Waiting for Awesome

There hasn't been anything spectacular to get me excited in recent weeks. So I've been working through my backlog of games accumulated in my Steam account...

Syberia

Syberia is the first game in the Syberia series, a relatively modern adventure game series which began in 2002. It features Kate Walker, a young lawyer from America who travels to a small French village, famed for its clockwork toys and inventions, for the purchase of the local clockwork factory. But complications emerge which ensure that the transfer isn't going to be that simple. Soon Kate Walker is having to solve puzzles, many of which feature the village's clockwork creations, to track down the heir to the factory.

As can be seen from the screenshot above, the graphics are quite beautiful - each location is like a beautiful painting. Also the steampunk-ish setting is pretty intriguing. Despite this, I find it hard to really get into the game. The puzzles are a mixed bag, with most being of the trivial kind where it is sufficient to just find the right item and its use is fairly obvious. I've been stumped twice so far and had to resort to the hints from the excellent Universal Hint System. One was a doh moment for a simple but clever puzzle (though the ethics of rummaging around through a priest's stuff is debatable); the other was a pixel hunt for something that could not be seen on my display with its default contrast setting. This latter puzzle is what really put me off; I don't want to have to wade through these kind of annoying puzzles just for the few interesting ones. Maybe I've just gone off adventure games, because this actually sums up most of my recent adventure game experiences.

Fate of the World

Fate of the World is an interesting sim from Red Redemption You're in charge of a global organisation charged with protecting the world from catastrophic climate change. Although it's clearly a sim with plenty of stats and graphs to wade through if desired, the main interface is really simple. You recruit agents in each of the regions and for each agent you have, you can take one action in that region. Each action is represented by a card which describes the cost and affect of the action. The screenshot above illustrates a game where I have two agents in the Middle East and have chosen to Expand Oil Production and Increase Security Presence. This card-based mechanic makes the game a lot more approachable than a hard-core sim.

However, the real-world "impending doom" nature of the subject matter isn't the most compelling. The game is far from preachy regarding climate change and it's simulating of the effects of global warming might be questionable, but I think I prefer a bit more fantasy in my games. The game's certainly worth a play, but despite plenty of different scenarios available, it gets tired quite quickly.

Evil Genius

Played a bit of the 2004 reverse-spy spoof strategy game, Evil Genius. It seems to be quite similar to the classic Dungeon Keeper in which you focus most of your efforts building up your underground lair, recruiting minions and fighting off invading heroes (investigators in Evil Genius parlance). There is a bit more to it as you have your minions perform their villainy around the globe, but I can't help thinking that I've seen this game before in a different skin. Of course, if you're going to draw a lot from another game, Dungeon Keeper's not a bad choice. I still have to complete a full game, so I'm holding onto some hope that it improves.

Portal 2 - Challenges

Valve released the promised Portal 2 DLC extending the co-op campaign and adding single player challenges (histogram-style leaderboards for least portals and fastest time). So no new single player maps to really challenge you, which is a bit of a disappointment. And with my co-op partner on his honeymoon, I've been left with chasing the challenge leaderboards. However, my game crashes every few attempts, making it more frustrating than fun, so I've given up after reaching the least portals in each of the Chapter 1 maps.

Fortunately there's quite a lot of gaming potential coming up. I'm considering picking up Might & Magic: Heroes VI (the bizarrely named next game in the Heroes of Might and Magic series) or Forza 4 (the Xbox-exclusive racing game), both out now. Also Football Manager 2012 is due this weekend. What's most piquing my interest is the the next World of Warcraft patch now on the PTR (for beta-testing). It introduces the new Raid Finder tool for easy 25-man pick-up groups, along with a new raid featuring Deathwing, Cataclysm's headlining villainous dragon. I'm quite looking forward to the opportunity to do my first World of Warcraft raiding since Wrath of the Lich King.

Review: Plants vs. Zombies (PC)

It's taken me a long time to get around to Plants vs. Zombies: when I first played the demo many moons ago, I dismissed the game as too easy and targeting a casual audience that I wasn't a part of. Fortunately, I picked it up on a Steam sale and see that the demo doesn't really give the game a fair shake.

For those who've been buried under a tombstone for the last two years, Plants vs. Zombies is from casual gaming studio extrodinaire, PopCap. It's a tower defence game where you have to defend your house from zombies approaching from across your garden (and in later levels, your roof). Defending each row (lane) of the garden, you can place a number of plants by spending Sun. Some plants, like the Sunflower, earn you more Sun over time; others attack the zombies in various way, like the simple Pea Shooter; and others have more specialized uses, like Garlic which diverts zombies to an adjacent lane. If zombies reach your plants, they'll start eating them, until they've cleared a way through to your house. Each level is won by defeating all the zombies that attack before any get inside your house to EAT YOUR BRAINS!

Daytime Zombie Attack!

The main portion of the game is the Adventure mode consisting of 50 levels across five environments, Day, Night, Fog, Pool and Roof. New levels introduce new plant and zombie types, and occassionaly a mini-game such as Walnut Bowling. Much of the interest comes from the fact that you can only choose a limited number of plant types each level. Choosing plants that can deal with all the different zombie types and environmental factors in the level is crucial.

Nighttime Zombie Attack!

While fun, the Adventure mode never goes above easy difficulty. I failed a total of three levels in my playthrough, and each was to a new zombie type whose unique abilities I had yet to learn. Once you've established a basic winning strategy in the early levels of each environment, it can be straightforwardly adapted to deal with the new zombie types that are introduced in later levels.

Beghouled!

As you play, however, you unlock various new game modes including plenty of (mostly easy) mini-games, like an adaptation of one of PopCap's other great successes, Bejeweled, called Beghouled. The Puzzle and Survival modes are the best as the higher levels of each type really challenge all those skills you were learning in Adventure mode.

Full defences built for the final assault on Survival mode

Despite all the variety, the game can get a bit repetitive (and don't get me started on the "watching paint dry"-boring Zen Garden mode). But it is the kind of game that's easy to just play a level or two, maybe while waiting for your WoW raid to start. With all the different game modes available, you're bound to find one that's fun and challenging for you.

Final Score: 7 / 10 - Fun casual game with plenty of extra game modes to keep you interested.

Notes on my personal rating scale: They are entirely based on my personal feelings about the game - I don't rate a game on its own merits but rather how much I've enjoyed and how much time it's sucking out of my life. Strategy games will do well and shooters poorly because those are my gaming preferences.

0-4 = Poor game that I won't be bothering to play any more
5-7 = Decent game - fun enough that I'll try play it some more if I have the time
8-10 = Good game that I'll be playing a lot more or have already finished and greatly enjoyed