#also is anyone even Making AAA mech games at this point

[neproxrezi]

armored core.........,

[adamatomic]

Mario & Rabbids Quick Thoughts

Since we’re working on a turn-based grid-based squad-based game, and are fans of the genre in general, I was excited to spend some time w Mario & Rabbids. It’s pretty good so far, but I wanted to note some particular bits before I forget em. All y’all’s at PAX so probably nobody will read this but me but!!

Spatial Tactics: This is the most obvious place where Mario & Rabbids absolutely kills it. Movement is just a range and can be done in any order. The ranges are marked off in really clear and easy to understand ways. They made a cursor into a character even! The simplified cover-percentage system is great. Slide tackles feel amazing. Team jumps help solve a lot of grouping / flanking problems and are super satisfying. Upgrading into multi-bounces and head-stomps just feels soooo good.

Legibility: Destructible cover versus non-destructible, fast-travel tiles, character positions and status (exposed, half-cover, full-cover, HP, etc), special ability effects, all this stuff is like extremely pro-tier and much more reminiscent of an internal Nintendo title than an Ubisoft title (sorry Ubi <3 ) The enemy designs so far do a great job of communicating their behaviors and abilities too.

Fluff: There’s just an enormous amount of fluff in this game. Like 300 guns that are pretty hard to differentiate, super flaky small percentages in the tech tree and in the weapon statuses, weird travel time and “exploration” segments between battles, 6000 collectible something or others. Some of this fluff I think does add to the experience (especially the super juicy animations) but a lot of it feels more like a F2P mobile game, there’s just so many popups and obscure resources. All the chunky legible stuff in combat doesn’t really apply to the rest of the experience in a lot of ways.

Part of me can’t help but compare and contrast it to another extremely good X-COM lite, Steamworld Heist ($14.99 to M&R’s $59.99) by a medium-size indie studio. It’s 2D instead of 3D, but it’s got almost no fluff, superior controls, equal degree of accessibility, and so far comparable depth. What sets M&R apart from Heist? Number of menu items? Amount of background meshes? A Nintendo license? All of the above to some degree probably.

Go back in time a few years wait no decades and check out a AAA strategy title like Front Mission 3, and it’s structured a lot more like Heist than like M&R. FM3 is mostly mech battles, with some upgrade and config in between, navigation and choices happening on maps and through dialog boxes. M&R’s contiguous 3D spaces and relentless cutscenes are a distinctly different approach that makes it harder to play at your own pace and also creates a kind of presentation standard that is hyper-unrealistic for smaller teams who are executing on gameplay and experience at the same level otherwise.

This isn’t gonna blow anyone’s mind but the current standard for scope for a $59.99 game feels super messed up to me. Like the line between the game that’s there and all the stuff that’s been glommed on to it to justify this arbitrary price point isn’t really doing anybody any favors.

I do like those juicy animations though.

[mozillogames]

You’ll Be Playing Til Dawn In Horizon Zero Dawn

Have you ever seen the TV show Walking With dinosaurs? It was an old documentary series about dinosaurs, but thanks to the wonders of Horizon Zero Dawn, you can now walk with dinosaurs! You can hear the whir of their gears and the crackling of their servos. Enjoying the warm embrace of their hard metal plating and watching out for the striking glow of their eyes while hiding from their shoulder mounted orbital death cannons.

While they may not be the dinosaurs you remember, the world of Horizon Zero Dawn is meant to be our own, just one thousand years in the future, also with robot dinosaurs, and the only evidence of our modern day society lives on through ruined skyscrapers and overgrown streets.

One of the best things in this game is just the sombre and chilling world. Seeing familiar objects, but overgrown, empty and ruined can be so haunting at times. You have these new societies that have formed, worshiping various fragments from ancient times and having created simple, yet complicated, weapons. There are bows that fire weird pulse arrows and a futuristic, yet rustic tripwire launcher and setter. The juxtaposition that takes place in this land that’s set in the future, but limited to simple tribalistic clans with complex robotic creatures all set against wooden and stone huts adds to this wonderful and unique aesthetic that I got rather enraptured with.

There’s so much to get lost in in the setting of the world, both various biomes you come across as well as the shocking distance between the cultures and architecture of the different tribes themselves. I just fucking loved the world, alright?

The game itself is an open world adventure, similar in style and scope to The Witcher 3, to some extent. In my place of work someone has likened it to Far Cry Primal numerous times, and that doesn’t begin to explain the game, and is ultimately an insult. In terms of stuff to do, there are a number of bandit camps, collectibles and towers littered around the map, however, they aren’t over numerous and you’re not left playing map clean-up. There are vaguely interesting bits and pieces of lore to be gained from at least two of these map items, with one having a rather extensive story for a certain character, another introducing a peculiar character and quest chain.

The world doesn’t feel empty, it’s full of robotic dinosaurs for crying out loud, littered with herds of  automated animals, going about their business, but all just waiting to be engaged with and to engage you and make traveling a genuine peril. Sure, the settlements can be a little hit or miss for the most part, but there is still a plethora of interesting quests that take place in this world that I found myself getting completely lost just in living in this world, forgetting about the main story as I was enraptured with these side quests and characters, experiencing the world itself.

This doesn’t mean the main quest line is anything to scoff at, if anything it becomes one of the strongest parts of the game with some of my favorite elements throughout the entire thing. A number of characters are introduced, most of which are placed a thousand years in the past as you learn the history of this world and the events that led up to its birthing, of sorts. It’s incredible as you rapidly get to know all of these characters and I found myself enamored with their story and interactions with this near impossible task they have to undertake, which you obviously have some idea as to the outcome, as Aloy and the world around her are living proof, but how it came to be, watching that mystery unfold is truly outstanding.

I shan’t delve into the story too strongly, just know it’s very good, the only downfall of it is that the very final encounter of the game is a bit weak, but everything else is wonderful!

The characters themselves are all rather interesting, some are flawed more than others, some lost in their devotion to their various cultures and gods, others are “tainted” by the ways of the ancient ones and become lost in a thirst for knowledge and uncovering ancient technology. Aloy is an odd one in this sense as, as my friend put it, she’s either very progressive in her way of thinking, or stuck incredibly in the past, as she takes to incidents very level headedly, not caring for ancient and arbitrary rites that seem to exist purely to limit people. Never hungry for blood or revenge and lost in the ways of a warrior clan, but also oddly not too soft to not know what she wants and how to get it, and at times it feels like she doesn’t quite fit because of her modern way of going about things, well, modern in our sense, one thousand years in the past in the game’s sense, hence my friend’s “progressive/regressive” comment.

The game is not without some flaw, as the climbing in the game leaves much to be desired. Climbing is only allowed when the game deems it so, and this is rarely. Ledges that are shoulder height are insurmountable, as you’re unable to jump high enough to clear them, but the game doesn’t designate them climbable, so you have to rather frustratedly go a fair distance out of your way just to walk up a simple ledge, even when they’re waist height, just tall enough to prove too high for you to jump up and becomes an impossible hurdle, like some kind of lame man’s high jump. Further frustration is added upon the initiation of these climbing segments, whether it be trying to locate the ledge in the cliff face that allows you to grab it, or if it involves jumping directly onto the damn rope/ledge and the game deciding you’ve approached it entirely wrong and you plummet to your death.

Sadly this is something that happened a few times in my experience, I either missed a jump, trying to zip-line down, having to make a leap of faith that even the most devout  would struggle with, only to not grab the rope, that’s well above your head, or it’d be trying to take a simple step from one rock to another, maybe onto a log, and the game doesn’t trigger the climbing system, so you’re left taking a normal, non-magnetized step and plummet into oblivion.

I’ve made it known that one of the things that almost ruined the entire game for me were Glinthawks, an aerial carrion mecha whose only whim is to wobble around the sky, never floating still long enough to be even slightly simple and just buzz overhead, dropping ice cold death over and over. Much like dogs, Aloy should be unable to look up, as the camera doesn’t enjoy the soft pan into the ground, as the environment rapidly obscures your vision. It’s not just the annoying combination of nature and camera that sets these flying devils apart as one of the worst experiences in the game, it’s how they detract from everything else that works so well within Horizon Zero Dawn.

With ground based enemies you can lay traps and wires and easily tie them down to the ground. When another enemy comes into the scene you can see them coming as you’re still looking on their plain, maybe not their direction, but a quick spin around will reveal the angry robot gazelle headed at your spine. With Glinthawks, you’re constantly looking up, peppering the sky with arrows, narrowly missing time after time. The rest of the world disappears and all you see is a mech against the background of the sky, craning your neck up trying to keep a track on such a frustrating menace. The only other thing you’ll see approaching are other birds, to add more stress to your day, so you can easily find yourself suddenly taken down by an agitated mechanical alligator and they’re just not fun. There is another flying enemy in the game, the Stormbirds, but they work far better as an enemy as they’re both larger and also come down to the earth far more frequently, not living life above your head, just out of reach forever flying like some kind of aggravating albatross.

As for the rest of the machines, I think I enjoyed all of them. Every machine had a specific way to deal with them, their own weak points and strategies for getting to them. Every single machine is tough in its own right, and the process of learning how to deal with one is great. Not to mention that just because you know HOW to deal with a Fire Bellowback doesn’t mean it won’t still burn away your identity in a blaze of fire. Using and learning the pros and cons of each bit of kit you pick up pays off and works well as you’ll find yourself cycling through your arsenal frequently to get the specific effect that you require.

Horizon Zero Dawn is an outstanding game that I truly loved. The world itself is so enrapturing that I loved looking at the cities, the architecture and the different clothing that scattered the world. The designs of everything were incredible to the point where I’d genuinely consider having figures of every single machine with their strange mechanical designs, even the Glinthawks, the bastards. I love everything that this game stands for, with it being a AAA game that’s done things differently to everyone else, and it’s so easy to just get lost in the characters and world that I highly recommend the game to everyone and anyone. It starts a little slow, but you can quickly find yourself fall in love with a world of mystery and robot dinosaurs with heavy undertones of remorse and loss in the sombre ruins throughout the world, witnessing the final instants of the civilization we live in today.

(You can also watch me play a little bit of the game here)