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Jan 19th, 2007 at 14:04:26 - Shadow of the Colossus (PS2) |
I typed up an entry last night but, for some reason, the server decided that it would rather not save it. My impressions might be slightly less cogent at this point, but here they are.
The opening to Shadow of the Colossus was dull, to be nice. The music had the contrived epic quality to it, with chorale backgrounds and strings that would fade in and out. Then came the gameplay, which was kind of like wrestling a horse to the ground repeatedly instead of riding one. Not to mention that the graphics are a bit underwhelming.
The storyline was essentially filler, but I expected that. A girl who you love, I suppose, falls prey to something or other and the only way to save her is to complete objectives A, B, C, etc. in order.
But then I got to the first colossus. He was a bipedal, hairy monster with a big club that he had a tendency to swing very elaborately at you. And to beat him, you had to grab onto the hair of his leg, and climb all the way up to his head while your strength meter diminished and he tried to shake you off. This guy took me about 45 minutes, travel time included.
Then the second colossus; this time a quadruped, and your horse was with you. I promptly got off the horse, shot the colossus in the foot (at the behest of my roommate), and did away with it in ~10 minutes.
I also murdered the third colossus, who was difficult, if only because I was forced to use the ledges on his body, and I wasn't used to that.
The greatest thing about this game, so far, is that it feels epic. It plays as though you really are the only person for a huge stretch of space, and these colossi really are hidden out there somewhere. It is also a lot of fun to play with enthusiastic spectators, as everyone seems to have their own idea of how to best get into the attack position.
The controls are pretty bad. The camera and the horse tie for the most difficult to deal with award, and the only real redeeming factor about the camera is that a quick hold of L1 will reveal a giant, towering colossus, often silhouetted by the sun, making you glad that you chose this game.
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Jan 12th, 2007 at 12:58:19 - Trauma Center: Second Opinion (Wii) |
After another hour of Trauma Center, I can safely say that this game is not only a ton of fun but a really well designed game. The thing about this type of puzzle game (which is to say, the kind without the falling blocks) is that it needs to strike a particular balance with regards to difficulty; it can't progress step by step, because the player will progress with it and the component of difficulty (a large part of the fun of puzzle games) is essentially lost. It also can't exponentially progress due to the infuriating nature of some later missions that can be rather off-putting.
So level design needs to take a path that is jagged in nature, while still being mildly progressive. It needs to have the correct number of "learning" missions; missions that are difficult in their own right, but are really just preparing you for a mission that is upcoming.
This kind of design, done correctly, can be seen in the two missions: "Caduceus on a Plane" and "Pandora's Box." CoaP is a welcome respite after the, ahem, challenging mission "An Explosive Patient", and it introduces a stronger emphasis on time-based gameplay, which while not what "Pandora's Box" is based around, is important in dealing with the more difficult puzzles that this next mission presents. By tying these two missions together, an episode that should have been particularly difficult is relagated to one that only requires two tries instead of between five and six.
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Jan 10th, 2007 at 15:45:01 - Trauma Center: Second Opinion (Wii) |
I played for about 15 minutes and beat both An Explosive Patient and Caduceus On A Plane.
My next gamelog will be so much happier.
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Jan 10th, 2007 at 13:05:13 - Trauma Center: Second Opinion (Wii) |
I played for slightly more than an hour last night. I don't know the exact amount of time, because there were significant portions of the night where the controller would fall from my hands and I would have to lie down. Also I was letting someone else try out the game, in order that I could bring my wits about me again and go for another try, at which I would invariably fail.
I started out by going back and playing a couple of the older missions; I yanked a large chunk of glass out of the heart of a man who had been in a car accident and I burned polyps off the throat of a rock singer. Then I went in and tried to defuse that bomb.
I've got the first half of the mission down to a science at this point. I can undo the screws and I can correct the voltage in under thirty seconds. I can also laser away all the panels on the bomb about 85% of the time. It's about 60-40 whether I'll even make one mistake up to this point.
Then comes the core. You have :30 to use the surgical laser to deactivate the core of the bomb, while panels spin around it a la an electron cloud, only (very) slightly less encompassing. I fail this every single time. Once I turned the core yellow. I don't know what that means.
This is probably the most angry I've ever been with a video game. To give you perspective on just how not fun this is, I enjoyed slow dancing after my hour was up. That's how out of whack it put me.
And yet I keep coming back to it. Something about this near-impossible task just screams that it'll only take one more shot. Next time, I'll be able to do it! Try again, it'll work, you'll find something.
That's why this game is so brilliant. In the face of a mission that feels like your chances are nonexistent, something keeps bringing you back. And bring me back it will.
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Benladen has been with GameLog for 17 years, 10 months, and 13 days |
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