It’s not precisely this but if this premise is compelling for you, I recommend trying Star Control 2 (or maybe watching a let’s play since the game mechanics haven’t aged as well as the writing). Definitely a lot of very similar themes going on in that game.
3 Likes
After a few failed attempts, I managed to acquire a PS5 via a Gamestop bundle. Apparently, the bundles are easier to obtain because they offer less resale value for scalpers. I’m not gonna lie, I felt kind of silly becoming a PS5 early adopter, but I just got paid for my show and I wanted to splurge.
Through the bundle, I ended up with a copy of a game I don’t think I ever would have purchased otherwise: the Miles Morales Spider-Man game.
I hate superheroes. A lot. I don’t want to roleplay a fashy ubermensch beating up working class criminals and running errands for cops. Couldn’t be me. But out of all those hegemonic media franchises, Spider-Man is the only one I have even a hint of fondness for because I played with the toys as a kid. Always thought the lizard man was cool. And the guy who glides around and throws pumpkin bombs. And hey, I don’t have a heart of stone, I saw that Enter the Spiderverse movie and I had a nice time. I think Miles Morales is infinitely more interesting than Peter Parker. So maybe I wouldn’t immediately hate this game.
I pretty much never play AAA open-world lawnmower sims, so I didn’t have high hopes for this game, though I know people did really like that PS4 Spider-Man.
Well, I gave it a shot today. I… don’t hate it! Miles Morales is charming. The web-slinging traversal is fun (though it feels like there’s a lot of depth there that I don’t at all have a grip on yet). Combat is totally weird and frightening to me right now. They give you a TON of moves, and some of them require you to press three buttons at once. I know some people like that kind of thing, but I am constitutionally incapable of memorizing three-button moves. This is the main reason I can’t play fighting games either.
The game really throws a lot at you fast, with extremely brief tutorializing. I think the developers expected me to have already played through the PS4 Spider-man. It’s actually pretty intimidating!
The game gives you the option of running in graphics mode or performance mode. It’s weird to have to make that choice. I usually opt for performance, but for this one I tried out the graphics mode. Sticks you to a solid 30FPS, but it looks absolutely absurdly good. I thought raytracing was gonna be one of those gamer things that people get rapturous over but barely registers to the untrained eye. Well, I’ve gotta say, when your character is positioned atop a cityscape of reflective skyscrapers, the realistic lighting does make a huge difference.
After a very hectic, scripted opening sequence you finally get to take a breath and just perch on top of a building on a rainy night. It was gorgeous and atmospheric enough that it actually felt almost poetic for a moment, it let me appreciate that “I’m alone where I shouldn’t be, at the top of the city” kind of feeling. I’m not gonna write it in my diary, but I have to admit it was more poignant than I expected from a Spider-Man game.
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Also have to say: literally the first thing you do in the entire game is help cops transport prisoners. Feels bad, man!
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Found something neat on smile basic for switch
It has a magician character and a hook shot, but I like the non shooting twin stick action
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I just had a super good run in shiren’s old road, got so much strength grass i could waste any enemies no problem. Then I lost my last revival herb to a pin poppa on the penultimate floor and on the final floor immediately got berserked, confused, sealed all at once and got clobbered to death with nothing I could do about it
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Wait, you aren’t like me, using SB as your diary? 
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Brutal
This reminds me of the way traditional rogues mess with my pacing and concentration. I wonder how much of the game’s appeal would be sacrificed if there were an undo button or even the ability to rewind to any step before you died, like you can in Forza. It could be a scaffolding accommodation that could be switched on or off.
There is a hybrid mode now that gives you 60fps and raytracing at the cost of resolution!
3 Likes
Everyone loves raytracing
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if it wasn’t for that one cat hair mustache puzzle and an indiana jones temple at the very end gabriel knight 3 would be pretty great
Subnautica is the first game with survival elements that I’ve really enjoyed, almost certainly because 1. it is beautiful and 2. there is development, a narrative throughline, and level design - a direction, intentionality. This is what the genre has been missing, or at least what I have been missing from it.
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The one death I remember most of all in Shiren DS was Floor 60 of Fei’s Final Puzzle, walked into a polymorph trap (rarest category of trap) next to a Great Chicken (2x attacks per turn) on one of the rare stage layouts that are isolated individual rooms connected by teleport traps instead of hallways. It turns out teleport traps do not work when you are polymorphed so there was no possible action but to pace 30 turns getting slammed by chicken fists of fury.
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Finished Gnosia, a time loop werewolf/mafia game set on a spaceship. The game’s great word of mouth (“ign japan gave it 10/10…” is repeated like a mantra for some reason) seems to suggest this mindblowing science fiction tale with unforgettable characters which I feel is pretty misguiding in a way that doesn’t do it any favors – it’s yet another one of those Japanese story-heavy games where the creators vaguely gesture towards a lot of well-tread genre themes and impress people who aren’t yet that familiar with those, plus the cast is paper-thin and only works as an ensemble. What really does work here is systemic storytelling that visual novels are particularly suited for yet rarely explore. You’ve got eight crew roles with different M.O.s, six speech-related stats you develop over the hours (which unlock loads of active skills), AI routines that are contextualized through character profiles you expand by getting to know people during free time events – and all of this is used to create a system where various circumstances enabled my mechanics lead to various handcrafted scenes with unique dialogue/artworks/music/pieces of worldbuilding.
At the beginning of one loop, a girl asked me if I’m an impostor, and I realized I might as well have fun and tell her I am, which prompted her to excitedly suggest we should get rid of everyone else and take the ship for ourselves. I agreed, which led to a unique round where I started picking off players from both sides until only the two of us were left, leading to a twisted romantic ending. In another round, I’ve had an impostor claim to be an only engineer on the ship (and thus achieve a “certified human” status), while I, the real engineer staying silent about my role, used my unique skillset to remove a human glitch from the ship, leading the “certified human” to deliver a raport that made no sense and cause the AI to freak out – and it turns out there’s a special ending for that, too. Some loops suddenly take you by surprise with shocking story events that are out of your control, other loops can be very standard, but still surprise you with rare lines prepared for very particular situations. The true ending is achieved through a very cute method which breaks the fourth wall yet makes total sense in the game’s world – not a revelatory device some reviews were suggesting, a tad too cutesy, but a fitting final note.
A lot of the game is very formulaic, perhaps overlong, and the early stages are sure to frustrate (low stats, no skills, limited understanding of characters making you unable to act on suspicious cues), but it’s also super easy to pick up and play for a few minutes, and there’s something to the way you slowly get to build a rapport with those weirdos straight out of pages of an alternative manga and how it actually improves the way you play. I’m not a person who’s crazy about LORE, but I did appreciate how a lot of troubling implications about certain characters are only resolved if you force certain optional events to happen or connect a few off-hand comments together. Oh, and the credits are accompanied by a “Where Are They Now?” epilogue which curtly suggests that the offbeat loner character moved far away and died alone, which is the kind of subplot resolution I always enjoy.
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I used to be a big fan of playing werewolf on web forums, and I always wanted to write an interactive fiction game with that basic premise, but I never could muster the drive and diligence to actually plot such a thing out. From your write-up, this sounds like a better realization of the concept than I would have come up with, so I feel like I can finally let go of the guilt I felt at never following through on that.
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Yeah I’ve been surprised by the froth for this game as a hidden classic when it’s really a weird unsettling game for weirdoes like, uh, SaGa.
Anyway I’ve started enjoying it more by only doing less than five loops per day and playing SaGa the rest of the time
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this is really funny considering who writes for IGN Japan. it’s 3 white dudes living the barely-scraping Japan dream writing articles about Marvel movies and two Japanese freelancers.
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im playing GENEFORGE and i love it! i bought it because it says that its inspired by existenz in the manual and yes, i can see it!
the game is about being a Shaper that makes organic gross slaves that become party members. i was headed to an island for thrall creation school ( a five year program of doing nothing but WATCHING) but my guro lapras capsized and i ended up on an abandoned island full of creations with their own free will! WHAT A MYSTERY. right now im going between all the different factions trying to get more on the level of what’s ACTUALLY going on.
it describes things in cute ways too
im currently RPing like, ah yes im an ignorant fool who never thought of you all as anything but slaves until today but i seee you have really good points. I’ll help, I’ll listen. i cant rp as someone who intuitively thinks these creatures have value, which is interesting. so far its wayyyyy less black and white than like kotor 2 but i have no idea if my choices are going to narrow into good guy bad guy options. i hope not.
the hint guy refuses to stop talking like a mr saturn in order to be accepted by the shapers
time to learn more secrets.
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Geneforge fucking rocks
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oh yeah im playing the new, playable version of geneforge. i could not fuck with spiderweb until this remake because that shit made no sense
1 Like