The sad part for me is that I only know if Intruder, Sub Rosa, etc. because of General Sam, a YouTuber who almost always plays multiplayer games with his friends.
Although he makes it seem fun, and he is absolutely a toxic player, so I was interested in checking out Intruder at one point because of his videos on it. I think it’s still on my wishlist.
Imo that’s how these things go almost 100% of the time.
New unknown game gets a ton of random hype around it insanely fast? Looks pretty jank and kind of barebones? Has some sort of party play/chat mechanic? Must be a YouTuber/streamer game.
Kinda like Lethal Company (and all other games like it), Intruder, Sub Rosa, Perfect Heist; and all those other asset flip type games. Hell even all those “store simulator” games that all look identical fall into this too.
It’s why the story is so flimsy across all those old popular platforming series, they took a “gameplay first” approach.
Look at the story for the Jak games. It’s all convoluted as hell, and there are tons of plotholes and such, but it’s probably one of the best series-lomg stories of those classics. Sly 1 had a clear story, and then when it sold so well that there were actual fans wanting a sequel, they had to come up with a story to justify it. Same goes for Tak, Ty, Ratchet & Clank, and so on.
I’ve been replaying old PS2 platformer classics like Jak & Daxter, Tak, Sly Cooper etc.
Tak has pretty funny humor, if a little childish at times. And it may have not aged well in general (all white people voicing possible island tribespeople that practice a magic/religion called Juju), but it’s still fun and was pretty inventive back then with the cartoon proportions and interactivity with the animals throughout.
Everyone still loves Jak, and a lot of it is due to the art style. Everything in those games is so alien and yet also kind of familiar, but the way they mix the mystical with the sci-fi always intrigued me. It’s kinda like Shadowrun imo.
Playing Sly, I realized there was an abundance of anthro characters in the early 2000s. But the games took inspiration from cartoons and comics and leaned into those aspects and aesthetics heavily. There’s always a sound effect and sound bubble that pops up when you knock out a bad guy, the colors are vibrant and over the top and the stories are too. They live in a weird magical retro-futuristic world with laser guns, jetpacks, super-geniuses able to create mutant monstrosities, immortal cyborg owls that run on pure hate whose body parts can then be repurposed into a multitude of uses (hypnotization, perpetual engines, etc), and so on.
Video games used to be about fun.
“The human mind. Six hundred miles of synaptic fiber, five and a half ounces of cranial fluid, fifteen hundred grams of complex neural matter… A three pound pile of dreams. But I’ll tell you what it really is. It is the ultimate battlefield–and, the ultimate weapon. The wars of this modern age–The Psychic Age-- are all fought somewhere between these damp, curvaceous undulations. From this day forward, you are all Psychic Soldiers. Paranormal Paratroopers! Mental Marines who are about to ship out on the adventure of their lives! THIS IS OUR BEACHHEAD. And this is your landing craft! You shall engage the enemy in his own mentality! You shall chase his dreams, you shall fight his demons, you shall live his nightmares! And those of you who fight well, you will find yourselves on the path to becoming international secret agents. In other words… Psychonauts! The rest of you… WILL DIE.”
Imo (and most other fan’s opinions) you should absolutely start with the OG, if nothing else than to see how gaming has evolved and such.
If you’re feeling it, I’d recommend just jumping into BM. With the original being so fresh in your mind, you’ll really appreciate the work these people put into their remake. It’s so full of love for everything in the original (and a bit of HL2) that it still kinda blows me away with all the little details and such. The scientists and other NPCs all look distinct now and have different personalities and voices, and before shit hits the fan you’ll hear plenty of little banter and idk chat between your coworkers as you make your way to the rest chamber.
There’s also, as a mod for Black Mesa, another team remaking Blue Shift in the new engine and all. They’re not done with the game yet, but what they have is about 3-4 hours worth of story finished (the first 5 or 6 levels I believe), and it’s actually expanded on even more than in Black Mesa or the original Blue Shift. There are more named characters, extra parts added to missions, and it feels like the same care went into remaking Blue Shift as went into making Black Mesa.
There’s also a fun part at the beginning that has an overlap with Black Mesa where you, as Barney, see Gordon go by in the tram, and I think he flips you off in like a teasing playful way.
People did shit like this all the time on reddit. Why are you personally taking offense to this?
I’ve been curious about Lethal Company, but I’m not a streamer and I don’t have friends to play with.
That said there’s another game almost identical to LC called Murky Divers and instead of going around different research stations on different planets, you’re cleaning out research stations underwater.
You have a sub that you use to go around the ocean, and there’s like a radar to help you navigate, avoid creatures and obstacles, and find locations to actually go into. There are all manner of creepy underwater creatures and anomalies to find/avoid, and I’m sure there’s at least one giant sea creature that can come and fuck you up if you’re not careful.
Tbh I didn’t get very far because as soon as I pulled up to a location and got out of the sub, I freaked out and turned the game off. I ended up refunding it because, again, I don’t have friends to play with and I’m not a streamer lol. But it did seem like an interesting spin on the concept.
Imo it looks better than the real thing. That sloped back that turns it into like a hatchback looks kinda nice actually.
Legacy of Kain: Defiance. They got actual stage actors and real acting veterans to voice a lot of the major roles in that game. It feels like you’re playing through some epic dark fantasy movie because of it.
Also, it may sound weird, but some of the audio logs in Prototype 2 actually fucked me up because they did such an amazing job. The one that’s stuck with me the most is one you can find fairly early on in the game, where a mom is trying to stop a government soldier from shooting her son because he’s nonverbal (and therefore can’t “prove” he’s not infected), and it’s absolutely gut wrenching. I had to stop playing for a few minutes after I heard because it was so intense. Here’s the recording if any of you were curious.
The party told you to reject the evidence of your eyes and ears
I’d rather wait and see what happens.
I for one wouldn’t be at all surprised if the next move is something along the lines of “the party told you what to believe” kind of thing.
You literally have the fact that there’s a fascist in chief in office; a sycophant pillaging the federal reserve and keeping our tax dollars for himself; an entire cult of personality that’s now in charge of our judicial, executive, and legislative branches, giving the fascists complete control our government withdraw literally no oversight; rights are being taken away from everyone; actual natural-born US citizens are being “deported” (read: kidnapped and trafficked) to foreign countries like Venezuela and El Salvador; alllllll on your hands, and millions of others just like you.
It’s just NFTs with extra steps.
So all based on your last sentence, you’re partially responsible for the shit storm we’re in now?
I remember Pivot… Good times.
The Orville: Interactive Fan Experience. /j
But really though, The Orville show feels like a fantastic homage to classic Trek, and the show itself feels hopeful if that makes sense.
Also the totally free fan game for it on steam is pretty cool. You can explore the entirety of The Orville ship, you can even fly it around different space areas AND you can take a shuttle out for a ride! There are a couple different “scenarios” you can play through such as enemies boarding the ship, and having to make repairs while you’re floating through a conscious nebula that’s talking to you and making horror movie stuff happen.
Also there’s multiplayer, a holodeck with different places you can load up like a bowling alley, and you can customize your own crewmember.
All I hear is the Nutshack theme