Pagoda of Gaming

So instead of the Deck Building article I was going to post today (which in actuality needs much more time to finish) I thought I should post a little bit about Alan Wake since I now officially love the shit out of it. I’ve already said some things about the game, but that was in the early days, when I just got finished with the second chapter about a week ago.

But why did it take me so long? Unlike my usual gaming habits, I decided to take my time. The game itself is structured much like a TV show. There are 6 Episodes in the game – and each one takes somewhere between two and three hours to complete – and within each episode you usually travel to two major locations and often have some minor interactions in-between. So I only played an episode at a time, as the Norse Remedy Gods intended. And thankfully I didn’t lose my place in the story thanks to the Lost-like recap at the start of each episode.

I mention Lost for many reasons – In fact, i feel the game draws essence from many great TV shows. Twin Peaks, some Supernatural, some X-Files, a little Fringe, and a dash of the Twilight Zone - I could go on. It’s probably a massive indicator, you’d go head over heels for Alan Wake if you also love any of the shows I mentioned above.

The Story itself begins with Alan and his wife Alice going on a little vacation to Bright Springs - a very Twin-Peaks-esque town up in the American mountains. Soon after arriving Alice is mysteriously kidnapped, Alan loses a week of his life waking up in a car wreak, and pages from a Manuscript start appearing everywhere that Wake has no recollection of writing. And so begins Alan Wake’s struggle with the “Dark Presence” – that is intent on making what Alan has written start to come true.

For what seems like some odd decisions in the story, (can you smell the cheese coming from the last line of my last paragraph?) from premise to plot twists, I felt it all came together in a rather plausible way – hell I’ve stuck with Lost all these years, and that show’s never out of fresh bullshit to fill the plot holes – and at the end it wrapped up rather nicely, leaving a cryptic cliff-hanger for what comes next, though managing to wrap up our protagonist’s various goals.

The gameplay never noticeably gets in the way of the story, and very much serves as a means to drive and emphasise the narrative – it’s not your typical soulless shooter. In this regard I’d liken it a lot to Mass Effect 2 (and you can read my awfully written review for that game right HERE). It would be ok if it stood alone, but it’s utterly defining when it is paired with the amazing story.

There’s a ton of Collectables hidden in the game – some not so relevant like the Coffee Thermoses (is that right? Thermi maybe?) ranging to the very important weapon cache’s and the more so important Manuscript pages from Wake’s amnesially written novel. These pages work sort of like Bioshock’s recorders – but instead of having recorded the past, the pages show things that are about to happen, and not just to Wake, to off screen characters and events also.

There are some of these pages that are exclusive to Nightmare Mode – the game’s hardest difficulty setting, and I believe they might hold more clarity over the game’s story, so you bet you’re ass I want to go back and get them. (not right away mind you, I have Red Dead to play first)

The actual combat revolves around a combination of shining light on enemies to remove a shield of darkness, then finishing them off with some good old fashioned firearms. You might think this gets rather stale – well near the end of the game I felt that it did. But throughout there’s plenty of tricks to aid this combo. Flares for one play an important part, whether in  gun form or held in hand which has a rather nice “you shall not pass!!” effect. Further down the line the game also introduces equipment like Flashbang grenades that take a much more offensive role than traditional means.

There’s a smattering of great Remedy moments to be had – veterans of Max Payne will remember the in-game TV shows and various pop-culture references hidden throughout the game, and they all make a return in Alan Wake. The same goes for great Max Payne throwbacks, everything from sound effects to little hidden name-drops. Anyone remember that Poets of the Fall Song?

But all that’s not to say that Alan Wake is perfect – and now I get to write the easiest part of the review – Story wise I would’ve likes Alan to explore more during the day time. Though there wouldn’t be any of the game’s traditional combat here, it would’ve been nice to see more of the town during the day. I also took a long while to get used to the controls. Your character isn’t as floaty as Max Payne, and there isn’t any bullet dodging to be had apart from the odd Axe – It feels much like a third person cover shooter, without the cover – but I was alright after about the first Episode. The thing that really annoys me is that the game doesn’t allow you to outright quit at the end of each episode, instead having to wait and watch the “Previously On” clip then quit from the start menu after that.

The game sometimes looks rather off with it’s animation sometimes, but considering the game’s been in development since before the X-Box 360 was even released it’s reasonable that some of that stuff had to let slide.

That’s only really a little of what I could say about Alan Wake. I’ve barely touched on the great characters, amazing creepy atmosphere and wonderful sound design. It’s a downright overall amazing game. It’s one of the many constantly increasing reasons to own a 360, and hope that the game comes to PC at some point.

There’s DLC already slated to be added to the game. So far we know of two. Though there’s no idea of what is actually in these packs. Best case Scenario it’s further Episodes for the game to continue the story. Worst case it’s a fucking one man horde mode. I guess we’ll have to wait and see. Until then I’ve got a bonus disk that I’m very interested in watching.

I would say that Max Payne and it’s Sequel are probably some of the best game’s I’ve ever played, and whilst Remedy opted to drop the franchise, Alan Wake is enough of a spiritual successor to Remedy’s design to make me love the game just as much. Speaking of here’s a final LOL regarding Max Payne 3…

whose shirts you wear

I’m finding it hard to not say something about Mass Effect 2. I finished the game last night - credits were rolled. I spent the weekend in an extreme (by my current standards) gaming session that clocked in at about 23 hours total of Massive Erect. But even with Bioshock 2 some 24 hours away I’m still enchanted by the game, I can’t take my mind off it. Wat do? With only one outlet at my disposal that doesn’t insist of a 140 character limit I figured I’d butcher the game in a Review on my blog that no-one reads. What a great idea. But because I’m going to miss out the usual back of the box banter - THIS should cliff your notes sufficiently.

Let’s begin with why it’s still haunting me - and also the game’s first accomplishment. It’s a difficult task for a game to bring out an emotion that isn’t anger, frustration, Awe or anything along those lines. So the complicated emotions are tough to handle mostly due to gameplay, pacing, and the disconnect we suffer due to the preverbial reset button.

It’s down to the characterisation, story and setting to pick up the pace - and ME2 has it covered. It’s more akin to a TV show when you get down to it - and each mission is an episode. A close analogy would be… Stargate SG1. Team goes through Stargate to some planet that invariably has some problem that they fix, and usually one of the characters has the center stage. They fix the problem, loot the corpse (or sometimes the corpse loots them) and they head home for tea and crumpets. Each episode builds on the overall struggle regarding the season’s antagonist. You get the same kind of pace from Mass Effect 2. From the end of one mission to the end of the next it’s an engaging twist of action, story and believeable enough characters. Culminating in the special two-parter season finale that puts many a game to shame.

But what left me willfully distraught is what happened in the final 2/3rds of the game when the effects of the Suicide Mission comes to fruition. I lost a team-mate, a singular team-mate in the final mission of the game. Your choices effectively kill the characters that you’ve come to know so well over the past 27 hours of your life. I could’ve lost more, I could’ve lost my own shepherd, I could’ve probably reloaded to the point that I had made the decicion to send him to his death. But the point is that the character I spent a good many hours getting to know is dead, and in Mass Effect 2 - and presumably into Mass Effect 3 (which I assure you, will exist come this E3-2010) - this carries the weight of a well loved character leaving a TV show.

Speaking of carrying weight, I bring you to my second point of Emotional feeback the game has caused me. My Lesbian Shepherd, who tried and succeeded to couple with the female only species Asari crew mate in Mass Effect 1. And though I may say so withought enough heft - it was a great experience to recruit, get to know and bed said Asari. But when I encountered this character again in Mass Effect 2, after the events of the game’s two-year span opening sequences, my former mate was cold, dismissive and seemingly disturbed by my presence.

In my responce Lesi-Shep was pretty annoyed - so I began chasing femme-tail all over the Normandy to get a new peice of action. But in the dialogue options that I deemed appropriate for my character, which is to say I tried my darnest to sleep with Miranda, I eventually failed. And when the crew were about to plunge into hell Sheperd found herself sitting at her desk in the captain’s cabin, looking lovingly into the picture she had of our previous suiter I realised it was damned near fate - and so I agreed with my digital cohort. When this is all over, we’re going to make things right with Liara.

But what about all the other stuff? This is supposed to be a review after all! But this is a blog - a personal reflection of what I experienced. I have no stake in the game’s success, nor am I a proper reviewer who’s purpose is to convey a consice account of the game in question. All I can say is that I had an exciting and beautiful time with Mass Effect 2. It’s certainly an immersive experience - I thought of nothing else this weekend other than playing it and even now as it sits complete, my heart feels fuller for playing it as I dwell on the concequences of my actions. I got to see strange new worlds, seek out new life and new civilizations. I boldly went.

Simply put Mass Effect 2 is the prime example for what the future of videogaming should be. It’s a total experience of Gameplay, Exploration, Immersion and Story that seldom sacrifices one part for the other. And it makes the fatally flawed Original Mass Effect worth playing - in that it is a prime example of what every Videogame Sequal should be - wholly and completely better than it’s predecessor and literally built from the recorded imported history of Amber Sheperd - Lesbian Space Marine of the Stars and rewarding me for my choices and responces to those events. And beyond that it is a stunning peice of Science Fiction, borrowed from no other liscence other than it’s own, with depth in a stone’s throw of Star Trek or Star Wars.

I played the 360 version so I could bask in the glory of my HDTV, but the I know the PC version has it’s perks - an internets sized treasure trove of Mass Effect 1 game saves are out there somewhere ready for your use, complete with character overview, to jump in with any Shepherd you want, even a Heterosexual one if you’re that kind of person. And both are covered by a Live enabled list of achievements that is a damn fine list by any standard. I’ve only got about 6 more of them to get and I felt that the ones I’ve already unlocked came naturally and led me across the important parts of the game.

But before I get to destroying my several paragraphs of text with a out-of 5 rating, let me tell you about my third hefty emotional responce, and let me introduce you to Kelly Chambers and using some nice HTML code I stole, I hides the spolers. She is the Normandy’s Yeoman - which I guess is a fancy way to say secretary. After each mission, or really whenever you’re on the bridge she’ll tell you if you’ve got any unread mail or if one of the crew wants to talk to you real bad, and on occasion she’ll offer up her opinion on the mission’s events. She’s an all round friendly lovely character and one of the small - yet great - innovations made on Bioware’s part to streamline the game. One evening we had lunch in the captain’s cabin - her and my shepherd had a great time and the next day she offered to feed my fish whenever I was away on a mission - which is great because I always damn forget. But then the Normandy got all invaded on and she was captured by the Collectors. And by the time I got to rescue her, she was horrifyingly liquified into reaper pulp - and I totally regret the decision I made to wait on rescuing the crew. Kelly is dead, my character’s friend is dead because I made a literal tactical decision to gather our forces before jumping in to save the day. Now no-one checks my mail or feeds my fish. And that makes me really freaking sad. But in a good way.

I’m almost feeling that I shouldn’t go back and play it all again, or atleast make sure that my save stays intact for Mass Effect 3. Because despite the mistakes I feel I made - and knowing now what I’d have to do to make all those choices right - those were all spur of the moment decisions that the game greatly entrusted to me, that any other game would seldom or ever do. To any 360 or decent PC owner out there I say that Mass Effect 2 is a game that shouldn’t be missed. It is a mastercrafted title that is a harbinger for hopefully what is to come.

I give Mass Effect 2 - 5/5 Turquoise Alien Breasticles.

Join me next time when I sit down and write something about Worldwake and all Magic: The Gathering in general, probably in list form because I’m lazy, and probably after I’ve engorged on Bioshock 2. Nin out!

you’re nodding out