The Stanley Parable is a game about a man named Stanley, pushing buttons, walking around an office for a few hours, and the impossibility of choice within a video game. If this at all sounds interesting to you go play the demo. If you have thirty minutes (or forty-five to an hour, if you decide to actually wait for your number) that you were originally going to spend reading twitter messages that you already read because face it, doing anything productive today was going to be hard anyway, play the demo. It's entertaining in it's own right, and has a meta-narrative about demos, which is appropriate for a demo. I suppose that's what meta means.
Anyway, The Stanley Parable is a very good, very funny, narrative focused game, which means it's better to not spoil the said narrative as much as possible. The demo does this by avoiding the narrative of the full game entirely, so, as I said, if your interested, go. Download it now. Even if you're vaguely interested, go do it. Play it. Have fun. Come back and read the rest of this when you're done.
Done? Done. Good. Onwards!
The Stanley Parable is a brilliantly comedic game that has made me laugh at multiple points, and hasn't ceased to entertain me. It's varied and wonderfully absurd endings may be small in number, but each is a damn trip to get to. I've unplugged phone cords and broken universes. I've jumped off of ledges to spite omnipresent voices. I literally went mad one time. It was great.
That may make it sound like it's just a maniacal romp, but it's actually not. Between the bouts of madness is a classic British comedic setup, full of clever wit and humorous tendencies. And connecting it all is a well crafted narrative about the main characters, you, as Stanley, and the Narrator, and how choice in video games is nonexistent. It's actually rather fascinating to look into, and if you enjoy a little dip into thematic ideas, this might be worth the shot.
For anyone who has played video game since they were a kid, this game will be a must buy. For anyone who enjoys game design, development, or is just looking for a funny story, the same is true. For those of you who are sticks in the mud, 1) why are you even here, and 2) yeah, you won't like it. But apparently you don't like fun.
In conclusion, for those of you looking for a funny meta-narrative about how nothing you do matters, go ahead and pick up The Stanley Parable. I guarantee that the fun just won't end.
(Until you try getting the "Go Outside" achievement. Which is, by the way, the best achievement in video game history.)
Sunday, July 22, 2018
Thursday, July 5, 2018
Review: Wizard of Legend(Nintendo Switch): A Wizard-like
Wizard of Legend is the first game out of brand new game developers Contingent99(and published by good old Humble Bundle), and considering it grossed an insane 300,000 sales within it's first month after release, I think its a good step forward. But is it?
The short answer: Yes, actually. Sorry to blueball you.
Yes, Wizard of Legend is a good game. And a damn good one at that. Wizard of Legend is, in the briefest possible way to put it, a top-down, magical, combo based, make-your-own-moveset rougelite where you play as a wizard from the future. That's a lot of adjectives, so let's unpack it a little. Wizard of Legend opens up with you, a random person, cosplaying as a wizard of "olde," going to a museum about ancient trials called the "Chaos Trials." This segment serves as the tutorial, as you get handouts of arcana, cards that allow you to quickly cast spells. After you partake in a mini-trial, you come across an arcane artifact that transports you back in time to when the Chaos Trials are still happening, and then you... just enter. Yeah, there's no real explanation for your partaking in the Chaos trails, and it's kinda off putting considering that's the only thing you do in this game.
However, once you enter the trials, things smooth out. The trials consist of three separate dungeons, one fire dungeon, one water dungeon, and one earth dungeon, all put in a randomly selected order. Each one has two randomly generated levels and then a boss. Each dungeon is progressively harder, then there's a final boss, you beat him, you win. Of course, to say it that way makes it sound easy.
It isn't. It took me almost 50 runs to beat this game the first time around. But it was a good time. Every run I unlocked more options as to what arcana I brought with me, what relic(essentially passives) I brought with me. as well as what I could buy and upgrade from within the trials. I found it especially satisfying as I learned what everything did. You see, nothing you get within the chaos trials has a tooltip explaining what it does, so you have to keep it in your own brain. By the time I finally beat the game, I knew what EVERY arcana did.
Combat is fast. Real fast. Your moveset consists of four options going in to the trials, one basic spell, which serves as sort of your base attack, one dash spell to help movement as well as adding more effects, a standard spell, and a signature spell. All of these can be chosen beforehand, and you can get 2 more spells from within the trials. Each one has an element, which is better against some elements and weaker against others, and they can all be upgraded( your signature is pre upgraded) All of this means that as much as the games is about reflexes and practice, it's also about tactics. You have to think ahead about what you get, what it would be effective against, what relics to use, etcetera.
All of this can be a little frustrating when you forget what everything does after you stop playing for a while. It can interrupt your planning when you come across a relic you don't remember or an arcana that you think you need but really don't and you ruin your perfectly crafted build. In stark contrast to this, the dungeons are extremely repetitive, and not very interesting the 30th time through.
But the variation of the arcana and builds you can plan out or improvise as you go along are what sell it to me. If you want varied, fast combat, that you can pick up and play(especially on the Nintendo switch) at any point in your day and have a reliably good time, you find it in Wizard of Legend
(PS: the devs have said that they will be adding new areas as free DLC later on.)
The short answer: Yes, actually. Sorry to blueball you.
Yes, Wizard of Legend is a good game. And a damn good one at that. Wizard of Legend is, in the briefest possible way to put it, a top-down, magical, combo based, make-your-own-moveset rougelite where you play as a wizard from the future. That's a lot of adjectives, so let's unpack it a little. Wizard of Legend opens up with you, a random person, cosplaying as a wizard of "olde," going to a museum about ancient trials called the "Chaos Trials." This segment serves as the tutorial, as you get handouts of arcana, cards that allow you to quickly cast spells. After you partake in a mini-trial, you come across an arcane artifact that transports you back in time to when the Chaos Trials are still happening, and then you... just enter. Yeah, there's no real explanation for your partaking in the Chaos trails, and it's kinda off putting considering that's the only thing you do in this game.
However, once you enter the trials, things smooth out. The trials consist of three separate dungeons, one fire dungeon, one water dungeon, and one earth dungeon, all put in a randomly selected order. Each one has two randomly generated levels and then a boss. Each dungeon is progressively harder, then there's a final boss, you beat him, you win. Of course, to say it that way makes it sound easy.
It isn't. It took me almost 50 runs to beat this game the first time around. But it was a good time. Every run I unlocked more options as to what arcana I brought with me, what relic(essentially passives) I brought with me. as well as what I could buy and upgrade from within the trials. I found it especially satisfying as I learned what everything did. You see, nothing you get within the chaos trials has a tooltip explaining what it does, so you have to keep it in your own brain. By the time I finally beat the game, I knew what EVERY arcana did.
Combat is fast. Real fast. Your moveset consists of four options going in to the trials, one basic spell, which serves as sort of your base attack, one dash spell to help movement as well as adding more effects, a standard spell, and a signature spell. All of these can be chosen beforehand, and you can get 2 more spells from within the trials. Each one has an element, which is better against some elements and weaker against others, and they can all be upgraded( your signature is pre upgraded) All of this means that as much as the games is about reflexes and practice, it's also about tactics. You have to think ahead about what you get, what it would be effective against, what relics to use, etcetera.
All of this can be a little frustrating when you forget what everything does after you stop playing for a while. It can interrupt your planning when you come across a relic you don't remember or an arcana that you think you need but really don't and you ruin your perfectly crafted build. In stark contrast to this, the dungeons are extremely repetitive, and not very interesting the 30th time through.
But the variation of the arcana and builds you can plan out or improvise as you go along are what sell it to me. If you want varied, fast combat, that you can pick up and play(especially on the Nintendo switch) at any point in your day and have a reliably good time, you find it in Wizard of Legend
(PS: the devs have said that they will be adding new areas as free DLC later on.)
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