Blog Posts

12 Hours Later - Enter the Gungeon Review

4/14/2016

INTRODUCTION AND DISCLAIMERS
Relevant information to note before reading this early impressions / review:

I was not given a review copy.
I have no affiliation with anyone at Devolver Digital.
Specifications of the system used for this first impressions article can be found here.
At the time of writing this article, I had played the game for twelve hours and have managed to get to the fourth floor once. Woo! Go me.
I've not got a great deal of experience with bullet hell games, but I have been playing Roguelike/lite games since, well, Rogue.
No, I haven't played Nuclear Throne.

WHAT DOESN'T HOLD UP
A game that’s designed around the idea of the player having to start from scratch repeatedly lives and dies by how much fun it is to repeat content. Enter the Gungeon gets around that somewhat by offering randomly generated levels, being able to choose four different characters and having so many weapons that I’m still finding new ones every couple of runs.

That being said, there is some content that’s repeated and definitely gives me that ’here we go again’ feeling. The first floor for me is rapidly losing its element of fun. The enemies aren’t particularly hard and it takes too long to find a new gun — if you find one at all.

The issue here is that if you don’t find a nice gun by the end of the first floor, your run is going to struggle. You’ll need to spend money at the shop much sooner than you otherwise would and this gimps the ongoing quest for you, especially at the step where you have to hand over 150 coins and three keys.

What also leaves me with a disappointed feeling is the local co-op. If you haven’t played it, basically one of the players chooses one of the regular characters, while the other is stuck with the Occultist. A purple-robed support character who can pick up items and resurrect player one but that’s about it.

Of all the ways Dodge Roll could have gone about implementing co-optional play, this was probably the worst idea they could have settled on. To the point where it is simply not fun for the poor sap who has to suffer being player two. To my mind, it would have been better if they’d have decided to allow both players to control one of the regular characters and scale up the dungeon to suit — double or even triple the number of enemies and have the difficulty scale up accordingly.

The Occultist is the perfect representation of being given the player 2 controller.

Boss fights are also becoming a little repetitive, especially the ones on the first floor. I’m so sick of Gatling Gull that I’ll simply reset if I have to fight it with a starter gun.

This damned bird. I understand Dick Dastardly now!

Character balance is an issue. The Marine is the best character. There’s really no two ways about it — he starts with armour, has the highest accuracy of all, an ammo drop and a starting gun that has the largest clip. The only one that comes close is the hunter who starts with the crossbow, which can kill most enemies in one or two shots.

Lastly, the music. When I played Enter the Gungeon for the first time, I heard that 70s/80s style intro track and thought the game was going to have a stunning soundtrack, which is a hallmark of the bullet hell genre. Sadly, the music has become dull at this point — even a little annoying.

WHAT'S STILL FUN?
The game hasn’t become too easy. Enter the Gungeon mercilessly demands your full attention and concentration, or even the first floor will leave you in a bad state, giving you no chance for the end of floor two. The game is so challenging for me that I still haven’t made it past any of the third bosses. I’ve only actually gotten to them twice despite being on my 60th run.

I love that I’m still finding new guns and power-ups. I like that the game seems to throw new things at you based on how many times you’ve Entered the Gungeon — I’m still occasionally bumping into new NPCs and characters, I’m seeing one or two new enemies appear on earlier floors and I’m getting more massive chests, too.

The humour in Enter the Gungeon still works for me. I love the flavour texts that come with gun descriptions in the wonderfully named Ammonomicon.

I’m also looking forward to finding out what happens with the ongoing quest, if I can ever manage to get 150 coins before I bite the bullet (heh, sorry!)

IS IT STILL WORTH THE MONEY?
Just about. While I do find myself getting increasingly bored with the game, to the point where I’m not sure I’ll manage to actually beat it before my patience expires, I’ve still had a great deal of fun with it. It is priced well at $15 and I’m sure it’ll be a game that goes on sale within a year for those who are tempted but not convinced by it.

Just be warned — if you don’t like hard games, you’re not going to enjoy it.

And no, there isn’t an ‘easy mode’.

Comments

Thoughts on Grey...Goo?

2/3/2015

Comments

INTRODUCTION AND DISCLAIMERS
Relevant information before reading this early impressions article:

I was not given a review copy.
I have no affiliation with anyone at Petroglyph Games.
Specifications of the system used for this first impressions article can be found here.
At the time of writing this article, I had played the game for fifteen hours and have completed the single player campaign.
I'm a fan of older RTS games, especially the Command and Conquer series (before 4, blegh) and Red Alert.
I'm not a massive fan of the micro-heavy RTS, like Starcraft 2.

OLD SCHOOL RTS IS BACK
An RTS - with base building. Want to play one of those? Well you can either play Starcraft 2, or you can play.. Starcraft 2. Aside from dipping back into a game from yesteryear, there really hasn't been an alternative for several years.

Now there is. What's more, it's made by several former members of Westwood Studios (think, Command and Conquer!). But it has one of the least appealing names for any game I've ever seen - Grey Goo. Now, I understand why they used the title; it describes an end of the world scenario and revolves around the game's almost unique offering to the RTS genre - the Grey Goo faction. Still, it's not a great name. While that shouldn't really be enough to put people off, I'm sure it doesn't help.

However, as I've been waiting years for a new RTS with base building that isn't Starcraft 2, I ignored Petroglyph's choice of name and dived right in.

THREE RACES
You can play as The Beta (Aliens with South African accents and the least alien-like tech you're likely to come across - "they still use bullets in their guns" as one of the human characters from the campaign says), Humans or the Grey Goo. This article will attempt to use the word 'Goo' wherever possible. You've been warned.

Each race plays very differently - I'd say the differences here are greater than those between Terran, Protoss and Zerg in Starcraft. As I hinted at earlier, the Beta are not that imaginative or inherently alien. They have commandos, shell-based artillery, pretty standard looking aircraft and buildings. Beta base building revolves around hubs; small, medium and large. You must place a hub in order to build production buildings, refineries and tech add-ons, and you must build where you have vision. They also have the ability to garrison units on top of walls and to build gates, allowing for a more solid defence.

The Human faction are much more advanced. Their base building is dependant upon the use of 'conduits', which you must build like train tracks from your core (headquarters). Any building must be connected either directly to the core or to a conduit. Conduits can only be built in a straight line and within vision, and this limits expansion quite severely, especially if you have a tight starting area. Getting used to this mechanic can take a few games, and it can be very frustrating at first, especially when it comes to building large factories with more than one tech add-on. The Humans can also teleport units with their unique structure, the Teleporter (naming not Petroglyph's strong point, is it?) to anywhere where they have vision on the map, and their base defences and buildings can also be teleported to any available conduit connection. They have turrets rather than relying on mounting units to walls, and it is possible to surround turrets with other buildings, making them hard to get at. The turrets do massive damage, too.

The Goo are the obvious selling point of this game and are the most unique of the three factions. The Goo start with one 'Mother Goo' at around one-quarter health. Placing a Mother Goo over a resource (called Catalyst) spigot will let it (her?) recover some health. As the health bar fills up, the Mother Goo can be split into other units - a small Protean, which can then split into a choice of four light units (four infantry, two light anti-armour, two scouts or two anti-air), a large protean (again, can split into four units - two burrowing stealth mines, two heavy tanks, two artillery, two 'wall' units with taunt), another Mother Goo (this is how the Goo expand) or a tech upgrade.

The Goo are very mobile - there is no fixed building, and the Mother Goos require some micro-management in order to efficiently grow and produce units. The Goo are also really, really flexible. You can just morph proteans and have them attack (they will slow units and consume them, and they can also travel over mountainous terrain, which land units of the other factions can't do) - or wait until you see what you're fighting against before deciding which units you want.

So far I'm sure it all sounds quite new and innovative. This isn't the case for the entire game, though. All of the races have a really similar list of units and structures, The Beta and Humans have a fighter and a bomber, everyone has a scout, infantry, light anti-armour and anti-air unit. Everyone has an artillery unit (although the Goo's is slightly different) and everyone has an 'epic' unit. The Humans and the Betas have the same tech-add ons, while tech upgrades are again not massively different between the three races. This is probably a good thing for the multiplayer, but it hurts the longevity in my eyes. Once you know how to build your army with the Beta, you pretty much know how to build an efficient one with the Humans and for the most part the Goo, too.

The 'Epic' units deserve a special mention. They are units that require a great deal of resources and time to complete. The Humans have a giant death-ray robot, the Beta have an air-based advanced factory complete with six turret points and a nuke cannon which can produce two units at a time while on the move, and the Goo have a massive blob that could have come out of a 1930s movie with an area of effect earthquake attack.

It's not a case of 'first player to build an Epic wins', though. All of the units are so slow to move across the battlefield and are not at all immune from cleverly micro-managed attacks. A Hand of Ruk (the Beta's mobile war factory), if left with just the turret points occupied will not last long to a well organised attack.

All races also have access to stealth units, but at least these are somewhat difference between the factions, especially with tech upgrades - and all races can take advantage of forest regions on the maps which will give your units to stealth against units outside of a wooded area. The correct use of stealth units and the relating upgrades can drastically alter the course of a skirmish and are by far the most tactical aspect of the game.

PRODUCTION VALUE
I'm making a special point of this, because I feel that as an entry game in a new franchise (please), the production value of Grey Goo is ridiculously high. The single player cutscenes are so beautifully rendered that they rival Blizzard's efforts. The voice acting is believable (once you get over aliens with South African accents. A nod to District 9, perhaps?) and the overall game design has a fantastic attention to detail. The maps are incredibly detailed and lovingly crafted, the aesthetic of each race is clear and unique to themselves - even if the unit types aren't. The UI changes depending on which faction you're playing with - and the hotkey system for production is something that should become an RTS standard going forward, it's that goo. I mean good.

The structures sub menu is bound to Q, light units to W, heavy and air units to E, tech upgrades to R. Pressing one of these hotkeys puts you into the submenu, where pressing one of QWERT will issue a command to build the designated units. Simply tapping WW will queue up heavy tanks. You don't need to go back to your base, and you don't need to have the relevant building selected. It's brilliant.

The single player campaign is far, far from an afterthought. Again, it feels like they looked at Starcraft 2 and thought "There's no point making this game if we don't aim for that standard." The campaign lets you play as all three races in order - Betas, Humans and then Goo, but it all revolves around the same story - so you end up seeing each faction's side of events. There are 5 missions for each, the missions take between 20-40 minutes and there's a good variety in objectives - so you won't be following the exact same plan for every mission, and you won't get by with relying on a single type of unit throughout the entire campaign, either.

For those of us that like to play on 21:9 monitors, this game actually supports it natively in full screen and borderless windowed - something that Blizzard could learn from.

HELL MARCH
The music of Grey Goo is created by former Westwood affiliate Frank Klepacki, responsible for some of the greatest game soundtracks in history. His work in Grey Goo is brilliant. I highly recommend going into the options and putting the music on "jukebox" mode, so that you get to experience all of it rather than getting the same tracks in the same situations all the time. There is not a track here that feels generic. It's worth noting that if you bought the game within the first week of release you will have received the soundtrack, albeit hidden away in Steam.

ROOM FOR IMPROVEMENT
There are certainly some things that Petroglyph could improve on. All three of the interfaces take up a heck of a lot of screenspace. The Human UI is the cleanest of the three, but even that is on the large side. The Goo interface has so much wasted space that it takes up nearly one-third of your screen.

The difficulty of the campaign is something that, when looking at forums, some people have found frustrating. Even on easy, some of the missions will take several attempts, and one or two seem to be doable only with a very specific build order and choice of tech upgrades. These more difficult missions also come with a "generous" helping of cheating AI, which can spawn units with increased health out of thin air after a specific objective has been reached.

There are currently some pretty severe performance issues that seem to have no remedy - on my system (linked above, as usual) the game will bog down into the fourties and thirties with a lot of units on the screen - regardless of settings. But don't change the settings during a mission, because this will eat around 20-25 FPS until you start a new one. The cutscenes also wallow in the mid 20s for no apparent reason.

If you get a bad starting point with the Humans, your base expansion is going to become a very messy affair. It is possible to build your way out of a confined space, but it takes quite a lot of fiddling with conduits and it's not something you want to be spending time on in a multiplayer game. It is worth noting though, that sometimes with Humans the hardest base to attack are those that are very compact with obscured turrets.

As the Mother Goo, proteans, anti-air and artillery units can all climb impassable terrain, it is quite possible to bore your opponent to death. Hide a mother goo somewhere high, put some artillery and anti-air units around it (and the Goo anti-air units are very, very strong) and it becomes practically impossible to defeat. The standard maps have been designed to allieviate this somewhat, but custom made maps may not be so considerate.

Game speed is another issue that some people are going to have with this game. Unit movement is on the slow side, especially for the larger ones. There's no option to increase game speed, either. People who are very entrenched in faster RTS games are going to be very aware of how slow the movement speed is.

The air units in the game are pretty disappointing. Not only do they require a lot of resources and time to build, but they're not going to be the key to destroying someone's base, either. Anti-air units will tear them to shreds very quickly, and if they do manage to attack a building, they're barely going to scratch it. They don't even do that well against heavily armoured units. So far I've found thier best use to be scouting and patrolling key areas.

If you're not a fan of micro-management, you're probably not going to get a great deal of enjoyment out of the Goo faction - especially in the way that one has to micro the Mother Goo's around at the beginning of a game to get the first expansion within a reasonable window of time. Sure, you can just leave one sat on top of a spigot and wait for it to recharge, but that's going to slow you down - and doing that against one of the other two factions will lose you the game quite quickly.

I wish they would have pushed the aesthetic and mechanics of different factions more in the unit design. I would not have been unhappy with an asymmetry similar to the one that exists in in Command and Conquer between NOD and the Allied forces. The only real variation between the three are the Goo's proteans and burrowing mines. I feel there could have been more unit types for each faction, and a greater difference between units of the same type between factions, too.

THOUGHTS ON MULTIPLAYER
So far, PvP in Grey Goo has been fun. It often is at the launch of a game like this, as people struggle to find the right build orders and try out some wacky and surprising tactics. A couple of weeks into the game's life, and it's still enjoyable, although certain build orders are becoming the standard.

This is not a game that will join Starcraft 2 as a popular competitive eSport. I just don't think there's enough of a skill cap with two of the three factions, and I don't think the game is quick enough or has enough unit types. Resource 'streaming' rather than depositing (you can start building even if you have no resources, it will pause and continue as Catalyst becomes available) make the game quicker than it would otherwise be, however I don't think it's enough to compensate for the lack of game speed options.

Does that mean that the multiplayer isn't fun? No. By far the most fun I've had so far is with the Goo - I managed to expand 5 or 6 times, grew an army of proteans of mixed sizes, and attacked. When I came up against the first small force, I simply enveloped them as I was able to ambush them out of a forest. Then, it was onto the base. Once I had avoided the poor guy's lovingly crafted series of walls and turrets by going over the mountains behind his base, he was utterly unable to answer my sudden morphing into an army of heavily armoured units with his massive infantry army.

It's also great fun in multiplayer if someone is able to construct an Epic unit. Exploring the map only to find a Purger slowly ambling towards your base is an experience that no other RTS can really offer - nor is the feeling of dismantling someone's base with it.

FINAL SAY
Grey Goo is a solid RTS that has thankfully embraced base building and actually tried to do something a little different with expansion, all the while making use of three races that have different core mechanics. It's great fun. The multiplayer, at the time of writing, was a blast. If there's one major complaint I have with the game, it's that there isn't enough unit variety between the three races. The size of the UI and game speed is going to be subjective. I have no problem with a slow RTS, but the UI, especially for the Goo and the Beta, needs to be scaled down. The performance issues on mid-range machines could hamper enjoyment though, and there's still no word of a patch to fix them.

The price is going to be a stumbling block for some - currently selling for €45.99, Grey Goo isn't cheap. If you're on the fence about old-school RTS, then I'd give say you should either wait for a sale or wait for more content. If, like me, you're desperate for a good old base-building RTS, then I'd say it's definitely worth a buy. You'll not be let down the production value, attention to detail and innovate race mechanics.

Comments

Hearthstone: Goblins vs Gnomes

12/10/2014

Comments

INTRODUCTION AND DISCLAIMERS
Relevant information before reading this early impressions article:

I was not given a review copy.
I have no affiliation nor contact with anyone at Blizzard.
Specifications of the system used for this first impressions article can be found here.
At the time of writing this article, I had played the game for (too) many hours.

A PROPER EXPANSION
I think when Blizzard announced at Blizzcon that the release of the first full card expansion to Hearthstone was coming in early December they made the right move. There's no question that to a great many people both Ranked and Arena modes were becoming increasingly stagnant. The community were becoming more and more vitriolic towards certain decks and, although no stats are available, I wouldn't be surprised if the number of people and the time they spent playing Hearthstone was steadily decreasing.

We had Naxxramus, which was fun for a couple of days but if anything some of the cards it introduced (Hi, Undertaker) only seemed to make already hated decks even worse. It also didn't add that many new cards - only 30.

Goblins vs Gnomes adds 120 cards including new class legendaries - surely the aim here is to shake up what had become a stale meta.

BLIZZARD AND LAUNCHES
It shouldn't really have come as a surprise that the launch of Goblins vs Gnomes had some issues - even if Blizzard have been at this since 2004 - but perhaps the severity of the issues that people faced were unnecessary.

When the launch went live, the servers fell over. Some people (including Totalbiscuit) were not able to log into the game for almost 12 hours. Those that were able to log in and buy packs faced errors in the store. This had the knock on effect of delaying the launch in the EU regions, with rumours swirling that part of the delay was caused by Blizzard staff being reassigned to customer support to deal with the volume of tickets that customers were making regarding the purchasing of incorrect packs.

Even when it did launch in the EU, there were further problems. The servers still couldn't cope with the demand (although now that it's the following day they seem fine, we'll see when it gets to peak traffic time) - but worse, people that were completing arena runs were being "rewarded" with classic packs rather than Goblins vs Gnomes packs.

Hopefully there'll be no hangover that stretches on for months with this release, as there were with people who were charged for the Naxxramus adventure wing but still cannot access it.

You'd think after the problems with the Diablo 3 launch and the more recent issues with the WoW: Warlords of Draenor launch that Blizzard would get these issues somewhat under control - but at the moment it seems beyond their ability.

ARENA
If you weren't aware, Blizzard added the full deck of Goblins vs Gnomes cards into Arena mode a full week before release. Some cards also managed to sneak into Ranked mode via cards like Webspinner, too. But has it increased my enjoyment of Arena?

Well, a little bit - and maybe only temporarily. While it's nice to see new cards in the drafts, it has also made it a little harder, at least initially, to come up with reliable arena decks. I normally manage 5 or 6 wins at least, but since the new cards were added I've been averaging a mere 3. Does this mean that more 'good' players are going back into the Arena? Or does it mean that I've not figured out which of the new cards are best in combination with the classic cards? It's hard to say for sure.

What I will say is that it has made coming up against certain classes in Arena less frustrating. It may be too early to say, but the days of coming up against Mages that have 3/4 Flamestrikes and Blizzards seem to have gone. There also seem to be less priests with Mind Control, too.

But will the 'freshness' last? Already after less than 20 Arena runs the gloss is starting to wear off for me - and I'm not sure how many more I'll get through before I no longer have the urge to go for a new run as soon as I earn 150 gold.

RANKED
This is perhaps where Goblins vs Gnomes receives its biggest shot in the arm - the potential for all sorts of new competitive and/or fun decks is massive with the injection of so many new cards. Pirates, Beasts, Murlocs, and Demons have all been given a boost, and the newly added Mech minion type comes with tons of synergy out of the box. Even those that enjoy unleashing RNG have some brilliant new cards to play with (I already despise Madder Bomber!)

But, there's a drawback to this. I have the feeling that a lot of players won't get to actually experience the new sense of adventure that the expansion has to offer unless they're able to quickly unlock all of the cards within the first week or two - at most - and for most people this is either going to take a heck of a lot of money (around 240-290 packs) or a heck of a lot of time.

By the time the more 'average' player has unlocked all, or at least enough of the better/funner cards, the new meta may well be entrenched and things might not feel all that different to pre-Goblins vs Gnomes.

THE FUTURE
Blizzard said that the work they did with Naxxramus laid a lot of the foundation required for adding expansions to Hearthstone - and that as a result it would allow them to release new content at a much more rapid rate. Hopefully this remains true, and hopefully this prevents the game from falling back into the stagnation that I found it to be in before the release of Goblins vs Gnomes. Don't wait too long to release the next one Blizzard! Summer 2015 would be just fine!

Comments

First Impressions: NEver Alone

11/21/2014

Comments

INTRODUCTION AND DISCLAIMERS
Relevant information before reading this early impression article:

I was not given a review copy.
I have no affiliation nor contact with anyone at Upper One Games or E-Line Media.
Specifications of the system used for this first impressions article can be found here.
At the time of writing this article, I had played the game for 7 hours.
I played the game with mouse and keyboard rather than a controller.

Never Alone (Kisima Ingitchuna) has an unusual development story. It was actually made with the help of almost 40 Iñupiat Elders who contributed to the story and presumably some of the artwork & cut scenes seen in game. It tells the story of Kunuuksaayuka, a legend where a young girl sets off to find the cause of an endless blizzard that is threatening her village. Along the way she meets up with an Arctic Fox who becomes her companion.

THE PREMISE
Never Alone is an interesting take on educational gameplay. It's clear with the story, the narration and the extra 'insights' that the goal of this game is to introduce people to the Iñupiat and their way of life - but it seeks to do so without compromising on the gameplay as projects like this can often fall into the trap of doing.

The girl and the fox are on screen at the same time, and both must be used to progress through the levels. A co-optional mode is available. Both have different abilities - the girl gains a bola part way through the story and can use it to destroy objects and reveal spiritual platforms. The fox on the other hand is much more agile, and is linked to spiritual platforms that the girl cannot summon herself. There are several obstacles and puzzles that require swapping between characters in order to progress - but you are only controlling one character at once, so it's not quite the same as Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons.

GAMEPLAY & MECHANICS
Earlier on I said the game seeks to keep a certain level of difficulty, and I feel it has succeeded. Falling in the water is an instant failure, and there are plenty of times where this can happen. Although the game is easy in the early stages, there are places where the difficulty noticeably ramps up, and you will likely find yourself dying several times at one of these points. Instead, they've chosen to make sure the punishment for dying is as light as possible (heart wrenching whimpers from the remaining character aside) - the number of checkpoints are generous and they are often placed immediately before the more trying parts of a level.

What I am pleased to see is that the developers have not tried to make the game look like a mobile port - presenting lots of tiny stages with 3 star rewards and a beat the clock incentive. They've left it as an honest PC sidescrolling platformer, and I think that helps the game avoid some of the stigma that's now associated with mobile-esque games.

At first, there are not many different types of obstacles - the game will slowly introduce more as you progress through the story, and these can range from simple physics puzzles to spiritual platform that require interaction with the fox to reveal. The main villain is introduced four levels into the game, and I believe this is where the game begins in earnest, as there are several new mechanics introduced very quickly at this point - wind that you have brace against to avoid being blown backwards, a bola that you can use to destroy select obstacles or reveal spiritual platforms.

So far I've only had positive things to say about Never Alone, but the game is not without frustrations. I've found several times while playing with both keyboard and controller that the game is slow to respond to the jump command. The characters cling to ledges constantly even if you want to drop down from them - and sometimes when the game controls the second character they can die through no fault of your own. In situations like this it would be useful if the player could command the second character to wait.

The bola is aimed simply by following where the girl's arm is pointing - which is clever, but there is some discrepancy between where her arm is pointing and where the bola ends up going, which can again be frustrating - especially in time-critical situations. It is something that you can get used to and compensate for with practice, though.

One of the worries that I had as I was playing through Never Alone would be that the game became monotonous - that there wouldn't be enough variation. I'm pleased to say then that they did a good job of changing up gameplay - there are times when you're platforming and running from a chasing foe, other areas that are made up of several puzzles, and others that are simply platforming. I haven't felt while playing that the game has relied on one particular mechanic for too long.

There's also a collectible hunt, which come in the form of nicely animated little owls - often if not hidden but placed out of the way, which will unlock 'insights' - artwork and videos about the Iñupiat that can be accessed both in game and from the main menu. The developers are proud of the work that went into this game, and of the people that helped ot make it, and they have every right to show this off.

PRESENTATION
Never Alone is a lovingly crafted game. From the detailed and aesthetically pleasing art style, to the well crafted animations and the Iñupiat language narration. You will never feel while playing this game that there was a shortcut taken or a compromise made when it comes to production value, and it's very refreshing to see in a time where major publishers seem to be cutting corners at every opportunity.

The story is not rushed, it is given time to breathe in between sections of gameplay. The what seem to be hand-drawn cut scenes are charming yet eerie, at times. The quality of the overall presentation is enough to make the story emotionally resonant and engaging. The music is there to add to the atmosphere and does a wonderful job of enhancing the setting and story, even if it is sparse. If you don't believe me, turn it off and see what difference it makes.

The level design is not complex and this is no Super Meat Boy in terms of difficulty, but there are definitely sections that require some working out and some skill in execution. I think they've managed to fall in line with the level of difficulty offered by the Lego games, which makes the game accessible and engaging to both younger and older players.

TECHNICAL STUFF
From a technical standpoint, there are a couple of concerns. The game has been developed with Unity 4.3, so certain limitations are to be expected - however there are only two graphical presets - low and high - although the game is no way taxing on the high setting.

VSync is available in 'full' and 'half', although I'd recommend leaving it off as the input lag introduced is noticeable.

Never Alone supports up to 4K at least, which was tested through Nvidia's DSR feature, and I'm pleased to say that the interface and menus remain usable when scaled to 4K. In some aspects, the game becomes easier when playing at a higher resolution, as more of the level is revealed at once and it gives the player a better opportunity to plan and spot solutions.

There are separate sound sliders for narration, music, sound effects and the insight features, which is a welcome level of customisation that not enough indie games include.

Sadly, the keyboard controls are not customisable, so if you don't like using WASD then you're out of luck and I'd suggest using the controller - although here the layout is also fixed. You can at least tweak controller sensitivity settings, though.

Another minor black mark comes with the lack of a borderless windowed mode, although it can probably be forced with a third-party utility.

FINAL SAY
I've enjoyed my time with Never Alone and have genuinely learnt about a fascinating tribe of people in the process. The theme and origins of the story make it that much more engaging and I would be surprised if anyone were able to legitimately criticise the presentation of the game. Barring a few minor complaints about the responsiveness of the controls and technical limitations mentioned above, I have not encountered any problems that prevent me from enjoying this game. It will definitely be one that I look to finish to completion. That being said, the Never Alone receives my "Worth a buy" recommendation, especially at its price point. It is available on Steam for €13.49.

Comments

Interview with Morgan Jaffit of Defiant DEvelopment - The team behind Hand of Fate

11/11/2014

Comments

Following my first impressions look at Hand of Fate, I reached out to Defiant Development for an interview about the game, the studio and the industry. Morgan Jaffit, director and co-founder of Defiant Development, took the time to respond to my questions:

Defiant Development was founded in 2010, correct?

"Yes. We started as just Dan Treble (co founder, tech director), Shawn Eustace (Art Director) and I. From there, we put together a few smaller contracts and rolled forward - we've now grown to about 15 full timers, along with some contractors."

You've worked at some pretty major names in the industry - Irrational Games (BioShock, System Shock 2), Relic Entertainment (Company of Heroes 1&2) and also at Ubisoft?

"Collectively the team here has worked for a huge number of studios, big names and small. In terms of me personally, I started in game development in Australia (at Irrational doing Freedom Force) and from there spent a few years working at studios in Canada. It was hugely educational to see how other studios made games, and that's played into the approach we take at Defiant strongly. I like small (20 odd) person teams a lot better than larger teams, so we've tried to set our sights on making games at that scale. I think you avoid a lot of middle management that way. It also helps that we have a very veteran team, with some members having worked together for over a decade. We all know how to work together to get great results, and that saves a lot of hassle."

So you're based in Brisbane - we've seen some Kickstarted projects fail at least partly due to the running costs of development studios in expensive areas with high median wages - such as San Francisco - how does Brisbane compare in that regard?

"It's pretty expensive, actually. Dollar for dollar it costs similarly to US development, but the Australian dollar has historically been much weaker. Aus dev really peaked in the days when the dollar was at 0.6 of USD, and it all fell apart when it reached $1.10 because development was so expensive. It's at around 0.88 right now, so it's better than it has been."

"Ultimately though we built our studio on the basis that great games should make a profit. We don't try to compete on price, in terms of making the cheapest development shop we can, we compete on quality and make the best game we can for the money we spend. So far we've done okay with that strategy!"

How do you see yourself as a studio - would you class Defiant as an indie studio?

"Depends on the definition. We're completely independent and have no corporate masters telling us what to do. So in the business perspective, we're indie for sure. In terms of genre though, I don't think we make "Indie" games, at least not right now. It's similar to the situation where indie record labels got bought by big publishers and kept making "Indie" music - it's a genre as well as a statement of your business model."

In 2010/11 you were working on Warco, which I remember got a little bit of notoriety in the press because of comments made by a BBC foreign correspondent who was questioning of the game's motivation and - again correct me if I'm wrong - it didn't get picked up by a publisher. How disappointing was that?

"Incredibly disappointing, but we were over ambitious. It was the wrong approach to take with that idea (which I still think is a very strong idea) at that time. Everyone was reeling after the global financial crisis, and no-one was spending big money on risky ideas. It was also before Kickstarter demonstrated what a good home it was for risky ideas that capture the imagination. Ultimately, it was a timing issue for us, and also a big risk for publishers as we were an untested team at the time."

Hand of Fate on the other hand went through Kickstarter and now Early Access - was the decision to crowdfund this game a direct result of what happened with Warco?

"Definitely. We wanted to make sure we had people involved pretty early in the process, both because we decided to make the game ourselves (without a publisher) and because it would help to demonstrate if there was a market for the idea. It turned out that there was, fortunately!"

Hand of Fate was featured on Jesse Cox's Fan Friday! series - how much of a boon is it to get positive coverage from a personality with that many viewers?

"It makes a huge difference. Every time a prominent streamer plays the game we see more people come through to the site, and that means more sales and more input. It's great, and it's been the best think about Early Access from our perspective."

He also spoke about it glowingly on the Co-Optional podcast with TotalBiscuit and Dodger who both seem interested - have you heard from either of those?

"Not directly, although I know TB only reviews finished games. In general we have an open door policy with streamers - if they have an audience, we're always happy to provide keys and answer questions."

In my article on Hand of Fate, I said that it is a very interesting combination of genres - I see in there some roguelite elements, choose-your-own adventure, RPG and CCG - it actually reminds me in some way of the old Amiga game Moonstone - what were the inspirations behind Hand of Fate?

"It's kind of a blend of everything I loved growing up as a gamer in the 80's and 90's. Fighting Fantasy novels, the Ultima games, weird fantasy novels, Archon. It's rooted in that era of gaming, while hopefully feeling modern at the same time."

Given that the game is driven by a single character, that character obviously has to be very strong and engaging. How much time did you spend with Anthony Skordi?

"It took a long time to find Anthony. We worked with the unbelievable Mario Lavin who handed casting and voice direction for us, and he really excelled in finding and directing Anthony. I've know Mario for years, and he generally works with big studios so we were very lucky to have his expertise on hand."

How much of The Dealer's character came from your studio's writing and how much came from Anthony Skordi himself?

"A lot of both. The performance is excellent, and it helped to drive our revisions of the text as we worked on our pickup sessions."

Did Anthony Skordi work remotely or did he come to the studio?

"He worked out of a studio in the UK, where both Mario and Anthony were."

Are you planning to expand on Hand of Fate after release?

"Definitely. We already have plans for updates, if it does well enough to warrant them. There's a bunch of things big and small we'd like to do with it."

You've developed games for a range of platforms, including AR - if Hand of Fate continues to do well after launch, will PC be your main platform, or will you continue to work on a range of platforms?

"We make that decision from project to project, but we'll probably lead out with a PC project next. It's been a great experience so far."

Sadly, this week we've seen another battle between a YouTube personality and an indie studio - Jim Sterling and Digital Homicide Studios LLC. Without commenting directly on that ongoing matter, What do you think as a developer when you see this happen?

"I've got to say I'm pretty out of the loop here. The last couple of weeks has been PAX Australia, and us working hard on getting the game to 1.0 release, so I've been very much heads down. I think the short answer is that the whole area around development is changing every day at the moment. It used to be (back in the old days) a bunch of creators speaking directly to each other and the public (do you remember the .plan wars?). Then big publishers took charge of the messaging and almost everything went through professional PR mouthpieces, and you hardly ever heard a developer speaking frankly.

"Now it's back to the wild west, and it's taking people a while to work out the new rules on the frontier. I do think it's sad that peoples mistakes follow them constantly now - if you say one thing people disagree with, you'll read about it in comments until the end of time."

"It's a hard environment to work in, balancing being honest and open with your community and fear of upsetting people. I also think a lot of indie developers simply don't know how to act in public, which is fine when no-one is paying attention but can go dramatically wrong if the internet at large happens to take notice."

Are you sympathetic with developers who acted like Fun Creators did with TotalBiscuit?

"Again, I'm not really informed. I do think the currency of our new age is trust, though. People trust TB, with good reason. That means that if you're a relative unknown and you want to call him a liar you're probably pushing water uphill. That's why I think it's so important for indies (and professionals) to understand that their reputation is their passport in the online world. We spend a lot of time with our community, and it's important for a whole bunch of reasons - but building trust is a big one."

What is your stance on gameplay being used in monetised videos, for Lets Plays and critique?

"We have an explicit statement on our loading screen saying its okay. I think it generally should be okay regardless of whether we approve or not, frankly. I'm a big advocate of remix culture, and I think people should have freedom to riff on the work we do."

Do you think that the 'fair use' law is enough to protect both developers and content creators?

"I think the current legal frameworks around creative work are pretty terrible, and I look forward to the days when we have more freedom around them. At the same time, I'm always keen when there are channels that allow creators to make a living for their work. "

It must hurt when someone with a large following is critical towards your work. How do you deal with that personally?

"We get criticism and personal attacks all the time. Me especially as I'm the face of the studio, but also members of our team. I think you just have to take on board that you can't make everyone happy every time. Also, the people who are most passionate about your game tend to be the loudest, so often someone who's really negative can be turned around just by listening."

Is there any advice you'd like to give to less experienced developers?

"Be careful, be thoughtful, and be honest."

Many thanks to Morgan Jaffit of Defiant Development for taking the time to answer a fair amount of questions. You can check out Hand of Fate on the Steam store page and follow the studio on twitter (@DefiantDev) for the latest updates and information.

Are there any replies you found interesting, or any questions you'd like to follow up on? Let us known in the comments below!

Comments

<<Previous

Forward>>

12 Hours Later - Enter the Gungeon Review

Thoughts on Grey...Goo?

Hearthstone: Goblins vs Gnomes

First Impressions: NEver Alone

Interview with Morgan Jaffit of Defiant DEvelopment - The team behind Hand of Fate

Mission Statement

Archives