VVVVVV Review

Among the plethora of new mechanics that game developers (mostly indie) seem to be tooling around with these days, the concept of manipulating gravity seems to be garnering a fair share of attention (the positive kind, thankfully). That’s not to say that every game that features this little gimmick is transformed into an instant top-grosser, of course. It’s quite the contrary, in fact: few games currently implement this feature, and even fewer do it impressively enough. But one particular game centered around this mechanic not only manages to impress and astound, it also blows every single other one out of the water, period. And that game, ladies and gents, is VVVVVV – brainchild of genius indie game developer Terry Cavanagh, aka Distractionware.

The first thing that’ll probably smack you in the face as soon as you fire up the game is the sheer simplicity and crudeness of the visuals. A highly limited colour palette showcasing big, blocky pixels that animate once in a blue moon is probably the best way to describe what you’re going to see for the few hours you’ll spend with the game. But the big question is: is that a bad thing? “Of course it is!”, shrieks the spoiled brat of a graphics whore that resides inside you folk who’ve been OD’ing on today’s HD content. However, if you happen to have a side to you that yearns for the good old days of Commodore 64s and Sega Mega Drives till date, you’ll know that there’s happy times and nostalgic memories to be found amidst those 8-bit graphics.

Either way, VVVVVV is one of those games which yet again proves that bleeding edge visuals aren’t the only thing that make a game great. Any wise gamer knows that the crux of gaming greatness lies in gameplay mechanics and overall execution, and to that end, this often frustrating yet incredibly captivating platformer delivers very well indeed. Yes, it’s a difficult game, almost unbearably so at times, but it provides a proportionate sense of achievement too, if you stick at it. The game “world” – outer space, as the minimalist back story informs you – consists of a series of single-screen platforms riddled with challenges, obstacles, and the occasional weird enemy. However, there is no form of combat or interaction whatsoever, no weapons or power-ups to speak of, and no fancy inventory system to manage or upgrade; this is platforming at its purest. You take on the role of Captain Viridian, commander of a space ship that has crash landed on a strange planet, and you’re tasked with the objective of finding and reuniting your team members who are all stranded in different areas. You’re free to explore the world at your own pace, and there are no forced barriers to halt your progress or force you down a linear path. It’s just you against the world’s atrocities, which come in the form of spiked pits, strange creatures, moving platforms, one-use platforms, and a bunch of other stuff that I’ll leave you to discover. Along the way, you’ll find trinkets to collect and computer terminals to activate. The former will serve to unlock some goodies depending on how many you manage to collect, and the latter provides you with little messages and logs that give you some more insight into the world.

Speaking of the world, it’s worth mentioning that 1) it’s pretty massive, and 2) you’re going to die in it very, very often. Yes, to the point where you’ll punch your keyboard and pull at your hair. It’s a wee bit comforting to know, then, that there are absolutely no penalties for dying, and that checkpoints are scattered around more liberally than the blood splatters in a God of War game. Almost every screen provides you with one checkpoint at the very least, and some particularly devious areas may have two or three. Don’t scoff at that, though – you’re going to need every one of them. You see, even though it’s a hardcore, no-frills platformer, VVVVVV does one thing very differently – it takes away your ability to jump, and instead allows you to flip your character’s gravity at will. And this one subtle deviation from the standard fare that we’re so used to introduces you to such a massive world of possibilities and challenges, you’ll be lost for words (except for the parts where you’re screaming vile obscenities and pointlessly threatening your PC, faulting it for your incompetence). However, get in to the game proper, and you’ll see just how well this ties in to the fiendish level design; it’s nothing short of genius.

For a game largely developed by a single person, VVVVVV packs in a decent bunch of extras to tinker around with once you’re done rescuing your lost buddies. There are time trials with set requirements to complete, a mode which flips the entire game world upside-down, an insanely hard, addictive, seizure-inducing mini-game known as the “Super Gravitron”, a trophy room, and a no-death mode, which ends the game after one death. The most surprising thing about all this, though, is the fact that you can just waltz into the Options menu, and unlock all these things at will with the press of a button. Yup, you read that right. You don’t have to go about finishing the main game first or doing a whole bunch of other crazy stuff to unlock the extras if you don’t feel like it. A rather clever addition on the developer’s part, I say, given that some people might really get frustrated to the point of giving up altogether. This way, anyone and everyone can check out all of the developer’s work and appreciate the ingenuity of it as a whole.

Any game looking to bring the classic “retro” feel to the gamers of today would be failing at the task miserably if they weren’t accompanied by an equally retro soundtrack, but VVVVVV puts those fears to rest too. The game features one of the catchiest chiptune soundtracks I’ve laid my ears upon in recent times, created by veteran old-school videogame composer, Magnus Palsson. There’s over half an hour of fast-paced, funky, electronic goodness for your listening pleasure, and it suits the atmosphere and treacherous level design incredibly well. Sound effects are minimal, mostly cutesy “bleeps” and “boops”, but they’re perfectly used and punctuate the right moments in the game. It’s all one big bag of aural treats without any unwanted tricks.

There’s not much more left to say, really – VVVVVV is an extremely hardcore, true-blue platformer, with a simple, well-implemented gravity switching system that just seems to fit in naturally. The awesome chiptune soundtrack coupled with the chunky 8-bit graphics do wonders for the game as it seeks to deliver a purely retro experience to our current generation of gamers. The highly simplistic gameplay makes it easily accessible to anyone, though the wicked level design and devilish difficulty in some areas may not be for everyone. Nevertheless, this is one gem of a game that deserves a play through from any and every gamer who is or has ever been a fan of old-school platforming, retro-style games, or even better, both – get ‘em now, people!

Astroslugs Review

Over the past few months, I’ve had the pleasure of playing a good number of casual/indie puzzle games across the PC and iPhone platforms, all of which have managed to boggle my mind and keep me entertained for hours on end. This experience, coupled with the ever-growing number of indie games available in the puzzle genre, proves just how lucrative this particular breed of games is for small game studios, and just how much fun it can bring to the table with simple mechanics that twist your gray cells in unconceivable ways. And today, I have another such title to present to you gamer folk (those who enjoy a full-frontal mind assault, that is), in the form of Astro Slugs – a classic 2D, one-button puzzle game, created by a team of three dudes from Germany, known as the Bit Barons. After having been in development for nearly a year and a half, Astro Slugs is now available for all you puzzle fanatics on both, Windows and Mac platforms. So without further ado, here’s the lowdown on this brand new mind-boggler…

As per the title, the game’s minimalist back story revolves around slugs. Not those regular critters you see wandering aimlessly at your local park after a nice downpour, though. We’re talking about astroslugs here – a martian breed of slugs on a faraway planet, preparing for world domination. And that’s where their dilemma – and you – come in. You see, in order to take over the world, the slugs need to take off from their home planet first, but they don’t have the required juice (simply dubbed as “energy”) to get their spacecraft started. That’s where the game begins at, as it’s up to you to get them the required energy so that they may embark on their evil quest for universal supremacy. It’s a bit of an awkward tale considering the gameplay mechanics, but then again, it is by no means a core factor, so in all probability, you’ll smile at it the first time and forget about it for the remainder of your playtime, but that’s perfectly fine; this isn’t meant to be GTA or Fallout anyway.

Right, time to discuss actual gameplay and the simple, “one-button” mechanics. The game is broken down into a bunch of levels that span different areas of the astroslugs’ home planet. Note that this just serves as a way to provide some different themes and backgrounds to the levels, which is nice, but it offers nothing more. Each area has a set number of levels that can be completed in any order you choose, before you move on to unlock the next one for some more twisted fun. So what does each level have you do exactly? Well, you have a game “board” of sorts, made up of a number of pieces that look very much like asteroids, occupying the majority of the screen, and a little panel along the left side with a number of coloured shapes. Your task is to link the asteroid pieces together in such a way that you use up all of them to produce the required number of shapes listed. Doing so ends the level, rewards you with a certain amount of energy for your ship, and it’s time to move on to the next level. That’s all there is to it, and the controls couldn’t be simpler: hold down the left mouse button and drag over pieces to form shapes, and right-click an existing shape to remove it from the board.

Some of you might be skeptical, as that formula may sound a little too vanilla on paper for your liking, but I can’t assure you enough that this game is no cake walk. The manner in which the pieces are set, and the shapes you’re required to create make things so darn tricky, that I wouldn’t even know how to describe it here. Moreover, the game also throws a few extra levels at you in each area, warning you that they are “hard” while kindly informing you that they’re also optional and others won’t think of you as a brain-dead jackass if you skip over them. Yes, that last bit is an exaggeration, but I kid you not, that warning is every bit true – those levels are of the near-impossible variety of difficulty, and while a lot of people enjoy insanely hard challenges, others can get put off by them altogether. They’re definitely doable though, and I must also say that the decision of making them optional was a very smart move on the developer’s part. As you progress further into the game, each level rewards you with a greater amount of energy, but also amps up the complexity of the board and the shapes.

The guys at Bit Barons must’ve figured that their product could potentially lead to violent player outbursts involving hair-tearing and head-banging due to frustration (Achtung! Achtung! Ihr Kopf explodieren!), because the background music score during gameplay is extremely calm, melodic, and soothing, and does help you sit in your chair for a little bit longer than you intended to. The main theme is quite lively and catchy too. What’s cool about all this music stuff though, is that you can also grab a copy of the entire album of tunes plus bonus tracks from the official website for a price of your choosing, which is used to support the indie composers who created the soundtrack. I’ve not seen too many indie games give this much importance to audio, but it’s an integral component whose creation is worth spending time and effort on. Sound effects are minimal but to the point, so that’s another plus.

Visually, the game doesn’t disappoint, but it’s not going to leave you wide-eyed in amazement either. The graphics are colourful and neat, and the subtle use of particle and glow effects rounds everything off nicely. Animations are rather minimal, and serve to fuel only the game’s presentation for the most part, but that’s not necessarily a bad thing.

In a nutshell, Astro Slugs is a worthy addition to any puzzle fan’s game library, as the main highlight of any puzzle game, i.e. highly challenging problems, is present in very generous amounts here. The “hard” levels could work against the enjoyment factor for certain people, but could also provide a real sense of achievement to the hardcore puzzle-solving fanatics, so the developers played it safe and smart by keeping them optional, thereby allowing the player to somewhat regulate the level of difficulty they expose themselves to. While it’s definitely a hardcore puzzler at its heart, the game does have a very casual and approachable demeanour to it, which makes it equally suitable for a few minutes or a few hours of play at a stretch. If you’re a long-time puzzle fan to any degree, this game is worth checking out, but if you’re a first-timer or a curious newbie to the genre, know that your plan for galactic conquest could take a very long time to materialise!

Astro Slugs is available via the official Bit Barons GmbH website for the PC and Mac, at a retail price of US$ 13.99.

Cut The Rope Review

As we’ve all come to witness, physics-driven casual games are all the rage nowadays, and the use of these real-world mechanics of gravity, force, momentum and whatnot clearly bring out the best in games belonging to the puzzle genre. And this fact applies equally well to casual mobile games too, as the talented dev team at ZeptoLab will prove to you with their physics-based puzzle romp, Cut The Rope. And that title couldn’t be more apt, as it spells out in simple terms what you’ll be doing for the entirety of the game – cutting through little bits of rope.

How utterly boring, I hear you say? You couldn’t possibly be any more alienated from reality in that case, because the game is anything but that. Let’s take it step by step, shall we? The game features 125 levels across 5 level packs (more to come in future updates), and each one challenges you to get a piece of candy hanging from some rope to the cute little green monster, Om Nom, who is perched on one of four sides of the screen. You do so by simply cutting through the rope with a swipe of your finger, thereby causing the candy to eventually descend (or ascend, in many cases) into the little guy’s hungry mouth. Like most physics-based games, the objective seems insanely simple, but its accomplishment is just that much harder in reality, thanks to several challenging obstacles that threaten to destroy or even steal the little fellow’s sugary treat. Spikes, empty spaces, and little spiders all await you in each of the levels, and they’ll ensure the loss of your candy if you’re not quick and nimble with your fingers.

The highlight of the game is, of course, the sheer variety and deviousness of the levels on offer. Sure, it starts off simply enough, and each new component is introduced gradually, but the game definitely doesn’t believe in taking it easy on you. You see, getting the candy to Om Nom is the main objective, but not the only one you should be concerned about if you wish to rack up big on the scoreboard. Each level also contains three gold stars, and you’re expected to collect these with the piece of candy, and then get it to Om Nom in the shortest possible time. And that’s where the clever level design really piles on the challenge. In addition to using some helpful props like bubbles, air cushions, hooks, additional bits of rope and more, many levels will require extremely quick thinking and lightning fast reflexes to combat the devious traps and obstacles and ultimately yield high scores. The levels in each pack get progressively harder from beginning to end, and thus, the sense of accomplishment derived from completing a level with all three stars gets progressively bigger and better. The game is easy to pick up and play casually for a few minutes, or seriously for a few hours, as it maintains a solid balance on the difficulty scale and is capable of giving your gray matter a fun and engaging workout.

The game’s plus points don’t only hold good for the solid gameplay, but extend to the audio-visual department too. The phyics, though simple and minimal, are very precisely executed, and the rope behaviour and animation is smooth too. The game sports a very colourful, cartoony look, and all objects are rather neatly drawn and rendered with no aliasing or framerate issues. Om Nom is a rather adorable character, and so are the little spiders, even though they’re supposed to be menacing. The music track is catchy and nicely paced, and the sound effects fit in brilliantly.

Cut The Rope is one of those pieces of gaming awesomeness that absolutely demands your attention (and your dollar!) and gets you hooked into it with good quality, well-polished, well-balanced gameplay. Amongst the dense jungle of puzzle games available on the AppStore, this one is definitely a cut above the rest, and will keep you engaged and coming back for more for a good number of hours. And with more devilish goodness in the form of additional levels in future updates, it provides exceptional value for money.

There’s no question about it – if you own an iDevice, you owe it to yourself to invest in this game. Right now!

Blog: Rated ‘C’ for Censored

From the Pong and Mario Bros. of yesteryears to the Grand Theft Auto and Call of Duty of today, videogames have come a long, long way. As computing and graphics technologies continue to accelerate at their absurdly fast pace, so do those billions of colourful, explosive little pixels, exuding more life and realism, which in turn translates to more gratification for us gamer folk. A little too gratifying, maybe; videogames these days seem to have piled on the blood, gore, and kink quite liberally, and developers show no signs of slowing down or doing away with it anytime soon. And why would they, anyway? That’s the exact kind of content that lures and attracts the industry’s  biggest audience – hormone-riddled teens and tweens looking for new adrenaline rushes – and gets the sales figures skyrocketing. We live in a rather materialistic, monetarily-oriented world, and for the developers, this is just a part of business, “clever” marketing, and their means of livelihood. No harm done, right?

Quite obviously, and to the chagrin of developers and gamers alike, the guys and gals behind those censorship boards don’t echo similar sentiments. From being called “crude” to “repulsive” to “appalling”, and every other linguistic expression of disdain in between, videogames have witnessed some very harsh scrutiny from various such institutions the world over. And it’s always for one of these reasons: too much violence, too much blood/gore, too much X-rated stuff, or in the worst case, too much of all three (Hey there, Rockstar!). It doesn’t help that there’s a bunch of studies published every now and then that talk about youngsters being detrimentally influenced by games. And then there are studies to refute those claims. And then there are studies to refute those ones too. And so on and on rages the battle of opinions, of what’s “acceptable” and what’s “appalling”, and of what content people should and shouldn’t be allowed to interact with.

The big question here is: who exactly is to blame? Of course, parents and censorship folk will be only too happy to point a finger at the developers, making claims that if they didn’t allow gamers to blow virtual heads and torsos off in the first place, society would be a much calmer, nicer place. What utter crap. You don’t see any organisations dedicated to emptying cigarettes of their contents and then rolling them up and putting them back on sale again, do you? What about certain areas in certain countries where drug purchase and consumption is legalised? And yet in comparison to such things, people are content with their staunch belief that videogames will be the fastest means of producing psychotic murderers. How very sane and logical.

There’s no question about the fact that censorship in videogames is a total killjoy. Yes, we buy games like Left 4 Dead and Dead Rising and Resident Evil because we want to see zombie limbs, innards and red blood cells flying all over the place, dammit. Does that make us weird sickos? Do we feel the urge to run out onto the street with a machete and hack away at the closest pedestrian? No, my dear narrow-minded, uptight censorship people, we don’t – we happen to be level-headed people with the ability to distinguish between the virtual and real world. And we also happen to be in the 18+ age group. That’s where the other component of judging game content comes in – rating systems. The ESRB and PEGI don’t get some weird pleasure from slapping on numbers and acronyms onto game boxes, they do it to indicate the type of content held within, so that sly little rascally children can’t pull the wool over their parent’s eyes easily.

But of course, that doesn’t work as intended. 13-year olds today have probably been through GTA, Manhunt, Fallout 3, and heck, even Leisure Suit Larry maybe, who knows! And who is to blame for that? Not the youngsters themselves entirely, as it’s human nature to want to indulge in taboo stuff just for kicks and thrills. The answer, in my opinion, is the parents. They often labour under the misconception that since videogames aren’t something they want to play, they can afford to be completely oblivious to the whole lot of them. Just think: if all parents made it a point to ensure that their kids were getting access to only age-appropriate content from the very beginning, we wouldn’t have to worry about censoring the “inappropriate” stuff in the first place.

In a way, I feel cheated when I’m served up a helping of gaming goodness with some of the meaty parts cut out; who wouldn’t? Even more so when you’re paying full price to enjoy something the developers meant for you to see and experience. But instead, you end up with a crippled product. Remember that age-old saying, “Too much of a good thing is bad for you”? Maybe your mum was wrong when she chucked that at you regarding your 30-hour stint in World of Warcraft. Maybe your dad was wrong when he used it to refer to your copious consumption of marijuana.

But when it comes to videogame censorship? Man, it sure makes damn good sense.

Flick Buddies Review

Multiplayer gaming on portable devices such as handheld consoles, and more recently, smartphones, has revolutionised gaming on the go to a large extent. Multiplayer, as a component of videogames today, has become a staple ingredient in a large number of game developer’s recipes for success. It serves us in more ways than one, allowing us to connect with friends, flaunt our skills to the world, and enjoy a greater, more realistic challenge than that provided by good old AI. However, it’s not necessarily always a recipe for success – create a sloppy multiplayer experience for a game, and watch the critics and gamers rip it up like a pack of wild, rabid dogs. Oh and you know what’s worse? Creating a sloppy multiplayer experience for a game that’s 99% multiplayer-only. Ouch. And unfortunately, that’s exactly where the subject matter of this review comes in…

Flick Buddies is the first iOS game to come out the doors of Bane Games, an independent game studio in Brisbane, Australia. The developers promise hours of fun, action-packed, frantic, and challenging gameplay for up to 4 players on a single iPhone, iPad, or iPod Touch. All I can say is that their concepts of “fun”, “action”, and “challenging” are seriously flawed. It’s about as challenging as trying to take a leak in an Olympic-sized swimming pool with your eyes shut, as fun as watching the grass grow in your backyard, and as action-packed as 2008’s horrendous Max Payne movie was. And I’ll explain how and why in a moment. But perhaps the biggest letdown and the most ginormous mistake the developers made was trying to accomplish 4-player multiplay on a single iDevice. It’s a no brainer that this is nigh impossible on the iPhone and iPod Touch, because even two players at a time feels cramped and awkward. The iPad may alleviate this issue to an extent, but four people jostling for space over a 9” screen still leaves a lot to be desired.

The game features a total of 12 levels spanning 4 different themes, and introduces 4 teams of some very obscure characters – snails, hamburgers, audio speakers, and some purple slugs. Depending on the level being played, there are between two to four player slots available at the screen’s corners, and each can be controlled by either an additional human player, or the game’s AI. Each corner is assigned one of the aforementioned teams, and from there on, the flicking frenzy begins. Each level has a bullseye target lying around, and your aim is to flick your team members into them as fast as possible. Each successful strike nets you a point, and the player with the most points at the end of sixty seconds is the winner. But it’s not that simple; in addition to your target, the levels are also peppered with some other paraphernalia such as portals, bouncy bumpers, platforms, and even an “instant-death” vortex. All these items can be either a boon or bane (pun totally intended!) to your little critters as they bounce around the level, depending on the angle and speed at which they’re moving, but you have little control over them once you’ve launched them from your corner. You have three simple powerups at your disposal, which show up randomly, but require some thinking to benefit from their use. These allow you to either stop your character from moving, give it a speed boost, or split it into two for a chance of doubling your score. And that’s pretty much all you get to do, across all 12 levels.

The game relies heavily on this ‘flicking’ gesture, and it handles it fairly precisely – you can control the speed and angle of your character’s launch by using short or long flicks in the desired direction. The physics simulation is decent but not quite perfect, and as a result, you quickly get the impression that winning takes much more of luck than it does skill. This is a HUGE detraction from the enjoyment factor; after all, we play and enjoy games when there’s challenges that take certain skills to beat, not just half-assed luck shots. What’s more is that there’s also a cooldown period between each flick for every player, and while this may have been done so as to not allow creature spamming on the screen, it doesn’t mean that it’s not annoying; having to wait in between each character launch gets downright boring. Then again, the game itself gets rather boring very quickly. There are no different modes on offer, no extras to unlock, and if you’re one of those introverted types with zero friends, boy, did you pick the wrong game to play! Playing through all the 12 levels against the “challenging AI opponents” takes all of twenty minutes at the very maximum, with all the retries you’d ever need.

The visuals and audio are probably the only slight saving grace here, and I say “slight” because even they have their faults. All the characters are rendered in cutesy, cartoon-style graphics, but due to the game’s fixed top-down camera, much of the detail is barely visible enough to appreciate. Animations are quite limited too, and the game suffers from some terrible aliasing and occasional framerate hiccups on 3GS or lower hardware, especially in the 4-player levels. Music is done to an extreme too; overly-happy and jolly at the main screen to the point of being irritating, and then absolutely no background score during actual gameplay. Sound effects are limited but fit in quite well.

There’s really no other way to provide a verdict for this game than to say that it’s not worth your time or money, period. Sure, the concept isn’t too bad, but the actual offering is way too minimalist and sloppy in parts to provide more than even ten minutes of enjoyment. Even for the low asking price of a dollar, there’s way better games out on the AppStore that’ll actually provide several hours of fun and total value for money. If Bane Studios had axed the “multiple players on one device” formula in favour of regular Internet-based multiplayer, that would’ve atleast been something more worthwhile. They’ve promised a whole lot of updates to come in the New Year, but with those being limited to just new characters and levels, I don’t see my recommendation for this game changing anytime soon; there’s way too much wrong with it. The developers are probably better off concentrating their efforts on a new project altogether, because this game sinks right to the bottom of the monstrous ocean that is the AppStore, faster than you can say “Oh, flick!”.

Blog: Indie Games – “Less” is the new “More”

indie (noun): a small independent pop group, record label, or film company.
– The Oxford Dictionary online

As I read the above definition for the third time in a row, my faith in the supposed accuracy of Oxford’s linguistic capabilities wavers slightly. My eyes widen with amazement as my eyebrows prepare for the inevitable vertical takeoff that is sure to follow. I stare at my screen stupidly, my mouth quickly forming a big gaping hole of disbelief, before silently spouting the words “what”, “the”, and “hell” that make up the phrase that’s been floating in my mind ever since I first cast my eyes upon that definition…

They DIDN’T mention VIDEO GAMES? Holy retarded lexicographers, Batman!

Ok, so I have a tendency to exaggerate. But hey, stop and think for a minute or two and you’ll probably agree with me to a very good extent. Any respectable gamer with good knowledge of the happenings in our beloved little industry of pixelated entertainment knows what a veritable treasure trove of fun and enjoyment today’s indie games bring with them. Just jog your memory for a second – World of Goo, Crayon Physics, And Yet It Moves, Osmos, Braid, Limbo – all little masterpieces in their own unique way, and yet all crafted by a handful of guys and gals with no big commercial names or oodles of cash to fall back on. Not only did these games just work, but they ushered in fresh, new concepts and compelling mechanics which hadn’t really received much thought before.

They managed to leave a lasting impression on a large audience of gamers the world over, through either their innovative gameplay, beautiful or in some cases absurd art styles, awe-inspiring soundtracks, or even a combination of these.

At this point, I’d like you to note that “a large audience” is in no way indicative of or synonymous with “the whole audience”. Sadly, the brilliance of some of these games is completely lost on some folk who consider themselves the oh-so-elite, “hardcore” gamers. For them, to partake in some indie game goodness is considered below their dignity, and probably a sheer waste of time. “Oh man, I’m just like, you know, such a hardcore, serious gamer, you know? Like, World of Warcraft, man, and all those awesome games where you can shoot the shit outta people, you know…that’s how I roll, man. All this other stuff about motes and goo balls and crayons is like, you know, for sissies and wannabe gamers, you know? Yeah man, sorry, but I’m just too uber cool for all that shit, man.”

*Sigh*. Poor disillusioned little bastards. Don’t know what they’re missing out on.

So, the highlight of my little rant: the indie genre hasn’t yet received the acclaim and appreciation that it could potentially receive if gamers all around the world would be a little more open-minded and not confine the meaning of “fun” to big publishers, bleeding edge graphics, and oversized guns, blood splatters, and 10-hour campaigns. Part of our innate nature as humans is to remain in our comfort zone once we find a cozy spot within a given situation, but this isn’t necessarily the best move to make every single time. Developers, too, exhibit this behaviour when they tend to keep repeating the same damn formula for a game time and time again, until it’s done to death and people are sick and tired of seeing it. This is exactly where and why indie games shine – they dare to do something different and unique, and more often than not, the end result is very well received. You probably think of me as a delirious fanboy of the genre, but all those awards and nominations for excellence at those yearly games competitions/festivals around the world aren’t just given out for the heck of it. And I’m no fanboy by a long shot; give me a crappy indie game, and I’ll blatantly call it crappy. But shunning the entire breed of games just because they aren’t complex and haven’t had hundreds of hours and millions of dollars put into them is just being plain ignorant.

Some of the top indie games over the past few years can easily put some of today’s supposed triple-A titles to shame in terms of gameplay and overall fun factor; and that too, at a fraction of the cost. Want proof? Go purchase the new Medal of Honor, and say, Limbo, at full price, play through each of them, and then compare the fun and disappointment factors. You may be very surprised.

Oh yeah, here’s a much nicer definition for all you respectable gamers:

indie (noun): a small independent pop group, record label, or film company. Also, a group of ingenious, talented individuals dedicated to the fine art of producing awesome little videogames, capable of rocking the socks off gamers all over the world. Except for those self-proclaimed “hardcore” ones, that is. They’re just stoned outta their mind.
– Rohan Anchan

Oxford ain’t got shit on this guy here, huh?

Amnesia: The Dark Descent Review

The true meaning and essence of “horror” has, over time, been eroded and reduced to little more than cheap scares, sudden, in-your-face imagery, and generous helpings of blood splatters. In a lot of ways, horror has become synonymous with gore, a fact clearly evident in the movie industry, and recently, in the world of videogames too. Developers seem quite content following the same old equation whereby some ugly freak of nature jumps the player from the shadows, only to explode into gobs of flesh and blood when shot at a few times, wailing incessantly all the while. For one, that’ll probably work once or twice to startle you a little, and two, it gets utterly boring very quickly. Why so?

It’s because true horror is not about cheap, one-off scare tactics, or big, bloody explosions; it’s about being able to create an atmosphere that’s capable of hooking into your subconscious and your mind, one that can make your spine tingle, your hair stand on end, and your skin crawl with goosebumps, and then keep you in that fearful yet strangely enjoyable state. And such pieces of entertainment seem to be getting rarer by the day. Luckily, the development team at Frictional Games seems to have recognised these facts when crafting their latest title, and so, I’m indeed pleased to introduce you to Amnesia: The Dark Descent – a fantastic, genuinely frightening, and deliciously entertaining blend of horror, adventure, and puzzles.

The most glaring difference between Amnesia and other “horror” games is the complete omission of weapons or defense items. A traditional oil lantern is the only thing that’ll accompany you throughout your journey, and believe me, it’s more useful than any type of gun would ever be, given the game’s setting and environments. And being an oil lantern means that you have to keep a constant supply of oil handy, or else you’re going to be in pretty deep trouble in the dark. Not that you aren’t already troubled enough, anyway. You awaken from unconsciousness and find yourself in a huge castle, seemingly uninhabited, but that’s far from true as you’ll find out later. You know or remember virtually nothing, except that your name is Daniel. A few minutes of unsteady trotting around, and you find a note from yourself in the past, telling you to find and kill Alexander, the owner of the castle. And from there on, your quest for knowledge concerning said note, Alexander, and the castle itself begins. Rather than give you a story from the get go and have you simply give it a conclusion, Amnesia lets you piece the whole thing together bit by intriguing bit as you play along.

Speaking of which, there’s a fair bit for you to do before you can uncover the truth behind the sinister happenings at Castle Brennenburg and bring it all to one of the game’s three endings. Gameplay can be generalized into two main segments: exploring and puzzle-solving. The former is an absolute must if you want to succeed at the latter, but is also imperative if you want maximum insight into the full story. The game’s various challenges won’t necessarily have you visiting every room and rummaging through every drawer or cupboard, so you’ll have to take it upon yourself to do so to uncover all the information left behind in the form of diary notes and flashbacks. The puzzles are typical adventure game fare, and are none too complicated, but are quite clever and enjoyable to solve nonetheless. Whether you need to clear an obstacle, activate some machinery, or obtain a vital piece of information, a core feature across all challenges is that of collecting and using items, sometimes in combination with each other. Among these items, the most valuable ones are tinderboxes and oil jars, both of which are used to light up your path, and these are often your reward for thorough exploration of drawers, cupboards, chests and cabinets. Manipulation of movable objects such as doors, valves, etc. require you to make real-life motions with the mouse, and while this can take some getting used to initially, it provides a nice little touch as opposed to being able to do everything by just clicking.

Turba Review

Music and rhythm games have become quite a sensation ever since the likes of Guitar Hero and Rock Band showed up, so it’s no real surprise that this particular genre has trickled down and found its way into the indie world of electronic fun relatively quickly. Games such as Audiosurf, Beat Hazard, and Rhythm Zone bear witness to this fact, and although these titles have totally different mechanics, they all have one feature at their core: your music. Whether you’re riding pulsating waveforms in a spaceship or desperately trying to keep up with a barrage of increasingly insane note combos, it all comes down to those little digital sound files sitting on your computer, on which you obviously spent vast amounts of painstakingly hard-earned money.
Say what?
*Gasp!* You didn’t!?
Well in that case, just shut up and read on.

So along comes Turba, a new entrant in the aforementioned indie music-based games category.
Awkward name? Yes.
Weird gameplay? Definitely not.
The game takes the standard “match 3” formula and basically chucks in some clever little tricks that make use of your music tracks, and so if you’ve ever played, seen, or even just read about games like Bejeweled and its many spinoffs, you’ll be no stranger to how Turba plays out.
You have your standard game board and four different coloured blocks filling up the playing area either upwards (“Ascend” mode) or downwards (“Descend” mode) as time marches on. The blocks are generated according to the beats of the track being played, and it’s your job to prevent the board from filling up completely by selecting three or more adjacent blocks of the same colour and then blowing them into oblivion. Add in multiplier blocks, ticking time bomb blocks, and some special powerups to aid your frantic, fumbling fingers, and you’ve got Turba. It’s that simple, really.

There are some things which the game does a bit differently from other similar colour/block/gem matching games though, which is a good thing – you wouldn’t want to spend $10 to play an exact ripoff of said similar games just so you can load up your own tunes in the background. Let’s take a look…

For starters, as mentioned previously, the game utilizes a “beat detection system” to generate the blocks on the board based on music. You can either choose from one of eight built-in tracks, or select from one of the thousands of your own MP3s lying on your hard drive, all of which you undoubtedly ripped from original album discs using commercially available ripping software. While there are three difficulty levels for you to take a stab at, it’s worthwhile to note that to some degree, the amount of challenge you’ll face also depends on the song being played, independent of the difficulty level. Songs that have fast tempos and high numbers of beats per minute will give you a noticeably harder time than other more moderately paced tracks on the same difficulty setting, so in theory, the amount of challenge and you get out of the game is only limited by the size of your music library.

Second, is the way the controls work out. You don’t simply click rows and columns of blocks to swap colours around and make them disappear; Turba has a fair bit more depth to its block-blasting control scheme. At its simplest, you left-click to select blocks on the board, and right-click to blow them up. Holding down the left mouse button lets you drag and select multiple blocks, while double-clicking it selects the currently highlighted block and upto four adjacent ones of the same colour, if present. And lastly, single-clicking the scroll wheel clears all selected blocks. Some of the actions also have keyboard buttons bound to them, but it is possible to play entirely with the mouse with no great discomfort. That may seem like quite a few ways of doing one simple thing (selecting blocks), but trust me, if you want to score big and play on the harder difficulties, you’re going to need every one of those moves at some point or the other, and you’re going to need them very often.

Puzzle Dimension Review

Indie games have started to make rapid appearances nowadays, and for the most part, have shown a steady growth in terms of quality, innovation, and enjoyment in the genre. Iconic games like World Of Goo and Crayon Physics ushered in a new era of physics-driven gameplay, while titles like Osmos and Blueberry Garden proved that there is joy to be found in the simplest of game mechanics. And now, we have a new contender in the form of Puzzle Dimension – a 3D puzzle game by Doctor Entertainment, designed to test your ability to visualize solutions before you make your move, as also your sense of direction in environments that blatantly defy the laws of gravity.

I shall stop right here for a moment to point out that the strongest point of this game is the very same thing that holds the potential to put you off it altogether if you’re the kind of gamer who hates to have his/her gray cells exercised to any degree during any sort of gameplay. While the objective of every puzzle is identical and unbelievably simple, figuring out the right path to reach said objective is nothing short of being wickedly mind-bending and brain-twisting. Clearly this game isn’t for the casual gamer looking for a few minutes of entertainment in the midst of a boring, busy schedule – it’s aimed at the exact opposite type of people, those who have time on their hands, an affinity for puzzle-solving, and the ability to overcome the frustration of being met with defeat multiple times as they embark on several trial-and-error attempts in their quest for glory. But should you choose to persist in your endeavours, glory is exactly what you will bask in, as the sense of achievement that is derived from beating the puzzles (the later ones, especially) is highly gratifying.

All the game requires you to do through all the levels/puzzles is guide a little ball across a series of platforms in an attempt to collect flowers, by ‘rolling’ it in one of four directions. Collecting all the flowers in a level activates a portal which you must then guide the ball through to exit that level. Extremely simple concept, as I earlier mentioned, so where do the “puzzling” bits come in? Let’s take a look…

The platforms that make up each level come in a variety of forms and exhibit all sorts of “behaviour”, and this is one of the first challenges you’ll face early on into the game. Apart from your standard metal platforms, there are cracked ones which’ll give way after one use, icy ones which send you sliding in a particular direction, sandy ones which don’t allow you to roll, spikey ones which destroy you on contact, and so on. Add to this the fact that your range of motion is limited to 90 degree angles (no diagonal movement) and you can only jump over one platform space, and navigation gets much trickier than you would expect.

The next hurdle that awaits you is the fact that the game doesn’t care for the real world definitions of “up” and “down”. Your perception of these terms/directions will be changed several times during gameplay, as the camera rotates the world around you as you roll off edges and sides of certain platforms. These mechanics may be familiar to those who have played or caught a glimpse of And Yet It Moves a few years back, but frankly speaking, it will take a while to get used to how it behaves in Puzzle Dimension. Often times, you’ll find that flowers are placed on both, the top and bottom faces of platforms, and this’ll have you racking your brains trying to figure out what “pivot point” you should choose so as to flip everything around to your advantage. Luckily, there’s a handy “Camera Mode” at your disposal to help you visualize much more than the standard 3^rd person camera allows for. In this mode, you get near-limitless rotation and some restricted zoom in/out capabilities on the scene, to help you figure out your next set of moves, and although this can get totally confusing if you use it at particular angles, it forms an absolutely essential, highly critical part of the game – you’re not going to get very far without tearing at your hair and yelling vile obscenities if you don’t use it every now and then.

There are a hundred puzzles in total, divided into “clusters” of ten each, so you can be assured that this game will keep you busy for a good number of hours. You start off with just the first cluster available, and unlock new ones by collecting a certain number of flowers. All ten puzzles within a cluster are made available as soon as that cluster is unlocked, and so if a particular one is really messing with your head, you can push it aside for the time being and move on to solve any of the other ones available in any order you see fit. Playing through all the puzzles does have its rewards, though, and I don’t just mean the satisfaction of knowing that you have an IQ level above 10. There are a total of 21 achievements to be earned, and 3 themes to be unlocked. These themes do just what you would expect them to: they alter the appearance of every single object present in the levels, save for the ball and the flowers. You can switch themes at will at any point in the game, and although some will shrug this off as nothing more than added eye candy, it’s a neat little bonus to have, and it does indeed make the already-splendid visuals stand out more.

Ah yes, the visuals. Brilliantly done in a way that not many have thought of before, the game starts you out with everything made to look like the retro games of yesteryears, if you can just imagine each of those pixels actually being tiny little 3D cubes. As you move through the environment, the “pixels” give way to full-blown 3D graphics in a plethora of colourful explosions, accompanied by some fantastic lighting and high quality textures. It’s a unique art style rarely seen before, and it works very well indeed.

A similar mechanic is in place for the audio as well, as you’ll hear the game blend classic 8-bit tunes with modern day digital music. The music itself is quite praiseworthy, and sound effects are crisp, clear, and realistic.

Puzzle Dimension is a solid new entrant, both, into the world of indie games and the puzzle genre in general. The learning curve associated with mastering the game’s mechanics combined with the general fiendishness of the puzzles themselves may turn off some folks, but are also the main areas from which the patient, perseverant lot will derive immense satisfaction. Few other games are capable of twisting your mind in such deliciously devious ways, so if you’re an existing or wannabe Newtonian of sorts, get this little devil right away and let the gray cell marathon begin!

Left 4 Dead 2 Review

There’s always been something very attractive and appealing about towns being overrun by hordes of mindless, bloodthirsty zombies hungering for human flesh. Especially if you’re the kind of person who revels in the sweet glory of punching holes through the undead with shotguns, slicing their heads off with an axe, or torching the rancid, rotting flesh right off their bones…

Yeah, playing the role of a sole survivor in a massive zombie apocalypse is great fun in a sick, twisted way, but hey, toss in three more survivors and triple the number of undead scum, and what have you? Valve’s follow up to their original, hugely successful zombie-bashing franchise, Left 4 Dead 2. Bigger, badder, and bloodier than the original, this one’s sure to keep you (and your friends) entertained for a good amount of time.

Fans of the original game will pretty much know what to expect in terms of gameplay in Left 4 Dead 2 (L4D2), and for those new to the franchise, it’s basically a team of four humans fighting to survive an insanely huge onslaught of zombies (what the game dubs as the ‘Infected’) in a variety of locations, spread out over five campaigns, each featuring multiple chapters. The locations and environments are quite varied, ranging from gloomy, murky swamps to dark carnivals to a burning hotel and more. This time around, certain chapters also take place in broad daylight, as opposed to the first game, and this lends an extra layer of eye-candy to the game, while also providing better visibility.

One would think that blasting and shredding the living daylights out of zombies would get pretty stale real quick, but in reality, it never gets old with L4D2. The game packs in several different modes featuring local and online co-op gameplay, which can be enjoyed across any and all of the aforementioned campaigns and chapters. Add to that a killer assortment of firearms, melee weapons, and explosives, some wickedly cool zombie types, and a couple of mates who share your thirst for zombie blood, and you’ve got yourself one hell of a party every single time you play. Of course, if you feel like going at it alone, you can do so by all means with the help of computer-controlled bots, and while they do a very decent job of running, gunning, and reviving, they’re no replacement for another human player or two.

Speaking of running and gunning, there’s not a single moment when you won’t be doing either one of them, as the game is chock-full of zombies waiting to lay the smack on you and send you six feet under. The ‘common’ Infected race towards you and your team at a startlingly fast pace in packs, and the ‘uncommon’ Infected (more repulsive and dangerous variety of zombies) rely on their special abilities to bring the survivors down to their knees. These ‘uncommon’ lot consist of the Boomer, Charger, Spitter, Smoker, Jockey, and the Tank, and each one of them have a unique special attack to complement their regular claw slashing, which can send you into a real world of hurt if you and your buddies aren’t quick enough. Thankfully, the game provides you with a good selection of weapons to hold your own against the ugly buggers. While the firearms are the regular fare of pistols, shotguns, automatic rifles and such, the melee weapons are in a class of their own, and come in the form of cricket bats, electric guitars, frying pans, katanas, and every zombie-killer’s dream – chainsaws. Why shove zombies back when you can bash their heads open or break their necks with the same amount of effort, I say.

« Previous Page — Next Page »