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jp's 1971: Project Helios (PS4)

[October 22, 2023 09:38:47 PM]

I got this so long ago that I had no idea what the game was about when I put it in. I had a vague, and incorrect, idea that it was a narrative adventure/puzzle game...but it's actually a turn-based tactical game.

It took me a while to wrap my head around the interface (it's good - it just took me a minute to get used to it) since it uses the trigger buttons a lot to switch between actions, and also to switch between characters.

As for the story? It seems like a post-apocalyptic snow-covered world...possibly earth? and stuff is bad but I have no real idea what's going on or what I'm supposed to be doing.

I made it all the way to the 3rd mission - but not without issues. Missions have different steps, and dying on any resets - which is ok, except that, for the 3rd mission at least it seemed really hard to get into a position where you could actually do something. You wander into a room - and then you're in the middle of it, got shot a bunch of times and one of the characters died. I tried three times and realized that this was starting to feel more like a puzzle (find the correct place and actions) instead of a tactical game where you (or at least I prefer) have some leeway to figure out how to get the enemies with minimal damage to yourself. It didn't help that in earlier missions I almost ran into the same problem (died a few times but eventually won) in situations that felt more contrived and limited than interesting. It didn't help that the gray look of the game made it such that I had a hard time spotting enemies, only realizing they were there when they moved and shot at me. Oops. That's sort of my fault, but maybe not.

I guess the game didn't feel that interesting? Curiously the back of the box says "Exploration and Resource Management" which makes me guess that perhaps after the first few missions I get a base and there's a map you can choose to explore on? I'm not that excited or curious to see - too many other games on the pile to look at and play. If anything I might look at some videos just to see what I'm missing.