Renzatic on 11/8/2019 at 16:52
It's weird, but I think one of the major reasons why I didn't enjoy Blaster Master Zero as much as I should have was simply because of the changes to the setting. I played the original when I was a kid, and it's creepy lost world high tech medieval blended world resonated with me a lot more than Zero's abandoned futuristic habitat.
I still thought it was a good game, but it could've been so much better.
Malf on 12/8/2019 at 14:26
So is anyone else here playing Streets of Rogue?
It's brilliant! A top-down, procedural rogue-lite with a heavy focus on emergent behaviour, which has led to it being compared to more traditional immersive sims.
I would have thought it would be right up this forum's proverbial alley, but I see nary a mention of it!
It does a damn good job of allowing you to tailor the game's difficulty to suit your tastes as well, with "mutators" available from the very beginning.
These mutators are things like infinite ammo / durability, whether disasters happen or not (even allowing you to specify which disasters get excluded if you don't want to disable them altogether), whether disasters happen every level, all sorts of weird and wonderful things.
The classes are all fun (except for maybe the slum dweller; he's pretty boring until he gets his hands on some interesting gear), offering neat spins on the base gameplay, such as a comedian class who tells jokes to get people to like him. If they like your jokes, a shopkeeper may give you the keys to his safe.
Or the Jock, who I avoided using for a while, but turns out is gloriously stupid fun after sneaking about and getting chased as other classes. He's got a charge attack that makes him barrel right through any and all walls in a map, barring level boundaries and metal walls. The mindless property destruction is a fantastic palate cleanser after some of the more tense classes...
...such as the Werewolf, who can turn in to a wolf for 10-15 seconds, after which he's dizzy and can't attack, and in human form is a "Skinny nerdlinger", which means he's weaker than the average civvie.
Or the Shapeshifter, who's fine while he's in a host body (although said host has less health than its player controlled version of the class), but pops out as a vulnerable, demonic baby either at will or when the host buys the farm. And cops attack him on sight.
And on top of that, you can make your own classes too, using a point-buy system!
I've yet to dabble properly with custom classes, but my most used class so far has been the Doctor, who can't use lethal weapons, but has access to a tranq gun (1 dart and they go down in ten seconds, two and they go down in one), and the ability to knock people out from behind with a chloroform hankie.
I'd gotten a little stuck with him yesterday, when I got to a stage and mission that required him to destroy barrels full of poison. As he can't use traditional weapons, I was having to punch them until they exploded, at which point he'd get poisoned and take damage. As the mission requires destroying 3-4 barrels, in all likelihood the Doctor will die before completing the mission.
But I realised today that I can hire almost any passing NPC, so I'll just grab some and get THEM to do the Doc's dirty work :D
On top of all this, each class has what's known as a "Big Quest", something they have to do on each and every floor.
The Doctor has to make sure his kills stay under a certain level (however, gloriously, indirect kills don't add to his tally!)
The zombie has to infect a certain amount of people.
The comedian has to entertain a certain number.
The gorilla has to free his gorilla chums.
The scientist has to afflict a specific type of NPC with a particular effect by spraying them with a water pistol containing the goop in question. Then they have to whip out their research gun and "research" them.
The Jock gets fresh dares on every level to destroy particular items such as fire hydrants or air filters.
And mentioning air filters, you can pollute them (and later water filters) with the various status effect items you find laying around. Like nicotine, regenerating health, poison, confusion gas and... GIANTISM, where NPCs all of a sudden become kaiju sized, bursting out of the confines of their home buildings and crushing all in their path.
It's glorious, demented fun, containing a lot of the things that make immersive sims great, all wrapped up in lovely pixel art and stonking tunes.
And it has 4 player co-op too!
FE_Mark on 14/8/2019 at 14:24
I've been playing What Remains of Edith Finch again as the first time I played I wasn't really in the right frame of mind and forced myself to rush through it. So pleased I chose to go back and explore at my own pace, the level of detail they went into with this game is incredible, every part of the house feels lived in and even though the design of the house makes no sense you don't think about it as it feels so real.
I think you can see elements of the immersive sim genre within the game especially with strong emphasis it has on environmental story-telling. Superb stuff and looking forward to diving deeper again.
Malf on 15/8/2019 at 21:18
Okay, I don't quite understand how this has happened, but nobody else from TTLG in my friends list owns Streets of Rogue.
What the flip?
I NEED CO-OP COMEDY CARNAGE!
This is a strong contender for my game of the year. The only reason it's not a shoe-in is 'cos I also played Deadfire this year.
henke on 18/8/2019 at 18:37
Quote Posted by Malf
Okay, I don't quite understand how this has happened, but nobody else from TTLG in my friends list owns Streets of Rogue.
What the flip?
I'm hearing good things about that one, but it also kinda looks like a WHOLE THING. Maybe I'll get it in a sale at some point.
Just finished Omnibus! Physics-based arcade game where you play a bus that can't stop. It does kinda saves its best levels for late in the game tho. Here's some of those levels:
[video=youtube;BBt-k90iqNI]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BBt-k90iqNI&feature=youtu.be[/video]
I liked it a lot. It's very much my kinda thing.
Thirith on 19/8/2019 at 07:38
As far as Streets of Rogue is concerned, I think I'm not all that much of a fan of the combination of that sort of fairly open systemic gameplay and silliness. Everything I've read about it (they seem to be big fans at RPS, for instance) has made me think that this sounds like it isn't for me, sadly. SoR sounds like the main appeal is the openness and choice, but even in immersive sims, I tend to default to the same one or two playing styles rather than trying out everything.
After finishing God of War (2018) on PS4 and then being away for a week, I've now started playing the third season of The Walking Dead. Not having played any Telltale games in a good while, it's actually nice to return to that sort of story-/character-heavy experience. The engine (or at least the art) has definitely seen an update or two since TWD2 and the facial animations look more nuanced than I remember them from the previous season. I wasn't a big fan of the gratuitous way the first episode ended, but I hope that this will be an exception rather than the rule for the season.
Also, I'm currently playing Wolfenstein: The New Colossus, and while I like the feel of the FPS gameplay I very much don't like the level design. Everything looks good, but the levels are either mazes that feel surprisingly random or narrow corridors. Seeing how Arkane did the environmental design for Youngblood, I kinda wish they'd done so for this game already, because their environments tend to feel so much more coherent.
froghawk on 19/8/2019 at 14:35
Youngblood isn't getting great reviews. Anyone tried it? Worth it for arkane or no?
Starker on 19/8/2019 at 16:30
The levels do look very Arkane-y, but it's coop and apparently the AI partner sucks.
WingedKagouti on 19/8/2019 at 16:51
Quote Posted by Starker
The levels do look very Arkane-y, but it's coop and apparently the AI partner sucks.
And both protagonist characters apparently yell inanities almost every time either of you kill an opponent. Another complaint I've heard is the story and every character is written badly, with almost no positive qualities for any of the protagonists or their supporting cast.
The most positive I've heard about it is that the core gunplay is as solid as in the other Wolfenstein games, with a "but" along the lines of "it doesn't do anything new or better than those games".
So it could be worthwhile if you want more of the same core gameplay after you've completed all the previous Wolfenstein games and you have someone else with a similar desire to team up with. But even then I'd suggest waiting for a major discount.
Thirith on 19/8/2019 at 17:19
Except I don't think it's the same core gameplay, because they've added leveling, so it's more like Borderlands, at least from what I've heard. I could imagine that this changes things. However, from everything I've heard it also seems that the environmental design is very good, so it's a shame it's stuck in a game that seems middling at best.
