It’s an old text adventure from the 80’s with a particularly cool and oddly relevant concept: You take the role of an AI that’s been meticulously raised in a simulation to truly become a general intelligence. The reason this project was undertaken was to eventually send you, the AI, into other simulations based in the near future to test the outcomes of various political policies of the new republican government, record your interactions, and report back to the engineers who created you.
The game’s designer said that he created the game in response to the despair he felt from Ronald Reagan being elected.
I haven’t gotten super far in it, but it has an incredibly well written short story in the manual that details all the events leading up to the start of the game, and so far the game itself is unlike anything else I’ve ever played.
That’s already hours in, and it was only getting more ridiculous. I had a looksee at Yatzhee’s old review of it, and he confirmed my feelings on it, and said it got even worse later. I may watch a let’s play of it at some point, but I just wasn’t having fun, so I’m unlikely to pick it up again, personally. Just doesn’t have the magic…
I just tried new colossus yesterday, actually, and I was surprised how big of a dive the writing took compared to the first game, I had to stop when the resistance guy bursts out of bathroom during that really forced emotional scene in the sub.
I loved the first game and the old blood dlc, so was a bit of a bummer :(
When I played the first game, I eventually become a bit annoyed at how some systems worked, such as how frequently henry became hungry, so I downloaded a mod that extended the time between meals, which made the experience a bit more realistic and less annoying.
Though on the topic of degrading equipment, I kinda like shoes wearing out of it’s not too frequent, because for some odd reason I find it enjoyable to have to plan trips around such limitations 😄
I went outside of my usual wheelhouse and tried playing some of the Wario games for the gameboy advance. Finished Warioware in one afternoon (very fun short little collection of mini games) and currently on Wario Land 4. It’s a platformer with light puzzle elements, and I’m quite surprised at how much I’ve been enjoying it, as I usually don’t mesh with platformers.
In a way, it reminds me of one of the later Commander Keen games, but with much better level design and variety in gameplay.
It’s a polished and quirky little game, and its handheld roots lend itself to short sessions, which has been all I have time for.
I think I’ll be investigating the earlier entries after I complete it. Certainly recommend it if you have access to a handheld emulator!
Excellent story perfectly meshed with the gameplay.
A strange high-technology medieval world.
Incredible level design combined with realistic roughly drawn maps, forcing you to take in your surroundings and build your own map.
Variety of gameplay, ranging from infiltrating a rich baron’s mansion to rob them blind, to delving into ancient crypts filled with odd creatures and an alien culture for some adventurous tomb raiding, to some of the most terrifying pants filling survival horror I’ve yet encountered.
There’s multiple paths in the game that open up slightly different content. There’s a critical point when you can choose to take Sophia with you, or to go it alone with either thinking (harder puzzles) or fighting.
The balloon is shortly before the submarine on that path (I believe it’s the sophia path)
Oddly enough I actually pre-ordered a physical copy of Primordia, and got a ways into it before stopping for some reason. I should really go back and finish it!
Disco Elysium (even though I personally didn’t really care for the game due to the setting, the writing is undeniably high quality)
A Mind Forever Voyaging
All of those games have, IMO, a tremendously good sync between gameplay and story, where everything lines up to the point where you can become fully absorbed into whatever experience the writer/designer crafted. I would say Thief accomplishes it the best, while Mafia’s and Deus Ex’s clunky gameplay hold them back, but I can see what they were trying to achieve, and overall are close enough to my ideal.