Wadjet Eye Games has become somewhat of go to publisher/developer for story-driven point and click adventure games resurgence. With both their own developed games, and games they produce and publish they’ve shown how the seemingly outdated low res pixelated point and click adventuring can tell stories better than some of the high budget newest technology based titles. The quality of the games they publish is also mostly consistent and to this day I only missed a few projects due to rather mediocre reviews of those. Technobabylon was a game I heard good things about, while Shardlight reviews seemed a bit lower, yet still praised the game, so I was quite interested in checking both projects for a while now. Let’s see what Wadjet Eye Games helped build this time.
Tag: Recommended
Happy about: Dear Esther. Landmark Edition
By now, there’s not much to add on Dear Esther, really. Cleverly named “Landmark edition” already casually mentions how important the original mod and 2012 commercial release were in showing that games can be all about story and still find an audience. The main goal of this particular re-release, really, was to just make sure bigger audience can experience the game, since the original Source remake couldn’t work on consoles and additionally locked the developers into specific legal restrictions. So let’s quickly check what’s been changed.
Revisiting Dragon Age 2 with DLCs
I love Dragon Age 2. I love it much more than Origins. It still seems to be a controversial opinion to have, even past the point where the series were relevant or where some expected them to be “new Baldur’s Gate” (something Origins never was). Before playing Dragon Age: Inquisition I wanted to revisit the second one, to check on 3 story-driven DLCs I’ve missed originally: a character and two small stories. And since I’ve replayed DA:O so much back in 2011 that I can’t bring myself to playing it again even now, when it’s finally DRM-free on GOG, I decided to skip it. So, back to Kirkwall of copy paste dungeons we go.
Thoughts on: Her Story
This is not a game a lot of people will enjoy. It can probably be best described as an “interactive fragmented imaginary documentary film about a curious case that never got solved”, where “interaction” comes almost only in how you sort out the fragments of the story together. It’s a weird and interesting experience that feels a bit… lacking, but still satisfying.
I tend to dislike most FMV games. I loved this one.
Late thoughts on: Grand Theft Auto V (on PC)
Last year people were joking that Rockstar intentionally spread the ports of GTA V over 3 years so it could get Game of the Year award 3 times in a row. Many played the game in all its version. I was waiting for the PC port… Actually, no. Reality is – I wasn’t waiting for this game at all. I don’t know why, but I simply didn’t care about another sequel to the series that used to be so interesting to me. I just didn’t care anymore. So when it was released, I was checking reviews, I was listening to my friends’ opinions on it, but wasn’t much interested in playing it. Perhaps that’s exactly why now, when I’ve completed it, I feel so strange.
Metro: Last Light Redux. Game of 2034 Edition
Less than a week ago 4A released Metro Redux – remastered versions of Metro 2033 and Metro: Last Light. Both games were moved to an updated engine with updated lighting, both games have new distinct modes of playing them – Survival (closer to 2033) or Spartan (closer to Last Light). Both games got updated voice acting, with the same voice actor for Artyom in all main languages and new localisations including the Ukrainian. 2033 was affected the most, of course, but I will talk about it later. After replaying both original versions of the games I decided to play Redux in the opposite order. Partially because I never got the DLCs for Last Light which are included here. Partially because it was fresher on the mind. Let’s see how the game and its Redux versions fair.
Oh and I’ll start with my older Last Light screenshots and then will use the LL Redux screenshots for comparison. The old ones are in 5:4, from my older monitor.
O tempora: F.E.A.R. (with expansions)
O tempora is a series of retrospective posts where I play games from ages before to see if they stood the test of time.
Monolith Productions has remained one of the most important studios for me for the longest time. I liked Blood as a teen, but my own proper PC wasn’t a thing until 2001, which was just about the time The Operative: No One Lives Forever got released. That classic, which is still sadly not re-released due to rights issues, was just the beginning. Fantastic Aliens versus Predator 2 followed with its 3 story campaigns that constantly cross over – something that is still a rarity for games. Then, of course, a long expected sequel No One Lives Forever 2: A Spy in H.A.R.M.’s Way. Then one of the best movie license games ever – Tron 2.0. And then, in a single year, two amazing games got released – F.E.A.R. and Condemned: Criminal Origins. I am not listing a couple of other games they developed, just due to not playing them myself (though I did play Contract J.A.C.K., which isn’t worth mentioning), but point is – Monolith never disappointed me.
F.E.A.R. was the point where everything started changing. With the game itself, as it was a unique blend of ideas from classic FPS titles and the more “modern” ideas for the genre. For the company, since after this year their projects started getting less praise. And even for the company focus – a switch from their PC-centric development (LithTech engine was specifically designed to be a showcase of DirectX), to a far larger emphasis on consoles. 8 years after F.E.A.R. was originally released, a lot of its faults are more obvious. Yet, it still never fails to amaze.
Tomb Raider. Third birthday
Almost exactly 10 years ago Tomb Raider series was meant to be “refreshed”. Add characters, make it more story-driven, include RPG elements and make it about Lara Croft learning to become Lara Croft (again). It was called Tomb Raider: The Angel of Darkness and it failed miserably. It became the last title from the original TR developers Core Design and the studio was closed soon after. And the main reason for the failure was brutally simple – the game was only about 60% finished on release and played horribly. Ten years later, the new development studio currently responsible for the series Crystal Dynamics (a studio I admire a lot) approached the “refresh” in a very similar way. Except, this time they had a chance to finish the game before releasing it. Happy birthday yet again, Lara.
DmC: Devil May Cry. Anger versus cockiness
When I first heard about Capcom developing a game based on Divine Comedy where Dante Alighieri is making mincemeat out of demons I rolled my eyes. “This is so stupid, why would anyone want this?” Then the demo of this weird game that was to be called Devil May Cry was added as a bonus to the PS2 release of the new entry in the super popular (and much loved by me) Resident Evil series – the Code Veronica X. I still remember the longstanding joke that most people who got that version spent more time playing the DMC demo than RE: CVX itself. The game became a forerunner for a new genre of action.
When DmC: Devil May Cry was announced people started rolling their eyes and hitting tables with their heads for more or less similar reasons. And yet, just like the last time, the results are pleasantly surprising.