Seconded (And some Summer PLAY discussion) (Gaming)

by cheapLEY , Thursday, August 04, 2016, 23:22 (3033 days ago) @ Kermit

I also bought ABZU and am eager to dive into this evening. A lot of my gaming as switched over to focus on more low-key, low-stakes games like this, and it looks gorgeous. I've heard that maybe there's not quite enough "play" in the game (like, even less than Journey), but that sounds alright for me at the moment.

INSIDE is coming to PS4 on 8/23. Highly recommend it.

I played that on Steam. I think it's great, but it suffered a bit from everyone talking about "the ending," before I got a chance to play. It was a fun little experience (and miles better than Limbo, which I loved, but did overstay it's welcome by the end), if maybe a bit over-hyped. I find it a bit hard to put my thoughts into words. I'm okay with games presenting stories through metaphor and leaving things up for debate, but I'd have liked something at least a bit more concrete. The secret ending only makes it worse.

I also think the last section was either too long, or not long enough. Playing as the blob was fantastic and clearly an awesome moment. Getting control and crashing through walls and tearing through the level was great. I really liked the few puzzles you had to solve as the blob, but it felt oddly disconnected from the moment before when you were just destroying everything. I feel like if it had ended without the puzzling solving bits, it would have been more pointed and been more of a payoff. As it is now, the gameplay slows back down into solving puzzles, but then that doesn't last long enough to be truly interesting. They hit some weird middle ground that I don't think worked entirely well. Also, just as an aside, I totally though the blob was just going to throw himself into that furnace. Took me a minute to realize I had to set the box on fire.

Don't get me wrong, I absolutely loved it. Fun experience, but I felt weird and confused at the end, rather than fulfilled.

Also, one of the other upcoming Summer PLAY games, Bound, looks great. I mean, the trailer looks amazing, anyway. I'll be damned if it tells me much about what the game actually is, but it looks gorgeous. I can't wait to see what's up with it.

I preordered Bound. I'm intrigued that it's PSVR compatible. Gives me something else to do with that thing.

Again, I have no idea what that game actually is, but I want it. It looks stunning. I'm hoping I'll be able to get lucky and get a PSVR at launch despite missing the pre-orders. I very nearly bought Adrift, but I figured I'd wait and try to play it on VR instead.