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michelle's Thomas Was Alone (PS4)
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| [February 23, 2017 02:52:47 AM]
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Played the game for a really long time today and made it to level 8.10. At the beginning of my gameplay I was really frustrated because to me the levels were extremely challenging and required a ton of coordination. There were two stages especially that made me really mad and almost caused me to quit the game because they were nearly impossible. One of these was when John and Claire had to reach the right side of the screen while avoiding the incoming spikes on the left side and the other was with these moving platforms where Sarah had to jump upward to real the portal at the top.
Since last time, a ton of new characters have been introduced. James and Sarah are the last two to join the group of the 7 Architects. Gravity is backwards for James so he sticks to the top of the mazes and jumps downwards. Sarah is really small and has the ability to jump again while she is mid-air. After the Emergence Event, characters such as Gray, Paul, Jo, and Sam.
The character development I witnessed during my gameplay today was quite extraordinary. Thomas became self-aware while in the simulation and there was a "networking error" that allowed him to connect to the internet for 12 seconds which opened his eyes to the rest of the world and made him want to become a creator of his own world. So together with the other 6 AIs in his group (who all eventually reconnected after being eaten by the pixel cloud), they decide to help each other free the rest of the AIs.
I got really sad towards the end of my gameplay. All the AIs have their own personality and realized that they have to sacrifice themselves to help the rest of the AIs "above". They become selfless and gain a do or die mentality because they want to free the other AIs. The characters that were previously self-conscious now realize that their quirks make them special. John who used to be conceited now realizes he can help others realize their worth. Claire still thinks she's a superhero and will do whatever it takes to help the others escape the simulation. Together, all 7 AIs, form the Emergence Event. I think this part of the game is really powerful because it ties to real life. There is strong symbolism here as the creators are showing that bad personality traits and low self-esteem can be shed and lost in growth.
This game got really interesting because after the architects are gone and new grey characters are introduced, it becomes apparent that these new characters can now acquire the powers of the 7 original AIs by jumping into floating rectangles of that color. For example, blue means they can float in water, purple means they can double jump, and pink means they become a trampoline. I really like how the creators added dialogue and gave names to the squares so we know that when a grey character hits a blue powerup thing, they have acquired Claire's power. Rather than being just a puzzle game, this game makes you feel close to the pieces, which is strange because I never knew how much little shapes could be personified until now.
Although this is my third log, I will continue to play the game some more. Where I'm at, Gray has betrayed Paul and wants to finish the simulation himself, but Paul is determined to warn the others about Gray. I don't know if the original AIs will make a comeback, but hopefully they do and hopefully in the end all of the AIs live in a world without simulations.
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| [February 13, 2017 03:31:02 PM]
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Today, I played for about an hour. I'm not at my console right now so I'm not really sure what stage I got to.
So far, we have some pretty interesting developments. It turns out that Laura's usefulness is that she serves as a sort of trampoline so that the other characters can jump on her when they need a boost onto other platforms. Interestingly enough, Chris has fallen in love with Laura, which is odd because Chris is normally pessimistic, and I can't see him liking anyone. At first, I was getting kind of annoyed with Chris because of his negativity, but once he showed some emotion towards the other characters such as Laura and Thomas, I figured he can't be that bad.
For some reason Laura has an ominous black pixel cloud that follows her around, which makes all the AIs in the game (other than Chris) wary of her. At where I'm at in the game, the black cloud eventually eats Thomas and Laura. I have a theory that the developers of the simulated world have programmed the cloud to remove AIs from the simulation when they've become too self-aware or have become a roadblock. I doubt that is the last we've seen of these characters, so I'm excited to see where they show up next.
I still don't know how I'm going to relate this game to topics we've learned in class so I'm still hoping that as I continue playing that this makes itself clear. I have a feeling that if I finish the game, it'll reveal why the AIs are where they are and what their purpose is. The puzzles are getting harder and harder and more frustrating as I advance through the stages so hopefully I can finish this game or at least get to a point where I have enough material to write about.
I really like the concept of the game though thus far. I like how the creators have managed to add humanizing traits to these little shapes. It is really important how the AIs must depend on each other to get through the stages. This adds usefulness to each and every character, which helps to portray values of friendship and selflessness to the player.
This entry has been edited 1 time. It was last edited on Feb 13th, 2017 at 15:36:59.
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| [February 12, 2017 03:01:36 AM]
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I played this game for the first time today. My session lasted about 45 minutes and I got to level 3.2. So far I'm really enjoying the concept of the game. It is quite unique and I like how it's more of a puzzle game where you have to use your brain rather than a role playing game like the last one I played. So far I've been introduced to Thomas, Christopher, John, Claire, and Laura. I like how each AI character that is introduced comes with their own personality and abilities. Thomas is an introspective character who hates being alone, Chris is a negative square who can't jump that high and would rather be alone, John is tall and extremely athletic but also positive and helpful, Claire can float in water and thinks she's a superhero, and I'm not sure yet what Laura's skills are.
My initial thought was that I like the music playing in the background. I also like how the narrator has a British accent. The idea of the game is quite intriguing because the characters all have to depend on one another to get through the portals and stages. I have grown to be fond of these colored blobs through the narration because I've gotten to know them as the stages have advanced. I thought it was so cute when all the characters had to get on top of Claire during one of the stages so that she could float them across the toxic water.
So far, I'm not really sure how this game relates to the class. I have a feeling that as I keep playing more aspects of the game will make this apparent as I find out more about the simulated environment that these AIs are in and why they're there in the first place. Level 3.1 also had a mention of splitting entities and a hint of danger and caution through Laura's dialogue so I'm sure more interesting things are to come. I am excited to see how this turns out once I play some more.
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michelle's Thomas Was Alone (PS4)
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Current Status: Playing
GameLog started on: Sunday 12 February, 2017
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