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Deconstructing Horror

My article on the design of Jasper Byrne’s indie horror title Lone Survivor is up on Thunderboltgames.com. 

There’s an unsettling moment during the early stages of Jasper Byrne’s 16-bit horror adventure, Lone Survivor, in which the surgical mask wearing protagonist (enigmatically named ‘You’) comes across a family who appear to be partying. Smooth jazz blares out in the background of their apartment and two adults jive along to the beat, casually clutching cocktails in their hands. It’s all perfectly normal behaviour, except for the fact that the corridors you have just crossed to get here were filled with skinless shuffling monstrosities - the zombified products of an infectious plague that has wiped out a large proportion of the human population.

You can question and rebuke their apparent ambivalence toward the situation surrounding them and they simply tell you to chill out, relax and go home. Are they hallucinating? Are you hallucinating? You head out onto the balcony and acquire a handgun following a strange encounter with a disappearing woman. Returning to the apartment you find that the atmosphere has somewhat soured. The smooth jazz has been replaced by a far more disconcerting sound – that of the industrial washing machine humming drone that signals the presence of Lone Survivor’s infected monsters. And those two adults who were jovially celebrating mere seconds ago now lie slumped and bloody in the background; their bodies mutilated and replaced by a pair of slowly approaching, limping terrors. Instinctively you fumble for your newly acquired weapon and squeeze off a few rounds in the right direction, stopping their fleshy sacks inches from your face.

It’s an unexpected and terrifying moment that succinctly demonstrates Lone Survivor’s successful blend of setting, tone and mechanics to create a horrific gaming experience. But why is it so effective? What elements of its simplistic design work so well? And what can the successes of this unassuming indie title teach us about gaming’s approach to horror?

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Awesomenauts Review

My review of Awesomenauts has been published over on Newgamenetwork.com. Here’s a little excerpt:

“And like all good strategy games it is the fine balancing of these mechanics that allows clever tactical play to overcome brute force. Sticking with your healer and using the shield of a crawler bot to advance toward a turret will yield much better results than simply charging in blind. And clever utilization of the few environmental features – hiding behind bushes or summoning a large enemy eating worm - can be useful tactical tools. Awesomenauts definitely favours the application of brain power, encouraging conservatism in the brashness of your attack. You will undoubtedly find yourself retreating to both defend your base as well as to save your own skin. Ronimo have even included the ability to warp back to your base, which acts as a convenient healing hub as well as the store for purchases.”

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Developmental Insights: The indie game blog

My article on the indie game developer blog is up on Thunderboltgames.com. 

“This is Double Fine’s attempt to open the doors on what they call “the unknown, underappreciated, or misunderstood” world of videogame development. And it’s a fair statement - What actually happens during the gestation period of a videogame? For the average gamer with no first-hand experience it’s a relatively obscure and shrouded world, the gristly details of which are rarely divulged, and as a consequence of this it is not uncommon to hear people reverse engineering gross assumptions about the mysteries of the development period. How many times have you heard the uninformed and over opinionated claim that something was “clearly rushed” or “unfinished.”

Double Fine’s intentions are part of a growing industry trend toward developer-public transparency. Where once there was a time in which the most insightful look at a videogames’ development was that of the magazine preview or the developer interview, the internet age now allows for a much greater level of personalisation and frequency of communication from the creator, helping to dispel those uninformed assumptions.”

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Botanicula Review

My review of Botanicula has been published over on Thunderboltgames.com. Here’s a little excerpt:

“Where Machinarium took place in a mechanical metropolis of urban decay, Botanicula is set upon a vivacious tree brimming with life. And as Machinariumwas composed of muted browns and grimy greys, Botanicula is coloured from the pastoral hues of a woodland palate, with a nutty, paper like texture to its hand drawn aesthetic. It certainly is a beautifully vibrant world, feeling like the photo negative of Limbo’s silhouetted vagueness. And just as Playdead’s platform puzzler did, Botanicula teaches us one very important lesson; that spiders are evil and bloodthirsty villains.”

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FEZ Review

My review of FEZ has been published over on Newgamenetwork.com. Here’s a little excerpt:

“Reality is perception, perception is subjective” muses a character in FEZ’s opening village. Right from the outset Polytron’s idiosyncratic puzzle-platformer debut makes its thematic underpinnings perfectly clear. FEZ is a game about shifting paradigms, specifically, that of the perceived relationship between 2 and 3 dimensional space. But even more so FEZ is a love letter to the history of videogames themselves, looking back with a nostalgic eye for the unfettered simplicity and joyful discovery of those pre-3D designs, and nurturing them into that 3rd dimension more naturally than the 90’s ever did. In many ways FEZ feels like a missing link in the evolutionary history of videogames.

Check it out - FEZ

The Last Story Review

The Last Story

Dev: Mistwalker

Pub: Nintendo

Plat: Wii

Joseph Lacy - @CeruleanPhoenix

After leaving Square and starting his own company, Mistwalker, Hironobu Sakaguchi has helped develop several JRPG’s, not all of which have garnered particularly stellar receptions. In moving on from the renowned Final Fantasy series, but sticking with the genre, Sakaguchi has struggled to find a fresh twist. The moniker of his most recent title should seem familiar, as it takes on a similar naming theme to his original creation, and yet The Last Story is a far cry from that series, creating both its own world and numerous new mechanics to differentiate itself. And with the Wii still starved for good RPG’s and approaching the end of its lifecycle, The Last Story ventures onto a system in desperate need of some quality titles.

The game follows Zael, a member of a mercenary group with a desire to make life better for his companions by becoming a knight by gaining the favour of Count Arganan of Lazalis Island. During one of his missions he comes across the power of the Outsider, an unknown presence on the island that intertwines Zael’s destiny with that of the island itself and grants him mysterious powers. Another chance encounter with Lady Calista brings Zael closer to realising his dream of becoming a knight, but also drags him into the forefront of a game ran by corrupted nobles seeking to improve their power. Because of this Zael comes to learn what the honour of being a knight truly means, leading to him becoming indecisive about his instructions when tasked with carrying out atrocious acts that are too much for the kind hearted warrior. Amongst all this is the renewed war against the Gurak, a race of people seeking to conquer Lazulis Island and whose threat remains an ominous presence throughout the story.

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Super Meat Boy Review

Super Meat Boy

Dev: Team Meat

Plat: 360(version tested), PC and Mac

Matthew Sawrey - @matski53

Something strange happens to me every time I play Super Meat Boy; every muscle fibre within my arms and hands contracts, my heart beat increases and my palms clam up around the controller. The sheer nerve shredding tension of flying through Team Meat’s sadistic level design has a genuine physiological effect on me. A stress inducing one which probably isn’t too healthy and yet I keep on playing, because, whilst it may be fraught with the constant and inevitable failure, Super Meat Boy is also one of the purest and most compelling platformers released in some time.

You are an anthropomorphised square of meat with a rather fragile composition, instantly disintegrating into a schlocky splatter of blood should you come into contact with anything but a flat surface. Dr Fetus, a fetus in a goldfish bowl and a suit, has kidnapped your girlfriend, Bandage Girl, and to get her back you must safely traverse 300 thematically varied stages of treacherous design.

A familiar sounding set up for a platformer isn’t it? And in many other ways Super Meat Boy’s design is as pure a 2D platformer as the early Super Mario Bros titles. Yet in style and execution Super Meat Boy is its antithesis, unflinchingly hardcore and punishingly difficult in comparison to Nintendo’s jaunty, family friendly platformer.  If Shigeru Miyamoto had the temperament of Kratos, this is how the original Super Mario Bros would have turned out.

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Silent Hill HD Collection Review

My review of Silent Hill HD Collection has been published over on Newgamenetwork.com. Here’s a little excerpt:

What if, for instance, the increase in resolution actually detracts from the series trademark grimy aesthetic and highlights flaws that were once masked? What if the developers have viewed the transition to more powerful hardware as a chance to improve upon what they considered to be technological limitations, but was actually purposefully designed, claustrophobia inducing fog? And what if the inclusion of new voice acting is so horrendously lip-synced, that at times it breaks all sense of immersion and could lead you to believe it had been dubbed English in a Japanese version?!? Oh dear.

Check it out - Silent Hill HD Collection

Onimusha 3: Demon Siege Retrospective

Onimusha 3: Demon Siege

Dev: Capcom

Pub: Capcom

Plat: PS2/PC

Joseph Lacy - @CeruleanPhoenix

It may seem an odd choice, to revisit the 3^rd entry of a series as opposed to the 1^st, a decision I can only really say came from personal preference, though ultimately I think that this was the entry that refined the gameplay of the series to its most fun incarnation. While not as well-known as Capcom’s other acclaimed action title, the stylish Devil May Cry, Onimusha was one of the company’s more successful series of the previous console generation, not having received as much attention in recent years. While quite an old game by now, I actually played the 3rd recently as well as the first 2, so I felt I should give my impression of my favourite of the bunch.

The hero from the 1^st game, Samanosuke Akechi (modelled after Japanese actor Takeshi Kaneshiro) returns using the power of the Oni, an ancient race of creatures with incredible power that have granted abilities to select humans. His goal is to stop Oda Nobunaga’s demonic army from conquering all in their path, not just in 16^th century Japan, but also modern day France. His quest draws in the French policeman Jacques Blanc (modelled after Jean Reno, though unfortunately only his French lines are voiced by Reno) who also gains similar oni powers to Samanosuke so that he too can help fend off these horde’s from hell. The two protagonists actually switch places in time, meaning it’s the Sengoku Era Samurai in modern day France and the modern day policeman in historical Japan, giving both an ulterior incentive for the two to return to their own time; Samanosuke so he can finish the fight and Jacque so he can return to his fiancé and young son.

Playing the first game will give you a better understanding of Samanosuke, but it isn’t really necessary to understand what’s going on, so if you wanted to jump into the story at this point it was still relatively easy to follow. Why Nobunaga decided it was a good idea to invade modern day France, I have no idea, but it gives some interesting locations for levels. L’Arc de Triomphe, Mont St Michel and the Eiffel Tower are all visited, though these places will be far more infested with demons than most tourists will recall.

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Ambiguous Exposition

A look at the juxtaposition of the narrative designs found in two recent releases (Published over on Newgamenetwork.com)

Matthew Sawrey - @matski53

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