Tuesday, September 29, 2015

The Dead Sea
Review
SOMA, Frictional Games (PS4)

Abstract: SOMA sets a new high watermark for narrative in games. Frictional’s newest explorer slash survival horror title is a thought provoking, immersive masterpiece. Smart level and monster design keep the player actively engaged with the heady experience and maintain a great sense of momentum throughout. SOMA is deeply unnerving, content to keep you up at night rather than jump out of a dark corner to scare you. SOMA is a phenomenal experience and easily one of 2015’s best.


SOMA is a game that asks big questions. Questions about identity and the contextualization of life and death. As an academic, these are questions I’ve faced before in my studies. But never have they been presented so thoughtfully and completely in a video game. SOMA is a catalyst of thought, a vehicle for introspection, and is one of the year’s best games.

Frictional Games set the bar high for themselves after their genre-redefining horror game, Amnesia: The Dark Descent. The 2010 hit brought horror back to its roots, stripping the power of the player against the game’s terrifying monsters. Amnesia: The Dark Descent kicked off a new era of horror games in which fans of the genre, myself included, are still reaping the rewards. To say that Frictional Games topped themselves with SOMA would be an understatement. While decidedly less “scary” than its predecessor, SOMA is still a deeply unsettling title that establishes a new high watermark for narrative in games.

Talking about SOMA’s story is difficult without getting deep into spoiler territory, so I’ll avoid any specifics. SOMA is a first-person exploration slash survival horror game. Yes, the ordering there is correct. You play as Simon Jarrett. After a brief prologue, Simon finds himself in a small locked room of what looks to be a derelict space station. His cool blue-gray metal surroundings contain evidence of catastrophic tragedy: blood on the floor, flickering lights, busted windows, the echoing groans of substantial structural damage, and the scratching of distant movement. The player soon learns they are located at Pathos-II, a research facility at the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean. From that point forward your quest is to discover where you are, when you are, and what’s happened to Pathos-II. Simon is a fairly blank slate, used as a cipher to take in this mysterious (and horrifying) new world. SOMA is about darkness and decay. In your journey to understand Pathos-II and the work being done there, the player is forced to ask questions about themselves and about reality. SOMA is a psychological horror experience, tapping into some of humanity’s deepest-rooted fears. Occasionally, and unfortunately, Simon will butt in and audibly ask the questions the player has already been thinking. But usually, SOMA allows the deafening silence of the alien ocean floor to act as your mental parchment. SOMA’s story is phenomenal and gripping. It’s environmental narrative and storytelling of the highest caliber. You’ll just have to trust me on this one.
 
Pathos-II in all it's glory.
While ostensibly a “survival horror” game, SOMA isn’t scary in the way most previous games in the genre have tried to be. SOMA isn’t about screams or shrieks or jump scares or soiled underwear. SOMA is about laying awake in your bed after you stop playing for the night, unable to go to sleep because your mind is racing with the “what if’s” and the “could it be’s” of the game’s world. Most horror games revolve around the fear of dying, or the repulsion towards blood and gore. In SOMA, your fear revolves around the questions of “what is life” and “what is death.” Fear is derived from your location and the circumstances of your world. That’s not to say the game is without it’s blood chilling, palm-wetting moments of sheer terror. The game’s ending in particular was one of the most tense, fear-inducing moments I’ve ever experienced in a piece of media. The implication of my situation was crushingly dark. My stomach was in my throat (and that’s not just because I had the stomach flu during the majority of my playthrough). SOMA is a game that will scare you, just not in the way you’re used to.

Something is very wrong here.
SOMA succeeds extraordinarily at creating atmosphere. The game wouldn’t have worked without it, as environmental horror is at the crux of your experience. Pathos-II and the ocean surrounding it are perfectly realized. SOMA is shockingly immersive. The game’s many locations are detail-rich, visually diverse, and filled with interactble objects. SOMA utilizes a physics-based world interaction mechanic. For the most part, everything around you can be picked up, rotated, dropped or thrown. Documents can be picked up and read, computer terminals can be used to scour audio logs or e-mails. This system allows the player to interact naturally with their world—as if you yourself were present. These interactions aren’t perfect, though, as many objects are static (even some that are visually similar the ones that can be interacted with), which can lead to some player confusion. It’s a wholly excusable offense, however, as the work required to create “full” immersion would be astronomical. In the end, the interactability and sound design and well-thought out visuals synergize to create a fully realized world.

Gorgeous visuals and a keen attention to detail make SOMA
one of the most immersive games I've ever played.
But what do you do in the terrific world of SOMA? Exploration, mostly. Every nook and cranny is filled with interesting reading, audio logs, and character black boxes that all expand your understanding of the world. You use your trust Omni-Tool to open doors, turn on power, and for exposition. When you’re not exploring, you’re given puzzles to solve. I’m happy to report that SOMA gets puzzles right. Each and every puzzle you’re tasked with solving felt purposeful. The puzzles organically fit into your experience. I never got the feeling that a puzzle was thrown in to slow my progression. Or as a checkpoint that read “need to solve puzzle to advance.” SOMA’s puzzles are straightforward, but that doesn’t mean they aren’t engaging or meaningful. Some of the game’s puzzles are simple on the surface, but dive into deep physiological and philosophical issues. How to solve them doesn’t cause you to scratch your head, but what you’re doing (really what exactly you’re doing) can lead to some serious contemplation.

Reading notes, logging into computers, and accessing
blackboxes (above) help to fill in the missing pieces.
Standing as an impediment to your exploration are SOMA’s several monsters. As I mentioned earlier in the review, Amnesia: The Dark Descent brought about a new era of horror games in which the player is powerless against enemies. The same is true in SOMA. No shotguns or chainsaws or rocket launchers here. I read concern about the game online, about how even fans of the genre were getting sick of the gameplay loop of sneaking around and hiding from monsters. Fair enough. Even though I enjoyed Amnesia, hiding in a cabinet isn’t the most compelling gameplay. Frictional Games were certainly aware of this issue—it’s almost completely ameliorated by SOMA’s new monster mechanics. SOMA’s enemies are perfect. You’re not just hiding. Each monster you face as a unique weakness. While you do face your standard monster (you just need to stay out of sight), others make you play the game in new ways. For example, there’s a monster that can only see you when you’re looking at it. Getting past it involves quick spatial reasoning, as you must navigate cramped and often mazelike areas while looking at the floor. Sometimes with the monster standing right next to you. Or another that follows you by sound, which allows you to trick it away from your location by throwing objects around. Each new monster is a puzzle, an adventure, that keeps you on your toes. As a final quick note, death comes infrequently in SOMA. The game achieves the perfect balance of always feeling like you’re about to die, while not actually killing you. It’s a rare achievement in a horror game. So many struggle to get this balance right.

Sometimes you can run. Sometimes you can hide.
Sometimes just don't look it in the eye. Scary stuff.
SOMA’s lingering impact is one of context. Who you are, what you are defined by, is relative. Life, death, and everything in between loses meaning without the proper framework. Or, at the very least, the meaning changes. SOMA allows the player to experience this change. You find a survey on a computer terminal at the beginning and end of your time with the game. I answered the questions honestly both times I took it and man, did my answers change. I changed.

It was hard to avoid spoilers because SOMA is so darn exciting.
But I assure you this image, like the review, is spoiler free
A good sense of momentum propels your towards the game’s conclusion. Each hour of the roughly 8-10 hour experience builds upon itself. Nothing lingers, except for SOMA’s existential questions. I didn’t think a game could make me interrogate my thoughts on the level SOMA achieved. SOMA is thought provoking, and sets the bar astronomically high for narrative experiences in the future. A must play.

SOMA
5/5

Friday, September 25, 2015

News & Views
9/19/15-9/25/15

A gnarly stomach bug may have taken me out of commission for most of this week, but nothing stops The Impact Factor! Welcome back to another News & Views. This week, I found great writing about how Metal Gear Solid V allows you to bleed for your enemies, what Mad Max says about physical disabilities, and fear of missing out. Thanks for sticking with me everyone, I hope to be back up to full speed next week: which means more great stuff here and on Twitch.

And of course you can check out the brand new episode of The Impact Factor podcast that was posted today! You can subscribe to the podcast on iTunes, or if you prefer other methods, check out our SoundCloud. We’re on YouTube too!

Spotlight
Ario Barzan, Gamasutra

Worth Reading
Jordan Wood, MetaThesis Blog

Ben Kuchera, Polygon

Tauriq Moosa, Polygon

Stu Horvath, Unwinnable

Nathan Grayson, Kotaku

With Comments
Joshua Cauller, Gamechurch
Cauller gives his fascinating take on combat in Metal Gear Solid V. In so many games the player is forced to take countless lives. You’re essentially a mass murderer. But in MGSV, Big Boss is able to incapacitate, rather than kill, essentially every foe. Cauller writes how this allows him to express his faith, bleed for his enemies, and respect life. It’s a very cool perspective you don’t see often in games writing.

Bianca Batii, NYMG
Until Dawn is a game I’m still dying to play. I have it slotted for October as a part of my horror fest game and movie media consumption mega-plan. Batii’s perspective is a welcome one. She writes that, although Until Dawn does play with some of horror’s more unseemly tropes, the game doesn’t give enough player agency to subvert others. For example, the cliché and misogynistic “cat fight” is totally unskippable. Something to consider during my playthrough.

Gerald, Core-A Gaming, YouTube
Click bait title aside, Core-A-Gaming produces a pretty great video expounding the virtues of competitive fighting games. I’ve said a lot of what the video discusses here on the blog before, but it’s always worth reiterating.

Nick Robinson, Polygon
Derek Yu is a fascinating game designer. Spelunky is one of my favorite games of all time. It’s cool to see what Yu puts together in Super Mario Maker, especially with his procedural level generation mindset. I really want to play his SMM level. Dangit, Wii U.
The Impact Factor Ep. 21: Old People Be Scary
Podcast

Welcome to the 21st episode of The Impact Factor! The Impact Factor is what happens when two scientists, and two best friends, get together to talk about video games. Hosts Alex Samocha [biomedical scientist] and Charles Fliss [social scientist] sit down every week to discuss the week in gaming! Listen in for the news, views, and games that made the biggest impact!
Please send your suggestions and feedback to: impactfactorpodcast@gmail.com

In this episode Alex and Fliss talk about SAG-AFTRA, voice actor strikes, eSports, The Witness, Star Fox Zero, Street Fighter V, Super Time Force Ultra, Xeodrifter, The Visit & more!

For articles and reviews from Alex, check out: www.theimpactfactor.blogspot.com
For a blog about Japan, pop culture & more from Fliss, check out:www.flissofthenorthstar.blogspot.com

For an archive of old episodes, visit our YouTube page:
Follow Alex @alexsamocha on Twitter.
Follow Fliss @thecfliss on Twitter.

Intro song:
You Kill My Brother by Go! Go! Go! Micro Invasion, East Jakarta Chiptunes Compilations. Freemusic Archive. (Attribution Noncommercial Share-Alike License)
freemusicarchive.org/music/Indonesi…s_Compilation/
Transitions:
News & Views and Perspectives transitions from victorcenusa, Freesound.org (Creative Commons 0 License)
freesound.org/people/victorcenusa/sounds/148785/
freesound.org/people/victorcenusa/sounds/148784/
Experimental Methods transition from Sentuniman, Freesound.org (Attribution Noncommercial License)
freesound.org/people/Setuniman/sounds/143994/

Tuesday, September 22, 2015

Back To The Future
Review
Super Time Force Ultra, Capybara Games (PS4)

Abstract: Super Time Force Ultra is innovative, action-packed, and fun. The game lets you shoot your way through history's greatest hits, fighting alongside an army of your past selves. Super Time Force Ultra is an incredible accomplishment in game design. Exceedingly complex ideas and mechanics are made simple, creating moment-to-moment gameplay that's light, fast and frantic. The sometimes eye-rolling humor and weak boss fights were a bummer, but didn't detract too badly from the final experience. A wonderful aesthetic, great character design and high skill ceiling hooked me from the start. Super Time Force Ultra is a game I didn't put down until I beat. Give it a go.

Time travel can be complicated. Have a conversation with your future self, informing you that you’re going to become an intergalactic commander? Sure. Go back to the time of the dinosaurs to prevent their annihilation? Why not. See yourself get killed only to stop time, reverse it, come back and kill the thing that killed you? Yep. Super Time Force Ultra is here to tackle these big questions. And have a really fun time while doing so.

Super Time Force Ultra is a 2D shooter originally developed for Xbox One and PC by Capybara Games, the studio behind the incredible Superbrothers: Sword and Sworcery on iOS. The game was met with critical praise and, just on aesthetic alone, it quickly made its way onto my must-play list. Super Time Force Ultra finally made its way to PlayStation this month, included as part of the PlayStation Plus lineup of complimentary games. I knew it was finally time to time travel.

You play as a group of heroes, known as the Super Time Force, tasked with defeating the nemesis of fun: Dr. Infinity. The nefarious doctor stands in opposition to the central goal of the Super Time Force—to make history more interesting. That’s right. Under the leadership of Commander Repeatski, you’re tasked with going back to pivotal moments in Earth’s history to undo lame outcomes of the past and future. This includes a gamut of “nerd” favorite time periods. The Super Time Force is sent to the past to stop the destruction of Atlantis, to Earth’s future (that looks stunningly like a 1980’s imagining of the year 20XX) to stop oppressive robotic regimes, and to 199X to fight against an oppressive Mad Max styled wasteland. Along the way you grow your squad with new powerful heroes like Lou Don Jim, a rotund lightsaber wielding warrior, or Dolphin Lundgren, a gun toting fin-pedal dolphin. In each era you must fight the armies of Dr. Infinity who do their best to stop time from becoming more rad.
 
Where it all starts: Philly! (I went to college there, whoo!)
As I’m sure you can tell already, Super Time Force Ultra is a game with a heavy comedic slant. Everything that happens, from conversations to scenarios to character appearances, is kept light and fun. The playfulness Super Time Force Ultra’s world maintains the game’s cheerful tone throughout. I, however, was not particularly captured by the game’s style of humor. Filled to the brim with puns and tongue-in-cheek references to “nerd” favorite topics (like Star Wars or 80’s action films), Super Time Force Ultra tries really hard to be funny. No joke or pun is too terrible, but it came across as an attempt to appeal to a demographic I am not a part of. Although I didn’t find myself laughing at “insert time pun here,” the fun the developers had creating this world and characters is demonstrably clear. Super Time Force Ultra oozes charm. I’m not ashamed to admit I smirked at unlocking the Squirty Harry character, or nodded in pleasant acknowledgement of Jef Leppard. Where this fan-directed attention was most effective for me was the game’s inclusion of characters from the PlayStation wheelhouse. It was great blasting away enemies with President of Sony Worldwide Studios Shuhei Yoshida, the character from Journey, and The Order 1886’s crazy powerful Sir Galahad. Nothing feels better than blasting your enemies out of existence with a giant @yosp tweet.
 
A lot of jokes miss their mark.
The plot and characters are an important part of Super Time Force Ultra, but the game is really all about is blowing stuff up in spectacular fashion. Super Time Force Ultra plays like a mash-up of Contra with Braid. As a 2D shooter, the game feels very similar to your classic Contra titles. Moving and shooting is simple. You move left to right, occasionally navigating some obstacles with basic platforming, Your character can shoot in four directions: straight in front of you, up, down, and diagonally. You can do one of two attacks: quickly pressing the fire button will (usually) give a rapid firing but weak projectile, and holding down and releasing the fire button will give you a powerful super attack. For example, holding down the fire button on your starting operatives will give a rapid fire Gatling gun attack or a sniper shot the pierces through objects. The object of every level is simple: get to the end. The act of actually doing so, however, brings in the complexity.
 
Why is Shuhei blowing stuff up with tweets? Because, STFU.
Time travel mechanics are central to Super Time Force Ultra. You only have 60 seconds to complete a level, a task that would be fairly impossible if you played the game exactly like a classic 2D shooter. That’s where pausing and rewinding time comes in. At any moment the game allows you to freeze time, rewind it, and start over. For anyone who has played Braid, you’ll know the feeling I’m describing. But in Super Time Force Ultra, time travel has powerful advantages. When you restart time you choose a new hero. Those new heroes, or copy of the same hero, will spawn into the level and play alongside your past self. Each and every time you retry, you fight alongside your previous attempts. Your ghosts are still able to deal damage to enemies, destroy obstacles, and collect items. The longer you play a level, the more times you rewind time and drop a new hero into the fold, you’re growing an army of selves that all act in real time. The mechanic allows for thoughtful action, as each new life and each new section of the level is an optimization puzzle. I felt compelled to discover the best solution to advance through difficult sections quickly—like setting up a sniper at the back whose sole purpose is killing enemies, a shield-bearing character to block bullets, the nimble Shuhei to collect an item, and Sir Galahad to sprint quickly through the carnage. Each Super Time Force member adds new abilities to the fold. Finding the right combination of those skills to get you to the end of the level is brilliant and consistently engaging.
 
It's so much fun to strategize, optimize, and destroy
absolutely every single living thing in sight.
It’s not easy being a time hero, though. In fact, it can be quite difficult. The game encourages (reads: necessitates) use of its time rewind mechanic. The game is extremely punishing. Not only is 60 seconds not enough to beat the level without the assistance of your other selves, but also every single thing kills you in one hit. Touching enemies, running into their projectiles, traps, you name it. Moving through levels involves navigating dense bullet-hell sections that repeatedly kill the player. Frustration comes in large quantities but, for the most part, it only sweetens the reward when you clear a particularly challenging section. Time travel allows you to prevent your own past deaths, too. You’re able take out an enemy before they killed you on your previous run. Saving your past self coverts them into a collectible that powers up all your attacks and gives you an extra point of health. The tension this system creates is great. It pushed me to always be aware of all my past selves even if there were roughly a dozen of them going at once. Time crystals aid your journey. Three are scattered throughout each level. Collecting or shooting these crystals further slow down time, allowing the player to more efficiently clear out enemies or rush towards the level’s end. Regardless, going through each level is a sea of deaths and retries. The quick pace of the game and the generous number of attempts the game affords you, however, helps to balance out the challenge and maintain a consistent level of fun.
 
You're going to die. A lot. That's what time travel is for.
The only frustration that is largely unaddressed by these player-friendly systems are the boss fights. They just don’t feel right within the game’s systems. Some of the later bosses require a much more skillful optimization of your past selves, to the point where on one or two bosses I nearly ran out of time. I hadn’t done damage quickly enough at the start of the fight. There is a pure joy that comes out of watching all of your past selves eviscerate a boss in a matter of seconds, but the moment to moment gameplay of some late game bosses was not incredibly fun.
 
Some boss fights were great, others not so much. Pictured above: not so much.
I want to take a moment to acknowledge that Super Time Force Ultra is a remarkable accomplishment in game design. Super Time Force Ultra takes an incredibly complex idea, rewinding time and fighting alongside your past attempts, and makes it so simple to understand and use. At any given moment a dozen different things are happening, but all of it is rendered smoothly and seamlessly. The player is made to feel present at all times. Moment to moment gameplay is simple. It’s the combination of all this simplicity, the time travel and power-ups and character-specific talents, that creates an experience with an astoundingly high skill ceiling. “Easy to learn, difficult to master” is one of the most powerful tools in game design, and it’s handled in Super Time Force Ultra expertly.

A Capy game wouldn’t be a Capy game without phenomenal presentation, and Super Time Force Ultra is no exception. The oversized pixel art is endearing and, at this point, might as well be trademarked by Capy. No one does it better. Accompanying the great visuals is a cheerful chiptune soundtrack, dense and visually interesting backgrounds, and great character design. The aesthetic is striking and wonderful.
 
Beautiful.
Super Time Force Ultra is fun, fast and compelling. It’s a game I couldn’t put down until I beat it. A few hiccups aside, I had a blast rewinding time and fighting alongside myself to face the biggest and baddest in Earth’s history. From a game design perspective alone, you don’t get much more innovative and interesting than Super Time Force Ultra. So make sure for find the time to play it.

Super Time Force Ultra
4/5

Sunday, September 20, 2015

TIF Plays: Hearthstone Ranked! [6]
Gameplay

Another day, another Hearthstone stream. Check out an archive of my stream linked below, and be sure to catch me when I go live by following me on Twitter (@alexsamocha) and Twitch (MegalodonPhD) Enjoy!

Saturday, September 19, 2015

TIF Plays: Hearthstone Ranked! [5]
Gameplay

Another day, another Hearthstone stream. Check out an archive of my stream linked below, and be sure to catch me when I go live by following me on Twitter (@alexsamocha) and Twitch (MegalodonPhD) Enjoy!

Friday, September 18, 2015

News & Views
9/12/15-9/18/15

This week’s News & Views is a landmark! This is the 100th post up on The Impact Factor! Wow. I can’t really believe it myself. Since I began in January, I haven’t missed a week of posting articles, reviews, and News & Views for you all to enjoy. Now 100 posts in and over 5000 page views (!) later, The Impact Factor has been more than I could ever ask for. I wanted to thank everyone who has stuck with me for these nine months, either every week or off and on. I’ve loved every second so far. 100 posts is just the beginning! As always, more to come on the horizon. Please continue on this exciting adventure with me. Love you all.

But now to the meat of News & Views! I have put together great video game writing about design principles for online fighting games, a 14-year-old Hearthstone pro, the role of randomness in games, and how a game can change the way you think about sound. All the links are below!

And of course you can check out the brand new episode of The Impact Factor podcast that was posted today! This week was a landmark for the podcast, too. 20 episodes in and we’re only getting better. In honor of 20 straight weeks of the podcast, all episodes are up EVERYWHERE. That’s right, whenever and however you want to listen I’ve got you covered. You can subscribe to the podcast on iTunes, or if you prefer other methods, check out our SoundCloud. We’re on YouTube too!

Spotlight
Christian Nutt, Gamasutra

Worth Reading
Ed Smith, Kill Screen

Dan Felder, Gamasutra

Leigh Alexander, Offworld

Tim Clark, PC Gamer

IGN

With Comments
Laura Kurtzman, UCSF
I love when science and games intersect. Kurtzman gives a nice write up of researching being done at my school, UCSF, about using games as brain fitness. Speculative and low power studies have previously suggested a role of video games in improving mental acuity, but it finally seems like we’re seeing some substantial and well-controlled work being performed. While training with the lab’s tailor made 3D game, NeuroRacer, the researchers observed enhancements to cognitive control and multitasking in older brains. Very cool.

Bryant Francis, Gamasutra
I cling to anything Killian has to say. I’ve said it here once and I’ll say it again: the guy is a fighting game design genius. In an interview about his newest game, Rising Thunder (which I still really want to play but is unfortunately PC only :( ), Killian identifies the three key considerations for designing a fighting game with online play in mind. The 3 are: accessible controls, designing moves & movesets around online systems, and creating a good netcode.

Jeremy Parish, US Gamer
News broke this week about Sublevel Zero, a game heavily inspired by Descent. Descent was a staple in my childhood gaming wheelhouse: I spent hours and hours scouring the polygonal 3D world. The developer released some gif sets that brought me right back to the mid 90s when I was playing Descent on the family computer. Sublevel Zero, along with the franchise prequel Descent: Underground, are both games I’ll be following closely.

Patrick Klepek, Kotaku
The more games that feel like Dark Souls, the better. I’ve been watching Klepek’s morning Super Mario Maker streams and man oh man do some of those levels look tough. But (the good ones at least), look fair. I haven’t seen any writing that makes me want to pick up Super Mario Maker more than this. The gaming community can produce some really cool stuff.
The Impact Factor Ep. 20: Only 90s Kids Will Get This
Podcast

Welcome to the landmark 20th episode of The Impact Factor! The Impact Factor is what happens when two scientists, and two best friends, get together to talk about video games. Hosts Alex Samocha [biomedical scientist] and Charles Fliss [social scientist] sit down every week to discuss the week in gaming! Listen in for the news, views, and games that made the biggest impact!
Please send your suggestions and feedback to: impactfactorpodcast@gmail.com

In this episode Alex and Fliss talk about the Tokyo Game Show, Persona 5, Bloodborne, Dark Souls 3, Nintendo, Kingdom Hearts, Street Fighter V, DOTA2, Danganronpa, Super Time Force Ultra & more!


For articles and reviews from Alex, check out http://www.theimpactfactor.blogspot.com

For a blog about Japan, pop culture & more from Fliss, check out http://www.flissofthenorthstar.blogspot.com

For an archive of old episodes, visit our YouTube page: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC_zpRq6h1O7d2MlMYWhNNjw

Follow Alex @alexsamocha on Twitter.
Follow Fliss @thecfliss on Twitter.

Intro song:
You Kill My Brother by Go! Go! Go! Micro Invasion, East Jakarta Chiptunes Compilations. Freemusic Archive. (Attribution Noncommercial Share-Alike License)
freemusicarchive.org/music/Indonesi…s_Compilation/
Transitions:
News & Views and Perspectives transitions from victorcenusa, Freesound.org (Creative Commons 0 License)
freesound.org/people/victorcenusa/sounds/148785/
freesound.org/people/victorcenusa/sounds/148784/
Experimental Methods transition from Sentuniman, Freesound.org (Attribution Noncommercial License)
freesound.org/people/Setuniman/sounds/143994/

Tuesday, September 15, 2015

M.O.M. Would Be Proud
Review
Grow Home, Ubisoft Reflections

Abstract: Grow Home is an unmissable experience in gaming. My time with the game was awe-inspiring and meditative. A beautiful world complements your simple objective—to fill a planet with life. Climbing your way through a growing world creates a tremendous sense of player impact. Unusual physics and controls set the foundation for creating a compelling bond between the player and the game’s robot avatar, B.U.D., the more you play. Grow Home is a game that understands what it wants to be and shows players total respect. Grow Home is a perfect, compact experience deserving of your time.

Let me take you back to an anecdote I described on The Impact Factor podcast. I stood on the precipice of floating cliff face. The ground was lightly peppered with white, as the cool air of my current altitude created a light misting of snow. I looked out into the empty and expansive night sky, its royal blues and cosmic purples giving way to orange and yellow and red. The night was coming to an end. I could see the morning sun begin to peek over the curved horizon. In an instant I leapt from my location, free falling past rocks and floating waterfalls as I made my descent to sea level. A last moment release of my flower petal parachute let me touch gently onto to wave-whipped sands. I made my descent for a reason. I guide my gaze directly upwards—I wanted to see my work. Above me was an elegant tapestry of my own creation. Star stalks carved lines into the sky, interlocking and weaving to form an elaborate web. A space that was once empty is now a visual history of my actions. This moment, among many others, made me realize that Grow Home is phenomenal.
I was not exaggerating. Grow Home is gorgeous.
Poetic introductions aside, Grow Home is a game that took me completely by surprise. It took me on a journey. The game came out of Ubisoft Reflections, a small development studio within the larger Ubisoft umbrella. Grow Home came out early 2015 on the PC and just made its way to PS4 this month. I had been wanting to give the game a go since its initial release, but once it became clear that Grow Home would win the PlayStation Plus vote I knew the first game I would play in September.

In Grow Home you play as B.U.D., short for botanical utility droid. B.U.D. is a clumsy little robot, moving in awkward sputters and with slow, short jumps. At the start of the game your spaceship’s AI, M.O.M., informs you that you have one task—oxygenate your world. This is accomplished by growing a giant Star Plant you find at the start of the game. Growing the central stalk is simple. B.U.D. must ascend the Star Plant to look for blooms. Grabbing onto those with your little robot causes them to explode with movement and life. Sprouts shoot from the blooms, working their way into the empty sky. You need to corral the outgrowths towards fluorescently illuminated floating geography and embed them deep into the rock face. Each connection you make causes the central stalk to rise, creating new blooms and spring board-like leaves along the way. Once the plant grows to a height of 2000m a flower will bloom, allowing you to harvest the ever-crucial Star Seeds and complete the game.

Growing your Star Plant is a refreshing, meditative experience. Each new bloom is story: the one that just fell short of your intended location, the one with the mind of its own that forced its way downward towards the ocean, and the one that formed a perfect corkscrew. The further you get into the game, the more you can see the impact of your actions. The entire world is rendered at all times, so each new sprout adds to the growing latticework that cuts its way into the sky.
That's a whole lot of stories. With many more to come as you get higher and higher up.
The gameplay in Grow Home can be divided into two main mechanics: platforming and climbing. B.U.D.’s mobility starts simple, limited to jumping and climbing. Working your way up the Star Plant and towards blooms is a waltz of climbing and jumping, to and around leaves and trees and cliffs. A lot of your gameplay revolves around B.U.D.’s grasping mechanic. Each hand can grab onto objects separately. Alternating hand holds allows your robot to climb, which is central in your lengthy ascent. Falling is frequent, at first, as you like B.U.D. work to understand the world you’ve been dropped into. To mitigate frustrations, not only are teleporters scattered throughout the map, but small flowers can be collected and deployed as a  parachute slash glider. Everything synergizes to create a compelling gameplay package that easily carries you throughout the roughly 3-hour completion time.
Climbing will get you where you need to go.
Grow Home is a ferry, escorting the player into a new reality. You are an explorer, the first explorer, of an untouched planet. The world feels hollow, initially, a wide open playground in which B.U.D. will explore. The minimal geology, flora and fauna all have a sense of purpose, though. Everything fits. And the work done by the Ubisoft Reflections team to create a world you want to spend your time in is incredible. Grow Home’s planet is filled with wonderful ambient noises, melodic whistles of winds and the quiet hum of space. The emptiness of the world helps to bolster the resonance of all player actions. Every jump, plant growth, or B.U.D’s little bleeps or bloops echoes loudly—reinforcing once again that you have full ownership of your surroundings. The blankness of your surroundings acts as the perfect canvas. Your exploration is complemented by a soothing soundtrack that was so good I went out and bought it. It creates a perfect background for just about anything.
The empty space is yours to control. 
When I first started my time with Grow Home I really expected to dislike the controls. Aside from the (preposterous) critique that the game was too short, control wonkiness was the second most common complaint among reviewers. For the first 10-15 minutes or so, I thought the reviews were right on the money. Controlling B.U.D. was awkward. He felt slow and floaty, would slip around when trying to run, and often had trouble grasping onto surfaces. As I spent just a bit more time with the game, however, I developed a growing (sorry for the pun) sense of familiarity with the goofy little robot. It clicked. I began to understand his limits, his jump height, how to position his hands to climb lighting fast, how far his jet propulsion could take me, how to counter his momentum when landing after a rapid descent. It worked to create a sense of connection with B.U.D. As he grew in confidence, growing the Star Plant closer to space, so too did I grow in my mastery of his controls. I went from barely being able to jump from platform to platform, to catching and collecting a falling leaf while free falling, only to deploy it to glide comfortably to safety. My growth was exhilarating. Using a unique control scheme do create a bond with your protagonist is a powerful tool unique to games, and on that is painfully underutilized. I’m amazed at how expertly Grow Home executes its inclusion in game.
Video evidence of my skills. I'm basically a secret agent.

Above all, I really enjoyed how much Grow Home respects the player. Grow Home is perfectly simple. A straightforward control scheme embodies the notion of “easy to learn, difficult to master,” one of the best principles in game design. Grow Home’s sandbox gives the players the ability to do whatever they want. Exploration is rewarded, but it's totally optional. The games quiet and contemplative tone can appeal to anyone looking to have an immersive experience into a beautiful world. Small collection quests, like the shimmering crystals or teleporter scans of wildlife, offer completionist gamers an avenue for a more content dense experience. Grow Home can be completed in roughly 3 hours on your first run which, to me, shows a deep respect for the player’s time and attention. It is a perfect, compact experience. Grow Home brings you into a new and interesting world, shows you astounding sights, develops a bond between you and B.U.D., and then leaves you satisfied. Overstay its welcome, Grow Home does not.
Blooming the Star Plant is the end. Or maybe just a new beginning?
Grow Home is a remarkable success, exuding confidence and competence in all aspects. Grow Home is perhaps the biggest surprise of the year in that it delivered something I never knew how much I needed. I still find myself hopping into the game every once in a while, just to be brought back to my first time exploring and filling out it’s great world. Grow Home is a must play, a game I cannot recommend highly enough. Home is where the heart is.

Grow Home
5/5

Monday, September 14, 2015

TIF Plays: Spelunky Daily Challenge! [18]
Gameplay

You all know my love for Spelunky. It was the first game I streamed for The Impact Factor! After my regular Thursday night Hearthstone stream, I hopped into Spelunky for a daily challenge run. Check out an archive of my stream linked below, and be sure to catch me when I go live by following me on Twitter (@alexsamocha) and Twitch (MegalodonPhD) Enjoy!

Sunday, September 13, 2015

TIF Plays: Hearthstone Ranked! [4]
Gameplay

Another day, another Hearthstone stream. Check out an archive of my stream linked below, and be sure to catch me when I go live by following me on Twitter (@alexsamocha) and Twitch (MegalodonPhD) Enjoy!

Friday, September 11, 2015

News & Views
9/5/15-9/11/15

Welcome back everyone! We’re getting deeper and deeper into the packed Fall season. Metal Gear Solid V has been making news, big Hearthstone tournaments are happening every weekend, Until Dawn has the biggest numbers on YouTube, and plenty more. I’ve been having a great time using my September to play smaller titles that have been sitting in my backlog for far too long. Three titles beaten already!

As always, I’m back with another jam-packed entry into the long running News & Views series. This week I found writing about Hot Ryu and how sexiness is not sexual objectification, how Microsoft consulted with a Native American tribe for Killer Instinct, and the torment of being Mario. Check out the articles below and be sure to let me know what you think!

And of course you can check out the brand new episode of The Impact Factor podcast that was posted today! You can subscribe to the podcast on iTunes, or if you prefer other methods, check out our SoundCloud. We’re on YouTube too!

Spotlight
Daniel West, Gamasutra

Worth Reading
Paul King, KillScreen

Steven Messner, Unwinnable

Dean Takahashi, VentureBeat

Mike Stout, Gamasutra

The "Hot Ryu" Meme: Sexiness vs. Sexual Objectification                                                                
Maddy Myers, The Mary Sue

With Comments
Innuendo Studios, YouTube
Innuendo Studios produces some absolutely phenomenal content. If you haven’t, his series “Why Are You So Angry” is a must watch. Taking a step back from heavier subjects, Innuendo Studios articulately and brilliantly describes his deep dive into eSports and competitive Smash Bros. play. Well worth your time.

Lana Polansky, Sufficiently Human
Polansky touches on a truth in gaming that we, as an industry of writers and commentators, haven’t ever been able to precisely define. A couple years ago, the separation between gameplay and story was termed Ludonarrative Dissonance. A mouthful, I know. Here, Polansky argues that idea needs to be redefined. Thought about in new ways. Her idea is that of coherence versus dissonance. She argues, amongst many great points, that gameplay needs to support themes. I’m all for having better ways to describe video game phenomena.

Maddy Myers, The Mary Sue
Yeah, I had to put this in here. Sorry. Quiet is, well, Quiet. Kojima has a long history of not-so-great portrayals of women in his Metal Gear Solid franchise. On the character design side, Quiet is downright atrocious. Kojima himself said that Quiet was designed to cater to cosplayers because of her, uhm, outfit (or lack thereof). However, the game also offers a preposterous ‘reason’ for Quiet to be dressed like she is. So that raises the question found in this piece: Why not just be honest that Quiet’s design is purely for male fan-service?

Patrick Klepek, Kotaku
I want to wish PlayStation a happy 20th anniversary! I’ve been a huge fan of their consoles since the PS1 came out. My first PlayStation memory is going over to Mike’s house and sitting down to watch him play games like Twisted Metal, Jet Moto, and Metal Gear Solid. As soon as I saved up enough money (my parents REFUSED to buy me one, something something video games are bad for you something), I went to the game store and bought my own. 1998 was a good year.

Riley Macleod, Offworld
Macleod offers a fascinating take on the male body in games. Often we see male characters that represent the male power fantasy: tall, muscle-laden badasses. But male protagonists in stealth games offer something different. To quote Macleod here, “In games, men's bodies often represent brute strength. Stealth games are the focal point for an alternative masculinity: sleek, illusory, sensitive, and self-reflective.” Great read.

Javy Gwaltney, Paste
Laura Bailey is a prolific voice actress. She also happens to be one of my favorites. It’s great to hear what she has to say about voice acting, the characters she plays and more. By the way, my favorites are Fetch (Infamous Second Son), Fiona (Tales from the Borderlands), and Rise (Persona 4 Golden).