Level by Level: Logan’s Shadow Episode #1
March 6th, 2009
“The Underseige of Video Games” – Daniel Johnson
Syphon Filter:Logan’s Shadow is a typical video game sequel, sourcing heavily from the original while tightening the screws of an already solid base. It’s for this reason that there isn’t particularly much that I have to say about this game which you probably don’t already know from my previous articles. Still, I want to talk about it – after all I’m a series fan. Although some of my writings in the past may have lent more closely to reviews than so called critique, I don’t (intentionally) do game reviews here, which is why I want to be a little more progressive and actually review this game in the same way music is reviewed; song by song. In this case, I’ll be discussing Syphon Filter:Logan’s Shadow as a series of interlocking missions, rather than a complete package. Such a style, where the basics come assumed, perhaps might make the review more favourable towards people that are familiar with the original title – or so I hope. Let’s see how it goes.
Pirates of Somalia
Logan’s Shadow surprisingly begins with a fixed positioned, gun turret scene preluding Gabe’s helicopter descent on board the U.S.S. Mt. St. Helens. As the title suggests, the navy ship has been over run by Somalian pirates after the mysterious contents in hold 5. The introduction movie is sure to set the scene for another typically uninteresting action movie script, this time the emphasis is on the history and partnership of Lian Xing as well as a “pencil neck” politician Cordell – he must have no first name. The narrative ensues in cliched fashion, there’s a few kickers but even for fans like me it isn’t much, that’s all I’ll say about the narrative for now.
Quick time events are subtly introduced as a first for the series. They operate when prompted to open tight doors and other such tasks that can’t be done with the standard skill set, as such the context you’re given for using them justifies their inclusion, rather than seeming like a faddish addition sporadically sprung on you at the worst of times.
Otherwise, the ship is a typical climb-to-the-top mission. The barrels in the game also seem to have been blessed with the gift of euphoria physics.
Going Under
You start off in the ship’s hull (some nice colours and lighting inside) and then move outside to the central part of the ship to catch a crane ride across to the other side. The music really starts to kick in once the fire fight gets under way, similar to the other titles, it’s very appropriate espionage music with beautiful undertones and exciting high points.
Teresa messaged me a second time to alert me of what I was suppose to be doing after spending too long surveying the environment. Seems like a nice way to keep players on the right track. There was a cart pushing sequence mid-way during the mission which didn’t make a lot of sense considering Gabe could easily climb over the trolley.
Unsurprisingly the female chopper pilot introduced in the first mission dies. More reason for Logan to get angry at his enemies I suppose.
Ocean’s Five
You’re in the water this time by the side of the ship, ready to test out Logan’s Shadow‘s new swimming and diving mechanics. Wisely, this mission relies only on your treading water for the most part with one exception there is no need to dive underwater at all.
Being surrounded by water, the game begins to show off some of the new effects. The water for one looks fantastically liquidy and only continues to impress you move back inside the now damaged ship, pushing bloom, filters and a culmination of other effects in your face. Looking out from underneath the water the game binds blurred visuals with filtered sound and spread of bullets darting the water to create a convincing water environment. The water itself almost looks like full motion video, rendered in game.
Bullets stir up the water surface, terrorists can actually move into the water, swim towards you and shoot from underneath the surface. Their diversity is balanced nicely with your own electrical darts pulsate outwards when activated in water, covering significant surface area. The medium of water has extended the darts prior use, it’s a logical and clever way to add on layers to pre-existing mechanics by tying it together with the natural environment.
Besides that, this mission is fairly short. You just need to blow up a few small boats anchored around the navy ship and then make your way back inside the hull.
Sea of Darkness
This level is one of the significantly larger stages in Logan’s Shadow – includes a boss battle at the end too. You begin in the cargo holds, this time Gabe can jump into a button mashing sequence to open cargo doors, the level design of the first floor lacks direction, it fails to lead you in the right direction making it easy to get lost. Furthermore the cargo holds are tangled with trolleys and doors which can be lifted and pushed. Plenty of hidden evidence tuck away in the rummage though.
The environments have a great blend of vibrant yellows and greens, giving the whole first area a very atmospheric sort of feel This is rammed up when you transit into the lower claustrophobic corridors where water is flooding in as high as your knees, steam pipes exploding and gun shots everywhere. Again, it’s a snow dome of visual effects, that in turn the environment into a hazardous playground.
By now it’s kicked in how the use of water has diversified the gameplay from the Dark Mirror formula. There’s also a greater inclusion of environmental variables, gas tanks which send fire raging before they explode, even the subtle environmental kills like banging someone’s head against a crate. So far it looks like there is a good deal of variation to distinguish Logan’s Shadow from its former.
Conclusion
Wow, still have five more episodes to go. I never intended to drone on so much about these two games. Oh well, there’s hardly enough video games coverage that looks at a single game for more than an article or two, so I guess my super analysis is quite distinguished then, is it not? I like writing like this anyways, allows me to get into all the undisscussed nooks and crannies.
PixelJunk Eden: More So Facebook Than Ninja Roping
March 4th, 2009
Time to come down to earth a little bit and talk about Eden as a bunch of technical mechanics in relation to the feelings it encapsulates. You know, the way I usually swing. If you haven’t played Eden then this article should probably work favourably for you.
Above I have included a gameplay video of Eden, if you haven’t ever seen (much) of Eden then take a quick look, you only need to watch it for a minute to pick up the jist. Even if you have seen some before, just take a quick look for context. Work with me here.
Now, when I originally downloaded video for this game, one of the first things that jumped to mind was the apt ninja rope mechanic from the Worms series. It’s simply so much fun to play around with, like a two dimensional Spiderman. Here’s some more video to jog your memory:
Eden doesn’t really play the same way as Worms does, so it doesn’t necessarily feel the same way either. Eden‘s world is full of smaller goals which ensure that you can’t get too far ahead of yourself. As the video depicts, your little grimp needs to collect pollen from floating containers in the air, obtaining pollen sends them in the direction of the nearest bud which with enough pollen will grow upwards opening more of the level. With the constraint of grip spots (that is, the player has to make the environment grow before they have surfaces to twee from) and a less sporadic and agile rope to content with, Eden is very much different from Worms’ ninja rope experience. They are similar, and definitely appear more similar than they really are, but in reality the games have very different directions and intents from the swinging mechanics.
I’ve been playing Eden entirely in co-operative with my brother and I think that a better analogy for the way Eden plays is to liken it to social networking; either Twitter or Facebook. The vibe imposed on the player is very relaxing – as the last article pointed out. The mood set by the game doesn’t pressure you for result, if anything it pushes you to freestyle it more. You have two players in an environment, working together to build up the world around them. They can work together or just swing around wherever their senses lead them, looking for the next bud to blossom.
Whatever the players do, their worlds are kept together within the scope of the screen. Leaving the screen results in a direction pointer and a short three second timer warning to player to climb back up before a respawn and mild punishment. The two players therefore have to be in the some vicinity of each other. This is similar to setting up your networks in Facebook. Selecting which institutions you attending and becoming part of that game space.
Whatever they do is universally shaping what is happening around them. Creating bursts of pollen, swaying the grip area – the plants around them, pollinating new buds and growing new plants. In a way this is very much like an offline world, with each person doing their own thing, but subtly connected online through the affects their actions are having on the environment.
This is the same way Twitter or Facebook operates. Unless I chat with someone through the service, my actions aren’t imposing but still affecting the people around me. I upload a photo from some event on the weekend, a friend sees this and comments on this. This then ripples onto the profile of that friend’s friend who can see the album as part of an extended network through the updates feed. Although I’m basically going about my business, doing my own thing effectively, it is the flow off effect that make a network like Facebook or Twitter alive, much like the breathing world of Eden. One cannot exist without the other.
As you can see by the two examples, both Eden and Facebook share similarities in the way in which they operate, seemingly likening the networking experiences to one another.
Downloadable Drug
March 2nd, 2009
Pixel Junk Eden‘s most poignant quality is the way it slips you into a mental slumber with its hypnotic chimes, weightless gameplay and pulsating visual charisma. It’s perhaps the best sort of game to play before you go to bed, simply because its natural ambiance, as well as the player created ambiance send your body into peaceful hibernation. It’s an incredible trance like state, similar to the way Ikaruga‘s concentration overload sends your mind through channels of mental breakdown. The main difference being that the come down from Ikaruga almost shatters your brain, as you recover back into a less intensive, less destructive state of mind. One that isn’t demanding twitch from the streams of pattern identification.
Eden is unbound from strain, and hence you relapse slower. During play it gently burrows into your self awareness, before manifesting and shutting off everything bar the plugs that allow your brain remains to become encapsulated with the on screen tight rope act performed by those strange bits of characterized shape. The gameplay demands are minimal, with most of your little effort concentrated on staying afloat rather than any objective goals, like completing the level. The lack of interference allows the visual and aural scapes to stimulate and massage you into this zen state.
The higher you climb, the deeper the hooks sink into you. The superbly instrumental sounds bend back and forth to the on-screen acrobatics of these tiny characters. Music becomes the element in which you flow, you orchestrate on screen with synchronocity to the tunes you are influencing. The visual platform becomes just that; a platform to throw yourself at, a tool to proceed with. It’s an incredible unity of presentation with gameplay that all interweaves with such fidelity. Detached, as something so far from real, so much more than cases with price tags on. Pixel Junk Eden deserves not to sit in the space of “real” games on the shelf of game stores but rather, allow itself to be found, discovered, in a place without physicality.
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