|
jp's Broforce (PS4)
|
| [October 26, 2023 11:27:54 PM]
|
The other day I was discussing the importance (or lack of) "national origin" in games - and I remember this game. As far as I recall, it's made by a South African team. So, it's an African game. But, in what ways? Is it culturally influenced by a South African perspective? Is the game a South African satire of 80s US film culture? An homage? I don't know the answers to these questions - and it makes me think - if I had to pick "an African videogame" (lets say I was curating a collection of "games from all over the world") which game would/should I pick? I have no idea.
add a comment 
|
| [April 18, 2016 04:52:18 PM]
|
I wasn't expecting this game to be this much fun. The pure, unadulterated kind of fun you get when stuff is happening on screen that's outlandish, you're creating, and also enjoying. Just from the title, there are so many ways this game could have "gone south" - or at least been a curiosity that I wouldn't have really played. I was also worried that, given the title, the game would be too challenging for me to play. Sort of like Meatboy - which I respect a ton, but quickly realized (a certain number of levels in), that this wasn't really my cup of tea.
At the moment I've cleared 7 stages (+ a special stage where you're not allowed to die) and the difficulty has been ramping up, but it's still manageable.
Those elements I've found most enjoyable so far are the sense of humor and all the different characters AND the destructible environments. However the design decision I'm most impressed with is how the game forces forces the player to use all the characters. I think this is perhaps one of the features that is really at the heart of the game...in a strange way. So...
a. When you die, assuming you have lives left, you re-appear at the last checkpoint with a different character than the one you had before.
b. When you rescue a POW, you gain an additional life AND the character you control switches over to a DIFFERENT character than the one you had before
c. Completely new characters are unlocked by rescuing an ever-increasing number of POWs. (when you clear a level you get a message saying how many more POWs until your next unlock).
If you take a,b, and c above and add the fact that all the characters are different in how they attack, the effects of their attacks, and their "special" attack - you get a situation where you're forced into randomly playing with different characters all the time, having to adjust your strategy (all the time), and (possibly) making the touch choice to decide NOT to rescue a POW (thus not having another life) because you really enjoy the character you're playing with and don't want to switch over to a new one.
My personal preference is to always go for saving the POWs, but I've noticed that, more than once, I go from "yay, another life", to "oops, I need to figure out how to advance with this new character because he doesn't do X or have Y ability I've been using to get this far along". This makes for a really juicy game, in my opinion, that keeps things fresh and interesting without having to go for a progression system (unlock new and better characters, never going back to the old ones) OR context-specific characters (e.g. need swimming-guy for the underwater levels or whatever) that are supposed to be used in specific situations. Here, all the characters are useful in all situations - but they get things done slightly differently from each other.
add a comment
|
|
|
 |
jp's Broforce (PS4)
|
|
Current Status: Stopped playing - Something better came along
GameLog started on: Monday 11 April, 2016
GameLog closed on: Thursday 26 October, 2023 |
 |
| other GameLogs for this Game |
|
This is the only GameLog for Broforce. |
|
