Showing posts with label Remember Me. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Remember Me. Show all posts

22 November 2013

"You MUST play this game."

Not a line I hear very often from the overloaded of gamers, Scotty, famous for his ever growing pile of untouched video games.

It has been suggested he look for a partner on Craigslist with the suggestion that she help him with said pile.

But it was the line I was provided when his copy of "The Last of Us" was placed in my hands.

I hadn't paid much attention to the reviews aside from "this is game of the year" and etc etc etc. But I hate that kind of hype. As soon as I see that sort of thing, I shrug my shoulders and walk away. There's no real base for that kind of reaction, but it's just the way I act.

But when Scott handed me this game, not explaining anything about the game and simply repeating that line, I just had to obey.

I got home, sat down and decided I was going to live tweet this as much as I possibly can. This is what I experienced in the first twenty minutes of the game. Parents should brace themselves.





I thought it was really nice from the moment the main menu music loaded, but Holy Fucking Shit. The game gets better from then on, showing massive struggles and innocence of both characters and give the player a very real connection with them. As a game, it's very familiar to a well refined Splinter Cell, but as a story... well, I put it down as the best TV show that's actually a Video Game that I have had the pleasure of experiencing.

There was one other game that had me well involved as a good TV show was Remember Me, though it was more of a Film than a TV Show, where it had the Quality but not the Volume in comparison.

It was another big budget game that was fun and had two different feels, from playing a modern Streets of Rage, to watching a French Science Fiction film, and it was a genuine sort of feeling because very little of it looked familiar. Those that did were simply the smooth and mechanical features of an artists future, which come across in other Sci-fi games.

Given a couple of months later, though, and I was given another game from Scotty. He said it was a good TV Show, which Piqued my interest until that second voice in my head said "What does he mean it's a good TV Show? It's a Video Game."

"Yeah, it is. But as a game..." and with a shaking of his open hand, he told me exactly what he meant. And he was right.

The game as a game is pretty piss poor. The most impressive function of it is how you change your Ellen Pa- Sorry, Jodie Holmes. The rest of it? Well it's Action Prompts. Yes, Action Prompts. Where a slow motion section appears and you press buttons or move sticks, or you find a dot that you can mess around with to make life a little easier. Or to scare a bunch of rude bastard children.

That was the redeeming part of the game, the TV show itself. That particular chapter, the main character interacts with kids of her own age and is invited to a party. She's a young teen and is somewhat happy to join the experience.

Personally, it was super awkward making this fictional character make out with a guy on the dance floor. I'm not a young girl, but here I was making a young girl fling herself at a guy who was interested in her. Why? I don't know. I just imagined myself being eager to please these people, and taking every opportunity available.

I imagined myself. She was honest about herself when asked questions. And took up opportunities that cropped up.

Then the awkward settled in, whereby I realised I was roleplaying a teenage girl, something very unfamiliar to me. I was a teenage girl kissing a guy I'd just met.

Then the anger settled in as Jodie was abused, ridiculed, humiliated, and forcibly thrown into a closet. These bastards had to pay. I don't like Bullies. And frankly, a gaggle of them in an enclosed room and the ability to just go mad at them with my Entity? It's the perfect opportunity.

I didn't go too far. I knocked out a couple of kids before returning to a crying girl who felt she went too far, even if they are bastards, then seeing Willem Dafoe come and pick her up.
Just a note: I said me in place of Jodie there before amending it.
While this game is a good example of fantastic concept and writing, not to mention some good use of art and depiction, it's still supposed to be a game. And frankly, it lacks as a game. They've left a blatant note tacked on the end of the show stating "We're going to milk this for at least a sequel, maybe a trilogy" so it'll be interesting to see if they'll do more with their good writers and concepts to make an actual game system that will challenge players more than figuring out the most elaborate way to steal government papers.

14 July 2013

Remember Me is a good French Film

It's not actually a French film, mind you. It's a video game set in Neo-Paris, and I felt compelled to change the language to French with English Subtitles. And it really makes a difference with the feel of the game.
Voice acting is pretty important and in a genre that I find is commonly employed with North American voice actors, it's nice to hear something from the region of its setting, like a game coming out soon based on a classic set of films, Mad Max, where word got around that they weren't going to have any Australian voice actors in the game. 
That's changed since, as one of the higher ups of the development team piped up and said "Alright, we'll bring in the strine", and on that thought it makes me wonder how many people will need subtitles. Jenny has a hard time understanding shows from Aus, which makes me laugh.
Getting back on track, Remember Me is fun. There's naturally a few problems, the controls and combat is a bit clunky, but the impact of combat is very interesting. You end up having four fight combinations, and with that you can organise what buttons use what trigger, whether its a power strike or a health boost, and that'll figure out how you handle your fights between dodging every other part of the mob surrounding you and the occasional bit of ranged fire.
Between fights you're doing a beginners course of Circe Du Soleil Wall Climbing through slums and futuristic apartments with, what I assume, a taste of old French Architecture. And from that, i swear her fingers must be able to crack walnuts.
Now the story is the best part of the game. Set in 2084 Neo-Paris, the worlds big thing is memories. Sharing, Trading, Storing. The game starts with an Interview Advertisement about people's experiences with it: an elderly lady who can re-experience her life without the fear of forgetting it all; a girl feeling everything her partner feels about her in an instant; and a third guy I've forgotten about.
But with the good comes the bad, which is where our main character comes in, being drained of her own memories in a white cell before being led down a long hallway of other cells and staff to the next part of her "Treatment".
That is when a voice in her head, a friend from the outside, contacts her and helps her escape to the outside world to help a cause she was helping before she was sent to these "Doctors". And during her escape we find that she's a memory hunter, who tracks, steals, and even Remixes Memories.
That's one of the coolest parts of the game. You run through a memory of your target and change subtle things about it which change the outcome of that memory. There may only be a handful of these mini games, but they're still really cool.
One of my favourite parts is the visual implementation of technology. There aren't really any more signs on your door stop, it's a digital drop down that appears as you get close. Restaurant menus, special offers, even government decrees stating the shop is closed pop up. Others include local dangers like fire hazards, acidic waste, and live wires.
But my favourite is the Zorn, a robot that has an aesthetic of an Evangelion, and rather than have a proper humanoid head with facial features like a mouth and nose built into its head, it roars at the player with a terrifying projection of digital teeth larger than its torso.
I fucking loved it.
It's a game that, while I finished it in a day, it was worth the fun. I can't wait to play it with Jenny.