Wacky Game Gifs

 

O Ye of Little...

In the words of the the great Youtuber Christopher Odd, "Just in time for Xmas, we're going to [look at] something a little bit spooky."  To keep it spiritually appropriate though lets examine the subgenera of religious themed horror games (specifically Christian ones).  The film industry has been at it for over half-a-century with some of the better movies being "Rosemary's Baby" in 1969, and "The Exorcist" in 1975, all the way up through the "Paranormal Activity" series and, more recently, "The Witch".  When it comes to video games though, there really isn't a whole lot to choose from.  In most cases, the small number of games that do touch on this subject matter tend to skirt around the edges of it (like the Silent Hill franchise) or else are comedic, quickly-made game jam efforts such as The Salvation Project.  However, there are a few video games out there that really make an effort to maximize what this particular brand of horror has to offer.  One IP, in particular, is Faith: The Unholy Trilogy.

Before continuing, I have a confession to make.  While made up of three chapters (as the subtitle of the game implies), I've only played the first to completion.  On top of that the third chapter isn't actually out yet (although a demo is freely available for download).  Even so, I'd like to say a few things about what I've played thus far.  Let me start with the visual style.  If you've ever played the original Oregon Trail (specifically the hunting mini-game), Faith will seem oddly familiar.  The game's sole developer, Mason Smith, has made several other indie titles, all with a retro look.  One of his games (Earl's Day Off) has a very N64 feel to it, while two others (Extra Ordinary and The Wind) seem like they could have come out for the Apple II home computer back in the early 80s.  Faith shares styles and to some extent themes with these two other titles, but distinguishes itself by occasional injecting rotoscoped cutscenes (something that is very out-of-place on the hardware it seeks to emulate) to punctuate key events in the story.  Having these anachronistic bits of presentation is strangely unnerving.  Adding to the general unease is a (sometimes distorted) Speak and Spell style narration for dialogue scenes.  On top of that, creepy chiptune music plays in the background. 

Set in Connecticut circa 1987, Faith tells the tale of John Ward - a Catholic priest in search of redemption.  The previous year, John and a senior colleague attempted to banish an evil spirit that had taken possession of a young woman (Amy Martin) .  The attempt was a complete disaster.  The older priest and Amy's parents were killed.  Worse still, Amy's siblings (a pair of younger twin brothers) vanished without a trace.  Returning to the scene of the crime, John Ward is determined to set things right.  

Sufferrrrrrrr...!

The gameplay is simple; the Martin family home is remote and surrounded by woodland.  So, the player needs navigate their way through a forest in order to find the house where everything went wrong.  Armed only with a crucifix, our priest-turned-hero can expel evil in particular places to earn awards in the form of notes or pictures that help flesh out what is going on.  The crucifix can also be used to drive off a lurking pale, hairless spider-person out for blood.  Once inside the home, things become eerily quite.  Down in the basement, John finds sinister ritualistic marks on the floor which leads to a protracted battle against a ghostly version of Amy that still inhabits the house.  The fight come to a conclusion in the attic.  Amy is driven out of the Martin home and John finds a loaded rifle on his way out the front door.

Depending on how John uses his new acquired firearm, players can unlock five different endings: one of which is particularly hilarious and features an on-the-nose reference to the aforementioned Oregon Trail.  Speaking of references, Amy Martin has more than a passing resemblance to Sadako from the Japanese horror movie "Ringu."  Another example is a corpse of a fox that utters the phrase "chaos reigns!" which is a nod to the 2009 arthouse film "Antichrist."  Unlike that motion picture, it's nice to see that Faith is willing to set pretentiousness aside for the sake of a good joke.  These little bits of levity are what makes the storytelling in the game work for me.  Well...that and a nice layer of ambiguity in the form of an optional side quest in which the player can discover a note that casts a shadow of doubt over John Ward's actions.  Specifically, it makes mention of him being discharged from a psychiatric hospital after spending a fair amount of time there following the failed exorcism.  This helps explain why it took John so long to return to the Martin home, but also begs the question "Is all this really happening or are the stresses of priesthood too much for our protagonist's dubious mental health to endure?"  My understanding is the second chapter fails to give a definitive answer, but perhaps the third and final installment will.   

The Hávamál for Gaming

I've been devouring a lot of books lately and one that inspired me more than I thought it would was the Hávamál.  If you haven't heard of it, the Hávamál is essentially a collection of Scandinavian insights that were composed around 700 years ago (though they probably existed to some extent long before then).  These pearls of "Viking" wisdom are surprisingly applicable even to this day.  What came to me after reading the book was "what if I could emulate the themes and style but with an ultramodern perspective?"  I doubt anything I'm going to write will be relevant in a millennium from now (let alone a century), but for the moment here are a few words adapted from people much wiser than me.

• The first rule of game design is make it fun.  Remember though, fun is not the same as fulfillment.

• A delayed game can eventually be good, but a bad game at release will forever be viewed as bad.

• Blockchain is a solution in need of a problem.  Crypto is what happens when libertarians get religion.  NFTs are for people who launder money through art, but then ask themselves "what if we get rid of the art?"

• People who say every game is every other game play too many video games.

• Sometimes an original failure is more interesting than a successful rehash.

• If you want to be original, be yourself.  No two people are exactly the same.

• Every developer has his blind spots.  Every game has its flaws.  Every critic has biases.  And every player is a sucker for their favorite franchise.

 

 

Neither Faded nor Cursed

I'd like to start by saying how nice it is to finally see some real footage of Elden Ring in action.  The graphics, from a technical perspective, aren't exactly next gen.  That said, the art direction more than makes up for it.  I've noticed quite a few people who have played the preview build, mention similarities to The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild.  It's certainly not hard to see where they're coming from.  Even back when Demon's Souls had just come out, I picked up on how much the moment-to-moment combat was like Wind Waker and Twilight Princess.  Ocarina of Time, after all, is the first big three-dimensional action RPG with an open world for players to explore.  Elden Ring, true to it's roots, has a bit more grim and gritty vibe to it, though not without some of the signature whimsy the Souls series is known for.

If I have one reservation with Elden Ring, it has to do with a return to the overused medieval European fantasy aesthetic.  For quite some time now, I have hoped that From Software and Hidetaka Miyazaki would consider a more sci-fi theme along the lines of Returnal.  If one were to ditch the rogue-like elements, place greater emphasis on melee combat, and spice up some of those enemy designs, Returnal would be a Souls game in all but name.  As is though, the setting in Elden Ring feels a bit generic even with (or perhaps because of) George R. R. Martin's input with respect to the story and background.  It's almost as if some of what made From Software's action RPGs some unique has been diluted for the sake of a broader scope.  As Patrick Klepek joked over on the Waypoint Radio podcast, Miyazaki probably told his design team to dig out all their rejected creature concepts from previous titles in order to meet the monster type quota needed for a game of this size.  That's not to say the enemy design is bad...just more eclectic than in the highly focused Sekiro and Bloodborne.

Regardless of those nitpicks, I am very much looking forward to playing this game when it launches next year.  In particular, I'm really curious to see how the plot unfolds and what kind of surprised are in store throughout the as of yet unrevealed parts of the map.  In a first for From Software will we get a proper desert environment?  Only time will tell... 

2021 Awards

Avant-garde Award:

There are quite a few games about the Cthulhu Mythos, but The Shore stands out for having the pretty much all the big hitters of the pantheon on resplendent display. Azathoth, Yog-Sothoth, Dagon, Shub-Niggurath, Nyarlathotep and Great Cthulhu himself all make noteworthy appearances.  Other than deities, there are Deep Ones, Elder Things, Shoggoths, Dark Young, Insects of Shaggai, Xothians, and probably some more that I missed or failed to recognize.  Every single one of these horrors is modeled in exquisite detail.  A lot of the environments they are found in are also pretty surreal.  

Backlash Award:

Where to begin...?  With over 11,000 reviews and only a nine percent approval rate, eFootball is the lowest rated game in Steam history.  Despite Konami's boasts that this soccer game surpasses FIFA in quality, it's a bare bones sports sim that has bugs, glitches, and weird character models (especially when it comes to people in the stands) with plenty of videos and screen caps around the internet that might elicit some good chuckles.  Free and worth every penny.

Brutality Award:

Playing like a polished up greatest hits compilation of the first three games in the series, Ghosts 'n Goblins Resurrection is old-school hard.  The designers, for whatever reason, chose to preserve the feel of the classic game right down to Arthur's awkward movement and unforgiving jumping mechanics.  It is possible to finish the game in under two hours if you're a pro, but chances are it will take a lot longer than that assuming have the patience and determination to finish the game at all.   

Canvas Award:

The genius of Narita Boy lies in its utilization of old CRT displays.  The game even goes so far as to copy the slight blur and lensing effect these old monitors had.  The "trichroma" (red, blue and yellow) color scheme perfectly suit the Digital Kingdom both in terms of visuals and lore.  There have been many attempts over the years to copy the style of the 1982 film "TRON," but (in my opinion) this game marks the first attempt that has actually improved on the aesthetic.  In truth, I feel like the look of Narita Boy is so strong, the non-visual elements of the storytelling actually detract from the overall experience to such as degree that I would have preferred if this game had no text at all and instead relied entirely on images to tell its tale.  In other words, this game is too good for its own good.

Ecology Award:

It stands to reason that when exploring the same alien sea for a second time, one would use the same equipment and encounter the same (or similar) sea life.  That said, this stand-alone expansion of sorts feels like a small step backwards for the franchise.  This is mostly because the best parts of Subnautica: Below Zero were already in the original game.  What little new there is, doesn't add much and, worse still, some of the best bits of the original are missing in the new game. 

"Engrish" Award:

The product of a lot of creativity and hard work, Highfleet is a Russian-developed strategy/air-combat sim.  It also hails MicroProse return to game publishing after a more-than-decade-long absence.  Sadly, they seemed to have stumbled a bit out the gate.  An untranslated lever marked "ДЕСА́НТ" isn't a problem, but somewhat oddly worded tips like "if a serious repair is applying, docking will speed up" are the reason this game wins this award.  Overall though, the localization work is free of weird grammar issues.

Esoteric Award:

Part H.P. Lovecraft inspired horror game, part third-person bullet-hell shooter, Returnal has a mind screw storyline that has yet to be unraveled by even its most dedicated fans.  Some much ambiguity exists with regards to major plot points, it is practically impossible to separate hallucinations from reality.  Tantalizing clues abound, right down to the labels on bottles of prescription medications, but no matter how deep people dig they are left with more questions than answers.  Is Helios the protagonist's son or her brother?...or is it just the name of a spaceship?   What's the "White Shadow?"  Is it a allusion to the moon?  A ghostly astronaut that appears periodically throughout the game?...or is it just the name of a rock song?  Nobody knows...and maybe nobody ever will...

Lemon Award:

An ambitious design with a high asking price, this sequel to a twenty-two year old proto-RTS has about as many issues as the real life "Gerald R. Ford" aircraft carrier had launch.  A.I. pathfinding problems remains the biggest one, while some smaller bugs have since been patched: aircraft that crash on takeoff, helicopters that explode on landing, and phantom sea currents.  However, unintuitive controls and an inadequate tutorial typify why this carrier wasn't ready enter service just yet.    

   

Testosterone Award:

While the main character doesn't exactly exude masculinity, the "lycan" enemy type certainly does.  Not only are they extremely muscular, highly aggressive and covered in copious amounts of body hair, these wolfmen are in a perpetual state of roid rage and shrug off gunshot wounds the way an ordinary person would react to having a small rock thrown at them.  The leader of the werewolf pack brings new meaning to the term "mass monster" and he's got an epic beard to boot.  Oh...and there are absolutely no female lycans to be found anywhere.

Underdog Award:

This blog's 2020 awards came out a bit early and as such Suzerain (being a December release) just missed the cut.  Even so, it's raised the bar so much in terms of both political simulators and visual novels I feel like I have to give credit to what I'm sure passed under many people's radar...including mine.  Therefore, I'm bending the rules a bit for this one in order to give it this award.  As a fictional slogan of the game goes "A Morgna her Coren!" or in English, "The Morning has Come!"