Hearthstone: Heroes of Warcraft

Blizzard Entertainment - 2014 - PC/iOS/Android

For the longest time, I've never understood Magic: The Gathering. I have several friends who are way, way into it, collect all the cards and go to weekly tournaments. It just never clicked with me. Then I played Hearthstone. I get it now. Magic is still not something I'm interested in diving into, but now I at least understand its relatively large popularity and massive player base. 

Hearthstone is Blizzard Entertainment's take on Magic The Gathering. I haven't played too much Magic so I can't speak to the differences and similarities between the two games, but I can tell you what Hearthstone is. It's a two player digital card game where the objective it to reduce your opponent's hero's health to zero. All heroes have a starting health of 30, a unique special ability and a unique card set which can govern your high level playstyle. There is also a common pool of cards from which any class can draw from to compile their deck, but usually the class specific cards are slightly more powerful and can synergize better around the hero's playstyle. All heroes are unlocked at the beginning, but playing as a certain hero will unlock more of that class' unique cards. That seems to be the main philosophy behind the progression system in Hearthstone: play more to unlock more cards. Of course you can spend real money to buy card packs as well but I'm happy to report I've resisted that temptation thus far. Which isn't to say that Hearthstone isn't worth spending money on, it's just that my personal reaction to the free to play model is to see how much fun I can have with the game without spending any money on it. And Hearthstone is very facilitative to my preference towards playing free to play games as the in game currency is given away fairly liberally to encourage buying more card packs. 

There are 4 main game modes in Hearthstone: "play" where you can play against a friend or be paired up against a random online opponent of supposed equal strength. "Solo play" is similar to the normal play mode, but here you can practice strategies against an AI or pay real money to play through an adventure campaign where you can unlock unique cards. The "Arena" mode costs a modest entry fee of real or in game currency to construct a semi-random deck of cards from a semi-random list of heroes. You're given three lives to play against other players in the same mode. The longer you last, the better your reward will be. But once you die three times, you're out of the arena until you pay another entry fee. The final game mode is the "Tavern Brawl" which is a weekly event that applies different wacky game changing rules each week. One of the last Tavern Brawls I did was to construct a deck out of just two different cards. Pretty interesting. 

Summary

I've had a pretty fun time with Hearthstone. It's neat as a mobile app to pick up and play a few rounds while I'm waiting on something. I don't think this is a game I'd ever get into playing competitively as I'm of the opinion there's way too much luck involved. But it's still a neat little game that scratches the itch in my brain that enjoys making rapid cost/benefit analysis decisions.

Her Story

Sam Barlow - 2015 - Mobile/PC

Her Story is a very unusual in that it's a full motion video game that was released in 2015. Don't worry, the FMV aspect of this game works really well, it's totally not cheesy and the actress in the game does a fairly decent job selling her performance. After you complete this game, it's hard to imagine Her Story not being a FMV game, I'm not sure it would have worked any other way. Her Story was made independently by Sam Barlow, who was previously the writer and designer of both Silent Hill Origins and Silent Hill Shattered Memories. This game, if you can even call it a game, shares a lot of the interesting ideas and creativity found in those Silent Hill titles

The premise of Her Story is that you are digging through a corrupted database of video interviews from a murder case in the early nineties. The database has been corrupted and fragmented, so you can't watch the interview clips in chronological order, but each video clip has been completely text transcribed, so you can search each clip by any word that occurs in the clip. So for instance, if you search "murder", all of the video clips that contain the word "murder" are returned to you. The other catch is that you can only see the first 5 results that are returned to you, so you'll quickly learn to be clever with your searches. 

The story opens up pretty quickly, giving you some names of important characters or important events to search, but the interesting thing here is that the story is presented totally non-linearly. Somehow though, through that I'm sure was many hours of playtesting and clever organization of what words occur in what clips, the story seems to unfold in just the right way, even if you watch the clips out of order. There's many cool twists and turns in the plot and figuring out whodunnit, how they did it and why they did it is really interesting and rewarding. There's no central gameplay mechanics here, only tracking the mystery in your head and coming up with terms to search then watching the video clips. So if you're looking for a gamey game, Her Story probably won't be your thing. But if you like a clever murder mystery presented in an unconventional fashion, you should totally check this game out

Her Story Video Review:

Summary

I really enjoyed Her Story, it was one of those experiences that keeps you thinking about it long after it's over. The story and its twists are clever and I enjoyed the unconventional presentation. If searching and watching video clips doesn't sound fun to you, you may want to steer clear of Her Story. But if you can let yourself get engrossed in the story and sorting out its mysteries, you'll have a fun time with this game

Hotline Miami 2: Wrong Number

Dennaton Games - 2015 - PC/PS3/PS4/Vita

I was waiting until after I finished this game to review it - which I had intended to be a few weeks or so after its release, but that obviously didn't happen. So I've been playing this game on and off trying to get past the part I'm stuck on and you know what? This game is really freaking hard and I don't think I can finish it. At least not right now. So disclaimer: I'm reviewing a game I didn't complete

I could probably be super lazy with this review and just say "It's more Hotline Miami" and in most ways, that's very true. But I'm going to try to be just a bit more insightful and try to highlight some of the differences between this game and its predecessor. First off, the gameplay. It plays largely very similarly to the first game, but you'll notice some differences in level design. Some of Hotline Miami 2's levels are a lot more wide open, which was something that was not really present in the first game. Because of this, I found it much more important to use the camera to look around to see if an enemy is lurking off screen. This becomes kind of annoying, especially when off-screen enemies start shooting you from unseen locations. Nearly every level in Hotline Miami 2 features a different playable character with slightly different abilities, similar to the mask system in the first game. But the player can't change out and experiment with abilities and playstyles when they want to, like in the first game. Levels in Hotline Miami 2 are also generally much longer than the first game. This makes an already hard game that much harder and that much more frustrating when you're killed near the end of the level and forced to start again. It wasn't that big of a deal in the first game, as it was more about the thrill of memorizing relatively short levels and then executing them perfectly. The longer levels in the second game greatly slow it down and make it feel like more of a chore.

(Mild spoilers in this paragraph) The narrative in the first Hotline Miami game was definitely a little open to interpretation. The first half of Hotline Miami saw the player character, "Jacket" slaughtering buildings full of people because a voice on his telephone told him to. The second half of the game (if you follow Jacket's storyline) saw Jacket killing with a purpose instead, tracking down and killing off the people who killed his girlfriend. Many people viewed the story as a commentary on violence in video games, and discussed how killing for no reason vs. the player character killing with a purpose felt the same/different. I admired how Hotline Miami's story could be viewed through many lenses and how the vagueness of the story left it open for the players' imaginations to fill in the gaps. Hotline Miami 2's story has a similar vagueness, but it's compounded by each level being played by a different character and then each level also being told chronologically out of order. I just couldn't even follow what was supposed to be happening. The story seemed like some crazy blur of violence, neon lights, pounding music and confusion. Maybe that's what the developers were going for?

The soundtrack in Hotline Miami 2 is still very much on point. It's still a collaboration of many different artists, even more than the first game, that have somehow banded together to make a unified sound. Most of the first game's musical authors have returned to contribute fresh tracks, but I loved contributions from new artists as well. A few of my favorites are "Divide" by Magna, "Blizzard" by Light Club, and "The Way Home" by Magic Sword. The entire soundtrack is solid from top to bottom and is worth a listen if you like this sort of electronic/techno music.

Summary
I didn't care for the minor changes in gameplay and story but despite all of my above griping, Hotline Miami 2 is still a solid game. Fans of the first game should still enjoy its sequel, but if you haven't played Hotline Miami before, start with the first one. It's the superior game

Home

Benjamin Rivers - 2012 - PC/Mobile

Like the similarly named Gone Home or even The Stanley Parable, Home is an experience that may challenge your definition of what a game really is. And like those other two games, I think Home is probably best played without any expectations or prior knowledge about the game or what it is. Having said that, you should probably stop reading this if you haven't played Home and think you might want to. Just know that you should play it if you like narrative focused games or unique, thought provoking experiences. Also it's really short and probably best played in one sitting, so set aside an hour or two and play Home. And Gone Home. And The Stanley Parable. If you haven't already.

Still reading eh? I'll try not to spoil too much of this game then. In Home, your character wakes up in an unfamiliar house with blood on his clothes and an injured leg. He can't remember what he was doing before or how he wound up in the house. He soon finds a dead body and makes other unsettling discoveries which prompt him to want to race home as quickly as possible to make sure his wife is okay. Along the way, you'll find clues that may offer insight as to what your character was doing before he blacked out or why he wound up in that house to begin with. You'll also need to make some decisions that will affect how the game plays out. For example, you find a live rat stuck in a mousetrap: do you free him or leave him be?

Graphically, Home is pretty simple. Standard indie game pixel art graphics. But I think the graphic style suits the game perfectly. Home and Lone Survivor are a good demonstration of how when you have a simpler graphic style, the sound and music design becomes more impactful. The player is paying more attention to what they're hearing to as opposed to what they're seeing. I don't think Home had superb sound design, but it was a good example of less is more. Most of the time, you'll just hear the player character's footsteps and maybe the occasional background noise which are adequate to create the atmosphere. But when you hear something unexpected, it can be very surprising or unsettling. I did have a few control issues with the game though. On several occasions, I accidentally skipped some text that I was still reading and the game wouldn't repeat the text or go back to it. And the game felt a bit unresponsive sometimes when playing with a controller, but these are minor complaints.

Okay, past this point is spoiler territory. The ending of this game warrants some discussion because it's what makes the game unique and interesting. But I don't think I can dance around the ending without revealing it, so if you don't want the game spoiled, stop reading.

The game does a good job of creating suspense and setting you up with mysteries like "Who killed the man in the house? What was your character doing in that house? Where is your wife? Is she alive or dead? Are you the murderer?". Depending on your actions and decisions, you'll get clues that can support theories about the answers to these questions. But the game will not directly give you any sort of concrete ending. It's left vague and up to the player's interpretation of the clues and events to draw conclusions about them. In fact, at the end Home, the game will link you to its homepage (ha ha) where you can see other player's interpretations of the game's events and share your own. I was initially kind of put off by this. I think I was expecting the kind of ending that 999 had where there's a great twist at the end, the player is given satisfying answers to all of the mysteries of the game, and all of your questions are explained and wrapped up. Nothing like that here. After being initially dissapointed, I decided to play through Home again since it's only an hour or so long. I found I enjoyed it more the second time where I could focus on the details and try to form my own viewpoints on the game's ending.

Summary:
Home certainly isn't for everyone, but I love this style of game. I love games that tell me a good story or can make me stop and think a bit about what the game was trying to communicate. I hear Benjamin Rivers is now working on what is being described as a "futuristic sci-fi psychological romance" game. Sounds completely crazy, and I'd like to play it

Hotline Miami

Dennaton Games - 2012 - PC/Vita/PS3/PS4

(On my Top 10 Game Soundtracks list)

Hotline Miami is a top-down fast paced action game set in Miami in the late 80s. You play as a delusional, mask wearing psychopath who receives cryptic voicemals on his answering machine instructing him to kill various groups of people. You'll use a combination of ranged and melee weapons to make a bloody pixelated mess of every single enemy on the screen before being allowed to proceed to the next stage.

First off, let me just say that this game's soundtrack is completely awesome. It's a collaboration between several different artists who each give their take on what the Miami neon nightlife of the 80s sounded like. Most of the tracks are kind of electronic/dance/techno of some sort, which isn't even my thing, but they all mesh perfectly together to give this game amazingly unique style. Just listen to tracks like Daisuke (El Huervo), Hotline (Jasper Byrne), Knock Knock (Scattle), Miami Disco (Perturbator), or Paris (M.O.O.N). All different artists, all amazing tracks. This is my favorite game soundtrack in recent memory for a few reasons. A: It's awesome. B: It's ****ing awesome C: It breaks the mold of having this fully orchestrated, symphonic sound that most modern games seem to be conforming to, especially the big budget ones. It's proof that modern games don't need or even shouldn't have that symphonic sound if they want to stand out and create a unique and memorable soundtrack. I really hope more developers/creative minds take note of the Hotline Miami soundtrack and we can start exploring new directions in game soundtracks. That's my rant on that. Anyway fun fact, Jasper Byrne, who contributed a few tracks to Hotline Miami's soundtrack, is also the same guy who developed Lone Survivor

So how does the game play? You'll need to switch up melee and ranged weapons to defeat each enemy in the level. Melee weapons are fast and silent, but if an enemy notices you approaching, you're probably toast. Ranged weapons allow you to combat enemies at a safer distance, but they usually makes a lot of noise which can attract other nearby enemies which is often more risky. Nearly every weapon in the game is a one hit kill though, so you have to constantly be on your toes. The game awards you on a point system for killing enemies more quickly or for killing several enemies in a row. Certain amounts of points can give you unlockable weapons and masks. Masks can enhance a certain playstyle or statistic. For example, there's a mask that increases your view distance, and there's also a mash that increases your running speed. Most of the masks I found didn't alter the gameplay too substantially though. The levels get progressively harder throughout the game and I died a ton, especially near the end. But dying evokes what I like to call "the good kind of frustration" in this game. It never feels unfair or like the game isn't playing by its own rules. If you die, it's probably your fault. You weren't careful enough, or you didn't pay attention to a certain enemy or you made a bad strategic decision. It's the kind of frustration that makes you want to replay the level over and over until you get it right.

In addition to the jammin' soundtrack, this game has a pretty unique art style as well. Everything is pixelated, which seems to be the indie game norm right now, but it still feels very unique to this game. During dialogue, all of the characters have ugly pixelated disembodied heads that hover eerily back and forth during conversation. This combined with the crazy psychedelic neon lights that constantly fade in and out in the background make the game feel just like a late 80s/early 90s PC game. But at the same time, it's still uniquely Hotline Miami. Later in the game, your character will start hallucinating and seeing visions of other people wearing animal masks, and also visions of mutilated bodies and dead corpses. It reminded me a bit of the hallucinations experienced by characters in Silent Hill, which I loved. The amount of violence in this game is also pretty high, but it's kind of offset by the game's pixelated art style. At the end of each level, you'll be standing on a mountain of bloody, pixelated corpses which gives a weird sense of awesomeness.

Summary:
If you can handle a bit of challenge, Hotline Miami is a good time. It's a bit short, a bit weird and a bit violent, but it has a lot of style. I'm looking forward to Hotline Mami 2 which should be out later this year.

Heavy Rain

Quantic Dream - 2010 - PS3

I had been meaning to play this game ever since I got a PS3 and I finally got around to it this year. Heavy Rain is really more of an interactive story than a game. You rotate control between a cast of four characters, all of which are trying to determine the identity of the mysterious “origami killer”, a serial killer who kidnaps young children, drowns them in rainwater, and leaves behind a small origami animal as a memento of each kill.

The gameplay of Heavy Rain consists mostly of watching cutscenes and waiting for “Quick Time Event” button prompts to appear on the screen. I’m normally not a fan of QTEs in video games, they seem like a lazy and outmoded design mechanic in most games to me. So I was a little afraid I wouldn't like Heavy Rain since the gameplay is so QTE dependent. But I quickly found out there’s really no fail state in Heavy Rain if you mess up a QTE. It’s not to say that the QTEs in Heavy Rain are meaningless, it’s just that there’s never a “Game Over” screen if, for example, you miss a QTE in a fight scene to block a kick. The kick hits your character and the story goes on, maybe a little differently than if you had successfully blocked the kick, but there’s never a “you lose the game” scenario.

Depending on QTEs and some decisions you’ll make in the game, the story will branch in different directions resulting in different endings or outcomes at the end of the game. I spoke to a friend who had played the game shortly after I had finished it, and although we had both defeated the origami killer and rescued the hostage, the details of our stories were wildly different, which was pretty cool.

This game is definitely not for everyone and does have its flaws though. There’s a lot of scenes where your character will just make breakfast or take a shower or get dressed or something mundane like that and it’ll depend on whether this works for you in terms of setting the mood and atmosphere, or if you’ll just find these events tedious and boring. There’s also a few scenes in this game which I thought didn't contribute to the overall story or progress the plot in any way, and also for a game that leans so strongly on it, the voice acting and animation are “meh”.

Summary:
If an interactive story sounds like your thing, I’d recommend Heavy Rain. I enjoyed it quite a bit and am looking forward to playing Beyond: Two Souls, Quantic Dream’s latest game.