Detroit: Magically Become Human

Quantic Dream's 'Detroit: Become Human' is a game about robots. Robots that suddenly, magically, become human (ergo the name).

Detroit isn't a game about sentience. It isn't about life and what life is. It isn't existential. It is about being a minority. 

In Detroit androids begin coming to life and they are treated poorly for it because they aren't like everyone else. This is as deep as it gets. 

In a work with such an excellent premise and a luscious budget it is easy to wish for something a bit more ambitious, but it is clear the studio can barely handle a basic discussion about egalitarian rights, often fantasizing success and brutalizing failure unrealistically. For all its shortcomings, however, Detroit succeeds in providing spectacle.

Playing the game on a PS5 most likely provided the PS4 Pro rendition of the game (smoothing out any hiccups with the extra performance). It looked phenomenal. Facial capture and animations, along with fine detail in the faces, were excellent. The game world never fails to deliver in scale, either. Detroit seems to bustle with life, whether in a well maintained area or the detritus of the suburbs. It looks good.

Directorially the game also seems to shine. This is a fine example of having very little to say, but saying it quite well. Scenes are dramatic and moving. Engaging. Immersive. A shining example of interactive fiction hooking you. But, hooking you to eventually tell you... what? Treat people nicely, no matter what they are made of. Or, stand up for yourself! Don't let them drag you down!

Just be yourself. 

It is quite trite.

It is also difficult to recommend, with copious amounts of mature content (from swearing to sexual, gore and violence). This isn't one that is worth the price of entry, sadly, beyond an academic analysis of its stellar narrative design. Stellar narrative design without narrative content worthy of it.

It is sad there is so little intelligence behind Detroit: Become Human. It is often dramatic for the sake of drama, with contrived scenes and motives. It utterly fails to capitalize on the premise.

I have begun calling it Detroit: Become Magically Human, after the sudden transformation these robots seem to undergo. They understand human emotion, they understand the human condition, they have a moral compass. Pretty impressive stuff to just randomly happen to a machine. It is a pity the game did not follow suite. It doesn't seem to understand any of that stuff.

The Horror of The Outer Wilds

 I have played frightening games. Games whose monsters chase and jump and scare, and then inevitably find their way into my stream of gunfire or the tip of my blade. Games where skill (And destructive weaponry) dismantles horror.

There is a sort of unmitigated terror, however, which haunts me. Unintentional, perhaps, as well. It is the reason I dislike the 2014 Christopher Nolan film Interstellar or the idea of swimming in the ocean. 

The belittling, isolated horror of the grand in scope, against whose mysteries and gravity you have no control and little power.

Enter the exceptional interactive fiction of The Outer Wilds (2019, Mobius Digital, published by AnnaPurna). A game that captures the helplessness of space in lovely 22 minute chunks.

The systems in The Outer Wilds are complex. We have time as a constant pressure and gameplay mechanic. We have gravity (to which I have met my demise many times). We have frictionless velocity in space. Orbit. Atmosphere. The ways in which you are asked to interact with this game--the things which you must keep in consideration--are bigger than you. And, they remind you of that fatally.

You will die in this game. It is a mandate. A 22 minute mandate if you are cautious, much shorter if you are not. The ways and methods for which you die continually assert that you work within the games framework. It does not work within yours. You are isolated. You are small. The solar system and its numerous dangers are so very, very large. Yet, the game has a whimsy as well. A charming dallop of character and humor. 

You begin in a quaint little village. Your nameless character (most often called "Hatchling") belongs to a race of pleasant four-eyed yokels. They are musically inclined. They love space travel. The engineer jokes with you about starting the wooden launch pad on fire during launch. It is homey and a touch bizarre. 

It becomes clear early on that the game places an emphasis on knowledge, often mixing familiar facts (stages of the sun) with speculative (Quantum theory). It then goes to great lengths to show application. 

Every 22 minutes the sun goes supernova. You can track its stage with a quick glance. 

Quantum objects disappear when you aren't looking at them, posing numerous challenges.

The mysteries of the local solar system lay tantalizing before you, and equipped with only your wits and whatever tools you start with you must unravel them, something that never fails to feel satisfying and important.

Shortly after you begin the game events unfold which result in your character being stuck in a timeloop. The other characters, unaware of this, offer little insight on the matter. You are left to go into space (and the unknown) on your own. This is the genius and terror of the game.

While you are not technically alone you are in a very emotional sense. Everyone dies at the end of the 22 minute cycle only to be dragged back into existence without any knowledge of their demise (if you try to tell them they simply question your sanity). Only you remember.

Only you remember. This becomes your greatest asset and motivation. Knowledge is the games motivating factor. Whenever you find a new journal or text from an ancient alien civilization a giddy feeling comes over you. What will you learn? What questions will it answer and how can you use this new knowledge? It is the only thing you can carry from session to session, and your character keeps track of it in the ships log for you. 

Knowledge as a motivating factor is a delightful feat for any game to achieve, but here it is the ways, once again, in which you can apply the knowledge that shows mastery of game design. So many mysteries and challenges seem daunting and undefeatable when you first encounter them. Perhaps even frightening. But, the more you learn the more capable you become. By the end of the game the knowledge you have gained and secrets you uncover seem worthy of a resume. Secrets I can't mention here without the risk of spoiling them.

In this regard The Outer Wilds is akin to the great adventure games of old, like Myst or King's Quest, but easily surpasses them in function. The open world (open solar system) of the game is traversable in its entirety, with no bars on how you can explore (or die). Another fact that leads me to the title of this post.

This game challenged me deeply. Not because of the mechanics (Exploring can require skill). I found exploring the depths of a gas-giant, sneaking past galactic horrors, accidentally steering into the sun, and maneuvering near a black hole to be entirely humbling and terrifying experiences. I haven't found a game that has challenged on grounds of interactivity in a long while. Something that I was so loath to play (I DID NOT want to go to Dark Bramble, and you will discover why), and yet so compelled to.

The Outer Wilds moved me deeply. As a game that explores themes of legacy and memory, change, sad farewells and hopeful beginnings I take my hat off to all involved. This is a terrifying, beautiful, and monumental adventure in both form and narrative.

Charting Uncharted

Creating a franchise is a financial endeavor. That is to say that a franchise lacks heart. Despite excellent management and shining quality it still copies what has been done. It is unable to innovate beyond the frame it occupies.

Frames can be good, though. We rely on frames. We rely on franchises. I don’t think it is too risky to say that we all have our own favorite business-chain. Where we get food or where we watch movies: brand loyalty is a thing. It guarantees a measure of success. Show me a new flavor of Dorito and I’ll most likely try it. Because Dorito. Duh.

Franchises offer safety.

This is why Nathan Drake’s video-game adventures, the Uncharted series, are ironic in title at least.

Like Indiana Jones or Lara Croft, Nathan Drake will venture into long lost cities and find hidden treasures.

It’s the adventure genre. Games full of running, jumping, facing unbeatable odds, and seeing beautiful sights.

Every Uncharted game, like any franchise, fits into a frame. They tend to break down as follows:

1. Nathan Drake is seeking a treasure he has long heard about. This fact worth noting. He’s always heard of the treasure extensively by the time the player hops into the scene. He knows lots of things we, the player, do not. His knowledge and our ignorance will be used to help further the plot and give us exposition at key moments.

2. There are bad men also seeking the treasure. Always. Nathan Drake finds himself in a race against these bad men to recover the stolen goods. Usually they follow him deliberately, allowing our hero to remain just one step ahead until the last moment.

3. The last moment features a large fight with the bad men, a deus ex machina that prevents anyone from getting the treasure, and Nathan walking away empty handed, but light hearted, and closer to his friends and loved ones.

This sequence of events is standard in every Uncharted game. Even the last one, which is the inspiration for this article.

Despite the grand visuals and the witty one-liners, Uncharted has never stood-out to me as a very good game.

Uncharted games are linear, feature gameplay for the gameplay’s sake, and rarely for the narrative. They are also very cliché (if the above list didn’t make it obvious). You get exposition, puzzle/platform, fight, spectacle. Usually in that order. Great graphics, funny (shallow) characters whose moral nature never asks any questions.

Well, almost never.

Enter Uncharted 4: A Thief’s End.

The best Uncharted game.

If the heavy title didn’t give it away, it is the last game in the Uncharted franchise as we know it. Nathan Drake’s last game.

It starts off different from any other title in the series

You find yourself in the middle of a boat chase. Above is a dark sky filled with storm. Drake and an unknown friend are on a small craft amid increasingly choppy waves (which look lovely, by the way). It isn’t long before the aforementioned bad-men show up, giving chase and challenge.

The game takes this moment in the story to introduce basic mechanics. First, piloting the ship. Second, gunplay.

The scene ends abruptly with a crash. Nathan and his companion fly through the air. Before we can find out what happens next, we jump scene, jarringly, to a warm tropical day sometime in the past. Here the next elements of gameplay unfold, but just as we get the hang of them we jump scene once more. Fifteen years later.

The pacing of the Story doesn’t let up, and at first seems confusing. Disjointed. But, it all starts to come together in a way that kept me intrigued.

When did Uncharted try to be uncharted? To do something new? And, it gets better.

Fifteen years later and the events of the first three games have come and gone. Insane adventures that are only sepia-tinted memories from the past. “Unbelievable” to quote an in game character. And, they were. Fantastical. They establish quite quickly that the events of the past were almost golden compared to the slice of reality that Nathan faces every day. No guns. No ancient temples or lost treasure.

Nathan has a day job. Nathan has a wife.

More importantly, Nathan has a life. Something to lose. Instantly we connect with him in a way that was never possible in any previous Uncharted title.

This game is the grand YOLO. The final hurrah of a beloved franchise, and they use it as a commentary on the entire franchise.

Most of the characters we know and love show up for the story, and an adventure does ensue, but the entire time it remains grounded in Nathan Drake and his marriage. It adds a dimension to the character--the stubborn pig-headed character--that we have never seen. And, that we’ll never see again unless I miss my mark.

It’s a sobering tale. Not a tale looking for a sequel. It suddenly felt real.

There are still convenient walls to scale and tons of nameless soldiers to murder while bantering wittily, just like every other Uncharted game, but despite that: despite the gaminess of it all, it comes home strong. It makes you care. It ends the franchise with the care of a veterinarian for a beloved pet.

You’ve lived a good, long life, Uncharted. You can rest now.

Look at you...

Little blog, you are still here. And look at you, just like I left you.

A blank canvas with so much possibility.

I could tell you all about the Fez. Whose game plays with perception.

What about Broken Age, the living storybook?

Adventures in Persona, the high school simulator?

The ever popular Journey, a parable of life?

Countless titles deserve a look, a slice of attention to talk about.

But, that is just it. Talking about them.

I'm going to change the focus of this blog.

There are already enough people willing to speak about games, about how good they are or how bad they are. But, there are never enough people to talk about the state of them, from a strong moral perspective.

Oh, I will still point out a good game here and there. But this blog is going to be used to further my aims as an interactive fiction (art) specialist. There are many great games that don't fit that criteria.

So, thank you those who have read my blurbs, I look forward to sharing more in the future.

Dreamfall

Based off of the very highly rated "The Longest Journey," Dreamfall picks up right where it left off. Two worlds exist in parallel one another, but unknown by the majority. Stark and Arcadia are science and magic respectively. On one side flying cars and futuristic skylines, on the other dragons and castles. Ragnar Tornquist is no pushover of a writer, either. The science fiction is grand in scope and chilling in philosophy. The magical side as an excellent lore and a delightful storybook feel. Both sides feature moral dilemmas that unfold beautifully throughout this fleshed out and fairly long adventure.
       The meat of this game is the conversations. The characters have delighfully human discussions and unlike many other games with unfolding plots I never found myself saying "Why doesn't she realize...?" Actually, to be honest I found myself exclaiming that very question when the character would actually ask the taboo questions, realize the truths I knew as a player. This game does a delightful job of delivering what you want in a story.
       The second major activity of this game is the series' signature puzzle solving. It is straight forward and rewarding. I was only stumped once, and that was quickly remedied. It is a highly polished and story driven affair and works nicely. The third and fourth attractions don't benefit from this same praise.
        In concept it is neat to be able to actually swing a sword as a warrior and adds to the overall feel of the game and characters (I dislike puzzle games where you merely have sword for show and need some grandiose excuse to actually pull it out), however, swordplay is not one of this games strengths. Combat is a chore that leaves you wondering why they bothered. Stealth missions also follow suite, being frustrating and sometimes unbelievable. It does add to the story "She snuck by him" but perhaps this is best just insinuated at times. It isn't as horrible as the fighting, but still needed more attention to work fully.
         Away from the negative stuff, this game is very enthralling. The world(s) are entirely fascinating and the exposition through character is some of the best in any game.
         There are some moral warnings I regret to say. One of the characters in particular has a terrible (terrible) mouth. Sex also used as an overtone throughout, though never actually seen or participated in in any way (not even any graphic clothing). Everything IS presented in a remarkably true to life fashion. Some people are clean and wholesome, and others are slime balls, making it a blast to converse and traverse.
         If the above (which I am attempting to clean up in my version, though no word on whether it is feasibly possible exists) bother you than stay clear and read up the storyline elsewhere, but if it doesn't bother you, affect you, or discourage you, if you can weight the fascinating art above the incorrigible, I would recommend it. It definitely isn't for everyone and I was offended at certain points, but they do a wonderful job of isolating and making those characters take sole ownership for their particular behavior. Have fun!

The tablet of gaming

Ladies and gentlemen, it finally happened. I am the proud owner of a tablet pc. No mamsy pamsy Android Honeycomb, either. this is a Windows Tablet. Alright, if you aren't guffawing yet you should be. Windows wasn't designed first and foremost with tablet users in mind. However, because there are no cut corners on a Windows Tablet, and provided you have the horse power you can have the full functionality of Windows frollicking around with you in an easy to use format. This particular model does not disappoint.

The Acer Iconia Tab W500 sports a dual core processor That Puts the competition To shame, But it need} to! This is Full windows we are using. As such the system comes standard with 2 GB of DDR 3 RAM and, most delightful of all, a dedicated AMD Radeon 6250 via the Fusion APU. This means a lot of power in a very small package. This is where this article is going (you all knew it!) This means this thing packs a wallop for gaming. Can an Ipad run Heroes of Might and Magic 5 or Half Life 2? I don't think so, and since I already own these they were instantly accessible right out of the box. Tested so far:

Heroes of Might and Magic 5:
This was my first eye opener for the power in that little fusion chip. Supposing you don't tax the CPU too much by choosing a gargantuan map this game will run at the highest settings gracefully. I was very impressed with it's framerate and functionality on a touch interface, but if it seems a bit much for your fingers you can always connect the included keyboard dock and instantly have a viable alternative input. Wowsers.

Halflife 2 ran remarkably well considering its evolving engine. The new dynamic shadows ran silky. The game had a few slowdowns, but automatically recommended itself at the high settings by default, an impressive estimation. This game has to be run by the keyboard dock as there is no touch input for WASD.

The third title that shames less  capable operating systems on tablets everywhere is Beyond Good And Evil. The game runs smooth at the basic setup, but with a little tweaking you  can add some anti-aliasing and better shadows. At some points the reflective water scenea gave me some grief, but those settings can also be changed. I was impressed!

Those are just a few of the titles I tried. To put it straight everything ran, just some better than others. Bioshock, Knights of the Old Republic, and of course many of what you would expect: Plants vs. Zombies, World of Goo. Crayon Physics, Disciples 2.  All ran, most very well, others (Bioshock) would need a little tweaking and some just weren't good matches for touch interfaces. Regardless, show your colors, gamers! Play great games on your tablet!

I have seen places...

I feel as if I am writing after having been exiled in Kirkwall for a second time, shackled by responsibilities no one should have: the consequences of a hero. My fingers ache with the constant quiver of energy required to Ki force rock guitar witches into submission. And, my heart glows with the sparkle of the sun on distant streams of water as I reach into flames, pick them up, and lob them at a pack of ravenous wolves about to leap at me. My hiatus has been one full of worlds not yet experienced. Some of them look beautiful, other's draw you as a blue haired, big eyed, anime, but all of them offer rich, imaginitive experiences (I wouldn't settle for anything less).

It is true that some games require a little more imagination to make them marvelous then others. Two Worlds (the original) is such a case. As far as the game is concerned the storyline is something that you simply must fill the gaps in yourself. Though somewhat creative it is horribly told by voice actors who sound like He-man characters reciting shakespeare. The game world, however, is rich and beautiful enough to let you make your own story. What lies in that forest, over that hill, in that castle, across the water, is entirely up to you. As you wander the land you can almost forget your voice acting is ridiculous as long as your curousity is intact. It is an open, lovely place, and the voice acting does ensure one thing: The game has little to know swearing or mature content, which, for a fantasy that aspires to this scope, is a lovely thing.

Dragon Age 2 (again) is a game that requires little effort on your part to enjoy the writing. It is a well written interactive adventure that really hits you well with late game consequences. It is one of the first games in a fantasy setting that I can recall to have hit the chord of political intrigue so well. You never leave the city and its surrounding area, you simply focus on the unfolding drama there. A creative, well told story.
Guilty Gear X2 struck me as one of the best fighting games I never played from an era I barely remember. Crisp and fluid animations, zany, interesting characters (who are sometimes jaw-droppingly beautiful in their anime-ness) come alive and fight with combos, counters, and everything that makes fighting games great. And the execution is masterful. A satisfying six dollars to GOG.com!

A game for far more money didn't disappoint either. Steam released Portal 2 in the month of May. This game shines with character, characters, and style. From the first moments of the game to the last you will be intrigued by the setting and charmed by the characters. This is one of my favorite games, and together with its sequel one of the best ideas for a game I have ever experienced. With an almight portal gun and an almost anonymous character you interact with the world via tests and puzzles, some of which have unforeseen conclusions, all while the mystery of the portal gun's inventors (and their demise) is solved. I dream of teleportation, and this game delivers a setting where it is your only method of victory. Above it all, this game somehow remains clean and E rated in all it's depth.

Opposingly, neither the Witcher nor the Witcher 2 were meant for families. These games are more of a personal conviction, a novel that should be read and passed to the worthy player. These games offer a world that is uncensored in its themes and presentation. As such I can't recommend these games to moral and sensitive people in any of their available forms. I won't play them without a large dose of editing and a preparation of personal meditation and reflection before hand. You will hear every swear word, see unedited breasts, and fight gruesome battles. Why play? The story, the tone, the world is one of, if not the most, refreshing in the ages of Role playing and you feel immersed in it. You feel part of it. This is a place where you truly become the main character, and in a roleplaying game that is the ultimate request. These games are very, very well written. The potential to express  your morality and ideals is ever present, but the repurcussions ruthless. When no one is perfect is helping them ever a good thing? This game makes you ask yourself if being kind is really what you want to do. It removes all game-conventional forms of reciprocation. You choose to be good merely because you are a good person, regardless. You become a character in a world that you are inextricably a part of, and these are flawed humanoids you are dealing with.
*sigh*
Some great places to visit, up there, and some marvelous ways to do it. Journey well.