Review catch up go!!
May (5/12): LumoLumo is an isometric puzzle platformer where you must traverse a series of interlocking rooms, collecting keys and solving simple puzzles to gain access to previously inaccessible corridors. Each room appears as a discrete challenge, and is replaced by the next in sequence only when you touch the exit door. It's somewhat demanding the further you get into the game, accurate jumping in isometric space is a forgotten artform at this point, but the challenges are brief enough that, when you finally make the necessary jump to the exit door, your patience is amply restored and you're ready for the next challenge. In one room you might need to duck through the gaps made by swinging lasers. In another you might need to shunt ice-blocks around without shattering them in order to create an impromptu staircase. There are supposedly over 500 rooms to clear but I was able to blast through the game in about 3-4 hours. I think most of the charm was lost on me but specifically more retro gamers would probably really enjoy this as it feels like a modern callback to games of the 80's.
5/10May (6/12): AlienationAlienation is a gorgeous and blistering isometric twin stick shooter where you must combat an invading alien force. You select a character class to start the game with, each with a number of abilities and you must then progress through each level to accomplish a certain goal, which typically involves destroying something. The enemies are plentiful and nicely varied to keep any player busy, even those in a 4 player co-op team. The enemies are not just bullet sponges either, some deploy shields, forcing you to move around to their back, some can turn invisible and some are large brutes which can force you to be on the move with giant flamethrowers. But one thing uniting them all is just how much fun they are to kill. The game is gorgeous to look at, bullets and explosions create some magnificent looking particle effects and once a grenade is thrown into a large group, alien corpses can comically go flying everywhere around the screen. There's so much happening on the screen that it's a wonder my PS4 could keep up with it. There's not much to the story outside of the initial premise of a rebellion fighting against an alien invasion, instead the things you take away from each level is entirely loot driven. Like Diablo, defeated enemies and chests will drop color coded weapons and equipment ranging from white (common) to gold (rare). I jumped for joy when I found a rare weapon, a sub machine gun which also has the rare ability to drop grenades on contact. If it sounds overpowered, it's because it was and I managed to find it early enough in the game to make most encounters a walk in the park.
There are some light RPG elements in the way of building up your character, but I felt like it didn't go far enough as most upgrades are nothing but damage increases or extended durations rather than creating any new abilities the game gives you from the beginning. It's also kind of a shame that every weapon looks the same, some variety would have been nice. I felt the maps were a little too large on my first playthrough, but going back to the game New Game + opens up other challenges and mini-bosses with greater rewards as you explore the map. Ultimately, Alienation is a game that's highly replayable simply because the game itself is chaotic, mindless fun.
8/10June (7/12): Nier: AutomataWhen Nier Automata was announced, it was seen to be the realisation of a dream project. The first game, beloved by those who played it, was the creation from Yoko Taro, also behind the Drakengard series. While they loved the story, soundtrack and other strengths the game had, there would be few who would agree that it was a good game to play. Combat was stiff and repetitive which made the game seem like a chore to get to the good parts. So imagine people's surprise when the sequel is announced and it was to be developed by Platinum Games, masters of the third person character action game that the first game tried to be. Along with the composer from the first Nier game and art from Akihiko Yoshida (Final Fantasy Tactics), it almost seemed too good to be true. But is it?
We kick off Nier Automata with the introduction of it's two principal characters, 2B and 9S, both androids engaged in a war with machines that has raged on for literally thousands of years over Earth. When you are allowed to roam Earth freely, you find Earth a ruined shell of what it once was. Buildings have fallen, wildlife has reclaimed most of it and the places are populate with robots, some friendly, some hostile. Combat is a standard Platinum Games affair, slick, smooth combo based melee combat giving the player the ability to dodge and counter attacks seemlessly with animation that is beautiful to look at. It's not the deepest combat they've ever made, but it feels good, better than anyone else can deliver right now and that's good enough. But where this game differentiates, much like the original Nier, is how often it switches genres altogether. As you explore, the camera can shift into a side scrolling platformer, other times it becomes a bullet hell shooter. These transitions are slick, never frustration and all exectuted pretty effortlessly.
In addition, Nier Automata is also an RPG, where you can upgrade character abilities through buying and acquiring plug in chips, which upgrades your character. Some are passive abilities such as increased health or weapon damage, while some can change combat altogether, creating projective shockwaves with each melee weapon strike or slowing down time on dodging an enemy attack, Bayonetta style. You can also undertake side quests which usually take the form of moving to X location and destroying Y enemies or picking up Z items. Nothing too drastic, however the silver lining in all this, is that they allow you to gain more of an insight into Nier Automata's world.
Make no mistake, the star of this game it's narrative and world design. With the combat as the backbone, the full scope of the game comes into it's own by subverting the usual use of gameplay systems as part of the game's narrative and it all makes sense within this world. Playing through the game once doesn't give you the full picture. There are 26 endings in all, 5 of which I would say are absolutely crucial, but even when you're 40 hrs in the game completely plays with your expectations making it consistently fresh and exciting. Each ending leads to a new game of sorts, sharing elements from your previous playthrough, but introducing new storylines and concepts that allow you to piece the full story together and quite honestly, the game addresses some of the densest themes tackled in a mainstream videogame.
Nier Automata reaches to the depths of existential philosophy to ask questions of the player. What is free will? What is the meaning of life? What makes us human? Other games have done this before but Nier's feels unique in that the biggest triumph is to sympathise and connect with characters that aren't even human and indeed, even have sympathy for the villians. With each side quest lies some personal, tragic and sometimes chilling tragic stories. These melancholic themes are accompanied by an exceptional English dub and an absolutely beautiful soundtrack, giving each area a distinct tone aided by it's ever changing styles. As with other Platinum games, they dynamically change over time, amplifying in intense moments to something calmer during quiet introspective moments as you navigate the world. Some songs are even used to stunning effect during and on the conclusion of side quests which carry that little more emotional weight.
There are a few criticisms. The performance is sadly not the usual 60fps quality we've come to expect. Indeed the game does drop frames in certain areas which can be a pain. There is a corpse run mechanic where if you die, you lost all equipped plug in chips behind as a corpse which you then have to run back to and acquire, much like Dark Souls. This always felt pretty unnecessary and even a bit unfair at times as sometimes you die in an area with especially tough enemies making it all the more difficult to gain the plug in chips again without dying, risking losing all those rare plug in chips permanently. I also played it on Hard difficulty but it seemed far too difficult. You could die in a few hits, maybe even one, to some grunt enemies, only getting more manageable when you obtain some powerful chips. Thankfully there's no penalty to switching difficulty mid game. There are even a few sections of the game which I would say went on for longer than necessary and may even have had to repeat a few times but luckily these are few and far between.
I have to mention it here but the fifth canonical ending to the game is and will probably be, one of those moments that will be talked about in video games forever. It's a wonderful conclusion to the existence of Nier Automata. A testament to experimentation within the conventions of gaming to tell a narrative that simply cannot be portrayed in a book or in a film. It's a creative achievement from everyone at Platinum Games and Yoko Taro. On launch, Yoko Taro downplayed the game as "nothing special" and that he wanted people to remember Nier Automata in the same way people remember their first crush. Where at the time you were completely enthralled by him/her if only briefly and even though they may not have been perfect but when you look back and think of them later in life, you look back on it fondly. I know that I will look back on Nier Automata and be thankful that I was lucky to experience it.
10/10