I listen to Gamespot's weekly show The Hotspot. It helps me keep up with video game news and its funny. They often go off on vaguely related tangents and make jokes and stuff. Very entertaining. Towards the end, they have segments where they read listener emails and phone calls. There is also a weekly homework assignment for listeners. The best ones are read on the show (which is cool, because they give credit to people, so usually people write their username and/or their name and location on the bottom. For example I write "Chris from Estonia", since "Chris from New York" is kinda booooooring), and a winner is picked, who gets an emblem for their Gamespot account. I do the homework too, not for the emblem, thought I do have one.
I won it for surprisingly. The homework assignment was "worst prequel titles/ideas". I won for Left 4 Dead prequel, Left 3 Dead. It really is the worst. But I am surprised, since if multiple people have the same entry, it gets disqualified.
ANYWAYS, the reason I am giving you this information. On this weekly episode, involved with one of the tangents, as part of a sort of running gag 'if you're from like Estonia, please write in' (the joke usually just involves asking people from obscure places to write in on some issue) and the host of the show in response said: "Chris from Estonia has written in numerous times. You know he exists."
I totally got randomly mentioned. This is how happy it made me:
Anyways
So remember when I used to review stuff that wasn't Spongebob? Me neither. But apparently I did that, so here is a review of something.
Since I mentioned video games already, might as well review an awesome game that everybody knows and loves
For the DS
IT is really unique
No, it's not Pokemon: Black/White you silly. It's
(I've decided to join the Amazon referral program thingy. So if something I talk about seems interesting to you and you would like it as well, be it game, movie, etc, and you use Amazon, please use the links I provide, because that would be superspecialawesome.)
*Quick comment before I continue. This title is so long and annoying to search for. Also, after playing the game it is very misleading. Now to the review.
It's less of a game and more of an interactive novel. This means that there is a lot of reading. A LOT. Which I am cool with, since some of my favorite games, which I mention time and time again, are the Ace Attorney and Fire Emblem series which also advance the plot through text. But this goes far beyond the other games.
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| Blah, blah, blah |
I don't want to explain the plot too much, since I still hold the opinion, the less one knows beforehand the better the experience will be. BUT I have to say something as this is a very plot heavy game. You play the game as one of the persons mentioned in the title. It is from his perspective, but the narration of the plot is in 3rd person. It is a ubiquitous narrator, so it says what the main character is thinking. This is a bad comparison, but it is similar to Saw II, which is not a good movie, so let me elaborate. You and eight other people are put in a life-death game. There is possibility of escape, but the group must work together.
This plot offers great opportunity for the exploration of the human psyche and how it reacts to great pressure. Unfortunately it doesn't go in that direction as much as I would have liked, though the characters go through suspicions of maybe one being the villain in disguise and other such paranoia.
The characters are all very well fleshed out. The all have backstory and different personalities. Not to spoil a lot, one may come to a realization at one point that not all of you can escape [I wont go to details as to why], so it got me to wondering who I would leave behind. But the characters are all generally so sympathetic that it would be a very difficult decision. Not all characters are saints though, some characters say/act a but suspicious.
So gameplay. It is a point and click puzzle game, like Myst (which is an awesome game btw). You are stuck in a room and have to find a way out. And that's basically it. Some puzzles were pretty challenging, but not so difficult that I became stuck/frustrated and had to look up the answer. This could be due to my incredible genius though
There are six different endings, depending on some choice you make along the way. I prefer the bad endings. Coincidentally, I got them first. It probably helped that I was playing at night in the dark, but those left me with a truly chilling feeling. When I was reading the final scene of the ending, I was like "NO! That can't be how it ends." Those endings are very impactful. I don't like horror films. At all. But horror games seem cool. The interactivity makes it much more suspenseful. Playing the game, when the scene changes, I wondered what bad is going to happen now!
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| Game has some eye-candy, too |
The true ending, which is supposed to be the correct one, was somewhat disappointing. It got too hocus-pocus-y.
What is the hocus pocus of the end?
Magic? Dinosaurs? Time-travel? Aliens?
Play the game to find out.
Oh, some negatives too:
Could have been more choices along the way and more puzzles. More is always good. As I said, the true ending and most of the game ignored the human psychological examination aspect the premise provides.
If you are a fan of Phoenix Wright or other such Japanese games, definitely play this. For those who don't mind reading and enjoy a good plot, give it a try. If you are illiterate, then how are you even reading my review?!
9/10
Gamespot: 8.5/10 (Critic average: 8.4/10 [out of 11 reviews])
(It came out last year actually, so it won't be on this years top games of the year, but it would have taken a high place on last years)
Well that was lengthy as hell. If only I could put this much effort into my school papers.
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