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Nov 7th, 2018 at 11:31:58 - This is the police (PC) |
For my second hour, I ran into several issues. The game definitely got more difficult!
Firstly, I was informed by City Hall that I would have to lay off all my black cops due to rising racial tensions in the city. This felt uncomfortable to me for two reasons: 1) some of my best officers were black. Letting them go would be I'd have to hire a lot of new people, whose professionalism wouldn't be as high due to their inexperience. It'd be a huge hassle for me, especially since some of my black cops have stripes. 2) I just don't want to! After listening to the rationale behind firing the cops, I just wasn't convinced. While I understand these rising tensions were certainly significant, I didn't think it should be something that should effect the police force. Additionally, I'd have to fire them illegally, as I can't fire them on a poor performance or poor conduct basis. I ultimately chose to keep them, but they were less effective (probably due to distrust from the citizenry), and I received some flack from City Hall because of it.
This was the first time in this game that I felt uncomfortable. I felt that pursuing what I knew was right was the best way to go, but I was punished for my decision as a result. While I didn't think either choice was without their misgivings, I almost felt like I was being shamed for my actions. This really made me reflect on how police officers (especially white police officers) are received by communities of color. This may have been one of the hardest decisions I've had to make in a long time.
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Nov 6th, 2018 at 23:38:37 - This is the police (PC) |
This Is The Police is very interesting, having the player take control of a seasoned policeman who manages his team of officers to keep peace in the city. There's a lot of storytelling going on, which almost eclipses the game play in the beginning, but I thought it set the tone well and introduced all the pertinent names pretty efficiently.
I really love strategy and resource management games, so I was having a blast dispatching my officers to different crime scenes, managing their schedules, and recognizing their talents when appropriate. The game starts out very simple, where the player always has enough officers at their disposal to handle any given call, even if they send their worst guys. However, each officer has their own personality and story, and just when I felt that things were going so smoothly, my best officer quit! Its these unexpected moments that keeps the player on their toes, and why This Is The Police is such an interesting game. The player can use the officer's professionalism score to somewhat gauge their reliability, but ultimately even the best officers can fail under harsh circumstances. It really forces the player to consider even minor decisions, where a wrong decision can mean the death of an officer.
I really enjoyed the game so far, and I look forward the gradually raising difficulty curve. I think this game definitely has a lot to consider when it comes down to writing my essay, so I'm looking forward to what it has in store for me.
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Sep 27th, 2018 at 09:35:57 - Little Nightmares (PS4) |
I've progressed further in Little Nightmares, and the creepy little game is actually growing on me. After learning that the creatures I had encountered wasn't a boss, and I progressed a little bit further, solved a few more puzzles and eventually cleared the first level! I surmised this when I earned the achievement "The Prison". Once I saw that, it was like everything snapped into place. Of COURSE Six was running around in a prison!
Anyways, as I progressed through more of the game, I'm starting to put its crafty narrative together. In the prison and in the new level, it seems that children had been taken to this facility only to be trapped for some yet to be revealed reason. Six is almost successfully trapped, as an evil monster with very long hands seemed to have lured her into a cage with the smell of food. As we see the peckish Six teeter over into the cage to feast, the monster locks her in! Thankfully, escaping is easy and Six resumes her quest in no time.
I take back what I said about this game not feeling like a child's nightmare. The more I learn, the more my opinions shift around, but I think I can confidentially say that I'm sold on Little Nightmares. The game seems to center around the struggle between the monster-under-the-bed type enemies who want to imprison children, and our cunning hero Six's goal to outwit and escape them. I'll definitely finish this game, as I don't think I've learned enough about this world to understand what sorts of ethical statements the developers are trying to raise. Having children involved is always touchy, so I'm excited to dig deeper.
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Sep 26th, 2018 at 23:46:58 - Little Nightmares (PS4) |
Progressing further in the game, I think I came across my first boss! This monster had disproportionately long arms, and kind of reminded me of a baby with its awkward, teetering gait. This is definitely something I could envision a child being afraid of. Overall though, I think the aesthetic theme of a children's nightmare is sort of lost on me. Little Nightmares is definitely creepy, but I don't think its nightmare-ish. It feels more like a horror film.
Anyways, I think I've deduced that Six is running around in what seems to be a prison. I've passed by various rooms, but saw little in the way of inhabitants. This prison seems to be occupied by these strange cone-head creatures. They're not malicious or violent (at least the ones that I've encountered), and seem to be attracted towards fire. They have yet to have had any serious impact on the gameplay, but I'm very curious as to why they're there. That's actually how I could sum up my feelings of this game so far: wanting to know more. I've received basically no explanation on Six, the setting, or the goal of the game. The puzzles thus far haven't been too difficult, although the controls don't give the player much room for error. I hope that by my final gamelog I'll have learned a little bit more about Little Nightmare's world, and Six's place in it.
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ryancornellier has been with GameLog for 6 years, 2 months, and 29 days |
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