Posted By Jessica Lugo on July 31, 2013

It’s lunchtime, and that means it’s time to fight past your classmates for a chance to settle down at the classroom’s single Apple II computer to boot up The Oregon Trail and spend the rest of the period trying to reach the Western frontier. Nerds of a certain age tend to share a collective memory crafted during our formative years. Take that memory and hold it tight. Now add zombies, because the Men Who Wear Many Hats released a treat just for you. In Organ Trail, you’ll play as the leader of a surviving group trying to reach a safe haven on the opposite American coast. It’s retro nostalgia at its finest.

Fans of the original Oregon Trail will be delighted to see the tongue-in-cheek twists embedded into America’s next major cross-country move. Fording rivers is no longer a concern for a traveling party, but how will you progress when you encounter a massive zombie mob? Wagon wheels are too old to matter, but a trip like this will wreak havoc on your station wagon’s tires, batteries, and mufflers. Scavenging for food was a fun excursion when players could act as predators. But now they are prey in a larger food chain, forced to shoot to survive or be overrun by a zombie hoard. It’s bound to be a treat for fans of the classic game to see what has become of their favorite settings after the zombie outbreak has ravaged everything.

Though at first Organ Trail can come off as a simple reskinning of the old Learning Company mainstay, the game is more than a quick paint job. In addition to the standard merchant options in town settings, players now have the ability to upgrade themselves or their vehicle. On the screen devoted to tending to the traveling party, a “kill” option is present. Are you worried about that guy in your team who went out to pee and came back with a bite wound? Kill him where he stands. Worried that your healthy party members are running through too many rations? You can get rid of them too. But be forewarned: the endgame challenge provides a scenario where your useless friends are critical to your continued success. Cautious players will take care to preserve as many allies as they can.

If you happened to pick up Organ Trail while it was dirt cheap during this year’s Steam Summer Sale, don’t let it become one of the games you buy but never install. It’s a short-but-sweet adventure that provides a stunning link between Manifest Destiny fiction and contemporary zombie lore. How will you keep your party alive when shops are stocked with consistently fewer items? What happens when you car breaks down and you find a boss battle on the side of the road? It’s up to you to forge a trail through the worst of society. Try to make it out alive before lunch is over.

Organ Trail is available from the following vendors: Steam, Desura, Amazon, iPhone/iPad, and Android

Categories: Gaming
Tags: indie games, organ trail

Posted By Jessica Lugo on June 30, 2013

It shouldn’t be as good as it is. On paper, it’s simple enough to be perhaps too basic: slide rectangles into this rectangular outline. Progress to the next level and do it again. It’s a testament to the style and atmosphere that sets Thomas was Alone apart from the average student game. Simple does not necessarily mean lesser, which developer Mike Bithell proves by transforming simple puzzles into a profound experience. Thomas Was Alone guides players through a journey spanning a gamut of emotions. By invoking intimate loneliness, it draws us in and forces us to learn more about ourselves.

Thomas, the game explains, is an errant chunk of data that has glitched itself into self-awareness. He is fond of jumping and discovering companionship in fellow glitches as they skirt along the mainframe seeking a higher purpose. This includes the egoist Sarah, the boastful John, and the slightly delusional Claire, each provided with his-or-her own unique perspective. As they traverse the unknown together, the multiple viewpoints express deep characters taking a journey of great importance. When the story dictates that a character go missing for a level or two, it’s not uncommon to miss them. All this is backed by an extraordinary soundtrack that leaps and swells in perfect rhythm with the emotion of the story at hand. It would be a spoiler to fully explain how and why we care for sweet Thomas and his band of misfits, but the immersion rivals the original Portal in execution. If you shed a tear for GLaDOS while Still Alive played, this may be an experience for you.

A good story would be nothing without a backbone of strong gameplay to fall back upon, and luckily Thomas Was Alone delivers in this respect as well. The controls are tight and responsive, never leaving a player to rage against an unfair death. Respawns are immediate to facilitate a quick return to puzzle solving. The point of a failure state in this game is not to punish, but to gently guide the player to a different solution. That didn’t work, but maybe this will. Will Chris be able to clear that ledge by bouncing on Laura? The mark of a good puzzle game is one with the ability to make a player feel clever for running through a predetermined sequence. To that end, Thomas Was Alone qualifies for greatness.

During a time when the gaming industry is more obsessed than ever with high-end graphics and photorealism, Thomas Was Alone stands apart with its unique minimalism. By the time the game ends, the purpose is still to guide rectangles into rectangular outlines. But though it remains steadfast and committed to its playstyle, the style itself never grows old or unwelcome. Playing through from beginning to end can be a life-affirming experience no gamer should miss.

Thomas Was Alone is available on Steam, Playstation Network, and DRM-Free.  Visit the official website to try a free demo for Mac and PC.

Categories: Gaming
Tags: indie games, thomas was alone

Posted By Jessica Lugo on May 31, 2013

We take item shops for granted. Most games we play employ some kind of store system. We use in-game stores for our avatars’ upgrades and customizables, as well as for NPC gossip and plot progression. Some titles use them as a source for real-world income via microtransactions. But what about a game focused on the shop itself? What does a shopowner have to do to keep up with the increasingly obscure demands of the adventuring community? And moreover, how can a development team keep a game like that interesting to players? EasyGameStation’s Recettear: An Item Shop’s Tale challenges traditional interpretations of RPG structure by merging a character experience curve with elements of visual novels and dating sims.

What sets Recettear apart from the average visual novel is its play upon RPG standards. Main character Recette begins the game discovering that her late father has passed down a sizable debt that will cost the family home if something is not done quickly. The tax-collecting fairy Tear is pulled into the most obvious solution: capitalism. Recettear is set in a town heavily laden with traveling adventurers, and those warriors need a place to purchase their Megaflame Staffs and Holy Sword +15s. The gameplay then occurs primarily in two major modes that equate to stocking and selling. The cheapest means of purchasing items is by hiring an adventurer and collecting gems from local dungeons.

The dungeons themselves are massive and impressive. Level design is based on a randomized Rougelike model, which transforms dungeon crawling into an experience reminiscent of Level-5′s Dark Cloud. When one enters the Adventurers’ Guild, one chooses a companion warrior who provides protection for Recette as she raids treasure chests and confiscates enemy item drops. In-game story points denote when advanced dungeons are unlocked, guaranteeing hours of replayability. as can be the case with the genre, leveling up characters can easily supersede the presence of plot. To join with the mechanic of item sales, Recette has the option of loaning store stock to improve her warriors’ stats, and combat itself has the satisfying hack’n'slash flavor of 2D Zelda.

If adventuring isn’t for you, then Recettear still offers plenty of playtime with its item shop mechanic. Shop owners are encouraged to haggle with townsfolk in a buy low/sell high marketplace with a vocal consumer pool who may or may not understand how much items are worth. Will you be kind to the little girl sent grocery shopping? Or will you take advantage of the local food shortage and place a 300% markup on grapes? As you level up your shopkeeping abilities by providing great deals, the townspeople will place more trust in you, but be sure to gather enough profit to make your debt payment!

On paper, running an RPG item store sounds silly and tedious. But in practice, EasyGameStation has created an engaging, plot-driven experience that demands more attention than the average simulation experience. Recettear has flown under the radar for many Western gamers, but is absolutely worth the price of admission for those seeking out a quirky indie title. Give it a shot via Steam, Impulse or GamersGate.

Categories: Gaming
Tags: recettear

Posted By Jessica Lugo on April 30, 2013

In an industry sometimes obsessed with the idea of achieving photo-realism, it is a rare game that dares to ignore all ties to real-world physics in favor of having fun. Bossa Studios’ Surgeon Simulator 2013 is exactly what one would hope to experience when playing such a bluntly-titled game. It is a game where one can perform brain surgery on a speeding ambulance using a fire extinguisher as a vital tool. It’s this sort of darkly-comic game that reminds us what it means to play.

Originally developed over 48 hours as part of the January Global Game Jam, Surgeon Simulator 2013 manages to be considered masterful for the very reason that many other games are denounced. Its charm lies in the awkward control scheme, similar to cult hits QWOP and Octodad. Instead of relying on a traditional WASD keyboard interface, Surgeon Simulator encourages players to utilize the AWER keys in a more intuitive placement to match human fingers. Given that the mouse is needed to facilitate movement, the player is left with only one arm to control. It creates an Operation-esque feel to the process of medicine.

The ludicrous notion of controlling an (presumed?) amputee in a surgical setting opens up the opportunity for broad comedy. What kind of doctor is allowed to perform open heart surgery swinging a hammer to break a ribcage? Likewise, an axe is presented as a choice for starting a brain transplant. The success screen can be reached after pulling out ribs and internal organs and tossing the transplanted heart/brain/kidney inside. “Looks fine to me,” reasons the player character as he stares into a chest cavity devoid of a working stomach or set of lungs. Where some games would play up the gore or tragedy inherent in such obvious malpractice, Surgeon Simulator is only interested in its own ridiculousness.

Playtesting confirms that the uniqueness of the game achieves equal accessibility to casual gamers and seasoned veterans alike. The unorthodox control scheme ensures a level playing field, while the sheer implausibility eliminates the chance of new players feeling intimidated by doing poorly. Bossa Studios designer Luke Williams explains the equilibrium: “with failure not being embarrassing but funny to the person playing and anyone watching, people wouldn’t turn down having a go in the same way they would if a controller was put into their hands.” In a game where everyone is terrible, everyone is free to find the fun.

Surgeon Simulator 2013 probably isn’t going to change anyone’s life. It is what it sets out to be: a silly romp through fictional medicine. The joy is in its refusal to take itself seriously, which in itself is a lesson more of us could stand to learn.

Categories: Gaming
Tags: surgeon simulator 2013

Posted By Jessica Lugo on March 27, 2013

The issue is raised anew every time publishers develop a new antipiracy method: what does it mean to own a video game in the 21st century? We’re long past the era of .exe files packed into floppy disks that could be effortlessly copied and shared with any nearby hard drive. With the advent of digital distribution, the biggest game publishers openly feel threatened by how easily a prospective gamer may click away from traditional purchasing options in favor of downloading the free pirated version. This has resulted in bloated Digital Rights Management (DRM) software being coded into new games and oftentimes causes more problems than it solves. As DRM experiments compromise our systems and inundate themselves in always-online fiascoes, many independent developers are rushing to provide alternatives. “DRM-free download” has become a buzzword for indie games seeking to distance themselves from oppressive big-business publishers. It’s a movement that is currently inspiring gamers to re-evaluate what it means to own a game.

As it presently exists, the DRM debate is a battle with no winners. Larger developers view game piracy as a cesspool of lost sales, where every game downloaded is a direct loss to income. In an industry struggling to balance soaring production costs with a stable selling point, extra DRM protection is seen as a necessary element of loss prevention. Players in turn see DRM software as a barrier to entry that punishes paying customers. What happens if a player can only afford a low-end internet plan with a small data cap, but their games of choice require always-online connectivity as a method of proving the game was legally acquired? DRM Services like EA’s Origin are so deeply rooted into a system’s boot structure that it opens up security holes for bot nets. There’s also the issue of ownership itself: when consumers buy a game that can only run when functioning in tandem with a publisher’s DRM server, what happens when that server is taken offline? Have we reached a point where our games have been reduced to extremely expensive rentals?

Since the gaming industry’s big fish have thrown down the gauntlet, smaller developers are reaching out to gamers who feel alienated in this brave new market that trusts its customers so little. GoG (formerly Good Old Games), which trades primarily in older IPs emulated to work on modern machines, advertises itself as a DRM-free alternative to Valve’s PC monolith Steam. Other indie games, like tinybuild‘s innovative No Time to Explain, leak specialized versions of their games to pirate communities as an extended demo. Sos’ cult hit McPixel began as a pirate-distributed title that received enough acclaim for the game to successfully release over traditional avenues.

The DRM-free trend has impacted even the games that wish to fund themselves via crowdsourcing. At the time of writing, several current Kickstarter gaming projects list “DRM-free” in their keywords, with scores more noting a lack of DRM in their project description. Games like Strategizer: Art of Defense and Shovel Knight reflect an obvious demand for games that exist to be downloaded and played without inhibitive license agreements. Even the top-funded Kickstarters have utilized the DRM-free angle to promote themselves: Tim Schafer’s Broken Age made sure to note that it would keep DRM out of the finished product during its $3 million campaign.

Altogether, this serves to remind players that we need not consider ourselves disenfranchised cogs in someone else’s marketing machine. If capitalist theories are correct and better products will be reflected in sales trends, then gamers are at last in a position to vote with our wallets. If we don’t like PC gaming trends, new alternatives are cropping up on a daily basis. This past GDC, representatives from EA struggled to remove themselves from being associated with DRM. Publishers are hearing our voice. Let’s not forget to support the independent developers still willing to trust and respect their consumers.

 

Categories: Gaming
Tags: DRM-free, Electronic Arts, indie games, Origin

Posted By Jessica Lugo on February 22, 2013

It’s rare for a developer to elevate the tablet game. The tablet market as it exists today is a wasteland of bottom-rung titles fighting for the visibility of the 5-minute gamer with limited attention span. Very rarely does a game utilize those 5 minutes to prompt a player to consider the larger world outside a fictional environment. We play for escapism; why would we want to be bothered by mundane real life? Sometimes, a game like Little Inferno reminds us why video games are more than mere timesinks.

The following synopsis contains spoilers for the ending of Little Inferno. If you’re only here wondering whether it’s a good buy, the answer is yes.

At first glance, Little Inferno is an innocuous shovelware title available on the PC and in iTunes and the Wii U‘s Virtual Console. It imagines a world overcome by perpetual winter wherein children huddle around high-tech furnaces to keep warm. A popular pastime is to order items through catalogs for fireplace fodder. It’s casual gaming at its most casual: points are awarded via item combinations, and discovering new ways to create “Online Piracy” or “Wooden Applause” creates extra points. For all intents and purposes, it’s just another tablet game to pass some time. Until the letters start.

At certain checkpoints, the game sends messages from other people who also exist in the world. There’s the Weather Man, who delivers the unchanging weather conditions and hopeless malaise outdoors, as well as your neighbor Sugar Plumps who oozes enthusiasm and excitement for the fun inherent in arson. As the game progresses, the player is encouraged to find all possible combinations to create more interactions with these characters, until an error combination is created that causes a malfunction in the primary Little Inferno interface. Full game completion ends the game entirely.

It also sets your player character’s house on fire.

The endgame sequence is more lengthy than a credit roll and “thanks for playing.” Your character is forced to venture outside for the first time since we’ve known him, left to wander aimlessly and interact with NPCs only briefly glimpsed before. During this sequence, it is revealed that an entire world has always existed around your character, but the protagonist himself was too engrossed in his Little Inferno to look elsewhere. It is only when things go too far and he cannot exist at home anymore that he is forced outward to experience the other things life can offer him. After visiting the Little Inferno creator, the protagonist finds himself riding in a hot air balloon on the way to new lands.

If this is to be taken at face value, then it is a simple coming of age story. When a child transitions into adulthood, one’s home can become restrictive and stifling. Leaving home is part of the growing up process, and no child can be said to be fully matured without having experienced the terrifying sense of living without a net. As we age, we watch our parents grow old and die. Our neighborhoods shift and change to accommodate the next generation. Many times, we discover that we’ve left home only to return to visit a place that isn’t quite the same as we remembered it. Once we leave, we cannot truly go home again. Does Little Inferno mean to tell us that our current crop of childlike adults cannot sustain itself as it currently exists? Does it wish to tell us that we will freeze and die unless we learn to go outdoors and experience more of the world? Or, could it be that it simply wishes to open up this dialogue and force us to have this discussion among ourselves?

Whatever the intention, it is curious that Tomorrow Corporation chose to leave its story content so back-loaded. It is well-known that ninety percent of people who begin a game will never finish it. Combined with the expected ADD of the casual gamer market, it is possible that a staggering few players will ever be privy to the ending at all. But this development team stated its willingness to embrace a gamer willing to push through.”You can’t play in the sandbox forever,” reflects Tomorrow Corporation member Kyle Gabler. “There is an end.” Perhaps the point is speculation. To reach the end of Little Inferno, a player must meet several requirements. He or she must be a gamer owner who also has the time and commitment required to complete a 4-6 hour game. Speaking broadly, only children and dedicated gamers will receive the message.

Go outside, implores Little Inferno. Live. Experience. It’s a strong message to those willing to receive it. And even if a player doesn’t agree with the message, it’s an important discussion to raise. Quantitatively speaking, one game that urges us to think is worth a thousand farm simulations.

Categories: Gaming
Tags: casual games, little inferno, tomorrow corporation, wii u