// Superbrothers: Sword & Sworcery EP

Hello again people, what’s happening? 

This week I’m happy to tell you I will be appraising my first IOS title meaning two things; firstly, all you clever IPad / IPhone users can get your dextrous digits all over it right now at the push of a button, and secondly that I’m going to be over-using words containing ‘app’!

There have been a host of appetising IOS titles lately which should appeal to anyone in need of a rapid gaming fix and before I start the main review I just want appoint a top 10 list of IOS games I most approve of: Plants vs Zombies (1 and 2), Galaxy on Fire 2 HD, Organ Trail, Dead Ahead, The Devil’s Attorney, Hunters 2, Plague Inc., Sentinel 3 Homeworld, Kingdom Rush (original and Frontiers) and Eufloria HD. If you’ve played any of them then I applaud you, and I am sure you will agree they are well worth the money. If you haven’t played any of these fantastic titles yet, then frankly I’m appalled. 

But before you rush off to the App store there is a game that has a certain quality that really sets it apart from the rest, Superbrothers: Sword & Sworcery EP. 

Join the tranquil bohemian musical masterpiece. Cure your soul sickness.

Created by the tiny 24 strong Canadian development studio Capybara Games, the pretentiously named Superbrothers: Sword & Sworcery EP first appeared in February 2011 on the IPad, a device I didn’t own at the time (although I would have sawn off an appendage to!). As a result I could only read reviews that repeatedly recommended it and curiously admire screenshots from afar whilst wondering what all the fuss was about. It finally made the jump to IPhone in April of the same year whereupon I snapped it up like a hungry Anaconda. 

…Anacondas eat Capybaras in the Peruvian Amazon.

Nevermind.

The game has since received high critical praise and can proudly boast of accolades including ‘Best Downloadable Game’, ‘Best Indie Game’, an ‘Innovation Award’ and crucially for this review, an ‘Achievement In Art’. Not surprisingly Superbrothers: Sword & Sworcery EP is now available on Android and Steam along with a micro version, tailored to IPod touch and IPhones and has sold a total of over 1.5 million units. Its soundtrack by Jim Guthrie, which received a ‘Best Original Music Award’, is also available to download on all of the aforementioned formats and is to date the only videogame soundtrack I have ever parted with money for.

Anyway, I’ll begin recapping my experience. Upon starting up the game you’re met by the Archetype who asks you if you have “Got Headphones?”. I dutifully unwrapped mine and plugged them in and felt the music transform into true stereo before journeying into the foothills of the Caucasus Mountains for my appointment with fate. 

The ambient composition upon your arrival is relaxing and serine, a dog is yapping, sheep are bleating and a brook is babbling. It’s a peaceful and oddly beautiful place. You’re prompted to listen and to touch, and as you do your character (the ambiguously gendered Scythian) moves towards your fingertips, splashing pixels of water into the air as you step into puddles. Soon the real soundtrack fades in, one of several bittersweet melodies that set and maintain the uniquely immersive atmosphere of the game throughout its four chapters.

Androgynous apparel. Fan art tells me the Scythian is apparently a girl… I don’t see it myself.

Tap tapping on objects grants you more information on them: investigating a sheep for example yields the observation that several “worthless sheep are lazing around in the meadow” and interacting with a previously unidentified object may inform you that it is a “thingamajig”. Upon being introduced to Logfella, who is “cool”, you are told he will escort you up the mountain to Mingi Taw, although he isn’t all that “jazzed about it” due to the apparition who lies in wait. These bizarre and strangely colloquial explanations / one sided dialogues add an intangible air of mystery to the game and are clearly off kilter with it’s Iron Age setting. The experience approaches an almost dreamlike state in its surreality, particularly during its later sections where you can enter the night-time B-Side of the EP by napping at Logfella, Dogfella and Girl’s fireplace and meet the Grizzled Boor (a beat boxing bear); however it never runs the risk of being too kooky as these peculiarities are few and far between. A reward for people with a love of exploration.

Its much more impressive in motion...

And strap on your fur boots because a love of exploration is needed with this game, as is a persistent and patient mind capable of puzzle solving using fuzzy logic and trial and error. It is often the way with ‘arty’ games that there is no real tutorial or hand holding, a part of the experience is to learn the nuances in the mechanics and to paw over the stunning yet poorly mapped out environments searching for clues. 

It is well worth your time ‘just walking’ around and getting wrapped up in the lovingly crafted scenery. The roaming animals, from the fluttering birds to the dappled deer, have been reduced to their most minimalistically pixel components and yet remain familiar and adorable in their appearance and movements. The world is small, sure, but feels alive in a manner that most games don’t achieve. Even the famous Giraffe scene in the Last of Us (whilst deeply poignant) was a scripted event, appended into the game to add depth. The Giraffes don’t notice your presence, nor do they react to you in any way. Unlike most games where there is a clear and jarring boundary between the interactive and non-interactive world, the world depicted with aplomb in Superbrothers: Sword & Sworcery EP feels unabridged, vibrant and tangible.

Animal, vegetable, mineral and pixel. Minimalistic beauty.

During the game you are tasked with locating the whereabouts of the haphazardly placed Sylvan Sprites (space babies), which by and large involves creating chains of musical notes by touching various flora and fauna in the correct order whilst your character “Sings a Song of Sworcery”. The game was made bespoke for touchscreens and it’s during these “Songs” that all of the elements pull together. Tactile, audio-visual, cerebral and emotive. There is a great sense of accomplishment when you apply yourself and solve a puzzle which is often accompanied by a ground-breaking and breath-taking event. Its apparent during these sections just how much love went into this games creation. 

An unforgettable moment.

The final gameplay element I want to mention is that of combat. Now, this is an RPG… of sorts. There is no levelling as such, but your character does change between each chapter. How these changes manifest themselves is something you just need to find out, they typically occur directly after grappling with one of the game’s boss encounters. The bosses, like all the combatants met during in this game (not that there are many, and yes this is a good thing) are beaten through the cunning use of rhythm. Listening to the crescendoing music and reacting to audio cues such as claps of thunder using either your sword or shield sounds disappointing and dull, but in practice the perfect pacing and awe inspired soundtrack generate an incredibly epic mood.  

 

Boss fights are tense. Don’t knock them until you have tried them!

I was always on the edge of my seat throughout combat, and during boss battles I never felt ‘out of the woods’ even as their health is sapped away. Battles are a tiring, but ultimately gratifying part of this wonderful and soul searching game. I could bang on for hours about this masterpiece, but it’s time to draw this review to a close and pop the question…

But is it art?

It’s not just art, but the quintessential art game. The yard-stick by which other games are measured. This title has gone a long way towards setting the standard of Apps and indie titles… perhaps even gaming as a whole. A simple, yet complex journey fully realised by the superb choice of platform upon which it has been presented. If you let yourself play it you will become trapped by its majesty. Buy it. Become enraptured.

Verdict = ART

Keeping eyes peeled and ears to the ground for this upcoming game.

Just a brief appendix: Capybara games are in the process of making a next generation console game, namely Below on the Xbox One. A snappy title. My tip is that it is going to be one to watch.

Thanks again to Andy Woo Woo for helping me on this one!

// Prometheus: The Movie vs The Walking Dead Game

Or:

 

// How I Learnt To Stop Worrying And Love The Indie Game

Ok, it’s been a while since I last did one of these ‘blog’ things, and in that time I’ve saved up quite a lot of frustration. So, before I talk about The Walking Dead game I’m going to have a long overdue rant. Anyone reading this who just wants to hear my opinion on The Walking Dead, please skip forward to the picture of a man caught in a bear trap… no, really….

Now, modern ‘triple A’ games, much like big Hollywood movies, are starting to tick me off.

Perhaps I am simply becoming jaded; however it would seem that both game creators and movie makers are choosing the easy way out… By taking genuine innovation, believable character development, suspense and the pursuit of a pure ideal and watering it down, strapping on some fancy effects and a whole bunch of clichés, mainstream tripe is effectively killing both industries whilst simultaneously lowering people’s standards.

Sequel after prequel after origin story after re-hash after re-imagining. It’s driving me insane.  What’s worse is that I sometimes feel like I’m the only one who notices! People at large just seem to yum it all up like good little proletariats. “Please can we have another version of Spiderman / Batman / Superman / COD / Halo / anything that sells, please we love being told what to love, please!”, they seemed to say.

I have an example of this, if anyone is willing to listen?

Prometheus.  The movie.

Rant part one: Non-Science Fiction

Now, here was a perfect opportunity for the world renowned director, Ridley Scott, to add to a universe that he helped bring to life, in the form of a prequel. All the ingredients were there for it to be amazing. With a final production budget that would cause professional footballers to blush and with access to special effects that make Ripley’s original Xenomorph threat look like crudely painted sock puppet, how could this film fail to impress?  

Yet, as seems to have become a current trend, the budget must have been blown on animating the over the top graphics, writing larger than life witty quick quips and formulating excuses to retrospectively avoid attending any science lessons at school. The clue, Ridley Scott, is in the genre’s name: Science Fiction. You should know about it, you helped create the damn thing back in 1979. The vast majority of your hard-core fans actually know a thing or two about science, as they include a whole array of geeks and social misfits, like myself, who stuck in at school because they were not cool enough to be lazy.

I don’t want to ruin Prometheus for those of you who have not seen it (besides which, Logan Marshall-Green and Sean Harris have already done a perfectly good job for me, hahaha witty joke), but it is terrible.

The Pits.

The Alien series does not want or need this terrible bit of cannon. It’s a transparent attempt to withdraw money from a classic retro cash cow, maximising its potential by dumbing down to the idiot sheep of today’s crowds (P.S. Please don't beat me up, I'm frail). 

Take this scene for example:

Rant part two: The Head Scene

 

In this scene the rag-tag band of military and science ‘experts’ have just returned from their cursory examination of an alien building, the first expedition of its kind in the known sphere of existence, which took place on an alien planet many, many leagues away. During this orienteering exercise the team stumbled upon the decapitated head of a century’s old alien, again an utterly unique and deeply profound moment in human history. They carefully (read clumsily) brought it back to the lab to preform initial tests, part of a long, long programme of experiments needed in order to identify what made these ancient remains tick, right?

Wrong.

Two minutes into the examination of this one-of-a-kind and priceless archaeological specimen and the team seems to get bored. This I can relate to, as a researcher myself it sometimes can be very dull carrying out careful and time consuming experimentation, however the benefit of remaining professional usually outweighs the short term reward of rushing… Not for these folk though, oh no! Bearing in mind that this ‘team’ is a collection of people hand picked from the top of their field, it seems strange that they collectively elect to pass 50,000 Volts through the alien scull in an attempt to ‘re-animate it’.

Call me old fashioned, but I would have imagined that taking blood slides, X-Ray CT scanning, using qualitative XRD analysis and SEM to get a feel for the mineralogical and organic makeup of the creature… even taking a photograph would come first… attempting to reanimate thousands of year old dead flesh is usually low down on an palaeontologist’s to-do-list… (lets not even get into the fact that the head would have dried out and turned to something resembling an E.T shaped stone by then).

Naturally, the head explodes into a million bits.

Well. Fuck. Me.

Rant part three: The Geologist

One of the team members is a geologist. No problem with that, it seems an important part of a team specialised at investigating alien worlds and looking at intergalactic fossils.

All ok so far. Until he is introduced, as this is what he looks like:

 

That is one rock hard looking geologist (if anyone so much as chuckled at that gag, please kill yourself). This is not what geologists look like. I know, because I am one. This is what a real geologist looks like:

 

Ok, so perhaps that's not quite right either. I'll paint a picture, checked shirt, big beard, often wearing a The North Face fleece and a Gore-tex coat... Some geologists are very charismatic, such as many of the esteemed folk I've had the pleasure to work with, however most are not. In fact they say an out-going geologist is someone who looks at someone else’s shoes when they talk. They don't tend to be a mean, bad attitude, tattooed  mo’fo, as depicted by Jon Spaihts and Damon Lindelof.

His attitude could be forgiven, however, were it not for his innate un-believability. He is at the prime of his career, and yet his only role in the film is to get immediately lost… A professional geologist, with access to real-time 3D mapping and who keeps in constant communication with the rest of his team, getting lost within 5 minutes of entering a cave. This is a person who probably spends their weekends potholing.

Awful.

Rant part four: The Biologist

No doubt you’re getting bored now, so I shall make this the last one. The reasons a biologist would be part of this team are obvious, however once again Weyland Yutani appear to have outdone themselves by selecting someone utterly incompetent.

Upon first contact with this:

The biologist, calling upon everything he knows about this strange alien species that was mysteriously wiped out (nothing), walks over and tried to catch it. No photo. No, “hey, lets back off; we don’t know what it is yet”. Not even the use of a tranquiliser or butterfly net.

He might as well have stripped naked and told the creature he had a lovely box of chocolates hidden inside himself somewhere… Naturally the creature jumps down his throat and kills him.

Good.

I mean what did this guy study? The mixed science of ‘Biology’ and ‘Giving Big Scary Monsters A Kissy Cuddle To Show Them That You Love Them More Than Anything Else In The Whole Wide Worldology MSc’?

Best I could do in the time.

Seriously though, I thought Sci-Fi films had researchers working on them to make sure they don’t talk bollocks.

Immersion ruined, audience pleased, feeling lonely in the world.

Lets talk about something more cheerful. Oh look, a man with his leg caught in a bear trap!!

The Walking Dead
 

The Walking Dead, or 'Winner of over 80 Game of the Year Awards: The Walking Dead, A Telltale Games Series' (WOO80GOTYA:TWD,ATGS), as it now says on the front cover, is not to be confused with the terrible and disappointing The Walking Dead Survival Instinct. No, WOO80GOTYA:TWD,ATGS is made by Telltale Games, which pretty much instantly means its going to be point and click adventure.

You remember point and click adventures right? You know? Use the hammer on the mouse's tail to get it to flat enough to slip under the door of the undertakers office to collect the key for the chemistry lab to mix the… yadda yadda yadda…???

Well, fortunately WOO80GOTYA:TWD,ATGS does not have many of the ridiculous lateral thinking illogical puzzles that were the hallmark of traditional point and click adventures, and it’s all the better for it. By removing the silly trial and error element of old, the game can be much better streamlined and focused on moving forward with the plot.

The plot itself is ok, it’s not great, but it’s passable. What really makes this game shine is the interaction between the characters. In a similar fashion to that of The Walking Dead TV series (TWDTVS), the setting and the zombie apocalypse are secondary to the character relations and development. The zombies serve to add that ‘pressure cooker’ element to the game, always in the background reminding people they are not safe and that you need to keep moving, and causing people to display a wide variety of reactions to the ever increasingly bleak situations they find themselves in. Trust me, its gripping stuff.

Even within the first few minutes of the game, you will realise its cunning and novel direction. Fumbling with that single shotgun shell was a much more nail-biting situation than I ever felt myself in during the endless fights of Tomb Raider or Gears of War 3. Every zombie is a threat, and the characters fear them.

Less, as it turns out, is often more.

The graphics will be like marmite to many. Some will hate them and claim they are unrealistic or that characters are too far down the uncanny valley, other however will smear them all over their eagerly awaiting, hungry, toast metaphor.

Audio is fantastic too. The sound effects and music are used to great effect to generate the correct atmosphere without ever overplaying anything and the voice acting is top notch. I got genuinely attached to several of the games characters, and that can only happen when the voice-over quality is high.

Mechanically, WOO80GOTYA:TWD,ATGS is good, but its far better during the conversations than during the on-rails fighting moments. If you’re playing this game to just mindlessly gun down zombies heroically, then get Call Of Duty, there’s nothing for you here. By and large, events are controlled by multiple choice selections, similar to the likes of Mass Effect and Dragon Age. As for the consequence of your choices though… well, just wait and see…

It’s been a brief review, preceded by a long rant today, however if you, like me, are experiencing somewhat of a gaming drought during the lead up to the next console generation then you could do much worse than give WOO80GOTYA:TWD,ATGS  a try. It may not have all the graphical bells and polished whistles that a full big budget title might offer but it could teach a thing or two about immersion and character development to even the best of it’s competitors. 

And so, as always the verdict comes down to the complete package. WOO80GOTYA:TWD,ATGS has a great story, music and visuals and it evokes a level of raw emotion that 99% of the so called ‘AAA’ games and films absolutely fail to do. It is generally paced well, but feels occasionally padded out to fill the time during some of the episodes, also the odd glitch (once I was on an invisible train, upside down in a cardboard cut-out forest) and jerky-janky gameplay slightly muddy the experience.

Verdict = JUST A GAME

… what can I say? I guess there is just no pleasing some people!

// Uncharted

So, Uncharted eh?!

Bet you didn’t think you’d see this one talked about as a candidate for an arty farty game eh?! Eh?!

Well mister doubtful Nancy, I’ve got a surprise for you!! 

The graphics in this game are so good, they make me want to eat my own face.

 Verdict = JUST A GAME

Oh who am I kidding, Uncharted isn’t art!! Although it does lead me nicely on to today’s main point…

How do you even go about classifying something as being art? Is everything that is painted on a canvas with a paintbrush art? Is a photograph of a landscape or a painting of a shed art? Well, I guess the short answer is yes. They may not be progressive or challenging or any other pretentious words you could care to mention, but by and large if you can mount it on a wall in a frame it can be considered as art. So photography and paintings are easy … 

Seriously face, get in my mouth.

What about films? Movies get off quite lightly on this ‘Art’ matter too. Nowadays if a film contains exactly zero explosions, it’s art.

Oh, and no guns either.

Swords are fine though.

If a producer wants to get their film considered as art they need only either: provide a slightly vague plot that leaves the majority of its meaning up to the viewer’s imagination, or; slap on a weird visual filter. Do one or both of these and Hey Presto, an arty film! You need only ask 300, A Scanner Darkly or The Artist if you’re in any doubt as to what I mean. 

This scene is set in London. That's in England.

For videogames however, there is seemingly a higher standard required for an IP to be considered worthy of the art accolade… and I think I know why. The first hurdle for anything in the gaming world to overcome is that of maturity. Games, even now in these enlightened times, are all too often tarred with the ‘childish’ brush. Your average middle-aged person still seems to hold the belief that games are immature trite, time killers that appeal only to those with a loose grip on reality or a fascination with violence. And whilst at least one of those criticisms is usually true, the games themselves have progressed well beyond being mere plinky-plonky lights and sounds.

In order for a game to be looked at as art, I have decided (using my well-adjusted worldly wisdom and generally keen social observations); it must first stop being looked at as a game.  

Drake leaves the gas on...

The art game must be enjoyable obviously, or else one would get bored before reaching its culmination, so it must still have good gameplay… But it must be more than that. It must be visually enticing and thought provoking, sure. It must sound and feel right too... and leave you needing more once you’re finished… But an art game does not need to excel at all of these individual aspects, so long as the ingredients blend together well. They tend to be brief, short and sweet. Questions must go unanswered and provide talking points for years to come.

So, bearing all this in mind, why isn’t Uncharted art?

Uncharted is beautiful and epic. It sounds great, it’s funny and well-acted, it’s sad, it’s intriguing, rich and vibrant. It even has unanswered questions… Uncharted 3 for example, one word: Spiders… Wha’Da-F*$k? But it’s like a massive spicy cheeseburger on a bed of fries with a side helping of ice-cream and chocolate sauce… it’s junk food. Shallow, crowd pleasing, one size fits all junk food.

By god is it tasty though.

Oh Drake, you are so witty and charming. So, damned charming and witty and charming.

Give me a choice between the slimmer’s minimalistic indie art ryvita or a double helping of full-fat uncharted milk-shake and I’ll choose to suck on that delicious mug of Drake every time…

Hmm… 

But seriously, there is something about games like LIMBO and Journey and The Unfinished Swan that is hard to explain. I guess they are complete. And in an age of DLC and sequel mania that is no small statement. Uncharted is great, but you know and I know that there is more to come. I’ll still be playing this series when they release ‘Uncharted 17: Barrel Scraping In Space’ because its brilliant. But whilst it raises the bar of adventure games (yes I’m talking to you Lara Croft), it does little to the raise the bar of gaming as a whole.

P.S. Buy Uncharted. 

P.P.S. I should really be getting on with my work right now...