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I'm less persistent than I was back in 2013 -- that's one reason why I'm not sticking with Stealth Bastard Inc 2. I've got less patience for SURPRISE DEATHTRAP! than I once did.
But regardless, I'm ... not sure if this sequel's improvements really "improve" upon Stealth Bastard Deluxe.
Its 2.5-d presentation makes it difficult to visually parse background flavor vs. foreground obstacles.
Its additional complexities - clones moving on their own, gadgets adding tactical twists - mesh poorly with time-sensitive SURPRISE DEATHTRAPS.
And its interconnected "hub" world is more of a fancy menu than a Metroidvania, since each test chamber exists completely separately from the map.
Also, it has cutscenes that try to tell a story, but they really, really don't work. I'm not sure that I even understand what the plot is, let alone what motivation I'm supposed to derive from it. Would've been better to just cold-open in a stealth testing facility with no exposition.
It Takes Two has a lot of ideas. Some of them work pretty well! Some of them don't. On average, though, it's fun enough to keep two people entertained for a surprising number of hours.
Through seven chapters, and a handful of levels in each, It Takes Two challenges you and a partner to platforming and puzzling and button-mashy combatting with a wide, continuous variety of mechanics. In a workshop-themed level, one player uses a nailgun to create wall-mounted poles for the other player's hammer to swing on. In a playroom level filled with toys, one player drives a dinosaur-shaped crane to move platforms that the other player jumps around on.
What's great about setups like these, or handcars and paddle-boats with two-person locomotion, or boss fights where one player distracts while the other prepares an attack, is that they're built on cooperation. At its best, the game asks two players to figure out how to help each other, trading assists back and forth on their way to a goal.
And unlike some other, more arcade-y co-op games, It Takes Two - usually - doesn't test the limits of your and your partner's synchronous coordination. The game is much more interested in you having a clear plan than it is in you having perfect timing.
Which is especially good because the movement and camera controls aren't consistent or reliable enough to really support "precision." Missing a target, or missing a jump, tends to feel like the game's fault at least as much as your own.
Fortunately some generous checkpoints help make those failures tolerable. In fact, part of its numerous mechanics' formula for success is that you don't need to develop deep skills in any of them -- because they don't stick around that long.
The low points of It Takes Two are when it's dwelling on an idea for too long, ramping up its complexity, and expecting you to pull off expert moves that ... the game just isn't polished enough to enable.
(The wasp boss is the worst. The worst.)
But It Takes Two generally moves fast enough, and changes itself up frequently enough, that this lack of polish doesn't get in the way. A continuous flow of imaginative environments and fresh gameplay prevents any one thing from wearing out its welcome.
(With a few exceptions. Like that wasp boss.)
Unfortunately this mostly-well-paced gameplay doesn't align with the storytelling, which is really, uh, bad. The premise hints at a meaningful, heavy plot: a squabbling couple's divorce and its emotional impact on their young child, who just wants her parents to be happy again. But as a magical, talking self-help book tries to re-ignite this couple's spark, well, the magical talking book isn't the hardest part to believe.
It's that these two adults going through a surreal cooperative adventure are so incredibly dense, so unrepentant when confronted by their own self-destructive patterns - not communicating with one another, neglecting their partner's needs, ignoring their daughter's emotional health! - that May and Cody rarely acknowledge the damage they've done to themselves, and never agree to change the behaviors that got them here.
I cannot stress this enough: do not attempt to divine relationship advice from It Takes Two. And if you play this with a child, make sure they understand that mature humans don't act the way that these characters do.
So, ignore the story -- enjoy that May and Cody make a good gameplay team, and ignore the terrible family team they make in "real life." And we won't talk about what happened to Cutie the stuffed elephant.
I don't know if I'd agree that It Takes Two is award-worthy, compared to more tightly-focused, technically-polished, or narratively-thrilling titles. But it's a fun ride filled with creative imagination, and by the - admittedly, kinda low - standards of couple-friendly co-op games, there isn't much else that tops it.
Chroma Squad is a bit of a paradox. A good one, though.
The game is unabashedly "indie," with its zoomed-in sprite art, unpolished grammar, overlong pre-battle animations, and spotty or absent tutorials. But, it takes itself un-seriously enough that these rough edges actually feel charming -- especially when the game's cast pokes fun at their own narrator. More often than not, Chroma Squad comes across as "in" on the joke - the joke that is the real history of Power Rangers - instead of falling into a parody trap.
It's filled with mechanics, like, definitely too many mechanics: not just strategy RPG tactics and character progression and TV studio management, but also item crafting! and mecha battles! and a branching narrative!? The scope of Chroma Squad is so sprawling that of course a lot of it doesn't pan out, and it's hardly surprising that, for example, the crafting UI can't indicate whether an item is an upgrade or a downgrade. But, the critical path - increasing fanpower, generating income, buying new weapons and armor - works well enough that the rest is, well, easy to ignore.
Its narrative is pretty silly, gleefully blurring the lines between a Super Sentai fantasy and a TV production about that fantasy. At face value, Chroma Squad's plot is unremarkable, and its "characters" are just farcical props. But, the fun that they have with sending up genre tropes and with a Deadpool-esque disregard for the fourth wall is surprisingly compelling.
There's a lot going on in Chroma Squad, and even ignoring the parts it doesn't explain, much of it doesn't work very well. To that point: my biggest obstacle in the final boss battle wasn't the boss, and wasn't his minions, but was stairs. I don't think any previous encounter had stairs, so their effects on movement and targeting were an unwelcome surprise.
Chroma Squad is an ambitious game, and far from perfect.
But, it nails - or gets close enough to nailing - a core loop of fighting, upgrading, and lampooning that it works. There are opportunities to improve for sure (which the developers sadly seem to be uninterested in), but even in this unrefined form, the concept is proven: managing a fake Super Sentai team is pretty fun.
This time, the kids are off to summer camp, and it's haunted - yes, this is a slasher film parody - but the "monsters" you run into are clearly adults in Scooby Doo outfits. And your new class is the "Final Girl" movie stereotype, using makeshift weapons like garden shears and saw blades to survive.
It doesn't reach the "highs" of its predecessor: the story doesn't evolve much from that promising setup (aside from a bizarre alien twist near the end), and its new mechanics are hit-and-miss -- laying saw traps is pretty neat, while the "mint" buffs and "berry" debuffs feel ... unnecessary.
But, this is still like an episode of South Park in videogame form, which is pretty good.
It does make some strides in micro-sized open-world design, with a map!, and an optional collectibles quest where you take selfies with ghosts.
This is a perfectly satisfying and fun story DLC, just not quite as good as the other one. And since it looks like there might not be another, well, it's not a bad send-off for the South Park RPGs.
It's a fantastic parody premise, adapting the idea of From Dusk Till Dawn to South Park's vamp kids and the - believe it or not, non-fictional - Casa Bonita restaurant. This sets up some pitch-perfect "South Park moments" juxtaposing the dark and supernatural with a food court and a mariachi band.
Especially the final boss, where an attempted summoning of vampire Corey Haim from The Lost Boys instead resurrects the cartoon's version of Michael Jackson and induces "Thriller" dance moves, feels like peak South Park.
As for gameplay, this DLC benefits from keeping itself constrained: it restricts you to one new class (with in-theme abilities), locks down your party (including newcomer Henrietta), and uses but doesn't change your fart-time powers. It strikes a great balance between new and old ideas and streamlines the game's pre-existing sprawl of class and party options.
Its "world," that is, the Casa Bonita restaurant - including an arcade and Black Bart's Cave! - does lack the main game's open-world scale and its abundance of South Park references. But it does still manage to fit a little non-linearity into this small space, allowing you to collect some vampire relics in whatever order you like.
From Dusk Till Casa Bonita is a short, but functionally-complete slice of gamified South Park. I'd love to see more self-contained stories like this one.
The game can be off-putting, at first, in large part because of its Mega Man Battle Network-like combat system: the battle grid and attack options look complicated, but really aren't (just deal damage!); and Quick Time Events for attacking and defending are simple and flat. So, battles can come across as dull and slow.
Also, literally, you can't run very fast -- and it's quite a jog from one map location to another. The distance inbetween is usually dense with activities and collectibles, except, the abilities you need for them ... aren't unlocked until you make more story progress.
These problems make the game's early chapters feel pretty uneventful. But if you stick with it - because, like last time, you dig South Park's absurd quips and farts - Fractured But Whole gradually opens up (hhhehehe) and everything starts to come together.
Combat becomes more interesting as you get more characters and more moves to experiment with, even if it never gets very "tactical." Story beats unlock new points of interest, new abilities to navigate obstacles, and the solutions to those previously-locked overworld puzzles.
And, most importantly: this is still South Park.
It's got the kids playing pretend and swearing at each other, it's got adults acting negligent and irresponsible, it's even got Towelie giving you in-game hints (like "don't trust the government"). The game is a perfect conduit for South Park's flavors of irreverence, creativity, and commentary.
In fact, while Stick of Truth kinda felt like fanservice-y (but fun) sidequests wrapped around a haphazard main story, Fractured But Whole's core narrative develops the same gravitas as some of the show's best multi-episode arcs. It has twists!, not just for the sake of another reference, but which actually tell an engaging tale of their own.
(But there's still room for plenty of referential content, like dealing with the Raisins girls, and a ridiculous Crab People scheme.)
South Park: The Fractured But Whole takes some time to warm up, but it eventually meets - and exceeds - the narrative and gameplay bars of Stick of Truth. It's still not perfect, but even when its shitty Flappy Bird parody is going on too long -- it's fun, and a meaningful step forward for comedic RPGs.
And most importantly: no missable collectibles! So you can actually complete those sidequests in the post-game. About time.
As an RPG, South Park: The Stick of Truth could use work: some combat features are wildly unbalanced (like the Screwed debuff), inventory management is a chore, skills and perks don't feel very significant, and - while I love that it has real-time combat prompts, like Mario & Luigi and Paper Mario - the timing windows of those prompts are staggeringly inconsistent.
But it gets away with these flaws because, even when the game isn't "fair," it's (usually) easy to button-mash through.
And, more importantly, because Stick of Truth isn't really about refined role-playing mechanics -- it's about South Park. I'm not that upset by how awkward it is to control overworld abilities; I'm amused by the fact that those abilities use alien anal probes, and explosive farts.
At its best, when you can freely explore South Park and meet its wacky cast members, running their errands is like watching multiple self-directed episodes of the TV show. Stick of Truth's absurd quest objectives and flippant writing are exactly in line with what South Park fans know and love. (Not to mention its boatloads of fanservice references, from collectable Chinpokomon to a ManBearPig hunt.)
It's unfortunate that the game's back half has fewer opportunities for self-directed activity (favoring an on-rails series of story missions), and especially that a bunch of optional events and items are permanently missable. That puts a bit of a damper on post-game sidequesting.
Nevertheless, Stick of Truth is a fun and funny jaunt through South Park, and that it leaves me wanting more is hardly a bad thing. Especially since there is more.
Khimera: Puzzle Island is a good example of how adding characters with strong personalities can spice up an otherwise-rote game design.
I mean, not to overly impugne Puzzle Island's roteness - it's got solid controls, and a large amount of puzzles - but it certainly doesn't have big enough grids or unique enough mechanics to stand out among your Pictopixes or your Voxelgrams.
What it does have is a cast of, uh, monster girls? who develop adorable friendships through a bizarre puzzle-filled misadventure.
Puzzle Island's "story" isn't taken seriously; cutscene dialog is filled with lighthearted gags and silly puns. The whole package is just fun, from the option to replace grid icons with hamburgers, to the loading screen's Loadin' notification.
There are some definite shortcomings in Puzzle Island, like the fact that most of its puzzles aren't even part of the "story" mode (a few large mosaics are split up into almost 200 small puzzles), and, while its soundtrack is pretty good!, each "stage" only has one track which inevitably becomes very repetitive.
But the quirky charm of these awkward monster girls really makes the game, and made me more than happy to click through even the most tedious of their puzzles.
... oh, and there is one pretty neat mechanic in the final boss battle, using rapid-fire timed puzzles to implement attacking and defending. I kinda hope that a sequel explores this idea some more.
Alternative title: "2021 in Review: Different Year, Same Bullshit"
... but, like 2020, 2021 had an upside: lots of opportunity to catch up on my videogame backlog.
Not all of that catching-up made it into the Glog -- more and more, I'm rapidly trying and discarding games, without wasting time on write-ups. (I'll get to the hard data on that later.)
In fact, 2021 saw my first multi-game post!, resulting in more games played than posts written for the first time in Glog history (ooh, ahh). I consider that a good omen for my future gaming activity: less writing, more playing!
Anyway, my continued focus on backlog-busting also meant I paid less attention than ever to demos (Copy Editor being the sole exception), although ...
... just as in 2020, I did feel a frequent need to cleanse my palate, by replaying known-good games.
Setting aside Darksiders II and Deadly Premonition - which were in my backlog to re-attempt, and which I've now finally abandoned - that Replay count consists of some really satisfying "comfort food" remasters:
And although I'll never be able to re-experience the astonishment of its narrative reveals, Horizon Zero Dawn and The Frozen Wilds were nevertheless wonderful to play through again on PC.
Coincidentally, one side-effect of replaying those particular games (Mass Effect 2, especially) was the most DLCs and expansions I've played in one year:
So it was a pleasant surprise that Mass Effect 3's From Ashes, Omega, Leviathan, and Citadel felt so substantial and rewarding. Citadel, especially, was a stupendously heartwarming send-off for Shepard and her eclectic gang of misfits.
Finally, The Talos Principle: Road to Gehenna may have failed to measure up to its main game's "wow" factor, but it was certainly a clever and worthwhile experience all its own.
As for my gaming platforms in 2021, well, "platform" would be more appropriate; as ever, the overwhelming majority of my playtime was on PC. My singular non-PC playthrough last year was Ghost of Tsushima on PS4.
Which might be my last PS4 game, depending on how the upcoming God of War and Horizon sequels perform on the now-"old" hardware.
But if this is the end for my PS4, then it's going out with a "bang," as Ghost of Tsushima ranks among the small number of Awesome games I played in 2021.
What had been one of the oldest games on my backlog, Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines, turned out to have aged surprisingly well. (Granted, it did need some modern tech support.) Bloodlines was a satisfying reminder of why I keep a backlog: sometimes, a game I've missed is actually worth catching up on, and lets me experience something cool that I haven't seen before.
Of course there's still plenty of chaff in my backlog that isn't so worthwhile ... and I did better, in 2021, at not wasting so much time writing about that chaff. Check that "hard data" above: a marked decline in No Rating posts. If the game isn't remarkable, then why bother remarking on it?
Hopefully, as I continue burning through my backlog in 2022, I'll stumble across more of those praise-worthy missed gems (and will avoid sinking time into the rest). Here's to some positive progress - in my backlog, if nothing else - this year!
I could go on, and on, and on, about how slowly RDR2 tends to move. Not in the same way as John Marston's story, that is, Arthur Morgan doesn't need to herd cattle or break horses for two hours before something interesting happens... but.
He does need to ride his horse from point A to B, for minutes at a time, in and between practically every mission. Sometimes the narrative scripting skips this ride, and sometimes it doesn't. Sometimes a riding companion will provide dialog, and sometimes they won't. Sometimes there's a "fast travel" option at A to go directly to B, and usually there isn't.
And I could similarly go on and on and on about the absurd number of gameplay mechanics in RDR2 - 20 hours in, the game was still tutorializing new activities (like fishing!) - as well as how player-hostile the controls for those mechanics are.
Letters and books share inventory space with animal meat ... except when they don't, depending on which vendor you're talking to. Some guns need to be cocked inbetween shots, which is done with the fire button. Sometimes the aim button gives you dialog choices, and sometimes it points a gun, removing dialog choices. I missed a cutscene because the "run" button is the same as the "skip scene" button.
And don't get me started on how fidgety and fiddly position-sensitive button prompts can be.
And, I could continue going on!, about how these and other problems interfere with RDR2's storytelling -- from attempts at re-watching cinematics getting stuck on infinite loading screens, to the (spoilers) final story mission actively punishing attempted gameplay. ("Stay behind cover. You aren't meant to shoot [the guy] here.")
The story of Arthur Morgan and the Dutch van der Linde gang is good, but it's 20 hours of good story stretched out over 50 hours of actually playing it.
What's shocking about these various shortcomings is that they all sabotage the very "sandbox" formula that Rockstar is known for: optional activities are frustrating to play, exploring the map is overly laborious, and it's impossible to move through the story at your own pace. Like, literally, there are so many scenes where you can't run! and so many other scenes where NPCs yell that you're walking too slowly!
While Red Dead Redemption 2's story can be good, and its shooting can be fun, and its optional activities can be interesting, the game goes out of its way to prevent you from focusing too much on any of those.
Therein lies my conclusion: the only thing that it doesn't prevent you from focusing on, in fact, the thing it frequently forces you to focus on, is watching varmints and livestock and other cowboys run through the wilderness as you're on your way to some mission objective.
And the quality of those floral and faunal animations is top notch. So, for a wildlife simulator, Red Dead Redemption 2 is pretty great.
For an epic narrative, it's pretty good, except when it's slowing itself down; and for an open-world sandbox, it's simply not open enough.
