Humble Choice September 2020 Review – Another Solid Month

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I’m Kinglink and it’s time to look at the Humble Choice for September 2020.

Simple rules, I played each game for at least an hour, and now I’m ready to tell you what I think. However, this month I made a small change. I randomized the order that I played the games. I often preferred games that I played earlier, so I wasn’t sure if it’s just because they were the headliners or just preferable. Either way, I’ll leave the play order in the description, but the results seem to say it didn’t change my opinions, however, I’ll probably continue to do that because I like the mixture.

And once again premium and classic subscribers get 12 games instead of ten. I’m a huge fan of that. I don’t prefer the choice, and getting all the games is a better deal. With the two bonus games we are talking about 14 games this month, so let’s get started.

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The Infectious Madness of Doctor Dekker – A solid story that tries too hard in its conclusion

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The Infectious Madness of Doctor Dekker is an FMV game where players take on the role of a psychiatrist and sees several patients.

Oddly on the first day, the player finds out that the previous psychiatrist was brutally murdered potentially by one of his patients, strange because that seems to be something that probably should have come up during the interview process.

The Infectious Madness of Doctor Dekker focuses on the player having sessions with multiple patients and through them learning about the patient’s lives and previous doctor, the titular Doctor Dekker. The core of the experience is to try to solve who murdered Doctor Dekker and try to steer the lives of the patients.

The Infectious Madness of Doctor Dekker is an FMV game and what that means is everything is a video, so similar to Her Story or Telling Lies, every response to a question will be a video. There are several actors in The Infectious Madness of Doctor Dekker, and they all do a very good job with the material. Their acting and the presentation of the responses are what drew me into the game and the story keeps me interested in finding out what would happen next.

Doctor Dekker’s patients are not typical of psychiatrists, in fact of the five initial patients, each has a unique and interesting story claiming some supernatural ability. These abilities are quite reasonable, one character claims he gets an extra hour each day, and another claims she can charm people. There’s nothing outlandish as a typical comic book superpower, but instead realistic powers that could also be forms of mental illness.

What’s interesting though is that Doctor Dekker starts this process by playing it very ambiguous with characters just presenting their problems and their initial thoughts of Doctor Dekker. Over time though the story continued and I saw more and more of .. well the madness promised by the game. The Infectious Madness of Doctor Dekker has some clever scenes that will make players wonder what they just saw. I’m quite impressed with the experience and fell in love with the game as I played.

There are a few issues with the experience. While the game pushes the idea of natural discussion between you and patients, it’s very clear that the game has very specific ideas about what you would be asking. If the patent says “I hope you’re not a psycho” You could respond “Psycho” “I’m not a psycho” “you are a Psycho” or more, and the game will take each response as if you said the keyword “Psycho”.

Your spelling will also matter and there are a few words that are a bit particular even to someone who loves the written word. The game also has a decent amount of Britishisms, such as the word lorry for a truck that comes up early in one character’s story. It’s not a huge problem, but American players will feel this game is clearly from another country from some of the phrases the characters use.

What’s interesting is that players can make a few choices along the way in their responses to players, perhaps suggesting patients push their powers to the limits or avoid using their powers. These choices appear to mostly focus on minor changes during the next day’s session, which is a bit of a shame because the actual results are underwhelming. The game uses these choices to summarize the entire story at the end, but sadly, I found these to be lacking.

At the end of the game you’re expected to have found the killer, while this is random in each game, the choice in my game was a bit obvious. She was the only killer who made sense. The experience of the randomized killer is acceptable if a bit gimmicky. From there though, the player gets follow-up videos on each character.

Much of The Infectious Madness of Doctor Dekker hinges on the ambiguous nature of the story. While all the characters may have powers beyond what we consider normal, it’s also possible some of them may have other issues masquerading as these powers, and that’s what made the story interesting for me.

The issue I have with the ending is rather than leave the story open, it tries to strip the ambiguous nature of the story away, so players feel they have a definitive ending. There are two endings per character, but neither improves the story. There’s also a generic ending for the character you’re playing and those don’t make a lot of sense.

The fact is if I was to consider the game before the finale, I’d probably give this game a 9 or even higher because the experience was so well handled and delivered, and at the end of the game I wanted more.

The problem is these finales end the experience and leaves the player with too much closer. Your story is done, there are no questions to ask. Time to go play something else.

It’s a game that probably could have been 10 minutes shorter and been a whole lot more enjoyable.

Because of the endings, I give The Infectious Madness of Doctor Dekker a

7/10

I still recommend this for fans of Visual Novels or anyone who enjoyed Her Story or Telling Lies, but I would recommend both of those games over this.

If you want more of my opinions on The Infectious Madness of Doctor Dekker, you can find that on a video I recently did comparing this game to Her Story that is available here:

Telling Lies – Exploring the sequel to Her Story

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Telling Lies is from Sam Barlow who previously made Her Story, a very popular indie game that is worthy of quite a bit of praise. Telling Lies is promised to be bigger, better, and more in-depth and it has succeeded at that.

Telling Lies focuses on David Smith, as he has moved across the country for work… ok that’s not exactly it, the problem with Telling Lies is similar to Her Story’s issue. The entire game is driven by the narrative and ultimately the discovery of that narrative is crucial to the game. There’s not a huge gameplay system or a separate puzzle, it’s about how the player discovers and learns about the story and the slow reveal of it, and thus much of the story is a spoiler.

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Her Story Design Review – Revisiting one of the best video game stories of all time

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I’m Kinglink and this week we’re talking about Her Story as well as some other FMV games including Late Shift, The Infectious Madness of Dr. Dekker, and Telling Lies.

Long time fans of the channel may realize I have a fondness for stories in video games and have enjoyed many visual novels, including Eliza, the first two Danganronpa, and more due to their stories. Yet I often feel that stories and narratives are poorly done in the video game industry, usually relying on how movies and books tell stories without considering the interactive nature of the medium.

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Magrunner: Dark Pulse – It’s like Portal but not good.

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Magrunner: Dark Pulse is a first-person puzzle game that has a gun that has two fire modes. If it sounds like I am trying to make Magrunner: Dark Pulse sound like Portal, that’s because I am. If you think that comparison is unfair, give me another paragraph.

Similar to Portal, the main player is placed in a number of tests where they have to solve the puzzle to exit the room. The game starts to move away from the test chamber progression in the second Act and ultimately has the player fighting… well in this case it appears to be Cthulhu.

So not everything is Portal here, and it is lacking some of the best parts of that comparison, having neither a charismatic villain such as Glados or a focused and humorous story, but Magrunner has clearly learned about game design from Portal as it tries very hard to imitate that formula that still remains one of the strongest puzzle games ever made.

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SUPERHOT: Mind Control Delete – This is what SUPERHOT should have been

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SUPERHOT: Mind Control Delete is the promised free DLC for SUPERHOT while also being a new release for the company and potentially a new game. 

It’s also what SUPERHOT always should have been. 

SUPERHOT was an excellent game when it came out.  SUPERHOT took a novel concept and spread it over thirty-one levels.  The story had some issues with how it was told, but the experience was enjoyable and players were able to quickly tackle levels and move on. 

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Death Stranding – A great story, but spread over too much gameplay

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“Didn’t Kinglink already post this?”  I posted a unscored youtube review but to ensure that proper reviews are entered in OpenCritic I’m doing a written review for some games, such as Death Stranding.

Death Stranding is the latest from Hideo Kojima. He’s best known for his Metal Gear Solid franchise while working at Konami. Death Stranding is the first game after leaving that series and the question is can he still deliver on the style he’s known for.

Death Stranding is two different games. There’s the gameplay which focuses on the main character, Sam Porter, delivering packages, and the story that focuses on the world of Death Stranding. I’ll be breaking this up because the game also breaks up these two topics as we’ll see.Read More »

#WarGames – What’s the most important rule of making a game?

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I normally try to review games and tell people why they should or should not be playing them. It’s mostly a subjective task and I can’t make a single review for 100 percent of the people. At least most of the time.

As for #WarGames, I can say, this review works for every single person. The fact is, #WarGames is only being mentioned here because it’s so horrendous. I wanted to take a look at a few games similar to Her Story, and about a month ago, I picked up #WarGames in a sale for 3 bucks because Sam Barlow, who is known for Her Story, also worked on it.

To me, 3 bucks isn’t that much money. If a game can keep my attention for 60 minutes, it’s done its job and 3 bucks is a fair price.

#WarGames lasted less than 10 minutes. Why? Because #WarGames is broken, and I don’t mean “I don’t like it” or “Something is wrong.” But it is flat out broken on Steam. I downloaded the game, I opened it and the main page has no episodes to play, with everything locked.

What’s worse is the developer Eko seems to have disappeared. People are saying the game is free to play on their site, which it appears to be but after spending money on it and getting a broken game, I struggle to find the desire to try again.

So what is the most important rule of making a game? Make sure it works, Eko hasn’t done that, and for that, I am forced to give it the obvious score.

1/10

It’s broken 2 years after it’s launch, there’s no reason to buy it, and while you can check it out on their website, personally… I’m over it.

Plus when trying to quickly play the game on the website, you’re now streaming video instead of playing it off your hard drive and that experience is about what you would expect. Sorry, there are better choices out there.

If you enjoyed this review and want to see more from me, including more in-depth reviews of select games, check out my youtube channel at youtube.com/c/KinglinkReviews.

Death Stranding Design Review – Showing what went wrong with MGS V by doing it again

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I’m Kinglink and this week we are going to look at Death Stranding. This was originally on the PlayStation 4, it has come to the PC and it’s time to talk about it.

Though, I do have to leave a little disclaimer here. I worked at Sony for about 6 years on MLB the Show and left Sony about two years ago. I want to be upfront about this because you should know if there’s any potential bias, but I can say I don’t believe there is. This is just for you to best judge my opinions.

There was a little overlap when I reviewed games and was working at Sony, but I chose to review Steam games to avoid any potential bias, and sure enough Sony has now come to the PC.

 

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Resident Evil 2 – Teaching people how to remake games in 2020

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Resident Evil 2 is a remake of a classic survival horror game from 1998, but fully remade and released in 2019. It’s changed from the fixed camera angles of the original to a third-person view which is more familiar to players of Resident Evil 4 and beyond.

As a remake, Resident Evil 2 had a massive legacy to live up to. Resident Evil 2 was quite beloved, and the fact is, the remake has captured much of the classic design and style while still creating an improved experience for players.

The story in Resident Evil 2 is similar to the original. Claire Redfield and Leon Kennedy arrive at the police station in Racoon City and must try to find out what’s happened and escape with their lives. Players can choose either character to start with, and both characters will have a slightly different path through the police station, though mostly it’s due to a different key being available to Claire and Leon as well as which secondary character they meet.

The combat has also been improved, with the third person over the shoulder view being preferable to the strange fixed cameras of the original game, and the less said about the tank controls of the original game the better.

However, the combat in Resident Evil 2 is not what players might expect. Zombies are aggressive and players have limited resources to engage enemies. I found on my first playthrough with Leon where I tried to shoot zombies I needed to get out of the way in the head, I was quickly running out of supplies.

This creates a more tense situation, but after checking online I found that the better solution was to shoot zombies in the leg. On the second playthrough with Claire, shooting zombies in the leg, and I was suddenly swimming in ammo by the end of that playthrough. This is something that bothers me though because it feels wrong to not teach players the right way to play your game.

If the designers wanted the leg to be a better spot to hit, that is fine. However, correcting the players’ misconceptions is important. Shooting zombies in the head is a pretty universal trope, feels like the game designers were purposefully hiding something that could have been shared. Or perhaps the leg takedowns are an unintended benefit.

Much of Resident Evil 2 is about traversing the map and trying to solve small puzzles while dealing with the horde of zombies, and in this Resident Evil 2 does well. The tension of the mounting horde is great, and the enemies who harass the player both feel dangerous, and manageable at different times, and players get the feeling there is danger around any corner because there usually is.

The bosses too are great, even if it’s mostly the same enemy attacking the player over and over. The feeling of a growing power differential between the player and the boss as it grows and becomes overwhelming is incredible and it’s a highlight of the entire game.

One of the best parts of the original Resident Evil 2 was the ability to replay the game and see the same story with the other player. This is possible in Resident Evil 2’s remake, however, I find this to be the big problem with Resident Evil 2. I played as Leon the first time through and experienced the game as it was meant to be. I was quite excited to play through the game a second time as Claire and see what has changed.

The fact is, not much has changed in the second playthrough. Claire entered through a different door, and there was a small amount of content to get to that door. As mentioned the Claire and Leon have different keys so there’s approximately ten percent of the game that Claire sees that Leon won’t, and visa versa.

The problem is for much of the rest of the game, Claire goes through very similar motions as if she was playing through the main story. Claire has to open the same doors she would and fight the same bosses.

Claire and Leon fight the same three of the same bosses in the same arenas. While both characters have different weapons, it’s not a big enough change to make it a different experience. Both characters do have a fourth boss that is unique to their playthrough and there is a final boss, at the end of the second playthrough, but having to fight the same bosses, characters, and enemy on a second playthrough doesn’t make for a better experience.

What’s worse is that Claire and Leon rarely cross over. I believe they only have three scenes where they can even see each other, and that limited amount of connection is made even weirder at the end of the adventure where they look at each other like they have made a connection. Granted they both survived through horrible circumstances, but the way the playthroughs are set up and the limited time that our characters have spent together really make this a strange system.

And I realize that Claire and Leon were both playable in the original game, but in 2019, I would expect this to be improved. Imagine if Claire saw some sign of Leon or Leon saw signs of Claire as they progressed through the game. If the second playthrough had some moments where players would remember what happened on their first playthrough, or puzzles that had already been solved instead of made harder, players might have thought fondly of their original time.

Instead, the second playthrough gimmick feels like a weak experience when it should have been one of the strongest parts of the game.

Ultimately Resident Evil 2 is a great game. It reminds people why this series was thought of as the very best in survival horror. It’s a perfect example of how to remake a game and please both fans and new players, something that other games struggle with

Though I do think that Resident Evil 7 is my favorite game in the series so far, but Resident Evil 2 is solid, if flawed.

On my arbitrary scale of arbitrariness, I’ll give this game a

7/10

It’s solid, but the second playthrough dulled the excitement of the first playthrough. I felt like I was experiencing the game on a slightly different difficulty, not seeing a second story. And I even found the second playthrough a bit easier at some points.

If you enjoyed this review and want to see more from me, including more in-depth reviews of select games, check out my youtube channel at youtube.com/c/KinglinkReviews.