Confederate Wing

This is the next installment of my column, which I’m posting now to show to a friend who’s been eager to read my thoughts on this since… April? By the way, I absolutely adore this game (as if my write-up doesn’t make that clear enough already). Please go play it.

The adventures of Citizen Abel

A release from work and worry with Brendon Chung’s Gravity Bone

If you have even the slightest interest in video games as more than just flippant distractions or inane wastes of time, or if you’re even remotely curious about the narrative and emotional potential of video games beyond puerile power fantasies, you must play Gravity Bone. It’s free, it’s short, and it’s damn well brilliant. What more do you need to know?

Created by Brendon Chung of LA based Blendo Games, Gravity Bone is best described as a first-person romp. As soon as the game loads, you’re descending an elevator into The Saturday Club. The bombastic brass of a Xavier Cugat arrangement delights the ears as you infiltrate a swanky black tie affair populated with paper-craft patrons. You pull up a business card which instructs you to head to the furnace room for a spot of wetwork. The mission? Deliver a bugged drink to a man with red hair. In equal measure you notice the security gaze following your every move and the stunt planes whizzing through the mountain air. Nothing makes sense, but damned if it’s not a charmingly imaginative experience. What a strange game… What a strange, wildly confident, and immaculately realized game…

Despite lasting only 15 minutes, Gravity Bone nevertheless has so many curious and fascinating little touches that it becomes endlessly engaging both in terms of presentation and gameplay. Its in medias res approach to what little narrative actually exists creates the sense of playing through select scenes in a grand espionage epic. And not only is that narrative seamlessly integrated with the gameplay, but so are the actual gameplay mechanics into its aesthetic design (“Safety first! Press [e] to use doorknobs”). It even allows freedom of perspective in scripted sequences, which still enables empathy even when control has been taken away for cinematic purposes. And to cap it all off, the final sequence is one of the most breathtaking gameplay experiences ever devised, fantastically executed in all its brevity, surrealism, and surprise.

Gravity Bone is an incredible game, remarkable for its subversive approach to first-person game design, beautiful construction, and taut composition. It’s highly experimental and perhaps a bit rough around the edges, but its risks pay high dividends for those who are curious to explore its wonderfully wacky world of guns and glory. Few games leave an impression quite like Gravity Bone. While it may be a short ride, it’s also free and provides an experience that won’t soon be forgotten.

Visit http://blendogames.com/ to download Gravity Bone and see more of Brendon Chung’s work.

Frozen Synapse

Publilius Syrus once said that everything is worth what its purchaser will pay for it, which is a maxim that seems to have been gaining considerable ground in the video game industry lately. Consumers are beginning to move away from rigid $60 boxed retail structures and embrace the freedoms and flexibilities offered by smaller titles through new methods of distribution. Perhaps the most extreme and remarkable extension of this idea is the Humble Indie Bundle, an occasionally occurring pay-what-you-want package with all proceeds going either to charity or to the developers of its featured games.

Since May 2010, four Humble Indie Bundles have been offered which have generated over $6 million in combined sales. A fifth bundle, the Humble Frozen Synapse Bundle, is now available until October 11, which features Frozen Synapse, a game by UK developer Mode 7, for whatever price you name. And if you’re willing to spend more than the average of $4.65, you’ll receive all games offered in the earlier Humble Frozenbyte Bundle as well. Essentially, it’s an $80+ value featuring seven games for less than $5, with no DRM (digital rights management), cross-platform compatibility between Windows, Mac and Linux, and the warm fuzzy feeling of donating to charity.

The main draw of the bundle, Frozen Synapse, should prove appealing to those who prefer their shooting games to have a slick blue aesthetic and a greater emphasis on strategy. The game is principally designed as an online multiplayer affair where opponents patiently guide their units through a firefight with victory going to the more tactically inclined. What sets it apart from other turn based games, however, is how it lets players see through the consequences of their decisions before committing to a course of action. This ability to optimize manoeuvres endlessly, as well as how the strategies of each player advance in tandem, can allow for supremely tense and satisfying skirmishes.

However Frozen Synapse is most certainly not a game for everyone, especially not for those who are hoping for either immediate gratification or an experience more rewarding than game mechanic mastery. In fact it’s actually not a game I’d recommend at all; its learning curve is quite steep and it won’t leave you feeling any more enriched after the experience. But because of its presence in an innovative and highly laudable distribution method, I simply can’t not encourage you to give it a look. It’s pretty much free, after all; what more could you want?

For more information visit www.humblebundle.com.

Rock of Ages

What is the relationship between art and time? To what extent is art an attempt at capturing the essence of an era? How does the passage of time influence our impressions of the eras it has swallowed up or left behind? These are questions that may or may not come to mind as one plays through Rock of Ages, the second and most recent game by Chilean developer ACE Team. But while you may not consider them, thanks to the constant representations of (and riffs on) art history, it’s not difficult to imagine that its creators certainly did.

Much like 2009′s Zeno Clash, ACE Team’s first effort, Rock of Ages is a game which marries a strikingly unique and lushly crafted aesthetic direction with hybrid gameplay that could charitably be described as monotonously clunky. But while the genre melange may have changed (Zeno Clash being a first person brawler/shooter whereas this is a marble madness and tower defence mashup), Rock of Ages is just as vivid and flawed as its predecessor.

Which isn’t to say the game isn’t functional; just that it’s far too unbalanced and repetitive to offer a rewarding gameplay experience. Its controls and camera are stilted and its strategic predilections aren’t fully realized, to name but a couple of issues. Yet these flaws might well be worth nothing, depending on the effectiveness of its peculiar charms.

On the surface, Rock of Ages is a terribly silly game with a puerile sense of humour only the internet could love. The title screen, with its whizzing woodwind melodies and its 2D renditions of medieval folk jerkily dancing around a massive dopey faced stone, effectively establishes the sort of anarchic fun to be had. The plot? Bowling through history as Sisyphus’ infernal boulder.

And yet there’s a distinct thread of thoughtful deliberation throughout the gleeful inanity. One scene in particular, in which Leonardo Da Vinci introduces himself to Sisyphus as “The Architect” in a sterile Mona Lisa papered room, goes further than just overt parody of The Matrix into an unprecedented annihilation of the fourth wall. “We are just part of an illusion,” he says. “Your sole purpose is to entertain people outside our world, in a deranged activity they call ‘video games.’” In equal measure, both you and Sisyphus are floored. How significant is the individual – even a legendary one – in the grand canon of artistic accomplishment?

Time, or rather its deific characterization, hounds Sisyphus, from his initial escape of Cronus’ punishment up to his final battle against Goya’s adaptation of him from “Saturn Devouring His Son.” It’s a cleverly appropriate way for a game about barrelling through eras of human triumph to end with the conquest of time itself. In fact I’d say it begs the question of what exactly our artistic achievements would mean in a world without it.

Rock of Ages was released earlier this month and is currently available for download on Xbox 360 and Steam, a PC digital distribution platform, for $10.

No preamble today; I’ve got other things to take care of. Although be sure to peruse www.thenewspaper.ca since I just spent four hours updating everything.

Limbo

Video games are currently facing the issue of acceptance as an art form just as worthy of respect as film, music, or literature. While there are certainly champions for either side of this debate, too often the medium isn’t allowed to speak for itself. We’ll listen to Roger Ebert voice his doubts (to name but one detractor) and we’ll tolerate floods of asinine and overzealous counter-arguments from a passionate but largely misguided community. But will we listen to what the medium itself has to say? Most times, we’re so busy shouting at each other that we don’t hear it.

How appropriate is it, then, that the most compelling argument to arrive in recent memory has no lines of dialogue, no lines of text beyond menus and credits, and a sound design so sparse and consciously hollow that the game itself barely makes a sound?

Limbo is this argument; a 2D puzzle and platform game created by Danish developer Playdead. You control the silhouette of a boy traversing a bleak and hopeless monochrome world as you navigate a series of devious traps and puzzles. There’s no explicit plot or narrative, and no music or colour. Just you, the sound of your footsteps and breath, and a tenebrous world constantly oppressing and unnerving you.

Quite curiously, Limbo competently reaches its aspiration of artistic accomplishment without the appearance of too much effort. Its minimalist visual and sound design gently coax players into immersion without dragging them in. The gameplay is so unobtrusive that you quickly forget you’re playing a game in the same way that effective theatre displays characters and not actors. The only real misstep is how the ending sequences betray illusion and atmosphere in favour of obtuse physics puzzles. But the entire game before this point, with its commitment to an air of paranoia and intensity, is superb. This is owing in no small part to its “trial and death” philosophy, grim imagery, and a truly menacing arachnid antagonist.

Some may find Limbo a bit too short, others a bit too discouraging, and many more will probably find it too bleak and depressing. But for $10, it’s definitely worth a look. Remember: you’re not just getting a cost-efficient and devious platform puzzler; you’re getting one of the best examples for video games as a work of interactive art.

Due to an exclusivity agreement between developer Playdead and publisher Microsoft Game Studios, Limbo was exclusive to the Xbox 360 for a year after its summer 2010 release, only being made available on PS3 and Steam (a PC digital distribution service) this August.