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Sep 27th, 2017 at 10:03:02 - The Talos Principle (PC) |
I've made some progress along the first temple, now in level 6. I continue to enjoy finding the stars. It almost feels like the other levels are merely tutorials to teach you the tools to find the stars.
The second time capsule gave me some interesting tid-bits to think about. The one talking about iteration through play. That, combined with the athena entry about the purpose of the riddles, makes me wonder what RLD's purpose is. I wonder if the game isn't supposed to be a metaphor for machine learning.
I failed my first attempt at getting admin privileges. My answers conflicted on two counts, though I failed to note which those were.
One ethical dilemma has been proposed by the game: that of citizenship of AI. It ties into the question of "what is a person?" I'm still unsure what to write about. Hopefully, like Elohim, I'll be able to banish this darkness of doubt.
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Sep 25th, 2017 at 11:32:43 - The Talos Principle (PC) |
I'm about an hour and a half into the game. The puzzles are still relatively simple. I spent most of my time exploring and figuring out where the first three stars where. I'm glad the game tells me when I've collected everything in a level or I would go crazy searching every nook and cranny before finally checking the internet to make sure I had.
My favorite parts of the game so far have been the terminals and the QR codes. It gives me a hint as to what's actually going on. Are the QR codes left by previous AI's? If so, where are they? Is the game one big Turing test? Honestly, I have no idea yet. I hope I can unravel the mystery as I go.
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Aug 31st, 2017 at 08:16:40 - Batman: Arkham VR (PS4) |
I was able to play another hour, again tackling the Riddler puzzles and exploring certain scenes again to re-evaluate their impact. Two scenes, in particular, continue to have a strong impact on me - spoilers ahead.
The third time Croc attacks, just as Robin is freeing you from the cage, is a scene that haunted me the first time and continued to haunt me the other two times I played through it. Despite it being almost a still image as Croc comes in for the kill, I always found myself with the desire to look away.
The other scene that continues to torment me is the end. On my second play-through, I tried to catch the wonderfully done scene transition, to no avail. You slide open a cell grate only to reveal The Joker, who is supposed to be dead. He asks you to come closer, luring you to the very edge of the play area, possibly triggering the sensors that demand you step back. I wonder if that, in itself, is part of the message. A brief moment of lucidity reminding you that your senses are being deceived, much like Batman's. When you step closer, the Joker taunts Batman and you start hearing voices around and behind you. When you turn around you find that you're no longer outside the cell, but inside it.
It's revealed that Batman was the one who trapped or murdered his two side-kicks due to the Joker infection coursing through him, and the secret ending heavily implies that Batman is going insane and on the way to becoming a new Joker, or even that his consciousness is somehow being subsumed. Two parts of this scene were particularly impactful for me. As it becomes clear Batman was the one who murdered his companions, you can look at your hands (and it really does feel like you're looking at your own hands) and see them covered in blood. Then the walls start to close in, leaving you trapped in an ever smaller cell of claustrophobia inducing nightmare.
Where Batman VR failed, as a game, was in the lack of direct action on your part. You uncover the story well enough, but you never play through the actions, and thus there is a disconnect between what Batman has done and what the player has done. Then again, perhaps that disconnect was intentional. I can envision this game with an early chapter where you actually fight an enemy, and it later turns out that what you'd perceived as an enemy was actually Nightwing. With that barrier between character action and player action removed, would the impact at the end be that much stronger? Would it be right to expose the player to that level of potential trauma? I believe, as I hinted above, that this connection would have made for a stronger emotional impact and would have made for a stronger and more memorable experience; but, I must admit, I am unsure how the average player would respond to such an emotional blow.
Ultimately, the game had a strong narrative, a surprising amount of replayability due to the Riddler content, and was a wonderful way to spend five hours. I hope the rest of the games on this list lead me to have as many interesting experiences as this one has, and to as many quandaries.
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Aug 31st, 2017 at 07:37:12 - Batman: Arkham VR (PS4) |
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u1154142 has been with GameLog for 7 years, 2 months, and 24 days |
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