Sake Pass (Switch) is an unusual platformer in that it it takes the physicality of the snake you play as and limits actions to exagerated forms of what a snake could actually do. Theres not jumping or gabbing or punching, because, basically you've not got any arms. So the game is really a selection of small levels, which act as puzzles. The aim in every level i've played has been the collection of three brightly coloured items (which emit pillars of light so can be seen almost anywhere in the level) the challenge is getting to them. At first it was frustrating, it feels so different to other games, more so bearing in mind i'm played a lot of Zelda at the moment, a game which is incredibly free in its controls. To get up surfaces involves wrapping the body of the snake around shapes, gripping on etc. The learning curve is such that after a couple of levels I was on board with the game and like the advertising campaign had suggested I was thinking more like a snake. Like any good game at the point that I'd got to grips with the basics of the game it adds more complex elements, such as switches to be pulled and swimming. I've found it a really satisfying game to play in small chunks, a couple of levels at a time. The only glaring issue I have with it is that it doesn't suit the handheld nature of the switch too much, it feels like what it is, a port of a console game. Checkpoints are limited to the end of levels so I found myself a couple of times having to restart a level because I'd been commuting and reached my destination. This is an really early release for the Switch so hopefully future games will feel more tuned for the machine. Apart from that I've really enjoyed playing it and will certainly continue.
A much more intimidating game, which I'm under no illusion will take me a good long time to complete is Persona 5 (PS4). As i've aged I've come to the realisation that JRPGs are really up my street and not as hard to play as I always imagined. This is a great game to continue my education in the genre, because its bloody amazing. Taking control of a teenager who's got into some trouble and been relocated to Tokyo the game immediately impresses with some fantastic storytelling, expertly jumping between scenes and timeframes while also mixing up gameplay and wonderful manga cutscenes. I'm not far into it a couple of hours into something which I coming to terms with which will take me over a hundred hours to complete. I've started school and scratched the surface of the weird persona realm in the game and also met a very charming cat. It's the contrast between the mundane tasks like negotiating the rail system to get to school and the David Lynch like other world which is quite unnerving, especially as the gambit of capital punishment is thrown around very loosely. It all looks incredibly stylish and wonderful but so far theres a dark undercurrent running below the surface. My early steps have involved a little bit of combat here and there and its what i've come to expect from the genre made much more pleasant by really catchy music. Its a really good game in short, I'm set on a path of many hours playing it and can't wait to see where it takes me.
No comments:
Post a Comment