It all started with Wolfenstein 3D (which is technically not a 3D game – 2.5D you can call it, remember 3D games didn’t become standard until the Unreal engine became readily licensable)…which really required me to learn Windows DOS commands…I mean normally if you wanted to learn that level of geekdom unwittingly you would have to been born into some real obscure early internet-era schtuff. But for me it was Wolfenstein 3D. Why? Honestly, at 7 years old, it combined the [two things I loved most at that point: surprise violence and comedy…
Then came my Nintendo, Sega console days. I still remember my brother-in-law taking me to the video game store and Street Fighter 2 was about $72 and I knew that was a whole chunk of month’s groceries or something because I was thoroughly excited and guilty for this price tag — for this all time Arcade champion game. I fell in love with Ryu. The tattered gi, the stoic manner compared to free-loving love boy counterpart blond Ken. No, Ryu was only interested in the purity of the challenge-fight. Only lived for smashing bones and launching Hadukens. At least that is what the end story clip showed as he walked off into the sunset. Every character had an ending story clip and I think I played for that clip as much as the ninja skills button combinations and stage-space flying around, jockeying for position to launch attacks etc. I remember goddamn Blanka pissing me off with his strange electro shocking and brain eating ways.
Years later, would come the first excellent 90’s computer games. Deus Ex (the original PC version) was like Wolfenstein 3D point 2 so to speak. It not only combined cutting edge FPS (First Person [perspective] Shooter) gameplay, but also a film noir quality cyberpunk atmosphere and solid, nay, out of this world, role-playing game features. One of the best stories an action game will ever have IMO. And then, the variability of gameplay — presenting the player with multiple routes for using different weapons and skills to penetrate an area and enemies etc. The sneaking, spy-feel made for a titillating experience not matched in most games.
The next game that did it for me…probably Blizzard’s Diablo 2 (well D2 LOD would have been more up my alley, honestly) — I mean, I seriously lost significant hard earned time on that game…still worth the money haha.
How to explain Diablo 2 succinctly? For one, stop wasting time on useless rhetorical questions and place the reader in a damp constricting decrepit underground sewers strewn with titanic ghouls and deamons and skeletors and monsters of all kinds and your health is constantly being pricked to depletion so in between scurrying here and there and yelling wrong directions at your online comrades and herding and consequently blasting your infernal enemies with a gear shifting array of skills…then when all the bones and flesh are collecting into the gutters, comes the mad dash for true heart of Diablo 2: Wealth and Status!!
Nowadays I’m only fixated on what Yu Suzuki’s epic martial arts RPG/interactive-story the Shenmue series has in store. Shenmue 3 has been out on Steam and PS4 since 2019. I am still on the first real quest, trying to find this bookie. Finally beat the first character who would lead to this bookie for information. So far, there are some issues: Suzuki seems to have opted for a more Elder Scrolls, Horizon, et al, typical post GTA style open box world feel compared to the interactive movie style us Shenmue fans were used to. That narrow, interactive movie style with exploration being a sleuthing function. Ostensibly, there is no reason the feel should have changed much. We begin in Guillin, so beautiful with the Unreal engine graphics, that Sakura tree etc. You can go to the martial hall and train in mini-games, sparring, and monk fights. You can head into the General Store and work chopping wood, one of the best features thus far in the initial opening. If that doesn’t paint a sad picture a bit. But to be honest the wood chopping isn’t a bad mini-game.
Herb collecting for medicine-bunches to be sold to the General Store is also not a bad feature necessarily, but just not in the convention of the original two games, but as I said, creates a serene interaction with the environment.
The fight system: whoa Nelly. What can we say here? It is safe to assume thousands of Shenmue fans abound groaned and yelled phooey at this rubbery feeling fighting system compared to the karate crisp, parking lot noir Rocky-esque training at night, battle royale and QTE events, where the screen prompts a sequence of button reflex strikes. And that’s the other thing: the main impact, the heart here of Shenmue as an interactive movie, with the player existing to facilitate Ryo through these gameplay-cinematic moments, seems to have indeed been eschewed for an open box world. Sadly so. The QTE interactive nature (which was a good half of what the Shenmue gaming was) usually started off early scenes of the game, so the jury is still out whether Suzuki has QTE implemented later in the game. And as I gain more familiar with the clouded fight system, and perhaps more success, I shall be able to enjoy it more, but for now, Shenmue 3 is a 2.5 stars affair. I reserve hope still. Really, Shenmue 3 is like on of those Digimon baby pets, you have to put the work in to see it to the end.
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I used to read every entry of PC Games magazine that’s how crazy I was about gaming. Nowadays I have trouble reviewing a simple smartphone RPG because it takes to Damn long to load. Makes me suspect if it is even worth playing because obviously it takes up too much of my phone CPU and graphics capability to play tolerable well. Then I upgraded my phone and tried this mobile game “Avalon” something or other. And it is, ironically enough, a series of battle sequence with story lines in an interactive movie style (in the most boring unimaginative way where the user is simply asked to click through pre-made choices and upgrades and production of units etc). Is this the tutorial? I’ve forgotten how involved tutorials are nowadays. In golden 90’s days and in the case of Shenmue, the user was thrown into the vortex of the story and/or game-play of the game’s introduction, and you were supposed to have read the instructions before hand. Imagine that, reading something to play!
Shenmue 3 in the end serves us as an Inception-like object-in-of-itself, as in a valuable training tool for how to find bugs. Which is terribly unfortunate but speaks to the incredible origins of the game as the first ever major budget PC game funded in a crowdsource, the largest Kickstarter at that time at nearly 1.1M dollars. And what a shame. The game could really have been an absolutely family friendly game. Beautiful Chinese Guillin rockscapes and a landscape rolling hills and night time markets with token games. A wondrous approach to youth in gaming, including a hide and seek mission that is adorable as it is difficult. A fight system that is actually quite enjoyable (why did you get rid of Jiu-Jitsu Yu Suzuki!!! It’s like you don’t know martial arts at all!!!) – karate striking system which gives the player a feel of anxiety just like a real fight. If future Skill Books reveal Jiu Jitsu techniques (and if I can ever get there given the game’s patient pace) – I will recant my position and say this game failed to fail in any way.
In any case it is moot! Why? The best game ever made (“run til dat!”) is Tetris. Seriously, it will never be surpassed in terms of level and coordination of skilled gameplay ability and what it lacked in narrative components it more than made up for in the quality of its soundtrack. 🙂
The Joy of reading the subscriptions my sister bought for me of–first, well it was Electronic Entertainment Magazine first, then the next year, they were PC Games Magazine, well I think that’s where they finally ended up on. They were Electronic Entertainment Magazine at first because they didn’t want to exclude Mac machines (I guess Apple hadn’t abandoned the game game at that point) –anyways look I read those issues every month, religiously. Of, course half the fun was those little funny adverts for half-porn games at the back of the issues, and like Leisure Suit Larry won game of the month twice I think….haha.
elquetienelaspatas 