Best of 2014: Part Three

This is the third installment of my Best of 2014 list. Missed any entries, or want to skip ahead? Check out the whole list here:

[PART ONE] [PART TWO] [PART THREE] [PART FOUR] [PART FIVE] [PART SIX] [PART SEVEN]

But enough about the past: this list is moving onward and upward, towards number one! So here we go! Best of 2014: Part Three -- ACTIVATE!

16. Marvel Puzzle Quest (D3Publisher)

Even for a mobile game such as this, it still
has some eye candy to offer!

It might seem a bit strange that a mobile title -- and one that is essentially a Bejeweled clone -- would rank anywhere on any "Best of" list but I would be lying to myself if I didn't acknowledge how much fun I've had with this game over the last year.

From an outside perspective, Marvel Puzzle Quest is nothing special: as mentioned, the gameplay is basically just Bejeweled -- it's a Match-3 game, where you slide gems around to form lines of varying length in order to score points. The twist is that you slowly accumulate a team of superheroes, each with their own abilities, which you take into each round to face off against a team of three enemy heroes or villains. All of the gems you match damage the enemy team before going into colour stockpiles which can be spent to activate the different abilities of your heroes. You have to be careful, though, because the enemy team is also accumulating colours and can activate their own abilities to knock out your team. While it appears pretty simple at the face of it, Marvel Puzzle Quest really is a tough game of risk and consequence as you weigh your options against the health of your team.

The game is addictive to a scary degree, with multiple competitions weekly that reward you with in-game currencies to both buy new heroes and level them up to make them more powerful. Each hero has three different powers but you only get access to each one if you find the right version of that hero. You can play competitions against teams from other players (simulated by the computer) or just story-themed missions against the computer teams.

As I mentioned: it might sound stupid but, because of its addictive, "gotta catch 'em all" style, Marvel Puzzle Quest devoured a lot of my time. It is fun and simple to play, scratches both the collection and superhero itch simultaneously, and even allows for some social interaction with the Alliance feature where you can team up with your friends to get rewards. Marvel Puzzle Quest: as embarrassing as it is fun!

15. Sir, You Are Being Hunted (Big Robot)

For the first few playthroughs, my experience was
very similar to this screenshot.

Sir, You Are Being Hunted is another proud member of the crowd-funded fraternity, and one that holds a special place in my heart. It is, after all, the game that I spent the most time recording for YouTube before technical issues ceased my progress -- a twenty-one gun salute for the lost save game file -- and there's plenty of great reasons why that series ran for so long.

SYABH is a game never takes itself too seriously. One needs look no further than the premise to see that: you are alone on a chain of islands inhabited by robots who are actively hunting you. You were attempting some sort of experiment that misfired terribly, causing the machine to explode and sending fragments flying all over the archipelago. You are now out to recover these mysterious fragments in hopes to, at the very least, escape the dangerous robots. A butler-type character gives you tips and updates on your progress along the way which honestly sound more like threats.

Forgot to mention: SYABH is procedurally generated,
so no two gameworlds are ever the same.
Also, the hot air balloons are persistent bastards.

It is also a game that likes to make fun of itself, poking fun at the "British" sensibilities of the developers. Need to increase your vitality to heal up? You could certainly eat some steak but a thermos of tea will do you better. The robots pursuing you have deerstalkers, mutton chops and pipes, and they chase you down with robotic hounds and hot air balloons. It’s British humour at its best – when it’s not actively trying to be funny.

The gameplay of the game has you scrounging for supplies and managing your limited inventory in an effort to protect and feed yourself and, generally, just stay alive. You hide in a ditch, waiting for a hunting party to pass by, the whirr and clicks of their mechanical parts fading from earshot before you break cover, and you suddenly understand what SYABH is all about.

This is a game about simple concepts coming together to create a truly unique and enjoyable whole. Part stealth, part survival horror and part comedy, it takes the best parts of many different themes and mashes them together to create a game worthy of any "best of" list.

(This is where I plug my series again. Go watch some of the episodes: it's good stuff, promise.)

Part Three
Part Three is done and Part Four is on its way! The next installment features the first game on the list that isn't a video game! It's very exciting stuff, you really shouldn't miss it.

'Til next time!

Let's Play: Sir, You Are Being Hunted - Episode 1

So who remembers the last time I talked about Sir, You Are Being Hunted? Don't feel bad if you don't remember, it was a long time ago. I only mention it because, in that particular article, I told my dear readers (all... what, five of them?) that I was planning on doing a Let's Play series of me playing through Sir, You Are Being Hunted. But that article came out in July of 2013 and really showcases how lazy I have been in regards to this whole YouTube thing.

But no more! You will all be happy to know that I am finally fulfilling my promise and have released the first episode of my Let's Play for what I affectionately call SYABH. I'll include the video below:



I'm excited to continue this series; I think this game has a lot of potential for longevity. Mostly because I am absolutely atrocious at it, but also because it's a lot of fun! I already have the next two episodes lined up, with more content to come very soon.

One issue that I've come across that is not readily apparent when you first get started with recording for YouTube is what sort of style you want to convey in your videos. This mostly pertains to editing: do you want to be someone who uses lots of raw footage and tries to make it as entertaining as possible through commentary or do you add flairs of editing and chop up the video to create the most engaging videos? It was something that I had considered quite a bit leading into this endeavour but it really struck home last night as I was editing the second episode of this Let's Play.

Talking it over with my fiancé and some friends, they leaned towards the editing side of things, but I always reference back to the videos that I usually watch and most of them are actually raw footage. That being said, there are a few that are edited quite heavily and, usually, those are the ones that stick in my head for long periods of time. It's a tough balance to strike, for sure.

If you have any thoughts on that, please leave a comment below and let me know. It's still early days so I'll be toying around with a lot of things in my videos, but I'm excited to continue this journey. Thanks to all who are supporting me in this journey, and I look forward to the next time we meet. Cheers!

Indie Spotlight: Sir, You Are Being Hunted - Updates!

Six months ago, I talked about an indie game in development called Sir, You Are Being Hunted, a sci-fi "tweedpunk" roguelike game where you must evade capture from murderous robots who are hunting you across a procedurally generated English countryside. Big Robot, the company behind the game, had started a Kickstarter campaign to fund the game and try to get the project off the ground that much quicker. The campaign succeeded (to a tune of over 200% success) and the game was pushed into more serious development.

Well, six months later and the backers of the campaign (of which I was one) were alerted that the game had finally reached a playable state and that alpha tests would be distributed to those who backed the project at a certain level. The emails sent from the Big Robot team were circulated within the last week and on Monday the actual content was distributed to the backers!

I mention this only because I am planning to record a series of Let's Play-style videos to showcase my efforts in Sir, You Are Being Hunted and plan on sharing them here on Loading Checkpoint. The first two videos have been recorded already and will be processed in the next few days, with more to follow! This is all permitting the Big Robot team doesn't have any issues with me recording such footage, that is. Don't want to step on any toes!

(Also, I have to give huge kudos to the Big Robot team for developing this game and for succeeding in their campaign! Cheers, gents!)

So stay tuned, you fine folk; soon enough you'll be able to experience the fear of being hunted by cold calculating robots vicariously through my own eyes!

Indie Spotlight: Sir, You Are Being Hunted

Science fiction is a large catch-all term for a number of different subgenrés, all with their own tropes and tendencies. You have hard sci-fi (think Battlestar Galactica), science fantasy (Star Wars), cyberpunk (Blade Runner), steampunk (a subgenré with more of a cult following), space opera (Star Trek) and the much beloved space western (Firefly), amongst many others. By and large, people recognize these genrés by name and can easily give an example of them without much thought.

But what do you think of when I say 'tweedpunk'? I bet most of you would be hard-pressed to come up with an example -- and for good reason! As far as I'm aware, it's a brand-new subgenré with only one universe that falls within its confines.

In the broadest terms possible, Sir, You Are Being Hunted is a game where you are being hunted across what looks like the Scottish countryside. You spend the majority of the game avoiding hunting parties as you try to scavenge supplies to survive for as long as possible. The level of technology appears to be consistent with that of Victorian England, with one important exception: the hunting parties? Yeah, they are definitely killer robots.

Sir, You Are Being Hunted has been an indie project on my radar for quite some time, though for the life of me I can't remember how I stumbled across the Bad Robot website. However it happened, SYABH looks to be an entertaining little game that seems to defy categorization; not only did the developers coin the term 'tweedpunk' to explain their mix of English culture and robots (because all of the robots are clad in outfits similar to what you'd see in Sherlock Holmes movies), but the game seems to belong to a category of game that is only just coming into its own.

The massive sandbox-style of game, where the players set their own objectives, is perhaps not brand-new; that being said, in the past few years, some truly impressive titles have been released that fall into that category. Take DayZ, for example; the recent cult phenomenon forces you to wander a deserted map, scavenging supplies and avoiding enemies, with the only objectives being those that you deem important. The only difference between DayZ and SYABH is that, in the latter, the enemies are actively hunting you.

A different, but just as apt, comparison would be between Sir, You Are Being Hunted and Minecraft; both games feature procedurally generated landscapes, meaning no two playthroughs will ever be the same. In Minecraft, that means discovering new biomes to build on and underground caverns to explore, and basing your objectives on what you discover. In SYABH, the procedurally generated maps mean new hiding places to take advantage of, new towns to explore and scavenge materials from and even new locales out in the wilderness that might mean your end.

Every hunter worth his salt knows it's always better to take
a hound with you. Even (especially!) if it's a robotic hound.

So SYABH is an ingenious combination between Minecraft and DayZ, but that doesn't fully encapsulate the experience Big Robot is going for. Yes, the maps are procedurally generated, and yes, you have to scavenge for supplies while avoiding enemies but, because the enemies are actively hunting you, Big Robot added a stealth mechanic that gives the player a fighting chance as they try to lose their pursuers in the wilderness. In a lot of ways, the stealth seems reminiscent of Thief; you have a stealth meter that allows you to gauge whether the robots can see you. You must use this to your advantage, whether you are trying to escape or if you want to turn the tables on the robots and meet them head-on.

Even beyond those comparisons, the developers themselves have admitted to being influenced by the cult classic S.T.A.L.K.E.R. series, which features an open-world sandbox where, again, you must scavenge for items in order to survive. Both feature dark foreboding worlds that you must explore, whether you want to or not, and both games feature random events that take place due to the nature of the enemy's AI.

An abandoned chapel and graveyard, set against an overcast sky? Yep, dark
and foreboding just about covers it...

As I said, Sir, You Are Being Hunted is a project that has been on my radar for quite some time -- the game is still in prototype phase and will most likely not see an official release until sometime next year. However, I decided this was the best time to make everyone aware of its existence because the developers recently started a Kickstarter campaign to fund their development. Even more exciting, the project has already surpassed its funding goal, meaning that the game will definitely be developed and released as an official game in 2013.

Even though it has already reached its funding mark, however, I believe that this is a game that people should support. Sir, You Are Being Hunted is a combination of Minecraft, DayZ, Thief and S.T.A.L.K.E.R., four games that have huge followings, and should definitely be recognized for the ingenuity and innovation that the Big Robot team have showcased. So head over to their Kickstarter page and pledge them some cash -- the more they get, the bigger and better the things they will add to the game upon release. And if you want some more information on the game, or if you would like to keep up with the development of the project, head over to their official website and read their blog. They seem like a hilarious group of chaps and always give sneak peeks of additions to the project.