Humble Indie Bundle 6

For those of you not familiar with the Humble Indie Bundle may I, as a serious player of video games, suggest that you check them out. Not only are the offering a collection of some of the best indie titles out there at a price you decide, as well as offering Windows, Mac AND Linux versions of said games, but they're also donating some of your money to charity. There is absolutely no reason not to give these guys a round of internet applause.

The HiB payment system allows you to pay whatever you want, from a minimum of $1 up to any amount, and to decide who receives it. The website offers slider bars to split your donation between the HiB company themselves, the game developers or the charity(s) being supported with each bundle, which have included Child's Play, Electronic Frontier Foundation, charity: water and the American Red Cross. 

In the last six bundles there have been some phenomenal games available. Titles such as World of Goo, Braid, Machinarium, Osmos, VVVVVV, Atom Zombie Smasher, Bit.Trip Runner, Super Meat Boy, Cave Story+, Amnesia: The Dark Decent, Limbo, Psychonauts, Bastion and Lone Survivor. Any one of those games would be worth £10, and over the last few years I've managed to pick them all up for less than £40 in total, choosing to donate 50% of that to the developers, 40% to charity and 10% to the HiB team. More often than not, many of the official soundtracks for the bundled games are included.

So it's safe to say these guys are offering great games and a great chance to donate to some very worthy causes. But let's get into Bundle #6, the most recent, and cast a critical eye over the titles contained within:

Shatter

An updated version of the classic brick-breaker game, Shatter is by far one of my favourite 'casual games' I've played this year, only coming in a close second to Beat Hazard.

Originally released by Sidhe Interactive back in 2009 for the PS3, this brightly coloured, engaging title has taken the basic mechanics of a brick-breaker and added in a touch more depth and variation. The player still controls a paddle in order to bounce a ball against bricks, smashing them for points, however now the ball can be controlled with a 'suck' or 'blow' action. Simply put, you can alter the trajectory of the ball after it has bounced off your paddle in order to direct it towards that last elusive block, or to hit the critical spot on the end-of-level boss. These bosses are what I find most enjoyable about Shatter. They add a sense of achievement when defeated that brightly coloured squares don't give.

There are multiple game modes aside from the main 'story mode,' including time attack, endless play and pure boss battles including co-op versions of each, giving it a very long life. Shatter also features various power ups and paddle abilities, including a protective shield and a 'shard cannon' which turns your accumulated points into an offensive weapon which is useful for removing large sections of blocks or defeating a boss, adding an extra dimension to the well-known brick-breaker set up.

It is also worth mentioning the score, composed by Module, as it's absolutely cracking.

Torchlight

The highly-acclaimed 2009 title from Runic Games is, in my opinion, one of the purest representations of how to make a fantasy WRPG near-perfect.

Torchlight follows a very traditional path, with the player choosing from one of three archetypal characters, The Destroyer (melee) The Vanquisher (ranged) or The Alchemist (magic), and fighting their way through a variety of dungeons, mines, temples etc. slaying creeps, hoarding loot and levelling up in a similar way to the Dungeon Siege or Diablo series. It's simplistic beauty, in a genre that is quickly flaking away and becoming very bland and homogeneous, or just being abandoned all together.

The art style is simple, featuring a decent pallet, with terrain, creatures and object modelling all of a high standard. The combat system is point-and-click, meaning a faster trigger finger and a better sword will often win you more gold and fame than complex tactics, but thankfully combat is far from repetitive. Plot-wise, so far I have found it to be unsurprising, which is to say familiar and enjoyable as opposed to predictable and boring.

Vessel

Published by Strange Loop Games earlier this year, Vessel is a generic platformer/puzzle game that are two-a-penny in the indie market these days. To be fair, there isn't much here that hasn't been seen before, but Vessel still managed to initially interest me.

The game centres on M. Arkwright, the inventor of the Fluro, a liquid-based automaton designed to replace human workers. Inevitably, the Fluros don't entirely fall in line and it's down to M. Arkwright to assert control over his creations. An interesting plot, that disappointingly boils down to little or no motivation or relevance during each level.

Vessel comprises mainly of single room puzzles revolving around the use of liquid to activate switches, create and manipulate Fluros, via activating lights, and pushing switches in order to advance to the next room. For the first few puzzles this seems remarkably easy, but the difficulty curve quickly ramps to a point where so much is going on at once it can confuse the player.

I feel that there is potential in Vessel to be a truly great platformer/puzzle game, but not everything works together to give a genuinely enjoyable experience. The mechanics are often haphazard and counter-intuitive, the plot's existence doesn't seem to matter and the controls are sketchy and often woefully inaccurate.

Rochard

"Rock is hard, John Rochard is harder" reads the subtitle to this 2011 title from Recoil Games, and whilst rock may be hard, Rochard the game is fairly weak. A cartoon-style science fiction setting for a 2D physics/platformer mechanic sounds great. However, a weak plot and poor mechanics really lets Rochard down.

Set on an asteroid during a mining expedition, Rochard is essentially another puzzle/platformer with the player controlling John Rochard and navigating him through each level, comprising of a series of individual rooms containing puzzles to be solve by utilising local gravity controls, John's gravity gun and any available blocks in the nearby area.

I wasn't impressed, as the early puzzles were barely a challenge, usually consisting of moving a single block around to be able to jump high enough to reach the next platform. But quickly the difficulty increased, sometimes leaving me downright irritated by the physics engine/my inability to fling blocks with accuracy.

I'll admit that I've not spent a great deal of time playing Rochard, but what I have played of it didn't satisfy the most basic criteria of a video game; to be fun.

Dustforce

Hitbox Team's 2012 title Dustforce is high on my list for Best Art Style of 2012, with its blend of cell-shading aesthetics and animé action I instantly warmed to it.

The game focuses on four super-hero janitors, each armed with a broom or vacuum fighting to clean up the various levels of the game that have been covered in leaves or dust by four enemy characters.

The basic mechanics of Dustforce can be likened to those of Super Meat Boy, (another game I loved but was awful at as timing and speed are the two most important factors) featuring wall running, complex jumping and chain-maneuvering combos and other such precision play. Upon completing a level the player is awarded a rank based on percentage of the level 'cleaned' and the speed at which the level was completed. 

Dustforce also features multiplayer modes for up to four players, but I feel this is very much a side-note to a really good looking, good feeling game that I'm just not good enough at to fully enjoy.

Here's another title who's score deserves special mention for being awesome.

S.P.A.Z.

SPAZ, or "Space, Pirates and Zombies" to give it it's full title, was developed by MinMax Games, a two-man Canadian team who begin SPAZ by telling the player that they've developed it because they wanted to blend HD graphics and modern engines with old Golden Age gaming styles. And boy, have they done it.

SPAZ puts the player in control of a space ship, The Clockwork, as a member of a pirate organisation in search of Rez, a most precious element, by venturing into the galactic core. Along the way the player will encounter the authoritarian forces of UTA, the more amicable local colonists and space zombies. Yep.

The top-down RTS style is incredible engaging, with the player controlling one ship within a small fleet (but with the ability to swap between all members of said fleet) as they scout star-systems for resources, defend possible allied planets from raiders or take on the role of raiders themselves and pillage UTA supply depots.

Each ship is able to be customised with a variety of armaments, defenses and utility equipment to specialise in combat, mining or trade, and range in size from tiny scout ships with one laser and a pathetic shield, to huge ships with multiple lasers, missile launchers, turrets, shields, tractor beams etc.

Not only are the general mechanics well hammered out, balanced and sensible, but the progression through the galaxy has been well refined as well. There are consequences to your actions, resulting in improvements in relations with various factions and subsequent bonuses as a result. Additionally, when starting a new game the galaxy is randomly generated, allowing players to choose a smaller, more difficult campaign or a longer, easier galaxy that allows for slow growth and peaceful learning of the basics before any real challenges present themselves.

As a sucker for customisation and all things sci-fi, I predict SPAZ will be a major time-suck in the coming days, and so receives a hearty recommendation.

Overall then, the HiB #6 was well worth the money I paid, features some quality games (personal favorites being SPAZ, Shatter and Torchlight) and the knowledge that not only am I helping the indie developers stay afloat, but I'm also supporting a charity, albeit with only a few dollars. If any of the games featured in this bundle, or any others mentioned from previous bundles for that matter, appeal to you then I heartily recommend you head over to the HiB website and at least check them out.

Some Stuff What I've Played: A Compilation of Words etc.

It's that low point of the month again, when I've splurged nearly all of my last pay cheque on food and shelter and I'm only left with a pittance to spend on the important things, like games and cinema tickets. To that end, there hasn't been a proper game title that I want to review for a good few months now, and so instead I present to you a few words on a few things.

Bastion

I'd heard a lot about this, Indie Game of The Year 2011, Best Art/OST of 2011 etc. and thought I could shell out a few quid for it.

Turns out, not a bad game. The plot is a bit thin, there's very little in the way of explanation for anything which I suspect is in an attempt to add "mystique" to the game. The combat and upgrade system are fairly mundane, but sufficient to keep the player interested.

Hit with hammer. Repeat.

The big draw is the presentation. There's a smooth talking narrator who guides you through not only the plot but also describes each level, upgrade, item etc. completely removing all need for dialogue. Essentially think of POP:Sands of Time; the entire game is The Prince attempting to convince Farah he is who he says he is and occasionally if you fall to your death he'll chime in with "No no, that's not how it happened..." Bastion's narrator is like that, but slowly moving from interesting to invasive and irritating. Prime example, there's an arena map that can be replayed (by getting high) to earn resources by fighting 20 waves of enemies. Each time you attempt it you have to listen to him drone on about The Kid and his hard life. The art style and visual presentation have been most praised, with the world creating itself piece by piece as you walk around. Seems like a nice idea, keeps the scenery active and interesting....but was probably introduced to save on memory usage, this being an XBLA port.

Arbitrary number score: 6/10. For fans of Indie/artsy/casual gaming.

Killzone 3

Let me first start by stating that I was a massive fan of the original PS2 game, and somewhat enjoyed the PS3 sequel. THIS, however, does not belong anywhere near those other two games. Generic and bland from start to finish, with an abhorrent colour pallet of brown, other brown, slightly shiny brown, grey and poorly rendered green lighting.

The shooting bits seem to have gotten worse since Killzone 2, and there are god awful rail-shooter vehicle sections, but apart from that it appears to just be most of the second game copy pasted with some slightly different art styles and tweaks to the interface. Most notable being an ammo crate every five yards, meaning all the special weapons like the flamethrower, bolt gun and the man-exploding flubber cannon (yeah, you heard me) can pretty much be used constantly. Level design suffers heavily from the chest-high wall plague meaning you can spot an "ambush" a mile off. Even worse is the cover system that uses those chest-high walls doesn't even protect you from the hideous amount of incoming enemy fire you'll be under most of the time. I think somewhere along the road the development team decided that including the ability to have your allies revive you meant that the difficultly curve could be abandoned all together. What they failed to do was path the AI properly so over half of the time I'd Rambo my way into the enemy forces, kill half of them and sacrifice myself relying on The Mouth to resurrect me, only to have the shot list to the side framing him sprinting towards me....stuck on a single brick. URGH.

Nobody Cares

The game says it comes with PS Move enabled, but that's only for single player, doesn't work on co-op and barely works at all. The fine control accuracy and fluidity of movement needed for a non-rail shooter is far too high for motion controls that have trouble navigating a simple menu. Oh, it can be played in 3D, which I strongly advise against as the saturation of awful colours nearly drove me mad, and I was only playing it in 2D.

Arbitrary score: 3/10. For people who require another reason to champion this series but are unaware what makes a good game.

WHY AM I IN THIS GAME?!? - Ray Winstone

Driver San Francisco

You'd be forgiven for thinking that a game called Driver, with a big yellow car on the front and in a series of games all to do with....driving that Driver SF would be a pure racing/driving game. And you're....well, right and wrong.

Just kill them all, Tanner...

So, yes, it does present itself as a driving game. Notice I said GAME, not simulator. For a driving sim you can fuck off back to GT5 with all its neck-beardy P-2-WR accurate cars that handle like drunk cats. This game's got power slides, and even when you don't ask for them it's still got them. But the more important part of this particular fairly generic Burnout-esque title is the interesting and frankly just good use of a single game mechanic. Early on in the story, about 20mins in so I don't consider this a spoiler, Tanner (you) has a car accident and ends up in a coma. Because of this you can astrally project (go with it) yourself into the body of any driver across the entire city at any time. During races you can drive oncoming traffic into your fellow racers, you can use trucks and tankers to block the paths of escaping criminals or just fling mini-van driving "soccer moms" at them til they crash into the nearest lamp post. Totally consequence free, but thankfully not in the "it's OK because you're Russian/evil/12 and trying to piss off your parents" way GTA handles consequence free collateral damage. Oh no, Driver just flat out ignores it.

Aside from that one brilliantly constructed and implemented mechanic, the rest of the game is fairly standard. Story, voice acting, visuals and physics are "enough" to carry the game forward whilst you dick about making two petrol tankers jump each other over and over.

Arbitrary score: 7/10. For people who enjoy Burnout and want a side order of story to go with that big juice car-burger.

Transformers: War For Cybertron

What can I say, it was on sale for £3.50 and I like Transformers so I thought I'd risk it.

All the worst things from...just so many games, I imagine the development team would've had to go out of their way to make this game so bad.

I've played, at time of writing, 30minutes of this. And I intend to give it at least another hour, just to be sure. But I'm fairly certain it is indeed the utter, UTTER shite that it appears to be. Shocking controls, an out-dated engine, offensively original art style (to me at least), repetitive missions and voice acting that is literally unbelievable. As in, how were the publishers happy with A) the script written for the VA's and B) the delivery of nearly every single word. Mind officially boggled. Not to mention the entire game seems to be built around coaxing you to play online, setting up another third part account (last count, I have 12) just to access those parts of the game. Oddly, my main two problems are not unlike those in my last Transformers game review (here), a mostly copy pasted single player and pushing you into playing online mp. I can only hope that, should I ever play it, the tie-in for Dark of The Moon doesn't follow this seemingly compulsory game structure.

Arbitrary score: 2/10. For people with too much time/money/Hasbro fanboyism.

Beat Hazard 

Ending on a high note, thankfully. Beat Hazard is the latest in the music-game genre, previously championed by titles such as Audiosurf. The premise being that you can choose any audio file on your hard drive and the game will map a level around it, with changes in tempo, volume and rhythm all affecting the difficulty, visual style and pace of the game. Whereas Audiosurf managed to take a simple idea and try and complicate it by ramming in different characters and an odd Connect 4-esque in-game mini-game (far too many hyphens) Beat Hazard has literally gone back to basics, by emulating the classic title Asteroids.

An XBLA/PC title with simple controls and a potentially infinite lifespan means that I will be playing this game regularly and perpetually, as it has now taken up residence as my go-to casual game, filling time between all my important business meetings and fundraiser events with the Duke etc.

Here, look at this, click on it to enlarge if you like.

I struggle to see anything there that's not to like, assuming you like A) music, B) space ships with lots of guns, C) asteroids or D) all of the above and are not epileptic. That's a serious point, this shit causes seizures.

Arbitrary score: 8/10. For anyone who likes casual games, music and bleeding eyeballs.

N.B.

Depending on feedback, I might start doing this sort of things more often, a few short reviews in one post instead of a longer article on a single topic.