Retrospective No. 36 Professor Layton and the Curious Village

Mental illness in video games is generally presented with very stereotypical depictions of the afflicted. They are invariably criminally insane, violent and in the vast majority of cases used to ramp up levels of fear and horror to scare players. They are villainous in the vast majority of cases and when a protagonist is the one affected it is more often than not, an Opportunity to cast doubt on their motivations and actions. So wouldn’t it be nice if there was a game with an insane protagonist, one where mental illness could be portrayed in a more sympathetic light? You might not realise it but this game series already exists. It’s called Professor Layton.

Professor Layton?! I hear you gasp. Perhaps you doubt my mental functioning. However when you put on your deducing hat and examine it closer you realise it makes perfect sense. The series, beginning with the tale of the Curious Village, tells the story of a Sherlock Holmes style investigator and the mysteries he is tasked with solving. Layton is a world renowned puzzle enthusiast and accompanied by Luke, his young ward attempts to school him in the art of puzzle solving. Realising that the safest place for a young lad is anywhere a criminal is on the loose he does this whilst simultaneously solving the crime. As a side plot to this Layton is also responsible for Luke’s upbringing (and safety) so he spends much of his time not actually focusing on the task at hand but instead teaches Luke gentlemanly conduct. All of this is generally accompanied by a female guest whose safety he is also responsible for so should also be dragged along to every crime scene in town.

Layton’s strange judgement is nothing to the weird and wonderful people he encounters. Players traverse the town of St Mystere using the touch screen on the DS to move to highlighted spaces. Upon arrival in the building/area you clicked on the screen displays NPCs who can be interacted with. Some will provide dialogue to embellish the story while others have the puzzles that make up the bulk of the game play.  These generally take the form of apparently simple logic or deductive puzzles that might have a sneaky trick or two hidden for the unwary. To help you with the trickier tasks the game world also has hidden hint coins in the background that can be used to unlock clues to make everything a little easier.

Once you start completing the puzzles you’ll realise everything is sort of strange. Everyone in this world is obsessed with puzzles to an insane degree. Characters will come up with the most spurious reasons to challenge Layton’s deductive prowess regardless of what is happening in the world around them. Whilst you are in hot pursuit of a criminal, characters will realise this is the perfect moment to stop you and ask you to solve a pursuit themed puzzle they thought up. Why can’t I continue my search first? I have no idea. To be honest the other characters barely seem to care. At times this is actually quite jarring and sits uncomfortably with the pacing of the story but although it is an inelegant solution I’m not surprised as there’s not much more you could do to unevenly weld together game mechanics with an extremely focused plot.

Despite this uncomfortable marriage of a frankly surreal plot with shoe-horned in puzzles what we are left with is a slightly off-kilter but absolutely charming delight. The story of the Curious Village, whilst ludicrous, is excellent and well presented in gorgeous, animated cut-scenes. The puzzles are conceptually bonkers but even with no plot to connect them would sit well as an excellent collection of puzzles. This game shows the charming side of mental illness, with possibly the weirdest cast of characters you will ever encounter, chief of all being reluctant best puzzle solver in the world Professor Layton himself. He’s crazy to the point where it feels like he’d trade his two young charges if it could get him some more puzzles to solve. However, the insanity is infectious and after completing this game you won’t realise that there is anything wrong with his behaviour.

Retrospective No. 35 The Simpsons Tapped Out

So I’m using again. Last week’s bold declaration that I was cured of my addiction didn’t even last seven days. I’m back on the licensed video games and I don’t care who knows it. It’s not entirely my fault as my latest fix provided a decent opportunity to test which of my compulsions were stronger. Would my love for all things licensed win the day or might my aversion to exploitative free to play prove too strong even for the sweet nectar of a lazy tie-in to a well loved intellectual property? My interest was piqued by ten million plus downloads and as it was free I thought why not? So I headed online to download The Simpsons Tapped Out.

I didn’t deliberately pick screen shots that look really similar its just how little variety this game actually has.

What I found was confusing. The ‘game’ barely qualifies in my opinion as any form of game at all. You take on a role as a giant omniscient hand that has been required to rebuild Springfield following a Homer related nuclear mishap destroying the town. To this end you have the allegiance of the townspeople who will carry out activities based on you tapping them and telling them to begin. As these tasks are completed money and other consumable resources are generated allowing you to build more and earn more to unlock more ad infinitum. By building a character’s themed building you can unlock them to add to your workforce who can generate greater levels of revenue. That is it. There is literally nothing else to say about the game play. If you aren’t in full possession of your mental faculties you can purchase upgrades to make the characters complete their tasks faster. Otherwise you set them going and get on with your life for however many hours it is until the task is complete. It’s like managing a business where you outsource all of the actual action and harvest the profits. Which might not be too bad except all you can do with the proceeds is reinvest to outsource anything vaguely interesting once again. In hindsight this might actually be best described as World’s worst Simpsons themed management simulator (although as that’s a niche market it could also be the World’s best) and it is every bit as tedious as that sounds with none of the rewards.

Really similar.

Importantly this tedium is enhanced by this title having no cost to your actions and no dramatic tension in playing either. As you don’t actually have any involvement with the tasks being carried out other than to instruct the NPCs to begin it is essentially impossible to fail unless you just choose to stop. Even if you do stop Springfield will sit in a state of suspended animation forever meaning the ‘game’ doesn’t even utilise the guilt-ridden ‘decay’ game play elements that are staples of other addictive freeium titles. It will not decline or change even if you never come back so I’m not entirely sure why you would. As irritating as these features are at least they provide an incentive to keep going. Coming back to find Homer on the streets because you neglected him might just help you stay interested but without this element I’m completely lost. If anyone out there can explain it to me I’d be very grateful. I get that it’s nice to design your own Springfield with recognisable buildings and familiar characters but aside from unlocking more things to put in it there is no need to keep going.

One of his tasks takes an entire week! Don’t worry though you won’t be doing anything anyway.

The success of this game is evidence of its flaws and definitive proof that I hate micro-transactions more than anything else in the world. These features are repellent enough that they can even make me entirely disinterested in a video game. I don’t hate this game (which as I said is barely a game at all) I just have never been so bored by any so-called entertainment medium ever. This game is deliberately designed to be boring and the 150 million dollars in revenue it has generated by desperate players desperately trying to skip the monotony that is the actual game play is evidence of this. What I can’t explain is how any players ever became so invested that they’d want to stump up the cash in the first place. Why wouldn’t you just stop first? It is the anti-game and it is important to note that as a player you are omniscient but not omnipotent. You observe the actions of the little model Springfield but never become involved in them, you profit from the activities (within the context of the game) carried out but never have to pay the costs. For the responsibility shy this might sound amazing but this sounds like a nihilistic nightmare to me. You are never in control of what is going on, there is no purpose to your actions and no influence that you can have on outcomes. The question I’m left with is how is this a game and why does anyone think this is fun?

Ridiculously similar.

 

Retrospective No. 34 South Park The Video Game

Those lessons I learnt last week must have sunk in because this week I am finally up to date and totally topical. Well topical at least as it can be tricky to produce something I call a retrospective on a game that is less than a week old. It would be even harder to produced any kind of informed fair and balanced review on a game that I haven’t actually played yet (although if I run out of ideas I may have to try). The next game I will have a look at does happen to be the reason why I’ve not played the week’s big release yet. This is a shame as it is a licensed game based on a beloved cartoon which regular readers will know is basically my crack. At this point you’ve probably worked out that it’s not Titanfall or Dark Souls 2 so maybe it’s not as topical as I was claiming either. Regardless, I shall plough onwards as this is a tale that needs to be told to warn others of the risk that shoddy games may pose to your future enjoyment. I spent this week not playing South Park: The Stick of Truth because of the abomination that is the South Park video game. (These subtitles make everything confusing don’t they?)

Abomination might sound like pretty harsh way to refer to this game but if any of you were to play this I’m sure you’d end up agreeing with me. The plot whilst flimsy isn’t actually one of the problems. South Park is under threat from a large, ominous, apparently evil comet and it is up to the boys to try and stop them. In fairness paranormal ideas were a feature of early episodes of the show meaning the writing isn’t as lacklustre as it sounds. To it’s cause the comet has mobilised (somehow) a variety of mutant turkeys, mutant townspeople, aliens and mad robots. These have been unleashed upon South Park in waves to be vanquished with a variety of wacky weapons collected upon the way. These range from a standard snowball replacing the pistol equivalent all the way up to a cow launcher which acts as a rocket launcher. The weapons may be covered in wacky dressing but they are much the same as any other mid-90s first person shooter. The game functions as one of the most generic first person shooters ever created coming across as a poor copy of this Doom and Quake dominated era.

This laziness and generic nature seeps into all aspects of the game. For example, not since metropolis was overrun with kryptonite mist in superman 64 have environmental features been implemented with so little effort by a developer. Much of the game is set outdoors in rural Colorado so some snow would be authentic and expected. The actual outcome is a game that might as well be set in the Arctic. It is so barren and sparse, with snowy wastes stretching into the distance attempting to trick players into believing there is more to the game than there actually is. The upshot of all this pointless padding is the game feels boring. You will march for miles searching for the next enemy to trigger and God forbid you lose your sense of direction or you’ll be traipsing off into the wild for what feels like hours looking for a landmark to give you some sense of where you are.

For a comedy show video game the south park game does a good job of not being funny. At all. The ‘wacky’ weapons are puerile, power-ups infantile and the plot surprisingly dull. If this is targeted at an adult audience they are insulting you and if it’s aimed at children it’s cynical, irresponsible and totally missing the point of the show. To take fps mechanics and dress them in an adult orientated cartoon skin to try and make them appealing for children is an awful idea which is fully demonstrated by the mess that has been left behind. This is without getting started on the multiplayer which is best described as actually what Halo would be like on acid. This is a surreal, disorientating, frustrating experience where you will spend most of your time trying to stumble into an opponent to interact with. All of this boredom and frustration is accompanied by your character spouting irritating, out of context catchphrases. It is horrible.

All of these reasons and more are why I’ve been reluctant to pick up The Stick of Truth straight away. This is a shame as by all accounts it seems to be brilliant and with the whole-hearted involvement of Trey Parker and Matt Stone they look to have created one of the few worthwhile licensed games. Sadly, South Park the Game was not made with this same spirit. The best summary I can offer is it plays like a rubbish fan made texture pack for an adult orientated first person shooter. At least however, the fan made effort would be made by someone who was passionate about what they are trying to create. It is generic, lazy and poorly made and might have helped me kick my addiction to licensed games forever.

Retrospective No. 33 Braid

Do you ever wish you had a little more time? If you could control time itself is there anything you’d choose not to say? Perhaps you would want to do things a little differently if you had the opportunity. Over the last fortnight I’ve managed to miss by one week writing about time relevant topics for my posts so I certainly do. The chance to have a do over so I could reschedule my ideas or perhaps to have had slightly more time to plan better would have been amazing. As fulfilling as I find writing these posts I also work a full time job so the chance to have another Rory working while I went back and perfected my updates might also have helped. Do these three ideas sound suspiciously specific? Would the addition of two other time related stipulations be of interest to you? Luckily if you agree with me on all of this the perfect game for us exists.

In case you have missed the heading at the top or the giant picture above the game in question is Braid, a 2d platformer with a puzzling twist. It owes much to the legacy bequeathed by Super Mario operating almost as a clone. There is a squat main character dressed in his working clothes, odd little monsters, with brittle skulls, to be crushed under foot and a princess to be rescued who may or may not be in the castle at the end of each world. It embraces the history of 2d platformers by mimicking the greatest providing a comfortable framework for players to get down to the business of saving the damsel in distress. It is so by the numbers that it doesn’t really need to explain initially what is going on as it is so self-evident. Or is it? (At this stage I would normally go into more detail not being averse to spoiling games however; I really feel that any of you who haven’t played this yet need to experience this story for yourselves.)

Despite borrowing from an impressive lineage the finest moments come from its original ideas. Each level is presented in a graphical style similar to a watercolour painting and the superb score owes much to European classical and folk music. It really demonstrates how far gaming has come from 8 bit presentation and sound effects. Of course if this was just a shallow style over substance scenario I wouldn’t dare mention Braid in the same breath as Mario. The time manipulating game mechanics are remarkably good fun. Starting from a rewind feature that stays with you throughout your quest it just ups the ante from there in terms of mind boggling puzzling situations. In what has become a recurring theme for my retrospectives this game satisfied me the most when it empowered me the most. Levels where time travels forwards or backwards depending on whether you move right or left across the screen play out like the greatest ‘Flash’ game never made. Seeing enemies frozen while you stand still and then manipulating them towards their doom is so satisfying and plays perfectly combining all-powerful control with a demanding standard of skill from the player.

Forget what I said at the top. If I could turn back the clock all I’d want is to have my first time on this game again. I’d actually never get anything done, you wouldn’t be reading this and any additional versions of me would be running up a huge electricity bill that I’d have to pay for as they’d all be playing Braid as well. To pay for all of this I’d probably have to work two jobs and have less time than ever to experience something so wonderful. It is a fresh take on a well worn formula with a unique twist that is thoughtful and affecting whilst still actually having the components of a fun video game. Most importantly it has a valuable life lesson at its’ core one which I’ll be taking to heart when plotting out future posts. Or maybe it doesn’t? You’ll have to play it for yourself to find out.