The Experiment that is The Darwin Project

As part of my efforts to make my gaming budget go as far as possible I try to join as many free beta and alpha tests as possible. This weekend I stumbled across The Darwin Project.

The Darwin Project is another entry in the battle royale genre of video games. If you don't know, a battle royale is a type of last player standing death match. Different games have added crafting and scavenging equipment to improve your chances of winning. With multiple successful battle royale games already on the market (in various states of "release"), like Player Unknown's Battle Grounds, Fortnite, and H1Z1 you may think Scavengers Studios is late to proverbial battle. That still might prove to be true but the Darwin Project is setting itself apart from the rest.

Entertainment is Key

The primary focus of the Darwin Project is to provide a fun experience throughout the entire match for players and spectators. That's right they are already planning for twitch streamers, spectators, and ways for players to interact with both. Stick with me and you'll see what I mean. The battle itself is smaller than many other BR games. It takes place between 10 players on a snowy map. Each player has the same weapons, an ax and a bow. They then harvest and scavenge for resources to upgrade their equipment. Within minutes it is easy to see how the Darwin Project starts to break away from the main offerings in this genre. The game pits the players against the environment. The snow covered map where the action takes place is dangerously cold. If players do not create fires for warmth, they will freeze to death. The problem with these fires is that they are very visible to the other players. Players can track each down by following these signals, and many fights happen around them. This leads to the next mechanic that Scavengers studios uses to bring a breath of fresh air to battles royale: tracking. One play can track another by following their footsteps, and physical left behind where they gather resources, or craft items. This leads players together for more frequent fights and games of cat and mouse. The main thing that differentiates the Darwin Project from other battle royale games, though is the inclusion of an extra player as a director.

Maniacal Laughter

The director is another player in the game that is not competing directly with the other players. The director is trying to spice things up to make sure that the game does not get stale. One of the main problems that Scavengers has identified with the battle royale is the vast amount of time where really nothing of interest is happening. Players are trying to build better and better kits while mostly hiding from each other. Camping is a very effective strategy in these types of games. To counter this, the director is given abilities to mess with the players and the battlefield. They can give different boosts to players, place powerful tech around the map, trigger manhunts on specific players, or even nuke an entire zone. With these abilities each match is drastically different. When I played this weekend I had directors communicating with me, rewarding me for entertaining performances, messing with me and the other players, and generally causing hilarious mayhem all across the map.

Steps in the Right Direction

I really think Scavengers Studios has hit on something special by developing the Darwin Project with an eye towards spectating and twitch gaming personalities. They know that a lot of streamers will want to compete and their audience will be entertained by all of the possibilities within a single match. They also have provided an opportunity for other streamers to make an impact by being interesting and engaging directors. They can even have their stream audience members vote on crowd favorites, and other actions that they can take in the game. The Darwin Project is positioned to really change how games are developed as a whole, not just the battle royale genre.

June Budget Challenge

We're one week into June and I have already started eating into my budget.  First lets take a look at last month.

I had set a budget of $15.00 again, and only bought one game.  That was Transformers Fall of Cybertron.  It was on sale on Steam for $12.49 leaving $2.51.  I bought that one based solely on the trailer.  Remember how awesome this was?!?

Honestly that had more to do with Puscifer, and nostalgia than the actual video, but it worked on me.  I enjoyed the first one and snapped this up when it finally fit into my budget.  I have been enjoying it so far.  More of the same from War for Cybertron, which is not a bad thing.

As I mentioned, I have already started spending my budget for June.  I decided to set it at $5.00.  GoG.com started their summer sale this past week.  Over Christmas I made the mistake of not picking up Arcanum: Of Steamworks and Magic when it was on sale.  I played the beginning of this game years ago, and since I have been on a bit of a steam punk kick, I have been wanting to play it properly.  When I saw it for sale at $1.49 I jumped on it.  So far I am really happy that I did.  In addition to that, GoG gave me a free copy of Sim City 2000!  So I am ahead of the game this month.  We'll see how the rest of it goes.

Early Access Quick Peak: Ace-Arena Cyber Evolution

Man this game has potential, but needs a lot more polishing...and a community.

Ace-Arena is a physics based free to play MOBA.  The game is not based on a battle, but a "sport".  Spearhead games calls it a MOSA - Multiplayer Online Sports Arena.  It is heavily reliant on quick thinking, and twitch reflexes.  Players face off in teams of 3 each trying to score goals by shooting a disc into the opposing goal.  Spearhead focuses on the MOBA aspect  of the game by organizing the teams out of three positions.  Offense, defense, and a support-ish third position that can excel at buffing teammates, or de-buffing opponents.  Each of these positions can be filled by a unique character, kind of like the different champions in LoL.  Each one has a couple of skills that allow them to shine in their position.

The game plays like a 3v3 combination of hockey and soccer.  The strikers and support head up the court to try and score.  The third play has the choice to either stay back in a defensive position, or help them score a goal.  There can be a lot of fun back and forth in each game.  One team goes for a goal, but the defending team recovers, and they go on the offensive right away, forcing the first team to scramble back to defend.  Positioning and communication is really important.  If you can get a couple of friends together, talking over team speak or something like that they will have a huge advantage in teamwork.  A pug team has no way to communicate.  There is no in game voice chat, and typing is out of the question because of how fast paced the game is.

The difficulty though is finding that many people to play the game.  The entire time I played I never had a full game of actual people playing.  The bots aren't that bad, but they get old fast.  Playing against real opponents though revealed how playing against bots helped me develop bad habits.  It was still fun, but they were in a completely different league then me.

Added to the problem of low player count are the bugs that work against the pace of the game.  If you are making a skill based twitch reflex game, you have to make sure that your net code is tight, and that the controls are responsive.  There were many times when I thought I had stolen the disc, or blocked an opponent from stealing when the game jumps for a split second, and I was left empty handed.  Everything on my end indicated that I had done what I needed to take possession, but I was obviously playing a few ticks behind.  This got frustrating really quickly.  I felt that no matter how much I tried to improve, it didn't matter.

This became such a problem that I didn't even look into their F2P model much at all.  I couldn't play the game reliably to even think about spending money on it.  As it is though, they are charging for "champions", cosmetic items and XP boosts.  There doesn't seem to be much, if any pay to win elements to their economy.

ACE has a lot of potential.  It could be a great competitive eSport that is really fun to watch, and simple to cast.  It has a high skill cap, and shows off the skill of the players well.  The main problems though are a lack of said players, and bugs that prevent the twithiness of the game play from shining.  I would wait and see how things develop with this game before dedicating too much time, or any money to it.

May Budget Progress

I recently bought the first game on this month's budget. I bought Transformers: Fall of Cybertron.  It was on sale on Steam for $12.49.  This leaves my budget for the month at $2.51.

Why did I buy Transformers: Fall of Cybertron? Well I enjoyed War for Cybertron, and I wanted to continue the story. I've always loved Tranformers having grown up on the original cartoon series, and BeastWars. But mostly it was this trailer.

How cool was that!?!?

I don't usually want to play a game from a cinematic trailer, but from the first time I saw this trailer I have wanted to play Fall of Cybertron. Now that I have bought it, I am having a good time playing it. I haven't gotten too far, but I'll let you know what I think after I have completed it.

May Budget Challenge!

April was a great month.  I took the time to finish a few games, and get stuck on a couple more.  Valiant Hearts, and Max Payne 3 were really enjoyable and I highly recommend them both.  I also have started a back log of free to play games, and I will let you know what I think of those soon.

For May I have decided to go with a $15.00 budget.  I have let myself ad more titles to my wishlist so there are a lot of options on there now.  I do think I need to limit it, but we'll see where that gets me.

Here's to a great month of gaming!

Valiant story telling in Valiant Hearts: The Great War

I just finished Valiant Hearts: The Great War and I am so happy I played this game.  I wanted to say that I was an emotional wreck, but that isn't true. The story is intensely satisfying, and very emotional without leaving me drained.

Massive spoilers ahead

As you can guess, I really enjoyed Valiant Hearts, and what you may suspect is that there are spoilers coming.  If you don't want to spoil the story (even though it has been out for almost a year) just know that I think it is well worth playing.  The game play is solid, the characters are relatable, and the story is great.

Valiant Hearts takes place during the first half of WWI.  You follow the struggles of a few different people on either side of the conflict, Emile, Karl, Freddie, and Anna.  Right off the bat the game tugs at your heart strings as Karl is deported out of France away from his young wife, and newborn baby.  Right as he arrives in Germany, he is pressed into service in the German army.  His father-in-law, Emile, is also conscripted, but into the French army.  You quickly see the dangers of war as each character is injured, captured, or presumed dead throughout the story.  Ubisoft Montpilier does a great job of telling the story of WWI from the common man's perspective.  The gameplay itself isn't very violent, but the scenery can get a little graphic.  Soldiers are shot down in the back, and foreground and at times you have to take cover behind piles of allied bodies.

Whatever works I guess

The game play itself is fairly simple.  This is a side scroller based around puzzles, and not platforming.  The puzzles are not too hard, but they do a good job of getting you to explore the levels, and find the historical artifacts scattered around to teach you about what life was like during WWI.  The collectibles were well done because I wanted to find them to see what bit of information I would get next.  Valiant Hearts is a great example of how to interestingly present history.

As you play through the game you become invested in the characters and their struggles.  My heart raced as I saved Karl's family from poison gas, I wanted to rescue as many people as possible along side Anna, I rejoiced at every little victory, and I found myself raging at the generals who pushed us to continuously charge at the enemy, needless sacrificing lives.  I even got angry when my actions caused an enemy soldier to die who had previously saved my life.  When given the opportunity I struck down the selfish "leader" who would shoot you if you retreated.

And Emile paid the price...

Because of my actions Emile was branded a traitor and lead to the firing squad and shot.  Having him walk to the post during the last level was hard.  He was reading his last letter to his daughter, talking about honor, and having done the right thing.  The only thing comparable to this I have found in other games is the walk of doom in Bastion.  If you've played it you know what I mean, if not, I will not spoil that for you.  It was a great ending to the game.  The art style was well done, the voice acting was top notch, and every character you got to know, even if it was just for a minute, you connected with.

One reason why I enjoyed playing Valiant Hearts so much is because of the youtube channel The Great War.  This channel is going through WWI week by week, in great detail explaining hows, whys, whats, and whos of the first world war.  It helped me gain a greater perspective on this war, and complimented Valiant Hearts really well.  If you haven't watched their videos, I highly recommend that you do.

It's time go over Marches budget challenge.  I had set a budget of $17.20 for March.  I ended up purchasing three games on this budget.  They were Goat Simulator for $3.39, Valient Hearts: The Great War for $3.74, and Valkyria Chronicles for $6.79.  The total amount I spent on games in March was $14.22.  I was $2.98 short of my total budget.  I'll save this to roll over onto next month.  Yup, I said next month.  I need to make this month a by month because I have a lot of games to catch up on.  I still need to finish Max Payne 3, as well as the games I bought in March.  I'll update you through the month of April on what I'm playing and my thoughts as I finish them.

One thing I've realized as I plan my budgets for each month, and purchase games, is that I would not be able to do this without digital distribution.  It has opened up so much variety to me at an extremely low cost.  Without digital distribution games like Goat Simulator wouldn't have even been made because there would have to be too much of an investment in physical copies, and convincing stores to carry what is basically a joke game.  Take advantage of Steam sales, GOG, Green Man Gaming, and other sources and you'll always have interesting games to play.  Check out /r/gamedeals on reddit.com.  It is a great source for sales all over the Internet.