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Video Games, D&D and Writer’s Block

I have not written anything for a long time.

I started this website because I needed a creative outlet. I was working short-contract, dead-end jobs and felt like I had no way of expressing myself creatively.

I love video games, I love books, and I love storytelling. I have loved this website, being able to share my thoughts and feelings with the media I enjoy, as well as my forays into Dungeons and Dragons and the beginning of my streaming hobby.

But as these hobbies grew, my writing began to fall into the background. COVID hit and I found myself unable to put words to paper. I was adapting to working from home and I could only really manage low-intensity escapism that I didn’t need to think about. Video games and streaming became the primary way for me to relax, alongside my regular Dungeons and Dragons games.

Reading and writing were too mentally taxing for me, and even then Dungeons and Dragons I could only JUST handle.

But recently I have started a new job, and my ability to stream regularly has decreased. In this new pattern of my life, I am once again feeling the urge and drive to put words to paper. I am watching and listening to videos on world-building and storytelling and I have begun trying to consolidate my Dungeons and Dragons records into a World Anvil wiki.

Feeling driven to both read and write once again, I am actively working on my books and stories hoping to return to writing on this blog more!

So much has changed since I started this whole website. My mental health is much better, and my streaming has really taken off in a positive way. I like the idea of being a super-creative, able to do it all, but that puts too much strain on my capabilities as a person.

Moving forward I am hoping to build back up to some regularity with writing articles here, I will be exploring the kind of content I want to produce and I hope you enjoy this process with me.

Much love!

Mental Health in Video Games: Persona 5 – REVISITED

This article contains spoilers relating to Persona 5’s Fourth Dungeon and the gameplay that immediately follows.

My last post on mental health in video games looked at how Persona 5 addressed mental health in the form of the isolated, agorophobic character Futaba. This article highly praised the game for its approach, however as the game progressed I realised that this good work is quickly undone by the subsequent approach to helping Futaba aclimatise to life outside her bedroom.

When she first spends time outside of her room it is apparent to everyone in the Phantom Thieves that Futaba struggles to engage with people in conversation, particularly around topics she is not interested in. The way the Thieves address this is to talk about Futaba as is she is not present and to discuss how to socialise her, without her input. Futaba is treated like a broken object that needs fixing rather than a severely emotionally traumatised person who is working out how to live a more normal life.

After the beautiful way that Atlus explore Futaba’s mental state in her entombed pyramid palace, with the Phantom Thieves having to allow Futabato open up the palace herself, it feels jarring to have this undercut by the first things the Phantom Theives do once Futaba joins the team.

One bit that caught me particularly off-guard and emphasised how inappropriate this was, was a scene where Futaba is encouraged to work at the coffee shop both Joker, the lead character, and her guardian Sojiro, work at. Sojiro, aware that she is a social shut in, asks her why she is now coming out and putting herself in these situations she finds uncomfortable. Being given a dialogue choice at this point I said that it was her idea, believing that she had, despite the poor way the party spoke about her in her presence, agreed to this process. Futaba then calls me a liar. She is not happy to be here and is only here because of peer pressure exerted by her new friends. That felt super uncomfortable.

This discomfort is increased as the gang are determined to turn this hikikomori from a social shut-in into a bikini wearing beach-goer within a week. They set out an invasive, demanding and non-consensual timetable which ends up being successful despite this being very far from the real result you would be likely to get from imposing so much pressure on someone who suffers from severe social anxiety.

As many of you will be aware, social anxiety takes time to overcome. For individuals that suffer from social anxiety having friends who are willing to help them push their comfort levels is a good thing, but there is a huge amount of responsiblity on those friends to respect their friend’s boundaries, and ensure that they do not end up in over their heads. Some people when they are overwhelmed are unable to express themselves and so will appear to be quietly compliant, as harmful experiences and emotions build up, increasing that persons ongoing aversion to social situations. Learning to overcome anxiety takes time and there are set backs in real life that make the process take longer.

For a game that gets so many other things right, particularly when addressing the issues of mental health, it feels particularly jarring that this situation, which is a central plot point, is dealt with so indelicately.

I really love Persona 5 and it is easily one of my favourite all time games, which is why I hold it to such a high standard when I look at it’s story and content critically. I can only hope that future Persona installments can avoid having these uncomfortable moments, leaving us with nothing but 24 carat JRPG gold.

Impressions: Bloodborne

A Hunter must hunt…

Bloodborne is a game I tried to play several years ago, but it didn’t fully click with me, other games came up that I wanted to play and it ended up falling by the wayside.

Not the best first impression clearly, but that is not the end of the story for this beautifully gothic game…

After not playing Bloodborne for a long time I played Sekrio: Shadows Die Twice and I loved it. The game taught me to play aggressively, focusing on parrying and riposting; a stark contrast to the defensive, conservative combat encouraged by the Dark Souls games. It turns out that this game retroactively trained me into the correct mindset for playing Bloodborne.

But there would still be one more insight I would have to gain before I was drawn back to Bloodborne; the discovery of the cosmic horror that was lurking beneath the surface.

Over the past four years I have become very interested in horror, watching many a video-essay on horror in both film and video game media, and I realised there was much more to Bloodborne than the visceral bloody gothic horror that Bloodborne appears to be. Great Ones, the cosmos, nightmare realms, all lurk behind the opening stages of Bloodborne, and are the very essence of Lovecraftian cosmic horror.

Like many other From Software games, Bloodborne is filled with lore that is found in item descriptions and locations, with a wide space left open for personal interpretation and analysis. It was by watching lore analysis videos, by youtubers such as VaatiVidya, Lance McDonald and TheLastProtagonist, that I discovered a deep passion for the story that Bloodborne has to tell. A story of humans striving to attain a greater level of understanding about the universe and their place within it, but discovering an eldritch truth that drives them to madness. A story where mankind’s battle against their own inner beastial nature take on a far more literal and visceral dimension.

The story is intriguing, and is considered by some to be the best realisation of Lovecraftian horror that has been achieved in video games.

The gameplay is similar to other FromSoftware games, with a focus on evasion and parrying enemy attacks. When you take damage you have a small window of opportunity to recover your health by attacking the enemy, which encourages an aggressive playstyle, and you will quickly learn in game that backpedaling is not the way to succeed in this game, its all about sidestepping or dashing through enemy attacks to try to flank them, and punishing every opening that the enemy presents you with.

It is fun, fast paced and exciting.

The aggressive gameplay is complimented by beautiful sound design and an a wonderfully detailed gothic artstyle. It feels like you are truly stalking beasts through the small streets of a gothic era european city, and it lends itself wonderfully to the thematic horror stylings the game has. Frantic fights give way to atmospheric tension, which builds as you expect an ambush around each corner, knowing that it takes just one hit to wipe out your health, but if you retaliate quick enough you can regain your health and get the upper hand.

The game is difficult. and this will undoubtedly cause issues for some players, which make the game somewhat impenetrable. The same can be said of the indirect storytelling; if you like a clearly defined story, then I would recommend starting by checking out the lore videos that various youtubers have made on Bloodborne as a prelude to playing, as it will give some structure to the game that would otherwise be somewhat obsure.

Bloodborne is certainly not going to be everyone’s cup of tea, but it is a brillant game if you are looking for a game which is difficult, and has an obscure story that takes some searching and interpretation to tease out. It is very much my kind of game, and I hope that you can enjoy it as well!

One to Watch: Wandavision

When the credits to Avengers: Endgame rolled it was an experience. The culmination of ten years of cinematic development, and one of the most ambitious and successful movie projects that has ever been attempted. When I left the cinema I felt the catharsis of seeing it through to the end.

I also felt a sense of relief.

I wouldn’t need to follow the Marvel Cinematic Universe anymore. I wasn’t interested in following ‘Phase Four’, I might watch a Spiderman or the next Thor: Love and Thunder, because I enjoy Tom Holland as Spiderman and Taka Watiti’s contributions to the franchise.

But then Wandavision came along, and it seems I am being pulled back into the MCU once more…

Wandavision follows the lives of Avengers Wanda and Vision as they try to live a typical suburban life whilst hiding their supernatural powers from their neighbours. Each episode is set in a distinct television time period, changing between episodes from the 60’s to the 70’s to the 80’s all the way to modern sit-coms in the latest episodes. However all is not well and the aesthetic changes, and moments of fourth-wall breaking, suggest something far more sinister is at play behind the scenes of the happy sit-com you are presented with.

The series is a masterfully crafted mystery, with rising stakes and tensions as each episode goes on. Each episode feels painfully short, running at about 20-30 minutes long, as the the screen cuts to a ‘please stand-by’ placeholder before credits roll, just as the tension reaches breaking point. It it intentional and it really builds up the mystery of what is going on in an exciting way.

This series is a gem of experiemental story telling. The MCU is trying something different and it is carried powerfully by the chemistry and acting talents of Elisabeth Olsen and Paul Bettany who play the titualar Wanda and Vision. If you have enjoyed the MCU to date, Wandavision is an easy must-see, and is a real breath of fresh air in a typically formulaic franchise, in the same way as Guardians of the Galaxy or Thor: Ragnarok have been, earlier in the franchise.

Whilst watching all the other MCU films is not a necessary prerequisite to watching Wandavision, you may find yourself lacking some understanding of the characters presented if you have not seen their character development through Age of Ultron, Infinity War or Endgame. The chemistry these characters have is obvious from watching the show, but how they reached this point is something that may only be clear to those who have seen the three films listed above, particularly in regards to the key emotional beats that the series follows.

And yes, to you MCU fans who are curious, this is set after Avengers: Endgame. I know. THAT is all part of the mystery of what is going on, and trust me when I say the mysteries really grow as the series goes on.

Wandavision is a great series and has re-invigorated my interest in the new phase of the MCU. I would have passed on the upcoming Falcon and the Winter Soldier series that will be released right after Wandavision concludes, but Wandavision has given me enough hope that the MCU is doing something interesting that I might have to just check it out…

Wandervision can be viewed on the Disney+ streaming service.

Impressions: Resident Evil 2 [Remake]

Apart from Alien: Isolation, the Resident Evil 2 Remake is one of the only Survival Horror games I have ever played, and it may have got me hooked…

Unlike many ‘gamers’ I did not grow up playing survival horror games. I never played Silent Hill, and I never played Resident Evil. It is hard to be a gamer and not have heard of these games, even if you haven’t played them, and I have always found these game facinating, with wonderful lore to chew on. Despite the interesting lore, the survival horror gameplay that these games focus on – inventory management, puzzles, and overwhelming enemies, have never appealed to me. I tend to prefer my horror at a distance, and watching other people play has always been how I have traditionally experienced the genre.

But despite the way I have always done things there is something different about the remake of Resident Evil 2 that drew me to it.

The first thing you notice about the game is that it is graphically beautiful. The game opens with a close up of an ultra-realistic and delicious looking burger, being not so beautifully feasted upon by a trucker. It sets the graphical bar for the rest of the game to follow, and the game certainly delivers on that promise. From the atmospheric rain outside, to the subtle way Leon and Claire flinch and get visibly worse for wear the more damage they sustain, and the grim and graphic way that zombie limbs get severed as you shoot their knees, the graphical fidelity of the game is impressive. There is substantial use of dynamic lighting which heightens the tension of exploring by flashlight, and the menus and inventory are clean, simple and easy to navigate.

The top-tier graphics make the game easy to be immersed in, and this helps to create a haunting atmosphere alongside excellent sound design. The audio truly draws you in, and listening to the silence, being broken by the wheeze of zombies, or the slow thumping of the Tyrant (Mr. X) as it pursues you is complimented beautifully by well constructed music that builds tension to breaking point levels before you are able to catch your breath once more.

It is a thrilling experience.

My only critique on the audio is that the 3D sound does not work particularly well for me. I have played lots of other games, including Dead by Daylight, where accurate 3D audio is an essential part of the game’s mechanics. Unfortunately there have been a number of occasions in Resident Evil 2 where I have heard the sound of a zombie attacking me from behind when they were infact infront of me, behind a door I was about to open…quite a disaterous audio error to experience. But this is a relatively minor issue and you can turn off 3D sound if it becomes and issue for you.

The controls for the game are slick and responsive using the same inventory system that was first shown in Resident Evil 7: Biohazard, and they are perfectly suited to this third-person remaster of the classic title. Replacing the original aiming mechanic where you had to stand still to shoot at enemies, you can now move whilst shooting, but you have to stand still for about one second to shoot accurately, essential if you want to score a critical hit. In this game aiming for heads in not the optimal solution, as headshots are not one-hit-kills, and the ability to instantly blow up a zombie’s head seems to be down to RNG, which is a frustrating experience. Aiming for kneecaps is the best way to deal with zombies, as you can dismember your enemies and they will stay dismembered, and can only slowly crawl towards you, removing a significant amount of risk from being in the same area as a zombie. This tactical shooting is actually very fun and there are several moments in the game where I have had a split second to pop off a quick kneecap shot to stun a zombie I need to run past to escape the Tyrant, with varying levels of success which add to the tension this game so masterfully builds.

The Resident Evil 2 Remake is truly masterful, and a thoroughly fun experience, if you can stomach the high levels of detailed gore and spooky atmosphere. If you are uneasy about blood and body horror, avoid this game, as these are present in bucketfuls. If however you have a good tolerance for such things, then I recommend trying this game, even if, like me, you are not a horror game fiend. It is well worth trying and whilst I have limited direct expereince of the genre, it feels like such peak survival horror that anyone could enjoy it.

If you want to see me play Resident Evil 2 you can check out my playthrough below:

Impressions: Remnant from the Ashes

Remnant from the Ashes is a game I discovered completely by accident when watching YouTube. I had heard nothing about this game before watching this random video, but I was intrigued by what I saw.

A post-apocalyptic third-person shooter, which involved online co-op and dodging attacks thrown at the players by Dark Souls-esque enemies.

I had to give it a go.

Fresh off playing Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order, I was feeling hesitant to try a game I had heard so little about. I needed some tried and tested quality in the games I was playing, but I took a chance on picking up Remnant from the Ashes in the PlayStation Summer Sale.

This was a satisfying purchase.

You play a human fighting across a post-apocalyptic Earth, taken over by the plant-based horde of the Root, bringing guns to what would typically be a sword and shield affair in any other entry to the Souls-like Action RPG genre.

The world you explore is pseudo-randomised, with different dungeon layouts being generated each play-through, and randomised bosses and events filling these worlds, leaving the player with a unique feeling campaign, add giving players to ability explore uniquely rolled layouts that other players have discovered in co-op play. It is a neat feature, and also leads to a replayable game experience.

But all of these features are mere gimmicks without a solid core gameplay to build these features into.

Thankfully Remnant from the Ashes delivers on this gameplay, with some crazy gun-shooting, quick-rolling, fast-moving gunplay which keeps you on your toes in a fun and high pressure way.

The game feels fluid and weighty, the random generation is nice, although the random boss generation can lead to some difficult fights. My first boss was an enemy that spawned explosions on you every 3 seconds. It was overwhelming and I had to go online to find out how to beat him because I was struggling significantly with the encounter.

Once I saw that you had to just keep running the battle thankfully opened up and I beat him on my second attempt after watching the video.

You dodge-roll out of the way of enemy projectiles, you can melee enemies that get too close, you have to control your space, and you face more horde-type enemies than you get in Dark-souls, but it feels perfectly balanced for the gun-play focus of the game.

The game world is well realised, if not a little bland. I am currently exploring a ruined city and it is…a ruined city. Not particularly exciting, but I am aware that you explore different locales as the game progresses I am not able to comment on how well these other locations are realised at this time.

In cut scenes the game looks pretty ugly; character models have clearly been designed for being looked at from a distance, and they look plastic and awkward up close.

Thankfully in general gameplay everything looks fine. It is not pushing any bounds in graphic fidelity or beauty, but that hardly matters when the core gameplay is so solid and fun to play.

This game feels like the anti-thesis to Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order; not the prettiest game, but it has a solid, tightly tuned combat system creates a fun, fluid experience that is a fun twist on the action RPG genre.

I am excited to play more of this game which at this stage I would categorise as a diamond in the rough.

Impressions: Dead by Daylight

Death is not an Escape

Published in 2016, Dead by Daylight is a game I never really thought I would be playing, never mind 4 years after it’s intial release, but here we are!

Yes that is the demogorgon!

Dead by Daylight is an asymetric multiplayer horror game, which pits four survivors against a singular killer, in a race to escape the map before the killer can sacrifice all the survivors to the mysterious Entity.

When I first saw footage of Dead by Daylight, I was not entirely impressed with it, it looked slow and unpolished, and was an easy game to not play. But several years later I discovered it all over again, and I am glad that I rediscovered this gem.

The game is set in a paralel dimension that belongs to a malicious force known only as the Entity. It survives by feeding off exreme emotions, which are evoked by the Trials, where survivors are trapped in an enclosed arena and must activate five generators to power an exit gate and escape before the Killer catches them and sacrifices them by hanging them on meat hooks found throughout the map.

As of writing there are 23 survivors and 21 killers that can be played as, with each survivor and killer having unique traits and abilities that make them unique. As you progress in the game you can teach traits to other characters, allowing you to fully customise both survivors and killers to suit your preferred playstyle. Each killer has a unique playstyle that cannot be transferred to other killers,

The survivors play in third person, and sneak around the map, avoiding the killer and repairing generators which power the exit gates through which the survivors must attempt to escape. The killer plays in first person, hunting survivors by following trails left by them, listening to the survivors breath and following bloodpools that are left when you manage to hit a survivor with your weapon.

Killers have to hit survivors to knock them down, then they pick the survivor up and place them on a meathook, which sacrifices them to the Entity. Survivors have no way to directly attack the killer, but instead can try to trip the killer up to save their fellow survivors, or distract the killer long enough for another survivor to rescure their teammate off the hook before the sacrifice is complate.

The game is tense, regardless of which team you choose to play for. Things are expectedly nervewrecking as a survivor, but the tension does not drop as a killer. Trying to keep track of all four survivors, particularly if they are communicating properly with each other, is difficult, and mind-games become a key part of succeeding as a killer.

Developers, Behaviour Interactive, have managed to keep the game fresh by frequent balance fixes and the release of new content, in the form of killers, survivors and maps, with the most recent updating bringing a new killer, The Blight, this year. The game compliments its own unique killers by licencing some of horror’s best known killers including Freddie Kruger, Michael Myers and Leatherface. There is something special about being stalked by Michael Myers, or desperately trying to wake up as you hear the ominous Freddie Kruger lullaby surround you, and it is thrilling to experience.

This game is not perfect, and glitches can be fairly common, despite the frequent bug fixes Behaviour Interactive release. There are also noticable issues with matchmaking speeds, with the game sometimes taking up to 10-15 mintues to place you in a match. These times have been lowered by the recent introduction of cross-play, which allows you to play with friends and other players regardless of what platform the game is played on, but it can still be annoying if you just want to play a quick round.

Dead by Daylight is a great horror themed multiplayer game, and I have found it to be a great game to unwind to. It will not be everyone’s cup of tea, given the horror styling and issues with bugs, but if you are not put off by these things, Dead by Daylight is a game worth playing, and one I have found very enjoyable, despite my initial misgivings.

Impressions: Code Vein

There have been a lot games that have tried to walk in the footsteps of From Software’s Dark Souls, with varying degrees of success.

Those that succeed do so by putting their own unique twist on the dark, nihilistic formula, and Bandai Namco Studios bring a massive dose of anime goodness to the genre in a Dark Souls-meets-Tokyo Ghoul action RPG.

Set in the ruins of a fallen civilisation you awaken with no memory of who you are, alongside a mysterious girl who leads you forward into a broken world filled with monsters that used to be human, but are now husks of their former selves.

Sound familiar?

The story is not nothing particularly special, and is filled with very tropy anime characters and story beats (did I mention the girl that finds you when you awaken has disproportionatly large breasts, barely covered by an incredibly ripped up mini-dress?) but there is a real gem of a game hiding behind the tropey awkwardness.

Press Any Button to Start

The first thing you will notice with this game is the in-depth character creation. You get to craft your very own waifu/guyfu, and it is one of the more detailed character creators you will experience in any game. I could spend hours making lots of different characters that are completely unique and is a fun experience in and of itself.

Once you get through the character creation you jump into the game and get to see the beautiful world the Bandai Namco Studios have created; a ruined modern city, where gangs of bio-weapons (read vampires) search for rare fruits called a bloodbeads, which provide sustainence in the absence of a human to feed off.

You will make allies as you progress through this world and explore several environments that will not feel unfamiliar to Dark Souls players.

So what does this game do differently?

What you will discover when you enter the first ‘dungeon’ of the game is the existence of an AI controlled ally that will come with you througout your wanderings. This ally will be able to fight alongside you in combat and heal you if you go down.

This ally mechanic is a welcome variation to the traditional lone explorer, and you will find different allies have difference strengths that will be better suited to some enemies than others. For example I have one ally I use for general exploring who can quickly dispatch surprise enemies and a different ally who can tank in boss fights for me to be a more hit and run attacker.

With the addition of an extra ally, it means that you will be frequently facing larger groups of enemies, that will try to swarm and surround you. Maneuvering becomes a key part of staying alive, and the traditional stamina management mechanics you have in Dark Souls are a key part of combat here.

In addition to the AI ally, Code Vein also provides an incredibly flexible skill/class system. There are 39 base blood codes, which are the classes available. Each blood code has a number of abilites associated with it. As you progress in the game you will unlock more abilities for each bloodcode, and if you master a code, you can transfer particular abilities from one code to another. One code for example will specialise in quick hits with a one-handed sword, whilst another specialises in resisting status effects, and another specialises in draining your opponants lifeforce. By synegising these abilities you can really craft a class that feels unique to you, as well being able to be changed on the fly, as your situation requires.

In keeping with the anime styling of the game, combat is fast paced and fluid. You really feel like an anime protagonist fighting against the odds, dodging, diving, and following up with an awesome feeling attack from an oversized weapon. You can handle more enemies in Code Vein than you would be able to in Dark Souls, and have access to more crowd control abilities, but you still need to dodge and parry and backstab your way to victory.

In terms of difficulty Code Vein is balanced to feel alot easier than other souls-like games. It feels like a familair, casual game to experienced souls-like players, and I think it would make a great entry-level game for players new to the genre.

Conclusions

Code Vein is a fun romp of an action RPG. It has a clunky and awkward story, with too much exposition for exposition sake, which drags on the gameplay experience. If you can see past this failing, you will find a game which has fast paced, fun combat tin a beautifully realised game world, and is worth playing for people who are interested in the souls-like genre. It doesn’t re-invent the wheel, but it adds some nice gameplay elements which lead the game to feel unique in its own way, and the style is a nice vibrant splash of colour in a traditionally bleak and dark genre.

Impressions: Horizon Zero Dawn

“My whole life I lived as an outcast…”

Aloy

Set in the 31st century, 1000 years after our civilization has ended. Horizon Zero Dawn has a strong reputation as one of the best games on PS4. To my shame, it has taken me this long to finally play it, and I can confirm that its reputation is well deserved.

In this world, humanity has returned to tribal societies, and animalistic machines are found across the continents, hostile to humans, and hunted for their parts. You play as Aloy, a tribal outcast and expert huntress, who sets out into the world to find her place in it. The game is a third-person action game, with a wonderfully realised world to explore, that is large enough to feel fun to explore, without being so big that it becomes intimidating or boring.

The gameplay revolves around traversing this beautiful world and avoiding/hunting the dangerous machines that can be found throughout it, with story missions playing out on variations of machine hunts, which have a passing similarity to the hunts of Monster Hunter World, and human raider camp attacks, which have a similar feel to the predator sections of the aforementioned Batman Arkham series of games.

Despite the familiarity of these gameplay elements, Horizon Zero Dawn ties these sections together creatively and cohesively, creating a game that is polished and fun to play, without getting monotonous. With such a well realised world and gameplay structure, it is only fitting to have an excellent story and set of characters to compliment the finely tuned framework that has been built in Zero Dawn. And boy does this game deliver.

Storytelling

Starting with the protagonist, Aloy, she is one of my favorite protagonists of all time in video games. Throughout the game, she is an outsider and looked down upon by others. But for all of the cultural opposition she faces, her competence always challenges the pre-conceptions that others have about her. She works hard to be an elite huntress, and her confidence in her abilities shines through in her dialogue. She is not overly cocky, but has a dry and witty sense of humour that carries Aloy through the social situations that she has not learned the ‘appropriate’ etiquette for, by virtue of her outcast upbringing. We need more female protagonists like Aloy in video games.

This well-written protagonist and dialogue carry the story comfortably, as you will naturally care for the issues that Aloy cares about, but it is hard to tell exactly what outcome she will root for when the chips are down. She wants to protect people but is intrinsically drawn to oppose certain cultural power structures that those people support. It is an interesting story to follow.

Gameplay

Aloy is equipped with a range of weapons that carry a variety of ammunition types that are suited to different kinds of encounters, from humans to the wide variety of machines you can encounter. Each machine has its weaknesses and strengths, and as the game progresses you will learn how to defeat each machine, as well as turn machines against each other and even ride them. The combat in these scenarios is crisp and you feel powerful and accomplished with every machine you kill. Even the lowest level machines leave you feeling a sense of satisfaction when you fell them in the middle of a hectic fight, as you thin the herd to deal with the more challenging machines.

Each fight is an exciting, edge of your seat experience, and I have frequently found myself spamming dodge-rolls to get enough space to evaluate a combat encounter that has gone sidewise because I have not properly assessed what machines are in play in the field. I always just about manage to find the space needed and clutch those victories from the jaws of defeat. It feels awesome.

The raider-camp segments are not particularly challenging, particularly if you have played the Batman Arkham games, but they are well constructed, and add a welcome level of variety to the gameplay you experience in Zero Dawn.

The game also contains a handful of collectibles, which are manageable in number, and you get access to their location maps immediately, so you will not be stuck trying to find 200 feathers in every nook and cranny of the environment. This is nice, and these are tied to data points that give you insight into the world 1000 years prior that led to the current post-apocalyptia. It is not exposition that is necessary for the plot to be understood, but rather a nice cherry of details on top of a well made and well-iced cake, avoiding some of the pitfalls of the overly lengthy encyclopedia that needs to be read in games like Mass Effect to understand why certain things are happening.

Conclusion

This is a beautiful, fun, and exciting game. There is a reason why Horizon Zero Dawn is so well regarded, and I couldn’t recommend a game more. If you, like me until recently, have not played this game, I would recommend finding a copy and playing it before you consider leaving this generation of consoles behind.

Post-Script: Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order

When I write impressions articles I like to have played enough of the game to feel that I can give a fair view to my readers. With Jedi: Fallen Order I, unfortunately, need to provide an update to my feelings on the game after completing it.

I have achieved the Platinum Trophy for this game and having played almost everything the game has to offer, I have some more thoughts.

As I said in my impressions article, Jedi: Fallen Order is a beautiful game, with wonderful sound design and crisp graphics. It works very well at pulling you into the Star Wars Universe. This immersion however gets increasingly broken as the game goes on, and by the end, I had a distinctly love-hate relationship with the game.

I don’t want to hate this game, and there is plenty that the game gets very right, but as a fan of the Star Wars franchise I really wanted to love this game, and I just couldn’t.

There is not one big reason for this, but simply the effect of lots of smaller factors that culminated in me having a distinct sense of dissatisfaction as I finished the game.

The first thing I want to talk about is the game’s lack of optimisation, at least when played on the PS4.

Throughout the game, there are several sections where the game will freeze. I was worried the game was breaking until I recognised they always happened in the same place – The game was loading the next area and couldn’t keep up with my character’s movement, so the whole thing froze.

These happened several times in the middle of platforming segments, which was annoying. I understand games need to load up in segments, and I know a common way to deal with this is to use lifts as a pseudo-loading screen. I don’t have a problem with this, but the game is frequently unable to load the areas connected by lifts within the time it takes to make the lift journey. And the lifts are not fast either. This means you frequently encounter a long boring lift ride, coupled with the game freezing in order to catch up with the loading.

The long loading times might be forgivable if it leads to an otherwise seamless experience, however, this is not the case. I frequently experienced texture-pop in, so much so that it was distracting, including character models popping into the middle of cutscenes, and on a small number of occasions I ended up running through a door to find myself in a low-poly, textureless world, where the collision did not register causing me to fall through the world.

These are the kind of things I would expect from beta-release steam green-light games, not a AAA EA title.

I had previously highlighted that the loading time after you die is painfully slow. Unfortunately, whilst I was initially okay with this, the compounded effect it has on the gameplay experience is distinct as the game goes on, particularly when you encounter challenging bosses.

It can take 30-60 seconds to reload your character after you die, which in a game which takes a lot of its influences from Dark Souls, is a painfully long time, particularly on harder difficulties. Souls-like games balance punishing difficulty and frequent deaths with a design which allows you to get back into the action quickly, with short loading times meaning you don’t feel like you are wasting or losing any time. Unfortunately when you play on a high difficulty and die frequently, the load times are so punishing it makes the game literally un-fun to play.

The frequency of deaths that you experience in this game ties into another distinct issue this game has – combat and combat balance.

When I first saw that Jedi: Fallen Order had different difficulty settings I was happy, surly this meant that the balance would feel perfect for whatever skill level a player was? As an experienced souls-player, who has loved Sekiro and the other Souls games, I started on the Grandmaster difficulty.

That was a mistake.

This game puts an emphasis on parry mechanics, in a similar way to Sekiro, however unlike Sekiro when you tap the block button, your parry does not engage until your character has fully raised their lightsaber. This might seem like a ‘well duh’ comment, but those milliseconds are vital in combat. When you are trying to learn when in an enemy attack animation you need to get that parry ready, having to account for your own animation time is a frustrating experience. This is paired with the fact that you will immediately be thrown into combat against multiple enemies, which means you do not have space to learn the timings against any single enemy. This frustration is compounded by the fact that if you miss a parry, the enemy will cause full damage and break your block, causing you to be vulnerable to combo attacks.

You have a posture bar for blocks, but I found that even on the lowest difficulties the enemies break your posture in 2-3 hits, and you cannot survive a single combo without your guard breaking, stunning your character, and leaving them vulnerable to further attacks.

Enemies are able to quickly stun-lock your character and I found that the most effective way to fight was constantly rolling out of the way and occasionally chip damaging an enemy. Throw a force ability get one or two hits in and run away. Any more than that and the multiple enemies that surround you will quickly stun lock and overwhelm you.

Utilising the force is one of the best features you should expect for a Jedi, but you have a very limited ‘force’ pool to draw from which means that your ability to control combat with the force is noticeably restricted.

Any one of these issues is small, and you can see past them when you start the game. I reduced the difficulty and continued with the game. Unfortunately by the time you reach the end of the game these issues have compounded into a frustrating experience. At least one of these issue crops up in every combat encounter, and it means that it becomes hard to tell when I simply made a genuine mistake, or I was fighting wonky combat mechanics.

These combat issues slip away in the best combat encounters you have in the game, however, and those are the lightsaber duels. One-on-one combat flows much better and you actually feel like a Jedi in these moments.

Unfortunately even these combat encounters have frustrating balance issues, including health pools that are so large that you spend ages slowly chipping down the enemy health in what feels more like a chore than a game; non-existent/non-differentiated attack windups which you to play rock-paper-scissors on what attack the enemy is about to perform; and pointless posture bars.

The posture issue is one that came up multiple times, but the two most egregious issues were with one regular enemy, the Nydak, who’s entire combat style was based around breaking its posture, and the final boss of the game.

For the Nydak, they are fast and heavy-hitting enemies that are fairly easy to parry, having distinct windups. They attack so quickly that you are expected to parry them to break their relatively low posture which you should be able to then punish. Unfortunately, when you posture break a Nydak your character is also caught in a stun animation, whilst the Nydak is pushed away from your character. By the time you recover from the stun and make your way over to the Nydak, 99% of the time the Nydak will have recovered from the stun and have full posture remaining. This would be okay if the game expected you to do something different with the enemy, but the literal in-game advice is to parry and break the enemy’s posture, which is infuriating advice because it does not work.

The final point on posture is the last boss in the game. The most satisfying thing about parrying and posture bars is when you perfectly time parries such that you wear out your attacker and punish them. It is one of the beautiful things that makes the combat in Sekiro so compelling. Unfortunately with the final boss in the game you can perfectly counter multiple combos to deplete that parry meter only to have the boss not be stunned, and simply refill the bar with no negative effect on them. It defeats all benefit from taking the risk of trying to parry and make the final boss of the game a frustrating grind.

My final concern about this game is the level and enemy design.

The first two planets you go to in the game, Bogano and Zeffo are the best designed and are genuinely fun to play. Unfortunately, they lulled me into a false sense of security with this game. To be completely fair the design for the other planets is not terrible. What is annoying though is the overreliance on sliding slope sections. The game is filled with one-way sliding slopes that are easy to fall off, hard to steer on, have blind jumps built-in, and truly feel like the level-filler that they are.

When trying to fully explore the map (necessary for full game completion) the number of one-way paths was incredibly frustrating as were the lack of useful shortcuts, which forced me to repeat whole sections of Kashyyyk and Dathomir several times, which resulted in a significant loss of charm.

With enemy design this is a fairly simple point, there are too many spiders. Spiders are numerous on both Kashyyyk and Dathomir, and it makes the Star Wars Universe feel smaller for their inclusion. Alien species are plethora in the Star Wars Universe, and whilst a handful of giant spiders on Kashyyyk would be a nice and creepy set-piece, they are used so much it makes the game feel like a generic ‘real-world’ game. This sentiment extends when the basic enemy on Dathomir are tiny spiders. This is a Star Wars game, and I have never seen a spider in a Star Wars film. I’m not complaining that spiders shouldn’t exist, but simply that they are overused to the point of boredom. They are the most generic of generic fantasy enemies, short of say…zombies?

Oh but there are zombies in the game too…yeah…

I know that there is precedent for zombies in the Star Wars universe, but it must be said that is not fun to fight a zombie hoard with a lightsaber. It is not fun to fight zombies and spiders together with a lightsaber. It feels generic and boring, and this lack-luster enemy design compounded many of the niggles I had with this game.

Also you massacre a native tribal population as an invasive Jedi, and it is not once really questioned whether you are a good guy or are falling to the the Dark Side of the Force with these actions…seriously.

I wanted to love this game, and at first, I thought I did. But this game wore me down. I gave it every quarter and every pass and it still slid below my expectations. I know I had fun with this game, I remember having fun with this game, but I walk away and look back on it as a disappointment. Whilst I hope that a Fallen Order 2 could be a better game, it would require putting trust in EA not rushing the job, and after this experience, I am not sure they will give it the time it needs to be perfected and that makes me sad.

There are other games that do everything that Fallen Order does, but better. If you like Star Wars, play the game on story mode. But please don’t expect perfection. This is not it. Maybe something will come off this game in a future installment. But not this day.