination of factors.  Firstly, I play my PS4 Pro far less than my Xbox One X, I just don't like it as much as a console. Secondly, I was constantly running out of space which I just fixed this year by buying an external hard drive, though this shouldn't have been a major factor for Cosmic Star Heroine because it's a small file size anyway.  Regardless, I am glad that I put it on my Summer Backlog Challenge list for this year and have now finished it, because I loved every minute of it.  The game is about to come out for the Switch next week so I really hope it gets a lot more attention as a result, Zeboyd Games really deserve it.

Next up, let's talk about Hob for a bit.  This is the very first game I thought of when I came up with the list of ten games for this year.  How could another game by the makers of the amazing Torchlight games be anything less than amazing? So far, it is indeed pretty good. It plays like a classic 2D Zelda, with a strong emphasis on puzzle solving and exploring your surroundings.  While there are enemies, who do pack quite a punch, they aren't too common.  Despite that, I am still tempted to dial the combat difficult down to its lowest setting so I can just focus on solving the dungeons. I love the aesthetic of the game - it reminds me a lot of Studio Ghibli's Castle in the Sky (aka Laputa), my favourite film by Hayao Miyazaki by far. You have the ancient ruins reclaimed by nature, and the stone golems covered in moss with little bird friends. Something is slowly poisoning the land though, and it's up to Hob to find out what and put a stop to it.  The main character looks a lot like the one from Journey - so much so that I think he must be a cousin or something.  Billy Bob and Hilly Hob? Yes, that makes sense!

Lastly today, we come to Odin Sphere: Leifthrasir.  This game appeals to me a lot because I love the gorgeous artwork (which now looks absolutely stunning because it's been remastered in full HD) and I'm also quite fascinated by Norse mythology.  The combat does feel a bit button mashy at first but the game slowly layers on more depth as you go through the early sections of the story, and if you want to ensure you get an S rank in each encounter you will need to stop and think about what you're doing a little bit rather than simply flailing around. I am not sure I will actually have time to finish this one by end of the challenge, but I still want to play through it even after that.

I am going to return to Pyre and finish playing the rest of that next, because I am already pretty far through.  After that, Hob will be the focus.  Although I have played quite a bit of Battle Chasers: Nightwar, I'm not confident I will get to the end before the deadline.  The need to grind has kind of sapped my enthusiasm for it, to be honest.  I will go back to it eventually though.   That's all for today - don't forget to come back on Tuesday to read or watch my Cosmic Star Heroine review!

Summer Backlog Review #4: Journey

Welcome to the fourth review from this years Summer Backlog Challenge.  After this, I'm just one game away from successfully completing it.  I don't intend to stop there though, I'm going to try and get through as many of the ten games as possible before the deadline of 23rd September.

This time I'm shifting my attention away from the Xbox One and over to the PS4, to play the Sony exclusive, Journey. Of course, it was originally released on the PS3 but I have shied away from playing it for all these years because it got somewhat overhyped and I tired of hearing how amazing it was, and how it proved that games were art.  Some of us don't need proof, we know that games are just as valuable as books, movies, paintings and sculpture, but this game was held up by those insecure in their hobby as some kind of miracle. So now, all these years later, I can finally see what all the fuss what about.  Let's begin!

Plot & Character: 7 out of 10
The plot of Journey is not explicitly spelled out for the player like all of the other games I have reviewed as part of the Summer Backlog Challenge so far, but it is present if you're paying attention.  Every so often you will get a glimpse at a mural that depicts part of the back story, with the full picture coming into focus by the time you finish the game. This hadn't fully sunk in for me during my first time through, so I ended up going to YouTube to watch a very well made video explaining it all. It's not really the fault of the game that I missed certain details, it's more a symptom of my own ADD.

The gist of it is this: once upon a time there was magic in the land and resources were plentiful - life was good for the people who called this realm their home.  Gradually over time the resources started to be depleted, so the people invented machinery to speed up and automate the process, as well as fearsome guardian robots to protect their riches. This inevitably served to speed up the downfall of this society, as the resources finally ran out.  The once great civilisation ended up in ruin and the people died out, with the many gravestones scattered through the land their sad and lasting legacy.  Just before all hope was gone and all life was extinguished, the last bit of magic created a new life, which is you - Billybob.  Now it's up to Billybob to reach the top of the sacred mountain and sacrifice himself, which in turn will bring the magic and resources back to the world. The people will not learn from their past mistakes though, and eventually the whole cycle will begin again, and again, and again...

This was one of my favourite sections in the game - triggering giant scarf bridges to appear

Graphics: 8 out of 10
Journey is a game that is not flashy, but does feature some impressive vistas and environments nevertheless. During your relatively brief time with the game you will travel through desserts, amidst the ruins of the old world and the many graves of the people who sadly died there.  Then you will go under ground and encounter those deadly guardian robots, before coming out the other side into the bitter chill of the mountain.  Finally, when Billybob's life force has been spent and he succumbs to freezing death, his life force will be released and he will be given access to Heaven, or Nirvana, or whatever it is known as in this fantasy world.  This last part of the journey is full of vibrant colours, sunshine and waterfalls and is a great contrast to the bleak whiteness of the mountain that you were struggling through just minutes before.

Sound & Music: 9 out of 10
While there is no voice acting at all in the game, Journey really doesn't need it. The decision to show you story rather than tell you it means that dialogue would serve little purpose, and may have even detracted from the experience.  Instead what you get is an absolutely amazing soundtrack by Austin Wintory, one that won him two BAFTA Awards upon the games original release in 2013.  There are also some sound effects as well which fit in well with the overall atmosphere of the experience.  Billybob can emit a cute little chirping noise which he can use to communicate with the magical scarf creatures he meets and other players should you be lucky enough to meet some, and those giant snake like robots make some really intimidating noises.   For me, the sound was my favourite part of the Journey experience, but it works in tandem with the visuals and the game play to make the game as special as it is.

Billybob getting ready to scale the mountain and make the ultimate sacrifice.

Game Mechanics: 7 out of 10
Unlike most of my reviews so far where this section is pretty long, this time I can be fairly brief because the game play of Journey is fairly simple at heart.  It's really an adventure game, or something close to a "walking simulator" (a term that didn't really exist when the game first came out).  There are a few sections of light platforming, puzzle solving and stealth (when you try and avoid the gaze of the guardian robots) but nothing is ever very taxing and it should be possible for the vast majority of players to reach the end without too much trouble.  While the game is fairly good fun to play, it's really the presentation and the themes that elevate it to something special.

Billybob in the cave network, hiding from the guardian machines.

Innovation & Cleverness: 8 out of 10
I feel that Journey really does deserve a fairly high score in this category because we had not really seen anything like it at the time. Of course other similar games such as Abzu have come along but back in 2013 this was a pretty unique experience.  The subtle way the story is told and the fantastic presentation are hallmarks of just how clever thatgamecompany are at crafting amazing interactive experiences - Flower hinted at this but they truly perfected their craft with Journey in my opinion.

Value & Replayability: 4 out of 10
It can take a scant two hours to get to the end of Journey, which may well be a dealbreaker for some.  If you are quite hard up for funds I can understand where you're coming from.  If this is the case, then probably the best way of experiencing this game is the Journey Collector's Edition package, which also includes Flow and Flower.  This can be had on Amazon for about £20, which is a decent price in my opinion.  The game does have a little bit of replay value because there are hidden scarf upgrades dotted around the environment, and finding all of them will give you access to a special white robe which grants unlimited flight, as well as a trophy.

Overall: 8 out of 10
It may not take you very long to complete the Journey, but it is one worth taking. It's a shame that I put it off for so long because I was unable to experience the online mode when I did finally get around to it.  I'm not sure if that would have enhanced the experience overall but it would be nice to see it for myself.  At any rate, this is one game that will stick in my memory for quite some time, and one I shall probably return to before too long.  If somehow you also haven't played Journey yet, then you really should - it does deserve all of the praise that was heaped upon it years ago.

Summer Backlog Diary #4: Fanning the Flame

It's time for another Summer Backlog Diary! Firstly, some news on the next video - I have my Journey review all written so I just need some time to put the video together. I'm hoping to have it posted either on Sunday afternoon or Sunday morning, so please look out for it! My usual Tuesday slot will be taken up by Covertape Chaos #49 this week.  That series will be going on a break after episode 50 though so that will free me up to focus on some other things. I plan to finish off PS2 Tuesdays season 5 and then get back to the A-Z of Amiga, among other things.

Until then though, I am now part way through both Battle Chasers: Nightwar and Pyre, so I thought I would share my initial thoughts with you. Battle Chasers is a blend of classic turned based JRPG style game play, with the aesthetics of the Darksiders series. You have some fantastic Joe Mad artwork and lovely tunes composed by Jesper Kyd to enjoy as you explore the dungeons, which are in part randomly generated each time you run them. I was making steady progress until I completed the third dungeon, then I encountered something of a difficulty spike which put me off playing for a while.  The game fully expects you to revisit dungeons you've already completed and do them on a higher difficulty for better rewards.  It is also one of those RPG's where your spare party members don't earn any XP if you don't use them in battle, so you will end up having to grind with them to match the rest of your party eventually.  I'm not really a fan of this.  The story is surprisingly decent though, and it makes me want to seek out the comics.  I wonder how easy they are to get hold of these days? I'll get back to you on that.

It's been a while since I last played Pyre now but I really must get back to it.  When I started it I was completely blown away by the amazing art and music, and the game play is truly something unique as well.  It blends RPG elements with a Oregon Trail style mechanics where you choose where to go next from several options on the map, and then a fantasy sport which is reminiscent of NBA Jam! I am still unlocking characters for my squad at the moment - though you can only take three people into each Rite you will build up quite a roster to choose from, many of whom have unique abilities based on their race.  The sport part of the game hasn't been terribly challenging so far - I've played 6 or so matches and haven't lost one yet, though I did come close several times. I tend to favour the smaller characters who can zip around the map, though it is important to have a big guy on your team as while to defend your flame.  Apparently the game will proceed whether you win or lose the Rites, though I'm guessing that will affect the ending. I'm enjoying it a lot so I definitely want to try and get back to it soon - probably this weekend.

So I'm now pretty close to completing five games and passing the challenge, but that's just the bare minimum requirement, so I'm not going to stop there.  Time is moving way faster than I had anticipated so I'm not sure that I will get through all ten games, but I will do my best. If there are any games left unfinished at the end, I will either just carry on until I've finished them as well, but not consider it part of the Summer Backlog Challenge anymore, or I will put them on the list for next year and prioritise them first. I do have a desire to play some Odin Sphere though so I'm not sure I can wait until next summer for that. That's all I have to say for today, don't forget to check back for my Journey review over the weekend.  In the meantime, take care!

Summer Backlog Review #3: Mass Effect: Andromeda

Welcome back to the Summer Backlog Challenge 2018, and review number three! We're making steady progress through the games this year, which I hope will continue for a bit longer.  Eventually though I will run out of the shorter games so these reviews will be further apart. That's where the diary entries come in - they pick up the slack when I'm not quite ready to give my full opinion.  I have just finished Mass Effect: Andromeda this week though so it's time to weigh up what I think about it.

Those of you who are familiar with the Mass Effect series already will know that it is a sci-fi action RPG series developed by long term legends of genre, Bioware. By the time the original game was released they had already entertained 1000's of PC owners with their classics set in the Dungeons & Dragons universe, such as Baldur's Gate and Neverwinter Nights. Then with the advent of the original Xbox they decided to make something a bit more console friendly, which resulted Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic, still regarded as one of the best games set in a galaxy far, far away ever made.  That experience gave the company the idea to create their own original space opera, and thus the Mass Effect series was born.  It was conceived as a trilogy right from the start, with story seeds sown from the earliest moments that would pay off two games later.  Everything went smoothly, until players got to the end of Mass Effect 3 and witnessed the ending.  To say it was divisive would be putting it mildly.  The disgruntled fans ranted and raged all across the internet, until Bioware finally relented and released the free Extended Cut DLC.  Then, all went quiet - the series was seemingly done, for now.   A few years later though, Andromeda got announced and the fans started to get excited about what the new game might bring.  Then they played it, and the backlash began again.  Is it truly as terrible as everyone would have you believe? I really don't think so, but allow me to explain further...

Plot & Character: 7 out of 10

Mass Effect: Andromeda sees the series transported 600 years into the future and into another galaxy. The Andromeda Initiative has set out to try and set up a colony on one of several potential "golden worlds" that have been identified thanks to some clever Salarian technology.  Things don't go according to plan, however - a strange dark matter known as the scourge causes massive amounts of damage to the human Ark, Hyperion and the planet that they were hoping would be conducive to supporting life turns out to be un breathable and beset by devastating lightning storms. The "Pathfinder", i.e. the person spearheading the expedition to find a livable world, tragically dies while exploring this planet, and so it falls to their heir to take up the mantle in their stead.  This is your playable character, a male or female human named Ryder (you can choose their first name).

I did think this was a pretty good starting off point for a new game (or potentially a whole new series) but certain developments later on in the story weren't so great. The new antagonists, the Kett, came across as a weak facsimile of the Reapers, or rather the Collector's from Mass Effect 2. Vaguely humanoid, hostile aliens who take the genetic material of other species and use it to make more drones.  Not very original at all, and not as well executed as before. There were also several plot lines that were set up in this game that never went anyway, because Bioware were obviously expecting to continue the story in a sequel at some point.  We now know that this isn't going to happen, not even in the form of DLC, so it does make these threads quite unfulfilling.

In terms of characters and your crew, I have slightly better news.  While it took me a while to warm up to them, I actually came to really like the crew of the Tempest (which is the new Normandy), at least the alien ones.  I found the two humans, Liam and Cora, a bit boring and predictable really, despite the latter being trained as an Asari Commando for much of her life.  The new Asari, Peebee was annoying at first but once you get used to her energetic personality she's actually pretty cool. Drack, the Krogan, shares a lot of personality traits with Wrex and Grunt before him - he's gruff, likes to shoot the bad guys and is a nice guy at heart.  His unique trait is that he is very very old, and most of his organs are synthetic transplants.

My two favourite crew members are definitely Vetra and Jaal.  Vetra can't possibly match the excellence of her fellow Turian, Garrus Vakarian but she's not too far off.  She's loyal, dependable and very good in a fight.  Jaal is a member of the only new non hostile race in the game, the Angara.  He's a part of their resistance and very experienced in fighting the Kett, and he's a very interesting person with lots of stories and insights to share about life in the Andromeda galaxy.  The crew is rounded off by Lexi, an Asari doctor (voiced by Natalie Dormer from Game of Thrones), Suvi, a human science officer with a lovely Scottish accent, Kallo, the ace Salarian pilot, and Gil, the chief engineer.  While these last four won't be joining you in battle, they are all fairly well fleshed out with their own "loyalty missions" to complete throughout the game. In fact, this is one aspect of Mass Effect: Andromeda that I thought was done really well, the loyalty missions were more extensive and spread out that they have been in previous games, and even when you were technically done and had unlocked the level 6 skills for that character, there were normally more scenes to see with them.

Ultimately, even though the story is quite unoriginal in key areas, the fleshed out characters go a long way for compensating for that.  The unresolved plot points were quite interesting too, such as they were, so it is a shame that we will probably never find out where they would have led us (unless a novel or something is released that covers that stuff - that could still be an option).

Mass Effect: Andromeda does look nice, but not quite this nice (this is early promo artwork).

Graphics: 7 out of 10

For a good deal of the time, Mass Effect: Andromeda is a decent looking game, and occasionally a beautiful one.  For me, the icy world of Voeld was the stand out, with the blizzards eventually giving way to serene tundra with a very pretty skybox to behold.  The jungle planet of Havarl also impresses, with it's dense, lush vegetation.  Outside of the environments, much has of course been made of the poor facial animation in the game, so much so that it became a meme for a while and staff who worked on it were persecuted.  While this has been improved with patches since the game was released, it still ain't that great - NPC's have a tendency to look like waxy automatons rather than living, breathing people.  Of course, it stands out the most on the human characters as our brains know what they should look like and can spot when something isn't right.  There is also a noticeable difference in quality between minor characters and important ones - your crew obviously had a lot of work put into the making them look halfway decent, whereas a random scientist on Eos can tend to look a bit half baked.

Sound & Music: 7 out of 10

I don't think the music of Mass Effect: Andromeda is quite as strong as the trilogy that preceded it, but I did come to rather enjoy it by the end of my time with the game.  The main theme starts of rather subtly, but gradually builds up to something more epic.  You will hear this tune every time you load up the game and during the end credits, so you will be rather familiar with it by the end.  Other than that, there is also some great battle music with some furious drum work, perfect for driving you on and furthering your blood lust.  There was also one particular use of synthwave that gave me goosebumps - I think it plays as you land on Voeld for the first time, if I'm remembering correctly.

The voice acting is pretty good most of the time but I do remember a couple of instances where there were some very odd line reads - almost as if the voice actor wasn't aware of the context that they were saying these things and therefore emphasising the wrong part of the sentence. This has to be the fault of whoever was directing the voice actors, and also whoever decided it was fine to insert these recordings into the game as they were. Maybe the studio was rushed, I don't know, but it does come across as rather unprofessional, especially from a big studio like Bioware. 

Havarl is quite a nice looking environment but the dense foliage makes it trick to navigate at times.

Game Mechanics: 8 out of 10

Like it's predecessors, Mass Effect: Andromeda is a third person cover shooter with strong RPG elements, such as levelling up, equipping and modifying armour and weapons, spending points on skills, an in depth conversation system and romance options. The combat mechanics have been tweaked in a few different ways that I actually came to enjoy after a while getting used to them. Firstly, you no longer stick to cover with the press of a button, instead all you have to do is kneel down next to something large enough to provide cover and you will automatically protect yourself.  It feels odd at first but became second nature by the end of the introduction.  You also have a jet booster built into your suit which is used both in navigating the world and in combat.  By jumping in a fight you get a few seconds of slow motion where you can snipe fools in mid air, which feels really satisfying when you pull it off.  There's a skill that you can buy that will extend this bullet time as well.

Andromeda also scraps the notion of fixed character classes, allows you to spend your skill point on whatever you want right from the get go, from either the combat, tech or biotic skill trees.  As you unlock more skills you do unlock different profiles that kind of act like classes, except you can add multiple profiles to a favourites list and switch between them in battle on the fly.  It's very handy, and allows you to experiment with various different skills to see what you like best. I'm not too sure what they level cap is in this game, or if it even has one, because I was around level 56 by the end of the game and still going.  My companions had maxed out all of their skills already but I was still going, because there are roughly 50 skills to choose from with 6 levels each. When it comes to powering up the skills, Andromeda has borrowed the same system that was introduced in 3, where you have one choice of upgrade for the first three ranks of a skill and then you have a choice of two different options when you reach ranks 4, 5 and 6. For example you may have to decide whether a skill does more damage vs shields or vs armour.

This game also takes a leaf out of Dragon Age: Inquisition and shifts over to open world exploration for the bulk of its play time. There are plenty of more structured missions such as the main story events and the loyalty missions with your crew, but a lot of time will be taken up with bombing around in the Nomad (which is the new Mako), establishing new forward stations (that you can then fast travel to) and completing side quests. Because you are trying to make these planets liveable and establish new colonies on them, almost everything you do in the game gives you Andromeda Viability Points, or AVP, with the goal of getting every planet you visit to 100% viability. If you are thorough and do everything (or a good deal of it at any rate) this isn't too hard.  Reactivating the Remnant vaults (which are like atmospheric processors that radically change the planets for the better) and killing Remnant Architects (huge worm like robot creatures that are the most challenging things to fight in the game) will give you a large amount of AVP.  Once you hit certain thresholds you get to choose who to bring out of cryo which basically gives you a new perk such as the ability to detect and mine more minerals.

On the whole I didn't mind the open ended structure too much - it made sense for the story they were trying to tell here, but I think I still prefer the briefer, more tightly designed structure of the original trilogy over this one.

Jaal ended up being one of my favourite characters and a valuable addition to the crew.

Innovation & Cleverness: 4 out of 10

Quite a low score here because as this is part of an established franchise, it's a little low on originality, and as I said earlier a lot of plot came across as a bit rehashed.  However, I do want to give props to Bioware for managing to come up with an entirely new crew of characters that are interesting to hang out with for the most part.  They also do a decent job of establishing some mystery in the plot, with Ryder's memories gradually being unlocked over time. 

Value & Replayability: 8 out of 10

The Mass Effect series, like most of Bioware's games, are designed to be replayable. As well as the Paragon / Renegade choices, the story and side missions often present you with choices that will have an effect on the overall plot.  It can be fun to go back later on as a completely different version of Ryder and do things differently than before.  In the previous games, decisions you made in the first and second game wouldn't pay off until the third part, and some of the key choices you make in Andromeda obviously would have changed something in the planned sequel.  Again, we're unlikely to find out just what at this point.

This is also a pretty huge game - the new open world structure with vast planets to explore and a seemingly endless supply of quests to complete ensure that your play time can easily reach the 50 hour mark.  I ended up just shy of 55 hours on my clock and I know I still had quite a bit left to do.  That is considerably longer than any of the previous games in the series which took about 30 hours at most to finish if you took your time with them.  So you definitely will get your money's worth with this one.  What's more, you don't need to go out and buy a full copy of the game, at least if you own and Xbox One.  It's included as part of EA Access so you can sign up to that at a cost of £3.99 per month until you're done, which if you ask me is a great deal.

Overall: 7 out of 10

I don't agree with the general consensus that Mass Effect: Andromeda is a terrible game, in fact I think it's quite a decent one. It certainly has its flaws, and overall I would place it in third place within the series overall (with Mass Effect 2 being first, 3 being second, and the original game coming last), but we aren't exactly swamped with quality science fiction RPG's so it is one of the better efforts in recent years. I also don't think this game is directly responsible for the death of the franchise - for that I think the blame lies partly with the "fans" who ranted and raved about every little problem, and partly with EA for not providing Bioware with the time and support they needed to deliver a AAA product.

Summer Backlog Review #2: Oxenfree

Welcome back to the Summer Backlog Challenge 2018! My first review, for Night in the Woods, was fun to write and has been fairly well received, so I'm going to capture that energy and use the momentum to forge ahead with my second review, this time for Oxenfree.  This is another modern adventure style game, with a strong emphasis on character and player choice.   It was developed and published by Night School Studio and was released across all the major platforms in early 2016.  As I mentioned in my introductory article explaining why I picked my ten games, it was the only one of the bunch that I hadn't bought for myself, instead being part of my Xbox Game Pass subscription.  So then, should you buy it? Or at least use your Game Pass trial to check it out? Let's take a look...

Plot & Character: 9 out of 10

Oxenfree begins with Alex, the player character, Ren, one of her best friends, and Jonas, her new step brother, arriving on Edwards Island for their annual summer party. They soon discover that not many people have bothered turning up this year though - just two others in fact.  The rather bitchy Clarissa, and her friend Nona that Alex doesn't know very well.

After a while chatting, drinking and playing an ill-advised game of Truth or Slap (like Truth or Dare except, well, you get slapped), Alex, Ren and Jonas end up investigating a nearby cave, where some strange phenomena involving a radio that they brought along results in the entire group getting scattered to all corners of the island.  From that point on your objective is to reunite with everyone and figure out what the hell is going on.  That's easier said than done though because you find yourself trapped in some rather disconcerting time loops that seem to get more serious as you go.  To say any more about the plot would risk spoiling the game for you so I'm just going to leave it there.

Depending on your responses to the other characters, Alex can be a friendly, helpful girl or a complete menace to everyone.  I was generally trying for the former but occasionally I picked an option that put me down the bitchy path.  As the game proceeds you can either get to know more about Jonas, or spend time reconnecting with Ren.  Personally I chose to go with the first option most of the time.  You also gradually come to understand why Clarissa has such an attitude to you, and you might even become friends with Nona, although I didn't really interact with her very much. The story is intriguing from the get-go and Alex is a strong enough protagonist to carry it along - soon after starting the game I didn't want to stop until it was done, which says a lot.

You frequently have to choose between dialogue options,with each one mapped to a different button.

Graphics: 8 out of 10

Oxenfree features a truly gorgeous hand painted art style that I fell in love with the from the moment I first saw it.  Every part of the island has been lovingly pieced together, from the woods, to the caves, the beach and the little town center. The character models are apparently 3D but from the zoomed out perspective that the game is set at they complement the style of the backgrounds well.  Whenever necessary there are also some decent lighting effects, and the "VHS player with dodgy tracking" effect that happens whenever there's a time loop is very cool as well.

Sound & Music: 8 out of 10

First and foremost, I was very impressed with the voice acting in Oxenfree, especially as I hadn't heard of any of the actors used before.  They may be established performers already, but if they are I'm unfamiliar with their work.  At any rate their delivery came across as natural at all times.  My only small gripe is that at several points in the game when I had chosen a dialogue option, my reply cut across what they were saying - there doesn't seem to be any queuing of lines like in Mass Effect, for example.  It was irritating because I wanted to hear what the characters were saying but sometimes it doesn't give you very long to answer before the game just moves on without you.

This is backed up by a fantastic soundtrack performed by the artist know as scntfc which is both dreamlike and spooky.  I may actually listen to some of this outside of the game - perhaps at work or during my commute home, it's very nice stuff indeed.

The art in Oxenfree is really fantastic, with a hand painted feel.

Game Mechanics: 8 out of 10

The game play of Oxenfree is mainly you exploring the island as Alex, trying to work out exactly what is going on and having conversations with the rest of the party. There are typically three different responses during any particular conversation, and you don't always have very long to answer which I found problematic sometimes. Depending on what you say, the other characters may warm to you or grow to hate you over time - in fact there is an achievement for getting everyone to despise you!

Occasionally you will have to use your radio to "tune in" to the weird phenomena on the island or interact with things to break yourself out of a time loop. There are no real mini games like there were in Night of the Woods, though - it's mostly just good old fashioned story telling and adventuring.  That's alright though, because Oxenfree does this very well.  The narrative is brief enough that it doesn't really need game play gimmicks to break it up.

Things start to get weird a short way into the game.

Innovation & Cleverness: 6 out of 10

The game play is not all that innovative, really, although much like Night in the Woods, Oxenfree does a great job of translating the classic sort of point and click experience into something much more console and controller friendly. The way the story is told does actually feature quite a lot of innovation though, and is very cleverly put together, to boot. Don't let the six put you off, this is actually quite high for this category.

Value & Replayability: 7 out of 10

Your total play time for a single run through of Oxenfree is likely to weigh in at around the four hour mark, which may sound rather slight.  There are quite a few different endings that can be achieved though which gives the game significant replay value. I'm not sure if I will go back and play it again, personally, because I usually consider my first play through of a game like this as my own personal version of the story, and leave it at that.  When so much time has gone by that I don't really remember the game anymore though, I may revisit it.

As part of the overall package you also get some documentaries that touch on various aspects involved in making the game, which is a very nice bonus and something I wish more games would do.

Overall: 8 out of 10

Oxenfree did draw me in much quicker than Night in the Woods - I originally only intended to play it for an hour, then that became two, and eventually I just said sod it and played through the entire game in one sitting! Don't let the four hour running time put you off too much, especially if you do intend to replay the game and get all of the endings.  This really is the perfect sort of game for Xbox Game Pass because you can try it out risk free as part of the free trial or your subscription if you're already paying for it.

Summer Backlog Review #1: Night in the Woods

I've managed to cross off several games from my Summer Backlog Challenge 2018 so far, and here I am with the first review of what will hopefully be a minimum of five, but potentially as many as ten. For those who are not all that familiar with this Night in the Woods, it is an indie adventure title developed by Infinite Fall and published by Finji.  It was first released on PC, in February of 2017 and has since made its way to all of the major consoles, including the Nintendo Switch earlier this year. I played the game on my Xbox One because I picked the game up around Christmas time in a sale. I had heard many good things about this game from the likes of Alex Navarro from Giant Bomb and others who recently discovered it due to the Switch release, so it was an easy choice for the first game I wanted to finish as part of this years challenge. So how was it? Let's take a look!

Plot and Character: 9 out of 10
This is really where this game shines the most, which is just as well because most the the game play does revolve around the characters and their antics.  The main character is Mae Borowski, an anthropomorphic cat like creature who has just returned to the town where they grew up after suddenly deciding to bail on college life for reasons that are undisclosed until later in the game.  Possum Springs is a quiet, mostly peaceful little town that has seen better days, at least economically - shops and restaurants are regularly closing down, the mall is mostly an empty, lifeless shell, far removed from the hustle and bustle of its glory days.  Mae is at that difficult stage in her life where she is no longer really a child but not yet fully committed to the notion of adulthood or aware of what is required of most responsible people.  She doesn't yet know what she wants to be, which understandably is the source of quite a lot of angst.  She spends her days sleeping or aimlessly wandering the town and chatting to the residents, and her nights getting embarrassingly drunk or doing things that she shouldn't with her old friends.

These old friends include Gregg, a foxy / doggy thing who has nothing but love for Mae, but is probably not the best influence on her. Nevertheless, despite his fondness of crimes and general immaturity he is at least managing to hold down a steady job at the local Snack Falcon and a loving relationship with his boyfriend, the bear-thing Angus. Mae's other closest friend is Bea, a chain smoking crocodile whose life spent looking after her ailing father and working at their family store every day is starting to take its toll on her.  She's tired, cranky, and more than a bit resentful that Mae not only up and left, but randomly decided to throw away the opportunities that were afforded to her at college on a whim. Over the course of the game you will mostly be spending your time with one of these two in various skits.  You normally have to choose, too - spending time with Gregg means that you won't be seeing Bea, and vice versa. As the game goes by Mae keeps a journal where she sketches key events that happen, and the only way to complete it is to play through twice so you can do what you didn't do last time.  Angus and a strange duck like bloke known as Germ do also feature in the story a little bit, as well as Mae's parents and her aunt in the police force, but the trio of Mae, Gregg and Bea are the main focus.

The script is incredibly well written, sounding very natural and full of humour. I liked Bea in particular as her snarky comments brought a smile to my face on several occasions.  Gregg is cool too but I really didn't spend all that much time with him - maybe I will play the game again so I can see what he was up to.  Underneath the charm and the amusing antics is a darker tale though, which I'm not going to elaborate on here - just know that the tone of the game starts to shift a bit towards the latter stages (though there are hints that something sinister is coming throughout the game). Yes, the plot and character are definitely the main strengths of Night in the Woods, but that's not all it's got going for it, thankfully.

Yeah, I get that a lot too, Mae. :(

Graphics: 9 out of 10
Visually, Night in the Woods is a delight to look at.  No, it isn't a polygon pushing powerhouse, with god rays and particle effects spunking in your face at every opportunity, but it is a great example of 2D artwork.  The whole game has a cohesive, cartoony style to it, probably because all of the art was created by just one person.  It reminds me a bit of Richard Scarry's Busytown, except a bit darker and with a more autumnal colour palette.  Gorgeous stuff!

Sound and Music: 7 out of 10
While I did enjoy the music while playing through game, I've found that a lot of it isn't all that memorable outside of the experience, save for a few pieces. I've used those in the background of the video. I was slightly disappointed that the game doesn't feature any voice acting at all, though I do understand why there may not be any for budgetary or artistic reasons.  I picture Bea sounding like one of Marge's sisters from The Simpsons.  Sound effects are used fairly sparingly throughout the game, but a pretty solid when there are used.

Most of the time, Mae does speak a lot of sense.

Game Mechanics: 8 out of 10
Being an adventure game at heart, there is quite a lot of talking to people throughout Night in the Woods.  Each day in Mae's life begins with her waking up at home, having a quick chat with mom, and then heading out to see what's going down in the town. You are relatively free to explore Possum Springs, although it is not a terribly huge location. Usually, by talking to either Gregg or Bea (and occasionally other people) you will trigger a story sequence, and then the day will end after it has played out.  You are given fair warning that this is going to happen though, in case you want to scour every inch of the town to see what's changed (something I recommend doing to get the most out of the game).

Dotted throughout the game are other mini games as well, such as band practice.  I was utterly terrible at the this unfortunately, and Mae's journal reflected this.  There's also a complete rogue lite called Demontower, which can be launched from Mae's laptop in her bedroom.  I spent almost an hour playing this and managed to get to level 5 (out of 10, I believe) where things started to get pretty challenging.   The art style changes to that of a classic 16-bit dungeon crawler and for a side game it's a very polished experience.  I think there is an achievement tied to getting all the way to the end but like I said it does get pretty tough after a while.

Night in the Woods probably won't appeal to those gamers who like a steady diet of blood, guts and wall to wall action, but you probably already know if this is the sort of thing that will appeal to you or not.  If you are still on the fence about buying it right now, then I would suggest that you wait for a sale, or for the game to be featured in Games with Gold, PS Plus or Xbox Game Pass.  It's the sort of thing that I can see being offered up as part of those services onr day, and personally I would be thrilled to receive it, if I hadn't already bought it of course.

A feline after my own heart!

Innovation and Cleverness: 6 out of 10
This was a bit of tricky one to score - games like Night in the Woods have definitely been done before so it's not that high on innovation, though the cohesive design style, witty writing and arrays of fun mini games all contribute towards a decent cleverness score.  Let's go with a six then!

Value and Replayability: 8 out of 10
Night in the Woods wasn't quite as short as I had been led to believe it was - it look me about a dozen hours to complete which considering the price is more than reasonable.  Then there's the fact that you can play the game over again if you want to and see quite a few different scenes from your first time through.  The Demontower mini game is the very addictive cherry on top, and you could sink a fair few hours into just playing that should you wish.

Overall: 8 out of 10
Night in the Woods did take a litle while to get it claws into me, but after I had warmed up to Mae, her friends and the strange world they live in I really did start to love it. If this sounds like your sort of thing then I would really recommend checking it out without hesitation.

Thanks for reading - I will be back with my review of Oxenfree quite soon.  In the meantime you can check out the video version of this review below.   Take care!

Summer Backlog Diary #3: Night in the Woods & Oxenfree

This post is not going to be terribly long today because I will be writing full reviews of both Night in the Woods and Oxenfree quite soon, and I don't want to end up repeating myself too much. I did want to give you a quick update however because at the moment I'm not too sure when I will find the time to edit these reviews together - hopefully I will have one of them done by next weekend at the latest and then have the other one ready to upload during the week after next.  My PC has been acting up just lately though which meant that the latest Covertape Chaos took almost 6 hours to make when it should only take about 3 at the most.

Anyway, I should stop rambling and get to the point.  Night in the Woods and Oxenfree share quite a few similarities: the are both gentle paced adventure games where being able to take your time and explore them thoroughly is really rewarding.  Neither of these are a huge time investment, but both are set up in a way that it is impossible to do everything in one play through - so instead of fretting about what you might have missed or looking up how get the best ending, you should just enjoy the story that the developers have decided to tell and go with your gut instinct. At least for the first time through.  I'm not sure whether or not I will come back and play either of these a second time - for certain games like the Telltale series, I like to just play them once and feel like that is my personal version of the story.  Going back and doing things another way can sometimes spoil the illusion.

Both of these games are very well written, and do a very good job of portraying believable characters with interesting back stories combined with some very strange goings on in terms of the plot. Both of the protagonists, cat like creature Mae and blue haired teen Alex, are fairly likable but definitely have their fair share of neuroses and personal shit that they have to deal with. I know common wisdom states that Gregg is apparently the best character in Night of the Woods, but I found myself more interested in Bee, the chain smoking crocodile chick who is having to work all hours of the day to support her ailing father after her mother tragically passed away.  It's clear that at one point in time Mae and Bee were extremely close, but her situation and resentment of Mae's decision to just give up college one day get between them.  I chose to spend time with her and work through their problems rather than carry out crimes with Gregg.

Whereas Night in the Woods took a little while to get its hooks into me, I was fully committed to finishing Oxenfree by the time my first hour with it was up and got to the end in one roughly four hour sitting. I loved the painterly art style, exploring the island with it's interesting array of places, and delving deeper into the mystery of what's going on.  It took me a lot longer to finish Night in the Woods over a dozen or so short-ish sessions, but one of those was almost entirely taken up playing the fully featured rogue lite that can be played on Mae's laptop.  The quality of that minigame alone rivals that of many indie games, and it's entirely optional!

I am glad that I have finally crossed both of these games off of my backlog list.  Time to think about what's next! I'm still plugging away at Mass Effect: Andromeda and starting to get towards the end game now I think, but I don't want to to finish it until I have at least completed all of the crew's loyalty missions.  Other than that, I think I will probably try Pyre next, it does sound very interesting. I'm also playing the odd session of OnRush here and there, and will be messing around with some of the Games with Gold / PS Plus / Xbox Game Pass offerings this week, but that's not official Summer Backlog business so I'll save it for another post or video.  I think that does it for the time being - keep an eye out for those two reviews over the next week or so, and I'll be back with another diary once I've had time to play some more.  In the meantime, take care!