writhaus

Like a lot of people, I am something of a pack rat. I accumulate things that seem awesome and completely must-have at one moment, only to have those things lie around and gather dust for years before I rediscover them. This happens with books, dvds and videogames.

Knowing that I would have an ideal chance to clear off some of the things lingering on that dusty shelf with my new adventure, I loaded my computer with the games I had bought from Steam, Valve Software’s online gaming store. I had bought the complete Valve collection when Half-life 2 was released, but never played passed the boat level. With time being short, but knowing I would want to play some games, I loaded all the Source Engine powered games I had, Half-life: Source, Half-life 2 and Half Life 2: The Lost Coast. I also rebought The Longest Journey with its sequel Dreamfall at the same time.

Having nothing to do and being sick over the Christmas/New Year’s holiday combo, I started Half-life: Source. I had bought the game when it was originally released and liked it, but never played very far into it. I was immediately impressed how great the game looked, even using it’s original late-90’s textures. Things were fluid and smooth. My Vaio laptop and its Nvidia 8400 GT were wholey up to the task of running the game. The only problem I encountered was late in the game, a storm drain that was supposed to be open was locked. I hunted around desperately online and finally had to use no_clip. It was unfortunate, but didn’t mar the gaming experience for me. Overall, I rate Half-life: Source a solid 9. The game is a classic, and I am happy to see Valve treat it as such.

When I finished it, I immediately launched into Half-life 2. The game was equally smooth and at times, down right frightening. Given the modern rise of survival horror, I liked seeing Valve’s take on the genre. After playing many hours with textures from the 1990’s, it was a breath of fresh air to see everything textured in fancy moderness. Given that even now, Half-life 2 is not a new game, I was impressed with just how cutting edge it still looked.

With the sequel, Valve mixes it up a bit including a few vehicle levels. I didn’t mind them much at all since there were a great deal fewer jumping puzzles to deal with. Basically with Half-life 2, everything that was in the original only got better. I’m tempted to rate it higher than the original, but the fact that it’s a sequel takes away a smidge. I finally settled on rating it exactly the same as the original, which is about as high an honor as I can bestow upon it.

Squeezing the last bit of Half-life goodness out of my Steam account, I ran through Half-life 2: The Lost Coast. It’s mostly a tech demo, but an amazingly beautiful one at that. I enjoyed their commentary bits, and the peak inside the making of games it gave. I also liked running the test program. While The Lost Coast warned me I only had a 2ghz processor in my laptop (a Core 2 Duo T7300), the test ran at 55fps. While the game as mentioned above isn’t new, it was still nice to see that a notebook had the horsepower to run the game properly. Given it’s demo nature, I give The Lost Coast an 8. It’s pretty, short and informative.

Now all I need to do is find a Wifi hotspot so I can download Episodes 1 and 2! That’s right, I bought The Orange Box. That also means I have a copy of Half-life 2 I can gift to anyone who is interested that doesn’t mind installing Steam to get it. If you’re interested, post in the comment section. Let us know why you are deserving of something valued at dozens of dollars! We’ll make a decision in the next week or two.

Next: The Longest Journey!

The trend to make video games more like movies has brought along more baggage than perhaps game creators intended–and that’s a good thing. For many years, video games basically looked, felt, and played the same. You had your hero, you moved him through a side-scrolling maze o’ enemies and at the end of each level, you’d encounter a boss. Level maps would either scroll left or up, you had to leap over holes in the ground, and powerups would come at inopportune times. For these games (I’m thinking of Contra, Alex Kidd in Miracle World, Mario, Zelda, Bionic Commando…), the only substantial difference between them is the artwork. One is set in a fantasy world with odd and strange creatures, another is set in a different fantasy world with different odd creatures. Game creators didn’t think about aesthetic analysis or speak of their games with the same vocabulary one would use to discuss Chaucer or the films of Alfred Hitchcock. No, games were supposed to be fun, challenging at times, but entertainment none the less. These rules, however, no longer apply.

As the technology and innovation behind video games advanced, they began including cinematic sequences, more developed story lines, and allowed the player to be more creative in HOW they existed in the virtual world. Thus, games could no longer be defined by simple thematic differences but needed something more robust. Naturally, game makers began to think of their games in terms of genres, as their film counterparts had been doing for some time. Doom is horror, Call of Duty is realistic war simulation, Civilization is high-brow strategy. One could easily find films that would also fit these genres. Where games break from traditional cinema is clear to anyone: games are interactive and film is passive. This is why defining games by “genres” can only get one so far.

And then there are the games that become more than the sum of their parts. They become triumphs of a single creative idea realized with blistering clarity. You may wonder what I mean by this; simply that, films such as Rushmore, Rear Window, and Taxi Driver, take on the personality of their principle creator, so much that one can say, “yes, this is a Wes Anderson/Alfred Hitchcock/Martin Scorcese film.” As the craft of designing video games develops, naturally you have individuals that direct/impose their visions onto their games.

American McGee’s Alice is one such game. Our heroine is Alice, a deranged mental institution captive in a dark and twisted version of Alice in Wonderland setting. There is something compelling in taking a perfect little Victorian school girl and seeing just how unseemly she can be. The game is bloody, but not quite horror… it could be best described as a psychological thriller. The dialogue is deceptively menacing, the characters unsettling, and the whole experience puts one at unease. Again, this is a video game, remember? While playing, I keep wondering where the lines of reality blur into fantasy. Is Alice really crazy? If this game occurs all in her head, then what does it say to have her as the “heroine” of her own narrative? How far does the rabbit hole really go? While the graphic engine is a bit dated at this point, the games longevity is not because it looks super slick; no, it retains its playability because it touches on something deeper. The gameplay is challenging, yes, but you can become easily engrossed in this creepy and strange world.

This notion of becoming invested in a game and even identifying with a game’s main character is well understood by psychologists. Freud helped us understand our development in terms of identification in three stages: primary, narcissistic, and tertiary. I mention Freud here only to highlight that indeed we can easy identify with Alice; indeed she is the heroine. You are her animus, you are what makes her move. In American McGee’s Alice, we are asked to identify with the villain, similar to films such as Scarface. Yet here is where the game transcends to a new level: the game has manipulated you to feel a certain way. The game’s creator wanted you to feel unsettled by your co-dependent feelings towards Alice. And boy is it powerful.

American McGee’s Alice is a triumph in tone and in style and has bent and twisted the notion of video game genre as it has defiled Alice and Wonderland. You’ll probably see it laying around in a bargain basement sale and if you do, do yourself a favor and pick it up. It’ll grow on you, as it did me and I’m sure you won’t be disappointed.

As someone familiar with comic books, I knew the reputation of The Darkness: decent comic, chronically late. This is the way of Marc Silvestri’s Top Cow. Honestly, it’s a comic I never had any interest in, either. A hitman named Jackie Estacado with unlimited evil power. *Yawn* In the words of Samuel Goldwyn: “Include me out.” When I heard it was picked up for a video game, my interest increased, though. Who wouldn’t want unlimited evil power in a virtual world? With only a little trepidation, I picked up the game.

The story, I think, is key in The Darkness. It raises it above other first-person shooters where characters and motivations are clearly secondary (or sometimes tertiary). On his 21st birthday, Jackie is imbued with the power of the Darkness. All the Darkness wants in exchange is Jackie’s soul, which he is somewhat less than willing to give up. He also is being hunted by his Uncle Frankie, a mob boss who wants Jackie dead.

The Darkness not only makes Jackie tougher, but through it he can do things from summoning imp-like darklings to conjuring miniature black holes. These abilities are easy and fun to use. My personal favorite was the Alien-tailwhip-inspired Dark Claw. With it, you impale enemies and skewer scenery. It’s a lot of fun. These abilities are much more fun than the selection of guns you get and certainly make the game more interesting to play.

The graphics engine built by developer Starbreeze looks quite good. When loading is going on, there are interludes with Jackie talking to no one (or someone?). As I watched these, I realized we are finally on the cusp of having Toy Story-quality graphics. The textures on Jackie’s face look great. The only odd things are his inhumanly clear eyes. His movements are fluid and human-like. The enemies are equally well-animated. There were visual quirks, though: some odd texture seams, poorly constructed fingers on the models, and odd points of light. I don’t know whether these issues are present on all the versions or whether it’s limited to the much newer PS3. There was at least one side quest that was bugged: I was sent to kill someone. I killed him, but the quest didn’t update. That’s a much bigger problem than the graphical ones.

One design element I really appreciated was your inability to die. Get shot too many times and you fall, but the Darkness resurrects you. It’s done interestingly with flashing images that change depending on where you are in the game. Unfortunately, that leads to another issue. The game just isn’t that difficult. If it were longer, it wouldn’t matter. As it stands, this game feels as though it were designed to be sold in episodes (which wouldn’t have been a bad idea necessarily).

Overall, The Darkness is quite enjoyable, though. I will look forward to a sequel if one is made. The engine is great, the powers are fun, and the story is compelling. Starbreeze and 2K Games have a hit on their hands, especially on the game-poor PS3.