earthandspace
2023
This review contains spoilers
Downpour is… difficult for me to make heads or tails of. At one end it’s an extremely expansive addition to Rain World’s universe in continuity, gameplay, causing the fandom to utterly erupt in size. In essence, Downpour IS Rain World now; a vast majority of fan content now revolves around the material it created, and by sheer volume it is far larger than its base components. Considering its origins as a fan mod, it’s extremely impressive how it garnered such acclaim and popularity, and I think the ambition to create something so transformative and wide in scope is to be lauded. Yet, I’m left with something that leaves me personally ambivalent. What is shown as a collection of 5 interwoven campaigns advertised as one cohesive story feels much more disjointed on a more thematic level, failing to match the base game’s marriage of gameplay design and story.
What I did love is how it improved my skills in this game, giving me far better appreciation for the skill ceiling, technical moves, and combat the game features. I do think the general emphasis on the DLC slugs’ combat abilities really helps. Each slugcat provides a unique gameplay twist, while also generally being at least somewhat justifiable in a way that I don’t think affects the game’s harsh atmosphere that much (except for Saint). I do think the highlights here in terms of additions are the new regions; they are exceptionally well done aesthetically and do fit in well, how they shift and deteriorate as time passes in the world per campaigns. Particular highlights include Outer Expanse, a beautiful region depicting the home of the slugcats seen in Survivor’s intro, Looks to the Moon in Spearmaster’s campaign, providing a glimpse of her facility, in full glory but on the precipice of collapse, and Silent Construct, an amalgamation of all of Five Pebbles’ can components after his sacrifice leaving a dead, metallic, cold superstructure.
I’m less keen on the new enemies; overall they’re generally underutilized or not very unique compared to the scugs. Those that are unique are rare, and the rest can essentially boil down to “what if we made a Red Lizard but slow, clumsy and caramel, or a Centipede that could swim in water”, or most egregiously, a Vulture with insta-kill beaks and lasers that feels way overtuned. Compared to the rest of the game’s mechanical additions it doesn’t really have as much care put into it, but even still then can provide unique spins in encounters, and Rain World’s gameplay loop is still as fresh as ever.
The campaigns themselves are… interesting. I think all of them are fun and bring something unique, but there’s always something major that impacts my enjoyment of them. Gourmand is probably the most untouched of the new campaigns, being very similar to Survivor’s except for a different final region and ending, with an emphasis on movement tricks, damage, and food. It’s not a very lore-intensive campaign which makes it more of a fun ride, though I’d argue the tonal shift of appreciating life feels a bit discordant with how the game plays and the base game’s theming in making the cycles painful directly through the punishing gameplay (and Gourmand’s spawns are harder than Survivor’s). I also don’t love the crafting system; some of the pairings are esoteric and others absurdly broken (ex. making explosive spears and what essentially amounts to black hole bombs). Overall, Gourmand was fun but not particularly deep or thought-provoking.
I think Artificer is overall the best campaign; a treatise on the consumption of revenge and how it can destroy you, and how even trying to fully resolve your trauma may not be possible. I think it also does the best of marrying motivations; Five Pebbles is annoyed of scavengers infesting his can, and they killed your slugpups. The fact deaths aren’t that punishing for the main route and that you’re always at negative reputation means combat with scavs can be fully indulged, which though at times is excessive is also very enjoyable. With your parry, stun and jump abilities, it’s Rain World combat at its most thrilling. I do wish grabbing scavenger bodies and using their karma to pass gates was more utilized, as the most-traveled route is almost always karma 1 doors. I think the worst thing about this campaign is that sometimes the scav kill squad spawns are absolutely absurd, as in “I can’t get to the next room because their corpses are stuffing the pipes” levels of bad. I’m also not in love with its last set piece, a combat gauntlet leading to a final boss. I really don’t think RW’s gameplay philosophy really works with boss fights, given you die in one hit while the boss must be hit several times, and the litany of spears. I had to cheese it to win. Still, I think this is the best part of the DLC overall, having better thematic resonance than the other DLC campaigns and the most unique spin on RW’s gameplay. Does it play like base RW? No, but it’s something unique, enjoyable and exemplifies one of the game’s oft-underrated traits.
Spearmaster’s campaign is probably the most frustrating; it’s the only one where the slugcat’s gimmicks are hampered halfway through (carrying a pearl that you can’t store as you don’t have a mouth, meaning you lose dual spears). I had passages that allowed me to skip the backtracking, but if you don’t, I’d imagine that traversing with said pearl is an utter slog given if you lose it, you have to redo the cycle again. It’s a shame too, considering that it is by far the most expansive from a world-building perspective, as you’re sent by 2 iterators as a last-ditch effort to prevent FP from collapsing Moon’s can via water consumption. I like the idea behind expanding the iterators here and it generally works, but their tone feels distinctly emotional as opposed to their detachment in the base game (even in logs discussing the same events). Something about the way they’re written here just doesn’t feel right to me, I don’t know, but I’m not the only one who’s noticed judging by other reviews. However, exploring Looks to the Moon was wonderful; it’s aesthetically gorgeous, the music is incredible, and her final farewell in the wake of your failure to stop FP was my favorite bit of writing from the DLC and a nice end point for the prequel campaigns.
Rivulet is solid, but its short length gives it very little impact. I think they’re fun to play overall due to their extreme movement, much like Artificer is best at exemplifying the game’s combat. Though it’s not perfect, I do like what’s done here narratively, as Five Pebbles tries his best to make up for what he did to Moon by entrusting you with delivering his last power source to her, as the Rot has fully consumed him. I kind of just wish there was more to it, the gimmicks make the campaign way easier in the second half and it sort of just speeds by. I also do find Riv probably the least detached in terms of their goal, here it kind of just feels like Rivulet is helping make amends between FP and LTTM for the sake of an adventure, to the point Moon questions why you even helped her if you return to a completed save file.
Saint is ultimately my least favorite campaign, and it’s unfortunate, because it’s the most interesting of the bunch, providing an coda to the game’s world and characters. Taking place far in the future, I do love how transformative it is. Seeing the world suffer from an entropic cold that slowly saps Saint’s energy and makes the campaign more visually hostile is novel, as almost everything is frozen over. Five Pebbles is now in ruin, the rot and lack of power leading to his collapse. That all too familiar pathway from Chimney Canopy to the Wall being just gone made it really set in for me. I wish I could heap praise onto it; I saw many people hype up the campaign as the best part of the DLC, but Saint is where DP’s cracks really show.
To start with, Saint’s gameplay never really becomes enjoyable to me. The tougher spawns make the first half of the campaign tedious, where you have practically no self-defense. You’d think the ice age would lead to a more quiet, solemn campaign as the fauna struggle to adapt, but I digress. The tongue is a nice ability that opens up traversal, but compared to other scugs’ movement options, it just feels like a slightly altered version of grappling worms. Once reaching all the echoes, you’re given the ability to ascend enemies and fly on a shared recharge. Even disregarding how this trivializes every enemy in the overworld due to it being an instant kill, it’s finicky to control and makes the tongue kind of moot. While many of Downpour’s scugs have abilities that may not necessarily jive well with the game’s built-in difficulty and themes, they felt like a somewhat reasonable adaptation. Having ascension powers felt like a huge thematic deviation gameplay-wise from the base game given your decentering in the narrative and environment, and a deviation thematically from the DLC which is generally far more pessimistic with regards to ascension.
I’m also not sure about the echo dialogue changes and the anthropomorphizing of the Void Sea; it seems to have physically expanded upward with malicious intent, but on the other hand you’re ascending animals left and right using knowledge from Echoes that have turned on the belief system that got them there. It just feels very dissonant with both the base game’s ideas of escaping the cycles within a world you fundamentally can’t change, that is as it is, and DP’s favoring of life’s value even amidst its cyclical nature. I think it would’ve been fine if the game was being more explicit regarding ascension and enacting that onto others, or adding ambiguity if it was at least willing to engage the topic and its morality. Here you have a perfect chance with Five Pebbles and Looks to the Moon, both run down due to their circumstances and mistakes, but perhaps learning the value of life after going through much hardship, as DP seems to lean. Unfortunately, I feel the DLC doesn’t take this opportunity; they remain noncognizant of your ascension abilities, dying in silence. I understand FP’s reactions given his state, but even LTTM’s overseers nor her facility even acknowledge her passing, a disappointing deviation from their reactivity in the base game. As such the actual process of ascending them personally just felt hollow.
Something I noticed in general is that despite Downpour’s general turn in direction to making the slugcats extremely important to the narrative and our view of the world, I feel it’s still missing some of the reactivity of the original. There’s alternate endings, but their execution is lacking, most notably with the Outer Expanse endings available for Monk and Survivor. Instead of ascending, they find their home, the former reuniting with the latter when going to OE. Now, though I’m indecisive on these endings (the dream sequences imply they’ve given up seeing their family, but at the same time they also did assume that they had ascended), my biggest gripe is that Monk’s version always leads to them meeting up with their sibling, even if you ascended Survivor. I’m not sure why this permutation wasn’t considered, it feels incredibly jarring and could’ve led to something really emotional. Similarly, Moon’s overseers don’t really give a shit if you ascend her as Saint.
Unfortunately, the final region Rubicon just sucks. I like the concept of it being oddly interpolated existing regions, but it’s essentially a giant, linear combat gauntlet with the hardest enemies in the game, and I had horrendous framerate drops with Miros Vultures and Guardians on the same screen (which considering the preciseness required to aim Saint’s relatively small ascension beam is frustrating). It’s arguably the worst combat segment in the game. The ending similarly leaves me disenchanted. FP and LTTM’s dialogue at the end of Rubicon leaves it very ambiguous whether ascending them even did anything, questioning if they truly escaped, or if they are just in a dream. It ends with Saint attempting to ascend a Void Worm, which results in them being completely drained of karma, seemingly becoming an echo as a result, and being sent back to the beginning of their campaign to relive their memories over again (though the fact you can transfer items between playthroughs via your stomach muddies it even more).
I’m not opposed to interpretative story elements; the base game does it all the time, and there are other games I enjoy with obscure interpretations/lore. However, Saint’s campaign to me oversteps the line because I don’t think any interpretation makes sense on its own merit. If Saint is a bodhisattva-esque figure who tries to help ascend all other beings before themselves, much like the Triple Affirmative was desired to be, what was the purpose of even going to Rubicon, which seems to end their mission early? If they’re anti-ascension, why do they impose it on other species, and why even go to Rubicon to get themselves stuck in echo hell? If this is Saint’s character arc, I don’t think DP communicates it very well either. Dev statements made after release if anything narrows potential theories even more (as they explicitly deconfirmed Saint’s origin as a triple affirmative and how Sliver of Straw potentially ascended, despite it being the subject of Challenge 70). Unfortunately, it feels like DP collapses at its finish line; like Saint themselves, I’m stuck cyclically trying to decipher what was even going on here.
It’s still a fun and brutal romp through the ever-shifting climate of Rain World, as always. Unfortunately, for a DLC whose aim was to expand and provide a full view of the Rain World timeline, it falters and kind of drags the whole thing down. Every campaign had something that bothered me. Either the campaign’s structure itself didn’t feel finely tuned by virtue of mid-campaign twists, weird balancing, or short length, or it felt thematically jarring either with the base game or itself. To speak nothing of the numerous technical issues with level geometry, performance, crashing, etc. that I had to deal with that wasn’t present in the base game. Most of all though, I can’t really make sense of what the DLC is generally trying to say. On the one hand, Rivulet, Gourmand, and Spearmaster give a sense that life is still precious in Rain World, it’s sacred, it’s worth protecting, despite the hostility, the rains, the infinitely repeating cycles. At the same time, Artificer warns against falling to life’s vices to the point it destroys you without any sort of enlightenment being possible, and Saint’s campaign makes the DLC’s anti-ascension slant way more tangled up.
Rain World very much is a game that reciprocates what you put into it, and I never could open myself up to DP; I guess I could chalk that up to just not being the experience the original was for me. Regardless, I think experimentation is better than rote repetition. The MSC team took a lot of commendable risks from a story and gameplay perspective releasing this, and there was a ton of content I didn’t get to experience myself (ex. expeditions, challenges, etc.). While Downpour swings for the fences, and misses frequently, I’m glad it exists, at the very least to give Rain World the flowers it deserves. Despite my numerous issues with Downpour, it feels bittersweet to finally close my chapter on one of the most unique worlds and games in the medium.
What I did love is how it improved my skills in this game, giving me far better appreciation for the skill ceiling, technical moves, and combat the game features. I do think the general emphasis on the DLC slugs’ combat abilities really helps. Each slugcat provides a unique gameplay twist, while also generally being at least somewhat justifiable in a way that I don’t think affects the game’s harsh atmosphere that much (except for Saint). I do think the highlights here in terms of additions are the new regions; they are exceptionally well done aesthetically and do fit in well, how they shift and deteriorate as time passes in the world per campaigns. Particular highlights include Outer Expanse, a beautiful region depicting the home of the slugcats seen in Survivor’s intro, Looks to the Moon in Spearmaster’s campaign, providing a glimpse of her facility, in full glory but on the precipice of collapse, and Silent Construct, an amalgamation of all of Five Pebbles’ can components after his sacrifice leaving a dead, metallic, cold superstructure.
I’m less keen on the new enemies; overall they’re generally underutilized or not very unique compared to the scugs. Those that are unique are rare, and the rest can essentially boil down to “what if we made a Red Lizard but slow, clumsy and caramel, or a Centipede that could swim in water”, or most egregiously, a Vulture with insta-kill beaks and lasers that feels way overtuned. Compared to the rest of the game’s mechanical additions it doesn’t really have as much care put into it, but even still then can provide unique spins in encounters, and Rain World’s gameplay loop is still as fresh as ever.
The campaigns themselves are… interesting. I think all of them are fun and bring something unique, but there’s always something major that impacts my enjoyment of them. Gourmand is probably the most untouched of the new campaigns, being very similar to Survivor’s except for a different final region and ending, with an emphasis on movement tricks, damage, and food. It’s not a very lore-intensive campaign which makes it more of a fun ride, though I’d argue the tonal shift of appreciating life feels a bit discordant with how the game plays and the base game’s theming in making the cycles painful directly through the punishing gameplay (and Gourmand’s spawns are harder than Survivor’s). I also don’t love the crafting system; some of the pairings are esoteric and others absurdly broken (ex. making explosive spears and what essentially amounts to black hole bombs). Overall, Gourmand was fun but not particularly deep or thought-provoking.
I think Artificer is overall the best campaign; a treatise on the consumption of revenge and how it can destroy you, and how even trying to fully resolve your trauma may not be possible. I think it also does the best of marrying motivations; Five Pebbles is annoyed of scavengers infesting his can, and they killed your slugpups. The fact deaths aren’t that punishing for the main route and that you’re always at negative reputation means combat with scavs can be fully indulged, which though at times is excessive is also very enjoyable. With your parry, stun and jump abilities, it’s Rain World combat at its most thrilling. I do wish grabbing scavenger bodies and using their karma to pass gates was more utilized, as the most-traveled route is almost always karma 1 doors. I think the worst thing about this campaign is that sometimes the scav kill squad spawns are absolutely absurd, as in “I can’t get to the next room because their corpses are stuffing the pipes” levels of bad. I’m also not in love with its last set piece, a combat gauntlet leading to a final boss. I really don’t think RW’s gameplay philosophy really works with boss fights, given you die in one hit while the boss must be hit several times, and the litany of spears. I had to cheese it to win. Still, I think this is the best part of the DLC overall, having better thematic resonance than the other DLC campaigns and the most unique spin on RW’s gameplay. Does it play like base RW? No, but it’s something unique, enjoyable and exemplifies one of the game’s oft-underrated traits.
Spearmaster’s campaign is probably the most frustrating; it’s the only one where the slugcat’s gimmicks are hampered halfway through (carrying a pearl that you can’t store as you don’t have a mouth, meaning you lose dual spears). I had passages that allowed me to skip the backtracking, but if you don’t, I’d imagine that traversing with said pearl is an utter slog given if you lose it, you have to redo the cycle again. It’s a shame too, considering that it is by far the most expansive from a world-building perspective, as you’re sent by 2 iterators as a last-ditch effort to prevent FP from collapsing Moon’s can via water consumption. I like the idea behind expanding the iterators here and it generally works, but their tone feels distinctly emotional as opposed to their detachment in the base game (even in logs discussing the same events). Something about the way they’re written here just doesn’t feel right to me, I don’t know, but I’m not the only one who’s noticed judging by other reviews. However, exploring Looks to the Moon was wonderful; it’s aesthetically gorgeous, the music is incredible, and her final farewell in the wake of your failure to stop FP was my favorite bit of writing from the DLC and a nice end point for the prequel campaigns.
Rivulet is solid, but its short length gives it very little impact. I think they’re fun to play overall due to their extreme movement, much like Artificer is best at exemplifying the game’s combat. Though it’s not perfect, I do like what’s done here narratively, as Five Pebbles tries his best to make up for what he did to Moon by entrusting you with delivering his last power source to her, as the Rot has fully consumed him. I kind of just wish there was more to it, the gimmicks make the campaign way easier in the second half and it sort of just speeds by. I also do find Riv probably the least detached in terms of their goal, here it kind of just feels like Rivulet is helping make amends between FP and LTTM for the sake of an adventure, to the point Moon questions why you even helped her if you return to a completed save file.
Saint is ultimately my least favorite campaign, and it’s unfortunate, because it’s the most interesting of the bunch, providing an coda to the game’s world and characters. Taking place far in the future, I do love how transformative it is. Seeing the world suffer from an entropic cold that slowly saps Saint’s energy and makes the campaign more visually hostile is novel, as almost everything is frozen over. Five Pebbles is now in ruin, the rot and lack of power leading to his collapse. That all too familiar pathway from Chimney Canopy to the Wall being just gone made it really set in for me. I wish I could heap praise onto it; I saw many people hype up the campaign as the best part of the DLC, but Saint is where DP’s cracks really show.
To start with, Saint’s gameplay never really becomes enjoyable to me. The tougher spawns make the first half of the campaign tedious, where you have practically no self-defense. You’d think the ice age would lead to a more quiet, solemn campaign as the fauna struggle to adapt, but I digress. The tongue is a nice ability that opens up traversal, but compared to other scugs’ movement options, it just feels like a slightly altered version of grappling worms. Once reaching all the echoes, you’re given the ability to ascend enemies and fly on a shared recharge. Even disregarding how this trivializes every enemy in the overworld due to it being an instant kill, it’s finicky to control and makes the tongue kind of moot. While many of Downpour’s scugs have abilities that may not necessarily jive well with the game’s built-in difficulty and themes, they felt like a somewhat reasonable adaptation. Having ascension powers felt like a huge thematic deviation gameplay-wise from the base game given your decentering in the narrative and environment, and a deviation thematically from the DLC which is generally far more pessimistic with regards to ascension.
I’m also not sure about the echo dialogue changes and the anthropomorphizing of the Void Sea; it seems to have physically expanded upward with malicious intent, but on the other hand you’re ascending animals left and right using knowledge from Echoes that have turned on the belief system that got them there. It just feels very dissonant with both the base game’s ideas of escaping the cycles within a world you fundamentally can’t change, that is as it is, and DP’s favoring of life’s value even amidst its cyclical nature. I think it would’ve been fine if the game was being more explicit regarding ascension and enacting that onto others, or adding ambiguity if it was at least willing to engage the topic and its morality. Here you have a perfect chance with Five Pebbles and Looks to the Moon, both run down due to their circumstances and mistakes, but perhaps learning the value of life after going through much hardship, as DP seems to lean. Unfortunately, I feel the DLC doesn’t take this opportunity; they remain noncognizant of your ascension abilities, dying in silence. I understand FP’s reactions given his state, but even LTTM’s overseers nor her facility even acknowledge her passing, a disappointing deviation from their reactivity in the base game. As such the actual process of ascending them personally just felt hollow.
Something I noticed in general is that despite Downpour’s general turn in direction to making the slugcats extremely important to the narrative and our view of the world, I feel it’s still missing some of the reactivity of the original. There’s alternate endings, but their execution is lacking, most notably with the Outer Expanse endings available for Monk and Survivor. Instead of ascending, they find their home, the former reuniting with the latter when going to OE. Now, though I’m indecisive on these endings (the dream sequences imply they’ve given up seeing their family, but at the same time they also did assume that they had ascended), my biggest gripe is that Monk’s version always leads to them meeting up with their sibling, even if you ascended Survivor. I’m not sure why this permutation wasn’t considered, it feels incredibly jarring and could’ve led to something really emotional. Similarly, Moon’s overseers don’t really give a shit if you ascend her as Saint.
Unfortunately, the final region Rubicon just sucks. I like the concept of it being oddly interpolated existing regions, but it’s essentially a giant, linear combat gauntlet with the hardest enemies in the game, and I had horrendous framerate drops with Miros Vultures and Guardians on the same screen (which considering the preciseness required to aim Saint’s relatively small ascension beam is frustrating). It’s arguably the worst combat segment in the game. The ending similarly leaves me disenchanted. FP and LTTM’s dialogue at the end of Rubicon leaves it very ambiguous whether ascending them even did anything, questioning if they truly escaped, or if they are just in a dream. It ends with Saint attempting to ascend a Void Worm, which results in them being completely drained of karma, seemingly becoming an echo as a result, and being sent back to the beginning of their campaign to relive their memories over again (though the fact you can transfer items between playthroughs via your stomach muddies it even more).
I’m not opposed to interpretative story elements; the base game does it all the time, and there are other games I enjoy with obscure interpretations/lore. However, Saint’s campaign to me oversteps the line because I don’t think any interpretation makes sense on its own merit. If Saint is a bodhisattva-esque figure who tries to help ascend all other beings before themselves, much like the Triple Affirmative was desired to be, what was the purpose of even going to Rubicon, which seems to end their mission early? If they’re anti-ascension, why do they impose it on other species, and why even go to Rubicon to get themselves stuck in echo hell? If this is Saint’s character arc, I don’t think DP communicates it very well either. Dev statements made after release if anything narrows potential theories even more (as they explicitly deconfirmed Saint’s origin as a triple affirmative and how Sliver of Straw potentially ascended, despite it being the subject of Challenge 70). Unfortunately, it feels like DP collapses at its finish line; like Saint themselves, I’m stuck cyclically trying to decipher what was even going on here.
It’s still a fun and brutal romp through the ever-shifting climate of Rain World, as always. Unfortunately, for a DLC whose aim was to expand and provide a full view of the Rain World timeline, it falters and kind of drags the whole thing down. Every campaign had something that bothered me. Either the campaign’s structure itself didn’t feel finely tuned by virtue of mid-campaign twists, weird balancing, or short length, or it felt thematically jarring either with the base game or itself. To speak nothing of the numerous technical issues with level geometry, performance, crashing, etc. that I had to deal with that wasn’t present in the base game. Most of all though, I can’t really make sense of what the DLC is generally trying to say. On the one hand, Rivulet, Gourmand, and Spearmaster give a sense that life is still precious in Rain World, it’s sacred, it’s worth protecting, despite the hostility, the rains, the infinitely repeating cycles. At the same time, Artificer warns against falling to life’s vices to the point it destroys you without any sort of enlightenment being possible, and Saint’s campaign makes the DLC’s anti-ascension slant way more tangled up.
Rain World very much is a game that reciprocates what you put into it, and I never could open myself up to DP; I guess I could chalk that up to just not being the experience the original was for me. Regardless, I think experimentation is better than rote repetition. The MSC team took a lot of commendable risks from a story and gameplay perspective releasing this, and there was a ton of content I didn’t get to experience myself (ex. expeditions, challenges, etc.). While Downpour swings for the fences, and misses frequently, I’m glad it exists, at the very least to give Rain World the flowers it deserves. Despite my numerous issues with Downpour, it feels bittersweet to finally close my chapter on one of the most unique worlds and games in the medium.
The incredibly tight and well-constructed EP to AC5’s bloated double album, Ace Combat Zero is a surprising accomplishment, perhaps the best game developed by a b-team I have ever played. It does feel like they configured Zero to avoid many of 5’s gameplay issues; ammo is no longer an issue, infinitely respawning enemies are essentially gone, the return line from AC04 returns, and the unlock system (though not perfect, even after 3 full runs in the 3 styles up to Ace, I wasn’t able to buy every plane), is much closer to 04’s less grindy mission unlock system than 5’s experience based version.
Gameplay-wise, it’s absolutely an improvement over the last game. Boresight is a good addition to the game, allowing you to cycle through targets more easily, and your wingman’s AI has been buffed, especially once set to use special weapons and disperse. Of the four games I’ve played they were the most aggressive and willing to finish off targets, and there were multiple times where I saw them steal my kills. While the flight model is more responsive and less of an interesting challenge than 4, it’s made up for by its enemies, which are far more dangerous and fun to fight than in the previous game. While its missions are closer to 04’s standard score attack missions, in comparison to 5 there are no outright gimmicky stinkers, while still not being afraid to mix it up.
What it lacks in campaign length (a full playthrough can easily be done in a cool 2-3 hours), it more than makes up for with the replayability of its fascinating Ace Style system. I think what makes this system even more interesting is that it’s less of an outright “morality system” and more a deconstruction of how wars are fought. Whether you choose to fight the game like a chivalrous knight or as a destructive demon salting Belka’s earth, ultimately, the terrible events of the game still occur all the same; war is still horrific regardless of how “clean” its combatants fight it.
It honestly shocks me that they were able to license out these planes from the MIC, given some of the messaging here, did they just uncritically give out the rights to their planes without looking at the actual story? The game in part feels inspired by the brutal Yugoslav wars of the 1990s, including the controversial involvement of foreign forces, and there’s a mission that’s a direct parallel to the firebombing of Dresden/Tokyo in WW2 committed by your allies, which has an impact on your wingmen. Multiple characters speak out about how these conflicts are dictated by unaffected politicians who aren’t putting their lives on the line and who are only interested in redrawing the borders of their countries to their favor, no matter how destructive the war becomes. These pilots at times come into conflict with more naïve pilots like PJ, convinced that they’re “pursuing peace” through war. This dichotomy almost feels like a counter to AC5’s protagonistic Razgriz Squadron who simultaneously dislike dogfighting and “are fighting for peace” while raining hell from above, which is a viewpoint that never goes challenged in 5. Generally, the war gets far grayer as you turn the tides in your favor and it stretches further and further, despite promises that the war will be over soon. It becomes a shift from an initial defense against an invading army (led by a newly elected authoritarian Belka, whose conditions were in part caused by the allied Osea’s efforts to destabilize their economy) to something far more imperialistic and “vengeful” as it were, long after you’ve liberated Ustio.
The biggest thing Ace Style impacts is the kinds of ace squadrons you fight, many of whom are a reflection of your fighting style which in turn influences how they view you. The documentary-styled presentation and its interviews with your former enemy aces boost the game’s campaign, though some of the ADR can be a bit funky. It’s interesting to see how these former foes respect and fear your power, seeing how the war and their encounters with you affected their outlooks and lives. This game is one of the better uses of a silent protagonist I’ve seen, portraying your ace as a then-undocumented, but critical part of the war whose legacy among those he downed is influenced by how fair you fight in your playthroughs. The music is also my favorite of the 4 AC games I’ve played, accentuated by its unique flamenco motifs, which match up extremely well with the dance-like dogfights you have with your enemies. The parallels to Arthurian legend are also very nice and help the game's unique atmosphere.
I was hesitant on giving this a perfect score given its length and some of its less consistent elements (some more characterization among your wingmen would’ve benefitted the game’s story more), but I realized it compares on par to all my 5s, especially in gameplay and thus I couldn’t justify not giving it one. There’s something so thrilling in lining up your speed, angle, and timing to nail a target. It’s a shame it didn’t receive the accolades it likely deserved when it released given it was overlooked due to most people seeing it as glorified DLC to 5, despite in my opinion being better in every aspect.
For the first time (at least for me), it feels like an Ace Combat game has finally hit its trifecta of story/thematics, presentation, and gameplay immaculately. Playing the final boss sequence with its intense atmosphere and portrayal, the iconic “Zero” scoring it, and really the whole game in general with my brother watching was one of the most enjoyable experiences I’ve ever had playing a game.
Gameplay-wise, it’s absolutely an improvement over the last game. Boresight is a good addition to the game, allowing you to cycle through targets more easily, and your wingman’s AI has been buffed, especially once set to use special weapons and disperse. Of the four games I’ve played they were the most aggressive and willing to finish off targets, and there were multiple times where I saw them steal my kills. While the flight model is more responsive and less of an interesting challenge than 4, it’s made up for by its enemies, which are far more dangerous and fun to fight than in the previous game. While its missions are closer to 04’s standard score attack missions, in comparison to 5 there are no outright gimmicky stinkers, while still not being afraid to mix it up.
What it lacks in campaign length (a full playthrough can easily be done in a cool 2-3 hours), it more than makes up for with the replayability of its fascinating Ace Style system. I think what makes this system even more interesting is that it’s less of an outright “morality system” and more a deconstruction of how wars are fought. Whether you choose to fight the game like a chivalrous knight or as a destructive demon salting Belka’s earth, ultimately, the terrible events of the game still occur all the same; war is still horrific regardless of how “clean” its combatants fight it.
It honestly shocks me that they were able to license out these planes from the MIC, given some of the messaging here, did they just uncritically give out the rights to their planes without looking at the actual story? The game in part feels inspired by the brutal Yugoslav wars of the 1990s, including the controversial involvement of foreign forces, and there’s a mission that’s a direct parallel to the firebombing of Dresden/Tokyo in WW2 committed by your allies, which has an impact on your wingmen. Multiple characters speak out about how these conflicts are dictated by unaffected politicians who aren’t putting their lives on the line and who are only interested in redrawing the borders of their countries to their favor, no matter how destructive the war becomes. These pilots at times come into conflict with more naïve pilots like PJ, convinced that they’re “pursuing peace” through war. This dichotomy almost feels like a counter to AC5’s protagonistic Razgriz Squadron who simultaneously dislike dogfighting and “are fighting for peace” while raining hell from above, which is a viewpoint that never goes challenged in 5. Generally, the war gets far grayer as you turn the tides in your favor and it stretches further and further, despite promises that the war will be over soon. It becomes a shift from an initial defense against an invading army (led by a newly elected authoritarian Belka, whose conditions were in part caused by the allied Osea’s efforts to destabilize their economy) to something far more imperialistic and “vengeful” as it were, long after you’ve liberated Ustio.
The biggest thing Ace Style impacts is the kinds of ace squadrons you fight, many of whom are a reflection of your fighting style which in turn influences how they view you. The documentary-styled presentation and its interviews with your former enemy aces boost the game’s campaign, though some of the ADR can be a bit funky. It’s interesting to see how these former foes respect and fear your power, seeing how the war and their encounters with you affected their outlooks and lives. This game is one of the better uses of a silent protagonist I’ve seen, portraying your ace as a then-undocumented, but critical part of the war whose legacy among those he downed is influenced by how fair you fight in your playthroughs. The music is also my favorite of the 4 AC games I’ve played, accentuated by its unique flamenco motifs, which match up extremely well with the dance-like dogfights you have with your enemies. The parallels to Arthurian legend are also very nice and help the game's unique atmosphere.
I was hesitant on giving this a perfect score given its length and some of its less consistent elements (some more characterization among your wingmen would’ve benefitted the game’s story more), but I realized it compares on par to all my 5s, especially in gameplay and thus I couldn’t justify not giving it one. There’s something so thrilling in lining up your speed, angle, and timing to nail a target. It’s a shame it didn’t receive the accolades it likely deserved when it released given it was overlooked due to most people seeing it as glorified DLC to 5, despite in my opinion being better in every aspect.
For the first time (at least for me), it feels like an Ace Combat game has finally hit its trifecta of story/thematics, presentation, and gameplay immaculately. Playing the final boss sequence with its intense atmosphere and portrayal, the iconic “Zero” scoring it, and really the whole game in general with my brother watching was one of the most enjoyable experiences I’ve ever had playing a game.
2015
This review contains spoilers
Six years. It’s been 6 long years since I last touched this game, only a couple of months after it became a bonafide phenomenon. My first real indie game, it was foundational, giving me my love for the indie scene, and my teen self really enjoyed its themes of exercising patience and practice non-violence, empathy, and self-defense juxtaposed with an industry far removed from such themes. Since then, I’ve played far more games, including its major inspiration in the MOTHER series and widened my horizons to a gaming landscape foreign to my former Nintendo/Yearly Sports Release™ loving self.
And yet, I was afraid of replaying it, as my tastes have changed dramatically. I’m… a bit mixed on Deltarune. From a mechanical, gameplay, and aesthetic perspective, it is undoubtedly better than Undertale. The comic tone of 90% of the currently released chapters didn’t really land with me, and while there are some interesting themes of player control and freedom of choice, they haven’t yet really developed nor are super appealing to me as of now (I'll chalk this one up to not really enjoying the release strategy, I would've preferred to wait until the full game came out). In these regards, Chapter 2 was a solid improvement, but Chapter 1 really sort of made me feel disillusioned as it was around that time that I lost interest in following the franchise. Coupling that with me generally losing interest or not enjoying games of the “quirky RPG” variety besides MOTHER, and being worried about how well its thematic layers hold up after so long, I was afraid that my nostalgia for the game wouldn’t hold up under scrutiny.
I was wrong to be so scared. While some elements haven’t aged as gracefully, overall, this game comes together in a way that made it far better than I thought it was going to be. Something that I appreciate now is that despite the game often taking control away from the player through bouts of humorous cutscenes, the game is remarkably well-paced from region to region. The Ruins works as a nice tutorial over the game’s basic gameplay and premise, and Waterfall serves as a very atmospheric (and at times tense) midpoint between the more setpiece-oriented ends of the game. Given how short it is, it does its job well enough I think as it ramps up the more serious elements as you progress.
I think the “bullet-hell meets RPG” gameplay was a solid twist, especially when the rules are changed (mostly in bosses) and force you to adjust your playing to account for the change in mechanics. While Toby would refine it into something more dynamic in Deltarune, it’s still solid, if basic today (I’m surprised the gameplay’s controversial today). Non-boss combat is at its best when many enemies are on screen, allowing for patterns to combine and merge. I like the dichotomy of how the low encounter rate sort of incentivizes a more pacifistic approach to gameplay (given this is the route the game would rather you be on) along with other tweaks (ex. if you’re pacifistic, you can generally avoid spending money on weapons and instead focus on armor, you can buy less effective healing items as your HP never increases, etc.). It’s balanced enough for combat to not get tiring (given sparing’s flowchartiness). The biggest reward of being pacifistic is that Toby rewards you with more character interaction (what he excels at), even if through simple 10-minute scenes, which works well for the length of this game.
Obviously, it also goes without saying that the soundtrack is both iconic and incredible to this day. It’s eclectic in the wide usage of sound fonts and motifs but it sets the game apart and is IMO some of the best you can find in the medium. It’s hard to even highlight specific tracks because they are so many bangers. If I had to pick, a couple of my favorites are Waterfall, Another Medium, Bergentrückung, Finale, Hopes and Dreams, Battle Against a True Hero, the title track, An Ending, and Respite.
I think what I most held under scrutiny when revisiting the game was the writing and story. Does it hold up? I would say that it does, but not entirely. I feel elements of the humor definitely didn't age as well, which I expected. Papyrus’s high-strung and overly naive/boastful personality clashing with Sans's laid-back and absurd jokes works, but the humor sort of loses its groove as you enter Hotland. I didn’t find Alphys’s clumsy sheepishness that funny, especially in conjunction with the weaker setpieces of Mettaton’s kinda repetitive TV show, and there are other segments that just don’t really work as well. Even so, when the jokes didn't land in the way they were intended, it sort of worked sometimes as a form of anti-humor as it can get really silly. It’s perfectly understandable that this would put someone off enjoying the game though, it occupies a LOT of the runtime and if it doesn’t work for you, I don’t think you’re likely to finish the game.
However, if you can handle the game's unabashedly eccentric tone and characters, they are very likable. I think the best way to describe them is very personable and distinct, if not particularly deep character portraits (it is like a 6-hour game per playthrough, I'm not expecting much). I think this is entirely subjective, but there's a sort of twee sincerity to the tone of the game that made the humor fit in better (even when it’s not really funny) and boosts the more emotional moments (and I think for me this is where a lot of games of this type fail to hit the mark, that they just aren’t really as “sincere” to me). The more involved setpieces, especially near the end of the game are where the writing shines best for me and combining it with the soundtrack and charming characters makes it very effective. True Pacifist was as sentimental and heartwarming as I remember it being.
The game thematically is still very well done as a rejection of the standard JRPG gameplay of mindlessly killing rows of nameless husks. Is it subtle? Absolutely not. Is it effective though? I think so. Little touches like the game chastising the player if you reset a previous run due to killing someone and generally being cognizant of what you’ve done and how that impacts people helps convey the message the game is trying to deliver (the Neutral endings, in particular, being a smart but inexpensive way to personalize each possible route depending on who you spared). I find its critique of the player’s choices on the genocide run especially effective as the game knows most people's motivation is borne of curiosity and completionism rather than hatred (even down to critiquing those who simply choose to watch those playthroughs as "sickos that stand around and WATCH it happen… but are too weak to do it themselves. I bet someone like that’s watching right now, aren’t they?"). I wouldn’t say the game is a complete deconstruction of the JRPG more that it satirizes and manipulates specific tropes (ex. having “monsters” that do not act like malicious, thoughtless creatures, the EXP/LV twist, SAVE/LOADing). In that sense, I think the meta elements take a backseat and isn’t as developed as the more focused and effective commentary on player morality, but both work well.
I will have to say I think the only part where the game confuses itself narratively and thematically is with The Fallen Human (the one you name) and their role in the story. A big twist is that you expect to name the character after the one you’re controlling (like most JRPGs), but you’re actually naming the first human who fell down (whereas the protagonist is the 7th). In Genocide, they’re used sort of as a representation of the satisfaction of when a JRPG player’s stats rise when winning a fight. IMO it seems like commentary on the bloodlusted design of JRPGs, and so, given how you just played, it feels like you’re meant to be one and the same (especially with the way Flowey refers to the player by the Fallen Human’s name in all routes, not just Genocide). However, their backstory shows they’re their own character who was important to the Underground, and who had their own issues with morality. I’m not sure if they’re meant to be a character who suffered a poor childhood leading to their fall that we should have some empathy for, if they’re simply a representation of remorseless violence committed by the player in JRPGs, or both? Maybe I missed something, but it feels like the game sort of wants to have its cake and eat it too in that regard. It’s a minor element though.
Ultimately it feels like this game is greater than the sum of its, to quote Toby himself, “8/10, niche RPG” parts, even nearing 7 years removed from its release. I do have to knock it for some of its messier qualities, like it not being as funny today, it being relatively basic gameplay-wise (fun as it was), and some quibbles with minor thematic and story elements (True Lab in particular coming out of nowhere). If you can get over its notable flaws, though, it does enough to set it apart and above most of its contemporaries, including some of its inspirations. For the size of its dev team, it’s remarkably ambitious, it’s thematically solid, its characters affable, and it wears its heart on its sleeve (or quite literally, on its desktop icon). This game left an indelible mark on the gaming industry, especially in the indie scene, and regardless of what comes next for this type of indie RPG, this franchise, and Toby himself, I’m both glad to have played and revisited it all this time later, taking me back to a time where things just felt less jaded. Its honesty, whimsicality, and unique atmosphere still make it worth experiencing in 2022, spoiled or not. Despite everything, it's still Undertale, even after all these years.
And yet, I was afraid of replaying it, as my tastes have changed dramatically. I’m… a bit mixed on Deltarune. From a mechanical, gameplay, and aesthetic perspective, it is undoubtedly better than Undertale. The comic tone of 90% of the currently released chapters didn’t really land with me, and while there are some interesting themes of player control and freedom of choice, they haven’t yet really developed nor are super appealing to me as of now (I'll chalk this one up to not really enjoying the release strategy, I would've preferred to wait until the full game came out). In these regards, Chapter 2 was a solid improvement, but Chapter 1 really sort of made me feel disillusioned as it was around that time that I lost interest in following the franchise. Coupling that with me generally losing interest or not enjoying games of the “quirky RPG” variety besides MOTHER, and being worried about how well its thematic layers hold up after so long, I was afraid that my nostalgia for the game wouldn’t hold up under scrutiny.
I was wrong to be so scared. While some elements haven’t aged as gracefully, overall, this game comes together in a way that made it far better than I thought it was going to be. Something that I appreciate now is that despite the game often taking control away from the player through bouts of humorous cutscenes, the game is remarkably well-paced from region to region. The Ruins works as a nice tutorial over the game’s basic gameplay and premise, and Waterfall serves as a very atmospheric (and at times tense) midpoint between the more setpiece-oriented ends of the game. Given how short it is, it does its job well enough I think as it ramps up the more serious elements as you progress.
I think the “bullet-hell meets RPG” gameplay was a solid twist, especially when the rules are changed (mostly in bosses) and force you to adjust your playing to account for the change in mechanics. While Toby would refine it into something more dynamic in Deltarune, it’s still solid, if basic today (I’m surprised the gameplay’s controversial today). Non-boss combat is at its best when many enemies are on screen, allowing for patterns to combine and merge. I like the dichotomy of how the low encounter rate sort of incentivizes a more pacifistic approach to gameplay (given this is the route the game would rather you be on) along with other tweaks (ex. if you’re pacifistic, you can generally avoid spending money on weapons and instead focus on armor, you can buy less effective healing items as your HP never increases, etc.). It’s balanced enough for combat to not get tiring (given sparing’s flowchartiness). The biggest reward of being pacifistic is that Toby rewards you with more character interaction (what he excels at), even if through simple 10-minute scenes, which works well for the length of this game.
Obviously, it also goes without saying that the soundtrack is both iconic and incredible to this day. It’s eclectic in the wide usage of sound fonts and motifs but it sets the game apart and is IMO some of the best you can find in the medium. It’s hard to even highlight specific tracks because they are so many bangers. If I had to pick, a couple of my favorites are Waterfall, Another Medium, Bergentrückung, Finale, Hopes and Dreams, Battle Against a True Hero, the title track, An Ending, and Respite.
I think what I most held under scrutiny when revisiting the game was the writing and story. Does it hold up? I would say that it does, but not entirely. I feel elements of the humor definitely didn't age as well, which I expected. Papyrus’s high-strung and overly naive/boastful personality clashing with Sans's laid-back and absurd jokes works, but the humor sort of loses its groove as you enter Hotland. I didn’t find Alphys’s clumsy sheepishness that funny, especially in conjunction with the weaker setpieces of Mettaton’s kinda repetitive TV show, and there are other segments that just don’t really work as well. Even so, when the jokes didn't land in the way they were intended, it sort of worked sometimes as a form of anti-humor as it can get really silly. It’s perfectly understandable that this would put someone off enjoying the game though, it occupies a LOT of the runtime and if it doesn’t work for you, I don’t think you’re likely to finish the game.
However, if you can handle the game's unabashedly eccentric tone and characters, they are very likable. I think the best way to describe them is very personable and distinct, if not particularly deep character portraits (it is like a 6-hour game per playthrough, I'm not expecting much). I think this is entirely subjective, but there's a sort of twee sincerity to the tone of the game that made the humor fit in better (even when it’s not really funny) and boosts the more emotional moments (and I think for me this is where a lot of games of this type fail to hit the mark, that they just aren’t really as “sincere” to me). The more involved setpieces, especially near the end of the game are where the writing shines best for me and combining it with the soundtrack and charming characters makes it very effective. True Pacifist was as sentimental and heartwarming as I remember it being.
The game thematically is still very well done as a rejection of the standard JRPG gameplay of mindlessly killing rows of nameless husks. Is it subtle? Absolutely not. Is it effective though? I think so. Little touches like the game chastising the player if you reset a previous run due to killing someone and generally being cognizant of what you’ve done and how that impacts people helps convey the message the game is trying to deliver (the Neutral endings, in particular, being a smart but inexpensive way to personalize each possible route depending on who you spared). I find its critique of the player’s choices on the genocide run especially effective as the game knows most people's motivation is borne of curiosity and completionism rather than hatred (even down to critiquing those who simply choose to watch those playthroughs as "sickos that stand around and WATCH it happen… but are too weak to do it themselves. I bet someone like that’s watching right now, aren’t they?"). I wouldn’t say the game is a complete deconstruction of the JRPG more that it satirizes and manipulates specific tropes (ex. having “monsters” that do not act like malicious, thoughtless creatures, the EXP/LV twist, SAVE/LOADing). In that sense, I think the meta elements take a backseat and isn’t as developed as the more focused and effective commentary on player morality, but both work well.
I will have to say I think the only part where the game confuses itself narratively and thematically is with The Fallen Human (the one you name) and their role in the story. A big twist is that you expect to name the character after the one you’re controlling (like most JRPGs), but you’re actually naming the first human who fell down (whereas the protagonist is the 7th). In Genocide, they’re used sort of as a representation of the satisfaction of when a JRPG player’s stats rise when winning a fight. IMO it seems like commentary on the bloodlusted design of JRPGs, and so, given how you just played, it feels like you’re meant to be one and the same (especially with the way Flowey refers to the player by the Fallen Human’s name in all routes, not just Genocide). However, their backstory shows they’re their own character who was important to the Underground, and who had their own issues with morality. I’m not sure if they’re meant to be a character who suffered a poor childhood leading to their fall that we should have some empathy for, if they’re simply a representation of remorseless violence committed by the player in JRPGs, or both? Maybe I missed something, but it feels like the game sort of wants to have its cake and eat it too in that regard. It’s a minor element though.
Ultimately it feels like this game is greater than the sum of its, to quote Toby himself, “8/10, niche RPG” parts, even nearing 7 years removed from its release. I do have to knock it for some of its messier qualities, like it not being as funny today, it being relatively basic gameplay-wise (fun as it was), and some quibbles with minor thematic and story elements (True Lab in particular coming out of nowhere). If you can get over its notable flaws, though, it does enough to set it apart and above most of its contemporaries, including some of its inspirations. For the size of its dev team, it’s remarkably ambitious, it’s thematically solid, its characters affable, and it wears its heart on its sleeve (or quite literally, on its desktop icon). This game left an indelible mark on the gaming industry, especially in the indie scene, and regardless of what comes next for this type of indie RPG, this franchise, and Toby himself, I’m both glad to have played and revisited it all this time later, taking me back to a time where things just felt less jaded. Its honesty, whimsicality, and unique atmosphere still make it worth experiencing in 2022, spoiled or not. Despite everything, it's still Undertale, even after all these years.
2021
This review contains spoilers
For me, this game was a mixed bag. I think I’ll start with the positives. The visuals are absolutely the highlight of this game, at least with regards to how absolutely insane, psychedelic, and vibrant they are, though definitely take note of those epilepsy warnings. The combination of high contrast and filters can add to the challenge of the game and is very unique. The soundtrack’s decent too, though it’s not something I think I’ll be going back to often. It works when it needs to.
I think the general gameplay loop is rather fun too. It’s not really a rhythm game as notes are released to the beat, but it still takes a couple of seconds for you to actually have to dodge them. It’s cool though, and you can get a lot of enjoyment from dodging and attacking back (done by absorbing notes). Obviously the game takes twists with this, including notes that you can’t jump over, notes that do extra damage, and notes that you can’t absorb, so it’s kept pretty varied throughout the run time. Combining that with the wide array of filters and kaleidoscopic visuals meant to throw you off constantly keeps you on your toes. The difficulty settings are also very accommodating, which I appreciate a lot. I do wish sprinting wasn’t as poor though, it’s maybe one of the weakest implementations I’ve seen in a game (double tap to run, can’t sprint diagonally, and changing directions loses sprint).
SPOILERS:
Where the game falls apart for me is the story, and that is sad because it clearly relies on being emotionally resonant. In essence, the jaunty, quirky 1st half for me actively undermines the last half’s twist and message. The first part introduces you to around 30 Everhood inhabitants with an Undertale-inspired tone but doesn’t really delve into any, most are reduced to singular traits (ex. the disaffected young worker, the vampire that changes his name each time you speak to them, the other vampire who sneezes a lot). It feels like the only characters that shine are Blue Thief & Green Mage (go figure, they’re the most popular characters). I think this is the game’s biggest fumble, there’s too many characters it needs to get you emotionally invested in for the last act to work and is too vague until the twist. You go on wacky fun hijinks, but it feels aimless as it doesn’t build to your goal of getting your arm and why you’re doing it besides it being yours.
The second half of this game consists of you using your arm to kill every inhabitant of the realm; the premise being that this world is inhabited by immortals who have both forgotten their previous existence as mortals and lost their minds due to immortal boredom, and they stole your arm as you’re essentially the Grim Reaper, meant to send them to the next cycle of life instead of keeping them in existential agony. The message of “immortality is a curse” is not inherently flawed and I’ve enjoyed plenty of media with similar messages, my problem is the game does a very poor job of convincing you that this is what’s best for the inhabitants, especially given the tone and hijinks of the 1st half.
The only evidence of the world’s origins before the twist are three lore notes, besides that none of the characters’ attitudes really point to them suffering in immortality or wanting to die (bar Green’s infinitely tallied wall), and this is mainly due to the goofy tone the game takes in the first half. Additionally it feels a bit weird that the characters are simultaneously going insane from supposedly "running out of things to do" but also suffering selective amnesia, like do those not cancel each other out? Some people point to the Lost Spirits as evidence that those currently living in Everhood are preventing these spirits (who presumably died before the events of the game, whether by the protagonist or by other causes like the Incinerator) from moving on, but the same notes imply that the right to go to Everhood was granted to millions, so why did those millions get to move on?
Additionally, the game does some of that player critique that Undertale does once you go onto the intended path of murdering absolutely everyone, including Frog (the character who’s been trying to convince you to end this realm’s existence and has been portrayed as the character fighting for the "right ideals"), who when asked about why this was necessary, explicitly says that the protagonist "wanted to experience this... Becoming death incarnated". This is normally fine given the initial framing of this twist, but the game provides none of the choice that made UT’s critique of the player’s actions affecting so it falls somewhat flat. If you explicitly choose to not kill, you engage in a separate battle with Frog. Managing to outlast them results in Frog being revealed to be a Lost Spirit who is then allowed to leave Everhood. It makes the previous point about “killing everyone to allow everyone including the Lost Spirits to move on” muddied because why is Frog allowed to move on and not the other Lost Spirits?
After said battle, the game allows you to load back into the save and complete the game as normal, so it doesn’t even really qualify as an ending. I wish this was an actual bad ending, or at least upon loading had shown a marked shift in the characters' dialogue, accepting that their continued existence is pain, and that they wish to move on. As it stands, the characters both feel one note such that I struggled to care for the vast majority when it came time to kill them, yet undeserving of death given their feelings. It feels like the game is unfairly manipulating the player by having these NPCs fear for their lives, then 5 minutes before credits roll suddenly do a 180 and thank us for killing them while they wait for the next cycle of life.
I think my last critiques of the story is that its main route really doesn’t know when to end; there are essentially 4 “final bosses”, you can feel the ending stretching itself thin with each one, and the other endings raise more questions than answers and are unsatisfying. After the Cat God fight, why is Orange building a second body for Pink if they've been opposed to us for the entirety of the game? The secret Dev fight just ends with credits (and you have to go on a fetch quest to even unlock it), and the Corridor ending is essentially just the Pacifist one (choosing to not kill, but being allowed to come back and finish the job) but you wasted 4 hours walking down a corridor. Considering how difficult the requirements and fights are, these are some crummy endings. I, for one am glad to have turned down the difficulty for the former two endings and avoided the latter ending entirely. I would have genuinely put down my rating by another star had I wasted 3 or more hours of my life doing the superbosses. As someone who loves delving into the deeper lore of media, I received little satisfaction. The game's story does give off a very psychedelic feeling to go along with the graphics, but it's just not really compelling due to the lack of real characterization, and its bizarre impulse to twist and turn, or be reticent rather than be coherent.
It’s unfortunate that it failed to click with me despite the solid gameplay and being recommended to me by friends. Maybe I am reading too much into this story that should be taken at face value and not read into that deeply despite the philosophical themes. It almost feels like keeping the game entirely off the wall like the first half would have been better as it was clearly more in their wheelhouse. Even if the characters fell flat, at least it was fun and honest, because it really feels that the lack of sincerity, satisfaction, its poorly executed subversions/messaging in the 2nd half twist and all the alternate endings damages the game immensely. Ultimately, it still hasn’t escaped my mind because I really felt it had a lot of potential, and I hope Foreign Gnomes can learn a lot from this experience as they clearly have good chops in visuals, aesthetic, and gameplay.
I think the general gameplay loop is rather fun too. It’s not really a rhythm game as notes are released to the beat, but it still takes a couple of seconds for you to actually have to dodge them. It’s cool though, and you can get a lot of enjoyment from dodging and attacking back (done by absorbing notes). Obviously the game takes twists with this, including notes that you can’t jump over, notes that do extra damage, and notes that you can’t absorb, so it’s kept pretty varied throughout the run time. Combining that with the wide array of filters and kaleidoscopic visuals meant to throw you off constantly keeps you on your toes. The difficulty settings are also very accommodating, which I appreciate a lot. I do wish sprinting wasn’t as poor though, it’s maybe one of the weakest implementations I’ve seen in a game (double tap to run, can’t sprint diagonally, and changing directions loses sprint).
SPOILERS:
Where the game falls apart for me is the story, and that is sad because it clearly relies on being emotionally resonant. In essence, the jaunty, quirky 1st half for me actively undermines the last half’s twist and message. The first part introduces you to around 30 Everhood inhabitants with an Undertale-inspired tone but doesn’t really delve into any, most are reduced to singular traits (ex. the disaffected young worker, the vampire that changes his name each time you speak to them, the other vampire who sneezes a lot). It feels like the only characters that shine are Blue Thief & Green Mage (go figure, they’re the most popular characters). I think this is the game’s biggest fumble, there’s too many characters it needs to get you emotionally invested in for the last act to work and is too vague until the twist. You go on wacky fun hijinks, but it feels aimless as it doesn’t build to your goal of getting your arm and why you’re doing it besides it being yours.
The second half of this game consists of you using your arm to kill every inhabitant of the realm; the premise being that this world is inhabited by immortals who have both forgotten their previous existence as mortals and lost their minds due to immortal boredom, and they stole your arm as you’re essentially the Grim Reaper, meant to send them to the next cycle of life instead of keeping them in existential agony. The message of “immortality is a curse” is not inherently flawed and I’ve enjoyed plenty of media with similar messages, my problem is the game does a very poor job of convincing you that this is what’s best for the inhabitants, especially given the tone and hijinks of the 1st half.
The only evidence of the world’s origins before the twist are three lore notes, besides that none of the characters’ attitudes really point to them suffering in immortality or wanting to die (bar Green’s infinitely tallied wall), and this is mainly due to the goofy tone the game takes in the first half. Additionally it feels a bit weird that the characters are simultaneously going insane from supposedly "running out of things to do" but also suffering selective amnesia, like do those not cancel each other out? Some people point to the Lost Spirits as evidence that those currently living in Everhood are preventing these spirits (who presumably died before the events of the game, whether by the protagonist or by other causes like the Incinerator) from moving on, but the same notes imply that the right to go to Everhood was granted to millions, so why did those millions get to move on?
Additionally, the game does some of that player critique that Undertale does once you go onto the intended path of murdering absolutely everyone, including Frog (the character who’s been trying to convince you to end this realm’s existence and has been portrayed as the character fighting for the "right ideals"), who when asked about why this was necessary, explicitly says that the protagonist "wanted to experience this... Becoming death incarnated". This is normally fine given the initial framing of this twist, but the game provides none of the choice that made UT’s critique of the player’s actions affecting so it falls somewhat flat. If you explicitly choose to not kill, you engage in a separate battle with Frog. Managing to outlast them results in Frog being revealed to be a Lost Spirit who is then allowed to leave Everhood. It makes the previous point about “killing everyone to allow everyone including the Lost Spirits to move on” muddied because why is Frog allowed to move on and not the other Lost Spirits?
After said battle, the game allows you to load back into the save and complete the game as normal, so it doesn’t even really qualify as an ending. I wish this was an actual bad ending, or at least upon loading had shown a marked shift in the characters' dialogue, accepting that their continued existence is pain, and that they wish to move on. As it stands, the characters both feel one note such that I struggled to care for the vast majority when it came time to kill them, yet undeserving of death given their feelings. It feels like the game is unfairly manipulating the player by having these NPCs fear for their lives, then 5 minutes before credits roll suddenly do a 180 and thank us for killing them while they wait for the next cycle of life.
I think my last critiques of the story is that its main route really doesn’t know when to end; there are essentially 4 “final bosses”, you can feel the ending stretching itself thin with each one, and the other endings raise more questions than answers and are unsatisfying. After the Cat God fight, why is Orange building a second body for Pink if they've been opposed to us for the entirety of the game? The secret Dev fight just ends with credits (and you have to go on a fetch quest to even unlock it), and the Corridor ending is essentially just the Pacifist one (choosing to not kill, but being allowed to come back and finish the job) but you wasted 4 hours walking down a corridor. Considering how difficult the requirements and fights are, these are some crummy endings. I, for one am glad to have turned down the difficulty for the former two endings and avoided the latter ending entirely. I would have genuinely put down my rating by another star had I wasted 3 or more hours of my life doing the superbosses. As someone who loves delving into the deeper lore of media, I received little satisfaction. The game's story does give off a very psychedelic feeling to go along with the graphics, but it's just not really compelling due to the lack of real characterization, and its bizarre impulse to twist and turn, or be reticent rather than be coherent.
It’s unfortunate that it failed to click with me despite the solid gameplay and being recommended to me by friends. Maybe I am reading too much into this story that should be taken at face value and not read into that deeply despite the philosophical themes. It almost feels like keeping the game entirely off the wall like the first half would have been better as it was clearly more in their wheelhouse. Even if the characters fell flat, at least it was fun and honest, because it really feels that the lack of sincerity, satisfaction, its poorly executed subversions/messaging in the 2nd half twist and all the alternate endings damages the game immensely. Ultimately, it still hasn’t escaped my mind because I really felt it had a lot of potential, and I hope Foreign Gnomes can learn a lot from this experience as they clearly have good chops in visuals, aesthetic, and gameplay.
2009
This review contains spoilers
I think the music and atmosphere carries this game pretty hard, and the gunplay is good, it's not too far removed from Halo 3's. The Automag pistol was a nice change of pace from the at the time standard Battle Rifle precision weapon (which I believe is completely absent in this game). Firefight was also a great addition to the franchise and it is very fun. While I do enjoy Reach's customization features, ODST's atmosphere really lends to the desolation that comes in this gamemode.
I also think the open-world loop in a destroyed city was rather experimental and it was a nice change of pace as well as a breather for the more linear levels. It's a good size considering you'll usually be on foot. I definitely like the unique aesthetic, aged as it is. Despite being over a decade old I find the nighttime hub levels very engrossing and immersive to be in. Stuff like the Engineer graffiti and seeing the aftermath of small setpieces both within the flashback levels and in the hubworld also added to the sense of a ruined city after having gone through an apocalyptic battle. Lastly, the soundtrack is one of the best you can find in gaming, incredibly unique among the Halo games.
However, I think my biggest issue is what we got narratively and mechanically wasn't really hitting the tone I feel like they should've aimed for here. The "WE ARE ODST" trailers set up this incredibly gritty story; you're an ODST, not a Spartan, with a lack of physical augmentations and simple metallic body armor, you need your wits about you to survive against enemies that are far outmatching you in physicality and weaponry. Your comrades will die, but you will have to soldier on without them, as the fate of humanity hangs in the balance.
Ultimately though, what we actually get feels far more Whedon-y in tone. Alpha-Nine are jokesters through and through, and you never really get the sense that they actually truly came together as a team, especially since most of the game keeps them fractured (I also found the scene where Romeo gets injured very weird when it comes to this team cohesion message, as they wait until the next mission chronologically to do anything about it). Bungie weren't known for being great writers but at times the dialogue in this game could get really grating, and I find it odd that they saved the grittier tone for the next game in Reach. Overall this game is let down by me just not really enjoying the writing or general story, I think it could have been done better and this is part of the problem with the tone not reflecting what I think fits the marketing, the atmosphere, or what I think was generally expected, and thus being dissonant.
The gameplay itself also doesn't help when it comes to setting the tone of the game and being a novel twist on the Halo formula; playing through each of the Halo games on Legendary, this one was by far the easiest, and I really wish they had done more to change the gameplay to fit being an ODST. Shields are replaced with "stamina" which recharges slower, as well as non-regenerating health requiring you to pick up Optican health packs to heal up. In essence, it's a slower version of CE's health system, but frankly, it still feels like you're playing as a Spartan. You can still do absurd feats of strength like hijacking vehicles, take large amounts of damage before dying even on Legendary (at least considering you're playing as an ODST), and your stamina even drains much like shields do in Halo 3 when hit with a Power Drain, which felt really lazy, this should have been changed. Also, this is a nitpick, but it's a huge shame that Elites didn't return as an enemy given the fact that (at least according to Halo 2's story), the inciting incidents that started the Changing of the Guard/Great Schism hadn't happened yet, so to explain their absence (bar their corpses) they had to rewrite it so that the betrayal of the Elites was executed earlier. I think they would've been a great addition to 3's gameplay loop and likely added more challenge.
It's a okay game, but it combines a narrative and gameplay loop that sort of undermines what it felt like the game should be aiming for tonally (in other words, the former is too stilted and jarring, and the latter is not novel or difficult enough). Lastly, it feeling like DLC for 3 despite the full price tag and combining that with the samey gameplay and at times annoying writing makes this the weakest title in Bungie's Halo games. However, there's cool ideas here and it's certainly one of the most unique in the series (also Huragoks are awesome, I love their design). Worth checking out if you have MCC.
I also think the open-world loop in a destroyed city was rather experimental and it was a nice change of pace as well as a breather for the more linear levels. It's a good size considering you'll usually be on foot. I definitely like the unique aesthetic, aged as it is. Despite being over a decade old I find the nighttime hub levels very engrossing and immersive to be in. Stuff like the Engineer graffiti and seeing the aftermath of small setpieces both within the flashback levels and in the hubworld also added to the sense of a ruined city after having gone through an apocalyptic battle. Lastly, the soundtrack is one of the best you can find in gaming, incredibly unique among the Halo games.
However, I think my biggest issue is what we got narratively and mechanically wasn't really hitting the tone I feel like they should've aimed for here. The "WE ARE ODST" trailers set up this incredibly gritty story; you're an ODST, not a Spartan, with a lack of physical augmentations and simple metallic body armor, you need your wits about you to survive against enemies that are far outmatching you in physicality and weaponry. Your comrades will die, but you will have to soldier on without them, as the fate of humanity hangs in the balance.
Ultimately though, what we actually get feels far more Whedon-y in tone. Alpha-Nine are jokesters through and through, and you never really get the sense that they actually truly came together as a team, especially since most of the game keeps them fractured (I also found the scene where Romeo gets injured very weird when it comes to this team cohesion message, as they wait until the next mission chronologically to do anything about it). Bungie weren't known for being great writers but at times the dialogue in this game could get really grating, and I find it odd that they saved the grittier tone for the next game in Reach. Overall this game is let down by me just not really enjoying the writing or general story, I think it could have been done better and this is part of the problem with the tone not reflecting what I think fits the marketing, the atmosphere, or what I think was generally expected, and thus being dissonant.
The gameplay itself also doesn't help when it comes to setting the tone of the game and being a novel twist on the Halo formula; playing through each of the Halo games on Legendary, this one was by far the easiest, and I really wish they had done more to change the gameplay to fit being an ODST. Shields are replaced with "stamina" which recharges slower, as well as non-regenerating health requiring you to pick up Optican health packs to heal up. In essence, it's a slower version of CE's health system, but frankly, it still feels like you're playing as a Spartan. You can still do absurd feats of strength like hijacking vehicles, take large amounts of damage before dying even on Legendary (at least considering you're playing as an ODST), and your stamina even drains much like shields do in Halo 3 when hit with a Power Drain, which felt really lazy, this should have been changed. Also, this is a nitpick, but it's a huge shame that Elites didn't return as an enemy given the fact that (at least according to Halo 2's story), the inciting incidents that started the Changing of the Guard/Great Schism hadn't happened yet, so to explain their absence (bar their corpses) they had to rewrite it so that the betrayal of the Elites was executed earlier. I think they would've been a great addition to 3's gameplay loop and likely added more challenge.
It's a okay game, but it combines a narrative and gameplay loop that sort of undermines what it felt like the game should be aiming for tonally (in other words, the former is too stilted and jarring, and the latter is not novel or difficult enough). Lastly, it feeling like DLC for 3 despite the full price tag and combining that with the samey gameplay and at times annoying writing makes this the weakest title in Bungie's Halo games. However, there's cool ideas here and it's certainly one of the most unique in the series (also Huragoks are awesome, I love their design). Worth checking out if you have MCC.
2019
A beautifully unforgettable, inimitable experience. Outer Wilds places you in a wonderfully well-crafted solar system with charming inhabitants, and plenty of secrets to discover, in which each piece of knowledge can allow you to unearth more nooks and crannies of these wilds. It's hard to go into too many details as this is a game that is heavily undermined by getting into specifics, but the way each geographic element and puzzle complements each other despite being explored completely non-linearly is incredibly unique. The only thing guiding you anywhere is your own curiosity and past knowledge, which accumulates as you play more.
Coming from a decent Kerbal Space Program player, the ship's controls and powerful/nimble thrusters along with a nice autopilot do a great job of allowing beginners to get acquainted with orbital mechanics and space exploration, for me, it fit like a glove. Definitely make sure to play this on controller though, there's certain mechanics that benefit from the precise controls of a stick and analog triggers.
It's so singular in how both desolate and comforting it is to explore these miniature, yet dense celestial bodies. Adding onto this is the similarly contrasting and wonderful art style which is homely and foreign when appropriate. The game feels so alien and yet so human in its aesthetics, dialogue, and character, the homeliness of the wooden yet scifi designs of your ship and the Hearthians compared with the anomalies and Nomaian ruins/technology left to discover in the solar system. The technical achievement of making such a dynamic setting work almost completely seamlessly at the indie level, where every piece fits together like clockwork while being one of the most nonlinear games I've ever played makes it so special. Add onto that a post-rock/electronic/folk-inspired soundtrack that goes toe-to-toe with some of the best in the medium combined with some of my favorite set pieces (of which I dare not spoil, they truly can only be experienced for the first time once), and this is my favorite game of all time.
It's interesting how I first discovered this game all the way back in middle school as Scott Manley had visited it as a simple alpha release. At the time, I thought it was a cool concept despite the (at the time) simplistic appearance, dialogue, and the general lack of polish. Still, I thought it had lots of potential but I lamented the fact I would likely not be able to play it, as I didn't start PC gaming until I became an adult. So, I promptly and completely forgot about it for another 6 years until friends immediately recommended I buy it. Now I find myself here singing its praises along with pretty much everyone else here. I guess it's true: there's always more to explore here.
Coming from a decent Kerbal Space Program player, the ship's controls and powerful/nimble thrusters along with a nice autopilot do a great job of allowing beginners to get acquainted with orbital mechanics and space exploration, for me, it fit like a glove. Definitely make sure to play this on controller though, there's certain mechanics that benefit from the precise controls of a stick and analog triggers.
It's so singular in how both desolate and comforting it is to explore these miniature, yet dense celestial bodies. Adding onto this is the similarly contrasting and wonderful art style which is homely and foreign when appropriate. The game feels so alien and yet so human in its aesthetics, dialogue, and character, the homeliness of the wooden yet scifi designs of your ship and the Hearthians compared with the anomalies and Nomaian ruins/technology left to discover in the solar system. The technical achievement of making such a dynamic setting work almost completely seamlessly at the indie level, where every piece fits together like clockwork while being one of the most nonlinear games I've ever played makes it so special. Add onto that a post-rock/electronic/folk-inspired soundtrack that goes toe-to-toe with some of the best in the medium combined with some of my favorite set pieces (of which I dare not spoil, they truly can only be experienced for the first time once), and this is my favorite game of all time.
It's interesting how I first discovered this game all the way back in middle school as Scott Manley had visited it as a simple alpha release. At the time, I thought it was a cool concept despite the (at the time) simplistic appearance, dialogue, and the general lack of polish. Still, I thought it had lots of potential but I lamented the fact I would likely not be able to play it, as I didn't start PC gaming until I became an adult. So, I promptly and completely forgot about it for another 6 years until friends immediately recommended I buy it. Now I find myself here singing its praises along with pretty much everyone else here. I guess it's true: there's always more to explore here.