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Tag: Double Fine

  • Weekly Gaming: Costume Quest 2 (Xbox One)

    Weekly Gaming: Costume Quest 2 (Xbox One)

    It’s been many years since I sat down and had a bloody good time with Costume Quest. This charming, weird game was something of a mystery to me, with the only things being heard about the game being good words by Giant Bomb and other outlets on it’s great theme. So, 6 lovely hours later after completing the main campaign, I came away impressed, and excited for a sequel (should one ever be made).

    Alas, not all wishes should come true, and I for one am sad that I just sat through a sequel which has tarnished my memories of a truly great and charming game.

    Not that Costume Quest 2 starts off bad; if anything it starts off no different to Costume Quest 1, and in fact is a direct sequel, with the whacky group you controlled in the first place finding themselves between worlds, trying to find their way home. Starting the game proper, you find yourselves in your old town, but with the main antagonist of the game scheming as always. Upon Mr Orel White coming back from a portal, you notice he has a talisman, one which opens portals to the demon realm, and which allows you to control all manner of creatures that come out.

    Wanting to stop Dr White before this all happens, your group proceeds to travel back in time, but not before two of them stay behind to help you out from across time. In this starting area, you encounter a new random child, that proceeds to be your third party member (for no other reason than you asked him where something was). using these three characters, you then proceed to battle bad time people int he same manner of the previous game: by transforming into your costumes.

    This was already where one of my first issues arose: unlike Costume Quest 1, which had great costumes/transformations, costume quest 2 seems to have given up on truly original and innovative transformations. You start off with a Candy corn and superhero, both of which look bland and normal, with the rest of the costumes gained throughout the game being no more inventive or creative as the first. It’s a shame, as getting new costumes was easily one of my favourite things of the first game – not only seeing how awesome the costume looked in fights, but also the awesome moves and special attacks that I’d get to see unfold as fights proceeded.

    Whilst the fights themselves are as easy and as serviceable as the first, you can’t say the team have rested on their laurels. Your characters are now able to double attack, parry and defend (if I recall correctly, you could only do the latter in the first game), meaning each fight requires your full attention to everything happening on screen, as well as ensuring you have some timing skills.

    The fights also (maybe I’m mis-remembering once again) introduce a new stat in play – stat boosts and detriments based on the costumes you choose, and the enemies you’re attacking. This can come with some pros in that you deal a lot more damage to some enemies, but definitely some cons also – especially when there’s no discernible way to tell enemy types apart other than actually attacking them. Even when you do learn the different enemies, there’s no guarantee that the costumes you pick beforehand will be in anyway effective for them, since each enemy encounter is random. It’s irritating that whilst the developers have tried to add more depth to the combat, they’ve simultaneously taken way the ability to choose your moves/specials, which in doing so left you feeling frustrated that you can’t prepare effectively.

    What I’ve said so far may not sound great, but also may not sound bad either, I cannot for the life of me forgive the lack of coherent story, and shitty characters Costume Quest 2 manages to create. The first Costume quest was a barrel of laughs, with kids taking on adults and monsters as equals, with a lot of funny text and situations making for an extremely entertaining time. Costume Quest 2 tries to start off this way, but soon trips over when you find there’s no story telling for hours on end, with much of the game being endless candy hunting and random battles. What little narrative there is isn’t funny, and even exists to justify (badly I might add) why you’re going to a new locale.

    I think that’s what irritates me most about Costume Quest 2: the story does not do a good enough job of being light-hearted or even justifying why a specific location looks the way it does. Take for example the future, where Dr Orel White manages to take over the world – children are banned from eating sweets or trick-or-treeting – a terrible fate for all involved. But for some reason, Dr Orel White appears to be a genius that is able to create robotics and hovering cars – something which has no bearing what-so-ever on the fact he took a talisman which enabled demons to come through.

    I could go into detail about why each of the characters are also annoying, with the third party member disappearing every 2 minutes to be replaced by another, but doing so would make me even more annoyed, due to it’s wasted opportunity to flesh out the world and the characters within. Or even the fact that the end scene has no way out other than to quit the game. It’s insane.

    It’s just a shame that Costume Quest 2 exists at all. It appears as though it may have been a cash-grab, one that ran out of money before it was forced out, causing a random story and not great gameplay mechanics. As someone that loved the original, and couldn’t wake for a sequel, I’m hugely disappointed I saw this game through to the end and feel like I’ve waster 7 hours of my life. Don’t wish for sequels, you’ll almost always get hurt.

    2/5

  • Why I Feel Double Fine Studios Are Taking The Piss

    Why I Feel Double Fine Studios Are Taking The Piss

    Spacebase DF9

    Disclaimer: The following is an opinion piece. People may not agree with what is being said, but I by all means encourage readers to engage in discussion about the following views and opinions.  

    I originally wanted to write an article about the frustration I felt towards Double Fine when they announced that Broken Age would be split up into two pieces and the first part would be sold on Steam Early Access. I felt that Double Fine were taking advantage of their fanbase, and were gambling with fan’s money as if no risk is involved. Double Fine themselves had admitted that they had taken their idea to publishers before, only for publishers to turn them down, saying there wasn’t a market for adventure games. For all we know, Double Fine has that entire market already invested in its project, but are acting as if their sales for Broken Age in January are all but confirmed. I decided to skip writing this article in the end as I felt it was a bit hypocritical of me to be frustrated when I hadn’t kickstarted the project, and let it be.

    To the public’s surprise, yesterday saw Double Fine release a new game called Spacebase DF9, a game that was conceived during their “Amnesia Fortnight” where the whole company makes new game concepts that may one day turn into a product. I say this is a surprise as Double Fine still have 2 other projects that are yet to finish, and they’ve decided to add a third to the fray.

    FUCKKK THE BROKEN AGGEEEE
    Broken Age does indeed look pretty, but was it really necessary considering it’s over budget? Double Fine are from the same camp that says graphics do not make a game, yet go out of their way to generate reflections in water, something which I would class as “graphics and aesthetic not needed to fulfil the core game”.

    In the past, Double Fine have indeed worked on multiple projects, as many fans have been quick to point out. The difference this time is their use of Kickstarter and Steam Early Access, 2 services that were built to support and maintain indie developers that don’t have access to publishers, something which Double Fine has. In the past, fans didn’t complain about these multiple projects because Double Fine were using publisher’s money, which is the same for every developer in the industry. What makes this wrong is that Double Fine are now messing with their own fan’s money directly, rather than fans just being annoyed that a game has been delayed. It sets a bad precedent that Kickstarter can indeed fail if Broken Age’s sales don’t meet expectations in January, something which everyone seems to gloss over and act as if it’s not a big deal.

    I can’t help but feel that Double Fine has been getting a free pass with fans lately. First they overspend on their project which made 8x as much as was needed, and the fans rushed to bless them for making a more ambitious game and being open and transparent with everyone. Next, we don’t hear much about their second game in development, Massive Chalice, and now we get a new alpha game that is still early in development, yet is being sold at a premium price. If any other company were to do any of the above, the gaming industry would be up in arms, telling the developers where they could stick it. But ohhhh no, since Double Fine have a few legendary staff who helped make nostalgic games of yesteryear, fans  rush to save them from hostility. It’s a bit ridiculous when you look at it from afar, as Double Fine are still yet to deliver on any of the promises they have made with Broken Age and Massive Chalice, and yet fans are still eager to trust them. Some may claim that Double Fine is composed of 60 employees, and they can’t have people sat around doing nothing, so why not make another game? Which would usually be true in most studios, but when Double Fine have the press and the whole community of Kickstarter watching them, why would you risk your game being mediocre? You’d ensure as many staff were working on the main game as possible to ensure that your reputation isn’t tarnished.

    FUCK THE CHALICCEEEE
    Whilst massive chalice wasn’t as big of a success as Broken Age, it still broke $1million, meaning it easily has a bigger budget than a lot of indie games and Kickstarter projects out there.

    Finally, I’m not sure how I feel about early access games recently. I believe that if a customer is willing to buy your broken unfinished game, they should be given an incentive to do so, similar to Minecraft. I bought Minecraft for £8 when it was in beta and was still being fixed and expanded. I felt that was a good price, and it continued to get better and better. With the £8 I spent, I got to watch an enterprising, ambitious and unique project grow into the huge success it is today, whilst becoming engrossed in a diverse, intelligently made world, seeing requests and demands for game additions being fulfilled, brilliant customer service in several other ways and a copy of the game in its entirety upon official release. I was rewarded for my belief in an otherwise unproven product and company.  But I’m seeing a growing trend of developers charging premium for this “early access”, like with Double Fine’s recent release. As it stands while I type this, they’re charging £18.99 for the privilege of playing a short, broken game, because apparently at that price it’s already a better game than Fez, Super Meat Boy and Braid, to name a few. Fans should be rewarded, not punished, for supporting developers.

    Double Fine have access to publishers, have access to the industry at large, and have a loyal fan base. These means of funding were made for small, independent developers who don’t have access to the same contacts as big businesses, yet Double Fine seem to be abusing the system. They want all the money to develop a game without any of the responsibility. If Double Fine had to go to a publisher and announce they were delaying their product, the publisher would go insane, possibly dropping funding for the rest of the project, yet if Double Fine do the same with fans that invested and they get applauded for being so open and transparent.

    And that, my friends, is why I think Double Fine are taking the piss.