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!