Video Game Design
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Amnesia: The Bunker’s central narrative is unintrusive, developed in a mostly unconventional fashion – discoverable documents dispersed throughout the game world, though environmental storytelling also has a prominent presence; formal cutscenes and protracted exposition sequences are absent, with roughly one in five of the documents featuring voice acting, which is mostly executed excellently, while the
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Far Cry New Dawn’s central narrative is a mostly grounded and human affair, revolving around the struggles of Hope County, Montana’s various citizens in the wake of the catastrophic occurrence which terminated Far Cry 5’s narrative. Some years have passed – the world is changed, though oppressors persist, in this instance a pair of corrupt
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The video game landscape upon Assassin’s Creed’s release in 2007 was vastly detached from the video game landscape of today, and this difference is especially applicable to the open-world genre, which has now ascended to a position of dominance. The genre was indeed thriving in 2007, though the great potentials attached to the genre were
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Amnesia Rebirth’s narrative is a nonsensical, muddled mess, rarely engaging, excessively abstract, poorly and lazily presented – after an immensely promising start, there is a rapid and constant descent into dull incoherence – very few are the positive attributes. The existence of this promising opening, meanwhile, only makes more frustrating that painful descent. Regarding this
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Trine’s central narrative is abounding in charm and whimsicality, though suffering from a relative dearth of originality – foundationally, it is simplistic, firmly adhering to the tropes of the fantasy genre, being a “fairy tale” of sorts. But life and humor are injected throughout, the narrative unfolding (predictably?) within a fallen kingdom, once renowned for
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Shadow of the Tomb Raider’s central narrative structure is largely devoid of any originality, the primary narrative motivation being a painfully overused one – the world is on the verge of destruction, threatened by an ancient force which, if not vanquished, spells doom for all. Responsibility for the world’s saving necessarily falls upon the shoulders
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The FPS genre is amongst the most popular genres of the present moment, countless titles releasing each year, though more than other genres, development of first-person shooters is largely dominated by larger, AAA studios; small indie studios mostly reject the genre, preferring instead to develop more artistic, creative experiences; a notable rift is in place.
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Being mere DLC, it follows that Far Cry 4: Valley of the Yetis is defined by restrained ambitions, though these lesser aspirations do not result in a dearth of enjoyability – far from it. The gameplay systems underpinning the base game were foundationally sound, excellent, so it follows that the systems here are sound and
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Video game studios develop sequels for a plurality of reasons, most commonplace being narrative continuance and gameplay refinement, though numerically the latter often eclipses the former; direct sequels, where one player character persists as player character throughout, where that player character’s narrative is directly continued from title to title: these instances are fairly minimized, frustrating
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The hastiness with which open world games have ascended to industry dominance is compelling and profound indeed. A much acclaimed, pioneer of the genre – Grand Theft Auto III – released little over a scant two decades ago, its release considered as a watershed moment for the industry, the release advancing that selfsame industry; Rockstar’s
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Far Cry 4’s technically and artistically beautiful open world of Kyrat is constantly in a state of motion, the game world teeming with life. This bustling nature directly enhances the joys of exploration, which constitutes a considerable portion of the overall gameplay experience. The ample animal presence is amongst the greatest communicators of this life;
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Firewatch’s narrative is a fairly straightforward construction, centering around the relocation of the player character, Henry, who leaves home and settles in a vast Wyoming wilderness preserve, desirous of escaping from the outside world with all its oppressions, hostilities, heartbreak. And Henry has long known heartbreak – consider the flagging mental state of his wife,
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The central environments explored in Psycho Krieg and the Fantastic Fustercluck are oftentimes impossibly beautiful – and frequently very bizarre. Each individual map is brimming with Gearbox’s characteristic creativity, honed over many years now and nearly perfected. The imagination on display here is indeed remarkable, though this DLC is characterized by quite radical departures regarding
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Far Cry 4’s sprawling open-world environment of Kyrat, a state nestled in the bosom of the vast Himalayas, is impossibly beautiful, sharply clinging to reality though injecting life and creativity into that realism, with vibrant coloration and a pervasive sense of crispness. Startingly, arresting coloration abounds; oranges have a prominent presence, as do azures, the
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The stealth genre by nature is brimming with opportunity for great player engagement, primed to evoke an experience characterized largely by tension, the genre benefitting greatly from its oftentimes slower, more plodding pace relative to other popular genres, like the FPS genre or third-person shooters. Those games mostly embrace the bombastic; stealth games have the
Games With Grey 