#881 Trism

Posted: 10th May 2014 by Jeroen in Games
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330th played so far

trism2Genre: Puzzle
Platform: iPhone
Year of Release: 2008
Developer: Demiforce
Publisher: Demiforce

After the release of the list’s second edition, 20 games were removed, with twelve of them unplayed so far. For completeness and because we waned to try some of them, we decided to still play these twelve, but with shorter or changed write-ups. Today the second of these – a shorter look at Trism, another puzzler.

Another game removed with the release of the new list, Trism is a puzzle game. Its premise is similar to many others we’ve discussed here and will discuss here – create a group of three or more triangles with the same colour, they’ll disappear, others fall down, repeat forever or until you get the required score. Yeah, to be honest, based on basic gameplay, it doesn’t offer the most interesting experience. It’s fun and addictive, sure, as many of these games are, but so far it’s not the most innovative.

And the list justification is (was) that it was one of the first iOS games, with a larger influence because of that… but that doesn’t make it a game you have to play for me.

No, the twist the game adds is something different – and simple. It adds use of the accelerometer. Rather than having your blocks fall down in one predictable direction, you can turn your device to change the direction of your gravity, and have your blocks fall in the direction you want as you do so. Now this is a personal thing on my part but I don’t like games that expect you to turn your phone in various directions for the fear of appearing to be a pillock on the bus.

It adds a nice little twist to gameplay that makes the game a bit more strategic (especially when filling the gaps between the blocks that would sometimes appear). As simple as it sounds, it makes for a far more visual gameplay where you feel far more in control.

In the end, this is probably one of the more obvious games to leave the book in its update and while it’s addictive, it is also fairly ‘samey’. Worth a try as a simple, cheap game, but there seem to be several more nicer puzzlers – in fact, Hexic 2 feels like it did this just a bit better.

#1013 Journey

Posted: 8th May 2014 by Jeroen in Games
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1

329th played so far

JourneyGenre: Action
Platform: Playstation 3
Year of Release: 2012
Developer: thatgamecompany
Publisher: Sony Computer Entertainment

Journey is one of those games where everything seemed to have come together. We played Flower  some time ago, which was a great game with admirable effect. Journey had the same developers and was getting rave reviews from the moment it was released. We got it not long after and started playing – although we got back to it only now. Another reason to be glad that the book had a bit of an ‘update’.

Our Thoughts

Journey is an experience. Its gameplay isn’t the most complex – you can walk, jump and call out (sing?). Your goal is to get through a level, possibly finding secrets if you can, but mostly traveling. There are a few puzzles and action elements, but it mostly comes down to getting to the right places and occasionally making some tricky jumps.

But that’s not the point. It’s not meant to be a difficult game. It’s about the journey. It’s about the experience. And that’s where it delivers, as you walk through these large areas, mostly abandoned ruins, with weird carpets that seem to lengthen your jumps around the area.

The storytelling that comes from this is as engaging. The only words that are used are those in the menus, for purely technical thing. Everything else is done through sound and visuals – not just that, most are painted murals explaining parts of the areas you walked through and some you will move through soon. It gives the indication of a world like the one we live in, with trains and elevators, big modern areas. It’s both beautiful and enticing.

The part of the game that really makes it an experience you won’t – can’t – forget is what the multiplayer brings to it. As long as you are online (and you really want to be here), you get randomly matched with another player. You explore the world together, joining each other’s journey. You can help each other find secrets and encourage them to keep going. Because of the limited options that are available to you – you can jump and call, with the calling helping the other person’s jumps – you can’t really lose here. You can only help the other person, and if you stray too far from each other you meet another traveler in the same area (with a gradual awareness as you realise someone else is interacting with the world). It becomes such a good feeling to help each other that it seems like there is a large group of veteran players leading newer players around the world, showing them the secrets of the world, the collectables and the easter eggs.

And somehow the shared journey matters. You start caring about the other person, waiting for them and making sure you can travel together. There’s an attachment that forms, even if the only way to communicate is by ‘singing’. And when you get through the final levels together, where the environment is against you and your progress is slowest as you climb the mountain, the feeling of triumph is immense. It’s not a large game, and it might be difficult to fail, but you’ve made it and you feel like you really have made a long journey. And yes, it is the journey that matters.

Final Thoughts

Having covered Journey we are left with one final game from the people at thatgamecompany; flOw. Seeing how Journey and Flower pack one hell of an emotional punch I am glad to have played flOw before to know that it is very different from the two that came afterwards.

We have touched on the game vs. art every now and then, especially when we completed our playthrough of Flower. This is a debate that started up again last year because of both Beyond: Two Souls and The Last Of Us being so cinematic in scope. Maybe one day the gaming world will be fully recognised with their own widely known awards in the vein of the Grammys, Emmys and Oscars. For now let’s be content with Journey snagging the first nomination for a video game at the Grammys.

#887 Mega Man 9

Posted: 6th May 2014 by Jeroen in Games
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2

328th played so far

Megaman9coverGenre: Platform/Action
Platform: Playstation 3/XBox 360/Wii
Year of Release: 2009
Developer: Capcom
Publisher: Capcom

After the release of the list’s second edition, 20 games were removed, with twelve of them unplayed so far. For completeness and because we waned to try some of them, we decided to still play these twelve, but with shorter or changed write-ups. Today the first of these – a look not just at the ninth Mega Man game, but a chance to discuss the series as a whole.

As major a franchise as Mega Man is – over 50 games created, one of Capcom’s biggest, most prolific franchises – it is still mostly ignored by the list. Only one game is listed, and that’s the fanbase focused Mega Man 9, the game that’s officially on the list. While it’s probably meant to be one game to represent the series as a whole, going for the retro-looking, updated but probably lesser known ninth (download-only) version of the game seems like an odd pick. Sure, it’s technologically better, but does it really shine in comparison with Mega Man 2, probably the first real classic in the series (and the one I grew up with), or Mega Man 4, where the series really hits its stride, introducing the final defining gameplay elements?

Yes, sure, the games all have a lot in common – an early example of reusing and extending the game engine for multiple sequels – but that would be more of an argument to go for a classic game.

Why is this such a beloved franchise then? Well, part of the nostalgia probably comes from its difficulty. The games are incredibly unforgiving with no save points, continues that usually dump you back at the start of the level and careful precision required in many parts of the game. Enemies are common, awkwardly placed (for you) and respawning if you scroll the screen a few pixels too far or wait a bit too long.

But when you can do it, it feels like it pays off. Not just in progressing in the level, but to get to the bigger areas. The boss fights really pay off, with each of the initial eight (or sometimes six) robot masters providing a challenge. They each have their own fighting style, but are even more important as the reward you get as you defeat them. From time stoppers to shields to all different sorts of attacks, getting them and being able to use them just feels amazing. It makes the subsequent levels easier as well – the gathered weapons tend to be stronger than your default, or else add some other advantage that makes the level easier – even down to being able to reach more secrets.

Another part of this is the level design. As said, each robot master has their own level, all themed to the robot master’s name and weapons (although these are more similar between games – pretty much all the fire-based robot masters have lava levels, often with similar disappearing blocks). Half the fun jumping into Mega Man 9 – the first time I played it – was trying all eight available levels and seeing what each offered – and how much more difficult the games feels (or, probably, how much less competent I am from not having the muscle memory for these levels, compared to what I had for Mega Man 2 – the game I started with, and the favourite).

The combination of these two works out to a group of engaging games, with the different iterations on the game creating an enjoyable experience. Unfortunately, it was one that (for the classic series) became less relevant after the NES era, with the sequel series becoming more prominent. The Mega Man X series is the original example, taking the basic gameplay, refining it with a number of new features (such as wall jumping) and allowing for a more polished release on the (then) next-gen SNES. This, again, was followed by sequels until the PS2 era, creating a more story-based longer running series with a lot more going on than Mega Man‘s simple ‘kill the robots and capture Wily’ storyline. (Although to be honest, the simplicity was charming, and made for something far more straight forward). This, too, got its spinoffs in the Mega Man Zero series, taking the games a further step away from the original.

There’s plenty of other spin-offs as well – the action RPG Mega Man Battle Network series (and its Star Force spin-off) placed the game a step further in a different genre that (despite some story issues) tended to create pretty decent gameplay. Then there’s the one-time games, featuring Mega Man characters playing soccer or fighting in a beat ’em up setting.

But despite all of that, the simplicity of story and concept of the original series is the most engaging for me, and the one that deserved its followups that were officially covered in the book. It has the solid gameplay that slowly grows as you play through the game, with some difficulty that, given the time, feels like a true test of skill, and makes you feel like a master when you get that far.

And one day I will defeat that dragon and make it further into Mega Man 2. I know I will.

#1011 Ni No Kuni

Posted: 4th May 2014 by Jeroen in Games
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2

327th played so far

F-I-Ni-No-Kuni-700x396Genre: Role-Playing
Platform: Playstation 3
Year of Release: 2011
Developer: Level-5/Studio Ghibli
Publisher: Level-5/Namco Bandai

Yeah, that’s a game number beyond 1001 up there. As discussed about six months ago, the second edition of the book added 20 new games to the list (and removing 20 others). Real time finally catching up to us, we only now get to the point in our writing we can start slotting the new games in, which means a bit of a catch-up in terms of years.

Ni No Kuni sounds like a winning game from the start. Using the storytelling and art design Studio Ghibli offers, together with the gaming expertise of Level-5. And to be honest, we’ve already played some of it before we found out about the list update, and did indeed love it.

Where most gamers were most excited about 2013 as the release of Grand Theft Auto V I was counting down the days until the EU release of Ni No Kuni. I will honestly say that I started out playing this with an incredibly high level of anticipation and (since this is made by Studio Ghibli) it has been very hard to maintain a low level of bias.

Our Thoughts

Studio Ghibli movies are a bit magical in their own right, and Ni No Kuni is no exception. With that I don’t just mean that, well, you become a magician of sorts, complete with spellbook and creature summoning. No, the world itself, the characters you meet, the design and the story are all special and with a sort of charm that’s endearing, a world that invites you in and one that seems to follow straight on from childrens’ fantasies.

The basic story is already a good example of that. With his mother in a coma from an accident, Oliver finds out that he can save her by defeating the evil in an alternative dimension style magical universe, one that reflects his life, with characters from the magical universe appearing in the real world as well.

There is far more to the game than just that, though. The games features plenty of sidequests, and while many of these are of the fedex variety, one of the more interesting changes comes from the emotion system. Oliver can store certain emotions in his amulet and gift them to others to increase their energy or enthusiasm. Taking purely mechanically, it might not be a large difference from any other quest item, but as a story it’s a lot more satisfying.

Moving away from the Ghibli elements to a place when Level 5 must have been more guiding, the systems that surround this are just as interesting. The basic mechanics are that of a monster training game – Pokemon, effectively – with a bunch of real time RPG style elements added. Positioning and movements become important as you can actively avoid attacks, and while there is an underlying turn system where you declare your attacks for a period of time, most of it feels like you’re actively in control.

Beyond that you can switch between familiars, monsters who help you, who each have their own strengths (partially in a rock-paper-scissors triangle) and abilities, aided by equipment you can get for each of them. It gives a gotta catch ’em all vibe, but also a lot of scope to play with your party and find the cutest creatures to join you.

You, as the player, get to cast loads of spells, in- and outside of battle. Its use is done charmingly – you gain a large spellbook (in game, although the DS version had a physical book – one of the reasons it never made it out of Japan). You gather pages for this book to gain new spells, as well as to gain more background information on your familiars and other parts of the world. I really lament the loss of the physical spellbook in releases outside of Japan. The sheer amount of effort that has gone into the creation of mythology, map drawing and regional history is staggering. The best part of opening new game featuring a vast world is the planning of routes using the in built map (I spent hours using the map from Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas planning where I would spend the next sojourn would be) so this felt like a really lost opportunity that could be rectified by a visit to eBay and copious lessons in Japanese.

I would be remiss if I did not start delving into more of the Ghibli influences. As someone who lists My Neighbor Totoro and Spirited Away as his second and third favourite movies I am a bit of a Ghibli-buff. The first noticeable influence, which is apparent even before starting the game, is the music. Ghibli (and Takeshi Kitano) stalwart Joe Hisaishi is on hand to produce a sweeping score with a variety of incidental music which appears as a marriage between the whimsical elements of Howl’s Moving Castle and the more traditional grounding of Dolls. Joe Hisaishi more than matches Final Fantasy composer Nobuo Uematsu at his own game and I live in hope of a Final Fantasy style franchise for Ni No Kuni; especially due to the literal translation of Second Country.

Closing this off let us have a look at the graphics. With both Level-5 and Studio Ghibli having a stake in this game there was never any doubt that the graphics would be colourful and beautiful, but I could never have dreamed of how high quality they actually were. The only word I can think that would accurately describe them would be lush. The characters that they have been able to create are outstanding from the opulent surroundings of the Cat King to twisted figures of the Nightmares. The same applies, as earlier referenced, to the familiars themselves which would not look out of place in Spirited Away and would make for a successful sideline in soft toys.

Final Thoughts

Many of the problems that I have with JRPGs are still present in this game. Sometimes you need to grind before you can move on and there are a number of fetch-and-carry tasks required to get the most out of the game’s features. However, this is one of the few times that I have not really minded doing so. Having not yet completed this game fully it is early to place it amongst my favourite examples of the genre but I do know that it will possibly dethrone Final Fantasy X as my favourite RPG if it can keep the story telling and the empathy up. Whether it will make me cry or not… is something only time will tell.

#788 The Darkness

Posted: 30th April 2014 by Jeroen in Games
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326th played so far

Darkness_coverGenre: Action/First-Person Shooter
Platform: PS3/Xbox 360
Year of Release: 2007
Developer: Starbreeze Studios
Publisher: 2K Games

I’ll be honest – there are games that I’ve forgotten are on the list at all. I had that experience recently (for me) as I was setting up things in preparation for the second edition of the book. Cruise for a Corpse is one of them – I must have known it was in, as it’s on our lists, and it has the same entry in both editions, but it presence stayed a surprise.

The Darkness is another such title – a name my eye may glide past occasionally, but not one that has registered as being particularly interesting. It’s an FPS, which is a genre we need to play more of, but how far it’ll go beyond just a dark shooter remains to be seen.

I, on the other hand, had been avoiding this game since the title and the cover art gave me the incorrect expectation of this being a survival horror style shooter in the vein of Resident Evil 4. Despite being nearly a third into this project the prospect of covering games such as that still leave me with a sense of apprehension. Still, glad that this game did not live up to those negative expectations.

Our Thoughts

It’s amazing to realise how far certain genres have advanced. Deus Ex was novel in how it introduced RPG elements, with a branching narrative, character interactions and character and stat development. A couple of years later, none of these things stand out as a special feature of The Darkness. While, true, it doesn’t feature them as heavily, the amount of work put into creating a decent story is amazing when you compare it to an early game like Doom.

The story starts off simple – as part of the mafia, you need to escape an assassination after you’ve made some (not really important at this point) mistakes. While escaping and avoiding being killed, you release an entity called ‘The Darkness’, that has apparently been in your family a long time. It gives you some odd, dark powers (actually fairly reminiscent of Prototype in its style), allowing you to summon dark allies, attack with these odd tentacle-beasts, or even use them to crawl through vents and explore, mostly unseen.

It creates an interesting twist on the standard FPS mechanisms, creating some interesting new abilities that determines more heavily how you play, allowing more of a focus on stealth, but also on sending others ahead to attack and making sure you can make the right entrance for each type of enemy.

While these are the abilities you’ll notice more often during gameplay, as visible are the changes as you play. The game doesn’t take place in distinct levels that you move between, and even where in other games the areas of a game would mostly be linear, The Darkness has you moving through (fictional) New York a lot more often as you visit various neighbourhoods, going back and forth between metro stations to get to your different objectives. And while you infiltrate buildings, just as much time is spent getting, say, to your girlfriend’s apartment and spending time with her. In fact, a rarity for these kind of games, The Darkness features a real conversation system, where (RPG style) you can pick what you say to get information from those you are talking to. It’s not the most expansive, but it allows for more characterization than what you commonly see.

I want to develop slightly from the earlier point about the relationship between the main character and his girlfriend. If you remember from a post we made a month ago about classic adventure game Dragon’s Lair. In that post I expressed how annoyed I was at the representation the ditsy blonde you had been sent to rescue. Well, it was gratifying to see how far the representation of gender and relationships has advanced in the last few years. Granted I know that there are many examples of realistic female characters in the interim (Yuna from Final Fantasy X being the first that comes into my head) but due to the recency of playing this game the contrast is even greater.

Probably one of the nicer touches of the game are some of its collectables – one in particular. You can collect phone numbers and then use payphones to call them. They are for several different types of phone lines – personal numbers, normal companies or the more usual, more expensive paid lines. They’re little more than some prerecorded lines, but there are loads of them and they are funny enough, as well as adding enough flavour, that it adds some nice colour to the gameworld.

Probably the biggest criticism is that the human characters tend to look a bit off. While the game does well with its graphics, they look a bit simple at times and not nice or realistic enough for the quality the game puts in elsewhere. They make the conversations a bit more annoying than they necessarily should be, which is a bit of a waste.

Final Thoughts

The game was more fun and more interesting than I was originally expecting. While there are large shooting areas – early on, in fact, you don’t have much of a choice – the powers make enough of a change from just about anything out there that it makes the game a lot more fun to play. More important, the story, although it starts generic, is interesting enough to make you wonder what’s going on, and after the third time the Darkness speaks to you, it’s nearly guaranteed to draw you in.

#766 Hexic 2

Posted: 26th April 2014 by Jeroen in Games
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0

325th played so far

XBL_Hexic-2Genre: Puzzle
Platform: Xbox 360
Year of Release: 2007
Developer: Carbonated Games
Publisher: Microsoft Game Studios

We haven’t really played many puzzle games lately, have we? Especially pure puzzle games. We had Scribblenauts recently, but that’s about it. It’s a stats thing really – we were getting a bit too far ahead with the genre and needed some time to focus on other genres. Now, however, we’ve caught up and even fallen behind a bit – time to jump back into a genre we both enjoy playing. We currently have the same problem with Platformers which is now the genre of game we are the most behind on.

Hexic 2 has an instantly amazing pedigree – it’s from the mind of Alexej Pajitnov, the creator of Tetris. A version of the original was installed on all Xbox 360 consoles, with this sequel being released two years later.

Our Thoughts

Hexic 2‘s gameplay is simple. On a board filled with coloured hexagons, you rotate them to create groups of a single colour. They disappear, you get points. Getting long chains or flowers (a circle of six surrounding one of another colour) gets you additional bonuses.

It’s not as simple a formula as Tetris, in a way – it’s not as intuitive as forming lines of blocks, and the controls are a bit awkward. You’re moving around this offset grid, where it becomes a bit difficult to get to the exact rotation point. Rotation gets awkward in the direction you turn in – we kept turning clockwise all the time where counter clockwise is possible. There are also several powerups available, but while there are help files around, it’s not immediately clear why it’s there or what they’re doing. All in all, it takes more time to really learn how to play the game.

It is still an incredibly addictive game. It works well in multiplayer – trying to annoy the other player while you’re building up your score – or in single player, with either measured puzzle-solving or a race to the finish. Survival mode locks off bricks you don’t clear during a level, making it every more difficult to play the game. It is still fun against the computer however it doesn’t give that same joy as making the person next to you swear as you extend your section of the gaming board into their half.

It’s all fairly straightforward, and while there are several twists, all seem to follow naturally from the basic gameplay. A bit more explanation would be nice, some improved controls, but on the whole the game plays pretty well.

Final Thoughts

As a puzzle game, Hexic 2 has the mechanics down, with some solid (if simple) graphics. The many different modes are interesting enough, offering a lot of gameplay options. The multiplayer adds a lot to keeping the game fresh, with the singleplayer modes adding quite a lot of variety to keep things fresh.

#8 Asteroids

Posted: 22nd April 2014 by Jeroen in Games
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5

324th played so far

asteroidsGenre: Shoot ‘Em Up
Platform: Arcade
Year of Release: 1979
Developer: Atari
Publisher: Atari

Some games are so well-known, they require no introduction.

Our Thoughts

I mean, do I really need to describe Asteroids? Line graphics, little ship that rotates and moves ahead, firing at rocks to split and destroy them.

It’s a simple concept, predictable and straight forward. But then again, it’s got that simplicity that makes the old arcade games so addictive. It’s possible to survive – not that complicated, even – but endurance plays a large part. And from there on, the levels blur together. You die and lose a life for some reason and you’re back in the game so quickly that it all flows into each other – you simply keep playing the game.

There have been many knock-offs of the game – from straight re-skins to taking the basic gameplay and adding additional features, but going back to the original, I must admit that it just doesn’t entirely work for me. The simple aesthetic, plain, direct line drawings, add to the gameplay and fit in nicely with the game itself.

My first exposure to the Asteroids formula was the rather beautifully 3D-rendered AstroFire. Like Asteroids you had to fire your laser into the flying chunks of space rock whilst evading the smaller chunks but also included power-ups and colour graphics. My first playthrough of Asteroids actually confused a young me since there was no power-ups. Still, it speaks to the influential nature of this game that it has become a standard game-type.

It’s a simple game – sure, more advanced than Pong or Boot Hill, but still focused on doing a single thing well. It feels rare these days – something for indies, free internet games, but not the big titles, but it’s what makes the game more fun.

Final Thoughts

I can’t claim perfection here, sure. If you searched, you could find some niggles with the game – the control scheme, while fit for purpose, can fit a bit awkward sometimes. But the game is good enough to come back to more often. It’s these sort of games that are one of the reasons playing these games again is so much fun – it’s great to get back into them.

#970 Scribblenauts

Posted: 18th April 2014 by Jeroen in Games
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1

323th played so far

256px-Scribblenauts_coverGenre: Puzzle/Action
Platform: DS
Year of Release: 2009
Developer: 5th Cell
Publisher: WB Games

Now here’s a game we’ve been sitting on for a while. Scribblenauts was an early “you’ve got to try this” “Oh, I love it” shared experience between Peter and myself. We both got pretty far in. In fact, I believe Peter finished this and, after I got it him for Christmas days after we started this blog, he finished the sequel Super Scribblenauts within days.

It was because of how good Super Scribblenauts was that we never actually covered this through the fear that would be replaced by its sequel. However, the list makers did not seem to have put as much thought into this update as we would have hoped. Maybe they should just give us the honors and we’d make sure it was done properly… with a big debate in the local Byron and lots of alcohol.

After three years, it’s time to just finish this – bite the bullet and get it checked.

Our Thoughts

One of the big games we seem to be looking for as a future dream is the game where you can do anything. A Star Trek holodeck sort of thing, where you say what you want, program it, and it happens. We’re not exactly there yet, but Scribblenauts seems to have taken us a bit closer.

The central gameplay element of Scribblenauts is that you can summon any object. Type the name of any single object and the game will create it. There are apparently thousands of options (although obviously some share the same graphics and attributes) and it takes some trying to find objects the game won’t create. The sequels, by the way, add even more options – including the use of many adjectives to change the objects further.

 Up to a point, these interact as well. It seems partially rule-based (wild monster chases played, this is a carnivore, this is a herbivore, this is red, that sort of thing), all done precise enough to feel natural and logical. Sure, occasionally it’s not entirely clear whether you can get away with certain things, but that’s rarely a main thing.

Your goal is to solve puzzles through summoning objects and using them to solve problems (“feed the dog”) or reaching goals (put out fires, build bridges and so on), all to collect starite, which you need to proceed through levels (although you can use ‘starite’ as an object to summon, usually that won’t work as the solution).

It’s a shame that there are a few solutions that solve an alarmingly large amount of puzzles. The most famous is probably the one that scares off any threat – just summon Death and mostly everyone will flee or be killed. Personally I just like to set in motion a battle to the death between Death, Medusa and Cthulu. In the sequel this became even better with the adjectives when the ultimate warrior was a zombie Cthulu.

The other flaw in the game are the controls. Manipulating the objects is a bit tricky anyway, but controlling Maxwell is quite a bit more annoying. You can’t move him around using the joypad, but instead need to tap the touchscreen to move. Which means that failing to select an object due to pickiness may cause your character to, say, walk from the edge of a cliff into lava. Not ideal.

Final Thoughts

The game has some issues, sure, but on the whole it’s a pretty fun puzzler, further enhanced by the sheer number of possibilities. Sure, a lot of the time you’d just go for Cthulhu and solve the puzzle through a certain brand of brute force, but the many different options are there to be used when you want them – or want to play around with them.

#509: The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind

Posted: 14th April 2014 by Jeroen in Games
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3

322nd played so far

Elder_Scrolls-Morrowind_(PC)_01Genre: Action/Role-Playing
Platform: PC
Year of Release: 2002
Developer: Bethseda
Publisher: Bethseda

Sometimes we pick up a game for this blog just as a present to ourselves. Yes, part of the reason we’re delving into Morrowind today is that it’s a stop on the way to playing Peter’s preference, Oblivion, but another reason why I’ve kept pushing for it is that I’d only barely made it into the game last time I played it, but enjoyed the openness of it immensely.

With the arrival of Skyrim as one of my birthday presents (and its inclusion as one of the games in the new 1001 list) our playing of Morrowind has been expedited even more… and not just to hear all the complaints about an arrow to the knee.

So we get to dive into the third Elder Scrolls game, Morrowind. I’ve been thinking about playing the first two at some point, but having gotten into this, I must admit I’m not sure that’ll be worth it. Morrowind, in the mean time… well, worth getting back to already.

Our Thoughts

Morrowind is a joy to play. It’s missing in the characterization that more story-driven games like Baldur’s Gate II brings, but its world adds so much more.

While other games take pains to fill their worlds – small worlds, of only a few screens per city and maybe two dozen cities and villages at most (see Fallout for an example of this), Morrowind creates a continent that takes half an hour to cross on foot, with many parts detailed and at least some hand crafting applied. The NPCs often share speeches for similar subjects, with only plot-specific items being more diverse, but there are loads of them.

The beauty of these open world RPGs is your ability to just get lost in them. You start off a bit limited with that – you need time to grow your skills and get enough contacts – but once you get a bit of equipment and some skill increases under your belt, it’s a bit easier to explore and do your thing, opening up many things to do. I spent a large part of our playthrough just wandering through the world, taking in sights, avoiding and engaging with people, and discovering things that are out there. Out of nowhere, we stumbled into a mining village – no clue that it was really there, but enough to do there that you can meet some people, discuss things, help out and so on.

We also tried to do some faction quests. Your place and standing in the world is partially influenced by who you get along with, and the game sports a large faction-mechanism, with each having questlines to play through that unlock benefits when you go through. Even the main quest, when you start it, is like this – you’re becoming a part of one of the factions in Vvardenfell, the province Morrowind takes place in.

Visually, the game looks dated, with the slightly too stretched textures and blocky models. Certain areas have a tendency to look samey – it’s easy to get lost in some of the bigger towns, not because of size, but because the buildings and corridors have little to distinguish themselves. Add to that that a lot of the characters you meet do too – there’s just not a lot of opportunity for customization, and the limited options mean that most guards look the same, even if some are meant to be captains or such. But then, that’s what mods are for, and these days there is at least one mod that addresses this for Morrowind.

Now, I am going to jump in here with a problem that I have had with a number of RPGs (not necessarily Morrowind) but our playthrough of this game reminded me of this. How is it that your starter character is unable to punch a scorpion when it is right in front of you. It doesn’t seem to matter that it can kill you in about three hits or that you are in possession of a massive club, somehow you find that pixel between their leg joints. /rant.

What probably causes the most friction when playing this is knowing what follows. From what I know, Oblivion does most things better – bigger, more detailed world, more factions, more people. It sounds like it has its own balancing issues, but I do keep wondering why I’d try when the sequel does it better. Other than, of course, that I want to experience it all.

Final Thoughts

Morrowind was released during a golden age for RPGs – with Bioware at its original peak, Deus Ex showing the hybridization opportunities of the genre, as well as some highlights of the genre on the Japanese side of things – Final Fantasy X seems notable in this respect, with the Playstation 2 seemingly a hotbed of them in general. With it, Morrowind led its own genre – the open world, sandbox RPGs. It’s not a coincidence that this was released less than a year after Grand Theft Auto III. While Morrowind has its fantasy elements and RPG elements, and GTA3 does more with its action elements, both have a ‘do what you want’ feel to them, where you can follow the plot if you want, or ignore it, explore and find other things to do in the world. It’s all up to you, and it’s a freedom that’s incredibly liberating, making for amazingly fun games.

#7 Adventure

Posted: 10th April 2014 by Jeroen in Games
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321st played so far

Genre: Adventure
Platform: VCS
Year of Release: 1979
Developer: Atari Inc.
Publisher: Atari Inc.

I was actually already sort-of planning to follow Peter’s suggestion from Gradius, coming back to play games in order at least some of the time.

The next game in order is Adventure, the first adventure game (and predecessor of other genres like it). The version listed – and the one we played – is the graphically enhanced yet otherwise simplified Atari port.

Our Thoughts

The original Adventure (or officially Colossal Cave Adventure) is a text based adventure (owed a great debt by, for example and most notably, Eamon and Zork). It comes from the university mainframe times, an open source adventure expanded by successive contributions.

That didn’t end up on the list, despite – well, “maze of twisty little passages, all alike” is still quoted and xyzzy still one of the known password – being one of those early influential games that left its mark on early gamer conciousness.

What we have here, though, is what I suspect is one of the first remakes in gaming history. Taking bits of the aforementioned Adventure, Atari created a game vaguely based on it, tasking you with retrieving a chalice and returning it to your castle. During this, you’ll need to find swords and keys and be careful as you’re being chased by ducks dragons.

The end result is an adventure game that has puzzles that aren’t as tricky, but still gives a game with ample exploration and several nice actionny bits to run through. It also has some genuinely annoying mazes that took me ages to figure out. There’s a trick to bypassing parts of it (using a bridge. A large bridge), but even so it’s confusing. It’s a good maze for it though, especially with the constraints in place (each screen being mirrored).

The game is engaging in its simplicity. While it doesn’t have the depth its text-based parent must have had, the graphic interface adds a lot more challenge in the speed, making for an interesting different game.

Final Thoughts

I’ll be honest, I went into this game with far different expectations of what it’d be – expecting it to be closer to the text adventure, with some minimal graphics added.

Instead it was this minimal adventure game, focused on exploration and action without too much in the way of (more complicated) puzzles. It’s nothing that makes the game enjoyable – in fact, it’s still fun to play – but even though there are the multiple quest options, it’s just not enough to lure me back in now. But then, as we know, games have changed.

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