I am currently playing The Waiting Game, a dispiriting “race against the clock”-type deal wherein I hope to receive my fixed-up Vita before April 17, my last day in the office before I leave for vacation. As I have not yet received the box they sent me to mail the Vita back, it’s not looking good. (I have not yet received my snazzy Vita travelling case, either, but since there’s no working Vita to put it in, I’m not sweating it.)
I finished 3 games over the weekend that merit discussion, though. Let’s start at the top and work our way down.
1. Monument Valley is an iOS puzzler – imagine Fez with level designs by M.C. Escher – currently available for $3.99. It is an absolutely gorgeous game, filled with very clever puzzle design and accented with lovely sound effects. It is also only 10 levels long and I beat it in under an hour. Normally I’m not the type of person who gets up in arms when it comes to high prices for short play experiences – I was very happy to pay $20 for Gone Home – and I’m not necessarily up in arms here, but I would certainly understand your frustration if you laid out 4 bucks for a game that you could finish during your evening commute, especially since there’s not a tremendous amount of replay value once you’ve figured out the solutions. That being said, the game’s creator, when asked in a Touch Arcade Twitch stream if new levels were coming, said: “Looks like we will. People seem to want more levels.” I know I do.
2. I did end up finishing Bioshock Infinite: Burial At Sea Ep. 2, though the last few combat sections were brutally difficult and annoying and I nearly rage-quit a few times. Even though I’ve played all the games (well, all the Irrational ones at least – I can’t recall if I finished Bioshock 2, and I only played the first 5 minutes of Minerva’s Den), I’m not necessarily sure that I’m as knowledgeable about the lore and the supporting cast of characters as I suppose I should’ve been, in order to better appreciate the finer intricacies of Episode 2’s plot points. The final reveal is interesting, to be sure, though I’m not sure it enhanced anything for me. I’m glad I played it, I guess, but I just wish I didn’t hate the gameplay as much as I do.
3. Also finished Infamous: Second Son. I’m kinda still playing it, too – once I finished the story (and received the fourth of four powers), I then started going back and doing all the side stuff that I couldn’t be bothered with during the regular story. (Also: I didn’t realize the campaign was going to be as short as it was, so I ended up finishing the game long before I thought I would.) It’s certainly the prettiest PS4 game I’ve seen, and it sets a very high graphical standard for open-world adventure games to follow; but it’s also an Infamous game, and I always seem to forget that Infamous games start out kinda fun and then become somewhat forgettable. The good/bad karma thing is, as always, kinda dumb, and unfortunately the story just isn’t interesting enough to warrant a second playthrough to see how things would change. This very well might be one of the easiest open-world games to get to 100% completion – there’s not a whole hell of a lot to do, side-mission wise, and all the “hidden” stuff is actually placed on your map once you clear out an enemy base. I will probably continue tooling around and trying to get to 100%, if only because it really is that gorgeous to look at.
This coming week: not really sure what it’s looking like, gaming-wise. I’m kinda still playing through Strider and Rayman Legends on the PS4, and I may give some of the side-missions in MGS: Ground Zeroes a shot. And depending on what happens with my Vita, I may or may not end up buying FTL for my iPad.
Shouts From The Couch 