By Christopher Money
February 2013 has been a quiet month for Steam releases; it’s been a meagre selection of indie games and a mere couple of big names, one of which has turned out to be objectively abysmal, at least going on Metacritic scores. Unfortunately, massively negative review scores do tend to sway my opinion of whether to buy a game, though I don’t read many reviews, preferring to try most games first-hand.
The game in question is the super hyped-up and therefore hilariously terrible Aliens: Colonial Marines. Supposedly a next-gen addition to the series, ACM fails to provide nearly a fraction of the suspense or atmosphere given to the ancient classic Alien Versus Predator – or to a lesser extent, its modern sequel Aliens Versus Predator (confusing as hell, I know). In fact there’s a ‘pacifist’ run already out of this new game, which consists of the player sprinting through all the linear, boring levels without shooting or killing any aliens, because they all seem to immediately forget about him as soon as he’s a few metres behind them… I’ve also read that the final boss battle takes an obscene amount of time to finish, if just because you have to keep replaying it because she keeps clipping into the level’s geometry. Thankfully, it seems to be the only significantly bad mainstream release of February.
Early in the month was DIVO, which is strangely reminiscent of the CGI kids film G-Force, in that you control a bizarrely technology-savvy hamster in a ‘cyber-ball’, rolling around pseudo-3D levels. All in all it’s a simple, timed platformer, with bright colours and flashy effects. Nothing too special.
Following up shortly after was Special Forces Team X, which, given its spectacularly bland and vague name, is not very surprisingly a mediocre team shooter in the vein of Team Fortress crossed with Gears of War.
I must admit I was initially put off by their trailer using quotes containing praise from random YouTube and Twitter commenters. Trying to go down a not quite cel-shaded route has made the ‘realistic’ character and world design actually go harder on the eyes than was probably intended. The implementation of a map generator was an interesting touch, using randomised item and level entity placement to create different layouts so no one player could learn a map and become better than their fellows. If only this system had been implemented on a game people actually played.
Following up shortly after was Special Forces Team X, which, given its spectacularly bland and vague name, is not very surprisingly a mediocre team shooter in the vein of Team Fortress crossed with Gears of War.
I must admit I was initially put off by their trailer using quotes containing praise from random YouTube and Twitter commenters. Trying to go down a not quite cel-shaded route has made the ‘realistic’ character and world design actually go harder on the eyes than was probably intended. The implementation of a map generator was an interesting touch, using randomised item and level entity placement to create different layouts so no one player could learn a map and become better than their fellows. If only this system had been implemented on a game people actually played.
On a completely different note, Bientôt l’été is a very inspired new indie game for two players – not in the usual sense of co-operation, however, but in a more limited conversational and exploration aspect. The players are to roleplay the game’s protagonists: a pair of lovers, separated by time and distance, having the same dream at the same time - one sometimes moving through the same point in space that the other had occupied only moments ago, seeing glimpses of each other’s legacy in simple changes about the world: a dropped ribbon or a game of chess half-played. Eventually the players may meet up spiritually and play a game of chess together if they happen to coincide at the right moment, issuing a delicate and heartwarming message of comfort: even when two partners are separated by a great distance, they remain as one.
The rest of February’s releases were rather slim pickings. An update to Cities XL provides another pack of the game and its expansions in a ‘Platinum’ edition. A free to play racing game, RaceRoom Racing Experience pits players against each other around the world in … well, races. Two classic bird’s eye view RPG games show up in the form of Ys I & II Chronicles, and Impire brings a new take to the classic Dungeon Keeper games, with what is mostly an update to a modern graphics engine; the gameplay remains much the same, albeit with some influences from Overlord.
What was left to come over the rest of Feb and the month of March? Well, actually they appeared to have been saving all the big releases for one clump of dates. On the 22nd we saw the release of The Bridge, a very indie, very confusing-looking, 2D puzzle platformer where all the levels seem to have been designed by M.C. Escher. Four days on there was the release of BIT.TRIP RUNNER 2, the sequel to a game that captured my heart with its frustrating perfect rhythm sequences. The fact that they’ve made a specific sequel to one of the BIT.TRIP games means the demand must have been massive. Usually a BIT.TRIP sequel means getting a new title, like CORE or BEAT. That same day, we also saw a Steam release of the console classic Brutal Legend, the apparent lovechild of Tim Schafer and Jack Black. I’m not sure which of the two I was more psyched for, honestly.
Then, moving into early March, we have the expected release of the new Tomb Raider, which, like some other recent franchise reboot games, has drawn criticism for a) taking a strong female lead and apparently reducing their inherent strength and ability to be more in keeping with ‘traditional’ sexist values (see Metroid: Other M for an example) and b) refusing to use any sort of unique identifier so that people don’t confuse it with the original polygonal Tomb Raider of 1996 (see Mortal Kombat for another example).
Then, Steam’s current listing quietens down until the close releases of Resident Evil 6 (which is, given the current trend for that franchise, likely to be pretty terrible), and Bioshock Infinite (which, for a series that went from strength to strength with the first two games, is expected to be bloody fantastic). Steam does have a habit of holding out on giving us titles for indie game releases until they’re closer to the time, though, so we’ll have to wait and see for anything else…
Then, Steam’s current listing quietens down until the close releases of Resident Evil 6 (which is, given the current trend for that franchise, likely to be pretty terrible), and Bioshock Infinite (which, for a series that went from strength to strength with the first two games, is expected to be bloody fantastic). Steam does have a habit of holding out on giving us titles for indie game releases until they’re closer to the time, though, so we’ll have to wait and see for anything else…
RSS Feed
