BeachEpisode
Tl;dr- complete the first level, then back out to the main menu so that you can continue on Medium difficulty. Unfortunately, the default’s overly generous bullet-time hinders the pacing of the game.
Playerunknown’s Never Yield is a runner game comprised of 13 levels and four kinds of obstacles that correspond with a face button. It’s a relatively simple “dodge the hazards” joint, sending the player character hurtling through action movie setpieces (jump over the boxes, slide under the car!), and I often found myself in a complete flow state reacting perfectly to everything it threw at me.
The presentation is king here. Great, passionately comprised soundtrack, combining influences of 90’s trip-hop, turntablism and whatever the fuck Jet Set Radio is doing. Solid cel-shaded art style adorning urban environments that are bustling with details. Levels are bookended by clunky cutscenes that are hard not to love.
Undoubtedly an impressive technical and sensory achievement from solo developer “Aerial_Knights”, but the game doesn’t quite come together in a satisfying enough way for me to enjoy it much beyond its surface.
It doesn’t take long before I realised that I was merely responding to the ~colour~ of the upcoming obstacle’s telegraph, as the game instead strictly demands certain buttons be pressed for specific hazards. Many of my deaths were ones where the game demanded a slide from me, where the jump would very easily have cleared it as well. This essentially just turns the game more into Simon Says than a bombastic parkour setpiecefest. One such button corresponds to a “sprint” move, allowing you to crash through certain obstacles and increase your movement speed to push for a faster clear time. Sadly, this move breaks the game more often than not, messing with the flow of obstacles, confusing the bullet-time slowdown, and sending you to an untelegraphed death; come the final levels, I grew too scared to use it, the checkpoints grew fewer and further between.
Honestly not a bad way to kill an hour lol. I enjoyed the game when it let me enter the zone, even if it had shortcomings that dragged me out of the experience every so often. Would be more fun if it allowed the player to respond to hazards in a more freeform way, very much belies the whole point of parkour, but ah well.
Playerunknown’s Never Yield is a runner game comprised of 13 levels and four kinds of obstacles that correspond with a face button. It’s a relatively simple “dodge the hazards” joint, sending the player character hurtling through action movie setpieces (jump over the boxes, slide under the car!), and I often found myself in a complete flow state reacting perfectly to everything it threw at me.
The presentation is king here. Great, passionately comprised soundtrack, combining influences of 90’s trip-hop, turntablism and whatever the fuck Jet Set Radio is doing. Solid cel-shaded art style adorning urban environments that are bustling with details. Levels are bookended by clunky cutscenes that are hard not to love.
Undoubtedly an impressive technical and sensory achievement from solo developer “Aerial_Knights”, but the game doesn’t quite come together in a satisfying enough way for me to enjoy it much beyond its surface.
It doesn’t take long before I realised that I was merely responding to the ~colour~ of the upcoming obstacle’s telegraph, as the game instead strictly demands certain buttons be pressed for specific hazards. Many of my deaths were ones where the game demanded a slide from me, where the jump would very easily have cleared it as well. This essentially just turns the game more into Simon Says than a bombastic parkour setpiecefest. One such button corresponds to a “sprint” move, allowing you to crash through certain obstacles and increase your movement speed to push for a faster clear time. Sadly, this move breaks the game more often than not, messing with the flow of obstacles, confusing the bullet-time slowdown, and sending you to an untelegraphed death; come the final levels, I grew too scared to use it, the checkpoints grew fewer and further between.
Honestly not a bad way to kill an hour lol. I enjoyed the game when it let me enter the zone, even if it had shortcomings that dragged me out of the experience every so often. Would be more fun if it allowed the player to respond to hazards in a more freeform way, very much belies the whole point of parkour, but ah well.
2020
Nice!!! Humble and polite time-routine puzzle game that hits like if Majora's Mask was a vitamin gummy. Finicky platforming in an artstyle that spits in the face of depth perception and some genuinely frustrating UX made much of the game needlessly grating, but it's a nice wee thing overall. I'll never forget the absolute cold drip of Duck With Sunglasses & Fez. Love that they took the hideous 4xBRZ filter idiots use for SNES emulators and ran with it to create something cool and unique lookin overall.
2019
I've still yet to be convinced by VR. If I wanted to slap physics objects around rudimentary rooms, I'd just play Garry's Mod - which doesn't even require you to wear a radioactive death box on your head that melts the brain and churns the stomach.
Boneworks, however, acts as a showcase for the future potential of VR, a fully immersive museum designed around its myriad gimmicks. Your character is fully rigged with an IK collision solver, lending you a sense of physicality as you climb ladders, run into walls, smash open crates with hammers. It's technically very impressive, but I never found it any fun, in fact it just made me feel violently sick. How the hell do I articulate why something clearly very innovative and forward-thinking just isn't working for me?
The closest comparison I can think of for Boneworks is when you switch to the first person camera while driving a car in a game. Yeah, it's more immersive, but,,, why the fuck would I ever do that. The less is more approach; omniscient camera, invisible player character, and floating disembodies hands is a nicety that eliminates the laborious "realistic, immersive" elements and allows me to focus on the game. If you focus too hard on the game part of Boneworks, it's just some toys strewn around barren environments. We've been talking about the "potential of vr" for fucking years, do something good already.
Boneworks, however, acts as a showcase for the future potential of VR, a fully immersive museum designed around its myriad gimmicks. Your character is fully rigged with an IK collision solver, lending you a sense of physicality as you climb ladders, run into walls, smash open crates with hammers. It's technically very impressive, but I never found it any fun, in fact it just made me feel violently sick. How the hell do I articulate why something clearly very innovative and forward-thinking just isn't working for me?
The closest comparison I can think of for Boneworks is when you switch to the first person camera while driving a car in a game. Yeah, it's more immersive, but,,, why the fuck would I ever do that. The less is more approach; omniscient camera, invisible player character, and floating disembodies hands is a nicety that eliminates the laborious "realistic, immersive" elements and allows me to focus on the game. If you focus too hard on the game part of Boneworks, it's just some toys strewn around barren environments. We've been talking about the "potential of vr" for fucking years, do something good already.
2003
pipe dream and getting pipe
2020
Effervescent and intoxicating. No Straight Roads has some of the most lovingly-crafted visuals I've ever seen, clearly inspired by the likes of Psychonauts era Double Fine, while still making it their own. Wonderful character animations that make fantastic use of 2D animation principles, even with large and boisterous 3D models. Hard not to be a little touched by the Malay influences they managed to squeeze in, like the dikir barat rap battle set to the backdrop of a wayang kulit puppet show.
Where the game really drops the ball for me is the combat - a somewhat basic hack-and-slash action title that teaches the player to dodge attacks in tune with the beat, only to forget about and even contradict that tip for the overwhelming majority of the game, is uniquely frustrating.
No Straight Roads is thoroughly convinced that it is a rhythm game, and even uses the harsh scoring system of titles like IIDX and Pop'n' that judges your performance post-battle and awards upgrade points accordingly. The problem is that attacks are barely choreographed, you receive hits from offscreen and by enemies that all look functionally identical yet have disparate attack patterns. You're very likely to scrape a few C ranks on your first playthrough, through little fault of your own.
Despite my frustrations with the gameplay, I enjoyed the title immensely. No Straight Roads feels like a labour of love, there isn't a lick of cynicism or irony to be found, and instead devotes itself to sharing its passion for its influences in the most bombastic way it could.
Where the game really drops the ball for me is the combat - a somewhat basic hack-and-slash action title that teaches the player to dodge attacks in tune with the beat, only to forget about and even contradict that tip for the overwhelming majority of the game, is uniquely frustrating.
No Straight Roads is thoroughly convinced that it is a rhythm game, and even uses the harsh scoring system of titles like IIDX and Pop'n' that judges your performance post-battle and awards upgrade points accordingly. The problem is that attacks are barely choreographed, you receive hits from offscreen and by enemies that all look functionally identical yet have disparate attack patterns. You're very likely to scrape a few C ranks on your first playthrough, through little fault of your own.
Despite my frustrations with the gameplay, I enjoyed the title immensely. No Straight Roads feels like a labour of love, there isn't a lick of cynicism or irony to be found, and instead devotes itself to sharing its passion for its influences in the most bombastic way it could.
2010
The one thing Qix truly needed was prisoners of war. This is a childhood fav I return to every so often - a simple premise done stylishly! If you don't find slicing airships apart with a large pair of scissors cathartic I don't even want to know you.