Fun with Mirrors

 

The GemCraft Pentalogy

While not as popular as other tower defense games, such as Kingdom Rush or Plants vs. Zombies, I've always had a soft spot for the GemCraft series because of its moody atmosphere. Journeying through a storm-wracked wilderness riddled with winding footpaths and abandoned medieval buildings has a strange appeal to me.  It's something that I can't articulate well, but I'll try to explain as best as I can.

There are five games currently in the GemCraft franchise.  All five were made by an Hungarian development studio by the name of "Game in a Bottle."  The first three titles were flash games available to play for free on websites such as Kongregate, Newgrounds, and Armor Games.  The most recent two are for sale on Steam.  All the games in the series play similar to each other with only subtle changes marking any real difference from one to the next.  At the core are the gemstones which (depending on their color) have distinct properties.  They can be placed in towers or traps to harm enemies.  The potency of their attacks can be increased by combining two gems of the same color.  Alternatively, combining two differently colored gems creates a new gem with the power of both the originals (albeit slightly diluted).  It's even possible to combine three, four, five, six, seven or all eight colors (nine in the Steam games) to create a single rainbow gem.  Generally speaking though, there are certain color combinations that are more useful than others.

At the strategic level there are skill which are upgraded by applying points from leveling up.  To gain levels the player must clear maps (each with its own layout and limitations).  It possible to reallocate skill points between maps.  In this way, the player can increase the viability of whatever battle plan they have devised.  In addition to all this, there are pieces of a talisman that the player collects over the course of the game that grant addition bonuses.  In the maps themselves, the player has a variety of tactical options ranging from walls and traps to tower placement and gem bombing (sacrificing a gem in order to inflict a large amount of damage in certain area-of-effect).  

The opposition in the game comes in the form of insect-like monsters that infest buildings and swarm the player in in waves.  Some enemies are fast and weak, others are slow and tough.  There are even ones that have armor or health regeneration.  Each wave of attackers has a color association.  If the hue is similar to a gem they are being hit by then they take less damage, whereas if it is of a different color they take more.  Regardless of all these factors, the monsters are always single-minded in that they seek to destroy the player's base on the map for each combat encounter.

While I own (and have played) every single GemCraft game, I've only ever actually finished the original IP starter.  I think it is in no small part due to me not really grasping how all the subsystems work in tandem with each other.  I suppose I could do more grinding to make up for my inability to fully grasp the big picture, but replaying maps for extra points get repetitive very quickly.  That said, the starting menu screen with it's howling wind and blowing leaves (in GemCraft: Forgotten) or the sound of distant thunder in a cloud covered sky (in GemCraft: Chasing Shadows) still holds an irresistible allure to me.  One day, I will have to finish what I have started...

How U Get Da Muscle

Despite all the toxicity surrounding The Last of Us Part 2, I feel like there are two lines of criticism that are perfectly valid.  The first is in relation to the development studio, Naughty Dog.  Abusive labor practices are never a good look and the overly restrictive review embargo didn't do them any favors either.  The other line of criticism pertains to the game itself and certain structural problems therein.  I won't go into detail (because doing so would inevitably lead to major spoilers), but I will say ludonarrative dissonance is on full display here.  Aside from a few professional reviews and a couple of people on podcasts though the majority of complaints against The Last of Us Part 2 are of a sexist, homophobic, anti-Semitic or just generally bigoted in nature.  It's all really bad, but the one piece of ridicule that disproportionately rubs me the wrong way is the complaint that Abby is unrealistically muscular.

Pretty much every Youtuber and Twitch streamer I've seen bring this up has been the kind of guy who looks they've never used an exercise machine in their life, let alone picked up some free weights.  That in itself should be a strong indicator that they are coming from a position of ignorance.  The fact that Abby's character model (excluding the face) is a 3D scan of professional CrossFit athlete Coleen Fostch doesn't seem to change any opinions.  "She's using steroids," is the most common form of dismissal despite CrossFit enforcing strict drug screenings akin to the Olympics.  "Her nutrition intake wouldn't be sufficient," is another criticism that regularly comes up (in reference to The Last of Us Part 2's post-apocalyptic setting).  No disrespect to all the whey and soy enthusiasts out there, but Abby is shown (in-game) to have access to fresh fruit, vegetables and plenty of meat.  That's really all that is required.  Plus, it's not like she has a nine-to-five office job.  She's highly motivated (for reasons I don't want to spoil) and is in her prime.  If anything the game is harshly realistic in that during a flashback she mentions bench pressing 185 pounds, but fast forward three years and she has only raised that amount to 205 lbs.  Diminishing gains is indeed something that every bodybuilder has to accept after an initial flurry of muscle growth.  

If all that evidence isn't enough then simply look up some photos of female Victorian era circus performers renown for their physical strength.  Testosterone levels aren't the primary factor when it comes to getting muscled physic, rather it's more of a combination of diet, exercise and genetic predisposition.  It's also worth noting that Abby isn't the biggest person (or even biggest woman) in The Last of Us Part 2.  Both of those honors go to Seraphites the player runs into over the course of the game.  The records on the gym wall where Abby works out also show that other males hold records higher than their female counterparts.  This is something that is consistent with statistics from all kinds of physical competitions ranging from track and field to power lifting...but, hey...why let facts get in the way of misogyny.  I'm sure these know-it-all gamers are experts on everything female because of all the anime-themed video games they play, right?  Well...Abby has jiggle physics too, but it's for her triceps and not much else.

Shards of Stone

I've been playing a bit of the early-access indie title Stoneshard, and I find it reminds me a lot of games like Fatal Labyrinth and Torneko: The Last Hope.  Obviously, Stoneshard has expanded on the concepts pioneered in those games with the inclusion of an over world; sprinkled with points of interest (including dungeons!).  In other ways, the game has a somewhat limited scope when it comes to foes.  There are bandits, cultists and undead.  However, the more exotic enemies, such as trolls and gargoyles, are used sparingly.  Personally, I appreciate the restraint.  It helps avoid the kitchen-sink monster problem that many RPGs suffer from.

The simple pixel art is also quite nice, and occasionally wonderfully animated.  I can only hope that the upcoming Steam edition of Dwarf Fortress has a similar look.  In a lot of ways Stoneshard feels like more tightly focused take on Dwarf Fortress adventure mode.  

One other thing I want to mention about Stoneshard is the level of difficulty.  More specifically, this game is hard.  I think my poor little character died at least half-a-dozen times just trying to finish the tutorial.  The unique save system means that a non-trivial amount of progress is lost upon death as well.  It's not a forgiving game.  Leveling up only provides small incremental boosts to power.  Equipment upgrades make a bigger difference, but because of meters like hunger, thirst and pain, maintaining a relatively hardy and hail adventurer is a constant drain on one's finances.  Hence, saving up for better gear is a fairly laborious process.  The challenges of amassing wealth are exacerbated by limited inventory space.  It's possible to store items in a private chest in the inn, but the player's character can't carry a whole lot.  Realistic, I suppose, but I found myself constantly wishing I had a porter, pack mule or magic bag-of-holding.  More often than not, I was forced to leave all but the most valuable loot behind.  I suppose one could make supply runs every time their inventory filled up, but doing so would be tedious and kill a lot of the forward momentum of the game.  Having said all that, I hope I don't sound too harsh.  As a Sekiro/Souls/Borne series veteran the level of challenge isn't overwhelming, nor is Stoneshard ripping-off any of the other games I mentioned in relation to it.  If anything, this game feels like it is carving out a nice little niche for itself in the great wall of video games.  How good of a job it ultimately does though, has yet to be seen.  All the same, best of luck to the developers!

Apocalypses, New and Old

Unlike a lot of folks, I didn't replay The Last of Us in preparation for the sequel.  Instead, I read through Joe Dever's "Freeway Warrior" tetralogy of choose-your-own-adventure books.  For me, it was a chance to revisit a series I had enjoyed from my childhood from a much older perspective.

There's a adage that goes "any work of science fiction is the product of the time in which it was created."  It's certainly a saying that holds true here.  Like a lot of the post-apocalypses from before the turn of the millennium, the event that brings it all crashing down is a nuclear war.  In the case of the "Freeway Warrior" series, the catalyst is a terrorist organization with cells located across the globe.  After the dust and fallout settle down, these post apocalyptic "clansmen" (as they are referred to in the text) proceed to scramble out of their bunkers to recruit or slaughter any survivors in a bid for local domination.  I guess they are firm believers in the famous John Milton quote from "Paradise Lost":

Better to reign in hell than serve in heaven

Unsurprisingly, a book called "Freeway Warrior" is heavily inspired by the "Mad Max" films...right down to a nuclear-winter induced wasteland complete with leather-clad bikers and a muscle-car-driving hero.  Comparing this kind of landscape to the one found in The Last of Us provides an interesting contrast.  Instead of sickly deserts, we have mother nature thriving to such a degree that she is reclaiming what was taken from her in the form of vast swaths of green overgrowth.  The survivors aren't living in some kind of primal Darwinian nightmare of predator and prey so much as a self-destructive cycle driven by vengefulness and intolerance.  

Surprisingly, the differences become less pronounced when examining the minutia in these two works of fiction.  Scavenging plays a huge roll in both settings, and the most valued objects are largely the same (tools, medicine, supplies and weapons).  The scarcity of ammunition becomes apparent in The Last of Us (parts one and two) very quickly through gameplay.  In Joe Dever's novels, he communicates the same idea rather effectively by making the player's character sheet have a literal checkbox for each bullet in their inventory.

Visual aesthetics aside, the place that these two pieces of fiction truly diverge is in their respective narratives and the themes found within them.  The story of Freeway Warrior mirrors the film "Road Warrior" in that it is very much about escaping persistent external threats.  The protagonist is a young man and proxy for the boys who are the primary audience for these sorts of books.  Our protagonist even has a female love interest who periodically plays the role of damsel in distress.

On the flip side, The Last of Us Part 2 is firmly focused on its female cast with the narrative being more inward looking as the characters try to overcome the darker aspects of human nature.  It's basically the video game equivalent of movies like "Reverant", "Unforgiven", or "True Grit".  As one online forum poster put it "this is one of the best revisionist westerns I've ever seen...that also happens to have zombies in it."

The fungal infection aspect of The Last of Us might seem to strain the plausibility of the otherwise hyper realistic setting, but it also works as an excellent metaphor.  In the increasingly lifeless deserts of "Mad Max" and "Freeway Warrior", the end comes when the world finally expires from the injuries humanity has inflicted on it.  In the setting of The Last of Us though, doom is nature deciding to deliver a final deathblow to human race for its lack of wisdom.