Still Here

I promise that I haven't forgotten this ... or my other blog for that matter. I have a lot to say and that, honestly, has been part of the problem. How to pick a subject and write? Also work has been grueling this last month and I've been ... well ... not in the best headspace.

A result of this is that I've been bouncing games a lot. Playing games I haven't played in a while, new games on game pass, games that I bought ages ago but never played. Unfortunately while I've been enjoying them, because of work and other factors I just really haven't really grabbed one as the game I want to focus on.

 So what new games have I been enjoying?

South of Midnight has been a lot of fun. A story based third person game based around some of the old southern tall tales. The game has a good feel, an interesting story, an interesting main character and world in which she finds herself. The style of the game is clay-mation based and the character design for the enemies and the mythical creatures and environments. The combat design is smooth and flowing, and the advancement feels rewarding. The environments reward exploring and the movement system feels good.

Finished this up last night and the ending wasn't quite what I had expected, but seemed fitting particularly given the focus of the game being on healing and repairing the damage of the past. If you want to take a shot at healing the trauma of a town's past, I will warn you that the story gets pretty dark in places.

Also played a bit of Eternal Strands another story driven single player game in which you become the new Point of a Weaver band that uses powerful magics woven into their shroud to explore and fight massive monsters. This is definitely a story based exploration game that I want to get back to, but I got sucked away into South of Midnight. (Odd that both of them use weaving as a magic system and came out so close to each other, but the two systems are very different and the analogy makes sense with both.) Where South of Midnight was a little platformer, a little puzzle, and some combat, Eternal Strands is more like a little exploration and a little Monster Hunter. 

I've also been playing a bit of an older game Shadow of War ... the sequel to Shadow of Mordor ... taking the great story and system of the earlier game and building on it. While Shadow of War is a great game, a lot of fun, and constant action with a good story backdrop rooted in Lord of the Rings lore (if I remember correctly both games take place in the period of time between the Hobbit and Fellowship of the Ring).

While Shadow of War is a great sequel, it suffers as so many modern games do from the idea of Games as a Service (Shadow of War originally released in Oct 2017 so while not 'new' it's new enough to have caught the 'Games as a Service' bug.) While I don't mind the concept of Games as a Service, I wish developers could realize which games benefit from it, and which are hindered by it. Some games thrive under Games as a Service, but in the case of Shadow of War it lead them to change to a loot equipment upgrade system and an online 'player stronghold siege' style of PvP that ultimately detracts from the over all game. (In my totally not humble at all opinion)

In the original game you had your equipment, which you increased in power through leveling up and completing quests to increase the 'legend' of the weapons. Only to get to Shadow of War and ... replace them. Replace the weapons that had deep meaning to the main character because he picked up a sword off an orc that had slightly better stats. I loved the Nemesis system that they designed in the original game, and it is front and center in Shadow of War as well, with the added ability to convert the Captains to fight for you against the others. Keep Sieges and taking territory, adding map control was a great thing (though even in purely PvE it is an additional thing to juggle as the Witch King will try to subvert and re-take territory as well)

Don't get me wrong, the loot aspect isn't a game killer. I just dislike it as a CHANGE ... if it had been that way in the first game I wouldn't have even batted an eye ... and the 'online' aspect of the game has minimal impact for the most part, it's just they both draw attention to the fact that it was added for the purpose of trying to get you to purchase things (upgrades to get better gear, better skills for your warlords managing your keeps and territory, better captains and warlords, etc.) in what really should have just been left as a single player story. In the end I would say the issue is less that Games as a Service harms the game, and more that it just doesn't make it a better game than it could have been without it.