It’s early afternoon here in North Carolina. LW called here around 8, so 6 his time. He said some of the estate money had trickled in. He told me he wanted to make a land purchase and get contractors in to build a chicken coop, a couple pigsties, and a cow pasture. I told him to go ahead with the purchases, and I would see him in a week.
He sounded shocked at that. When I asked him why, he said he didn’t expect me to return so soon. But the way he said it burned my ear a bit, and for a few moments I didn’t see him in my minds eye. I saw a greenish, drooling troll running across a bridge with an army bag stuffed with cash. And for the first time since I met LW, I wondered if he was on the level. Or was he taking me for a ride?
Then he asked me if I would be willing to sell calves. The price wouldn’t be better than adults, but if we managed to get 40 top quality heifers, and if they bred well, we would end up with 40 great cows. Quality breeders were more valuable in the long run. Maybe 8-10 years.
He warned me that the livestock would likely need to be fed by purchase. But next fall we would have grown all the crops needed to produce our own feed.
And finally he put a bug in my ear about cotton. It wouldn’t be of any benefit to the animals, but the current market was good, and we could use it as a cash crop. Maybe even ship some off by train for a premium price. The initial investment would be high, but he thought it would be a boon in the long game.
Then he signed off. He said a long day was just beginning.
Just now heard from LW. He said a local farmer just sold off his entire spread. Something about a grisly divorce. He would be willing to sell all his slurry to us on the cheap. Since I wanted to go as organic as possible to told LW to get it all.
The following is an excerpt from The Saga of Regine (Biography of a Vampire) as told by Brunhilde the Bard.
ONE
Regine approached Treva’s Watch from the shoreline of the Treva River. The fort sat large on the northern shore of the river. The southern wall faced the river, and a single gate secured the entrance. Several timber ramparts protected most of the wall sections, providing cover for archers or mages. The fort’s tower occupied the northwest corner, providing an elevation advantage agains any assaults from the north where enemies could attack along a hillside. A campfire provided some orientation on the northeast wall where bandits could rest and eat when not on patrol.
East of the fort another campfire offered some illumination against the growing darkness of night. As Regine approached she notice three Nords sitting in a half-circle around the fire. They were engaging in conversation she couldn’t quite make out.
A man named Stalleo sat on a wood stump. He had gray hair cut in a thick stripe and the sides of his head were shaved to the scalp. A large beard extended well beyond his chin, almost to the chest, and matched his hair in color. His eyes were deep set and blacked with war paint. Across from Stalleo a female donned in heavy steel armor sat, her features muddled by the firelight and steel helmet. A male in fur armor and a hunting bow sat to Stalleo’s left. He turned toward Regine, and asked if she was there to help, mistaking her for a mercenary.
She told him he was and she would be better than anyone else he could find. Her fee was high though. Stalleo agreed, and told her a story.
It was about three or four months ago when everything started going bad. My friends here, and my family, we’re doing work to the exterior of the fort when a Stormcloack courier arrived. He walked to the gate and asked if he could come inside to discuss the militia that was forming. As a good son of Skyrim, I agreed to hear him out. I opened the gate and let him in the courtyard.
It turned out he was visiting every village and city in Skyrim. He didn’t have a horse, or carriage ride to hold capitals. Only his own two feet as mode of transportation. He looked exhausted and weary. He limped profoundly. His eyes were sunken and dark, the whites more red than not, and his cheekbones looked like they would burst free at any moment. “Come on in and have some meade,” I said. He started to refuse but I cut him of with a hard glance. “You’re coming in for some meade and a meal. You look like you’re an hour away from being a draugr that escaped the Ansilvund crypt.” He mulled it over for a moment then nodded his head slightly as if too much movement would cause it to tumble off his neck and roll into the Treva River. I slapped him on the shoulder and guided him toward the door where my wife stood ready to ring the dinner bell.
I led him into the dinning room and offered him a seat. “What’s your name, soldier?”
He sat down, slowly, and with a grimace splitting his face into one part pain and one part exhaustion. He sat for a moment before speaking, and when he did the words seemed just as pained as his face, “We aren’t supposed to give anyone our names, sir.” He shrunk farther into the chair, head bowed, arms limp to his sides.
I finally noticed this man wasn’t in his late twenties or early thirties but not even out of his teens. He likely took the courier job to show his loyalty and patriotism, but didn’t account for the severe impact such a job would take on his health and body. Walking long distances for hours and hours, avoiding wolves, frostbite spiders, trolls, and Imperial patrols could age a man years within weeks. And here he sat so worn down from trying to prove himself to the Stormcloak cause he appeared to be decades older than his years actually accounted for.
I felt a knot of sorrow and sympathy far deep inside tying up my guts and heart. This is the toll that war takes on not only those on the frontline but by everyone. When this conflict with the Imperials finally ended the whole of Skyrim and her people will bear the burden for generations. Friends and family will be dead from enemy attacks, others will die of starvation, and more still will succumb to disease and illness. Proof sat at the table, broken and scarred physically and emotionally.
“Here you are,” my wife said, placing a bowl of tomato soup, a plate of carrots with apples and cabbage, and a platter with beef steak and crab cakes in front of our guest. “Ale or meade?” She waited for a moment, but he didn’t answer. She placed a flagon of ale on the table. My wife handed the rest of us a bowl of tomato soup and ale. Then she sat down and gave me a slight glance, I nodded in reply.
The message bearer sat for a time, staring at the food and drink before him. I didn’t think he would eat on his own. “Go ahead. Dig in.” He grabbed a fork with a shaky hand and took a mouthful of crab cakes. It must’ve been tasty as he ate without so much as a look up. Every morsel of food was consumed in less than five minutes. None of the rest of us had done anything but watch him eat.
The mine is well-lit with torches. I take them down as I creep along. They will definitely expose me and make the prey more difficult to subdue and feast upon. A tripwire stretches across the ground, it will trigger a rock trap if I’m not careful. I skirt around it carefully.
The air is thick and cool. Damp and musty. Dust hangs in the air, sparkling from the flickering light of the torches. When I snuff out the torches, the dust recedes into the darkness of the cave as though it isn’t safe to be unexposed.
As I creep forward, i can hear voices. A discussion about the guard securing the door; the guard i already dispatched. They are bandits and their blood won’t be the most flavorful, but being cautious is more important right now. I don’t need to be exposed. Vampires aren’t the most welcome of creatures, even by the lowlife of Skyrim. I image fear is why vampires are so loathed.
I wait patiently, hungrily. The two men separate. This is beneficial as I can attack them individually. Although, I feel more and more powerful with every feeding, I am not confident I can take on more than one of the living. One of them walks down a lit corridor (I haven’t been able to remove all the torches), and the other lies on a bedroll. I advance on him.
Back outside in the daytime, I cringe against the sunlight. The heat and brightness saps my strength and energy. But it doesn’t feel as powerful a drain as before. The eight bandits inside the mine fully satisfied me, and one in particular (the archer) tasted sweet. There was something in her blood that seemed to speak to me. A few words floated along her blood, within her veins. Riften. The Thieves Guild.
I think I should attempt to join The Thieves Guild. If it actually exists. Ready access to homes, to people, to blood. They will know where people live. Yes, that would prove quite advantageous.
I’m on my way to Riverwood, a small village south of Whiterun. I understand there are no guards protecting the small hamlet. A thought blazes through my mind. no guards, no protection. but from what? From me? Is it possible that i am now considering slaughter of everyone living. I shake the thought away, focusing instead on the trip.
Wolves attack me shortly after I pass an Imperial patrol with what I assume is a Stormcloak rebel. I consider for a moment to decimate the entire contingent. But I don’t. Perhaps there is some humanity still left in this undead heart. This thought leads to another question: do I still have a soul? Moreover, does it matter if I do?
Riverwood is close, I smell the residents. I enter the east side of town and find the local drunk hovering around the inn. I approach him and stop. Something is wrong with him, within him. Inside his blood. I offer him a drink. He takes it without hesitation.
I am weary from the trip and the excess sunlight. The sun seems to wear on me now. I believe I will miss it’s welcoming and rejuvenating rays. Now only blood reinvigorates me.
Inside the inn I sense a human with unique blood. It calls to me, but she is awake and wandering the inn, engaging in an argument with the man behind the counter. He has something in his blood, too. But it isn’t alluring or enticing.
My sleep is restless, devoid of dreams and wants and desires. I arise and leave the inn. Outside the sun stings my eyes, and I instinctively search for shade.
The blacksmith is an intriguing person. He's passionate about his daughter and often bickers with his wife. He doesn’t tell me this but I know anyway.
I leave town, and head west. Not far, I notice a mine. Bandits inhabit this mine. And I am hungry.
The bandits at Silent Moons Camp are no match for my growing power. I dispatch them rather easily. New forms of magic arise within me and I use it to take them down. I’m sneaky, quiet, and bloodthirsty. Somehow I can even will myself to be unseen. My mother used to say powerful mages could bend light and become invisible. Somehow I can do this. It is intoxicating. Enrapturing!
I leave the broken and battered and drained bodies behind and head for a walled city. I believe the community is Whiterun, the most well-known location in all of Skyrim. This is most likely because of it’s central location within the province. The mild weather and wide-open landscape is also a deciding factor.
Whiterun reminds me of home. I grew up in Northpoint. My father fished the Etheric Ocean and my mother was a trader (selling my father’s catch most of the time). Seven years ago they died at the hands of some thugs from Evermore. The bandits were hired by a rival fisherman. They stole everything not fastened down and torched the rest, including my parents. Only their teeth remained after the fire finally snuffed out. After that, I left. Not knowing where I was going, but wherever it was would be okay as long as it was a long way away.
Two guards stand on either side of the large doors. Their blood calls to me but I resist. I wonder if my control is accidental from recent feedings or if I can manage my thirst more now? They do not speak or stop me, and I’m allowed to enter unmolested.
Inside, a man and woman are having a heated discussion, and although I’m not close to them, I can hear each word. I approach just as the conversation ends. The man in Imperial armor asks me something random. His heartbeat is all I can clearly make out. It’s powerful and steady. He is a strong human. I answer his question without ever hearing it. My reply pleases him. I wonder if he can feel that I now have control. I watch as he walks away.
There are more heartbeats. All around me. Within me. The hunger begins to grow. A small bunkhouse to my left has three guards within. I don’t know how I feel this. I enter and feed on the two sleeping men. A third man sits, he’s the watchman. I need him. Want him. Want, want, want!
He suddenly stands, dazed, entranced. I take the risk and feed while he is unaware. Then, as starkly as he stood and offered himself to me, he sits back in his chair—none the wiser.
I leave and head directly to the guardhouse. I seem to know exactly where I’m headed. An unseen power guiding me along the cobblestone to where more guards slumber. I’m getting bolder.
I exit the cave. Outside the darkness seems to warm me. The rain lit upon my skin, but it isn’t cold as most rain within Skyrim. I only feel the wetness.
And there is also moisture around my mouth, drying on my chin. The hunger had taken control of me, and the dead bandit was just there…
I shake away the memory, partially from fear and repulsion. Fear of the enjoyment and warmth of the blood. Repulsed by the act itself. Am I now a vampire? A vampire!
I break out in a run. Somewhere. Anywhere. As far from the cave as quickly as possible. I am disoriented. Just go. Run!
Someone in the distance. A guard. Another cave. Fear engulfs me. But so does something else. Hunger.
After I killed the bandit, I feed. It’s an instinct now. I am a vampire. A VAMPIRE!
Revulsion overwhelms me again and I run. I need distance. But from what and to where? The more I leave my old life behind, the more my new life (as a vampire) begins. Still, I cannot help myself. My legs power themselves as though they are controlled of a different mind, body, or…force?
I see something in the distance. A tomb maybe? Draugr inhabit tombs. But there aren’t any draugr in this tomb. This one has living blood. And lots of it, beaconing me as I get closer. A need wells up deep within. I must feed again…
I regained consciousness slowly as if swimming up from a depth in dark, murky water. I’m confused, my memories no longer cohesive but a scattering of visions. I saw a man. Attractive and alluring. His eyes (a strange reddish hue?) seemed to have gripped me so powerfully and debilitatingly I couldn’t move nor resist. But did I want to? I felt no fear. Rather…curiosity? Was that it? Was I curios? And if so, why?
The cavern? cave? dungeon? was dark. A woman mumbled something I didn’t or couldn’t fully comprehend. I heard a sound behind me. A creaky, racketing sound. Fear had gripped me then.
I looked down and saw I was in new clothing. Gloves with sharp, pointed tips, a red gown, low cut, barely covered breasts, and dark boots.
Pain rippled through me and I felt a hunger unlike anything I had before. I smelled something I would place within death, maybe the stench of…draugrs? I’d heard stories of the bone-walkers as a child, but waved away the stories of them as tales to keep children away from the tombs and crypts.
The stone corridor was narrow with only one torch hung on the wall for light. I rounded the corner and saw a man. His skin was pale. He paced. A cage (torture chamber?) nestled against the opposite wall. Next to it appeared to be a dead female bandit. But why wasn’t she in the cage? Moreover, why was she here at all? Did she sneak in to steal? And if so, how did she get by the woman who was mumbling?
I approached the man. He said something that chilled me. I needed to get out. To escape! I took whatever I could and made a break for it.
Back into the cavern, I saw what appeared to be living skeletons. Not draugr, but actual skeletons standing and wandering around, making a creaking noise. Then woman saw me but didn’t accost me or attempt to keep me from leaving as I approached the exit to the cave. I”m felt certain it was a cave now.
I wondered if leaving would make me free. Or would I become a slave to something else? And if so, what?
Just south-southeast of the Karth Delta is the real miserable little town of Skyrim. Morthal is a gloomy village in the marshes of Hjaalmarch. And there are some strange things going on. A mysterious house fire consumed the lives of a wife and daughter. The waterwheel at the lumber mill runs in reverse to the flow of water. The town wizard takes late night sojourns into the marshlands. A mysterious woman is only ever seen at night. An orc is the local bard. And the jarl has visions. And not far away is a cave that houses a dark menace. What are we to make of all these...coincidences?
When you first approach the jarl’s longhouse there are a mass of people shouting at someone. As you wander closer you find out that locals are upset about the new wizard, and it’s almost immediately evident magic use is categorically mistrusted. After more grumbling from the crowd they are unconvincingly assured the jarl will be informed of all their concerns.
If you strike up a conversation with these folks you’ll find out who they are and what they do. Jorge’s is the mill owner. Thonnir is a lumberjack in the employ of the lumbermill, which is one of the few businesses in Morthal. Either of these men could mention the burned down house, the biggest concern in town. Except maybe the new wizard.
If you walk away from the mob scene without hearing about the mysterious house fire head on over to the inn. The innkeepers all love gossip and you will surely get an earful about the house fire. Once you finally get a few details about the fire head over and talk to the jarl. She’ll send you on a quest to find out what really happened. Completing the “Laid to Rest” quest is a requirement to becoming thane. This quest will take you to the burned down house, playing a game with a ghost, breaking and entering, and a showdown with evil residing in a nearby cave.
This is the question I was asked some time back. And my response probably appeared rather weak to the person who asked me. I think I replied with something along the lines of it's an open-world game and I'm not sure that's for me. Boy was I wrong, wrong, wrong, wrong. I wasn't wrong about it being open-world, though. But I was wrong about it not being a game for me.
At the time I began considering Fallout 4 as an option, I had been enjoying more and more games with deep, well articulated stories. And a couple of those games were stories without words, without dialog, and without NPCs. Games like Journey and ABZÛ and Neverending Nightmares. Still others were full of dialog and NPCs and conversations. Dying Light, The Last of Us, and Life is Strange for example. And although Dying Light was open-world it had a narrow, and linear, focus. Not that those things took anything away from the game; it was a fantastic game. The Last of Us and Life is Strange are both great stories with excellent dialog, but they are quite focused in their purpose, providing limited interaction with the environments. Sure there were many opportunities to explore but in a tertiary role.
But Fallout 4 isn't like that. Fallout 4 is all about exploring. Truth be told, exploration is of utmost importance. But it's not just about finding new locations to scavenge or participate in battle or scrounge for ammunition, health items, and bottlecaps (the currency of the Wasteland). Oh no, the exploration is vital to the most important aspect of Fallout 4: the stories.
When I mention the stories, I'm not referring to the main story. It's rather predictable and not overly interesting. And I feel like this flaw in the game gives it a black eye. But thankfully the secondary and tertiary stories make up for the re-washed main story. These sad, gripping, and often gut-wrenching stories are what makes me ask the question, "Why aren't you playing Fallout 4?"
More than just the scripted encounters are the random encounters. And true enough many of these random encounters are battle focused or essential equipment such as ammo or health, but there will also be random opportunities to engage in a story. You may come across a settler in dire need of medications. Or you may find a funeral that you can only be a witness to as there isn't an option to engage with the mourners. Or you may find a man circling a refrigerator and thinking aloud on how to open it.
Even some of your available companions have deeply painful stories to tell such as MacCready or Old Longfellow. Maybe you've decided to solve the Eddie Winter quest with Nick Valentine, which you must to reach max affinity, and you learn about who Valentine used to be and why solving the Winter case is so important.
More importantly though—if you take the time that is—you'll complete the saddest, most heart breaking story in the quest of Arlen Glass, a man who cared so much about making children happy he forgot to take time for his own daughter. When I finished Arlen's quest I had to take a minute away from the game to clear my throat. Or, perhaps, you'll come across Phyllis Daily, and if you have high charisma, she'll tell you about her grandson. Or maybe the Suttons and the terrible fate of a mother and two children thanks to an abusive, lazy father.
Fallout 4 is filled with tough battles, complex battles, and fun, environmentally rich battles. But the greatest aspect of the game are the battles of the Commonwealth people. The war against total atomic annihilation, and the steps taken to keep families safe from a world no longer safe. What about the efforts of the Tournquist family to reunite, and of Jim to save his family within the confines of Big Jim's Salvage. And when you find Jim and his family take a moment to review what your eyes see, and then ask yourself: would you do the same?
When I first began playing Firewatch I wasn't sure it was going to keep my attention. The opening was filled with onscreen dialog similar to that of old soundless movies. And I nearly put the game away for a later date. And had it not been for its setting in the Shoshone National Forest in Wyoming I think I would've put it away. Boy am I glad I didn't. In fact the setting of a fictional area within Shoshone NF was what drew my interest to the game. Kinda like rooting for the home team even if you don't like the home team.
Firewatch is a first-person, story-driven mystery. It was developed by Campo Santo and published by Campo Santo and Panic. On February 9, 2016 is became available for Linux, Windows, OS X, and PS4. Later, in September 2016 Xbox One players were able to play.
You play as Henry, a man who is trying to avoid a difficult past relationship and start anew. Henry is a new fire lookout in a fictional setting in Wyoming. You engage in dialog with Delilah via radio. And it's in the dialog that the game shines. At times serious, mysterious, and sarcastic. But it is always engaging and easily holds the attention of the player. It's almost like a good mystery book in its depth of character and twists.
Fun Factor: Firewatch is certainly engaging enough as a story-driven game to keep the fun going. Even with limited gameplay the game is a wonderful getaway for several hours. FF is 8 of 10.
Replay Factor: Firewatch has plenty of dialog options to warrant a second or even third pass through. And a few secrets are hidden that I easily missed. The adoption of a turtle for example. Firewatch is almost completely devoid of wildlife, which is strange given its setting. RF is 7 of 10.
Story Factor: the story in Firewatch is wonderful, although a bit slow at the beginning. But this is attributed to the fashion of gameplay in the first ten minutes. Once beyond the long beginning reading the player must do the story is fascinating and enjoyable with fully relatable and well rounded characters. And the mystery itself has plenty of possibilities for gamer engagement. SF is 8 of 10.
Imagery Factor: now again I don't separate out the quality or even design of the imagery, rather I use the fully imagery immersion to make the determination in the score. Firewatch possess wonderful imagery, from the forest to shadows to darkness. IF is a 6 of 10.
Overall Factor: a summation of all the scores given against all the scores available. Firewatch scores a 29 of 40. Firewatch losses ground due to lack of forest sounds and minimal gameplay. With the addition of sounds and more complex puzzles, Firewatch could easily score a 35 of 40.
Firewatch is definitely a game to play. Even if you prefer high octane games like DOOM or Uncharted, the story in Firewatch is more than enough to keep you entertained for several hours on a rainy afternoon. It easily makes it into my top 5 games played this year.
(Firewatch gets 5 bonus points for mentioning actual towns and cities in Wyoming.)
I'm not even sure where to start with Dear Esther: Landmark Edition. Normally I would give a little background information followed by a breakdown of the game as I responded to it. The trouble with Dear Esther is it isn't much of a game in terms of gameplay. Quite honestly there isn't any gameplay—walk, zoom, and look is it. But there is one thing Dear Esther does well and I'll get to that in a moment.
Dear Esther was developed by The Chinese Room and published in 2008 as a free to play mod. Then republished in 2012 for PC and Mac and 2013 for Linux by The Chinese Room. And published by Curved Digital for PS4 and Xbox 1in 2016. It's a first-person, story-driven game. Sort of. At least in terms of story-driven.
Throughout the game a narrator appears and maps out the history of a killed spouse to the audience via letters written by the husband of the deceased. The letters loosely imply the character’s wife was killed in an auto accident, but it's soon muddled by some back story of other island inhabitants, and the drunk driver.
The story of the prior inhabitants and the death of the character’s wife soon becomes white noise, though. And I found it to have been disruptive more than inclusive, and the reason why is because of what the game does exceptionally.
Dear Esther: Landmark Edition is a visual orgasm. The images are so real and lifelike, and the environment so believable, I quickly found myself shivering with the gusts of wind, hunching my shoulders over against the sea spray, and the chill of the caves that are explored within the game. At one point you explore a wrecked and decayed ship. As you walk through you feel immersed in the ribs of the broken ship and the emptiness of its cavity.
Although the game had a completely immersive environment, I could easily see people putting the game down and never returning to it, and that's in spite of its incredibly short story (I finished the game in an hour and twenty minutes, which could've easily been an hour had I not stopped for screenshots).
I would be hard pressed to say the game has replay qualities. One time through is more than enough. So be sure to take all the screenshots the first time.
Welcome to LittleWatt Gameplay, a blog dedicated to gaming. Ranging from first impressions to game reviews and a bunch of stuff in between. I’ll be sharing my first impressions of Life is Strange for the Xbox One.
I was browsing in Best Buy when I first came across this game. It might have even been mentioned by a friend but I can't recall for sure. Anyway, I grabbed the box and read the little blurb on the back. A young girl with the ability to rewind time. She saves someone and then must face the consequences of her actions. And this is throughout the game as each decision can affect the way things play out.
After an hour or so of play, I find myself more and more drawn into the game. There's a girl missing and a bunch of people connected to the girl, which leads to a huge suspect list. The more I play the more clues come to the surface. And, as one might expect, some of the potential perpetrators are simply too obvious for me to take as a serious suspect in the disappearance of a young art student. And there's an equal amount of suspects who are not obvious choices as kidnappers (and potentially murderers, although I don't know if the missing girl is dead yet) who I must take a closer look at.
The story is full of typical teenage drama surrounded by a mysterious disappearance and the introduction of an FNG (fucking new girl) not unlike many stories available we’ve all read about or watched in movies or television or even been an active participant.
Keep an eye out for my gameplay videos on YouTube as I unravel the mystery.
Welcome to LittleWatt Gameplay. I'll be reviewing No Man’s Sky in this post. The review will be several categories with a 0-10 rating in each category. The numbers will be tallied up at the end for the overall rating.
My how my feelings have changed from my initial thoughts post to this review. But first a little about the game. No Man’s Sky was developed by Hello Games, a small indie group from the UK. It's a single player exploration and survival game based in a procedurally generated universe where our own solar system doesn't appear.
FunFactor: This is the hardest category for me to rate. I hate to say this game isn't fun. But at the same time I can't say this game is barrels of fun, either. No Man’s Sky is a game with a limited audience. That being said, I'm not convinced anyone but severely hardcore fans will find this game overly fun. Scored 3 of 10.
ReplayFactor: Once the game’s primary goal is completed, which is apparently reaching the center of the universe or galaxy (something that isn't quite clear even though the two aren't synonymous with each other), I would be hard pressed to say the game is replay-able. The mundane, and often arduous, tasks would forfeit any desire to start over and try it again. I would be surprised if even the hardcore fans would start again. Scored 1 of 10.
StoryFactor: Well there isn't much story. The game allows you to learn other languages but that isn't really what I would consider story. This game is completely about an individual exploring planets and moons and mining necessary consumables to survive. Even the alien interactions are solely for the purpose of reaching a goal. Scored 1 of 10.
Imagery Factor: Now this is where the game shines. Although much of the imagery in the game is the same, regardless of what planet you're on, the images never get too old. During my gameplay, I found the images amazing even though they were rather cartoonish. I found myself fascinated by the color schemes, the blues were amazing, the greens were lively, and the images of each planet’s atmospheres were inspiring. No matter how gloomy the planet was, if you found a cave filled with colors, you felt immediately warmed. Scored 6 of 10.
Overall Factor: The score here won't be great. That isn't to say the game is as bad as the score, though. I tried to base each score only on its respective merits, and in doing so, the cumulative result will mark the game much lower than it really is. I do believe there will be a special group of consumers who find the game breathtakingly amazing. And for those people this review will be blasphemy. But I'm not writing this review to please any one person or groups of people. Scored 2.75 of 10.
Last Minute Gripes: The game lacks any kind of real action. Sure there are moments you have to blast some predators or angry drones. And at times fighting off pirates is a must. Maybe even engaging in a full space battle is an option, but it's relatively limited. The opening to the game was incredibly long and drawn out, and this alone could have easily turned players off the game. That's not to say other games don't have long openings, but the opening to No Man’s Sky just felt excessive. Maybe it's because you are so alone, which is kinda the point. The game aims for you to feel small and insignificant, and for that it does a magnificent job. Unfortunately for me that vast emptiness was more than I could tolerate and I've shelved the game. But since it does make you feel small so well, I'm going to give the game rating two extra bonus points. Score it 4.75 of 10.
Welcome to LittleWatt Gameplay. Several weeks ago I was asked what game I had played that with the best story. I believe my response was something to similar to “I don’t know that I have ever played a game with a story or storyline. I mean where is the story in Madden Football or Gran Turismo? There isn’t one. And I suppose games like Metal Gear Solid and Tomb Raider 1, 2, 3, had some story to it but not much. And I’m certain Resistance: Fall of Man had a story but I wasn’t interested in doing anything in that game other than shoot the chimera and get to the end.
I recently finished DOOM (the 2016 release) and found it had a fairly decent story in it even if it was easily glossed over or dismissed altogether. The story had to be read, which easily slowed the game down from its balls-to-the-wall gameplay. Who wants to slow down to read anyway? It would be easy for me to argue DOOM had the best story in any game I’ve ever played.
But that isn’t true anymore. Although, I’ve put several hours into Dying Light, I’m still only fifteen percent finished with the game. Now I’m not certain if all the side missions are included in the game completion percentage, and if they aren’t, then the game will move along quickly as I’ve only done a few main story missions. Compare that to seven or eight side missions or quests. Hell, I’ve even done a scene for a movie with some film director whose camera I tracked down during a side mission. And I have to say splattering forty zombies with a double barrel shotgun in under two minutes (I think) was great fun (I had forty-four seconds remaining).
Even though all that zombie killing is great fun, and gets even better once the player levels up and the weapons can be modified into serious zombie destroying tools, the story behind the game is equally good. There are some real-life politics and stereotyping in the game. Some high drama and backstabbing. And the commentary of the main character is wonderfully clever and witty. And the thing is, all the quests or side-missions are key into unravelling the entire story.
Initially, I found the controls to be complicated and not well thought out. But I was also coming off hours and hours of DOOM where all the controls had become second nature, and they were also fairly standard controls. But now that I’ve put more hours into Dying Light the controls are easily to handle and don’t feel nearly as cumbersome. (And with the acquisition with the grappling hook everything thing has become just a bit easier—you’ll need to be survivor level twelve to receive the grappling hook.)
During the night missions, stealth plays a major factor in succeeding. Again with the grappling hook night missions will become far easier. During my first night mission, I was killed in short order but have successfully survived the night four times without even being noticed. Still, the stress level goes up quite a bit during the night, armed with the massively destructive double-barrel shotgun or not. (All those hours spent looting, accomplishing side missions, stealing airdrops from thieves, unlocking all the safe houses,and killing zombies will level you up quick enough to get specialty weapons. But you can craft one of the best weapons in the game right away—the Molotov cocktails. These bottles of flaming liquid will dispatch nearly all enemies, and multiple enemies, with little to no effort. One Molotov is good for a least six dead zombies all at once so long as they are grouped together. Nothing works as efficiently.
Dying Light is a must play game for anyone interested in first-person, zombie, horror, or survival games. And it has a wonderful story to boot.
