Seneste anmeldelser af Bassem

(Please note the game wouldn't launch for me. I had to check the Steam forums and add launch parametres to get it running.)

Let me start with the bottom line.
Is this game suitable for me?

• Don't expect anything like The Stanley Parable, it's nothing like it.
  
• This game isn't meant to be fun or enjoyable, it's rather supposed to make you think and feel. I'll let you decide if that's for you.
  
• In terms of gameplay, this is very much a walking simulator. As the Steam store description says, it has no play mechanics, no goals or objectives. It is basically a guided tour. You walk around, look and listen, and click on stuff.
  
• 90-120 minutes gameplay, and no replay value.
  
• It touches on themes of creativity, friendship, depression, anxiety, obsession, dependency, and projection. If it clicks with you, it will keep you thinking for a long time. It will remind you of people you know, maybe yourself. Remind you of situations you've lived.

I said earlier that it's nothing like The Stanley Parable. But inevitably, people will compare the two. They both are "games about games" and they both feature walking around listening to narration. And in a way, the two are related. You can't help it - the same person is behind both.

The fiction of The Beginner's Guide (TBG) is that it's a guided tour by the developer, Davey Wreden. "Davey" (I use the quotes to denote the in-game Davey Wreden) narrates directly to us, the players, as he takes us through a compilation of small games made by a friend of his nicknamed "Coda". "Davey" says he compiled and released these games, in the form of TBG, in order to encourage Coda to start making games again after he stopped, and to help him out of a depression.

"Davey" clearly admires Coda's work, pointing out all sorts of ideas, patterns and themes in Coda's games, and wondering at the thoughts and feelings that gave birth to them.
Through the tour, we get to know Coda and "Davey" better.

It's difficult to say much more about TBG without spoiling anything. What I've written above will have to be enough for you to decide if you want it.

Now I'll continue with my opinions on the game with major, complete spoilers.

SPOILERS FOLLOW.


No, seriously, there's major spoilers after this. If you're at all interested in TBG, don't read any further.

Are you sure?
Okay, I'll continue now.

Really, really sure? No going back after this. I just want to be certain you know what you're getting yourself into.
Alright, here we go.

TBG really is about The Stanley Parable. Rather, it's about Davey Wreden's conflicted feelings after the huge success of TSP. On the one hand he felt a sort of disconnection from his creation because it was in the hands of so many people who saw their own meanings in it, and on the other hand he craved every bit of admiration that came his way. "Coda" and TBG's version of "Davey" are two sides of the real-life Davey Wreden, and TBG's "Davey" is also an avatar of the masses.

Wreden details his post-TSP feelings in this blog post:
http://www.galactic-cafe.com/2014/02/game-of-the-year/

But what I also liked about TBG is that it also has a much broader interpretation. Several in fact.

"Davey" fawns over Coda's games and finds all kinds of meaningful, intellectual, emotional themes in his works. But they're really nothing but a bunch of unoriginal, unfinished games. "Davey" projects his own anxieties and depression onto Coda, becoming dependent. This shows between the lines in his narration, and then is practically blared at us by the end. One of the game's poor points - Wreden abandons all subtlety and spoonfeeds us at the end of the game.

So it's about overanalytical fans who see meaning that is not there, and ascribe their own emotions to an artist's work. "Stop putting lampposts in my games" was the most chilling line in the game.

TBG is also about perspective in relationships. This is apparent in The Tower chapter, where Coda addresses "Davey" directly, making it clear that he does not consider him a friend, that "Davey" makes him physically ill, and that "Davey" seems to think this is all about himself. This comes as a shock because "Davey" makes it seem like he and Coda are good friends, throughout the games.

On top of that, TBG is about how we sometimes go about helping people in all the wrong ways, because we make assumptions and act selfishly while thinking we are being altruistic. It's about how we put emotional lampposts in peoples' lives.

TBG may be heavy-handed, but I feel that's a result of the weight of Wreden's frustration that he felt compelled to portray and lay bare.
And in a contradiction to itself, TBG will make you assign your own meaning to it. It's inevitable.

Yeah, I'd say I recommend this. It's food for thought, and it's an admirable portrait of a creator.

Oprindeligt skrevet af Wikipedia:

In theatre, a farce is a comedy that aims at entertaining the audience through situations that are highly exaggerated, extravagant, and thus improbable. Farces are often highly incomprehensible plot-wise (due to the many plot twists and random events that occur), but viewers are encouraged not to try to follow the plot in order to avoid becoming confused and overwhelmed. [...] A farce is also often set in one particular location, where all events occur.

Now let's speak in practical terms. TSP is technically a walking simulator. There is not much interaction beyond opening doors and pressing buttons. The game is about walking through different locations and exploring different scenarios.

Of couse, TSP is much more than that, or it wouldn't have been the focus of so many articles in the gaming press, or have so many positive reviews everywhere (as here on Steam.)

TSP is a deconstruction of structural narratives in gaming. It is best appreciated by gamers who've played plenty of scripted games, wondered at all about how such experiences are designed, or have become wise to the patterns and framework that hold a game narrative together.

This mostly translates to you, the player, defying (or obeying) the narrator's instructions and seeing how that goes.
Of course, those defiances and their effects are, in the end, just as scripted as the rest of the game. And the game is aware of it, deconstructing even that. Is your head spinning yet?

All this to say that this is a very enjoyable, clever, funny experience. The narrator is brilliant in his delivery. The different branches and endings keep you interested for far longer than you'd expect. And I would suggest you resist the urge to go online and look at the game's unofficial wiki. Try to find as many paths and endings as you can, alone. Most are easy to find. Some are hidden.

Is this game for you? If you've ever thought about how game stories are put together, then yes it is.

Note: The sequel is much much better, and does not require playing this one.

What I liked

• Generally lighthearted and charming tone.
  
• Simple story taking place in a steampunk Victorian setting.
  
• Cute and likeable main character (both the voice acting and the illustrations)
  
• Variable quality of voice acting - it's fine as long as they don't try to do an accent.
  
• The hinting system is like a minigame, with several options to choose from.
  
• Zoomable and scrollable scenes add a layer to the gameplay.
  
• High quality art throughout - I especially appreciated the detailed artwork in the closeup of each object I found (but then why make them so darn tiny in the scenes? More on that below)
  
• Inventory item blurbs are pretty fun to read, made me chuckle several times.
  
• Free play mode once you finish the story mode, with object locations changing. A pretty nice addition to the game, but marred by the same gameplay issues (more below)

What I didn't like

• Objects to be found are often extremely tiny. I am talking about ten pixels squared on the screen. That's not how you add challenge to a HO scene. (and I'm not referring to the zoomable scenes.)
  
• The objects in questions, and their descriptions, tend to be just confusing. "Church lantern". "Cheese spoon". Do these terms convey images in your mind as to what the object looks like? "Bookmark" turns out to be a metal knife-like object, more like a letter opener. A "magnifying glass" turns out to be the freestanding type, not at all the shape you have in mind. And so on.
  
• Because of the above, the hinting system actually has an option to show you what an object looks like (but not where it is.) If you have to offer such a tool, then you know your HO scenes are lacking.
  
• Pretty short. 3 hours to finish the story mode. But there's a free play mode afterwards if you think the game is worth it.
  
• No Steam integration of any kind (no Steam overlay or chat or F12 screenshots, and no Steam cloud save or achievements or cards.)
  
• No Alt-Tab. Your screen will flicker and then put you back in the game. And windowed mode is too low-red.
  
• The Steam store screenshots are misleading: the game is 4:3 and not widescreen.
  
• The main character, Miranda, is a capable inventor and mechanic, but she's somehow tricked again and again into cleaning up the messes of the other characters (all men, by the way). There was a couple of puzzles where she had to construct or fix stuff, though.

I get the impression that they were so happy with their elaborate hinting system that they wanted to give people a reason to have to use it. Thus the obscure objects.

Difficult decision, thumbs up or down... the game was charming, looks lovely, and the player character is so endearing... but ultimately I can't recommend it for gameplay.

PS. I should note that the game wouldn't run for me on my main PC, throwing up some sort of error. I posted in the forums and one of the developers was nice enough to offer suggestions to troubleshoot. Nothing worked, but I appreciate their help. I eventually installed and played it on another PC.

Look at the other Steam reviews and you'll notice many of us feel compelled to write a lot about this mediocre game, because it's so FRUSTRATING. You'll see we all had the same impressions.

This is one of those mixed point & click / HOGs. Actually you'll spend less time in HO scenes and more time navigating rooms and interacting with stuff to unlock stuff. Which would be okay, if the developers didn't mess it up.

Usually it's normal to think "hmm, what do I do now?" in adventure games, because there's something we're not remembering. It's part of the fun. But in this game? You'll stay stuck until you click "Hint", and it's the game's fault. (more below)

The good

• Art is fine, as it is in most HOGs.
  
• Music is the best thing about the game, beautiful tracks you won't get tired of.
  
• Puzzles are okay. On the casual side. Nothing that will make you pause.
  
• Plenty of locations, and a map screen to quickly teleport (this is also a negative, more below.)
  
• Thank goodness for that Hint button. Use it liberally, and don't feel bad about it, because the game is designed in a dumb way. (more below)

The bad

• HO scenes will unlock without any sort of notification, in places where they weren't active before. There's dozens of locations, and at any time any of them can activate a new HO scene. You'll have NO IDEA unless you keep running around checking all the locations... or clicking "Hint". I can't tell you how annoying this is, to doubt yourself as a player. "I can't tell what to do now... is it because I need to remember something? Or is it the game being STUPID again?"
  
• For a HO game, the HO scenes are not that many. And you'll be repeating them several times, and hunting the SAME objects. At least other games that make you repeat a HO scene make sure you're hunting a different set of objects each time.
  
• Let me repeat once again the general feeling of being lost and confused that accompanies you constantly in this game, and not in a good or fun way. If you manage to push through to the (very abrupt and poor) ending, I'm sure you will be out of any ♥♥♥♥♥ to give by the end, like I was.
  
• There's a map screen to help with all the tedious back and forth between all the locations - but the map only has a handful of places to teleport to, out of more than 20. So you'll still have to click click click through the slow transitions.
  
• Story is not really something you look for in HOGs, and it's not strong here either.

This game left me pissed off. Mostly because it could have been good. Ah well. Plenty of good HOGs out there. This one sadly not among them.
Thumbs down, I guess.

• Mixture of hidden object, point & click, and puzzle
  
• Pixel hunting can be annoying, but the game offers hints and an option to highlight interactive elements
  
• Voice acting between passable and bad, but nothing painful (except one voice)
  
• Story casual, mildly interesting
  
• Items that were not in a scene will show up later, which means you have to look at each scene repeatedly as if it's the first time you see it. Unusual, but you get used to it.
  
• Puzzles are the strong point of this game, engaging and varied (don't be fooled by the Towers of Hanoi early on, the following puzzles are much better)
  
• Very nice music
  
• Graphics are okay, nothing special, good enough for this type of game
  
• Nice in-game achievements but no Steam achievements
  
• Between 2.5 and 3.5 hrs playtime

Overall a good casual game, frustrating at times but always with hints available if needed. You can even skip puzzles.

A short and alright hidden object game (HOG).
Some cheap hiding tricks (obstructed objects) and some minor bugs but none that got in the way of playing it.
Story is barebones and is just a framework for the gameplay.
Voice acting is not bad.
Music is very pleasant (the main menu music not so much).
Finished it in one sitting of a little less than 3 hours.
It's okay, nothing special.

I've played enough of this game, probably around 75%, and I doubt it will improve in the last 25% so I'm dropping it here and writing this.

What could have been a great jaunt through the history of gaming - and with a somewhat interesting premise - is instead a poorly implemented, basic, utterly tedious and boring (not to mention buggy) trudge through level after level of crappy combat.

Don't let the screenshots and game description fool you. You might expect being able to play through the classics of FPS - levels that feel like Quake 2, Medal Of Honor, Halo etc. but instead you will find yourself having the same thought in every one of these: "This is so very loudly a slapped-together Unity game window-dressed as Quake 2, Halo etc."

What I mean is that the gameplay is never different from "era" to "era". You always move, shoot, jump and everything as if it's a modern day drag and drop my-first-FPS.

AI is abysmal, in that it is both moronic and also has pinpoint accuracy on you. No, the AI does not improve to match the history of gaming as you play.

Weapons are many, but none are satisfying. For a game that relies so heavily on fighting waves upon waves of tedious enemies, the gunplay is ♥♥♥♥.

Don't let the "Space Invaders" and "Pac-Man" screenshots fool you, either. The implementation is utterly laughable. Feel free to look up a gameplay video on youTube.

The only reason I played this long, and the absolute best part of the game, is the protagonist - your player character. The voice actress is just amazing. Every line she delivers will make you grin. More games should be voiced by foulmouthed Scottish women. Great voice talent all around, and the writing contributes to this too.

Shame that the actual "game" part of the game is so horrible.

The first two episodes annoyed me because Clementine felt powerless and just along for the ride while other characters took decisions and drove the story. Fortunately, the rest of the episodes have her much more in charge.

This season isn't as good as season 1, and didn't make me emotional once, but it was still good. But I expected much more.

Season 1 made me bawl though. This one, not even close. That's a silly way of saying that this season had nowhere near the same impact on me. I barely cared about any of the characters.

More of the same from Overlord 1, with some improvements, not enough improvements. The good stuff is still here, and the bad stuff is mostly still here.

The good stuff:

- Funny and fun game! The cheerful villainy of Overlord 1 is still here, with plenty of cheeky British humour and a parody of Tolkien tropes.

- Controlling your minions is as fun as ever. They are a lively bunch, scooping over their targets in a frenzy, picking up helmets and swords and what not for their own use. Their delight in evil is hilarious and strangely endearing.

- The four types of minions have different abilities, strengths and weaknesses. Acquiring each type is a quest in itself, and then you get to utilise them in various combat puzzles during the rest of the game.

- If it's your thing (it's not my thing) you can customise your evil base, invest in different buffs and level up your gear and your minions. There's a whole metagame in there.

- The story never takes itself too seriously, and the whole thing has a light, fun feel to it.

- It's an open world, and you can switch between quests at your leisure, there's no linearity.

- I'm glad there's now a minimap - Overlord 1 didn't have one and it was pain to navigate sometimes. Much better here.

The bad stuff:

- The minions might be fast and nimble, but your player character (the Overlord) is as slow and lumbering as he was in OL1. I get that it's supposed to be this way - you're the heavy tank and they're the quick little rogues - but your slowness is really tedious when much of your play time is spent slowly tromping from point to point. Yes there are portals, but not often enough.

- Controls can be rather fiddly. You're trying to manage 4 different minion groups, setting waypoints, moving them around, while also moving yourself and fighting with your own weapons and spells.

- I haven't finished the game. At least not as of this review. Maybe because I played OL1 and started this right away, but I got rather bored at some point. And the slow movement pace really doesn't help.

----------------

Overall, this gets a big recommendation from me. I suggest you start with playing Overlord 1: Raising Hell, then take a break, then start with Overlord 2.

(This review is copied from my Overlord Raising Hell review, which is the same game plus added missions)
(My playtime on this shows low, but I played the Raising Hell edition for 40 hours.)

Glee is the word that comes to mind when I think of this game. Two words would be "gleefully mischievous." Imps and goblins usually annoy me - like the sidekick in The Darkness II - but these little fellows manage to be endearing.
Anyway, this game has its tongue firmly pressed to its cheek, in a good way.

It parodies LOTR - except you are playing as pseudo-Sauron, sweeping your minions across halfling villages and elven forests with an evil grin on your face.

You (the Overlord) are slow and lumbering, but your minions - whom you can guide with an invisible hand or more precisely assign tasks to - are fast and fluid.

It's sort of open world - open enough to let you revisit previous (respawning) locations to replenish your gold and Souls.

Negatives: Lots of backtracking. No way to sprint or speed up your Overlord character. And no mini-map of any kind. These three problems are a big no-no in an open world game.