Blogging the experience of gameplayhttps://www.gamelog.cl/gamers/GamerPage.php?idgamer=1948https://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=6675Another session down, and though I’m really enjoying the game, I gotta say I’m kind of disappointed by the lack of meaningful moral choices. The game provides the tools to manage the prison however you wish, though it seems you’re heavily incentivized to reform prisoners through educational programs and therapy rather than punishment. Sure, you CAN create a prison with awful conditions, liberal use of punitive reform, with no visitation or chance of parole, but that’s a fast track to rioting and bankruptcy. It’s hard being a tyrannical warden in this economy. The game encourages the improvement of prison conditions through grants, which serve as side-quests that reward you with essential funds for running your prison. The vast majority of them push for the betterment of prison conditions, such as the Health and Well Being and The Reform through Education Initiative grants. Thus, as far as I can see, there’s really only one way to play the game, which makes it unfortunately linear. I’ve put about 22 hours into it so far though, so that certainly doesn’t mean it isn’t fun. I just worry I’ll be scrambling for a thesis for my OPA when the time comes… 😊Fri, 30 Mar 2018 00:45:27 CSThttps://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=6675&iddiary=11822https://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=6675I’ve just completed my first session with Prison Architect, and boy do I like where it’s going. The premise of managing a prison is a fantastic foundation on which to place all kinds of moral dilemmas. At the very beginning of the campaign, you’re tasked with building an execution facility for a prisoner named ‘Edward’, who murdered his wife after catching her cheating on him. While you can’t do much about his sentence, even if you were so inclined as to spare him, the game does give you optional objectives to improve Edward’s cell to make his last moments more comfortable. There seems to be two ‘sides’ to the morality in this game: those who favor punishment and those who favor reform through educational programs and therapy. At first, the two sides seemed pretty black and white, but as I got further into the session, I was happy to see the lines blur a bit. For instance, I decided to lower the quantity and quality of food the prisoners got in order to make enough money to expand various reformation programs. Do the ends justify the means? Well, in this case, yeah probably seeing as their hunger was temporary whereas the life skills they’ll learn are permanent… that’s what I’ll be telling my prison’s investors anyway 😊Wed, 28 Mar 2018 22:59:56 CSThttps://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=6675&iddiary=11787https://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=6615I’ve now reached Day 17 on this third and final session. As expected, things are picking up with the mafia. I’ve gone from one request a day to now getting two, sometimes three, and they usually want more officers for them. This might just be random chance, but I like to think that it’s indicative of the deepening of the relationship between the mafia and Jack Boyd. Though they don’t have any huge leverage on him (yet), if he wants to meet his goal of making half a million before he leaves the force, then he’s inexorably tied to their desires, as it’s only through them is he going to be able to meet his rather lofty goal. There’s just no legal way to make that much in 180 days as a police chief. I’d say they’ve got their claws deeper in Jack than he’d care to admit. Some interesting new mechanics were introduced since my last session. For instance, I chose to side with Sand’s criminal organization because what can I say, he’s old-fashioned, Jack’s old-fashioned… it seemed like the best match. In doing so, Jack’s pitted himself against the rival gang leader. Their battle for the city of Freeburg is represented by a scoreboard of sorts. The goal is keep the leader you sided with ahead of the other. Unfortunately, this dooms you to some less than legal tasks in order to keep your dark messiah in the lead. To top it all off, you also have to keep city hall happy while trying to fight this gang war and those pesky civilians always need protecting, so it all makes for a very busy Jack Boyd. You’re constantly spread too thinly, and many concessions have to be made, and many people die as a result of these concessions, all in the name of making Jack a wealthier man. It’s such an ignoble goal, but it makes for compelling gameplay in my opinion. Not often is a player asked to assume the role of the “bad” guy, so when it does happen, I cherish the experience.Sat, 17 Feb 2018 00:53:28 CSThttps://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=6615&iddiary=11707https://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=6615I’ve now completed my second session, and it seems like things are progressing like I thought they would. Our intrepid protagonist Jack Boyd is now, to put it in his words, “the mafia’s whore.” I was given the decision of whether or not to help my colleague who found himself on the mafia’s bad side. I chose to help him, but I wouldn’t be surprised if you end up in the mafia’s pocket regardless of your decision. So far, all the mafia has really asked me to do is not to send officers to certain crime scenes, and occasionally send them cops for additional manpower. Comply, and you’re typically rewarded handsomely. However, it makes me wonder where to draw the line. I ignored one crime and was paid $8,000 for my efforts (or lack thereof), but unfortunately this oversight resulted in the death of a civilian. Is $8,000 worth the stain that a preventable death leaves on my conscience? Probably not, and I get the feeling that my morals will be tested further as the mafia gets more comfortable with our relationship. My nefarious deeds with the mafia can also affect the public safety indirectly. For instance, there was a case where I didn’t have the manpower to respond to a crime as the majority of the force were tied up with a mafia errand, and a civilian was killed because of it.Fri, 16 Feb 2018 00:47:19 CSThttps://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=6615&iddiary=11699https://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=6615This is the Police immediately strikes me with its almost oppressively gritty atmosphere. The developers are clearly fans of film noire. This is my first session, and I’ve recently been introduced to my avatar, Jack Boyd. Jack definitely doesn’t strike me as the most likable character. He’s the stereotype of crusty, old, corrupted police chief personified. Emphasis on “corrupted”, as the goal of the game, from what I can tell after about an hour of playtime, is to make Jack a very rich man before he retires from the police force in 180 days. Whether or not that goal is met through entirely legal means is up to the player. For instance, I fired a cop for no legal reason in order to make room for a newly hired cop with significantly better professionalism. It’s interesting to play a simulator-style game where the goal of the game isn’t the betterment of whatever is being simulated (e.g., a city, a farm, an office), but rather your own personal wealth accrual. I’ll be interested to see what’s built upon the framework that’s been established in this first session. I wouldn’t be surprised if Jack’s asked to push his moral boundaries even farther.Wed, 14 Feb 2018 21:25:35 CSThttps://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=6615&iddiary=11655https://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=6572Session 2: I’ve just completed 2 more days. I can’t get enough of Henry and Delilah’s banter. It’s excellently written, in my opinion. And thank goodness too, as their dialogue is essentially the entire game. The spookiness/mystery aspect is definitely picking up as well. I remember the first time I played, I was worried that I’d been bamboozled into purchasing a horror game. One scene in particular really sticks out to me. That moment when you’re walking back to your tower at night, and Delilah says “Oh well, at least you’re back in your tower,” but you’re not. And then she says “I am looking at a man that is standing in your tower. And it’s not you?” I get goosebumps just writing that. There’s something so profoundly unsettling about having a place where you should feel safe and secure invaded like that. Firewatch EXCELS at creating this suffocating feeling of uneasiness throughout the vast majority of its story. Even though I wouldn’t technically call it a horror game, I think it does a better job at creating the atmosphere of one than many that I’ve played (though I’m kind of a wuss, so that’s a very short list if I’m gonna be honest). Firewatch is a very ambitious game, story-wise. It attempts to interweave several plotlines into one cohesive narrative, with the main exposition coming through a simple radio and some notes. By and large, I think it succeeds. It has its shortcomings, though. The developers tried to cram a ton of story into a very short game, and it shows. The plotlines don’t always feel fully fleshed out. That being said, I still thoroughly enjoyed my time with it. It dragged me across the entire emotional spectrum in a way that a lot of triple A titles can only dream of replicating. I’m sure a large part of why Firewatch is so short is due to a small budget, so with its success I hope Campo Santo’s next game will be more “feature-length”. I’m very excited to see what they can do without financial restrictions holding them back, and I very much look forward to playing it. Sun, 21 Jan 2018 00:37:44 CSThttps://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=6572&iddiary=11569https://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=6572Well I suppose I should start this off by saying I’ve already played through Firewatch once. However, it’s been so long that I wouldn’t be surprised if I’ve forgotten many details and I no doubt missed many more. Thus, I feel completely validated in my decision to play through it once more (especially since I remember really enjoying my time with it). I’ll be curious to see if my opinion of it changes at all. Session 1: Well right off the bat, I notice that you can’t seem to sprint. I guess I’d forgotten that little detail. I can understand the mindset behind not including such a feature, as I’m sure the devs wanted people to bask in the splendor of the breathtaking visuals (not to mention the fact that it artificially lengthens the time it takes to complete the game). It wouldn’t be so bad, but since Henry moves at approximately the same speed as a very large, stationary boulder, I’ve come to the conclusion that the devs ACTUAL goal is to antagonize their player-base. UPDATE: The game took its sweet time letting me know, but apparently you can in fact sprint. Thank god. *************************************************************** I’ve just completed the prologue, and MAN the game doesn’t waste any time in hitting you with some tough choices. I don’t think I’ve ever gone from chuckling to tearing up in such a short span of time before (UP being the notable exception, of course). Having had family members go through the nightmare that is dementia/Alzheimer’s, the decision to put Julia in a nursing home or not really resonated with me. What a moral dilemma. Do you sacrifice your own happiness to take care of someone who doesn’t even know you anymore? Or do you “abandon” them? While the former may be the selfless decision, I don’t believe it’s the right one. After watching various family members slowly succumb to the devastating effects of these diseases, regressing into husks of their former selves, I wouldn’t wish that burden on anyone. I would argue that your moral obligation to your loved one is to stay with them for as long as they’re lucid, but past that point they need the professional care provided by a nursing home, as taking care of them then becomes a full-time job that requires training the average person simply doesn’t have. Regardless, it’s still an incredibly difficult decision. In the later stages of these diseases, the person that you knew is gone. What’s your moral obligation to a complete stranger? Oof. I think that’s enough Firewatch for now. (This entry has been edited1 time. It was last edited on Sat, 20 Jan 2018 22:43:51.)Sat, 20 Jan 2018 22:39:47 CSThttps://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=6572&iddiary=11568