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Full Throttle (1995)
Ride on!
FT is a P&C adventure by LucasArts, released in 1995 and, let's be fair, has one of the most bad ass intros ever....
SWEET
The game is set in a distopian future and in it, you play as gruff voiced, barrel chested Marcus Fenix from the now popular Gears of War franchise, and set out to expose a murder in order to prevent the start of the Locust War.
Wait a second? Your telling me that this isn't Marcus Fenix? You've heard his voice, right?
So as it turns out, despite the barrel chest, gruff voice, and chin you could build a patio on, you are not actually playing as Marcus Fenix, and this isn't a Gears of War prequel. Instead you are playing as Ben, the leader of a local biker gang, and are actually out to expose the aforementioned murder in order to prevent something equally, or more terrifying , than the Locust War- replacing planet killing, fossil fuel guzzling motor bikes with environmentally friendly electric motor vehicles.
(shiver)
The game plays out much like any other P&C adventure game, and by that I mean playing the role of a thief in order to steal or relinqueshing other characters possessions in order to selfishly complete puzzles that hinder your own progress.
However FT did attempt to break the mould a little, and it did try a few innovative ideas.
First up, gone are the "open", "pick up" or"look at" etc command verbs that we were so used to seeing bordering the bottom of our screens in games like Monkey Island and Day of the Tentacle.
Instead, FT adopts a command wheel, where clicking on an item allows us the choice of family friendly body parts, like eyes for "look at" or hand, which then equates to "pick up" or "open" as the situation requires.
This therefore reduces the number of different options to interact with items, and naturally simplifies the gameplay.
A bonus to the removal of all the command verbs from the bottom of the screen allowed FT to completely fill the players screen, adding an extra level of visual appeal to the already great looking graphics for the time.
Another new idea LucasArts introduced was the inclusion of skill based, action pieces, something in stark contrast to the logic puzzles the genre is known for.
LucasArts clearly looked at other bike related franchises when producing FT thought "I'll have some of that", and decided to include a mandatory Road Rash-style mini game - something which was received at the time about as well as a fart in a spacesuit.
Later on there's also a Micro Machines looking wreck em up, which is also mandatory, and also smells of brussel sprouts.
The inclusion of these action elements was not necessarily a bad move, bring variety to the game in a time when innovation was needed to keep the genre alive, but the honest truth is that they were just poorly executed, a nightmare to control, and therefore no fun to play. With more time and polished controls, I'm sure these sections wouldn't have had the negative attention that they received.
Another critisism reared at the game was it's length. The game is quite short. Now, whilst this is true, I think this is more a consequence of the more simplified interface. It allows for fewer solutions to the puzzles presented, and therefore makes the game easier in many eyes. This then adds to the perception of the game being short, as many people found that they were able to breeze through the main plot of the game without struggling, which would normally extend the game's length.
However, FT is a good game. It was one of the first games to utilise SAG registered actors for their voice talents, such as Kath Soucie best know for playing Phil and Lil from Rugrats, Luke Skywalker who is best known for playing Luke Skywalker in Star Wars and Tress MacNeill who is best known for playing Tress MacNeill in everything she does. It was also one of the first LucasArts games to feature licensed music. I mentioned that sweet sweet intro right?
Right.
The plot is interesting and set in a world that looks great, and feels fully fleshed out. In keeping with previous LucasArts games, FT is funny, though in a more dry sense of humour, rather than the wakiness of previous games, but this is in keeping with the game's grubby aesthetics.
Despite the critisisms I have mentioned, FT is still considered a cult classic. It landed during a period when LucasArts were producing some of their best and most memorable work, and at what is considered to be the peak time of the P&C adventure genre.
I personally don't consider it as good as the Monkey Island series, DOTT, or Broken Swords, but they are some of the best in the genre, so that's hardly suprising, and I do feel the critisisms are justified. However they are only a small section of an overall great experience, and if you can bunny hop over these speed bumps, your in for a good ride.
Day of the Tentacle (1993)
Tentacular!
Day of the Tentacle is a point and click adventure made by LucasArts in 1993 at the height of their talents for making this type of game.
The story starts by a tentacle, yes a tentacle, drinking some radioactive waste.
Let that sentence sink in a moment.
A tentacle, the long slimy stick things we normally see attached to an octopus, and doesn't possess a mouth, drinks some radioactive waste.
You see in this game, tentacles are sentient, and able to hop around and talk and generally do the same things as people.
Completely normal you might say... well you'd be wrong!
You see the one thing the tentacles don't have, and thank god, is arms.
You see if they were able to have arms then they might - OH MY GOD!
So yeah, purple tentacle, a tentacle with a power complex, drinks some radioactive waste which causes him to sprout arms. This gives him the power, or probably more accurately, the power of confidence to then take over the world.
Exactly how he intends to do this is unclear, but lets not worry about technicalitis - or should I say TENTACALITIES?????
So anyway, much like returning home to discover you left the bath running, you then try to go back in time to turn off the tap they is spewing out the fluid in order to prevent this future catastrophe.
Which reminds me, I must call that plumber.
In DOTT, you play as one of three different heroes who each get stuck in a different period of time. One in the past, one in the present, and one in a future where humans are pets and tentacles rule the world.
However if back to the future has taught us anything, it taught us that having our own mother's fall in love with us is a terrible idea for our unborn selves, and that trying to alter time is never straight forward.
It also taught us that time travel needs a sweet sweet ride, in the form of a Deloreon.
DoTT doesn't have a Deloreon but it does have the next best thing - a toilet.
So our heroes must help one another to not only get back to the present, but to also alter the future so that humans don't get locked in cells and are forced to eat their food from animal bowls.
(eat out of a cat bowl)
Though each character is stuck in a different time frame, the game allows you to sent most items back and forwords between one another by flushing the items down the toilet - though I have toi admit, I'd have to be pretty desperate to use any items I fished out of my toilet.
Additionally, this being a game set in three different time zones, we must once again use our knowledge of time travel to influence different timezones to affect one another. For example, having a tree chopped down in the past, so that it no longer exists in the future, and allows the character in the future to progress.
Due to these time travel based puzzles, and the general quirkyness of the game, some puzzles are quite difficult to solve, or have a somewhat abstract solution. That's not to say the game is too difficult, as the game is entirely placed inside one house, so the area to explore isn't necesserily large, just different in each timezone.
If you have every played a P&C game before, especially by LucasArts, then you will probably have enough experience to understand what the solution is, but maybe struggle on how to implement it. Afterall, part of P&C games IS the fact that you get stuck and will often come up with ideas on how to solve the puzzles later, and in this regard, DOTT is no exception.
Additionally, we now live in an era with this new thing called the Interwebs, so if we can't figure out the solution, we no longer have to go cry in the corner like a baby anymore, like we did back in the 90s.
Another thing to note is that DOTT is technically a sequel to Manic Mansion, a game almost exclusively known for being able to microwave a hamster, a fact that DOTT is accutely aware of, and will make fun of you, should you try to do the same thing here.
Despite being a sequel, and containing some of the same characters and locations, there is no need to have played MM to enjoy DOTT. Infact, the full version of MM is playable inside of DOTT, creating it's own mini metaverse before metaverse was a thing - shhh no one tell Mark Zuckerberg.
Point and click adventures are a genre that were very popular in the early 90s, and this is regarded as an all time classic thanks to its vibrant, cartoony graphics, it's wacky time travel based story, and it's fully voiced cast - something at the time which was a novelty.
DOTT is bold, clever and very funny. It's quirky, original concept is still novel to this day, and I would recommend this to anyone, human or tentacles alike.
Kyokugen dasshutsu: 9-jikan 9-nin 9 no tobira (2009)
999 is 9 star!
999, or Nine Hours, Nine Persons, Nine Doors to give it it's full title is the first chapter in the Nonary Games Trilogy.
It is a visual novel game, based around Nine people who have Nine hours to get through Nine doors.... pretty obvious really when you think about it.
The main story of the game is that you are stranded upon the famously sinkable Titanic, having to work your way through several numbered doors and puzzle rooms in order to reach the final 9th door before the ship sinks. However, much like the iceberg the Titanic rudely bumped into, this story element is only the upper layer of a much deeper story narrative.
There is a recurring theme about learning knowledge from an unseen ether, that, should the characters be able to tap into, will provide them with insight they never previously had.
Without going into spoilers just yet, this theme helps to not only encourage multiple play throughs - but also justifies them.
You see, the game is not linear, and allows you to choose your own route through the game as it periodically gives you the choice of which door to enter next. This means that there are multiple endings, and each escape attempt gives you the knowledge of how to proceed differently next time you play the game and to hopefully find the best route. In a quasi-New Game +, the game remembers the outcome from previous playthroughs which helps to unlock the true final ending and what a whopper that is - something I'm sure the iceberg itself must have thought when it saw the renegade Titanic recklessly heading towards it.
Much like all visual novel games, there is a ton of reading to be done, as story is the main focus here.
The game spends a lot of time explaining the rules to this scenario, and these rules are predominately based around maths - something which will not be to everyones taste I'm sure.
Each character is assigned a number, and in order to enter any of the numbered rooms, the group have to split themselves up so that the combined total of their individual numbers adds up to the same number as that on the door that they wish to enter. This is done by creating a "digital root". A digital root is created by adding together all of the characters numbers, and if this total is 10 or more, then these two numbers are also added together, so that the final digit is always a single digit between 1 and 9. Additionally, only 3 - 5 characters can enter a room at once.
So, for example, if the characters want to enter room 7, then only the 3 - 5 characters who's digital route totals 7 can enter. For example, characters with the numbers 4,2 and 1 or 9, 8, 6 and 2. This is what leads to the game having multiple routes and endings.
What I will say, is the game spends a lot of time repeating this same information about the rules of the game, so you do spend a lot of the early parts of the game reading the same information just spoken in a different way.
It also spends a lot of time in describing why the characters have met up in the same area of the ship, which is kind of unnecessary, having an understanding that ships are kinda built with rooms branching off of corridors.... it just seemed a bit unnecessary is all, and I felt slowed the game down at times, constantly explaining the same easy to understand concepts over and over.
In terms of gamepley, the main gameplay element is having to solve your way out of different rooms that you become locked within on your journey. Each of these rooms is a mini escape room, having to find items to solve puzzles, and ultimately escape from each room. Most of these are basic escape room tropes of finding items to use in places to find keys to progress etc, but there are also some maths related puzzles utilising the digital root rules I mentioned earlier. Later, the game also introduces the numerical hexidecimal system. You don't have to be John w Nystrom, but suffice to say, if maths isn't your thing, then some of these puzzles could be quite daunting.
However, the game is quite understanding of this, and if you spend too long on any particular puzzle, the charaters will give you hints, and eventually the solution, in order to help you progress. It's clear that the developers wanted you to experience the story in it's entirety, rather than spending hours bogged down by a puzzle you could not solve... and again, what a plot it is!
Finally, the game provides you with a flowchart, showing where the narrative branches onto a different path, so you can easily go back to different points in the game, change your decision, and see a new story arc.
Personally, I did really enjoy this game. My first play through ended quite abruptly with one of the bad endings, and I was left with pretty much no resolution as to why the characters had found themselves in this situation, and what the greater story was.
I'll be honest that I had to use a guide to reach the games "true ending" as I initially went down the correct route, but because I hadn't unlocked part of the knowledge needed to complete this timeline in a different timeline, I wasn't able to see the true ending first time. Now again, and sorry to repeat myself, but this actually does make sense once you understand the greater plot - a plot that goes full Anime in it's final bonkers revelations.
My point being, this game does require some decent commitment to get the full experience, unlike a similar visual novel games such as Danganronpa, which provides you with the full story first time.
The game didn't initially sell well, but thanks to word of mouth, and reputation, this has gone on to become a cult classic, and I can see why.
Like any other visual novel game, it's the plot your here for, and despite some clunky dialogue, and some puzzles that are more like a maths exam than an actual escape room, 999's plot is as brilliant as you could want, and I cant wait to play the sequel.
The Book of Boba Fett: Chapter 1: Stranger in a Strange Land (2021)
Good, not great.
The Mandalorian was superb, I think we can all agree upon that.
Boba Fett made his return within that show, and had mixed opinions in terms of fan reactions.
Now we have a full series focussed entirely upon the galaxies favourite bounty hunter.
For a pilot episode it's fine. There's no amazing plot, no twists or surprises, and basically sets the tone of the show going forwards.
The actor who plays Boba Fett seems to have improved in his acting, and comes across much more cool and in control then we previously saw.
The landscape ot Tatooine looks great, and generally the production quality is superb.
Unfortunately, Boba's escape from the Sarlaac is nothing impressive, and I was left wondering why more people haven't escaped, therefore it retrospectively makes the creature less threatening.
There is a decent enough action sequence, though the design of the creature is somewhat questionable, looking more like something from a early Godzilla movie than Star Wars.. That being said, it was animated in the same way as the droids in The Mandalorian, giving it a slight imperfect quality, so that you can relate it to the animatronics of the original trilogy, rather than elaborate flashy CH+GI, which doesn't always keep with the aesthetical Star Wars tone.
Overall, good, just not great. Hopefully, as the plot itself establishes, we can see some more exciting adventures to come.
The Girl Before (2021)
The Worlds Boringest Man builds the Worlds Boringest House
YAWN!
Sorry what?
This show?
Oh right.... Yeah a boring man builds a boring house.
For some reason, some women want to live in a sterile prison, and so agree to rent it out.
In the second episode, they start dating. That's literally it.
Third episode we see that the boring man has a spooky and suspicious past... didn't see that coming for a man who literally has revealed as much of his past as his ability to move his facial muscles.
Then it ends in a predictable way....
On a positive note, the clothes dept did a great job in ensuring that all the clothes are very clean and crease free.
MacGruber: A Good Day to Die (2021)
Classic MacGruber.
MacGruber returns and I am happy to state that the humour and character have retained all of their qualities from the original 2010 film.
Will Forte and Kristen Wiig are on top form once again, and Laurence Fishburn brings a great straight role to contrast against their silliness.
There is a brilliant opening to help new views get up to speed with the character, and plenty of call backs for old fans alike.
Classic MacGruber.
Ghostbusters: Afterlife (2021)
Ghostbuster DLC
This film does many things right - it's funny, and the sense of family is a great theme throughout, and plays out here very well. It's also very entertaining... at least from a certain perspective.
You see, this is a film entirely for fans of the original. It's almost a master class in teasing, and hinting at the original, dropping breadcrumbs of hints and references constantly.
But after 40 minutes of this, I came to a realisation - all of these hints, though fun, were only enough to keep me entertained on a single first viewing. The first 40 minutes could easily be skipped over on repeated viewing to where the film starts to actually do something.
However, with this came a second realisation. All of these breadcrumbs just made me want to watch the original. The film recognises the nostalgia of the original, and it uses it to hold our attention throughout.
Ultimately, it is an enjoyable film, but what it ultimately does is make your want to watch the original again, and relive all of the action, sights and sounds in the original setting, rather than hoping to see them replicated here.
A nice, but ultimately forgettable, addition.
Ojing-eo geim: Kkanbu (2021)
Superb
A highlight of the series.
While all of the episodes up to this point have been entertaining, this one stands out as a beacon in an already excellent series.
The main distiction is that, up to this point, primarily a lot of the entertainment aspect of the show was finding out what game would be next, and how it would be twisted in a grotesque fashion. While this episode covers that, it brings about a wonderful twist that neither the players, or viewers, expected.
As such, our characters are faced not only with a life or death situation, but they must also challenge their own inner beliefs, integrity, an and loyalty. Each team raises it's own unique and difficult moral questions making each plot thread as captivating as the other.
The film makers really ran with this concept, devoting the full episode about this one game, creating an almost self contained story of it's own within the series, and so one that could easily have repeat viewing in the future.
Visage (2020)
Incredible
If your into horror, and by horror I mean a piece of media that creeps into your psychie, placing you on the edge of suspense whereby you hardly dare continue in your journey, then this is for you.
It is not "horror" like Left for Dead, or even like Dead Space, rather this is a creeping, disturbing and suspenseful masterpiece.
The game builds on the the uncanny, from lights that flicker out, to creaking doors, escalating into several points where I was quite literally reluctant to continue. I verbally swore and gasped with literal fright and borderline terror.
The visuals and sound are top quality, especially the surround sound which has you constantly feeling uneasy about the things that you cannot see.
It's also a hard game. The game gives very little to no instruction on how to play, and your aims. This not only works to make you feel a sense of unsettlement, but when things really start to escalate, it can create a sense of desperation. This desperation is increased further by the fact that there is no way to defend yourself, unlike say Alien Isolation.
The only friend here is the light, and you will be desperately seeking, searching and running towards what few pockets of light you discover....
Until the light flickers out.