Elite: Dangerous

I wanted this game to be great, immersive, deep and engaging multi-player experience. It advertised all of the things that I wanted in a space MMO: exploration, trading, the ability for the players to experience the universe and change it in meaningful ways. All of those points have tried to draw me in to games like EVE in the past… but this time you could pilot your own ship. This time it’s my skills that determine the outcome of a firefight, not just if I had spent the last few months following the right training plan for my current ship’s configuration. And I didn’t have to wait for a game like Star Citizen to go through the long tail of development get that. It was ready now, and I could play today.

But still: $60 for the game and I had been burned before. I had plenty of other games in my backlog. Then the Steam Summer sale hits: $45 and I’m in.

The game is beautiful. There is definitely something wonderful about looking out the window into the dark void of space, to watch the stream of stars flash past as I move through hyperspace. I go through the tutorials to get my bearings and pick up the basics and then I start the game. I run some bounties and quickly see that I’m going to want to upgrade my ship. So I go for some of the trade missions, trying to take the “Safe” route. It’s a bit grindy, but this is a MMO. I kind of take that as a given.

During this time, my son sees me playing and is instantly in love with the game. Next thing I know, he’s got a copy and he’s ready to play too. Here’s where I hit my first real patch of frustration and start to see some of the rough edges on the game. Multiplayer, at this point, feels very tacked-on, which feels weird given that this is an MMO. And it’s been out for a year. Wings are great way to share a bounty, but don’t feel very good for much else. Trading cargo is a chore. There is next to no social aspect to the game, other than your friends list, and like almost all of the features of the game - in order to make good use of wings, you need to spend time *outside* of the game to figure out how to use them. Not even a “trade” channel to ask stupid questions in.

From there, things started to slow down for me. The game had lost some of it’s original shine and what I’m finding underneath is a very huge but very shallow experience. Earn money to finance upgrades/repairs/replacement costs, so that you can earn more money to finance upgrades/repairs/replacement costs… I definitely don’t see this as letting me make my mark on the universe. 

Exploration is boring. I can’t think of a nicer way to say it. I always get excited about the idea of exploration in space. I want to go find new systems, explore (and/or scavenge) wrecks and lost colonies and alien ruins. I want to find new resources and establish outposts or settlements or a pirate colony on the edges of civilized space. I do not want to spend time in hyperspace between systems (white knuckled on the controls, to avoid interdiction and so I don’t fly into a sun) just so I can scan the system and then possibly get more money if I also have the right equipment to run a surface scan or find a system that doesn’t have my scan data. For being one of the three paths to reach Elite in, I can’t see myself putting any time in this, aside from scanning systems on whatever route I’m following before I jump to hyperspace again.

Trading can a little more involved and is an easy way to make money. You can take the easy route (pick up jobs in the Bulletin Board) or put in a lot of planning/research to pick out good trade routes between systems. Again, though, I wish there were more depth, but without players manufacturing goods and/or allowing contracted hauling, you are always at the mercy of some NPC. I guess the closest thing to player-produced goods would be mining, but mining is needlessly difficult. Between either scooping minerals manually or bringing one-time-use drones and constantly looking over your shoulder for NPC (or player) pirates, I’ve found it to be rather joyless. It can be frustrating when a NPC suicide rams you or scans you and starts shooting, when all you want to do is explore/trade/mine/etc. 

Combat is definitely the most polished part of the game. It’s good, and clearly where you can get the most enjoyment given the state of the other two “paths” in the game. As good as the combat is though, I am, unfortunately for me, not someone who can sustain a long-term interest solely based on the combat. Wings are great for taking on bounties or picking a fight, though I wish that the limit wasn’t four players. The amount of customization is great, though the grind to get beyond the first few starter tiers starts to wear you down a bit, and mistakes can be costly, slowing things down even further. Heaven forbid that a stray bullet ping the shields of a ship that isn’t your target or in your wing.

All said, I think that this game has a huge amount of potential. The lack of depth makes me feel like I’ve sunk my money in an early access game, not a finished product. I don’t regret (much) my investment in the game that this game could turn into, but I feel more like I’ve backed another Star Citizen then bought a complete game. I’ll keep checking in every so often, or play a few hours here and there when I want to experience the black void of space and to take down a few bounties with my son or my other friends who play, waiting for the game to realize it’s potential. Until then I’m running silent and I’m out.

Enslaved: Odyssey to the West

I've just finished Enslaved: Odyssey to the West on Steam, letting me mark off another game from my Steam "Backlog of Shame". It's a 2013 PC port of a game from 2010, originally on Xbox 360/PS3.

Being a port, it definitely had its issues. Crashes and lock-ups for some of the cut scenes, especially late in the game. But it was definitely worth the frustration to push past these and finish the game.

In the game, you play as Monkey, a loner surviving in a world set 150 years in the future and overrun with an army of killer robots. You quickly meet up with Trip: a young woman who traps Monkey with a slaver's headband in order to get what she needs. Her deal for Monkey: get her home and she'll set him free. Oh, and if she dies (or he tries to leave) he dies too. He'll have to help her cross 300+ miles through the wasteland, avoiding death at the hands of mechs and slavers along the way.

The story centers on the relationship between Monkey and Trip. She has complete control over what he does, but is completely dependent on him in order to survive. The power dynamic goes back and forth until they finally start to trust and care for each other.

The game play folds out in a series of platformer puzzles and combat set pieces in between scenes pushing the story forward. Monkey fights with a bo staff that doubles as a ranged energy weapon. Most of the time Trip is out of the way for combat, but she does support Monkey by providing upgrades for his equipment, scouting the way forward with a small drone, providing distractions for the ranged turrets and mechs and acting as a second person for some of the puzzles. She doesn't fight or climb and she can't jump quite as far as Monkey can, so more often than not the puzzles are you trying to find a way for her to move forward. The slave headband also lets Trip see and hear what Monkey does and allows her to overlay information as an augmented reality display in Monkey's vision, allowing him to see hidden mines and the detection range of powered down mechs.

Combat is mostly fun and not too difficult or frustrating (with a few exceptions). The camera is over-the-shoulder and sometimes makes it a bit hard to see what's going on, but that doesn't usually get too much in the way of a good brawl. You'll find yourself using a mixture of cover/stealth to get around enemies or to get into position, and Trip's support features help out with this a lot. The game will usually put a helpful "flaw" in some enemies, giving you an advantage if you care to exploit it, and making sure that the combat doesn't get stale and repetitive. The only real punishing fights are the boss battles, where a single mistake can mean starting the encounter over from the beginning. The puzzle aren't too challenging, and are kind of standard fare, in the line of games like Tomb Raider and the Uncharted games.

In addition to Monkey's bo staff, another item in Monkey's tool set is the Cloud. It is an energy based "hoverboard" that is only activated in a few areas of the game, allowing Monkey to hover over water, travel at high speeds and jump across gaps that he normally wouldn't be able to clear. I really wish that this was available for more of the game rather than just the few areas that you could activate it, but I was just happy to have it. The Cloud is a lot of fun to get around on, and always felt like something that I wanted to use rather than just another puzzle mechanic.

In addition to the puzzles and combat, the game encourages exploration (to the extent that Trip doesn't think that Monkey is abandoning her and kills him) in the form of Tech Orbs and strange floating Masks. The Tech Orbs unlock upgrades for Monkey and are well worth the effort of tracking down (aside from just achievement hunting). The Masks tie into the story and are related to Monkey's slave headband. Each shows a set of images from before the war, lasting only for a few seconds. They are interesting, but not necessary unless you are an achievement hunter.

Late into the game, you are introduced to a third character: Pigsy. He helps Trip and Monkey on the last stage of their journey together and he's ridiculous and crude and completely full of himself, all of which makes him an amazing character. Pigsy is also the focus of his own DLC (included in the Steam version of the game), set before he meets up with Trip and Monkey, which is definitely worth playing. 

By the end of the game, I felt emotionally invested in the characters, They felt like fully fleshed out beings rather than two-dimensional fantasy archetypes that you usually get with games. They had depth and had grown. I understood their motivations and their actions made sense, and the ending wasn't one of those "and they lived happily ever after" endings. It made you think about what was next for the characters and the (spoilers) army of freed slaves released from the Pyramid, and if they did the right thing. It was very satisfying. I'd love to see Ninja Theory do another game set in this universe again.