The Expanse: a Telltale Series Deluxe Edition (PS5, January 6th)- Deck Nine does a prequel series featuring the Amazon series' best character- Camina Drummer, played by Cara Gee.
The Expanse is a show that I liked but never loved, mainly because the two nominal leads are played by actors I find terminally dull. Gee is never dull. She really put a jolt into the show when she started appearing as the head of Tycho Station's security in season two. A Belter who doesn't put up with any shit, Camina is a pretty good video game protagonist.
Taking place some time before the series proper- there's only one other familiar face, and it's very late in the game- Camina is the XO of the salvage ship
Artemis. Her boss is a mean drunk, there are a pair of shifty brothers she's not entirely sure she can trust, but some of the other crew members she likes, especially the cute girl. Of course, the crew stumbles upon a wrecked ship that winds up containing a certain item of importance whose existence certain parties would prefer to keep under wraps. What follows over the five episodes is Camina trying to survive terrorists, the OPA, and her own crew, all while trying to discover the true nature of what she's discovered.
This is probably one of the best Telltale games I've ever played- the brutal, violent word of the Expanse is more suited to the brutal, violent tendencies of Telltale games as opposed to say, Fables or Batman. Gee is her regular great self, but the rest of the voice cast is skilled as well. If you've never played the Expanse, you won't be lost for the most part although there are references you won't fully appreciate.
It helps that the decisions feel like they have a genuine impact. Death doesn't feel like a cheap shock tactic as they did in
Walking Dead past season two, when a character dies I was genuinely remorseful.
I got the deluxe edition, which is a one episode dealie, features the show's other great character, Chrisjen Avasarala, once again played by Shoreh Agdashloo. The crafty politician finds herself trapped in lockdown while a political crisis happens, and must maneuver herself to save the day for the greater good, and get the votes she needs. It's not really necessary but if you're a fan of the actress and the character it's a must play. But the most amusing thing about it is
- Spoiler: show
- That you discover it's taking place on the day that Avasarala's son died. People who remember playing the special edition of Before the Storm may recall that bonus episode, about Max and Chloe's last day before Max moved away, ends with the reveal that Chloe's dad just died in a car accident. It was funny then, and let me tell ya, it's funny now. Deck Nine, I know you're stealing from the best, but stop swiping from yourself.
Return to Monkey island (Series X, January 15th)- I'm quoted in the 2 Monkey 2 Island podcast as theorizing that Ron Gilbert ended the game the way he did because he was "trying to blow it apart", that he didn't want a franchise around his neck and wanted to move on (also he wrote Guybrush as a lot lamer than he was in the first game). Gilbert has said he always had a plan for the confounding reveal that Guybrush and LeChuck were actually little kids- seemingly brothers- playing pirates in an amusement park.
Return to Monkey Island has a tutorial level that reveals what that plan is and... well, it works. It requires you to ignore a bit what
Monkey Island 2 was implying, but it makes for a rather dandy tutorial level.
Eventually, once we find out who those two kids really are we rejoin Guybrush proper as he and Elaine find themselves in a race with LeChuck to finally discover the secret of Monkey Island. What follows is, as they say, classic Lucasarts. Gilbert was joined by his former partner in crime Dave Grossman for this one, and the humor and puzzles are about what you'd expect. It's clever, but it's also slight- you'll be able to get through it fairly quickly. And the ending is, well...
- Spoiler: show
- Gilbert once again refuses to give the player any payoff, which I guess is keeping in spirit with the series but the way he tries to drive the point home by the final shot before the credits is a several second long shot of Guybrush directly at the player, just... Ron, if you ever come back, you can't pull this trick again.
Don't listen to the Save Your Game episode about this game. You will like it less.
Also, not enough Stan.
Robocop Rogue City (Series X, February 11th)- awwwww man, that's the stuff. This is fan service- the good kind. Teyon haven't made a great game here- but they've made a pretty damn entertaining one. The writers crafted a campaign of decent length that for once doesn't do what every piece of Robocop media has done for decades- ignores the events of the two sequels. Nope,
Rogue City fits squarely in between the events of
Robocop 2 and
3. There's a lot of callbacks to the events of
2, and the plot is about a "New Guy in Town" who's taking over the Nuke trade in the wake of Cain, Angie, and Hob's deaths. Plenty of characters from the first two movies make an appearance, though Johnson is conspicuous by his absence.
The gameplay is a slow, deliberate FPS, and the devs have really thought about what it would be like to move as Robocop. You stomp around and (at first, anyway) are practically invincible, whipping your Auto-9 out and splattering brains all over. You grab a guy and just throw them, and they dead. There's something gleeful about it all.
There's a quasi open world segment in which you patrol a small section of old Detroit to solve minor and major crimes. It's worth doing because the upgrades are good, and it gives value to the world Robocop is defending.
There are points where it gets too difficult and cheap, especially in its boss battles, and the final boss is a genuine disappointment. Characters with sniper rifles are comically overpowered for some reason. But overall if you're a fan of the franchise it is a must. And as a good solid AA game it's worth playing too.
Mafia II: Definitive edition (Xbox One, February 25th)- Mafia II on the 360 has a special place in my heart, as it came out just after a major life change where things that had been bad for a very long time suddenly got better. So playing it gives me a little extra buzz of memory. The Definitive Edition, which I got very cheap, is pretty much the same game looking only slightly better and with all the DLC I didn't buy the last time.
The story is effectively told, that's the strongest part about it; thing is it's a bit slight. Vito Scaletta, like Tommy Angelo, joins the Mafia for more money and opportunities. Unlike Tommy Angelo, he doesn't start a family; in fact, his activities contribute to the dissolution of his family. There's not a lot that's redeemable about him, which is by design, but makes for interesting viewing.
- Spoiler: show
- There's the amazing scene where Tommy goes to pick up a drunk Joe and Joe accidentally murders the bartender, and Tommy buries the body without another thought. This is not address again. It's blunt commentary on the indifference guys like Vito and Joe have towards anyone who's not them. The crime doesn't pay message is really driven home by the fact that to save himself, Vito inadvertently gives up the only friend he has.
As for the gameplay, it's fairly standard cover shooter stuff. Every chapter is structured like you get up, driveto the mission giver, go to the mission, drive home and end your day. It's... having a job? The game world is massive but unlike the previous and subsequent games, there's hardly any collectibles to find there (the best collectible- the Playboys- are mostly acquired in the missions). Based on interviews at the time, I suspect there was a massive amount of content cut- story and gameplay- to get out a game. Mafia III leaned too far in the big game world and stuff to do, at the expense of a story, while strong, was spaced out between tons of busywork. There's something zen about every chapter being a day at work, but it's dull as well
And yet, I have a lot of good memories of the game, the mission, the voice acting from Robert Costanzo and Rick Pasqualone, characters like Leo Galante, and... well I don't want it spoil it. Worth a play if you can get it on sale, which is often.
Judgment (Series X, March 16th)- I played and enjoyed Lost Judgment on Xbox One, and am generally a fan of the Yakuza series, but I hadn't played this game since it never came out on the One and I shared my PS4. Well, since I have a Series X (and a PS5) now, I gave it a whirl. This game is fine, but it's not as effective or interesting or deep as its sequel. The combat is still very solid and the game is well paced, but the story while pretty compelling for a while, completely falls apart in the end because
- Spoiler: show
- the plot is about the government covering up human trial experiments for a possible cure of Alzheimer's. But it's revealed eventually that the drug not only doesn't work, it has NEVER worked, and despite tests for YEARS, it's actually been doing nothing but killing the test subjects. Everyone just took the mad doctor who was developing the drug's word that he was making progress. I'm sorry, that just makes no sense. The game tries to lampshade this is that some of the higher ups involved are so blinded by their own tragic experiences with Alzheimer's and dementia that they're willing to ignore the human cost of the trials, but after so long, and so many bodies covered up, wouldn't they want some sort of proof?
It soured the whole experience for me. I plan a DLC/New Game Plus play through of Lost Judgment on the Series X in a few months.
Plumbers Don't Wear Ties Definitive Edition (Series X, March 21st) I honestly don't know what to say about this one other than I want my $19.99 back. I'll admit I didn't watch any playthroughs or videos about this game, just read descriptions because I wanted to go in cold. It certainly was a thing. The game seemed oddly unintuitive for what is essentially an absurdly simplistic visual novel. The extras were nice, I suppose. But it's a first draft, more like a quarter draft, turned into a game. The Good Bad Flicks quotes the creator of this thing as saying people should "Get over it"- but you actually charged people money for this!!!!
Open Roads (Series X, March 29th) - Thanks, Xbox GamePass! So, a five year development cycle, the departure of the controversial studio founder, then the founder reclaiming the studio as a one man operation and the developers becoming the Open Roads Team, and finally limping onto GamePass, and... it's 90s minutes? It's basically Gone Home with more locations and a more complex plot? I mean it's a GOOD plot, and for something that probably took them a few hours, Keri Russell and Kaitlyn Dever (Who's 27, isn't she kind of tired of playing 16 year olds?) do pretty solid VoiceOver work. But you're charging $24.99 for this.
In the far flung past of 2003, mother and daughter Opal (Russell) and Tess (Dever) are cleaning out the house of their late mother Helen as the house has been sold and Opal is not sure where she and her daughter will be staying next. In the course of the house cleaning, Tess finds evidence (In a hidden compartment in the attic, of course) that Helen had an affair with a mysterious man after her husband died of a heart attack. Opal and Tess drive to the family summer home- which has remained untouched or unsold despite no one going near for 35 years (wouldn't that have come up in the examination of Helen's estate?) to investigate. And what they find leads to another road trip, and... I won't spoil it, except to say the final reveal is satisfying.
There's some good dialogue, and there's something neat about the classical, almost rotoscoped design of Opal and Tess contrasted with the more traditionally realistic look of the environments. I cared about their present situation more than the mystery, and the use of very short texts (this is a 2003 story, after all) helped with the effectiveness. IT's definitely worth a play if you have GamePass, but I struggle to recommend it full price.
Grand theft Auto V (PlayStation 5, April 15th)- thanks PlayStation Plus! What else can I say about this game? This is my SIXTH Playthrough of the single player game. Twice on Xbox 360, three times on Xbox One, and now on PS5. I can't help it; I just love this game. This was the first time I chose the "Kill Michael" ending (it's a 11 year old game, I think I don't need to spoiler tag this) and it wasn't quite as well done as the "Kill Trevor" ending it was very cinematic. I do plan to go for 7 one day, on the Series X, maybe I'll have enough to write a book about it then.
Arcade Archives: Vigilante (PlayStation 4, April 25)- when I was 12, and the TurboGrafx-16 was almost a thing, one of the games I wanted to play on it was Vigilante, a port of an arcade game. Despite the short length of the game, I really dug it. Actually that's probably because of its short length, at about a half hour I don't have time to get annoyed with the paucity of enemy types. punch, kick, punch, kick, jump, nunchaku!
--Dan
