lmcontaldi

You wake up to blaring alarms — a red light dashes across your vision. The AI tells you that we are in an emergency situation, questioning why you aren’t helping. You rush for the terminal in front of you and everything goes dark. Blue lights flicker, the alarms silence and everything is immediately calm. How did I end up here? What is this place? How do I get out? This is the exact situation you find yourself in Nilo Studios’ fledgling game Asemblance. A first-person experience/psychological-thriller, Asemblance presents puzzles in both story and progression. The PC and PlayStation 4 game is a bit of an odd-ball; built for a relatively niche audience, the game rewards you by how far down the rabbit hole you are willing to dive. Neither the story nor the mechanics are spelled out directly, meaning it is up to the player to discover who you are, why you are there, and what everything means. Being as vague as I can, the game feels fairly heavily influence by P.T. and SOMA. Far more science fiction than horror, the game relies on the player to not only discover the story, but also to progress the game forward. The place you wake up in happens to be a memory holo-chamber: given the right input, you are able to explore your previous memories and interact with the environments. Unfortunately for the protagonist, the chamber has no exit doors and the AI seems vaguely malevolent, trying to prevent you from accessing certain memories. At no point is the player given express direction about where to go, how to unlock the next memory, or why you are even locked in a memory chamber. The answers are in the game, but requires a fair amount of sleuthing. The game takes places in only a handful of environments — roughly five — with scattered documents and messages around to give you an idea of what is happening. Like most first-person experience games, the controls are very basic. You are able to interact with a few objects, walk at a quicker pace, and zoom in on objects. And while this makes it sound like that doesn’t present enough variety, it is actually perfect. The game’s puzzle gets fairly challenging towards the end, so it is important to have direct knowledge about what the limits of your abilities are to impact the environment. Another thing to note is Asemblance is stunning — running in Unreal Engine 4, the limited environments presented are perfect down to every detail. From an office environment to an impeccable apartment to a woody grove, it is one of the best looking games on the PlayStation 4 (especially for its $9.99 price tag). There are the rare visual blips that are fairly noticeable, only because everything around it is so perfect. The game features multiple endings, each progressively more difficult to find than the last. As far as I understand, I’m (currently) the only reviewer to find the fourth ending, and no one has been able to find the fifth. This is the kind of scavenger hunt I love to see in games — it is what made P.T. so much fun, and the recent Resident Evil 7 demo so infuriating. In creating a puzzle so rigorous, the developer is either implicitly or explicitly asking players to discuss the game further, talk strategies, and pull out their hair collectively. The only true downside (at least with the four of five endings I’ve seen) is they are entirely too similar. While there are some small dialogue variations attached to each of them, experiencing the endings never felt rewarding. Thankfully, the puzzle itself (and the accompanying trophies) were rewarding in and of itself. To add to that, I mentioned the game’s audience is relatively niche — many people don’t play games to be intellectually challenged, or for a dense, puzzling story. The game is technically beatable in 15-20 minutes if you are going for the more basic ending. Meanwhile, I have spent roughly six or seven hours reading through the many documents strewn around, investigating each object, and trying to decipher how to unlock all the endings. I’m hesitant to call Asemblance “fun” — but that isn’t what the game is trying to be. Instead, it is a challenge to overcome for those interested in experimental gameplay and hidden stories. The game is dense, but rewarding for those looking to make the investment. The fact of the matter is, there aren’t a ton of experiences like this around on PlayStation 4 (perhaps with the exception of SOMA): puzzle-driven psychological thrillers are fairly scarce. And though the puzzles aren’t as rewarding or playful as The Witness, a small collection of my friends have been spit-balling theories and ideas back-and-forth for the past couple of days in an attempt to unravel the last mystery. For $9.99, it is an experience I highly recommend trying out, even with its faults and being designed for a niche audience.

From Lou Contaldi, Full Review at **** _______________________________ AN EXERCISE IN PERFECTION Admittedly, Xbox One hasn’t had a lot going for it so far — with the exception of Sunset Overdrive, the Microsoft exclusive titles have either come hand in hand with scandal or have been subpar. What’s worse, it is well noted how nearly every multi-platform game runs better on PC and PlayStation 4. With all of that said, no one game has single-handedly turned around my opinion of a console and its future than Ori and the Blind Forest. If you are going in blind (excuse the pun), Ori and the Blind Forest is a “metroidvania,” puzzle platformer with some light action and RPG elements. You play as Ori, a Forest Spirit, who was separated from the Spirit Tree early on. After being raised by the motherly Naru, the forest began slowly withering away. Before long, Naru succumbs to sickness and hunger and Ori is an orphan once again. With the help of an accompanying forest spirit (Sein), Ori is tasked to return the Three Elements of Light (Water, Winds, and Warmth) to bring balance back to the forest. Moon Studios without a doubt knows how to tug on the heart strings — if you aren’t welling up in the first 15 minutes, I honestly doubt your humanity. Thanks in part to the beautifully orchestrated score and fantastic art style, Ori and the Blind Forest brings to mind a Pixar movie. Throughout the seven hour playthrough, I got chills from the beautifully narrated story about family and sacrifice. Sure, the story has its platformer tropes (collect three orbs to unlock three temples to save the world), it is presented in a fresh and interesting way that felt like a perfection **** instead of a copy. While I can talk at ends about the storyline, it would be for naught without matching gameplay and level design. Impressively, both of these elements are just as masterfully executed. Like any other metroidvania title, the protagonist starts off weak and with a limited area to explore. Each power up you grab opens the path to a larger selection of collectables and more difficult sections of the map until the world is at your fingertips. While this recipe is tried and true, Ori and the Blind Forest brings substantial improvements to the formula. Nearly all of the powerups add to the platforming elements, making it a joy and a breeze to get across the map. For instance, the Bash ability gained halfway through the game lets you slingshot off enemies and their projectiles. Even better, slingshotting these projectiles can help open paths or take down those same enemies. Upgrades are given liberally through an XP system found in scattered collectables or earned by killing enemies. Up until the last second I was earning upgrades and feeling noticeably stronger. While all the platforming and gameplay feels great, prepare to die. Alot. In my seven hour playthrough I died exactly 223 times (according to the leaderboards), and that is on the low end of the spectrum (other reviewers racking up in excess of 500 deaths). While the game has an achievement for beating the game in under three hours and one for a zero death playthrough, I doubt very many will be able to accomplish that. Thankfully, the game implements a smart quick save/checkpoint mechanic. As long as you aren’t around enemies and have enough energy, Ori will be able to create a Spirit Flame, instantly logging the progress and allowing for upgrades. While this doesn’t make the game easier, it makes the difficult sections easier to swallow. There are minor blips on the radar that draw away from perfection, specifically a few framerate problems, the inability to re-enter locations for 100% completion, and bizarre difficulty spikes. However, the game is so polished and these issues are so sporadic, they were never able to ruin my enjoyment of the game. I am always hard pressed to believe the “hype” about games, however Ori and the Blind Forest is one of the best games to come out this generation, let alone on any Xbox platform. The game finds a perfect balance that both newcomers and long time gamers will enjoy, making it easily recommendable to everyone. While the game borrows from a tried and true formula, every mechanic feels fresh and polished largely thanks to the orchestrated music and stunning world. Ori is a gem that should be on everyone’s short list of “must play” games, especially at its $20 price tag.

Full Review from Middle of Nowhere Gaming, by Lou Contaldi -------------------------------------- When it comes to developing and planning video games, the puzzle genre is arguably the hardest to nail. It requires balancing the intellect of your audience with the difficulty of the puzzle — a proper puzzle will give players the pieces needed, challenge them, and bring an “Aha!” moment to tie everything together. While nearly all puzzle games make or break it based on the puzzles, htoL#NiQ: The Firefly Diary for PlayStation Vita is made artificially difficult by the plodding controls, making for one of the more painful games in recent memory. The Firefly Diary has a beautifully realized atmosphere with a complimenting creepy story. With a very minor inspiration from Limbo, a little girl named Mion wakes up with no memory of where or who she is. Guided by a green firefly and a purple one that lurks in the shadows, you are tasked to guide her out of the post-apocalyptic waste and find her family, all the while picking up hidden memory fragments to explain the disappearance. That all sounds great, right? Well it is! The first chapter is an absolute joy as the game introduces the mechanics while slightly ramping up the difficulty. Unfortunately, those same mechanics begin torturing the title before it hits its stride. For some reason beyond my comprehension, Nippon Ichi Software decided to use the front touch-screen and rear-facing touch-screen as the default controls for the game. With the front touch-screen, you guide Mion around with the green firefly, controlling her movement in a “follow the leader” fashion. With the rear-facing touch-screen, players shift to the shadow world to interact with a variety of puzzles. Ignoring the way-too-common accidental touch of the back screen (which pauses the entire game), the sensitivity, the slow pace of Mion, and the sheer difficulty of movement that follows was more rage-inducing than any of the puzzles within. To name one (of many) examples, early into the game you are tasked with navigating a complex maze using the front touch-screen — a nearly impossible task for me and the three friends I asked to help. When push comes to shove, the touch-screen control scheme quickly dissolves into an unplayable mess. Luckily, players are given the option to swap controls to a traditional twin-stick/button format (both on the PlayStation Vita and the PlayStation TV). Unfortunately, there was not much of an improvement; instead of spending 40 minutes on a puzzle, it may only take 15. An arbitrarily difficult, painstaking 15 minutes. Very rarely did I have to restart because of actual confusion of the puzzle; instead it was the sheer navigating difficulty which artificially made each 20 second puzzle hard. I can’t say that I beat the game — while I gave it my full attention and sank hours into it with varying control settings with different systems, eventually the game became too difficult to get past sections (somewhere in Chapter 4). It was like hitting your head against a cement wall trying to break it down. After long enough sessions, it may eventually crack and be an achievement to the few people committing themselves to the torture. However, many of us on the sideline are sitting there wondering “What’s the point?” At the end of the day, htoL#niQ: The Firefly Diary is a beautiful setting with a fascinating story, complex gameplay mechanic, and interesting puzzles. However, htoL#NiQ is a prime example of how poor controls jeopardize an otherwise good game. While all of the positive aspects had me chomping on the bit to play more, my interest would wane after each and every unnecessary death. What could have been a challenging two or three-hour game was rendered nearly unplayable due to odd design choices, plodding controls, and poor level design. It is clear that there were some terrific concepts, both art and gameplay, that were created for this game — somehow they just got lost on the way.