The thing that leaps out at me most obviously about LEGO Marvel Super Heroes is that this is clearly a game for kids. I don't mean that as an insult, far from it, but it is an undeniable fact. The main piece of evidence for this is that it's filled with kid jokes. Like, when you spray water on LEGO Sandman to get him to congeal enough to smack around and he screams, "I'm melting! I'm melting! Oh, wait no, I'm solidifying. I'm solidifying!"
As an adult, I find that amusing. Twelve-year-old me would have bust a gut. The reversal of the famous quotation and the awareness that the word "melting" has an opposite are just challenging enough to have made young me feel smart, but the joke itself is simple enough that it wouldn't have gone over my head. An extremely well-crafted kid joke.
Which makes playing this game weird, because I can't help shake this shadow sense, this subtle awareness of the game I could be playing, were I still young enough and inexperienced enough to access it. It really makes me want to play multiplayer with an actual kid, but unfortunately, I don't know anyone who qualifies (also I don't know any parents irresponsible enough to let their kids play video games at 3'o'clock at night).
But aside from that weird self-awareness, I am loving this game so far. It simply oozes charm, with plenty of visual gags and goofy super jokes (like Mr Fantastic turning into a giant screwdriver). And while it is ridiculously easy (the only penalty for dying is the loss of a few "coins" - you don't even have to restart the level - another indication that this is primarily a kid's game), there's enough exploration and gently non-trivial puzzles that it doesn't feel tedious.
Plus, while it is clearly a kid's game, it also appears to indulge the sort of deep comics nerdery that only adults (and super focused kids) can attain. I'm not much of a comics reader, but I respect anyone who has a thorough knowledge of a specialized subject, and when I see the huge list of unlockable characters, marked so far only with question marks, I know that before this is done, I'm going to be seeing some obscure cameos from the farthest corners of Marvel lore. And you know what, the thought thrills me. I cannot wait to see what LEGO Marvel Super Heroes has to offer.
Friday, October 9, 2015
LEGO Marvel Super Heroes - Initial Thoughts
About the Game (From the Steam Store Page)
LEGO® Marvel™ Super Heroes features an original story crossing the entire Marvel Universe. Players take control of Iron Man, Spider-Man, the Hulk, Captain America, Wolverine and many more Marvel characters as they unite to stop Loki and a host of other Marvel villains from assembling a super-weapon capable of destroying the world. Players will chase down Cosmic Bricks as they travel across LEGO Manhattan and visit key locations from the Marvel Universe, such as Stark Tower, Asteroid M, a Hydra base and the X-Mansion.
Smash, swing and fly in the first LEGO videogame featuring more than 100 of your favorite Super Heroes and Super Villains from the Marvel Universe, including Iron Man, Wolverine, the Hulk, Spider-Man, Captain America, Black Widow, Loki and Deadpool.
Help save Earth as your favorite Marvel character with your super-cool strengths and abilities:
Discover LEGO Manhattan like never before, and travel to iconic locations from the Marvel Universe, such as the X-Mansion, Asteroid M and Asgard.
Create unique Super Heroes with customizable characters.
Enjoy an exciting original story, filled with classic LEGO videogame adventure and humor.
Previous Playtime
0 hours
What Was I Thinking When I Bought This
This was another one of those on-sale impulse purchases that have become such a thorn in my side recently. I bought it because I was in the middle of a bunch of super serious games (I believe this was around the time I was playing Velvet Assassin) and its colorful, safe-for-kids aesthetic seemed really appealing by way of contrast.
Expectations and Prior Experience
I played the original LEGO Star Wars back on the Gamecube, and though the game was somewhat shallow, it was also a breezy and effortlessly humorous good time. I really enjoyed reliving the movies through a goofy, LEGO-themed lens, and especially enjoyed unlocking its huge cast of characters. LEGO Marvel Super Heroes looks to be more of the same, though hopefully with a decade's worth of experience to draw upon to make it more sophisticated and satisfying.
Of course, I have not particular reason to think that it will, seeing as how the LEGO games are still primarily directed towards children, but honestly, even if it's just as simple as I remember it, I'll probably be happy. Sometimes you want a deep, engaging experience that will challenge your limitations and force you to think in new ways, and sometimes you just want to smash stuff against the backdrop of a silly story while controlling an appealing character.
My expectation is that LEGO Marvel Super Heroes is a game that will deliver on the latter.
LEGO® Marvel™ Super Heroes features an original story crossing the entire Marvel Universe. Players take control of Iron Man, Spider-Man, the Hulk, Captain America, Wolverine and many more Marvel characters as they unite to stop Loki and a host of other Marvel villains from assembling a super-weapon capable of destroying the world. Players will chase down Cosmic Bricks as they travel across LEGO Manhattan and visit key locations from the Marvel Universe, such as Stark Tower, Asteroid M, a Hydra base and the X-Mansion.
Smash, swing and fly in the first LEGO videogame featuring more than 100 of your favorite Super Heroes and Super Villains from the Marvel Universe, including Iron Man, Wolverine, the Hulk, Spider-Man, Captain America, Black Widow, Loki and Deadpool.
Help save Earth as your favorite Marvel character with your super-cool strengths and abilities:
- Iron Man flies, hovers, shoots missiles and unleashes a powerful unibeam directly from his chest.
- Spider-Man shoots webs, uses his spider-senses to spot objects invisible to others, crawls up walls and, of course, web-slings.
- Captain America throws his mighty shield at objects and enemies, embeds it into a wall to create a platform, and protects himself from damage.
- Hulk smashes!
Discover LEGO Manhattan like never before, and travel to iconic locations from the Marvel Universe, such as the X-Mansion, Asteroid M and Asgard.
Create unique Super Heroes with customizable characters.
Enjoy an exciting original story, filled with classic LEGO videogame adventure and humor.
Previous Playtime
0 hours
What Was I Thinking When I Bought This
This was another one of those on-sale impulse purchases that have become such a thorn in my side recently. I bought it because I was in the middle of a bunch of super serious games (I believe this was around the time I was playing Velvet Assassin) and its colorful, safe-for-kids aesthetic seemed really appealing by way of contrast.
Expectations and Prior Experience
I played the original LEGO Star Wars back on the Gamecube, and though the game was somewhat shallow, it was also a breezy and effortlessly humorous good time. I really enjoyed reliving the movies through a goofy, LEGO-themed lens, and especially enjoyed unlocking its huge cast of characters. LEGO Marvel Super Heroes looks to be more of the same, though hopefully with a decade's worth of experience to draw upon to make it more sophisticated and satisfying.
Of course, I have not particular reason to think that it will, seeing as how the LEGO games are still primarily directed towards children, but honestly, even if it's just as simple as I remember it, I'll probably be happy. Sometimes you want a deep, engaging experience that will challenge your limitations and force you to think in new ways, and sometimes you just want to smash stuff against the backdrop of a silly story while controlling an appealing character.
My expectation is that LEGO Marvel Super Heroes is a game that will deliver on the latter.
Shadowrun: Dragonfall Director's Cut - 25/20 hours
Well, towards the end of my time with "Dragonfall" I wound up having the opposite problem I did before. I only wanted to play it for a little while, in order to gather enough material for a blog post, and then I wound up playing it for 10 hours (in three sessions of about 3 hours each). What happened is that I kept thinking I was only a little bit away from the ending.
First, I finally got the 50,000 nuyen necessary to pay off Alice, and when I went to hand it over, my fixer-guy, Paul, was all "Are you sure? Once you do this, there's no turning back." Which is universal video game code for "final dungeon ahead." So my thought was that I'd beat the game real quick, write a post, and then play one of the custom mods for awhile.
Only it turned out that before I could rescue the scientist and confront the dragon, I first had to deal with the mansion's AI security system, which by sheerest happenstance was in an entirely different area.
But after that, then I could go and assault the mansion from the beginning of the game. But it turns out that, in contrast to some of the skyscrapers I'd previously infiltrated, the mansion was huge. There was a long dungeon to get through the exterior defenses, and then a long dungeon to get to the scientist.
And it turned out the scientist I was planning on rescuing was actually the mastermind behind the whole thing, and once I confronted him, I was sure that I'd reached the end. I talked him out of his evil scheme to use the subdued dragon Feuerschwinge to spread a virus that would wipe out all the world's dragons (and probably also destroy humanity in the process as an unintended side effect). I thought the game was over.
And then his lieutenant swoops in out of nowhere, kills him, and I have to go through two sub-basement dungeons before I get to the real final battle.
Which wasn't a problem, exactly. When I like a game, I generally prefer for there to be more of it, but it did mean that I kept pushing myself to play for just a little bit longer because I didn't want to have to write a post describing most of the game, and then half an hour later, write another one describing the end of the game. Of course, in hindsight, I really could have written a 20 hour post after all.
My verdict on Shadowrun: Dragonfall Director's Cut is that I really liked it. Had I played it two years ago, I'd probably even now be starting over so I could experiment with a new main character (once my shaman got going, she was pretty powerful, but I mostly wound up using Haste on my stronger party members, because I didn't want to "waste" my spirit fetishes) and possibly see the alternate endings (the last few hours throw you a lot of genuinely difficult moral choices, and I can't help but wonder if maybe a different path would have led to better results).
Which is, of course, the other half of my changed relationship with games. The blog motivates me to force myself to play games I'm not really in the mood for, but it also gives me incentive to stop with games that I might still be able to wring some enjoyment out of. Although, I'm not sure I can lay all of the credit on the blog.
The way I used to play games was that I would buy a new one two or three times a year (or perhaps rent one every month or so) and then play the hell out of it in massive marathon sessions, allowing it to become an obsession for days or weeks at a time, trying to get 100% completion, or at least as close as I could without having to do super annoying chores or impossible challenge missions, and replaying the story until all the novelty was gone.
And the reason I did that was because, until quite recently, video games felt rare to me. They were a luxury that had to be savored because once you were done with one, there would be a significant wait before the next on came along. Part of that was due to the fact that I didn't have a lot of money (especially while I was growing up) and part of that was because I was slow to embrace digital distribution. I only tentatively dipped my toe into downloading games (my first few Steam games were all physical purchases that used Steam as DRM), and so, until quite recently, most of my games were either expensive day one purchases of major franchises, rentals, or bargain-priced used copies of years-old games (I didn't get an Xbox until the 360 had been out for about a year, for example).
Then the Summer Sale that inspired the blog came along, and it was like a dam burst. In the last year and a half, I bought more than 100 games, because it was easy and cheap. I don't think I paid more than 10$ for any but a dozen of the more desirable games in my library, and most of them were under 5$. Somehow, a mental switch has flipped, and I've started to think of games as disposable. It matters less if I get the most out of a game or not, because my investment was small. Just some spare change I had no other use for.
It's hard to say whether this change was positive or negative. I'm having a whole lot of new gaming experiences that I would not have bothered with while games were expensive (although "Dragonfall," in particular, is exactly the sort of game I would have been inclined to buy), but I can't help feeling that it is extraordinarily wasteful. What the hell is even the point of buying a game unless you intend to play it to the fullest?
Hence the blog. Sometimes people wonder why I bother to play a game like Sakura Spirit for 20 hours, when I could easily find more productive and enjoyable uses for my time (hell, I often wonder myself), but when it comes down to it, I think it reaches to the heart of this blog's mission - I have essentially declare war against waste, against the habit of thinking of games as disposable.
If I'm being brutally honest with myself, I have to acknowledge that most of my games I bought because I was psychologically manipulated into doing so. Not to say that I'm blameless, but it is well known that the perception of scarcity, and the suggestion that you are missing out on a limited-time deal are powerful lures to get people to spend money. And I took the bait. I'd see something that generally looked the sort of thing I'm interested in, and then I'd see the little, green -75% sticker, and the discreet little timer underneath it and I'd think "oh, wow, I'd better buy this now, because who knows, maybe a time will come when I'll have the free-time and the desire to play this game, but it will be four times as expensive, so it would be like throwing money away not to buy it."
Which, when I type it out like this, looks profoundly foolish. Thankfully, I have the blog to rescue me from this foolishness. As long as I keep focused, and don't lose hope, I know that I will finish all my games, and that none of them will be wasted. And if that sometimes means that I have to sit through a game that was, genuinely, a bad purchase, or a cruel joke by one of my readers, then that is a small price to pay.
Which ultimately has nothing to do with "Dragonfall" except that if it weren't for the blog, I'd have had a hard time squeezing it into my schedule (in all likelihood, I would now be playing Civilization: Beyond Earth in anticipation of the expansion pack that comes out tomorrow), and thus it would be sitting on my hard drive, always a low priority, but never quite low enough that I'd regret buying it (because at the time, I really, truly did want to play it, and I'm not quite sure why I didn't finish it as soon as it came out).
First, I finally got the 50,000 nuyen necessary to pay off Alice, and when I went to hand it over, my fixer-guy, Paul, was all "Are you sure? Once you do this, there's no turning back." Which is universal video game code for "final dungeon ahead." So my thought was that I'd beat the game real quick, write a post, and then play one of the custom mods for awhile.
Only it turned out that before I could rescue the scientist and confront the dragon, I first had to deal with the mansion's AI security system, which by sheerest happenstance was in an entirely different area.
But after that, then I could go and assault the mansion from the beginning of the game. But it turns out that, in contrast to some of the skyscrapers I'd previously infiltrated, the mansion was huge. There was a long dungeon to get through the exterior defenses, and then a long dungeon to get to the scientist.
And it turned out the scientist I was planning on rescuing was actually the mastermind behind the whole thing, and once I confronted him, I was sure that I'd reached the end. I talked him out of his evil scheme to use the subdued dragon Feuerschwinge to spread a virus that would wipe out all the world's dragons (and probably also destroy humanity in the process as an unintended side effect). I thought the game was over.
And then his lieutenant swoops in out of nowhere, kills him, and I have to go through two sub-basement dungeons before I get to the real final battle.
Which wasn't a problem, exactly. When I like a game, I generally prefer for there to be more of it, but it did mean that I kept pushing myself to play for just a little bit longer because I didn't want to have to write a post describing most of the game, and then half an hour later, write another one describing the end of the game. Of course, in hindsight, I really could have written a 20 hour post after all.
My verdict on Shadowrun: Dragonfall Director's Cut is that I really liked it. Had I played it two years ago, I'd probably even now be starting over so I could experiment with a new main character (once my shaman got going, she was pretty powerful, but I mostly wound up using Haste on my stronger party members, because I didn't want to "waste" my spirit fetishes) and possibly see the alternate endings (the last few hours throw you a lot of genuinely difficult moral choices, and I can't help but wonder if maybe a different path would have led to better results).
Which is, of course, the other half of my changed relationship with games. The blog motivates me to force myself to play games I'm not really in the mood for, but it also gives me incentive to stop with games that I might still be able to wring some enjoyment out of. Although, I'm not sure I can lay all of the credit on the blog.
The way I used to play games was that I would buy a new one two or three times a year (or perhaps rent one every month or so) and then play the hell out of it in massive marathon sessions, allowing it to become an obsession for days or weeks at a time, trying to get 100% completion, or at least as close as I could without having to do super annoying chores or impossible challenge missions, and replaying the story until all the novelty was gone.
And the reason I did that was because, until quite recently, video games felt rare to me. They were a luxury that had to be savored because once you were done with one, there would be a significant wait before the next on came along. Part of that was due to the fact that I didn't have a lot of money (especially while I was growing up) and part of that was because I was slow to embrace digital distribution. I only tentatively dipped my toe into downloading games (my first few Steam games were all physical purchases that used Steam as DRM), and so, until quite recently, most of my games were either expensive day one purchases of major franchises, rentals, or bargain-priced used copies of years-old games (I didn't get an Xbox until the 360 had been out for about a year, for example).
Then the Summer Sale that inspired the blog came along, and it was like a dam burst. In the last year and a half, I bought more than 100 games, because it was easy and cheap. I don't think I paid more than 10$ for any but a dozen of the more desirable games in my library, and most of them were under 5$. Somehow, a mental switch has flipped, and I've started to think of games as disposable. It matters less if I get the most out of a game or not, because my investment was small. Just some spare change I had no other use for.
It's hard to say whether this change was positive or negative. I'm having a whole lot of new gaming experiences that I would not have bothered with while games were expensive (although "Dragonfall," in particular, is exactly the sort of game I would have been inclined to buy), but I can't help feeling that it is extraordinarily wasteful. What the hell is even the point of buying a game unless you intend to play it to the fullest?
Hence the blog. Sometimes people wonder why I bother to play a game like Sakura Spirit for 20 hours, when I could easily find more productive and enjoyable uses for my time (hell, I often wonder myself), but when it comes down to it, I think it reaches to the heart of this blog's mission - I have essentially declare war against waste, against the habit of thinking of games as disposable.
If I'm being brutally honest with myself, I have to acknowledge that most of my games I bought because I was psychologically manipulated into doing so. Not to say that I'm blameless, but it is well known that the perception of scarcity, and the suggestion that you are missing out on a limited-time deal are powerful lures to get people to spend money. And I took the bait. I'd see something that generally looked the sort of thing I'm interested in, and then I'd see the little, green -75% sticker, and the discreet little timer underneath it and I'd think "oh, wow, I'd better buy this now, because who knows, maybe a time will come when I'll have the free-time and the desire to play this game, but it will be four times as expensive, so it would be like throwing money away not to buy it."
Which, when I type it out like this, looks profoundly foolish. Thankfully, I have the blog to rescue me from this foolishness. As long as I keep focused, and don't lose hope, I know that I will finish all my games, and that none of them will be wasted. And if that sometimes means that I have to sit through a game that was, genuinely, a bad purchase, or a cruel joke by one of my readers, then that is a small price to pay.
Which ultimately has nothing to do with "Dragonfall" except that if it weren't for the blog, I'd have had a hard time squeezing it into my schedule (in all likelihood, I would now be playing Civilization: Beyond Earth in anticipation of the expansion pack that comes out tomorrow), and thus it would be sitting on my hard drive, always a low priority, but never quite low enough that I'd regret buying it (because at the time, I really, truly did want to play it, and I'm not quite sure why I didn't finish it as soon as it came out).
Wednesday, October 7, 2015
Shadowrun: Dragonfall Director's Cut - 15/20 hours
Progress on this game has been slow. Part of it is that I've just not been feeling well for the last few days, but I don't think this is a sufficient explanation. I think a bigger part of why I've not yet finished the game is because I've gotten into the pattern of doing a single mission, upgrading my equipment, and then quitting the game.
I guess what's going on is that "Dragonfall" feels more difficult to me than "Dead Man's Switch." Cover is much more important, accuracy rates are lower, and damage is much more widely varied. This makes combat feel more unpredictable while ensuring things like movement and positioning are much more important. I like it, but it can be mentally exhausting. I've fallen into a pattern where I play the game for an hour, walk away for the better part of a day, and then play for another hour.
Which isn't really all that bad a way to play games, all things considered. In fact, in contrast to my usual way of sitting down and doing 3-6 hours in a single session, it's downright healthy (don't worry about me, though, I work the night shift, so my social life is pretty much a non-starter anyway). The only problem is that it takes a long time to blog through.
It's likely that writing this blog has changed the way I relate to video games. Whereas before, I'd play a game obsessively if it caught my interest and for maybe an hour or two at most if it didn't, now my awareness of the clock colors how I approach these games. I'm now forcing myself to play games, even if I don't particularly feel like it. Which is definitely a change of pace from when I used to play games purely to relax.
That's not a complaint, by the way. The structure this brings my hobby is a welcome one. I'd have never played many of these games at all without it. Shadowrun: Dragonfall would probably not have been one of the unplayed ones, however. It's exactly the sort of game I ordinarily like, and if I were in different mood, I'd have sailed through it like I did with the original Shadowrun Returns.
It is likely only a quirk of fate that I happen to be playing it while my mental energy is low.
I guess what's going on is that "Dragonfall" feels more difficult to me than "Dead Man's Switch." Cover is much more important, accuracy rates are lower, and damage is much more widely varied. This makes combat feel more unpredictable while ensuring things like movement and positioning are much more important. I like it, but it can be mentally exhausting. I've fallen into a pattern where I play the game for an hour, walk away for the better part of a day, and then play for another hour.
Which isn't really all that bad a way to play games, all things considered. In fact, in contrast to my usual way of sitting down and doing 3-6 hours in a single session, it's downright healthy (don't worry about me, though, I work the night shift, so my social life is pretty much a non-starter anyway). The only problem is that it takes a long time to blog through.
It's likely that writing this blog has changed the way I relate to video games. Whereas before, I'd play a game obsessively if it caught my interest and for maybe an hour or two at most if it didn't, now my awareness of the clock colors how I approach these games. I'm now forcing myself to play games, even if I don't particularly feel like it. Which is definitely a change of pace from when I used to play games purely to relax.
That's not a complaint, by the way. The structure this brings my hobby is a welcome one. I'd have never played many of these games at all without it. Shadowrun: Dragonfall would probably not have been one of the unplayed ones, however. It's exactly the sort of game I ordinarily like, and if I were in different mood, I'd have sailed through it like I did with the original Shadowrun Returns.
It is likely only a quirk of fate that I happen to be playing it while my mental energy is low.
Sunday, October 4, 2015
Shadowrun: Dragonfall Director's Cut - 10/20 hours
The last couple of missions have presented me with difficult moral decisions. Do I continue to work for the mysterious secret society that deceived me about the intent of my mission, tricking me into planting a bomb when I thought I was merely setting up some surveillance devices? Do I turn over the prototype cyberzombie, when it is clear that there is still a sentient troll inside it, being tortured by its prison of metal or do I grant it the release of death?
These are the sort of choices I enjoy. It makes me feel like I have some control over my character when there are real consequences for taking a particular path. However, I'm not sure I approve of the way that "Dragonfall" implements these choices. It was clear to me that by telling the Lodge that I was no mere thug who would perform without question that I was closing off a whole line of quests. And though the cyberzombie client's threat to "never hire me again" struck me as empty (it just felt like a one-off mission anyway), I don't care for the implication.
It's not so much that I mind these particular NPC dissociating themselves with me as it is that I worry by making the "wrong" choices, I am being punished with being able to see less of the game. It's a tricky balance, I know. If the consequences of your choices aren't dramatic enough, then good and evil will feel like mere reskins of each other, a single story with a light or dark coat of paint. But if they are too different, you basically have to make two games in one, and your players will probably only see one or the other.
I'm going to reserve judgement on "Dragonfall" for now. There's probably more than enough missions that the loss of the Lodge questline is no big deal, but if it turns out that it gets referenced later, then I'll probably feel quite put out.
These are the sort of choices I enjoy. It makes me feel like I have some control over my character when there are real consequences for taking a particular path. However, I'm not sure I approve of the way that "Dragonfall" implements these choices. It was clear to me that by telling the Lodge that I was no mere thug who would perform without question that I was closing off a whole line of quests. And though the cyberzombie client's threat to "never hire me again" struck me as empty (it just felt like a one-off mission anyway), I don't care for the implication.
It's not so much that I mind these particular NPC dissociating themselves with me as it is that I worry by making the "wrong" choices, I am being punished with being able to see less of the game. It's a tricky balance, I know. If the consequences of your choices aren't dramatic enough, then good and evil will feel like mere reskins of each other, a single story with a light or dark coat of paint. But if they are too different, you basically have to make two games in one, and your players will probably only see one or the other.
I'm going to reserve judgement on "Dragonfall" for now. There's probably more than enough missions that the loss of the Lodge questline is no big deal, but if it turns out that it gets referenced later, then I'll probably feel quite put out.
Friday, October 2, 2015
Shadowrun: Dragonfall Director's Cut - 6/20 hours
"Dragonfall" is overall a better story than "Dead Man's Switch," but it has one slight plot hole that is kind of bugging me. So, you track down the man who set you up on the disastrous opening mission, and you discover that he's been investigating a dragon, and purposefully sent you into its lair in the hopes of getting some vital information from your death. You find him dead of the same mysterious super-IC that killed Monika, and far from this being poetic justice, you realize the dragon will track down and kill anyone who knows its secret.
Given this dire situation, your only possible plan is to find the scientist who designed the weapon that brought down Feuerschwinge the first time, in hopes that he can repeat this performance. But the scientist has fallen off the grid, so in order to find him you have to secure the services of the legendary hacker and information dealer, Alice, who wants 50,000 nuyen for the task.
So far, it makes sense, but here's the plot hole - in order to get the 50,000 nuyen, you have to risk your life going on dangerous shadowruns. Problem: you're afraid of being killed. Solution: invite people to shoot guns at you.
I guess it's not technically a contradiction, because it's possible that being on a dragon's shit list is certain death, whereas living the desperate life of a criminal-for-hire is only likely death, but it still feels weird to me. On the other hand, whatever. I bought a game called "shadowrun" so I obviously want to run the shadows. Anything that gives me even the flimsiest pretext is fine by me.
I like doing these mini missions. They don't have any grand, overarching plot (as far as I can tell), but they do make me feel like I'm part of the Shadowrun universe. Breaking into a Humanis operation and busting the place up is exactly the sort of thing I've always wanted to do.
Honestly, I don't particularly want to advance the story. I'm interested in the conspiracy surrounding this dead (?) dragon, but it's the central paradox of open world games. The more you enjoy yourself, the more you have to avoid the game's central activities.
I'm curious to see exactly how much game there is here. I get the feeling that there are few enough missions that doing them all will not make the main quest absurd, but I'm really hoping I'm wrong.
Given this dire situation, your only possible plan is to find the scientist who designed the weapon that brought down Feuerschwinge the first time, in hopes that he can repeat this performance. But the scientist has fallen off the grid, so in order to find him you have to secure the services of the legendary hacker and information dealer, Alice, who wants 50,000 nuyen for the task.
So far, it makes sense, but here's the plot hole - in order to get the 50,000 nuyen, you have to risk your life going on dangerous shadowruns. Problem: you're afraid of being killed. Solution: invite people to shoot guns at you.
I guess it's not technically a contradiction, because it's possible that being on a dragon's shit list is certain death, whereas living the desperate life of a criminal-for-hire is only likely death, but it still feels weird to me. On the other hand, whatever. I bought a game called "shadowrun" so I obviously want to run the shadows. Anything that gives me even the flimsiest pretext is fine by me.
I like doing these mini missions. They don't have any grand, overarching plot (as far as I can tell), but they do make me feel like I'm part of the Shadowrun universe. Breaking into a Humanis operation and busting the place up is exactly the sort of thing I've always wanted to do.
Honestly, I don't particularly want to advance the story. I'm interested in the conspiracy surrounding this dead (?) dragon, but it's the central paradox of open world games. The more you enjoy yourself, the more you have to avoid the game's central activities.
I'm curious to see exactly how much game there is here. I get the feeling that there are few enough missions that doing them all will not make the main quest absurd, but I'm really hoping I'm wrong.
Thursday, October 1, 2015
Shadowrun: Dragonfall Director's Cut - 2/20 hours
"Dragonfall" starts you off in the middle of a mission. You are invading a fancy looking mansion in the hopes of stealing something or other (it's actually kind of vague what the goal is), and you've got a team of colorful characters helping you out. Naturally, something goes horribly wrong, and the team leader, Monika is killed by what appears to be an experimental Black IC (a deadly computer program that can seriously harm hackers who try to direct neural interface with the setting's virtual reality computer networks).
As she lay dying, Monika utters a single word, Feuerschwinge, but without any context, the information is meaningless. After her death, the run falls apart, and me and my companions must flee the scene. Monika's friend, Eiger, blames me for her death, and though it appears we will work together to find her killer, relations are tense.
Then I wandered around town for about an hour, poking my nose into various shops, because the hub map is much larger than "Dead Man's Switch's" Seamstress' Union.
My first impression of the game is favorable. It definitely looks nicer than baseline Shadowrun Returns, and though it's probably just an artifact of me having a much lower skill level, but it appears that the combat numbers have been tweaked to make misses more likely. This plays in to the more complex cover mechanics, and makes combat a longer, more drawn out affair. It's a little early to say, but I think I like it.
My plan to check out the new spells and items has so far been a bust, though. The problem, I'm now coming to realize, is that I am currently playing an elf shaman, a character type I never tried before, which means that I am in a poor position to judge what is new. All of my previous magic users have been temporary hires, and though I'm seeing some spells I've never used before, I don't know whether they are new to the game or if they simply weren't equipped by my previous compatriots. I guess it doesn't really matter, they're new to me, but I am a little disappointed that I won't have the experience of seeing new things.
What I'm enjoying most about "Dragonfall" is the art direction. It's much less confined than "Dead Man's Switch" even at this early point. The mansion map was huge, and the hub area, the Kreuzbasar, is even bigger. Yet neither of them felt repetitive. I also liked how they were visually distinct from the first campaign's Seattle. I'm just an untraveled oaf, but the Kreuzbasar felt "European" to me, while still having all the necessary cyberpunk genre markers.
As she lay dying, Monika utters a single word, Feuerschwinge, but without any context, the information is meaningless. After her death, the run falls apart, and me and my companions must flee the scene. Monika's friend, Eiger, blames me for her death, and though it appears we will work together to find her killer, relations are tense.
Then I wandered around town for about an hour, poking my nose into various shops, because the hub map is much larger than "Dead Man's Switch's" Seamstress' Union.
My first impression of the game is favorable. It definitely looks nicer than baseline Shadowrun Returns, and though it's probably just an artifact of me having a much lower skill level, but it appears that the combat numbers have been tweaked to make misses more likely. This plays in to the more complex cover mechanics, and makes combat a longer, more drawn out affair. It's a little early to say, but I think I like it.
My plan to check out the new spells and items has so far been a bust, though. The problem, I'm now coming to realize, is that I am currently playing an elf shaman, a character type I never tried before, which means that I am in a poor position to judge what is new. All of my previous magic users have been temporary hires, and though I'm seeing some spells I've never used before, I don't know whether they are new to the game or if they simply weren't equipped by my previous compatriots. I guess it doesn't really matter, they're new to me, but I am a little disappointed that I won't have the experience of seeing new things.
What I'm enjoying most about "Dragonfall" is the art direction. It's much less confined than "Dead Man's Switch" even at this early point. The mansion map was huge, and the hub area, the Kreuzbasar, is even bigger. Yet neither of them felt repetitive. I also liked how they were visually distinct from the first campaign's Seattle. I'm just an untraveled oaf, but the Kreuzbasar felt "European" to me, while still having all the necessary cyberpunk genre markers.
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