Revisiting Dishonored

After watching some of Noclip's excellent documents about Arkane Studios games my interest towards them has been awaken so I decided to replay Dishonored, which I completed years ago. But now it feels like a whole different experience.

I wrote a review of Dishonored in 2015 in which I praised the level design and graphics, said some nasty thing about A.I. and about how sneaking is sometimes impossible, and kept comparing it to Half-Life 2 - maybe too much. In general I remember enjoying the game but at the same time I didn't gave it a chance as its own entity - for years Dishonored was just an attempt to copy Half-Life 2's atmosphere.

Comparing Dunwall to City 17

Yes, Dishonored reminds a lot of Half-Life 2. Especially Dunwall as a place is very close to City 17 with its colour schemes, weird technical roadblocks and miserable citizens, but at the same time it's very much its own thing. Dunwall is more open and allows different paths - you can go up, down, and everywhere between. That's not what's really going on City 17 which is more linear which works great in the context of Half-Life 2 but wouldn't work in Dishonored. And that's why now years later when I'm sneaking around the streets of Dunwall it feels so great. 

There's a lot of replayability going on, and you can attempt the levels again and again in different ways. That was something I didn't understand back in the day when I just run straight to the target. I didn't care as much about alternative ways to complete the missions, I just wanted to rush through the game. That's probably why I thought it was too short. Now that I'm trying to approach my targets from different ways and at the same time I'm trying to complete all of the side quests and find all the hidden stuff game feels so much better. Sure, it's still short but I've understand that there's no rush - I can keep exploring the levels if I want or tease the guards in different ways. And that's fun!

Little stories make all the difference

I don't have anything new to say about games story as I'm still in the middle of it, but at least it's coherent. Maybe not the most interesting one, but game like this doesn't need one - it's better to have clear objectives than Rick And Morty styled story with too much going on. But now I've come to realize what's the most interesting part of the game story wise - it's the citizens you meet along the way. Like in Half-Life 2, many of them have their own little stories and problems, and helping them or just listening gives a lot depth to the world. I love the dark and dystopian setting of Dishonored, and using the heart to learn more about people you meet on your adventures is one of my favourite game mechanics ever in any game.

Living game world

And finally, about darkness and dystopias. I love how Dishonored's world reacts to your action. This once again was a thing that I did not appreciate on my first playthrough, but now after learning more about Arkane's games it's a huge deal for me. The fact that Dunwall becomes more plagued or in the other hand not because of what you have done and who you have killed makes your own playthrough special - you're not just going through a story, you're making it as you go as well.

And that's it. I'm happy that I decided to play this game again. It's fun, it's dark and it makes me appreciate game development even more.

Going Through My Old Steam Reviews (Part 2)

Back in the day I used to write these short and silly reviews on Steam - now after several years I'm going through them and taking a look at what kind of weird things I've said. Don't forget to check out Part 1!

"Funny online shooter with many flying red pixels (I guess I was trying to describe blood?). Recommended for playing with netbooks in school... I mean recess." Do you guys still remember netbooks? I use to have this blue toy-looking Dell which was my first own computer. It began my game making journey as well my more active gaming journey - I played old games like first Counter-Strike on it!

About CS though, it was never my favourite one to play. It was already old, kinda ugly (but in a good way) and player base was already established. For me this game was an interesting relic of the 90s.

Let's continue to the next Counter-Strike game. ''One of the best online shooters ever, especially with mods." To this day CSS is, at least for me, the online shooter. As you can see, I haven't played it so much but still it holds a special place in my heart. It led me to skins and the Source modding community, which for me was probably the most interesting part of the whole Source engine based games. The things you can do with in some ways very limited options is inspiring.

For me the latest Counter-Strike, Global Offensive, is the one I have played the most but it never captured the same magic as CSS. 

"This is how RTS should be done: fast-paced action, destroyable environments and different enemies. DoW II has no dull moments; you need to keep your eyes glued on the monitor so you're own soldiers die, because without your brothers you're in trouble." Poetic. I don't really remember much of Dawn of War games - I think I enjoyed more of their artwork and atmosphere than the gameplay itself. I'm not even big fan of RTS genre in general, but maybe I should give these games another try? Though Animal Crossing is enough excitement and micro managing for me nowadays.

"Worst part of HL2 trilogy. There's something missing in Episode 1 that made HL2 so good. It's also way too short for a full priced game: four hours! But it's still great." To be honest, I don't know what I'm talking about. Full priced game? Was Episode 1 never sold at 40-60 euros price or something like that? 

In fact it was not. According to all-knowing Wikipedia, it was sold in Steam at discounted price and in retail stores as a part of different Valve-themed collections. So that's it then. I guess I was angry that there were not yet a closure to the HL2 story (oh, how the years fly!) because in retrospective I've learned that though Episode 1 is not the best it has some interesting stuff going on A.I. wise. I really need to replay Half-Life games. All of them.

"Game that leaves too many questions open. Waiting for the sequel..." This pains me. 

As I look back, I realize that I haven't really appreciated how great game Episode 2 is. In many ways it was the best Half-Life related game in story, environment and mechanics wise but I guess it's legacy is to be ''that game that left us waiting.'' 

I need to get my hands on VR kit and try out Half-Life: Alyx. It's one of the few games released recent years that really excites me.

Let's end this part with an another Dawn of War game. "An example of how you include an epic story to RTS." You know what? I don't remember anything about Dawn of War II: Chaos Rising. Like anything. Even looking at the box didn't woke any forgotten memories. But I guess it was good? At least I though so nine years ago.

And that's all for Part 2. Part 3 will be out - hopefully - in October, so stay tuned!

Metro: Last Light Redux on Switch Is Too Dark

I love Dmitry Glukhovsky's Metro books. They're dark, atmospheric and perfect apocalypse-horror in any way. And the fact that the 4A Games' Metro 2033 game, which is based on these books, is such a masterpiece makes just happy. It brings me pure happiness.

I remember starting to play the sequel Metro: Last Light on PC, but for one reason or another I never finished. So, when I saw that the redux version of Last Light were available for the Switch AND it was on a sale, I had to get it. And it's stunning. The graphics are something unbelievable for the Switch. And as the books, it's dark. But not in a good way, not in a story-wise way. The game itself is dark. Too dark. There's something weird going on with lightning that makes parts of the Last Light unplayable, because you just can't see anything. Setting brightness on my TV helped a little bit, but when playing in the handheld mode, it's still too dark as Switch really doesn't offer any kind of graphic settings. And the game itself doesn't have any real video related setting, like contrast, which is kind of weird.

I decided to find out what's going on.

It seems that I'm not only one with this problem, Last Light is too dark to play, especially in handheld mode. According to this Reddit post many others have experienced this too, and though some claim that adjusting Switch's brightness settings help, that's not case for the most. Old-school fix seems to be to throw a blanket over yourself and Switch. Some people seem to enjoy the difficulty and survival aspect this darkness brings (or then they haven't even played the game on Switch) but this seems to be minority. One Reddit user even went to say that ''use your lighter and flashlight - you’re in the Moscow Underground, dude!" which even being true doesn't really help as this game is pretty hard - you can't shoot and use your lighter at the same time, and sneaking in the darkness is hard as you hit the walls all of the time.

Though some people have said that the game runs well and is fun, there's still some reports of lag and even crashes - I have never in my life had any Switch game crash while playing, so that's interesting. Darkstation in their review don't recommend you to play in handheld mode as the issues with loading times and especially with lighting are pretty noticeable. 

For me one fix was while playing on TV just adjust TV's own settings, like adding brightness and adjusting contrast, though this also is just a temporary fix - game is almost playable, but there are still some moments, especially if you play in the daylight, where game is too dark. And this doesn't help situation with the handheld mode at all, as expected. It's so weird that this game has no gamma setting or anything like that. Maybe I'm just so used to the options that are norm on PC...

It's disappointing. I don't know what the developers were thinking - it's like they didn't even try the game on Switch. I really expected much because surprisingly Last Light runs well and looks absolutely stunning on Switch, but the darkness makes it just unplayable. I guess I'll need to finish it on PC. 

*Sigh.*

By the way, there is Metro Redux on Switch tech review video made by Digital Foundry on Youtube which you should check out if you're interested in game tech. I need to take a loot at it myself when I got time and maybe then I'll return to this topic. Maybe. This is not a promise. I just wanted to get this irritating problem out of my chest.

Curse of Seasons

Seasons. Every modern multiplayer game seems to have them, and why not? It’s a great way to keep player occupied and make them come back every day to get those special unlocks and join once-in-a-lifetime events and then get them interested in the next season. But at the same time this temporality drives away players like me, who just want to jump in from time to time and play few games. But as you don't have those fancy grinded hats or outfits it almost feels like you're an outcast. At the same time it's fantastic to have something to reward players who invest their time on specific game, but maybe it could be (still) done like in old Call of Duty games instead? You play when you want, everything is available for you even if you're finding the game years after it's launch and there's no rush or need to be active all the time. 

But then again, I play mostly multiplayer shooters from the mid-2000's when the whole game industry in general was very different. For example, if you wanted some flashy skins for your Counter-Strike characters you went to sites like Gamebanana and installed them yourself. Of course others were not able to see those skins, but it didn't matter. Point was to made your personal experience truly yours. 

Maybe it's not really seasons that I'm mad about. Maybe it's skins. If you think about it, for example Team Fortress 2 is pretty silly game with silly graphics, but it wasn't until the hat invasion that the game's art direction kinda melted away and became this mess it is nowadays. On the other hand we have games like Overwatch in which skins are more in line with the general art style. And both of these games don't even have seasons - most of the time things you unlock or buy won't effect the gameplay.

I normally start playing multiplayer games years after they've been released, when the hype has died and in the worst case players have already left (poor Brink). So maybe after all there's nothing wrong with the concept of season for your target audience, but for players like me: those who want to be able to do and unlock everything on their own pace rather than following the trends. 

Then again, it's hard to keep players focused on your game when there's so much else to play, so the seasonal concept works well for that as Fortnite and other such games have proven.

Oh, I still remember when Fortnite was just a ''little'' PVE that no-one knew about...

To conclude this babbling, I'd say that seasons are cool and stuff, but I personally rather have games where mostly only seasonal events are Halloween or Christmas themed. But that's me, and you probably have your own preferences. Let's remember that the most important thing is to enjoy the games you play.