PC

Puzzle Agent

July 1, 2010

PC / Reviews / by Chris Ingersoll Make a comment! / Tweet it!

Over the last several years, the team at Telltale Games have become big names in episodic adventure game content. The revitalized Sam & Max franchise (three seasons’ worth), the Strong Bad series, and the revived Tales of Monkey Island have all received much acclaim from gamers across multiple platforms. Recently, Telltale introduced a “Telltale Pilot” program; in keeping with the TV studio-like theme, this program will introduce one-shot games in the hopes of finding the next Telltale series. Nelson Tethers: Puzzle Agent is the first such “pilot”.

Borrowing heavily from the Professor Layton playbook, Puzzle Agent is a series of logic games, puzzles, and other mental distractions strung together by a wacky adventure starring the titular Agent Tethers, of the FBI’s Puzzle Investigations division. Yes, he is its sole member, and it would be lonely in his office if he weren’t so obsessed with puzzles that he doesn’t even really notice. Agent Tethers is called out on a field assignment to Scoggins, MN, home of the eraser factory that supplies the White House with its rubber correction devices. Production has shut down for some reason and it’s Nelson’s job to get things running again. Scoggins is a strange place where the inhabitants are all obsessed with puzzles, making Agent Tethers the ideal man for the job. 

There are approximately 40 puzzles in this pilot, which should take (much) less than eight hours to work through if you’re the kind of person who likes this type of thing; I burned through them all in the space of an afternoon. Each puzzle has three hints available, but in order to access a hint you need some gum (it helps Nelson think), which you can find around town. Once you correctly solve the puzzle, you are graded based on how many hints you used and how many incorrect guesses you made before finally getting it; wrong answers are penalized much harsher than using hints, so don’t be afraid to ask for help if you think you need it. After solving a puzzle it is placed in your case file where you can review it whenever you like, as well as accessing all of its hints, but you can’t change your score.

The puzzles themselves may be the main attraction, but just like with the Layton series the characters and story surrounding them are what makes the game entertaining. Scoggins has a population in the low 700s, but you’ll only encounter about  a dozen. The animation is done in a pencil sketch style based on indie cartoonist Graham Annable’s Grickle comics, and the solid voice acting is subtitled with word balloons.

Where Puzzle Agent is only a pilot episode, it’s not quite a full game. It felt like it ended too early — and in the case of my review copy, without any credits or actual ending; I’m not sure if that was intentional, given the peculiar nature of Nelson’s occupation. The Professor Layton games have around four times as many puzzles (each), which also allows for greater variety than the 40ish in Puzzle Agent; even with the overall low number of puzzles in Puzzle Agent, several are harder iterations on the same theme (again, just like with Layton) and their difficulty varies wildly. You will definitely need some scratch paper for a few of them, while others are borderline childish (the jigsaw-type puzzles in particular). But for only $10 it’s a solid enough offering for puzzle junkies (especially those without a DS), and clearly there is a deep well of potential content available for any series that might come from this pilot.

Plays like: the Professor Layton DS games

Pros: Brings Layton-style games to gamers without a DS

Cons: Only around 40 puzzles, several of which are repetitive. 

 

Plain Sight

April 21, 2010

PC / Reviews / by Eric Schabel Make a comment! / Tweet it!

Exploding robot ninjas, flaming swords, Robozilla…why oh why is this title from Beatnik Games named Plain Sight?  Personally, I would have gone with something like, oh I don’t know, Super Robo Jet Fighter Ninjas, but I guess there is something to be said for simplicity. Plain Sight is a downloadable PC game that re-imagines multiplayer ninja deathmatch gaming. Okay, so maybe it isn’t a very crowded genre, but the point is that Plain Sight looks and feels like nothing you have ever played before.  

The concept behind Plain Sight is pretty unique: you are a little robot ninja armed with a katana that must destroy other mini robot ninjas in order to build up energy. When you’ve built up enough energy, it’s time to explode, hopefully taking out as many of your enemies as possible in the process. The more energy you have stored up, the bigger the explosion.  Self destructing doesn’t just kill your foes, though—it also banks the points you have gained from taking out opponents, which you can then spend on upgrades. On the other hand, if you are killed before you can explode yourself, you gain no experience points. There are several categories that you can spend your upgrade points on, including run speed, jumping, and boost strength, among others. All of the upgrades are useful and they provide a good reason to keep on playing— the more you play, the stronger you get. Boosting is your only non-suicidal method of attack in Plain Sight; after you have locked on to a target, you simply hold down the left mouse button to charge and let go when you are in range to attack, hopefully turning your opponent into a pile of scrap metal. Sounds simple on paper, but there’s a lot that can go wrong in-game.

The first few times you play Plain Sight can be downright disorienting, thanks to the speedy gameplay and crazy variable gravity planetoid-based maps (think Super Mario Galaxy). Attacks can come from any and every direction, and you have full control of the camera at all times. In other words, players must constantly keep on the move, surveying their surroundings, in order to survive. The levels themselves all look really trippy, featuring various types of floating landscapes, with each piece of land on the map having its own gravitational field. Some of the maps are straightforward, while others are littered with planetoids and obstacles that make traversing them something of a puzzle in and of itself. Leaping and dashing through these levels is really fun and feels great once you get the hang of things.

While the main deathmatch and team deathmatch modes will undoubtedly prove to be the most popular ones in the game, there are three other modes that mix things up a bit. Capture the Flag isn’t really anything new, but “Ninja! Ninja! Ninja! Robozilla!” is a neat take on cooperative combat that has mini ninjas working together to destroy a giant player-controlled dinosaur robot with a flaming sword. Finally, “Lighten Up” is a mode that pits players in a race to gain energy and detonate themselves on top of a specific structure on the map, with the biggest explosion determining who wins the match.

Plain Sight is a fun ride, even if I do have some small issues with it. The auto-targeting cursor system, while necessary, is limited and often makes it difficult to lock on to specific players that you want to attack. Servers can support over 20 players, but I found that playing with so many other people in standard deathmatch can sometimes be an exercise in frustration, especially on the smaller maps. With so many enemies flying around, it is often impossible to evade attacks for very long, meaning it is a struggle to rack up enough points to upgrade your ninja early on in the matches. Or it could be that my robo-ninjutsu just isn’t strong enough yet. There is also a complete lack of a soundtrack in the game, other than the enjoyable menu music. Either way, Plain Sight is a fun and refreshing multiplayer title that is worth taking a look at, especially if you have grown tired of offing your foes with a gun and want to try something a little different for a change. Did I mention the game also looks damn good for an indie title?

Pros: Unique concept, fast and furious gameplay, nice visuals

Cons: The limited targeting system, no soundtrack

Plays like: Chibi-Robo meets Super Mario Galaxy with katanas…and robot dinosaurs. 

 

Tropico 3

February 28, 2010

PC / Reviews / by Justin Last Make a comment! / Tweet it!

Tropico 3 is what I always wanted SimCity to be – a game rather than a toy. It does feature a sandbox mode, but the goal-focused campaign mode really makes Tropico 3 a joy to play, and it gives me a reason to turn that church into a secret police headquarters. Objectives are varied, but they all ultimately revolve around keeping up a good economy and quelling rebellions before they begin. It doesn’t matter whether you’re courting tourists, exporting goods, or just trying to stay in power – money and governmental stability, along with intelligent city planning, will win the day.

After you select a mission to play you need to decide who you, as dictator, will be. Tropico 3 offers a big list of well-known dictators like Fidel Castro or Che Geuvara, but you can also create your own ruler. In addition to customizing your dictator’s look you’ll get to choose two positive and two negative traits. Positive traits will give you bonuses (pop star, for example, makes your relations with both the US and the USSR better) while negative traits like “pompous” will decrease your standing with various factions on the Tropico Island.

Factions are a new addition to the Tropico franchise, and it takes a skilled leader to keep them all happy (or since I’m not a skilled leader, to keep them all from staging a coup). The nationalists are happy when foreigners aren’t allowed in your land. This means you’ll need to build high schools and colleges to train advanced workers yourself instead of paying outsiders to immigrate to your little slice of paradise. The religious faction needs churches and cathedrals to be happy, and they’re not thrilled when you choose to base your secret police in their favorite place of worship. In addition to keeping factions satisfied with you, you’ll need to keep your population as a whole happy. You keep people happy by having a decent economy and an ample supply of food.

Tropico 3, when you aren’t dealing with deploying hit squads, cleaning up after hurricanes, and upgrading from shanties to apartment buildings, is beautiful – even on middle settings. Each of the 15 campaign islands has a unique look, and the whole thing looks a bit like a cartoon which fits the intended mood perfectly. Tropico 3 is not a game to be taken seriously – it’s a game to play with a smile on your face even as your government is overthrown and your reign as El Presidente draws to a premature close. The audio adds to the light-hearted mood as well. Tropico Island’s head DJ, Juanito, will regularly deliver updates on Tropico Island’s situation as well as updates on happenings all around the world. Juanito’s commentary is good, but he only has a few songs in his repertoire, and they all seem a bit too loud. This is easily fixed by turning down the music volume in the options screen, and you’ll be better able to hear the random moos and chirps from the local fauna. You’ll even hear the bell chime in that recently-built cathedral.

With its 15 campaign missions, a sandbox mode, and the ability to download scenarios created by other players Tropico 3 has no shortage of content. The tutorial is fairly bare-bones, but scenarios can always be replayed. Failure is a better teacher than text boxes anyhow. You’ll be up and running in no time ruling a tropical paradise with an iron fist. Or maybe not. It’s all up to you. 

Plays Like: Tropico, Tropico 2, SimCity

Pros: lengthy campaign, good visuals and sound, downloadable scenarios

Cons: short tutorial, music is too loud by default

 

Twin Sector

January 31, 2010

PC / Reviews / by Justin Last Make a comment! / Tweet it!

Twin Sector will seem immediately familiar to anybody that plays it. Ashley, the player character, has two powers, one blue and one orange, that she must use to traverse levels seemingly designed for no purpose other than to kill her. And the force pushing you from room to room and task to task? A sentient AI. Everything takes place in first-person, and physics puzzles are the game’s selling point. If you didn’t know better you’d think I was describing Portal. Unfortunately, Twin Sector does its best to replicate Valve’s hit game and comes up short in every regard.

The story is forgettable and serves as nothing more than an excuse to run level after level of physics puzzles. This wouldn’t be too bad if the puzzles were interesting, but OSCAR kills any sense of accomplishment by telegraphing the solution to puzzles while describing them. This turns what should be a cerebral experience into a precision one. I feel much better about completing a challenge when the point is figuring out the solution and not figuring out exactly how to implement the solution. Loose control and jumpy physics don’t help matters any. If you ever need to stack boxes on one another be prepared to try and retry what should be an exceedingly simple task.

Instead of creating a matches pair of portals, Ashley wears a matched set of glove. One attracts object while the other repulses them. This makes travel a breeze as you can just charge up the attract glove, aim at a glove, and be zipped across the room. You will spend a fair amount of time grabbing barrels and then throwing them at buttons across a chasm or grabbing crates and throwing them at turrets. Well, that’s what you’re supposed to do anyway, but aiming is made difficult by the size of the crates and how much they block your view. The crates are near-indestructible though so they make good shields so all you really need to do is grab a crate, walk in the general direction of a turret, and wait until you hear it fall over to win. 

What is truly aggravating about the whole experience is that there is a good idea underneath the sub-par gameplay and lackluster presentation. The puzzles need to be more about thought that execution. OSCAR, the AI, could have been an interesting character, but the voice acting leaves him feeling flat, uninspired, and boring. I understand that OSCAR is a computer, but SHODAN, Cortana, and GLaDOS have shown us that AI doesn’t have to mean boring. Twin Sector is the culmination of many good but poorly implemented ideas. I can’t recommend it to you, but I am eagerly awaiting the sequel because it could be great with the kinks worked out.

Pros: Interesting ideas

Cons: Doesn’t live up to its obvious inspiration (Portal)

Plays Like: Portal

 

Big Brain Wolf

January 17, 2010

PC / Reviews / by Justin Last Make a comment! / Tweet it!

Big Brain Wolf takes the adventure game, replaces inventory puzzles with logic puzzles, and places the whole thing in a fairy-tale world. The titular is studying to become a genie which makes it easy to accept the constant presence of his instructor who serves as a hint system, but before he can hope to become a wish-granted his mother is arrested for the murder of Red Riding Hood’s grandmother so proving her innocence takes priority.

Being an adventure game the way you go about attaining your goals is by clicking around on the screen to move and solve puzzles. Where you would combine your sword with fizzy root beer in Tales of Monkey Island you will place queens on a chessboard and arrange matchsticks in shapes in Big Brain Wolf. If you enjoyed Professor Layton then you’ll be right at home here.

There is no highlighting of interactable objects here which serves to make things frustrating as the cartoony graphics make it easy for objects to blend in with the background. Giving the player visual cues is never a bad thing – especially when those cues would only serve to initiate a puzzle instead of solve it for the player. Once you’ve found the puzzles, the controls work well. Mouse inputs all work intuitively, and with 60 puzzles available to you there’s plenty of content to work through. Not all puzzles are required though so it is possible to miss some by driving the plot forward. Those puzzles that you do solve are always available to be played again in the game’s central area by clicking on the genie’s lamp as well.

If a puzzle is too difficult for you there is a hint system available. You are allowed as many hints as you want, but in order to earn hints you’ll need to complete memory challenges. You’ll memorize sequences of colors, times shown on a series of clocks, and just plain committing lists of words to memory. It’s a novel idea, but if a puzzle is particularly challenging the repetition of these exercises results in frustration rather than appreciation as all you really want is to get back to the puzzle. Also similar to Professor Layton, there are three hints available per puzzle, and the first two are usually worthless so if you want any real help you’ll usually be spending three hints to get it. Puzzles do repeat a bit in theme, but the solution is either more involved or the rules are slightly different (i.e., your second Tower of Hanoi has more blocks that need to be transferred from one pole to another).

Big Brain Wolf is great for folks that enjoyed Professor Layton and want the same type of experience on the PC. The story isn’t anything to write home about, but the fairytale aesthetic and the breadth of puzzles available make it a great bet for logic puzzle fans.

Pros: good amount of puzzles, in-game hints 

Cons: No highlighting, permanently missable puzzles

Plays Like: Professor Layton and the Curious Village

 

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