 |
|
Nov 30th, 2022 at 19:51:41 - Watch Dogs 2 (PC) |
This is GTA with hacking. Overall, I enjoyed it, found it a breath of fresh air in open world games. Although the GTA formula is nothing new, the hacking kept me engaged; actually, I became more engaged over time as I unlocked new abilities and wrapped my head around the hacking puzzles. This was a freebie on Epic. I never would have bought it, but am glad that I played it (though it subjectively felt like forever, took me all semester, yet told me in the end I clocked only 29 hours).
By far my favorite aspect of the game was the setting. San Francisco is beautifully depicted. The game starts you—a Black character named Marcus—by the ocean, a pride flag waving in the breeze. Immediately, representation matters. There is a city councilwoman who is trans. The Watch Dogs version of The Church of Scientology attempts to blackmail her by releasing her gender reassignment surgery photos. There is also a hacker in a rival organization named Lenni, who is a masculine-presenting woman. I don’t recall references to her sexuality, but apparently it used to list that she “appears to be a lesbian” on a fan wiki I’m looking at (https://watchdogs.fandom.com/wiki/Lenora_Kastner). There are strings of comments with people asking that “appears to be a lesbian” be removed since the author is assuming sexuality from gender presentation, and of course counter comments that are as ignorant as one could imagine. The city is full of what makes San Francisco cool, and the developers take a firm stance on the side of diversity and inclusion. Case in point: the corrupt politician in the game is obviously a reference to Donald Trump. His name instead is Truss. He wants to “Make the Bay Area Stronger!” And, humorously, he tries to rig the election, the very hill Trump chose to die on four years after the game’s release.
One of the game’s (optional) activities is to find local landmarks through an app (like TripAdvisor) and take selfies in front of them. Posting selfies on Watch Dog’s social media app nets followers, which gets you research points to spend on ability upgrades and cosmetic items. I didn’t care about the cosmetic items, had more research points than I knew what to do with by the end of the game, but boy did I love exploring San Francisco’s unique locations. I spent a good chunk of my playtime finding them, and I just remember that I missed one! Argh! It was some people playing as zombies in a graveyard at night; I never returned after dark. You can photograph obvious ones like the Golden Gate Bridge, Alcatraz, and that really steep road, various murals, sculptures, and other artwork, well-known street performers and restaurants, and so on. I think that if the game’s location was not so cool, I would not have kept playing, because the gameplay took time to grow on me and I wasn’t enamored with the main characters (Marcus was pretty cool, but they descended in coolness from there [note: my opinion would be different if I was a 15-year-old boy]).
I said that the gameplay took time to grow on me. That’s partly because it doesn’t differentiate itself much from GTA in the beginning. You can 3d print a gun, hijack a car, and cause general mayhem within minutes. Your first hacking tools are basic: open doors, hack cameras, hack people’s phones. The latter activity is humorous for a while, until you realize how little sense it makes. By hacking people’s phones—and you can do this to any NPC—you see their mood, job, income, and a random fact. Like, “David Kirschner 😊. Sociology Professor. Salary: $60,000. Eats old food instead of throwing it away.” You can also transfer money from their bank account, listen in on their calls, and read their texts. Interesting for a while, then repetitive. The professions and salaries make me laugh sometimes. I think I did see a sociology professor, but the salary was like $150,000. Wishful thinking. Delivery drivers will make $200,000, while a tech CEO will make $30,000. It seems random. The random facts are all “dirty little secrets” like “likes to wear women’s underwear” or “picks her nose when no one is looking.”
Hacking presents more opportunities for annoying people instead of just killing them GTA style, and over time the puzzles open up. Some of the “annoy people” type missions are pretty funny though. For example, there is a side mission where you hack an ATM and mess with customers: eat their card, donate their money to charity, etc. The people get so mad. Main missions are more serious, and as I came to enjoy the gadgets I had access to (a remote-controlled car and a drone) and learned how to solve the hacking and platforming puzzles, they became easier. Puzzles generally involve (a) using gadgets to (b) get to a high or otherwise unreachable place to (c) bypass security locks. As evidence of the moment of my mastery here, I completed a series of “tagging” missions, which culminated in figuring out how to scale the highest place in the game, the Golden Gate Bridge. Getting to high places often involves finding the machinery to get you there: forklifts, cranes, and the like, which you can hack to transport you from rooftop to rooftop, for example.
The hacking puzzles themselves are neat. They are a bit difficult to explain. Imagine looking at a wall, and on the wall you see a network of cables with various switches. There is a “power source,” and you route the power through the cables, rotating the switches in the correct way to unlock more switches, and eventually channel the power to open a door or whatever is the object of the puzzle. That’s one of the basic puzzles, like some cables in a wall. Now, imagine later puzzles: cables crisscrossing up the side of an entire building; cables going up walls and across ceilings through several rooms in a server farm; multiple of these rooms, connected by satellites, spanning the globe!
You can do other things with your hacking skills too, and you’ll need to, because despite the option to attempt playing this game like GTA, that path will lead to frustration and (character) death. While driving, you can disrupt the power grid, change red lights, make other cars swerve, and blow up manhole covers. All this is mildly effective at deterring the police, and I mainly used these tricks to cause chaos for fun. Although, you’ll rarely be driving long distances unless you want to. There is a generous fast-travel system that’ll get you within a few blocks of most anywhere on the map.
As far as going on the offensive on foot, you’ll make use of disrupting people’s phones so they can’t call for back-up, you’ll turn their phones into remote bombs, zap them with electric shocks, and my favorite, put a hit on people and call in the local gangs to take them out. This latter tactic is hilarious, AND for some inexplicable reason, gang members can get through any locked door, so it’s instrumental for bypassing security! You just follow them in, then watch them murder your enemies. As long as you don’t shoot at anyone, they’ll leave you alone, and you can take a leisurely stroll through the high-security building, to the third floor, into the CEO’s office, hack his computer, or whatever you are doing, and no one is the wiser. Need to leave the area afterward? Just call in another hit and leave amid the chaos. No problem.
This latter phenomenon is an example of Watch Dogs 2 being GTA-lite. It’s GTA with hacking, yes, but it’s also a GTA that doesn’t do anything else as well as GTA. The AI has quirks. Enemies quit searching the area for you, for example, even if you are obviously still nearby; they aren’t thorough. The gang members getting an open invitation to enter buildings is weird. Enemies will go into high alert after you shoot someone with your stun gun, hidden behind cover, while they won’t bat an eye when you turn an enemy’s phone into a remote explosive or otherwise cause environmental damage. In my last play session, I began in the middle of a highway (I guess I stopped in the road before turning off the game last time). A motorcycle approached. A car stopped behind it. I was causing a traffic jam in one lane. The woman on the motorcycle got off and hurled insults at me. Cars swerved around us. Another car got caught in the jam. The woman decided to run down the interstate herself. Another person got out of a jammed car, yelled at me, and ran down the interstate the other way, causing another pileup before eventually getting struck and dying. I could see her corpse in the distance in the slow lane. This was all really funny, and I let the havoc unfold for about 10 minutes. My girlfriend was sitting next to me, and we both became invested in the drama.
I suppose that’s a draw of these kinds of games. They aren’t supposed to be hyper-realistic. The systems aren’t supposed to be perfect. The imperfections create a lot of the humor, the playfulness, and the stories that emerge from gameplay. I think that’s why I kept playing, because even though the characters were kind of annoying, the clear Anonymous vibes from hacker group DedSec were cheesy, and it was way too “cool” for a non-teen like me, it was always fun. What more can you ask for?
add a comment  - read this GameLog  |
|
Nov 24th, 2022 at 22:33:49 - Tales From Off-Peak City Vol. 1 (PC) |
This was a little less interesting than Off-Peak and The Norwood Suite. The art was less surreal and imaginative than The Norwood Suite. And whereas that game was self-contained, about exploring the life and death of Peter Norwood and his music, this was half a game, "Volume 1," which basically involves making and delivering pizzas. The former I appreciated for the art and culture in the world; this one, the best thing was seeing what customers said when you put weird shit on their pizzas. Granted, it was really funny and I definitely laughed a handful of times. But also as with The Norwood Suite, the conversations can get a bit long. Since they're so dang weird, it's easy to get bored, like, "Okay...where is this headed? Half of this game is people talking about pizza toppings..." It's building to something (an evil corporation destroying a neighborhood) and I'm sure I'll play Volume 2 when it comes out. Actually, I just searched for its release date and saw that Cosmo D has another recent game, Betrayal at Club Low, which is...maybe a sequel to Off-Peak City Vol. 1? These games are all so weird. I have no idea. But I'll buy it!
add a comment - read this GameLog |
|
Oct 26th, 2022 at 18:35:00 - Ring of Pain (PC) |
Ring of Pain scratches a card game itch even though it's not a card game. Since my last entry, I've beaten it a couple more times and unlocked most of the items, like 290/350, and am at 52/122 (42%) achievements. I think I'm done though. It's pretty much exhausted itself; runs feel more rote, and the challenge more frustrating due to the game's randomness on harder difficulties. You can still obliterate the game by stacking a couple different stats. Speed + attack, for example, is great because with high speed you can always attack first, and with high attack, you can one-shot most anything. Get lucky and find some specific items, and you'll be sneaking past whatever enemies you happen to not be able to kill, gaining permanent HP every time you equip an item, automatically knocking back enemies you attack, and finding other items that are absurdly useful. Get a bunch of crap items though, or fail to synergize your stats, and you'll be hurting.
The game has daily dungeons that are pretty fun. Each day, you can play a shortened ring that has two modifiers. These could be like, "start with 100 health and no potions spawn," "start with a full set of 'explosion' items," or my favorite, "all item drops are commons, but everything you have equipped evolves each room exit." All the RNG is pre-determined in the daily dungeons, so each day's ring has the same weapons, the same enemies, the same scrolls, curse potions always either curse or heal you, etc. This makes it so, if you're having trouble, you can memorize the beginning and get a better start. Even more so than the regular mode, your power accumulates in the daily dungeons and you will just be plowing through the final rooms. The reward for doing these is an achievement (for trying 7 daily dungeons) and getting on a leaderboard. I've at least temporarily held the #1 spot several times. I mean, not a lot of people play these, but still!
So yeah, I really like Ring of Pain. It's simple, with a creepy aesthetic. I hope they update it with new mechanics, enemies, items, story bits, and so on. I'd totally come back. But for now, finished!
add a comment - read this GameLog |
|
Oct 15th, 2022 at 22:13:01 - Ring of Pain (PC) |
I thought Ring of Pain was a card game going in. It was a freebie on Epic recently and looked interesting because of the art—the creepy yellow owl character specifically—and…well, whatever the “ring” was. Videos looked like cards in a circle that you choose among and fight. Okay so, something like that, but not quite what I thought.
There aren’t cards. No cards. Well, cards, maybe. But no deck. You’re dropped in with very little explanation. The game has card elements, dungeon crawling roguelike elements, and RPG elements. Each level (a “depth” in some horrible place of light and dark) has a ring of creatures and treasures. You’re standing at the front of the ring, with two…I don’t know what to call them generally…objects…in front of you. Objects can be creatures, treasures, potions, doors, etc.—things to interact with. You can rotate the circle clockwise and counterclockwise, bringing some objects toward you and sending others away. In another universe, this game was a locker opening simulator. Spin the dial back and forth…
You need to kill monsters to get soul points to spend to get equipment. Harder monsters and better rarity equipment = more soul points. You have like 15 equipment slots and various stats (health, attack, defense, etc.). The name of the game is increasing stats. The bigger stats you have, the better you fare against increasingly strong monsters. Your attack can overcome their defense (and their attacks will crush you if you don’t get more defense), your speed determines who attacks first (and increases dodge chance and stealth chance—your ability to be able to move past an enemy without them attacking), and your clarity affects a variety of things: how much extra healing you receive from potions; critical hit chance; chance to be cursed by items; and bonus souls from enemies. So far, I have found that the best strategy is to focus on attack, speed, and HP so that you can generally one-shot everything. However, I have also found that stacking clarity can net you tons of soul points, which means you’ll get tons of useful items. Stacking speed is only useful to a point (after around 20, you’ll attack before most every enemy) and stacking defense doesn’t really matter if you’re one-shotting everything.
Some enemies move toward you on their own. Others explode upon reaching you. Some you can’t move past unless you kill them. Others shoot projectiles at you from a few spots away. There’s a nice variety of enemies to deal with. Although the RNG is heavy, there is a lot of strategy to manipulating the ring to deal with enemies and get as much treasure as possible. You can use exploding enemies to blow up one another, for example. You will learn which items are more important than others, and learn how to create synergies from items that you can use to your advantage in dealing with various types of enemies. You’ll learn how to use the various scrolls and spell books to your advantage.
For example, in my last victory (I’ve beaten the game twice on normal, one “light ending” and one “dark ending”), I early on got some pants that did 1 poison damage to an enemy. Poison does damage every turn (defined as an action; you act, then the monsters act, and that’s a turn), and 1 poison is removed every turn. So 1 poison damage is basically just 1 damage, applied after you attack. But then I found some other item that did 3 damage to poisoned enemies. Ooh. Now if I attack my poisoned enemy, I hit for another 3. So by this point, I’m on the lookout for poison items. I found another that does 5 poison damage on attack, and another that lets you double the poison applied. Now I’m stacking 6 poison on enemies and can make it 12 on a cooldown. Hit them, apply the 6 poison, rotate the ring away (which is an action, 1 poison is removed, and the enemy ticks for 5). Rotate the ring back to them (1 poison removed, enemy ticks for 4). Rotate away, tick for 3. Etc. That one attack that applies 6 poison will deal 6+5+4+3+2+1 extra damage. And if the enemy is especially tough, double it to 12. 12+11+10+…that’ll kill most anything.
In my first victory, I built an item set that buffed my HP to almost 70 by the end (it was barely half that in the second victory). I did this with an item that gave me 1 HP every time I consumed a potion at full health. Usually, you want to save potions until you’re really hurting because they’re finite, but with this item, I decided to try to do what normally would be wasteful and use them at full health. I found another item that gave me 1 HP every time I equipped an item. And I grabbed any other incidental health bonuses I found. Between those things, I gained a boatload of health and was basically untouchable by the end. Amping up any of your stats is like this. If your attack is ridiculous, you one-shot everything. If your defense is ridiculous, nothing can kill you. If your clarity is ridiculous, you get tons of extra souls from enemies (which means you can unlock most any chest you find and reroll for better items), health potions become super powerful, your crit chance (double damage) goes way up, and you avoid almost all curse damage (which means you have more usable potions and acquire more stat bonuses).
There do seem to be some items that are no-brainers in your run. There’s a mask, for example, that makes it so projectile enemies don’t fire at you (this prevents you from getting caught by ranged enemies). There’s armor that nullifies explosive damage, boots that make it so you can only take 2 poison damage at a time. There are a couple items that make it so you can see every object in the ring. Typically, enemies are shrouded until you encounter them, so the visibility lets you plan. Winning without it seems nearly impossible. Once you beat the “dark ending,” you unlock a new default starting candle that lets you choose a common item to start with. This seems really powerful—that +1 HP mask I mentioned earlier is a common item.
Some paths are also no-brainers. There are 16 depths, but you can take “side” paths in between them, which add extra challenges and rewards. One of the side paths is a wishing well into which you can toss up to three items to permanently gain their primary stats. This is fucking awesome. You want to burn your highest stat items that don’t have great secondary benefits. This has the double benefit of permanently boosting your stats and freeing up an item slot to find something else. Toward the end of a run, you can easily boost your stats variously by 15 points at the wishing well. In one of my victories, I actually found two wishing wells. Other paths lead to specific treasures if you sacrifice some health or other stats, guaranteed chests, rooms with specific enemy configurations, and so on.
You’ll also want to go achievement hunting, as you unlock new items that can be found in the ring by completing achievements. This adds the permanence to the metagame; once found, they have a chance to appear forever. So, the more achievements you get, the more variety of items you unlock, the more cool stuff you find, and the farther you will get in the ring (to unlock more achievements, to unlock more items, etc.). I’ve so far gotten about 40/120 achievements and have unlocked over 2/3 of the items. I definitely want to see more and, even though I’ve beaten the game twice, will keep at it because I unlocked the next difficulty level and another starting item. I feel like there are more secrets to find and more story to uncover too (what is the backstory with the owl and the darkness? Who am I?). Plus, the game gets easier as you approach the final rings. Every time I’ve made it to ring 10, I’ve finished the run. Until then, the game can throw you. I’m sure it still can, but I seem to be really tough by around ring 12.
I wonder how much harder the next difficulty is!
add a comment - read this GameLog |
