‘Oh…Sir!! The Insult Simulator’ is a little game of verbal jousting about ridiculous things like a dead parrot and a first-class seat on the train. Just these scenarios alone set the tone for the game, and it only gets sillier once the arguments begin. This game’s title may evoke memories of Insult Sword Fighting from ‘The Secret of Monkey Island’, but the game plays nothing like that. While Insult Sword Fighting is about slinging insults and comebacks back and forth in a series of repartees, ‘TIS’ plays more like a card game with open hands, with each player trying to build a hand with the most points. So, don’t expect the same level of wit and type of gameplay. In ‘TIS’, each verbal jouster takes turns choosing words from a common pool to compose an insult. Each jouster can also draw or swap for 2 new words or sentence fragments in each round. Additional points are awarded – that is more damage is dealt – if the insult ends up hitting your opponent’s sore spot (e.g. mocking their age), follows a theme to set up combos, and are particularly rude. Since both jousters can see what words are up for grabs, as well as their opponent’s and their own sore spots, there is some strategizing involved when composing insults. That’s why ‘TIS’ is more like an open-handed card game with words, and can be rather fun. Yet, with the selection of words to choose from being (somewhat) randomized, not all insults being slung end up sharp, witty, or even make sense. With that and the faux-old-timey-Britishness of the whole affair, the game is more silly than funny or witty. With just 5 scenarios to argue over, the novelty of composing and slinging insults can quickly wear thin after a couple of hours. Yet, there’s more fun and even challenge to be had if you’re into unlocking hidden characters and achievements. At its price point, ‘TIS’ is a hard game to resist, especially if you’re into juvenile insults, or feels like arguing with and insulting a caricature over a cup of tea.
I bought ‘Flashback: 25th Anniversary’ because I never got past the first level when I played the original PC game in the 1990s. Being older and a bit wiser now, I’m determined to finish it. But, I’m no fool – the game was hard back then and it’ll still be hard over 25 years later, perhaps more so with my slower reaction time due to old age. Thankfully, ‘F25’ presents the game in either Classic mode or Modern mode. The Rewind feature in Modern mode allows me to rewind time up to 2 minutes before the point I died in the game. It saves me the headache of restarting the level, as save points are far and few in between. Rewind makes ‘F25’ more accessible to contemporary audience, and to gamers who are older (yet less tenacious and/or inexperienced with the original game) like me. Aside from Rewind, ‘F25’ doesn’t have other major upgrades to contemporize the game. Filters like CRT and Noise & Static are gimmicky; antialiasing and bloom only add tiny visual improvement. The developers didn’t even try remastering the graphics properly. They just used a Post-FX filter, resulting in graphics that are less defined, less detailed, and frankly unappealing. ‘F25’ doesn’t even allow you to remap your keys. The original keyboard control configuration was already not optimal, and even more so right now. With SHIFT being used for firing, Sticky Keys in Windows gets activated a lot. So, I end up playing ‘F25’ with a game controller much to my chagrin. Yet, the controls remain janky and slow, and are still not ideal for combat situations. Claiming to be a celebration of ‘Flashback’, there’re no retrospectives or production notes from the original developer. You can hear the remastered soundtrack, and unlock ‘Flashback’ street art (yes, unlock) as a bonus for some reason. So, yay?! Honestly, ‘F25’ feels like a lazy remaster or update. Whether you liked the original or not, I think you’d agree that it deserves better.
Everything about ‘Coffee Talk’ – like the soft colour palette, the gameplay, the lo-fi soundtrack, the gentle story – radiates a relaxing atmosphere. This visual novel with puzzles is set in an alternate reality, in which “the great war between races is but a footnote in history.” By that, it means fictional creatures like elves, orcs, werewolves and nekimimi coexist with humans. It’s the ideal game to play when you’re stressed. It’s clear from the start that ‘Coffee Times’ is an allegory of modern times, but it’s hardly political. It doesn’t go deep into themes like race, sexuality and parenthood that drive its story arcs. Whether that’s good or bad will depend on your views. For what it’s worth, I found the story about the star-crossed lovers, one of whom is an elf and the other a succubus, to be most interesting. Although this game has you listening to your customers’ problems and serving them drinks to alleviate their woes, it moves at your pace. Story Mode doesn’t impose any time pressure as you prepare beverages, and you can save your game anywhere. As a result, there’s very little need to backtrack, unless you’ve really messed up your drink orders. The game’s puzzles involve making correct drinks for your customers. The beverages you prepare will have varying degree of warmth, cool, sweetness and bitterness. You’ll have to combine the ingredients in such a way to create drinks with the requested flavour profiles. Some combinations will even produce real-life specialty beverages! If Story Mode of ‘Coffee Talk’ is too soothing for you, you can try the Challenge Mode, in which you have to create beverages to your customers’ specifications within time limit. You can always play the Endless Mode to experiment with different combination of ingredients to unlock recipes. With game modes of varying degree of intensity and challenges, ‘Coffee Talk’ aims to please a broad spectrum of gamers. I think it succeeds in doing so, making it very easy for me to recommend.
The biggest failing of ‘A New Beginning’ is the story. As someone who cares about the impact of climate change on our environment, I feel the game’s story fails to articulate the intricacies of climate science, and the strengths and weaknesses of various energy sources. By presenting complex environmental issues as black-and-white, it actually deters civil discussion and education about these topics. In ‘ANB’, the shortcomings of traditional energy sources and of nuclear energy are personified by a single evil character, while the wonders of unproven eco-friendly energy by our earnest heroes. By branding the non-eco-friendly energy sources as evil, the developers weren’t presenting these complicated issues fairly. The way the developers depicted the villain was so over the top that it’s hard to take their views and their game seriously. It wasn’t enough for them to criticize nuclear power, but they had to put the power plant in the rainforest so show how evil he is! But if you sabotage the plant to get people to care about the environment, then you’re a martyr for a noble cause. It almost seems like ‘ANB’ implicitly condones eco-terrorism. To them, you're either for or against a clean environment. It’s ironic then that our heroes built their cyanobacteria farm on an oil rig (likely powered by a traditional energy source), and travelled using fossil fuel vehicles. They’re judgmental hypocrites who are no better than the villain. The preachy story and unlikeable main characters make ‘ANB’ hard to like. Some puzzles in ‘ANB’ have farfetched solutions. For a game to be the “final cut”, it’s certainly not polished. It crashed during the prologue cutscene, English text in the action menu occasionally appeared as French or Russian, and there're plenty of spelling mistakes. While I think games can be a great way to inform the masses of environmental concerns, it needs to be done with fairness and diplomacy. ‘ANB’ is simply too extreme to be the one to do it.
‘Uplink’ is a strategy game, in which you have complete cyber infiltration and manipulation contracts while managing your time, computer resources, and finances. I find the game repetitive, as you take on restricted types of contracts in each rank. While this is great for familiarizing yourself with the game’s mechanics and earning money for better equipment, it’s not very fun. ‘Uplink’ is also unforgiving. If you made a mistake and allowed a hack be traced back to you, even if it happened early in the game, it’ll come back to haunt you. At best you’ll be fined, at worst you’ll be disavowed and have to start the game all over again. I found myself disavowed at one point, but not recalling when I was ever caught. It’s hard to learn from your mistake when you don’t know or remember where you went wrong. Since the game only has one save slot, you can’t even resume playing from where you made an error. So in striving for realism by having you restart from the very beginning upon failing, the game ends up being repetitive, frustrating, and not that fun. Can you imagine yourself playing other strategy games in single-player mode (e.g. ‘Civilization’) and having only one save slot at your disposal? The vanilla version of ‘Uplink’ (2001) didn’t age well. The user interface is clunky and not user-friendly on modern high-resolution monitors. Yet, after installing the Uplink OS mod (last updated in 2017), I find the game much easier to navigate. While the aesthetic has been upgraded, the core gameplay remains unchanged, for better or worse. As someone whose first introduction to hacking simulation games was ‘Hacknet’, I find ‘Uplink’ sluggish and not all that exciting. Still, I think this game is a good introduction to PC hacking sims. So at around a dollar, it’s worth a try with the Uplink OS mod installed; but remember to check out other better hacking games afterwards. (1/5 for vanilla version; 2/5 with Uplink OS mod installed)
I went into ‘Ken Follett’s The Pillars of the Earth’ without having heard of the books, of which the game is an adaptation, or the TV miniseries of the same name. Because I had no pre-conceived notions about the material, my opinion about this game may differ greatly from those who were familiar with Follett’s work. I really enjoyed ‘Pillars’. It’s a narrative-centric adventure game, telling an epic tale of ambition, vengeance, loss, perseverance, redemption and faith. While I can’t comment on its faithfulness to the source material, I do find the game’s story to be engaging. It’s slow to start, but I soon found myself emotionally invested in the three playable main characters. Although the first two chapters are quite solemn, the overall story has a nice balance of hope and despair. The choices that you’re asked to make are also tests of your ambition, perseverance, and faith. With that, it’s no wonder I found that ‘Pillars’ so engrossing. Of course, with this game being an adaptation, there’s bound to be details and nuances missing. Although the major characters are well fleshed out over the 21 chapters, the supporting characters end up being one-dimensional, with one really got shortchanged in the end. With ‘Pillars’ focusing on story, there’re no traditional puzzles solve like in classic Sierra and LucasArts games. You simply make choices in conversation and actions, with your decisions affecting how certain parts of the story unfold to some degree down the road. The game wastes no time in setting its portentous mood. Its opening sequence is one of the best designed in recent memory, and conveys a sense of grandeur that the game manages to live up to. It’s a lengthy journey that may be slow to start, but delivers excitement and strong emotions soon after. By the end I wished there would be more, but I was very satisfied by the narrative I just experienced. Because of that, I highly recommend ‘Pillars’ to anyone who love great stories in their games.
I went into ‘Virginia’ thinking that it’d be a traditional adventure game, in which I’d be solving a mystery as an FBI agent. I was wrong. Yet, if I had read the reactions of people who had played it, I’d have hesitated in trying it at best, and spoiled the ending for myself at worst. I was glad I went into ‘Virginia’ knowing as little about it as possible. ‘Virginia’ is a walking simulator, a genre that has gained traction in recent years due to a few notable titles. I’ve played a few of them, namely ‘The Stanley Parable’, ‘The Vanishing of Ethan Carter’ and ‘Firewatch’. Of these, I’d say ‘Virginia’ is the one that I had the least agency over. Whereas you could make choices in ‘Stanley’, solve puzzles in ‘Ethan Carter’, and freely explore in ‘Firewatch’, you’re pretty much along for the ride in ‘Virginia’. What sets ‘Virginia’ apart from other walking sims I’ve played is the editing. The game plays like a movie you’d watch, but from first-person perspective. While you have the illusion of having places to investigate, evidence to find, and a case to solve, you just have to interact with hotspots in a pre-determined order to move the linear story along. Thankfully it’s a good story, but one that gets more ambiguous and confusing near the end. The ending of ‘Virginia’ is divisive, and it’ll make you wonder about everything you’d have just experienced. The greatest strengths of ‘Virginia’ are its story and soundtrack. The story is told without using dialogue, and right off the bat, the developers managed to convey so much with just simple animations and actions. The music by Lyndon Holland set the mood so effectively that I was never in doubt of my character’s mindset. He deservedly won a BAFTA Award for his work. ‘Virginia’ is not a typical game, walking simulator, or interactive drama. In just shy of 2 hours, it managed to get me thinking about its potential social commentary, and the meaning of its ending. Check it out if you get the chance to.
‘Crimes & Punishments’ is the Sherlock Holmes game that I’ve been looking for. Everything I dislike about the previous game in the series has been fixed here. No contrived puzzles. No illogical puzzle designs that are unconnected to the reality of the game. No surprising reveals of Holmesian insight that players are not privy to, despite their playing as Holmes himself. ‘C&P’ is a well-made game with game mechanics that were well-devised and implemented. ‘C&P’ is a collection of 6 cases. The stories are solid, and the mysteries are diverse. The game really involves you in solving the cases, though it does nudge you to move in certain directions at times. You’ll need to observe your surroundings to gather clues, examine and analyze evidence, profile persons of interest, interrogate suspects and catch them in lies, play some mini-games and solve some puzzles that are organic to the game’s stories and settings, as well as make deductions. Deduction is the best part of ‘C&P’. Your thought processes are represented by connected neurons. Connections are made and altered as you deduce various aspects of each case. This is culminated with you making a final deduction to determine the culprit, and deciding whether to condemn or absolve him/her. Depending on how you’ve drawn your conclusion, each case can have multiple outcomes. ‘C&P’ doesn’t tell you whether or not you’ve made the correct or most moral decisions, so you can replay the cases should you come to regret your verdicts. The graphics still look fantastic over 5 years after its release. The character models are so well done and realistic, especially during close-ups, that I often tried to figure out the actors after whom the characters were modelled. The only major flaw that distracted me greatly were some flickering textures, like window drapes, foliage, papers, and even Toby the hound! Aside from that, I have very little to object about ‘C&P’. I highly recommend it to anyone who loves detective games.
It’s very rare for games about solving a mystery to allow you go about it without giving you any help. ‘Return of the Obra Dinn’ is such game; it expects you to put in some real (brain) work. If you do, you’ll find the game not only challenging, but also empowering and rewarding. Aside from a brief tutorial on how to use your log book and supernatural pocket watch, ‘Obra Dinn’ doesn’t hold your hand. As you come across corpses and witness final minutes of the victims, you’ll unlock opportunities to explore various parts of the ship. You’ll need to rely on your observation and deduction skills to identify the victims, their causes of death, or reasons for their absence. There’ll be a few instances in which you’ll need to make educated guesses. The story of ‘Obra Dinn’ is also full of surprises, and is told asynchronously as you uncover more clues. Aside from a few snippets of dialogues, the story is told visually and musically. This style of storytelling adds to the mystery, making the first-person exploration very engaging and immersive. Designer Lucas Pope did a fantastic job keeping ‘Obra Dinn’ minimalistic and focused. The game’s visual design also sets itself apart from its peers. The graphics are in 3D, but are presented in 1-bit style like the art in early Macintosh games. This presentation is homage to this art style, and is an artistic choice akin to filmmakers shooting their movies in black and white. It is effective in showing some people and locales in greater detail, helping to direct your attention to key areas during your investigation. It’s worth noting that ‘Obra Dinn’ is a game that you can only experience its magic once. The moment you've solved the mystery, that’s it. Still, the rewards of making correct conclusions and cracking the case are very gratifying. If you’re a tenacious puzzle solver and enjoy a challenge, ‘Obra Dinn’ may just be the perfect game for you. Just remember to take your time and savour every moment of it.
As someone late to the ‘Hotline Miami' hype, I was often wondering why this top-down action game that reminds me of the first ‘Grand Theft Auto’ got so much attention. So I got the game at a sale and gave it a try. Pretty soon, I was sucked into a trippy gorefest of masked assassins and gangsters. The brutality in ‘HM’ rivals that in the early ‘GTA’ games, but the game is nowhere as colourful or humourous. In fact, the art style and colour palate highlight the ugliness of the world of ‘HM’. Even with the precision of keyboard and mouse controls, ‘HM’ is challenging. Like many of your enemies, one hit from a melee weapon or a bullet is enough to kill you. The masks you earn and find throughout the game can grant you bonuses for your attacks, defense and movements. Yet in the end, it’s all about your finesse and familiarity with the game. That’s when I realized why ‘HM’ is so popular. It goads you to keep trying until you beat a level, by having you simply press R to try again. I died frequently in ‘HM’, but eventually learned the patterns of my enemies and the best masks and weapons to use. Your victories are definitely hard earned. It’s not a game you’ll breeze through – you have to get good at it. I found myself cursing at the game and at myself for failing, especially after having made much headway in a level. But the moment you finally succeed, you can feel the endorphins kick in from your achievements, despite how unpraiseworthy, brutal your actions are in the game. I get it now. Whether you can complete ‘HM’ or not, and whether or not you can get a high grade for a level doesn’t really matter. It’s the thrill of succeeding, the addictive cycle of repeated failure and brief moment of triumph, and those mindless moments of highly pixelated brutality that you commit because you’re simply told to. ‘HM’ appeals to the animal in us – I can totally understand why it got the accolades that it received.
