Quick Review: Virginia

Video games have thrived to become more cinematic for a decade or two now. This takes the idea to the next level by being basically a playable movie.

What better way to start the game than by showing the
point-of-view character through a mirror introduction?

Virginia was developed by Variable State, published by 505 Games, and released to Steam on September 22nd, 2016. It’s the story of freshly-graduated FBI agent Anne Tarver, on her first assignment: Helping her colleague Maria Halperin investigate the disappearance of a teenager in the small town of Kingdom, Virginia… while also investigating Maria’s other, possibly illegal activities.

That is, sincerely, all I wish to say about the plot proper, as this is an experience to play by yourself. Now, let me tell you WHY it’s an experience. This isn’t your run-of-the-mill investigation game. As I said, it’s more akin to a playable movie, which creates an almost unique effect.

"Your mission, if you're willing to accept it..."

Very much evoking the "movie" aesthetic, with
this very "DVD menu"-esque title screen.
"Continue" is renamed "Resume Feature" even!

I say “almost unique” because Variable State acknowledges in the end credits of Virginia that they took a lot of inspiration for this game’s mechanics from a shorter title on Steam called “Thirty Flights of Loving”. I actually reviewed that one too, in a Steam Pack, some time ago. Thirty Flights was another cinematic game, in which you had some freedom to act, but the scenes were cut like a short film to be followed. Virginia takes that idea and rolls with it, crafting a two-hour story with twists and turns, built like a movie. The menu even splits the story into very short chapters, akin to a film on DVD. The gameplay is mostly limited to walking around, observing the surroundings, exploring areas once in a while, and interacting with objects to move the plot forward. I hesitate to even call it a puzzle game, as there’s very little for you to do that counts as a “puzzle”. Well… unless you consider deciphering the plot to be the puzzle here.

Unless the real mystery lies within our investigation partner, Maria...

Virginia is indeed cut like a film; unnecessary parts are taken out (as an example, instead of going down the whole flight of stairs, you go down a few and then cut to Anne walking through a corridor, at the bottom of the stairs). Smash cuts and fade-ins/fade-outs are common. Camera tricks aren’t used quite as often as the game is played in first person from Anne’s perspective, but it does lead to interesting points of view. Seeing everything happen like you’re literally one of the participants is nothing new in video games, but it’s fresh and special in a story cut like a film.

That birdie, in that signature red plumage,
has to be significant to the story.
That it escapes may mean even more.

Speaking of, a general rule of movie-making. Every scene, every cut has a purpose: It moves the plot forward; conveys an emotion; gives context or clues towards comprehending the story; or many of these at once. The type of camera shot, the colors and the lighting of each scene work towards making each shot count. Therefore, if something has remained in the final montage, it’s because it’s significant. Those are not necessarily things you think about while watching a TV show or a movie, but in this game where you’re a part of the universe, encouraged to explore and discover things, it’s all the more noticeable. And it gives the player an interest in understanding each scene and its implicit meaning, beyond just what you see on the screen. Oh, and that’s not all; putting aside some sections with text, this entire story happens without a single spoken line from any character.

You can even feel the fall!
Oh wait, no, that was me, I just fell off my chair.

Is that envelope going to yell at me?

To top it off, like a lot of games out there, Virginia comes with two “collection side-quests” in which you can look for feathers and flowers, respectively. There are achievements associated with these, if you decide to explore each environment in order to find everything.

Oh, and need I mention the diverse cast, with the two main characters (Anne and Maria) being women of color? Because that’s very welcome.

Like I said; cut like the scenes of a movie on DVD.

A strong recommendation. Oh yeah, this is a great experience, you should play Virginia. It’s good. It's available on Steam usually for about 10$.

And with this, the series of quick reviews for this month is complete! Tune in... er... as soon as possible, and I'll try to publish a few more reviews before the end of the year. If I can get at least one done I'll be happy. Hopefully I can go back to doing quick reviews like these and post many of them throughout a future month again, this was fun!

Quick Review: Uncanny Valley

That’s an odd title for a video game that seems to be about horror…

Located far away from everything.
Like any locale about to turn into a horror movie.

Uncanny Valley was developed and published by Cowardly Creations, and made available on the Steam store on April 23rd, 2015. It’s the story of Tom, a night watchman freshly hired at a facility in the woods. What are they doing in there? None of our business, but the place looks and feels empty even during daytime. Tom settles into his new life, working at night, sleeping during the day (something I know quite a bit about). During his night shifts, he makes the mistake of exploring the facility further than he’s allowed to…

This great, big, empty building... What are its secrets?

No, Tom isn't being chased by monsters.
This is the cafeteria and he's going for an evening snack.

The devs pride themselves on including a “consequences” system to this game, which is a very interesting idea that would be fantastic in a larger title. Tom actually follows a fairly clear schedule; when he’s awake, usually in the evening/night/morning, there’s a few things he can do (such as participate to side-quests) as long as he still fulfills his job and spends some time guarding the facility. When he sleeps, you may play him through his dreams that often turn out to be nightmares. Things that happen to Tom may affect the rest of the playthrough; the store page explains, as an example, that if Tom suffers an injury to the leg while failing to escape from some monsters, he will be walking/running a bit more slowly afterwards, making it harder to escape from future threats. It’s a great idea on paper. In execution, it could be an issue.

Cassettes! How so '90s!

The game does offer a number of puzzles to solve, as well as a handful of side-quests and options for the story to move forward. If you wish to avoid spoilers, don’t read through the list of achievements, as some of them reveal decisions one can make throughout the game. There’s even collectibles in the form of cassettes and VHS tapes, if you wish to look for these. There’s even a way to listen to/watch them!

Connecting the dots to form a letter? Easy.
Having to do it without letting go? Tougher.

However, I wasn’t really impressed by the game itself. It sets up an interesting atmosphere, and it has pretty great pixel art by moments (anytime a sense of dread needs to arise from creepy environments, in dreams as an example). I got annoyed at how short the nights were, greatly reducing the number of things you could accomplish before the night watchman has to return to his apartment to sleep. I get the idea, Tom only has so much time to unravel the plot and make the bizarre discoveries, but it was very limiting. The consequences system feels like an idea with potential, but I’m worried there’s a risk of making the game unwinnable if too many negative consequences have piled up on Tom.

Whoa, what the Hell is that?

That said, if you’re curious, the game is available for 10$. You might find more enjoyment in it than I have, who knows? If you like horror and are intrigued by the concept, give it a try.

Quick Review: Tattletail

The more I play games I’ve bought, the more I realize that I’m terrible at horror games. Even this one. Let’s make this review fun, shall we?

"Tattletail loooooooves you!"

Tattletail is a videogame toy developed by Waygetter Electronics, and published manufactured by Little Flag Software, LLC. It came out on December 28th, 2016 in December of 1998. Tattletail is the cool toy of the year, and parents everywhere are spending their hard-earned money on these things to give their kids an unforgettable Christmas. Tattletail has it all and can compete with the best of them; forget Furby. Screw the Cabbage Patch Snacktime Kids. Tattletail is a creepy cute little creature with a mind of its own very advanced AI. It can speak! It can be groomed with a brush! It can eat (Waygetter not responsible for hairs or fingers lost to the mechanical rollers within Tattletail’s mouth)! It loves to play!

"Tattletail has nice hair now."

Parents, make sure your kids aren’t gonna look for Tattletail in their gift boxes before Christmas morning. Even if you don’t pay attention, the thing’s loud, so unless you sleep like a rock you should hear your kid playing with it early. Some kids have a tendency to do that at night, walking around their homes, with often nothing but a flashlight to see where they’re going. You might want to leave some of these Waygetter flashlights lying around – just shake one to recharge the battery! It’s never-seen-before technology! It’ll help your kid while they tend to their Tattletail. (Not that we condone kids opening their presents before time, but in case they do...)

"Buddy! Let's play hide and seek!"

Speaking of, your child’s little ovoid-shaped furry buddy will always have something to say – it will announce when it’s hungry, when it wants to be groomed, or when it feels its battery to be low and needs to be put on the charging station (sold with the toy! We don’t sell it separately, we’re not that cheap!). Tattletails are also surprisingly social with each other – a nice little bonus for kids with friends who also own the needy baby.

If you want to join in on the fun, purchase lots of these miniature eggs and stuff them full of candy or whatever small items you can think of! Come Christmastime, hide them around the house – your kid and their new friend will have a lot of fun looking for those around! (24 models available. Eggs may be a choking hazard). 

Come on, that cassette-reading thing can't be so dangero-

Oh, you want to know about the previous model, Mama Tattletail? Yeah, there were some glitches… it got pulled from shelves. Don’t worry about it, she shouldn’t come back. We hope. Just tell your kid not to approach any bigger, brown Tattletails with red eyes, if you have a hunch that they’re going on nocturnal adventures with their toy that should still be wrapped up in the basement. Hey, what’s the worst that could happen with a recalled toy anyway? (Please report all sightings of Mama Tattletail to Waygetter Electronics immediately.)

"John, call the Waygetter legal department, we got another
kid found with his face ripped off his skull by Mama."
"Again? It's the third time this week!"

Why would anyone need a glow-in-the-dark flashlight?
That sounds like one of those inventions that get laughed
out of a science convention.

Okay, so, all in-character advertisement aside, this is a neat horror title. It’s a great starting idea: You’re a kid sneaking out of their room at night to unwrap Tattletail early, and must deal with the thing suddenly choosing to come out to play every night even when it should have been turned off. It’s a strange combination of horror and virtual pet, as you must keep the thing happy by grooming it, feeding it, recharging it, and playing along to its requests. All the while, avoid angering Mama Tattletail, as she reacts poorly to noise. Your only other tool is one of the most annoying horror game clichés: A flashlight whose beam dims down too quickly, so you must constantly recharge it through the noisy process of shaking it violently.

Sold at your nearest Toys'R'Us, ZanyBrainy, F.A.O. Schwarz, or KB Toys!

I guess it makes sense for me to post this in November,
somewhere between Halloween and Christmas.

Tattletail itself is alright, but I thought it could get pretty annoying – although, not to the point of making me drop the game because of it. Some players actually wished for a new Tattletail game without the horror – just a straight virtual pet title to care for the little guy without having to worry about such trivialities as getting horribly maimed or killed by another toy. Speaking of style, the game fully embraces the ‘90s aesthetics in its presentation. Environment-wise, the house isn’t that big, but good luck finding your way around it in the enveloping darkness. The bonus quest of finding every hidden surprise egg around the house is also a nice thought. Lastly, Waygetter has since added an additional Story Mode to be played after beating the game once, the “kaleidoscope” New Game released on May 9th, 2017.

As for me? I didn’t beat the game, but I played a good portion of it. It’s a fun idea. I’m looking forward to Waygetter’s next product. Meanwhile, this one’s on sale in stores (y’know… digital ones) for roughly 5$.

OK, OK, I admit it, they’re kinda cute. I wanna boop that teeny Tattle muzzle. ~Boop~!

Quick Review: Super Galaxy Squadron (Classic & EX Turbo)

I’ve played a handful of shmups for this blog. It has always seemed to me that shmups are one of the harder genres to innovate in, as it follows set conventions that are difficult to deviate from. That’s not to say that shmups can’t still be creative and interesting, nor that the ones who don’t try to reinvent the wheel are inevitably boring. Today’s game, Super Galaxy Squadron, is a vertical shoot’em up available in two flavors: Original and Improved.

Your daily dose of pew-pew
in a nice 16-bit package.

The original Super Galaxy Squadron is a vertical shmup and about as basic as it gets. There is a story of course – the standard space-warring fare with an enemy race and lots of pew-pew-ing. Fourteen different playable ships, each with personal stats regarding attack power, maneuverability, etc. Each ship also has its own main weapon, secondary weapon (both shot with the Z key), and finally a hyper weapon (which is activated by pressing Space), which is charged by picking up the blue bits dropped by enemies destroyed on the screen. You can improve your ship’s main and secondary weapons by grabbing power-ups often dropped by enemies – be careful, however, as upon getting hit by a bullet your ship will lose some of its upgrades, though thankfully they’re easy to pick up again as they will be floating around the area where you got hit. The hyper weapon also has the additional bonus of destroying a lot of enemy bullets on the screen as well.

But if you know anything about shmups, there’s nothing very new here. The story in SGS Classic is given to you through text on the screen between levels, while your ship flies in space.

Animated cutscenes? Nice.

How to sum up most SHMUPS out there.
"Think you can stop us? We have ten million ships!"
"We have just one ship, but it shoots a million lasers per
second. Bring it on."

It’s with EX Turbo, available along with Classic upon purchase, that things get interesting. This game doesn’t change a lot of elements regarding music or graphics in the game itself; however, it creates animated cutscenes rendered in beautiful pixel art to present the story. It also adds a new gauge to the gameplay, one that fills up alongside the hyper weapon gauge, by collecting the blue bits. That one allows you to slow down time in order to avoid bullets more easily, particularly useful against the bosses. Especially the last boss, which is literally just a sphere – never before have I hated a ball more. That thing took me 40 tries and 2 hours to kill off, good thing I was playing on Casual difficulty and had infinite lives. So yeah, there are also difficulty settings in that one. Oh, and it also includes three more playable ships.

How to have a sphere kick you ass for two hours?
Play Super Galaxy Squadron.

Bullet Hell? Always Space Hell.

I didn’t care much for the Classic, though I liked the EX Turbo version enough to beat it. The ability to slow down time was extremely helpful, to the point where I can’t imagine being personally able to beat the game without it – that says something about the game’s difficulty, I suppose. It’s also a very short game, only six levels. The 16-bit music is an absolute treat to listen to, and the pixel art is great (especially some story shots in EX Turbo). If it came down to me, I would recommend only the improved version, but both come in the same package for roughly 10$. It doesn’t do a lot that would set it apart from other shmups, but it’s good.

Quick Review: Rolling Sun

Nice concept idea, I guess?

I hope this is gonna get brighter soon.

Rolling Sun was developed by Mystik’Art and also published by them to Steam on June 3rd, 2015. It’s a game about a large rolling sphere making its way around a bunch of ruins.

Two things can be noted here. First, the world around the sphere looks very nice, quite great even, it’s pretty. This particular game was built to try out the features of CRYENGINE, which apparently knocks it out of the park in several elements of game design – physics in particular, but also the lighting of each area and the watery sections. So that’s one good thing going for it.

Increasingly bright, but still dark.

Second, this is about as basic a physics game as can be – you’re just guiding a big ball around. Jumping, sometimes. Avoiding endless pits. And of course, you gain additional abilities over time. The plot is roughly described on the store page: This big stone sphere you’re controlling is the last object a weakening Sun God has managed to take control of, and now that deity is trying to regain power in order to escape Planet Earth. And possibly beat up its rival, Moon God, in the process. Nothing like two elements of the cosmos brawling it out with big stone marbles.

Now it's bright. Time to get jumpin'.

The game relies heavily on timing – gotta time your jumps very precisely in order to carry the big stone from its starting point to, well, wherever it needs to go. There are quite a few checkpoints, which is all nice and good – you’ll need them. You will frequently need to build up momentum with the Rolling Sun, in order to jump across large pits. Take advantage of raised terrain and other ledges to cross. And, of course, be ready to jump again soon afterwards, or be ready to stop whenever necessary, too. Eventually, the path goes downwards through Incan and Mayan constructions, leading to zones where more precise control of the sphere becomes required.

Hop hop hoppity, runaway ball.

Perhaps I would need to see more of the game, but it didn’t hook me in. This type of physics-based platforming could be interesting, but aside from the beautiful visuals there isn’t much to be seen. And of course, this is one of those games that ups the ante really quickly. It isn’t long until the platforming and jumping has to be perfect in order to get through. You don’t have much of a margin for error.

This game, along with Only If and many others reviewed on this blog through the past Steam Packs, is part of a Steam bundle called The Big One, a set that has a lot of games of varying quality, most of them from starting developers. Not all of them were bad, there were some nice surprises in there, but so far, most games here weren’t all that great. Oddly enough, the bundle tends to appear and disappear, so it's hard to keep track of it (I can't even make a link to it right now), but yeah - not great stuff.

If you want only Rolling Sun, it’s available for about 2$.

Quick Review: Only If

Only if… what?

I can think of worse places to end up in after a night of
drunken partying. The drunk tank, for one.

Developed and published by Creability, and brought to Steam on July 25th, 2014. This game is a first-person puzzle with a branching story. The plot is simple: After a night of partying, “you” wake up in a place you don’t know anything about, and find yourself caught in a series of unfortunate events. Let’s see… random people trying to kill you, going to scary and strange locales, getting embroiled in what looks like a greater plot… Eeeyup, we have landed in the works of Lemony Snicket alright – or perhaps not, because if we did, the game would be written better than it currently is. That, or we’re in the even insaner world of Lewis Carroll instead. Does it show that I’m making literary references because I have nothing to say about this one?

Battle THAT, Don Quixote!

Save for a couple of puzzle elements, this exploration puzzle game brings you all over the place, from a scene to the next – so long as you can survive each one… I personally got stuck in one scene where our character is crawling his way around, and he kept getting killed over and over by the hypothetical people talking nearby, having to restart the current sequence over. There’s hardly any rhyme or reason to the elements jumbled together here, it either gets weirdly psychedelic or grounded in a stupid reality. There are two main scenarios, following the first split in paths, and then a couple of possible endings.

Can't I just stay here?
That flaming windmill is too much.

Admittedly, I had a few laughs here and there when discovering some of the bonus achievements (there’s one if you eye the dirty anime poster for too long, another if you go stand in the chimney in the living room early on). Not enough to salvage the game. I think the reason I kept getting killed so often in the same area was actually normal, as the game’s devs advertise the difficulty (and ease of the protagonist getting killed) on the Steam store page. Not to mention how difficult it sometimes is to figure out what to do. It’s just… not very good, feeling more like a collection of 3D assets built into various scenes, then strung together. Points for effort, but overall it’s a somewhat poor creation. Admittedly, this is Creability’s first game, so I can understand the more experimental feel – like something one makes when they’re learning to use assets and game-building software.

For me, it’s a skip, but at least it’s free to play, so there’s nothing to lose in trying it (except maybe a little bit of time). If you do feel like trying it, that is.

Quick Review: A Normal Lost Phone

God knows I’ve seen all kinds of things in video games, but none have made me feel as much like a voyeur as this one. Not in the sexual sense, but in the “this is private and none of my business”/"I shouldn't be doing this" sense… which is the entire point. That unease creates an experience that felt unique to me, as it’s the first time I play a game like this, though I know this isn’t the only one of its kind.

It's certainly less messy than my
 own phone.

I must remember to wish Sam
a happy birthday.

Let’s start at the beginning, shall we? A Normal Lost Phone is a game by Accidental Queens, published by Dear Villagers and released on January 26th, 2017. It involves you, the player, shuffling through a smartphone found on the side of the road, piercing its secrets, the secrets of the person who owned it, and piecing together the mystery of that person. Which is something you shouldn’t do, let’s be honest.

At first, all you seem able to access is pieces of conversations the phone’s original owner, Sam, had with various people; family, friends, other students, so on. Timestamps, longer discussions on some days, photos sent to or by these acquaintances and an image gallery. These texts eventually reveal the Wi-Fi password, allowing the voyeur – I mean, the viewer, or rather, the player, to access a number of sites. Picking up on clues allows you to figure out more passwords in order to open that person’s accounts on the available apps or websites. Relevant dates on the calendar; inconsistencies between what the phone’s user has told to different people; and so on. Soon, a dating app is unlocked. Online forums, too. It even gets to the point where the player can interact under the guise of Sam’s accounts on those apps and websites… which is taking things too far, in case shuffling through a person’s secret belongings wasn’t already going too far.

(Spoilers follow from this point on.)

But this isn’t why this game is well-known; rather, it's famous for exploring the life of someone going through the process of learning their trans identity. It’s a game focused around a social issue many of us have no idea of. We can assume that it’s difficult for someone to suddenly realize they’re trans, but we can’t usually imagine how difficult it may have been for them. That is, unless you happen to know a trans person and are aware of the struggles they faced towards discovering this identity.

So we have Sam, studious young man who grew up in a fairly conservative family with clear ideas on gender roles, in a similarly conservative town where difference is heavily frowned upon, hated even; Sam, the guy with a girlfriend, a lot of buddies from school… Sam, attending board game nights under a female alter ego and slowly realizing that he feels more comfortable being that person, rather than who he is at the moment. The fallout that ensues with friends, the discovery of similar people, the other discovery of just how hateful the people around him actually are to this new identity of his… This game really gives a detailed feel of the hardships a trans person goes through.

I guess the game did appeal to me in part because I’ve known a few trans people, though the example that sticks out is a co-worker, a trans man who was still in the process of transitioning; I’ve first known him at an advanced stage, to the point I only found out later that he was trans. How did I find out? His new identity still wasn’t recorded in governmental papers, so the printed schedule at work had to have his original name on it, crossed off with a pen and replaced with his current one; I even did it myself once when I noticed it had been forgotten, sometime after I got confirmation by a colleague that this co-worker was a trans man. So yes, I knew it was an arduous, long process (bureaucracy-wise, especially); but that particular realization on my part still didn’t take into account any personal social backdraft that may result from this life-changing realization and decision.

I really like what this game does. It’s a very clever puzzle/investigation game with an interesting story that touches on topics still not discussed enough in media today. It’s very good. You can collect music to listen to while you play, collect images and get clues from them, read through all the messages in order to pick up inconsistencies. On one hand, you’re doing the work of an investigator or reconstitution expert (those people whose job is to build a timeline of events based off the data they collect in phones taken from suspects, as an example). On the other, in-universe, you’re just a random person that finds a phone on the grounds minutes after it was tossed away, and let loose their most extreme sense of voyeurism building, piece by piece, a puzzle that the phone’s owner didn’t want anyone to have access to.

Might be why it feels so right to completely erase the phone’s data at the very end.

So, yes – great game, do get it if you’re interested in the puzzle aspect or in the engaging story. Or if the themes appeal to you.The game is out there, available for 3$.

Quick Review: Morphopolis

I sure am playing a lot of puzzle games through these short reviews, huh? Well, puzzle game rarely overstay their welcome, so most of them are fairly short. That’s the most likely reason. Anyway, here’s one that combines its concept with item search games.

Beginning my growth.

Morphopolis is a creation of Dan Walters and Ceri Williams, and was published to Steam by the former on August 14th, 2014. It’s a unique, animated look at the world of the very small: Insects, mostly. You begin as small as an aphid grub, and through gathering foods, exploring the environment, and solving puzzles around, the tiny bug grows, takes over larger bugs in order to become something new. The first level serves as a tutorial. Most of the gameplay involves traveling around the small open area, opening item search quests by clicking on other insects, and then clicking to collect the requested items on the sidebar on the left. Once all required units of an item have been collected, you can click the insect in the area involved with that quest in order to progress the plot. Gathering enough food allows the aphid grub to build its cocoon, until it’s fully covered. Each level includes at least one additional puzzle to break the monotony.

I'm just a tiny bug in a world of giants.

Ought to link the colors together!

Later levels are split over multiple screens. It’s all fine and good, it allows for larger puzzles and sectors to look for items in. Only problem is, you can’t just switch to a different screen instantly – your protagonist insect has to painstakingly make its way there, slowly. If you’re good at finding items, most of the time will be wasted crawling around from a screen to the other. And of course, once you’ve collected all of the items related to an NPC bug in the area, you have to crawl back to the screen that bug is on, in order to activate that bug’s effect. I get the idea, but it’s on the tedious side.

Oh Gawd that's a big bug on the left.
I must take control of it.

I am growing bigger...
But this world is still so much bigger than me.

The other puzzles are also pretty simple – one involves placing the particles on a flower based on their shape, one is a simple matching game with bugs having dots on their backs… Yes, simple indeed. The game goes on for five levels, and it’s a treat to view. It’s not super-difficult. And by item search standards, you have access to a hint system that takes some time to refill after you’ve used one. It won’t activate if you use it on a screen where there’s nothing to find at the moment.

It’s pretty fun. At 4$, it’s a recommendation.