Fuck this game. I wanted to enjoy this game, I wanted to like it but every time I do something fucking stupid shows up and drags on way too long to be remotely enjoyable. I commend them for trying different things in the game but when it fucking sucks, it really fucking sucks. Alright what is Owlboy? Its an indie sidescrolling platformer that spent the last decade in development. Literally a decade to develop. The graphics are great, the characters are likable and the gameplay is decent in some parts. However, underneath its pretty exterior is a frustrating mess. I have never wanted to throw my controller at the screen harder than playing this game. Not even Persona 3 or Dark Souls or anything challenging. This game is frustrating because it feels like I'm either fighting with the controls or something boring just drags on way too long like the fucking stealth sections.
The unique part of Owlboy as a platformer is you have the ability to fly. Flying hides the terrible controls somewhat until you get to sections where you cannot fly. Most of the game is spent navigating through dungeons/ruins solving puzzles and killing monsters along the way. Pick up a rock, drop the rock here, grab a cloud and have it pour water here, then kill monster and use it as a bomb blah blah blah. This is fun, its a great game if it was just that. Then suddenly you'll get to a part where the screen goes dark and you "cannot fly because they have poor vision but can hear the sound of your wings flapping." Yet I can run around jumping on rocks or slamming onto the floor as hard as possible. You have to sneak past them and since the jump and fly button are both A, you will constantly accidentally fly and instant game over. Getting to close is a game over. This goes on and on and on. Luckily that part was short. Then you get to other parts where you accidentally set off a swarm of gnats in the darkness and you have to survive by lighting up torches and grabbing lantern monsters. As soon as you touch the darkness you instantly die. Then theres the pirate base where you have to stealth past pirates. If you get seen the door locks and they shoot bombs and you die. Then later in the game theres another pirate base where you have to stealth, then even later you have to stealth through a pirate ship. And so on and so on. LIKE IS THERE ENOUGH OF STEALTHING? Its not fun, its clunky and with the shitty controls makes it a huge core than anything challenging.
Then there are the gladiator rooms. I don't know what they're called but you will constantly enter a room both doors will close then waves upon waves of enemies will spawn and you have to survive. Getting hit in this game will send you flying across the room and stick onto a wall. If you get hit, its fairly easy to get chain hit and you can do nothing but die. So you're fighting swarms and swarms of enemies and then eventually you'll get hit somehow and then get swarmed and die. You need to be flying to summon your allies to shoot at them. Yes you don't actually get to fight you need the power of your allies to do it for you. That is interesting in a way but when you do get hit you are separated from your ally and have to grab him again. Imagine a game where you are hit and you drop your sword or gun and have to pick it up before you can fight again. Sometimes in regular exploration mode I get too lazy to fight monsters and just fly past them but they will keep following you to the next screen and soon I find myself being chased by 50 bees and then swarmed to death. You don't have that much health in the game and getting hit a couple of times usually means a game over so gladiator rooms are just a room of pure luck. Are you standing in the right spot when the monster spawns? Did it spawn on you? Well too bad try again.
Bosses are underwhelming. Theres usually a chase scene before or after bosses where you have to constantly run from a big bad thing or lava or water or whatever thats coming. Messing up once is death. I surprisingly haven't died once in these sections. Its hectic but it doesn't feel too annoying to do. Bosses all have a set pattern and once you learn it it is fairly easy to do. The thing is, for all the bosses, they are immune to all damage so you just have to sit there and take it until it suddenly stops shooting. Use the cannon from an enemy ship to shoot a rock to have it land on them, dodge swords until the guy charges a wall and gets stunned then shoot him, have the guy punch a wall to get his arm stuck then shoot him. Its unrewarding to spend 90% of the time just running until you can run up close to hit him once and after like 3 hits the boss is dead. Whats the point of giving me a gun and upgrades and all that shit if I'm not going to be using it? Look at something like Axiom Verge, you're running around with guns blazing shooting giant bosses. Those felt rewarding to fight when you finally win. This feels like you're a punching bag. You don't even get to kill the bosses as most of them end up being used by the pirates and are actually good people underneath it all. You never kill anyone because murder is wrong! Except the part where you go around murdering all those monsters, and monkeys and the monkey king probably died too after you flood the room with lava. You might be going, yeah but monsters and monkeys and prinnys aren't human. Neither are you, you're a fucking owl.
Then the worst part reveals itself near the end where you go into space and cannot fly anymore. This whole section has no monsters, no puzzles, just hours of platforming fun. OH JOY. This part you'll realize how bad the controls are. You are trying to do a jump when you'll accidentally flap and end up crashing to your death. Want to jump from the chandelier to the door? Oh we've made sure you have to stand at the very edge and leap and click fly at your highest point then glide towards the door. Any less will have you crashing into the ground below. Oh its an autoscroller now? We'll make the rocks spawn as slow as possible so you have to click fly and stay in the air as long as possible and one fuck up will end up costing you the entire thing. Even if it looks like you made it if you jump too early you'll eventually die a slow agonizing death. Which fucking masochist came up with this shit. This isn't fucking remotely enjoyable to do. I love sidescrolling platformers. Its my favorite genre of game but this is fucking infuriating to play. I cannot stress how bad the flying and jumping are in this game. You will constantly fuck up and randomly start flying when you are doing a long jump and crash to your death. If its just a few sections thats alright but this drags on too fucking long. In fact most of the game drags on for too fucking long. Too much instant death, too much stealth, too much platforming with bad controls, too much of shitty stuff.
The really sad part of this game was that its fun to play. Its an enjoyable game ridden with frustrating parts. The puzzle solving is fun, the exploration is enjoyable, and some of the bosses even put up a challenge and the storytelling is great. The characters are likable, they have their flaws, and they have growth to them. One thing I can't help but notice though is that everyone is male. Everyone you talk to, everyone you meet and fight are male. The only women you meet in this game are the two captured soldiers in the pirate base and the mad scientist. And those show up for a total of like 5 seconds. The game is very story driven and its really quite interesting to learn about the world. Its honestly a fun game. However all of that is just completely overshadowed by the horrible experiences in certain sections of the game. Was the game enjoyable for me? After that last platforming section, no. I can hardly remember the fun I was having with the game after that section. I would play it once for the story but I'll never in a million years want to touch it again. If I want a good platformer that I can go back and play over and over again then I'll just play something like Castlevania SOTN, Axiom Verge or even Valdis Story. I'll even reply Shantae: Half-Genie Hero over this.
Monday, January 23, 2017
Wednesday, January 18, 2017
Shantae: Half Genie Hero - Hip Shaking Transformations
I've never heard of the Shantae series, and I'm sure most people haven't. It started off as an indie game by a husband and wife team on the Gameboy Color but releasing it when the Gameboy Advance was already out hurt its sales. Nevertheless it had great reviews and gained a small following. The next game came out on the DS and once again received great reviews. By the time the third game came out on 3DS and WiiU it already reached cult classic status. It wasn't the most popular but enough people wanted a sequel and the fourth one was funded through kickstarter and they passed it by a huge margin. I recently learned of it from AGDQ as people were talking about speed running the game. I saw that people on my steam list has been playing it but never bothered to look into it because it seemed pretty anime. Its anime, but it has charm.
Half genie hero is the forth of the series and is probably the one most people will start with since its the only one to come to PC. Because of this, half genie hero is a soft reboot of the series and does not follow the plot of the first three games. What is the plot you say? Is there even a plot? Well, you start off as Shantae, a half-genie hero. Genies used to live in the world and protected it and eventually fell in love with humans. However bad stuff happened and they all left the world to return to the genie realm so they can focus their powers on protecting the world. They left behind their children, the half-genies and each one becomes a guardian of a town. Thats where you come in, the guardian of Scuttle Town. You must go around beating up bad guys and saving the world with the power of love and friendship. Before you groan and puke, it's a light hearted game with a lot of charm. The characters are likable and the humor is passable. But the greatest strength of the game would be the graphics and the music. The graphics are bright and colourful and the enemies and NPCs you meet are charming. From small pirate grunts and starfish to giant worm monsters and mermaid girls. Everything looks cheerful and cute. The music is catchy and I sometimes end up humming along with the level. I especially enjoy the music in Mermaid Falls. The main theme of Shantae has actual singing too.
The game plays like a side scroller, although not a very complex one. You start off with 2 hearts, each one represents 4 health. It may seem challenging at first, but later on you'll find so many extra hearts that everything does trivial damage. Your attacks consist of hair whipping enemies and it can be upgraded to deal more damage and whip faster. As well as learning magic like shooting fireballs or spinning swords. Thats not all though, the best part of the game is the dances. Early on it will tell you to shake those hips and when you do you can get up to 12 different dances at once. Using a monkey dance will transform Shantae into a monkey that can hop high and climb walls. Crab dance will transform her into a crab that can swim in the water. Elephant dance will transform into an elephant that can break weak walls and floors. There are many forms and each one will allow Shantae into previously blocked off areas in earlier stages for secrets. There is one issue though, if secrets are required are they still considered secrets? For example every time you finish a chapter you will get a new dance, then your uncle will tell you to collect an item for his invention which requires you to help several people by trading item to item and each of the items needed will be from a secret area. I can't help but feel its made as padding for the game.
The game itself is very short, consisting of 5 stages and one extra final stage with no secrets. Like really? This is it? Even when I searched though everything and collected every secret I still managed to beat the game in 5 hours of playtime. The game length really hurt. Luckily, on kickstarter some of the stretch goals included extra characters. Unfortunately, most of the stretch goals were set way too high. It was originally supposed to come with 3 chapters but two were added in as stretch goals. Only 3 chapters? Are they serious? Either way, the extra character's chapter isn't out yet so I can't comment on it. The stages are quite varied with each stage having its own gimmick. However, some stages contains parts which are much too frustrating. There is are too many pitfalls or instant death on stages with no or far apart checkpoints. Its not very bad that you die, however its very bad that whenever you die you have to fade to black into a loading screen then start again. Bosses have pretty predictable patterns and each stage contains one or two bosses. They do have a lot of health so its just poke poke poke until it gets defeated eventually. Defeated, not killed because this is a game of love and friendship. They aren't really that much of bad guys and they come back later, reformed in a way, and you help them out. Except the real villain, the evil pirate Risky Boots, and even she can turn around and become reformed.
Is the game fun? Very. I would recommend this to anyone who likes platformers and isn't turned away by this style of game. It has the old school feel to the game and really makes you feel like a kid all over again. The game is a little easy however and quite short so if 5 hour of gameplay isn't for you, I would wait on a sale. If anything, wait for the other character to be added in first to see if you want to jump into the game.
Half genie hero is the forth of the series and is probably the one most people will start with since its the only one to come to PC. Because of this, half genie hero is a soft reboot of the series and does not follow the plot of the first three games. What is the plot you say? Is there even a plot? Well, you start off as Shantae, a half-genie hero. Genies used to live in the world and protected it and eventually fell in love with humans. However bad stuff happened and they all left the world to return to the genie realm so they can focus their powers on protecting the world. They left behind their children, the half-genies and each one becomes a guardian of a town. Thats where you come in, the guardian of Scuttle Town. You must go around beating up bad guys and saving the world with the power of love and friendship. Before you groan and puke, it's a light hearted game with a lot of charm. The characters are likable and the humor is passable. But the greatest strength of the game would be the graphics and the music. The graphics are bright and colourful and the enemies and NPCs you meet are charming. From small pirate grunts and starfish to giant worm monsters and mermaid girls. Everything looks cheerful and cute. The music is catchy and I sometimes end up humming along with the level. I especially enjoy the music in Mermaid Falls. The main theme of Shantae has actual singing too.
The game plays like a side scroller, although not a very complex one. You start off with 2 hearts, each one represents 4 health. It may seem challenging at first, but later on you'll find so many extra hearts that everything does trivial damage. Your attacks consist of hair whipping enemies and it can be upgraded to deal more damage and whip faster. As well as learning magic like shooting fireballs or spinning swords. Thats not all though, the best part of the game is the dances. Early on it will tell you to shake those hips and when you do you can get up to 12 different dances at once. Using a monkey dance will transform Shantae into a monkey that can hop high and climb walls. Crab dance will transform her into a crab that can swim in the water. Elephant dance will transform into an elephant that can break weak walls and floors. There are many forms and each one will allow Shantae into previously blocked off areas in earlier stages for secrets. There is one issue though, if secrets are required are they still considered secrets? For example every time you finish a chapter you will get a new dance, then your uncle will tell you to collect an item for his invention which requires you to help several people by trading item to item and each of the items needed will be from a secret area. I can't help but feel its made as padding for the game.
The game itself is very short, consisting of 5 stages and one extra final stage with no secrets. Like really? This is it? Even when I searched though everything and collected every secret I still managed to beat the game in 5 hours of playtime. The game length really hurt. Luckily, on kickstarter some of the stretch goals included extra characters. Unfortunately, most of the stretch goals were set way too high. It was originally supposed to come with 3 chapters but two were added in as stretch goals. Only 3 chapters? Are they serious? Either way, the extra character's chapter isn't out yet so I can't comment on it. The stages are quite varied with each stage having its own gimmick. However, some stages contains parts which are much too frustrating. There is are too many pitfalls or instant death on stages with no or far apart checkpoints. Its not very bad that you die, however its very bad that whenever you die you have to fade to black into a loading screen then start again. Bosses have pretty predictable patterns and each stage contains one or two bosses. They do have a lot of health so its just poke poke poke until it gets defeated eventually. Defeated, not killed because this is a game of love and friendship. They aren't really that much of bad guys and they come back later, reformed in a way, and you help them out. Except the real villain, the evil pirate Risky Boots, and even she can turn around and become reformed.
Is the game fun? Very. I would recommend this to anyone who likes platformers and isn't turned away by this style of game. It has the old school feel to the game and really makes you feel like a kid all over again. The game is a little easy however and quite short so if 5 hour of gameplay isn't for you, I would wait on a sale. If anything, wait for the other character to be added in first to see if you want to jump into the game.
Monday, January 9, 2017
This War of Mine - Eating raw rats
Alright, when I first heard of this game I automatically assumed it would be another one of those war games where you play as the hero and go around shooting everything and glorifying war. Then I found out it was some kind of survival game where you actually play as the civilians during war time. I completely overlooked this game until now and wow was I wrong about how much fun it was. This is a survival game where you need to build a shelter, find food/materials/weapons, barter, help others, rob others, murder others, and a whole lot more to do. I went into the game blind and this is pretty much how my first game went.
I installed the game, then the DLC, the little ones, which included children. Clicking play put me into the shoes of the father Christo and his daughter Iskra. The first day Christo and Iskra found an abandoned house and Christo went around digging through rubble with his hands and looting through everything he could find. Iskra being the child that she is, was unable to help and spent the entire day playing hopscotch. Occasionally she'll try and get the attention of Christo but he was too busy digging. Using the materials he found he started building a workshop, then a metal workshop then eventually from those ended up making a crowbar and shovel. This helped break through the rest of the rubble and locked doors of the house. They found food and had enough materials for beds. At night Christo had the option to scavenge and leave poor little Iskra all alone. They were low on food, if he didn't scavenge then they would surely starve. He picked the abandoned shopping mall where he ended up seeing a group of looters. They were open to share what they find but being nervous around armed men Christo looted whatever he could find and bolted home only to find that raiders had come and ransacked the shelter stealing all their food.
Iskra ran over crying when Christo came home in the morning asking why he wasn't there to help her. He had no choice was what he wanted to say but he could do nothing but apologize. They needed more protection. Christo spent the morning sleeping only to be awoken by a friendly neighbor. He wanted to give the two wood since he saw them move in recently and we should all help and rely on each other. Christo accepted it and spent the wood on boarding up the open walls of the house. Surely raiders wouldn't attack right? Even though they were out of food, Christo spent the night standing guard but no raiders showed up. They were desperate, Iskra has been complaining about being hungry. Just then two neighbors showed up bringing a batch of vegetables. They were a gift and Christo graciously accepted it. The two of them will dine like kings tonight. However, Christo still needed to scavenge but he can't possibly leave Iskra alone. That night Christo went scavenging again, this time at an abandoned house. He managed to loot everything from the fridge which contained many cans of food. Great, they can survive for a few days with these. He quickly headed home to find the night was quiet and Iskra was safe.
That next morning a knock came at the door and a girl calling herself Arica begged to join the group. She was a girl from the hood, a cat burglar at the age of 14 and her abusive alcoholic father died during the war and she survived up to now all alone. Christo gladly invited her in. They needed someone to scavenge the night and Arica would be perfect. Iskra ran up and introduced herself. She asked if Arica would stay forever and she only replied with a generic response. She doesn't know how long she would stay. Each night could be her last and if the group was out of food, then she had no reason to stay with a sinking ship. That night Arica went scavenging and came back with the most food they had. She proudly proclaimed her loot as she walked in the door only to find a sad Iskra. That night raiders had attacked again, they stole the food and injured Christo who was guarding the house, as well as Iskra who was sleeping in the bed. This calls for war. Christo spent the rest of the day making knives. The next few days would be the same routine with Arica scavenging and Christo guarding the house. Only problem now is Arica scavenged most of the abandoned areas and they are out of food again. Raiders have attacked again, stealing the rest of their food and injuring Christo again. This leaves them only one reasonable choice. They would have to steal from others. Arica armed with a knife went to the home of an old couple as soon as she entered the two ran in fear. Arica walked calmly up to them and pluged her knife deep into the old man. His wife ran and screamed begging for mercy but there would have to be no witnesses. With a second plunge of the knife, Arica killed the old woman too. She looted everything in the house and returned home broken.
Arica was depressed, Christo came to comfort her saying she had no choice, she did what had to be done and he wasn't going to judge her. Iskra sensed something wrong but no one would tell her what happened that night. She ended up becoming sad. Luckily for them, that morning a sick man calling himself Marin showed up. He was a handyman and needed a place to stay. The party agreed to help him and let him inside. The group gave him some of his medicine and he spent the rest of the day sleeping. The next few days would have neighbors come over and beg for medicine for their sick mother. They had extra so they gave them some. However there was an outbreak of violence, raids became a nightly occurrence and they were losing their food. Arica decided to steal again, but this time a group of thugs. She had quiet sneaking so she could make it in and out without much trouble. But when she fell down from a open floor making a loud thud, she knew she was done for. The thugs ganged up on her and shot her twice killing her instantly. She was gunned down like a dog. Marin was sad but it was up to him to do what Arica couldn't. They crafted some guns for defense and Marin went back for revenge. He gunned them down but his mood was awful. The raids didn't stop and winter was coming. They were out of food, out heating, and Marin needed to go out again. He didn't come back that night as he was gunned down at the next house. The two remaining survivors didn't live through the winter. The End.
This was how I died? Really? I fucked up pretty hard there. I went to start a new game and I realized, It randomly picked one for me since I had the little ones DLC. Kids were useless, they can't defend, they can't scavenge, they can't use tools to help around the house. All they did was eat your food and get sick. I could start another story with other premade group of characters, or start my own custom story with custom characters. But what about Iskra? She was depending on us, she needed us to protect her and we failed as adults. Not wanting to give up I picked the same story but this time I have a better understanding on what to do. Obviously I would board up the house early this time with weapons. Raids caused a snowball effect and I couldn't get myself back on track after the first couple of raids. Next I built a rain catcher and a rat catcher. These two will give me food. This time woman called Zlata joined the group and I had her scavenge. I chose not to rob, not to kill but early on found a soldier coming onto a girl a little too hard. I hid behind a door and watched as he beat her and started dragging her away to rape her. Well I'm not going to stand here and do nothing. Snuck up killed him and stole his assault rifle. This will stop anyone from attacking our shelter. Soon a man named Roman showed up, he was an ex gang member and would gladly go on missions to murder thugs and rescue others. The group applauded for what he was doing. He was saving lives and psychopathic killer thugs brought nothing but harm for the war torn neighborhood. Eventually winter came and I had to set up two heaters just to keep warm and was nowhere close to dying. My food storage was always full, no one managed to raid us with our guns and Roman would dispatch all the thugs and have Zlata come in to scavenge with her bigger inventory. Arica ended up joning us 3 days before the war was over and the war ended with the good ending and everyone going their merry ways.
Iskra ended up going to school again and being normal, Christo was reunited with his wife, Zlata went back to Canada and continued music school, Roman ended up becoming good, and a leader of his community, Arica decided to give her father a funeral and ended up starting her own family. The End. That ended much nicer than the first try but it almost felt too easy once I knew what to do the second time around. People, events, locations are all randomized each run but I don't know how much replayability there is for something like this. If survival or stealth is your thing I would at least check this out.
I installed the game, then the DLC, the little ones, which included children. Clicking play put me into the shoes of the father Christo and his daughter Iskra. The first day Christo and Iskra found an abandoned house and Christo went around digging through rubble with his hands and looting through everything he could find. Iskra being the child that she is, was unable to help and spent the entire day playing hopscotch. Occasionally she'll try and get the attention of Christo but he was too busy digging. Using the materials he found he started building a workshop, then a metal workshop then eventually from those ended up making a crowbar and shovel. This helped break through the rest of the rubble and locked doors of the house. They found food and had enough materials for beds. At night Christo had the option to scavenge and leave poor little Iskra all alone. They were low on food, if he didn't scavenge then they would surely starve. He picked the abandoned shopping mall where he ended up seeing a group of looters. They were open to share what they find but being nervous around armed men Christo looted whatever he could find and bolted home only to find that raiders had come and ransacked the shelter stealing all their food.
Iskra ran over crying when Christo came home in the morning asking why he wasn't there to help her. He had no choice was what he wanted to say but he could do nothing but apologize. They needed more protection. Christo spent the morning sleeping only to be awoken by a friendly neighbor. He wanted to give the two wood since he saw them move in recently and we should all help and rely on each other. Christo accepted it and spent the wood on boarding up the open walls of the house. Surely raiders wouldn't attack right? Even though they were out of food, Christo spent the night standing guard but no raiders showed up. They were desperate, Iskra has been complaining about being hungry. Just then two neighbors showed up bringing a batch of vegetables. They were a gift and Christo graciously accepted it. The two of them will dine like kings tonight. However, Christo still needed to scavenge but he can't possibly leave Iskra alone. That night Christo went scavenging again, this time at an abandoned house. He managed to loot everything from the fridge which contained many cans of food. Great, they can survive for a few days with these. He quickly headed home to find the night was quiet and Iskra was safe.
That next morning a knock came at the door and a girl calling herself Arica begged to join the group. She was a girl from the hood, a cat burglar at the age of 14 and her abusive alcoholic father died during the war and she survived up to now all alone. Christo gladly invited her in. They needed someone to scavenge the night and Arica would be perfect. Iskra ran up and introduced herself. She asked if Arica would stay forever and she only replied with a generic response. She doesn't know how long she would stay. Each night could be her last and if the group was out of food, then she had no reason to stay with a sinking ship. That night Arica went scavenging and came back with the most food they had. She proudly proclaimed her loot as she walked in the door only to find a sad Iskra. That night raiders had attacked again, they stole the food and injured Christo who was guarding the house, as well as Iskra who was sleeping in the bed. This calls for war. Christo spent the rest of the day making knives. The next few days would be the same routine with Arica scavenging and Christo guarding the house. Only problem now is Arica scavenged most of the abandoned areas and they are out of food again. Raiders have attacked again, stealing the rest of their food and injuring Christo again. This leaves them only one reasonable choice. They would have to steal from others. Arica armed with a knife went to the home of an old couple as soon as she entered the two ran in fear. Arica walked calmly up to them and pluged her knife deep into the old man. His wife ran and screamed begging for mercy but there would have to be no witnesses. With a second plunge of the knife, Arica killed the old woman too. She looted everything in the house and returned home broken.
Arica was depressed, Christo came to comfort her saying she had no choice, she did what had to be done and he wasn't going to judge her. Iskra sensed something wrong but no one would tell her what happened that night. She ended up becoming sad. Luckily for them, that morning a sick man calling himself Marin showed up. He was a handyman and needed a place to stay. The party agreed to help him and let him inside. The group gave him some of his medicine and he spent the rest of the day sleeping. The next few days would have neighbors come over and beg for medicine for their sick mother. They had extra so they gave them some. However there was an outbreak of violence, raids became a nightly occurrence and they were losing their food. Arica decided to steal again, but this time a group of thugs. She had quiet sneaking so she could make it in and out without much trouble. But when she fell down from a open floor making a loud thud, she knew she was done for. The thugs ganged up on her and shot her twice killing her instantly. She was gunned down like a dog. Marin was sad but it was up to him to do what Arica couldn't. They crafted some guns for defense and Marin went back for revenge. He gunned them down but his mood was awful. The raids didn't stop and winter was coming. They were out of food, out heating, and Marin needed to go out again. He didn't come back that night as he was gunned down at the next house. The two remaining survivors didn't live through the winter. The End.
This was how I died? Really? I fucked up pretty hard there. I went to start a new game and I realized, It randomly picked one for me since I had the little ones DLC. Kids were useless, they can't defend, they can't scavenge, they can't use tools to help around the house. All they did was eat your food and get sick. I could start another story with other premade group of characters, or start my own custom story with custom characters. But what about Iskra? She was depending on us, she needed us to protect her and we failed as adults. Not wanting to give up I picked the same story but this time I have a better understanding on what to do. Obviously I would board up the house early this time with weapons. Raids caused a snowball effect and I couldn't get myself back on track after the first couple of raids. Next I built a rain catcher and a rat catcher. These two will give me food. This time woman called Zlata joined the group and I had her scavenge. I chose not to rob, not to kill but early on found a soldier coming onto a girl a little too hard. I hid behind a door and watched as he beat her and started dragging her away to rape her. Well I'm not going to stand here and do nothing. Snuck up killed him and stole his assault rifle. This will stop anyone from attacking our shelter. Soon a man named Roman showed up, he was an ex gang member and would gladly go on missions to murder thugs and rescue others. The group applauded for what he was doing. He was saving lives and psychopathic killer thugs brought nothing but harm for the war torn neighborhood. Eventually winter came and I had to set up two heaters just to keep warm and was nowhere close to dying. My food storage was always full, no one managed to raid us with our guns and Roman would dispatch all the thugs and have Zlata come in to scavenge with her bigger inventory. Arica ended up joning us 3 days before the war was over and the war ended with the good ending and everyone going their merry ways.
Iskra ended up going to school again and being normal, Christo was reunited with his wife, Zlata went back to Canada and continued music school, Roman ended up becoming good, and a leader of his community, Arica decided to give her father a funeral and ended up starting her own family. The End. That ended much nicer than the first try but it almost felt too easy once I knew what to do the second time around. People, events, locations are all randomized each run but I don't know how much replayability there is for something like this. If survival or stealth is your thing I would at least check this out.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
