Posted on: May 30, 2017
Alzool
游戏: 0 评论: 1
Of Cargo Cults and Child Baking
Richard Feynman popularized the metaphor of "cargo cults": people who know that something's wonderful and want to replicate it, but can only produce a sad and ineffectual mockery of what inspired them. The Long Journey home copies openly from Weird Worlds, Faster Than Light, Star Control II, and Starflight. At the core of each was fun gameplay. At the core of The Long Journey Home is tedium: worse itemization than WW, FTL, and SF; worse events and crew management than FTL and SF; worse combat, dialogue, and resource gathering than SC2 and SF. It's just not fun and there is no sense of adventure. In addition to the cargo-cult is the "child baking" problem (not the Hansel & Gretel sort!). Left to her own devices, a child baking will add in every ingredient he thinks is tasty, each in excess, and the outcome is inedible. The child isn't a cargo-cultist trying to replicate a cake; he thinks he can invent a new chimera-cake. TLJH haplessly mixes FTL/WW rogue-lite elements with SC2/SF narrative style, resource management, and length. This fails not only because the game is far worse than SC2/SF in narrative and FTL/WW in rogue-lite gameplay, but because they two don't bake well together. SC2/SF work precisely because exploration in those games is open, inviting, and progressive. The player has a "widening gyre" of discovery and a steady progression of power. The time investment (and grinding) of those games is rewarded by a rich, unfolding plot. And FTL/WW's randomization and challenge work because the gameplay is zippy and the story is minimal; you play to win, not to meander. In TLJH, you grind through tedious gameplay and SC2-imitiative dialogue that teases a plot that never comes, and then die at the hands of dumb luck to start again. It just doesn't work. The game is not fun; the plot is not engaging; the investment is too high; the reward is too low. Also, the $35 pricepoint is absurd, but it will be in the <$10 range in a few months given how it's selling.
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