ETPC 님이 최근에 작성한 평가

i think i played her story wrong.

her story is a first person search engine live-action full motion video game that is designed to have no clear ending. it has a beginning, that is for sure. something happened to simon and hannah isn't sure what it is or where he could be. or does she? every words she says can be typed into the archaic search engine and more of the interrogation is revealed, piece by piece. i have to say, the aesthetics of this game are fantastic. the fuzzy crt, the not-quite windows 95 ui, the buzzing florescents, the vhs footage of the interrogations themselves, all of those are spot on. but, for me, by the 2nd hour i had the plot figured out (at least by my own interprations) but i wanted to keep digging. eventually, i was typing in just random words into the search engine, hoping for new footage that would challenge my conclusions. sometimes i found it, and it was fantastic. other times? not so much. i think this is very much a 'your mileage may vary' situation, but i didn't think the *story* of her story held up the more i played. and this might be entirely on me, because the game encourages you to quit at any time. there is no big reveal, there is no climatic moment, there is no footage of the murder taking place. it is always just hannah (?) talking, explaining herself, explaining her life. and that's great and really cool! and i should have stopped playing when i figured it out!

then i talked to a friend of mine who talked about how much fun she had playing her story back in 2015 with a group of friends. and i realized: this is a co-op game! yes, you absolutely can play her story by yourself and have a great time, but i think the game might sing it's tune much better when there are multiple people watching and contributing ideas and discussing the events hannah is talking about. and that's entirely on me. in conclusion, her story is a successful experiment and it's good that sam barlow went on to make other games in this vein. i do recommend her story, but maybe try it with a group? you might have a more memorable experience then i did.

hyper light drifter is like the snes adaptation of a 80's splatterpunk OVA directed by Alejandro Jodorowsky with a core premise of body horror and inspired by Kurosawa films. the narrative is entirely based on images and vibes, with no spoken or written language other then distorted electronic grunts and collectable ciphers (i think?), but as a nameless, chronically ill drifter you embark on a bloody journey through the outskirts of a ruined post-apocalyptic city for something to heal the disease eating away at you. there are other characters in the game, such as a nameless mentor-figure of sorts who mimics your journey, but characters aren't the game's focus. when i say "the game's narrative is based on images and vibes", that's not an exaggeration. the music and landscapes inform the tone of the game more then anything else, and it's honestly really awesome that the story comes across *mostly* coherent through these intentional limitations. needless to say, the aesthetics of this game are genuinely incredible, with the Disasterpeace score being a highlight (of which i immediately picked up after beating the game) but the gorgeous and haunting pixel art and animation work is the core of the game's look and feel, with some vistas and reveals being sincerely breathtaking and giving me moments of awe. if the artwork wasen't up to the task, the game would fall apart, and it dosen't. speaking of which, the mechanics of the game are *so* satisfying. with the understanding that i've never played more then a few hours of dark souls 1, i found the game to be a fantastic example of why it's so fun to play a glass cannon character archetype. the feeling of seeing a room full of enemies that can easily annihilate you if you aren't paying attention, and the realization that *you* are just as lethal, if not more, feels so good. there is nothing as satisfying as chain dashing your sword through some monster's midsection as you blast your energy shotgun into their friends, capping off your opening salvo with a grenade toss at some hideous corrupt war machine. the game is tough but unbelievably fair, and this is coming from someone who cannot play hard games without getting depressed. it's like a violent rhythm game. once you find the beat, you are an unstoppable force of ultraviolence. i should point out that i by no means found everything in the game after 17 hours (though a fair chunk of that was spent trying to master the chain dash challenge) and i didn't touch NG+ or boss rush. i had zero technical issues or bugs on my machine, and i've not seen many reports of problems with the most current version of the game. if you are in the mood for blood-soaked mournful techno vibes, you owe it to yourself to play hyper light drifter.

"i hear the roar of a big machine/two worlds and in between/hot metal and methedrine/i hear empire down" - lucretia my reflection, the sisters of mercy (1988)

playing kairo feels awful at first. i don't know if it was a deliberate design choice or if early unity first person games just had horrific locomotion, but the first impression is that you are controlling a daytona usa car on ice. and unfortunately that feeling never fully goes away, and i want to be upfront about this. once you get your head around the movement physics, you are introduced to a world of abandoned brutalist structures that house unfathomably large and unknown machines. your role is to activate these machines. as you do this, you slowly become immersed in what feels like playing the game version of one of nine inch nails's Ghosts ambient-industrial albums. it's a great feeling, and it gets stronger the deeper into the game you go, with game adding in themes of constant, unknown surveillance and a feeling that maybe you *shouldn't* be turning on these machines. the puzzles to turn on the machines are reasonable at first but become more challenging as the game progresses, to the point it became necessary to use the very well made hints system (which makes me nostalgic for the old 90's Universal Hint Files program). there are a couple puzzles that just felt like pure luck (and im not talking about the one that is Literally That by design), but it never feels maddening. while i didn't get the true ending due to the busy work involved, the ending i did get was. fine? it felt a little simple for what it was building up, but that's ok. games often don't stick the landing fully. i liked kairo, and it gave me that weird surreal and unsettling feeling that i very much enjoy, but i wish it controlled better. also, i'd love to be able to buy that ost!

night in the woods can be reductively described as a narrative focused game with very light platformer elements that feels like an 80's spielberg movie if spielberg was a bisexual crust punk whose grandparents fought in the battle for blair mountain. i adore it and everything it is trying to do and how, like many of the games i've recently played, it never succumbs to doomerism and nhilism. it always states its belief that a better world is possible and that it is being robbed from us by leaders who are completely out of touch with what a community needs to survive, and even denying a community a dignified death. nitw tells us that the people we should surround ourselves with are the ones who also are willing to fight for a better world for all of us, and that we should take power in that. it's also a game that tries to instill the lesson into the player that they simply can't do everything, and that's alright. by its very design, you *will* miss out on certain things based on the choices you make, but the story dosen't drastically change, only the character moments do. and that's, in my opinon, a stronger system then the usual "%PERSON WILL REMEMBER THAT" systems that make a false promise to the player that Their Actions Have Consequences when really those choices usually only change a few voice lines and nothing else. the aesthetics of nitw are extremely charming and unique (at least they were in 2017!), with really fun character designs and animations and a fantastic soundtrack (though GOD do i wish there were some vocal covers with some growly Mark Lanegan sounding vocalist) that all empowers the narrative and characters, with a highlight being the bass playing minigames (that i am sadly terrible at) and some of the act 3 music becoming quasi-industrial at times. some minor critiques i had are mostly due to the use of the 2d side-scrolling perspective making traversal a little bit confusing at times, but you quickly get used to it and a single minor bug that happened on an underground boat that caused the sequence to repeat. in conclusion, nitw is highly recommended and also gregg rulz ok.

it's hard to really say anything new about papers please in 2022, and yet it still hold up. fantastically so. lucas pope's creation of what amounts to, in my opinion, some kind of mix of a horror game and a paperwork simulator is set amongst the backdrop of a totalitarian police state with the player given the unfortunate and depressing task of managing the border checkpoint. through this tiny, cramped and claustrophobic office, you experience the story of many characters, are given countless absurd and complex rules and responsibilities, and just try to make ends meet for you and your family. the story is shockingly good for what the game is, and emotionally effected me on multiple times (comedy with jorji, pathos with sergiu and elisa for two examples). it never stopped being compelling and i apparently have barely scratched the surface of the narrative based on how many endings there are. and that leads to the mechanics of the game, which are unbelievably sublime and satisfying in a tactile way. the sound of the stamps, the shuffling of paper, the constant need to reexamine documents and move them around on your laughably tiny workspace never stops being a horrifying joy, and i can see why people adore the endless mode just as much as the campaign. aesthetically, the game does everything exactly right, with incredible and evocative character art, oppressive and lifeless color schemes, and a mix of ambient soundscapes of cars driving by and the heavy breathing of the person infront of you trying to get across the border. and that militaristic title theme has no right to be that good! the only complaint is that the ending i got, the music sounded.........kinda goofy? but that is an unbelievably small nitpick in this amazing game. it's well worth your time and money. but you already knew that, didn't you?

paratopic is a game that makes me feel the same way i feel when i watch eraserhead: i can't tell if im conscious or not. i can't tell if the things i'm percieving are actually there. paratopic can best be summed up, both in terms of aesthetics and gameplay, as "what if thirty flights of loving, but it's coughing blood into a table napkin and staring at you with bloodshot eyes". the most reductive description is 'walking simulator' but it's more then that. or maybe it isn't. honestly, what it is is exactly what it needs to be. i....honestly don't yet *know* what the story of paratopic is entirely, except for vague ideas i personally have, but the world of paratopic is like imagining what the world would be like after the ending of videodrome. i feel like i'm doing the game a massive disservice by comparing it to other media because, and let me be clear, paratopic is also entirely it's own thing. and what that thing is, i can't figure out. but i adore it. it's like Naked Lunch and the terrifying, oppressive skyboxes from Kingpin were melded together. i can't wait to play this again. maybe i'll play it when i'm really tired. i love it. i feel sick.

as far as i'm aware, this is the only first person introversion software game, and it's an interesting one. designed with the goal of letting the team behind prison architect stretch their creative muscles between big updates, scanner sombre is a short first person narrative experience that wears it's gone home and dear esther influences on it's sleeve. it's story is about the history of the cave system the protagonist finds themselves stuck in, and the very human evils it has borne witness to. the gimmick of the title is that navigation is driven entirely by LIDAR scanning the cave system so that the player can see what is navigable and what is not. this lends itself to some really incredible aesthetic moments where you see the bold, garish colors of the dating points drawing in massive chasms and underground structures, complimented by the borderline-danny elfman soundtrack to drive the experience home. however, owing to the lack of experience the team clearly had with making first person games, the movement never feels right and the camera can feel very sluggish at times, but i didn't find it a problem after 10-15 minutes. scanner sombre is worth your time if you enjoy first person narrative games, but it's story kinda wraps up in a way that isn't very interesting or unique. it's worth playing for the LIDAR-based visuals alone.

giant sparrow's second ever game, what remains of edith finch, is utterly fantastic. where unfinished swan was very good but kind of similar to a lot of other contemporary games, edith finch is it's own thing. it's not *just* a walking sim (though i do adore walking sims, lets be clear about that), and instead uses that gameplay conceit to narratively wrap the real meat of the game together in a thematically appropriate way. edith finch, mechanically, is about short gameplay sequences with unique mechanics that feel bold, experimental and fun. this isn't to say the mechanics are best in class, but there is always a really cool twist owing to the narrative that feels like it fits and great pains are taken to dress these mechanics up in a ton of style. i can't really choose which is my favorite, but the sequence with Gregory hit me like a truck. speaking of the narrative, edith finch's storytelling is on par with something like Thirty Flights of Loving and it's ilk, and i don't say that lightly. it is fantastic and delivered in a way that is, even still in 2022, very novel. at it's core, the story explores the harm that family legends and stories can cause when multiple generations truly do believe them, and if those legends and stories are worth passing on and asks in the background if the *stories* are to blame or if there was always something else going on. aesthetically, the game often looks extremely good with special praise being done to the way text is rendered in-world, as well as the fantastic use of light and shadow throughout the entire game. there is also fantastic use of both bold and muted coloring depending on any given moment, though sometimes, the game got too visually dark and murky that i had trouble navigating, but those are rare. the controls are a little strange on mouse and keyboard at first, using Frictional-style interaction methods, but i quickly got use to them. one or two small tutorial messages at the beginning might have helped, or maybe i missed them. edith finch is well worth the time and money it asks of you and will stick with you for a while.

the unfinished swan is a first person story focused indie game from 2012 with a very neat aesthetic and clever remixes of mechanics from other games that were popular at the time in much more lo-fi settings without resorting to the common violent verbs of most games. it is kind of a struggle to say much more then that at the time i'm writing this because this is a 2020 port of a game from 2012 being played in 2022 and......it's good. it's a good game! but it's not a game that you will lay awake and think about for hours at a time, replaying events and reliving the emotions you were feelings and thinking about how the design of those moments work. the unfinished swan is strongest in it's first two acts, aside from the comically rapid pace that it delivers the 2012 Indie Game Trauma to you before shoving it aside (seriously i hit new game and within 10 seconds im an orphan with a dead mom) for the rest of the narrative. and the narrative is fine! the game is fine! but it's rarely more then that. i really enjoyed the 2nd act with the power to cover a city in ivy and the way it made me think about the spaces i was navigating, but after that it never reaches that high again. however, i want to restate that the game is still good! it's like the indie game version of a subway sandwich. i don't know. i liked it! though it should be mentioned that the pc port's controls and the way the camera works never felt quite right on mouse and keyboard, and while they do give you settings to dial it in to your comfort, it never feels responsive enough. other then that, the game is fine! it's fine. as far as a studio's first game goes, you can do a hell of a lot worse! it's fine! it's good! it's fine. it's. fine.

a fantastic 10 hour coda for dishonored 2 and, as of the time of this writing, the final dishonored game, death of the outsider is a game about asking questions. who the outsider, really? what does he want? what does he gain from all this? the way DOTO recontextualizes the very nature of the outsider is a change that makes the whole series have a different read in a really fascinating way. DOTO continues the dishonored trend of amazing aesthetics and narrative, with billie lurk taking over from the upper class protagionists of the previous games. while daud gave us a taste of what the world of really looks like from the eyes of the lower-class in the dishonored dlc campaigns, billie lurk's perspective is even more desperate. by the end of the game, you don't even have a home anymore, just a suitcase and a mattress. and this makes the world far more interesting, especially for people who can't really relate to the suffering of rich people. i wish the game went a little harder on this in the main story, but if you look deep enough, you can also see how the world of the Empire of the Isles treats visible minorities. this all ties back to the Outsider too in really interesting ways. it's clear that DOTO had a new writing team that brought some really interesting ideas to the table and they deliver on those promises far more often then not. billie also plays much different from corvo or emily, owing to the fact that she never recieved the full gift of the outsider, only part of it. throughout the entire game, you only have access to three different abilities (as well as brand new gear such as the non-lethal grenade and mines) that have quite a learning curve, but reflect how much different billie is in unique ways. i felt like it was only towards the end that i got my head around how useful Sembalance is, for example. DOTO is also no slouch in the area design like it's predecessors, and feels even larger then D2 did at times, with the bank heist mission being a high point, along with some stunning surreal visuals in the quarry near the end. this also adds to a feeling of increased difficulty compared to the other games, but it's by no means unmanageable, just allows for more points of failure. and those points of failure do show up, because just like D2, there is this inescapable feeling sometimes of never being *fully* in control of billie due to strange hiccups in player movement, and you will slip on those banana peels time and time again still. this isn't to say that the game controls badly, it just dosen't fix the issues that D2 had. DOTO also dosen't have the same strange visual bugs i encountered with D2, which was great to see. in conclusion, this is a fantastic way to end the story of The Outsider and it's existence makes the previous games better as a result.