05 Dec 2007
So I may not have found my game about zombie defense, but there are no shortage of movies on the subject. I completely stumbled upon Fido by chance last night. Nothing about the title or cover caught my eye, and honestly I would have skipped it entirely if it hadn’t been on Xbox Live Marketplace when I was too lazy to go to the video store down the block. The preview totally won me over.
Fido can kind of be described as Dawn of the Dead meets Pleasantville. Or maybe as an extension of the resolution of Shaun of the Dead. Or as a macabre Lassie. Anyway, the concept is brilliant and the movie sports some of the funniest lines I’ve heard in a long time. It’s kind of a one-note, but that particular note doesn’t wear out before the movie’s over. If you find zombies in the least part amusing you should check out Fido.
But beware old people - they are not to be trusted.
29 Nov 2007
So I recently ran into this little Flash zombie game called The Last Stand. Zombie games are plentiful, but this one is interesting in its focus on zombie defense with light RPG elements. Each night you defend yourself against the zombie horde, and each day you decide how to split your time between repairing the barricade, searching for other survivors, and looking for weapons.
The dormant game designer in me really wants to take some of the ideas from that game to the next level. While I enjoyed The Last Stand, sitting behind a barricade madly clicking at impeding zombies does eventually get old. Fundamentally zombies just don’t make very dynamic enemies. You’ve got to add something else to spice things up. Thankfully zombies are a common topic, so we can look at some high profile games and think about what they did to keep our lumbering friends entertaining.
Dead Rising is filled with traditional zombies. They mill about slowly and don’t pose much of a threat if you’re paying attention. The tension in the game comes from the sheer number of zombies, the scarcity of weapons, and other survivors who have turned homicidal. The zombies are more of an environmental hazard than a direct threat. Dead Rising has a survival mode, which on paper could be exactly what I’m looking for. Unfortunately success involves gathering up food, finding a good hiding place, and watching the clock count down before you need to make another food run. The zombies will never disturb you in your high perch, so really 90% of the gameplay is waiting. Success is only achieved by being completely risk averse, and I’m pretty sure Burnout taught us years ago that risk = fun.
Half-Life has a lot to teach us here, both from a perspective of zombie variety and entertaining defensive gameplay. The basic zombies here are easily manageable, but their agents, the jumping screeching headcrabs, demand that you keep on your toes. Your foolproof tactic of waiting it out from high ground could work against the basic slow zombies, but not when there are headcrabs crawling out of the ducts and fast zombies crawling up the pipes. Half-life has also demonstrated that defending your turf can be extremely engaging (the turrets in Nova Prospekt, the standoff in the Antlion cave, and the epic Strider assault from Episode Two). It’s a shame Gordon’s never had to hold it out against a zombie onslaught (the closest would be the elevator sequence from Episode One, which isn’t as epic as what I’m thinking of).
And of course we can’t forget the “fungal zombie” that is Halo’s Flood. These guys leap more than they shamble, and have maintained the ability to use firearms. Paired with the humanoid zombies are swarmy parasites that require you keep an eye on as-yet-uninfected corpses. In addition to all this, Halo 3 added Flood that can change form to prevent you from playing too defensively. The strategy of fighting the Flood never gets as layered as what you get from some of Half-life’s set pieces, but the moment to moment combat is always top notch.
As we can see, two of the greatest shooters of all time have stooped to using the zombie cliché. They’ve mixed things up as much as possible, but you’re still basically just shotgunning down shambling masses on your way from point A to point B. And don’t get me wrong, that’s still fun. But would a more strategic zombie game work with survivors to rescue, barricades to maintain, traps to set up, and resources to secure? Well, you tell me, but I sure think so.
05 Nov 2007
I’ve already pumped a ton of time into The Orange Box and I still feel like I’ve barely scratched the surface. I started out with Portal, which is a little slice of gaming perfection. I then moved on to play Half-Life 2 for my third time (yes, it’s that good), but for my first time on a console and my first time with achievements (Ravenholm with only the gravity gun = good times). I’ve only cracked open Team Fortress 2 for one round but it was a total blast. I’m big supporter of renting these days, but really no one with a 360 should be without The Orange Box.
More of a good thing is still a good thing, and with Guitar Hero all I really need are more songs. Thankfully Guitar Hero III delivers a quality set list. Sure they’ve added multiplayer and that crazy battle thing, but that’s not really what’ll sustain me. I’m looking to Rock Band to evolve the experience, but in the meantime I’m content with more of the same from GH3.
Really, who hasn’t been playing Halo 3? As awesome as Halo’s multiplayer is, I’m a member of the “singleplayer first” crowd, so right out of the gate I holed to play through the Chief’s latest rumble in the jungle. I was not disappointed, as that Halo’s level design seems to have caught up with the excellent gameplay. I’ve been squeezing in some multiplayer as well whenever I’ve had the opportunity, but there are so many games on my plate right now that it’s hard to justify prioritizing another round of Slayer over other games. There’s no rush, because we all know that Halo 3 multiplayer will be rocking until the End of Time.
I spoke awhile ago about potentially putting down WoW and trying out LotRO. But I never proceeded to mention that I actually followed through. You heard me - I successfully broke free of WoW. You could say that I didn’t quit, I just changed cigarette brands; but I haven’t really been playing LotRO much at all, so it’s more like switching to a nicotine patch instead. Don’t get me wrong - LotRO is a very capable MMO and has a leg up on WoW in some ways. I like that they planned for varying group sizes (and even have solo instances). I like the ongoing epic quests. I love those moments when you connect to the book (like getting lost in the Old Forest, or climbing Weathertop). I love the deed system (i.e. MMO achievements). But although the game is technically more powerful it ends up feeling rough around the edges. The UI is unintuitive and clunky in a lot of places, and the art direction overall just isn’t as good. It’s still fun, but I have a hard time deciding if I’m not playing much because of some flaw or if I’m just burned out on MMOs in general.
I’d probably be raving about Metroid all over the place right now if there weren’t so many other great games also keeping me busy. Halo and the Orange Box came along and totally derailed my ongoing Metroid campaign. I’m hoping to get back to it now that I have some more free time, because what I’ve played so far has been great. The control scheme works really well, the action is great, and the environments are gorgeous. What more can you ask for from a Metroid title?
I think this one’s destined to gather some dust for awhile given that GH3 is commanding my attention right now. But as a rental or a budget title Rocks the 80’s is better than the bad press it got. There are some fun songs in there, just don’t pay full price for this one.
Puzzle Quest
I heard that the DS version of this game wasn’t quite as good as the widescreen version on the PSP, so I decided to wait until it hit Xbox Live Arcade so I could try the trial for free. Little did I know what I was missing all these months. Puzzle Quest is freaking brilliant. It takes the short term game from a puzzle game like Bejeweled and combines it with the long term structure of your average RPG. The result is an RPG that is fun all of the time, not just in the abstract. RPG elements have been tacked onto many other genres before in order to give them longer appeal, but this particular blend comes off really well.
Castlevania: Portrait of Ruin
Taking a little vacation a couple of weeks ago gave me enough plane time to sit down with the latest Castlevania. I’ve had a hard time getting into it because it is so similar to its predecessor. More of the same gameplay wise isn’t necessarily a bad thing, but recycled art sure is. You don’t want people to feel like they’re playing the exact same game. And that’s what it feels like, except the characters and script are even more obnoxious. But hey, you gotta pass time on the bus somehow.
Final Fantasy VI
I’ve had some frustration with the modern RPG lately, so I just had to go back and play one of the classics to cleanse my palate. I’m still a little burned out after WoW, and I’ve had to whore out my bus time to work for the past couple months, so I’ve been proceeding slowly. But FF6 really is as charming as ever.