Play with My Father

Just once would be nice.

I think it would be fair to say I could attribute my love of video games to my father. Well, sort of. My father was always into new technology, and he always wanted to show me the latest gizmo he bought. His interest in electronics and the like was the polar opposite of my mother, who continually resisted anything that came around. Naturally, I became attracted to the digital image and its interactive manipulation. Despite how he always exposed me to and bought me new electronics and toys, it saddens me that he never really joined me in playing them. Even worse, until recently, he always expressed a constant derision towards my life's passion.

Before there was color, there was green.

For my seventh birthday, I asked for the original Nintendo Game Boy. To this day, it is the only handheld system I ever owned, and I poured a lot of hours into it. In fact, I still have it, though I haven't tested its operational faculty in a number of years. Not that I was big into sharing, but I was surprised when my father wanted to play Tetris on occasion. I didn't appreciate it then, but looking back, it was cool that he wanted to play a game at all. That was the only one, though, and he never expressed any interest in the other games I had. Eventually, he also stopped playing Tetris, though he never played it enough for it to be considered sudden. That was it. I never saw him play another game since.

That isn't to say that was the last game he showed interest in. One day, when our home computer was still the Macintosh Performa, he came home with Zork Nemesis: The Forbidden Lands, a graphic adventure game in the same vein as Myst. I was definitely excited since I loved Myst and really looked forward to playing another puzzle game, and I was excited that he wanted to play it with me. The excitement was over almost as quickly as it began because we ignored the hardware specifications that called for at least double the RAM we had on board, and the game would not even launch. As unfortunate as this was, it was more disappointing when he never came back around to play even after we bought and installed the upgrade. I don't know why, and I didn't ask. I just played and enjoyed the game alone and thought nothing of it.

So that was the last game he ever told me he wanted to play, and he never played it. This actually never began to bother me until the last few years. My parents and I did a lot of things separately. Sometimes, we'd all watch the same TV program in our own rooms. Thus, playing video games by myself didn't phase me one bit, and I never grew a desire to play with them either. Nothing about that seemed wrong to me. The time I would spend with friends was sporadic (I was not popular), so I found myself gravitating towards more single-player experiences. Sure, there were games like Street Fighter II and Eternal Champions that were more fun to play with friends, but you wouldn't believe how much time I'd spend playing against myself or screwing with Game Genie codes.

So began my own personal adventure.

Coasting a large number of years into the future, my true love of video games was ignited when I played Final Fantasy VII on PC in 1999, the first half of the last year of high school. Although I played Myst, most of the games I played offered shallower stories; I never encountered something so layered nor with optional story content to discover. After that, I became more insistent that I continually needed something to play. I needed another story. My first "real" relationship, which took place during most of my time in college, was with a guy who would play with me. We even bought a Nintendo GameCube together. Although we had multiplayer games to play with friends, such as Super Smash Bros. Melee and Super Monkey Ball, our definition of playing with each other and friends often meant one person playing a single-player adventure while others observed. Even today, this is how I typically enjoy experiencing new games – watching friends demonstrate what they have to offer. It may sound silly, but to me, any game was as exciting to watch as Uncharted 2: Among Thieves.

Years after dropping that human waste of time, I held out until I met another guy who shared a passion for video games with me. At the time, it was more challenging than it probably is now, what with Gaymercon starting next year. But I met the love of my life, and we have spent six awesome years now playing and loving. I definitely play significantly more than he does, but he has always shown interest, and there are games he loves and have elicited strong emotional responses from him. (He handled a certain scene in Final Fantasy VII a lot worse than I ever did.) However, it was also during the time we've spent together that my father became rather adversarial towards my hobby. My parents naturally ask what I've been up to since the last time I've seen them, and usually I answer with a game I'm playing. My father's natural response has always been dismissive, instantly losing interest in me talking about it further. But there eventually came snide comments, too. I remember speaking at dinner about the Overlord DLC for Mass Effect 2, and I specifically wanted to talk about it because of how it involves autism. My only brother is autistic, so it is definitely a relevant topic of discussion in their house. However, when I began to explain that Mass Effect is a science fiction game, my dad quipped, "all [video games] are science fiction." No, it doesn't make any sense, but I could tell there was no point in continuing to talk about it.

The majority of the Myst games were about a father's relationship with his sons.

Things came to a head a few weeks ago as my boyfriend and I were leaving my parents' house to go home. My father asked what we'd be doing with the rest of the night, and I stated that I'd be playing, and my boyfriend stated he'd be watching a movie and maybe playing. His response was something to the effect of "Tell me how it is. The movie, not the video games. I don't care about that shit." So the conversation went.

"They're not shit."
"I think they're shit."
"How can you continue to put down the thing I love to do most like that?"
"It's shit to me. What do you want me to say?"
"I would never put down something you're passionate about. And it's shit that you would say something like that to me."

He just shrugged, but I was rather angry as I drove off. I always got annoyed when he'd dismiss me, but this just took the cake. It was the first time he really just said it plainly, and he managed to make it as offensive as possible. The last thing I said was true, though. I may not have interest in many things my friends love, such as sports, – I may not even care the slightest bit about them – but I would never tell someone that this thing he or she is so excited about is shit. I'd just say I don't like it myself.

Deus Ex: Human Revolutions allows the player to proceed through the whole game without killing (almost) anyone.

From this negative experience came a positive.  It took two weeks, but shortly after my birthday, in response to something completely unrelated, he apologized. He expressed a sincere regret for putting down what I love to do. My father also finally articulated one of his issues with video games, that being the violence in them. It is kind of funny, actually, since he watches and likes some violent movies, and he even owns some firearms. However, I think the issue for him is actually participating in the violence, something movies don't require of the viewer. He actually expressed that he loved Myst, which I don't remember him playing but was once the buzz of the house. This was a significant step forward, and I felt very touched to finally learn more about him.

My response to him was that not every game is violent, of course. Without a doubt, I own some games like Mortal Kombat where the violence is gratuitous, but I wanted to tell him that I'm not always a death dealer. Aside from sharing the artfulness of games like Journey and Papo & Yo, I also went on to talk about games like Grand Theft Auto IV, which match exciting and well-written plots with the violence. I even expressed that some of the best games make you question whether you want to commit violence like Deus Ex: Human Revolution. Most importantly, I told him that I regret never playing Zork Nemesis with him. It only took 16 years to realize that it would have been nice.

Zork Nemesis, the bonding experience that never was.

Sadly, I think that's the end of the positive result. I told him that I own all the games from the Myst series, the sequel, Riven, being incredible, and how I could easily install them and Zork Nemesis on his laptop. However, he said he's too old to play them and doesn't have the attention span for them. I feel like I lost something there. I don't know what exactly. I don't know that if I attempted to include him on what I was playing when I was younger that he would've joined me. Still, I feel much better knowing that my father understands what it means when someone puts down something you care about and that we're past that era of our relationship. I hope one day he'll play by my side, though.

What about you? How involved are your parents with what you're passionate about? Do you play games with either of them? Please share your experience.

Resonance Review

A welcome return to the days of yore.

Just another regular day at the office...or is it?

When I was younger and sucked more at games than I do now, I found solace in the point-and-click style of games. They rarely required quick reflexes, and often you could do things at your own pace with the game's story allowing for an exorbitant amount of time to figure out the next step. Resonance, by XII Games, is a stellar trip down the road of nostalgia, but even with some new innovations, it also relives some old problems.

Point-and-click adventure games are classically narrative-focused. Everything you do is in the interest of finding out more of the plot, eked out puzzle by puzzle until the ending. There is no wandering around per se – every scene and object holds a purpose, and you'd only find yourself wandering if you do not know what to do next. Resonance stands out among the 2012 line-up not just because it follows this genre that is oft thought dead but also because its visuals resembles those games of my childhood. The graphics are 16-bit and pixelated, but as opposed to becoming a distraction for my modernized attention span, they feel welcoming and inviting. Although I enjoy what graphic rendering engines can do nowadays, it is relaxing to have a 2D scene in front of me that is fairly easy to process. Each scene is also refreshingly colorful, whether it is in a run-down section of the city or a hospital waiting room; the eye will never get bored. Aside from the characters and action revealed via the narrative, there are also animations like blinking TVs or silhouettes of traffic passing by in the foreground that keep things interesting. Also, characters all have unique appearances without being too eccentric for their setting. The game defaults at a low resolution (640x480), but its settings can be adjusted to fit your widescreen monitor of choice, which is how I preferred to play. Everything still looked great.

Ray went off to see the Wizard. It was underwhelming.

The story is no Monkey Island or Legend of Kyrandia – despite the ability to relive games of the past from when my generation was a kid, the story is remarkably adult. It takes place in a contemporary city and follows a slightly sci-fi arc involving conspiracies and budding relationships. Also in contrast to older games, the player is given control of four different characters to complete objectives. Initially, you play out a bit of the story with each one individually, but circumstances bring all four characters together and under your command. This is where the game becomes the most interesting but also the most frustrating. For those unfamiliar, point-and-click adventure games involve finding clues and objects and building an inventory to use for solving puzzles later on. To find even the most innocuous objects requires clicking on everything, and Resonance retains the characteristic of not making everything obvious. Thankfully, the trope of "pixel hunting" does not rear its ugly head here, but take my recommendation and make sure to swing the cursor all over the screen to make sure you have not missed some arbitrary object. On top of learning how each of the four protagonists' stories are connected, the creativity behind how they must interact to move along is delightful. Any task that seems obviously assigned to one character ends up being complicated and requiring team work like I have never seen in similar games.

Something I enjoyed was the way the game was modernized beyond the mature tale. Interacting with objects and characters has been given more depth by enhancing the idea of the inventory and the way the mouse is used. Left-clicking on an object makes the character at hand interact with it, but right-clicking makes him or her make an observation or look at the object more closely, which is often a way to progress. Also, each character has a pool of memories to use in conversations and other scenarios. Long-term memories automatically populate each character's inventory as events unfold, and the player can long-click on objects and drag them into short-term memory inventory or on another character. What this allows is the ability to ask various characters about objects you saw in another scene without everyone having to be together. It also prevents waiting for that one piece of dialogue to pop up so you can move on. However, as much as I truly enjoyed these extra interactions being possible, they also opened up a new fallacy: function hunting. It is entirely possible to have all the necessary objects on hand but not know what to do next because you're not right-clicking, clicking and dragging, or long-clicking the right thing.

The visuals should seem familiar. The phonograph should not.

While you are reliving your childhood memories through touch and sight, the sounds will also please you. Except for minor internal thoughts, such as when a character looks at an object, the game is fully voice-acted. The acting itself is excellent, and each actor successfully conveys individual and memorable characters. Along with a well-written script, which never becomes too convoluted or verbose, the story is conveyed thoughtfully and clearly. Except for some dialogue-heavy scenes near the end of the game, the story is very easy to follow without being patronizing. I'd only say that the actual recordings of the voices could go a step further to be integrated into their environments. Sometimes, I found myself sucked out of the fascinating world because a voice sounded like it was in the quiet room with me instead of on the street or in a large, vacuous office. It's the little things. The soundtrack fits its purpose well, but none of the music is particularly interesting or worth replaying.

The game as a whole takes a few hours to complete if you know what you're doing at every step. The length, like an old-school game, is increased depending on how stuck you become at any point. Games like this sometimes require sitting and thinking, browsing your inventory like a mad man, or even quitting and stepping away for a while to stew over the possibilities. That said, they are not for everyone. People who desire and prefer action will become bored and frustrated quickly, which is a shame because it often seems like the gaming world is veering towards a path of continual reward. In Resonance, the reward comes with every solution and step forward. In the literal sense, there is a points tracker and an achievements menu that let you know how many possible goals you've achieved. Don't be fooled, though. If your idea of reward is someone's head exploding at the end of your iron sights or a giant mechanism opening a massive door to the next area (and there's absolutely nothing wrong with that), you won't find much satisfaction here. The game's strict adherence to its genre is both its gift and curse.

After a few survival horror games, you'll be delighted to hear this subway ride is safe!

If you gain satisfaction from solving puzzles either in video games or in the newspaper, there is a good chance you will enjoy Resonance. If you like playing games with intricate and adult storylines, you are also a member of the right audience. The nostalgic but lively visuals, the great writing, and the joy of surmounting a challenge with just a few clicks of your mouse are among the qualities that make this game a delightful hit.

All images obtained from the game's website.

Bastion Review

Piecing Together a Good Game

I like pretty games. I can't help but want to play a game simply because it's pretty. This becomes a problem when the pretty game is just not the type I would play or excel in playing. Bastion, developed by Supergiant Games, manages to exist on the periphery of games I would normally enjoy. It is an action RPG, whose gameplay straddles a fence between old school 3/4 perspective shooting games and grind-and-loot fests like Diablo or Torchlight, neither genre of which I'm a huge fan. Thankfully, Bastion manages to be pretty and fun to play with enough character to stand apart from games it resembles.

One of the immediately unusual elements of the game is its twist on the trope of the silent protagonist. Indeed, the Kid never utters a word, and the only sounds to escape his mouth are grunts typical of (adult) Link in the 3D Zelda games. Rather, the events that unfold are described by an ever-present narrator as you proceed through the game. Amusingly enough, the narrator does not just droll on and on in the background; he only describes what's happening on the screen whether it is a scripted encounter, switching your weapons, or following an alley off the beaten path. At one point, when I noticed that the weapon I had could destroy walls and barriers, I spent a while smashing everything around me, and the narrator said, "The Kid just rages for a while." Touches like this, where the story is partly dictated by player action, add a level of interactivity that encourages the player to do as much as possible if only to hear what the narrator has to say.

The next unique characteristic is the way the world puts itself together as you play. The Kid wakes up on an island floating in the middle of nowhere after an event known as The Calamity happens, and as he proceeds through the levels to discover what happens and how to fix it, the pathways build themselves as he approaches. Certainly, it's not the first time I've seen a path build itself, but this is the first time I've seen an entire game built around the concept. Much like the narrative, the world builds itself only in areas you come across. Though mostly linear, each level features short branching paths to find health, currency, and power-ups, which only appear if you bother to seek out those extra corners of the map. It's a fascinating play on the idea of secret areas, suggesting that they don't even exist if you don't seek them out purposely.

The Kid vs. Scumbag

Once you get past the novelties, the gameplay becomes pretty standard. You find a large variety of both melee and ranged weapons during your progress, and there are combat and secret skills, which act as super moves, to discover. The Bastion itself acts as a hub for upgrading the player and weapons and selecting the next level to traipse. The map also reveals areas where you can test your skills with each of the weapons to find. These proving grounds provide bonus upgrade materials for weapons and additional combat skills doled out in three tiers depending on the player's performance. The drive to complete all of these comes from the fact that they each contain an upgrade material for another weapon, so chances are if you want to customize your old standards to be awesome, you'll be practicing with the other weapons the game offers. It's a smart way for the developer to say, "C'mon. Just give it a go." As you complete levels, you are given the opportunity to upgrade the Bastion by building structures that allow you to change your loadout, upgrade your weapons, and even purchase items. If the game isn't challenging enough for you, one of the buildings in the Bastion allows you to invoke gods who buff the enemies in a variety of ways, but this extra challenge comes with extra rewards, typically more experience or currency. For those seeking even more challenge and backstory, I recommend traveling to Who Knows Where, which is Bastion's version of survival mode where you must survive 20 rounds of enemies coming at you. On top of an easy way to gain some currency, the narrator provides history for three main characters in between each round, which increases the player's ability to empathize with them. (Note: You enter these arenas via objects in the Bastion, which are easy to investigate by accident…which I did…twice. Proceed with caution.)

There is a good amount of enemy variety in each level, and the game tosses things up now and again. Although most of the Kid's trials take place walking down the yet-to-be-beaten path, there are some boss fights, times when you need to travel by floating raft while under attack, and even areas where the bushes and trees obscure your ability to view what is happening. Strategy is definitely required to proceed here as the combinations of enemies on the screen keep you on your toes in later stages. Initially, smaller encounters allow the player to button mash to some extent, but eventually, it becomes a huge risk to attack everything head on, and both your shield and evasive roll become vital to survival. It feels overwhelming at times, but the game is good about dropping health or skill tonics at the right time to recover before the next onslaught. I played the game on the Normal difficulty setting, but the easier setting does not adjust the challenge of the enemies. Instead, it allows the player to recover in place an unlimited amount of times instead of being required to restart the area. Thankfully, for someone who's not amazing at confrontation, I only had to restart a few areas and never to the point where it became annoying or dismaying. I appreciate games where failure can usually be attributed to the player's lack of strategy, and Bastion mostly fits this description. The only annoyance arises out of the fact that all the levels are basically giant islands in the sky, and trying to avoid evasively rolling off a ledge or mistaking a gap for a platform can sometimes grow wearisome. The cost is health, but admittedly, this cost can be tempered by tonics applied in the Bastion. There is definitely nothing mindless about the combat in this game, which prevents it from ever becoming boring.

This game reaches Uncharted 2 levels of beautiful junk to stare at.

All these layers of weapons, upgrades, gauntlets, and challenges are presented to you via absolutely gorgeous visuals. The levels and objects are made up of wonderfully illustrated sprites mapped onto 3D objects, while the characters and enemies are crisp and cel-shaded. The amount of detail that went into the graphics is astounding and noteworthy. The game is just so pretty, and it's worth taking a restful moment to just stare at it sometimes. Although sound effects do not stand out, the soundtrack is also quite fantastic. The background music is an eclectic blend of moody guitars and electronica, which stands out as atypical for the action RPG genre. There are also some breathtaking moments when the ambient music cuts out and is replaced by haunting vocal tracks, which anchor the gameplay to the story lest the player forget there is purpose to the Kid's actions. It is also worth mentioning the gravelly voice of the narrator, whose calm and tempered delivery is continually entertaining without wearing thin or becoming too dramatic. My only complaint would be that there is sometimes too much going on to pay attention to him, so it's disappointing to think you missed an interesting tidbit.

Bastion is not just a pretty game. Although that is initially what tempted me to play it, there is enough good and deep game here to please any gamer. It only offers a few new mechanics, but the effect of the presentation combined with the gameplay ends up being greater than the sum of its parts with a narrative that remains important and relevant till the last minute. This game is definitely easy to recommend.

He looks crazy and is crazy to fight.

All images obtained from the Bastion website, linked above.